Hurlshort

This comes across as completely ignorant. Do you understand that there are millions of Muslim Americans who practice their religion peacefully in the US? They wear what they want. Don't buy the propaganda that the US is on some religious crusade. It shows a remarkable lack of knowledge about how the US really is. Even the statement about Washington doesn't make any sense. Washington isn't some single entity that passes down laws to the people.

I'm getting very excited about it. I watched all the videos in the last couple weeks and it seems like it has some pretty awesome stuff, from the companions and the ships to the variety of planets to explore. I'm curious when the early access will start, my guess is the weekend before. Bit of an odd release date, I would have thought they would target the week of Thanksgiving or not release it in 2011 at all, but clearly they feel the game will sell well enough without really being available before Christmas. They already have guild functionality on the website, and I've joined a group of friends form work who plan on playing. Hopefully I'll get a little time in beta to try out the different classes and hit the ground running at release.

I'm really sorry to hear that Enoch. You are in my prayers.

My wife has been bugging for a nice family portrait for awhile. She paid $300 for us to have three sittings with a photographer, and that came with a very small package of pictures. I knew she wanted to get one or two big ones with frames, so I said she had a budget of $300 more on those. I told her that was as much as we could manage. So last night she came home with a bill for $1500! I yelled for a bit and made her call immediately and cancel the order. I will be attending the next session to pick out the pictures She wants these canvas pictures and special frames, and I guess they are $500 each. Geez.

I know the whole Greedo shooting first thing is a big controversy, but I hardly even noticed it when I watched the movie last night. It is literally less than a second of film. It doesn't bother me that it was changed because I don't let one small scene ruin the film, particularly when it still makes Han Solo look like a badass.

Eh, that whole piece really comes across as jealous and petty. I don't think Star Wars is the end all be all of sci-fi, in fact I think it fits better in the fantasy genre, but the author just seems to be hating. Star Wars is first and foremost a kids movie. It is made to appeal to them. Adults are not the main target here. I would have liked the author to address that. I don't like Jar-Jar or he Ewoks, but my daughter enjoys them tremendously. It isn't for me, and so I ignore it and enjoy the cool looking droids.

I've noticed a few really good changes so far, like driving into Mos Eisley. They added a few driving scenes that really fleshed out the spaceport.

I picked up the complete Star Wars saga on Blu-Ray and watched episode 4 & 5. It looks fantastic, it's amazing what they've done to make it look current.

I didn't have anyone in my house participating in school athletics (except for a couple trainers for the football team) so I'm not sure what Krezack means about the jocks. In fact I'm not quite sure what a jock school is. To be honest, most of that I consider the jock types don't end up in college. They have their glory days in High School and then they kind of top out there. I don't know about them having rituals other than drinking beer and watching football. Which I enjoy every once in awhile myself, so maybe that makes me a jock. I worked in an office as a student employee for 3 years during college, and sure enough, it was a frat brother that got me the job. As I mentioned earlier, the rituals and chain of command are a product of most fraternities being born at military institutes. They may not be for you Krezack, but they mostly revolve around acting honorably and virtuous. They are about discipline and loyalty, and it's about bonding together to help each other through tough times. Do some groups mess it up and go overboard? Of course, these are a bunch of young guys, there is going to be some stupidity. I chose a house that was considerably older in average age, our President was 25 and we had a few graduate students living in the house. I'm not glossing over the bad stuff. Some guys drank too much, some guys never got a hang of the school part of being in a frat, and some guys were just ****. But when I graduated, looking back it was one of the best choices I made at school. Just the fact I met my wife and mother of my children at a basement party made it all worth it.

He said he got the upgrade, so no augs. I used the laser rifle (or plasma? Been a couple weeks) which is in a warehouse room very close to the boss. It made the fight easier.

I may be missing some sarcasm or joke, but just in case: the Black Sheep being discussed is not the Chris Farley movie but a low budget horror parody from New Zealand dealing with genetically engineered, murderous sheep. Chris Who?!? Just to clarify, as TrueNeutral said, this is the one I was talking about: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0779982/ Yikes Tale. If it makes you feel any better, I thought it was funny

I was in a Fraternity, people who badmouth them usually have no idea what they are like. First off, they are completely diverse. I don't mean they have a lot of different races (although mine did.) I'm talking about all sorts of different guys. At the end of the day most fraternities are just a group of guys focused on two things, school and partying. You can get the same sort of thing living in the dorms or even an apartment, but frats tend to be more organized. Many of these fraternities have roots that go back to military institutes, and that is why they have rituals and other processes. I was fairly anti-frat before I joined one. I also couldn't stand talking to most of the sorority girls, and then I married one. I won't say there weren't frats on our campus with a lot of douches, there are plenty, but you typically get a ton of different personalities in one house, particularly now that hazing is pretty much illegal. I didn't even drink when I joined my fraternity. I waited a full year, until I was almost 21, before I started drinking. That was never held against me. Most of the guys in my house worked their way through college. It was a great experience and I still catch up with many of the guys regularly.

I was going to point out, as Nepenthe said, most of those really smart people probably feel they are too self-important to practice good manners. Interesting that Krezack falls in with that crowd It must mean you are really smart! But also a bit rude. That seems like a decent trade-off.

Great to hear Krezack. Don't mess it up

To be fair, the original Deus Ex was like that. It gave the illusion of choice in the storyline without actually changing to any great degree. The helicopter pilot just takes the place of JC's brother for that "do what they say, which has them die, or ignore them and save their life" choice. The kill switch gets reversed from affecting the "bosses" to affecting Adam depending on a single decision you make. Deus Ex has always been more about the atmosphere and the multile paths within the game levels rather then multiple paths in the story. I don't know, I think it allows you to use your imagination. Sure, rescuing the hostages, or not killing the one guy in the first mission may not have a huge impact on the end of the game, but it does affect how you view yourself in the end. For example, it made a great difference to how I felt about the story when I was able to save my brother in the original and the helicopter pilot in the new one.

Arena and Daggerfall were amazing for their time, but they haven't really held up to the test of time. Morrowind is still playable though.

That's an interesting Christmas tree, but I think the ornament on the top should be gold or silver instead of black.

Any word on that project actually working or do the kids only play games instead of actually learning? Playing games and learning are not necessarily on opposite ends of the spectrum, you can learn while playing.

The pleasure was all ours. Seconded. Watching you go through High School and into College is one of the best parts about being in this community.

Ah, see I've never even seen the show, so it was easy to use my imagination.

I would definitely label Shaun of the Dead as a spoof, but Hot Fuzz just seems too legitimate to me. It really doesn't turn completely silly until the end fight. But hey, who cares, they are both great flicks.

Beer and a hot bath, mate. I'm at work, so both of those might be a little awkward. I went for the run anyways and it actually feels better, then I ate some quiche in our breakroom. I also ate a Luna bar, which is apparently for women, so I complained to my coworkers about menstrual cramps.

My back has tightened up suddenly. I was planning on going for a run in bit, and now I'm not sure if that is wise anymore.

I'd say this is more along the lines of Three Amigos than a spoof.

Mel Brooks was the master of the spoof, Blazing Saddles is really the crown jewel of the genre. But his weren't a bunch of inside jokes about other films, they were spoofs of specific genres. I thought the Wayans brothers did a decent job with the spoof genre for awhile, but Date Movie was atrocious and I've only caught brief unfunny glimpses of the other ones on that list. edit: Now that I think about it, are the Mel Brooks films really spoofs, or are they called something else?