With all this Cthullu talk, I am wondering, how many have read those Lovecraft books from which Cthullu comes?
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
I don't know, I never have, just wondered because it is mentioned so much.
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
C'thulu is a horrific demonic god creature invented by HP Lovecraft that drives men insane or kills them even to say it's name.
In part it is in response to Arbi's avatar which suggests that rather than vote for the lesser of two evils, you should vote for the greatest evil (C'thulu). Arbi is the chief administrator of the board.
There's a lot of inside talk now, because certain boardmembers have their own special dialogues, secret combinations, cliques, inside jokes, or whatever you want to call it... Part of this is in reaction to accusations that there have been special dialogues, secret combinations, clicques, inside jokes or whatever you want to call it... so in a way it's a way of mocking those who made such accusations... or laughing at themselves as being part of it... either way, now it's just kinda pathetically self-fulfilling, because newcomers have no idea what they're talking about, thus creating a special dialogues, secret combinations, cliques, inside jokes, or whatever you want to call it...
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
Um, Ray, I have absolutely no idea what you're talking about. I chose my new avatar solely to mock the "vote for the lesser of two evils" mentality. Now, I'm usually clueless as to inside jokes, stuff like that, but I honestly don't feel that a lot of that is going on on this board. There has certainly been no effort on my part to either promote or eliminate such. I know you accused me once of "inside jokes" in the chatbox when I made a reference to the book 1984. No one else got it either, so it was a failed attempt at a joke, not an inside joke.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
There's a lot of inside talk now, because certain boardmembers have their own special dialogues, secret combinations, cliques, inside jokes, or whatever you want to call it...
I really hope you're joking. But if you really do believe that maybe you'd like to have a dialog about it? Start a thread and I'm so there.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
So I'm just imagining that yet another board member is wondering why people keep mentioning C'thulu. It comes up on pretty much every chatbox session, and every other thread... and you want me to believe it's all about one avatar?
--Ray
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
Actually, Ray, now it's about two avatars. I must admit that you and I think very differently, because this, to me, seems like a total non sequitur. I just cannot imagine what secret you think is being concealed, or, for that matter, what evidence you think you have of it. I chose a new avatar because I think it is hilarious and it makes a great political point. Being a very non-standard bit of knowledge in LDS circles, a lot of people started asking just what the heck Cthulu is. Some members of this board already knew. So, I'm still at a loss to understand you Ray. I can't prove that it isn't all a conspiracy on this board using Cthulu as some sort of secret sign, but that's just because you can't prove a negative. If I even had a shred of a clue what drove you to start believing the accusation you made, maybe I could address it.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Ok, to me Cthulu is just yet another geek pop culture reference. (Spend enough time around geeky types, and it becomes apparent they have their own pop culture. Also, ftr, geek isn't meant as a derogatory term when I use it.)
Yes, there is silliness involving the meantion of Cthulu beyond just the avatars, but how does that translate into an inside joke? (or special dialogues, secret combinations, cliques?) Anyone can google Cthulu and find out the source, read the books (or not even) and play along. I play along and I've never read the books. I think it's hilarious that mirk found a squid monkey av. The thing is ugly as sin, but that might be part of the point.
And for the love of pete, Ray, you say strange and random things in the chatbox (or you used to) all the time. Is it wrong for others to do so? Or just wrong that it's understandable to more than one person?
Ok, sorry that was snarky. Bad filter. What I would really like is to get these accusations about conspiracies or cliches or whatever out in the open. Because I for one just don't see it and it's annoying to be accused of stuff and not talk it through.
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
What's wrong with inside jokes? They develop among friends who have shared experiences. It doesn't have to indicate a conscious or planned attempt to exclude anyone.
Oh, and anyone who has not said random and outrageous things in the chatbox, feel free to cast the first stone.
