The Syndicate

rabbit8 wrote:I went looking through the sites I used to frequent and found most of them dead and ended up finding everyone here. Yay for internets!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The same general thing brought me here too. Maybe this site is some kind of temporal vortex upon which hinges all of existence like The Dark Tower.

Or it could be one hell of a coincidence.

Either way, howdy.

S~V~S wrote:

Epignosis wrote:Frankly, I'm pissed off about how little this ruling affects me.

I had an argument with my Great Uncle (who is a VERY OLD MAN) a while back about this. He got all in my face about it, how pastors & priests would be forced to perform weddings for people against their conscience.

Um, Uncle, I said. Catholic priests have been not marrying people for YEARS because it went against their beliefs. Can't get a Catholic wedding if divorced, can't get a Catholic wedding if marrying a non-Catholic. And iirc, it is the same for Orthodox. No one tried to FORCE Father Whazzizname to do the wedding for my husband and I (he was my husbands priest) when he refused becasue I was not a Catholic. Why do people think it will be otherwise now?

So I am not getting the "it is an attack on my beliefs" argument, if religious officiants have always dictated who they would and would not marry for religious reasons. So, a gay person could not sue the Westboro Baptists for refusing to perform a Gay Wedding, because it clearly violates their doctrine. So I am not sure what Huckabee and his ilk are screaming about, acting as if Gay Marriage is a second spear stuck in Jesus' side.

I have yet to read the SCOTUS opinions and dissents on the issue but I will in due time (yeah, I'm that big of a nerd). As a social quasi-libertarian, I see nothing wrong with the way the court ruled through the lens of the 14th Amendment. What I am curious to learn is how the majority spoke to religious freedom in their decision. Pundits were pondering whether a court ruling in favor of putting same-sex marriage validity under the umbrella of the 14h Amendment would also speak to protecting the freedom of denominations to excise their religious beliefs and decline to perform same-sex marriages on religious grounds. If they don't extend the same level of protections as many state courts did, I can imagine a scenario where the tax-exempt statuses of religious institutions (not just Christian churches mind you) are threatened over discrimination.

The crux of the argument is similar to what the Boy Scouts of America faced years ago over openly gay Scout Masters- religious institutions retain their right to preach what they want regarding homosexuality but their stance on the issue may disqualify them from tax-exempt status. As someone who belongs to a denomination that is still torn over this issue, I'd hate to see my church lose tax exempt status and likely have to shut its doors because of an issue that isn't even preached on from the pulpit. Converting a church to a taxable entity is an expensive nightmare and involves a lot of red tape, new regulations, and all sorts of headaches and pitfalls that will probably bury most small to mid-sized churches.

Golden wrote:It's hard for me to post on this subject without a giant diatribe about how ill Christianity is (certainly the part of Christianity which makes all the noise and gets all the press), so I will leave it at this...

Congratulations USA, glad you caught up.

I'm sorry you have such negative views about a faith that I myself follow. I can agree that there are plenty of people professing a faith that looks and sounds almost nothing like what I believe in. I'd love to talk to you via PM about it if you like.

Ricochet wrote:I have a date on Thursday. Or, coffee or something.

Does asking and going to coffee with a girl count as a date?

Only if you pay for her coffee and ask to do it again sometime.

http://fox43.com/2015/06/29/police-drug ... -epidemic/

Our local police force busted a sizable heroin ring operating out of a home half a mile from my house.

Stories like these make me worry about the world my daughters are going to grow up in.

Any other tinnitus sufferers out there? I normally have a high-pitched electronic frequency-esque noise in my left ear but today my right ear decided to go all haywire on me. Curious if anyone else struggles with it.

My daughter is awesome. Earlier in the week I was listening to a Ben Folds & Ben Fold Five playlist on YouTube (the CD player on my office computer crapped out and Pandora bores me with its uninspired selection and repetitiveness) and saw the video for "Do It Anyway," which features the Fraggles. Last night at dinner I was whistling the Fraggle Rock theme and my daughter wanted to know what song it was. I played it for her a few times and now she has about half of the theme memorized and wants to watch Fraggle Rock.
We had a mini dance party last night before bed to the Fraggle Rock theme.

