The Xyco

Yeah, going to add in my surprise that you're only 21 as well. I'm going to give you much more shit from now on. Hah!

Same error =(

I am one of many Ken's. But that's okay, cause Ken is awesome. SHORYUKEN!!!

Okay, question -- in case anyone has gone through this before. Get in today, finally have internet again. Bout to get on with some friends when I get a login error. Account is gone. Deleted. Poof. Kaput. Not there anymore. As I mentioned before, I had gotten hacked last week. Emailed them. Next day, I get back form work and see that Blizz had responded to the email I sent them declaring my innocence in the affair (spamming). I get my account back, everything is cleared up. For good measure, I changed my password. Never bothered to check the verification emails about the password change. Kept playing for two more days, no problems. Took a trip to girlfriend's for the weekend, who has no internet, but I wasn't even thinking about it. Get back today, and poof! Gone. Not even locked, but gone. My email account had a number of Blizzard emails, a number of which were about password change verification. The last one was about "Account retrieval instructions" which had an attached PDF that instructed me to mail or fax a form asking for ID info -- including a copy of an ID card (Government or School ID) The email came from an account management email account at Blizzard, but it seems rather suspect to go through that much hassle to retrieve my account. Honestly, I could give less than two shits about my characters, I"m more interested in playing the damn game. I could just skip it and get a new account, but that of course is fifty some odd dollars. Anyway, question: is this a scam? I'm naturally not going to trust an email that says "Send us a copy of your ID", but I wonder if anyone had gone through this before.

You'll get pulled over when you hit bLiNd's Extreme G mix.

Link For those that don't know, Nolan Bushnell is a somewhat eccentric fellow who started a little company called "Atari" back in the 1970s. Interesting that DiCaprio is funding this himself, really. Though I couldn't see a major studio putting this out with their money.

I was supposing that you hadn't played it all, but I think you may see my point better knowing that you have (I played it about as far as you did). The game grants you rewards for investing more time completing repetitive tasks (quests, raids, even PvP). The more time you spend completing these, the more rewards you accumulate. Rewards here meaning a variety of things. In-game money, experience and levels, mounts, items, gear, various nick-knacks to show off, etc. Generally speaking, the most addicting factor of the game is the desire to get these kinds of rewards -- which require considerable time to obtain, especially when you are competing with other people to get the same items. If you see someone strutting around in Tier 6 (or whatever) armor riding a dragon mount, you can bet he put the hours in for it. People will see that, and they'll want it too, and they'll do just the same. Part of the game's design is to calculate the highest point of a Laffer curve of getting the most amount of people to invest the most amount of time before they get the next big reward. If it takes too long, people won't bother, and they'll lose interest. If it's too easy, it won't be worth much, and again they'll lose interest. Really, what makes WoW so "addicting" is that there are various types of rewards that appeal to various playstyles that keep the player's interest at any given moment in the progression of the game. For example, I couldn't be bothered to invest a few hours to get to level 66, but I spent just as much time running AV again and again to get an epic mount.

Game is designed to reward the players who invest more time into it, essentially.

Ha! Got hacked. Account was banned in the past two hours when I wasn't on D: Probably a good thing, don't need to be playing this game anyway. Actually more worried about the billing info being compromised.

Still on here an there. Actually just started a new character on Maiev. Game pretty much lost its appeal for me at level 65. When everyone has a dragon mount and tier whatever armor, any sense of accomplishment is totally lost. Can't be asked to invest more than half an hour to play at time too, unless I end up in a group of people who aren't total weeaboos (Never). Also: Everquest, in retrospect, was a million times more immersive than WoW.

Uhhmmm "Guile's Mile Long Dong" :\ D:

StumbledUpon this. http://www.musclepowershop.com/2008/05/free-weight-training-plan.html Also, been sick, but planning to return tomorrow if my lungs are still inside my body. Eating healthy in Washington is hard as hell.

Hey, I promise I am still alive and into this. Sorry for not updating for the past couple of weeks. Just got moved into Washington a couple of days ago. I've pretty much figured out that it'll exceptionally easy not to pack on any weight this summer, especially when I don't have a car and my daily commute will involve walking at least 2-3 miles up and down the national mall. Add to that, my living quarters come with a downstairs exercise bike and bench equipment. It's shanty at best, but it's convenient. Still in search of a gym to join here. Anyone know any good health clubs/ gyms to join in the Capitol Hill district? Let me know.

Dope. This message is more than ten characters long

8-Bit Theater blows. 8-Bitch Fyve: Evil on the Attack is better in every aspect. It even features one of the most legendary OC ReMixes of all time.

