Re: [Official!] Project Horizons Comment Crew Chat thread.

[iLateralGX]

One of the largest reasons I was gone for 2 months was because the thread was mostly junk that was filling up extremely quickly. So this is a very welcome change. I might actually start participating again. :P

Thanks Kip.

[Cptadder]

Seeing Frost post... man I can relate one one hand and can't relate on the other.

Family is all, blood is all. If an uncle showed up with two shovels and smell coming from the trunk of his car and he tells me he needs my help for a few hours I go no questions asked. Does not matter the circumstances or the concerns you back blood.

Conversely my mother is despised by 2/3rds of my family including myself and family gatherings are always a mix of "we don't see you enough" and "we are sorry about what your mother did last X"

I've got a big catholic family, my grandmother had twelve children and seven made it to adulthood, six live to this day and I've met each and every one of my cousins and we back each other up.

[Frost]

I have very, very few memories prior to then. It sometimes gives me the vague feeling of just having woken up a couple decades old at some point or other.

I almost envy you. My life thus far has mostly consisted of killing time and dealing with people who are too dumb even to serve purpose in day-to-day Machinations

Having some negativity directed toward me, however vaguely, is kinda comforting in a familiar-sorta way. It makes more sense than much of my day-to-day life.

I've got some colorful swears and insults stocked up, so let me know if you're feeling down, and I'll rant at and demean you.

@Adder: I understand where you're coming from and I don't judge you for your own convictions, but personally I don't feel that these people are any better or more worthy of life or happiness because I'm related to them. It's more of an appreciation than love.

[Ironmonger]

just fyi:

[Frost]

It's been said that "Patriotism is the belief that your nation is superior to all others because you were born in it."

I'm American and plan on joining the Army not out of patriotism, but simply that I believe that America, despite all its flaws, is a nation worth defending.

[Ironmonger]

I have a very strong sense of loyalty and duty but if I feel that my loyalty is misplaced I will break away.

[Cptadder]

...yeah, I wouldn't back "blood", on its own merits, for anything. Nor country.
I'm not sure I have any sense of loyalty in regards to anyone at all.

Comes from not being raised in a situation where family is stressed I suppose. Or never getting the "other talk"

Spoiler:

[Frost]

In my case it's not so much loyalty as it is pragmatism. If there were a nation more suited to being the "big dog" of the free world and actually had a chance of being such, I'd immigrate and join their military or police force.

[Frost]

Because I have no interest whatsoever in miring myself in the civilian world. The idea of an environment wherein I'm part of a machine and able to simply do my job, in addition to the structure the life provides you and the fact that my peers will be people I can respect, that appeals to m


I'd rather die violently at 20 having accomplished something than just slide my way through life to a "dignified" and useless death at 80

[Cptadder]

Because I have no interest whatsoever in miring myself in the civilian world. The idea of an environment wherein I'm part of a machine and able to simply do my job, in addition to the structure the life provides you and the fact that my peers will be people I can respect, that appeals to m


I'd rather die violently at 20 having accomplished something than just slide my way through life to a "dignified" and useless death at 80

Hehe, the very idea of my having a "dignified" death is amusing XD
I would gladly live forever... and I mean that. Long past the death of anyone I knew and/or loved, long past the point in which life is an endless nothing without any meaning. Life is preferable to death, for me. But eh, maybe I just haven't experienced enough pain, yet.
I definitely prefer the freedom/chaos of making it up as you go along, seeing what you can get away with and just, in general, the absence of structure beyond that which I choose for myself within my own life.

Gotta agree with swicked, but then as I've always said, I want to live forever because... I want to see how it all turns out
The fact I have very little chance to see how humanity is going to be say a thousand years from now is more distressing than the thought of death itself.

[Frost]

Swick, I can respect that, it's just not the way I'd choose to life my life

As far as the immortality thing goes, yeah. I don't really get it when characters in stories bitch and whine about being immortal. There's no one alive that I know that I couldn't see myself getting over losing, and I could always make more friends. To know, deeply, hundreds of people over hundreds of years, would be an experience unlike any other

Seeing how technology and society progressed over the centuries, having the opportunity to learn hundreds of trades and skills, or simply walking across the Earth and seeing everything it has to offer....

Characters in media seem to focus on the forever part of living forever, and forget the living part.

