Sometimes known as the “incredible morphing chameleon thread,” this forum tries to stay on topic longer than the random threads do. Newcomers should read The Rules and The Guide before plunging in.
Current topic: Philosophy?
North Korea
Communism
Sailing
The end of the world
Circuses / circus type things?
Can we talk about circuses / circus type things?
(ex. juggling, magic, etc.)
THF and I are learning how to ride a unicycle. It’s quite difficult, because it requires a whole different type of balance. I can juggle and I want to eventually learn how to juggle and unicycle at the same time!
Cool! I used to want to be a tightrope walker.
OOOOOOOOONLEEEEEEEEEE 3 POSTS!!!
I like card tricks. I can’t do any, but…Heh-Heh-Heh…
3 – not anymore!!! [Hee hee]
I can juggle. But right now I can only do 2 balls at a time. [Hee hee] [again]
1- Cool! I worked for 6 weeks over the summer as a CIT. I assisted in one magic class and an illusions class. I now have extensive knowledge about magic tricks. It’s practically ruined all magic shows for me.
4 – It’s not too difficult to go from two to three balls. Have you tried “juggling” with scarves yet? It really helps, because they move really slowly and it gives your arms a chance to learn what the movement is like in slow motion. Small tissues or squares of fabric work best.
5 – That sounds like fun! What type of magic/illusions did you do? I’ve been working on a few card tricks, because they’re easier, and my favorites are the ones that use math to figure out the trick. Because it’s really satisfying for us non-math-geniuses to know that we can do some “fast” math on-the-spot!
What I have to say about the circus:
First of all, it is TERRIBLE for the animals. Second, I hate clowns. And third, I have never been to one and hope to never go to one agian in my life.
It’s fine if you want to learn to juggle or ride a unicycle, but I do not endorse working for the circus.
7- I agree, except I have been to one or two and hated it.
I can almost juggle one ball.
I’m going to circus camp this summer. At my school, believe it or not. I want to learn how to do the silks and juggling. I like the acrobatics and stunts in the cicus. Clowns do scare me, though.
“Circus-Type Things”!?!?! what’s that supposed to mean?
8 – pitiful.
Clowns can be scary, but not necessarily.
I went to a circus once. There weren’t any animals, or any of the traditional circus stuff.
6- Well, at the end of each 3 week session the kids put on a magic show. The illusions included the vanishing cabinet, shadow box, sword/pole box, levitation, and a few others I can’t remember. The little kids did card tricks, some rope tricks, and balloon animals. It was cute.
I’m going to the Ringling Brothers / Barnum and Bailey circus on Thursday. It will be my first trip to the circus! I am excited, even though I know it’s bad for the animals.
7/8 – I’ve never seen a circus with animals, etc., but I have seen a Russian Kids’ Circus, which was a bunch of kids doing some really amazing stuff. I have no dream to join a circus, I just think it’s really fun learning to unicycle and juggling, etc. It’s fun for talent shows!
Has anyone seen the movie called “The Greatest Show On Earth”? Worst movie ever. Really. It’s so bad it’s hilarious. Charlton Heston, Jimmy Stewart, and some other people I can’t remember. It’s about a circus.
The only semi-related-to-the-circus-but-not-really thing I do is stilt dancing. Oh, and I went to the circus when I was little. It was strange.
I’m afraid of clowns!!!!!!!!
Eep.
But my friends do magic, and they actually go to b-day parties, and stuff, and get paid to do shows…it’s really cool.
8-Um, you agree, but you hated it? I am trying to say I hate them too. *confuzzeled*
YAYAYAYAAYAYYAYAYAYYA!
18-Hey, if you get really good at stilt dancing, you can get into an ivy league college, because they look for people with diverse skills like that. And I’m not even joking.
(I read about this in the Yale alumni magazine somewhere)
16. Stilt dancing!!! That’s sweet, did you just teach yourself?
I did a trapeez clinic/camp last summer. It was amazing! You have so much control….
OMG I LOOOVE THE HOT PINK BUNNIES YAYYITY YAY
I LIKE CHEESE AND I LIKE BLOGGING AND BLOGGING’S FUN AND I PLAY COMPUTER GAMES AND COMPUTER GAMES ARE FUN I LIKE HOT PINK BUNNIES 
YAYYITY YAY FOR HOT PINK BUNNIES I LIKE CHEESE AND OMG MY CAT IS CLAWING MY MUSES NOOOOOOOOOOO I LIKE CHEESE AND BYE
18- wow, you’re right, I make no sense sometimes. Yes, I hate them and I understand you hate them. You said you hadn’t been to one, and I added that I had been to one or two.
Anywhee every seen Circ De Sule (arrrrrg sorry, I know that’s not how it’s spelled at all) on tv? That’s interesting.
(23) Cirque du soleil. “Circus of the sun.”
Daisy, this isn’t a chat room. You can have actual intelligent conversations. (Random and weird, yes, but preferably with correct grammar and multiple sentences per post.)
