Jubaris

Happy birthday DD

I understood it as mocking of my post (the evil part), which is your right I guess, but wanted to point out that it wasn't properly mocked because I didn't base my argument on "Dst will corrupt Lightsage" but that Lightsage is someone who is "evil" (let's put it your way ) and that due to friendly environment all over the top, he'll be free to be himself much more than some others. Some believe in Lightsage, I don't, simply put.

Because I don't see how it relates to MD (I'm not sure of other nation specific dates, will need to check), it is something political, not symbolical or mythology based as it should for it to be in MD calendar.

Why does MD calendar have Barbados independence day marked? (noticed it today by chance, so I guess our friendly Barbados is not the only case)

Ah, so they can manage to keep their positions when the time comes for them to start ignoring their work? Yes, it requires a bit of political wit and strings, Grido. That's why it's better for the candidate not to have them so we can replace them as soon as work efforts and results go down. We've had experiences with such cases all over MD history. To answer some people that quoted my words in these two voting topics: - I pointed out Dst since she is the one that mainly deals with reporting abuses of known players. Grido doesn't have such a role, neither does Chewett, nor Burns... No where did I mention that Dst is evil, that I supposedly dislike her, or whatever bad except that she might go easy on her friend, which was interpreted very offensively by some people, some that even voted "loyalty" as the most important quality in people (here I guess) in some other discussions, yet regard it as an insult in this subject. Hypocritical, it might seem to some. - I wasn't putting Seigheart in bad light either, No One, if someone isn't liked it doesn't mean that he is wrong in any way. Please do not pull my words out of context... Which goes to the general public as well. I distanced myself from some points in the original post, I would prefer if people would not put words in my mouth and twist the existing ones, I made some disclaimers here which in combination with the ones in the original post, I hope are enough for normal readers not to misinterpret me radically. A horde of people treating a presumption as truth doesn't make the presumption true. - I am not aware of their numerous so called abuses, No One, nor I am quite sure how does it relate with my post, unless you wish indirectly to state that ZenTao will make abuses too as her predecessors? Why don't you present some proofs of your claims in another topic, so they can be processed, or we all have to hold you to your word for these serious accusations? (Granted, there were several incidents where TK leaders wanted to initiate some events, which all were on public forums and received a quick "no" or "yes" from the Council. I reckon the term 'abuses' refers usually to illegal operations done in hidden)

I know Lightsage is capable, no matter my negative opinion on his general behavior and system of values, but [b]I will vote for ZenTao.[/b] My reason? ZenTao is nice as far as I know her, bunch of people mentioned interesting things, but my main reason is that I am voting against Lightsage. Why against Lightsage? From my experience with him and his acts, he is not trustworthy, not loyal (other than to himself), and he is too ambitious. All that could pass on its own, but there's another huge reason - monopoly of power. Who are his best friends? One of them is Dst. So if you choose Lightsage, you have a person that controls how the major rewards are distributed, and you have a person that has ran most of the log-checks on who cheated the system as one of his best friends. (not that I want to question Dst's professionalism, but I would still prefer not to put her into that conflict of interests. I don't think Dst will try to manipulate this, as I don't think she wants much in game stuff, but I am afraid she will not do her best to stop Lightsage) Even that could pass for me (barely) if Mur were active and all the TKs had to do was to watch carefully whom he is rewarding, but in the modern days of MD, we've seen that TKs have a large independent part, full of self-initiated ideas. For administrative functions to succeed you need to have neutral people who don't have 'best' friends, and a load of people who are monitoring those on administrative functions which by all means shouldn't be good friends with those they are observing. Yes, that is pretty hard under these conditions where you only have some 100 active people. For the sake of balance of MD powers, pick someone other than Lightsage, otherwise, whenever you would like something to get done you would have to go to a certain faction of players. Players should have very limited and balanced grasp on admin seats. Remember what Mur said about people not liking Seigheart? That it is a positive attribute for his TK reign, because he is not supposed to be liked. I'm sorry for sounding offensive towards mentioned people, this was not meant as a flame, I just wanted to honestly portray my opinion on a subject I weigh important for MD.

Happy birthday ZenTao!

Not to say too much, will keep it to a minimum. I am against the new name, I want for the old one to be brought back, but I don't see where the rules were broken. Those 4 days of minimum subtitle standing passed, and it was free to be changed. Nobody was said that the new subtitle HAS to be backed by RP, it is just an option. Besides, the very original name broke the rule of the wish description (player name used), but, since it was made by Mur... Again, I want the old name back but I would also like a good clarification on the rules.

Happy birthday Drachorn Master!

Da si mi ziv i zdrav 100 godina Srecan rodjendan!

Are you MD former player Lazarus? Because he drew some of those pictures for me.

