The new neighbors...

Ray has gone bye-bye,... what've you got left?

It probably seems like that. After all, it doesn't matter if someone understands something different to what was actually said and meant. It's just that, in this case, the misunderstanding gave rise to an insult, and that's what I object to in forums. I don;t object to misunderstandings. I do find fault with insulting someone on the strength of them, and especially standing by the insult when the 'error' was made clear.

I pop into this thread just to see Ray's cute pictures and emotes, and scroll down the argument parts.

Happy Rez Day, Mari!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ditto on all counts.

And to Phil: Jayzus, man, give it a rest already! Anybody got a valium we can slip into Phil's coffee?

everyone, please forgive Raymond for his posts in this thread.

You say you only come in to see the pretty pictures.. (which are very LOL I have to say..!) but you end it with a comment that invites a retort...

Hmm strange.

Wow ..

Phil,

You really need to stop with the creative motive analysis already.

Were my intent to slander Rebecca, I wouldn't have wasted time using the college reference- she'd already supplied more than enough to totally destroy her with the War stress garbage.

Beleive it or not I legitimately had a disagreement with her over the college comment. I felt that if she had merely meant they waste the ammount of time needed to get a college degree playing WoW then she would not have used that turn of phrase.

Like it or not "Study to Master" and "Study required to Master" are common terms used in College Course books and Syllabus. Having recently taken some classes at my local community college I imagine I was more keyed to the turn of phrase than you. Although I really don't see why she would include the terms if she only meant "Waste Time" regardless.

Of course Study and Master implied with a lot of time equals EFFORT .. the word I used, which you are so adamantly opposed to.

Basically "Time spent Studying to Master Wow to the End game" compares to the "Time spent Studying to Master a College Major"

Even just saying "Time spent Studying" implies *effort* so in reality what you claim as my *twist* is in reality LESS strong than her phrase.

Now of course Rebecca is going to say your TAKE was the correct interpretation NOW, you've paved the way to backtrack for her. If you look at all the backpedaling and spin she did on the war statements, to expect different is to be really naive.

Plus its quite possible she realizes the Study Required to Master WoW is nothing compared to a College degree now that she isnt trying to wildly spin her post traumatic stress comments.

Your claim that I twisted this one phrase in an attack on Rebecca, while you have spent hundreds of words slandering my motives, my methods, and my actions over a single phrase is a bit of irony.

Considering from what you have said one of the main reasons you posted on this thread was you had developed a personal bias against Swan, I find it doubly ironic you would call me on a contextual interpretation that I can logically support.

You are basically stating in the open you came onto the thread because of a personal bias that you developed against Swan, and then try to take the high road and point at my supposed misdeed.

Now you dont have to agree with my interpretation. You don't have to agree with my statement with regards to Rebecca. You can even think I am stupid and cant read English.

But you do need to stop pretending like I am not entitled to my own opinion over what she said.

Believe it or not I wasn't personally attacking Rebbecca, I was instead strongly disagreeing with her. My actual personal attacks are reserved for only a few people, and they are a lot more obvious than that.

In fact looking back through *your* rather short post history, you have leveled far more personal attacks proportionally than I ever have.

Both of ya are smart..educated..very pretty words and no grammatical errors..has it struck you yet that your posts are wasted on each other?

Agree to disagree

I've been following the thread and i must say I'd want both of you in my corner if I ever need defensive offense...or offensive defense

~Lana Tomba

Solanghe finally makes it to the last post.
She removes her glasses, rubs her bloodshot eyes and sighs deeply - heavily.
She looks around; where did she put her coat? Ah, the couch. She rises wearily to retrieve it.
She picks up keys, phone, purse. Takes a last look around her lovely home; wondering when she will return.

As she sits in her truck waiting for the engine to warm, she consults her map. Where to begin? OI perhaps...
Lastly, she checks the supplies piled in the back seat.

