Talk of the Day

[snarfblam]

Yet according to the Federal Government, marijuana is supposedly more dangerous than crack, alcohol, tobacco (pot supposedly helps cancer victims), and LSD.

There's a common conception that the government thinks marijuana is among the most harmful kind of drugs because it is Schedule I, i.e. the most controlled and restricted.

Schedule I.—
    (A) The drug or other substance has a high potential for abuse.
    (B) The drug or other substance has no currently accepted medical use in treatment in the United States.
    (C) There is a lack of accepted safety for use of the drug or other substance under medical supervision."

The government has decided that marijuana has no legitimate use, namely in medical terms. Unfortunately, the ridiculous result is that despite being the most harmless recreational drug, the penalties are obscene. But it's not because it's considered the most harmful. (You could move to Mass, where you only get a ticket for reasonable quantities, but then you have to deal with hordes of loud, smelly hippies.)

Perhaps it could be considered hypocritical of me to say this, but I feel that there are better ways to spend money than on the temporary, artificial "happiness" which drugs bring.

Better we should spend money on temporary, vicarious happiness in the form of television or novels or movies or video games. Or temporary physical pleasure such as pizza. Or Legal artificial happiness, like beer.

I always get the same response to this argument, "but it's not the same." Well it's not. I watch TV or read a book to escape my own life for a while. I play video games to forget about my day. When I get home from work, I like to have a beer (others choose a different drug) to relax, loosen up, and enjoy the rest of may day, not to forget the first half existed. Is that escapism or self deception? What bothers me the worst is when somebody thinks it will destroy or corrupt a mind. By what logic? That's a religious belief, accepted without evidence.

[Quietus]

While I'm not saying drugs should be ignored, when you consider the monumental damage done to society on a daily basis through alcohol, you'd think it'd be a much higher priority than drugs.

[Hiroshi Mishima]

On the topic of marijuana: Perhaps it could be considered hypocritical of me to say this, but I feel that there are better ways to spend money than on the temporary, artificial "happiness" which drugs bring. Recreational drug usage seems to me to be a form of escapism; if so many, obviously far more than those for whom there are medicinal benefits, clamor for marijuana, there is probably something terribly wrong on a deeper level.

Actually, what intrigues me about the stuff is the way you can make food with it. From what I understand, eating it is far more beneficial than smoking it. As an Asthmatic I detest smoking of any kind, but pot particularly cause it stinks something awful even when you haven't smoked it. But I hear about the chocolate bars, or butter, or other concoctions, it sounds remotely interesting. A good number of people who are pro marijuana are actually shocked people still think smoking it as that is the least effective form medical wise.

Anyways.. at Snarfblam:

A lot of anti-MJ people I've met or heard talk seem to genuinely believe that it is harmful and deserves it's Schedule I placement, even though it really isn't. To say that it's dangerous cause it's addictive, so are pain killer, beer, and anime, but we see them in such a light. The point I was making about the penalties is that they are so obscene and without just cause this actually does make ignorant people think that it's really so dangerous. I really think that a lot of that money could be spent elsewhere on genuine crimes. I remember on the show this cop mentioned how if they legalize it, the cartels won't go away. Then I thought, well back in Prohibition (which people should realize is a damned precedent for all this) the mobs and smugglers fought just like the cartels do, and after it was lifted they _did_ eventually go away (or stop dealing with that stuff). So the idea that if you make pot okay that the cartel will still even care about it is ridiculous. It may have a period of change but then it'll settle down and be a thing of the past.

I dunno, it just all feels like people aren't looking at the bigger picture. I got so tired of hearing people say "for the children!" with that smug look on their faces, especially since I've seen "for the children" used to justify all kinds of problems.

Oh, and my mom smokes pot in small quantities on occasion when she's home for the week. Basically to relax and unwind (she stresses a lot), and doesn't forget whole parts of the day. She's a bit absent minded, but many in my family are, and you can't really place the blame on the pot.

[personitis]

I'm returning to the land of virtual communities after roughly one week of doing other things. Such things as college research and enjoying my senior year. What is up MetConst.

Also, in response to Hiroshi, a good friend of mine that is currently living with me is an ex marry j smoker (3 yrs sober). According to him, all it does is make you lazy, relaxed, and hungry. Of course you also have to take into consideration of the amount smoked. (don't mind me... just jumping into the convo...)

