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The Definition of Free Will

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  • All Star Trek sucks, so you're both wrong.
    Sedentary peoples' opinions don't count.
    Exactly. Does there exist in the world a non-sedentary Star Trek fan? I think not.
    I had sex last night.
  • All Star Trek sucks, so you're both wrong.
    Sedentary peoples' opinions don't count.
    Exactly. Does there exist in the world a non-sedentary Star Trek fan? I think not.
    I had sex last night.
    Andrew's inflatable doll doesn't count. Neither does Andrew.
  • "The bet is $20. You must have carnal knowledge of a WOMAN this time..."
  • "The bet is $20. You must have carnal knowledge of aWOMANthis time..."
    Make sure to sing "You've Lost that Loving Feeling". That'll get 'em every time, Mav. ^_~
  • I named my dog Maverick.
  • This thread has gone so off-topic.
  • This thread has gone so off-topic.
    You can't blame us. We don't have free will.
  • This thread has gone so off-topic.
    You can't blame us. We don't have free will.
    Yup. It's just turtles all the way down.
  • This thread has gone so off-topic.
    image
  • Earl Grey is about as common as dirt. In my opinion, if you can get it from a Flavia machine, it's not good tea.

    "Tea. Lipton. Hot." - that's what he might as well be saying. Doesn't sound so high-falutin' now, does it?
    Lipton is a brand, Earl Grey is a type of tea. There are high-quality/expensive Earl Grey Teas and there are cheaper/low-quality Earl Grey Teas (just like the difference between gourmet coffees and Folgers).
  • edited January 2009
    Earl Grey is about as common as dirt. In my opinion, if you can get it from a Flavia machine, it's not good tea.

    "Tea. Lipton. Hot." - that's what he might as well be saying. Doesn't sound so high-falutin' now, does it?
    Lipton is a brand, Earl Grey is a type of tea. There are high-quality/expensive Earl Grey Teas and there are cheaper/low-quality Earl Grey Teas (just like the difference between gourmet coffees and Folgers).
    Earl Grey is a very, very common type of tea. Everyone makes an Earl Grey tea. It's nothing to get snooty about. Picard's snootiness and snobbiness about his stupid tea is very off-putting to me and a significant hurdle to me in taking the character seriously in any way. In fact, in my opinion, none of the characters on TNG are worth my time.

    I really want to be able to watch that show. I like the look of that ship and I really wonder what I'm missing by not having seen it. However, every time I try to watch it, one or another of the characters says or does something so insufferably stuck-up and haughty, that I just can't watch it for long. I despise that blind guy with his stupid sunglasses, I can't stand that stupid psychic gypsy-tramp, the stupid robot makes me want to replace him with a goddamn Cylon, and that snotty little kid they have should be beaten with a leather strap about the head and shoulders on a regular basis.

    I like the characters on Enterprise a lot more than any of the TNG-types. At least they weren't whiny, snobby, PC-ridden, surrender monkeys.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • I think the point is that in the Star Trek future nobody drinks any kind of tea any more. Picard's snootiness isn't to do with the kind of tea he is drinking, just that he likes tea. Also, you could say that BECAUSE he is being so snooty about such a common brand it brings the quirk to a more human level.

    However, I have no information except this thread, as I've seen only two episodes of Star Trek The Next Generation ever, and I can't remember tea drinking in either of them.
  • edited January 2009
    I think the point is that in the Star Trek future nobody drinks any kind of tea any more.
    That's another thing. Those TNG-types are supposed to come along about a hundred years after TOS, right? Well, the characters on TOS were eating meat, drinking whisky, and drinking coffee all the time while the TNG assholes talk about how no one does "that sort of thing" anymore. No culture is going to give up those things so completely in a hundred years time.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • I think the point is that in the Star Trek future nobody drinks any kind of tea any more.
    That's another thing. ThoseTNG-types are supposed to come along about a hundred years afterTOS, right? Well, the characters onTOSwere eating meat, drinking whisky, and drinking coffee all the time while the TNG assholes talk about how no one does "that sort of thin" anymore. No culture is going to give up those things so completely in a hundred years time.
    People eat and drink in TNG.
  • Earl Grey is a very, very common type of tea. Everyone makes an Earl Grey tea. It's nothing to get snooty about.
    Merlot is a very common type of wine. Every winery has a merlot. Yet it's perfectly acceptable for people to critique different merlots.

