tarna

She was. I was being an 'asshat' with the portions though ( obviously )! I'm a simple man, amused by excess. :wink: My wife is an Executive Chef. I helped her study during her schooling and picked up a couple of tricks. Since I've never eaten bisque much less made it, it was a trial as to if it would be poisonous. I let her try it first of course :wink: . It's good to be an ass!

My plate...

6 pounds of lobster..............................$120.00 2.25 pound steak...................................$30.00 10 pounds of butter................................$25.00 8 lemons................................................$8.00 Lobster base..........................................$27.00 Misc vegetables......................................$30.00 Dishware purchased for presentation......$100.00 Day off from work.................................$F**.k* Preparation time.......................................7 Hrs The look on my wife's face when her dumb mechanic husband seated her for this Valentine's Day dinner.................................................Priceless! Butter poached lobster 2 grilled lobster tails Lobster scampi in butter, lemon and Old Bay seasoning Lobster bisque 2.25 lb steak medium rare 1 lobster tail with butter, garlic and lemon sauce Twice baked potato French bread Salad Triple chocolate-dipped strawberries Butter-poached mushrooms Coffee and some unknown hooch Needless to say, she hurt my tender feelings by not finishing dinner :wink:. Hell, she didn't even make a respectable dent in it!

Gee Wals, I never took you for the 'Kill 'em all and let God sort 'em out' sort of guy. "Ya gotta break a few eggs to make an omelett" sound familiar? Maybe "The ends justify the means"? If you're familiar with the quote I referenced, then you know that it is about protecting the 'unpopular', the unsupported, those that you wouldn't normally give a s*** about because it didn't concern you or you didn't care about normally. Sitting around with your thumbs up your ass only allows your own protections to be eroded by tyrants in power ( ie Baby Doc Bush ). What they will do to him without proof, they will do to you and NEVER think otherwise. Who knows, this idiot may have only had pictures of girls from a Sears catalog for all we know. If you blindly believe the media I would be sadly disappointed in you as I know you to be smarter than that. This subject can certainly cause a knee-jerk reaction though. It does with me as well. If his pics are of girls in swimsuits posing suggestively, that is one thing. If they are nude but by themselves, that is another. If there is a guy in the scene, my recommendation would be a 480 volt connection to each ear and one to his junk and simmer until well-done. His 'guilt' has yet to be determined and he should be afforded the protections accorded by our laws ( and not circumvented ) until then. We can stone his ass after the trial. :wink:

http://abcnews.go.com/TheLaw/wireStory?id=4257806 More to the story if you follow the links. Thoughts? This decision will carry further implications than immediately recognisable. Forget for now the fact that he volunteered that he had 'questionable material" on his system and look to the future implications of this decision. "When they came for the Jews I did nothing for I was not a Jew"...

Wals, what about adding a recorded sound of a BIG dog barking to a sound sensor? When someone knocks on your door or makes some other sound ( ie...attach recording to motion sensors on porch ), Big Dog goes into action. All the benefits without the need for a pooper-scooper! If you are willing and able to 'High-Tech' it, don't go half way. :wink: Active yet 'passive' and the door-kickers don't even bother activating the rest of your system. You can even let Gramps stay home with his sherry. :wink:

If you want a system, make it an active one if you absolutely feel the need. The question now is at what point do you want it to activate? Systems that turn on by outside activity tend to false alarm due to wind blowing debris, passers by, et cet. Systems that read inside activity tent to be more stable. The point of security is to keep the maggots 'out' of your home though. Consider a well trained dog. Not as expensive as you might guess though. Does require some 'upkeep' though :wink: VERY effective as a deterent to entry. Another is adding visible cameras ( working or not ). Adding these might increase interest in your home though. An item to prevent some clown booting in your door would be to remove the strike plate in your door-jam and wood-chisel out some of the surface wood and place a piece of C-channel steel in it's place to strengthen the jam. Paint it like normal to prevent it's notice. Use very long screws to sink it into place and then chalk around the screws to hide them. Don't give the clowns something to pique their interest. If you have windows near the doors, they will provide the next best points of entry. I don't use good locks on my doors because I have large picture window next to them. No point since I have some large rocks as my landscaping. Reinforcing the windows becomes a never-ending task as you have to continually trace the next weakest point ( glass, frame, jamb, structure, et cet ). In this case, passive is better. Place a visible 'tinkle sensor' and label on each reachable window. Cheaper and more effective for what you want. Make it too 'hi-tech' though and you make yourself an interesting target. For inside the home use motion sensors and a loud audible alarm. At least 100 Db to annoy the neighbors and bring them out to look. Won't work if you have pets though. Much of this can be built easily with cheap materials. Drop me an email for details as I have recently fixed my email issues. Keep your curtains closed ( or obscured to prevent interest ). Change the boxes you carry your 50" plasma TV into your home to something that won't generate interest from the locals. Watch what you throw into your trash. Nothing interests a low-life like a Dell box in your trash. Take those empty boxes elsewhere to dispose of. I had a college intructor that was robbed the first month of my electronics education. He was robbed again at the end of the semester after insurance had replaced most of his stuff. My offer ( for an A+ ) was to build him a 'booby-trapped' stereo for him home. The result of it being turned on would be both loud and messy. Were it to be stolen during the remainder of the semester, he was to give me an A. If he received proof of 'activation' during the remainder of the semester, I was to receive an A+. I think he seriously considered the offer .

