JamesSavik

Wealth can afford those elective procedures that most peoples health care won't cover. Granted, you might end up looking like Michael Jackson but that is a matter for taste and good judgement. Besides for plastic surgery, there are procedures that fix eyesight, keeps weight off, tightens skin, etc. Wealth is NOT the fountain of youth but it helps to be able to afford the type of care that your typical middle class person can not..

I hates chatting. I hates it forever. Encourages rudeness it does. Makes annoying people unbearable. As pointless as an episode of Sienfield. Besides, every third person in a chatroom who claims to be a teen is actually a Fed or Perverted justice plant trying to get their ugly mug on TV. Maybe a good new game for chatrooms would be pin the tail on the Fed.

With wealth, one can obtain any of the others.

A few things to consider before jumping on the Apple bandwagon: Does the software you need exist in Apple-land? While Apple has tons of software in some areas like imaging and layout, there are other areas where the pickings are slim. Make sure to look closely at this well in advance of bringing home a Mac. What sort of legacy data are you going to have to deal with and is it going to be a deal-breaker? Got lots of data on your PC? Word processing, spreadsheets, databases, special applications software? Moving that legacy data to an Apple platform may or may NOT be a trivial exercise... and one that you need to consider carefully before you jump ship. What is the REAL cost of converting to Apple? How much are you going to have to spend to purchase new software? How much are you going to pay to integrate the Apple into the existing mix of equipment that you currently use? How much is it going to cost to integrate the Apple into your existing network? Apples are easier to use but don't be fooled: there is a learning curve. It will take you some time to become as adept at using your Mac than the PC that you have been using for years. This is a subtle part of the cost of changing platforms that you have to keep in mind. e.g. Buying a Mac a week before the most important proposal of your life probably isn't a very good idea.

Without the difficult subjects what are we left with? Dishwater? Cottage cheese? Tofu? <feel free to insert the bland and the tasteless here> The blood drawn from the jagged edges of those difficult subjects is the very engine that drives drama and dramatic situations. Without drama and conflict, how can our heroes be heroic? How can our passion be passionate? For generations the shaman/minstrel/bard/storyteller have been telling tales and sagas of heroism. Who would Beowulf be without Grendel? Would we remember Sherlock Holmes were it not for his nemesis Dr. Morority? Wouldn't The Heart of Darkness just another long boat ride without the mind-numbing monotony of that slow running river in the jungle? Those difficult subjects merely define the stakes of the game and give the reader an emotional investment in the plot- one which the reader may or may NOT be willing to ante up for.

Two of the more popular US brands are Dell and HP- with basic models ranging from 500-1200 US$ depending on configuration. They are being shipped with XP or Vista per your choice. HP is my hardware choice. I have a lot of experience with the brand and know the ins and outs of their warrenty and support systems. There are Dell users who are just as loyal. There are a lot of other big named brands but they have various issues- not something that you want to hear when you are about to shell out a pile of dollars for a lap top. Both dell and hp have web based systems that allow you to to configure and price a machine to your requirements.

Jan- Notice the way language is used here. Gay is not something that you are, it is something that you do. This indicates to me a couple of very bad things. First- internalized homophobia. This is what happens when a gay person listens to religious nuts and/or anti-gay people who stress that homosexuality is a behavior to be avoided and not a sexual orientation. Second- deep denial. If you "get gay", doesn't that indicate that you aren't gay otherwise? James

I voted NO. I've been out since I was 13 and wouldn't have anything in common with someone who is in the closet.

It has been my experience that BI is what an insecure gay person calls himself when they first venture out of the closet. When the heats on, they can, and do, leave the evil faggit that messed with their mind and take up with a whore and claim normality. Then you catch them tricking at truck stops or airport mens room. So, what do I have to say to those who would never date a bi-sexual or someone in the closet? Get over yourself, and try being open-minded Once you have been burned in such a way, only a fool would go back for seconds.

XP after SP 2 isn't so bad... In fact, it's selling better than Vista. Vista is a steaming pile of crap that can't be fixed. They tried to make it secure... and made it very difficult to modify or tweak. Best bet: pick you favorite flavor of Linux.

If your boyfriend ever cheated on you with a woman, or better yet ran off and married one, you might find it as appalling as I do. He had the nerve to be surprised when I wouldn't f*** him because he was married. I don't do Bi. Never, ever, ever.

The NFC has the power teams, the AFC has the finess teams. Besides: someone is going to have to win the AFC West. Brett's a bad ass. Most guys his age play golf or do woodworking. Brett mixes it up every week with the pros. the kitties? Ba-wa-haha

If you feel confident in swapping out a motherboard, new technology is where you want to be. If you are running XP, I would suggest at least a gig of RAM (or 2 if you can swing it). XP's performance (and any other Microsoft OS) is directly related to the amount of available memory. Video is something that I like to put in a PCI card for. Motherboard video is usually fairly limited. By putting in a card, you can add memory to it for improved performance. Network cards can add an extra port if you need one and they are cheap as dirt.

Green Bay bcause... Brett Farve is a Mississippian! Oh and yeah... I'm a rabid NFL fan.

I would love to meet some of our members from the UK: clumber, sumbloke, badly worn boy, etc. If I can do it, I will.

I'm afraid that all this proves is that the X-box appeals to some members of the shallow end of the gene pool.

