Game: Ask the Person Below You

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Originally Posted by Pendragon

As for being vegan if I had to slaughter my own meat, I am a hunter

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I'm not a vegan or vegetarian, but I have slaughtered my own vegetables before, because ethics.

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Originally Posted by Pendragon

Have you ever felt yourself die in a dream?

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I have died in dreams, but I don't remember if I've still been dreaming at the moment of "death".

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Originally Posted by North Star

What are your favourite paper comics?

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I think this one came up recently in another thread, but that was limited to three, which was tough.

Humor: Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, Doonesbury, Zits, Mutts
Serials: Pre-moon Dick Tracy, Caniff's Terry and the Pirates, the first few years of Li'l Abner, Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon

And probably more I'm forgetting.

If you could have the complete recorded works of any one musical genre or style, what would it be?

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Originally Posted by Calidore

I'm not a vegan or vegetarian, but I have slaughtered my own vegetables before, because ethics.
Humor: Peanuts, Calvin & Hobbes, Far Side, Doonesbury, Zits, Mutts
Serials: Pre-moon Dick Tracy, Caniff's Terry and the Pirates, the first few years of Li'l Abner, Alex Raymond's Flash Gordon

If you could have the complete recorded works of any one musical genre or style, what would it be?

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Have you read Richard Thompson's Cul de Sac? A C&H fan will probably like it.

Complete recorded works of any musical genre or style? is 'classical', i.e. Western art music, too wide? But I don't know if I really wanted all of any genre - it's going to be an enormous amount, and at least 50% of it is going to be of below-average quality.

What's the weather like there?

Sunny and warm, year in and year out.

Worst weather you've ever experienced?

Worst weather ever? -35F.

Same question.

Snowstorm and stuck in a car on Grant's Pass in Oregon, I don't know the temperature.

What is the most absent-minded thing you've ever done? 'Cause I just found out that I left the key to the store I work at hanging out the front door for the last twelve hours.

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Originally Posted by Lykren

Sunny and warm, year in and year out.

Worst weather you've ever experienced?

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It snowed here today... quite a bit too.

Worst weather? I dunno, minus 40 celcius, or even lower temperatures.

What's your favourite brand of commercially available pop/soda? Don't give me some hipster ****, microbrewery rootbeer either.

I like Crystal Geyser's lime sparkling water a lot.

Do you drink dark beers?

Coke from the well known brands, although there are two Finnish ones I might prefer. But it all depends on what we're diluting with it. ;)

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Originally Posted by Lykren

Snowstorm and stuck in a car on Grant's Pass in Oregon, I don't know the temperature.

What is the most absent-minded thing you've ever done? 'Cause I just found out that I left the key to the store I work at hanging out the front door for the last twelve hours.

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The most absent-minded thing? I'm not sure how that can be measured, as forgetting to do a part of your routine is the absent-minded thing, and it's extremely unlikely that you'd realize you didn't do it. A rather expensive and recent one, though: separating the keys that I don't need regularly, and then going out with those keys.

E: Yes I do drink dark beers.

Same question.

I love dark beers!

What do you love acquiring other than art?

What do I love acquiring? Hmm. I like good clothes, and shopping for them can be nice. Buying food, too - particularly finding good discounts. But I'd rather starve, or buy cheap food, and wear out my old clothes and buy books and CDs.

Same question, again.

Books and DVD's usually. There are other things I collect, but these are more essential.

Latest book you read?

Life, the Universe and Everything by Douglas Adams. It's the 3rd book in The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy book series.

What is your best childhood memory?

i just finished again to carthage by john parker. its the sequel to his cult classic once a runner.

if we count childhood as pre-adolescence, I cant identify one specific memory as best. rather I have this very deep and abiding sense of having had a great childhood. these grand broad memories of constantly playing, being outdoors, and being with great friends.

is there something (or somethings) from your childhood (physical or otherwise) you wish you still had?

hmm...when I was around 3 years old, I got this Easter egg, which had a miniature figurine of a penguin with a midnight blue coat, and a camera around it's neck. I was very fond of it...but then one day, not long after I received it, it was gone. We searched for it everywhere, but it was no where to be found. I do wish I hadn't lost it. It was so very beautiful. Oh well...

