Jump to content

SPIRIT

Premier Retired Staff
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    2,886

  • Joined

  • Last visited

  • Days Won

    74

 Content Type 

Blog Entries posted by SPIRIT

  1. SPIRIT

    The Key Of C

    By SPIRIT,

    So the C key on my computer's keyboard had a nice trip through my house's central vacuum, but I got it back.
     
    That is all I have to say on the matter.
  2. SPIRIT

    Attention Paranoids

    By SPIRIT,

    No one is out to get you.
     
    No one at all.
     
    Your life is boring and you are not the centre of some dastardly plot.
     
    Get over it.
     
    Actually, now that I think about it, there is someone out to get you:
     
    Me, if you don't stop harping on about your irrational fears! :angry:
     
    That is all.
  4. SPIRIT

    New Software Rules

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, it's been long overdue (considering how quick I revamped the Sets forum), but I've finally redone the Software rules. The forum's a bit more exclusive now, but on the other hand, there are less official topics to keep track of as well as less irrelevant topics to have to sift through.
     
    So come one, come all, let's rekindle some discussion about software... or something...
  5. SPIRIT
    Stop it! Stop it now! :angry:
     
    To quote The Hobbit:

    Not entirely what I'm getting at, but it's a good starting point at how vague our small talk is.
     
    What really grinds my gears is when people use qualifying adjectives (e.g. good, nice, beautiful, gorgeous, splendid, miserable, terrible, etc.) to objectively describe the weather. What I'm saying is, what the heck is "good" weather and who decides this?!
     
    Does it mean that the sun is shining, there are little or no clouds, there is no precipitation, the air temperature is greater than or equal to room temperature, and there is little or no wind? If so, then why not say that instead of acting as though your personal feelings about the weather are fact.
     
    For instance, if someone truthfully says, "my, isn't it sunny today?", you'd be insane to say, "I disagree, I think it's raining," when you can both plainly see that it is not. However, if someone were to say, "my, isn't it gorgeous out today?" in the same scenario, they do not expect you to disagree when it is clearly warm and sunny out by saying, "I disagree, I find this sort of weather unappealing."
     
    Who decided that bright sunshine, no wind, and warmth were "good" in terms of weather? Sure, I like being warm as much as the next guy, but I find overcast skies to be much more picturesque and nice to look at; I don't mind the wind, as long as it's not too cold outside -- it adds a real sense of power to nature, I find; as long as you don't have to shovel it, snow is fantastic to look at, the way it coats the countryside and how it looks when it's falling; and watching a lightning storm is just indescribable. So why is it that the sort of weather I like is considered not to be good?
     
    Basically, what I'm saying is, think before you speak. Some people might not feel the same about weather that you do. Rather than saying "isn't is splendid weather we're having old bean, wot, wot?" try saying, "I think the sunshine looks beautiful today"; or rather than "this weather is simply ghastly," try, "this weather is not to my liking as the rain is getting me wet and the wind has rendered my umbrella ineffective".
     
    That is all.
     
    Join us next time when SPIRIT gripes about people who say "supper" instead of "dinner".
  6. SPIRIT

    Ancient Mayan Code Updated

    By SPIRIT,

    163 142 142 121 142 142 142
     
    What does it mean?
     
    Why, that is the pattern of the scars on my right leg (going from top to bottom) left behind by the stitches from my operation back in July, written in ancient Mayan numerals. Or could it have some deeper significance? (If you can think of one, let me know).
     
    And speaking of my leg, I'm probably at 90-95% right now. I can do all the basics, it's just things like maintaining my foot's arch and full range of motion in my knee that are holding me back.
     
    UPDATE:
     
    So I found out I've miscounted, here's the actual code:
     
    163 142 142 121 163 142 142
     
    Alright, math wizzes, does this change anything?
  7. SPIRIT

    Winter 2010 Adventures

    By SPIRIT,

    This last couple of weeks has been quite the whirlwind for me. Millions of things due in school, not to mention Reading Week, so here's what I've been up to lately.
     
