dustin

I've had an order put in for the latest version of Shadowrun (5th Edition) for almost two weeks now, but it's been on back order the whole time. Does anyone have any clue as to when the next expected printing will be?

I was looking out my window, making some lunch, when I spotted about six or seven, possibly eight, squirrels out there. They weren't really doing much, just chilaxing and relaxing all cool next to my pool, but it was really odd seeing that many squirrels just sitting around. That made me ponder this question: What do you call a group of squirrels? A flock? A pack? A gaggle?

My goal is to build a deck in Magic: The Gathering centred around Utvara Hellkite (6RR, Fly, 6/6: spawn 6/6 dragon token whenever a dragon attacks). How should I go about doing this? Are the other dragons in the game expensive (real currency, that is), are there many dragons with 1-4 mana cost?

Which lands should I bring to mana ramp and stuff?

PS I already read some of the stuff found in google searches, but they contain many cards I simply may not be able to afford on my crap salary.

So a few days I go to one of the billion local fast food joints looking for work. Not anything I want, but you can't be picky right? Anyway, I'm going with a friend who also wants to drop off a resume. I hand in mine all professional like, dressed for the occasion and everything. My buddy, for some reason, decided that baggy jeans and a super sized hoody is impressive on a 20 something year old looking for work.

After I hand in my resume buddy steps in and starts acting like he's picking up a girl at a bar or something. When he dropped the line "I be showing up every day, making you love me" I knew I he had no chance at all. It lifted some stress from my shoulders since we both knew they were only hiring one person, so I had this in the bag... provided they actually liked me over the other million college students looking for work.

Anyway, today we both had job interviews there. I was dumbfounded that they decided to even bother with my friend at all, but whatever. I wasn't worried at all. I go in first, again, and my interview was about 20 minutes long and sounded quite promising. Unfortunately for me, the lady doing the interview was the same lady who accepted our resumes. My friend goes in, comes out five minutes later, and he's all excited. Sure enough, he got the job.

Am I the only one here who finds that bullshit? I mean really, treating your potential employer as if she is your target of drunken sexual conquest has to be the dumbest thing you could do, and yet it landed him a job! The worse part is, there were numerous other people there who were all very professional in manner and appearance. Does this happen often, or the owner of this place just simply retarded?

/end rant

We've all heard the bajilion and one songs about how much authority sucks. Rage Against the Machine, pretty much any punk song, the 60's... But what about songs which are pro-authority? Or at the very least discuss authority and how it relates to Johnny Everyman.

I live with my aunt presently and she had security cameras installed in the house. They came from Rogers Communications and can keep automated track of pretty much everything in this house. At first it didn't really bug me, especially because we have workers who come in on a daily basis and we've had issues with theft a few times. There have also been issues with carbon monoxide in a few houses around here that were built the same year as this one, and this security system monitors that kind of stuff, so that's a plus too.

But just now I thought of something; I spent at least an hour naked in this house, every day for the last week, after taking a shower (aunt and everyone else are out of town most of the time at work or something) and a good deal of that time is right in front of the camera, walking back and forth to do laundry or whatever. I completely forgot it was there. What I want to know is; do they have staff watching these things? I wouldn't care otherwise, but it says on some websites that there is a possibility that staff monitor the data. I presume it means they are keeping track of who enters and leaves the building, and which doors are opened at which times, via spreadsheets and such. It would be impractical to monitor all their clients houses in real time, really when you think about it. But this is Rogers, they do a lot of dumb crap like that. It would be a major breach of privacy and would cause so many issues of so many types, but it's a pretty wacky world and I've seen worse happen than peeping toms on a corporate scale.

Does anybody know just how much the staff gets involved in the system? Is it possible for them to review the video footage? Do they monitor it live? I also want to know if other people in my household can retrieve that footage in the future and see me hauling laundry down the hallways in the buff.

I live with my aunt presently and she had security cameras installed in the house. They came from Rogers Communications and can keep automated track of pretty much everything in this house. At first it didn't really bug me, especially because we have workers who come in on a daily basis and we've had issues with theft a few times. There have also been issues with carbon monoxide in a few houses around here that were built the same year as this one, and this security system monitors that kind of stuff, so that's a plus too.

But just now I thought of something; I spent at least an hour naked in this house, every day for the last week, after taking a shower (aunt and everyone else are out of town most of the time at work or something) and a good deal of that time is right in front of the camera, walking back and forth to do laundry or whatever. I completely forgot it was there. What I want to know is; do they have staff watching these things? I wouldn't care otherwise, but it says on some websites that there is a possibility that staff monitor the data. I presume it means they are keeping track of who enters and leaves the building, and which doors are opened at which times, via spreadsheets and such. It would be impractical to monitor all their clients houses in real time, really when you think about it. But this is Rogers, they do a lot of dumb crap like that. It would be a major breach of privacy and would cause so many issues of so many types, but it's a pretty wacky world and I've seen worse happen than peeping toms on a corporate scale.

