You know, I don't think it's part of the statwhore code of conduct to try to be the first reply to a blog/newspost/post/e-mail/PM/chat message/tweet/etc. etc. etc....

Nonetheless, you were indeed first, and I ain't gonna delete your comment, because then every single other person to reply would be off by 1 from their TRUE spot. You devious bastard.

Happy NG redesign anniversary to you anyway!

Congrats on being my first REAL reply. #;-}> Anyway, that's the plan, yes. If I'm not at twin 36ks by next July, something went dreadfully wrong!

Similarly, my alt alt will be at 36/36 by Clock Day, and I'm retiring its exp on that day, so... it's gonna have a very underwhelming statpost next 7/17, I'm afraid. I might retire it from yearly newsposts one year from today as a result of it likely being the last non-0 stat total year for that account.

And then my main alt will be the only account gaining any blams OR saves for me at all. Should be interesting.

And finally, yes.... 51st for awhile now. 2-3 days behind #50, but he's tenacious. I'll likely have to pass someone else (Yume, who's #41 or so, is not moving at all, so that'll be the worst-case scenario) to get in, so it's gonna take awhile longer, alas. Was hoping I could get there by today. #;-}> Thanks for dropping by!

Thanks. I took the full resolution pic #1 off of FPS Banana's skin page and then I cropped it + reduced it a bit to make it perfect for NG newsposting. For my two alts, I just posted the thumbnail-sized/resolutioned pics #2 and #3 from that same skin page. I wanted to have all three accounts have SLIGHTLY different pics this year. #;-}>

My stats, you mean?

... or the Gentlemanly Pyro with his top hat and monocle? #;-}>

I VOTE FOR THE LATTER!

"can pass [me]" in stats, eh? Pffft. I'm RETIRING, man. Don't make it sound like some sort of high-speed pursuit in which you're going to overtake me. I'm letting anyone and their mother by me. All you gotta do is top 72k, it's no skin offa my back or else I wouldn't be retiring, now would I? #;-}>

I broke 100,000 back in 2008, IIRC. OLD NEWS. (yawn) ;_;

Some things will never change. </Bruce Hornsby>

And thank goodness, eh?

First off... no neutral/green aura in a NG design? IMPOSSIBLE! UNTHINKABLE!

Secondly... I WILL SHIT BRICKS. And then quit NG in protest. #;-}>

About time? I do a new news post (on each of my accounts) every year on the same day of the year. It's pretty predictable, and I haven't been even one day late (yet). #;-}>

That's a pyro from Team Fortress 2 wearing a top hat and monocle. PLAY MOAR TF2, DUDE.

Surely you don't suggest that the Fab aura is the most popular aura nowadays....

I guess you just meant that most people who use the Fab aura are REALLY big fans of it, and might protest more than the much larger numbers of people using the classic red, blue, and green auras would protest if their auras were gone.

I, of course, am the notable exception to that rule in the green column, but I have no illusions: yes, if neutral/green were eliminated, most people who HAD been neutral probably wouldn't fight it/be vocal about it/etc. that much.

Damned apathetic neutrals. I'M A PROUD, ACTIVIST NEUTRAL, GODDAMNIT.

OMG, awesome. They're coming here on October 14th, and I'm not yet sure if we'll be able to go. While I saw them during the POPmart and Elevation tours, my fiancee has NEVER been to a live U2 show. We got together before the Elevation tour, but she hadn't moved down here until 2 months later (such bad, bad timing. ;_;)... and we didn't get to go to the Atomic Bomb tour or whatever it was called.

SO ANYWHO. Here's hoping we can go see them, me for the 3rd time, and her for the 1st, on this U2 360 tour. I mean, for god's sake, IT'S GOT A 36 IN THE TITLE. MUST GO. IT IS FATE. #;-}>

I'll check it out now and reply to it and/or add some comments upon having read it in my response to the 2nd comment you left below in a bit.