    Just before reading week, my professors decided to make everything due at once. Wasn't that nice of them? After finally stressing and fighting my way through a seemingly endless pile of assignments, it was suddenly Reading Week, but it was no time for relaxing.
     
    No sir, no relaxing at all. Some people from my church and I would be going to the distant snowbound lands of central Manitoba on the very fringes of civilization itself. We went there to go visit four Native reserves so that we could organize some game days for the kids as well as second-hand clothing sales.
     
    It's a very different world all the way up there. Alcoholism and cycles of poverty and abuse are unfortunately rampant, not to mention extremely overpriced goods and a lack of good public services. Despite all that, they manage to survive. The kids were really happy to see us, though, and running around the gym was just like being back at camp again.
     
    And today I went to court about the accident I had this summer. I chose not to go to trial and we managed to get the charge down to 2 demerit points and an $85 fine. It was a very stressful experience, to say the least, as I had no idea what was going on and the guy representing me kept leaving randomly. On the bright side, I did find out that in Canada, we don't say "your honour", we say "your worship". Still, though, I'd have been happier not knowing if it meant I didn't have to go through all this...
     
    So that's what I've been up to lately.
     
    Coming soon:
    The last few chapters of my TLR Spoof. An overhaul of the Software Forum rules. Me actually updating the BRC timeline for the first time in months. Me finishing that pronunciation guide... hopefully.
  9. SPIRIT
    I hope that got your attention.
     
    I saw the movie about a month ago and I have a fairly neutral opinion of it. Sure there was a lot of impressive CGI and stuff, but for some reason I'm not seeing how it became the number one selling movie of all time or why I keep hearing about people desperately wishing to go to Pandora.
     
    I can pretty much trace this back to the sense of nausea the 3D effects of the movie induced in me, so as impartially as you can, I'd appreciate hearing what exactly it is about the movie that has everyone hooked.
  10. SPIRIT
    I just felt this bore saying.
     
    When forming your opinion on a controversial subject, or your world view in general for that matter, I would hope that you can remember the somewhat oxymoronic words of Obi-Wan Kenobi:
     
    "Only a Sith deals in absolutes!"
     
    So yes, technically in saying that, he is calling himself a Sith, but it's an important message nonetheless. Nothing is black and white, might I stress NOTHING at all. What political party you support, what religion you observe, what forms of media entertain you, what people you like, what people you dislike, what scientific theories you subscribe to, your stance on certain laws and policies, what is good, what is evil, what is lawful, what is unlawful...
     
    There are two sides to anything and it is extremely dangerous and foolish to polarize yourself on an issue. Assuming that most people are not completely stupid, there is probably a reason why others are choosing a side that isn't the one you agree with.
     
    You should try to compromise. See things from their perspective. Why don't they agree? Are there things they might be perceiving incorrectly about you? Are there things you have been perceiving incorrectly about them?
     
    I've just been seeing a lot of polarized thinking floating lately and while it is likely that this is because it's only the people with very extreme views that feel the need to bash me about the head with them, I did pay good money for this blog and so I figured it couldn't hurt to remind those who form their opinions rashly that the world is more complex than they would make it to be.
  11. SPIRIT

    A Sad Thought

    By SPIRIT,

    How do you suppose the people of 1111 AD felt when they realized that it would be another 8889 years until the date could be written in binary again?
  12. SPIRIT

    I'm Psychic

    By SPIRIT,

    Let the record show that I am psychic.
     
    From nearly 3 years ago.
     
    I called the release of LEGO Harry Potter done by Traveller's Tales.
     
    Not only that, but I'm going to make another prediction based on other things I've seen and read lately: this will be one of the greatest games of all time.
  13. SPIRIT

    Kristen Stewart

    By SPIRIT,

    Something weird I just found out today. I am exactly one day older than Kristen Stewart, famous star of the Twilight movies...
     
    What happened to my acting career?
  14. SPIRIT

    Two Quick Grammar Lessons

    By SPIRIT,

    Alright, here are two things that have been bugging me lately in how people are speaking incorrectly.
     
    1) Know your past participles.
     
    What is a past participle? That's the word that goes after the axillary (usually some form of the verb "to have") in tenses that describe the past.
     
