text:
Rockefeller Goes On a Do Not Track Rant in Hearing
Advertisers have tough time defending self-regulation
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D-W.Va.) started and ended the Do Not Track hearing off with a rant, one that anyone who attended the commerce chairman's previous seven privacy hearings knows all too well. Rockefeller just doesn't "believe" that the advertising industry will self-regulate when it comes to giving consumers the choice to opt out of interest-based advertising. And no one, either on the witness stand or on the committee, was going to change his mind.
Most of the hearing centered on Rockefeller's accusation that advertisers went back on their promise, made in February 2012, to honor a universal Do Not Track solution in browsers by the end of 2012.
"It is now April 2013, and consumers are still waiting for these Do Not Track standards. Advertisers are continuing to ignore Do Not Track headers and consumers' requests for privacy," said Rockefeller, referring to Microsoft and Mozilla browsers. "I am disturbed with the rhetoric from advertisers that suggests they might try to circumvent the sensible privacy protections that web browsers are providing consumers."
Even though Rockefeller said he wanted to keep his mind open, he made it clear that he would be willing to cut off witnesses who resorted to rhetoric: "I do not want to hear familiar talking points that serve no purpose but to confuse the debate."
Other committee members tried to bring up other topics surrounding the privacy debate, but didn't get very far. Ranking member Sen. John Thune (R-S.D.) and Sen. Dean Heller (R-Nev.) both tried, unsuccessfully, to steer the debate to a discussion of harm from online behavioral advertising.
"This sector provides many jobs and generates multiple billions of dollars in economic activity," Heller said. "Understanding exactly what first and third parties track online and whether the consumer is harmed in some fashion or even cares is incredibly important to understand. Especially if a government solution is being considered."
Sen. Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) questioned why the stakeholders in the privacy debate were trying to work out policy differences in the World Wide Web Consortium, which meets again next month on privacy. "I'm uncomfortable about ceding control to the W3C. Why are we leaving it to this group," McCaskill asked.
But no matter what the questions or the answers from the witnesses, this hearing was about Rockefeller's position that consumers are being harmed without a Do Not Track standard, that advertisers were holding it up in the W3C meeting, and that a legislative solution was the only answer.
Lou Mastria, the Digital Advertising Alliance's managing director, tried to reassure Rockefeller that self-regulation was working.
"We made an agreement at the White House to include browser-based choices as a complement to our system. We want everyone to abide by that. We think that's fair," Mastria said. "What is happening with Mozilla and Microsoft is that the browsers are making the choice, not the consumer. We are delivering choice day in and day out."
Rockefeller didn't buy Mastria's answer. Ignoring the DAA's claim that because browsers were on by default, they didn't conform with the agreement the DAA made, Rockefeller shot back.
"The reason you don't like Mozilla and Microsoft is they made it easy for consumers. We're not about how much money you make," Rockefeller said. "We're talking about making it more difficult for you to sell ads. I want privacy. That's a basic American instinct."
Towards the end of the hearing, Mastria again tried to convince Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) that the DAA program delivered what was proposed in Rockefeller's Do Not Track bill that he co-sponsored.
Again, Rockefeller jumped in: "The standards are totally unenforceable and [Mastria] knows it," he said to Blumenthal.
Following the hearing, Rockefeller reiterated his belief that it would take his Do Not Track Bill to get consumers the privacy he believed they wanted.
So far, though, Rockefeller has only one co-sponsor.


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subset: commoncrawl


text:
I hate using the proverbial race card to articulate a deep aggravation related to any given subject. My role, as a social commentator, is to engage others into a conversation that begins outside the box. Many of my African American readers have branded me as being too white for their taste. On the other side of the tracks, many white readers have disregarded my thoughts for being too radically black.
This comes with the territory. It's one of the consequences of living with black skin. Don't get me wrong, I'm not one holding to the contention that I'm limited due to the realities of our nation's historical bearing. I'm proud to be an American, and have witnessed many pull themselves up by their dang bootstraps. I'm all for celebrating hard work and holding people accountable. I'm fed up with the language of victimization and the exploitation of past racial division as fuel for a present-day discussion on the state of American affairs.
The requisite for lifting that proviso as part of this dialogue speaks to the enormous dilemma one faces when addressing the matter of race. For many, the argument is invalidated based on the race of the person delivering the message. For some, this means it's too radically black. For others, it's simply not black enough. The discussion of race is often relegated to a critique of the person bringing the message, rather than an examination of the merits of the claims made.
This is evident in responses to many of my columns and blog postings. The analysis is more a repudiation of the reliability of the messenger than an examination of the opinions expressed. One of the challenges facing those who give voice in public space is the need to demonstrate to critics ones right to speak. Fundamental to this assault is the notion that black folks don't know as much as those holding the power. This is one of the implications of operating from a position of privilege. Those who have traditionally maintained the power move back and forth between the culture of advantage and the impression of empathy with ease.
With all of that being said, it's critical that we examine what is happening within the larger American landscape. There is a brewing sentiment that feels like what I call, for a lack of a better label, a "blacklash". Barack Obama's rise to the Presidency has white supremacist crying the blues. "Those coloreds done gone too far," I can hear them saying. "We need to stop em before it's too late."
This sentiment is manifest in the rise of hate crimes. Countless are the stories I've heard from African Americans across the country about confrontations with people angry that a black man is leading our country. The "blacklash" shows up best among those who have long allowed their thoughts to be heard. What is harder to unwrap is how the "blacklash" shows up among many white, privileged, liberal, Obama supporting, Democratic party card carrying folks across the country.
It shows up when the rules of the game are controlled by those hiding behind the cover of liberalism. Questioned are the credentials of those ALLOWED to sit at the table. Lost in the conversation are the assumptions made about those ALLOWED to share in the process of change. Who gets hired to work? What are the credentials of those who get hired? Who is making that decision, and why are they given that power?
This depressing truth shows its ugly head among organizations that claim to be about inclusiveness and the promotion of justice. Many organizations are established to impact the lives of people of color, but a quick check into those staffed will reveal a sad reality-the people who work there don't look like the people they are organized to serve. My white critics will argue the white folks hired to work have better credentials. I challenge them to consider the assumptions made by those who make those decisions.
What are some of those assumptions? He or she is too vocal. They can't be managed. We take a risk because of their involvement in outside ventures. The laundry list of issues that keep people locked out is a mechanism used by those in power to keep those who have the ability to share in that power away from the source of that power. In other words, those who possess the ability to make a difference are denied that place due to the power of those who control who is allowed in and who is kept out.
Again, it is critical that I make it clear that I hate using that race card. More and more it feels like a major "blacklash" coming from those who have been advocates for social justice. More and more the credentials of black people are being questioned. More and more it feels like there is no space for a discussion surrounding how a person's position of privilege limits the sharing of power. The manipulation of the position of power has not changed. People are conducting business as usual. What has changed is the perception that the old system is justifiable due to the election of Barack Obama. Those who have maintained control are now freed, it seems, to operate void of guilt.
Sadly, those who hold the power are clueless that their actions negate the sharing of power. They operate with good intentions. They function out of a sincere desire to make a difference. Missing is an understanding regarding how their actions hinder the movement toward change. What appears to be an effort to include others is more of a design to control the outcomes by managing who is allowed in and who is kept out.
It feels like a "blacklash" to me.


