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[~ Gheb ~]

EE, who are those "historical heroes" you are talking about?

 

[#HBC | Joker]

Impact go! Dash dash dash!

And wrt Oblivion's architecture all looking the same... what? Each hold has completely different architecture influenced by the various regions of the empire. It's pretty easy to see the differences, and how they coorelate to the cultural influenxes present in each hold, so I'm a little shocked to hear someone say "it all looks the same". It doesn't.

 

[adumbrodeus]

...

Oblivion didn't have holds, you're thinking of skyrim and yes skyrim had markedly different architectural styles.


The thing is, the different cities of oblivion while they had differences, they didn't look like there was any major stylistic differences. They looked like different areas of the same city, comparing Cheydinhal to the imperial city was like comparing downtown manhatten to Queens, not comparing NYC to Paris. There is no real difference in inspiration, just a difference of execution, function, and social class present.

Add to that the inspiration that was used in oblivion is ground that's been tread and retread in a million other games, compare it to morrowind's utterly unique architectural styles and it's just wanting.


Of course the shivering isles is exempt from this, in every respect.

 

[#HBC | Joker]

Except that Bruma was architecturally similar to a Skyrim city (specifically, Whiterun) in every respect. Anvil looked like a Hammerfell port city. Cheydinhal had imperial architecture with clear Morrowind influences (it's not a coincidence that a Dunmer, with a Khajit slave, was the count), Leyawiin looked like a city from Black Marsh, and so did Bravil. They all looked pretty different to me.

 

[adumbrodeus]

I think you were trying too hard to find differences bro

 

[Wots All This Then?]

So my friend is getting me a free 3ds/ds game for xmas. Any suggestions?[already beat OoT and KH:DDD]

 

[Overswarm]

So my friend is getting me a free 3ds/ds game for xmas. Any suggestions?[already beat OoT and KH:DDD]

Professor Layton.

 

[Wots All This Then?]

What's it like?[genre, style of play, etc]

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

http://bit.ly/QLreYI

 

[BarDulL]

What's it like?[genre, style of play, etc]

It's a puzzle/riddle game. Can't really describe it well, so here's some gameplay footage.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FUmiqmS6kjU#t=1m27s

I enjoyed Curious Village, but never stuck with it. It's elite though.

 

[Wots All This Then?]

Alright, seems solid.
Any others to consider?

 

[Raziek]

What genres do you enjoy?

 

[Wots All This Then?]

Puzzle solvers, Puzzle/platformers, Sonic esque stuff, RPGs[ff and the ilk], KH's type free roam combat, and action/adventure games.

that's the jist of it

 

[JTB]

So my friend is getting me a free 3ds/ds game for xmas. Any suggestions?[already beat OoT and KH:DDD]

Cave story 3ds
Theatrhythm
Super Mario 3d land

 

[Gova]

Zero Escape.

 

[Overswarm]

With what tools did the people of Egypt use to build the Giza pyramid? How the hell did they do it?

This one isn't too hard. Stones were super heavy so they did it one of two ways.

1) it's a prehistoric version of concrete and the blocks were formed one at a time (Joseph Davidovitts theory in 1979, you can see the theory here http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=znQk_yBHre4)

2) they did something to account for the weight

For #2, most people thought that either there was a large straight ramp used to drag the stone up on sleds or rolled on logs, machines involving counter-weights used to lift one block to another (my least favorite), or a spiral ramp. All three would work, just be difficult.

According to Jean-Pierre Houdin, there was an internal ramp used to move counter weights to raise the nine granite beams for the King's chamber ceiling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=WYnTlGFPcAc#!

You can see it above shown digitally about halfway through or so.

Is there a true meaning to life that we all share? Are we merely, in truth, organisms operating mindlessly in conjunction with one another in an effort to bring about the propagation of our species, or is there something more to it than that?

Three potential answers.

1) Yes
2) No
3) Maybe


For yes to be true, you have to consider some sort of omnipotent or near-omnipotent diety or creator that shapes our existence. This is not far fetched as you can see that were are pretty fine tuned towards the religious anyway.

For no to be true, you have to consider the fact that we are NOT created by any sort of creator and it is all random happenstance. If this were the case, there would be no "universal" meaning. That said, you could find personal meaning.

