 manifestation of the trillions of cells that are also individual identities- meant to cooperate and 'love' their 'home' or 'universe' that provides them with life and so they are meant to work to maintain the existence of us as one living body. Like Earth is a cell and we are the DNA here to keep the brain/information processing going in order to evolve along with the universe, but it still is only a small cell in the collective body (indescribable vastness/complexity is what seems to make up our visual/material reality). Perhaps that also means our consciousness moves to higher and higher levels, and continually strives to blossom outward/upward into more powerful manifestations of existence.<|endoftext|>December 2002

Jessa Crispin

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories by Emma Donoghue

There are strange bits of history that have been mostly forgotten. The back story is lost, or perhaps you sense that the truly interesting perspective is the one not saved. Over the last ten years or so, Emma Donoghue has come across some of these small snippets of history and felt inspired to fill in the blank spaces with a short story followed by the true story and her sources.

These sources of her inspiration span five centuries of British, Irish, and Scottish history and come from engravings, medical journals, ballads, trial records. Some of the stories stem from just a sentence in another person's history. She attempts to unearth these buried lives of women, cripples, slaves, and other undesirables who were so infrequently able to tell their own tales.

The stories are written so perfectly and with such authority that you want to take Donoghue's word for it. We'll never know if her versions of what happened are close to the truth, but it doesn't matter. If only high school history classes were this entertaining. The stories taken by themselves are fantastic; they stand alone from the premise quite nicely. Taken in context, however, they light up. If only it were not so difficult to wait until the end of the story to hear the history of it. I snuck a peak more than once.

All sorts of nastiness are addressed. The woman in the remarkable "Cured" - based on brief notes in a medical book about clitoridectomy - went to a doctor for back pain and left mutilated and "cured". "I have performed an operation to prevent you from harming yourself, from making yourself gravely ill to the point of epilepsy, lunacy, and death," he tells her. It's a difficult story to read, one that makes you want to buy the poor girl a vibrator and do all kinds of horrible things to the doctor.

While stories like "Cured" and "The Fox on the Line" - a story about two anti-vivisection crusaders - are political in nature, there is also "Acts of Union", a slightly racy story about consummation of marriage and the lack thereof. The collection is fairly balanced between feminist and light, serious and playful which shows maturity on Donoghue's part.

Emma Donoghue has written a great collection of short stories, and I wish she would write another volume of these forgotten histories.

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories by Emma Donoghue
ISBN: 0151009376
272 pages<|endoftext|>GC 2009: Project Natal Preview

Page 2 Of 2
Continued from Page 1

Kudo's demonstration of Ricochet overbrims with enthusiasm, and as more balls are flung towards the avatar his exaggerated bounding almost threatens to bring Microsoft's booth tumbling down. "I've lost over 8kg since I started working on Natal" he says, and we don't doubt him. His theatrics can be excused, however – Natal puts the player first, and its physicality is unmatched, something his play-acting underlines.

Playing the game ourselves is a strange experience. We don't attack it with quite the same abandon as Kudo, but its accuracy is nevertheless astounding. There's the slightest of lags in our movements being translated to screen, but it's not enough to undermine the thrill of seeing it in action. However, the game itself demands flailing and doesn't reward grace, at times feeling like an ominous reminder of the kind of fare that has to date prevented Sony's EyeToy from being a success - but as a technical demo it's effective.

Ricochet isn't the most graceful of games, but it's a good demo for Natal.

There were a few hiccoughs similar to the one that famously befell Kudo at the E3 reveal. Limbs infrequently find themselves in inhuman positions, and at one point when a new player steps up it stalls as it tries to reconfigure itself. There's no such problem when we step up after someone, and impressively the avatar changes to match our own proportions.

A retooled Burnout Paradise shows how the technology can be fitted within existing genres and it's an effective solution. Players control the car with an imaginary steering wheel and imaginary pedals, with a fist pump activating Burnout mode. While it's certainly instinctive, it ultimately loses out to a more traditional controller thanks to the lack of a tactile element – driving a car well is about feel and feedback, and they're both things that Natal lacks.

We're left impressed but with some key doubts. The technology is certainly there, it's certainly impressive and - to a degree – it works. However, while the demos help outline the capabilities of Natal, they fail to make a compelling argument for its effectiveness in gaming, with Ricochet understandably throwaway and motion enabled Burnout coming off worst when put against its more traditional relation. With the excitement of the initial reveal dimming, it's now a case of seeing what third- and first-party developers can do with the technology – and when that wait's over, we're sure our enthusiasm will be rekindled.<|endoftext|>Chisholm ’72: In Context: A Brief Guide to 1972

The 1968 Democratic Convention

A scene from inside the 1968 Democratic conventionThe 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami was carefully organized to distinguish it from the 1968 convention in Chicago, which was characterized by vociferous dissent within the party and violence in the streets outside. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley used 20,000 police, National Guard soldiers, and Secret Service agents to try to control antiwar demonstrators. Inside the convention hall, supporters of antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy felt marginalized by the party’s elites, who used convention rules to place Hubert Humphrey on the ticket, despite the fact that Humphrey had won zero primaries or caucuses.

To ensure that 1972 would be different, the party chose George McGovern to head a convention reform commission. Among the reforms implemented were rules that convention delegates should “fairly reflect” the preferences of state voters, rules calling for proportional inclusion of women and minority groups, and open-procedure rules intended to decrease the authority of state party officials in choosing delegates.

Next | The 26th Amendment »

» CNN All Politics: Democratic National Convention
» Howstuffworks: How Political Conventions Work<|endoftext|>Derrick was more likely to have an apple at lunch than Neil because Neil rarely ate fruit.<|endoftext|>I'm a born rapist: Fritzl

This was published 12 years ago

I'm a born rapist: Fritzl

LONDON - The Austrian man who locked his daughter in a cellar and fathered her seven children sees himself as a "born rapist" and hatched the plot to imprison her while he was in jail for rape.

Leaked accounts of Josef Fritzl's interviews with a forensic psychiatrist have been reported by The Times in Britain, and Austrian newspapers are expected to publish further details today.

The Times said Fritzl, 73, hatched his plan to imprison his daughter Elisabeth in the late 1960s, while he was serving an 18-month jail term for the brutal rape of a woman at knifepoint in her home.

"I have realised that I had a mean streak. For someone who was born to be a rapist, I have managed to contain myself for a relatively long period," Fritzl is quoted as telling the psychiatrist.

He is awaiting trial for sexually abusing and incarcerating Elisabeth, 42, in a specially built dungeon under his house in the town of Amstetten.

He fathered seven children by her, one of whom died shortly after birth and Fritzl burnt his body in an oven.

Three of the surviving children were allowed to live upstairs with him and wife, Rosemarie, 69, while their three siblings were condemned to a secret, shadowy existence with their mother in the cellar.

They were finally freed by police in April after the eldest daughter Kerstin, 19, fell ill and was rushed to hospital after Elisabeth begged Fritzl to let her see a doctor.

After the family was liberated, it emerged that Fritzl had been jailed in 1967 for the knifepoint rape of a 24-year-old woman.

According to the report, compiled forensic psychiatrist Dr Adelheid Kastner and cited by The Times, Fritzl hatched the dungeon plan as an "ideal solution" to his deranged fantasies.

He decided to lock up his daughter in the cellar so that he could "live out" his "evil side" while leading a seemingly normal life in the flat upstairs, The Times report said.

Fritzl - who participated in indepth interviews with Kastner - told the psychiatrist that his relationship with women was shaped

 one 'whole'- when in actuality we are only a manifestation of the trillions of cells that are also individual identities- meant to cooperate and 'love' their 'home' or 'universe' that provides them with life and so they are meant to work to maintain the existence of us as one living body. Like Earth is a cell and we are the DNA here to keep the brain/information processing going in order to evolve along with the universe, but it still is only a small cell in the collective body (indescribable vastness/complexity is what seems to make up our visual/material reality). Perhaps that also means our consciousness moves to higher and higher levels, and continually strives to blossom outward/upward into more powerful manifestations of existence.<|endoftext|>December 2002

Jessa Crispin

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories by Emma Donoghue

There are strange bits of history that have been mostly forgotten. The back story is lost, or perhaps you sense that the truly interesting perspective is the one not saved. Over the last ten years or so, Emma Donoghue has come across some of these small snippets of history and felt inspired to fill in the blank spaces with a short story followed by the true story and her sources.

These sources of her inspiration span five centuries of British, Irish, and Scottish history and come from engravings, medical journals, ballads, trial records. Some of the stories stem from just a sentence in another person's history. She attempts to unearth these buried lives of women, cripples, slaves, and other undesirables who were so infrequently able to tell their own tales.

The stories are written so perfectly and with such authority that you want to take Donoghue's word for it. We'll never know if her versions of what happened are close to the truth, but it doesn't matter. If only high school history classes were this entertaining. The stories taken by themselves are fantastic; they stand alone from the premise quite nicely. Taken in context, however, they light up. If only it were not so difficult to wait until the end of the story to hear the history of it. I snuck a peak more than once.

