Spudd

I'm heading to my second year of college in a couple weeks. Personally, I've really loved it. All the professors there are really nice, I never feel awkward about asking them a question. I love being able to pick out my own schedule and take whatever courses with whatever instructors I want as long as they count towards my degree. I've met up with a few friends I already knew, and made some new friends too. I love how many different backgrounds all the people there come from too, you get to hear some pretty interesting stories. The events the activity board comes up with are pretty fun too. One of the best parts is how often they hand out FREE FOOD! Anyhow, like I already said, I love college. Sorry your experiences with it haven't been so good.

Haha, well thanks. The banner was intended to be more the kind of thing you would put on your signature on some other forum to lead people here, though, not to be like a banner for the site itself. For that, I think the current banner does its job. It's not real flashy, but it does match the forum's theme, and looks good there. If you think it looks that good, though, I'd be happy to take a shot at making one that matches the forum colors and the size of the current banner.

Personally, from what I've seen, converting someone who considers themself an atheist is near impossible. You can't just tell them to be a Christian, nor can you threaten them with condemnation, as they don't believe in any of that. I don't know if it's the best route for everyone, but I think the only way to do it is to live your life as best you can; help others whenever possible, and treat them with respect. Live your life the way God would want you to, and while you shouldn't go shouting out hymns at the top of your lungs in a crowded intersection, do allow people to know you are a Christian. Just through your example, some may be encouraged to look into the religion you attribute your happiness to. As it seems to me, the simplest way to convert an atheist is to steer them to convert to Christianity on their own, the way they seem to prefer to do everything.

Well I agree that the so called "training materials" are biased in what they choose to compare, as well as untrue on a few points. I do think that it makes more sense for Best Buy to just sell Windows, however. If you look at it from a business perspective, there is a lot less money to be made on Linux than Windows. For starters, it is true that there is very little in the way of commercial software available to Linux; due to the nature of Linux the majority of it is available for free. They also can't sell Linux, as most distros are free, and they'd need to get the rights and such from the original makers of the commercial distros to sell them. Anyhow, I wouldn't buy a Linux computer from a store anyway when I can just get a Windows one anywhere and download the OS. Still, I don't see why that comparison would even be necessary, it's not like Linux is any sort of threat to their sales. An unbiased Mac vs. PC comparison might make more sense, since they actually sell those.

I can't say which is the best, but based on the ones I've played, these are my favorites:Legend of Zelda: Link to the Past:In my opinion, this is the best of the Legend of Zelda saga. The game lets you roam so much, there's a lot to do, and it's a load of fun. The puzzles are good in that they don't take up a whole lot of your time, but remain somewhat challenging. I had a lot of fun with this game, oh the memories...Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island:A brilliant platformer with great graphics. The music was great too, my favorite was the cave music first featured in the stage: "Cave of mystery." The bosses were fun, the levels were good. The difficulty was average, but it was hard to get %100 on everything, and when you did you got great rewards. You could play a level three times and still discover new things about it. Again, I had tons of fun with this game.Kirby Super Star:This game was fun both alone and with a friend. Easily my favorite multiplayer experience on the SNES. There were so many abilities, and since there were seven games and three minigames on it, there was no shortage of content to make the replay value nice and high. The music and graphics were vibrant and memorable. Another great SNES game.Chrono Trigger:Well, I didn't really get to play this as a kid, as we... *Ahem* ... Lost it... But I've played it recently, and it's a beautiful game. The sprites and scenery are exceedingly detailed, it almost makes you feel sorry for the spriters who put so much work into even the smallest object. The characters are highly likable, especially Frog, he's the best. The music was great, again, and the gameplay was excellent. I think the Chrono series games are Square's best, (over Final Fantasy) and Chrono Trigger was the best in that (two game) series. :lol:Super Mario RPG:It was cool to see Mario out of his element and in an RPG; it was also cool to see how well pulled off it went. As a matter of fact, it went so well, they proceeded to make the Paper Mario and Mario & Luigi games based on that same Mario RPG thing. Once again, great characters, great graphics, (way ahead of their time) memorable music, this is starting to get redundant, no?Star Fox:I beat it for the first time at four years of age. This was possibly the game I played the most in my earliest years. It was loads of fun, there weren't a whole lot of games like it at the time, so it was very different. For the SNES, everything seemed so realistic. The control was excellent, and I loved the satisfaction you'd get when blowing up an enemy aircraft. Of course, nowadays games like this are a dollar a dozen, but for it's time it was amazing. :PThat's pretty much it. The Super Nintendo sure had a lot of gems. I'd like to see the newer consoles have some of the same charm these older games had; there's good stuff here.