Plus, being immortal means you could do all kinds of fun stuff, like jump out a plane with no 'chute, or bring a knife to a gunfight.

Living Forever Is Awesome

[IncoherentOrange]

Death renders all possible experiences and accomplishments afterward null and void, as you know. I had an interesting conversation recently with my father (who is, obviously, Ketchup's father as well) about death, and the value of each of our lives. I told him that I was unafraid of dying, as long as it was for a truly good reason, or came after I'd accomplished my life's goal; make a mark on the world by helping people.

As my signature says, idealism is my favorite delusion. I can only think of how many before me have had similar viewpoints, only to never succeed, and die a nobody, a drone of the ever-so-essential workforce. I am just as likely as they are to succeed or fail (or, perhaps not, with the internet), and I have only done very minor things so far. However, there is quite a chance of me doing something useful for others, as some people here have.

Somber helps people. He writes to entertain perhaps thousands, and teaches people. Dozens of people will go through his class, each and every one walking away at least slightly better for it.

Swicked, another example. He works in a power plant, assisting in some capacity to bring electricity to many thousands of people.

CamoBadger is a trained combat medic. He's able to save lives with his training. Has he? I don't know, but since he tells us he's capable of doing so, it's entirely plausible that he can and will if he can.

AdmiralStoicRum, a cook. Some people love their food, and I'm one of those people. As far as I know, he makes food for people. His work makes people happy and he gets paid for it.

Even in comparatively insignificant ways, a lot of people help a lot of other people. To conclude, have a video, which I find interesting and slightly on-topic:

[Ironmonger]

I'm joining the military mainly because I'm not sure I belong anywhere else. I have the mental capacity to be an engineer, but getting a degree in mathematics when it takes over an hour to do a complex problem will go nowhere.

[222222]

@Family: to me family always has to come first. I have a strong dislike for my brother most of the time, but I will do anything to protect or help him. I may not spend time with him if I can avoid it, but if he gets into any trouble I will be there for him. Same goes for my sisters. My parents can take care of themselves, but if they ask for help I'm there. I've had to move a lot, so the one constant in my life has been my family. This was before I started internetting, so once I left a place the people there may as well have been dead.
@Immortality: I would love to live forever. There just so much fucking everything everywhere, I won't be able to enjoy a fraction of humanity in my lifetime. Literature, music, gardening, videogames, I'll never be able to really make a dent into the information and experiences these things have to offer, and I'd just like to change that. Yes I'll be miserable when I outlive my friends and especially my family. But the way I see it, whether or not I'm alive, they will die eventually. That makes me sad, but thinking about dying knowing they will be dying soon anyways also makes me sad.
@Socialness: I used to be shy, because I moved so much that everybody had their best friend since Kindergarten and I was the new guy. But eventually I got over it and now I'm very social. I love being with people, as much as possible. I never give much thought to assailants because if someone comes at me with a weapon my best bet in any case is to run. Really my life has become so much happier since I stopped caring about what strangers where doing and thinking, and just had fun. I would highly recommend it.

[IncoherentOrange]

It's depressing to know that we shall never perceive the effects our generations have on those four or five generations into the future. I want to live to see that. If that's not possible... I'm freezing my brain after I die, for the slim chance that it can be hooked up to a computer hundreds of years into the future so I can live once more.

Ahaha, that's so crazy.

[IncoherentOrange]

I don't want to die, and I most likely never will. However, if I don't accomplish what I want to accomplish before then, and there is an afterlife (something I, personally, don't believe in) then I would be restless in it.

You've only got so long to live. Make it count in whatever way you see fit. For me, it's making an impact as a secondary objective, the primary one being, well, living my life.

Security is important too, y'know. I'm sure the other guys appreciate what you do to keep those nasty fuel rods out of the wrong hands and whatnot.

[Frost]

Me, I'm just wanting to live my life, be useful, and advance human society. I'm a Christian so I'm looking forward to something after I die, but if there's not then... Well, By definition, I wouldn't care. In the meantime, the world is a rather awesome place, and there's a lot of enjoyment to be had in it. I want to be a soldier, yes, but it's not out of any desire to be a "badass", I just have an appreciation for what's necessary to keep the world an awesome place, and I'll be good whether I end up guarding warehouses in Colorado or slugging it out with insurgents in Libya

[Caoimhe]

I saw a 14 foot long pretzel rod today. It was pretty dope. Just thought I'd let you all know.

