Andrew Turner's page

I think I must have drunk the Licensing Kool-Aid a long time ago. I understand everything Scott is saying, and, largely, agree with it. I'm actually having trouble getting the counter-argument, even though it used to be mine own.

For once I agree with everything Scott is saying. Cool.

Just watched the Bob Newhart episode. How can you not laugh?

"Is it a trick clock or a trick potato?"
...
...
...
"Wha...what do you two talk about?"

Poor Mark Sweetman didn't understand the humor when he watched the girls comic book episode. So I will attempt to explain it.

The girls start out the episode with the popular misconception that comics are just for 12 year olds... which is an amusing and perhaps aggravating real world misconception. But despite their words they end up nerding out just like the boys when they attempt to understand these comic books. Making the joke ultimately ON the girls not on the boys. The episode actually affirms a part of comics appeal and makes the joke at the expense of the popular misconception.

Whilst the lads go off to the desert (well Con#132) and are too enthsiastic to remember to lock their car. Then a car-jacker steals it, with all the non-cosplay clothes inside. Thus they end up at a diner where everyone thinks they are 15 (or nerds) & need their mothers calling - because they are so stupid. To which Howard affirms they are, as he asks for them to call his Mommy.

I just finished watching this episode--I laughed my ass off.

I now realize my superpower: the ability to interact with both nerd-geeks and everyone else.

You are feisty this week. Trying to get another post removed by the Mods?

Isn't just a little weird that you're having a conversation with your self...?

Quiet, you!

Poor Mark Sweetman didn't understand the humor when he watched the girls comic book episode. So I will attempt to explain it.

The girls start out the episode with the popular misconception that comics are just for 12 year olds... which is an amusing and perhaps aggravating real world misconception. But despite their words they end up nerding out just like the boys when they attempt to understand these comic books. Making the joke ultimately ON the girls not on the boys. The episode actually affirms a part of comics appeal and makes the joke at the expense of the popular misconception.

Whilst the lads go off to the desert (well Con#132) and are too enthsiastic to remember to lock their car. Then a car-jacker steals it, with all the non-cosplay clothes inside. Thus they end up at a diner where everyone thinks they are 15 (or nerds) & need their mothers calling - because they are so stupid. To which Howard affirms they are, as he asks for them to call his Mommy.

I just finished watching this episode--I laughed my ass off.

I now realize my superpower: the ability to interact with both nerd-geeks and everyone else.

Strangely, I find myself interested enough that I may actually check out THC tonight...

The removal of a recent post of mine here at Paizo indicates to me that virtually anything can be deemed offensive.

I'm pretty much resigned to the fact that I will, eventually, offend someone.

Another aspect of this is rarely discussed. When you dish something out to someone you think is wrong on the internet, you DO IT PUBLICLY. This means that not only do you tell the person he or she is wrong, you also put them at either fighting you about it or admitting he or she is wrong before an unknown number of spectators. This is a major deal for most people.

Yet most of us use a fairly inscrutable alias, which is a lot like wearing a full-body-mask.

Way to butcher a classic.

In space!

I'll entertain your astute ear for music the day you post a video of yourself singing in outer space!

I want to meet some of these well-adjusted, stable, unflappable and universally accepted nerd-geeks you guys seem to know.

I've lived all over the world, in big cities and small, and most nerd-geeks I know are a delightful amalgam of the characters on this show.

Astronauts are awesome!

I dont think I had heard of it before, but it looks like a lot of fun. I'm interested in it thanks to the controversy; I think I'll pick it up next week.

Looks pretty exciting.

Don't get me wrong--I like a challenge. I am usually quite challenged by normal mode (like I mentioned, I am not very good at video games). I'm one of those guys who really enjoys games, but the combination of available time and poor skills means it takes me a year to finish Halo: Reach (true story). I just finished Dishonored (started it in October), haven't even reached the half-way point of Bioshock: Infinite. But the difficulty against wandering monsters in D&D are all about rolls and balanced encounters. A level one mage doesn't stand a chance against a level 18 encounter with a death knight. But a skilled gamer behind a keyboard or controller is a completely different story.

I'm curious to know if I'm the standard casual gamer (I recently read that most people never get more than halfway through a video game)--how many people ever play a game at any setting more difficult than normal?

Who is really upset by the Metro: Last Light DLC / Preorder / Limited Edition release model? If it's a small set of hardcore gamers, then it seems like a potentially profitable strategy to sell a difficult setting to those people.

iPhone autocorrect is really kicking my butt today.

