Watermonkey

Uh, so you're saying if you just stop smoking you'll die? If you stop drinking water for a week you'd probably die or at the very least become too weak to stand. Are you trying to tell us the same would happen if you stopped smoking? Well, I don't know what you're smoking, but that doesn't happen with me. Occasionally I'll stop smoking completely for a month or so just to let my lungs recover and to detoxify. I have absolutely no withdrawal symptoms. None. Neither mental nor physical. Nor did I when I quite smoking the Camels. So I really don't get where you're coming from with that "body craves a cigarette the same way it craves water" crap... Perhaps you could elaborate...

Ok, just to be crystal clear here, we're talking about cats, specifically felis catus, not its wild cousin, felis panthera. Also, we're talking about Canis lupus familiaris or the domestic dog, not its wild brother the grey wolf -Canis Lupis. There are many variations of cats and dogs with regard to domesticity you could get a little poodle, for instance, which is about as needy a dog as you could find, or you could get a rottie which can take to a feral pack with little encouragement. Same goes for cats. There is the infinitely domestic Persian long-hair, and there is my little black monster who was bred from "barn cat" stock and would probably be able to adapt to the wild quite well. Feral cats and dogs are not "wild" per se, they're just not affiliated with any human clan and so they're independent. These cats and dogs, though, can be brought into a human society and, while they'll probably always be somewhat feral, they can become a part of a human family. Left to their own devices, these roaming packs of feral domesticated cats and dogs will roam the countryside spreading contagious diseases and cause all sorts of problems. The subject is not trivial and shouldn't be downplayed as it's a serious problem all around the world. I read, in researching this post, that animal shelters in the U.S. alone destroy more than 30,000 cats and dogs each year. I'm obviously a cat person, for several reasons. First, since they often sleep 16 hours of the day, they're really low maintenance. This appeals to me on the same level as children. I don't like most children because they require too much maintenance. Cats are independent and, in the summer at least, they can be self reliant too. They do a good job of keeping the rodent population in check and they're watchful and protective too. Neither of the breeds we've got (Russian Blue and American shorthair) are terribly good at personal protection, but there are breeds out there that could rival the smartest German Sheppard. One such breed is the new Pixie Bob. It's bred from barn cat stock from the foothills of the Cascades in Washington State, US. This breed reaches a weight of 16 to 28 pounds (7-13kg) and has superior intelligence to that of most cats. The Pixie Bob can easily be taught to fetch sticks and things and to walk on a leash. It can be trained to be a "companion animal" qualifying it to be exempt from anti-pet rules in restaurants and grocery stores just like seeing-eye dogs! A very cool pet, the Pixie Bob and several other "wild-like" breeds have traits that make them much like wild cats without actually being wild. If you really feel like most domestic cats are "too domestic", there are alternatives other than going in to the jungle and trying to befriend a beast that would just as soon eat you for lunch as look at you. Wild cats, while playful at times, are always unpredictable and should never ever ever be approached in their territory. Unless you're suicidal that is, then, by all means, approach!

That's completely awesome and amazing. I wonder if they're going to release that chipset on the 27th? I believe it's pretty much accepted that's the date they're going to release Leopard and Adobe CS3, and possibly a new laptop or at least the Santa Rosa motherboard for the portables or at least the iMac line. What Apple are you using now? I'm on the newest 17" MacBook Pro, stock configuration. It's quite nice, but I'm unimpressed by the display which flickers occasionally. It's a desktop replacement, though, so I like the independence and power all in one package. You have to really watch your settings on the battery if you want it to run for long during a power outage as I found out the other day. I think it shuts down one of the cores and probably scales back the other when you've selected the correct settings. Probably would last twice as long as it did without me setting it right! I noticed that the fans weren't audible one battery and the core temps didn't increase, so I think they were scaled way back. Anyway, regarding the work station, maybe after they release the 8-core, the price for the Quad will fall a bit. I'd love to own that amazing piece of technology, but I can't possibly afford something like that at this point, partially because I'd have to buy a monitor (23") too.

Litemage: I'm happy you saved a tree from certain death and I'm glad you appreciate its blossoms, but I fail to see what that has to do with the discussion at hand. Please try and remain on topic and refrain from trivializing perfectly good discussion. Thank you.