Srecan rodjendan gastabajteru

As long as the person doing admin business doesn't share the gathered info with other people, doesn't use it for his/her own advantages in game or any kind of abuse, I would accept the 'necessary' evil no matter the feeling of violation, even though I see the whole peeking business as entirely unnecessary. (benefit of the doubt that you aren't breaking rules should be given to you, Poe, you are after all a respected member of the community, and the potential crimes you can make in a private location aren't that big as far as I know) Were the information gained through that peeking misused in any manner that you know of, Poe? Other than that, I stay by my old post.

I know PoE ask this to be closed, but I want to state my opinion. [quote name='Maebius' timestamp='1352646821' post='125384'] Having dreamt in MD myself, but alone, I think the overall idea of hte Dream is very awesome. As others have pointed out, they are valualbe, in a personal way, and have given me a fresh perspective on some things when I dreamed... and for that reason I like the idea of privacy, as absolute except the Dreamcatcher (& dreamer). However, I also have a vague unsolidified acceptance that if someone really wants to listen in, using the mechanics of thir spells and available "tools" they spent their Wishes to earn, then that's alright too. That's their choice, and right, and it's only fair, in the larger sense. I mean, I didn't ask for a clown to come smacking at me with a hammer, in StoryMode, but he did. Our choice is how to react, knowing it will happen when it happens again (if it happens again). Truly private conversations and inspirations regarding a Dream can still be handled via PMs, or forum conversations, or even email, if Secrecy is required to be absolute. Everything else, is details and flavour, and subject to the larger picture, in my mind. I do understand the desire to keep them private though, in a general sense. I just agree with both sides of the argument, for different reasons. [/quote] Although I am against someone studying 'private' conversations, I find the attempts legit, that it should be a possibility for it in the game, so I agree with Maebius' statement. One thing I would like to add though, is that there should be more room for the dreamcatcher to prevent those spying attempts, so it would be a contest of wills and powers in the end. Can those obsfuctators (not sure how they are called, they are public items, they mess up the chat log) be used in dreams?

happy birthday!

What community? Is there MD today beyond (dedicated-few-)player-made quests?

Not sure are you still active at all Spar, still, hope you're reading this. Happy birthday! All the best!

Happy birthday Seeker! Hope you'll have a good one!

And perhaps adding 2012 paper to clarify that it isn't from last year.

One of the artist forwarded his work and I liked it very much. Soon, the transfer will be realized. This offer is closed (unless something goes bad).

