My CC pre-order copy just came in so I'll be trying it out this weekend.  This may spell the end of PotBS if I like it.

Definitely very entertaining, a lot of classic Indy moments.  Me likey!

Screw the midnight crowds.

Have you ever been to a midnight show?  Any one I've attended has had a high energy and excitement level, but once the film starts the entire crowd goes absolutely silent as every person in the theater is typically there for one purpose.  To be the first to see a highly anticipated film.  Now, if you were referring to Friday night crowds?  Then I would agree completely.  But I've found midnight crowds to be the best to see highly anticipated films with. 

I agree.  Midnight crowds are usually the most enthusiastic crowd and they're usually are fans.  I've been to quite a few midnight showings where people are dressed up, very into the movie/series, friendly and will include you in their trivia games or any games that they happen to bring.  When the movie starts, they're pretty quiet, of course there's the occasional outbursts of clappings and cheerings but usually at the right moments.

I love midnight showing crowds!

Me and the GF just got tickets for tonight, the 12:01am showing.  We'll probably be heading over right after her favorite show, Ghost Hunters.

Taken from TechBargains.com:

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Right now it's Rock Band Special Ed for PS2 for $99.99 on their lightning deal.

Tempted...so tempted...

I'm gonna see if I can find some time to head to Disneyland and use my annual pass to pick up the fedora.  Will post some pics once I got them.

Here is the direct product link from Lucas Film LTD:

Don't get ripped for $50

Hmm, that looks just like the ones they sell at Disneyland.  The price is about the same as well.  I wonder if it's the same one.

Oh man, that looks good.  Hmm, I may have to figure out how to slip that in the budget.

Well, I'm too far removed to really be judgmental about her parents, but it seems odd that if they want her to be "financially stable" that they seem to be waiting for a would-be husband to come in and solve that problem for her.  Unless you're bringing a lot of financial baggage or debt into the marriage that she'll be saddled with, marriage only tends to help the financial situation (one residence, one set of bills, tax incentives, etc.)

I think some people are just bad for each other, at least in the respect that they can act as enablers for the worst vices of the other.  So if you take two financially irresponsible people and put them together that's not necessarilly a recipe for altering the habits of either.  Now, I'm not saying that's the case with Tokek at all but just as a hypothetical. 

As an extreme example, I know that if my financially irresponsible daughter wanted to marry a freeloading bum with no prospects, I wouldn't exactly want to give my blessing no matter how much they profess their love for each other.  I just don't think that's what most parents hope for their children.

The flipside is that if it was a nice, smart young guy with a good prospects but currently in a low paying job, while I may worry about their finances, I would still happily give my blessing. 

I'm not exactly the best money manager in the world, neither is she, but we've learned to curb and manage our finances throughout the year.  Granted, it will probably be a rough start for a few years but I'm damn sure that we can pull it through and come out ahead later on.  I stuck with her through the diagnosis of breast cancer, through months of chemo and radiation, so I think the finances thing will be a walk in the park.

They didn't give a "no" but they didn't exactly give a "yes" either, so we may still go through with it after we make sure that her parents will be ok with it and won't cause awkwardness for her in family gatherings.

I don't disagree with your decision to ask them.  As I said before, if you wanted to do it and had the relationship, more power to you.  It's not required, however.

But here's where I disagree with you.  Both you and she are in your 30s - by FAR adult enough to decide who you'd like to spend the rest of your life with.  As such, it shouldn't make a damn bit of difference whether her parents are "ok with it" or whether it causes "awkwardness".  This decision is perhaps the most important one both you and she will make in your lives and it's your decision alone.  While you can ask for their advice or even their blessing, no one else can make this decision for you.  And if you can't start your lives together regardless of whether they want to give their approval, then there's little long-term hope for your relationship because they'll dominate your relationship for the rest of your days. 

After reading the above phrase, all I can say is that she needs to cut the strings and you need to grow a pair.  Either she is the love of your life or she's not.  Either propose or don't.  But waiting on someone else's approval on the most critical decision of YOUR life is absurd. 