text:
Crunch time for Denis O'Brien as Digicel bond clouds loom
- Technology
- January 3, 2020, 16:30
Telecom company struggles to refinance in face of $6.7bn debt
With 45 days until Brexit, anxiety is increasing among Irish firms
- Irish News
- February 12, 2019, 14:08
As schism between UK and EU deepens, companies are caught in the middle of political brinkmanship
Skills shortage sends Irish employers on global hunt for staff
- Economy
- January 7, 2019, 05:15
Creation of 385,000 jobs since 2013 has taken Ireland to the cusp of full employment
Ireland in push to attract financial services business as Brexit nears
- Financial Services
- January 2, 2019, 14:46
Regulators expect to approve applications from 100 financial institutions
Ireland grows diplomatic footprint as Brexit looms
- Economy
- January 1, 2019, 11:47
Simon Coveney plans biggest expansion of embassy network since Independence
Irish firms stockpile goods in UK to counter no-deal Brexit
- Economy
- September 25, 2018, 09:03
Exporters act to protect €65bn trade link as uncertainty frustrates long-term planning
Ireland protests at Venezuela's seizure of Smurfit Kappa mill
- Manufacturing
- September 3, 2018, 06:51
Dublin complains to government after group charged with price speculation
US sanctions puts future of Aughinish plant in doubt
- Energy & Resources
- April 23, 2018, 07:54
Russian sanctions may force closure of Rusal plant near Limerick with Europe-wide implications
When Russian sanctions bite in rural Limerick
- Energy & Resources
- April 13, 2018, 11:33
Workers at Rusal's Askeaton plant nervously eye battle beyond their control
Ireland angles to pick up post-Brexit legal business
- Retail & Services
- January 12, 2018, 09:19
UK departure from the EU raises questions about status of British courts
Chinese fire up Irish aviation finance market
- Financial Services
- November 6, 2017, 06:39
Fears sector is expanding too fast as Beijing uses Dublin as bridgehead for growth
UN investigates poison gas attack in northern Syria
- Middle East
- April 4, 2017, 09:46
Syrian regime denies responsibility for strike in Idlib province that killed more than 50
Mike Pence says US commitment to EU remains strong
- Europe
- February 20, 2017, 13:47
Vice-president says Trump administration will seek ways to bolster the relationship
Complete policy reversal taken on civil service advice
- Irish News
- January 10, 2017, 17:01
TK Whitaker: Economic overview – Whitaker felt de Valera and Lemass benefitted in ascribing new economic plan to others
EU tightens defences after a jump in aggressive cyber attacks
- Technology
- January 9, 2017, 08:31
Co-operation with Nato stepped up amid fears over Russian meddling in elections
European Parliament votes to suspend EU entry talks with Turkey
- Europe
- November 24, 2016, 18:28
Resolution says president's crackdown violates rights protected by constitution
EU signs free trade deal with Canada but hurdles remain
- Economy
- October 30, 2016, 14:05
Full implementation of deal that could boost trade by 20% rests with national parliaments
IMF bowed to political pressure in euro zone debt crisis – report
- Economy
- July 29, 2016, 05:35
Internal review finds commission influenced staff; Lagarde rejects 'premise' of report
Brexit would limit Irish 'fiscal space' - Paschal Donohoe
- Economy
- June 15, 2016, 17:24
Minister in podcast interview warns of reduced scope for spending increases and tax cuts
Fiscal council report challenges new politics
- Economy
- June 10, 2016, 01:00
Government is at risk this year of breaching the very fiscal rules it pledged to observe only weeks ago
Brexit could lead to 1.2% fall in Irish GDP, OECD warns
- Economy
- June 1, 2016, 16:14
Government cautioned against risk of overheating in economy
Analysis: Data points to resilience in the economy
- Economy
- May 31, 2016, 20:42
Consumer sentiment may have weakened but employment figures are promising
Prices continue to fall in euro zone as core inflation creeps up
- Economy
- May 31, 2016, 19:50
Eurostat says euro zone inflation was expected to be -0.1% in May
Arthur Beesley: long-term plans for Greece and the euro
- Economy
- May 27, 2016, 06:55
Temporary arrangements – for Greek debt and the euro – cannot last forever
Ireland awaits Apple ruling as Brussels tightens tax screw
- Economy
- May 27, 2016, 01:00
Washington pushes for 'aggressive engagement' with Europe over tax crackdown
Jobs growth gives public finances major boost
- Economy
- May 24, 2016, 22:03
Joblessness dips below 8% as 47,000 net new jobs were created over the past year
Employment set to top 2 million after strong quarter of growth
- Economy
- May 24, 2016, 11:37
Latest figures show significant drop in youth unemployment
CIF warns vital transport, water and flood schemes on hold
- Economy
- May 23, 2016, 06:15
Construction Industry Federation calls on Government to intensify long-term investment
British exit could lead to Ireland paying more to EU
- Economy
- May 23, 2016, 05:45
Ireland's economic growth already likely to increase budget contribution
Death of respected UCD economics professor Brendan Walsh (76)
- Economy
- May 21, 2016, 08:00
Dr Walsh explained economics for the layperson via the media and academically
Political parties were warned on proposed tax cuts in manifstos
- Economy
- May 21, 2016, 07:34
Department of Finance said cuts may have to be offset by other measures under new rules
Markets cautiously applaud Kenny following Moody's rating upgrade
- Economy
- May 20, 2016, 01:00
Agreement on Government reassures markets that budget deficit will be cut
Capital spending suffers for sake of political expediency
- Economy
- May 20, 2016, 01:00
Little consideration given to need for more spending after years of underinvestment
Not indexing income tax for inflation could bring in €300m
- Economy
- May 19, 2016, 01:00
Net gain from income tax cuts is smaller if tax bands and thresholds are not increased in line with inflation
Brexit could hurt NI peace process, Fitch warns
- Economy
- May 16, 2016, 17:34
Ratings agency also says departure would increase political risk
Ireland regains coveted A-grade credit rating
- Economy
- May 13, 2016, 18:20
Moody's says that budget deficit should continue to fall under new government
Loyal Tesco staff should not fall victim to price promotions
- Economy
- May 13, 2016, 01:00
No firm can stand still today, but the pay cuts Tesco seeks must be hard to take for staff
Brexit would create turmoil and damage Irish trade
- Politics
- May 12, 2016, 01:00
Arthur Beesley: Exit would call into question beneficial arrangements for traders either side of Irish Sea
Legal professions reform gave 'little or no weight' to consumers
- Retail & Services
- May 11, 2016, 01:00
Consumer protection chief Isolde Goggin critical of vested interests
Analysis: return of Michael Noonan a comfort to markets
- Economy
- May 6, 2016, 21:38
Minister of Finance's next term presents opportunity to consolidate progress
Real test for government will come when lofty plans meet fiscal constraints
- Economy
- May 6, 2016, 06:37
Suspension of water charges puts further fiscal burden on administration
Incoming government set to increase spending by €3bn
- Economy
- May 5, 2016, 20:42
Draft programme outlines commitments running up to 2021
Buoyant tax returns paper over lingering pressures
- Economy
- May 4, 2016, 18:21
Some difficult decisions await incoming government
Revenues from tax €500m ahead of target
- Economy
- May 4, 2016, 16:37
Exchequer returns show a VAT shortfall but revenue is well ahead of target
Irish authorities contested Eurostat ruling on AIB
- Economy
- May 4, 2016, 01:00
Decision by EU agency led to bigger deficit for 2015 than estimated by Government
Politicians focus on water yet real threat is Brexit
- Economy
- April 29, 2016, 01:00
Questions arise over outlook for trade flows, the Border and foreign direct investment
Central Bank says it will not lower mortgage rates
- Economy
- April 28, 2016, 01:00
Philip Lane says any legislation to curtail rates could deter potential market entrants
Government warns it cannot fully plan for Brexit
- Economy
- April 28, 2016, 01:00
Note for TDs and Senators identifies threats to trade and financial markets
'Dangerous and risky' to refund water charges - FF
- Politics
- April 27, 2016, 07:48
Micheál Martin says FF position is that those who have not paid charges should be pursued
Department warns of external economic threats as talks go on
- Economy
- April 27, 2016, 01:00
Ministers tell FG backbenchers deal with FF only prospect of saving Irish Water
Department of Finance fires warning shot at parties over economic risks
- Economy
- April 27, 2016, 01:00
Dangers to growth more acute now than at any time since height of the global crisis
New government may have extra €200m to spend
- Economy
- April 26, 2016, 01:02
Prospect of more money becoming available may ease the task of forming a government
Government talks deadlocked over water charges
- Politics
- April 26, 2016, 01:00
Fine Gael and Fianna Fáil at odds over length of any water charge suspension period
Next government will have scope to increase spending
- Economy
- April 25, 2016, 07:00
Statistical ruling on AIB share transaction means there is additional money available
Stable government needed to face into Brexit vote – Sutherland
- Economy
- April 25, 2016, 06:00
Ex-EU commissioner says if Leave side wins 'then a lot of issues will begin to crystallise'
Exchequer to get €1.7bn dividend from Central Bank
- Economy
- April 23, 2016, 01:00
Dame Street institution reported €2.1 billion surplus on its operations in 2014
Rising swell of apprehension as political drift continues
- Economy
- April 22, 2016, 06:15
Bickering over the next government brings concerns that lack of a deal could end badly
Germany and ECB at loggerheads on low rates
- Economy
- April 22, 2016, 01:00
Mario Draghi says criticism of interest rate may be 'endangering' bank's independence
Irish business borrowers paying 80% more for loans
- Economy
- April 21, 2016, 01:00
Competitiveness council warns of major risks from dysfunctional property market
German government MP warns of damage from Brexit
- Economy
- April 20, 2016, 23:16
Jens Zimmermann says Germany would lose balancing force if Britain left EU
Budget deficit higher than Government's official forecast
- Economy
- April 20, 2016, 12:13
Eurostat ruling means State recorded deficit of 2.3% of GDP
Irish motor insurers urge action on Setanta liability
- Financial Services
- April 20, 2016, 01:00
Insurance firms want Government to settle serious legal questions
Special Irish trade deal 'impossible' after Brexit
- Economy
- April 19, 2016, 01:00
British work and pensions secretary Stephen Crabb warns of likely trade barriers
Ireland the 'most successful' peripheral state - Fitch
- Economy
- April 18, 2016, 19:51
GDP has increased by almost 20% from the trough, ratings agency says, including 'an exceptionally strong performance in 2015 when (...)
Brexit threatens Northern Ireland more than rest of UK, says Davy
- Economy
- April 18, 2016, 01:00
The agricultural sector is at most risk from leaving EU, according to stockbrokers
Arthur Beesley: Mario Draghi's room to move may be limited
- Economy
- April 15, 2016, 01:00
ECB boss back at loggerheads with his German foes
Government deal must factor in Brexit threat
- Opinion
- April 14, 2016, 01:00
Any agreement must allow for fact situation could fundamentally change within months
Tax rules will hit major firms with Irish operations
- Economy
- April 13, 2016, 01:01
Firms will have to publish revenue, profit and tax payments in each member state
State to breach EU deadline for filing key budget update
- Economy
- April 13, 2016, 01:00
Backlog of official business grows as talks over forming government continue to drag on
Frankfurt pushes for Central Bank bond selling
- Economy
- April 8, 2016, 01:00
Irish bank got €25 billion portfolio in deal to scrap the Anglo promissory note scheme
Legal reform is sole weapon in war against tax avoidance
- Economy
- April 8, 2016, 01:00
Obama's move marks rare deployment of political power to subvert excessive tax ploys
Mortgage-holders have lost €17.6bn in 'wealth' since property crash - S&P
- Economy
- April 6, 2016, 17:49
New report finds loans from 2007 have 59% rate of negative equity
Russian oil giant's main Irish division reports loss
- Energy & Resources
- April 6, 2016, 01:00
Last week the Rosneft parent group reported a 2 per cent rise in its 2015 net profit
Alastair Campbell urges Irish interest in Brexit
- Economy
- April 5, 2016, 01:00
'It's a very, very significant event for the Irish economy,' says former Blair adviser
Analysis: income tax receipts blip could signal deeper issue
- Economy
- April 5, 2016, 01:00
Fall in income tax receipts 'impossible to diagnose', says Department of Finance
Income tax and VAT fall below target in March
- Economy
- April 4, 2016, 16:33
Exchequer figures show health overspending last month but corporate tax payments push overall returns ahead of target
Canadian firm paid €258m in cash for Denis O'Brien's Topaz
- Retail & Services
- April 1, 2016, 01:00
Petrol station chain was sold to Couche Tard in February
Argentina shows why an Irish default would have been folly
- Economy
- April 1, 2016, 01:00
New settlement is centrepiece of plan by Macri to revive the country's economy
Uncertainty over Brexit already curbing UK growth, says Davy
- Economy
- March 31, 2016, 01:00
Stockbrokers note slump in UK consumer and business sentiment at start of year
Ireland's first 100-year bond set to raise €100m
- Economy
- March 30, 2016, 15:37
Bond carries an annual yield of 2.35 per cent and will be repaid during the bicentenary of the Rising
Brexit: ECB runs rule over Irish banks in readiness for exit
- Financial Services
- March 30, 2016, 01:00
Bank of England warns on risk to fiscal stability in UK
Water charges irreversible in EU law, say lawyers
- Economy
- March 29, 2016, 01:00
Divisions over water becoming potential barrier to formation of government
An Post appointment delayed by election aftermath
- Financial Services
- March 28, 2016, 01:00
Government under pressure to conclude hiring of new chair
Fine Gael and Independents building castles in the air
- Economy
- March 25, 2016, 01:00
Whatever makeshift arrangement emerges will be in a precarious position
Sharon Donnery earns €220,000 a year as Central Bank deputy governor
- Economy
- March 23, 2016, 01:11
Salary set in line with a ratio of deputy governor to governor of 1.00 to 1.15, which indicates salary of the governor, Prof Phili(...)
Mortgage loan caps robustly defended by Central Bank
- Economy
- March 22, 2016, 16:38
Regulator says financial sector unable on their own to uphold 'prudent' credit standards
Irish will be worst hit if UK leaves EU, study finds
- Economy
- March 19, 2016, 01:00
Ireland could suffer major economic losses following Brexit, LSE research indicates
Challenges can only be met by a government with the power to act
- Economy
- March 18, 2016, 01:01
Arthur Beesley: State's finances are hugely exposed to global economic uncertainty
Ireland seen as 'beachhead' for US firms into EU
- Economy
- March 18, 2016, 01:00
Country one of the most attractive in the world for US companies, figures show
Tax on sugary drinks decision for next government, says Varadkar
- Economy
- March 17, 2016, 01:00
Charge introduced in British budget, and similar move championed by FF and FG
IMF warns about global slowdown threat to Ireland
- Economy
- March 17, 2016, 01:00
Fund lukewarm on Central Bank's readiness to relax mortgage lending restrictions
ECB cuts rates in far-reaching stimulus campaign
- Economy
- March 11, 2016, 05:00
Draghi aims to spur growth and inflation in euro zone and avert threat of deflation
Fast-expanding economy regains growth rates
- Economy
- March 11, 2016, 01:00
Data shows Ireland's growth of 7.8 % as ECB's Mario Draghi reduces interest rate to zero
Dáil ambles as Draghi prepares bazooka
- Economy
- March 10, 2016, 17:14
Political leaders would do well to keep one eye on shaky global economy
Property trends may lead to 'unsustainable' commutes - ESRI
- Economy
- March 10, 2016, 01:00
New report warns prices could force Dublin buyers to seek housing beyond the city
AIB chairman warns of Brexit 'tragedy' for Ireland
- Economy
- March 9, 2016, 13:21
Richard Pym says people should be encouraging relatives in UK to vote
Central Bank sells off further €500m of Anglo's legacy debt
- Economy
- March 9, 2016, 01:00
Some €22n in bonds remain outstanding from the deal to scrap the promissory notes
Germany will resist ECB rate plans, says expert
- Economy
- March 8, 2016, 01:00
Economist Isabel Schnabel warns there should be no more loosening of monetary policy
Give Me a Crash Course In . . . the rising tax take
- Irish News
- March 5, 2016, 01:00
Tax in January and February is up nearly €500m. Car sales are great and unemployment is down. But Ireland's debts still constrict (...)


