I drank for the first time on new years and realised having a few bevs isn't so bad so now i've accidentally drank every night this year so far

ozoneocean wrote: I like listening to dutch people speak English. It's a fantastic accent.Mitchel and Webb do a good parody: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DY-Zdgo0OXoMr Jan Hankl looks how you image someone with that accent would. :D—-

To English speakers, the British sound more intelligent, right? Well, to me, Texans sound a little less intelligent, but more passionate and enthousiastic. Aussies sound closer, more fraternal, if a little less interested in the things you're saying. The Indian accent sounds more efficient, less letters are wasted or stretched. The French accent sounds to me like more areas of the mouth are needed to pronounce the individual letters, as if the word has been rolling around the mouth for a while. Scottish sounds a bit like the words are running at you very enthousiastically, dropping some of their letters on the way. Russians speak English without leaders, every syllable doing the same amount of work, and spreading out to make the words into a solid block.

Every one of those accents, and all their infinite variations, are, to me at least, very interesting to listen to. Dutchlish, or Englutch, is horrible. Even the most intelligent individual sounds like an idiot, and even the most passionate person sounds bland and empty. I'm not sure there is anyone else still stumbling around this forum that is not a native english speaker, but I'm sure they feel the same way about their own portmanteau languages. Listening to Quackcast episode 39, the one I did about world building with Skoolmunkee, is an especially horrible experience for me. I sound like a toddler, that's attempting to learn the English language as he's speaking it…

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I think that the Radioplay for 2015 is going to be awesome! People have been showing a lot of support, and I'm glad that some people want to write. Check out the thread, if you're interested! And please help notify everyone and anyone that might want to join, but might not know about it.

vladimirmasters wrote: I drank for the first time on new years and realised having a few bevs isn't so bad so now i've accidentally drank every night this year so far

There's nothing wrong with a drink every now and then, depending on your age and health of course, but it should not be needed in times of great joy or great sorrow. Alcohol numbs, and even the slightest bit of abuse will take both the highs and lows out of your life. Nietzsche has some interesting thoughts on the subject, worth a google.

I found my parcel! My dad came home and let the dog into the backyard and found it on the back steps. Which is super weird, because our backyard is totally fenced off. The mail carrier had to walk all the way to the back and open the gate, rather than just sticking it between the two doors like they usually do. And apparently never knocked, or at least not loud enough for me to hear from upstairs. Anyways, I'm glad I finally got it!

Kroatz wrote:
There's nothing wrong with a drink every now and then, depending on your age and health of course, but it should not be needed in times of great joy or great sorrow. Alcohol numbs, and even the slightest bit of abuse will take both the highs and lows out of your life. Nietzsche has some interesting thoughts on the subject, worth a google.

I think I'm one of the few people who just doesn't enjoy drinking very much. I don't mind having a single drink just so I'm not the weird person not drinking, but I find that my motor skills are the first thing affected past two drinks and I hate that feeling. Being around drunk people when you're sober is also the worst, so I tend to avoid the kind of occasions where people will be drinking a lot.

Kroatz wrote:
Hey Kawaii, jij ook een gelukkig nieuwjaar! Hopelijk hou je de goede voornemens een tijdje vol! Ik moet zeggen dat het een apart gevoel is om Nederlands op deze site te zien verschijnen.

Dank je wel Kroatz! Je hebt een goede beheersing van de Engelse taal in woord en geschrift. Ik ben altijd onder de indruk van de Quackcasts (#39 n taal is nooit genoeg). Here in the States, we are given a choice between a few Romance languages (French or Spanish) in high school and a broader selection at the University level. Unfortunately, the beginner classes teach useful phrases for getting around while for travel, but it takes a lot of commitment and a more in-depth study to be able to carry on a philisophical discussion in a foreign language.

I do like how certain Dutch words sound very similar to English such as “Hallo” to say “Hello” and “Sorry” for “Sorry”.

HippieVan wrote:
eyeshadow pic

Did you use a liquid eyeliner pen for the upper lid? It is so difficult to master that fine, sharp point at the end, and you successfully executed it in the photo! Color blending can be trial and error because there is no universal approach. Everybody's eye shape is different and certain colors pair with skintones uniquely.

It is a good thing that your parcel finally arrived. Maybe you will find the first package somewhere in your backyard. I just hope you did not have to put on your winter gear and trek to the post office in the snow.

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
Did you use a liquid eyeliner pen for the upper lid? It is so difficult to master that fine, sharp point at the end, and you successfully executed it in the photo! Color blending can be trial and error because there is no universal approach. Everybody's eye shape is different and certain colors pair with skintones uniquely.

