The Bard

Went out drinking with a friend that I haven't seen for three years, and it was great, totally hit it off, which I love when you have no positive expectations for a meet. I r hapor. Quite drunk though

I've been running around the house singing this all day:

Fairy muff; Better than Linkin Park:

What, one can't dislike a band? What's the point of a discussion if one can't make his hate clear? I wasn't trying to offend anyone, other than the band. If you like them, then that's cool, feel entitled. They just don't tickle me the right way and anyone who can't see that my writing was clearly exploiting hyperbole is clearly not well aquainted with my online persona. I could have just said; "I don't much like Linkin Park," but really, that's a boring statement to read, I was being creative with language/ making a general observation from the outside about their fan base. The thing is, with a band like Linkin Park, whose music is so banal that all it serves to do is attract attention to the ham fisted and trite cliches the constitute the lyrics, there really isn't much to say for me, other than how shite they are. They don't even have the redeeming quality of originality, since a lot of their style is just ripped off from Refused, who are a much much better band. Either way, please don't be offended by my opinion, strong though it may be.

Linkin Park are terrible musicians and songwriters, the fans of whom tend to be the sort that aren't really intimately aquainted with the music of anyone else, other than similarly shitty bands that hail from the vague greebo boundary between nu metal and emo. I hope they're all perish in a fire, the talentless swine.

Oh my fucking god. You like I come to Shanghai? Also: This is the best thing thats happened to me all week.

Of course, you're speaking from a linguists perspective of history as etymology, what I was refering to was the broader and more vague metaphysical sense of Bakhtin who refers to the history of a word as the semantic morphology that informs its present usage. He argues that that is where connotations come from. My basic point is just that being aware of a words connotations is like being aware of its history in a sense, even though you may not have specific knowledge of events etc, you at least a knowledge of the attitudes that govern its usage.

Because its not something that conforms to the whims of a few people with good intentions. Supergrunch: That is a history of which I am ignorant, but nevertheless the connotation is still there, and therefore could be used in an artful way, although probably not in conversation. I never claimed to be omniscient in this regard, just to be (a little) conscientious in choosing my words. Sometimes. Secondly, I don't think he was using Ad hominem in the strictest way; I just decided it was easier to take him on his own terms. Danny: no, I'm not agreeing with Diageo. I'm saying that there is a small overlap somewhere in our arguments. Your concept of irony is lacking. I'm not trying to insult you, I'm just saying what I think; take it how you want, after all, isn't that the point of your argument?

Hey, I'm not saying don't use it, hell people in my close friendship group often call each other by words that are traditionally used as derogatory signifiers of race, but we do it in a jokey knowledge of the fact that we're doing it to subvert the traditional meanings of these words and turn them into terms of endearment. We're also doing it in the knowledge of the fact that not only is our usage unorthodox and meaningless within wider society, but that there is a large contingent of people would would be greviously offended if we said the same things to them.

I don't throw Ad hominems around to make my argument stronger - my argument is already airtight and backed by minds much greater than yours - I throw them at you because you genuinely are an infantile pillock at times. My argument contains two points whose validity is independant of each other; so even if you by some miracle prove to not be an infantile pillock by popular conviction, then the other point regarding language still stands. No; a word doesn't just mean whatever the person reading it thinks it means, sure, there is always interpretational flexibility, but that is to do with any given term being able to be divided into jargons, manners of speech, dialects, sects, religions, political groups etc. The way we use words is a sign of who we are. Words are not simple things, why do you think we have so many different words for things that can ostensibly refer to the same thing? It's because all words have a different tonality and purpose. These words are not superfluous. Consider these: "nigger," "negro," "black," "african american." In denotation, yes they can refer to the same thing, but each has incorporated into it a particular tone in line with the way in which each has been used over time. With language, you cannot ever ignore the history of a word, even if this history seems to you to be obscure.

Yes, but "slavery" and "race" are different words. Just because they share a single association with "nigger" doesn't mean that association is the only thing that constitutes the latter word. "Slavery" and "Race" are two very vague terms that apply to a history of oppression that can apply to so many different events and circumstances, and don't contain the specificity of "nigger," a word that applies only to problems that not only refer to the selling of people of one particular race to another for profit, but of a cultural and social hegemony underlined by race differences that is prominent in many parts of the world even today. Well, what you are doing here is showcasing an overwhelming lack of social and moral responsibility, not to mention a heinous ignorance of language, and inevitably, you're marginalising the existence of people who have had their ancestral and cultural histories marred by the sort of brutality that you can't even begin to imagine. Language is not denotative of course (unless we're talking about scientific language, and even then, its problematic), and words are collaborative and infused with a social identity. They are not abstract constructs that mean whatever you want them to mean, they are malleable, yes, but become hardened through usage. Only an insular dumbass would say that language; a purely social thing, isn't affected by its wider usage. If you utter "nigger" as a white person, you are flippantly flinging a term that is pregnant with centuries of hate. Yes, when you are with friends, you have a special agreement regarding the use of words within your own circle, but you shouldn't be flippant with language, and there are some words whose meanings shouldn't be diluted through misuse, just because of the severity of the things associated with them.

If anyone's playing on PC, I'll be up for it.

Yeah the last day was fucking awesome, definitely my favourite by far. You should have come and said hello man, us lot had a great time. If it was a dude in hiking boots, blue jeans and a gray vest, then yeah that was me

On my way to Sonispheeeere! Unfortunately there's no guarantee I'll be able to retrieve my ticket from the post office...

Nah man, great sale today, finally got the final part of the STALKER series, been waiting for a price drop on that. Absolutely wonderful series of games, one that's pretty unmatched in atmosphere and ambient design, not to mention one of the most unexpectedly frightening games I've ever played. Wish Civ 5 was a tenner though, would have bought it, never gotten into the Civ games for some reason.

It's an Obsidian game; debugging it is like a blind man feeling his way across a minefield.

Man, you've been poopsocking this game hardcore. A little scared to get on with you to be honest

Jesus, today's Steam sale haul is fucking ridiculous. Gonna get me Bully, Doom 3, New Vegas and Trine.

Very well, I shall pray to the gods of genetalia for the salvation of your urethra.

Oh motherfucking Jesus. Well, isn't there some sort of ultrasound treatment you can undergo to attempt to reduce the size of the stone before you pass it? Good luck with that ish man, ask for some Vicodin.

As much as I love the Steam sales, it's a bit shit how the servers are too busy to allow installation of the fucking games you've purchased.

Happy birthday mate.

Well that was a bit shite.

Dude, the characters and story were already a fucking joke, and just a shambolic pretext for awesome zombie shooting. 4 is also somewhere in my best games of all time, completed the damn thing at least 9 times.

That sounds so sick man, it's the same thing I did soon as I moved out; get a new pc and kit it out with a fucking rad GPU and get a big ass TV and I'm sorted for uni life . Outta curiosity, what you studying at uni?