Thanks guys! Yeah, the rate at which a computer used to get out of date was astonishing. That's why I got into using OS X in the first place about 10 years ago, I hated constantly feeling like I needed to upgrade. Sounds like things are a little better these days! Enron let's definitely make a date out of it in March sometime (again, assuming I get a bonus). You guys can help me with which version of DOS to install, all the hot BBSes, etc.

I thought this was kinda cool! Rock 'em sock 'em Minecraft!

my system felt its age with stuff like battlefield three, but other than that, ya im probably fine for awhile with steam games and mmos. for battlefield, bumping up  my ram solved whatever weird issues i was having. an extra eight gigs of the same ram i originally got was cheaper than those first four gigs, what.

I agree with the l'Zar. I am running a 4 year old MoBo & CPU, 4 gigs on Win 7 x64 (4 GiB useable for you 64-bit geeks :P ) and a Vid card three generations old (ATI 4850). Runs games very well and other apps (photoshop, inDesign & productivity) very well. CPU/GPU tech has moved forward the past 4-5 years, but much, much slower than in the past where a rig was likely outdated in 18 months and hardly able to run current games at the crappiest settings within 2-3 years. Even mainstream 3D cards have enough punch now to last a while.

D>M>

| Pee. See?

I am still mostly satisfied with my box that is running XP, 4GB RAM(3.5 USEABLE for you RAM nerds), some crappy AMD processor, and a $125 video card from 2 years ago. I can run WoW maxed out, Batman fairly robustly, most other Steam games flawlessly, and while SWTOR runs a little slow, I think that is more from my installing it on an external USB drive because I had no more space on my primary...

What does all this mean? I don't think you need to go all out on a PC to make sure you keep ahead of the slowly widening hardware requirements over the years. I have a pretty crappy system upgraded a few years ago, and I am satisfied. Of course, it may be more a case of me not being hip to the new gear and not knowing what I'm missing, but I still have my fun despite being a PC fuddy-duddy.

| PC Love

It is relatively easy now to assemble a solid PC. Not like back in the 80s and 90s where it could be a harrowing experience due to driver and IRQ conflicts. Now those types of issues are pretty rare. With a descent monitor, you can probably put together a descent rig for under $1K, like r00d said. If you need, I can help out. I still keep fairly well astride with PC hardware market and I have build dozens of boxes in the past.

The great part of building your own rig is you can cut out the shit you don't want, and get upgrades at at cost prices instead of outlandish markups. I'm talking to you Apple and Dell.

D>M>

i put together my gaming rig from scratch over a year ago now and i think it ran me around eight hundred bucks, minus the monitor i already had. of course, most of the components i bought then now cost a fraction of the cost, but now you could probably build something a lot more powerful. it was surprisingly easy using various guides i found around the web.

Haven't had a ton of time for SW:TOR in the last few days -- been really busy with home stuff and finishing up my last week at work. I've got all of Feb off to spend with the little one. Hooray! On the other hand the wife goes back to work on Wednesday. Boo! But I guess on the other hand when I'm not working I'll have more time for SW:TOR. Hooray!

Anyone following this whole thing going on with the Komen for the Cure foundation? Disappointing to learn their board is a bunch of GOP assclowns.

Since I've been doing so much PC gaming lately between Star Wars and Steam, I'm thinking about buying a dedicated PC gaming rig if I get a bonus this year. What does a decent rig cost these days, anyway? I poked around Alienware a little bit, but their prices are pretty high. I get the feeling you're paying as much for bling as you are for processor/graphics card/etc. I'd need to pick up a monitor too.

I stopped listening to the Bombcast mostly because I can't stand Ryan. I really don't mind Jeff. He's kind of stupid and obnoxious, but I just don't like Ryan (no-Walsh) at all. Vinny, Dave, and Brad were my favorites. I used to see Patrick Klepick at the comedy shows I used to go to and he always looked like the dauchiest little hipster, so hated him by default. I'll try to give it a listen again sometime to see what it's like now.

I wasn't so into UYD in the beginning either, but starting at episode 1, they just grew on me and it's like the best shit on the internet ever. It helped to see their taped episodes on YouTube to give it some reference.

Craigshouse - Seth reading Craigslist ads, kills me everytime.

Ya, haven't seen anyone on Star Wars all week! I'm gonna be gone a couple days but I'll play again this weekend.

Yay on Beach Con!

| News and Notes

- BTW, good to hear you're doing awesome in Hawai'i, brah. You're an asshole for being able to surf so easily :) If you haz Internets, you haz the ability to play games with The Action Team! I don't know what the bandwidth of a coconut and pineapple network drop is, so that might be the only problem :) Do it!

- Rental agreement has been sent off, just waiting for the confirmation/approval and we are good to go for BeachCabinCon!

- Been falling asleep at like 8.30 recently, so no SWTOR for me. I'm gearing up for some gamin' tonight though as we are watching a total of two 5 year-olds and two 5 MONTH-olds Friday night...

- Can't find a very good SWTOR podcast yet. I can't stand about half the voices on Old Republic Radio and I sort of want to choke most of the folks on that show regularly. Makes me want to fire-up The Electric Cardboard Mayhem again! Speaking of which, I found some weird German podcast aggregation site that gave ECM 5 stars on most episodes! Next step, PROFIT!

