taks

well, i don't visit many discussion boards other than this one and a few technical/economic types. everyone here (D_N excluded... ) is generally pretty good about not spoiling stuff. none of my friends are spoilers, either, and many have read the books. taks

hehe, growing up in st. louis and attending a missouri college, i am quite familiar with the AB tours in downtown st. louis. unfortunately, only second hand. however, as the story goes, they used to allow unlimited drinking at the end of the tour. as a result, the organization i ultimately joined (the st. pat's board) at UMR (uh, MST now) used to do a yearly tour and get themselves all messed up at the end. not just messed up but chug and blow messed up. that was how we hazed: "fill 'er up baby rep!." anyway, it wasn't too many of those trips before AB limited the number of beers each person could get and the board stopped touring. we also got in trouble one year (the year before i joined) for painting one of their clydesdales green during street painting (alumni board reps paint the main downtown street green for the st. patrick's day parade, using a lime-based paint). grant's farm in st. louis used to allow unlimited drinking, too, and... well, you guessed it. the board actually got kicked out of there as i have been told since it is otherwise a family affair and a bunch of guys dyed green puking everywhere isn't conducive to little bobby and mary petting goats. taks

haven't read, nor do i intend to read, any of the books. in two years, not once have i actually heard this, btw. taks

i'd be willing to bet their insurance is ridiculous (waivers do not totally excuse liability), and i know for a fact they are not open every day, with most of their income coming from parties on the weekends. my son had his birthday party at pump it up this year. taks

just got back from our camping trip. it was nice. we were situated right on the cottonwood creek at the base of a very old beaver dam. several waterfalls around and decent fishing, too. the creek is small, and heavily fished where we were, so once a hole was tapped a few times or the fish got otherwise spooked, it took a while for them to strike at flies again. either way, i caught a bunch including a few keepers (though one of my keepers got away on the transfer to my creel) and my son got to help out. he thought it was gross when i cleaned the fish, but didn't get sick, upset, or otherwise dismayed with fishing. he was hooting and hollering every time a got a hit. taks

oops... wrong thread. moving to wot. taks

no, you weren't underusing him, he's just not very effective as a monk, IMO. with the weapon/equipment the story says he should have, he is significantly more powerful than as a monk. since you don't have the CTRL-R heal feature in NWN2 (ahhh, baldur's gate), he becomes a potion chugging fool if you're playing hard-core rules. taks

i usually rotate on 3-4 year cycles, but the one that is dying is only 2 years old. i rotate my hardware into the rest of my family's systems. i was just planning my next upgrade (core i7, so i need an almost complete overhaul) and realized that i'll probably end up with more computers than bodies to operate them. my son rarely uses his, and my wife is happy enough with hers, so i'm not sure what i'm going to do. john will get my copy of XP, however, since he's running 2k and it has issues with his websites (which is why he doesn't use it). taks

yes and no. SCSI drives operate at 10,000 rpm and i have heard they are no worse/better than IDE/ATA drives. my seagate is suffering increasing bad sector counts, which shouldn't have anything to do with the drive mechanism itself. maybe... dunno. not my specialty (though there are several drive manufacturers in colorado - lots of jobs in that industry, too). john and i are packed. i've got some things i'm sort of waiting on before we head out for the campground. the weather is crappy today, but i've gottten so accustomed to wilderness adventures that rain and cold don't really phase me. it simply requires more waterproofing. unfortunately, john hates his waterproof boots, so he runs around in his shoes and gets them soaked. oh, and hurlie, i've got a 6-pack of cutthroat porter and a 6-pack of laughing lab going into the cooler. since we're only going to be 10 miles from buena vista, which is large enough to have an actual grocery store, i can always run into town when (not if) i need more! let me know if you want me to mail some of the porter to you. they changed all the interstate liquor laws a while back and it is legal to do so now. taks

the redbirds just beat up on the best team in the NL (LAD) two games in a row. today's epic match lasted till the bottom of the 15th and pujols came through with the game winning RBI. yay! i can't watch 'em (yeah, yeah, rockies live here, who cares), but i can still root for 'em! taks

some jackass posting on one of my facebook friends' walls, one that i'm connected to so i get all his posts, spoiled something in a new movie that i intend to see. people don't think. grrr... taks

when JE releases TBH as a sims expansion, there will be a sacrifice by ramza, but i don't think it will be his first born and quite certainly there won't be any more borne of ramza's seed after that point unless he's saved off some in a freezer somewhere. taks

i would suggest unplugging your xbox, putting it back in the original box, taking it to the back yard, then ritualistically burning it - white gas, kerosene, gasoline, it doesn't matter, whatever gets the thing flaming. that is the only solution that will both solve your problem and deliver peace of mind simultaneously. trust me on this one... taks

the one that's dying is a 7200 rpm SATA seagate. i'm not happy about this. the one that is surviving is a 5400 PATA WD. taks

