A cake stop style thread - no cycling content

sarajoy

Always Tyred wrote:

sarajoy wrote:

You might be able to tell I'm a huge fan of swing jazz and swing dancing

What about swinging?

Gets coat.

Rich158 wrote:

sarajoy wrote:

So yeah, you may be able to tell also that I've been on a mission lately. And actually, the Bristol scene is starting to grow (it's already huge in London and many many cities worldwide)

Does this mean you're going to introduce us to the Bristol swinging scene when we pay a visit :shock:

Tut, I say - tut-tut!

There is a reason I'm usually fairly careful to say "swing dance" :P It doesn't help that one of the styles I dance is actually called Shag (specifically Collegiate Shag, not sure if that makes it better or worse)!

Seems Jazz and Swing has always been pretty dodgy: http://www.apassion4jazz.net/etymology.html

prawny wrote:

sarajoy wrote:

You might be able to tell I'm a huge fan of swing jazz and swing dancing.

I used to play the drums in a swing band, thats where I met Mrs Prawny. We both quite before we had the shrimp but she;s gone back now.

I don't really have a passion for anything any more, I love photography especially motorsports photography but don't much chance to do that.

I really want to play my drums again but I live in a semi and I'm a big hitter so thats out.

Anyone want to start a silly commuting band?

I could do a Bez and just dance while others do the clever stuff?

UndercoverElephant

I carve stone and wood, I love making things with my hands mainly as it's so different to my day job.

For example, here's a dragon's head I made as a finishing touch for a wall I built in the garden. My three-year-old said I wasn't allowed to make it too scary:

linsen

I like:

People
Talking, well, communication in general
Languages
Books
Baking
Cooking for friends
Having friends to stay
Sewing
Knitting
Making cards
Laughing
Music
Horseriding (though now a no-no)
Being on top of a mountain
Sitting on a beach at sunrise / sunset, preferably both
Making lists and ticking things off
My job - passionate about it in fact

I dislike:
Pink wafer biscuits
Peanut butter
Being ignored
Wastefulness
Having children who aspire to spend as long as possible playing on a computer

(am I allowed to say I like riding my bike?)

Some of the people I have met on this forum have enriched my life enormously and some have become good friends.

Makes me feel very jolly :-)

DonDaddyD

You might not know this but I am a huge fan of Star Trek and comic books.

My passion for comics all started when I inherited my fathers collection, this included the Marvel Secret Wars limited series. This was an amazing 'jumping on board' point as it introduced me to a number of Marvel characters and Villains. Not least of which Wolverine, Hulk (who lifted a billion ton mountain), Thor, Galactus and Doctor Doom.

The comic also took a wierd swing on things as it placed Magneto as a hero, this would be my first experience of the Martin Luther King and Malcolm X parallels between Magneto and Charles Xavier.

This was pre-teens and during my time through secondary school, I used to skip lunch and to save and buy comics at the comic book shop. I remember collecting [http://www.comicvine.com/legion-quest/39-41075/]Legion Quest[/url] as it was very much a case of suffering for my passion, I would have something like one school dinner a week, to fuel my comic passions.

After Legion Quest came the Age of Apocalypse series, which originally came of in 1995 and ran for a year (it was an alternate reality X-men storyline based in a World, where Charles Xavier, killed by Legion, never created the X-men, hugely successful and hugely amazing).

After the AoA I stopped collecting comics for three reasons: (i)The corner shop man stopped getting them in - he said I was the only person buying them. (ii)Forbidden Planet in Croydon was rubbish. (iii)Rob Liefeld and the Heroes Reborn crap tore my heart right out of comics and yes I have had many a rant online about that.

It wasn't until a fateful trip into a comic shop in Derby at Uni, some 10years later that I bought a comic that had Emma Frost and Scott Summers having an affair behind Jean Grey's back. The reprocussions of this would have far reaching effects both in terms of the comic book continuity and in my life.

From that day on I have consistently bought at least £40 worth of comics a month (the average comic costs between £3-£4. I collected and fell in love with stories like:

Thor: Ragnarok
Annhilation
Infinite Crisis
Ultimates series 1 and 2

Ultimates is a bitter sweet story for me. Jeph Loeb destroyed the brilliant work Mark Millar established in series 1 and 2, to which I have ranted on many occasion, waging my own personal online war.

However, the revamp of Thor and the sudden surge in cosmic (outta-space) based comics has soothed the wounds incured by Jeph destroying my most favourite comic book series ever.

I own easily over 2000 maybe 3000 comics, the most expensive comic I bought, I think costs £5-£10. The most expensive comic I own would be Thor: The death of Odin or one of the many many #1 comics I own or the mini series I've collected.

