The beginning reminds me of some orientalist thing.

Uhh I'm not sure, hobbits marching out towards adventure?

No, it’s called “Thrice Welcome”, for when all of Laketown (and of course, its ostentatious Master) formally/joyfully greets Thorin as the prophesized King Under the Mountain who returns.

Tambourines.

If you are not just screaming with recognition, then perhaps it will work.

That’s the Master of Laketown.

And it’s snowing. How . . . Christmassy.

I have to say I don't remember anything about Esgaroth's master.

Is he really that ostentatious?

> The Elvenking was very powerful in those parts and the Master wished for no enmity with him, nor did he think much of old songs, giving his mind to trade and tolls, to cargoes and gold, to which habit he owed his position.

Humans.

> But the Master was not sorry at all to let them go. They were expensive to keep, and their arrival had turned things into a long holiday in which business was at a standstill. "Let them go and bother Smaug, and see how he welcomes them!" he thought. "Certainly, O Thorin Thrain's son Thror's son!" was what he said. "You must claim your own. The hour is at hand, spoken of old. What help we can offer shall be yours, and we trust to your gratitude when your kingdom is regained."

> There was mourning and weeping, where but a little time ago the old songs of mirth to come had been sung about the dwarves. Now men cursed their names. The Master himself was turning to his great gilded boat, hoping to row away in the confusion and save himself. Soon all the town would be deserted and burned down to the surface of the lake.

> They gathered in mournful crowds upon the western shores, shivering in the cold wind, and their first complaints and anger were against the Master, who had left the town so soon, while some were still willing to defend it. "He may have a good head for business-especially his own business," some murmured, "but he is no good when anything serious happens!" And they praised the courage of Bard and his last mighty shot.

 Bowman," said the Master warily (for Bard now stood close beside him).
"He has tonight earned an eminent place in the roll of the benefactors of our town; and he is worthy of many imperishable songs.
But, why O People?"-and here the Master rose to his feet and spoke very loud and clear – "why do I get all your blame?
For what fault am I to be deposed?
Who aroused the dragon from his slumber, I might ask?
Who obtained of us rich gifts and ample help, and led us to believe that old songs could come true?

> The old Master had come to a bad end. Bard had given him much gold for the help of the Lake-people, but being of the kind that easily catches such disease he fell under the dragon-sickness, and took most of the gold and fled with it, and died of starvation in the Waste, deserted by his companions.

The Master is played by Stephen Fry, who should be be perfectly unctuous.

@tchrist Ah! I recognise him now.

I really like the line As you see, the Master had not got his position for nothing. even though Tolkien came to dislike the 2nd person asides in The Hobbit.

The three most sophisticated speakers in Middle Earth, the most modern and mealy-mouthed, are Saruman, Smaug, and the Master of Laketown. Very twisty of words.

That was Lorin, not me.

Hmm.

How about if you leave out the "as you see"?

That would work.

Does he still do that in the LotR?

I think he does?

Not an actual apostrophe, but he still gives background information to the reader immediately.

Once.

> A few creatures came and looked at them when the fire had died away. A fox passing through the wood on business of his own stopped several minutes and sniffed. 'Hobbits!' he thought. 'Well, what next? I have heard of strange doings in this land, but I have seldom heard of a hobbit sleeping out of doors under a tree. Three of them! There's something mighty queer behind this.' He was quite right, but he never found out any more about it.

It’s not 2nd person, but it is still a non-Hobbit viewpoint.

The Hobbits are there always to provide the viewpoint.

In the Paths of the Dead, Gimli had to take on that role.

For lack of handy hobbits at hand.

Hmm right.

So what's unusual about that utterance is not so much that Tolkien directly gives us information, but that he comments modally on what his characters do?

And it’s an animal viewpoint — who’s thinking things in words.

But not so with the Master of the Lake.

No, what Tolkien didn’t like the way it seemed like he was talking down to the kids.

Right.

I kind of agree.

"As you see," is also a bit like talking down.

