Messages

76

General Discussion / SHIT!

« on: 2001-09-14 18:09:00 »

Just to add on to what Seph said:  Yeah, America has screwed up in a lot of instances.  We followed the European model of colonialism and stuck our noses in a lot of people's business-Central America, Asia, the Phillipines, South America, Europe, Africa, and the Middle East-and in a lot of cases, we got burned.  This was coming, a long time coming, and we should have known our actions would bring this.  How does the saying go?  You've made your bed, now you have to lay in it.  But America *has* done a world of good as well, and at a time when no one over here feels very good about anything, that little circular that Seph posted helped to pick up the spirits a bit-It even made it to the national news last night.  We're all too aware of our shortcomings at this point in time.  

Fice:  It's going to be difficult.  More difficult than anything we've ever undertaken.  An invisible, un-named enemy, one that uses human shields and cryptic threats.  But think about this-was the task any more formidable in WW2?  America wasn't the "Superpower" that she is now-what did those people feel?  To fight an entrenched, veteran German and Japanese army with untested green troops-hell, it took years just to build up the materials necessary to fight.  I'm sure there were a lot of nay-sayers then as well.  It took the whole country to come together-food was rationed, as well as certain metals and rubber-all to help the war effort.  Everyone-little kids even-hunted for scrap to recycle.  I think (hope?)  we're all aware of what we are up against.  There's a lot of chest-thumping going on, bluster and bravado, and some of it's a natural reaction from people.  I don't know-I guess what I'm saying is just because it's hard-hell, almost impossible, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try.  And even if you fail, I think that there's something good and noble in that.

77

General Discussion / SHIT!

« on: 2001-09-13 18:52:00 »

Sepiroth 3d:  Well said.  We're entering new territory here, and none of know where to go with it.  Again, the fact that we have yet to retaliate shows our collective restraint-and though we may clamor for justice (or vengence) out of frustration, I think our leaders are smart enough not just to lash out at the first thing that comes along.  The 'talking heads' on TV are saying we'll probobly go into a war-time economy, and that may bring us out of a recession-too bad it happens for all the wrong reasons.  War is not something we should want, or hope for, or ever have to experience.  But if necessary-if we wish to continue in our free and open society, we must rise to the occasion and defend it. (christ, I sound like a politician)

and finally, a qoute:

"It is well that war is so terrible, lest we grow too fond of it." - Robert E. Lee

78

General Discussion / SHIT!

« on: 2001-09-12 23:22:00 »

I know in our own Civil War, The North used  what they referred to at the time as 'total war'-and though Yankee soldiers didn't go around shooting women and children, they did burn homes, destroyed crops and livestock, basically starved the civilian populace (I believed they called the Shenendoah valley a 'wasteland').  In effect, civilians suffered as much as the armies did, if not more.  Lee's army; deprived of it's breadbasket, of new recruits willing to continue the fight, and without the backing of a people willing (or able) to continue to fight eventually just crumbled.

It's a horrible thought, but this would probobly be the only way to win something like this-if it was to come to war with a country, not just a terrorist group.  If you deprive them of the methods and materials of war, they cannot make war-or something like that.

How carefully did we choose targets when we bombed Germany in the second world war?  You aim for targets, military targets, but weren't civilians targets as well-in a more indirect (or maybe direct-I've never studied WW2 that closely) fashion?  And with the two atomic bombs dropped on Japan, how many civilians died there-too many to count?

Bush said last night that countries who harbor terrorist will be targets just as much as the terrorists themselves.

I'm just numb from watching all this.  If we go to war over this, I hope we are prepared to do what it takes to win...

and may God have mercy on our souls.

79

General Discussion / programming???

« on: 2001-09-11 06:37:00 »

All bow to the first great binary programmer!  
How he hath bettered our very existence!
How he hath - er - ah, done good stuff for us!

*hmph*  I couldn't imagine trying to do that-just getting used to school after being out 8 years is bad enough.

80

General Discussion / programming???

« on: 2001-09-08 17:30:00 »

Alhexx:  You ain't the only one!  

81

General Discussion / programming???

« on: 2001-09-03 07:41:00 »

Thanks for the dynamite responses, guys-you've really helped a lot.

I'll probobly go ahead and enroll in a C course next semester-my uni (as ya'll lovingly refer to it) says I have to take it before I move on to C++.     Oh, well, I can always buy the book and study ahead...

http://www.pvcc.cc.va.us/" TARGET=_blank>This place  doesn't offer a ton of courses, but will get me by until I can move on to a "regular" university.  (these places are rather expensive, aren't they?)

