Hurlshort

All depends on interpretation (or lack thereof, in this case). Well, I prefer to go with the interpretations of the people that aren't bat-**** insane.

I'm not really into the whole revenge aspect of this. I am relieved. I wish there was a better way to deal with a truly disturbed and violent individual like this, but I think most of those ways are unrealistic. For example, the best way for this situation to be resolved is for the millions of Muslims in this world to stand up against people like Osama Bin Laden who pervert the message of Islam. But unfortunately there is still too much divisiveness even among the moderates in the Muslim community. Bin Laden, while at least partially responsible for many acts of terrorism was not a lone serial killer. He was part of a large, organized group of violent people with huge chips on their shoulders regarding western civilization. Eliminating Bin Laden achieved nothing in terms of curbing future terrorist attacks. The Muslim Brotherhood is a huge organization with millions poured into their coffers regularly that isn't going to be stopped by killing any specific individual. Your average Muslims are being routinely stepped on by the US backed and completely corrupt Saudi royal family while, concurrently, fundamentalist Muslim schools (AKA terrorist schooling and recruitment centers) are being bankrolled by the same royals in order to keep the Wahhabis from rebelling. Not exactly a recipe to stop terrorism. All killing Bin Laden did was give a boost to the current US administration popularity at home, and make most Americans a bit happier. I think you are reading a bit too much into my statements, I never said that this would end terrorism. I think I will allow Harris Zafar, the spokesperson for the US Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to speak on this: "As a Muslim, I am happy that a known terrorist like Usama bin Laden has been brought down and his reign of terror has come to an end. His actions ran counter to the true, peaceful, message of Islam, and he created so much mistrust and misconception of Islam. I hope other Muslims will realize that he was not a leader of Muslims. He was only a leader of extremists."

I didn't mean to make it sound like there aren't any Muslims standing up, I just would like to see more unity against groups like AlQ. Frankly I'm surprised anyone even considers Bin Laden a Muslim, anyone who endorses a path of violence against innocents has completely failed to understand the message of Muhammad.

Greybriar server, Defiant faction. We just finished forming the guild, so you can message any of us. My character is Hurlshot and Calax is Cardath. Shadysands is on too, but I can't remember his name. See you in the game!

I'm not really into the whole revenge aspect of this. I am relieved. I wish there was a better way to deal with a truly disturbed and violent individual like this, but I think most of those ways are unrealistic. For example, the best way for this situation to be resolved is for the millions of Muslims in this world to stand up against people like Osama Bin Laden who pervert the message of Islam. But unfortunately there is still too much divisiveness even among the moderates in the Muslim community.

Yeah, I'm pretty bummed, but we still have a game 7 to play. Hopefully they show up for the third period this time.

Quite a few do, possibly even the majority. I know the group that I've been playing LotRO with for years doesn't play anything else, they just have a full stable of maxed out characters. I only really play one character and take breaks for months at a time.

20 hours a week is pretty casual for an MMO too. That's basically an hour or two a night and a few more during the weekend. I know folks who put in 50-60 hours a week on those games.

I didn't know what BL meant, so I searched BL game in Yahoo, and I got some interesting results. I didn't know that was Volo's type of thing, but I'm not here to judge.

MMO's really rack up amazing amounts of hours. I had about two weeks into my WoW character, but in Lord of the Rings Online I'm close to 4 weeks. Heck, I already have over 100 hours in Rift and I've only been playing it for a couple months.

You guys don't know what you are talking about. My list is the best: 1. Pacman 2. The Last Starfighter

I know LoF partially addressed this in his last paragraph, but I was watching a special on anorexia last night and it was hard not to notice how much deeper that problem is than just having too much airbrushing on magazine covers. Here is a statement I found online about causes of eating disorders: "There is no single cause for eating disorders. Although concerns about weight and body shape play a role in all eating disorders, the actual cause of these disorders appear to result from many factors, including those that are genetic and neurobiologic, cultural and social, and behavioral and psychologic. Although much has been written about the role of families and parenting as causes of eating disorders, there is no evidence supporting this claim." So is censoring really going to fix this problem? I'm not saying it will not help, I just wonder at what point we get diminishing returns.

I don't think most reasonable people will disagree with you that the media plays a large role in the body issues of many young women, but your means to an end are not acceptable to me. I would rather fight this problem through education, offering alternative publications, and working to create more healthy female role models than blanket censorship. Also, I'm a fan of free will. But I was probably brainwashed into believing that

I thought the first three paragraphs were fairly reflective and interesting. But then it jumped the shark.

He does try to cast doubt that Bin Laden had a hand in 9/11. I don't really get the whole idea of defending Bin Laden. I get that the evidence is lacking, but when a guy goes out of his way to confess to such a heinous act, it is pretty safe to accept that and do whatever you can to make sure he is unable to do anything like it again.

I approve of this message.

That sounds more like realism than imbalance. Balance is overrated.

I picked up BFBC2: Vietnam for $7.50 today, pretty nice price. It is fantastic, they really captured the Vietnam war movie vibe well. I got beat down pretty hard though.

I might go back over it with Netflix, I lost interest in the first season at some point, but it sounds like it got better over time.

Happy Mother's Day to Di, and anyone else here who gave birth!

While The Architect does appear in the books, Awakening actually felt better for me having not read them. He appears as a mysterious figure for a while. Then he explains who and what he is, and his motives. If I'd read the books, the suspense would have been lost and the reveal would have been redundant. Compared to WoW: Cataclysm where Thrall and Garrosh's changes are a big "what did I miss" moment. Do they ever explain why there is a dwarf mute following him around in the game?

I don't know how the Dragon Age expansion, Awakenings, even make sense if you don't read the book first. So I guess I'm comfortable with this whole approach of using different formats to move story forward.

The graphics look pretty good. Hopefully it will come out eventually.

That is phenomenal. It really helps with the whole "How do you want to go?" question.

Not anymore than an expansion establishing canon would bother me. Actually I think it is pretty great, it gives me a reason to boot ME2 up again, and for $7 I get a little prequel story to tide me over until ME3 comes out. Regardless, I doubt you will be lost in the story if you don't play the DLC. I think the lame outfits and weapons is a lot worse as DLC. Why bother with that? I want story.