Hurlshort

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?

It's a legal requirement. At least for the US. I don't understand why Steam, which has my age in my profile, still makes me verify it all the time.

Ive seen how they do this on tv. You approach the stairs backwards (so the larger rear wheels are first), bend at the waist so your chest is parallel with your legs, then ease down one stair at a time. This position will keep the majority of your weight to the rear and will keep you from tipping over.* *Do not try this and Im not responsible if you become a paraplegic. He will get more time to practice if he messes up though. It's a win-win.

If there was observable evidence, it wouldn't be called faith. As for explaining it, you might as well ask someone to explain love.

I got into those books when I was about 12 or so. The first few of the series (well, that would be about 9 or so), up to the battle of Waterloo are really quite good. The details of the napoleonic wars are certainly there. Unfortunately, it then turned into quite a popular thing what with the tv series they did based on them, and he wrote another handful that just got a bit messy. I've read every single one of them and I loved them all. There are like 20 or so. I highly recommend them. I read pretty much everything Cornwall writes, the Saxon and the Longbow series are probably my favorites, but the Sharpe series was my first Cornwall books and I thought they did a great job of bringing the conflict between Napoleon and the Duke of Wellington alive. It also gives a great perspective of musket line warfare. edit: If you decide to give it a go, try to read them in chronological order, even though the India prequel campaign was published later than the first books. It is best to see Sharpe work his way up from private.

Yeah, it's hard to understand why we assume you are just a silly troll account and not a legitimate member of this community. Does someone hold a gun to your head and force you to come back here? Why, does someone do that to you? I think you are missing the point. I enjoy being here, I have friends in this community. You seem to have a great disdain for everyone here.

I've been reading Harry Turtledove's "Conan of Venarium", it's pretty good pulp fiction. I like it a lot better than his alternate history stuff.

Awesome, already pre-ordered.

Yeah, it's hard to understand why we assume you are just a silly troll account and not a legitimate member of this community. Does someone hold a gun to your head and force you to come back here?

Hahahahahahahaha. Hah. The fact that people think "intelligent design" has any more validity than young earth creationism means that the fundamentalist nuts have truly run a great propaganda campaign. Intelligent design means exactly what it says. It is a theory that points to an intelligent being behind the creation and evolution of everything. I'm not sure why that is crazy, at least more than any other philosophy out there. Because it proposes an untestable explanation for observable phenomena, and thus is directly contradictory to observable fact. I'd say anyone willing to ignore proven science in favor of "faith" is hopelessly disconnected from reality, yes - this includes *any* fundamentalist faith. Did you miss the second paragraph of my post? I already stated Intelligent Design is not science, and a US District judge ruled the same. I suppose I would have been better off leaving it off my list. But your arguments seem to be aimed at religious belief in general. What is your definition of fundamentalist faith?

Hahahahahahahaha. Hah. The fact that people think "intelligent design" has any more validity than young earth creationism means that the fundamentalist nuts have truly run a great propaganda campaign. Intelligent design means exactly what it says. It is a theory that points to an intelligent being behind the creation and evolution of everything. I'm not sure why that is crazy, at least more than any other philosophy out there. I think you might be confused about this because fundamentalists have been trying to turn Intelligent Design into science. It is not, it's still a philosophy and relies more on faith than concrete evidence. But I hope you can respect that not everyone on this planet is going to share your beliefs, and that doesn't make them crazy.

So anyone who believes in God is "hopelessly disconnected from reality" ?http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Creationism I was going to take offense as well, but I decided to assume he was talking about the young earth creationists, and not theistic evolution or intelligent design.