Randox

I feel like Alpha Protocol might have ruined morality for me. The game is just so ridiculously open, to the point of encouraging you to RP rather than doing that for you (things like orphans created have no impact on the game, and there are some choices in the game that exist for the sole purpose of RP value). It has morally ambiguous situations, but you don't mind because unlike a game like Mass Effect, you aren't punished for being neutral, or being inconsistent. The game is entirely consequential. It won't stand in the way of you making whatever choice you think is best at the time (and you have only seconds to make choices), but you have to deal with what can be significant consequences that impact the story, and also can make a future level much easier or much harder. Good story and voice acting to boot. Now, I'm not familiar with the Witcher, and I'm going to admit that I am most familiar with the ME morality system, which kinda sucks more the more I think about it. Wikipedia isn't being super helpful, but it looks like it might be a flexible system, more consequentialist that just a good/bad score. It looks like a pretty interesting game actually.

War Thunder has the grinding, but no, I would never consider it an MMO proper. The devs also scare me, or the community does. On the one hand, the game is nothing short of spectacular, if not as detailed as a game like IL-2 Sturmovik. That said, there are definitely concerns that Russia is being massively favored by the Russian developer for the Russian player base, and that gives me pause when considering to give them money. If they aren't going to ultimately balance the game, and it's not clear that they ever will, I don't really want to fund that. I'll not pay someone to ruin what could be such an amazing game, I want to be convinced that they are good devs first. And right now the community is very us versus them, and that scares me a bit. My latest aquisition is Alpha Protocol, proving once again that if your game was made this side of 2000, all you have to do to make me want to buy it is convinced One F Jef (Jefmajor) to play it on youtube. I melted like butter, though to be fair the game is legitimately spectacular. It has an actual decision system with actual impact. Where a game like Mass Effect has a very clear cut morality system, and a very linear story (you can achieve things different ways, but by and large the story unfolds with the same general events). I suppose this does too, but I am given to understand that the choices have a lot more ramifications, and it's not always easy to see them coming. There is no morality system, only consequences, and the consequences aren't weighted to any type of player. There is no universal good either, different people respond differently to the different types of choices (suave, aggressive, and professional are the main 3, with occasional bonus options). I just find that the role playing aspect has gotten a lot better. As for the game itself, it's oddly flexible between stealth and strait up shooter. I try to be stealthy, but I lack the patience (why I don't play actual stealth games), so I'll be going all silent one minute, and the next it's hit the fan and I'm involved in what feels like a small war. I also dislike leaving people behind me, so even being super stealth, I usually perform takedowns. I think I have created nearly 500 orphans so far, even using non leathal take downs and the occasional tranq ammo (because this game tracks that!). Anyway, it's an oddly flexible game that lends itself easily to role playing. The one thing to watch out for is that the PC port is a bit strange. As far as I can tell, it works on a technical level just fine, unlike a game like GTA4. But the user interface is odd, with things like right clicking to reverse menues rather than escape (which is actually really nice once you adapt to it), and there is a hacking minigame where you move something with your mouse, but can also see your mouse on screen and they don't synch up, which can be odd at first. Also, one of the hacking games is considered to be quite difficult. I struggled at first, but my brain is well trained and I can get it now. But you have to find the numbers that aren't changing in an array of numbers that are, and it takes a while to be able to spot them I find. If you suck at it, there are ways around it, but it's definatley more fun if you don't need to rely on them.

I think I have to hold strong on this one. I might see something I 'need', might not. I did just get alpha protocol though (amazing game), so I should be good. The one I do want to watch for is if Arma 3 goes on sale for some reason. At some point, the Arma online play is going to switch mostly to that, so I'll need it sooner or later.