23- Yeah! A long time ago when it was in …can’t remember… Orlando? I think so. It was amazing. The trapezes and the tightropes and unicycles and juggling. Incredible stuff. They had one where a guy on a penny-farthing bicycle rode across a tightrope ON ONLY THE FRONT WHEEL!!
SEE, I CAN TYPE IN ALL CAPS, NOW I’M COOL!!!
21- Daisy, try visiting the Welcome, Newcomers! thread for some tips.
21- y’know, Daisy, I like :idea:s just fine, but, um, after sunday, we really don’t need any more armys of them, do we? and please, please, i beg you, no more capitals! and comeplete sentances! I’m DIEING here!
.()()
(º..º) and
I really don’t care for circuses. the only ones that come hear have animals in them, which I’m against, so I haven’t been to a circus in a long LONG time.
I went to Cirque du Soleil once in Orlando, but I didn’t really count that as a circus because it was very… sophisticated, i guess. that was not hte word I wanted, but oh well. It was very fun and they had trapeze artists and very elaborate costuming and it was cool.
Ooh! I love stilt-stuff. I made my own stilts and they’re very froody.
Circuses bother me. They just seem so . . . slapstick-y. And clowns are NOT FUNNY. CLOWNS ARE SCARY. Not aah-nightmare scary necessarily, but what-does-it-say-about-humanity-that-people-actually-think-these-things-are-funny scary.
Circuses smell funny but they used to have good prizes to win… now they don’t…
Still- cotton candy.
Why did the name change to the April Not-So-Random Discussion thread? *is a huge fan of the chameleon*
I have been to Cirque du Soleil, in Orlando, it was called La Nouba. It was very cool and complex and nonsensical.
I have been to Barnum and Bailey’s circus, it was a year or two ago, at Madison Square Garden, I think. It was interesting too and elaborate. We sat in the very top section and had to go up five or six flights of stairs/escalators to get there and I was (still am) afraid of heights.
I want to juggle but really I haven’t advanced beyond two.
I was in my school’s production of Barnum last year. It was fun. It’s a good musical. Yay for tiny parts!
OMG ! I went 2 la nouba 2!!!!!!!!!wowie wowie wow!
It was—-Interesting
not funny
weird and terrifying clowns
disturbing
brrrrrrrrrrrr
OK NOW I HAVE TO GO HAVE A CUP OF HOT CHOCOLATE
AND READ A COMFORTING BOOK!
*burp*
That was some goood hot chocolate!
I drank Ghiradelli’s, the type with ground chocolate in it.
37- Mmm, I love Ghiradelli’s! I think. But maybe I’m thinking something different.
I like your name! I like those books.
37/39~ what books?
I can walk on stilts! Don’t know what stilt dancing is though.
39- The Young Wizards, by Diane Duane.
34 – I guess they want the title of the discussion thread to be different from month to month.
42nd post? Please?
Ooh, I like choklit. Has anyone seen Cirque du Soleil?
20, 39, 31: Yay stilt dancing! I participate in Parade the Circle through the Cleveland Museum of Art. I learned to stilt dance at the workshops they hold in the months before the parade. You can Google image search “Parade the Circle” for pics. Unless the GAPAs snip the location, but downtown Cleveland is huge and I live in the suburbs.
19: SERIOUSLY? That’s amazing! I’ve been putting it on various applications for organizations and jobs and such. Thanks for the info, I’ll keep that in mind. Maybe I cna search around for where you read that.
43 – That sounds really interesting! I would love to learn how to stilt dance. All I know how to do is walk (very ungracefullly) on stilts.
Does anyone know how to walk on those really big balls? I want to learn how to do that as well.
I love stilts! stilts are fun. Caged lions and tigers are not.
Curcuses are undoubtedly bad for animals, but what about zoos? Anything that puts wild animals in cages is bad.
Tame animals are another matter.
That reminds me of this cramped little place right next to CostCo that has ponies, and I always heard that horses must have at least one acre per horse of room, and this little place was like smaller then our house! Which is just sick. And 46, tame animals are animals too (not to be mean, that is)!
I can understand why you wouldn’t mind as much though. Wild animals are more associated with wide open spaces, if you know what I mean. One might be more upset about a Przewalski’s horse kept in a tiny area then a tame pony.
47- By “tame animals” I was talking about rabbits, in cages, though my rabbits get plenty of good food and water and some of them get to come in the house, and I am trying to get rid of them so that they can go somewhere where they’ll be happier.
Not sure yet where I stand on the issue, but just playing devil’s advocate here, zoos are very valuable educational tools, and the animals they keep would never survive in the wild because they didn’t grow up with it.
49- True that. But to get animals that were born in the zoo, one has to capture animals from the wild.
I’m not against wild-life refuges and rescue centers, though. As long as the animal is released when it heals.
My last post was very rushed, so I’ll elongate it here. Any animal, tame or wild, ought to have enough space to live in. That means anything from horses to hamsters. But it seems worse to me to put a born-in-the-wild animal in a good-sized enclosure than it does to put a tame animal in a good-sized enclosure. No animal should be in a too-small enclosure.
49 – I completely agree.
My grandpa was a zookeeper. He could speak to giraffes! Seriously. He makes all of these deep throat noises!
