Ask the next person a question!

[Dragon116]

Nope. They're all situational and rational.

Do you think insurance is a scam?

[Ironbound]

No, considering that insurance accounts are a part of my job. It's certainly a business, and no charity, I'll say that.

I like Hugh's question, so I'll answer that too. Unnecessary bridgewords displease me to an extent; it's not so much the word itself than the overuse of it by people who are seemingly unable to articulate properly without spamming them which is more irksome. The most common offenders are 'like', 'so', 'y'know', 'actually' and the two worst that are ever the mark of an unprofessional in my line of work: 'literally' and 'basically'.

I also don't approve very much of swearwords, not employing obscenities myself. While I understand the rationale behind using them as an expletive to vent, and some allowance has to be made for the laxity of 'free speech' that modern times have espoused (another convention I cannot respect, the doing away of basic good manners and their replacement with political correctness as a measure to both swear 'freely' and also claim offense as if being offended granted one any privileges), on the whole, let's just say that the usage of such language does not merit any respect from me, and I do not think that the disciplined mind needs to resort to such language in the first place.

When were you closest to failure, hut succeeded?

[HughJ]

In a game of online Diplomacy with my friends that spanned several weeks, it came down to the Russian-Austrian alliance (of whom I was Russia) vs. the English and French

It seemed we were at a standstill, with defenses that could not be breached unless we were to heavily risk our own defensive line

I decided to play a gambit where I pulled back from an ocean tile, allowing the English fleet to advance into the Baltic Sea. I had then planned to close my other fleets around this intruder (in a sort of phagocytosis) but the gambit failed and he managed to push my line back from conquered German territory

Because Austria was putting pressure on French-English holdings in Italy, my opponent was forced to cool his Northern offensive and reorganize. He produced two more fleets with the territory he had taken from me, sending them both to defend the South. In this time, however, I managed to reconquer part of Germany (which I can only imagine came about as the product of guerrilla movement)

When forced to choose which army division to scuttle due to supply constraints, they chose a seemingly minor fleet in the North and sought to resume their defenses. However, in a miraculous moment, they forgot to give orders to a fleet meant to occupy Sweden, which allowed my own Armada to pass along the coast there and escape into the greater Atlantic.

Faced with impossible defenses in both the North and the South, and with a fleet headed directly towards the undefended British Isles, my opponent was forced to surrender and the Austro-Russian alliance seized the day. The English and French monarchs moved to Canada in exile

What languages do you know?

[Tartar]

Danish, Russian, English fluently, and a few other's on a low level that aren't worth mentioning.

How do you deal with stress?

[HughJ]

Long hot showers

Favorite anime character?

[Eloquent Liar]

Too many to name, but probably either Edgar Allan Poe (Bungou Stray Dogs if the manga counts) or Kenjiro Minami (Yuri!!! On Ice).

Can, can, can you do the can can?

[Ironbound]

I do not understand you. I'd look to the previous question, but I don't watch anime, so I'll go to the preceding one.

I meditate each morning and practice yoga for my health. Over the years, I've come to realise that that practice has contributed remarkably to helping me avoid getting too inflamed by most passions, include frustration or stress. Stress is undesirable as a rule, and one can deal with issues better with a calm mind. Oh, and I suppose a very soft dog and long walks in the open help as well.

What was the longest period of wakeful time that you can recall to have done nothing at all? This'll also be a good time to discuss what your define as 'doing nothing'.

[Adventurer]

Kind of strange thing to answer for me since I have quite a busy life.

It happens rarely I don't have anything to do and then I just look around on youtube or 9gag to let the time pas. Or just watching tv.

And even those things I consider "stuff that I do" even though I'm just staring at a screen.

Is there anything you are considering to buy but you don't really need?

[Ironbound]

Nothing of that kind, no. I don't usually buy things that I have no foreseeable use for.

Doing nothing is a very important thing. Being so busy chopping wood as to be unable to sit down and sharpen the saw a bit is counterproductive. The mind is constantly sawing away, it needs a break from time to time. Just gazing at the sky or lying down and closing your eyes, not sleeping but just, not doing anything, not even thinking or worrying or anything, really. Making the mind a temporary void is harder than would seem to someone who tries it for the first time or so, but it's a useful tool to teach oneself mental discipline and learn to just...be. It's a very underrated thing, but nothing is as powerful as nothing.

