advocatus diaboli

He's going down the wrong road...

“What do you mean I can’t go?” I half whined and half yelled at my dad. “You’re not old enough to drink, so I don’t want you at this party.” “Your dad is right.” My mom chimed in. “God this is so unfair! All my friends are going!” I grabbed my keys in a huff and stormed out of the house. Still angry, I revved the engine and tore out of our driveway and down the street. “I’m 18, I’m old enough to make my own goddamn decisions.” I mumbled to myself. “I’m not a child. I’m an adult a

Thanks to the Weekly Humble Bundle, I'm now the proud owner of Crusade 2 and Europa 3.

>_> I saw "Games and Humour" and derped.

It makes sense to only include multiplayer games. But please be as thorough as possible! If I missed any popular multiplayer game, please let me know, so I can add it.

Steam is always super fun and a great way to spend time with friends. So, I figured that we should have a dedicated Steam thread, to help us co-ordinate with each other and play games together. I've created a questionnaire that you can fill out, that will automatically put all your answers into a spreadsheet. I filled it out the best I could, but if there's more games you'd like for me to add, please let me know! The game should be multiplayer, though. If you notice any mistakes or something isn't working properly, please let me know so I can fix it. I've already filled out my information.

It only makes sense, to follow the dollar signs. I can't see them settling for a partnership with a car company. A weird, symbiotic dependency of each other forms, like Microsoft and Nokia. Google is too smart to put themselves in that position and they're too smart to pass up the opportunity. Not only are they smart enough to do this, they have the financial power to actually make it a reality.

Recently, Google Ventures lead a huge $258 million investment round in Uber. Which is interesting in itself, because it's their largest investment ever. But, things are put into an interesting perspective when you consider some of the rumors floating around. So... Google wants to build cars and sell them to Uber. Sounds great, really. Uber will corner the automated taxi business, grow huge and go public. Google will cash out and get a huge return on their investment. But why stop there? Why would Google limit themselves to just the taxi business. I mean, they'll need to invest billions into the car manufacturing, no way they'll get their return from just Uber, right? Google will have to spend billions to do this, but not in the way you may think. After working in an automotive manufacturing plant, I can assure you that they don't just pop up out of the ground, on the cheap. There's hundreds and hundreds of millions of dollars of assets in every single plant. There's so much involved in setting up a plant that it'll make your head spin. It'll take too long and cost too much for Google to do it from the ground up, plus it'll give their competition time to get their act together. Nope, Google needs to buy it. They're no stranger to making obscenely large acquisitions, so Tesla's market cap of $19.94 billion shouldn't scare them too much. They have the money to spend, after all. If that was me, it'd be burning a hole in my pocket. But you may be asking yourself, why Tesla? Tesla is more of a technology company then it is a car company. On top of that, the CEO, Elon Musk, embodies everything Google wants. He already wants to bring affordable electric cars to the masses. Their Model S is one of the safest cars on the road. When it comes to customer service, they treat their customers well. Google buys Tesla and has an exclusive deal with Uber. Where's that leave everyone else, though? The technology industry, by and large, won't care. They'll partner with Google to provide in-car entertainment, mainly Netflix, Spotify and Facebook. Amazon and Apple won't care. Microsoft may care, but they'll be so broken that they won't even be able to do anything about it if they wanted to. The real threats, if you can even call them that, are from the incumbents - Toyota, GM, Chrysler/Fiat, etc. But even then, I don't think Google will have to worry too much. They'll dance circles around the old school manufacturers. The game will have changed and Google will be at the forefront, while the rest will be stuck in the past. It's happened before, to multiple industries. No one will be able to touch Tesla's reputation or Google's savvy. My prediction: Google will buy Tesla as a way to fully utilize their partnership with Uber. They'll take full advantage, and take over the automotive market, flooding it with automated vehicles. Billions and billions of dollars in profit will follow and the shareholders of Google will become very wealthy people. When will this happen? I have no idea. All I can for sure is that grand plan has been put into motion and nothing, hell or high water, will prevent it from happening. God help all those caught in the cross fire.

Yeah, the timing just seems to be too weird. He said for the past 3 years, which would be around the time/after he was arrested... He was just sentenced and is trying to get a pardon from the most pro-nonhetero rights president ever. I know this is walking the political line, so eh.. maybe I shouldn't have made this thread. I just think moreso he's trying to use this situation to his advantage, whether it's legitimate or not.

http://www.buzzfeed.com/jtes/bradley-manning-thanks-supporters-in-i-am-a-female-statement This is just the first site I saw with an article, I'm sure there's many other sites. Anyways, I'm sad to say I'm not sure how I feel about this. It just seems... convenient.