Or as that last sentence was originally typed:

iPhone 5 automobiles search rations kicked my brute toads.

Do a lot of gamers play in 'hard' mode?

I'm not actually very good at video games, and I always play in the easiest mode available.

I also notice that, like Crysis 3, there's really only one Xbox edition--the one that comes out 14 May and includes the 'limited' content.

The PC version comes in both standard and limited editions--the standard edition is $45; limited is $50. The PC preorder is limited to the 'limited' version.

I would be pretty happy if there were a standard Xbox version that was $5 cheaper than the limited: I'd definitely buy it, since I'll never even try 'ranger' mode.

Fallout 3

Maybe I'm easily amused (I'm not, actually, and that's kinda funny)--I never really noticed the laugh track until everyone started complaining about it.

I have to say last nights The love Potion was epic. Simon doing the tree with Nick Cages voices (Near spot on) Then the old man as Al Pacino (Funny) But the best... Him doing a dragon in Christopher Walkens voice (I had to listen to it 3X just because it was SO good and SO funny hearing a dragon as CW)

It was an awesome episode, and fun to see a DM use voice characters. though DD was never played like they played it, even 4th ed which I never played.

I genuinely smiled through most of the episode. I don't really care what anyone thinks--the show is hilarious.

I would want to appear the same as always, while actually a kind of human Swiss army knife...that can fly...and move through solid objects...and this is the wrong thread isn't it...

There's this trend of reprints issued in traditional oversized or trade paperback formats-- this is fine I suppose, but what's irritating is when the e-version was $5 yesterday, but today, after the reissue of the physical format as a $16 trade paperback, the exact same e-version is 'discounted' to $12! That's a serious WTF to me, especially since the only work involved for the publisher was in changing the price.

An awesome movie.

Just picked this up tonight. Never heard of it before, but definitely a winner.

If I am not mistaken it is entirely based on where you live, not where you physically ARE at the time of purchase.

I was on temporary duty (about 8 months) in Kansas a few years ago.

I'm a resident of Alaska. All my credit cards have an Alaska billing address. My bank is in Alaska. I lived on a military reservation (FT Leavenworth; federal property).

Orders from Amazon.com, payed for with a credit card issued by an Alaska bank and with an Alaska billing address, shipped to federal property, were still subject to Kansas sales tax.

...indicated that their studies showed that 105,000 Christians were killed each year, or 1 every 5 minutes...

A little off topic, but I absolutely abhor these ridiculous correlations of time and criminal activity: 1 killed every 5 minutes is utter nonsense.

Very possibly on one day, it just randomly equaled out to one murder every five minutes, on another day, only ten were murdered, and on another day over four hundred.

One every five minutes is a cheap way of making it sound more important, because it gives an unfortunate majority of people the impression that Christians (or whatever the situation counts, false imprisonments, car crashes, lost Troll Dolls, what have you) are literally being martyred right now, that at least one has been murdered even as you read a page of posts on the Paizo message boards.

It's just the time in a year divided by the number of incidents; it's not a real measurement.

I used it today at work; it was four hours of superfunfuncrazytime.

Amanda Hocking is a millionaire now. She sold her books exclusively in ebook format through Amazon for $1.99.

I'm happy to pay $8 for an ebook. Publishers can't make a profit out of $8? It's not like they're forking over 70% of the profits to the author.

@Howie--The books I mentioned in yesterday's post are all quite old, are still available in paperback for under $8 (though they've been reissued in trade paperback very recently), and until the reissue, were all available for Kindle at reasonable prices of $5-$7.

I had already purchased the STTNG novel for Kindle a year ago for $5 and change. I wanted to see if the current very expensive e-edition was somehow different and wanted to see a preview--an Amazon message pops up that says I already own this book. That tells me there's no difference in the files, and suggests that the e-price was set based on the new trade re-release.

I fully understand S&S re-releasing older books for a new generation of readers, it's a great way to re-energize the arguably lagging ST novel line, and as a collector I actually like the trade-versions better than the mass-market pbks--Black Library is doing this now with their Warhammer novels, and I'm very pleased with the oversized reissues--but BL still sells the e-editions at the old mass-market price.

I'm just complaining.

So here we are almost a year later, the USDOJ won, a settlement was reached, and prices were supposed to go down, or at least seem reasonable...

The Burning City, which I bought in paperback 13 years ago for $6 is a $25 ebook?!?

