Sumpta

It's true, achievement capes have completely changed the gameplay. I remember being shocked by the first "which achievement cape is better" discussions, heavily defending the "are you guys crazy, you're running down a 99 when x time ago it wouldn't even have entered your mind to get any 99". A few years later, I'm close to getting my 15th 99 and I've got the next 4/5 already planned out. I started aiming for 99 slayer one day, because I like the skill so much and then all the other 99's sort of followed. Maxed out the combat skills, started rediscovering some of my other favourite skills from before slayer... I hesitate to say it's all because of the capes, because when you've been playing for a few years, it's natural that your goals will get more ambitious, but I'm sure that the capes did contribute to the general change of mind and goals of the community, and consequently, mine. I have to admit that when I now meet a player with a fletch/cook cape, I'm not too impressed: I don't really value the achievement anymore. However, I felt from the start, and I am still of the opinion that getting 99's just to have a (trimmed) achievement cape, but actually not enjoying the process and therefore choosing the (two) fastest cape(s) is extremely silly.

My first double post here. Do I get a prize now?

Yeah, I'm a 'chick'. And I'm a bit amazed to be the defender of sex in relationships here :grin:. That "more" that you feel isn't there in a normal friendship is one of the many forms of love. Of course there's more to a relationship than just sex. If it was just sex, it wouldn't be a relationship. But it is a key ingredient, especially if you're still at a young age. Hormones WILL do their work. Your love for each other may be deeper than the deepest sea, take away the sex and the relationship will crumble. You, or worse, your partner, will wake up one day and say to themselves: "this person next to me is my very best friend, I love him/her to pieces, but we're no longer lovers. This can't be it. This won't work." Of course, it depends on the couple what works for them. Some will consider once a week perfect, for others once a month works fine and yet others may feel it was a wasted week if they only had sex twice.

In fact, I have led you all by the noses. I am actually a 40 year old, maybe a bit overweight guy. ... I'm so sorry, it just NEEDED to be done. Not that much different, in fact. I'm a bit more argumentative here, a bit surer of myself. In real life, I keep my thoughts mostly to myself, for my own amusement.

That's how it ought to be, but as my brother once told me in one of his whiny fits: he either met girls he had great sex with but who bored him out of his mind beyond the bed; or he met great, sweet women he could see himself with, but with whom there wasn't the sexual click. A good relationship doesn't automatically equate to good sex. A bad relationship doesn't automatically equate to bad sex. Good sex doesn't automatically equate to a good relationship. But bad sex does, nearly always, equate to a bad relationship (in the end). I just speak as I find, obviously.

Really? What's the difference between friendship and love if you take sex out of the equation? Sex is the thing I miss most when I'm single. But I do define sex as physical proximity in the large sense.

Not necessarily. Girls often keep nice guy friends around who like them for what I guess to be an ego boost. Sure, but this is her dropping hints to a nice guy friend with whom she happens to have a history. Also, nice guys friends aren't necessarily there for the ego boost. Sometimes, a guy can be just that, a friend. But with exes, things are bound to always be somewhat muddled.

I'm back! Backish, anyhow. Inglorious Basterds - Ah, Tarantino. I own pretty much every film he made, but I'd never call myself a fan of his work, strangely enough. It's always hit or miss with him, and even though I enjoy the hits, they're not the dvd's I grab most often for rewatches. Inglorious Basterds was a miss to me. I have to admit I saw this film in Köln (it felt awkward watching it in a German public by the way, though they generally seemed to love it), which meant that the German wasn't subtitled, and Hitler had a difficult accent for me to decipher, so I definitely missed parts. Apart from that, I just didn't like it that much. Too much on the juvenile side. And, well, yeah, we've seen it all before. The blood, the gore, the shock; yawn. Julie & Julia - Okay, so kill me. I sort of loved this one. It was cute and sweet and Streep had me giggling like an idiot. I've never really warmed up to Meryl Streep, probably never will, but she is an amazing actress. Won't get the dvd or anything, but I felt bouncy coming out of the theatre, so that's good.

