Saturday, November 13, 2004

way for all of us to chat online

Well, I think this will work and is fairly harmless. It's a program called Skype:

www.skype.com/

It's a chat program where you can confrence call with up to four of your friends, which I believe would be all of us crew. It's cross-platform (osx, win, linux) and it's free. Now, they have a service where you can call actual landlines and cellys, but that cost some cheddar. Just the straight vox-chatting through the program is free. Er, let's try it maybe? Comeone, I hate typing. Well, not really, but if our DM was doing the character voices n shit, that'd be some good laughs. :)

Erm.. I gotz pwnzedorrezed!!!11!1!


Pretty sure it's actually www.teamspeak.org and not .com OR NOT.

www.goteamspeak.com it is.


LOL!


That was funny, even if a bit harsh. I read it in the voice of Dennis Leary for added punch.

Hehe.. HEY.. about tomorrow night's gaming. I think we aught to plan ahead so we can hook up this week. Is the teamspeak server going to be up and running? If not, I think we really need to figure this out ahead of time. I was thinking of maybe trying out the Eye Of The Beholder player module as a group? Not a lot of roleplaying, I don't think.. but plenty of puzzles, hacking and slashing to take on.

Does that sound interesting to anyone else?

BTW.. I finally finished Honor Amongst Theives. I estimate that there are at least three to four alternate endings.. wow.. very very cool! In my ending, I managed to get the entire city destroyed and every inhabitant killed. LOL.. whoopsie. Can't wait to go back and try it again in a different style/flavor.

Fuck the South!!!
Gurps Server

Ugggg... Hours of sitting on my arse waiting for our server to stop choking on its own vomit. YeeHaa. Anyway after tonight I go back to day work on the road for a week. I dont know which one is worse. Getting home beat from a day on the road or getting home beat at 3 or 4 am.

Jon: Daly City Train. Maybe we can hang tomarrow if you are about. Ill call you since I will not be up until afternoon.

Futbol: Sucks to be in your world right now. I give you serious props for the ultimate in academic endurance. You'll have to bring your final product back to the states and share so we can all peruse your pain.

Elrox-off: My impressions with Cable modems have overall been pretty good. Never had complaints about the one in El Segundo. They seem to have rockin' transfer rates. Latency can be a tad higher. Maybe (tiny population sample).

Back to work... Sittin on my arse.

D>M>

PS Jon: I know you sang 'Daly City Train' out loud a few minutes ago.

PPS: JA-eL: When are you leaving overseas?

Friday, November 12, 2004

Old news but I got my Microphone,

so I have to play catchup with the rest of ya on chat. I have Yahoo Messenger chat but you guys are probably using some different chat program.

Rudy: Where's my check dude??? I guess you can pay me at the con now.


Hehe.. funneh!

Why You Don't Post Your Picture On The Internet
Yon's Rape & Sodamize!


Some new and interesting news from the WWII Online developers! The old online barrier of 32 visible (64 tracked) players seems to be breaking down.

VISIBLE PLAYER LIMITS INCREASED

And.. some discussion as to the future of other development issues:

DEPLOYMENT AND THE FUTURE OF WWII ONLINE


Weeeeeeeeee!

~O.

to blAVe!

Update: Draft Finished: Supervisor thinks finishing by Christmas is likely, but noticing how long it takes to print out a copy, better make that next February! Well, as I'm waiting for the colour laser to stop having a virtual cigarette, I thought I'd email you guys and let you know that I'm alive... or at least what you call living on 5 hours of sleep a night.

Hope to see you at Christmas, even though I realize most of you have moved away! :(

Will keep you posted, because even if you're not interested - I am.

Myke




Only Crime

Eric and Ry, you heard of this band yet? It's a new band with people from old bands (Bill from All, some dudes from good riddance, bane and some other bands that sound familiar), and they're working on their cd now for fat wreck chords. They got two songs on the site, one i really like, the other one, s'ok.

Saw good the bad and the ugly on the big screen tonight - it was awesome. That movie is SO different seeing it in all its 70mm glory - I haven't seen it since i was pretty young, and it's really funny and violent. Good shit. They're showing 2001 soon there too, so I'll definately check that out.

Thursday, November 11, 2004

Fun-zor Z!!!

Well, I'm in my new place with some rudimentary furniture (still have to knock together the Ikea shelves and so on)... got my iMac version 2 (added feature: "monitor works"), NWN purrs like a kitten, GameCube is here for when NWN won't give it up... good stuff. Now I just need an actual income source.

But while I'm job-searching, this is a pleasant diversion. A port of a classic Commodore 64 game, very much in the Nethack vein....

