I should be there.

Great to see Hadley back!!!

I've got the WinTV-PVR-500 MCE http://www.hauppauge.com/pages/products/data_pvr500mce.html  and just love it.

I use GB-PVR software as it's free, gets free guide updates and works really well.  You can also get an addon to remove comercials from TV, though it works after it's recorded so you've got to watch it after.  Also GB-PVR isn't proprietary, it saves as a standard mpeg, so you can watch it anywhere.

There are distributions with sp2 built in.  I personally hate installing the sp after installing XP or XP sp1.  However if I must I do it asap before installing software.   It's well documented that SP2 breaks alot of shit.

I have to say that Children of Men in my opinion was no where near as good as The Departed, Blood Diamond or The Good Shepard.  My friend and I left Children of Men going "Did you like that cause I don't know if I did?"

I'd say The Departed and Good Shepard take the cake with Blood Diamond being a close second.

_Keith

52 seen from '06 between DVD and theater.
Starred are my favs for the year, and bolds were standouts.

16 Blocks (3/3/06)  
April's Shower (1/13/06)
Art School Confidential (5/5/06)
Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan (11/3/06
Boynton Beach Club (8/4/06)
The Break-Up (6/2/06)  
*Brick (3/31/06)
*Casino Royale (11/17/06)  
Clerks II (7/21/06)  
Click (6/23/06)
The Da Vinci Code (5/19/06)  
Deja Vu (11/22/06)
*The Departed (10/6/06)  
Dreamgirls (12/25/06)  (It’s a shame Jennifer Hudson gets crappy credits for this.  On Broadway she’d have the top billing, but in Hollywood it goes to Fox and Beyonce.  Hudson deserves best Actress for this one.)  
Eragon (12/15/06)
Failure to Launch (3/10/06)
*Fearless (2006) (Jet Li) (9/22/06)  
Firewall (2/10/06)  
For Your Consideration (11/22/06)
Friends with Money (4/7/06)  
The Holiday (12/8/06)
Hollywoodland (9/8/06)  
*The Illusionist (8/18/06)  
*Inside Man (3/24/06)  
Invincible (8/25/06)  
Lady in the Water (7/21/06)  
The Lake House (6/16/06)  
The Last Kiss (9/15/06)  
Little Miss Sunshine (7/26/06)  
Lonesome Jim (3/24/06)
Lucky Number Slevin (4/7/06)
Man of the Year (10/13/06)
Marie Antoinette (10/20/06)  
Mission: Impossible III (5/5/06)  
Night at the Museum (12/22/06)  
The Notorious Bettie Page (4/14/06)
Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Man's Chest (7/7/06) |
A Prairie Home Companion (6/9/06)  
The Prestige (10/20/06)  
*Running with Scissors (10/20/06)  
Scoop (7/28/06)
The Sentinel (2006) (4/21/06)  
Stranger Than Fiction (11/10/06)  
Superman Returns (6/28/06)  
Take the Lead (4/7/06) info | DVD
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (8/4/06)
Ultraviolet (3/3/06)
Underworld: Evolution (1/20/06)  
V for Vendetta (3/17/06)  
X-Men: The Last Stand (5/26/06)  
You, Me and Dupree (7/14/06)  

Suprises:
Good ones were Brick, a DVD release, which really impressed me.  Lots of twists and mysteries to unravel.
Click was also a pleasant suprise.  It was indeed very touching, though a "Christmas Carol" adaptation, it came through as one of Sandlers betters.
Inside Man also was much better than I thought it would be.  I was comparing it often to "The Usual Suspects" when describing it to folks who haven't seen it.
The Prestiege I figured out many of the twists early but it was still far more impressive than I thought it was going to be.
In Stranger than Fiction Will manages to mix some truly heartfelt moments and dramatic acting with his comedy.  One of his best in my opinion.  This truly was a very pleasant suprise to see how well everything worked.
And finally Take the Lead was a good suprise.  I was expecting mediocre trash aimed at teens and the movie was entertaining, had a message, and some really good moments.

