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[liadis]

Beautiful things I've seen... I've seen many, but what's the most beautiful of them all?

Not the rising of sun over the sea of cloud atop one of the tallest mountain in my home country,
Nor the sight of the rushing Fraser River as I ride the local transit and gazes down,
Nor the sight of the dark ocean in nighttime as I stand by the sides of my friends.

Not the sight of those dear to me, such as my parents' white hairs and crevices on their face,
Nor the warmth of a certain girl that has long gone from my grasp, nor the memory of it,
Nor the wistful dreams people often have about a maiden they are maddenly in love with.

The eye of the beholder dispels all magics and illusion, but that in itself is an intricate design woven by the hand of Gary Gygax and others. That is not the most beautiful thing I have seen, though it's rumored that, of course, "Beauty is in the Eye of the Beholder".
The story between Delita and Ramza in FFT, the struggles that moved my heart as a child. Whilest beautiful, it's not the most beautiful thing I've seen.

Thousands of different dreams, woven by different hands. All the games I've played, all the games you have played. The experiences we earned ourselves but mutually shared with one another because we've all played The Game, at one point of our life. That is still not yet the most beautiful thing.

What's the most beautiful... The pathetic moments where we strive for a bite of food and strive to live for another day, where we wriggle for a ounce of life to push forward, keep pushing forward, to live, so as to enjoy all those beautiful things that once moved us, and keeps moving us.

The strength to smile at the face of death, be afraid of it, realizing our mortality. Maybe not coming to term with it - I never did - but coming to term with the freak chance that each and every one of us LIVES. Take our parents, let them born, let them meet, let them have a child, let the gods-know-how-much chance trigger for that spark of life that is you, that is me, that is each single one of us be born.

The unique-ness of how we were born, all the things we get to enjoy in our lives. The masterwork that is each and every single one of us, despite all the flaws.

... I still don't know what's the most beautiful thing I've encountered. I might be able to tell you in another 80 years... *grin*

[Sensei]

EA games that don't suck.

[Mr Tk]

Lying on a soft patch of green grass in the afternoon as a gentle breeze drifts over you and Cherry blossom from a nearby cherry tree tumble around in the wind.

[TheNewerMartianEmperor]

Succeeding in the things you do.

[smokingwreckage]

Babies. Babies are amazingly awesome.

My kids are both past the baby stage but they're still fantastic.

Cats. Psycho-deranged cats that want to bite too hard when they play.

Sunrise, sunset, stormclouds piled on the horizon, a cloudburst wandering past in the distance on a clear day.

The stars, with no streetlights for miles to dilute the glory of a fully-dark sky.

Hanging out with a bunch of people who all know how to get a laugh and bounce jokes back and forth without hogging the limelight.

Playing an RPG or wargame face-to-face with folks who are into it.

Bot-bashing on Counterstrike with some pals and Ventrilo so we can verbally high-five and backslap as we go along. "NICE 'nade!" "Holy shit man, that was awesome!"

Sitting on the back porch with my wife while she smokes her "Successfully quit smoking" cigarette (once yearly, more or less) and I puff on a cigar.

Just about any kind of bird. It's a kick to be working really late and realise you're sharing the night with a hunting owl. They're so damn quiet it's spooky and awe-inspiring when one swoops past.

Two hunting hawks buzzed me one day on their way *somewhere* at high speed. They made the most fantastic whooshing, whistling noise as they cut through the air a few feet from my head, wings half-tucked to reduce drag. The doppler effect was great: "whiiiiiiishOOOOwossssshshhhh"

[smokingwreckage]

I apologise for being natually depressing...

Yeah man, you're hardcore. You don't sound the least bit like a teenage wannabe.

[Armok]

It is beautiful how people managed to get over the mob mentality of trolling nonsense and still get this thread to became what it was supposed to be after it seemed all hope of that were lost.

I am still surprised at how many list various aspects of wars and violence, but I think I am starting to understand why that is so despite the ways it is also so very ugly: there are two reasons really.
One, it is something that a vast amount of human efort and emotion has been focused upon, and it handles imense amounts of power, it is a natural consequence that it will involve lot of beautifully efficient designs, craftsmanship, and of coarse pyrotechnics have their own kind of beauty, and is not a nuke the greatest firework of all?
Two, while the emotions that causes and fuels wars are ugly, the existence of those wars inspires very beautiful emotions in those that try to stop the war, or prevent it's effects, or simply doing their best under the circumstances.

Many people are posting animals or other living creatures, that's good I guess, thou it's a little funny because it has probably already been established all of life is included.

liadis post is beautiful by itself I almost say! 

In general, I think I simply agree with everything posted since my last post, a few rare exceptions but none important and I can't be bothered to list them.

[andrea]

Light
sunrise
wood fire
coal fire
fusion fire ( stars), probably. never seen it close enough.and if i did, i would probably be atomized.

and probably other kinds of fire. oil fire is good, but has a different feeling. more elegant and smooth, but doesn't suit me as much.


i like fire because of its heat, light, power, even destructive power somehow...

i like light much more than darkness. it makes the world shine, and everything seems better. due to this, sunrise is kind of special, and much better than sunsets. sunsets are a good end, but an end. sunrises instead are the beginning of a new day full of light.

and complex machinery is also something i like

[Sordid]

In no particular order...

Spoiler: The Spitfire (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Fountain pens (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: The Earth (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Saturn (click to show/hide)

Yes, that is an actual photo with the Sun directly behind the planet. That little dot on the left is Earth.

Spoiler: Blue amber (click to show/hide)

Amber from the extinct hymenaea protera tree. Looks blue and opaque except when viewed against the light, in which case it turns translucent and fiery orange.

Spoiler: Sailing ships (click to show/hide)

Spoiler: Kerosene lamps (click to show/hide)

Especially miniature ones.

[IndonesiaWarMinister]

Energy.
Equations.
Elementary Particles.
Time.
Matter and anti-matter, and the collide of thereof.

Rice
COMPUTER. God-damnit, one of the best inventions of modern age.




Also, gentlemen, I love war.

[Muz]

Math... statistics. How do you take something completely random and make it predictable?
Game theory.. figuring out how people think and then guessing their best move.

Electronics.. seriously some amazing stuff. You get what's basically a whole bunch of electrons moving randomly, slow or speed them down, make little traffic passageways for them to go through, and you get all kinds of things. It's all randomness, full of problems, but it works. And people have managed to shrink it down to several nanometres. It's sort of like the creation of life itself.. and Toady uses it to create an entire world.

[stonemt]

black opal... and walking in the forest with a friend.... without the friend it gets boring.

[Ai Shizuka]

Such a perfect combination of strenght and elegance:

Spoiler: Horses (click to show/hide)

[Reasonableman]

There is one thing on this Earth more beautiful than the following example, but I'm not particularly keen on sharing it. So, without further ado, the second most beautiful thing in the world:

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

The fruits of capitalism!

[Cthulhu]

Oh man look at all that candy.  I want to eat it all.

Except the chocolate.  Fruity candy is better.