Its a This Modern World extravaganza!








That last one makes a good point that the so-called 'Liberal Media' just doesn't exist.

And to make Weltall happy...

Got mine yesterday,and it's better than I thought. I was afraid pixelization would be bad because of the screen size difference, but this simpy isn't the case. The screen looks great, LttP looks just like it did on the SNES!

Anyone else gotten one? Your thoughts?

New poll. Who would you pick for Rand? Let the cat fight begin.

I doubt any of you know what the subject means, so I'll explain. The great punk ska band Five Iron Frenzy is calling it quits this year, but before they break up they decided to release one cd of 34 joke songs, demos, and old b-sides, record a final full length album, and finish with a 60 city farewell tour. The joke cd was released in April as Cheeses of Nazareth and they finished the other cd, The End is Near, a couple weeks ago. The catch is that you can only buy The End is Near at a FIF show. It won't be released in stores until 2004. So while that's really cool, I was frustrated because FIF is from Denver and the only time they are going to play in Colorado is the end of November. It just happens to be their last show ever. So again, that is really cool. But it means that I can't buy the cd until everyone else already has it. Then today something amazing happened...

Turns out that FIF's record label just started selling the cd online for a limited time, and it's shipping now! WOOOO! I can't wait to hear it, not only because it's their final recording ever and I know it will be very special, but because they feel it's their best yet. I hope it's a little more punk and a little less rawk than Electric Boogaloo, but I'm freaking excited none the less.

And on a sad note, to me this officially signifies the death of ska. Yes, I know it's been one life support for a couple years now, but FIF is one of the best. Ska was really just a subgenre of punk or rock or whatever else, and I'm sure there will still be horns popping up every once in a while in the future, but it won't be the same. The End is Near.

Well someone mentioned it so I thought "why not make a list of all the stuff I've got on my harddrive?"

So here it is. :)

Currently Downloading
---
Vampire Princess Miyu -- ep 12
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex -- ep 14
3x3 Eyes -- ep 7

Shows I'm keeping.
---
The Vision of Escaflowne (1-26 of 26, 1 movie) -- watched all eps, not movie
Neon Genesis Evangelion (1-26 of 26, 3 movies) -- watched 14 eps so far
Serial Experiments Lain (1-13 of 13)
Kanon (1-13 of 13) -- completed
To Heart (1-13 of 13) -- watched 11 eps, will finish.
Tenchi Muyo OVA series (1-14 of 14) -- completed
Love Hina (1-25 of 25, 2 specials of 2, all of the 3 part Love Hina Again) -- completed
Vampire Princess Miyu OVA (1-4 of 4) -- haven't watched
Abenobashi Mahou Shoutengai (2-5, 8, 10-13 of 13) -- completed, deleted some eps I didn't like as much.
Vampire Princess Miyu (1-11, 13 of 26?) -- watched 1-6. Trying to DL more eps.

Not keeping -- have watched all eps before first ep listed (ie have deleted all eps I've seen).
---
FLCL (1-6 of 6) -- Watched episode 1. Not sure if I will keep.
Crest of the Stars (2-5 of ?)
Macross Plus (2-4 of 4)
Hand Maid May (5-11 of 11)
Dark Stalkers Revenge (2-4 of 4)
All Purpose Cultural Cat Girl Nuku Nuku (1-2 of ?) -- haven't watched
DNA^2 (6-15 of 15)
.Hack//Sign (13-26 of 26)
.Hack//Sign Liminality (1-3 of 4) -- haven't watched
Ayashi no Ceres (1-2 of ?) -- haven't watched
Final Fantasy Unlimited (10-11 of 26)
Ghost in the Shell: Stand Alone Complex (12-13 of 26)
Haibane Renmei (3-13 of 13)
You're Under Arrest (4-10 of ?)
Mahoromatic: Something More Beautiful (7-14 of 14)

I deleted all episodes before the first one listed from all the shows in the 'incomplete' category... marking the ones I've watched. :)

Almost all in that second category are ones that I have but have not watched yet... most I will delete after watching to make room for other stuff. Of all the ones in the incomplete group, the only one I'll almost certainly keep (and try to get the rest of) is Vampire Princess Miyu. Some others are quite good, but just not worth the HD space...

I really wish I could keep .Hack//Sign... but its just too big so I had to delete the 12 eps I've seen. Same with Ghost in the Shell: SAC... its very good and I wish I could keep it, but I just can't.

Some shows I've watched and deleted, at least in part.
---

Cowboy Bebop -- saw the first 4 or 5 eps. Maybe 6 or more, not sure really. Couldn't keep them and didn't get any more downloaded yet... I will eventually. But I do want to watch the rest... its just too big to keep. Therea re 26 eps and a movie now.

Mahoromatic -- 13 eps, couldn't justify keeping. It was good though.

Berserk -- Watched the first 9 episodes. Its okay but got a bit dull... never got around to watching any more. There are 26 eps.

