I think I can clear up some of the confusion about the two transmissions.  When Hurley visited the Australian woman in the desert, she said that her husband had heard the transmission of the numbers "over sixteen years ago."  Therefore, he heard it prior to Rousseau's decision to change the message, and possibly before she even arrived on the island.

Rousseau decided to changed the broadcast message after she killed the remnants of her team.  The original broadcast of the message does not continue -- in the episode where Shannon decodes Rousseau's message, the only numbers mentioned was in the "iteration" count which said how many times the message has been repeated.

-Autistic Angel

What time of day did this e-mail arrive?  Isn't it possible that she sent this out when she was drunk?

I am going to wear a strapless (calm down guys, I will either wear band-aids or pasties underneath) dress to the dance that will be short, but long enough to cover my slip. Closed towed shoes? You betcha...I didnt watch Mtv's Wade Robson Project for nothing! I mentioned the minivan earlier, and my dad already said I could have it for the dance.  It is an '05 model and it has the leather package, and the dvd player in it, so if the dance is lame we can watch the English Patient or something.

Really drunk?

-Autistic Angel

Hurley's cameo made me sit up real quick. So what's his story? None of the Americans seem to recognize him - is he some sort of Korean star? Is he actually a sumo wrester, like some suggested? Doesn't seem to know Korean at all.

It looked to me like Hurley was getting into a car.  Whatever it was, though, it was definitely subtitled in an asian language -- presumably Korean.  I wonder if anyone has translated thost subtitles so we can find out what was going on....

I'd be more likely to believe that Hurley was on an Amazing Race-type reality show than that he was a sumo wrestler.  It's a common American misconception that sumo wrestlers are simply obese when, in fact, they're true athletes capable of incredible bursts of speed, strength, and balance.  Hurley's a big, likable dude, but he's no sumo wrestler.

-Autistic Angel

Yes, tonight's episode was phenomenal.  It isn't a casual statement when I say, as a huge fan of the series, that this was probably the best Lost since Locke's episode.

Also, you should add to your list of highlights the title of tonight's episode: "...In Translation."

-Autistic Angel

I have to agree about the Peter David recommendation -- Vendetta is probably the greatest Star Trek novel I've ever read, though Imzadi would be a close second.

The only thing to remember about Vendetta is that it was written long before Star Trek: First Contact neutered the Borg, so its much more in keeping with how that race was first presented in Next Generation.  If you really like the idea of Borg ships outfitted with lightning globes and lonely Borg queens who're just looking for a little lovin', you'll probably be disappointed.

If, on the other hand, you liked the Borg as they were originally conceived -- a dark, pitiless plague of technological locusts who are interested only in whatever they can consume -- I'd highly recommend Vendetta.

-Autistic Angel

I had a similar issue at one point and I think I was in the same place.  All you have to do is enter the 'Party Management' screen and re-add Kreia and Atton to your party.  I don't know if you can do this once you're on the planet, but so long as you're on the station you should be okay.

-Autistic Angel

[EDIT]

If you hold the 'Alt' button down, it'll let you rotate the camera.  I believe that, in addition to the zoom and pan controls, should let you position the camera how you want.

EDIT: Upon a second read, this won't help at all.  Unfortunately, I don't know if there's a way to control the camera's pitch independently of its height.

-Autistic Angel

When is The Shield season 4 starting up on FX? It seems like it's been off the air forever.

The season premiere is scheduled for March 15th.

-Autistic Angel

I was just coming here to post the same thing about the mis-named file.

Speaking as a big fan of the original Freedom Force, it looks like this sequel is right up my alley.  I just had a little bit of time to play around with the demo, and I like the way the power interface has been streamlined -- the energy bar is now segmented so its easier to see how much energy a particular superpower will take.

I'll be interested to experiment more with the game.  One of the things that irked me about the original was how thrown objects seemed to have no sense of mass -- if you threw a car at an average thug, the car would actually bounce off of him like he was made of concrete.  It seems to me like if whacking someone with an automobile is going to bowl them over, the car's trajectory should be mostly unaffected....

