CritterKeeper

There could also be highly illegal black-market wands or other devices, or people or entities with a spell/power to turn others into Aberrations if they meet the requirements, convince them they're worthy/evil enough/paying them enough, and may or may not require full and knowing consent (versus either consent without full information or being mentally willing but not actually needing to say it out loud, just to want it strongly enough).

Hmm, I know I tested out of the Rhetoric requirement, and I passed a couple of AP classes/tests. I didn't know enough French to skip taking a language entirely, but they did start me out a few semesters in. I'd already taken Calc I in high school, so I wound up taking a Calculus of Multiple Variables done on the program Mathematica back when it was still in its early days. Calculus is definitely a lot easier to understand when you can see the darn graphs and how they change right away instead of after plotting all those points. I had something similar happen in sixth grade. Our math teacher gave a Geometry test, and two of us got an A, two of us got a C, and the entire rest of the class flunked it. So, he had to take the class (the most advanced of the threee tracks, mind you) back through the material at what I thought of as "an even slower snail's pace." He decided to let the four of us take ourselves and our textbooks to the empty classroom-slash-meeting room next door, and as long as we turned in the homework he assigned us, and passed any quizzes he gave us, we could do whatever we liked most days. Often playing D&D. Occasionally he'd provide something else to do, like a kit for using sticks and corner pieces to make various geometric figures, most of which we knew as D&D dice. If the room was occupied, we'd hang out in the back of his classroom, usually using the computer there to play the rudimentary games available at the time. Oddly enough, the other three who passed were named William, Billy, and Will. We had these SRA Reading Cards in first grade. You read the card, and answered the questions, and you'd get that card number marked off on the chart on the wall in the corner where the cards were. Well, about five of us, through a combination of finding the cards easy and getting into a competitive spirit, finished off the box, moved on to the second grade set of cards, and were well into the third grade set by the end of the year. They had to add extra rows to the chart for us, but they never tried to hold us back! The only time I sort of skipped an actual grade was starting high school. The high school was a laboratory school, although most of the laboratory type stuff had petered out before we got there (although a couple of classrooms still had half-silvered mirrors for observing classes without disturbing them, so far as I know they weren't used). We had to take the SSAT to get in, a sort of junior version of the SAT, and there was a "suggested donation" for parents who could afford it to make, although unlike tuition, it was not required. It was located on the University campus, so given all these factors, naturally it had a lot of professors' kids. Total nerd school, which was so much better than being stuck in regular school. The school had a Subfreshman class, which covered 7th and 8th grades in one year. Judging from 6th grade, that wouldn't be hard to do. You could enter after 6th grade, but if you didn't get in then, for whatever reason including not applying then, you could also enter after 7th grade. Two of the kids in the SRA Reading Card race were in the class behind me because of this. :-) When I got into undergrad, it would have been possible for me to pack in the classes and get done in three years. In fact, I knew of people who were pretty much forced to graduate early because they'd gotten the required credits and the school wanted to bring down their average to make up for all the fifth and sixth year undergrads in programs like Engineering. However, my second year my thyroid quit on me, and I'd had to drop one Chemistry lab class to be able to catch up on the other classes and continue in the Biology Honors program. I decided nope, I'd already skipped one year, I really didn't want to hurry through undergrad, so I very carefully didn't make up that one laboratory class until the last semester. Turns out the Biology Honors program required so many hours of Chemistry that I could not only get a minor, not only a double-major, but a whole second Bachelor's degree if I just took that lab class and about three other specific hours, and brought my total up to 18 hours that last semester via any other classes I wanted. I took Weightlifting, which turned out to be something I was actually good at, lifting in the same range as most of the guys in class. I took Child Psychology and Abnormal Psychology. I looked to see if I could find a class on basket weaving or somesuch, just to be able to say I'd taken it, but in the end other stuff was more interesting anyways. I got my full four years of undergrad, got a two-for-one special on the degrees, and got into Vet school handily, and I and a few other first year vet students weren't even legal to drink until several months in (which didn't stop the Dean from hosting a welcome tent party with beer).

How are you? Are you and yours okay? Are you in a flooded area, or high and relatively dry? And had you noticed the irony in your tag under your profile picture?

I wish there were something I could say or do to make this all better, to lift this burden from you. I know it's not that easy with Depression. Whatever help our support is, please take it. Know that you are not alone, there are people here who care about you, are rooting for you, and who would truly miss you if you weren't checking in with us, even if it's to vent and grumble and complain.

Well, on the one hand, it's delayed past your wife's no-go day; on the other, it's awful that it's happening to them. At least they're all safe, or at least, I assume you'd be telling us if they weren't. I wish I had a hovercraft or Whomobile or something that I could take across land and sea and flood to get everyone where they need to go.

If you're having trouble giving a pill, there are several compounding pharmacies who can make up a flavored chewable or liquid. They can even ship it to you at home. I tend to prefer liquids for anything that might need an adjustment in dose. They can flavor it like chicken, beef, tuna, etc. for pets. There may be local ones near you who can do that; the main bug ones who ship across the country are RoadRunner, Diamondback, and Wedgewood. You could ask your vet to check their prices for you and prescribe through whoever gives the best deal. (ETA big not bug obviously)

Perhaps fate is trying to indirectly help you out, by delaying things past the one no-go date on your calendar? Small comfort, I know, but possible. *hugs*

Could all our Texas members check in and let us know how they and their families are doing?

The game needs a universal Safeword. Say that word or give that signal, and everything stops immediately and all transformations are undone. Whether that applies to the whole game or just the person who safeworded is the only question.

