Kazakovich

Not to mention; it's fun. Debating and discussing is entertaining and rather stimulating. I often debate with friends for no other purpose than the debate itself, since it's so much fun. It's often less about the goal and more about the journey there.

I shouldn't ask myself this, really. If I put all down on a list, I'd be set for life when it comes to potential emergency toilet paper. But 'ere we go in no particular order. Bus drivers who plonk you off in the middle of nowhere in order to knock off work early. Lawyers who use the 'She dressed inappropriatly/she's a tart anyway, am I right, fellas?'-defence. Stabbing myself with my pencil down the pocket. Math education, in any form. Wasps who can't grasp the concept of personal space. Cigarette smoke tend to help here. Neo-Nazis and anyone else connected to this cult that should have rotted along it's makers. Intoxicated drivers. And drivers on drugs. And on the phone. Oi! I'm passing the street here, and I'd leave quite a dent on your bonnet! Overzealous phone salesmen. Fernet Branca. Most people who find a certain pride in avoiding expostion to knowledge. Babies in cafés. Holocaust denialists. Illegal taxi drivers who won't take 'no' for an answer. They can't wait to drive me off to the backwaters and mug me. Seagulls. Paper cuts. Hackers. Quite a few teenagers. Sticky floors. Aaaaand lots of other things I can't think of now, but will be reminded off at some point... Of course, hate IS an exceedingly powerful word. Perhaps some kind of scale would have came in handy. :P

Well, I can't honestly say I'm all against the more 'shallow' games out there. We're currently having the luxury of a cultural phenomenom with enough space for everyone. There's a worldwide audience only a decent webserver away, and plenty of new ideas and tools available for the layman as well as the professional. Of course, the cultural impact of gaming follows the natural laws, and it's much easier to find big-name producers for a bland yet marketable game than taking a gamble and work some depth into it. But I still genuinly believe there's room for everyone for the time being. Games all across the mental stimulation chart can co-exist. Unfortunately, of course, the unchallenging, safe prolefeed will have the best exposure and funding, but that's in no way unique to gaming. It's the thesis and antithesis in effect, as with anything. I doubt there would be intelligent games out there if there weren't any stupid ones. Oh, and I never let go of an opportunity to slap ol' MW2 across the jaw (again). I don't have that huge a library of games, actually. Most games I love were ones I stumbled into after their release, surprised me and made me impressed enough to buy them. I was never really interested in Fallout 3, for example, until I checked out some gameplay footage almost half a year after it's release. Ten minutes later, I was enraptured. Less than 24 hours later, I owned a copy. Been hocked ever since. My point is, I usually never gather along with the hype. Modern Warfare 2 just felt like an inevitable cash-in to me. I later got it as a christmas gift, which was great, since I would never have bought it myself, and thus got to experience it anyway. Which was just as good. I've just got one complaint, one, that overshadows anything else, and that's the insipid single player campaign. It's one of the most stupid, forced and generally tasteless dross I've ever subjected myself to. Okay, I promised (Well, technically, my cat promised) not to get offended when I started the game, but... Jesus Christ, the plot is just braincell-numbingly stupid! Evil Russians (And communists! Aaaaahh!) and other non-westerners are up to no good, and G.I. Joe (and their British mates) hops in to save democracy yet again! Yes, it does sound elitist on my part, but not only is it insipid, it's poorly executed as well. The airport-scene (which I won't bother to spoilguard, I'm rather sure everyone bellow the age of 30 know what I mean) in particular is rather grating. Apparently, it's A-OK to gun down civilians, on condition you are doing it for the west, but the Russians experimenting the same thing is a hideous warcrime. Reminds me of why I won't eat bananas... My point is, the game just feels like utter prolefeed. Let's have a scene with the entrenched White House! Let's have some atomic bombs! How do we make sure everyone gets who the baddies are? Throw in some snow mobile chases while you're at it! I respect the restraint they showed when they choose not to add an Iwo-Jima-esque flagraising event. My friend was alot more blunt yet fair in his description of the game. The phrase he used to describe it can't be wrought by civilized pixels, but I can reveal that it involves Uncle Sam, self-stimulus and old cloth. It's a very blunt (and possibly rather offending) way to put it, but I can't with good concience say that he's wrong... :blush: But then again, I doubt this game was made with my demography in mind. And why should it? This is right up the alley for some folks, and I can't fault them for it. There's other games out there that suit me better. Games for me, games for them and everyone in between.