Does anybody know just how much the staff gets involved in the system? Is it possible for them to review the video footage? Do they monitor it live? I also want to know if other people in my household can retrieve that footage in the future and see me hauling laundry down the hallways in the buff.

As time goes on I find myself increasingly ashamed of being Canadian, and it's pretty much entirely because the population here is too stupid for its own good. Keep in mind that this question if focused towards Canadians.

Just recently a few friends of mine lost their store because of the local wal mart. I figured it was the correct context and so I said "people wont stop buying their (wal mart's) crap until the entire retail industry has been destroyed." At this point my friends told me to stop being stupid and that wal mart is good for Canada.

A few months ago another of my friends was complaining how he has a ten grand education that took three years to acquire and all he got out of it was an assembly line job. He's been there for as long as I've known him, but when I mentioned how bullcrap our post-secondary education system is he told me I don't know nothing about the value of privatized colleges.

So I say again, every year I can't help but become more and more convinced that my fellow Canadians are too stupid to know what's good for them. Of course, my suggestions that we could greatly benefit from a more authoritarian government and, at the very least, more economic planning for a few decades are met with cries about how naive I am and how valuable freedom is... The same people telling me this, of course, are the same ones who are overwhelmed with shock and anger whenever our government responds to a crisis with the same ineffective response it had four years ago when that has been the trend for at least three or more decades.

So yeah, anyone else feeling like their fellow Canadians are pretty stupid?

PS Let's see if this question gets reported for anti-national hatred or something like that, eh? :P

I've always felt that the Starship Troopers movie had a pretty wacked out moral lesson to it. The creators intended to mock the ideas of "civil service" for citizenship and stuff, but the way they go about doing it actually makes the ideas look better. When I asked and observed others the only reason people seem to agree with the film is because most people already simply assumed authoritarianism is evil.

For example; In the film one of the minor supporting cast characters states (during the shower scene) that she joined the military because she wants to become a mother. She tells us, the audience, that being a certified citizen makes it much easier to acquire a parenting license, and since the military is a path to becoming a full citizen she opted to enlist. The film mocks the idea of having to be legally certified to have children, but it simply expects us to agree and never provides a counter argument. There are many proponents of making parenthood something you must apply to and one of their reasons is because there are countless people in this world who are just plain abusive. It's a valid proposition because it could drastically cut back cases of, say, baby farmers (a slang term for people who have children specifically to earn welfare and such).

Another example would be the concept of citizenship being a privilege. Starship Troopers tells us right at the end of act 2 that citizens are responsible and mature individuals who have learned, and proven that they have, an attitude of devotion to ones species and community. To sacrifice themselves for the good of others. The trials and hard work that comes with all forms of "civil service" also teach people something about the world and motivate them to make it a better place to live. "Civilians" are people who simply haven't undergone the trials and/or made contributions to society which indicate they know what citizenship entails. These are universally accepted lessons across almost every culture in human history, yet the film uses this as a way to discredit the blind collectivist and militarist nature of the Federation. It actively pokes fun at what has been known to be a factual and perfectly good attitude to have for millennia.

So my question is this; Am I the only one who realizes that Starship Troopers, the film and not the book, attempted to discredit a set of valid ideas but ultimately was nothing more than some moron screaming Godwin's law at the top of his lungs?

I want to know where on the interwebs can I actually see the data the people at Harvard, and other institutes, are publishing which supposedly suggest that THC fights cancer. Lately I've heard a few people rambling on about it but absolutely nobody has once managed to show me the hard evidence, just a series of news reports and pothead forums proclaiming it is so. I'm sorry, but just because the Washington Post said so doesn't mean jack ****... the Washington Post says a lot of things.

So, anyone know where the actual reports from real scientists can be found?

Does anybody know any stores, other than EB Games... seriously, screw monopolies, that sell new-in-the-box Playstation 2 consoles? I know for a fact that they are still making them, as incredible as that sounds, and I was just wondering where to find them? No stores in my small town sell them but before I make the hour long trip (one way that is) to the nearest large city I want to know where to go.

