Erunion

I think you're thinking of Monastic orders, where the individual would go off to study and embrace a path of living, usually with an eye to being a Priest or a full fledged Monk (or Nun).

So, I saw a post on a conservative facebook page 'liked' by one of my friends, and saw some problems with the facts; especially in the comments section. This was with respect to the Omar Khadr case. I discussed how the situation was, and is, complicated. That the Canadian government was not giving Omar Khadr $10 million, but rather were settling a lawsuit. I discussed the facts of the Khadr case; that his family took him to Afghanistan when he was a child, and how when he was captured in a firefight years later (2002) he was 15 years old - a child soldier. After that I discussed his illegal treatment by the Americans in Guantanamo bay (justified or not, he was a Canadian citizen held without trial and tortured - which is all highly illegal). I mentioned how two liberal governments failed to do anything about it (chretien and martin respectively) and how the harper government sat on it for years before acting at all. I then discussed how there were concerns about his families involvement in terrorist organizations, how he was trained and could possibly still have ties to terrorism, but appears to be trying to build a normal, Canadian life. I then gave a plea to the many commentators to be objective, and to fight against tribalism and fake news - that we as conservatives need to be honest, open minded, skeptical and sincere if we want to win people over. I say we as conservatives because I am one in Canada. I voted conservative in the last two elections, and am a member of the CPC (mostly because I wanted to make sure Leitch didn't win this past leadership race, and I really liked Michael Chong - names that are meaningless unless you follow canadian politics). I will likely vote conservative in 2019, unless things in he political environment seriously change in the next two years. I mentioned all of that, too. Then half an hour later I discover that my comment was deleted, I was banned from commenting on the page, and that a reply was put up implying that I and others were banned 'for attacking this page or the administrators'... which is complete nonsense. This is a clear example of censorship in order to spread propaganda. This is real Fake News. Please, please friends - don't fall for this. There are many people trying to create a stark divide, a war even, between the left and the right in the West. They do this by silencing the moderates and emphasizing the extremists. This is very, very wrong, and very, very bad for our democracy. We need to, as a bipartisan effort, fight back against this political extremism and this vile attempt to divide us as a people. That will be all, folks.

Ah just DM'd a pretty epic D&D session (first one in a while). While my party did some pretty epic stuff, the best part was this: I'd planned an encounter with an Umber Hulk to really weaken the party and get things going before the main event. One of my party is a boy wizard (super excitable, super smart, super foolish) who frightens easily. Every time he gets terrified he fires off a random spell. Obviously, an Umber Hulk is terrifying (obviously). So he randomly fires off a spell .... and it hits the Hulk. And the Hulk starts laughing, hideously. This giant, surprisingly intelligent beetle/ape cross just sits down and laughs, and laughs, and laughs. I attempted to make horrific-insectoid-monstrosity-laughing sound effects. I amused at least myself By the time it finally stopped laughing, they'd already taken off 3/5ths of its health. But anyways, it was fun to DM again after not playing for a while

Fan + water. Put a bit of water on yourself, have a fan blowing. Acts like sweat, but without the icky sweating bits.

It's on the second page of general discussion I think - we had some great convo's but it's died down a bit

@Calderis, @Lightning - thanks for the reminder why I love this forum. This is fantastic. Also, if you followed the religion thread at all, you'll see I very strongly agree with lightning here. Great perspective and topic Calderis !

Happy Canada 150! My lovely country turns 150 years old today

That's tough. I would use tele... errr.... psychokineses all the time. I still try to every once in a while. (You never know! ) But probably the coolest and most useful power would be complete time manipulation. The ability to stop time while still functioning (with some workaround so it's not impossible to move through the suddenly stopped air and not impossible to see/etc; so that it's possible for me to interact with the environment in stopped time). Added to the ability to speed or slow time at will (like Wayne and Marasi, but much more flexible), the ability to travel back or forwards in time - to view, if not to interact (maybe make small changes to the past, but nothing huge, and the if the changes have stupid long term effects I'd just go back and undo them). The final part of this power is that the time slowing/stopping would automatically kick in when I'm in danger. Huh, I'd probably need longevity too as part of it (time spent in slowed time doesn't count towards age? Something like that). It would be a complicated superpower (otherwise I'd just stop time, realize I'm blind long enough to also realize that I couldn't breathe.... and if I somehow got around that I'd appear to age fast relative to everyone else).

I can see the second set of books now - Oathbreaker, Words of Darkness and Peasants Path (plus the two more we don't know of yet).

Thanks! Yeah - I have a ton of it lying around at my parents (and I mean a ton - like 2+ large bins full of sets in bags) from when me and my bro were kids... That's what I was thinking! I usually run battles in the theatre of the mind - makes things a lot more flexible!