I'm pretty sure they played Mysterious Ways at least one of the two concerts I've been to from them, if not both. So I wouldn't be too gutted if they didn't play it if we go in October. I wish instead of Angel of Harlem they'd play Heartland. Desire's okay, too, so... we'll see. I don't mind Beautiful Day as much as you do, and I certainly prefer it to Elevation, but personally I'd just prefer Walk On and Kite be played from that album (In a Little While is good, though, as is Wild Honey).

Oh god, I hope they play Bad. I think I only got that once, and you can never have enough Bad. Forgot to mention that in my reply on your profile (probably because there were already 3 songs from TUF, and I didn't want to go over the top with any one album's representation).

I'd say that overall you had a better night, yes, but... BAD, man. BAD!

Also, I was looking at a U2 fan website or some twitter feed, and there was discussion of a show that didn't have "TUF" or "UC." Now obviously that means that some shows, the band isn't playing The Unforgettable Fire. But I couldn't for the life of me think of what UC was. I actually opened up iTunes and started scrolling up from the bottom of the U2 section. I finally got up to the new album around the middle of the hundreds of songs in the list... and saw Unknown Caller.

So looks like that one is left off a bit, yeah. No biggie. I like the song OKAY, though I think the lyrics are a bit daft. I LOVE the 1 minute Edge guitar solo at the end, though. In the car, I'll usually go from NLOTH and Magnificent straight to track 5, then rewind back 1.5 minutes or so into the end of UC just to get that solo before listening to Crazy Tonight. Then it's on to tracks 8 and 10 and I'm done.

I listen to different music while driving than while in my home, though.... but yeah. Thanks for posting the review and setlists and all, man. Lucky bastards with Amsterdam getting two shows. The entire state of Texas is only getting two shows, and if I don't get to go to Houston's 1 show, I dunno if me and my lady are really gonna be up to driving 4.5 hours (each way) to get to the 1 show in Dallas. ;_;

Re: wouldabeennicetahavesomePopattheV ertigotour: yeah... I mean, I didn't make it to that tour, that's the one I've missed in the past decade plus, but it strikes me that HTDAAB stuff woulda gone nicely with Pop stuff. ATYCLB was such a reaction away from Pop that it woulda clashed during the Elevation tour, but surely by the next tour or two, they coulda worked more in. Gone's a good song, and I know they love their Staring at the Sun, but... how about some Please and If You Wear that Velvet Dress? I think those could go quite nicely live apart from their original tour...

I'm not sure I made my reaction to your "unfortunately" statement clear due to some of your response to my reaction, but... it's such a long discussion and so delayed that I don't think it's necessary to keep it going beyond just some commentary on your "overlooked songs" commentary:

yer POP comments: Gone should indeed remain in their setlist, at least on half the nights or so.
yer Zooropa comments: Amen and amen.
yer AB comments: Acrobat and EBTTRT are two of my faves from that album, but yeah... they don't play 'em live anymore, really. I can't complain, either, because at least they still play Ultraviolet, which is really not that big a song to most fans, I don't think. So lucky you and me who love it are happy, at least. #;-}>
yer R&H comments: MOAR HEARTLAND. That is all. #;-}>
yer JT comments: That's awesome that they played OTH in the previous tour, but I don't think they played it at every show that tour. Maybe enough time has passed since their roadie's death in 1986 or 1987 that Bono doesn't have a problem playing it more often. I think of all my "I wish..." moments.... never having heard One Tree Hill live is my biggest one. I hope Bono can do that for me by the time the band stops touring...
yer UF comments: Yep... but Bad, at least, has never been completely dropped from setlists, it just comes and goes. They'll be playing Bad again live before ya know it.
yer War comments: Yep. You really need to start listening to War! #;-}> tracks 1 through 4 form the well-known core of it, but I really like 2-3 of the later tracks, too.
yer Boy comments: I Will Follow used to be an "every damned show at every tour" staple, much like Pride, Where the Streets, One, Sunday Bloody Sunday, and to a lesser degree Bad... it's a pity it's not anymore, apparently. ;_;
yer October comments: Yep. But once you're done acquainting yourself with War, it wouldn't be a bad thing to really get into October deeply. It's underrated. For a reason, yes, but still... underlistened/appreciated/rated. Makes me sad. ;_;

