Topics

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Off Topic / The Crowbar

« on: October 23, 2004, 11:38:21 PM »

This is me in my crowbar shirt, which I picked up during the San Diego Comicon at the Gameskins.com booth. I'm sure most of you have seen it before, as I posted it in the 'Post Your Picture' thread as well as numerous times in the days following because I was so glad to finally get it.

Although that isn't why I'm posting it here and now. I am posting it here and now with a question: What does it mean to you? To anyone and everyone who has ever enjoyed the classic sci-fi first person shooter, the crowbar is a symbol of our beloved Half Life. However, it seems that people, usually older adults, who see the symbol see it differently.

Several times during the Convention when I wore the shirt, people would give me odd looks and ask what it meant, or what it represented. Me, being the Half Life geek that I am, explained that it is from "A popular sci-fi Video game, Half Life, in which the crowbar is a prominent tool and weapon". The individuals who made the inquiry would then say something along the lines of "Ah" and wander off, but if they stayed long enough for me to ask what they thought it meant, they would slightly stammer for a moment before replying "I don't know".

Recently, I ran into a situation similar to this with my mom, who asked me what it was, and had the similar "Oh, that's what it means" expression as I explained it. I became suspicious and asked her what she thought it meant, to which she gave the answer "Maybe a theif or something, using a crowbar to break into places" after a moment of thinking. Knowing my mom as well as I do, I knew she wasn't being honest with her answer, and I knew she had something else in mind. She solidified my hunch by going on to say "It's hard to think of what a big, red bent crowbar could mean". First, I had to explain to her that crowbars have always been bent the way they are, before what she had said started settling into my mind.

Taking the encounters from the Comicon and the discussion with my mom, I've come to the conclusion that adults seem to have their minds in the gutter more than I thought and are taking the crowbar as a phallic symbol. There is no other meaning or symbol that would cause full grown adults to stutter and pause to think of a cover-up answer to a question like this.

So now I'm curious as to what you think of the situations, of the evidence, and if you were an adult who had never heard of Half Life, what the crowbar would mean to you. Some of you are adults, so you merely have to think if you had never played the game and seen some random guy walking down the street or through the department store with a 'big red crowbar' on his shirt.

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Off Topic / Half Life 2 Offers

« on: September 29, 2004, 11:29:45 AM »

From Half Life Fallout.

Retail Boxes
Standard Edition — includes HL2 and CS:Source. Ships on six CDs, in one of three box-art packages (Gordon, Alyx or the G-Man).

Collector's Edition — includes Half-Life 2, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 1: Source, a Half-Life 2 T-shirt and a Prima book sampler. Ships on a single DVD.
Steam Packages
Bronze — HL2* and CS:Source.

Silver — HL2*, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 1: Source*, Day of Defeat: Source*, Valve's back catalog currently available on Steam.

Gold — HL2*, Counter-Strike: Source, Half-Life 1: Source*, Day of Defeat: Source*, Valve's back catalog currently available on Steam, Complete Strategy Guide from Prima Games, 3 different Half-Life 2 posters, Half-Life 2 hat, Half-Life 2 postcard, Half-Life 2 stickers, Half-Life 2 Soundtrack CD, Chance to win a trip to Valve! (1 trip offered for every 5000 Gold packages purchased).
*To be made available upon product's release.

Personally, I like the idea of owning an actual hard copy of the game just in case something goes wrong with my connection or there's a problem with Steam, which is why I would get the Collector's Edition. However, the Gold package does look very nice, and that soundtrack CD is very enticing because I'm a major music freak. I don't care all that much for a hat, CS:S, or DoD:S, but I really like the soundtrack and posters. If they release the soundtrack disk separately, I'd rather pick up a copy of that and the Collector's Edition. Of course, the price of each deal will influence my decision as well.

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Off Topic / Kingdom Of Loathing

« on: August 21, 2004, 01:54:26 AM »

The Kingdom of Loathing

Found out about this through a thread stearted by Retales in the Zombie Panic forums. After playing it for quite some time, it dawned on me that it seemed nobody here knew about the game. So, I thought I'd show everyone.

Kingdom of Loathing is a web-based RPG, although it isn't your average, everyday swords-and-sorcery RPG. KoL has a very unique and humorous style and design. For example, the currency  for the game is meat, rather than gold or platinum or coins, and the gear ranges from mohawk wigs to chef's hats to mullet wigs to Knob Goblin helms. Each day, your character has a certain number of "adventures", which are essentially "turns", to do stuff. Stuff includes going to a location to adventure in a particular part of an area, such as Degrassi Knoll in the Plains. Going on these adventures can bring you equipment and meat, along with experience for defeating an enemy. There are a handful of classes to choose from when you start out with, which include: the Seal Clubber, Turtle Tamer, Pastamancer, Sauceror, Disco Bandit, and the Accordion Thief. I could go on more about it, but instead I think I'll just tell you that I've had a lot of fun playing it, and I recommend you do to. I'll leave you with a screenshot of my character currently; I have a level 5 Pastamancer, and I'm part of the Zombie Panic clan in-game that Retales created.

