Messages

1

General / Re: Fake Britain Map

« on: 23 June, 2022, 02:55:40 PM »

I fecking love it.  Being a man of little culture, I don't recognise most of them, but will be googling for the next hour.   I'm inevitably reminded of the League of Extraordinary Gentlemen - I seem to remember a world Atlas of this type in one of the books, but my mind could be playing tricks on me.

EDIT - On the downside, I've just googled 'Horny Boy location' and it's now in my search history.  And I still don't know what work of fiction it comes from.

2

Off Topic / Re: This is the News!

« on: 23 June, 2022, 07:34:31 AM »

After being denied its intended site - by the fecking parish priest from his pulpit among others - a very nice sculpture (with a touch of Hicklenton and O'Neill) finds a home.  That first lot didn't deserve it.  https://www.thejournal.ie/puca-the-burren-5797347-Jun2022/

3

Creative Common / Re: Dredd 3D animation

« on: 23 June, 2022, 07:24:26 AM »

Love it.  Kind of a Cliff Robinson Dredd brought to life.

4

Prog / Re: Prog 2287: Grinders Keepers!

« on: 22 June, 2022, 07:47:03 PM »

Going back to the prog again - I'm hardly the only reader to have noticed who Arnold 'Layne - Piperatthegatesof' Dawn is a very thinly-disguised homage to?

5

General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: The new leader of the pack

« on: 19 June, 2022, 08:12:16 PM »

If it can't be Al Ewing, it's definitely Niemand for me.

6

General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: Battle of the 8-bit nerds

« on: 19 June, 2022, 12:32:27 PM »

It can do colours, they're just very... idiosyncratic...







My vote's for the ZX Spectrum, obviously.

Hats off. That's amazing work.

7

General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: Battle of the 8-bit nerds

« on: 18 June, 2022, 11:59:21 AM »

Lovely bit of 8-bit artwork there.  It kills me to say it, but my beloved Spectrum couldn't have done colours like that.

8

General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Taxidermist vs. Dry Run Rd 3 Heat 43

« on: 18 June, 2022, 11:57:48 AM »

Thanks! I was wondering.  Rose O'Rion was a bit nondescript. 

9

General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Taxidermist vs. Dry Run Rd 3 Heat 43

« on: 17 June, 2022, 11:28:19 PM »

Is this the first total whitewash?  Probably not, but I can't remember any other ones.

10

Off Topic / Re: The Black Dog Thread

« on: 17 June, 2022, 11:25:30 PM »

I'm sorry to hear it too, Funt.  I'm a fucking disaster too when it comes to saying the right thing in situations like that.  I still cringe at my last words to my late best mate, who was coherent but no longer responsive - I can't remember exactly what I said but it just wasn't good enough. 

11

General / Re: Forum’s Fav Thrill - Numbercruncher vs. Halo Jones Rd 3 Heat 47

« on: 17 June, 2022, 12:33:30 PM »

Sorry, Si. Sometimes life isn't fair.   Halo.

12

General / Re: Sideshow Vote II: Battle of the 8-bit nerds

« on: 16 June, 2022, 07:25:15 PM »

As a mature man, I have to admit that my mate's C64 had far better music and graphics than my Spectrum 48k.  The C64's version of the Rambo theme tune would stick in my head for days.   

But fuck that.  I'm a Spectrum man all the way. I loved it, right up till Castle Master, which was for me its last hurrah. Soon after I stopped playing I learned that my little brother did archery with Don Priestley, the man who programmed one of the Speccy's finest, the thoroughly ingenious Trapdoor.  My dad knew him well and spoke to him regularly as if he was, y'know, a normal person, rather than the programming equivalent of Willy Wonka.

13

Off Topic / Re: The Philosophical Thread

« on: 16 June, 2022, 05:35:04 PM »

i was talking about this very matter a while back with a theologian. it was a good, respectful chat, despite my being a heretic n all. as far as i understood him, agency is granted to free will, to nature, and to chance. without such granting, existence and consciousness (and indeed religion) lose all meaning.
i can buy that. i don't believe it, tho.

I know it's not Sharky's original point but the 'gift of free will' thing has always struck me as a particularly insidious excuse for God letting so much evil happen.  Not much of a gift when the wrong choice results in eternal torture after I'm dead. On related matter, why not just show himself (or herself or itself) if he really wants everyone to believe in him? Old books based on hearsay don't cut it for some of us.

Pondering about how God could be infinitely good is, for me, like wondering how Garfield can stay alive for decades when he's only a cat.  Or, if that's too dismissive and flippant, like wondering how Odin's horse can fly when it lacks any kind of obvious aeronautical features.

14

Off Topic / Re: This is the News!

« on: 15 June, 2022, 09:47:34 PM »

I should also point out that I have been totally Elevenerife-ed by Mr Pops, who not only has firewalked himself but also ended his post on a splendid little pun. 

15

Off Topic / Re: This is the News!

« on: 15 June, 2022, 08:51:35 PM »

This is a thing people do and I have done it*. There is a trick to it though. The feet have to be quite warm to reduce the temperature difference. Then you have to walk at quite a brisk pace. The key thing is your feet are not in direct contact with the hot coals longer than the shortest time it takes for the physical process of transferring enough heat from the coal to the flesh to burn the flesh. I think if you take longer than ~3 seconds to cross you'll be burned regardless.

There's a lot of things to go wrong there, could be hard to pinpoint exactly what but...

...it sounds like someone really put their foot in it.




*I have friends in a local circus skills club** who roped me into it.
** This is also a thing people do. Good for a side hustle too, because as Malcolm Tucker put it "... big public events always have wankers wi' stilts".

Feck. Beat me to it