Re: U2 doing 100 shows in America to do 2 shows per state: not necessary, dude. At least 25 states are small enough that 1 show will suffice, and some don't even get that one show, but are such a small state that a nearby state's show is closer to a person in that state than Dallas is to me here in Houston, say. Texas is the 2nd most populated state, I just wish they'd either do two nights every now and then, or do a 3rd show in the Austin/San Antonio region to go along with the Dallas and Houston shows. But alas, 'tis not to be.

U2 seems to believe the Irish-American-heavy areas of Boston, Chicago, and NY are the only cities deserving of two nights, and they might be right from a financial/fan-density perspective, but... I'll bet there's plenty of other cities they could sell-out two nights in as well. They certainly sell-out each time they're here.

I WANNA BEEEEEE...

22 days isn't too bad. You had 365 in total, after all, so you're nowhere near too late. #;-}>

You hope your custom image picks on? As in takes off?

What, that fake Platinum Account Holders Only thing? Pffft. People who fall for that are the same people who fell for Cool Points back in 2003. Keep it up, dude. #;-}>

Hahahaha. It was bound to happen sooner or later, dude. Oh wells. My condolences to your statly pride. SOLIDARITY, BROTHA.

Um... happy birthday to you? #;-}>

YOUR WORST NIGHTMARE. A gentlemanly pyro who DOESN'T DRINK. Feck!

HAPPY CLOCK DAY. I hope you spammed my alt, gfoxclock, or else.... WTFFFFFFFFFFF. #;-}>

I thought you were doing a birthday announcement in the style of good ol' "+1 postcount" spammers. #;-}>

As for me... well, of course. Anytime you mark the passing of 365 or 366 days, no matter what time of year it is respective to your birthday, you're gonna be 1 year older, man. O_o Was so obvious, I figured you HAD to be doing a postcount-increasing joke, see? heh.

No you couldn't. I lock the previous year's post right before I post the new post each July 17th. #;-}>

Perhaps.

You're welcome. Have fun hitting 36,000 before I do, but I rest easy knowing that no one will ever be AT 36,000 for as long as I will be. #;-}>

I never said you were serious. In fact... and I quote: "Was so obvious, I figured you HAD to be doing a postcount-increasing joke, see?"

See? I assumed you were making a bad joke, not that you were being serious. Don't exaggerate my interpretation-fail! #;-}>

Your name is Towlie the talkin' towel. And no need for that, I've deduced you were born on December 32nd.

So where's mah weed, then? COME ON.

k....

quite.

Outside, apparently.

Yes, because a dragon should only wanna sex up the humans, right? I mean, COME ON! Ya know?

Get with it, dragonman.

There's no Lemonparty in this year's redesign posts, I have to admit, but there IS Lemonparty in my new avatar on Steam if you look hard enough. Enjoy!

A Baha-alt I haven't met before? UNTHINKABLE.

Hey there, lil' birdie. Tweet tweet tweeeeet, tweet tweeeet!

As befits your name. Man, aren't any of the Baha-alts gonna actually try being unpredictable and surprising us now and then?

You know, the real Bahamut probably just gets off on LAZORRRRRS hitting cities and big airships and shit. I doubt he cares about dragonesses at all. He's got no time for that shit.

We've all learned a valuable lesson: storing your weed outside just attracts dragon dicks. SO DON'T DO IT, KIDS.

tumahaB, of course.

Not a person, a nogard!

(pssst... he no likey when he gets called a person ;_; ...)

OH NO HE DIDN'T!