Cooking appeals to the creative, scientific (chemistry) side of the brain. I not only cook, I bake bread, brew melomel (mead with huckleberries or blueberries), and I brew beer. It's most satisfying when the work is done, but it can be a bit tedious too. I can spend all day on a brew and several hours more between the initial brewing and the bottling. Bread is not so bad, just start out with a decent recipe and start experimenting until you've got your loaf. I use a bread machine personally. Makes a consistent loaf every time.

You know what I'm sick and tired of? People like you who use any topic they disagree with and pull the old "racism" card out of their behind. What the hell does religion have to do with race??? Please answer me that simple question. There's plenty here to criticize without throwing race into the mix. How about just plain ignorance? I haven't heard a peep yet about the 7/7 or 9/11 attacks and the fact there's about three feet of good hard evidence both attacks were carried out by England and the US governments against their own people. There's an overwhelming amount of evidence that, as is the usual case in history, someone's terrorizing a population then blaming it on another group. Why can't people see what's going on? It's so crystal clear, I honestly don't know how people can miss it. The London Bombings were particularly obvious in their blatant fumblings. They barely managed to pull that one off, but it appears they fooled at least one person, Electric Ink. Open your eyes, people. Christians and Muslims have been at each other's throats for a very very long time, but we'd all pretty much forget about it sooner or later if the instigators would just let us. But that wouldn't serve their interests. They have to keep us enslaved and in order to do that, we've got to be fighting each other so we don't look at them and see the real enemy. Will you all wake up when the Instigation to go kill Iranians is perpetuated? Or will you buy the Party Line on that one too? Will you wake up when the Canada/US/Mexico borders disappear and your countries do too? The North American Union is all but a done deal people. Forget your heritage, your currency, your culture. Forget your national anthem, forget your Country Motto, In God We Trust. It'll all be a memory soon. Will you wake up then? Or will it be too late... (Play Evanescence -Wake Me Up Inside while reading this post)

I called the company because I wanted a free "sample carton" of cigarettes now that my state allows such things to be delivered in the mail and now they don't give away samples. Instead the lady put together a "care package" for me and shipped it out and also sent me two $10 coupons good for anything they make. In the "care package", was a black hemp cap to keep my head warm in the cool times -something I'm definitely going to put to good use made from one of my favorite materials! A Zippo lighter with the company logo on it was also included along with a package of authentic dried New Mexico salsa mix! Altogether, probably about $50-60 value! Not bad for just asking nice! Anyway, I can't recommend this company enough. If you smoke, or even if you just want some sage or something, call them and order a catalog. You'll be pleasantly surprised I think.

Relax, take it easy. I hate to sound like some kind of religious nut, mainly because I'm really not, but in this case, I'm going to delve into the bible for a second. I don't know the book or verse, but in there, I'm quite sure it says, "Moderation in all things." I couldn't agree more. Here's my advise, and it comes from experience so I'm not just pulling this out of my anal orifice: First, buy only American Spirits or another equally high quality natural cigarette. It's all those added chemicals that'll kill ya quicker than you can say Chemotherapy! Next, stop smoking so much! Take it down to where you're only smoking two or three smokes a day. No one's going to die from smoking two or three (natural) cigarettes a day. There. You're happy, Sante Fe Natural Tobacco Company is happy, and best of all, you get to keep on smoking. It also helps to buy them on-line from a res in New Mexico. No tax that way.BTW, I only smoke one or two Natural American Spirit Medium cigarettes a day. Slow down, relax. These cigarettes are so loaded with tobacco they'll take ten to fifteen minutes to smoke and WOW! what a rush of nicotine!Moderation...Moderation...Moderation...Moderation...Moderation...Moderation...

In the days of the Roman Caesars, the "games" were used to occupy the masses so they wouldn't notice when those who were elected to govern them were taking their rights and freedoms away. One day, the Romans awoke to see their empire aflame and in ruins. Throughout history, a few people have used such distraction to blind the masses while they robbed them blind, then executed them en masse. Nothing has changed. The masses and, obviously, you have been distracted with "games" and most of you haven't even noticed that the attack on our country on 9.11.01 wasn't from without, it was from within and your government was at the very least complacent if not actually an accomplice to the crime of killing many of NYC's firemen and several thousand civilians, including one secret service agent in building 7, which was admitted to be a controlled demolition by the owner, Silverstien. But, never mind all that, as long as your precious Patriots (interesting name) win the bowl or the Seahawks make it to the playoffs, all is right with the world. Move along now, nothing to see here...