Rudy, a Firefly campaign would be great. Watch that show you guys! It's only 11 episodes and is great! And we can all see the movie together next year while holding hands!
LOL! Too funny.. check it:

Congratulations, Art!Your IQ score is 73

This number is based on a scientific formula that compares how many questions you answered correctly on the Classic IQ Test relative to others. Your Intellectual Type is Inventive Inquisitor. You have the unusual distinction of being equally good (and by equally good, we mean you are about as dumb as a box of rocks.. and too dim to realize that equally good also means equally bad, which is great.. because we're going to try and sell you a full report on just how stupid you really are in a minute here!) at math and verbal skills. This means you are a creative thinker (pants first, THEN shoes!) and are uniquely good at teaching others through experiences (Stupid is as stupid does, after all). You are also a great improviser (meaning: able to use your bare hand in the absence of toiletpaper) and very good at handling change (as in switching from Elmers to just regular glue-paste.)

Find out more in your personalized 15-page IQ Report. It's ready right now!

***CHA-CHING!***

(Give us your $10, you drooling, mouthbreather!)

Hehe..

~O.
Eating healthy..

You know, I never realized just how easy (and tasty) it is to eat healthy until I met my wife who has some digestive issues that more or less mandate that she eats a low fat diet. I guess it helps that I enjoy cooking as a creative process, but it's really very, very easy to eat well and eat good at the same time. Most anything I make takes very little preparation or complex cooking technique. Fast, easy, cheap and good. Yeehaw! If any of you are aspiring psuedo-chefs like myself, or interested in swapping ideas.. let's do it!


And now for something completely different:

You guys ever do the stupid Tickle tests? I just did for the hell of it and thought they were interesting. Here's what I got... although, it occurs to me that they're not likely to tell you that you're dumber than a box of rocks and a real a-hole when they're trying to get you to shell out an extra $10 for the full report. Hehe.. it might be fun to try and retake those tests with some decidedly BAD answers. =]

http://web.tickle.com/

IQ Test:

Your Intellectual Type is Visionary Philosopher. This means you are highly intelligent and have a powerful mix of skills and insight that can be applied in a variety of different ways. Like Plato, your exceptional math and verbal skills make you very adept at explaining things to others — and at anticipating and predicting patterns. And that's just some of what we know about you from your IQ results.

Personality Test:

Art, you're a Chosen One!

Your personality is actually determined by two personality sub-types - your primary, or dominant sub-type, and your secondary sub-type. You are a Chosen One which means you are a Golden / Seeker Your primary sub-type is defined by "Golden" characteristics and your secondary sub-type is defined by "Seeker" characteristics.

That means you're warm, giving, knowing, and patient. Chances are you're not afraid to actively pursue your goals and dreams. As if all that weren't enough, you pretty much set the standard for emotional health by being filled with positive feelings and energy.

How do we know all this? How do we know that you'd be a great person in an emergency? Or that you always return phone calls? How could we have divined that you're no fair-weather friend?

Because while you were taking the test, you answered four different types of questions — questions that measured confidence, apprehension, willingness to take risks, and your focus on experience versus appearance — the primary traits that determine your personality. Based on your responses, we determined your personality type, Chosen One.

And that's just scratching the surface.

(LOL... I-I-I-I... I WANT THE KNIFE! PLEEEEEEZE?)

Career Test:

Art, the Right Job for you will allow you to be:


Analytical and Creative

As an Analytical type, you don't want to be limited by established rules and regulations. Your inquisitive nature demands that you sometimes question authority. Otherwise, you might not be able to find fresh approaches, or come up with new solutions to a problem. It's not that you act without weighing the pros and cons of a situation — it's more that you're more willing than others to take justifiable risks if they'll further your career success.

You're smart enough to know when you need help and are confident enough in your abilities to ask for it. You understand that sometimes there are no clear right and wrong answers, and that's just fine with you because you tolerate gray areas better than most. In fact, pondering potential outcomes can sometimes be more interesting than coming up with the definitive solution for you.
No, I can't say that I have been affected positively or negatively by GTA:SA, especially not last night after the food debauchery. I did have megazord regret this morning after waking up and realizing that I have become a turd. Something has got to give. I need to be healthy really fucking soon.

No internet yet. Still waiting for Vorizon not to suck. I'll be waiting a long time, methinks.
Amendment to Article II:

As good as GTA:SA is, do not under any circumstance, play it for a lot of hours in a row, eat a Philly Cheese Steak and fries, followed by Ben and Jerry's, and then play some more, and then go to sleep. Your dreams will be haunted by the spectre of GTA, it will feel like you are in game a little too much. Or was that just me? Ryan, thoughts?

