Nox

This one is definitely my favourite, yep. The voting period for Arbiters could perhaps be decreased slightly, but other than that, it's very nice.

That was the point

I definitely like this one, I'm looking forward to seeing what you three come up with.

Moderate You scored 79 Equality, 57 Liberty, and 71 Stability! Your feel that all three principles are important. You take some interest in politics and definitely have opinions. However those opinions may be formed on a case-by-case basis because you lack an overriding commitment to any of the principles. You may sometimes get confused by complex political issues because you can be persuaded by different arguments. Moderates like yourself are important in mediating between others in a parliamentary democracy. If you get involved in politics then you may well be working alongside the pragmatists among Conservatives or Liberals or Socialists depending on your inclinations and circumstances. Yep, that sounds about right.

If we're posting those kind of songs, now...

First time for everything

Shhh, I already justified my lurking.

Did they ever find out how old Ultron was?

Sounds like a really nice and tolerant guy who was not prone to overreaction in the slightest.

Using in-game polls and other features for decisions puts a lot of trust in people not to make puppets or manipulate results. While this can be avoided with certain filters, that alienates a lot of legitimate residents who don't meet that criteria, many active participants in the government don't have populations above 1 billion, myself included, and many are also not part of the WA, myself again included.

Did it result in several banjections and large amounts of fire?

In honesty, I completely forgot we had that branch.

I've said it before, but it's more relevant now. Political progress!

My WA jumps a lot, Occidius was a puppet to begin with, but perhaps if they've been around long enough and aren't obviously malicious sleepers for god knows what, exceptions could be made?

Nah, the entire purpose of that was to be a big threadjack

I was originally planning on going on a spiel about essays and the idiocy involved in having an incredibly strict guide for creative writing, since that's the entire point of "creative" writing, but I was reminded instead of that depressing time of the school year with counsellors cropping in English classes throughout the school to lecture us on course selections for the next year. Basically, it’s a way for me to tell the administration what I want to do, and them replying by saying “lol u wanna lern? mate pls.” To be honest, it’s bad. I’ll be entering various AP courses next year, most of these have been chosen for me. That leaves me with 2 spaces for classes. Ridiculous. I thought the program was designed to stimulate a world-class thought process, not confine its students to a system. As much as I understand its intentions to make each student a well-rounded thinker, it’s doing much more harm than help. For example, take the maths program. Because maths is a little different from all the other subjects, and many students are coming in from different abilities and backgrounds, the maths program has to be tailored to the average level for high-school juniors. That level is incredibly low. I had intentions to take AP Calculus BC this year, in fact. Actually, because of my upbringing, I have completed extensive calculus courses outside of school 3 times. See, when the brain is deprived of that sort of stimulation for 2 years, it begins to atrophy, and I simply cannot handle that. I scheduled a meeting with the AP/IB coordinator of my school to discuss this last year. No, wait… I had to schedule two meetings with her, and both of those were overlooked at the last minute. The only reason I did get to speak with her was because I ran into my friend (who had the same problem) who was just about to begin his own meeting. She basically told me that I couldn’t learn what I wanted with extreme nonchalance and apathy. But moving on, let’s talk about grades for just a second, because along with a course selection sheet, our counsellors handed us an unofficial copy of our transcript thus far (a list of all our grades and credits). Immediately, there was competition and bickering among the alleged “smart kids.” I personally don’t take much part in that, although they are my friends. The thing is, grades are unimportant. It’s a letter and a number, so what? Neither your life nor your high school career is defined by the grades you receive. I almost failed and had to redo primary school because I never did the homework (I rarely do homework at home, still. Home is Nationstates time). Quite honestly, I never study. When you study, you are forcing your brain to try to absorb massive amounts of information out of the blue. Imagine a glass. In order to fill it, one must do it slowly. Pour water in all at once, and it splashes right out of the cup. Now imagine a sponge at the bottom. It will soak with water, which will begin to dry over time. After that, more water can be added, etc., ad infinitum. This is much how the brain functions, and it is far easier to make those connections and additions as it comes. When I write an essay for English class, I don’t focus on the score it will merit according to the rubric. I devote all my energies into making it beautiful and insightful, and this works. My point is, grades aren't to be bragged about. They’re meaningless. I don’t understand how our society could have gotten to the point where they do. In fact, I would be willing to bet that part of the reason why students struggle with school is because they worry far too much over their grades than learning for the sake of learning. This is certainly something I've had to discover myself. Constantly, my parents tell me that I’m only as good as my grades are. I ignore them; I spend the majority of my day after school practising my piano, obsessing over video games, listening to music, trying to learn German by myself, reading up on current events, (writing long-winded rants about essays and school), reading. I learn. Because I can assure you I do none of that at quite possibly the most unholy waste of eight hours called school. And then they brand their classes with things like “honours” or “AP” or “IB.” In all but one of my classes (that being AP Physics), I feel like the majority of the time I spend is not dedicated to learning, but to doing nothing while the rest of the class “masters” concepts. And I'm not insensitive to this; I understand that this is an average speed, and I understand that there are children to whom the material doesn’t “click.” But sweet mercy, why do I have to sit around and wait? Give me the next set! Test me and let me pass out of the class! I certainly don’t wish to sound bigoted or braggadocio in any way, but for the students who desire it, why is there not a class that moves at a quicker pace, goes into more depth, and teaches more in smaller amounts of time? That just gives more room to learn, doesn’t it? Anyway, that’s my problem. I don’t feel that my school is flexible enough, and I feel it doesn’t give me the kind of challenge and stimulation I need to gain that sense of accomplishment. It upsets me yearly that I’m not permitted to do the things I’d love to do simply because I don’t have the “space” on my timetable. Discuss?

Signing in. Hello there everybody!

I'll write an essay here if that makes you feel better?

It's certainly been quite an event, first major bit of drama since I first joined

Heya Aden! I saw your works on TP's forums, though I haven't replied there they were awesome. I am planning on bringing TWP's regional newspaper back to life, sometime after the elections, might you be interested in doing some imagework for it, too?

Is that a chocolate DYP?

"Until further notice, please Endorse Regent Pierconium instead of Feux. There is going to be a lot of changes in the next few days, keep an eye on our forums, WFE and Regional TG's. Disregard any other correspondence that is not from myself, Pierconium or Aleisyr." Krull just sent this to every Pacific nation and posted it on the RMB