LadyCrimson

That's my opinion as well. I don't mind the 'new level=buy more pots' routine that much, but it does get old, especially if they take up lots of room in inventory. It'll be interesting to see how Diablo3's 'health globe' thing will work out. It sounds good in theory but we shall see.

Heh....understood. It & spelling was a pet peeve of mine when I was younger. Then I spent years on the internet & stopped caring. Not to mention, I started forgetting stuff. It happens to some of us as we age/stop doing certain things a lot, haha. The only time I become annoyed with it now is if I see it in professional/published novel/magazines or similar. ps I also edit my posts a lot.

I've had waking-insomnia for some time now. Not every day, but frequently. Such has never been a problem before - I'm more the can't-sleep' insomnia. When I mentioned it & some other aggravations to some older friends they all said "Perimenopause. Sleep changes were one of the first things for me." ....it'd be a little early but not terribly uncommon at my age. I can only hope. Since I've never wanted children, I've been looking forward to menopause for a long time. The one awesome thing about getting older, to me at least. Men are so lucky.

Count me in that group. I also find House really funny at times...

I saw all three of your versions. Really, if nitpicking grammatical error is the only response you have, why respond at all. We're not in English class here. ...and I never said my political/voting stances/decisions were easy for me.

I prefer my facts soft & fuzzy. Easier on the skin. 'Hard facts' like these don't mean a whole lot to me. It may be true that there are certain long-term trends when Democrats are in 'power' for a long while vs. when Republicans are, but imo they both produce f***ed up things in equal measure, even if they're different things. Improvement here, but worse there, bouncing back and forth. That's politics. ....and I'm neither Democratic or Republican. I vote for whomever/whatever seems to stand for more of what I believe in, not because of Party loyalty.

Most British humor, for me, is very hit & miss. Even Monty Python, who in general I love, their actual series rarely made me LOL. It was more their comedy writing that I found hysterical - rather than the visualization. Fawlty Towers & Are You Being Served made me chuckle now & then too. America has made some good sitcoms for their prospective eras, but I do agree w/Kaftan that at least in a general sense, sitcoms aren't usually very good (even when they don't have a laugh track). It's pretty rare that I watch one with any regularity. It's kinda weird actually, because I love a lot of stand-up comedy but many supposedly 'funny' shows make me yawn ... including 30Rock/The Office. I love Big Bang Theory tho, since I can relate to so many of the things it affectionately satirizes. And during the era, Family Ties often made me giggle. Probably wouldn't now as much, but at the time...

Free speech doesn't always mean free from some repercussions of expressing yourself in said speech. (You're free to tell some giant, aggressive, drunk bar patron that his mama is fat, but I wouldn't recommend it. ) Not that this was "speech" as such, it was private(?) email communication. Also, he's still free to go on the internet or talk to the press and express himself about the injustice of it all, all he wants, if he wants to. eg, freedom to say what he wants is not impeded. But I'd tend to agree that this banishment won't really last that long, unless it's discovered he does have 300 rifles and targets with Obama's face on them in his bedroom or something.

I woke up, ate some cereal, did a few chores. I watched Jaws. I ate some Chinese food. It was yummy. I'm about to watch baseball. um....yeah, that's about it today.

I tried to watch Ponyo. Some nice animation, which is to be expected from Hayao Miyazaki, but I couldn't get past the first half. Not because it was terrible or anything...just not my kind of thing. :/

I don't watch the show, so it doesn't matter at all to me. I guess Ryan Seacrest couldn't get out of his AI contract, harhar. But from my strictly US-entertainment TV PoV, I'm wondering why CNN producers think America, who mostly only knows him from AGT/Apprentice, would accept him/take him seriously in this type of role in the first place? Are they banking on non-US audiences via broadcasting it over CNN International & whatnot?

I want more rpg's (or any games, really) where I play the bad guy who wants to take over/invade the world, or destroy the world, instead of the heroic schmuck who is always trying to save the world from some demon. I want to BE the demon...or the demon's henchman, or something. Sure the game mechanics would be similar/the same - quests, npc's, battles blah blah - but the setting would be different. Lots of opportunities for black humor, too.

Since I figured out Netflix likes my XP pc better than my Win7 PC (dunno why), I was finally able to watch all of the BBC series "The Human Face" (John Cleese hosts). It was quite interesting. I have no idea about scientific accuracy vs. mumbo jumbo theories, but it was still fascinating to hear about symmetry affecting athlete speed & 'beauty' ratio (1:1.6 or something like that) and see the line 'mask' drawing that one guy thinks is a fit over every face that most humans regard as aesthetically pleasing, even when their overall features make them look very different from each other. Specific beauty is in the eye of the beholder, no doubt, but at the same time, there's probably (instinctive? biological? evolutionary?) reasons why "beauty," or at least symmetry, is so compelling to us.

I suddenly feel better for not being able to remember what I had for breakfast or the date of my wedding anniversary.

Yes, that's what I have mine set to, from the very beginning. It's not that intrusive, but it's still a bit annoying, to me, to be constantly asked, precisely because I already know the risks & if I click on something, it's because I've already decided. But I understand I'm not the 'user type' those warnings are made for, so I live with it, and every once in a great while it even comes in handy.

