DigitalShadow

I am currently employed, paid well, get vacation and sick days, health insurance, etc... but I don't take it for granted or feel entitled. I know that those extras are not "free" and that they cost money for the company I work for, but I also know I could become a consultant or independent contractor and give up those extras for doubling my pay. Right now I'm simply happy and thankful for what I have though. I somewhat resent the implication that people who work "normal" career type jobs are inherently entitlement oriented, but I do understand what you're talking about and think most people take far too many things for granted and expect unconditional protection from their own blunders. I blame the parents who raise their kids to have an overdeveloped sense of entitlement.

That would explain why they always seem to come back.

After the D&D discussion, I figured this would be about Trolls as a type of monster. I am disappointed.

Best I could come up with was "stainable" but couldn't figure out where the other i could go. I am pretty good at scrabble so I figured I should be able to get it and wasted 20 minutes trying to find a word I didn't even know was a word.

27 out of 30 here as well. Stupid anagram questions... I didn't even know the answer to the INSATIABLE question was a word

But what about situations like torture/rape? Do you think the Lord thinks anyone really needs to be tortured or raped? I mean, I know that some trials in life can do you good, but a lot of rape victims never seem to fully recover. I'm not sure how that could really be part of a plan for spiritual growth.

I actually wanted to say something about that, but figured it may be inappropriate. But since you mentioned it, I've always wondered that when people say things like how surely God must have watched over someone that avoided a disaster. So what about the people who actually were the victims? Were they somehow less worthy of God's protection? In my opinion, good things happen and bad things happen, people narrowly avoid disaster and people also narrowly get sucked into disaster, that's just how a chaotic system works. Placing God as the protecting force behind some situations also seems to imply that he willingly allows tragedy in other situations so I choose believe that if God does exist, he just stays out of those kind of things.

Yeah, I had heard 4th edition was supposed to launched with all this wonderful online functionality but the general consensus seems to be that it sucks. Although the reception to 4e in general has been pretty mixed, so I don't know. Thanks for the link, I might have to give that a try :)

After reading the wiki, I really want that game! I'm actually really surprised Wizards of the Coast didn't do more with D&D in video games, or even making a full D&D client letting a DM host a campaign over the internet. I'm guessing they might have given somewhat exclusive rights to Atari and Atari just didn't see that much profit in anything but turning it into a hack and slash bastardization (Neverwinter Nights).

Yeah, it hit me the other day when I was playing Neverwinter Nights 2, it didn't really feel like D&D and if I were going to make a game as close to D&D as possible, it would have to be in the turn based/grid style of Final Fantasy Tactics, but oh so much more complicated. Ever since then I've been working on programming the framework for a very complicated D&D like tactical RPG :)

I'm in 2 D&D campaigns right now and I'm working on making a tactical RPG loosely based (so I don't get sued) on the D&D system. Fear my nerdiness.

Did it happen something like this: Dark Dungeons

Modern technology simply facilitates the wants of the people. People obviously want adultery or there wouldn't be an app for it. I think it would be far more productive to investigate why people want it in the first place rather than point the finger at technology for making it easier.

Congrats :) Do you have a portfolio where we can see some of your stuff?

The underlying assumption many people seem to be making is that these pictures were distributed publicly. The article wasn't particularly clear about it, but I was under the impression that he was simply found in possession of these images. If that is the case, does anyone still think criminal charges or civil penalties should apply?

Yes, it is quite probable that the intent was sexual gratification while thinking about minors, but why should that in itself be illegal? I would much rather this man get his sexual gratification from harmless images stitched together images rather than talking kids into posing naked or even sexually molesting them directly.

No one?

Source: Virtual Porn I think it is definitely disgusting and more than a bit creepy, but charging him with "sexual exploitation of a minor" for photoshopping a child's head on an adult body seems to go down a very slippery slope. In what way was a child exploited here? One of the pictures apparently had the face of Miley Cyrus, do you really think she is being exploited (other than by Disney)?

For some reason I'm imagining the Thriller video now.

I guess I'm just not sure what China would really gain from putting all those resources into destroying the US. Plus, even after destroying our technological infrastructure and sending the population into panic, I'm sure there are self-sufficient enough military bases that would still be able to nuke them. Not to mention, just about every other civilized nation would be ready to annihilate them. In short, I really don't think China could take on the entire world and win, and I think they know that as well. I'm no political expert, but I'm guessing those measures are to be put in place if they are under attack or feel seriously threatened by another nation. I'm sure we have our own plans of war in those cases as well.

I don't think temples are magically immune to natural disaster or attacks. You're not 100% safe anywhere, but you're reasonably safe just about everywhere.

I feel culturally deficient now... I had only heard of the Three Days Grace version, but now I have that stuck in my head.

All life except plants presumably since they don't mind eating those.

By that reasoning, why not make all crimes punishable by life imprisonment or a 5 billion dollar fine? In my opinion, some crimes are more damaging to society than others and so they should carry different consequences depending on the severity of the crime.

Yes, she broke the law, but shouldn't the punishment fit the crime? Should a kid spend life in prison for stealing a pack of gum? I think the real crime here is that the RIAA is allowed to destroy people's lives for relatively minor transgressions that didn't hurt anyone.