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Home|Contact Staff|FAQs|Forms|Employment
The 27th session of the Citizens Police Academy begins on Wednesday September 18, 2019. Expanded to 11 weeks, this FREE program is designed to promote and enhance understanding and awareness of the role of the Lake Forest Police Department in the community and give students a view of the world through the "law enforcement lens". Some of the topics covered in the class are:
• Criminal Investigations
• Juvenile Law
• Patrol Operations
• Police Use of Force
• Officer Self-Defense
• SWAT and Riot Control
• Crime Scene Investigation
• Arrest, Search & Seizure
• NEW THIS YEAR, a tour of the Lake County Jail
• And much more
Students also have the option of riding with an officer on patrol and firing department-issued handguns and rifles in the indoor range!
For an application, go to www.lakeforestpolice.com and look under Documents on the right side of the page, or you can pick one up at the Police Department, 255 W. Deerpath. For more information, contact Officer Aaron Kruchko firstname.lastname@example.com or 847-234-2601.
City of Lake Forest, IL
Contact Staff
Contact City Council
E-News and Alerts
Terms of Use and Disclaimer
Admin Access
220 E. Deerpath, Lake Forest, IL 60045
(847) 234-2600
Non-Emergency Police: (847) 234-2601


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cuts: Sept. 2, 2009
levy: Oct. 21, 2009
more: Dec. 23, 2009
election: May 2010
how many hours before?
When Fayette area voters approved a millage for Normal Memorial Library in May 2010, the success of the levy campaign came with a promise of extended hours in the future. That time has finally arrived.
Starting Tuesday, the library will be open an additional seven hours a week. Earlier hours two days a week, later hours on another evening and one more hour of service each Saturday make up the changes.
State budget cuts in 2009 forced the library board to trim operating hours in September of that year. Initially, there were no Saturday hours at all until a school program provided funding for the restoration of some Saturday time.
In May 2010, voters approved a five-year 0.75-mill levy by a three to one margin. Funding did not begin arriving until May of this year.
The levy was the first one ever sought by the library.
Starting Tuesday, the library will be open 38 hours a week which still falls short of the previous 49-hour schedule.
New schedule: Monday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Tuesday, 10 a.m.-5 p.m.; Wednesday, 10 a.m.-8 p.m.; Thursday, 1-5 p.m.; Friday, 1-5 p.m.; Saturday, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.


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I am currently a COBOL programmer (30+ years) retired Marine Master Sergeant. I will remain a COBOL programmer but I want to enhance my abilitys by learning JAVA, but where to begin? The company I work for offers online courses in java script, java 1.2 java 2.5, java web services as well as advanced courses. Can anyone adivse me where the best place to start would be?
Thanks, hopefully one day I can to some advising!


text:
Ethan Barry
Sale price
Regular price
Fill that blank space with some unique local art! We make each print in Vancouver BC, and use high quality heavy weight uncoated paper stocks. We offer two size options that fit your walls and your needs. Each print comes with information on the artist - so you can get to know the human who made your room more beautiful!
Illustrated by Ethan Barry from Vancouver, BC
Add a Frame - Art + Frame = Ready to Hang!


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EXCLUSIVE: Slate also features new films from Patrice Leconte, Arnaud Desplechin, Santiago Zannou and Philippe Godeau and 11-minute Blood Ties promo.
Wild Bunch has picked up Colombian director Simon Brand's [pictured] English-language, Africa-set thriller Default ahead of the AFM next week.
For more information visit:
It is one of five new titles Wild Bunch will roll out in Santa Monica alongside premiering extended promos of Vincenzo Natali's Haunter and Guillaume Canet's Blood Ties – which has still yet to seal deals in Germany, Italy, Spain and Japan.
Brand's claustrophobic, found-footage style thriller Default revolves around the hijacking of an American news crew's plane on an African runway by Somali pirates who were the subjects of their reportage.
"It's a Blair Witch Project, Paranormal Activity-style film… you really feel like you're there," commented Wild Bunch's sales chief Vincent Maraval. "We saw the film and fell for it immediately – it sort of came out of nowhere. CAA, which is handling North America, thinks it will be the standout pic at Sundance."
The production, starring Greg Callahan, Katherine Moennig, Stephen Lord and David Oyelowo, shot for three weeks in Los Angeles last year.
It is the third feature for former music video director Brand after Unknown and the 2008 Paraiso Travel, which was listed by Time magazine as one of the Latin American films of the decade.
Default was produced by Julian Giraldo at RCN Cine, a subsidiary of Columbian television network RCN launched last year with the aim of making English-language fare aimed at the international market.
Wild Bunch's AFM slate also features Arnaud Desplechin's second English-language picture Jimmy P., for which Maraval has Cannes hopes.
It stars Benicio Del Toro as a traumatised American Indian, World War Two veteran opposite French actor Mathieu Amalric as the late, real-life psychoanalyst Georges Devereux, a pioneer of ethnopsychiatry – a school of analysis taking into account the patient's ethnic background.
"It's structured a bit like The King's Speech in that it's the story of the friendship that grows between the psychoanalyst and Del Toro's character who discovers his trauma doesn't have its roots in his war experiences but rather his childhood and the strain of being an American Indian in the United States," explained Maraval.
'We're targeting Cannes of course but those who have seen it also think it could be a candidate for the 2014 Oscars, especially the performance of Benicio," he added.
Wild Bunch will screen a promo for the film which is currently in post production. Le Pacte will distribute in France.
Other new titles include Patrice Leconte's first English-language feature A Promise, an adaptation of Stefan Zweig's bittersweet romance novella Journey into the Past.
Set starting in Germany in 1912, the film stars Rebecca Hall as the wife of a wealthy factory owner many years her senior, Alan Rickman, who falls in love with his private secretary played by Richard Madden. Their mutual passion is put on hold by the outbreak of World War One.
The picture, produced by Paris-based Fidélité and Belgian Scope Pictures, has just started shooting in Germany. Wild Bunch will be commencing pre-sales at the AFM on the back of the script.
The fourth addition to the slate is Philippe Godeau's 11.6, exploring the true story of Toni Musulin, a security driver who became a household name in France in 2009 after he stole €11.6m from the Bank of France.
Intouchables co-star François Cluzet stars as the mysterious Musulin in this intriguing bio-pic examining the security guard's motivations and preparations beforehand. Wild Bunch Distribution will release the film, which is also tagged for a potential Berlin launch, next April.
Also new to Wild Bunch's line-up is Santiago Zannou's second film Scorpion in Love, an adaptation of actor Carlos Bardem's bestseller about former neo-Nazi gang member Julián who turns to boxing in a bid to reinvent himself after a spell in prison. When he starts seeing a mixed-race girl at the gym, he falls even further foul of neo-Nazi chief Solis, who used to be his mentor.
The cast features Bardem as former boxer champion Carlomonte who befriends the young man, Alex Gonzalez as Julián and Javier Bardem as Solis, in his first Spanish film in eight years.
Produced by Che producer Alvaro Longoria for Morena Films, the picture will be distributed by Alta Films in Spain.
Alongside rolling out these new titles, Wild Bunch will also be premiering an 11-minute trailer of Guillaume Canet's eagerly awaited New York-set Blood Ties, featuring Clive Owen, Billy Crudup, Marion Cotillard, Mila Kunis, Zoe Saldana, Matthias Schoenaerts and James Caan in the cast.


