Randox

Good to know that Community is turning it around for Season 5. Season 3 was getting pretty weird, and Season 4 was enjoyable, but I'm not sure I'm in a rush to see it again. The Blizzard that started last night is still going on, but me and my Dad went out to clear the driveway anyway. On the one hand, a huge portion was still bare gravel because of the wind (hence Blizzard). On the other hand, I had to wade through a snowdrift that was up to my chest to get to the snowblower. It's minus 18C outside, which is actually nice for this because it helps keep you cool, and the snow is all super fluffy, so the blower has no problems throwing (it can only throw wet snow to the right). Had problems starting though. Also, we found out why it used to have a cover over the carburetor. It seems that if the snow blows back onto the left side, like say in a blizzard at -18C, it will form ice and stall the engine out. So I got to spend a few minutes with an industrial blow dryer (less air, more heat) thawing it out and warming it up. It was also less than thrilled when I used it to move snow drifts that were too tall. Started having trouble when the drifts where falling into the chute from above, so that took a while. Would not have been good if we had allowed that to build up more. Anyway, having ski gear that covers everything but the skin between your nostrils pays off too. The way the property is laid out, and the way the wind sometimes comes, the wind can go from carrying the snow away from you to blowing it all right back in your face, and it's really awesome to be in a whiteout where you can't see anything, but be totally immune to the snow and wind. It's the grownup version of diving into a snowbank.

So apparently it's all the days after Christmas that are really busy :D Think I finally have a day to relax tomorrow. Spent most of today on the road. I like driving, but 6 hours of the highway can get a tad bit boring. I'm the opposite Low. I hate going to the movies in large groups, mostly because someone inevitably talks. When I go to movies on a date, it's usually quite early to get good seats, so there is plenty of time to chat, and no one (in my party) blabs through the whole thing.

Had a shot myself. I hope this helps you with your project.

Getting the new graphics card to work in my computer has been a bit of a chore. My computer couldn't recognize it when it was installed, though it was still functional. It took a little longer than it should have to just try installing the drivers anyway (also, installing .NET framework takes ages), and that worked just fine. So yay! The new PSU running it has very long cables, most of which are now bunched up between the GPU and PSU, so I'm still a little extra nervous about heating issues, but it seems to be doing alright. I'd be a lot happier if XFX has decided to to make the case for the graphics card cover both sides. It seems like more air would come out the back of the case (rather than circulating hot air around inside the case) if there was a larger restriction forcing air to go out that way, but whatever. The CPU lives below the GPU, so the PSU takes care of most of that anyway. Had my first game of Monopoly with my parents (Klingon version to boot). Went very well. I won, and no one walked away hating one another, so that's pretty awesome. Been a fantastic couple of days, especially the part where we didn't really do anything on Boxing day. Much nicer to have that relaxing day to recover and then do stuff on the 27th. Just so much better.

In the winter sale so far I have picked up: - Elder Scrolls Oblivion - Viscera: Santas Rampage - Arma III - Tomb Raider - Solar 2 Oblivion was never something I was planning on getting, but for <7$, thought it was worth a shot. Solar 2 I had never heard of, but it intrigued me and cost about as much as a chocolate bar, so why not. Arma 3 was still a tough sell at 40% off, but I did enjoy Arma II a lot, and I don't forsee a better sale in the near future.

Got around to looking at my marks today. Calculus was a relief, since I was afraid I was going to end up with a D (D's only count towards a degree here for electives. Required courses require a C- or better). Walked away with a C+. I've never been so happy to get a C+ in my life. Animated computing was a let down though, with a B-. I'm going to blame the robot competition for that. It didn't go well and it took like 10% (or more) of the term mark with it. Hoping for more rain tonight than freezing rain. Would just as soon keep our electricity flowing. Also noticed that the Steam Winter sale is on, and picked up Viscera Cleanup Detail: Santas Rampage because for less than $3 why not. Also picked up Tomb Raider for a steal (like 80% off for the game, and 90% off the DLC), but this is where things get stupid. They have a DLC bundle with all the DLC (and there is a lot of it) for $20 or something. If you look at the details, the total bundle cost individually (which steam tells you) is about $7.50. So that's more than 200% of the individual price. Even if you included the game with that, which is like $9, it's still cheaper to buy it individually. I hope it's a mistake because that's pretty shifty of them. Anyway, it saves me paying for all the multiplayer DLC I am never going to use so whatever.

