WordWolf

"Hey, old man, where did you get all this stuff?" "The dead. Our gods are pleased with you. They will watch the battle." "Are they going to help?" "No." "Well, then tell them to stay out of the way."

In other words, so long as they're actually lines in the script. (Character is onscreen and begins singing...) Next quote. "Say 'hello' to my little friend!"

Correct! But really, had to get it while on the run? Oh, well....

BTW, NY as a state and a city pretty much grew quickly. When things started there, there was a push to take the Foundational ASAP, then to take the Intermediate ASAP, and thence to run a local fellowship. After that, people arriving weren't rushed so much, so things were pushed at a more normal pace. When I showed up, recommendations looked more to me like a push per year per level, so, take the Foundational ASAP (and retake it), next year after retaking the Foundational take the Intermediate, and after retaking both the next year, look into taking the Advanced Class. Frankly, I thought that was a MUCH more sensible pace. If the idea was for the student to arrive at the Intermediate with a firm grasp of the Foundational, taking the 1st one twice first was a good idea. As for the Advanced, taking both 3x first, IMHO was a good idea if they needed to understand those classes first. As it was, I had enough of a grasp that I was starting to figure out some of the Advanced class content before getting there. Well, if you understand everything it's built on, then it's possible, depending on how well you understand it and how far the next class goes.

These are lyrics from "YOU'RE THE ONE THAT I WANT", the last song in the movie "GREASE." (Sandy showed up with a complete makeover to the carnival around graduation time.)

That was not from "SATURDAY NIGHT FEVER".

"Hello, Darkness, my old friend"

Thank you, Human. Right, I need to post the next clue, let's see...

Can we get another song, or at least another quote?

If I'd been around a decade earlier, I doubtless would have been in the middle of things. Having been born a decade later and running into twi a decade later changed our interactions a lot. It didn't explain how uneasy some local leaders got- apparently, they thought I had plans to try to take their jobs or something rather than just learn everything I could and go as far as I could.

As someone who's played AD&D- and, more to the point, someone who has RUN AD&D campaigns- (Advanced Dungeons and Dragons), one of the things a Dungeon Master (DM) has to account for is deities, beings characters worship. Now, in the classic versions, humans have statistics that range from 3 to 18, with 10 being average. So, someone with as great a natural ability as they could have would have a score of 18. (Strength, Dexterity, Constitution, Intelligence, Wisdom, Charisma.) So, an intelligence of 18 is a super-genius, a Sherlock Holmes or other extreme intelligence. A world-class weightlifter would have a Strength of up to 18 (we can discuss the exceptions another time.) You get the idea. So, a character with an intelligence of 3 will frequently misunderstand things that the more-normal player might not, and certainly more things than the average character (Intelligence 10) would. Characters with an Intelligence of 18 understand things that those others can't even imagine. (Imagine Einstein and Sherlock Holmes discussing things with Newton, and Gilligan and Gomer Pyle walked in and tried to follow along. Just wouldn't work.) So, deities have stats also, but theirs almost always start as low as 19, and go up to 25, all of it above what is expected for a character. In the game, deities all have limitations as well, but from the perspective of a human character, they don't seem to have any. A deity with an Intelligence of 25 (there are a number) thinks on levels far beyond the average GENIUS, let alone the average character. If there's actually an Almighty God, one with the capacity to create the Universe and its laws to make an orderly universe, He would have an intelligence that would leave behind Intelligence 25 "deities" like nothing. It is difficult to think like a deity with an Intelligence or Wisdom of 25. To think like one with an Intelligence or Wisdom of 8000 is far more difficult. I might not understand His emotions at all... except when He's making an effort to communicate on my level. (Raising a kid has taught me a LOT about that particular thing. )

Back when I took TKD classes, my instructor sometimes used the theme song to call cadence for kata, so we'd do the forms to the beat of the music. It changed things up and kept them interesting.

That's it!

