If its at all Possible could I rejoin the supergroup even tho I Just had my toon removed for inactivity? What Can I say I was bit by the hero bug and got my computer patched up so it'll run things semi normaly again. But it still doesn't like me being in groups heh.

NFS: Carbon is the latest in the interminable graphics-engine-and-player-lineup-updates from EA.
EA is a company well known for holding a franchise down and pummeling every last bit of tasty money out of the twitching agonized pulp left after the first couple 'sequels'.
NFS: Carbon is no different. On the Wii side, we have a piece of shovelware that _might_ have been able to be done properly on the Wii, given a very experienced programming team dedicated to wringing every pixel possible out of the Wii.
This team, however, was busy working for someone else, so they shoe-horned a game that can give a good workout to anything except a GeForce 8800 series card into the poor, poor Wii. The lag and spotty framerates resulting are not surprising.
However, the various control interfaces available on the Wii do make full use of the Wiimote/Nunchuk, and the variety allows the user to play very intuitively and easily.
The UI is intrusive, requiring far too many acknowledgements and confirmations for simple acts, and having too many layers and levels for a console-based game.
On the PC Side Of The Farce, EA has taken the sheer power inherent in the modern PC Gaming platform, and ignored it in favor of excessive motion blur, a poor UI, and shoddy controls (no porportional brakes, WTF?). Playing with a keyboard is nigh-impossible, which is understandable.
Playing with a gamepad is also difficult, given the absolutely horrible farce-feedback (keyed off the horizontal position of the driving axis, NOT off of in-game status) and the binary brakes (full lock or nothing).
The sheer joy of slotting a perfectly driven powerslid, tires screaming, scenery sliding, engine howling corner, however, remains. Just be careful with the brakes..
On a new (~3 months old) Windows XP install with good drivers and good DirectX, making a working game should be easy, and EA manages to fail this - NFS Carbon is known for fail-starts and random crashes to desktop under many, many configs, and I have experienced multiple random crashes to desktop, without any sort of error message, log, windows event, or anything to indicate _why_ the crash occured.
If you're a racing game fanatic and need something else to bleed of a little adrenaline, pick this game up used. Failing that, go buy Flatout 2 instead, or pick up Midnight Club Dub Edition Remix for 15 bux for the Xbox - it may lag, but it's shiny, fast, and _works_.Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979Wire Geek - Burning the weak and trampling the dead since 1979

(first in a series... -Rob)

Captain's Blog, March 1, 2012

Mood: upset
Listening to: "Let it Ride", BTO
Reading: no time to read

I've been on Mars for a day now. Everybody lied to me - they said it'd be easy to find a place to live, but there's *nothing* available in Utopia Planitia! At least, there's nothing if you're not a Trekkie. And I'm not a Trekkie. I can't stand the idiocy that passes for "tactics" in that show, and it shows. I just don't fit in.

I'd sleep in my ship if there was room to stretch out. I know Avril would like the company. But I can't recline that seat at all.

Tomorrow I'm heading to Cydonia. It's got to be easier to find a place to live there.

Ramona, keeping my fingers crossed

-----

Captain's Blog, March 2, 2012

Mood: annoyed
Listening to: "Goin' Mobile", The Who
Reading: still no time to read

There's no permanent housing at Cydonia. I shouldn't be surprised - they say it's going to be underwater once the terraforming project thaws the ice under the surface of Mars. (But that applies to Utopia Planitia, too... stupid Trekkies.) But there's enough tourists around that I thought there's be at least something for the tour guides to live in. No such luck.

There's nothing at Olympus Mons, either. Sure, there's a few apartment buildings there, but they're all full of skiiers who want to be first to go all the way down the biggest mountain in the Solar System. I looked at the slope of Olympus Mons, down near the base - if they're going to ski that, they'll need cross-country skis, not the downhill skis they've got.

Tomorrow I'm going to see if there's something in orbit.

