Keyrock

Ugh, she's be attractive to me if not for the tats. I can deal with a few tattoos here and there, but I find women (or men for that matter) that are completely covered with tats rather repulsive.

And a bunch of the same stuff that's already been on sale multiple times here on the penultimate day. So much for me picking up La Mulana or Of Orcs and Men. Oh well, I've got plenty of stuff in the backlog, I'll just wait for the winter sale, or maybe GOG will hook me up with La Mulana earlier than that.

I'm getting the idea this universe is starting to get too big, though. I hope it doesn't branch out into series of comic books and shows that affect the main cinematic series. I hate homework for movies. Too late, it already happened a few years ago. Not to mention, S.H.I.E.L.D. has appeared in various comic books for decades.

They can go ahead and delay to X-Mas 2014 and I'll be fine with that. Give me a quality product and I'll gladly wait.

Now I'm watching Phil Mickelson about to win The Open. Man, he's hit some masterful shots. Out of all the majors, this is the one I thought would always be the hardest for him to win. Even a 2 putt right now will likely be good enough, if he sinks the birdie it's definitely over. Go Phil! Edit: **** yes! **** yes! **** yes! Phil sinks the birdie on 18, that's how you finish off a championship. There's no catching him now. It's purely academic at this point.

Another bike ride today. Very similar route to what I did yesterday, but opposite direction. I climbed Clark Hill again but didn't climb Chestnut Hill today. I substituted with Mott Hill, which is an easier climb than Chestnut Hill, and Clark Hill is easier from the direction I climbed today, longer distance but milder gradient, probably about 6.5% average and never over 7.5%. All in all, about the same distance as yesterday and roughly the same amount of climbing, but with easier gradients. That coupled with significantly better conditions (mid 80s, low humidity) made for a fantastic day out on the road. I feel really good right now. I definitely earned a beer.

GabeN, I find your lack of La Mulana special disturbing.

I went for a bike ride. Went up Clark Hill for the first time this year (first time in a couple years), it's the beefiest climb in my area. Probably about 8% or so average gradient, with a few parts around 10%. I surprised myself in how easily I got over the climb, guess I'm not as out of shape as I thought. I did another climb, Chestnut Hill, after that, a significant climb, but not as beefy as Clark Hill, and got over that without too much trouble. I had one last climb on the way home and the previous climbs and the 90 degree heat caught up to me at that point. I started to crack toward the top of that. Luckily, the top of that climb was basically home. Man, my legs are sore right now.

Korea made a baseball gorilla movie, because, of course they did: http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=bxDl_ER5VC0

I'm generally anti-internet connection requirement too, but how do you propose to play an MMO without an internet connection?

Yeah, Kaylee (Jewel Staite) pretty much broke the cuteness meter.

Kaylee from Firefly: *SWOON*

The question about creation. Do our creators want to destroy us? Were we an accident? A mistake? A random experiment gone wrong? Why did they make us in the first place? For what purpose? To play god? Simply to experiment? As some sort of desperate bid to survive? Introducing space marines into the equation doesn't make for profound discussion IMO. What space marines? They were mostly scientists. I just thought the whole idea of what if you really did get a chance to meet essentially God, and what if said God rejected you was pretty thought provoking. The whole idea that we humans are so vain that we naturally think our maker would be glad to see us and immediately welcome us with open arms and answer all our question and having that brutally squashed made for good brain food. I thought the movie did a good job of walking the line between the typical mindless Hollywood blockbuster and the artsy fartsy "look how clever and existential we are" garbage. To me it did, anyway. To each their own. The wrapper around the central theme was just such a mess though. There are so many things in that movie that make no sense that it boggles the mind.

As long as we're posting musicians, this girl can play some serious bass:

Also 49 and also still gorgeous: Mariska Hargitay

Business is business. The end goal is to get as much money as possible. ALWAYS. I have to dispute that view. There are still standards and ethics that every business needs to adhere to, it may seem like its all about money but it can't be at the expense of everything else There are standards and laws they must adhere to but the bottom line will always be profit. Yeah, you can't just do anything in the name of profit, but companies will do everything they can within the rules (and bend the rules as far as they can get away with). Those that don't tend not to survive. People like to sound idealistic, the real world doesn't function like that.

