Messages

Ah ha! It does work.  Now if only we had a smiley that properly portrayed the differences between being patronizing and condescending.

Well then, what the fuckeroo?  Do we have to put a damned smiley after every post just so DG's slow ass will "Get it?"   <---- Post is a joke, see the smiley?

Hmm..  posted this in the interest of humor but it's launched into a political debate of sorts.  So be it.  

Ghormak stated that he didn't worry about politics and politicians don't worry about him and he likes it that way.  That's precisely the way I felt about it for quite some time. If you knew my attitudes of a few years ago, you'd find it amazing and perhaps a bit disconcerting that Bush has done what none of our presidents have done in my lifetime. He made me give a shit.  In that way, I suppose, he was useful.

I am utterly confused as to how any non-US person could back Bush. There've been the previously mentioned issues, such as the patriot act.  By the way, the Patriot Act isn't what's scary, it's the fact that these things are being passed into law like they're going out of style.  It's the ammendments and the Patriot Act II that frighten me.  After reading through the Patriot Act, there isn't too much introduced that wasn't more or less in place already.  It's the additional laws that back it and allow for more exceptions and loopholes that make the PA a violation.  

People have mentioned Bush's stupidity. It's reknowned.  You can blame the press and say that other presidents made stupid statements & grammar/spelling mistakes as well. Of course. However, don't you think the press would jump on them to an equal extent if they had as poor a track record as Bush when it comes to thinking?

His financial policies have been mentioned. Don't forget that, as governor, he also did a record-breaking FUBAR job.

If nothing else, the non-US people backing him despite his environmental standpoint is amazing. The Clean Air act, initiated during the Nixon administration, forced corporations to clean up their acts somewhat. Bush's castration of this act, to give an example, allows corporations to divert waste water and toxic sewage to the same processing plants. He gave the finger to the Kyoto convention. He didn't even suggest a compromise or state that the nation would consider it after it'd resolved post 9-11 financial issues.  He basically just said, "Up yours, we'll just worry about the US, you guys worry about the world."  He signed off on the "Healthy Forests" initiative which allows massive forest-destruction in our nation's largest remaining national forest. I'm no tree-hugger, but this attitude seems to say,"Do what we want for now, let our grandchildren frolic in the ashes."  

Alright. If you don't care about stupidity, environmentalism, foreign policy, warmongering, double-talk, et al, maybe you care about cash? I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not wealthy by any description. We've slowly been making laws that seek to repair the condition the nation was in during the 1920's.  During that time-period and through the Great Depression the US had a very large gap between those with money and those with nothing.  In the past few decades, we've managed to establish a middle-class that's a little bit less broad in scope.  Currently, you can be considered middle-class and still barely above the poverty line, or nearly independantly wealthy.  Bush's administration has signed into law (or cancelled sections of existing laws) allowing corporations to keep more of their holdings while the lower-income people pay for it.  He introduces tax-cuts, announcing that it's easing the burden of all people. One such cut is of the estate tax. Alright, so people owning a lot of property or with many investments get a tax break.  This isn't a majority of the people, and certainly not a section of the populace that needs tax breaks.

I wasn't very fond of the Clinton administration.  However, he did at least work his ass off trying to fix things.  He introduced many excellent policies concerning foreign affairs, finance, and environmental concerns. The trouble with him was that he didn't make anything self-sustaining. As soon as his administration was out, his house of cards fell flat.  He wasn't perfect, by any means, and was (like most others) deceitful, manipulative & concerned primarily with his own self-interest.  He at least made some concessions.  Bush, on the other hand, seems to smugly remind the common man of his insignificance.  He doesn't care about the will of the people.  I don't agree than any candidate's better than Bush.  Lieberman, for example, would make for a frightening presidency.  However, that will be one of my goals come November - to vote for a candidate that I think will do a good job, and to get Bush out of office.  I'd love to seriously consider a 3rd party candidate but they only suck votes away from one of two parties that will win.  

Before I end my lengthy, monotonous post, I must scream, "Hell yeah, down with the electoral college!"

I'd heard something like this before.. now updated a bit:

Here is a hypothetical situation that poses an important ethical test.
Please give the question serious thought before answering.