9000 hours later...

9001 hours later...

CCCCCCOMBO BREAKER

thanks :-)

damnit. I was waiting untill 15:18 to post 9000 seconds later. you've all ruined it.

How about now?

still ruined

how do we un-ruin it?

magic

by not ruining it

I'm over it now. I am looking at National Game Development Month

When is that?

November

so it's just finished

but I was thinking about it for next year

Also, are you going to dedicate each month of the year to making some kind of creative work? NaNo, NGDM, National blacksmithing month, national cake decorating month, etc

well, maybe

but not every month

maybe every other month

national not a month

you should do it every 31-day month, that way you get an extra day

I've got some ideas for youtube videos n stuff

which nation?

all nations!

icic

international

yes

but NaNoWriMo is established, so changing it is annoying and NaGa DeMon sounds better than InGa DeMon

Go with Interplanetary

It's more future proof

IpNoWriMo?

interatomic?

Of course, the concept of a "month" on other planets might be tricky

IpNoWriStaTiPe?

STP? Standard Terran..... P?

Standard Time Period

Sexually Transmitted Pendulum

swings both ways

lol

:D

:D

good lord. bitcoins are worth $1000 USD

So the mayor of Toronto not only smokes crack, drives drunk, and has prostitutes in his office at city hall, and snorts coke in pubs, but also steals people's seats at football games.

@Cerberus you should sell now! it's only going to collapse

Bitcoin is weird.

It has a fixed precision and fixed maximum quantity of items in circulation.

Why would they design a currency that way?

The predominant model has been inflation since forever

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 this will be the straw that broke the camel's back. the rest were politically unfavourable life choices, but this is just rude. bad manners are intollerable

granted, that can't continue indefinitely, but still.

@MattЭллен It's like a bad comedy. Imagine the worst possible candidate for mayor. Now make him 10x worse and that's Rob Ford.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 to prevent inflation. if there are only ever X bitcoins, then you can't deflate the value because you can't print more.

@MattЭллен Inflation is a fact of life though.

Otherwise what happens is bitcoin value gets inflated relative to the other standards.

just like paper money is a fact of life

so is deflation

and depression

Paper money is not a fact of life. I rarely use paper money. My virtual currency, however, is backed by a government that makes elaborate rules on how it is to be created. Creating more money is just incrementing a counter.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 my point

well, the first bit

The thing is, Bitcoin is a scarce resource.

paper money used to be a fact of life

inflation can be brought under control

So even if you could somehow prevent actual economic inflation, you still have economic growth to worry about

people can choose not to live in excess

economic growth is not necessary

why?

because economic growth is predicated on keeping independant government states stable

if you decentralise and remove the ruling class, economic growth becomes moot

economic growth cannot be maintained indefinitely, but I still think it's a bad idea to have a currency that cannot sustain growth

@MattЭллен I don't see how that follows.

because people will choose not to be greedy and to live within their means. we will progress at a sustainable rate.

economics will cease as a fiscal concept

things will become grounded

greed is human nature

not always and people defy their "nature" all the time

The "live within your means, progress at a sustainable rate" part fits with "no economic growth" but I don't get the "if we decentralize this happens" and "economics ceases to be a concept"

First of all, I doubt we will see decentralized society on a large scale.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 right, but we should

And I don't think it's necessary to decentralize in order to achieve a stable economy

economics becomes about what we actually have and what we actually need. it's not about how much money someone is willing to spend

In fact, if it IS necessary, then I think we're in for a major upheaval. Like, billions dead major.

yes

exactly

I think we can transition to a non-growth economy without that kind of trauma. Granted, I have no idea how.

I do not.

i'm confused

So am I.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 if you have government, how do you remain in government if people have nothing to believe in? If you want to control them, but give them nothing in return?

