Many congratulations, this is a major accomplishment, as you well know! Thanks for serving as an example that it can be done. I've been working on my own dissertation in medieval history in my free time while I work a "real job" these past few years. Next time I find time to get to a drink...

I have five sons, ages 1 through 9. The three older ones are of video gaming age, and all three prefer retro games to the current systems. It's a lot of fun to relive playing the games of my childhood through their eyes, and they also love hunting thrift stores, yard sales, and used stores for games...

Maybe it's nostalgia speaking, but I would add Diddy Kong Racing to the suggestions already made.

I have a nice blue/grey suit I picked up from a thrift store that I've gotten a lot of wear out of. Also have several pairs of pants from the same store -- likely from the same guy and era. The guy must have been my exact size since no alterations were needed. I look quite dashing indeed in the suit...

Congrats! I just got mine a couple days ago off craigslist.

Hope I don't hijack your thread but I got a model 2 Sega CD with a model 1 Genesis, 2 controllers, 5 or so Sega CD games (none too stellar), and 4 or 5 genesis games. All for $20!

Hopefully it's not already posted, but:

http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/04/ ... old-souls/

My strategy is to have my wife do her thing. She's good at getting deals, particularly because she's able to go on the first day of sales (usually Friday) while I'm at work. She knows what I am looking for, generally, and she calls if she's not sure. Her best finds for me: PS2 with network adapter f...

Not much time for tv with work, dissertation writing and being a dad, but I do try to keep up with Legend of the Seeker. Used to watch a lot of Good Eats (I met Alton Brown once back when he was doing a tour for his first book) and No Reservations. Have gotten into Star Trek TOS a bit recently. And ...

As already noted, GIMP is a great free alternative to Photoshop. Getting a little off topic perhaps, but for vector graphics I've found Inkscape to be another great tool.

Yeah, in a basement. You know, fightin' in a basement offers a lot of difficulties. Number one being, you're fightin' in a basement!

Who gets it?

Brad Pitt line from Inglorious Basterds