I think that the role reversal is amusing. Usually I'm the one trying to convince Ray of the existence of a conspiracy.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Inside jokes are great among a core of friends, but messageboards are generally public places where all sorts of people come. When used in a public setting they can be very exclusionary, and no, it's not just a matter of looking up what C'thulu means on Google. Heck, Val could've done that already, and I've known about it for years, having been a comic fan, etc. I was expressing my opinion as to why it mattered so much here.
The :E sign.. and the constant repetative references to it aren't just about a singlular icon, because Arbi's had that icon for months now.
I'm just stating how I see it, not really feeling included as one of the clique... I'm glad it's all my imagination, though. Crazy Ray strikes again.
--Ray
-- Edited by rayb at 12:42, 2008-03-12
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I'm not slow; I'm special. (Don't take it personally, everyone finds me offensive. Yet somehow I manage to live with myself.)
In my opinion, Ray, you're reading a lot into a simple thread. Val didn't asked why we were talking about Cthulu, he said that, in light of the fact that we were, he was interested to know how many had read the books. And running jokes are innocent, IMHO. For a while I didn't figure out what cowbell was, but it was a popular running joke amongst others here.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
Cowbell, Sidney/Parley, Chuthlu, Across The River, shoplifting at D.I., Beans and Ammo... there have been, and will be others. I've been excluded from most of them, but it doesn't threaten my sense of belonging on the forum. Why does it bother you so much, ray? Is it that you must be the center of something in order to feel secure?
How the :E sign came to Bountiful: Mirk mentioned somewhere that we needed a Cthulu emoticon. So, I googled "cthulu emoticon" and found ":E" I was playing along. Being silly. Does this bother you?
What I am hearing, and do correct me if I'm wrong, is that you aren't feeling like you belong here at Bountiful. Is that the case?
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"The promptings of the Holy Ghost will always be sufficient for our needs if we keep to the covenant path. Our path is uphill most days, but the help we receive for the climb is literally divine." --Elaine S. Dalton
I don't understand the whole cthulu thing. People have explained it, but I don't get it. But I don't feel excluded because so many have jokes about it. I'm with Bok on all the private jokes that go on here. There's a lot and I'm not involved in most of them (heck, I made myself a part of the guns/ammo thing by invading coco's house), but I don't feel it's a conspiracy or click or club or anything. Just the natural flow of relationships.
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It takes a big man to cry, but it takes a bigger man to laugh at that man.
To answer Valhalla's original question: no, I haven't read any Lovecraft, but I've read some Lovecraftian short stories that referenced Cthulu. In my books, Cthulu is weird, but nowhere near as weird as the Gormenghast trilogy or the new stuff by China Mieville.
But then I am totally a geek, and I love the way that "geek" has become a badge of honor instead of the insult it was when I was growing up. I love the way my boys are all, "Yeah, we're brains, and we're proud of it."
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They might not look it, but bunnies can really take care of themselves.
For everything you wanted to know about Cthulu and his kind: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cthulu
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Lo, there I see my mother, my sisters, my brothers Lo, there I see the line of my people back to the beginning Lo, they call to me, they bid me take my place among them In the halls of Valhalla, where the brave may live...forever
I have read everything HP Lovecraft wrote (as far as I know) and own a number of compilation books. I have not read them in years, but enjoyed them at the time I read them. It was quite different from other "horror" fiction of the time. One of these days I'll pull them back out and give them a try again and see if I like them still.
As for inside jokes...whatever. There is no Coven To Exclude Rayb Through Inside Jokes. The only coven around here is the Secret Projects Group run by moi...aka Officio Militant as we plan world domination. Oh yea, and black helicopters. They are everywhere.
To tell you the truth, DoubleD, I definitely won't leave my avatar up past the election, and I might change it sooner. I do want to make a point, and I think that the avatar makes it in an effective way, but I prefer people associating me mentally with my old avatar (Spock) than with my new avatar.
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If ye love wealth better than liberty, the tranquility of servitude than the animated contest of freedom, go from us in peace. May your chains sit lightly upon you, and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen! - Samuel Adams