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Media / I Want You!

« on: August 17, 2004, 12:02:27 AM »

I've been bored recently, and I havn't had a good Photoshop project in a long while. I did a few various attempts at a new sig for BlackMage, until it was settled on the one he's got now, and it was pretty cool. I began thinking, and realized that I haven't been living up to my title very well. So, I want you people to request something to make for you, be it a sig, spray, avatar, wallpaper, whatever; I'll try anything once. However, I do have one condition that must be met: You give me something to work off of. Be it an idea of exactly what you want or just a simple screenshot from a game, I need any bit of information to build up on. I really don't like "Just do whatever" because I am not easily inspired on my own, save for a few cases where I am by a tutorial or image I had seen (Bob and Killer of Spiders' sigs, for example). I'm sure with the right ideas going, I'd be able to keep myself busy in Photoshop and help anyone that needs a new image of some kind.

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General / Box Wars

« on: August 06, 2004, 12:59:20 PM »

Box Wars Main Page

The basic idea of the mod is playing on maps littered with crates of various shapes and sizes, and each player is a crate of some sort him/herself. By staying completely still, you blend in with every other box in the map, and moving is the only way anyone can spot you; You don't see anyone else's weapons that they're holding, and they don't see yours.

I've played this a couple times with a friend of mine, and even with just one other person it was entertaining. I think it would be pretty cool if we could get a bunch of us into a game of it. Even if we only play for a week like many of the other "fad mods" as Niteowl put it, I'd say it would be a pretty cool diversion for a while.

Of course, with any mod that's basically been dead for quite a while, not all of the download links work, although the Fileplanet link should be fine.

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Off Topic / Thx 1138

« on: July 25, 2004, 09:07:06 PM »

THX 1138

I received a little card advertising this movie while at the Comicon and decided to check it out. After seeing the site and watching the trailer, it seems to be a pretty cool movie. I did some searching on it to discover that it is a remastering of one of George Lucas' earliest films, which he had created as a student at a film school in 1971. It seems to be playing only in specific cities in theatres on August 10th, but the DVD is being released four days later on August 14th.

Along with bringing information about the movie, I wanted to start a discussion about a question that has been in my mind more and more often: What will our future be like? I don't specifically mean all of our individual futures in our lifetimes, but the future of humanity. More and more often, we see movies like THX 1138 and Equilibrium, and books like Fahrenheit 451 where humans are controlled and forced into specific routines for their entire lives and emotions are removed. The ideas are the opposite of what people plan the future to be like; We envision a future where everyone is free to do what they want and express what they want, yet the ideas found in science fiction are slowly becoming more of a reality. Slowly, we are losing our privacy for the sake of "safety". Police-monitored cameras being placed along streets and in parks, ever-advancing identification systems, along with governments passing items such as the Patriot Act all seem to point towards the futures represented in the books and movies we watch and read for entertainment. I was curious as to everyone's views on the issue, or if it even bothers anyone at all. Will our futures be as free and expressive as we dream it to be, or will we be monitored and controlled without any privacy or free will?

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Media / The Lunixmonster Donce Club

« on: July 13, 2004, 03:04:25 PM »

The Lunixmonster Donce Club. (Just a little note, if you didn't make it in the shot, it's either because you don't have a shot up in the 'Post Your Pic' thread, or because your shot was another 'Torso-and-Up shot, which is hard to work with when everyone has that).

Over in the back, we've got Bob ordering up a round of drinks from X-S-Z. Off to the right, DiscoZombie, Clashen, and Jefe are mixin' up the beats. Out on the floor, Loke and company, JHunz and illrica, and TyrNemesis are gettin' their groove on, while Athena hogs the couch.

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Off Topic / Cool Music Site

« on: June 12, 2004, 10:45:56 AM »

www.industrial-music.com

My pre-order of the new Bella Morte album, As the Reasons Die, came in earlier this week, and when I opened up the case there was this card inside with the address to this site on it. Its a pretty cool site with a lot of artists and albums I like to listen to. Much easier to find the somewhat obscure stuff I like, especially when compared to searching around on Amazon.com, and the prices are pretty nice.

I've recently received a nice amount of money from family members for graduation, and I'm damn near tempted to spend it all on music here. One thing I'm definitely going to be getting is the new VNV Nation dvd, Pastperfect, since I've been wanting to get that for a while but couldn't due to lack of money.