For maybe to be true, this would have to have either a neutral god or some other omnipotent creator. The gods of Olympus could be seen in this light. This is also the case if we are actually a simulation of reality, rather than the "true" reality.

When you look at our universe you see some troubling things the more "specific" you get. There's a natural speed limit for acceleration, there's a space limit, and for some reason space can be ignored entirely on a quantum level suggesting that there is an over-arching framework that ignores both space and time. These have all been more or less proven within our lifetimes.

The only one that isn't entirely true is the speed of light being a limit, because things can go faster they just can't ACCELERATE faster, which prevents them from doing so in the first place. For something to accelerate to the speed of light its mass would become infinite which wouldn't work out at all, but for things ALREADY moving at the speed of light there would be no discernable change. This is theoretically possible with matterless material.

But given all that, the only thing we can really determine is if we are the smallest form of a simulation. Can we simulate our own reality? Yes! We already do on a small scale so we aren't the smallest simulation.

It'd also explain our own existence quite nicely. Who would want to create a bunch of humans other than humans themselves? It is theorized that reviewing past events would be easier via a simulation rather than a time machine or other far fetched ideas. Just recreate the environment with a super powerful computer down to the molecular level and things SHOULD play out the exact same.

So why is that important? Well, if they created our universe to recreate the 1900s to 2100s, our purpose is simply to recreate it. Just like the Sims purpose is to do whatever we tell them to do.

However, if we are a full-on running simulation and they are merely capturing data or already saw what they needed and left the simulation running, then our purpose is already fulfilled and we do not have one. So "maybe", dependent on what time in the simulation we are.

Why haven't the French decided to stop arbitrarily assigning objects to either be feminine or masculine yet? Why did they even start doing that in the first place? What even in the ****.

Language is an inherent part of culture. The American English dialect is unique in that it absorbs everything from every language. We say words from many languages and just make 'em English. Bandana, sayanara (however you spell that), asta la vista, las vegas, san diego, kentucky (indian word for "dark and bloody ground"), you name it.

French and many other languages, on the other hand, do not consider things that aren't french to BE french. And they are correct; the current french culture is dying and being replaced, as every past culture has.

If someone believed that the arbitrary feminine/masculine thing needed to go, france would still want to keep it. They still make people say "courrier electronique" instead of l'email in a formal setting because "email" isn't a french word. Don't expect this to last long.

The reason French uses genders in the first place is because it is one of the Romance languages. It was descended from Latin by the Romans. English, which does not have masculine/feminine, decended from a Germanic language. Latin had six cases, five declensions, and three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). While the cases and declensions were narrowed down significantly in the Old French era of 840-1400, the genders remained the same. It later simplified further the same way all languages do: the simpler thing lived on.

This is also why you will see more, not less, txt speak in teh future. Just the same way we write "OK" instead of "okay", you will see more things like this occur. "Then" and "than"? Going to be "then" only within a hundred years. Whom? Already dead and just used by pedants. Languages evolve, but French wants to stick to its Romance roots because it considers it an integral part of its culture and, indeed, it is. To take away a language is to take away how it defines the world in which they live.

Fastest way to lose weight and subsequently reach a body fat percentage of 10%? Then what's the best way to bulk up afterwards while retaining good bodily symmetry and balance for higher levels of attraction?

You should talk to Praxis for this in regards to nutrition, he's a good descriptor. Honestly most of this is determined at a genetic level, but you can influence it heavily.

However: there is no such thing as "cut" and "bulk". That's stuff from like 50 years ago, so if you're reading body building books they are giving you bro science and not real science.

To lower your body fat percentage, lose body fat.

To lose body fat, simply take in less calories than you expend. That's it. Literally nothing else to it.

Calories in, calories out.

Energy cannot be created or destroyed and your body can't run without energy. Period. You can starve anyone and they will get real skinny. You don't want to do that but you can find a safe point where you eat less.

I weigh anywhere between 130 to 140 lbs at my heaviest when I was looking to gain muscle. I now eat one meal a day on average (this is bad but it helps lower calorie count; just be aware that your levels of LDL Cholesterol will be much higher than they should be because of this). You don't have to do this.

You can just eat less at all meals. You can eat candy bars all day and you'll still lose weight if you don't eat enough.

