Hey, let's not forget where this all started back in 1959:
In 1999, San Antonio's yearly gaming convention, then called 'Horrorcon' only because it was held around Halloween, truly lived up to it's name for me personally.
Even though I had planned this weekend months in advance, taken off time from work, and made sure that money was set aside in the budget, my wife decided that I was was making a big mistake.
Rather than confront me privately and express her seeming dislike of my hobbies and friends, my wife choose to do this publicly. She stormed into the open gaming area, formerly in the ball room of an old hotel, and proceeded to berate and insult not only myself, but everyone around me. As she ranted on about "useless people in desperate need of deodorant", it became very quiet as every game came to a halt. I have no idea how long she went on. It seemed like an eternity for me. When she was done she stormed out. I turned to the table I was gaming at, and apologized to the other players. Focused by my suppressed anger, I won the game.
10 months later I had an ex-wife.
(6 years later, I married a wonderful woman, who is herself an avid gamer, who attends conventions with me.)
Even though I had planned this weekend months in advance, taken off time from work, and made sure that money was set aside in the budget, my wife decided that I was was making a big mistake.
Rather than confront me privately and express her seeming dislike of my hobbies and friends, my wife choose to do this publicly. She stormed into the open gaming area, formerly in the ball room of an old hotel, and proceeded to berate and insult not only myself, but everyone around me. As she ranted on about "useless people in desperate need of deodorant", it became very quiet as every game came to a halt. I have no idea how long she went on. It seemed like an eternity for me. When she was done she stormed out. I turned to the table I was gaming at, and apologized to the other players. Focused by my suppressed anger, I won the game.
10 months later I had an ex-wife.
(6 years later, I married a wonderful woman, who is herself an avid gamer, who attends conventions with me.)
More B5 trash talk. Short and very to the point:
@Hamslicer: Ah Thundarr, a favorite of mine. Reminds me so much of the first RPG I played, TSR's Gamma World.
@twDarkflame: I always hated Pong. I'd consider the Atari 2600 port of Pac Man to be more important than Pong (as an example of what not to do).
@goldfarb: The early CGI effects in Wrath of Khan, Tron, and Last Starfighter were impressive for their time, but they still looked like inserted animations (See Mary Popins and Rodger Rabbit). I consider the great leap in CGI to have been when it reached the point that you didn't realize you are seeing CGI. When you can create something that looks like it is really there as opposed to something that was drawn on a computer. Jurassic Park is the big stand out here.
Nice, but one glaring omission kills it: The big gap between Mary Popins and Star Wars where 2001 should be. The effects at the time for 2001 were light years beyond anything that had been done previously. Many of those who worked on 2001 later worked on Star Wars, which in many was an equal to 2001 in effects, but did not exceed it. (I’m talking about the original 1977 release and not the CGI violation Lucas did later.) Compare the effects in 2001 to any of the George Pal scifi films (Conquest of Space comes to mind) and you can understand the massive technical leap that 2001 made. It’s kind of like the huge leap in effects made with computer graphics in films like Abyss, T2, and Jurassic Park. (And no, Tron and Last Starfighter are too crude to count.)
I always wanted to see a sci-fi version of Shakespeare's 'Julius Caesar' with visuals stolen from the Warhammer 40K games. Kind of like the way 'Romeo and Juliet' was retold in the modern day about a decade ago.
Bring David Weber's Honor Harrington novels to life!
I guess if we can have a time traveling aircraft carrier (Final Countdown), we can have a time traveling submarine too.
Sorry. I hit 'cancer overload' about a year ago. I am sick of being told by the media that anything I can touch, smell, eat, see, or hear WILL give me cancer. We are all born knowing that we will die. It's how we live our lives that matters. I for one will not spend my life living in fear.
Frackin' awesome! I have a new wallpaper.
"...will have you eating your souls for the next nine months, says Michael Emerson."
But I don't want to eat my soul. I'm sure it tastes nasty without catsup.
A study of history will show you that other earlier civilizations developed a successful way to deal with excess male populations.
It's called 'war'.
I was once stuck in a time loop like that. I dropped out of college to take a job in an electronics factory. I kept reliving the same day over and over again. I got out of it by quitting the job. Once I did that I discovered that I had been stuck in the loop for 13 years. I missed the whole Clinton administration and half of Bush II's. No big loss...
And yet not a single mention of David Weber's Honor Harrington series - SAME ON YOU! Turn in your copy of 'Starship Troopers' now. You are not deserving!
I'm torn. I get my health insurance through United and have never had any major issues with them. I've also been an raving Apple fanboi since 1989, so obviously they can do no wrong in my eyes. I guess, I'm just going to have to sit this one out.
HEY!!!
They are called 'LIBRARIES', and they are FREE!!
USE THEM!
Is it my imagination, but doesn't Terry O'Quinn look a lot like Robert A. Heinlein? I'm just saying...
