While We Wait: Part 4

[LightFang]

I didn't know you could talk to them. I thought it was more of them just yelling at you.

I don't have an xBox.

I would however, be interested in appropriating my sister's Wii and playing some games. We don't have that many, but perhaps some of you have Brawl.

 

[Symphony D.]

I didn't know you could talk to them. I thought it was more of them just yelling at you.

Oh, no, you can. The best way of shutting somebody down generally involves schooling them on trash-talk (since most of them just repeat the same phrase over and over). Alternately, if they try and talk over you while doing this, just flood the channel with white noise (hold a flat tone, karaoke, whatever strikes your fancy), since most of them are too stupid to bother muting you. Similarly, with teabaggers, don't teabag them back, just shoot the crap out of their corpse, punch it, or blow it up with a frag grenade.

You'll meet some decent people now and then and have a civilized game, but more often you meet a bunch of people who are jackasses first, and then it's quite alright to treat them like garbage. Fake accents are a double-plus. British works well--Redneck seems too plausible.

 

[Chandrasekhar]

Alternately, if they try and talk over you while doing this, just flood the channel with white noise (hold a flat tone, karaoke, whatever strikes your fancy), since most of them are too stupid to bother muting you.

Karaoke Rickroll works well, I find.

Fake accents are a double-plus. British works well--Redneck seems too plausible.

A heavily accented Rickroll is, of course, even better.

 

[Dachs]

Rickroll

One of the student speakers at my graduation actually did that to us. It was the end of his speech - a speech that involved him referring to a retiring member of the US House of Representatives, the guy who gave the commencement address, as his "opening act" - a speech that featured lyrics from a song by Ernie from Sesame Street - a speech that opened with the line, "Am I on the Jumbotron? Yeah, I'm on the Jumbotron."

Yeah. Interesting night.

 

[flyingchicken]

I'm not well-read, and my faulty and highly subjective and selective memory is telling me that whenever a class has to deal with "[great] American literature" the books are almost always set somewhere in the southern U.S.. (Parenthetically--highly redundant, I know--do you add periods after acronyms with dots?)

Does anyone have any comment on this comment?

 

[LightFang]

You don't add periods after acronyms with dots. You live in the U.S.



Speaking of periods, though, I generally use the British style when adding periods to the ends of sentences that end in quotations.

For example: According to Jack Cass, "the manipulation of the economy helped lead to the Tiananmen Square Incident". That's because I figure, if the period's not there in the source, then I shouldn't put it in the quotes, because it's not part of the quote!

 

[mrpwn3r]

I agree Nuke. Go change your damn password and stop your virus from sending me:

http://checkdiz.info
http://nuclearkid.h0stp1cs.info
http://nuclearkid.enjoypics.info
http://www.In-Sane.info !!!
http://nuclearkid.Whats-Poppin.info

 

[Dachs]

I'm not well-read, and my faulty and highly subjective and selective memory is telling me that whenever a class has to deal with "[great] American literature" the books are almost always set somewhere in the southern U.S.. (Parenthetically--highly redundant, I know--do you add periods after acronyms with dots?)

Does anyone have any comment on this comment?

Lessee...Faulkner, Harper Lee, Harriet Beecher Stowe (by which I mean her work Uncle Tom's Cabin), Carson McCullers, Eudora Welty...yeah, that's all Southern. But most Twain isn't by any stretch (Missouri ain't the South, although Virginia is...go figure), and I have yet to see anybody refer to Bret Harte as "Southern" as well. The Catcher in the Rye is a piece of crap book, but if someone ever refers to it as "great American literature", then it wouldn't count either. Nor would In Cold Blood, which isn't actually that bad. Nothing Poe wrote is especially Southern (he lived in Maryland). Fenimore Cooper (who committed a bunch of Offenses that are probably more famous than he is by now) was all up in New York. Washington Irving and Hawthorne were both New England and New York, mostly (that I can remember off the top of my head; Rappucini's Daughter certainly isn't the southern US). Henry James is all about going to Europe. Hemingway usually is set in either Europe or Cuba or someplace that isn't America at all; Jack London is usually up in the Yukon (except for weird random stuff like The Sea Wolf and The Iron Heel); Edith Wharton is all "high society" in New York; Crane's Red Badge of Courage might count, but nobody ever knows where it takes place anyway. And then the two Sinclairs are nowhere near the South.