    For instance, "I have seen thousands of cars in my lifetime". The word "seen" is the past participle.
     
    Some common slip ups I've noticed lately:
     
    -To beat => I have beaten NOT I have beat
    -To bite => I have bitten NOT I have bit
     
    Now, this may be confusing because some verbs like "to hit" do not change (I have hit), so keep an eye out for these.
     
    2) Use the subjunctive when applicable.
     
    The bane of most second language classes: the subjunctive mood. It isn't very common in English, but it is still something you need to look out for.
     
    Basically, in English, we use 3 moods.
     
    1) Indicative: a simple statement or question. E.g. Bob goes to the store.
    2) Imperative: a command. E.g. Bob, go to the store!
    3) Subjunctive: a statement contrary to fact, a wish, or a mandative statement. E.g. I wish I were an Oscar Meyer wiener.
     
    This is really only visible when using a singular subject with the verb "to be". It is incorrect to say "I wish I was an Oscar Meyer wiener" despite the fact that "was" usually refers to the singular subject, but in the indicative, you use the plural form of the verb, "were".
     
    So yeah, follow those rules of speech and I won't go insane.
  15. SPIRIT
    Unfortunately, this is the sort of idea I could never get away with, but maybe in posting it, someone slightly cleverer than me will be able to devise a way to profit from it.
     
    Now, let me start off by saying that I don't get the appeal of professional sports. I just cannot bring myself to care who wins or who loses or follow a tournament at all in any sport. They're just people who are being paid an insane amount of money to play a game against another group of such people. Granted, they're really good at what they do, but I still am not entertained by you.
     
    I don't want to knock professional sports, to each his or her own, but they're just not for me.
     
    Where am I going with this?
     
    In today's day and age, we can make images of things and people look very realistic. In a few years, you won't be able to tell the difference.
     
    Why not remove the scandal-causing, money-wasting players and replace them with fictional constructions? All sports games could become well-animated movies and could become much more exciting with a crack team of writers to amp things up so that it comes down to the last second or the underdog comes from behind with a heroic victory. The entire multi-billion dollar sports industry could divide its money among just a few people who'd become insanely rich, now that you've removed the players from the equation.
     
    Yes, it's against the spirit of the game and many people would be really unhappy about it, but the thing is, how do we know this hasn't already happened?
  17. SPIRIT

    Potter Is Not Bran

    By SPIRIT,

    On a Harry Potter fansite, there is a caption contest held every so often using various Harry Potter related pictures. A few months ago, I gave an entry for one of the rounds and it was rather well received and was once voted the number one caption on the site (it has since been knocked down to 7, but it has yet to fall off the list).
     
    Recently, I did a Google search and found that I accidentally spawned somewhat of a fad, which was pleasantly surprising. Now, since I'm not as well-known in the Harry Potter fandom as I am in the BIONICLE one, I thought I'd take this opportunity to state that I did, in fact, write this caption that has taken the Internet by storm.
     
    For those interested, here are the picture and caption:
     

     
    Cedric: So. How is it that you - a skinny boy with no extraordinary acting talent - managed to defeat the greatest actor of all time? How did you escape with nothing but eight movies, while Robert Pattinson's powers were destroyed?
    Harry: Why do you care how I escaped? Pattinson was after your time...
    Cedric: Pattinson is my past, present and future, Harry Potter...
    *Cedric pulls Harry's wand from his pocket and begins to trace it through the air, writing two shimmering words*
    ROBERT PATTINSON
    *Then, Cedric waves the wand once, and the letters of his name rearrange themselves*
    POTTER IS NOT BRAN
    Harry: Um... so?
    Cedric: You know, that made a lot more sense in my head...
     
    Granted, there's no real proof that the person you know as SPIRIT and the author of that were the same person, but I offer this as evidence, from which I took inspiration for the caption and which was written several weeks earlier.
     