What is your favorite comfort food/drink on a rainy day?

Animal Crackers

Do you sleep on your left, right, stomach, or back?

Side mostly.

What's the best birthday gift you've received?

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Originally Posted by Pompey Bum

Hey Buck. Nope.

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Hi Pompey!

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Originally Posted by Lykren

What's the best birthday gift you've received?

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My sister bought me a Kindle Keyboard a few years ago, I love it because unlike most Kindles/Tablets now, when I use it I don't get disturbed by emails
On the same lines, what was the worst birthday gift you ever received?

Nothing. Everyone forgot that year.

Same question.

I keep birthday presents in the same synaptic file I use for pessimism: never expecting anything good, I've never met a birthday present I didn't like.

What is the stupidest fortune cookie you ever got?

A blank slip of paper. Except lately that's turned out to be pretty accurate.

An ex-girlfriend once got "Say no to drugs", which we both thought was astoundingly lame. Except that one also turned out to be accurate, to my dismay.

What's the most accurate fortune (cookie, horoscope, whatever) you ever got?

Never had one that came close to being accurate, just random saying that could in a broad sense apply to anyone

Do you check your horoscope each day?

No.

Do you get irritated by casual imprecisions in language?

Yes, to varying degrees, and not as much as by causal imprecisions.

Same question.

Bit by bit I am losing my patience.

Do you feel emotionally affected by disasters like the Kathmandu earthquake, assuming you don't know anyone who was nearby and were not there yourself?

Can't say that I do that much. They are often things that can't be helped, and it's better to direct our energies to preventing man-made tragedies, or curing diseases.

What are you most looking forward to from this week?

On Sunday we're having a barbecue for employees at the bookstore I work at, since we're closing. I'm also having coffee with two friends tomorrow, that will be nice.

Same question.

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Originally Posted by Lykren

Do you feel emotionally affected by disasters like the Kathmandu earthquake, assuming you don't know anyone who was nearby and were not there yourself?

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Yes, much more now than when I was younger.

I'm looking forward to reading more Plutarch. I'm really having fun with him.

Will private drones be used for murder or terrorism in the next five years?

now that is a tom Clancy or Jeffery deaver book waiting to be written; I say yes.

does hot air ballooning sound like a good time? would you go?

It looks amazing I would love to!

Do you like bright light and heat, or cool temperatures with dimmer lights.

Also Pomp did you ever see the anime I recommended you in the aye/nay thread?

I know you didn't give this option, but warm temperatures and dim lights. Summer nights in a big city are awesome.

Count me in for ballooning, too. One thing I've never done.

No, I didn't Clopin. Repost the thread if you like, or I can go fish it out myself. I loved the cartoon about Herodotus and Thucydides, by the way.

Would you rather travel to a prosperous but relatively tame place (like London) or a more adventurous place, but with shocking poverty (like Cairo)?

You should skim through the Hark a Vagrant archives if you liked the cartoon, Kate Beaton is a history graduate who just does cartoons about (mostly) historical figures.

And okay I will repost it here.

Oh, and adventurous, but I do plan to get to Europe eventually.

Would you rather own a yaht or a lot of horses, a stable and country to ride in?

Miyazaki for anime films, they are literally all good. Spirited away is his best, but I would also recommend:

My Neighbour Totoro (His most famous movie, cuteness and whimsy mask what is actually a fairly dark premise)
Howl's Moving Castle (Not beloved by critics, but I love the animation and art style, the dub is great too, unfortunately it gets a little preachy)
Princess Mononoke (Beautiful film, overboard on the preach, but that's how Miyazaki is)
Nausicaa of the Valley of Wind (Preach city, but watch the trailer, it's an interesting world with a lot of beautiful animation)

Okay and as for series available on YouTube I would recommend the following.

