Reveilled

♫My PC's Dead I once had a PC, but I didn't know how to use it, and everywhere I'd go, people would IM me, where I was? I'd say "in an internet cafe," "Where is your PC?", they'd ask me, So I tell them all, it's dead. I'd say it's my graphics card, Or that my hard drive's charred, Or a little script kiddie broke into it, and formatted C: I don't wanna talk about it, But someone always asks about it, So I tell them all, it's dead. I guess there's a part of me, embarrassed 'bout illiteracy, or the fact that I can't write an email when I'm thirty-three I don't wanna talk about it, But someone always asks about it, So I tell them all, it's dead. My PC's dead you see, It's a total lie but it's easier on me Than having to admit I don't know how to turn it on. My PC's dead you know, Please change the subject or I am going to go block your screenname and talk to someone else. I don't wanna talk about it, But someone always asks about it, So I tell them all, it's dead. I once had a PC, but then one day I broke it, and everywhere I'd go, people would IM me, where I was? I'd say "in an internet cafe," "Where is your PC?", they'd ask me, So I tell them all, it's dead. I don't wanna talk about it, But someone always asks about it, So I tell them all, it's dead.♪ :D

I saw a graphic novel in Borders last night called Superman: True Brit. It was even co-written by John Cleese. Sadly, I didn't have the money to buy it and the other books I was getting at the time, but I am most definitely going to go back into town to buy it this week. I must say, though, that I will be very disappointed if there is not at least some reference to Bicycle Repairman, especially since one of the "wonders" of the British Empire depicted in the opening pages was people slapping each other with fish.

Y'know, if Paris Hilton was poor and not famous, making fun of her for her mental deficiencies would be considered mean and shallow. I doubt that she can help having low intelligence. It's not like its her fault. Nor could she help being born into wealth. Some people just aren't lucky enough to be so naturally gifted with intelligence that many of us are. Doesn't she deserve to find love as much as any of us?

I think it depends if you are talking about one to use or keep. Personally, she so stupid, I wouldn't screw her with your genitalia, unless you had just been infected with a particularly virulent and deadly strain of gonorrhea. You might have different standards. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> *shrug* Sure, she might be stupid, but in the impossible yet hypothetical situation where I was in a relationship with her, I could always just get that from my friends. Get up in the morning, have sex with Paris, go to work (which would consist of me going on popular interview shows as "Paris Hilton's boyfriend"), come home, have sex with Paris, go out with my friends and have intelligent conversation, come home, have sex with Paris, go to sleep. Several months later, sell a sex tape to the News of the World, write a book titled In Paris, and retire at 22, a enormously wealthy man. I dunno about you, but that sounds like the perfect relationship to me.

Origianlly, Superman could be injured (and I assume killed) by an exploding artillery shell. I think that had I been alive back when the first comics were being written, I might have quite liked superman comics. But as Ender said, things like his complete selflessness make him generally unbelieveable as a person the reader can ideantify with. Even in Red Son (which I confess I have not read, and am going on a synopsis and a few reviews), superman is ultimately an actual selfless communist, despite the fact that everyone else in the Soviet Union with any significant power was corrupt and evil. . In fact, the Supermans (men?) which I like the most are the ones that the Usenet group soc.history.what-if dreamt up, like Ubermensch and Superjew. :D

I don't know what everyone's got against Paris Hilton. I mean, she's beautiful, loose, and rich. What more could you possibly want in a woman?

Yep, Civ 2 was a better game, imo (I haven't played Alpha Centauri, so perhaps that is better than Civ2: certainly it sounds better than Civ3). Oh, it is. It is. SMAC is the best strategy game in the history of the universe. It is, quite simply, "t3h roxxor". With a workshop for in-game customised units (want settlers that move two spaces a turn? Just give the settlers a rover chassis! Want them to be able to paradrop? Just add that special ability!), three dimensional terrain, a coherent storyline, voicelines regarding each technology that play when you discover them, and much more in depth governmental model with many customisable options, SMAC is everything one could ever want. "the Academician's private residences shall remain off-limits to the genetic inspectors. We possess no retroviral capability, we are not researching retroviral engineering, and we will not allow this council to violate faction priviledges in the name of this ridiculous witch-hunt!" -Fedor Petrov, Vice Provost of University Affairs [played when you discover Retroviral Engineering] Classic.

I went to my Grandparents' house after school, and with there only being one TV, I watched Countdown and 15 to 1 instead of the usual kids programs. Richard Whitely was a nice, friendly guy. TV won't be the same without him.

Sigh. We are not disputing that the Government recognised Jedi Knight. We are disputing what it was recognised as. As to establishing terms, both Steve and I are using the terms "religion" and "religious organisation" to mean different things. You are using them to both mean the same thing. There is no process to be recognised as a religion. There is a process to be recognised as a religious organisation. This is the same as the difference between a political philosophy and a political party. The government does not recognise the existence of the former, but does the latter.

