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Wow, I can’t imagine what it was like to comment in morse code.

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Today in our ongoing national embarrassment…

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The media handbook says “controversial” is the most negative description that can be used for a Republican.

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Open Thread

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IMO several problems make me question the brackets that Gamespot ran here. First of all, they ran Snake against Gordon Freeman way too early. That matchup is clearly final four material at least. Master Chief’s freak upset in the first round makes me question the entire competition, and Jack Carver had way more personality than some of the one-hit wonders who made the cut. Parappa? Seriously?

Also, your favorite game system sucks. Also.

Since this site never has enough nerds arguing.

***Update***

We don’t bow to peer pressure around here, so you don’t get Tunch until the next time John logs in.

Meet Whiskey. There will not be many Whiskey photos because the E-P1 is not exactly a fast camera and this hypercaffeinated teenager of a setter can’t sit still for two consecutive seconds.

whiskey-4-2
Technical details: photographer held a medium sized pine cone over his head and acted like he might throw it. This worked just long enough for the E-P1 to find its focus. Whiskey then gave up on the pine cone and resumed barking and running in circles.

Reader Interactions

190Comments

  2. 2.

    Martin

    And I love our Wii. It’s a shitty system if you need framerate/triangles per second to make your wiener hard and feel like more of a man, but it’s a shitload of fun swinging wiimotes around the living room with the kids.

  4. 4.

    smiley

    @Tim F. : I have absolutely no idea what you’re talking about. Cricket? Rugby? Backgammon? Tiddlywinks?

  6. 6.

    Fencedude

    Fuck Gamespot. Seriously.

    The only thing they ever did right was buy GameFAQs, but I still refuse to go through the Gamespot frontend and only browse from the classic GameFAQs side.

    And doublefuck the popularity contests.

  9. 9.

    Yutsano

    DUDE! Seriously, I get enough of this living with three WoWtards. It’s bad enough I had to learn as much as I did just to pretend to keep up in their conversations. If this is your not-so-subtle way of hammering in the conservative doublespeak point, I get it. Now I can haz norml open thread plz? kthxbi!

  10. 10.

    kdaug

    Garret loses to Frogger? Seriously? He’d so pop an exploding arrow in that amphibian’s butt it’d never make it across a highway again.

    And Garalt of Rivia isn’t even in the running???? The Witcher could take any of those yahoos.

  13. 13.

    MeDrewNotYou

    Bub and Bob’s upset was awesome! Bubble Bobble and the Bust-A-Moves are way better than Halo. But if you’re upset, blame the /b/tards at 4Chan. It was their doing (but the cause was just!)

  14. 14.

    Jason Bylinowski

    Hmm, don’t much care for any of these characters but Gordon Freeman. It’s ’cause, he is me, man! And I am him. It’s all about the narrative.

    But yeah the bracket system was stupid. But anyway this is all just a silly game that they clearly stole from an awesome website which Gamespot bought out and then proceeded to fuck up royally, Gamefaqs.com.

  16. 16.

    Jason Bylinowski

    @kdaug: re: Garrett vs. Frogger

    Yeah, these kids today, huh. There’s no better voice actor than they guy who plays Garrett. Seriously, that guy’s a freakin’ genius. I figure he must be ugly as sin because the talent behind that voice is definitely leading man material.

  19. 19.

    Kallisti

    Truly, the worst media scandal of the past twenty years was Jeff Gerstmann getting fired due to the Kane & Lynch review.

  20. 20.

    robertdsc

    Snake is where I’m at. My preference is for Naked Snake but Old Snake is OK by me.

    That said, I think The Boss is the greatest character ever.

  23. 23.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @jeffreyw:

    you know I’m kidding of course. Gonna cook a pork steak later with fresh veggies, tomater slices, and bulb green onyins and french bread. My Favorite meal, and first meat in about 4 days.

  24. 24.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: True that, FH#2. I had no fucking clue what Timmeh was saying. Screw that. I want my TUUUUUUUUNCH open thread.

    By the way, Cole, glad you’re better. Yes, I know Cole didn’t post this open thread. Sue me.

    @jeffreyw: I would watch any cooking show you did. That is some major yuuuuum there.

  25. 25.

    Michael

    Yoshi vs. Liu Kang in the first round? WTF?

    And sorry, but any competition that has Bub and Bob beating Master Chief AND Sonic is garbage. They’re not 1990s Gonzaga… they don’t get to play Cinderella.

  27. 27.

    Jason Bylinowski

    @General Winfield Stuck: I hear you but hey, it’s Saturday, take a day off will ya? I’m working out 7 days a week, dieting 5…….and for those 2 off I’m living large, brother. I still eat healthy on weekends (tonight for dinner: lean turkey enchiladas) but I simply refuse to count calories on weekends (I’m going to eat at least 43 of them). I think my results might be slow-going compared to other folks (approx 15 pounds in seven weeks) but I am seriously in the best shape of my life right now, at least in terms of cardio fitness. And my god, have you seen these guns? Seriously, dude.

