That's right!!! As of last night at 12:01 A.M. it became official... I own my car!!! I am so happy now that I can start to save all of that money from each month again into savings! It has been a long but very nice 5 years and I have taken the utmost awesome care of it. I have not even gone over 100,000 miles yet... ahd she still drives wonderfully! Time for a nice glass of wine and some relaxation... 60 perfect payments and what an awesome credit score booster as well! I am so thankful and Truely Blessed!!!

I also am simply going to say this also about the Microsoft Conference today... I am not impressed at all. I know that new upgrades are going to happen... but so many negatives and so few positives about the new XBox. What a let down for serious gamers. I personally am going to ride out my few months I have left on XBox Live and when it is done... I will be done with XBox too!!! I took todays conference as a "Slap in the Face" to all gamers who have supported them for the last serveral years, I being one of them... and I simply choose not to go further supporting that company!

Have a wonderful week ahead and my God Bless you where ever you are!!!

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I'll be forced to buy a Kinect that I have no interest in using if I want the new Xbox. Great.

Am I seriously supposed to be excited about the ability to watch TV on my TV?

For the small portion of the show devoted to video games, they announced that we'll be able to play Forza and Call of Duty on the Xbox One. Whoopty freaking doo.

If that's the best Microsoft can do to get me interested in their next console, I'll be playing all my next gen games on a PS4.

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http://www.laserlemming.com/2013/05/20/resident-evil-revelations-review/

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The game is currently less than a cup of overpriced coffee (3.39) and worth every penny! We'll make a server and dig down to the depths to see if we can enter hard mode!

The deal is only going until 4:00 PM PST today. 

To sweeten the deal if we can get 50 people to sign up and participate in this two part game night I will make us an emblem.

MadElk will be assisting with the server, I will be posting details about how to join later this evening. Unless of course he decides to grace us with his presence and inform us in the comments. 

We'll be using a chatzy room for communication up until the event happens, then we'll be moving to a group steam chat. 

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Should have taken a lesson from the Balkans!

Look at this crackpot idea that we had in 1920 of abolishing individual

nations and putting them together under the Yugoslav flag.

It led to disaster and the EU has sadly made the same tragic mistake.

It is only now becoming obvious to everyone.

Except the U.K. who didn't want any part of it in the first place.

and Germany who is the only nation who has prospered from the Eurozone.

belongs in this topic....the Eurozone has long qualified for joke status

----------------------

BEFORE MARRIAGE:

Husband - Aaah! ...At last! I can hardly wait!

Wife - Do you want me to leave?

Husband - No! Don't even think about it.

Wife - Do you love me?

Husband - Of course! Always have and always will!

Wife - Have you ever cheated on me?

Husband - No! Why are you even asking?

Wife - Will you kiss me?

Husband - Every chance I get!

Wife - Will you hit me?

Husband - Hell no! Are you crazy?!

Wife - Can I trust you?

Husband - Yes.

Wife - Darling!

AFTER MARRIAGE: read from bottom to top.

--------------------------------

FOR fans of X-Factor:

Cowell wants body frozen after death'

why wait?

----------------------------------

British rescue operation.

Use stealth tactics to get into the enemy building.

Use silenced weapons and gas to disable combatants and avoid detection.

Rescue victim quickly and without taking any casualties.

American rescue operation.

Roll up in Hummers, because they are cool. Throw grenades at building

until everyone inside is dead, because explosions are f''ing cool.

Drag corpse of person you just 'rescued' out of the rubble.

stick American flag in the remains then the survivors make a high five.

--------------------------------------

Prince Charles decided to take up jogging.

Every day, he'd jog past a hooker standing on the same street corner.

He learned to brace himself as he approached her for what was almost certain to follow.

"One hundred and fifty pounds!" she'd shout from the curb.

"No! Five pounds!" He would fire back, just to shut her up.

This ritual between him and the hooker became a daily occurrence.

He'd run by and she'd yell, "One hundred and fifty pounds!"

He'd yell back, "Five pounds!"

One day, Camilla decided that she wanted to accompany her husband on his jog.

As the jogging couple neared the working woman's street corner, Prince Charles realised she'd bark her 150 pound offer and Camilla would wonder what he'd really been doing on all his past outings.

He figured he'd better have a good explanation for his wife.