51- That’s cool!
51-That is cool! Once I tried to speak to animals at a zoo but the giraff licked my face and it felt like sandpaper. Ive been prejeduced against giraffes ever sence
I’ve only ever seen Cirque du Solei on TV. Mystifying. The one I saw didn’t have any animals.
I ♥ zebras. They’re my favorite animal.
If you really want to know how badly a lot of animals used for food and milk are treated, read The Omnivore’s Delemma. The author goes to feedlots and other places. The book isn’t all about tha, though, it’s got a lot of other stuff relating to food. Very interesting.
I went to a circus in Seaworld. It was called Cirque de… something.
51- Giraffes make noise? Seriously?
we have a youth circus here that I’ve always wanted to join and I’ve seen Cirque du Soleil’s music show, Delirium. It sort of made me feel sad that I hadn’t seen any actual shows of theirs though.
The animals in zoos wouldn’t be unable to live in the wild if humans hadn’t taken them out of their wild in the first place. It all starts with arrogance. Humans were arrogant enough to think they ruled the world, and promptly messed it all up. (The decrease of honey bees may be the beginning of the end. Acoording to Einstein, four years after the honey bees die off, humans will start to die off. I trust einstein. I don’t want to, but he’s been right before. Let’s please prove Einstein on.)
BOYCOTT ZOOS!
16- oooh! I really want to do stilt dancing! I don’t have any (non toy catologue) stilts though.
I am totally out of my depth here. I haven’t seen a circus since I was seven!
I like the movie Mirrormask.
57- Help!
57- Have you seen the news? There’s some sort of disease wiping out the worlds honeybees. I wonder if this is the beginning of the end. I’ve never heard that about Einstein, though. Interesting. And how are boycotts going to help? We can’t release the animals into the wild. Sure, it’s horrible that we took them out in the first place but it’s too late now.
61-AGGREEMENT!!
It is the beginning of the end! Oh no! 2012 draws nigh! And though it seems like I’m joking, I’m not, really.
All you people should readEva by Peter Dickinson. It’s not the greatest book, but even so, it fits with this topic.
I’m really freaked out now.
Before you get too freaked out, let me recommend the article about the end of the world that I wrote for the November/December 1999 issue of Muse.
59- ooh, me too! (about mirrormask that is)
The Mayas predicted that the world would end in 2012. Mesoamerican civilizations, however, have been famous for ironic predictions. The Aztecs predicted that the god Quetzalcoatl would return in the Year of the One Reed. In that year, Cortez and his conquistadors showed up, and pretty much destroyed Aztec civilization. My conclusion is that something very important, significant and world-changing will happen in 2012, but it will not be the end of the world.
64-I just read your article. Its funny how everyone has a different EOTW theory but everyone thinks its gonna end, nonetheless. Depressing and funny all at the same time.
Isn’t it funny how the last chameleon thread changed to the topic of death pretty quickly, and here we’ve already gotten to talking about the end of the world. Lol, we’re so morbid
.
67- Well, it has to. The sun will eventually change into a red giant. When it does this, all our water will boil away and most of our atmosphere will escaped into space. So there is definitely a limit, even if we don’t blow ourselves up or get hit by an asteroid.
66- I don’t really think the world will end exactly, in 2012, but something’ll happen. The end of the world as we know it.
69-Of course were going to blow ourselfs up!! Havent you seen any albinoblacksheep movies??
Since the end of the world seems to have lost its appeal, can we talk about sailing now?
I’m going to sailing camp on Monday.
72 – You sail? Awesome! I love sailing! Every summer I sail every day. I usually sail sunfish (because I can sail those by myself) but sometimes I ride a harpoon with my cousins.
73- I spend more time thinking about sailing than I do sailing, and this is the second year I’m going to sailing camp. I have a sailboat, a Scorpion, which is pretty much a Sunfish, I think, but it needs fixing up and the only boat I’ve ever sailed was an El Torro, last year.
We live on the river, but it’s not a good place to sail, because it’s so unsafe. I do kayak on the river though. Someday I’ll actually go sailing. Well, Tuesday probably, but I mean on my own, without instructors.
I’m hoping the summer weather will hold so it’s not freezing when we have to capsize.
73. You’re really luck to get to sail every day of the summer.
74. I’ve never hear of sailing camp, do you just sail…tell me more!!!
I love sailing. I sail sunfish at the YMCA camp I go to (one of the main reasons I go to it at all…) and Flying Jr.s (that I rent) at a little lake near my house. There are usually terrible wind shortages though and I end up skulling for a lot of the time…
75- Sailing camp is fun, but it’s not just sailing. You also learn how to tie knots and where to use the aforesaid knots, you learn sailing lingo, how to rig an El Torro, and play fairly pointless games. It’s super cool, except for the games bit, but I don’t mind them.
It’s three hours a day for five days.
Sailing
takes me away…
Okay, that was NOT a POPO ’cause it had SOMETHING to do with the topic.
Once, I went on an Alaska cruise and got seasick. But then again… everybody else did, too.
