Dec 23, 2008
Dec 3, 2008
Jack & Wendy Torrance
Wendy Torrance: [crying] Stay away from me.
Jack Torrance: Why?
Wendy Torrance: I just wanna go back to my room!
Jack Torrance: Why?
Wendy Torrance: Well, I'm very confused, and I just need time to think things over!
Jack Torrance: You've had your whole FUCKING LIFE to think things over, what good's a few minutes more gonna do you now?
Wendy Torrance: Please! Don't hurt me!
Jack Torrance: I'm not gonna hurt you.
Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me!
Jack Torrance: Wendy? Darling? Light, of my life. I'm not gonna hurt ya. You didn't let me finish my sentence. I said, I'm not gonna hurt ya. I'm just going to bash your brains in. [Wendy gasps]
Jack Torrance: Gonna bash 'em right the fuck in! ha ha ha
Wendy Torrance: Stay away from me! Don't hurt me!
Jack Torrance: [sarcastically] I'm not gonna hurt ya...
Wendy Torrance: Stay away! Stop it!
Jack Torrance: Stop swingin' the bat. Put the bat down, Wendy. Wendy? Give me the bat..
.
"What can change the nature of a man ? "
Modern computer games are a narrative wasteland.
Oh, there are exceptions, I know. But nowadays most games emphasize better graphics, faster, more frenetic, gameplay, and a healthy dose of the �old ultraviolence�, to quote Anthony Burgess. An actual storyline more complex than �kill the badguy� has gone the way of the dodo and OS/2.
But a brilliant storyline is just one of the things that placed �Planescape: Torment� among the greatest games, and made it perhaps THE greatest computer role-playing game ever made.
�Torment� was a commercial flop, regrettably. The game was set in the obscure Dungeons & Dragons �Planescape� setting, which lacked the popularity of the �Forgotten Realms�. Add ugly cover art and an ineffective marketing campaign to the mix, and �Torment� failed in the marketplace.
But the game itself was unlike anything else, before and since.
The player character was the Nameless One, a gray-skinned, black-haired, tattooed, hideously scarred giant of a man. At the beginning of the game he wakes up on a morgue slab, with no memory of how he got there, and no guide but a wisecracking, floating skull and a paragraph of cryptic instructions tattooed onto his back. Soon the Nameless One (and the player) learns part of the truth; he is immortal, and cannot permanently die. Yet with every death he loses his memory anew. In previous lives he has been a conquering general, a desperate thief, an archmage of power, a noble hero and a despicable villain. Yet why has this happened to him?
And why do vengeful, murderous shadows chase him from life to life?
So the Nameless One�s quest is simple. He must find himself, and to do that, he has to answer the riddle at the core of the game: �What can change the nature of a man?�
And yet it�s the player who will answer that riddle, not the Nameless One. The Nameless One begins as an empty shell; it�s the player�s choices that will make him good or evil, weak or strong. In most D&D based RPGs alignment means nothing. Good or evil, the goblin hordes still need slaughtering. But in Torment, the Nameless One can make actual moral choices. He can befriend his companions, freeing them from their doubts and torments�or he can sell them into slavery. He can listen to and learn from other characters in the game�or he can dominate and terrorize them.
What can change the nature of a man? The player�s choices will determine the answer. That alone takes “Torment” from a mere game, almost to the realm of art.
And the Nameless One makes his choices fantastical, phantasmagoric world. Most of the game is set in Sigil, a perfectly round city set atop an infinitely tall spire, a city ruled by an enigmatic, all-powerful figure called the Lady of Pain. The city lies in the Outer Planes, realms ruled not by physical laws, but by belief itself. If enough people believe in dead trees, they can bloom again, and belief can reshape reality itself.
Some wags nickednamed the Planescape setting “philosophy with dice”, and “Torment” carried that tradition admirably. While there’s combat aplenty, the game’s most dramatic, exciting, and thought-provoking moments lie in the conversational trees. The Nameless One can argue a despairing warrior-mystic back to faith, for instance, or speak with a living weapons factory bent on destroying the universe. He can argue with a riddling skeleton among a nation of Undead, parley with a collective of psionic rats, and convince a fallen angel to repent and turn back from leading an army against the gates of Heaven. Belief, philosophy, and good and evil are not intangible concepts in “Torment”. They are real and powerful and shape the fabric of the universe.
