[Tinu.]

Oh gosh, Usa. Be careful, ok? And I hope that something can be done. Let us know what the doctor says, ok? *hugs*
_________________
Keeper of Gaia and all the books on Earthsong

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid."
~Einstein

[Allicat]

Wow. Usa, that's... wow. I guess we can hope for a solution through surgery? Do let us know how things progress. I'm keeping you in my thoughts, and take care of yourself y'hear?
_________________
He who does not eat cheese will go mad. ~ French proverb.

Keeper of the fallen leaves. 'Cos they're still pretty.

[TheBritishInvasion]

I have no idea what I can say to that Tenshi. I hope surgery does something to help. Please keep us updated.
_________________
Britland as dubbed by AsA
Avatar courtesy of Footloose
Keeper of Tengu's electricity and Willow's 'what did you just say' eyes.

[Asa]

My prayers and thoughts and support are with you. Honestly, though, isn't that the sort of thing they should have caught before now? Isn't that visible on Xray?
_________________
Self-styled Forum Grandmother, because I hand out nicknames and hugs whether you want them or not. ^_^

Keeper of the Library and the Gateway to Haven

Nem: "It's the sort of face you just know is getting ready to poke you with something sharp."
BS: "...then insist you eat a brownie."
__________________
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Tenshi]

Thank you all. I will keep you updated as I know more. Going to pick up the MRI DVD today (probably), and then speak to the friend of a friend. To be sure, sometimes knowing the right people is actually very, very good! Heh.

@Asa: To a degree, yes. The x-rays of that region showed that I had the general shape of the back of a 70 year old, and that holds true. However, the x-ray really can only show you that things are not really 'right' down there. They can't detail the inside of the spinal canal, and they can't detect discs with any real success. This is made worse by the fact that the Lumbar region downward is entering into the pelvic area, so much of that would also be obstructed by the iliac crests on either side (or, simply put, the pelvic bones). I can't recall offhand (just woke up) what the bones are like in the lumbar region, but I'm pretty sure also that there's less of a presentation of vertebrae in the lumbar region. Of course, I would be the one to figure out how to so badly mess up the less structurally thick place in my spine anyway, right? Hah!
_________________
. Dubbed "Usagi" by AsA .
Keeper of the Siderean Swords

"If by chance some day you're not feeling well, and you should remember some silly thing I've said or done, and it brings back a smile to your face or a chuckle to your heart, then my purpose as your clown has been fulfilled."
Red Skelton

[Tinu.]

There's a lot of padding between the Lumbar vertebrae, yes. And there are only five on them. But, they're large and thick. On the bright side, it can be really hard to twist your lower back, so as long as you're decently careful, you shouldn't have to worry too much about something happening prior to surgery (if surgery becomes an option).
_________________
Keeper of Gaia and all the books on Earthsong

"If you judge a fish by its ability to climb a tree, it will spend its whole life believing it is stupid."
~Einstein

[Tinalles]

Web sites that use large areas of pure red are EVIL. I'm looking at YOU, Target, NetFlix, and especially Salon.

That last one is especially bad. The areas of red aren't actually all that big, but they're BRIGHT. As in, solid #FF0000, the brightest possible red your monitor can display.

Using bright, unalloyed red in large areas is just a bad idea. It hurts my eyes. It makes me angry. I don't know if you were going for "edgy", or using it because you think it leads to better brand identification, or what -- but what you got was "annoying".

Red is best used either in either VERY small areas to draw attention with its brightness, or else in a shade rather than the pure color.

In short -- TONE IT DOWN!

>.<;
_________________
Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Nem]

Driving in london is horrible. Finding somewhere to park in london is worse....

We're also about an hour early on account of expecting a traffic jam. :\

Good thing I brought a book.
_________________
Never forget,
We stroll along the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers.
- Issa

[Nem]

Website I was just trying to register on had 'What noise does a cat make?' As one of its security questions. The answer they were looking for was 'woof'

-Bangs head against table-


_________________
Never forget,
We stroll along the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers.
- Issa

[TheBritishInvasion]

That reminds me Nem, a while ago I was trying to add a security question to my facebook profile and the questions were all things you'd know the answer to if you'd seen my profile, e.g. 'what is your Grandparent's name?' or 'what was your first school?'

What is the point of that?*




*To be fair, my answer to security questions is never the actual answer to the question.
_________________
Britland as dubbed by AsA
Avatar courtesy of Footloose
Keeper of Tengu's electricity and Willow's 'what did you just say' eyes.

[Tamir]

I use a second password myself. But yeah, "security questions" are one of the more common ways to break into people's accounts.

[Tinalles]

Particularly since most common security questions -- "Name of the street you grew up on", or "Grandmother's maiden name", that kind of thing -- can be answered by anyone who does a little digging on you.
_________________
Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Tinalles]

The following is an exceptionally geeky vent, involving D&D. You have been warned!

