[Off-Topic] Community Chat Thread

[DirkGently]

Did my first real alter: Tom Servo in hair metal attire. Now I just need to do it on the actual card instead of draft chaff.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

[Hermes_]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Get a new addiction?

[Guardman]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Get a new addiction?

He already has cigarettes and magic. I don't think he can afford another one.

[Hermes_]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Get a new addiction?

He already has cigarettes and magic. I don't think he can afford another one.

Drop the cigarettes and he can afford MORE magic or a new addiction

[Dunharrow]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Aren't they banning them for anyone born after 2004?

[RxPhantom]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things anyone can do, but dammit you should try. The only thing that will get better is everything.

[DirkGently]

I really wish those Donald Trump trading cards had rules text. He'd be the perfect attacker to trade off for an enemy Ophiomancer token.

[TheAmericanSpirit]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things anyone can do, but dammit you should try. The only thing that will get better is everything.

Never gonna happen. The package says it's gonna kill me and that's how I plan to die.

[TheGildedGoose]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things anyone can do, but dammit you should try. The only thing that will get better is everything.

Never gonna happen. The package says it's gonna kill me and that's how I plan to die.

As Vonnegut said, it's the classy way to kill yourself.

[RxPhantom]

I hear New Zealand is going to ban cigarettes. Watch in awe as the odds of me ever visiting those glorious islands drops to 0%! How sad. I just can't travel without the monkey on my back. Don't know what I'd do with my hands without it.

Quitting smoking is one of the hardest things anyone can do, but dammit you should try. The only thing that will get better is everything.

Never gonna happen. The package says it's gonna kill me and that's how I plan to die.

That's very sad to hear.

[pokken]

Yeah cigarettes are cool. You get tons of horrible health complications followed by a long and painful death starving for oxygen.

My dad went from being a pro athlete level of fitness in his 40s to a waddling mess whose voice barely works, with constant painful struggling for breath. I'll always remember him playing guitar and singing when I was a kid, and the last time we played together where he couldn't sing and his hand shook so hard he could barely hold the frets. My mom says my voice sounds just like his used to.

My aunt got to lay on a couch with an oxygen tank getting bloated and then spending her last year in a bed.

Smoking killing you would be fine if it didn't strip you of everything and make the end of your life a horrible trial unnecessarily.

Keeping on smoking is signing yourself up for an agonizing period of morbidity. I know all this %$#% sounds dramatic but man I'm old. I'm in my 40s now and I'm seeing all the consequences of the choices my parents made and desperately trying not to make those same mistakes.

My mom just let her health go and became morbidly obese and ruined both her hips and knees. Now she's desperately trying to pull it back and lose enough weight to get like four joint surgeries she may not recover from. Not smoking but the same idea. The end of your life matters. It may not matter to you right now but I promise it will then.

Quit.

[Dunadain]

I won't belabor the point, because I don't want you to feel like we are dog piling on you, but you really should quit. I'm not going to tell you that it will solve all your problems, but it'll only make things better in the long run.


In other news, I got accepted into grad school, Time to apply for a million scholarships and still catapult myself into crippling debt!

[TheAmericanSpirit]

@pokken that's very sad to hear. Wouldn't wish that experience on anyone, let alone you. I hope your mother gets out alright.

Me, on the other hand, I'm just waiting to die. The world is %$#%. The seas are rising, the temperature is climbing, there are islands of plastic waste in the ocean, and nuclear Armageddon looms large. The Doomsday clock is like 30 seconds to midnight. I don't have a wife or kids, don't plan to either. It'll be no big loss (I ain't some big contributor to the world in either the micro or the macro sense of things) and I'd rather die by mine own hand than wait to cook to death or see the absolute misery of nuclear war. No man is an island, sure, but I will strangle on my tarry phlegm alone.

Sorry if that's a huge downer, but that's the size and shape of it from what I've seen.

[pokken]

@pokken that's very sad to hear. Wouldn't wish that experience on anyone, let alone you. I hope your mother gets out alright.

Me, on the other hand, I'm just waiting to die. The world is %$#%. The seas are rising, the temperature is climbing, there are islands of plastic waste in the ocean, and nuclear Armageddon looms large. The Doomsday clock is like 30 seconds to midnight. I don't have a wife or kids, don't plan to either. It'll be no big loss (I ain't some big contributor to the world in either the micro or the macro sense of things) and I'd rather die by mine own hand than wait to cook to death or see the absolute misery of nuclear war. No man is an island, sure, but I will strangle on my tarry phlegm alone.

Sorry if that's a huge downer, but that's the size and shape of it from what I've seen.

Wow, that is a bummer to feel like that. I get it. I definitely see the perspective. But man I wouldn't wish the lung failure death on anyone. Hope you change your mind.

From my perspective the world is basically one or two major technical leaps away from flipping toward a more positive direction. Right now we live in an era of manufactured shortages but no actual shortages--there's plenty for everyone but artificial manipulation is keeping things scarce anyway.

Fundamentally, all of these challenges are able to be overcome with unlimited energy, and we're not that far from that.

[ISBPathfinder]

@TheAmericanSpirit its easy to feel like a cog in the machine and like you don't matter but there are those who would morn us. I think its very important to look at ourselves and ask: "how can I better myself". How can I become better at what I like doing for a job. How can I better my heath through diet and exercise. Because you are feeling down now and don't feel like you will have a family doesn't mean that you might not change your mind in the future. Look at how you can better yourself and what steps that would take and try to take it one step at a time. Its hard to kick bad habbits and get into better health but its a process I think is well worth the effort.

