Darth Drabek

The more ... intense of the Fallout fans around here may already know this, but when Interplay sold the Fallout IP, they retained the rights to make "Fallout Online." Well, Interplay released its quarterly report yesterday, and now that the company is once again in the black (entirely due to the deal with Bethesda), it's ready to get to work. Next-Gen.biz Kotaku So is this a good idea? Blasphemy? Doomed for failure? I personally don't care, because I don't play MMO games and I don't have any great love for the Fallout games. So I definitely do not have a horse in this race. However, I figured this would be right in the wheelhouse for some of the community members here, so have at it.

Frank Black and the Catholics - The Real El Rey

Dude! I just watched that last night! It's definitely one of my favorite DVDs. "They'll keep fighting... and they'll WIN!" I borrowed the first two Bourne movies from a co-worker over the past two weeks. I had never got around to seeing them, for whatever reason, but I enjoyed them and am looking forward to seeing the third.

So what is the point of accumulating these "Achievement points" anyway? Bragging rights on Xbox LIVE? Does collecting X number of achievement allow you to download online content you'd normally have to pay for? Now here's my two cents: Cheating should always be an option. Hell, I never would have been able to finish BG2 without cheating. I shouldn't be denied access to the ending of a great story just because I got sick of restoring my level-drained characters, then finding somewhere to rest, then repeating the process again. Interestingly enough, I was able to get to the very end of BG1 without cheating. But the point is, I play those games for the story, not the challenge. Fast forward several years: The KOTOR games were much easier. That may be because the developers were making a game with much broader appeal. So, they had to create a game in which players wouldn't be forced to start from scratch if they gimped their character out of ignorance of the game's rules. Of course, there are exceptions. I hear the new Ninja Gaiden and the God of War games can be ball-bustingly difficult at times. But I think if the growing prevalence of online gaming makes cheat codes taboo, we may continue to see single-player games turn into cakewalks.

Hindu Love Gods - Raspberry Beret (Prince cover)

Neither do I, Kor. Andrew W.K. - She is Beautiful ^ Guilty pleasure numero uno.

The Jayhawks -

Riiiiight, because an adolescent's hormonal curiosity is concrete evidence that he'll grow up to be a rapist. Still, this "womyn" is so sure of that correlation that she's wishing she had an abortion? You know, I wonder what her two other sons are like. They're probably embarrassed, ostracized or both. This reminds me of that Family Guy bit when a young woman is at her university's freshman orientation: "Ladies, look at the men sitting on either side of you. Statistics show one of these men will rape you." I'm with Azure on the fact that Mormons can be cool. There was a Mormon at one of the bachelor parties I went to this summer. He drank Coke all weekend and he took a walk during the "entertainment," but he was a cool guy, nonetheless. I guess he was pretty progressive though... some Mormons won't even drink Coke because of the caffeine. So in recap: Mormons > Radical feminists

The Hold Steady - Killer Parties And if she says we partied well, I'm pretty sure we partied I really don't remember I remember we departed from our bodies

LINK Saving money is always good, right? Plus, it seems any 360s manufactured after July 15 have the new 65 nm "Falcon" chip in them. I'm no tech scholar, but I hear the 65 nm chips are supposed to generate much less heat than the current 90 nm ones. Also, they're smaller, so I guess there's more room for air to flow around inside the box -- which should help that overheating problem that leads to the system crashing. So maybe if I buy one now it won't turn into a $350 paperweight, eh? The icing on the cake is that MS has been manufacturing 360s with an extra heatsink for a few months now, and those are already in stores. I guess if your 360 failed and you sent it back to MS, you might have got one in your refurbished system, too. And according to this thread, you can get both the extra heatsink and the Falcon chip if your 360 was manufactured July 15 or later. The wiseguys on that forum discuss how to tell when your 360 was manufactured in that thread, as well. The $50 price drop on the premium is nice (that's one free game right there), but when you add in the free three-year warranty, the fixes inside the new boxes, and the upcoming game lineup, it seems I've got several good incentives to buy. It's too bad they didn't drop the Elite more, but I don't have a HDTV anyway and I don't see myself needing the 120 GB HDD. The Core doesn't make sense at all (why did they make a system with no hard drive, when the original Xbox had more hard drive space than I could use?), so it looks like the Premium's the one to buy. Edit: Oh, my apologies to the denizens of these fora who are scattered across the globe: the price cuts are only in North America for now.

