I\'m not dead yet!
 

Hi everybody, I just wanted to apologize for my long absence from the Space Empires community and for delaying all the PBW games I've been in. I hope nobody's mad at me for that, but I'm having a bit of a personal crisis right now and I can't access the Internet but once a week. See, I was falsely accused of threatening to kill this girl at school (I actually asked her to kill me), and now I'm awaiting trial. It's only a misdemeanor but as a condition of my bond I have to wear an electronic monitoring bracelet, which means I'm only allowed out of the house on Fridays and other times when I have permission (like to see my therapist). It also means that my Internet service is disrupted, because otherwise I'd just be spending all my time playing SE4 with you guys and chatting about SE5! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

One good thing has come of this, though - I have had the opportunity to begin serious work on my own 4X game; I call it Imperia Stellarum (Latin for "Empires of the Stars"), and it's got hexes just like SE5 http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif You can't do much yet except build 3 ships from Star Trek, and if you build more than one, you get duplicates of some of them for some reason. The game's written in Java so it should work on Linux and Windows (and also Mac once Java 5 is released for Macs). So far there are 4 races, the Terrans, Uxmai (tentacle monsters which live in nebulas), Prell (floating brains which live inside stars), and Replons (big hulking robots which live on artificial space habitats). Once I get a chance, I'll show you guys - I'm just afraid I'll lose interest on working on it once I have something else to do... I'm already losing interest now http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/frown.gif

Oh, and BTW, if I remember to check this thread next Friday, could any of the beta testers get clearance to tell me if SE5 works under Wine any better than Starfury does??? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif I really don't want to go back to using Windows but I'm getting desperate at this point, not just about SE5 but other games, because I'm BORED... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Glad to here you are not dead. Um, why did you ask her to kill you? Was this just a joke or something that got taken seriously and totally blown out of proportion? That's certainly possible these days what with the zero tolerance policies. If you were serious though I hope you take advantage of the help they are giving you and spend all your energies on getting better.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

What can I say? You have my sympathies.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Glad to hear your ok Ed. I hope this works out for you my friend. Geo gave you some good advise, and I do hope you'll do as he recommended. Any ways, I wish you the best and look forward to seeing you back on line soon.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Sorry to hear about your problems, Ed. We hope everything works out for the best!

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Ehm i seriously hope more than 80% of your post was a bad joke or else my opinion about the US is even worse now.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Ragnarok - tis no joke.... A kid at my nephews school, a first grader, was suspended and the police called when he kissed a girl in his class on the cheek. No [censored], they actually called the police and expelled the kid. Now that kids parents are fighting the Child Protective Service invasion of their family life. They want the child to seek counsiling to determine if he is a sexual predator..... Give ME A F***ing break!

And then there is the kid who took a GIJOE figure to school... Oh that one was a classic.

It gets worse. In the final years of the Roman Empire, the empire began to pass stupid laws, much like the ones we see passing now... thank you so very much to the liberals of America... where simple things, inocent things, are now considered criminal behavior.

I read about a kid who told his teacher that he did not like her and wished she would die, because she took his toy away from him and thew it into the garbage.... He was sent home for the rest of the week for threatening his teacher and his parents had to take him to anger management.... WTF!!! When I was a kid, if you did not like your teacher, you could say that, then get the failing grade as a thank you, now you get the failing grade and a criminal record.

This crap is getting out of hands.... I could not possibly count how many times my life was threatened in school while growing up... now it seems its a federal offense. Well hell, where in the hell were these laws when I was in school?

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Barbarian country. One can kill man and escape the jail, but you can't say something to a classmate because you'll be sued for megabucks. Your laywers lost their mind, guys. I'm kinda ashamed to belong to the same profession as these american bastards-in-law.

Glad to hear a word from you, Ed. I beleive you'll deal with this problem. Kick their arse.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

As a sig on rpg.net goes; 'God grant me the strength to change the things I can, the serenity to accept the things I cannot, AND FLAMETHROWERS FOR HANDS!!!' http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

"It gets worse. In the final years of the Roman Empire, the empire began to pass stupid laws, much like the ones we see passing now... thank you so very much to the liberals of America... where simple things, inocent things, are now considered criminal behavior. "

Saying you wish your teacher would die is innocent? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Other than that all I'll say on this point is to remind you that it isn't the liberals that have controlled Congress for the last decade..

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Good luck with this man, my best wishes are with you.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Phoenix-D, in this state the liberals have control.... Not the US Government which for the most part has tried to nip the BS in the butt like the lawsuites to remove "In God We Trust" from our currency, and "Under God" from the pledge of allegience. GOD does not stand for "God" Almighty, it stands for Government Of Democracy BTW. - Us being a republic and all.

Most of these liberal panzy arse changes are being done at the state level. Granted some are needed to avoid discrimination and violence, but sending a five year old kid to JDH for kissing a school mate on the cheek or having a six year old arrested for bring a miniture GIJOE with its M-16 too school is going over the edge of stupidity in to the utter assignine! Politically correct speach SHOULD never be mandated by laws, rules, or authority, it should be mandated by common sense and a bit less wussiness and more tolorance. Suck it up guys, they are just words... Actions, and intent to do such action as displayed through behavior, not words alone, should be the deciding factor in choosing to hold someone accountable for their words, but not a five or six year old kid for being just a kid. Did you know that this five year old has to register now as a sex offender?

That is just sickening!!!

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Waitaminnit: Sex and Violence are both considered bad things? That doesn't make a lot of sense to me. The advertising industry doesn't agree.