Someone who's tried that, tell me, how did you find it?

[Dragon116]

I've tried being concious of the sounds around me. I noticed that as I kept going, I could hear more and more sounds further out. It was a very unique experience. While I found it hard to think of nothing, focusing my attention on my surroundings pushed the thoughts of day-to-day life away. I claim that as a victory.

Are there any games you used to play that don't have a fan base anymore?

[HughJ]

idk if anyone is still lurking in the rotting mass of electrical data that is Combat Arms, no

I feel like some people know about Klonoa but nobody in the fanbase seems active

It's hard for a franchise to die these days, everything gets a sale and a reboot

If it sold before, why not sell it again?

What was the longest period you've ever gone without speaking?

Edited November 5, 2016 by HughJ

[Ironbound]

About fifty-six waking hours, I'm told. Then again, my home is a fairly quiet place most of the time. For one, it's one of those old Anglo-Indian bungalows that were built in an era were walls were thick and houses rambled wide rather than stood tall. Plenty of places to nip off to if you don't feel like talking. And none of my family really likes to talk very much unless there's a need or there's something worth talking about; people are usually busy with their respective work, self included. It just so happened that for about a week I didn't speak to anyone, and a cousin of mine who was staying at the time calculated the interval and told me that I'd broken a fifty-six hour silence at dinner when I asked him to pass the salt.

What's the longest time you've talked continuously?

[HughJ]

I used to read to my father before he fell asleep (kind of topsy-turvy now that I think about it) but I probably read for 30-45 minutes straight

So maybe 45 minutes?

Have you ever stared death in the face and lived to tell the tale

[Ironbound]

Funnily enough, yes, and on three occasions. The first was when I was younger, some six or seven years ago, I had accompanied my parents to a tea plantation at a hill station. I'd been used to wandering off on my own during vacations, and much of my childhood had been spent in a port city, exploring beaches and docks and running off to the lighthouse.

Of course, this place was fairly wild, besides the tea plantation, and I strayed out the borders into the forest surrounding it. I don't exactly know how I ended up there, but I was on a smallish clearing between a copse of trees and bang into a leafy mound, on top of which was a very angry, very large king cobra.

Now, in case you don't know, king cobras are the only snakes which make nests, and the mother shows a remarkable amount of parental concern for a reptile. And it's worth keeping in mind that the king cobra can get more than fifteen feet (five metres) long and, like all elapids, can rear up and raise up to a third of its body off the ground. It's also worth noting that this snake is the largest venomous serpent in the world, and one bite can pump enough venom to slay an elephant.

So, I was facing a bloody massive snake that was tall enough to look me in the eye, and probably deadly enough to kill twenty of me. I was paralysed with fear, of course, but I knew not to try to run or climb a tree, because the thing would easily outstrip me. I just stood there and watched it, as it continued to threaten and hiss. I knew that snakes could not hear, not having external ears, but some part of me did not seem to want to scream. I eventually moved back a little, and do did it. As it became evident that I wished nothing but to retreat, the thing also dropped down and I saw it ghost away under the leaves again.

I realised later, when my brain started to function again, that it was female (it being jet black with yellow bands, males are usually slate grey and have thicker bands) and guarding a clutch, probably, which is why it didn't seem to want to move from where it was. I was also fortunate that the thing was a cobra; they're more intelligent and rather timid, making an elaborate display in order to avoid a conflict. Had I inadvertently stumbled upon a Russell's viper or something that would lash out with no warning, I would certainly have been bitten. In fact, one viper had appeared in my own garden once, and my grandmother, bless her, just upped her garden shovel and decapitated it, but that's a story for later.

The second occasion was when, on the beach, back home one day, me and my uncle had come across a saltwater crocodile. It was just sitting there, not moving a muscle, but its eyes were open and it was looking at us. We fairly fled, and the thing still didn't move. We had thought, perhaps, as we watched from the road up on the causeway, that it was dead, but after about ten or so minutes it lugged itself further up on the beach and apparently started basking (it was bright morning). I believe a fisherman saw it later in the evening as well, and we got to know the next day that it had been taken by the wildlife chaps and rehabilitated to a croc reserve in the neighbouring state. I knew that salties went far out to sea occasionally, but it was amazing to me that one would've arrived there, practically on our doorstep.

