Norguard

...I think everybody is coming at this with a little too much heat, behind their thought patterns. There is righteous anger, but there must always, always, always be justification. ...if we're in bad-relationship competitions here, I think I will take the cake in Christian relationships, and Major Malfunction will take the non-Christian, as far as polling the GC populous. ...the thing is, I'm really not bitter about it, though my friends think I should be. Here's the deal: He's an emotional man - that's fine. He felt very, very vulnerable, after being left, and he was looking for comfort from one of his closest friends - that's also fine... ...while alone with this girl, mulling over, and crying over his loss, feeling pitiful, and sorry for himself, he felt the need to have the part of the relationship which was just removed from him. She was hartbroken, and felt awful for him. She probably had her arm around him, and was consoling him, and they were both drunk with pity, when he decided that what he needed was a kiss to feel loved. It wasn't a kiss because he loves her. It was a kiss, because he wanted to feel loved, and there is no better way to feel loved than with a kiss. They were both in a compromised emotional state, and as good as drunk, with the endorphins racing through their systems. For all intents and purposes, they were innebriated. ...this isn't a defense! The problem with this situation is not the outcome of the circumstance - not at all. This is a situation which is really easy to get into. The solution would be to have had them not be alone together. That's the first step. In my neck of the woods, you'd be hard pressed to find a young Christian couple who are left unsupervised for more than an hour. I've learned from experience that it's better that way. Being alone can be perfectly fine for some, and can be a temptation for others. I don't think that in either situation I'd personally hold 'cheating' against her. ...in neither case was it her intent. She wasn't faithful, but there's a gap in the middle of the two definitions. Do what your heart tells you to do. Honestly, I'd take them both back. ...but there HAS to be a change, if either one respects you (which I'm sure they do, and which she has shown) in how they conduct themselves. If you take her back, she needs to know that she needs to keep a place in her heart for you. She needs to guard her emotions around other people. Even when you're married, affairs never just "happen". They happen, because you open yourself up to somebody you shouldn't be open to... It might seem a little calloused, but she needs to know, and she needs to let others know that she can only be that available to you, and you alone. Your friend should know that despite his emotions, even if they're spurred on by depression, emotional or neurological, that if he's going to succeed in life, and not burn out, and become a useless puddle of self-pity, he's going to need to take charge of his own life, and use common sense and self-control. Through highschool, I was a manic-depressive, obsessive-compulsive, trichotilomaniac with social anxiety and a horribly low sense of self-worth. ...I still had a level head on my shoulders, and it kept me from getting into trouble with anybody but myself. He needs to man up to his actions - then man up to his current situation, and then move forward, despite the pain. In doing so, he must exercize some personal integrity, and will his way through things, instead of bending with every circumstantial wind. Next topic: Your relationship in general - 90% of this current heartache could have been solved in one fell swoop, 2 years ago. Keep the relationship pure. Dude, I know it's hard to do, but you've got to hold back on the physical part of the relationship - especially if you're Christian. I know a lot of people - a lot of Christian people, will tell you that it's okay to have a little, and I'll agree to a point. Just remember this: the Bible doesn't call for your relationship to be abstinant - it's not virginity that it calls for - it's purity. You can't think with your head on straight, when endocrines and endorphins are coursing through your veins. In my four year relationship, previously, I abstained, because that was her wish... ...but she also pushed towards the flirting and the kissing and all of the other stuff that it leads into - as long as it was nothing overtly sexual. I can tell you that at least once a week, for almost four years, I would walk home at night, almost in tears of frustration. ...and when she left, after four years, I was devastated. ...and then she started exploring aspects of herself that she always tempted me with, and I was about ready to call it quits on life. Had we not been so physical, she could have told me that she didn't think we were right for each other, and I could have thought about it and come to a conclusion on my own. Such was not the case, when all that my body wanted was more of hers. It should have been marriage that had me addicted to her. I swear that going cold turkey from being held every night, and kissed and fawned over for over 20% of your life is harder, and produces more shakes than a heroin addiction, though I'm not about to try. If you do end up out in the real world, on your own, remember that shopping around, always trying to find the lowest price, and the shortest line is a HUGE misconception. Your heart is a garden, and relationships do grow in it. They require maintenance. If you work on building one relationship, it will blossom, and germinate, and in time, it will be fuller than you could ever have imagined. However, if you join the 'flavour of the month' club, and you give a rose to the first girl, call it off, give a couple of roses to the second girl, call it off and move onto the next, pretty soon, your heart is a barren waste, cracked and dry, and unsuitable for any relationship to be planted. And when your heart's hardened, it takes a lot of maintenance, even to just get back to the point where you're ready to start building relationships. Spending years of your life being jaded and disillusioned sucks. That temptation, to drop what you have and see what else is available is always there. Treat it as such - a temptation. If you're a single guy, there's nothing wrong with having several casual friendships with girls. ...it's when you try to take each one on in a relationship that things get seriously messed up. As much as we want a taste of all of the different flavours, we aren't meant for it. There may be one out there that's better for you, but better you stick with the one you have, or go without, until you find one, than to try a little bit of everything available at the counter. Whomever you end up marrying will thank you for it, as you'll be a stronger person for it. ...anyway, I've gone on long enough. Your life is yours, your heart is yours. You have the free will to choose your own path - the important part is that you choose with prayerful consideration, and that morals, and not emotions that will pass in a day or two, prevail in your decision making.