So, my D&D group is starting a new campaign, with new characters. I will be the GM -- the one who plays the part of all the villains, helpful peasants, greedy merchants, the entire pantheon of deities ... basically, I'm everybody who isn't one of the heroes of the story.


The first thing you do when you create a D&D character is roll some dice to determine your how good your character is at certain basic abilities (e.g. how strong they are, how smart they are, that kind of thing). There are a number of different methods for determining those stats. The most common method is:

1) roll 4d6 (4 standard 6-sided dice)
2) drop the lowest roll
3) total up the other three

Repeat a total of six times, and you have your ability scores.

I told them to use the aforesaid method, and was nice enough to add "roll two sets of ability scores, then pick the set you like best." Then I stepped out of the room to look up some information that one of my players had requested.

By the time I came back, they were done rolling --- AND, I have just learned today, they rolled their stats using this method:

1) Roll 4d6
2) Re-roll any 1s or 2s
3) Drop the lowest
4) Total up the remaining 3 dice.

That's right, they added an EXTRA STEP where you re-roll any time you get a 1 or a 2. The result is characters that are uber-powerful.

I'm using a published adventure, not making up my own. I chose to use a published adventure so that I would be able to focus on running the adventure, not constantly hammering out the stats on monsters.

And guess what? The published adventure that I'm using was designed with the idea that you'd have FOUR players whose characters were built using the standard 4d6-drop-the-lowest method. But these characters -- of which there are SIX -- were built using, apparently, the "I am Superman" method. So in order to compensate, I have two options:

1) Make everyone re-roll their characters;

2) Manually adjust dozens and dozens of monsters in the adventure to increase their power to be on par with the characters, which is exactly the kind of constant stat-grinding that I was trying to avoid.

Yeah. It's going to be 1. Two of my players are taking it will ill grace. Well, nuts to them! When they're the ones running the game, they can do what they like. I told them how to do it, and they ignored me and did their own thing; they can darn well do it again right.

>.<;




...

Okay, I feel a little better now.
_________________
Keeper of The Remnant Minuon (cognomen Lucy, the Eaten One) and the Emissary Caeli

[Asa]

That's the stuff, Tin! Stand your ground. It's annoying when people don't do what they're supposed to be doing, isn't it?
_________________
Self-styled Forum Grandmother, because I hand out nicknames and hugs whether you want them or not. ^_^

Keeper of the Library and the Gateway to Haven

Nem: "It's the sort of face you just know is getting ready to poke you with something sharp."
BS: "...then insist you eat a brownie."
__________________
If we shadows have offended,
Think but this and all is mended...
Give me your hands if we be friends,
And Robin shall restore amends.

[Nem]

Aldi's website's extremely rude. Little questionnaire - you don't have to sign in or anything. Don't remember the exact phrasing. Something like:

"Why are you interested in working for us?"
"The pay looks good."
"Well save yourself the price of the stamp and don't bother applying then."

Ahah-hah-hah

No, I have a deep set interest in management in a highly competitive market. Really.

Ahah-hah-hah

Do you think anyone would work for you if they were rich enough not to need a job? Do you think anyone looks at an Aldi store and goes 'Truly, managing something that should by all rights pretty much run itself is everything I aspired to. I'd far sooner be doing this than watching TV, playing a computer game, learning a martial art, playing the piano or just driving my car around really fast.' Really?

No. People are there for the money. Why do they prefer this job to the others? Well the majority of time they'll have applied to the others too. You're not the only people offering that sort of job. Why do they want that sort of job? Well in a lot of cases they're really not even that fussy.

The idea that someone is going to have company loyalty is ridiculous. There is nothing about you that makes you special as an employer. Every promise you make can equally be made for McDonalds, or Foxtons - everyone promises more or less the same stuff.

People cast a wide net. They have to. And unless something they really want to do comes up, they'll do the jobs they don't think are too terrible. Something that helps them live, and that they can just about manage to live with if they don't look in the mirror really close. In the meantime all you're doing is selecting for the liars.

If you wanted to select for intelligent people you'd make your recruitment website about the puzzles. Not about the company cars, the promotions, and the money. And the puzzles would serve as your application screen as well. MI6, I believe it was, did that recently with a bit of code they hid online that invited you to apply - and as far as I know it worked very well.

The very fact you're advertising in your brand new store for a manager leads me to believe your selection criteria are somewhat pie-in-the-sky anyway. You don't attract people interested in a certain problem by talking to them about money, you attract them by showing them the problem.

Would I be interested in working for you? How do I know? You haven't shown me your problems. On first blush, looking at manager stuff in general, probably not. But who knows?

In the meantime, don't be rude to people who are being honest with you. The only corporate culture that's liable to foster is to collect all the people who are so egoistical they run right over that stuff anyway.

Grrrr.

<_<

I'll go sit over here now.

>_>
_________________
Never forget,
We stroll along the roof of hell
Gazing at flowers.
- Issa