Ramona, hoping my luck's about to change

-----

Captain's Blog, March 3, 2012

Mood: pissed off
Listening to: "Life on Mars", David Bowie
Reading: no time to read

There's nothing for me in Phobos.

Sure, there's plenty of open apartments in that floating rock, but there's no place available for me to park my ship. At least, no place I can afford right now. And I'm not going to abandon Avril - she got me here in the first place.

And they tell me Deimos is the same.

Back to Mars tomorrow...

Ramona, starting to lose hope

-----

Captain's Blog, March 4, 2012

Mood: happy!!!
Listening to: "Doin' It Right", Powder Blues
Reading: "Gods of Mars", E.R. Burroughs

I should have come to Helium first thing. I've got a *great* two-bedroom place, five minutes from the airport! And parking Avril at the airport costs next to nothing!

Don't listen to the stories - you don't *have* to walk around naked except for a weapons belt if you live in Helium. Sure, lots of the old-timers do, but they don't force anyone to strip. Good thing, too. My next-door neighbour Thuvia - that's the only name she's told me - has the figure for walking around nude. I sure don't.

And I've already got a job! Some people whose names I really shouldn't repeat here don't trust the Interwave, and Avril's pretty fast in atmosphere. That means she can get from Mars surface to Earth surface faster than anything but the Blue Blazers' Jet Car, and *that* means I can make a living carrying secure data on flashdrives between the two planets. I'm making twice-weekly courier runs between Helium and a couple of cities on Earth.

Ramona, about to make a call back home

-----

Captain's Blog, March 6, 2012

Mood: sombre
Listening to: "I'm a Loser", The Beatles
Reading: "Jane's Spaceships"

I goofed. Big time. Some of the people who had hired me read my last Captain's Blog, and said I'd broken the confidentality clause in our contract. That leaves me with only enough work for one trip back to Earth each week.

At least Thuvia and her boyfriend are being nice to me. Remember I said that Thuvia's got the figure to walk around naked? So does her boyfriend Den... *drools* But sometimes it's weird talking mechanical engineering with a guy who really shouldn't be getting too close to machinery without finding a cup first.

But I need to find some more clients, or another job. Anybody want to hire a secure courier who can't keep her mouth shut?

Ramona, eating ramen to make the paycheck last longer

-----

Captain's Blog, March 8, 2012

Mood: tired
Listening to: "Working for the Weekend", Loverboy
Reading: too tired to read

I've got a job with the City of Helium, in the public works department. Today I spent seven hours getting a flying ambulance back up and running. The engine was completely shot - nobody thought to install filters to keep the find Martian sand out of the turbines. (I'm going to have to do that with Avril before I fly her again.)

No luck on finding any more clients for the courier runs.

Thuvia asked if I'd be interested in going on a pity date with a friend of Den's. Billy's not my type, though. He expects everybody to care about his fandom as much as he does; if his fandom wasn't based on Japanese pornographic cartoons, I might have been interested. But I'd rather spend my time with somebody who admits women have brains too. Sorry, Thuvia.

Ramona, about to fall asleep

... Well, that pretty much sums it up. Looking for something lightweight that will display unicode text properly, because it's annoying to have to look at a file in one program to see what it's supposed to look like, then use a different program to edit it. Anyone have any recommendations?
-Morgan."This continuity is now a Princess of Darkness crossover."
"... They're all going to die, aren't they?"
"Yep. Popcorn?"

much fun was had tonight when Min and Wide asked for help freeing the Statesman from some Tyrant (I'm not realy sure on the details, I was just there to make things blow up). Frenetic and Lora'Lai Signed up for the mayhem.
Much fun was had by all.
(all pics are clickable for higher rez versions)
The bad guys:

I didn't get any action shots (it was a fast battle), but I got plenty of victory shots.


and of course the obligatory group shot:
-Terry
------
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery
"Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." - Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner - 1996)
Mary Sue's theme music
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

So, my current roleplaying campaign's winding up in a few sessions (how few depend on the players, of course), and I'm thinking of setting the next on
in Fenspace - or, more accurately, a close parallel of Fenspace. Assuming this happens (I've only asked one of the players so far), this begs a few
questions...

