nicol's journal

 First time poster, long time lurker here.  Quick question about bioshock:  About how long is the game?  I seem to recall some posts saying it was too short - in that, the player wanted to spend even more time immersed in the game.  I'm really used to play RPGs where 50 hours of gameplay is the minimum, but I remember playing Fable on the PC and being dissapointed it was only 10 hours or so of gameplay.  Mind you, this gave me plenty of motivation to play through again making different choices, but it still was just... short.

So.  How long did it take y'all to play through the whole game?

Before he starts any gymnastics routine in competition, Jonathan Horton says a little prayer. Tuesday night's was a simple one.

( 'Please don't let me die.' Horton said. )


TBH, Jon's routine looked harder, at least to me. Only reason he didn't win is because his starting difficulty was lower. Baby boy got robbed, and also, didn't talk that much shit last night.

Source

I think I might be a fool, I've just now taken the time to look into Final Fantasy XII: Revenant Wings for the DS. Just looking through the preview of the espers is enough to make me want to play it. The appearance of a Tonberry is not as frightening as I'm used to.

The world of Ivalice is one of my favorites. I really, really enjoyed Final Fantasy Tactics. The Advance series wasn't good for me, though. I also like Disgaea and Vandal Hearts quite a bit. Unless I'm mistaken, Revenant Wings is the same type of battle system. Right?

The PSP is out of commission for a while, which means I no longer have access to Disgaea, or FFT. I think this might be a good remedy until I can play them again.

To anyone that's played this, what are your thoughts? Would it be hard to find?


Edit:
I suppose I should mention that I haven't played FFXII.

Do they not do the Wheaties box anymore? I had the one with the US women's gymnastic team in 1996.

ETA: This is just a "prototype". He will also be on a Frosted Flakes box. Both are due out in mid-September (all according to Access Hollywood)

I got my dog when she was a year and a half old, and I was told that she listened well. Now I'm thinking they meant she listened to music well, or something. She certainly doesn't listen to commands. Those people sure managed to teach her nothing. :)
These past 6 months I have worked my butt off for her to get 'sit' down pat, and to learn 'stay' (which is still a little wobbly), 'down' and 'leave it'. She still won't stop dragging me down the street with a flat nylon collar, so I use a Halti (we went through the course of the choke and pinch training collars, she paid no mind, and I now realize that was the wrong way to go to try to get her to stop pulling).
She has a very high prey drive, and chases my cats around likes nobody's business. I posted here a while ago about that very issue, and while there were some GREAT suggestions, she has since gone back to ignoring me. So we're back at square one with her on leash with me at all times.
She also has about zero recall. When I moved into this house, the main reason I wanted it was because of the fenced yard. Our neighbours downstairs let their dogs out and have no problem keeping them in the yard. But because I discovered a bit too late that this yard really ISN'T fenced in (the chain link on the left side is ripped up at the bottom so she goes under, and it's just thick bushes on the right, so she goes through and over at the back) so if I let her out there, she's gone in seconds, and doesn't come back to me for anything, it usually ends in her getting tired enough for me to finally catch her.
I'm planning to get her into some obedience classes at our local Petsmart, but does anyone have any tips for me in the mean time? My main concern is recall with her, because even on the walk she gets out of the halti on occasion, and I need her to come back to me reliably, for her own safety.

tl;dr : I got my dog as a relatively untrained adult. She still drags me, chases everything that moves and apparently doesn't know her name well enough to come when called.

Thanks, Amy.

I came up with a crack theory about Snatcher today.

I think Gillian Seed and Solid Snake are, in fact, the same person.

( Chat log explaining my reasoning under here. Snatcher spoilers relating to Gillian's backstory, obviously. )

The point the AU breaks off must be when Snake quit the CIA and went to live in Canada.

Also, I'm in the middle of a fairly unusual thread in fissionmailed.

( MGS4 SPOILERS AND FANART AND DEATH NOTE BEHIND CUT )

BEIJING - AUGUST 18: Michael Phelps appears on the NBC Today Show set after after winning eight gold medals at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games on August 18, 2008 in Beijing, China. (Photo by Kristian Dowling/Getty Images)



( +3 pics )

WHEN I FIRST HEARD ABOUT THIS VIDEO, I THOUGHT IT WAS AN EASTER EGG OR SOMETHING.



BUT NO. IT'S STILL FUNNY, BUT IT WOULD HAVE BEEN FUNNIER HAD IT ACTUALLY BEEN A HIDDEN CODEC CALL.

THOUGH IF DAYTER REPORTEDLY HAD SO MANY PROBLEMS PERFORMING THE OTACON ENDING, I DOUBT HE COULD SAY SOMETHING LIKE "STOP WHINING, OR I'M NOT GOING TO BANG YOU TONIGHT" ...

first olympics icon dump! 68 icons!