I've taken Aikido several times through the years and once achieved a third degree white belt. (The belts go from 1st to 9th white, then from 1-9 black) My original Dojo was in Kalispell, Montana, and my Sunse (you'll have to correct my spelling for me if you don't mind) was Walter VanKrennin(sp?) who was in his 60's then, about 25 years ago. I don't remember the name of my sunse at the University of Washington, but I took classes there too. Aikido, in it's pure form as taught by Morihei Ueshiba, is totally self-defense and you couldn't start a fight using it. The idea is you extend your opponent's attack energy through the space you occupied when the attack first began thereby throwing him off balance and to the ground. The training includes wooden swords (I don't remember the Japanese term) and staff weapons which simply act as extensions of your arms. Falling is practiced routinely regardless of "rank" and is one of the most important things you'll learn and know from the art. I really enjoyed my time in Aikido and my sunse in Montana, by the way, was a student of the master himself, Mr. Ueshiba. He never went past 7th or 8th (don't recall) degree black because of internal politics. There were (are) factions that changed the form to include attacks so they could compete and he didn't agree they should take the art in that direction. I have to agree with him; there are plenty of other martial arts that have an attack, Aikido should remain for self-defense only. Thank you very much for this great topic! Five stars for you!

I don't suppose it matters to anyone that the United States is NOT a Democracy.... The United States is a Representative Republic and even at that level it's failing rapidly. It's also a hidden monarchy in that 37(or some very significant number) of the presidents and many other higher elected politicians (John kerry, W.J. Clinton, Richard Cheney, *Any* Bush, and too many more to list) have been relatives of various thrones, especially the British Throne. Do your own research if you don't believe me, it's well documented.

The more I think about it, the more I think the air intake temperature could be controlled or stabilized by integrating the intake into the geo-thermal system somehow, maybe by encorporating the air duct inside the water piping allowing it to be completely surrounded by water, but there would be corrosion and condensation to consider there too. I'm sure this design or idea isn't unique, but I can find nothing on it so far doing internet searches... Another thought I had was to just blow the air through underground water and pick it up again above the water line. That would be the most effective way to control the air temp, but it'd also result in air that was high in humidity, which would need to be removed at some point. Maybe I just need to go take some architect classes at the local community college...

Did you say "boot"? Does that rhyme with "about"? Sorry, couldn't resist! Good, no great to hear you've started a garden. Now put in some thought and plan it out, then get an auger or whatever you call those things, and dig some holes and fill them with 10 or 12 food poles. Next wrap those poles with fencing so those darn deer don't go in and much away at your precious veggies! Take my word, you'll regret it if you don't. Stoopid deer have even munched a couple Cedars I planted and now I don't think they'll make it. They didn't leave much greenery on them. I'll take some pics of our garden when there's something other than snow over the beds, but just to describe the garden, one side has herbs growing, all sorts from lemon balm, to catnip to rosemary. We have to dig up the rosemary every year and take it inside because it won't survive the winters here. On an adjacent side there is a moderate sized compost bin next to raspberry bushes (that are taking over the entire side) and up the hill I've got a variety of hops going. On the side opposite the herbs is another variety of hops, Cascade I think. On the corner, working around, is the third variety of hops, Centennial. Coming back down the hill opposite the compost bin are a few herbs, a bird bath, and a rhubarb plant that's out of control in the corner. Around the entire fence line I've installed a waterline that carries irrigation around the entire three tiered garden. On the bottom tier we plant tomatoes and peppers with swiss chard and lettuce mixed in there somewhere. Peas too. Middle tier is reserved for cucumbers and garlic and squash. On the top tier, which isn't really finished yet, I think we're going to plant some potatoes this year to see how that goes. Should be all right, but I've got to get the tiller up there once more just to loosen things up after the winter. The cats, strangely, like to hang out in the bird bath for some reason... All together I think there's about 750 square feet of gardening space, all there when we bought the house, but we had to hire a guy and his backhoe to come in and dig out three tiers, it was just a sloppy slope when we moved in. Now if we could just keep the slugs at bay this year, I'd be happier...