That's a morality debate. Some people do hold killing in any situation, including self defence, the defence of others, or duress (under self preservation, but perhaps a special category since you have to think about it). I can't really speak to pacifism without making stuff up, at least right now, though I would have to think that one possible objection is the argument that you are saying your life is more valuable. It can be argued a lot of different ways, that's just an example (as in, please don't make a bunch of responses to that statement here. Make a new thread if you really want to get into it and I'll start arguing for more points of view, since I have a few). About the RAM sticks, if the 512MB sticks were slower, the motherboard probably slowed all of them down to that speed (I don't think they can usually handle multiple memory clocks, so they just use the slowest, but I could be making stuff up). If not, there are probably other complications with using different size sticks that I don't adequately understand, though it does seem to me that you aren't supposed to do that. Pick a size and use just that size (and type). Got on the jetski again. No pleased that the one I wanted in the water decided to have a rusty throttle cable, so I get the one with the missing steering fin (has one, not the other right now), but hey, it's a freaking sea-doo. I really can't complain about it that much. Just marvel at how not water tight they are (they are not designed to sit in the water. They are supposed to be running, or lifted out. They don't like water in the pump, and the hulls tend to slowly leak, and the one in use right now has no bilge pump, just siphons which require it to be moving). Given the weather, I can't wear a wetsuit on them, since I'd probably pass out even before I left the dock, though on the flipside it's so warm that a rashguard is perfectly fine. At some point, I think I also have a picture of the lake trying to float the land section of our dock after that ridiculous rain we had a couple weeks back. It's rare that the water would go high enough that the ramp leading out to the actual dock runs uphill.

Thinking on your situation Skull. How much do you like her? How much of a future could you honestly see the two of you having? From your explanation, I'd never suggest saying screw it and carrying on, thinking that what you get out of it is worth the loss of any friendships and drama and all that, but you don't have to burn bridges either, depending on what type of guy your friend is at least. I suppose if they ended really badly, and he hates her guts, then it would probably be a betrayal to date her at any point, and it's a one or the other situation, but I would think that likely the best course of action is some of that terrifying honesty, admit that you like her, but you can't do the secrecy thing and that out of respect to your friend you want to wait a month or two, and then be open about it (and yes, it's always going to be weird if you sleep together when your friend is in the same house, you might want to consider not doing that). Just a thought. If you and she are willing to put the brakes on for whatever constitutes a respectful amount of time, and you think its worth the wait or don't have any compelling plans or opportunities coming up, then why not. And yeah, the casual sex thing is tricky. What I will say is that in a situation where you can make an FWB, especially over the longer term, work, usually means that your friendship is somewhat doomed. The biggest thing is probably the knowledge that you aren't going to the same places in life, that a long term committed relationship will never be a logistical viability. Logically, that also means the friendship will ultimately end relatively early in life when you do go your separate ways, and that it will never be a good idea to rekindle that friendship, that you will have to move on and find other people. I'm not sure it's something you really plan out, but it can definitely happen. I would not count on it.

Even though I can't say I am super into this game anymore, if the zombie hordes are finally here, I might have a reason to build that tiered fortress I've been thinking about. Won't need to build a zombie farm. If you wanted a harder end game and don't mind a mod, the Twilight Forest has some bosses that are a fair bit stronger than anything in vanilla, and the world itself is in general substantially more hostile. I don't think it comes with any uber armour or anything, but still has some stuff that would make it worth exploring to an otherwise vanilla game if I recall correctly (I think it's the mod with the divining rod for mining).

Gave War Thunder a try, even though I am loathe to play a 'pay to win' game that I could definitely see taking my money at some point. I will give credit that really it's making your life easier (faster leveling), and a few bonus planes, but actual skill is pretty much always going to trump it, and I think blasting into higher levels against people who didn't pay to get there could be suicidal. I've reaffirmed that if you don't hit the actual control surfaces, pilot, or engine in a biplane, their fabric skin really doesn't seem to care. They are surprisingly hard to shoot down. They can also fly really slowly and turn super tight, so as the fighters become better (and faster) it becomes suicidal to dogfight one if it has a worthy pilot. I imagine it's much worse in historical or realistic where the differences in planes would be much more pronounced, and even something like a zero would have to resort to boom-and-zoom and just keep charging it and getting away before their puny guns can return the favor. I also don't like bombers. I like to get really close to my targets, and doing that to a bomber is tantamount to a head to head with a fighter, and you'll probably turn into a ball of fire. Bombers are also extremely durable, especially when I don't have my best plane. Still, its a fun game. I appreciate the arcade mode, though I definitely want to get into at least historic, once I sort of work out aiming a bit more. And a bomber. I want a bomber. Wouldn't say no to manual gear either, that's come up at least once, though I like the guy I was trying to prevent from landing on our runway (with bullets) and ended up landing right next to him on my belly. It was kind of funny, since I both failed hard enough to hit the ground while chasing, and did it well enough to consider it a successful crash land.

