Balladeer

As I was updating the layout of our CoCommunity I noticed some obsolete rules and incorrect member numbers and defunct links to vanished profiles. It has been six years since we created it and I wondered if the Community felt it was time to update it. Out with the old, in with the new to make it all blend nicer with the shiny coat of paint, as it were.

Thoughts, comments, suggestions welcome.

http://www.truesite4blades.com/coc.html

The gate had not been opened when Jewels floated past. The cold steel sent a patchwork of shivers through her... essence. She had gazed up at the towering turrets as if in a trance until someone passed through her from behind. She had gasped, but only a papery sound reached her ears. It was different from the steel gate; warm and throbbing as if she could feel their heartbeat. The sensation was not altogether unpleasant but still she shuddered from the thought of it.

Nikki: Oh, brr! That was a cold breeze...

Nikki rubbed his arms and kept on walking; the back of his head retreating from her vision. Oh the innuendo she could muster if she were in the mood... Instead she stepped back and watched as the rest of the members on the bus filed past over the bridge. While few showed extreme transformations such as hers, many were being carried by other members, refusing to be roused. Mysterious Man looked blatantly comatose, but that may have been from his drink of choice.

Most interesting was a gazer that bumped along, eye stalks turning every which way and battering each other in the process. For a moment it seemed as if it could see her. One eye rotated to stay fixed on the place where she was hovering, but soon enough it had passed without slowing. Who had that been? Who else bore the effects of the RP era? Were there any other spirits like herself?

Soon enough everyone seemed to get situated in the courtyard, those who wouldn't wake up were laid out and made comfortable while the rest were mingling with each other and the SW members who had not gone on the trip. Jewels floated from group to group just for something to do, listening to their theories and concerns. Nothing substantial kept her focus until she heard her name. Jewels swung around at Sylae's voice and floated in close to listen to her conversation with Actaeon.

Jewels: Sylae, I'm here!. Actaeon, can you hear me?

Neither turned their heads in her direction. It was rather frustrating. With the din of those gathered, she could barely hear herself let alone project her voice to be heard by anyone else. She had to figure out a way to communicate with them. She deigned that the best option was to follow them around waiting for inspiration to hit and an opportunity to use it.

I tend to keep my writing and Spanish stuff but I've tossed more and more each time I go through it. Threw out all my math and spelling last time. Just didn't seem worth keeping around. I foresee eventually the writings will not seem worth it either.

I have played the viola since 4th grade. I tinker on the piano and tend to sing harmony. I have written one song sung in public, though not to a large audience.

Jewels floated off the Spiderbus amid the initial chaos but for the most part unconcerned. The damage was minimal, if you could even call it damage. They had arrived with their lives and that was the most important. She caught snatches of conversations from the awakening SWers as she passed by unnoticed. Most were wondering about what happened. Only one seemed to venture a guess.

Actaeon: "... It's a good thing the course was already set..."

Jewels shook her head... it felt like stirring the wind. The bus had run out of community spirit, yes, but it had not been on course for the present time; they had been bound for the RP era. And it was not the cold between time that had lulled them to sleep, but the RP era itself and the death that had surrounded them when they arrived. The date set had not been during the vibrant, active time of the RolePlay's but actually just afterwards when they all floundered and sputtered for life by the barest of threads. They were predators surrounding the bus, sensing the activity, seeking it out and pulling it to themselves with conscious will. Like a vacuume, the once vivacious, now starving threads sucked the life right out of them.

Jewels glanced down at herself, barely a specter left, and shivered from the memory of it. Those who had been asleep when they arrived had been better protected; their dormant minds not offering much potential they were passed over. Sylae, however, had been driving. The RP's had latched onto her and drug her from the bus almost immediately. Aran had jumped out the door after her, one hand clasping an ankle and one the bus door. When Student of Trinity tried to help, he lost his footing and was swept away by the pull. Sylae reached for him as he passed but an unseen whirlwind changed his course and he disappeared behind the bus. Jewels herself had clung to the steering wheel, feet horizontal in the air. She could feel the years draining away from her, the spark of life ebbing. As other SWers started to stir from the commotion, their fates as equally in danger, she did the only thing she could think of...

Jewels: "Next stop, present time!"

The bus responded. It lurched and took off leaving the ravenous RP era behind. The pull subsided and Jewels had fallen to the bus floor. Aran managed to pull Sylae back inside the bus where they huddled on the floor together. Only Student of Trinity had been lost... only one...

Only? The sacrifice had been too much. How could she have left him behind? What else could she have done?

The rest of the trip was a blank. If she had done anything more, she could not remember. The damage that the incident had caused was seemingly random. Why was she a ghost while Sylae and Aran had turned into ponies? All she could think of was that her last thoughts had been of dying. Maybe she was dead. Doomed to haunt SW... perhaps as penance. She drifted off towards the forum proper leaving the bus and its inhabitants behind her.

She did not see the bus's emergency exit door ajar, nor the lone eye stalk that followed her passage.

Mesmerizing, VCH.

