1 mile an hour is considered a good speed when marching cross country. For casual swimming, it's just fine. People who train for mile+ swims tend to get 1 mile times around 35 minutes. Your speed is fine, especially with the stretching breaks :) Leah's reply: I think I may get faster eventually. Right now, my first goal is to just make it to a mile worth of swimming. It feels good to be in the water. I just think it's so funny that my running goal is 6 mph while my swimming goal is much lower. It makes me feel more relaxed in the pool -- 1 mile isn't so far.

Every little detail about this pic... dress, pose, lighting, your glasses... Makes you look like a good old one-room schoolmarm. Which is AWESOME. You look absolutely lovely

If you're using Firefox, the Lazarus extension will save your form AS YOU TYPE, allowing you to restore lost posts with just a quick right-click. http://lazarus.interclue.com/ I've had a mouse with a back button for years, and it gets a LOT of use. Best button ever. I will admit that the design is a major factor... some have back buttons in shitty places.

"(PRO TIP: it's pretty much on the DM to keep the RP in RPG)." Disagree. The onus for role-playing is on the PLAYERS. The DM can provide opportunities, but only the players can actually, you know, Play the Roles of their characters. If they won't RP, then there is nothing the DM can do. Some of the best RP in my games has happened during dungeon crawls, where there are no NPCs for the players to interact with. That being said, this issue is true of EVERY RPG. The game does not make or break RP. The group makes the RP. The ironic thing is that for all people complain that 4E seems like a minis game, and that it needs to "get back to it's roots"... it's roots ARE as a minis game. It's also fun to note that 99% of the tactical map and minis usage can be directly traced back to 2nd Edition (Player's Option: Combat and Tactics) and all the same stuff is present in the "can do no wrong" 3rd Edition and/or Pathfinder. The front of the 3rd Ed PHB says "This game is designed for use with miniatures, though you can make do without them". The biggest issue so many people seem to have with 4E boils down to the presentation... it looks different and that's bad. Ultimately it plays the same. There's some more pizzaz and splashy flavour, but in the end, you roll a d20 to hit, and your longsword does 1d8 damage, and kobolds are sneaky little gits.

The tea is too hot? That makes no sense. Tea is supposed to be hot. It's supposed to be made with BOILING water. It's then supposed to steep for 5 minutes. At which point it will still be quite hot - as it's supposed to be. Most coffee shops make it with "hot" water, which is why the brits hate our tea. *In the interest of full disclosure, I am now having a quart of hot tea. Bengal Spice to be exact.

CS Lewis is right... and so is the bible. Notice exactly what it has called out. "Thinking and reasoning like a child". This includes the kind of logic where "because I want it" justifies everything, wishful thinking rules the day, and the idea that the world revolves around you. It says nothing of leaving behind play and enjoying life.

http://www.wikihow.com/Deal-With-Being-Indoors-During-an-Earthquake Diving under desks is good. You want to be under something sturdy. If anything falls, it will hit the table/desk and not you. For most quakes, they're not going to take down the house, so only debris will be falling. Debris that is dangerous to you, but isn't going to collapse a table or desk. If you can't get under something, then get next to an interior wall, and as far away from light fixtures, chandeliers and cieling fans as possible. The basic technique for quakes now is Drop, Cover and Hold On. Drop to minimize your profile, cover to protect your head, and hold on to avoid being knocked over or tumbled out somewhere dangerous. If you're outside, get away from trees and buildings - as open an area as possible - to avoid things falling off buildings... or falling buildings.

http://www.scec.org/education/public/allmyths.html Hiding under door frames is NOT recommended any longer. In adobe structures, the door was indeed the strongest point in the structure. In modern wood-frame buildings? It's the weakest.

Everyone has some funny tricks for making math easy. I do a few things, but it tends to depend on the exact numbers involved. I don't normally factor, at least not that way. I'll either "half double" (double the small number and half the big one) which in this case gets me 6x9 (which is different from the 9x6 you have there) Or I'll "chunk it" and go "3x10 is 30 and 3x8 is 24 so 30 plus 24 is 54"

Bah! What good is seeing you BELLY dancing if there's no belly? ;)

Lukewarm Touch is hardly useless. It's the ultimate defence against freezing arctic plunges AND deadly torrents of lava or molten metal. Plus it will never be too cold to go swimming! Downside: Nobody will share the hot tub with you.

Chiming in here... A: I don't see the "Wii Slump" you're claiming. While there was a general downward trend for half the year, the same trend was observed in all three consoles. If you're claiming the Wii had a slump, then so did the other two consoles. While it dipped further than the others, relatively speaking, it still remained the dominant seller for the whole year - there was only one month it was outsold. Some more predictions... Blizzard will coast on WoW. 2010 will not see the release of Diablo 3. Starcraft 2 will be delayed again, and won't release before September. Probably later. iPhone/mobile gaming will be completely dominated by the Casual genre. While some publishers will try moving other games in, they'll flop. The only other genre that stands a chance is menu-driven RPG. DLC will be everything. It's already showing, when some games have DLC available on launch date. PSPGo will fail to gain a significant foothold, in large due to their refusal to back down on full MSRP for DLC titles. Nothing of significance will happen in terms of the PSP all year, as Sony will be throwing everything it can at PS3 Motion. PS3 Motion and Natal will accomplish little. If there are a dozen full retail games (between both platforms) designed expressly (aka requiring) for them by end of year, I'll be shocked. XBLA/PSN shovelware doesn't count here, as the primary way the first parties will "support" these gadgets is through small downloadable games. Next gen consoles may be discussed, but nobody is announcing anything. A new Halo game will be announced a few months after the release of Halo: Reach

BGG Gift Guide 2009 For alternatives to Blokus that are still awesome. But Blokus is awesome.