humanbean234

I'd be willing to move to the Klondike and get a job as a bartender... is that good?

Granted! (A shame that you're only able to log onto a laggy PK server populated by obnoxious 13-year-olds from Uzbekistan, all of which play lvl80 Death Knights and use that stupid sparkle-pony as their mount...) I wish my friends would talk about something *other* than "Occupy Wall Street" for a while...

I like seeing that you-two are still excited 'bout each other. (Some things *should* never change.) :)

Cut my teeth on Blue-Box D&D in 1979 (Monster Manual & Players' Handbook had just been published, Dungeon Master's Guide had yet to see press for 1st Ed.) Traveller was still being published in those 6"x8" small books, and we played a fair amount of it as well (everybody wanted an FGMP-15... gawd, we were such munchkins...) I remember Aftermath... we'd picked up a copy when it was still being published by Phoenix Games (before they sold to FGU). It wasn't the *worst* system I'd ever seen, but I recall it taking a super-long time to generate a character, and a super-short time to watch them die in their first combat. :( I remember, also, that the rulebooks for Aftermath were poorly organized, and suffered a lot of wear & tear. Richard Tucholka (one of the designers who worked on Morrow Project) went on to produce several more games, including Bureau 13: Stalking the Night Fantastic and Fringeworthy, and I continued to play & GM *those* for many years; the last campaign I participated in was in 2009. Nowadays, I haven't the time to participate in RPG's, nor do I keep much contact with my former gaming acquaintances, but there's a lot of fond memories, there... :)

I would disagree, but only to say that I haven't seen a good scary movie come from Hollywood in a long time. Some older films still hold up extremely well, though; have you ever watched Wait Until Dark (Audrey Hepburn, Alan Arkin, et al.)? Have you ever watched Marathon Man (Dustin Hoffmann, Sir Lawrence Olivier, et al.)? Both of those are incredible... scary, suspenseful, and without relying on gore-factor for their chills. ;)

Quick, tasty, but plays hell with one's insulin levels... Black Forest Sandwich Wheat Bread Nutella Cherry Preserves (I recommend Smucker's, if you live in the U.S.) It's really just a sophisticated PB&J, but it works. :thumbsup:

Magix Music Maker 12 Primarily designed as a music editor, it's also quite capable of editing video, and can export in a multitude of formats with custom settings for resolutions, framerates, audiorates, etc. Right now, they're up to version 15, and the program can be had as a bundle with a bunch of sound-sample loops for about US$40. http://www.magix.com/us/music-maker/

My ex-wife and I were married on December 29th, 2008, here in Korea where I serve in 2nd Infantry Division. She returned to the U.S. to complete teaching the semester at the college she was working at, with the intent of joining me here in Korea in July of this year. Before she even arrived in July, though, she began trying to flip the script on nearly all the plans we had made prior to our marriage, and despite my best efforts to accomodate her and make her life pleasant here in Korea, she managed to drive the whole thing south in exactly four months. I'm not going to go into the details on what she did (or mostly, didn't do) that brought about my decision to terminate the relationship, as I'm not looking for pity or sympathy here, but know that the decision to end the marriage was primarily mine. Our divorce was finalized yesterday, and she flew back to America this morning. Less than a year.... I'm really not happy about it. So, if I'm a bit snarky or bitter in my postings for the next few months, please bear with me... it may be some time before my faith in humanity is fully restored.

You don't remember correctly. Not a diss, but your facts aren't correct. Read this; it's a fairly concise history of the process by which it was made illegal, giving the dates of legislations. http://www.drugwarrant.com/articles/why-is...ijuana-illegal/ I've seen quite a few medical texts from the early part of the 20th century, and various preparations of Cannibus Indica (the short-fibered cousin of Sativa that's only grown for smoking, since it makes lousy rope or paper) were regularly prescribed as a calmative/sedative, especially in neurological treatments.

An opinion on war, circa 1991, Gulf War I, (aka Operation Desert Shield/Desert Storm) from a group of Canadian musicians. It's an age-old question, y'know?

A view on the question, as it pertains to the physical: http://www.xkcd.com/659/ (Not a rickroll, honest.)

A favorite series of mine; I've got all three on my laptop and still play with them on occasion (Yay, DosBox!), and they still entertain. UFO Defense(aka Enemy Unknown) was the reason behind my first computer purchase, and Apocalypse drove me nuts trying to beat it on Superhuman setting. I eventually developed a strategy that involved using a hex editor to tweek personnel stats (nothing worse than getting an agent with terrific physical stats, assigning them the rocket-launcher, and then discovering they've got the Psi-resistance of a bowl of tapioca on the first turn of the assault while everybody's still inside the lander), and then using a LOT of saved-games to rewind the action if something went horribly wrong.

Belgium, because I'm in the military, and a three-year assignment at S.H.A.P.E. would be really sweet.