  29. 29.

    Svensker

    I’m with Gen. Stuck again, i.e., wha?

    Also, am bummed becuz I made peanut butter bars with choccy frosting (new recipe) to take to meeting tomorrow and they turned out meh. About 8,000 calories worth of meh. Oh well.

    If anyone knows how to make peanut butter bars that taste like peanut-butter-cookies-only-without-the-work, please post the recipe. kthxbai

  31. 31.

    Fencedude

    @Jason Bylinowski:

    But yeah the bracket system was stupid. But anyway this is all just a silly game that they clearly stole from an awesome website which Gamespot bought out and then proceeded to fuck up royally, Gamefaqs.com.

    Compared to some other website mergers, the Gamespot/GameFAQs one is better than most, since you can mostly ignore the Gamespot side of things, while the FAQs are still administered by the GameFAQs “staff”.

    But still, fuck Gamespot.

  32. 32.

    kdaug

    @Jason Bylinowski:

    Yeah, I’m biased – I worked on Thief III: The Metal Age.

    The voice actor’s name is Steve Russell. Never met him, so I can’t attest to his personal attractiveness.

  33. 33.

    Brick Oven Bill

    I do not have a video game console, but here is a good idea for a video game anyway. It is called American Treasure III: The Birth Certificate. This game is modeled after Donkey Kong, a video game that I am familiar with.

    The first screen is David Axlerod running through Wyoming sagebrush with the fake certificate, being chased by Gary Sinise. He has to hop sagebrush and dodge rattlesnakes.

    The next screen is Tim Geithner being chased by Goldman Sachs bankers holding the real Columbia University records. Tim has to stuff money in safe deposit boxes at a certain rate, or else the Goldman Sachs guys will give the records to a crazy person following them named ‘Bill’.

    The third screen is a dance hall where Rahm Emmanul has to perform dramatic ballet moves in order to please a host of different judges. These judges include Mayor Daley, Wall Street Bankers, and the ADL.

    The fourth screen is Kenya. Representative Joe Wilson, with his Masonic ring, dodges pythons, lions, and tigers trying to get to the hospital. At this hospital, after karate chopping several guards, he enters the final chamber, where he finds George Washington, who then presents Joe with a piece of paper.

  35. 35.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Jason Bylinowski:

    I think my results might be slow-going compared to other folks (approx 15 pounds in seven weeks)

    Sounds like we’re on a similar trajectory. I’m about 5’10’ and am currently at 200 pounds. I hope to get to 180, but my doc says according to the biomass scale they use, I need to get to around 160. I have always been a stocky person and 160 seems skinny as a rail to me. In fact, at 220 or so, he said I was obese. Maybe I have some kind of reverse Anorexia or something, but I do not think I’m obese, or even fat. oh well.

  38. 38.

    Jason Bylinowski

    @General Winfield Stuck: & I see I have, yet again, posted too late. It’s a fine line between spelling & grammar correctness and total comment obsolescence,@General Winfield Stuck: Yeah, I’m not seeing a doctor but my very elite internet skills say I should be soomewhere between 185-215 at 6’3″. Started at approximately 280 (I say approximately because I was actually off the scale when I started this) and now at 265. Got a ways to go but that’s okay as this “diet” is basically never going to end anyway. And that’s the story of why I cheat like hell on weekends.

  40. 40.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Jason Bylinowski:

    I’m right now borderline diabetic, or I wouldn’t be dieting probly. Something about the possibility of a daily needle focuses the mind, at least for me, cause I hate ’em.

  41. 41.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Jason Bylinowski: 2 pounds a week is actually how much a person can safely lose without some of it being muscle mass, so you are right on track. In addition, if you are working out and gaining muscle mass, you might not be able to tell by the scale how you’re doing.

    Timmeh! Thanks for the picture of Whiskey! He’s bee-yew-tee-ful! By the way, Cole never posts pics of Tunch when I ask (ok, demand), so I’m thrilled you threw me a bone. Heh.

    P.S. I fucking hate Joe Buck and Tim McCarver. Seriously. They’re the A team?

  44. 44.

    RedKitten

    @jeffreyw: Mmm…I made cookies tonight too. Gotta lay off the sweets, though. We just finished the last of the hubby’s birthday cake that I made for him (yes, it was very, very tasty).

    Whiskey is just lovely — what a beautiful coat. Is he yours, Tim?

  45. 45.

    Midnight Marauder

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    WTF? So Brezinski is another unreconstructed racist old white guy?