Thinking I might pass on the pics. Bloods okay, views inside bodies perhaps a little less so when I can avoid it. I really don't do eye injuries though, I'd be quite okay with making it through life without seeing more pictures of eyes with things in them, or not in the head, and without seeing it in person.

Yeah, you spray wasp nests at night. You want them to be sleeping both to avoid getting attacked, and so they are actually in the nest. During the day, a lot of them will be out flying around. You want to make sure they can't make a comeback.

Hmm, mail is one. Tenants come into this house, set up their mail address with a whole bunch of places, and then never bother to change it when they leave. I also still get the odd letter for the people who owned the house before the people we bought it from. Then again, that's understandable I suppose. My parents occasionally get letters that are adressed to them at their previous address, as well as an even older one that ceased existing years ago. Fortunately it's a rural area, and one of the people down at the post office has been working there for decades and knows everyones names, so misaddressed mail tends to go to the right spot anyway because they can actually pick it out. It's a small but nice bonus.

Okay, I can see driving, well, pretty much anyplace in LA being a royal pain. I have to assume that driving down the street to your neighbor still involves heavy traffic :P Sunburns aren't cool either, and being near water definately makes that happen a lot faster (so does being on artificial turf). Today was a lazy day. In retrospect, I wish I had done more. But everything I wanted to get done was in my room and that's just not on the table today.

HDMI cables carry audio. For your sound output, select digital or HDMI instead of speakers. Not that the rest of it isn't valid points, but useful to know I think. I'm back to being annoyed by the hours in a day. Been playing a lot of wasteland today, found a group I enjoy playing with, but we all have real life obligations and can't just play until we've had our fun.

I don't know if I should be put on a jury. I would have trouble separating character from evidence I think, and I'd either develop a conviction or acquittal bias as a result.

That sounds like a name for a game you used to play at summer camp. The one where you kill people by winking at them, and the appointed detective has some number of tries to figure out who it is. Not as good as mafia, where everyone covers their eyes, then the appointed mafia people silently choose someone to kill, then the appointed detectives choose someone to identify (as either a civilian or mafia), then the chosen person is killed, and everyone votes on who they think is a mafia member and kills them. The mafia want to kill the detectives, and the detectives have to figure out who is mafia, and then try to convince people to kill that person without giving away their position as detective. Let's see. All this rain is getting a bit annoying I suppose. It seems that every time we get an awesome day of sunshine, we get a week of rain as compensation.

Terrible weather lately, and incoming, but it cleared up really nice at the end of Today. People were actually on the water after it being so foggy that you couldn't see more than 20ft. I took my parents dog out for a row. He loves it so much, though I kind of don't. He's always looking over one side or the other, which throws off the balance of the boat, and rowing a tilted boat is a bit of a pain. I usually end up moving a bit to the side as a counter weight, and rowing from an offset. Oh well, he really does love it. He also loves the jet ski, or really any of the boats. All our dogs have loved the boats, even the jet ski. They just stand in the footwell beside you, and I normally put a leg around them to make sure they don't fall to the side. That sucks for you Kaida, especially if you are missing out on the kids. The obvious lesson here is to not turn your phone on on Canada day :P I've also started watching some total wipeout again. It's the only reality TV show (things like Holmes on Homes aside) that I don't feel guilty about. The show is people who know exactly what they getting into, and it's not cruel. Given the chance I'd be on that show in a second (preferably the British one, because I'd rather be made fun of with British humor). It looks like massive fun, and being physically exhausting and making you sore for a month is a fair price for such an awesome obstacle course. I'd also like to see how well I would really do.