And the Nameless One has the most bizarre and fascinating band of supporting characters in RPG history. There�s Morte, a floating, disembodied skull with a wisecracking wit (astonishing, since he doesn�t actually have a tongue). Annah, a fiery tiefling thief with green eyes and a waving tail (superbly voiced by pop star Sheena Easton). Dak�kon, a grim warrior-mystic who has lost the knowing of himself. Fall-From-Grace, a reformed succubus who now runs a salon called the Brothel of Intellectual Delights. Ignus, a pyromanical mage burning, literally, with the force of his madness.
And Ravel Puzzlewell, the witch of the Gray Waste, who grew so wise and so powerful and so mad that she tried to unbind the multiverse itself, the woman who asked the Nameless One the vital question:
What can change the nature of a man?
So play your first-person shooters, if you must, and run down cops in “Grand Theft Auto 37: More Fodder For Incumbent Politicians”, and let your brains rot away bit by bit.But can you answer Ravel’s riddle? Do you know the answer?
Perhaps you should play “Planescape: Torment” and find out.
Oh, there are exceptions, I know. But nowadays most games emphasize better graphics, faster, more frenetic, gameplay, and a healthy dose of the �old ultraviolence�, to quote Anthony Burgess. An actual storyline more complex than �kill the badguy� has gone the way of the dodo and OS/2.
But a brilliant storyline is just one of the things that placed �Planescape: Torment� among the greatest games, and made it perhaps THE greatest computer role-playing game ever made.
�Torment� was a commercial flop, regrettably. The game was set in the obscure Dungeons & Dragons �Planescape� setting, which lacked the popularity of the �Forgotten Realms�. Add ugly cover art and an ineffective marketing campaign to the mix, and �Torment� failed in the marketplace.
But the game itself was unlike anything else, before and since.
The player character was the Nameless One, a gray-skinned, black-haired, tattooed, hideously scarred giant of a man. At the beginning of the game he wakes up on a morgue slab, with no memory of how he got there, and no guide but a wisecracking, floating skull and a paragraph of cryptic instructions tattooed onto his back. Soon the Nameless One (and the player) learns part of the truth; he is immortal, and cannot permanently die. Yet with every death he loses his memory anew. In previous lives he has been a conquering general, a desperate thief, an archmage of power, a noble hero and a despicable villain. Yet why has this happened to him?
And why do vengeful, murderous shadows chase him from life to life?
So the Nameless One�s quest is simple. He must find himself, and to do that, he has to answer the riddle at the core of the game: �What can change the nature of a man?�
And yet it�s the player who will answer that riddle, not the Nameless One. The Nameless One begins as an empty shell; it�s the player�s choices that will make him good or evil, weak or strong. In most D&D based RPGs alignment means nothing. Good or evil, the goblin hordes still need slaughtering. But in Torment, the Nameless One can make actual moral choices. He can befriend his companions, freeing them from their doubts and torments�or he can sell them into slavery. He can listen to and learn from other characters in the game�or he can dominate and terrorize them.
What can change the nature of a man? The player�s choices will determine the answer. That alone takes “Torment” from a mere game, almost to the realm of art.
And the Nameless One makes his choices fantastical, phantasmagoric world. Most of the game is set in Sigil, a perfectly round city set atop an infinitely tall spire, a city ruled by an enigmatic, all-powerful figure called the Lady of Pain. The city lies in the Outer Planes, realms ruled not by physical laws, but by belief itself. If enough people believe in dead trees, they can bloom again, and belief can reshape reality itself.
Some wags nickednamed the Planescape setting “philosophy with dice”, and “Torment” carried that tradition admirably. While there’s combat aplenty, the game’s most dramatic, exciting, and thought-provoking moments lie in the conversational trees. The Nameless One can argue a despairing warrior-mystic back to faith, for instance, or speak with a living weapons factory bent on destroying the universe. He can argue with a riddling skeleton among a nation of Undead, parley with a collective of psionic rats, and convince a fallen angel to repent and turn back from leading an army against the gates of Heaven. Belief, philosophy, and good and evil are not intangible concepts in “Torment”. They are real and powerful and shape the fabric of the universe.
And the Nameless One has the most bizarre and fascinating band of supporting characters in RPG history. There�s Morte, a floating, disembodied skull with a wisecracking wit (astonishing, since he doesn�t actually have a tongue). Annah, a fiery tiefling thief with green eyes and a waving tail (superbly voiced by pop star Sheena Easton). Dak�kon, a grim warrior-mystic who has lost the knowing of himself. Fall-From-Grace, a reformed succubus who now runs a salon called the Brothel of Intellectual Delights. Ignus, a pyromanical mage burning, literally, with the force of his madness.
And Ravel Puzzlewell, the witch of the Gray Waste, who grew so wise and so powerful and so mad that she tried to unbind the multiverse itself, the woman who asked the Nameless One the vital question:
What can change the nature of a man?
