LadyCrimson

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?

Mmm...not sure I have all-time favorites anymore. But I loved some of the books already mentioned, like Shogun, 1984, Killer Angels. I also love Sherlock Holmes, Clan of the Cave Bear, Stephen King's The Stand, Koontz's Watchers & Lightning, Tigana by Guy Gavriel Kay, Feist's (original trilogy) Magician series, Alan Dean Foster's Flinx series, and on and on. These days I typically prefer short story collections, any genre, ever since I rebelled away from the endless series syndrome. I love a good short story/short novella...and I love authors that focus on them more than on full length novels. Too bad they can be hard to find these days. In terms of sci-fi, I recently read Old Man's War by John Scalzi. I was surprised by it. Not my usual preferred writing style, but I loved it. I'd easily put it on the 'fave sci-fi novels' shelf. The sequel wasn't as good, but the 3rd book was closer.

IMO, Reeves was typecast in his current mold when he made Speed and Johnny Mnemonic. It's funny how after Bill & Ted, he floundered around trying to find his niche, from Dracula to Shakespeare to Buddha. I've come to appreciate him, within his comfort zone, more than I used to. At least you know what you're going to get, and it works well enough.

I don't know about unbeatable, but Boston sure has picked up their late season mojo, like they so often seem to do in recent years. V-Mart & Gonzo were major trade-wins (Gonzo wasn't even supposed to be able to hit well, but has been awesome lately) and the pitching is finally not sucking. Our catching is a low point, tho. All the passed balls, argh. I'm still not confident of their ability to beat NY...but if the team keeps up this mojo, maybe...The upcoming series with NY next weekend will be pretty interesting, imo.

I'm going to buy 7 when I get the new PC. Waiting to order the new PC until 7 comes out and can get it from the get go (rather than an "upgrade from Vista" option). Never wanted Vista but am willing to try 7 w/a new PC...if I hate it I can always wipe it and put XP on instead. I was wondering tho...I know one person who loathes the DRM stuff in Vista. I assume it's still present in 7? His complaint goes thusly: "the system monitors your activity on the off-chance that you might be pirating something, and if so it can lock down certain pieces of hardware." Is this accurate at all or is he under some kind of false impression? If it is at least somewhat accurate, I take it no one here sees it as an issue? Edit: My husband hates Vista and doesn't like 7 any better...but he views things from an entirely different perspective than must of us do/would, so I'm ignoring him.

Mourned the passing of Mary Travers. Peter, Paul & Mary were HUGE influences in my life growing up (thx, mom&dad) Watched Boston beat the Angels in an epic, crazy game. Watched Glee. Josh Groban had a bit role. Kinda funny. And Victor Garber was in it! Yessss! Then mourned the passing of Mary Travers some more by listening to their music. Now off to bed.