So why are all 10 of you up so late or awake so early tonight?

Hoo boy I bet that would get some heart attacks.

But really though. The only archnid family I believe we've seen so far are scorps. And they're not so bad.

But a giant, agile jumping spider?

Or a man sized creature of nightmares that explodes outta the sand to drag you into happy fun time?

Ching Shih was a prominent pirate in Qing China who terrorized the South China Sea in the early 19th century. She commanded over 300 junks manned by 20,000-40,000 pirates. Another estimate has Shih's fleet at 1,800 and crew at about 80,000 men, women, and even children.

She challenged the empires of the time, such as the British, Portuguese and the Qing dynasty. Undefeated, she would become one of Asia's strongest pirates, and perhaps one of the most powerful pirates in history. She was also one of the few pirate captains to retire peacefully from piracy.

Cheng I belonged to a family of successful pirates who traced their criminal origins back to the mid-seventeenth century. Following his marriage to Ching Shih, "who participated fully in her husband’s piracy", Cheng I used military assertion and his reputation to gather a coalition of competing Cantonese pirate fleets into an alliance. By 1804, this coalition was a formidable force, and one of the most powerful pirate fleets in all of China; by this time they were known as the Red Flag Fleet.

On 16 November 1807, Cheng I died in Vietnam. Ching Shih immediately began maneuvering her way into his leadership position. She started to cultivate personal relationships to get rivals to recognize her status and solidify her authority. In order to stop her rivals before open conflict erupted, she sought the support of the most powerful members of her husband's family: his nephew Cheng Pao-yang and his cousin’s son Cheng Ch’i. Then she drew on the coalition formed by her husband by building upon some of the fleet captains’ existing loyalties to her husband and making herself essential to the remaining captains.

Once she held the fleet’s leadership position, Ching Shih started the task of uniting the fleet by issuing a code of laws.

First, anyone giving their own orders (ones that did not come down from Ching Shih) or disobeying those of a superior were beheaded on the spot.

Second, no one was to steal from the public fund or any villagers that supplied the pirates.

Third, all goods taken as booty had to be presented for group inspection. The booty was registered by a purser and then distributed by the fleet leader. The original seizer received twenty percent and the rest was placed into the public fund.

Fourth, actual money was turned over to the squadron leader, who only gave a small amount back to the seizer, so the rest could be used to purchase supplies for unsuccessful ships. The punishment for a first-time offense of withholding booty was severe whipping of the back. Large amounts of withheld treasure or subsequent offenses carried the death penalty.

Ching Shih's code had special rules for female captives. Standard practice was to release women, but J.L. Turner witnessed differently. Usually the pirates made their most beautiful captives their concubines or wives. If a pirate took a wife he had to be faithful to her. The ones deemed unattractive were released and any remaining were ransomed. Pirates that raped female captives were put to death, but if pirates had consensual sex with captives, the pirate was beheaded and the woman he was with had cannonballs attached to her legs and was chucked off the side of the boat.

Violations of other parts of the code were punished with flogging, clapping in irons, or quartering. Deserters or those who had left without official permission had their ears chopped off, and then were paraded around their squadron.

The fleet under her command established hegemony over many coastal villages, in some cases even imposing levies and taxes on settlements. Ching Shih robbed towns, markets, and villages, from Macau to Canton. In 1806 a British officer reported on the terrible fate of those who resisted Ching Shih's pirates; the pirates nailed an enemy's feet to the deck and then beat him senseless. Contemporary reports from the British admiralty called her "The Terror of South China".

The Chinese navy lost sixty-three ships in the attacks. Even the hired navies of Portugal and Britain could not defeat Ching Shih. Finding it hopeless to defeat her, in 1810, amnesty was offered to all pirates. Ching Shih and Cheung Po Tsai wanted to take advantage of the amnesty but negotiation at sea between Cheung Pao Tsai and the government official Zhang Bailing hit a deadlock. Besides the fate of the loot, one sticking point was the government's demand that the pirates had to kneel before them. For the pirates to consider kneeling in front of their previous defeated foe was too much to accept.

Ching Shih took 17 illiterate women and children and walked into Zhang Bailing's office in Canton unarmed and began negotiation. She got everything she wanted including keeping all her loot. The kneeling deadlock was solved by Zhang Bailing acting as a witness at the marriage of Cheung Po Tsai and Ching Shih (officially, Cheung Po Tsai was still Ching Shih's son, so a government blessing was needed). The two had to kneel to thank him. That was accepted as part of the act of surrender.

She ended her career that year with all her loot. Cheung was given an official position in the government. After he died suddenly, Ching Shih went back to Canton with her young son and opened a gambling house.

She died in 1844, at the age of 69.

A lot of games today like to be photo-realistic or hyper realistic, with sharply and clear defined graphics. Which, can't be complained about really, but I'm sure there's styles out there we haven't really looked into yet.

So post an art style or game mechanic style you'd love to see that's never been done before or is uncommon.