The Tatami Galaxy
The series has a fun artsy style and the premise is pretty unique. A freshman in college attempts to reinvent himself through clubs, social activities, working out, etc and ultimately fails each time. In every episode he spends his first two years of college chasing a "rose colored campus dream life" and when he fails the clock goes back and he starts over again with something else.

Neon Genesis Evangelion
Giant aliens periodically invade Tokyo III while a secretive defense organization fends them off with... what else but giant cyborgs piloted (reluctantly) by fourteen year old kids. One of the most influential and well known series ever, the plot is complicated beyond belief and the ending is so awful the director received a stream of death threats until he remade it with the film End of Evangelion. A story more about personal struggles with depression, social anxiety, sexual timidity and parental issues than with giant aliens or monsters, he also bankrupted his studio and the last five or so episodes are noticeably marred by poor animation quality and editing.

Legend of the Galactic Heroes
This one might be your jam, a long space opera based on a series of short novels (never translated into English) and one of the most critically acclaimed series of all time. It's politically deep and mulls over a lot of questions about human society, nations, nationalism, how to govern a state, how a democracy should function and why democracy is important among others.

Two factions exist in space, The Galactic Empire, an autocratic state ruled by a Kasier, and the Goldenbaum dynasty which has existed for five hundred years, now on it's last, decadent legs. And The Free Planets Alliance, an offshoot of rebels who escaped the Empire and run a democratic society. These two are fighting a sort of hundred years war, on and off, with no end in sight.

There are two main characters, one from each side, on the FPA you have:

Yang Wenli
A history student who enrolled in the army to pay for school and ends up as the alliance's star admiral and commander of their most successful fleet. He staunchly believes in governing society through democratic rule and refuses every opportunity of power. Pompey you once said that sometimes a democratic society means working hard for change which you know you won't see in your lifetime, so I think you would like Yang, who embodies this principle; if he can't win his war by acting through legal channels as authorized by the constitution written by his country then he doesn't want to win it. A thirty something year old bachelor/slob, who drinks a lot of alcohol and tea, and whose greatest ambition is to come through the war in one piece so he can retire, the character is also funny and charming, and the voice acting is actually brilliant.

And the imperial main character is:

Reinhard Von Musel
An ambitious and talented young man (based very clearly on both Napolean and Alexander the Great) born into a family of destitute nobels. When he was young, his sister (who he has sort of a weird obsession with) was taken as a concubine for the Kaiser and he has sort of borne a grudge ever since. Other incidents in his youth (such as witnessing the rape of a common girl by a nobleman) caused him to further dislike the Goldenbaum dynasty and system of nobility itself. He was promoted on a combination of merit and the favour owed to his sister by the Kaiser and is so heavily unpopular with the old guard nobility that their battle plans often include using his fleet as canon fodder. A political maneuverer and genius admiral, Reinhard is somewhat less likable than Yang, he embodies the autocratic system of government in the series. Throughout the show he enacts a lot of very good changes, but he's still a tyrant, and some of his actions are less than savoury.

So basically you have an autocratic empire with a very strong leader versus a rather realistic democratic state. There are incidents in both societies which raise moral questions; when Reinhard is fighting a civil war with the high nobility he intercepts plans they have of nuking a small planet of farmers (population two million) and instead of stopping this attack he and his advisor decide to let it happen so that the common soldiers in the high noble army will lose their will to participate and abandon their leaders, and the war will be won without expending many millions of soldiers, or even taking a few more years. When Yang captures a key strategic point, the Alliance council of leaders vote against negotiating a favourable peace treaty and instead vote to send an enormous invasion fleet into imperial territory; because their polls show they won't win the next election without a major wartime victory very soon.

The score is also entirely classical music with lots of Dvorak, Tchaikovsky and Mahler, if you're into that.