All sorts of nastiness are addressed. The woman in the remarkable "Cured" - based on brief notes in a medical book about clitoridectomy - went to a doctor for back pain and left mutilated and "cured". "I have performed an operation to prevent you from harming yourself, from making yourself gravely ill to the point of epilepsy, lunacy, and death," he tells her. It's a difficult story to read, one that makes you want to buy the poor girl a vibrator and do all kinds of horrible things to the doctor.

While stories like "Cured" and "The Fox on the Line" - a story about two anti-vivisection crusaders - are political in nature, there is also "Acts of Union", a slightly racy story about consummation of marriage and the lack thereof. The collection is fairly balanced between feminist and light, serious and playful which shows maturity on Donoghue's part.

Emma Donoghue has written a great collection of short stories, and I wish she would write another volume of these forgotten histories.

The Woman Who Gave Birth to Rabbits: Stories by Emma Donoghue
ISBN: 0151009376
272 pages<|endoftext|>GC 2009: Project Natal Preview

Page 2 Of 2
Continued from Page 1

Kudo's demonstration of Ricochet overbrims with enthusiasm, and as more balls are flung towards the avatar his exaggerated bounding almost threatens to bring Microsoft's booth tumbling down. "I've lost over 8kg since I started working on Natal" he says, and we don't doubt him. His theatrics can be excused, however – Natal puts the player first, and its physicality is unmatched, something his play-acting underlines.

Playing the game ourselves is a strange experience. We don't attack it with quite the same abandon as Kudo, but its accuracy is nevertheless astounding. There's the slightest of lags in our movements being translated to screen, but it's not enough to undermine the thrill of seeing it in action. However, the game itself demands flailing and doesn't reward grace, at times feeling like an ominous reminder of the kind of fare that has to date prevented Sony's EyeToy from being a success - but as a technical demo it's effective.

Ricochet isn't the most graceful of games, but it's a good demo for Natal.

There were a few hiccoughs similar to the one that famously befell Kudo at the E3 reveal. Limbs infrequently find themselves in inhuman positions, and at one point when a new player steps up it stalls as it tries to reconfigure itself. There's no such problem when we step up after someone, and impressively the avatar changes to match our own proportions.

A retooled Burnout Paradise shows how the technology can be fitted within existing genres and it's an effective solution. Players control the car with an imaginary steering wheel and imaginary pedals, with a fist pump activating Burnout mode. While it's certainly instinctive, it ultimately loses out to a more traditional controller thanks to the lack of a tactile element – driving a car well is about feel and feedback, and they're both things that Natal lacks.

We're left impressed but with some key doubts. The technology is certainly there, it's certainly impressive and - to a degree – it works. However, while the demos help outline the capabilities of Natal, they fail to make a compelling argument for its effectiveness in gaming, with Ricochet understandably throwaway and motion enabled Burnout coming off worst when put against its more traditional relation. With the excitement of the initial reveal dimming, it's now a case of seeing what third- and first-party developers can do with the technology – and when that wait's over, we're sure our enthusiasm will be rekindled.<|endoftext|>Chisholm ’72: In Context: A Brief Guide to 1972

The 1968 Democratic Convention

A scene from inside the 1968 Democratic conventionThe 1972 Democratic National Convention in Miami was carefully organized to distinguish it from the 1968 convention in Chicago, which was characterized by vociferous dissent within the party and violence in the streets outside. Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley used 20,000 police, National Guard soldiers, and Secret Service agents to try to control antiwar demonstrators. Inside the convention hall, supporters of antiwar candidate Eugene McCarthy felt marginalized by the party’s elites, who used convention rules to place Hubert Humphrey on the ticket, despite the fact that Humphrey had won zero primaries or caucuses.

To ensure that 1972 would be different, the party chose George McGovern to head a convention reform commission. Among the reforms implemented were rules that convention delegates should “fairly reflect” the preferences of state voters, rules calling for proportional inclusion of women and minority groups, and open-procedure rules intended to decrease the authority of state party officials in choosing delegates.

Next | The 26th Amendment »

» CNN All Politics: Democratic National Convention
» Howstuffworks: How Political Conventions Work<|endoftext|>I'm a born rapist: Fritzl

This was published 12 years ago

I'm a born rapist: Fritzl

LONDON - The Austrian man who locked his daughter in a cellar and fathered her seven children sees himself as a "born rapist" and hatched the plot to imprison her while he was in jail for rape.

Leaked accounts of Josef Fritzl's interviews with a forensic psychiatrist have been reported by The Times in Britain, and Austrian newspapers are expected to publish further details today.

The Times said Fritzl, 73, hatched his plan to imprison his daughter Elisabeth in the late 1960s, while he was serving an 18-month jail term for the brutal rape of a woman at knifepoint in her home.

"I have realised that I had a mean streak. For someone who was born to be a rapist, I have managed to contain myself for a relatively long period," Fritzl is quoted as telling the psychiatrist.

He is awaiting trial for sexually abusing and incarcerating Elisabeth, 42, in a specially built dungeon under his house in the town of Amstetten.

He fathered seven children by her, one of whom died shortly after birth and Fritzl burnt his body in an oven.

Three of the surviving children were allowed to live upstairs with him and wife, Rosemarie, 69, while their three siblings were condemned to a secret, shadowy existence with their mother in the cellar.

They were finally freed by police in April after the eldest daughter Kerstin, 19, fell ill and was rushed to hospital after Elisabeth begged Fritzl to let her see a doctor.

After the family was liberated, it emerged that Fritzl had been jailed in 1967 for the knifepoint rape of a 24-year-old woman.

According to the report, compiled forensic psychiatrist Dr Adelheid Kastner and cited by The Times, Fritzl hatched the dungeon plan as an "ideal solution" to his deranged fantasies.

He decided to lock up his daughter in the cellar so that he could "live out" his "evil side" while leading a seemingly normal life in the flat upstairs, The Times report said.

Fritzl - who participated in indepth interviews with Kastner - told the psychiatrist that his relationship with women was shaped by his experience with his abusive mother.


From land to water now, and the fastest way to get between two docks is via the Francisco, the world's fastest ship. Loud vessels make a lot of noise, and the sound from the twin - wait for it - 59,000 hp gas turbine engines (derived from a Boeing 747) should keep traffic on the water very polite indeed. The Francisco is capable of attaining speeds of up to 108 km/h, an epic feat of maritime engineering.

8. The fastest plane in the world: North American X-15

We're not going to dilly-dally with the figures of this one, because this aircraft actually achieved a velocity of Mach 6.70 (approximately 7,200 km/h) on 3rd October, 1967, in the hands of pilot William J. "Pete" Knight. The unusual wedge-shaped tail of the X-15 realised extremely high levels of drag at low speeds, so the plane had to be dropped at heights of around 14,000 metres, before it ignited its own engines. And to top it off, its incredible performance meant it was steered by thrusters!

Photo credit: Wiki Commons/NASA

9. The fastest helicopter in the world: Eurocopter X³

Helicopters can get to otherwise inaccessible places, but the Eurocopter X³ can get to them at the rate of 255 knots (472 km/h)! The X³ features aerodynamic fairing on the rotor head and two tractor propellers instead of a tail rotor, mounted on short-span wings. In 2013, it broke through the 300-mile-an-hour barrier, achieving 303 mph (488 km/h), albeit in a shallow dive. The X³ is based on the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin.

10. The fastest spacecraft in the world: Apollo 10

The sky was never the limit for the next record, since it was set even further, in the vastness of space. The Apollo 10 trumps everything else on land, sea, and air with its fastest speed being the quickest ever set by a manned vehicle of any sort, a hard-to-comprehend 39,897 km/h (24,791 mph). The record was set way back in May, 1969, with the three-person aircraft achieving this velocity during its return flight from the moon.

Click to compare, buy, and renew Car Insurance online

Buy InsuranceBuy Now

Read more on: #off beat #most popular
Story first published: Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 16:57 [IST]
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Latest Photos<|endoftext|>The golden flask would not fit in the pocket because the flask is too monstrous.<|endoftext|>Tuesday, April 21, 2015

[Rob's RPG Rambles] Finishing Is Hard

By the time you read this, I'll be getting ready to run what will hopefully be the finale of the Firefly RPG campaign I've been running since October.

Counting Firefly, I believe I've run exactly a dozen campaigns since I started GMing, but there are only two of those that I can say actually reached a proper conclusion and one of those only barely. All the others were cut short for one reason or another. The first got cut short when I moved to start university, two were put on hiatus due to hospitalisation and never got picked up again, one suffered a near TPK and would have needed serious retooling to continue, others faded due to player drop-outs (university can be a bitca for that, with study committments and such) and one or two due to GM burnout on my part.