As they jogged into the turn that would take them past the corner, he became even more apprehensive than usual.

Sure enough, there was the hooker.

He tried to avoid the prostitute's eyes as she watched the pair jog past.

Then, from her corner, the hooker yelled, "See what you get for five pounds, you tight bastard?!"

------------------------------------------------------

mistake on the BBC News online.

The headline said that Camilla the Duchess of Cornwall had broken a leg but

the photo alongside was of Shergar.

---------------------------------------------------------

Scientists have shown

that the moon is moving away at a tiny, although measurable distance from the earth every year.

If you do the maths, you can calculate that 85 million years ago the moon was orbiting the earth at a distance of about

10 metres from the earths surface.

This would explain the death of the dinosaurs. The tall ones, anyway.

------------------------------------------------

Medal of Honour has been described as the most controversial game ever

because there's a level where you have to shoot Yanks in Afghanistan.

So, you play as an American then?

------------------------------------------------

Afghans are unable to understand or comprehend such a violent massacre.

A lone gunman running around executing people for no reason.

Americans learn about this in school.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------

They should have captured Bin Laden alive and made him

continually go through airport security for the rest of his life.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------

I think its great that female pilots are dropping bombs on the Taliban.

It would be even better if they dropped pamphlets that said:

'This bomb was brought to you by Jenny,

who is naked and enjoys drinking, smoking and premarital sex.'

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

SKY NEWS

David Richards,40, from Caerwys snaps photo of UFO in back garden!

Well sir if you say it's a UFO then you have identified it making it an FO,

if it's landed in your back garden it's not flying thus making it an O.

So David, you have succesfully managed to take a photo of an object in your garden.

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I'm normally against preorders, but GOG's preorder for The Night of the Rabbit is quite nice if you've been wanting to check out Daedalic's adventure games. Preorder The Night of the Rabbit, get a free copy of Deponia. For reference, Deponia is a $20 game, as is The Night of the Rabbit.

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Well, actually, let me rephrase that.  I know what it was about, so I don't need plot explanations, however... WHAT WAS IT ALL ABOUT?

This movie annoyed me, not least because of the pedigree of talent involved in it.  Premiere Sci Fi Director?  Check.  Enormoulsy talented cast? Check.  Big budget special effects?  Check? Cleverly written script? Che...no wait.

The first third (maybe) was pretty good, Fassbender alone on the ship captured the isolation of space perfectly, but it all seemed to go to shiiiii when the crew woke up.  MY GOD THE CREW!  I cannot entertain such a crushingly STUPID bunch of people and they are supposed to be scientists.  The brightest of the bright.

I am pretty sure all of this has been said ad infinitum by others more adept at critiquing movies, however I would like to point out some exasperating plot holes:  (SPOILERS AHEAD)

1:  The map guy.  The guy with the little drones that go off and map an area, also equipped with high tech GPS, gets lost!  Really?

2:  The biologist guy, brought along on the journey to help with the discovery of our supposed progenitors is scared of a 2000 year old corpse, and yet is happy to entertain, and get stupidly close to a sentient worm thing THAT HAS ACID FOR BLOOD!

3:  The ridiculous connection between Wayland and Charlize's character that just wasn't explored.

4:  Why, oh WHY, if the moon our hapless crew landed on was a site for WMD did our supposed progenitors provide various maps to the location?  I mean, seriously, the whole premise about the Engineers wanting to wipe humanity out after creating it is around the idea that each progeny secretly wants to kill their father.  The Engineers it seems, were trying to do that before we could get around to it, so WHY LEAVE A MAP TO EXPOSE THE PLAN?

5:  Don't even get me started on the running vertically from a falling ship when running horizontally would have been signigicantly more effective.

6:  Alien pregnancy?  Really?  That is just f**king lazy.

7:  Noomi Rapace perfectly able to rappel from and climb in to a beleagured escape pod with very recent lower abdominal surgery, but struggles to run and perform otherwise fairly straight-forward activities.  I have had a c-section, and I can assure you even sitting up is excrutiatingly painful, let alone hulking the inanimate Fassbender down a 10ft drop.

8:  What were the Engineer crew running from in the holographic impression that Fassbender manages to uncover? It just wasn't explained.

I find the whole thing just inexplicable.  Alien is an incredible movie, in my opinion.  Perfect blend of science fiction, horror and drama, Prometheus is just crap.  What happened? 

