Dies to Removal

Snicker-worthy mashup shirt of the day:

@ Zem, I was just messin with you. The long disscussion on your thoughts of Magma Jet were funny and interesting. Could not help doing the point and yell, "watch out" when it the top decks. It's a texas thing and it's looses something in typing/translation. Another joke on the man card thing is another Texas talk thing. There is an extreme manly push to not look retarded or gay here (everyone, don't go all hate on this, you need to live here to understand). It's something that will never be cured unless you go to Austin. If you don't understand it; well just ignore it. I have yet to knowingly read any of your articles on cards as I still don't know where to look unless it's MTGS. Lastly, I don't see you as mean or condiscending. I find you are just sick of stupid people and others not seeing eye to eye with you. Your try and thats what counts. I feel some of your pain as I teach hunting, shooting and simple
prepping. Folks who think shooting at moving brush is "safe hunting". Idiots who buy a handgun and don't know the caliber. New prepers that think traveling to an unknown territory (hill country to mountains) for living during disasster. Some people just feed the zombies.

As to all this talk of anti homosexuals and boy girl clear spliting ad campaigns, the lot of you are missing the big picture. You and I are outlyers on the sales spread sheet. We know better or more open minded. Their target audiance, for kids sales, are strict religious, blue coller, strong hetrosexual raising, and clean background parents. Think of little towns. These folks see homosexuals as unpruductive and purchase toys that create a clear devide in gender. It's been ingrained and comfortable (grandma's coooking feeling) anda strong productive male worker theory of family. The kids go to college are extremly confused, but sports generally holds to the family hetrosexual/clear divide of genders mentality. Thus many
small town kids do better in sports settings. Talking and discussing the issue here IS just preaching to the chior. Writing your congressman is pointless as well since campaign contributions are given from media marketing firms. If you want change; you have to target/work for the marketing firms to push your agenda. That agenda has to slowly influence the small town not just the big city folks.
Now I ask you to look at the opposite, the small town's opinion. Why do so many find it morally wrong to dissagree with progressives? Why is wrong to not approve of homosexuality? Why is wrong to find a clear divide of genders in children OK? In the small town's mind set, everything was fine till someone started bitching for change no one wanted except a few. If you expect change to be pushed on people who are willing to be aggresive in their core beliefs for willing/auto exceptance; expect violence hostlie treatment, and harder hearts. Fruit for thought.

Change starts where it has always started: with individuals daring to speak out against the accepted standards of the day. The most dangerous thing in the world is an idea since once unleashed it can't be stopped. That's why trying to restrict access to information never works. Ideas influence everyone they come into contact with.

Oh and wraith? Our small town high school students are much more accepting of homosexuality than many of their bigger city counterparts. Why? Contact. The same insulated aspect that can make small towns bastions of intolerance also make them more accepting once change does occur. It's easy to vilify a concept; it is more difficult to vilify a person.

Zem is showing his true colors finally. LET THE DEVIL OUT SON!

Oh and wraith? Our small town high school students are much more accepting of homosexuality than many of their bigger city counterparts. Why? Contact. The same insulated aspect that can make small towns bastions of intolerance also make them more accepting once change does occur. It's easy to vilify a concept; it is more difficult to vilify a person.

I don't dissagree with you at all. It's just things state by state differ alot. The children are the key to change, but the parents hold the power of the purse. The question is whether they will accept the new norms or revert back to parents ideals at transition to parent. Seen it. It's weird to see an open minded person become protective and hate mongere when a child is introduced.

That e.e is getting old.

That that e.e. is getting old is getting old

Ham just blew my mind.

Blowing my mind is getting old quicker than e.e is getting old older

Blowing one's mind is perfectly fine when done ravely

We need to go deeper...

Don't stop til you reach the back of his teeth.

The problem with small town people is the small town mentality. It has advantages, in that every one is watching out for you a little bit, but every one is also watching and judging you, and any deviation from that local norm is to be detested, scorned, and sometimes punished. In some cases it comes from a place of fucked up love, as they honestly believe that the best thing for you is to fit the boring ass mold of mediocrity that makes them happy. In other cases its out of hate for any they percieve as outside their "tribe", the narrowminded persecution of the "other". And in a lot of cases it's a mix of the two. A bit part of it is that humans in general are narcissistic ass holes who can't imagine anyone thinking any differently than they are, and thinking that anything different is evil, and lord knows their churches are all too happy to parrot these prejudices back to them to give them a veneer
of holiness. The corporate owned politicians are all too happy to support these narrow minded notions as they keep the people too focused on fighting each other to notice how badly they are fucking everyone over.