You are an AP photographer in Florida... in Miami, to be exact. You are
surrounded by complete chaos and huge masses of water, the result of a
Force 5 hurricane that has brought on severe floods. Though used to
witnessing disasters from your work, you are overwhelmed by one of the most hopeless situations you have ever seen: houses float by, bodies disappear under water and mud. Nature's awesome power has never seemed so destructive. Suddenly you see a man in the water, fighting for his life, trying not to be drowned by the masses of water and mud. As the torrent brings him ever nearer to you, you realize that the man looks familiar. Suddenly, just as the raging waters are about to sweep him right by you and take him away forever, you realize who it is: It's George W. Bush!

You have two options. You can save him. Or you can take the most
important photo of your life. You can save the life of the President of
the United States, or you can shoot a once-in-history photo capturing the death of one of the world's most powerful men. You can be invited to the Oval Office or win a Pulitzer Prize.

And here's the question (please give an honest answer):

Would you select color film, or go with the simplicity of classic black
and white?


[Credit where it's due, this was posted by John Shirley on his forums, credited to Jean Fong]

Particularly since it's in the Adv-related section, shouldn't the links only be to game-oriented sites.  My link, for one, is just in case anybody wanted to bother checking out my "artwork".  If it's a list of sites for keeping tabs on AGSers activities, hobbies, etc., then all is well.

Since I seem to have an identical prob with my work machine I've messed around with it quite a bit.  Perhaps it's some DX bug with ancient video cards.  This thing's running a 500mhz P-II and Riva128 w/ 8M.  I disabled digital sound/midi and the problem is identical. Out of curiosity and to help pinpoint it, could you post system specs, Mats? (In particular, the videocard make/model/memsize).

There are other, quite visible parts of the woman that can be just as sexy...

All too correct. The bellybutton's been making an appearance more and more often and I wholeheartedly approve.  The curve of a neck or hypnotic eyes can do as much for me as the rest of the bits.  The amount of pr0n, spam & Pop-ups that show unwitting masses pictures of breasts may make for the decline of the naughty-bits' sensuality. Just look at all the odd fetishes cropping up.

Determined to have plans for the weekend, I made several. I had to decline later offers due to my schedule being slammed.  Every plan I made fell through, so it's a quiet reading, forum & drawing night fer me. Woohoo.

And, inexplicably, the power to fly and phase through walls, allowing rapid travel by crossing dimensional threshholds.  

Topic's been done before but what the hell?
Yakspit's my real name, I have mean parents.

It's decided then.  The only way to discourage this sort of idiotic behavior by our celebrities is to have celebrity-burning.  Hooray! Or, if you're too much a pacifist, then we could always just keep them in cages and let 'em out when we want to use them.  If they're singers, then they really don't have too much use for their arms.  Let them wear straight-jackets.  I  tried to re-read what I wrote because I'm pretty sure it's idiotic.  However, I've had 2 hours of sleep and am not getting more so fuasjlh;g.

In the US (N.Carolina & Cali at least), lots of schools have a year-round program.  I gather, however, that when you refer to the Japanese schools as being in session the entire year, you mean without any significant breaks.  Our year-round schools have something like a 4 week-long, 1 week off kind of schedule with a couple weeks in the summer & a couple around holiday time.

Japan's a place I have wanted to visit for some time.  Sure as hell wouldn't want to live there, though.  Based upon Karate Kid III, Okinawa must be a cool place, maybe it's Martial-Art-ier than the mainland.  Watched Lost in Translation last night.  Nobody challened anybody to a karate duel and there were absolutely no ninjas (perhaps debatable, the guy in the rainbow suit could've been some sort of ninja I guess). Japan seems like a strange and scary place.  The fact that they still think of karaoke as a worthwhile pasttime frightens me.  To the core of my being, I have no desire to hear someone shriek out a Pretenders' tune off-key in Engrish, well, at least not more than once for sheer comic value.

Yak: what was that picture from, sorry I didn't get it, but yes I know he's holding Janets ninja nipple star.

Ya don't recognize a scene from Krull?  You really ought to be flogged.

Read the spanish guy's entry and decided I ought to do the same.  Some 10 gigs of music and 60 gigs of various show downloads.. way too many episodes of Invader Zim, The Tick, Mr. Show, Celeb Jeopardy, and miscellaneous Adult Swim features.  Ye gods.  

Thinking about the thread and the fact that it's not quite as mobile as we were led to believe.