I have woolly boogers

O rugs: Thats a bummer. I was hoping to see you down there but it looked kind of jacked from the begining anyway so I didnt hold much hope that you would be able to make it. Bad timing I guess. Anyway, you will have to make plans for the next one. Memorial Day weekend. San Francisco. Kubla Con. Last couple years were great. All you see is racis' facis'.

jAEl: I would love to game it up on Friday, But we have been handed mission of death on Friday night. Looks like I will be working well into the wee hours of the morning Friday night. Tonight is supposed to be a real pain in the butt too. I guess I shouldn't complain too much. Last week I only had 23 hours. Got sick. D'oh.

Jon: Did you make it up? I hope you arent still sick. I still have little flavors of being sick right now. What a grizzly virus. Fugger!

D>M>
Jacked back In, sorta

So, the idiots at Verizon never actually put in the change of address transfer for their shitty DSL service, what they did was change of address BACK to the Highland house effective two days ago. Brilliant. I spent an hour and 20 minutes being transferred through 8 people before they could definitively tell me this. Needless to say I cancelled service with those pendejos, and got me a cable modem again! I have to pay for it this time, but I was messing around with some download.com stuff last night, I I hit 1.31MB a sec transfer rate.... teh holiest of shits! So, I got that going for me, which is nice.

Other news:

- My computer is not hooked up yet, this is Leslies, so no gamin' for me in the near future, not to mention that I have to go to the Pennywise wedding in Mexico this weekend, and probably won't make it back and to play Sunday night anyhoo, but I'll try.

- GTA:SA is pretty fun after you become numb to the rampant racist stereotypes and Mega Black on Black Violence virtually performed by a white guy in Manhattan Beach.

- Halo 2 is also fun, but no doubt way better in deathmatch!. Has anyone ever thought about XBox Live? I know not everyone here has an XBox, but those that do, ever thought about it? $70 and you get a years subscription and all the parts needed to play. It seems neat, but I don't think I want to do it just to play schleps, I'd rather play with and against The Action Team!

- Moving is brutal on both the body and the mind.

- That sucks Art. You gotta do what you gotta do, and remember there is always Kublacon in May, which is actually a better con so far, and will be had to beat. Next time!

Wednesday, November 10, 2004

Well.. fuck.


My plans to attend the Con in early December just took a major turn for the worse because of my in-laws making the mother of all F-ups. Sigh. I got clearance to take some time off from the boss around Christmas to go down to Vegas because the inlaws said they would help us out financially with Michelle being out of work for 3+ months and our budget being really, really tight. Well, instead of having us leave Thursday morning prior or Wednesday night and coming back on Tuesday morning... they bought tickets leaving at the crack of dawn on Wednesday and coming back on the red-eye (3am arrival, feh!) which more or less means I gotta now go BACK to the boss again and rearrange days off and fuck with everyone's holiday schedule.

Because they insist on buying such tickets from brokers, there is a fee to change the tickets for the broker AND the airline, which would cost a minimum of about $200 to fix this mess.. not including any increases in airfare.

So, it looks like I'm going to have to give up my 3 day weekend trip for the Con weekend in order to try and mend some of this up with the boss, fellas.. sorry. =(

Feh. I'm not happy about this at all.

Tuesday, November 09, 2004

Chill Redux

Ya guys, I REALLY wanna try and run a NWN game for the group. I'm almost done with my album (1 week maybe?) and then I'll be free to waste my time doing jack SHIT! And anyways, I'm really digging all the stuff in the Firefly Mod for NWN, and I'd like to give it a shot. I don't know shit about Traveller D20, but there's a free Lite version available, so I'll check that out, AND I'm gonna try and get into one of the Firefly campaigns someone is already running, just to see how combat and the different skills work out. The few campaigns running are supar-roleplaying stylee, ie lots o' acting, etc, but I'm more interested in seeing how the mechanics work. The files that the guy gives in his campaign hak include the main ship, a few others (shuttles, etc) and a HUGE town, some smaller ones, and some bases. I'm just now starting to watch some tutorials on the toolset, but if this actually gets close to being something I can do, I'll dive deeper into (and ask jon n crew lots of questions.)

Easy-Bake synopsis for those who ain't familiar wit the show: You'd basically be a crew of smugglers/traders/adventurers-for-hire in a realistic sci-fi/western setting. Ya. We'll see. I wanna raid my old Buck Rogers modules for some ideas. Also, someone is using the ModernD20 mod for a Fallout mod that looks pretty sweet - they're german's though, so who knows if/when/and how the english version'll turn out.