What difficulty do you generally play? I usually play on Hard myself; I like to utilize all the buttons on a guitar, as it makes me feel handicapped to play only 3-4 buttons at once. I do pretty well on hard, usually in the 90 percentile range at least. I'd like to play Expert, but I'm not quite there yet, as I'm just trying to pass at that point and not actually playing very well. I'm working my way up, though. Anyway, I'm interested to see what other people play on, as at the moment I don't play Guitar Hero on Xbox Live as I'm ashamed to be playing on anything short of expert level difficulty.

I like a clean, simple, yet stylish wallpaper. It can't be so cluttered that it makes it hard to read the text on my shortcuts of course, but I do want it to make my computer stand out. Right now, here's a picture of my desktop: (For anyone who doesn't know, the little dude on the right side of the screen is the Pip Boy guy from Fallout 3.) As you can see, it's stylish, but it provides a good platform for desktop icons. As you can also see, I only have two of those. I have everything I need in the start menu, so I don't feel the need to have it all in plain sight at all times. I like my desktop clean, so that I can run applications and games in windowed mode without too much distractions. Anyways, that's my preference.

Well I was just going for a stylish, clean banner to showcase the site, I didn't really think of it that way, but thanks for the advice.

Well here it is: Result: I made it in Paint.NET in about 10 minutes. I'm open to constructive criticism.

It looks amazing. If I had $60 to blow on it I'd consider buying it, but alas, I don't. I will probably at least rent it some way down the line, though. :PIt'll be interesting to see how the game plays out with all those flashbacks. It works well in books, movies, and in TV shows, (like Lost) so hopefully it translates well into the gaming scene. I'm also hoping it has better multiplayer than it's predecessor. Mind you, Halo 3 had awesome multiplayer, I just want to see that awesomeness multiplied.

Many consoles do have web browsers now. The Wii, DS, PSP, and I assume the PS3 all do. But as I said, you can't really compare them; I wouldn't want to have a gaming console as opposed to my PC, nor would I want to have some game system in the place of my PC.

Well in that statement I was taking into assumption that his faith, or lack thereof, had ever been challenged. You're probably right, he made some ridiculous statements in there, but still I don't like to assume the person I'm debating with is completely incompetent, else it's not really a debate at all. Also, religion isn't boring.

I like Vista. Please, don't hurt me! In my opinion, it's the best looking of the mainstream OSes. (Not counting additional skins.) I've grown used to features I didn't even know were Vista exclusive until I tried using them on an XP. People say it's annoying for it's incompatibility with most of the programs from XP, but I've encountered no program from XP that I couldn't use or at least patch to make work on Vista, and either way, it still has far more software available to it than Mac OS or Linux. It's highly user friendly, and actually a really nice operating system, so I do get a little annoyed when people who have never used it bash it.

You really can't compare them in terms of what they can and can't do, as computers are used for more than pure entertainment. If we're talking games alone, it's still hard to compare. You can't compare graphics, because a computer's graphical power varies greatly from one to the next. You can't compare game controls, as anyone can give a computer a gamepad, while consoles don't have the luxury of a mouse. They're two totally different pieces of equipment if you ask me. It's like trying to compare a cellphone to an MP3 player; they have things in common, but they have totally different purposes.

