Who oversees the whole thing and distributes the rewards? And how do we start the whole thing? What about how the world is set up? Do we just go around creating it as we go?

Keep at it! I started working out (weight training) since last year and lost 16 kg. It's amazing how much "waist" I've lost. Most important thing is to EAT LESS (but a balanced diet).

A saying I've heard from somewhere: "You know what never betrays you? Your training. What you put in is what you will reap."

I could try to do one from a Westernized Chinese/Taiwanese view. Lived at least 12 years in Beijing, some in America, some in Shanghai, some in Canada. What would you people want to see?

Say we automate: what happens to the low skill workers that were laid off? In an utopia we'd re-educate them and let them develop new skills, fill new economical niches. But in China and India the people who filled those position lacked the education in the first place, and displacing them of their job there leaves many without one, or maybe drives standards of living even lower as they get more desperate. What I'm trying to insinuate is 'what will happen to the displaced low skill workers, and how will they affect society?'

I will look for some more, it's too late at my time.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/singularity/2012/07/19/could-automation-lead-to-chronic-unemployment-andrew-mcafee-sounds-the-alarm/

Also somewhat casual, long time player. If you want to get better, read a few deck guides first, but don't be discouraged by your lack of rare, epic, and legendaries. Secondly, if you're striving to be competitive, you should unlock most tiers of Naxxramas and the first tier of Blackrock Mountain for Emperor Thaurissan. I can't remember if arena still gave GvG cards, but it is the most efficient way to get cards/gold. Still, I just like to open regular packs. We'll make plenty of mistakes when we play, but learn from it

Thank you so much for your comprehensive reply! That really was more than I expected and felt like an entry to a wikipedia article, in a more personal way (trying to find the words to compliment you but it eludes me). It appears that Russia, like most countries, has its fair share of people who can drink in moderation, but it may be a western media/ internet that propogates the image of rampant alcoholism. How are things going in Russia, after the annexation of Crimea? Do people talk about it at all? I suppose there are a large majority of people who don't support war but can't really voice it, is this what it's like?

Go for your dreams! I'm glad you have one. I'm afraid I can't do much for you, but I'll share the post and hope other people have a better idea than I do. One thing is for sure though, you'll need to practice a ton (I've heard going over a speech in front of a mirror is really important)! I wish you the best.

''Demosthenes lived in Athens from 384 B.C. to 322 B.C. As a young man, he suffered from a speech impediment—which may have been a stutter, an inability to pronounce the “r” sound, or both. He designed a series of exercises for himself to improve his speech. According to legend, he practiced speaking with stones in his mouth, which forced him to work very hard to get the sounds out. When his diction became clearer, he got rid of the stones and found he was able to enunciate much more effectively than before. He also practiced reciting speeches while running and speaking over the roar of ocean waves to improve his projection. These strategies must have worked, because Demosthenes achieved fame as the greatest orator in ancient Greece.''

You can do it!

How would you describe Russia's culture to an outsider (me) that's never been there before? There's probably quite a few stereotypes I can dispel if I read a few accounts from a native Russian! For example, do you guys really drink that much alcohol (drinking at all is quite inconcievable to me, I really dislike it)?

Would the universe just... sit there in all eternity? In the gloom? No chance of a new big bang?

He spoke up for a General who had surrendered (to barbarians I think), arguing the surrender was temporary and it was to preseve their army. Emperor did not like that. Emperor said, okay, Sima Qian. You either die, or you choose castration. Sima Qian chose castration (you could pay it off, but he didn't have the money to) so he could (again, I remember it had something about his father's goals) finish the book. So he does have a pretty good grudge against the royal family, but he still analyzes them fairly.

I think it's at a point where the community really bonds with each other, kind of like a tight knitted town. Hubski is very informative and I have not seen as many openly loony people, but perhaps that's a matter of number of people.

6:30 am, alarm rings from phone. Turn it off. Trundle to bathroom, return to bed to brush teeth/pre-wakeup nap. 6:38, spit toothpaste out, wash and clean face and shave if I have to. 6:44, stretching legs, back, shoulder, arms. Do pushups. 6:58 pick up bag and stuff on desk, go downstairs for breakfast. 7:31, head to car. 7:58 arrive at subway. 8:15 arrive at stop. 8:37 arrive at office. 11:30 Lunch. Leave at 4:40. Home by 6:00. Dinner. Break until 7:00. Gym. Home by 9:30. Shower, some computer time, bed by 10:30. Browse on phone/chat with friend until 11:00. Lights off, repeat Monday through Friday.

Oh my gosh, I didn't even see this post and as I was scouring the net for Hemingway, I downloaded both Farewell to Arms and Sun Also Rises. Big coincidence? Perhaps not. The Old Man and the Sea is the first Hemingway I've read I think, if you discount Hills Like White Elephants (good old English class). Is For Whom the Bell Tolls good? I didn't have the chance to read that in English class.

I think primarily in English, but also a fair portion of it is in Mandarin depending on the activity. Family related matters it's often in Chinese, but personal things (like writing, reacting to something negative like a prank/surprise will be in English).