As all of this suggests, I'm no expert at finishing campaigns, but I have learned a few lessons along the way which might help me more successfully end campaigns in the future. This post will be more about how to ensure a campaign actually reaches a conclusion as opposed to looking at how to handle the conclusion itself, but that might be a good topic to visit in a future post. Hmm...anyway, here goes:

1) Plan For The Short TermSome campaigns can go on for years with no fixed end point in sight, with the players just running around having adventures in the sandbox that is the game's setting. If you have a group that can commit to that kind of long-term game, all well and good, but if you're anything like me, then you have a very limited timescale for running campaigns in. I run games at a university-based gaming society, which means I have to run within the confines of the academic year.

I've always planned my campaigns as if they were 'seasons' of a TV show - the first game I ever ran was the Angel RPG, and the GM advice in that adopted a TV-style story structure - but I've learned to make them short seasons, more along the lines of Doctor Who or Spooks than US shows which generally run for 22 episodes per season. I have two semesters to run a whole campaign, knowing that I can't be sure of players' continued commitment over breaks or even into the next academic year. That gives me 8 weeks (minimum) per semester to run games, allowing for the possibility of breaks due to player absence or other unplanned for interruptions.
So I've learned that I need to set myself a hard limit of 12-16 sessions per season, with a mid-season hiatus for the Christmas break.

This doesn't mean I can't run a sandbox-style game, it just means I have to be aware of how long I have before I need to start steering things towards some kind of conclusion. It doesn't have to be utterly final, perhaps leaving an opening for another season if people are available and interested in continuing in the next academic year.

Keeping it short (with breaks) also helps reduce the possibility of GM burnout becoming an issue. A big part of GM burnout (at least for me) is growing fed up with running the same old thing for too long.

2) Know Your Endpoint and Pace Yourself Accordingly
Again, this is less relevant for sandbox-style play, but if you run structured, fixed-term campaigns like I do then your campaign should probably have some kind of end point built in. Your PCs have some sort of concrete plot-oriented goal to achieve, like defeating the big bad, exposing the conspiracy, or reaching the pit of doom to destroy the mystic macguffin. Knowing where the PCs should be at the end of the campaign, you can scatter the necessary clues or resources to help them get there. Knowing how long you have to run the campaign, you'll also know how many obstacles or side-quests to throw in along the way.

3) Co-ordinate With Your Players
I pushed my luck with the Doctor Who campaign last year and assumed I'd be able to squeeze in one last session after the exam period was finished to wrap up the campaign. As it turned out, one of my players had to head home very shortly thereafter and I didn't want to run a finale without everyone present. The result is that it's a year later and we still haven't had our finale for that game, and possibly never will.

This year, I've been careful to make my players aware of how many weeks I plan to continue the campaign for and been sure to keep up to date on what their plans are, so that I know what weeks they'll be available and how long they're willing to stick with the campaign overall. Luckily, most of the group has been willing to continue into the summer break if needed, but I've stuck to my hard limit of 16 sessions maximum and we're going to be wrapping up just before the exam period starts.

4) Every Now And Then, Stop And Take Stock
This is more about fending off GM burnout than anything else, but recapping the campaign so far for yourself is a good way of finding your bearings again. Knowing both where you are in the campaign and what has gone before will help you figure out where to head next with the campaign, especially as you approach the end. It also might remind you of elements that you can reintroduce or make you aware of elements that can be removed entirely from play, which will either reinvigorate your campaign or get rid of things which are weighing you down needlessly.

These are just a few ways I've thought of for helping make sure I can finish a campaign, but as always if anyone has advice or thoughts of their own I'd be interested in hearing from them in the comments. In any case, right now I'm probably sitting down to wrap up the Firefly campaign, so wish me luck with that and I'll see you again soon!

No comments:

Post a Comment<|endoftext|>Rowan Atkinson

Mel Smith, the man who made me howl with laughter

As so many people have said, Mel Smith, who has died at the age of 60, was a comedy giant. And his talent was evident – obvious – when I first saw him 40 years ago. I was then trying to make my way in comedy at Cambridge, and he, then president of the slightly loftier Oxford University Dramatic Society, had agreed to take part, rather to amuse himself, I suspect. He was by a mile the best thing in it. Clever, and very, very funny, as he always was subsequently.

Diary: Ukip's Tory defectors could be thorn in the side for PM

The UK Independence Party has more reason than any other to complain about the British election system: despite winning 900,000 votes at the last general election it has no MPs. In the European Parliament, which is elected

From land to water now, and the fastest way to get between two docks is via the Francisco, the world's fastest ship. Loud vessels make a lot of noise, and the sound from the twin - wait for it - 59,000 hp gas turbine engines (derived from a Boeing 747) should keep traffic on the water very polite indeed. The Francisco is capable of attaining speeds of up to 108 km/h, an epic feat of maritime engineering.

8. The fastest plane in the world: North American X-15

We're not going to dilly-dally with the figures of this one, because this aircraft actually achieved a velocity of Mach 6.70 (approximately 7,200 km/h) on 3rd October, 1967, in the hands of pilot William J. "Pete" Knight. The unusual wedge-shaped tail of the X-15 realised extremely high levels of drag at low speeds, so the plane had to be dropped at heights of around 14,000 metres, before it ignited its own engines. And to top it off, its incredible performance meant it was steered by thrusters!

Photo credit: Wiki Commons/NASA

9. The fastest helicopter in the world: Eurocopter X³

Helicopters can get to otherwise inaccessible places, but the Eurocopter X³ can get to them at the rate of 255 knots (472 km/h)! The X³ features aerodynamic fairing on the rotor head and two tractor propellers instead of a tail rotor, mounted on short-span wings. In 2013, it broke through the 300-mile-an-hour barrier, achieving 303 mph (488 km/h), albeit in a shallow dive. The X³ is based on the Eurocopter AS365 Dauphin.

10. The fastest spacecraft in the world: Apollo 10

The sky was never the limit for the next record, since it was set even further, in the vastness of space. The Apollo 10 trumps everything else on land, sea, and air with its fastest speed being the quickest ever set by a manned vehicle of any sort, a hard-to-comprehend 39,897 km/h (24,791 mph). The record was set way back in May, 1969, with the three-person aircraft achieving this velocity during its return flight from the moon.

Click to compare, buy, and renew Car Insurance online

Buy InsuranceBuy Now

Read more on: #off beat #most popular
Story first published: Tuesday, May 5, 2015, 16:57 [IST]
Please Wait while comments are loading...

Latest Photos<|endoftext|>Tuesday, April 21, 2015

[Rob's RPG Rambles] Finishing Is Hard

By the time you read this, I'll be getting ready to run what will hopefully be the finale of the Firefly RPG campaign I've been running since October.

Counting Firefly, I believe I've run exactly a dozen campaigns since I started GMing, but there are only two of those that I can say actually reached a proper conclusion and one of those only barely. All the others were cut short for one reason or another. The first got cut short when I moved to start university, two were put on hiatus due to hospitalisation and never got picked up again, one suffered a near TPK and would have needed serious retooling to continue, others faded due to player drop-outs (university can be a bitca for that, with study committments and such) and one or two due to GM burnout on my part.

As all of this suggests, I'm no expert at finishing campaigns, but I have learned a few lessons along the way which might help me more successfully end campaigns in the future. This post will be more about how to ensure a campaign actually reaches a conclusion as opposed to looking at how to handle the conclusion itself, but that might be a good topic to visit in a future post. Hmm...anyway, here goes:

1) Plan For The Short TermSome campaigns can go on for years with no fixed end point in sight, with the players just running around having adventures in the sandbox that is the game's setting. If you have a group that can commit to that kind of long-term game, all well and good, but if you're anything like me, then you have a very limited timescale for running campaigns in. I run games at a university-based gaming society, which means I have to run within the confines of the academic year.

I've always planned my campaigns as if they were 'seasons' of a TV show - the first game I ever ran was the Angel RPG, and the GM advice in that adopted a TV-style story structure - but I've learned to make them short seasons, more along the lines of Doctor Who or Spooks than US shows which generally run for 22 episodes per season. I have two semesters to run a whole campaign, knowing that I can't be sure of players' continued commitment over breaks or even into the next academic year. That gives me 8 weeks (minimum) per semester to run games, allowing for the possibility of breaks due to player absence or other unplanned for interruptions.
So I've learned that I need to set myself a hard limit of 12-16 sessions per season, with a mid-season hiatus for the Christmas break.

This doesn't mean I can't run a sandbox-style game, it just means I have to be aware of how long I have before I need to start steering things towards some kind of conclusion. It doesn't have to be utterly final, perhaps leaving an opening for another season if people are available and interested in continuing in the next academic year.

Keeping it short (with breaks) also helps reduce the possibility of GM burnout becoming an issue. A big part of GM burnout (at least for me) is growing fed up with running the same old thing for too long.