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Terrorista #1 License: Boston Bombing Suspects' Friends Had 'Terror' License Plates (PHOTO, VIDEO)
Terrorista #1 License: Boston Bombing Suspects' Friends Had 'Terror' License Plates (PHOTO, VIDEO)
A license plate reading "Terrorista #1" has sparked controversy after it was found on the vehicle of two friends of Boston Marathon bombing suspects, Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev.
The two friends reportedly owned a black BMW 330XI car that had the controversial personalized license plate on, and a sticker on the back of the vehicle that read, "F**** you, You f****** f***."
The two friends have only been identified by their first names, Azmat and Diaz, and according to reports they were taken into custody on Saturday for separate alleged immigration violations.
The two men are believed to be from Kazakhstan, and their apartment has also been raided, as police believe that Dzhokhar may have once lived there.
The picture of the car with the license plate "Terrorista#1" was tweeted by Dzhokhar's alleged Twitter account under the Twitter handle J_tsar.
The two men are also believed to be students attending the University of Massachusetts, according to a neighbor who spoke with The Daily Mail.
"They used to have parties until three or four in the morning," the neighbor said. "There would be drinking and dancing and the police would come. I didn't mind but they stayed up til late every now and then."
Terror suspect Dzhokhar was finally captured at about 8.40 p.m. ET on Friday after a massive manhunt locked down most of Boston for the entire day as authorities searched for him.
He was eventually found at 76 Franklin St. Watertown, Mass., hiding in a boat in the garden of the residence.
He reportedly has a very serious throat injury, and according to some reports out Sunday he may have tried to put a gun to his mouth in an attempt to take his life when he was cornered.
According to Boston police, the 19-year-old suspect is in critical but stable condition and remains intubated and sedated.
Here is a video of the boat the Boston bombing suspect was hiding in as authorities closed in on him:


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These installations of Jason Peters began with garbage. While driving he spotted many of these buckets – the five gallon type often found in hardware stores. Soon Peters had collected hundreds of them. His installations utilize these buckets to form huge winding installations. The stacked buckets snake through large gallery spaces lit from within. In his statement, he says of his work:
"By using large multiples of discarded items in repeating designs that establish unexpected patterns, societal cast offs are made beautiful through the alliteration of form. Once removed from their traditional context, the objects' interaction with the environment becomes unpredictable and unstable"


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Chris Brock's Gear
Gibson Les Paul Studio with Lace Nitro-Hemi pickups (live), Gibson Les Paul Standard with Burstbuckers (studio only)
2-channel Mesa/Boogie Triple Rectifier driving two Marshall JCM900 4x12 cabinets loaded with Celestion Vintage 30s and GT-75s
Dunlop Dimebag Darrell wah MXR Carbon Copy delay Electro-Harmonix Small Clone chorus
Strings, Picks, and Accessories
D'Addario custom .012–.056 sets with an unwound G, Dunlop Jazz III picks, Boss TU-2 tuner and NS-2 Noise Suppressor, DiMarzio ClipLock straps
Although older 2-channel Rectifiers have risen in price over the past several years, they haven't gotten to the level of vintage Mesa/Boogie Mark I and Mark IIC+, or Marshall Super Lead amps. Brock says this is mainly because of an unfair stigma. "I'm telling you, people knock on them now because they were nu-metal machines back in the day, but those old Dual and Triple Recs are really sweet. A lot of people complain that the lows are flubby, but you just have to know how to set them and not be afraid to use the midrange knob. A lot of players' inclination is to scoop the mids and crank the gain—but you've got to have those mids in there, otherwise they can sound kind of goofy." Brock also points out that he gets his best Rec tones by setting the master volume as close to noon as possible so that the power section is really working and allowing the amp to react more dynamically.
When playing live, Brock and Jensen each run their 2-channel Triple Rec heads into a full stack of Marshall 1960 cabs loaded with a mixture of Celestion Vintage 30 and GT-75 speakers. Each cab is lined inside with egg-crate foam, which Brock says makes the bass "pop out" a bit more.
While the Les Pauls-into- Boogies recipe has long been a staple for Early Graves, Brock says that when he recorded Red Horse he had in mind a very specific set of tones that required a little something more. "I'm a huge fan of Metallica's older stuff, but I've spent the last 20 years fighting the 'Black' album. But it just sounds so damned heavy, and I wanted that aspect of it. So I basically went into the studio wanting the guitars to sound like a mixture of the Black album and … And Justice for All." To accomplish this, producer Tim Green mixed in Brock's "revision blue"-era Bogner Überschall and two of his own late-'70s Marshall Super Lead amps to give the guitars more crunch. "The Überschall is really cool in that it's kind of in the middle of a hot-rodded Marshall and a Mesa Recto," says Brock. Green also used his vintage Marshall Guv'nor overdrive pedal to boost the Marshalls, which were in turn mixed down into their own track and layered against the track that combined the Überschall and Triple Rectifier.
However, even with that new amp combination in the mix, Brock still felt the tracks lacked the Black album's crisp detail. Because the guitars on Red Horse are tuned to B standard—three steps below the Black album—he decided to double each riff with a Danelectro '56 Baritone reissue. "We used it a bit when we recorded Goner, but we used it for everything on Red Horse. It just made everything sound clearer—and it just sounded great when everything was put together." In addition to the Danelectro, a new baritone built out of spare parts by Jensen—the band's resident "fix-it" guy, according to Brock—has already been inspiring new material for the next Graves album.
For live shows, Brock and Jensen keep effects use to a minimum. Brock's pedalboard contains a Dunlop Dimebag Darrell wah, Boss TU-2 tuner, MXR Carbon Copy delay, Boss NS-2 noise gate, and an Electro-Harmonix Small Clone chorus. Jensen's is barren in comparison, consisting of just a Boss TU-2 tuner, Boss NS-2 noise gate, and a Robert Keeley-modded Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive. "He keeps it on at all times, and has it set as a boost with the volume up and the gain almost all the way down," says Brock. "It slams the front end of his Rectifier and makes it grind more."
Despite their relatively simple rigs, Jensen and Brock are both avowed gearheads constantly on the lookout for new stuff to try. "I want to try the new Bogner Überschall pedal, and the new pedals from Mesa/Boogie," says Brock. "And I know that they're not new, but I'd love to get my hands on a vintage Roland JC-120 combo, and I've been on the hunt for an old rackmount Triple Rectifier for years. If I find one for the right price, I'm snapping it up."


