Cantousent

The thing to keep in mind is that, while this update didn't have the discussion that a story-line or game-mechanic update would, it's still garnered over 8k views. I'm certain way more people read these updates than post in them, truth to tell, although some lively discussions are certain to arise from a discussion about souls. hehe I'm going to don my asbestos armor and enjoy the show when they get down to the nitty gritty on *that*! :Cant's **** eating grin icon:

Yeah, I'm always tinkering with things around my house too, Gftd. Nice job on the furnace. It's probably getting a bit chilly out where you live.

Keep up your spirits, Nep, and if you ever make it to sunny SoCal, I'll buy you a beer or two to celebrate... or a soda-water if you no longer drink by then. :Cant's wry grin icon:

Yeah, Carnivale. Yet another great show canceled before its time. ...And you're one of the reasons I watched Carnivale and LOST, KQD. lol I actually liked the last couple of episodes on LOST quite a bit. I think the series as a whole was just freaky enough, and had so many mental gyrations, that it was something better experienced with folks who liked to talk about it. I remember reading all the posts folks made around here about LOST, including the LOST threads. I really hoped Flashforward would take its place, but that one fell on its face about midway through the first season. ...But, yeah, Carnivale still hurts. That's up there with Firefly for me. There really are too many shows to narrow it down to a top seven. On any given day, you'll probably remember a different seven.

I used to like Fringe. It never had that 'jump the shark' moment, but it has gotten to be so dreadfully depressing and brutally boring that I just can't make myself watch it any more. Instead of completely going nutso and dropping the ball, they've just kind of let the ball slip from their fingers slo-motion. However, Lance Reddick is still an under-rated actor.

I've been going over my old classical Greek textbooks again lately. I'm starting off easy, so it's been lot of the stuff from years ago. You know, like "Dikaiopolis is a farmer. He is big and strong." This time, however, I'm focusing on translating into Greek. I can read the passages of this 'see spot run' stuff without any challenge, but I don't think modern Classical Studies really grounds students well enough in translating into the classical languages. ...And, let's face it, it's much better to learn how to translate into a language in order really to learn it. What I want to do is take a couple of years getting up to snuff and then translate something into it. I was thinking maybe Starship Troopers or some other work that is a classic in its own genre. I don't know. I've forgotten a bit of the language through lack of use, but I'm enjoying the hell out of the experience anyway. ...And I only wish I were addicted to chocolate. I love the taste of a lot of alcoholic drinks. I appreciate the feeling I get from drinking. I like the comraderie associated with slugging back a few. ...But at it's heart, anything to excess is unhealthy. Still, I just tell myself it's gotta beat heroin or crack cocaine. lol

Sadly, I talk about drinking too much because I drink too much and I don't want anyone to be fooled into thinking it's fun and games. Don't get me wrong. I get some good laughs and enjoy the feeling of being drunk, way too much, I assure you, so I'm not lookin' for sympathy. This isn't a deep dark moment for me. There's plenty of folks who would laugh if you told them I drink. It would be like telling them the sky is blue. I think everyone reading here is an adult, but I want to mention to any possible younger members that over-consumption of alcohol can be quite harmful. /safety PA Tonight, I plan on cooking a chicken pot pie. Normally I clean the meat off of the carcas of a roasted chicken from a previous meal, but I put a chicken breast in the crock pot this morning. I'll put in peas and carrots soon and get the insides ready, throw together a butter crust, and bake it for a tasty dinner. It's gotten to the point where I like chicken pot pies so much I'm just cooking the chicken just for the purpose of making the pie instead of waiting till I roast one. However, I will be making a goose here soon in order to salvage the goose fat and I'll definitely take advantage of that to make a goose pot pie. mmm MMMM MMMMM

Another night of drunken stupidity. Another early morning of bitter recrimination. Life. is. good!

The devil on your shoulder doesn't tell you there isn't any God. He tells you nothing you do makes any difference, so don't even try. The cruel reality is that I listen to the devil on my shoulder far too often.

I swear to goodness, I think that must be Red's video of her PC and Boone palling around with ED-E. I see it at 7:23. Sorry, a bit into the vino right now, but I had to mention that. I apologize in advance, but I'm going to double post because I had some thoughts about Arcade Gannon, but they're not formed right now. It is a noob sin to double post in your own thread, but I hope you guys will forgive me. Meanwhile, I can't believe Red's Boone vids made it into the interview footage. Brilliant! EDIT: hefeweizen? What the hell is this guy talking about wheat beer? Beer is too fattening. If you're drinking several bottles a night, better to stick with wine. It's less fattening, methinks.

