At 11/26/09 11:40 PM, Kaizerwolf wrote: I've gotten my share of spam PM's, although none have been from those users.

You folks don't object to an NGPD member posting here? ;)

Not at all, as long as you stay on-topic. Many NGPD post here with helpful information and keen insight. We appreciate that, and it's always good when we work together for a common cause.

Sorry about the double post - now I'm getting spam / hate PMs from these accounts as well. Keep an eye out for spam from "DevilShadow666", "furrysowhat","kindo45","xxxMike" and "MetaKnightPwns2".
Looks like some trouble is brewing....

What I find very interesting is that those who think "this is all there is, nothing after you die" are just as adamant as someone who believes in an afterlife. But after many years of living on this rock we call Earth, I have discovered that the meaning of life is "choice". Humans are one of the few species on Earth that have the ability to decide and choose a response based on some thought and decision-making process. While it is true that many of us make poor choices, we still, nevertheless, have chosen.

As for the choices in anyone's life: When you wake up, you can choose to be miserable, or you can choose to find something to be thankful about. You can choose to rise over the day's problems, and meet them head-on, or you can choose to sit in the dark and feel sorry for yourself. You can choose to do a good deed, in the hopes that one day, it is returned to you - or you can choose to live alone and to yourself, and never find new friends.

The world is what we make it. "LIFE" doesn't care if you live or die, but WE, as humans, can - and do - care. No one knows for sure what happens when you die - and yes, one day, all of us will find out. There may be a Heaven, or a Nirvana, or reincarnation, or an alternate dimension, or something we just haven't figured out yet. Or, there may be nothing. I choose to believe that there is something beyond death - but I am not certain what that is.

And I also chose to try to live life well every day. Even if "LIFE" doesn't have a purpose for me doesn't mean I can't choose my own purpose. Besides the simplest levels of "continuation of the species", humankind has the capacity to pass on knowledge, tradition and values to the next generation.

Think of the Atlantic Ocean - how many drops of water are in it? The ocean may not care for each drop, but it is the sum total of all drops that make the ocean. Humanity is the sum total of all of us, and although each one of our parts may seem small - they all add up.

No, my friend - I don't want you to die - anybody can do that. I challenge you to LIVE - to chose to rise above the self-pity and realize that you are significant to the world around you, right here, right now. Don't worry about death - that will happen to all of us. Worry about life - about yourself, your outlook, your capacity to love, your desire to take your abilities and use them for good purposes.

"Tomorrow is a mystery - yesterday is history. But today is a gift - that's why it's call the 'present' " I hope that every day, you learn to enjoy that gift, to be grateful to be alive, and to do something for yourself or for others that do make a difference - no matter how small that may be...

Happy Thanksgiving, everyone.

After an all-day marathon of unbridled gluttony, I finally get to sit back in a very loose sweatsuit and unwind from the day. Figured I'd drop in and see how things were going here. Along the way, I first found a few notable reviews to whistle - and then discovered that the account of kindo45 is now chock full of male, gay porn. The earlier (more reasonable) reviews make me think that this account may have been hacked or compromised - or the owner just had a psychotic episode. Either way, it's my opinion that the images on that page are WAAAAYYYY over the top, and maybe a mod or two need to look into this. What do you think?

Hope everyone is well - see you around the barracks!

*Salutes, and then collapses back into a soft, cushy chair*

At 11/26/09 09:13 AM, chris-marks wrote: I've found that recently, my number of reviews stat has been coming back as 0 randomly. Sometimes it's 0 for a whole day, then the next day it's back up where it should be, then the next day it alternates between 0 and what it should be on each stat log.

This is not an unusual problem - others have had similar symptoms, and I have addressed it previously a few pages back, but for the sake of review, I'll explain again what you are seeing:

When you click on the "get stats" button, behind the scenes the programs on the NGLogs site go out and try to load 8 separate web pages from your account on NewGrounds. These web pages, which ar the same you can see as you browse your account, are read in, parsed as text, and then decoded to find your stats. Sometimes, if the servers at NewGrounds are busy, or if there is a lag, one or more of these pages don't load fully. The programs used on the NGLogs site don't always detect a partial or missing page (it's all done in CURL via a PHP wrapper), so you get zeros and blanks for some values.