2) Know Your Endpoint and Pace Yourself Accordingly
Again, this is less relevant for sandbox-style play, but if you run structured, fixed-term campaigns like I do then your campaign should probably have some kind of end point built in. Your PCs have some sort of concrete plot-oriented goal to achieve, like defeating the big bad, exposing the conspiracy, or reaching the pit of doom to destroy the mystic macguffin. Knowing where the PCs should be at the end of the campaign, you can scatter the necessary clues or resources to help them get there. Knowing how long you have to run the campaign, you'll also know how many obstacles or side-quests to throw in along the way.

3) Co-ordinate With Your Players
I pushed my luck with the Doctor Who campaign last year and assumed I'd be able to squeeze in one last session after the exam period was finished to wrap up the campaign. As it turned out, one of my players had to head home very shortly thereafter and I didn't want to run a finale without everyone present. The result is that it's a year later and we still haven't had our finale for that game, and possibly never will.

This year, I've been careful to make my players aware of how many weeks I plan to continue the campaign for and been sure to keep up to date on what their plans are, so that I know what weeks they'll be available and how long they're willing to stick with the campaign overall. Luckily, most of the group has been willing to continue into the summer break if needed, but I've stuck to my hard limit of 16 sessions maximum and we're going to be wrapping up just before the exam period starts.

4) Every Now And Then, Stop And Take Stock
This is more about fending off GM burnout than anything else, but recapping the campaign so far for yourself is a good way of finding your bearings again. Knowing both where you are in the campaign and what has gone before will help you figure out where to head next with the campaign, especially as you approach the end. It also might remind you of elements that you can reintroduce or make you aware of elements that can be removed entirely from play, which will either reinvigorate your campaign or get rid of things which are weighing you down needlessly.

These are just a few ways I've thought of for helping make sure I can finish a campaign, but as always if anyone has advice or thoughts of their own I'd be interested in hearing from them in the comments. In any case, right now I'm probably sitting down to wrap up the Firefly campaign, so wish me luck with that and I'll see you again soon!

No comments:

Post a Comment<|endoftext|>Rowan Atkinson

Mel Smith, the man who made me howl with laughter

As so many people have said, Mel Smith, who has died at the age of 60, was a comedy giant. And his talent was evident – obvious – when I first saw him 40 years ago. I was then trying to make my way in comedy at Cambridge, and he, then president of the slightly loftier Oxford University Dramatic Society, had agreed to take part, rather to amuse himself, I suspect. He was by a mile the best thing in it. Clever, and very, very funny, as he always was subsequently.

Diary: Ukip's Tory defectors could be thorn in the side for PM

The UK Independence Party has more reason than any other to complain about the British election system: despite winning 900,000 votes at the last general election it has no MPs. In the European Parliament, which is elected by proportional representation, the party has a dozen MEPs.

More headlines


liberty. However, in the event that it does happen, I certainly think it would be in the best interests of the government (consistent with its implicit mandate to "promote the useful arts," which in turn increases the total commercial opportunity within the economy) to ensure access to self-publication services to all authors.,2004:site.34622-709536 Thu, 29 Jul 2004 07:18:23 -0800 Vetinari By: deadcowdan what is that supposed to mean? if this is a free speech issue then the whole point is that neo-nazis should be just as free as anyone else. that's what free speech is. In America at least, a neo-nazi is free to use any legal means to promote his views. And I, as a (theoretical) business owner, have the right to disassociate myself with anyone holding those views. If I don't feel like accepting his or her money to publish a book on their behalf, I'm well within my rights (assuming, as has been pointed out, that I'm not violating a previously established contract). because your society encourages great differences in wealth, for example, then that could amount to indirect censorship What's indirect censorship? Again, I think this is the problem dejah420 is referring to - a situation in which a voice has a hard time being heard because of economics is not the same as, or even close to, a situation in which a government body is actively trying to stifle a voice. It is probably not a good thing, but that doesn't make it censorship.,2004:site.34622-709823 Thu, 29 Jul 2004 12:37:02 -0800 deadcowdan By: mcsweetie sure, it's their right to publish what they want. but that doesn't make it any less shady.,2004:site.34622-709997 Thu, 29 Jul 2004 16:25:32 -0800 mcsweetie<|endoftext|>Take the 2-minute tour ×

I have difficulties understanding sentence. What is meaning of 差 in the following sentence?

share|improve this question
I would normally say 九点差一刻. Regional difference maybe? –  deutschZuid Nov 27 '13 at 19:52

1 Answer 1

up vote 3 down vote accepted

It literally means differ. 差一刻九点 means a quarter to nine. in the phrase 差一点 and 差几块钱/几个月 means the same, that is, adding the amount missed will turn the current situation into the target situation (could be better or worse).

share|improve this answer
I see. It shows how lack something to target. Xiexie –  Boris Ivanov Nov 25 '13 at 22:59
@BorisIvanov It means differ, not necessarily lack. However in the examples in this answer you can safely interpret it as lack. –  NS.X. Nov 26 '13 at 20:33
When u say differ it means it can be over target, but in this example its not reaching it. Can you use it if u gave more money?(差几块钱) –  Boris Ivanov Nov 26 '13 at 20:59
I guess it's always lack regarding payment, because you are paying from 0 up to the required amount... but if your target is towards a smaller value, such as running time in sports, it is not lack numerically. For instance, 差0.1秒就能进决赛了, means one takes 0.1 second longer than the cutting line to be qualified for the final round. –  user58955 Nov 26 '13 at 22:20

Your Answer

<|endoftext|>Mary gave a framed picture as a gift to Amy because Amy was having a birthday party.<|endoftext|>Your Cat Loves Boxes So Much And You Wonder Why? This Is It!

If you’re planning to keep your feline away from a box, we’ve got some bad news for you.

A cat and a box are like you and your summer cottage. Can we keep you away? No. The fact is, we’ve all been dropping our jaws and scratching our beards and skulls trying to figure out just where this connection between an animal and boxes come from, and we’ve not been very successful. Now we are!

We have these guys from the Animalist, and we have two cats. Marmalade and Cole are the two felines in the video, and they’ll give you a good insight about just how important and fun a box can be to a cat. Thesetwo find their good times in a box of cardboard.

Now, the Animalist explains that cats love for boxes stems from their need to feel fully secure and comfortable. If a cat gets into a cardboard box that’s closed on all sides except the opening, the feline will be sure no one can attack it from the three corners, and the one side open happens to be where it’s looking straight.The box also smells like forest, owing to the material used to make it, and cats love that smell. Now you get it.

Watch this cool clip and SHARE on Facebook!

What do you think?
Please Like us to get daily updates on Facebook<|endoftext|>Man of Science, Man of God: Charles Bell

Who: Charles Bell
What: Premier Anatomist and Surgeon
When: November 12, 1774 - April 28, 1842
Where: Born in Edinburgh, Scotland

Sir Charles Bell--anatomist, surgeon, physiologist, natural theologian--was the youngest of four sons. While still a student at the University of Edinburgh, he taught anatomy and published A System of Dissection Explaining the Anatomy of the Human Body, which showcased his extraordinarily accurate illustrations. He later published volumes of Anatomy of the Human Body with his brother, well-known surgeon John Bell.

Charles' surgical success at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and John's popular anatomy classes--and outspoken criticism of the suffering inflicted by incompetent surgeons--led to jealous opposition from local physicians. Eventually the two brothers were barred from practice and teaching in Scotland, and in 1804 they moved to London and opened a private surgery and school of anatomy.

In 1811, Charles published Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, now considered the "Magna Carta of neurology." After John's death in 1820, Charles continued to teach and conduct research. He was also a surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, helping to found its medical school in 1828.

Bell had a special interest in the nervous system. For a time, he assumed that all nerves were sensory. His work caught the eye of Francois Magendie, who had demonstrated that the ventral roots of spinal nerves are motor and the dorsal roots are sensory. After a conflict of priority arose, the two scientists reached an agreement and named the rule of spinal nerve function "Bell-Magendie's Law."1

Bell's scientific endeavors convinced him of the existence and necessity of the Creator. His 1837 publication The Hand; Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments, as Evincing Design affirmed his convictions:

If we select any object from the whole extent of animated nature, and contemplate it fully and in all its bearings, we shall certainly come to this conclusion: that there is Design in the mechanical construction, Benevolence in the endowments of the living properties, and that Good on the whole is the result.2

From studying the human body, Bell realized how dependent people are on involuntary physical processes. He saw close-minded reliance on reason as not only ignorant, but "worse than ingratitude."

Now, when a man sees that his vital operations could not be directed by reason--that they are constant, and far too important to be exposed to all the changes incident to his mind, and that they are given up to the direction of other sources of motion than the will, he acquires a full sense of his dependence....

He was familiar with uniformitarianism, which influenced the development of Darwinism. Bell thought science should be allowed to follow the evidence--even if it leads to a supernatural origin.

