LadyCrimson

It's hard to find a good micro-bead pillow for sleeping use. I love them...next time I find one I like, I'm ordering 10. This week has been fairly busy during the daytimes but the evenings have been relaxing watching the new season tv shows & pleasant "Indian summer" weather. My sister-in-law finally found someone to rent their house here while they live up north a while. The interesting part is the renter is one of the people who lost their house in the San Bruno gas pipe explosion. Small world.

Yeah, no continuing storyline in DK1 at all, beyond in one's own head. What level are you on? There's a few in the campaign that have a lot of heroes/tunnelers vs enemy Keepers. The levels in Deeper Dungeons were more interesting/bit harder than the original campaign, imo. There's also a few DK1 campaigns made by ppl w/the editor but not sure how good they are. I only did the Ancient Keeper levels, which were more like elaborate & difficult puzzles than typical DK levels.

The readme says dual core 2.8ghz minimum so maybe that's part of the problem. I've seen posts of people using dual core 3.0ghz that say it runs ok. Yeah, I noticed that too.

See, I thought the Big Lebowski was the Big Bore. Different strokes and all that. Raising Arizona too...I never get why some think that one is so brilliant. I watched "The Invention of Lying." I found it very not-funny. Not in the 'this stinks" kind of way, but in a no-reaction at all kind of way. The very beginning was amusing & I loved that no-lying Coke commercial...and the general satire concepts re: religion made me giggle in spots. But mostly I sat and watched with no change of expression. The emotion it gave me was akin to the detached process of eating the same bag lunch at work for 20 years. 2 out of 5 stars.

It's not quite as good? DK2 is fun, but one of my big complaints was that the campaign was much more scripted. The feeling that I was carving out my dungeon each level & deciding for myself what to use and what not to use, was much less, except in Pet Dungeons. And even most of those tried to limit your building space in weird ways. The AI was even worse than in DK1, too, which I hardly thought possible. Oh yeah...also:no dragons. Salamanders...pffftt. I did like no lair enemies, wall 'furniture' aspect to room tiles, & all creatures taking up only 1 lair tile. You could make some wacky Pet Dungeons, especially after editing out certain annoyances like the very slow hatchery production.

I've read others complaining of higher non-US prices for some games (even before DD)...I thought some of that maybe had to do with international trading costs or other such considerations but that big a difference is a fair bit extreme...I'd be mad about that too. I understand they wouldn't like a price difference, since it means the boxed wouldn't sell since most would just go with cheaper. I still don't like it, because I think if it costs less to distribute, that savings should go to the consumer. I'm old fashioned that way. And of course if the entire industry does go entirely DD (no choice), where competing with itself in such a fashion wouldn't even be a factor, the pricing model should definitely change. At least in my "I'm no business expert" opinion.

I'm about to play a little of that right now! Was going to get that, but then realized/read that the patch that fixes scaling/adds clvls is independent of the DLC...so I think I'll wait for the patch before downloading the new stuff.

Blood Simple? Raising Arizona? Miller's Crossing? Barton Fink? Fargo? The Big Lebowski? Didn't like any of those? The thing about the Coen brothers, at least imo, is that they have these awesome settings/concepts with a warped/satirical sense of humor. They are kind of polarizing tho...many of their movies people either seem to love or hate (or at least dislike a lot) and I freely admit I'm not a huge fan of most of their movies. But there's always something in each movie that I absolutely love. So I respect them and am always curious about a new project. Fargo was their masterpiece, imo. No Country was entertaining/ok, mostly because of Javier Bardem. The rest had moments but weren't "whole successes".

For video games and perhaps movie rentals, I'd agree....as long as cable/network companies can/are willing to keep up (in a fairly timely & quality manner (severe throttling/compression isn't it) with the ever increasing bandwidth needs of a hugely growing download market, via expanding and also tearing down/rebuilding their infrastructures for everyone over time, as well as keeping their subscription prices low enough. I have my doubts on that, but as always, what do I know...we shall see. In terms of physical disc vs. digital...yup, pretty much what the others said. I obviously have little issue with GoG.com's DD model, but something like Steam I do have issues with. On the purely emotional side, while I understand not everyone has lots o' storage space, keeping/collecting boxes/discs/manuals/art for me was kind of like collecting old comics or books and emotionally, for people like myself, it's hard to let go of that. I imagine the day will come when comics are also all digital all the time, and (some) comic collectors may feel the same way. It's just not the same holding a memory stick in your hand.

I don't, and likely in my lifetime, can't, know the answer, so as far as that question goes, I have no belief. I need a decent amount of proof to believe in things like that, and there is none, so it's all sci-fi bedside stories or more scientific speculation, with nothing to believe in, yet. Also, similar to mrkreku, I don't feel a need/urge to have that question answered in order for life to have meaning or purpose or whatever, so I don't spend much time thinking about it in the first place. I leave it to the brainy scientists & forward thinkers (def. not me, har) to discover, predict & prove at some far future date, if they can. I believe in now, enjoying now, & doing what's required to have the means to enjoy the now in the ways that I wish - both the internal (personal survival/pleasures) and the external (helping others/surroundings). To me that's all there is, and that's all I need.

I'm a heathen. I bought Torment long ago - not when it 1st was released but a bit later. Unfortunately it was right during the period where I was getting burnt out on that style/appearance of RPG so I didn't get far before I decided I didn't like it. Still have my discs around somewhere tho, since it's one I keep thinking I'll try again "someday."

