LadyCrimson

Because nobody disagrees with the rape charge and the topic is boring when everybody agrees. I take your point, and acknowledge there's truth re:boring. Apologies if I came off as too harsh. I've had friends with+personal experience with sexual predators and I do not find the topic to be "entertaining" at all, especially if I see anything that seems to reinenforce any "it's not really rape if..." Whoopi really shot her foot in her mouth this time. *mumbles* Edit: Whoopi, not Whoppi.. >.>

For me, at least, it has nothing to do with age of consent. You're all arguing that as if that's the main topic at hand. It's not. It's the RAPE charge and the fact he fled to avoid serving time. If the girl in question had actually come out and said "I love Polanski and it was all consensual, we're eloping now" or some other such thing (and it had panned out to be true), I might personally go "ewwww" or think they both desperately need some counseling but think "whatever." I'm highly aware age of consent varies both legally and emotionally, and certainly with social history. It is not just about the girls age, in this case, for me....rape is rape. He drugged her and took advantage. She said no, she said stop. I'd feel the same about Polanski for raping someone and then trying to flee consequences if the girl had been 30.

Today I decided that the absurdity of the tech parts of crime solving in CSI:NY (and other CSI & crime shows) grows with leaps and bounds every season. It's so bad I can longer watch without viewing it as comedy. Also...what is it about aging that could turn completely straight/flat hair into semi-frizzy wavy hair, gradually, over 20+ years? My hair...it's so bizarre.

My feelings about Polanski can be summed up thus: 1-He drugged/raped/sodomized a young teen. 2-He confessed to a plea bargain to a lesser charge to get a reduced sentence, and when it looked like maybe he'd actually serve a harsher sentence 3-He fled to escape the law and a possible prison sentence because he was a cowardly douche. I don't care how many years have gone by, or how good his movies may be. He was a douche, and he still is a douche. Extradite him. Let a new judge or jury look at the case and decide if he should still serve hard time...but he needs to face the court. I can't believe how many celebrities are condoning "leaving the poor guy alone."

I know Boston clinched the wildcard, but tonight's game...about halfway through I decided if Tito didn't care about winning, then I didn't care about watching. But poor Wake. Hope that surgery works and he can play one more year to maybe achieve some milestones before retiring.

Already done.

My mother was part of the Nestle boycotts way back when, as well. I have no idea if she still is. Of course, she also hated Blockbuster and now Barnes & Nobles. Most of the Nestle products I don't want anyway...but I don't try to avoid them particularly.

That's almost exactly how I feel about those movies. I saw the 2nd first, because a friend "made" me see it. Then I rented the 1st, and it was...well...there was nothing amusing about it, a straight horror flick, and not a very good one at that. With Army of Darkness, my friend loved it, but I was mostly "meh". There were some great funny moments, but it became too slapstick, too much a parody of itself, if that's possible. However, in all three, Bruce Campbell was the bomb. ...last night, I watched Independence Day on TV. I'm the 1st to admit it was never super stellar, but it hasn't aged well. I still enjoy it tho, especially the first act...largely because of my memory of seeing it in a packed theater. ID4 was a popcorn audience-participation film...fun w/a crowd hooting, hollering, and applauding, but not so awesome when viewed in your own living room, by yourself.

Well, Lester seems to be largely ok...nothing serious. Phew. But it appears my fear of Boston being unable to beat NY at this time was proven accurate. I shall now hope that either NY manages to get eliminated in the playoffs before Boston has to face them, or that Boston will become "hot" at the right moment.

No no no...never mind the score/pennant race...Lester gets hit right in the knee by a line drive. Rolls around the mound awhile, barely limps off the field. No no no....be ok.

On pins and needles about this weekend Boston/NY series, which is about to start. Obviously I'm rooting for Boston but mostly, I'm anticipating the rivalry to produce it's usual high-octane gameplay which drives fans of both teams to a frenzy, even if there were no pennant on the line. Lester has a good shot tonight, but Dice-K and Byrd are a lot more iffy. We shall see. *dancing from foot to foot in anticipation of screaming joy or crushing pain*

Today I am pleased that 100 California state parks will not be closing. I'd rather have dirtier bathrooms and picnic areas than outright closure.

Forgot...I also bought & read Howl's Moving Castle. Very very different from the movie (such as, not nearly as romanticized) but just as entertaining, if not more so. Alas, being a "young adult" novel it wasn't nearly long enough...I finished it in under 3 hours. Also not descriptive-complex enough for me in some things. Worth the read tho.

The 1st Transporter was decent action-flick entertainment. Ridiculous of course, but entertaining. Liked the police chief guy too. The 2nd not as good...the rest I ignored. I haven't watched any movies recently. Mostly catching the season premieres of TV series I like, this week.