Thought this was worth a chuckle or few as I can identify with most of these...

Because, for an individual to be diagnosed with ADHD, this has to cause a clear maladaptation. Which is often defined by it causing them distress. A person who has simply a high optimum arousal threshold, but operates perfectly fine on a cup of coffee is one thing. A person who has a high optimum arousal threshold and cannot focus on his schoolwork so he starts to fail is another. One is perfectly fine. The other can be a bar to a decent education. Since I had always assumed that I outgrew my 'hyper-active' phase I don't know how to properly answer your question. In my case, I enjoy 'stressfull' situations as they give me a chance to 'prove my ability to meet the needs' of any problem that life throws my way. You needn't play martial music or hype me up on stimulants. Just make the problem personal and difficult and I'm on it like ugly on an Englishman :wink:. I LIKE problems thrown my way as they mostly prove myself against them. Coasting through life without testing yourself is boring. Surpassing roadblocks in life gives you a 'benchmark' to show the passing of time and your accomplishments. As you get older, the saying "time flies" gains more and more relevance as you become jaded and gain less benchmarks to show the actual passing of time. It is my opinion that we, as humans, need noteworthy events to benchmark time and without those, we simply coast through time toward oblivion. To the young, most of life's experiences are interesting ( providing benchmarks ). To those that grow older, the noteworthy benchmarks become fewer and fewer ( the marriage of our kids, the birth of grandkids, change in a job, et cet ) and time moves faster because we have fewer means to benchmark the passage of years. It is my assumption that this is why I deliberately place myself in 'risky' situations. Working with high voltages ( 480 VAC 3 PH ), playing with high pressure or explosive gases, rock climbing, stuff that can kill you in general. I'm not looking for a rush ( I don't even get worked up until after I've successfully completed my work, if at all ) but rather an excuse to remind myself that I was sufficient to the needs placed before me. Don't know if that helped or not but it gained me another post count ( well actually, being in Off Topic, I guess it didn't :wink: ).

Then I will remain as I am since the alternative is unacceptable. Alcohol moderates the extreme. I will not become less that what I am.

I've not taken any meds since I was 12. I WILL NOT accept any meds that degrade my intellect but will ask about those that you mention. I expect competance from myself for me as well as to my customers. My apprentices require my support/training. If I become less I cheat both of them and I may not do that. I am responsible to both of them. I have a lack of appetite already as well as a nervous tick so any controllable drug will do as long as it does not deminish what I am. You know me well enough to know that I will destroy myself than become what I despise.