We cannot resist these proofs of a beginning, or of a First Cause. When we are bold enough to extend our inquiries into those great revolutions that have taken place, whether in the condition of the earth, or in the structure of the animals which have inhabited it, our notions of the "uniformity" of the course of nature must suffer some modification.4

Bell was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1826. He later received its first medal, and in 1831 was knighted by King William IV. At age 62, he returned to his homeland as a Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh. His death six years later marked the end of a groundbreaking career in medical science and a humble witness to the intelligent and benevolent handiwork of the Creator.

  1. The Bell-Magendie Law states that the anterior branch of spinal nerve roots contains only motor fibers and the posterior roots contain only sensory fibers.
  2. Bell, Sir Charles. 1852. The Fourth Bridgewater Treatise on the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation: The Hand; Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design, 5th ed. London: John Murray, 1.
  3. Ibid, 13-14.
  4. Ibid, 265

run for this author are just that, an inconvenience, not an abridgement of liberty. However, in the event that it does happen, I certainly think it would be in the best interests of the government (consistent with its implicit mandate to "promote the useful arts," which in turn increases the total commercial opportunity within the economy) to ensure access to self-publication services to all authors.,2004:site.34622-709536 Thu, 29 Jul 2004 07:18:23 -0800 Vetinari By: deadcowdan what is that supposed to mean? if this is a free speech issue then the whole point is that neo-nazis should be just as free as anyone else. that's what free speech is. In America at least, a neo-nazi is free to use any legal means to promote his views. And I, as a (theoretical) business owner, have the right to disassociate myself with anyone holding those views. If I don't feel like accepting his or her money to publish a book on their behalf, I'm well within my rights (assuming, as has been pointed out, that I'm not violating a previously established contract). because your society encourages great differences in wealth, for example, then that could amount to indirect censorship What's indirect censorship? Again, I think this is the problem dejah420 is referring to - a situation in which a voice has a hard time being heard because of economics is not the same as, or even close to, a situation in which a government body is actively trying to stifle a voice. It is probably not a good thing, but that doesn't make it censorship.,2004:site.34622-709823 Thu, 29 Jul 2004 12:37:02 -0800 deadcowdan By: mcsweetie sure, it's their right to publish what they want. but that doesn't make it any less shady.,2004:site.34622-709997 Thu, 29 Jul 2004 16:25:32 -0800 mcsweetie<|endoftext|>Take the 2-minute tour ×

I have difficulties understanding sentence. What is meaning of 差 in the following sentence?

share|improve this question
I would normally say 九点差一刻. Regional difference maybe? –  deutschZuid Nov 27 '13 at 19:52

1 Answer 1

up vote 3 down vote accepted

It literally means differ. 差一刻九点 means a quarter to nine. in the phrase 差一点 and 差几块钱/几个月 means the same, that is, adding the amount missed will turn the current situation into the target situation (could be better or worse).

share|improve this answer
I see. It shows how lack something to target. Xiexie –  Boris Ivanov Nov 25 '13 at 22:59
@BorisIvanov It means differ, not necessarily lack. However in the examples in this answer you can safely interpret it as lack. –  NS.X. Nov 26 '13 at 20:33
When u say differ it means it can be over target, but in this example its not reaching it. Can you use it if u gave more money?(差几块钱) –  Boris Ivanov Nov 26 '13 at 20:59
I guess it's always lack regarding payment, because you are paying from 0 up to the required amount... but if your target is towards a smaller value, such as running time in sports, it is not lack numerically. For instance, 差0.1秒就能进决赛了, means one takes 0.1 second longer than the cutting line to be qualified for the final round. –  user58955 Nov 26 '13 at 22:20

Your Answer

<|endoftext|>Your Cat Loves Boxes So Much And You Wonder Why? This Is It!

If you’re planning to keep your feline away from a box, we’ve got some bad news for you.

A cat and a box are like you and your summer cottage. Can we keep you away? No. The fact is, we’ve all been dropping our jaws and scratching our beards and skulls trying to figure out just where this connection between an animal and boxes come from, and we’ve not been very successful. Now we are!

We have these guys from the Animalist, and we have two cats. Marmalade and Cole are the two felines in the video, and they’ll give you a good insight about just how important and fun a box can be to a cat. Thesetwo find their good times in a box of cardboard.

Now, the Animalist explains that cats love for boxes stems from their need to feel fully secure and comfortable. If a cat gets into a cardboard box that’s closed on all sides except the opening, the feline will be sure no one can attack it from the three corners, and the one side open happens to be where it’s looking straight.The box also smells like forest, owing to the material used to make it, and cats love that smell. Now you get it.

Watch this cool clip and SHARE on Facebook!

What do you think?
Please Like us to get daily updates on Facebook<|endoftext|>Man of Science, Man of God: Charles Bell

Who: Charles Bell
What: Premier Anatomist and Surgeon
When: November 12, 1774 - April 28, 1842
Where: Born in Edinburgh, Scotland

Sir Charles Bell--anatomist, surgeon, physiologist, natural theologian--was the youngest of four sons. While still a student at the University of Edinburgh, he taught anatomy and published A System of Dissection Explaining the Anatomy of the Human Body, which showcased his extraordinarily accurate illustrations. He later published volumes of Anatomy of the Human Body with his brother, well-known surgeon John Bell.

Charles' surgical success at the Edinburgh Royal Infirmary and John's popular anatomy classes--and outspoken criticism of the suffering inflicted by incompetent surgeons--led to jealous opposition from local physicians. Eventually the two brothers were barred from practice and teaching in Scotland, and in 1804 they moved to London and opened a private surgery and school of anatomy.

In 1811, Charles published Idea of a New Anatomy of the Brain, now considered the "Magna Carta of neurology." After John's death in 1820, Charles continued to teach and conduct research. He was also a surgeon at the Middlesex Hospital, helping to found its medical school in 1828.

Bell had a special interest in the nervous system. For a time, he assumed that all nerves were sensory. His work caught the eye of Francois Magendie, who had demonstrated that the ventral roots of spinal nerves are motor and the dorsal roots are sensory. After a conflict of priority arose, the two scientists reached an agreement and named the rule of spinal nerve function "Bell-Magendie's Law."1

Bell's scientific endeavors convinced him of the existence and necessity of the Creator. His 1837 publication The Hand; Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments, as Evincing Design affirmed his convictions:

If we select any object from the whole extent of animated nature, and contemplate it fully and in all its bearings, we shall certainly come to this conclusion: that there is Design in the mechanical construction, Benevolence in the endowments of the living properties, and that Good on the whole is the result.2

From studying the human body, Bell realized how dependent people are on involuntary physical processes. He saw close-minded reliance on reason as not only ignorant, but "worse than ingratitude."

Now, when a man sees that his vital operations could not be directed by reason--that they are constant, and far too important to be exposed to all the changes incident to his mind, and that they are given up to the direction of other sources of motion than the will, he acquires a full sense of his dependence....

He was familiar with uniformitarianism, which influenced the development of Darwinism. Bell thought science should be allowed to follow the evidence--even if it leads to a supernatural origin.

We cannot resist these proofs of a beginning, or of a First Cause. When we are bold enough to extend our inquiries into those great revolutions that have taken place, whether in the condition of the earth, or in the structure of the animals which have inhabited it, our notions of the "uniformity" of the course of nature must suffer some modification.4

Bell was made a fellow of the Royal Society in 1826. He later received its first medal, and in 1831 was knighted by King William IV. At age 62, he returned to his homeland as a Professor of Surgery at the University of Edinburgh. His death six years later marked the end of a groundbreaking career in medical science and a humble witness to the intelligent and benevolent handiwork of the Creator.

  1. The Bell-Magendie Law states that the anterior branch of spinal nerve roots contains only motor fibers and the posterior roots contain only sensory fibers.
  2. Bell, Sir Charles. 1852. The Fourth Bridgewater Treatise on the Power, Wisdom, and Goodness of God as Manifested in the Creation: The Hand; Its Mechanism and Vital Endowments as Evincing Design, 5th ed. London: John Murray, 1.
  3. Ibid, 13-14.
  4. Ibid, 265.


 risk. And if it isn’t, it needs to be. The real trick is to find the risk that is right for you, a risk that doesn’t take you so far out of your own identity that it’s not a you that you recognize who’s doing the writing. For example, I won’t ride a motorcycle because the few times I did, in my reckless youth, the minute I kicked the starter I became a maniac. I completely lost the “me” who could judge anything at all, and within about ten minutes wound up crashing, or nearly crashing, into some large, moving object. So even as I need to push writing into my personal unknown, I also need to know if I’ve succeeded. The way I measure this is through emotional truths. When I began Parsifal, as odd as it was, it felt grounded because in one way or another it was my story.

Did you discover anything while working on Parsifal that surprised you in your own writing?