On a interesting Topic, My friend (OF whom us the ONLY Ex GF who still talks to me) when we went shopping she seemed all flirty. She was saying how it was cute of me to spend time with her (I haven't done anything over the holidays is mostly the reason), saying "Im tired, if I hold your hand and ask you to guide me dont freak out" and was always mentioning how lazy her BF is "He hasn't got his Drivers Licence / Never see's me / Didn't see me when I was sick because he was afraid he'd get sick too". I don't know if its me or if she's hitting on me. Even though she was the one who said 2 years ago "I doubt we'd ever go back out, We both know it wont work." Women are confusing. <_< Is she often without a boyfriend? Can she be single? If not, it's quite obvious: she's bored of the other guy and on the hunt for a new one, and in the phase where going back to the old doesn't seem that bad after all if it gets you rid of the current. Sorry if this sounds cruel, but I've observed there is a huge amount of people out there who, once they've been in a relationship, will never be without.

Oops, I started a major off-topic moment here. OT continues: Ahaha, way to go at giving the end away. Your housemate and I might get along, I can honestly say I've never cried because of fiction like I did during the final episode of BSG. It wasn't a lone tear rolling majestically down my cheek, it was full weep, bawl, sniffle, wail, hand me another tissue mode - and this from a woman who is generally considered to be more on the icy and rational side. I blame Bear McCreary's score. And my love for mamadama & papadama. Really? Disappointment only came after the whole emotional ride with me. I still think that the finale was great on an emotional level, but thoroughly disappointing storywise. Too bad, I really loved that show.

Ha yes, she's another great example of the principle. And sometimes, beauty even increases with age. The generic beauty fades and character creeps in together with a line here and there in the face.

Let's be honest here, im a dude, and i can say that Zac Efron is a hot dude. And no im not gay or bi in any way. I... Can't... Believe... I'm... Browsing... Through... This... Thread... You think he's hot just because you're a dude: Zac Efron has very feminine traits that you recognize to be hot because you like females. Zac Efron is... pretty. He looks safe to young girls, because there's none of the threatening male traits. To me (twentysomething) he looks generic and as far from hot as can be. There's nothing in his looks to betray any kind of character underneath nor is there anything masculine. I'm a huge fan of Alan Rickman, even though he's getting a tad too old these days *sigh*. The looks, the voice, the Britishness. And I'm positively gay for tis woman. Hide tags, and warning: if 31 is old, this woman is ancient. So don't look if you can't cope with hot older women who ooze character instead of looking photoshopped. [hide=Mary McDonnell]As her warm self and as Head [bleep] In Charge, president Roslin from Battlestar Galactica. [/hide]

The way air orb prices and nats have been lately (merchant clan?), the profit from staves is minimal, or even a loss. Staves from Zaff: 9300 - (7000 + 1548 + 297) = 455 gp profit per staff. Staves from GE: 9300 - (7939 + 1548 + 297) = 484 gp loss per staff.

Post count is overrated. Often, I read topics that are so appalling that they automatically make me look at the poster's post count, and as often as not the person in question has 500+ posts at the very least. It's not just the newly joined members who produce trash. I'll say more, I'm a bit weary of the "post cannons". Some of them can be quite stuck-up, though, as far as I can tell, that seems to be rather rare on tip.it. Post count is a good indicator of the involvement of the person in the forum community though. Then again, not always true, e.g. I have over 1k posts here and I've hardly been around this past year. Whenever I join a forum myself, I try to be pretty active though, in order to get rid of the stigma you always get when you're newish. Luckily, my ready wit and intelligent posts quickly dispel all misgivings people might have. (And because sarcasm doesn't transfer over the Internet: I'm KIDDING. Sort of.)

