Testing Chat IV: A New Hope

[Oxymoron]

And on the other hand, aren't Democrats generally anti-death penalty ?

[adr]

And on the other hand, aren't Democrats generally anti-death penalty ?

Only when contrasted to the Republicans - most Democrats are still for or neutral on the death penalty when asked (at least as of a few years ago, it could have had a big change recently but a quick search doesn't give me any more recent data).

[adr]

BTW the first convo just got into some interesting talk:

ordinary Shia/Sunni don't hate each other [...] however, I don't see myself as either Shia or Sunni
because I have read a Quranic verse that prohibits such schism among the Muslim
so I am simply, a Muslim, neither a Sunni nor a Shia

i always find it interesting to contrast what regular people have to say vs what the propaganda says

the propaganda says all shias and sunnis hate each other's guts and it is only dictators' might that keeps them from spontaneously killing each other

but pretty much everything i've heard from people involved, from iraqi ex-pats writing blogs to internet buddies on the instant messenger says regular people on the ground don't think all that much of it and certainly aren't about to kill each other at the drop of a hat

[Darksi4190]

That's because they're united by their shared hatred of us.

"Well, he may be a different branch of Islam, but at least he's not an American."

[Djinnkitty83]

That's because they're united by their shared hatred of us.

"Well, he may be a different branch of Islam, but at least he's not an American."

[Veef]

hey Tim would you agree with the assessment that the Australian accents in P-Rim are the result of the actors being told to watch Crocodile Dundee six times before filming began

[thejester]

Why is Metahive the boogie man of the month now, when people pooh-poo SD.Net? He always seemed like a fairly laid back and bright person, though what's gone wrong with now in recent months is (IMO) he's gradually transforming into a mini-Thanas (cooped up in the History sub-forum a bit too long).

notsureifserious.jpg

[Bakustra]

hey Tim would you agree with the assessment that the Australian accents in P-Rim are the result of the actors being told to watch Crocodile Dundee six times before filming began

stroikah yurekah

BTW the first convo just got into some interesting talk:

ordinary Shia/Sunni don't hate each other [...] however, I don't see myself as either Shia or Sunni
because I have read a Quranic verse that prohibits such schism among the Muslim
so I am simply, a Muslim, neither a Sunni nor a Shia

i always find it interesting to contrast what regular people have to say vs what the propaganda says

the propaganda says all shias and sunnis hate each other's guts and it is only dictators' might that keeps them from spontaneously killing each other

but pretty much everything i've heard from people involved, from iraqi ex-pats writing blogs to internet buddies on the instant messenger says regular people on the ground don't think all that much of it and certainly aren't about to kill each other at the drop of a hat

keep in mind that most sectarian violence in the middle east has political roots- a religious minority ends up ruling through oligarchies or dictatorships and religious reprisals form when they're finally overthrown. or alternately you have no clear religious group in the majority like in lebanon. iraq, in addition to the ba'ath party favoring sunnis, was also ethnically factionalized because of kurdish nationalism and the determination of the ba'ath party to keep iraq united. but even then, it's arguable that iraq's civil strife is/was being used as a proxy war by surrounding nations to pull iraq one way or the other

of course, i'm not much of an expert, so i'll defer to thejester on this

[adr]

"Well, he may be a different branch of Islam, but at least he's not an American."

nah americans are cool too as long as we're not cia or bourgeoisie lol

but wow today has been shitloads of peeps talking to me, 5 different people on IM and i bumped into one of my dad's friends on the street and chatted with him for a while too

i had to settle for only 7 miles on my ride tonight cuz i was chatting non-stop for hours and ran out of sunlight! it was cool tho, got to cover a lot of fun topics

how did they start falling in love with each other?
how did they meet?

something i kinda love talking about but no on a public forum. IM was ok though, since that's just him, me, and the NSA. oh yeah and GCHQ and DGSE and so on and so forth

i betcha they did read it too, with him being a "non-US person", it'd be "legal"


fucking spies laughing at my starship romance

[RogueIce]

It is surprisingly difficult to find a non smartphone PDA. I suppose I shouldn't be shocked, given the popularity of the things, but I am annoyed. Because fuck data plans already.

[zhaktronz]

grow up

[RogueIce]

no u

PS: I do have a smartphone but I wouldn't mind at all ditching it for a regular one and then a PDA to complement it.