Reality really can be a shocker sometimes. I guess there is nothing to be done about it now but...don't build imaginary visions of your future with someone and then not them about it. I can see where he is coming from, especially if he was turning down sex in line with the unspoken fantasy in his head, but it was his mistake to not communicate the truth, to expect her to react to the situation in the same way he did, and if he wants to move on with the relationship, he's going to have to own that mistake. He screwed up, what happened has happened, and he can choose to move on or he can't. I'd kind of hope that he's a decent enough guy that he'll get there (sooner rather than later) so having a sympathetic ear that perhaps keeps him grounded in reality would be all he needs. If he's feeling insecure or inadequate now, I'd definitely point out that she passed up a good job offer to come back and be with him (if you haven't already). Also, if he doesn't bother telling his girlfriend about how he feels about this, at some point it might become clear that he isn't going to get through this just you and him (at least not without doing something really stupid, like trying to match her count), and if you're comfortable with it, it might come down to you to tell her (or at the very least, encourage him to talk to her about it). At the end of the day, if this is going to be an issue for them, they've got a pretty serious discussion coming up and the sooner that happens, the sooner they can both get on with their lives one way or the other.

Fixed the lights on our house, and put the last ones up. Satisfying. The newly painted tree was brought in, but it's still missing the garland and tinsel, so not bothered with a picture yet. It looks much nicer this way though. I always forget about the Christmas rush, and I'm not sure why. Just the planning meals, the parties to go to, all that good stuff. I think I still have another present to get as well. There is still snow on the ground, so if it can survive the rain tomorrow, there might be at least a half white Christmas. Always better if it actually snows though.

Reading through the thread, I decided to hop over to youtube and check if I hate Kanye because of the music or if my ability to not give a flying fart about celebrity news finally failed. Listened to the first song that came up, and got to 0:38 before the rap started. I stopped listening at 0:44 because...rap just really isn't my thing. I'm sure there are plenty of people out there who feel the same way about any of the music I listen to, which is why music is so fantastic. There is something for everyone, and it's an endless sense of wonder for all of us that anyone would listen to 'that'. Absolutely fantastic :thumbup: The weather is being pretty fun here, and as I understand it, pretty much every place in the North East. On the upside, I think we are up to a 50/50 shot at a White Christmas right now, which is always a good thing (I weep for people who live where it never snows on Christmas. Except Hawaii. Hawaii is perfect). On the other hand, our driveway, and road, is currently a solid sheet of ice and that's not going to change until we get a day or two at or above freezing. The next road out also has its moments, but the highways are pretty good. I'm also predicting another North Wind on Christmas, making it impossible for the fourth year running to get a fire going without the smoke being blown back into the house (the rare north wind drives down the chimney, so that only a fire going at full strength actually produces enough heat to raise the smoke all the way out of the chimney). Our white tree was starting to yellow from the sun, which we noticed last year, so this year it's finally getting painted blue. It was white with the electric blue led lights (spooky tree) before, and it's getting smaller white lights once it's painted. Apparently it's a pretty electric blue paint, so it might still qualify as spooky tree though. Long live the Spooky Tree! For anyone curious about the name, this is last years picture. The name comes from the blue glow it created when you couldn't actually see the tree, and also because that colour of led is really hard to focus on. I'll take a new picture once the newly painted tree is up.

