Guy Humual's page

I doubt this story is legit, not just because I live in Nova Scotia, and not just because Dartmouth is a small city in of itself and there's at least half a dozen elementary schools in the area, but I doubt it true because Dartmouth is part of Halifax now and their school board is part of the Halifax regional school board. Actions like this (I'd think) would need to be approved by a school board and the Halifax Regional School board is probably more dysfunctional then the US house of Representatives and the US Senate combined. They recently had to adjourn a meeting because they couldn't agree on seating arrangements of it's members. I can't imagine them okaying anything like this. If this school went rogue and wrote up these rules just for their own school I haven't heard anything about it. You'd think that if a school in my area decided not to celebrate mother's day or father's day (and by celebrate I'd assume that means making cards with macaroni or glitter or something) that I'd hear something about it on the local news.

Now having said all that, and assuming that I missed some local kerfuffle on the news, I have to say it's really no big deal. Kids are being sent to school to learn skills necessary to be productive members of society. We in Canada accept that religion has no place in our schools, why would we then accept holidays that harken to a rigid and outdated family structure?

You do realize that not everyone posting in this thread is American or living in America right? While I find your thoughts of a new revolution charming (although somewhat suspect seeing as all this revolutionary talk has really increased after the majority of Americans elected a black President) I'm not sure I see how it fits into the "Why are people so easily offended" vein. I mean sure if you were to go political the right is offended by everything the President does, and while I'm not exactly pleased with the drone strikes, Guantanamo, or the increased prosecution of whistleblowers, I tend to think he's doing a pretty good job considering what he's got to work with. I mean he could cure cancer and faux news would complain that he's putting doctors out of work.

The thing I'd like to say is that although I am very much for freedom of the press, the press has a duty not to interfere with an ongoing investigation, they need to report things, but reporting failed terrorist plots ahead of government investigations alerts people involved and potentially jeopardizes on going actions. I do hate the way the Obama administration is going after Assange, and I have mixed feelings about Manning. On the one hand Manning did turn over government secrets to the press, on the other hand these weren't exactly carefully guarded secrets, and lots of people with low level clearance hand access to them.

On the one hand Julian Assange claims to have read everything before putting it up on wiki leaks and even kept some things back, but on the other hand there were a lot of documents, and if he didn't vet the articles he put up then that is irresponsible and reckless. Ultimately I don't think Julian Assange did anything wrong even if he did copy paste everything he got from Manning. I can see the US and it's allies being upset with him but anything that was truly detrimental to government security shouldn't have been put in such a widely accessible data base to begin with. I don't remember there being any bomb shells in those documents anyways. There were quite a few embarrassments but nothing that was detrimental to US security.

Calling Obama worse then Bush or even Nixon seems like a bit of a stretch to me, I mean I agree that if Obama does successfully prosecute Assange and starts arresting reporters or something that the case could be made, but as of right now it's a bit of a stretch.

Not to spoil anything but I was pretty much pleased with how Jack checked out. Honestly I would have preferred a quicker death actually, had him go out like the no good puck that he was, but all things considered I rather liked the way things turned out. You essentially get to take everything away from him and defeat him both physically and mentally. I mean I hated the guy but extending his death doesn't make me feel better.

There needs to be an investigation into the problems at Benghazi, but it's not a scandal that a consulate was attacked, and while it may be a tragedy that four US citizens were killed, politicizing the investigation process seems pretty callous and vile. Course the sad thing is most people are willing to accept this from our politicians these days.

In EA's case I'd say it's how they treat their employees. Disney on the other hand has increased copyright protection on intellectual property to a ridiculous level. Originally copyright was intended to allow the creator the chance to make a living off of the proceeds of their work. Originally they had something like twenty years to do that, now, thanks almost entirely to Disney lawyers, it's something like 70 years after the death of the author. Why is that evil? Well suppose a bunch of fans got together and decided to make a Star Wars film, under the original copyright laws we could have seen something like that in the 90s, but now thanks to Disney, something that was created just before I was born, won't be public domain within my lifetime. Heck Steamboat Willy, which came out in 1928, won't be in public domain until 2023. Disney lawyers have been threatening to sue anyone that argues otherwise despite discrepancies in the movie's copyright notice.