It does look quite interesting. The turnbased combat and isometric view is rather a novelty. It'd be nice to see a game that uses them while not being bogged down in gaming of days past. I'd better check it out when it arrives, then.

Perhaps they mistook them for a religious symbol of sorts? Maybe a similar creature on their homeworld holds a respected place in their culture, and they figured that the Giddyup Buttercups were just too much of a coincidence. I 'unno. :P

Conspiracy theorists are barrels of fun! Some of the more interesting theories are great fun reading. Sure, your braincells might file a complaint or two, but it's just entertaining reading it anyhow. Now, there can't possibly be people out there that DOES resemble the usual stereotype (A closely knit group of people gathering in their basements or garages wearing fabulous tinfoil by the bucketload), but reading some of the more obscure stuff out there, it's not very hard to imagine that there are. One nice prank I'd like to pull off sometime would be to contact them and introduce me as part of an even larger agency which also have discovered what they have. Like, say... Sending them a cryptic letter from the Central Council, Section Five, with additional instructions and the likes. Additionally, I'm trying to make up a conspiracy theory of my own, a little experiment in how far I can push a concept before it becomes a far fetched mess. Who knows, someone out there might even think it's true. It'll be great fun!

Well, you can never be sure until you do walk the walk, but I've got an idea of what I'd like it to be like. You arrive outside some sort of sandswept, dilapidated ruin in the desert. At your back is a river, and to your front the entrance. You collect yourself and stumble on; it's all there is to do, after all. A grand hall decorated with pillars end at a doorway. Beyond, there's a room with an odd check-in desk feeling to it. Then, you hear a slight cough from the shadows, as Anubis puts away his pipe and comes out to join you with a cheery look. 'Ah! Good morning, visitor! I didn't notice you. Well, welcome to the afterlife!', he says before holding out a brochure for you. You take it and flip uncertainly through the pages, as he strides over to his earlier place, take a sip from a coffee mug. Thousands of questions race through your mind, most of them being some variation of 'Wait. Am I dead? I'm dead, aren't I. Am I?', but you can't pin down a specific one to ask. Meanwhile, Anubis puts down his mug and walks over to the small, ornate desk in the middle of the room. 'Right. Let's see... Which one was it?', he asks himself with his fingers stroking his chin. Then, the walls and ceiling suddenly disolves into sand and shoot away, revealing a gigantic, tranquil void dotted with stars. What was solid sandstone is now a black and blue haze, streatching out in infinity. Even more bewildered and by now rather frightened, your drop your phamplet on the stone floor. 'Oh, don't worry, this won't take long. Have a seat', Anubis remarks as a comfortable chair appears behind you. While you carefully sit down, an object appears in the horizon, racing towards the small island of solidity you're on. When it's close enough to identify, you see it's an old filing cabinet. Anubis steps out towards the edge of the floor and the cabinet slows down to a halt in front of him. He opens it, and the drawer shoot back at least five times the length the cabinet could accomodate on the outside. While he starts to search for the specific papers, the surreal situation begins to get to you, and you wonder if it's a dream, before realizing that you've seemed to have been prohibited from asking yourself that every other time you've been dreaming. Before the absurdity of the situation becomes too much, Anubis evidently finds what he's looking for and removes a file containing a hefty bunch of papers. Above, a small school of similar filing cabinets draws around in an irregular pattern. Anubis sends his cabinet off to join them. Once reunited with it's comrades, they all vanish into the void in a tremendous speed. 