The Great CollectorThe Great Collector I have in my hand here a couple of toy robots still in their packaging. It means that they’re safe and secure, protected from harm and the elements. They’ll remain safe so long as the packaging is kept intact and care is taken in regards to how they are stored. To a child, these would represent fun and excitement. They wouldn’t care what the packaging itself looked like, as the packaging would be gone in short order; they would care about what was inside, not on the outside. And that would be the end of that. But suppose this were to get into the hands of a collector, someone with an eye for what thing
Personal Revelation In 1850, Lorenzo Snow was one of several church leaders to undertake a missionary trip to Italy in the hopes of bringing the Restored Gospel to the residents of the nation. At first, their efforts in the nation were slow; although they arrived in the country in July, it took until October of that year to see their first baptism. Even then, it only came after great labors among a group of people known as the Waldenses, a persecuted religious minority that had taken up residence in the Piedmont region. One night, he had a dream that put the matter in perspective. In the dream, he and his fellows were fishing. They were competing with numerou
Response to 'Five Stupid Things...'http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HnIscx61muM&feature=relmfu (NSFW due to cursing)1. Plagiarism charge -*The bit about large portions of the BoM being ripped from the KJV fall apart on further examination. 2 Nephi 25 has Nephi noting that he felt certain prophecies from Isaiah to be so important that he chose to copy them down verbatim so as to ensure a record. And for the portions purportedly lifted from the Gospels, it'd only make sense for Jesus to say roughly the same thing to comparible audiences under the same circumstances. If anything, it'd have been odd for him not to.*Which areas have translation errors? The argument is leveled,
Response to Bible vs. Joseph Smith pt. 1Response to "Bible vs. Joseph Smith pt. 1"http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4ivV8TZwXek(Personal note: netiquette holds that you're supposed to not only provide sources for an online debate but, if it's a lengthy video, warn people in advance. I know that there's 8+ parts to this series, but I don't know if I'll have time to hit all eight.)>film tries to go into the "test of a prophet" debateThis is a fairly common debate tactic among anti-Mormons, but it actually backfires spectacularly upon closer examination. As proof, I give you the following page at pro-pagan website JC Not 4 Me .com - http://www.jcnot4me.com/Items/theology/Second%2
Spleen Acres I gently eased the mech hauler back into the bay, already frustrated after a long morning. A few days back, a Liao pilot fired off a challenge at me. It was his big brother's Orion that I had trashed in my first match, and he was in the mood for a little bit of payback. He claimed that he had been watching me for some time, and as such alleged that I was a one-trick pony whose tactics were nothing more than "use my Shad to run away until I can get a lucky shot off". He claimed that he wanted to duel me in a battle, and that he wanted the battle to take place in The Jungle. Why he waited so long to get back at me was anyone's guess, but a cha
Burning In Paris"Talcum 2, reporting in," he said into the comms. "We've broken them; it's just a mop-up operation now.""Understood, Talcum 2," his commander replied. "Be careful, Michael; they might still try one last feint.""Wouldn't surprise me."For centuries, Paris had been regarded as one of the most important cities in the entire Inner Sphere in terms of culture and education. While the Amaris Coup had briefly brought a halt to this as part of the devastation that covered the entire planet, the city succeeded in rebuilding itself and reclaiming its title. That is, until the Word of Blake took over the planet. Now it was back to square one.By al
A Conspiracy Sometimes, life has an odd way of working out. For starters, the final three storefronts in the strip bugged out, each one having been lured to strip malls elsewhere in the city. I bought them off of the owner, completing my ownership of the strip; Olympus Drive, as it would soon be re-named, was now entirely in my possession. And I didn't have to wait very long for a new tenant, either. It seems that the Simmons Corporation was looking to open up a used vehicle lot in the area, and the now-empty half of the strip corresponded exactly to where their site placement software predicted would be the best spot. The plan was that they would leas
A Mon-umental Mistake[23] A Mon-umental Mistake Although it might seem like a side-story right now, Maxwell related a story to me one Sunday, about a month after the incident with the cow and the reporter, that wound up setting the stage for later incidents. As such, in order to understand some of what was to happen, I need to go ahead and explain it. Fortunately, he left me a fair amount of documentation to back up what was going on. Apparently, between the introduction of Terran animal species to the planet and the forcible changes to the environment from the centuries of warfare (warfare that included NBC weaponry – nuclear, biological, and chemical)
That's A Rap Back during Bulldog there was a rather famous (now somewhat infamous) group of mech pilots that operated within the Lyran ranks. The leader, whose trademarks consisted of his perpetual smoking and his wearing a beret no matter what his uniform, piloted one of the rare Avatar units that had been given to the LAAF. His henchmen consisted of a thug type that piloted a captured Thor and a mad scientist type that piloted a captured Loki. On the surface, the three were legendary pilots who could just plow on through whatever enemy forces came their way, their only help being a fourth pilot that they would select to go with them each mission as a