The bad suprises:
Taladega Nights: not nearly as impressive as Stranger than Fiction, if you had to see one Fiction took the cake. (Though Ricky's wife in it is smokin' and I haven't seen her since "The Skulls")
X-men and the Sentinel and to a lesser degree Firewall.  Firewall was interesting and I loved Paul Bettanys character.  The ending had  a sort of “Fordesqe” tough guy feeling that we always see.

Movies I will see.
The Devil Wears Prada (6/30/06)  
Edmond (7/7/06)
Flyboys (9/22/06)    **What happened to this?  Did it bomb?**
The Good German (12/25/06)
The Good Shepherd (12/22/06)
A Good Year (11/10/06)  
Hard Candy (4/14/06)
The Last King of Scotland (9/29/06)
Miss Potter (12/29/06)
The Night Listener (8/4/06)
Notes on a Scandal (12/27/06)
The Painted Veil (12/20/06)
Pan's Labyrinth (12/29/06)  
Perfume: The Story of a Murderer (12/27/06)
The Pursuit of Happyness (12/15/06)
The Queen (10/6/06)
School For Scoundrels (9/29/06)
The Zodiac (3/10/06)

’07 looks to be the year of the Sequels.  Die Hard, Pirates, Shrek, Fantasic Four, Spiderman, just to name a few.  And some really good nostalgia flicks too, like Transformers and TMNT.  

Yeah but that enchantment single handedly wins games.

One card?  Black Vise.  When it was unrestricted, it was the basis for the first prison style deck I'd ever played.  Imagine beating down people without creatures.

Though I think more importantly Fetchlands.  I think Fetches have single-handedly changed the game of Magic the most than any other card.  It chaged mana bases, made cards like brainstorm actually usable becasue of the shuffle effect.

Nah you'll just take it all home.  GO RAY!!!  Your due a victory and you'll make it.

-Keith

Instead of sanding just use acetone.  It works well for the whole card.

I'd go but I'll be in rehearsal.  Hope you get a good turnout.

I belive that's wrong.  The CMC of a token is 0, just because there's no 0 up in the corner of a land does not mean the land  flipped would have a CMC of 0.  Antoher point is with Dark Confidant, the CMC of a land is 0, thus you don't take damage.

Actually this is the basis for why I viewd the uproar on TV's eratta silly in the first place.  If you look at the original text for TV and Brassy you'll see the statements before the semicolon.  To paraphrase them:  "X doesn't untap as normal."  Everything after the semicolon is what to do TO untap it.  (The semicolon is used to link two independant clauses that are closely releated in meaning.)  So it can be assumed that the costs were to be paid during the untap.  Back in ABU this was possible to my knowledge, just look at Brassy's text.

And as far as a delayed trigger inference, I can't see how you don't see the same wording in TV as Brass Man.   I see Effect before the semi colon (doesn't untap) and Cost after it (pay 1 or skip a turn.)

So I'm happy for the new eratta.  It seems close to the original intent of TV and doesn't allow for unintented abuse.

-Keith

I noticed interesting behavior of judges at SCG Richmond.  There were ceartin Judges watching what I'm assuming were friends matches all day.  Also during the final round a judge was watching the match of an assumed friend on table somewhere between 9-12, a table that had no contention for T8.  I almost requested the judge to leave the match I was playing one round because it was making me uncomfortable.

This might help for us less enthusiastic about reading spoilers every day.

  Perilous Research
Instant
Draw two cards, the sacrifice a permanent.

Eric!!

Wow, actually Eric was one of TMD's original members even back from the old BD days.  He was a member of "The Paragons" for those who remember them.

To my understanding the lotus is an aquatic flower.  So the background could be a water body surface, out of focus, covered in lilly pads, alge or other vegetation.  Tough I agree with Jacob.  The green is a background and the artwork done in such a way to capture focus on the lotus flower itself.

