Erunion

...... And here I thought you were going to grab some Iron Maiden

@Cognizantastic - That's obscene. Wow. Where are you planning on studying!? But good work on the scholarship It'll help!

Love this. Reading a ton of Lewis right now. It's great.

@Delightful - wait, so people do no grains at all for Pesach? I thought it was unleavened bread? (So no leaven, nothing left to rise, but carbs were allowed?) Mind you, my knowledge of pesach traditoon stems mostly from Moses.... so if memory serves it was lamb, unleavened bread, bitter herbs? That kind of thing? I thought the feast on the 15th of the month was the feast of unleavened bread? Mind you, there's a world of difference between what a Christian will read from Moses and what a Jew practices in their day to day life; we lack context and tradition there. Meanwhile, I am very pleased with my recent culinary endeavours, as I try desperately to learn how to cook before I move out at the end of the year... So anyway, I made shawarma spiced pork over couscous with lemon-drenched cabbage, and it was delicious. And I didn't burn down the kitchen! So win win!

Wait wait wait - $20,000 is a drop in the bucket? Where are you studying? My entire 6 years,including taking every summer semester (so 3 full semesters a year) has been... $40,000? Ish? Something like that?

Here's my response to that https://youtu.be/r-odIIQORQ4

As of today I qualify as being in my 'mid-twenties'.

What @Jondesu said - the Israelis were and are God's chosen people. There have been pushes through history by Christians to say that the Jews have been replaced in Gods plan by the Christians - but that is an extremely divisive topic, one Christians still argue about. I fall firmly into the camp of believing that God still has a specific plan and place for Israel (and, as Jondesu said, you guys are either figuratively or literally key to the events in the Revelation, the events of the end times whenever those may be). While I don't support all the actions of the state of Israel, I absolutely support the existence of the state of Israel. What you'll find through history is that a lot of the anti-Jewish theology was based off of either Roman politics or racism, usually a mixture of both. It has no place in scripture, for remember! Our New Testament was also written almost entirely by Jews! It is an incredibly Jewish book! Christianity is a religion "to the Jew first, and also to the Greek". While Jesus (Yeshua) predicted the destruction of Jerusalem in AD 70, he didn't call for it. He merely anticipated it. On another topic, Christ anticipated the destruction of His temple, and that he would raise it up again in 3 days. And so it is that Jesus the Christ is risen, on this third day from the Passover! Happy pascha/Easter to all my Christian friends here, and to all others as well, for Christ came for the whole world, he died for the whole world and is risen for the sake of all of us.

I just found this. I'm assuming @TwiLyghtSansSparkles has seen it? Because it is awesome, funny, and about a pug. In spoilers - contains some mild irish cursing.

@maxal - I've noticed the same on this coast too: without the drive for scholarships (and the money made from high school/college sports) there's much less of an emphasis on sports in high school, and a much greater emphasis on art. You see, in Canada, when we cut funding we cut all funding equally

But it's so worth it! Although that's totally accurate - a lot of side quests in the middle. Best description ever. But they're not bad side quests! Its just a matter of how fast you read, and reading them back to back. If you had to wait years between the middle books (while they're all on side quests and you want to get back to the main quest) it would have been bad. But i started when book 11 was out and I was a fast reader, so I didn't even notice.

@Quiver - conversely, it could be them presenting the differing opinions of two of their editors/writers? But that's being super generous.

