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I'm working on a sci-fi short story, and noticed while I was writing a tendency to adopt a sort of conversational prose sort of tick. I find it hard to explain, but basically I occasionally do it when describing things with a metaphor/simile. What I do is I chop off where "It was" or "They were" would be in a normal sentence or independent clause, for instance. Here's an example. The "normal" way to write it would be this:

"Each rock jutted out at a different angle, always towards the sun, as if they were stone fingers vainly trying as one to pull it down and flood the landscape with light."

But the way I naturally want to write it is:

"Each rock jutted out at a different angle, always towards the sun - stone fingers vainly trying as one to pull it down and flood the landscape with light."

I don't know if there's a name for that, but I just wanted to know if that was a legitimate approach. Maybe using a comma or period instead of an em dash? For some reason I have it in my head that I've read material written like my own before, but I can't remember any examples. Also, how often is it okay to use em dashes? I think I may be sprinkling them in a bit too liberally.

I've had a Beatles cut for years now, since middle school. I'm becoming a sophomore in college soon, and it really just isn't working. Makes me look too young and maybe a little too un-masculine.

I've kept it that way because I have a longer, oval face but also a big nose so I think the long hair helps "disguise" that. So I would still like to keep it on the longer side but whatever works I'll do.

But I really don't know what to change it to, especially since I have no experience with any kind of hair products, I don't own any, etc. I'm not unwilling to try them though.

What cut should I get with all that in mind?

Going to be a senior and highschool and I'm looking for a career path. I like my CAD classes and want to pursue something related to it that's financially viable. I know architects are having a rough time out there, so people seem to suggest Drafting instead but there's lots of different types. Civil Drafters, Electrical ones, Mechanical... Of course it doesn't have to be drafting though.

This is going to sound kind of dumb, but it dawned on me recently in Physics that I don't actually understand how the moon works. What I mean is, I get that the Earth orbits the sun, and the side not facing the sun is night, but then why is the moon bright? I know it reflects the sun but if it's behind the Earth on the night side away from the sun, wouldn't the sunlight be blocked? Is it just at an angle or something and when its behind the Earth completely is the days when there is no visible moon?

I have level 71 enchanting, and the perks for stronger skill and magika, health, and stamina enchantments, but when I try to apply Fortify Conjuration and Magicka regen (one enchantment) to any piece of armor with a Grand Soul gem its still about 11% cheaper and 10% faster for conjuring and regen not even coming close to the NOVICE robes of conjuration. I even drank enchanting draughts. Is my game glitched?

Recently I hurt my foot playing football, felt like it was broken so I went to the hospital. They treated me for a sprained ankle by giving me crutches and an air caste.

Problem is, most of the pain seems to be coming from the bridge and curve of my foot, not the ankle leaving it hard to sleep (happened today). Anything I should be worried about or is this part of a sprain? They took x rays and said nothing was broken...

I went back and played Monster Hunter Tri, the only MH game I have played so far, with very fond memories of the combat system. I was wondering if there were other games like MH with the same style combat and where grinding isn't really an option as in Tri. I'd like a bit more Western leaning as some of the stuff was a bit too much for me, the game literally opens with a dude in a thong if memory serves....

From watching a bit of Dark Souls, it seemed like that may be similar. Any other suggestions? Xbox 360 games (or possibly Wii) are preferable at the moment...

I understand using it to get around DRM and stuff like that, but at the end of the day people are still harming businesses when they actually decide to download a free copy of a game they don't already own. I mean, people always say if they like the game they pirate, they'll pay for it anyway... but as pirating gets more legal and popular nobodies actually going to do that. Can you imagine even your next door neighbor paying for something he got for free?

I've heard someone make the argument that pirating is just like going into a person's house, making a copy of their TV, then just taking the copy... but that argument doesn't work because you're still indirectly taking the product away from the business, that's basic supply and demand. Fourth grade economics. Plus, you end up hurting individuals as well, since hurting the company they work for hurts their own paychecks. I don't see why people see stealing from a business any better than from the individual.

TL;DR: What do people use Piratebay for besides getting around DRM and stealing entertainment?

To me, it seems like gamers in general seem to be liking open world games more and more now. Don't get me wrong, I like Skyrim, Far Cry 3, Minecraft, etc... but my favorite games are linear ones Half Life 2 comes to mind.

It seems everyone thinks openness is automatically better, and the way of the future with games. But to me the trade off of freedom for focus isn't worth it. Assassins Creed for example would be much better if it was linear, it gains nothing from being open except longer walking distances and more pointless collectibles with annoying side quests. Imagine if the developers got to spend that time perfecting the story, combat, and such instead of modelling a huge world.

