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Posts posted by Dillon Levenque
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I got kinda burned out on big houses—always seemed like I had way more space than I could use—but I like the style of this one. I bet it looks better without the big front deck/porch and the column business: cleaner. Have fun with it. :-)
Ooops! I see I biffed the comment: this bit was supposed to be in the quote up there.
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On 7/24/2018 at 6:45 AM, Sukubia Scarmon said:
Uuuugh I'm dying.
It's 31°c / 87.8°F here today. Hottest day will be thursday with 35°C/95°F, and of course, it's pretty humid.
I've hung a tablecloth onto my window, so the dreaded afternoon-sun doesn't roast me alive.
Decided to switch from plain rice to whole-wheat rice today. I allready switched to whole wheat noodles some time ago. I'm a desaster in the kitchen (although I LOVE to watch american cooking shows.), but I'm trying to get better at that and be a bit more healthy. Also, I really need to lose my fear of seasoning.
Went to the local Telekom-shop today, to ask them wtf is up with my internet being almost non existent. The nice person at the counter told me that my router, or rather it's model, is known to have issues with VDSL. Oh, okay. It would have been nice if the person who sold me the new VDSL Plan and the other person I had to ask, or the technician who enabled it in my apartment, all of whom knew my router, told me that beforehand. Gottverdammt.
At least it's easy enough to fix that. I'm going to bring them my old one, and get a new one rented for the same price.
But I need to find my access data, else I'm going to have to order a new one. I'm really bad with paperwork. Or order. I'm the personification of chaos, really.First, congratulations on being a contributor to what must be the most comment-filled, humorous, and enjoyable Monday for "Where are all my friends" in a very long time. A whole page of fun. Don't know why I missed it
But that's not really why I called. Now that you've dropped "I'm the personification of chaos" in here, you really should work out a new 'title' to celebrate that. I know, I know, mine still has boring old "Advanced Member", but you should be creative, Gottverdammt! And don't worry that Maddy will want to steal it; she's much too happy with Nefarious. ;-)
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Thought of this for some reason. While I was digging it out of youtube and playing it was thinking about how we used to all sing along when this came on the radio; a carful of teens all belting it out. I got a little sentimental, then maybe even more so while listening. Then I looked at the notes, and saw where someone had written just two words:
Heart tunes
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On 7/21/2018 at 9:01 PM, Madelaine McMasters said:
I also learned Frère Jacques in English and French, from Mom. She has the amusing ability to speak gibberish fluently, in what sounds like a variety of languages. Italian pop singer Adriano Celentano did exactly that in song years ago, producing the masterpiece "Prisencolinensinainciusol". He doesn't speak a word of English, but if you were Italian and didn't either, you might think he was fluent. For those of us who do speak English, it's a mind bender.
Here's the NPR print/audio story about the song...
https://www.npr.org/2012/11/04/164206468/its-gibberish-but-italian-pop-song-still-means-somethingThe video link on that page is broken, so here it is on Vimeo (song starts at 1:22)...
The blonde dancer featured in that video is Rafaella Carra... swoon.
I loved this! And while Rafaella is definitely swoon-inducing, you gotta admit Adriano's pretty cute his own self. (When I said his name I rolled the 'R' nicely and stressed the hell out of that third syllable: Ah-dr/ree-AHNNN-o!).
ps: How did I miss all this? I posted in this thread! I must not have checked back in all weekend.
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2 hours ago, Phil Deakins said:
I knew that the french word brother but, until today, and as a result of looking it up because of thread, I didn't know that the 'brother' refered to monk. I'd always assumed a family brother. I also learned that the word 'friar' comes from the french 'frere'.
If you enjoy learning the evolution of words and phrases, as I do immensely, Google can be a whole lot of fun. :-)
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Well, I'm glad I remembered your involvement correctly. Hey, good news on the shutters, too!