But you probably won't a more regimented answer, so:

#1 Eat your colors

You need low calories, and you need nutrition. How do you do this? Vegetables. Lots of them. Slightly less fruit. Even less meat. Hardly any grains (they are calorie dense). No processed foods if you can avoid it.

To determine what vegetables to eat you can do your research OR you can just eat your colors. Green, red, purple, yellow, orange, fill your plate with colors and you'll probably hit a lot.

You CAN get by on a meat only diet or things like that just to lose weight but this can wreak havoc on your body if you aren't careful. It can be completely safe, but you have to be on your game to do something like this.

Your body can create all the amino acids it needs except for handful. Beans and corn fill all of those amino acids. You can get vitamins, minerals, and the like from all your vegetables.

#2 Keep calories low

We've got a bunch of vegetables and some fruit and some beans and all our major nutritional needs are met, so what now? What do we eat to keep our calories low?

You will eat chicken breast. Lots and lots and lots of chicken breast. This will fit #3. It is high in protein, low in fat. If you want to season it with something, use balsamic vinegar, salsa, salt (if you don't have high blood pressure) or mustard (TRUE mustard).

You will eat NO condiments of any kind that have a calorie count. At all. No ketchup, no BBQ sauce, nothing. If it has a calorie you don't use it.

#3 Protein and Fiber

Protein has a high satiety value. That means it fills you up and keeps you filled up. Fiber does the same thing and while Protein has a calorie content Fiber does not.

If you eat a lot of fiber (in vegetables, already are) and protein (chicken breast) you will remain full while eating less!

#4 Get rid of fat slowly

You want to lose it fast, but you said you wanted to gain muscle later? Then you want to lose fat slowly. Your body will EAT YOUR MUSCLE if you aren't careful. You HAVE to have good nutrition when losing weight.

Now I'm sure you've seen someone big lose a ton of weight, then gain it all back. This is because your body is smarter than you and it likes fat from a survival perspective. Plus, you NEVER EVER LOSE YOUR FAT CELLS. They are with you for life. If you fill all your fat cells up, you will actually gain new fat cells. When you lose fat, you just SHRINK them down.

So you need your nutrition.

#5. Drink water

Lots and lots and lots of water. You should be drinking two full glasses of water every day the moment you wake up. This speeds up your metabolism and causes your body to use more energy than even exercising in the morning. Seriously. Drinking two cups of water in the morning might be enough to have you lose weight with doing nothing else.

#6. Exercise

Excercise and do it EVERY DAY. Cardio EVERY DAY.

Not only will this improve your body's physique and prepare you to do some resistance training later to gain muscle, but it's how you keep your base metabolic rate at a higher level!

If you sit down all day, you need way less calories.

If you run all day, you need way more.

If you run all day and then one day can't for some reason? Your metabolism burns more because it's used to it. Seriously.

Don't skimp on exercising. Don't like running? Tough. You're making sacrifices.


To gain muscle later, you need to exercise with resistance training and maintain good nutrition. Now what KIND is dependent upon what exactly you want to exercise for. Do you want strength, looks, speed, endurance? Classical or modern look? Square pecs or round pecs? Different styles for all of them. If you life 5 days a week with intensity and focus all year long with great nutrition, you will gain 5 to 10 pounds of muscle in a year. Those are the high end expectations.

You need to get a good workout plan. I linked to one below.

For both, I would suggest watching Scooby1961. He's a great guy and very informative.

If you don't know how to cook or don't like the idea of eating broccoli, chicken breast, and brown rice every day while pumping your cardio, watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m9J5uHdUsNs

And then review this page here: http://scoobysworkshop.com/bodybuilding-nutrition-made-simple/

If you want to know about cardio, watch this to see a pro going over what he thinks is important:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d2WSCKu7eI0


If you want to know about bulking up and adding muscle:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w7dlrupsBWw

Workout plan:
http://scoobysworkshop.com/home-workout-plans/


Seriously, if you want to actually lose weight and gain muscle, follow Scooby on youtube. The guy sells absolutely nothing and is the real deal and he is a natural at it. Watch his videos while you are changing your nutrition and doing cardio. Save up money while you're doing this for a gym membership or weights. Then when you get your body fat down and you've convinced yourself you can stick to this new nutrition forever? Get your weights and go at it.