This thread is nothing but fascinating! I was diagnosed as 'hyper-active' as a little tyke ( I was born 1962. ( rude remarks will get your ass kicked! :wink: ).). Medicated with Ritalin, I stopped taking it when I was about 12. Been in trouble most of my life and was a drug user from age 18 to about 25. I didn't stop for any moral reasons but rather because when I turned 21 liquor stores became a more reliable alternative than the stupid, stoned dealers that I had to work with. Was never a big fan of stimulants but preferred 'downers' like alcohol and Valium. Weed was always a favorite. Obviously, these were a means to cover a problem that I had but didn't realise at the time. Still have a severe problem with craving alcohol ( as the mods here well know! :wink: Good on them for not banning my sorry ass!! ). Contantly require sensory stimulation and if it isn't there, I will 'stir up 'chit'' to make life more interesting This obviously makes life a problem for the wife. When I get angry and start reaching for materials ( be they electronic or chemical ), she gets very concerned about my actions. Some of the crap I build is defined by the BATF as 'Infernal Machinery' and unfortunately, I made the mistake at one time of explaining this to her ( idiot!!! ). Between having a bad temper when I feel slighted and having the 'hyper-focus' that Krez describes, there are some things/people that I should leave alone. Drinking helps. 'Cooking' up a batch of Hepititus or 'Dropping a building' are some of the stupid things I will consider when pissed. Alcohol moderates that although it is a piss-poor substitute for a proper mentality! I even checked out purchasing lithium hydride on one occassion. $500.00/kilo to those of you that know what that purchase would mean. I can refine metals BTW. Pipefitter by trade, I believe that nothing should be beyond my abilities to learn and I am at the top of my trade. However being ( and dying ) a drunken POS is probably better in the long run for some than the alternative. Consider Columbine and Virginia Tech. My 'hyper-focus' on problems aids in my abilities as a trouble-shooter ( my company charges upwards of $105.00/hr for me to go to a site ) and I truely love what I do but if I don't have something to keep me interested I will create something ( stir the pot ) to create a situation. The Klan is a favorite target of my attention. Annoying co-workers are another. I do not like what I am ( and could become ) but the alternative is far worse ( to become less than what I am ) but would not choose a course that would be less than what I am. To become a mindless, drug-controlled drone would cause me to put a gun in my mouth. Better to seek drugs or alcohol? What treatments are available to an adult that doesn't less the 'hyper-focus' that Krez mentioned? Without that, I am lessened as an person and I cannot accept that.

You correctly say that Musharraf would have to be an idiot to not do all he could to protect her, since it was in his interests. But you conclude this makes him an idiot. I suggest that his continued survival in the toughest political position in the world indicates he is not an idiot. I conclude that in fact he did everything he could, bearing in mind he can't trust his own security intelligence service. Gotta support Walsingham here. There is no such thing as a detonation jammer ( try jamming a light switch ), tinted windows would not have helped here and more police officers probably would not either. What killed Bhutto was her own actions to circumvent security and 'win' the popular approval of those that she was courting. I saw a video of her standing with her upper torso out of her sunroof waving to the crowd. A gunman standing in the crowd about 45 degrees to her right fired a handgun ( revolver? ) and her falling/ducking toward her right side onto the car's roof and the video going askew ( sp? ). Schrapnel may have killed her but a gunshot definitely was fired toward her and there is little in the way of security that could have protected her under those conditions. The point that the 3 senators also asked that these security points be added does nothing to give the features credit. Senators are as ignorant as anyone else and are usually only looking to their next photo-op than being actually knowledgable in what they are talking about. Senators need ( but don't recognise ) someone ( A freeking tech! How tough is this to recognise? Stupid f***s! ) that can screen their public comments before they look stupid to those that actually 'know' how this stuff works. Really sucks as I was looking forward to her winning the election and bringing real local change to the region's political scene. A popular vote placing a US-supporting democratic leader in an Islamic country in tormoil. Such a thing would be a real ally as opposed to a puppet government.

So many responses but so little time as I am going to bed ( 11:30 here ). I cannot understand where some people can be exhibit such cowardice and claim it to be moral superiority as to to not have the balls to protect the family against an obvious agressor. Picture the scenario ( sp? ), you are sleeping in bed with your family sleeping as well. You hear your door being booted in. You are foresighted enough to have a sidearm within easy reach and have instructed your kids not to sneak in the dark and how to respond if there is an intrusion. You and your wife have access to a weapon and as it happens, you both grab one. Living in an enviroment where violence is a real possibilty, you have drilled for this. You might even have the training required to obtain a concealed/carry firearms licence. You recognise where the sound of entry is and ready yourself to invasion. Armed men(?) that you cannot see properly and that do not identify themselves enter your home. Knowing that your kids are where they need to be, Do you... 1) Sit on your ass and hope that the police show up in time even though you have not had the opprotunity to call them? ( when seconds count, the police are only minutes away! ) 2) Sit on your ass and call out to the aggressors as to what their intentions are? 3) Protect your family and home by opening fire judiciously as the local laws allow? As a home-owner, I do not have to assume or ask if the 'invader' has my best intentions at heart before opening fire upon him. I only have to assume the worst and respond accordingly. To do otherwise is to claim cowardice as 'moral-superiority'. Plain and simple...you are responsible for the lives of your family. Those that feel otherwise either have no family to be responsible to or are not worthy of having a family as they are unwilling to protect them. I tend to lean toward situations being in the 'grey' zone where several inetrpretions are possible but where my family is concerned it's only black and white. If you are coming in through a window of booting in my front door and NOT announcing that you are a cop, you've got a bullet ( or worse ) coming your way. Sorry bleeding-heart liberals, that's the way it is. No sympathy for criminals where my family is concerned.