Are we only talking about game retail stores here? Cause I think extreme "specialist" stores in general are in trouble & have been for a long time. With any "specialty" retail store, as times/tech/demand & business practices change, the viability of that type of store can change. The game market & tech have changed, what people expect/want is changing...so in terms of retail store game market, yes, I think it's going away. I'm not sure the boxed game is entirely going away...you'll just have to buy it online & have it shipped to you, or do DD. No walking into a store & grabbing it from a shelf. And I also tend to agree that paying the same amount of money for a DD game as we did for a boxed game is a bit of a cheat....but then, I don't know what the related costs of DD are vs. retail store costs. I'd guess less, but how much less I have no idea. For instance, how much of the retail price tag is for the marketing, manufacturing, shipping & other fee type expenses vs the actual game development related costs? Anyway, I don't think big release DD games should be $10-$15 when they first come out, but maybe $40 instead of $50-$60. Assuming it does cost less for a DD only business model, to me that should = less cost to the consumer, not just less cost/more profit to the companies.

The hull walking scene had Lt. Hawk being assimilated & than shot. I guess in a space helmet he could be confused a little with Wil Wheaton. A little. ...I am such a ST goober.

I have yet to see an even remotely convincing 'spaceship' picture. Ever. But I do think life on other worlds is at least possible. Whether it would be advanced enough to even have a chance of discovering our planet, let alone somehow either rapidly travel back & forth to frequently spy & report on us or have near-by bases somewhere as they watch the planet for hundreds of years is another matter. Again, it's possible...but I don't consider it very probable. (edit) Even if you could have some degree of FTL travel, space is BIG. I think you'd need those sci-fi wormholes instead.

*looks at article* ... pfffft ... it can't fly. Don't care. (but I do agree they'd have military uses)

Well, they did kill them in the original series very occasionally - like Spectre of the Gun, Shore Leave - but it was always "fixed" at the end by some super-being or a stupid explanation or whatnot, so.... Dax is another in the long line of Star Trek aliens who are completely human in appearance except for nose ridges, pointy ears...or body tattoos. Eh? He wasn't in First Contact at all. I think he had a cameo bit in Nemesis during the wedding scene. IIRC there was also an early Q episode in the series where Wesley was killed by monsters that Q created to tempt Riker into becoming a Q.

I've tried playing a few games in a window so they're "natural" size, & that'd be ok for something like Myst, but some of us have trouble reading lots of menu/text & frenetic mouse-clicking in a tiny little space from desk/chair distance. 4:3/13" screen size is about as small as I like to go.

Google Maps satellite has updated since last I looked. Now, if you aren't me, you wouldn't think anything of the little white smudge near the center, but that's my hubby sitting on the patio. Made me laugh. At least it isn't the close-up of Google-streetview.

@taviow Yeah, it does depend on the game & I guess the tech used vs. how cards deal with it? The sprite stuff often looks less fuzzy than older 3D, not sure why. Dungeon Keeper1 actually looks pretty decent, Diablo1 was ok in terms of blurriness but appeared grainy/pixelated...and Dungeon Siege1 (at 1024x768) was Vaseline-covered-lens blurry. I haven't actually tried BG on this monitor yet, hopefully I'll have the same luck as you.

He was fairly long - maybe 20-22" head/body+10-12" tail - and somewhat tall (12-13" on 4 legs) but thin & not very heavy (maybe 14lbs). But he had giant 'snowshoe' feet. When he was a kitten I thought he was going to be even larger.

I was wondering if it was something like that. Kinda cute. Wonder if monsters will attack it. Think I'll go find out.

Been in one of those moods where nothing really grabs me. Tomorrow the Borderlands DLC comes out, so I guess I'll be playing that. Hopefully it'll be good.

Usually vet places that have euthanized my kitties send me a 'so sorry' card a week later. The place I went to this time sent me a clay footprint impression in the shape of a heart. Kinda like the baby-foot impressions people do. Does this strike anyone else as kind kind of weird? I mean, I'm sitting here wondering if they euthanized him then pressed his dead paw into this little 'remembrance gift.' Doesn't that seem a little creepy? I know they meant well, but still.

I saw Serenity before I'd seen Firefly. I loved the movie. At first I loved it so much that when I tried to watch Firefly, I didn't like it all. Don't ask me why, I'm not sure I know. I did finally buy the whole series and after watching it a couple times, I've come to appreciate it more - particularly a few certain episodes - but I still like the movie better. Guess it's the chicken & the egg reaction. Yeah, even having never seen the series, that scene really threw me for a loop. I didn't like it. :/ ....I watched 'The Time Traveler's Wife' on HBO, because I could. For most of the film I was thinking "what silly hogwash" and was kind of bored/confused. But then the end of the movie was so emotionally manipulative that I found myself sniffling a little. I wouldn't call it a good movie, but I guess it did its job at the end. ;p

It's isn't the small resolution that bothers me so much, it's the fact LCD screens can't display 'non-native' resolutions without turning them into blurry mush. I originally played BG1 on a 17 or 19" CRT monitor (can't remember which) and it looked just fine. In theory playing it on a bigger monitor (in 4:3 w/the black bars) might turn it a little more blurry, but probably wouldn't make it look that much more terrible, since 4:3 on widescreen 23" is only around 16-17" diagonally. But LCD's...bah. I wish I'd kept one of the old CRT's. Maybe I can find one in a computer resale junk shop somewhere.