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functorial quantum field theory
FQFT and cohomology
physics, mathematical physics, philosophy of physics
theory (physics), model (physics)
experiment, measurement, computable physics
Structural phenomena
Types of quantum field thories
(2,1)-dimensional Euclidean field theory and elliptic cohomology
Extended quantum field theory (or multi-tiered quantum field theory) is the fully local formulation of functorial quantum field theory, formulated in higher category theory
Whereas a
we have that
For that reason extended QFT is also sometimes called local or localized QFT. In fact, the notion of locality in quantum field theory is precisely this notion of locality. And, as also discussed at FQFT, this higher dimensional version of locality is naturally encoded in terms of n-functoriality of regarded as a functor on a higher category of cobordisms.
The definition of a -cobordism is recursive. A -cobordism between -cobordisms is a compact oriented -dimensional smooth manifold with corners whose the boundary is the disjoint union of the target -cobordism and the orientation reversal of the source -cobordism. (The base case of the recursion is the empty set, thought of as a -dimensional manifold.)
is an -category with smooth compact oriented -manifolds as objects and cobordisms of cobordisms up to -cobordisms, up to diffeomorphism, as morphisms.
There are various suggestions with more or less detail for a precise definition of a higher category of fully extended -dimensional cobordisms.
A very general (and very natural) one consists in taking a further step in categorification: one takes -cobordisms as -morphisms and smooth homotopy classes of diffeomorphisms beween them as -morphisms. Next one iterates this; see details at (∞,n)-category of cobordisms.
Fix a base ring , and let be the symmetric monoidal -category of --modules.
An -extended -valued TQFT of dimension is a symmetric -tensor functor that maps
smooth compact oriented -manifolds to elements of
smooth compact oriented -manifolds to -modules
cobordisms of smooth compact oriented -manifolds to -linear maps between -modules
smooth compact oriented -manifolds to -linear additive categories
cobordisms of smooth compact oriented -manifolds to functors between -linear categories
etc …
smooth compact oriented -manifolds to -linear -categories
cobordisms of smooth compact oriented -manifolds to -functors between -linear -categories
with compatibility conditions and gluing formulas that must be satisfied… For instance, since the functor is required to be monoidal, it sends monoidal units to monoidal units. Therefore, the -dimensional vacuum is mapped to the unit element of , the -dimensional vacuum to the -module , the -dimensional vacuum to the category of -modules, etc.
Here can range between and . This generalizes to an arbitrary symmetric monoidal category as codomain category.
gives ordinary TQFT.
The most common case is when (the complex numbers), giving unitary ETQFT.
The most common cases for are
, the category of -Hilbert spaces? over a topological field . As far as we know this is only defined up to .
, the category of -vector spaces over a field .
, the (conjectured?) category of -modules over a commutative ring .
By the cobordism hypothesis-theorem every fully dualizable object in a symmetric monoidal -category with duals provides an example.
See also at TCFT.
By generators and relations
By path integrals (this is Daniel Freed's approach)
By modular tensor n-categories?
Assume is an extended TQFT. Since maps the -dimensional vacuum to as an -vector space, by functoriality is forced to map a -dimensional closed manifold to an element of . Iterating this argument, one is naturally led to conjecture that, under the correct categorical hypothesis, the behaviour of is enterely determined by its behaviour on -dimensional manifolds. See details at cobordism hypothesis.
More on extended QFTs is also at
Isbell duality between algebra and geometry
|dual category
|commutative algebra
|comm. C-star-algebra
|noncomm. topology
|general C-star-algebra
|algebraic geometry
|fin. gen.
commutative algebra
|noncomm. algebraic
|fin. gen.
associative algebra
|differential geometry
|commutative algebra
|formal higher
(super Lie theory)
|differential graded-commutative
in physics:
|Poisson algebra
|Poisson manifold
|deformation quantization
|geometric quantization
|algebra of observables
|space of states
|Heisenberg picture
|Schrödinger picture
|higher algebra
|higher geometry
|Poisson n-algebra
|n-plectic manifold
|higher symplectic geometry
|BD-BV quantization
|higher geometric quantization
|factorization algebra of observables
|extended quantum field theory
|factorization homology
|cobordism representation
Dan Freed, Remarks on Chern-Simons theory
Daniel Freed, Quantum Groups from Path Integrals. arXiv
Daniel Freed, Higher Algebraic Structures and Quantization. arXiv
John Baez and James Dolan, Higher-dimensional Algebra and Topological Quantum Field Theory. arXiv
Jacob Lurie, On the Classification of Topological Field Theories. arXiv
With an eye towards the full extension of Chern-Simons theory:
Dan Freed, Remarks on Fully Extended 3-Dimensional
Topological Field Theories_ (2011) (pdf)
Dan Freed, Mike Hopkins, Jacob Lurie, Constantin Teleman, Topological Quantum Field Theories from Compact Lie Groups , in P. R. Kotiuga (ed.) A celebration of the mathematical legacy of Raoul Bott AMS (2010) (arXiv)
Dan Freed, 4-3-2 8-7-6, talk at ASPECTS of Topology Dec 2012
For TQFTs appearing in solid state physics in the context of topological order:
Daniel Freed, Gregory Moore, Twisted equivariant matter, arxiv/1208.5055 (uses equivariant K-theory to classify free fermion gapped phases with symmetry)
Daniel Freed, Short-range entanglement and invertible field theories (arXiv:1406.7278)
Last revised on July 3, 2016 at 02:11:09. See the history of this page for a list of all contributions to it.


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Enkaustikos Carnauba Wax 16oz
Enkaustikos Carnauba Wax is a light, pale yellow wax from the leaves of a palm tree. Add this wax to encaustic paint to raise its melting point.
Using Carnauba Wax will result in a harder, more durable paint film. Adding too much of this wax may result in cracking of the paint. Carnauba Wax is sold in thin flakes and melts at 187°–190° F (86°–88° C).


text:
Tech Five: Groupon earnings arrive this week
The tech earnings bonanza has ended, but there are still one or two companies poised to report quarterly results this week. Let's look at the tech stocks to watch Monday:
Groupon. The daily deals service reports second quarter earnings after the markets close Tuesday. The company is forecast to report an earnings per share of 1 cent off $762 million in revenue, according to analyst estimates compiled by Bloomberg. Last quarter, the company reported $758 million in revenue, up 26% from last year.
Microsoft. The company is suing smartphone maker Samsung for threatening to stop paying royalties tied to Android patents.The company claims Samsung breached its patent deal after announcing its acquisition of Nokia last September.
Take-Two Interactive. The video game publisher confirmed it will launch one of its biggest console hits for Apple's IOS platform. The first-person shooter BioShock, published under the company's 2K label, will be available as a "premium priced mobile game" later this summer.
Symantec. The security is among several excluded by China in its list of approved antivirus software providers, reports CNBC. According to Reuters, the move is part of a larger plan to cut back on the use of foreign technology.
Yelp. The online recommendations service turns 10 this year. The company is currently valued at $5 billion and boasts 130 million monthly unique visitors. Yelp CEO Jeremy Stoppelman says the company is focusing on an improved user experience and international expansion.
Follow Brett Molina on Twitter: @brettmolina23.


text:
Bucs, Nicks part ways
Tampa, FL (SportsNetwork.com) - The Tampa Bay Buccaneers and guard Carl Nicks mutually agreed to part ways on Friday.
Nicks signed a five-year, $47.5 million contract with the Bucs in March 2012. The deal included $31 million guaranteed.
"I'd like to thank the Buccaneers organization for working with me as I have attempted to get myself back on the football field," Nicks said in a statement. "However, after careful consideration, I have made the decision to step away from the game. This was by no means an easy decision, but I believe that it is what is best for me and my family as well as the Tampa Bay Buccaneers."
A Pro Bowl selection in 2010 and 2011 while with New Orleans, Nicks played in just nine games with the Bucs over the past two seasons.
"I know this has been a difficult time for Carl and his family, but we respect his decision and thank him for his effort in trying to get back on the football field," Bucs general manager Jason Licht said in a statement. "Carl is a very prideful athlete and has been an elite level guard in the league. We are all disappointed that he will not be a part of this new chapter of Buccaneers football."
The 29-year-old Nicks missed the final nine games of the 2012 campaign with a toe injury that led to a MRSA infection. He had been medically cleared for training camp before both sides made the decision to move on.


