Omphalos

Post by **Omphalos** » 08 Feb 2008 20:18

Hi everyone. Im pretty sure that most of the people who will be signing up at this website in the near future know me or have seen me around at least. But for those of you who dont, Im a proud poppa of two from the fair city of "There's not much there, but its a great place to stop and pee in between San Francisco and Tahoe." Kudos to whomever gets that.

Ive been a Dune fan since my early 20's, though with all the upheaval lately in the online Dune community, its been a while since I picked up a Dune book. Its going to be very nice to have a stable place to come and talk Dune, now, so thanks, Freak!

Fantômas · Post by **Fantômas** » 11 Feb 2008 17:11

Yes, thank you Freakzilla.

Post by **Freakzilla** » 11 Feb 2008 18:03

My pleasure, it's something I've always wanted to do and the timing was good.

Omph and his brother set us up with the server space, my thanks goes to them.

valys · Post by **valys** » 22 Feb 2008 15:27

Heya, Omphalos. Just wanted to point out a funny inter-lingvistic twist about your nick. Since I first saw your nickname, on the DN board, I thought about a phrase in my native language, romanian: "om fălos" (two words) is very close to the pronunciacion of "Omphalos", the only difference being "ă", which sounds more like the "e" in "summer" (my english phonetics knowledge isn't good enough for me to present a decent example, sorry).

Oh, yeah, you're gonna like this

"om fălos" means "proud man"

, where om = man and fălos = proud (this is more of a regionalism, there's another word more commonly used for "proud").

Post by **Omphalos** » 22 Feb 2008 15:46

Thanks, Valys. I am indeed a proud man.

Which region is it from? I have been to a few places in Rumania. Maybe its one Ive been to before?

valys · Post by **valys** » 22 Feb 2008 15:58

Well, where have you been?

Like me, the word is a "native" of a region in the western part of the country. Timişoara, the city I'm from (and live in) is the biggest "human settlement" in these parts

Post by **Omphalos** » 22 Feb 2008 17:43

The east and north. I took a bus from Varna and stopped in Bucharest, Constanta, & Brasov, and all through Transylvania by bike and hired car, and left through Ukraine to Hungary. That was in 1996. I had the time of my life there. You guys have some HOT girls!!!

valys · Post by **valys** » 25 Feb 2008 12:38

By bike

That must have been some experience. I'm more of a "mountain person", don't really think much of the seaside, and that's why I love Braşov. Almost as much as I love our beautiful girls

Post by **Omphalos** » 25 Feb 2008 13:49

The last time I was there there were still machine gun bullet holes in quite a few buildings, right outside that pedestrian walk way where all the shops are. Beautiful town. I took the tram up to the mountain. Cant recall what it was called though.

valys · Post by **valys** » 25 Feb 2008 14:03

"Tâmpa" is the name of the mountain. It's beautiful, and the town too. Let's give people a taste. This is a view of Braşov from that mountain

Not as small as one might think from the picture, it now has a population of well over 300.000. One of my favourite towns in the country, along with Sibiu and Cluj.

But of course, I love my home town best, altough it doesn't have the mountains I would have liked

Post by **Omphalos** » 25 Feb 2008 14:51

Ever hear of a game played with tiles kind of like the British game Gin? I think the Rumanians called it Tavla? I played a lot of that when I was in that city.

valys · Post by **valys** » 25 Feb 2008 15:00

This editing sheit is cool

you might be talking about "rummy", so you're not far off with the Gin comparison

Post by **Omphalos** » 25 Feb 2008 15:06

Oh, wait a minute. Tavla is the Turkish name for backgammon. This game must have another name. but it was not played with dice, or a board. You have metal racks that you put dominoes shaped tiles into, and on each tile is the face of a card. You play it almost like Gin by collecting points from your opponent.

GamePlayer · Post by **GamePlayer** » 25 Feb 2008 15:11

Purty. Looks like Banff, one of my favorite places in Alberta.

I like backgammon. Fun game. My parents play it religiously

inhuien · Post by **inhuien** » 25 Feb 2008 15:33

Omphalos the game you're thinking of is called Rummy.

In Scotland we call the card game you're thinking of Gin Rummy

Post by **Omphalos** » 25 Feb 2008 15:47

Hmmmm. Im aware of Gin, Rummy and Gin Rummy. This game is not played with cards, and the game in Rumania had some different rules. But since its been over 10 years since I was last there, I cant remember the differences with any specificity.

valys · Post by **valys** » 25 Feb 2008 15:52

This one is called "remi", surely derived from "rummy":

Tleilax Master B · Post by **Tleilax Master B** » 25 Feb 2008 15:57

valys wrote:This is one is called "remi", surely derived from "rummy":

It is, it's called "rummikub" here:

My mom and I used to play it alot.

valys · Post by **valys** » 25 Feb 2008 16:24

Now we're gettin' somewhere

inhuien · Post by **inhuien** » 25 Feb 2008 16:25

Thats the game.

Post by **Omphalos** » 25 Feb 2008 18:03

Thats the one. thanks a lot guys! Remi is the name I remember now too. Now I can go buy one.

Fun game. I kicked some Rumanian ass at it too!

valys · Post by **valys** » 26 Feb 2008 11:32

That's because I wasn't there

Post by **Omphalos** » 26 Feb 2008 12:15

Post by **Freakzilla** » 01 Mar 2008 00:30

I have bestowed upon you the rank of administrator... but you will NOT be on the Jedi Counsel.

Post by **Omphalos** » 01 Mar 2008 01:16

This...this isnt fair. I serve the Jedi Counsel just like the rest of you. Do you think Ill just take this lying down? Where the FUCK is Palpatine?