Then again I'm in an angry place right now, and I'm listening to bill hicks.

Bill Hicks is the best

Bill Hicks <3

Random thought: How many people open packs they win at FNMs? I keep seeing people do this in event reports, and that seems like the worst idea ever. An unopened pack is worth a guaranteed $3.50 or more. You can trade them, sell them, pack-in on a draft, or get store credit instead. Would any pack openers care to explain?

Constant use of e.e

I don't remember the last time I opened packs. Unless I was helping my friend bust open a box.

Random thought: How many people open packs they win at FNMs? I keep seeing people do this in event reports, and that seems like the worst idea ever. An unopened pack is worth a guaranteed $3.50 or more. You can trade them, sell them, pack-in on a draft, or get store credit instead. Would any pack openers care to explain?

It's the only time I open packs these days. I have never gotten anyone to trade stuff for packs. If I win a box; sometimes I will save them for Wizard tower match as many find those battles fun.

I am having hell trying to makes gifs work. Advice?

Random thought: How many people open packs they win at FNMs? I keep seeing people do this in event reports, and that seems like the worst idea ever. An unopened pack is worth a guaranteed $3.50 or more. You can trade them, sell them, pack-in on a draft, or get store credit instead. Would any pack openers care to explain?

My lgs doesn't buy back the packs, and the payout isn't even that great, so I usually just open them. (we don't draft much either there).
the most I've ever had in one sitting is 16 for getting 3rd at an iq, and I sold those, because dragon's maze packs

Random thought: How many people open packs they win at FNMs? I keep seeing people do this in event reports, and that seems like the worst idea ever. An unopened pack is worth a guaranteed $3.50 or more. You can trade them, sell them, pack-in on a draft, or get store credit instead. Would any pack openers care to explain?

Part of the fun.

I only do packs when I'm just trying to build up a large base of commons and uncommons to have for building.

But if I'm at a tourney, then I presumably have all of that sorta stuff, so I just take store credit.

I only do packs when I'm just trying to build up a large base of commons and uncommons to have for building.

But if I'm at a tourney, then I presumably have all of that sorta stuff, so I just take store credit.

It's nice when a store offers store credit. My local one only gives packs and they be random.

I only do packs when I'm just trying to build up a large base of commons and uncommons to have for building.

But if I'm at a tourney, then I presumably have all of that sorta stuff, so I just take store credit.

It's nice when a store offers store credit. My local one only gives packs and they be random.

same

Has anyone here ever bought playsets of commons/uncommons off of ebay? I've done it a few times. It's incredibly cheap and a great way to get started in pauper.

I think small town models are ideal. A bunch of longitudinal studies prove that individuals invested in their community are less likely to become violent offenders, more likely to pay attention & contribute to local-level government, more likely to contribute to social safety nets beyond the meager provisions of public assistance in the US. This is all good.

Urban economies are also fucked up. You probably know this already, and you probably know the situation isn't getting better - it's getting worse. As property value in a city increases, there follows a predictable pattern of over-saturation of people vs. important resources: housing (and therefore cost of living - any good you buy in a city must always offset the high cost of vendor space, for example) becomes less affordable compared to cost of living, school infrastructure suffers over-crowding.

We can't cram everyone into cities. I wouldn't want to try -
consider all the erosion to personal freedom happening right now in Japan (here's one that makes penalties for whistle-blowing on bureaucratic agencies, a'la Snowden, more severe. The bill cites offenses as "breaches of information security": http://www.economist.com/news/asia/2159 ... reted-away). This type of stuff is easier to do in a spatially-consolidated country, which require complex bureaucratic systems to prevent complete collapse.

Where do the problems with small towns originate? Well, the stuff derided as 'small town mentality' is actually VERY similar to the negative community symptoms in Al'Queda recruiting grounds. Ask: how do people become terrorists? Sponsored educational programs, of course - most factional groups begin their campaigns by indoctrinating the entire community. Room, board, and school are expensive
commodities that families in recruiting grounds might not otherwise be able to provide for their children; sending them to a low-cost educational facility that will imbue your spawn with 'good' values sounds awesome. Things get problematic when political factions use these schools to indoctrinate rather than educate. The delineation between student and solider blurs a bit.

This isn't that dissimilar to the way Christian churches pillar small-medium American communities. Most provide education outreach, job training, and community-building events that bind families together. I'm not trying to knock Christianity, but there are parallels that shouldn't be ignored between these models. They provide important services... but we should always keep in mind that every 'terrorist' in organization in American cross-hairs are also organizations that run soup kitchens, provide education, build/maintain infrastructure. If your governing body cannot provide these essentials, groups who CAN become
powerful & strongly influence your social culture.