If you're looking for music composition software for the PC, (Garageband is Mac only software, and Audacity is more for editing Music files, not making them) here are a few free options: Anvil Studio Format: MIDIs (.mid) Totally free, and people who read sheet music will feel quite at home with it. It has some nice features, and it's very user friendly. It's easy to use, but there's one major issue with it: Flexibility. The instruments it gives you are all you can use, and they aren't such great quality. That's because midi files are essentially sheet music for your computer, and so you can only use the instruments that come on the sound card. Consequentially, your music may sound different on other people's computers. The only really good thing about the MIDI format is that the file size is so small, even dial up users can download your music in seconds. Site: http://anvilstudio.com/ Modplug Format: Module (.mod, .xm, .it, .s3m) Again, completely free. Modplug is good for if you want a little more flexibility in your music. You can import .WAV and .MP3 sounds to use as instruments, and change the pitch to make music. This means that you can make your own instruments. Based on the size of those WAVs, the music you make may be larger than that of a MIDI. One problem with this format is that you need special software to listen to it, software that the majority of listeners don't have. You can, however, export your music to MP3 and even MIDI as well with Modplug, which is handy. One other downside is that the interface may be a little confusing to newcomers. Either way, it is a decent tool, and you can't beat the price. Link: http://www.modplug.com/ Fruity Loops Studio Format: MP3 (.mp3) This is NOT free. You may ask why I'm listing it, then. The reason being is that they have a demo version. The main things the demo doesn't have are the ability to save projects, and a few missing features. You can still, however, export MP3s, so you can save your music, you just can't edit it once you do. This is an annoyance, but it can be worked around as long as you do your music in once sitting. It's worth putting up with, as FLStudio is a highly powerful piece of software, and can create high quality, professional music. The interface can be confusing, but it's easier to jump into than Modplug's. FL can also import midi files, so if you want the flexibility of FL and the composition interface of Anvil, you can simply make MIDIs in Anvil, import them to FL, and change the instruments to MP3 ones. FLStudio Demo is what I use, and it works great, I highly recommend it. Site: http://www.image-line.com/flstudio/ Hope this helps.

1. He doesn't, you condemn yourself by your own sin, and the sins your ancestors have committed. Jesus died to save us from sin, but it doesn't have an effect if you choose to believe he didn't. The bible does say that whose who don't have a chance to know him are saved by default, it's only those who have heard about Jesus and choose to ignore what he did that are in trouble. 2. God has a plan that humans cannot comprehend, I'm sure if you know any Christians that you've heard this one before. God is willing, able, and has already done things for the good of humanity. God gives us free will, and the will of man has brought pain and suffering to others. Free will that is taken away when we do wrong is not truly free will at all. 3. I come back to the last statement, God does not kill, he saves. If someone dies and he doesn't save them, it doesn't mean he killed them, nor that he did nothing. Besides, saving the soul is more important than saving the body; after all, one is temporary, the other is eternal. 4. This argument is pathetic, and just goes to show how little you actually know about Christianity. It was written in Hebrew, the native language of the Jewish, Jesus' people. It's been translated into countless other languages after the fact. 5. We don't change his plans or bend his will but God does pay attention to what we desire and require, especially when we have a deep relationship with him. Because of this, we don't really need to pray to stay in touch, it just helps us, as humans, connect with him. 6. The way you phrased this one is weird, so I don't really get what you're asking. 7. God gives us free will, yes, and he's factored that into it. He also knows us each so deeply that he can anticipate how we'll react to absolutely every possible situation. He factors everything in to get things to turn out exactly the way it has to; if a human disrupts the plan, He can correct it by making changes elsewhere. His knowledge and wisdom are greater than any human can comprehend, and I don't think you give Him enough credit. 8. You can argue that those chemicals are made up of elements, molecules, atoms too, but really, these units keep getting smaller and smaller, does it ever end? Our bodies are infinitely complex, and can't be degraded so easily simply by breaking things up into pieces like that. 9. Yup, God is pretty amazing, eh? Sorry, I don't see your point. God didn't give us sin, He only gave us the potential for it. We messed things up, with a little help from "Lucifer," not God. 10. The bible never says it is "inside the Earth" specifically, it could be anywhere. If we want to go with this idea of it, however, the earth's core has not been explored yet. Scientists say it's a sphere of molten metal, burning at unbelievably high temperatures. Sounds like a potential candidate to me. 11. Ah, but you left out the fact that people choose to disobey those laws every day. The bible is a guide to making the right choices, but if you want to make the wrong ones, you can. Also, life is more complex than sin/not sin, even if you were to follow every single law in the bible perfectly, there would be an infinite number of ways you could live your life. 12. Don't make ridiculous statements, they don't prove anything. 13. You're right, we don't deserve it, but God loves us so much that he's willing to give us a shot at that for free. All we have to do is trust him, which doesn't seem so hard. (But it seems to be so for a lot of people.) 14. He made us out of NOTHING. Not just us either, the whole universe. Coming to the point of your statement, having an open mind just means not smacking down ideas without giving them consideration simply because of your prejudgments, which is something a lot of people who call themselves atheists do. 15. Same as before, the bible doesn't say anything about us coming from dirt. God created it all, the only thing there was in the beginning was him, and he did it all. (Including dirt.) 16. Not all of today's miracles are really miracles preformed by God, some of them genuinely are coincidences. Truth be told you should be skeptical of that sort of thing, otherwise you might be easily tricked into joining up with a false messiah. 17. No, wishing isn't what makes it true, God is. Besides, what have you got to lose in believing in life after death? An easier passing, less worrying about the end? 18. Christians believe in a soul, which our entire being is focused into. The mind is an outlet for the soul, that allows our soul to work in a physical body. There is reason to believe it, and it's a bad argument to say that there isn't. Christianity has been around for over 2,000 years, don't think that these arguments you are making are anything no one's heard before. 19. You impression of it isn't hard evidence, it's only conjecture, making this argument invalid. I know very well what a typical atheist's reaction to Christianity is, and you probably have some idea of what a Christian's typical response to atheism is; neither can be used to prove a point.