[Glass Fort MacLeod]

Shep: Grand champion of SDN. He got everyone to cover him while he trolled to his heart's content. Then went of his own accord.

I once plugged "shep" "banned" and some other stuff into the SDN search, and it was always funny to see either the mods impotently posting, or DW basically going "meh".

I just cannot figure out the degree to which DW looked the other way with Shep. If it had been up to Rob he'd have been shitcanned ages ago.

I vaguely recall some years back asking GR why Shep lasted as long as he did despite the shit he did, and (If I recall correctly) it amounted to 'not enough people hated him, and he never managed to actually piss Mike off.' I think its worth noting that alot of the 'banning' stuff either stemmed from the perception of how someone was (If you got the reputation of being a troll you were doomed.) or if you pissed Mike off in a debate (and too many people, IMHO, stubbornly defended their arguments and rode them down in flames due to the board culture, and that exacerbated the issue.)

I've had some sort of odd like/hate/indifference attitude towards Shep over the years, so I can see where this 'two sides' thing might have merit. When it was restricted just to the 'fictional' stuff I could get along with him pretty well (except for some 40K stuff.. heh.) Anything involving N&P or real life and he became intolerable. I suspect that he, like many on SDB I suspect, simply had issues relating to people beyond their own personal/narrow view of things, and then didn't 'understand' why people get angry. Understanding other views can be a very difficult skill to develop unless you work at it (at least for me it is), and there are some people on SDN (and some here, IMHO) who never do.

Given I just had a similar revelation about Stark not long ago, I've often wondered just how many people I marked off as 'useless' because they didn't match up with my preconceptions were actually useless.

People like me they mean. LOL.

You got better.

Matter of opinion I think. I really haven't changed that much, although I've let go of certain preconceptions and that makes it easier to associate with people. I was overreacting about how bad this place was, for example, but it still seems a bit 'SDN-obsessed' sometimes which is disturbing to me because I've seen it as a trait of many 'small boards' because they have this habit to try and 'define' their own importance by some perceived opposition. The OBC stuff was just the polar opposite of the 'testingstan' crowd. It was a convenient label that gave one group something to latch onto and feel superior over by blurring over the distinctions. sort of like how all 'trekkies' got demonized because some Trekkies were complete idiots.

I sometimes think (cynically) that the only reason I fit in here is because I learned to say/think the right things as a sort of camouflage, not like I was somehow 'reborn' into a new personality.

[adr]

oh god today's tdf stage was amazing

[Oxymoron]

Saw Pacific Rim.

Not bad. A good movie overall, I'd say.


Too bad Stark isn't here. I would like him to tell me why and how it was actually bad / disappointing.

[Flagg]

Saw Pacific Rim.

Not bad. A good movie overall, I'd say.


Too bad Stark isn't here. I would like him to tell me why and how it was actually bad / disappointing.

Well according to stark the fact that they

used a nuke to close the rift after building the giant robots

was utterly juggtastic. I agree.

[Darksi4190]

Saw Pacific Rim.

Not bad. A good movie overall, I'd say.


Too bad Stark isn't here. I would like him to tell me why and how it was actually bad / disappointing.

The robots didn't move unnaturaly fast like they do in Japanese stuff.

Japan superior, america inferior.

Or something like that.

[Infinity Biscuit]

yes that sounds like an accurate and meaningful summary of stark's opinions

[evilsoup]

man I really want to go watch that film, but if the sun keeps up like this I'll have to keep going to the beach instead and I'll end up missing out on the whole run D:

[RogueIce]

You live in the UK, how would you know what the is.

[RyanThunder]

he's probably confusing it with a street lamp

[evilsoup]

it's currently the hottest week on record
I've heard a South African complaining that 'argh if I wanted this weather I would have stayed at home'
anyway a run of weather like this doesn't come along very often here, so I've got to make the most of it

[Infinity Biscuit]

people are actually dying from the heat wave in britain but hey let's make fun of them for having a cool climate generally

and then later complain about canadians mocking americans for how they deal with winter sounds good

[Flagg]

No, seriously if the ending of Pacific Rim is what Stark told me, then it's the dumbest shit ever and I never seed to see it.

If they could close the rift with a nuke, well then why build the giant robots since anyone with a brain would try nuking it first?

It's utterly and contemptibly stupid. I should have known when I saw all the fattest of fatties gushing over it.

[Losonti Tokash]

Whoa let's chill out a little