<<Originally posted by Hudson:
(Oh I love this sort of thing, please be informed that what follows is born out of pure self amusement )>>

Duly noted, I'll try not to be too mean, then

<<"it’s impossible to achieve anything on a meaningful scale" I hole heartedly disagree. I am a musician on the side, and have recently recorded and distributed (locally) a CD consisting of 7 tracks. I have had much feed-back from many different people in many different walks of life, and all have said that not only have they enjoyed listening to my music, but have also ‘connected’ with the songs and have benefited spiritually from the experience.>>

Yet it is only a short term achievement. The small benifits you gave them will result in smaller changes in their actions, resulting in smaller changes, etc. It's like a ripple in the water- it starts out large, with much force, expending outward but losing its energy until you can't even tell that it was there.

<< This, my friend, I count as a meaningful achievement on any scale. If your statement above sums up your ‘world view’ then I pity you.>>

And I pity you for your shortsightedness I don't need your pity, and would be much happier without it

<< "Also, if you had noticed the position of this topic, you'd understand that YOU kept it alive." Indeed my Yankee friend. English, irony based humour is apparently lost on you.>>

Not lost, but I was POed.

<<"How is it puerile? How is it childish? Looks like someone doesn't understand the English language" I have a handful of things in my defence
First, I am Dyslexic and I therefore apologise for any spelling related misunderstandings.
Second, dictionary definitions of "puerile exhibiting silliness; immature; trivial" "childish foolish or petty." What I meant by this was that any mature person, adult or otherwise, would recognise that this sort of discussion is only ever initiated through some hope of a confrontation. How can I justify this statement? Quite easily>>

The point of playing EV is to have fun. The point of this topic was to have fun. Both can were accomplished. You may consider it "childish", I may consider happiness the only thing meaningful in life.

<< actually If you review the posted messages, the discussion quickly turned nasty. Not only this but one of the main instigators of the nastiness was, in fact, the same person who first posted this topic.>>

It may have looked nasty, but if anyone was so unhappy, they could have left.

<< Third, on the subject of linguistics, my I remind you that the British quite literally, wrote the book on English, and it continues to be an immense source of amusement for me; that Americans quite conveniently flaunt the use of a language that they seldom even spell correctly! By the way, I do actually admire the American nation, I recently wrote my THESIS on American visual culture and the so called "American Dream" in science fiction, and came to some interesting conclusions. I can forward you a copy if you wish.>>

A Brit may have "written the book" on English, but you didn't. Just being British doesn't mean you are linguistically superior. Correct is relative. US English was seperated from British English intentionally after the Revolutionary War, so they we're using it correctly, just a different kind of correctly I don't admire the American nation- it seems pretty bloated and corrupt to me. I am especially unfond of the "American Dream", at least the dream that was presented to me- that anyone, no matter
who they are, can be succesful- as measured in $$$. I don't like people are raised thinking that richness is the best measure of success.

<< "It is an opportunity for people to enjoy themselves." What on earth did you think that I was doing? And anyway, if "enjoying themselves" constitutes a group of people effectively shouting at each other (I draw your attention to the extensive use of the CapsLock key in many of the posts above) quite frankly, I’d rather be pi$$ board.>>

What do you think I was doing, responding to you? I think there are many people who enjoy yelling at each other, as evidenced by people continuing to yell at each other. Anyway, only some posters were yelling- a lot of people were just talking about what they liked best.

<< "sorry junior high self" I don’t think I need to justify myself as to why this statement is monumentally incorrect.>>

Oops. Mistake in judgement.

<<And in closing a not so wise American once said "who's childish now?"
I hope we have both learnt something from this experience, and when I say "we" I do, of course, mean you.>>

Well, a big fat "phooey" to you. I'm plenty wise, I just hide it very well I hope I can reciprocate your demogoguery by learning you up some good English

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I think this has gotten way off topic, mostly because this topic is impossible to close. Confeds vs. Rebels is really a preference question, and no one can be "wrong" in their own opinion. I personally like the Confeds beacuse I find the crusier better, but I'd much rather have a Rebel Destroyer than a piece of junk Frigate. I also think the Gunboat is a waste, but the mantra isn't much itself. I think the main reason Confed patrol ships usually win vs mantras is because they have proton guns in basic equip, while mantras have swiveling laser cannons. Because the computer fighters just make attack runs at eachother straight on, the swiveling doesn't do much, so the protons win out. Of course, if the system is asteriod free, then whoever launches their missles 1st wins.
As to whoever gives better stuff, I'm not a fan of any of the weapons given out. I find the particle beam and tractor beam both to be almost useless. The tractor beam is useful againist the Alien Cruiser, but I haven't really found any other uses for it. The particle beam is good, but the fuel drain is just too hindering. As for the cloaking device, its fun, but draining all sheilds...
In conclusion I'd like to say although shipwise I think the Rebels and Confederates are equal, I just prefer the Confeds for 2 reasons. I like blue better than red, and I always root for the evil conglomerate. I was rooting for the Empire in Star Wars, and many other movies I liked the giant evil, but that's just me...

You see, that's the kind of discusion I like! No one was ever converted via an argument. Oppinion, on the other hand gives rise to enlightenment and understanding. However, I stand by my beliefs and ideas stated above.

On the subject of what constitutes a 'meaningfull achievment,' I think it all depends on personal perspective. Mine being that effecting someones life for the better is probably the single greatest thing you can achieve. But you are right... 'better' is a purly subjective consept. I dissagree though that eventualy the "ripples dissapear." We are each an emotional and psycological construct of our personal histories, this is fact, and there fore anything that we expierience (please forgive my spelling, I'm typing directly into my browser) becomes part of us, be that through reaction or through simulation. These effects may not be readliy visible on the surface, but believe me, they are there.

the American Dream: my ideas on the subject are far to wide and vearied to note here, but I ment what I said about forwarding a copy of my thesis. I think it would be interesting to get an Americans angle on what I have writen. The thesis its self is not a spectacular work in it's own right, it only achieved a B+, but I'm proud of it.

I addmire America, not for what it is, but what I asspires to be, though I'm sceptical about the way the nation appiers to be going about attaining it, what ever 'it' is. A good reading on the subject is a book writen by a Frenchman by the name of Jean Baudrillard, called 'America', though I dissagree with him on a handfull of his postulations. I agree with your oppinion on the American Dream, I refer to it as a 'myth.'

English: I'm affraid that I can get far too semantic at times; from now on I shall think of UK and US English as dialects, if you will, of the same language. I have never looked uppon US English as an invalid language, I just find it quite funny. A British comedian, Eddie Izzard once said of the American dialect "you say (and please note the fanetic spellings here) 'tomaito' we say 'tomarto,' you say 'baysill' we say 'bazill,' you say 'erbs' and we say 'Herbs,' because there's a f**king 'H' in it."

Get back to me if you would like a look at my thesis.

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PED
new media, new ideas.

If www is an abbreviation, how come it's got more syllables?

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Andrew Welch / el Presidente / Ambrosia Software, Inc.
(url="http://"http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/")http://www.AmbrosiaSW.com/~andrew/(/url)