Saturday, April 08, 2006

thanks for getting the update, art. Congratulations to the both of you! So glad to hear all went well and baby is healthy. Now comes the hard part! :)
Baby Update:

Spoke with Eric today. Wylie was born on 4.6.06 at 6:56am and is perfectly healthy.. 20 digits, two eyes, 7lbs 8oz.. and all that jazz. They are of course very, very tired (and probably beginning to realize they will never sleep again.. LOL).. but all is well. I told him to take it easy, relax, and to get back with everyone later next week after they can settle in and feel a little more human. Not that the first 2-3 weeks are anything less than total Realm-of-Chaos, mind you.. but at least some let up from the frantic no-sleep hospital stage.

A new Action Team Member. Wheee!
I'll see your Brokeback Mountain 2, and raise you one Romance of the Jedi.
BABAAAAYYYY!!!???

Man, the suspense/excitement is killing me. Heh.

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Re: Vitamin-ensteins. I'm mulling over some ideas. May not have time to do much on it/them until Monday-ish at best. It's hard to make vitamins sexy, that's for sure. LOL.

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Now, here's a movie I could get into (teh double standard!):

Brokeback Mountain 2

Thursday, April 06, 2006

HAHA

kudos. At first I thought that read "SCROTUM". heh.. Then all the brilliant ideas came to mind... From D's to Nutz. Hi-Seminary Count Formula...

ARturio: No specific color scheme, that's the $64k question, what's bright, catchy, well themed, fits with the name, ingrainable in innocent heads of gullible consumers etc. (as you know vitamins are vitamins... but shhhhh... mine is better cuz it's natural chemicals) =)

Johnny
Aaron: LOL
*resisting the urge to use a Chewbacca image pimping vitamins*

(LOL)

Are there any kind of culturally significant colors/designs/shapes that would be beneficial or important? I'll start screwing around and see what I can come up with for practice.
Rudaay: Hey man! sry I haven't joined the game yet last weekend.

EDIT Art: Hey thanks for the information on your Uncles company. My company is based in the Philippines, and I don't plan on distributing the products in the US against the multinats, so it's not in the immediate objectives to hire some big guns to do promoing in the US. (plus it's probably out of my budget =/ compared to value of money in the Philippines with local alternatives) But I appreciate the notion and I'll keep it on the radar!

As for photoshop theme, I am offering 3 products, Multivitamin Original, Multivitamin Silver and Multivitamin 4 Kids CHEWIES. You can probably get some inspiration at your local walgreens and other/ micronutrient manufacturers and look at their packaging. But CENTRUM is very serious medical kind of name, versus Kirkland, or Naturemade, which is aiming for a more congenial name but has less unique brand value but the centrum packaging theme is very bright and well recognized with their SPECTRUM bar.

=) Photoshoperrific eh?

Johnny
Oblivion Blather:

Wow.. there are, aparently, already hundreds of modifications available for the game that fix and tweak just about anything you can imagine. On point, someone is doing a shitload of work on an overhaul of the monster-level-scaling (and excessive loot) issue in the vanilla version of the game. If anyone has bought the game (or obtained it otherwise.. heh).. check out the following mods:

Obscuro's Oblivion Overhaul (monster scaling and loot mod.. SO GOOD!)

Weather/Ambiance mod that adds a bunch of nicely done weather/sky

Archer Shop modification, with really nice but really expensive items/arrows so you have to earn them legit-like


Man, this game is SO good. So, so good.
*nervously pacing in the waiting room*
What is the basic premise or selling point of the product? I can screw around and see about coming up with something photoshopperific. Do you have any specific theme, character or vibe you're going for?

Also, if you find yourself wanting professional brand/logo creation or other advertising services, my Uncle owns a successful advertising agency here in Vegas. I could probably hook you up with him if you so desire.
2 new lifes

JOMERCO Laboratories begins today.

I'm still having a little difficulty coming up with a strong brand name for vitamins, if anyone wants to pitch in any ideas, but anyhow, it's not really the letters, it'll be the look and feel of the packaging and the theme that goes into the name. So, come up with some Photoshop shit, serious or not serious! =) Brand name, design, theme, etc.

Congrats eric~! haylee and wylee can have their pictures on the box of my children vitamins. hehe. How do you guys think Kraig the Kangaroo as a mascot?

Johnny

Wednesday, April 05, 2006

I'm assuming labor has begun either by natural or induced means.. Now it's just a matter of time! Man, I was just looking at Haylee tonight and freaking out about how big she's gotten. Already pushing 32 inches at not quite 18 months. At this pace, I figure that puts her at about 36-38 inches tall at 2 years old, which is where "they" say to double the height and that gets you their approximate adult height. Quick mental math says that's a smidge over 6 feet tall. Woot for no dates!

Hehe..

Best of luck to the Hess' on this long, difficult, challenging, scary and thrilling journey long into the night/tomorrow.

