LadyCrimson

I suppose I'd get used to it, but I think it would still bother me. There's a store here that has a huge multi-display in their TV department - maybe 20 or 50 screens or something to make one giant screen. It has no individual borders around each screen, but the breaks are still highly visible and disruptive to visual flow, imo. The 100"+ TV set I wouldn't mind having, tho...except I doubt our living room would be big enough to sit a proper distance away from it. hehe

If the above isn't exactly what you want, you can use Miles Sound Tools to directly listen to the wav files stored in the games folders and the free version of WavePad to record/edit whatever snippets you want to use to make your own custom desktop stuff.

What do you have their AI set to? I seem to recall one option setting where they would follow but wouldn't attack much on their own, or something. Wouldn't surprise me if it was a bug - just trying to think of possible other reasons.

After watching the new episode, I'm pleased that the show was finally starting to focus, again, more on the military/political positions & goals rather than the bickering women. I hope it stays in that vein. That one Senator that's always in the middle of things - is it Kato? - I like him more and more.

My husband is pretty convinced that before this law was voted on (I'm not even sure exactly if it's in actual effect or not), California had no rquirements at all. -- I'd have to resarch that - I haven't worked in years and really don't know the policies, but I think a lot of people do assume it's mandatory, when it's not/wasn't. It was mostly company/union policy/incentive, not state-required. McDonalds, for instance, has never given health insurance to it's grunts here, as far as I know. Quick Google about that recent Calif. Act: http://www.bls.gov/opub/cwc/cm20031117yb01p1.htm

In california, employers with less than a certain number of workers are exempt from having to provide minimum health care. I don't know what that number was in the past - I think a bit higher - but I think due to a recent act it's now been decreased to under 20(exempt) and 49 (can be exempt). I don't know if there are nitpicky qualifier details beyond that. At any rate, my point is that there are companies who may not/will not provide insurance if they can get away with it/can't afford it if they fall under certain parameters. Perhaps Sand's situation falls into one of those. The self-employed - of which my spouse is one - are also in unique sitations. Full-time is not neccesarily automatic company-paid-for healthcare in all states, at least. Edit: Not to mention, just because you have some insurance, doesn't mean you can afford the care required. So many deductions and % rates and all that, many still end up paying/owing huge amounts.

Does anyone else think that the line-breaks in the 3-monitor setup would really annoy them?

But at least you can't smell kitty litter or dog farts! Seriously - I may joke...but like all our senses, sometimes you don't know how important they are till they're not working properly. Do you actually have no sense of smell at all, or just a very minimalized one?

I don't see in that article any info about whether the performers are paid or not, nor whether the concerts will be about money - they in fact seem to try to differentiate it from the typical donation-fest. Not that I don't believe some money won't be drummed up - if only to try and pay for the costs of the events, which I'm sure aren't cheap even if the performers aren't paid - but it doesn't seem to be the focus? Still, the irony re: how much pollution might be generated in the cause of lessening pollution is valid. I don't know...perhaps they believe that in a greater-good cause that may help more in the long run, a little excess in the present to make that happen is a neccesary evil? Then again...

It's also possible you may have just missed some minor options before? I know there were small things I'd never noticed before even after repeated play. I'd think I'd tried clicking on every response to see what happened, but apparently not. But yeah, the xbox has that 3rd run-through stuff. It's not a lot, but there's a few things. It was disabled for the PC version - or at least, it never worked for me, or many others.

Random Hearts. Probably the first movie I've ever seen where I found Harrison Ford's character portrayal to be generally unlikable. The film has some talented people, and some brief cameos from some 24 stars, but the pacing was glacial and the character-sympathy needed for this kind of movie to work just wasn't there.

There have been many times when I wished that was so for me...

While I don't particularly like Wayne's character as President in this show, it's because he doesn't fit with the way the rest of the show "works", to me. Not brash, bold, risk-taking, oozing of moral self-confidence, that sort of thing. In brief...he's boring. It's not like David Palmer was short, stubby and old, y'know.

If it wasn't for David Letterman I'd have never known this woman existed. :D Sad she died so young...always is.

Food/drink definitely affects the smell and taste of sweat, but I'm not sure it affects the hormonal aspect the article is talking about. I definitely prefer the way hubby smells a few hours after a shower, not right after - assuming he spends those hours doing mellow things rather than strenuous physical activity like cleaning an outhouse or something.