Tough break, mel. Anyhow, I generally like to do everything on my own car within reason. That's not because we can't pay for it, although we're not affluent enough that we want to spend the money, but because I tend to trust my own lyin' eyes more than the mechanics. Don't get me wrong. You can certainly find good mechanics who are fair and don't cheat the hell out of you, but you have to be careful. I have to tell you, Hurlie, some of the older cars had a hard time of it, including one model I can't remember off-hand where driving with the lights on was a net drain on the battery and so you inevitably discharged the battery if you did all your driving at night. Ahhh, the good ol' days. lol

I was a naval intel specialist, which is ancient bureaucrat for 'most boring job ever.' It entailed a lot of soviet ship recognition, reports on merchant shipping, a boatload (haha) of coffee, and a pall of cigarette smoke hanging a foot down from the ceiling. I served at a variety of places. I think I spent about a year in Mississipi between Meridian and Biloxi, I was stationed in South Korea for a year and a half, several months in Dam Neck VA, and twice to Florida. Apart from volunteering to serve your country, the military provides excellent benefits from my nice little life insurance policy for dirt cheap to the GI bill which really helped cushion the cost of college. As for you, Gorth, I think killing a few fires probably counts for quite a bit to someone who didn't have his house burn down. As for heroics, in an area where the enemy targets anyone possible, I think serving in Iraq or Afghanistan qualifies someone as a hero, from logisitics to infantry.

Yeah, I know. Another pathetic holiday thread. I just wanted to give a shout out to the veterans of the community here. Let's see... Gfted1, Shady, Fio, Monte, Sarge, GD, and others I'm certain to miss. Notice that I'm including everyone, no matter which country he's served. Of course, I also want to give a shout out to Athos Mazzanti, may he rest in peace. Anyone else who knows a forumite or someone outside our little community who deserves a nod, nod away.

Happy Veterans Day, everyone! We're going to head out soon for a veterans day lunch.

I hate to disagree about the Others, which I watched, but it did have some issues. I think it was a bit sloppy, although I also found it entertaining. It could have done better with a couple fewer psychics in the cast. Still, I hated watching it go. How about this for a question, what about shows that started great, had wonderful potential, but completely fell apart before getting cancelled. I'm not talking long runs, since you can't really pick apart a show that lasted 4 or 5 seasons before going downhill. I love Frasier, but the last few seasons were extremely uneven. Still, eleven seasons? I don't think they need to feel ashamed of anything. Now, I will say that I was excited by Flashforward. I thought it had great potential and then it went gonzo. The biggest thing that bugged me was how much Fiennes' character fixated on his wife cheating him. Hello! The world's circling the bowl, maybe you should worry about your wife screwing someone else a little bit less. I wanted to check out Brimstone since it looked really cool, but I can't find episodes on netflix and I don't want to pay for Hulu. I have plenty of movies and show I can watch, it's just not worth it to fixate on ones that aren't available at the moment. I will be able to watch the Wire and I think the guy who plays Fringe director Broyles is the lead in the show and that is a very good sign. One very under-rated actor.

Means he's flying under the radar. I know, this is the electronic equivalent of Las Vegas. Only what happens out in the real world can be confessed and stay here. lol

I've had an on again off again relationship with this forum, and yet I've gotten to be close with some of the members. I managed to try out the world of game design because of this forum. I've met several of the people who frequent the joint in real life. In fact, Fio is one of my closest friends and a confidant. I guess, in some ways, it's easier to talk to you guys about things than folks in my real life. I can be candid in a way that I find difficult while speaking to my real life friends and yet the interaction with these forums has, at times, helped me deal with real life issues. This is a real community, and I attribute that by and large to Fionavar working harder than I think most of you folks realize to keep things on an even keel. ...But a community is only as good as the members and I think the members here are top knotch, even the ones (very few of them) I sometimes want to throttle. Anyhow, enough of the love fest. I went to church this morning and then the weekly Sunday lunch. Now the wife is heading out to shop and I'm going to play some New Vegas and think of what I want to cook for dinner. Maybe something simple tonight like spaghetti. I dunno. I have to think about it.

