Hurlshort

So you think your opinion is worth more because of your job? How conceited can one get? Please, tell us, how long have you worked in this field to gain this awesome knowledge that none of us plebeians can touch? Ten years? 20? I think you're a ****ing programmer with less than 5 years in the industry. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not interested in taking art advice from you. I value the opinion of a mechanic on cars more than someone who drives them. That sounds pretty reasonable. Sure, but would you take interior decoration advice from a builder who tells you your home looks like ****? He can't tell you why but he is a professional who might have spoken to a number a interior decorators so just trust him okay. I would value their opinion more than someone who doesn't work on houses at all. It doesn't mean I have to agree with it or anything, but there is a certain amount of logic to it.

Technically you are a pretty dang powerful Sith lord in KotOR, even though you don't know it at the start. Personally I really enjoy the whole path from the gutter to greatness story.

So you think your opinion is worth more because of your job? How conceited can one get? Please, tell us, how long have you worked in this field to gain this awesome knowledge that none of us plebeians can touch? Ten years? 20? I think you're a ****ing programmer with less than 5 years in the industry. Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm not interested in taking art advice from you. I value the opinion of a mechanic on cars more than someone who drives them. That sounds pretty reasonable.

I didn't mind all the naked Nicole Kidman in Eyes Wide Shut from Kubrick.

Sorry, I've been busy. You are playing it wrong and you are just generally stupid

Your fingers will hurt less and less as you develop callouses on your finger tips Is my guitar a decent one? Seems solid and sounds nice to me but I know next to nothing about such things. I don't know much about Yamahas but it should be fine for what you're doing. Good guitars are overrated. I started learning last November. The callouses will come, with my schedule I can only practice like an hour or two a day, so it never got too painful. It has been harder trying to build the muscles needed to do bar chords. I've been doing these youtube lessons by a guy named Marty Schwartz, it has been very educational. I like it better than the CD that came with my guitar.

Yesterday I did a ton of yard work. First I cleared out the first layer of the front yard. It was overgrown, we moved in a month ago and it was overgrown then, so now it was supersized. I finally found a decent gas trimmer, so I went to town with it. I managed to cover myself in green junk. The yard is a weird combination of huge weeds, some sort of ice plant, and grass, so I just cut it all down. Even my glasses were covered in it. Then I went and picked up my lawnmower, which was being repaired, and mowed the backyard. That went pretty smoothly. I went back to the front and finished off the second layer with the trimmer and then raked it. It was a mess, but it looks a good deal better now. I also picked up a very nice used BBQ for cheap. So for dinner we had tri-tip and some chicken with the neighbors. It was a pretty exhausting day, but I feel good about all the stuff I got done.

It took me about 100 at-bats, but I'm finally starting to see the ball well on my AA team in MLB 11 The Show. My average had struggled to stay near .250, but now it has climbed up to .280. There is about two weeks left in the season, so hopefully I can finish strong. The game does a great job at rewarding solid at bats. I still strike out a fair amount, but at least if I drag it into an 8-pitch at bat before going down, I get a few points for the effort.

I'm pretty sure Morgoth is referring to the fact Duke Nukem is simplifying the FPS gameplay considerably. I read an interview in Game Informer and they are basically leaving out a lot of the staples in most modern FPS's like using cover and decent AI. It doesn't bother me, they are going retro, and if there is a shrink-ray I'm plenty happy.

I enjoy pointless statistics as much as the next guy. What were we discussing again?

Good one obyknven! For a second I was like, wait, is he serious? And then I was like, ah, he got me! What a kidder

Ok, I said I would update my attempt at short selling my condo, so here goes: Last month we moved into a new house, we are renting it for $2000 a month, and it is really nice. We are hoping to stay there for a number of years. We have a mortgage on our condo that costs us about $2500 a month (after property taxes, hoa fees and all that.) We rent it out for $1100, so we take a big loss every month. With our new rent situation, we knew we would not be able to keep paying both, and so we decided to sell the condo. The problem is we owe $350,000 on the condo and the market value is way lower, so we have begun a short sale process. First off, we called the bank (Wells Fargo) and explained our situation. They were very helpful, surprisingly so, but I guess this short sale stuff is becoming common enough that they have it down pat. I also received a few calls over the month trying to collect the mortgage payment that we skipped in March, I told them I was short selling the property, and they were very easy to work with. They sent me paperwork explaining how to proceed, and the first step was to list the property. We got a real estate agent with short sale experience, and listed the property last Monday. We priced the property at $139,000 and got a good deal of interest. We received two offers at $110,000, and I accepted one that came from an investment group. The nice thing about an investor is it is a cash transaction, meaning the close will go faster than if they needed to process their own loan. The next step, and this is a big one, is getting Wells Fargo to agree to let us sell the property at $110,000. They will send out their own appraiser and run comparisons. If they think it is too low, they will counter offer and we will have to go through quite a few more hurdles. I also sent in all my financial information to prove that I cannot continue to pay the mortgage, so they have to go over all that. So I'm happy we have offers, but I'm not super excited or anything. I am still losing my shirt on this whole deal and I'm pretty sore about it. My current tenants also gave their 30-day notice, so I'm hoping this doesn't drag out long. The bank turn around on this thing is 2-8 weeks, so it still has a way to go before we are clear. My credit will take a decent hit, but so far it looks like I will be able to recover in just a few years, so that is nice.