It is a good thing that your parcel finally arrived. Maybe you will find the first package somewhere in your backyard. I just hope you did not have to put on your winter gear and trek to the post office in the snow.

Fortunately I was feeling lazy, so I hadn't gone to the post office yet when I found it! Ha, that wouldn't be too surprising. We always find interesting things when the snow melts come spring. “

Thanks! Liquid eyeliner is my mortal enemy, I always use a cream eyeliner with a very thin brush. Or sometimes eyeshadow applied with a damp brush if I want a different colour. I find the difficult part is matching the angle and size of the wing on both eyes!


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I've been watching Canada's ”Border Security“ show. It's pretty good, actually, although I've put it down in the past because I think it's a bit trashy for the Canadian government to do a reality show. My favourite parts are the land crossings, because of all the Americans who don't understand why they can't bring all their crazy guns into Canada. Sometimes the BSOs will ask a question like ”Why are you travelling with weapons?" and get back a funny blank stare, like they don't understand why they wouldn't bring their handgun to a foreign country.

Well, I got my scanner set up. Now I can just use old fashioned paper and pencil to draw. For some odd reason GIMP won't detect my tablet as a tablet. Sure I can use it, but I can't use my tablet's pen pressure abilities in it…
I guess it's time to actually go shopping for a new drawing program that works with Windows 8.1…
Edit:
Now that's a pleasant surprise. I still have my old copy of Manga Studio Debut 3.0. And it works (my old standby Micrographx Picture Publisher 5 can't work with Windows 8.1)! It took some messing around with the files, but now it's installed. Now let's hope nothing else goes wrong…

Today is my eleventh web anniversary (or rather my Drunk Duck anniversary at that!) My comic has been on here for eleven years now!!!

I made a poster, but I don't think anyone here cares about that. Just thought I'd drop in and say hi after the update, attempt to be social and whatnot, my excitement for the anniversary outweighs the usual crippling anxiety that causes me to type here then delete it. That and I'm dead tired, I worked on the gigantic poster for…I lost count how many days straight. I don't even care, everything hurts. but YAY I'm done with it! anniversary day!

In other news, my cats are trying to kill me, I just got done healing some vicious cat-bites and then a cat dropped the door-scratcher like a guillotine directly on my index toe. It's a fantstic shade of purple right now, but it could be worse….

HippieVan wrote:

Oh Jesus, the first page of the new rant thread and you two are at it already.

HAHAHAHAHA! Best post of the year! :D

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Re Drinking-
When you're that age you enjoy it the most I find. So live it up and have fun with it! Don't make yourself too sick or anything though.
I rarely drink at all these days, but when I do it's with good firends. It's great in that environment.

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@Kroatz-
No way man! YOU along with Abht Nhil have the best speaking voice we've had on the Quackcast. After that cast even Skoolmunke mentioned to me how cool you sounded.
You and Abt are our manlier Euro versoins of NickyP. (McDuff)

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@Amelius!-
Congrats on the massive aniversary! I know what it's like to have completed a piece of work you've spent ages on and that poster is an AWESOME piece of work! That represents so much time and effort and it's a magnificent piece. All the characters are fully recognisable and the artwork on them is lovely!

Seems some of us changed our seasonal avatars too soon.
Today is Twelfth Night. And tomorrow January 7 marks the OFFICAL End of Christmas celebration being Orthadox Christmas. So put that holiday avatar back up, the season ain't over yet! Look at that wonderful 18th Century spread for Twelfth Night. And great period music, just makes me all Colonial Williamsburg all over.

@Kawaii:
Dutch. Weird. I welcome and really appreciate the added difficulty of answering me in my native tongue, but still… Weird. It feels a bit like running into someone you know in a place where you'd never expect meeting them. Like a friend from work suddenly standing in your bathroom, or your grandmother appearing on stage at a rock concert.

The internet is a foreign country to me. People speak in weird languages (1337, lolcats, memes, urls, and worst of all: Hashtags), they look different (150x150px), and a lot of them have weird traditions that I do not know the origin or the purpose of. I have a deep love for the culture, and I learn something every time I visit, but the web is not my home.

