New Testingstan

joviwan wrote:I'm flying to england in... 6 hours! Hooray!

Make sure your vaccinations are up to date, don't drink the water, make sure you know the phone number of your embassy and don't let any of the locals see your money
if someone offers to sell you any major landmarks, make sure you haggle with them on the price. That's what they expect; otherwise you'll end up paying over the odds

Oh, shit, I didn't even think of that

Thanks soup

Maybe I can get the Big Ben for a couple quid! (Quid is like a buck, right?)

the natives have this quaint code that they use amongst each other:
apples and pears = stairs
trouble and strife = wife
tin bath = laugh (as in 'you avin a tin bath, mate?')
sweeney todd = flying squad = police
adam and eve = believe (as in 'I don't adam and eve it!')
kettle and hob = fob = watch ('ere mate, can I get the harry lime on your kettle?')

drop these into your conversations and everyone will like you and be impressed with your wit & erudition and possibly adopt you as a sort of minor god (they're a very superstitious lot)

evilsoup wrote:It's not the same thing, but I've toyed with the idea of trying to get a game of Microscope going here
basically it's a world-building game, where each person takes turns adding new elements (either eras, events, or scenes (which could even allow for people to put in short stories)) onto a timeline
I think we'd need at least four people who are interested, but the nature of it would allow people to drop in and out fairly easily, so I think it would be suited to this forum
anyone interested?

Well, I've been a major contributor to a worldbuilding thread for over a year now, a thread which is probably bigger than a novel in wordcount by now, so why the heck no?

Though given my real life responsibilities, my participation in it might be a very on and off affair.

Heh. What the heck. Let's do this. Worst case scenario, it'll just die a slow and silent death.

well it'll need about four people for the initial setting-up stage (determining exactly what kind of world we want to build -- sci-fi vs fantasy etc, what tone), but after that it'll be fine for people to drop in and out

i might be interested too

it is now up to firefox 28????????

wtf

adr wrote:it is now up to firefox 28????????

wtf

That's what a six-week release cadence does If you want more stability look at Firefox ESR

I just turn off automatic updates, boom, stability! But I had to use a new website for the new job and there was overlapping text so I thought maybe it is a browser bug fixed in the new release.

nope, the text still overlaps. blargh.



totally unrelated note let me copy/paste what i just said on teh faecbook

http://arsdnet.net/id.JPG

My new government ID arrived yesterday. The picture... could be better. This photograph of the photograph isn't particularly high quality, but you can kinda see the difference. The left hand part is my old ID, photo taken in 2005. The right one is the new one.

My old one is a pretty great picture. My beautiful brunette locks are naturally in style that models pay thousands to reproduce. My long, slender neck line shows an effortless fierceness that would make Tyra Banks want so desperately to keep my photograph for her own personal collection, but alas she could not, because I would still be in the running toward becoming America's Next Top Model.

My new one... meh. I dressed up for it, I brushed my hair and I tried to smeyes... and... meh. I've changed a bit over the years.

i didn't even say what i was fully thinking on the fb (i don't want to be that skinny *** complaining about being fat) but the truth is it actually kinda does bug me that i've put on like 50 pounds over the last decade.

i'm currently hovering around 150 lbs which i guess isn't even all that bad (it certainly beats the 165 i was like 3 years back. i saw myself in a mirror and thought it was curved cuz i had like a gut but nope. holy crap)

but i kinda miss being a walking hangar at 100 lbs where i used to be


.... though i don't miss my pants falling off, or needing to poke new holes in every belt i had. or going to bed hungry every night for that matter.


blargh

evilsoup wrote:(they're a very superstitious lot)

Are they also cowardly?

evilsoup wrote:(determining exactly what kind of world we want to build -- sci-fi vs fantasy etc, what tone)

Gritty realism and lots of grimdark.

