Blarghagh

A bit late to responding to these, but: Obvious exaggeration is obvious. It's meant as a demonstration of how backwards he's considered, not an actual legislation. Extremely obviously. I can't stress enough how obviously obvious this is. Super obvious. Anyone would have seen it. And just to make sure you don't think this is a veiled insult, I'm going to confirm this as a straightforward insult right here. I don't agree with that assessment of the USA under Bush, I don't think that is what most Europeans think either. I assume you think the same of the UK under Tony Blair? Bush and some of his policies were disliked but he also had the arduous task of being president during the beginning of the War on Terror. There were many things that were done legitimately that some now say were not justified. Like the invasion of Afghanistan which was perfectly understandable and necessary. I generally object to blanket generalizations about a country or nation, so statements " "all Americans are the dumbest rednecks on the planet" doesn't represent the reality of the Bush era Because an image always represents the reality of a situation. I'm not generalizing anything, I'm saying how they were generalized. This is not my opinion or the personal image I have, this is my observation of the image that was prevalent in Europe at the time. The election of Obama was the first time the U.S. was given some respect again.

I know last time I hated on this movie it didn't go over well, but I thought the was just too hilarious not to post. Don't watch it if you haven't seen it, because it contains huge spoilers of all the dumb things happening in that movie, i.e. the plot, philosophy, characters and design... so basically everything.

I enjoy the part of Trump's Twitter Rant where he says "the world is laughing at us now" or somesuch, I don't remember the exact quote. Internationally, or at least in Europe, Mitt Romney is regarded as a laughing stock, a backwards cult brainwasher who is inches from legalizing slavery, and it took America electing a black man to finally lessen the image of "all americans are the dumbest rednecks on the planet" that Bush created. Obama is the reason the world isn't laughing at the U.S. anymore.

Doesn't Australia censor about as much as China and keep aborigines in internment camps where military police controls their food and water supply? I can't confirm this for myself but I was told by a friend who lives there that the state of human rights in Australia in some places makes China look like a happy place. Which was obviously an enormous exaggeration, but still.

That's funny. Democrats turn the Sandy aftermath into more pro Obama rhetoric, yet when Katrina happened blamed Bush for everything that went on. That's because Obama responded almost instantly while Bush took about eight months to do so. Only slightly exaggerated. Judging by the fact that almost half of the American voters voted for Romney and the fact that the American President is essentially still the most powerful political figure on the planet, I'm thinking the presidential election should not be a solely American thing anymore because if half your voters decide to prove in one fell swoop that they are mentally below voting age then your country can't handle that responsibility. I guess that's what you get when historically you owe your existence to the french.

"Have the hubris to believe" how on earth do you know what Bruce Springsteen believes about what he's allowed to do? This is the utmost stupidity. If you had the resources like they do to help things go the way you want you would use them too, end of story. There is no question of 'hubris' and 'belief'. They have an opinion that they want to convince people of, and they have the resources and following to reach people. End of story. How dare you have the hubris to try and convince me of your opinion on this public soapbox that everyone can read? Ridiculous!

Stephen King's The Dark Tower.

I already posted that video in the funny things thread - so I'm going to raise you one. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=ltCIEbLMaQg

Thanks, I'll look into those. Both are fine with me. I'm looking for one that isn't too expensive, like max 150.

That was actually the cunning ploy where nearly all the EU created before the prequels is set AFTER A New Hope. WIth the most extensive stuff being in that 5-20 years post Return of the Jedi. The only real stuff set before A New Hope.. is set hm, 5,000 years before, 4,000 years before, and 1,000 years before. That let them leave the big hole for the prequels, and post prequels has let them fill in those gaps. Hah, fair enough, I'm not really familiar with Star Wars EU - I just know I always hear people complaining about the prequels messing with canon. I remember that the Clone Wars story was told before where supposedly Ben Kenobi died and got replaced with the clone 0B1 Kenobi. Perhaps that was all bull that I was told, but it sure as damn sounded better than the prequels.

As someone who doesn't live in America and doesn't really care who wins, I want to state objectively that as far as I've seen at least the EU likes Obama and regards Romney as essentially a laughing stock.

Didn't the prequels already invalidate like 90% of the EU? I think it's a pointless discussion anyway. Canon is a fan construction - it's bull**** that doesn't matter. Extended Universe for anything is never truly canon.

I need a new mic because my old one is broken - it's meant for voice chat as well as commentary tracks, meaning voice tutorials for software and let's plays game commentary tracks. Seperate mic, not headset. Anyone here know anything about that? Suggestions?

Tale, the first rule of NaNoWriMo is "no rewrites". The whole point is to put it down on paper and throw caution to the wind. Rewriting is what you do after. This is a case of do as I say, not do as I do since I participated last year and did exactly the same thing you're doing. I failed at it. I don't have time this year, which makes me sad.

According to that it's considered a "great financial failure", like how video games that might a slight profit are and not huge are deemed such and then fired afterwards. Sadly, that's the idiotic reality of today. I blame the stock market and shareholders. MacDonalds only made 1.45 billion profit, last year 1.5 billion in that time. Massive crises! Stocks are plumeting over the bad results. Hello? 1.45 billion PROFIT isn't profit anymore? What the hell? Anyway, back to the story at hand... it's absolutely ambiguish yet wheter this is an improvement or not. And screw EU. Please let VII overwrite and obsolete all of it, right where it belongs. Adhering to it religiously will only hurt Star Wars as franchise at this point. While I agree with you on all your points regarding those other things it doesn't apply to film. Budget is not the only cost associated with a movie, especially one with such a lavish (yet ultimately pointless) advertising campaign as John Carter - that superbowl trailer alone probably cost somewhere around 10 million. General rule of thumb in the industry used to be "a would-be blockbuster needs to earn double it's budget to break even" and while the budgets have grown so enormous that this is probably not true anymore, so my modest guess is that the advertising campaign alone cost around 100 million (actually a small number compared to the advertising campaigns on movies such as Transformers which easily break 200 million in costs). That's not even counting things like the cut of the theater chains, which is substantially higher overseas than it is domestic, and John Carter made most of it's money overseas. Despite it making back it's budget throughout it's entire theater run, this movie was a huge financial failure. Urgh, it's so odd to refer to the US as 'domestic' and where I live as 'overseas'.

That budget is not counting the advertising budget which adds quite a bit (probably another 100 mil) and the worldwide gross does not actually reflect earnings. Only 70 mil or so was the US gross and the rest was worldwide - where theater chains etc. take a much larger cut of the earnings. The general rule is that a movie needs double it's budget to be considered 'succesful' and John Carter, despite extremely strong home theater sales, just doesn't look like it's going to justify a sequel for the studio. EDIT: I was typing that while you wrote the other one. I don't know why Spielberg doesn't like sequels - but he's stated it repeatedly. Don't remember any sources but he mentioned it on the making of The Lost World. I agree that he would be the natural choice but it seems unlikely right now.

I don't know, that seems pretty unlikely - Spielberg doesn't like sequels. He's only done a handful - the Indiana Jones sequels and The Lost World, and he's publicly stated he regretted the latter. Still, he was originally slated to do one but had to bow out due to scheduling conflicts.

I didn't get very far into Amnesia before fearquitting and uninstalling - I am the worst kind of coward. Once I've got some spare time I've resolved to let's play this with a facecam and put it on youtube (in the dark with headphones on loudly, of course) - nothing motivates to finish something like the fear of public failure. That being said, what I've seen of this one so far just hasn't hit that horror sweet spot. Still, Frictional and chineseroom seem to know what they're doing.

What the hell? That's being lectured?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6TiXUF9xbTo&feature=youtu.be

Planning on doing an Amnesia Video Let's Play sometime soon so people can laugh at my cowardice. I never got past the first monster encounter - freaked me out so much I quit and uninstalled the damned thing.

Look, I'm not trying to insult you, TN, but I simply can't understand why you're being snarky about this. In all the years I've been working with computers, I've never had a single virus. I've never had an email, game, or social media account hacked. I've never had any problems with online order or any other sort of thing. I did have someone at a utility company take a hard copy of one of my checks and use it to steal money from my checking account once, but that wasn't exactly high tech. Maybe you can say that the blame for spam emails resides entirely with me, but it just smells of a Blizzard apologist getting in a bit of a bunch because I said something critical of the company. ...But, and this is what makes it so strange, I never blamed Blizzard in the first place. Even my first post wasn't critical of Blizzard. I was voicing frustration with the Blizzard related spam emails, but I don't blame Blizzard because some numbnuts in China wants to try to hack my account. I mean, you can take the next fifty pages to respond, I guess, and that's your right. I'm not going to complain, but I don't think we really have a beef with one another. I'm saying, without rancor, that just because you haven't had spam emails regarding Blizzard doesn't mean that I'm at fault for the ones I get. Let me tell you, I get virtually no spam in my personal email account *except* for fake Blizzard emails. If it's my fault, my fault is extremely selective. I'm not even defending Blizzard. You keep bringing up Blizzard as a factor. As far as I'm concerned you can replace Blizzard with [nameless company] and I would still say the same thing, which is that almost all spam e-mail comes from your e-mail address ending up where it shouldn't. It's very unlikely the senders even know you if have a Blizzard account or not. They're just hoping to randomly hit some jerk who does have one and who is dumb enough to give them their information so they can steal whatever's worth stealing - in this case personal information, all your gold and stuff and another free game account to turn into a gold farmer so they can sell more gold. The only thing I'm snarky about was your implication that I couldn't see beyond my personal experience. Okay, I don't know where you're located or how long you've had this spam problems, so it may be because of the recent security breach at Blizzard, but that seems unlikely since you describe it as a long lasting problem and because your other e-mail isn't connected to your Blizzard account. If it was another company I would say the same thing. I've never even considered that Paypal was to blame for spam I've received about a nonexistent Paypal account because that's ridiculous. Did you not read that Gorth hasn't had any of the games and still gets the spam emails? Look, I don't want to get into a fifty page spam war over this, but your personal experiences are useful in informing your views, but really don't reflect on a larger reality as a whole. I have different accounts for different things. I have a shared email account with my wife that gets household related things but also gets spam. I have a personal email account that is virtually spam free. I get spam emails regarding World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 on both accounts, even though the shared account has never had a Blizzard game associated with it at all. Moreover, TN, I've already said that I don't blame Blizzard for the spam emails and the hackers. On the other hand, since these guys seem pretty dogged and determined to spam me regarding Blizzard games, it's still part of a larger discussion as far as I'm concerned. So, you have all Blizzard games and have never had a spam email regarding them. Good for you. Blaming someone else for spam emails when he hasn't shared any information about them with others? Not good. After all, how did Gorth share information about accounts he's never had? At any rate, I've had Blizzard account for two games for many years and, while I get spam emails regarding them, I have never had my accounts hacked in all that time. I must not be sharing particularly vital information. Just because you don't have a Blizzard account doesn't mean that spammers can't spam your e-mail. I'm assuming that like all other spam this too is sent en masse to whatever e-mails they can find hoping to hit something. It's like buckshot. I've been sent spam from fake Amazon, fake eBay, fake Origin, fake XBoxLive and I have never used nor signed up for these services (I don't even own an XBox). I've had several non-existent accounts threatened with closure over 'misuse'. It means you've likely shared your e-mail on something unsavory or public. Simple as that. I've changed e-mails since, stopped using it anywhere public, and now I'm barely ever getting spam. Ultimately, your own responsibility. Also, thanks for explaining to me about personal experiences not always conforming to everyone else. A whole new world has opened up to me. Oh get off your high horse. If you had bothered reading what he was referring to, you would have known that it was exactly the point instead of getting all huffy about it. Thanks for implying that I share my work email with unsavory elements, I'm sure our corporate clients will love that classification. Guess what, sometimes people get access to your email due to circumstances beyond your control. I implied nothing. Especially not about your 'work e-mail', which is something that was never mentioned in this thread. I wasn't even talking about you. Cant used you specifically as an example of a group (namely those without Blizzard accounts but who do get spam) and I continued on that group, not on you as an example, and the group doesn't have to apply to you as an individual. I wasn't referring to, implying about or adressing you. As far as I'm concerned you never even figured into my posts in any way whatsoever and any implications about you personally are simply projections on your part. For the record, I never said it was exclusively because of people sharing their e-mail with 'unsavory elements', I just said it was likely and probable and as much as you seem to hate that, it is. All the people I have helped with spamming, spoofing and other such matters (as well as almost all cases I find on the internet) could all be tracked back to them doing something dumb on the internet, myself included. Due to the odds I'm going to think the same is the most likely situation with you. I'm sorry you find this apparently offensive, but I don't know you as a person so I'm going to assume you fit in with the average. I do find it funny that I am on my high horse and 'huffy' because you seem to find the possibility that this might be at least partially your fault so insulting that you have taken my post, which was not even specifically adressed to you at all, as a personal attack. Honestly, I'm not even sure why Cant involved your case in the first place since it proves my point - you have no connection to Blizzard the spam mails have to be coming from another source. This means your information has ended up somewhere it shouldn't - if it makes you feel better I'll concede to the possibility that you might not have shared it yourself, but I'm wondering who is ultimately responsible for where your information ends up if not you. Interesting that both you and Cant take my post as being 'huffy' or 'snarky' when that's not the tone I intended at all. I'm more amused than anything else because both of you have problems with things you're reading into my posts yourselves. I'm almost tempted to see if I can add extra snarky implications just to see what else will be read into it, but if I did I would have to end this post with "r00fles" and I think that's something I should avoid. But this is getting horribly off topic so I'm taking my leave of this subject. Judging by the tone of your posts this can only get ugly.

How well do EULA's hold up in court? They're practically meaningless in Europe. Did you not read that Gorth hasn't had any of the games and still gets the spam emails? Look, I don't want to get into a fifty page spam war over this, but your personal experiences are useful in informing your views, but really don't reflect on a larger reality as a whole. I have different accounts for different things. I have a shared email account with my wife that gets household related things but also gets spam. I have a personal email account that is virtually spam free. I get spam emails regarding World of Warcraft and Diablo 3 on both accounts, even though the shared account has never had a Blizzard game associated with it at all. Moreover, TN, I've already said that I don't blame Blizzard for the spam emails and the hackers. On the other hand, since these guys seem pretty dogged and determined to spam me regarding Blizzard games, it's still part of a larger discussion as far as I'm concerned. So, you have all Blizzard games and have never had a spam email regarding them. Good for you. Blaming someone else for spam emails when he hasn't shared any information about them with others? Not good. After all, how did Gorth share information about accounts he's never had? At any rate, I've had Blizzard account for two games for many years and, while I get spam emails regarding them, I have never had my accounts hacked in all that time. I must not be sharing particularly vital information. Just because you don't have a Blizzard account doesn't mean that spammers can't spam your e-mail. I'm assuming that like all other spam this too is sent en masse to whatever e-mails they can find hoping to hit something. It's like buckshot. I've been sent spam from fake Amazon, fake eBay, fake Origin, fake XBoxLive and I have never used nor signed up for these services (I don't even own an XBox). I've had several non-existent accounts threatened with closure over 'misuse'. It means you've likely shared your e-mail on something unsavory or public. Simple as that. I've changed e-mails since, stopped using it anywhere public, and now I'm barely ever getting spam. Ultimately, your own responsibility. Also, thanks for explaining to me about personal experiences not always conforming to everyone else. A whole new world has opened up to me.

Apparently Wine registers as some kind of exploit. Dunno why. Also, I have all Blizzard games and have not ONCE gotten a spam e-mail about it. Ever. If you're getting them, you've probably shared something on the wrong place.

Eh, you get used to it. I surely hope not, generally I don't have that feeling.