Star Trek Vanguard: Whirlwind, which I bought five years ago for $7 is now a $25 ebook!?!

And this 14 year old STTNG novel is $12?!?!?!?

I can still find these in paperback at B&N for their original prices.

IMO: The BS degree is only useful in getting the job, the rest of what will actually be useful comes from internships and the the important handful of senior level electives you take. The MS is laudable, but I'm not sure it will open any other doors for you, unless you really want an academic position or a senior organizational management position (which means exactly what it sounds like it means--very little field work and lots of office work).

...[100% Justifiable Aggravated Road Rage stuff]...

Just remember this the next time you think of doing something aggressively stupid to "correct" another driver.

The Bloods and the Crips gangs require a new member to quite figuratively "blood" themselves. In order to pick out a target they will frequently drive in dark conditions with the headlights off. If you flash them in the idea of signalling them to turn off their lights, they will literally force you out of your vehicle, and kill you. I don't take any chances, if I as a pedestrian, see a car coming up the street with it's headlights off, I make sure to make my white honky ass scarce long before it gets close.

Isn't that just an Urban Legend?

Years ago, a couple times in Baghdad, I found myself in a F350 (wishing I were in an 1151) surrounded by some very angry people who really would have loved to pull us from the truck and murdelate us on the spot--it's not as easy to do this as it sounds, so long as you don't panic or capitulate by actually getting out of the vehicle on your own (people who want to force you from the vehicle to kill you aren't likely to suddenly give way to better reason and human compassion).

The best is when the speed daemons that almost ran you off the road are right beside you again at the next traffic signal; maybe even better--when it changes and they're actually behind you because your lane just happens to move faster.

My favorite professional drivers, encountered on a daily basis, are:

10. Drivers who wait and then pull out in front of you at the last possible moment.

9. Drivers who pull in front of you, and then slow down (especially awesome when there's no-one behind you).

8. Drivers who turn their radio up at the intersection in order to share their musical tastes with everyone else.

7. Drivers in queue behind you at the traffic light who blast their horn when you don't immediately accelerate at the green light.

6. Drivers who take an extra-special-long time to accelerate at the traffic light.

5. Drivers who drive under the limit in front of you, then speed up at the last second in order to beat the light--if they had just driven the speed limit the whole time, we both could have gotten through the light safely.

4. Drivers who sit at a busy intersection, where there's no traffic light, and wait until there are absolutely no oncoming cars, then pull out as slowly as possible.

3. Drivers who spin their tires at intersections, peppering my windshield with rocks.

2. Drivers who pull up beside you at an intersection and block your view of oncoming traffic...and creep forward when you pull out to see around them.

and the Number One Pet Peeve of the Moment....[drumroll aaaannnnddd rimshot!]

1. Drivers who go five or ten under the speed limit, don't use their signals, drift across the lanes, randomly speed up and slow down, brake at every traffic light, whether it's green or not, suddenly brake even when there's no-one in front of them (and we're already at or under the speed limit), turn on their signal after they parked in the turn lane... all while talking on a cellphone, f&!@ing with a GPS, or eating from a fast food bag.

BONUS!: √ Drivers who drive very slowly in front of you on the Highway, but speed up as you move to pass.

Please fragile life forms crossing the street, even in a crosswalk, remember that my ginormous murder-machine will actually kill you, my brakes are not anti-gravity tech that can stop on an atom, and the crosswalk is not a magical invisible force field of pedestrian safety +1--it is a bunch of lines painted on the road, really, that's all it is.

Please change the music on your iPod, answer your phone, text your friends, and set that next stone in minecraft after you are safely back on the sidewalk.

And please, really, look before crossing, even if you have a green hand/man of safety (nevernevernever cross when you have the red hand/man of doom!)--and especially look if your crosswalk is unlit, unguarded, and otherwise not in any way connected to anything except my eyeballs.

So awesome!

I wonder how many CEOs were probably making the same as or less than the average worker, 20 years and more before they became a CEO...

I'd like to say they aren't noticably different, but that would be a damn lie even within my lawyerly definition of lying (aka, don't get caught and it's not a like). It's still a good sitcom, but not quite the same level of magic and awesome as in prior seasons.

It would be wonderful if they brought Harmon back, but it's probably more likely that this season will be the last. Unless some form of comsic justice gives us 4 seasons and a movie, with Harmon helming the movie.

Kickstarter, where are you when we need you!?

If you've never seen a single episode and began watching now, from episode 1 on, and no one told you anything had changed with the 2012/13 season, would you notice?