That's a minor quibble, though -- I really dig the whole retro-comic motif of this series.  

-Autistic Angel

...at FilePlanet.

If anyone knows of a legitimate mirror, I'd sure love to give this a try!

-Autistic Angel

I'm consistently impressed by the quality of Josh "Sawyer" Holloway's performance.  I think this guy is going to be a big, big star.

-Autistic Angel

The only one I can say I'll pick up for certain is Angel.  I've never actually seen an episode of Buffy or Angel on television, but I've seen every bit of both series on DVD -- I just need this final set to complete the collection.

It's a very sad thing to see both of these great series come to an end.  It really feels like Angel is going out before its time, but as others have said, it's probably better to stop while you're at the top of your game....

-Autistic Angel

Gargoyles suffered from the same problem as Batman Beyond and Invader Zim -- although they're animated, they just aren't intended for young kids.

Gargoyles is an excellent series, featuring complex characters, fully-fledged multi-episode story arcs, and some surprisingly deep themes.  It draws a lot of its insipration from Celtic and Norse mythology, especially as the series matures into its second and third seasons, and the Gargoyles universe is uncommonly well realized by the end of its run.

If you have any sort of digital cable or satellite television service and can get the "Toon Disney" channel, two episodes of Gargoyles are run back-to-back at 11:30pm and midnight every night of the week.  Unfortunately these episodes are cut down to eliminate some of the more graphic scenes, but the majority of the episodes are untouched and still extremely enjoyable all these years later.

I would snap up the DVD set in a heartbeat if I knew the following seasons of the show would also be made available.

-Autistic Angel

No, no: the name of the show is Best Week Ever -- it's one of those retrospective shows on VH1, similar to I Love The (Decade), except that it focuses on the events of the past week or so.

In other words, a bunch of comedians sit down and make fun of trends in pop-culture and news items from the last few days.  No single topic ever survives past about two minutes so it never has a chance to get boring, and the people involved come out with some really funny stuff sometimes.

-Autistic Angel

I liked the part at the very end when Kendra affirmed that Freddy had finally "proven himself worthy" of having kids with.

-Autistic Angel

Freddy and Kendra won.

-Autistic Angel

[The Video]

According to IGN, the rush to release Ray on DVD had its consequences:

The Video

There is only one word for this transfer: shameful. Since I've started reviewing DVDs, I've seen good, bad and adequate transfers, but this is the first disc that actually made me angry. Presented in 1.85:1 anamorphic, the picture is a catalog of flaws and errors which are inexcusable for a AAA-title like this.

Colors are weak and washed out; highlights are frequently blown out; edge-enhancement is common and black levels are weak, causing shadow details to suffer. Anything that's not in the extreme foreground looks as soft and fuzzy as a kitten and the backgrounds are generally a mushy watercolor blob. The flashbacks scenes, digitally colored to hype the red soil and green grass of Florida and exaggerate the contrast, look even uglier.

While these flaws are apparently on their own, the deleted scenes only serve to accentuate the shoddiness because while they're too dark and non-anamorphic, the colors and detail are far richer than the main feature. Since the extra scenes only make up about one-sixth of the overall running time, we're left with a mostly messed-up picture.

For a second perspective, I also checked out a segment on a standard TV, and the differences in picture are negligible. Overall, the picture looks a bit better, though moiré patterns now appear. If you're watching on a regular TV, it may be adequate, but discerning home theater owners will note the flaws.

Score: 4 out of 10

-Autistic Angel

On the surface, I think Michael is uncomfortable with Locke because he's a spooky old bald guy who travels with a suitcase full of knives, tends to stay on the outer fringes of any socialization, and is exceptionally good at killing things.  If you were a father, would you want your ten-year-old son hanging out with someone like that?

On another level, I think Michael is deeply upset about the fact that his newly-reunited son seems to prefer Locke as his father figure.  Michael has always wanted to be a father to Walt, but now that he has the chance, he's discovered that he doesn't have any idea how to relate to his son.  Unfortunately, while Michael is trying to feel things out and get used to the role, Walt is busy bonding with Locke because Locke is the coolest guy of all time.