Heh... ...I'm 22, a private music teacher, and I think way too much for my own good. ...I played Dr. Phil in highschool with every girl, ever. Ever. I gave them two answers, every time - the proper answer, and the one that would fix the current problem with the relationship. ...but I just wouldn't feel right as a Christian councellor... I've still got plenty of stuff that I need to work out, and get solid, before I can stand up to the scrutiny of helping to teach people to live right. Advice, I'm good with. Ideas, I'm good with... ...teaching, ironically, not so much so. I'm just a guy hoping to have a happy wife some time in the future, with a white pickett fence, and 2.5 kids.

K, I'll lend a USP. Do you want 10 straight minutes of footage, or do you want 10 minutes worth of material? One just means I'll send you a bunch of little demos, and the other means that I'll record a zillion demos and send you the one that makes me happiest... ...though I'm assuming it'll have dead air.

Jackie, ...it's not totally true. ...there's a perpetual cycle in motion, thanks to the current values of our society: Guys want girls for a good time, girls want guys to validate them. Guys spend money on girls to make them feel special, girls give guys what they want. Guys spend money making themselves look flashier, and girls hop from guy to guy. Guys end up looking like jerks, and being dominating to prove that they're the Alpha, and girls end up being manipulative gold-diggers... ...might be a little cynical, but if you don't see the patterns in the general populous, chances are, you're either one of those people, or in a crowd with them. I promise you that there will be people like that in your life for just about as long as you live... ...even cheating/swinging 60+ year olds. The good news is that as soon as university is over, and just about everybody is strung out, a large majority of them realize that they were complete idiots, and that their value system at the time was totally skewed. Some through foresight, some through insight, and most through the hindsight of consequence. Stay away from the people who know what's right and intentionally ignore it. ...they think they're going to have their fun, and then get life back in order, once it's 'time to be mature', but it rarely happens that way. So many times in highschool, I heard "You know, when I'm older, I want to marry somebody just like you." - roughly translated, that means: "When I'm a strung out, jaded, poor, single mother, working a night-shift while trying to get my highschool equivalence, I'll really need a nice, dependable, responsible guy like you to talk to me and take care of me... ...just don't think that you're going to be getting any when we're married. That's reserved for the next-door neighbour." That may sound a little bitter, but just after they give you the "someone just like you" talk, they'll run off with their boyfriend of the hour, to skip class and do various drugs. The paragraph would be snide if it weren't proven to be sadly true at least twice, by my highschool peers. That being said - don't worry about it too much: The good guys win in the end... ...how long the story is, is personal, but they do triumph. There are great girls out there, just the same as there are good guys looking for them... ...don't worry about it too much. Anonymous, whomever you may have been, lust is a really easy trap to fall into, and one of the hardest to get out of... ...the important part is to not get down or beat yourself up about it - that's not the attitude of somebody who will overcome. You are empowered to do good things. The first good thing you need to do, is deal with this snare. Confess and repent, and you can rejoice and get on with doing the rest of the good works out there for you to do. It sounds easy, and really, it is... ...you just have to will your way through, sometimes. That tends to be the tricky part. Confide in somebody - a close friend or an elder. You don't need to tell them the most intimate of details - you do need to tell them about your struggle. I will be honest here, and say that the closer I get to where I'm looking at marriage with my ladyfriend, the more I get those thoughts creeping into the back of my head... They're normal, healthy male thoughts, and are a part of how we are wired - but it's what we do with them that counts. I spend too much time being happy and having fun around her, for me to focus on my attraction to her... ...for the time being... ...it's when I'm away from her that the lyrics to "Wouldn't it be Nice", by the Beach Boys start running through my head. Wether it's accountability here, or accountability in your daily world, a friend to lean on is important. ...but if somebody else is going to shoulder your burden, you have to get the weight off of your chest first. If you've got friends here who respect you, PM them. Especially if they've already replied to this topic, or are sensitive to the subject. I will say that talking to girls about it can make situations more uncomfortable than they need to be. ...girls are really great to talk to off-hand, and casually about deep or personal issues... ...but if you're harbouring feelings for her, or she you, the situation can get a little hairy. One happily married couple I know, almost lost their relationship when the guy told his fiance that he had an addiction to porn. That's a hard pill for somebody else to swallow - especially if your current relationship is romantic, but not physical... ...that news can feel almost as bad as finding out you're cheating on them. I don't expect you to respond, especially after the closing of the account, but I will say that you should have faith, and believe that you have been given the strength to overcome this, and the grace to move past it.