- I listened to an episode of Uhh Yeah Dude yesterday and I can't get into it. If you have seen Parks and Recreation, one of the hosts just sounds like Jean-Ralphio - and I can't get into an hour of that guy, let alone two of them :) If I recall, I didn't like Giant Bombcast the first time I heard it either, and I still think that Jeff Gerstmann is still a bully and asshole, but Vinny, Ryan, Brad, and Patrick Klepek (the new guy) make up for it by being funny and nice guys. Not that Jeff isn't funny, but he can be a bully and a lil' more crass and annoying than I really want to hear all the time. I mean, it's his company, so do what you like, but still.

-

One of the podcasts I used to listen to did an episode from the Creation Museum, Marc Maron's WTF. It was funny.

Speaking of podcasts, going to a live podcast show Thursday night for my favorite podcast (the only one I really listen to anymore), Uhh Yeah Dude. I've never been so hyped for a comedy show, let alone basically a live podcast taping. They have over 300 episodes and I'm still working my way through it all, listening to the new ones and going through the back catalog. I'm in the 150 range so far (150 hours of these 2 dudes talking!) - it's been funny to follow along with the the cultural events from a few years back. Right now where I'm at, Obama just got elected. It's wicked awesome.

My first thought on your post was, "Is this some kind of cool story that Wylie was telling on a car ride or at school or something?" Then I was like all, "Aww. Someone really believes this. Lame."

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"Some people think that dinosaurs were too big, or there were too many of them, to go on (Noah's) Ark. However, there were not very many different kinds of dinosaurs. There are certainly hundreds of dinosaur names, but many of these were given to just a bit of bone or skeletons of the same dinosaur found in other countries. It is also reasonable to assume that different sizes, varieties, and sexes of the same kind of dinosaur have ended up with different names. For example, look at the many different varieties and sizes of dogs, but they are all the same kind—the dog kind! In reality, there may have been fewer than 50 kinds of dinosaurs."

And I want to go to here. Wax museum evidence that Man lived with Dinosaurs! All 50 of 'em! Pro-tip from the museusm: Radiation is an invention by Man.

Amazon has Star War The Old Republic for $46.99 right now - that's friggen cheaper than the $60 rocks I dropped.

| future shock

So back to the "future is now" topic:

The future-creep has been so subtle, it's hard to think if I've had many of those "damn, we're living in the space age" revelations, but there are some major moments growing up that stand out.

- Time Traveler. I remember they had this hologram game at the arcade in Hermosa (over by where the first Penguins Yogurt and AMC were). This was that clunky, expensive, weird Dragon's Lair-esque game that took place in a bubble and had holograms fighting! That shit was insane! It was so close to the holograms from Star Wars (always bringing it back), I really thought it was gonna be the wave of the future.

- I also remember Neverwinter Nights on AOL. I never had the money to play it, but I DREAMED of that shit and imagined what it must be like. I don't know if they ever had trials, but I vaguely remember trying it somewhere (maybe at Jons? I don't think I knew Jon then). I did have Pool of Radiance, so I was so excited about the possibility of multiplayer Gold Box gaming.

- The fucking digitized voice in Cinemaware games! Specifically Rocket Ranger and The Three Stooges. They had some fucked up digitized voices in them, but it blew my mind. Now video games can't shut the fuck up, holy smokes.

- Even as a kid I knew Robby the Robot was wack. Super Mario Bros on the other hand was insane, and is still basically awesome to this day. That's incredible.

There's a local tiny card store near my house that's always packed with intense dudes, but I kinda like it. Reminds me of the golden age of arcade fighting games and the vibe it had. I don't want to be a part of any of those scenes, but I think it's cool they exist. I think every friday night at most game stores is the big weekly event Friday Night Magic which is supposed to be pretty cray cray. The Yu-Ghi-Oh thing seems weird too, but that game is apparently huge.

I tried out some PvP on TOR today and that shit didn't go well. I really don't know my class and just got killed constantly. It was fun but until I know it better, I'll probably wait to try it again. Also killed a World Boss on Taris with a huge raid (I don't know the raid limit - 18 or something?) - it was fun. Mostly played healer and dropped some DOTs here and there.

And I have personally grouped up with Enron! We were smokin' fools left and right so I would say whatever his original control issues were, he appears to have gotten past them. It made getting through that massive zone a lot more fun!

I've hit 15 and am about to tackle "The Works." Per Rude's advice I've cleared all the Justicar missions before moving on. Now I have an actual tanking ability... the equivalent of the WoW fighter's defensive form, where my damage isn't as good but my defense is considerably enhanced. Looking forward to trying out the full set of tools in a flashpoint.

On another matter... I am glad I'm not involved in the Magic scene. I went to the game store last night and there was just a weird vibe in the air. Out in front there were a couple of guys smoking right in front of the door, pretty much blocking the entrance. They had these pissed off expressions on their faces. Inside the store was jammed with all these dudes who seemed vaguely intense and upset. Everyone had huge blocks of Magic cards laid out all over the place, over other merchandise, etc. There was a lot of arguing about trades like, who had offered a certain trade first, etc.

The guy who I recognized as the dude who runs the Magic events there randomly rolled up on some random and starting talking to him really intensely out of nowhere about all the kinds of games he used to play. He started talking about how he had 10,000 points of Dark Eldar and how it was the biggest Dark Eldar army in California.

I asked the girl working the register what was going on and she said it was a release event for the new set. Not only that but apparently it was going on the next day as well and then after that there was a Yu-Gi-Oh tournament that was going to be really intense.