red bird in the rainthe other day I saw a red birdbright against the skies so graybut it only paused for just a momentand then it quickly flew awayit's so easy to forget nowthat when the skies pour downif we'd only look about ussometimes beauty can be found[chorus]a little red bird in the raina little smile with the paina little sweetness for the sorrowa little hope before the morrowyou say your life is cold and lonelyyou say the dark skies will not endwell I'm here if you would onlysay you want to be my friendgirl, I've been aroundI know that times are toughit's time to leave the groundwe've got to rise abovejust like[chorus]oh o, o
Pass The TestLord, I'm tired of the girlswho'd rather twist and primp their curlsthan read or chat or catch a play.Conversation's dead today.I want someone who'll pass the test.I want someone who'll do their best.I'm tired of the debutanteswho only care about what they want.Too many girls today just flaunt their skin;they're literally dying to be thin.The TV screen controls their brain.The situation's gone insane.I want someone who'll pass the test.I want someone who'll do their best.I want a girl who has a mind.How hard can she be to find?I want a girl who really cares.Not someone who blankly stares.[solo]I want some
Living on RetroEverything old is new againEverything old is new againLet's go back to where it will begin.Nostalgia, nostalgiaBrings me back everything I wannaNostalgia, nostalgiaI'm living on retroNo, time won't pass me byI'm living on retroI'll be young until I dieSpending my time inside the pastSpending my time inside the pastStay a while; let's make it last!Nostalgia, nostalgiaBrings me back everything I wannaNostalgia, nostalgiaI'm living on retroNo, time won't pass me byI'm living on retroI'll be young until I die[solo]Eat, sleep; I don't careThis happiness keeps me living on airEat, sleep; I don't careN
...When the whining endsWake Me Up When The Whining Ends.Punk rock has come and past;in its wake is naught but trash.Wake me up when the whining ends.Emo junk and politicshearing that just makes me sick.Wake me up when the whining ends.Here comes the junk againspewing from their mouths.Tired of the noisy dinThe scene has just gone south.Has the fire gone out?Or has the world gone and forgot?Wake me up when the whining ends.Massive spike into my skull;they sold out to be political.Wake me up when the whining ends.We've a Facebook Presidentthey're pushing him like PepsodentWake me up when the whining ends.Here comes the junk aga
An Account Of The Liberation...An Account Of The Liberation Of The Planet Gershwin(edited version - suitable for public release. names of key figures have been withheld due to several figures either being underage at time of incident or holding dubious legal status.)16 July 3075Although a small planet located just beyond the frontier of the Lyran Alliance, Gershwin was not spared when the Word of Blake Launched its Jihad. Although a rural planet whose economy was based largely on agticulture and planned logging, the planet was rumored to house a considerable quantity of metal ore that could be mined to support those factories that the Blakist forces intended to erect
Shifting Alliances, Pt. 2 Well, we had secured the Toyama. Now to get it off the planet. I had a plan for how that might happen, but we were going to have to grease some palms first. About sixty kilometers north of Solaris City is a farming and ranching community known as St. Elmo's, the name deriving from the fact that the phenomenon known as "St. Elmo’s Fire" can frequently be seen on the rocky spires and outcroppings east of town whenever a sufficiently heavy storm moves through. Aside from this little light show, the town also boasts a surprisingly large air field – large enough for a Leopard-class or another small dropship of the type to land. In f
Shifting Alliances, part 1 During the American Revolution back on Terra, the British military learned a hard lesson concerning their officer corps. Back then, the standard practice was that officers wore uniforms which made them stand out from the rest, thereby allowing their subordinates to see them more clearly. This was before any sort of electronic communication was in existence, and so soldiers were limited to line-of-sight when it came to sending and receiving orders. Unfortunately for the British, however, the Revolutionary forces exploited this by having sharpshooters linger at the edges of the battle field; the sharpshooters could also tell the officers apart
All That Glitters It had taken a while for everyone to get with each other, but thanks to Templar and Paladin I'd been able to bring Comstar and Rasalhague intelligence on board as partners. As much as they and Heimdall would normally have preferred to avoid each other, the simple fact that we had evidence to suggest Blakist activity on Solaris VII – in particular, the fact that the Blake forces had seemingly deployed a unit of Purifier Adaptive battle armor against us – meant that it was time for all of us to find common ground in a hurry. And so, a plan began to take shape. In the time period since negotiations first started, I'd convinced the owner of th