Anybody watching the Little League World Series? The Mid-Atlantic team (Red Land) is from my neck of the woods! In past years, it's been fun cheering on teams from PA that made the LLWS but to have a team from 20 minutes away in the mix is pretty cool.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

G-Man wrote:Anybody watching the Little League World Series? The Mid-Atlantic team (Red Land) is from my neck of the woods! In past years, it's been fun cheering on teams from PA that made the LLWS but to have a team from 20 minutes away in the mix is pretty cool.

I've never watched the LLWS, but that's awesome. Oregon would never have a team in such a position.

Actually, there was a team from Oregon in the tourney but they lost their first two games.

Red Land won again tonight, putting them in the US Championship game! Seriously, this is the only time I think I've ever been this excited about baseball.

So a couple of weeks ago there was a heroin bust a mile from my house. Today there is a police standoff just a few houses down from mine.

I'll be refreshing the local news sites on a regular basis this afternoon.

The standoff ended long ago. The guy who barricaded himself in his home was a cop who had been sniffed out for stealing jewels and planting them elsewhere to frame a fall guy. He killed himself around 12:45 p.m. but we weren't allowed back into the development until 5-ish. The family and I went out for dinner and skipped all the news people hustling for interviews. He lived around the bend from us, five or six houses away.

http://www.pennlive.com/midstate/index. ... cart_river

How many of you remember where you were on September 11th, 2001? Obviously those of your from outside of the USA may not have the details cemented in your brain like we Americans do but I'm curious to hear from everyone.

I was in 2nd period study hall of my senior year of high school. By the time they announced it on the PA system, both planes had hit, so all we saw were the countless replays of the two strikes. At close to the end of study hall, the Pentagon was hit. My 3rd period class was biology. We were supposed to be working in our lab groups on prepping to dissect pigs but our focus was split between that and the TV. We saw both towers fall and then school administrators told all teachers to turn off the classroom TV sets. The next day they had turned off the cable so no one could watch anything- not even the morning Channel 1 broadcast during homeroom.

I think the plane that hit in Somerset County happened between periods. The news focused so much on the other three planes though that it's easy to lose track of that part of the timeline.

I'm not sure at what age to tell my kids about that day. At 17, I was old enough to understand everything despite how crazy it all looked and seemed at the time. One image I'll never be able to let go of is the jumpers. It sent chills up my spine then and it still does.

If you take the time zone differences into account, most of Europe was in the early to mid-afternoon hours when it started hitting the fan here. By the time most of the day-shift folk got home from work, there was already plenty of footage compiled for evening broadcasts. I hadn't really thought of that before. Then again, I was "lucky" in that I had access to a TV at school. I know my parents wouldn't have had access to a TV at work. Maybe in the break room but neither of my folks worked jobs where they could huddle around a TV or radio for a few hours as it all played out.

Turnip Head wrote:I stayed home sick that day. My mom was at work and called to tell me what happened. I don't think I'll ever forget that phone call. We didn't have TV at the time so I followed along on the radio. I remember feeling scared, confused and alone.

I remember being very confused too. It was a total shock and I didn't know how to process it all in real time. Seeing the jumpers is probably what made it sink in. The footage of people fleeing buildings covered in dust and running from the debris clouds is one thing but I think the jumpers gave me a much deeper understanding of the severity of it all. A building is an inanimate thing but seeing real people jump to their death on TV gave it that personal punch that pretty much wrecked me inside for the rest of the day. It was a similar (but probably heavier) feeling to when my sister and I watched footage of the evacuation of Columbine back in 1999. We tuned in not long after getting home from school on the east coast, right as one boy was rescued out of the library window.

Worker's comp audits make me do this:

Today is the day! Heading to the hospital in half an hour to induce labor. Friend me on Facebook if you want to see pics. Just make sure you tell me who you are when you friend me. I haven't seen pictures of all of you.

We have wifi at the hospital but still no baby. The doctors are saying she ought to be born today (Friday) yet. We'll see.

Nothing says Merry Christmas Happy Boxing Day quite like cleaning vomit out of your child's bed sheets at 12:45 a.m.