'Sorry about that. This divine business brings with it unbelieveable amounts of paperwork. It takes quite an eternity handling it all. Right, here's yours, anyway', he says as he sits down at his desk. The room is back the way it was. Nothing amongst the ancient blocks of stone reveals what just happened. You look back at Anubis, while also idly registering that your chair seems to have up to his desk of itself. 'So. Well, once again, welcome to the Afterlife. I see you have many questions for me. Then, ask them, and then we can decide what to do with you. We've got all the time we could possibly need'. Questions who just recently banged themselves against the inside of your skull with tremendous vigour suddenly dissolve just like the walls did. -'So... This is it? I'm really dead?' -'Yes. That is, you have left the physical plane, the one you're used to. You are now in an alternative state of being, behind the set, so to speak. Yes, for all intents and purpouses, you are dead.' You look down in your lap, while wrapping your thoughts around what this mean. 'A little prematurely, I believe. You weren't scheduled for... Oh, I see. Hmm...', Anubis continues, while reading the different pages. 'It might interest you to know that your murderer will be here rather soon as well. Not much time, not with substances like that in your system.' -'My friends? My cat?' -'Don't worry, my friend. This is the most certain thing in all of the excistance. Everything which live will pass through at some point or other. Where they go when across the stream is up to themselves, of course.' -'But that could take years!' -'You will learn that time behaves differently on this plane. It can drag on, every second a long, long year, or a blink, several centuries. A mountain might crumble in a few seconds, or the queen of a humble anthill rule for unfathomable aeons. Or all at once. Or, part of the flow might settle in a small, almost stagnant pool by the side. We are currently within such a phenomenom.' You feel better off not asking more questions like that. Allthough time is apparently nothing of greater importance here, you'd rather get going, wherever it is you are. -'What happens now?' -'We will proceed to the next gate. There, me and my colleauges will assemble a more coherent picture of who you are and what you've done. If you pass, which I so far can't imagine you wouldn't, we advance further, to the ascent. Then, the road is yours.' You nod. You're beyond questioning the reality of the situation. You just want to continue and complete whatever it is you're expected to. 'Any further questions? Everything is in that brochure, but don't hesitate to grab one of us if you need. We always make ourselves time', he says with a wink. You nod, and as Anubis rise from his chair, so do you. The stone block at the end of the room morf to create a doorway. Anubis walks toward it, and so do you. On the other side, down a narrow staircase and across a lightless abyss on a moving, unsupported platfrom of glass, there is another room, larger than the previous. The centre is dominated by a golden scale. Unlike the rather empty earlier room, this one is furnished with several comfortable chairs and benches. A large table along the side is stuffed with delicious food and fruits, some of which utterly alien to you. Opposite of that there's a doorway to some sideroom of sorts. From their places around a large waterpipe surrounded by comfortable cushions, Hathor and Thot approaches, the former holding on to another mug of coffee with a tight grip. Even a god can wake up hungover, you note to yourself. -'Good morning! Welcome to the Second Stream!', says Thot, while greeting the two of you. Hathor meet and greets, but with a stiff and apathic undertone. -'Right. I'm afraid we will have to leave your for the moment. We're having a meeting, then we'll consult the scales and then, the trials. This might take a while. Make yourself at home. You are, after all.' Anubis motions towards the table, while the group of gods strolls over towards the door. 'Cheers!', says Anubis, waving his hand as the council disappears inside the room. Tired, confused and rather miffed, you walk over to the table and plonk yourself down in a bench smothered in cushions. You've barely touched the soft fabric before your eyelids close shut. You make a promise to yourself to taste some of the food when you wake up before you're swept off by sleep. -To be Continued. At some point. :P