*gasp* That was not how I intended it to be… guess I’ll have to lay [lie?] the HTML to rest now…
I took a sailing class once. I’m not sure it’s my favorite thing to do, but I enjoyed it.
I used to take a sailing class. From her description, it was really similar to Alice’s sailing camp. We learned knots and rigging and sailing, etc. Now I mostly help out with the class. Every summer I go to northern Michigan, so I sail on Lake Michigan.
There are also races every Saturday. Actually, the first time I sailed by myself was in a race. Part of teaching the sailing class is teaching how to race, so I was teaching one of the sailing students what to do, and apparantly she had to leave, so her mom had one of the sailing instructors pick her up in a motorboat! So I had to finish the race by myself. I was actually really scared, because although I knew I could do it, it was probably not the best environment to be sailing by yourself for the first time. But I made it.
80. Wow…I have sailed by my self (only on pretty calm days) but don’t really like it…I usually go out with a friend or my brother.
Racing sounds fun but there’s no one to race against in my area.
7. I take umbrage at that remark, because I am a circus partaker. Not all circuses even use animals. You are just stuck on the stereotypical Barnum And Bailey/Ringling Bros. kind of circus. What about Cirque Du Soleil? They don’t use animals, just human artistry and acrobatics. So before you go and begin to hate all circuses, look at the prestigious ones.
AHEM!
Lecture over.
I am going to flashback from the past here and talk about circus because… Because.
I can juggle, and unicycle and such, but I had circus class yesterday and we used this thing called a sling which is basically silks in a loopy thing. (silks are silks. need I say more?)
CIRCUS IS FUN! More people should do it. It has a lower risk rate than competitive gymnastics. I like gymnastics, but OWWWWWWWWWW!
~~~POPO~~~
Sailing is fun… when it’s warm. When it’s cold… *shudder*
Whoops. I meant
~~~POPOPO~~~
83- I only capsized once, and that was on purpose.
85-I fell out of a sailing boat in Canada and the other people thought I had jumped off to go swimming or something so they jumped off too. The guy at the steering thingy (im not a sailor) was really sad because we all got wet and he didnt. Then when we came back on and switched around steering the boat he jumped off.
I love to sail! I’m the Captain of Boats at my camp. We win lots of races, we know our right-of-way rules, and we have a SABER SCOW. It’s incredibly cool, that boat. Yeah, it’s a river racer, but we like it on our lake.
i am going to a sailing girl scouts camp this summer!
maybe i will have more input after that
I love sailing!!!! My family and I used to go camping all the time and my uncle would bring the boat he built! it is small, but awsome!!! My cousin and I would walk carefully around the outer edge ane then sit on the very front of the boat! It was so much fun! We also go to Michigan every year and we love to just watch all the pretty boats sail by, and look at them all in the harbor. It is so peaceful! I love it!!! TTYL!
86- It’s a tiller.
39-that is a good series!!! My favorite is the second one
91- Mine too! I didn’t like Dairine till Wizard’s Holiday, so after the second thing went steeply downhill for a while. ‘Specially with all that dying. Ugh.
Anyway, if you want to discuss it, we should take it to the Books and Reading thread.
I want to learn how to sail more than anything. My granoa was a sailor. I really luke the sailing books Swallows and amazons.
*apologies for the bad spelling in that last post, this keyboard is really stiff and difficult
My dad has a sunfish called the who-knows-what and my uncle has a big one called the blue moon. (Both sailboats)
Lake Michigan can have really, really rough waters sometimes. Usually it’s pretty calm, but at least twice a week the water is really choppy and in about five minutes you’re completely soaked and your bailer is so overwhelmed your boat starts to fill up with water.
I wonder what I’m going to call my sailboat.
97-My family has had a couple sailboats, and I can’t remember the names of two of the smaller ones, but the larger ones are/were (we sold one of them) Samba, Maraqua (from Neopets), and Chaos. What kind of sailboat is it?
I love sailing, and have been doing most of my life. My family used to live near San Fransisco and we would go sailing in the San Fransisco Bay a lot. (This is okay, GAPAs, since San Fransisco is such a big city and I don’t live there anymore, right?)
My favorite part is capsizing practive. ^^
I went sailing at sleepaway camp, and it’s a lot of fun. But i go saailing a lot with my uncle, because he loves that.
88-Not Campfire Girls? I don’t understand. CGs get cool nicknames, (mine is Squeaks-Like-Chipmunk), get firebows and can use them, and have cooler camps, clubs, and societies. Also the Woodland Boys are usually quite attractive. Nobody even makes wisecracks to us about selling cookies. (We’ve got all of our competition in the bag, and we’re the creme of the crop, after all. Damn. I said I wasn’t going to do that.)
I happen to be a Sailor Barbie at my camp, too. I totally love sailing.
98- A Scorpion, which is a rip-off of a Sunfish I think. It’s a little racing boat.
101- Are firebows like bows? I so want to learn archery.
