OOO

Thanks Sir Stewart - and everyone who has voted. As always, I feel so lucky to be a member of the VC community - there really isn't anywhere on the web as welcoming as here. And P.S. If any of you on the board especially dislike me, you should vote too, because there's no way I'll be able to pay the taxes on this trip and my plan is to skip the country afterwards.

For the record - I like this band's music. Period.

Looks like my coach really is headed to Seattle.

I wish him the best of luck in the NFL - It was a good run, and I wouldn't rather have had anyone else be the coach while I was at USC.

"How to tell someone is not an Arrested Development fan"

I concur. You definitely need nerdy friends to play catan with. Luckily, those are the only friends I have.

I once met with a Computer science professor at UC Northridge who's main work was trying to program a computerized Go game. As soon as I told him I played go with my dad he said "your dad must be an electrical engineer". Apparently almost all Go players back then were EE's. I played a bit and loved it but never played enough to really learn the strategy.

 

This is a good site for Go, I think it has some freeware for computerized go games on it but I have not tried any of them. I'm glad you reminded me about it, I think I will check it out as well.

 

http://senseis.xmp.net/

 

The free software is here:

 

http://senseis.xmp.net/?GoPlayingPrograms

Thanks! I'm going to check that site out. I'm going to be a Go-getter

This had nothing to do with settlers of Catan, but I'd really love to get good at the game of "Go." I knew the rules once but it's supposed to be one of the best games for intense strategy. Computers can regularly beat top human players at chess, but they haven't figured out Go, which intrigues me.

The Doctor is dead...long live The Doctor!

There was also something up with the coaching job at Florida I hear.

Is it something you can actually figure out by just reading the directions or do you have to find someone that knows how to play it?

I was taught by friends but the rules are not very complex - you could definitely pick things up with just the directions. It takes a couple times playing it to get used to it, but don't hold off if the only thing daunting you are the rules.

Also - It's much more fun with 3 or 4 people - I don't recommend 1 on 1 that highly.

I've been playing settlers since high school and I love it. These days, my friends and I only play with the "Cities and Knights" Expansion, because we outgrew the original game, but the original still holds up. The game really gets fun once you play with people who really understand the intricacies of the game. I highly recommend it.

I even made a Settlers of Catan music video...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y4fuABV1Fhs

That was one of the better episode endings I've seen. (And I've seen every Dr. Who episode available) I thought Timothy Dalton was going to end up being the Black Guardian and the old lady in the television was going to be the White Guardian, but the Time Lords reborn is even more exciting.

Maybe the Doc is going to have to kill off his race to save the humans. Wouldn't that be fun.

I love Wonderful Christmastime and I'm not ashamed of it. Paul rules.

I haven't had health insurance for about a year and a half, and I won't have health insurance until at least june. I'm just coasting by on the hopes that I wont get sick or injured. I wouldn't have many options if I did

Definitely going to make my list of "Top Ten Forum Admins of the Decade"

Happy Birthday, Kyle!

We had police in the high school I work at today because someone scribbled a non-specific threat on a bathroom stall. People aren't allowed to not take things seriously these days.

Showrunner Clyde Phillips has confirmed that it was not a dream scene that Dexter would wake up from in the fifth season. Whether Rita would be back as a ghost or in Dexter's vision, Phillips said nothing is set in stone yet because everybody's on hiatus.

I think when you translate from languages that have different alphabets and have sounds that aren't pronounced in English, translators disagree with how to spell it with our alphabet. I believe the word is supposed to start with a very throaty raspy H, but who knows.

Oh man. I missed this. Happy Birthday, Scott!!!

I'm going to go listen to Wharf Rat right now in your honor.

Despite this being a down year for my Trojans, I am really excited about the Emerald Bowl - my sister went to Boston College so I will enjoy the personal connection.

I will be cheering for Oregon in Rose Bowl, as I enjoy the Pac 10's current dominance over the Big 10.

I make sure to avoid this thread until I'm caught up on the latest episode for that very reason. Unfortunately I don't have Showtime so I have to d/l episodes, which means the earliest I get to watch it is on Monday.

ninjavideo dot net has the episodes steaming in high quality the night they air, fyi. Not that I'd ever break the law or anything.

I enjoyed the movie. It was lots of fun and the short running time gave it a nice quick pace. The additions to the original story worked very well, and the voice acting was superb, as was the music

Congratulations, Chris!

I hope its a beautiful ceremony to kick off the adventure of a lifetime.

I'm thankful for:

-My family, especially the new little nieces and nephews

-My friends - online and off

-My students, who make going into work fun and new every day

-Music, which keeps me more or less sane.

-Health - since I don't have insurance at the moment

Pretty boring list, but I'm especially thankful for the many good role models I've had in my life - people older and younger than me who have made me into a slightly better person than I would have been if I hadn't had them to look up to. These People have been generous to me for no reason at all and made me want to do a bit of the same for other people.

I am thankful there was no zombie apocalypse this year!