Prove it. You are Texan. Texans would never ever give their offspring names that might be construed as gay. Ahem...Jim Bowie died defending the Alamo from a Mexican invasion. The fact that Mexico considered the Alamo as their turf is completely irrelevent :wink: We are allowed these little lapses in interpretation but I'm fairly sure that Jim Bowie wasn't a 'peter-puffer' :wink:. Since my daughter is both a carpet-muncher and my favorite person in the world, I can fairly say that I have no issues with gays/lesbians. The further benefit is that I have little fear of being called 'Grandfather' in the near future!

Good to see you as well buddy. That's because I wrote so badly that even Google didn't know what I was talking about. Magnuson-Moss Act http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnuson-Moss_Warranty_Act Yeah, I should have remembered that. I've 'known' Krezack so long that I think of him as a neighbor and don't tend to remember where he actually lives. That's why I called him by an old nick-name that he earned at Black Isle. As you said though, nothing of what I recommended would be usefull in his situation.

Buckethead...if they continue to bill you, tell them to shove it up their ass. They accepted your contract under the accepted conditions. If there is an error, it is typically weighted against the contract writer ( as they are expectd to know what they are doing ). If they continue to bill you, protest the billing with you credit card as fraud as they are billing you but not providing you with the agreed upon service. They broke the service agreement, not you. You simply acted as the agent required you to do so. If there is a flaw in the transaction, it is upon the 'agent' to correct the problem not you! This is law. If some slack-jawed piece of crap decides to push the issue, remind them of the Magnisun Loss Act in which case in which case all legal fees will be religated to the looser of the law suit as it is a 'specific performanance' loss. In a nutshell...If you buy a refrigerator, it is not unreaseonable ( sp? ) to expect it to behave as a refrigerator for a reasonable amount of time, reguardless of what the warranty states. Your contract was accepted by a recognised agent of the service provider and it woud be reasonable to expect that they hold up their end of the agreement as they are the professionals. They accepted your contract under the information supplied and in is reasonable to expect that their agent 'had a clue' as to what was required to fullfill the requirements, NOT YOU! They are the profionals ( WTF!!!! Sp? ) and and expected to know how to write a contract. One of the nice thing about the Magisun Loss Act is the legal fees are covered in the suit IF you win. Your legum will know this. If the maggots threaten to mark you credit with an unpaid contract agreement, tell them that you will will file against them with a 'Slander of Credit' with the Federal Trade Commission ( and be ready to do so.). It could get ugly at this point but contact me if you need to and I will let know how to do so as I am in the process of the with my daughter ( and you better believe I am a viscious, knife-in-the-ear, son-of-a-bitch where my daughter is concerned!!! ).

Kaspersky has a 30 day free version that you can use to scan your system... http://usa.kaspersky.com/trials/home-users/anti-virus-7/ Also, Spybot is an excellent piece of software that every system should have. Best of all ...it's free! Feel free to donate to the author though as it does cost him and others to post. http://www.pcworld.com/downloads/file/fid,...escription.html Both are excellent bits of protection. Ad-Aware is good but often you need to have several pieces of software to give you the coverage that you need these days when the sneaks are smarter than the average bear. :wink: Edit...you may also want to Run 'MSCONFIG'...'Startup' and see if there is anything running at start that shouldn't be.

