taks

taks<-reasonably fat guy. taks

cap removers do the trick. with BG1+TotSC, you're only going to get to mid 200s scouring everything (if you have a full party), which means only 1 or 2 (for the thief, i think) levels over the max anyway, i.e., it doesn't really make the game that much easier. taks

FO 1/2, NWN1, morrowind, oblivion. though i do not want to finish any of these. how about "games you have finished more than 25 times, and fully intend to finish a few dozen more times before dying"? taks

yup... i think there's a way around that problem, but it may mean not being on the prime plane with the commoners. well, they could do it that way, or they could get rid of the fanciful loot lying around and make it so you simply don't get anything worth keeping unless you kill a baddy carrying something worth keeping. intersperse that with high-loot areas that are overall unrelated to the game, but difficult to get to without being high level, i.e., you won't even be able to get to the point where the "reward" lies unless you're already strong enough, and even still you'll need to be able to off (or trick) the baddy at the end. speaking of high-loot, i'm going through BG2 again, this time with my own party, however. it's still amazing how easily you can fall prey to a section if you aren't paying attention. two different loads of druid grove attempting to kill ihtafeer (the rakshasa) ended drastically different: the first resulted in several of my characters dropping rapidly, the second resulted in all three of the rakshasa dropping rapidly. the difference? i held my priest back and cast a few of his spells and focused everyone on ihtafeer rather than attempting to work on her helpers with missiles/minute meteors when they arrived. once she was down, the others dropped rapidly. taks

new house, too, unless you're selling one to afford the down-payment (that would be me). taks

gorth's is funner because it isn't something you'd actually see in a war. taks

if that's so, i weigh more than twice you. taks

yup. my disbelief remained suspended when carston, played by woody, got it in spite of knowing what chigurgh was and where he'd be, because, i figured, he wasn't expecting the killer to know what he was up to. but when the hunter got it, my opinion took an about face. taks

uh, that same buddy slipped and fell on an ice cube in the kitchen 6 months after shattering his knee and promptly broke his femur in two, for another few months in a cast. he doesn't walk well anymore, poor guy. taks

depends upon which bone, how bad the break is (shattered or a clean break), how old you are, and how they go about fixing it. with pins, yeah, cast is off quicker if the break isn't too serious (my buddy shattered his knee skiing a few years ago and was in a cast 4 months IIRC, lots of pins, too, just too much damage). GD's predicament sounded like he hit all the confounding factors, i.e., he's getting old (hehe), it was a big bone broken in a nasty accident (which implied bad break), etc., so i just figured this time-frame was rather fast. taks

out of a cast after only a month? um, aren't broken legs usually casted for 4-5 months? good luck, either way. at the very least, maybe they have some long, thin, scratchy thingy you can use in the mean-time? taks

graduate degrees really don't mean a whole lot unless you're in a field, or doing the type of work, that necessitates one, and generally that means fields heavy in theory, low on application. i wanted to be a design engineer as a new-grad, which almost meant i had to get the MS after graduating in 1990. there just weren't many new grads getting design work, and those that were had advanced degrees (of course, by the time i got the MS, it no longer mattered, though i got a salary premium out of it). now, however, i'm looking at positions with titles like "senior principal systems engineer" or "chief scientist" which all but require at least some advanced degree, and the PhD cuts 5 years off the experience requirement (from an MS). advanced degrees are almost required for "authority" positions or status in many companies, and it makes a difference when contracting with the gov't, too (they typically expect principal investigators to have advanced degrees). taks

