LadyCrimson

Hmm. Nowhere near as "omg this is awesome" as when I saw the 1st episode of Rome, but it was pretty decent. Felt a bit rushed/crowded but with so many chrs. etc. I was expecting it to take a few episodes to truly drag me in anyway, if that makes sense. So I think it was a good start.

And I thank you, because it made me

I'm a little confused by your emphasis on "actual dwarf"...are you saying that Peter Dinklage, who is around 4' 5" I believe, isn't a dwarf? I love Peter...he's one of the reasons I'll be watching the series. I can't say whether he's the perfect Tyrion or not vs. the book (since I barely remember the book...) but I think he's a wonderful actor. Edit: Also... Someone mentioned to me the other day that what annoyed them was the rapid, constant switching of chr. pov, and when I thought about it, I think that bothered me back when I read Game of Thrones. Most novels seem to that a lot these days but usually it's not a pov switch every 10-20 pages. Even if I like the story, it's difficult to maintain immersion for me when it occurs that often.

lol....I don't hate DiCaprio. He's adequate in and fits certain types of roles. I just find him kind of one-note...not wooden, not that at all...but somehow kind of flat. I don't think he's appropriate for Gatsby. Just me tho.

Kubrik's films, to me, are artistically/technically masterful but emotionally they leave me flat or cold. So I admire them on the one hand, but they often bore me & I have no desire to ever watch them again. Full Metal Jacket was probably my fave of his work. I've watched a lot of movies lately, mostly playing catch-up. I won't go through them all, but I will say that Toy Story3 was pretty awesome, Alice in Wonderland disappointed me, and Centurion was a violently fun action chase flick. Oh...also...for upcoming films...I'm totally against DiCaprio as The Great Gatsby. But then, I don't particularly like DiCaprio so I'm biased.

Today I watched the Redsox embarrass themselves. Sheesh. Other than that....y'know, my life is really quite boring right now. It's a pleasant, happy kind of boring which I happen to enjoy a great deal, but nothing happens worth mentioning. Although, I would like to complain that our tax accountant sure does charge a lot for his services. He's worth it, but jeez...

Oh I know any media can create playlists...what I mean is that the mp3 player's software/GUI/whatever seems to be set up to only accept/recognize WMP or something. But this is where I get confused when researching because pro reviews and user reviews can make it sound like you have to use WMP (or something else) and only that...and I feel like I can't know until I buy the darn thing and try it myself which often leads to buy-return-buy-return cycles. ;(

This for me as well. I do get kind of bored of the 'peasant to The One' concept if the game is too by the numbers...not just in games, but in movies and books too. In the latter two things tho, you can have more variations/go against the grain and have it work, because we are the observer. In a game, most expect some kind of reward or achievement system for forward motivation. in RPG's, it's level ups, items, ever more powerful skills & exploration etc. Adventure or strategy games are usually where I see heroes that are off the beaten path more often, because they're not using character building reward systems. This isn't to say that I think RPG's can't (or don't) ever do something that feels different. They could and they occasionally do. But if you don't change the 'powering up' chr. building process as well, imo it generally amounts to the same thing. You have a hero (whatever their starting rank) who needs a whole lot of "experience" and learning before they're powerful enough (or in a political position, or whatever) to take on the baddies and win the game. Otherwise you're Caesar at the start and you'd send out all your armies and commanders to fight & explore for you...while your concern would be how to fund/supply & grow the army & keep rebellions down...which starts falling into the strategy realm maybe.

That's pretty much why I don't like ipods. That and a general dislike of Apple's way of doing things (their GUI/interface/thingies I mean). I doubt I'll ever buy any i-gadget, unless it becomes the only option available. One thing I'm not liking about the playlist concept in the mp3 players is that some of them at least seem dependent on Microsoft's WMP to create them, which I do not use. Hubs doesn't mind but I irrationally hate WMP and refuse to even click on it to start its set up process when I install the OS. But with the card memory I can buy a bunch of the micro cards for cheap online or something and just use them like CD's. Guess that'll work.

Bah...why is it as soon as you post something, you find the answer. We've been searching/reading for an hour and.... Finally found a site that mentioned the feature on one of the SanDisk players. Sounds like what he'd want, so, uh, nvm.

Do mp3 players these days (no video) allow you pick/arrange what order to play the songs in? eg, not just random shuffle or only what order you upload them in? I mean you can upload in the order you want to play a bunch of things one day, but then you'd have to do it all over again if you want a different order or change /add a few songs the next day, and that's annoying. Or do mp3 players just not do that... If they don't, sounds like a player that uses external memory where you could have series of memory sticks for each set would be the solution? Tech specs don't usually tell you what kind of interface you get...at most they say 'random shuffle'. Edit: ie hubs doesn't want to have to scroll through hundreds of songs that are on 'top' in order to "play" all the single tracks of an album he wants to listen to.

