Best posts made by Shebakoby

I love it when people like how I RP and express it! Which is actually quite often.

TF2005 MUSH (2006-2013)
Sunder the Sweep OFC (until 2008), OC (until 2009)
Rampage (2007-2012 with a break in between around 2010)
Gnaw (2008-2009)
Warpath (2010-2012 - reportedly the best Warpath they ever had, because I consistently kept up Warpath's cybertronian equivalent of Tourette's way of speaking. I have this way of "channelling" the characteristics and personality of cartoon-based FCs.)
Greg MacLeod EDC Human OC
Sit-Com Junkion OC (2009-2013)
Nosecone (2009-2012)
Slugfest (2010-2012)
Thrust (2012)

Transformers Universe MUX (2009-current)
Slingshot
Scourge
Slugfest
Sit-Com
Wild Bill
Gnaw
Zartan

Transformers Dark Ages of Cybertron (2009-whenever it shut down)
Starscream (the second one)
Arcee (not at the same time as Starscream but after, during the tenure of the third Starscream, who was Windshear@2k5. Also the ONLY time that I've ever played a female character, despite being a female IRL LOL)

Mega Man MUSH (M3)

Bolt Kraken (2009-2011/12ish, whenever they changed things around so much that Maverick Hunters didn't fit in)

Star Wars Edge of Destiny (current)
Corbin

Star Wars Generations of Darkness (2014-current)
Corbin

XMen Flame of Darkness MOO (current)
Sunder the Morlock

Transformers Robots In Disguise (the one that just closed down)
Swindle

Transformers Lost and Found (current)
Slugfest

There was some controversy surrounding my playing of Sunder @ 2k5, Gnaw @ 2k5, and Slugfest @ 2k5. With Sunder, a puritanical element thought I was playing him "wrong", because I interpreted the back of Scourge's box tech specs that the Sweeps were a "wolf pack" a bit more literally than most. I had Sunder literally hunting down Autobots and attacking them, one-on-one when there were not so many Sweep players available that we could have gone after one lone Autobot as a "pack", and I got lots of repeat-business RP that way, with multiple players telling me they loved my portrayal of the Sweep. Other (jealous) players, like Fusillade, complained that Sunder was "attacking helpless autobot (OC) medics all the time". Others (like Fleet and Catechism/Contrail) complained Sunder was acting too "feral", but they were incorrectly using the term, as they were afraid I'd import the concept in my fanfic of "feral Sweeps" which are non-sapient and act like beasts. Then there was the joke one player (Thrust from around 2008) made about "Sweepcubs" (which are also in my fanfic but which I never incorporated into my RP) that grew legs and ran all over the MUSH, which I thought was hilarious but other players were not amused, one (TP Staffer Americon) going to the lengths of incorporating a "Sweepcub" in a fursuit in a tinyplot for the 'cons to destroy a planet called "Furr'eh" and slaughter its inhabitants, including the aforementioned "Sweepcub". I think it was Americon who also complained that Sweeps were "too furry", whatever that means.

Gnaw was a TP character, so I only had him for a year, but again, the usual suspects complained I was playing a damn SHARKTICON wrong. They said he was too much like a "puppy". Sharkticon's brains are in their stomachs. It even says on his box tech specs that he's loyal to whoever fed him last. If "begging" for food while in Shark mode is puppyish, so what? That's what Sharkticons do. Food is generally dangled above them and then dropped to them! So to base Gnaw's actions on how hungry he is, and what Sharkticons in canon do when anticipating being fed, is perfectly reasonable. However, the manner in which the TP staffer at the time (Americon) decided to pull the character from me was sneaky, and involved some egregious powergaming and powerposing on both his and Shockwave's part (Shockwave played by Blitzwing/Boomslang, who later played Swerve).

Slugfest was accused of being "too cute", and it is true that tiny stegosaurs are adorable. I tried to incorporate his habit of super-destructive temper tantrums, but that only works on a trigger (someone has to be talking in a way that makes Slugfest think the mech is talking bad about HIM), but I didn't want to do that too often because mechs that do things like that too often it gets old and boring. I chose an angle where Slugfest desperately wants to be liked, which is the source of his paranoid lashouts, to minimize the incidences, because the guidelines at 2k5 are that mechs that go out of control too often are VERY difficult for players playing CoC to deal with. This resulted in Slugfest being more "friendly" if he was treated well or doted upon. Thus, "too cute". Argh. And half the problem, both in terms of Slugfest and Sunder, was people conflating OOC chat joking around with IC behavior, as if OOC chatter/Public, etc chan things were IC RP. I'm not sure if this was due to insanity or stupidity, but whatever. They can't keep OOC and IC from contaminating each other in their minds. If you want ironic hypocrisy, Boomslang would go "d'awww" at Sluggy's antics right up until he found out it was me.