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Oblivion update:

Broke down and bought it.. if for nothing else but to support Bethesda's non-use of anti-piracy crap. All that ever does is hassle the people that aren't the problem in the first place. HOWEVER.. I am not disappointed at all. Such a great, deep and immersive game! In Eric's defense, I believe he said he had just barely gotten out of the sewers (which is the very very first bit of the game prologue). Not having a manual probably hurts too. I tried jumping into the game without reading much of anything (despite having bought the strategy guide, too.. LOL) .. and found myself getting lost, being unable to really use the map or navigate the quest/sub-quest menus properly. Now that I've got the hang on how to do all of that.. WOW.. what a difference! I'm totally and completely in love with this game. I love how stealth works.. there are four unmounted travel rates you can select (slow/fast, stealth/unstealth).. all of which effect the radius and chance of detection by enemies. I'm playing a stealthy marksman/thiefy guy with some limited spellcasting abilities (mostly for self-healing and a wimpy ranged fire attack).

The first-person viewpoint is great. It is equally as simple to toggle back and forth between 3rd person view (travelling through the countryside) and 1st person view (combat, paying attention to detail) with just the click of your mouse scroll wheel. I've been playing for a couple of days straight now and I haven't even remotely scratched the surface of the game universe. You can spend your time scouring the countryside seeking out bandits and beasties to battle, go exploring caves, keeps, dungeons, towns, and be part of any number of sub-plots and interesting experiences. I think I'm going to start learning the alchemy part of the game next so I can produce some nasty poisoned arrows for my initial ranged sneak attacks. I just raided a bandit lair that had some juicy alchemy equipment that I think I'm going to put to use instead of selling (despite the wicked good value-to-weight ratio).

So far, the funniest experience I've had with the RAI (Radiant AI) has been in some ruins inhabited by a thieving/bandit party.. I was in full stealth mode, moving very slowly in shadows (lighting makes a BIG difference, which is pretty cool in and of itself).. I see a group of baddies a level below me in a clearing/courtyard so I line up a nice shot on one of them, let it rip, and duck back behind the wall. I start hearing all kinds of crazy commotion and battle going on below and start thinking (WTF?) to myself.. I go down the stairs and kill one remaining guy but there don't appear to be any bodies of any other badguy types laying about. What I found was that the two sword/knife guys left (after I picked off the third) turned and attacked their bow weilding friend in the other end of the room, thinking he had done the deed. LOL! Too funny. Horse stealing is fun, too. =)

I just downloaded three modifications for the game today, and they are all fantastic. One adds a nice little archer-specialized store just east of the main city, the second adds in about a dozen different weather/ambiance settings and the third makes the map and UI a little nicer. SO GREAT.

The only thing that I can see that might turn people off on this game is the high graphic card requirement for all the juicy goodness. Anything below a 6800gt is going to choke on the high settings I think. That being so, the 6800 series is now a generation or two old.. so I don't think that's all that out of line. The HDR lighting is just so so sweet.

Anyway, sorry to ramble. But, I thought I'd add in my little review of the game so far in what very limited time I've been playing it. I can see nearly unlimited replayability with different characters.

Tuesday, April 04, 2006

T Minus 07:30

Tick, tock. Tick, Tock. Tick, tock.....
o//
\\o
\o/ BABY WATCH!!!

Awwwesssome news! Hang in there and good luck!


@Arturo - my apt is split in two atm between here and home-sweet-home to be. Gonna try to squeeze some time in this week for "that which will not be named" but hope I ain't screwing anything up. All free time pretty much been sorting, trashing, packing, hauling. I disgust myself with all the shit I've collected. JEEZ! Email me with any news or needs.

Monday, April 03, 2006

BABY WATCH!
T minus 23:30 and counting...

23 hours til induction! Eep!

The past few days we have been making all the final arrangements, cleaning up, buying of additional hand sanitizers, cleaning of rooms, organizing of VAST amounts of Leslie's family and friends that plan on visiting, and staying sane. Oh, and being bored as all get out. I welcome change! ENTER WYLIE, STAGE LEFT.

We have played some Carcassonne, and I am now the proud owner of 3 expansions for the game! Have not played with the Dragon or the Builders, but we look forward to it!

Okay, that is all for now.

Eep.

Sunday, April 02, 2006

@Enron: Setup for "The Well of Truth"

OK man since you won the tactical advantage last game, you get to set up this one -- go ahead and set up before I get there if you want. Set up 6 "ruined buildings" 12" from the center of the table. (I have those 2 GW ruins that I'll bring by if you want to set down placeholders for 'em.) The buildings should not be closer than 3" to each other. Then set up 2 additional terrain pieces of any type at least 3" from any other terrain.

The idea is that models holding this ruin/area/whatever can search it for the artifact during their maintenance phase if they are the only models in it and if they are not in melee combat. For each area you hold, you roll a die and if any die comes up a 6 then a model in that area has found the artifact. From that point it's a race to get it back to your deployment zone. The winner gets super powearz in the next mission, is on the defensive, and of course gets to take home that sweet sweet punk rock architect Whitey Snakebitey.