Another view on marijuana, courtesy of Dar Williams (it's probably fiction, but still pretty good). The Pointless, Yet Poignant Crisis of a Co-Ed

"A drug is neither moral nor immoral -- it's a chemical compound. The compound itself is not a menace to society until a human being treats it as if consumption bestowed a temporary license to act like an a$$hole." -Frank Zappa- (1940-1993) That said, I have quite a few acquaintances in my hometown who have gone the "temporary license" path... one who's 45 years old (still living in his parents' basement and delivering pizzas for pocket-money), one who's 39 years old (pursued a career in cinematic lighting, stopped getting jobs because he came to work high on a regular basis, and now lives in a rathole apartment delivering pizzas for the same company), one who's 44 (pursued a career as a teacher, lost one job due to his "hippie" appearance, has kept a lower-level job to avoid urinalysis testing), one who's 45 (small-time dealer, homeless couch-surfer, hasn't held a regular job in years and has lost most of his teeth due to lack of dental insurance)... all of these people have had their lives negatively impacted by continuous consumption of marijuana. When I go home on Leave, it's highly uncomfortable to be around them... they have nothing new to talk about, no new experiences to relate... they just talk about television shows, and they speak to me condescendingly about "selling out to The Man" at least once a year. Legalization & decriminalization arguments aside, I personally hate the stuff. It's robbed me of a number of people whom I used to consider friends. People who, effectively, stopped learning and growing up sometime in the late '80s.

Another 'dig' on Twilight... How Twilight Should Have Ended Again, I lol'd...

Here in Korea, it's already the day after, but I enjoyed a passable feast in the post Dining Facility. Woulda' been nicer with friends/family around, but I had the company of my fellow soldiers to enjoy, and that's good-enough for now, I guess. Happy Thanksgiving to you all (even those who don't celebrate it)!

This from Cracked.com Undercover as a Twilight Fan at 'New Moon' Opening Night (pops in new window) I lol'd...

My argument with DLC is the screw put to the consumer; DLC content cannot be resold, so if you get handed a lemon of a game, there's no possibility of reselling it to recoup any portion of your lost investment. I'm encountering a similar problem in trying to divest myself of Spore (even though it's only seen a single installation). There used to be a store in my hometown that bought and resold used software... I don't think they've survived. :down:

You want me to create a whole universe? Not just a single planet, but a whole universe? That's akin to giving one person programming control of three billion channels of cable television, and hoping that none of them are likely to be boring. So, if you posit a creator with unlimited patience, omnipotence, and absolute control of matter on a galactic scale... I'd be likely to have the majority of those worlds involved in some sort of conflict (man -vs- man, or man -vs- nature, or nature -vs- nature, most likely a mix of all three). Conflict is what gives interest value to life... most idyllic utopias would bore me to tears in under a month. I mean, c'mon... how long can you live on a diet of rainbows before you grow weary of the taste and start eyeballing the local flora and fauna for a new taste sensation? Yep, there'd have to be small pockets of respite amongst the struggles... all souls seek occasional times of solace... but that kind of luxury is fleeting at best, and I think with the brain and soul of an omnivore; when it gets close to dinnertime, I'm looking for someone/something to eat, and even that simple act brings conflict. "I can picture in my mind a world without war, a world without hate. And I can picture us attacking that world, because they'd never expect it." -Jack Handey-

I once spent a year living on an isolated small farm in western Nebraska, doing the whole Henry David Thoreau "simplify, simplify" trip... slept in an unheated log cabin on the property, traded my labor for that shelter and food, drew my own well-water and cut my own firewood to survive the biiter cold Nebraskan winter, and that's as close to anarchy as I'll ever want to come. Yes, power-structures exist for uses both fair and foul... in the "fair" camp, there's things like roads, powerlines, communications systems, sewage and trash disposal (digging a new outhouse latrine pit in early March while the ground is still frozen is no picnic, lemme' tell ya'...), and I realized the results of government two years later while working in a hospital. There was a female doctor, a neuroradiologist, whom I had a terrific crush on (she was already married, destiny was not in my favor)... impossible to support such a being without a well-established social order and full infrastructure. While it's nice to dream of the complete freedom of an anarchic state, and not having to kowtow to "the man" if you so choose, it's not worth the loss of an occasional chat and laugh with Tammie Benzinger over a cup of coffee. My vote for organization and rule-of-law; that system comes with beautiful smiling women.

Dad's recipe sounds good, but if meatloaf's your thing, and you don't mind being given a cooking lesson from a cartoon octopus, check this out for an alternate recipe. http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/52940 Me... my best meal ever? Impossible to say. After 43 years of dining, I can tell you that being extremely hungry is one of the world's best condiments, and that there's no substitute for home-cookin' from a cook who's working for the love of those who will dine. Hoping dad's meatloaf qualifies as the latter, and not the former...