Even though sci-fi tends to be rely heavily on worst-case scenarios, even to the point of outright lying about what could happen, I believe the panic-mongering allows people to fully express, face and eventually get over their fears of a new technology. Overall, I think it tends to be a good thing, though it's frustrating to see promising new technologies flounder in the beginning due to short-sidedness. Society needs to grow to accept these things before fully embracing them.
Reminds me of a conversation I was having with a friend... we were thinking of getting a bunch of signs and T-shirts with "Free Xenu!" and the like printed on them, and picketing various CoS locations. Obviously we never did so, too much of a pain in the ass for something we don't really care about, but we got a chuckle out of the thought.
"Bullshit, customizing your character is playing him/her in a way that makes a unique individual other than a piece of paper or working with the DM to come up with a good backstory that can be expanded upon as the character progesses and grows. Feats are just another way for the f-ing powergamers to munchkin a game."
Exactly how I felt about it! Most of the time, it seemed only a few of those feat options actually made sense to pick... what's the point of having all this supposed flexibility if you feel like a fool for selecting less powerful feats, or like a tool for selecting the same ones as everyone else?
Back when I was still a DM, I had a heavily modified game... Basically, 10% 1st edition AD&D, 5% 2nd Edition, and 85% house rules. What they should do is make the core rules as basic and flexible as they can, to make it easier to plug in house rules or just flat-out ignore anything that doesn't work for your group.
So, 'compilation CDs that could only exist in the dreams of a music fan' also sound atrocious. So, according to the RIAA, music fans must desire atrocious music. This explains everything!
Obviously, I must not be a music fan, then. Everything I listen to voluntarily sounds pretty darned good:)
I second that, but I also want to put in some advice of my own: Don't give up on therapy just because your first therapist is not doing you any good. There are good therapists and bad ones, and there are ones who may be good but just don't fit you. Keep shopping around until you find one that is effective for you.
Also, keep off illegal drugs. It sounds goody-two-shoes, but that's not how I mean it. I don't object to recreational drugs in general, but if you're having problems, then the last thing you need to do is dump a bunch of mind-altering chemicals into your bloodstream without any real knowledge of what it will do to you. I'm not saying anyone in this thread does drugs, but a lot of people I know who suffer from depression smoke pot, drink too much, do meth, etc.
Drugs may make you feel better for a while, but that's like having a broken arm and giving yourself an anesthetic so you don't feel it. The pain may be reduced, but the problem is still there, and will likely be worse than ever once the drugs wear off.
Just don't be so worried about all these universe or world-ending disasters that you absentmindedly step out into traffic and get hit by a bus. Like any vague fear of the future, the tricky part is to live long enough for it to matter:)
If you take the time to get good at something, why not enjoy the benefits? It's not hurting anyone, it might drive interest in the game (good for the manufacturer and for the resailer) and if people enjoy watching, it's good for them too. As long as he doesn't develop his self-worth around how well he plays Guitar Hero, I don't see a problem with it
If I had been 10 when I first saw it, I might have liked the Ewoks a lot more. As it was, I was old enough to find them both amusing and annoying. So, yeah, a person's point of view has a lot to do with how something is received:)
There is nothing wrong with trying to sell toys, in and of itself. But when something is done solely for the purpose of making people buy things, it kinda takes a lot of the soul out of it. It's like watching a very long and expensive commercial instead of a movie. So, it's not so much wrong as it is limiting.
Oh, and thanks for reminding me of the whole "Jesus" thing that Anakin had going on, too. I forgot all about that!
While it may not have jumped the shark quite yet, the Ewoks definitely put it on the ramp. That was the very first time that I was aware (as a kid) of Star Wars being movies designed to sell merchandise.
Jar Jar I can almost forgive, because the concept of putting in a fully computer-rendered photo realistic character IS pretty neat. They just really blew it with this particular one. But, Anakin being barely out of diapers when they found him pretty much blew it for me. And he was still too old to start training?!
Anakin building Threepio and Artoo showing up for no reason (other droids could have been used, why these two?), the painful, "do anything for a cheap laugh" antics of Jar Jar, horrible dialogue... and, of course, the midi-chlorians.. Bah, Episode 1 was so disappointing. Even for what was, supposedly, a movie intended for kids only, it was disappointing.
On the other hand, I cheered up a friend of mine after the movie by suggesting that, just maybe, midi-chlorians weren't the cause of Force-sensitivity, but the result of it. Like, they grow better in those who are Force-sensitive, but have no impact on the Jedi's ability to use the Force.
I like that, but I know it's not what Lucas intended. I'm just glad he didn't explore something like genetic engineering or "juicing" with midi-chlorian injections to make some sort of Super-sith.
