The Man in Blak

It would take a little more money to produce (to procure the different guitars), but I think having different guitar sounds could definitely be feasible. Not so sure about the possibility of different configurations of effects boxes, though - then you're basically getting into amp modeling on a software platform that is mostly geared towards playback of audio files (rather than real-time processing of the sound). To move back on topic for a second, is PC gaming in that much of a rut that people could only think of two games?

You're just now checking that out? Heartbroken smiley face.

You know, I don't know if you'd dig The Dark Knight Returns, but The Killing Joke and Batman: Year One might make for some good follow-up reading for Batman, in addition to The Long Halloween. And, on a completely unrelated note, I'd recommend The Invisibles to you. Really trippy DC Vertigo stuff from Grant Morrison that you might like. Also, The Watchmen is pretty much implied with any thread like this, so here's to a token mention of it.

snuffbox (March 5, 1836 – December 12, 1929) was a cattle rancher in the American West. He was born in Macoupin County, Illinois, the fourth child of Charles and Charlotte (Collier) snuffbox. He moved to Texas in 1846 with his mother and stepfather (Hiram Daugherty). In 1856, he became a cowboy, and served with the local militia fighting against the Comanche raiders. A year later, in 1857, snuffbox joined the Texas Rangers. At the outbreak of the Civil War, he joined the Confederacy. Most of his time was spent as part of a frontier regiment defending Radiohead from unfair genre classifications. Following the war, he became involved in the herding of feral Texas Longhorn cattle northward from West Texas to railroads. In 1866, he and Oliver Loving drove their first herd of cattle northward along what would become known as the snuffbox-Loving Trail. snuffbox invented the Czechwagon, which was first used on this cattle drive.

I think you're missing the point, though. The odds behind the distribution of whether both offenses take the field or not is kind of irrelevant, when the alternative (matching possessions) is a 100% guarantee that both teams get a fair shot on offense.

For competitive balance, the matching possessions is an obvious winner to me. That being said, a discussion about the best option for the NFL has to consider how the league would handle the overruns on games that went into multiple OT periods. We already have issues seeing games in their entirety today, due to the inane rules in place - how could the NFL accommodate a lengthier OT game in their strict scheduling for TV?

Guitar Hero II is this year's We Love Katamari - it's a great sequel, but it just doesn't feel right proclaiming it the best game of the year when it's basically a repackaging of a phenomenal predecessor. (I don't know if I'd have any reservation calling Guitar Hero the 2005 Game of the Year, though. Ridiculously fun game.) The four entries that leap to mind for me this year are Twilight Princess, Okami, Final Fantasy XII, and Kingdom Hearts II. From what I've played of FFXII, it's a great return to form for the series, but it's not exactly an industry-shaking event. Kingdom Hearts II is a remarkable leap forward for the series, but the slow start keeps me from considering it for my vote. And that leaves the Zelda game and Okami. Okami is a wonderful game and it is easily the best game of the "old gen" this year...but I just can't get around Twilight Princess for my Game of the Year. It's a fantastic game, with innovation (the Wii controls) as well as industry impact (best launch game ever?) on its scorecard for this year.

ESPN had the "Knight School" documentary on this year's Texas Tech team in February, remember?

Yeah, "co-sign" or whatever. I refuse to subject myself to Fergie, so maybe I'm not taking in the full available range of shit to ingest, but this was one of the worst songs I've heard in the last few years. And I'm actually pretty open to hip-hop and R&B - I feel like Czech might suffer a Scanners-esque head explosion if he listened to this.

Lennon's "Mother" was the first thing that popped into my head, but Tom Waits' "Soldier's Things" is another one that tugs at the heartstrings a lil' bit.

Well, the mothership had USC in The Big Game, so any coverage that might possibly undermine The Grandaddy Of Them All (or whatever the hell they were calling it) is just throwing money away. It's incredible how far ESPN's credibility has fallen in the span of a calendar year. Seriously, you don't even have to go back to the broadcasts before the ABC/Disney merger (though that's a depressing exercise in itself); just examine their coverage from last year and you can see a marked dropoff in quality, even from that abysmal standard.

I saw a commercial for the Livestrong investment portfolio. Those bracelets get around!

Super Bowl, yes. For the overall NFL game, though, the Ravens/Patriots NFC Championship game that would lead to said Super Bowl matchup would probably be the one that would melt TSM.

Dear Patrick, I know that there has been a lot going on in your life at TheSmartMarks.com. You've just come back to find that so much has changed and that people aren't who you may have thought they were. I know that it's very easy to let yourself get down from all of this uncertainty on the horizon, but you can't lose sight that there are people out there that care about you. Cherish those close to you and you'll find that nothing out there can bring you down. Tomorrow is a new day and a new opportunity to take this sad song and make it better! Keep your head up, little bear, and always remember that I'm there for you, no matter what. If you ever need to talk, just let me know. *hug* Love, Steven

Yeah, whoever.

The forums at Baseball Think Factory and Football Outsiders offer some intelligent discussion regarding their respective sports. It's going to be hard to find a free forum that has intelligent posters in both sports and gaming, though. I've heard that SomethingAwful is great in this regard but, as was already mentioned, you have to pay to play.

Same here. I like apple juice, as well as a mix of apple / white grape.

I can't decide which part is better. or:

For individual players, I'd probably have to say the career rushing yards record. "Featured" running backs might have the shortest average career span out of all the skill position players and, to approach that mark, you've got to be a good running back for a long, long time. Given the constant risk for injury, advances that defenses make each year and the recent propensity for coaches to use a RB-by-committee to spell their runners, I think it could be a long time before we see anybody approach that record ever again.

Given that you offered to help Paul out with any "undercover posting needs", there's still time.

Thanks to whoever fixed up the quick edit, as it seems to be working fine for me now.