Nicothodes

Originally Posted By: Actaeon I feel like the issues of covers and sampling could be a thread unto themselves. I cannot for the life of me figure out what makes me either like a cover (like Norah Jones doing Tom Waits) or cringe (like most Beatles covers I've ever heard). I think the most important thing for me in terms of liking a cover is how much the covering artist brings to the song. If they don't add anything to it, there's no point for me to listen to that instead of the original (unless there is an improvement in technical skill or I have a preference for one voice over another). Of course, there's still the subjectivity of liking what the covering artist brought to the original, but that's just general taste in music. Covers I particularly like off the top of my head are Garbage's cover of , Emilie Autumn's cover of Girls Just Want to Have Fun (complete with harpsichord), and Yidcore's cover of the entirety of Fiddler on the Roof as rock/metal, which I can't find on Youtube. Tevye's Dream is their best from that project for those who are interested though.

I used to have a Mac/XP dual boot as well, with no issues. In the end though, I was so lazy about rebooting into Windows, using Wine programs made more sense for me. The only program I needed Windows for was actually an embroidery machine program for my mum, but she was able to get an old Windows machine for it last summer, making even that pointless to have on my computer.

But my problem with saying that they're best left untouched by the "best of the best" is that that makes it taboo to discuss them, because most of the people I've met wouldn't think of themselves that way. Not only that, but all works build on previous ideas, so by eliminating the majority of that, the rise to great work is slowed almost to a halt. And yes, -isms are emotionally charged, but that's why it's important to not attempt to avoid them at all costs. The only way to make things better is to talk about it, and get people thinking about their own beliefs. Being quiet about it and hoping things will change never helped anyone.

Originally Posted By: Actaeon I would love to expand my horizons. Can anyone suggest tolerable Baroque (besides Bach), solid bluegrass, rap that doesn't sample better artists, or any modern jazz that isn't too avant-garde or just dull? I like , Purcell (Dido and Aeneas is the main work I'm familiar with by him), and I remember learning Lully's Gavotte on cello years ago and liking that. I doubt it was originally for cello and have been too lazy to look up Lully in detail. Originally Posted By: Actaeon Covers that totally change the genre amuse me no end. I went to a concert a month ago, where the opening act, which was pretty country/folk-ish, covered Should I Stay or Should I Go, and I would have loved it as a genre-changing cover on its own. Unfortunately, all of their songs sounded exactly the same stylistically, which greatly dulled the impact.

Originally Posted By: grasshopper My initial point was just to check that you did not really believe that games were as real as real life. Following points about how real life -isms should or should not intrude on a escapist gaming environment, or how well implemented they are in Jeff's games I refused to answer: Quote: 1. A full rebuttal would mean disparaging games I have a soft spot for. ...but if you insist: almost all -isms when tackled in games are so badly implemented as to be laughable and immersion breaking. This is true of any form of media. Why shouldn't it be attempted though? The stories that are created in books, movies, and games, are influenced by real life, and these "ivory tower" -isms, as you call them, heavily influence our world and it's only natural that they show up in our entertainment.

Originally Posted By: Erika Maroonmark I'm not finished yet, but I do have some general thoughts: I was always a bit confused by the exact details of the storyline in Exile, because for many years I just played the demo version and tried to discover every little secret, detail, and bit of dialogue in the eastern half of the world that I could. So when I've played the full version, I've often thought "am I supposed to know plot detail X yet?" and had some items before I was really supposed to, and the game didn't do anything to prevent it from happening (e.g. the graymold salve recipe – it's just there, and you don't have to go around tracking down Cortath). This sort of thing was alleviated in Avernum 1, but I never played the whole game. I just finished replaying the original A1 and this sort of thing definitely happened to me there. Really memorable ones were the graymold salve and the priestess in Mertis who wanted multiple side quests' worth of potion ingredients.