First, does anybody not want me using their characters as NPCs?

Second, when do I set the game? I'm leaning towards either 2007-2008 (and the PCs would be first-generation Fen), or 2012 (and they're taking part in
Operation GREAT JUSTICE), but would some other time have more roleplaying possibilities?

Third, how much of the background do I share with the players? Do I give them the entire Writers' Guide I'm working on, with everything that's in
all the stickies here, or should I pare that down a bit (or a lot)?

Fourth, which system should I use? I own copies of GURPS Fourth Edition and BESM Third Edition; each has pros and cons for this setting... I think. (Either
way, I'll have to stat up Ramona, Avril, Noah, and at least one of the "angels" as sample characters, so the players have an idea of what sort of
folks are in the setting. Once I've done that, I'll share.)

Thoughts, anyone and everyone?

-Rob Kelk
--
Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012

[The Legendary] valles: Woah, wait, there's a frickin' huge -canyon- in Dark Astoria?!
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Yeah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: That "canyon is a graveyard]
[The Legendary] valles: Moreso than the rest of the zone.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: You know, DA is an easier fix than Faultline
[The Legendary] valles: There -has- to be an interesting story behind the whole 'vanished population' thing.
[The Legendary] Hexane: Gah, Paragon is so much brighter than the Isles. Must turn down gamma.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Just give it a contac chain arc.
[The Legendary] valles: *NODNOD*
[The Legendary] Foxboy: First contact is in the Hospital
[The Legendary] valles: I even -have- one that I'm trying to write a fic for.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Gotta involve the BP
[The Legendary] Foxboy: and the Tsoo
[The Legendary] valles: Nah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Folks dont even RELAIZE there's Tsoo in there
[The Legendary] valles: CoT
[The Legendary] valles: There are Tsoo in DA?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Yup
[The Legendary] valles: So, the Circle - and the Tsoo, mebbe - are investigating DA.
[The Legendary] valles: Because, whatever happened...
[The Legendary] valles: ...like, -ate- -people-.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: LOTS of juju
[The Legendary] valles: Maybe it got their souls, too, maybe it didn't.
[The Legendary] valles: But all of them are -dead-, and the power in their lives -went somewhere-.
[The Legendary] valles: Figuring out that much is the first contact's arc.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Add some Croatoa/Ghost ship ghosts as well to the door mishes
[The Legendary] valles: Mmm... no ghost ships. I have a thought for that, later. Just hit me.
[The Legendary] valles: Second contact...
[The Legendary] Foxboy: AVs... new or pre existing?
[The Legendary] valles: ...draws the conclusion that, since the BP -didn't exist- before Astoria went Dark...
[The Legendary] valles: ...that power? Raised their minions. Freed their bosses. Etc, etc.
[The Legendary] valles: His arc is tracking down -how-. Forensics, sorta.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: So contacts will have a Kolchak/Medium/ST Elsewhere vibe
[The Legendary] valles: Third contact... thinks they're getting ready to do it -again-.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: To... say... Atlas?
[The Legendary] valles: Or Steel, or - no. Talos. To Talos.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Gotta include a trip to Croatoa for something in there though
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Even if it's just a fedex/ambush mish
[The Legendary] valles: So... stopping their plan...
[The Legendary] valles: ...it takes, y'know, preperations. Spell groundwork.
[The Legendary] valles: Croatoa works in, there.
[The Legendary] valles: The BP twigs to this.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: NASTY ambushes
[The Legendary] valles: Does some of their necromantic ritual shit.
[The Legendary] valles: Aims the Ghost Ship at the center of the defense preperations.
[The Legendary] valles: A la Babbage in Synapse.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Who
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Whoa
[The Legendary] Foxboy: rahter
[The Legendary] valles: *snrk*
[The Legendary] valles: Once -that-'s done with...
[The Legendary] valles: Croatoa again, but just passing through.
[The Legendary] valles: Headed to the -spirit world-.
[The Legendary] valles: On a mission from G.O.D.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: And we get to see "bright astoria loaded with BP and RedCaps?
[The Legendary] valles: Gerald Owen Demontheses
[The Legendary] valles: Ayep.
[The Legendary] valles: On our way to confront the key to the BP plan...
[The Legendary] valles: Who is, of course, either an AV or a GM in his own right.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Snappy! or one of the Unseelie
[The Legendary] valles: I don't think that that'd have the right feel.
[The Legendary] valles: Snappy is - nasty as he tries to be - too lighthearted.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: So unseelie.
[The Legendary] valles: I mean, kidnapping _Baby New Year_?!
[The Legendary] valles: He's a joke.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Magic-origin nasty Khelds