A year or two ago I got completely 100% out of debt and then helped my wife (we do finances separately) out of credit card debt. Since then I have moved to investing something like $20,000-25,000 a year in investing (doing this on $50,000 a year salary with a kid splitting expenses). Its really breathtaking what you can do when you set a short term objective that is ambitious but something you care about a lot. I don't plan to be able to maintain that momentum long term but I set out to do that for two years when I started and its going really well so far. I really want to start up some objective health things too and lose some weight while piling up money for retirement.

There is a lot of power in positive mental thinking. Don't get down on yourself for your shortcomings. Try to work on how to improve yourself and take steps to achieve that goal. We all fail, but the important thing is to get up and keep trying.

[Venedrex]

@pokken that's very sad to hear. Wouldn't wish that experience on anyone, let alone you. I hope your mother gets out alright.

Me, on the other hand, I'm just waiting to die. The world is %$#%. The seas are rising, the temperature is climbing, there are islands of plastic waste in the ocean, and nuclear Armageddon looms large. The Doomsday clock is like 30 seconds to midnight. I don't have a wife or kids, don't plan to either. It'll be no big loss (I ain't some big contributor to the world in either the micro or the macro sense of things) and I'd rather die by mine own hand than wait to cook to death or see the absolute misery of nuclear war. No man is an island, sure, but I will strangle on my tarry phlegm alone.

Sorry if that's a huge downer, but that's the size and shape of it from what I've seen.

I get how you feel as well. Sometimes I look at social media, and the news, and politics, and I see the hatred and corruption, greed and misery, and it makes me furious and saddened about the state of the world. I know things have gotten grim. I know it doesn't seem like anything will ever change.

But then, every once in a while, I see good stories. I see stories about prosthetic arms for kids. I see stories about a person who drives by a burning building and runs in to save the children trapped inside.

Or small things. like a cashier being kind. or a person writing a story that gives hope to people. I guess. if you can excuse my sappy intro, my personal philosophy is that mankind is born evil. I sin and make things worse for myself on a daily basis. I am rotten to the core. But I believe that humanity is not too far gone. I believe we can be forgiven, we can be restored to what we were meant to be in the beginning.

To me, and I'm trying to tread lightly here, this is not me trying to badger you or anything. the answer lies with belief in God through his Son and allowing him to change our hearts. Because, fundamentally, I sin every day. So does everyone else, and having faith won't suddenly fix everything either. The Christian life, lived genuinely could be one of the most difficult things a person could ever do, and every day is a struggle.

But I try to walk by faith, and continue to hope and fight for change, first in my own broken life. What I am endeavoring to say, is that I believe this world will pass away, and things are going to get worse before they get better. Yet, in the darkest times, the light shines the brightest. I think you are right, that things are going to get very scary, and horrible things will happen in the future. But I believe that there will always be those who stand up for what's right, even when it's not easy.

I believe that every person has a purpose. I believe every life has meaning and potential. I believe that now more than ever the world needs people who live lives that help others and fight the good fight.

[TheGildedGoose]

I am once again reminding you:

[materpillar]

On a brighter note, my wife just bought me Dune Imperium: Rise of Ix expansion and I watched the newest Dune movie again yesterday. Man, I am a fan of that story.

[pokken]

Am I the bourgeoisie if I'm snowboarding right now? %$#%

[TheGildedGoose]

Am I the bourgeoisie if I'm snowboarding right now? %$#%

I say do it while there's still snow. Tell your grandkids about it.

[DirkGently]

I did my alter for reals this time:

And the source image for anyone who missed it and/or isn't familiar with Mystery Science Theater 3000:

Am I the bourgeoisie if I'm snowboarding right now? %$#%

Whether you're bourgeoisie is dictated by your relationship to the means of production, not your hobbies. Unless you own a business, you're not bourgeoisie, even if your hobbies are Tyrian Purple paintballing and caviar enemas.

It's been too long since I've snowboarded =/ The cost of flying makes snowboarding look like a cheap date tbh.

[Hermes_]

It's been too long since I've snowboarded =/ The cost of flying makes snowboarding look like a cheap date tbh.

on the bright side you can now fly yourself if you want to all the cool snowboarding places

Am I the bourgeoisie if I'm snowboarding right now? %$#%

[tstorm823]

I get how you feel as well. Sometimes I look at social media, and the news, and politics, and I see the hatred and corruption, greed and misery, and it makes me furious and saddened about the state of the world. I know things have gotten grim. I know it doesn't seem like anything will ever change.

Alternative theory: the world is amazing, society is amazing, life is amazing, nothing has gotten grimmer other than the outlooks of those in this era who think it's exceptionally cool and avant-garde to resent everything. And even those debbie downers are having their own idea of fun.

[folding_music]

not sure about that theory when I'm living in teh UK and we're all being punished by austerity measures and heating gas is several times more expensive than normal during winter. like abstractly the world is amazing but the actual practical world we live in is crushingly mean and stupid.

ps: looking at the new EDHREC salt scores, I don't get why Yuriko's up there... most of the other hundred notables say things like "opponent stops playing" or "annihilator 5" or "somehow you win because yr library fell off" but Yuriko is more of a figurehead for a cool blue black aggro archetype, surely? is she just that powerful?