I think you're making wildly baseless assumptions, Sasha. "there is a community of writers, apparently i am in it. i call it GA and in November, i call it NanoWriMo" Not everyone will have that. Personally, I choose not to participate in NanoWriMo, so I don't (voluntarily, I do concede) have that community. It goes without saying that not everyone will have GA, fit into GA or be comfortable with GA. Which is fine. In that video, you see a group of 3 and then the main character in the video, alone. Some will have a community they fit into, some won't. "finishing and self publishing is satisfying as fuck" No one said otherwise. The video gave no indication that it wasn't. It skipped that part, so no indicate either way was given. I think this goes without saying, really. "of course he looks like a shit mess, he's a fucking hipster wanna-be" I fail to see what this has to do with anything... "'uh i'm a writer even though i never finish anything'" It never explicitly says he doesn't write anything. On the contrary, it clearly shows him finishing a piece. The fact that working on and finishing a piece of daunting is stated, though. I agree 100% with that. It really is daunting, it's a huge task to undertake, and can be incredibly draining. "anyone shows up looking that unwashed" To an extent that matters, but for authors I think it's more about the quality of your work then if you showered today. "trying too hard to fit in it gonna get shot" I fail to see what this has to do with anything... "no one with a brain uses a typewriter anymore" This is simple association, I think. Many great authors came from a time where they had to use a typewriter, there was no other choice. Some people associate their greatness with the fact that they used a typewriter, so therefore they need to use a typewriter as well, to be great. It's nonsense, of course. Although, if you get a proper typewriter, I see no reason not to use it.

Thank-you!

It's possible.

This review actually makes me so happy.

Yeah! I initially wrote it as a stand-alone. But then was thinking, "Hmm... maybe this would be an interesting story to tell, since a basic plot is already laid out in the story." So several months ago it turned into an epilogue and massive laziness ensued. Then, here it is! I definitely am going to try to keep myself to a tighter update schedule, all around.

My name is Matthew and I’m really nothing special. I’m your average, 16 year old closeted high school student. I do okay in school, not great, but not that bad either. I’m really shy, so I don’t really have anything that normal people would call friends. I talk to a few people and they’re really nice, I’m just too afraid to hang out with them outside of school. I’m not smart enough for people to want to copy off my homework, so whatever. I live with just my Dad. I don’t know what happened to my

How embarrassing, fixed! :3 This chapter was really short, but it was probably the most important, for a while at least. It sets the stage for the future and shows just how broken both of them really are.

I could feel his heartbeat and that made me feel so warm inside, if only for a moment. The smile quickly faded as I asked, “Today is the day, isn’t it?” I was met with a somber, “Unfortunately.” That’s all that needed to be said. The weight of the situation came crashing down on me as I desperately clung to Brian as tightly as I could. “It’s okay, hunny. I’ll be with you the entire time. We’ll get through this.” Getting up and getting dressed was a somber and painful affair. Breakfast was, to

That's the whole point! Short and sweet. Maybe there will be one, maybe there won't be one, who knows. I basically write them as I get ideas. There's no set ending or plot.

I’m in jail. Yup, the cop arrested me and I went before a judge and was sentenced to 3 years in federal minimum security. It’s not that bad, though. I mean, it’s jail, so it sucks. But it could be a lot worse. It’s minimum security, so we get a lot more freedom. At first, I was stuffed into this small room with 5 other guys. After a few weeks in there, I was moved to a more permanent spot, with a room mate. We get along well, I tend to keep to myself, but that doesn’t bother anyone. It’

Establishments.

Updated.

I’m the king of lying to myself. I had no idea what I was going to do. I had made no decision, I just told myself I had. The uncertainty was way too much, so I lied to myself. A lot of good that did me, too. Two years bouncing around foster care homes. The longest I stayed in one was for a half year. A whole six months in one, nice, stable home. That was the first home I went to, I think Vanessa put me there specially. They were a nice family, a husband and wife that couldn't have kids. They

Seeing the blue and red flashing below me made me nauseated. The whole situation made me nauseated. I stood on the ledge and watched the gathering of police cars below me. There must have been five or six of them here now; all for me. I watched as they started to block off the road. A crowd began to gather. “Do not jump.” I heard a voice boomed from below me, using a megaphone. I wasn’t really sure if I was supposed to respond, whether I was supposed to shout below to them or anything, so I ke