I find it quite sad that a large portion of the world speaks only one language. It not only limits how easy you can make contact with the world around you, but it also limits your actual thoughts. Newspeak, as conceived by G. Orwell, has only two words to describe temperature: Cold and Uncold. Removing warm, and hot, and cool, lukewarm, chilly, freezing, and any other words to describe temperature from language means that the precise meaning of those words can no longer be thought. It is impossible to think of something that you have no words for in the same way that you can if you do. Also, think of every meaning of the word ‘sure’, or ‘cool’, or ‘fall’. Your mind can make more connections, and think of bigger concepts, the more words you get. There are words in Dutch that do not exist in English, and the other way around. Leedvermaak, meaning Schadenfreude, or the feeling of joy you feel at someone else's misfortune, does not (or at least no longer) exist in English. The word Cozy has the same problem, we Dutch people have the word Gezellig, but the two circles of their Venn-Diagram only overlap a little bit.

And a good philosophical discussion is hard to have in any language. Most people have no idea what you're talking about, or don't care, or get violently dismissive, or immediately adhere to your point of view, or simply parrot their favorite writers, or speak in circles, or do any of a thousand other annoying things, instead of staying calm and listening, thinking, rethinking, and only then reacting. I find myself constantly falling in the trap of copying what smarter people say, and only thinking when someone finds a flaw in my copied reasoning. It's a blessing when someone calls my cowpoo.

In short, yes Kawaii, you make some good points. And a lot less long winded than I.

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@Hippievan:
I think I know what you mean, about the boozing. I'm not a really physical person myself, and any changes to my motor functions would not be noticed, but I can actually feel my brain being filled with fog. Often people will encourage me to drink more, and it always feels a bit like an insult.As if I'm not pleasant enough to hang out with while I'm still myself. As if people need me to be less, or at least different, from sober Kroatz. And that is exactly why I prefer to stay away from inebriated folk, they are less, and different, from their actual selves, and if I like you while you're sober, there's no way that a drunk version could ever be liked more by me.

Also, pretty make up. Not something I have any real knowledge of, and it's funny that there is a whole field of art I know nothing, at all, about. I don't often look people in the eyes (because I don't want them looking back) but I'll be trying to see if there's anyone with elaborate eye make up around me, a little personal expression I never noticed.

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@Amelius:
I love your work, and have periodically binged on another batch of Charby pages ever since I joined DD. I'm glad you're still around, and would like to congratulate you on your anniversary! Here's hoping that both yourself and DD will still be productive, amazing, and alive in another 11 years, even though, after reading about the sinister schemes and plots of your cats, that does not seem very likely. Sleep with both eyes open, and an emergency laser light under your pillow, in case of a rising need for cat-distraction.

Also, would you be interested in aiding your fellow DD'ers in an amazing community project? Someone of your considerable talents would be very much welcomed among the Quackcast-cast. Check out the thread if you're interested, or shoot me a PQ.

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@Oz, the great and powerful:
I loved being on the Quackcast, but to my own ears, I did not sound cool. My area of expertise is probably doing research, and writing, and most definitely not talking. But I thank you for the compliment anyway. Also… Manly? I guess I have the parts to qualify, but that is not a term that I am normally associated with.

Also, I'd be honored if you would lend some of your time or influence to the Radioplay as well. Please look at the thread, or send me a PQ? I'm imagining you and Banes as writing partners, and I'm already giddy.

HippieVan wrote:
I've been watching Canada's “Border Security” show. It's pretty good, actually, although I've put it down in the past because I think it's a bit trashy for the Canadian government to do a reality show.

I sat down and watched the entire episode after you posted that link. It reminded me of all those border or customs lines and worried if I had any food in my luggage. I tend to take rules like that seriously, so just for piece of mind, I end up dumping anything that could be considered contraband before crossing the gates.

I felt bad for the international student who was carrying an excess of money and was fined $250. I thought it was unfair considering she was a student and probably needed that money for tuition, room and board, and might not have had a Canadian bank account. I laughed at the part with the Asian lady's bag full of Chinese sausages. I did think the $1,300 fine for having them in her bag was outrageous. It was bad enough they confiscated the meat products because she was probably going to give them as gifts, however having to pay additional money is a bummer.

Amelius wrote:
I made a poster…but YAY I'm done with it! anniversary day!

Wow! I checked out the Charby poster and it is a very admirable piece of work. The resolution is so high, you must have a very powerful machine to color a file that big. My favorite part about it is that it shows character proportion in relation to each other. The large ones in the back are just so cute!

ozoneocean wrote:
(Kroatz) along with Abht Nhil have the best speaking voice we've had on the Quackcast. After that cast even Skoolmunke mentioned to me how cool you sounded.
(Kroatz) and Abt are our manlier Euro versoins of NickyP. (McDuff)

I agree, but don't downplay your own vocal abilities, Oz. Your Western Australian accent is rather high up on the list near Abt_Nihil and Kroatz for the Quackcast rankings of sexy male accents.

