TwiLyghtSansSparkles

I'm not trying to tell you what to do, and I'm sorry if it came across that way. I've just had friends like that before, and it wasn't a good experience for me.

Wow. My vote? Spend less time with her. I've had friends like that before, friends who singled me out for critique but heaped the praise on others, and all it did was erode my self esteem. I'm not saying your friend group needs to be an angelic chorus that sings your praises all day, but in my experience, people who single you out in the name of friendship take more than they give. You deserve better than that.

Right. If you want to read the entire thread, you may, but as long as you know the basic background and current events relative to your character, you'll be fine.

You could also play as a non-Epic character. The Dalles would be an especially good place to play as a non-Epic, since it's basically a benevolent military dictatorship run by a small band of Epics under Stephen Vondra, a former National Guard commander. There are a lot of interesting ideas to explore with non-Epic characters, and The Dalles is an interesting place to do it. (Plus we already have a ton of Epics, so playing with a non-Epic would make you downright unique. )

Just concede victory as soon as you can. If there's no thrill, they'll get bored and stop. Or, if you want a more direct approach, just tell them you're done every time they initiate a contest. They'll get the point before too long.

Bing Bong.

A mysterious ticking noise? I wound up watching most of the creepiest episodes during a week when I had the house to myself. "Girl in the Fireplace" stuck with me for a while after I watched it—even though there was no ticking noise. Just the pugs. Which I hugged very closely all night.

I do agree that all forms of entertainment have value, and that mindlessness is often what you make of it. You can watch a show like Doctor Who because it's something to entertain you for forty minutes while you eat dinner, or you can watch Doctor Who while thinking deep thoughts about a godlike being who chooses to help people versus another godlike being who chooses to rule them, considering the nature of time and whether paradoxes are common in our world without our knowledge, wondering exactly what's out there and what will happen when we find it. However, I think that quality does make a difference. Take the Harry Potter series versus Twilight, for instance. Rowling created a magical world with familiar supernatural beings, and while she primarily used these beings to tell a good story, she also used them to hopefully get the reader thinking about issues in their world. I believe she's said before that Remus Lupin represents a person with AIDS, and even if she hadn't, the fans have drawn some pretty clear parallels. He has this horrible disease that causes him pain, that was forced on him against his will. Rather than treating him kindly and seeing how they can help him, the wizarding world does its best to bar him from gainful employment because they fear him. It's not an unfounded fear, but they discount the fact that Lupin does everything within his power to ensure he's not a danger to others. Rowling paints him as a tragic hero of sorts, but the wizarding world only sees a monster. It definitely has the power to make the reader rethink how they see people with AIDS and other incurable and contagious diseases. In Twilight, on the other hand, Jacob Black is a sexy werewolf. That's it. He's a sexy werewolf who likes to take his shirt off. I believe Meyer didn't intend to send any negative messages with this character; I think she just saw him as a sexy werewolf and thought it would be fun to make an entire Native American tribe a tribe of sexy werewolves. Yet readers picked up all sorts of negative messages in this choice. I won't go into all of them here, but it's possible to see the ultra-white and wealthy vampires vs. the Native American werewolves dichotomy as Meyer saying that white is good and civilized while Native Americans are animalistic and in constant poverty. Again, I don't think she intended this message at all, but it's an easy message to get when you read between the lines—as high school students are taught to do. The key difference between Remus Lupin and Jacob Black is, I believe, intentionality on the part of their authors. Rowling wanted to make her readers think about how we treat people like Remus, who suffer from a horrible condition that they had no say in. She wanted to make them think about this, and so she chose to accentuate certain traits—his kindness and encouraging attitude toward his students, the way he drinks a foul-tasting potion to ensure he's harmless at the full moon, the way he's viewed with suspicion and scorn by people who have never spent any time with him. Meyer, on the other hand, didn't think about how those traits she gave Jacob would come across to the reader. As a result, he's seen by some as an unflattering representation of how Meyer sees Native Americans—shirtless, poor, close to the earth in the worst ways. Whether or not it was intentional doesn't matter at this point. The message is out there and the picture she has painted is not a pretty one.

