Questions Thread

[Lydia]

All I know is that you can call me any damn swear you want, other than that. If someone were to call me that, may god help the planet, because I would supernova, becoming the destruction of all mankind, and indeed, the planet itself.

[PortableNuke]

Most girls feel that way about that word. I've only know one girl who I would describe that way, and she is a very unpleasent human being.

[PortableNuke]

Is it possible for salmon to catch fire? Under ordinary cooking conditions, not like on the sun or anything.

[Lydia]

Double post! A damnable offence! For shame.

Yes, salmon can catch fire. Often that is a good way of finishing the cooking of salmon. You usually have to light it on fire, though...

Why?

What did you DO?

[PortableNuke]

Nothing. I just wanted to know the odds before I started. I went with Chicken chow mein anyway, so it wasn't even an issue.

[Neon_c]

i'v got a question for all of you. Curiocity and fun stuff.

Whare did you all get your screen names... why? how? is thare even a story? did you pick random words?

[Col]

My screenname's a shortened version of my real name. WOWEE!

[TheSuburbanLetdown]

Yeahduff and I were at a Ted Leo show at University of Ilinois once. The middle act was some band that kept chanting "WE ARE THE MAKE BELIEVE!" It kinda sounded like The Police, but lousy and trying too hard to be evil. I mentioned they should be called either 'The Lousy Police," or "The Peppermint Afterlife" because it's like they're dead, but not as evil as they want to be so it's got a minty flavour. It made more sense at the time.

What I shouldn've done is use the forum name I use elsewhere, which is TheSuburbanLetdown. That name was derived from "The Suburban Get Up Kids," which was alter shortened to The Get Up Kids due to superstition that every band Matt Pryor was in that started with an "S" broke up.

[Lydia]

Lydia is the main character in a series of novels I'm writing.

[PortableNuke]

My nick comes from misreading a name in another forum. I thougth it was SamthePortableNuke, but it wasn't so I decided to start using it since I also have an image of a SAM missle launcher. (It's too big to fit on comic genesis, and I've been too lazy to resize it.) Another forum has a limit on the length of nicks, so I couldn't register (something)thePortableNuke. That is how it got shortened to PortableNuke. I have other nicks that really aren't anymore interesting.

I mentioned they should be called either 'The Lousy Police," or "The Peppermint Afterlife"...

I was thinking it was a reference to Peppermint Schnapps and alcoholism. Essentially a euphamism for being dead.

There was a story about some guy that was drinking himself to death, and only drank peppermint schnapps so his breath wouldn't smell of alcohol. It was pretty depressing if I remember correctly. It was December, he was nice to a kid then died of exposure because he left a window open in his apartment.

[Jim North]

Because my real name (Roland Lowery) has been mispelled and mispronounced every way one can imagine (and yet people are still able to come up with new ways every once in a while), I long ago decided that I wanted something short and simple and easily spelled people could use if they wanted. I was already using the name Jim as a general catchall name for characters that I had created but didn't have an actual name for yet, so I took that, stuck North on the end at random, and came up with my brand new internet alias in pretty short order. I've been using it for almost a decade now, and my wife and several of my friends call me by it, so I answer to Jim just as readily as Roland anymore.

[Lydia]

New question:

Which is more important

Human action?

Or

Human interaction?

[PortableNuke]

It depends. What are we talking about? Every human action causes a reaction by those around them which inturn causes more actions and reactions further down the line. Than again human action is useless without interaction on a personal or impersonal basis since it doesn't cause the ripple effect that human action with human interaction has.

I guess human interaction is more important if a person is more inclined to want to influence the world while human action is more important if a person is more inclined towards personal goals.

[Orphevs]

My name is from my favorite figure in Greek mythology (guess which one ). I changed the u to an e 'cause I my friend writes orbvs, which is a silly way to write orbus. I thought writing Orpheus as orphevs was equally fun and silly. Also, I like the letter V. My name starts with a V. V is a good letter. V is for vendetta.

Oh lord, Lydia. You had to go and get me going on one of these intellectual-ish topics... I should take this time to warn the boards, any time I rant I don't expect anyone to take it seriously enough to read all this crap. Well, here goes. [Vik rant]
As for human action versus human interaction... I personally believe really strongly that once someone comes up with a really set and meaningful sense of who they are, a solid sense of identity, then they have to act in a way consistent with that identity. I think this is a lot more important than how their interactions go. I think the demands of other people lead to a sort of inevitable give and take that, if it become too important to someone's life, would destroy their self, their idenity, for the sake of others.
The way I see human interactions are as a way that people can cause eachother to grow. People can develop their ideas of the world and of themselves by taking in new ideas from others. In my definition real human interaction has to involve some kind of change on one side. I've come to believe that all people are different enough when and if they've firmly established who they are that this interaction becomes less important and starts becoming more of a subset of action. Interaction is no longer a means of growth and change, but enters the category of action.
My definition of action are any of the things done once someone determines their purpose. Once they have a deeply ingrained and solid sense of meaning, all of their actions reflect their sense of self. In my view, once someone establishes their sense of self all of their actions will follow one of two paths. All of their actions will either focus on trying to chage the world to the way they feel it should be or on trying to spread their ideals. All interactions will focus on these two areas as well, and in that sense they are no longer human interactions as defined above, they no longer focus on growth and change, but instead focus on working towards supporting one's sense of self. [/Orphevs rant]
So yhea, I vote human action, all the way.