And the Holiday season finally wraps up with Orthadox Christmas. I grew up with this and before being banned from church used to attend services for “little Chirstmas” My grandmother kept an icon in her room and a Gregorian calendar from the church in Olyphant where her sisters and brothers lived. So even if not a church attendee it was still in the house. Somethng about the art of an icon is soothing or maybe those are my childhood memories of my grandmother.

If you've never been to an Orthadox service, don't go. The incense burns your eyes and the service is sung in a sort of toneless chant. Though Orthadox beliefs surprisingly make a bit more sense than Catholic catechism. In one of my more bored moments I read the Catholic catechism and it is full of the Medieval nonsense I remmebered form my Medieval Studies classes. The Orthadox Chruch doesn't get as hung up on the perpetual virginity of Mary or the three-in-one Trinity silliness or the literal transsubstaniation that would cause so many problems in the Reformation/Counter-Reformation. I know that if I had lived in another more faithful era I probably would be a clergyman.

Now, you can take down your holiday avatars.

Well, got my OLD winxp computer running again. However, while installing CPU temperature monitor software I got some malware called Start MySearch. Made an attempt to uninstall the thing using Window XP's program uninstaller, but instead it installed even MORE malware into the system. Time for another reformat… T_T

Kroatz wrote:
Also, pretty make up. Not something I have any real knowledge of, and it's funny that there is a whole field of art I know nothing, at all, about. I don't often look people in the eyes (because I don't want them looking back) but I'll be trying to see if there's anyone with elaborate eye make up around me, a little personal expression I never noticed.

Thanks! I think that's why I got into makeup - I don't have as much time as I would like for drawing these days, but I almost always have a few minutes to do something pretty on my face in the morning.

kawaiidaigakuseiwrote:
I felt bad for the international student who was carrying an excess of money and was fined $250. I thought it was unfair considering she was a student and probably needed that money for tuition, room and board, and might not have had a Canadian bank account. I laughed at the part with the Asian lady's bag full of Chinese sausages. I did think the $1,300 fine for having them in her bag was outrageous. It was bad enough they confiscated the meat products because she was probably going to give them as gifts, however having to pay additional money is a bummer.

You're actually allowed to carry as much money as you want, the only issue was that she didn't declare it. Generally if you're carrying more than $10,000 it just takes a few minutes longer because they ask some extra questions about why you have the money, where it came from and so on to ensure it's not the proceeds of crime. So honestly, she probably knew she had more money than she was supposed to and didn't declare it because of the hassle. Which I can empathize with, but it's definitely not a good idea. I once accidentally left a half-empty bottle of grapefruit juice in my carry-on bag and the woman at security pulled it out and gave me a death glare - it was pretty scary.

For whatever reason Chinese residents/tourists bringing back meat seems to be incredibly common! That's probably why the fine is so high - they want to discourage it. Even if people coming from abroad bring meat sandwiches they'll get confiscated, so there was no way she was going to be allowed to keep it. I think mad cow, avian flu etc. are probably the cause of the seemingly excessive caution there. I still always feel bad for the people who get fined for meat, though - usually they just seem clueless about why that wouldn't be okay.

Kroatzwrote:
There are words in Dutch that do not exist in English, and the other way around. Leedvermaak, meaning Schadenfreude, or the feeling of joy you feel at someone else's misfortune, does not (or at least no longer) exist in English. The word Cozy has the same problem, we Dutch people have the word Gezellig, but the two circles of their Venn-Diagram only overlap a little bit.

This is probably my favourite part of knowing a second language - being able to borrow words from the second when the first doesn't suffice. My dad has been learning French recently and he has a hard time with it because as a beginner he wants straight translations for every word and expression, and that doesn't always exist. Like the word “peine,” which I was trying to explain to him the other day. The closest I could think of was “trouble,” but it's really more a combination of time, effort, suffering. You could say “a ne vaut pas la peine,” (which I would translate as “It's not worth the effort”) or “a me fait de la peine,” (“It's causing me grief”), etc.

Or “apprivoiser,” which is a lovely little word used most famously in “Le Petit Prince.” In the English version it's translated as “to tame,” but I've always understood it more as meaning the act of creating a relationship with someone so that they like and trust you.

Kroatz wrote:
There are words in Dutch that do not exist in English, and the other way around. Leedvermaak, meaning Schadenfreude, or the feeling of joy you feel at someone else's misfortune, does not (or at least no longer) exist in English.

