Messages

2821

Or Kill Me / Re: I really don't know

« on: April 28, 2010, 07:28:51 pm »

Umm...  Cellphones aren't mandatory, yet.

You can still get by on a land line.  If you hate cellphones so much, why do you have one?

Oh, I hate land lines just as much - and they're less convenient.  So I either have one of them or I have very little means of making plans with anyone.  Including my girlfriend, who I can only see on weekends, so it becomes pretty necessary to talk the other days of the week.  It's unfortunately a necessary evil.

2822

Or Kill Me / Re: I really don't know

« on: April 28, 2010, 07:13:21 pm »

DUH, dipshit, just because my phone beeped does not mean I'm going to put my palm in your face and tend to my digitial device. This little piece of plastic in my pocket is not the boss of me.

SERIOUSLY.

The reason I like texts is because I don't like jumping to attention every time someone makes a bell ring in my house, you know? It's supposed to be a tool for communication, not a Pavlovian response training device.

Oh, it's a total training device for me.  My ingrained response is to clench my jaw tightly enough to shatter the teeth of any regular being.  Muscles I didn't know I had tighten and strain to near breaking, tendons jumping out of flesh as though trying to escape.  Then there's my hands, which by some cruel twist of fate I can still manipulate in spite of their claw like appearance.  They reach into my pocket and grab the offending device.  At this moment, I am unable, in spite of every muscle memory or will, to simply throw the fucking phone at a wall and watch it gloriously shatter.

My next step is to carry the phone between my teeth for a day, so when it rings the initial jaw clench will rend in twain.

Then I can get a new one and hate it just as much.

2823

RPG Ghetto / Re: I've gone off the geek end...

« on: April 28, 2010, 04:13:17 pm »

I was looking to get into D&D last summer, I read up a bit on 3.5 and 4th editions, but couldn't really find anyone in the area.  Now I can't dedicate a night to it.

2824

Literate Chaotic / Re: Grant Morrison @ Disinfocon

« on: April 28, 2010, 04:11:37 pm »

Seems characteristic of turn of the millenium optimism.  I'd like to see if he maintains that perspective after a decade nearly unanimously regarded as totally shitty.  It'd be interesting if his ideas remained similar, but with a distinctly 2010 feel.  I mean, not every ten years is a long time, but these ten years were a god damned eternity.

2825

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Spagbook

« on: April 27, 2010, 11:04:53 pm »

(something something chemo something.)

Yeah, cancer ward is pretty much what I was thinking.

2826

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: ANTI-GRAPHITI CREWS BECOME VANDALS

« on: April 27, 2010, 10:45:49 pm »

Copying isn't art, it's craft. A really good craftsman can make a really convincing copy. Stencils are easy to copy because someone already made one, and all you have to do is make a copy of it.

What's the fucking controversy here?

Do you consider Warhol Campbell's Soup cans art or craft?  

(Not picking a fight, trying to keep this thread on art)

A better question is if video games can be art. Roger Ebert says no. Almost everyone else in the world says yes.

Roger Ebert is a douche.  Bioshock was a work of art, and I don't even like videogames.

Yeah, thus far the responses have been along the lines of painting Ebert as the stubborn old generation refusing to recognize new media.  It happened with any major art movement.  Cracked has a really good response up by Robert Brockway, and Tycho from Penny Arcade made a pretty compelling argument along the lines of if a hundred artists come together and create something, the idea that it somehow doesn't become art is an odd one.

But yeah, Bioshock is beautiful, everything from the art deco style of the city to the voice acting and storyline.  I do like video games, and there's plenty of crap out there, but how is that different from movies?

I respect Ebert.  He was among the first, and still really one of the few, critics who judge a movie on what it is meant to be instead of its actual worth.  A generic action movie might get a good review from him if it's attempting to be a generic action movie and succeeds.  He recognizes not every movie is meant for the Oscars or acclaim, and I think that's an excellent distinction to make.  I think that's part of why the backlash is strong for his statements - he's a big name for sure, but he's also done a lot to make movie reviews accessible to everyone and not just snobs.  And here he is being a snob.  Essentially by his standards Transformers 2 is art, albeit failed art, and Bioshock doesn't even warrant being measured on its level.

2827

Or Kill Me / Re: Love #1: A Declaration

« on: April 27, 2010, 08:07:44 pm »

The definition of love is mutable.  In upper-class medieval Europe, the ideal of love was the pained, distant, unrequited longing between a knight and someone else's wife.  Love was tormented chastity. 

Modern love is obviously something quite different.  And it has vast numbers of permutations.  Sexual love, parental love, love for friends, love of animals and inanimate objects, love for music and ideals.  Religious love.  The problem with "love" as a subject is that it's an incredibly vague word that can mean any number of things, but ultimately boils down to "a strong sense of feeling good".  Or at least, it does in this century.  Who knows what it will come to mean in the future?

Merely not wishing harm upon them.