Yeah, Christmas shopping. This is part of my problem with exams. I never seem to fit the shopping in (and I would really much rather have the car for it anyway). So yay, shopping rush.

Finally writing my final exam shortly. I've decided that early/mid afternoon exams are the sweet spot. If you wake up on exam day and realize you forgot or missed something, or just want to quickly go over things again, you have a few hours to do that. Morning exams are terrible because everything becomes a rush, and you're probably going to achieve full wakefulness two hours into a three hour exam. But what I have right now is the evening exam. Last one of the day, sun is down, and the body is getting ready for a nice relaxing evening. And I've been able to spend the entire day being anxious about the exam, and potentially wearing my brain out before I actually get to the exam. A few hours is nice, but a whole day of waiting is not cool. As for the exam itself...I just feel like I'm waiting to see what I overlooked. The format of the exam was given to us, so I know what all but two of the questions will be, and I feel really confident about them. One of the questions is vague, and one of multiple choice with explanations (so multiple choice minus the benefit of multiple choice). On the upside, if this is written like the midterm then I should be fine. I guess mostly right now there are some equations and stuff I have been holding in my head all day, and I do worry about forgetting them once I hit the exam, or things suddenly being not so clear once I don't have a book to fall back on. The blessing at midterm time was that the midterm started out really easy, so I am hoping that the first few multiple choice are kind. Much easier when your first reaction to the first question isn't "uh oh". And heck, I did that midterm in the evening too, so maybe this is a good math time for me (my homework begs to differ, but whatever). Starting to get excited for the Holidays/Christmas (and yes I am absolutely using this post to burn time and chill out before my exam). I am also very ready for the exam season to be over. My mental reserves of concentration are all used up, so hopefully there is enough left to get through tonight. I just want it to all be over for a few weeks. Anyway, I think this lands me right on schedule, so yay, exam time. Feeling better about this now :)

So this morning I think I got to experience Exploding Head Syndrome when I woke up, which is the auditory cousin of the Hypnic Jerk (where you feel like you're falling and wake up with a jump). Well, the descriptions aren't lying about the loud part. Mine was pretty much a cross of a cannon firing and Niagara Falls. Not really a pleasant way to start the day. EXam season is finally coming to a close at the beginning of next week. Will be very happy to have that over for a few months. Then some time to actually relax for the holidays before school starts back up again.

As a general rule, the number of F2P games where you can't give them money for an edge in game is approximately zero. What I will give to War Thunder, and much of the reason I choose that game over World of Tanks, is that it's not actively pay to win. Someone who pays definitely has an edge. Even if they only have a premium account, they level faster and make more money, so on average their planes will be more upgraded. If they throw money at their crew and plane, then yes, their planes definitely have an edge in combat. But you can't gain an advantage that isn't possible to gain without money if you don't mind taking longer to get there (I run a premium account time to time, but rarely pay for anything else). I suppose it's one edge for another in practical terms, but I was never able to get over the active advantage that is premium ammo in World of Tanks. Impressive games though. I'm hoping that it won't take too long for both companies to get all three of their games going (both doing tank, plane, and ship combat games), because competition is good. Also, both are working on ships last, and that's probably the one I want the most. (for the sake of Clarity, WarThunder is one game that will include all three, where WarGaming is developing 3 games that interact).

One more exam down. Did pretty alright on that, though time will tell if it was alright enough. Still, it's done, so I don't have to worry about that for at least a little while. Now I have a few comparatively calm days (English exams are easier than math exams) until it's time for my other math exam. Nice to know I'm not the only person who does the finger biting thing :lol: I think I'm also getting sucked into war thunder again, a game for which I actually did buckle and give them money. I don't think I could sustain it though, I've gotten very used to the $5 a month membership fee I enjoy with RuneScape, and I think if I went a month or two at a time, War Thunder is around triple that. Also disappointed that tanks haven't been added yet. Was hopping that would happen early December (beta is starting now, I was hoping it would be live), before I started playing again.