That's one thing I found rather strange.  There's a song by Everlast, don't know the exact title but the chorus is, "Then you really might know what it's like."  While living in the South (Florida/North Carolina), they only censored standard expletives.  Nothing was censored in a song by Third Eye Blind (whatever their first single POS was).  However, after returning to SanFran area in California, found that they censored the words I mentioned in the last post.  What the hell?  Censoring drug names and the name of a handgun? Odd.  Especially considering all of the implied sexuality that still gets radio play. That and DJ talk about blowjobs, oral, anal, etc.  That said, I'm less wary of the FCC than the network administration.

I'm pretty sure Mr. Pirate is trying to sling a web, spidey-style.

Beautiful backgrounds, btw, agree about the outlining consistency thing.  Still wish that the garish red would go the way of the dodo (the extinct one, not the cloned bio-mechanical 6-million-dollar dodo they recently made).  For that matter, I think your backgrounds in general would look a touch better with some lower-saturation colors.  Take the purple poiny bits, for one.  Based upon their position and the environment they're in, I would expect them to be at least partially obscured by atmosphere.  Because of the sandy environment (unless it's a sand & Elmer's glue environment), they might be a more neutral tone as they gather a bit of all the dust being blown about.    

Love your style, it's got a unique look that'll be pleasant and easy to remember after we've played a game using it.  I recognized Mad Jack at once..  great stuff.

I've got one that will let you save your tree's settings or export to .DXF.  It's called (crazily enough) treemaker.  It's stand-alone not a plug-in.  For convenience's sake, I'll see if I can find a URL for you, rather than arrange e-mail sending.

[Edit: They've got it at 3D Cafe as well as a lot of other similarly handy plugins/utils.  Oh, and as far as the tree jokes go, I suppose you're better off leafing well enough alone.]

There's a thread in Adventure-related Talk & Chat: Here.  Or, if you don't feel like reading through 10 pages, it's tentatively set in July.  It will be in upstate New York, hosted (more or less) by Mr. C.(Eric).  Plans for place/time are supposed to be set-in-stone sometime in March.    There's an official Mittens website but I usually get there via m0d's profile under Screen 7 Entertainment.  The bastard's slacked off, though, so S7E is down-ish.  

Edit: Of course, Mr. C sneaks in while I'm typing and inserts his 2 cents.  I still feel special since I gave more information.  

that little gadget thingy around the nipple was pretty cool, looked like a ninja star.

No, Tim.  I have an inside source that says it was actually:


As to the controversy, the arguments are already old.  The more conservative types are getting dramatically upset over it.  If I were watching it with my kids, I'd be more upset about the way that it was done (from what I hear, 'twasn't exactly subtle).  Mostly, I just find it pathetic what depths celebrities will sink to.  I look forward to a day when it's common enough for a celebrity to debase themselves completely for a bit of publicity and the public loses interest in them (outside of their movies/songs, at least).  People practically worship these asses.  I'm perplexed.

As far as the FCC thing goes, you've got it a little backward, Even.  It wouldn't be that every local station would have to pay 27.500.  Depending upon who the FCC blames for the event (its organizers (MTV) or the major broadcasting station (CBS)) it will fine that entity in the amount of $27,500 x # of stations it was broadcast on = somewhere in the area of $1.2 Mil, last I heard.  

If the FCC has approved Fuck as a descriptive, I'm surprised I haven't heard it yet on the radio (unless it's a late-night TV approval or something).  Listening to a station in SF the other night, they censored the following that I noticed: Fuck, shit, Weed, Crystal Meth, Whore, Colt 45 and the 'God' portion of Goddamn.  With some of the other stuff that was censored, I'd be rather surprised if fuck becomes allowable.  

I vote for PhilRoberts2004.  Pessi's was damned good but PhilRoberts2004 has a way of 'cutting the fat' from a picture and reproducing it in only the barest of essentials.  Go Phil!

I believe there was a thread about this, perhaps in the general discussion area?  I tried a search but didn't find it. Anyway, the problem you've got is one of taking something that uses your FM synth to a digital recording.  So,  you can play the file and record the output.  I don't know jack about your system but the SB Live & newer cards have an option to record "What U Hear." This gets rid of crappy-recording issues.  I believe Winamp can handle the same task by going to its options and changing the output plugin to the wavewriter plugin.  You open the file, play it back (will take only a few seconds) and voila! You've got a wavefile.  

Or you could do some decent googling.