Time to get out the DVDs of M*A*S*H...

Harry Morgan: 1915-2011
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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

Mythbusters managed to do a spectacular mess up in a shoot for a show. As they found out Cannonballs have a very long reach...Very lucky they didn't kill anybody...

http://www.youtube-nocookie.com/v/Jj-CE ... 3&hl=en_US
--Werehawk--
My mom's brief take on upcoming Guatemalan Elections "In last throes of preelection activities. Much loudspeaker vote pleading."

I found this link on a legal blog and they're not happy about it.

There's a free toy theatre available at http://forum.daz3d.com/viewtopic.php?t=178558 – download it, print it out onto cardstock, cut out the parts, assemble them, and have fun!

(For those of us who don't have a clue what I'm talking about, you should be able to figure out what to do with the download once you've got it.)
--
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

...and come back when the screams of rage die down.
http://www.regretsy.com/2011/12/05/cats-1-kids-0/
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"You know how parents tell you everything's going to fine, but you know they're lying to make you feel better? Everything's going to be fine." - The Doctor

 Hit level 50 tonight.....without a single debt badge.
  ..I may be a little paranoid about death

With the NDA down, I figure this is open to discussion now, and with it being a significant potential draw away from CoX since it hits almost the same geek spots as CoX does, a relevant one.

My thoughts.

- CoX has spoiled me so. Most of my gripes with the game (gear-based appearance, there being very little reason to play more than one of a single class because there's not much room for alternate characterization, etc.) are apparently fairly common in other MMOs. In CoX, two Fire/Fire Blasters have the potential to be *radically* different, if only in origin and appearance. In TOR, two different Sith Warriors will be radically different if they took different advanced classes, but the storyline remains the same for them with the exception of a few alternate missions that're based off alignment (Dark/Light). If you ever did multiple runs through either of the Mass Effect games, you know about the degree of difference to expect.
- Nonetheless, I do expect to alt in the game, as each class's individual storyline is fully voice acted and well written. I plan to roll at least one of everything, and possibly a couple of certain classes whose Advanced Specializations are unique enough to want to play (Ranged/Healing Mercenary Bounty Hunter vs. Ranged/Melee Tank Powertech, ferex)
- Movement is a little annoying, as you don't gain access to a fast run ability (Sprint) until Level 15.
- The actual gameplay is hella fun, and gets better with more people. I seriously enjoy the group conversation system, where you and your party members have a random roll-off to see whose response to a given conversation branch is shown in the "cutscene". Everyone gets the light side/dark side points for what they chose, regardless of who won, and the end result is rather interestingly randomized.
- The "Flashpoint" task forces take some of the best things from the new CoX TFs and then give them full voice acting and cutscenes, as well as interesting fight mechanics. And you can generally do them with two people once you start getting Companion characters that can back you up.
- The Companions take the edge off of soloing. One character alone wouldn't be that well off in Heroic level missions, but that same character with a Companion could easily breeze through it. There's a little immersion breaking if you're teamed with someone who has the same companions as you, but overall a minor gripe, given the Compys stick around, even in team content, which leads to some awesome fights.

Overall, The Old Republic is....technically an MMO. But it's more accurately KOTOR 3, now with multiplayer. This isn't a bad thing, but I can see myself running through the available content for all 8 classes and then un-subscribing until they add new stuff, because as a non Epic Lootz style player, there's not much to grip me once I've finished the story. But that's not a bad thing, as I suspect I'm the weird anomaly in that particular sense. No matter how the replayability of multiples of a class isn't high, this is a good game, and I see a lot of people playing it for long periods of time to keep it afloat. It'll be interesting to play the full version.
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"Oh, silver blade, forged in the depths of the beyond. Heed my summons and purge those who stand in my way. Lay
waste."

I keep coming up with non-crossover fanfic ideas that I'd really like to see done, and would like to share in any case - but I don't remotely have the ability to write most of them, and since they aren't crossovers (which could go in the CTSNB/CTSMB threads), I haven't had anywhere to post them. So I thought I'd make one.

Some of these are definitely more complete than others. Some aren't even real story ideas; they're more plot elements, or even plot devices, than anything else.

I know I've got at least half a dozen ideas floating just under the surface, and I'll be posting them when and as I remember them and can put them into words; there will probably be more over time. If this thread winds up being just me dumping the detritus of my mind out for all to see, oh well, at least it's out there somewhere; if anyone else has anything to share, please do.

Something that was brought up in a conversation on IRC...

How did Earth's Economy change with Fenspace? Did the Financial Crisis of 2010/11 happen? Euro Crisis with Greece falling down that badly? (Through I guess the Euro Crisis had a good thing with the Italian Government changing.)

Hacker Underspace starting a Rating Agencies for Rating Agencies?

I was wondering if I can ask you guys for a bit of help trying to figure out how to search for a rather obscure Sci Fi book series...
It's a story about a British spy being assigned to an experiment which goes horribly wrong, and he gets thrown into an alternate dimension.
I can't remember who wrote it, or the name of the book of series.
Any suggestions would be appreciated.
_____
DEATH is Certain. The hour, Uncertain...