[Hiroshi Mishima]

So I've been playing some more Final Fantasy XII (and I think I may have stirred up some shit on the GameFAQs board for same game unintentionally) and I think I have found out the _real_ reason the game just doesn't feel right to me: pacing.

[spoiler=What follows is a Hiroshi Rant(tm)]I have logged over 70 hours in the game, possibly around 80 if I look at my save. I am level 50-51 (amongst the characters), and I have only just gotten back with the Dawn Shard. Yet from what I can understand, I'm still rather early into the game, maybe still the first third or so... how can that be? Most games I'd be either almost done, or at least in the last third of the game (Rogue Galaxy notwithstanding, it took me like 4 fraking months to finish..and was a rental. :/ )

It occurs to me that whenever there is a storyline segment, I find myself doing the same things:

1) Running around talking to _everyone_ in every available town to see what's changed. There's a lot of NPCs and they do, surprisingly, have new things to say. If I don't talk to them all I may miss a vital bit of exposition that is oh-so-common amongst RPGs where people don't talk to NPCs.

2) Sidequests tend to pop up after each event ranging from Marks, to fetch quests, to .. talking to NPCs I already talked to. Unfortunately as they decided some will only occur at certain times while others occur early but can't be finished until later.. this tends to keep me guessing as to what I can do and where. There's so many damned sidequests that even trying to follow a guide to find them all is confusing.

3) Grinding for Experience and License Points, looting for drops (only way to make money), and trying to fill in the Beastiary by killing X amount of each normal enemy. This takes an exorbitant amount of time as LP gains slowly and you often need at least 30+ for most Licenses, mean 30+ kills each time though thankfully you can often do all of these at the same time. But that doesn't change the fact that it still takes forever and the drop/loot/chest system in this game is abysmal. Many chests do not appear all the time, and even when they DO appear, they may have one of two items in it, and even THAT is not certain cause there's a chance you'll get Gil instead.

All of this stems from one problem: Final Fantasy XII is an Offline version of Final Fantasy XI. It plays like an MMO (where your party acts on their own depending on circumstances and situations), there's grinding and sidequests up the arse, and the chests are both reoccuring and their contents randomized. And instead of steals and drops following a sensible ratio like: 50% Potion, 40% Antidote, 10% Phoenix Down where they have all these items and that's the change you have of getting it, we actually have a more asinine ratio of 55% Potion, 10% Hi-Potion, 3% Valuable Item where that's the chance of the creature having said item upon spawning and Nothing Else so no matter what, you're going to be stuck there stealing over and over again while getting your ass kicked (or pecked around weak enemies). That's not even adding up to 100%, either, though I think the unaccounted for percentage is Gil though I've never seen that said anywhere.

What I'm getting at is I spend so much time between each story event or next location that by the time I am done or ready to go to next point in the game I've either forgotten a lot of what happened before, or I don't even remember what I'm doing at all. This really isn't helped when sometimes they forget to leave you a reminder at the bottom of the map screen. That happened recently and I must have been running around for almost an hour trying to figure out what I was supposed to do.

Good voice acting, fairly well written storyline (from what I've seen so far, though there's been issues), slightly reused-feeling characters (which I can overlook between facepalms) but otherwise bogged down by all this excessive tacked on bullshit that takes up way more time than it really should. It took me over 3 years to finally force myself to sit down and play this (when it came out I couldn't even do that) and now I'm finding all kinds of issues I'm having with the game. This is just ridiculous...[/spoiler]

[JAM]

Happy Birthday, P.JBoy!


Your opcode list is most frequent opened doc in my computer when I write ASM code or searching for it. I write in pure hex, BTW.

[Digital_Mantra]

I'm leaving the forum including my rare irc visits.
Reasons? I can't really go into them or put them in proper words.

Everyone, it's been a pleasure being a part of the community and contributing my hacks to the metroid community.
I've made great friends here and played some amazing hacks. But my time is up.

Goodbye. Be well.

[squishy_ichigo]

Sad to hear it, I fare thee well Digital_Mantra with whatever path you have choosen.
Long days and pleasant nights.

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Whatever it is that's necessitating your leaving, I hope it's nothing bad and just life and/or circumstances. As Squish said, I hope things work out for you whatever it is you go off to do after this.

So long, and thanks for all the fish hacks; I know I certainly will miss your presence.

