# (OT)  I am back



## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

Edena_of_Neith here.
  I am back, after being unable to come online since September.  
  A severe illness on the part of another, and subsequent disruption from that illness, has been the cause of my absense.
  That illness being Alcoholism.  (It goes without saying that I myself will not touch the stuff.)

  A good point, if one wishes to differentiate reality from fantasy.
  In D&D, alcohol can be associated with fun.  Fun such as silly barroom brawls, or naughty flirtations, or wild midnight festivals.
  In Real Life, alcohol is not much fun - at least, not for those of us who must deal with alcoholics.

  And Alcoholism, In Real Life, is a very, very, very, BAD thing.


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## jgbrowning (Oct 28, 2002)

yep.  sorry to hear.  I hope things worked out more happy than sad, which is not always the case.

Welcome Back!

joe b.


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

Hey there, JgBrowning.

  Thanks!  

  (By the way, I have now had a chance to see Dallas for myself.  It is about the most lit up place I have ever seen.  And Dallas - Forth Worth is huge, folks.  It's not yet as big as Chicago, but it's making progress that way.)


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

By the way ...

  To those who think Oklahoma is a big, flat prairie, take it from one who has been through there that this is not so.
  The entire state is hilly.  Most of it has woodlands.
  The Red River and Canadian River are dry (these are major rivers you will find on national maps) but that is the result of the incredible drought the United States has suffered this year.
  The Red River Valley is aptly named.  The soil is red.  The roads, where not paved, are red.  I don't mean brown or brownish red.  I mean RED, as in red red.  An incredible, and beautiful, sight.

  The trees of Oklahoma (and Texas) are all permanently bent, and many are gnarled and broken.
  Although it was not windy while I was there, the trees bespeak of constant high winds, and occasional hurricane force winds.

  If you are looking for the true Great Plains of American Legend, try the Texas Panhandle.
  THERE you will find Big Sky, with nary a building or tree to block the 40 mile (sometimes 80 mile) view.
  Of course, the Speed Limit is still only 70 miles per hour.  So go figure ...


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## William Ronald (Oct 28, 2002)

Welcome back, Edena.  It is good to hear from you.

I am sorry for all the worry and pain you have been through of late.  I hope that things are better.  I have no doubt that you did your best.

Family is important.  I have seen the lives of people close to me cut short by alcoholism.  (Indeed, one of the worst things a diabetic can do is to be a heavy drinker.  Even if someone stops, the damage may already be done.)  It is hard to love someone who is hurting themselves as well as hurting others.

I seldom drink, mostly doing so for religious purposes and an occassional toast at a wedding or similar joyful event.  (Drinking makes my bad jokes even worse, and I tend to want to be in control in most situations.  So, I limit myself.)  

Alcoholism is indeed a serious problem.  The families and friends of an alcoholic also suffer as well, seeing someone important to them decline.  However, there is help -- both for alcoholics and their loved ones.

In my games, there are inns and alcohol is something some characters enjoy.  However, there is also all the problems that exist in the real world.  (Curing illnesses such as alcoholism is much easier in most D&D games than in the real world.)

If you need someone to talk to, contact me.  Remember you are never alone.


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## Mark (Oct 28, 2002)

Welcome back and "one day at a time!"


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## William Ronald (Oct 28, 2002)

Indeed, taking problems one day at a time is good advice.

I am glad to hear you got to go to Oklahoma and Texas. I have never been there, but parts of the states are very rugged.  (Geography and history are some of my interests.)  A few friends have said that it is beautiful country out there.

Hang in there, Edena!


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

*About Alcoholism*

Nice to hear from an old friend.  Nice to hear from you again, William.   
  I hope the Rokugan IR is going well (this message, is for everyone in the Rokugan IR, too)

  - - -

  ABOUT ALCOHOLISM

  When I was a DM, I allowed that alcoholism - in the game - could be cured by a Cure Disease spell.
  However, the underlying problem that caused the alcoholism in the first place (Caramon Majere, from Dragonlance, being an excellent example) cannot be cured by any Cure Disease spell.
  The powerful Heal spell would end depression, withdrawal, neurosis, and the other lesser mental illnesses that might have been the underlying causes of alcoholism, but the effect would not be permanent - and certainly the cause of the illness would not be ended if the cause was partly external.

  The Restoration spell would cure psychosis, severe trauma and/or loss symptoms, major destructive alterations in personality and mood, and all of the severe mental illnesses (Restoration would cure any and all brain damage, including loss of part of the actual brain.)
  Restoration was more permanent.  The symptoms were not likely to return.  In effect, Restoration had the power to fundamentally alter the subject's personality and habits, and change his or her life.
  If the causes of the trouble were external, Restoration would not cure that, but Restoration WOULD cause the recipient to no longer view the external problem as a problem to become ill from.

