A lurker comes out of hiding

What I mean is sarcasm is all very well, but it better be obvious. One does not want to be a person of frivolity. And I find that I often am. I sometimes have serious thoughts although admittedly those thoughts are often tinged with an element of the ridiculous. Sometimes I think there might be something deep in that dilemma, as though there were an element of the ridiculous on some fundamental level of life.What I have an immediate antipathy to is (a)sentimentality and (b)pretension. Sentimentality in fact is a subset of pretension. That which is pretentious is a fertile ground for satire.As one grows older, one grows wiser, by which we mean more careful."Vanity of vanities, saith the Preacher." Yeah, that's it. All the VANITY of the world. It has various meanings. But this pushing forth of egos--and yet there is no escaping it.To speak is to be egotistical.ABE: It's all a madness.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 10-23-2005 12:17 AM

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"Turning out pigs for creationists makes me blue and blurry."--Brad McFall

You did a good job. No smiley needed because I really mean it.Thanks RR. This phrase fits... me. I'll try to remember it, to keep it handy. You'll be the "friend who once told me..."As in, "a friend once told me, 'to speak is to be egotistical.'"

Thanks.

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"Turning out pigs for creationists makes me blue and blurry."--Brad McFall

Perhaps I should have used a winking smiley face when I said "Well, well, well..."

"Well, well, well" does not convey much. You might want to expound, using your crisp logic, on the problem of conveying irony over the Internet.This message has been edited by robinrohan, 10-23-2005 04:47 PM

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"Turning out pigs for creationists makes me blue and blurry."--Brad McFall

Good to see the lurking is over, lurk well and you will be valuable, lurk often and contribute and you will prosper, lurk and do nothing and you will be doomed to spectate. I lurked and after 4 months got stuck in and it was fun, BUT got too casual and posted under the influence and imposed a ban on myself. I am now back.

What do you think my "Well, well, well..." was meant to convey? Why should irony be less well conveyed over the internet as it has been in other written media ever since Socrates? The problem of conveying irony has nothing to do with the internet. Irony works as much by well chosen meaning as it does by well understood meaning, both of which rely on context. Without context irony is lost, and smileys alone do not a context make."One may smile, and smile, and be a villain." - William Shakespeare, Hamlet.This message has been edited by Parasomnium, 25-Oct-2005 07:41 PM

That's absurd.

I don't know. Probably something ironic.

As though life were a game devised by God and ever once in a while we catch a brief glimpse of its game-like nature.What follows are some passages from a novel by Kingsley Amis, quoted or paraphrased from memory:A man: Having all those powers and so forth must be very gratifying to you.God: Oh, very. But it does go on rather. One gets certain urges. Imagine what a temptation it is to drop one dinosaur down into the middle of Piccadilly. Just one.man: How about making things a little easier on people?God: No chance of that, I'm afraid. Far too risky from a security point of view. One of the most important rules of the game is that everything must seem as if came about by chance. Some of you fellows have found out quite enough already. Your friend Milton, for instance [points to bookcase]. He caught on to it being a game. It's just as well he didn't catch on to who the devil was, or who he was a part of. I would have had to step in there if he had.

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"Turning out pigs for creationists makes me blue and blurry."--Brad McFall

if you really want to rile up some vigilante behavior try using colors

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we are limited in our ability to understand
by our ability to understand

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RebelAAmerican.Zen[Deist
... to learn ... to think ... to live ... to laugh ...
to share.

just cuz you were expecting something

and because you know I like it ...

That's absurdist.

Never let it bother me much, either, lol. Welcome.