I'd suggest you check out the S.T.A.L.K.E.R.-series. It's a series of first person shooters (from an Ukranian developer, actually) which takes place in the abandoned areas around Chernobyl NPP. In short, they're post-apocalypic shooting & looting-games. However, they're alot more unforgiving than Oblivion and Fallout, until you get used to it, you'll die quite alot. However, it's so much worth it once you've got the hang of it. The atmosphere is just great and the lighting-engine is good enough to make these games worth a look just for that. And it's all strung together by a surprisingly clever story.

Quite interesting. It's a great reminder of what a powerful tool the internet is in creative pursuits. At first, I thought to myself 'Oh, bloomy bell, not more brute vandalism being proclaimed art', but I think I've warmed a bit to these urban explorers. As long as all they take is photos and keep their own (and others, of course) safety in mind, then it's no problem. I also like that they share their sights with the rest of us like this. Thanks, fellows! Of course, it's not without it's risks, and I certainly hope they keep that in mind. If I recall correctly, a kid got himself killed in Stockholm a while back, when he was exploring some utility tunnel and fell down a deep shaft, and the media had quite a fieldday in this new and dangerous youth-corrupting activity. But I'm sure the more 'professional' urban explorers knows what they're doing.

I don't think I've experienced any physical pain that really stand out in my memory. Except for perhaps the tailbone (I haven't bothered to check, slipped on a floor once and had quite accute bum-pain for a few days) I've never broke any of my bones. I've cut my fingers a few times, but I can't recall the pain. I just hope fate isn't gathering up a few muggings or staircase accidents and goes hiding around a corner impishly giggling to itself. :P The most unpleasant piece of mental pain I have experienced occured when I was 15 and returned to school after summer. I was often the odd one out in such enviroments (I suspect doctors would have lined up to slap on a diagnosis if they could) but had managed somewhat so far. I had one group where I was accepted and we often hung out. However, I realized (quite too late) that the group chemistry were heavily altered during the first few weeks, mostly by the arrival of a new bloke in class. I was swept of the rug, 'my' old group disbanded and assimilated into the rest and I ended up back down the pit. Very unpleasant days, that was. I just couldn't defend myself against this, and I barely understood the situation until my position as 'Official R-tard' was set in stone, and I couldn't claw myself back. 8 or so months passed until I was liberated, both from them and school itself. Saved my life, it did. It might not sound too painfull when compared to breaking bones and such, but you've got to keep in mind that this kind of pain usually last for a long time and it never lets up. You're never truly free from that pain and it also makes you feel like a little whiner, even more so when you're 15. 'REAL men don't have problems! Emotions are for sissies and poofs!' and so on. Yet even more when doubled when you've got a deviating sexuallity to understand in a homopbobic enviroment. A true gauntlet for an ungrown mind. I mused a bit on this experience a few days back. It finally felt secure to do so, with a cigarette and a glass of wine on a balcony with years behind and a much more robust image of what 'friend' means to fall back to. I reached the conclusion that it all played out like a scenario in Survivor. I was, for some reason I still haven't understood, outmanouvered and outplayed by Mr New Guy, who I now understand was a textbook psycopath. It led to this very vivid mental image of frogs in a pond; one particular frog manouvering himself to the biggest and most comfortable lillypad despite being one of the rather small frogs, while collecting a guard of other frogs at his side. I don't know where and who this man is today, but I pray to the gods I never have to meet him again, and I pray even more for the poor sods who do.

But you can't mix veggies with alcohol either! D:

Portal was one such moment for me. Somehow, it all seemed to fit together; the design, the gameplay, the setting, it just worked somehow. The game itself felt very slim and tight and in a very good way. It's one of those games with a small production team and a rather tight budget, which might at first sound like a very poor recipe, but it seems they all sat down and asked themselves "This is our limitations. How do we use them to our advantage?". Also, with the game itself rather small and uncomplicated, they could polish and tweak it into that wonderful, simple shine. A small production team with limitations and skill is, in my experience, often better than having one gigantic studio working on a massive game with a preposterous budget and with a vocal fanbase to feed. So to sum it up; Portal is a pleasant, simple game, clever puzzles, nice and subtle plotadvancement, very effective enviroment design and, of course, one of the best antagonists I've ever seen. The future potential for Portal 2 on the other hand... Don't do it. It deserves better, Valve. :sad:

Hear, hear! This is one of the painfully few civilized places out on the internet. It's a question of balance, forum moderation. To have fast and efficient moderation without feeling overbearing, and I think they've pulled that tough one off here. If you're going here, then you are expected to behave and be polite. Sadly, a large part of the internet's populace can't pull this one off, acting like; 'We're the courageous rebels, fighting the cruel regime from underground! Ha!' Once more, this place is civilized, and the staff are doing a great job keeping it like that. Your one-stop port in the churning storm of the internet! Thank you!

The picture that comes to my mind is someone putting on MS-logoed body armour, big stompy boots and polishing up the baton. What they should have said is: 'It's time to stamp out the riff-raff and restore order in PC-gaming! Get in line for Halo 6!'

It's odd, really, that people like that think they can get away with such behaviour in a public envirorment like that. That could have led to an assault charge or vandalism after all. I mean, really, I never visit LAN-parties, but I do visit internet cafés every once in a while for the convenience. The weird part is, I can behave very well and be civil and polite, despite the fact that I'm almost always drunk when I'm there, since it's at such a handy distance from the pubs. And this is coming from someone who's had massive anger management (which were NOT helped by regular doctors trying to come up with a nifty letter combination and passing out perscription drugs, homeopathic doctors for the win in that reguard) issues as a kid! What's the difference between me and them, sans a few years? Why can some of us remain civilized in a multiplayer atmosphere even with quite a few White Russians in the system, while others can't even manage that completly sober? It might have part to do with those perscription drugs for ADD and the like I mentioned earlier. When the kids show off some unpleasant and unwanted tendencies, I suppose it's just simpler to have the doctor label them with some sort of disorder (which also excuses any kind of bad behaviour they might have, obviously) and give them some of those magic super-pills medical science provides and then just plonk them down in front of the TV with their occupation machines and get back in line. But this doesn't solve any of the real problems! Why is the answer to anything in Western medicine to hand out disorders and pills? And why is this a perfectly valid excuse to assault a fellow player at a LAN-party for displaying creative thinking in the art of digital war games?

