 | Last login: 8 hours agoThamus is a guy from Ireland. Wisely and slow; they stumble that run fast. [Romeo & Juliet, II,3] |
- Mar 17, 10:57am
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- Cheryl1109s review - StumbleUpon
 Jul 4, 5:36am (3 reviews) stumblers, narcissism http://cheryl1109.stumbleupon.com/review...- Goodbye and good riddance (sob, sob)
THIS is one of the most pointless, pompous, self-serving posts I've seen here in a long time - and that's saying something, given the proliferation of spammers and stalkers and marketing things that go bump in the night.
Get this:
Quote: 'So sorry, the "discovery" store and the "review" service is taking a 2 week vacation. I can no longer enjoy "stumbling" because I have 500 im's a day...
I tried to help everyone - I cannot. I came to SU just to ENJOY myself, just to find images and things that I was interested in - I did not want a job being a writer/reviewer/seo/push my own products person... STOP, ALREADY. Some send 9 things to be reviewed, in one day. If I had wanted a job doing the above, well, I guess I would find one. This is not my problem. You chose to do this, I don't get paid for doing your job! There is no compensation or return of my time...
For all the people that have serious personal problems - I am so sorry - I tried to help - I cannot fix your problems, I cannot fix YOU. Wish that I could wave a magic wand and everything would be alright. I cannot get this time back...
I know in my heart that many people on SU love me. It is a feeling that I don't ever want to lose...
I believe I will be back in 2 weeks, if not, I will let you know...'
You know, if you really want to do us all a favor, Cheryl Baby, don't come back... and don't let us know. We will know, and give thanks to the Glitter Gods. (There are swamps in Louisiana, I believe? Just a thought).
And fear not, there will still be enough purple, saccharine, narcissistic, insincere, chocolate-coated-americana postings left dripping around here to feed all the tasteless cravings you have apparently been satisfying.
And, as for all our "serious personal problems" you were solving so brilliantly - Sigh! I fear we'll just have to go it bleakly alone from here on ... (Sniff! Sob!)
- Jun 21, 5:26am
- An economic crisis affects everyone
- Travian - Browser Game - Romans, Gauls &Teutons
 Jun 3, 2:58am  (39 reviews) online-games, travian http://www.travian.com/- Raiding with the Travian troopers
I FEAR I have become embroiled in something even more addictive than Stumbleupon although, no doubt, the novelty will probably wear off, as it does with all things mortal.
I Stumbledupon Travian, a browser game of ancient worlds developed in Germany and played by millions of addicts around the world.
You start with an empty village site - Roman, Gaulish or Teuton - and develop its buildings, resources and defences.
While you struggle to do this, you are raided by other tribes who make off with your precious supplies. You of course do the same to these thieving bastards and strive to become an even bigger raider yourself.
The game is complex, but the learning curve is a gentle slope because each game lasts around 300 days and you only need to log on a couple of times a day to nudge the development of your empire and send out your raiding parties.
The only way to survive eventually is to form alliances with other players to share wealth and military clout.
You start off by developing a few tribal soldiers, basic buildings and some units each of essential resources - wheat, metal, wood and clay.
However, after nearly a year the end game involves enormous forces. Massive alliances with hundreds of thousands of troops are deployed to build the final objective - a huge and marvellous Wonder of the World building.
Just as they start this task, the game servers release a deadly new random, powerful and uncontrollable computer tribe called Natars, who ferociously battle alliances at every level of their progress in constructing the World Wonder.
When one alliance manages to complete this edifice to level 100, the server stops, the game ends, and the accolades for winners and best alliances, players, attacks and defenders are handed out. A few weeks later, the server restarts for a new game.
There are dozens of servers in every country and for every language. For example, the one for Britain and Ireland is travian.co.uk, Australia is travian.com.au, and the global one for all nations is travian.com. Americans can play with themselves (the world doesn't exist) on travian.us.
If any of my SU friends here are players, message me, and we'll discuss some evil plot.