Someone else at the office said pretty much the exact same thing to me today and I don't disagree.  However, I've been raised with the mindset that family is everything.  When no one else in the world will help, family will.  Granted that view is not exactly widespread anymore but I still believe it.  It's a little tough to let go of something so ingrained.  On the other hand though, my family are all excited about it when I told them that I was going to ask her to marry me and wholeheartedly supported me, so either way, we'll have at least 1 side of the family that'll invite us to their gatherings, lol!

Austin: I think we did meet in Long Beach, on 2nd street at a mexican restaurant a few years back.

The parents said that they would like for her to have a better financial start than they did when they first got married, plus they said that we're both in our 30's which, according to them, is even more important to have a more stable financial base.

Boudreaux: I asked them for their blessing just because it's the right thing to do and because their family is extremely close to each other.  It's also the way I've been raised and I hope, if I do have a daughter, that the man who wants to marry her will come over and ask for my blessing.  I'm a little old fashioned in that sense.  They didn't give a "no" but they didn't exactly give a "yes" either, so we may still go through with it after we make sure that her parents will be ok with it and won't cause awkwardness for her in family gatherings.

Sarkus: Personally, I don't think it's being over protective, I think of it as being parents.  I mean, I brought up those exact concerns with my gf before when we were talking about it.  They just don't want her to have financial hardships like they went through.

Btw, thank you all for the kind words and the inputs and the debates.

Hmm, I see it all the time at Disneyland and they're way cheaper there, I think $30-$40.  Doesn't come with a hat box though and possibly not of the same quality as the $100 one on ThinkGeek, but looks just as cool (or dorky).

If anyone wants one, I can see how much it is next time I go to Disneyland and pick one up, just pay me cost + shipping.

We may go over there and have a talk with her parents or I'm pretty sure she will after she's calmed down a bit.

Her friends and my friends are all saying that the reasons her parents gave were not good enough and that we should just get married and prove them wrong.  We'll see.  I'll give it a few more days to think it over.

I'm 30 and she's 35.  I do have a stable job and so does she, we both just have not-so-good credits and that's what her parents mean by "not financially stable."  They're worried about where we will live, when we can afford a house, etc.  I understand where they are coming from though, as I have brought up the same concerns with her before.

Her family is extremely close with each other and I told her outright that I don't want to be the cause of a rift or awkwardness in her family and I will walk away if that's the case.  I told her that if we were to elope, I want to make sure that it will not cause her to be "unwelcomed" in family gatherings.  I know that sounds harsh but I told her that the reason for marriage is to expand families, not to tear them apart.

We may still go through with it since she's the kind of person who loves to prove people wrong when they said it can't be done, but I told her that she'd better make sure that at least her parents are ok with it and that it won't create any awkwardness with her family.

We'll see.

So...um...yeah...no dice.

It wasn't a total loss though, they said "whatever makes her happy, they'll go with it" but as far as blessing goes, they're not willing to give 100% because they don't think I'm financially stable enough.  They did gave me props for having the guts to show up and ask, all by myself.

I've had this talk with her before and it was pretty much the exact same concerns that her parents have so it wasn't much of a blow to me, but it was pretty devastating to her.  Now she feels guilty cause she feels that she made me do it.  My friends and her friends are saying we should elope, lol, we'll see.

Wish me luck, I'll be heading over to her parents' house in about 20 minutes.

I figured it's something new I ought to try at least once

j/k 

Well, I just called their home but no one was home so I left a message to call me back to set up the best time I can come over.

I'm pretty sure that's a big giveaway.

I've known her for almost 10 years and were good friends even before we dated.  Her family knows me as well as they always invited me over to their family gatherings.

I'll call her parents later today to try to schedule a time when I can come by when the both of them are home and ask.

So I'm gonna pop the question to my gf and I figured I'd ask here for some advice on how to ask her parents' permission.

How do I go about doing it?  What should I say?  What questions, if any, I should expect from the parents?

Any inputs are appreciated!

Thanks!