I'm going to echo @Mestiv here - you can't make anyone happy. Its not your job, and it's not possible. However, you can facilitate other people's happiness. You can make happiness possible, or more likely. For this, there's no one size fits all solution. Everyone is different. Generally, giving people a sense of belonging and that they are loved and worthy helps, a lot. One thing I want to mention though is this: if you try to be selfless you will either fail or be miserable. In both cases, you won't make people happy. Selflessness is about self-denial, but what a conscious attempt at selflessness it leads to is the kind 'miserable martyr' who's impossible to live with - I think you know what I'm talking about? The kind of person who's always doing something for others miserably and never feels they get the thanks they deserve. You see, selflessness is not a Virtue of itself, it is merely the negative of the Vice selfishness. Instwsd of selflessness, it is better to cultivate in yourself the positive Virtue of Charity. Charity, in the traditional sense (and not the modern sense, which is closer to alms) is about free, unconditional love. Charity isn't about self-denial, it's about positive affirmation. I love this person and want what's best for them. Charity doesn't ask what I can give up (as selflessness does), but rather asks what I can give - what positive, proactive things I can do. Charity is about considering others, and considering there welfare as paramount. A truly charitable person will sit down and listen to others. Will sincerely care. Will pay attention. Do the little things - not out of duty or responsibility but out of love. (And when I speak of love, I don't just mean a temporary emotional state like 'being in love' - while wonderful, that does not, cannot and should not last. It's such a fever pitch of feeling, it would burn you out! I mean a long-term, developed commitment to wellbeing. I mean a deep, honest caring for that other person.) Disclaimer, this is a traditional Virtue of Christianity, but is not exclusively Christian. When discussing it, I am coming from my background as a Christian, where I believe that my God will help me in developing this virtue, although I am often stubborn in resisting that help, and not terribly good at this particular Virtue. But we get better

@Kaymyth - you've never read a word of WOT? I'm horrified! The series that introduced me to the wider world of Fantasy (beyond Narnia and Middle Earth) and that turned me into a feminist? It's not perfect, but it's so good.

IN other random news, I have increasingly realized that I come here to procrastinate. Basically all of my best (and longest) posts were written when I was supposed to be writing some paper or another... I have seriously written 2,000 word forum posts on this site while procrastinating from writing reports/etc. It's a hilarious problem. (Another way of looking at it might be that I use this site to overcome writers block! In that case, yay 17th Shard!)

@Darkness Ascendant - You are an open, forthright individual. You strive always to bring joy and humour to others, and that is a sign of a truly kind heart - to wish joy and happiness on others even when you are struggling yourself.

Dang. I don't really want to get a tattoo... Maybe I can get away with a pendant. Or fool 'em with a really good semi-permanent marker....

Gotta be Perrin. That big shaggy fluffball has got to be Lord Goldeneyes.

@Darkness Ascendant - A huge, massive internet hug. Have yourself one /hug

It's on a list. A loooong list. But it's up there. Near the top, actually. However, as a Christian and a History geek, I feel I must answer some of that comic you posted; on the whole though I definitely can see God facepalming a lot at what we do to each other. When Jesus was asked what the greatest commandment (Mark 12) was he said unequivocally that it was to love the lord your God, but he immediately followed it with 'love your neighbor as yourself'. We (the religious community), like most humans, find both of these to be terribly difficult standards to uphold so we like to pretend we're doing as we ought by following other, less important strictures. This often leads to Pride, a hard, judgmental attitude, a skewed perspective of morality and, indeed, of reality. Uncle Screwtape would be Proud. (Seriously, you guys, C.S. Lewis is brilliant. I recently purchased a collection of his signature classics. One of my top 10 purchases ever. Fantastic reads, highly recommend). Anyway, that was a rabbit trail. If you posit that the Bible was/is divinely inspired (an assumption I make based on certain evidences, but also on my own faith), then you must expect it to be timeless. As God (assuming the standard conception of the Judeo-Christian God) exists outside of time, then too anything he directly inspired would contain truth that is unaffected by time, hence why so many Christian's take the Bible so seriously (and why so many Jews take the Torah so seriously). It, like God, is the same yesterday, today and forever. That being said, what you'll find when a Christian is attacking another person for that persons behaviour (however 'sinful'), they are behaving contrary to the express command of Christ. We are commanded to love our neighbour as ourselves. Commanded. Not to be nice to people, or to be helpful, or to just get along with them, but to LOVE them. If a Christian's behaviour towards another is not loving, then that Christian is disobeying a fundamental tenant of the Christian faith. That being said, I personally break this almost daily. It is, quite intentionally, an impossible standard for an unaided and imperfect human to achieve - this is why God promises to help us towards it in this life, and to perfect us in the next. Also an important addendum, I don't have to agree with you to love you. In fact, if I see you doing something which I believe to be harmful to you, my love ought to compel me to act to correct that, as I would correct my brother or my friend. But, as with my brother or my friend, the correction must only be honest, loving and forthright. And it cannot be through compulsion, or else what good is it? God cares for the heart. If I compel you to obey my own standards, whether or not those standards are better or right is irrelevant (as long as you're not harming others, anyway) - if you are compelled then your heart remains unchanged and I have done no good, and perhaps a great deal of ill. Unfortunately, many of us take it upon ourselves to compel others to obey our own moral standards (which tend to bear a passing resemblance to God's, but are not truly His, only crude facsimiles). This is a tragic, deplorable and distressingly common practice. tl;dr - If God is constant then so too is His word. Thus respecting the Bible is paramount to the believer. However, Christian's are commanded to love our neighbor (that's you! And you! And you!). If our behavior isn't loving, then we're not doing as we ought and God will quite rightly facepalm at us, as he tries to steer us back to his path of love.

