Re: [OT] Live, the Universe and Fish

Arien Malec the Summoner ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), a
Follower of the Rattling Northerly Gentry barked:
> [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tina Hall) wrote in
> news:MSGID_2=3A2437=2F22.13 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:

[Peltast]
> What the heck's that?

Beats me. I just took the titles from the source and only
adjusted the '%s' bit because random races wouldn't fit all
cases.

<checking> Hey, there's a comment (recombine):
Peltast http://www.geocities.com/Athens/Aegean/9659/
shields_main.htm

[long attribution]
> > so where's the problem?
>
> It pushes the beginning of the meat of the post down. Kind of
> like overly long sigs -- distracts with non-essential stuff.

Ha, I wish I could use a sig. I hope to be able to test it soon
(unfortunately not by email as they're routed weirdly using the
other gate), on whether it's Fred or the railroad.robin.de part
that's responsible for kicking out trailing spaces.

> > That's random. I could adjust it to just insert various
> > spellings of 'RNG' (there are only two at present).
>
> 'twould be fun.

Ah, good. If you have any favorite words you'd want among the
randomly chosen ones starting with R, N and G, let me know
(better along the lines of adverbs/adjectives with an R,
adjectives with an N and nouns with a G).

> [complaining about cheating in getting back on topic]
> > I'm a bit slow to catch on something, so I'm bound to object
> > at a later point, and validly so, because any point is just
> > fine to complain if I feel like complaining. ;P
>
> Fine, but I can complain right back. ;-P

Oh, my. Aren't we a whiny lot... ;P

>> [...] English eats other languages for breakfast, or something
>> along that line anyway.
>
> We've mostly stopped that now. Now English eats itself.

That cannibal!

> I got the sense fine, but there isn't an exact equivalent in
> English.

'Just about / barely made <it>.'?

[To think or not to think...]
> > Evidence suggests you just have occasional lapses, that
> > usually result in YASD.
>
> Oh I'm thinking about what I'm doing, sometimes. I just think
> the wrong thing. That's not not thinking, that's being stupid.

I thought not thinking was being stupid.

> > An example: You go to wash your hands, the water is a little
> > too cold. You:
> > a) Think "This water is too cold."
> > b) Just get a sense that the water should be warmer.
>
> c) Yow. Sense of being too cold.

Yow? You're too cold? I didn't suggest to take a cold shower! :)

> > Oh dear. The noun is 'life', though. Same thing as with
> > dwarf/ dwarves and elf/elves in plural?
>
> Yep. Blame German, though. (Or ur-German).

But... Life, dwarf and elf have no 'f' in German (Leben, Zwerg,
Kobold). ;P

> >> I *think* Brent has already lost his mind (seeing as he got
> >> it into this state from much worse). Don't tell anyone,
> >> though.
>
> [snip rant]

That wasn't a rant. Rants get tagged as such...

> I *did* put a smiley.

People don't always respond the way one expects.

> I agree that his comments were a bit rude,

I wasn't talking about any particular post, my opinion developed
over some time...

> >> :-) Anyway, Darshan must be right behind.
> >
> > I hope not, or at least that he stays the cuddly tentacled
> > monstrosity version, like other people dealing with code
> > (Ali, Dylan,...) instead of turning into Rodney.
>
> Well, we don't know what the real NH DevTeam are like, mostly.

Well, I don't think they lock the bad ones in a dungeon to keep
them from associating with the newbies... :)

> > Hmmm... Graeme and Mark seem nice people, too, so the latter
> > option isn't a must.
>
> I didn't say not nice, I said insane. You can be nice and
> insane, no?

Yes, there's the tentacled monstrosity version (the nice ones)
and the Rodey version (or perhaps arch-lich fits better, except I
used to kick the occasional pesky arch-lich...). The examples
just show that you don't have to turn into an arch-lich by
reading Crawl code...

> > I think you've got it the other way round. Think about it,
> > from early on you get told "Do this, don't do that, that's
> > wrong, this is right." and then you end up as a normal
> > person. Only refusing to take part in that sheep-mentality
> > (or don't get a big enough dose not to doubt all that
> > nonsense) you end up as a lunatic.
>
> Right, but there are an infinite ways of being insane, and
> only a few ways of being sane,

I'm not sure I buy this as is.

> so if you are insane, it is quite unlikely that you will be
> driven sane by some disturbance.

Ehm. Nearly happened once, but I found a remedy. :)

> [refuse to be driven anywhere]
> >> (except by a really nice man with honorable intentions).
> >
> > A Taxi-driver?
>
> If that's your type, sure.

My type? I think you've lost me somewhere, probably fell out of
the car when you tried that U-turn.

> > [YASDs]
> > I don't understand this. How did you get nibbled to death?
>
> Leaning on one of the motion keys, and some beasties came in
> an started nibbling on me. By the time my finger was off the
> key, it was too late.

Oh dear. Didn't you learn anything in Nethack? "Don't lean on
keys.", should be written down somewhere...

> I always think "I shouldn't be doing this" right as I do it.
> That's my definition of YASD.

I'm not that quick, it only hits me about a second later. :)

> >> [technology != magic]
> >> Clarke's Third Law: Any sufficiently advanced technology is
> >> indistinguishable from magic.
> >
> > Then that's just another case where these widely known
> > phrases aren't true/make sense/whatever.
>
> But it is true. It doesn't say that all magic is highly
> advanced technology, though. Think of Inca and Spanish
> deathsticks.

You'd have to define highly advanced technology then, and in
relation to whom (those using it or those unfamiliar with it).

>> Just like the egg and the hen, there's no question, since
>> there were eggs long before some chicken-ancestor popped out
>> of one.
>
> Not eggs in general, chicken eggs.

That's never mentioned, so I doubt that's it. Anyway, even if it
is, the first egg where a chicken popped out is by definition a
chicken egg, because a chicken came out of it. ;P

> >> > Hmmm... There's something missing here. Oh, yes...
> >> > <tong between teeth> teee ehn <^H> ee ehn ah
> >>
> >> That, I don't get.
> >
> > 't' 'n' <remove last letter> 'i' 'n' 'a'
>
> What was the tong for?

Tongue. Seemed the reasonable spelling at the time... What's a
tong?

Tina