i'm in the mood for a new HDD, too. oddly, my 40 GB "backup" that's probably 6 or 7 years old is plugging along fine. it's just slow. we're going camping tomorrow near collegiate peaks campground. john and i are probably hitting the road mid-afternoon or so (it's a 2-hour drive) which will put us at the actual site - about 2 miles before the campground - around 5 or so. just the two of us tomorrow night. we're going to set up the backpack tent and pretend like we're out in the wilderness somewhere and we hiked in to get there. we'll set up the big tent, too, since our goal is to reserve space for the other family that will meet us on friday. he's going to help me start the fire and we're going to roast hot dogs. yeah, nobody in their right mind would carry hot dogs on a camping trip, but he doesn't know that. taks

i guess. it will be on for a while and i will surely rent it sooner or later. even if you record movies (directv DVR), you can't keep them for more than a few weeks, e.g., i rented push a few weeks ago and it lasts till august 1. they changed the policy last spring. i can understand why, but that doesn't mean i like it. i'm not sure if dish and the various cable companies are following suit, though i would imagine that the pressure is actually from the movie companies so they probably are doing the same, too. taks

brilliantly, i rented watchmen last night then fell asleep right as it was counting down from one minute to go... failing to hit the record button, of course. grrr... apparently i watched watchmen last night, though i cannot comment on the movie at all. taks

um, no. i clearly said it still fits the definition - and it is the most antiquated and least commonly used (it is the original) whether you like it or not. the most common usage today is in reference to the doomsday/mind control cults and the pop culture references to "cult of personality" type things. i suppose now you want to join the cult of assinine. so be it. if you can come up with a legitimate point regarding this thread and/or what i actually said, enlighten me. taks

more to the point, this was my entire point in the first post i made that lof took exception too, failing to recognize his own argument was self-contradictory. rather, the word cult applies to a broad spectrum, but when someone calls scientology a "cult," instinctively we all know what is mean and shouldn't have to devolve into idiocy of semantic bickering, particularly when it has nothing to do with the argument itself - scientology isn't about religion, it is about mind control, period. hubbard's goal was simply to make money. taks

we're not talking about 2000 years ago, we're talking about today. i never said otherwise. you have read my posts, correct? i made it clear in my first post that i see the various definitions as distinctions in magnitude, rather than distinct definitions. the most benign, of course, would be the "cult of personality" type definitions, and the most malign would be "doomsday (suicide) cults" in which everyone dies, e.g., jonestown. scientology falls into the extreme mind control spectrum with some documented loss of life occurrences. people that think they're being smart by bickering over semantics when they fully know what is meant by the usage, particularly after numerous posts detailing the meaning. words are funny, they often have multiple definitions, each of which is equally valid, and context differentiates the distinct usage. sometimes the differences are vast, e.g., the word lie, and other times they are nothing more than variations on a theme, as in this case. that anybody would sit an argue such a point is nothing but assinine, and is indicative of a lack of any real argument. and also the one that is least used today. words change in their meaning over time. when you say "cult" in any modern usage, everyone knows what you are referring to within the context of your statement. that fact that you, and others, would argue these semantics is nothing more than being argumentative for the sake of argument, i.e., you're being assinine because you know i've never denied the original usage and you know exactly what i mean (it's not as if i haven't explained myself pretty well). you're better than lof. taks

by only the most antiquated of definitions. i disagree, and there is good reason the other definitions are there. read my link (it actually mentions 9 definitions, though dictionary.com has 8 of them). the word means what people thinks it means. when you ask the average person what a cult is, i.e., a "true cult" in my nomenclature - a qualifier i added merely for distinction from the original definition, they will likely say something like moonies, or scientology, etc. taks

an explanation of how the word is used can be found here. negative, particularly the usage by the "anti-cult movement" and/or extremely negative usage is the typical usage when people are referring to scientology as a cult. taks

christianity is hardly "very different from the cultural norm." in the americas, europe, and australia, christianity is the cultural norm (and at the very least, the vast majority). by your own definition, nowhere is there a requirement for the "charismatic leader" to be alive. edit: for that matter, l. ron hubbard is no longer the leader anyway. by any definition, you're pretty much a moron for failing to understand your own argument. there are actually about 8 "definitions" of "cult" in the dictionary, all of which differ almost solely in magnitude of influence - which was my point, i.e., that the "definitions" are really a matter of magnitude of influence on the members' lives. the two concepts i cited certainly fall under the realm of control and/or magnitude of influence. furthermore, i made it VERY clear that i was referring to what is generally thought of as a true cult. but, you being the simpleton that you are, cannot understand that and would rather sit in here and bicker over semantics that i thoroughly explained in my original post. reading comprehension, it should be your friend. taks

i agree with kaftan on this 100%. barring the ridiculously expensive full version of acrobat, i use the free cutepdf and it works quite well, if you're interested in a PDF maker. taks

i loved it, too, but would have preferred something a bit closer to the primary (modern) legend, particularly malory's morte d'arthur. a remake will be welcome, however, since there haven't been many good fantasy movies lately (other than the potter movies). one interesting adaptation, btw, one of the few books i've read more than once and enjoyed, is t.h. white's the once and future king. that would make a cool movie in spite of not totally sticking to the primary legend either. taks