Re:I just wanted to say....
on
Strike on Iraq
·
· Score: 1
Hi. I thought that since you'd gone to the
trouble of replying to my post, I'd get my
password recovered and discuss it with you. So
here I am.
There's only two things I really want to say.
It seems that in disagreeing with you, I've
tarred myself with a different brush - I agree
with the need for regime change in Iraq, and I
believe I said so in the post you were replying
to. To take the example of the snake, however,
I'd rather that the snake was killed with a
single bullet to the head, than the repeated
clubbings of its body with ironwood staves. I
wish we had a better reason to give people though
than atrocities which have been carried out in
full sight of our governments for nearly twenty
years, in some cases with our overt or tacit
support. Better late than never, I guess.
To me, for a coalition that is so convinced of
it's moral position as to not care about the
opinion of the non-coalition nations, I don't
understand why instead of an all-out war,
directed assassination wasn't used against
selected members of the Iraqi government.
Perhaps I don't understand the logistics. I feel
this, while ethically murky, is much easier on
the population that this action is trying to
liberate, and would result in greatly reduced
loss of life on all sides.
Second, I don't understand how my country owes
the United States for its prosperity. While we
have certainly achieved great things together,
Australia also trades with Europe, and is
influenced by European, particularly English
political and social ideas, values and
structures. Even if we did, that is still no
reason to give you a carte blanche - history
seems to portray to me that America ( and
practically everywhere else ) is a nation in
permanent ethical and moral flux, capable of
epitomising the best in human nature (
Innovation, equality, foreign aid and assistance,
etc ) and the worst ( McCarthyism, Tuskegee
Syphilis Study, etc ). So you'll have to forgive
me, but I will never write a blank cheque for any
nation - I don't trust them enough in the long
run.
I hope you and your loved ones are safe and
well, and I consider us both lucky to be born
into progressive western democracies.
However...;-) I am not the same person as YOU FAIL IT! and his alias Failure Guy. I think there are three or four people all running around under various "FAIL" nicknames because we like the joke, and I'm just one of them.:-)
Sorry if this is a dissapointment, but thank you anyway.:-)
I can't believe I skimmed right over the top of that. ( I'm reading at work and sort of flicking back and forward between Slashdot and Crystal Reports ). Thanks for setting me straight.:-)
Leathermans are a type of high quality multi-tool, with blades, pliers, etc. They're usually pretty much indestructable, but I broke the blade on one opening a coconut on Fiji. Perhaps it was a magic coconut.
So think of a Swiss Army Knife on steroids.
Another nice thing is that the pliers on some models can be 'snapped out' with one hand. Very useful if you're hanging from a lighting rig in a theater with one.
Well, you can have that opinion if you like. I think our higher education systems are different.
Over here, the government will practically pay for your first degree, even at a private university, and few people who are really interested in attending university miss out - particularly as students who are prepared to defer for a year can usually enter many courses without any scholastic prerequisites as 'Mature Age Students'.
Of course some people sometimes end up doing a different course than what they had in mind. This is sometimes a good thing.
Second, technical and artistic students usually attend the same Universities as everyone else - there are far fewer of them, but they offer more diverse courses.
When I say that University is a flattener, I obviously mean its a flattener for those that attend it, not some society wide panacea for injustice. And I take exception that you think I see people who choose ( or don't choose ) to not attend a university as non-persons, as it is not true.
Ok, I think we'll just agree to disagree. Your list of values to see in friends was interesting though - something I'm working on at the moment uses a similar set of values ( Dignity, Honesty, Truth, Honour ) as parameters to evaluate 'the good life'.
Ok, perhaps I misunderstood your post ( you came across as somewhat misanthropic ), and perhaps you misunderstood mine ( I wish slashdot had an 'edit' function ). Reading your replies to other posts, I can see the emphasis you put on a smaller circle of friends, and that's great.:-)
Your experiences with the 'in group' have obviously been pretty shitty - that sucks, but it doesn't happen to everyone. Six years down the track, I still see people who I graduated from high school with, and we laugh and joke and have fun - as equals, not as some kind of relationship of obesience to the 'in group'. It feels great to be walking down a street in an unfamiliar part of town and suddenly come across a friendly, familiar face.
And I still think popularity has a point - it lets you meet new people - lots of new people! This is one of my favourite things. Some of these people you'll never see again, and some of them will go on to form lasting relationships or friendships with you. Both are good.
I apologise for coming across so confrontationally, but this is a very sensitive issue for me - I have friends ( yes, real friends:-) that, for example, only know six or seven people well in my entire city. These people are lonely, and that's sad. And they feel like they can't reach out and make more friends, because they have no confidence, or don't know how. This is even sadder.
I guess Australian conceptions of popularity are different to what goes on overseas, where I'm told the students are much more aggressive and cliquey, so what I'm saying here may have no application for you. But perhaps you can get something from it.