8.89 as of today. ;_;

But yeah, as I said on Steam last night, I did notice 8.88 last week, and it was nice while it lasted. Which was plenty, since getting to around 9.00 or so, each 0.01 takes FOREVAH. #;-}>

My 14.21 is up to 14.22 as a result of the base increase. Both fine, fine numbers themselves (to me, at least... loves me that 42ness!).

Large numbers of women turn me on even more than either of those! BEST OF BOTH WORLDS, BABY!

No need to seek help when you just snagged the holy comment #36!!!!! CONGRATULATIONS! YOU ARE WINNAR!

You predictable bastard. #;-}> You could have at least been inventive and mixed in ONE "thirty-seven" in there.

Anyway, if I stare REALLY hard at it, I can almost make out a giant 36 hidden in the mass of numbers.

It's a decent number. 13 x 3. Pretty nifty, as far as non -5 ending odd numbers go, yeah.

But of course. 40's a good'un. But nothing compared to the majesty of 42, which is so very, very close!

It's hard to think of content-ful responses to what amounts to the first half of a sentence.... O_o

Congrats, number-hog. #;-}>

Sadly, you'll have to paradoxically share that "one and only" status with 2007's and 2008's #42s.

YOU WOULD!

thhhhhhhhbpt! </Calvin-to-Hobbes>

For a second I thought Toocool had dropped by my profile again. I saw the "37" agreement with idiot above (NEVAR BEFORE HAS HIS NAME BEEN SO FITTING!) and went "NO WAY!" and then a second later I was like.... wait... level 37? Toocool's wayyyyyyy, way, WAYYYYY past level 37. WTF?!? Ohhh, Toohot. WHEW.

Yeah. Whatever, Baha-alt. #;-}> Grats anyway, tho...

b/c twitter sux

(and makes you turn into a person who writes sentences like that one I just wrote right there)

is a decent show. But I haven't really watched it since season 1. #;-}>

Just as well.... too many numbers involved in that show for someone like you.

Well... okay. The obvious question then is: do you watch shows from anywhere else? Or do you not watch any TV at all? Either answer is fine by me, just curious. #;-}>

I could stand to watch a little less TV, personally. I watch a lot less these days than I did back in HS/college in the 90s, though, which is good.

Thank you very much, Mister 39! Looking forward to movin' on up, but just happy to be here. #;-}>

That he is.... that he is indeeed. :::tips cap to the classy hat-ful pyro:::

There's a guy still 8 exp ahead of me (the true #49 at moment), and there's a guy tied with me at +/- 0 exp (the true #51 at moment). I didn't deposit till 10 PM on Friday or Saturday, hence the "#51." Trust me, thanks to my 10 months earlier signup date, I'm still #50 due to the tiebreaker with that dude.

And back to 49 today.

49 and 51 are lies based on what time of day I deposit. I've been at #50 for nearly a full week now, every single day. The 49s and 51s are just due to the time we all deposit relative to each other. I thought people "got" this by now. O_o

edit: if it's still not clear, NG only updates the top 50 list and our exp rankings in our profiles at ~3-4AM ET every night. If that time were changed to 11:59PM, it would be a bit more accurate, but the reason it ain't then is due to traffic on the website at that time + P-Bot needing the system resources for determining daily rankings on flashes and other such things.

Steam only abuses us so that we appreciate it when it DOESN'T abuse us. ALL PRAISE TEH STEAM! #;-}>

Why thank you. I like your username, Gelatinoid.

:::finds himself hungering for some Jell-o....:::

If you mean get to the next b/p rank, you vote on enough UJ movies in the Portal (UJ movies have a purple background behind their title and are in the upper left corner of the listings) correctly. Correctly meaning 2, 3, 4, 5 if they're good enough to stay in the Portal, 0 or 1 if they're not. You'll get saves from the former votes and blams from the latter, but you've got to be quick because no more than 200 people will get the points before the purple UJ background is gone and the movie is saved or blammed. Ranks happen every 100 blams+saves at first, then every 500, etc. etc. there's a list of the ranks in the FAQ/help section (click the link under the NG banner tank).