-Keith

So it's Monday night, the guys letting you know about the tourny if you want to come.  He obviously know's he'll get attendance, he's just giving a shout out.  If you can't go too bad, don't rip the guy a new one cause you can't go.

I've played there in the summer a few years back when my friends lived in the city.  It's a decent place to play and I'd go if was closer or could take the time off work the next day.

The real question is will there be air conditioning this time.  No offense Hatch, but last time a sauna would have been more comfortable.

1) Neverwinter Nights (So customizable, enjoyable and the replay factor is great.  I've put this game down around 5 times and keep coming back to it.)
2) Battlefield 2
3) Secret of the Silver Blades [SSI Gold box game]
4) Pools of Darkness [another gold box] (these are 2 of the best classic CRPGs out there)
5) Diablo II/LOD(Come on we've all clicked a trillion times playing that game franchise)
6) Half Life 2 (squashed Doom III IMO, totally imersive FPS with incredible graphics)
7) Sentinel World: future magic
8) X-Com

No RTS games up there, though Starcraft and Age of Empires II were the ones I enjoyed the most.  I think RTS gets boring fast, build resources, build army, squash opponent, rinse, repeat... nausea.

-Keith

Now these both MMORPG style games and I know you've said that's bad but read on.  Both are easily single player games and you'll never get that "left behind feeling" and both don't have montly fees. 

Play Silkroad Online www.silkroadonline.net a new Korean MMORPG.   It's in it's 3rd Beta and is completely free.  Similar in play and feel to Guild Wars or NWN.

Guild Wars is another option.   I'm a member of a small guild on Guild Wars, but I've never done PVPing and only adventured with whoever was on at the time.  Mostly 1 other guild member and I have done most of our adventuring together.  Guild wars gives you the options of taking Henchmen into your party to aid you in your quests.  The only time it might be better to have PC's party with you is for some of the later missions.

Don't worry about falling behind in either game.  From what I've noticed Silkroad is very single player based.  You take on trades in later levels that operate in a sort of triad manner.  You can be a merchant who trades goods between cities, a thief who steals from said merchants, or a hunter who can kill thieves on sight making the roads safe for traders.  Other than that you can stay and adventurer and keep improving your skills.  Then Guild Wars allows you to get to max level so quick it's hard to "fall behind."  The other good thing about guild wars is that you can completely reallocate your attributes and skills when in towns.  Thus you can build a character with a totally different feel to it.  For example a Necromancer that summons many minions to fight for him, crushing everything in your wake with your little army, or change that Necromancer to a curse based character.  Casting curses on you enemies making the most powerful foe rue the day he deicded to swing that big sword.

-Keith

Go to http://samscomicbookshop.com/  The contacts link has the address and even a directions link on the bottom.

Ignore his hours that he posts.  Usually the crowd on Tuesday arrives between 6-7 and stays till whenever.  There's role-playing usually going on that night so poeple are there till around midnight.  Tursday is about the same times.

Say hi if you stop in, I usually have vintage decks on me.

-Keith

You can find people playing Vintage on Tuesday nights and there are usually tournaments on Thursday nights if attendance is high enough.

My Alpha Sapphire also has the mark.

What's this Waterbury you speak of?

I'll be there for the main event this time.  No rehearsals to keep me away, so I'll be representin' for Team Hadley and the CT Sam's Crew.

-Keith

I've not watched much TV for many years, most of my video entertainment is from movies.  That said I currently have the most shows on my list in some time.  They are:
Lost
The Shield
Battlestar Galactia

So is that a yes or no?  Looks like your saying no and just typed things wrong.

Sorry Hatch.  Sundays are going to be bad for me till like April.  If I'm still playing Magic then I'll definetly stop back in.

-Keith

Unfortunately I don't think I can make this one.  My Sundays are full till March with rehearsals now.

Screw stroke or geyser just kill em with brain freeze.