Link to his main channel:
http://scoobysworkshop.com/

 

[BSL]

gordammit.

adum/anyone recommend me some morrowind mods on the off chance i play it again? i'm thinking a graphics update and myabe some kinda quest helper so i stop getting horrifically lost.

also goemon was great, particularly the bits with the giant robot :D

JVK, imo.

 

[BSL]

Rule #5: Remove competition; motivation is a habit

...

Don't equate things with "funness" or "enjoyment". Just equate them with their reason to be done in the first place. THAT is how you order importance. If you logically sit down and say "Will I do homework or will I play video games", it starts to seem like an obvious choice as to which is more fulfilling. When you then say "I have to do homework so I can get a good grade and make strong connections with this content that can help me later in life in addition to graduating" and that has to go up against "I like shooting zombies" it's like splashing cold water on your brain. Suddenly you feel like an ******* for playing games instead of doing homework, or talking on facebook, or whatever.

OS, what do I do?

I know the reason I need to do my homework. I know the reason I need to study. I know the reason I need to do X.

But when I've got "I have to do X so I can ... be more successful" going up against "I like feeding doublebuffs to KeviM's laning opponent," I end up just doing option 2 even though I feel like an ******* for it.

help

 

[Overswarm]

"Successful" is the wrong word. Be more specific. Also, you need the same tense for both.

If you say you have to do X so you can make more money or something and still don't do it then your value system is either skewed or you're lying to yourself.

Do you actually WANT to be successful/make more money/whatever? Or are you happy now and maybe that is what is holding you back?

Chances are you're happy now, and that has doomed many a man. How many people from high school do you know that end up in ****ty lives because they just listen to music and play the same 3 songs on their electric guitar that's missing a string and go work at the same gas station they've worked at for the past 8 years and never feel like getting up off their butts? The people whose highlight of the week is getting drunk with the same few guys, and nothing ever changes?

Those people say "I'm happy" and stick with it.

The difference is short term and long term thinking.

You're pitting LONG TERM goals against SHORT TERM goals.

If you cannot mentally distinguish between the two and realize that you're failing the marshmallow test, if you do not recognize that failing that test dooms you to failure, then you need to uninstall LoL, plain and simple.

I enjoy playing Civ V. I'm playing the Gods and Kings expansion right now and it's a blast. I play it for hours at a time even!

If I thought for a second that it was harming my relationship with my girlfriend, I'd uninstall it in a heartbeat. If you can't uninstall LoL, then man up and do it anyway. You can reinstall it during your breaks from school or limit yourself to only certain days of play if you have the ability to do so.

 

[BSL]

kthx

 

[Ignatius]

Sayo nara

 

[Handorin]

The reason French uses genders in the first place is because it is one of the Romance languages. It was descended from Latin by the Romans. English, which does not have masculine/feminine, decended from a Germanic language. Latin had six cases, five declensions, and three genders (masculine, feminine, and neuter). While the cases and declensions were narrowed down significantly in the Old French era of 840-1400, the genders remained the same. It later simplified further the same way all languages do: the simpler thing lived on.

English is a Germanic language, but that isn't why we don't have article genders. (I don't know why, but I do know...) German has three genders. I can understand, to some degree, Danish and whatever language they speak in the Netherlands (cause I only remember what it's called in German... >_>), and I believe they also have 3. They're also Germanic, I imagine.

 

[Overswarm]

English is a Germanic language, but that isn't why we don't have article genders. (I don't know why, but I do know...) German has three genders. I can understand, to some degree, Danish and whatever language they speak in the Netherlands (cause I only remember what it's called in German... >_>), and I believe they also have 3. They're also Germanic, I imagine.

Aye, did not mean to imply that was the case. Germanic languages as a whole do not remove gender as a whole. I was just trying to illustrate how there were different origins of language and French, being a Romance language, came from a strain that had many more variables that had been narrowed down. Old English itself had gender.

 

[Handorin]

And if you think about it, we almost have one gender. Most people consider ships, cars, etc. to be female. So you almost always hear "she" or girl names.

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

...Dutch?..

I mean, really?

 

[#HBC | Joker]

I hear they make a mean oven

 

[#HBC | Red Ryu]

someone needs to ask me to teach them something

I want to do that again

but I don't know what to teach you guys

What are the best ways too look introvert for improvement in a more general sense?

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

I hear they make a mean oven

We go double.