If you log your stats for a day, and you get zeros, wait a little while and try again. Usually, the second time around will find your information, and update the zeros with the proper stats.

Hope this clears things up - have a great Thanksgiving!

Hi, everyone.

Just wanted to let you know that I've been reading these posts, and adding the little things to my list of fix-ups, but I have been incredibly busy IRL between work and family, as the end of the year means a lot of loose ends to clean up.

Just to recap some open issues and where they stand:

1) I am looking into better graphing routines than the ones being used now. Once I get the kinks worked out, I plan on adding more graphs for more stats. This may take a little while, as I need to make sure all of my data is normalized.

2) Portal Guard cannot be modified at this time, as I don't have the source. If I want to change it in any way, I have to recode it from scratch. That's not impossible, just time consuming. I'd love to make it an add-on for Firefox one day...

3) I am trying to figure out how to add a "whistle" up/down rank notification in the stats. The raw data is there, but I have to check for a few things to make the comparison.

4) Anything to do with medal reporting is on hold until the fine folks here on NewGrounds stabilize the issues with broken / unreported / misreported medals. The NG Logs stat system leeches off the webpages here, and if the page here is wrong, well, so are the stats. I could try coding some work-arounds as suggested, but that's not guaranteed to be accurate. You can't expect me to fix a problem that I have no control over, and as much as I'd like to get the medal glitches fixed, it's really out of my hands.

5) Note to GameJunkie: Your problem has thrown me a curve ball! I have been trying to figure out why your time stat isn't showing up, and so far, it's nothing obvious. I'm going to have to code some serious debug points and trace down the problem. I did not forget about you - it shouldn't have been so hard to fix, but this one is weird. I'm sure it's something stupid (like a truncation error or an integer issue or something bizarre like that) and I'll get to the bottom of it. Sit tight!

6) Note to Bahamut: Thanks for the heads-up on the transposed digits for that experience level - it's fixed now. As for the URL for the top posters, if you post the full URL I will gladly fix it - that's easy. And batting averages: I'm probably going to exclude later. They just haven't been deleted yet - and they don't really work anyway!

7) I am trying to do some internal overhauling of the data records and ranking calculations to make things faster (and simpler for me in the future). These are actually tied into most of the other changes listed, so my guess is that most of these will be released at the same time.

Now, as for expectation management: I know that I will be socked for the next 5 weeks, so not too many changes will be seen for the next month. However, I do know that I will have a quiet week between Christmas and New Years, so my goal is to spend some serious time on these issues. If other ones come up, I'll add them to my list - and if they truly are 10-second fixes, I'll just do them on the spot.

Thanks again to all of your for all of your help, input, support and understanding. I have discovered that NGLogs is NEVER going to be finished - it will always be evolving and improving!

Now, let's all get back to stat-whoring - it's what we do best! XD

First off, congrats to Lizz for stepping up and taking his new role in the EGB. He will be perfect for the role of NGPD Liason Officer. Let's give him a big round of cheer!

*Crowd cheers wildly*

I'll be making the changes to the EGB website very soon to reflect these new roles - I just wanted to give it a few days to make sure everyone was okay in their positions before I changed the site.

AND...... Chapter 17 - Devil In The Details is now online.

Just when you thought you had it all figured out....hehehe...

At 11/18/09 12:02 PM, SlntCobra1 wrote: Well, tis that time of year again, what's everyone's menu for next Thursday?

I'm looking at you Eagle, Byte, Lizz, Pork, Krev(if you're lurking the EGB), Fro, Ismael, hell the whole EGB. Who's doing what TURKEY DAY?

