Lord Ser Brightblade

This was taken from a London Craig's List post which was sent to me. I love this great nation of ours but what in the world are our leaders doing. It isn't leading thats certain. One thing which is certain FEMA and Homeland Security have proven they are completely worthless. Our tax dollars being wasted and our countrymen and women in the South suffering for gross incompetence!

Jumped up to 3.09 here overnight and .10 increments each grade up. Pretty soon many people will barely be able to afford to commute due to the gas they need I know one guy that makes about 250 a wekk takehome and hes spending about $45 per tank now and he needs to fill up at least 2 times a week with an occasional 3rd tank there and there. For a guy living in the northeast $250 a week take-home is peanuts when rent is through the roof.

You suck! 2am I couldnt hear crap so I pumped the volume way up! Needless to say I think it woke everyone up and I had a mild stroke.

All I'm saying is I picked on noone because they were easy marks. I attacked anyone and everyone who had levels enogh to give me more than 1 xp.

I attack whoever is the highest level unless its someone who attacks me. However since you resort to such name calling I shall ensure that you are forever on my attack list. Thank you, come again.

Congratulations! A job well done!!

Wish I coulda gone...... Looks like you all had a blast and it also looks like Hudson finally caught his rabbits!!!!!

Very nice photos Looks like you had an awesome time. Ireland is one of those places I'd love to visit. Rolling green hills.....Hope ya didnt kiss the Blarney Stone I hear some nasty things have been done to it!

*Agrees with Strider* Oh yeah and HEY STRIDER!! Long time no see.

Hope ya record it cause those 1.5 gig transfers kill my upstream

Well then he's definitly hmmmmmmm SATAN.

I got Jupiter as well..... Great minds think alike Borg! Or maybe it's just 'cause I have been assimilated.

Great debate to reinstate mate Fri Aug 19, 2005 11:44 AM ET CANBERRA (Reuters) - A ban by Australia's Parliament House on the term "mate," a popular colloquialism and symbol of egalitarianism, has been overturned following a barrage of protest. Security guards at Parliament House in Canberra had been directed Thursday to refer to people as sir and ma'am. The ban was imposed after the head of a government department complained about being called mate, local media reported. But a parliamentary circular issued Friday removed the directive warning staff not to use "mate" when dealing with the public or members of parliament, instead suggesting they use their judgment on when a more formal approach is required. Former Prime Minister Bob Hawke said the attempted ban was "pomposity gone mad," while current Prime Minister John Howard described the ban as "absurd and impractical." "There are circumstances where a more formal address is appropriate," Howard told Australian radio. "But in the same conversation you might start off calling somebody you have just met sir or madam but as you become more familiar ... you might end up saying mate." The move also prompted a flood of calls to talkback radio around the country and was slammed by Sydney's Daily Telegraph newspaper as "ludicrous" because it took Australia back to the days of the class system.

Wow just read your profiles. Pretty cool stuff. Now I know why your characters are doing the things they are doing whenever I see you

The new pope does kinda look evil like in a devil sorta way. Hes got shifty eyes.

Sci-Fi Friday... Bump

Grrrrrrr Glad we will soon be paying over $3 a gallon for regular.

Taken from Slash Dot: Posted by CmdrTaco on Thursday August 18, @12:58PM from the i-need-my-widgets-back dept.electro-donkey writes "A man has been arrested in Japan after on suspicion using a bot to beat up and rob characters in the online computer game Lineage II. The stolen virtual possessions were then exchanged for real cash, according to this report from NewScienist.com. "I regularly say that every form of theft and fraud in the real world will eventually be duplicated in cyberspace," says Bruce Schneier."

True so coming to an expansion near you....Racial Soul stones! No longer do you even have to talk to an NPC to change your race. Just click the stone in your pack!!

Whoa.... You posted on Aug 15 2005, 11:13 AM I posted 2 days later at exactly the same time.....kinda funny both @ 11.13AM

Wow!! Have fun guys!

It could be as early as October 21. I bet it'll be something like The Day After Tomorrow. <{POST_SNAPBACK}> That was a pretty decent movie. Watched it when I had mono. Given how hot I was from my temperature at that time I found myself wishing it was kinda cold in my room.