One of my favourite storylines ever written has to be X-23 Innocence Lost

My love of comic books has seen me webmaster 2 now defunct websites Marvel Directory forums and Splash Page.

I now spend most my day's posting about comics on Newsarama.

iclestu

UndercoverElephant wrote:

I carve stone and wood, I love making things with my hands mainly as it's so different to my day job.

For example, here's a dragon's head I made as a finishing touch for a wall I built in the garden. My three-year-old said I wasn't allowed to make it too scary:

Wow! That's fantastic! Satisfy my curiousity....

Do you start with a featureless lump and just decide - "hmm, I fancy carving a dragon's head today". Or do you look at a piece of wood and say - "hmm this piece of wood looks a bit like a dragon's head. Now if iwere just to whittle away this bit, remove that bit and smooth the other bit....."

Kieran_Burns

DonDaddyD wrote:

It wasn't until a fateful trip into a comic shop in Derby at Uni, some 10years later that I bought a comic that had Emma Frost and Scott Summers having an affair behind Jean Grey's back. The reprocussions of this would have far reaching effects both in terms of the comic book continuity and in my life.

That would be Forbidden Planet - I'm sorry to say it's now shut.

I cycle past the empty shop on my ride home

lost_in_thought

I'm very into language - linguistics, to be precise, and social linguistics to be even more precise. I have a slightly anthropological interest in religion, not religious myself, but fascinated by what other people can believe. I love people. They're so interesting.

I also love music, I play sax, clarinet and oboe (under duress) myself, to a high standard - used to earn a few quid playing in the band for various groups and their musicals/operas, and played in a great big band up in Essex. It's one of the things I really, really miss - playing by yourself is just not the same as playing in a group, and I'm really trying to find an orchestra or a big band in London, but so far failing. They're very competitive, and due to my lack of practice, I'm no longer as good as my musical CV would imply.

I also love cooking, especially baking, rowing is a new thing that I'm really enjoying, I love my dogs (in a platonic way), I really enjoy sailing, and want to learn how to rig and sail my father's old 470 during my gardening leave.

DonDaddyD

Kieran_Burns wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

It wasn't until a fateful trip into a comic shop in Derby at Uni, some 10years later that I bought a comic that had Emma Frost and Scott Summers having an affair behind Jean Grey's back. The reprocussions of this would have far reaching effects both in terms of the comic book continuity and in my life.

That would be Forbidden Planet - I'm sorry to say it's now shut.

I cycle past the empty shop on my ride home

No it was travelling man, above the game station, it closed down and then I had to switch to the forbidden planet. They were pr*cks in there, they would always under order X-men so they only had enough for customers who pre-ordered them...

UndercoverElephant

iclestu wrote:

Wow! That's fantastic! Satisfy my curiousity....

Do you start with a featureless lump and just decide - "hmm, I fancy carving a dragon's head today". Or do you look at a piece of wood and say - "hmm this piece of wood looks a bit like a dragon's head. Now if iwere just to whittle away this bit, remove that bit and smooth the other bit....."

Thank-you, you're very kind. Sometimes it's one, sometimes the other, sometimes a combination of the two. In this case, I'd just finished the wall and thought it looked a bit serpentine as it was low and almost slithering, so I though't I'd do a dragon's head. Other times I've just started taking away waste material until I notice that it looks like something and go from there.

Kieran_Burns

DonDaddyD wrote:

Kieran_Burns wrote:

DonDaddyD wrote:

It wasn't until a fateful trip into a comic shop in Derby at Uni, some 10years later that I bought a comic that had Emma Frost and Scott Summers having an affair behind Jean Grey's back. The reprocussions of this would have far reaching effects both in terms of the comic book continuity and in my life.

That would be Forbidden Planet - I'm sorry to say it's now shut.

I cycle past the empty shop on my ride home

No it was travelling man, above the game station, it closed down and then I had to switch to the forbidden planet. They were pr*cks in there, they would always under order X-men so they only had enough for customers who pre-ordered them...

I know the shop - very pokey and low key 8) Good stuff in there.

d21dga

linsen wrote:

I like:

People
Talking, well, communication in general
Languages
Books
Baking
Cooking for friends
Having friends to stay
Sewing
Knitting
Making cards
Laughing
Music
Horseriding (though now a no-no)
Being on top of a mountain
Sitting on a beach at sunrise / sunset, preferably both
Making lists and ticking things off
My job - passionate about it in fact

I dislike:
Pink wafer biscuits
Peanut butter
Being ignored
Wastefulness
Having children who aspire to spend as long as possible playing on a computer

(am I allowed to say I like riding my bike?)