[Scyzer]

=( bye bye Dman
I do hope that you will come back later on in life to see which of us are still here and catch up though

[Black Falcon]

Sadly that the time ran over so fast.  :cry:
It was always a pleasure to play your beautiful hacks.
I wish you the best of luck for your life and I really really hope we meet again some day.
Have fun, whatever you do.
Seeya, DMan!

[Silver Skree]

I'm sad to hear the news, DMan, though I really hope everything works out for you. Come back and post again some time to keep us from worrying too much about you, y'hear?

Thank you for sharing your beautiful skill with us. It gave others and myself great guidance in learning how to express our untapped artistic ability.

[Quietus]

Always a shame when somebody fairly big leaves the community...

Good luck with whatever you've got on, DMan.

[Phazar]

So sad to see DMan go, but good luck in life to you!

So anyway, last night I had to talk my friend's ex out of commiting suicide.  He thought she had finally turned her back on him for good, and that all his other friends and family members don't care about him at all.  Finally I called her up and had her talk it over with him, but it is sometimes shocking how far a post-relationship depression streak can go.  Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

[Qactis]

You people who are questioning pot should go watch Super High Me, a movie modeled after Supersize Me, starring a comedian in California. It's funny as hell, and it's pretty informative as well.

[GF_Kennon]

Gonna miss you DMan, hope everything goes well for you.

Side note today I look at my bank account to find a £20 fine from the library, I could return the books because I took out because I was in A&E and havent really been well enough to take them back since then till today.

[Lunaria]

I will miss you DMan, you where the best friend I ever had here! :(

I hope that I will see you again some time in the future! D:

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Side note today I look at my bank account to find a £20 fine from the library, I could return the books because I took out because I was in A&E and havent really been well enough to take them back since then till today.

Had something similar to that happen to me once, it was really annoying. :/

In a slightly related (in terms of lost money), I recently purchased an IDE/SATA to USB Adapter so I could finally get the stuff off my old 14+ year old hard drive. Well, turns out that since it was compressed long ago, XP won't read it and that was $16 essentially flushed down the toilet. I am mad cause if I'd known I would never have bought it in the first place, and also cause the thing wasn't even an actual product and just the pieces to make it.  :stern:

So anyway, last night I had to talk my friend's ex out of commiting suicide.  He thought she had finally turned her back on him for good, and that all his other friends and family members don't care about him at all.  Finally I called her up and had her talk it over with him, but it is sometimes shocking how far a post-relationship depression streak can go.  Does anyone else have thoughts on this?

I don't know all the factors related to your friend's relationship, but I know I was actually very suicidal for the first month or two after I broke up with my then fiancee and girlfriend of almost 5 years. However, as I'd said even before the thoughts and urges occurred, that I knew it was going to happen as a result of my mind having to process it all. It was a very difficult and large change and it took a bit longer than I'd hoped for my mind to fully recover from it, but it isn't the first time I became mentally unstable for a short period of time following a difficult lifestyle change like that.

Maybe it'll pass shortly for your friend. I never once gave into the thoughts and desires to commit suicide, but they were never far from my mind and tormented me quite badly, especially during the first month.

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Oh joy, another "inciting installment" of Hiroshi Says Words!! :D

...and posting after myself, no less!

So I'm sitting listening to the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy radio drama, which is excellent by the way, and I decide what the hey, I'll check MetConst for any thread updates. I look in the Introduction thread and see we have a new member who is not only a native Spanish-speaker, but also seems to have a good grasp of the English language.

I sit here thinking things like, "Wow, that's pretty cool, he's good for a non-native English-speaker," and the thought pops into my head, totally unrelated to the thread. "I wonder if I say 'No Lettuce or Tomato', would it blow his mind?" I do not say this cause in the context it would have come off as rude or possibly misunderstood, and in any event would make for more interesting discussion elsewhere such as here.

The reasoning behind that thought is simple. Whenever I go to a restaurant (why does that word look misspelled?) and say that to the Hispanic-based employees it generally seems to shatter their world view and I often get back a blank stare, asked to repeat myself, or nothing and a slightly incorrect order.

This isn't a jab at the Mexicans living in California, but it is certainly something that I wonder about. It really does feel like a fair number of the ones I've met or seen throughout SoCal seem to generally disregard a need to actually learn proper English. I don't mean mastery of the damned thing, cause that's asking the impossible (seeing as how most Americans, including myself can't quite do that), but attaining that understanding that other non-native-speaking people here in California (and possibly the whole US) seem to have. I mean even if it was somewhat broken English it'd be fine if they understood it well enough and just had trouble with sentence structure.