    Yeah, I saw that the other day. The greatest of the perpetual tragedies that form like Voltron to constitute Morning Joke is the how Scarborough browbeat Mika into yet another blithering know-nothing moran. I would guarantee that she has no idea just how tone-deaf and utterly senseless her comment is.

    In other news, how about them USC Trojans?

    In Barkley I Trust.

  46. 46.

    Dustin

    This is a diet thread now? Damn, then maybe I shouldn’t bring up the fact that I just polished off my steak & potato stuffed puffed pastry pie w/ beef gravy and a side of apple cobbler. :( Tasty though.

  47. 47.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Midnight Marauder: If Mika actually said that, then I hope her dad sits her down and gives her the same scolding he gave Morning Joe in that one clip. What a brainless bimbo (Mika).

    Dustin, did you make your dinner? Sounds scrumptious as well. Dang. I wish I cooked.

  48. 48.

    Gus

    That is one handsome dawg. I love setters, but I could never own one. They’re not for the lazy.

  49. 49.

    Seth 4:10

    /b/ are the closest thing to a true archaist movement on Earth, a directionless mob creating meaningless chaos in exchange for momentary amusement. On the tubes you cross them at your peril.

    Finals are interesting, the hero we know best verses the hero we think we are.

  51. 51.

    RedKitten

    I scored major points on my last France trip by walking Whiskey twice a day.

    You walked a setter twice a day? How many pairs of shoes did you wear out? :)

  52. 52.

    Morbo

    @El Cruzado: NO WAY! Straight piece FTW, foo!

    Eh, overall it lines up with all the rest of the gamefaq polls ever run, i.e. 3 Nintendo characters in the final 4. Perhaps people are frustrated enough with that trend that Gordon will beat Mario… time will tell.

  53. 53.

    Midnight Marauder

    @asiangrrlMN:

    If Mika actually said that, then I hope her dad sits her down and gives her the same scolding he gave Morning Joe in that one clip. What a brainless bimbo (Mika).

    Oh man, that clip is absolutely priceless.

    Zbigniew Brzezinski Calls Joe Scarborough ‘Stunningly Superficial’

    But you’ll want to just skip to the end of this clip, where host Joe Scarborough attempts to ask for Brzezinski’s daughter Mika’s hand in marriage or something by insisting that “you cannot blame what’s going on in Israel on the Bush administration.” This prompted Zbig to reply, “You know, you have such a stunningly superficial knowledge of what went on that it’s almost embarrassing to listen to you.” Burn!

    Now that is some grade-A smackdown.

  54. 54.

    HRA

    Whiskey is gorgeous, Tim!

    Great looking cookies, jeffreyw. Unless I get requests, I usually do the cookie baking for the holidays. Cookies always seemed like extra hard labor to me.

    @arguingwithsignposts:

    I watch Morning Joe every day before work. Mika is totally out in left field most of the time. I recently noticed her posture change from when she is alone and when she is next to Joe. Am I right?

  56. 56.

    Emma Anne

    Has anyone gotten the pie filter to work with Safari? It says it is loaded in greasekit, but no pie. :-(

  57. 57.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Dustin:

    It’s actually a dual thread of us dieters and those who pig out, though I’m fixing to any minute now.

    Jeffery’s cookies slay me. chocolate chip, lordy mmmm./

  59. 59.

    The Original Francis

    OK, I’d like to cut down on meat. A) I’m a little chubby. B) The whole climate change thing (and as a [currently unemployed] southern California water lawyer, regional impacts of climate change is something I know a fair bit about).

    That said, I know nothing, nada, zip, zero about transitioning from a meat-based diet to a more vegetarian one. What does a Tuesday night dinner look like (assuming I get working again and need to put dinner together quickly)?

  60. 60.

    jl

    That was the first techinical photo tip I ever understood. Thanks! I will remember that one. Wave a pinecone. Check.

  63. 63.

    Demo Woman

    @General Winfield Stuck: Keep up the good work!

    For those interested in the balloon boy story.. this from MSNBC.com

    A Colorado sheriff said late Saturday that criminal charges are expected to be filed in the flight of a saucer-like helium balloon that led to a frantic search for a 6-year-old boy believed to be on board —and then to questions about whether the drama had been a hoax.
    Larimer County Sheriff Jim Alderden said significant progress had been made in the investigation and that at least Class 3 misdemeanor charges were likely. Alderden said he was consulting with the Federal Aviation Administration and othe federal agencies on whether other chargers were warranted.

  64. 64.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    Am I the only one distressed that EA Sports FIFA 10 is not being released for the PC in the U.S.? I’m hoping Steam has it like they do FIFA Manager.

