Thrik

See! So efficient it cracks bones you weren't even expecting. Another cracking location I've somehow developed is to basically do a claw with my hand, then try to push the middle part/bone of each finger into my knuckle. I can get a pretty sharp crack out of each finger doing this, and loosens them up even more. My fingers will all drop off one of these days.

I get all my fingers and bend them all the wrong way as far as they'll go; they basically hit a right angle going up from my knuckles, and at roughly this point they'll all crack. If not, I do a kind of wave motion from one end to the other to add a bit more force to each finger. A superb technique. Highly recommended for cracking efficiency.

Yar, I looked it up years ago when I kept doing it to play the piano comfortably as I figured there must be more to it than just making your bones crack together due to the very perceptible increase in flexibility afterwards. However I do know someone at the age of 26 who's been cracking them since childhood, and he often gets shooting paint in his knuckles in short episodes; it may be related or it may not be. However, I've also experienced kind of painful feelings in my hands for no explicable reasons at times, like my joints are just generally being wankers. Tends to go quite quickly though. So maybe not arthritis, but perhaps some other dodgy side-effects. Loss of grip power is another thing I've read in relation to it, which I think must be true as I can never seem to get a particularly strong grip or even make a massively solid fist, but some people I know who I've never seen crack their joints have almost iron grip and can really dig in deep with a whole-hand pinch or something.

It'll feel great when you start to get shooting pains in them all.

Browsing a forum at work with a gigantic neon "Idle Forums" banner is a potent cause of funny looks.

Put your head through a thousand glass windows and then staple your eyeballs to a horse's arse hole.

No. This is the internet! :tup:

Ah, superb -- it was just one of those things I was wondering months ago when the speaker was announced. I'd have checked the manual you understand, but I still don't have a Wii.

Something I've actually been wondering: can you stop the Wiimote from emitting sound? Because if not, that seems really shit for those who want to do a bit of late-night playing with headphones or something.

It's very true. When you think about it, pretty much everything in Zelda is so unbelievably non-apparent that when it's a wonder anybody ever finishes them. This is why I'm amazed that my 9-year-old sister burned through Ocarina of Time in a few months last year, despite having never played a Zelda game before. Perhaps it's easier to be introduced to the logic murder style of Zelda at a younger age, explaining why those who've played since Ocarina of Time (ie: not started recently) aren't too put off by it? I dunno.

I'm surprised you're surprised there're people who don't like Zelda. I always thought they were a bit of a niche thing until a few years ago, and to an extent they still are. I mean there're loads of vocal fans and critics who sing their praises, but if you go talk to some more mainstream gamers (who I like to dub 'Blind Buyers'), you'll find that very few of them have so much as looked at a Zelda game, let alone know what they're all about. Then if they do try one, they'll be put off immediately by the lack of instant action and need for exploration. Incidentally, these same people dissed me for saying Beyond Good and Evil was good. Man do I need to find more cliquey gamer friends in real life. Tangent aside, Zelda isn't for everyone. If you absolutely hate every aspect of Ocarina of Time, I find it very difficult to believe you'll enjoy the later 3D titles, regardless of my own love for them (with the exception of Twilight Princess which I haven't tried). However, do at least give the beautiful GameCube Wind Waker a go on the GameCube or Wii as when not let down by an emulator it's quite possibly the most beautiful game on the platform, and has much tighter gameplay than Ocarina of Time which in all honesty was a pioneering classic in its day (I was in awe at the graphics then) but has been battered by age.

You're a big pile of shit.

Whoa, Ocarina of Time is generally considered an absolute fucking classic. It's aged like a horse's ass visually, but the gameplay itself remains pretty solid; even my sister of ye new generation had a blast with it when she played it through for the first time a few months ago. Its only downside is that it starts off really slowly, forbidding you from the large overworld, but I presume you gave it that much chance. You'll probably enjoy Wind Waker more as it's newer, very pretty, and fine-tuned the formula a lot more; it still plays very similarly though, which most would agree isn't a remotely bad thing. You'd probably have been better off playing it on the N64 or GameCube though, or at least on a low-definition TV. Console games of the last couple of generations tend to look absolutely shit as fuck when emulated as all the jagged edges and shite textures are emphasised on a monitor, whereas on a TV they look a lot smoother. Wind Waker is one of the most beautiful games ever when in motion on a TV (like playing a cartoon), but I'd imagine it's not anti-aliased and would consequently look like ass on a monitor -- if a GameCube emulator even exists.

Oh yeah, good point. I haven't watched the movie thing, but if anyone's planning to get MGS3 make damn sure it's Subsistence and not the original; it comes with a better camera that allows free panning, which is absolutely vital to maximum enjoyment of the game due to the largely jungle surroundings. The camera in the original MGS3 is the same as that in MGS1/MGS2, meaning you can't really control it's common overhead position at all and it moves itself -- a nightmare in the jungle.

Interestingly, MGS is also the only series that would entice me into getting a PS3. I wonder how many people would seriously just not bother with the PS3 if MGS did indeed run to the 360. And on that note, did anything come of those rumours that it would? After all, it wouldn't be the first time MGS has appeared on another platform. I actually bought a PS2 in 2001 purely for MGS2; I then sold it a couple of months later. Then I bought myself a slim PS2 in December for MGS3 (which is superb beyond description). I am a whore of Kojima.

More like your retailer sold you a stealthily refurbished unit.

I avoid small puzzle games like the plague for the sake of my time, but Picross sounds like the best match ever with the DS stylus 'n' screen.

Hello! I approve of your introduction.

Oh I've got some dumps that're about eight months old, but I've never been able to kick myself into even the minimal monthly regime that we all know we should do but just don't. It seems that no matter who I talk to and no matter how embedded into computing their hobbies or work is, there's a 99% chance they don't have a regular and frequent backup system. And of course, it's always losing those most recent things that'll immediately hurt the most. I can definitely see where Apple got their inspiration for Time Machine.

I'd fucking gut myself if my hard drive died. I'm hoping it'll hold out until I do the grand Vista upgrade in a couple of months, at which point I'll do a thorough filter and scrap what I don't want anymore. An epic job considering this thing has a pretty much complete archive of everything ever going back to 2000. It might be an idea to get an external hard drive and just bung everything on there as a precaution, though. I'll be doing that anyway before I start the upgrade process, but it'd probably be wise to bring it forward. :¬:

Hey, don't worry about it. Only absolute nutters create their own avatars.

Snot has a bloody smell? My nose must be wrecked.

Yes, what you want to do about that whole 'forum going down' situation is to murder every single Spaff you see. Twice. Also, your avatar is superb and inspired.

Dude, it's about a decade old in internet time, and coming up to like three years old in actual time. It's never too early for a refresh!

Ol' Mojo, of course!