Hurlshort

The amazing thing is how often Oakland and Tampa compete at that budget.

The Butler - This is the story of a butler who served through 6 administrations at the White House, and it's heavy with connections to the civil rights movement. There were some great moments and some really bad moments for me. The beginning was pretty rough, I felt it tossed you into a situation with little setup and then moved on so fast it was hard to really feel the impact. Once the Butler reaches the White House, it gets more interesting. I absolutely loved Leiv Shrieber as LBJ, he's my favorite president and they portrayed him in an interesting way. I also thought John Cusack was a compelling Nixon. JFK was decent as well. The film did a good job of staying even keel on the political parties until one point, and I really cringed when I saw it. It happened during Reagan's term. Reagan was played by Alan Rickman, which was an odd choice but I thought it was decent. Some media outlets are saying they made Reagan out as a racist, but that seems ridiculous, as he is the one that allows the Butler to get a raise and also lets him bring his wife to a white house dinner. That didn't bother me, it was the casting of Nancy Reagan... Jane Fonda. Jane Fonda as Nancy Reagan. At this point I rolled my eyes and the movie lost me. It doesn't matter what type of job she did as an actress, this was a blatant insult to put a woman who sat on AA guns in Hanoi as the First Lady. I can't believe they cast her. Really the casting was weird all over the place. Forest Whitaker is an amazing actor, but he's not good looking, so casting a nice looking young guy was an odd choice. Then watching Whitaker and Oprah Winfrey portray a 30-something couple was also odd. In fact the whole personal story between the Butler and the wife was a bit tough to watch, although I thought the father-son stuff worked. Although the son going from MLK Jr. to the Black Panthers was a bad stretch. After Fonda was on, it turned into more of an Obama campaign, although that was still a lot less offensive than Hanoi Jane. So I'd still say it was worth it for the way it handled the 50's-70's, but just barely.

You should have sent me a message earlier Wals, I would have been able to squeeze in a game.

I'm not sure about the school playing a role in that though. Lessons need to be learned, but there are so many other ways to teach them without resorting to physical harm. Now as a parent, I've given my kids a smack on the rear or grabbed them roughly when they've thrown a tantrum or are doing something dangerously bad, but I would hardly expect that type of reaction from an educator in a school setting. I couldn't imagine doing anything of the sort as a teacher. Do I have students that deserve it? Absolutely! But it is still not my place and I have many other tools to use in order to get my lesson across. Basically I am saying educators need to be held to a higher standard.

I thought Daud was the spymaster? Eh, all the titles confused me. I also thought: was a very nice touch, on more of those little things they did well.

am a snob when it comes to stock. we makes chicken recipes so frequent that we almost always got enough leftover chicken parts for making quarts and gallons o' chicken stock... which is one o' the few things that freeze well. thanksgiving always results in us having a couple month supply o' turkey stock. duck stock is also a staple for us, but it is different 'nuff from chicken such that it ain't genuine interchangeable. what we is always short o' is beef stock. we rare have leftover meat and bones in enough quantities to be making quality stock, and it just seems wrong to buy meat and bones specific to make stock. as for store bought... swanson's is having almost zero depth while also being very salty. am not knowing how or why anybody would bother using that swill. kitchen basics seems to be preferred by people other than Gromnir-- tastes almost same as swanson's but is less salty. better than bullion is flavorful, but is quite salty if you use in recommended proportions. *shug* folks who would Never use canned green beans or frozen ribeyes seems willing to use pre-made stock. am s'posing it is a sacrifice people makes at the altar of convenience, but we just can't do bad stock. HA! Good Fun! It's interesting, I've never really thought about making my own stock. We don't really eat enough meat, but I bet I could make some vegetable broth, it looks like you can use the scraps and peels to do it. I'll have to check that out. I buy the reduced sodium brands, of course, but salt is a concern even in those. I typically get what is on sale and have never really noticed a difference between Swansons or anything else. I'll give the Kitchen Basics a try.