3x3 Eyes -- Watched the first 6 episodes of 7. Have been trying to download ep.7 on Kazaa but haven't yet. I'll probably delete that one after watching as well.

Gunsmith Cats -- 3 episodes. Watched and deleted.

Oh! My Goddess! -- 5 eps and a movie. Watched and deleted all of them.

There might be a few more, I don't exactly remember.

All of you who post at warcraftIII general probaily know who I am talking about. The infamous admin with his sheep icons.

he recently got tough on people spoiling TFT with single player screen shots.He decided to permenantly ban them.

But when does GF draw the line?

I write a post about the new music for TFT, I heard some people who preorderd got a free sound track and I was curious to get a sample. That sounds innocent enough.

BOOOM! Big mother fucka GF bans me, Little cock sucker must pay!I did not break any of thier terms of use.
It is obvious GF never read my post he just clicked and baned me.

It is unfair that there 15 spoiler threads in both war3 forums as I speak.
I get baned for asking about the music.

This story is a few weeks old but still, both storys are from cbc.ca

Quote:Ontario men wed following court ruling
Last Updated Fri, 13 Jun 2003 14:50:14
TORONTO - In a landmark decision, Ontario's highest court Tuesday upheld a lower court decision to legally allow same-sex marriages.

"The existing common law definition of marriage violates the couple's equality rights on the basis of sexual orientation under (the charter)," read the 61-page decision.

The current definition of marriage is invalid and the laws must be changed, said the three judges. The court ordered Toronto city clerks to immediately begin issuing marriage licences.


Michael Stark and Michael Leshner

One of those licences was issued to Michael Leshner and Michael Stark only hours after the ruling. The two men were married in a Toronto ceremony attended by about 50 people.

Both men played a key role in the court case

Earlier, Lesher, a crown attorney said, "When we get married, we will have lit a match that hopefully illuminates the world."

"Today is the death of homophobia in the courtroom as we've known it," said Leshner.

"Absolute faith in Canadian values" helped him through the long court battle, said Leshner, who encouraged other countries to follow Ontario's lead.

Despite favourable reception in other provinces to the ruling, Alberta's premier said his province remained opposed to same-sex marriages.

"The law in Alberta is very clear, notwithstanding how some people might feel about it, it's very clear. It's as clear as crystal," said Ralph Klein.

"If there is any move to sanctify and legalize same-sex marriages, we will use the notwithstanding clause, period. End of story," he said.

Court offers new definition of marriage

The judgment follows a federal challenge to an earlier Ontario Divisional Court ruling. On July 12, 2002, the court ordered Parliament to alter its definition of marriage to include gay men and women.

According to the Divisional Court, the federal definition of marriage as a lawful and voluntary union between "one man and one woman" violated the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

Ottawa appealed the ruling, arguing marriage is based on a universal concept of a union between one man and one woman.

But the Court of Appeal issued its own definition of a marriage: "the voluntary union for life of two persons to the exclusion of all others."

Prime Minister Jean Chrétien said federal Justice Minister Martin Cauchon is still studying the decision. Ottawa has the right to appeal the decision to the Supreme Court of Canada.

Members of gay rights advocacy group EGALE called on Ottawa to respect the ruling and not launch an appeal.

The case appeared before the court after several same-sex couples tried to apply for marriage licences from the City of Toronto.

Ontario now joins Quebec and British Columbia, where courts have held that denying same-sex marriages is unconstitutional.

If the court ruling stands, Ontario would be the first jurisdiction in North America to make gay marriage legal. Both Quebec and Vermont allow gay civil unions

Quote:Ottawa to recognize same-sex marriages
Last Updated Wed, 18 Jun 2003 9:23:01

OTTAWA - Ottawa will introduce legislation to make same-sex marriages legal, while at the same time permitting churches and other religious groups to "sanctify marriage as they see it," the prime minister said Tuesday.

Jean Chrétien made the announcement after a day-long cabinet retreat. It means Ottawa will not appeal two provincial court rulings allowing same-sex unions.

"There is an evolution in society," Chrétien said, "but what is important to me is the freedom of the churches."

To pre-empt legal challenges by the provinces, Chrétien says the legislation will be first checked out by the Supreme Court of Canada. The prime minister says the legislation will be drafted within weeks, and MPs will be free to vote their conscience when the bill is introduced.

Courts in British Columbia and Quebec have made rulings in favour of same-sex marriages, but gave Ottawa time to change the law. Ontario's court ordered the definition of marriage to be changed to include gay couples.

Justice Minister Martin Cauchon says the provincial rulings highlighted conflicts between two fundamental freedoms: the right of association and religious rights. Cauchon says the new legislation will allow the two rights to "cohabitate."

