Mistah Q

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Whoops.

My wife is a university rhetoric professor - and by far, it seems, the native speakers are less disciplined and "worse" writers. The ESL papers are worse on technicality, but it's because those students make grammar and conjugation errors - and sometimes word choice when it comes to things like slang and colloquialism. Nevertheless what they write tends to be more cogent and substantive... parsimony is a virtue, I say. It has to be difficult doing university work in something other than one's native language. I sometimes run into trouble working with Europeans because in many languages the decimal is represented by a comma rather than a period, for instance.

Correct. In general, tools don't "act" - tools are used. Organic molecules can be another matter. For instance - the alpha-ketoglutarate inhibited the decarboxylase. It would almost be too indirect to say "the decarboxylase was inhibited by the alpha-ketoglutarate." APA and most institutions these days strongly encourage active voice. It can get pretty murky otherwise when you're dealing with multi-part equations, long chain reactions, and the like.

The only ones I feel strongly about are the oxford comma (pro) and the subjunctive (pro). I actually wrote John Fogerty a letter about his song "Don't you wish it was true" and asked him to re-do it with "were." I feel that language is a slightly living thing, and ours has evolved past the point of splitting the infinitive really being a technical error anymore. I use two spaces after a period out of habit, which I have to fight against when writing papers in APA format. Their/them has become an acceptable singular pronoun just because we had no better word for it. The rule used to be to use the word he/his unless it were explicitly contextualized that the subject is female but it became enough of an inclusivity issue for change to occur. If we're really stubborn enough to battle against this sort of change we might as well go back to speaking Old Norse or Middle English... language changes. I do use whom, and I don't get Jeff's immense hatred for it - it is proper after all - but it doesn't tend to set off my spidey-sense should someone else say "who." Same with beginning sentences with conjunctions - I try not to but I'm sure a few sneak in, and I don't care when others do it. The passive voice depends on context for me. As a rule I have to avoid it in medical writing besides in certain situations, but I find that when editorializing or narrating, done well it can add an effulgent sheen. Like/as: Don't care, perhaps because I'm American. There are situations when you just have to use "as." But (and this is a bit of a simplification) in a predicate that's qualifying a verb phrase, Americans tend to use "like" instead of "as." I like it better that way even if someone may call it improper - I chalk it up to a dialect difference. What really gets my goad is "as if" vs "as though." As if is hypothetical, as though is declarative! "Responsible" and "accountable" are often used where the proper word is "liable." Most of all, it pains me how often "if" is used where the proper word is "whether."

Economic Left/Right: 4.88 Social Libertarian/Authoritarian: -0.10 I don't know about that. Some of the questions seemed loaded - some in each direction. And the trouble with this kind of test is that the results leave no room for interpretation of nuance. Economically that's probably about right for me, but what that doesn't tell you is how I'm for tariffs... not protectionism but certainly appropriate tariffs, and how regulations should follow but not until we have the leverage to put human rights pressure on our trade partners... and how much I loathe Nixon. Socially I'm about as far left as you can get... except for maybe one or two issues. So I always get pegged as a centrist instead of a radical lol. If I were self-grading I'd probably give myself a -8 but with an asterisk, instead of -0.1

I do not believe in fate exactly, but I will vouch for probabilities.

Is their name blue or green?

Excellent. I check the Steam Sales and the Humble Bundles every week too. I already had Avernum 6 but I just bought the bundle anyways -- twice! One for myself and one for a friend who I'm trying to introduce to Spiderweb Games. Enjoy enjoy. Avernum 4 plays a little older style but Avernum 6 is a pretty modern interface. I guess I need to get to work uncovering A4 and A5, but I can tell you from experience that A6 is worthy of many playthroughs.

Voted yes as a probability, but it wouldn't be a strict necessity. The Platypus cloaca passes through its pelvic girdle, but its egg is only about the size of your thumbnail. The egg would have to be significantly bigger than the current human egg, but I would still have to believe that most women would be capable of passing it through the pelvic girdle. The much bigger physiological challenge would be expelling the egg from the body orifice - we'd need a couple anatomical changes outside the skeleton. Sure a baby can get through as it is, but that's an extreme effort... the egg would be pulverized. Our bipedal nature would be another challenge. Were a large egg maturing inside of us, it seems like there would be a significant risk of damaging it by time it was time to lay the egg.

Maybe a ~2 second delay of being able to move, once combat starts... I seem to lose a lot of turns on my main character because combat mode started just when I was clicking somewhere, so the Blademaster moved 9 spaces and used up the turn. I just finished my first casual playthrough so no big deal, but when I play on hard that one turn can be a gamechanger. Maybe also, those mini-events that pop up now and then, make them stay on the screen for a good 5 or 10 seconds. I feel like I've only got to read about half of the ones that have come up because I was in the middle of clicking something and it just goes away. Someone mentioned not having the screen jump when combat switches between characters. I agree with that too.

A lot of textbooks and research books about dietary hormone chemistry. Ayúdame...

I can confirm that you are not allowed to kill Chabon. I always do my first playthrough on what is basically god-mode. Casual, start at level 30, etc... basically I want to enjoy the story arc and feel out the characters my first time and then decide what challenges and allegiances I want to pursue my next time. I got Chabon down to zero health and got in several big hits after that. He did not die. At the end of the turn, Redbeard apprehended him.

I once got banned from an NHL forum for "Quoted for quoting the quote that quoted the quote that quoted the truth." Apparently there is a line to cross, sooner or later.

Thank you. Seems slightly hypocritical: Yannick and Khalida clearly expected me to choose duty over Silke.