We should go out some time. You going to be in New York anytime soon? New York, huh... No. Next time I'm crossing the pond, it's to go to Vancouver. But yeah, we'd instantly hit it off, or fly at each others throats in about 5 minutes. Could easily go either way. Like I said, it might work with other girls. Just offering a different perspective, to explain if the approach doesn't work. I get really annoyed by dithering guys who are obviously interested but then try to push me into an acknowledgment they don't dare to make themselves. I don't mind flirting, I don't mind the whole "will we/they, won't we/they" and I'm freaked out by guys who lay it all out in the open on the first date, but this kind of "I don't mind that she scratches her nose if it helps me save my own face" kind of behaviour makes me look for the nearest exit.

If you want to be her friend, do what you're doing. If you want to be her boyfriend, ask her out on a date. The maths of society are complex. Or you could do something that was mentioned a few pages back. If she seems to be hinting at you ask her if shes asking you out on a date, but act really friendly. If she says no, it's not as bad as you getting rejected straight up and if she says yes you win. That's quite a cowardly approach, though, and if I were that girl, I'd probably say no just to be contrary and to punish the guy for being a coward. Then again, not every woman is as difficult as I am, so it might work.

Yes, but these are the kinds of theoretical suicide thoughts that most teenagers and young adults go through, no? You start thinking and rationalizing, but that's still a looong way off from actually taking the knife and doing it right now because you don't see any other way out of a life that has become unbearable. I doubt 'curiosity' ranks high among the reasons for suicide. In fact, bad health, relationship problems and work troubles are usually reasons given. In short, one form or another of despair or depression. I remember the strong belief I held when I was 17 that I'd top myself off at my 30th birthday. Reason: at 30, things would only go downhill. Working all day, getting married, having children, paying off the loans, deteriorating health, watching other people and loved ones die, on and on and on until you're really old. I saw no appeal in the prospect, so I felt it would be reasonable to call it quits at 30. Now that I'm getting a bit closer to 30, I have re-evaluated my thoughts on the subject and I can now safely say that unless I get caught up in some kind of depression, I won't celebrate my 30th birthday on the ledge of a bridge.

Where I live, seatbelts have been mandatory for as long as I can remember. There are heavy fines, and I don't think anybody ever questions the use of wearing it, except for a few highly intelligent and brave youngsters here and there who wind up making the weekend headlines. I realize that the US isn't exactly an active social welfare and health care state, but I understand the governments of those states' reasoning to make seatbelts mandatory if they're going to pay the better part of the repair works on your sorry behind because you felt it was your liberal right not to wear a seatbelt. This is obviously the age old debate between liberal, passive governing and social, active governing. Quite frankly, I don't think it's bad that the government intervenes in this case. How many of the people who crash and are severely hurt because they didn't wear a seatbelt, consciously "chose" not to wear the belt because they felt it was their right as a free citizen? Most of them feel rather stupid actually, if they're lucky enough to have survived.

There's quite some ranting against "attention seekers" here. I attended an evening about working as a volunteer at a suicide help-line; what the experts told me: if someone is desperate enough to consider suicide because they feel they lack attention? For heaven's sake, give them that attention. Simply the fact that they contemplate suicide and start hurting themselves physically in order to have people notice them means they need help. What I find most unsettling are people who threaten to commit suicide ("I swear I'll kill myself if you don't...") to blackmail others.

Thisish. I'm 93 herblore and I was sort of "Oh. Okay then." when I read about the update. What would I use these pots for? I already have 99 slayer, and quite frankly, I didn't pot every task, nor do I PK and I don't fight boss monsters either. I don't think the high herblorists of today are really that hyped about the update, because usually, they're not that involved in the combat scene (anymore). It is a great update to make herblore more popular with Runescape's "Fighter Class" though and it also gives moneymaking possibilities to the lower level players/gatherers. So, cool update, no doubt about it, but I'm not exactly going out of my mind with glee either. It'll give me a few quicker levels by upgrading the pots I still have in my bank and maybe make sara brews more profitable. Disclaimer: I'm not bashing Jagex at all, I think the latest updates have been great.