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7 hours ago, Pamela Galli said:
We do sing it in French, but more often in English, since not high percentage understand it in FrencH. It’s not odd to me that someone would sing a song in another language but that they would do it as a birthday tradition.
Fascinating, both the 'Happy Birthday' business and 'Frère Jacques'. As to the latter, I learned it (here in the US) in French as a small child. It wasn't until I was much older (like, ten or so) that I learned the English words and that Frère Jacques meant Brother John.
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Random thoughts upon waking up today...
( background) Someone here (Sukubia, I believe) was talking about a green German beverage. It's made by steeping the leaves of a plant called Waldmeister aka woodruff, and apparently it has a terrific flavor (I googled it a lot when I read the post).
So my thoughts? It would be so cool if somehow the beverage could be made to give off fumes, so that it could be called "Fuming Rigellian Wine" in honor of the old James Blish science fiction novels "Cities in Flight". A quote: "It included fuming Rigellian wine, which he despised as a drink for barbarians;..."
Now I have to find one of those novels and read it again; see if they were anywhere near as good as I remember. As a kid I was utterly captivated by them.
You can identify a "Cities in Flight" fan anytime by saying, "IMT made the sky .. fall!" They'll react. :-)
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Yikes. I saw this thread title on Wednesday and studiously ignored it. I sensed either a brief parody of political threads (given the title's grandiosity) or something worse: an actual thread about those issues. Thus I ignored the bold type each day telling me there was something I hadn't read. I already knew that—I hadn't read any of it.
Regrettably, as I logged in this morning I saw that GD's newest post was from Maddie, and it was for this thread! So now I had to at least take a look at the thread (Snugs likes me to keep an eye on things in case Maddie goes completely off the rails).
I am fully and completely on the side of those who felt this thread had no business being here. There are lots of forums out there for talking politics. There is even one that has to do with SL, but has a well-populated sub-section on politics et al (and boy, do they get into it over there!).
This forum is different. Not as much passionate discourse. Probably not as serious or important, but I like that. It's a fun place to be and mostly we just kind of tease each other when differences occur. We don't get all riled up. Of course one reason for that is the fact that LL sees to it, but fact is it is mostly fun around here.
I spend plenty of time elsewhere, including that SL-related forum I mentioned: I enjoy that one as well, but it's a different vibe. It's got a whole lot of edge.
Having kind of skimmed through it all, I see it is the worst of the two ideas I'd had of it. It's for real. Even so, there were some things I liked here. Ellestones had some quotes from Thomas Jefferson that were new to me. It does not surprise me in the slightest to learn that Jefferson (and the other founders) spent a lot of time thinking about how they could make the country an improvement over the system(s) they'd been born into.
I got a laugh, too. The spheroidal one actually referred to us ('us' being everyone but him, presumably) as the Hive Mind! I chortled. Talk about hackneyed phrases...
Anyway, I got through it. Maddie was surprisingly restrained and thoughtful, which happens from time to time. Fortunately she keeps that to a minimum. I won't be back here. As I said I can talk politics elsewhere. I don't mind sharing a few laughs at the expense of our laughable excuse for a president (or even for a rational human being) now and then and I admit that's political.
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4 hours ago, Alwin Alcott said:
isn't that a often used western europe one?..( be careful with my feelings... i'm a ip nitwit)
It's in a range of numbers (there are more) that were set aside as "private" as the whole IP (Internet Protocol) was being worked out. That means they can't be used as "public-facing" or "internet" addresses. If you try to send a packet to one such address via the internet it won't go through. I believe it won't even actually go out on the wire; your own device's IP circuits will block it.
For reasons unknown to me, 192.168.0.1 was so commonly used as a base network address it became almost a standard, although it is not in any way. As I indicated, there are several blocks of numbers available that work the same way. I just checked my own router. Look at me, the rebel! I set it as 192.168.1.1*.
There are a whole lot of people on this forum who know from a little to a lot about how the Internet (I'm towards the "little" end of that spectrum) and networks in general work. So while it seems like common knowledge here, I assure you it isn't like that in RL.
