LadyCrimson

Shallow DOF - need a wide-open f-stop (smaller number - like 2.8 ), if your camera will let you. There's other factors but DOF is the place to start. If your camera uses a lot of auto-exposure modes, try increasing to a higher shutter speed, which should set the f-stop to whatever it's minimum may be.

Isn't Samsung kind of the same thing for Sony? I can't remember. 50"plus LCD tv's are still not very common, either; plasmas dominate (or the projections), tho that may change before too long. Again, I'm not a huge fan of LCD, and Sony is the only LCD that went above 46" that I liked at all, of the ones I saw. Gorgeous color and picture from good viewing angles, assuming an ideal signal. But it was $4-5K vs. a plasma's $2-3K. So maybe in a few years.

I don't have an answer but you could try the lucasarts kotor2 support forum. They appear to have a technically knowledable person or two often in attendance there, re: possible game/pc issues & solutions. Listing your system specs is also always helpful.

I guess I'd have to say Sim ThemePark. Couldn't stand it. It's no Roller Coaster Tycoon ... There's some games I hardly played because I could tell right off I wasn't going to like it, like DungeonSiege2, The Last Express, etc. so maybe they'd qualify, but hard to say based on 30-60 minutes of gameplay.

Point taken. Or maybe the person was threatened in some way by the "guests". Still...I'm dubious.

For TV's that size, plasma's are still generally cheaper. Not always, but usually. And imo, they look better.

Sony would be my LCD brand suggestion - they're by far the best LCD's picture-quality wise, imo, especially as you get bigger in screen size, but they're pricey, which is why we didn't buy one when we were looking (we were looking for over 40" tho). You might find one of their older 26" Bravia's on sale somewhere for slightly under or slightly over 1K. You're probably looking at a 21-32 inch if LCD. Cheaper brands; Samsung and LG seem popular. Sharp might be ok. I didn't like Philips. I noticed LCD TV's still can have a lot of that weird pixelation effect from a lot of fast-motion in a tv signal (indoor motorcross jumping can look pretty bad, for example) - it's more noticable the bigger the screen. I have no idea how that would affect game screens, if at all. I don't know about tubes. They're cheaper for same size, but when we were looking around, the few that stores carrry nowadays didn't look very appealing. Since we weren't buying our TV for gaming, I really don't know what would be best for that purpose.

Yeah, someone was asleep at the switch.

No kid who's on "normal" good terms w/their parents would've allowed that to happen w/out calling the police or knocking on neighbors doors, or something, so I agree. A little trash and fun, sure, but not to that scale. Something weird going on there, for sure.

I remember seeing this on TV; thought they were just plain old ads with weird animation and haven't really watched them since I usually walk away during commercials. So I wouldn't have noticed. From the article, certainly doesn't seem politically correct, that's for sure. Whether the producers meant any real harm or not, who knows.

Wrath of Khan is a fun movie, both if you're an original ST fan and if you're a fan of overacted, hammy performances (Khan/Kirk).

The Ice Harvest. One strange little movie.

If the company knowingly hired someone with a record or something similar, perhaps I'd see it, but otherwise, no ... sounds like an attempt at a mo' money-grab to me. Personally, I'd never take a shower with a work dude (or gal) in the house. I take the shower before they arrive, then sit in an adjacent room reading or whatever. I wouldn't mind knowing how the person's sister got a hold of the man's phone to take the chip out in the first place.

I think you missed my implication of liking having options for both mega powers as well as not?

QFT Although it personally took me a while to warm up to the first one. Once I did, I liked it quite a bit. Enough that I didn't like the 2nd one nearly as much, even if it did have some fun moments. It just felt a lot more "forced" than the first one, or something.

Today it rained on my newly washed car, thus proving the old saying. California needs the rain tho, so I can't complain much. Other than that, I spent some time photo-fiddling/uploading, cooking, petting cats, popping advil, and napping. The usual.

They could be/were. But I like games that allow me to play either way - ie, if you don't want your character so powerful, you don't use those weapons or powers that make them so. I get a lot more replay from a game that way. If a player refuses to not use those powers/weapons and then says it's too easy, it's not neccesarily an issue with the game; imo, it's more often an issue with a player's "they put it there so I must use it" attitude. Which I do occasionally suffer from, myself.

Didn't they film 2 and 3 at the same time, or something? I think they should've released both at the same time, so you could go see one, then immediately hop over to the theater down the hall and see the 2nd one. Assuming one's rear end could take that much sitting.

Today I sat in a white plastic deck chair in the backyard while watching the tiny birds play in our jungle backyard. They love our backyard in Spring, before we hack all the wild growth away. Then I decided my car was really dirty and spent 3 hours washing and waxing it. It's old and functionall, but considering how much I neglect the thing, it's not in too bad of shape. If you look closely, you can see that in the seconds that it took me to go grab the camera, the huge eucuplyptus tree on the curb behind had already dropped a stuipid leaf on the hood (upper right, just under the tag on the windshield). I hate that tree. Then I decided I'd start some yardwork, which mostly meant creating a giant pile of intial hedge/tree trimmings. We have far too many of those, that we cut back to stubs every year, and every year they grow back to unruly nightmares. Tomorrow I'll probably start the weeding, since, uh, the yard obviously needs it.

Love that first phalanx shot from R:TW. The horror! I've heard that number about human eyes before; all I know is as long as a game doesn't have constant big fps spikes from movement/graphic effects, and is at least 25-30ish, it 'feels' smooth and non-laggy to me.

Going to post some of those drawings? I have no mod ideas, unfortunately. My ability to mod, or even think about modding, is nil. My hat goes off to anyone who tries/does such. And if you can make Atton look more "dark", as opposed to walking-zombie-like, even better. heh

I once ran face first into a really tall tree. But in terms of the question ... one can try and rationalize reasons, but there really aren't any rational explanations for why people like risks (of any kind, short or long term). I tend to agree that it's not that much different than wanting to race cars and jump off cliffs or parachute etc. The risks are different, but the urge is the same. What kind of risks one prefers is individualistic. Me, if forced to choose, I'd rather climb a mountain and freeze than do anything where I might drown, say.

It's was an ordinary day until I checked the mail just now. Apparently the US treasury is sending out some tax refunds; why I don't know, I don't keep up with the news. But we're now $12.32 richer. Wheee!

That dude from the 70's show rules.

But a staff doesn't have two cutting beams on either end that you have to worry about cutting off your own body parts with as you flail around with the sword. I suppose it's technically possible to dual-wield 2 double sabers (in fantasy-lands anyway), but it wouldn't be advisable.