Been out of it for a *little* bit this week, though I still made it to the gym a couple of times. Damn internship business is occupying most of my time. Finally got back to doing mile-run warm-ups again though. Clocked in at about 6m 15sec yesterday, so I haven't lost too much time.

My participation in this competition is tentative at the moment because there is a chance I may land an internship in Washington DC and my access to a gym there is going to cost at least a hundred times more than access at home or at uni. That said, I"m going to go ahead and throw my hat in the lot. GOAL: At 6' 3" and weighing in under 170lbs, with a waistline >31", I frequently fall victim to being interpreted as "stick" and unhealthily thin. I didn't spend two years at the gym getting in tip-top shape to be called Skeletor, so I'm shooting to add about 10 pounds of lean muscle, with comparable strength gain -- all without losing definition (even becoming more so, if possible). I'm not really interested in having big bodybuilder pecs or biceps, since they would interfere with the type of physical activity I do (primarily martial arts), plus I'm a big believer in working the entire body. It's going to be an all-around gain. PLAN: Since I'm shooting for lean muscle development, it's going to come very slowly. I'll have to work with both strength & size gain without losing definition. I'm working in stages, currently on my 4th week of upper body strength sets (generally 3 sets of 8 reps full-body workouts, about 2/3 are upper body). Once I get some slight weight gains from that (3-6 lbs), I'll switch over to two weeks cardio/circuit training, and then repeat the process with adjustments to compensate for disparities in gains and losses. Diet will have a big impact on this plan. Going to have to work it carefully between the strength and circuit weeks. Going to increase my overall protein intake. Protein supplements tend to make me feel ill, so I'm using different food sources to get surplus protein. On a budget, eggs are probably the easiest and cheapest source of protein, but the cholesterol gains can be killer. Going at 3-4 eggs about 4-5 days a week. Also drinking lots of skim milk, and eating cooked/grilled meats when I can. Living near the ocean gives me access to fresh fish and shellfish, which is amazingly healthy when prepared properly -- loaded with protein and antioxidants. I'm going to learn to probably cook fish/shellfish and try to make at least 50% of my meats seafood. I don't drink sodas, so that's no problem, but I could do with more water intake. Especially if working in the heat of summer. Going to cut back on Vitamin water considerably (probably save some money doing that as well). Going to keep my carb sources in Smart Start cereal, pasta, and whole-grain breads. Generally I consumer carbs throughout the day before my workouts (which are usually undertaken in the two hours before dinner), with my proteins following. I'll keep up with this plan, but stick to it a bit more religiously. I'm not giving up General Tso's Chicken though. Unhealthy as it is, I deserve some guilty pleasures at least two weeks or so. But I've started getting it with more vegetables now. Every little bit helps. With all this, and if all goes according to plan, hopefully I'll end up with more muscle to work with in definition gains by the time the fall semester rolls around. I'll also be set up with more healthy eating habits. I already start to feel lazy and stagnant if I don't visit the gym every other day, hopefully I can get that way in diet.

Saw it. It was great. Go see it.

Shoryuken. It's 10000 times more satisfying.

I'm no expert on fat-burn supplements but I STRONGLY recommend avoiding them. Even if you do see results, you will end up developing a dependence upon them, and then you'll likely continue to use them even when you are not working out consistently, which is both a waste of money and probably really, really unhealthy. I can guarantee that no pill or supplement will have the effect 30 minutes of brisk jogging a day will have on fat loss.

I've been waiting for someone to make a fitness thread. Couple of years ago someone made a longass post about workouts designed around those of Bruce Lee. That summer, I picked up a copy of The Art of Expressing the Human Body. I've been working out consistently since. That said, I'm fairly familiar with weight lifting, circuit training, fat loss, muscle toning, muscle gain, cardiovascular exercise -- you name it. Qualitatively, I basically went from a high school career of playing no sports, never working out, and doing little more than eating E.L.Fudge cookies and playing Street Fighter -- to running and working out competitively with the UNCW Varsity Row Crew Team in a little more than a year. If you have any questions, let me know and I'll do my best to answer.

Making fun of Bill Gates is soooooooooooo 1990's.

Currently enrolled at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington. I actually went ahead and declared a double-major in History and Political Science with a minor in International Relations the very first day of the semester. Bleccchhhhh..... liberal arts.... (Also looking for an internship in the Washington D.C. area this summer. CSIS, DoD, and State Department are already closed. Any other ideas?)

Ha, you see that's funny because my 7900 GS went out around the same exact time. Except, when they were out of stock, they replaced it with a shitty shitty shitty x1400 that ended up not working at all. (I still haven't gotten my notebook back)

I liked DotM. Making into the upper 100s in the global ladder was quite the accomplishment for a guild that spent more time on Vent and TS calling each other fags than they did actually playing the game. Sorry Wingy =(