Has anyone seen an extended Director's cut?  I ask because some of the narrative leaps suggest to me that there was an awful lot of editing, so many scenes didn't make sense.

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Reviewed on May 9th, 2013
Universal presents a film directed by J.J. Abrams
Screenplay by Roberto Orci, Alex Kurtzman and Damon Lindelof
Starring: Chris Pine, Zachary Quinto, Benedict Cumberbatch and Simon Pegg
Running Time: 132 minutes
Rating: M
Released: May 9th, 2013

In 1966 Gene Roddenberry created Star Trek as a TV series and coincidentally this was the same year that director J.J. Abrams was born. The show was pitched as a space Western in the vein of Wagon Train, which was a Western mystery show set on the Frontier. Star Trek converged with the start of the Vietnam War. Roddenberry had already seen action as a fighter pilot in World War II. To counter Vietnam, his version of Earth was a society without conflict and in space there were galactic truces, race relations and a sense of unity aboard the ship the Enterprise. As with any good Western, there was moral code of ethics between men, no matter how pointy their ears might have been. Roddenberry believed in a disciplined society that could be unaffected by war or religion. Spock for example was said to be modelled on a police Chief he knew when he was part of the LAPD.

After many years as a TV show and dozens of films, someone decided Star Trek should be reinvented yet again and Abrams was hired to transform it into a glossy action film. As a filmmaker J.J. Abrams is somewhat of an enigma. One of his heroes growing up was Steven Spielberg. When he was a boy he was hired to repair some old film footage for him. Spielberg would later produce Abrams most personal film Super 8, a movie that typifies the director's career. Part of the film is a loving tribute to home movies and geek culture, while the other is a bombastic, overblown blockbuster, short of any personal imprint. He's a slick filmmaker, I enjoyed his TV show Alias until it became ridiculous, but he struggles to find the balance his idol has between action and character. Into Darkness is a better film than the messy 2009 film though. The best scenes overcome the generic, simplification of the action genre by retreating back towards the essence of the original show: a morally ambiguous grey zone, where the values of the characters and their races are tested. However, the characters are still bound by a rigid story structure, where at least ten elaborate set pieces take full precedence over the human and Vulcan drama. 

The most interesting aspects of the plot are when Spock (Zachary Quinto) and Kirk (Chris Pine) butt heads over their different beliefs. Kirk is tasked with tracking down a rogue agent named John Harrison (Benedict Cumberbatch), who is now essentially a terrorist bomber, causing havoc in London by using desperate people to do his bidding. This leaves a chilling, lasting impression, particularly when the film adds a layer of complexity, with Spock insisting that Harrison should be captured and trialled first. He's at odds with the order of the mission and Kirk, who wants revenge for the death of a colleague. Cumberbatch is frighteningly good in the film, a massive improvement over Eric Bana's villain in the first movie. The tension he brings through his menace, his arrogance but also his ability to cast doubts in the minds of the protagonists about who the baddies really are, is a magnetic quality that is hard to prepare for prior to seeing the film. What a terrific find he's become over the last few years. 

However, by ingraining itself in the structure of an action film, a lot of this ambiguity is undone. Whereas action and moral ethics fought and overlapped persistently in The Dark Knight, Into Darkness' rhythm is too discrete and foreseeable. The action is timed acutely to follow a stretch of exposition, dividing itself between moments of ideology and combat, and the emphasis on set pieces means the lines between good and evil become transparent again and remove the crucial shades of grey. Abrams also seems more interested in choreographing lavish action sequences than exploring the personal side of the drama. His imagination in the set pieces is limitless. He employs an array of frenzied techniques, including rapid cutting, tilting cameras, overhead shots and quick pans, to breeze through the action. Yet when the characters stop to face one another and talk his direction has none of the same flair or creativity. The actors sit or stand still, with the camera perched on their shoulders for dull reverse angle shots that don't heighten the tension. 

Rarely do we ever see these characters in their downtime either. Without any inner life they become ciphers for voicing conflicting moral ideas, like instinct against logic or law and these conflicts are often resolved within a scene of one another. After watching Star Trek II: Wrath of Khan recently, which Into Darkness borrow from, it's also fascinating that Kirk is viewed as an ageing man who has to start thinking about death and his legacy. In this film he's more on par with Tony Stark, able to bed two alien girls with tails at once. That amplifies where they're aiming this film at, in spite of the occasionally intriguing layering of the story. For a franchise that prides itself on going where no man has gone before, the Enterprise is starting to travel in circles.