  For example, a Restoration cast on Caramon would have ended his alcoholism, ended his dependency on Raistlin, and made him into a healthy, happy individual.  (Unfortunately for Caramon, it was not so easy or simple, that Crysania could just cast Restoration on him and have done with it.  In Dragonlance, things do not work like that.)

  However, remember that Restoration aged the caster a full year, in 2nd edition, and reversal of this aging was almost impossible by any means.

  - - -

  In Real Life, unfortunately, we do not have any Cure Disease, Heal, or Restoration spells.

  In Real Life, alcohol is a VERY dangerous and destructive drug.
  It is very addictive.
  Withdrawal from it is intensely difficult psychologically.
  Withdrawal from it causes horrible physical symptoms, and often prolonged and severe physical pain.

  Consumption of alcohol in large amounts destroys the brain.
  Consumption of alcohol in large amounts destroys the liver.
  Consumption of alcohol in large amounts destroys the body.
  Consumption of alcohol in large amounts destroys the life of the person in question.
  Consumption of alcohol in large amounts destroys the family of the person in question.
  Comsumption of alcohol in large amounts, is the destruction of the person and everything he or she has or is, or had or was, or could have had or could have been.

  Consumption of alcohol in large amounts ... is worse than dying.
  It is Living Death.

  Edena_of_Neith (who does not touch alcohol IRL)


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## Creamsteak (Oct 28, 2002)

Glad to know your back. If you check your email, I sent you a few I think... (trying to remember for sure, but can't). I don't deal with alchoholics... but my father has a problem with cocaine, and my uncle has a problem with heroine... they keep falling off the wagon so to speak.

I assume the two are not that different in the end, with the exception being the legality of the substance being used.

Anyway, always glad to hear from you. I hope the boards can work to keep you entertained when your around.


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

Hey there Mark.  
  Cheers to the ENBoards!

  About our geography ... hmmmm ...

  For those of you who have never visited the United States of America, I could relate some of the noteworthy geography of our country.
  I recently took a long trip through the US, and I saw much of it, and in general I did not see what I expected to see.  Maps and Atlases are very deceptive.

  We all know about Interstates, or Freeways, or Limited Access Roads.
  In lower Michigan, these wind through flat or slightly hilly country which is a mixture of lush farmland or woodland (usually deciduous woodland, but occasionally coniferous.)
  There is a great big city that occupies all of southeastern lower Michigan, with 100 different names (the whole conglomerate is called the Detroit Metropolitan Area, but I doubt people in Ann Arbor, Clarkston, Monroe, Romeo, or New Baltimore areas would tell you they live in the Detroit Area.)
  The great big city is getting bigger every year, as suburbs sprout up.  The older suburbs are filled with trees, and the newer ones are filled with fancy rooftops.
  Our older towns are distinguished by the two and three story buildings in their downtown areas, and these upper floors are used as lofts still to this day, while the shop is on the first floor.
  The suburbs are distinguished by strip malls.  Enormous strip malls.  Little strip malls.  Middling strip malls.  And Power Malls (strip malls more than a quarter of a mile long.)

  So, what is it like elsewhere?

  From what I saw ...

  Western Ohio is flat.  The beautiful city of Columbus is flanked by an endless semi-prairie of farms, in which the only woods are along rivers, or along the edges of farms, or in lots where the land is not in use.
  In this vast agricultural expanse sits the cities of Bowling Green and Lima with their industry, and to the northwest Toledo with it's port on Lake Erie.
  In the far north, along Lake Erie, is Sandusky, with the famed (justifiably so) Cedar Point Amusement Park, which boasts the Millenium 2000, a roller coaster that is 315 feet high and reaches a speed of 92 miles per hour and STAYS at around 90 miles per hour through the whole ride. (being on this roller coaster, is like being on a rocket for 2 full minutes.)
  They are now building a roller coaster at Cedar Point that is rumored to be 450 feet high, and reach 120 miles per hour, to be completed next June.  Time will tell if the rumors are right ...

  Indiana is full of corn.  
  Indiana, seems to be an endless sea of corn, except where rivers and banks of trees (and occasional woodland preserves) interrupt the fields.
  Great buildings stand to house the corn, but when one considers the size of the cornfields, one wonders how anything could house it all.
  In the midst of it all sits Indianapolis, with it's great ring freeway, a bustling place filled with stately homes, booming suburbs, small and large industry, and traffic jams.

  Illinois?  
  One should remember that Illinois is very long, from north to south.
  It is so long, that Cairo in the far south is closer to Mississippi than it is to Chicago, and Chicago is far from the state line with Wisconsin.
  Chicago I do not need to describe.  Anyone who has gone to Gen Con knows Chicago.  It is BIG.  It is a sea of buildings.  It is buildings that pierce the sky.  It is a 100 mile long traffic zone that is far more challenging to the nervous system than any mere encounter (in the game) with a lich, dragon, or demonic Outsider.
  Southern Illinois is flat.  It is cornfields.  Even more than Indiana is cornfields.  It's rich soil and temperate clime make for excellent agriculture.  Did I mention that it is also oil rich, and at one time it was heavily mined for coal?