I would also be interested in this Microscope thing

adr wrote:$76,800/year

What's that in multiples of the amount you need to survive?

evilsoup wrote:It's not the same thing, but I've toyed with the idea of trying to get a game of Microscope going here
basically it's a world-building game, where each person takes turns adding new elements (either eras, events, or scenes (which could even allow for people to put in short stories)) onto a timeline
I think we'd need at least four people who are interested, but the nature of it would allow people to drop in and out fairly easily, so I think it would be suited to this forum
anyone interested?

I'd love to try out Microscope.

ace
I'll start a thread either today or tomorrow

>:3 wrote:What's that in multiples of the amount you need to survive?

I ran a small net budget surplus last year grossing $13k, so about 5x-6x more than I use (of course, I could survive on much less; I live in lavish luxury). Of course, much of it will be devoured by taxes - for 2013, I only paid about $700 in taxes, for 2014, my guess is it'll be closer to $20,000.

Nevertheless, I think I'll have a net annual surplus of around $36,000 until the gravy train stops.

At the rate you posted, expect to lose roughly 29% to taxes, SS and Medicare.

Which, when you think about it, isn't much.

Though for the quality of service offered by your government, administrations and public services, this may be debatable.

watching old episodes of stargate
apparently Colonel O'niell hangs out at schools?

so i had another LDS interview today and part of it irked me

"do you live the law of chastity"

tbh i think that's a bit of an awkward question anyway and none of anybody's business but whatever, it is a common thing in these church interviews so i'm getting used to it

but what surprised me this time was the follow-up question

"but you're single, right, never been married?"

yeah. y'all act like you've never seen an asexual before.

so i just said god dealt me an easy hand in this regard

(i just realized saying i was dealt a HAND when the question is about jerking off was an unfortunate choice LOLOLOL)

but anyway i say it just isn't something i've ever really cared about and find all the commandments to be extremely easy to follow. when i say i've never had even the slightest interest in smoking, they totally get it. but when i say sex is meh and i'd honestly prefer to avoid even being in that environment? apparently that's just totally unbelievable

and that was not even the end of it

"how do you avoid pornography"

ummm i don't seek it out?

sometimes i think some of the church leadership thinks porno is literally hiding around every corner just waiting to pounce on the unsuspecting kids

not really, no. you kinda do have to go looking for it.


so i spent 7 hours of a saturday (last free day before a work deadline!) dragging myself down to the stake center to have what i thought would be a quick friendly chat about faith in jesus christ and stuff

i didn't expect a kind of spanish inquisition

Walker from Walker: Texas Ranger helped the Mormons reach Utah during his past life incarnation as Hayes Cooper, a Wild West Texas Ranger who respected the culture of the Native Americans.

Alright, Ralin I have to admit it's getting funny.

so i saw this title for a youtube talk "bringing await to c++" and i thought maybe they would do something neat there

but nope it was just a fat guy from microsoft that wanted to add a new keyword (surprise) that would just be a wrapper for a ton of library dependent shit generated behind the scenes (surprise again)

adr wrote:i didn't expect a kind of spanish inquisition

i admire you guys' restraint

actually i can't believe you can do it. one of y'all must have screamed it IRL or at least looked up the youtube. you must have. you must have!

every time i hear a line like that i have a pavlovian response i have to scream the response

say "buried alive.... buried alive" KHAAAAAAAAAAAN to me some day, i can't help but respond

gee see there i just did it again, seriously i cant' help myself

i know what you're thinking. "being like compulsive in completing cheesy movie lines? surely you can't be serious"

but i'm telling you, i am serious

and don't call me shirley

so I was watching the game of thrones the other day
and then Xena: Warrior Princess yesterday
& this seems like good crossover material
but I'm not sure if she should arrive in King's Landing just in time to stop Joffrey from chopping Sean Bean's head off (with her combat frisbee), or if she & Gabriel should appear from the flames of KHAL DROGO's funeral pyre instead of the dragons
or something else maybe?

in the books he's actually called ronan dex