So play your first-person shooters, if you must, and run down cops in “Grand Theft Auto 37: More Fodder For Incumbent Politicians”, and let your brains rot away bit by bit.But can you answer Ravel’s riddle? Do you know the answer?
Perhaps you should play “Planescape: Torment” and find out.
Oct 13, 2008
Cliff Burton R.I.P. (February 10 1962 - September 27 1986)
"We heard this wild solo going on and thought, 'I don't see any guitar player up there.' It turned out it was the bass player, Cliff, with a wah wah pedal and this mop of hair. He didn't care whether people were there. He was looking down at his bass playing."
>>James Hetfield<<
>>James Hetfield<<
"When I started, I decided to devote my life to it
and not get sidetracked by all the other bullshit life has to offer"
>>Cliff Burton<<
and not get sidetracked by all the other bullshit life has to offer"
>>Cliff Burton<<
...Lemmy Kilmister of Motorhead, Geddy Lee of Rush, Geezer Butler of Black Sabbath and Jazz bassist Stanley Clarke."
"Favorite Composer and Bands...
Bach, Pink Floyd, The Misfits, Samhain, ZZ Top, Thin Lizzy, R.E.M., Aerosmith, Black Sabbath, Velvet Underground and Judas Priest."
>>Cliff Burton<<
"People have copied him but nobody ever had his feel or his prowess."
...Jason Newsted, Playboy, April 2001
>>Dave Mustaine<<
>>Cliff Burton<<
Oct 11, 2008
London Beer Flood
The London Beer Flood occurred on October 17, 1814 in the London parish of St. Giles in the United Kingdom. At the Meux and Company Brewery on Tottenham Court Road, a huge vat containing over 135,000 gallons of beer ruptured, causing other vats in the same building to succumb in a domino effect. As a result, more than 323,000 gallons of beer burst out and gushed into the streets. The wave of beer destroyed two homes and crumbled the wall of the Tavistock Arms pub, trapping the barmaid under the rubble.
The wave left 9 people dead: 8 due to drowning, one from alcohol poisoning.
The brewery was eventually taken to court over the accident, but the disaster was ruled to be an "Act of God" by the judge and jury, leaving no one responsible.
Oct 9, 2008
20 Ways To Maintain A Healthy Level of Insanity
1. At Lunch Time, Sit In Your Parked Car With Sunglasses on and Point A Hair Dryer At Passing Cars. See If They Slow Down.
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone Has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch To Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Sexual Favors"
7. Finish All Your Sentences With "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don't Use Any Punctuation
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Ask People What Sex They Are. Laugh Hysterically After They Answer.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play Tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Hard.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won! I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking Lot, Yelling
"Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."
And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.......
20. Send an Post To Someone To Make Them Smile..
It's Called Therapy...
2. Page Yourself Over The Intercom. Don't Disguise Your Voice.
3. Every Time Someone Asks You To Do Something, Ask If They Want Fries with that.
4. Put Your Garbage Can On Your Desk And Label It "In."
5. Put Decaf In The Coffee Maker For 3 Weeks. Once Everyone Has Gotten Over Their Caffeine Addictions, Switch To Espresso.
6. In The Memo Field Of All Your Checks, Write "For Sexual Favors"
7. Finish All Your Sentences With "In Accordance With The Prophecy."
8. Don't Use Any Punctuation
9. As Often As Possible, Skip Rather Than Walk.
10. Ask People What Sex They Are. Laugh Hysterically After They Answer.
11. Specify That Your Drive-through Order Is "To Go."
12. Sing Along At The Opera.
13. Go To A Poetry Recital And Ask Why The Poems Don't Rhyme
14. Put Mosquito Netting Around Your Work Area And Play Tropical Sounds All Day.
15. Five Days In Advance, Tell Your Friends You Can't Attend Their Party because You're Not In The Mood.
16. Have Your Co-workers Address You By Your Wrestling Name, Rock Hard.
17. When The Money Comes Out The ATM, Scream "I Won! I Won!"
18. When Leaving The Zoo, Start Running Towards The Parking Lot, Yelling
"Run For Your Lives, They're Loose!!"
19. Tell Your Children Over Dinner. "Due To The Economy, We Are Going To Have To Let One Of You Go."
And The Final Way To Keep A Healthy Level Of Insanity.......
20. Send an Post To Someone To Make Them Smile..
It's Called Therapy...
Oct 8, 2008
Oct 7, 2008
Oct 6, 2008
My first drink...