For those who don't know, HVAC is Heating Ventilation, and Air Conditioning. Some day in the next few years I fully intend to design, with an architect, a new house and shop for my wife and I. I've given it a lot of thought over the past years and there are literally a million things to consider. You may ask why I don't just buy a pre-existing home. The answer is I'm tired of living in other people's mistakes so I want to carefully research and plan the "perfect" home. It won't be cheap, and maybe we won't be able to afford it right away, so we'll pay off the land first. We're looking for 10 to 50 acres to live on and we'd prefer to butt up against public land so our neighbors would be limited and far away from us to hear or see. In real estate they always tell you, "location, location, location!". There's no way to underscore that phrase enough. We didn't place the weight we should have when we bought the place we live in now, but we've learned our lesson. So we've picked out our location, bought the land, picked the prime location to build the building on (we haven't yet, actually, I'm just jumping to the chase so I can discuss the topic), put in a well and ran electricity and phone to a nearby pedestal and transformer box. The requirements, which I'm sure I'll add on to as time goes by because I don't have them written down, that follow are based upon my own philosophy of minimal environmental impact with maximum self-sustainment and comfort. At some point, when a million bucks magically appears in my bank account, I'd like to add an olympic-sized swimming pool so I'd make sure the building site could accommodate that along with a waterfall water feature. Flowing water is one of the most peaceful sounds in nature and should be incorporated in the landscaping whenever possible, preferably through a natural mechanism because machinery equals maintenance. First off, the shop. Why, you say, would someone want to build a shop/garage before building the main house? First, above the shop will be an ample-sized apartment with a balcony, solar panels on the long axis of the south-facing roof and a solar water heater to aid in the radiant heating system as well as assist the multi-fuel water heater for hot domestic water. A basic design found here, would provide a comfortable amount of living area while also providing space for our vehicles (Full sized truck, SUV, and sedan) and room for an office, utility room, and shop. I'd probably eliminate the overhead doors on the left in favor of the utility room and shop and I'd have to modify the design to raise the garage door and ceiling height on the wide bay to the right to accommodate a larger vehicle or RV. The utility room would need to accommodate a hydrogen station and storage of both hydrogen and bio-diesel for back-up electricity and heat for when the grid goes down as it inevitably does in rural America. I'd sell any extra electricity back to the utility too. All those solar panels would probably take 25 years to pay for themselves! The utilities coming in to the shop would feed the house, too, when it's built. The second reason for building the shop/garage first is to live in it while the house is being built. Theft of building supplies is the number one reason new construction is so expensive and if we're on-site 24/7 with sensors and such, we'd be able to manage loss much better, possibly preventing it altogether. This could conceivably save thousands of dollars. Further, with the new living space, we'd then be able to sell our present home and have somewhere to immediately go to when the time comes to get out. I'd have the second floor consist of a perlite/concrete mix to maintain strength while lowering the load the load-bearing poles and walls would need to handle and that would allow me to include a multi-zone radiant heating system in the floor. Using a geo-thermal heat pump, I'd also run coolers in the ceiling to remove heat in the summer thereby virtually eliminating the high cost of AC and the geo-thermal system would dramatically lower the cost of heating in the winter, especially when used in tandem with the roof-mounted solar water heater(s). For water, I don't have any better idea at this time then to go with a conventional well and AC pump with two thousand gallons of water storage in pressure tanks in the utility room. Entertainment would be piped in via a satellite dish under a south eve extended especially to accommodate several dishes and internet would be piped in, if not available via fiber optics, through our Wildblue dish that would be coming with us when we move. Enough with the data and entertainment, and on to the HVAC! Anyone knows that a home (even a shop/garage/apartment) must have new air coming in and old air exhausted to maintain a healthy environment to live in. So what I thought is this air should be tightly controlled. Like it would be in a lab or something. I'd dig a nice long trench, maybe even zig-zag it so it wouldn't have to be a real long straight line, and at the far end build a small shed. Inside this shed would be one large 8-12 inch diameter metal tube leading back to the building(s). On the top of this, like on an older car, would be many round cloth air filters that can be easily gotten at any auto supplier. It'd basically be functionally identical to an air cleaner for a large engine, but the air would be for human consumption, not for the fuel-air mixture needed on an engine. On the top of the air cleaner, with solar back-up (of course) would be a large "squirrel cage" style rotary fan that would spin all the time, forcing air down the pipe. All of this, except for the solar panels that would be "shingles" on the small roof, would be completely contained in the shed so as not to attract attention. The positive pressure in the buildings would need to be managed by venting it to the outside via special air vents that would open when the air pressure became too high, but would act manually, just like turning on the fan in the bathroom -without the noisy fan! With a long enough pipe buried deep enough (15 feet?) it would act like a geo-thermal system and perhaps the pipe could have some kind of feature (copper fins?) that would make this more effective like radiators that would act to cool or warm the air as it moves through. The doors to the buildings would have to be specially designed to accommodate this type of system, but there are many advantages. First, from a house-cleaning perspective, the dust problem 99% of us face would be a thing of the past. Next, I can't think of a better way to keep bugs, pollen, and pollutants out of the building, though the apartment would need to be well sheltered from the garage below (with its own exhaust vents) because when you first start a car is when you'll get the worst pollution from it. These things would need to be worked out, but this system, I'd think, would be pretty maintenance free, don't you think? I can't afford to ask a high-end architect what people like Paul Allen (co-founder of Microsoft and one of the wealthiest people in the world today. I've actually been inside of two buildings in two very different locations he owns and lives in at various times, and I've been inspired to say the least) do with their HVAC systems when their homes are on the drawing board, so if anyone who reads this has ideas, suggestions, feed-back of any kind, please add to this topic and together we can engineer the perfect HVAC (and other systems) system for the not-so-modest but very humble residence.

