Well... I loved my Labyrinth T-Shirt... and I do like the Infinity Gauntlet oven mitt. Even if it is a FIRE HAZARD and should never be used- it works as a geeky wall accessory for the kitchen. I've only been receiving Loot Crates for about two months or so, and so far I've liked the random little things I've been getting.
Also, I love making D20 ice cubes.
@Arkandel After it was revealed that the company also was a contractor under the Department of Homeland Security, I honestly don't think there's anything they could do to get locked up at this point...
... am I the only one who had a crush on Nitro?
Asking for a friend >_>
Well, you know that in my country of origin people are persecuted by the government for criticizing or speaking ill of the president over social media, there are gag laws that forbid the press from touching certain subjects in an unfavorable light and the president has sued, won, and appropriated newspapers after they were critical of him?
Tennyson is right, I do think- most Americans don't really know how good they have it. German and French speech (to pick two of the mentioned countries, because I only have so much time >_< ) aren't as free as most assume. In France, for example, it is an offense to insult the national flag or anthem (there goes Penn and Teller's 'burning the flag' segment), and you also can't insult or make fun of anyone who serves the public under the restrictions of "offending the dignity of the Republic"- which is probably why, to Eddie Izzard's surprise, the French had not developed the art of stand-up comedy by the time he took his act there 
(seriously, though, Eddie Izzard is a god.) Positive portrayal of drugs is also punished- newspapers and magazines criticizing drug laws and arguing for drug reforms get hit over and over by the government with penalties and sanctions.
In Germany, Insult is punishable under Section 185, as well as the use of symbols of 'Unconstitutional Organizations' (initially the Swastika, but expanded to any organizations the government comes to consider unconstitutional.) It also punishes disparagement of the Federal President (section 90), the state and its symbols (90a), Organs and Representatives of Foreign States (103), insulting of faiths, religious societies and organizations dedicated to a philosophy of life if they could disturb public peace (166) and dissemination of pornographic writings (section 184- there goes fanfiction.net.de!) Assemblies must be registered beforehand, and groups can be banned from assembling- like banned political parties.
That's a small handful of things, really... and while America has its own ugly snags (and this post is in no way an attempt at waving them away), comparatively speaking I'm going to stay with it. I thought the perspective of an outsider who is becoming an American by choice might add something to the discussion.
@Kanye-Qwest Yeah, that's what I've heard.
Honestly, it would be different for me if she were to die like my grandmother, aged 107 and simply dying from having lived too long, but relatively peacefully.
Having this crap inside her that's eating her alive...
Four years ago, she was diagnosed with cancer for the first time. The original diagnosis was that it wasn't malign and that it was easily operable, but more tests needed to be done, so we were going to meet at the MD Anderson.
At the time, I was taking a writing course as an excuse to get my writing habit rekindled. Before I went to see my mom, as a manner of dealing with the possible outcome, I wrote a short story called "In The Blood." The protagonist was traveling across the country to deposit his mother's ashes. As the story opens, he's traveling through Kansas in the summer and picks up someone whose car gave up the ghost on his way to a wedding. The story is interspersed with flashbacks, etc.
The cancer was extracted and then radiation was applied. For about four years after that, my mother kept getting a clean bill of health from the Anderson when she came up for her yearly check-up. We thought we had cleared the mark.
And then this year, the cancer came back. And the week after that I found myself driving through Kansas, in the summer, on my way to a wedding and with my mom under death sentence.
I mean, fuck everything, really.
@VulgarKitten I understand. I'm losing my mom to cancer.
Unfortunately, 'fairness' is a completely human concept and it has nothing to do with the universe at large... the universe isn't fair or unfair, it simply is, and sometimes it sucks donkey balls.
I'm totally not prepared to lose my mom, but the universe don't care 
@Lithium I think you are equivocating a systemic problem with an intrinsic problem. The fact that most public schools do not teach critical thinking nor most universities, nowadays, which leads to a culture where rational thinking and critical thinking are not exercised as a standard, does not mean that people are incapable of this. This kind of reasoning is akin to pointing out that there are people smashing every child's knees as soon as they learn to walk and then saying that people can't can learn to run.
As Kanye pointed out, some individuals are the exception to this rule- but that falls under the Broken Unit concept.
@Kanye-Qwest said in The Shame Game:
@Kestrel said in The Shame Game:
Striving to think rationally is admirable for all the reasons discussed above. And it is, on the whole, better than thinking emotionally
lol what
People who aren't caught up in bullshit are aware that both logic and emotion are pretty important in dealing with life. One without the other is bad, no matter which way you skew.