Some of the people I have met on this forum have enriched my life enormously and some have become good friends.

Makes me feel very jolly :-)

:shock: :shock: Are you my missus in disguise?!!

linsen

d21dga wrote:

linsen wrote:

I like:

People
Talking, well, communication in general
Languages
Books
Baking
Cooking for friends
Having friends to stay
Sewing
Knitting
Making cards
Laughing
Music
Horseriding (though now a no-no)
Being on top of a mountain
Sitting on a beach at sunrise / sunset, preferably both
Making lists and ticking things off
My job - passionate about it in fact

I dislike:
Pink wafer biscuits
Peanut butter
Being ignored
Wastefulness
Having children who aspire to spend as long as possible playing on a computer

(am I allowed to say I like riding my bike?)

Some of the people I have met on this forum have enriched my life enormously and some have become good friends.

Makes me feel very jolly :-)

:shock: :shock: Are you my missus in disguise?!!

I might be. Stranger things have happened to me.....

Sewinman

I got into baseball when I was in the states for a few months - stat-tastic. Hard to follow in the Uk, too late at night.

I have a big passion for fly fishing. Standing in a cool river in beautiful countryside, casting a line to a rising wild trout and fooling it...watching it break the surface and sip down a fly you just delicately presented to it. A great moment.

I have been neglecting it recently and have been obsessing on cycling!

Jay dubbleU

Geology
Hillwalking
Alpine Climbing
Being above the clouds
Wild camping
Cooking - and food of course!
Theoretical Physics
The Dogs
Monty Python
You lot :roll:

DonDaddyD

I explained how I got into comics I never explained why I loved them.

I love the escapism, the suspesion of belife it pushes the boundaries and at an early age taught me that my imagination should have no boundaries.

At the same time, I love the real world parallels, the grit the emotional development and investment in characters. I felt Millar's frustration and annoyance when writing Ultimates, a clear mirror of America under Bush and his administrations foriegn policy. I understood the love and fascination Thanos had with Death. I loved the irony why Death took no notice of him as all he ever gave her was Death, the one thing she didin't need (Lady Death in the Marvel comics is a cosmic abstract). I cried a little on the inside when Hulk had his wife with unborn child die along with his whole planet. I thrive on the nobility of Thor.

I love comics absolutely. I love the way they play on concepts of altruism, good and evil. I love the way some motives whether for the greater good are never really justified. Looking past the medium and at the message I believe a well written comic helps cast light over the emotional spectrum and set straight the moral compass.

I love sci-fi: Star Gate, Star Trek, Star Wars et al because of the far reaching science concepts pushed too their limits. One of my favourites is the quantum reality theories:

"The Cat is neither alive or dead"

Rich158

DonDaddyD wrote:

I explained how I got into comics I never explained why I loved them.

I love the escapism, the suspesion of belife it pushes the boundaries and at an early age taught me that my imagination should have no boundaries.

At the same time, I love the real world parallels, the grit the emotional development and investment in characters. I felt Millar's frustration and annoyance when writing Ultimates, a clear mirror of America under Bush and his administrations foriegn policy. I understood the love and fascination Thanos had with Death. I loved the irony why Death took no notice of him as all he ever gave her was Death, the one thing she didin't need (Lady Death in the Marvel comics is a cosmic abstract). I cried a little on the inside when Hulk had his wife with unborn child die along with his whole planet. I thrive on the nobility of Thor.

I love comics absolutely. I love the way they play on concepts of altruism, good and evil. I love the way some motives whether for the greater good are never really justified. Looking past the medium and at the message I believe a well written comic helps cast light over the emotional spectrum and set straight the moral compass.

I love sci-fi: Star Gate, Star Trek, Star Wars et al because of the far reaching science concepts pushed too their limits. One of my favourites is the quantum reality theories:

"The Cat is neither alive or dead"

I assume you're referring to Schrodingers Cat in relation to Quantun Mechanics. It blows my mind, although I do find the Copenhagen intepretation easiest to follow. An interesting conundrum that I find especially fascinating as it marries the realms of science and philosophy. One can argue for hours, and I have done, over the possible outcomes and their interpretation :roll:

secretsam

you lot make me feel ashamed...long (train) commute, two young kids (4 y/o twins) mean little time for much "me" time. Used to be big into music but even that's fallen by the wayside. I barely even drink any more...

Do like the odd film or going to watch my beloved Bristol City, would love to ride bike more but am so knackered at the end of the day...how do you all manage it?

