Walsingham

If any of you have ever grown a beard you'll know that sudden slightly panicky claustrophobic feeling you get when you want to shave it all off. I just had that about my whole body. A sudden moment of pure "AAAAAGH! I'm covered in hair! Get it off me!" Too much coffee.

Le Tigre http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=05FFckxLG5Y...ted&search= I'm now ordering the album. Nuts and squirrels to the fascists who say Youtube is bad.

I suspect it was basic misunderstanding about how damp concrete gets.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6759273.stm Sadly, it seems you'd get a lot of mush.

Silence is a mod or a character you made? Assuming the latter, what was the "theme"? Sadly I am not talented enough to write a mod. Silence was the name of a character I used. The idea struck me of.... ~ The scream emanating from the cattle sheds made Elminster and the new Keeper of the Tomes, Ulraunt, wince in unison. Rain, in cold a constant drizzle draped over them like cloaks. "She shouldn't be here," Repeated Ulraunt peevishly. "She didn't bring a book. No good will come of it" Elminster chewed the callus on the end of one finger and glowered at him. "There are rules and there are rules, Keeper. You cannot tell me you'd have let that poor woman die on your doorstep?" "Yes, well, precisely," Continued Ulraunt, undeterred, but was interrupted by the form of a serving girl catapulting out of the stable in a startling haze of candlelight. "Come quick, sirs! It's getting worse." Elminster pushed his way into the enclosed space, to see the local midwife holding the hand of the woman who seemed fairly cracked by pain and anguish. Her left hand gripped the nearby manger with such force that she had snapped part of it off. With each spasm her features became wilder, and more intense but equally more distant. "It's a bad sign, having a woman in here dying like this. No good will come of it," Ulraunt stated from the back, being universally ignored. Suddenly, with a final surge, obscured by a flurry of activity by the women, the noise rose to a crescendo and then there was nothing. Elminster's shoulders fell, and he turned to walk away, expressionlessly. Ulraunt seemed unnaturally relieved. The midwife's voice broke their private reveries on the threshold. "It's a girl," She said, almost wonderingly, and it was. Held in the light of the candles, mired by blood, was a tiny infant. The child's skin was the cold pure white of marble, and her eyes were the rich black of an animal's. As Elminster came forward the eyes regarded him from a face of absolute calm. He smiled, and reached down to place his little finger in the babe's hand, marvelling at the unexpected grip. "She must have a name, sir," the midwife insisted, staring down at her with the universal care a certain type of woman projects towards all babies. At which cue, the serving girl, still appalled by the scene, tugged a blanket diffidently over the mother's sightless features. "She must have a name, or she'll come a wrong 'un." Elminster's expression was hard to read. It was neither wholly happy or wholly sad, as he stared into the eyes of this unnaturally quiet and self-possessed child. "Silence," he finally said. "You can't call a baby, Silence," Interjected Ulraunt, laughing bitterly. "It is what she is. It is who she is. Silence can mean many things good or bad. It can mean everything and it can mean nothing. When she is old enough she will decide for herself what it means," Growled the old wizard. Ulraunt, peering over the midwife's shoulder, shivered briefly. "No good will come of it." ~ Silence grew up, gaining strength and vigour, but remaining completely cold. Infected on the one hand by the general air of Candlekeep she became playful and enjoyed obscure humour. On the other hand she eventually learned of the way here mother had been initially denied care by the Keeper, and as she neared adolescence, came to despise both the guards who slavishly had kept her waiting in deference to rules, and the swines who had been responsible for her being there in the first place. Was it some lord, or angel, or bandits who were responsible? No matter. Unable to forgive either group, lawful or chaotic the child became savagely self-reliant. ~ I tried to play the character as being generally quite selfish and thereby evil. Completely focussed on survival. But equally capable of random outbursts of kindness, particularly to children, and women in distress. Made for an interesting time. Silence eventually (spoiler regarding the end of the game) I've always wanted tow rite BG3 where the character follows on after Silence, and takes orders from her, becoming her true servant, changes her nature, or perhaps aiming to supplant her.

For Pity's sake, man! Don't do it!

I wish I could agree with that. But after hundreds of years of bitter hatred there will only be peace when one or the other is wiped out. You mean the way the Scots, Welsh and English have? Don't forget that for hundreds of years we were pretty much the same. The damn Scots kept trying to give England to the French!

Nu-uh. I told them that I had a cold, and it was passing (true), and I even told them what medications I had in the last seven days (some Day Nurse yesterday and Night Nurse last night: nothing today). You aren't meant to give blood if you are a dirty infected zombie. Which I clearly am not. How odd. I distinctly recall being turned down the first time because I was blowing my nose. They said blood transfusions go to very weak people as a rule, and the last thing they need is a random virus to beat.

Steady now, dear. Not in front of the members.

I'm not replaying BG until I can think of another character who will be as interesting as Silence.