Cold day at work. Nobody noticed that the furnace was low on oil. It must have run out sometime overnight. It's 63 in the office now that our bodies and the lights have warmed it up from the 59 degree temperature we discovered upon opening for the day. Hot chocolate has been clutch today but I don't think I'm going to want to drink any again for a long while. Working on my fourth cup as I type this.

Epignosis wrote:PANTHERS

Broncos

This will be the best kind of Super Bowl for me- one where I'm okay with either team winning. The last time that happened was in 2011 with the Packers and the Steelers.

While it would be nice for Manning to go out on top with a Super Bowl victory (still hard to believe his brother has more rings than he does), I think I'm leaning toward the Panthers. They were such a dominant team this year and Cam Newton really seems to have transformed both his play and his attitude since his car accident. Plus, I thought their logo and colors were cool back when the team was founded back when I was a kid. I've always had a soft spot for them because of that.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:I was rooting for the Cardinals tbh, but the Panthers are obviously the team to beat.

If anyone can do it, it's a healthy Broncos team.

I have nothing against the Cardinals but I find Phoenix/Arizona to be one of those regions that it's hard to care about in terms of sports teams. Seattle used to be in this same category for me but now they're lumped into my "root against them because of obnoxious bandwagon fans" category. It's funny how you expect some teams/regions to have inferior sports teams simply because you grew up knowing those teams to be mediocre.

That being said, I lukewarmly support the Diamondbacks and Coyotes from time to time because their logos/team names/color schemes are/were cool and for the underdog factor.

This is my 2,000th post!

That feeling when you realize that you most likely set the slow-cooker full of meatballs and spaghetti sauce to HIGH this morning instead of LOW.

Ricochet wrote:mmm datsome burny meat-uh-balls

Just got home. Indeed the are.

Epignosis wrote:Maybe Albert Pujols doesn't mind hot balls.

Well, he could certainly hit these over the fence.

Yup. We need to buy a new griddle. Looks like we may add slow-cooker to that list.

Here's a pic of my crispy burnt balls if anyone's interested.

My youngest daughter turned six months old today!

Just call me...

T minus 30 minutes until I am intellectually humbled for the second year in a row. Here goes nothing...

I did better than last year but that's not saying much. I got maybe half of the answers right. I'm a nerd but it seems I need to broaden the scope of useless information I retain in my head. Maybe next year.

Golden wrote:A boy arrived for us on the 7th, not long before midnight. His name is hamish. He was big but not quite as big as they expected. No sleep for me.

For those who know Sophie, she was due the same time as us but hers came earlier, a couple of weeks ago. She had a boy called Julian.

Golden the Father! Welcome to the club, sir. Fatherhood is a lot of work but it is awesome.

As much as I like to think that I live a relatively simple life, HOLY CRAP DO I HAVE A LOT OF STUFF IN THE BASEMENT!

We're having out A/C / heat pump system replaced tomorrow and I've spent three nights shifting piles and boxes of our stuff across the basement to clear out around the internal unit and the tubing to the external unit. My back is all

About 1/3 of the problem is old kids clothes and toys from our oldest. Once Kid 2 goes through it all then we can yard sale most of it. Another 1/3 of it is my wife's fault. She started out teaching 1st grade but got moved to 3rd grade after seven years. This summer she switched districts and moved from 3rd grade to kindergarten. So now we have all her 1st and 3rd grade stuff downstairs because she could always get bumped back to either grade now that she's low woman on the totem pole. Another 1/6 of it is my wife's scrapbooking stuff that is often thought of by her but never worked on. The other 1/6 is just random odds and ends.

That's awesome! Any idea when you might hear back on the offer?

Epignosis wrote:We just got the call. The owners accepted all the terms of our proposal except that they met us in the middle regarding their asking price and offer.

Golden the Survivor! Glad you and your family are safe and sound.

Here's something to discuss. Who among us is creepy? Here's the article.

If you're not into reading the full article, here are the bullet points:

-Men are more likely to be labeled as “creepy” than women.
-Women are more likely to think sexual threats are creepy (duh).
-Acting unusually was associated with creepiness.
-Some hobbies and jobs make people creepy.