If you just meant how do you increase your ranking in any given stat... you just... keep getting that stat and you'll naturally move ahead of people who aren't getting as much of it (if at all).

Good luck, either way.

Saturday 9/12: First appeared on the top 50 exp list (but wasn't really 50, just deposited before the list updated, and the real #50--his name is 100816--didn't... by the end of the day, the real #50 was +10 exp on me, he's just lazier than I am (gasp))

Wednesday 9/16: Actually became the official/technical #50 (Mr. 100816 finally didn't deposit at all, late or otherwise, at end of the 15th... so I had him on the tiebreaker, he signed up 10 months after I did back in 2000)... technically, you could say I passed him on Tuesday 9/15, but since it didn't become official and unreversible until midnight Wednesday 9/16, I call it 9/16.

Wednesday 9/23: official/technical #49 gained (had been -8 exp behind #49--a.k.a. uniqueusername--during the whole "becoming 50" process, probably for 2-3 weeks total now, in fact... but he finally missed a deposit, and now I'm +2 exp ahead of him)

I'll be passing Yume (who is totally inactive, unlike the two people I've passed lately, who deposit 80-90% of the time) for #48 in early October, and from there on I haven't looked that far ahead. Yay for 0% depositors like Yume! :::tips cap:::

ONE DOES NOT JUST GO "TRY AND ENTER" THE TOP 50 EXP LIST, MY FRIEND! You'd have an easier (and shorter) trip going into MORDOR, I say!

Anywho, just make sure that wasn't a self-fulfilling prophecy and you do end up missing deposits thanks to FO3. That would blow, no? Just think of Coop getting ahead of you. STILL WANT TO MISS DEPOSITS NOW? Heh. Thought not.

But in all seriousness, good luck with your own personal climb to #50. #;-}> But let's just say that I won't be holding my breath for either you OR gfoxclock making it anytime soon. Though I am surprised that gfoxclock's already up to #94, having passed #100 so (fairly) recently. I guess I'm just used to gfoxcook's slooooooooooooow progress in exp ranking, so anything faster than that feels insanely fast.

Still, it took me like.... 3? 4? years to go from #100 to #50. You're almost to #75, but I was #75 in September 2007. So there you have it. 2 years, almost exactly to the day, to get from #75 to #50. I hope your path is shorter, but in all likelihood (barring a lot of people suddenly retiring), it will be longer. You'll get to pass Shrapnel and humantarget52 on the way, though... so there's a bright side!

MWAHAHAHAAHAHA.

Yes. 'twas done and done LONG BEFORE YOU EVEN KNEW of the sale. How cool am I? That's right, that's right. #;-}>

Seriously, even if you hadn't been hounding me "get-them-or-else-I'll-get-them-f or-you" style for the past few months, who can resist $5 for games that without a sale cost $20 total if gotten separately? I'm not sure they'll run on my Vista Desktop, but if they won't, maybe they will on my ol' XP laptop.

Okay. Good stuff. It said "win2000/xp" in the page info, and most things I've gotten that say xp still work on Vista (though sometimes I have to use "xp compatibility mode"), but I take Steam at its word. If it doesn't say XP/Vista, there may be probs, in short.

Good to hear there were no issues for you, though, hopefully they'll both run fine on both the XP laptop AND the Vista Desktop FT2xW! #;-}>

seems like it... those games never did take off like they could have... not sure we can blame it all on the name, but... probably didn't help.

I still haven't played them yet, but at least I own 'em both now. BE HAPPY, BAHAMUT! #;-}>

And following from that... A happy human is a human with no hungry dragon in sight!

The human knight who wants to be known as a hero is no better than a toadstool without a head!

And Halo, as a series, gained popularity because Bungie sold out to Microsoft.

Strange world, no? Both Halo and Oddworld would have been better off without MS in their lives, but for vastly different reasons and in vastly different ways... fascinating.

