Absolutely. I had a friend who only played Dark Elf female characters on EQ. Best butt, was the reason. He knew that was inane, but as long as he had to stare at a cartoon butt, it was going to be one he liked the curves of. Plus the whole "play a female character, get free stuff" thing.

Thanks for writing that, I was discussing this with the gal pal tonight.

It reminded me - the last paragraph in particular - of this article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/06/edwyn-collins-sharing-music

Dire Straits wanted money for nothing. Also, chicks for free. Lemme tell you, them guys ain't dumb. Sure beats moving and installing home appliances and electronics.

From the Boing Boing article:

No-one can resist the pun, it seems.

Somebody shoot me, eh?

Cover Your Ass.

Easy on a Mac too, but the one-step of the Amazon application is a deft touch.

A few hours a day - not every day, even, he takes a few off here and there - and a little longer on the weekends isn't excessive. Online gaming actually cut down my "lazy" activity time and cut costs. I wasn't plonked in front of the TV (cancelled a few cable packages, rented fewer DVDs), I decided to spend more non-game time away from the computer and/or TV (read a bit more, got out of the house), and on top of all that spent more time with the better half (playing the game together, chatting while we did, etc).

Yeah, sometimes you don't get to play or TV or whatever for a while, something more important is happening. We stopped playing for a few months last time we sold the house, we had work to do when we got home. Online gaming is only excessive when you fail to keep up with life's priorities (job, home, health, family, friends). Ditto any other gaming, TV time, internet surfing, hardware hacking, wood duck carving, drinking, drugs, food, jogging, etc etc etc. It's usually easy to keep it all in balance, and part of what WoW does well is deliver a game that you CAN walk away from, to focus on the important things, and still keep up with the game.

It's not so much that "Casual" gaming is influencing MMO's, as it is that game publishers recognize that a lot of gamers are all adult-like now, and if we can't integrate the game into our real lives, we're not giving them our money. And money - the market - is what influences MMO's.

Great?

Well it's hard to survive without capital if your business can't sell it's service or product, and don't you think a little "reputation capital" can be a benefit?

Maybe I'm inferring sarcasm where you don't mean it. But business don't survive solely on reputation capital, obviously, but poor or no reputation capitial is a hindrance. How much so varies greatly by business type. Personally, I get almost as much work for my ethics as I do my abilities - I certainly get more references because of my character than I would if I was an asshole. That scales upwards for business in the public eye as well. Some businesses don't survive without it. Some thrive because of it. Some are completely unaffected. And it's exactly the kind of move that shows a "do no evil" aspect to the whole Google/book scanning/copyright hub-bub. Public relations is a thriving market sector because it has reputation capital has value. Most days, reputation capital is front page news for somebody.

Not that I'd ever consider it, either, and of course I'm no expert. But if I really felt the need, I'd be comfortable taking out expensive light bulbs and replacing them with cheaper ones. That sort of thing wouldn't be an issue for us - both times we've put our house up for sale, we've swapped out bulbs for bright incandescents anyway. And most of our home lighting is freestanding, neither of us enjoying the light from ceiling fixtures. But frankly, we've just sold the house. A few lightbulbs aren't going to make a difference, no matter what they cost.

All that said, this is why the inclusions and exclusions list is important. One example I tripped over is that while it is assumed that a wall mounted mirror is a fixture, a wall mounted TV is not. But if the notion of "attached to the property" is taken literally, a case might be made for the TV being a fixture. If you want it with the house, include it and if you're taking it with you - exclude it. Caveat emptor, and caveat venditor, too. Not that any of it is my expertise, except that I like to live without being sued.

Another blog post, from a lawyer in Australia this time, that seems to say the same thing as everything else I found (but more clearly): http://www.propertyupdate.com.au/articles/104/1/Fixture-Fixation/Page1.html

Flamebait? I'd rather sit in a dark living room than one lit by CFL's, (and I do). I use them selectively, too, and for pretty much the same reasons. As well, the last town I lived in had horribly inconsistent power levels, the house was 80+ years old with some knob and tube wiring - CFL bulbs died fast and expensively.

I looked up chattel and real estate in Ontario, where I'm from. It's pretty much as you've found - if it's a "built in", it's real estate, but if it's stand-alone, it's chattels and you can take it.

From a real estate agent's blog, not a legal document. http://ontariorealestatesource.blogspot.com/2008/04/what-are-chattels.html

It could have. It would have been different, and not necessarily better. I've watched 2001 a few times, and only all the way through twice. I'm not always in the mood, but when I am it's slow pace and quiet are perfect. The pacing is an important part of the narrative. It's one of my favourite films, and like most of my favourite films, albums, games and such, I'm not always in the mood for it.

Well off topic and far too pedantic, but what the hell. A blog at http://itre.cis.upenn.edu/~myl/languagelog/archives/003775.html references Merriam-Webster's Concise Dictionary of English Usage (MWCDEU) to point out that "less" has been used before plural, countable nouns since the time of King Alfred. It was the opinion of Robert Baker, written in "Remarks on the English Language" in 1770, that "fewer" was preferable. It is unknown how this became the rule, but usage then and now do not conform to the rule.

From the MWCDEU:

There's a scan of the MWCEDU available from the blog post. Make of it what you will, I found it interesting.