OMG....no, no, no. He was serious? The Governator - OFFICIAL TRAILER Edit: article link

Nice, it's looking good. Soon the reason I re-subscribed to HBO will be justified. I read the first book years and years ago, before its fame exploded. Bought the 2nd, but still haven't read it because so much time had passed inbetween I felt like I had to read the 1st book again, and couldn't bring up the motivation to do so. So...yeah...the series is awesome for people like me.

Oh? I've seen quite a few screenies of the game recently, and I did like the look of it, but wasn't sure how un-Sims like it actually was. This perks my interest a bit more. Do you still build things if you want, or is it all there already (sounds like you buy pre-made things)? Any strategy-building sim feel or just work+quests? Edit: NVM, finally made myself read some reviews. Sounds like a cross between pared down Sims+Majesty (w/out the RTS part). Less construction too. Think I'll pass.

Boston:"We are butter for Texas to use on their toast." C'mon SF Giants, make me feel better.

Charlie Sheen, Winning, songified.

So now I'm getting 'news' that Bashiok claims 300k copies of D3 are shipping and the servers will be going up 10:00 a.m. PDT, April 9th 2011 Phone apps, D3 'indefinitely delayed'...now release date...has gotta be another one of their jokes, right? Right?

Tried the normal, then the URWLified. Not sure what the difference is exactly. Oh, marvelous, that's the ticket. Thank you. Some npc's are still too "tan" & other stuff like that, under sunny skies, but overall it's much more tolerable. Can put the saturation closer to vanilla game and still have my weather, somewhat bluer skies, & darker nights. Yay.

I fiddled and faddled and now it's time to skedaddle (to bed).

If it was a million after taxes...pay off current small house, use half of the rest to for a huge down payment on a bigger house, rent out the first house, stick the remaining in an IRA or something and then retire in 10 years or so. If it was a few to several million after taxes...I'd just plain retire. Would probably still rent this first house while buying a much bigger house in another state besides California and we'd be comfy until we die. If it was tens of millions after taxes....I'd just plain retire, but in major style. Homes in multiple US states and several modest homes in various other countries, boat, maybe a plane, oodles of toys. Plus I'd donate to fave causes/companies, perhaps start the largest no-kill animal shelter on the planet, help family, etc. ...dream a little dream...

Too long, can't edit my post. Here's one of a car during a more clear day so you can see the shiny.

Hm. I was finally playing around with Nevada Skies URWLified, saw the OjoBueno post and grabbed those as well. I don't have Bokishi's rig or a superman-graphic card, but together they still look kinda cool I guess. I only grabbed/used the HQ ones (road, autos, woodshacks, sidewalks, vegetation, saloon packs:I skipped the lootables). There's no huge fps/performance drop using them on my i7, but it did increase loading times (fast traveling, enter a door) by a noticeable amount, and if you have that occasional 'stutter', the increased load seems to make the moment of stutter longer/more disruptive (for me). With NVSkies, I like some things about it (rain, thunder) but sometimes I feel like someone turned on digital vibrance to max- the color saturation/contrast is way too much. My picky eyes...anyway, here's some 'regular joe' screens of the OjoBueno road & sidewalk. I still use 4xAA & 8AF, HDR (no bloom). The autos looked good, the woodplanks were ok, the streetlight textures were certainly loads better but probably not worth downloading since you hardly notice them as you run past 'em, normally, imo. So...y'know...they look very good in screenies/up close but frankly, when I'm running around playing, I'm not sure I care/notice that much having them there. Still, it's cool, and pretty. Click for full size. Sidewalks:yup, you can read the litter. The HQ roads (edit:I used the 'lite cracks' version...not as roughly cracked, dimpled, and destroyed looking as the other two options)

I saw the picture of the new Wonder Woman costume. I was not impressed. I also watched Inception a couple times, making it a total of 3. I know it's an 'interpret in your own way' type of movie, but I'm still convinced most of the movie is a mind-screw, and that he's still dreaming...that it may all be a vision of his own inception being done on him. And I was correct...his kids are definitely wearing the same clothes. There's only one time they wear different clothes, and it's not at the end.

Spouse. Pets. When something you're working on turns out well. My pseudo tech-geeking. Photography. A good won ton soup on a rainy day. Standing by the gas wall heater on a cold morning until the skin on your back feels like it's going to burn off. Anything task-oriented that keeps the mind busy & has an end result. (which doesn't include TV). It's all a state of mind. Or chemicals. Some days everything seems to please me, and then other days, even tho nothing is different/nothing has "happened," everything seems to make me grumpy. Watching the heavy wind & rain today feels exhilarating & inspiring, but yesterday I was annoyed by the rain because I was running errands & wishing for summer.