  From Dayton, Ohio, on southward, it is hilly and the land is heavily wooded (deciduous woodlands.)
  In the midst of this hilly land flows the wide Ohio River, and on both sides of it spreads the vast metropolitan Cincinnati area.
  There is a tremendous amount of heavy industry in Cincinnati, and enormous radio towers jut from the highest hills (anyone remember the show WJRK In Cincinnati?)
  The housing in Cincinnati is all two and three story tall, German-like.
  The suburbs of Cincinnati spread out in ever thinning density all the way to Dayton in the north, encompassing Hamilton, and deep into Kentucky in the south (this is known as the Convington area.)

  Kentucky is hilly.  All of Kentucky, is hilly.  It is only a matter of how hilly.
  Western and central Kentucky are hilly, and the freeway goes through great cuts in the hills, or along high dikes built across the valleys.  
  Eastern Kentucky is more hilly yet.
  In the center of it all is a plateau that is relatively flat, and this is the Bluegrass Country, and in the center of Bluegrass Country is Lexington.
  Fertile horse farms spread as far as the eye can see, people are friendly and speak with an accent far different from that of Cincinnati, and all the roads are in perfect condition (it snows, but I do not think they ever salt the roads.)
  Country and western music is what is heard in restaurants and gas stations (in the north, rock music, rap music, and oldies are most commonly heard.)

  The trees are lush and tall, and beyond the Bluegrass Country woodlands merge into forests, and one could mistake the whole state as being one great, magnificent forest (they are good about planting woods along the freeways, for appearance, to reduce noise, and to reduce pollution.)
  In the western reaches of this land, the Tennessee and Ohio Rivers close on each other, as they flow down to the Mississippi, and here they have created two long lakes (they stretch from south of the Ohio River clear down into Tenessee, I believe.)
  Between these lakes, south of Paducah, Kentucky, is one of the nations most popular parks, and here people come to camp, hike, fish, or to engage in watersports or every kind of outdoor recreation.
  Summer means towering clouds, temperatures in the 90s (mid 30s Celsius), and the everpresent humidity that makes it feel warm throughout the night.  And summer starts in May, and runs through early October, so there is no shortage of sunshine, blue skies, and friendly winds (and the occasional enormous thunderstorms.)

  St Louis is big.  Make no mistake.  It's metropolitan area stretches 40 miles west of downtown, where the great Arch is.  It stretches back along I-70 past the Missouri River (what's left of the Missouri, that is, since the drought has greatly reduced it's size.)
  West of St Louis are the woodlands and croplands of Missouri, and for the most part Missouri is hilly.  Not as hilly as Kentucky, perhaps, but much more so than western Ohio or northern Indiana or southern Michigan.
  Missouri is a quiet, astetically beautiful place.
  One sees stately homes amidst the quiet woods, while churches sit proud and tall on the hills, and the quiet fields of the Heartland stretch away on both sides of the freeway into the distance.
  As one heads into western Missouri, one notices an aridness to the woods and meadows.  The trees are less tall and less lush, and there is more soil showing through the fields.
  This aridness is true west of a line from central Missouri southwest to the Texas/Arkansas state line.

  Kansas is like it is portrayed in the Wizard of Oz.
  That is, it is UTTERLY devoid of trees or shrubs, and stretches away to the horizon like this, filled with nothing but grasslands.
  However ... Kansas is not like this, too.
  The empty grasslands are as hilly as Missouri.
  And little of the Kansas I saw, was empty grassland.
  Most of the Kansas I saw, was covered with woodland.  Not, perhaps, the lush woodland of Kentucky, but woodland nevertheless - woodland surviving in spite of the drought that saw many local rivers completely dried up.
  The trees are bent and gnarled in many places, for ferocious windstorms are common, and thunderstorms with hurricane force winds and large hail, and the occasional tornado.
  The soil of Kansas is rich and brown, it's farms are immense, great railroads crisscross the state, and here and there are cattle pens with special accesses to the normally limited access freeways.
  Kansas City is yet another great traffic jam, with more industry, more booming suburbs, and a very friendly people.

  Ever hear of the Piney Woods of Arkansas?
  You heard right, if so.
  Arkansas is filled with woodlands, both coniferous and deciduous, from one end to the other.
  Little Rock, in the middle of the state, is filled with hills and conifers, freeways that run around and through the city, and railroads that they somehow managed to build through the hills.
  It is a large city, with a notable skyline, considerable suburbs of it's own, and a sizeable amount of industry.  And yes, it's people are friendly too.

