Bartimaeus

So, from what I can tell, it sounds like HDD failures. All your symptoms, including GPU driver failure and intermittent restarts, sounds like it starts from there. It does seem pretty unusual that both your drives are failing at the same time, though: not sure what to make of that. I would want to stick in an old HDD (like an 80GB or something) if you have one (or a flash drive, if you don't) that's been formatted and see how the system handles from then on, personally, since it does seem suspicious for both of them to go bad at the same time. I'd also think a failure on the motherboard's part that's killing your HDDs would be catastrophic enough that your system simply wouldn't work at all (if such a thing's even possible), but it's impossible to definitively say.

And Jordy Nelson tears his ACL in pre-season. I spoke too soon. (e): And Aaron Rodgers currently has his throwing arm wrapped up, our first round pick Demarious Randall was carted off the field, TJ Lang is being evaluated for a concussion...

I like preseason, actually (...sans pointless injuries). But there's not too much to talk about.

I'm going to go a little against the grain here(?): how is paying heed to whom you are and are not attracted to being shallow? If you are not attracted to someone, you are not attracted to someone - it doesn't matter what traits that are specifically turning you away, whether it be gender/sex, physical features, how they manage their appearance, what they believe (yes, even stuff like this can play into your perception of who you're attracted to), etc. - you are simply not attracted to them. I also doubt it's a wise idea to pursue those whom you are not attracted to - that would surely result in some difficulties in any potentially meaningful relationship for as long as it remains true (it may not remain true, since what we appreciate can change over time, especially with more exposure - particularly if it's in a consistently positive light - but it's impossible to determine that from the outset, and most people would simply rather be with someone where both parties feel like they are compatible with one another to begin with). On the other hand, the girl also asked, "would you have still felt a connection to me[...]?". This one I am less sure of, since it depends on exactly what is meant by "feeling a connection": if you have trouble making friends and/or just in general getting along with someone because of such factors, I think that may be more shallow (it really kind of depends: some people find it impossible to associate with people with opposite political beliefs, for example...whereas I don't have such problems except for very extreme cases. But I wouldn't classify those who do as being shallow: should I? Are physical appearances really that much more meaningful than political beliefs when it comes to personal relationships with others? That's not a rhetorical question: I'm genuinely unsure of what/how you classify such factors as "meaningful".) But genuine attraction? You can't really control for that.

That's the next thing I would like after friends list-specific privacy settings: games list-specific privacy settings. It'd be nice if there were just options/customization for everything...knowing Valve, it'll be another ten to twenty years...or more likely, never.

Yeah, most people I know set their profiles to at least friends only...unless they have a specific reason for keeping it completely public. No way to tell how many people that actually is, though. I personally keep my profile completely private...and I'll continue to do so until they implement friends list-specific privacy controls.

How do you guys get such high percentages for multiple parties? Do I just agree with no-one on some things?

Huge walls of text aren't very conductive to discussion to begin with, though... Resort to it if necessary, but otherwise have a little restraint and don't drill in every single point and tidbit of supporting information you can possibly think of/bring up all at once. Nobody wants to read those kinds of posts.

So your best party is my worst party...interesting. Good to know: I'll know who to whack first when the apocalypse comes.

Great. Just great: not only am I in between all parties in the U.S., the same is true for the parties in Canada!

Hey, I never really had anything in common with hardly anybody here to begin with: it's no big deal.

Given at least a few months, no version of Windows thus far has been able to identify genuine versions of Windows vs. non-genuine versions of Windows when the latter is properly set up. I can't imagine that changing any time soon, really, but we'll see.

If you're talking one on one with somebody, it can happen. In open discussions, though, it does generally seem to be eternally fruitless to try to convince the person you're actually arguing with...however, I think that's because somebody who decides to engage with you already has cemented their stance: why else would they feel the need to go out of their way to argue with you (unless they're simply playing devil's advocate)? Vice versa if you do the same for them, too, of course. On the other hand, your arguments may help guide others who are not actively involved in the discussion one way or another: I know for a fact that merely listening to other people discuss on these forums in certain topics and seeing what're the best arguments people can come up with are has helped sway me at least a little towards one side or another. Unfortunately, for this to actually be any legitimate good for figuring out your own stance, this also relies on both sides being equal in terms of arguing ability, which, as I'm sure some of us have noticed/felt by now in regards to certain members and discussions here, is often simply not true.

I doubt it's of serious concern, if only for the fact that even if Windows 10 actually does do that, software crackers will likely crack Windows 10 into letting them crack other software...and if cracked versions of Windows 10 work and/or treat the user better than non-cracked versions of Windows, less people will likely be buying legit copies of Windows. Though I don't pirate hardly anything these days, I still find that sort of nonsense to be rather detestable: my OS should be my operating system, not my self-policing and moral-guidance system. That, or it'll be easily worked around in another way.

Sometimes it's not about who's right: discussions (as well as communication in general) that are constructive/worth having are usually about more than just that...as infuriating as it may be when we know (or believe we know) ourselves to be right. (edit): It is sometimes really hard to make well-written English sentences while still saying what I want to say.

It happens. I think it's usually better if it happens that way, really: better to bring them back and give them a chance at finding another home than to hang on to them for too long while fruitlessly trying to make it work...destroys opportunities for them (and probably for yourself, too). Keeping them while it's not working also opens up the possibility of screwing up their general behavior/personality, which can hurt their chances even more...though it depends on how badly it's "not working", of course.

I'd rather take the stuffy nose. But then again, I'd also cough my lungs out before taking cough syrup, too, . I'm very sensitive/weak in regards to tastes, smells, and textures I hate.

I can't stand even water going up my nose, and I can barely handle mouth wash in just my mouth...I would choke, violently cough, asphyxiate and die if I did that.

I think different people cared for different reasons, but that may be just me.

Yeah, I've had a few that I just couldn't make work as well... I wouldn't recommend trying to change it, given that it's still not working for me...but you can always create and use a gravatar account if so.

Honestly, Hold Portal isn't that bad. There are times i could've certainly used it in Baldur's Gate against more advanced mod-added AI, that's for sure.

Sepia is not black and white, thank you very much. More seriously, I did consider the fact that my avatar would seem somewhat similar to Amentep's avatars...but it is only temporary, like my avatars have been lately. Just a picture I came across that I thought was really cool...couldn't resist making an avatar out of it. (e): Also, I actually don't think it works that well here on the Obsidian forums...at least for posts, that is. The max avatar size for posts is just not large enough to really work all that well with it...looks pretty good in my profile, I think, though.

I did think a wannabee of that Joe Buck would be pretty weird, but how was I to argue with a mildly denigrating comment towards him regardless of the context? Also, I've never seen Midnight Cowboy, which probably didn't help...