I always always always emphasize education as the only path to improving yourself, your community, and your family ("No shit, Nuwen"). But you'd be surprised at how much we scrimp on education while still expecting state-sponsored curriculum and private charity to produce valuable citizens.

How fix? Dunno. I've tried screaming at crowds with a megaphone, blogging, organizing Unitarian Universalist volunteer groups in college. The impact always feels small but I think if we distribute the load as widely as possible, individuals can step up to replace oppressive groups. Part of this also means supporting self-education in any way possible (edx.org coursera.org udacity.com !!) and ALWAYS fighting against information lockdown. I believe we'll be truly fucked if proprietary curriculum without alternative becomes the norm (this isn't so far off from our current model - I don't know where Windstrider teaches, but maybe he can
offer us a better narrative. I can only talk about New York's obsession with Regents, a curriculum birthed from contracts with McGraw Hill).

whew

I have a question for everyone:

If your store gives credit for singles, what % do they give? My store gives 50% credit for singles and I was wondering if this was normal.

Approximately yes. The more pricey the single(where talking 18$+) they more value they'll give you, in the 55/60% range.

Nuwen, if I ever meet you in person, please be less smart.

don't be fooled by the smrts that I rock

i'm still boricua from da block

Yeah, like that.

I have a question for everyone:

If your store gives credit for singles, what % do they give? My store gives 50% credit for singles and I was wondering if this was normal.

I stopped doing that. Most stores around me give 40-45% at best. My local store generally does not want singles, but collections. Why? I don't know. A while back, I tried to clean out the legacy food chain goblin stuff I had and quickly found that store offer was worse than pawnstar offers. Squrew that, I just sold individually.
2 Stores I do trade exspensive or foil singles for store credit or singles if I am in town: Gamersden in Corpus Christi and White Lion Games in Dallas. I only do that in person.

@Nuwen, Awsome response. Ever thought about writing for
scholorly journals or text book companies? Alot of issue groups could use someone like you as your ability to put the issue into words is outstanding. Alot of activists and pundits would envy you.

In theory small towns are great, in practice they are hotbeds of bigotry and nosiness. Every small town i've ever been to has an overwhelming culture of closed-mindedness, where as in the city you are forced to learn to deal with the fact that not everyone is like you. It's not that city people are actually any better, they just are forced to confront their prejudices. Small towns are echo chambers.

And environments where churches take over as the educators are areas where that closed-mindedness reigns. In fact, given the inverse relationship between intelligence and religiosity, I really feel like religious organizations should be prohibited from operating schools.

But for those of us in the morally-upstanding majority, they're great!

I blame you guys for my dishes never being done.

How am I supposed to supress a ho with all this discourse


where have the dick jokes gone?!?

In theory small towns are great, in practice they are hotbeds of bigotry and nosiness. Every small town i've ever been to has an overwhelming culture of closed-mindedness, where as in the city you are forced to learn to deal with the fact that not everyone is like you. It's not that city people are actually any better, they just are forced to confront their prejudices. Small towns are echo chambers.

And environments where churches take over as the educators are areas where that closed-mindedness reigns. In fact, given the inverse relationship between intelligence and religiosity, I really feel like religious organizations should be prohibited from operating schools.

I was homeschooled in one and they were definately biased
to only one theory: theirs. The forced alot down kids throats and now I get annoyed by anyone saying that I should accept any theory, belief, moral, or code based on right or wrong cause a group says so. That goes for my church, university, and people here that think acceptance of homosexuality is ok. Why force an opinion down my throat? Let me (the kids) figure it out for myself (thereselves). I was grabbed/attacked by a homosexual guy in community college (1st year) and slammed his head in the table. Was treated as if I was the bad guy for not understanding him. Thus I can only silently curse their existence after that day for fear of being targeted by these nuts (did not care about them till that day). Coming from the small town to a big city can be oppresive/close minded in ways a big city kid might not understand. "I have to tolerate what? Not complain or dissagree? What happened to my freedom of speech?"
Just something I and a few others (homeschoolers) always thought but never say in
public.

I blame you guys for my dishes never being done.

How am I supposed to supress a ho with all this discourse


where have the dick jokes gone?!?

Yeah, we need to roll the credits on this chick flick.

Easy, if it's in her mouth; she can't talk.

We heart the heart pirates.