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3:48 am
August 11, 2010
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The Echo Inside
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Post edited 3:48 am – August 11, 2010 by The Echo Inside
Hey there,
Just a quick note on conduct. I don't think it will be a concern, considering we all have at least one thing in common, but please be respectful to each other. I don't consider any topic off-limits, so long as the discussion is respectful. That being said, I've set this up with my own resources and am volunteering my time, and won't feel any particular twinge of guilt after banning someone for being a jackass. Additionally, because this is forum is connected to our squid overlord (Peter) I'm having trouble imagining a situation where he wouldn't get the final say should a situation arise.
Last two things, by participating here you understand two things:
1) Adult topics may be present/discussed and you are responsible for whether you choose to view these (in other words, if you're a minor you should have parental guidance/permission and if you get offended by certain subjects, don't participate in them or view them)
2) I am not liable for what happens here, it's an open forum, I do not have the power to control minds/people. I'll do my best to moderate and you can always contact me if there's an issue, but the Internet is an untamed wilderness.
Now, that, that's out of the way… Welcome, feel free to introduce yourself and talk to your hearts content about who you are. =)
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"I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." – Kahlil Gibran
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8:30 am
August 11, 2010
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Hljothlegur
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Post edited 9:24 am – August 11, 2010 by Hljothlegur
Greetings! Squidkateer Roll Call? 
That being said, I've set this up with my own resources and am volunteering my time, and won't feel any particular twinge of guilt after banning someone for being a jackass.
Wait a minute, I'm a jackass – you aren't going to pre-emptively ban me?
I'm a government worker who types standing up. Loves sunrises, the laughter of children, and long walks on the beach to find disgusting cthuloid dead things much like the dead squid seen at the top of the forum. I myself have no bed bugs yet but look forward to raising a whole brood of them like our hero, Peter Watts.
I also have some theories about the body of writings of Dr. Watts, but I have to know first: do we have a post-modern consensus that the text's meaning(s) stand(s) apart from authorial intent?
We're in a precarious position in that the author and his intent might actually pop in to pooh-pooh the discussion, kind of like that scene from Annie Hall where a director is in line to get into a film and tells the moviegoer pontificating about the director's technique, "You don't know anything about my work at all! "
Such an agreement would act as a fall-back. But not it you can't buy that position, or at least argue from it.
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9:04 am
August 11, 2010
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Chris J.
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Cool, hopefully this will get a lot of traffic. I'm looking forward to some interesting conversations!
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9:08 am
August 11, 2010
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sheila
| | mindsided by Blindsight | |
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Hi,
I've been posting as Sheila on the blog, so I went for the unoriginal touch of picking that as a username. I hope people post plenty of squid news here.
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11:42 am
August 11, 2010
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sheila
| | mindsided by Blindsight | |
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I also have some theories about the body of writings of Dr. Watts, but I have to know first: do we have a post-modern consensus that the text's meaning(s) stand(s) apart from authorial intent?
Why do you need a consensus? just dive right in. If you don't want anyone to derail in to a meta argument about your posts, perhaps a short disclaimer?
and wouldn't it be fun to have people disagree, particularly the author?
Ps. I've always wondered if you are Icelandic.
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1:09 pm
August 11, 2010
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Hljothlegur
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Post edited 1:24 pm – August 11, 2010 by Hljothlegur
I like disagreement. I love to argue with others to get their impressions or dissections on pretty much anything, and I do enjoy opinions that are outrageous and even bizarre. The variety of human POV is mind-bogglingy rich.
If we agree that the meanings of the work are generated after the writer has put down his pen and left the room, that they generate in the mind of the reader in conjunction with the cultural framework of the writing, then we are less likely to offend Uncle Giant Squid personally.