I sail!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! My family has two sunfish, I sail a 420 when I have a friend to sail with, and my brother sails an opti. My sunfish is named Mola Mola, the Latin name for Sunfish. a 420 is just like a flying Jr., except it has a trapeze, a spinnaker, and is just a little shorter than the Olympic class 470. My non-yacht club was founded by four teens who won a trophy but couldn’t take it home because they didn’t have a club. It’s named Wet Pants Sailing Association! I sail year round, in the winter using a dry suit.
101- Didn’t you not know what a Barbie was somewhere else? I’m confused
everybody please go to teh Manga/Anime thread and start posting on it so that we can get to 100!!! OEAD said that we’d get a new one if we can get 100 posts!!! here it is:
https://musefanpage.com/blog/?p=716
85- I didn’t say anything about capsizing.
101- I’ve never heard of the Campfire Girls. I wiki’d and they sound a lot like the girl scouts, though I’m sure I’ll be corrected. Wiki also has “the campfire law.” The first line says “worship god.” I thought you were a radical atheist.
90-
I knew that… Thank You
101-SAILOR BARBIE???
I love capsizing! In my sailing class, we play a game called “tipping wars,” where we have about 6 sunfish out on the lake and there are 3 people on each boat. Someone jumps off of one boat and climbs onto another, and grabs onto their mast to tip their boat. It’s for practice doing man overboard and righting your tipped boat.
I just learned how to dry step last summer, which makes capsizing a lot easier to recover from. It’s easy in a sunfish, but pretty hard in a 420, and nearly impossible for me in an opti.
Does any one sail Optimists or Lasers?
I know very little about sailing, I’m sorry to say. I was going to spend a week on the Clearwater with my grandmother’s cousin (long story) but they upped the minimum age to fifteen or something.
My (insert another confusing relationship here) has what I think is a Sunfish that he’s showed me how to sail once or twice but that was two years ago.
Tek DINGHYS! You know you love them.
106-I am. Wikipedia has fallen victim to a popular error. There is no such thing as the Campfire Law: it was struck from usage in 1953 by Luther Gulick. There’s the Wohelo motto: Work, Health, and Love.
107-At your service. I said we were weird, didn’t I?
Today was my first sailing class! We didn’t actually sail though, because it was too windy, we just learned how to rig a boat.
Just to let everyone know, bananacreampiesforever and bluedude all are under one great username: me (who else)
ok, i haven’t been on here in like a century and i see that there are hot pink bunnies on this beautiful blog.
:hotpinkbunny:
how do u do this stuff?
113- I don’t support the HPBs, but here’s how:
: idea : without the spaces.
AAAHHH! I made a hot pink bunny!
Anyway, I like knots. This is related to sailing.
Yesterday the instructor gave us a huge rope and told us to space ourselves evenly along the it (there were six of us) and then to tie a figure eight knot without letting go of the rope in your spot. And then to tie a cleat hitch. And then to tie a figure eight again. And then to untie a figure eight. And only two of us were allowed to talk. It was enormously fun.
I haven’t really sailed a lot, but I love tall ships. I actually work as a costumed interpreter on the ships at Jamestown Settlement, in VA. AND I’M TAKING SAIL TRAINING IN JULY!!!!!!!!!!!! I can’t wait.
Sorry to duble post, but tying knots is fun.
I just recently went to New Zealend and all the tiny kids got sailing lessons. on school time. It stank because I knew in 2 weeks I had to go back to *shudders* History class.
BTW I’m new here, please be gentle
Second day! We shipped water! It was exciting. We were all the way out on the lake and we heeled over so far that the boat got half-full of water. I LOVE sailing. I want to do it all the time.
I haven’t gotten much done these days. So it goes. What can I say? I’ve just been letting everything pass me by. Basically not much going on lately, but it’s not important. I’ve basically been doing nothing worth mentioning.
Sailors: what is your favorite thing to do in sailing? (skipper, crew, etc.) I’m usually a skipper, because I really like it and I often teach other people how to sail, and usually you’re a skipper when you’re doing that (because you’re in charge of the boat).
i dont sail
New topic idea: Communism
I took a political test that told me I have the same economic beliefs as…Stalin (No crazy dictator stuff-I’m verey anti-authoritarian) What does this mean? I feel like I’ve done something wrong. :redface:
You sound exactly like my friend mike. he is soooooo communist. I need to get him on here. t’would be hilarious. YOu aren’t naughty, that’s just wat you think. It’s confuzing if you are trying to determine left or right politics because in china right is left and left is right. that likely made no sense, but oh well.
I can’t sail worth an empty cheese wrapper, but I know exactly how to climb a futtock-shroud. Are there any other history geeks out there?
And has anyone else read the soul-pwning, divine Horatio Hornblower Series by C.S. Forester?
*change of topic*
Communism is a fascinating subject.
was it the Political Compass Test?
125- I love history! And yes, I’ve read a couple of the Hornblower books.
Uh, what’s Communism? I sort of know, maybe. Was it a big problem in the 50s?
125- I love history, why else woud I dress up in weird clothes and talk to thousands of people about it? And to keep with the sailing part of this thread, I am particularly interested in square-rigged tall ships of the 17th century.