I think it's a great game begging for a plot.

OOP doesn't mean out of copyright. I'd scope the used bookshops. Also, give us the title--maybe someone has it.

Very often I think that offended people are actively looking and listening for offense. I'm not talking about the obvious incidents of deliberate and malicious offensive behavior or remarks, or even the rather innocent incidents stemming from cultural ignorance of a local custom.
Example:

Just (finally) picked this game up for $10 at my local P/X.

Beautiful graphics, some fun weapons, interesting characters-- and it looks like it could take a little while to finish. Not as sandboxy as I like, and some movement restrictions are downright annoying. Nonetheless, my only real gripe is driving--it seems crazy-difficult, and I've simply given up entirely on the races or Stanley's third delivery job. In fact, I hate the driving.

Shooting, exploring, Sara, a Vault-Tec bobble head on the sheriff's desk, John Goodman rescuing me, and a Scatman Crothers-soundalike repairing my crappy dune buggy--pretty cool, lots of fun.

An awesome review of the game.

Wow. Just spectacular.

I thought this was awesome.

Just giving my opinion, and of course were talking about a video game in a sci-fantasy universe.

Nonetheless, I stand by my observational conclusions that we're not dealing with steam.

Steam-power rarely produces black exhaust (unless coal is burned to boil the water, and not balanced in ratio to the flue capacity) or blue flaming (the steam provides motive power, so flames, looking like aircraft JP8 burn is obviously from a fuel or a high-energy process, like elementary power).

Then again, some things in Columbia are powered by ZPMs, apparently, so who really knows. The aesthetics of the games are, to my analysis, dieselpunk.

Also, @ Nimon, I think you're right with regard to much of the design, architecture, and dress--very steampunk era, and very little of the art deco of dieselpunk.

Maybe Infinite is some in-between setting, post-steampunk.

Ultimately this only matters to genre-geeks and English-Lit majors who categorize everything they experience.

I so seriously want to see this movie!

I know it's not real, but wouldn't it be totally brilliant!?

I think that, while the timeline in Infinte is more than half a decade too early to meet the technical definition of dieselpunk, the detailed-look and motifs are definitely not steampunk--maybe the whole in-the-sky thing lends a kind of superficial steampunk feeling, but all the machines are definitely fueled-clockworks rather than steamer-clockworks.

If the visual and technical layout were steampunk, I'd expect more glass, more organics (like leather and denim), shiny brass fittings and lotsalotsa steam.

In Infinite we have a deceptively bright setting, which might be aiding this idea of daylight Victorian steampunk, but instead of clouds of white or misty steam, we have greasy puffs and stacks of smoky exhaust, dingy machinery, and the tell-tale blue-white of diesel-flame (from the exhaust ports on the airships). The clockwork beasties spark and fizzle black smoke, rather than spark and grind with puffs of air or steam.

This is the same confusing thematic treatment the first two Bioshock games gave us: Rapture obviously existed in the atompunk period, but was painfully dieselpunk in operation.

Why is it so expensive here--it's pretty cheap just about everywhere else.

Is there something special about this version?

That's good news (I swear that article addendum wasn't there when I posted the link this morning) and lines up with how they usually execute product runs--retiring sets every couple years or sooner.

Unfortunately, a small but very vocal group has stolen the truth, disassembled it, and inveigled a too-willing public to support their agenda, even if that support is a bit indirect.

It's odd to me on another count--Star Wars has historically been viewed as so universally popular in part due to its amalgamation of worldwide cultures.

If anyone sees the offense, I'm very open to reading the why and wherefore. While I'm a bit incredulous, I'm also curious.

Lego Jabba's Palace Offends Muslim Community; Lego Ceases Production

Buy your set today, because it'll cost a small fortune a year from now.

This thread is devoted to collecting and discussing apparently offensive items.

Is the complaint about the Lego set legit, or hypersensitive political correctness at its best?

I'm a Western rational secularist, so I don't see it at all. Personally, I think it's more a matter of hypersensitive activists insecure in their own standing, likely looking, deliberately, for offense in and from everything around them.

What do you think?

...[lots of super-keen analysis, of which I am 90% in agreement]...

All these assertions are why Tom Baker is still the Greatest Doctor Ever.

This is ridiculous. Don't you have to at least be 13 years old to post at Paizo?

Your petitions aren't getting noticed-- you've got to advertise them all cross the net.

They also need to be serious or hilarious, if you want lots of signatures.