I've found ways to enjoy every update. Sure, some updates interest me more than others, and some aspects of the process interest me more also, but I read every response in every update. I like to interact with other fans/backers and and I want to see what others think. There were people who really wanted to get some idea of how Obsidz budgeted the project and what different devs do. Just because one particular update doesn't interest you doesn't mean that there's not something in it to add to the experience. On top of that, you can look at the updates as individual parts of a larger whole or maybe even pieces of a large puzzle. Look at one by itself and it might not mean much, but take them altogether and we're getting a bird's eye view of how the process works without the filter of a publisher. In this update, I think it's really cool to see folks who don't always get as much credit have some love thrown their way. From what I understand, QA folks don't tend to get paid a ton of money and they definitely work hard. At the end of the project, all of these folks, QA, producers, designers, programmers and the lot, will be working long, hard, and hectic hours trying to nail down problems, polish off content, and get the whole game set to ship. So, for my part, I appreciate all these little updates, from the kinda cool updates that give us a generalized broad view to the aspect specific updates that nit-pic live instrumentation in the musical score.

As I understand it, you can not only upgrade your tier, but even if you can't, there's still stuff you can get from Obsidz ranging from the cards to the t-shirts. I know that I'm thinking about getting more add-on stuff.

Isn't modern life grand, Red? I mean, the wife and I watch BBC comedies also. We get goods, produce, and entertainment from around the world at our beck and call. The world's come a long way. I remember being stationed in Korea and there wasn't any internet or email and the one place from which I could make a stateside call was truly truly expensive. On the other hand, think of the poor bastards from prior times where it could take months or longer to get word back and forth. The world is so much smaller today. Anyhow, watching episodes of Doc Martin.

Huzzah, Shady. I laughed out loud about the deadliness of Australia, Monte. Beautiful rainbow, Labadal. One thing that has always saved me is my capacity to down massive amounts of alcohol without a hangover. Granted, I can't get off scott free, at least according to my meddling doctor, but at least I've hardly ever had terrible hangovers. However, the downside is that whenever I actually do have a hangover, it catches me by surprise. Anyhow, made my own homemade salsa yesterday. Took all day, but it tastes good. Now, because the wife prefers it, I'm going to make some salsa verde for her while I make lunch. I'll do it the quick and dirty method, so twenty minutes and she gets a sauce she likes with her meal.

Trust me, my friend, it depends on what's in the fridge and who's opening it.

I'm not judging, only noting, that I don't understand why folks care about one of the dev team playing arcanum or whatnot. I guess I can understand wanting someone to play the game because of the examples, both good and bad, that it can provide, but I don't understand why it seems *so* important to some folks. Probably most of you are just joking around about it. I think the game I'd like most folks to have played would be the gold box SSI games, but I don't think someone who didn't play computer games back in the day would understand.

I think Feargus mentioned to someone that he was entering or looking to enter into an arrangement for the QA work and, in the meantime, Obsidz has some in-house QA people who rock. I also think it's cool to see the production folks get a slap on the back. I think it was an interesting read and it does give out a little information about the budgetting without giving enough to serve as kindling for massive flamewars. I think the QA actually looks impressive for a couple of reasons. First of all, it's significantly larger in the pie chart for Project Eternity. Second of all, using the Unity engine means that it will be a little easier to track down issues. Now, I don't suggest it will be easy per se, but it will be easier, and that gives a little wiggle room. (no, that's not what she said.) I think QA deserve a lot of credit and, as alan says, catching stuff early is certainly better, but I would also think that the QA team will still be much larger from the halfway point forward. At least that's my take. One thing I would mention to folks who offer to QA for the game is that it's not like playing the game for fun. If you do actual QA work, you're going to hit the same areas over and over and over again. You're going to try to create infinite dialogue loops in dialogue you've read so often you quote it in your sleep. You're going to play parts of the game out of order. Some of you guys who offered might have done it and know it all better than me, so don't take my comments the wrong way. I just wanted to give a little heads up to folks who haven't done QA work and might not entirely understand how much it can ruin the game. If you want to enjoy the story, don't do QA work because you're very likely to play the beginning and the end and then hit big parts of the middle.

Yeah, I like them in the early twenties myself, my friend, but you get what you can get. I can either buy my gifted friend a 12 year old or share a few shots of my 23 year old. That's the deal.