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Off Topic / Alien Swarm

« on: June 01, 2004, 12:23:58 AM »

Alien Swarm

Alien Swarm is an overhead view tactical squad-based shooter for UT2K4. Set in the the distant future, the players take the role of a Commander in the Interstellar Armed Forces. They must guide their squad of marines through Swarm infested colonies, overrun bases and outposts, to achieve a variety of objectives. Featuring Assault Rifles, Heat Tracking Guns, Sentry Guns, Flamethrowers and more. Supports co-operative multiplayer.

A recently discovered mod that a number Lunix and Natural Selection players have gotten into. I've picked up a copy of Unreal Tournament 2004 since I got some extra cash for my birthday, and since people keep talking about how good this mod is. I have yet to get into a solid game, but so far its pretty spiffy from what I've played in the tutorial. Of course, UT2k4 itself is good, action-packed fun, and it makes for a nice break from my usual Counterstrike and City of Heroes gaming runs.

Anarki hosts a server for it depending on how many people want to play at the time, and we gather on IRC to chat about it. If you want any of the info on that, ask around in IRC, since it'd be advertising to post it here.

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Off Topic / I Need Some Hardware Help

« on: May 12, 2004, 06:09:59 PM »

Okay, so as many of you might know, my hard drive recently died again, and it won't start windows. So now I'm running off the Knoppix boot disk, communicating through the Java IRC client. Unfortunately, the Java client (or maybe Knoppix) won't let me copy or paste links into chat, which is why I've created this thread.

After discussing with people on IRC, mostly JHunz, I've found this hard drive:
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/4008252

And this ram:
http://shop4.outpost.com/product/3325972

From what I've gathered, the hard drive is pretty good (and a good deal), although I wouldn't mind any more help/suggestions. At the moment, though, I'm more worried about that being the right ram, since there seems to be the same kind of ram but a few different numbers that I don't understand that could make a big difference. Any other suggestions/help would be greatly appreciated, as I'd like to do this right and not screw up my computer by getting the wrong thing.

P.S. If anyone knows how to get music to play in Knoppix, please tell me, I'm going insane without any music to listen to.

11

Off Topic / My Senior Prom Night

« on: May 09, 2004, 02:41:11 AM »

I kept some of you in IRC (actually, I think only bacon_flaps really) in suspense as I mentioned I was going "to the thing" this/last night, but I wouldn't say what. Well, my Senior Prom is what I had gone to, and I have a few pics to share.

First, is me sporting my rented Zoot Suit style tux, with the hat and chain and tails. Overall, I was very much enjoying the outfit, very 1930's gangster-ish and it actually looks really good on me.


Next is myself and the two friends I went with (Didn't have a date, neither did they, so we all went stag).


Of course, going stag doesn't mean you can't hang out with the ladies.  
Off to the left is a good friend of mine that I met up with.


Overall, I had a really great time. I absolutely loved the outfit, and got a number of comments on it, and am especially glad I went with the red vest and tie instead of the default white (there had been a couple people in suits very similar to mine, but I was the only one with a not-white or black vest). Very, very schway.  

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Off Topic / Tenchi Muyo Gxp

« on: March 27, 2004, 09:01:04 PM »

Tenchi Muyo GXP

I've very much enjoyed the many Tenchi Muyo series (Of the three that I know of). I very much like that there were three separate story lines in the same universe with pretty much the same characters while still retaining a certain consistency. There's a load of funny episodes along with the action-oriented ones, all revolving around their individual stories.

This new series seems to be a perversion of what I thought Tenchi would most often be. The art style and story setup seems to be akin to many anime series that have been created for the soul purpose of capitalizing on the anime 'trend', and it disappoints me. And especially the constant emphasis on the femmes in skimpy outfits all over the place. There were a few instances that hinted at focusing attention on the femme's bodies in the other number of series, but to have what seems to be most of the characters constantly wearing very little when it comes to their normal wardrobe is just wrong. All in all, I doubt I'll bother checking this series out more than maybe an episode to see what it's all about.

Thoughts? Ideas?

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Off Topic / Halflife 2

« on: March 25, 2004, 09:13:06 PM »

Now, I know its been a long time since Halflife 2 was first announced, and even I can't help but feel a bit discouraged by its delays. While wandering some sites and such, I came across the half-hour gameplay video that I remember watching what seems to be an eternity ago, and I am still completely amazed and astounded by what I saw. I'd spent so long waiting for Halflife 2 to be released, and spent so much time listening to people rant and rave about how Valve sucks for taking so long, but watching this video again just reminded me the absolute awesomeness of what the game will be.

If its been a while since you've seen that video, or havn't seen it at all, I highly highly recommend going and watching it again, and maybe all of the others for the hell of it. I don't know if you all will be hit the same way as I was, but it sure doesn't hurt to try.