USWGT
7 - shawn johnson/nastia liukin
2 - alicia sacramone/nastia liukin
2 - alicia sacramone/shawn johnson
2 - johnson/liukin/sacramone
1 - nastia liukin
1 - valeri liukin
2 - shawn johnson
19 - alicia sacramone

diving
8 - guo jingjing
3 - guo jingjing/wu minxia

beach volleyball
3 - kerri walsh
2 - misty may-treanor
9 - may/walsh

us women's basketball
1 - team
2 - diana taurasi
1 - lisa leslie
1 - sue bird
1 - candace parker

preview


the rest can be found here @ brassbikini

 I just wanted to take a minute and introduce myself.  Well, introduce my dogs.  I was actually a member of this community a couple of years back so you might remember me.  I had a dog that had pemphigus and we wound up having to have him put down.  We also had an elderly great pyrenees at the time and we have since lost her as well.  We were down to one dog and we just got a puppy a few weeks ago.  

So there's the introduction and here are my dogs!

This is Ruby:



We rescued her when she was about 3 months old.  As best as I can figure, she's a springer spaniel/ border collie mix.  She's a handful but is as sweet as she can be.  She's 8 years old now and still as frisky as ever.  

This is Charley:



We got Charley on August 1st.  He's a 12 week old standard poodle.  It's been a long time since we've had a little puppy (8 years, in fact) and we are in the process of house breaking and teaching him some manners.  He's done pretty well so far.  He goes to the door when he needs to go out and if his leash is in reach, he'll take it to the door with him.  He was really mouthy at first but he's gotten a lot better which is excellent because we have a 3 year old daughter who is not keen on being a chew toy.  

Anyway, those are my dogs.  I have decided that I am thoroughly in love with standard poodles.  My mother-in-law has always had them and I liked them a great deal but Charley has really decided for me that a poodle is my kind of dog.  

Well, there you have it.  It's nice to be back. 

Lolo Jones in the 100-meter hurdles. Jones, the dominant hurdler in the world, was four-fifths of the way to the finish line and well ahead when she clobbered the ninth of 10 hurdles, staggered through the rest of the race and finished seventh.

Jones collapsed to the track, curling into a bereaved ball for what seemed like an eternity. She lifted her head and looked at the scoreboard through teary eyes, then pounded the track with her fist and crawled forward, then curled up and cried some more.

She'd posted the fastest time in the world in 2008 in the semifinals, recording a personal-best 12.43 seconds. She appeared to be in a different class from her competition, needing only a clean trip over 10 hurdles to win gold.

Jones had been tripped up by a hurdle in the 2004 Olympic trials, falling after hitting a late hurdle in the preliminaries. She entered an emotional and financial dark period after that, losing sponsorship and briefly losing motivation. She worked two jobs to pay the bills and ran the air conditioning in her Baton Rouge, La., apartment only when absolutely necessary.

But Jones got her career back on track, signed a sponsorship deal with Asics and rose to the top of her discipline. She was dominant at the U.S. trials in Oregon and again here.

And she was dominant for the first 80 meters Tuesday night, moving well clear of field. Then her speed got the best of her and she hammered the penultimate hurdle with her leading foot.

"It's like driving a car at maximum velocity and coming to a curve," she said. "You can either maintain control or crash and burn. Today, I crashed and burned.

"It's the hurdles. If you can't finish all 10, you can't be a champion."

Jones regrouped and cleared the 10th hurdle, but was clearly out of the race and visibly distressed by the time she hit the finish line. Fellow American Dawn Harper was the gold medalist, in a time more than a tenth slower than Jones' semifinal clocking.

Harper set off in a delirious victory lap and never bothered to look back at Jones, stricken on the track. Neither did the surprise silver and bronze medalists, Australian Sally McLellan and Canadian Priscilla Lopes-Schleip. American fourth-place finisher Damu Cherry placed her hands sympathetically on Jones' shoulders as she sat on her knees and cried.

"Today's hard, tomorrow's going to be harder," Jones said. "But what can you do but try again?

"It's the hurdles. We're supposed to be the toughest ones. So I'm going to be tough and try again."

As Jones was making her way through the mixed zone, she briefly cut her eyes to the flat-screen TV to her right. Then she looked away.

There, on the screen, was Harper preparing to accept the gold medal Jones knew belonged to her.

source

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

"Here are the facts, ladies. Two-thirds of all men in television-owning households between the ages of 18 and 34 have videogame consoles... That means your chances of going with a gaming guy are pretty high."

Girls : What can a guys choice of gaming system tell you about him?

It's not the stereotyping that makes this so funny, but rather than I can tell that that almost everyone is going to disagree with their 'expert opinions'!

I guess owning all 3 makes me the most textural man on the planet!


