jayseven

First guess is correct :P second one is... half right :P it's Bob! his face is jim carrey, tbfh.

(I think Moogle's talking about the fact that 'viper' is the second half of his name. Besides, I fucked him in the bushes and in Sheffield that means he's my wife now. So there.)

True, but back in the day, magazine previews (when no coerced by the developers) used to at least inform you of the niggles and discrepancies that they hoped to be 'ironed out by release date' whether they were or not; statements made solely to let the gamer know that the end product will not be the perfect GOTY that the developers want you to think. It's undestandable from the flipside too, though; a developer having spent years on a product doesn't want it to be totally snubbed before it even has a chance to sell its first copy. Makes you wonder what Zero Punctuation would be like if it was done purely with previews.

Man, that's some cross-thread genius right there.

If I'm a forum great then clearly all you need to be to be 'great' is hang around long enough so that all the people who think you're an idiot have left and had babies and cancer. But thanks!

That's an arrested development reference there, I just know it.

Regarding body language; Personally, I think I maintain too much eye contact, but that's because I lip-read and stuff. I know, lips and eyes are different but.. too long to explain. I think showing that you're following the conversation by nodding and smiling -- and just simply grunts of yes/no will show the partner talker that you aren't pretending to play tetris with the chairs in the room in your BRAIN. Being weird is good. Weird just means different, or unusual, and who the fuck wants to be usual? Just don't define yourself as weird because, frankly, it's a very all-engrossing term that does nothing to depict who you are. People can get used to the 'air of not looking like you care what they're saying' if you can actually show that you do care what they're saying with your response. by listening to what they verbally italicise and enunciate (that's not a link lol) you can focus on what it is that they specifically want to elaborate on, and either probe further with questions or provide your own associated annecdotes. If you feel that you have a monotone voice then no doubt you will either exaggerate with ott gestures of with occasional, sporadic tonal fluctuations in your voice. Again, people may take a while to get used to that but provided you are an interesting person (as you are) and that you are talking to them for reasons beyond talking about yourself (as you ought to) then they will overlook that. When you go to uni you'll meet a wide range of people that are all new-born, too, who will be judging you just as much as they are scared of being judged by you. Just find confidence in yourself (which I'd be surprised if you lacked any, for you know this forum loves you) and what you say. Also in regards to the monotone voice; that might also just stem from your fear of sounding boring-- you're practically 'listening' to their silent reaction more than you're concentrating on making your talk interesting. It should come naturally, but if you don't feel settled then it won't. To get around that... well it's hard to say. People will be more attentive and less distracted by your tone when you are talking about them, and again tonal EMPHASIS on key phrases/words will keep their attention focused. Cultural references, I find, are like in-jokes. If you haven't established that the person you are talking to is a simpsons fan then shouting out a probably-obscure reference will either make no sense at all, or make them feel stupid for not knowing the reference, or make you seem obsessed by the simpsons :P Verbalising an obsession in that way only tells the person that you are obsessive, and the obsession matters not, but that's another thing. Your definition of 'giving' in a conversation is different to mine, I think. You assign 'giving' to be somewhat of a sacrificial term; not lending someone some information but giving it away, as if what happens to it is totally out of your control. For sure, you shouldn't 'give' everything away, but you shouldn't feel like every detail of your life is seriously worth all that much because truth be told, it's not. Most poeple are obsessed about their own lives. it is perhaps polite to also share about your life in order to show the other person that their life is worth something... if you see what I mean? Like, someone tells you a secret then tell them one back to show them that you are trustworthy? I dunno if that makes sense. This is a long post, again, and that's annoying. C_B; college for me was one thing, for you it's another. People are, generally, very strange. University provides another level of challenges, and while daunting I think so long as you just remember that you aren't the only person in the conversation, I think you'll do fine. At uni you discover more about yourself than anyone else. EDIT: As a two-hour-later footnote... Er, yeah; Recognising and mobilising upon the participating speaker's dialect/register is very useful. I mean, if a guy says "dude" or "man" all teh time, then repeating these utterances when replying/spurring a new conversation will make them more at ease. Knowing whether the person you are speaking to is going understand long words or not helps, too. I mean... if you listen to how someone talks then you know how they talk. people find it easier to listen to vocabulary that is similar to theirs. Like, I mean, saying "mate" instead of "bruv" or "dude", but expanding from just identifying how they like to be addressed. Length of sentances, whether they focus heavier on nouns or adjectives or whatever... discussing these theories behind conversations is a lot more complicated than what actually goes on. Half of this occurs naturally, subconsciously, unknowingly anyway! There's no direct point; I just highly recommend that at any time someone says something to you, you say something back. That's the easiest way to enter a conversation. As for holding it? Each to his own.

Yeah but we're secret gay lovers, so, liek, it's taken for granted. Are we falling for the same trap? Shiiiiit

Just a little oddity that I thought I'd post; Pablo Schreiber (Nickolas 'Nick' Sobotka from The Wire season 2) has been in Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent and Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, two episodes apiece, but a totally different character each time. I just found that peculiarly odd. Three characters in teh same universe... It's a rarity. Besides The Wire, he's been in little else of any worth, so I guess he must have some friends in the production team there. But has any other actor achieved the same sort of feat? EDIT: Ok, so the IMDB page for the actor suggests twice he played two different characters in two of the above named shows, which racks him up to 5 different characters in the same universe. Bizarre!

