Seanachai

Bah! They blew Kennedy's brains out! Anyone who knows me knows that that is my least vulnerability. You need to climb into the goddamn limo, Stuka, stake in hand, or you might as well just go off and get totally pissed!

You mean politically? </font>

Oh, and that reminds me. Grog Dorosh! I'm pissed with you, laddie. Email me. You need a good kicking, you bastard.

I think...that I should begin to write again. Is there anything left to me, short of death?

Dammit. Who's for a jolly singsong, then, eh? He is skating on a river That's been frozen since December He's a soldier on a river off to war And he just received his orders They're in his pocket with his quarters But they never cut his leave like this before And his buddies know he's crazy But They'll meet him by the bridge And he has the light of more than half the moon He skated nights when he was younger Though he always knew the danger But it seems so much is here and gone so soon And the ice talks to the river And the geese talk to themselves Will they fly all night if there's no place to land? A place to land is open water And open water he can't use When it's hard enough to find a place to stand When the ice gives in beneath you You know it changes how you dream And you will never be the same again He's going where there is no winter The only ice is in his veins He may kill someone who's face he'll never see He always knew he'd be a soldier Since his parents could remember Now he's skating down this temporary road He is skating on a river That's been frozen since December He's a soldier on a river off to war Temporary Road -John Gorka

I feel like indulging in a manly exchange of insults. Not with any purpose, but simply to posture, pose, and revile another. Of course, to do so with most of you lot would make you cry. So, who's man enough for me to revile? Nidan, you're a big girl's blouse. I would be willing to venture the opinion that in your entire lineage, there isn't a single son of any mother who could put a name to their real father. Words pour from your mouth like spittle from the mouth of a dog, and puddles in the dirt, making as much sense as the mud thereby produced. You're a big, square-headed goof. I could, without breaking a sweat, overturn your musclebound self and make you cry 'enough', while you were still trying to figure out how to place your feet. I feel somewhat better. You haven't sent me an email in ages. You mentioned trouble at work. What's that about, fella? I may be scum, but you are never alone, Nidan. I am always with you.

You're two steps away from writing for the 'American Girls' series, aren't you, oh Boo? Still...it is much better than most of your previous attempts.

Curse this insomnia, that makes me continue to post long after I'm exhausted! Curse this sense of fairness, that makes me give everyone a shot at being a fool! And curse this sense of wanting, ever wanting, to be amazed. Joe, Eternal Servant of the Peng Challenge Thread (you git), I will now stand in, and I will propose the utterly unlikable rammer4250 to be a serf of the Peng Challenge Thread. I don't like him, I doubt that I will ever agree with him on anything, but, if he will still post here, I will support him as serf. Kinda won me over with the whole 'Gilligan's Island' thing. Didn't like it, don't like him, but he's doing the thing. And now he's writing full posts, and not just boring one-liners. Don't always like Abbott, either, but I think we'd be poorer without his almost magically halfwitted posting. It's amusing to me to realize that if people like himself realized how truly Conservative Berli is, they'd be abashed. We are not a Political thread. We are The Thread. Liberte. Fraternite. Arseholery! [ November 12, 2007, 10:39 PM: Message edited by: Seanachai ]

I'm tying to get caught up on the last incarnation of the Thread, but I'm tired. Most if it is giving me the red ass. I was out celebrating a good friend's 40th birthday tonight, and I'm tired. Also, half in the bag. Is rammer4250 still posting here? I read his response to me, and he missed the most obvious point. I don't care about his politics. I just didn't like him. Still don't, so far as I've read. But he didn't come in here to make friends. He came in here to to win points for the perfection of his vision of Reality. I don't give a good goddamn about anyone's politics. I hate Mankind. But I like people. If I like you, I'll deal with what you think. I'll listen, I'll take it in. One finds the Truth in the most surprising places. You almost never find the Truth where you expect it. Mankind plays 'three card monte' with Truth. One day it will be with Dalem, the next with Peng, the next on a men's room wall in southern Idaho. Truth is like that. Everyone has a piece, but no one owns it. No one with one piece should call jihad or crusade upon someone else who has another. Truth is a jigsaw. Everyone gets a piece. For most of mankind, they don't even realize they're putting together a puzzle. And until they realize they don't hold all the pieces, the most they'll ever have is a little twisty piece of Truth, the possession of which will make them arrogant and angry, until they realize how much they need everyone else to make the Picture.