Which is their curse, most times, yes... see above Halo comments.

Bungie had made the Marathon series (1 and 2) primarily for Macs in the early 90s, it was the DOOM series of the Mac, basically... and then the Myth series (1 and 2, again... no lengthy drawn-out series) for PC/Mac at the same time in the late 90s.

Myth and Myth II were excellent RTS games. They were only about unit management, tactical combat, and trying to win battles through whatever means necessary on the ground (and it was a very textured/uneven ground, very nice hills and valleys for combat to take place in). This made it a refreshing change/break from flatter, more resource/building-based strategy like WC and SC deliver (and deliver well).

Similarly, Oni (a one-off game from around the time Bungie sold themselves to MS) was a great mix of anime/sci-fi FPS and TPS (long before Gears of War) and fighting/beat 'em up genres.... sadly, Myth and Oni never had a chance thanks to MS/Halo coming in and changing the entire machine into a one-note beast.

I was really looking forward to Halo in 1999 due to Bungie's work on the Myth series, and thinking it would be yet another awesome FPS for the PC only, like the DOOM and Quake and Unreal series before it... alas, MS had to come and make it an XBox exclusive (at first, which amounts to the same thing as "always," really... since the Halo I own for the PC now, 8 years later, is a pale console-ized FPS shadow of the Halo that Bungie could have made on their own for the PC in the first place).

I've never understood why MS seems determined to kill PC gaming even though they stand to benefit from it the most, due to sales of Windows OSes on mostly-for-gaming PCs. Makes no fucking sense whatsoever.

The amount of money they've milked from two rounds of XBoxes might be more than the amount of money they'd have made from their Flight Sims and other game series + Windows sales for gamers in the same period of time, but in the long run... it would have made for a much more sustainable gaming future, IMO.

We'll see, though.

(note to those who don't know me: I've been a console and PC gamer since the 1980s... console first, as a child, then PC, then back to consoles, then PC and console at the same time, and basically that from the mid90s till now... I don't hate consoles, I think a lot of genres work better on consoles than on PCs, in fact... Japanese RPGs, adventure games, some action games, sports games, puzzle/casual games (pretty much a tie, though), platformers (for sure), and driving games... I think there's a very few genres that work insanely better on PCs than consoles, however: FPS. RTS/TBS. Western RPGs. Enough said.)

I'm a fan of exclusivity when the console/system a game is for would only work on that system. i.e. Wii Sports should only be on the Wii. Doom and Quake (IMO) should only be on the PC.

But MS's ideas of what makes good exclusives are warped beyond reason. Not that Sony is much better, but still... at least they're not damaging THEIR OWN ORIGINAL PLATFORM: the PC.

I guess Sony's technically damaging their blu-ray player sales with the PS3, but... that's about as close as they come to pulling off a Microsoftian blunder of gutting windows/PC gaming with the damned XBox series of pointless 3rd fronts in the console wars.

THAT would have actually made sense, at least, though too bad for Playstation owners used to having Oddworld games on their consoles...

Will there even be a next game?

Microsoft's like NBC... always taking their best product (i.e. show) and moving it around so much the audience stops bothering to keep track of it, and it dies on the vine. Well, okay... MS's not AS bad as NBC, since they don't have a long track record of doing that. Mostly on Oddworld, I guess. heh.

Congrats on comment #69!

:::shrugs::: I noticed it was on 69 yesterday, but I didn't bother to actually read what the 69th comment was. I presumed that it was more back-and-forth convoing between you and ol' EKR, and I was right. So I wasn't expecting anything special. #;-}>

DAMNIT. That woulda been epic!

;_;

Wish you hadn't told me...

DRUNK DRINK DRUNK

Formal NG (i.e. not on Steam a day or so ago) Congrats on the HOLY LEVEL 42, my good dragon!

And Happy Helloween to you, now that Halloween has come and gone. o_o

Yeah... what the damned stalker right there said. :::grumbles:::

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!