  It is difficult to begin or end when it comes to New Mexico.
  As one heads into New Mexico, the High Plains are interrupted by vast buttes (great low expanses of rock that jut out over the plains, ending in sheer cliffs.)
  The buttes grow higher as one heads west, and the land is devoid of trees, the soil arid and evident through the sparse ground foliage.
  Then the hills rise up, and the road winds through them, until one sees forest cloaked mountainous heights ahead.
  Passing through these in a deep cut, one descends rapidly into the city of Alberquerque (my apologies for the misspelling - let someone from New Mexico correct me on this!)
  This is a desert city, and it runs all the way from the cut in the mountains (indeed, these are the southernmost heights of the front range of the Rockies) down to the river, and then back up out of the river valley into a great, high, flat plateau to the west.
  From the heights west of the city, you can see all of it (it would be like standing and being able to see all of Chicago, or New York, spread out in a vast paranorama below you.)  You are so high above the city that at night it is like looking down at it from an airplane, and woe to those with Height Phobia who wish to drive down from the west into the city.
  West of this point, the land is - technically - desert, and you are considered to be in the Desert Southwest.
  Ironically, the desert ... isn't.  It is arid and there are no trees, but there are many shrubs.  A person could easily hide in all that shrubbery and you could not see him from even close up.  The desert floor is green with shrubbery.
  What is absent is grass, although occasionally a strange, brightly green grasslike cover will be seen. 
  A single, unending, massive butte runs along the north side of I-40 all the way from Alberquerque to Gallop, in northwest New Mexico.  It runs like this for well over 100 miles.  It breaks, only to restart.  It is higher, then lower.  It's barren surface is sometimes red, sometimes black, and sometimes simply stone colored.
  You will see something in New Mexico (and Arizona) that is not found elsewhere - bicycles and pedestrians on the freeway.  For it is legal.  Indeed, there are signs saying bicylists are limited to riding on the right-hand side of the white line on the edge of the road.
  Now, personally, if I were a bicylist, I would take the famed Route 66 (a surface road than runs along with the freeway, and continues all the way to California) than risk riding on the freeway, but each to their own.
  Sunsets are different out here.  In the east, sunsets are yellow and orange.  Here, they are red.  They are beautiful, and the light lingers long after the sun has gone down.  The stars glitter down upon very cold nights.
  For all the road, from practically the Texas/New Mexico state line westward to Flagstaff, is over 5000 feet high, excepting only the river valley of Alberquerque.  There is far less atmosphere, and the clouds seem close to the ground out here.  The sun is furious (even in October) and the starlight is uninterrupted by any light from any city.  Orion with his belt shimmers down at you from the heavens, even through tinted glass.

  Arizona, the great desert state.
  Think again.
  It contains vast forests.  In fact, you run into as much forest here as you would in the deeps of Kentucky.
  These are coniferous forests, part of many great state and federal parks, and they run uninterrupted from scores of miles.
  The magnificent hills (the butte ends before the New Mexico/Arizona line, and the hills begin) are crowned with trees, and eventually they turn into mountains crowned with snow, towering above Flagstaff.
  One takes the road north off the freeway, and the trees give way to shrubs again, and for 40 miles the land seems nondescript locally once more.
  Then the trees close about again, you pass through a park entrance, and you come to an abrupt and total stop.
  There is a minor break in the Earth blocking your way.
  This minor break is so deep you are looking straight down for over a mile, standing at the edge of it.
  This minor break is so far across that nothing on the far side can be made out.
  This minor break stretches to the right and left as far as you can see, and beyond, and no bridge spans it, no building is evident, no trace of man mars it's endless cliffs, spires, and myriad fantastic and surreal shapes.
  It is FAR bigger than it looks in any movie or photograph.  It is not real but is rather quite unreal, for the Colorado has eroded the land in fantastic and unreal ways.  The strata of 500 million years of rock looks back at you.  The river is more than a mile below you.  The climate is subarctic up here, and subtropical down there.
  A misty cloudiness seems to obscure the canyon, and to the right and left it disappears into a blue haze.  Looking out in dim light, it is like standing on the edge of the world, and looking off.
  This, of course, is the Grand Canyon.