    The same goes for...everything.
  • edited January 2009
    Earl Grey is a very, very common type of tea. Everyone makes an Earl Grey tea. It's nothing to get snooty about.
    Merlot is a very common type of wine. Every winery has a merlot. Yet it's perfectly acceptable for people to critique different merlots.

    The same goes for...everything.
    That's true, but no one gets all snooty about drinking a merlot. No one said anything about him critiquing anything. He can critique Earl Grey from Celestial Seasonings versus Earl Grey from Republic of Tea until the cows come home. It won't change the fact that when he does his little "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot" deal, he sounds like a total ass.

    Furthermore, Earl Grey tastes pretty much the same mo matter who made it. Another thing I don't like about that smarmy little phrase is that no one would think to serve Earl Grey iced.

    Mr. Burrage is the only one to even come close to an explanation that rehabilitates the character.
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • Earl Grey is a very, very common type of tea. Everyone makes an Earl Grey tea. It's nothing to get snooty about.
    Merlot is a very common type of wine. Every winery has a merlot. Yet it's perfectly acceptable for people to critique different merlots.

    The same goes for...everything.
    No one said anything about him critiquing anything. He can critique Earl Grey from Celestial Seasonings versus Earl Grey from Republic of Tea until the cows come home. It won't change the fact that when he does his little "Tea. Earl Grey. Hot" deal, he sounds like a total ass.
    To be fair, voice recognition does that to everybody. Ever played Tom Clancy's Endwar?
  • C'mon, HJ, you know that every time you see Jean Luc's shiny dome, clear blue eyes and fit body and here his beautiful voice and impeccable diction that you just get weak in the knees like the rest of us
  • C'mon, HJ, you know that every time you see Jean Luc's shiny dome, clear blue eyes and fit body and here his beautiful voice and impeccable diction that you just get weak in the knees like the rest of us
    Y'know, another thing I just remembered is how Riker and Picard will both give orders, sometimes when both are on deck at the same time. That's not just bad writing. It's unbelievably, inconceivably stupid.
  • If you're worried about that, then you're missing the point. It's a television show, and per Roddenberry's vision each episode is a sermon on secular humanism.
  • edited January 2009
    If you're worried about that, then you're missing the point. It's a television show, and per Roddenberry's vision each episode is a sermon on secular humanism.
    Suspension of disbelief has to be maintained for any communication of meaning on any other level to be effective. When they do something stupid like that, they ruin the suspension of disbelief, and thus ruin any sort of effective communication of other levels of meaning. Also, stupid things like that ruin the action and make people simply unwilling to absorb the story any further, thus ruining any communication of another level of meaning.

    Say, for instance, I want to analyze Randian Objectivism. I decide to write a novel in which the action is all political intrigue, but the subtext is clearly my analysis of Objectivism. If I write in the novel that the President sits on the Supreme Court and have part of the action of the novel revolve around him writing a decision in a Supreme Court case, anyone who starts to read the novel will simply set it down, because it would be stupid. Now, I could say, "Hey, you're missing the point. The action's not important. What's important is my analysis, which is another level of meaning.", but the reader will say, "I never got to your different level of meaning because the action was too stupid."
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • So... you're too dumb for Star Trek? ^-^
  • edited January 2009
    So... you're too dumb for Star Trek? ^-^
    Lol. That's as funny as a screen door on a submarine (actually, I'd kind of expect to see something like that in TNG).
    Post edited by HungryJoe on
  • It's not a developer's guide, it's for developers.

    These red marked changes are annoying.

    (Me) "Oh, you can turn those off."

    ... I want to see the red marks.

    I wish Java had feature X, so we didn't have to use custom class Y.

    (Me) "It does! Just call foo.bar()."

    ... I just like using custom class Y
    I'm developing concerns about the agency of some of my coworkers.
  • Thanks for Necroing this thread.. It has a hilarious Star Trek Flame war from the last decade in it...
  • You clockmakerless clocks are free to stfu

    I'm so free I don't have to end sentences with periods
  • You ring the bell that summons Mr. Period.
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