P4: Gritty Reboot

Yes, the education tax.

I did not get registered in time in my new county. So I could drive 2 hours north to vote, but I do not have a presidential candidate I support (my electoral vote goes for Obama anyway since I'm in California). I want to vote on the significant prop 30, but again it's not worth the drive to me. Oh well. If Prop 30 passes by 1 vote, you guys can blame me. Edit: and for the record I think Romney will trounce Obama. If I am wrong, I will publicly post tomorrow saying, "I was wrong".

That's pretty close to correct. Observe: Population: 311,591,917 - Minors: ~76,000,100 - Incarcerated: ~2,500,000 - Non-citizens: ~32,000,000 Gets down to about 200,000,000. Of those, about 150,000,000 register to vote. Of those, about 100,000,000 get to the polls.

Yeah, once everyone signs up I will put out the "official" rules which will include keeping your Steam wishlist up to date. Last year, it seemed that keeping a few slightly more expensive games that could go on sale coupled with already cheap indie games or whatever worked out fine for most everyone. I can moderate the whole deal, so we can cover anyone who ends up broke or dead or anything by Christmas.

I'd like to gauge interest for the 2nd annual PXOD Secret Santa Exchange. It was a good time all around last year. Likely the only major change I would make is to make the gifting period start around the time of the Steam Holiday Sale, which started around December 19 last year. Digital gifts only, and most likely relegated to Steam since it's the easiest to mess around with wishlists and gifting on. No complaints here if you go with GOG or another service though. We'll establish a suggested price of around $10, though by no means hard and fast either way on that. What this means is, don't expect a $60 gift--if your Santa gets you a $5 gift that's on your wishlist, that's all he's required to do. But if you're feeling ultra-rich or ultra-generous, we won't thumb our noses at higher priced presents. Sound off so we can see if we've got enough people interested before I put up a sign-up sheet. --- Targets have been assigned. Please check your PMs and start stalking your giftee! We suggest waiting for the Steam winter sale, but if a killer deal comes up before that, by all means gift early. Soft deadline is Dec. 27 for gifting. Please post in the Wishlist thread if you haven't already, and start perusing your target's Steam wishlist and that thread as well. PM me with questions or concerns.

Still slowly working through Black Mesa. The part where you reach the surface and the military starts shelling you... man. So good. I am also playing through Tony Hawk's Downhill Jam, a great Wii game and one of the best of the Tony Hawk series. Nailing a 1.5 million point combo is bizarre fun. I really only started playing it again because my sons are obsessed with skateboards and always want me to play the "Skay-bee-board game".

Yeah, in the rulebook they say that Dawn of the Dead was one of their main inspirations.

I am only really looking forward to Half-Life 3. Aside from that I'd like to pick up Borderlands 2 when it gets cheaper.

It's all part of the master plan.

Last Night on Earth + Mall Madness mashup that we played last night. Some of the rules were a little slippery so we had to adjust them a few times, but it made for a great story. Rules are available here for anyone interested in trying it out.

I am not sure what that is supposed to prove, Duke. Anyone can take a religious symbol and claim what they're doing is in the name of this or that god, but it doesn't mean the construct of that religion actually supports or condones violence in any way. The proof is in the content of the teaching itself. Islam has some things that seem to support violence in the name of Allah, but many large groups within Islam reject that interpretation as well. So it's not clear-cut there, nor does the New Testament support those kinds of things anyway.

Well I think the leaks often can't be helped, whereas a worldwide release is probably often within the publishers' control to implement.

Shameful, really. I mean, how long does it take to add the U into the title? COME ON!

I have been playing Black Mesa and a little bit of Mass Effect 3. The latter has some laughable cliches in the beginning sequences. The former is utterly brilliant.

I think it should offer a nice option for fans of the art style. I haven't played any deckbuilders yet as none have jumped out at me. Maybe if I find the right theme.

Thrift shop/swap meet run today.

Munchkin is about as discriminate with the licenses they take on as Nicolas Cage is with film roles.

It isn't bad.

I will post a picture of my collection once I get it all together. For now it's spread among the front closet, the bedroom closet, and the trunk of my car.

It isn't bad.