Meanwhile Disney's empire was built on public domain characters, strengthened through the purchase of other author's sweat and blood, and maintained by an army of lawyers. Disney has taken something intended to protect authors and turned it into something that's almost entirely a tool of the faceless corporation.

As to their products? I like them just fine. I mean some of it is hit and miss but Disney has made some classic movies over the years and EA has put out some great games.

Here's the thing I don't get about Star Wars: people complain, say "Lucas is destroying Star Wars", then continue to buy Star Wars products.

George Lucas isn't the problem, he was a small part of the problem granted, but he's a heartless business man who adds "funny" characters like Jar-Jar into his movies because he thinks that the toys will sell. The real problem with Star Wars has always been the fans. I loved Star Wars as well once upon a time, but then George started meddling with the product, and suddenly we had Hans gunning down a poor, likely cross eyed, farsighted rodian (who couldn't hit something less then 5 feet in front of him) for sport. Star Wars fans were outraged of course but then they kept buying Star Wars stuff. If people had stopped buying the remastered editions Lucas would have gotten the message.

Disney is the same sort of creature Lucas is, they know that slapping a Star Wars logo on any sort of garbage will have the sad Star Wars fan buying it up . . . sure they're complain and cry that [insert owner of the Star Wars brand here] is ruining Star Wars, but they will still buy it up.

Now I have a bit more faith in Disney then I do Lucas, granted Disney is pretty much a LE organization that's pretty much intent on extending copyright and buying up every IP it can get it's hands on to the detriment of North American culture and society, but they do know how to handle an IP. They're going to get the best talent to work on Star Wars so they can mine it for all it's worth. If they think that EA (which is pretty much a NE entity) is the best choice for handling the Star Wars games then I trust that Disney has done their homework.

Jack will do that to you :)

Racism still exists and always will. Racism is basically ignorance and misinformation and those two things are never going away.

I'd really recommend playing as soldier or gunzerker. Zero's power is more of an escape plan then an offensive ability, and seeing as the game really doesn't have a stealth aspect playing someone like Anton or Salvador should be mandatory for anyone unfamiliar with the franchise.

As to steam, my only complaint is that it's a drain on my cash. I almost never buy new games but steam has been bundling games with the preorder so I preorder bioshock infinite and get the original bioshock plus X-Com enemy unknown, plus a bunch of hats for team fortress, all for the same price as the as the game off the shelf. Then they've also been bundling old titles for a low price, like the other day they had a rockstar sale where I got GTA:V, plus LA Noire, plus Max pain 3, none of which I've played before, for one low price. I love steam.

Guy Humual wrote:

Violence really shouldn't be used to correct ignorance.

Its just as likely as anything else to work, and will definitely make you feel better...

Racism stems from ignorance, violence probably helps cement most of those prejudices. Unless of course you're seen as a polite Canadian and you sucker punch some lout in the jaw. Then it's both rewarding and it helps disprove stereotypes.

Basically title.

Benghazi isn't what the Republicans need it to be.

It isn't but that won't stop them from making it into a big deal. They're really good at faking outrage.

The IRS "scandal" isn't a big deal either; the IRS audited hundreds of groups with obvious political agendas, on both ends of the political spectrum. What's scandalous to me is that all the tea party groups investigated were cleared and given their c4 status.

This is a big deal for the IRS I think, but unless there's something to link the administration to whatever field office was responsible it's really just another polarizing story that has little significance to the state of democracy in America. The Republicans will fake outrage of course.

If the Republicans really want to make a meaningful stand, and regain some (any) respect from the American people, they should be on this DOJ AP story.

This one bothered me at first, but then it was pointed out that this was likely in response to massive security breach, and while I always support freedom of the press, you have to know that if you're going report on government secrets governments are going to want to know how you got your hands on that information. I will reserve judgment on this one.

I think part of the problem is that steam needs to be running for it to work. Steam is a drain on resources and that's hard on slower running machines.

If it is then it's something that I'm perfectly happy accepting and living with. Never used the word nor felt the need. Though I am sad to say that in high school we used to use the term "wigger" occasionally to refer to white kids that tries to emulate black culture. I've matured quite a bit since then.

