Quote of the Post: "If all the world's a stage, I want to operate the trap door." - Paul Beatty

Random Playlist Song: Palestrina - Missa Ecce Ego Johannes - Credo

***

!@#$%^&*()

After so much time spent playing Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader, and enduring its increasing bugginess, it now freezes up when I've almost finished the game, and then dumps me back to the Desktop when I try to load a game.

Maybe they closed Black Isle Studios because they came up with such a lousy game.


I decided to complain to Yahoo Groups about their constant locking me out with the message: "Yahoo! - 999 This page is currently unavailable: Unfortunately, we are unable to process your request at this time. We apologize for the inconvenience. Please try again later."

Predictably, they disavowed themselves of responsibility for the problem, blaming it on "a problem with the connection between your computer and our servers". They then suggested that I contact my ISP. To humour them, I did so, but SCV could not replicate the problem (at least not reliably) and said they were not blocking connections to Yahoo Groups. The person I spoke to on the phone expressed his personal helplessness with Yahoo Groups and suggested that I try again the next day.

I got back to Yahoo Groups and they claimed that they "were unable to replicate the issue you have described". That's rich, considering that I am hardly the only one experiencing this problem, as a cursory Google search will turn up. They then suggested that I switch browsers, clear my cache and history. Of course, none of these work.

It seems that Yahoo is blocking connections from IPs that evidence too much activity, since when I use a proxy server I can access Yahoo Groups just fine. So either some people are spoiling the market with programs like PGOffline (to download and archive messages from a Yahoo Group), or too many SCV users with IPs close to mine are/were trying to access Yahoo Groups at the same time.

***

OkCupid: tens of thousands of people (mostly girls actually) have uploaded photos

This is an interesting fact. Consider the following:

- Usually guys are more despo, and more likely to use services like these to make friends
- It's usually the guys who use these services more actively and message the girls. Witness how Friendster became a "chiobu locator" for desperate NS guys in Army Camps. Girls almost never message guys, unless they look very cute in their pictures.
- Girls don't like their pictures circulating around for random freaky guys to get off to

However, consider also the following factors mitigating those above:

- OkCupid has tons of dubious tests, which girls love to waste their time taking
- Those with Compulsive Photo-Taking Disorder usually like to display their photos - for their friends, if nothing else

Intriguing.

***

Dilbert Strip

Pointy-Haired Boss: I removed all the chairs to encourage more efficient meetings.

Pointy-Haired Boss: The first item on the agenda is... Ow, Ow! Legs to tired... MEETING ADJOURNED!!!

Wally: I always wondered what efficiency looked like.


Finally: management that works!

***

On my OG discovering my blog: "don't start pandering to the masses. your blog's the funniest cos it's brutally honest"

***

Why does Goofy stand erect while Pluto remains on all fours? They're both dogs!

If Wile E. Coyote had enough money to buy all that Acme crap, why didn't he just buy dinner?

***

More comments by PrimusEmpyrian and my responses:

Absence of proof does not prove it is absent from existence. Many centuries ago, people believed in Flat Earth and the Earth being the center of the Universe. There was no proof of it being otherwise at that time.

No one knew of the existence of Bacteria and Viruses until recent times. So prior to that, they do not exist?

So I could just advance any manner of wild and illogical propositions, and you'd be forced to, if not agree, then to accept the possibility that they are not untrue. For example, that there are monsters under my bed which only come out when no adults are around. And for your information, some Ancient Greek thinker reasoned that the earth was round, from his observation that when a boat sailed into the harbor of Alexandria, its sail appeared before its hull.

Before the evidence for there being Bacteria and Virii was uncovered, it would probably have been reckless to assert that they existed. But my point still stands - if there's no evidence for something, there's no reason for anyone to proclaim its existence. If not, you might as well have killed yourself with Heaven's Gate. Or joined David Koresh in Waco.

If an object is outside the realm of reason and logic, it means it is NOT subject to the laws of reason and logic then.

What about a square circle? We're not talking about space and time, which are properties of existence, we are talking about abstract concepts. If they are not subject to reason and logic, I think it would be meaningless to talk about the concept of existence too. Anyhow I didn't say that gods are outside reason and logic, just that they defy reason and logic.

Just because it is reasonable and logical does NOT equate it is correct. There are logical fallacies aplently.

e.g.
If Yan can cook so can you.
Martin Yan is a man.
All men can cook like Martin Yan.

Thank you for demonstrating a logical fallacy. Unfortunately, this is neither reasonable, logical nor correct.

Examine the laws of phyiscs. It is constant everywhere. True? To a certain extent. It breaks down if you use it on Black Holes or prior to Big Bang. Is it wrong then? If the laws of physics can not measure the Big Bang nor Black Holes, then they must be false since the stated laws break down when measuring them.

If you found your Martin Yan logic plausible, I wouldn't be surprised if you found this plausible too. Physics recognises that it does not always apply. That does not make it false.

Same goes to religion/spiritual stuff. Humans will seek a purpose in life, contemplating the Universe, desiring guidances from the Higher Being(s).

How can you quantify something which is not tangible in nature?

What, that since the laws/precepts of religion have been shown to be wrong when applied to anything tangible and real, they are false? Can't say I disagree with you there.

