The topic which rapidly degenerated... [MISC]

[Shadow of an Illusion]

Nebelstern

Nebelstern

Quote:

You should really be more worried about desk space because that's the real bugbear here.

Quote:

I have a problem with desk space.

I have 3 desks! 3 full sized desks with way too many drawers, 4 chairs, 2 beds, a bedside table, a sinkside table and a wardrobe. And, if I climb out one of my windows I have my own balcony.

Its amazing. I only choose this residence becuase it was the cheapest.

My problem is I don't have much stuff since I had to cut everything down to 2 full sized suitcases and 2 pieces of hand luggage inc kitchen and bed covers.

It's such an unbelieveable house. We keep finding new things, theres a climbing wall in the garage! And we have an apple tree.

Oh yes, be jealous.

I'm confused as to how I wrote that without even posting it. eek

Sorry. That might have been me. I'm sure I did press the quote button but must have chopped it out or something.

I was halfway through freshers. Which is a pretty good excuse.  

[Heterodyne]

Thank god Freshers' is over. It was fun, but...well... everything ends with a jungle party. And I actually feel like part of the university now.

I was wondering where all the intellectuals were, when I stumbled on Fencing club and its irreverent coach, the serene Buddhist Soc, and then a friend on my floor stopped by for tea, and we talked religion, Wittgenstein and thought crimes.

Perfect.

Might become Buddhist.

My room continues to rival the Batcave in terms of space... mrgreen [/smug]

On with the Law books... *Dies of work overload*  

[[Finrod]]

Heterodyne,

In fencing: take up sabre!
Foil is just playing with knitting needles, and epee can be a ssllloooowww game (any "first to fifteen" match that usually ends on time after nine minutes with a football score result is slow). Plus, I'd like to point out that any weapon where you can score points off of the floor, the table, and the presiding judge if he's not paying real attention isn't really fencing smile

Sabre's fun! You hack and slash. And it's really quick as well.
It's the only one where you can mutter "There can be only one!" or "The Force is strong with this one..." under your breath and truly mean it.

(or even "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!")

Hmm. Can you tell which weapon I fence ...?  

[Invictus_88]

Not very subtle though, is it...

...no, not subtle. Not like foil and an epee can be.

ninja  

[[Finrod]]

Sometimes, I'll grant you. But a sabre in the hand of someone who knows what they are doing can be a very subtle weapon.

You can go all aggressive with a sabre, but subtle stopcuts to the wrist, for example, are seriously useful.

For utterly demoralising an opponent, a mix of counter-time attacks, stop-cuts to the wrist and straight parry-ripostes are awesome. All of which are as subtle as anything in foil or epee (Note that the fleche - the worlds most unsubtle move - is reserved for foil and epee and is illegal in sabre. To be fair, it was prohibited in sabre because the rather unsubtle overuse of the manouevre was destroying the game ...)

(A counter-time attack is one where you go forward with the aim of inviting the counterattack, reading and parrying it on the way forward and finishing with your attack on a now demoralised opponent.)

Get a mix of all three of these in early on and your opponent mentally gives up (when he comes forward, if he attacks too deeply, you parry and riposte, if he closes to attack less deeply, you stop cut and if he doesn't come forward, you counter-time him - while he's caught in a loop of "what the hell do I do!?!", you close out the game.  

[Invictus_88]

I'll give you your points, but I will add that a broadsword and a club can - in the right hands - also be used with subtlety in much the same way as a sabre!

wink  

[[Finrod]]

Fair enough - I'll grant you that the pointy-jabby weapons actively require a bit of subtlety (except when people fleche)
3nodding  

[Heterodyne]

[Finrod]

Heterodyne,

In fencing: take up sabre!
Foil is just playing with knitting needles, and epee can be a ssllloooowww game (any "first to fifteen" match that usually ends on time after nine minutes with a football score result is slow). Plus, I'd like to point out that any weapon where you can score points off of the floor, the table, and the presiding judge if he's not paying real attention isn't really fencing smile

Sabre's fun! You hack and slash. And it's really quick as well.
It's the only one where you can mutter "There can be only one!" or "The Force is strong with this one..." under your breath and truly mean it.

