THE 10,000 Post Thread

[Chptrk 86]

31. Speaking of poetry, my language/writing teacher reads us a poem before we start class. There was this really funny one. If I can find it, I'll post it somewhere. But it was a  life lesson everyone should learn.

[Korot 6]

32. You mean a limerick? Those tend to be funny. Any other kind of poem I generally find boring.

[Barbarossa 51]

33. I once new a girl from Nantucket...

Oh, wait... PG13 board...

Barbarossa

[Chptrk 86]

34: Found it! It's called Life Story by Tennessee Williams. This was read in a highschool language class, so it should be fine for Simtropolis. If not, sorry.

After you've been to bed together for the first time,

without the advantage or disadvantage of any prior

   acquaintance,

the other party very often says to you,

what's your story? And you think maybe they really and

   truly do

sincerely want to know your life story, and so you light up

a cigarette and begin to tell it to them, the two of you

lying together in completely relaxed positions

like a pair of rag dolls a bored child dropped on a bed.

You tell them your story, or as much of your story

as time or a fair degree of prudence allows, and they say,

   Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

each time a little more faintly, until the oh

is just an audible breath, and then of course

there's some interruption. Slow room service comes up

with a bowl of melting ice cubes, or one of you rises to pee

and gaze at himself with mild astonishment in the

   bathroom mirror.

And then, the first thing you know, before you've had time

to pick up where you left off with your enthralling life

   story,

they're telling you their life story, exactly as they'd

   intended to all along,

and you're saying, Oh, oh, oh, oh, oh,

each time a little more faintly, the vowel at last becoming

no more than an audible sigh,

as the elevator, halfway down the corridor and a turn to

   the left,

draws one last, long, deep breath of exhaustion

and stops breathing forever. Then?

Well, one of you falls asleep

and the other one does likewise with a lighted cigarette in

   his mouth,

and that's how people burn to death in hotel rooms.

[astronelson 339]

5x7: Well, my all time favourite poem is Edgar Allen Poe's The Raven. Does anyone else like it?

[Korot 6]

6^2: Never heard of that poem, though I don't know much poems, especially non-Dutch ones.

[Chptrk 86]

XXXVII: I thought everyone had heard of The Raven. I guess I forgot about other countries being different.

[astronelson 339]

1102₃: The Raven is a poem by Edgar Allen Poe. It goes like this:

Once upon a midnight dreary, while I pondered weak and weary,

Over many a quaint and curious volume of forgotten lore,

While I nodded, nearly napping, suddenly there came a tapping,

As of some one gently rapping, rapping at my chamber door.

`'Tis some visitor,' I muttered, `tapping at my chamber door -

Only this, and nothing more.'

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December,

And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.

Eagerly I wished the morrow; - vainly I had sought to borrow

From my books surcease of sorrow - sorrow for the lost Lenore -

For the rare and radiant maiden whom the angels named Lenore -

Nameless here for evermore.

And the silken sad uncertain rustling of each purple curtain

Thrilled me - filled me with fantastic terrors never felt before;

So that now, to still the beating of my heart, I stood repeating

`'Tis some visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door -

Some late visitor entreating entrance at my chamber door; -

This it is, and nothing more,'

Presently my soul grew stronger; hesitating then no longer,

`Sir,' said I, `or Madam, truly your forgiveness I implore;

But the fact is I was napping, and so gently you came rapping,

And so faintly you came tapping, tapping at my chamber door,

That I scarce was sure I heard you' - here I opened wide the door; -

Darkness there, and nothing more.

Deep into that darkness peering, long I stood there wondering, fearing,

Doubting, dreaming dreams no mortal ever dared to dream before

But the silence was unbroken, and the darkness gave no token,

And the only word there spoken was the whispered word, `Lenore!'

This I whispered, and an echo murmured back the word, `Lenore!'

Merely this and nothing more.

Back into the chamber turning, all my soul within me burning,

Soon again I heard a tapping somewhat louder than before.

`Surely,' said I, `surely that is something at my window lattice;

Let me see then, what thereat is, and this mystery explore -

Let my heart be still a moment and this mystery explore; -

'Tis the wind and nothing more!'

Open here I flung the shutter, when, with many a flirt and flutter,

In there stepped a stately raven of the saintly days of yore.

Not the least obeisance made he; not a minute stopped or stayed he;

But, with mien of lord or lady, perched above my chamber door -

Perched upon a bust of Pallas just above my chamber door -

Perched, and sat, and nothing more.

Then this ebony bird beguiling my sad fancy into smiling,

By the grave and stern decorum of the countenance it wore,

`Though thy crest be shorn and shaven, thou,' I said, `art sure no craven.

Ghastly grim and ancient raven wandering from the nightly shore -

Tell me what thy lordly name is on the Night's Plutonian shore!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

Much I marvelled this ungainly fowl to hear discourse so plainly,

Though its answer little meaning - little relevancy bore;

For we cannot help agreeing that no living human being

Ever yet was blessed with seeing bird above his chamber door -

Bird or beast above the sculptured bust above his chamber door,

With such name as `Nevermore.'

But the raven, sitting lonely on the placid bust, spoke only,

That one word, as if his soul in that one word he did outpour.

Nothing further then he uttered - not a feather then he fluttered -

Till I scarcely more than muttered `Other friends have flown before -

On the morrow he will leave me, as my hopes have flown before.'

Then the bird said, `Nevermore.'

Startled at the stillness broken by reply so aptly spoken,

`Doubtless,' said I, `what it utters is its only stock and store,

Caught from some unhappy master whom unmerciful disaster

Followed fast and followed faster till his songs one burden bore -

Till the dirges of his hope that melancholy burden bore

Of "Never-nevermore."'