I would agree that there are a lot of games that are essentially a tactical combat engine with a storyline stitching together the battles, like FOT. FOT caught flak rather unfairly due to this fact. Certainly for myself I like an RPG to include deeper girly issues like feelings, guilt, redemption, and jokes about Monty Python. I suppose that strictly speaking you are playing a role by taking on any avatar. However I think that for true immersion your avatar needs to be dynamic, reflecting your actions and choices. I think it is this freedom to form the nature of your character, their friends, and general style which more than compensates in my mind for any restrictions on plot. This s why for me Oblivion is no more interesting than Far Cry as a roleplaying game.

Dunniteowl has a point. The estimate of the Id card scheme is that it will cost 20 billion in order for the state to even know who you are, let alone what you've done. And a lot of people think it won't work even then.

Hold on, you're saying you gave blood while you had a cold? That's not on, mate. It's against regs.

I can't donate blood. Too many weird tropical disease antibodies in there. it's bloody annoying, since I've tried three times to do it, and they remain adamant. It's pretty good blood otherwise, high in sugar, alcohol, and fat. It must be delicious!

*Holds out one chocolate bourbon cream biscuit*

GD I assume that was a freudian slip about Iran funding Al Qaeda? You know Al Qaeda is active in northern Iran attacking the Iranians? As for how to handle Iran I actually think we're moving in a more sensible direction now. We can't force them down in the conventional military sense because they're pretty smart cookies and have some quite nice kit, especially in air defence and shore to ship missiles. They are also quite prepared to launch swarm small boat attacks against the carrier groups that would be very nasty indeed. Nor can we provoke them on unconventional grounds, since any attack on them could spark a massive true uprising in the Shia parts of Iraq that qould make the British retreat from Khabul look like a tea party. Instead we are, and need to continue to, consulting the Iranians about Iraq, and involving them in the process, while trying not to sell the Sunni Iraqis out. They are a proud country with proud aspirations to stand on teh world stage. If we have to give them a bigger part to secure the future of Iraq then maybe we just have to lump it. Gorgon, I agree that it doesn't look good, but this news here is just more proof that while we are suffering so is the opposition. As Kipling said "...Man cannot tell, but Allah knows how much the other side was hurt." Our politicians, and the media may feel they can safely run and blame everything on Bush and Tony Blair but since it is now our decision it is now our responsibility. We have to ask ourselves if we can - in good conscience - abandon a troubled country on the verge of meltdown. Can we knowingly stand aside and permit another Rwanda on a tenfold greater scale. And with the exception of Sand I don't believe anyone here could really square that with who they are.

Walsingham's easy to remember dictum: It's not a RPG unless there is a stuffed cat in it.

When you've got a fire in your belly the best thing you can do is not book learning but get out there and give it a whirl! Book learning is essential, but it can make you disillusioned with the grand scheme. You need small doses of practical success to keep the magic alive. In this respect it is very much like serial killing. I don't know what else to say except that I think if we can't help you get to where you're going then we don't damn well deserve to have a forum! Good to have you on board, sir!

That's not bonding. That's orange squash gone sticky from when you spilled it earlier.

Sorry to hear that. You should take some grim satisfacton from the fac tthat you are looking after your famiy when they need you. Less people have the grit to do so than you might think.

And on that high note I think I can summarise by saying "Dear sweet Jesus, NOOOOO!"

Quickly, Volo, I share your incomprehension about the figures. However, I would suggest this is evidence of the difference between a standard war and this sort of thing. Yes you have bombings, but just as in Northern Ireland you have a lot more 'personal' killings by close range firearm. Remember that in any insurgency it is typically 'enemies of the people within the people' who die most rather than their ostensible enemies. I don't think there is any grand solution to the issue. As Churchill said the answer is simply "blood, toil, tears, and sweat'. Which is to say we need to be clear on our strategic aspiration - a peaceful democratic Iraq. We need to have an operational command that understands the impact of every type of operation on the country, from inoculation drives to high altitude bombing. But at the tactical level there is going to be no substitute for the continued devotion and sacrifice of Coalition and Iraqi troops and administrators. Of course that option doesn't look very exciting next to some flimflam artist claiming all we have to do is walk away whistling and it will magically make itself better. Nor can I knowingly back a plan like GD's (deliberately mendacious ) 'give them all some guns and let them sort it out*. Where GD and I do agree is that Al Qaeda are not going to quit if they succeeed in Iraq. They will be redoubled in strength and will set about doing exactly the same sort of thing in Egypt, or Indonesia, or Pakistan. *Actually rumoured t have been applied once in British Somaliland during the war but let's not go into that now.

I find it interesting that there was a story about chimps doing this to a man last year. Maybe it's some primal reflex, like rodent neck-snapping as an attack tactic in feral rats.

Sounds like a personal problem. No. If my groin got chafed that would be a personal problem.

Is it too late to make the joke about how in my house the games own me!