[PICTURE: My Celtic (Gaul) village under development on a travian.co.uk server, with the name removed to hide its identity and resource level from enemies. The server started in April, so it's advancing well. For those in the know, the buildings, moving clockwise from the trees, top at 12:00 o'clock, are - blacksmith; military academy; barracks (tents); armoury; king's palace; stable; marketplace; granary, (with hero's residence and main building on its right in inner circle); warehouse and embassy.]
- humanitymap.jpg : My[confined]Space
- Apr 21, 3:26am
 (29 reviews) rubbish http://www.myconfinedspace.com/?attachme... - State of Ignorance dominates as status of education declines
I have no idea why someone sent me this piece of garbage. Perhaps it was so that I might take a moment to marvel at the enormous waste of time and energy some Internet people pour into vast wells of nothingness.
This "map of humanity" lacks purpose, logic, artistry, humanity, or even a smidgen of humour. It is pointless, tasteless and relentless. In so far as it contains anything, that would be lopsided Christian-American propaganda, racism, contempt for humanity, and intolerance.
And - a note to the creator of this ludicrous graphic - observe my spelling (in the above sentence) of your state of intolerance (map opposite). It has one less letter than your state of iggnorrance.
- The Pagan Origins of the Christian Easter Tradition
- Apr 12, 2:56am (31 reviews) easter, dead-gods http://www.bukisa.com/articles/61189_the...
- Resurrection: Shaggy rabbit redux
A MAN was out driving on Easter Sunday morning when the Easter Bunny suddenly hopped across the road. He swerved to avoid hitting the legendary rabbit, but failed. Eggs flew out of the basket, sweets too.
The driver pulled off to the side of the road, and went to see what had become of the basket-bearing bunny. To his dismay, the colorful rabbit lay dead.
The driver sat beside the rabbit, consumed with guilt. A woman driver came by and saw a man crying by the side of the road and pulled over. She went and asked him what was wrong.
"I feel terrible," he said, "I accidentally hit the Easter Bunny and now he's dead. What can I do?"
The woman patted his head and told him not to worry, since she knew exactly what to do. She went to her car, opened the glove compartment and pulled out a spray can. She walked over to the limp, dead rabbit, and sprayed the entire contents of the can
all over it.
Miraculously the Easter Bunny came back to life, jumped up, gathered up his spilled eggs and chocolate, waved his paw at the two humans, and hopped across the road. After hopping 50 meters, the Easter Bunny stopped, turned around, waved again, and hopped on down the road another 50 meters. Then he stopped, turned and waved again.
The man, pleased and astonished, asked the woman, "What in heaven's name is in your miracle spray can?"
She smiled and held up the can so he could read the label.
"Restores life to dead hair," it said.
"Adds permanent wave."
- Scot who created Tel Aviv hailed in citys centenary celebrations - Scotsman...
- Apr 4, 1:43pm (1 review) israel, tel-aviv, scotland, centenary http://news.scotsman.com/latestnews/Scot...
- City State of Tel Aviv parties its centenary
RESIDENTS of Tel Aviv like to refer to the city as The Bubble, or The City State to distance themselves from the messy goings-on beyond their boundaries.
They could have chosen to consider it the de-facto capital of Israel, instead of dreary, crazy and religiously cracked Jerusalem, but even that would be too lowly for the undisputed secular, cultural, liberal and commercial powerhouse on this strip of the east Mediterranean coast.
"Independent City State of Tel Aviv" has just the right defiant ring to it for a place also known as "the city that never stops" because of its hectic nightlife (including a vibrant gay sub-culture), and 24-hour musical, artistic and café social whirl.
A hundred years is not much of an age for a city - not too far away, the 10,000 year old Damascus claims (rightly) to be the oldest continuously inhabited city in the world.
But Tel Aviv is something of a legend in other ways. Its urban area is the second biggest city economy in the Middle East after Cairo - and it's the 52nd richest city in the world.
Part of Tel Aviv, known as the White City, is a UNESCO World Heritage site, protecting the last remaining street blocks of the Modernist school of Bahaus architecture, which was outlawed by Germany's Nazis in 1933 and brought to Palestine (as it was then) by fleeing Jewish architects.