I like that you just went ahead and asked the question without trying to make anything up.
*Probably because the DSL (yes, I am on one of those) modem is using AT&T's preferred base net of 192.168.0.1.
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I had to force myself to stop staring trying to figure out the geology. Overlooking the beautiful way it's eroded (wind, looks like), the difference between the sides is very odd. The right has a much deeper stratum of the dark rock. And the bizarre way it overlaps at the bottom of the vee makes no sense to me. What did that? A fault, maybe? I'd love to see the whole complex from a little farther away, at all angles.
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16 hours ago, Ceka Cianci said:
I mean,This!
That looks terrific! I really wish we still had kids at home; that would make such a terrific home project. We could make wall mounted ones; use 'em as Christmas presents for the family. :-)
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21 hours ago, Tari Landar said:
I'm in the camp of.."I don't quite understand why someone would go to the SL forums to read/chat about other platforms/games that aren't SL".
Since you've not yet actually explained why, that's likely to leave folks with the assumption(good, bad, indifferent) that you're one of those "give me everything I want, when I want it, where I want it, how I want it, right now...logic be damned" folks...That's not going to bode well for you much of anywhere in life
Why would you go to a car dealership and ask to see their line of washing machines?
I'm finding myself hoping she does venture across the street; it'll be fun to watch.
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1 hour ago, Rolig Loon said:
BTW, There are limits to being contrarian.
I am pretty sure your correspondent will disagree.
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Turkish rock from 3 Hür-El
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52 minutes ago, LittleMe Jewell said:
The only thing good that every came out of KFC was their coleslaw recipe.
We have similar taste in coleslaw. Whenever I make burgers or something similar somebody has to stop by KFC and pick up a large side of coleslaw (about six servings?). When I go, I enjoy testing the staff. It's a two-part test. Asking "For here or 'to go'?" is an instant fail, but the ones who pass that (only about fifty percent, sadly) often still flunk out on part two: asking me if I need a spoon.
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Happy Rez Day, Lil!
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Just now, Madelaine McMasters said:
Well then, you've never been as angry as I can get, have you?
I meant besides that.
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59 minutes ago, Klytyna said:
Balls indeed...
Mr Colon was no "Navigator", a Navigator wouldn't have made the errors he did... Strictly speaking he wasn't an Explorer either, explorers go out looking for NEW lands... Colon just thought he'd found a shortcut to one already known, that would bypass the trade tariffs and embargoes of the middle east, and allow for BIG profits on Far East Goods...
Not Navigator, not Explorer, just a Merchant with poor math skills...
First of all, he estimated the journey West to South East Asia at about 3700 km... Instead of 20,000 km...
He also estimated that the East Indies, and Japan were further north than they really are.
Not "A Landmass", South east Asia, because as we've pointed out, he could barely count...
Yes, I know. I covered that in my comment regarding the size of the earth and again in my reply to your first diatribe. Old news.
I'm Ex Navy... Trust me I know what the terms originated as.
Groovy.
I also know that the basic principle of navigation at that time, was, still, to sail north or south till you were at the same latitude as your target, then sail east or west till you bumped into it. The same technique used by the Scandinavians, when sailing from Norway to Iceland, Greenland, and even Vinland, half a millennium before Colon. Tools such as the cross-staff, the astrolabe or the quadrant (a precursor of the octants and sextants).
All of that is irrelevant to the issue except that I should have excepted the Scandinavians when I referenced Europe.
I'm also aware that deep sea fishermen from Bristol were catching cod off the grand banks in the 1480's source?. And the Portuguese had already reahed the Cape of Good Hope, and were exploring the Indian Ocean, following the currents and tradewinds.
And for the record, Colon wasn't the first European to sail anywhere by "not hugging the coast".
