Enoch

Currently playing an English campaign in Medieval 2: Total War. For some reason, ever since the 1.2 patch, the Portugese will nearly always launch a seaborne raid at Ireland (although, if it's no longer in 'rebel' hands when they arrive, they may divert to Wales instead) very early in the campaign. Odd AI behavior, especially given that there are a number of rebel settlements that they could easily have reached on foot which would have been easier for them to take and reinforce. But still, the 1.2 patch is a dramatic improvement over the earlier versions of the game. Anyhow, chasing the rather large Portugese invasion force around the Isles has slowed my advancement such that the HRE is threatening to grab the low countries before I have a chance at them.

Springsteen - The Angel

I built a new PC a couple of months ago, and I went with Vista. I figured that I would want it sometime in another year or two, and I didn't want to have to pay for a new copy of XP for the interim or to have to mess around with installing an OS twice.

Tom Jones-- Theme to Thunderball

Man, I love looking at old war propaganda. Nice find. I didn't find this one there, but the gift shop at the National Archives has a great poster selection.

I didn't go there, and I'm not going to be able to provide any better info than any of the many college guidebooks available online or at your HS guidance counselor's office or public library. (I have visited the Blacksburg/Roanoke area once and found it to be depressingly boring.) Mostly, I'm curious as to why you consider VT your top school with no fallbacks that interest you. It's not as if there's a shortage of great public universities in the Commonwealth of Virginia-- UVA and William & Mary both have generally stronger academic reputations than VT, and James Madison U. and George Mason U. are also no slouches, either. What are you looking for in a college that makes VT such a draw? And just what the heck is a "Hokie," anyway?

Edit: Image didn't work. Tried to link this.

Of course, just because the U.S. government has dismissed this idea doesn't mean that our enemies have. The Defense Deparment needs to prepare for the eventuality that foreign governments and/or international terrorists might get their hands on a Gay Bomb, with rigorous troop training in defensive masturbation. Even civilian populations should be wary-- right now, some sneaky terrorists could be smuggling suitcase-Gay-Bombs into one of our major metropolitan areas! All patriotic Americans must do their duty to ensure that this threat is mitigated! Spank your Monkey for Liberty!!!

Tom Jones for SecDef!! ... Sex bomb, sex bomb, (yeah) you're a sex bomb (uh-huh) You can give it to me when I need to come along (give it to me) Sex bomb, sex bomb, (uh) you're my sex bomb (uh-huh) And baby, you can turn me on (baby you can turn me on) (You know what you're doing to me don't you, haha, I know you do) Now don't get me wrong, ain't gonna do you no harm (no) This bomb's for lovin' and you can shoot it far I'm your main target, come and help me ignite (ow) Lovestruck, holding you tight (hold me tight, darlin') ...

"I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor. No tunes at the moment. I listened to the first 2/3rds or so of Radiohead's "The Bends" album on the way to work this morning. Favorite track contained therein: "High and Dry."

Had a couple Newcastle Brown Ales last night. They were good, but I don't care for the aftertaste an hour or so later.

I don't know about anyone else, but he sure looked gun shy after week one's BRUTAL hit. Not sure if he is the same QB, and he sure will not be surrounded by the same offensive line and all the weapons the chiefs had. One of the more interesting story's so far and might explain why the fins went with a WR instead of a QB during the draft. They have always wanted green. Signing Green is not a substitute for taking a young QB. It's a complimentary move-- ideally Green plays for a season or two before the young guy pushes him to the bench. And the 'Fins did pick up a highly-regarded QB with their second-round pick (Beck from BYU). Miami was probably one of those teams that didn't see much difference between Quinn and the next tier of QBs (Beck, Stanton, & Kolb). That said, I think that the Ginn pick was dumb. He'll be a great returner for a few seasons, but I don't see him emerging as a good enough receiver to justify the salary that a #9 pick gets. I wouldn't be surprised if the next 5 WRs taken after him end up having better pro careers.

One of the few songs I can peck out recognizably on the piano. Herbie Hancock-- Dolphin Dance

Today was our office picnic. Beautiful weather, too. I got my partner partially soaked in the water-balloon toss, and played for the younger team in the "Whippersnappers v. Old Coots" softball game. We lost the game badly, although I was 2 for 2 (both singles) and had a pair of good outs on deep fly balls to right. It was fun, but I'll have to wait a few hours to find out exactly how sunburnt I got.