I can understand if the group known as Pathetic Retards Incessantly Contemplating Kindergarden Security (P.R.I.C.K.S.) need to cut down on breeding by pumping kids full of Sex-Is-Bad mentality. Simple population control. Hey, that's another fine use for the military; sending young males off to die. Same purpose; it makes fathers feel less sinful about lusting after their own daughters. I say go ahead and f*ck em and be done with it. The only real consequence is the daughter will marry an older father-figure man instead of someone from her generation. Hey, that gives the new family a financial strength, and the young males a chance to develop more fully. 'Cause men need that http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

So why is it a bad thing? Too many of the Doogooders Under Moral Bonds (D.U.M.B.) people deciding that a good thing to do would be to psychologically cripple the next generation.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Uh. No, it doesn't. Go look up when it was added- it was put in during the rapid anti-Communist period of the 1950s, specially as what you say it isn't..

As for the rest, yes this is stupid. The conervative type of state government just has different types of stupid...trust me on that (Hi, we claim to be pro-small goverment, but we support allowing cities to sieze land and give it away to buisnesses we like more!)

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

In Canada, an older school-teacher married (Not officially) a teenager. I still remember the gist of their statements in the newspaper.

Her: 'This is the greatest thing that ever happened to me! We'll be together forever and ever!'

Him: 'It'll do untill something better comes along.'

There's a huge gap between 14-18. There's another one between 18-22 and once I'm 26, I'll probably marvel at how I was when I was 23.

Oh, and explain to me how liberals can beleive both that people are mature, rational adults who can make decisions about their sex lives and the beleif that people who are attracted to each other will have sex, no matter what. Keep in mind I'm a 25-year old virgin while you do this. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

A lot of these "zero-tolerance" laws for violence/threats came out right after Columbine. When most laws of this sort can be passed after a crisis (like the Patriot Act, placing Japanese Americans in internment camps in WW II, etc.). People seem to knee-jerk react during a crisis, creating powerful laws, but then don't go back and repeal the laws when common sense kicks in.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Give it, oh, 50 years and it'll be some other state (perhaps a semi-united Europe) that will attack the US to liberate them from the despotism they've become.

Crisis? What crisis? Al-Qaeda is all but beheaded and won't be in a position to act (coherently, on a large scale) for at least a decade, Saddam Hussein has been taken prisoner and the nukes in Iraq were just mirages spotted by sunstroke-suffering weapons inspectors. What crisis is there?

Ed, good luck. Go to that trial. Convice them you're innocent. Kick a**.

edit: It's just that the name of this thread (I'm not dead YET) has got me a little worried. Admitted, I'm no expert on the US penal system, but still it's got me worried.....

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

As far as I know, the only crimes for which the death penalty is applicable in the US are murder (usually the premeditated form, not things like manslaughter, etc.), and other things, like treason. Threats are not enough by a long shot to warrent the death penalty.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Yet.

*ducks*

Ed, hope all this gets worked out soon. Knowing bureaucrats, it probably won't, but we can still hope, eh?

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

And who decides what can be called Treason and what isn't?

Good Luck with Everything Ed, we all wait for your return and half-finished-mod-ideas http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/smirk.gif

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Ed I hope this all works out for you good luck! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/icons/icon14.gif

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Clause 1: Treason against the United States, shall consist only in levying War against them, or in adhering to their Enemies, giving them Aid and Comfort. No Person shall be convicted of Treason unless on the Testimony of two Witnesses to the same overt Act, or on Confession in open Court.

Clause 2: The Congress shall have Power to declare the Punishment of Treason, but no Attainder of Treason shall work Corruption of Blood, or Forfeiture except during the Life of the Person attainted.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

I'm glad you're still alive Ed, and I for one am not mad at you. Was wondering, though. Getting abused by the legal system is awful. (Might be best not to write any more until the case is over. Current legal system seems to have near-zero respect for privacy.) Best wishes! Hope to get you back in PBW!

PvK

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Well, a few years ago there was this thing called 9-11, where some airplanes rammed into the twin towers, you heard of that, right?

Oh, you meant what crises is going on now? Well, I suspect that thats were that whole "but then don't go back and repeal the laws when common sense kicks in" comes into play.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Same goes here Ed. Glad to hear that you are still around. Good luck and all.

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Glad to see you are still kicking around. Hopefully you'll beat the rap. http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

Holy Yompin Yimminies, Ed, all is forgiven. :O

Re: I\'m not dead yet!
 

No, I don't think I'll get the death penalty or anything - I'm only charged with two misdemeanors, so the worst they could stick me with is a year in county jail. Of course, given that, I might PREFER the death penalty, but that's another story... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/stupid.gif

Uh, yeah, well I also happened to say we might as well join the terrorists because we sure can't beat them, and that the jihad would be coming, and that the great Satan must die... would that qualify as treason? http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...ies/tongue.gif Don't worry about privacy because these facts are already known... it's only the threatening to kill the one girl that I'm disputing - I said she had a moral obligation to kill me "because I'm a terrorist" and she's in the military, but she took that backwards and signed an affadavit saying that I threatened to kill her because she's in the military. And of course you know who they believe when a woman testifies against a man... http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/image...s/rolleyes.gif

In any event, I hope to be back soon; my parents hired a lawyer for me by the name of Donovan and she seems pretty competent http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/laugh.gif Though I might or might not be as active as I once was in the community; I've found other things to do since I can't get online, and while I am getting tired of those same things, I don't know if I'll still be as interested in SE when I come back... though I definitely will once SE5 comes out http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif

Talk to ya next week! http://forum.shrapnelgames.com/images/smilies/wink.gif