If Elder Scrolls 4 was linear, your PC would melt, and collapse in a giant heap of crying plastic. I'd love it. The Elder Scrolls Series is always good... ...except when you can't hit a single thing, because you have bad luck with dice-chucking... ...even the virtual ones. Anachronox is amazing. I love it a lot. The graphics are awful by today's standards, but the voice acting and the writing are really top notch. The game is immensely linear - you follow a story, and there are two possible outcomes (you die and get a game over, from which you continue, or you finish the game) ...that being said, there are so many tiny little subplots and dialogue subscripts that it's impossible to see everything in your first two or three playthroughs. Some of the actions in the first 20 minutes of the game dictate tiny little things in the last 20 minutes of the game, which you may or may not care about, depending on how much you care about NPCs that you meet. I bought it for $9.99 a few years ago, after not being able to find it anywhere for a whole year. ...if you can find it in a bargain bin, definitely check it out.

I think it was taken out of production at the end of last year, Cuj, but they're still around to be had. The Neo2 Platinum, and the Neo2 F were both fantastic boards for AGP 939, and are my first choice, if you can get ahold of one of either of them. Oh, and Cuj, I was in the mississauga shop a couple of weeks ago. Had to buy some parts for the ladyfriend's friend.

Do you work at the CC out in Markham, Cuj? Oh, and don't forget the MSI K8N Neo 2 Platinum.

Hahah. Pachbel is either proud or spinning in his grave. I love most of it. Half disagree with a couple of runs here and there, but generally speaking Much <3 indeed.