Going to the Eygptian Theater on Thursday for a Wizard of Oz/Good' the bad, and the Ugly Double Feature! YAR!


Oh.. and from the "WTF?" files..


I got accused of being a racist today by one of our customers because I relayed a message to him that the inspection company guy couldn't get near his home to take pictures because of an unrestrained, agressive dog in his yard. When I tried to call him back to figure out how, exactly, he came to the conclusion that I was a racist, he wouldn't talk to me and hung up mid sentence.

This was a bit disturbing.. and very funny to everyone else here in the office that constantly gets corrected by me for saying ethnically insensitive things such as "gyp" and referring to asians being "oriental". Sigh.

Oh well.. you can't win them all I guess. I sent him a letter trying to clear the air, with the supposition that perhaps he was mixing up whatever inspection guy was out there with me on the phone as being the same guy (we've never met in person), especially when our phone conversations have always been very candid and friendly. Anyway.. the whole thing is pretty bizarre. I can't wait to receive the inevitable phone call from the District or State office asking about this one.. lovely. This definately ranks in my top three most bizarre phone conversations of all time.

Regards,

O-Rugs The Cracka
OMG! Everyone, do yourselves a collective favor and..


Rent "Remo Williams: The Adventure Begins" immediately and watch while consuming mass quantities of Doritos and soda of your chosing. Good times.

A short review/recount of the movie:

Sam Makin, Newark, N.J. cop, is "killed accidentally", to be reborn as Remo Williams, the sole pupil of the greatest Assassin on Earth, Chiun, the master of Sinanju. He is trained in the "sun source" of all martial arts, to work for an organization that doesn't exist, to secure the liberties of the Constitution, outside the Constitution. In the process, he takes down a white-collar criminal who has corrupted an Army General, and seeks to rob the Government.

Seriously.. you must watch this movie. I think it's one of the most fun movies no one has ever seen.. LOL..


As for "Jack Burton".. surely you've seen "Big Trouble in Little China"!? It's Kurt Russell's character, who admittedly is not really a kung-fu kind of guy, but he does kick a lot of ass in that movie. That's yet another solid movie. I was inspired to look towards movies after the whole Drunken Master reference.


How about Master Liu in Crouching Tiger? Maybe that's too obvious/boorish of a character.. kind of like saying "Bruce Lee!".. or something. =]

Anyhow.. GO RENT REMO WILLIAMS. Seriously. Just do it. You can thank me later.


~O.

Monday, November 08, 2004

firefly do it!

So I downloaded the firefly mod haks and module for NWN to check it out, and it looks pretty cool! It uses the Traveller D20 rules, so when I made a guy, there were some weird skills i aint never heard of. Also, I guess it uses two kinds of damage, lifeblood and something like bruise damage. Since it uses the ModernD20 mod stuff, there's cool outfits ( i put my guy in a sex red dress) and I guess there's guns, although i didn't have any to start. Run it Jon! I would myself, but then I remember the one Chill game I ran... er, no.

That's sweet! Let's play this shit! Put together a one-nighter game or something for gencon! I was at the gencon sight, and it sez you gotta buy event tix to play in games or something? Seems pretty weak, but maybe I'm reading it wrong. or WONG if we play that kung-fu shit! HAHAHA! ...

They have for NWN a Firefly Hak! Well, it looks uber-beta, but the guy combined a bunch of shit from some d20Modern mod with his own firefly-related shit, and it looks kinda cool. The only mod he has is DM only, so if we wanted to download the 50 haks you need to play it, it might be cool. HAK!

Nice one..


I like the Drunken Novice. How about Remo Williams? (Am I the only human being to have ever seen this beautiful film?)

Maybe Jack Burton from Big Trouble in Little China?

Hehe.. the Pork Chop Express!
OK Rudy, I named your character "Rum Taggert." He's an Exalted of the Dawn caste (members of the Dawn caste are masters of war in all its forms). He's an extraordinarily graceful, quick fighter who brawls best when he's drunk. He's got enough money to buy food, clothes, and booze, he knows people in taverns all over Creation, and he has a wise old mentor who schooled him in the ways of drunken boxing.

