Re: [OT] Live, the Universe and Fish

[EMAIL PROTECTED] (Tina Hall) wrote in news:MSGID_2=3A2437=2F22.13
[EMAIL PROTECTED]:

> Arien Malec the Firebug ([EMAIL PROTECTED]), a High
> Priest of the Rippling Neurotic Grit buzzed:

[rng phrase generation]
>> Is this something built into your newsreader, or something you
>> wrote, or what?
> 
> I put together something that re-writes the file that my software
> is configured to use as a greeting phrase

In what, for curiosity's sake?


[RNG a Gent?]
>> You don't think the RNG is a gentleman?
> 
> I don't think He's a gazelle either, but my main aim is really
> silly random combinations. Gentleman was in it already, gent just
> sounds odd.

Pronounced with a soft g: "djent". The rotund noodling gent.
 
>> You have ghost? Ghoul? Ghast? Gibe? Gibblet?
> 
> Had ghost and gibe. Ghoul (gent, and gibbon) added. What are
> ghasts and gibblets?

Should be ghaist: a variant of ghost. Gibblets are the innards of fowl, 
for cooking. Should also have gallow and gibbet (a gibbet is a gallow).
 
[many or few ways of being sane: argument from different people]
>> It depends on if those different people are sane or not.
> 
> Huh? Just substitute normal for sane, if you prefer.

Being normal is quite unusual, I think.

[Tina writes: why did never anyone tell me, should be: why didn't anyone 
ever tell]
> 
> Why? Anyone might have told someone else...

So she might, but that ain't the way you say it.

>> Anyway, there are no nice men with honorable intentions, or at
>> least very few, so it's rather an impossible task.
> 
> You mean all the nice men have dishonorable intentions, and all
> the nasty men have honorable intentions? Sounds like out of a
> soap opera.

Could have nice men with not entirely honorable intentions, depending on 
what intentions are considered honorable.

[marrying men who give Tina a lift, unlikelihood of getting a lift with 
those conditions]
>> Yes, to get married, you will have to find a nice man with
>> honorable intentions
> 
> You mean I can't just marry anyone I like?

You *could* I suppose.

>> who will give you a lift to the courthouse/church/wherever one
>> gets married in Germany without first meeting you.
> 
> Why mustn't he first meet me?

*I* didn't say that. I just said that if you are driven anywhere 
[sane|insane], it should be by a nice man with honorable intentions.

> You mean he'd bolt otherwise? (I would.)

Well, arranged marriages worked quite well for many many years.

>> This will happen at 14:32 on 6/5/2006 (take your pick as to
>> whether that's a European date or an American).
> 
> I don't think so.

Is there a third option?

>> When you are thinking "this is a
>> stupid thing to do" by evidence you stop doing it, whereas I
>> think *this* time is an exception.
> 
> I expected lots of exceptions from it being stupid when eating
> those glowing corpses with the MfMo. I still have to fight the
> urge even after supposedly learning that lesson again.

Mmmn, chunks of glowing shapeshifter meat.....

Just lost a really nice DEFE to the hives (not ready to be nibbled to 
death by bees). I never found the temple, and had PR, but was thinking: 
"Hmm. I wonder if this guy is too weak for a bunch of bees. Let me 
see..." I quickly found out.
 
> [higly advanced technology, magic]
>> If you invert the logic (invalid, but perhaps true), you get
>> the statement that magic is just technology that we don't
>> understand.
> 
> Which it isn't. It might be a science we don't understand.

That too.
 
>> That is, it's technology from some point of view that we simply
>> can't understand how to understand.
> 
> Technology is some device, magic doesn't use any devices.

So what are the wands for?

> If you use a remote control to
> drive a toy-car around, it's technology, if you use your mind
> (directly) to move it around, it's magic.

If you design a car that is sensitive to changes in electric fields from 
thought, is that magic or technology?
 
[magic =]
>'Ability to
> do things without doing them physically, and not involving
> technology or other devices' seems a bit long. ...
> 'Not poitood' isn't all that bad, either ('and not'
> replaced with 'or'). Hey, now we know the term for the opposite
> of magic. <g>

If I can't cast a spell without a wand or a staff, is it magic or not?
 
> [fried eggs or fried chicken?]

I don't much like either, so the question of what came first isn't so 
interesting.

[fuzzy borders, red <-> orange]
>> when does red stop and when does orange begin?
> 
> How should I know. I hardly see the difference between green and
> yellow with some of these little computer-lamps (LEDs? forgot
> what they're called), at least I name them differently than other
> people. :)

LEDs is right.

My favorite color is grue.
 
> That's basically just a matter of opinion...

Indeed. So there are some things that are neither chicken nor not chicken 
[eggs].

>> "tong" is a variant of "tongs". It's also the deep peal of a
>> bell (like a dong). Or a tine.
> 
> Ah. Now I wonder what a tine is. <g>

It's what I thought originally you were putting between your teeth, 
actually. Forks have them, among others.

Arien