I have changed my mind.....
I owe a great deal to the now dead king of the geeks. in hindsight, what Rpgs is help to teach me is that all things are not linear. That things are not as the are given to you. You can and should do things your own way, they are usually more fun that way too. that knowledge is a guideline, not the end. you only take what you have learned and apply it to new and usually unforeseen seen circumstances. your friends ARE assholes and will gleefully ruin ALL of your plans b/c they think that's the best way to have fun. imagination is as important as knowledge. if you don;t like a rule fuck it, it's not needed. in contrast you will always have some asshole tell you to follow a rule you never even heard of, you know the one about playing an owl-bear on page 78 appendix iii in the book you have never heard of. just b/c someone has the same interests as you doesn't mean that they still aren't an asshole. I could write more but I don't want to and as 7000 Dying Rats said "I am a geek and proud of it".