I think that's the source of his hostility.

-Autistic Angel

That's very disappointing.  Like Fez, I'm very interested in the game, but I'm no more interested in suffering through game-stopping bugs than I am in supporting a company that would release their game in such an awful state.

It's a real shame -- it seems like this game had a lot of potential.

-Autistic Angel

Yes, welcome, and thank you very much for your service.

-Autistic Angel

[Vanity Fair Bitch Decries Prayer Service As Nothing But Lip Service; Says Troops Don't Need God's Support]

I completely agree with naednek and Graham: what a godawful bitch!  Leave it to the whining, secularist left to try and diminish George W. Bush's commanding re-election victory by trying to refocus all the attention on the grave danger of our troops and their woefully inadequate supplies and equipment!  Liberals will do literally anything to attack our president, and apparently that even includes forgoing legitimate discussion of style, decor, and cuisine just so they can hijack the interview and complain about the lives of our troops.

This is why the liberals lost and will always lose.  George W. Bush understands something that they never will: that the greatest act a soldier can perform is to give his life in service to our country.  And rather than honor those sacrifices, all the liberals want to do is whine and hand-wring over the fact that they died by combing over minutiae like body armor funding and vehicle armor manufacturing.  Disgusting!

President Bush won, and he won because of moral values.  Deal with it.  These pathetic attempts to question the conviction of his morality by comparing his words against his actions is as tiresome as it is transparent.

I think the real news story here is how the Vanity Fair bitch represents yet-another attempt by the secularist liberal left to diminish the importance of God in our society by sarcastically questioning the value of a prayer service to protect our troops.  Where is the New York Times headline reading Vanity Fair Bitch Decries Prayer Service As Nothing But Lip Service; Says Troops Don't Need God's Support[/u]?  When can we expect the Washington Post to publish a front-page article on all the soldiers God *did* protect from harm yesterday?

Finally, I just wanted to thank Graham for posting the links and quotes about Barbara Boxer and Condoleeza Rice.  I'm sure most tunnel-visioned liberals won't understand what, if anything, that has to do with this thread, the war, the inauguration, Fox News Channel, or Vanity Fair, but that's because they're incapable of reading between the lines and seeing how it proves that that Vanity Fair woman is such a bitch!

-Autistic Angel

I'm really going to miss Jonathan and Victoria.  He was *so* impotent and she was *so* whiny, I just couldn't stop laughing anytime they were on-screen.

Oh well, at least we still have Kendra around.  "Wow, seeing this place, it's like these people *choose* to be dirt-poor savages!  It's so refreshing!"

-Autistic Angel

Duing her conversation with Sayid, the French woman said that her husband Robert "got sick" and started taking other members of their group into the woods one by one where they would also "get sick."

Is it just me, or does that sound a lot like what happened between Locke and Boone last week?

-Autistic Angel

[EDIT:]

Sayid walked for 2 days to get to the Frenchwoman.

EDIT: Oops -- I double-checked the episode and you're right: Kate tells Jack that it's been almost two days since Sayid took off on his own.  Forget what I said.  :oops:

-Autistic Angel

1. MINOR: Upon leaving telos as a Sith, the handmaiden has stowed away, but as a jedi, i'm all the way to onderon and don't have her.

When I played through the game as a Jedi, Handmaiden stowed away aboard my ship, too.  I don't think your choice of alignment has had any affect on this.

2. MEDIUM to MAJOR- On Nar Shadaar, as Sith, i slaughtered all elements of the Exchange that I could. As a Jedi, I left the colony and the leader of the exchange is still alive (though I've freed the girl and killed some of his guards). As a result (?) none of the sequences where I get kidnapped by GOTO and my allies attempt to rescue me occured. And finally, I've still not been able to find the Jedi on that planet. However, with the Sith, i steamrolled through the yacht, found the Jedi and moved on.

Again, playing as a jedi, I pursuaded the leader of the Exchange to let the girl go free and continued with the rest of the storyline, including getting kidnapped by Goto.  Nar Shaddaa is a *highly* scripted planet, and certain events have to occur before the next scripted event will kick off -- for example, a friend of mine got stuck because he had never gone *inside* the Ebon Hawk to kill all the Exchange members when they tried to steal the ship.  As a result, none of the other story elements ever kicked in.