The first face on Channel 4 is dead at 61. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/t...dio/4625347.stm

people wrote "Jedi Knight" in the space below, and due to the circulatory email prior to the census, the Census office expected a lot of people to write "Jedi Knight" and so gave "Jedi Knight" its own output code so that the census could be processed faster, and be more specific in the data it returned.

Those are poor analogies. France isn't an answer to the question given. Candles aren't a type of lightbulb. However, there are individuals in the world who truly and honestly treat the Jedi Knights as a religion, and the individuals who answered Jedi on the census were answering the question with a religion, regardless of whether or not they did so under false pretenses. And government officials did say they "recognized" Jedi as a religion on the census. Thusly, it is fair to see they officially recognized the religion, as far as a government will recognize one, which is simply on the census. Your latest arguement is that their answer was absurd and not appropriate as a response. If that's the case, then Raelianism should be discounted as well, and sadly that is recognized as a religion. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> You are putting words in my mouth, as well as cutting parts out of my answers wholesale. Is "none" a religion? Is "Atheism" a religion? Both got their own codes in exactly the same way "Jedi Knight" did. Their answer was not absurd or inappropriate. Their answer was a perfectly normal and valid one, and I believe that many people honestly consider themselves to be Jedi Knights. But the fact that they gave that answer in sufficient numbers to warrant a code does not mean that the government recognises it as a religion. The fact that so many people answered with a variation of "Christian" to warrant one hundred and twenty codes does not mean that the government recognises Christianity as a religion. All it means is that it was considered an answer to the question that might be given in large numbers. Finally, Raelianism did not get its own code, so even by your own definition Raelianism is not recognised as a religion.

No, no, no. They did not recognise it as a religion. They recognised it as an answer to the question. That is all. Look, code 896 for commisioned output is "Jedi Knight". Code 899 is "None". Tell me, please, in making "None" a valid answer on the form, has the British government recognised "None" as a religion? Is None a religion? How about "Atheist"? That's code 898. Is Atheism a religion? If they asked what sort of lightbulb you had in your living room, and ten thousand people wrote "I have candles", a sufficient number to warrant its own output code, would "Candles" be a recognised kind of lightbulb? If ten thousand people wrote "France" in answer to the question "How many people live in your house?", would France be a recognised number? I am not denying that some people might consider themselves Jedi Knights. it's not my place to tell them wrong. But the government did not recognise it as a religion. maybe it should have, but it didn't.

But the census isn't the means for recognising religions by the government! And you know why? Because the British government does not recognise religions! Full stop! it doesn't. It really, really just doesn't. Honest. It doesn't. The fact is, before the last census, you weren't even asked about your religion. Jedi is no more recognised by the government as a religion than Christianity is. Christianity is, however, recognised as an "organised religion". A special kind of organisation that requires the organisation to file its existence with the government, just like a charity, a corporation, a youth group, a political party or any other sort of organisation you care to mention. If Jedi wishes to be recognised as an organised religion, then it can file a request with the government.

So they officially recognized it on the census, but they're not officially recognizing it? Again, at what point does the government tell people that their religion isn't real and doesn't count? Can't we do this to the Raelian cult? ( http://www.rael.org/ ) Can't we do this to Scientoligists, Christian Scientists, or any number of new religions that sprung up within the past 50 years? Hell, why don't we go so far as to not recognize any religion other than the 5 big ones? If enough people say that they truly believe in the Force, who is really to say they don't? <{POST_SNAPBACK}> No one is saying they really don't. The government doesn't offically recognise religions at all. It's a code on the census, just like "Other Christian", "Catholic", "Anglican", "Druidism", "Hinduism" and so on. That's all. With regard to the census, Jedi has the same status as any of them: that of a code for easy categorisation of the data. In terms of being recognised as a religion, Jedi has exactly the same status as any of the above: none at all. However, what the government does do is recognise certain organisations as "organised religions". Organised religions get special tax breaks and other benefits. Being an organised religion clearly does have a higher standard of proof than that of merely being a religion. In order to be an organised religion, you have to, among other things, have a specific structure of internal government that actually exists, you have to have centralised places of worship, and I believe you also have to hold ceremonies. Jedi is not an organised religion because it does not do any of these things. If it did, and it could prove it, then it would indeed be recognised as an organised religion by the government. Until then, the census lists those people who claim to be Jedi, just as it lists those people who claim to be Anglican, Catholic, Buddhist or Jewish. The situation is no different with politics. The government doesn't recognise Conservative, Social Democrat, or Libertarian as political philosophies, but it recognises The Cnservative Party and the Labour Party as political parties. The fact that it doesn't recognise the Libertarian Party as a political party doesn't mean it is saying that people who claim to be Libertarian don't actually believe what they say they do, it means that people who claim to be Libertarian don't have a political party. Similarly, the Jedi don't have an organised religion (at least here in the UK), so the government can't recognise it as such. And it can't recognise it as an unorganised religion because the government doesn't do that at all. Oh, and Scientology isn't a joke. Only people who have only heard about it through celebrities believe that. Scientology is neither a joke nor a religion, it is a cult of murderers. Also, Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, Sikhism, and Buddhism. I count a big six.