Joe- Beware of guys that hang with fag-hags: they pick up very bad and annoying habits from them- like NOT knowing when to leave well enough alone or when to shut the f**K up. I tried be str8 but women were just too damned annoying and that is the LAST thing I'm looking for in a man. OK- horibly sexist rant over. On average, young gay men 18-22, are typically well behind their str8 counterparts in dating skills. Most of them don't come out until their junior/senior year in high school. Then many don't begin to "date" until they are 18 or older and out of the house. In comparison, Str8 kids may start dating, going to dances, etc as early as junior high. At your age, you are going to run into a lot of guys who simply have no idea how to act. It's not so much a matter of them being psycho as being horribly inexperienced while trying to be super-cool. This usually the formula for acting like a jack@ss. You have a choice. You can either: pick one of these awkward, annoying oafs that shows potential and hope he grows up or you can hold out for Mr. Perfect. If you thought that immature and inexperienced were annoying, just wait till you get a load of Mr. Perfect. James

Yeah- they own guns

For me if my same sex SO cheated with a woman, I wouldn't know what to think. It would be over- period, end of story. It would indicate to me that he doesn't know who he is and I don't have time to wait 5 years while he figures out that he really likes fish.

I concur with the Dawg. A rechargeable battery that been through hundreds of charge/discharge cycles in 6 years is most probably shot. $172 does seem a little steep for a battery- shop around some more. We have a company in town that reconditions laptop batteries for $60- a great deal for systems administrators who have a whole fleet of laptops to take care of. Another option- 3rd party batteries. Dura-cell makes a great one- if they make one compatible with your laptop. If you should choose to get a new laptop, take a good look at HP laptops. I just put a client in one with speech recognition software & MS Office for $640+ software.

I think I'm gonna try to stop smoking weed again. I've tried so many times before, but everytime I stop, I get crazy and blow up at people around me. I went all day Saturday without getting high, but I was past irritated with everyone for no reason. We drove to Florida for the day on Saturday. Actually, I should say that we went to Florida for the afternoon and a good part of the evening. Nick- If you want to quit and are having trouble kicking it, that should tell you something. I know exactly what you mean. When I was your age, people liked me better when I was high. I wasn't angry or sullen and I didn't fight with my parents. There's no doubt that pot can heighten your creativity but that only works up to a point. It's a lot like booze: there is a line and once you cross it, it stops doing whatever it was that you though it was doing. The problem is that it fools you and you are often the last one to see it. If you thought it made you popular, you find yourself having to isolate yourself more and more. If you think it made you creative, you'll find yourself staring at a blank computer screen. If you think it made you mellow, you'll find yourself fighting with everyone over nothing. Pot is seductive. It's hard to see the damage that it is doing until you wake up a few years from now and see that time wasted. As good as it is for creativity, it is just that bad for logic and reasoning. Poor performance in math is often the first sign that teachers see when one of their kids is smoking pot. Listen to a song called Time on Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon and think about it. James

That's not so far from accurate. Pilots have a very high rate of alcoholism. Most of them learn their trade in the military which encourages the image of a red hot fighter jock with a bottle under his arm and a bimbo under the other. It's a very high pressure/stressful environment because in flying, your first screw up can be you last. Worse still you can take a lot of people with you. Military aircraft are high performance machines which occasionally fail for no apparent reason either killing a pilot or ruining his career. Before 911 and the changes made by the TSA (Transportation Security Authority) airlines nervously winked at bleary eyed hungover flight crews because they didn't want to get into it with the pilots unions. After 911 the TSA put their foot down and made some high profile arrests of hungover pilots who showed up to work with a blood alcohol level still too high to drive legally. Alcoholic pilots are such a problem that every major airport has a special Alcoholics Anonymous meetings called Birds of a Feather groups where pilots can help each other stay sober. The one at Dallas-Fort Worth Birds of a Feather chapter meets 4 times a day and draws over 100 at each meeting.

Into the City Burbs rats, spoiled brats, so cool in backwards hats, Basket brawls, drunken crawls, endless country-music drawl, Nerdy dips on acid trips trying hard to be tragically hip, Nursery rhymes, capital crimes, side by side in the urban grime, Telephone crews, the cheapest booze, novel writers selling shoes, Macho men, studying zen so they can slaughter their kin, White trash, hopes smashed, Jesus freaks seeking cold hard cash, Skater kids, Freudian id, broken drunks on the skids, Working nights, gaudy lights, pimps and hoes in noisy fights, Sleazy places, sacred spaces, maudlin coyote faces, Crowds in view, shades of blue, who the f**K knew, Cats in heat, vodka neat, predators looking to cheat, Women vain, raising cain, looking for someone else to blame, Trading gladness and subtle sadness for a taste of chemical madness, Rocks in shoes, crappy news, talking heads selling points of view, Too many hands, like so much sand, lost in this human wasteland. Fireflies Fireflies in the magnolia trees, Burning brightly in the night, In the coolness of the evening, Firefly passion burning bright. They only last a season, Barely three phases of the moon, They have no earthly reason, To waste a precious night in June. Learn well the lesson of the firefly, Waste not the gentle season, Far too soon our winter comes, Why waste time for no good reason? Grab on to life with all its strife, With it

Saturday night Sci-fi network premiered Battlestar Galactica Razor- the story of Admiral Cain and her ship the Pegasus. What did you think? As a writer, I was a bit critical of the was flashbacks were handled. There were a lot of them and I found it a bit confusing James

Silly question I suppose but I've heard of them on QaF and other places. Not much Gay culture in Mississippi. We play games like let's find the bar this weekend because the city mayors try to score points by trying to shut them down constantly so they have to move around a lot. Another popular favorite is let's try not to get maced tonight... a real crowd pleaser.