ninjeff

still twitching

Sun, 06 Apr 2008 17:01:04 GMT

this was a long year
i'm making a post here:
CAKE IS LIE
it's hard to understate
my innovation
po-ortal fans lol
we post the same thing
over and over
to be enjoyed by all of us
except the ones who got bored

but there's no sense crying
over a lack of new jokes
you just keep on trying
not to be a mean bloke
and the beating gets done
and done and done and done
on the poor horse that is
still twitching

jeez guys it was funny the first ten million times but come on XD

The Problem of Law

Tue, 27 Nov 2007 19:41:44 GMT

Sorry for chain-posting D&D alignment interpretations, but this one just came to me and I can't let go of it.

We (should) all know about the problem of evil: if there is a benevolent, omnipotent, omniscient being, why does evil exist? An alternative version we could make that doesn't require a God (but doesn't preclude one or more) is "how can we reconcile the existence of evil with our (hypothetical) theory of a naturally good world?".

As Wikipedia notes, a solution to this question is called a theodicy. What kind of theodicies would people who believed in a law-oriented, chaos-oriented or evil-oriented world propose? In other words, how could we explain the appearance of chaos in a world built from law, for example?

Take chaos theory, for example. If used as a worldview, it describes a world dominated by simple natural laws that have random-seeming results. "There is no true chaos," says the modron, "just complexity."

Quantum mechanics could be used to represent the opposite. According to QM, everything that happens is essentially random; the predictable laws we seem to observe at the macroscopic scale are due to statistics. "There are no true laws," says the slaad, "just averages."

Psychological egoism is the last theory I'll look at. It states that all actions humans take rationally are self-interested, and explains apparently altruistic behaviour as resulting from an expectation of a reward. "There is no true good," says the yugoloth, "just exchange of services."

I understand I may have misrepresented these theories slightly or bent them into a shape they weren't intended for, but I think they fit the psychologies of outsiders pretty well.

Any thoughts, anyone? Apart from "stop thinking about this crap and go to sleep already", that is.

this is pretty close hey

Thu, 16 Aug 2007 19:55:42 GMT

You scored as Tactician, You're probably a military buff who wants to have the chance to think through complex problems. You want the rules, and your GM's interpretation of them, to match up what happens in the real world or at least be consistant. You want challenging yet logical obstacles to overcome.

</td>

Storyteller

83%

Tactician

83%

Power Gamer

58%

Method Actor

58%

Butt-Kicker

50%

Specialist

33%

Casual Gamer

17%

Law's Game Style
created with QuizFarm.com

the decisions of holy men

Sun, 27 May 2007 13:20:35 GMT

i know this isn't a very normal post but i wanted some opinions :)

Let's take a mental wander over to the land of D&D. Consider a paladin (lawful good) and a holy liberator (chaotic good). These guys (or gals) get special powers from their dedication to their chosen cause, and are just all-round nice dudes (or dudettes; this is the last time I'm going to do this so don't call the fem-police). They disagree on some core issues, though, and I think this is one of them:

A paladin or holy liberator wakes up one day, clapped in irons in a dank dungeon. His captor informs him that he has two other people imprisoned: a good person, and an evil person. The holy man is required to choose one of the two to be executed; if he doesn't choose, or tries to escape, both will be killed. He is also given enough information to be reasonably certain that there is no chance of escape - that is, to try would almost certainly be a death sentence for both captives.

Who would the paladin choose to die, and who would the holy liberator choose to die?

Here's what I think:
The paladin would choose for the evil person to die. He believes it to be reasonably certain that the two captives' moral character will not change in the short term, so that the good person would be more likely to perform good deeds in his or her remaining lifespan, while the evil person would be likely to continue a life of evil; he's taking into account the captives' effects on society in general.

The holy liberator would choose for the good person to die. He knows that the evil person would hate to die to save another, and that the good person would prefer to die to save another than have another die to save him or her. He's taking into account the captives' wishes, because they're the ones most directly affected by the event.

Two questions:
1) What would you do?
2) Do you think my evaluations are correct?

edits:
Elaborating on the good and evil people: the good one has committed countless good acts in his life and feels no regret; the evil one has committed countless evil acts in his life and feels no regret.

I spoke to a coworker about this tonight - he gave the response that he would feel free of responsibility by choosing not to answer, but offered an alternative question with no such copout answer: What if the same two people were going to die in a flood and you knew with certainty that you could save one and only one? Anyone who feels the way my coworker did about the original question can answer this one instead. :)

Mon, 11 Dec 2006 03:09:10 GMT

banana says (12:07 PM):
argh too much philosophy not enough biology

IRL/WoW crossovers ITT

Sat, 02 Dec 2006 15:01:24 GMT

I swear that I did not look at the possible results before answering the questions.

I want to be a real boy

Thu, 30 Nov 2006 00:06:33 GMT

Today I am going to shave completely! I expect to look around 17 when I'm done.

EX-AMS

Tue, 14 Nov 2006 15:22:04 GMT

exams schmexams

Considering I had two exams today, I think I did pretty well in them! Now I am done.

On greatness

Tue, 07 Nov 2006 12:42:06 GMT

"Exercise 8.2.6. Read Chapter Two of (textbook). Take notes and think of questions about the material. It is a sort of history lesson but one with important consequences. It deals with Newton’s work on planetary motion which changed the world. It is not a coincidence that Western civilisation is much richer than any other. There is no essential difference between you and a villager in India or Bangladesh, they are not any less intelligent than you and probably work a lot harder. But you are more closely related to Isaac Newton, either by genes or by social connections, which is why you are here reading and listening to Mathematics instead of standing in a field picking turnips or rice. Your good fortune. Make sure you deserve it."

From Dr. Mike Alder, the lecturer for Algebra 2213 this semester and a well-respected grumpy old man.

Cleaning

Sat, 04 Nov 2006 04:12:51 GMT

This is mainly aimed at Aaron and any Unigames committee, but also at anyone else who happens to be reading my livejournal and is interested in Warhammer 40,000.

I've got some old 2nd edition stuff (the Dark Millenium expansion boxed set and several codices) and a small amount of 3rd edition books (the game boxed set and one or two codices, I don't quite remember), along with the first few issues of Inferno, some Citadel Journals and the Bloodquest graphic novel. All are to my knowledge in good to mint condition. I also have a whole bunch of miniatures, of which some are painted, some only assembled, and most still in the sprues. The miniatures are mainly space marines, eldar and dark eldar, with some of the plastic terrain from the 3rd ed boxed set. Finally, I have a Blood Bowl boxed set along with the expansion boxed set whose name I can't remember. I'm not sure how many editions of Blood Bowl were released or which one this is. Models are (iirc) assembled but unpainted.

I don't really have any plans to play 40k again in the near future, and we're doing some cleaning, so I'm willing to let all of these go to a good home for a nominal price ($100 or so). If they go unsold, I'll offer to donate them to Unigames, and if that still doesn't get rid of them they're up for public grabs. My gamer integrity won't let me just bin them. :)

Sat, 30 Sep 2006 07:32:30 GMT

FLYING HIGH

here is a post

Tue, 01 Aug 2006 14:51:10 GMT

JEFF SAYS

Sat, 24 Jun 2006 00:57:24 GMT

This is just for posting comments on friends' Livejournals.