I probably wouldnt have showed up in here if the thread were titled 'Borderlands 2: I love it and if you do too join me in the thread so we can jointly spew our multifaceted love of it...

Turns out 'meh' is even in the title of the thread... I also probably wouldnt have posted if I didnt have a very specific feeling about borderlands 2... But I very specifically feel meh about it, having specifically checked it out on the recomendation of one of my buddies at the gaming table...

The fact that it's a steam game probably moves it to a meh minus...

I wont say i've been drawn to the conversation per se... I'm drawn to posting when a thread asks me how I feel, particularly when I have a strong feeling, and that strong feeling is listed in the options on the thread title ^_^

That strong feeling happens to be 'strongly meh'... what can I say.

I'll defend your rights to not like the game Vincent, I'll freely admit that it's not for everyone, but I'd just like to point out that it's not really a steam game, there are other ways to get and download it I believe, but steam just happens to be the most convenient for me.

Also, if I might ask, what classes have you played? A friend of mine tried the game and hated it . . . then I found out he'd been playing the assassin, which is the most boring class in the game IMO. Zero looks cool but he's not the character I'd sell the game with.

I too hate Torgue guns, but my favorite gun company is Jacobs. Also I beat the game with a Mecromancer and have a single shot Jacobs shot gun to build anarchy is a must. Most other weapons I accidentally reload.

I always thought that the word was always thought as offensive but forgivable if the speaker is black. Kind of like calling yourself a fat ba$tared or something, you get a pass for referring to yourself that way, but if someone else called you that it would be insulting. More so if they were thin.

Violence really shouldn't be used to correct ignorance.

meatrace wrote:

Guy Humual wrote:

Suggesting that it could have been used as a complement seems like a bad argument to me.

No, I'm saying it CAN be used complimentary. It was used descriptively. Like if he said that I was a tall person. I'm tall. Why would I take offense?

Yeah and he was using "ho" the same way. Bull.

Sorry meatrace but I got to agree with thejeff here. Those ladies had just won a hard fought basketball title and thus gained some national attention. Imus felt he needed to comment so he described them in what he assumed would be an amusing manor. I'm not arguing that he should or should not have lost his job over it, seems to me he was just doing what he was paid to do, but I don't believe that he was being anything but derogatory and demeaning towards those women.

I got teased for being smart. It doesn't follow that being smart is thought of as bad.

See I think it depends on the group that's doing the teasing. You hang around fellow nerds and bibliophiles and you're not likely going to be teased for being smart, more likely you'd be teased for being uneducated or dumb, but you hang out with athletic types and the idea that you can't be both smart and athletic turns "smart" into an insult.

Don Imus (who I freely admit I don't know anything about) but just guessing from the look of him (wearing his cowboy hat) I'm guessing that he probably doesn't listen to a lot of hip hop music and probably isn't down with the black community, so I'm thinking that his use of the term wasn't intended to be complimentary or even neutral. Now does a man who gets paid money to say hurtful things about people deserve to lose his job for saying hurtful things? Well I don't listen to him in the first place so I don't have any interest in the subject, honestly if I had my say that sort of thing wouldn't have been on the air in the first place, but my point is I don't think this Imus character intended to use this term in any way other then derogatory. Suggesting that it could have been used as a complement seems like a bad argument to me.

Having grown up listening to hip-hop, I've heard it used in a positive light (Fugees for example). I used to tease my cousin for having nappy hair, or calling him a brillohead.

But whatevz, this is really delving into minutiae.

I'm not sure I follow you here, you say it can be used in a positive light, and then in the very next sentence admit that you used it to tease a cousin?

Personally I'd never even heard the term before Imus got fired for it. I'd also never heard of Don Imus before he got fired. Then again I'm Canadian and shock jocks don't really interest me as I don't need to hear other people being made to look and feel small to make myself feel better.

Hey Seeker, burnout happens, and I hope the time off helps. I love the game and the characters and I hope you feel up to DMing again in the fall. If not it's been a blast. I'm still hoping that Markhet will make level 7 so Larrs will be full grown.

