A less presumptuous name.

Originally Posted By: The Mystic I just wanted to prove that I was the better candidate. I'd like to see your birth certificate sir. And please, remember that Hawaii doesn't count. Originally Posted By: Dantius Originally Posted By: Rowen Libya? What is that? I type of food dish? Fun fact: One of my friends works as a teacher, and he assigned a current events paper to his class. One of his students returned a paper detailing the evils wrought on Libya by its three dictators: Qaddafi, Gaddafi, and Khadafi. I found it hilarious. Depressing, but hilarious. Yeah... The more stupid a person is, the funnier they can be.

Originally Posted By: Impudent Strumpet! Originally Posted By: Lt. Sullust As some of you are already aware, magic does not exist. If you were not aware, I apologize for crushing your hopes. And I never got to take Hermione out for a drink! Trust me, she's overrated. It is absolutely impossible to carry on a conversation with her. She thinks that she's some sort of superhero, when Harry did most of the work. And what with Ron sticking his freckled nose in everywhere, it's just a mess. Oh god, what I have said? My HP friends aren't even this bad...

I believe that that area is inaccessible. Either that, or I'm just as curious as you.

Originally Posted By: Dantius Why did you just make a Taylor series joke? More importantly, why did I laugh at a Taylor series jok? I feel like such a geek... The better question is, where have the Taylor Series jokes been all this time? Actually, I'm an AP Calc student with the big exam in, oh, a week and a half.

As far as upgrading anything is concerned, I'll be getting a new laptop (Apple, unless my brother's girlfriend can convince me otherwise) in just over a year, so I'll just be making due with this one.

So if we all marry someone who makes more money that us... Wait, there may or may not be an issue with my reasoning...

That graphic file just contains little graphics. Part of the file is used for various graphics, it's not a working template within the game. Sort of like with scale models and such, when little parts come in a large sheet and you punch them out and assemble them. At least, that's my understanding.

Let's not forget that Jeff's scale of distance changes as often as the sign for the terms in the series expansion of the sine function. That is, constantly.

I used to feel smart before I came to reside on the internet. Humble pie is an acquired taste, but it's an important taste to appreciate when one is always seeking knowledge.

Originally Posted By: The Mystic I'm anti-lottery myself; I don't gamble, either. However, I won't deter others from playing. That's pretty much how I feel about the whole thing. As long as you don't develop a gambling addiction that affects those around you in society, you're welcome to gamblewaste your money as you see fit. It's interesting to hear that lotteries are still going to state income. Are these taxes on private lotteries such as PB and MM or are they publicly run lotteries?

Originally Posted By: VCH Originally Posted By: *i Part of what I've heard about winning the lottery is that it is far more a curse than a blessing. Apparently winners seem to attract a lot of frivolous lawsuits, unsolicited requests for donations, bitterness of family/peers, unwanted attention from unscrupulous individuals, etc. Conversely, after the initial high, lottery winners tend to develop problems such as alcoholism over time. Of course, counterexamples exist, but that appears to be the trend. Interesting fact: In Canada Lottery winnings aren't taxed, so we get the whole jackpot. Interesting fact: I'll be spending quite a bit of time helping the Canadian Lottery's economic stability. Not actually, I don't like lotteries. The company doesn't pay out all that it takes in, so even if you play often enough and win just as often as the odds say you will, you won't break even. It's no wonder why people have historically argued against government-supported lotteries. Early US governments supposedly used them to raise funds.

RE: Middle class. I'll admit that I've been skimming (I'm not online often enough to keep up with every post, and these ones are long). I would just like to add that, in addition to family size, other expenditures play an important role. My family income puts us roughly in the top 10% (barely) of income. However, in addition to 5 kids, we live in that nice area north of Baltimore, MD, where everything is about 10x the price that it should be. Also, when we had to leave our old home, the housing market was just starting to crap out, so we ended up being sued for our second mortgage. Thus, while our income would not likely put us as "middle class," our standard of living (ok, maybe not that either) and our mindset is middle class. And if this doesn't really contribute to discussion other than as a personal example, consider my post-count bumped.

I've heard stories of a college/grad student being brought before the honor board of his school for failing to cite a previous paper he had written. Apparently, not citing yourself throws your entire non-plagiarism-credibility out the window. I personally think that the strict rules and everything for citation in academia are a little over the top. Why does it matter what exact form of citation I use as long as the reader can identify which work is being cited and find that work if he or she so desires?

Can't you play all ipod/iphone games on the ipad?

So is there any higher degree for linguistics? If so, what opportunities would such a degree offer?

So Slarty, linguistics has always been an interest of mine, although not at the top of the list. What exactly does one do with a linguistics major?

Yes, I get Jeff's point, and I find it valid, although I would not do the same thing. I do recognize errors in the speech of, well, everyone around me. In fact, I catch almost all of the errors. And yet, I manage to survive by telling myself that content and comprehensibility are more important than archaic form.

Originally Posted By: Niemand Endless Blue by Wen Spencer. That sounds quite interesting, really. Drat, I may have to start writing down a list of books to read.

Originally Posted By: Randomizer Originally Posted By: Enraged Slith Is this even legal? Maybe, but there will be a court challenge over whether federal law establishing a candidate's viability supersedes state's rights to add more restrictions. Arizona politics is a bunch of Republican extremists pushing strange agendas between passing laws to benefit themselves. Isn't it somewhere in the USC that states run elections? I may be wrong, but this may actually be a valid law! Off to read the Constitution (again).

Regarding the link to Jeff's blog (I'm too lazy to go back a page and grab it), I really do follow the usage of who and whom. If Jeff really hates them so much, he should switch to French, in which they are the same word with different context. Alas, French is far more strict about grammar rules. No dropping relative pronouns![1] For preposition use, I tend to avoid ending sentences in prepositions, just like I avoid splitting infinitives. However, phrases such as "put up" and the like, well, I just chalk them up to idiom and let it be. 1. Interestingly, learning French has made my English grammar far better as far as the textbooks are concerned. However, when SAT test questions and the like omit relative pronouns (notable "that"), I get frustrated. Mixed blessing.

Originally Posted By: Dikiyoba It's pretty easy to accidentally stumble across if you habitually keep your inventory empty to avoid encumbrance issues. Dikiyoba. Meh, I never found it. I also never played Avernum.

You don't have to do that. Just download the demo game into a new location and copy any scripts that you messed up from the clean demo to your version. And in the future, back up all scripts before editing them.

Then again, the Sucia did have a full mountain range on it...

Originally Posted By: Fflewddur Fflam: Master of Flame One third, actually. I still maintain that there is some unmentioned territory between the Okavano and Poryphra. While there may be a little bit of bridge area between the two game maps, I highly doubt that any such area would be equal in size to the maps of G4 and 5. Thus, you could say that each game map is 45-50% of the continent, but hardly 1/3. Originally Posted By: Micawber but still it would help to clarify some of the geography... That is likely the reason Jeff left it out. He couldn't (or didn't want to) remember all the geographic details from previous games. Remember the 2nd shaper continent from G3?

Originally Posted By: Nikki, or whatever he calls himself these days Stuff about CS I can definitely relate to this issue, being a grocery store cashier. There are customers that get pissed off when I explain why an item is the price that it is, and they expect me to be able to fix everything magically for them. I can't do crap without being told to do so by my supervisor/manager. Likewise, if I make a mistake (which most of the time isn't a mistake, it's the customer being dumb), I can't always fix it on my own. Sure, most people understand that I'm working in a system lined with sharp sticks pointed at me, but irrational people get irrationally mad at me for things beyond my control.