What is it like to climb the futtock shrouds? They say that it’s the hardest part about working aloft.
a bit of useless nautical trivia seems to be in order now: These days we refer to right and left on a ship as “starboard” and “port”, respectably. But, in the 17th century they were refered to as “starboard” and “larboard”. The reason being, way back when they used steering oars they would be on the right-hand side, because most men are right-handed. So, when you ease into port, you would go on your left-hand side so as not to damage your steering board or starboard side. The left became known as the larboard side because you would load your larder, or supplies on that side. In high winds, however, they’re hard to tell apart, so they changed “larboard” to “port”, and that’s how we say it today.
And, if that wasn’t boring enough, there’s more.
If you’ve ever heard of “knots”, or nautical miles per hour, here’s where it comes from; the way they used to tell their speed was by using a chip-log. a chip-log is pretty much just a reel with a lot of knotted rope around it attached to a piece of wood (the “chip”). You throw the chip over the back of the ship and count the knots that go through your hand in 30 seconds. They were tied 42 feet apart, which is 1/120th of a nautical mile, back then, and if you do the math, 30 seconds is 1/120th of an hour. So the term “knots” actually comes from real knots tied in a piece or rope.
I just realized how long this post is, sorry about that! I find this sort of thing really interesting, I hope you all do too.
(21) one more post like that and I’m going to scream.
21 and 128- *screeeeeeeeeaaaaaaam* hoo boy if those huge hpb or whatever posts dont stop you’ll never hear the end of this…
Just kind of random, I broke
fourno five paintbrushes today because its friday the thirteenth.118- *is gentel as
hands him a welcome cheese puff*
darnit I never get that strike right
128 and ill scream with you
*three screaming MBers* ARRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH SCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMMm
*bumps their head*
115- knots are cool. I’m pretty good at untieing them. I don’t know any of the fancy ones, though. I just untangle the yearn in our linnin closet and stuff.
123- Communism isn’t bad at all! It’s just never been done right. Pretty much everyone who said they were communists were dictators because what went on was not up to the people. I’m doing an essay on Satlin for history (due tuesday, by the way. I should work on that. Oh well.). Some of his ideas were a bit off, I admit. But he did do what he intended, set the USSR on it’s way to being a superpower. At the cost of many, many lives though. If his morals and methods had been a tad different…
but anyway. I shall learn from his mistakes an not make the same wrong decisions.
O.o Wow. Aparently, I am learning i school. *sticks head in vat of boiling choklit*
Sailing… I went sailing on one of those two-person boats at camp with my friend. We got stuck in the reads and spent way more time paddling with the rudder than actuall going anywhere. Eventually the moterboat had to come drag us out into the middle again.
communism has a good idea but is not carryed out well (example: china)
125-Yes, it was. As low as Ghandi and as left as Stalin.
Communism just won’t work. It’s a nice idea, but impossible for human beings to use.
136-I disagree. All the major communist leaders in the world have been insane dictators hungry for power and not willing to support their people. For it to work, the people have to be wiling and their leader must put his (or hers) people first.
if it wasnt combined with dictatorship it would work fine
That’s really harsh. The bad communist leaders of the world weren’t bad because they were communist. Without idealism, things wouldn’t improve.
125, history geek at your service!
125-The political compass test is a test test that determines your political standing, but it has up and down in addition to left and right. Up and down are authoritarian and leiberal respectively. President Bush is in the middle of the top right square. Hitler is top and center. There’s more on the website: politicalcompassDOTorg
China is not a communist nation. It’s being led by a government that calls itself communist, but isn’t following the values of communism.
Cuba is a communist nation, and it’s doing pretty well.
For more information, read “The Communist Manifesto”.
It’s a book, not a link.
Why does the topic still say sailing?
Sheer laziness on the part of inattentive administrators.
144-Hey! Stop making fun of my GAPAs!!! *sends apple turnovers*
142- Cuba is not a communist nation. It is a dictatorship pretending to be communist. Fidel Castro has been in power since the 70’s and despite the fact that many people despise him he manages to get elected again every 5 years. Why? There’s only one party.
Communism doesn’t work large scale. Large numbers of people need a bureaucracy, and bureaucracy goes against the ideals of communism. It’s a nice idea, but it doesn’t work. Anyone ever been to a kibbutz?
China has a political communism, but economic globalism. Go figure.
Communism requires full equality, the opposite of full liberty. YOu cannot have full equality with full liberty, as people must not be free to go below or above the norm. Therefore communism cannot exist without some sort of authoritarian governmen. Equality and Liberty are mutually exclusive. The ideal thing is to find a balance.
141- I went to that site, and guess what? I have basically the same beliefs as the Dalai Lama.
Communism could work with a perfect, just, non power hungry leader. But I don’t think that will ever happen. Socialism would work better in the real world.
i am a little more authorian then betoveen
if the leader wasnt a power-hungry dictator,it might work.
Communism isn’t a perfect government. A socialist government, such as Denmark, does much better.
When I was in Washington DC once, we were at the Vietnam Memorial and a little girls asked her mother about The Vietnam War. Her mother said. “the good Americans were fighting against the evil Communists. We have a democracy. Democracy is good, communism is bad.” I was like, ‘uhhh…. ok then, way to be narrow-minded.’