Fice:  Sorry, no Delphi courses where I'm at-but that doesn't mean I'll not try it out, either.  I think I might have a disk here with an older version of Delphi on it.

Hey eerrrr, you ready to do some studying?

82

General Discussion / programming???

« on: 2001-08-31 19:39:00 »

Visual basic is an option as well, but I know what you mean about the *ahem* venom dripping and flaming arrows when you mention it    that's why I didn't bring it up before.  

83

General Discussion / programming???

« on: 2001-08-31 18:42:00 »

Okay, so since I got canned last month, I've went back to my (previous) and whoop-de-doo, it still sucks.  So I've went back to school (community college, so I can take night courses) and I'm out for something.  Not quite sure what I'll do yet, but something related to computers.  Now here's the rub.

Since I had to take some prerequisite courses before I could dive into the 'meat' of what (I think) I'll need, I had an extra class I could take to fill things up.  Soooo, I took one in BASIC programming.  So far, it's pretty cool, and I'd think I'd like to take some more programming classes in the future.  So here's my question:

If I do go farther than this with it, where should I go next?  C?  Java?  Are they all pretty much related on most of the basic concepts?  I know you can't decide for me, but I'd just like some of your opinions...

84

General Discussion / kinda silly question...

« on: 2001-08-31 18:09:00 »

I had always wondered about Adel from 8 myself-Maybe something got lost in the translation?

85

General Discussion / Question about FF8

« on: 2001-08-20 02:11:00 »

Hey, I forgot chronicles is for sale now-hmmm...got a birthday coming up too...Nah, I'll just go get it now!

86

General Discussion / Question about FF8

« on: 2001-08-19 21:34:00 »

I should have replied before reading both of those threads.  I had seen them both before, but it's always nice to read such a good discussion again-now my brain is all mushy...

When I first started playing ff8, I hated it.  I compared everything to 7, hated the layout, the characters, junctioning, drawing magic, and thought the story was crap.  Finally, I stopped late in disc one, because I was ruining the game and story for myself.  I dropped back, started over and let the game stand on it's own legs.  And now, it's my favorite (I've played 4, 7, 8 and 9).  The story is just more well, subtle, and you have to pay attention to get the most out of it.  I love 7 to death, but for other reasons.  9, well 9 is just 9.  A nice little story, really-but I never could make the personal connection to it that I did with 7 and 8.  I just couldn't get into it.  I really should find 4 on the web to emulate once again-man, it's been a long time.

87

General Discussion / Question about FF8

« on: 2001-08-18 06:48:00 »

Somewhere on disc three, I believe?  When Laguna, Kiros and Ward are on the Ragnarok with you-after he (laguna) gives his big speech, you leave the room-when you go back, one of them say something about you looking like your mother, the other says something else like that, and Laguna says something like "I guess we got a lot to talk about?"  I can't quite remember, but it is rather vauge.

88

General Discussion / Places on Earth that remind you of FF7 and FF8

« on: 2001-08-18 07:27:00 »

Hmmmm...I'm only about an hour west of Richmond-Yeah, I can see it, kinda in the low, rolling hills of central va...Only been to U of R once, so didn't really see enough to make any connections there-Oh, I had been partaking of some "adult beverages" as well, so that may not help the memories of the place.  

89

General Discussion / FF7 - The True History- Submissions

« on: 2001-08-24 19:23:00 »

Hey, Skillster-I dropped my tryout in your box.  

I sent it as a plain-text attachment, hope that's okay.

90

General Discussion / FF7 - The True History- Submissions

« on: 2001-08-18 07:36:00 »

Yes, do tell...  Is "The True History" a working title for the remake?

91

General Discussion / Dust and your pc. (Well, MY pc, to be more precise.)