    In summation, I am funny no matter which fandom I'm in. B)
  18. SPIRIT

    Lady Metus

    By SPIRIT,

    Exhibit A:

    (Dancers from the music video for Bad Romance by Lady Gaga)
     
    Exhibit B:

    (Metus: Metusicus domesticus)
     
    Interpret that as you will.
  19. SPIRIT
    Well, after the 25th, I pretty much dropped off the face of the map as I celebrated Christmas and took an extended break from BZP. As I understand, there were subsequent riots in the street due to this absence, but fear not citizens -- I am back!
     
    So here's what I've been up to lately...
     
    Being the careful planner that I am, I went Christmas shopping on the 23rd. The mall was packed and selection was limited, but I somehow managed to get exactly what I was looking for. I got in a lot of driving practice as well, ferrying my sister to her various orthodontist appointments and now that the strike of whatever union gives out driver's licences is over, I'm going to need all the practice I can get to get fully licensed (as you can imagine, totalling two vehicles did not help my confidence behind the wheel).
     
    On that note, I got another battery of x-rays and CAT scans to see how my chest was doing all these months after the accident. And I must say, a CAT scan is much different when you aren't still woozy from anaesthetic. And in other leg-related news, I'd say I'm up to 90% now. I'll be in peak physical condition again in no time.
     
    I got my marks back from last semester as well. Turns out if I had gotten 1 percent more in any one of my courses, I'd still be on the dean's list, so I'm going to see if I can talk to any of my professors about that because that's just annoying.
     
    Well, with that out of the way, onto Christmas.
     
    I ended up getting The Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks (FANTASTIC game, by the way), Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince for PS3 (although I like the fact that you can actually get Trophies in this game, it does seem a bit similar to Order of the Phoenix minus a few bells and whistles and unfortunately comes nowhere near the masterpieces that were games 2 and 3; good graphics, mind you), LittleBigPlanet (which I really haven't had time to properly dive into yet), and Scribblenauts (which is a fun little puzzle solver to pass the time).
     
    I also got my sister LEGO Batman and thanks to co-op mode, I ended up playing quite a bit of that as well.
     
    Now, if I might divert your attention for a moment for a mini review of Spirit Tracks.
     
    When I first heard they were making a game based around the steam engine, I was a little dubious, but Nintendo had yet to steer me wrong in the franchise so I decided to stick with them. This game was BRILLIANT. If Phantom Hourglass had a flaw, this corrected it. Great story, great characters, great side quests, great puzzles, great action, great gameplay, great everything! I also really enjoyed Zelda in this game and she is by far my favourite incarnation of the princess: high-fiving Link when they complete a level, wanting to beat up Byrne, freaking out about Malladus wanting to take over her body (and not really caring about him wanting to destroy mankind ), and taking control of invincible metal soldiers. For once, she deserves having the Legend being named after her.
     
    So yeah.
     
    On Boxing Day, we went to visit my mom's side of the family and we did a present exchange game. I wound up with a mountain full of candy, but for a moment I was in possession of a pair of highly-coveted Canadian Olympic mittens (if you live in Canada, you probably know what I'm talking about). Not that I normally wear mittens, but I would've liked the bragging rights.
     
    Then we spent a few days with my dad's side of the family before it was off to Florida for a week.
     
    Sadly, it was not one of the best Florida vacations we've gone on as the temperature barely ever went above 10 Celsius. Our house was nice, though; easily 20 foot ceilings and a private pool in the backyard (which was unusable as it had no heater). We still had fun as a family, though, doing much more mini-golf and bowling than going to the beach like we usually do.
     
    Well, fun's over and now it's back to the old grind.
  21. SPIRIT

    Paradox-free Time Travel

    By SPIRIT,

    "Paradox-free time travel? Now I know you're crazy, SPIRIT."
     
    This has been bugging me lately, so I felt I needed to get it off my mind. So listen well, sirs and madams, while I explain the mechanics and feasibility of time travel that doesn't have to interfere with physics or logic as does much of the time travel we see in popular media.
     
    Parallel Universes
     
    First thing's first. For paradox-free time travel to be possible, we need to assume that there are parallel universes or timelines. Many prominent physicists agree upon this, that our universe is simply one of many floating in the 11th dimension. Where do these universes come from? They split off every time a sapient being makes a decision, thus making all possible choices for them real.
     