Quote:It has been discovered that the digi-cards have been on sale through Nintendo of Japans online store recently and out of interest here's how much they cost:



The SD Digi-Card Adapter, priced at 1,500 Yen




The SD Digi-Card Adapter + SD Memory Card priced at 3,000 Yen

The SD Digi-Cards, for the unaquainted, can be pluged into a PC which will allow the intriguing possibility for gamers to send game data to each other and even download events. Animal Crossing e+ will be the first game to exemplify their use in which they will allow data to be e-mailed between you and your friends and allow pictures to be taken with your PC.

There has been an official site launched for Animal Crossing e+ which will can be viewed here.

http://www.gamespy.com/dailyvictim/

School libarians are so stupid.

So, I decided to list all my PC gamepads/joysticks... oldest to newest.

-Oldest is a Kraft Thunderstick joystick. It came with out Pentium 90 that we got in early/mid 1995. It has 2 buttons (trigger and a button on top that has 2 seperate parts but both just activate button 2) and a throttle, so its a 3 axis, 2 button gamepad.

This stick has almost no resistance so it is very, very touchy and inprecice. It also is analog so you have to constantly adjust the trim pots to get it even. Its not a very good joystick, but it'll do when its all you have...

-Next, I got a Capcom PC Fighter 6 in the box when I bought Mega Man X for PC. It is a 6-button digital gamepad. The only problem is that it has no drivers so its got to use the windows default drivers. This means that buttons 5 and 6 aren't buttons like the other 4 -- they actually are the Z axis. Which means that in most games you can't use them since most games don't let you assign normal game functions to axes. Very annoying...

Of course, Mega Man X (and Street Fighter 2 Turbo, which also shipped with the pad) aren't games that let you assign buttons to axes. Great planning there guys.

Still, if you have games that do or that only need 4 buttons its a quality pad. And it still works to this day -- unlike two newer pads I have...

-Microsoft SideWinder 3D Pro -- I got this one in mid/late 1997. I badly, badly needed a new joystick since my Thunderstick was awful for most games... Rebel Assualt was hard to play with that imprecise stick. So I got a Sidewinder 3D Pro. Its a very good stick... 8 buttons, 4 axes (X/Y, Throttle, and Twist (R/Z)), and its digital so no more of those annoying trim pots. And it works very well for any games that are for joysticks... I still use it for flight sims and mech games. It made TIE Fighter and Rebel Assualt 2 a lot more fun... and came with HellBender in the box. :)

-Microsoft SideWinder Gamepad -- great, great pad. It was my main pad for years after I got it sometime in 1998. I'd still be using it sometimes if it hadn't gotten dirty... 10 buttons and a d-pad are on this pad. Its still the most comfterble gamepad I've ever used... others are close but nothing quite matches it. And its got the best shoulder buttons (triggers) on any pad ever.

The only problem is that mine got dirty over the years, and the d-pad doesn't work right anymore. I did open the pad once and clean it, but within 6 months it was dirty again and I realized that I had to get a new pad... I couldn't get it open again, probably because of how the screws chew up the plastic and become hard to get out, especially without the correct screwdriver, which I didn't have.

-Though the Sidewinder still worked, in 2000 I decided I needed an analog gamepad -- lots of games use analog pads and I thought that it'd be great to be able to play gamepad games in PC in analog too. So I got a Gravis Xterminator Gamepad. Its a nice pad with LOTS of buttons -- 11 buttons, a analog stick, a d-pad, a throttle, and a rudder axis put on two shoulder buttons. That's 6 axes total, 4 analog. The D-Pad can also be assigned to 8 buttons. It also has a hat switch, allowing 4 more actions. Its nicely designed. Its not as comfterble or as well designed as the SideWinder, and the triggers are a bit awkwardly placed, and the main buttons are very close together, and the analog stick doesn't have much range of movement... but its a solid pad. Not great, but good. However... after a year and a half or so it began to fail. It'd fail to respond sometimes. I tried installing and uninstalling the drivers, downloading the latest drivers, and anything I could think of... but it got worse. After a few months it wouldn't work at all... since then I think I got it to work once or twice but not for long, and for no apparent reason. Then it'd fail again. Its very, very frusterating... and I couldn't return it since I didn't have the reciept. So I've still got a gamepad that doesn't work lying around.

-And the last is of course the Saitek P880 that I've discussed here several times before. Very high quality pad with 10 buttons, a d-pad, and dual analog sticks (with the d-pad or main analog being a hat switch when disabled). And very large shoulder buttons.


Why write this? Well, I spent a while today trying to get that stupid Capcom pad to work as a 6-button pad. I tried to get it to work using generic Saitek 6-button and Interact 6-button drivers... but it didn't work. So I went to 3-axis 4-button. That worked.

And that darn third axis still isn't recognized as buttons in most any games.

So I tried to find a joystick keyboard emulator (to map those two axes so that the games think I'm pushing some keyboard key)... but it ... didn't work too well. I found a few, but they all were either for DOS or didn't seem to work in programs... :(