I really liked it. It was delicious on chicken and turkey. I know. "You are not allowed to express your enjoyment of that. LOL."

Would she like a jam-based sauce, perhaps? I've made one with raspberry jam, garlic, salt, pepper, and a little bit of rosemary. "You have reached your quota of positive votes for the day."

Because he started off with my perusal of an Uncyclopedia list of superhumans, and wound up taking on more personality than I'd intended. What did you like about him, if you don't mind my asking?

Heh. Funny story about Waters of Mars. Back when I watched it, I was the only Whovian in my house. I hadn't watched it at night or anything, but I'd still had trouble sleeping the night before. It was summer, and in Arizona, the only really sensible thing to do outside in summer is go for a dip in the pool. That's what my family decided to do, and I went with them. At some point, they all decided to take mouthfuls of water and spit it out, making their best "fountain in a park" poses. "Come on," they told me, "join us!" "No…no thanks," I said from the opposite end of the pool. "I'll just….go inside and….check on the dogs."

That's our Mollie.

I used to live five miles from an orchard community famous for its homemade jam. Every fall we'd go pick apples and pumpkins, and every summer we'd pick berries and cherries. The orchard shops would have bottles of jam of every flavor--cherry, strawberry, blackberry, and every mix you can think of. And then there was the canning we'd do after picking....yeah, I ate a lot of jam back then. What about Ray, Baxter, Shiny and Vapor Snake? (Also, I think Quota is punishing me for comparing him to the nastiest jam I know. )

Alex pointed out that if she gets this excited over a door she didn't know was there, imagine what she'd do if we moved to another house.

Nighthound is a jam heretic. This is not conjecture, but a fact. There is no hope for his soul. The Unicyclist would be pepper jelly. A snack traditionally enjoyed by old people like my grandmother, it can actually be rather tasty when it's done right. But it's odd. Not what you'd expect after opening a jar of jam. And you probably wouldn't like it with peanut butter. (Not that it stopped my grandmother. ) Autumn would be strawberry. Sweet, though occasionally a little sour, but a very sunny flavor. I think Nathan would be blackberry. Also sweet, but not as sunny. Definitely have to go through more thorns to get a jar of that flavor, but I'd say it's worth it. Funtimes….I think she'd be apple butter. It's not technically jam, but it acts that way, and there's nothing stopping you from treating it like jam. Maybe apple butter with something unexpected in there, like a dash of cayenne pepper or more cloves than you'd usually add. Quota is poisoned grape jelly—the bargain basement brand you get off the bottom shelf that was probably bottled during the Cold War and has stayed alive through an excess of preservatives. And it's poisoned. And gross. Just don't eat it, okay?

My parents' room has a gliding glass door that opens onto the patio, but they rarely use it. Most of the time, it stays closed behind the blinds they had installed. Well, today, someone opened it. Mollie has been running around, finding every person who wasn't there when the door was opened, so she can lead them to the door and show them how cool it is.

I find the idea that someone downvoted this post almost funny: It means someone read that and thought "NO STORMLIGHT IS NOT ABOUT SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE IT IS ABOUT MY FAVORITE CHARACTER SUPERIOR OVER ALL" and gave it a downvote. Presumably while talking like a Cyberman.

Got it. Oh! Gender-flipped casting is okay now?

I don't know if he'd correct her. I mean, if they're staging a play about Portland Epics, then it's probably for the safety and information of the general Dalles populace, so I think Vondra would appreciate her bringing the subtext to the surface.

Will Rob Cantor narrate for both of them?

Yessss. Shia LaBeouf as Timeport, because the song fits.

It's moments like this when I really hate Quota.

"It is no concern of MINE whether your people have--what was it again?" "A break from your whining!" "Ha! You really should've thought of THAT before you reminded me how terrible the soap in the downstairs bathroom is!" It is too easy to picture.