If you haven't already, go and speak with the Exchange leader who kidnapped the girl.  Make sure you've also cleaned out the Ebon Hawk.  Aside from that, I don't know how to advise you....

Also, as the sith, I at one point had Dark Mastery and as a result a bonus of 50 force points. Unfortunately, I commited a decent act and that's moved me off of Dark Mastery. Will I be able to get back to it if I continue to be a very naughty guy?

Yes.

-Autistic Angel

[KILLING[/i] me that you're mad at me!!!"Ugh.-Autistic Angel]

I think Jonathan is absolutely hilarious to watch on television, but I have to wonder why Victoria clings to that relationship.  Same goes for Rebecca and Adam -- there *must* be some self-esteem issues at play for her to continue stringing along someone as needy, whiny, and melodramatic as Adam.

"Do you want me to jump on the train tracks, Rebecca?  'Cause that's what I'll do if it'll make you happy!  I'm sorry, Rebecca, I'm *so* sorry!  God, it's KILLING[/i] me that you're mad at me!!!"

Ugh.

-Autistic Angel

I recognize everyone except the big guy standing behind Billy Dee Williams.  Who is that?

-Autistic Angel

Another classic liberal response: feeling justified in defending yourselves just because -Lord Ebonstone- is strong and self-confident enough to use savage personal attacks to violently derail any thread that strikes him as uninteresting.  Considering what a Jesus-loving, patriotic, morally-right conservative he is, did it ever occur to you that he wouldn't launch such vile assaults if you weren't the opposite of all those things.  After all, if he loves God and America, and you're displeasing him, guess who you must love....

You may not agree with -Lord Ebonstone- -- you may even think he's a purile, small-minded, snarling lunatic who greatly diminshes the quality of any thread that catches his eye -- but at least you know where he stands.  That's what we conservatives call "strong core values," it's something that liberals don't get, and it's the reason why you're doomed to lose every election for the rest of eternity.

-Autistic Angel

I think the problem here is simply that -Lord Ebonstone- isn't one of those wishy-washy, flip-flopping liberals that suffers from such weakness of character that he has to rely on such antiquated notions as "common courtesy," "simple decency," or "basic maturity" to communicate with others.  Where some weak-kneed, namby-pamby liberals might see a raging asshole whose very presence in a thread tends to degenerate the conversation into a screaming match full of personal attacks and, quite often, racial epithets, any *real* American with a strong sense of moral righteousness and patriotic pride knows better.  -Lord Ebonstone-, like myself, has simply learned the lessons of Rush Limbaugh and Ann Coulter well: differences of opinion always stem from the other person's malice and stupidity, so why waste your time trying to reason with them?

It's painfully obvious that you all hate -Lord Ebonstone- for his freedom -- his freedom to take aggressive pre-emptive action against people like bimbo15 -- and all this liberal hand-wringing over so-called "civil discourse" makes me sick.

-Autistic Angel

If you ever plan to play Buffy The Vampire Slayer, do so before you try Ninja Gaiden.  After Ninja Gaiden, your expectations will be set so high that all other action games will pale by comparison.

Also, you *owe* it to yourself to play Katamari Damacy!

-Autistic Angel

My personal opinion is that companies add that line just to encourage people to listen carefully to all the menu options and avoid accidentally punching in the wrong numbers.  The company's menu hasn't changed at all, but by saying that it has, people are more likely to listen to what it has to say.

-Autistic Angel

When I was a level 15 priest, I was challenged to a duel by a level 10 character who was dual-wielding some bladed weapons.  I don't remember if he was a warrior or a rogue, but I do remember that he wouldn't stop whining when I used Power Word: Shield to absorb his initial attacks and then hit him with a Fear effect while my DoT spells took their toll.

I really don't see why it would be bad form for spell-casting classes to use their spells against enemies in PvP combat....