Parsifal was a very different kind of narrative than I’d ever written. It began, as I said, with a context but very little information other than the name of the character. Given that, naturally I was worried whether I would find enough material to finish. What thrilled me in the process of writing was that after beginning with just a couple of motifs and hardly any plot, as I went along the details I needed were revealed to me by the process of writing. It was like one of those arcade driving games where you hold the steering wheel and new scenery keeps popping up. So the facts I was wondering about Parsifal’s past would turn up as I wrote just about where they do for the reader in the final version of the book, and if they surprise the reader, they surprised me, too. It’s as if the book itself was waiting for me to be ready before it would decide to open itself up and trust me with the story.

Further Links & Resources

Literary Partners<|endoftext|>Nelson asked Joseph to decorate the living room because  Nelson is terrible at painting walls.<|endoftext|>born + raised (and still here) in vegas, us three sisters grew up in a little brick house on the east side of town. the number hammered onto our mailbox was 1825. we live only miles from each other now and get together as much as possible to play.

What's your favorite store bought or homemade cleaning product?
<|endoftext|>

From Path of Exile Wiki
(Redirected from Items)
Jump to: navigation, search

Items in Path of Exile are used to represent not just a character's equipment but a variety of other game features. Items can be moved around between locations using the mouse cursor, including the inventory, worn items, stashes, and others, as well as on the ground. Not all types of items can be moved to all item locations. Different item types take a different amount of space in grid based item locations such as inventory and stashes.

Depending on their type, items can have attributes such as rarity, quality, item affixes and item level.

Equipment includes armour, weapons, accessories, jewels and flasks. Their text colour by default is determined by their rarity (normal, magic, rare or unique).

Currency items are used to modify other items, and are also used for trading or gained from vendors for selling equipment. They have a light brown text colour by default.

Divination cards

Sets of Divination cards can be exchanged for a certain item, and have specific drop locations. They have a light-cyan text colour by default.

Quest items

Quest items are found on the ground like other items, or given as rewards for completing quests. They cannot be placed anywhere but in inventory or back on the ground. By default they have a bright green text colour.

Skills in Path of Exile are granted by gems which are treated as regular items. The skill can only be used when the appropriate gem is socketed in an equipment item being worn by the character. Skill gems, by default, appear in blue-green text when on the ground.

Prophecies can be sealed by Navali to make them tradeable. When sealed, they are treated like other items, and can be added to the player's prophecy screen by right-clicking it. By default, sealed prophecies have a purple text when on the ground.

Microtransactions uses a separate cosmetic tab for managing them and applies to the whole character instead of on specific items.

Hideout decorations and crafting benches, when not in use in a hideout, appear as items in a hideout tab. They can be right clicked from this screen to add them to a hideout.

Item Type Dimensions Quality Default colour Locations stored Equipped in slots Dropped Vendored/traded
Currency Currency 1×1
light brown Inv, Stash
1h weapons Equipment 1×3, 1×4, 2×3
by rarity Inv, Stash Weapon, offhand, alt. weapon, alt. offhand slots
2h weapons Equipment 2×4
by rarity Inv, Stash Both weapons slots or both alternate weapon slots
Chest armour Equipment 2×3
by rarity Inv, Stash Chest armour
Helms Equipment 2×2
by rarity Inv, Stash Helm
Boots Equipment 2×2
by rarity Inv, Stash Boots
Gloves Equipment 2×2
by rarity Inv, Stash Gloves
Shields Equipment 2×2, 2×3, 2×4
by rarity Inv, Stash Offhand or alt. offhand
Rings Accessories 1×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Left ring or right ring
Amulets Accessories 1×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Amulet
Belts Accessories 2×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Belt
Quivers Accessories 2×3
by rarity Inv, Stash Offhand or alt. offhand
Flasks Flasks 1×2
by rarity Inv, Stash flask slots 1-5
Jewels Jewels 1×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Passive tree
Divination cards Divination cards 1×1
light-cyan Inv, Stash
Sealed prophecies Prophecies 1x1
purple Inv, stash Prophecy screen
Skill gems Skills gems 1×1
blue-green Inv, Stash Sockets in other equipment items
Skill books Quest items 2×2
green Inv
Other quest items Quest items 1×1 to 2×3
green Inv
Microtransactions Microtransactions N/A
N/A mtx stash
Decorations Decorations N/A
N/A hideout stash<|endoftext|>Flesh Tearer squad with magnetised packs

I have wanted to paint a Flesh Tearers unit forever. When this project came along, there was no way I could pass it up.

It's a simple 5 man squad along with a Librarian. They'll have the option of sporting the regular power packs or Heresy era jump packs from Chapterhouse Studios.

To magentise them, I used a 1/8 inch drill bit and drilled out both the regular backpack and the jump pack openings. I had to be real careful with the regular packs since they are so shallow and I did not want to punch through to the other side. The torsos had the little nub cut off and a hole was drilled in its place.

The magnets are 1/8 inch as well and are held in place with a drop of superglue. Each time I would add a magnet, I would test the polarity a hundred times to make sure I had it right. They all had to match up so that I didn't have to worry about certain packs having to go on certain models.

Flesh Tearers squad without magnetised jump packs

Flesh Tearers squad without magnetised jump packs

Aside from the Librarian conversion which will be covered in the next post, I added a small icon to the top of the banner that one guy is carrying. I figured it would help reinforce the Chapter theme a bit more than the standard topper.

Flesh Tearer standard bearer banner icon

It's made from two layers of plasticard... one for the saw shape and the smaller one for the blood drop shape with a tiny bit of greenstuff added to the top of that. All of that was added to a Blood Angels icon that had the front of it cut away until it was flat enough to support the new pieces.

I'm working on getting one of the guys painted as a "test" to see how the GW color scheme works out. I'm copying the technique from one of the recent issues of White Dwarf. Naturally I'll be posting my results to show you all how that comes out once I get him painted up.

My Project Link: Flesh Tearer Squad

  1. Not a fan of the metal shoulder pads myself. You'd be far better off making your own chapter icons from green stuff in my opinion.

    Having said that, they do look pretty sweet. Looking forward to the Librarian.

  2. 1/4 of an inch magnets , that's huge ![?]
    That's about 7mm ?

    The ones i regularly use are 2mm wide and 1mm deep and are strong enough for most works.
    [Can turn the model upside down without bits dropping off , solid shaking will dislodge.]

    Is there a reason you

 does this mean?

It’s all risk. And if it isn’t, it needs to be. The real trick is to find the risk that is right for you, a risk that doesn’t take you so far out of your own identity that it’s not a you that you recognize who’s doing the writing. For example, I won’t ride a motorcycle because the few times I did, in my reckless youth, the minute I kicked the starter I became a maniac. I completely lost the “me” who could judge anything at all, and within about ten minutes wound up crashing, or nearly crashing, into some large, moving object. So even as I need to push writing into my personal unknown, I also need to know if I’ve succeeded. The way I measure this is through emotional truths. When I began Parsifal, as odd as it was, it felt grounded because in one way or another it was my story.

Did you discover anything while working on Parsifal that surprised you in your own writing?

Parsifal was a very different kind of narrative than I’d ever written. It began, as I said, with a context but very little information other than the name of the character. Given that, naturally I was worried whether I would find enough material to finish. What thrilled me in the process of writing was that after beginning with just a couple of motifs and hardly any plot, as I went along the details I needed were revealed to me by the process of writing. It was like one of those arcade driving games where you hold the steering wheel and new scenery keeps popping up. So the facts I was wondering about Parsifal’s past would turn up as I wrote just about where they do for the reader in the final version of the book, and if they surprise the reader, they surprised me, too. It’s as if the book itself was waiting for me to be ready before it would decide to open itself up and trust me with the story.

Further Links & Resources

Literary Partners<|endoftext|>born + raised (and still here) in vegas, us three sisters grew up in a little brick house on the east side of town. the number hammered onto our mailbox was 1825. we live only miles from each other now and get together as much as possible to play.

What's your favorite store bought or homemade cleaning product?
<|endoftext|>

From Path of Exile Wiki
(Redirected from Items)
Jump to: navigation, search

Items in Path of Exile are used to represent not just a character's equipment but a variety of other game features. Items can be moved around between locations using the mouse cursor, including the inventory, worn items, stashes, and others, as well as on the ground. Not all types of items can be moved to all item locations. Different item types take a different amount of space in grid based item locations such as inventory and stashes.

Depending on their type, items can have attributes such as rarity, quality, item affixes and item level.

Equipment includes armour, weapons, accessories, jewels and flasks. Their text colour by default is determined by their rarity (normal, magic, rare or unique).

Currency items are used to modify other items, and are also used for trading or gained from vendors for selling equipment. They have a light brown text colour by default.

Divination cards

Sets of Divination cards can be exchanged for a certain item, and have specific drop locations. They have a light-cyan text colour by default.

Quest items

Quest items are found on the ground like other items, or given as rewards for completing quests. They cannot be placed anywhere but in inventory or back on the ground. By default they have a bright green text colour.

Skills in Path of Exile are granted by gems which are treated as regular items. The skill can only be used when the appropriate gem is socketed in an equipment item being worn by the character. Skill gems, by default, appear in blue-green text when on the ground.