I finished The Old Man and the Sea, as well as Time Traveler's Wife and Good Omens. I'm wondering if I should scout out more Hemmingway books, or just go with The Selfish Gene. Maybe I can re-read A Random Walk Down Wall Street.

Thanks. My brother has been sort of sheltered all his life- he's had all the roads paved by him. I think he's at a stage that he doesn't need words, he needs to be given a chance to prove himself capable. I'll write him an email saying how I'll still have his back if he encounters any difficulty in University.

What would he talk about?

I am worried about my younger brother's future, and if my sister's boyfriend is treating her well, or even if they're going to be a good match. Why does he have to be so stubborn, refusing to change his nocturnal lifestyle? It upsets mother to no end, she needs someone to depend on if father and I are not near to help and support her. How can he adapt to university life? Won't he miss classes and do poorly? Gosh, sometimes I wish he would realize that life isn't going to lay the bricks in the road for him anymore.

Replying later with edit, saving this post for now.

Edit: How is the story?

Edit: ''Look man, you don't want to do that.''

''Shut up! What do you know about me? I'm done with this life. This bedraggled mess has nothing left to offer me. NOTHING. No! Stay back. Stay the hell back or I swear I'm jumping!''

''Woah, alright man, look, I stepped back. Take a deep breath, please step back from the edge. Come on buddy, your turn to step back, we can go for tea at my place if you do, and you can sit down and tell me everything there. There's always something to look forward to if you keep living.''

''You... you don't know anything, you lying sadistic looney! You-you're just trying to make me jump, aren't you? Because I'll end up like my mother, huh? Dead, spread-eagled, bones jutting out of her arms, blood... why am I even talking about her? It doesn't even matter anymore. Not this. Not my garbage life either. Not even that pathetic excuse of a husband. Good riddance, he couldn't even stand after I shot him in the legs once or twice. No, was it three? Hahahahahahaha, yes, he died too! You see why I have to go? He's calling me. You hear that? Angela... Angela... ANGELA! He's there, yes, he's there waiting for me.''

''You don't have to do this, Angela. If you jump, you'll see him, right? You don't want to see him, right?''

''But... can't you hear him in the wind, the shrill wind blowing tonight? He CALLS me. I'm tied to him. I can't escape. He's whispering that he'll do the same to me after I die. Burn me with red hot tongs by the fireplace. Gouge my eyes out. Dice my hand in the blender. But do I deserve all this? I was born better. HE corrupted me, it's all his fault. His fault. His fault.''

''Angela? You're right. Look, come back over the railings, we can go to my place and you can tell me everything about this, uh, shitty husband you had. Tell me all about him, and why you hate him.''

''Hate him? I hated Thomas, and I loved him. You see, he's dead, but not yet dead. He's poisoning my mind, filling it with his cooing promises of sweet release. No more worry, no more children's bleating, no more debt collectors, no more asinine superiors looking smug while I toil and waste away. He promises a world of bliss, can't you hear?''

''Didn't you say he wanted to carve your eyes out...? Why are you listening-''

''Hee, hee, hee! You are an idiot! He loves me, he couldn't possibly do that! Who told you about this? I didn't say that. And there is no one else here. Who let you into my head?' WHO LET YOU INTO MY HEAD?!''

''Angela, you told me about that only moments ago, you said you shot him too. Why did you shoot him? Didn't he love you?''

''He love me? Yes, he loved me only when he raped me. When he tore off my clothes and shoved it in while I bled and screamed no, and please Thomas stop it, it hurts. The longer I screamed, the more he'd do it to me. Force himself on me. Injected this drug that made it bliss and numbness and then hungry for more. Yes, Thomas loved me.''

''Jesus. I'm really sorry to hear that, truly. Angela... no, Angela! Don't do it, Angela, don't-''

''See you in hell, Thomas.''

No, you aren't.

Thanks! It was definitely a time killer as I typed that up on my phone. Off topic, how do I "share" something? I keep seeing people "share" posts on my feed but how do I do that? Do I just click the wheel on a post?

My first time trying this, may be a little awkward (also on mobile). Is there anything I can/should change in this?

'Our world is being torn asunder,' Lily thought as she frantically adjusted the knobs and dials on an aged, barely functional rune-scope before jamming her face desperately towards the walnut sized eyehole. The sky north of where she was observing from boiled and frothed like a cauldron of black, crimson and thunder blanketed the once delicately snowcapped mountain range that had served as the royal families' final resting grounds. Now, like the royal families' corpses, the mountains were dead. Barren, where thousand year oaks had once serenely overlooked the graves, the frotalay, flowers that bloomed by the azure waters, wilted and blackened by ash; the merry and ephemeral fairies had long since disappeared before that suffocating blackness had smothered the land. 'I wonder if I'll ever hear their tinkling laughter again,' thought Lily. She had been quite fond of them, often leaving nectar out in the meadows as a child in return for innocuous gifts circlets of lafeiyeh, flowers of snow, magically imbued to never melt.