Creepy Qualities:

-Being extremely thin
-Not looking you in the eye
-Asking to take a picture of you
-Watching people before interacting with them
-Asking about details of your personal life when you don’t know them
-Displaying too much or too little emotion
-Being older
-Steering the conversation toward sex

Creepiest Jobs:

-Clown
-Taxidermist
-Sex shop owner
-Funeral director

I'm guilty of not looking people in the eye much when talking to them. I am also guilty of being a people watcher. I guess that makes me a little creepy.

But seriously, how is being older a creepy factor? That's not something you can control. I think old people who try to look and dress younger than their age are a little creepy but not old people in general. Maybe they just mean being older in relation to the person being engaged?

Epignosis wrote:

thellama73 wrote:It's one of my life's ambitions to one day be a creepy old man with a secret heart of gold, like in Home Alone.

You just want to hit burglars with snow shovels.

Don't we all?

Red means least suspicious, right?

MovingPictures07 wrote:

G-Man wrote:Red means least suspicious, right?

You wish; that's my color. Confirmed town teal.

I guess I'll never live down my antics in Economics Mafia. Perma-suspicious it is then.

While my dad gave me a few inquiring sips of beer when I was a kid (back then I liked the smell but not the taste), just about all of my firsts with alcohol came in college.

The first full alcoholic drink I ever consumed was a bottle of Smirnoff Triple Black.

My first experience with whiskey was at a cast party. Someone gave me a scotch glass half full of Jack Daniels. Not knowing any better, I sipped it slowly over the course of an hour. I liked the slow burn down the throat and the warm feeling in my stomach. One of my friends, who didn't know I hadn't drank much of anything before, questioned me about it. Apparently the only people he had ever known to sip whiskey slowly were alcoholics.

I haven't had any in years, but I used to love Gentleman Jack. Nice and smooth all the way down.

Metalmarsh89 wrote:

thellama73 wrote:

Metalmarsh89 wrote:After years of trying, I've finally been able to enjoy the taste of whiskey, the past couple weeks.

I dabbled with scotch for years, always kind of liking it but never loving it. Then I discovered bourbon and now I am a full-on whiskey drinker. It's great.

And G-Man, of course you're supposed to sip whiskey. It tastes too good and is too expensive to shoot.

One can also swig whiskey.

Agreed. The speed at which whiskey should be consumed is inversely proportional to the price paid for the whiskey.

Ricochet wrote:You are making me quite thirsty.

Oh man, those days seem so long ago now for me. Lilah just hit 13 months. You're in for a treat though, because he's coming up on the span where they start figuring things out. It's an amazing process.

Golden wrote:I'm hard pressed to think of the best game I've ever hosted. I don't think I've ever had one go to lylo up to this point. Mostly what I enjoy is wreaking mechanical havoc upon everyone and watch them try and resolve it all. And basically all of my games do that, so...

Both games I've hosted so far broke posting records, featured mechanics/powers that caught people off guard, went to Lylo, and featured one living player at the end. True to form, I doubt I would have enjoyed playing either of them, so I can't pick a favorite.

I think my favorite game that I played is still Economics. A lot of good stuff came out of that game: my new zany reputation for shenanigans, my Joker meme, Coward, dog pee, and a healthy distrust of Golden.

That game literally went down to the wire. A Lylo standoff until the last three minutes? Nuts. It sucked to lose but it was a fun ride.

Sloonei wrote:

Dom wrote:Favorite game I hosted? Probably my first on LP (pixar)... both horrifically bad and wonderful experience.

playeD?
IDK JFC

This is how I'd sum up the first game I ever hosted as well. It was on RYM so it is now lost in internet purgatory, but it was infamously known simply as "Game 8" when the community was still up and running.
We were all still new to the game so the community as a whole was in that experimental stage where we were just trying to figure out what worked for us. Long story short, I ended up having to set an unbreakable RYM record for modkills in a game, we had two scum partners bus each other hardcore out of the gate (harhol & MrMungbean, if my memory is correct), and the game concluded with a botched lynch tally and an inconclusive resolution. It remains the only draw I've ever seen in mafia. Train wreck that it was, everyone told me it was a fantastic game to play in.

Some of us have never left that experimental stage.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!


And happy Monday to you Aussies and Kiwis. Looks like I missed you by a hair.