taks

because they don't have the brains to meet the minimum requirements for entrance. most of the division 1A schools are universities, which tends to imply stricter entrance requirements for many of their programs. for a university, or even the next level down (state university), it is reasonable to expect only the top 30-40% should be admitted (i'd argue even fewer, perhaps 20%). however, it is NOT reasonable to assume all of the athletic talent will fall into that region of intellectual accomplishment as well. in fact, it is by design that 60-70% will not. they end up getting screwed, even if they are better athletically. as a result, high schools make sure their top talent "passes" through and they coach the kids heavily prior to entrance exams (the guy that sat behind me during high school graduation, great guy, better high school numbers than herschel walker, but a total post, was signed up for a 2nd SAT exam before he even took the first). IMO, there should be different sets of requirements for athletes, but there should also be different types of degrees awarded. some will get real degrees regardless, and hence will get accepted into the regular academic programs, and there should be consideration for "student-athletes" who manage to excel in both arenas. oh, and yeah, this coming weekend should be interesting. i'm a bit peeved that mizzou did not get 2nd in the AP poll. 'bama barely beats KY at home and mizzou breaks a 30 year losing streak (15 in a row) on the road in grand fashion, yet 'bama is ranked higher? nonsense. no, there's no SEC favoritism here. at least the coaches poll (USA Today) figured it out, though i don't know now LSU is sticking in there during a bye week. taks

i made it through most of the first chapter then got one when i talked to shani at the inn (at the end of the chapter) and walked out. only one since the first day, however. i'm in chapter 2 now. taks

yeah... i agree. never had a real issue with DRM (other than some music CDs i can't play anywhere but my computer), but crashing gets old. hopefully i don't have that problem anymore. guess i'll find out the hard way. taks

ok, thanks... that's not too bad. that can easily be upwards of 30 hours or so depending upon play style. i'm going through on "easy" controls right now because this is one of them thar "playaz skillz" games to an extent (though not as bad as the gothics), and don't want to get bogged down with mouse clicking nonsense. i may replay on the harder ones later. taks

keep in mind, GD, many of us have been posting "together" for almost a decade (maybe longer even). i started posting in 1999 or so, maybe 1998, around the time of the BG releases. taks

i think he owned up to a few alts. but IIRC, most of the time he provides the "no comment" approach, or says things that intentionally tip his hand, but no direct confirmation. either way, just from the posting style it is not often to figure out most of them. i would not be surprised if he has other alts that we haven't figured out, however. taks

i cannot listen to music while working, at least, not if i intend to get anything done. this forum doesn't help to that end, either. however, my latest is the new metallica: death magnetic. certainly, hetfield needs to go back to his old style of singing (before bob rock got ahold of him), but this album is a departure from the recent crap they've released, and a step towards what i've been hoping for. the new producer, rick rubin (yay, no more bob rock) styled this album much more like their old skool stuff, though james is still thinking he can hit the highs and make them sound musical. nope. most of it doesn't matter, except the one song they play on the air the most (day that never comes, or whatever). overall, good music. i'm happy with it. taks

my beer? never. any beer that requires the addition of fruit to be tasty is not good enough for me to drink in the first place. i do have one exception, but it is a beer that i drink without the additional fruit: tucher (not sure which one). normally it comes with an orange in US pubs, but i like it without the orange, too. taks

i don't blame you. it ran fine for me through the intro. the first crashes were probably related to having d3d turned off, which i rectified. the next (and last) crash was when i went to change graphics options (advanced tab) and hit "accept" and got the "send report" dialog box. i rebooted at that point and have not had an issue since. not sure if it is "fixed" or not, since the only indication will be if i get another crash. so far so good. taks

beers? or pills? mine happiness is due to beers, and is now wearing off (3 strong beers but i weigh nearly 240 lbs.). taks

can't help it... buzzed, happy. taks

well, if she's still in bed when you get home... ahem. dang, now i'm hating the fact that tonight is pool night. we're not at our home bar (actually at a place i don't like), so i won't do much drinking (if any). rather be home... wife... taks

ah yes, i'm in that boat now as well, though not because i don't feel well. actually, i feel great. three of those beers was just enough to totally take the edge off, but now i want to leave... and drink more, of course. oh, sorry, the "same boat" comparison: i didn't sleep at all last night, either. in fact, i had a migraine this morning, fell back asleep and ended up getting my son to school an hour late. the beer has lulled me into a false sense of happiness that will wear off in an hour or two and then i'm gonna gripe about needing sleep. hey, at least you got to say "the girl i was with..." taks