The exception would be (some) government jobs. In Canada, the Federal government is essentially not allowed to ask subjective questions, because that would be unfair :rolleyes: . As a result, federal government job interviews are essentially oral exams (sometimes they also have a written component, and no, I'm still not joking). Anyway, had my first exam of the season. Someday I might find out why, when a finger is sore from writing, I get the urge to bite it (as in sqeeze it, except with my teeth). The weird part is that it sort of works. Calculus tomorrow, which is fortunately in the afternoon because I'll still be studying for it right up until it happens. Such is the nature of me and Calculus. Been making excellent progress though, so I'm starting to feel alright about this one.

Every now and then, my phone gets turned off by my pocket. Never happy when I notice it's been turned off when it shouldn't be (which is approximately never).

I am glad that at least some politicians have managed to spot that issue before it actually becomes one. I'd also just as soon not have a TV that parrots recent events via commercial selection, though the idea of being able to say 'I really wish I know about ____' and then getting a bunch of answers at the next commercial break has a certain appeal, even if that's extremely creepy (nothing like active confirmation that your electronics are spying on you to increase your sense of privacy). Quite honestly, if stores started having personalized advertising, I'd probably just stop going places (especially if they ever decide to do something like using your phones to track your identity so they can turn the world into the marketing utopia shown in Minority Report).

They could use it for interesting things that would add tremendously to the gaming experience. Or they could use it to spy on you and serve ads based on your mood/interests. Guess which option makes more money. Still, it's nice to see that they might use it for more than just advertising, even if it looks like so far they are only expanding into other uses aimed solely at annoying the user (or creeping them out, when you start getting commercials for stuff you are actively talking about all the time). As long as they keep the swear detection out of Mario Kart and Arma |^_^|

Seems like a good rule to me. At least to me, there is a pretty huge gap between 'finds attractive' and 'wants to have sex with'. If you could turn down the offer to date/have sex with without second thought, then all good. If you can't, then perhaps you shouldn't be their best friend, because that seems like the sort of thing that would, at the very least, eat at you over time.

I feel like a better solution would be to point out that they were in violation of the dress code as it was. I hope people administer appropriate social justice against the offenders though, since dress codes are invariably a case of the majority being punished by a few morons who have to ruin things for everyone (like of like most workplace safety laws). It also reminds me of the prison system in the unbridled creativity those people show when thinking about ways to violate the dress code without actually breaking any rules. I'm also particularly interested in why a beauty school of all places would have such a draconian dress code to begin with? Without even thinking about any stereotypes at all (not that I didn't, I just didn't have to), that seems like it would actually interfere with at least some of your work. Today I realized that I no longer remember the things I schedule in my phone at all. Like, I'll set a reminder for a day ahead, and for a few seconds, I will be absolutely baffled that I have an appointment the next day. I mean, it makes sense, it's just weird to realize it has happened (in part of the quest to get through life using as little energy as possible, the brain will not remember things that it doesn't feel it needs to. you see the same dividing of memory tasks in married couples).

As an aggressively casual gamer, I find the vanilla game just fine. It's actually taken me out of my comfort zone, but to a good place. There is a certain appeal to being surrounded and having a quick look through the items available to you, and the knowledge that it's all you have to work with. It's still in that sweet spot though, were I am pretty confident that I can get myself out of a jam with whatever (I can at the very least, usually escape). The Breakdown sounds like a nightmare for me. I don't like to be rushed. Finally got the controller all sorted, and I think I might go back to keyboard. It occurs to me I could just map all the combos to my mouse, and I really need a mouse for shooting. I haven't really consoled in so long that I am joystick impaired when it comes to shooting.

