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Chris Regan · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 4:36 pm Post subject: Strange Things People Say

Some time you have to laugh at some of the strange things people say to others. I ran across this gem and it gave me a chuckle so I thought I would share it with the group. Laughing

http://knowtea.com/?p=406

Teric · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 6:10 pm Post subject:

Oh wow... that's funny, in a morbid, hang-your-head-and-weep-for-humanity sort of way.

Elfen_Furry · Moderator Joined: 18 Jun 2002 Posts: 2601 Location: NYC NY

That is the funniest thing I have read in a long time... Its no wonder why we are all in this handbasket and why its getting hot in here!

anthony · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 7:14 pm Post subject:

A lot of nonsense in that post, so I felt compelled to correct them.

Thee only musical instrument made by the devil is the Harding Fiddle, and the only music which is known to come from the same source is Fanitullen.

Ignorance... Can't beat it out of people with a clue-by-four sometimes...

PrincessB · Posted: Tue Jul 15, 2008 10:14 pm Post subject:

I was talking with a co-worker once about the HP books, there was a middle aged lady nearby while we were working and talking. After a bit she got this terrified look on her face and left the work area and went out to the lobby with all the other working sitting around talking. Later the guy I was talking with went to the lobby to get a drink and overheard the lady saying "They're back there talking about those Harry Potter books, I left because if I'm around them talking about that I'll go to hell!"

I had another yelling at me about how evil the books are, I asked him if he ever read them, his response was "No way! I don't need to read that trash to know how horrible they are!" I told him, if you haven't read them then all you have is hearsay, so you really don't know what you are talking about, until you do then we can't have a discussion.

WhiteStorm · Posted: Wed Jul 16, 2008 8:08 am Post subject:

The only reason I'd want those books in the first place is if I could use it to annoy people like that.

Sigurd Volsung · Posted: Thu Jul 17, 2008 8:21 pm Post subject:

My only problem with the books is that they are rather poorly written. The ideas and characters were great, but the writing was lacking.

Chris Regan · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 12:03 pm Post subject:

Styx · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 1:53 pm Post subject:

I noticed that there were a lot of continuity mistakes from one book to another. in the first book Nearly Headless Nick says he has not eaten in nearly four hundred and some odd years (no not anywhere near 499) yet in book two he's celebrating his 500th death day. In book six Dumbledor tells Harry that the ministry can only tell if magic has been performed in a wizarding home but not that it was an under aged witch or wizard that did it, then in book seven the ministry can indeed tell if an under aged wizard has performed magic outside of school via a trace placed on them at birth, and other such things none of which really detract from the story though.

anthony · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 4:18 pm Post subject:

I find that the books are too 'cliche'....

So, they have magic...
Why the H! must she throw it in everywhere?
The strangely numbered railway track?
That's SHOWING OFF, and some muggle is bound to see something sooner or later...

The food being brought up from the kitchen by magic...
Why?
If it's that easy to use magic, why ot prepare it with magic, too?
And who casts the spell?

Someone who REALLY should be above this kind of petty showoff.

Quiddich?
Honestly, the idea that the game can be won by a team member capturing that little flying ball, even if they've been loosing the whole time...
Why aren't all the players focusing on capturing that ball?

The books reads as if Rowlins decided that 'The books are about magic, and they'll CONTAIN MAGIC! At any opportunity!"
But as everyone knows(at least those who read books by Terry Pratchett) sometimes the greatest magic is done when you abstain from USING magic, and that it's all in the head...

I haven't read enough of the books to tell if her magic is 'consistent' or not, though.
Magic can't just break the laws of physics. It must work around them.
Because if it breaks the laws of physics, there won't be any limits any more, and well... Then what's to stop a beginner from snuffing out the Sun, or vaporize the moon?

And no, you can't break 'just one' law of physics as it's all connected.

Styx · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 5:53 pm Post subject:

anthony · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 6:22 pm Post subject:

Magic NEEDS to be consistent!
(Not necessarily 'scientifically correct')

In ALL the Fantasy books it is used it IS part of the rules of that universe, and a universe needs static rules to work.

Yes, I know there are books out there where the rules of magic changes from area to area or through time, but frankly, to me that looks like the author wrote himself into a corner and just changed to rules to write himself out of it again.

Using magic for trivial tasks...
This indicates that using magic has little or no cost.
That just... sounds bad from the beginning.

If you can doanything without physical or mental excertion, where does the energy come from?

If you can use it to move an item, it can also be used to spin items; generators, maybe... Then you'd get energy out. Where does the input come from?
Just saying it's magic and doesn't NEED explaining doesn't hold water.
If you can levitate a feather, why can't the caster levitate a mountain?

In PTerry's Discworld, the wizards ave access to levitation spells, but very seldom use them as they tend to push the caster's brin out his ears. If they want to levitate themselves up to a certain level they usually locate a stone on top of a tower or something, giveit a small nudge and redirects the energy released as it drops to lift themselves.

In another example, they teleport Rincewind across the Disc, by swapping his co-ordinates with an object where they want him to end up. They take into account the distance, the rotation of the Disc and all that, but misjudges the weight of the object(a 'Barking dog', or in modern terms; cannon) and Rincewind ends up arriving at a 'rather high' speed...

Syrius · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 10:10 pm Post subject:

Not to add to the anti-HP fire (I don't like the series, period. I respect stories with magic as I like FF, Phantasy Star and Might and Magic series, but there is something I just don't like about HP), but I heard Rowling lifted some ideas from other sources, namely, the Worst Witch: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Worst_Witch

Kiki's Delivery Service>>>>>>>>>>>Potter.

Concolor · Posted: Sat Jul 19, 2008 11:19 pm Post subject:

There were several things that bugged me about the series. I guess the most irritating was the death of Sirius Black. It was senseless, not needed by the plot, and removed the one real father-figure Harry ever had.

(I tend to pick apart the story itself first, as opposed to the story's background, so this really bothered me. I wouldn't have written it that way, and didn't appreciate the way she stuck it to the readers.)

Regarding magic use in the HP world, the other main thing that ticked me off big-time was the lack of a firearm-equivalent. Wands? Gimme a break. Yeah, they're useful and stuff, but in SEVERAL places in the books there were battles using magic. Wizards tossing around all these curses and whatnot. It was so PHONY. One muggle with an automatic shotgun and a 40-round clip could have taken out the whole party. Please, Ms. Rowling, don't insult my intelligence by suggesting that no wizard in the whole magical world ever thought to make a device that could eject a hard object at high speed at a target. I'm a muggle, for cryin' out loud, and I could think of three different ways to do it just off the top of my head. So while Voldemort is still working on the second syllable of Avada ... anyone who can aim straight is putting large holes in his body.

Please.

Kasyl · Posted: Sun Jul 20, 2008 12:49 am Post subject:

Anyone here a fan of the Inheritance Series by Christopher Paolini?