Perception to avoid overlooking things, Intelligence to analyze the massive amount of data that would result.

There's a TV series called Connections that explores how many different people and things and innovations interact, just how many different factors had to turn out exactly as they did, exactly when they did, in order to get the outcome we got; and conversely, how many things pointed in a given direction and make it seem almost inevitable a given outcome happened. It's been a while since I've seen it, but it made some fascinating connections.

Several years ago, the American Mensa Annual Gathering was held in New Orleans, and for once I was able to attend. I arrived shortly before Hurricane Cindy did, to a hotel room which overlooked the French Quarter through a floor-to-ceiling window. There was a shutter on the inside I could have closed if I wanted to, but I figured they knew what they were doing, and it was hovering between hurricane and tropical storm status and I figured they must have designed the building with hurricanes in mind. The window was high up enough that debris wasn't likely to be a problem. I spend a decent amount of time watching the street lights swing and the palm trees on the neutral ground getting whipped about and occasionally toppling over. We never lost power, and things got cleaned up pretty quickly. Tour guides made jokes about how many chickens had been sacrificed by Voodoo priests to make the storm give N'Awlins a glancing blow instead of hitting harder. As the end of the convention approached, so did Hurricane Dennis. Dennis was a bigger storm, a full-on Category 3, and they started announcing cancellations of flights and trains. We'd driven down in a friend's car, so we left a day or two earlier than planned, giving a ride to a fellow member whose train was no longer going to go that far south. Dennis chased us all the way up the Mississippi Valley, occasional gusts causing the car to swerve a bit but never actually lose control. We'd get ahead of it, and then make a pit stop (or, once, stopped at New Madrid, just because), and he'd start catching up to us. We joked that they must have run out of chickens, and then when it turned out the hurricane had been smaller (but still strong) and only caught NOLA a glancing blow, that maybe they'd found a few more chickens after all. Hey, the natives had started it! Any of you who remembers names and dates well might see what's coming next. The year was 2005, and the gulf coast was hit by Hurricane Emily less than a week later, followed by Katrina and Rita later in the year. New Orleans was devastated. Any jokes about finally truly running out of chickens were few and half-hearted. The next year, the Annual Gathering was scheduled to be held in Florida. One wonders if we made them at all nervous....I know a few members were!

You remind me more of a T-shirt I've seen...."If it's not one thing, it's a whole bunch of things!"

Okay, so this is an attack on Adrian specifically. Unless someone knows of another half-breed. Can anyone think of a twist Dan could throw us here? Grace is more like a four-quarters breed. I seriously doubt they mean Guineas or Hedge. Anyone know for sure what Noah's mix is? Okay, twist aside, if this is the actual attack on Adrian, then I agree that Sirleck isn't actually expecting many, or even any, of his minions to survive.

One or two pictures might be interesting to see.

A NOVA episode, "Eclipse Over America" S44E11, which must have been quite a job to finish editing together given that the eclipse in question only happened three days ago. There was a lot that was put together ahead of time, naturally, but there's a surprising amount of footage from the eclipse itself!

Okay, so immortality is not for the lazy. If someone expects the world to come to their door and entertain them constantly, with no effort on their part, then the world will disappoint and bore them. Boredom is almost always a self-inflicted wound. I suspect the main humor of your post is lost on non-programmers. Programming was just one example in a series of examples of how technological advancements lead to there being new things to learn that didn't exist in the past and thus can't be something an immortal already knew.

I suspect those clauses are things Magus insisted on including. Sirleck is still pretending to be working *with* Magus and being willing to compromise and play by his rules, even if he doesn't understand them. Alternately, he could be trying not to draw the attentions of the government or other "good guy" forces who might interfere. Large numbers of casualties would mean even Arthur Arthur couldn't just stand by and ignore the situation. He also seems to plan on making further use of them, meaning this attack is step one, not the climax, so he doesn't want them all killing each other. Given that he does need them all later, I'm starting to doubt that this is going to be an attack on Adrian or Elliot directly. This first attack is the opening shot, not the final battle. Which leaves the question of who this initial target is....

I'm very sorry to hear about it, and hope that it passes quickly and with as little pain as possible.

I've never understood how anyone could think that an immortal would be bored. The world is so huge, with so many places to go, cultures to explore, hobbies and professions and arts to learn. And if you managed to see it all, it would take so long that everything would be changed and you could start all over again! Learn how to make the new-fangled flint-tipped spears, or build these fancy new things called chimneys, or build and repair automobiles, or program in javascript....

Unless that was the target, but then the goal of making a mess wasn't met very well. Who says any of them are? I doubt the secretary he makes dance for him knows. As for these guys, I think they're both aberrations,one just looks more human than the other.

My heartfelt condolences. When I went through grandparent losses, I was more worried about my parent having lost their parent than I was about myself, and I think in a way that helps cushion the blow. May I infer from your not mentoning other family that it's just you and your sister now, or is there other family remaining who just won't need to travel for the funeral? Here's hoping Harvey vanishes like a giant white rabbit. Ugh. But better to be able to travel than not. Will you be driving? Seems a lot more flexible than flying or train, even if it takes longer.

Exceeding the recommended dosage of acetaminophen is a good way to trash your liver, so I hope you're keeping track of the total amount of it in whatever combination of pills you use, and not exceeding 1000mg at a time or 4000mg per 24 hour period. We want to keep you around! (If your MD has expressly approved your dosing then ignore me, I'm just a layman here. ;-)

If your cattle rustle, you've let them dry out far too much!

Time for someone to express horror at advocating tea in bags instead of loose-leaf, so we can get the Brits to fight each other....