My father, and his father before him, were huge Cadillac fans. It's safe to say that out of all the cars my family ever owned, seventy percent of them were Caddies. From seven to eleven or twelve years old my dad had a good quality Coupe DeVille and I have such great memories in that thing. Obviously the love for Caddies has bitten me too but I have no clue how affordable they are. Obviously the newer models are considerably more expensive than an older model, even if you factor in fuel economy and all that crap, but is it possible to easily save up for a used one? If you compared it to a good Chevy would it be significantly more difficult to finance or about the same (including maintenance and gas)?

I've looked at dozens of used sales online and prices seem to go from two grand to fifteen grand.

And remember; Caddies aren't boats on land, boats are Caddies at sea!

Just a little curiosity here.

As the world changes, and definitely not for the better, I often find myself asking "what is the easiest way to restore stability?" Global warming caused by both citizens and corporations not giving a ****, people and companies like Bill Gates, Tim Horton's, or Valve (the video game company) abusing the free markets for their explicit monopolization, so called activists intentionally attempting to trample on other peoples rights while crying about their own, and especially an economy which suffers a devastating recession approximately every seven to thirteen years. The list goes on and on.

Of course everybody says "we just need more freedom", but do we really? I mean, the government never steps in to man handle the economy back together no matter how desperate the situation is because we are free to choose where we work, if we work at all. When all the major oligopolies were collapsing and entire cities worth of people were losing their jobs through no fault of their own our government refused to change the structure to adapt and survive. A totalitarian government, ideologically driven to perpetuate a stable economy, would go through great lengths to maintain civil order and economic growth... or at least stability. The police, always accused of brutality whenever the most minor of protests begins, are actually told NOT to attack groups such as the hells angels, scientology, and the KKK even though the entire planet knows they are guilty of all the most horrible crimes. The police could (and probably should) have just shot Carla Homolka but they didn't.

But say a realistic and practical totalitarian political party with ideals based on what we hold dear in the present reality presents itself and somehow gathers enough power to actually do something. Would you be able to support them when they attempt fixing the economy by simply saying "inflation doesn't exist" and they hard mark all prices at a fixed number (bread, for example, will forever cost $2.00). When they ship all the organized crime groups off to their secret prisons would you complain at all? How about when they force an employer to give you a job you wanted because everyone should have the right to employment. Would you side with them or defend the employers right to hire who he/she wishes?

Now I know everyone just defaults to hating totalitarianism and to explain why people feel that way would require a full essay of its own. But it has worked well in the past (and most of what we do know about cold war era ones is based on what our own media told us. Not that reliable of information is it?) Remember, one of the goals of totalitarianism is to attempt to enforce a preconceived idea of utopia. If this government were founded in, say, Canada, it is certain that they wouldn't want freedom of association to disappear.

So I ask, if a totalitarian regime could present answers to our worlds problems would you be able to consider and maybe accept them?

No delusions of illogically and impractically random and omnipresent oppression please. This is a serious question asking for serious consideration. Yes we are all concerned about Big Brother but we all know how absurd that kind of depiction of totalitarianism is. It's called fiction for a reason.

Just a little curiosity here.

As the world changes, and definitely not for the better, I often find myself asking "what is the easiest way to restore stability?" Global warming caused by both citizens and corporations not giving a ****, people and companies like Bill Gates, Tim Horton's, or Valve (the video game company) abusing the free markets for their explicit monopolization, so called activists intentionally attempting to trample on other peoples rights while crying about their own, and especially an economy which suffers a devastating recession approximately every seven to thirteen years. The list goes on and on.

Of course everybody says "we just need more freedom", but do we really? I mean, the government never steps in to man handle the economy back together because we are free to choose where we work, if we work at all. The police, always accused of brutality whenever the most minor of protests begins, are actually told NOT to attack groups such as the hells angels, scientology, and the KKK even though the entire planet knows they are guilty of all the most horrible crimes. The police could (and probably should) have just shot Carla Homolka but they didn't.

But say a realistic and practical totalitarian political party with ideals based on what we hold dear in the present reality presents itself and somehow gathers enough power to actually do something. Would you be able to support them when they attempt fixing the economy by simply saying "inflation doesn't exist" and they hard mark all prices at a fixed number (bread, for example, will forever cost $2.00). When they ship all the organized crime groups off to their secret prisons would you complain at all? How about when they force an employer to give you a job you wanted because everyone should have the right to employment. Would you side with them or defend the employers right to hire who he/she wishes?

Now I know everyone just defaults to hating totalitarianism and to explain why people feel that way would require a full essay of its own. But it has worked well in the past (and most of what we do know about cold war era ones is based on what our own media told us. Not that reliable of information is it?) Remember, one of the goals of totalitarianism is to attempt enforce a preconceived idea of utopia. If this is government were founded in, say, Canada, it is certain that they wouldn't want freedom of association to disappear.

