46
Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: Gay Marriage - Your Thoughts?
« on: May 18, 2012, 05:43:14 PM »I mean really, what is a marriage anyway?
An agreement between people to spend their lives together.
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An agreement between people to spend their lives together.
47
Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: Gay Marriage - Your Thoughts?
« on: May 18, 2012, 09:53:34 AM »
There were same-sex marriages in both Ancient China and Ancient Rome. There's even a Roman painting that seems to depict the marriage of two Christian saints. Then there's centuries of polygyny and polyandry in various cultures around the world. How can you claim that marriage is between "a man and a woman" when often it was between a man and dozens, if not hundreds, of women?
EDIT* armadillo, sorry Andalus I accidentally hit modify post instead of quote.
Sorry mate,
Phoenix
EDIT* armadillo, sorry Andalus I accidentally hit modify post instead of quote.
Sorry mate,
Phoenix
48
Discussion and Debate - The Philosopher's Plaza / Re: Gay Marriage - Your Thoughts?
« on: May 17, 2012, 06:22:23 PM »"marriage has always been between a man and a woman."
No it hasn't.
49
Poetry and Artistic Writing / Re: Andalus' poetry
« on: May 10, 2012, 04:00:25 PM »
Featherless Serpent
There is a two-headed snake on the roof of the airport,
Hiding among the concentric castles of ceiling vents.
Two forked tongues sprouting from the teeth of a forked neck.
It's there, I can see it through the roof's translucent panels,
Dormant against the corrugated curve, basking in the sun.
Don't tell me it's not there, not until you've lain back
On a lounge bench in that enclosure, head on a rucksack,
Soft as a stone pillow, and gazed up through webbed ladders
At curious shapes and dark shadows among the sieved sunlight,
As your tongue cradles a pencil, gripped between teeth,
Hanging upwards from the lip like a ruminant cigarette.
No smoking allowed, of course, for the hazard it brings,
But no regulation can stop me inhaling a puff of dreams.
And I'll tell you this, for your health and safety check:
The greater hazard is that unfledged serpent up there,
Lurking, watching jets hurl themselves over the fence,
And secretly, desperately, wishing for all the world
That he was Quetzalcoatl, or Jörmungandr.
There is a two-headed snake on the roof of the airport,
Hiding among the concentric castles of ceiling vents.
Two forked tongues sprouting from the teeth of a forked neck.
It's there, I can see it through the roof's translucent panels,
Dormant against the corrugated curve, basking in the sun.
Don't tell me it's not there, not until you've lain back
On a lounge bench in that enclosure, head on a rucksack,
Soft as a stone pillow, and gazed up through webbed ladders
At curious shapes and dark shadows among the sieved sunlight,
As your tongue cradles a pencil, gripped between teeth,
Hanging upwards from the lip like a ruminant cigarette.
No smoking allowed, of course, for the hazard it brings,
But no regulation can stop me inhaling a puff of dreams.
And I'll tell you this, for your health and safety check:
The greater hazard is that unfledged serpent up there,
Lurking, watching jets hurl themselves over the fence,
And secretly, desperately, wishing for all the world
That he was Quetzalcoatl, or Jörmungandr.
50
Arts, Crafts, Music & Drama - The Artisans' Guilds / Re: Voice acting project?
« on: May 04, 2012, 04:29:03 PM »
That's be fun, doing some Shakespeare or something.
Just so long as everybody has a decent microphone. I can't remember who it was that didn't on The Teacher, but ow, my ears.
Just so long as everybody has a decent microphone. I can't remember who it was that didn't on The Teacher, but ow, my ears.
51
History, Science, and Interesting Information - The Great Library / Re: But she can't sink!
« on: May 04, 2012, 03:20:06 PM »I made a mini-movie in Year 7 (first year of highschool) about how the wreck was caused by penguins who were sitting on the iceberg in wait, attacked the ship with a hydraulic ram, and then attacked the passengers with chainsaws...
Jubal you are built entirely of an alloy of win and awesome.
Made and lost in filing well before I even had an account, sorry.
JUBAL YOU SUCK.
52
Poetry and Artistic Writing / Re: Andalus' poetry
« on: May 03, 2012, 04:00:54 PM »
View from a Multi-Storey Bike Rack
When you leave Amsterdam, what you would give
For the view from the top of a multi-storey bike rack
Over centuries-old curiosa shops selling bric-a-brac,
Domed and spired roofs shielding grand station halls,
Ornate palaces, lit up gold over silver canals,
Venus and Jupiter chasing each other along waterways,
Watching themselves from high above the sluiced maze,
And to feel the evening wind chill touch you to the hilt,
As you stand on Holland's highest hill, lifted on stilts.
The ascent is the steepest to be found for leagues;
The ride down is all the gravity you'll ever feel
In that country where even grapes are flat, the seeds
Spilled and crushed beneath fixed-wheeled stampedes,
Like red and green jewels decorating the cycle lane,
Far below you on the street on the plain mortal plane.
Down from there is the sweetest ride you will make
And also the hardest goodbye, as you leave to take
Waves and wings, to a different home.
When you leave Amsterdam, what you would give
For the view from the top of a multi-storey bike rack
Over centuries-old curiosa shops selling bric-a-brac,
Domed and spired roofs shielding grand station halls,
Ornate palaces, lit up gold over silver canals,
Venus and Jupiter chasing each other along waterways,
Watching themselves from high above the sluiced maze,
And to feel the evening wind chill touch you to the hilt,
As you stand on Holland's highest hill, lifted on stilts.
The ascent is the steepest to be found for leagues;
The ride down is all the gravity you'll ever feel
In that country where even grapes are flat, the seeds
Spilled and crushed beneath fixed-wheeled stampedes,
Like red and green jewels decorating the cycle lane,
Far below you on the street on the plain mortal plane.