At last, someone with the balls (debatable by the avatar) to admit it. Well, of course people take advantage of it. The logic is pretty simple: I want a partyhat/99 construction/lots and lots of gold, but seeing how prices are rising, I will need even more cash for it than I would have needed a few months ago. I see prices rising drastically on item X, let's throw it on the market now because it WILL crash soon, leaving me once more with nothing. It's not just that the prices crash, the items become impossible to sell for a while. You say you take the time to wait? What do you wait for exactly? If you wait out the market and buy items once they've crashed, you're riding the manipulation wave as well. This is exactly the situation price manipulators create and want to sustain. It's wrong, because it leaves regular players with no other choice than to participate in it while knowing it benefits a few at the cost of many. The only way to escape it is to cut yourself off of the community and DIY all the way - which, with the way 99's have become the norm now, is not much of an option and which is not the point of the game either, seeing how there's the trading option. I always hated trading. I hated it before G.E. and I still hate it with G.E., but I see it as a necessary harm to gain the funds for certain skills. I loathe the manipulators and I don't change my habits in function of them (i.e. I don't go looking for the current popular items to fill in the clan's need), but when I put in the herbs I farm and have been farming for a long time now, of course I don't sell them when they've just been made to crash by manipulators. And when they're on a high because of manipulators, I'd be a fool to keep them too, because obviously, in a day or a week, I won't be able to sell them at all. In short: manipulators mess with the laws of supply and demand and the regular players have to somehow deal with that. To use a bit of imagery: there's riding the waves of economy where some surfers (merchanters) have more skill than me, which I accept; and then there's simply surviving the tsunami's. (Ooooh, the Shakespearian Drama of it all.)

Well tell your friend he won some points from taco. Nothing is harder in this game then slayer 95-99; its a real chore. Congo-Rats to him. Fred will be so pleased. Also, as one of those working people with a decent job, a healthy BMI and a relatively active life, I can vouch for the impossibility of putting in 60 hours of RS/week. I consider putting in 7/14 hours a week quite good.

If Fred got his 99 slayer just to score points in the community, well then, yes, he wasted all that time for nothing.

I'm usually completely oblivious of all things merchanting - I'm one of those DIY girls that always gets laughed at for not spending her time at top efficiency- and even I find that my skilling plans are seriously hampered by the manipulations, so I'd be in for any countermove. But, call me silly, isn't there the risk that the anti-manip clans will start to do the same the manip clans are doing? A few leaders who sell the resources before the other gatherers, who are still sitting on them, making millions from the price manipulations as they are the only ones to fill in the manip clan's demand, where the others can be left with the resources once the manip clans catch wind of the anti-manips and stop buying because of the risks? Just a thought. As little as I like being a victim of manipulation clans, it'd be an even bigger blow to be a victim of the anti-manipulation guys, especially if it meant losing precious time gathering items to get ripped off by another set of bandits. I may be looking at this the wrong way since I have absolutely no feeling for this merchanting business, so please, do correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, I do love this idea that the skillers can best the manipulator merchants by giving the leeches more blood than they can handle.

Just received: The Seventh Veil [DVD] [1945] Five Easy Pieces [DVD] [1970] Sense And Sensibility (Collector's Edition) [1996] [DVD] Fellini's Roma [DVD] [1972] Firefly - The Complete Series [DVD] [2003] The Quiet Man (John Wayne) [DVD] [1952] How Green Was My Valley [DVD] [1941] Withnail And I [1986] [DVD] Atonement [DVD] [2007] Bigger Than Life [1956] [DVD] You Can Thank Me Later DVD and another delivery of "To be or not to be" and "Sweet Revenge (The Revenger's Comedies)". It took me AGES to find these in the right region code, I think I actually kissed my copy of "To be...". Yay!!!