2828

Or Kill Me / Re: I really don't know

« on: April 27, 2010, 02:24:06 am »

hey. we're being supportive.
we're pointing out that it's not a 'missed the boat' type of thing.
mebbee you're right, but fuck it....
doesn't change the fact.
he should DO IT.

NOW.

I'm poking fun, Ipt.  There's a maturity difference and a great deal of wisdom that comes with those few years, I can see how your experiences would be as you described them.

But yes, h-town.  If it is at all feasible to do so, a degree is a great thing to have.

2829

Or Kill Me / Re: I really don't know

« on: April 27, 2010, 02:17:58 am »

Have you given up on the idea?

I've found that people who didn't go to college right after high school tend to be more serious about their education and are much more interesting to talk to and much more valuable study partners.

there is truth in what Net says.
i fucked around for three years in Austin before i screwed my head on and buckled down at University.  I did very well because i didn't feel the need to play at the expense of education.  my best study partners were a persian guy that was serious about his education because it was what allowed him to stay here, and a guy in his forties that didn't have any desire to rawk out with the youngsters.

if you want to go to college and you can afford to buckle down (i.e. you don't have to work your ass off already just to make payments on all your crap) then you can do well, and if you do well you can get scholarships to really help out.

sounds like you're beating yourself up about not doing it, but chances are, you can.

DO IT.
if you don't do it now, you'll beat yourself up later for not doing it now.
better Nate than lever.

What Net and Iptuous said - thirded.

I was away from school for 8 years and still prefer working with people who didn't go straight through non-stop: high school-bachelor's/college-masters-doc.  

In addition to scholarships, there's also research work, TA-ing and a tonne of other things available to take care of the tuition/rent/groceries issue.

If you want more institutionalized hedgumacation, it's doable.  And I don't think there's a 'kind of person' in the way you mean.  But now I'm just being picky/pedantic.


(Off-topic time warp to earlier in the thread - never been to Chicago.  I had no idea what you meant, but Toronto's super-soft core something or other.)

I've always found that people who waited before going to school were smugly self superior about their choices.   

2830

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Flounce from the board in this thread...

« on: April 26, 2010, 10:06:47 pm »

No, in my case it is my problem.  I have a hard time remembering names.  It's a good thing that we do introductions at all the meetings I attend IRL.  It's weird.  I'm pretty good at remembering lots of things.  Long strings of numbers.  Driving directions.  But when it comes to names, I turn into a gigantic dumbass. 

Well if it helps, I used to be Eater of Clowns.    I have a terrible time with names as well, no matter how many mnemonic(?) devices I use.  For instance, I have met 4 people from here IRL and don't remember half their names.

EoC, I remembered you, and that you'd not been around.  Dunno if I mentioned it.

I do temporary flounces, and only announce so I don't have to keep checking PMs.  I think over the years I've learned to quietly hide away for a while and then just return when I think I'm calmer or the board looks calmer.  Not that I don't enjoy it all riled up, either.  Sometimes.

Well thanks, Jenne.  

When I left I had very little connection to this place.  Around October I contributed to a few things and posted some of my own.  With that involvement I don't see myself leaving.  Unless I do.

2831

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Spagbook

« on: April 26, 2010, 09:01:56 pm »

                                                                                                  I. DRINK. YOAR. MILKSHAKE!!!!!!!!!!!1!
                                                                                                                                   /

2832

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Flounce from the board in this thread...

« on: April 26, 2010, 08:07:24 pm »

Tips for successful flouncing.

DO NOT TELL ANYONE YOU ARE FLOUNCING

come back 3 days later after you've gotten over it, without losing face.

That's what I did about a year ago.  I came back 5 months later.  Of course, nobody knew who I was then and didn't notice I was gone. 

It's hard for me to keep track of all you new people.  Granted, for me, new is anyone who's joined in the past 3 years. 

If I haven't given anybody reason enough to distinguish me from other posters on this board or recognize any contribution I've made, that's my problem, not theirs.

2833

Bring and Brag / Re: Once more into the breach... Frost Heaves, 5/9/10

« on: April 26, 2010, 05:54:23 pm »

It's true-- I always call your boss to check your schedule before I book a show.

 

2834

Bring and Brag / Re: Once more into the breach... Frost Heaves, 5/9/10

« on: April 26, 2010, 05:06:28 pm »

You're dicking me around at this point.  I work for over a year with Sundays and Mondays off and every show is a Friday or Saturday.  Now, starting this very week, I have Fridays and Saturdays off - and you have a show on a Sunday.

2835

The Richard Nixon school of ballet and the arts / Re: Flounce from the board in this thread...

« on: April 26, 2010, 05:03:04 pm »

Tips for successful flouncing.

DO NOT TELL ANYONE YOU ARE FLOUNCING

come back 3 days later after you've gotten over it, without losing face.

That's what I did about a year ago.  I came back 5 months later.  Of course, nobody knew who I was then and didn't notice I was gone.