has anyone considered simply freezing the ability of the gutter to add new members?
Wasn't this done once before? I may be misremembering, but it seems like four or five years ago Gutter applications were frozen and a more strict "Fight Club" rule was enacted within the Gutter. The result, if memory serves, was that the main forum basically forgot the Gutter even existed and there was no Gutterdrama.
However, there is the concern that this could lead to elitism amongst existing Gutter members and aggravation amongst new and existing non-Gutter forum users who are not allowed to join. I don't think this would happen, but it is a consideration.
Alternately, you could also try making the vetting process for admitting gutter users much more in-depth, before they're ever exposed to the gutter and expected to sink, swim, or GTFO. With a bit more of an in-depth questionnaire or interview process, I'm sure the gutter could decide easily enough beforehand whether someone's personality is really a good fit for them, before it ever reached the point where they're trying to haze them out of the gutter. And, if you don't trust the gutter to handle that process without supervision, you could put a mod in charge of making final approvals.
I think a workable solution could be a hybrid of these suggestions. Something along the lines of:
1. Remove the ability to apply to the Gutter.
2. Fight Club rule is back in effect.
3. Appoint a Gutter-staff liaison.
4. New membership to the Gutter is invite-only and involves both the Gutter and the staff liaison.
It's not a perfect solution, but with a little effort on hammering out the details it can be a workable solution.
If you're looking for something new and interesting, pretty much everything Mike Patton's been a part of has been awesome in its own way. I would especially recommend the Peeping Tom album and the newest Tomahawk album.
After a quick glance at the website, the only things I know about CoNViCT GaMiNG is that whoever designed the site doesn't understand the function of the shift key and the featured items in their store are donations to their site. I don't know what their purpose is nor why anyone would bother donating money to them or joining the community in the first place.
I still suprised this not made a TV series or even made into a movie. Which thinking be a good watch depending who gotten for the characters and a good director.
The Stand worked fairly well on film. However, the movie is over six hours long and still doesn't compare in scope to the book.
The Dark Tower series is, if I remember correctly, about five times the length of The Stand. Basic math says a decent film adaptation would require a minimum of thirty hours. I don't really see any studios committing to that.
Canceling your cable is a good first step, but I think there's more to it than that if you've let your television habits grow into a (pseudo) addiction.
First off, you probably want to find something else to do to fill your time. Stop by Borders to pick up a nice stack of books, for example. If you manage to break your habit of turning on the TV when you get home now, you'll probably find yourself less likely to think about it once the Fall season starts. If you just try to go cold turkey with finding a replacement, you'll just get bored and start channel surfing again.
I am currently OBSESSED with FIFA 09 - like seriously, if I turn my Xbox 360 on, its to play that game. But I have tons of other really cool games that I would like to get more into, like Assassin's Creed and Need for Speed Carbon.
Both of those games are really sweet games, but whenever I turn on my 360, I can't help but put in FIFA! Now, being the school holidays, I have some time to get into those other games but can't!
Advice?
If you're at a point in your life where you want to be playing two, three, or even more games, there's nothing wrong with that. I advise you, however, to be sure you're open and honest with all the games you're playing so no one of them thinks she's exclusive and gets hurt somewhere down the road.
On the other hand, it sounds like you might want to play some different games, late at night when you're alone perhaps, but when you go to play you find yourself wanting to play FIFA. This could be a sign that FIFA is the one you should be playing, maybe even for the rest of your life. This can be a scary thought, and it's natural to have the urge to do something with other games so as not to face it, but you might want to really think about whether FIFA is the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. If she is, don't screw things up by messing around with those other games.
In the fighting genre I'm a big fan of the Dead or Alive engine. It's the only fighting game I know of where a skilled enough player can feasibly reduce the opponent's health bar to zero without ever touching an attack button and the characters with grappling styles are not only playable, but viable. It's unfortunate most people only really notice the game's breast physics.
In this case, it's clear I am not choosing to pay X in the mana cost as it's being played, I am choosing to pay an alternative cost as it's being played.