  The freeway from Flagstaff to Phoenix is not for the faint of heart.
  For in a short stretch of 140 miles, the road drops from 7300 feet in altitude to under 3000 feet in a great valley, then climbs again over 5000 through another mountain range, then all the way down into Happy Valley, under 2000 feet, in which Phoenix sits.
  The road twists and turns, with very steep gradients.  Trucks crawl up these hills, and occasionally the trucks stop crawling and stop (in which case they are going nowhere.)  Going down, there is a runaway stop for trucks ... but there is no runaway stop for CARS, and suicidal drivers race down the hills and curves at 90 miles per hour.
  Unwise, since in many cases there is a drop of over 1000 feet beyond the guardrail.  Or solid cliffs of hard rock without the slightest indent or accommodation for frail automobiles.
  Tall ponderous pines tower out of the general forest, and for 40 miles south of Flagstaff the great forests of Arizona march on (where deciduous trees grow, they stand out spectacularly in October, for they are at leafpeak.)
  Then the forests give way to scrub forests, then scattered trees grow and the ground is covered with that strange, brilliant green, grass-like cover.
  Finally, the trees give out, and one comes into the first valley, where the desert floor is green with shrubbery, then back up into mountains and scrub forests.
  Then one makes the last approach to Phoenix, and the first cactus appear, amidst the endless sea of green desert growth.  As one goes lower and lower, the lesser hills are bare, and stand stark against the sunset, or blue and hazy in the daylight, or black and ominous in the night.
  Finally, the lights of Phoenix are evident, one begins passing the outskirts of the metropolitan area, and the first palm trees appear, for here a subtropical climate prevails, and frosts are light and infrequent.
  The Phoenix sun of October is the equivalent of the midday sun on the hottest, clearest days of June in Michigan.  Temperatures are in the 90s, in the shade, and the pavement is hot enough to burn your feet.  The people here speak of the plesantly cool conditions of autumn, moving about and frolicking in this oven as if it were a moist, cool (60s Fahrenheit, or around 15 to 20 Celsius) spring day in Michigan.
  They would.  For these people, it IS the equivalent of a cool spring day.  Back in early September, highs were over 110 and lows were in the upper 80s to lower 90s.  And, of course, there was the small matter of the summer sun of Phoenix, which I have never felt (sunburn, for a fairskinned person, occurs in under 3 minutes.)
  At night, the temperature drops all the way down into the upper 60s.  Pleasant enough for a Michigander, freezing for the people of Phoenix.

  It should be understood by our European and Australasian friends that America has two distinct climatic regions.
  One, which encompasses most of our North American Continent, is cooled by a steady procession of arctic cold waves (which in the summertime are not cold, but cool.)  It is like an air-conditioning system were turned on (or a big deep freezer, in the winter.)  These fronts help generate our famous tornadoes, thunderstorms, and the occasional colossal snowstorm that shuts the East Coast down (and the occasional frost that is the bane of Florida citrus growers.)
  However, the Front Range of the Rockies insulates the western United States and far western Canada, along with western Mexico, from this effect.  And the further west and south you go, the better the insulation.
  Thus, temperature in the western United States is dominated by altitude, not latitude, and Phoenix is VERY heavily insulated indeed from any arctic cold.  While Cut Bank, Montana, directly north of Phoenix in the High Plains, might be 40 below zero, Phoenix is at 80 degrees.
  Cold Waves that freeze the Mississippi River and bury the east in snow do not touch Phoenix.
  When the dense, dry, cold air is somehow forced over the high mountains, it chinooks down the west slopes, compressing and warming as it comes - so if the arctic air somehow does reach Phoenix, it is as a hot chinook, bone dry, a bane for it causes brush fires - both there and everywhere else in the southwest.

  In all of the United States mentioned, only Michigan and Ohio seem to have dense rural populations.
  Kentucky seems to be far more sparsely populated, although banks of woodland can prove deceptive.
  Missouri is obviously more thinly populated, and if there is a heavy rural population in Arkansas, it is hidden behind impregnable forests of conifers, the ground dark under their limbs even at midday.
  There are few people living in rural Kansas, Oklahoma, or Texas, and here one can SEE the lack of people, for one can see a long way from the vantage of a hill, or across the prairie of the Pandhandle of Texas, or across the grasslands of Kansas.
  One could briefly wonder if anyone lives in New Mexico, for it is very empty there, and one can look across 20 miles of land and see few structures, until one reaches the front range.  Beyond that point, the American Indians live in great numbers, on the high plateau of New Mexico, and amidst the green hills of Arizona.
  In Arizona, some areas are heavily populated.  Others are empty.  Ironically, the forested land is the quiestest land, and the desert bustles with people.


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

My deepest sympathy, Creamsteak.
  Thank you for the Welcome Back.  Cheers to you, my friend.
  The World is so vast, and so great, and to appreciate this one must actually travel through it.
  Just talking about it, does not give the true feeling of it's size.
  Or it's emptiness.

  The Internet is very deceptive.
  We call ourselves the ENBoard Community - and we ARE a community - and yet we are separated by endless expanses of empty space;  green forests, fields of every kind, deserts both green and bleak, vast oceans it takes many hours even to fly over, and lofty mountains crowned with snow and ice.
  None of which we perceive, and none of which is relevant, when we are here in the ENBoard Community.  
  For on the Internet distance is not a factor.  Truely, in that, the Internet is a miraculous thing.


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## Knight Otu (Oct 28, 2002)

Welcome back, Edena!


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

Hey there, Knight!  Thanks for the Welcome Back.  

  I guess my words cannot convey the reality of the Real World.
  It is too big, too beautiful, too lonely, and too overwhelming to be expressed by words.