.... Is this thread being necroed? I keep getting notifications for people upvoting my stuff in the early part of this thread....

@Jondesu - yep, that's exactly what the WBC do. They're cremlings. Absolute, despicable cremlings. While some of them are True Believers, they as a whole do it for the money. Makes me want to do very violent and unchristian things to them. Which would be wrong of me, so I won't. SO I could use a hug. Been working ridiculously late basically every night, and the nights when I don't HAVE to work late I stay up late anyway because I'm not used to sleeping at a reasonable hour. (By late, I mean 2-3 in the morning. Orz). In addition to that, I'm just feeling kinda crummy/stuck in a rut. Right now the only thing that seems like it's advancing in my life is my Uni degree (which is almost done! I'm out this year! But the last few months are ridiculously busy and stressfu), and I know that life in general will pick up once I'm free - but knowing is not the same as feeling. And once I am job hunting in the summer to start work in September, that'll be a whole 'nother pile of stress. Just because I want to get on my life doesn't mean it's not scary. Generally, I just need a hug and a nap orz.

They are the best.

Also @TwiLyghtSansSparkles - do you loath all of yourself or part of yourself. Because there's a lot of you that you should love about yourself - I know only of your writing skill, your genuinely caring attitude/etc. These are things you should love about yourself. Maybe there are aspects of your personality that you really don't like - that you loathe. Maybe you are right to do so. But don't throw out the baby with the bathwater - don't hate yourself, hate the things you need to change. And then change them. Hating yourself will only hurt and encourage you to despair. But there are things you can change, and there are parts of your personality you can overcome. Those you can be free to dislike, and more importantly you are free to change. You can do this. Edit, Note and Caveat: None of this is easy. None of this is ever easy. Really, none of it should be easy as it's the difficulty of developing character that builds other aspects of your character and gives you a real appreciation for good character.

@TwiLyghtSansSparkles - it's a charger that you soaked with tea, right? Like the solid white box thing? Then that's probably fine. It's unlikely to have sensitive electronic components in it - just let it dry thoroughly and you should be ok. Was it plugged in when you spilled? Did anything happen? Sparking? A weird burnt smell? If not, then you're probably fine. Chargers are usually robust, and if it's all electrics without any electronics then there won't be a problem as soon as all the fluid is gone. Electric/electronic systems short circuit when fluid connects points that aren't supposed to be connected. With sensitive electronic components this can cause disaster - usually it will burn stuff out. However, if your system doesn't have parts that can be damaged by short circuit, then you have nothing to worry about. Furthermore, even if you do have sensitive components, if it's not actively powered when the circuit is shorted then nothing happens, because there's no power to cause damage. You just need to let it dry after. Fun fact! If they're 100% powered off you can actually toss computers into a bath, pull 'em out, dry 'em off and have it suffer no ill effects! As long as it's completely dry. And you don't leave it in long enough to corrode/rust. And the water's clean and doesn't leave residue. please don't try this at home