And this is also accounts for most of the differences between American English and British English, the influence of the Dutch and Germans. The American English cookie is a prime example being from New York area Dutch.
Many Germanic compounds like schadenfreude translate as a phrase in English not words because the German compound word is a phrase all-in-one. Schadenfreude literally is shame + pleasure so in English it's the shameful pleasure at another's anguish. Mabye we'll start a push to have shaleasure recognized as shadenfreude auf English.
Like Panzerkampfwagen in English is the three words Armored Fighting Vehicle and in German it's just one word. English breaks down big German compound words into bite size words.

Kroatz wrote:
I find it quite sad that a large portion of the world speaks only one language. It not only limits how easy you can make contact with the world around you, but it also limits your actual thoughts. Newspeak, as conceived by G. Orwell, has only two words to describe temperature: Cold and Uncold. Removing warm, and hot, and cool, lukewarm, chilly, freezing, and any other words to describe temperature from language means that the precise meaning of those words can no longer be thought. It is impossible to think of something that you have no words for in the same way that you can if you do. Also, think of every meaning of the word sure, or cool, or fall. Your mind can make more connections, and think of bigger concepts, the more words you get. There are words in Dutch that do not exist in English, and the other way around. Leedvermaak, meaning Schadenfreude, or the feeling of joy you feel at someone else's misfortune, does not (or at least no longer) exist in English. The word Cozy has the same problem, we Dutch people have the word Gezellig, but the two circles of their Venn-Diagram only overlap a little bit.

And a good philosophical discussion is hard to have in any language. Most people have no idea what you're talking about, or don't care, or get violently dismissive, or immediately adhere to your point of view, or simply parrot their favorite writers, or speak in circles, or do any of a thousand other annoying things, instead of staying calm and listening, thinking, rethinking, and only then reacting. I find myself constantly falling in the trap of copying what smarter people say, and only thinking when someone finds a flaw in my copied reasoning. It's a blessing when someone calls my cowpoo.

The first English word equivalent for Leedvermaak that came to mind was “Sadist” or “Sadism” but they are different because of the types of feeling they evoke from another's suffering. A sadist derives more physical pleasure than joy when witnessing pain. I believe I have experienced leedvermaak on multiple occasions, but I would always attribute that joyful feeling to “nervous laughter”. Laughing or smiling at inappropriate times sends out a mixed message that others might translate as a lack of empathy, or a desensitization to other's feelings, but I think it is a defense mechanism during times of high stress.

On the topic of newspeak-the language invented as a means to prevent thoughtcrimes-Winston Smith's job was to go through old texts/newspapers and censor outdated oldspeak terms. He was rewriting history or just removing all the records of it so future generations of Inner Party and Outer Party members would have no recollection on concepts that were outlawed. The happiest Class in 1984 were the proles because they did not adhere to the same rigorous surveillance, were relatively carefree, and could still use oldspeak.

Nineteen Eighty-Four became my favorite book after I had spent a year abroad living in a Communist country. It was a lot less romanticized than the ideal manifesto of Marx and Engels. Instead it was a fishbowl of sorts. The Internet was heavily censored, there were surveillance cameras in every public space (metro, shopping mall, hotel), and I even had a feeling there was a surveillance camera in my bedroom. The ideas George Orwell conceived are not far-fetched because it is the reality in certain countries.

Philosophy is a difficult topic to discuss in public with other people. I enjoy the light-heartedness of Plato's Symposium, where a gathering of Greek philosophers tell stories of the origin of “love”, set in front of a backdrop of a bacchanal. But when a person places a chair on a table and asks “How do you know it is a chair?” followed by a general discussion about existence and the reason for being, then my mind goes into weird places and I have to take a break before it implodes.

You mentioned earlier that you have been reading Nietzsche. bermensches aside, I like his take on highlighting the arts and humanities. I do agree with his take on alcohol consumption. I believe it is better to stay hydrated with water than to have Cirrhosis of the liver and delirium tremens. These days, I just reject the first drink because it has negative effects on most of the vital organs. Anytime someone claims that everyone in a group should be on the same level of intoxication to have a good time is probably a sign to make wiser choices when selecting friends.

Hello from a very sleepy tourist. I'm tapping on my kindle from the balcony of our hotel room (at the speed of tar) in Old San Juan, which is across the one lane cobblestone street from what must be a very popular night club. I think I had 2 hours of sleep, but then awoke for the day when heavy vehicles started lumbering by.