Absolutely true, the main point of it is to add some extra difficulty to stealing it. It's hard to pretend to be "the IT guy" when you actually have to physically damage the laptop's case to remove it. Also, you can tell your insurance company that it was locked to the desk, and the thief must have broken the case to remove it, so you might get a break there (We do... our company premiums have gone down more than enough to cover the cost of the locks)
Speaking of being "the IT guy", I am so very rarely stopped when wandering around strange floors in my company, or when leaving with equipment. I could see why someone with a criminal mind would find it trivially easy to steal equipment from a large corporation. Asking questions is the easiest, easiest way to discourage theft. Start with, "Can I help you?" and go from there.
Get a laptop lock, one of those cable locks. You loop it around part of your desk, lock it to the laptop, and you're done. A lot of extra security for a very low cost and maybe 5 minutes to install (unless you don't have anything to loop it around and you need to attach an anchor to your desk). If you ever do need to take your laptop, just unlock and go. It's corporate policy where I work, and we're in a secure building as well.
The problem I forsee if there is the thought that only women are playing female characters is that anyone with a female character will be harrassed. As it is now, the more perverse among the male MMO population show at least a little restraint, because they know the odds are that the "she" is actually a "he". Basically, being able to make a female avatar after verifying that you are really female sets up female characters to be targets of all sorts of unsavory advances. Women have enough of that in real life, they shouldn't have to be the target of it in a game.
2 weeks? Luxury. I've been with my wife for 7 years, and I start thinking of what to get her the day after an event. I'm in a slowly mounting state of panic because I still don't know what to get her for Christmas!
But I'd rather be wed to a smart girl than some dumb "normal" girl. Even if it is more work sometimes:)
I get the feeling that Jack spends at least half an hour a day staring into a mirror and practicing the line: "Now... it's personal" in a wanna-be-toughguy voice that he can't quite pull off, in his imagination sounding exactly like Dirty Harry while, in reality, he sounds more like a scrawny old white guy with a chest cold and lots of phlegm.
I wonder how close that is to reality? Probably closer than JT is on a daily basis.
"The IT department for the company should not be the personal IT support for managment."
I have it easy... I tell people where I work that I can't give more than general advice, due to liability issues (meaning, the company doesn't want to be liable for any advice that I, as the "professional IT guy", gives out).
It's not exactly true, but it sounds true enough that most people give up after hearing it, and I've never had to be personal support to anyone I've worked with. Now, friends and relatives, on the other hand... well, see my sig.
"Warhammer might have a chance to top some of the other MMORPG's like EQ, Eve, AO, etc... But that is only because they copied a lot of the aspects of WoW and present a very similar style of game and universe. Don't believe me, look at the goblins in both games. It's like looking at cousins....."
I'm not disagreeing about Warhammer's chances against WoW, but that statement made me think of this Penny Arcade:
Anybody else feeling like there's a certain Sci-Fi channel mediocre miniseries in our near future?
Sadly, yes. I always feel certain that there's a mediocre Sci-Fi channel miniseries on the way, even before I'd heard of these double-jawed creepy eel things.
They'll probably pair it up with an erupting volcano and call it "Double-Jawed Lava Eels"
What the heck... it can't be worse than Ice Spiders, right?
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Even though sci-fi tends to be rely heavily on worst-case scenarios, even to the point of outright lying about what could happen, I believe the panic-mongering allows people to fully express, face and eventually get over their fears of a new technology. Overall, I think it tends to be a good thing, though it's frustrating to see promising new technologies flounder in the beginning due to short-sidedness. Society needs to grow to accept these things before fully embracing them.
Reminds me of a conversation I was having with a friend... we were thinking of getting a bunch of signs and T-shirts with "Free Xenu!" and the like printed on them, and picketing various CoS locations. Obviously we never did so, too much of a pain in the ass for something we don't really care about, but we got a chuckle out of the thought.
Exactly how I felt about it! Most of the time, it seemed only a few of those feat options actually made sense to pick... what's the point of having all this supposed flexibility if you feel like a fool for selecting less powerful feats, or like a tool for selecting the same ones as everyone else?
Back when I was still a DM, I had a heavily modified game... Basically, 10% 1st edition AD&D, 5% 2nd Edition, and 85% house rules. What they should do is make the core rules as basic and flexible as they can, to make it easier to plug in house rules or just flat-out ignore anything that doesn't work for your group.