[The Legendary] Foxboy: A joke with a nasty Punchline
[The Legendary] valles: This calls for something grim and awful and- *groan*
[The Legendary] valles: ...as much as I hate to say it, being very against the man's works and themes, Lovecraftian.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Lughebu's cronies, eh?
[The Legendary] valles: Or the mad bad man himself.
[The Legendary] valles: Oh, something else I'd wanna put in the DA plotline:
[The Legendary] Foxboy: He does not get the item, so he raises his bid to his next round, 5000
[The Legendary] valles: 'Run away from the AV'
[The Legendary] valles: A chase scene.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: All benny hill like, eh?
[The Legendary] valles: I guess.
[The Legendary] valles: I'm picturing more... hitchcock, if that makes sense.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: North by northwest?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: OR The Birds?
[The Legendary] valles: The first, if I'm remembering my film history right.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: My brother used to hang out ina building that Hitch ate lunch in during the filming of one of his movies.
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: 'Go here, do this'
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *does so*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: 'Hi! You can die now!'
[The Legendary] valles: Player: !!!! OMFG!! *dies*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: 'Nice hospital. ^_^'
[The Legendary] Jimmy Amp: ok, after quitting the team in which I got one piece of invention salvage, I've gotten 3 pieces in the first 5 mobs of my solo mission
[The Legendary] valles: Player: !!! *dies again*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: 'Hiiiii!'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: And I'm telling you, from TEST. The numbers are EXACTLY the SAME
[The Legendary] valles: Player: @%$^#@ *tries running, this time*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] Jimmy Amp: but the chance per mob is to give it to one member of the team, right? so on a team, the chances get spread out between the team members, correct?
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *run* HALP! *run*
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: Try this.
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun* *does this*
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Yes, but teams have in general LOTS more mobs than solo, so thit's supposed to balance out
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: Try that.
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] Jimmy Amp: well, so far, in my experience, it hasn't... I have yet to do any TFs, though
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun* *tries that*
[The Legendary] valles: Contact: Okay, now fight.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: And, V, this sounds like the post-arc TF
[The Legendary] valles: Player: What are you, crazy?!
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun*
[The Legendary] valles: ...'post-arc?'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: For example: Striga Isle
[The Legendary] valles: AV: *chasechase*
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Post-arc is Burkholder
[The Legendary] valles: Hmm.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Croatoa: Post-arc is Katie Hannon
[The Legendary] valles: It really would fit better as a TF... but...
[The Legendary] valles: ...the arc's resolution is kinda final, the way I see it.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: It's liek the Daffy Duck Dynamite trick?
[The Legendary] valles: Nani?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: 'It's a great trick, but I can only do it ONCE'
[The Legendary] valles: Ahhh. Yeah, exactly.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Each zone NEEDS a TF
[The Legendary] Foxboy: ^_^
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *runrun* *duck into alley* Aw, $@#%!!
[The Legendary] valles: AV: Cornered ya!
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Co-op zone concept
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Paragon's Little Asia
[The Legendary] valles: Player: *fights*
[The Legendary] valles: AV: Well, gosh.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: AV: Half hour fight if oyu have this issue's magic bullet
[The Legendary] valles: Player: BOOYAH! FUCK YEAH! TAKE THAT, BITCH!!
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Hehehe
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Only problem:
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Lots of playrs WILL NOT LIKE the "required" debt
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Too dim to get teh concept, see.
[The Legendary] valles: Well, it's not really 'required', the way I see it.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: IF you JUST RUN IN THE FIRST PALCE!
[The Legendary] valles: It's only a question of how long it takes them to figure out, 'Don't fight, dumbass!'
[The Legendary] valles: Exactly.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Hm. Howabout the "hint" they give in The STF and LRSF?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: +4 AV
[The Legendary] valles: What hint are you talking about?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: EVen when it's solo
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Heck, "Giant Monstering" it works too