For me, I always love game conept art. If we're to look at things like Destiny's concept art, or any game art really, that sort of messy, undefined sketchy/painted art style just seems really nice to me, and I wonder if it's possible to implement or emmulate a graphical art style like that into a game that doesn't turn out to be cell shading.

Oh no it's one of these things. Yes indeed. You certainly can't feel what I'm feeling right now. All those little distinctions of various forms of physical pain are rather interesting tonight because they mean nothing to me. I could get up and about no problem.

It's a wonderfully distinct feeling. There's all that pain, which I know is going to hurt like a son of a bitch in the morning. But right now I'm still riding off that buffer a body undergoes once it's pushed itself hard for a few weeks straight of intense physical actions.

In short, I'm rather happy and content tonight.

I like you folks. All of you with your distinct variations in personalities. Some of you with your quaint charms. And some of you that I don't know very well or never had the chance to get to, yet.

I don't know why. But I'd probably shake your hand and laugh tonight. Hmm. But, sadly, distance is a bitch. Sleep well for those going to sleep. And good morning for those across the world. I know it's not all peachy and sunshine and rainbows.

But, just this once. Good night to you, whoever you are, wherever you are. Find your peace and rest a little bit. Enjoy your weekend. Enjoy what you have to enjoy for yourself. Goodnight.

Here's your scenario.

You have an old family cat who's been run over by a vehicle, crushing their pelvis and potentially rupturing internal organs. When taken to the vet, you're told that the cat has a chance of recovering, but the vets have no way of telling if there's internal organ damage which could lead to death.

The best they can do is medicate the cat and take care of them before giving the cat back to you. But, they tell you the highest chances you have is if you take the cat to an institution that could fix the bone damage entirely and spot if there's organ damage. The price is very high.

For all intents and purposes, you have the 5000 dollars to pay for that operation. Keep in mind, this is an older cat. You might spend that 5000 dollars only to have the old cat pass away in a few months or years. But at the same time, the cat is a family pet. They've given you years of being the best a cat could be to somebody.

What's your call on the situation, and why?

Additional note on the subject. The cat won't be any pain if you choose any of medicated roads.

No strings on me this morning, apparently. I've got little to no restrictions going for me. That includes good or bad. Ask away.

Shoot for multiple questions if you like.

Helloooooo early morning people. How's your start to the day so far? Any plans for the day?

Tops. And now I see a fuck ton of names I don't recognize all across the forum and apparently Charlie dug himself out of his grave.

The fuck did I miss here?

Somebody suggested that to me tonight. Eye troubles that are only getting worse and a long wait time to book an opening with the right kind of doc to take a look at me.

Eyedrops do fuck all, ibuprofine doesn't even make a dent and the strongest sunglasses I could get a hold of still don't cut it.

Camnator might have been onto something, at this point.

Thanks to the folks who commented some tips about glasses earlier. I appreciate it. Bad news is my eyes checked out to be working fine save the issue of Uveitis. I wasn't satisfied with Monday's checkup so I ran another one when my eyes started getting worse. So I've got a refferal to another kind of eye specialist way down south in a city.

So, I'm gonna see if I can cough up enough money to get me that far as quick as I can.

A brief summary of Uvetis is that it basically just comes in, fucks your eyes up until you can't see anymore and suffer permanent vision loss, and is a gateway to all other kinds of eye problems like glaucoma and other fun stuff like that.

I've gone over some of what sort of tests I'll be taking to figure out the exact parameters of my condition. One of those lovely tests includes samples of the fluids inside of my eyes.

Which means they'll be sticking fucking needles in them.

Cheers.

I've been half an owner in name to a restaurant/cafe.

Jesus fuck. Where'd the time go. Kinda strange to think about though. Any up and coming marked special days for you guys in the near future?

I like tinkering with builds in Souls II. As you all know the giant dad build basically dissappeared due to poise mechanics. I find that with both illusionary rings and dual greatswords at 99 str you can still stunfuck and utterly stomp people.

But I made a recent discovery.

With 99 vitality and one ring that boosts your equip load, you can cast iron flesh on full havels armour and fat roll. Under normal circumstances iron flesh usually completely over encumbers you. But with enough equip load you can fat roll or even fast roll.

I tested it out in the arena with a bare fists build and the mask of pharros for extra hate mail. The amount of damage you can tank is insane.

Haven't set foot up on the broadcast tower in a long while. Strange place up there. Just sit down on top of the platform and take a peek at everything down below. Makes everything dissappear for a little bit. No bullshit up there.

Just clear air and quiet. And a nice view, I guess. Dunno what to say I guess. Likely stupid to climb that thing. It's nice up there. Shit being back on the ground though. Goodnight folks. See you in the morning.

SUPERHOT is an FPS game with a simple gimmick: time moves only when you move. Every shot is lethal, so your time-bending is your only advantage. SUPERHOT is currently in closed beta.