Many online games have great in-game communities, with members who will help anyone who needs it, and who treat each other with respect, dignity, and understanding. Those are not the type of communities we are discussing here today though. Today, we are discussing games with very BAD in-game communities. I am, of course, talking primarily about PC MMOs. I'll list a few of what I think are some of the worst, and then you can reply to those, or bring up your own bad experiences. And yes, this will be a ranting topic, so those of you with weak constitutions (or attention spans) may want to leave the topic immediately. Runescape This isn't really so bad, as unlike some MMOs you can get away with not talking to anyone in Runescape. When you do talk, however, the conversations are usually not so great. It says a lot that this game handles capitalization automatically; the members in general are not so literate. If you're into texting, you'll feel right at home with the average Runescape goer, as a good 90% of the messages there contain abbreviations. You'll be asked what your <Insert Skill Here> level is a LOT, by people you've never met, who will simply reply with "o" when you tell them, and they then go back to whatever they were doing. There also seems to be some sort of obsession with couples in Runescape, as you can't go through any remotely populated town without seeing multiple instances of "do u wan 2 be my bf/gf???" Another issue is the random trading that goes on here, people just randomly ask to trade with you, and put all their items up for trade. You then put whatever you have that you're willing to part with there, and they say "no I don't want that." The Runescape community is not so fun to deal with, which is why when I do play (and I don't very often anymore) I generally join some random European server with the least players on it. BOTS Ah, this is a fun community. Everyone there who hosts a room seems to have an idea of what level players they want in the room, but no one ever puts what level that is in the title. What's worse is that even when they do, random newbies join anyway. After being kicked, they rejoin, and get kicked, and rejoin, and so on until the room is full. When trading items, you often get asked what I think is one of the single most annoying things ever. The conversation plays out like this: "Hi." "hey" "I'm interested in the <Part Name Here>." "k" "How much do you want for it?" "how much do u have" "Enough." "but how much??" "That's irrelevant." "wut?" "..." I wish I could say I've only had that conversation once, but alas, I can't. You also get people who ask you to gift them the real money items, which is really annoying. Another annoying community. Even this, however, did not prepare me for the community of the game I'm about to tell you about: Grand Chase A very fun game, ruined by the worlds WORST in-game community. Some of you will disagree, and all of those who do have clearly never actually played Grand Chase. While the whole community is illiterate and immature, the heart of the terrible community lies within the PvP area. PvP, you see, is populated by over competitive whiny honor freak elitists who have lost the ability to reason as decent human beings. Anything and everything sets them off. Use one attack three times in a row, you are what the community likes to call a "spammer," despite the fact that there's only one attack button and thus are not a whole lot of other choices for a given situation. They like easy wins, so they hate it when you dodge their attacks, and will proceed to call your a "runner". Hold on a sec though, you can't stand still either, especially if you're doing it strategically and actually doing well, that makes you a "camper". One of the favorite maps in the game is one where you can fall off the map easily, which is part of what makes it so ironic how angry they get when you knock them off the edge; that's right, even THAT makes them mad, they call that "pushing." If they can't think of what you just did wrong, they'll likely just cal you a "hacker," and kick you from the room. This is, by the way, the only game where I've actually been flamed for saying "good game" at the end of a match. And if all that weren't enough, they have one final terrible trick up their sleeve. After all that poor sportsmanship, they do something to give themselves the appearance of being good, honorable players, with something called "1v1". This is an unwritten, unofficial "rule" that 90% of GCers comply to. It is where, in a team match, if you defeat 1-2 members on the other team, leaving only one more player on that team, you are expected to sit in a corner, and leave your own teammate to fight the remaining player alone. This totally defeats the purpose of a good team strategy, and makes it so a team with the single best player with a terrible team strategy can still easily succeed in a team fight. And oh boy do they make a fuss when you say "no" to it. This is only a summary of what bugs me the most about the community, but you bet there's more. My hands are wearing tired however, and I doubt you'd want to read any more. Anyhow, those are my top three picks based on what I've played. Your opinions may differ. I'm interested in seeing what other people would consider the worst of the worst.