Over all I liked Borderlands 2, not my favorite game by a long shot, but I picked up when it was at half price over on Steam, and as a $30 game I wasn't disappointed. I had picked up the original borderlands plus all the DLC for $25 last year and was quite pleased with that. From playing the first I knew what Borderlands 2 would be like.

I don't think I'm in their target audience, but I got enough laughs out of it recommend it, and someone that's really into FPS would probably love this sort of game more.

I have to say that Jack is a great villain, someone that you really love to hate, and although I was really thinking that he was going to get old fast (what with the over the top taunting and boasting in the opening act) I must say that he really grew on me and by the end of the game I couldn't help but hate him on a whole other level. The last Villain that grew on me that much was GLaDOS, and while I don't think he's quite at the evil AI's level of villainy, I do think he's achieved a rare level in computer games. He's a villain that you hate, but you want to hear his dialogue, and you can't help but smile with pride as he comes to hate you on the same level that you hate him.

Anyone ever think that it's less a case of people being easily offended and more a case of people no longer being afraid to say they're offended? Maybe people aren't actually any more easy to offend but are now just more likely to speak up when they are offended?

I think the Westboro Baptist Church serves a purpose. It is what I can point to when people claim there are no extremists Christians.

I always thought that they were there to help encourage and spread atheism.

on the bright side quite a lot of do it yourself stuff is on the internet so you don't have to search high and low for instructions. So there's one good thing.

As I've said before you've got no reason to apologize, this game has probably gone on longer then any other PbP on these forums. Heck as of this post our discussion thread has reached 2000 posts, that's more posts then the average PbP gets in it's entire run, and this is just our discussion thread!

Real life always comes first, and although I really enjoy this game and do wish it would update more often, I'm more concerned with the people running the game as their well being is the foundation of the game.

So while I don't get as many updates as I'd like I am happy to hear Rag's wife is fine and that sort of thing is more important then updates.

I've been thinking though, perhaps we might try a simultaneous run? Make the assumption that Karrin and Ekuur are successful and RP a bit of what happens afterwards? Some folks really haven't had much to do in the game thread for what feels like forever and just getting our PCs together to talk might help pass the time while waiting for an official monkey report!

good to hear about the wife, sad to hear about your other problems Rags. Keep up the good fight.

It is a 3.5 monster, likely from a 3rd party publisher, so it's possible that it's a little wonky on the rules. Does it have the improved grab ability instead though?

Improved Grab (Ex): If a creature with this special attack hits with a melee weapon (usually a claw or bite attack), it deals normal damage and attempts to start a grapple as a free action without provoking an attack of opportunity. No initial touch attack is required. Unless otherwise noted, improved grab works only against opponents at least one size category smaller than the creature. The creature has the option to conduct the grapple normally, or simply use the part of its body it used in the improved grab to hold the opponent. If it chooses to do the latter, it takes a –20 penalty on grapple checks, but is not considered grappled itself; the creature does not lose its Dexterity bonus to AC, still threatens an area, and can use its remaining attacks against other opponents. A successful hold does not deal any extra damage unless the creature also has the constrict special attack. If the creature does not constrict, each successful grapple check it makes during successive rounds automatically deals the damage indicated for the attack that established the hold. Otherwise, it deals constriction damage as well (the amount is given in the creature’s descriptive text). When a creature gets a hold after an improved grab attack, it pulls the opponent into its space. This act does not provoke attacks of opportunity. It can even move (possibly carrying away the opponent), provided it can drag the opponent’s weight.

Basically the same thing only 3.5ish. If it doesn't have grab or improved grab it basically can take 10 attacks a round or a single grapple check. Ten attacks doesn't equal 10 standard actions. It's not going to matter much for Markhet, her CMD is pathetic, and even with a -20 she's probably still going to get constricted, but that -20 might help some of the other PCs resist.

I'll keep my fingers crossed for you and your wife Ragadolf. Figuratively of course. Four days is a long time to keep your fingers crossed.

Liechtenstein?

It's been so long :P I think what happened was I was remembering one of Karrin's lines "your five against our five" or something like that. Sorry for the interruption :)

quick question, I thought there were 5 goons? Am I imagining things?