The worst insults I've received are really not appropriate for these boards and the ones that would be fine are pretty generic, so I'm skipping that. The best compliment I ever received was 5 years ago, from my grandmother who lived in California. Since she lived so far away, I didn't know her all that well, and she didn't know that I was going through a serious Jacqueline du Pré kick. I had written and recorded a cello piece for my sister's birthday, and my mum sent it along to my grandmother, who said that my playing sounded like du Pré. I tried to brush it off when I heard about it, but my mum said that she was extremely knowledgeable about classical music and not one to give undeserved compliments.

Originally Posted By: Trenton, ruler of spidweb! And why didn't they tell everyone so that they could all come back up before the empire came? It takes a while to plan a full invasion and assault When you find the exit, you have the option of choosing to escape to the surface or going back to tell other Avernites. In the one where you choose to escape, it says that life will be hard because you'll have to avoid being hunted down by the Empire. All of the Avernites leaving would require a full-on invasion of the surface, and, as noted in A2, the real advantages Avernum's army have are 1) being familiar with the caves while the Empire isn't and 2) the Empire can only send limited numbers of troops down. Besides these difficulties, not all Avernites want to leave Avernum. Many characters mention having greater freedom to say what they think in Avernum, which is further emphasised by the people in Bargha, in the Abyss, who find an even greater freedom to their beliefs in a society that does not oppress talk of rebellion.

Thank you!

Also tried google, and I don't feel like playing the entire game again for what, 4-5 pages of text? Especially since I reloaded multiple times on each occurrence and the same thing kept happening. I suspect it's just an issue with the wineskin.

I tried that first. Since it's in wineskin, there's no way to see them that I know of.

I just finished replaying A1 in wineskin form today. Unfortunately, the victory texts for killing Hawthorne and finding the surface glitched and I couldn't read them, no matter how many times I reloaded and tried again. Does anyone have them on hand?

I absolutely detested The Adjustment Bureau, not just for the horribly handled plot (for example, the supernatural elements were very poorly handled and it ended up feeling like a heavy-handed religion plot), but also because I detested the main characters. The only character I felt sorry for never had a line. The female lead had left him because she didn't want to marry him, agreed to marry him a year later, and then abandons him in the courthouse 5 minutes before they do. He doesn't even have any friends or family with him. Poor guy. Paul was very good. I didn't like it as much as Shaun of the Dead or Hot Fuzz, but I'd still watch it again. Source Code frustrated me because of the end. There was an excellent place to end it, a decent, slightly less depressing place to end it, but they kept going and ended the movie on a paradox just because they wanted everyone to live. I really liked The King's Speech, especially since I love when Colin Firth does non-romantic comedy roles. It makes me remember that he is an excellent actor. I think the visuals in Hanna were the only reason to watch it. The plot was all over the place, and it felt like it was going "hey look, we're referencing fairytales, recognise this? aren't we clever? have you worked out where this is from yet? huh? huh?" the whole time. That said, it was very pretty, especially at the beginning. I didn't have much of a problem with the vagueness of the alien in Super 8. The main characters weren't people who would have known about it or been told what was going on, so the hints to the history that I was given were enough for me. I wanted to like Cowboys and Aliens more than I did. It had some really good acting, but the character of Ella was awful, with awful acting. I blame the character's existence for the resulting ridiculousness of the plot. It would have been more interesting if they didn't bring in a different type of alien to explain everything. The Help was a very Hallmark-y look at race relations that ignored the fact that it didn't show the book it was centred around affecting any change, and left many characters in serious danger. 30 Minutes or Less was a movie I really wanted to be good because I loved Zombieland, but it was terrible. I figured out how the whole plot could have been avoided in the first 10 minutes (call the police, explain the situation, and arrange to meet somewhere normal with an officer in plain clothes, done), and the rest of movie was boring and not funny. See Nikki's post for The Inbetweeners. He is right. Also, wow, I watched more movies this year than I thought.

