taks

the same applies to most professional endeavors, e.g., engineers. you really, really, want to make sure the guy designing the bridge had reference material handy before he signed off on it! however, i also agree that there is a huge difference between being able to look up a "solution," and formulate one on your own. in the case of an engineering exam, you would expect that all the necessary parameters, i.e., the stuff you would otherwise look up in reference material, were provided in the question, and it is the onus of the exam taker to have the requisite knowledge to solve the problem from there. in other words, the test should be more about his problem solving skills rather than his memorization skills. i would suspect that different professions have different weighting between these two major skill sets making the distinction at exam time much more ambiguous. taks

cars like this really don't make sense outside of urban environments (not yet at least). imagine driving across 70 through the hell that is kansas in one of these and you'll quickly understand my point, refueling stations or no! taks

oh, emo, all the way. that is soooo me. taks

if brain-trusts such as gorgon actually took the time to read up on a subject, they'd understand the entire reason the concept of a monopoly exists in the first place: a post-hoc reason offered as an excuse to control the economy. early US anti-trust regulations actually began, in part, because farmers wanted to exclude competition from larger, less expensive, more efficient farming companies. in other words, they want the government to cut out their competition! indeed, morons then go about claiming anti-trust regulation is meant to help the consumer. bull****. anyone that actually believes this is either stupid, or lying. what are you, gorgon? both, i'd assume. taks

in actuality, you are incapable of making any legitimate argument that is not otherwise considered a logical fallacy (informal or otherwise). this one, btw, could a slippery slope, or a strawman (red herring in general). tell me, gorgon, do you have ANY argument? ANY evidence to counter my claim? thought not. you typify exactly what marx wanted: an uneducated populace. taks

monopolies cannot exist without government laws/regulations in the first place. if it were possible, we'd have evidence of this, but we don't... yet the myth continues. seems almost retarded to keep having to point this out. does nobody ever learn or is everyone simply incapable of actually reading about history from other than ideologically biased locations? they're written to punish the successful from the outset even if that is not how they are sold to the public (even if some of the proposers actually believe them to be for the good). taks

yes. have you ever seen a gazelle cut the grass? 10 minutes tops. ok, a fat gazelle, but a gazelle nonetheless. highest setting for the blade, highest speed for the self-propel thingy, i was running. had to take a shower because i worked up a sweat. taks

same here. the cough i've had for three freaking months straight seems to be going away, oddly enough, even after the damage i did to myself last night. there's a point at which a cough that won't go away becomes a scary thing. the fact that it is going away has me rather happy. btw, i did not drink all that much, but it was a school night, so i think my body and brain instinctively made me feel worse for spite. oh, and the wife called this morning to say hi. actually, she called, woke me up (but not in time), then called back later to see if i had done "the one thing i asked you to do" (her words),which was cut the grass. no. see above for my rationalization. turns out i should have been paying attention to mr. needy's litter box, too. he doesn't deal well with a full box, and places his waste in key locations around the box and in the hallway as a reminder. he sure poops a lot. apparently i was not upstairs often enough to notice. the problem arises when i'm cleaning it up and then gurf repeatedly because of the smell. it could get pretty toxic up there with some sort of catastrophic chain reaction that results in brand new carpet in a few weeks. either that, or i could die by michele's hand when she gets home and is forced to clean the mess up herself. i'm not hopeful for a positive outcome. tonight is pool night, btw... taks

hit the bar. hung out with my buddy and got drunk. shot lots of pool. yay. wife sent me a bunch of mild cheddar frito lay cheese dip from NY since i can't get any here. ate a whole can of the stuff when i got home. yay. still drunk. yay. can't sleep. nothing new. taks

seems to be the best way to work. i'm faced with going home to work for nothing: either the lawn gets cut or i sweep out the garage. given that it has rained, and looks like it will again shortly, i'm going to chuck it all, head down to the bar, and hang out with my buddy shooting pool. did i mention how bored i am at home right now? taks

taks

when you get older, and more importantly, married, like me, that distinction no longer matters. think hall sex as the norm, so everything else is exciting by definition. taks

how exactly do you know that kaftan is not either a rapist pedophile necrophiliac or someone like gandhi - or both? taks

i would think he'd be referring to SoZ, but in any case, the fact that obsidian did not develop MoW is immaterial to the point: commercial expansions/add-ons were still being made/released (MoW is older than SoZ, oddly) for NWN up till very recently. taks

Lucky bastard! when you get older, like me, you simply rent your pr0n on PPV. taks

well, bedtime stories is a goner (no longer on PPV), and the uninvited has been relegated to only a few regular def channels with one exception: an 11:30 p.m. showing on a high-def channel. i considered recording it, but fell asleep instead. taks

one of my all-time favorite insults: the phrase "with all due respect" preceding a statement about why someone is wrong. nobody will ever know (unless you point it out) that you may mean "you aren't due any respect, thus i am not giving you any." taks

it's the drinkin'... and the drugs... and the late nights without any sleep... and the caffeine... and the food... and the lack of exercise... but burlesque is NOT part of the problem, except when you drink, do drugs, stay up late hyped up on caffeine, eat too many high fat foods, and sit around like a potato while attending burlesque shows. taks

yay. i'm an example. i've lived up to my potential. i feel... nah. taks

that's how i felt sunday. regular league on friday night turned into a hangover saturday just in time for my wife and son to fly out of town for the week. then we had the qualifier tournament saturday (started at 3), which turned into an 8:00 a.m. wake up on a buddy's couch. i'm not sure of anything in between those two times, and i wasn't right till yesterday morning. too old to get drunk more than one day at a time. taks

xanax is pretty therapeutic, too. refurbed DKs run in the $1500-$3000 range for the "official" ones (there were a few different versions - the "official" ones contain the PROM/electronics that are accepted for records). taks

uh, that was his point. this bug came with soz and the patch that came out after fixed it (1.22 patch, i think). unfortunately, i haven't seen this myself so i don't know what it's about. taks

hehe, well, since the city is still there... but otherwise, i'm thinkin' ritual suicide, correct? maria: yeah, but not using the city and using the name of a city/mythos that doesn't even exist are two different things. however, given that it seems BG still exists in 4e, the point is moot anyway. they have an out, ramza gets to keep his innards intact, speculation can continue... life goes on, hehe. so, what did they do to neverwinter in 4e? was it destroyed, or just *poof* removed from the space-time continuum as if it never existed? taks

i'm gonna get me one of them thar donkey kong machines. oh yeah! in other news, today my ears are ringing to the point i'm going crazy. it is, of course, partly because i am already crazy (serotonin issues are the likely culprit), but i don't know why today it chose to come back with a vengeance after being mostly a non-issue for several months now. perhaps it is a sign from my brain that caffeine really is a no-no? i've been feeling well enough (no anxiety issues) that i started back on the coffee every morning recently, but alas, perhaps cessation of the black oil was reason for my remission in the first place! oh well... back to zombie-land for taks. no more morning go-go juice. i'll still partake whence camping, but my next trip ain't for a few weeks. taks

Would be kinda hard to 'splain that in-game. is the sword coast gone as well? if so then there's a BGIII issue, too! taks edit: whatever will ramza do?!