But enough babbling - I have a city's hundredth birthday to celebrate. Where? Why, at Molly Blooms, Tel Aviv's excellent Irish pub, of course.
[PICTURE: Fireworks over city hall tonight, while the city dwellers partied in Rabin Square below. ©Thamus 090404. For more pictures of street scenes during the day, see here.]
- The Orphans of Ireland - Timothy Egan Blog - NYTimes.com
- Apr 2, 2:18pm (1 review) ireland, cliches http://egan.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/04/01...
- 'The Orphans of the Newspaper Industry'
I know a Stumbler sent me this because of my previous post on an asinine American article. But really, New York Times? This is the limit. Now I clearly must despair for the future of American journalism.
Less I be accused of picking my targets, I'll let comments posted by some real Irish readers of this article hammer home the point for me:
Quote: "What a cliche ridden load of twaddle. Hated England? Celts in their beehives? Eating their corned beef and cabbage no doubt. Yeats and misery and pints of Guinness. It's all here, even the famine. Give yourself a slap on the back, idiot!"
Quote: "Ah yes, written with the kind of glossy-eyed misinterpretation of facts that only a romanticising writer from the US could produce."
Quote: "This is one of the most patronizing articles I have ever read. Find it hard to believe that my Irish friends consider the English 'still hated'. It would be great to read an article about the Irish without reference to travelers, sods of earth, beer and poets."
Quote: "Yes, Ireland had a boom and it's over, as it is everywhere. But why does the article need to inject every single cliche and stereotype about the country - alcoholics, hatred of England, Guinness, saints and scholars, peat, blustery winds, 'Ryan's Daughter', tradition of misery, etc. Inevitable too that Yeats gets a mention! A pretty dire piece of writing."
Quote: "Every sentence in Egan's embarrassing piece contains a cliche or a stereotype, often both. And every statement is presented with no supporting evidence. Anyone with a mortgage could get rich? I doubt it. And exactly how many 'former potato-diggers bought Porches'?"
Quote: "Why do these writers lose all sense of objectivity, originality, and clarity when it comes to Ireland? It's a cliché bug that infects them when they step off the plane."
Quote: "What load of malarkey! Big fancy American coming home to the old sod? Still-hated English? Land of Merry Alcoholics? Why not leprechauns, bag pipes and potato dinners? You sir are an idiot."
Quote: "Please. Can we wait a few years to hold a wake for Ireland? Clearly many things have changed for Ireland but not the patronizing drivel written about it."
Quote: "Anyone still wonder why US newspapers are failing?"
[PICTURE: Dingle, Kerry, the home of cabbage eaters, alcoholics, leprechauns, English haters, poets, Porsche-owing potato diggers - and the Hotel Grande Yankee Cliché, for visiting New York journalists.]
- Write a story or poem, write poetry poems and publish short stories on...
- Mar 26, 6:00pm (6 reviews) writing http://www.fanstory.com/
- Writers beware: FanStory, ScamStory
I used to be in two minds about FanStory writers' site - I have contributed and reviewed there on and off over five years and attained a high author and reviewer ranking. (I first gave it a thumbs up and a mixed review here).
I was a tough critic, but I found some excellent writing and some very nice people who took some of my acidic (but fair) criticisms wonderfully well.
No longer - it is now like a scary cult with an entry fee and where money and "rewards" are everything. Site members indulge in a gross and humourless capitalistic rat-race for points, "stars," rankings and pseduo dollars paid for reviews.
Even worse - a Gestapo-like writing police suspends critics for not saying something nice and "positively encouraging" about the crap they review (and there's an awful lot of it ).
I believe that the "average" value of a reviewer "grade" for a text or short story or poem on FanStory is now 4.9 out of 5. This is great for your ego, but this is honest criticism? Help you develop as a writer?
You can't believe how illiterate some of these "five out of five:" authors are. My practice was to give a 3 on average for a competent effort and rare 4s for excellence.