Just because humans seek purpose in life and desire higher beings does not create either that purpose or higher beings to guide them. Wishful thinking is powerless.

I do not ask to quantify it, merely to see any proof of its existence. If it has no basis in objective reality, then it exists solely in people's minds. It is intangible simply because it is a flight of fancy.

In the broadest sense, religion is a spiritual matter, one may pray to the Solar God of the ZWAYRLt Tribe if they so believed or desired. :p They may also not pray to any if they so wished, of course. Perhaps there is no ONE religion, if you can comprehend all the religions in the world today, sit and mediate under a Bodhi Tree for 6 years, 6 months and 6 days, MAYBE you may reach Enlightenment, but that is another issue to discuss altogether.

I shall set myself up as a god, then, and people can pray to me, since religion is a spiritual thing. Ho hum.

Essentially, one of my main points is that you need to use logic and reason to weed out the false religions from the true ones (if any). If the result is that all of them are false, then too bad.

Really, this is getting more and more ridiculous.

***

Someone on a stern girl: she's probably fun when she's drunk. like my og mate vivien

Me: Aren't most people fun when drunk?

Someone: nooo. some are loud and obnoxious. others just pass out

***

Someone on why people hate the NUS administraton:


so here's some advice for you:

if you don't want to retake a module you don't want to retake, and yet you're so ill you can't even walk, get the heck up and crawl to the exam room, no matter how high your body temperature is, no matter whether you have the Ebola virus, TAKE THE PAPER AND RISK GETTING DISCIPLINED, or else you WILL retake the module next semester.

Matriculation day: they told me they lost my photograph
The entire mid-term break affair: now restored
Examination result: i fell sick during the SARs outbreak and had a fever. According to the NUS rules i was told not to sit for the paper and submit the "yellow form for special consideration" after seeing the university doctor, which i promptly did...then they failed me just because i didn't sit for that exam paper but consistently did my projects and assignments and had good results...i'll have to retake it next semester.

[Addendum: One can also add how FASS suddenly changed its policy on honours grading from taking only the grades of modules taken in the honours year to taking that of all four years, or how the bidding system leaves some people unable to graduate on time.]

***

Angulus Latinum - 'THE LATIN CORNER'

I like:

IMUS AD MAGUM OZI VIDENDUM, MAGUM OZI MIRUM MIRISSIMUM: We are going to see the wizard, the wonderful wizard of Oz

UTINAM LOGICA FALSA TUAM PHILOSOPHIAM TOTAL SUFFODIANT!: May faulty logic undermine your entire philosophy!

MACDONALDUS SENEX FUNDUM HABET. E-I-E-I-O. ET IN HOC FUNDO, NONNULLAS BOVES DOMESTICAS HABET. E-I-E-I-O. CUM MOO MOO HIC, CUM MOO MOO IBI. HIC UNA MOO, IBI UNA MOO, UBIQUE UNA MOO MOO. MACDONALDUS SENEX FUNDUM HABET. E-I-E-I-O: Old MacDonald has a farm. E-I-E-I-O. And on this farm, he has some cows. E-I-E-I-O. With a moo moo here, with a moo moo there. Here a moo, there a moo, everywhere a moo moo. Old MacDonald has a farm. E-I-E-I-O

MAGISTER MUNDI SUM!: I am the Master of the Universe!

VESCERE BRACIS MEIS!: Eat my shorts!

ESTNE VOLUMEN IN TOGA, AN SOLUM TIBI LIBET ME VIDERE?: Is that a scroll in your toga, or are you just glad to see me?

ANTIQUIS TEMPORIBUS, NATI TIBI SIMILES IN RUPIBUS VENTOSISSIMIS EXPONEBANTUR AD NECEM: In the good old days, children like you were left to perish on windswept crags.

***

My Nutrasweetened soft drinks make huge mounds of foam! What gives? - "Coke, Pepsi, and the G.D. Searle company, the maker of NutraSweet, all deny any knowledge of the foam-producing properties you describe. However, scientific tests conducted at the legendary Straight Dope labs have proved conclusively that they do in fact exist. Moreover, it is clear that not only do NutraSweetened beverages produce more foam, but the foam lasts longer. The ecological significance of this development is too awful to contemplate."

Church invalidates girl's Communion - "The First Holy Communion made by 8-year-old borough resident Haley Waldman in April is considered invalid in the eyes of the Roman Catholic Church since the Holy Eucharist she received did not contain any wheat... Haley was diagnosed with celiac disease, a genetic disorder in which the body’s immune system attacks the lining of the small intestines in response to a food protein called gluten — found in wheat, rye, oats, barley, and related grains."

Saudi police 'stopped' fire rescue - "Saudi Arabia's religious police stopped schoolgirls from leaving a blazing building because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress, according to Saudi newspapers."
After all, it was "for their own good".

Saudi Religious Police Say Barbie Is a Moral Threat - You could have Tudung Barbie. Or Burkha Barbie (hey, alliteration!).

nus-artsclub.org - Innocuous looking enough, but at the bottom you see links to: "kostenlos seitensprung, amateur teens and prostitution amsterdam"
Courtesy of the techno prince

Spamusement! - "Poorly-drawn cartoons inspired by actual spam subject lines!"