Posts by BenWilson
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grats. Now you just have to do it all over for every class, , for each talent tree, and every combination thereof, for each faction. Don't forget to have at least one toon with who has maxed out each profession. Or you can play the 'end game', one of Blizzard's biggest misappropriations of a word ever.
Personally, I started playing the end game too early to every be able to get that final magic ding. I could see that it was only the beginning, and that frightened me off. In my particular end-game, I was usually up against twinks. The reality of that was rather scary.
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@Simon Grigg, I'm pleased to hear that about BKK. Last time I was there, 2000, the pollution level was astonishing. Every time I blew my nose, the tissue was black. Every time I went for a ride on my scooter, I needed a shower to get all the soot off my arms. In fact, one day when it was really sunny, and I could feel sunburn coming on, I got some lovely white sunblock, put it on, and I actually went grey. It was very disconcerting not to be able to navigate by landmarks because they could not be seen if you were more than a block from them, and just as disconcerting not to be able to see the top of some buildings at all, they were too high up in the smog.
The mass transit system was fairly new then, and not much used. It seemed bizarre to me that the family I stayed with drove up to 20km into town every day right underneath a monolithic motorway and rail system, trapped in the chaos and delays below. I kept pointing to the motorway on-ramps and they'd just smile and wave and carry on. I offered to pay the tolls, but they still wouldn't do it. I could never decide if it was really that they felt it would be cheating and would deny me the right to enjoy a truly authentic BKK experience. A couple of times I used the train system, and the Thais I was with seemed to regard is as akin to a Disneyland ride, something to be enjoyed very occasionally as a novelty. Certainly it was like stepping into a different world, from the hot, crowded, noisy, smoky streets crammed with every conceivable form of transport, right into some sterile cool, restful, efficient, almost alien environment. Perhaps that was what the Thais didn't like about it (then, don't know about now).
BKK's ability to turn this situation around quickly is mostly good. I say mostly because of the flip side, it could tempt others to delay such efforts, if they have such quick payoff.
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First rule of ITF, what goes offline, stays offline.
Second rule is you don't talk about ITF.
Third rule is, respect the tapout.
Fourth rule of ITF, if it's your first time, you have to F. -
So that's why the dykes in the Netherlands are always stoned. They were bored by tasty worms.
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Modern sailors drink coffee, and sneak up on sleeping whales only to capture them digitally? Shiver me timbers. I guess I should leave the chewing tobacco at home...
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I'm up for salty yarns in the New Year, winds and tides willing.
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heh Steve. You going to be there? Were you going to be before you read my rave?
Here's a reason to come. When I met Steve Barnes, I mentally confused him with you. It's only since I met him that I can remember the difference. You should meet him, if you haven't already, I think there's a similarity in your thinking about art. Actually, meeting him encouraged quite a few things that have been pretty enjoyable. I saw the way he used a netbook and thought it was pretty cool, and have upgraded my entire entertainment system, putting a bit more care into it than I have to date, and am now using a netbook a lot. It's waaaay less isolating than working at a desk.
Also, I have begun a whole raft of crafts (Barnes is hand-crafty, and underrates his word craftiness, IMHO), inspired by Gio's post on cooking with his daughter. It's taken my level of connection with my son to new levels. I realized that I've overintellectualized most of my time with him, that doing simple tasks together in real, useful or beautiful or healthful acts of creativity is something that he connects with effortlessly. He loves it, copies me all the time, and I try to incorporate the teachings of our various therapists directly into those tasks, pushing his boundaries all the time.
For instance, he insists on watering the garden most days, so I went for slightly harder path of refilling the watering can, slighty more every day, in preference with the intellectually harder task of operating the hose, which I think is likely only to distract him. Carrying it to garden, across grass, up a step, are all tasks I know that he finds challenging. But the watezring was very rewarding to him, highly motivating, so he stuck at it, stubbornly, gets better at it every day. When he finally gets tired of that, I put a bucket of water there for him to use his little toy watering can with, a fantastic bend and extend exercise, with endless reps. When he gets tired of this, I draw on the ground with chalk, usually under his direction. I'm getting better at this drawing, paying attention to letting him see how I do it, talking about the strokes involved, in drawing, say, a hopscotch. Then I jump on it, to see if I can get him to do this, as a standing jump is a real power and confidence builder. He did his first one the other day (that I saw, I notice that he secretly practices these things a lot, perhaps hoping to suprise me, or maybe wishing just to explore without direction). I see this kind of engagement as an art, something occupational therapists engage in every day, and seek to teach to parents like me. Some learn it, and the therapists get a real kick out of that, feeling engaged with, trusted, flattered, and of course they get to see the results, report on them etc. Especially when you trust them on the 'hard calls', the interventions. They advised us at one point to take all of his books away, something that seemed highly counterintuitive, because he loved books, and would read them all the time. But they saw that he was not reading them 'constructively', and suggested that he should not be allowed near them without supervision that they were encouraging obsessive behaviour that was hampering his ability to develop. Against my own judgment, we did this, and it worked. Big time. This is when your realize the difference between professionals and amateurs.
It's not my professional art. If you want to hear more about that, another reason to come to the party. I want to hear more about the boat.
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Interested to hear how many people actually have done what steven is suggesting, who didn't already met at a function. It's a good idea, for sure, but functions do make it easy. You don't have to specifically pick who you might like, or commit to any particular amount of time with them. I'm struggling to convey the idea, in my own case, that one could talk to me about things I write in PA, as an icebreaker. Most likely, I doubt I'll be talking about any of it, or be readily identified by the way I talk, from the way I write, unless you paid particularly close attention, something I really don't expect. The interior monologue and the hypnosis were pretty much jokes about the way people can talk themselves into and out of things. Or at least I can. It's symptomatic of taking myself too seriously, and I hope to lose that.
For the record, my expectation from everything I've heard and read is that you'll be nice people, who I will get on with quickly because I already feel like I know half of you anyway, I'll remember your names because I already know them, and it will be interesting and fun, if only because of the surreality of that odd fact, a fact that is mostly of my own making. I've avoided trying to find out what you look like for a long time, on the experimental idea that I could talk to your avatars more rationally if I didn't have the prejudices that looks can sometimes give. But it's an experiment with a negative result, I've found that it doesn't increase the ability to talk rationally much at all, it detracts. It definitely makes it harder to remember you, to understand you, to engage with your thought processes, to small talk, and it can encourage fights. The wrong kind of fights, strawman fights, the disconnected fights you have with people who are on the other side of glass, or heard through a wall, or are in another car, or speak another language, or are on the other end of the phone. Now I'm going to try the other theory, that if I do meet a fair sampling, my experience here will improve. Optimistic.
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The most charitable thing I can say about dubmuggas comment is that it was a joke in extremely poor taste, so poor it wasn't even clear if it was a joke. Without charity, it looks even worse, it looks like a nasty troll, directed mostly at the girls. Honeymoon was over long ago as far as I can see, so no reason to extend charity.
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Thanks Sophie. That's a nice thought and a good question.
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