My sister will be hosting Thanksgiving this year. We'll have about 28 people in the house, and we will be eating from 10:00 AM until we all pass out from tryptophan overload. It will start with antipasto and salad, a meat and cheese platter, then lasagna and homemade meatballs; then some Italian soup, then a 26+ lb turkey with homemade stuffing, cranberry sauce, yams, sweet potatoes and potatoes (mashed and baked) , corn, carrots, and various other veggies, homemade gravy, loaves of Italian bread and enough wine, beer and soda to float a small aircraft carrier.

Afterwards, we will have homemade pumpkin pie, cheesecake, apple pie and tapioca, as well as numerous flavors of ice cream and jello, followed by three or four trays of Italian pastry (like cannollis, petit-fours and neopolitans) and chocolate-dipped cookies.

It will be a veritable orgy of food. I'll be wearing stretchy pants that day, that's for sure! And after we wake up in the late evening after passing out from gorging ourselves, we will shamelessly wander through the kitchen and pick the meat off the carcass with out fingers.

We have officially made Thanksgiving an Olympic event!

At 11/18/09 10:58 AM, EagleRock wrote: I'd like to interject a completely irrational note here...

The horse has amazing powers that allow it to turn into a plane by a stroke of its mane, correct? Therefore, assuming TheWeebl (I'm assuming that was supposed to be him) does in fact stroke his mane and turn him into a plane, he would transform into one right on the spot. The horse would now, in fact, be an airplane, wings, metal, fuselage and all.

Here's my concern: you transform the plane back into the horse by tugging on its winky. However, where does the winky go, exactly? Does the airplane just happen to have a large penis flapping by as it flies through the air? Or is there a hidden compartment that you need to open to access said winky? I mean, the logistics just seem...weird.

So, don't ask yourself if you hate horse winky...ask yourself if you hate airplane winky... :-)

Duh! If you're going to look for a plane's winky, just check the cockpit!!!!

And generally, I don't hate winkys - just the idiots they may be attached to, is all! (And, no, not all men are idiots. Most of you guys here in the EGB are actually pretty decent folk. But I have known my share of troglodytes that barely pass for men - and it's a shame I just can't seem to get a hunting license for that. Could you imagine that? If a woman ran the NRA, you'd be able to get a permit to kill stupid men during football season - but they'd have to limit it to 10 head per permit, or else there would be no men left for next year!)

Okay, I've ranted enough - I'm getting back to my story now... hopefully the next chapter will be out by the weekend!

At 11/15/09 06:47 AM, Casualty wrote: When I read about those medal stats, I'm glad I passed NG Log to someone else... But you're doing a great job Byteslinger :D

I do appreciate all of the input, and I understand all of the frustration with the weirdness with the medal stats. However, since NGLogs is strictly a "leech" site off of the NG website, and right now even NG is having issues with medals, I will keep all of these comments on my "to-do" list until NG gets their act together. Once it's stabilized on NG, I will revisit the code and get it calculating correctly. Right now, it would just be a lesson in futility to get everything correct - when even NG isn't quite sure at times...

And, thank you, Casualty, for the kudos.

By the way, I also started work on a prototype website for the Elite Guard Barracks: www.eliteguardbarracks.com

I figured I was already hip-deep in NewGrounds anyway, so why not do something else while I was at it?

Oh, one more thing - how have you been these past 6 months? Yup, can you believe it's been 6 months since NGLogs changed hands? My, how time flies when you're having fun, eh?

At 11/15/09 03:51 AM, SlashFirestorm wrote: So, I thought I might as well get this out of the way, since I've been inactive for a good while now.

I'm resigning as the Chief Barracks Officer of the Elite Guard Barracks.

Oh, great! Now I gotta go change ALL the damn web pages on www.eliteguardbarracks.com !

Seriously, though - I do understand and respect your decision, and I know it was made with a heavy heart. But I do agree with you in principle: if you know you can't give a job your best effort because other things pull you away, then it is in the best interest of all to step aside and give someone else the reigns. I think you are doing this in a very honorable way, and I want you to know that it has been an honor serving under your command.