Prophecies can be sealed by Navali to make them tradeable. When sealed, they are treated like other items, and can be added to the player's prophecy screen by right-clicking it. By default, sealed prophecies have a purple text when on the ground.

Microtransactions uses a separate cosmetic tab for managing them and applies to the whole character instead of on specific items.

Hideout decorations and crafting benches, when not in use in a hideout, appear as items in a hideout tab. They can be right clicked from this screen to add them to a hideout.

Item Type Dimensions Quality Default colour Locations stored Equipped in slots Dropped Vendored/traded
Currency Currency 1×1
light brown Inv, Stash
1h weapons Equipment 1×3, 1×4, 2×3
by rarity Inv, Stash Weapon, offhand, alt. weapon, alt. offhand slots
2h weapons Equipment 2×4
by rarity Inv, Stash Both weapons slots or both alternate weapon slots
Chest armour Equipment 2×3
by rarity Inv, Stash Chest armour
Helms Equipment 2×2
by rarity Inv, Stash Helm
Boots Equipment 2×2
by rarity Inv, Stash Boots
Gloves Equipment 2×2
by rarity Inv, Stash Gloves
Shields Equipment 2×2, 2×3, 2×4
by rarity Inv, Stash Offhand or alt. offhand
Rings Accessories 1×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Left ring or right ring
Amulets Accessories 1×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Amulet
Belts Accessories 2×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Belt
Quivers Accessories 2×3
by rarity Inv, Stash Offhand or alt. offhand
Flasks Flasks 1×2
by rarity Inv, Stash flask slots 1-5
Jewels Jewels 1×1
by rarity Inv, Stash Passive tree
Divination cards Divination cards 1×1
light-cyan Inv, Stash
Sealed prophecies Prophecies 1x1
purple Inv, stash Prophecy screen
Skill gems Skills gems 1×1
blue-green Inv, Stash Sockets in other equipment items
Skill books Quest items 2×2
green Inv
Other quest items Quest items 1×1 to 2×3
green Inv
Microtransactions Microtransactions N/A
N/A mtx stash
Decorations Decorations N/A
N/A hideout stash<|endoftext|>Flesh Tearer squad with magnetised packs

I have wanted to paint a Flesh Tearers unit forever. When this project came along, there was no way I could pass it up.

It's a simple 5 man squad along with a Librarian. They'll have the option of sporting the regular power packs or Heresy era jump packs from Chapterhouse Studios.

To magentise them, I used a 1/8 inch drill bit and drilled out both the regular backpack and the jump pack openings. I had to be real careful with the regular packs since they are so shallow and I did not want to punch through to the other side. The torsos had the little nub cut off and a hole was drilled in its place.

The magnets are 1/8 inch as well and are held in place with a drop of superglue. Each time I would add a magnet, I would test the polarity a hundred times to make sure I had it right. They all had to match up so that I didn't have to worry about certain packs having to go on certain models.

Flesh Tearers squad without magnetised jump packs

Flesh Tearers squad without magnetised jump packs

Aside from the Librarian conversion which will be covered in the next post, I added a small icon to the top of the banner that one guy is carrying. I figured it would help reinforce the Chapter theme a bit more than the standard topper.

Flesh Tearer standard bearer banner icon

It's made from two layers of plasticard... one for the saw shape and the smaller one for the blood drop shape with a tiny bit of greenstuff added to the top of that. All of that was added to a Blood Angels icon that had the front of it cut away until it was flat enough to support the new pieces.

I'm working on getting one of the guys painted as a "test" to see how the GW color scheme works out. I'm copying the technique from one of the recent issues of White Dwarf. Naturally I'll be posting my results to show you all how that comes out once I get him painted up.

My Project Link: Flesh Tearer Squad

  1. Not a fan of the metal shoulder pads myself. You'd be far better off making your own chapter icons from green stuff in my opinion.

    Having said that, they do look pretty sweet. Looking forward to the Librarian.

  2. 1/4 of an inch magnets , that's huge ![?]
    That's about 7mm ?

    The ones i regularly use are 2mm wide and 1mm deep and are strong enough for most works.
    [Can turn the model upside down without bits dropping off , solid shaking will dislodge.]

    Is there a reason you used such large ones ?

  3. When I


Jason brought out some hammer and nails and started to repair Kyle's closet because Kyle paid him to do so.<|endoftext|>inox; with others it is at different times, in summer with some, and with others about the autumn equinox.

The first of shoal fishes to spawn is the atherine, and it spawns close to land; the last is the cephalus: and this is inferred from the fact that the brood of the atherine appears first of all and the brood of the cephalus last. The mullet also spawns early. The saupe spawns usually at the beginning of summer, but occasionally in the autumn. The aulopias, which some call the anthias, spawns in the summer. Next in order of spawning comes the chrysophrys or gilthead, the basse, the mormyrus, and in general such fish as are nicknamed 'runners'. Latest in order of the shoal fish come the red mullet and the coracine; these spawn in autumn. The red mullet spawns on mud, and consequently, as the mud continues cold for a long while, spawns late in the year. The coracine carries its spawn for a long time; but, as it lives usually on rocky ground, it goes to a distance and spawns in places abounding in seaweed, at a period later than the red mullet. The maenis spawns about the winter solstice. Of the others, such as are pelagic spawn for the most part in summer; which fact is proved by their not being caught by fishermen during this period.

Of ordinary fishes the most prolific is the sprat; of cartilaginous fishes, the fishing-frog. Specimens, however, of the fishing-frog are rare from the facility with which the young are destroyed, as the female lays her spawn all in a lump close in to shore. As a rule, cartilaginous fish are less prolific than other fish owing to their being viviparous; and their young by reason of their size have a better chance of escaping destruction.

The so-called needle-fish (or pipe-fish) is late in spawning, and the greater portion of them are burst asunder by the eggs before spawning; and the eggs are not so many in number as large in size. The young fish cluster round the parent like so many young spiders, for the fish spawns on to herself; and, if any one touch the young, they swim away. The atherine spawns by rubbing its belly against the sand.

Tunny fish also burst asunder by reason of their fat. They live for two years; and the fishermen infer this age from the circumstance that once when there was a failure of the young tunny fish for a year there was a failure of the full-grown tunny the next summer. They are of opinion that the tunny is a fish a year older than the pelamyd. The tunny and the mackerel pair about the close of the month of Elaphebolion, and spawn about the commencement of the month of Hecatombaeon; they deposit their spawn in a sort of bag. The growth of the young tunny is rapid. After the females have spawned in the Euxine, there comes from the egg what some call scordylae, but what the Byzantines nickname the 'auxids' or 'growers', from their growing to a considerable size in a few days; these fish go out of the Pontus in autumn along with the young tunnies, and enter Pontus in the spring as pelamyds. Fishes as a rule take on growth with rapidity, but this is peculiarly the case with all species of fish found in the Pontus; the growth, for instance, of the amia-tunny is quite visible from day to day.

To resume, we must bear in mind that the same fish in the same localities have not the same season for pairing, for conception, for parturition, or for favouring weather. The coracine, for instance, in some places spawns about wheat-harvest. The statements here given pretend only to give the results of general observation.

The conger also spawns, but the fact is not equally obvious in all localities, nor is the spawn plainly visible owing to the fat of the fish; for the spawn is lanky in shape as it is with serpents. However, if it be put on the fire it shows its nature; for the fat evaporates and melts, while the eggs dance about and explode with a crack. Further, if you touch the substances and rub them with your fingers, the fat feels smooth and the egg rough. Some congers are provided with fat but not with any spawn, others are unprovided with fat but have egg-spawn as here described.

We have, then, treated pretty fully of the animals that fly in the air or swim in the water, and of such of those that walk on dry land as are oviparous, to wit of their pairing, conception, and the like phenomena; it now remains to treat of the same phenomena in connexion with viviparous land animals and with man.

The statements made in regard to the pairing of the sexes apply partly to the particular kinds of animal and partly to all in general. It is common to all animals to be most excited by the desire of one sex for the other and by the pleasure derived from copulation. The female is most cross-tempered just after parturition, the male during the time of pairing; for instance, stallions at this period bite one another, throw their riders, and chase them. Wild boars, though usually enfeebled at this time as the result of copulation, are now unusually fierce, and fight with one another in an extraordinary way, clothing themselves with defensive armour, or in other words deliberately thickening their hide by rubbing against trees or by coating themselves repeatedly all over with mud and then drying themselves in the sun. They drive one another away from the swine pastures, and fight with such fury that very often both combatants succumb. The case is similar with bulls, rams, and he-goats; for, though at ordinary times they herd together, at breeding time they hold aloof from and quarrel with one another. The male camel also is cross-tempered at pairing time if either a man or a camel comes near him; as for a horse, a camel is ready to fight him at any time. It is the same with wild animals. The bear, the wolf, and the lion are all at this time ferocious towards such as come in their way, but the males of these animals are less given to fight with one another from the fact that they are at no time gregarious. The she-bear is fierce after cubbing, and the bitch after pupping.