  Sunset at the Grand Canyon is so incredible that if someone were to actually paint it, they would be lamblasted as being surrealistic or inaccurate - NO sunset could possibly look like THAT sunset.
  The Big Sky at night in the Panhandle of Texas is enough to cow the most arrogant of men.  The land is utterly dark, and utterly devoid of trees.
  There is nothing between oneself and Heaven, and the eternal stars beam down at you on every side.
  The great city of New York, along with it's entire metropolitan area (including all of New Jersey, Connecticut, and Long Island) could be plunked down into New Mexico, and nobody would ever find it again.

  You know, we speak of overpopulation, and we speak true enough.
  Yet in America, 1/3rd of our entire population lives in a string of cities along our upper eastern seaboard, from Bangor, Maine, down to Washington.
  Most of our remaining population lives in cities or in suburbs around them, especially on the southeastern and west coasts.
  Our greatest cities are but little places in the great wide continent of America.
  Little islands of light in a sea of darkness, or shining oasises of buildings amidst a green (or, in the winter, white) ocean of land.
  I am guessing it is that way in Australia and New Zealand.  I cannot speak for Europe or Asia.

  The vastness of the World is daunting.
  It is frightening.  
  It can be overwhelming.

  The size of the World is only equalled by it's loneliness (The wonder is not that people marry.  The wonder is that there are any people who are NOT married.)


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## The Forsaken One (Oct 28, 2002)

Wb Edena.

THought things were going better at home, or flaring up again if I may ask since you put it in the topic?


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 28, 2002)

Hey there, Forsaken One.  Nice to hear from you again!  

  - - -

  Things are cruddy as usual.
  However, I am back online, and that is an improvement over the recent situation.

  Living with, and having to deal with, an alcoholic is ... well, it is like being in a madhouse, is what it is like, to be blunt.
  Worse than a madhouse, really, for in a madhouse there are authorities present to control things.  Here, there is nobody to control anything, and no law to help.  

  Here, there is no reason to prevail over insanity.
  There is no hope that reason will ever prevail.
  There is no hope, period.


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## zouron (Oct 28, 2002)

wb edena! sso glad you are back here we were all worried (well me and william... or in any case me  ) hope we will hear a lot from you in the coming months and I hope soemwhat things perhaps clear up for you .

In any case we are always your friends if you should need us.


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## Airwolf (Oct 29, 2002)

Welcome back, Edena! 

I also want to say thanks for such a glowing description of my native state, Arizona.  I think it is beautiful too.  

If you ever get down our way again you should drop me a line. 

I agree with you about alcohol, my family went through a bad experience too.  

Again, welcome back.


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## Buttercup (Oct 29, 2002)

Edena_of_Neith said:
			
		

> *Edena_of_Neith here.
> I am back, after being unable to come online since September.
> *




Welcome back, Edena!  I missed you.

I'm so sorry for all the trouble you had to go through.  Hopefully things will work out well in the end, but as someone else said, such is not always the case.  

Again, welcome back!


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## Reprisal (Oct 29, 2002)

*Welcome back!*

Hey Edena!

Great to see you back!  

 - Rep.


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 29, 2002)

Zouron, hey there.  Thanks for the welcome back.  How are you doing?  How are things in Denmark?  What's going on, my friend?

  Airwolf, to you a thanks for the welcome back.  It would be nice to have friends to meet, when one travels, so thanks for the offer.    I will say that it is very lonely out there, on the road.  Arizona is a beautiful state.  Unfortunately, some sort of black stuff gets all over the ground (and one's car) in Phoenix.  What is this stuff?

  Buttercup, thanks for the welcome back.  Things may work out well for me, although I don't know yet.  Unfortunately, the Alcoholic Person I mentioned is in total Denial of his alcoholism, and his situation is a bad one.

  Reprisal, thank you for the welcome back.  How are things up in Canada?  What's going on with you?  

  It's nice to have people welcome you back here, when you are troubled and lonely.
  It's nice to have friends.
  Cheers to all of you.


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## William Ronald (Oct 29, 2002)

Good to have you back, Edena.

I enjoyed the travelogue, and I think DMs can borrow from it to describe different parts of their world.   

I would also urge anyone designing a large map for a homebrew campaign to go to a good library and look at an atlas that shows land forms.  I have used atlases for ideas on everything from climate to determining how rivers flow.  (Yes, magic can influence climate and geography in a campaign world, but it helps to have a good foundation on what works.)

Perhaps some of the others on the board can join in with description of places they live or have visited.  DMs should feel free to lift those descriptions for their games.  (Okay, zouron.  Time to describe Denmark and Greenland.)

I would say that your description of Illinois is accurate.  Contrary to what some would believe, there are hilly areas in Illinois.  Particularly in parts of Northeastern Illinois, and in the Northwest.  (Some of these hill ranges lead up into Wisconsin.)  There are also a great many small lakes in Northeastern Illinois, and woodlands where development has not taken over.