    As a Chicago Fire fan I was looking forward to getting my copy with Cuautemoc Blanco on the cover. I was crushed that MVP Baseball was canceled the year the Chicago White Sox won the World Series. It’s like I’m jinxed.

    Anyhoo, anyone else waiting for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be released November 10th?

  65. 65.

    demkat620

    Can I ask for some help?

    There is a lovely new trojan horse virus out there called BHO.JEW. Ain’t that sweet?

    Anyway, I just spent the afternoon cleaning my pc. I don’t know how I got it or where I got it but can anyone recommend a good Antivirus spyware that won’t cost me a fortune?

    I was running AVG free but it got around it. I downloaded AVG 9.0 trial and Spyware Doctor and that cleared it up.

    Thanks in advance for any suggestions.

  70. 70.

    Gus

    Gaaahhh! Shades of Corey Koskie’s ground rule double in the ’04 playoffs. And the Yankees get another break. There is no god.

  71. 71.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Demo Woman:

    Rule #1. Never involve a 6 year old in your scam. They’ll drop a dime on ya in heartbeat, even if your their parent.

  75. 75.

    RedKitten

    @The Original Francis:

    What does a Tuesday night dinner look like (assuming I get working again and need to put dinner together quickly)?

    I have a vegetarian chili recipe which is really fast and quite tasty. Get yourself some TVP (texturized vegetable protein), which you can find in the health food section, or the bulk section. I can’t give measurements, as I just wing it. Most of the amounts depend on either taste, or the desired quantity of chili.

    I tend to start with a 1/2 cup of TVP into a 1/2 cup of mushroom or vegetable stock (or beef stock, if you don’t care if it’s vegetarian but just want to avoid meat). Sautée some onions and garlic in a big pot, add a can of diced tomatoes, some chili powder, salt, pepper, and chipotle powder, and some canned (drained and rinsed, of course) black beans. Stir it all up until it’s looking nice and then add your TVP. Let it simmer for a few minutes, and if it’s not thick enough, add a bit more TVP directly to the pot (only a few tablespoonfuls at a time, as the stuff expands like crazy). Once you’ve got the desired consistency, add some canned corn. Pour it into bowls and top with a nice dollop of sour cream and some fresh cilantro.

  77. 77.

    Svensker

    @demkat620:

    There is a lovely new trojan horse virus out there called BHO.JEW. Ain’t that sweet?
    Anyway, I just spent the afternoon cleaning my pc. I don’t know how I got it or where I got it but can anyone recommend a good Antivirus spyware that won’t cost me a fortune?

    I like ESET Nod. It’s 39 a year, but you can get a free 30-day trial. Its top-rated and uses very little memory.

  78. 78.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @demkat620:

    I was using Avast and it was great up until it wasn’t and I got a swarm of infections, and have had similar problems a while ago using AVG. So far, no bugs using Antivir. I also use Hijack This though it is not an active protection, but can detect hidden stuff, but takes some time to learn how to use.

  80. 80.

    ronin122

    Your problem is reading Gamestop in the first place. They haven’t been of any use or worth their salt in their opinions in years. IGN isn’t much better but at least I sometimes agree with them. GS is utter shit.

  81. 81.

    MikeJ

    Anyhoo, anyone else waiting for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be released November 10th?

    I was pretty meh about the last one, but I imagine at some point I’ll play this one. It always takes me an hour of gameplay to remember that sneak and snipe will not work and everybody will respawn until you charge in guns a blazin’. Once I remember you have to act like an idiot I enjoy the game for what it is, but I’m always disappointed with them at the beginning and end.

  86. 86.

    Janet Strange

    @The Original Francis: When my 12-year-old decided to be a vegetarian I had to learn a whole new way of cooking fast. (I had no objections to anyone not wanting to eat dead animals, so I was cool with her decision.)

    One thing that helped a lot was looking to cuisines that have always had a lot of non-meat options – Mexican, Italian, Indian, etc. Then I noticed something they all had in common – lots of ingredients like tomatoes, garlic, onions, chiles, herbs and spices – things that add a lot of flavor.

    It wasn’t until I went through the process of learning how to cook vegetarian that I realized how much I’d relied on meat for flavor. A lot of hippie-type vegetarian food (and I say that as a tied dyed to the bone Old Hippie) is blah, imo. But it’s pretty hard to find bland Indian food, and they’ve been cooking w/o meat for l-o-n-g time.

  87. 87.

    Demo Woman

    @asiangrrlMN: The helicopter might not have been laughing but whirlybirds can be fickle.

    @RedKitten:
    How’s the baby sleeping? Did you see the article where a four month old was denied insurance coverage in Colorado because he was overweight. The mom was breast feeding so it was likely she could put him on nutri system.

  89. 89.

    dr. bloor

    @Demo Woman:

    All an arrest and jail time would mean is a slightly different premise for the family’s next reality show gig. They’re fucked up in all 31 flavors.