I think it's great. The color scheme works well here, and it stays consistent throughout. It's clean yet not bland, and the size of everything is perfect. Looks highly professional; well done!

Yes, Google Translator is terrible for grammar and such, but really, the alternatives aren't much better. It's hard because there are so many words that don't have a direct translation to another language. At the same time, there are so many words with multiple meanings. At the very least Google Translator can get the meaning across most of the time, which is still very useful when you want to use a foreign site and don't speak the language.

I saw some videos of Audiosurf on youtube. It looks great, but the notes in the game seem out of tune with the actual music sometimes. Is that just me misinterpreting something? Anyone care to explain how the game works?

Woah, those look amazing; almost too cool to be photos. It's amazing how you got that lightning strike too, since they're only there for a split second. Excellent job.

Based on everything I've heard, several smaller meals a day is the way to go. Here's an excerpt from an article I just found: If you're up to reading that whole thing, here's the link: http://www.marksdailyapple.com/3-meals-a-day/ Anyhow, I probably shouldn't be talking, I eat very irregularly. Some days I eat like a hobbit, while others I don't eat until 5 PM. But as that saying goes: "Do as I say, not as I do."

Nice laptop, congratulations! Did you build it yourself, (which I doubt, it being a laptop and all) or did you get it from a manufacturer? If it's the later, who's the manufacturer?

Too hard to compare if you ask me. Halo has the online multiplayer, which is an absolute blast to play with or without friends. I've had a lot of fun with it. On the other hand Half Life does not have multiplayer, online or offline. If does, however, have a deeper storyline, more weapons, and more to explore. It really depends on the sort of experience you're looking for. They both have their merits.

Anyone who say Game Maker is incapable of large scale, professional projects, hasn't seen this site: http://forums.xisto.com/no_longer_exists/ I've been using Game Maker for about three years, and I've made a lot with it. I've also seen what other long time users have made with it. It's surprisingly powerful if you know the coding part fairly well and have a registered version.