General J

I think this should be the new way to kick. You don't want a player there who's name starts with a, kick em all!

I liked the "Kansas from Kansas" part myself. Gotta feel sorry for the guy. Wonder if he was back the next day.

Funny stuff. But honestly. Tell me you have never been at a complete loss as to what you were trying to say when put on the spot. If every interview of every president had been recorded, I am sure we could come up with transcripts or video clips for every president having a moment like this.

I gotta say, these guys are genuinely annoying. But, like Mong said, atleast they are getting creative. Could be a funny prank once and a great while. I would assume it should be easy to figure out who executed the command to do this though.

You should be fine in snow with a front engine, front wheel drive car. Although, I personally prefer rear wheel drive to anything. The only time I could really see AWD helping you in the snow is from a dead stop. While moving, it is not going to keep you from sliding all over the place. That is what you traction control systems are for. Sure, it has 4 wheels to adjust power to, but that just means 2 extra spots that the computer can try to kill you with. A good set of snow tires would do you much better, IMHO. Test drive both, preferrably in the conditions that you are warranting buying the car for. (extreme rain, snow, ice. Or if you are from Missouri, dry pavement.. sorry people really don't know how to drive here) If it has selectable AWD, turn it off and on and drive both ways. Try out the traction control system, on and off. That is one cool thing I have seen about BMW's. You buy an M vehicle (3,5,6 or M roadster) and I believe they give you the option of going to their test facility for a training class. There they have a skidpad that shows you the difference between TCS on and off. I have seen programs on it, and it is amazing! Like Goot said, the Audi will be a much sleeker, tighter, better put together package (or atleast I would hope so for the price ). But the Subaru will be built more toward the sporting side. Just check em both out and see which one fits you the best. Then go check out some other AWD options like the Saab 9-2x, Ford 500, (I hate to point anyone this direction, although they are making a "comeback) Mitsu Lancer Evo.

*Edit* guess this should be moved to Studio 54.. oops.. The bands called Zamudio. These guys are from my neck of the woods. Their lead singer was actually a guy I went to school with. He is a crazy funny guy, but I wouldn't have expected this outta him! Here's their website! and Here's their MySpace page. Life Again sounds like a radio single friendly song. Check em out!

If you don't have to have 5.1 surround, I would suggest Bose. Best sound I have heard out of pc speakers. Any mine are running off of crappy onboard sound!

"Redeyez has left the building" Man, I still remember when I didn't even know Mmmm existed. LC days! Sad to see you go. Hopefully you will still return to play occasionally! So many people calling it quits!

I have received many ear fulls of advice about credit cards. Follow what everyone else has said. GET CREDIT!! It helps, a lot... I couldn't get a $3200 loan to buy my first bike because I did not have any credit at all. We are currently with a visa through the bank. It came with our checking account for overdraft protection. We also have a USAA (for people who are in, have served in, or have family members who have been in the armed forces). Visa is ok to deal with, but again we go through our bank. USAA is a pleasure to deal with. The best advice for building credit that I have heard of is to charge something like $10 to the card. Pay off the interest each month for as long as you would like (year or more would probably be best) and then pay off the total when you are ready. Then you can ask for a boost in available credit for the card as well. Either that or spend way too much for x-mas and still be paying it off 4 months later...

Decided this long rant needed a disclaimer. These are my opinions and mine alone. I have no knowledge, other than what I have read in this topic, about what happened with pagan. I know from personal experience that lately I have not been able to play more than a map or 2 at most. The game just doesn't seem as fun as it once was. Maybe it has changed or maybe I have. I dunno. But without further ado... *Open book* It's sad and scary to see good competition chased away (due to whatever circumstances) from the community. I played with and against pagan I don't even know how many times in my short run of cs:s. Nothing really stands out in my mind about any of those times though, since it has been a while. I will say that team stacking seems to be the scapegoat for the losing team anymore. If a team is short, say, 3 or more players, I see it as legitimate. If teams are even close to even numbers, and one team just happens to have the upper hand (be it by skill, one sided maps, luck, prayers) THAT'S HOW IT GOES! Tough luck! This is a pub server. You are not going to be able to mold all star teams every single map. There will be a new map in what, 20 minutes? Don't be so quick to scold. Fatty said that pagan was whooping up on t's. So he switches. He calls a rush. Now, I don't know where he "cowered", but he could have had a good reason. Scenario 1 Map: Aztec DD rush is called and one man decides to camp bridge room. Why? Because CT's will cross that bridge, or go water, and someone has to cut them off. Either that or the T's get theirs handed to them, from behind. Getting on to someone for getting some late round kills is also... well, not too bright. Scenario 2 Bomb is planted with 5 T's left, and one CT. T's have been winning for the last few rounds. They are loaded with cash. CT's are struggling to keep their M4s in order to even stand a chance. That one CT takes out 3-4 of those T's running away. Not only do they have to spend more of their cash to restock, he also has a chance to buy a more powerful weapon, and maybe even one for a teammate or two. Maybe we should all take the advice we gained as children. "Look both ways before crossing the road" Such a simple statement right? Not really. That could go for a lot more than just avoiding being flattened by traffic. Look at both sides before you jump on someones case. Think about why they did that. Maybe even ask them. Engage in some conversation. You might learn their strategy, and use it to help yourself and your team. So many people are so quick to complain about everything, that the game just gets to be no fun. *Close book and shelve for 3-4 years*

