Sorry, perhaps I worded it wrong. I completely agree with you, I realise exactly what they are. What I meant was that they were possibly the better of the parties at the moment, which is kind of sad. To be honest, there are no real differences between the parties. Nothing ever really improves no matter who is in office. But I'm sorry for keep mentioning it. As you said, lets just agree to disagree about any misunderstanding we may have about it.

Well I hope things will continue picking up for you. Are you very busy during the summer? It must be difficult with all the mixed weather we get during the summer.

Yes, they are. I'd never count those as being actually owned, any more than I'd have called a PS 1 game rental from Blockbuster an owned game.

That's what I thought, I just wasn't sure. At least you are not deluded into thinking you actually own them. I think that is what has helped DRM get so strong, people not realising the downsides of it all.

The only things I remember renting from Blockbusters was Mega Drive and Master System games when I was little (I think it was called Genesis in the US, not Mega Drive).

I'm not quite sure these rules are accurate. According to rule 30 I don't exist. :-)

(Rule 30: Girls do not exist on the internet.)

So is beer.

I own a Nook, which I bought when the UK branch of B&N was liquidating stock, and thus got at quite a fair price.

I absolutely love it, because it has an SD card slot, it reads the epub format unlike the kindle, and it's easily rootable and allows you to install any android 2.2 app.

Certainly not. I understand fully that those items are rentals, no more, no less. That's why I make sure to purchase everything I seriously want from here.

And yes, you're right, a lot of people still don't get it, even after things like games being altered (as with GTA San Andreas getting a bunch of its music ripped out due to expired licenses) or removed all together (Far Cry 4 being moved from some people's Uplay accounts because Ubisoft decided that the keys used to get the games were stolen).

Master System and Mega Drive games...that would put you into a similar age range to myself, it sounds like. =)
Only in my case, it was NES and SNES titles at first.
(Also, yes, it was called the Genesis in the U.S.)

Of course you don't exist you're just a hallucination wreathed in awesomeness and bolter fire. The 11 headed bull with the compund eyes and snake legs told me so.

I tended to play older systems than the more recent ones while growing up. So sometimes people think me a bit older than I am.

Nothing wrong with that, the older systems still have plenty of appeal to this day. =)

It was also due to me living in the middle of nowhere, among small villages and farm land. So the stores near me did not really stock the newer consoles and games. Not that I minded, as you said, the older systems had plenty of good games.

Aaaah, I remember fondly the days of my megadrive, the "wise fwom yuv gwave" digitized speech, the awesome transformation sequence into a werewolf (the best graphics I had seen outside the arcade had been on an amstrad machine), the boredom of playing god (to an 8 year old) and the look of disbelief when after defeating "loki" coughSATANcough, in your underwear, they sent you all the way bacl to the beginning to play the whole game again.

Those were my first 3 console games, I didn't play the first sonic until after I got Sonic 2.

I wish video rental stores had carried videogames back then, but they only started doing that after the PS1 came along.

Oh yeah now that you say it... Must be the "acid-lager" causing a headcrash on my internal HD ;;;)

I understand the appeal of a united Europe, but I don't think that should come at the cost of our rights and sovereignty. Free trade is one thing, but they (the EU) should have no real legal power over us that does nothing but hinder our economy and justice system. All their human rights act does is protect criminals and not the victim (look how many terrorists and serious criminals who can't be brought to justice because of the EU human rights act). I won't even go into all the crap they are doing to farmers in the UK. I like the idea behind the EU, but like most things, it's gone too far and has become too corrupt.

It sounds like you had sub-par video rental places at the time.

I used to go so often every clerk at four stores knew me by sight alone, and all of them carried video games.

It must have been a big step going into it. I don't think I have ever had wood fired pizza, if I have then it was a long time ago. Hopefully the weather this year will be favourable and you will have a good year. Just be sure to save some money for a rainy day. If it's anything like farming, then a bad patch of weather can cost you quite a lot of financial problems.