So I just received and accepted a formal job offer Looks like I'm now officially working starting september 11th

@Claincy - that is incredibly cool. I DM, but I usually just use imagination, or if a map is really necessary I use paper. But that is so cool it makes me regret not having proper maps.... Hrmmm. I've been considering something for some time; as a DM I was wondering what you'd think: making maps, characters & monsters.... using Lego. Thoughts?

Hah, ya'll think English is tough? Let me introduce you to The Story of Mr Shi Eating Lions: (Mandarin Chinese) "“Shí Shì Shī Shì Shī Shì, Shì Shī, Shì Shí Shí Shī.Shì Shí Shí Shì Shì Shì Shī. Shí Shí, Shì Shí Shī Shì Shì. Shì Shí, Shì Shī Shì Shì Shì. Shì Shì Shì Shí Shī, Shì Shǐ Shì, Shǐ Shì Shí Shī Shì Shì. Shì Shí Shì Shí Shī Shī, Shì Shí Shì. Shí Shì Shī, Shì Shǐ Shì Shì Shí Shì. Shí Shì Shì, Shì Shǐ Shì Shí Shì Shí Shī. Shí Shí, Shǐ Shí Shì Shí Shī, Shí Shí Shí Shī Shī. Shì Shì Shì Shì.”" Meaning: "In a stone den was a poet Mr Shi, who loved eating lions and determined to eat ten. He often went to the market to watch lions. One day at ten o'clock, ten lions just arrived at the market. At that time, Mr Shi just arrived at the market too. Seeing those ten lions, he killed them with arrows. He brought the corpses of the ten lions to the stone den. The stone den was damp. He had his servant wiping it. The stone den being wiped, only then did he try to eat those ten lions. While eating, he just realised that those ten lions were in fact ten stone-lion corpses. Try to explain this." Pronounciation:

Hah, as the thread originator I still struggle with what to say here. So here are a few - I could legitimately wear a monocle, for practical medical reasons (only one of my eyes requires a prescription!) I build robots professionally I once qualified and competed for a martial arts world championship (but didn't win ) I read the Way of Kings in two days.

@Chaos - that was awesome. Also, as a teacher, I totally get what you're coming from. Sometimes you just need to take 5 minutes to expound on something important that wasn't in the plan, but storm it! They need to hear.

Hey! Has anyone seen @TwiLyghtSansSparkles Around? She used to be a regular here but I haven't heard from her in a while? Does anyone know if she's ok?

Count me in!

It's because I tapped connection as soon as I got here (Fun factoid for those who didn't notice my join date - I was one of the first 17th sharders, coming here as soon as we moved from TWG. Unfortunately, Life got in the way and I became inactive basically immediately, up until last year when I actually became active). @Ammanas - Your name makes me want to reread the Malazan Book of the Fallen - and you know who to thank for the awesome forums we have here

I think that depends entirely on how much they like me...

Also, I'm going to be a terrible person and double post - cuz I GOT THE JOB!!!!! The job I interviewed for on Tuesday? They just contacted me and I accepted the position I'm going to be working for 8 months in the R&D department for Stemcell technologies (a Vancouver based Biotech firm; they do standardized growth media and high quality lab equipment). Its a co-op, a full time, paid internship, and part of my degree - in fact the last part of my degree, the last requirement before I graduate!!! So I'm pretty excited (Not as excited as those in the above post, but still. Pretty excited )

WUT! THIS IS AWESOME! Congrats guys

@Extesian Do ALL the things! This meme is about someone doing ALL the things. In this case, it's Mestiv getting ALL the votes.

As an old memer, @Darkness Ascendant - I'd say that @Mestiv took ALL the votes! But that you used that meme wrong. The question is; was it an intentional misuse for dramatic effect, or was it a lack of knowledge of ancient (well.... a few years is ancient in this field) memery.

Interview went well, they'll 'make a decision by the end of the week'

@Orlion On a Cob - I think you're wrong here, and quite wrong. The people were at that point already conditioned, or tricked into assuming they were. They weren't looking for an opportunity to show their worst selves; they were tricked into belief they hadn't previously held; as if by a conman. Here they're being told that they already knew that Jews were awful. They weren't being told Jews were awful, they were being told they already believed Jews to be awful. The idea is to create cognitive dissonance with the position that no, Jews are not awful. This kind of propaganda assumes a position intentionally to make you fall into that position. For this kind of con to be effective, you need to spend some time conditioning your mark first, planting the ideas in their head - which the Nazi's had already done to the German people. This is why this kind of thing is so shocking or dissonant to us; we haven't been conditioned to accept it. @Calderis - Oh don't be so pessimistic. As a whole, humanity is pretty amazing. Sometimes we're awful, and I'll be the first to admit that there's evil gnawing at the heart of us (after all, that is one of the theological and philosophical positions that I espouse, and is held as a tenant of my faith). But there is also great light and wonder and beauty in us. Do not underestimate humanity! We will always surprise ourselves.