Try the discovery of the Azores, in the 1420's, for example... Or the Portuguese again, discovering the currents and trade winds of the North and South Atlantic, in the 15th C, making two 'easy' routes for heading west and east from Europe, to the Azores and beyond, and for accessing west Africa.
To hear you go on, one would think colon was some kind of genius, who invented the idea of sailing out of sight of land...
He wasn't and didn't.
The Azores were known and being settled before 1492. When they were discovered and by whom is still in doubt. One well-known history says a ship caught in a storm on the way to Lisbon was the first landfall. Hardly intentional.
Not he... The Sailing Master, and the ships Captain, not Colon...source? Mine says Columbus.
... Something not written by a Yank Admiral and doesn't puff up Colon? Be wary of history books written in the first half of the 20th C by Military Officers. Syme's "The Roman Revolution" for example, is very clearly the product of a British Officer, from the Age of the Raj, and tends to colour everything in that light.... Unsurprising as it was written in 1933.
I'm sure an American Admiral's 1942 work on "The Hero who discovered America!" is equally flawed.
Thanks, but I wouldn't trust an American Admiral to find the "pointy end of the boat" that somebody with a lower rank and more brains is driving for him...
Which brings us back to Colon...
He might have been granted a title of "Admiral" for the voyage, but is maritime expertise seems to have been limited to saying...
"Hey yous, El Capitano... Aima da pointy enda thata way! Capiche? Are we there yet?"
Yes, your disdain for America and Americans is something we have come to expect. I know it has nothing to do with your Britishness, since so many SL'ers are Brits and seem to get along with us just fine. I give these comments as much credence as I would theories on race relations from a guy driving a pickup with a Confederate battle flag flying.
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11 hours ago, Klytyna said:
A classic example of Historical Revisionism...
Cristobal Colon wasn't a "sailor" at all. He was a mathamatics-illiterate, inept clerk, looking for a way to get rich quick.
Balls.
Columbus did what no European navigator had ever done. He left the coast behind and kept going, because he believed that a landmass was out there close enough for sailing distance and he had the guts to go find it. He had to navigate with compass, logs (look up nautical speed measuring and find out why they call it 'knots', if you're interested) and other primitive aids; it was over 200 years before the invention of the sextant. Despite all that, he managed to figure where he'd sailed accurately enough so that on his return trip he first sighted the coast of Europe less than a hundred miles north of his departure point, for which he was aiming.
In the US every schoolchild knows all that stuff about India/Indians (or at least they did when I was one); that is what I meant with the 'size of the earth' comment.
If you'd like to buff up your knowledge I recommend "Admiral of the Ocean Sea" by Samuel Eliot Morison. It's still in print; I see it on Amazon. I'd offer to loan my copy but I don't trust you not to mark it up.
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10 minutes ago, AmandaKeen said:
History is written by the winners...
This is an opinion that I've run across many times, and I think it is to some extent true but by no means universal. I'd bet there were at one time (maybe not so much now) more histories of the American Civil War by southerners than northerners. The trick with history is to read a lot of it and don't ever stop. People are always learning new things and making new observations. That's what historians do if they're worth a damn.
As for judging our predecessors by current standards, I'm against it. I judge the people I find in history by who they were in their own time. I get irritated, for instance, with things like the currently very prevalent Columbus bashing trend. Yeah, Columbus was a total racist and yes he was a religious zealot. BUT SO WAS EVERYONE ELSE IN HIS TIMELINE AND SOCIETY. He'd been immersed in that since birth, one can hardly blame him for it. He was also much too interested in personal profit for my taste, and of course he was dead wrong about the size of the earth. But with all that, what he did was a tremendous achievement, and he was without doubt one of the greatest sailors of all time.
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Not historically accurate, you say? Who'da thunk it? Perhaps a recreation of the inspiration for that famous painting will be more your style. ;-)
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Meet up and dance at the Forum Hangout to make new friends........
in Make Friends
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Cool. Thanks a lot!. :-)