Anyway, I apologise again if I've annoyed you, and I accept your comments about "best years", but I think the years from 16-35 are when we have the most freedom to be what we want to be, and I think we should make a point of enjoying them.:-)
And in answer to your question, I would count about 15-20 of my regular associates as close friends - these are the people that would take me into their homes if I was out of a job, help me move house, come and take care of me if I was sick, etc. Many of them have had to do these things in the past. It is possible to form real friendships with lots of people, and I think it's a desireable thing.:-)
realize that that going to university is a wonderful cure for nerd megalomania
I love this about University, both as a student and later as a junior educator - it's a tremendous flattener of the social hierachy, and everyone is set free with a clean slate to take what they've learned of society and their field and really make something of themselves without preconceptions from their peers.
I think everyone should go to university if they can, even if they might not be following that career path. It'll be the best four years of your life - an amazing rollercoaster of learning and self-discovery. I'm planning to go back a few more times before I get too old.:-)
What advantage is there to being popular? I mean really?
What point has life without friendship and social relations? I know I won't give a flying fuck about all the software I've written when I'm sixty and retired - or when I'm 85 and dead!
I would much rather be out on the town partying with friends than sitting in a darkened room figuring out why libDV is miscompiling - don't you people understand? When you are gone, none of this will matter, and the best you can hope for is that you will have left some happy memories for those that survive you.
Please, for your own sake, try and enjoy your lives before they are over, and before the best years of your lives fly past. Of course, if you do prefer debugging programs to the stuff people do together in the flesh, the laughter and socialising and romance, then go for it. It's not for me, or anyone else to tell you otherwise.
But don't refuse to see the value of popularity, and never think it's beyond your grasp - I would say that 90% of 'nerds' could become paragons of friendliness and popularity if they just came out of their shells! Don't change your clothes, don't take up a sport, don't join a gang, just be yourself, smile at people and learn to listen!
I will stop ranting here, but I should point out that the essential lack of intrinsic value in most computing work these days outside of the research and some OSS community projects is what has lent me to switching from an IT career to a teaching one ( including teaching IT at university ). Computing is just a means to a result. Don't forget that.
I see your point - I thought that the U of the Andes also went by that name ( obviously its the N.Y. university I've been hearing of ) - so it's probably a good idea to mod that post into the pit from which it came.:-)
I apologise for the misspelling of Colombia, but the linked article says "a posting on www.uk.co from the top-level domain.co owner - the University of the Andes in Bogota, Colombia". ( my emphasis )
And that's good enough for me! Sorry again about the spelling though!
Yup, it's Columbia. The domain in question is owned by the Univ. of Columbia, and they want to sell it off, like Tuvalu did. The government is not too happy, and this has sparked something of a pissing match.
Read the article on el Reg, it's got the goods.
Personally, I believe people that do this ( like the.au.com people ) deserve what they get.
Slashdot Mirror
There's only two things I really want to say. It seems that in disagreeing with you, I've tarred myself with a different brush - I agree with the need for regime change in Iraq, and I believe I said so in the post you were replying to. To take the example of the snake, however, I'd rather that the snake was killed with a single bullet to the head, than the repeated clubbings of its body with ironwood staves. I wish we had a better reason to give people though than atrocities which have been carried out in full sight of our governments for nearly twenty years, in some cases with our overt or tacit support. Better late than never, I guess.
To me, for a coalition that is so convinced of it's moral position as to not care about the opinion of the non-coalition nations, I don't understand why instead of an all-out war, directed assassination wasn't used against selected members of the Iraqi government. Perhaps I don't understand the logistics. I feel this, while ethically murky, is much easier on the population that this action is trying to liberate, and would result in greatly reduced loss of life on all sides.
Second, I don't understand how my country owes the United States for its prosperity. While we have certainly achieved great things together, Australia also trades with Europe, and is influenced by European, particularly English political and social ideas, values and structures. Even if we did, that is still no reason to give you a carte blanche - history seems to portray to me that America ( and practically everywhere else ) is a nation in permanent ethical and moral flux, capable of epitomising the best in human nature ( Innovation, equality, foreign aid and assistance, etc ) and the worst ( McCarthyism, Tuskegee Syphilis Study, etc ). So you'll have to forgive me, but I will never write a blank cheque for any nation - I don't trust them enough in the long run.
I hope you and your loved ones are safe and well, and I consider us both lucky to be born into progressive western democracies.
Yours,
You Likewise Fail It
Yours,
YLFI.
I can only hope Internet Taxation proposals fail as horrifyingly as your attempt at FP! YOU FAIL IT!
It's a martian with a phaser-gun!, shouted Bugs, He's going to turn you into an ice-cream pie!
I can also remember Bugs Meaney's "2) ???" was "Trying to figure out why the stomach doesn't digest itself."
What was the girls name? Sally? She had Spunk.
YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT!
I would like to remind you that second place is FIRST FAILURE. YOU HAVE LIKEWISE FAILED IT!
struggling late first post
what part of 'first' don't you get?
YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT
Review is at gamesdomain. I'm afraid the only way to describe this game is that THEY FAILED IT.
They "screech", I believe.