Metallica ~ And Justice For All (album) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23DpRxb3XNM In my mind, Metallica's last GREAT album, and their best. They had some good stuff after this, but nothing approaching this album or Master of Puppets, Ride the Lightning, or Kill 'Em All. Metallica would never again return to the amazing minute long intro jams and sick 2 minute long solos and jam sessions of this album and past after this album. It's too bad because those jam sessions were flat out amazing. As an aside, Youtube doesn't do it justice (pun intended), but this album had the bass and bass drum turned up so high that it sounded like garbage on crappy speakers/headphones as they couldn't handle all the bass. On good speakers, though, the pulverizing bass lines and drum lines sound amazing.

Business is business. The end goal is to get as much money as possible. ALWAYS. If you're a business that's not attempting to get as much money as possible, you're not a very good business and will likely not stay in business for long. That's just the brutal truth of it. Companies may hide behind some warm and fuzzy bull**** about community and giving back and whatever, but the bottom line in business is, was, and always will be profit. Edit: that's not to say that positive things can't come out of business. Positive things for the community can come out of the drive for profit as a byproduct (jobs, education, etc.). Also, business owners can have legitimate, pure, untainted charitable causes, but those will always be separate from the business itself, a personal drive or enterprise.

Eh, I don't really see the problem. If you don't like the cards, ignore them. You'll likely get a few just from your regular usage. If you ignore them, nothing changed. If you sell some of them you gain a few pennies. It's a feature you can just ignore if you wish. There will always be the people that will spend actual money to collect cards, but that's their problem. Sheep will be steered, be it by this or something else. Like so many other schemes, it's there to take advantage of suckers. Not to be heartless (okay, I will be), but if you're a sucker, you deserve to be taken advantage of. It's just an extension of Natural Selection.

You can sell the cards to other people and the money appears in your Steam wallet. Initially, you could get some decent coin for cards (I sold a couple for $0.60+), but the prices have plummeted to where you can't expect much more than $0.15 for a card, if you can even sell it. Anyway, if you collect a full set you earn a badge which levels you up. Beyond the cosmetic factor of "look, I'm level 2 now" I don't know what that means, likely nothing at all. I basically just play what I play and if I get a card I get a card. If I ever get a dupe, I sell it. Otherwise I hold on to them. If I ever get a set and earn a badge then I'll earn a badge. If not, then whatever. I'll be damned if I ever spend a single penny to buy a card, though, or if I buy a game just because it has cards.

Elle McPherson The SI Swimsuit issue... Oh man, in the days before the internet, it was the Holy Grail.

Left picture: scary Right picture: attractive

Are you a Decepticon? Hey, LadyC. I know you're wary of the free earn Zen offers, but at the very least you can do do the radio station one every day. There's some internet radio called "Radio Loyalty". It links to it from the earn Zen page. Anyway, all you do is click on the link, leave the radio station player page open in a tab for a half hour, you can even mute it if you want to, do whatever else you want in the meanwhile (browse in another tab, play a game, make a sandwich, make love to your spouse, whatever), then just come back after a half hour or more and enter in the captcha that pops up when you hit the button that comes up (it's some kind of crappy advertising slogan usually), and voila, 4 free Zen. It's not much, but it costs you nothing, not even time, since you can do whatever else (or nothing) while it plays. No email, no credit card, no nothing necessary, you just get free Zen for leaving the page open for a half hour, whether you actually listen to it or not. You can do it once a day, every day. So you can earn about 120 free Zen a month from this alone for doing nothing.

Of course it's all cosmetic. It's all a cleverly calculated ploy to get people to buy more games. Everything Valve does is to get people to buy more games. Frankly, it should be. They're in the business of selling games. As with any ploy, there will be those that restrain themselves and reap the meager rewards, and those that fall into its clutches and wind up spending a lot more money. That's how these things work.

Call me crazy, but I prefer women without eating disorders.