taks

i've actually considered getting a degree in economics now that i've reached the terminal degree in engineering. either that or statistics. unfortunately, UCCS does not offer statistics degrees, other than an MS in mathematics, and i've already had all but one of their statistics classes, and they only have an undergraduate economics degree. somehow we* offer a PhD in nursing and one in psychology now... go figure. of course, it's all an academic exercise for me to think about these things since my wife has made it clear she'll divorce me if i go back to school again. maybe next semester, eh? taks *i say "we" because i now work for the school, albeit only a 1 hour class.

it's been my experience that the more politically involved actually have more ridiculous ideas. that's why they're involved, so they can push them on everyone else. taks

one game i played, and i'm sure many will agree, that definitely required playing at the higher difficulties was NWN2 OC. sheesh, if you didn't have it at least on hardcore rules the game was such a cakewalk it was boooooring. taks

hey now, nobody is dissing the other types, and i'd definitely count myself in the "challenge" player" group overall. but there is a very big difference between challenging and tedious. the example i gave offers no ability for tactics since it's an old skool type rpg (not unlike the bard's tale games), so you win simply by attrition, occasionally reloading because you got a few bad rolls (and of all games, the might and magic series seems to have the least concern for valid die rolls). challenge that requires tactics is not nearly as tedious. taks

i like statham, too. my wife, i think, has some sort of hollyweird crush on him. she absolutely loves the transporter movies. taks

agreed, but there is a limit on difficulty, after which a game becomes tedious and not very fun. i've actually run into that with the danged M&M6 game i'm playing now. one dungeon in particular is basically solved by going in, killing off a couple monsters (eyes), leaving, healing, resting, return to repeat. there's a final "big room" in which there are probably a 100 or more baddies, and my guys are only strong enough to kill off less than half a dozen at a time, and then only if i can trick them into following me somewhere that all 100 can't attack at the same time... sigh. still addictive, however. taks

i'm seriously lacking in the handyman department. well, i'm pretty good at opening up the phone book and calling whatever professional i need, assuming my wife hasn't taken on the task herself. both my brothers are like my dad, they do everything themselves. drove my dad nuts that i went the elitist snob path. taks

^calax: of course they do. if i totaled them all up i'd be an easy billionaire myself by now. "i would like for you to be in considering of a most rarest of opportunities!" who buys into this crap? taks

if it's too good to be true, it is. nobody wins money without actually intentionally putting their name in the hat (so to speak) before hand, yet so many people fall for the "you have just won..." from out of nowhere ("gee, i don't even remember signing up for this lottery???") scams it isn't funny. personally, i'm getting tired of all the crap ones coming from nigeria or wherever... you'd think they'd at LEAST find someone that could write proper english before sending out the email. taks

maybe this is how parrots show their love? taks

ahhh, gotcha. so DRM does not work well with linux, eh? interesting. taks

i'm still playing M&M6. i had forgotten how long this game takes. i'm using a walkthrough guide and it is still an eternity. probably 25 hours into it by now and i have about just over half the 50 quests done, with the hardest yet to be done. some of the dungeons in this game are beyond annoying, being won only by attrition: kill off a few baddies, leave, rest/heal, return and kill a few more, rinse, repeat for an hour or two. in spite of being a rather annoying game, it is amazingly addictive, however. my son actually enjoys watching so i've been letting him operate the mouse while i man the keyboard. it's getting to the point that i have to figure out which quests i can undertake at my level, since some are insta-death. i barely even have enough dough to move up levels, so it's getting tricky. taks

what do you mean by this? are you referring to GPL issues? any program can be compiled to run in linux without violating the GPL as long as dynamic linking to the libraries is used. that's what graphics drivers do (and hence, the reason you need to DL the binary and compile it into a wrapper or sorts to get the driver to work). taks

hyundai, too. my wife's is going on 6 years and no problems to date. a little over 4 years left on the warranty, too. she'll ride it 200k i'm sure. me, i can't do anything for more than a few years. i've been in my house for 6 now and it's starting to feel like a tomb. i haven't ever owned a car for more than 3 years. taks

been to a doctor... repeatedly. i've had every test short of an MRI (which isn't helpful) and CT scan. functional dyspepsia with my belly and the tinnitus is a common side effect of going OFF zoloft. i have no idea how long it is expected to last, but given that i've obviously got serotonin issues, it might be a while. i'm used to it now. even used to my stomach issues. taks

you watched... mamma mia!? oof, that must've taken patience. we rented the new mummy flick the other day. good movie, but i missed the original chick. they had a funny ploy in the beginning to explain her absence (well, they made a joke of it), but the new one wasn't quite as good. an overall entertaining movie with a few scenes that had me almost wetting my pants laughing so hard. next i'm going to get mirrors, with kiefer sutherland. i need a good horror flick since the last one i watched was semi-bleh (the messengers). hopefully this one does better. taks

no, not really. i'm off the zoloft, but the medical issues continue unabated with the added bonus of tinnitus now (the likely "best" treatment is more zoloft... no way). yay. sounds like a strange system TA's school has. we, at least, most US colleges with semesters, typically define "credit hours" as the number of hours spent per week for what usually amounts to a 15 or 16 week class. of course, the "hours" are also usually only 50 minutes. labs usually get less credit in my experience, too. the lab i'm teaching is only 1 hour, but we meet for 90 minutes each week... or maybe 100, can't recall exactly. some of the fundamental classes, e.g., calculus 1 & 2 and chemistry (for engineers) are 5 hour classes, and there were a couple 4 hour classes, but nearly everything else is 3 hours. there was one, however, hateful 2 hour class that i'm glad i never have to experience again: dynamics (statics and dynamics were the 2 mechanics classes we had to take, and the harder one, dynamics, was worth less, grrr...). taks

difficult, indeed, a phd in any engineering discipline (hard science in general). mine was 54 credit hours TOTAL (18 classes), which counted up to 30 credits earned toward the master's degree (which i ended up with 39 in anyway) plus dissertation. since i already had an MS, it took 8 more courses (24 hours) and 30 hours of dissertation work. we did not have a foreign language requuirement though i likely would have met that through high school/undergrad german that i took. the dissertation is, ultimately, why i spent 6 months on zoloft and still have serious stomach problems, nearly a year later. taks

i should add, shanahan is still playing, most recently for his original team, the NJ devils. he was/is a great, and st. louis did appreciate him as well, we just wanted hull 'n oates together again (with stevens, too)! taks

actually, the better team-up was brett hull and adam oates. the blues blew it with his contract, however, and ended up trading oates to boston in '92. the blues got shanahan in a bad deal when an arbitrator gave the devils scott stevens as compensation for shanahan, which was, to put it mildly, a joke. stevens, btw, never finished a season with a minus rating. taks

agreed, but you'll never get MC to sign on for this. taks

1), 2), 3), and 4) drinking heavily. that's what i did. not the best for grades, but certainly was a lot of fun. of course, i was in a fraternity in a small school (5000 students) that was dominated by fraternities. taks

all i know about hockey is that the blues suck. after posting the longest post-season appearance streak (w/out a championship appearance no less) they yet again find themselves at the bottom of the pile staring at a potential brand new streak, one that managed to get the st. louis football cardinals booed out of town some 20 years ago. the blues are for sale again, i think. anyone want 'em? taks

indeed, my anxiety issues started with boredom at the office, and i was searching the web. though i was under immense stress, the fact that i had nothing to do but ponder the stress brought the anxiety on, not really the stress itself. it is nearly gone (the stress and the anxiety) but not quite. the physical ramifications are really the bugger of it all. taks

if i could travel into the future, i doubt i'd be depressed. taks