But the raven still beguiling all my sad soul into smiling,

Straight I wheeled a cushioned seat in front of bird and bust and door;

Then, upon the velvet sinking, I betook myself to linking

Fancy unto fancy, thinking what this ominous bird of yore -

What this grim, ungainly, ghastly, gaunt, and ominous bird of yore

Meant in croaking `Nevermore.'

This I sat engaged in guessing, but no syllable expressing

To the fowl whose fiery eyes now burned into my bosom's core;

This and more I sat divining, with my head at ease reclining

On the cushion's velvet lining that the lamp-light gloated o'er,

But whose velvet violet lining with the lamp-light gloating o'er,

She shall press, ah, nevermore!

Then, methought, the air grew denser, perfumed from an unseen censer

Swung by Seraphim whose foot-falls tinkled on the tufted floor.

`Wretch,' I cried, `thy God hath lent thee - by these angels he has sent thee

Respite - respite and nepenthe from thy memories of Lenore!

Quaff, oh quaff this kind nepenthe, and forget this lost Lenore!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil! -

Whether tempter sent, or whether tempest tossed thee here ashore,

Desolate yet all undaunted, on this desert land enchanted -

On this home by horror haunted - tell me truly, I implore -

Is there - is there balm in Gilead? - tell me - tell me, I implore!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Prophet!' said I, `thing of evil! - prophet still, if bird or devil!

By that Heaven that bends above us - by that God we both adore -

Tell this soul with sorrow laden if, within the distant Aidenn,

It shall clasp a sainted maiden whom the angels named Lenore -

Clasp a rare and radiant maiden, whom the angels named Lenore?'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

`Be that word our sign of parting, bird or fiend!' I shrieked upstarting -

`Get thee back into the tempest and the Night's Plutonian shore!

Leave no black plume as a token of that lie thy soul hath spoken!

Leave my loneliness unbroken! - quit the bust above my door!

Take thy beak from out my heart, and take thy form from off my door!'

Quoth the raven, `Nevermore.'

And the raven, never flitting, still is sitting, still is sitting

On the pallid bust of Pallas just above my chamber door;

And his eyes have all the seeming of a demon's that is dreaming,

And the lamp-light o'er him streaming throws his shadow on the floor;

And my soul from out that shadow that lies floating on the floor

Shall be lifted - nevermore!

You can probably see why Poe was recently called the World's First Emo.

[Korot 6]

39. Well, we might get English poems at English Lesson, I'm looking forward to it. [/sarcasm]

Regards,

Korot

[Duke87 1,070]

40. If that overhwelms you, maybe this version is more your speed:

[astronelson 339]

221₄: Where'd you get that from, Duke?

[SomeRandomAmerican 5]

42 (I think). I'm not really sure of whats going on, so I'll just ask a question that I've had for a while.

Does anyone think a war-themed CJ is a good idea?

[Korot 6]

43. War themed? As in a nation that is currently at war? Many CJ's have that as (part of) their story line, for example Carpathia 2.

[Duke87 1,070]

44...

Originally posted by: astronelson

Where'd you get that from, Duke?quote>

It's from a defunct comic strip called "The Real Live Dead". The archive can be downloaded here.

[SomeRandomAmerican 5]

Originally posted by: Korot

43. War themed? As in a nation that is currently at war? Many CJ's have that as (part of) their story line, for example Carpathia 2.quote>

45. I'm thinking more like following a whole campaign between two nations, with things like nuclear and conventional warfare, occupations, and the restructuring of society after a conflict thrown in. It wouldn't just be a small part of the storyline, it would encompass almost all of it.

[Trainmaster423 0]

46. Seriously, should I buy Tom Clancy's Endwar or halo wars?

[Korot 6]

47. Trainguy: Don't know if that works, has never been tried, I think, but once has to be the first time!

Trainmaster: Throw up a coin, heads is Halo, the other side is Endwar.

[SomeRandomAmerican 5]

48. Well, in that case, I suppose I better start getting some screens together and practicing how to photoshop tracer rounds and explosions.

[Chptrk 86]

49. A war themed CJ sounds cool! I can't wait to see it!

[Korot 6]

50. Me to! To bad we still have to wait a month.

[Larks2242 251]

51. This could take years to complete

[SomeRandomAmerican 5]

Might be more than a month. I've got school right now, and I still have to get at least three cities up and running before I start it.

[astronelson 339]

53: Korot: With regard to post #47, what if the coin lands on its edge?

[Korot 6]

54: All right, I amend: Assume the coin the thickness of the coin to be zero. Problem Solved. In theory at least, however, since no such coins exist, you should toss the coin again. The chance of the coin landing on its edge twice in a row is infinitely small.

Regards,

Korot

[Duke87 1,070]

Schfifty-five.

...and I will tell you how to do it, faster than you can say "poopty peupty pants-ss"

[SomeRandomAmerican 5]

56. Regarding post 53, if it lands on the edge play Compamy of Heroes on PC.

[Chptrk 86]

57. If it does land on the edge, you get to read minds until it gets knocked down. (Anyone else ever seen The Twilight Zone?)

[Korot 6]

58. Or you just wait until the wind blows it over to one side.

[Trainmaster423 0]

Or, I could charge people to come see the amazing edge-landing coin and save up enough money for BOTH games.

[SomeRandomAmerican 5]

60. Seems like a good business strategy. Would be awfl hard to keep it there long enough for it to be profitable, though.