    Now, we also have to assume that humans have free will. You can argue the philosophy of this until the cows come home, but if humans don't have free will, they can't make choices, and then we can't have our parallel universes, and now we have some angry physicists.
     
    But wait, couldn't random events trigger these timeline splits? Like what if the sun randomly blew up one day?
     
    Nope. And to explain why, here's a quote from Stargate:
     
    "According to Newtonian physics [...] if you could know the position and velocity of every particle in the universe at any given moment, you could accurately predict all of their interactions for the rest of time."
     
    Now, assuming we have free will, that means that apart from the choices we make, all things that happen in the universe are inevitable and governed by fate: a domino effect throughout the universe that began since the dawn of time. Therefore, unless something with the ability to make conscious decisions intervenes, everything will happen in a predetermined way that will not alter from timeline to timeline.
     
    In conclusion: human decisions make parallel universes.
     
    The Nature of Time
     
    "Time isn't made out of lines! It is made out of circles. That is why clocks are round!"
     
    This is absolutely wrong. Time is made out of neither lines nor circles, it is more like the branches of a tree. We'll call the trunk of the tree the original timeline, the one that existed when everything began. Then come along us clever humans who can make conscious decisions. Each decision we make, the tree branches off, each branch representing the various different choices we could have made. This is obviously quite a large tree.
     
    Now, don't get me wrong, universes aren't shaped like trees (physicists can't agree on the shape, but it really relevant at the moment), rather, the conceptual functioning of the splitting of timelines looks like a tree.
     
     
    The Time Machine
     
    Right, we've got our parallel universes and we've got our time tree, now for the fun part: our time machine. Before we begin, we have to imagine that cost and technology are not an issue as this deals with things that may take eons for humanity to develop.
     
    The machine itself doesn't need to be anything fancy. Just something big enough for you and anyone you intend to bring with you to fit in. Here's what it needs to do, though:
     
    1) Escape the fourth dimension
     
    According to Einstein (who seemed to know what he was talking about), we live in four dimensions of space-time (length, height, depth, and time). As we are all moving forward through the fourth dimension at more or less the same speed (except for those of us who can move at the speed of light), if we want to move backwards through time, we will need to escape its clutches. Now, since dimensions 5-10 are somehow wrapped up in superstrings, we'll need to journey to the 11th dimension, or the plane that contains all the various universes on membranes (just go with me on this, it's what physicists are saying).
     
    Going forward through time is much easier (just freeze yourself and wait), but if ever you want to get back to where you started, you're still going to need to go back.
     
    2) Make you feel at home
     
    As you depart the fourth dimension, you'll find that you sorely miss the laws of physics as the atoms that form your body begin folding in on themselves. So, the interior cabin of your time machine will need to retain or simulate a pocket of four dimensional space-time so that you don't crumble into dust.
     
    3) Be able to navigate the "time tree"
     
    Since your eyes probably aren't adjusted to working in the 11th dimension, you'll need your time machine to have the capability to detect your point of origin on the time tree and then calculate where it is you would like to re-enter the fourth dimension. Once again, problematic in that the concept of "where" would be quite different in the 11th dimension, but let's just say it's doable.
     
     
    Changing the Past
     
    The main issues that people have with time travel is that if you mess with the past you could alter the future so that you would never have travelled back in time in the first place, thus never having changed the past...
     
    This is a paradox. Logically, an action cannot cause or prevent itself from occurring.
     
    Therefore, as your time machine enters the past, you will instantly create a new time branch, given that you did not exist in the original series of events. Now, you can do whatever you like, even kill your past self with no adverse effects because the future that your actions create is a different one than the one you came from.
     
    Similarly, if I were to go into the future and bring back a Playstation 4, I would create a different timeline and thus a new future than the one the device originated from.
     
     
    Benefiting from Changing the Past
     
    Unless you wanted to watch the Egyptians build the pyramids or see what colour dinosaurs were, chances are you travelled back in time to change something in order to improve the life you presently live.
     