Before I venture into some very interesting points people already brought here, I would like to make a point of my own. (this may turn into a very chaotic topic, people getting their responses every 20 posts, but that's ok, I like it that way ) What on Earth can I tell you that would interest you? I'm just a 19-year old, not much experience gained other than in various books and rare interesting people from my environment, I would just annoy you with a subject I never experienced myself and yet trying to 'teach you' about it. For that reason, I will try to picture few things, that will in time turn to be universal I hope, from an angle tied mostly to my home-region and try to wave away some common misconceptions. This will be a first post and an insight about the subject 'Yugoslavia'. I was born in 1993, Serbia, in midst of UN sanctions, fall of Yugoslavia and its civil war. I was born in Krusevac, relatively interesting city (small town by USA standards probably) in the center of Serbia, luckily, away from all those nasty happenings in Bosnia, Croatia, Kosovo... I've lived through the NATO bombing of Serbia in '99, which left carcinogen legacy throughout the land. Since I 'know about myself', I've known that Serbia and its people were under very bad reputation in the world, labeled as soul responsible for all the horrors experienced in the parts of former Yugoslavia. Thieves, murderers, rapists, "bad guys"... Not to be trusted. I have to add, that's not very far from certain people around. Maybe I'm overblowing the proportions of people, but in truth, I have great dislike for the masses around, people in general and their behavior. Rare are those in reality that truly interest me or have my "approval", labeled as some to be pursued in friendship, not that I try to emphasize my own importance with this line, I just want to say how I feel uncomfortable with people. It comes down to a conclusion that there are such people everywhere, everywhere where large groups assemble in communities, I've looked around through books, the media, and saw the details of life somewhere else. Naturally, over time you become curios and want to learn what's so special about us over here, so one small step by another over time, and you get to some checkpoints of knowledge and understanding. Balkan is a nasty region. It always had various conflicts with various participants, with various horrors inflicted to the innocent folk. Just remember, those '90s for instance bestowed a war in the heart of Europe, first event as serious as such after the second world war. You will certainly say - these people are crazy, lunatics, primitive. You would not be the first. But it's not quite like that... Talking with older people, reading, lead me to picture those older times, among other, those during the utopia (on the surface) of post world war 2 Yugoslavia, one of the few periods of time of actual peace in the region, without any concern for the possible future conflicts (from '60s to '80s). This part of the world is not for garbage. South Slavic people managed to fight their way to freedom throughout the centuries fighting against the domination of Turkey, Austro-hungary, Russia, the Brittish and what-not-else, and eventually form an entity called Yugoslavia, you can't be a brainless maniac and achieve what they did. The great powers and their interests are actually the source of many troubles that originated here. I have to give you an example of one of the greatest if not THE greatest writer of this region and beyond(!). Despite the political stuff that targets every kind of more important award ceremony, still, you have to respect the fact that one dude from Yugoslavia, relatively unknown to the audience of the west, won a Nobel Prize for literature against the likes of JRR Tolkien and Lawrence Durrell that were other candidates that year. I know, I know, you're all feeling too lazy to check out some random person and read his books, but I will stay describe his part in short (you may use it one day), and move on to subjects you will get track of more easier. Back to the random dude. Ivo Andric, former ambassador to many countries, writes from a wealthy experience and wisdom. He talks about the historical scenes in the Balkan, trying to show the mentality of the Balkan people. His work is a material for quoting, I'll tell you that, with universal truths. The Nobel prize winning book was "Na Drini cuprija", translated roughly as "A bridge on Drina". It is interesting on a level of discovering the mentality of a Balkan peasant and the local Ottoman rulers of that time. A book you will find even more interesting is "Chronicle of Travnik" (Travnicka Hronika). For the most part from a perception of a French consul in the 1800s, the reader experiences how it is like for a westerner to be put all of a sudden in this strange and "primitive" society in the new consulship in Travnik, the seat of Ottoman rule in Bosnia. The touch of general influence of the East (even tho all parts of Yugoslavia cannot be interpreted as the East) is brought throughout the book. The consul interacts with educated people in the book so you may find it as a more rich resource to learn about this 'realm'. Do check it out if you're interested in wider perceptions about the world, humans... Serbia during the 1st world war due to the great struggle against Axis forces, suffering and refusal to capitulate despite the circumstances, had a very good reputation in the world, prestige if I may express myself that way. There was lot of support in the western media, newspapers, nurse projects, general volunteering for certain tasks in helping Serbia... After 2nd world war, Tito (leader of Yugoslavia) ensured great respect in the world, he was one of the founders of the "Non-Aligned Movement", Yugoslavia basically behaved as "middleman" in Europe between the Soviet Block and the USA's NATO (even thought it was a communist country on paper, it was independent from the Soviet iron first. Tito's "NO" to Stalin was the reason why USA funded Yugoslavia and ensured its prosper, actually). All of a sudden, you get back to the present days and see how the picture completely reversed. How? Did the people turn from status of "favourite children" to "sadistic maniacs" during few years? Ahh, things are starting to make sense now. "Could it be that the image is orchestrated in one form or another based on the interests of the one that's calling the shots?", young Rhaegar would ask... But years pass and everyone labels you as a monster, corrupted government that came to power backed up by "divide and conquer" of the west projects, is making its own propaganda. People are starting to live up in the role. It gave us some great music though The song worm, that is present on my forum signature originated in the middle of those events (the signature that caused lots of noise when it was posted... well, it was justified a bit this is the original meaning of the song though) [media]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jHi_3f06nZw[/media] "Mhm, mhm... But why was fall of Yugoslavia orchestrated? Didn't they like it?". Yes, why... Well, Soviet Empire was crumbling, the USA did not need a middleman any more, they've won! Tito died in the 1980, lots of things were starting to happen... In crisis, there's money! There are a lot of details in the story, I won't spam you with everything, just take a good look on how certain people that voiced the support of the bombing of Serbia in 1999 because of Kosovo, now are buying out some companies and starting out a business in this newly formed 'state', all taken from the former owners - Yugoslavia (at that point Serbia). There are lot of examples of profits for the west in the region of the former Yugoslavia. This is what happens when the balance of powers has been breached. All that happened, and we're still struggling out here, like the rest of the world in this economical crisis. But we are certainly not some neanderthals. You will find many top quality sportsmen, young mathematicians, electro-engineers and what not in this region, even though there are so few of us. There is a world outside the west. Please, check it out. I don't mind just the Balkans, look around, explore the world, don't let all those precious people stay neglected and forgotten because someone made cultural nepotism actual. This was a long and a bit chaotic post. I will try to post some new stuff in the following days, weeks... When I find time and will and ideas. I hope it was interesting for some and that there will be some feedback, questions, different opinions... For the end, another song... (short one, starts somewhere from minute 1:05 onwards...) [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYcoBkvIKWM&"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QYcoBkvIKWM&[/url]

Part of my campaign, but still, something for you Aelis Last album of one of the greatest musicians in this region, but it was produced in Brazil (as far as I remember). Project is called Angel's Breath. [url="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIBvRz7DkBE&feature=related"]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rIBvRz7DkBE&feature=related[/url]