147-not quite true. go look up communism. or rather, ill do it for you.
Communism is an ideology that seeks to establish a classless, stateless social organization based on common ownership of the means of production.
does it say anything about government? one could have a anarchistic, communistic state. but it would not work, because people arent that nice. so the answer is democratic socialism. (Scandinavian style)
151-w00t!!! why do you say denmark? instead of sweeden? becasue we pwn, of course!!
145-umm. go check your facts. fidel is a dictator, and yet cuba has some of the best doctors in the world, available free to everyone. its not that simple. fidel is not kim jong il.
142-or das kapital. if you know german lol.
yes!! political compass. i endorse that. in fact, ima go take it again, so i can post my score.
-7.38,-8.26
considerably more down and left than gandhi, nelson mandela, and the dalai lama.
everyone take it!
153- But any official, elected or otherwise, is temporarily ranking above the common people because he or she makes decisions that affect their lives that the individual himorherself is not able to make. This social inequality is against the ideals of communism. Even if you could make it so that everyone would be at the same rank, regardless of occupation, human nature doesn’t allow complete equality. You always have psuedo-classes which by the virtue of human avarice become more and more defined and communism goes out the window.
And is “145” meant to be me also? Because let me tell you, the cuban population in Miami is not as huge as it is because life is good in Cuba. There’s a huge percentage of people under the poverty line. The wealth is NOT spread equally.
Socialism rules.
Yes i must agree even if I do not know what i am agreeing to. for I just want to Pie you all! *pie*, *pie*, *pie*, *pie*, *pie*, *pie*, *pie*, *pie*, a yes much fun
Communism is used to refer to two different things: and economic system and a political system.
In an economic sense, it means the sharing of all property. In a political sense, in means no classes and (quite often) one supreme dictator. I think it’s important to remember this distinction when talking about communism.
154- Hmmmmmmmmm… I wonder if the U.S. trade embargo has anything to do with that. I’d also like to mention that in a UN vote, 183 were against, compared to 4 for.
I think a balance is best, I agree with 147
I took the political compass test and I am not to left and not liberitartian, but in the bottom left segment near both lines.
A few months ago I noticed that (in my school) if you did something wrong or stupid somebody would call you a commie. I never understood that. Is there any good explanation?
I’m going to Washington DC tomorrow for a school trip. I’m going to try to stick an hpb to the White House or Some Other Large Monument/Statue. Then I’m going to take a picture and post it. Mwahahaha….
My building is four blocks from the White House, so there’s a good chance you’ll be in the neighborhood. Wave if you pass near 12th & H Streets or the triangle they make with New York Avenue. Have fun! It looks like good weather out there today.
Throw a pie at Robert if you see him!!
His office is way u, though, isn’t it? You’d better bring a catapult too.
154-not true. i said anarchistic communism. that means direct democracy. or no rules at all. and yet, i agree with you. theoretically communism could work, but it wont.
157-nope communism is not a political system. its an economic system.
160-people in your school are ignorant bigots.
hi
what`s up about communism????
#163 you are very weird
read the last few comments and u will get it.
note:MBers are strange enough to turn circuses/circus type things eventually into communism
New topic idea: Athiestic philosophy. Just a suggestion. You don’t have to.
166 – That happens sometimes.
165-why, thank you *bows*
167-what do you mean by that? being an atheist, i can answer all of your questions (assuming they exist)
Communism is very interesting to me. We’re just ending a unit on Stalin in school, as I may have mentioned.
167- That might be considered to be property of the religion thread, for those who still dare to go there.
23- *feels extremely privileged* i saw them. in paris.
Communism-It’s brilliant, but people are stupid.
Ta daaa.
helen keller was a communist
Viva la USSR
171- Oh yeah, sorry.
Communism is certainly better than uninhibited capitalism, but the best system is what we have in most advanced countries now: Keynesian Capitalism.
China isn’t really communist anymore, though, is it? I thought its economy was based more on Capitalism now. Communism, in theory, is a great thing. but what most people think of as communism is not truly communism, but sort of a mix of socialism and communism, and it doesn’t work.
Last year, we talked about the McCarthy trials and watched “good night, and good luck.” It was really interesting!
175- What is that?
There are too many rich people for communism to actually work. They wouldn’t want to give up their money. And many people wouldnt be able to handle being equal with everyone else. *sigh*
176- Good night and good luck was really good!
whats it about?
How about philosophy in general? Pleeease?
Good Night and Good Luck was a nice idea, but I found it boring…
i havent seen it
181-really?
it was kinda slow… but not boring. it was like… a grown-up movie. i liked it.
i am dr. bashfull, advocate of all things contoversial! i think commies rock! go bunzkid! just becuase Stalin and all tHose dudes were greedygutz don’t mean the system is bad.
New topic idea: Northern Korea.
That’s North Korea, formally (and ironically) known as the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK).
What was good night and good luck about?
That is so ironic it’s almost funny, but mostly sad.