  90. 90.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @MikeJ:

    I don’t play any one game enough to go multiplayer, I’m a single-player campaign sort of guy. I used to play multiplayer when my brother had time to connect…it’s just not the same without my wingman.

    I go through periods where I sit down with a game for a few weeks and then get distracted by some other game and never finish. I’ve been neglecting the last three missions of GTA4 for a few weeks now – maybe if the weather is crappy tomorrow I’ll finish them off.

  91. 91.

    LorenzoStDuBois

    Just wanted to mention John’s earlier post about that Carville report about conservatives, and how conservatives are a weird cult that has its own language.

    This coming from a website which has its own glossary.

    Not to say that there isn’t a difference, but that was just me knee jerk reaction. I mean, let’s face it, we netroots liberals have our own language too, don’t we?

  92. 92.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @Martin:

    While I’m not an Angels fan, I don’t have nuthin’ against em, specially if they’re playing the Yanks, so

    GO Angels! pooh on the Yankees.

  93. 93.

    Midnight Marauder

    @LorenzoStDuBois:

    Not to say that there isn’t a difference, but that was just me knee jerk reaction. I mean, let’s face it, we netroots liberals have our own language too, don’t we?

    True enough. But the slight difference, I would argue, is that we are not batshit insane.

  94. 94.

    Martin

    I don’t play any one game enough to go multiplayer, I’m a single-player campaign sort of guy.

    I am too. Jumping into some anonymous server to play against others is often too much like sending a toddler to battle the USMC. Within a week of a new game launching, there’s already an army of players who’ve banked 168 hours of game time and knows every advantage of the game. I remember trying out Unreal Tournament (or one of the sequels, I forget) a few weeks after it came out and died 4 times before I could get a 360 degree view of the map.

  95. 95.

    BethanyAnne

    @The Original Francis: I was vegetarian for about 5 years, and now it’s been 5 years of veggie + seafood. Lots of folk make the leap by just eliminating red meat. Then they give up chicken. Then you’re there. More practical-ly, I’d say pick up a couple of Graham Kerr’s cookbooks. Library or used bookstore or Amazon’s used books are cheap ways to get one, even if for only a bit.

    He calls what he does now “meat in the minor key”, and his food is *yummy*. Moosewood cookbooks rock. Madhur Jaffrey has a cookbook called “World Vegetarian” that is great.

    One practical bit of advice is to look for meat alternatives in the grocery store. Veggie patties and the “Amy’s” brand of foods are good things to have laying around.

    What does dinner look like? Veggie curry is something I love to make, and it’s super easy. Alton Brown has a broccoli slaw that rocks. It’s here.
    Dal is really easy, good and cheap. I eat lots of pizza.

    About the only thing I don’t much eat is salad. Salad isn’t vegetarian food. It’s what meat eaters think veggie folk eat.

  96. 96.

    Martin

    I mean, let’s face it, we netroots liberals have our own language too, don’t we?

    Well, this site certainly does, but much of the lexicon really doesn’t translate elsewhere – even at places like GOS.

  98. 98.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Demo Woman: use Chrome. I have edit function in Chrome. And, the insurance company changed their minds after the father, a local anchorman for the news, put the story on the TV machine.

    P.S. “Whirlybirds can be fickle” made me giggle.

  101. 101.

    ProudCynic

    Just want to poke my head in and say: been playing through the Orange Box again lately, and I’m very much happy with the results of the poll. Never really cared for Solid Snake after I got Metal Gear Solid 4 and was rather unimpressed, Mario is just a sprite in an arcade game and I haven’t played enough Zelda (though I suspect he’s about the same). Still awaiting Episode Three though.

    Anyway, back to serious discussion.

  102. 102.

    gnomedad

    @Midnight Marauder:

    True enough. But the slight difference, I would argue, is that we are not batshit insane.

    I would have said the difference is a measure of self-awareness that we have a point of view.

  103. 103.

    Yutsano

    @The Original Francis: Mushroom mushrooms mushrooms and oh yeah mushrooms. A good grilled portobello can take the place of a hamburger patty in just about anything, and duxelles (a really good French dish to learn) give great texture and flavor to just about anything. I’m not much for the whole fake meat thing (if you’re replacing meat with fake meat to me that doesn’t really solve the fact that you’re not trying to eat meat you’re just trying to make yourself feel good) plus most of them taste terrible to me. A good idea is to cut down your meat and double down on your veggies every meal. Then try one vegetarian meal a week, then twice, continuez as you see fit.

