Messages

16

Politics / Re: Current Politics & History Only Thread

« on: February 08, 2019, 09:31:02 PM »

But at the other extreme, there's no reason to pretend the geographical location of a womb somehow acts as a shield from the 100% human rights that would be granted to a baby on the verge of being born, if it could only be teleported a dozen inches on a vector that places it geographically outside the womb. (How does the biology of a womb act as a magic rights-inhibiting enclosure?)

It's a rights tug-of-war. Whose rights supersedes the other's? Obviously pregnancy is a one-of-a-kind situation, with nothing exactly matching it, but where else does any human, regardless of age, have rights to sap any portion of the life of another human, without that other human's explicit consent? I believe a woman should be able to have a fetus removed from herself at any point in a pregnancy. If the fetus is not-viable at that time, and would die anyway outside the womb, I suppose there's no reason to object to its termination prior to removal, instead of allowing it to occur 'naturally' after an intact removal.

17

Politics / Re: Current Politics & History Only Thread

« on: December 12, 2018, 06:04:01 PM »

Stanford University Institutional Review Board:

WOW...

What is the exact context of this? Who are the people being shielded from having to debate someone else that has an opposing political view to theirs?

18

art, music, etc. / Re: Post Musical Equipment Here....

« on: December 02, 2018, 01:24:13 PM »

Bought a couple new things lately. Bought the acoustic/electric because it was apparently a good deal and I'd like to have one of those eventually. Also bought the amp because I wanted something so I splurged and went overkill for something that's supposedly really good. Way more than I need now, and possibly more than I'll ever need, but I got it anyway because getting good deals on things I don't need or might not use much is fun apparently:

Guitar (paid $152 total including shipping):

https://www.monoprice.com/product?c_id=115&cp_id=11501&cs_id=1150107&p_id=610820&seq=1&format=2

Amp (paid $280 total shipped):

https://www.guitarcenter.com/Boss/Katana-KTN-100-100W-1x12-Guitar-Combo-Amplifier.gc

19

Politics / Re: Current Politics & History Only Thread

« on: November 10, 2018, 12:12:41 AM »

I disagree that they changed their position. Has the context not changed at all from when those earlier tweets were first made until now? They've been consistent in their aims of having a fair and thorough investigation take place.

Clearly they each felt that recusal wasn't sufficient back when Sessions first did so (and a few months after that for Warren - btw, are we 100% sure that comment, in June, was about the recusal?). Since his recusal, Trump has lambasted Sessions both publicly, and privately as well (reportedly), for said recusal. Trump ultimately forced Sessions' resignation (read: he fired him) because Sessions recused himself, trying to do what he felt was appropriate for the investigation, under the circumstances. Now, it's not merely that Trump forced Sessions' resignation that has those other politicians upset, it's why Trump has done so. This isn't them finally getting what they initially insisted on - the circumstances have changed significantly. Who does Trump appoint to replace Sessions now? He appoints the person who has been very critical, in public, about the merits of the investigation. How is it reasonable for Trump - one of the main focuses of the investigation, a person who has incessantly referred to it as a "witch hunt", and a hoax - to hand pick the person who will oversee this investigation, and for this person to have intimated that he would shut down the investigation, or greatly limit it, as well as essentially calling it hogwash as well?

I think it's clear that those other politicians are taking those things into consideration when they've made their recent comments. Those details weren't in play (among many other things I'm sure I'm not thinking of) 1.5+ years ago when those initial tweets were created.

20

/dev/random / Re: The Fight Thread

« on: November 06, 2018, 07:44:19 AM »

BAM - sweet dreams - https://www.foxnews.com/sports/graphic-video-mma-star-knocks-out-opponent-with-brutal-spinning-elbow

OUCH! 

One of the more vicious KOs I've seen in a while.

21

dm / Re: Abolish the bfg! and rid of the quad! ( DM )

« on: November 06, 2018, 07:40:59 AM »

I'm on board with this, but that's what the "classic" server is for. The last time I was playing (a couple months ago approx), I was trying to encourage people to go to the classic server instead of DM, but I wasn't too successful.

Just in case that wasn't clear: The classic server is basically the DM server with powerups (quad/invuln) and BFG disabled - oh! and there's no mymap either... which is what I greatly prefer. My opinion is if you don't like dm1-dm8, go play on mutant. DM should be for dm1-dm8.

22

art, music, etc. / Re: Post Musical Equipment Here....

« on: October 26, 2018, 04:37:24 PM »

Thanks for the detailed reply, Focalor. I'm basically in my first week or two in kindergarten when it comes to guitar stuff at this point I think. I hadn't even heard of having a guitar "set up" until a week or two ago - I didn't know that was a thing. I bought some new strings for it (9 gauge(?), which are supposed to be better, or more forgiving for newbs like myself), and I did buy a tuner for it as well. I'm still forming my callouses... chords are painful to do at this point (have only learned a D chord, and an A minor chord), and I haven't used them in a song or anything.

Here's my tuner:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B01H74YV56

And here's my amp that I already bought (maybe a little premature - not sure if I need one yet):

https://www.samash.com/Product2_10001_10051_3524505_-1____ProductDisplayErrorView

Instrument cable I bought (bought this because the thin one I had was giving a slight hiss from the amp with guitar plugged in. After new cable, hiss is still there...):


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00XQD34PQ

Strings I bought:


https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00CAUYNCO

23

art, music, etc. / Re: Post Musical Equipment Here....