General muse:I think, barring some cataclysm such as the one that destroyed the dinosaurs (or something nearly as destructive, population-wise), humanity will survive and build new cultures. They may not be exactly the same, but I'd agree w/Orogun01 that it's unlikely all the advances would be lost this time around. eg, we won't go back to the stone age or whatever. However, I do find it sad that it feels like our dominance seems to have to be based on destroying current planet diversity. Such isn't actually necessary for species survival, thus it's not very rational, thus not a situation created from our supposed intellectual superiority, but rather, imo, from our instinctive & selfish animal brain. But such is life, and I'm as big a part of it as anyone else. *sits down to eat her mass produced, chemical-laden food while sitting in front of a polluting, factory-made computer before she gets in her emission-spouting car to run a bunch of superfluous errands* Edit: by "not necessary for 'species survival'" I don't mean just simple caveman survival, but even with retaining/expanding our tech/knowledge.

Well, since I believe there are no known tiger populations there....no. Hence the "anything." Always wanted to go on a two month safari/camp/walkabout or something in those places, as well as Alaska. Armed with that video camera, of course. I'm a wildlife documentary filmmaker in my fantasy life. Heh.

Bokishi, what is that little rounded-screen item, to the right of the monitor, behind the stack of books, in the first pic? Edit:oh wait, maybe it's a speaker? The lightning makes it look kinda like a screen...

Was that because you had to rush to get somewhere else, or because you didn't like the movie? I admit seeing all those action ppl in one film would amuse me, but so far the movie itself has no see-it appeal. Maybe when it comes to Netflix.

That's just stupid-reckless, on everyone's part. Sure maybe if you raised it from a cub like in Born Free, but other than that...yeah. They're not tabby house cats where if you startle/annoy them you'll only get a minor scratch. If I ever get to Africa/Australia, I'm going armed with a huge expensive major-zoom video camera, because I'm not going anywhere near anything. Glass walls are annoying for photos because of reflections and foggy dirt, that's all. Maybe they could build the front section viewing area higher so you look downwards more, thus retaining safe height distance that way, rather than trying to keep it at low eye level. But for SF that'd be more expensive rebuilding of whole thing so glass walls it is. Zoos are a paradox for me...on one hand I like seeing 'em, on the other, I hate the big animals confined to small spaces. One day that's the only place we'll get to see them tho, probably. :/

Ballroom dancing is so much fun. I stopped when I met hubby. He has two left feet. :/

The SF zoo looks much the same. It was strange to see the glass walls around the big cats. When I went there long ago there was none of that: I recall taking pics. of African lions w/no glass. At any rate, glass walls suck for photos. Most of the cages had small wire fence bits at the edges of the glass, where you could poke your lens through for side angle non-glass photos. Still sucked. For photos that is. I'm sure it's much safer. ;p Anyway...a little story: there was zero parking in on the main road by the zoo so we parked way around the block on another street. Then we started walking towards/on Hi1 to get to the zoo entrance (about a mile or so). There was a young couple ahead of us doing the same thing. Now, this isn't maybe the safest thing to do...there was no official sidewalk & it's a busy/fast road. So a cop car pulled up next to us as we were walking. She griped that ppl were doing this all day, how unsafe it was, and how busy the zoo must be. Then she offered us a ride. So we got in & she drove us to the zoo entrance. Very cool. There was a 20 minute line to get into the zoo and as we waited, the young couple who were ahead of us before finally walked by. They saw us and did a double-take, probably wondering how we arrived before them. We waved & smiled...it was so funny. No one gave us a ride on the walk back tho. And despite the tiger's seeming desire to maybe get out & eat someone (haha), the walls did their job & all he could do was pace and growl in the trench at the bottom of the stairs. Eventually, like all cats, he sat down to wash and pretended that "he never wanted to go up there anyway."

Sexual experiences, while usually always at least pleasurable, are not always equal. That's all I have to say about that. ------------------------------- Today, in one of our occasional attempts to force ourselves out of our usual habit of stay at home tech/game-geekiness, we're going to the big SF zoo. We've thought about it off and on for a long while but SF always feels like a hassle so it always gets put off, haha. Last time we went I was still shooting with a 35mm Pentax, so it's been a long while & I'm interested to see what's changed. I hear a lot of good things about the changes and I'll get to take tons of easy photos ala the digital age. But I'll be sure not to tease the tigers...

Walter White: "Orogun01, I am your father. Together we can eliminate Gus & rule New Mexico!" Well most regulars know what my mug is like, but here's a quickie one anyway.

Repo Men - really over the top/ridiculous action/violence but with too many points where action/story lagged. Interesting premise, but not a great overall package. The ending ticked me off, too. The Lovely Bones - Never heard of/read the book or even the movie before I watched it. Liked the parts dealing w/the family & creepy neighbor & the attempted theme of hope/moving on in face of tragedy, but the parts frolicking around in a childlike purgatory were boring, if well animated. The resolution felt unsatisfying, too.