Catwoman Benjamin Bratt Demolition Man

It wasn't "Get Back", it was "COME TOGETHER." (The Beatles AND Aerosmith, at different times.)

In case anyone's wondering why I took Raf's turn, I was saving us all some time. Raf's busy, and didn't want to be "up" on so many threads at once. Either there was going to be a big pause until he took it, or he was going to announce a free post. So, I figured this would be a moment when he'd thank me for jumping in- since, at this one specific moment, I wasn't busy. (Can't always guarantee that...)

"Let's work the problem, people. Let's not make things any worse by guessing." "I don't care what anything was designed to do. I care about what it can do. So let's get to work, let's lay it out, okay?" "With all due respect, sir, I believe this is gonna be our finest hour." "When I go up there on 19, I'm gonna take my entire collection of Johnny Cash along!" "Dad, can I please wear this?" "Sure." "Jim!" "No! No, absolutely not." "Do they know they're not on the air?" "We'll tell them when they get back." " I remember this one time - I'm in a Banshee at night in combat conditions, so there's no running lights on the carrier. It was the Shrangri-La, and we were in the Sea of Japan and my radar had jammed, and my homing signal was gone... because somebody in Japan was actually using the same frequency. And so it was - it was leading me away from where I was supposed to be. And I'm lookin' down at a big, black ocean, so I flip on my map light, and then suddenly: zap. Everything shorts out right there in my cockpit. All my instruments are gone. My lights are gone. And I can't even tell now what my altitude is. I know I'm running out of fuel, so I'm thinking about ditching in the ocean. And I, I look down there, and then in the darkness there's this uh, there's this green trail. It's like a long carpet that's just laid out right beneath me. And it was the algae, right? It was that phosphorescent stuff that gets churned up in the wake of a big ship. And it was - it was - it was leading me home. You know? If my cockpit lights hadn't shorted out, there's no way I'd ever been able to see that. So uh, you, uh, never know... what... what events are to transpire to get you home."

"As far back as I can remember, I always wanted to be a gangster."

Ah, of course, so it's your turn....

He's had minor roles in a bunch of things, apparently. City of Angels Nicolas Cage Face/Off

ROCKY III. The prediction was from Clubber Lang, Mr T's character.

That is not the name of this film, nor its remake.

SWAT???

Now, now..... Remember that we can also forgive Stayed Too Long. Forgiving doesn't have to equate with "forget what the person did wrong and restore them to a position of authority." We've had posters claim that was expected in the past, but that's not required at all- nor is it sound or sensible. If I know a store does shoddy or dishonest work, I'm certainly not going to shop there. If I know a proven deadbeat and professional sponge who lives off of the generosity of others, I'm certainly not going to recommend them for a position of authority. We can forgive lcm- while steering well clear of him and whatever money-making scheme he's cooking up lately. Forgetting is applied independently, and one can forgive while keeping barriers to limit exposure to twi brass and the like.

I left at a good place and time to leave. In NY State (let alone City), nearly all the leadership and most of the rank-and-file got fed up in 1988-1989 when lcm made a blanket accusation that ALL the state's leaders (he mentioned each by name) were serving themselves and not God Almighty. Since we'd worked with them and knew them personally- and he was largely a stranger- it wasn't hard to see how people would respond. It went over like a lead balloon. (When I say most of the rank-and-file left, I'm not kidding. If I'd have stayed, I probably would have ended up #2 in the Bronx and a Branch coordinator, all in one step from humble peon. Not that there were active Twigs to form the Branch- my entire Branch walked except for one guy. He was now #1 in what was left of the Bronx, and he went from humble peon in one step also, albeit a peon who'd taken the Advanced Class.) Anyway, in the absence of any way to respond directly to lcm, we voted with our feet and sent one heck of a message when the entire state largely emptied out. NYC was definitely gone almost to a man, as well as the other cities, leaving a few Twigs in the middle of nowhere who thought blind loyalty was the most important thing, and bent over when lcm mailed us his accusations. So, we did indeed send a message, just not a written one.