To sum up: a disproportionate amount of the most often taught lit in American grade school is set in the South; most of what's not isn't. I still think most American "great literature" is terrible, though. Goethe and Mann pound them all into the dust.

You live in the U.S.

Or does he?

 

[das]

I'm not well-read, and my faulty and highly subjective and selective memory is telling me that whenever a class has to deal with "[great] American literature" the books are almost always set somewhere in the southern U.S..

The South and New England+the whereabouts (the latter seems much more popular in Russia, between Poe and Lovecraft, though there are others as well). The rest isn't present quite as often in literature (but a certain other part of USA makes up for it in cinematography).

Missouri ain't the South

It isn't? It seems close enough to me, both geographically and culturally (though it's not Deep South, obviously).

The Catcher in the Rye is a piece of crap book

I strongly agree.

Or does he?

A former US commonwealth is close enough.

 

[bestshot9]

don't forget the great gatsby, that's set in new york. the most boring book i ever read, too. half the time, i had no idea what was going on, probably because i was too bored to actually pay attention to what i was reading and was just going through the motions. they shouldn't teach that book, its just too dull. you wanna get kids to read, have 'em read interesting books. i have to admit, though, i did like to kill a mocking bird, it was simple enough to understand and was fairly entertaining. but mostly, i read non fiction wwii books or sci fi books, like star wars, but i'm getting into the dark tower series right now, about halfway through with the gunslinger, and i gotta admit, its an addicting read.

 

[Masada]

Cormac McCarthy anyone?... wait most his works are set in the south... does Mexico count as the south?

For that matter does anyone have a theory about why there is such a skew in American Literature?

 

[das]

New England and the South have the most local colour and diversity, I think; that and, ofcourse, they were settled first, for the most part, which means that the intellectual elite is going to be there. That doesn't apply as much anymore, but it's enough to explain the 19th century, at least.

 

[Symphony D.]

Logistics Exercise: imagine a NES in which a given entity is controlled by teams of three (3) players. Select a group of 60 NESers (you may wish to check the last Census) and arrange them into 20 teams, each possessing as close to equal aggregate skill or ability as possible to one another, by your estimate.

 

[BananaLee]

The game would certainly have to be relatively simple. Also, a good set of solid and unambiguous rules would be important so the mod doesn't get swamped with questions about rules. On top of that, the game needs to be setup in such a way that it is driven mostly by the players themselves to relieve the mod's workload.
Certain games in other parts of this forum handle slightly smaller numbers of players and are just as fun to play.

 

[Ninja Dude]

That said, does anybody else other than Chandrasekhar routinely play [Halo 3] online?

I play Halo 3 on X-Box Live most days.

And yes there are tons of British and Redneck accents. Usually I just mute everyone and have a quiet game of Swat or something. I did have a burping contest with one guy for a little bit on XBL.

Symphony, what's your highest skill?

 

[Kal'thzar]

Reason mayhap?

 

[Thlayli]

Logistics Exercise: imagine a NES in which a given entity is controlled by teams of three (3) players. Select a group of 60 NESers (you may wish to check the last Census) and arrange them into 20 teams, each possessing as close to equal aggregate skill or ability as possible to one another, by your estimate.

This seems like an oblique approach to ranking, but...would one consider 'playing style' to be equivalent to 'skill or ability'? I know skilled warmongers, empire builders, and skilled diplomats, but players that are amazing at everything are few and far between.

Oh, and I have Brawl, LightFang, and play it pretty regularly.

 

[Abaddon]

I will be getting Brawl very soon

 

[Angst]

All must fear that weird angel dude whom I will play!

 

[Abaddon]

Kirby all the way!

Can we NES: Brawl perhaps?