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A subordinate Claus.

-------

A Pokemon walks into a bar...

It's super effective!

-------

What do you call a cod cowboy?

Fish in chaps.

Okay, now that's out of the way, let's get to the serious meat of this serious blog; sexuality, religion, economy, politics, free speech, Shuma Gorath in "Marvel Super Heroes" instead of Deadpool and, of course, existential views on mortality.

All of these discussion are super lame. Instead, in your comments, tell me your favourite pizza toppings.

Also, I'm on Twitter now.

@PRockliffe

You know you want to.

:-Egonga.

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"Ghost of a Tale"

Well, my name is Lionel Gallat but I usually go by Seith when I'm online. I've been working as a supervising animator in the movie industry for more than 15 years, first at Dreamworks on many movies ("The Prince Of Egypt", "The Road to Eldorado", "Spirit", "Sinbad", "SharkTale", etc...), and more recently as the animation director for Universal Studios' "Despicable Me" and "The Lorax" (yay for the Macguff team!).

"Ghost of a Tale" is a work of love and a one-man project (at least so far). It represents a lot of work. About a year ago I decided to get really serious about it. In consequence I started working full-time on the development. It's a bit scary of course, but I do believe in this project, and it's now time for me to find out if I'm the only one. Which is also pretty scary in itself...

At this point it might be good for you to take a look at the video, if you haven't done so already. It's a bit rough, with missing assets, temporary animations and incomplete gameplay of course, but it should give you a feel for the project.

Among the inspirations I could quote Disney's "Robin Hood", the fables of La Fontaine, "Redwall", "Winnie the Pooh", "The Secret of Nimh", "The Dark Crystal", the paintings of Alan Lee, John Howe, Paul Bonner, John Bauer, and many, many others...

Game-wise the inspirations could be found in the early "Zelda" games, "Ico", the "Gothic" series and "Dark Souls". Of course those are mere inspirations; this project can obviously not expect to compete on equal footing with those amazing games.

But my goal is to craft a small yet beautiful game with environments that look a bit like movie sets and characters that have a sense of stylization in their design, while retaining a certain simplicity and immediacy as far as gameplay is involved.

I know it sounds hockey [sic] but I'm really trying to recapture the sense of wonder I felt as a kid when I discovered the games from the 80s and early 90s. But with a AAA quality (as far as I'm able) that's very much up-to-date.

You play as a mouse on an adventure set in a medieval world. At the beginning of the game, you get to the Island of Periclave. Now what is the mouse looking for? What happened on the island? Why are there undead rats roaming around? That will be up to you to discover.

What's known is that the island has long been a disputed outpost for the Army of the Rats. But today, it is reputed to be haunted. And tales are talking about a fabulous treasure high up in the Tower of Periclave. But it would be folly to try and get there. Even for a mighty warrior. And this little mouse certainly doesn't look like one...

* * *

Further links:
Indiegogo
Greenlight
Coverage via VentureBeat

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Insane.

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[ Watch Video ]

Link to Steam group:http://steamcommunity.com/groups/GSFCG

Please leave comments below

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In other games, XCOM. My god, XCOM! Prior to playing Enemy Unknown, I'd never particularly seen the appeal of turn-based strategies. I'd lived with it in Total War because if Total War wasn't turn based it would be incredibly complicated and difficult to understand (yes, I'm looking at you Crusader Kings II). The tension and drama that arises as a result of the turn-based aspect of XCOM is incredibly thrilling and difficult to replicate. More than many other games I've played, it truly feels strategic, that I am making decisions which will either make or break my team of soldiers. Occasionally XCOM does feel unfair; for example I dislike the free movement turn the aliens get after you discover them, plus some enemies seem to have uncannily accurate shots. However, the stakes always feel very high, especially when panic is rampaging out of control. For example in my game, panic in Russia is at its highest level and I'm scared that Russia might abandon the XCOM Project. I can launch a satellite over them, but the satellite takes 20 days to build which might not be enough time. There is always a shortage of resources and a scarcity of funds which makes every decision feel critical. I kind of wish you could sell off unneeded equipment on the Grey Market as you can do with alien parts, because some of the older armour I never use anymore. The story is pretty thin but really the joy of the game is inventing the stories of the soldiers in your team. I like my international band of soldiers and feel devastated every time we lose someone.

