I only regret that i spend the time here that i do without posting.  Being a 2 game player (WoW and right now the Freespace 2 SCP with mods), I don't have a lot to comment on.  So, I relegate myself to off-topic.  I know a few folks in RL here, notably Ron.  I even worked for him for a short period of time.  I'm not a good journalist.  If it was an opinion article and I could rant, that would be different.  People do that already in their blogs, so who am I?  Just another gamer with an opinion.  I can segue into anything.  Damn I need to get some sleep.

Isn't USA found on immigrants?

I can't say for sure, but I imagine there are some immigrants that have USA on them.

It's supposedly very difficult to immigrate to Australia.  They have several requirements that have to be met by all before they can immigrate there.  I believe one of them is to get all the USA off.

Iron Maiden - The Number of the Beast (I should put Live after Death, one of the best live albums ever made, IMHO)
Black Sabbath - We Sold our Soul for Rock and Roll (Yes, I know it's a "best of", but is hasn't left my old CD player at home in years.)
Metallica - Ride the Lightning (I am also a MoP fan, but liked this a bit more)
Bloodhound Gang - One Fierce Beer Coaster (I thought, "What is this?  Rap?  Funk?  I love it!")

The first 3 albums pretty much summed up what I considered to be the end-all and be-all of music as I was growing up.  There have been others, to be sure, abd the Bloodhound Gang I put in there because it's what opened me up to anything non-hard rock.

I've browsed these forums enough to know when to just hush up and not press the issue.  I choose to do that now in order to preserve my "no-reputation" instead of one that's COMPLETELY false.

But yes, I do watch Food Network.  I think Alton Brown is educational as well as entertaining and Anthony Bourdain (see: Travel Channel) is right about the rest of them.

I'm not making a case for Crocs, I hate them personally, but here's a guy who wears Crocs constantly:

I just want to tell you good luck. We're all counting on you.

Airplane reference...the Force is strong with this one...

Gordon Ramsey's rant about the non-stick pan last season still makes me laugh when I think about it.  I will definitely be watching it.

Well, if your plan was less than 8mb, then yes, they just assign you a new plan which gives you access to a higher bandwidth cap.

DSLAM is Digital Subscriber Line Access Multiplexer and would apply to DSL modems, not Cablemodems.  In this case, the TFTP (Trivial File Transfer Protocol ) file in the cable modem would change and with it, your ability to access higher bandwidth.  No dials.

It is doubtful that you'd notice any more speed by the way...only on sustained transfers, and then you are limited by the other end of the connection - the server sending.

Memories...of the way things used to be...misty water-colored memories...of the way we were...

Don't act like you haven't seen worse, java.  I know you have. 

Or Hoggle.

I lol'ed.

Ultraviolet on DVD.  Even for $9.95, I'm regretting it.

I should have read a review before I picked it up.

You are not allowed to see any other movies, nor allowed to discuss any movies until you've seen the best trilogy of all time - LOTR.

Until that day, turn in your mangeek card.

Wow.  Best trilogy of all time, you say?  Really?  Honestly?  Maybe I'm old...

Kate Beckinsale and Jessica Alba are lovely to look at.

Is that not fact?  Opinions, man!

Nah, I choke down the offal in the front of a mag before getting to the good stuff.  I also eat all my dinner before getting dessert.

"How can you have any pudding if you don't eat your meat?"

Speaking of being a nerd... does anyone own any tshirts with super hero logos?

I have a Superman shirt, and want to pick up an Autobot shirt some time.

There was, for a short time, a Superman shirt with the red in the shield bleeding.  It came out during the "death of Superman" comics in the 90's.  I want it.

Why thank you sir!  We're taking off tomorrow for a theme park run in Southern CA with Jill's family this week.  it's the closest thing I've had to a real vacation in a long time.  I'll be in touch.

I'm glad to see 300 doing so well. Guess a lot of people ended up lowering their IQ's by watching it.. 

FIXED

So, how was the movie?

I have to admit that I'm excited about more urban maps for Titan mode.  That should force more teamwork and slow the pace down a bit, making people think...and worry...before they make a move.

It's also my understanding that anything really utilizing directx has trouble translating through a VM.

When I was a kid in ROTC, my squad leader took to calling me Piggy after the fat kid in lord of the Flies.  By the time I was a senior, I was 6'1" and the only people who still called me Piggy were my close friends.  When I first installed Half-Life, I needed a name, and since I was listening to Black Sabbath (as I am wont to do while FPS-ing), WarPig had a dual meaning. 

Tempur-Pedic = vastly overpriced version of the one Costco sells.  Functionally identical, made in the same plant, but minus the brand label and exclusive retail locations.  My sister spend $2000+ on a tempur-pedic, and when she spent the night a few months ago we let her have our room.  The next day she was convinced we have the same mattress she has.  When we explained it was a $499 one, she was shocked and sad at the same time.

For toppers, 4inch is best.  We had a 2inch from Walmart for $49 on sale before shifting to an entirely foam mattress setup.  It was really really nice, but 4inch would have been much better.  A hotel I stayed at (Radisson) had 4inch toppers and they were much better than the 2inch we had.

Why you gotta bring a brother down, man?  I think Ron is right...you are a serious penny-pincher.

This thread is just what I needed.

<---just turned 30 on Saturday the 20th.