As my last act as commander, I make the following decree.

EagleRock, should he choose to accept it, is again instated as Chief Barracks Officer.

He will have my full support.

Phantom, should he choose to accept it, is again instated as the Lieutenant CBO.

Excellent choice.

RohantheBarbarian, should he choose to accept it, is moved from Emergency Command Officer to Second Lieutenant CBO.

It will be good to see him more active in the barracks

And lastly, I will place myself as the Emergency Command Officer, in the event that balrogs kill all of the above.

Or if a time-dimensional spatial rift opens and they are all abducted by their evil counterparts...hmmmm

I've also decided to keep up with the recruitment procedures for now, since scanning the thread a couple times a day isn't time-consuming. Should my inactivity become semi-permanent, EagleRock can choose a standalone Recruitment Officer or whatnot. I can still do the bi-annual EGB rollcall if need be, and can handle any clerical shit regarding officer changes, as well as questions regarding FAQ changes, forums stuff, whatever.

I am glad that you will still be active in the EGB to some degree, and not falling off the radar completely.

So yeah, better to quit without any major screw-ups than force myself to continue and end up doing everything half-assed. It has been an honor commanding you, and an honor to help fend off the pointless idiocy in the Portal. I'm back to being a soldier, and even if I do leave for good someday, Slash always returns.

*salute*

*Salutes*

At 11/13/09 07:13 PM, chris-marks wrote: For the fading graphic that shows how close you are to your next B/P level, I think it would look more slick if the background grey was there. Right now, in instances where the one you're moving to is noticeably larger than the one you're moving from (such as Police Officer -> Police Sergeant as I'm doing right now), you can see part of the badge peeking out from behind, so the fading out isn't as dramatic since you can already see where you're going. If the backgrounds were grey, the one in front would block out the one behind it entirely, and the fade would look better.

While I can see where you're coming from, I inherited that piece of Flash code from the prior owner as-is; I don't have the source code to make any changes, so I'd have to rebuild it from scratch to make any modifications...yeeesh!

Also I think it would be good if the medal portion pulled from the same database tables as the one for showing medals on your profile, so the medal point counts are the same. ...I like consistency.

That's the only place where I can get the medal info. Check back a few posts for all the gory details. What exactly is out of synch, anyway?

Thanks for the heads-up!

At 11/11/09 12:21 PM, michelinman wrote: byyyyyte. I only bring this up after months of dealing with it, it drives me crazy. It's little, and it's not a big deal, but I figured I'd at least bring it up in case it was something small that you could change easily.

Experience: 2285 (215 until level 16)
Level: 15
What you missed: If you deposited every day, you would have 24040 EXP and you would be Level 47.
Deposit rate: 9.5%
Time until next level: 0 year(s), 0 month(s) and 21 day(s) (on 03 Dec 09, that is).

Since I have 215 points remaining til level 16, it will take 22 days for me to level up, not 21. It rounds my experience down because it doesn't recognize odd experience points. I always forget and it makes me sad. Haha. Like I said, it's little, and if it's the slightest bit of a pain in the ass, don't worry about it. But if it's just a push of a button type deal, could you please push the button? :P

Well, since you asked so politely, consider it done. Seriously, it's fixed! :) . I just had to change the date-difference logic to round up instead of down. There you go!

And I see my favorite stalker is dropping in to keep an eye on me! Good to see you're still around!

Hey, good to see some familiar faces returning again! Welcome back!

You're all just in time to catch the next fascinating chapter of my fanfic:

Chapter 16 - Sand Through My Fingers

It'll make laugh, it'll make you cry, it'll make you think, and it will beg more questions than it answers (sorta like a biology midterm)

Have fun - hope you like it!

At 11/7/09 02:53 AM, Wylo wrote: Since the medal system is now ignoring the broken medals for calculating the total points a user has on their profile page, will you be updating NG Log to reflect this? You could have an extra column stating the Real total alongside the Gross total.

See PsychoGoldFish's post on the matter.

