Versace pre-fall 2010.

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68. The Wealthy Barbder - David Chilton - 224 pages - (6.5/10)

Finances. Fascinating. Nope, not really.

This is a book written in 1998 about sound financial investment and planning. My husband and I are attempting to become Responsible Adults (tm) and bought it because it had great reviews. The book is a bit interesting in that, instead of being the traditional, lecture-based book, it's told as a mediocre novel--a group of four friends and siblings go and get financial advice from their barber because he made himself very wealthy through sound investment, despite a meagre salary.

As someone who knew absolutely nothing about finances, it was a good enough starting point. I didn't know the difference between mutual and index funds, and it got me to think about how to plan for retirement. The main bit of advice I took from it is to invest 10% of your income for long-term growth, which is pretty sound advice, I think. Other than that, though, a lot of the information is either out of date or doesn't apply to me, an American who just moved to the UK. So, for that, I do not recommend it. We're no longer in an economic boom. It's unrealistic to get 15% returns from mutual funds. You can't get loans from banks very easily.

Discussion:

Does anyone know any good, easy-to-follow investment books targeted towards the UK and those who make an average wage? We have no debt and a bit of savings and we're trying to let that savings grow so we can have a downpayment for a flat.

I am actually going to bed but before I do:

RENAME ME!

sorry the colours are disgusting, too tired to change them.

had an exhausting day, chock a block from start to finish. time for bed.

Preview:

1	2	3	4

credit to gloriachan
more@Falling Minds
HERE TO DOWNLOAD

On the subject of banned games, this is the intro movie to Left 4 Dead 2. In my opinion this is the best cinematic trailer I've ever seen. Not so much for technical accomplishment, but because it's friggin' great. I'd go see this flick. It's a first-person team-based cooperative shooter, and they've managed to make the characters so likeable that I find myself really invested in their survival. And they're very well drawn with a relatively small amount of dialogue. I never get sick of watching this. And the music is just great.

Moments that get me in this is Nick's delivery of "Looks like there's been a change of plan" (just look at the way they've evoked his enunciation of that line with the shape of his mouth, and the way that final word is punctuated by it puffing out of his mouth*), and the shot of the guys in hazmat suits walking through flame, and then turning toward camera.

The extremely cool thing about the game though is the way Valve's incorporated two dialogue wheels ('orders' and 'answers') each with multiple variations on the same entries. What this amounts to is the ability to communicate quickly with team-mates in character using actual dialogue that effectively complement and interlock with each other. "Cover me, I'm healing!" --> "You got it." --> "Okay, go ahead, I'm right behind you." --> "No way." --> (laugh) --> (laugh)... and so on. And given the characters are such individuals the script writes itself with each playthrough, and contextually can be really hysterical. This, IMO, is gaming as a competent and assured piece of craft. Art, even.

* Character modeling is finally starting to take notice of the one thing that makes a human face unique and distinctive: teeth. Pay attention to dental structure and you start getting faces that seem like people.

By the time I get this first draft done, I reckon I'll be lucky to have 20,000 words. That won't cut it.

Eeenteresting. I reckon expanding this might be fun.

Oh for fuck's sake.

Aliens vs Predator banned in Australia.


"If we hide from the future we'll be okay." What are we? Feudal Japan with beer?

That said, I got L4D2 without any hassles at all. Downside is most people don't know how, meaning it's tough finding a low-ping game anywhere. Which is fine as I need to work more anyway.

Finland, Finland, Finland...

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