Your FAILURE to discern this fact has earned you HONORARY FAILURE.
YOU LIKEWISE FAIL IT!
Keep up the good work, citizen!
However... ;-) I am not the same person as YOU FAIL IT! and his alias Failure Guy. I think there are three or four people all running around under various "FAIL" nicknames because we like the joke, and I'm just one of them. :-)
Sorry if this is a dissapointment, but thank you anyway. :-)
That would be Australia.
I can't believe I skimmed right over the top of that. ( I'm reading at work and sort of flicking back and forward between Slashdot and Crystal Reports ). Thanks for setting me straight. :-)
So think of a Swiss Army Knife on steroids.
Another nice thing is that the pliers on some models can be 'snapped out' with one hand. Very useful if you're hanging from a lighting rig in a theater with one.
You can read more about them at their website!
Incidently, what are these 'F' and 'D' tables people keep referring to? I take it these are America-only?
Over here, the government will practically pay for your first degree, even at a private university, and few people who are really interested in attending university miss out - particularly as students who are prepared to defer for a year can usually enter many courses without any scholastic prerequisites as 'Mature Age Students'.
Of course some people sometimes end up doing a different course than what they had in mind. This is sometimes a good thing.
Second, technical and artistic students usually attend the same Universities as everyone else - there are far fewer of them, but they offer more diverse courses.
When I say that University is a flattener, I obviously mean its a flattener for those that attend it, not some society wide panacea for injustice. And I take exception that you think I see people who choose ( or don't choose ) to not attend a university as non-persons, as it is not true.
Hope it turns out well for you!
- Bryn
Your experiences with the 'in group' have obviously been pretty shitty - that sucks, but it doesn't happen to everyone. Six years down the track, I still see people who I graduated from high school with, and we laugh and joke and have fun - as equals, not as some kind of relationship of obesience to the 'in group'. It feels great to be walking down a street in an unfamiliar part of town and suddenly come across a friendly, familiar face.
And I still think popularity has a point - it lets you meet new people - lots of new people! This is one of my favourite things. Some of these people you'll never see again, and some of them will go on to form lasting relationships or friendships with you. Both are good.
I apologise for coming across so confrontationally, but this is a very sensitive issue for me - I have friends ( yes, real friends :-) that, for example, only know six or seven people well in my entire city. These people are lonely, and that's sad. And they feel like they can't reach out and make more friends, because they have no confidence, or don't know how. This is even sadder.
I guess Australian conceptions of popularity are different to what goes on overseas, where I'm told the students are much more aggressive and cliquey, so what I'm saying here may have no application for you. But perhaps you can get something from it.
Anyway, I apologise again if I've annoyed you, and I accept your comments about "best years", but I think the years from 16-35 are when we have the most freedom to be what we want to be, and I think we should make a point of enjoying them. :-)
And in answer to your question, I would count about 15-20 of my regular associates as close friends - these are the people that would take me into their homes if I was out of a job, help me move house, come and take care of me if I was sick, etc. Many of them have had to do these things in the past. It is possible to form real friendships with lots of people, and I think it's a desireable thing. :-)
I love this about University, both as a student and later as a junior educator - it's a tremendous flattener of the social hierachy, and everyone is set free with a clean slate to take what they've learned of society and their field and really make something of themselves without preconceptions from their peers.
I think everyone should go to university if they can, even if they might not be following that career path. It'll be the best four years of your life - an amazing rollercoaster of learning and self-discovery. I'm planning to go back a few more times before I get too old. :-)
What point has life without friendship and social relations? I know I won't give a flying fuck about all the software I've written when I'm sixty and retired - or when I'm 85 and dead!
I would much rather be out on the town partying with friends than sitting in a darkened room figuring out why libDV is miscompiling - don't you people understand? When you are gone, none of this will matter, and the best you can hope for is that you will have left some happy memories for those that survive you.
Please, for your own sake, try and enjoy your lives before they are over, and before the best years of your lives fly past. Of course, if you do prefer debugging programs to the stuff people do together in the flesh, the laughter and socialising and romance, then go for it. It's not for me, or anyone else to tell you otherwise.
But don't refuse to see the value of popularity, and never think it's beyond your grasp - I would say that 90% of 'nerds' could become paragons of friendliness and popularity if they just came out of their shells! Don't change your clothes, don't take up a sport, don't join a gang, just be yourself, smile at people and learn to listen!
I will stop ranting here, but I should point out that the essential lack of intrinsic value in most computing work these days outside of the research and some OSS community projects is what has lent me to switching from an IT career to a teaching one ( including teaching IT at university ). Computing is just a means to a result. Don't forget that.
Just some thoughts.
As I've got no way to fix this in the above post, it would be better if we just buried it somewhere, like -1.
Yours,
Y.L.F.I.
I think I'll stick to replying to FP's. ;-)
And that's good enough for me! Sorry again about the spelling though!
Read the article on el Reg, it's got the goods.
Personally, I believe people that do this ( like the .au.com people ) deserve what they get.