Thanks for the heads-up, Wylo. This is going to be trickier than it looks. Right now, the only way NG Logs gets its data from NewGrounds is to literally open the associated web page and download it into a text stream (such as http://byteslinger.newgrounds.com/stats/
medals/). From there, using certain key points in the HTML, the medals are counted and tallied. It does not access any database.

So, right now, the user medal page does not distinguish between "good" medals and "bad" ones. Until this can be identified on that page, I really have no way of segregating the two numbers. However, if there are other user pages I can load that contains this detail, please let me know, and I'll change the code on the NG Logs site to keep in step.

Hope this explains things. Please let me know if you any suggestions. Thanks again!

Thanks for the last chance, Poozy.

Maybe this time they'll be a little better behaved. Well, we can hope so, anyway.

Ok, boys and girls, the pool is open again - play nice!

Well, another Saturday night in front of my laptop. The portal has been relatively slow this week, despite the spikes of spam and crap.

This gave me time to finish another chapter in my fanfic:

Chapter 15 - Loose Ends

I'm going to expand on some details over the next few chapters, since many of you wanted it not to end just yet. And, yes, I am tying it in to current events and EagleRock's current story as well.

Hope you like it!

At 11/6/09 02:55 PM, TheThing wrote: Just got this surgery done yesterday...

Well, I am glad you're feeling a little better after surgery. Yes, Percosets are a wonderful drug. After
a couple of those, they can saw off your legs with a rusty spoon and beat you like a pinata, and all the time you'll be singing "Take a Chance On Me" from ABBA's greatest hits. Or so I've been told...

I was fortunate enough to be in a relatively normal state when I woke up.

Normal, of course, being a completely subjective opinion based on your perspective. I seriously doubt anyone in this forum reading this post can be considered normal. But I am glad you'll be back to your old self in no time.

When you're 10 minutes out of surgery, don't hit on the nurses, even if they are hot. Because trust me, you look like to belong in the morgue.

Actually, from your picture, you look like a young Bill Gates that just got the crap kicked out of him in the school yard for telling everyone that "one day you will all bow to me, the King of expensive bloatware!"

All kidding aside, I hope your recovery goes well, and your can literally breathe easier from now on.

At 11/6/09 12:28 PM, SlntCobra1 wrote: Tell me about it. Hey, since Byte, Eagle, Idiot-Finder, TheThing, PuddinN64, and myself are all writing fanfics, how about you jump on the bandwagon Lizz? I'm pretty sure you could come up with something. After all, you're the youngest here.

Yes, I concur. But I know Lizz is in the middle of a bunch of exams, and he's trying real hard to get his grades up, so I'm not sure how much free time he'll have to spend on a story. But if he does get time, I can give him this bit of advice: write about what you know - and then add in the people here as they could fit. You can take any story concept and match up people you know with characters in the story. For example, "Alice in Wonderland". Who would be Alice? What about the Mad Hatter or the Rabbit? Forget about gender - look at personalities. Imagine yourself as the protagonist (main character) and then think who would fit the other roles. The thing about a fanfic is that there is no right or wrong - if you change reality, so what? The idea is to have fun, and exercise your writing skills.

We're like the comedy relief of the EGB. When the 5 of us get going, we joke a lot with each other. Maybe you could do a fic about our days in the NGPD, save for Byte, we didn't know her then.

As I've said numerous times, I use comedy and humor to defuse tense situations. It's hard to stay serious when there's a clown in the room - unless you hate clowns and shoot them on sight.

And, according to this article people with a sense of humor tend to be more creative - and vice versa!

(Another PSA from the fine folks at the EGB. And remember kids, only you can prevent forest fires!)

At 11/5/09 01:34 PM, SlntCobra1 wrote: GET A LOAD OF THIS!!!!

YAHOOOOOO!!!

Very nice. Where would you like me to send the cookie? ;)

Woo Hoo! I managed to break the 40K total B/P level today! (but still hanging on to B/P Rank #77.)

