Hurlshort

I've been getting my kitchen remodeled over the last week or so, and it should be finished by next week. It's pretty crazy. We refaced the cabinets, put down a Corian sink and countertop, and wood floors. Monday they refaced the cabinets. It looks awesome, and it only took them a day. It was expensive though, but the guy who owned are place previously painted them black and there was really no choice in the matter. My wife and I took up the kitchen counter tiles, and then I installed a new over the range microwave. It was quite a bit of work. This weekend we are tearing up the floor tiles so they can install the wood floors.

If the card is good, then I think it's a good price. That's really where the cost comes in on these things. I'm terrible with exchange rates though.

Skeeter junkyard is like two years old, at least 2 gigs of RAM is perfect at this point, and will be more than enough for the games you listed. It is probably at least another year before you need to double that. What OS are you using? Basic XP and Vista don't even support more that 2 gigs yet. Anyone know much about the GS card? It sounds nice as an 8800, but I get confused by all the different types. It looks like a solid setup, regardless. It should play all the games you listed a high quality.

Free speech does not entitle you to disrupt the lives of others. A public school system classroom(k-12) is also not the right platform for free speech, it's a place that is designed to give a well rounded education. Don't get me wrong, it is appropriate to talk about abortion and any controversial issues in the world, but it is not alright to dominate the classroom with a single issue. There is too much stuff to cover to allow that. Yuusha, do you know that I teach about the roots of Islam in my classroom? We discuss candidly what is happening in world affairs. Students voice their opinions for and against what is happening in the Iraq and Afghanistan. My job isn't to shove my opinions down their throat, it is to give them as much factual information as I can and allow them to form their own opinions. That is the essence of free speech. Students are allowed to form and voice their own opinions. But that doesn't mean they get to take over the educational experience of others.

Most of my ESL students have a hard time comprehending that I EXPECT them to struggle with language. If they turn a nearly perfect paper, that's when I get concerned. I've has some really blatant plagarism over the years. One kid took the text from a website that sold African Masks, and he left in the sales information. Either that or he was trying to sell me his mask.

I agree that the administration should be delicate when handling this situation, and it sounds as if they were. No one complained about the student wearing it on day one. It took a couple days before a teacher approached the student and advised against the shirt, and a couple more days before the principal got involved. This is clearly a student who was trying to raise a stink by wearing the same shirt every day for a month.

Tale got it. It is not the student's right to be a distraction in the classroom. There are plenty of outlets this young person can take if they want to express their opinion.

I think the original was better, but I never played third Reich, so I can't say definitively.

Have a link, Hurly? I wouldn't mind reading that. At least once a month I have to deal with an irate customer who refuses to show their ID . If they're so offended by it, they should just use their debit card or cash and quit the bitching. I read it in a real newspaper. Old school, I know http://www.mercurynews.com/actionline/ci_9...?nclick_check=1 Found it! Here are the rules: • MasterCard: A merchant must not refuse to complete a MasterCard card transaction solely because a cardholder who has properly presented a valid card refuses to provide an ID. Retailers may require additional identification from the cardholder if the information is required to complete the transaction, such as for shipping purposes. See www.mastercard.com/us/wce/PDF/MERC-Entire_Manual.pdf) MasterCard has an online form for reporting merchant violations of this rule. Go to www.mastercard.com/us/personal/en/contactus/merchantviolations.html and check the box: "The merchant/retailer required identification." • Visa: Although Visa rules do not preclude merchants from asking for cardholder ID, retailers cannot make an ID a condition of acceptance. Therefore, merchants cannot refuse to complete a purchase transaction because a cardholder refuses to provide ID. Visa believes merchants should not ask for ID as part of their regular card acceptance procedures. edit: Visa link: usa.visa.com/download/merchants/rules_for_visa_merchants.pdf.

I just got a second character to 20 in Age of Conan. The first 20 levels is really a single player action-RPG. I grouped once or twice, but it as never really necessary and the primary quests are all individual instances. It was actually designed as a single player experience. Oddly I've played through it three times. It's odd because I usually can barely play through single player RPG's once. Granted it's only about 15 hours of game play, but I've played through short RPG's like Jade Empire and Fable and never felt the desire to replay them. I wonder what it is about a MMO that makes me so forgiving about replaying the same content?

I just read an article about how stores legally can't do anything if you refuse to show them ID. They can't refuse the sale, and you have no actual obligation to show an ID. It's written into the Visa and Mastercard contract.

That was hilarious, but to be honest, it's not surprising that no one checks the credit cards. What the companies do though is when you make large purchases, they will call and verify the transaction with the card owner. I had two credit card companies do that. They also have so much dang insurance that they don't really care if a little fraud gets by. Nobody cares if you stole a credit card and your buying $10 in slim jims. As a card owner, you just need to call and cancel your cards quickly if they go missing. My local bagel shop doesn't even bother having us sign the receipts anymore. It's a fairly unnecessary step.

That's awesomness. I've been dying to replay the original.

These two statements seem to contradict one another. Is it just me?

Thinking about the fact that Datsyuk and Zetterberg are totally dominating Crosby and Malkin really makes me realize how riciculous the NHL draft is.

I care so little about this that I'm surprised I'm even posting in the thread.

http://pc.ign.com/articles/871/871944p1.html Here's an article on it. The big question is whether the game is two years out, or 5 years out. If they've started on it already (as early as 2005 is possible) then we could see previews by the end of the year.

I think Oblivion is also a good game if you don't level up much. My first run through got me to about level 10 and I didn't notice too many problems that I've heard about. That was about 20 hours of gaming, which is plenty for me to feel I got my moneys worth. I think I got about halway through the campaign, I was closing Oblivion gates to get towns to send my mountain retreat some support. That's where I felt it got repetitive.

Rumors are flying around about a new X-com. Having a professional studio tackle that game would be great, especially if they stick to the squad level TB combat. I think Irrational is in the rumor mill as a developer. Even if they use the RTS system of Freedom Force, I'd probably still be happy.

My apologies to Gorth, he didn't delete my post, I just somehow messed up when posting it

I am not sure about the fist two, but I do know that apostasy is often sighted as the one 'unforgivable sin" by Christian religions. Yeah, I agree a lot of religious folks take that stance, but there is no biblical precedent for it. Those are just hyprocrites who believe they know best and it is their job to judge others.

I meant chaste as in no casual sex. You're right that it is possible to be homosexual in Buddhism if you read everything the way you want to read it to feel good about yourself but then you might as well be christian or muslim. I'll try to post this again,s ince my last response seems to have been purged This seems to imply that homosexuality = casual sex. I could be misreading it, but I think it's important to note that sex is a very small part of homosexuality, just as it is in marriage. As much as I would love my partnership with my wife to be about sex all the time, it's a fairly small percantage of our time spent together.

I was a bit surprised my post was deleted. It didn't have anything to do with racism, and the post I was responding to is still present.

Wow, I can understand being frustrated by DRM choices, but full on support of the pirates that make the whole situation happen seems a bit much.

I've decided to re-install Oblivion, but these mods are a mess. Isn't there an easy one or two to get? I don't want to spend a day trying to sort this out.