i'd hardly call zoloft a chill pill. most people's comments (various blogs, people i know, etc.) say these either mellow them out or make them zombie-like. not so for me, not at all. taks

cue soap music. actually, i have it on good rumor that hades is carrying his own baby. it is a widely believed fact. oh, as for today, i had a beer lunch here. i had three of the farmhouse saison beers. 7.4% abv. oof. nice toasty lunch buzz. their chicken tenders and belgian fries were awesome. mmmm... the beer was, without a doubt, one of the best beers i've ever had. spiced with coriander, apparently, and made with a variety of malts. ahhhh... taks

i think you're the one that needs to chill out. yet again you take issue with a minor quibble, over a point that you didn't get, and you tell me to chill? btw, your "obscure-but-interesting scientific trivia" is quite plainly stated in a wiki article on the subject, so it hardly amounts to either obscure or trivia. any idiot can read it, and for that matter, as llyranor posted in another thread, any idiot could have written it. taks

i'm a last word type of person myself, so i know the feeling. maybe we do that for our own satisfaction? i must say that i would be tempted in this situation to get the last word in with her, whether it be to tell her to stuff it in her pipe or to "explain" things, but i would also hope that a friend would kick me in the arse and tell me to just forget her and move on. it's kinda like getting kicked in the jimmy... you have to stand up and stretch out immediately in spite of the desire to stay curled up on the floor. the pain is much more intense but it goes away quicker. taks

since i don't follow laptop developments as closely as i do desktop developments i can't comment on most of this. however, i can comment on #4: doubtful. at least, in order to answer the question with a yes you have to assume some pretty rigid requirements on "all future games ... to be released during the next three years" that may not hold. first, from my experience, i only get about 18-24 months out of a processor/graphics card solution on a desktop, though admittedly i never buy high-end. i tend to stick to the upper-middle road, stuff that was new less than a year ago and has come down in price drastically. buying high-end probably would only add 6 months or so to my expectation but would cost twice as much, so i don't do it. next, even with my system that's only a year old (and has an 8800 GTS 320 MB, OC'd) and 4 GB of mammaries with a core2 duo, i'm starting to notice stutter in games if i crank up the game features (in particular, i noticed this with the new witcher). i can only imagine that within the next three years, gaming technology will improve (er, get more complex) further burdening systems and resulting in reduced performance. laptop performance rarely seems to rival that of desktop and i would argue that my mid-level desktop compares favorably to high-end laptops (though i am not qualified to make such statements, it's just a hunch based on what i do know). that said, if you aren't going for mobility, i'd go with the larger screen, particularly since it's cheaper. otherwise, i can't comment on how they compare one bit. is the vista ultimate 64-bit? taks

nope, XP pro with SP3. how does one run a program in administrator mode then? never actually heard of that. i've heard of windows compatibility mode for older programs... taks

no kidding. you are completely devoid of the ability to understand a one line quip meant to be humorous. taks

so far i'm liking this game. how long does it take start to finish, btw? taks

i am an administrator since i don't create accounts. at least i think i am. anyway, i played through the intro section last night and i must say, wow... well done. very slick, IMO. slow at parts, but the overall flow makes sense. the mini-quests were obviously designed to get you used to the various features of the game, but still managed to maintain a feeling of being essential, not just fed-ex (though there was a fed-ex component to one of them, but it didn't dominate). it's going to take a bit to get used to the controls and the default camera view is a little annoying. i haven't played around with the other controls yet. overall, at least so far, this was a good purchase. taks

btw, llyr, i'm down to ONLY 50 mg of sertraline (zoloft) and the occasional ranitidine (zantac) for my stomach. i've totally kicked the omeprazole (prilosec) since it was not helping (i think it made things worse overall). ranitidine every other day and the occasional tums are sufficient for heart burn. the only drug for me is alcohol, simultaneously the cause and solution of most of life's problems (thanks homer). taks

trying to "explain" things to this girl is not about letting her know why you did what you did, it is only about you rationalizing to yourself why you did what you did, possibly even in hopes of rekindling something anew. let it drop. keeping the issue alive will only extend whatever pain both of you are currently experiencing. been there, done that. taks

hades has hundreds apparently... taks