Or anyone. Because if the meaning I get isn't Sheila's meaning, well, then that's my own problem - just my idiot opinion? If we insist the meaning is intrinsic to the text, immutable, and pre-determined by the author, then any comment on meaning implies I know the mind of the author, and any negative comment reflects back on the author's skill in beaming meaning correctly into our brains from his. The reader is then a passive receiver, and we know that isn't the case, anyway.
But I can plunge ahead and see what happens.
Ps. I am not Icelandic. Have you been to see that misty land of volcanoes and geysers?
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2:01 pm
August 11, 2010
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Schnappi
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Post edited 2:06 pm – August 11, 2010 by Schnappi
Always wondered about the name myself. And it's a pity that usernames can't include special characters.
It's interesting that we're starting off with implicid meaning vs. the writer's intent as Charles Stross is riffing on a similar topic today re. Heinlein.
Must be the meme du jour.
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3:32 pm
August 11, 2010
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Flanders
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Flanders, here. Flanders on the crawl. I'm best at short, pithy bon mots.
Srsly, though, that squid is truly unappetizing. Downright unhygenic.
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7:10 pm
August 11, 2010
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Hljothlegur
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Post edited 8:00 pm – August 11, 2010 by Hljothlegur
Yeah… Flanders! No pressure to be funny or anything now.  Srsly, though, I agree that the squid photo is nastier than Dick Cheney in a red Speedo.
Schnappi: It's interesting that we're starting off with implicid meaning vs. the writer's intent as Charles Stross is riffing on a similar topic today re. Heinlein.
Thanks for the link; eeenteresting. I love a number of Charlie's books. I find I have reread some of them, and I don't do that very much. Can't say I ever loved a Heinlein book, although I enjoyed Stranger in a Strange Land when I read it back whenever, before the Earth's crust cooled.
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6:25 am
August 12, 2010
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Mats
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Hello, I'm Mats. I won't contribute much in the ways of smart conversation, but I'll contribute in one way or another.
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9:23 am
August 12, 2010
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EdwardsDigital
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I'm Tim Edwards. I dont usually have much to say, but I have been known to speak up from time to time. I have no idea how it happened, but somehow I have been sucked into Mr. Watts' world!
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9:45 am
August 12, 2010
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Hljothlegur
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EdwardsDigital said:
….I have no idea how it happened, but somehow I have been sucked into Mr. Watts' world!
Tell me about it. They oughta have some kind of Event Horizon warning sign up to protect passersby!
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10:20 am
August 12, 2010
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sheila
| | mindsided by Blindsight | |
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But I can plunge ahead and see what happens.
Ps. I am not Icelandic. Have you been to see that misty land of volcanoes and geysers?
plunge right in, my opinion. I'm not a literary theory person in real life, so I'm not going to contribute amazingly salient stuff in that vein, some of it seems overthinking and too rarified, but interesting non-the-less.
with respect to offense &c., if someone has been around on the net (or I guess in real life too) long enough I hope they can be mature enough to acheive some distance about a debate or discussion and have it be about the content of the discussion rather than the persons involved.
in programmer land, I'm unhappy if we're talking about code or design and someone takes a comment about the code personally rather than about the code. that means there is too much ego invested in the discussion. make it about design and code, not about the people. I feel it is analogous to discussion about other things.
no iceland trips for me yet. I did buy a book on learning icelandic but had a hella time trying to learn the pronounciation of things so I might give up on ever speaking it. I liked reading The Saga of Burnt Njal and Icelandic history is seriously cool. I also liked wossname's books… erh, he earned a Nobel Price… his name escapes me and I don't feel like opening a new tab. got enough going on right now as it is.
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11:19 am
August 12, 2010
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Hljothlegur
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sheila said:
…. I did buy a book on learning icelandic but had a hella time trying to learn the pronounciation of things so I might give up on ever speaking it. I liked reading The Saga of Burnt Njal and Icelandic history is seriously cool. I also liked wossname's books… erh, he earned a Nobel Price… his name escapes me and I don't feel like opening a new tab. got enough going on right now as it is.
