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Messages - Astrocyte (258)

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25
Books & Comics / Re: A Song of Ice and Fire
« on: August 31, 2011, 05:05:04 pm »
Ah, maybe I should pick up Black Company then!

Warning for anyone who hasn't picked up the series yet: DO NOT go to the wiki. They make no effort to hide major plot points, so even reading the capsule summary at the top of the page can give you major spoilers.

Another flaw: the author names almost every person who appears in the book, even if they're relatively insignificant -- so it's easy to get totally lost in the sea of characters and not have any idea which ones are the important ones. I'm pretty sure the author was just trying to reflect real-life relationships (think of all your family, then all your friends, then all your acquaintances, then maybe the shop clerks or mailmen or neighbors you don't really "know" but are familiar to you -- it's a lot of people), but it can be REALLY confusing at first. Luckily the author (or editor) recognizes this and includes an appendix of all the characters in the back of each book, ridiculous as it is to need an appendix to keep them all straight. The TV show also helps, by giving you faces to put with names.

Now finished the TV series and just finished the second book. It was better than the first (though I wouldn't recommend skipping the first).

26
War Archive / Re: Buy a spot in War team?
« on: August 28, 2011, 08:20:08 pm »
The point is that people who stand to lose/gain the most, are the worst people to make any kind of decisions because they simply cannot be objective. People who are not going to join the event, are more likely to see the big picture and not only think about what this change would mean to them personally. This doesn't of course mean we will ask some random people in chat and let them decide. We have the Warmasters and other staff members who are not joining the War, they are more than capable of making these decisions.

The possibility of you not joining the War.. well, if that happens, I'm sure we will find someone to take your place.
Wow. Just wow.

If this is what you really think -- that people who want to be in War are (apparently) incapable of thinking rationally and that Warmasters are going to make the decision anyway -- why are you asking the community's opinion at all?

27
War Archive / Re: Buy a spot in War team?
« on: August 28, 2011, 08:02:13 pm »
I am not planning on joining War; I don't foresee having the time to participate.

My main objection to this idea is that I don't see it being an effective fundraiser. The prize is a spot in a long, time-intensive, very involved team event -- so the prize is only gonna be motivating to people who:
1) have time to be in War
2) have money lying around IRL
3) want to be in War so much they're willing to spend real life money to get into it
4) know they're not going to get picked up in the auction.
That's a LOT of conditions for potential donors to meet. I just don't see a lot of people being interested, and among those, I doubt many will be willing to throw down any significant money (will the exercise be worth all its potential disadvantages it if it only nets $100?).

Other pbjections:
- People have kicked and screamed in the past about how it's not fair for people to get cards in return for a donation. I don't understand how getting a spot in an event in return for a donation is any fairer.
- This could still be manipulated by people who are already planning to join War AND have real-life money -- they could use this to guarantee that their team has no weak spot from the donor.  Proven veterans and known jobbers could both make it into the donor-player pool, and then the generals would be compelled (for the good of the team) to do everything they possibly can to get the veterans and avoid the jobbers. If the donor-player pool somehow ends up being composed only of people who'd have been in War anyway, then all it's been is a War player pledge drive that maybe sucked a few bucks out of some other people too.
- Donors who don't really understand what War entails could just end up quitting after they realize they don't have time or motivation to stick with it. The end goal (more money for ETG) is achieved, but at the cost of a big FU to that donor's team. I realize that people already quit War sometimes anyway, but a donor might be more likely to do so.   
- Why do this instead of the donation schemes that people in our community have already said they would support? (shards or other in-game cards, forum icons, physical goods like a T-shirt, etc) 

28
This deck definitely deserves the name "classic." I'm currently running it against Silver mostly unupped and I just finished 48 games with an even 3:1 win/loss ratio. Only one of the losses was a blowout.

So don't hold back from trying this deck if you don't have it fully upped! Use whatever you've got and go make some money!

(Ups: Crusader, Elite Queen, Lava Destroyer, the 2 Hourglasses, and 4 Supernovas (just running plain Novas for the other 2). It'd be smarter to have QTs upped, of course -- but I don't have a lot of ups, this is just what I had lying around.)

29
The Colosseum / Re: The Colosseum
« on: August 23, 2011, 02:24:59 pm »
The gladiator idea was already awesome, but the community involvement officially elevates this to "epic."

30
Religion / Re: Teaching Kids
« on: August 23, 2011, 02:21:30 pm »
if they feel they were essentially trapped in a religous belief, I tend to think the instant they have freedom they will escape.
What's interesting is that even when people escape (heh) their parents' religion, they seem to come drifting back when it's time to get married or have kids, unless they've fully committed to a different religion by that point.