I used my 4 free movie passes to see this movie and I felt ripped off! I feel sorry for anyone that paid!

Heck yea! Price car = 700,000 cr! Nice one!

Shaw, what game is that from? If that's what flight sims look like nowadays, I might have to invest in one. Last flight sim I played was Janes Navy Fighters '97! Very nice video!

My most ignorant story comes from last night. No one said anything, unless you count the endless number of swear words that spewed from my mouth... Here goes anyhow, since this is the venting thread apparently. *Start Vent* I hop on Highway 70 on my new bike. There is a truck in the left lane slightly behind me, I am in the center lane, and there is a small gold car in the right hand lane. Looked like a woman driving (of no importance to the story until later, and not to be sexist in the least) and most likely on a cell phone. I admit to going a little faster than I should have been when I came up on the gold car. I am a very attentive driver while on the bike and watch people through their mirrors to make sure they see me. This person does not look to the side or in the mirror, nor do they even move their head from looking forward. I was less than 5 inches from being side swiped at about 80 mph when I made the move that probably saved me from being hit and subsequently ran over on the highway. I decide it is time to go home, park the bike, and lock the door for the night! So I get off the highway at the exit to my apartment. I am watching my mirrors for people not paying attention getting off the highway when I see a small gold car. I look over as they pull up getting ready to turn just in time to see a woman GLARE at me and quickly grab her cell phone. Only thing I could think was " Go ahead darling, call the police for almost running into me!" Moral of the story, drive or ride (whatever you choose) like everyone is out to kill you, and PAY ATTENTION TO YOUR SURROUNDINGS! *End Vent* Sorry guys, not so funny... But I did get my fiancee on a good one... Her : What does XLT mean? Like that Explorer or on your truck, what does the XLT stand for? Me : Oh I dunno.. I think it means Extra Large Trunk.. Her : Really?

Will do. Many prayers and thank you's should go to every soldier and every family with a loved one who is serving every single day, whether in a time of conflict or not.

That's great! I thought he would try to hide the dancing when his roommate came in. The fact that he just kept dancing freakin kills me.

My first instinct would say go with the Toyota. They are a very good name in car manufacturing. Other than the newer Celica GT-S drivetrain problems, I have not heard many complaints about their cars. In fact, my fiancee had a 1980 Toyota Corolla that was nearing 300,000 miles on it with only some minor repairs. The carburetor was getting filthy and needed to be cleaned, but is pretty darn near impossible to piece back together. So she ended up with a new car. My first car was actually a 1989 Celica ST that ran for 160,000 miles with few oil changes from previous owner (my step-sister ) before the state of Missouri (also ) said it would not meet emissions standards. Don't get me started on that topic though. But, I wouldn't throw out the Mazda 3 either. I really like the way the 3 series hatch's (they call it a wagon...) looks. Never had personal experience with Mazda though, but they seem to be pretty nice. Also along those same lines are the new 05 Ford Focus, or the Chevy Cobalt. *edit* Forgot the new Pontiac G6. As with any new year/model car, look at the engine. A lot of times when a car manufacturer rolls out a new car with a brand new engine design or drivetrain design, they are known to have a few "bugs" to them. Check out Car and Driver's reviews or Consumer Reports reviews, Road and Track, or cars.com for specs and some reviews. Good luck and Have fun car shopping. Make sure you check out all of your options before you buy or you might find out the hard way, further down the road, that you really wish you would have bought something else.