From the brief time I have spent in SoCal, I came to the opinion that many of the people with motorcycles there have a death wish. Apparantly, Cali is one of the few states that allow cycles to ride between lanes of traffic (i.e., on the dashed lines). I was quite startled several times waiting in traffic on the freeway when a motorcyclist whizzed by my window at a rather alarming speed. Driving like that can't come with a long life expectancy.

Stella Artois. I've switched from "Belgian-style" beer to actual Belgian beer.

Went with my girlfriend to see Waitress last weekend. Was a decent film. Sure, it was a bit of a chick flick, and fairly predictable overall, but it had some clever writing, some interesting direction, and strong performances from Keri Russell as the lead and Jeremy Sisto, Cheryl Hines, and even Andy Griffith in supporting roles. For a "date movie," it's far better than most of the alternatives I've seen.

... and to answer the second question, as with any pre-modern society (not to mention a good deal of the modern ones), what I'd actually be would depend almost entirely on what my parents were. If they were illiterate peasant farmers or simple trades-people, I wouldn't have a whole lot of options.

Well, given the fact that the D&D universe features frequent, proveable, and repeatable miracles, it'd be stupid to be anything but a priest, or at least a very observant commoner. Personally, I'd prefer to pick a god that isn't very involved with healing or violence. I get kinda sqeamish dealing with exposed internal organs and the like. If we're talking FR, maybe a priest of Mystra or Oghma, since magic is cool. I doubt that my WIS is high enough to advance very far, but I could always multiclass to Wizard once I'm sure that the Gods like me enough to get a plum position in the afterlife.

Here's what's on my PC game shelf right now. In 2003 or so, I moved and either tossed or stored a large amount of my older games, so the older stuff that I didn't anticipate replaying again isn't there. In no particular order: KotOR 1 KotOR 2 IWD 1 & expansion IWD 2 Civ 3 & the Conquests expansion Civ 4 & the Warlords expansion* Railroad Tycoon 2 SimCity 4 Myst 4 Rome: Total War Medieval 2: Total War* Morrowind Oblivion* NWN2* Planescape: Torment BG1 (the "Original Saga" version with TotSC built-in) BG2 & expansion ToEE Arcanum Wizardry 8 Fallout 1 Fallout 2 Dark Messiah of M&M** * = Out on my desk because it's been played recently. ** = Haven't played yet (it came free with my video card).

Springsteen-- Backstreets. Remember all the movies, Terry, we'd go see Trying to learn to walk like the heroes we thought we had to be

Solution: Buy better scotch, and ditch the lime. Then switch to cubed ice or no ice at all. I just finished a Blue Moon, which describes itself as a "Belgian-style wheat ale" and is brewed by Molson up in Toronto. Not bad stuff, although I prefer ales with a bit more bite to them.

Oh, you're right that a system with no private criminal defense attorneys at all would be a failure. My point was something of a tangent about how a few jurisdictions handle representation for the indigent. I think that the best defense against racism/sexism/classism/etc. in the courtroom is a diverse jury pool. As long as there's pressure from the other jurors to keep race/sex/whatever out of the discussion, the effect of a few racist jurors can be minimized.

You realise of course that becoming a qualified lawyer takes a lot of time and effort. In order to get people to pursue that career and practice cirminal law tehy have to be induced to do so with money. You are either suggesting teh government spend hundreds of millions on lawyers at current pay rates, or that they draft people to become lawyers. Actually, some states do draft their public defenders. In some smaller states (Idaho is one, I think), every practicing attorney in the state can be called in to serve as a public defender in a criminal trial. I believe they can get around it with a good excuse and a donation to pay for a replacement, but it's an interesting way to make sure that accused criminals get competent defense. That said, I'd say that a better solution is to allow private attorneys, but devote more resources to making sure that court-appointed public defenders are competent, fairly paid, and not overworked. As to Sand's second idea, how is a jury supposed to weigh the credibility of witness testimony if they can't see them?

In that case, the kid would've done better to use his Red Ryder BB Gun.