An Episcopal seminary student once told me that the Episcopal church actually banks on this and so their clergy do their best to show that if you've ever considered yourself an Episcopalian, then the church will always be there for you (at least, this is what the guy told me; he might only be speaking for his seminary, his class, or himself -- if any Episcopalians here want to correct me, please do).

31
Philosophy / Re: what do you want/wanted to be when you were young?
« on: August 23, 2011, 02:11:28 pm »
In this order, starting from around age 4 (why do I remember this?):
Artist
Teacher
Doctor
Geneticist
Actress
Writer
Teacher

So what am I doing now? I'm in school to be a speech therapist, which overlaps a lot of the skills and interests that come with wanting to be a writer or a teacher. Good thing, too, 'cause I don't have the talent to be an artist or actress and it's too late to be a doctor or geneticist ;)

32
PvP Tournaments / Re: Post your tournament ideas here
« on: August 23, 2011, 01:53:15 pm »
The Underdogs

You must use in your deck at least one card from the ten least used cards:
Ooh, I like this. How about "Your deck must include 10 copies of cards from this list in any combination" ?
(In case that doesn't make sense -- someone could have 5/5 or 6/4 of any 2 cards, or 6/2/2 or 6/3/1 or 5/3/2 of any 3, or 3/3/3/1 of any 4, etc., all the way up to 1 each of all 10 if they wanted to)

(Actually, come to think of it, "You must include at least 1 copy of each of these cards" would be pretty interesting!)


33
Religion / Re: Teaching Kids
« on: August 22, 2011, 04:58:32 pm »
I had this great big paragraph typed out, but it basically came down to this:
To a believer, religion is a truth, so there is no harm in teaching kids truth.
To an atheist, religion is a falsehood, so there is harm in teaching kids something that is not true.


Still, I wouldn't've minded if my parents told me I had a choice. >.>
Well, I know where you're coming from, but it's not like they told you you didn't is it? I know that's kind of a poor argument, but still.
Do you really expect young Nepy to have said "But mom and dad, don't I have any other choices?" And if he had, and his parents had replied "No, you do not," what was he supposed to do then?

Practically, most parents and families don't exactly take it well even when their fully-grown adult children have completely rational reasons for not following the parents' religion.
I do not know of any parents who bring their kids to services and present it as "I think this is the truth, but you should listen and consider what this religion has to say and decide for yourself; I will not be upset if you want to try other religions or if you do not choose the same path I've chosen" -- they probably exist, but they are probably also an extremely tiny minority.


Let's flip this on its head, though.  What about if atheist parents teach their kids they have a choice, and one of their kids decides to become a Muslim?  My hypocrisy-sense tingles whenever I hear people complain about parents teaching kids about anything they object to - all parents can ever do is teach what they think is the truth.
Why would the atheist parents' reaction be any different from that of a pair of Muslim parents teaching their kids they have a choice, and one of their kids deciding to become an atheist? It's not as though atheists have the market cornered on hypocrisy or moral outrage.

As for forcing kids to go to church, synagogue, the local mosque... we have children being forced to do all kinds of things they don't want, and things that may be a waste of time or even harmful.  Children with poor self-esteem and physique being forced to go out for sports, which gets them picked on even more; children who'd rather be out playing with their friends being forced to learn the clarinet; children being left in a daycare all day because daddy's at work and mommy doesn't want to put up with them.  I think being forced to attend a religious service once a week is kind of minor compared to these few examples.  I've been to churches, mosques, synagogues, and some other kinds of religious gatherings, and I found it very educational.  But because some people get all bent out of shape about religion in general, this gets blown out of proportion.
Any activity has the potential to be harmful; the atheist objection is that taking children to religious services is always harmful. Believers obviously do not think that religion is harmful, and so for them this objection is going to be absurd and offensive.

34
Philosophy / Re: A truly sadistic choice
« on: August 22, 2011, 04:10:37 pm »
I can't imagine anyone but the most extreme utilitarians/crazy people actually trying to cause physical harm to one who chose B.
I dunno, man -- look at the mob outside the courthouse at the Casey Anthony trial, and the death threats and abuse the jurors got after the trial was over -- and that was without a god or some other powerful figurehead telling them all to do it. I find it pretty easy to believe.

But then, I have pretty much no faith in people  :)

35
Philosophy / Re: Is the journey more important than the destination?
« on: August 21, 2011, 09:28:43 pm »
There's no destinations without journeys, though, so I'm not comfortable saying that a measurable end result somehow has more value than the process of getting there.

I do agree that most processes end up with multiple results in addition to whichever results were planned or intended.

36
Harry Potter: House Cup Competition / Re: HPPvP House Colors **Updated**
« on: August 21, 2011, 09:16:06 pm »
I really dig the Harry Potter theme and would be sad if it went away, but the event concept still works as a team tournament with defined roles and special powers.

It'll also be interesting to see how things work with the Heads of House, since it seems like they have a lot of responsibility within the event.

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