It's not you. GET OVER ITTTTTTTTTT!

Made some sense. I scan-read the post, admittedly. You definitely get better at conversations as you get older. You start to learn about what small-talk is most appropriate (at uni, the three questions you will use the most are "What are you studying?", "where are you from?" and "where are you living?", in later years these are replaced by "what will you do after uni?", "how's the dissertation?" and "where you living next year?"). Also, I think being able to read body language improves conversational skills. You can tell if someone isn't comfortable about what the discussion is about, you can tell if they're bored, or if they don't even like you. The sporadic, random utterances that you seem to say... well if they're in the middle of a conversation then the other person may be silent because they are thinking "... oh, so what we were talking about isn't good enough eh!", or because they haven't been prepared (by the careful steering of the talk) to contribute yet. I think the 'steering' is the skill that is best learned. If you are talking about, say, hospitals, and you want to talk about some tidbit of a memory that spawned as the words were uttered, then to be polite you can't just jump back to a previous sentance or five, you ought to steer the conversation back via new avenues (and, of course, be fully willing to let your thing drop if the course is an entirely new direction. The joy of communication!). There is indeed a certain tact, a certain method of rhetoric that is greatly useful in utilising. I love talking to people, especially when they have things to say that are new to me. I love it when I only know the scraping surface of a topic that they know well, especially when they are surprised to hear that I know anything at all. But truthfully, I rarely talk about what I really want to talk about. I feel very egotistical when I'm the one talking the most, so I like to listen. I think. I could be totally wrong, and people could think I'm an utter dickwad for convo-steering. While I think I do it subtly, they might actually see it for what it is. AH! So yeah. If I ever meet any of you, I swear it's for your own good. EDIT: Went back and read it. Shyness is easly surmounted. I tend to have a problem in saying "hello" in my normal voice. I'm pretty sure the woman in the newsagent has NEVER heard my real accent. So long as you are actually listening to a conversation, you shall be fine. I think people appreciate just being listened to, even if you have nothing to say - but if you sit and stare like a statue then.. no. No good. You shouldn't need to form an entire sentance in your head first. Get the gist going, then open your mouth. The english language was practically built for real-time editing; just start saying "er, but, what i mean to say is, in a sense, the thing is, if you know what I mean, a sort of, you know, but, like, yeah" (not the whole thing) and you give your brain time enough to process. In all honesty, your OP is probably full of the WORST sentance structure I've ever seen you write. Random tangents are fine but after a while, your partner conversationist will be annoyed that you are not heeding to their points. 'Not thinking' is hella hard, but my favourite pastime. Ultimately you can't be held too responsible for what you've said if you've been more honest than "fuck you" or "i like bees". Ok I'm not making any sense at all anymore. latermore.

BRACES! They hold up our trousers. They hurt our teeth. THEY ARE DEMI-GODS THAT TWANG AMONG US. Yeah Braces are awesome. Fuck Belts, bring braces back! ... Or wait, is it Breeches? No those are like pantaloons, right?

MY DAY SO FAR! I have spent pretty much the whole day in teh same chair, getting up to turn the oven on or empty the microwave, or fill my glass and empty my bladder. In between pauses of my VLC player and checking the speed of my bittorrent download I refresh this main page and battle and banter, assaulting and assaying the forum, realising the bitter pill tastes better crushed. I'm pretty sure a lot of members on here don't like me, and at the london meet they will beshade their venom just to egg me in one way or another. I think I'm one of the saddest members here, spending my waking life typing away insults and insinuations, addicted to edifying and certain to conspire with anyone who will join me in the art of articulation. But I love you guys. Even the ones who don't like me - it makes me wake up in the mornings just to continue to participate in the drama. There was some scientist dude who said that the internet is autistic -- in the sense that we are just looking at this screen in front of us, totally unaware of the teeming millions that do the same. There is a conflict between self-presentation and self-preservation that becomes more lop-sided the longer I spend on here. The SERIOUS BUSINESS ebbs and wears away at the truth at the core of each of us. While the essence of humane behaviour prevents the majority of us from really letting our anger take hold, it also bars us from being honest about our flaws, about revealing our weaknesses to such strangers. This forum is somewhere I feel I can be honest. Somewhere I feel that I can at the least predict what the worst reactions will be to me, and that's why I keep coming back. The danger lies in forgetting that other people do the same, and taking their posts to be little more than some odd artefact of the Internet to bounce off and add to our own evolution. I appreciate any honesty on here. The truth, when uttered, needs no evidence, because the sheer tone of it is believable. I'm proud to be a member of a forum where one can post their serious issues and be taken seriously. And I'm proud that I can LOL at myself before anyone else gets the chance. In your face.

I think the common denominator here is clearly C_B. The TWISTED FUCK

Wait-- which train were you on last week? See, the guy next to me had a cat too...

What? there wasn't a cat on board?! Then when the hell am I stroking every week O_o

Misty's Song sent me to sleep many a time. WITH TEARS. NO it's not Dyson :P Another clue; their name is in my sig, fo' sho'. If anyone gets the old skool one.. then they get bosom buddy pointz!