  104. 104.

    burnspbesq

    My two favorite sounds in the sports world:

    1. A quiet, surly crowd filing out of the Dean Dome after a Tarheel loss to Duke.

    2. The USC band playing “Conquest” in Notre Dame Stadium.

  106. 106.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Just out of curiosity, sweet stuff, at what point does Balloon Boy story become officially stale and we can move on to next bright shiny object?

  107. 107.

    Anne Laurie

    @Tim F.:

    I scored major points on my last France trip by walking Whiskey twice a day.

    He’s a good-looking redhead! Of the two smartest Irish Setters I’ve ever known, one lived with a marathoner and ran five miles several days a week, and the other with a trail rider who had him jogging beside her horse. It’s a truism that all dogs improve when they get enough exercise, but in my experience, red setters are the ones where it’s easiest to see their IQs going up to match the number of calories they’re burning.

  108. 108.

    Martin

    Damn – leaving the bases loaded is going to come back and bite the Angels. :-(

    We’ll see. They’re playing okay. Certainly better than last night, but they aren’t closing – and that’s what the Yankees do best (after spending money, and being douches, that is).

  109. 109.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Aw, am I boring you already, FH#@? It’s too early in the honeymoon for that!

    I’m actually over it. I just am in a giggly mood tonight. So, if you can distract me with another bright, shiny object…oooooh, Alan Rickman!

  112. 112.

    CynDee

    Tim, thank you for the doggie pic; it’s a real hard thing for us to be smack in the middle of the weekend with no four-legged furry friends to look at and the temperature sinking by the hour.

    It’s just plain dark and cold here in central Florida tonight, nasty nippy with a sharp wind that makes 57 degrees feel like 40, and 40 around here feels like 14. No kidding. This from a gal who grew up in SD. I am no pansy, no matter how this sounds.

    That beef pot pie looks like just the thing for a night like this, followed by the M&M cookies. The cooking pics are TOP NOTCH tonight. That seafood dish is to die for.

    The doc has put me on 75% raw food. It’s really helping my health, but I’m sure glad for the 25% cooked on a night like this.

    New discovery: raw eggplant is a real nice little treat. Sort of like a healthy marshmallow, except a tad juicy.

    Well, off to make popcorn.

  114. 114.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Bored with you? NEVAH!!! I even enjoyed the haiku. I’m just ready to leave the whole affair in the dust. BTW I think negotiations are open for you acquiring a third hubby (I certainly approve of the choice!) but Sydney has to agree as well. I love the smell of polyandry in the evening.

    @gnomedad: Touché, monsieur, touché.

  117. 117.

    General Winfield Stuck

    @asiangrrlMN:

    Balloon Boy poetry. Some day they will sing ballads and we will remember where we were, or weren’t. The helicopters wept as Balloon Boy slept.

  119. 119.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Yutsano: Well, I already got two lukewarm responses. one (cough, GWS) even preferred a literal dog to me. Sigh.

    Are you talking about jeffreyw? Yes, he cooks like a dream, but he’s married in real life. Oh, wait… By the way, Tattoosydney and I had a little chat because I didn’t consult him before fake-marrying you. I told him it’s not my fault he was planning his wedding with his real hubby when you came in and swept me off my (virtual) feet.

  120. 120.

    Morbo

    @AB: Yeah, Sully has been tooting that horn for a while now. And after it comes out I imagine he will toot his own horn.

  122. 122.

    Gus

    Rivera comes in. I loathe the Yankees, but man that dude is great. He’s old-school. Most closers only come in in the 9th with a lead of 3 or fewer runs. They never face that kind of situation (runners on base). They’ll bring him in in that situation all the time. Must hold the Yankees. If they score, Mo will close the door.

  123. 123.

    burnspbesq

    Evidence that the recession hasn’t affected everyone equally:

    I was in the local high-end stereo store today, and the salesperson I was working with told me that they have sold five pair of these this year – at $180,000 a pair.

  126. 126.

    Evolved Deep Southerner

    Don’t look now, but Michael Gass has returned to the Balloon Boy thread. John has his scanned certs. You’re all gonna be eating a lot of crow now.

  127. 127.

    burnspbesq

    Rivera did his thing, but if the Angels can hold in the bottom of the ninth, he will probably not come out for the tenth.

    Jepsen was great in the eighth, but does Sciosica trust him enough to send him back out to face Texeira, Dick-Rod, and Matsui?

  134. 134.

    MikeJ

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford: I was actually refering to single player. In COD yo can’t just clear everybody out at distance and then stroll through. The enemy respawn every few seconds until you go forward far enough, which means the only way through the whole game is charging in.

    Regarding online games, perhaps we should put together a balloon juice team for something free, like the army propaganda game. I played a bit for the first few weeks it was out. Was pretty fun until I didn’t have time to play, but it’s one of those games that I’m convinced that playing with the same team every time would be a huge advantage.

  135. 135.