Christ on a coat-hanger! Couldn't you find anything more current than 4 year old data? :wink: As it happens, I was listening to a broadcast today that stated that most of the 'complaints' related to cell phones was due to poor judgement on the part of cell users ( ie...blabbing on a cell phone during medical exam and being dumb enuf not to turn off your phone while getting a medical exam. ). To 'politely' counter this bad habit, med staff stated that it was a 'hazard' to use cell phone around sensitive' med equipment when in fact it was because people were too stupid to turn off or ignore their cell phones. Recently 7-11 ( a US convenience chain ) stated that adding nacho cheese to packages of potato chips was toxic. I told them a year or so ago that this was bull s**t and that they should be honest and admit that they didn't want to give free cheese to students that wanted to add cheese to their chips. They looked at me like I was high ( intelligence is not highly appreciated at 7-11 ). Now, they are adding a $1.00 charge to those wanting to add cheese spooge to their potato chips ( I guess cheese and aluminum packaging is no longer toxic! ). I even bet a local 7-11 $1000.00 USD that I would take a med exam before and after that I would suffer no 'toxic harm' eating said combination of potato chips and cheese mung ( other than what was expected from eating such swill ). I told them to send the 'bet' up the chain of management until a 'taker' was found. I'm still sitting on my $1000. If 7-11 doesn't have to confidence to take a bet on their 'crotch-squeesing cheese', why should I? My point is ( as Dr House would say..."All people lie" ) people have their own agendas in mind and I'm throwing the bulls**t flag on this one. This same crowd claimed to having pilots blinded by green pen lasers and I call them liars on that and this. Until someone shows me that raw data indicating power/frequence saturation input into the various boards, I will continue to call them liars. I have built devices particularly designed to saturate/destroy devices ( police radar ) and have a familiarity of the actions of frequency/power consequences.

HAHAHA! Reporter Ben Dover ejaculates that KY jelly stocks have escallated...( Look out! ) http://www.news.com/IRS-taxation-of-online...html?tag=st.num Read on Gamer-Dudes and Dudettes! Sux to be you! :wink: Dude! Where's my tax return?!? Pre-orders on Anti-Proctal Intrusion Devices available now! Operators standing by! Special pricing on Family Protection Packages. *disclaimer* Does not protect against goverment issue STDs ( GI-STD ). */disclaimer* Get yours now!

Trying to set up a USB flash drive ( 16Gb Corsair ) to serve as a redundant C drive should C ever fail. I disconnect all my drives and plug in the flash and start. System posts and then boots from my Windows CD. It load it's drivers ( including USB ) and then locates the flash drive, identifies the partition but then says that it cannot access the drive. I've repartioned and formatted the drive but Windows refuses to load onto it. I'm now copying it from C drive directly to the flash but have a feeling that it's not gonna work. Suggestions? PS - I tried to load Windows on several different USB ports in case the motherboard's drivers were not in place yet. The front ones worked even before I loaded the baord's nVidia drivers. If we can't come up with something workable I'll probably try to locate a SATA to USB adapter and attempt to access the board that way. I don't want to use a compact flash for this because it will take up an IDE slot.

Was just nosing around and found that I can get an 8600 for the same price ( or cheaper ). My kid won't be needing the high end SLI compatible stuff. I was just looking at 'bullet-proofing' her system since she doesn't live in the same city that I do. Thoughts?

Looking at buying one of these cards for my daughter's computer for fairly cheap. All the info I find on them are glowing reviews from last year. It is a 'dual' video card that has two cards stacked together to give SLI using a single PCI-e slot. 1 Gb of total GDDR3 RAM. Asus. Thoughts?

If you keep going to that Sh*thole, you're due nothing but a .380! What are you thinking?!? McSquats is a sh*thole reguardless of what you think of them as a restaraunt. If you eat there, you deserve to have a burger that was wiped on the rim of a toilet before it was served to you. Are you stupid? You are eating at a fast-food sh**hole. You are eating what you deserve. Guano. Enjoy! And you wonder why you keep getting ecoli in your food? It's because you deserve it! E-coli is in your veges because sh*t is in your salad! Enjoy the flavour! :wink: Sorry about the rancor but I've had it with the stupidity of the Gen-Y idiots and the idiosity that they promote to enhance the bottom line of profit. Gen-Y managers would lick the rims of toilets if it would increase their profits. Let that be a lesson to the rest of us...

Your image of our past Presidents licking Baby Doc's ( Bush's ) arse makes me want to spew my kidney out my ass...I voted for that piece of nightsoil 'twice' because the the alternative was 'worse'. Christ!!!...I wish we had a better alternative than this piece of crap! This toilet drinking maggot would ( and is ! ) selling us down the river for higher profits for his buddies and to Hell with the consequenses. Washington and Lincoln would have put a knife in his ear as he deserves to further protect the US from nutjob zealots like him. His own father probably would too. The present Bush is an embarsement and a shame to our country. ( I am a conservative that used to vote for the Repulican Party as it promoted what I believed in. As the Official Republican party now sux old jockstraps, I have no party to vote for. I hate the Democrats like you wouldn't magine but the Republicans suck ass in the worst of ways. I'm going to bed. Piss on polititions!