Boo, my incarnation of the Thread was better. My rules were more manly, and Peng had a meltdown. Silly bastard. I WILL BE HERE, MANO A PENGO, TO MOCK, BELITTLE AND DEBATE WITH PENG. Do you think that because we are both Olde Ones, that He, himself does not need to answer to Me?! Peng! I call upon you to respond to me, the Seanachai, another Olde One of the Peng Challenge Thread! I call upon you to discuss America! You've been talking big, Bucky! You've been hating big! NOW TALK TO ME!

Sometime over a year ago, the oldest of my younger sisters, Liz, ended up late at night watching some weird movie that she eventually found out was based on Ayn Rand's ' The Fountainhead'. She asked me, and other friends, about Ayn Rand and her works. I told her, in my opinion and without having rolled in her work, that Rand was a fascist idjit that all the gods had turned their faces from, but that there was a certain class of fools in the world who reveled in her works, and thought that they promised that people who thought Ayn Rand was right would be elevated to the level of people who were cool and in charge. And, after talking to other people, and getting conflicting opinions, she set out to read 'The Fountainhead'. This was well over a year ago. Imagine my surprise, on our latest family trip (to Disney World, which seemed, somehow, horribly appropriate) to find that she was still reading the Fountainhead, over a year later. She was within a hundred pages of the end. I asked her about it, and she told me: 'Yes, I'm still reading it. It's taken me over a year to read it. It's a horrible book. I hate it, and I hate the author. I hate everyone in the book. I hate the intended message. A more horrible group of horrible people engaged in proving themselves awful cannot be imagined'. I asked her why she simply hadn't given it up, put it aside. She told me: "I want to say that I've read it from beginning to end, so that if anyone ever asks I can tell them that Ayn Rand is an idiot who wrote about horrible people, pursuing stupid ends." She has always made me very proud to be her brother.

Oh, and BFC, if you're there? There's nothing to see here. Remember that the purpose of the Peng Challenge Thread is ineffable. So you don't need to sober up, stir about, and get on a high horse about anything. We're all over it. Fulfilling the purpose. Just as was intended. Somehow. Whoa! Is that the time?! Shouldn't you guys be over moderating the sodding General Forum? I think someone just started up a thread about abortion, or spear-fishing rights of American Indians. Or something. So little time, so many fires to piss upon. Shaking the bush here, boss! [ November 07, 2007, 10:57 PM: Message edited by: Seanachai ]

And now, some thoughts from the Bard of the Peng Challenge Thread, an Olde One, and, in case anyone has f'ing forgotten it, the person who started this Thread (in both the figurative and historic senses). During the last few years I have watched my nation polarized. I will not go into, at this point, what I think of either side. But what I will say is this: Anyone who hates an individual, a private citizen, a neighbour, for their political stance, is a person who has left the path of wisdom. Anyone who does so surrenders twice: to the foreign enemies who would destroy the right of a free people to follow their own path, and to the domestic enemies who use the fear of foreign enemies to dictate what that path should be. I will become impatient with those who I think are blind, and do not see the dangers I perceive to our democracy. I will become angry with them, when I think their blindness imperils everything I think are best and brightest about our nation. But I will only become AFRAID when I am no longer able to discuss with them my concerns and opinions. When I no longer hear them, and they no longer listen to me. Because then, you see, our enemies will have won. Here in the Peng Challenge Thread, we know that it takes all kinds to make a world. And that is why we welcome in even the worst and the stupidest. We might be able to give them a hand up. And if they prove to be cat ****e in a bag, we send them to Coventry. And that is why I always welcome everyone in, Joe. Because you can never tell who will make you smile, give you pause, make you think, or turn out to be a friend, however stupid they first appear. Even Australians. Just so you know, Small Emma has told me that she likes Australians. Apparently I gave her a book entitled 'Henrietta, There's No One Better' about an Australian girl. So you see how any one of us may make a mistake?

You seem almost...magically incapable of using UBB encoding. If you want to appear to be an asset to your political and social viewpoint, you need to show yourself able to spell, type and, if possible, figure out the finer mechanisms of communicating on the internet. Given your current posts, and I am not talking about content (much), you look like someone who is pointing at the wet stain on the front of his pants and shouting about how pissing yourself is a mark of intelligence. You've misspelled words, mistyped words, and haven't shown any posting ability beyond slightly vulgar and expansively boring insults. Peng, I cannot bespeak Coventry, and that simply because you started it. As I well know from personal experience, you can't jump on the fecking idjits if you kicked the outhouse door off its hinges first. But, as far as I'm concerned about this creature, rammer4250? I wouldn't piss on him if he was on fire, and begging for help. Now, some might point out that I have, in my turn, been slightly vulgar. And I say: Yes? Shouldn't you be sending me some single malt, with an apology for not being quite at my level of evolutionary excellence? Once the damn door is off it's hinges, no one should whinge too much about the bad language of the person with the bucket and brush.

