SHADOWTEXT'S PROFILE

IE is slow, clumsy, and ignores web standards, thus setting back the development of the web and web standards for years. Not to mention, as the browser being used by most of the population, it is the one that is most often targetted by writers of malicious code, so any security issues it has is going to be a much bigger deal than a security issue in Firefox, or even moreso, Opera.

Most of this doesn't mean much to the end user, though. The interface is really the only difference to users, and most users are so used to IE's interface that they don't care to bother switching to Firefox or Opera. Those that do tend to be permenant--when I have to use a computer that doesn't have Opera installed, I practically forget how to navigate the web. I'm bloody dependent on my mouse gestures for moving back or forward, not to mention inline searching and custom, address-bar searches.

More importantly, though, switching tells Microsoft that they have to get on the ball and work more on meeting the needs of the modern internet. Internet Explorer 8 supposedly passes the Acid2 test and goes into standards mode by default. I guarantee you that neither of those things would be true if Firefox wasn't doing so well. Sticking with a mediocre browser because it's not worth the trouble of switching tells the browser's maker that it's okay to be mediocre.

It was pretty good, and Ledger was a good Joker, but he didn't dethrone Mark Hamill's Joker or anything. Still, he was plenty entertaining and totally believable as a nutjob, so it worked well.

My biggest beef with the flick was the raspy voice the dude takes on when he's Batman instead of Bruce Wayne. And I don't like the way he looks in the mask....I don't know if it's CG or just a strange way of making the mask, but it looks too fakey for my tastes.

Other than that, a pretty good watch. But I'd still say Iron Man was the better superhero movie.

No items have been collected yet and we're doing the simple experience thing of just levelling up every ten or so battles.

As always, coming up with 10 is too much a strain for me. And I haven't seen the Dark Knight yet, so I can't really place it anywhere just yet. That being said:

5. Mystery Men
This movie was, in all honesty, probably mediocre. HOWEVER: there are two facts that raise it to levels of awesome. 1.) It had Eddie Izzard as a disco super-villain, and 2.) the villain, "Casanova Frankenstein" has the best name in the history of naming. So it ranks 5th!

4. Hellboy
There aren't many who can beat Guillermo del Toro's visual knack. I'll bet Hellboy 2 looks great, too. Hellboy himself was pretty lovable, too.

3. Batman Begins
I didn't like some of the decisions they made with Batman Begins, but it was incredibly competent and well made, especially for a superhero movie.

2. Return of the Joker
The Batman Beyond movie! Hooray. As I said, I haven't seen Dark Knight yet, but even if Heath Ledger's Joker looks like he'll be creepy fun, fans know that Mark Hammil is the real Joker, and this was one of his crowning moments of awesome. Not to mention, quite some amazing moments for Terry. Terry McGinnis taunted the freaking Joker. C'mon!

1. Iron Man
Freaking amazing. I never got into Iron Man as a kid, but after seeing Robert Downing Jr.'s performance, I'm suffering a major man-crush on Tony Stark.

Yeah, it'll be on at 8:00 CST tonight as planned. I'm trying to line up someone to play a Cleric since no one decided to (including Nick, who won't be here tonight, we've got a Wizard, Rogue, Fighter and Ranger). A cleric is sort of important to the story so I'll have to make it an NPC for now if I can't find someone, but I'd prefer not to do that....I'd prefer major story players to be....players.