In fact, I think that if we HAVE a major trauma that leaves billions dead, then we're no longer at peak economic capacity, so the trauma just resets the clock for a few centuries and we can have growth again.

if you decentralise, people will control themselves and stability will come after the turmoil

@MattЭллен Sure you give them things. You give them armies and laws. Social programs.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 which all require economic growth

@MattЭллен Nah

They don't necessarily require growth

I mean, otherwise, what kind of world would this decentralized place be? Who pays for, eg, roads?

no one pays for roads

who started this?

no one pays for anything, not with money

people do things because they are necessary

You still need ways to motivate people to do things

not only the necessary, but that first

Is this communism?

no, this is communalism

You still have to assign value to certain tasks to prioritize what's important

Not everyone contributes to society at an equal rate.

You should still reward people who contribute more than people who contribute less.

no

you should not reward people

existence is its own reward

you get to be

Very hard to achieve.

oh, I'm certain it's impossible from our mindsets

our minds were set for a reason

I'm finding it hard to imagine a human society driven entirely out of hive mentality.

we are not evolved in the right way, genetically or socially

@MattЭллен I am stuck in a bad state of mind. I am thinking I might not make it through this time. Many forces are against me.

@badass I doubt that. I'm no creationist.

In fact I would go so far as to say that such a society might not even be human.

@MattЭллен we evolved out of competition

yes, it could be that we are so stuck as we are that our ability to follow altruistic progression has been too stunted

@badass not just competition, cooperation as well

What is human?

@JasperLoy what forces?

@MattЭллен but mostly competition

@MattЭллен External forces, other people doing things in stupid ways.

@badass I don't know.

Anyway, I feel that currently we have a growth economy; there are indications that we need to change that but I don't know of anyone with a reasonable strategy to do that; and bitcoin by design doesn't work in a growth economy. It doesn't even scale to increased usage in a non-growing economy.

I just wanna cry and die...

@JasperLoy what like?

@JasperLoy Are you seeing a doctor? Because that is probably the only thing that can help you.

@MattЭллен Well, no point for me to repeat the details here, you can't help me. I need to find a brilliant new way to reason myself out of this.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Maybe I should see the therapist as well.

@JasperLoy seriously, this is not a thing of reason you are fighting. It is a thing of brain chemistry. You cannot beat it on your own. Please get the help you need.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 I am already seeing a doctor and taking meds for a while.

find a better specialist

Anyway, thanks guys.

i can try

if you are serious

Never mind, it's OK.

How is your own self @badass?

@JasperLoy keep going. As Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 says, you can't beat it alone. Find someone who you can talk to about this

@JasperLoy i'm fine, thanks for asking

pal

@JasperLoy I hope they're the right ones. Just today I read about an autistic patient with depression who was switched from the name-brand med to the generic and the drug stopped working. If you think the drugs aren't working properly you should talk to your doctor.

Anyway, my main problem is OCD, in case you forgot.

It's been so many years, I don't know who I am anymore.

@JasperLoy Jasper Loy

@MattЭллен Thanks. I only hope I can pull through this life and hope that I don't have OCD in the next one.

I'd prefer that you pull through this one

Sometimes, I wish I have cancer instead.

I have not been through cancer, but I think it is going to be better than this.

maybe, maybe not

@JasperLoy Cancer is usually pretty horrible and then you die.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 Well, at least I die instead of suffer like shit the rest of life, heh.

Happy holidays. REPORT!

@RegDw: Why do Russians feel they need to stand so close to someone in order to have a conversation?

hey

any native english speakers here?

i need to correct one sentence

Hello.

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 you mean like the Black Death?

@Mr.ShinyandNew安宇 How do we define economic growth? In order to do that, we need to quantify the things we produce. We do that by assigning a monetary value. But...

@MετάEd I learned another language. Took me three days.

@Cerberus money doesn't buy happiness...that's what rich people tell poor people.

so can i?

any native english speakers?

Try us.

YOU WILL ASK YOUR QUESTION

ok

The university courses are run in cooperation with IBM.

run ?

done?

held

@Mitch In modern society, an income up to about € 1400 increases your happiness; anything over that amount makes no difference. At least here—maybe you need more money in America.