[The Legendary] valles: I've had a thought as to plotlines for Boomtown.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: The CH must be on the same server. and.. Justice went BOOM
[The Legendary] valles: Ahhh.
[The Legendary] valles: Eek.
[The Legendary] valles: So... Boomtown was a major hotspot during the Rikti War, right?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: So of course everyone hops to Virtue.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Right
[The Legendary] valles: So, say that, though it's never come up before...
[The Legendary] valles: ...at some major turning point, the entire district got locked down.
[The Legendary] valles: By agency unknown. Nothing in, nothing out.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Tie it into Crey.
[The Legendary] valles: Survivors reported being herded into safe zones and shelters by masked heroes they couldn't recognize.
[The Legendary] valles: What happened, we find out in this arc...
[The Legendary] valles: ...was that either Crey or the Rikti themselves...
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Post these suggestions to the Boards. Seriously
[The Legendary] valles: ...were trying to develope a stasis/fast-time weapon.
[The Legendary] valles: Like Batman's Clock King.
[The Legendary] valles: The entire arc is a time travel thing.
[The Legendary] valles: Welcome to the War.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Woohoo! Both of them, right?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Rikti and the Big 2
[The Legendary] valles: 'The Big 2'?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Golden Age States FTW
[The Legendary] valles: Ohhh...
[The Legendary] valles: Hmm.
[The Legendary] valles: Make that the TF.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: kk
[The Legendary] valles: I was mostly thinking in terms of the sheer awe value of throwing PCs into the middle of the height of that kind of battle.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Baumton would have been a major target for Sabotage during the Second World War, since the armory was there
[The Legendary] valles: NPC heroes all over the place, villain-hero co-op, soldier-rikti like you usually see monkeys...
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Whoa.
[The Legendary] valles: ...and, WWII would tie in oh-so-well with those rumors about the Fifth Column coming back.
[The Legendary] valles: 'You remember how we won the war?'
[The Legendary] valles: 'There's a chance that could change.'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: OOOH
[The Legendary] valles: 'We need -everybody- we can get ahold of to make sure that _that_ _doesn't_ _happen_.'
[The Legendary] Foxboy: This arc is made of awesome and win already
[The Legendary] Foxboy: ESPECIALLY if it winds up co=op
[The Legendary] valles: ^_^
[The Legendary] Foxboy: No Arbiter Sands helping out. I'm talking player villains
[The Legendary] valles: So am I, yeah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Two arcs that open a contact in Pocket D?
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Or giving villains access to Boomtown?
[The Legendary] valles: Maxed-out MM + Defender Buffs = Holy Bombardment, Batman!
[The Legendary] valles: I'm not sure.
[The Legendary] valles: I'd favor treating 'Old Boom' as a completely seperate zone,a ccessed a la the PVP zones.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: It might be fun to see an OLD PARAGON set.
[The Legendary] valles: With blueside being recruited by the FP and reds being shanhaied by Aracnos.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Like, KR in its heyday
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Shiny, busy KR if you can picture it
[The Legendary] valles: Model Ts in the streets.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: Steel Canyon... still under construction
[The Legendary] valles: It sounds cool as hell, yeah.
[The Legendary] Foxboy: But poor Jay and War Witch
[The Legendary] valles: But... I'd wanna see how the quieter WWII Boomtown arc plays out with players before I committed tos uggesting all that work, y'know?