War Toys One of the realities of running a mech stable is that no matter how much money and/or fame you have, it's never enough. Even bigger, more successful stables have to face the cold, hard truth of the fact that they could easily be just one or two lost matches away from financial trouble, if not outright collapse. The smart pilots make what cash they can, stash it away for the future, and remain prudent with what they say and do today so as to lengthen the time that they have until they are obligated to dip into said stash. As such, when an opportunity for both more money and more fame headed our way, it was easy for me to talk the rest of th
I'll Be Gnome For Christmas"Hey Steve - a question.""Yeah?""We still on for 'Dungeons & Dragons' this Tuesday? I mean, since it's Christmas and all.""Yes and no. Half of the group has plans, but the other half committed. I'll run a game, but not our regular campaign. It wouldn't be fair to the people who have to miss it.""So it'll be a new campaign?""Yeah. It'll be set off in a seperate corner of the world the regular campaign is in for the sake of continuity, but separate enough to where we won't really be messing with anything.""Ah.""As part of it, though, I'd appreciate it if everyone played a character different from what you've got going in the other
Stewed Meathead Heimdall giveth and then Heimdall taketh away. The money that I made from the apartments and some of my recent battles? They wanted me to go ahead and reinvest it. Specifically, into a restaurant they were operating as a safe house. Some time back another agent bought an existing restaurant for the purpose of turning it into a hideout. After all, lots of people go to restaurants, so there'd be nothing amiss in some of our people ducking into one on a regular basis. What's more, with the staff and some of the patrons being agents, it would enable us to spy on the other patrons who came in. If nothing else, the agents could pick up on basi
Keeping It Realty With another pilot in my stable racking up wins in the arena, we were getting more money coming in to the overall stable coffers. The active rental properties had finally been renovated and rented out, albeit with Heimdall itself comprising most of the clientele; at least one apartment in every apartment or duplex was reserved for agents, and they had set up a military surplus / gun shop in the store front. The money from that was also being set aside for the general pool, the idea being that I could use the money to get the commune site operational as a kids' camp. Once I had the camp in place, I could reasonably expect to make a fair amoun
Ones And Zeroes Although our present situation was improving, it wasn't improving fast enough. It was true that we were starting to get in rather lucrative sponsorship deals. It was true that we hadn't lost a single match to date. It was true that the real estate arm was finally close to showing a profit now that most of the properties were fixed up and being rented back out. But it was also true that our rating as a stable was still so low (mostly due to just how few total matches we'd fought) that we simply could not refuse any challengers at this point. So when a rather obese software tycoon and his two video game-addicted senior programmers challenged u
Attack And Defend She cringed as she contemplated her move, not sure if the duel was even winnable or not. Once again, tuition for Duel Academy – Luna had come due. And once again, her part-time job just wasn't cutting it; she was still a fair amount short. She knew that, if she asked, her grandparents would gladly pick up the tab; after all, they were wealthy and she was family. She could also ask her uncle, who would also take care of it – and for the same reason. They weren't like her parents, who just used her for running errands; they were good people. But the more she had to beg them for help, the more she felt like her parents instead of her
Critical Oversight As cliché as it might sound, the first time I met my late fiancée was when I saved her life. It was during an early mission as a part of Bulldog. She was leading a team of Darts that were tasked with exploiting a seeming breach in the Clan battle plan. I was the odd man out due to a last-minute reorganization, so I got shuffled off to join her on the run. Technically, she was in charge. That didn't last too long. The Clans defending the planet had a major supply depot located on the other side of a mountain pass; seizing the depot would mean that not only would the Clan forces in the area be short on material, we'd have plenty of
Unwelcome Visitors If only all differences of opinion could be settled as quickly and bloodlessly as I dealt with the historian. Normally, when I get a request from Heimdall to perform a specific task, there's a matter of give-and-take as I try to figure out how to make it happen. On occasion, what they'll ask of me is unpleasant but necessary when considered as part of the greater struggle; case in point, the battle with the Barghest pilot and how that had to go down. But on a few rare occasions, Heimdall and I see eye-to-eye on a particular problem that needs to be resolved. This time, Heimdall didn't even need to ask me to go do something. One of the
The Halls Of Macademia One of the sad realities of life in the Inner Sphere – Solaris especially – is that not all battles are fought from within a cockpit; rather, some battles are fought face-to-face. Now normally, I try to avoid windbags who just don't know what they'e talking about. But this time around, I had to say something. Fortunately, Heimdall agreed with me on this point. A military historian noted for making rather pro-Katherine statements of late decided to unveil his new work, a partial study of Operation Bulldog that recounted how a handful of the planets fell. Thing is, the guy made the mistake of discussing a planetary invasion that I
Sta.sh