I don't know, it just seems like the technology isn't there yet. Maybe people like extra length in their games, but I'd rather have 6-12 great, focused, and fun missions than 6-12 hours of fun missions with 10 hours of padding in between. Skyrim would have been much better if they didn't have to worry about you being able to talk to everyone.

TL;DR: Openness and freedom sacrifices focus, and the technology isn't there yet to make a truly immersive open world game anyway.

I'm somewhat decent at the game and can handle all of the roles with varying success with different levels of decency except for Jungling. Every time I try in practice matches, I go for the Wraiths and don't stand much of a chance against them. I don't get how I'm supposed to do anything at level one, as it seems I'm just too weak to be able kill even the weakest monsters. Should I be laning for a few levels first or what else should I be doing? Just basic starting tips would be appreciated.

I bought the Red Box Starter kit for Dungeons and Dragons (4th edition) and I'm having a good time with it, but I need to know what to get now. I'm pretty sure I need these Essentials next:

Monster Vault

DM Kit

Hero's of the Fallen Lands

But I'm not sure whether I need to purchase the Essentials: Rules Compendium set. Would the knowledge from the Red Box carry over fine on its own?

The only reason I'm on the fence about purchasing the Compendium is because I've read it contains info on level advancement, experience points, treasure, skills, equipment, and stuff that I'm not so confident about. It seems I might be able to learn this from a mix of the Red Box and websites or maybe the other sets I listed above... so I don't want to hash out an extra 20 bucks.

Should I just go purchase it?

If anyone had a website to link to or could even just explain those concepts themselves, that'd be awesome too.

If time is infinite, and goes in both directions meaning that time doesn't have an end or a beginning... then wouldn't that mean that by extension before we were born was an infinite amount of time long just to the left of a timeline versus the right and so we've already experienced it in a way? So we've already felt what it feels like to be dead, religion aside.

At idle its 76C so I'm thinking I may need to do some cleaning or something. I definitely noticed a performance drop. Now my games have to run two settings lower (High to Low and such) despite High being the recommended setting if they are going to work at all.

A have a pretty old HP Pavilion Elite m9040n that comes with a built in Nvidia Geforce 8400gs but doesn't state specifics. I was wondering if using this model would work as a replacement, assuming anyone knows anything about this pretty old PC.

http://www.amazon.com/EVGA-GeForce-Express-Graphic...

I realized slower performance overall when gaming, so I decided to open up the case. I tried playing like this but the issue persisted. Next I tried blowing a fan into it at the same time and noticed a slight increase in performance. Finally I turned the PC off and just touched the different parts as a test. The graphics card was rather hot while everything else seemed relatively cool. So would I just need to replace the fan on my graphics card?

then surely I can just go nuts and do whatever I want, right?

The COD franchise has always been the best for trolling, I was thinking of some good little ways to annoy people. No soundboards or anything like that, I just started Black Ops 2 so little things that annoy you a lot in the game or attitudes to take on the mic.

I know about corner trapping btw.

I'm still pretty new to the game. I tried a match with Mordekaiser, a melee, fighter, pusher. I did terribly to put it short. I think I was too aggressive, and my teammates insisted I be in top lane with Teemo player as my ally with about my skill level. We were up against another Teemo and what may have been Irelia. I'm wondering if I was doing so poorly because of my poor lane choice or because of a bad pairing, but that Irelia player curbed stomped me and my Teemo buddy. If not, any general tips for Mordekaiser?

A common thing atheists will hold above Christians is that they don't do good things because a god tells them to, they do it because its just the right thing. Well, if you don't believe in a god, how is it possible to believe in inherent good and evil? No atheist can argue that good and evil aren't more than things humans just made up.

If you're a true atheist, you should be killing every as many other animals you can without disturbing the balance of nature, because it protects your blood line and assures your survival as a species. If I hold to you a kitten to kill, you should have no objections because it being a "bad" thing to do is just something people pulled out of their bums and doesn't matter in the long run anyway.

From what I can gain as a newbie to LoL is that mages, fighters, and maybe tanks tend to remain at a good skill level throughout a match relative to the other champions. Carries seem to start out weak and get great later on. Using this, some matches observing and playing as assassins, and some other info I concluded that it seems like assassins get weaker over the course of the game and usually are best at providing an early advantage. Would you say this is generally a good rule of thumb?