I actually do feel intimidated about job hunting in the food industry as a result of this feeling that I'd never be able to communicate with a good half of the employees there due to this seemingly overwhelming lack of English on many of their parts... and the fact that I can't seem to retain another language well enough to understand it even when I take it in college.

Eh, maybe it's just me, but I feel rather put-out by how I'm seeing Spanish integrated into damned near everything while English almost feels like it's being given a lower priority. The fact they waste all that paper in Wii game manuals to have 3 languages (one of which isn't even considered native) does little to dissuade that feeling. They can't tell me it's easier to distribute them (which it might be) because economically it's wasteful cause of the thicker yet pointless manuals. I don't expect to go to Mexico and suddenly find them bending over backwards to speak English, so why does it feel like we're bending over backwards to speak Spanish?

Is it wrong of me to feel upset when I look at a can of Pringles and see multiple languages on it?

EDIT
**use of the word inciting instead of exciting is deliberate**

[Quietus]

No, you're not really rude, but it is a little ignorant.  Not in that you're choosing to be ignorant by actively NOT learning it, but by acknowledging the fact that there are that many people who speak the language, and making little effort to learn it.

It's no different in England.  We have a handful of languages which are prevalent enough to warrant learning them, but I kinda feel a little patriotic sometimes.  Not the whole stiff upper lip, wave our flag, rah, rah, rah, or anything, but the fact that this is MY country, and I'm a native.  If you want to come here, learn the language.  I would if I moved elsewhere, and I feel it's very ignorant on their part to do so.  Also, not that I wish to use it as a shield or anything, but we're also kinda sheltered by the fact that it is the international language.  Of course, the flip side of THAT is that while even if the entire world spoke only English, the people speaking it would still be French, Spanish, Mexican, or whatever, so we'd still have to be careful to acknowledge cultural differences, which a common language may make less obvious, and easier to forget.

[Zhs2]

I know a bit of Spanish. I know well enough to understand the syntax and semantics of the language; this helps me when I'm fixing the shit that Google Translate spits out. Much easier to work with the language in type, as I can't really speak it all that well; my brain doesn't work that way. :sad:

Onto a bit of news: My server laptop's hard drive finally gave out this morning, when I had the bright idea to reformat a server computer my parents handed off to me. The new server got installed without a hitch, but I'm not able to recover any of my files off of the old server as of yet. R.I.P. Expload, Long live Skylar. :cry:

[Quietus]

I bought a laptop yesterday! :grin:

My wife says it'll be nice because I can now 'play my emulators and hacks in the same room as her'.  Bless. :wub:

[Hiroshi Mishima]

Lol, when I tried to play my games in the same room as my girlfriend, she said the talking was a distraction and would tell me to play them in the other room. Although she was fine with games that didn't use voice acting.

Also, on language. I was forced to learn a bit of Spanish back in 3rd Grade, I actually rather resented it cause Spanish was a language I never had any interest in. I had no plans to ever visit Mexico, and while learning about the people, their history and the culture is fine, but I didn't see any reason to make the kids start learning basic language structure as well. I mean, I'd always wanted to learn Japanese since I was little but Heavens no, we have to learn a language I didn't even plan to ever use.

That could be why I am somewhat offended by it all. If I'd actually had any intention of going to a place where Spanish was the native/main language than I wouldn't have had a problem with it. As it stands it is much like my knowledge of Japanese now, wherein I know a little bit of it, but not nearly enough to actually converse with people.

The reason I do not actively try to learn another language is that I can't pick it up very well. Even when I was totally immersed in learning Japanese, I could only retain a little of it over time. Something that requires such a tremendous amount of memory does not come simply for someone whose memory isn't terribly trustworthy. Remembering little things was always easier than remembering important things, not unlike how my bad memories are stronger than my good ones, even though I actively try to push the former away and retain the latter... it isn't all that effective. Language just does not come easily for me.

...thinking back, the way they started taking over our TV and Radio rather upset me a fair bit, too. Local cable is about 15-20 channels, and I think channels 12-17 are now all Spanish. Lost a couple of old radio stations to Spanish ones, too. I guess in a way it makes me bitter and resentful. Hah, I'm an opinionated old man, set in my ways.. Guess, I shouldn't be surprised...

[Scyzer]

You have a wife??? How old are you?

[Quietus]

You have a wife??? How old are you?

Me?  I'm, um, between 29 and 31... :O_o: