General J

Sad to hear about the loss of a loved one. Our thoughts and prayers are with you. I have not had to deal with the loss of a very close grandparent yet, or a close loved one. I dread that day very much. Make sure you remind yourself each day how much each person in your life means to you, and make sure they know as well.

Let me begin this rant by saying that I can be super cheap. But, I have to be. I am 20, married, welcoming a son to the world soon, and buying a house. I forgot to mention that I don't like nibbling.... I apparently like to bite off just about as much as I can chew. I recently received a promotion at work, and switched back to night shift (7 pm - 4:30 a.m. for you lucky 9-5ers). So my income is pretty good at this point. Things are tight. But at the end of the month, we end up ahead, somehow. Now the point of this rant, for whoever reads this far, is about the cost of entertainment. Not the "stick a $20 in the nice ladies undergarments" entertainment, but good old family entertainment. 5 adults went to the movie the other night (one of us was only 14, but didn't have a student ID on them). Tickets to movie = $8.50 X 5 = $42.50 1 Medium soda, 2 Large sodas, and a Large popcorn = ~$22.50 For those non-math types, that brings a grand total of about $65 for 2 hours worth of entertainment. Luckily, everyone was fairily entertained with the movie. For that price, you can't afford to make the mistake of choosing a bad movie. Movie rentals are slightly better. But by the time a movie is available to rent, everyone and their grandmother has told you about every funny/cool/scary moment. The sad thing is, this does not only apply to movies. Any experienced parents on a budget have some insight into affordable entertainment? Luckily, St. Louis has a lot of free places to go such as their zoo, science center, art museum. Without those, I think my parents would have gone broke!

I personally thought it was a good movie. I heard that it was leaning towards the anti-war crowd, which almost made me think twice about seeing it. Totally different movie than what I was expecting. I was looking forward to a Blackhawk Down type action flick. Definitely some good thoughts and feelings expressed though. A couple of guys on a bike forum I frequent discussed the author that wrote the main storyline as being quite a whiner. They said the movie had cut a lot of the whining out. It was an eye opening movie for anyone that thinks of war as the glorious/john wayne/shoot em up action cliche. I am sure some of the plot was stretched quite a bit, but on the same note I am sure most of it is pretty close to reality.

Flitter, you seem to be going for a pattern of decent speed and great handling. Why not an 05 Civic Si. Supposedly the best yet. And pretty affordable compared to even the cheapest used TT. Mini Cooper (S)? Ford Focus SVT (newer model... the older model Focus had some problems, I would guess with changing from a European exhaust to our "cleaner" exhaust system.) Just a few ideas to think over as well. Good luck finding a nice ride!

Your dream cars have too many wheels for my taste Triumph Daytona 675 Triple. I do want a quick car with amazing handling, but it has to be family friendly as well. I am thinking a Mini Cooper S. For (someday) affordable - Ford Shelby Cobra GT500

First of all, let me say, that is a nice looking ride! I am all about the clean look. Only problem I have with the Accord is the Rear end. More specifically the exhaust and rear bumper combo. It looks like the V6 mustangs that people try to put "dual" outlet exhaust on, and it just sits under the bumper. They could have made it look like the exhaust was meant for the car... Cut out or mold some area so that the pipes sit even with the rest of the car. Sorry, not a specific complaint against your car. Just my $0.02. Love the look of yours though! Very nice choice of wheels with that car too. I am guessing he was referring to not buying a domestic V8. If he checks back he can verify that. To which I have to respond. Ford has a nice package in the new Mustang GT. Chevy is... well... Chevy is uncertain with what is going to happen tomorrow and won't take a chance on anything. Will they go anywhere in the next 3-4 (general warranty coverage... ) years? Probably not. 5-10 years? Might want to start on that coffin just in case. The problem I have with domestic is that they seem scared to try new things. Want more horsepower? Increase displacement. 6.0 Liter too small, build a 7. When you have a 3.5L V-6 (Nissan) making the same amount of power as a 4.6L V-8 (Ford), you question what is going on here. Sadly, the only thing I have been pleasantly suprised about lately is the SRT4.

This says it all. I understand that development takes some money, and marketing takes some pocket change. But seriously. $400 for a freaking video card that is middle of the road in a few months is insane. Make a card and market it for your average target's ( Younger gamers, for the most part) budget. In a world where I can barely afford to fuel up my truck each week, how the heck do you think I am going to be able to put money towards a card so that your company makes money? Hell, cut down the package to a static free cover, and a cheap plastic case. Get rid of the graphical cardboard box that requires more packaging because the thing is 5X bigger than the card. <Rant over>

Real men don't make enough money to fill up a truck... <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Or they die trying... WOOHOO for $3 a gallon! So, who wants to take bets on $3.50 or $4? I have got to get my bike back up and running this week. $60 a fill up That's for about a week and a half too. My trucks monthly gas consumption blows away our original gas budget we did about 2-3 months ago, and that was for 2 vehicles! Anywho, Nice car Brillow. Manual? 6 or 4 cylinder? Looks like a fun ride!

Someone posted this on another board I frequent. Thought you all might like to see it.Keep them in your thoughts and prayers.