Chicago traffic can be intimidating.  I grew up with it, and it can be a challenge.  Indeed, the Chicago area is growing so far and fast that some people are beginning to think of Rockford and Milwaukee as part of the region.


Denial is a big problem for alcoholics and other substance abusers.  I have heard people deny they had a problem, and when the problem became undeniable (due to its impact on health and personal life), one statement was repeated very often.  "I don't care."  This is in effect another form of denial, which does not help when health problems go from bad to severe. 

Sadly, I have learned that  you cannot make a person change. The desire for change must come from within.  Additionally, there are limits to what one person can do to help others.  You can always offer help, but the other person must be ready to receive it.  Similarly, you can't blame yourself if someone does not listen.  In some cases, people will not listen to anyone.

Despite the best efforts of others, some people will make bad choices in their lives.  Free will is both a wonderful gift and a terrible responsibility.

Hang in there, Edena. I hope things will get better.   Remember you are not alone.


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 29, 2002)

Thank you, William.  The support IS appreciated, and your friendship is appreciated even more.  It is.

  As for my Travelouge, it is very incomplete.
  America is such a huge place.  Some of us, like me and William, live near large cities, and perhaps everything one could ever want is there.
  Perhaps.  Perhaps not.
  Beyond the city, beyond the sprawling suburbs, beyond the local farms, is a land of endless vistas, horizon upon horizon, stretching away endlessly into the blue mist and past the limits of the imagination.
  It is there.  Beautiful, wondrous, grand ... but it can be terrifying and overwhelming.  For it can be empty, cold, and lonely beyond bearing, that endless World.  And it's reality can be too great, too staggering, and too vast.

  (Let me put it this way.  Get up and travel 5,000 miles around America by automobile, alone or with only one or two companions.  Afterwards, rewatch the film Fellowship of the Ring.
  You may find yourself looking at Frodo and Sam, and perhaps the others, with new insight and understanding.  
  In my case, new sympathy.)


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 29, 2002)

On the above note ...

  Those Mongols, who attacked Europe, were further away from their home in Mongolia than Los Angeles is from New York City.

  Can you imagine that?
  Riding a third of the way across the entire world, on a horse?
  Being a third of the world away from your family, in an utterly strange place, fighting for your life against deadly enemies again and again?

  I am not made of the stuff of those Mongol horsemen.  I am not that strong of mind, that I could do such things!

  Nor am I made of the stuff of Alexander the Great's Macedonian Army (they revolted, in the end.  After the Punjab, they must have felt like the end of the world was in sight, and Alexander himself was sure of it.)


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## Airwolf (Oct 29, 2002)

Edena_of_Neith said:
			
		

> *...
> Arizona is a beautiful state.  Unfortunately, some sort of black stuff gets all over the ground (and one's car) in Phoenix.  What is this stuff?
> 
> ... *




They started using rubberized asphalt on the roads and freeways around the state a few years ago.  Although I don't know for sure, but I think the 'black stuff' is a mix of dust and rubber covered in oil that makes up the asphalt.  

The rubberized asphalt is nice because it makes the roads more quiet, it costs less, it uses old tires that are shredded and mixed in (instead of moving them to a land fill), and its supposed to last longer.  

If you noticed the black stuff in northern AZ, then it is probably volcanic ash.  They use the ash in the wintertime for traction, on the frozen roads, instead of salt or sand.  

In other words pretty much no matter where you travel in the state you will end up with a black soot type material stuck to your car.    


Regards,
Airwolf


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## qstor (Oct 29, 2002)

edena - what part of Michigan are u from? My wife and I are moving to Lansing early next year. Are you in the RPGA?

Mike


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## Numion (Oct 29, 2002)

IMHO, alcohol isn't that addictive. I for one don't want _any_ alcohol after consuming large amounts. On some saturdays I do drink beer and hit the bar; on some I don't. Alcohol is just as addictive or dangerous as you allow it to be.

Alcoholism is a different issue. If you don't suffer from that condition, controlling your drinking is easy.


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## Zelda Themelin (Oct 29, 2002)

Hi Edana. Nice to have you back here.


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## Decamber (Oct 29, 2002)

Hey - it's Edena! Nice to have you back, man.


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 30, 2002)

Qstor, Numion, Zelda, Decamber, thanks for the welcome back!
  Zelda, are you in the Rukugan IR?  How are you doing?  How are things in Finland?

  I am in the RPGA.  
  However, I am atypical in my roleplaying style to the others in that organization, a point they made to me long ago.
  I am 5th level as a player, in Campaign.  1st level, in Classic.  0 level, as a DM, though ... they didn't exactly welcome me as one of their DMs back then in the 2nd edition era, and presently I know too little of 3rd edition to DM a 3rd edition game.