Stu xxx

Edit : For added fun, try and think of what they would say about a guy who's choice of gaming platform was PC only.

i've never seen this before in a dog. but having seen it in people, i am pretty sure i know what it was. oberon jumped up out of a dead sleep and started running into things. i don't mean the random "i'm a big dog that has no idea how big i am" sort of running into things. he was trying to walk through the couch. he turned around and walked into the wall a few times. like he could not even see it. he eventually wandered into the kitchen and i motioned for "cookie" (i can't speak, so my dogs are trained to read my hand signs). he obviously had no idea what was going on. my other dog sat nicely and got a cookie but even putting one into oberon's mouth did not entice him. he wandered back into the other room.

i did not time the seizure, as i had been trained to do with people. mostly because it came so out of the blue i was totally taken by surprise. after a time, probably a few seconds, but seemed like hours, his eyes cleared, that "lost" look faded, and when i signed "cookie" he went to the kitchen and ate a cookie. then he sat on my lap shaking for a few minutes, and now he is laying beside me, and seems quite normal. there is very little chance that he ingested any toxin, and he has had health problems off and on since i got him at 4 months.

from what i know of humans, a late on-set seizure could be a one-off, or at least very rare. i am not in panic mode. he seems sleepy, which is common after a seizure, but really non the worse for wear.

i know he needs to see the vet, and that will happen tomorrow morning.

i just want to know if anyone else has had a similar situation, and if so what did you do and how did it turn out?

jamie

( You are about to view content that may not be appropriate for minors. )

To all of my family, friends, supporters and Americans who I have never met: Thank you for all the support that you have given Team USA and me. We have all been incredibly honored to represent all of you at the 2008 Olympic Games.

It has been a dream come true to reach the pinnacle of sport success and each of you should consider yourselves a part of that success. I can't thank each of you enough. Today, I swam my final race and it was a tough battle. Unfortunately, I finished out of the medals...

My good friend and training partner Ous Mellouli won the event, and I couldn't be happier for him. He truly deserved it and I look forward to congratulating him personally.

Our final award ceremony today finished the way it started-with the playing of the United States National Anthem. I began to get choked up. I was choked up because I understand what our flag and our anthem represent. It represents freedom and opportunity. Freedom to pursue any dream-and the opportunity to make that dream a reality.

Mine have become a reality, and our team is proof that America is great-and always will be.

A few days ago I received an American Flag and accompanying Flag Citation from Navy Special Operations Task Force - West, Camp Shane Patton, Fallujah, Iraq. I was hoping to personally carry that flag around the pool; but that wasn't in the cards.

However, that flag was carried around the pool by Aaron Peirsol, Brendan Hansen, Michael Phelps, and Jason Lezak for the awards ceremony of the 400 Medley Relay.

They are great Americans and they carried that flag to make all of you proud-they did a damn good job. This team has made me proud by their grace in victory and poise in defeat. A man could never ask for a finer group of men and women to be associated with than our USA Olympians.

It has been an honor to represent The United States of America. I will never forget this experience and I will never take it for granted.

Thanks again America for your support. I, and all U.S. Olympians, look forward to coming home to the land of the free-and never forget WE ARE THE HOME OF THE BRAVE.


Regards, Larsen Jensen.




Source.





Awwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww!! I LOVE OUR SWIMMING BOYS!

Since gymnastics is over. =(

60 Olympic gymnastics icons (MAG & WAG, USA-centric)
+5 bonus icons of Nastia Liukin as a bb gymnast

Teasers:


YES - there are spoilers for the EFs that aired/are airing tonight. Just a heads up.

more here @ my journal

Sprouts likes to spend time upstairs, he loves our bedroom and constantly when we are all downstairs (brother, boyfriend, and me) it is not unusual for him to be upstairs in our bedroom just chilling by himself. This bothers my boyfriend, he feels like Sprouts should want to be with us all the time, that he should not want to be by himself upstairs in our bedroom.

I let Sprouts have his privacy, I never thought it to be strange because he is more independent than most dogs. When I come home I get a tail wag and a romp around the house type of excitement. I do not get an "OMG YOU ARE HOME, YOU ARE HOME, YOU ARE HOME! YEAH YEAH YEAH!" type of welcome from him and this bothers my boyfriend.

He is always saying that Sprouts doesn't like us or is scared and I don't see it as that way. I think it is healthy he can be away from us and still function. What say you guys? Is he dealing with an emotional stress? Or does he just like solitude sometimes? Or maybe he feels the upstairs is his home? I don't know, I don't baby my dog all too much. Should I be more concern?

I...I DON'T KNOW WHAT CAME OVER ME TO MAKE ME DRAW THIS SORT OF THING.

OR MAYBE I JUST LIKE DRAWING LIKE A THIRD-GRADER. (I SEEM TO BE DOING THIS A LOT.)

( I WILL KILL NAEKED SNAEK! )

( RAIDEN!? (NOT REALLY A SPOILER FOR MGS4) )

ALKFJASFSF DON'T DO DRUGS, KIDS.