Yeah...the Blockbuster one.

Some funny/interesting/weird commercials or spoofs. Fat cat exercising - just bizarre http://youtube.com/watch?v=dPSBWkIDJL0 The Calrton Draught 'big ad' commercial http://youtube.com/watch?v=GYf2z0exgmU Supposedly an ad for an odd Asian family game, might be a spoof Parental Stress Syndrome - animated animals, cute/funny Rick Mercer's Blackberry Spoof Kaupthing w/John Cleese #3 http://youtube.com/watch?v=nc1eRmk7ijc xbox360 - redneck hunting (I'm not sure it's funny, but it's weird) http://youtube.com/watch?v=StOJr2k5Y-U Captain Morgan rum - guy's bar friends help him fool the g/f into thinking he's at home watching TV Turkish ad using people and top down camera to create the images - it's just cool And of course, the classic Thai tea catepillar ad

O/T... I didn't watch the game, but looking at a page w/all the commericals, the click a mouse one is pretty damn funny...

I guess in terms of economics and greed, we'll just have to hope that one day we'll be as enlightened as Starfleet and not use money as a motivator for anything.

I know the cost isn't the main issue - but if the government/state gets involved, the cost is (part) the issue - at least, that was my impression, since you and a couple others mentioned figures of how much it would cost the government to implement the program. If the government stayed out of it, the drug company would continue to sell/market their vaccine, right? Hospitals and such would continue to offer it, health benefits would continue to cover it or eventually cover it. Thus I thought one of the anti-government-involvement arguments was that people could choose/volunteer to get the vaccine w/out government interference, making such unneccesary. That was my point in asking how much it would cost to the citizen who had no health benefits.

I don't remember the voice acting being bad. It was having to stare at those funky, goofy faces so often while the voices spoke, that I found irritating. Since I never finished the game (something that happens to me ever more increasingly w/games as years go by...) I doubt I'll buy this. Oblivion was a fairly good game; more involving than Morrowind and certainly beautiful - but like Cant, I never bought the expansions to Morrowind either...I think I've given them all the money I care to give for now.

Media-image wise, the original Octavian as he was looked too childishly innocent for that, I agree. Tho mostly I think it's because of his long curly hair. I wasn't sure if they were going to cut his hair and use a little more makeup and such to give him a more mature mein or a use a new studly actor. When he disappeared from screen for a bit, I knew it would be a new actor. With the guy they picked - who doesn't look so much more "mature", really - I think they would have been just as well off giving the original actor a haircut etc.

I agree about Wayne Palmer. I suppose they may have wanted to show a President that wasn't a towering inferno of stoic righteousness and strength (or "evil"), but as before...just not very compelling. The difference between the 1st and 2nd seasons and the ones after are quite stark, imo. Not to mention...just how many 'worst days of his life' can Jack have? I keep thinking they'll eventually try to groom a new agent to take his place - I remember thinking that's what they originally intended w/Kim's CTU boyfriend that one season but got rid of him when people didn't like him...and of course, I wonder if the series would survive w/out Jack as the main man. Probably not....

On that issue - do the low-cost/planned parenthood type places offer these vaccines to people at a very low cost/free? If they do, that helps soothe my personal morality feeling a bit, as my worry is that there are still plenty of people in the United States who do not have the income or the job to aquire/maintain even basic health benefits. Those are the ones who likely couldn't afford or would be unwilling to pay for the cost of the vaccine w/out help and thus wouldn't get it because they're more worried about other costs. They may not be bad parents persay - it may simply be a matter of money. It's easy to say from above "well it's health, health comes before everything" but when you're in a situation where it's schoolbooks or clothes or rent or the fare to get to your crummy job vs. a 3-visit vaccine, it's not so easy or so obvious to them.

My reference to polio was mostly an effort to remark that a stance of absolute non-government involvement except when "too many" people might die, feels inconsistent to me - what I would call ethical convienence. Doesn't sit well with me personally, that's all - not only for healthcare, but for other issues as well. I know that's a subjective belief system issue - which while possibly interesting and oft debated, imo isn't very helpful for analytical evaluation of logistical benefits vs. costs of topics like these - someone I know took me to friendly task for that recently - so sorry if I took things a bit off track.