(My personal criterion is to save the 5 in case Milton, Yeats or Homer happen to visit. Reviewers are allowed to award two bonus 6s a week. That I might reserve for Shakespeare, yet a 10-line drivel poem about babies being sparkly angels will easily win a six and and "aw, sweet" review on Fanstory).
A critic just got suspended by Fanstory for a review that was far milder than things any of us write on Stumbleupon. His review was satiric but validly critical, and the reviewer (who pays a subscription for the privilege) has been placed "under warning." Oooh! What next - the Gulag?
This behavior makes make bad writers feel good and good writers feel confused - for this is supposedly a fee-paying "professional" writers' site. It isn't. It's a money mill where you actually pay to post work and lick ass to get praise.
By the way, the site seems to pathologically hate non-Americans, like cults loathe outsiders, so be very careful.
- Thank God America Isnt Like Europe -- Yet
- Mar 25, 4:45am (1 review) culture, libertarian, sociology, neocon http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/con...
- Most asinine American article of the year (so far)
1. A shockingly stupid and patronising Washington Post essay that contains more mistakes and stereotypes than I can be bothered to list. So here goes.
2. Yet another pile of American Enterprise Institute crap. Now where did I hear of them before? Oh yes, there was all that rabble-rousing for the Iraq War.
3. "Ludicrous neo-conservative works hard to prove America is superior to every other culture" could be the article's headline. Except it's not news anymore - your day has past, dumbo.
4. Murray is shocked, horrified, to discover that Europeans are happy. Appalling! Bastards!
5. In Zurich he met "a few 20-somethings" who "said plainly they were having a great time with their current sex partner and new BMW and the vacation home in Majorca, and they saw no voids in their lives that needed filling." What absolute bastards!
6. Quote: "European mentality goes something like this: Human beings are a collection of chemicals that activate and, after a period of time, deactivate. The purpose of life is to while away the intervening time as pleasantly as possible." Yet again - what total bastards! Let's invent a vengeful right-wing god or two (maybe a trinity) to unpleasantly persecute them with arbitrary rules, idiotic superstitions and meaningless rituals.
7. "The stuff of life ... occurs within just four institutions: family, community, vocation and faith... The European model enfeebles every single one of them." So how's that principle working out for your hooker-using, bonus-grabbing, idle, greedy, hypocrite conservative elites over there in Washington and Wall Street?
8. To quote another reader's comment:
"Gather all Europeans, stick them in the same boat. Great job!"
By the way - all Americans are stupid.
See what I just did there?
9. Now where did I hear of Charles Murray before? Oh, yes, "The Bell Curve - Intelligence and class structure in American life."
- Iranian Blogger Dies in Prison - The Lede Blog - NYTimes.com
- Mar 21, 5:50am (1 review) islam, blogs, iran http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/03...
- Another Iranian blogger dies 'mysteriously' in prison
RELIGIOUS bigots create another martyr for free speech. Omidreza Mirsayafi, a blogger who was sentenced last month to two years in prison for insulting Iran's leaders, has died in Tehran's notorious Evin Prison.
Quote: "Prison authorities notified Mirsayafi's family that he committed suicide on March 18 by overdosing on sedative tablets. Mirsayafi was known to have taken medication to treat depression, but his sister said he would not have possessed enough to kill himself."
Mirsayafi's lawyer, Mohammad Ali Dadkhah, said that a doctor imprisoned at Evin told him the death was entirely due to the prison's failure to provide Mirsayafi with proper attention for a clear cardiac condition.
Most of the articles on Mirsayafi's blog were about traditional Persian music and other cultural matters. He was jailed for "insulting" the Islamic Republic's leaders and for "publicity against the government."
He had testified: "I am a cultural and not a political blogger. Of all the articles I have posted online, only two or three were satirical and I had no intention of insulting anybody."
Well, I'm a blogger, and I have a heartfelt insult for the evil "Islamic Republic's leaders," and I do mean it - You are a bunch of medieval, despotic, bigoted, murdering bastards, and I hope your day to die in prison is not too far away.
So jail me, assholes.
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