</td>

Star Trek Character or Erectile Dysfunction Pill? Score: 90% (9 out of 10)

(And to those of you that thought "Low", I say to thee "Phbhbhbhb!")

In secret temples far from bustling cities and priestly hierarchies, orders of esoteric warriors train their initiates in ancient traditions now forgotten or forbidden by most religious organizations. The champions of these orders are avengers—deadly weapons in the hands of their gods, imbued with divine power through secret rites of initiation. In battle, avengers swear to execute divine vengeance, entering a mental state that gives them unerring focus on a single enemy.

As an avenger, you were trained in a monastery, initiated through secret rites, and imbued with the power to smite your god's foes. You might be a disciple of Ioun, sworn to hunt and exterminate the minions of Vecna until you one day face the Maimed God. You could be an agent of the Raven Queen, bringing death to those who would defy your mistress. Or perhaps you serve Bahamut as an agent of justice, bringing ruin to tyrants and oppressors. The organizations devoted to your god might view you as a heretic or a hero, but you answer only to your god and to the vows you swore upon your initiation as an avenger.

Where will those vows lead you? One thing is certain: Doing the will of your god is never easy and never free of peril.

D&D Home Page - What Class Are You? - Build A Character - D&D Compendium

Just bought myself a new laptop over lunch.  YAY!!!

Now it's sitting in my car, and I want to go out and get it and set it up.  Dammit.

They postponed the shuttle launch by a week.  Ah well, I'm glad I found out about it before I got down there!

February 19th is now the new launch date, and it is now a 4:40 AM launch instead of the 7:40 AM launch we were expecting.

Thankfully I got my tickets with a "no surcharge to change your reservation option.  If they don't get this problem fixed soon, I may keep changing my flight!"

Illinois Governor "Just Making Shit Up Now"

Seriously, Rod?  You, MLK, Nelson Mandella, and Ghandi.  Ghandi?  GHANDI???

Working on that insanity plea for your federal case, aren't you, buddy?

Seriously. In tears here.


Star Wars: Retold (by someone who hasn't seen it) from Joe Nicolosi on Vimeo.

</td>

Name that Cooking Technique Score: 100% (10 out of 10)

So my folks gave us a VERY generous Christmas gift this year of an HDTV. They bought us a Sanyo 42" TV, and we were very excited until I did the research and realized what a colossally bad idea it would be to strap the box to the top of my minivan and drive for about 250 miles. So after checking into shipping it home, renting a trailer, etc., my wife came up with the brilliant idea of just returning it and buying it again when we got back to Chicago.

So today was the first chance after getting back home for me to go out and "rebuy" the TV, and when I got to Wal-Mart (yes, I had to get it from Wal-Mart. Mom and Dad live in small town middle America, so I had little say in the matter) they were out of that same model. So, time to go shopping.

I spent about an hour looking at all of the choices available, and was hemming and hawing and hemming and hawing and finally just did a "what the fuck" and upgraded from the 42" Sanyo to the 47" Phillips. In the end, it cost me about $300. So I'm a pretty happy camper with a $300 47" TV.

It's sitting in my basement right now, in the box, waiting for me to take down the Christmas tree (my wife won't let me take down the tree until after 12th night) and then juggle TV cabinets and existing TVs, as well as getting my HD-DVR from DirecTV (I've been trying to get them to give me a free upgrade, but the bastards aren't budging.) I have my old HD-DVD player that I bought on spec last year to use as an upconverting DVD player, as well as play my half-dozen or so HD-DVDs. I'll need to buy some HDMI cables...I wonder,  is there a specific kind of HDMI cable I need, or are they all the same format?

Needless to say, I'm very excited to get rid of my old 27" TV! C'mon, Monday, get here so I can take down my tree!

What shows are these two theme song snippets from?

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20893/6/

http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/archives/20893/8/

Help!

Ugh.  I hate head colds.