(or even "My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die!")

Hmm. Can you tell which weapon I fence ...?

It's nice to know that my slightly willful and inexperienced wish to become a sabreuse is backed up by your findings, Finrod. mrgreen I've done some reading, and sabre appealed to me from the first instance. I may well be able to start on sabre fairly soon, as Cambridge is very sabre-orientated...might ask the beginners' coach at the next session. I have a feeling that we're learning on foil, though.

That's if I survive the rowing to make it to the next session. Three outings next week, and only one session for fencing at the moment. ^^ Fencing training is such fun, though. heart

*Applauds Princess Bride reference* I was first shown that film by someone who didn't realise that it was gently mocking itself right the way through... she took it at face value. sweatdrop  

[Heterodyne]

Invictus_88

I'll give you your points, but I will add that a broadsword and a club can - in the right hands - also be used with subtlety in much the same way as a sabre!

wink

*Cough* Aesthetic values. *cough*

I know what I'd rather be holding someone at bay with... *Picks up a quaterstaff and falls over*

Reminds me of the two person (Yep, two person, not double-handed...) sword in the Fitzwilliam museum. Probably inspired by agriculture, as a lot of medieval folk weapons are...  

[Heterodyne]

Finished my first Tort law essay. Causation and remoteness of harm. *Dies*

Law really is the fastest route to evil. Our lecturer had us laughing yesterday, about a brain damage case which transformed a man from a petty thief into a 'sexual deviant', who raped three women, got sent to prison, and then sued the driver who had caused his head injuries under Tort for about £60k.

Now I've got an hour and a half to do roughly three day's work. Or at least make it look like I've done three days work. They really don't joke about the workload here.

*Pokes the uncodified UK Constitution with a spade*
So...damn...flexible and nuanced.  

[illyrianth]

As usaul, I have absolutely no idea what is going on...  

[Invictus_88]

Heterodyne

*Pokes the uncodified UK Constitution with a spade*
So...damn...flexible and nuanced.

As you probably know the ins and outs of our constitutional mechanisms a lot better than I do, would you support a move toward a codified constitution?

I hate the idea, but you know more about its functioning than I do.  

[Heterodyne]

Invictus_88

Heterodyne

*Pokes the uncodified UK Constitution with a spade*
So...damn...flexible and nuanced.

As you probably know the ins and outs of our constitutional mechanisms a lot better than I do, would you support a move toward a codified constitution?

I hate the idea, but you know more about its functioning than I do.

...I wrote such a detailled exposition on constitutional mechanisms and law here last night.

Then Persephone (my uni desktop) crashed IE spectacularly, because of an unexpected embedded script. ¬_¬

I'll write my constitutional essay, and then see if I can do something about writing it again.

For now, the -very- short answer is: I don't believe such a move to be entirely necessary, if adequate statutory reforms and procedural overhauls are made, but even a partially codified constitution - a foundational document -could serve the UK very effectively.  

[Boolean Julian]

That's what you get for running IE.  

[Heterodyne]

How I know it... rolleyes

I should really use Firefox more, but that's been strangely unstable itself recently. It's the same thing with the Google/Clusty balance. Clusty is FAR less evil in terms of information disclosure, and has a searchable Shakespeare resource. heart Yet, my hands keep typing 'www.googl...' Hmm.

At least in six weeks, Vista has never wholesale crashed on me, unlike the ageing turquoise box at home which runs XP and crashes on every prime numbered minute in the hour... It's got some annoying habits, but it hasn't driven me to jumping over to Debian or Ubuntu. Also, if I started running Debian, I'd have to give up taunting the NatScis about how it doesn't go with their shiny Mac aesthetic at all.

But then, dragging the twelve year old laptop out and seeing the horror of '95 over again...or scrolling my mind back to using 3.1 at primary school...seems to make everything better.