  I am from Plymouth.  A once small town, until the great front of development came and swallowed it, along with all the township, and along with Northville, Novi, Canton, and Van Buren Township.
  The wealthy came, and they changed everything.  The dime-stores are gone, and high priced coffee shops are in.  The ice cream stores are out, and the expensive boutiques are in.
  The woodlands are gone, and endless suburbs are in.  The township park, once deep in the country, is now surrounded by homes.
  Yet I still live here, and I am not rich or wealthy, and I still remember the old days, and when in Hines Park or at the Cultural Center I can see them still in physical form, and of course the railways (there are two sets running through Plymouth) are echoes of the city's great age and rich history (of course, nobody ever gets a good night's sleep in Plymouth.  Especially in the summer.  Just ask them about the train air-horns, and the earthquakes every passing train causes.)

  Airwolf, I wish to thank you for telling me about the cause of the black stuff.
  A question, though:  Isn't this bad for the lungs?  I mean, don't the people of Arizona breathe this stuff in?  If it settles on cars, can't it settle in the lungs?

  Numion, concerning alcoholism - please remember that, in the case of the Certain Someone I am talking about, the alcoholism was caused by something else.
  There was, and are, a number of underlying problems which drove said person to the bottle.
  The alcohol, of course, has not helped with any of these problems, and has aggravated some of them badly, and the alcoholism has caused new problems, both physical and mental, and the alcoholism has caused violence and trouble that has harmed the family greatly (I will not go into that further ... except to say breaking up the family might be a more appropriate statement.)
  There is no hope of treating the underlying conditions, because the alcoholism is interfering.  And there is no hope of treating the alcoholism, because the person in question denies being alcoholic (for starters.)  And there is no hope of reuniting my ruined family, which has been torn apart by negative feelings.
  That's about the shape of it.

  Alcohol may not be very addictive.
  But that is not relevant.
  When one has an alcoholic to deal with, and this alcoholic is violent, and he has serious underlying problems, and new problems from the alcoholism, and your family is in ruins because of his alcoholism, and you cannot do a THING about ANY of the problems he has, or you have because of him, or about anything concerning the matter ... then there is a problem.
  So yes, alcoholism is a bad thing.  Take it from one who knows from grim experience on the subject.

  Edena_of_Neith


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## Tokiwong (Oct 30, 2002)

welcome back Edena... just wanted to join the bandwagon.. might not remember me... just a lurking Enworlder....


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## Edena_of_Neith (Oct 30, 2002)

Hey there, Tokiwong.  I remember you.  
  I could not forget the player of an evil, scheming Iuz who played a major role through the end of the 3rd IR!
  Nice to hear from you again!


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## Upper_Krust (Oct 30, 2002)

Hi Edena mate! 

Nice to see you back! 

I trust Tazebo is keeping well!?


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## The Forsaken One (Oct 30, 2002)

> Tazebo




A brother of...?


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## zouron (Nov 1, 2002)

Describe places we have been to william? heh well I suppose it is entirely possible, but those skills of mine remains for other times surely.  right now it is edena's section not mine 

Edena any chance of catching you on ICQ in the near future? or some other less boardy place?


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## Dinkeldog (Nov 1, 2002)

Welcome back, Edena.  Good luck.

And from now on, this will be in Meta.


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## Mathew_Freeman (Nov 1, 2002)

Hello Edena! I enjoyed your Sauron threads in the NonRPG forum, and wanted to say welcome back.


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## Darkness (Nov 2, 2002)

*Hello again, Edena!*



			
				Edena_of_Neith said:
			
		

> *Those Mongols, who attacked Europe, were further away from their home in Mongolia than Los Angeles is from New York City.
> 
> Can you imagine that?
> Riding a third of the way across the entire world, on a horse?
> ...



They were horse nomads, though, weren't they? And as such, they were accustomed to a life of constant travelling (especially on horseback) - so I guess it wasn't as bad for them as it would be for you or me. 
(The distances that they sometimes travelled certainly were mind-boggling, though.  )

Anyway... I'm glad that you're back again and I hope that everything in your family will turn out for the best. 
And I can emphasize very much; I, too, have family members with alcohol problems...


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## Airwolf (Nov 4, 2002)

Edena_of_Neith said:
			
		

> * -snip-
> 
> Airwolf, I wish to thank you for telling me about the cause of the black stuff.
> A question, though:  Isn't this bad for the lungs?  I mean, don't the people of Arizona breathe this stuff in?  If it settles on cars, can't it settle in the lungs?
> ...




The road dust doesn't really cause any problems.  It is covered in oil, grease, or whatever else drips from cars as they drive the roads so it is pretty heavy, compared to regular dust.  

The regular dust is where some people have problems.  There is some type of fungus that lives in the dry dust of desert around here.  Anyone who has lived in the Phoenix area for more than a few years has this in their lungs.  Most people are not affected and don't even know about it.  The fungus doesn't cause much problem every few years we hear about someone who has died, but that is rare.  Here is a web site if you are interested.  
Valley Fever Center


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