/wrists

Jill and I bought a king sized Tempur-pedic mattress.  Not the best one, but a couple of ranks lower.  We were warned by the manufacturer and the dealer that the foam "outgasses", smelling funky.  After sleeping on it for a few weeks, it went away.

By the way: I have a herniated disk from a work-related injury a few years back, loading 19" CRT monitors from storage (where were you THEN, LCD???), and after about a week on this bed, I noticed a distinct drop in my morning back pain...and now, after about 3 months, it's gone unless I anger it. 

$3600 all told with everything included.  Worth every penny.  I can literally jump out of bed now (with no back pain) and not disturb Jill or that glass of wine I carefully perched on the corner the night before.

Stupid is the new ugly.

Indeed!  Can I use that as my sig, Unbreakable?

Walken.

Or Norris. 

Got another one for ya.

Home Depot's 90 days rule:  If you have the receipt, and it was bought with cash, credit, etc., you will get it back guaranteed.  Also, if you don't have the receipt, and it's within 90 days, they will attempt to find it for a cash/credit refund.  If you lost the receipt, and it's past 90 days (or they can't find it) you get store credit, lifetime.  This is different for gasoline powered stuff, they have a different return policy for that, as well as the use of gift cards.  Lifetime store credit on 95% of their stuff, though.  Some good, that. 

Here's the short: Home Depot (Lifetime, w/exceptions for gas powered stuff)

I am a HUGE fan of Stargate.  When I first met Ron's friend, I wanted to kiss his ring finger and cross myself.  (I simply shook his hand and hung on his every word.)  If this game is even close to an honorable homage to the movie and series(plural), I'll be leaving WoW for it.   

http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/articles/061211/11gop.htm
Short, but scary interesting.

EDIT: The reason Obama is so popular is because of his books.  He's been on Oprah talking about it...a big hit with the Book Club.

Shun!  Shuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuun!

I have a good friend of mine who has taken the "rifleman" thing to an almost uncomfortable extreme.  He has gotten me out onto the range a few times over the last few months, only for rifle shooting.  Long range shooting is fun, especially with a rifle made about a hundred years ago by the Russians.  My starter is a Mosin-Nagant M-38.  7.62x54R NATO rounds.  Sighted in well, and in prone position, I can shoot expert from a few hundred yards.  Bolt action...but who wants to let your enemy get that close?

The hard part is finding AP ammo for it.  It's out there, just have to look.

Since I am currently wiithout console, (I wiill retract any previous anti-console Woords; the Wii is Weearing me downn), my only game I got for Xmas was a preorder of WoW: The Burning Crusade.  And that was more of a gift to myself. 

1. NWN2
2. Titan Quest
3. HL2: Ep 1
4. BF 2142

The only new games I really spent time on this year...mostly I spent it playing original NWN on my favorite persistent world.  Also *cough* WoW.

Agreed the learning curve is steep, and a tutorial would definitely help the player base...but I absolutely love this game.  I have a couple of regular clanmates that I tank around with and we absolutely love it.  On infantry maps, it becomes more about putting down a good base of fire to ensure your target gets hit; using grenades to flush and direct enemies into fire, etc.  Lots of teamplay is essential for a successful game.  The clans who have their own servers are usually more anal about practice times than WoW raiders.

I'm impressed. And happy.  That is some of the best television I've seen since the initial season of Numbers and Firefly.   Can't wait for next Monday.   Oh...and that was an evil ending.


BTW, the man in glasses....who is he?  I've seen him somewhere before....

I have a theory.  I could be wrong, but bear with me.  Does anyone remember Sam Jones?  He played Flash Gordon in the 1980 film.  Okay, when I saw the guy in the glasses, I immediately thought of him.  Not because of his role in Flash Gordon, but because of his role as bounty hunter Aris Boch in season 3 (?) of Stargate SG-1.  I have a recent pic of him here...any thoughts?

Well Ron, this goes without saying, but since you scrolled all the way down here...

Let me know if there's anything Jill and I can do for ya.  I'll be seeing you soon.

What kind of sake is Fu-Ki?  Dry or sweet?

I have learned and practiced recently from those more learned in the partaking of sake that sweet sake is best tasting served colder than room temp and dry sake served warmer than room temp.  I have partaken of both in varying temperatures, and found this rule to be generally true.  The aromas of good dry sake are released by heating it, which, in my opinion, allows your palate to prepare for the actual libation, with the alcohol bite secondary to the rice wine goodness.

An excellent American sake company, SakeOne, makes cheap fantastic Ginjo style and sweet sake's...their Moonstone line of dessert sake is great, with the Asian pear sake topping my personal list.

The best sake I've ever tasted, though is called Divine Droplets, made by Japanese brewer Takasago Shuzo.  If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.  It is so choice.

Ah, KD...it's fantastic to have you on days!

I'll be joining you shortly...

My opinions will be posted.  It'll be hard to keep me quiet.  I have spent a lot of time doing little modules for NWN1, mostly for my own amusement, and it becomes kind of second nature, understanding the flow of the tools.  I'm hoping that the new toolset is as intuitive.

I guess GameSpot got the news about pushing back the release date after they sent me an email saying that I could enter a code and download the toolset.  So I click on the link and get a frendly Bioware message that it's been pushed back.

How bout them apples?

Yes, go on  

BTW I don't speak Spanish

I've never heard it.  Well, agree to disagree.