Mainly because if I ate that I'd want to die and probably prefer it over horrible constipation.

[222222]

Damn Caiomhe, you got me beat by five feet of pretzel rod. Which is really shameful for me, what with living in the Midwest with all the fairs and carnivals and whatnot. I bet you I've been in a bigger hay maze though, so meh take that. Damn cityfolk.

[Caoimhe]

I've only been in a hedgemaze once and that was years ago. :(

[222222]

The hay maze I was in was actually two stories tall. Well not full stories, you had to kind of bend over on the first floor. But still, there was a few children in there that had been lost for several months, surviving on corn husks and hay seed I imagine. But seriously, that hay maze was huge.

[Quotidian]

Oh thank Christ. We've moved on to hedge mazes. I was getting increasingly concerned there for a second.

[Ketchup]

Aw, I missed the 'life' discussion. Oh well.
...
Looks like we're talking about carnivals. I've only ever been to one, and it was fun enough. No hedge mazes or anything particularly awesome, but it was fun.
Not many farms around here. Most of the ones in the area are horse- or cow-raising.

[Ironmonger]

Time to comment now that I haven't been able to do much for the past couple of hours. If I could live forever, it would be to learn as much as I could and build up the world. Advance industry, science, art, everything. My reasons for joining the military are pretty much exact to Frosts, but I'm also a bit of a Knight. I am no patriot, America is, at its roots, just an organization and a flag. But there are a huge amount of people in this huge country, some of them not that great, some not so smart, but most of them are decent people just trying to get by. And I will help defend them.

[IncoherentOrange]

Okay, if you won't lynch me for asking... (I'm just being skeptical here)

From what? Defend America from what? Terrorists? (Well, that's not unreasonable, but for how long will they be a problem? Are they still? Probably, but less so than before.)


It's got the support of over a dozen countries that it can call upon for aid, military and otherwise, if it requires it, and it's got no potential enemies with any means to invade them.

That's not to say there won't be more need for defense in the future, which we cannot know, since it hasn't happened yet.

[Ironmonger]

Anything that threatens the country or whatever. I've felt the military has been my calling since I was 6

EDIT: Can anypony direct me to some artists doing pony requests? Trying to find an artist for my story is getting to be a pain in the ass with no money.

[Kippershy]

The thing is, you need a standing military to ward off even the idea of someone being enemies with you.

If you can't defend yourself, someone will eventually see the easy pickings and do what they can to bully and take what they want.


America and China are theoretical enemies right now, due to the financial growth of China in recent years -- yet because of both countries having such a large standing army, neither can do anything to the other.

If one was to have no army? Well... the other would be in the position to do as they like, if they so wanted.

[Frost]

As far as China and U.S. being enemies, I'm rooting for WWIII to happen soon. Y'know why? So we can finally make fucking war movies about something besides WWII

[Cptadder]

America and China are theoretical enemies right now, due to the financial growth of China in recent years -- yet because of both countries having such a large standing army, neither can do anything to the other.

If one was to have no army? Well... the other would be in the position to do as they like, if they so wanted.

Even if one side cut their army to 1/10th its size it would be sufficient to defeat the other side's army at full strength. It's a simple problem that neither China nor the United States can build sufficient ships to land an army sufficient to control 1/100th of the other sides territory. We are literally to big to fight each other effectively. Even if China has the population to out number the United States 3 to 1 their economy is still forty years away from being able to support a fifty million strong military.

...Except...
They are still at least a hundred years (And the US itself is a few decades) away from being able to support a Navy of sufficient size to land four million troops, which is what the war-gamers (As in the professional Generals at the Pentagon) think is sufficient to hold a beachhead. The simple fact is the cost to stop an American invasion of China or a Chinese invasion of America is full magnitude (1/100) the cost to staging that invasion in the first place.

It's my firm hope that some day soon the United States and China just gives up hating each other to score political points and unites as one global super power, dividing the world between America and China. I'd say the EU as well but they have proven they can't unite enough to make a difference.

[CamoBadger]

The EU? It'll be gone within a decade, because it failed so miserably it makes me laugh. The amount of debt some countries there have accrued *cough*greece*cough* which has forced other members of the EU to pay for a bailout (sound familiar?) just created a lot of hatred and tension between them.
I think at one point last year Poland threatened war against Greece if they were bailed out again...yeah, it's bad.

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