Chain Thread

carambola5 · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 7:52 am Post subject: Chain Thread

Ok. Here's the idea. Every time anyone posts, what they say has to relate (preferably remotely) to what the last comment was. Maybe it's just a word that was used in a previous post that starts a new idea. Ideally, this thread would actually be interesting to read from start to finish, with each post making some sort of logical link to the next.

For example. One person could talk about the inherent lack of options in almost all online polls. The next post would be on the upcoming US elections (link: polling). The next post would relate to bitching about taxes (link: government). The following post would be about spending all their time at class or work (link: money, or lack thereof). et cetera.

Get the point? Here's a starter: the whole previous paragraph was cause and effect. Work with that if you like. And remember, don't reference posts that are not the absolutely most recent post.
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rac · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 8:06 am Post subject:

The Chistopher Nolan movie Memento works like this thread, but backwards in time. The beginning of scene N takes place exactly after the end of scene N+1.

I recently saw another movie of Nolan's, Insomnia during a plane flight. This movie is partially about the trouble that an LA detective (Al Pacino) has adjusting to summers in Alaska, where it doesn't get dark, and he has trouble sleeping.

I was having trouble sleeping on the plane, and I was in the middle of an 18-hour period during which it did not get dark, due to timezone changes. As the movie finished, I looked out the window, and directly below me was the breathtaking beauty of the islands at the southern tip of Alaska.
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plate · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 8:14 am Post subject:

The airport of Anchorage was my only touchdown onto American soil ever (if you don't count 3 days at a conference in Hawaii, which I have a tendency not to). In my entire life before and after I have never seen such an enormous quantity of shrink-wrapped smoked salmon as in the duty-free shop there, or a more severely bored immigration officer, for that matter - this clearly was a place where people landed just to have their planes fueled on their way to somewhere more important, and nobody had solicited entry into the US here for a very, very long time.

lanark · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 11:31 am Post subject:

There is a very very funny composition by Frank Zappa, called "Welcome to the United States". It's about the U.S. Customs card that must be filled in by persons entering the United States. Says Zappa: "When I saw [the card], I couldn't belive that anybody would ask those questions and expect somebody to give honest answers to them. It just seemed like such a classic piece of governmental stupidity - first, that it exist, and second, that people are forced to fill it out."
It's beautifully interpreted by the Ensamble Modern (from Germany); and it can be found on the CD "The Yellow Shark", which comes with a facsimile of the card in its booklet.
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Curious · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 11:45 am Post subject:

One of my friends, entering the United States inbound from Jamaica was given one of these cards (INS?) to fill out. He's 23. One of the questions was, "Did you participate in WWII atrocities", or something similar.

Thinking "What the hell? Are they serious?" he ticked "Yes". He got held by law enforcement for seven hours, despite being obviously too young.

Moral: These guys have no sense of humour, although admittedly it was a pretty stupid joke.

-- Curious
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phong · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 2:27 pm Post subject:

There was this one time, I was telling this stupid joke about these beekeepers at a beekeeping convention, and nobody got it.

Don't you find it strange how many strange topics can have conventions. I've attended fruit jar conventions (my Dad collects old fruit jars). I may go to an American Tarantula Society convention someday.
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pizen · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 4:16 pm Post subject:

Do y'all remember the movie Arachnophobia? That movie scared me when I first watched it. Being Halloween and all maybe I should watch a scary movie. The Shining was on TV last night but movies on tv suck with all the commercials.

scottro · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 4:30 pm Post subject:

As it's Halloween, Buffy's having a 5 hour marathon today--sigh, I have to work.

And my wife who is a children's ballet teacher went to work all costumed up with a peculiar hat--I asked her what she was supposed to be and what was the hat supposed to represent and she said she didn't know, it's just a costume.

Scott

phong · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 5:40 pm Post subject:

Anyone else think Alyson Hannigan is super hot? Ok, rehtorical question - I know everyone knows she's super hot. Unfortunately, I haven't seen many Buffy episodes. I don't really know what people are talking about when they talk about the "bored now" Willow.
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pizen · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 6:35 pm Post subject:

It's the last day of October. I'm wearing shorts and am very comfortable. It was in the mid-70s a few days ago. Very few trees are changing color. I wonder when autumn will get here. Ah, the joys of Atlanta weather.

KiTaSuMbA · Guru Joined: 28 Jun 2002 Posts: 430 Location: Naples Italy

How's the weather? What weather? Earthquake! Not anything of power but a very rare instance for Naples...
Strange morning indeed... I found a 3 cm scorpio in my bathroom... Earthquake.. got out and bought a fresh sound card (my pockets still ache!).ù
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carambola5 · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 8:50 pm Post subject:

Saw the scorpion king last night. Not too bad of a movie, seeing as I wasn't expecting much plot. I did like the action though. Let's see, there was an Assasain, a Sorceress, and a Barbarian... remind anyone of a certain Win32 game?
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Mnemia · Guru Joined: 17 May 2002 Posts: 476

Speaking of el Diablo's holiday, there's this couple down the street from me that every year go around the neighborhood trying to get everyone to take down their Halloween decorations and pumpkins because it's "corrupting their innocent children with that Satan worship". lol, got to love the USA.

phong · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 9:59 pm Post subject:

Everyone knows how you can make fortune cookie fortunes more humorous by adding "between the sheets" to the end of the phrase. You can do the same with song titles by adding "in your pants." "Lump" is always the song I use as an example. That particular band has some other songs that work well, but you can reach into any genre of music to find more juvinile laughs.
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carambola5 · Posted: Thu Oct 31, 2002 10:13 pm Post subject:

For halloween, I'm going as Danny LaRusso... The Karate Kid. But I'm not going in your typical karate get-up. If you remember the first movie, Danny went to a Halloween party to see Ali. Since he didn't want to be seen by the bad guys (dressed up in Skeletons), he went as a shower. So that's what I'm gonna be... I've even got a jersey to wear underneath (couldn't find the authentic Chargers jersey, so I settled for a Cowboys one). The only problem is, I have no peripheral vision, since I'm between the sheets that make up the shower curtains, I basically have tunnel vision. Oh well, I guess all the "Holy Crap! It's the Karate Kid!" comments make up for it.

EDIT: typo he=we
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lemming · n00b Joined: 07 Aug 2002 Posts: 57 Location: Kanab, UT

I've got to remodel the bathroom next year.
I think we'll tear out the existing shower/bathtub contraption and make a nice dual head standing shower and in the corner replace the cabinets with a jacuzi tub and use glass brick for the wall. privacy yet lighted.

That and most of our plumbing needs to be replaced. It's starting to remind me of english plumbing.

plate · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 12:07 am Post subject:

Sir John Harington, godchild of Elizabeth I who took a bath every month "whether she need it or no" , was much ridiculed for the invention of the water closet. His contemporaries certainly didn't expect this to be one of the most important steps towards civilisation ever construed, and he possibly died in great bitterness about the ignorance surrounding him.

Personally, I'd place refrigerators even higher on the list of things that make life pleasantly survivable. I am unsure, however, whether they need to be connected to the Internet.

rac · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 2:06 am Post subject:

I am one that might be helped by an Internet-connected refrigerator, because my method of grocery shopping consists of entering the store with absolutely no idea what I am going to buy, seeing what looks fresh and seasonal, putting together a menu, forgetting what auxiliary ingredients are in the refrigerator at home, deciding that it is better to be safe than sorry, ending up with duplicates.

My wife has to place explicit moratoria on me from time to time, lest we run out of either refrigerator or overflow space. Currently on the moratorium list is green Thai curry paste. The ban an capers has recently been lifted.
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scottro · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 3:58 am Post subject:

Are we chaining on this thread as well? When we were in Japan, my wife got annoyed at my shopping habits, as I LOVE that thick Japanese bread and would be very happy with bread and Diet Coke--which is hard to find in Japan--the vending machines had it, but aside from that only those 7-11's--darn, I can't remember what they're called--oh, AMPM stores would have it.

When we got back, as soon as we got off the plane, I went to a vending machine at JFK and put in a fresh, new dollar, only to have it rejected--I thought, ah, we've really left Japan, where vending machines all work.

Scott

pizen · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 1:22 pm Post subject:

So I was on a trip to the University of North Carolina a few weeks ago. I'm in the Georgia Tech Band and we were on our way to play at the football game. They took us to a mall to get lunch. The mall had 2 places to eat and there were over 100 of us. I wandered around looking for a place to eat and ended up going into a grocery store across from the mall. I bought some deli meat and a loaf of sourdough bread and made a meal out of it. So much better than any fast food.

craftyc · Guru Joined: 23 May 2002 Posts: 443 Location: Behind You.

McDonalds is nice. BK is even nicer. But I don't get what all the fuss is about Taco Bell? I went on holiday this summer to Florida (First time in the States) with my cousins. Everyone really wanted to go to Taco Bell and I thought for a moment that I was adopted. Everyone but me liked it.

Oh well that's the strangeness of life.

next.
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phong · Posted: Fri Nov 01, 2002 9:22 pm Post subject:

I think thanksgiving is a stupid holiday. Who decided that it was a good idea to not only have a holiday fall on a different day of the month every year, but also have it on a Thursday? At least have it on a Monday like Labor Day so we get a long weekend. Sheesh.
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plate · Posted: Sat Nov 02, 2002 1:17 am Post subject:

Too little thought has been given to puritanism and its influence on the development of democratic values. Granted, feeding the natives at a Thanksgiving display probably is just an anthropologically interesting paraphrase for genociding them, but generally speaking, being thrown back to individual responsibilities rather than teleologic determination has greatly motivated the political debate ever since. What a pity our colonial ancestors decided to brush aside similar reformatory tendencies in the Islamic world at the time of the Ottoman empire, the world would be a better place had they not...

Hyperbole is of course man's best rhetorical friend.

carambola5 · Posted: Mon Nov 04, 2002 7:12 am Post subject:

I went home today. It was fun. I saw my dog.
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Mnemia · Guru Joined: 17 May 2002 Posts: 476

My dog is a 125 pound English mastiff. She's really intimidating to a lot of people because she's really big and has a strong protective instinct, but she's a total sweetie and I'd take her over any 10 pound ball of fluff. You've got nothing to worry about around her unless you're a burglar/murderer/assassin.
Then you should pray to whatever god you believe in that you get out of there before she finds you.

Her name is Joy.