Planetes
Hard science series about a sort of tech company in the near future, the main characters are all astronauts who work in the lowest paid and least respected section of the company; debris collection. It's mostly a lighthearted show with a romance story, but there's some drama in later episodes when the main character tries out for the crew of the first manned expedition to Jupiter, and a terrorist organization (concerned with the welfare of the poorest on Earth) attempts to halt the mission.

Trailers...

Evangelion (note, do NOT watch the dub)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=d8w1bVAHZ60

The Tatami Galaxy
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GpctdMcHhUw

Legend of the Galactic Heroes (crappy, melodramatic, low quality, fan made trailer, still shows off more of the series than the real trailer)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=3nPc2DBe9tk

Planetes (trailer makes it look more dramatic than it is. Under absolutely no circumstance are you permitted to watch the dub)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=zosnCjiXKbU

End of Evangelion
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=Gk72E4qgEng

Ghost in the Shell (film, not series, cyberpunk, transhumanism and discussion on what makes consciousness and experiences real, this movie heavily influenced every aspect of The Matrix, if you have seen that)
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SvBVDibOrgs

And concealed handguns on college campuses? I think no, but it doesn't really matter, I don't think someone carrying would be more likely to go on a shooting spree than someone who just brings one from home one day. Accidents would be my concern.

Thank you so much, Clopin. I really appreciate the effort.

Given that choice, I'll take the equestrian life. I think I would have been a good 18th century country squire--maybe like the crazy one in Tom Jones (which I can't believe Lykren didn't like, by the way).

Should a fraternity have its charter revoked (or however they do it) because its members shouted insults at parading combat veterans?

Without having any idea how fraternities or their charters work, or who is in charge of revoking them, I really can't say, but I lean towards not... I mean, big deal, insults; I'm sure combat veterans can handle it.

Should people serve jail time for non violent drug offenses?

Haha also this one is sort of funny and silly.

http://www.harkavagrant.com/index.php?id=375

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Originally Posted by Clopin

Should people serve jail time for non violent drug offenses?

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It depends on the case, but as a general rule: for using, no.

How about for dealing?

No jail time unless they have committed some violent offense, or theft, etc.

Is there any real difference between a drug dealer of illegal drugs, a bartender and a pharmacist?

Yes. The first one is unregulated.

Have you ever changed someone's mind about an important personal belief through debate alone?

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Originally Posted by Clopin

Is there any real difference between a drug dealer of illegal drugs, a bartender and a pharmacist?

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Originally Posted by Lykren

Yes. The first one is unregulated.

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Not to mention that drugs, the bad kind, destroy people's lives far more easily and are far more addictive and damaging than alcohol. Even marijuana, let alone the other usual suspects. And it is nothing short of asinine to think that a pharmacist and a dealer of illegal drugs have something in common, unless the said pharmacist also does illegal drug dealing on the side. Then he or she would be a dealer of illegal drugs, just as a classics professor who dealt illegal drugs is a dealer of illegal drugs. But the profession of a pharmacist is as far from that of the illegal drug dealer as possible. There might be police officers who are also criminals, even contract killers, but that hardly means that there is no real difference between an assassin and a random police officer. The job of a pharmacist is to help people find a medical cure to their ailments, advising how to administer said cure, and to make sure that the customer can take the drug/medication safely, or to advise them go see an MD. I haven't heard of a dealer of illegal drugs doing any of those.
I should have thought that you, Lykren, might have mentioned some more of the differences, as you have some experience of dealing with pharmacists. And the noble profession of the bartender need not be slandered either, as usually it would be much worse if alcoholics drank on the street or in their own apartments. Not that that doesn't happen, and those with severe problems with alcohol don't tend to frequent bars so much.

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Have you ever changed someone's mind about an important personal belief through debate alone?

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No.

Same question.

I disagree. Repost here and I'll respond fully.

http://www.online-literature.com/for...hedelics/page2