No, it's not recognised as a religion, it is just a seperate code for processing the census data. Since a lot of people put it on their forms, the cencus office just created an extra statistic in order to better store the census data. It is merely an effort to reduce the number of people they'd be putting into "Other". Since "Other" has a code, is "Other" a religion? "None" has a code too, but would you call "none" a religion? Many forms that ask you for your ethnic background also have an option to the effect of "I prefer not to say". Would you then consider "I prefer not to say" to be an ethnicity? The Government is not recognising that Jedi is a religion. They are recognising that a lot of people claimed it was their religion.

It's not very recent, but the process still seems relatively unknown: Thermal Depolymerisation, preventing food poisoning, and fossil fuels At present, the plant in Carthage produces oil at an uneconomical cost due to the price of turkey waste, but potentially it could solve the problem of fossil fuels in exactly the opposite way environmentalists want: by making them a renewable energy source.

I thought "Nts" was also acceptable in Standard Diplomacy. As is "Eas", "Ems" and "Eme" for the Eastern Mediterranean; As is "Eng" and "Ech" for the English Channel; As is "Lyo" and "GoL" for the Gulf of Lyon; As is "Bot" and "Gob" for the Gulf of Bothnia; As is "Lvp" and "Lpl" for Liverpool; As is "Lvn", "Lvo" and "Lva" for Livonia; As is "Mao", "Mid" and "Mat" for the Mid-Atlantic Ocean; As is "Nao" and "nat" for the North Atlantic Ocean; As is "Nor" and "Nwy" for Norway; As is "Nwg" and "Nrg" for the Norwegian Sea; As is "Tyr", "Tyl" and "Trl" for Tyrolia; As is "Tys", "Tyn" and "Tyh" for the Tyrrhenian Sea; As is "Wes", "Wms" and "Wme" for the Western Mediterranean; etcetera, etcetera... :D <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Whether the move is acceptable is up to the GM, but yes, as long as I can understand your move, and it cannot be interpreted in any other way, I'll see it carried out. I'll accept any abbreviation that meets the above criteria, but I'd ask that you use the abbreviations at the back of the rulebook, that you not use "Nor", that you capitalise bodies of water, and that you use the abbreviations NAO MAO WMS and EMS for the North Atlantic, the Mid Atlantic, and the West and East mediterrainian seas respectively. None of those rules though are compulsory, they just make it easier on me.

Oh...I remember something about that Jordan guy. He had a series called Wheel of Time, right? Where in the last book not only did time not actually progress over the course of its one and a half inch thickness, in some ways it actually moved backwards? And nothing happened in that book other than one character taking a bath? Something like that, anyway. I remember that from a several hundred word long rant on a forum I used to go to. Never read them, though, and I don't think I will.

The only requirements for the writing of orders is that they be unambiguous and valid. Thus, you can write your moves in notation or longhand, though when I email the results to everyone, they will be in notation regardless of how they were submitted. I considered adding the names of the opening moves, but decided that might unfairly influence the tactics of some players. After all, if France is pretending to be allied with England, England might not be too happy if she knew the opening set of moves France had played were commonly called English Attack! Many openings have quite fun names, like the Alpine Chicken (an Italian opening), Hedgehog (Austrian), Octupus (Russian), and the Boston Strangler (Turkish, strangely), but sadly, I can't take the chance. While a poorly written order that has only one meaning has to be followed, it is preferred that you stick to the following rules: 1. Designate the type of unit before the province, e.g. "A Con" or "Army [in] Constantinople". 2. If the order in question involves a unit of another nationality, specify it, e.g. "A Ser S RUSSIAN A Rum-Bul" or "Army [in] Serbia Supports RUSSIAN A [in] Rumania into Bulgaria". 3. If you are deliberately miswriting an order, write "[sic]" at the end of the order. Diplomacy Notation is a lot like Chess Notation: you don't have to learn it to play, but when you've learned it you can be all smug and elitist and talk to all the other geeks in your secret code. :D

I was only joking. I do that sometimes.

No, it can move or support, but not both (underlining mine): "Types of Orders On each turn, each Great power can order all, some, or none of its units to do one of the following:

Whatever happened to the Belgian custard pie thrower? There's a lot of work for him to do out there. I don't think water provides the necessary degree of humiliation. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Nah, instead of us throwing things at Tom Cruise, we should be getting Tom Cruise to throw things...at John Prescott. :D

Tom Cruise is pure evil. He took the very hot Katie Holmes, brainwashed her and converted her to Evilology. For commiting the second worst crime in human history, Tom Cruise will surely burn in hell. :angry:

Younglings, cewekeds. They're called younglings.