"A new life awaits you in the off-world colonies, the chance to begin again in a golden land of opportunity and adventure..."

Give me four. No, four! Two, two, four! ...and some replicant-served noodles.

Alan Ralsky.

Like I said, if you are not picky.

John Gotti is now "The Superomniphobic Don".

You forgot to indicate how much each contestant wagered... oh wait, Yiu would just make the other two pay for him. Sorry, my bad.

...and we can call this mission "Outbound Flight".

It's Pyongyang Style:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYBCgV6a5kE

...to spin a top as our collective totem. If the top never stops, then it's a simulation/dream.

That's pretty much what I have to do, except maybe the part where I disrobe in front of a Chinese couple. As Brell said so eloquently, if I live another 24 hours that would be very impressive.

"But still, watching a star eating its own planets is not only cool in its own right, but also provides food for thought as to how to keep the human species going long after the Sun starts going off the main sequence into red giant-hood."

Oh, I get it. Food for thought. Delicious.

This is a great way to paint a Bull's Eye on your back while every other geek on the planet gets some type of firearm ready.

Thank you very much for sharing your life story here. I turn 39 in a few months and have been doing sys/net admin for better part of the last 12 years, and now am sorting out what my next step is. I enrolled in a part-time Master's program in CS at a major local university and expect to graduate sometime next year, and I am giving serious thoughts about going for a doctoral program in either CS or bioinformatics after that. Eventually I hope to get into either information security research or computational biology research. (Disclosure: I have a B.A. in biology and it's been very helpful to explore that possible career. The fact that I am a Christian also reminds me that God will direct my path ultimately as He is the author and perfecter of my faith.)

I am of the opinion that I must do what I love, and love what I do. I am not getting out of IT because it's boring - I am actually a technophile. I am moving on to something else because it is more challenging and a higher mountain to climb, but also potentially more rewarding to me. This does not mean I don't experience doubts or fear, but it does clarify the direction for me. In general, I do love what I do and I hope I get to continue doing that until the day I die.

"Great, Chewie, always thinking with your stomach!"

I hope he/she is getting in all the laughs now, because when they finally do decide to p0wn him/her, it won't be funny anymore.

I'd like to see their reaction one day when they somehow get enough people to write-in an idea/patent/cartoon character/medical condition into office. Maybe no one will be laughing then.

Psoriasis for Prime Minister in 2050.

If he had bought a Trash-80, would we all be programming Motorola chips today?