Don't mean to derail but QuickBooks has a free version of their software called Simple Start

http://quickbooks.intuit.com/product/accounting-software/free-accounting-software.jhtml

If you're just looking to keep track of your personal expenses, this is a pretty decent tool to use, very limited if you're using it for business though.

Maybe you can report it as mail fraud to the post office.

Lesson for next time though, never deal with money orders or checks as you have very limited recourse to getting your money back.

I already bought an X-FI extremegamer card and the problem disappeared.  I figured it's time to upgrade since the Audigy2 has gone through 2 computer upgrades.

I did strip out the drivers, didn't do the DirectX though.

Dells are pretty solid machines and that's not a bad price.

+1 for ROTC1983 for the HTC Touch

Diego Guapo huh?  Mine is Georges Guynemer and my society is Nouvelle-France

Started playing it Friday night and then more on Saturday.  So far, I'm liking it.  I passed Damascus and am just entering Acre.

I love throwing archers off their watch towers, lol.

Yeah, looks like I may go that route and switch to the on-board.  I'll miss the EAX support though.

I was looking into the Azuntech and Asus Xonar cards but they're way pricey.

I'm using headphones, always have. I've also read up on some fixes that I will try as well, like moving the card to the last PCI slot.

If all else fails, I'm going to try to use the on-board audio later tonight and maybe picking up an X-Fi XtremeGamer later on.

What other sound cards are comparable to the Audigy / X-Fi for gaming?

I just got Assassin's Creed Director's Cut from GoGamer 48 hour madness sale and installed it last night but as soon as the game starts, my Audigy 2 would crackle so bad that I can barely hear anything from the game itself.

So far, I've tried moving the card to a different PCI slot, installing new drivers and adjusting the PCI latency but to no avail.  It actually got worse since now the crackling would start as soon as windows starts.

Anyone got any ideas on a fix?  Maybe it's time to replace the sound card with an X-Fi?

I used to use Nod32 on my home pc but it failed to catch and clean up a trojan, so I switched to Panda instead.

I moved the Nod32 on the laptop though since I have the subscription for it til the end of this year.

Just in case anyone's looking for this game, it's currently on sale at GoGamer.com for $24.90 as part of their 48 hour madness sale.

Other games in the sale:

Orange Box - $32.90
The Movies - $4.90
Battlestations: Midway - $4.90
SimCity Societies - $14.90
and a couple of other games.

Someone at OO bought one and posted impressions there.  IIRC, he loves it.

I'm planning to get one myself once I found a spare $400, lol.

Good luck and thanks, Rip.  I think for a lot of people it was surprising just how fragile the internet can be - at least it was for me.  Don't think that many of us don't appreciate your efforts, but keep in mind that it is hard to do so if there is little communication about what is happening.  Get some rest.

True and I appreciate that. I am just tired and relieved. Probably a little grumpy. Haven't had anything good to pass along in a few days and too tired to formulate any effectual communication. No time for rest yet, have a day full of hectic work ahead. Maybe tonight.

Rip, a lot of folks are very grateful to you for voluntarily hosting OO over the years.  You should never feel unappreciated.

+10000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

+1 to the end of the zeroes above.

I'm still playing this game.  I joined a French society on Rackham and it's been pretty cool so far.  I moved my Pirate from Morgan over to Roberts but I haven't played him in a long time though.

Next Question: Anyone recommend a good set of bluetooth headphones?

Aliph Jawbone is a good one, you can get them for $70-ish now.

Also, I've heard good reviews about BlueAnt's Z9, which is what I'm leaning towards purchasing.

I haven't played this game in ages, I may have to fire it back up and brush up my rusted to dust skills again with some OO/GT folks.

I loved hardcore mode better than the regular, sadly I can't remember my favorite weapon loadouts.  I think I liked the G3 for hardcore mode but not regular mode since the single shot can be a real disadvantage there (or maybe I just sucked).

Saw a bunch of copies of LOTRO for $4.95 at my local Target today.

My condolences YK.  As a motorcycle rider myself, it's hard to hear of a fellow rider's passing but he did die doing what he loved to do.