    Janet Strange

    @gnomedad: That “poll” thingy just gets weirder and weirder. I have a screen shot that looks identical to what Failblog posted, but on theirs, the yes and no are reversed from mine. That is, on mine the huge bar is labeled “no he shouldn’t have gotten it” and on theirs the same huge bar is labeled “yes he should have gotten it.”

    Did the WaPo switch the yes and no labels at some point or did FailBlog?

  138. 138.

    MikeJ

    @Janet Strange: There’s a third option, not trickery on the part of anybody but stupidity. If WaPo’s software always makes the leader’s bar much, much bigger than the loser’s and it was really a close 50/50 split, you could have the results you describe.

    It would still be incredibly stupid to do it, but not malicious.

  139. 139.

    scarshapedstar

    I see that people still don’t recognize that Cate Archer from “No One Lives Forever” was one of the best characters evar.

    From one of the best games evar.

    Why the fuck did nobody else play that game?

  140. 140.

    Martin

    @MikeJ:

    AA is pretty fun – it’s the only multiplayer game that held my interest for very long – and it’s not hard to get a private map going for a group. Maps run for a tolerable period of time, so if you get one-shot killed early on, you don’t have to wait long to get back in the mix – and the breaks allow you to keep drinking, unlike a lot of other games.

  141. 141.

    scarshapedstar

    And Manny Calavera… my god. NOLF and Grim Fangando, the two funniest and least acknowledged games… ugh.

    Everyone’s taste is terrible except mine. Also, too.

  142. 142.

    MikeJ

    Out of context theatre:

    AA is pretty fun ….. and the breaks allow you to keep drinking, unlike a lot of other games.

    But yes, I enjoyed the game also.

  143. 143.

    Martin

    What the fuck kind of call was that? No 2nd basemen consistently touch the bag on double plays. Ever.

    FTFY

  144. 144.

    Martin

    Why the fuck did nobody else play that game?

    Controls sucked. That’s why I gave it up. And it seemed to crash a lot. Interesting game poorly executed, IMO.

  147. 147.

    Morbo

    @Gus: Oh come on… There is absolutely no reason MLB would want an LAD/NYY World Series, none at all. Put on a tinfoil hat you whack-job!

  148. 148.

    Gus

    @Morbo:
    I know, what possible reason could they have to want that? Though that strike one call on Figgins reinforces my point.

  149. 149.

    Midnight Marauder

    @gnomedad:

    I would have said the difference is a measure of self-awareness that we have a point of view.

    That works as well. My sincerest apologies for getting it wrong. I was simply posting too fast.

  150. 150.

    J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford

    @MikeJ:

    I played the original America’s Army and qualified for special forces (there was a mission where you had to crawl a great distance) but I haven’t touched it in a few years.

  152. 152.

    Janet Strange

    @MikeJ: I don’t think that’s it – the graphs are the same. Tiny little blue bar on top, huge red bar on the bottom. But on mine the tiny blue top one is labeled “Yes” and on Failblog’s the same top tiny blue bar is labeled “No.”

    If what you are saying is the case (i.e. stupidly designed, oversensitive bar graph program), wouldn’t a slight shift in the results cause the upper Yes blue bar to lengthen all out of proportion to actual results compared to the lower red bar (which would then shrink out-of-proportion), instead of using the same graph and switching Yes from blue to red and upper to lower place on the Y axis?

    I don’t know if I’m being clear – I wish I could show you my screenshot. I guess I could, but I don’t have a Flickr account, and it’s too late/I’m too lazy to sign up, upload, etc.

    Just look at theirs and imagine the Yes and No switched.

  156. 156.

    madmommy

    That SOB A-Rod does it again. Dammit. Why did he suddenly decide this year to get his shit together in the playoffs??

  159. 159.

    Yutsano

    @asiangrrlMN: Gawd there was a time in my life I used to think Pay Fraud was teh hawt. Then his agent (aka Spawn of Shaytan) got him the most ridiculous contract evah (did you know he has to be the highest paid player in baseball? In other words if another player gets offered more money his gets upped up no matter what period. Granted the idiots in Texas created that situation but still that’s ungodly) and he bolted Seattle. We STILL boo him when the Yankees come to play us, that’s how bitter that situation was.

  161. 161.

    KaffeeMeister

    Of course, I’d love to have an Irish Setter…. Oh Please Santa mayn’t have an Irish Setter THIS year?

  165. 165.

    MikeJ

    I completely missed this helicopter meme. Bring me up to speed?

    i have certs…I will scan them…Then you will understand.

  166. 166.

    Yutsano

    @MikeJ: You know what? JC never did reveal if the proper documentation scans ended up in his inbox. It may have to be one of the mysteries of the universe, unless we can con Tunch into getting them out of John. I have tuna.