Well, you can't really one without the other, but if I had to, I'd go with soda rather than crisps. Soda's the best, it doesn't leave crumbs, it doesn't make your fingers all greasy (very attractive, leaving slobby fingerprints on someone's shirt or messing up the wallpaper) and you can't mix crisps with alcohol. You know, 'It's vodka, x-ray and a handful of sourcream & onion". Plus, soda's got a place outside the party as well. I embrace coke as my one saviour after that one time I helped my brother when he was moving. I'd have died from dehyration hadn't I downed those three bottles... Having a glass of soda with you by the TV feels refreshing, while a bag of crisps makes you feel fat and decadent. Soda's the best, since it got the most different uses.

Welcome back to the Nexus, and congratulations for the title! It does got a very nice ring to it. It's good to know that there's people in this world with the skills and abilities needed out in the war. I certainly don't, as came apparent when I was called up for conscription (one of the last batches before it was abolished, actually). :P I filled in the papers, handed them in (Not at the very last moment for once to avoid the fine) and never heard from the ministry of duty again. I didn't even had to show up for the physical inspection bit. I guess they went 'Hmm-hmm. Glasses, smoker, poor math grades... No, don't think so..." when they read the forms. We've all got our places in life, and the army isn't mine, apparently. Good thing there are people who can take that place for people like me! ;D Because regardless what some people say, we need the army. We need order, and that's one of the reasons armies exist these days. And I myself is very thankful for it. Good luck with the rest of the training!

I agree, it's almost impossible finding polite people out there in the first person world. I say 'almost' since I've bumped into a few here and there, but they're like unicorns these days. This is what made me tire on World of Warcraft. Once my old guild, which had a very strict policy of maturity and social behavior coming well before gear, had sadly collapsed into itself (I blame the latest expansion, the economic crisis and people like those children described in this thread using us as a human springboard to more attractive guilds), it was like being cast out into a wasteland populated entirely by hormone-fueled, bloodstained peacocks. I might return one day (the new Worgen-race makes me believe Blizzard is actually trying their best to lure me back with a carefully chosen bait) but for now, I can't take anymore. Another good example of bad players going through puberty ruining a good game is Battlefield Heroes. It's nicely presented and designed, as well as accessable. Of course, it also suckered in hordes of childish players too, which is a shame since I had anticipated the whole cartoony feel to scare them off; anything that isn't gritty, grim, gray and reaking of testosterone tend to either make them dismiss the concept as a kiddie-game, TF2-ripoff or stimulate their maturing homophobia glands. It could have been avoided, had EA decided to go on with the project and perhaps release it as a 'proper' game. But they didn't, adding the sin of lost potential to the hefty list they bost. I played mainly as a Gunner (heavy weapon specialist), which ment I was awfully slow, but could carry a hard-hitting machine gun and a rocket launcher, as well as absorbing quite a few shots. I dare say I became rather good at it, too. I boosted my resilience-abilities and learned target priority and a few other neat tricks, which ment I could take on three lads at once if I played my cards right. Of course, this was the same as cheating in their books. Actually trying to best them in battle than laying down before them is considered very poor sportmanship amongst their tribes... So I couldn't stay on a game for more than half a round before angry commandoes (stealth specialists, very deadly if used correctly, very fragile when not played right) accused me for hacking or cheating. I even got my very own nickname when I started bumping into these people regurally ('Camenbert the Carebear', if you wonder). When EA decided to pull the plug on this game in order to make it a good little milking cow, I finally left. They took my cozy cardigan (You have to buy almost anything with real money these days, which include the best weapons. Guess which people most often got access to these), they did... So in the end, single player games are what matter in this household. Boardgames are fine, since you're always at least bound by social etiquette when playing those. But I never play multiplayer these days unless I can count on the company being somewhat pleasant (I do play Counter Strike on occasion, since I've found a few strongholds of civilization there). Now, I just dearly hope this kind of behaviour won't take to the streets too. If I've got to be mugged, then please let it not be by people going 'lol n00b!' as they taze me... If these people doesn't get taught some kind of social behaviour before adulthood, then we've better all hope that the robotic police drones are ready in time to meet the threat. However, I do feel rather guilty for abandoning the FPS-stage once in a while. Once more, polite people out there are rare (I count myself amongst the polite, and I certainly hope that I am) and it's not really solidarty on my part in thinning the unicorn population more. But I don't want to be a unicorn! I look awful in white. Keep fighting the good fight, all you brave unicorns out there! [There's no salute-emoticon, so you will have to imagine one. With a proud, thankfull smile, a tear going down the cheek and a flag of optional choice waving behind]