He can activate the following magical abilities:

Ferocious Jab -- Rum's punches does double damage!
Fists of Iron Technique -- Rum's fists do lethal (instead of bashing) damage, and can be used to parry weapons
Sledgehammer Fist Punch -- Rum can easily punch through walls and shit
Heaven Thunder Hammer -- Rum's punches cause his opponents to fly back, sometimes for dozens of feet!
Ox-Body Technique -- Rum is supar-tough
Graceful Crane Stance -- Rum is extraordinarily limber, deft, and light -- can run along tree branches and so on.
Alcohol-Resisting Prana -- Rum feels the euphoric effects of alcohol, but it doesn't hinder his coordination, and he never gets hung-over.
Drunken Warrior Technique -- If Rum's been hitting the sauce (and when hasn't he?), he can add bonus dice to his attacks, dodges, and parries -- and he gets better the more drinks he has in him!
Reed in the Wind -- Rum is great at dodging attacks, but he really just bought this charm 'cause he needs it for:
Shadow Over Water -- ... which makes Rum PHENOMENAL at dodging attacks!!!
Reflex Sidestep Technique -- So you think you can fuck with Rum just because you're going to shoot arrows at him or some shit from behind? FUCK YOU, PAL! With this technique Rum can even dodge attacks he doesn't even know about!!!
Essence-Gathering Temper -- ("Essence" is the name of the magical ability used to fuel the Exalteds' powers) This technique lets Rum regenerate magical ability every time he gets hit! So you're think you're bringing him down, when you're really just making him stronger!!!

Virtue Flaw: Every Exalted is haunted by a curse from the past which can turn their moral strength into a horrible weakness. Rum is pretty brave, but when pressed to the edge he is cursed by Foolhardy Contempt, which causes him to challenge people to ridiculous fights, refuse to retreat, and put himself at the front of any combat!
Exalted the Kung-Fu Roleplaying Game

While I'm sick I'm good for nothing but re-reading the rules for Exalted, a really cool White Wolf game I'd like to run sometime. It's a fantasy game based on epic wuxia themes, in which all the players are basically demigods, like Greek heroes, if Greek mythology contained kick-ass kung-fu battles.

I'm bored. So, if anyone gives me a concept for a fantasy kung-fu character, I'll stat it out! Then I'll give you the character sheet at GenCon! What a prize!

Examples: old blind swordsman; kung-fu sorcerer; pirate detective!
Hey Aaron--remember how I took a nap at your place last Thursday? And how I borrowed a pillow? From your bed? The same bed that you and Aimey have laid on, sick, for about a week?

Not my smartest idea.

On Saturday I started feeling like shit. It's hard to muster energy to move things around and clean up my old room when I can barely think. The premise of driving a U-Haul for 6 hours tomorrow suddenly seems laughable. In fact, even picking up the U-Haul in 2 hours and driving it home seems like a near-impossibility. I think I got about 3 hours of sleep last night. I was having weird fever thoughts all night that were a mishmash of role-playing stuff and screenplay ideas. At least I think I got a couple of good ideas out of it.

I guess if I feel great tomorrow, I'll load up the truck early and then drive up in the afternoon. But I think it's more likely that I'll load the truck tomorrow instead and then drive up Wednesday morning.

My eyes hurt!

Sunday, November 07, 2004

YeHaaaaa,
Four more years of cowboy diplomacy and unilateralist policies


Uggg, I hate getting sick. As usual my head cold has drifted to my chest. Rule. Thanks for the BDay wishes boys. Go, Go, Gadget Whiskey, Lemon, and Tea.

In other arenas, after reinstalling windows I was able to get NWN to run on my Rig. I hope to get into the first adventures tomarrow during the day.

Jon: Give me a ring if you get in early on Tuesday. I can help you with unloading the big items before I go to work. Ill have to leave your place at 4pm, so if you get there ahead of that call me. You could probably lure Aimey into helping you if you ask nice enough. Free food almost always works.

O Rugs, I think tonight is a no go for NWN. Eric, I think, is still down computer + Inet access and Jon is out of town.

D>M>

"How can 59,054,087 people be so DUMB?" -Daily Mirror (as a Page One headline)
Gaming night..


I'm looking probable for tonight.. will check back in closer to 8pm and let everyone know for sure. Hopefully someone with the tech-knowledge to do so will be on and will be able to set up a hosted module. If not, we can always jump into one of the persistent world servers out there or do some WWII Online if we have the right mix of guys. Whatever works! I just wanna have some fun.

=]

~O.
Hrm?

I dunno if this is all old news to yous guys, but I found this site that allows you to play most of the Infocom games through telenet or something. http://infocom.elsewhere.org/choose.html

I don't exactly know what telenet is, but it worked- hrm. Checking out The Lurking Horror - never played it b4. They also have good color scans of all the books for the games.

Fuckin sucks about yer wallet jael! Man, that's one of my biggest fears. Good luck with it all dude.