-Autistic Angel

I started playing a priest because I enjoy character classes that allow me to help out other people, and also because everyone said that priests were really rare compared to most other classes.  Unfortunately, it seems like priests are becomming more and more common on my server, but I'm still having a great time with the class.

I'm just a casual player so my character is only up to level 18, but so far I've devoted all of my talent points into the Shadow Tree to make it harder for the enemy to resist my attacks and to increase the likelihood that they'll get stunned by my spells.  Things are going okay so far, but I've been paying careful attention to the advice in this thread about reassigning my talent points to be a dedicated healer in the future.  To the tune of one gold piece, I figure I'll stay on this track for the moment, and then unlearn my talents once I reach a level where all my time will be spent with groups hunting high-level monsters.

-Autistic Angel

This is only tangentially related to the topic, but I'm surprised at how much World of WarCraft has rekindled my interest in (re)playing WarCraft III.  I usually prefer games with a more epic scale like Rise of Nations or Empire Earth, and I wasn't really blown away by WarCraft III on my first run through the campaign, but damn if WoW doesn't make me want to spend even more time in that universe.

When a game is so good that it actually enhances your opinion of the entire franchise, *that's* impressive!  Perhaps I'll stop by the store this week and pick up the Frozen Throne expansion pack...I never did play any of that....

-Autistic Angel

I would have thought that if MechAssault 2 was going to miss the big Christmas rush, the developer would have wanted to hold onto it until it was 100% ready for a successful release.  It's always surprising to me when a highly anticipated game is shipped at an awkward time of year (three days after Christmas) *and* in an unfinished or untested state.  Seriously: who wins here?

-Autistic Angel

February 8th.

-Autistic Angel

Well, I think I can speak for all patriotic, *right*-thinking Americans when I say that we're pretty unhappy about the administration caving in to Blame America First crowd on this one.  What sort of message does this send about the second term...that if the liberals just do enough whining and hand-wringing about catastrophic situations, our government can be pressured into helping?

This is a classic liberal reponse: whenever people are severely disadvantaged and suffering, it's somehow our job to provide them with money, food, medicine, and supplies just because we can easily afford it.  Please show me where it's stated in the Constitution that *my* tax dollars should be funnelled into other countries just because they've suffered an almost cataclysmic disaster and are in dire need of our help!  This whole situation is nothing but another ploy by the liberal elite to use Big Government to solve everybody's problems, regardless of the fact that such acts of "compassion" really just reduce their ability to fend for themselves.

I also love the fact that the liberal mainstream media is doing everything it can to make a big deal out of the fact that the overwhelming majority of the charitable contributions are coming from "blue" areas like New York, California, and the northeast.  Does it really surprise anyone to discover that when the U.N. insults the Greatest Nation on Earth, those namby-pamby liberals would immediately fold and resort to appeasement rather than remaining united behind our president?  Rather than making some point about generosity, all this really proves is that real Americans prefer to provide for their own families instead of giving all their money away and then crying to the government about it.

These are just a few of the patriotic Truths our local conservative talk-show hosts have shared over the past week...thank God we have their Truth to counteract the lies of the liberal, America-hating mainstream media!

-Autistic Angel

Purge, if you're really dedicated to not playing World of WarCraft, I have two friends who would be more than happy to put it to good use.  Offer it up for trade and we'll work out a PayPal transaction.

-AutisticAngel

Well, I'm a Level 12 priest on a server with a medium population, and I've found the other players to be nothing but helpful, friendly, and fun to group with.  If there's a big problem with PKing or griefing, I haven't encountered it so far.

I'm not a fan of MMORPGs -- most of them seem to consist primarily of levelling just for the sake of levelling, and the only goal is to suffer through the aggravation and tedium in the hopes of someday having a character who inspires envy in others.

That said, I'm really having a blast with World of WarCraft.  This game is not fun because you're in competition with others; it's fun because the different character classes are interesting to play, the world is colorful and diverse, and the questing system offers an easy and accessible way to explore the world and advance while you do it.

-Autistic Angel

In the time it took me to complete the game, I suffered from only one crash that forced me to restart my X-Box.

-Autistic Angel