 

[Evil Eye]

@Bardull: No the grammar was not fine, god damn it

Word tho @ French. I thought you meant the designation of masculine/feminine objects and other such elements of 'gendered' language at all, not the specific arbitrary form of categorization. That's definitely whackness


@Gheb: I mean, there are lots of examples and they fall on a wide spectrum (hey there's that word I was lookin' for earlier). A bus driver gave his shoes away to a homeless man recently because he'd seen the guy walking around barefoot and just couldn't stand for it. That is minor, but also a personal inconvenience of a fairly notable amount (imagine going through your daily routine, but suddenly you don't have shoes partway through it).

Then there's dudes like Stanislav Petrov, who had the balls to defy the infallible Soviet Union's military machine and may have prevented world war three: nuclear boogalee as a result. Remember that defying the unfailing superiority of the USSR as a Soviet citizen, much less a military man, was a pretty good way to ruin your life.

Or John Basilone, who held the line against Japanese forces in Guadalcanal for three days without sleep, food, or rest, and personally took the suicide run job of fighting through the Japanese to acquire and then redistribute the depleting ammunition reserves for the turret guns. By the end of it Basilone had nothing left but his .45, but the entire Japanese regiment was more or less annihilated. He was brought home as a hero, given the Medal of Honor, went on a war bond tour and generally had a cozy life of lapping it all up for his own gain, pride, safety, you name it... before specifically requesting a return to the Pacific theatre, resulting in his death on the first day of Iwo Jima.

I know military examples of heroism are shaky, but you really can't deny that people like Petrov and Basilone had not only balls of steel but some kind of internal drive to do things that felt right, ended up being crucial to the well-being and lives of others, and yet were obviously to their own personal detriment. Heroism totally exists and you're just being a snide cynic to suggest otherwise.

 

[Evil Eye]

What are the best ways too look introvert for improvement in a more general sense?

I have literally no idea what this question is

 

[Evil Eye]

ruy are you drunk

have you imbibed liquids of an inherently intoxicating nature?

 

[BSL]

By "look introvert" he means self reflecting, I believe. He wants to know how to assess the way he acts and improve it. I could be all of the off base, here.


As for selflessness, OS stop being a big dummy head. The fact that your postulated general cause of selflessness (feelgoods) can't satisfy the most undeniable act of selflessness (saving someone's life at your own life's expense) sort of shows that it might not be right.

Sure, some people do act selfless when really they are only doing it to please themselves, but don't discredit all acts that appear selfless because of it.

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

Naw OS is right. Silly Emolga, Volt Switch back into my Pokéball imo.

 

[BSL]

B[

okeball:

 

[Evil Eye]

Also:

Soldiers jumping on grenades. It's not a movie cliché, it ****ing happens.

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

:hamtaro::hamtaro:

 

[vanderzant]

To all these self improvement questions, I thought I'd share a bit of advice I've given people before (forgive me if this doesn't apply to anyone, too lazy to read back).

Motivation. It's often described as a catalyst that inspires people to improvement or success, i.e. getting fit or turning your life around. Well motivation is bull****, and I can guarantee that if you think it's "motivation" you need to be successful at whatever it is you want, you're sadly never going to succeed. What is it you need then? Commitment and dedication. You have to be prepared to fail over and over again before you see any results. Does an olympic marathon runner wake up at 4am every morning and run 30kms because he feels motivated? No, he does it because he is committed to his training and knows exactly what is required of him to succeed. And even then he is prepared to run last place or get injured, because that's life. Motivation can be a catalyst, but without commitment and dedication you won't get anywhere, no matter how much motivation you have.

So my friend is getting me a free 3ds/ds game for xmas. Any suggestions?[already beat OoT and KH:DDD]

Virtue's Last Reward (Zero Escape in US I presume). Playing it now and it's awesome.

Also happy birthday Xonar

 

[Handorin]

...Dutch?..

I mean, really?

I always call it niederländisch or Holländisch. >_>

 

[#HBC | ZoZo]

niederlandisch I can understand

Hollandisch is plain out wrong though. Holland =/= Netherlands.

 

[Handorin]

niederlandisch I can understand

Hollandisch is plain out wrong though. Holland =/= Netherlands.

It's a part of it though, right? I normally said niederländisch, but a lot of Germans call it Holländisch as well, so it's kind of a forced habit for me to subconsciously say it without meaning it