Here's my newest poem. It's called "The Hobbiswipe".

Interesting, off-color, and unique. It'd something I'd never think to write about... something I've never thought about period. So add thought-provoking to the list. Perhaps not many thoughts but some.

But it doesn't rhyme so, meh. Just a personal preference.

@ADoS No, it's not about Ender game. I've never played an Ender game... it was just a random throwing together of syllables to form a random name.

Also:

A Poem for Vincent

The apples that don't grow on trees

Are falling down in autumn.

Be careful if you walk behind

Don't be the one who caught'em

The pies that bake out in the sun

Are rising up in the spring.

Be careful when you watch the sky

Don't misstep on anything.

Those chocolate buttons? Pass them by.

Those raisins? Don't you eat'em.

The jellybeans might be okay

But only if E.B. made'em.

Try writing one without a topic, plot or characters,

Was or wasn't, I don't know.

Did or didn't go with the flow.

A picture now can only show

A dark and dreary haze.

Could or couldn't. Oh, for woe.

Should or shouldn't make it so.

There is no sign now high or low

Caught lonely in the gaze.

I have written a bit of poetry in my day as the need arises. Did a lot of poetry writing in HS and college English. Wrote a couple song lyrics round then too.

Wrote a Little Cesar Pizza jingle for a radio ad most recently but it disappeared when my HD crashed. Other than that there have been bits and pieces incorporated into larger RP writings.

Yeah, I like to rhyme...

Edit: I like writing poetry spontaneously. Give me a topic, any topic.

... which would effectively involve abolishing every law in the United States and rewriting them all from scratch

...can we have them in plain English this time? For 8th grade reading level, max.

Way too confusing for my taste... I'm just glad I feel no urge to smoke anything. Don't have to worry one way or the other.

I expect when enough states are able to pass measures to legalize marijuana they'll call for a federal change too.

There is a checkbox for marking whether to include the Edit By line but no text box for typing in a reason. Another Mod Only feature perhaps? So totally not fair.

I am not against medical marijuana personally. In fact I'm probably more against alcohol than I am against marijuana in the sense that I feel alcohol can be more damaging both physically and relationally.

On hospitals, faith is no shield from having to follow best medical practices, period. That is a slippery slope to medical abuse in the name of religion. If your religion blocks you from keeping up with medicine, you are no longer following the Hippocratic Oath—something has come before "do no harm" in your priorities—and have no business being a doctor. Without doctors you can't have a hospital.

 

—Alorael, who sympathizes with the struggle to reconcile faith and profession. But for medicine, you knew what you were getting into. You don't get to put yourself first. You don't get to limit patients with your beliefs. You can't cry foul now.

Except the procedures in question are not life threatening. Maybe if there is only one hospital in a community it shouldn't be Catholic, but here if the medical care you want is not available at Sacred Heart, you can go across the street to Marshfield (literally 3 blocks away) and get it done without a problem. If you want to be sterilized or get on the pill or terminate an unwanted pregnancy nothing is going to be harmed by having to travel to the next non-catholic hospital or clinic to do it at.

Now if a woman is bleeding out and a choice must be made between saving the mother's life and terminating a pregnancy, THAT I can support as being required of hospitals to do. I'm not sure how time sensitive abortion inducing drugs are to the time of conception but there should at least be provisions that a hospital must only refer the patient to a doctor and facility that can offer what they need/request within the needed time. No harm is done.

I find it ridiculous that catholic hospitals are being forced to do vasectomies when those who want a vasectomy can easily find a facility that is not a catholic hospital to do it. As ridiculous as telling a toy store they must carry 'adult' toys. That's how I see it, utterly ridiculous, because the procedures in question are completely optional based on the patient's desire. The only harm being done is forcing faith-based medical personnel to violate their core beliefs and taking away their jobs if they refuse.

The referendum was spawned because of the Citizens United decision, so I read. They want the decision taken out of the the supreme court's hands and put into the hands of the people, I guess.. Not sure on the details.

@Aran: ... Yes there could be benefits to limiting businesses free speech but it is a very slippery slope. Who gets to decide what businesses can say or not? When the country is so split on political views, which half gets to tell the other half their businesses have to shut up?

People have a right to be abrasive and say unpopular things and not be thrown in jail for it, right? They can have their opinions and their perceptions and share them for the most part without legal fear. (Yes I know there are exceptions. Tell the gov't you have a bomb at your own risk.) You take away the corporation's freedom of speech and you open the door to them being legally penalized for saying something or endorsing something that the people or the government doesn't want to hear about. I really don't want to go back down the religious road but its the best example I have. Without free speech the issue with Chick-fil-A would have been over before it started. Businesses that are faith-based may be forbidden to say they are faith-based or forbidden to have a bible verse up on their wall as a decoration or forbidden to make a charitable donation to another faith-based organization.