Wow! I had no idea Colgate was so prevalent in the world and such a mainstream method for the Fertilizer, Aluminum, and Nuclear industries to dispose of their toxic chemical wastes! I should've bought stock in that company about 15 years ago. I've always said, if you can't afford to dispose of your toxic wastes, shovel them down the throats of people (sodium fluoride) or shoot the landscape up with them (depleted uranium from spent reactor cores). That way you make lots more money for yourself and your stock holders too! Win-win situation if you don't give a crap about the casual human who dies an early and painful death from cancer. I prefer Nature's Gate because it's got good ingredients and it's not so expensive but when I want the best, I haven't found a toothpaste I like better than Tom's of Maine Fennel flavored. It's said, and I'm inclined to believe that calcium fluoride found naturally in very low levels in most drinking water is beneficial, but stay away from sodium fluoride because it's a neurotoxin. Unless Old Timers disease is something you look forward to in your later years along with osteoporosis and arthritis and, of course, loosing all your teeth... Go ahead, don't believe me. Do some research.

There is, I believe, evidence that the far side (the Dark Side) of the Moon is splashed with water and there's speculation that this water came from Mars. I believe that some meteorites have also been found to contain traces of water. And how did those things get from A to Z? They traveled through inter-solar space, a near vacuum.

The Jamestown colony, the first colony settled by England in the New World of America which would come to be known as the United States of America, was founded on a charter that begins, "James, by the grace of God [King of England, Scotland, France and Ireland, defender of the faith, etc.] To all [to whom these presents shall come, greeting.]" The full content of the charter can be found here: https://smallbusiness.yahoo.com/. The origins of this country in particular, and Canada too I believe, are founded in a tradition of Christianity originating from the King of England, James I and the Church of England who also commissioned the King James Bible from the Church of England. There was no "constitution" for a century after the first colonists on the Atlantic seaboard from England to guarantee anyone's "God-given rights" like there is today (specifically the right to worship freely or not). That there is something in the constitution regarding separation of church and state is myth. The state is forbidden to sanction one religion over another and isn't allowed to establish a religion. But to have a plaque of the Ten Commandments on a courthouse... come on. The Ten Commandments are something we should all live by, regardless of religion. If it offends you, then maybe you're breaking the laws of Moses and these laws are often supported by the modern laws of the state which means maybe you're a criminal if you're uncomfortable with the Ten Commandments on display. I say, if you're not happy in America, instead of trying to change our country and its traditions of Christianity and ruining it for the rest of us, how about either coping or moving. I hear Oz is nice this time of year... From Wikipedia:

Now you, too, can find out everything you ever wanted to know about the disposal of trash but were afraid to ask: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ JohnSmith> Be thankful civilization doesn't see the whole forest... They'd just cut it down!