It's a variation of the Straw Vulcan, honestly. Emotions aren't bad. However, they aren't tools of congition, they are tools of reaction. Emotions only tell you how you feel about something, not necessarily that it is good or bad. That's where reason comes in- ideally, through introspection, you should take stock of your emotions and ask yourself "What am I feeling, and why?" Emotions are kind of the system warning flags that tells you something is going on- but ideally it's up to the actual diagnostic tool (your rational mind) to do the work of digging and trying to find whether it's really a good thing or a bad thing... or calling for help.
Sometimes your emotions are spot on and your rational side can corroborate that, such as "Whoa, that's right, that guy is a massive douche and he's taking advantage of me." Other times, depending on what you have internalized, your emotions are totally out of whack with reality, which is why that introspection is very, very important- because operating on subconsciously-assimilated bad premises can really fuck you up. Sometimes people stay in abusive or toxic relationships because of how they feel about themselves- even when everything in their rational minds tells them they should be booking it out of there, the adage of "follow your heart, not your mind" comes up time and time again.
Usually when your heart and your mind are in conflict, your mind's the one to trust- emotions are reactive, not cognitive. That being said, it's not easy, not by a long shot, and it requires a lot of honesty and it isn't infallible.
Still, it's a pretty good toolset. Emotions and Reason aren't opposites, they're meant to work together.
Everybody in the building gets a free 15 minute massage, paid by the company.
Have I mentioned how awesome my day job is?
@Lithium said in The Shame Game:
@Ganymede This is a fallacy.
We can /try/ to not weigh opinions based on our feelings but that's a lot harder than it seems, and I'm willing to say that I believe most people can't do it. Not really. See Trump.
I agree with @Ganymede in this- I think you are wrong, to an extent. Rational thought and objectivity aren't automatic, they are volitional. Everybody can, in fact, do it. Most choose not to, mostly out of habit. Being rational is not something that comes automatically, it's something that has to be forced and practiced on habit consciously - excellence is not an act, but a habit.
The problem, of course, is that culturally people have come to associate rational thought with the cold Straw Vulcan and therefore not fun/a stodge/a stick in (choose your spot) and completely incompatible with having normal emotions.
The practice of rational thought isn't 'sexy' in our culture, and most people think it doesn't really apply to them. Scientists, engineers, doctors have to think rationally -we think- but the rest of us don't have to. That is usually what I encounter when I talk this over with people. But the state of the culture concerning rational thought as a practiced habit is so schizophrenic that it's a norm and not an exception for those aforementioned 'rational' professional to be perfectly rational in their professions, but completely fail to apply that level of introspection to their own private lives and therefore are holy messes at home.
And then you have careers such as mine in opera, where a large number of its practitioners are an irrational mess on and off the clock...
I have to share because this was pretty funny.
Today I had a patient call in. Hispanic woman, Spanish speaker, about 20 years old.
Her name?
America Chavez.
I kid you not.
I was so tempted to ask her if she had two mothers.
@Thenomain now if they could just get the game to be at the level of Sims 3 and the open world... that'd be great. I have Sims 4, but I find myself playing 3 more often because going into 4 after 3 feels a lot more constrained.
When you pitch in to help a co-worker who has fallen behind because the switch to the new system has added some unexpected delays, and your boss recognizes you and orders you lunch from the nice place across the street.
@tangent said in Marvel: 1963:
And Vorpal. Crap, Vorpal is gonna be pissed. My bad, fur ball!
I AM COMING FOR YOU!!!! B(
@ZombieGenesis said in Marvel: 1963:
I've been tempted to try a DC game focused on the Teen Titans or Young Justice where the character power level and focus is a bit more even.
Now this is a game I'd totally want to play!
Honestly, if I were Disney, that's more or less what I would do, too. After the Fantastic Four, I'd be tweaking some characters to hell so they wouldn't necessarily fall afoul of the licensing agreement, but so that I could have an iteration of them that isn't part of ... that whole thing.
I mean, it's not like I couldn't retcon them back into their old selves when/if I get them back, because Wanda is kind of a walking cosmic etch-a-sketch.
I've been prematurely grey since I was 16. When I turned 21 and started buying alcohol in the US, I got peeved at the fact I wasn't carded.
Today, in my mid-thirties, people assume I am in my forties or fifties because of my silver hair when, they admit, if they were to judge by my face alone they would say I'm 26. Gaaaaah.
I think I know what happened- the Cosmic Cube didn't restore Steve Rogers to youth-
It brought in a parallel universe Steve Rogers who was a HYDRA sleeper agent. His memories are therefore consistent with his history even if they are not consistent with o-
No. I've got nothing, really. I don't see how they can pull this off without staining Cap.
I'm not sure I wanted to read "stripped" and "Bill Clinton" in the same sentence. I know the context was completely different, but considering Bill's background, that turned into a very strange mental image.
