Randomness

[WarpGirl]

Something Hoshi would give her eye-teeth for! http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39347481/ns ... ?gt1=43001

[Yashida]

As far as the Chinese zodiac goes: I'm year of the dog myself.

I have this interesting book at home comparing and combining both Chinese and Western zodiacs, among other things it gives more detailed descriptions of character traits and such when taking both zodiacs into account. Reading the Dog-Scorpio description was an exercise in being a tiny bit creeped out by the accuracy of said description... but otherwise it was fun, certainly if you go looking up descriptions which fit other members of your family or friends...

[EntAllat]

My neighbor is strumming the guitar and singing.

That would be nice on such a gorgeous day like this except, from the sounds of it, his cat is slowly dying an agonizing, horrible death while being beaten with said guitar.

[Alelou]

Hey, at least he's not really bad at the bagpipes.

[Distracted]

Or even good at the bagpipes. My husband has a CD of bagpipe music and I swear it sounds like a whole sackful of cats being slowly tortured to death.

[Alelou]

Yeah, I know. My father's passionate about what my mother fondly calls "that Scottish shit," so we used to go to the drug and pipe concert down at the Dunedin (FL) Marina every month when I was a kid ... but we'd usually walk way out on the docks to listen to them. Dad definitely thought they were more fun to listen to from a distance.

I have a high tolerance for them myself, as long as they're being played well. Of course the REALLY miserable sack full of cats part is when they're blowing up their bags beforehand...

[Silverbullet]

Dunno, heard that they could drive men Kill crazy and women to a sexual frenzy. Peraps the men waned to kill the Piper and the women wanted to kill him to another way.

I have heard that once Pipers were so honored that it was a major crime to kill one. Who knows. Perhaps rthe Scots are funny that way.

Irish have the Pipes too and Pipers.

[aadarshinah]

My brother sings in one of two ways. Either he will memorize the most inane rap (not because he likes rap, but because memorizing it is hard and it amuses his friends if he can resite them) or he'll make any song into an opera. It's... annoying.

[WarpGirl]

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/39384763/ns ... ?gt1=43001

I'm really not so sure how I feel about this in it's entirety.

However I do know how I feel about this statement...

Recognizing that men and women may perceive situations differently may help the genders to get along

I wonder how much monet this person spent of their education to come up with something so profund! Give me a break I figured that out at 3 years old. Sometimes I wonder if people as a whole are worth it.

Oh this is even better...

"So rather than assuming that your partner can read your mind or read your emotions accurately, you need to communicate to the partner what you're experiencing and from that communication, hopefully a successful reconciliation process can then occur."

YA THINK! People get acclaim and grant money for this? I know the "publish or perish" rule but are humans as a society so beyond any common sense we need studies for this stuff?

However it does make me think of many many ENT episodes where maybe something like this could have done some good. Which pretty much means that the crew is sliding into the dark abyss of a world without any independent thought. Sad.

[WarpGirl]

http://cosmiclog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/20 ... t-for-life
NOW IT'S IN THE RIGHT THREAD!!!!!!!!

[Kevin Thomas Riley]

Genre fiction generator

[Distracted]

I'd read some of that. It's kinda scary, actually. My book doesn't fit, though. So there.

[Yashida]

...

Gallia est omnis divisa in partes tres, quarum unam incolunt Belgae, aliam Aquitani, tertiam qui ipsorum lingua Celtae, nostra Galli appellantur. Hi omnes lingua, institutis, legibus inter se differunt. Gallos ab Aquitanis Garumna flumen, a Belgis Matrona et Sequana dividit. Horum omnium fortissimi sunt Belgae, propterea quod a cultu atque humanitate provinciae longissime absunt, minimeque ad eos mercatores saepe commeant atque ea quae ad effeminandos animos pertinent important, proximique sunt Germanis, qui trans Rhenum incolunt, quibuscum continenter bellum gerunt. Qua de causa Helvetii quoque reliquos Gallos virtute praecedunt, quod fere cotidianis proeliis cum Germanis contendunt, cum aut suis finibus eos prohibent aut ipsi in eorum finibus bellum gerunt. Eorum una pars, quam Gallos obtinere dictum est, initium capit a flumine Rhodano, continetur Garumna flumine, Oceano, finibus Belgarum, attingit etiam ab Sequanis et Helvetiis flumen Rhenum, vergit ad septentriones. Belgae ab extremis Galliae finibus oriuntur, pertinent ad inferiorem partem fluminis Rheni, spectant in septentrionem et orientem solem. Aquitania a Garumna flumine ad Pyrenaeos montes et eam partem Oceani quae est ad Hispaniam pertinet; spectat inter occasum solis et septentriones.


Let's play a game?

Who can find the next paragraph? Or sentence even?

[aadarshinah]

It's Commentarii de Bello Gallico - Ceaser's On the Gallic War. Translated this so many times in high school i know it by heart, praticically. All of Gaul is divided into three parts.... Anyway, here's the next:

Apud Helvetios longe nobilissimus fuit et ditissimus Orgetorix. Is M. Messala, [et P.] M. Pisone consulibus regni cupiditate inductus coniurationem nobilitatis fecit et civitati persuasit ut de finibus suis cum omnibus copiis exirent: perfacile esse, cum virtute omnibus praestarent, totius Galliae imperio potiri. Id hoc facilius iis persuasit, quod undique loci natura Helvetii continentur: una ex parte flumine Rheno latissimo atque altissimo, qui agrum Helvetium a Germanis dividit; altera ex parte monte Iura altissimo, qui est inter Sequanos et Helvetios; tertia lacu Lemanno et flumine Rhodano, qui provinciam nostram ab Helvetiis dividit. His rebus fiebat ut et minus late vagarentur et minus facile finitimis bellum inferre possent; qua ex parte homines bellandi cupidi magno dolore adficiebantur. Pro multitudine autem hominum et pro gloria belli atque fortitudinis angustos se fines habere arbitrabantur, qui in longitudinem milia passuum CCXL, in latitudinem CLXXX patebant.

What do we do now?

[Yashida]

Yay! A fellow Latinist! Studied Ancient Greek and Latin myself in highschool, in other words 'the classic education'. Can't say where the random thought came from to post this.
Thought it might be fun.

So, shall we continue?

A different text though, since now everyone already knows it's de Bello Gallico?

Let's see...

Quo usque tandem abutere, Catilina, patientia nostra? quam diu etiam furor iste tuus nos eludet? quem ad finem sese effrenata iactabit audacia? Nihilne te nocturnum praesidium Palati, nihil urbis vigiliae, nihil timor populi, nihil concursus bonorum omnium, nihil hic munitissimus habendi senatus locus, nihil horum ora voltusque moverunt? Patere tua consilia non sentis, constrictam iam horum omnium scientia teneri coniurationem tuam non vides? Quid proxima, quid superiore nocte egeris, ubi fueris, quos convocaveris, quid consilii ceperis, quem nostrum ignorare arbitraris? [2] O tempora, o mores! Senatus haec intellegit. Consul videt; hic tamen vivit. Vivit? immo vero etiam in senatum venit, fit publici consilii particeps, notat et designat oculis ad caedem unum quemque nostrum. Nos autem fortes viri satis facere rei publicae videmur, si istius furorem ac tela vitemus. Ad mortem te, Catilina, duci iussu consulis iam pridem oportebat, in te conferri pestem, quam tu in nos [omnes iam diu] machinaris.