Rope? Check
Billy Club? Check
Tazer? Check

She ponders her quest and hopes that reason will prevail, she dislikes violence.
She pulls out and heads for the highway, a tiny smile plays at her lips...the anticipation....

She WILL bring back Strife....

/me shivers and peeks out from under the tarp in the back of Solanghes truck.

"Sustenance" she thinks, as she's reminded of an apple in her coat pocket..she reaches in and displays a bright shining apple in her bluish fingers.

The truck bed bounces as it clears a sharp curve and her apple shoots from her hand onto the passing ground below.

/me holds tight and goes into the fetal position to stay warm and hidden.

"Gah she's driving like a maniac" she thinks.

You don't have a leg to stand on, Trout.

/me wakes from her bedroll as she hears a truck rumbling along the highway in the distance. "Finally! Some action!" She slips into her black leather cat suit, slings her M-16 over her shoulder, and steps out into the road, her thumb extended...

You're going to give most of the boys and some of the girls naughty thoughts.

Truck? Amateurs!
/Me dons her flight suit, and powers up her Huey.

/me parachutes into the back of the flatbed and clings to the tailgate as the chute threatens to drag me out onto the road. Lana springs to my aid, slashing at the cords til we both lie panting, safe. I open up my rucksack and hand her a Luna bar. Slipping my knife from its thigh holster, I creep up to the window into the cab and smash it with the hilt, then shout into Solanghe's ear: "He's also known as Blind Wanderer!"

We roll on.
.

Alright. My last word on the subject...

When someone says, "it takes as much time to do this as it does to do that", it's an unequivocal statement that is not open to interpretation. If someone replies with, "it's patently ridiculous to say that it takes as much effort to do this as it does to do that?", the respondent has got it wrong. That's what happened, and no amount of argument can change it.

We are all free to think and judge as we wish. I've made my judgement, and Colette comes out on the wrong end of it - not for misunderstanding the statement, but for insulting someone with her own incorrect version of it, AND for sticking by her own incorrect version of it, together with the accompanying insult, after the error was pointed out. To be honest, I'm staggered that some people, who are not given to such things themselves, actually support it. But then I firmly believe that, if it were the other round, and it had been me who'd got it wrong, with Colette pointing it out, those same people would have different views. They are not my kind of people at all.

By the same token, everyone is free to judge me as they wish, as one or two have already done in posts. It's no skin off my nose. If I were interested in popularity here, I would never have defended the use of traffic bots and temp rezzers, knowing that many of the people here are vehemently against them. I'm a down to earth person who has a strong dislike of some of the bad things that go on in forums, having seen it for many years, and I pointed one out.

Still spinning Colette? guess so. "Backpedaling?"--more spin. You just pick fights for personal reason known only to you.

Bottom line is there are 24 hours in a day and if you spend 5-10-14 hours a day trying to excel in college you can. If you spend 5-10 hours a day trying to excel in a wargame you can. But unless you go without sleep you can't do both and work or do much of anything else.

Now what is most important for young people in the real world? Any Time Management expert or career or school guidance counselor will tell you that you cannot play videogames immoderatly and get anywhere in real life if the game has no real life payoff other then leisure or enjoyment time and the fact of life is that a persone without a career or education often ends up very stressed out and regretful.


As far as the Battle Fatigue issue what I was saying is that OBJECTIVE research is showing that the chemistry/physiology can be the same in *Some* people's brain.

The body does not know that the combat is virtual in very intense virtual battles, especially people more prone to the problem. Even in normal people , if they play too long, the total immersion will effect them far more then they could ever dream possible.

Studies have shown that some soldiers are more prone to battle fatigue then other soldiers. Studies also show that people who tend to adrenaline addiction are more prone to either problem.

The remarks by some acting like I am attacking combat vets is utter crap, spun to attack what I said and to get personal.

Studies on PTSD show a correlation to Adrenaline addiction and studies on combat game addiction also show adrenaline addiction. Gambling addiction also shows adrenaline addictions.