So PR is part of the U.S. but it's utterly different than NJ, and in January this spells paradise, if one can at least temporarily let go of the belief that sleep is a necessity. And it also serves as a nice framework to your discussion of language and communication. Frankly, over and over, I see words as getting in the way of communication, but they're the best go-to we have until an easy Vulcan mind meld becomes popular – via the internet. Hahaha, the internet. Where only Banes can really incorporate the twinkle of an eye on his posts, although I think Ironscarf comes close

I Just started duolingo Spanish (www.duolingo.com is FANTASTIC!!! Check it out), but I have gotten so much more mileage with my repertoire of smiles than I think a linguistic proficiency would provide. It's so important to immerse oneself in something new to create those brand new synapses that are required for enlarging, deepening oneself, and learning a new language is a great way to do it.

Mms, me so sleepy – but apparently there are amazing caves to explore, so bye for now.

Kroatz wrote:
There's nothing wrong with a drink every now and then, depending on your age and health of course, but it should not be needed in times of great joy or great sorrow. Alcohol numbs, and even the slightest bit of abuse will take both the highs and lows out of your life. Nietzsche has some interesting thoughts on the subject, worth a google.

I'll definitely look into it!
I'm being careful and not drinking to a large extent I'm mostly just proud of myself conquering a weird fear of the stuff that I had

kawaiidaigakusei wrote:
but I would always attribute that joyful feeling to “nervous laughter”. Laughing or smiling at inappropriate times sends out a mixed message that others might translate as a lack of empathy, or a desensitization to other's feelings, but I think it is a defense mechanism during times of high stress.

The smile and even the laugh is supposed to reassure the individual who is suffering that everything will be fine. One of the best things to do with someone who is suffering is to make them laugh because laughter actually lessons physical pain and continued laughter speeds recovery. Having been the guy who calls 9-1-1 as the dumbass security guard a smile and a gentle joke puts everyone at ease in a stressful situation.

When falling down the elevator shaft I broke up laughing after my face smacked the central piller because I realized my face really had broken my fall. It was so patently ridiculous that I laughing the whole time and it didn't hurt so much even thought I was pretty banged up. Even dark gallows humor can work to brighten up someone experiencing a nasty event. “Look I made you smile.”

And suddenly everything isn't quite so bad. Certainly better than coming in and falling down in a mess of tears. You laugh and there goes the endorphins and adrenelin and you can do stuff like help.
Remember one belly laugh is worth ten thousand syllogisms. and H.L Mencken really did say that.
Not philosophy but been there, and holy shit, I really did do that.

Ayesinback wrote:

Hello from a very sleepy tourist.

Hi Ayes! Wow, that's so cool! You're in another country! … or the US but with a difference. I hate hotel internet… it's so slow these days. A few years ago it tended to be pretty good wherever you were but these days public internet tends to be crap. I suspect it might be because of the growth of tablets and smartphones.

There's a LOT in this thread to catch up on!
Kawaii- thanks, I'm glad the WA accent apeals to someone :D
Kroatz - I will seeeeeee if I have time in my horribly bussy, scatterbrained life for a play script. I'm co-writing with PitFace and Tantz Ariene at the moment, but not much of that's re-printable. It gets a little ruacious at times, to say the least. If we cleaned it up it might do pretty well on Amazon.com though…

Laughing at misfortune is fun, I think in English the proper word for that is “comedy” :)

Kroatz wrote:
There's nothing wrong with a drink every now and then, depending on your age and health of course, but it should not be needed in times of great joy or great sorrow. Alcohol numbs, and even the slightest bit of abuse will take both the highs and lows out of your life. Nietzsche has some interesting thoughts on the subject, worth a google.

Whoa, steady on there old boy! Had I not been drunk at the time, I would never have spoken to that girl and would subsequently have missed out on all the highs and lows of my life.

Why would anyone give a hoot for Nietzsche's thoughts on alcohol? If you want expert advice, consult an expert - speak to your local publican. He has seen more of joy and sorrow than we will ever know.

Was working on a story for Star Trek Online's Foundry (where you can create your own missions to share with other players) and I found myself asking this…
Is an ideology or religiion really such when your ability to make the choice to practice it or not is taken away? There's a part in the mission I'm working on where the player does research on the antagonist aliens.

During the mission they find out that the aliens are locked into their beliefs by a microchip that's planted into newborns. Any deviation from the beliefs of the alien's leaders… ANY DEVIATION… will cause the chip to destroy the brain it's implanted into, making it appear that anyone who has even the slightest rebellious thought will be struck down by the powers that be.