« on: October 26, 2018, 09:45:46 AM »

I've finally decided to put in real effort to learn how to play guitar. I've taken some lessons locally, and am following a series of Youtube videos to get me started (justinguitar.com).

Here's the guitar I bought 5 years ago. Only plugged it in for the first time about a month ago.

https://www.musiciansfriend.com/guitars/schecter-guitar-research-c-1-blood-moon-electric-guitar

I got it brand new from Best Buy in late 2013 for around $187 after a few discounts. Apparently it originally retailed somewhere around $800? I'm planning on getting it "set up" at a local shop tomorrow.

24

/dev/random / Re: The WIN thread

« on: October 13, 2018, 08:40:23 AM »

I was winning 2 days ago. After multiple failed attempts by others i swam through massive swells to save something very important and very expensive(millions) before Michael hit. Two branches of military and several fed govt agencies, law enforcement all involved. It's hard to word this humbly and not sound ridiculous, but it was all me. I had a massive audience that hooting and hollering and clapping when I safely returned to shore. Hundreds of people whistling, I declined to comment to media and refused to divluge my name to all news sources. "Can we at least get a first name!?" I apologized and said no.

It's a crazy and intentionally vague story, but I got er done.

#metoo

25

/dev/random / Re: The Fight Thread

« on: October 08, 2018, 04:42:16 PM »

I saw it live. When I watched it live, I thought McGregor didn't initiate anything either. Seeing some of the replays, it does appear that Conor was the first to throw a punch towards someone on Khabib's team before they attacked him. Khabib was the first one that launched an attack before anyone though, when he leaped and did like a Donkey Kong overhand punch on Dillon Danis (Conor's BJJ coach). When Conor jumped to hop the fence and assist, someone grabbed him when he was on top, but then that's when one of Khabib's crew, who was at that time inside the cage, jumped on top of the cage as well (presumably to join what was going on outside), within arm's reach of Conor, and Conor threw a left at him. After that is when at least two more of Khabib's crew attacked Conor, including the guy in the red who landed at least two or three shots on Conor.

26

Jokes / Re: Funny Pictures

« on: September 26, 2018, 09:26:13 AM »

This is the actual original photo (not quite as funny).

27

Quake / Re: Thank you, quadz!

« on: September 06, 2018, 06:41:21 AM »

By the way punk I notice you're on top of the leader Boards, good for you man. Ya still got it.

Thanks I've been playing like mad lately, since August 25th (iirc), so I think my play time is mostly responsible for the high frag count. I turned 40, and now 41, and somehow I'm playing better than I ever have. That was after such a long break too. I honestly was a little uneasy about starting to play again last March, because I was afraid doing so would reveal that my age was catching up with me. I guess not... not yet anyway. Hopefully it doesn't happen anytime soon.

Edit: Oh, and, Haunted, I remember around the time when I first met you in-game as well. I forget how old you were, maybe a teenager or something, but I recall your ping was horrendous, like hovering around 300, and you were mostly focused on jump maps and jump tricks at that time. I guess times and connections have changed as you're a pretty darn good dueler these days, from what I understand.

28

Quake / Thank you, quadz!

« on: September 02, 2018, 04:37:12 PM »

I'm feeling very appreciative right now. When did the tastyspleen servers originally go online?

I took a break from playing Quake 2 at some point in 2011 or 2012, I believe, and came back for a bit, earlier this year. Around March, I was caught off guard in finding myself somehow interested in playing Q2 again. It was so nice to see that, even after being gone for 6+ years, the tastyspleen servers are still alive, and there still seems to be a reasonably-healthy playerbase playing daily.

I want to say thank you to quadz for everything you do to keep these servers up and running, and for free (to the players) no less. I've gotten so much enjoyment playing Quake 2 over the years, and a huge aspect of that has been the accessibility of the tastyspleen servers. I really can't say thank you enough.

Have you ever thought about making a little blurb on the history of these servers? For a game nearly 21 years old at this point, it would be kinda cool to have just a small bit of info about this server (when it started, if it was thought it would still be around after all these years at that point, where it's located, something about the community, etc.), as it might just be the most-active community in all of Quake 2 that's still around. I'd have to think that's true, at least for non CTF or Action Q2 (if those mods are still alive and well).

29

Trouble Shooting / Re: When does "smack talk" go too far?

« on: August 24, 2018, 03:51:53 PM »

Ah, I understand. I thought you were saying that just his smack talk was turning people away. I didn't understand that he was actually encouraging people to leave, and it was because he apparently had them also believing that you were cheating (if he even actually believes that). Yeah, I suppose that's much more problematic than someone merely saying annoying things that one could simply ignore with a little effort (which is what it initially sounded like to me).

30

Trouble Shooting / Re: When does "smack talk" go too far?

« on: August 24, 2018, 02:40:09 AM »

He seems to be driving people off the server with that kind of talk.

Is this a sure thing, or mostly an assumption?

He (or anybody else) has never really bothered me with talk like that. The only time I care if someone says I'm cheating, hacking, or whatever, is if an admin gets involved (or someone that can actually do something about my 'cheating'), and seems to want to take action. I kinda think people like him add personality to the game. There are people in game that are caricatures of sorts (like Hemroyd). They're not the type to ever actually get involved in/with the community (join the forums, interact here, etc.), so it's unlikely anyone is ever going to get to know them on a personal level. I kinda see it as them adding flavor to the game.