Down from there is the sweetest ride you will make
And also the hardest goodbye, as you leave to take
Waves and wings, to a different home.
53
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Workshop Booze Up IV - Enough with the hangovers, get talking!
« on: April 28, 2012, 09:40:32 AM »
54
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Workshop Booze Up IV - Enough with the hangovers, get talking!
« on: April 25, 2012, 08:12:47 PM »
oooh, shiny.
55
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Funny Picture Thread
« on: April 25, 2012, 05:04:53 PM »
M&B > Skyrim.
56
General Chatter - The Boozer / Re: Workshop Booze Up IV - Enough with the hangovers, get talking!
« on: April 25, 2012, 11:01:24 AM »
IIRC, the Polish largely used their cavalry as mobilised infantry, not so different to the Wehrmacht's use of motorbikes and trucks, just more... squishy.
And then of course, as Phoenixguard said, many successful charges with sabre and lance against infantry, the only unsuccessful one being when a panzer division suddenly turned up. Definitely agree, major respect for them.
P.S. I wanted to add that winged hussar emoticon we had, but we don't have it on this new forum.
P.P.S. Of course, we should really be giving our respect to the ANZACs today.
And then of course, as Phoenixguard said, many successful charges with sabre and lance against infantry, the only unsuccessful one being when a panzer division suddenly turned up. Definitely agree, major respect for them.
P.S. I wanted to add that winged hussar emoticon we had, but we don't have it on this new forum.
P.P.S. Of course, we should really be giving our respect to the ANZACs today.
57
Poetry and Artistic Writing / Re: Andalus' poetry
« on: April 19, 2012, 07:00:10 PM »
Hierophant
Let logic be your hierophant,
And wisdom your confessor.
Seek justice as your only lord,
And none to be your lesser.
Let logic be your hierophant,
And wisdom your confessor.
Seek justice as your only lord,
And none to be your lesser.
58
Poetry and Artistic Writing / Re: Andalus' poetry
« on: April 05, 2012, 05:00:13 PM »
You may have heard about the fires in Galica last week that have ravaged the forest of Fragas do Eume. It is one of the oldest forests in Europe, and has lost perhaps a thousand hectares due to this tragedy. Here is my lament.
Laid on the Forest Pyre
"We shall burn like the heathen kings of old."
The lifegiver has no mercy for his eldest children;
With ruthless love he smothers them with hot air,
Shrivels their branches and scorches their leaves
In all the oven-fired shades of terracotta.
He paints the breaking ground in his own image,
Staining every blade yellow to become his mirror;
The reflection fracturing across the gasping hillside,
Roots of parched trees bursting the dusty horror.
With the heat of burning passion he embraces them,
His parchment-dry fingers scarring their bark
As they writhe to clamber free of his smother,
As his smouldering touch of love begins to spark.
Amour to ignite the withered shell of ancient armour,
Sweltering before the ardent tongues of flame
Leaping from the brush to whisper across the bark,
Then like violent whipcracks shrieking father's name.
Merciless love piercing through the hardened scales,
To kindle the heartwood where deep hides the soul.
Spirits fly up screaming from the stricken brands,
Choking their last breaths with bitter stench of coal.
A broken scowl of agony spreads through druids' groves,
Beacons of pain tearing all across a glowing ridge,
Torches that emblazon a blaze over the bloody moon,
As the crazed father hurls himself from the sky's edge.
And in lifeless darkness the forest's pyre is raised,
Raging its way through the sacred paths of centuries.
Roars of pain blaze the trail of soulless demons,
Laying waste the ancient ghosts of history.
Laid on the Forest Pyre
"We shall burn like the heathen kings of old."
The lifegiver has no mercy for his eldest children;
With ruthless love he smothers them with hot air,
Shrivels their branches and scorches their leaves
In all the oven-fired shades of terracotta.
He paints the breaking ground in his own image,
Staining every blade yellow to become his mirror;
The reflection fracturing across the gasping hillside,
Roots of parched trees bursting the dusty horror.
With the heat of burning passion he embraces them,
His parchment-dry fingers scarring their bark
As they writhe to clamber free of his smother,
As his smouldering touch of love begins to spark.
Amour to ignite the withered shell of ancient armour,
Sweltering before the ardent tongues of flame
Leaping from the brush to whisper across the bark,
Then like violent whipcracks shrieking father's name.
Merciless love piercing through the hardened scales,
To kindle the heartwood where deep hides the soul.
Spirits fly up screaming from the stricken brands,
Choking their last breaths with bitter stench of coal.
A broken scowl of agony spreads through druids' groves,
Beacons of pain tearing all across a glowing ridge,
Torches that emblazon a blaze over the bloody moon,
As the crazed father hurls himself from the sky's edge.
And in lifeless darkness the forest's pyre is raised,
Raging its way through the sacred paths of centuries.
Roars of pain blaze the trail of soulless demons,
Laying waste the ancient ghosts of history.
59
Poetry and Artistic Writing / Re: Jubal's poems
« on: April 01, 2012, 02:29:21 PM »
Very nice one, well told! You definitely have the knack of writing these ballads in the traditional style. I've been struggling to get anything ballad-y out lately.
The Longbowman's Tale has quite some influence from Bernard Cornwell, methinks?
The Longbowman's Tale has quite some influence from Bernard Cornwell, methinks?
60
Writing, Poems, AARs, and Stories - The Storyteller's Hall / Re: Some writing advice
« on: April 01, 2012, 02:24:48 PM »
FIRST ONE FIRST ONE FIRST ONE