DonDaddyD

Rich158 wrote:

I assume you're referring to Schrodingers Cat in relation to Quantun Mechanics. It blows my mind, although I do find the Copenhagen intepretation easiest to follow. An interesting conundrum that I find especially fascinating as it marries the realms of science and philosophy. One can argue for hours, and I have done, over the possible outcomes and their interpretation :roll:

Yep.

Although I don't argue on this one, for me and I could be wrong, everything is an uncertainty until the moment of finality. Suspension of belife (years of turning onto the back page of a comic to find some guy alive after being most certainly killed only to find out that he is an alternate reality version) has helped understanding the Cat being both alive and dead until looking in the box at which it is either dead or alive.

For me everything forthcoming is a possiblity a moment of uncertainty until a point of finality, best described as 'now'.

What if I told you that I learned about Schrodingers Cat from a Thor comic and the explanation was perfect...

Also Dr Bruce Banner (Hulk) was the one explained that all energy is tranferable and the human conscience cannot be the exception therefore when we die, where do we go?

Also came up against an interesting one. In the eyes of human perception, time doesn't move 'now' (as in each moment you're alive) moves through time.

Rich158

Wow, all of that from a comic.

My interpretation is that within Quantum Mechanics all systems can be assumed to be in all states, untill they are measured, at which point they either exist in one state or the other. The very act of measurement upsets the balance of the system, which makes the experiments virtually impossible. The Copenhagen interpretation implies that the cat remains both alive and dead until the box is opened. Once the box is opened the closed system (cat in a box) is disturbed and has to assume one state or the other.


There are other interpretations, notable the multiple world theory, where the cat exists in all possible states in parrallel universes.

Then I start thinking about it in more depth and my head hurts :roll:

lost_in_thought

Linsen - give me all your unwanted pink wafers! I like them!

always_tyred

Sewinman wrote:

I got into baseball when I was in the states for a few months - stat-tastic. Hard to follow in the Uk, too late at night.

I have a big passion for fly fishing. Standing in a cool river in beautiful countryside, casting a line to a rising wild trout and fooling it...watching it break the surface and sip down a fly you just delicately presented to it. A great moment.

I have been neglecting it recently and have been obsessing on cycling!

I never understood the appeal of fishing (by which I mean the act of spending money on equipment to dangle a nylon line into a body of water, followed by the act of standing next to that equipment for many hours and then going home). Why not go for a walk, or read a book, or go for a boat trip, in the same environment, without the need for all that equipment? Its not like you are fooling anyone - just be honest and tell your family you need a few hours away from them.

Kieran_Burns

I found the clearest explanation for Schroedinger's cat came from Dirk Gently when he started referring to collapsed waveforms

I then got stuck with Terry Pratchett and his Science of the Discworld books which cemented the idea.

It's simply a case of the cat being in an undetermined state - the number of possible states is in flux until the determination is made and the number of possibilities becomes 1. Big cloud of numbers 'collapses' to 1.

DDD - we are Star stuff (I love that statement - B5 8) ) the energy of our being simply moves on. We are a temporary collection of atoms that have no memory of before and no expectation of after. We just go back into the big pool of creation.

Your time analogy is interesting - and parallels mans early insistance that the Sun revolves around the Earth 'cos that's how it looks. Are we running on a stationary road - or is the road moving beneath us and we have to run to stay in the same palce?

DonDaddyD

Rich158 wrote:

Wow, all of that from a comic.

My interpretation is that within Quantum Mechanics all systems can be assumed to be in all states, untill they are measured, at which point they either exist in one state or the other. The very act of measurement upsets the balance of the system, which makes the experiments virtually impossible. The Copenhagen interpretation implies that the cat remains both alive and dead until the box is opened. Once the box is opened the closed system (cat in a box) is disturbed and has to assume one state or the other.


There are other interpretations, notable the multiple world theory, where the cat exists in all possible states in parrallel universes.

Then I start thinking about it in more depth and my head hurts :roll:

Just for kicks this is how it was explained in a comic.

Thor was put in a box to undertake the Odin-sleep to regenerate his power. His Human-alter-ego (they share the same quantum space and therefore cannot both exist at the same time - think of it as they are both the same person one human the other God) appeared and all, including Donald Blake (human Thor) was surprised.

Everyone questioned whether Thor was in the box, to which Donald Blake explained the 'cat theory' as the cat remains both alive and dead until the box is opened. Once the box is opened reality has to assume one state or the other.

Kieran_Burns

lost_in_thought wrote:

Linsen - give me all your unwanted pink wafers! I like them!

I was going to ask Linsen to marry me until I saw that line - now I hate her with every fibre of my being and wish her demise through pink waferiness. :P

biondino

SecretSam wrote:

you lot make me feel ashamed...long (train) commute, two young kids (4 y/o twins) mean little time for much "me" time. Used to be big into music but even that's fallen by the wayside. I barely even drink any more...