There is also a powerful dopamine connection that has been correlated with drug addiction and videogaming.

If you are unaware of the effects of too much adrenaline and norepinephrine in a human body then do some reseach as to it's detrimental effects. If you are also unaware of the principles of stimulation--reward on the body and brain, then do some research.

Just as you flamed me a while back for using the expression "wild west" when talking about the state of SL, you are flaming and spinning and misdirecting right now.

Now with your 11,341 posts in the SL forum if we assume a conservative 2 mnutes per post, thats 22,682 minutes=378 hours that 22.4 percent of one year of your life, you've spent posting on the SL forum, or if spread out over your approx 3 years of SL its 7.5% of each of your years for the 3 years you spend JUST posting.

Hard to say how much time you actually *read* the forums, and impossible to say how much time you spend in chats or in SL or other pastimes. Now I don't care what you do with your time as an older adult who has already gone through school, but if you were a young person in high school or college spending lots of time online with extreme pastimes, then you are going to make a mess of your life in the world as it is now.

One of the things that made me hope that SL was an alternative for computer addicted young people, was the possibility they could actually make a living at it. Unfortunatley, the way SL is, unless major changes occur in SL and socieity itself, this hope is very premature and WOW players tend to think SL is a joke--just a place to go cause trouble.

One thing for sure, however, is that a person cannot be in two places in the same moment, no matter how one multi-tasks.

A person playing warcraft 10 hours a day is not going to be able to do much else with their life and if this behavior begins during the most important formative years of a person's school and career it is entirely detrimental and leads to terrible meltdowns in real life.

As far as the hair splitting between my use of the word "study." or "time" or "effort." I am not nor did I make a qualitative comparison. But you are blissfully ignorant of the depth of "study" needed to "master," the complexity of playing WOW and competing in it, that is required to complete the endgame and be competitive. WOW does not stop. there is no end. Its been there 3 years and the next expansion will be out this year with a whole new sets of time consuming goals.

For you to grasp the complexity of WOW theory, you would have to study the various forums and websites involved with WOW theory (theorycraft), mathematics, and techniques people have to study to learn to play their warcraft "class" effectively, beat the various mobs in the raid instances etc.




Warcraft and game addiction videos

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=18joS1IP2oc

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aRh7qHU6LqM&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=78sY4aGy7rs&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Aw6IIz1RSTo&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pB5cSLdOr8U&feature=related


An older series of talks by a Psychotherapist about treating people with issues with game addition:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3pCFlQ9-abQ&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it32L4NhEYk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8U1T9ZumALk&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dY2sdr5QOzA&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QoDLN6gGd_g&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=esJi4YfGKyk&feature=related

Sol swerves onto the gravel breakdown, startled by the breaking glass. As she wrestles the truck into submission she is suprised, then pleased to see Nika and Lana clinging to the roll bars.

She reaches back through the shattered glass for Nika's hand, winks into the rear view at Lana and yells, "Ladies! Welcome!" She works the edge of a thick thermal blanket toward the smashed window.

Picking up speed again, the headlights catch the gleam of fine black leather - a slim figure - hair blowing softly about a lovely face...

Solanghe slows and peers closer at the figure. Ah! She smiles broadly and grabs her coat from the passenger seat to toss out of the way...

In the distance, a Huey's engine rumbles....

Solanghe jumps as a paper airplane flies through the broken back window landing on her dashboard. She swerves slightly, then with eyes back on the road, asks Oryx to open the airplane. Inside are 3 words written in large block letters: "Find Strife, Please!"

/me looks down and sees a vehicle on the road below. Dropping her ship down to treetop level, she matches the truck's speed long enough to confirm identity. Pushing the stick forward, she accelerates, giving the vehicle occupants a bit of rotor wash and ascends back to altitude. Once clear, she tunes her radio to the appropriate channel and sends a brief message. "The Hamster has left the wheel."

36 if you spend it reading this thread.

Aki is no longer with LL.

Mari