@*&^ plantar fasciitis.

@SG Jogging. Not even once.

this key lime pie. that i am eating. right now.

@Arkandel because it's a clear sign of budding serial killers. If they don't catch them now, not long before they graduate to humans.

@Wizz said:

@Shebakoby said:

@surreality It's not an original creation; it's a theme based on a comic book (that also has cartoon media in its history).

...Is this one of those My Little Pony games? Please, please tell me it is.

nope, not ponies. giant robots.

@Corruption said:

An ode to cheese. Smoked Cheddar and Smoked Gouda...OMG, yes please. Preferably with Ritz crackers. And I've been really hungry for fruit and vegetables lately, and especially big salads.

Next year I will either container garden or have raised beds for veggies.

And on top of that I'll take smoked Gruyere, and Gjetost (Ski Queen brand), and Roquefort (Cantorel or Societe), or Castello (Canada's answer to) Gorgonzola (that actually more closely resembles and tastes like Roquefort than Gorgonzola).

I've been eating whole pea pods (gotta love sugar snap peas lol). Extra fiber!

cheating chopsticks
(Disposable chopsticks made of bamboo that are not separated)
It's a lot easier to eat some foods with them than a fork.

@Silver said:

http://www.tickld.com/x/something-indiana-jones-and-darth-vader-have-kept-secret-this-whole-time

OMG that actually makes SO MUCH SENSE!

@2mspris said:

I got it from @EmmahSue but still it should be shared!

Hermione gives no fucks!

LERL potion cheat codes hahahahah! XD

@Sunny said:

@Silver said:

@Sunny None of my business, or any of our businesses really, but I'm going to ask anyway: What part does sister-in-law have to play in this?

Because it sounds suspiciously similar to a few events in my own family.

She took care of my mom for a few years while my mom was sick. There were things that my mom wanted her to have, but they're sentimental to my father in a huge way. He's not going to be around forever; it's not like she's not going to get it eventually (I'm executor of the estate when all is said and done, down the road). I promised her she would. Promised mom, too. I did NOT promise that it would be while my father was still around, because that's like shoving a knife into his heart and twisting. I mean, I love her, too. I thought it was mutual. I mean, these people are my family. Or at least, that's how I feel.

I really don't have any idea what I might have done wrong. Everything was great yesterday. Then today, threats are being leveled and I apparently didn't love her and so much other crap. It's SO freaking hurtful.

And yeah, I kjnow it's none of anybody's business. I really shouldn't have aired this in public and I know it but there was going to be a meltdown if I didn't vent somehow.

ima take a wild guess and propose that they're mad that you're the executor (and they're not).

@Ganymede said:

@Shebakoby said:

As a result, millions of canadians can no longer find a family doctor, and thus have precisely 0 access to specialists.

Are you one of those millions of Canadians? Because, as a Canadian, I was, and am, not.

Nor was my mother, who was diagnosed (again) with thyroid cancer. She was diagnosed within 2 weeks, and had surgery scheduled 3 weeks later. She could have gotten in earlier, but she was busy traveling.

The funny thing about these stories is that I've never actually met a Canadian that ever had a problem getting a required surgery done. I've also never actually met a Canadian that ever had to wait for a cancer scan longer than 2 weeks. And I've known plenty of them.

I have, however, met and read the records for dozens of Americans who have been the victims of medical malpractice. I've read medical malpractices cases for scores more. And this is only in the State of Ohio.

People like to attribute the Canadian horror stories to OMG Canada's health care system sucks. You should check out the actual number of Americans who have been the victims of their own health care system. I think you'll conclude, as I have, that whether the system is a single-payer public system or a oligopolistic private system is immaterial. You will likely conclude that doctors, nurses, health care professionals, and their patients make mistakes.

I think you will also conclude, as I have, that medical professionals that don't have to worry about coverage issues or costs will be able to spend more time training and researching than balancing monthly budgets.

Yeah but where in Canada are you? A large city in a well-populated province? It really all depends on where you live. Large provinces with enormous population centers such as Ontario, Quebec, and big cities in the well-populated Maritimes won't have as much trouble as say, someone in a western community with less access.