text:
Sept 22nd Important Notice re American Express / Discover Payments
If you currently use an American Express or Discover credit card, we will no longer be supporting this starting October 1, 2015 through our "Direct Credit Card" gateway. We do continue to accept all Visa and Mastercard credit and debit cards through our direct credit card payment gateway, which supports automatic recurring billing. Any customers ... Read More »
Apr 23rd Billing System Upgrade + Change Passwords
We are currently performing upgrades on our Customer Central (billing) system, which may result in pages that appear to look incorrect, hard to read or out of place. We apologize for this inconvenience, but rest assured we are working on fixing the software to work with our website properly.We also highly encourage our customers to change their ... Read More »
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text:
|MisterSinister (talk)
|Date Created:
|13th October 2010
|Please feel free to edit constructively!
Chapter 1: Basics and Bookwork
Before we can get into the meat of the rules, quite a few specific changes need to be made. These are designed to make the game easier to use and more sensible overall, as well as to remove some oddities of the systems, and the magic system in particular.
These changes have been categorised based on which section of the SRD they would come under, to the nearest approximation I can manage.
- 1 Basics
- 2 Character Creation
- 3 Combat
- 4 Magic
- 4.1 Save DCs
- 4.2 Caster Level
- 4.3 Spell Resistance
- 4.4 New Magic Types
- 4.5 Spell Levels and Classes
- 4.6 Schools of Magic Redefined
- 4.7 Tags
- 4.7.1 Tag Groups
- 220.127.116.11 Companion
- 184.108.40.206 Deception
- 184.108.40.206 Elemental
- 18.104.22.168 Energy
- 126.96.36.199 Illumination
- 22.214.171.124 Rarity
- 22.214.171.124 Resistance
- 22.214.171.124 Soul
- 188.8.131.52 Type
- 4.7.2 Individual Tags
- 4.7.1 Tag Groups
- 4.8 Components
Basics[edit | edit source]
Bonus Types[edit | edit source]
In short, there are far, far too many bonus types around in 3.5 DnD. Some of these are quite necessary and useful, while others basically allow people to stack on RNG-raping bonuses to things that frankly don't need them. Thus, this needs to be put straight. This isn't actually hard; it just requires a bit of discipline.
The following bonuses no longer exist in any form. Anything in the system that uses any of these needs to be retyped to something more appropriate, depending on what they apply themselves to.
- Alchemical
- Circumstance
- Deflection
- Inherent
- Insight
- Luck
- Profane
- Racial
- Resistance
- Sacred
Additionally, there are now rules regarding what bonuses may apply to. This is not really a big deal if the rules here are used as-is, but it is designed to assist people who want to make their own content using these rules, or to adapt content from elsewhere to work with these rules.
The following bonuses can only be applied to the listed values and no others.
- Ability Modifier: Unchanged from SRD
- Armour: AC
- Competence: Ability checks, skill checks
- Dodge: AC, Reflex saves
- Enhancement: Ability scores, AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, save DCs
- Morale: Ability checks, AC, attack rolls, damage rolls, saves
- Natural Armour: AC
- Shield: AC
- Size: AC, attack rolls, grapple checks (special)
Character Creation[edit | edit source]
New Level-Dependent Benefits[edit | edit source]
Let's face it: having our heroes look like Christmas trees or hoboes isn't very cool. At the same time, the magic item system pretty much forces us to do that very thing. This isn't at all what the source material, or indeed, our own intuitions tell us, and results in people constantly fighting to get enough numeric-bonus items to keep in the game while neglecting to pick up interesting or fun stuff. This makes no sense, and frankly, numeric items don't even need to exist at all.
Secondly, the magic item system, as well as wealth-by-level, blatantly favours casters, as they have far fewer necessities as compared to the poor melee folks. While this whole document attempts to address this issue, one of the most pertinent problems needs to be addressed here specifically - the need for number-boosting items.
Thirdly, nobody gets enough feats. These are a good way to get generic abilities onto a character, but most people will only see about seven feats in their entire 1-20 career (assuming the game even goes on that long). This also needs to be rectified.
Level-dependent benefits no longer advance ability scores every four levels, or feats every three. Instead, feats are gained 'every odd-numbered level.
In addition to the normal level-dependent benefits table, all characters also gain the following benefits at the listed levels.
|Character Level
|Enhancement Bonus to Attack Rolls, Damage Rolls and Saves
|Enhancement Bonus to Ability Scores and AC
|Why we killed XP
|You may have noticed that there is a distinct lack of XP components in this game. There is a reason for that - XP is not helpful to anyone in any capacity. Although the DMG contains provisions for giving out XP for non-combat encounters, let's face it - nobody does that. This by itself encourages Final Fantasy-style XP dances in the woods, rather than incentivising things like bypassing combat encounters, negotiations or hell, going for the princess in the tower rather than beating up every goblin around it. This is silly by itself, and is reason enough to be rid of it.
On top of that, XP costs work rather a lot like a credit card, in that you get what you want now (namely, the ability in question) and pay for it later (namely, not levelling-up when you should). Now, if every game actually ran from 1st to 20th level, this could be defensible as balanced - except in practice, this rarely happens. People start games later than 1st level, finish them earlier than 20th level, and in some one-shot adventures, they might never level-up at all! This means the game ends before this 'credit card' ever comes due, and people have gotten something for nothing. The fact stands, however, that even the theory behind XP costs is silly, as they're designed to 'balance out' otherwise powerful abilities. However, if an ability is balanced enough to exist, mitigating costs aren't necessary - just raise its level. This gives yet another reason why XP costs are not needed.
Lastly, the rate of XP advance postulated in the DMG is ridiculous, as characters go from mud farmers to demi-deities in less than the time it takes to carry a child to term. No world can possibly remain sane or stable under this kind of advancement pressure, and if you attempt to slow it down, per-day abilities (such as pretty much all casters ever) become crazy-good. This is also a problem, and another reason to do away with XP altogether.
As a result of all the above, there are no XP components to crafting, and no XP costs, in this volume. I also strongly urge you to do away with XP in your own games, and simply level-up when the story requires it.
Combat[edit | edit source]
New Action Types[edit | edit source]
The addition of the swift and immediate action was one of the best things done in 3.5 over 3.0. However, especially where immediate actions are concerned, some timing restrictions were never put in place, leading to some confusion about whether these actions could be used before the ability they are 'responded to' with, or after. This is relatively simple to fix as well.
Immediate actions are now divided into two forms: immediate reactions and immediate triggers. Both function according to the rules regarding immediate actions, except for one difference. Immediate reactions take place before the action that they were declared 'in response' to, while immediate triggers take place after the action instead.
Flat-Footed and Touch AC[edit | edit source]
The way flat-footed AC calculations work in 3.5 is more than a little odd, as people with a Dexterity of 20 are penalised more for being flat-footed than those with a Dexterity of 10. This plainly makes no sense, as more agile characters would be less worried about being caught flat-footed than anyone else. Additionally, being flat-footed as written now does nothing whatsoever to people who have a Dexterity of 10 or below, which also seems strange. So let's fix both.
A flat-footed creature reduces its AC by 4. Flat-footed ACs no longer exist.
Wasn't that easy? Now, touch AC suffers from a similar problem, as characters who wear more armour become easier to touch. To me, this also plainly makes no sense - if more armour makes it harder to sword you, but not tap you on the shoulder, there's some serious versimillitude issues at work. So while we're here...
Whenever something is called a "touch attack" of any sort, it receives a +4 bonus on its attack roll. Touch ACs no longer exist.
This also has the added bonus of making the AC entry for monsters and PCs a fair bit simpler.
Initiative[edit | edit source]
Dexterity is a hideously overloaded ability score, making it an extremely easy choice to improve into the stratosphere on any character ever. Additionally, it is possible that a 1st level rogue has a better reaction time in combat than a 20th level fighter, and this strikes me as outrightly strange, given that the latter is much more experienced and powerful. So to correct for this, and give people a fair go of things, the following is being introduced.
When rolling for initiative, characters add one-half of their character level, rounding down, plus their choice of their Dexterity, Intelligence or Wisdom modifiers to the roll.
Magic[edit | edit source]
Save DCs[edit | edit source]
The fact that the base 3.5 system bases spell DCs on spell level is a substantial flaw for a number of reasons. First of all, from 0-level to 9th level spells, this produces a 9-point save DC disparity, which is very much unacceptable if you want people to either care about 0 level spells or not get massacred by 9th level ones. Secondly, this makes saves extremely difficult to balance, as they would quickly end up being either too good or too weak if this system is maintained. Lastly, this doubly screws casters which don't get access to 9th level spells at all, such as paladins and rangers, which isn't what we want at all.
Save DCs for all spells are now calculated as follows: 10 + 1/2 the caster's character level + the caster's relevant ability modifier.
Caster Level[edit | edit source]
Making caster level independent of character level is also very problematic. It makes casters who multiclass have to burn feats to not constantly lose to SR, makes partial casting in anything a problem to give out, and generally is subject to too many additional modifications all over the place through items, other spells and so on. It needs to be put back on secure and sensible pegs, and we're going to do just that.
A character that can cast spells of any sort, no matter the source, always has a caster level equal to their character level. Always, forever and eternally. Nothing can increase or decrease this for any reason whatsoever, whether by item, spell, ability, or anything else.
Spell Resistance[edit | edit source]
Since the SRD is actively contradictory on this, and that voluntary save failure is already in the system, there's no reason to make spell resistance as clunky as it currently is. Additionally, spell resistance needs a bit of clarification to interact with some new rules.
A character may elect to have their spell resistance fail automatically against any spell targeting them if they wish. This requires no action.
If the user of an ability fails to penetrate spell resistance, the creature is considered to be Immune to the ability.
New Magic Types[edit | edit source]
Not so much a fix as a clarification of an element of the Tome of Prowess, this creates an additional magic type on top of the original two of arcane and divine: natural magic.
There are now three forms of magic. Arcane magic comes from the imposition of a character's will onto their environment, divine magic is granted to a character from some higher power, such as an outsider or a deity, while natural magic is granted by a close connection to some manner of environment or plane in general. Bards, wizards and sorcerers wield arcane magic, clerics and paladins wield divine magic, and druids and rangers wield natural magic.
Spell Levels and Classes[edit | edit source]
Putting it really simply, spells are either level-appropriate or they're not. There is never a case when it is OK to give out a spell either ahead of time, or later than it's appropriate, without making it a different spell. As a result, this document standardises all spell levels, no matter what class they belong to.
All spells now have a fixed level, irrespective of which class list they appear on.
Schools of Magic Redefined[edit | edit source]
The schools of magic have traditionally had extremely poor definitions, with significant overlap, and some schools gaining far more than they should, while others gaining much less so. In order to try and bring some sense of order to the schools of magic, they are being rearranged and redefined as follows. Additionally, due to the expansion of their definitions, their wording needed to be changed, as they don't just apply to spells anymore.
Abjuration[edit | edit source]
Abilities from this school affect other abilities. These abilities are usually defensive in nature, but also often interfere with the workings of other abilities, or cause them to function in ways they normally wouldn't. Most protective abilities are abjurations.
If an abjuration ability creates a barrier that keeps out certain creatures or objects, this barrier cannot be pushed aggressively against such creatures or objects. If this is done, the user will feel a pressure against the barrier, and repeated attempts will cause the ability to fail.
Conjuration[edit | edit source]
Conjuration abilities create matter in all forms. [Summoning] and [Calling] abilities are nearly always conjurations, as well as any abilities that create objects out of thin air. Creatures that you conjure usually, but not always, obey your commands. Conjuration cannot manipulate matter (like transmutation), nor does it create or manipulate energy (like evocation).