Obviously, I must not be a music fan, then. Everything I listen to voluntarily sounds pretty darned good :)
Also, keep off illegal drugs. It sounds goody-two-shoes, but that's not how I mean it. I don't object to recreational drugs in general, but if you're having problems, then the last thing you need to do is dump a bunch of mind-altering chemicals into your bloodstream without any real knowledge of what it will do to you. I'm not saying anyone in this thread does drugs, but a lot of people I know who suffer from depression smoke pot, drink too much, do meth, etc.
Drugs may make you feel better for a while, but that's like having a broken arm and giving yourself an anesthetic so you don't feel it. The pain may be reduced, but the problem is still there, and will likely be worse than ever once the drugs wear off.
Just don't be so worried about all these universe or world-ending disasters that you absentmindedly step out into traffic and get hit by a bus. Like any vague fear of the future, the tricky part is to live long enough for it to matter :)
Probably not, but it's still a talking tree, and that's worth something.
If you take the time to get good at something, why not enjoy the benefits? It's not hurting anyone, it might drive interest in the game (good for the manufacturer and for the resailer) and if people enjoy watching, it's good for them too. As long as he doesn't develop his self-worth around how well he plays Guitar Hero, I don't see a problem with it
Where is that key? I can't find it. I asked a co-worker where it was, and he said it was next to the "any" key, but I can't find that one either.
There is nothing wrong with trying to sell toys, in and of itself. But when something is done solely for the purpose of making people buy things, it kinda takes a lot of the soul out of it. It's like watching a very long and expensive commercial instead of a movie. So, it's not so much wrong as it is limiting.
Oh, and thanks for reminding me of the whole "Jesus" thing that Anakin had going on, too. I forgot all about that!
Jar Jar I can almost forgive, because the concept of putting in a fully computer-rendered photo realistic character IS pretty neat. They just really blew it with this particular one. But, Anakin being barely out of diapers when they found him pretty much blew it for me. And he was still too old to start training?!
Anakin building Threepio and Artoo showing up for no reason (other droids could have been used, why these two?), the painful, "do anything for a cheap laugh" antics of Jar Jar, horrible dialogue... and, of course, the midi-chlorians.. Bah, Episode 1 was so disappointing. Even for what was, supposedly, a movie intended for kids only, it was disappointing.
On the other hand, I cheered up a friend of mine after the movie by suggesting that, just maybe, midi-chlorians weren't the cause of Force-sensitivity, but the result of it. Like, they grow better in those who are Force-sensitive, but have no impact on the Jedi's ability to use the Force.
I like that, but I know it's not what Lucas intended. I'm just glad he didn't explore something like genetic engineering or "juicing" with midi-chlorian injections to make some sort of Super-sith.
Klingon is also the only language where you can scream "Your mother wears combat boots!" and not automatically offend someone.
Speaking of being "the IT guy", I am so very rarely stopped when wandering around strange floors in my company, or when leaving with equipment. I could see why someone with a criminal mind would find it trivially easy to steal equipment from a large corporation. Asking questions is the easiest, easiest way to discourage theft. Start with, "Can I help you?" and go from there.
Get a laptop lock, one of those cable locks. You loop it around part of your desk, lock it to the laptop, and you're done. A lot of extra security for a very low cost and maybe 5 minutes to install (unless you don't have anything to loop it around and you need to attach an anchor to your desk). If you ever do need to take your laptop, just unlock and go. It's corporate policy where I work, and we're in a secure building as well.
This is true, except in the case of Lars, the Mad Kick-Boxer of Bombay
Unless, of course, they want to be
But I'd rather be wed to a smart girl than some dumb "normal" girl. Even if it is more work sometimes :)
I wonder how close that is to reality? Probably closer than JT is on a daily basis.
87% of all statistics on Slashdot are made up on the spot.
Rule #1 of reading Tolkien: Skip the poetry.
If it helps at all, book 11 wraps up a lot of the dangling plot threads. It felt a little forced to me, but it was still very satisfying.
Respect for the dead is not inteaded to comfort the dead, it is to comfort the living left behind.
I have it easy... I tell people where I work that I can't give more than general advice, due to liability issues (meaning, the company doesn't want to be liable for any advice that I, as the "professional IT guy", gives out).
It's not exactly true, but it sounds true enough that most people give up after hearing it, and I've never had to be personal support to anyone I've worked with. Now, friends and relatives, on the other hand... well, see my sig.
I'm not disagreeing about Warhammer's chances against WoW, but that statement made me think of this Penny Arcade:
http://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/04/10
Sadly, yes. I always feel certain that there's a mediocre Sci-Fi channel miniseries on the way, even before I'd heard of these double-jawed creepy eel things.
They'll probably pair it up with an erupting volcano and call it "Double-Jawed Lava Eels"
What the heck... it can't be worse than Ice Spiders, right?