?

what verb should i use?

@MετάEd CONCENTRATE AND ASK AGAIN.

Wait.. that wasn't a question.

@EinsteinsGrandson YOU WILL WRITE "OFFERED"

Organised?

I can uptalk for a question, right?

Offered?

Taught?

@Mitch YOU ARE ... CORRECT

@Cerberus a day? Nice work if you can get it.

Not sure "the university courses" is exactly what you want, though.

I heard the same thing about wine.

@Mitch A month, silly.

@Cerberus define happiness? If you quantify it right, you get a dollar amount.

As reported by the subjects on a scale from one to ten.

@KitFox Interesting Factoid about interesting factoids: really, KitSox should have an interesting factoid meme generator.

I know that's not an interesting factoid, more of an interesting idea.

@Cerberus There's no 'I don't know one way or the other'?

There probably is.

I haven't seen the survey.

@Cerberus Oh I figured. It's just that I'm not use to hearing salaries by month. but E1400/month isn't much in the US.

Why not by month?

It isn't much here either.

@EinsteinsGrandson Was this marked wrong on a test you took? It doesn't sound wrong to me.

About $22,800 yearly. Probably after taxes.

Well, 'why' isn't a good question. It just isn't. In the US when you state salary it's usually per year, not per month. It's just how you state it.

Odd.

So you only get paid once per year?

@Cerberus That might work (as in lead to little change in happiness) if it is over that amount in a family per person (even if only one person is working).

i am not sure

@Mitch I presume it was per person...

I think it's more that below that one is terribly unhappy.

I should look it up.

@Cerberus Ha ha. No.

@Mitch That's not what it said.

@Mitch Then...

sometimes paid per month, or sometimes biweekly.

Biweekly, really?

@Cerberus I know you didn't say that. I'm turning i around.

@Cerberus Sure, why not?

@Mitch That's...old fashioned. Probably manual labour?

No particular reason, it's just that we don't see that any more, I think.

No more for people on timesheets.

?

people who have to fill out a time sheet (or punch a clock) are not necessarily on an hourly wage.

(in the US)

So anyway, if you get paid monthly, it makes sense to talk about your monthly salary, right? Yearly income is usually used in government statistics and such.

They may be salaried but for accounting purposes still need to fill out hours worked.

So...

Actually, that sounds idiotic. But that's the way it is.

@Cerberus Well, one usually does personal accounting based on yearly income here...then takes into account taxes, health insurance,other deductions. Eventually that boils down to a monthly (or biweekly) paycheck.

i am not sure

i mean the original version

The university courses are run in cooperation with IBM.

@Mitch Right, taxes.

@EinsteinsGrandson I probably wouldn't say run unless they are run like a kind of company....

so what verb then?

held?

Organised? Offered? Taught? It depends on what you mean.

taught

organized

i mean that it is IBM who cooperate with the university

and they make the courses together

ibm know what the business needs

"Make"?

university knows what theoretical basics need to be taught

Do you mean IBM has people giving lectures too?

Or do you mean they organise the courses together?

yes

in lecture there are 2 people

1 is from uni and 1 from IBM

its not a lecture

more like exercises

Then you could use "taught"?

there are just 20 people

in the course

and its done on notebooks

so more like practical...

I'd use taught or organised.

Not saying run is absolutely impossible. But I'd prefer taught or organised.

books.google.com/ngrams/…

YOU WILL WRITE "OFFERED" ... YOU WILL OBEY ...

so run is not correct?

I hesitate to say it would be incorrect.

one more

Business process management is making processes much clearer ?

clearer?

what better word should i use?

what i want to say is

that the processes are better to be seen for managers

once they are mapped and shown using BPM

I'm sorry, but I have no idea what all that means.

;o)

once you don't map processes in your company ... you don't know who is doing what and when...

You can say "x makes y easier to manage / more manageable for z"?

ok

Hello

Hi.

I am trying to find a tag

for my question

but in vain.....