And it was only 5 months ago (June 3rd, 2009) that I broke 30K and became SC. At the time, I didn't know just how much further I wanted to go...guess I really didn't want to stop after all. Maybe when I reach the coveted 1st page of Bahamut's ranks (50 or lower) I'll give it a rest...

Just wanted to share this special moment with all of my friends! :)

At 11/4/09 01:22 PM, SlntCobra1 wrote:

At 11/4/09 02:05 AM, byteslinger wrote: The story is drawing to an end. I see one or two more chapters, tops, and then an epilogue.
Hope you all like it!

NO!!! You have to keep writing. You're an excellent writer Byte. Surely there will be a sequel. Also, only a 15-16 chapter story, that seems rather low, even for a standard chapter book. Most books have usually 20-30 chapters. Hell, re-read BUF.

Thanks for the compliment - and yes, there may be a sequel or prequel. The hard part is coming up with a different way to tell a different story, or else the sequel is just like the original - and that gets boring.
As for 15-16 chapters: as of right now, I am over 56,000 words into this novella - about 75 pages in MS Word. When I first started it, I didn't envision it as a 200 page story - and there is just so much you can do with time and dimensional portals. But don't be alarmed. Seeing how well this one did, I do have the momentum to continue on with another story - longer, more detailed - maybe even more epic. I just have to get an outline together that works. There were a few places along this story that I thought I had it all mapped out - and then later realized I would introduce a fact contradiction or create a paradox. It was tricky - but it was fun, and it's keeping me on my toes.

Any ideas on the sequel? I'm open to suggestions...

Meanwhile, let me get back to the chapter in progress. And since no one wants it to end just yet, I'll make sure that there'll be a few more chapters before this part of the tale is finished being told. The story, however, is NEVER over...hehehehe...

Well, it looks like the Portal has slowed down a little - which gave me some time to pump out the next chapter of my story:

Chapter 14 - Broken Reflections

The story is drawing to an end. I see one or two more chapters, tops, and then an epilogue.
Hope you all like it!

At 11/1/09 03:14 PM, Malachy wrote: Now now I'm sure that it hurt your poor little feelings that somebody made a similar thread to your cherished EGB, but I found the attitudes and actions of some of the members of this club in this thread bordering on getting themselves bans.

Interesting choice of words to start a post. You take it as a fact that the comments made by one person associated with this club are shared by all. You also came to the conclusion that we would be offended by someone starting a club similar to ours.

I respectfully reply that you are incorrect on both assumptions.

Not one of you offered a link to this thread or the NGDD as you so vehemently demanded of the OP to find himself.

That is true, but then only a few members have had a chance to look. In fact, if it wasn't for your post bringing it to our attention, we probably wouldn't have known about it.

As apparent by the OP's reaction to your posts, this is precisely why you shouldn't be twats in other threads. You really shouldn't even post a reply unless you are trying to be helpful and are at least offering a link to where you believe the user should have gone first.

I read through those posts. So, there's a slight disagreement on whether this new club is redundant to the NGPD or the EGB - and that disagreement is voiced by only two people, of which one is a member of the EGB. It did not degrade into serious name calling, and although Porkchop may have been a little rough around the edges, there is no harm in his pointing out that other clubs exist, and this new one could be redundant.

It is not up to you to decide whether a thread in this forum continues or not. It is up to the moderators. Going into a thread to tell a user that his club doesn't belong and then arguing with him over the merits of having such a club is exactly what the intention of the backseat moderating rule is there to keep from happening. Just because you didn't specifically say "lock this" or "this should be locked" does not mean that you didn't do so in as many words with your posts.

What you are perceiving as back-seat modding seems to me to be just some misplaced advice. I seriously doubt Porkchop meant anything other than to point out the possible duplicity of this new club. You are correct in that it is up to the moderators to lock threads and make judgment calls on posts and forums - that is certainly your function. But in this case, I think it was more of a case of misplaced intentions. I know Porkchop, and I seriously doubt he meant to do anything but point out a few facts.