i watched two movies the other night and i need to comment... no country for old men and redbelt. ncfom: interesting, but i didn't like the ending. spare me the intellectual clap-trap about "evil happens" and that not all movies should have a point or neatly wrap up all the loose ends. i think it tried too hard to wrap up everything in one fell swoop, without really settling anything or having to think about an ending (and yes, i know this is how the book went, too). the worst part for me was the hunter character, capable of outwitting, and hunting, the obviously psycho but incredibly talented killer (chigurgh character), yet he falls to a bunch of idiotic gang-banger mexicans in a hotel in broad daylight after they pull up in a monster truck this guy would have heard from blocks away. then the obviously psycho but incredibly talented chigurgh character, a dude that is also apparently a very careful driver until the last minute of the movie, gets taken out because he didn't look both ways going through an intersection to notice the car that wasn't stopping. then tommy lee jones' character has a dream, and it ends. yah, i get it, i just didn't think it was really as brilliant as people made it out. i enjoyed the movie, overall, just thought a little more thought could have been put into the ending while maintaining the concept of old men being out of place in the crazy new world (a concept that also tends to beg the notion of the "good old days" which is, IMO, as ridiculous as penn and teller have claimed, hehe). redbelt: mamet film (written and directed) about a jiu jitsu master that gets roped into a fight rigging scheme but triumphs in the end through conviction to his principles. well, this is another one of them intellectual thinkers, but the director screwed the pooch in several ways. first, there are a few major plot-holes and one scene that just didn't fit in spite of serving a major purpose. the setup is waaay too contrived to be believable on any level, even in the "moral of the story" sort of way. it was an enjoyable film, however, due to the excellent acting by chiwetel ejiofor (that's a name?) and, oddly enough, even tim allen was good in this (his role was not comic, not in any way, nor was there any comedy element to this story). the fight scenes were very well done and interesting, and rather realistic, not your typical kung-fu "my dragon style is better than your cobra style" nonsense that we see in most films. taks

school is soooo much easier than "real job." i really, really miss it, and i worked through the entirety of my first two degrees, full-time for the 2nd (80 hours a week the last year). then you have school plus "real job," which blows every sort of chunk imaginable. never again, never ever ever ever ever again. taks

no, but i do think you're serioiusly lacking in the "sense of humor" department. taks

um, chicken pox and small pox are two unrelated diseases. small pox, btw, has been considered eradicated since 1979. taks

OK... this is over the top. apparently there are two flus going around this year. my wife, being a) diabetic and b) employee at a retirement home, had both flue shots. consequently she has passed through the past two months unscathed. my son, john, henceforth referred to as that little *&(%(!!! germ factory, has apparently caught both in the past 4 weeks. i know this because, while ii was trying to mind my own business, i managed to uncover his secret first hand. my friend robert says they bring home invisible friends, i concur. feb 12th i got the first, missed work thursday and friday then had to stay home the following monday and tuesday watching that little *)&^*&/!!! germ factory, while still sick myself. i thought it was over... john got a cough 2 weeks ago. never had any other real symptoms except some stuffiness. apparently this is the deceptive part of the 2nd flu, which manifests itself more like a cold, with a bit of a fever that that little 0(^&*^?!!! germ factory never complained about. he infected me, again. this one is horrible for adults. i started coughing last wednesday, then it got bad monday, and i was out of work, again, tuesday. worked 6 hours wednesday, but felt like dying the whole time. worked all day while dying again thursday. ditto today (oops, just sneezed). cough, and fever, with a slowly impacting collection of sinus cavities. there's actually not much in the cavities, but they are swollen shut, so i'm a mouth breather for a while. i even had to leave the pool hall early tonight. this is awful, and i wouldn't even wish it on... well, i'm sure you can think of a few names. at least i'm done with the flu this year. next year i'm getting the shots. so is that little *^&*&%*(?!!! germ factory. taks

i think you're holding out on us, meshugger... dunno, maybe it's just me. taks

tell us how you really fee about twilight, mesh. no holdin' back now, got it? taks

i see... a class on organizational theory that is, maybe, incomplete? seems... disorganized. i'd need the man 2.0 reboot for it to work anyway. you know, the man version with all the women traits in it. taks

??? organizational theory? you mean they actually have CLASSES on this? damn... coulda used that a couple decades ago. taks

huh... i had gotten the impression that the avengers was planned to precede iron man 2. guess not. quite frankly, i never liked CA, nor thor, so the avengers barely seems interesting. i never was into comic book heroes in general, so my opinions on the matter are borne of ignorance anyway. not sure why not, i just wasn't. none of my friends were, either. taks

i no longer have any meds to take, at least, not any regular ones. taks

oh it does... yes, it does... taks

she's into stabulation, apparently, so this may be a good thing if you're concerned about a long life. taks