The third and most recent occasion was when I had been stung by a scrpion on a camping trip. It was, I later found (a friend of mine had immediately killed it, unfortunately), the horrible Indian red scorpion, which can get lethal and cause pulmonary edema if left untreated, depending on the amount of venom injected. I was rushed back to city and got a prazosin for it, and though I was back on my feet the next day...good lord the pain and nausea was horrible.

Welcome to the tropics, eh? I'll ask you the same question, I'm now curious. Did you ever face a dire situation?

[HughJ]

Not that I can personally remember, no. When I was 2 I gashed my head pretty badly, when I was 4 I had pneumonia, and when I was 8 I vomited so many times from a stomach virus that I became dehydrated and started to hallucinate.

So I guess I stared death in the face but can't actually tell the tale.

How good is your balance?

[Adventurer]

Pretty good. I'm not going to cross a canyon on a rope though.

Have you been drunk the last month?

[HughJ]

I don't drink

Do you believe in ghosts?

[Ironbound]

Define ghost.

[HughJ]

The spirit of a dead person who can still interfere in this realm

[Ironbound]

I don't think such things exist. The philosophy of Dharma and Karma does not have souls exist in a ghostly state; they progress from one cycle of birth and death to another, until such time as they are pure enough, I.e, attuned enough with their purpose of being as to transcend it and rejoin the universal divinity. There's no hell, heaven, or any other continuing sense of individuality after death in any state in my belief. That also means that there's no purpose for a soul to break this cycle and behave unnaturally, counting to exist in a state it has already departed from.

Why do you ask if I believe in ghosts?

[Dragon116]

I know this was directed at HughJ, but I believe in ghosts too. When my mother died, we had strange phenomenon occur. Firstly, our phone started ringing at least 10 times a day, and when we would pick it up, it was dead air. Then both of our TVs would spontaneously turn on and cycle through channels. It did this so often that the fuse blew. Then my dog, who was always calm, would regularly stare at my dad and bark at something behind him. We also had strange sounds in our house, like the microwave door closing, and a can of beer being set down on the dresser of the master bedroom. So given all that, yes I do believe in ghosts.

So HughJ, I'll forward Viri's question. Why do you ask if Viri believes in ghosts?

[HughJ]

I thought it would be something interesting to discuss

I've never had a run-in with ghosts or paranormal activity but it's not entirely outside my belief system (which I'm still developing)

Viri, if you ever faced circumstances like Dragon116 did, how would you explain it?

Edited November 6, 2016 by HughJ

[Ironbound]

I could always say that appliances behaving oddly and failing is entirely within the realm of natural possibility, that dogs sense the emotions of people very well and react to grief in general, especially if they've been close to a family and one such family member departs, and that it is normal when engulfed in grief of a close one's departure to forget small things no one remembers to have done, like placing a beer can and so on. It is also, perhaps, understandable to look a bit too deeply into odd or coincidental happenings under such circumstances.

Or it could just be a wild Rotom.

In any case, I'd not try to explain anything more, since I'm unaware of the full facts, have no reason to try to decipher them, and in any case it's arrogant for people to assume they can explain everything there is in this world. I'm merely stating, to the best of my knowledge:

1. My philosophy and culture does not justify the existence of souls outside the cycle of birth and rebirth; quite the reverse, as souls can only exit such cycle by attaining moksha or salvation...which means they become part of a universal divinity, and are no longer an individual will. And though our myriad mythology speaks of spirits and demons of various kinds, none of them are ghosts, strictly speaking.

2. I have never had any such so-called paranormal experience in life yet, though that may well be because I have never looked for one or tried to determine a paranormal cause for any peculiarities that I might have observed.

3. That which does not seem to affect my decisions should not prey on my mind. I've not found any evidence either historically within my immediate culture or in personal experience to point towards the existence of ghosts. Should this change, should I ever experience a ghostly or paranormal activity that is unable to be explained by any means I know or can know of, I would absorb the information and revise my views as appropriate. Until such time, though, ghosts don't conform with the way I view the world.

What is this developing belief system that you speak of?

[HughJ]

I'll drop my response in the philosopher's gazebo. I think the discussions we've been having here would be better served in that location

What is your favorite medium for music (DVD, vinyl, mp3)?

[Ironbound]

Music played in person is the best music. The bitterest thing about losing the use of my hand is that I can no longer play the violin. Still, I used to attend concerts with my parents, I'd like to continue doing that if I get the time.

What kind of music do you prefer?