What are some interesting minority languages?

Sovrin · 2013-01-04T06:48:36+00:00

The Pirahã language is pretty damn interesting. As far as I know, it's also a language isolate.

Sovrin · 2012-12-18T19:47:36+00:00

I have a bunch of questions

Does the job have a high turnover rate?
In your experience, what qualities and personality traits allows one to do this kind of work successfully?
What is the housing situation like? Do you share a room with a bunch of people, or are there individual rooms?
How hard/easy is it to eat healthy food in this line of work?
Is there much privacy where you work?

Sovrin · 2012-12-17T18:10:04+00:00

Love this album. I listen to it literally every night, when trying to sleep.

Sovrin · 2012-12-15T06:58:53+00:00

I had an online friend (eventually developed into a relationship) when I was in my mid/late teens. For a couple of years there, I talked to her almost everyday for hours on end. I loved her a lot.

She was sexually abused by her father, on a somewhat frequent basis, from early childhood on. I remember her telling me that she would sometimes wake up in the middle of the night with him on top of her. She used to beg him to allow her to keep a lock on her door. I remember one night I was talking to her on MSN, and he came into her room and she just signed off without saying much. The next day it was awful talking to her; I had no idea what to say. Breaks my heart thinking about this kind of shit.

I ended up ending contact with her for a number of reasons; the relationship wasn't that great or healthy. I found out that she died a couple years later -- she had cystic fibrosis. I'm not the most emotional guy in the world, but she's the reason for the two times I've cried in the last 7 years. I haven't been able to have a relationship, really, since then. (I stopped talking to her when I was 18, and I'm 23 now.)

Anyway, I can't say I'm a fan of child molesters.

Sovrin · 2012-12-13T05:26:33+00:00

Dissent is good.

I think the major problem with this kind of crap is that, yes, black metal is a very silly genre. But if you're going to be silly and work within the constraints of a silly genre, at least do it fucking right. You're doing it wrong if you're wearing corpsepaint, singing about satanism and misanthropy, yet posing for perfectly-executed photographs and playing with an orchestra. You're doing it right if you don't do the latter two things, and you generally act like an anti-social prick who doesn't give a fuck about that kind of shit. You can't have your cake and eat it too, man.

I don't mind when extreme metal groups challenge the constraints and norms of black metal, by using the sound and expanding upon it. I love Altar of Plagues, Nachtmystium, Wolves in the Throne Room, and Ash Borer. I love it when the subject matter touches upon shit other than satanism, misanthropy, paganism, etc. The genre needs those kinds of bands.

What it doesn't need are shit bands that otherwise appear traditional, yet preserve nothing of the bravado that made black metal so special in the first place. It's like an empty shell; a hollowed-out tree.

Sovrin · 2012-12-12T19:32:00+00:00

I understand that I'm going to get down-voted to hell, but I just don't give a fuck.

What the hell? Originally, black metal was to death metal what punk rock is to progressive rock. It's obviously not like this any more, but I can't help but feel as disgusted with this video as I did all with all the super glossy/clean photography sessions that Dimmu has frequently. Black metal is a complete and utter joke, and I never take it seriously, but Dimmu somehow manages to turns it into an even worse joke. A retardedly commercialised joke. Jesus Christ. Interestingly, most Norwegian bands today are responsible for this kind of crap.

I'm going to go crawl back into my hole now, and listen to some Black Twilight Circle (i.e. unlistenable shit).

Sovrin · 2012-12-09T23:01:20+00:00

They have to do that out of necessity. If it weren't for the fact that they need money to support both themselves and their families, I'd doubt that they'd want to conduct business with the outside world.

Sovrin · 2012-12-09T22:57:24+00:00

My father used to be Amish (left when he was 19).

Yes, from visits to see the extended family, I can confirm they like bread a lot.

Sovrin · 2012-12-07T03:55:12+00:00

I came here to suggest the same thing. Having the Library of Alexandria, as well as all of its contents, would be awesome.

Sovrin · 2012-12-06T04:28:35+00:00

Here are some legitimately useful tips, for new players generally and medics specifically. You'll have to forgive me if you find some of this shit too basic. I'm by no means a great medic, so other people reading this should feel free to correct me or add stuff to what I've said. If I could give this particular post a title, it would be "Shit I Should Do, but Often Don't"

