question of geekness

which manages also to display my complete inability to understand game mechanics.
but. vampire MET question (masquerade, not requiem)
so i've got some XP to spend and am contemplating buying more willpower. but my character has a derangement where she has to do a willpower test against 5 if it gets triggered. if she loses it goes off. if i buy a 5th willpower, will i start winning ties? (i don't want to do this because derangements aren't fun if you don't get to play them...)
anyone? i know some of y'all understand these rules.

(no subject)

so i was reading the newspaper today. in this case the newspaper is the star ledger, the major newspaper in northern new jersey. among the letters to the editor was a brief letter criticizing the lack of world aid to victims of katrina, considering how much american aid has gone to other countries when they have disasters.

this intrigued me as i know that many other countries have indeed offered to help.

as i looked through the paper, both for today and the previous couple of days, i found no articles mentioning that foreign support, though a number covered the vast outpouring of aid around the usa.

though the other paper we get, a local paper for just a couple of counties, did have a brief article about foreign aid.

i don't particularly blame the person writing the letter to the editor; presumably he/she gets news from the newspaper and was simply responding to the apparent situation.

rather, i find it an interesting commentary on what we consider newsworthy. as someone who gets most of her information either from newspapers or from friends who links, it's worth thinking about how much i must miss because the paper doesn't report it. much less days i don't have time to read the paper. and how much perceptions and opinions are based on what gets reported.

there's a certain self-centeredness in the way the paper has reported responses all over the nation but not around the world. it's a vicious circle, really. they don't put much international news because their readers don't care as much about it. which leads to readers who don't hear much about the rest of the world and therefore don't develop an interest in it.

food for thought.

albeit only half-formed.