Anyway, thats video games. Work continues to be busy, the weather continues to be dreadful, and I continue to continue.

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He didn't pull me from a burning building or rescue me from a frozen lake. But when I was suffering from a depression that had me constantly on the brink of suicide, he was the man who kept me on this side of the abyss. 

He was my therapist, but that word is so clinical, and doesn't accurately describe who Dan was to me. Friend? Yes, even though I usually only saw him in the confines of the office of a mental health clinic in Warren, PA. Father figure is more accurate, I suppose, but whatever you call him, he was the one that convinced me that life was worth living. His office was the safest place on the planet. It was there that I felt most vulnerable, and most cared for. He is the reason I am still here today, rather than a memory, or at very least, rather than a human husk, withering away in a hospital for the remainder of my days. 

He shared with me stories that a professional therapist shouldn't generally be sharing with his patient, and yet it was exactly the right thing to do in my case. I would record myself playing Christmas music on cassette tape and give it to him as a Christmas gift. I went to a church where he was a guest pastor one Sunday and marveled that this man could radiate such kindness and generosity. I read about his exploits with his boy scout troop, and wondered if those young men knew how fortunate they were that someone like Dan could be in their lives. 

I also know that Dan was an imperfect man. But I wasn't prepared to discover that several weeks ago, this man responsible for me being here to share this story today went missing. Vanished from his house, his wallet and keys left behind. No note, no goodbye to his wife Penny, no sign of a break in, no indication that something was wrong. He was simply gone. 

The police have searched, and the Conewango Creek and local branch of the Allegheny River have been scoured. No one knows if Dan, at the age of 69, wandered off to take his own life, or fell into the river and was washed away. Perhaps he was discontent and troubled, and decided to travel where he couldn't be found and live out his last days in peace. Perhaps he simply went for a walk to some unknown place and suffered a heart attack, and hasn't been found in spite of the exhaustive search. 

But it doesn't seem that Dan is coming back. 

The last time I talked to Dan was a few years ago. He sent me an email entitled "The real story...for those with a warped sense of humor." It was a typical viral email that people might send, this one with pictures of fairy tale princesses as they might have ended up. Snow White with her several babies and a good-for-nothing prince sitting in front of the TV. An obese Little Red Riding Hood wandering through the forest, sipping on a Big Gulp and carrying a basket full of bread. It certainly wasn't the most socially sensitive communication, but it's what I have. 

I love you Dan. I hope that you are close to God now. 

Edit: My mom shared this YouTube link with me of Dan leading vespers in 2012. http://youtu.be/dmVaCIoxeI0

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I recently activated World of Warcraft again, because I'm hoping to play with a friend who just signed up.  I figure it might be fun to see my total play time thus far, to the shock, awe and dismay of many of you reading this.  To be fair, I haven't touched the game since 2011, I bought the last expansion at release, but never installed it until recently.

1st Character (60 Mage) : Total Played Time - 24 days, 2 hours, 56 minutes.

2nd Character (71 Warlock): Total Played Time - 44 days, 1 hour, 15 minutes

3rd Character (60 Priest): Total Played Time - 29 days, 4 hours, 10 minutes

4th Character (66 Mage):  Total Played Time - 22 days, 22 hours, 14 minutes

5th Character (85 Hunter): Total Played Time - 25 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes

6th Character (85 Shaman): Total Played Time - 23 days, 21 hours, 13 minutes

7th Character (80 Priest): Total Played Time- 32 days, 1 hour, 24 minutes

8th Character (62 Druid):  Total Played Time- 15 days, 11 hours, 32 minutes

This doesnt count all the lower level charries, but its where the bulk of my time spent playing is, for the most part.

Anyway, if we add all this up, I get a total estimated playtime of ..(are you ready for this??)

5,139 hours!

This is around 214 days of total playtime, (give or take).  Sure seems like a lot when you put it that way, huh?  >.>

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They're really nice t-shirts, high quality and the image is screen printed so you shouldn't have to worry about the image fading, rubbing or flaking off.

If you enjoy bacon and like witty shirts and want to let others know you mean business when it comes to bacon, then look no further.

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