Fountains of Wayne - Hey Julie

I'm fairly lucky to live near Cedar Point, which owns the world record for most roller coasters (with 17), including the world's 2nd tallest and fastest (420 feet, 120 mph). In fact, Cedar Point has been rated the best amusement park in the country for the past nine years by Amusement Today. We've got a Six Flags in driving distance, too, but I've been there once in the past five years. I usually end up going to Cedar Point one or two times a summer, even now that I don't live within jogging distance of the park anymore.

Hey, it's Friday, and I get to go home from work soon! Which means I'm gonna put on my hot pants and promenade down Broadway 'til the cows come home. Well that's what I'd do if I were Van Morrison, anyway.

The Thrills - Big Sur

Carlos Paredes - Verdes Anos It's stunning.

That was awesome. That video just makes me wanna ooooooh child! Oooooh chiiiiiiiiild! Here's a little bit of news for y'all. Cheap Trick have "bent" a Beatles classic to make it feel like a Ministry song? I think my head just exploded. I've been in NYC for a few days, and my buddy there hooked me up with some reggae. So I'm listening to... Toots & the Maytals - Pomp and Pride

You guys made it to six pages! Sorry about the link, though. Ted Leo & the Pharmacists - Me & Mia

I can help! But not for long, as it's 1:30 a.m. here and I need to go to work in the a.m.... Wilco - Company in My Back (live) Hey Kor, did you hear there's a new Crowded House album coming out? I stumbled across a while ago. Oh, and here's the video from The National on Letterman from a few days ago.

Those Marshall stacks are completely unnecessary. Dear and the Headlights - It's Gettin' Easy Have I pimped this band enough yet? If they never make it big, I'm blaming it all on that stupid name. Edit: Oh, and please don't listen to the "remix" they've posted on there. It's terrible. If it wasn't fan-made, I'd seriously have had to stop liking this band on principle alone.

Watching it all from a dimly-lit corner booth was a man named Isaiah. Isaiah was rail-thin, about 5

I'm guessing about 8 minutes. Which is fairly sad, considering that's about what the track stars were clocked at for two miles back in high school (IIRC). I ran track for two years back in junior high, before. I never liked it much. I ran the 200, 400 and threw the shot put. For comparison, the mile is a 1600. Once I got to high school and had to make a choice between baseball or track, I'd run my last lap. Running around the bases was a lot more fun than running around a track (and a lot shorter, too).

The Connells - Slackjawed Interesting Connells trivia (from wiki): When the band recorded Jethro Tull's "Living In the Past," Ian Anderson of Tull offered to play flute on the recording. The Connells declined his offer. Damn! Those guys are stone cold, man, stone cold.

Wild, man, just wild. I've always found the Birthday Party to be out of line with my taste, as I like my Nick Cave music to be just a bit more restrained. That said, this has recently supplanted Murder Ballads as my favorite NC&BS record: On another note, those Cake rarities sound pretty good. I imagine I'll end up with that album sooner or later. The National - Slow Show

What exactly constitutes a "formidable" mustache? Spoon ~ Car Radio I'd say for a mustache to be formidable, it must be an actual obstacle you must overcome when trying to have a conversation with someone. Let's say I run into Sam Elliot in a bar. I'm going to have trouble not staring at that amazing mustache. Beatles - Don't Let Me Down

That would mean you've listened to it about 21 times. Good song, though. Did anybody see Letterman last night? Nick Cave's new band, "Grinderman," was on the show. Not only has the drummer and guitarist grown long hobo beards, but Mr. Cave himself has grown a pretty formidable mustache. Here's on that Jools Holland show. I'll be watching again tonight... The National is the musical guest, and they're one of my recent favorites.