Catholic hospitals are already being forced to choose between serving only professing Catholics; staying open to the public and providing contraceptives, sterilization procedures, and abortion inducing drugs against their religion; or closing their doors. Next step, if they did stay open to the public (which they wouldn't be able to and still claim to be Catholic) they wouldn't be able to encourage patients to not use these procedures. In fact, they could be forced to offer them as options. Down the road they may be forced to offer abortions themselves and what about the individuals working there? Could they be forced to choose between performing the procedure and losing their profession? Potentially it threatens faith-based radio and television as well, even the pulpit. It may look like I'm stretching - looking at the worst case scenario, but Catholic hospitals being forced to provide services against their faith already proves that freedom of religion is being chipped away at. One step at a time the burner is being turned up and taking freedom of speech away from businesses is just one notch.

Ah, good to know. Politico.com should update their reporting software then so that the 'winner' check mark is not on the yes once it passes 50% for that type of amendment.

Okay, maybe this is a dumb question, but how do I post a picture of my desktop?

For windows, it's ctrl+PrtSc that puts the image onto your clipboard then ctrl+v while in Paint to paste it.

Right, well, once they take away the freedom of speech for corporations you know it's not going to stop at only their right to give donations to campaigns.

New Hampshire already has no state income tax. The measure, which did not pass, was to prevent one from being levied in the future. This would have had no bearing whatsoever on federal income taxes.

The results I'm looking at says it did pass at 57% yes. But, yeah, I figured. I was going for mischievousness.

...

*nicks something from Tyran's tardis collection* >:oK

As for the rest of us... hey, anyone else glad it's over?

 

---

The Silent Assassin is calling all Spiderwebbers who are interested in making good on the claims to hunt down Actaeon for his last poll.

Meet him in the Richard White forum three weeks ago.

Glad it's over. Glad most of my SW friends are happy. Wish I could find the results for the referendum that was on my ballot... It was just a recommendation thing to start the ball rolling on whether or not free speech should only be granted to individuals and not corporations, unions, etc. I voted to not limit free speech and I'm hoping that's how the majority of people feel but I'd like to see the results for it. It was worded very oddly... Said 'Should campaign fund giving be limited by allowing only individuals to have freedom of speech?' Or something to that effect and I was like, "What does campaign fund giving have to do with it? No one's freedom of speech, corporate entity or otherwise, should be limited. Period."

*looks at desktop to see if picture worthy*

*notices files "Iffy's family.txt", "Sy past.txt", and "hair.txt"*

<.< ... >.>

*cleans up*

*takes pic*

Kids use this computer too and change the background on their own whims. Lots of games are theirs but most the other stuff is mine.

[EDIT by Student of Trinity: Moved from earlier topic on 2012 Election Season. First lines of this post are now out of context: sorry. IPB doesn't move posts in the way I thought it would.]

[Edit by Jewels: snip unrelated content]

Moving on, how about those results, eh? I find the ballot issue results very interesting and have many questions. For instance since Washington's 'legalize marijuana' ballot passed and Oregon's didn't, do they have any plans for enforcing it? (i.e. to keep Oregon residents from buying over Washington's borders, or keeping Washington residents from carrying it into other states) Will this be a local law enforcement(LLE) issue? If yes does WA care that OR's LLE will be overtaxed receiving the brunt of the responsibility of keeping WA's legal marijuana out of OR?

Then what's with New Hampshire's Income tax ban and why didn't my state think of this? I don't want to pay income tax either. >:oK

[Also Edit by Jewels: in other news how do you change what the Edit By line says? I cannot find the option anywhere...]

hover over a signature, then look for the x on the right-hand side of the page

Why can't I ignore your siggy, Sy? Not that I'd want to, just sayin the x isn't there.

Mail-in ballots sound interesting. How do people get the ballots to mail in? I expect either they go somewhere and pick one up or have it mailed to them? I lean towards the first considering the homeless, though also hope the shut-ins are considered... Both?

As derogatory as idiot is what I said. But if you require proof...

 

Word Origin & History

bigot

 

1590s, from Fr. bigot (12c.), in O.Fr. "sanctimonious;" supposedlya derogatory name for Normans, the old theory (not universallyaccepted) being that it springs from their frequent use of O.E.oath bi God. Plausible, since the Eng. were known as goddamns inJoan of Arc's France, and during World War I Americans serving in France were said to be known as lessommobiches (see also son of a *****). But the earliest Frenchuse of the word (12c.) is as the name of a people apparently insouthern Gaul (which led to the now-doubtful, on phoneticgrounds, theory that the word comes from Visigoth). Sp. bigote"mustache" also has been proposed as a source, though thesense is not adequately explained. The earliest English sense is of"religious hypocrite," especially a female one, and may have beeninfluenced by beguine. Sense extended 1680s to other thanreligious opinions.

Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

I am now also disappointed that the discussion as been reduced to personal attacks. I do not care, Diki, if you or anyone else thinks I am a bigot for my beliefs. I am just trying to state that Spiderweb Forums is not the place to call me one. I'd have nothing to say at CalRef and, indeed, would spar with you there if you wished. I just expect better here, especially considering any thread about whether LGBT is immoral or not would be soon locked.