Originally Posted By: Hobbits and Huscarls Many of the people I know who watch TV do so with a minimum of attention paid, even when it's in a commercial-free format. They'll watch while knitting, grading, writing, cooking, or studying. I have to imagine it lessens both the TV comprehension and the output in whatever the second activity is, but it's a way to put things together. As someone who watches TV shows whilst knitting, unless it's a super-complicated pattern where I have to look at a chart constantly, it's not distracting at all. I usually save TV to do whilst knitting because it gives me a story whilst doing a mostly repetitive task, and makes watching TV feel slightly more productive, since I get something tangible out of it.

Originally Posted By: Tyranicus That Johnny Depp rumor is very old and almost certainly baseless. It better be, or I'm never going back to the states.

Johnny Depp as the doctor? No, just no.

Originally Posted By: Master1 Here in my part of Maryland, it seems as though people are afraid to be out of their house unless it's for work or their children's school/sports. When I lived in Maryland, I was afraid to go outside. To be fair though, I think I lived in a more city-ish area, and strangers had a tendency to yell at me when I did. Then I went to uni in a tiny town on top of a mountain, which I liked, and probably would have appreciated more if I knew how to drive/had a car. Now I'm living in a smaller city, and it's definitely my favourite so far. I haven't had any strangers yell at me and it's very pretty.

I have no costume, but I get to meet one of my favourite musicians. Does that count?

One of the things that helped me the most was paying attention to what assignments are really asking for. My first uni had this whole culture of over-achievement, which is great when you have time, but if you're dealing with a full workload, trying to do too much will tend to make your work weaker and stress you out. On the other hand, if you find yourself with a lot of spare time, use it. Do the over-achieving thing if possible in your courses, and/or look into whatever topics interest you further in your spare time. Though keep in mind, this is coming from a hermit with no social life, so feel free to have one of those, too.

I've mainly been in Maryland and Massachusetts. Maybe I've just known a lot more people who mainly drink hard cider and that's their first thought.

We've had different experiences, because I've always had to specify soft cider.

Originally Posted By: Master1 That said, now that fall is here, I'm on an apple cider (soft, for those of you who live where cider implies hard) binge. So...everywhere?

Originally Posted By: Student of Trinity I think it must be a threshold economics thing, where Italians got enough good coffee that they started insisting on it, and anybody selling coffee had to make it good or go out of business. So maybe it will slowly spread around the world. I hope it makes its way to the UK soon. The lower quality of coffee has been the hardest thing to adjust to.

This is the best way to eat lentils ever. Also, it says 2 cups sliced onions, but you want at least twice that because the onions are the best part. 2 tablespoons butter 2 tablespoons olive oil 2 cups sliced onions In a large, heavy-bottomed skillet, heat oil and butter until butter melts. Add onion slices and cook slowly about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally. Increase heat to moderate toward the end of cooking period to brown the slices a little. 1 cup lentils, picked over and rinsed 5 cups water While the onions are cooking, place lentils and water in a large saucepan. Bring to boiling point, cover, and reduce heat. Simmer about 20 minutes. Drain lentils and return to saucepan. 3 cups vegetable stock (or 3 cups chicken stock, or 3 bouillon cubes and 3 cups water) 1/2 cup long grain rice 3/4 teaspoon salt 1 teaspoon ground sumac (or 1 teaspoon ground cumin) 1/4 teaspoon black pepper Add the above ingredients to lentils. Reserve 1/3 cup of the onions and stir the rest into the mixture. Bring to a boil, reduce heat, cover, and simmer about 20 minutes or until the rice is tender. Spread the reserved onions over the top and serve. Note: If you have cooked lentils, rice, and slow-cooked onions on hand, the dish will take only a few minutes. Just combine the cooked ingredients, add the seasonings, and moisten with a little vegetable stock. Place in a greased baking dish and bake in a 350° oven until heated through.

Now I feel more pathetic in thinking "I'm so glad I found SW games because otherwise I wouldn't know any of my friends." I really should have continued on the history kick Nethergate put me on.