What kind of work is it you're doing? Flipping burgers or something more important? Reason I ask, is if you're just flipping burgers or something unskilled like that, then don't worry about your resume. Also, if you didn't do what you're being blamed on, then you should tell the employer that you'll sue him if he says anything defamatory to any of your future potential employers who may call to verify your work history. You've got the law behind you on this one. If you're certain you can get the other job, you might as well line it up and take it. Then quit this one in a positive manner by taking your boss aside, explaining to him what you know and what you don't know, tell him/her what you think of the situation, then quit. At least this way, you'll be taking the reins and telling them when you'll be leaving instead of waiting for them to let you go without notice. Take control of the situation and you'll be surprised at the results. They may just beg you to stay and offer you a raise to do so. Ya never know...

Or, if you feel it fits better with improving your overall health, as I'm sure you do, then by all means, let's take it on over that direction!

Funny, when I went in to buy a house with my American Express, Visa, and Mastercard, (not to mention my auto loan) the lender nearly tripped over himself rushing to give me my loan! I'd have to say that you don't know what you're talking about here. There's a hard and fast rule in the world of credit, NO credit is even worse then BAD credit. And people should take more responsibility for their own behavior. Having a credit card doesn't mean you'll ruin your credit. You might start out with a debit Visa a.k.a. an ATM card with the Visa functionality. That way, when you use it, you draw from your bank account. After getting used to that behavior, allow yourself to graduate to a credit card. Then, hopefully, your good habit of only swiping if you've got the money to pay for it will follow you. But which ever way you go, take some personal responsibility for godsake!

I was horrified to learn this evening on the news that the new George Washington golden dollar, in its first run of 300 million, included a unknown number missing the Latin, "E Pluribus Unum" and the motto, "In God We Trust". The first such coin sold on eBay commanded a $600 bid because the extent of the error was unknown at the time. Now they're selling at the online auction house for around $50 each. According to the article, the coins all go through the same stamping process as usual but to gain the inscriptions which appear out of site along the edge, they go through an extra machine. So far it's only the coins minted in Philadelphia that have been found to be missing the inscriptions. My question is two-fold: First, it seems apparent someone is embarrassed to include the phrases, "Out of Many, One" and "In God We Trust", in the first place. Why else would they have put them on the edge of the coins, invisible when viewing either the head or the tail? Secondly, was it really a mistake, or is there a group of people in the U.S. who've gotten someone inside the mint to make this "mistake"? With all the talk, apparently, of petitions and groups lobbying the US Mint to remove the motto from all currency and the intense QC process the coins go through before they're rolled and shipped, it seems an error of this apparent magnitude should've been caught earlier. I believe there's a force afoot in this country (and on this planet too) to remove "God" from all public institutions. It's been evident for quite a while and you'd need to be blind in one eye and not see out of the other to not have noticed. Or, I suppose, if you were caught up in your games and sitcoms on TV you might have missed it, too, but you can't sit around playing games forever. At some point you need to face the world and you'd better be armed with knowledge when you do. Anyway, What say you?

What's the big hairy deal? We've got banks over here offering credit cards to illegal immigrants and you're worried about some 16yo growing up a little sooner? I don't see the problem. If the bank is practicing predatory lending, then it's breaking the law and should be prosecuted, otherwise if the 16yo is responsible and has good income, why not?

There was recently a news story that broke regarding a president of Gambia claiming to have a cure for AIDS. I'll quote the story from that link below in cause you're too lazy to *click*: It would be interesting to see if there's any merit to his claims... Meanwhile stop with the dangerous lifestyles promoted in Hollywood and MTV already!

I'm going to start calling you "The Great Mac Defender"! If you think your mac starts slow, I think it may already be time for you to upgrade to a Core 2 Duo 2.33. My Mac is a 17 MacBook Pro running said processor with 2Gb RAM, 160Gb HD and all that. I've got a few complaints, but it's really nothing major. Oh, btw, I've got a Dell on my desk running XP too. I mostly use it to look at Streets and Trips and test my web site on its browsers. Anyway, you do have to restart the Mac every once in a while due to major software upgrades and installs. That being said, it doesn't seem like it's required nearly as often as the windows machine. Other than the extremely cool and friendly package, and I mean everything from the keyboard to the widgets, the biggest reason to love Macs is they're just not vulnerable to viruses and all that crap. And did I mention this laptop is FAST? It's wicked fast. Boots up in a matter of seconds, wakes up in a matter of tenths of a second... This machine is da bomb. Period.