EDIT: I just wanted to say that I really like this thread. I'm all about anything that lets me rant.

[Lydia]

Human action is less valuable with out at least SOME human interaction, though, isn't it? One can act and attempt to change all they want, but if it DOESN'T change anything, if no interaction is made to affirm the change being made, the action is hollowed for the uncertainty of whether or not one made a difference.

If you put out a fire to save a house, does your action hold as much meaning as it would if you put out that fire to save a grateful family?

Does any action hold any meaning without the interacting emotions and opinions of others?

Or can the world be contained in one person's actions and eyes, and do their actions still hold value?

[Neon_c]

New question:

Which is more important

Human action?

Or

Human interaction?

i vote for human interaction.
the interaction between two people can make all the diference in heated peaco talks, trade negoations, even union deals. it's amazing how one person will screw over hundreds or thousands of people just because they dont like the guy speeking for them.

in short. i think human interactions is what deturmans the actions. sorry about my spelling guys. yea.

anyways. i should answer my own question. "Neon_C" came from a comic called "Dark Minds" thare was a biker gang leader named Neon Cyber, (eventually had his own spinoff comic). i was joining a web fourm that my friend had in highschool and just pulled the name out of the comic book. all the members were people i knew in real life so i didnt think it would be an issue. then people started calling me by Neon in real life. and introducing me to their friends as Neon, and it continued. now more of my friends call me Neon then my actual name. infact i'v even dated people that refused to call me my given name.

[PortableNuke]

What would be your superpower?

Human action is less valuable with out at least SOME human interaction, though, isn't it? One can act and attempt to change all they want, but if it DOESN'T change anything, if no interaction is made to affirm the change being made, the action is hollowed for the uncertainty of whether or not one made a difference.

If you put out a fire to save a house, does your action hold as much meaning as it would if you put out that fire to save a grateful family?

Does any action hold any meaning without the interacting emotions and opinions of others?

Or can the world be contained in one person's actions and eyes, and do their actions still hold value?

If the action is taken as an improvement on an individual's part then the action can be positive and wholely personal. Such as, if someone starts exercising because that person is unhappy with their weight then it doesn't really matter what the perception of anyone else is. Of course there is usually some outside stimuli that sparks the improvement in the first place.

Everything happen because of a reason not for a reason.

Everything we experience is entirely subjective. We filter what comes in through our senses with our past experiences and beliefs.

[Lydia]

If someone starts exercising because that person is unhappy with their weight then it doesn't really matter what the perception of anyone else is. Of course there is usually some outside stimuli that sparks the improvement in the first place.

Other people's perceptions are not the same as the interactions that they provide. What I think about someone doesn't really matter, if I converse with them positively and politely, there is always a better outcome than if I gave them my base perception of them. There is a perfect example of when one's actions are influenced by the existance of interaction for the better.

Everything happen because of a reason not for a reason.

I agree. More often than not, though, those reasons were discovered as one interacted with another human or with their environment.

Everything we experience is entirely subjective. We filter what comes in through our senses with our past experiences and beliefs.

And our past experiences and current beliefs are heavily influenced by our interactions with people, the environment, and indeed, ourselves.


BTW, my superpower would be invisibility.

[Bartholomeus]

My normal handle, Matthex, is a typo of my name, but it was taken, so I just opened the closest book at a random page: Bartholomeus is a character from Ionesco's play L'impromptu de l'Alma, not that I have read it yet.

Well, I can't help but say that technically, human action and interaction should be on the same level, interaction being a subset of general action... Yet we foolish human beings do evaluate ourselves higher than most things, giving human interaction a special place. After all, we're social creatures, and the existence of this forum and many others is the proof: fictional interaction with you people through this post is currently more important to me than interacting with my bed, and soft, soft, pillow...

My superpower would be spacing out (Hey, aim low, at least I know I've achieved my superpower :p Though I'd prefer stopping time...)

[Lydia]

Well, I can't help but say that technically, human action and interaction should be on the same level, interaction being a subset of general action... Yet we foolish human beings do evaluate ourselves higher than most things, giving human interaction a special place. After all, we're social creatures, and the existence of this forum and many others is the proof: fictional interaction with you people through this post is currently more important to me than interacting with my bed, and soft, soft, pillow...

I like this answer best of all. You win the thread!