The bystanders always figure it out faster. The person being flirted with has the worst possible vantage point during the whole ordeal. I'd liken it to lifeguarding. The lifeguard doesn't watch from the pool because then your part of the action, you a part of what you are supposed to observe. By sitting back from the edge of the pool, you see more, and you have a clearer picture because you aren't really a part of what you're watching. The same thing happens with flirting. The person being flirted on is part of the action, where any bystanders are free to just stand back and observe. They also don't have their wants on the line, they can be logical where the person being flirted on is stuck with a lot of emotional thinking. So unless you only ever want to flirt one on one, people are going to notice. For flirting, I'd summarize it like this. Conversation, working in some humor, maybe a tease or two. More talking, showing interest in them as a person and their life, making them the focus, not me. If this goes well, I can move on to more compliments/physical contact (you can do both at once. A complement of say someones hair is an excuse to touch it). I can't say I pay attention to my own flirting with people, but it seems to go something like that. You start with establishing a rapport, generic conversation, trying to work in some humor, and maybe a tease for bonus points (works better in group conversations where you need a way to connect on a one-on-one level). Teasing one-on-one, not advised. More conversation, more joking if you can, maybe get to know each other a bit better. When you get a chance, compliments are nice, especially combined with touching (facial features are an easy one, though hair is probably the most popular. Just touch whatever feature your complementing, see how they react).

Remember that confidence comes from having the skills to back up your actions/intentions. Alcohol can't give you that, just overconfidence from your inability to accurately self evaluate your skills and ideas. Not that it can't facilitate sociability, just that it makes for a poor crutch, and only inhibits the development of actual skill. Not a lot of fun, but just about. Everyone has to go through that phase of not knowing what they are doing. Oh, and feel free to ask him out. I find many guys are flattered. That's supposed to be their job, so they feel like something special if you ask them. Guys who feel emasculated by it are, in my opinion, the sort who aren't worth your time. You want someone who can see you as an equal, and can take a compliment :lol:

Oh, I did a UML diagram before I started writing, because I knew without it, my code would be an unmitigated disaster that would take twice as long to write. Good call, but I did a terrible job at really anticipating what I was going to do. I would also probably find it easier to approach the main program first as well, do a good sketch of how I want it to work. I would have a better idea of what I am doing with my other objects that way. Oh well, I have a couple more of these to do in the next few weeks, so I'm sure I'll work something out.

I hadn't really even realized from the pictures of the first helicopter that it was big enough for outside. Those things are all loads of fun though. I have a little Chinook style one that would definitely never fly outside. Still say my favorite thing to fly is the osprey in Arma 2 wasteland though. I have fun with any of the choppers, but the osprey is something special. Nice to have a real chopper to fly though, even if it is 6 inches long. I also think I should reconsider how I write programs. I need to find a better way to plan, think it through thoroughly. I spend more time than I might like rewriting things when I think of a better way, and am a serious risk for feature creep. Still, got the bulk of the work done. Some code to split up to make it less specialized, and a tweak to do the same, make it more reusable. Then I pretty much just need to write the game, something relaxing after writing the classes I need for it. When I'm done, the computer will know how to play bingo.

An important consideration too is that Jagex has investors, and their investors expect to see a return on thier money. They have to reach a certain profitability to keep the financial backing from pulling the proverbial carpet out, and there is an expectation that the investors will make their money back and keep making more money off Jagex. Doesn't matter how interested Jagex is in aquiring as much of the worlds money as possible, because it's a sure bet that the venture capital firms that own them are very interested in this. As for being well recieved, the phrase, yeah, there is no correlation between player attitude and that phrase. It's entirely about financial impact. If they can make more money off a smaller base of angry players, they will do that. The gods of economics demand it :P

Doing some work on my computer project at home. My parents are more computer savy than most, which is nice because it means their computer works quite nicely. Still taking a few minutes to go through a few things and get them working properly. Basic mantinence stuff. I also have to set the computer up for Java development, essentially installing jGrasp which I like, and the JDK I need. It's actually kind of relaxing to be able to come into a computer in this state. Nothing major. A minutes reading to figure out why the AV wasn't updating properly, and then I'm just doing the latest Java updates and adding the JDK and jGrasp so I can do my work. It's infinately preferable to using peoples computers that have obvious problems, and holding back any comments because people don't like being told they are living computer poision. I'll be spending a portion of my afternoon writing a program to play games of bingo, and possibly mentally kicking myself for forgetting the program I use to remote access my school directory, since I have a piece of another program I was planning to reuse for this. Not a big deal, I'll be able to slot it in after the weekend. Won't take more than a few minutes to write a placeholder and just avoid giving it input that will crash it (they never actually specified preventing that problem, but I feel like I should, especially if I already have the code to do it written).