186: How many lies in the name?
Name – Lies
North Korea – 0
Republic of North Korea – 1
People’s Republic of North Korea – 2
Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea – 3
Happy Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea – 4
Smiling, Happy Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea – 5
All of you have probably read the article on Peyonyang. It’s so sad. Those grins are really creepy!
yeah it is sad. i saw the book in stores but i didnt get it cuz i wanted dial l for loser
AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAGH! OH MY GOD! PEYONYANG IS ABOUT THE PROBLEMS PEOPLE ARE HAVING, AND YOU BUY A GOSSIP BOOK WHERE POPULAR PEOPLE GO UNPUNISHED! AARGH!
Hey agagabagabag although I agree with you that it is stupid to get a gossip book instead of Peyonyang, I’m afraid that we must respect his decision.
Okay, okay, okay. You’re right. Sorry.
189 – Smiling, Happy Democratic People’s Republic of North Korea? lol
Slight correction: the official name of the country does not include the word “North.” It’s just the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea.
The official name for South Korea, by the way, is the Republic of Korea (ROK).
whats up with you people spelling it peyongyang? ive allways seen it “Pyongyang” and the spell check thing on firefox agrees with me. and knew that. from model un.
Why is that it seems as if anything named something like “democratic people’s republic…” tends not to be democratic at all?
because they want to hide the fact that they are a communist dictatorship
How come China never invaded Korea way back when?
200- How far back when?
I think they tried, along with N. Korea during the Korean war, but the U.S. intervened. not completely sure on that though.
the ROK began to provoke attacks on the DPRK in the late 40s. The US as part of a UN force fought with the ROK against the north koreans and then China became involved helping the DPRK. Although a ceasefire agreement was signed there was never any treaty and so the war technically is still not over.
North Korea scares me ever since I read that article. *shudder* Tha was CREEPY! It reminded me of The Giver.
203- Eliana, are you new? If so, welcome! *pies*
204- Hey, at least the Giver was a good story.
201-late B.C., early A.D.
200- I have read the cartoon history of the universe. China attacked korea during the Tang dynasty, but the attack failed due to the Korean’s iron plated ships and gigantic walls.
is it good? i want to read it!!! what is it really? a history book or funny or what?
Both, actually. And there’s three volumes. 1- Big bang to alexander the great, 2- India to Holy rome, and 3- Arabia to the Renesciance. Yes, I know it’s mispelled.
Okay… Goodbye *flies away from thread froever, or at least, untill there’s a different topic on rocket pie*
Okay, this topic isn’t catching on. New topic idea: Philosophy.
New new topic idea: Fairy tales. Why do you like them, why don’t you like them.
Let’s go with philosiphy.
Ever wonder about the philosiphy that states that the world is just a show put on for your benefit and that when you aren’t there to look at stuff things cease to exist? Of course nobody takes this seriously, but there’s no real way to disprove it.
That’s called solipsism (accent on the first syllable): the belief that you are the only thing that exists.
In high school, I thought about trying to get a photo of the Solipsism Club into the yearbook. But I couldn’t decide whether it should show one person (the only “real” member of the club) or nobody (because none of the members believed in any of the others). The caption would have listed dozens of members, of course.
The thing is that the only person who knows that you really exist is you. How do I know that all you MuseBloggers just put on a show for my entertainment? Only you know that I’m incorrect. But you could think of me as a show put on for your entertainment, and you have no way of knowing if I exist or not. I know that I truely exist, but there’s no real way to prove that to you, is there?
You can remove the question mark for the topic line. We’re talking about philosiphy.
Learn to spell the current topic correctly and then maybe you’ll be qualified to talk about it.
215- I love that!
In a recent book I read, The Fourth Bear by Jasper Fforde, there is a small section that lists the oddest theme parks of his character’s world, my favorite of which is Descarteland; where they furnish you with a paper bag to put over your head and a note reading “If you think it, it shall be so.” It’s not a perfect sum of his[Descarte’s] work, but funny none the less.
This summer I’m taking a course entitled Philosophy of Mind at CTY. Hopefullly it will be interesting.
218 – I know how to spell philosophy quite well.
MUSE READERS, UNITE!!! NOT ONLY ARE THE PAGES OF MUSE SMALLER BY HALF AND INCH, THE MAGAZINE HAS BEEN SHORTENED BY A !@#$#%^&* EIGHT PAGES!!! WE NEED TO ORGANIZE SOME PROTESTS!!! SIGN UP NOW BY SENDING FLOODS OF HATE MAIL TO THE MUSE HEADQUARTERS!!!As for philosophy, I enjoy Nietzsche’s “The Antichrist”.
erm, well, about the floods of hate mail: we still love our good old muse. don’t we?
There’ll be times where, just out of the blue, an extremely philosophical thought will pop into my head…not kidding…they’re good. Unfortunately, I can almost never remember them long enough to write them down. :frustrated: [Note-I am not actually expecting that
Ugh…fine. Let’s try again, just not using the same stuff…
[Note-I am not actually expecting that (“:frustrated:”) to turn into a smiley.]
There.