ManifestedISO

Didn't horrible things happen to the Chinese in San Francisco in the 19th century? Insular culturalism was probably at its height in that age here. Every race present in North America ... Chinese, Japanese, Irish, Black, Native American, Mexican, et al ... had horrible things thrust upon them. The cold light of day on this subject was written by Ronald Takaki, called A Different Mirror. It is both remarkable and astounding, and disturbing, but not without hope.

Hey, if you guys start moving goalposts again, do it over there out of the way ... trying to watch an epic regular season football game between real goalposts here.

I swear to Fouts it should be illegal for two undefeated teams to be in one division this late in the year. I'm supposed to want the Colts to beat Denver, but I'd rather see Peyton destroy Indy.

And ... we fall off a cliff overlooking Dead Horse Point.

Cool! I love the official description for that game. I think I must have it, while it's on sale. Edit: and ... downloading now. Thanks for the tip.

Horoscopes are just someone's ambiguous opinion. Fortune cookies, on the other hand, are real, down to the last letter of each word. I had one tell me I would be surrounded by luxury and wealth--and sure enough, here I am, working laboriously in a coastal community surrounded by wealth and luxury. Stupid fortune never told me I would be part of it.

I saw the coolest show about a modern smith who makes his own Ulfbehrt swords in the same manner as the originals. I love the idea of legendary weapons, but questing for pieces, not so much. If it's legendary because it was crafted unique to other weapons, that might be more gratifying than a magic enchantment.

Working on Saturdays is a goddamn sin. Nah, it's OK. I quite like a good bit of physical work. You get your objectives and *bam* you're off. You either get it right or you don't! Me too, today, but it's still a sin. Especially for free. But it was at my mate's house, whose wife is from Brasil, and can cook with all the passion and skill of a professional. I was already 'standing up straight' tired yesterday, so today was more of a warm-down. The pasta chicken pesto made the work seem less like work. Obrigado, Camila!

Oh, I know the truth of hearts in Utah, and it is not preventive heroism.

So the weirdest thing happened with Pacific Rim. I watched it first and didn't really love it. Like I mean, a waste of a script. Then I learned it's a genre movie ... designed purely for fun. So I changed my expectations of plot, dialogue, and character--the pesky grown-up things I thought were critical--and tried it again. All of a sudden, I had the best time. Like a kid again, watching Condorman.

Cool! Haha, thanks for a great laugh. Our Dazzling LightyBulbs will hopefully overcome the, er-- Silly P-kitties. Larders for the win!

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They deep-fry everything at the county fair ... I wonder could you batter and deep-fry chunks of avocado and wash it down with pizza.

The best 'long-term for gaming' solution (price to performance) is a smallish SSD for the operating system (Windows 7) and a regular hard drive for game storage (Steam library). That way, you never have to worry about upgrading the drive installed with Windows, and can concentrate on future-proofing the other (much easier) components. Or leave them all in place for each build, like I do. Being able to play new games in a year depends on the resolution of the monitor. If it's 1920x1080 or less, that 7870 will have no problem supporting High and sometimes Ultra graphics settings, likely for two years or more with good driver support. In some game benchmarks, it's even surpassed the 7950, slightly, while using less power and making less noise/heat. The extra GB of frame buffer memory shouldn't matter too much at 1080 resolution or below, but more is usually better. All of that means nothing if the price is right, however.

What a great feeling, nice job. Tea and strumpets, now, for sure.

SSD for the OS, definitely. Humanoid is right about the way it feels, like I mean night and day faster. Like dial-up and broadband faster. I swear games get sympathy speed, even though they're loaded on the slower HDD. I kinda think the 7950 is too much and a little hot for 1080p gaming, but two hundred bucks is a damn good price. Still, I'd save even more and get a 7870 or 7850 on super sale ... and drop the CPU cooler, and lower the power supply to 450 or 430, but stay at least bronze certified. I'm also convinced it's definitely worth getting 1600 RAM, over 1333. Every (most) review I see on Anand shows a big jump in performance between those two, but much less from 1600 to 1866. I gotta say, there is only Newegg. Sniping the right part for the best price is fun and rewarding, but I only get that feeling from Newegg. Except for that tax thing, now.

I agree with samm on the audio/video receiver. They're so versatile, you'll wonder how you managed without, and for not much money. Every device can be plugged in to the receiver: speakers, TV, gaming PC, Xbox, blu-ray player ... even my headphones jack right in the front. I just switch inputs on the remote when I want to change activities. It's capable of Bluetooth, but I don't utilize that part. Just about every port is available: USB, digital optical, HDMI, audio wire, RGB, analog, AM/FM antenna, etc. I like to hear Pandora through 5.1 when I vacuum. And, other stuff. If you're interested in a stereo speaker setup, a soundbar might be suitable. You could plug it in to the TV and then choose "external speakers" on the TV menu, if you elect to forego a receiver. That way, you could also send the audio/video signal from your HTPC to the TV with HDMI. I heartily recommend a receiver, though. Mine is a Yamaha, less than three bills, on sale. Newegg has great deals usually.

Like when Aragorn says to Haldir ... you are most welcome! Happy one year tomorrow!

Oh, hell yes I'm getting a Danny Woodhead jersey. Running back, tight end, all-around machine of forward progress. Kick ass!

Excitement mounting. Today is the 14th ... only four weeks and four days until Playstation 4. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0d9d-cdxhk

Double-baked, fried Charger probably.

-1000 fan points to everyone that left the New England stadium early. Aikman said the place was half-empty when the clock expired.

And less pain. When my brother died suddenly, my mom's burden of grief was reduced by her belief that he is still alive, floating around the universe somewhere, unseen. Which I think is why superstition finally did overpower logic ... because facts and rationality don't give us a hug when someone dies.

Which explains our incalculable need to explain things, and why the need to believe in something unknowable feels so real. They are hard-wired into our heads very close to emotion and memory. Like deja vu ... an odd, yet real sensation that was finally isolated and demystified. But not lessened in impact. Demystifying things like strange or powerful feelings shouldn't take away from them as experiences. How crazy is it that we're alive in the first place, with super-fast mush inside a hard shell capable of processing audio/video input. That's where I think religion fails to account for unbiased spirituality--people say they have the answers, but they all want you to believe in their brand. Usually to pay for the 'privilege' (a la mormonism, where ten percent of your income will get you into a proprietary heaven). Living with one foot in the next life reduces the quality and mystery of our lives here, I think.

A subjunctive pretense for an impossible situation ... I'm positive no one has ever had the sense literally beaten into them. The irony in violence and irrational belief was too much, perhaps. Superstition is an apt, concise description. I stand by it with all the fervor my human nature allows.