    Let's say you're a broken-hearted inventor with a time machine. Five years ago, your wife got in a car accident and now you're all alone. The accident was preventable, though, and you could have saved her. So you go back in time and save your wife's life. She happily returns home to your past self and it looks like all is well.
     
    Feeling rather pleased with yourself, you return to your own time only to find that nothing has changed. "That's right," you say. "I need to go to a future that stemmed from the change I made." So you hop back in your machine and jump one universe over, to the exact same time, where you find your alternate universe self still happily married.
     
    Now you're left with a difficult decision:
     
    A) Let them live together happily and get on with your life.
    B) Convince your alternate universe self to trade lives with you (this shouldn't be too hard, heck, in your life, you own a working time machine!).
    C) Kill your alternate universe self, dispose of the body, and then pretend to be him.
     
    Sticky, yes, but paradox-free.
     
     
    Well, I hope you budding geniuses out there will be able to use this lesson to work out the kinks in your time machines. If this does help you, you can repay me by getting me a pet Compsognathus.
  22. SPIRIT

    Thief!

    By SPIRIT,

    So this morning my dad got ready for work as usual and went into the garage only to come back inside a few minutes later to report that it had been broken into last night. Some loose change was missing along with random things like a pair of gloves he kept in his car.
     
    Now here's the annoying part: I probably could've stopped this.
     
    My room is right by the garage and as I was up late on the computer, I thought I heard a noise like the side door to the garage opening, but I just dismissed it as the wind. I debated checking it out, but I just assumed that my mind was playing tricks on me. I also probably could've taken the guy since I'm a six foot tall, seventy kilogram, nineteen year old male and there are a variety of weapons I had access to that I could have defended myself with that I had easy access to (a wooden baseball bat and an aluminum cane to name a few).
     
    Right now I'm all jittery with adrenaline thinking "what if I'd gone to check".
     
    And like, nothing important was stolen, we literally keep nothing of value in the garage apart from our cars, but it's just the principle of it all. I live in a supposedly low-crime suburban neighbourhood; people and possessions are supposed to be safe at night. Whoever the thief was, he clearly needed the money more than we did, but all the same, stealing isn't something I condone.
     
    All I can say is, whoever did this better watch themselves. Fool me once, shame on... shame on you. Fool me -- you can't get fooled again.
  23. SPIRIT

    What Is This I Don't Even

    By SPIRIT,

    So I was procrastinating today.
     
    "Whoa, SPIRIT was procrastinating? Stop the presses!"
     

     
    So I decided to see what this whole Twitter craze was about and went to check out the site. On the main page, they've got like this search bar, so I thought to myself, hey, why don't I see if people are tweeting about BIONICLE?
     
    So I search for some random BIONICLE words and while I'm sifting through the results when I come upon a series of... just weird tweets. I don't know if this is a prank or some promotion by LEGO... but it's just... weird...
    [twitter=10]_Tahu[/twitter]
    So yeah, here is the guy's profile. There's also a bunch of other accounts he's following that seem to be doing the same sort of thing.
     
    Has anyone else seen this? I don't even know what to say about it...
  24. SPIRIT

    Stocks With Spirit

    By SPIRIT,

    And now for a brief review of recent stock trends with our financial expert SPIRIT.
     
    Shares in ORLY dropped 0.27 points, AFK dropped 0.34 points, BRB dropped 0.05 points, GTG remained neutral, IMHO dropped 0.670 points, and BFF remained neutral.
     
    Truly this is not a good day for stocks humorously bearing the names of common Internet abbreviations.
  25. SPIRIT

    This Isn't The End!

    By SPIRIT,

    Well, it might be the end of BIONICLE, but it's not the end of me.
     
    For those who have been wondering whether I'm coming out with a new Flash video or writing anything else after my comedy, the answer is yes, but they won't to be about BIONICLE.
     
    I plan to still create stuff, but I think it's high time I started making something a little more original than the BIONICLE-based projects I've saddled myself with these past six years. I'll try to keep you guys updated on what I'm up to, but at this point all I can say is that there is stuff on the way, but it isn't BIONICLE-related.
     
    Now return to your chaotic panic about the end of the world.
×
×
  • Create New...