I hope this isn't too old to bump, but it seemed the best thread for this question. I'm playing sort of a loyalist playthrough and none of the character quests are entirely palatable to me in that light. I'm okay with them not helping me overthrow Redbeard. But my question is, If I side with Avadon and upset them... can I still save Fort Farsight (i.e. tell three of them to go upstairs)? How about if I never bother to do their quests at all? If not, can I change their mind by telling the console "sorryyannick" or anything like that?

Well I understood that Cybele hurts Avadon and Jazlyn helps it. But irrespective of the reward items would ones given to the Avadon Librarian instead of to Jazlyn also count toward the counter in favor of Avadon's ending. edit: thanks for responses

Is it important that you give the Arcane Scrolls to Jazlyn instead of the Avadon Librarian?

Ah, I see. Responded!

I have been to Denver. But I had a look at the questions and it's probably better if someone who's from the area answers them. I *could* answer, but it probably wouldn't be useful data for you. The Denver Broncos message board might be a good place to ask - with all the buzz leading up to the NFL draft it seems to be an active place over there, and they have a not-football subforum.

In a Physiology class we had a mnemonic to remember the layers of the epidermis: Corneum Lucidum Granulosum Spinosum Basale Cheryl likes guys' sexy butts. I got through a structural chemistry course by using the Konami Code to remember how to allocate electrons, too.

I have conflicting feelings on the after-the-fact reveal (of Dumbledore being gay). On one hand it could seem like she wrote about all the various relationships but forgot to be inclusive and realized later then tacked it on after the fact. On the other hand you could say, her point was that Dumbledore was gay but his sexuality had no bearing on what kind of man he was and that was her point, so in that way it's a victory that it was never explicitly said. The only trouble with that is that some of the other characters, their romantic relationships did matter and even define them. The difference does put an extremely different light on his young past so the detail wouldn't have been entirely superfluous. At the end of the day I won't nitpick about it I guess.

Here is what I'd like to see in Avadon 3. 1. Ability to see all companions' inventory, even when they're not with you. I don't know how many times I filled poor Yannick's inventory with longbows and titansteel bric-a-brac, because I couldn't remember if someone I left back at Avadon had something better or not. This should include being able to see all their equipped item stats while you are browsing a merchant's selection. I don't hoard everything per-se, but I do keep what might be useful or what will have a respectable resale value, and that would help. 2. Skribbane, or equivalent. Right now I'm playing a loyalist playthrough of Avadon 2 but I love the idea of running a rebel playthrough, catching my buzz and charging into battle, and later on, kicking tail and taking names to get my fix... "I AM A HAND, YOU WILL TURN THAT SCRIBBANE OVER TO ME OR DIE!" then 20 minutes later, "Ahh yeah, that's the stuff... heehee." 3. Money for everything. Especially early in the game you wind up with a lot if items like pants that the merchant doesn't want. Oh, just let me have one coin for it so I can throw it in my junk bag already. Besides maybe it would prevent the game having to remember the spot where I dumped all that stuff on the ground and maybe improve performance a tiny bit. 4. Allow the game to run in background mode. Everything already stops if you end up in combat, or special encounter, or conversation, so I don't think it would get you killed or make you miss anything vital. I'm an obsessive map exploration completionist but even were I not, sometimes you have to run in and out of a zone, or go to the middle of a zone you've already cleared for some new quest, or cross most of the way through a zone for whatever other reason. Especially if I've already cleared the enemies out, it would be nice to click to move someplace, then alt-tab to a new window to check my e-mail or whatever, then come back to the game and the characters will have moved. 5. More cabinets at home? I liked being able to buy a house. If that makes it to Avadon 3, I'd like a few more cabinets. I would have liked one cabinet to put weapons and armor in, a chest for all my runestones, a chest for my food items, a chest for my battle scrolls, a chest for my potions, a desk for my arcane scroll and pact papers, a chest for unique items, a bacon cabinet, you know. I liked being able to store "my stuff" but I had to make some tough choices about what to mix together in the same container. Also make the view of what's in said containers expandable so I can see more than a few at a time. Heck maybe even have one home we can buy that's in the farlands in case we decide to turn rebel. 6. One companion who's gung-ho super loyalist. To the Pact, to Avadon, not necessarily to the Keeper, but maybe even going so far as it would be a dilemma for them to help you take power unless you earned lots of flags, and they would have serious qualms with turning rebel - maybe you even lose them for doing that? It would even be a delicious irony if that companion turned out to be Tawonian, or Svorgaldian, etc. 7. Important NPCs don't run around so fast. Sometimes it was really tough and really annoying trying to click on somebody I needed to talk to as they bolted around the screen, sometimes offscreen. Especially since Jeff's games admittedly tend to appeal to an older gaming audience, perhaps a game setting geared toward accessibility. Some of it is already here with the option for larger text size, but I can have trouble with small details and precise hand movements so I actually use a code edit to make the secret buttons more discernible, it would be nice to have options to have those more see-able, to be able to click npcs to talk to who weren't running around so very fast... these aging bones would thank you!

I have played the Exile (not Avernum even, but long ago..) -- the Exile series, Avernum 6, and now Avadon 1 and Avadon 2. Once I'm done with Avadon 2 I will play the Nethergate: Resurrection that I've bought off Steam. I keep hearing good things about Geneforge but I do have a question about it before I buy the Geneforge pack. I have a relatively new PC machine (windows 8.1 and so forth). Exile 3: Ruined World was about my favorite game back in a younger day. About a year ago I booted it up again and I couldn't stand the small field of view on the interface, like only being able to see a few steps away at a time, especially after having experienced games with Jeff's newer engines. Is Geneforge like that on newer machines, or is there a way to increase the field of view? Or should I wait and hope that after Avadon 3 and Avernum: Ruined World, that Geneforge will get a makeover?

Thanks - worked like a charm! I have trouble seeing small details and this improves the quality of my gameplay experience a good bit.