A similar situation occurs in the Street Fighter Alpha series. One of the characters has set out to create his own military nation. At the end he gains a device that can control the minds of a lot of people. He thinks a bit, then destroys it. Something about how ideology has no meaning if no one can think for themselves…

This is all a bit lively… I like it. Work has been shit lately. Well, people off sick, holiday and so on. Small specialised team who are all new to the position so as most experienced the pressure has been on me. Fuckdammit I need a holiday.

Genejoke wrote:
… Fuckdammit I need a holiday.

Well I DO recommend Puerto Rico. The sangria is Mahvilush. *Hic*

So many people to repond to! And you guys actually think about what you say. Or… You know… Type. I'm just gonna respond to Ironscarf, and come back for the rest of you wonderful thinkers later.

So… Dear Mr. Scarf. You most likely met Mrs. Scarf at a time in your life that was average. You were neither very depressed, nor completely and perfectly happy. The alcohol helped a little, giving you one less mental threshold to cross before daring to speak to the unknown love of your life. Had you been very unhappy at the time, you most likely wouldn't have. Had you been very happy at the time, you possibly would have, even without the help of partial inebriation. So, yes. Alcohol can numb a little, and that can be helpful. But no, it is not necessary to have been drinking to guarantee positive or negative results.

Also, as an explanation of my original point, I offer you the following scenario:

You have a nice house, and your happiness level is 5. Your house burns down. Your happiness level is now -5. After you discover that your house burns down, you go get a drink, to numb the sadness. The happiness level then goes up a little, from -5 to a -2. The alcohol numbs a little.

After a while, during which you continue drowning your sorrows, you build a new house. Your happiness level then becomes a 3. It would have been higher, most likely a 6, but the fact that you didn't feel how bad your situation used to be to the fullest extent, makes the euphoria and happiness of building the new house less powerful.

I guess what I'm trying to say is: If you don't know how bad things can become, you won't experience the good times as much either.

God, this stuff is so much easier in the real world, and so much harder when writing, in another language, without seeing someones expression, getting a direct response, or knowing much about their frame of reference.

Kroatz wrote:
So many people to repond to! And you guys actually think about what you say. Or… You know… Type. I'm just gonna respond to Ironscarf, and come back for the rest of you wonderful thinkers later.

I resent that implication! Just because I type a short and pithy response with a humourous undertone, that doesn't mean it's any less relevant or thought out than the more lengthy, serious sounding replies from the wonderful thinkers. I could have edited that response down from the original 23 page draft.

Anyway, here's my frame of reference. I come from a drinking culture. When the adults would drink at family occasions, us kids would be given cider to practise on. By the time I was old enough to enter a pub with my friends (18 over here) I was already a seasoned drinker who knew his limits. There was no need for excess - the novelty had worn off years earlier.

My father came from a working class background and spent his life making things in factories that only machines know how to make now. He and his friends worked shifts and at weekends, they'd go out and enjoy themselves, sometimes together and sometimes with their families and the beer kept flowing, steady as the Nile. His parents and his parents parents did the same. Our ancestors drank beer all day as they worked the fields, because it was much healthier than the water and one of mine, possibly my great great great grandfather, averted a stagecoach robbery by being too drunk at the reins to see the highwaymen in his path. He simply rode his coach straight over them.

Later of course, I became aware of those who abused alcohol. They would drink alone, in secret, which seemed bizarre to me. Like most of you I'm sure, I have personal experience of the damage alcohol abuse can inflict on individuals and those around them, but you can no more blame alcohol for that than you can blame food for the obesity epidemic we are now experiencing.

Alcohol is just what we do on weekends and special occasions and sometimes just for the hell of it, but I can promise you, without it I would never have approached the young Mrs Scarf at all, let alone with enough bravado to secure her phone number. Now some people may think it sad that I needed Dutch Courage (why do they call it that?) to achieve the above. Good luck to those superior beings. In the words of the great John Lydon, there are many ways to get what you want: I use the best - I use the rest!

@ Ironscarf:
After re-reading what I wrote, I can see how it may look like I tried to exclude you from the ‘wonderful thinkers’ category. Please know that that was not what I was trying to do. The: ‘I’m just gonna respond to Ironscarf' line, was only meant to announce that yours was the only post I was going to answer. ‘Just’ has some subtle meanings that the closest Dutch translation does not have.

Any implication that you are in any way lesser, or your opinions are in any way less valuable, were not meant at all and most likely stem from a combination of tiredness and a slight language barrier. I am sorry I offended you, and I understand my mistake. I will make sure I pick my words more carefully next time, because the last thing I want to do is insult or alienate any of you.

