New Members Introduce Yourself

My sister is a professor there. You're not allowed to hit on her.

Welcome, Scrumpy! I agree with Hatchling: your group has impeccable taste.

Hi Scrumpy! Vancouver here. I have all the games you listed except Space Alert. Good choices. And while I'm here in response to Hatchling's last question...duh...fuck yeah.

Black Barney wrote: My sister is a professor there. You're not allowed to hit on her.

It's ok. She has a beard just like Barney's.

Do we officially have more Canadians than Americans on this site now? Can we change the name?

What we need is a Canadian clone of Steve Avery to organize a Trashfest somewhere north of the 49th.

I've been a lurker here for the past two years and just recently started posting. I like to play stuff like Arkham Horror, RoboRally, and fucking Reef Encounter. I like post-apoc and steampunk but not a lot of good games in either genre. Burned out on fantasy themes a long time ago but scifi with galactic empires and shit is still okay. Been reading Victorian Era adventure novels lately.

Hatchling wrote: What we need is a Canadian clone of Steve Avery to organize a Trashfest somewhere north of the 49th.

Okay, new F:AT plan. Every region gets a clone of Steve Avery, strictly engineered to organize a Trashfest in the area on an annual basis.

The rest of the year they can go live in a Hooters or something.

"Ottawa U" is a punch line to a joke I used to tell when I lived in Philadelphia.

Why is it that people from Canada always say "I'm from Canada" like the place is three miles wide? Seriously folks, we Americans are stupid, but we could probably figure out where Ottawa is with Google in a pinch.

S.

Sagrilarus wrote: Why is it that people from Canada always say "I'm from Canada" like the place is three miles wide? Seriously folks, we Americans are stupid, but we could probably figure out where Ottawa is with Google in a pinch.

S.

It's based on personal experience. Of the hundreds of times I've told people where I'm from (Montreal....or Quebec...or Canada), the best result (for the other person understanding) is to just say ''I'm from Canada.''

I only have this problem when talking to Americans. Telling an American I'm from Montreal or Quebec sometimes (disturbingly often) results in a blank stare and when it doesn't it results in them saying, ''Oh, you're from Canada?''

So I just say I'm from Canada and it speeds up the conversation. Usually the next part is almost always, ''cold up there?''

This only applies when I'm visiting non-border States (like my recent Tennessee visit). In NY, I don't have this problem. Neither in Maine.

Sagrilarus wrote: Why is it that people from Canada always say "I'm from Canada" like the place is three miles wide? Seriously folks, we Americans are stupid, but we could probably figure out where Ottawa is with Google in a pinch.

People in the US have Google too? I thought it was like homo milk bags.

Black Barney wrote: This only applies when I'm visiting non-border States (like my recent Tennessee visit). In NY, I don't have this problem. Neither in Maine.

Well, Maine is like half in Canada, so that just makes sense.

I first saw those UHT milk bags in Switzerland. Just..on a shelf. Like bananas or something. I was wondering how people used them and someone showed me the little pitcher thingy. IT MAKES TREMENDOUS SENSE.

In Israel, they have plastic toilets (much less expansive to fix) and the tank is usually a good six feet off the ground to really blast that water down. They also have two flush handles, one for just a little water and one for the whole shebang.

I've known the milk bag thing all my life (still use them). They're fun

jeb wrote: I first saw those UHT milk bags in Switzerland. Just..on a shelf. Like bananas or something. I was wondering how people used them and someone showed me the little pitcher thingy. IT MAKES TREMENDOUS SENSE.

In Canada, non-UHT milk (the kind that requires refrigeration) comes in bags. UHT milk is mostly (though not exclusively) sold for use as a coffee whitener. Homo or homogenized milk is what Americans call "whole milk." Homo Milk Bags should be the name of a band.

Just as "homo" potentially means something different in Canada than it does in the USA, "I'm from Canada" means something different, too. To a Canadian, it means "I don't feel like explaining geography right now." Lots of people do that, no matter where they're from. I have a friend from Malawi who, when asked, often just says he's from South Africa. It's easier.

So when I was young I spent a month hiking in southern England and Wales and I kept having people ask me what part of Canada I was from. I'd tell them I was from Washington DC which is correct on a global scale if not on a local one, but it's not like I have a northern accent so I was kind of curious why I kept getting the question. I figured maybe more Canadians visited the remote towns than Americans did (I was pretty deep in the woods most of the time), or maybe my complete lack of sports paraphernalia and Nike sneakers which are essentially the American travel uniform. I didn't really know and I never took the time to pursue it.

One day I'm sitting having dinner in a pub in Chepstow and this lovely group of elderly ladies shows up with their darts in little cases. It was dart night, and I was sitting about eight feet to one side of the dart board, so a guy at the bar leaned over and said, "you might to move your seat." I nodded and let it go. They were old but they weren't THAT old. Eight feet is a fair distance. They seemed pretty sharp too, and as they warmed up I could see that they were putting the darts into a pretty controlled patch of the board. So I figured I was good.

Until the drinking started. These ladies had a table set up with "drinks in progress" and "drinks in reserve" and neither set had very long to wait. As they drank their shooting became progressively worse and I politely stood up to take another seat. But before I escaped they got me to gabbing and laughing and shooting the shit with them. Not the hottest chicks I had met on the trip, but they sure were the funnest, and I was getting awfully light-headed from the drinks they threw my way.

Finally, one of them asked the question -- "what part of Canada are you from?" This time I decided I wanted to know. Not wanting to tip my hand I asked back, "how do guys all know I'm from Canada instead of thinking I'm from the United States?" The ladies got quiet for a moment, then the woman that had asked first responded, "well, you have a North American accent . . . . . and you're not an asshole!" and all her drunk friends tittered away at her shameless response. Two seconds later the whole frikkin' pub busted up from her answer lifting drinks and cheering at her keen insight. When the noise died down I answered as always, "I'm from Washington DC" and got an even bigger howl than she had. I didn't have to pay for a drink for the next six hours.

Welshmen know how to drink.

S.