Jump to content
Objectivism Online Forum

Chops

Regulars
  • Posts

    334
  • Joined

Everything posted by Chops

  1. I was highly skeptical, to say the least, and I'm sure many of you were, but the trailer is looking extremely promising. Color me excited.
  2. Brief, but to the point. Hello and welcome!
  3. Chops

    Gambling

    I enjoy playing blackjack now and again, and poker is fun to play with friends. I don't gamble to "win big bucks" - I accept any losses as the cost of a night of entertainment, and any winnings are just icing. Slots though, ugh, zero skill, almost zero fun. My wife likes em though. Usually, though, if I go to the casino, is to join my wife and parents who both like it, and I just enjoy the free soda
  4. Chops

    Sales & Ethics

    Anything can be used for a destructive use. You can beat someone to death with a pineapple. If you have a *reason* to believe they intend on using it for destructive reasons beyond "they could, if they wanted to", then sure, you might have grounds for refusal to sale. Otherwise, it's fully unnecessary.
  5. X-Files and Lost both have long-running stories. Lost, being one long story, and X-Files bringing in "The Mythology" every 3 episodes or so.
  6. I don't have it, though I definitely wanted to get it for PC (I'm a PC Gamer almost exclusively), but the PC version lacks a lot of key PC-specific functions: * No dedicated servers = lag * No developer console * No modding capabilities All of this adds up to a poor PC FPS experience and I'm not willing to buy it (let alone pay an $60 for a crippled game). I've heard it's awesome for 360 and PS3, but for PC, the average reader reviews give it a 2/10 (a bit over the top harsh, but it gets the point across). For a pretty unbiased review: http://www.gamearena.com.au/pc/games/title....php?id=5033868 From the article: The bottom line for Modern Warfare 2 on PC is it's yet another lesson that what works on console doesn't always work on PC. The fears many PC gamers had about the efficiency of Infinity Ward's matchmaking software have been realised - if you can't get a four bar connection, you're not going to have fun. Yes, you can probably get by on three bars, but is this what the biggest FPS franchise in gaming has been reduced to for PC gamers? Getting by?
  7. "Dad's great, but listening to all that talk radio has put some weird ideas into his head," said daughter Samantha, a freshman at Reed College in Portland, OR. "He believes the Constitution allows the government to torture people and ban gay marriage, yet he doesn't even know that it guarantees universal health care." HAHA. Too funny.
  8. Heh, that's similar to the response I get when I say I don't care about football. Packer fans are rabid animals and seem to take offense to me not caring about "our" team.
  9. http://www.huffingtonpost.com/cent/make-ev...n_b_356915.html Excerpt: (bold mine) Great post about overall self-reliance and ownership. I know very little (and by very little, I mean "nothing") about 50 Cent, but this definitely shows someone with a rational, possibly Objectivist, philosophy. Even the first comment on the page mentions how it's "too Randian."
  10. Morality does not apply in this situation at all. Morality is for living your everyday life, not for coming up with wild improbable situations and seeing how someone would handle it. That's precisely what's meant by "Morality ends where a gun begins." When one is forcibly prevented from acting on one's moral judgement, then morality leaves the equation altogether. Look up "Lifeboat" on this forum, and you'll see all kinds of threads about this topic. Hence the supposed rudeness - it's frustrating answering the same questions over and over.
  11. Beetween Hulu.com, Netflix, Amazon, et al. there are plenty of legitimate show/movie streaming options available.
  12. Hah! That's awesome. EVE is a game I've always been a little interested in, though I only tried it out for a few days. But the crazy stuff that happens in that game, with regard to corporations getting taken over, and the whole wild-west/frontier type of open play that the developers allow is absolutely fascinating. I'm glad to see that EVE as a game continues to grow and remain strong.
  13. Gaming is a hobby. No less productive than playing chess, watching movies, or collecting cigarettes.
  14. Negation is too general. You can have a negation of anything. For what it's worth, my vote is also for "evasion."
  15. Saw it yesterday and thought it was amazing. You really felt for the characters. It was all very believable (given the acceptance that "aliens are here").
  16. Chops