« on: 2001-08-15 18:15:00 »

I don't know that decrepit old men have anything to do with us not converting over to the metric system whole hog yet.  It's likely because of two things-first, it's a logistical nightmare.  Take for example the navy-now, I worked for the defense department for 4 years, and spent plenty of time in the drawing rooms looking at microfiche plans.  One submarine might have, say, several thousand sets of drawings that apply to the systems and subsystems of the ship.  Who's going to go back and change all those drawings?  The answer is, they're not.  They'll build new ships and equipment in metric, and draw plans accordingly.  It'll all have to be slowly converted over.  And working on subs is dangerous business, because you make an error and then you have another Kursk-no one wants that.  On the other end of the spectrum you have the automotive industry, which has totally converted to metric since the mid-eighties.  And that brings up the second point-I don't think Americans as a whole are totally ready to change.  Since I lost my job, I've went back to selling auto parts for a national retail chain.  And guess what.  I hear people complain, both young and old, about having to buy metric tools to work on newer and/or import cars.  Lots of people.  I just don't think the mentality is set for it yet.  And unless we push, your not going to hear anybody stump to convert, republican or democrat.  If it was a big democratic issue, don't you think Bill Clinton would have pushed it through in his first two years in office, when he had a democratic congress to back him?  We're getting there, we need to be there, but I wouldn't hold yer breath, bub.

Sorry about being so long-winded!

92

General Discussion / You can learn a lot from reading history!

« on: 2001-08-12 07:18:00 »

Ouch!  Man, you should frame that one.  All that, and Qhimm in a singing post as well.  Hmph.

93

General Discussion / You can learn a lot from reading history!

« on: 2001-08-12 06:01:00 »

You've piqued my interest.  Exactly _what_thread might she be referring to?  

(I don't think I've ever seen an angry post from Jari-ought to be interesting...)

94

General Discussion / Here's Another Idea!

« on: 2001-08-12 05:51:00 »

nothin' fancy down here.

  http://www.polykarbon.com" TARGET=_blank>Polykarbon    Lotsa stuff on art, mostly anime based.
   http://www.geocities.com/king_nozmo/home.html" TARGET=_blank>Tea Time in Elenore City    A Dirty Pair Anime/Comix site.  One of my favorite Anime series.
   http://www.sutic.nu/blade/" TARGET=_blank>Blade of the Immortal     About the kick-butt Manga series.
   http://www.theforce.net/" TARGET=_blank>The Force.net     Good site for Star Wars junkies.  Sorry, but I have to rant for a moment.  "Attack of the Clones?"  Is that the best George Lucas could do?  First Jar-Jar, and now this?  Jeez.
   http://www.theregister.co.uk" TARGET=_blank>The Register    IT news site.

There's more, but they're just to damn boring to post.

*double edit* Oh, man-I just saw Jari's post and how could I forget?  
  http://cdc.keenspace.com" TARGET=_blank>Life on Forbez   Hasn't seen an update in forever, but read the archives-keenspace rocks...

[This message has been edited by chowderhead (edited August 12, 2001).]

[This message has been edited by chowderhead (edited August 12, 2001).]

95

General Discussion / To Yuna, Edeas and all the newbies

« on: 2001-08-21 07:29:00 »

I don't think we have anyone from Japan here do we?  

96

General Discussion / What is Spamming?

« on: 2001-08-13 06:09:00 »

I've not been able to see as many episodes as I'd like, but from what I've seen, Faulty Towers is pretty good.  My wife and I are hooked on the "Sunday Night Brit-Coms" which comes on locally here, with Keeping up appearances and Are you being served?.  Good stuff.

"Yes Mrs. Bucket"    "It's Boo-kay!"

97

General Discussion / What is Spamming?

« on: 2001-08-10 18:09:00 »

Maybe it's something automatic for him now, like the error check on the end of a data packet.  Makes sure everything's as it should, you know.

98

General Discussion / Here's an Idea

« on: 2001-08-09 21:19:00 »

must...not...look...at...guns...no...money...to...buy...more...

Shooting high powered weaponry is loads of fun, and out here in the boonies, it's not much of a hassle.  Although I've never had the pleasure of shouldering something quite so large...

Jari, is private ownership of guns legal in Finland?

*edit* stupid italics.

[This message has been edited by chowderhead (edited August 09, 2001).]

99

General Discussion / Here's an Idea

« on: 2001-08-08 17:55:00 »

I think it's a mine.  Or a great big hemorrhoid. Or, well, nevermind.

100

General Discussion / Here's an Idea

« on: 2001-08-08 17:49:00 »

Hey, all you gotta do to see Caddberry is right-click over the link, copy the shortcut and paste it in your address bar.  Why does it work that way?  Cause it's that @$*#&!% Geocities!

And I'm not happy at the office.  That's my "Okay, you can take one picture whilst I grin like a great big idiot.  You take another and I'll shove that thing so far up your butt we'll have to pull it out your ears to develop the film!" look.