A creature or object created by a conjuration ability cannot appear inside another creature, but an object that has at least one open side and that can fit the creature or object being created can accomodate them normally. The object or creature must appear within the range of the ability, but does not have to remain that way.
Divination[edit | edit source]
Divination abilities give access to information or sensory input that would not otherwise be available to the user. All abilities that involve perceiving anything that wouldn't normally be visible, audible etc., predicting things to come, or viewing remote locations are divinations.
A divination with a cone-shaped area extends from its user the given distance, and can move with them. It extends in the direction that the user looks, and the cone defines the area that the user can sweep or cover each round.
Enchantment[edit | edit source]
Enchantment abilities affect, control or alter the minds of other beings. Abilities that induce fear, emotion or similar things, as well as anything that affects memory, are enchantments. Most enchantments have the [Mind-Affecting] tag.
Evocation[edit | edit source]
Evocation abilities create, control and alter energy. Abilities with the [Teleport] tag or that involve planar travel, as well as anything that controls gravity, fire or a similar energy, are all evocations. Evocations tend toward big, explosive effects. Evocation cannot create or manipulate matter (that's what conjuration and transmutation are for, respectively).
Illusion[edit | edit source]
Illusion abilities affect, control or alter the senses of other beings, as well as magical or supernatural 'senses'. Abilities which create images of things that are not real, alter appearances and dull or remove certain senses are all illusions. Illusion cannot give access to genuine information, and also cannot be used to give senses (as both of those are divination's job).
Necromancy[edit | edit source]
Necromancy abilities manipulate life and death. Abilities that deal with negative and positive energy, healing, souls and the undead are all part of the school of necromancy.
Transmutation[edit | edit source]
Transmutation abilities alter and manipulate matter. Transmutation cannot create matter (that's conjuration's job) and it can't create or alter energy (that's evocation).
A Note on Subschools[edit | edit source]
As you might have noticed, subschools are gone. These have been turned into tags, which are described below in more detail.
Tags[edit | edit source]
While the descriptors used by 3.5 are a good classification tool, they ultimately don't go far enough. As a result, to replace descriptors and subschools both, a system of tags is being introduced. These determine how the abilities tagged with them interact with other abilities, as well as some additional rules, which will be described here. Just as with spell schools, tags are being expanded to affect all manner of other non-spell things, and so their wording will reflect this.
Tag Groups[edit | edit source]
These are similar groups of tags that are listed near each other for ease of reference and to avoid repetition.
Companion[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate that these abilities bring creatures across large distances to serve the users of the ability.
[Calling][edit | edit source]
Creatures brought by these abilities are fully real, and can enter antimagic fields without harm. Bringing a creature with an elemental subtype using such an ability gives that ability the appropriate [Elemental] tag as well.
[Summoning][edit | edit source]
Creatures brought by these abilities are only replicas. They can be 'dispelled' as if they were an area spell, and entering an 'antimagic field' causes them to wink out of existence. Such creatures are non-specific and untrainable, and cannot be brought into an environment that cannot support them. These creatures cannot use any abilities that summon or create creatures, nor can they use any [Teleportation] abilities or abilities that allow them to travel between planes. Bringing a creature with an elemental subtype using such an ability gives that ability the appropriate [Elemental] tag as well.
Deception[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate that these abilities alter the senses of their targets, making them perceive something that isn't there.
About Disbelief[edit | edit source]
Creatures that encounter either an [Image] or [Phantasm] ability do not usually get a save to recognise it as not real. They do, however, receive a save (usually a Will save, marked as a "disbelief" save) if they carefully study or interact with the illusory perception in some way. Only if this yields a response that is atypical or strange will such a save be permitted. "Studying carefully" requires a lot of scrutiny, and this means that a casual glance, a few seconds of listening or something similar are not enough; thorough searching and probing, detailed listening for at least ten seconds and something of that degree are required to gain a save.
Additionally, most individuals don't expect their senses to lead them wrongly, and quite frequently, a wall made of fire might actually be a wall of fire spell, and very few individuals would risk checking this fact. Only highly-paranoid, aware or intelligent individuals, or those who understand they face illusions, should even be allowed to examine such effects to determine their veracity. This applies equally to NPCs as well, and players are within their rights in calling out GMs who do not play fair with these rules.
A passed save shows that the ability's effect is not real, but an outline of the effect remains. A failed save indicates that the individual has completely succumbed to the illusion, and will continue to insist that it is real. Future saves are not allowed. A creature who has disbelieved an [Image] effect can communicate this disbelief to others, granting them a +4 bonus on their saves (assuming they receive them). If other creatures understand that a creature is the subject of a [Phantasm] spell, they can communicate that this is not real to them, allowing them a +4 bonus on their saves. A creature that receives personal, incontrovertible proof that such an effect is not what it seems to be, after the normal save for disbelief (and the circumstances surrounding it), is allowed an additional save. If this is also failed, the individual in question has rationalised it so thoroughly that they insist the effect is real no matter what.
[Image][edit | edit source]
These abilities create something that is perceivable by anyone who views (or hears, or smells, etc) the ability's effect and is capable of processing this perception. These abilities cannot create intelligible speech unless the ability description states otherwise, and any speech they generate must be in a language known by the user, or it will come out as gibberish. Any such perception must be familiar to the user, and it will be dependent on their subjective perceptions of such a perception.
[Phantasm][edit | edit source]
These abilities create something that only the user and the intended target or targets can perceive. It is a purely sensory effect between the user and the target, and third parties do not perceive anything where this ability's effect should be. Almost all [Phantasm] abilities are also [Mind-Affecting].
Elemental[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate what elemental energy the ability draws upon. While there are some connections between Elemental and Energy tags, but they aren't absolute.
[Elemental: Air], [Elemental: Earth], [Elemental: Fire], [Elemental: Water][edit | edit source]
These abilities have the given elemental type.
[Elemental: Air or Earth][edit | edit source]
These abilities can be either elemental type, depending on the choices made when using the ability.
[Elemental: Air and Earth][edit | edit source]
These abilities are of both elemental types.
[Elemental: All][edit | edit source]
These abilities are of all elemental types.
Energy[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate what type of damage the ability deals. While there are some connections between Energy and Elemental tags, they aren't absolute.
[Energy: Acid], [Energy: Cold], [Energy: Electricity], [Energy: Fire][edit | edit source]
These abilities deal only the indicated damage type unless specified otherwise in the description.
[Energy: Acid or Cold][edit | edit source]
'These abilities deal either type of damage. The tag changes based on the kind of damage the ability does.
Example: An ability with the tag [Energy: Cold or Fire] can deal either fire or cold damage, depending on what options are chosen. If it deals fire damage, the tag becomes [Energy: Fire], and if cold, [Energy: Cold].
[Energy: Acid and Cold], [Energy: Acid, Cold and Fire], etc.[edit | edit source]
These abilities deal all of these damage types. If a creature or object affected by this ability has resistance to any of these damage types, it may only apply the lowest of all shared resistances against the given energy types.
Example: An ability with the tag [Energy: Cold and Fire] deals both cold and fire damage. A creature that has fire resistance 5 and cold resistance 5 reduces the damage from this ability by 5. A creature that has fire resistance 10 and cold resistance 5 reduces the damage by 5. A creature that has fire resistance 20 and no cold resistance does not reduce the damage from this ability.
[Energy: All][edit | edit source]
These abilities deal all energy damage types. If a creature or object affected by this ability has resistance to any of these damage types, it may only apply the lowest of all shared resistances against the given energy types.
Illumination[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate that the abilities deal with darkness or light, either filling an area with it or removing it from an area.
[Darkness][edit | edit source]
These abilities negate all [Light] abilities within their areas or on their targets, as long as these abilities aren't higher-level. The [Darkness] ability is not affected by this, and the duration of so-negated [Light] abilities continues. Any Investment costs for such abilities must continue to be paid.
[Light][edit | edit source]
These abilities negate all [Darkness] abilities within their areas or on their targets, as long as these abilities aren't higher-level. The [Light] ability is not affected by this, and the duration of so-negated [Darkness] abilities continues. Any Investment costs for such abilities must continue to be paid.
Rarity[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate how commonly-known the abilities tagged with them are. Nearly always used for spells, these indicate how easy they are to learn or acquire in-game.
[Simple][edit | edit source]
These abilities are the most common of their kind. All characters of the class that this ability belongs to know such abilities.
Example: If the ability in question was a wizard spell, all wizards know it.
[Complex][edit | edit source]
These abilities are less common, but still relatively widely-known. These can be selected by any character of the class that this ability belongs to.
Example: If the ability in question was a wizard spell, any wizard can learn it, but not every wizard will necessarily know all such abilities.
[Exotic][edit | edit source]
These abilities are the most rare and unusual of their kind, and are known by very few, if they're known by anyone living at all. These abilities can only be learned with GM permission or certain items.
Example: If the ability in question was a wizard spell, while any wizard could learn it, unless they had permission from the GM or an item that could teach it to them, they'd be out of luck.
|GM Notes: When are [Exotic] abilities OK?
|The rationale behind the [Exotic] tag is to indicate abilities that carry with them a lot of baggage to do with mechanics or unforeseen or 'hidden' capabilities that not all GMs may want in their games or wish to handle. A good example of such an ability is the Leadership feat, as cohorts significantly change the way the game works, and may add significant additional complications.
So when should you give these abilities out? Basically, if you have been playing this game for a while and know the implications of these abilities, by all means, let people learn them as freely as you choose. You can have them find them on stone tablets, get them taught to them by another character, or, if you're feeling particularly generous, simply let them learn [Exotic] abilities as if they were [Complex] ones. However, if you're new to this, or aren't totally sure what characters are capable of, feel free to restrict these or even not have them available at all. Whatever works for you.
Resistance[edit | edit source]
These tags show whether spell resistance applies to this ability and how. If the ability does not possess a tag relating to spell resistance, it does not apply.
[SR: Yes][edit | edit source]
These abilities require their user to test against the spell resistance of any of its targets, or all creatures in the area of the ability.
[SR: Special][edit | edit source]
These abilities allow for spell resistance, but how it applies is unusual. Check the spell description for more details.
Soul[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate that the abilities channel positive or negative energy.
[Negative][edit | edit source]
These abilities deal negative energy damage. These affect living creatures normally, while undead receive the Inverse effect instead. Creatures that are neither living nor undead are Immune.
[Positive][edit | edit source]
These abilities deal positive energy damage. These affect undead creatures normally, while living creatures receive the Inverse effect instead. Creatures that are neither undead nor living are Immune.
Type[edit | edit source]
These tags indicate what type of ability this is, in terms of how frequently and how it can be used.
[At-Will][edit | edit source]
These abilities can be used whenever the character that knows them has an appropriate type of action available to them.
[Limited][edit | edit source]
These abilities can be used only a limited number of times or in specific circumstances. What these are is determined by the class that receives them.