I know several people, some in my own community, who have had trouble, and LOTS of it, getting care for various things. Not everyone has trouble getting care, true, but I've seen it happen. I myself have been on the recieving end of long wait times. I had an MRI scheduled...TWO YEARS to wait. I am not even joking. Then I had a follow up, two years after that. It was snowing pretty good on the day of my second scan but I got dad to drive me in his 4 wheel drive and we MADE it. (this was not for cancer, it was for suspicion of Multiple Sclerosis, but still). A family member's wait to have orthoscopic knee surgery took so long that they simply refused to do it because of reaching a certain age. It should have been done.

I'm lucky, my doctor hasn't retired yet. But in another few years, I MIGHT wind up as one of those millions of Canadians.

I'm not saying American health care is perfect, or anything close. Far from it. I have relatives in the states, so I have heard a few horror stories on the other side of the border. But neither am I saying that Canada's sucks (or sucks worse). The US system has pros and cons, and same with the Canadian system. But we shouldn't pretend that there are no flaws, or that the flaws are insignificant, in the Canadian system. Several things need addressing, not the least of which is the problem of attracting new doctors, and doing something about allowing immigrants who would be perfectly qualified doctors to actually practice as doctors (after say a preliminary examination to ensure their knowledge is up to par). We need to acknowledge the problems so that we can pressure our various members of parliament to get it fixed.

Doctors retiring and not having locums to fill in for them or even anyone to take over their practice are now a serious problem near where I live. There aren't enough doctors to fill in the gaps. There was a huge story in the paper about it several weeks ago, in fact.

@WTFE said:

@Shebakoby said:

Some Canadians actually have to go have important tests (MRI, for instance) in the USA because the waiting list for the same test in Canada is over 2 years now.

Ah, this old Tea Party shibboleth.

No. No, this is flatly untrue. If you want an MRI test against the advice of your doctor, then yes, you'll wait forever. But when my father had his stroke, in the depths of the wilds of B.C. (Prince George), he was in the MRI in under four hours.

I call Tea Party bullshit here.

People who need knee replacements have had to endure even longer waits (up to 5 years).

Docs or it didn't happen. ("I saw it on Fox" doesn't count as docs, just to be clear. Hell, "I saw it on an American news channel" doesn't count as docs.)

People have died of cancer before they could get some kinds of tests.

Yeah. If you don't go to your doctor for twenty-five years and come in when the cancer has already passed the point of no return, you're probably fucked. You'd be fucked in the USA too, but at least your wallet will be hoovered clean first.

So again, "docs or it didn't happen". (And again, "Fox News" or American news in general doesn't count.)

What are you even talking about? What is this Tea Party you're on about? I'm talking about stuff I've actually seen/experienced/was in the paper. And I live in pretty much total NDP land. I personally waited for an MRI, TWICE, for 2 years each time. And NO, it was NOT against the advice of the doctor.

People who are in the emergency room tend to get expedited tests. When I injured my eye two years ago, and went to the emergency room, I was at the opthamologist on instant referral the same day. Emergency room care for serious things, is VERY GOOD, mostly. But unless cancer lands someone in the emergency room, it's highly unlikely that it'll be expedited as quickly as an MRI for an immediate stroke. You are comparing apples to oranges.

We do not even get Fox News. We do not watch US news except for maybe CNN if something major is happening like 9/11, so uh what? This was a person I personally know. When the person turned 80 they just said "F it, we're not giving you surgery to fix your knee". This happened. The person is now 95. This could have been fixed BEFORE they turned 80 if the system gave a crap, and it would have made a HUGE difference in quality of life.

The moral of the story is people fall through the cracks in both systems. Way more in the other one because of the whole money thing (not to mention a MUCH larger population), but still. Improvements could be made to prevent this.

@Ganymede said:

@Shebakoby said:

I'm not saying American health care is perfect, or anything close. Far from it. I have relatives in the states, so I have heard a few horror stories on the other side of the border. But neither am I saying that Canada's sucks (or sucks worse). The US system has pros and cons, and same with the Canadian system. But we shouldn't pretend that there are no flaws, or that the flaws are insignificant, in the Canadian system.

So, then, we concur on this point.

Canada's problem with access in remote (or rural) areas is a huge problem. That's not what is raised down here in the United States as an issue, though. Americans are paranoid for all the wrong reasons, which is why I feel it is important to point out that those fears are insubstantial.

It's a little different down here because there are large populations where access isn't the issue; cost is. And yet, there are still access issues in places like Nevada, Wyoming, and Montana.

So, if I were to trade the American private system with Canada's public system, I'd take the latter because the American private system still suffers from the same problems as Canada's.