You bolded the wrong part of the rule:
If the spell or ability has a variable cost that will be paid as it's being played (such as an {X} in its mana cost) , the player announces the value of that variable at this time. If the spell or ability has alternative, additional, or other special costs that will be paid as it's being played (such as buyback, kicker, or convoke costs), the player announces his or her intentions to pay any or all of those costs (see rule 409.1f).
You announce the value of X as you play the spell. How you pay for it after that is up to you.
I think an easier way of looking at it is this: you choose the value of X as you play the spell, then you pay the costs. In the case of Blazing Shoal your options for paying that cost are by paying RRX or removing a red card with converted mana cost X in your hand from the game. Either way, you're paying for the spell and the converted mana cost for that spell never changed.
Well, God Bless Azerbaijan dosen't have that same ring to it.
That's not my point at all. If you sneeze and I say "God bless you" it's not meant to imply any sort of exclusion to anyone else. There's also no need to clarify by saying something along the lines of "God bless you and Bob and Mary and my uncle Remus and that guy next door with the cute dogs. But not your little sister; she's kind of a *****."
I suppose killing humans for consumption could be murder. But at the same time murder is defined by the laws of a certain society so cannibals probably wouldn't have the same laws about killing as we might. So their meat wouldn't be murder either. Right?
Without actually inspecting the vehicle, it's difficult to assess what it's actually worth. Assuming the only problem with it is minor cosmetic damage, Kelly Blue Book puts the value between 17 and 18,000.
Wasn't this done once before? I may be misremembering, but it seems like four or five years ago Gutter applications were frozen and a more strict "Fight Club" rule was enacted within the Gutter. The result, if memory serves, was that the main forum basically forgot the Gutter even existed and there was no Gutterdrama.
However, there is the concern that this could lead to elitism amongst existing Gutter members and aggravation amongst new and existing non-Gutter forum users who are not allowed to join. I don't think this would happen, but it is a consideration.
I think a workable solution could be a hybrid of these suggestions. Something along the lines of:
1. Remove the ability to apply to the Gutter.
2. Fight Club rule is back in effect.
3. Appoint a Gutter-staff liaison.
4. New membership to the Gutter is invite-only and involves both the Gutter and the staff liaison.
It's not a perfect solution, but with a little effort on hammering out the details it can be a workable solution.
The Stand worked fairly well on film. However, the movie is over six hours long and still doesn't compare in scope to the book.
The Dark Tower series is, if I remember correctly, about five times the length of The Stand. Basic math says a decent film adaptation would require a minimum of thirty hours. I don't really see any studios committing to that.
First off, you probably want to find something else to do to fill your time. Stop by Borders to pick up a nice stack of books, for example. If you manage to break your habit of turning on the TV when you get home now, you'll probably find yourself less likely to think about it once the Fall season starts. If you just try to go cold turkey with finding a replacement, you'll just get bored and start channel surfing again.
If you're at a point in your life where you want to be playing two, three, or even more games, there's nothing wrong with that. I advise you, however, to be sure you're open and honest with all the games you're playing so no one of them thinks she's exclusive and gets hurt somewhere down the road.
On the other hand, it sounds like you might want to play some different games, late at night when you're alone perhaps, but when you go to play you find yourself wanting to play FIFA. This could be a sign that FIFA is the one you should be playing, maybe even for the rest of your life. This can be a scary thought, and it's natural to have the urge to do something with other games so as not to face it, but you might want to really think about whether FIFA is the one you want to spend the rest of your life with. If she is, don't screw things up by messing around with those other games.
You bolded the wrong part of the rule:
You announce the value of X as you play the spell. How you pay for it after that is up to you.
That's not my point at all. If you sneeze and I say "God bless you" it's not meant to imply any sort of exclusion to anyone else. There's also no need to clarify by saying something along the lines of "God bless you and Bob and Mary and my uncle Remus and that guy next door with the cute dogs. But not your little sister; she's kind of a *****."
I have never, before today, seen or heard anyone infer exclusivity from the phrase "God bless [anything]."
I suppose killing humans for consumption could be murder. But at the same time murder is defined by the laws of a certain society so cannibals probably wouldn't have the same laws about killing as we might. So their meat wouldn't be murder either. Right?
Murder is, by definition, the killing of another human being. Therefore, killing a chicken is not murder.