Just out of curiosity, how many contested elections have we had? Good luck with the campaign, Spoof.

I'm not sure offhand. Give me a few days and I'll PM you.

Great. If time permits, I'll have questions for you sometime this week.

You are just full of questions!

I enjoy learning.

Learning is killing me at the moment. Spent 15 hours working on a paper over the past two days. This morning I woke up around 4AM with a great new idea for how to frame the topic.

Since then, I have been rewriting eeeeeverything.

I am appreciating!

Awesome. Do you have a favorite character or class?

I-should-be-studying bump.

See the above.

... and see the above again.

I-need-to-go-to-work-bump

Heh. The last time I tried to revise a paper, I ran out of time. I couldn't bring myself to throw away the outline of my revisions, so I turned in a slightly-edited version of the original paper with an explanation of its problems and the outline.

Standard bump.

Herro!

There's a better way of saying this: Too much power it may just get out of hand?



I would say 35-50% contest for as far as I have been in Vanguard.



You remind me of The Internet Oracle.

... 2nd potato salad.

WOOO!

Wee. I have one page of a five page essay done. Now all I need to do is:
1. Write the next four pages.
2. Finish reading Shakespeare's Richard II.
3. Read a few pages from my Traditions in Rhetoric textbook.
4. Study for a test on Tuesday.
5. Study for a test on Wednesday.

Ah, how I love the middle of the semester.

Heh. We're having the same week. Not fun.

It feels good once it's over.

That's the way to think of it. I will be (sort of) free in two days!

Good to hear. I should be relatively free Friday.

Nonsense. The people who say absolute power corrupts absolutely only want us to believe that because it helps the shadow men justify democracy, where they can have almost absolute power without worrying about rebellions. Democracy also gives them an excuse to write pretty speeches and ideas for best-selling spy novels.



Because I ask questions?

That cynical, eh?

Not quite. I originally had a disclaimer to say I wrote for humor, not to reflect my political beliefs. Since that made the joke less funny, I replaced the disclaimer with the sentence on spy novels, thinking its absurdity would say I'm joking. Having said that, I distrust the government and the media enough to enjoy cynical songs, including Shadowland by Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young. I also worry that our government focuses on safe issues and makes most decisions based on popularity, not effectiveness. That's understandable. I suspect many politicians favor the politically astute stances on most issues so they have enough support to fight for or vote correctly on the vital ones, like the financial crisis.

Remind me to stay away from politics in the future. That took 30 minutes to write.

Hey buddy, this politics stuff is my bag.

One day you're going to realize the benefits of emotes and let loose with a whole string of 'em. And it's going to make me really happy.


I'd respond to this, but that would not help rescue the thread from outrageous profundity.

Heh. I understand the benefits of emotes. I choose not to use them because I enjoy the challenge of communicating traditionally, generally prefer a serious tone, and I admit, like separating myself from others. I used them once in a task list for revisions to the recruiting procedure, but I did it an edit so no one would notice and have since destroyed the evidence. After all, we look more efficient if people think I'm a robot. Beep.

Having said that, I'll keep your words in mind.



Heh. I'd call it displaying Vanguard's intelligence. However, I suspect we would spend far too much time here if we got into a political discussion.

You're an awfully tricky guy.


Not sure what to say to this.


Get me talking politics and sooner or later you'd see less intelligence and more left-wing unilateralism. I try to write moderately and not feel too certain of my beliefs -- and I generally think the Internet shows me well in that regard -- but inevitably I find it difficult to keep my tone and views in check at times.

I do agree with your latter point.

I finally finished the newsletter I needed to do for work. So I am doing a celebratory bump.

Congrats. I just got official confirmation from my dean that my international exchange application for next semester has been approved, so I will do a celebratory bump as well.

Congratulations. Since I finished my last midterm today, I'll join in the celebratory bumping.

I like all this celebrating we've got going... maybe it'll partially mitigate my horrendous mood earlier in the week for the prospective applicants.

Because you inquire.



Three more days, and my finals would be over. Count me in.

Okay.



Awesome. Good luck.

AUT looks like he'll be a good member. I hope I'm not scaring him away by asking too many questions.

I always send my tech on time. Yeah...

Let him know that. I'm sure he won't mind going through the questions if he knows he's doing good.



Saweet...?

Good luck.


Nah, I bet he's enjoying the questions. The same goes for anyone who lasts that long into the interview and still writes substantial responses.

It's still a good to idea to give them positive feedback and let them know the interview will soon end. This is especially true of AUT, who sat through a long application before he applied to us.

Heh. At least you weren't in any 3x3s.

Those can be quite a pickle sometimes.

Heh. I would agree with you, and I'm no advocate of getting into a frosty "we ask, you answer, deal with it now and we can be friends later" mode. I like the tone your interviews take. That said, I stand by my original point: I doubt whether folks mind the process. I have more thoughts on this, but I'm going to take them elsewhere at a later time when I'm not supposed to be working.

At any rate, two applications?! This guy is persistent. I probably would have quit after the first one.


Heh. Too true.

This would be the first time in my life I've ever posted immediately after myself. I've belonged to boards that don't allow "double posting" for too long, and my inner moderator is screaming at me.

Thanks.



We've had one applicant say they prefer not to answer questions, one ask why we ask so much, and at least two withdraw their application immediately after the first round of questions. How the others react I'm not sure.

In any case, I'd best get my work done so I can respond to the applications.

If I remember correctly, the mods have let members of Vanguard and Ragnarok get away with eleven bumps in a row. Having said that, I'll admit it took me some getting used to. I still try to avoid bumping unless the thread has idled for four hours or fallen below tenth place.

The rule is one bump per hour. If you are going to be a regular here, you should get used to multi-posting and talking to yourself. We have all gone through it lots of times, am I right Thaliak?

I shouldn't have any problem with talking to myself. My sister tells me I do it in my sleep. My dentist tells me I did it in the middle of getting my wisdom teeth pulled. I can say with certainty that I do it while I'm driving.

Uppity up.

Finally did something useful as shield today!