Satanists are satanists and pagans are pagans... fire is not in the Christian arsenal, though. Never has been. That's not to say that the Crusades, and Inquisitions weren't brutal travesties... ...they were... ...they just weren't right, or founded in any way on the New Testament - you know, the half written for Christians... Another thing you probably don't realize is that as much as the Catholic church was scourging heathen, they were attacking the more liberal front of the church at the same time. You see, at that time, anything to do with the Catholic religion was in Latin... ...only priests, monks and the dignitaries knew how to speak it. What peasant could rightly call their bluff, when all they know is Parisienne or Elizabethan English? ...on top of that, most of the teachings weren't the Bible... ...they were the Cathecism, a rulebook written about the Bible... The Latin Vulgate, as it was, at the time, was inaccurate, and corrupt, and yet, it's what the Catholics had been using for 800 years, as the only legal language to preach to the masses. 100 years prior to that, the scriptures were already available in 500 different languages. There were people working, underground in Scotland, to make the Bible available in English... ...many of them were burned at the stake or otherwise executed as heretics, as well. That doesn't have anything to do with the faith... As far as slaves, I can't see one part in the New Testament where slave ownership is encouraged. In Philemon, Paul welcomes in a runaway slave who has become a Christian - his owner is also a Christian. Paul tells the owner not to accept the slave back not as a slave, but as a fellow Christian... ...he doesn't go further into detail than that, but I don't think the message was: "All ye in need of rest and comfort, come to me and till my cotton fields, and I will give you cramped lodging and slop for food." And I don't agree with the US's style of much of anything, including the take on Christianity... ...just about everywhere else in the world, Christianity is a personal thing... ...faith is a personal issue... ...what you did with your gifts and your calling, for the church was a personal thing. There are now a zillion denominations, all quibbling over tiny little things, when all they have to do is agree on the big ones, instead. ...most of them are in the US, where people can afford to spend so much time worrying about exactly how everybody else prays. I think if they can touch on Islam and Judaism in a world religion course, they should also touch on Christianity. I think that if you're teaching philosophy, the letters of Paul and the teachings of Jesus are just as relevant as those of Sophoclese and Ghandi. Other than that, if you want your kids to have an hour of Bible schooling every day, send them to Bible school. And DJ, I still say that most of the backlash you percieve against the church is because the USA has become so very, very progressive in the past generation and a half. The baby boomers really did mark a lot of change in America - before that, most suburban life really was rather close-knit, moral and kinda "Leave it to Beaver"... ...even during the war. ...so it's not until Rock Hudson and AIDS and Maddonna and the sex, drugs and rock'n'roll lifestyle that the church in the US even HAD to take a stance on values as a whole (I'm not talking about being taught in-school)... ...and every decade it seems the US pioneers a new type of people who have special needs, and the boundaries will be pushed. On one end, you see the progressives, who want to segregate these new needs, and come up with rules for them. On the other, you have people who are traditional, wondering why we even need to be treated differently to begin with. Church related change: There are now homosexual denominations of Christianity - that is, churches who see that as a viable and holy lifestyle... can you blame the church for fighting that one? Non-Church related change: Vancouver was one of the first cities in North America with clinics set up just so junkies could get clean needles, and get their fix in a warm, sanitary place. ...okay, so the people have problems, but shouldn't they be problems that should be fixed? Shouldn't fighting rampant drug use, and helping people from their addictions so they can start rebuilding their lives be the call of order, and not giving them a heated, furnished lounge, free of charge, or of legal process? These are the things that usually come to my mind when I see the church getting into politics... neither of these things are things that the church has changed on. They didn't suddenly take a vote and decide on these things... ...it was the rest of the society that did. Personally, I don't care what the federal laws are about outside influence. ...the faith I back is the one on the streets. The one in the homes. Daniel's faith in the face of Nebuchanezzar. John Wycliffe's, Jon Hus' and Martin Luther's in the face of the Catholic church. The one in the hearts - not the politik with the zealot congregation waiting to make him money, because they think he's right. Guh.

HDR is "High Dynamic-Range Rendering"... ...basically, it's programming that simulates the way your eyes see light, so if you're leaving a house, the sunlight bouncing off of everything is brighter, until your eyes adjust. If something is standing in front of a light and eclipses it, it glows with a halo. Eventually, they'll add subsurface scattering, which is like when you put a flashlight in your mouth, or put your hand over one, and you turn red, and you can see your bones and veins and arteries.

It's a brand new map that Valve released last night. It is huge, though. And I know exactly what you mean, Bob... ...I seem to recall a LOT of AWPs last night... ...but that hasn't changed since 1.3.

It was just released yesterday, and I'm willing to bet that for the first little while, at least, it'll be in rotation in all of the servers.

If you're going to do any advanced video stuff, disconnect from all maps and do it then. It will take less time, because the engine won't have to drop the map textures, reset the textures and then rerender the map... ...the sound engine will also be off.

