Posts made by Ganymede

@ThatGuyThere said in The basketball thread:

This is the one or the two things about sports fandom I will never get. Athletes are working a job like anyone else. His contract was up how does him changing employers effect his reputation?

Superstar athletes aren't like everyone else. They are household names. They are recognized around the world. They are ambassadors for the game to the local, national, and international media, as well as serving as the face of charities and philanthropic organizations.

They are not like you and me.

Culturally, they are icons. They have influence. Children want to grow up to be like them. Teenagers want to be able to play like them. We're not even talking about the money; we're simply talking about the fetishism that arises out of sports culture. In the specular economy, superstars wield power by name and image alone.

Those who are mercenaries are treated the same. Mercenaries, with few exceptions, are not beloved by all; they turn based on money.

We could get into a very long discussion as to how reputation in the sports industry is tied to one's team allegiance, but suffice to say that changing teams does affect reputation in a way that is strangely similar to attitudes prevalent in more medieval contexts.

@Arkandel said in The basketball thread:

OKC's ownership group has been very iffy even for NBA standards. They left Seattle when a better offer came along and took the team to OKC, they let Harden go over relatively little money just after they had finally made the Finals... do you think if KD's ankle injuries of two seasons ago had gotten worse instead of better they'd have hesitated giving him up too? I'm sceptical on it.

My understanding is that the ownership group left after the local government declined assisting in the construction of a new complex for the second time.

Looking at the team without Harden, is it any worse? Of course not. Harden went to the Rockets and has done little to lead them to contention status. Westbrook and Durant were the pieces to build around, not Harden.

This isn't a matter of OKC failing to produce money. There's no mention of that. No one's saying that OKC short-changed Durant or low-balled him. That'd be a good reason to depart.

He left to pursue a championship with the team that made his team look foolish and incompetent. That beat him. And that's just not the sort of defeatism I'd expect from a true superstar.

OKC had a legitimate shot of knocking out GSW next year if Durant stuck around. He did not. And I don't see any way he shakes that reputation-hit.

@Arkandel said in Are MU* videogames:

I was chatting with an old friend who doesn't consider me a video gamer because I 'only play MMORPGs' (which isn't an entirely unwarranted assertion ) at which point I pointed out I still play MUSHes too.

What's funny is he considers MUDs video games but not MUSHes.

Your old friend probably has a great personality, but he sounds like a fucking moron here.

I'm in my mid-to-late 30s now. I have twins and a partner. I have a full-time job, and my character on RfK eats up time like a motherfucker. If that were my friend, I'd ghost on him right quick.

@Arkandel

Stephen A. Smith says it more eloquently and succinctly than I will here: http://espn.go.com/video/clip?id=16762272&ex_cid=sportscenterFB&sf30235644=1. His opinion is similar to mine, now that I've had time to consider it.

It's like playing soccer when you're a kid. You're doing well, but then, the other side takes the momentum from you. Scores a couple. You're the best player on the field, and you decide to jump sides. That's juvenile, and we know it.

OKC has the talent. OKC has the skill. OKC has the players. They were very close to knocking off the Warriors, and probably should have. From outside, it looks like KD just doesn't have the guts to tough it out and try again.

Imagine if LeBron had cut his contract and bolted to the GSW after his 2015 loss in the Finals. What would we think of him then?

Right. Now, you can think that of KD. And I do.

@Arkandel said in The basketball thread:

Kevin Durant to the Golden State Warriors.

... Damn.

Not sure how long that deal is for, but the Warriors may be hurting themselves in the long run.

@Arkandel said in Are MU* videogames:

Don't you make me bust out the wikipedia link, lawyer-bot! I'll do it!

If you had asked whether MUs fall under the definition of "video games," I'd agree with your position. What you asked was whether I consider MUs a video game, and I don't.

When my friends ask me if I've played good video games, I don't get into my MU*ing. So, I clearly don't consider them video games.

@Arkandel said in Are MU* videogames:

There's text. Text adventures used to be considered video games, and were celebrated as such.

No.

@surreality said in Modern Nights MUX:

I basically think Wamphyri, and run from there.

The first thing I would do as a Tzimisce is to modify my body into something like the Reapers in Blade II. And then, I would master Koldunic Sorcery.