MLB 11 The Show - This new analog system is giving me fits. I'm doing fairly terrible in the minors right now.

facepalm.jpg I thought you weren't drawing connections between the absence of organized religion and Soviet crimes? I guess you can't help it, but you could at least man up and admit it, instead of being cute and then huffing and puffing when called on it. Yeah, Stalin was as extreme as it gets. The Soviets themselves acknowledged this, and that's why the was likely assassinated and his policies undone to a good degree before his corpse was cold. But it's convenient that you ignored the rest of my post, where I explain that we can't do away with the eternal source of problems that is politics. If you have an alternative, I'd love to hear it. While you're at it, why don't you explain what is the essential role that organized religion fills in running modern, secular countries? What are you talking about? There is no connection between extremism and organized religion in the Soviet Union, that is my entire point. Extremism will exist with or without organized religion. You said I would be hard pressed to find any examples of extremism in the Soviet Union, and then when I pointed out a big one, you seem to be the one getting all huffy and puffy. You are willing to admit that politics are an intrinsic part of society, despite being an eternal source of problems. I am saying that religion is just as intrinsic. I've never actually claimed that this was for the best. It has pros and cons. As for what essential role organized religion plays in a modern secular country, all you need to do is head down to a local soup kitchen or homeless shelter to see its role. There are plenty of churches serving their communities in a positive manner. I've gone over this plenty of times before, so I don't feel the need to go into much greater detail.

Oh, I thought that's exactly what you (and GD) meant with your previous remark about starting a country where religion is banned. And I still do, because otherwise the comment doesn't make any sense. The Soviets can be accused of many things, but you'll be hard pressed to find examples of extremism, especially the violent sort. Coincidentally, the Soviet Union had one of the best education systems ever. Here are my examples of extremism in the Soviet Union - Josef Stalin.

That's a pretty big jump from my statement. My point is more along the lines that extremism will exist with or without organized religion. I know a lot of folks like to play the enlightened card and look at religion as a silly and dated construct, but whatever your beliefs are, in the real world religion is huge and shouldn't be dismissed easily. It has been a part of every human society in recorded history. In my opinion, the only real course of action that will have any long term effects on something as huge as Islam is to educate people, find common ground, and build bridges between communities. Oh, and it is hard to imagine Jesus burning someone's holy book. Kinda seems like that guy missed the point of the New Testament.

That's the problem I've had with a few of the responses here, these deaths are a product of extremism, not religion. While religion is a convenient avenue in which extremism can manifest, we've seen enough communist countries to know that stifling organized religion does very little against extremism. What has worked best is establishing a co-existent relationship. In the US you can have a Catholic Church and a Lutheran Church on the same street, and it doesn't cause an international incident. That is because the gap between these denominations has been closed. That needs to happen between Islam and Christianity. It will happen eventually. Then we will probably have bigger problems, like some alien race religion and a backwater hick who burns their Holy Book of Zooloo, and so they vaporize our moon.

Most bibles are placed in Motels by a group called the Gideons. They don't cost the motel anything. I have a couple free Qu'ran's floating around my classroom, as well as a King James Bible.

Maybe we should start a country where organized religion is not allowed? That has never been done before, right?

That made me smile

I've been stomping around the snow in Yosemite with a bunch of 8th graders this week. It is really beautiful, evrything is starting to melt now.

It took me like ten minutes, but I finally figured out what you mean

Two women at the same time.

Cool, I thought they did a great job of recreating the Conan world. The beginner island is fantastic, it is as solid as any single player RPG I've played. Unfortunately I felt the game fell apart after level 20, bu ti played it at release, so maybe they've tightened it up.

Well, it does depend on what type of jackpot I hit. A million is just going to let me get out of debt, buy a house, upgrade my car and RV, and retire a few years earlier. It would be awesome, but it isn't really life changing. I would still work because I love my job. Now if I was a multi-millionaire, I'd probably stop teaching full time, maybe work as a substitute or look for a part time assignment. I'd build my dream house and spend months traveling in a nice RV exploring the country. I'd try not to be too spend-crazy, I want it to last and have enough to help my kids and kids kids. I would buy a condo in San Francisco and get season tickets to the Giants, and I would do the same for the San Jose Sharks. I also think it would be cool to fly a bunch of the forumites out to a Stanley Cup playoff game. I'd definitely take all the NHL thread folks and probably invite a few others. There are lots of possibilities, I guess.