Only the good parts then?

Look, we have no problems buying your crap, but when its easier to pirate it and you get a better product? Why not download it?

That's the craziest part of this 'war'. I'd love to pay a fair price and not get jerked around for media, but that's just not a product they've managed to come up with yet, so until then it's plan B.

I thought FPS formed the bridge between casual and hardcore. Granted, if you suck you might get bummed playing against more skilled players sometimes, but the thing I like about them is a lot of the 'skill' (twitch mostly, a few strategies help, and knowing/learning maps) is portable across different FPS games. I used to be what we'd consider a hardcore player, wasting hours every week, but I have other interests and other things to do. So I've kept playing various FPS games with an understanding that I can usually play at least moderately well, even for short periods of time, and enjoy it.

All I get is garbage:

FMS ASIS IDB C2W Galil arm Lander number key WISDIM pink noise initiators SABC NIMA NSAS erco mailbomb Wackendude Hindawi CSC MD5 SHS botux Internet Underground RHL tetryl incendiary device Talent Police Morgan NMS 2E781 Bunker NADDIS ZNI1 AIEWS Badger ISWG MI-17 Wireless nowhere.ch JSOFC3IP Clandestine Merlin Becker Rapid Reaction TNT ISFR plutonium JASSM bootleg

What, you no like engrish?

I thought the same living in my tech bubble in San Diego before the economy broke. It's easy too look down on things when you and everybody you know don't use it but after moving home while I catch up on bills I'm suddenly finding myself emerged in regular peoples lives. So I set up an account, mostly still ignoring it. There's a lot of senseless crap to it, that's true, but it is pretty customizable and all the device and other cross-integration does make it pretty convenient, even a little useful.

But when I realized I could casually hook up with old friends and acquaintances I began to understand it. There's nothing particularly 'me generation' about it because it augments rather then supplants real conversion. The landscape is actually richer for it, it provides small peaks at what might be going on, chat still works well for one-on-one or even many, but depending on the level of intimacy involved texts, phone-calls, drinks, dinner and all the rest still apply, just like they always did.

I don't mind seeing that a buddy of mine is off on a road-trip. He doesn't have to tell me every tiny detail of his life, but if I'm bored or it's a timothy day on Slashdot it's nice to have something with things/people I care about to poke in on. Or share a little something I might not have.

Sure there are kids who think it's some kind of friend manufacturing machine, but there were always people like that. And you know what, some of your friends send stupid shit, but you probably already knew that about them, don't blame facebook!

And just because you think X is super interesting, depending on the diversity of your group you might be a little let down. I put up a remix recently I'd done in a day, turned out great, but my friends and family don't even really understand what it is, I get one or two hits and no comments. But if I wanted praise I should have picked my audience.

People are always talking about technology X as being the next social downfall, but I'm just not seeing that apply realistically with facebook. It's not a perfect platform, but it's helping people bridge a little distance. Families staying a little closer. Old friends picking up on each others lives. It's casual communication at it's finest, but it can be whatever you decide to make of it.

My advice is to not add anybody and everyone. Just the people *you* want to hear from. It's a lot nicer that way. And don't feel obliged to do anything with it. If I don't have anything to say so be it.

The one down-side is I'm realizing I'm going to have to start taking a trips and visit old friends more often. That means actually taking vacations. Soon hell will be freezing over and then we'll all be in for it. ;-)

It's okay not to be racist anymore! Turns out people aren't really different because of the color of their skin! Go figure?

Oh, but they did! They just posted the wrong link to an out-dated article. Here's the actual article from infoworld (print version) with...6 cults. We (collectively, Slashdot) made #1, which seems astute enough.

Holy scriptures: The Lord of the Rings; Programming Perl (aka "The Camel Book")

Of course, we'll never see that because there's more money behind caffeine than alcohol and tobacco, combined.

You sir are a paranoid or an idiot (or both). Behold, the power of teh Google. No thanks needed.

So, just to be clear, you're saying being a professional gamer sounds like a lot of work...