Sounds good. What kind of music? No loss. Never could stand biscotti. The bike looks ridiculous, no matter what Xyphorus might say, and the cookie tastes like lightly sweetened chip-board.

Not until you show me proper respect, you bastard, or defeat me in a cage match involving garden implements. How are all your cute kids doing? And your fine wife? If you're not going to lay off the 'Faerie' talk, I promise them that I'll try not to scar you too horribly with the garden weasel. It's 'Sidhe'. Gently glide your weasel... Best damn purchase I ever made in the 80s. I've killed three men with — That is, there's nothing like it for weeding and breaking up soil clumps!

Here? </font>

You know, Lars, there's a question that, if I haven't asked it already, I know I've been meaning to ask for some time now. What the hell is going on? You're the third most prolific poster on the Forums. Third?! You're right behind Grog Dorosh and Emrys, for the love of God. You need to explain this to me. At length.

For one thing, why in the name of all the gods is anyone still using a screen name with an 'underscore' joining the words? I mean, seriously, what the hell is that all about? I know the sod has been hanging around in the more disturbing Pacific fringes of the Third World, but how far are we going to be into this century before he figures out that DOS is no longer a valid operating system?

I don't know, Joe. I've always rather liked Wisbech Lad. Not as a person, of course. Rather more as a 'concept'.

Here? </font>

Alright, to get things rolling, everyone say something vile about Australia.

Alright, it's near as damn it time to start a new one. So, I want you to head right this way: It's a Man's Life!

Ever been chided by your friends for playing 'wargames'? Ever been mocked for your interest in 'history'? Ever wondered where the hairy men go to smoke cigars, spit, call each other all sorts of perfectly true and applicable names, and tip each other a nod? No? Probably not. No, not you. You're perfectly willing to sit there at your computer, stroking your 'Lord of the Rings' action figures and sweating over whether your next post on the Combat Mission: Shock Force forum will make you seem sufficiently manly, while wondering what shade of 'desert grey' will make your Stryker model look realistic enough to win the acclaim of the other military buffs on the internet. Ever wondered what that whole 'Peng Challenge' thing is about? Ever popped in for a moment, and then left, head swimming, and decided to sniff and dismiss it all as 'a bunch of bull****?' Of course you have. It's not for you, laddy! It's not for anyone who doesn't rise to the sound of bagpipes, it's not for anyone who doesn't like to get together with his friends with a glass of single malt in one hand, and a museum quality replica of a rapier in the other, and send at least one friend to the hospital that night with a clipped ear! It's a Man's Life in the Peng Challenge Thread! Have you ever spent a night abusing your friends, insulting their abilities and intelligence, and telling them that you will piss on them all from a considerable height? If you have, then the Peng Challenge Thread is for you! What do we bring to the Combat Mission games, you ask? Well might you ask! We bring to this otherwise tired forum of military gamers the Big Three: Wit! Insouciance! Intellect! Oh, and the right to trash talk, pose, brag, posture and carry on as if you were buying! But we're not for little boys, genital-posturers and fools. No! Would you like to explain your latest victory in the terms of a Norse Saga? Would you like to curl your mustache, and contemplate Cyrano de Bergerac? Would you like to beat a drum and pretend you are Cochrane, recruiting for your next privateer expedition against the Spanish?! Have you got a storyteller in your soul? Do you want to strut like a cockerel? Do you despise Australia, and all of its works? Then the Peng Challenge Thread is for you! Prepare your insults, ready your wit, un-sheath your intellect! Join us in the Peng Challenge Thread! But leave your prejudices at the gate. Hate all, or hate none. Respect women, because they are the first law-givers, and that's where you came from. Everyone's got a penis, and we're not particularly interested in yours, however much it might fascinate you. Come one, come all! This Circus goes on 24/7, and once you're accepted here, even your stupidest remark will be treated with the gravity it deserves: gibberish spewed from the lips of a halfwit ass! At last! You'll be accepted! And treated like the dregs of society that you are, by your peers!

Say, Boo, don't you owe me a turn? AAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!