…make it about design and code, not about the people. I feel it is analogous to discussion about other things.
Halldor Laxness, maybe. You must own, "Teach Yourself Icelandic" by Glendening, then?
Hahahahhaaa… I read Burnt Njall years ago when a friend of mine read it and said it was great fun. It was pleasant in that it's its own thing, being the product of the Icelandic, idk, mind. It was accessible, but foreign. Whatever, I enjoyed the phlegmatic notion that a good death was important, and that good pithy last words were a credit to the deceased.
Code is like writing, so me and thee are on the same page in re the meaning of discussing the product, not the creator of the product. Salvador Dali's mustache was spectactular, but it does not make his works great, it's just a fact about him.
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1:34 pm
August 12, 2010
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sheila
| | mindsided by Blindsight | |
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Hljothlegur said:
Halldor Laxness, maybe. You must own, "Teach Yourself Icelandic" by Glendening, then?
Yes, Laxness. No, Glendening. I saw that one, but ended up with another book. I didn't want to go crazy buying a whole bunch of references for something I might not ever complete. I get carried away like that. I would have liked to get it though.
There's a nice used bookstore around here that I go to that often has interesting language references.. picked up a Vietnamese dictionary. haven't seen any Icelandic stuff though.
Laxness–I expected to like "Under the Glacier", but haven't managed to finish it. Some of this other books I love or merely like. but there's the sadness and bleakness of people stuck in destitute fishing towns, going nowhere.
do you like Icelandic movies? maybe go in another thread.
I'm not goofing off my code is compiling*
* not really. I am collecting data.
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6:50 pm
August 12, 2010
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The Echo Inside
| | Canada | |
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Might want to put the other topics in their own threads for sure, if for no other reason than it highlights them. Might get more participation that way.
Hljothlegur:
Loveable jackasses may get a free pass, perhaps? But, besides that, as you're a government worker, expecting you not to be one might be career discrimination ;P
As for your question, I'd say go ahead and discuss, getting a consensus on such a question I think is similar to trying to get one on the question, "what is art?" Though, speaking from the viewpoint of an artist myself, I'll say I believe it's a balance between. I believe creators create to share, they try and speak to their audience of themselves or their thoughts… but, at the same time the audience does so in return, so what is heard/translated is a mix between the two.
Regarding the squid:
I'll respectfully (though in screaming tones) disagree that it's worse than Dick in a speedo. =P However, I picked it because it had a solid background, was a squid… and well, the offensive part was really just a bonus. If the image is bothering anyone, point me in the direction/send a picture which has permissions for use and I'll change it =)
Sheila:
Programmers have all the best excuses =P
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"I have learnt silence from the talkative, toleration from the intolerant, and kindness from the unkind; yet strange, I am ungrateful to these teachers." – Kahlil Gibran
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5:13 am
August 13, 2010
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fvngvs
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Stands up to be counted.
[/relurks]
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7:20 am
August 13, 2010
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sheila
| | mindsided by Blindsight | |
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The Echo Inside said:
Programmers have all the best excuses =P
aha, this just showed up the other day:
http://www.thedoghousediaries……om/?p=1910
a better excuse than washing hair :)
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3:12 pm
August 13, 2010
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Hljothlegur
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sheila said:
There's a nice used bookstore around here that I go to that often has interesting language references.. picked up a Vietnamese dictionary. haven't seen any Icelandic stuff though.
do you like Icelandic movies? maybe go in another thread.
I'm not goofing off my code is compiling*
* not really. I am collecting data.
I would take any recommendations on Icelandic movies you have, and can you say something pithy in Viet namese?
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6:30 pm
August 13, 2010
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Atla
| | South Pacific | |
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I'm Atla. I read the blog. I think I posted there once or twice, maybe. I bug Peter when he gets nominated for awards that he hasn't noticed yet.
Looking forward to hot squid pics and steamy squid cams.
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