taks

nope... there's no rule, only that their assets must be dedicated to at least one charitable cause. there are many that only donate a few % of the total take, some that don't even raise enough to cover costs. the only laws that would exist anyway would be regarding tax status: i.e., is the organization exempt or not. taks

there's no distinction between the speakers other than size. i.e. you speakers weren't "2.0" they were just two speakers, and you used to sets to make four speakers. that said, all you need to do is get two additional speakers to "upgrade" your 5.1 to 7.1. most speakers except for maybe the front two, and front middle, are simple satellites so size appropriately, i.e. if you're only putting out 5W of power, don't get 3' speakers for the satellites. either way, there should be instructions for hooking up your respective 5.1 and 7.1... probably just separate inputs in pairs (front LR, rear LR, etc.). taks

yep, and he comes out on xmas to pass judgement on all those poor naughty souls... "santa claus is gunning you down!" taks

ah, yes, that would explain it at home, but not at work. well, maybe not at work since we may be using a DSL or something. both got reset today, btw. home is a cable modem which re-negotiates IP status regularly. a friend of mine actually refused to go with cable because they would not guarantee a static IP. at work, i'm not sure what we have... taks

i think most of the previous controversy was with the american red cross... that said, even in the most corrupt organizations, there are still average joes working for them that are honest and compassionate. taks

oh, that's a riot! taks

you beat me to it... i was going to say the same thing. taks

keep in mind, too, that NWN1 was off and on in production for nearly 5 years... by the time it came out _everyone_ in the world knew it would be there. plus, it was right on the heels of several successful D&D games which bioware had a hand in, particularly the BG games. NWN2 did not, and the most recent was otherwise a failure. taks

does the board software automatically set the login cookies to expire after a certain time period, rather short actually, like 2 weeks it seems? i'm not suggesting that's a bad idea, and i wish more sites would do that, but this one forces me to re-enter often enough that i thought i would ask. thanks, mark

another x-files movie is in the works. jedi, 6 million+ work for the federal government. it won't help. taks

all elementary and secondary books are supplied by the school here. sometimes you have homework, however. taks

i don't relish that... of course, i'm on record nearly everywhere stating that i think federal involvement in education is a joke. the massive testing they now must perform is part of that joke. even if john stays out of the public system, he'll still have to take the same tests. grrr. i don't ever recall carrying a backpack to school, btw. john's got a bunch of stuff, a bag with a couple clothes changes, a lunchbox, a backpack... sheesh. taks

cool again, thanks as well. mine is named after both of his grandfathers. john is my dad, michael is michele's dad. his unofficial name is john michael stinkerpants tak... we need to cure him of telling people that, though it's funny around adults. taks

i never minded the story lines as much as the way you progressed through them with NWN... think fed-ex. HotU was actually fairly well done in both regards (issues, of course, but not like the OC). taks

way cool, thanks. i sent the link to my wife. taks

actually, taks fully agrees with gromnir advice. thanks. our current plans are actually a balance of home-schooling and some sort of charter/private school. i'm so fed up with public school that i don't want him to trot down that path till he's old enough to understand when a teacher is preaching vs. teaching. even then, the only reasons for public high-school are a) access to lots of kids of varying socio-economic status (as well as cultures/races, but COS is like 87% white) and b) easier access to all the sports/after school programs. granted, kids can be in the latter even if they don't attend the school, but it helps if they already know all their peers from classrooms. COS public schools all have the balance (half public attendance school, half home-school) programs, btw, so we may not need to opt for privatization. we'll see. taks

i've got the core manuals and one of the starter modules at home... soon, soon. he loves to sit and watch me "play noise," which is typically either BG or NWN2 lately. he calls it noise because the beginning screens have some really loud sounds, and when he was two, that's what he thought it was: noise. oh, he's starting on reading now, though it is slow going. we're concentrating on getting him to spell all of his favorite 3-letter words first. there's progress, and i expect we'll see bigger gains now that he's in pre-school. taks

$7k-$8k/year for pre-school, about the same for grade school, though maybe a little less. typically, grade schools have more kids per class, which is why it is a bit cheaper in spite of more days per week (pre-school is MWF, full days). when he gets old enough, perhaps for high-school or middle school, we'll probably let him go to public school. we aren't ready to make such decisions yet. i am, it's just not apparent yet. i'm hoping he stays as smart as he is now. scholarships may be a requirement! taks

one of john's favorite games when he was younger was "playing blocks." now he's into much more complex games such as "tickle tag" and "race around the house." kindergarten is next year. by 6 most kids are in the 1st grade. technically, in CO, you don't have to declare your child in some form of school till he's 7. taks

john is a complete momma's boy. we moved here 6 months before he was born, which meant few friends and no family. as a result, he's rarely away from either us, more particularly, momma. he still cries sometimes when momma goes to play pool on wednesday evenings. i talked to michele a bit ago and she's missing him terribly as i expected. she needs this as much as he does. hopefully she'll get a job and get some professional interaction she sorely needs. plus, private schools ain't cheap, so offsetting the cost would be nice. taks

if you ask him, he's a little perturbed he's not already able to do that... taks

my son john, 4, begins his education odyssey today attending pre-school for the first time. actually, he's in pre-kindergarten at the local goddard school. john cried all weekend after we told him what was going to happen. well, he did the pouty face and cried this morning when we dropped him off. it was sad. surprisingly, momma wasn't all that heartbroken. she'll probably start to miss him as the day goes on, however. dinner tonight will be interesting. taks

elitch gardens is definitely old, and now that i see it was bought out by six flags, i'm not really surprised. it's tiny, too, or at least it's crammed into a small space right off of I-25. i grew up 45 minutes from six flags over mid-america, which is now called six flags st. louis. it's a pretty nice park nestled into the mountains around it (granted, missouri mountains aren't mountains in the colorado sense...). my son is dying to go to an amusement park and we have one that shows up every couple months or so down the road. i'm guessing, knowing the way he is, the first time on a roller-coaster will have one of two very distinct outcomes: absolute horror or we'll never be able to get him off. there's no middle ground with john. taks

busch gardens is pretty cool... one in tampa and one in virginia somewhere. it's like a mini-zoo with rides. taks

i'm curious what the chat pile from a 3-mile deep well looks like. drilling any well causes harm to the environment simply because you expose the underlying rock to the weather, and various compounds leach out into the surrounding land. it's an otherwise solid idea... taks