Honestly, if this is the kind of elitist dickery that we have to deal with, perhaps the moderation team should reconsider the validity of these types of clubs. I don't know if it's taking in former NGPD members who got that club locked and a lower standard of member in here or a circle jerk culture of elitist attitudes towards the rest of the site, but if that is how you guys are going to act when a like-club topic is made, it's almost as bad as the squabbling between the anti-anime and anime clubs back in the day.

Elitist dickery? Again, you are judging this crew based on the misinterpretation of one member. I will be the first to admit that we are far from perfect, and the age range of the members in this club goes from 14 to 30+ (and I'm on the high end). With this range, you will get a variety of responses, ranging from youthful exuberance to mature analysis. EagleRock and SlashFirestorm keep a close eye on those who bend or break the rules, and I have seen justice meted out when someone crosses the line. However, when these rare incidents do occur, they are usually handled by PM, e-mail and/or IM directly between the mods and EagleRock and/or SlashForestorm

I'll let EagleRock decide on what to do with toiletpaper and porkchop.

ToiletPaper is not part of the EGB. He drops in once in a while, but he is not a member here.

As for Porkchop, IMHO he's done nothing more serious than give misplaced advice, but yes, EagleRock will take it from here.

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. I am sure you will be hearing from EagleRoch shortly.

*Salutes*

At 10/31/09 09:10 PM, EagleRock wrote:

At 10/31/09 09:06 PM, Lizzardis wrote: Uh oh gais....I R SCARDED!

Byte....Hold me! :'(

Nothing to be scared about, Lizz. I, for one, don't give a crap that owls may be a protected species. If these Owls start shitting on the portal, they're all gonna die. Remember, Cobra has his tank, and if things go bad, well, I can just jump in time and...oh, on second thought, let's just stick with the tank!

Pfft...bring it in. Whether it's 1 flash or 1,000 flash, they all get deleted the same. The Elite Guard will protect the Portal!

By your side, ready to fire, Sir! *Salutes*

I know you people hate this, but it's worth doing. I'm raising the DEFCON level to DEFCON 2. Keep on the lookout throughout the night for more of these stupid flash, and be willing to be alert to protect all flash coming through the Portal!

We will do our best!

BTW - loved chapter 2 - very good read! (I left more comments on the BBS)

At 10/31/09 04:30 PM, SlntCobra1 wrote: YAY IT GOT FLAGGED!!! Just an update, chapter 10 is still in the works. It's over the 5 page limit I gave myself because of the character limit in our news posts. Also, when can we expect chapter 13 Byte?

Well, since you asked so nicely, here it is:

Chapter 13 - Carpe Tempus

Side note to SlntCobra1 : You'll like this chapter - I guarantee it!
Enjoy!

And when can we expect chapter 2 Eagle?

Hey, you can't rush genius!

*bugs Eagle just for the lolz* Ain't I a stinker?

Yes you are, you wascally wabbit!

;)

At 10/30/09 06:06 PM, michelinman wrote: I for one hate the collapsed start menu. The only difference is on Vista, I could figure out how to set it up the old way, where you scroll over programs and all your programs listed out on the right side, then when you scrolled over the folders in your programs, it'd open up seperate boxes for them. I can't figure that shit out with Windows 7 at all. Any of you guys who like the old set up better figure out how to format it that way, or are we just stuck with the stupid everything in that first box thing?

I happen to find Windows 7 more stable and easier to run than that accursed abortion known as Vista. But like yourself, the default start bar and task grouping isn't really my cup of tea. I've started to try to configure it a little more like the "classic" windows version, and I'm only about halfway there.

But as others have said in prior posts, you can do quite a bit of customizing. The trick is to know where to go and how to get there to do the tweaks. If I have any epiphanies, I'll gladly share them with you.

At 10/27/09 02:59 PM, SlntCobra1 wrote:

Well, I've already had major surgery on my back for those I've told. I had to receive someone else's blood to survive. I think I have enough battle damage on my person for one lifetime. I figure that by donating blood, I don't have to donate organs. I came into this world in one piece, that's how I want to leave. Save for the back surgery. It all evens out in my opinion.