    Finders-Keepers

    It really depends on the context. If you just come across a $20 bill blowing with the wind and you manage to grab it, have a look around. Does anyone seem to be chasing after it, or even looking for it. If not, there's literally no way it could be returned to the previous owner, nor would there be a way for the owner to claim it, were it handed in to police. Obviously, if you saw the person drop it, then you know who owns it and can return it accordingly. The threshold of whether or not something can be rationally considered abandoned is dependent on the nature of the object in question. An unlocked, unoccupied car is likely not abandoned. Likewise with a wallet. But a bill floating through the air, or found embedded in the grass is safe to say it's abandoned. Always consider the context. It's a common mistake to ask "what-ifs" separated from their context ("Is it wrong to kill someone?"). Everything has a context, it's up to you to identify the context and act accordingly.
  17. From the Money Speech in AS: Run for your life from any man who tells you that money is evil. That sentence is the leper's bell of an approaching looter.
  18. We didn't write any custom vows, but I did write the "readings", and pretty much all the material that was spoken at the wedding (with the exception of a few Rand quotes). We also had a rand quote about love on the program. the other unique thing we had was during the ceremony, I played a piano piece I had written for her years ago. Aside from the piano thing, we pretty much followed the standard christian structure of a wedding (intro, reading, more talking, reading, me on piano, vows, completion). And for our music, we had a brass quintet which produced a very rich sound for the music. I would totally recommend it (I was hesitant at first, as I thought it wouldn't appropriate at all for a wedding, but after hearing them at another wedding, I was totally convinced). The "readings", if you're interested: The Nature of Love (you shouldn't have too much trouble finding the Rand quotes). Love, friendship, respect and admiration are the emotional response of one person to the virtues of another, the spiritual payment given in exchange for the personal pleasure derived from the virtues of another's character. It is with one's sense of life, the totality of one's personality, that one falls in love. One falls in love with the embodiment of the values that formed a person's character, which are reflected in the widest goals or the smallest gestures, which create the style of the soul – the individual style of of a unique, unrepeatable, irreplaceable consciousness. Romantic Love is the most intense emotion experienced by a person, and is one of total integration of the values, virtues, and personality with respect to another. It is the most intense form of friendship possible, and by it's nature, one of exclusivity. The nature of love ensures that to love someone romantically is the biggest compliment one can give to another; it is a statement that everything you are, your virtues, values, goals, sense of life, and personality are exactly that for which I would rather die than lose. There is no more complete a compliment, nor one of more intensity possible. The Nature of Marriage Romantic love is an emotion felt for the person whom, above all, you love the most. By this very nature, Romantic Love requires exclusivity. When one finds that person whose very existence gives you pleasure, for whose life you would gladly trade your own, and with whom you wish to spend the rest of your life, then marriage becomes an option to further solidify that relationship. Marriage begins with the wedding, which is the formal announcement and celebration of that love which already makes them inseparable. It's the way of bringing the families and friends together to celebrate the love between the bride and groom. The exclusivity of a marriage is symbolized in the exchange of rings. The rings serve a dual purpose. One, for yourself, as a physical and symbolic representation of the love for your spouse, and two, as a way to tell the world “Hands off, I'm taken.” Marriage is ultimately the formality of the love that makes two people belong to one another, and something that no force beyond their love alone is required to maintain. The phrase “til death do us part” is a representation of the strength of the love, such that there is no force capable of emotionally separating the husband and wife, except death. Marriage is the ultimate public and formal expression of romantic love. There were a few tweaks to these (ad I don't remember really what they were), but these are the quickest copies I could find. It's funny you mention how you are planning on posting it as a template. That was something I was always planning on doing as well, making something like "athiestwedding.com" or whatever. But after the wedding wasn't totally fresh anymore, the interest faded. Oh well. Best of luck Oh yeah, and you're free to use any of that material for your wedding if you like (pretty much the first half of the first reading is all Rand anyway).
  19. It's probably worth putting a spoiler warning at the beginning of this, imo. This is not something you want to read if you haven't yet seen the movie, imo.
  20. A very exciting story indeed. Welcome to the forum!
  21. Hah! That's so random, but I couldn't help but laugh at it. "No one wants day-old Rand. That's gross!" It's just so absurd.
  22. I depends on what happens between being a gifted child and being an adult. I also know a few of people who were also in the gifted programs in elementary and middle school, who in high school, focused on drugs, skipped college (if they graduated at all), and never focused on their intellect.
×
×
  • Create New...