In response to your actual post: I realize that alcohol is a very big part of a lot of people's lives. I come from the Netherlands, there's stuff available to most of us that would cause lengthy prison sentences even a few kilometers across the border. In the Netherlands we recently raised the legal drinking age a few years, and there were protests. We value our freedom of mind-alteration.

But even though I have extremely easy access to drink, pot, shrooms, or even some of the harder stuff, I choose not to partake. If I am happy, I don't need any of it to remain happy, and if I'm sad, I won't be helped by any of it either. And I do not think that alcohol- or drug-abuse is in any way caused by the products themselves. Too much of anything is wrong, and usually the fault of the consumer.

But to me, and this is a personal opinion, any amount of mind-altering, mind-numbing, mind-expanding, or mind-improving substances has the potential to be too much. If I meet you after a few drinks, and you behave completely different from sober-scarf, then you are not the same person. If it would not alter you much, then what's really the point? And this is completely seperate from the effects it has on your own life. Anything enjoyed under the influence has less value, it would be more beautiful if you had been sober, because you would have seen it, felt it, and been able to think about as it really is, instead of the blurred, softened image that alcohol sends to your brain.

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@Lonnehart:
If everyone in the world, in the universe, would be forced to worship Flubbert the powerful, or die, then I personally do not believe that that would be true worship. At the very least it would call into question if independent thought, and free will, actually exist.

But are a lot of religions not doing the same, or even worse things right now? Worship Sponk, the smelly, or you will burn forever in his rancid sex dungeon. If a religion can force you to believe in their particular afterlife, and then tell you that you can only reach it if you do what they say, that's as bad as a microchip to the brain.

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@Bravo:
Dollar - Daalder. Which was an old form of Dutch currency.
Yankee - Jan Kees. A typical old Dutch name. (Two, really)
Cookie - Koekje. Which means biscuit.
Wall Street - Wal straat. Means wall street, but was Dutch first.
Boss - Baas. Means the same, Dutch first.
Brooklyn - Breukelen. A name most likely meaning forest town.
Coney Island - Konijn eiland. Rabbit Island.
Decoy - De kooi. Meaning the cage.
Luck - Geluk. Means almost the same, but geluk has happiness attached to it.

I looked it up, and around 1% of all english words have their origin in Dutch. Which is probably much lower than the amount of English words in Dutch.

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@Vladimirmasters:
Drink as much as you feel comfortable with. I am not someone you should be taking much advice from.
(Except if I recommend books, I have good taste in books.)

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@Cutecollegestudent:
1984 is the most depressingly uplifting book I know, and I read it about once every two years. Even in the ‘free’ world, we're halfway there. We're being monitored, told lies, cut up into a ruling class and a working class, and being slowly forced into a few big regions that are constantly at war with each other. In a way, our reality is a bit worse, because our subjugation is mostly voluntary. One horrible tragedy every once in a while, and the ruling class can push any new laws they want. Even a real Newspeak is slowly being fleshed out, starting with rofl omg lol, and ending with no concept of freedom.

It's cool that you have a personal link to the subject matter, and living in a communist country for a while should, if not pleasant, at least be interesting. And no, the original idea behind communism will never work. Just like the pure forms of democracy and capitalism will never work. It's human nature that gets in the way of human hope. All animals are equal, but some are more equal than others. We'll always want more than everyone else, which is the reason why we're at the top of the food chain, and also the reason why we'll not remain there forever.

On chairs: That's not a chair! This is a chair! *Throw chair, storm out.*

On Nietzsche: The übermensch thing is actually misunderstood by most. Most of the negative connotations are because Hitler, who was on friendly terms with Nietzsche's sister, adopted the term but not the meaning. I guess I haven't really delved into the subject enough, but I understand Übermensch as a man or woman that makes the most of their life, mostly in the realm of intellect and philosophy.

And finally, everyone in a group should be on the same level of intoxication. My preferred level is just a lot lower than the one that others appear to prefer.

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Hippievan:
The French language, even though I have never spent a happy moment in its vicinity, is something that I wish I was better at. The lessons I had in high school were forced, and I did not feel the need and importance back then. That is why hearing that your dad is learning French, at a later age than, is very inspiring. I truly hope I still have the will to learn when I get to my late 40's, early 50's. (Which is the age I would guess your father to be. Mine have reached that milestone, and are dreading the next.)

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@Ayes:
I hope you have a wonderful holiday, that feels longer than they usually do. And that you make at least three new memories. (Quality over Quantity)

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@Ozone:
Any help you can offer is welcome. And I think it's extremely cool that you're writing with others. My last writing partner had to go back to India, and we haven't done much since then. I guess I should give up hope that that story ever finishes.