Hurlshort

Dang, I thought this thread was about the return of Walker, Texas Ranger to the Hallmark channel. What a let down.

My personal experience with it being a gateway is the necessity of a dealer. Since you can't get pot at a store, if you are just looking for a small amount for a weekend, you will need to make contact with a drug dealer. From that point, it is a much easier jump to try other stuff like exctasy or cocaine. I'm sure it isn't a gigantic number that make that jump, but I saw a few friends go that way. My sister ended up dating the dealer, and that did not end well. He ended up in prison (not for long enough in my book) and she did a few stints in rehab.

But I'm saying it'll be an even bigger problem if it's legalized. I think you'll appreciate the issue more once your own kid reaches a certain age. No mattter how you try to bring him (her?) up, if the society is sending an opposite message you've got an uphill fight. Oh, I already take the issue quite seriously. I am very against marijuana use, as I said, my sister went through hell and back and marijuana was clearly the gateway to that. I already have an uphill fight here, society is already sending the message that marijuana isn't a big deal. I teach 7th graders, so I'm right there on the cusp with these students as they prepare to make stupid decisions as teenagers. What I am saying is very few of them are concerned with the legality of the issue. If they choose not to do pot, it is going to be because they are making a smart decision about their health and future. It is illegal for them to drink and smoke as well as teenagers, and yet plenty of them will do those things. What I'm really saying is it's already a big problem, so stop wasting resources criminalizing it, and start educating people on it. Also, it won't hurt to clean out the bloated prison system a bit in California.

Google has a giant slide in their main building. From the 5th floor your choices are the stairs or the slide. Just thought I'd share.

Did you graduate TN? I'm heading off to Happy Hollow today, it is a neat little amusement park/zoo we have in the area. It is really designed for the little kids, from age 1-10 mostly.

On edit 1, I'm not sure how it can get more socially accepted. You have popular movies based completely around their use (from Cheech and Chong to Harold and Kumar.) Because it is something that can be grown rather easily, you already have a lot of kids doing it (data is hard to track down, but around 50% of Americans have tried it.) It is already a societal problem. It may create more need for rehab centers, but it will cut down on the criminal element. I've also spent a bit of time at rehab centers, per my sister who went through a rough few years. I don't believe anyone was actually in rehab for marijuana. It is a major gateway drug, but as an actual destroyer of lives, it is limited. You hear the term angry drunk a lot more than angry stoner. On edit2, I agree completely. This is the real kicker, exactly what is moderate pot usage? I think a joint a day is probably a lot more unhealthy than a beer or a glass of wine a day.

Really? I thought it was awful. Revenge thrillers should be visceral and sharp - for all their faults Taken and Man on Fire are examples of the genre worth watching. I agree that it is nowhere near those two in power or entertainment. I am not familiar with State of Play, and to be honest I thought the Ray Winstone character was underutilized in the movie. It is likely that would change my experience dramatically. As for Mel Gibson, it was not his strongest performance, but I didn't think he was weak in it. I guess when I say a movie is solid, it is kind of a half-hearted compliment. It doesn't blow me away, but I found it watchable.

I grew up in Santa Cruz, where drug use is fairly rampant. I had a few friends who were very bright, I mean considerably smarter than myself. In High School they got into pot and shrooms, and now they have pretty much fallen off the map. I know two of them live up in Humboldt in a trailer growing their own stuff and working odd jobs. These are guys that could have done quite well in college, probably could have excelled in any career they chose. But they choose to live in a trailer and get high. Now maybe they never had they desire or drive necessary to excel, drugs or not, but I find that hard to believe. This has nothing to do with legality, I don't mind if it is legal. Alcohol is legal and can ruin lives just as easily. But lets not go nuts over the wonders of marijuana.

From Paris with Love - The story and characters were a bit of a mess, and John Travolta's partner wasn't really very good (John Rhys-Davies?). The action scenes were good at least.

It's a pretty big jump to say drugs = brilliance. I don't remember any quotes by prominent scientists that sounded like "I was totally stumped on this complex problem, but then I got totally wasted, and I solved it!"

Facebook is very useful for disseminating information to all of your friends at once. For example, the birth of my child, I can post a picture with vitals and then I'm done. But I don't put anything on there that I wouldn't want the whole world to know. I'm really not concerned about my feelings about the local sports teams getting released to the general public.

You know, out in the real world, I give out my name quite frequently. I don't walk around giving people a fake name, or showing a fake ID when I buy stuff. When people's names become widespread on the internet, I really just think it is going to become a non-issue. Sure, there will always be the chance for abuse, but those same chances exist outside the internet.

Good to hear from you GD. Awesome that you finished your book!

I'm doing traffic school as I type this. The online option is pretty nice.

American tourists can go to Nevada for that though.

There are plenty of successful MMO's on the market, you don't have to topple WoW to turn a profit. We also haven't really seen anything about TOR. They haven't even begun the beta.

This could be a terrible blow to the tourism industry in Amsterdam.

Krez is a little high strung for a stoner.

After a bit of effort, it is actually really hard to find myself on the internet. The problem is there are just too many people that have my name. I tried to narrow it down to no avail. I'm not even on that Spokeo thing.

A couple things that strike me: That mod who got his info. posted apparently has an open facebook account. You can pretty much expect that sort of thing when you put all your information in an easy to find place. I'm sure someone here could do some decent research and come away with my vitals, but it wouldn't be a one step process. Also, are folks aware that the mod probably doesn't make any money doing that job? Maybe Blizzard is the exception and they pay, but moderators on forums typically get nada. I see this also as a case of eventually being too much information to really be a problem. If we know the real name of everyone, it no longer becomes all that powerful. For example, I deal with bad drivers on the road all the time. I could follow them home or to work and create problem for them, but that is insane. Right now it is a novelty, but that will wear off and most folks will realize what a waste of time it is and how it isn't worth tracking down every internet bad driver. Except for the few psychos, they will have a field day with this.

Is Alan Smithee the canuck version of John Smith? That's weird.

It wouldn't bother me here or there, honestly. I would love to ditch the name hurlshot, but I've just been using it too long.

Edge of Darkness - Very solid revenge flick. It was pretty predictable, but there was a bit of a surprise at the end that I appreciated. The Crazies - I loved it. It was a great zombie movie, even though it wasn't technically one. Sure, there was some fairly silly moments, but there are those in every George Romero vehicle. The sheriff is the guy from Justified, and he is quickly becoming my favorite actor.

Well, Jagged Alliance 2 is a given. If you haven't played that, you haven't lived.

So for the folks that believe Troika would have done Fallout right, have you played Arcanum? Because that is basically what a Troika Fallout would have looked like, minus the dwarves and elves. For the record, I love Arcanum. But I don't hear a lot of folks clamoring for a sequel to it like you hear for Fallout.