I was about 5 yr. old and my grandfather was visiting. He was talking to my dad. i think they were drinking grape brandy or something like that. Anyway it was colorless. I was playing around, sneaking. At one moment i took one glass from the table that look like the glass I was drinking water from. So I emptied the glass in a second. It wasn't water. I drank a lot of water later to put out the fire from my throat .
Do not do this at home ! :)
Do not do this at home ! :)
HOW TO TICK PEOPLE OFF
- Leave the copy machine set to reduce 200%, extra dark, 17 inch paper, 99 copies.
- In the memo field of all your checks, write "for sexual favors."
- Specify that your drive-through order is "TO-GO."
- If you have a glass eye, tap on it occasionally with your pen while talking to others.
- Stomp on little plastic ketchup packets.
- Insist on keeping your car windshield wipers running in all weather conditions "to keep them tuned up."
- Reply to everything someone says with "that's what you think."
- Practice making fax and modem noises.
- Highlight irrelevant information in scientific papers and "cc" them to your boss.
- Make beeping noises when a large person backs up.
- Finish all your sentences with the words "in accordance with prophesy."
- Signal that a conversation is over by clamping your hands over your ears and grimacing.
- Disassemble your pen and "accidentally" flip the ink cartridge across the room.
- Holler random numbers while someone is counting.
- Adjust the tint on your TV so that all the people are green, and insist to others that you "like it that way."
- Staple pages in the middle of the page.
- Publicly investigate just how slowly you can make a croaking noise.
- Honk and wave to strangers.
- Decline to be seated at a restaurant, and simply eat their complimentary mints at the cash register.
- TYPE IN UPPERCASE.
- type only in lowercase.
- dont use any punctuation either
- Buy a large quantity of orange traffic cones and reroute whole streets.
- Repeat the following conversation a dozen times.
"DO YOU HEAR THAT?"
"What?"
"Never mind, it's gone now." - As much as possible, skip rather than walk.
- Try playing the William Tell Overture by tapping on the bottom of your chin. When nearly done, announce "No, wait, I messed it up," and repeat.
- Ask people what gender they are.
- While making presentations, occasionally bob your head like a parakeet.
- Sit in your front yard pointing a hair dryer at passing cars to see if they slow down.
- Sing along at the opera.
- Go to a poetry recital and ask why each poem doesn't rhyme.
- Ask your co-workers mysterious questions and then scribble their answers in a notebook. Mutter something about "psychological profiles."
Oct 2, 2008
Bread is Dangerous
- More than 98 percent of convicted felons are bread users.
- Fully HALF of all children who grow up in bread-consuming households score below average on standardized tests.
- In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations
- More than 90 percent of violent crimes are committed within 24 hours of eating bread.
- Bread is made from a substance called "dough." It has been proven that as little as one pound of dough can be used to suffocate a mouse. The average North American eats more bread than that in one month!
- Primitive tribal societies that have no bread exhibit a low incidence of cancer, Alzheimer's, Parkinson's disease, and osteoporosis.
- Bread has been proven to be addictive. Subjects deprived of bread and given only water to eat begged for bread after as little as two days.
- Bread is often a "gateway" food item, leading the user to "harder" items such as butter, jelly, peanut butter, and even cold cuts.
- Bread has been proven to absorb water. Since the human body is more than 90 percent water, it follows that eating bread could lead to your body being taken over by this absorptive food product, turning you into a soggy, gooey bread-pudding person.
- Newborn babies can choke on bread.
- Bread is baked at temperatures as high as 240 degrees Celsius! That kind of heat can kill an adult in less than one minute.
- Most bread eaters are utterly unable to distinguish between significant scientific fact and meaningless statistical babbling.
In light of these frightening statistics, we propose the following bread restrictions:
- No sale of bread to minors
- A nationwide "Just Say No To Toast" campaign, complete celebrity TV spots and bumper stickers.
- A 300 percent federal tax on all bread to pay for all the societal ills we might associate with bread.
- No animal or human images, nor any primary colors (which may appeal to children) may be used to promote bread usage.
- The establishment of "Bread-free" zones around schools.
Source Unknown
Nightrider
Born with a steering wheel in his hand...
... and lead in his foot.
He is the Nightrider...
... cruising at the speed of fright!
I am the Nightrider,
and we ain't never coming back!
I'm a fuel-injected suicide machine!
I am a rocker! I am a roller!
Kubrick part 1 : odyssey explained
I've found this site while stumbling. Explenation of Space Odeyssey blow my mind. I felt the need to wach the film once again. Here it is http://www.kubrick2001.com/ .
Oct 1, 2008
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