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Off Topic / Dawn Of The Dead

« on: March 19, 2004, 06:34:52 PM »

I saw Dawn of the Dead today with some friends. I thought it was pretty cool, kind of like Resident Evil (yes, I liked that movie), but better. It was kind of cheezy at some points, but we (my 7 or so other friends that were there and I) had some great laughs. We were seemingly allowed to make our own commentary on the movie at times because there was only about 25 people there (minumum school day for us, got out early so there wasn't much of a crowd).

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Off Topic / Profile Pics

« on: March 02, 2004, 03:01:02 PM »

Notice the little icon at the bottom of each person's post that gives some profile info? Or when you click on someone's name to view their profile? We can put our pics in there! I had discovered a few days or so ago that the option was disabled, so I made an inquiry to Lightning_Blue about it, and he had JHunz fix that. I've had my pic loaded since then, so if you click the icon or view my profile, you'll see the pic. All of you that have pics of yourself should put em in your profile.

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Off Topic / Starcraft

« on: February 26, 2004, 12:59:27 PM »

I finally found my StarCraft installer disk, so I've installed it and Brood War again. I had some fun playing against the computers in a few  games, getting used to the speed of the game and such. Now I want to get some games in with/against real people, and I'd like to do that with any of us from the LM community. If you want to get into a game at any spur of the moment time, theres a good chance you can catch me in IRC and get me into one.

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General / Daredevil

« on: February 15, 2004, 06:44:12 PM »

As most of us should have discovered by now, when you take a jump in either the Hellbender or the Scorpian, you have a chance of getting scored on the jump. The overall score, from what I gather, is the number in the 'Level' text when its displayed.

Here's my best so far while scerwing around one day in the Hellbender:

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Off Topic / My Name

« on: February 07, 2004, 04:27:33 PM »

As many of you may or may not know, my name in real life is Kerry, even though I'm a guy. You may have seen the setinfo where I mention getting tampons in the mail because of my name (true story), and I am here now to prove more to you that having this name is a problem.

I received this in the mail today.

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Off Topic / World Of Warcraft Beta

« on: January 27, 2004, 10:27:33 PM »

Found here.

At 6:00 pm PST on Wednesday, January 28th, the signup period for the World of Warcraft Beta Test will officially begin. We will provide a link to the beta-test application right here in the news section at that time. Testers are not going to be chosen on a first-come, first-served basis, so you will be able to submit an application and receive equal consideration anytime during the signup period, which will end on Wednesday, February 4th at 6:00 pm PST. Please note that multiple submissions from the same household will result in complete disqualification.

For this initial phase of the World of Warcraft beta test, we will only be able to accept applications from Canada, Korea, and the US. The test for Europe and other countries around the world will happen later this year. Please do not contact us for further information regarding the beta test; we will be posting a FAQ in the days ahead.

Unfortunately, the beta testing is not starting in Europe, so we will not all be able to play together at the same time.

I am definitely getting into this beta, I want to get into an MMORPG eventaully (at least for a little while) and WoW is most appealing to me so far. If its not what its cracked up to be, I may try my hand at FFXI, as I have recently been getting into the FF games.

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Off Topic / Fanboyism

« on: January 20, 2004, 10:00:03 PM »

This seems to be an ongoing issue in every gaming community everwhere, no matter where you go or what you talk about. There will always be fanboys for a game/gaming platform, and another group completely against that game/gaming platform.

The one thing that people seem to forget: The games. The games are what we use the platform for. We rent and buy games to be entertained, either as a little diversion from a hard day's work, or as a hobby we will never let go.

However, there are always those divisions amongst people, divisions that create more anger and hate than necessary. Of course there are the fanboys fighting over which console is better, but also the one between PC and console fanboys, which I hadn't noticed until I got online and on IRC and started chatting with people.

PC exclusive players always seem to have an 'elitist' attitude, scoffing at any mention of a game for a console, but also whining about how bad a company is for releasing a PC version of a console game later than the console release.

Anti XBox fanboys always rant and rave about 'Bill gates just wanting to get more money'. Anti Gamecube fanboys always gripe about Nintendo making 'only kids games'. Anti Playstation 2 fanboys gripe about the 'terrible first party games'. No matter what anyone says or does, they never change their opinions.

My question for it all is: Why? Why does it matter what platform you're playing a game on? Why does it matter if a video for a game looks terrible or really great? Why can't we just play the games?

That is my current mind set. I play the games to be entertained. I don't care what platform the game is on, I don't care how much or how little hype a game gets before its release, I will never be completely decided on a game until I have had the chance to try it out, played it for myself to determine what I feel are good and bad about the game. Why can't more people have that mind set?