Water pump might be a heck of a job, but brakes and oil change are something you could do at home. Granted you have the tools, space, jack and stands to do it of course. Disc brakes are simple, and should be able to be done in your sleep. Drum brakes are a different story and require a bit more work and headache. As for the oil change... Either go to wal-mart and buy a 12-pack of decent, cheap oil (any regular 10w- or 5w-30 oil is pretty cheap now a days due to synthetics) at around $19.99 and do it yourself, or go to somewhere like jiffy lube or whatever your local oil change place is and have them do it for around the same price. Takes about 15-30 minutes. Adding $200 to the job just for oil and brake change would be ridiculous! Unless of course you get crazy brakes that tear up the discs for no apparent reason... I will never buy cheap brake pads again...

Bike should be back tomorrow after a brief visit to the shop.. The guy I bought the bike from lives in a developing subdivision. My buddy and I test road the bike further back where the houses were still being built. After getting it home, I was looking over it while showing my parents and I found a screw in the rear tire. A nice new screw, still shiny and silver, so I knew it was from the construction area. So, about $220 later, I will have a brand spanking new tire on it. Needless to say, the woman is none too happy about new bike and new tire happening all at the same time. I can't say I blame her since the rear tire that was on it was pretty new. But now I will have a new, better tire straight from Avon Tyres!

If it's getting up into red, you should stop driving... Also remember that cold temps outside and short trips or driving on the highway would cause those problems to mysteriously disappear.

TAKE THE MSF COURSE! I can't stress that enough. Street riding is a lot different. I personally started on a Ninja 250r. Great first bike. Enough power to get you in trouble, but forgiving none the less. The front brake power is not there, so clamping down the first few times will not send you over on your head. It needs to be shifted quite a bit, so you will master that pretty quickly. Only complaint I had was size and the rear tire. The size wasn't anything I couldn't deal with, and wasn't too uncomfortable. Just wouldn't want to be stuck on it for 3 hours on the highway. A good site to check out, and the one that sold me on the bike is Ninja250.com *EDIT* Not sure what happened to Beginner bikes... Sad to see that site go if it really is gone forever. Ninja250 site above is still a great place to get some info. Best option in my opinion for a starter street bike. Honda may have some nice top model bikes, but the 250's they sell just don't earn my endorsement at all! Start the transition slow. Once you are comfortable enough, start pushing the bike harder. Just take it easy and don't go out to busy roads until you are prepared to concentrate on the bike and drivers not paying the slightest bit of attention to anything other than their cell phone (most of the time!)

So after a long winter of only a few decently comfortable riding days, I am starting to see the weather here break towards spring time. So, with that vision in front of me, I had to get moving. And move I did! I have been searching for the past few months. Some times out of curiousity and sometimes being very serious to find a good deal out there. Well, I found one. I am going tomorrow to get the check to buy a 1993 Kawasaki Ninja ZX-6. That is the actual bike I am buying. I found the add on cycletrader. Took the drive to go look at it today, and fell in love. The guy was very, very nice and made #2 on my list of wonderful people to do business with. That makes 2 for 2 so far! I was also allowed to take the bike out for a test ride, no questions asked. A lot of people want some sort of deposit or collateral. It has more miles than I was orignally looking for at 29,000. But it runs very nicely. I will be reporting more once the bike is in my posession!! I am very excited and driving my fiancee crazy! And yes, I did get the ok from her first

I am getting close to that magic 25 perent complete so I can do the endurance races. A hint to anyone that wants money in the game. Play the 2nd set of races in the American circuit. Beat all 3 ($10,000 for each race) and receive a $212,000 camaro race car. Beat it a few times and then sell your winnings for serious cash!

Wow, my fiancee and I saw this the other night. We were glad we used free ticket passes to see it. I would have been upset if I had paid over $5 to see it. There were some interesting bits. But it looked like they were just trying to run off of the success of the Matrix series. I will say, however, that this did spark everyones interest into thinking about how the comic book is. Looks like it could be good and very dark.

I would have to say this is much better than 3. So many more cars, better graphics, more tracks. They actually have a supercharger option for those v-8 power fix needs. Cars seem a lot more balanced power wise. Exhaust note actually changes with upgrades. A drag strip for 1/4 mile times. I also liked the import option from gt3 to gt4. I started with an 05 Mustang GT. Now my garage includes everything from a classic skyline, M3, Jaguar XJ220, to a Chevelle SS and Camaro race car. I really wish I had an HDTV so I could use the 1080i mode.