Drink on the train?

Sewinman wrote:

I have a big passion for fly fishing. Standing in a cool river in beautiful countryside, casting a line to a rising wild trout and fooling it...

Did you mean to say tw@tting it?

biondino

Always Tyred wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

I got into baseball when I was in the states for a few months - stat-tastic. Hard to follow in the Uk, too late at night.

I have a big passion for fly fishing. Standing in a cool river in beautiful countryside, casting a line to a rising wild trout and fooling it...watching it break the surface and sip down a fly you just delicately presented to it. A great moment.

I have been neglecting it recently and have been obsessing on cycling!

I never understood the appeal of fishing (by which I mean the act of spending money on equipment to dangle a nylon line into a body of water, followed by the act of standing next to that equipment for many hours and then going home). Why not go for a walk, or read a book, or go for a boat trip, in the same environment, without the need for all that equipment? Its not like you are fooling anyone - just be honest and tell your family you need a few hours away from them.

You have no soul.

Sewinman

Always Tyred wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

I got into baseball when I was in the states for a few months - stat-tastic. Hard to follow in the Uk, too late at night.

I have a big passion for fly fishing. Standing in a cool river in beautiful countryside, casting a line to a rising wild trout and fooling it...watching it break the surface and sip down a fly you just delicately presented to it. A great moment.

I have been neglecting it recently and have been obsessing on cycling!

I never understood the appeal of fishing (by which I mean the act of spending money on equipment to dangle a nylon line into a body of water, followed by the act of standing next to that equipment for many hours and then going home). Why not go for a walk, or read a book, or go for a boat trip, in the same environment, without the need for all that equipment? Its not like you are fooling anyone - just be honest and tell your family you need a few hours away from them.

There would not be much appeal if that was an accurate description of fishing. The most important component of fishing is fish, and one goes fishing to catch them, not to dangle nylon. Its a pretty basic human pleasure to catch a fish.

Sewinman

biondino wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

I have a big passion for fly fishing. Standing in a cool river in beautiful countryside, casting a line to a rising wild trout and fooling it...

Did you mean to say tw@tting it?

They do taste nice - well trout and salmon do. I actually generally put them back these days though.

Rich158

Sewinman wrote:

Always Tyred wrote:

Sewinman wrote:

I got into baseball when I was in the states for a few months - stat-tastic. Hard to follow in the Uk, too late at night.

I have a big passion for fly fishing. Standing in a cool river in beautiful countryside, casting a line to a rising wild trout and fooling it...watching it break the surface and sip down a fly you just delicately presented to it. A great moment.

I have been neglecting it recently and have been obsessing on cycling!

I never understood the appeal of fishing (by which I mean the act of spending money on equipment to dangle a nylon line into a body of water, followed by the act of standing next to that equipment for many hours and then going home). Why not go for a walk, or read a book, or go for a boat trip, in the same environment, without the need for all that equipment? Its not like you are fooling anyone - just be honest and tell your family you need a few hours away from them.

There would not be much appeal if that was an accurate description of fishing. The most important component of fishing is fish, and one goes fishing to catch them, not to dangle nylon. Its a pretty basic human pleasure to catch a fish.

Not in my house it's not :roll:

DonDaddyD

Kieran_Burns wrote:

I found the clearest explanation for Schroedinger's cat came from Dirk Gently when he started referring to collapsed waveforms

I then got stuck with Terry Pratchett and his Science of the Discworld books which cemented the idea.

It's simply a case of the cat being in an undetermined state - the number of possible states is in flux until the determination is made and the number of possibilities becomes 1. Big cloud of numbers 'collapses' to 1.

I think we are all touching on the same thing here, multiple possiblities exist until an action is taken to make one of those possibilities a reality for us. At the same instance another DondaddyD is experiencing another possibility.

So when I had that near miss the other day, in another reality another DonDaddyD was hit but survived, another was hit and died, another missed but died and so on and so on...

Well at least i can rest safely knowing another me has won the lottery, doing Vikki Pendleton and is astride that Lotus time trial bike....

DDD - we are Star stuff (I love that statement - B5 8) ) the energy of our being simply moves on. We are a temporary collection of atoms that have no memory of before and no expectation of after. We just go back into the big pool of creation.

Which is interesting because somewhere previously described was an explanation that there were two forms of immortals. Immortal bodies and immortal spirits, with the latter being truly immortal and former not as a immortal body can be destroyed (its not invulnerable but after being seperated from the body the immortal spirit can continue to exist.

Think Star Gate and ascension.