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Dang, just too late for AA's game! Thank you for the generous offer, Piratecat; I hope I get a chance to take you up on it! Daniel

Dang, those registrations went fast! I got NCSU's Feng Shui game; here's hoping I can finagle a spot in one of Rel's and one of Piratecat's. Daniel

Sweet corn on a stick, this sounds like fun! Is it coincidence that the celebrity gamers Rel named are all women? Hmmm.... I really really hope to be able to make it. I made it to the last April gameday, and it was a superblast. Daniel

The eyepatch was awesome. Daniel

After my first crazy week as a second-grade teacher, my mentor half-jokingly told me that I needed to be at least as entertaining as a computer game, since that's what I was competing against for kids' entertainment. I can make math fun, but frankly, I can't make it that fun. About two weeks...

Moderator's Notes: Woah! Stop right there. Jeff, we're glad to have you help people find their way around the forum. You may not, however, refer to other members here as "whin[ing]." That explicitly breaks our forum rules: it is not courteous, respectful, or civil. You may THINK it all you...

There was a book by Brian Stableford, Empire of Fear, that imagined vampirism as rife among the nobility of Europe, such that vampires openly rule, and many of the figures from Europe's history are simultaneously "alive." The book is set during the Enlightenment and follows the adventures of...

Now THERE's a recommendation! This one is going on my list of books to find. Thanks! Daniel

Morrus, here's an introduction to Baby Got Back that's geared toward Englishmen. If I can use you as an example, however, I think you demonstrate something I said earlier in the thread: communication must consider both the speaker (writer, singer, etc.) AND the listener (reader, audience...

Agreed sort of with the first part. Humans appear to have a "language instinct": unlike any other creature, we seem to naturally develop, around the age of two years, the ability to string performed abstract symbols together within a grammar to construct infinite meanings. No nonverbal human...

Yeah, people do forget. I'm lousy about remembering things. That's why I set up a lot of systems around myself to prevent my forgetting things (the best of which is my awesome wife with her scary memory). And when, despite everything, I DO forget something, I practically crawl on the ground...

Hospitals have telephones, dangit! Daniel

You want an unusual recommendation? Try Joyce Carol Oates. Some of her stuff is dreadfully literary, but her horror freaks me the heck out. My favorite is Zombie. It has a plot somewhat similar to another book in this thread (I won't say which). It won the 1996 Bram Stoker award, and it is...

Is this your first Guy Gavriel Kay? If it is, I recommend that it not be :). In my opinion, it's by far his weakest book (or trilogy); what's more, it's almost in a different genre from his other work. His other books tend to be alternate histories of a world similar to earth but different...

Moderator's Notes: The personal snipes will stop now, please. If you have any questions about this moderation, please feel free to email me--do not discuss this matter further in this thread. Thanks! Daniel

Hmm..."bus" is (as I just confirmed) short for "omnibus," a Latin derivative meaning, "for everyone." The idea is presumably that this form of transportation is for everyone. How is shortening it to "bus" a distortion of the language? What does "distorted" even mean in this context? If the...

The folks who didn't show up are a lost cause, I think; I would in the future not bother to invite them to anything where their presence will affect your plans. Perhaps someone reading this thread can be helped, however. There are three reasons to skip out on an RSVPed event without calling...

Language is communication. It is used in one of three main ways: 1) Expression. If all you're doing is singing your magnificent Yawp to the world, have at it: it doesn't matter what conventions you follow or ignore, or even whether you speak in coherent syllables, as long as you don't care...

Moderator's Pre-emptive Notes: The rules on politics try to be clear, but there is a fuzzy area, and this thread, in the opinion of the mods, just barely dips its toes into the fuzzy area, to mix metaphors. In other words, it's okay. What would NOT be okay would be any expansion of the thread...

My wife and I are reading the last book together, and we're only up to chapter 12. If someone reports a post in a Harry Potter thread that contains spoilers, I'm gonna permaban the both of you. Think I'm joking? Do you feel lucky, punk? Well, do ya? Daniel [Disclaimer: okay, I'm joking]