  167. 167.

    Martin

    And the fucking Yankees strand 3 to even up with the Angels doing the same. If this goes on much longer, the Yankees are going to run out of pitchers and need to grab their starters.

  168. 168.

    Little Macayla's Friend

    @The Original Francis:
    Normally, considering just the amount of good info on vegetarian diets out there, you could save time and confusion by spending an hour with a registered dietitian or dietetic technician and stop the meat habit the same day. An hour with a dietitian (for diabetics) on other issues was well worth it for me. If you have more time for reading now, however, Medline, etc., is stating the obvious.
    For the type 2 pre-diabetics, I hope your doctors don’t call injections “a last resort”, just because of needles, for even one second.

  170. 170.

    madmommy

    The longer this game goes on, the greater my hatred for Tim McCarver becomes. He is a wanker of the highest order, and Joe Buck’s not much better.

  171. 171.

    kommrade reproductive vigor

    Two days of cold steady rain is turning into ice pellets. Fucking ice pellets. In Maryland. In mid-October.

    I can’t recall the weather being this nasty, this early, ever. Even when I lived in Poughkeepsie.

    Clearly Obama’s presidency has so distracted the gods the ice giants have broken free.

    @General Winfield Stuck: I managed to suppress that. (Sorry, I can’t remember any details beyond the fact I used language that shocked me before I was done). This is an almost screen-sized ad to purchase the paid version. Guess you’re not seeing that.

    Oh well, AntiVir & SuperAntiSpyware have kept our computers cootie free for free. Now if someone would hunt down, shoot and skin the fucking malware bastards, I’d be a happy camper.

  172. 172.

    Comrade Kevin

    And now, there’s an Angels player to rival Bill Buckner in the playoff fuck-ups of all time.

  175. 175.

    asiangrrlMN

    @madmommy: Amen to that. I hate them both with a passion. I had to mute them during the last five innings or so.

    @freelancer: It was from the thread, “Now it can be told”. A guy was insisting that we were all dicks (his word) for not caring about Balloon Boy. He said the helicopters were not laughing (or something like that). Instant internet meme!

    @Yutsano: Oh, hon. You and I can definitely go cruising together. A-Rod = ew.

  177. 177.

    Tattoosydney

    @asiangrrlMN:

    By the way, Tattoosydney and I had a little chat because I didn’t consult him before fake-marrying you. I told him it’s not my fault he was planning his wedding with his real hubby when you came in and swept me off my (virtual) feet.

    I didn’t mind- It was just a surprise to find that I was a fake-bigamist.

  180. 180.

    Anne Laurie

    @Yutsano:

    JC never did reveal if the proper documentation scans ended up in his inbox. It may have to be one of the mysteries of the universe, unless we can con Tunch into getting them out of John.

    I assumed JC wasn’t posting because the piles of faxed documentation were impeding his computer access. Or maybe it was the credenza?

  184. 184.

    Tattoosydney

    @Yutsano:

    I don’t care what color it is.

    She keeps going on at me about whether I have chosen the colours for my wedding. Apparently, you can’t have a wedding without colours, and a theme. I asked, and apparently “Getting everyone drunk” doesn’t count as a theme.

    Watch out, or she’ll have you in lilac.

  185. 185.

    AkaDad

    I’m also a single-player gamer. I played NOLF 1 and 2. Great games. COD4 was awesome too and beating it on veteran difficulty was very satisfying, especially the epilogue.

    I’m against the death penalty, but I’d make an exception for people who camp out at spawn points…

  187. 187.

    lethargytartare

    @J.A.F. Rusty Shackleford:

    “Am I the only one distressed that EA Sports FIFA 10 is not being released for the PC in the U.S.? I’m hoping Steam has it like they do FIFA Manager.

    As a Chicago Fire fan I was looking forward to getting my copy with Cuautemoc Blanco on the cover. I was crushed that MVP Baseball was canceled the year the Chicago White Sox won the World Series. It’s like I’m jinxed.

    Anyhoo, anyone else waiting for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 to be released November 10th?”

    personally, I’m devoting all my mental energy to making November 3rd arrive sooner.

    Well, that and pondering what novel method Denis Hamlett will use to crush my spirit Thursday…

  188. 188.

    asiangrrlMN

    @Tattoosydney: You are a gay man, and I have to tell you about colors for a wedding? Sheesh.
    @Yutsano: Ooooh, my two fake-hubbies as bridesmaid. LOVE it. Except, if I were ever to marry, there would be no pastels. I don’t DO pastels. MY colors would be black, red, and silver with me wearing the black and my best woman and brideswomen/men wearing red.

  189. 189.

    Jay

    Old Snake is awesome. But I probably think that because I’m old. But I still have a PS3 so suck it.

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