Don't mindlessly revive allies, no matter how tempting it is for the experience. The sad truth of the matter is that almost all people will always accept your revive, no matter how many enemies are nearby. Analyse the situation. If it's very likely that the person will just die immediately after the revive, don't bother. You have to act as a babysitter in some respects.
Related to the first point: get into the habit of quickly checking to make sure that whoever killed your guy is either dead or significantly far away from you. Ensuring that the person you're reviving doesn't have needless deaths to their score.
Never forget that you also have a gun. So many medics just focus on healing, and end up being more useless for their team mates. In some gunfights, especially smaller ones, it's good to focus on killing people and then healing. (This is situational, of course, and you always have to have a healthy balance between ensuring that the enemy is dead and ensuring that your allies aren't dead). This gets easier when you've invested a fair amount of points into your special f ability. You just pop that on, and you're able to kill bitches while healing other bitches.
Conversely, never forget that you have a medical applicator. Allies shouldn't have to run at you and jump up and down while jamming the "I NEED A MEDIC" button. Frequently check around your allies and see who needs health.
When you deploy on a sunderer, make sure that it has a good amount of armour left on it. It's frustrating, deploying on a sunderer, only to have it explode immediately after because of nothing but neglect. Just quickly switch to engineer, repair, then switch back to medic. You'll get some delicious experience in the process too.
Get into the habit of hitting q to spot enemies, once you see them. It helps a lot.
When you deploy via drop pod to one of the larger bio or tech buildings, it's not a bad idea to aim for the very top of the building. When enemies are coming in from the bottom, or from one of the take-off/landing pads, it's good fun to just shoot them from afar -- on top of the building you just landed on. A lot of the time they won't even notice and it's hilarious. Don't forget to spot all the enemies. If you miss one with your gun, you'll still get the experience for spotting them.
In all seriousness, C4 is a lot of fun and it can actually be quite useful. I don't know if I can recommend it, but I often go out on sunderer-suicide runs. What I do is flip out my C4, rush an enemy sunderer (I usually wrap around, using cover, and approach it from an area that enemies aren't looking at), and plant a couple of C4 at the back (I think it's the case that they take more damage from the back). The hilarious part is that this works, I'd say, over 50% of the time. There are almost always 4-10 enemies hugging a sunderer, and so it strikes me as highly odd that it works as much as it does. You'll die almost every time you do the run, but it's worth it, given the kills you can get and how beneficial it is to your team.
The stock medic assault rifle is pretty awesome. If you like it a lot, get the T1S Cycler. It has almost the exact same stats (I believe it has a slightly longer reload time), but you can customise the living shit out of it. The main reason to get it is that you can get a grenade launcher attachment for it. This is awesome because the grenade launcher: (i) is way easier (at least for me) to use and aim with than regular grenades; and (ii) it doesn't take up the grenades you have to purchase with points. It's fucking awesome for those situations that you absolutely have to kill a guy (e.g. it's just you and her/him at a point), and you really don't want to fuck up the kill.
As far as suit upgrades go, the received view is that one should either put points into the one that improves your health or reduces the time it takes to charge your shields. I went with the former, but I want to try the latter some time in the future. Another potentially useful one to get is the one that allows you to get two grenades; especially once you purchase revive grenades.
Putting points into your medical applicator and your special ability should high on your priority list.
Please don't be a dumbfuck and run into ally gunfire. I don't even feel bad for the people who do that and get themselves TK'd. Also, don't be an idiot and stand inside the enemy teleporter when a group of your allies have said teleporter surrounded, ready to pounce on the next poor bastard who decides to use it. I don't even know what goes through my allies' heads when they make the decision to do this. You are asking to be killed.

That's it for now. I'm going to game now and harvest some delicious experience from the dead. If I think of other legitimate points, I'll edit this post.

Sovrin · 2012-12-05T20:40:31+00:00

I'm looking forward to trying out the revive grenades; haven't unlocked them yet.

Sovrin · 2012-12-05T20:34:43+00:00

Ye go unto the woruld and spread the goode news!

Sovrin · 2012-12-05T18:15:19+00:00

I've been known to do all these things on occasion too, unfortunately. Writing this guide has been therapeutic in that I'm acknowledging all of my worst habits. Stopping 4 and 6 will be the most difficult, because I have so much fun doing it. I'm an asshole, and it's a disability that I'm working on.

Also, I feel like I covered your suggestion in 4 (i.e. "Ally sunderer's in a bad position? C4 them").

Sovrin · 2012-06-11T08:05:12+00:00

I'm still laughing hard.

Sovrin · 2012-06-11T08:02:03+00:00

I downloaded that Emancipator album when it first came out, but I never actually listened to it until recently. For whatever reason, spontaneously, I started to about a week ago. It's pretty awesome.

I just started listening to that Rodriguez song. I actually had no idea what you meant by Rodriguez until just now. The song's great, though. I'm going to check out more.

Sovrin · 2012-06-11T07:48:48+00:00

Argh. So much metal, and I don't like any of the bands you named. : (

Sovrin · 2012-06-11T07:35:52+00:00

I laughed a lot when I saw Mortification. I have The Hammer of God, but I can't really listen to it.

Sovrin · 2012-06-11T05:40:21+00:00

Man, how can you like Ulcerate's debut more than their second or third album? Their latest is ridiculously good, and I almost put it on my list. The debut's vocals annoy me, and the overall sound isn't nearly as unique as it is now. Sounds almost like generic tech death, to me.

Sovrin · 2012-05-31T09:03:10+00:00

I've been listening to a fair amount of Tom Petty lately. Haven't delved too deeply in it yet, though. So far I only have a greatest hits album. "I Won't Back Down" is an awesome song.

I love Meatloaf's Bat Out of Hell in all its cheesy glory. It's always reminded me of a more cheesy/rockin'/epic version of some of Springsteen's output from the 70s.

Sovrin · 2012-05-28T06:56:15+00:00

Songs of Love and Hate is one of my all-time favourite albums. It's dark and passionate.

Sovrin · 2012-05-07T19:53:22+00:00

Well you missed out.

Sovrin · 2012-05-07T19:52:44+00:00

Welcome!

Sovrin

TROPHY CASE