===============================================
"I'm terribly sorry, but I have to kill you quite horribly now."

and half of COH is down.
grrr.-Terry
------
"Perfection is achieved, not when there is nothing more to add, but when there is nothing left to take away." - Antoine de Saint Exupery
"Luge strategy? Lie flat and try not to die." - Carmen Boyle (Olympic Luge Gold Medal winner - 1996)
Mary Sue's theme music
-Terry
-----
"so listen up boy, or pornography starring your mother will be the second worst thing to happen to you today"
TF2: Spy

Hi folks!
I've been looking over the info provided, as well as having spent some time looking at the stuff available for sale and the attendant game stats....and pardon me for being a wet blanket and dragging my little cloud of darkness into the Issue 9 release, but....
Just what is supposed to be the incentive to upgrade to IOs?
Sure you never have to upgrade them to keep "current" (I noticed their numbers stay bluish as opposed to the familiar green/gray/yellow/red), but there's a catch. IOs below level 15 only give a bonus slightly better than Training Enhancers, 15-25 is around the DO mark. Level 25+ was touted as being equal to SOs for bonuses...but a level 25 damage SO gave me 36% and a level 25 damage IO gave only 32%. That is NOT equal.
And the IO bonus is fixed to the level of the enhancer. A level 10 IO kept until level 50 does NOT increase its bonus, it stays at the same level 10 bonus (12%, I think).
Maybe I'm being too much of a powergamer (darn you D&D!), but I can't see the point to going for an enhancer that is a pain to get the pieces for and doesn't give as much bang for the bucks spent.
And the math gets worse (IMO) for multi-effect IOs. The one I was looking at this morning was one that Mecha got, and it was Damage/Range: 18% and 11%. Oh sure, if you got the whole set of 6 you got a whole 2% resistance to fire and a few other things, but again, I can't see sacrificing my takedown power for some miniscule buffs. I feel I'll get a far higher rate of return for being able to flatten the bad guys in one shot versus doing it in two and having endurance recovery that's 2 points higher etc.
Am I calculating things wrong here? Or missing something? Maybe I'm too much of a powergamer, but right now the only reason I can see for even MAYBE bothering with the invention system with MechaDeuce is for costume pieces.
Again, I apologize for being a wet blanket. It's just that after all the build-up for I-9 and all the people gushing about it....I just don't get it. I feel let-down because I feel like there's sweet bugger all in the update for myself and my characters.
(I'm not leaving CoH, but I'm just not finding I9 compelling in any way. It doesn't change the game for me. And that's disappointing. After three years of playing, I'm not getting that sense of wonder anymore. )
Feel free to comment or point out anything I'm missing... Say *something*!
Bert V.V.
skyknight@sentex.net

Wow. So, here's what just happened.
For the purpose of this discussion, assume 'just' has a looser meaning than otherwise is accepted.
So. At the end of January, I found myself incapable of affording another month of our fine shared addiction. I thought 'okay, wait for an opportune moment'. Then I noticed that one would not be forthcoming for some time. When this occured I thought of going onto the boards and letting people know that... and then I made little panicky noises until the urge to do that went away.
I never said this was an explanation that would in any way exonerate my decision-making prowess.
Long story short, I /am/ taking advantage of the free weekend, but I am not quite back yet.
Note 'quite'.
I /should/ be able to pay with my next paycheck and indeed plan to do so. It'll be hard, because my Local Computer Gaming Store has opted against continued stocking of the time cards for this game, but it just means I'll have to do it another way which is a tad inconvenient for me. But I want to come back, so I'll deal.
Long story short? I return, a bit behind schedule.