So, I would look like this:

Until you piss me, off, and then it's all:

@surreality said in Modern Nights MUX:

I think that's more the 2e version, and really not even then so much. From what I recall of the olden days, revenants were WW trying to do a spin on 'The Crow'. Or something about revenants was, back then.

You're thinking of the Risen.

Revenants were the product of Tzimisce and Tremere tinkering in making ghoul-families.

@Coin said in Good TV:

Kind of like how we live in a world where women can now lead their countries as elected presidents, for example, but there is still a large wage gap between genders in most work sectors? I mean, patriarchy, bro. S'a thing.

The same applies to black minorities.

@Coin said in RL Anger:

"Youth ages, immaturity is outgrown, ignorance can be educated, drunkenness sobered, but stupid lasts forever. " -- The Emperor's Club (2002).

"If I could offer one piece of advice to the planet, it would be this: Don't marry for looks alone, and I'll tell you why. In a few years, when Barbara's boobs start sagging, she can get plastic surgery, have them lifted, move the nipple wherever. You can actually go to a titty bar, pick out a set of titties and say, "I want those titties on that woman." If her belly gets too big, she can get a tummy tuck and have a belly like a cheerleader. If her vision goes bad, you can have LASIK surgery and have 20/20 vision. If her hearing goes bad, they can install a device in her ear that will give you hearing as clear as it was the day you were born. But let me tell you something, folks: You can't fix stupid. There's not a pill you can take; there's not a class you can go to. Stupid is forever." -- Ron White

Go listen to the video embedded here:

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/stephen-hawking-says-pollution-and-stupidity-still-biggest-threats-to-mankind/ar-AAhKWsa?li=BBnbfcL

And then, wince when the narrator calls "AI": "A-one."

Stupidity is a huge threat.

@Auspice said in Retail "Horror" Stories:

This guy is like, legit crazy, I think. I don't think his religion would even matter at this point.

Just go tell Ronda Rousey. She'll beat the fuck out of him, I'm sure.

@Arkandel

Your rhetorical question aside, I concur. I don't go to the gym to socialize.

Related peeve: if all you want to do is soak and swim slowly and lazily, don't fucking do it at the gym's pool. Sit your dumbass in a tub. Some of us are trying to do lengths, and we don't appreciate it when you drift your asses into our lanes under the fucking lane markers.

@Arkandel said in Good TV:

What's good for the summer now that GoT is over?

TMNT and X-Men cartoons.

@Arkandel said in RL Anger:

It's 6 am. I don't want to chat. I just wanna do the thing so I can go to work.

The real question is: is she hot?

@SG said in RL Anger:

I had a Lady MacBeth episode last night and went to town with the exfoliating cloth, things are looking much better.

Imagine that, right? Something worked that stripped away and dealt with all of the dry skin.

I love doctors. My brother's a doctor. But, no, doctors are not always right. And, if they were, he wouldn't have a job.

@Lithium said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

Maybe one day we'll discover a piece of tech that allows us to measure this energy, track it as it leaves the body, figure out what's going on there. Right now we don't have it, but that doesn't mean we just say: It cannot exist, and stop looking.

I felt the same way about ST:TNG PADDs, and, lo, we have the iPad.

Despite being a lawyerbot, I hedge on the side of: wait and see.

@surreality said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

We can't really claim that only one side of this particular coin exists.

No, we can't. And I don't mean to.

I just mean that Mr. Sapkowski is an excellent writer. In this case, he is the author of The Last Wish, which tells the story of Geralt of Rivia, aka The Witcher. So, the words are coming from a man who hunts monsters for a living, which very neatly fits into what you're talking about.

If you don't believe, you cannot deny. If you do believe, you must also believe there are false accounts.

@somasatori said in Do you believe in paranormal things?:

It is very paranoid to think that we're watched all the time by spirits of the dead/floaty beings/whatever. I think people have guilty consciences about what they do, and they manifest those thoughts as belief in angels, demons, ghosts, and whatnot. Like I said, I've seen some weird shit, but in hindsight, it was probably all of the drugs and booze.

“People * * * like to invent monsters and monstrosities. Then they seem less monstrous themselves. When they get blind-drunk, cheat, steal, beat their wives, starve an old woman, when they kill a trapped fox with an axe or riddle the last existing unicorn with arrows, they like to think that the Bane entering cottages at daybreak is more monstrous than they are. They feel better then. They find it easier to live.”

God, I love Andrzej Sapkowski.