Think what you will of the Soviet Union, they did turn a dieing feudalistic crap hole into one of the worlds five most powerful empires in world history (the others being Rome, Mongolia, Britain, and the USA).

I decided to give eHarmony an attempt but because I am presently living in somebody else' home I don't want them to receive phone calls or snail mail from eHarmony (for their safety and privacy as well as my privacy and others safety). Will eHarmony ever send snail mail to my home or phone my home number? I searched for answers on their website but nothing has been found thus far.

Obama ate a dog! Romney beats his dog! Obama went on a vacation with tax payers money! Palin is a bad Christian! Obama is from Kenya!

Look at yourselves! People spend all their time complaining and pointing fingers at the other side of the political spectrum that they fail to realize what the real issue is; political polarization and extremism has erased any existence of rationality and judgement in government. Yes that is correct. We destroyed our own countries by forming such strong opinions, and failing to consider facts outside of our own point of view, that the entire system, from the economy to parliament or whatever, flooded with corrupt dickery.

The snuggie is a backwards house coat. It was granted a patent because all competition is fair and legal no matter how silly and stupid it is.

Wal-Mart regularly opens shop in small communities which depend heavily on local businesses. They are not punished for monopolization because that's restricting the free market.

The conservatives of whatever country you live in accuse their liberal opposition of some dumb mundane bologna and the liberals retaliate in kind. Meanwhile a communist party is crushed by overwhelming disdain from the public. Nobody is sent to prison for corruption because removing incompetent and horrible politicians who refuse to do their jobs defeats democracy unless they are politicians who don't like democracy... unless they do like democracy and we just think they don't like democracy.

Your unfriendly neighborhood organized crime group starts a war with their rivals which claims the life of a child playing on the side walk near a car bombing. The police are powerless to destroy these organizations because that would be police brutality (bonus points if you can name which criminal war I am talking about).

What I am saying here is that we need to let go of our pathetic little opinions because opinions just break things. Every so called democracy in the western world is just proof of this. I don't expect this one little post to change the world, but maybe someone with a spark of intelligence in their brain will read this and pay it forward. Thus preserving some hope that someday people will quit being morons.

Hey, maybe somebody already realized that half our problems aren't because of the government; they're because people are allowed to have enough money to buy the government and thus private representation.

So there is girl I know whom I would like to ask on a date. She's actually the sister of my cousins best friend who lives up the block from us, so there is an acquaintance bridge established which gives us some familiarity. I have been aged 20 for a couple months where as she is 17 and over half way to 18.

Is this a large enough age gape to warrant an off limits status at our age (2 years and roughly 4 months difference) or am I just paranoid of being labelled a creep by the entire neighborhood?

I just finished Mass Effect for the second time so that I could try out the romance sub-plot with Ashley. However, in ME2 it is possible to do the same thing with Tali. I was wondering if it is at all possible for Shepard to break up with Ash and pursue Tali. I think this would really look interesting for ME3 when I carry my profile over to that game and would help flesh out my Shepard a bit better as a character. And before anyone says anything; yeah I know it's not nice to lead people on. But this is a video game... (you wouldn't believe how many people seem to hate me for this). I'm essentially trying to write a story of a confused love triangle.

So is this at all possible and if so, how do you do it? Are there any per-requisite conditions to meet or does the relationship evolve naturally or something?

PS I have yet to install ME2 so minimize the spoilers, please and thank you. I know a bit about what happens but would prefer to not know everything.

I recently have begun preparing to enlist in the military and I am very excited. However something struck me yesterday which has me very nervous. See I have some very close friends who live in South America (we go back for many many many years). They aren't citizens of this country but I promised to help sponsor one of them as an immigrant until he could stabilize and bring everyone else up.

Is this something a soldier can still do? According to what I know about life in the army it sounds okay. I mean a soldier can own and live in his/her own house instead of in a barracks (something like that). But still, I'll be in the army and all.

Is there anyone who can clarify if a soldier in the Canadian military can sponsor an immigrant he/she has known for nearly ten years? (yes, in person just for people who assume this is a weird internet thing). If it helps they all have college/university educations in various fields.

I've been unemployed for three years now and I have to ask; is there anyone out there who finds it this difficult to find a job? I live in a small town which was utterly devastated by the recession/depression and all that seems to be left is walmart, zellers, and various other minimum wage huts.

So I just want to know, is this town an anomaly, am I just very bad for business, or is this common across the whole country (Canada)? It's getting extremely frustrating at this point. Especially when there are usually ten or so people at minimum applying for the same custodian position that I am.