Well she certainly is a bit of a pain, but when you think about the stress PCs must be under, well people lash out in different ways. A good character needn't be likeable all the time, they should have their flaws, and although Vilya certainly has her flaws she seems like an interesting character.

Mind you if you're not having fun playing her or if you feel she's not the same character you wanted then I can understand wanting to change.

What's wrong with Vilya BTW? I rather like the character, Kessel thinks she's a bit of a pain, but I think she's pretty neat.

Guy Humual wrote:

Anyways here's something to contribute to the thread: They say real life is stranger then fiction, in this case it is.

I don't know if it's stranger than fiction, but it sure is hawt!!

Come on, fiction writers want their characters to be believable, what self respecting author would invent a character like that? If she hadn't been a real person I'd say it was the most ludicrous character ever invented. Women weren't like that back in the 17th century! The idea of a female bisexual cross-dressing swordswoman opera singer is preposterous! What's that you say? She wasn't just good, she once bested three men at once in a duel? She made a living singing and putting on sword displays? Oh and one time she fell in love with a girl, followed her into a convent, replaced her love with an already dead nun and then faked her death by burning the place down? She is sentenced to die but then her death sentience is overturned by the King? Completely unbelievable. Wait, there's more? Apparently she was also very beautiful and sang at the famed Paris opera house? Of course she did.

Upon second reading, I think I misread your post, Citizen Humual. My apologies.

No problems, I was merely pointing out that the thread isn't going unnoticed and why there aren't more posts.

Anyways here's something to contribute to the thread: They say real life is stranger then fiction, in this case it is.

Good to have you back Pat, I think Kessel is starting to warm to the party now, and it'll be fun to see how this develops.

Glad you're back Pat :)
I was just chatting with someone last week who was excited that her PbP made it to 1000 posts . . . I was like: Pa-leeeeze, my boy Pat and I probably have that just between the two of us in our one PbP :D

Then I explained that our game's been going for like five years :P
Her jaw probably hit the floor after that.

In fact the game will be five this March I think.

Post when you're ready, I'll be here.

Wow, that sure was an interesting article, Comrade Dwarf. I think it deserves a larger audience.

I've been following, as have others I'm sure, but I don't thin we need to post to clutter up the thread with non-history posts is all.

Folks, just wanted to drop a line and apologize. For a number of different reasons I ave let updating kinda get past me. I will endeavor to pick up the pieces as I can. Please bear with.

DM

Life happens. We'll be here when you're ready.

Life happens, DMs get writer's block, I have faith you'll come back when you're ready. I think the biggest problem you have right now is that we're split the party so it means three times the work. No big deal at a normal table top but with a PBP game you're doing three times the work and not seeming to get anywhere!

Howard and Tolkien are the fathers of modern fantasy. Every other author that's come after them has been compared to them. Like them or hate them there's a reason that they're held in such high regard and it's not just that they were pioneers.

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Because computers did not exist back when the Bible was written.
Back then people didn't even know what Earth was.

Duh!!!

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Good to see you're still alive :)

We've only had a white Christmas here in Nova Scotia once in the last decade, ironically it was last year which was also the mildest winter on record.

Yeah, there IS that! ;P

My personal theory about weather is this,...

"If it's cold, you can always put on more layers. But if it's hot you can only take off so much,... before you get arrested. (And your still hot!)" ;P

I concur, the only truly terrible thing about winter is ice. I can always get bundled up, I can stay out of the worst of the weather, but ice is always lurking, and it takes down pedestrians as well as motor vehicles.

As much of a pain as it was to dig out yesterday I'd prefer snow to the summer heat.

That storm hit us as well, it started Friday night around 10, and kept going till Sunday around noon.

Just to speed things along why not have Ekuur say 500gp

Forget about churches for the moment, marriage is important for legal and financial reasons, and I would guess that some of the people that are fighting equal rights are companies that don't want to pay benefits where they don't have to. If you have a pension, for example, your spouse gets part of that when you die. If same sex marriages aren't legal those companies aren't required to pay the survivor anything. Then there's also the mater of insurance and let's not forget children. Just because the religious reasons for getting married aren't there anymore doesn't mean that there aren't other reasons for wanting same sex marriage.