I hope the surgery went well. Sounds a little scary, actually...

Also, I'm O POSITIVE!!! Correct me if I'm wrong, but all types of blood type O are Universal Donors, right?

Truth be told, the universal donor is O negative - which, BTW, happens to be my blood type. I'm glad you donate blood - I've donated over 5 gallons in the course of my life (yes, 40 pints). I used to do it about twice a year - but now, my iron levels go up and down, so they sometimes tell me "not today".

Oh, if you're reading my fanfic, you'll be back soon...very soon!

At 10/26/09 11:01 PM, EagleRock wrote:
Speaking of the story, I have a little pleasantry to announce:
Back in the Barracks - Prologue

Yes, by all means, read it now - it's a good start, right out of the gate. Looks like it takes place in "current" times, so maybe a few of us "noobs" (who didn't get killed off in the last book) could make a cameo appearance? It should be just as engrossing as the first one -I'm just not sure of the plot line yet, though. Either way, I know I'll like it.

And since great minds think alike, I am pleased to let you all know that I have just finished the next chapter of my storyline:

Chapter 12 - Let's do the time warp again

It's the beginning of the end - after the first jump back, life as we know it begins to change. But it's not quite over yet - and Murphy's law lives in the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle.

(and, yes, there are a few shameless references to some other movies in this chapter, just to lighten things up a bit! )

So, go ahead - there's a lot of reading to catch up on!

At 10/23/09 12:43 PM, Porkchop wrote: *Shuffles fake boobs*
Indeed...

Ahem...
*Shuffles REAL boobs*

(need I say more?)

Wow. Slash, you can't be serious?! After all we've been through? Aw, come on, the EGB without SlashFirestorm is like Star Wars without Hans Solo! Look, take a little break, go get some fresh air - we'll put you on extended R & R and keep your seat warm until you get back, ok?

In other news, I finished Chapter 11 - Sacrifices on my fanfic. Go ahead and read it when you can. There's some excitement and a lot of character development - oh, and a hint as to what will happen in chapter 12.

As for PuddinN64's list, I have a list of faves especially for this time of year. Some of them are oldies, but they'll all good for a scare or two:

Hellbound
Hellbound II: Hellraiser
A Nightmare on Elm Street (just the first one - the rest were garbage)
Any of the "Saw" movies
13 Ghosts
The Blair Witch Project (yes, it's low-tech. But watch it in the dark, by yourself - you'll see!)
Any of the "Underworld" movies
The House of Wax (either the old,old one from Vincent Price, or the recent one a few years ago)
Alien (The first one is a horror movie. The rest are just beggars for more money)
The Exorcist

There are others, for sure. Anyways, hope you had a great birthday!

*Salutes*

At 10/22/09 04:02 PM, SlntCobra1 wrote:

At 10/22/09 12:42 PM, byteslinger wrote: I think we can test it out in two places - Lizz can host the under-21 at his place, and Sheize can host the 21 and older crowd. (I just love volunteering other people!)

Hey, how come he gets it? I'm 19 dammit! Porkchop resigned, Supra resigned, Andrea is sporadic at best, so I think I should be hosting the Under 21 house. Also, does personal hygiene include going to the bathroom? If so, leave me the hell out or boost the prize to 1 million.

Well, maybe we'll have 4 houses - two in the states, two in the UK. This way, no one needs to fly overseas (unless they want to)

In that case, yes, SlntCobra1, you can host the under-21 house in the fine state of North Carolina. Just don't let the local good-old-boys get wind of it, ok? Or that will be a whole different video! (anyone remember 'Deliverance'?)

As for bathroom hygiene - yes, you can all piss, poop, wipe and wash your hands. Porta-potties will be located in the basement. Oh, and they WILL get ripe after a few weeks of not being emptied - just like you guys!

Can you guys work with that?