I have just been updating, filtering not full and not empty, then sorting by players. I can usually find the same few servers in that list. Filtering by ping doesn't really work for me. A lot of times, the servers I usually play in come up as 140-150. But when I highlight them and click the scroll arrow down, it updates the ping and players in server. What servers do you guys frequent? I try to join the same few servers if I can find them. A few of them are LineageII and Hell is Loose!. They seem to be very stable servers for me. I was playing in the Divo.net servers but they started crashing and I would always lose connection after a few minutes. Hopefully a lot of these problems are fixed with the next update.

Both are 128mb. I have the 9600XT, and it will run most anything out right now. You won't be able to run super high res with AA and AF on, but it gets the job done. It will run FarCry just fine, CSS and BF2 very well. Very nice card imo.

As far as I know, Mitsubishi's are not known for all out reliability. They carry a decent warranty, but be warned that they have tried many different things (not that all manufacturers don't) to get out of living up to the warranty. They refused warranty transmission and drivetrain work to owners of lancer evo's, accusing them of participating in SCCA autocross events. They went as far as looking for owners names on websites posting the results for local events. These events are hard on suspension, tires, wheels, chassis, but not so much on tranny, engine, or drivetrain. They are not known for being good "high mileage" cars either. Of course, I will say the same thing I always say when people ask for advice or bash a car manufacturer. Every car made today is very over manufactured. Machines do most of the molding, cutting, welding, and assembly of the car. If these are off by .000001 cm, problems will eventually arise. Or they might not. It's all luck of the draw. Do some test driving of the eclipse, and some of it's direct competition. Maybe arrange an extended test drive, and search around for magazine or personal experiences with the car. I know that car and driver does "extended" tests of cars, which involves an editor keeping the car for a certain period of time. They discuss ease of repair and maintenance, problems that come up, and overall driving experience. Hope some of the info helps you.

See i told ya they make better things in Canada dang canadians <{POST_SNAPBACK}> Too bad that's not from Canada.... And we have the same bikes in the US, for the most part...

I have read many places to expect higher prices on new electronics across the board. Why? Because our government said so! News article from CNet on eliminating lead-tin solder. Not sure how much this would increase the price of electronics, but I have heard anywhere from trivial amounts to extremes. Just wait until enviromentalists decide that half the everyday things we use either: A)Have the potential to cause cancer, or Have the potential to eventually harm the earth given XYZ circumstances. Some day they will realize one of the biggest "pollutants of them all" and volcanoes will be outlawed.

Thanks Dweez! I laughed out loud at work when I saw the full page ad they had put in. Hopefully it will be run again soon. I have been keeping my eyes open for it. When I purchased my AMD 2600+, I did so because of performance and price. Nothing that Intel had for around the same price had anywhere near the specs that the 2600 had. Also the fact that the 939-pin mobo's will be able to accept the dual core chips is pretty cool to me.

HOLY How much you think I could get for my 9600XT? ATI, 128mb. If you need a video card, you would not be too intelligent to pass this up! I may have to redo budget and splurge on this one.

Negatory on that. It was a full page ad in which AMD challenges Intel to a no-BS Dual-core chip speed challenge.

Holy video card killer! Now I really have to find a way to get that X800! Anyone have any black market links.... (I am kidding, innocent, and ignorant on this subject and would like to keep it that way)

Anyone else see this ad in USA Today? I usually browse through the paper while on break at work, and stumbled on this today. I meant to take the page, but forgot. Hopefully they will have it in there again. If someone has it though, anyway you can scan it and post or email it to me? Would be much appreciated.

Overtime here I come! Either that or I might have to sell myself out for that deal. My 9600XT is only going so far nowadays...

Goot's gettin to be an old man! Happy Birthday! Hope you had a good one old buddy

Get you some experience riding in the rain, and forget the truck. Or you could do what my father-in-law has done for himself. Buy 3 bikes - 2 warm weather (sport-type BMW's, K75 and a 70's R100), and one cold weather full-faired bike. I wouldn't mind doing it, but I don't have the money. For now, I will stick with my good old ninja. Check out New Enough for some good deals on gear. If you choose to ride to work, you will want to get atleast a jacket so you don't walk into work with bug splatter all over you

NOFX - DO IT! And don't look back! Get some good gear (Warm weather gear, and cold weather gear. Possibly some waterproof, rain gear. PM if you want some suggestions.) Other than days that it is completely storming, or 10 degrees and snowing, just take the bike. All depends on how far away form work you live though. Windex - Beautiful bike! I love my "crotch rocket", but I can sure appreciate a nice looking classic. Someday I will have the money and time to own and maintain one. On another note though, jeans and t-shirt? Gear or no gear is obviously a personal decision, but tell me you atleast wear a helmet. Bumps, bruises, and a few scrapes feel a lot better than having road rash scrubbed out at the ER. Having ridden before, you should know better that most cagers pay no attention to what is going on around them. We should get all the bike owner pictures in a thread.

I watched as our IT guy did clean up today of the aftermath. He had a program called Stinger, which I assumed was just a removal tool. Took a few minutes to search out all the files added and changed. Once it was done, it had removed 143 items. Makes you wonder how many remain on the system, even after that.

Check here. I asked about this a while back. Play around with demo's for some of the programs mentioned, and see which one you like.