(Edit: My brother is a Canadian physician who has worked in Vancouver and now Ottawa. He gives me updates from his end, along with my schoolmates that are also in the medical profession.)

There's maybe only one thing that the US system, as flawed as it is, has over the Canadian system. Money available for R&D. One of my relatives who lived in the United States (now deceased) used to work for a company called Sea-Med. That company developed something that my relative referred to as a "roto-rooter" for blood vessels and it was superior to balloon angioplasty in removing fatty artery blockages. It drilled right through it, leaving the artery wall undamaged because it was designed to not damage the artery. We saw a video about this device back in the early 1990s.

Canada still doesn't have this technology.

The biggest problem I have is the resistance to change in the system, changes that would improve the system. My community, about 15 years ago, had a HUGE kerfuffle over a CT scanner. A private citizen donated 60,000 dollars to the local hospital. They said the money should be used to buy a CT scanner. The government at the time (NDP) refused to allow the purchase, because OMG PRIVATE MONEY (even though it was a charitable donation) will ruin the system or some sort of invalid slippery slope argument like that.

Two separate MLAs fought each over the issue, each wanting credit for bringing a CT scanner in before they would consider voting to approve one, and both ended up quitting politics forever (one before the other, though). The Hospital did eventually get a CT scanner (though via the provincial government, not the money donated to the hospital).

Some fear that any 'taint' of "private money" (rather than from tax dollars), including charitable donations (which is CRAZY to oppose), in the health system will ruin it forever, but we could have had a CT scanner way sooner than we did if they weren't so ideologically rigid and stubborn.

@Silver said:

@Shebakoby said:

The moral of the story is people fall through the cracks in both systems. Way more in the other one because of the whole money thing (not to mention a MUCH larger population), but still. Improvements could be made to prevent this.

There is an element of political rah-rah in the US (I'm sure it exists everywhere really) that begins its day by making assumptions about what you mean when you say anything disagreeing with them. They also think that the Real News that they listen to is superior to the Fake News other people hear, or even sometimes to the Real Life you live. Sometimes that particular fight happens with the battle cry "anecdotes are not evidence!" or "show me notarized documents" or some variant thereof.

Don't worry about it too much.

is no biggie. Some people make far too many assumptions, and they need to learn that what they're seeing isn't necesarily confirming their confirmation bias.

Ever since i started watching such shows as Hell's Kitchen, the F word (Gordon Ramsay's british cooking competition show in his own restaurant, Claridge's in Britain), and MasterChef, I've been encouraged to come out of the rut that was dinnertime at our house.

For years it was the same, pork chops, spaghetti, chicken (mom's allergic to beef), and sometimes steak. But the way dad does steak under the broiler, it always turns out overdone without being very "browned". I dunno if he sets the rack too low (2nd rack down from the top) or what.

Then I saw the dishes being put out on those shows, and was encouraged to try making new things.

@Ganymede said:

@Shebakoby said:

The only thing I've heard that's negative about Obamacare from people I know (not stranger outliers) is that it significantly increased the cost of a state offered health insurance plan so that they can no longer afford the premiums.

Obamacare does not address the systematic problems; it rides along with it. The system essentially does three things: (1) forces insurers to carry applicants; (2) coughs up a subsidy payable to insurers on behalf of applicants based on their income; and (3) penalizes people for not being insured. This is mostly a win-situation for insurers.

Good grief, the more i learn about it, the more it looks like a sop to the insurance companies. Although I guess there's a change where it's easier for people on social assistance or minimum wage to get coverage via subsidies now?

@surreality said:

@Shebakoby said:

The point i was making about the taxes is it's probably every bit as "gouging" as the companies' prices.

That you think this somehow addresses corporate profit behaviors in any capacity just boggles the mind. It does not. Not even in the slightest way. There is no parity here, it is not a parallel, it isn't even apples and oranges, it's apples and dump trucks.

No, it doesn't address corporate profit behavior. Why can't the government be accused of gouging as well?

@HelloRaptor Denis Leary keeps telling everyone, "'If you quit smoking, you can live an extra 10 years, you can live an extra 20 years.' I've got news for you folks, it's the ones at the END! It's the wheelchair, adult diaper, kidney dialysis f'ken years, you can have those years, we don't want em!"

I had a relative that smoked like a chimney. He died at age 38 (heart attack). I had another relative that smoked like a chimney. Died at age 65 (cause unknown, thought to be stroke.). Then there's other smokers that live to nearly 100. It's no guarantee one way or the other.