I just can't choose, really. Both are equally important and interesting to me. I think since they're so entwined with each other, you can't really understand one without the other. The world as it is today is, after all, a reflection of what's happened in the past to shape it like this. It's also quite interesting to imagine 'what if?'-scenarios, like, for example, if the mongols hadn't destroyed Baghdad and all the ancient knowledge inside it's libraries and universities? Or if the mass-extinction between the Perm and Trias-period hadn't occured? Or what would happen if you travelled back in time to the Carbon-period? The possibilities are endless! Another effect of studying both subjects (or rather, one subject divided by direct involvement of or direct effect upon humankind vs natural history) is that you'll really start appreciating the planet we inhabit. Well, at least it did to me. :)

Noes! My beautiful fortress was raised by a Goblin ambush! D': The Fortress of Blisterbroke the Morsel is no more. Deserted and lonely, it withers among the windswept mountains. The steadfast rule of The Roasted Aunts... Shattered. Their bones now litter the defiled halls. The great Dwarven civilization of The Righteous Barque have lost one of it's shining beacons of order and strength admist the ocean of chaos and Goblin marauders. No longer shall it's prized Plump Helmet Mushroom Wine take it's place on the caravan's mules. No longer shall the streams of iron, gold and silver flow from the mines... Two years. It is true, what the wise council of The Scented Oar says. Complacency heralds destruction in no uncertain terms... What did we learn this time? Moar traps! And a functional fortress militia and a crossbow under every pillow certainly helps:P Losing is Fun! :D

Oh, my fortress have survived a whole year! That's a first. Now, what's left to do is to set up a functional trade depot, a functioning militia and a metal industry. And perhaps an alternative for Dwarven wine, they're getting quite fed up with the stuff. I've also found very rich veins of gold and silver, which (hopefully) means Ka-Ching! By the way, say I construct a tunnel towards a water source (I'm thinking of creating a way to flood the noble's quarters if they get too annoying). If I put up a floodgate, can a dwarf still pass through, like a door? Some poor miner have to breach the wall to allow the water in, and I'd hate to lose one.

Well, they've made such a great job in hyping me up for Diablo III, I haven't really cared much for this game. I'll probably pick this up at some point, but I haven't really been counting down the days.

Personally, I'm not sure that they would. Yes, it's easy to imagine a few stupid sods in a mountain cave with stolen equipment they don't quite grasp when thinking of Taliban fighters (or desert goblins). But really, if they were such a incompetent enemy, then how can they still pose a threat after all the years that's gone by? What I'm saying is, the Talibans shouldn't be underestimated or considered stupid. If they had been nothing more than a real-life equivalent to sand goblins or something like that, then there wouldn't be any of them left. They're apparently quite good at using their limitations in their favour, and, after all, they've had a lot of practice. Didn't Rambo team up with them, or some very similar movement, at some point? :biggrin: However, if they really are experimenting with monkeys for frontline service, then it's probably not that a bad an idea as it looks like on first glance. Who knows?

Huh. This can't be anything else than fate. Right before I saw this thread, I was looking through my game collection and found good old Titan Quest in there. Might pop it in and play again later. This game certainly looks interesting. Titan Quest was the best Diablo-clone that there has been so far, and it's nice to see the talent live on.

Well, I do think there's a small, underlying feeling of 'Why can't the English Enclave just do something another way than theirs for once...' beneath the more aggressive pro-metric attitudes. But it's just a feeling, it doesn't really matter. :P In my opinion, metric is more simple and pratical in comparison, but the difference is rather negible. Just use whatever you prefer. I stick to metric myself, since it's what I've grown up with, while I wouldn't call anyone out on using the imperial system. Also, the imperial system just sounds and feels more homely, while the metric system sounds best being used in a laboratory or field headquarters. There's this bit in George Orwell's 1984 when he visits a prol-pub, and an old man walks up and tries to order a pint. However, the state of Oceania only uses the metric system, and all they have on hand are litres or half-litres. A pint just sounds better, don't you think?