Arkane is working on a sequel, so more of that is on it's way. And I hear the dlc are good, going to get them myself when they pop on steam sale. I just hope Arkane can improve their storytelling for the sequel, that's the only thing I found lacking in Dishonored to say the least. I thought their use of books, notes, and general world building was fantastic. There were also some compelling characters like Slackjaw and the Spymaster. But they went in an odd direction with the story, it was almost like they were rushing it at the end and trying to force the plot to work in a way that didn't make too much sense. I'm not explaining it well, but hopefully they can iron it out for the sequel.

Finished Dishonored with a low chaos ending. It was a fun game, and I really enjoyed the setting. I'd play another set in the same universe for sure.

I just decided I'm not going to play this game after all. That's what pushed you over the edge? It seems like one of their more tame plot devices, to be honest.

With Wals I'm not even going to bother with the ball, I'm just going to have 9 players completely surround his guys one at a time and beat them into submission.

Who do you think is in charge of Hurlyburly? It was a fun match up, I had little idea what was happening. I think I killed some people, and lost 2-1 to Melk. I'll leave the dramatic retelling to him.

edit: From an investment standpoint, they aren't good, because they seem to have hit a point where their profits are matching their costs. But as a business they seem as stable as you can get in the video game industry. I hate to disagree with you Hurlshot but no company will stay in business if the profits only cover the costs. So if that's true EA will need to make some serious structural changes if they intend to have any future I agree they need to restructure, pretty much every game publisher is trying to adapt to the changing market and get back to a growth phase. But if they are covering costs they are still stable. EA still makes a ton of money every year and the numbers show that they are operating within that budget, rather than taking major losses every quarter.

Thnks Bendu the Benificent!

What that really shows is that EA has been remarkably consistent over the last few years, not posting any huge gains but also keeping the losses at a minimum. EA is not in any financial trouble, they have plenty of profit coming in. They key is controlling the overhead, which is why you see them restructuring developers so regularly. I have no idea how you read that and came to the conclusion EA is taking on water. edit: From an investment standpoint, they aren't good, because they seem to have hit a point where their profits are matching their costs. But as a business they seem as stable as you can get in the video game industry.

That's the one I was thinking. Desert city

Origin is a wonderland! Actually Origin really is the best of the bunch when it comes to running smoothly from what I've seen. But I still rarely use it.

Is Spec Ops: The Line the one set in the desert city? That one actually looked pretty interesting, I'll take it if no one else is interested.

Almost done with Dishonored, but I've also started up a game of Sleeping Dogs since I can't play GTA V and people were talking about it. I'm enjoying it, but the driving is not its strong spot.

You are bummed that it is free? That is really odd.

GFWL was just never very easy to use for me. It was clunky and ran poorly. To be fair, Steam was the same way when it came out, but they've tinkered with it and it is much better. But mostly I just don't want to have to go through multiple services.

Enoch, I'm not sure whether to be excited or worried for you, but I hope for the best for your family! I spent about a week in the NICU with my son, and I was in there with parents that had been there for months. It was difficult, but the day that kiddo gets to come home is huge. There are also super cautious in those NICU wards and they do an amazing job.

Wow, it seems like Keyrock has been here longer. I registered for NWN2 (when it was announced) back in the day, but became a regular after finishing KotOR2. I remember finishing the game and needing more about the ending, and I found it here. Then I noticed the NHL thread and it was love at first post.

Ok, that update was way too long, can someone in the know summarize? It looks like they are basically saying, we are out of money so we are giving up. That's pretty messed up for a project that raised half a million bucks. Did they at least send out all the physical rewards?

I was thinking the same thing, but I don't think she has a console.

I had a blast playing ME3 and enjoyed the conclusion of the series. I wasn't happy about the ending, but the extended ending they released gave me enough closure to feel good about the odyssey of my Captain. It was nowhere near the disappointment I had with DA2.