...if you want the best of the best CRTs, 21" and better, that would, hands down, be the Sony GDM-F520 21" aperture grille monitor. It's got a dot-pitch of .22mm and I believe it runs 1600x1200 @ 120Hz+. The optimal resolution/refresh is 2048 x 1536 @ 86Hz. This is a monitor for people very serious about dot-pitch, response and refresh. It's a video/photo editor's dream... ...you're also dreaming if you think they're in any way affordable. New, (the only way to buy a monitor for video/photo work) these things are upward of $1600USD. ...that's more than my current PC rig would cost to buy new. ...but you asked for the best, and the best you'll get. There's also a 24" version of the same monitor, meant for viewing two 1280x1024 workspaces, side by side. I'd recommend staying away from the G520 models - they'll save you $800 or more, but they can only pull 1600x1200 @ 80Hz.

...you didn't read the thread I posted in the Christianity thread... ...it's not an excuse so much as an explanation, but I did tell you that my week was just a little worse than the 1 - 10 I was sporting that night.

Yeah. You can totally take the CTs in that play, as long as you orchestrate some other solid plays before/afterward. It's just that there are two or three people, usually who end up being total cannon-waste. I'm president of the Leadcatcher's 512th. ...and unless those two or three people are hardcore-ubarleet, they're pretty much dead, after inflicting as much damage as they could. I joined #3 during the two or three hours I had available in an all-nighter, in Aztec, where they were complaining about a CT stack, where they had gone 0 - 6. I came in and started bossing the Ts around and we won 10 - 7. ...they even had a guy on the CT side who was 40:5 at one point. He left shortly thereafter. We only lost the one round, because after four straight wins, every nub on our team bought an AWP. Every single one - it was 11 on 11, and there were 9 Ts with AWPs. ...all AWPing through the DD and across the bridge... ...9 people in that space. I think there was a four-frag 'nade that round... ...then I yelled at them again, they started rushing, and we didn't lose another match, until I left. So I'm not playing the easy side because I like playing the easy side. I'll play a rush strat just as much as I'll play a waiting game - I just feel bad being bad... ...y'know?

*sniffle* And I thought I was doing the world a favour. Honestly, I 100% hate being a badguy in anything and everything. I just hate it. But just about every time I do switch, it's to keep the game flowing. ...actually, that would be every time, seeing as I hate being bad. And the only time I don't switch is when somebody else dead on my team beats me to it, before the round's over. ...in fact, most of those switches are playing on Aztec. I've played T on Aztec way more than CT in the last little while. I'm also the only person you can name who begs to be CT on Compound and Assault, and actually prefers it that way, while being concerned with how I'm playing at the same time. ...actually, now that I think about it, whenever there's an imbalance issue on Aztec (aka: nobody listening to teamwork, because they're tired of dying - thus perpetuating the cycle), I'm always, always on K-Wix's suicide squad. ...I'm usually the first one to be seen, and unless I kill 3+ camping snipers, the first to die on my team.

...uggh. Simple... ...simple... Okay, Ice... ...simple. *AHEM* Okay, when you're in, say CT spawn in Italy, looking up at the apartment, the Source engine is drawing everything you see at that time. ...I think that's pretty obvious... ...but it's also drawing stuff that you can't see. From where you're standing, looking at the apartments, it's also drawing into the apartments, all the way to the little doorway with the stairs. The practical reason for this is so that you can never see a part of the map that isn't drawn yet. All right, we've got that covered - now, basically it will draw any two rooms that are connected, because it's drawing all of the room that you're in, and it's also going to draw all of any room that you can see into. ...so the solution is to limit what you have line of sight to. Again, looking at Italy, from the CT spawn, thinking about the left side, you can practically go in a straight line, all the way to the entrance to the wine cellar... BUT, if you were able to see that far, there'd be too much on the screen... ...so there's a tiny, tiny little hallway/turn there, to block your view. No line of sight means that it doesn't get drawn, meaning that your FPS can have a breather. ...it really just boils down to laying out your map well. Try to have a right angle or better in between rooms. ...actually, getting 180 degrees out of all of your hallways is even better still. There are way more advanced tutorials... ...like using hint brushes. Oh boy... But the moral of the story is, don't leave things sitting where they might be in LoS, and never ever use an entity or a model to block line of sight, because they don't work. Not doors, nor windows, nor trains nor trees. Oh, and Mookie, avoid using area portals until you're totally comfortable with VIS blocking... ...using them improperly can actually break your map.