i used to fear death prior to going to my university. i think my fear dealt more with the idea of not having any possibility of thought or that the identity that i have come to experience as myself no longer would exist in any form. also, i would fear for the things that i cared about in my life. what would happen to them when i'm gone?

however, a friend of mine at the university once told me, "When you're gone, the pain stops." That whole notion really comforted me. Especially when you look at all the BS that you have to deal with these days. as you get older, you would hope that the quality of your life improves along with the advancement of civilization. Instead, you start to realize that the world sucks for the most part because of the design where everyone is out for themselves for the most part and that we deal with things like limited resources. Only by chance if you're in that rare percentile where you don't have to worry about the daily grind, then you can probably enjoy yourself for the most part. However, for an average joe like myself, you just see more bureaucracy and show stoppers that exist to squash your dreams.

A while back my father was in a nursing home after suffering a horrible stroke that left him half paralyzed and unable to speak. I pitied him that he could not potentially ever again enjoy things. I was hoping that if I worked hard enough and he could survive that somehow I could help him and provide him with something that would help recover him from his condition. That never came to be. Later, I kinda envied him in some ways in that he wasn't alive having to deal with all the garbage in the world. Maybe in some perverse way, he was the lucky one. When he was in the hospital, I would see him crying constantly. I heard that happened with patients. I wasn't certain if that was physically being wrought or emotionally wrought. But if it were emotional as a result of him fearing for his life, I would've told him that he's not really missing anything these days.

Anyway, my saying these days is simply: "I no longer fear death. Just inconvenience."

part of me believes the whole increased pressure to catch this guy is because he's going to expose one of the top banks. last time a big smear campaign occurred like this when some women were involved was with Elliot Spitzer. My conspiracy theory says that similar people are or have set Assange up.

i find my server to be pretty obnoxious on average. too many rude players. also, endless ganks which make questing impossible. and of course, Blizzard really doesn't care in the end.

i play on a PVP server (mainly because my friend was on there). the whole race to 80 for me was mostly because i kept getting ganked and just got sick of it. i still get ganked as an 80 but at least i have somewhat of a chance. i can't imagine for someone completely new to the game how they'd react if they inadvertently chose a PVP server and knew no one that could help them out. the one thing i wish the game addressed is making PVP more fair with regards to this. make it so that people can PVP only at the zone level unless they had their PVP flag turned on. well, then again i'm thinking of starting from scratch on a PVE server. maybe i can actually enjoy leveling...

actually, i think they did become retarded. essentially, they are going back to pre-BC times. my guess is that it's a way to shutdown the current WoW franchise because certain people inside probably are sick of dealing with it (which imo is why they call it "Cataclysm"). What you're saying is true about creating more drama. I'm in a guild and people are cool right up to the point where we start wiping multiple times. Then people become extremely belligerent. From a game mechanics point of view, I think the vast majority currently playing are probably going to end up getting pissed and leaving permanently. From what I understand, this happens on every expansion. Unfortunately, the way these games work is that they force you to play the expansion, even if you don't have the expansion. It sucks for people who don't have money, especially on PVP realms because there's a lot of jackasses who gank all the time. Also, I really don't consider this an "expansion". This is almost a re-write of the game. IMO, an expansion would've been like WOTLK, where you have a deeper talent tree (or more available talent points) and more exposed areas that people without the expansion could not access. I don't see a lot to be excited with in the extra 5 levels and the elimination of abilities on loot makes the game seem even less strategic in some ways. Allowing races more classes seems more like a bling thing since the base race abilities aren't all that fantastic to begin with. At any rate, I think the changes are more superficial than anything. I'd feel sorry for the newbie coming in with his level 20 getting ganked left and right on PVP realms by guys who obtain level 85 in less than a week from the air. That's what the game truly feels like at this point without having participated in the Beta.

Actually, I think they want to return to the roots of the game by over-simplifying the game. Part of that is evident in them thinning the talent tree and forcing people to choose one branch (which I think is stupid as an expansion). As far as not wanting to play with people you don't like, well, I think making the game harder and forcing people to group up is going to cause even more issues. In essence, people want to reap quick rewards so I can see tempers flaring in the game. Already happens when I'm with guildies. Now, it might mean the expectations are higher for people, so people who aren't as serious but want to experience end game content will get marginalized as a result (which I think is the vast majority of people). Dying a lot together doesn't really sound fun and I see more finger pointing than anything else.

Apparently, he forgot to learn all the important lessons in that movie. Again. Where's Noah Wyle when you need him?

i completely agree with your sentiments on management ruining great products. i think technologists need to step up to the plate more often and take complete ownership of technology rather than let business people push them around.

I think it was "More Crap". Everytime this guy opens his mouth, someone should just copy and paste a link to that episode as a reminder that Boner is the world's biggest piece of crap. Matt and Trey must've had a premonition of Boner into a bigger piece of fecal matter when they came up with that episode. http://www.southparkstudios.com/episodes/111250/