Glad to hear you're enjoying mass effect, and the elevators haven't driven you totally mad. Can't remember what game I am using as the source for Gmod. Don't play it much, and I don't think I have all of the ones needed for stuff like the gmod tower. State of Decay is getting better. Think I finally sorted the controller out. My controller has a keyboard emulation mode which I was using, which I then decided was worse than the actual keyboard. Now I have a 360 controller emulator converting for it (the game only recognizes 360 controllers, or others that use the same input type). After sorting out some issues there, I like it. The game works really nicely with a controller, so once I am done relearning the controls (it's not a strait remap) and getting used to the controller, the game should be that much better. Also, the special zombies (called freaks) seem to be inspired by Left 4 Dead. The Feral, Juggernaut (Big'un), Screamer, and Bloater are pretty clearly inspired by L4D's Hunter, Tank, Screamer (was replaced in development by the Boomer and Witch), and Boomer. There are also SWAT and Army zombies, but they aren't particularly dangerous (mildly bulletproof, and the army ones are fast).

Picked up State of Decay in the steam sale. There are certainly issues with the game, and I've decided that it really should be played with a controller (it has attack combos which are much easier that way, also bypasses lack of mouse acceleration). It also has a bit of a mission overload aspect to it, where there are always like 3-5 missions plus base upkeep to do. But all that said, this is the concept for a game that I have been hoping for really. You have a base in a town, and you have to scavenge for resources to maintain and improve your base. That's really the core of the game. A couple hours in and I built myself into a building materials shortage (I think morale will bottom out pretty quickly if I can't meet daily usage), and we are pretty much out of painkillers. Health wont regenerate without resting or painkillers, so that's bad. Pain killers are something you want to have when doing pretty much anything else. I only have one character at full vitality (other character I can currently used got super mauled, so he's pretty useless), and she got tired, so I've decided to take a bit of a break while she get's rested (as I understand it, the game will simulate up to about 8 hours passing when you exit it based on how long until you play again). Hope that some of my base mates will find some painkillers as well while I am resting. Think it's definitely worth the $10 bucks if you don't mind playing a game that's lacking a bit of polish (you can tell it's a console port). It really is a neat game with reasonably deep gameplay mechanics, and it can get pretty tense (it auto saves and all deaths are permanent). Things like vehicles being a finite resource add to that.

Going to be doing overtime on the robots. A bit of a nightmare, thought I was being clever and might have botched the latest programing. Still, should be a salvageable situation with the 3.5 hours we will have in the lab after hours to work on it, and we are still miles ahead of a couple other groups who haven't even started on their third program (they won't finish either, which really sucks for them). I've also gotten back into Euro Truck Simulator 2 for some reason. Quite frankly, I'm actually still one of the people who looks at the game and goes: Really? People pay for that game? And they enjoy it?. I don't know why it's fun, it just is. And SCS is one of those all gamer small companies, like Squad, and those are always really awesome companies to 'work with' because they actually have legitimate interests beyond just making money (it's where money becomes as much a means to create more cool stuff in addition to being an end in and of itself).

This Thanksgiving, on November 29 and 30, the RuneScape fansites are getting together to host a social and drop party. Come on by, meet new people, and grab some free stuff! The Official Thread on the RSOF can be found here: [qfc]199-200-871-65201358[/qfc] Black Friday Night Lights - Social Firemaking and Cocktails Date: November 29, 2013 Time: 9pm EST / 2am GMT (Nov 30) Location: Grand Exchange, South-West Corner World: 16 (P2P) [pending]pur_1385776800[/pending] Saturday Spectacular - Drop Party in Edgeville Date: November 30, 2013 Time: 2pm EST / 7pm GMT Location: Edgeville World: 3 (F2P) Drop List: 200 Rune Armour Sets (lg)100 Rune Scimitars5M CashFull Saradomin Rune Armour (2)Full Zamorak Rune Armour (2)[pending]tur_1385838000[/pending] Attending Fansites: RuneZoneRuneSlayersStellar Dawn CentralLunagangRuneHQCrusadersScapeRuneHintsTip.It