The Space Review Richard Garriott While best known for his many successful computer game projects, Richard Garriott has also helped open the door for space tourism. (credit: NCSoft) Richard Garriott and the beginnings of space tourism by Sam Dinkin Monday, August 8, 2005 Richard Garriott lives in Austin, Texas, and is a producer at computer gaming company NCSoft. He has had many hit computer gaming titles going back to the dawn of the personal computer age in 1979, including his famed Ultima series. Less well known has been his quiet role as vice chairman of Space Adventures, which includes some notable firsts. The Space Review conducted an email interview with him after his first space PowerPoint presentation at the Metropolitan Breakfast Club in Austin. The Space Review: How did you get to be vice chairman of Space Adventures? Richard Garriott: I was one of Space Adventures’ first suborbital reservation holders, and quickly became their best client for terrestrial space training activities. I then realized one of the best ways to help ensure that I would get to fly was to invest in making it real. Since then I have become the plurality shareholder and vice-chairman, and remain one of the best clients as well. TSR: Did you think you would have to fly a Soviet rocket into space when you designed Ultima III, which includes such a rocket as part of the game? Garriott: No! But neither did I ever expect to fly with the US space program. I have always expected to have to go with private space vehicles. I am just very excited to see it all coming true! TSR: Do you think you will be one of the first ten paying passengers into orbit? Garriott: Hard to say. I’d like to be, but it all depends on who flies first. I have an “in” with many if not most groups, but not all! There are too many to keep a foot in each door. TSR: Can you describe the steps leading up to your becoming the critical person to enable the first space tourism flight purchase? Garriott: Yes, funny story! Or kind of sad from my perspective! I have always expected to have to go with private space vehicles. I am just very excited to see it all coming true! During the middle years of the X Prize, when the $10 million prize was not funded and none of the competitors had raised the tens of millions they needed to make their suborbital craft, it was looking bleak for suborbital space travel. In a chat with Eric Anderson of Space Adventures, we decide to look into orbital. So, on my behalf, Space Adventures contacted NASA and the RSA (Russian Space Agency) to see about the possibility of flying with them. NASA just said, “No.” But the Russian answer was more interesting. They said something like, “Well no! To even see what would be involved with that kind of mission would cost us hundreds of thousands of dollars just to see how we would do it, then to actually do it would be millions more!” So, the door was opened. At the time I had recently sold my game company Origin, and was feeling particularly wealthy, so I funded the study. The Russians came back with a flight cost of about $20 million. Sadly for me, this is right when the US stock market started to crash, and then fell farther with September 11. Along fell my net worth, taking me out of the potential market. But since I had paid for the door to be opened, Space Adventures went out to see if we could find someone else to fly instead. Thus Dennis Tito became the first! TSR: Has Dennis Tito, Mark Shuttleworth, or Greg Olsen ever sent you a thank-you note? Garriott: No, I don’t think they even know this story. [it was only recently published in The Daily Texan.] TSR: Are you jealous? Garriott: Yes. But, I do hope and assume I will go soon enough! TSR: Who do you think will get to the Moon next, NASA or Space Adventures? Garriott: NASA will put people on the Moon next. The costs are far in excess of suborbital and even orbital. Tourism can get us into space, but other industries will be required to generate the values necessary for lunar exploration. But tourism might piggyback and subsidize this like it does for a lot of ecotourism these days. A good example is the submarine trips aboard the Keldysh via Deep Ocean Expeditions. TSR: Is Space Adventures a travel agency or a space line? Garriott: Space Adventures is currently an agent, and we have millions of dollars in cash paid reservations for sub orbital flights. But with few or no suborbital space lines to book today, we are working to ensure they exist and that may mean SA invests in that eventuality. Since I had paid for the door to be opened [by funding a study on space tourism options in Russia], Space Adventures went out to see if we could find someone else to fly instead. Thus Dennis Tito became the first! TSR: In a June 15 talk in Austin, you cited a 1995 study saying that 10% of people would pay their entire annual income to visit space. Since there are seven million households in the world with $200,000/year income or $1 million in assets, does that make the market at least 700,000 people? Or are these people more cautious and we may only see 250–500/year at first like the Futron study? Garriott: I think these studies are a good indicator of interest, but cannot directly be tied to expected sales. Long term, I think there are millions who want to and will fly in space. But I think starting with a few hundred a year will be a good start, and a great business! TSR: At $200,000 per seat, isn’t the potential $140 billion? If three companies manage to get flying by 2008, won’t installed capacity be a small fraction of that? Garriott: Yes, but that is more than enough to get the industry off the ground, let all the kinks get worked out, figure out fair pricing, refine the experience, and still be highly profitable. I expect we will see numerous builders fly suborbital craft and competition will drive cost down, safety up, and other services like rocket point-to-point via space! So, this is the beginning of something great! TSR: Did you ever imagine that the US video game market would grow to $10 billion per year to rival the movie industry when you started as a lowly programmer? Garriott: No idea! In fact, my family used to say “When this game industry windfall runs its course, you can go back to school and get a real job!” TSR: As Howard Cosell might have asked, are you due for a win in your space investment strategy? If Space Adventures were Apple, what year would it be? 1980? Garriott: I sure hope so. The signs are all good! I already feel we already won with the X Prize. So, now let’s all go! TSR: Will you invite your father, NASA astronaut Owen Garriott, on one of your space flights? How did your father influence you to be a space enthusiast? Garriott: Clearly my dad’s work made space travel seem like the obvious no-big-deal thing that we should all naturally do. It was only as I grew up that I realized this would not easily be the case. So I figured the only way we—I—would go was if it became successful in the private sector. TSR: Would you support a colonization foundation for the Moon with a portion of your estate? What big ideas do you have about your legacy? When I was young, I used to say that I would immediately take the opportunity to leave for deep space and never return. I still believe that. Garriott: Sure, in theory. I’d have to be convinced that it would work. I’ve always thought of my legacy in terms of my contribution in computer games. There are others, like Peter Diamandis and Eric Anderson, who deserve the greater credit for making civilian space travel a reality. Still, I’m proud to have played my part so far. Mostly though, I must confess, I just want to go! TSR: Will you emigrate to space? Garriott: When I was young, I used to say that I would immediately take the opportunity to leave for deep space and never return. I still believe that. I’d want to be sure that my journey would be safe, and that it the journey was to achieve a worthy goal, but I would go in a heartbeat! Sam Dinkin is a regular columnist at The Space Review. He can be reached at (888) 434-6546 and thespacereview@dinkin.com. Home Subscribe Enter your email address below to be notified when new articles are published: our privacy policy

Come back to UO soon!

I was good at quarters but that is just plain and simple CRAZY SKILL He gets the Award for excellence in Quarters skills