I'm not even sure that my AC could cool my room. Perhaps with fans circulating air and running it all day, but I prefer not too. Not a huge issue, the norm right now is about 29C at night with 45% humidity, which is just withing the range I can take without major sweating. My body has acclimated a bit to the temperature. People I might have up into my room find it insufferable, or even oppressive. Your dancing on the line of heavier perspiration though. On the upside, the body expends a fair bit of energy to stay cool, as silly as that sounds, and you need to drink more water, which isn't really a bad thing (helps keep the kidneys working well). I get worried on the hot days, since the room can become uninhabitable, especially at the weeks start since I'm not here weekends, and it's easier to deal with if you don't take breaks. Actually, having it feel like 37-38 with humidex wasn't that bad. That's a warm day at Disney World during spring break, and honestly, having Disney come to you is a pretty awesome feeling. Good feelings associated with good memories. For the people who have to work outside, it sucks, but I was just walking around in it. EDIT: For posterity, I should probably keep the pics of my room in the post. The AC is under the window it goes in, in the second picture. That picture is looking right from the right side of the first picture, so you can see how its not directly helping my desk situation. Also, I found the third picture, taken from the desk, which should help you work out my floor plan. There are two fans. The tower fan is usually as seen. It can be remote operated, and I use it to make sleeping possible. The other fan currently sits on the floor near the mini fridge for when I am sitting at the desk. There is another set of windows behind the stairs, left of picture 1. Creates good cross ventilation. [hide] [/hide]

That man is always interesting. Honestly, right now all I can think of is American Pie 2 explaining the rule of 3. Anyway, Ginger has some excellent points about stereotypes, and their impact on behaviour. That is, we can show empirically that people in deindividualized situations (where a person has no identity, they do not believe they are being observed) will often display different behaviour. Off the cuff, there was a study that observed aggressiveness in males and females in a game where you drop bombs on each other. In the control, regular conditions, the males were the more aggressive gender, as expected, dropping more bombs on average than the females. In a deindividualized setting, the women were more aggressive, suggesting that women may actually be the more aggressive gender. You don't see it day to day because, much like being sexulay promiscuous, agressiveness is rewarded in men, and considered to be undesirable when women display the same traits. You can see it in men too, probably within your own circle of friends. There is a point where a lot of men become embarrassed to admit they are virgins. It's not something you typically see guys be proud of. It's the reversal of the promiscuity stereotype. For us, it can be considered a virtue (on the flip side, some guys don't want a girl who has no experience), where it can be considered a failing in men. People lie, or you even end up with American Pie or, more recently, Sex Drive. I'm can't say for certain that guys never go out of their way to try and get their male virgin friends laid (though I'd be pretty surprised if it didn't), but the movies wouldn't be there, making money, if they didn't speak to people. It's all a very long way of saying that stereotypes are not based purely on observation, because they create social pressure of their own, and thus have an influence on the behavior they observe. We are social creatures who try to fit in, which means trying to conform to stereotypes on the whole.

Congratulations Prets. Tuesday was ridiculous (I think it was tuesday), with a daytime temperature of I think 31C, felt like 38. My bedroom defied all expectations by not rising above 33.5, needless to say that whenever I was in my room for more than a couple minutes, I had a fan aimed at me. Then we get the classic rain the next day, and a so-so day after that. I haven't met my Java teacher yet. Right now we are being taught by one of our TA's, and it's almost a shame that it won't be for the entire course. She's an engaging person, makes the classes more interesting.

By...popular demand. For the chemical name callout, I have to guess Alg.