Male elephants get savage about pairing time, and for this reason it is stated that men who have charge of elephants in India never allow the males to have intercourse with the females; on the ground that the males go wild at this time and turn topsy-turvy the dwellings of their keepers, lightly constructed as they are, and commit all kinds of havoc. They also state that abundancy of food has a tendency to tame the males. They further introduce other elephants amongst the wild ones, and punish and break them in by setting on the new-comers to chastise the others.

Animals that pair frequently and not at a single specific season, as for instance animals domesticated by man, such as swine and dogs, are found to indulge in such freaks to a lesser degree owing to the frequency of their sexual intercourse.

Of female animals the mare is the most sexually wanton, and next in order comes the cow. In fact, the mare is said to go a-horsing; and the term derived from the habits of this one animal serves as a term of abuse applicable to such females of the human species as are unbridled in the way of sexual appetite. This is the common phenomenon as observed in the sow when she is said to go a-boaring. The mare is said also about this time to get wind-impregnated if not impregnated by the stallion, and for this reason in Crete they never remove the stallion from the mares; for when the mare gets into this condition she runs away from all other horses. The mares under these circumstances fly invariably either northwards or southwards, and never towards either east or west. When this complaint is on them they allow no one to approach, until either they are exhausted with fatigue or have reached the sea. Under either of these circumstances they discharge a certain substance 'hippomanes', the title given to a growth on a new-born foal; this resembles the sow-virus, and is in great request amongst women who deal in drugs and potions. About horsing time the mares huddle closer together, are continually switching their tails, their neigh is abnormal in sound, and from the sexual organ there flows a liquid resembling genital sperm, but much thinner than the sperm of the male. It is this substance that some call hippomanes, instead of the growth found on the foal; they say it is extremely difficult to get as it oozes out only in small drops at a time. Mares also, when in heat, discharge urine frequently, and frisk with one another. Such are the phenomena connected with the horse.

Cows go a-bulling; and so completely are they under the influence of the sexual excitement that the herdsmen have no control over them and cannot catch hold of them in the fields. Mares and kine

inox; with others it is at different times, in summer with some, and with others about the autumn equinox.

The first of shoal fishes to spawn is the atherine, and it spawns close to land; the last is the cephalus: and this is inferred from the fact that the brood of the atherine appears first of all and the brood of the cephalus last. The mullet also spawns early. The saupe spawns usually at the beginning of summer, but occasionally in the autumn. The aulopias, which some call the anthias, spawns in the summer. Next in order of spawning comes the chrysophrys or gilthead, the basse, the mormyrus, and in general such fish as are nicknamed 'runners'. Latest in order of the shoal fish come the red mullet and the coracine; these spawn in autumn. The red mullet spawns on mud, and consequently, as the mud continues cold for a long while, spawns late in the year. The coracine carries its spawn for a long time; but, as it lives usually on rocky ground, it goes to a distance and spawns in places abounding in seaweed, at a period later than the red mullet. The maenis spawns about the winter solstice. Of the others, such as are pelagic spawn for the most part in summer; which fact is proved by their not being caught by fishermen during this period.

Of ordinary fishes the most prolific is the sprat; of cartilaginous fishes, the fishing-frog. Specimens, however, of the fishing-frog are rare from the facility with which the young are destroyed, as the female lays her spawn all in a lump close in to shore. As a rule, cartilaginous fish are less prolific than other fish owing to their being viviparous; and their young by reason of their size have a better chance of escaping destruction.

The so-called needle-fish (or pipe-fish) is late in spawning, and the greater portion of them are burst asunder by the eggs before spawning; and the eggs are not so many in number as large in size. The young fish cluster round the parent like so many young spiders, for the fish spawns on to herself; and, if any one touch the young, they swim away. The atherine spawns by rubbing its belly against the sand.

Tunny fish also burst asunder by reason of their fat. They live for two years; and the fishermen infer this age from the circumstance that once when there was a failure of the young tunny fish for a year there was a failure of the full-grown tunny the next summer. They are of opinion that the tunny is a fish a year older than the pelamyd. The tunny and the mackerel pair about the close of the month of Elaphebolion, and spawn about the commencement of the month of Hecatombaeon; they deposit their spawn in a sort of bag. The growth of the young tunny is rapid. After the females have spawned in the Euxine, there comes from the egg what some call scordylae, but what the Byzantines nickname the 'auxids' or 'growers', from their growing to a considerable size in a few days; these fish go out of the Pontus in autumn along with the young tunnies, and enter Pontus in the spring as pelamyds. Fishes as a rule take on growth with rapidity, but this is peculiarly the case with all species of fish found in the Pontus; the growth, for instance, of the amia-tunny is quite visible from day to day.

To resume, we must bear in mind that the same fish in the same localities have not the same season for pairing, for conception, for parturition, or for favouring weather. The coracine, for instance, in some places spawns about wheat-harvest. The statements here given pretend only to give the results of general observation.

The conger also spawns, but the fact is not equally obvious in all localities, nor is the spawn plainly visible owing to the fat of the fish; for the spawn is lanky in shape as it is with serpents. However, if it be put on the fire it shows its nature; for the fat evaporates and melts, while the eggs dance about and explode with a crack. Further, if you touch the substances and rub them with your fingers, the fat feels smooth and the egg rough. Some congers are provided with fat but not with any spawn, others are unprovided with fat but have egg-spawn as here described.

We have, then, treated pretty fully of the animals that fly in the air or swim in the water, and of such of those that walk on dry land as are oviparous, to wit of their pairing, conception, and the like phenomena; it now remains to treat of the same phenomena in connexion with viviparous land animals and with man.

The statements made in regard to the pairing of the sexes apply partly to the particular kinds of animal and partly to all in general. It is common to all animals to be most excited by the desire of one sex for the other and by the pleasure derived from copulation. The female is most cross-tempered just after parturition, the male during the time of pairing; for instance, stallions at this period bite one another, throw their riders, and chase them. Wild boars, though usually enfeebled at this time as the result of copulation, are now unusually fierce, and fight with one another in an extraordinary way, clothing themselves with defensive armour, or in other words deliberately thickening their hide by rubbing against trees or by coating themselves repeatedly all over with mud and then drying themselves in the sun. They drive one another away from the swine pastures, and fight with such fury that very often both combatants succumb. The case is similar with bulls, rams, and he-goats; for, though at ordinary times they herd together, at breeding time they hold aloof from and quarrel with one another. The male camel also is cross-tempered at pairing time if either a man or a camel comes near him; as for a horse, a camel is ready to fight him at any time. It is the same with wild animals. The bear, the wolf, and the lion are all at this time ferocious towards such as come in their way, but the males of these animals are less given to fight with one another from the fact that they are at no time gregarious. The she-bear is fierce after cubbing, and the bitch after pupping.

Male elephants get savage about pairing time, and for this reason it is stated that men who have charge of elephants in India never allow the males to have intercourse with the females; on the ground that the males go wild at this time and turn topsy-turvy the dwellings of their keepers, lightly constructed as they are, and commit all kinds of havoc. They also state that abundancy of food has a tendency to tame the males. They further introduce other elephants amongst the wild ones, and punish and break them in by setting on the new-comers to chastise the others.

Animals that pair frequently and not at a single specific season, as for instance animals domesticated by man, such as swine and dogs, are found to indulge in such freaks to a lesser degree owing to the frequency of their sexual intercourse.

Of female animals the mare is the most sexually wanton, and next in order comes the cow. In fact, the mare is said to go a-horsing; and the term derived from the habits of this one animal serves as a term of abuse applicable to such females of the human species as are unbridled in the way of sexual appetite. This is the common phenomenon as observed in the sow when she is said to go a-boaring. The mare is said also about this time to get wind-impregnated if not impregnated by the stallion, and for this reason in Crete they never remove the stallion from the mares; for when the mare gets into this condition she runs away from all other horses. The mares under these circumstances fly invariably either northwards or southwards, and never towards either east or west. When this complaint is on them they allow no one to approach, until either they are exhausted with fatigue or have reached the sea. Under either of these circumstances they discharge a certain substance 'hippomanes', the title given to a growth on a new-born foal; this resembles the sow-virus, and is in great request amongst women who deal in drugs and potions. About horsing time the mares huddle closer together, are continually switching their tails, their neigh is abnormal in sound, and from the sexual organ there flows a liquid resembling genital sperm, but much thinner than the sperm of the male. It is this substance that some call hippomanes, instead of the growth found on the foal; they say it is extremely difficult to get as it oozes out only in small drops at a time. Mares also, when in heat, discharge urine frequently, and frisk with one another. Such are the phenomena connected with the horse.

Cows go a-bulling; and so completely are they under the influence of the sexual excitement that the herdsmen have no control over them and cannot catch hold of them in the fields. Mares and kine alike, when in heat, indicate the fact by the upraising of their genital organs, and by continually voiding