Shag Point, New Zealand Superthread

[LemonMacPhisto]

Originally Posted by Axver Time to horrify you, then: I don't give a shit about The Dark Knight. Also, I didn't know until about two days ago that there's even an X-Files movie coming up. I thought that had long since vanished off the radar.

You a fan of any arthouse films? Heh.

[Axver]

Originally Posted by coolian2 I went to a place for a little while that did two hour lectures. Not bad in principle, but I wanted to kill myself after the first 15 minutes.

I found it really, really depended on the lecturer. I mean, sure, in 1 or 1.5 hour lectures, the lecturer's also important, but in 2 hour ones, it was essential that they were a good public speaker. Some of my 2 hour lectures in Queensland were really good and in depth, and getting a short break in the middle was nice. But I had one guy who was so shocking that on numerous occasions, I was on the verge of standing up, ripping the microphone from him, and telling him to just give me his notes so that I could read them to everyone. He ... spoke like ... this and it ... was ... so fucking ... agonising that you just ... had so much ... trouble following ... him especially if his ... train ... of thought change- ... muffins are ... tasty.

[bono_212]

Muffins are indeed tasty, God professors are so smart

[Axver]

Originally Posted by corianderstem Philistine.

See, even after the discussion a few threads ago, I still have trouble taking anything Batman seriously. It's pretty much permanently in my head as something for kids. And I was never much of a Batman fan when I was little either, so there's no nostalgia factor.

[corianderstem]

It's funny - I could have given a rat's ass about superheroes and comics and stuff when I was younger, but now I really like a lot of the comic book adaptations.

[BonoIsMyMuse]

Originally Posted by bono_212 Muffins are indeed tasty, God professors are so smart

I usually just bribe my students with candy once or twice a semester

[Axver]

Originally Posted by LemonMacPhisto You a fan of any arthouse films? Heh.

Honestly, the biggest pain about movies is that I have to either 1. go really out of my way to see them and pay through the nose to do so ($15 minimum), or 2. completely blow my download limit and spend forever and a day downloading them. So that just discourages me from getting into them much in the first place. I imagine if I had a cheap cinema within walking distance, you might catch me enjoying movies more often.

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by Axver See, even after the discussion a few threads ago, I still have trouble taking anything Batman seriously. It's pretty much permanently in my head as something for kids. And I was never much of a Batman fan when I was little either, so there's no nostalgia factor.

I will say that, even though Batman's not my favorite, I think what Christopher Nolan is doing (taking the closest-to-realistic superhero (Batman has no real powers, just enough money to buy cool stuff) and making it as close-to-realistic as possible thematically) is a pretty cool idea, it's just like I've said before, I'm attached to the original films.

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by BonoIsMyMuse I usually just bribe my students with candy once or twice a semester

Are muffins involved?

[bono_212]

Originally Posted by Axver Honestly, the biggest pain about movies is that I have to either 1. go really out of my way to see them and pay through the nose to do so ($15 minimum), or 2. completely blow my download limit and spend forever and a day downloading them. So that just discourages me from getting into them much in the first place. I imagine if I had a cheap cinema within walking distance, you might catch me enjoying movies more often.

What is this...download limit, you and Ian keep speaking of?

[corianderstem]

Okay, kidlets - I'm going to run off and have my pizza and spectacular Coca-Cola, watch my movie, maybe blast some Springsteen (America! Fuck yeah!) and then go to bed.

Later!

[Axver]

Originally Posted by BonoIsMyMuse I usually just bribe my students with candy once or twice a semester

In my first year, I had this one lecturer who would give out a food-related prize every lecture. For example, she would ask a question on the last week's lecture, and whoever got it right, their tutorial group got a pack of Tim Tams to share.

Needless to say, she was very popular and her lectures were always well-attended.

[No spoken words]

I wish I liked the original Batman films, but, two of them were trainwrecks and the other two were pretty good, but, ultimately disappointing. Batman Begins kicked the living shit out of all of them.

And, Axver is on record as not being a huge movie fan, so his lack of excitement over The Dark Knight is about as surprising as this:

Fuck you Ian.

See? No big surprises here.

[coolian2]

Originally Posted by corianderstem It's funny - I could have given a rat's ass about superheroes and comics and stuff when I was younger, but now I really like a lot of the comic book adaptations.

I just never brought into it.

I can suspend my disbelief to watch people travelling through funny little space portals to far away planets and galaxies and live in this former water city and meet with other beings that somehow speak English and their enemy is some alien race that sucks the life from humans to survive. But Spiderman? I just don't buy it.

[Axver]

Originally Posted by bono_212 What is this...download limit, you and Ian keep speaking of?

I can only download 20GB a month before my speed gets capped. Thank god I only get limited to dialup speeds; some ISPs charge you by the gigabyte or sometimes even megabyte if you go over, while not notifying you you're over the limit and leaving you on your usual speed to run up a huge bill.

Pretty much it's due to the geographical isolation of Australia and New Zealand making it very expensive to maintain the infrastructure, e.g. the Southern Cross telecommunications cable, linking the two lightly populated countries to the rest of the Internet world. ISPs don't have as much potential here to recover their costs, pay for wholesale bandwidth, and whatnot, so one way to do that is to impose bandwidth limits where they either make shitloads if you burn through bandwidth or limit you so they know exactly how much bandwidth they need at maximum.

You CAN find some ISPs offering unlimited downloads, but those plans often tend to be very expensive and/or offered by disreputable ISPs.