[Passive][edit | edit source]
These abilities are always active unless their users wish it otherwise. All such abilities are also [Investment] abilities.
[Ritual][edit | edit source]
These abilities rely on ambient magic and specific ritualistic actions. They are more widely-learnable than most abilities, but always take significant time.
Individual Tags[edit | edit source]
These are standalone tags, which do not belong to any group.
[Charm][edit | edit source]
These abilities change how the target or targets think of the user. Targets still act in a way consistent with their belief and alignment, but may be open to doing more for the user than normal. They are open to interpreting anything the caster tells them or does to them based on their own thinking (slightly modified by the ability). When such abilities end, any targets return to their normal thinking patterns regarding the user, as they were before the ability was used.
[Compulsion][edit | edit source]
These abilities change the way the target or targets' minds work. This can (but doesn't always) force them to act in the manner the user wants, regardless of what they think or feel about it.
[Creation][edit | edit source]
These abilities create matter out of thin air, in the place the user decides. If the ability has a duration other than Instantaneous, the power of the ability itself holds the creation together, and when the ability ends, the matter vanishes without a trace. If the ability has an Instantaneous duration, the matter doesn't depend on the ability to work, and behaves as normal matter of its type after the ability is used.
[Death][edit | edit source]
These abilities attack the target's soul. Any creature killed by a [Death] ability cannot be brought back from the dead (although some abilities can bypass this).
[Fear][edit | edit source]
These abilities induce a condition of panic or terror in their targets.
[Force][edit | edit source]
These abilities use pure magical energy. Such abilities ignore incorporeal miss chances, and their damage does not possess a type.
[Investment][edit | edit source]
These abilities tie up some of the intrinsic magical energy that their target or targets keep to attune and use magic items. For as long as the ability is active, its target or targets must reduce the number of attuned magic items they can have active by 1. For multiple-target abilities, all targets must reduce this number for themselves.
[Language-Dependent][edit | edit source]
These abilities require the target or targets of the ability to understand the user. The understanding need not be two-way - the user only needs to be able to communicate something intelligible to the targets, which must be able to hear and understand it.
[Mind-Affecting][edit | edit source]
These abilities act upon the mind, and thus, creatures that are mindless cannot be affected by them.
[Persistible: X][edit | edit source]
These abilities can be made permanent by sufficiently powerful users. The X in the tag indicates the minimum character level (or CR, for monsters) that is necessary to make the ability permanent. Sometimes, this tag is written as [Persistible: Special], in which case, its own rules apply - check the spell description for more details.
[Ray][edit | edit source]
These abilities generate a line or beam that strikes the target. It is aimed as a ranged attack, and usually requires a ranged touch attack as well. As with a ranged weapon, you can try and guess where a target it and fire at that. Unlike with a targeted ability, you don't need to see a creature to attempt to hit it with this, but intervening objects can provide cover to a creature.
If the [Ray] ability has a duration, it reflects how long its after-effects last, not the duration of the ray itself.
A [Ray] ability can score critical hits just like a weapon. It has a natural threat range of 20, and a critical multiplier of x2.
[Scrying][edit | edit source]
These abilities create an invisible magic sensor that sends the user information. Unless noted otherwise, the sensor can detect whatever the user normally could. This includes other abilities that affect the user, but not those that emanate from them. The sensor is a separate, independent sensory organ, and can work normally even if the user has been blinded, deafened and so forth.
Any creature with an Intelligence of 12 or more can notice the sensor with a DC 20 Perception check. Any damage destroys a sensor, and if the source of the sensor is a spell, it can also be dispelled.
Lead sheeting one inch thick stops a [Scrying] ability, and the user becomes aware of this.
[Spread][edit | edit source]
These abilities spread, like a cloud or fog, from their point of origin. This can cause its effect to extend around corners or beyond the user's line of sight. When determining distance for [Spread] abilities, count around obstacles, not through them. The user must have line of effect to the point of origin, but not to everywhere the [Spread] ability's effect can cover.
[Teleportation][edit | edit source]
These abilities allow the user to cross great distances at the speed of light (approximately 186,282 miles per second). Such an ability is blocked by at least three feet of stone or earth (thus, teleporting underground without using a fixed portal or something similar is not possible - hence the existence of castles and dungeons).
Components[edit | edit source]
Components in DnD 3.5 simply don't work as intended. Material components are an actual, ha-ha-funny, joke. The fact you're not laughing right now shows that nobody gets it, and frankly, these have no business being there, as they're annoying and worthless if they cost no gold. If they do cost gold, they range from merely a nuisance (like the powdered silver for consecrate) to the highly-necessary and majorly-bad-to-be-without (like the diamonds for raise dead) to the utterly insane (like the stupendous amount of onyx that animate dead requires). None of these add anything useful to the game except flavour text, and frankly, that should be up to the players to decide, not the GM or, indeed, the system.
XP components are an altogether different problem. The whole use of these is a bit like paying for something using a credit card - you get what you pay for now (namely, the spell effect), but don't pay for it until later (namely, not levelling-up when you should). Now, this in itself is a problem, as this could only realistically work if every game started at 1 and went to 20. While this is the ideal, it almost never happens - people start the game at higher levels, finish at lower ones, and in some adventures, may never level up at all. Thus, it is totally conceivable that the credit card never comes due, which means that you are essentially getting something for nothing. This 'borrowing from the future' aside, XP components are also designed as a limitation on spells that are considered 'powerful' (such as raise dead) or on spells that give you things earlier than you're supposed to get them. Both of these are essentially flawed - if a spell is powerful enough to be included, it's powerful enough to be included, end of story, and if it's too powerful for its level, it needs relevelling. As a result, XP components serve no purpose, and need to die.
The following spell components no longer exist:
- Focus
- Material
Additionally, casters end up playing an interesting war with the rules when it comes to buffs. While some issues (such as buffs displacing items) have been dealt to with the [Investment] tag, a problem commonly known as the Frank Cheat still remains - namely, abuse of long durations to re-use slots while the spells cast out of them remain active. To prevent this kind of nonsense, the following change is instituted.
An additional type of component is introduced: the Slot component, abbreviated 'Sl'. This causes the personal energies of the user, locking out one use of the ability until it is dispelled, dismissed or ends some other way (although suppression doesn't count). This means that the ability slot or use remains 'used up' even with rest or some other form of recovery if it is still active.
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text: Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums :: View topic - A Tearing Lotus (3): Cession to A Marriage Fortune Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums"The Internet's Meeting Place for ESL/EFL Students and Teachers from Around the World!" FAQ Search Memberlist Usergroups Register Profile Log in to check your private messages Log in A Tearing Lotus (3): Cession to A Marriage Fortune Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Literature View previous topic :: View next topic Author Message wenziliJoined: 17 Mar 2006Posts: 83Location: China Posted: Wed Jan 09, 2008 9:01 pm Post subject: A Tearing Lotus (3): Cession to A Marriage Fortune (3) Cession to A Marriage Fortune There was continuous happiness coming to He Huas family. Before long, she met her long-lost brother, this day she was happily busy at his marriage wedding. A large red lantern with a cutting paper of double happiness was hung upon Xi Huas front door. A pair of ruddy Lucky Couplet* was pasted on both sides of the doorway. Smiling brilliantly and loudly all the time , He Hua was busy at hosting the guests to and fro. Even the hunchback Song Qing was also hurrying in or out with his humps frequently up-and -down and arms swing. All of Xi Huas family members were involved in this celebration army: some of them to assist purchasing, some of them to clean up and decorate the wedding room. At exact the noontime, after a gust of fire cracks bursting, the bride had happily arrived. However, she wasnt Xi Hua but her classmateFeng Shu Zhen! The things got such dramatic turning purely because Xi Huas odd behavior. At that day immediately after the brother and sisters reunion, Zhi Ming told He Hua a story. He just withdrew from Korean battlefield and came back to motherland with 10 days military vacation. After getting home in Nan Chang County, his uncle told him a probable address of his long lost sister. He immediately came to Gan Yue County then. Thanks to local communities help, he finally spotted He Hua. In this way, the vacation had already past more than half, however, he had a very important affair left, considering his own age, he wanted to complete his marriage here. Then, in a low tone, he approached to sisters ear with balms closed and told her he had fell in love with landlords daughter, Xi Hua. After heard brothers secret, He Hua was so amused, she slapped him on the back and said: Wow, what quick sight you have! Pretty, smart, she really is No. one girl in our community. As a nominee, I am sure you could hardly find anyone better than her. She told her brother even further: You know, short time ago, her scores in the entrance exam to high school was ranked as No. one among all female examinee in our county. Zhi Ming was happy and excited too after sisters introduction: Yes, she is superb! But, but I am worrying about whats her opinion? he said hesitantly. No, no problem at all, I suppose. You didnt find how happy she was since you arrived here? Are you sure? Zhi Qing asked. Yes, I guaranty it just a cup of tea. She said with a loud breast slap**. Immediately after this conversation, she came to the kitchen and talked to Xi Hua privately. To He Huas surprise, after a blush, Xi Huas face appeared to be reluctant. My sister, frankly to say, your brother is that sort man I mostly fancy. I like him even at my first glimpse, however, I am afraid I have no such fortune as to Why? Why not? He Hua exclaimed out unconsciously. You may ask my Mum. Xi Hua said bitterly, then turned back to wipe out the tears rolling down quickly. Sure enough, what He Hua learnt from Xi Huas mother made her very disappointed. Ever since Xi Huas childhood, she had been appointed as a child bride of a little beggar. Last year, her fiance had been kicked out for his naughty fighting in middle school. Then, the poor fellow had to stay home as an apprentice of carpenter. Xi Huas mother was a strong-minded dogmatism. She always looked down the snobbery and never changed her mind no matter what misfortune he had. Obviously, it was absolutely impossible to cancel Mums decision. He Hua really came to dismay. She turned to Xi Hua again and told her: Zhi Qing will leave here in a few days, you should treasure this opportunity and made up your mind ASAP. No point to tire up your future to an underdog. She even further implied her to go far away together with her brother. After thinking a while, Xi Hua firmly shook her head, because she didnt want to offend her mother, neither to hurt the unlucky guy. Obviously, an originally doubtless business became a visionary plan, which made both brother and sister very depressed. At that day there was no smoke coming out from He Huas kitchen at all. In the mean time, hiding in her bedroom, Xi Hua was also crying all day long. At last she had a win-win idea to introduce her classmate, Shu Zhen to Zhi Ming. In this way, Shu Zhen married Zhi Ming three days later. Shortly after wedding, the newlyweds stepped on a Northward train. After a tearing farewell and long-time hands weaving, the Binary Stars had been separated. None of them ever imaged this parting would be as long as half a century! ( To be continued by (4): Different Fortune Wheels)_________________Practice made every effort perfect Back to top Display posts from previous: All Posts1 Day7 Days2 Weeks1 Month3 Months6 Months1 Year Oldest FirstNewest First Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums Forum Index -> Literature All times are GMT - 8 Hours Page 1 of 1 Jump to: Select a forum Student Forums----------------ComputersCurrent NewsCultureEnglish SchoolsFamilyFilm and CinemaFoodHealth and FitnessHelp CenterHobbiesHolidaysLearning EnglishLiteratureMaking FriendsMusicOpinionsPetsScienceSportsThe Strange and MysteriousTOEFL and Other English ExamsTravel You cannot post new topics in this forumYou cannot reply to topics in this forumYou cannot edit your posts in this forumYou cannot delete your posts in this forumYou cannot vote in polls in this forum Dave's ESL Cafe is maintained by the one and only Dave Sperling. 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