Their first topic of conversation? The comparative price of milk in different parts of the country.

Well, it's a significant issue after Katrina shut down all the Gulf coast milk refineries.

I have no children, but I work with children a lot. So I find articles on parenting and children in groups ( peer pressure starts wayyyy early) really interesting - in a mostly theoretical way. and I think the role of fantasy in real life is best taught at home. Because each kid is different. Some kids have to be taken away from thier fantasy - like my friends youngest chikld who was a apower ranger fan- and was constantly - even when he kne w it was inappropriate - played power rangers. he was told no more , until he remember to behave properly and that hittng and kicking were not nice. They had to go back and forth for awhile, but he learned. I think I was the opposite. I was a very serious child- and very literal. So the books about brownies and faries - gave me a play to play where I wasn't violateing what I though the real world was. and my mom's talk when we first started reaing bodice rippers - " that's not what sex is really like" - was all I needed to put expectations in a better place.

Well, it's a significant issue after Katrina shut down all the Gulf coast milk refineries.

::smacks forehead::

I forgot!

Plus Katrina caused a milk tanker to run aground in the Gulf. Disaster was narrowly averted when the National Guard decided not to wait for FEMA authorizaion to activate the Emergency Cat Division.

Disaster was narrowly averted when the National Guard decided not to wait for FEMA authorizaion to activate the Emergency Cat Division.

Which authorization might've come in a lot sooner if W hadn't had appointed a (wealthy and conservative) terrier to head Operation Spilled Milk.

Which authorization might've come in a lot sooner if W hadn't had appointed a (wealthy and conservative) terrier to head Operation Spilled Milk.

Limbaugh characterized media complaints about the delay in authorization as "just crying over spilled milk".

::snerking like mad::

Meanwhile Limbaugh was having his maid buy black-market half-n-half for him. Limbaugh continues to deny rumors that he has a gray Persian named "The Gray Lady" and a Russian Blue named "Mister Piddles."

Anyone know of a decent turn-based RPG that I could get?

My immediate answer was:

Pity my old-school ways, my first thought was "What's wrong with Dungeons & Dragons? Get some buddies around the table and have at it."

because

When I was a teenager, my mother (probably talking about TV, but maybe something else, I disremember) once said to me, "If something is becoming more important than people, the something is likely a problem, and you have to re-prioritize."

and

For me D&D is first and foremost a social activity, otherwise known as an Opportunity to Snark; and I go for doing that in person.

But there really aren't too many turn-based fantasy RPGs anymore, as they are hard to write. The ones Gud mentioned are the best (Icewind Dale/Heart of Winter and Baldur's Gate II are my favorites) but they are old, so maybe the person's already played them.

Not much help; we play either Civ or various FPS games when we play computer games, but 90% of our game time is tabletop, either board games or RPGs.

I tended to modify the rules to make things less tactical.

They made the whole GAME more tactical with 3.5, but I've been working hard to get more role-playing and less dice-rolling in, because, well, the dice hate me.

I have no comment on the "Marriable" article, except it's just silly. To expect people to live without art is ridiculous, and that's what their thesis seemed to be. I know there was a wrap-up of "balance" and "don't let fantasy affect your expectations of reality" but the real ire seemed to be directed at any human creation, be it literature, movies, or furniture. @@

Plus Katrina caused a milk tanker to run aground in the Gulf.

Don't you hate it when the harbors curdle?