SoylentGreen

Lovecraft's work is hard to read from a modern perspective (the vague way he wrote, his racism, the mannerisms), but it's probably some of the best stuff I've ever read. For the uninitiated, some of his best works are in the public domain. Here's my favorites:

The Shadow Over Innsmouth - what got me hooked. Very heart-pounding if you get into it. 

The Dunwich Horror - longer, a little deeper. 

The Call of Cthulhu - this is Lovecraft. Long, horrifying, and gripping. Best of the mythos, IMO.

Pickman's Model - personal taste, I guess. 

Proof Lovecraft is awesome: "Iä!  Iä!  Shub-Niggurath! The Black Goat of the Woods with a Thousand Young!"

Did anyone catch Wormtooth Nation while it was being made? Great example of dark steampunk, if a little strange.
 
It's a web serial; believe you can stream it on their site for free.

Prepare for the CSB.
 
CNN's usually full of shit anyway, and Fox is at least the same, maybe even worse. BBC is the only "factual" televised news agency these days, and even that's questionable sometimes. The rest are just giant PR companies.

- "You must construct additional pylons."
- "We require more vespene gas."
- "E-RAD-I-CATE."
- "Stat!"
- "Battlecruiser operational."
- That noise the Ghost's nuke laser made when he started targeting.
- Any number of the Zergling's weird animal noises.
 
Those spring to mind when I think about Starcraft. I think the whole "This is Jimmy." thing is a good meme, if a little forced.

Played a match with a buddy today; there's occasionally some lag, so it's apparently an internet match no matter if you're on the same network or not. That kinda sucks, but the lag is bearable. I'm on a connection that barely qualifies as broadband, if it matters.
 
@KaosAngel: I heard something about that a while ago, it's sad to see that such an obvious IP usage wasn't paid for.
 
I wasn't blaming anyone for lack of anything, though; Blizzard made a damn fine game, and I'll buy the expansions for sure. I just wish local matches would work the way they should, out of the box, without lag or tampering with the game itself. If it did, I know I'd encourage my friends to buy copies of the game (and expansions) as well.

Good on Blizzard, I guess.

So, Starcraft 2 looks absolutely amazing. I've been playing Starcraft for ages, all the way back since Brood War came out. I know I suck at it, I'm terrible at rushing, but I've fallen into a groove as a "turtle" and I like it there. Here's the thing, though; I don't play online, I never have. I've always played LAN matches. Now that I live out in the countryside, lag-free online matches might be impossible anyway.
 
I was thinking about picking up a few copies, but the whole battle.net debacle has made me a little nervous. I don't want to spend a fair amount of money on something that won't be playable even when my opponent's in the same room as I am. I heard somewhere that battle.net might just authenticate a match between two players on the same network and then set up a LAN match anyway, which would be fine. If any substantial amount of game data is being sent outside the house during the match, though, I might be screwed.
 
I just need to know if matches played on the same network work like a LAN match would, if anybody's experimented with it. I really don't want to have to play with my buddy over the Internet even though he's just down the hall/upstairs/whatever.

Turkey, strawberry jam, and cereal.
 
Eat it.