I wish I could recall why I stopped playing...ie, like a bug or something, that might not exist on my pc of today. The graphics for the time were quite good, and the gameplay was very different. A little weird, but in a good way. What troubles did you have getting it to run? I might have to pull it out myself after I'm done mucking around with MM8.

You do realize a lot of people actually use those words in conversation...at least in my part of the world. And a lot of people also type similar to the way they speak...that is, they're not formal about writing and all the "rules" of English idiom. Could just be the way the guy writes casual notes. As to whether it's a scam...it's always possible. That's just the way it goes. If you want the cards bad enough, you take the risk. The limiting yourself to a certain monetary number is a sensible idea...and you seem to be taking all the precautions you can in this situation...imo you may as well go for it.

Guess I was wondering because of the people in the pics...like they're just hanging out on a fine dusty day. 52 million tonnes? Holy bejeebus. My dad was in a white-out snowstorm where he had to stop the car and sit on the freeway several hours...but that dust storm sounds 100x worse. Even if you could see, wouldn't the dust choke up a car before long? The clean-up on everything must be awful. :/

I bought more concrete paver stones today, which weigh a dense 20lbs+ for foot square blocks. 20-40lbs is no big deal for me if it's in an easy arm-leverage item like a bag of cat litter, but my arthritic knuckles/wrists are screaming from clutching their narrow edges in a claw grip while lifting and hauling them. I suppose I should've taken my husband, like last time. Silly me. I tell you, it sure is hard to admit to yourself sometimes that you can't do everything you used to be able to....at least not without a few days of consequence. Not that I don't I like my age. I'm actually loving my 40's the most, so far. It's an awesome time, and it's only getting better. Just don't love my hands.

Neat-O. If there's enough dust to have that kind of color effect, can one breathe without feeling like the lungs are filling up with dust&dirt?

Someone recommended writer Alice Munro to me, because I like short story writers these days. I'm going through her Hateship, Friendship, Courtship, Loveship, Marriage first. She's a fiction writer (not my usual sci-fi/horror/fantasy mixes) and it's well written w/interesting twists, but so far her stories are kind of melancholy in tone. It's like reading a very prosaic, artful story about how life sucks but sometimes it doesn't. Or something. Anyone read any of her other books? I wonder if all her collections are like this. I love his blog. Although mostly for his non-sports articles...like the ones where he lampoons late night infomercials. The Creepy King!

Outcast? The really old Infrogrames game where the player-character runs around in his orange jumpsuit and headset? I have that one somewhere. I remember liking it for about 10 hours, but then I stopped playing. Can't remember why. Or were you talking about Jedi Outcast or something else... Myself, I had a bee in the bonnet and started playing MM8. I couldn't get it to run at first, something about XP/sound acceleration, DX, and it not being able to cope w/the fact that I have 2GB memory on my XP machine while the game wants 32MB. Harhar. I had to find/download a fan-made XP patch and now it's all fine. It's been 6-7 years since I played this game but it all came back to me quickly...that and the help of my copious notes, which I still had. I miss games like this...the graphics are crap of course, but I still miss it. I'm having a blast. Funny how for me, the better the graphics, the less immersive the gaming experience has become. It's not that I don't love the pretty tho...I dunno, it's weird.

P.S. - I'd agree w/Schubert that an online game should have at least some content/ability for the solo player to progress through. There are a lot of us out there, and many of us are willing to shell out a little cash if we like the game, online or not. Also, it helps attract solo players who may play alone at first, but then gradually discover they actually like the group stuff and become even more long-term addicted. Personally, I think that's one of the reasons WoW has been so dominant for so long.

Fri. night I saw this Beatles tribute band in our local city square. They were ok...the square was crowded and we didn't stay long. But it was interesting to check out. Last night I went to bed early and woke up early. I tweeted a couple posts while drinking mt. dew, then came here. When I'm done here, I'm going to ride the exercycle then go for a walk on a fine late summer/early fall morning. The excitement never ends in my life! Oh and here's some quickie, grainy pictures from Fri. showing the area around/in the square.:

I built up 1 lvl 70 and several level 40+ chrs. in WoW playing all by my lonesome 98% of the time. I've never done ANY of the mid-high level raids/dungeons etc. It's why I liked WoW....I could play alone & there was plenty to do alone. My liking WoW had absolutely nothing to do with the MMORPG aspect...it was just this game I really liked, which happened to force me to play while connected to the internet. Although the Auction House (impersonal trade), which I treated sort of like a mini-game, did require other players to "play." Edit: All online games that I've liked enough to play for more than a few days were fairly playable solo...if they aren't, I stop playing. I even played Diablo2 on Closed bnet completely by myself, most of the time...doesn't apply just to "MMORPG's'.

All women are crazy, and all men are lust-induced-brain-freeze idiots. Nothing new. Next?