The clouds first had appeared in the horizon as a speck, and those who had first reported its discovery, Lily amongst them, had been ridiculed for overexaggerating its significance. They had been laughed out of court, the King's court nearly in hysterics to hear that a few clouds could be of such concern. It was quite a sight to see hundreds of fat, balding men clothed in swathes of green and gold, holding their stomachs or doubled over in laughter, much like overfed pigs squealing in delight upon the discovery of fresh corn in a trough.

No one was laughing now. The clouds had slowly rolled in and robbed the land of its life. All that was left underneath it was eternally flickering shadows, and the putrid stench of decay. By the time the storm front had closed in upon Laon, bastion of the Light, and by the time the matter had been thoroughly ''investigated'' and a few select officials executed as scapegoats by the courts, armageddon was only a couple dozen kilometers away from Laon. Faith, Light, Honor, and 'I-swear-to-forever-defend-the-city' tossed in the trash as fear manifested. First the few informed court officials had scrambled madly out the city, then the King who finally smelled the danger, and finally the peasants. There had been a stampede, riots, massive fires that broke out and quenched by automatic wards as the commoners fled with their life possessions down the cobbled King's Path. Only Lily remained now, atop of Laon's crystal castle's shimmering and resplendent towers untained by the impending storm, atop the castle that had housed the First Angels and their descendents. Lily, and her aged rune-scope on a marble balcony unwilling to leave the place that is her home: the countless tomes in the library, polished dining halls and their liveried servants who bustled and scurried across them during dinner, and her little room on the top of the tower. There wasn't much there; a small collection of books on astronomy handed down to her by her father, a rickety chair, threadbare clothes and a small bed with a light wool blanket. She was a slave, raised to observe the stars. She could have fled, all her instincts told her to- there was nothing to hold her back anymore, she was free at last, free to roam the land now. But what was the point? There would soon be nothing left. Lily sighed quietly and expertly began to disassemble the rune-scope with practiced ease, returning it to the leather case that was its home. Then, returning to her room and closing its double windows that led to the balcony, fingers brushing the cool, stained glass one more time, she tucked in her dress, knelt, and began to pray.

''Oh father above...'' Lily's voice cracked as tears spilled down her face, composure finally cracking, ''daddy I'm so scared, where-''

Oblivion took her.

I will get back to you tomorrow, I always wanted to try a writing prompt but I gotta sleep. Are there any particular rules I should be aware of?

Preface: I usually have some weird ones, but this one woke me up with a thudding heart:

I was only a spectator, so viewing it from a third person point of view; as a dreamer I can't act on anything consciously, but the emotions I could feel were "real" and sometimes can progress the dream along the way. There was a prison facility for the most demented and mentally unstable criminals everywhere in that planet carved into a naturally occurring cave. It had a jagged entrance, like the maw of an wrathful beast waiting for the most opportune time to snap shut the pathway to freedom. The cave walls were a sandstone colour, but far dirtier and yellow, the colour of a man wasting away with jaundice. I felt myself in this dream world being dragged into the depths of this horrid prison. Outside there was bright light, which I assumed to be a desert, but inside was bitterly cold and wet. If I could have had a light, or remembered more clearly, there most definitely would have been slime dripping off the walls- this was not a happy or welcoming environment. Yet that was not it. I was suddenly shifted into this horrific scene, with knowledge suddenly burgeoning in my asleep mind. There was a pale, emaciated, and naked man chained down onto a part of fencing in a pitch black cave room. Dirty, murky water roughly a few inches deep submerged his limb's extremities, and likely have rotted it through in most places. The chain fencing was rusted, and obsidian black in the places that remained with the original colouring, resting partially in the water so that he was only half submerged. The person was clearly delirious, eyes rolled back, and I instinctively knew that he was drugged or not right in the mind, but the most revolting part was that I knew the people here wanted something from him. His lips. They were considered a delicacy, and sure enough, a naked woman with even paler skin soon entered my frame of mind. Her hair, matted with grease and water, would've soured milk, but it was her spider like crawl towards that chained man that had me most horrified. She walked, hands and feet through that cold murky water towards the man, crooning "aaaahhhh yesssss" all the while, and when she had reached him, she pulled out of piece of jagged metal that also was rusted in parts and began slicing off his lower lips.

Blood flowed down the man's chin, but he seemed not to care and he thrashed feebly on his bindings. Slowly severing his lips, the woman began crowing in a sing-song, baby like voice, and as the lips began to separate from the man's mouth area, she slowly began to moan in pleasure like an animal in heat. The moment the lips were cut off, she released a gasp, "ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh yeeeeaaaah" and slip the piece of bloodless lip into her mouth as one would do to a spaghetti noodle, her body convulsing in an orgasm as it went down her way too white esophagus...

Then she turned her head completely around and stared directly at me and SMILED.

Printed books are irreplaceable in my reality, they represent an integral part of my identity. From feeling the cover, the spine, and taking in the smell of a fresh book or one aged like fine wine, their physical aspects are always a delight to explore. However, nowadays I don't always have the time to hit a bookstore or library, and my phone's always with me, so I do download books and use MoonReader to open them. Ebooks lack the "feel" to it, but they serve just fine. Sometimes I would like to be able to underline things or annotate the margins though.