Saturday, May 20, 2006

Yeah Jael, I agree with the statement that it's near impossible to find that "perfect" mature crowd you're looking for. In WoW, you have to get real lucky and find an awesome guild. I did it once for sure, and another time sorta. No matter what game you play, there are going to be jarks all around you. The worst I ever found though were in online FPSs. WAY worse than WoW in my opinion. The whole Shooter world is so weird with their clan servers and super elitist crap. It's fine, learn2play. I'm still playing Eve when I get little bits of free time. Again, I'm in a good "corp" and overall it's one of the more mature games I've played online, but it's also chock full of min/maxers and smack-talkers. I've dealt with very little smack, but if you check the forums regarding corporation politics, people get sad everyday. I thnk it's very entertaining though. So much drama, it's pretty rockin. But like I said, since there's lots of "computation" and number-crunchage involved, even a lot of the nice people are min/maxxers which irritates me a whole lot. (Added: Here's a map of the political landscape atm, I'm in a corp that's part of "The Big Blue" alliance. You can see out chunk of space. And it's little wrong, since we're not currently at war, but there's the idea: Look for BIG BLUE

yeah, my problems at home are of the "family-nature" so no detail needs to be given. basically, I moved back home into a pretty fucked situation, and after september staying here is no longer an option. SO, I get to figure out where to go next. Yeah, and since i have extra-bad credit, renting out here again looks bad, SF even more bad, so options are slim. I'll figure it out.

Shun the handshake boys, shun it all to hell.
Like the Police Acadamy Ref

I believe I posted the true scientific term a few days back: Retardusfuckwitis Internetus

Well corner office... No. Own office with a window... Yes. Rule!

D>M>
Johnny Five:

Finding inteligent, mature life on the internet is like going to the Blue Oyster bar and being able to find someone not wearing biker-leather. (Police Academy reference for the win!)

I find that for the most part, your "mature" crowd tends to show up more in realism-driven games like my flight simulators (when played in realism-servers), or war-games driven by realism such as WWII Online. Granted, there's always the immature idiot no matter where you go.. but the "game of the week" is generally going to guarantee you the largest concentration of internet 'tards possible.

If you're looking for some fantasy-jones but don't want to deal with the online idiocy, I'd strongly recommend giving Oblivion a try. With just a small handful of community made modifications, it has become the bestest most coolest fantasy game I've ever played. SO GOOD! Beware the Xbox version though.. you'll be stuck with the vanilla version of the game and all its faults for all eternity (until someone figures out how to haxxor the thing anyway).

Aaronious:

So they're keeping you on with the new team, with a corner-window office thrown in, sounds like? Sweet.
Sexual insecurity

Most of those people that do that I think are a little curious and unsure. Exploring socially deviant behaviors in a manner that does not expose them to social risks ordinarily involve in real world interaction. None of this is new. These jArks used to do the same thing back in the BBS days. Back in the wild west of networked computer socializing.

So my building finally sold on Friday. Dear god, it's only four months late from the original prediction. Now I wait to see if the previous owner jerks honor their pledges. Some how I doubt it. I will still be poor. Oh well at least I got a good job out of it.

I agree with you johnny, Laptops are the blurst for gaming. IMHO they are good to keep you enterained on the road/travling and working in coffee shops. Oh yeah great as portable PCs for trouble shooting networks and other PCs. The one I have gets the job done, and thats about it. I have never even tried to play anything other than low demand games like solitare.

I went and saw Inside Man last night and really enjoyed it. For those of you who like Heist movies, this is a good one to see (warning this is not a Thrillicom heist movie like Snatch). Good surprising ending and genuinely creative storyline. Although Denzel, as usual, bugs a bit, but not nearly as bad as some of his other roles.

Elzar: What are your thoughts on the moves by LA Kings. Although I was sad to see Taylor go as GM, I have to say I think the move is right. I mean the guy has bled Yellow/Purple, Black/white, Purple/Silver/Black for 30+ years. At least they are keeping him within the organization. No love lost with Phil Anshole. That guy was a dip. I think if they truly do announce Crawford on Monday it could be a good fit. I donno. I am really sad about them not making the playoffs but at the same time it should be a turn for the better next season. A renewal of disipline and respect between the players and the coach and less injuries for sure.

D>M>
A couple of friends at work are doing the full-court press trying to recruit me back into WoW. Bastards! I don't think I'll succumb, though. One of the arguments is that I could play with a bunch of people from my former job, but to tell you the truth, that's kind of the opposite of a reason to play.

Anyway I agree, the playerbase of the game are idiots. I can say with some expertise that there are not any popular games with mature players. I think it's just a matter of finding a group you like and only sticking with that group. I have heard that the RP servers are a little better than the rest, although

I know this guy who goes into WoW with a female character and cybers with people. Then he asks them if they want to go into Skype, and he reveals himself to be a man. WTF is that about?
can't play wow

my computer is elstinko. laptops are the worst, since they have only a bare 3-d graphics chip (no on board memory) and everytime i go into IF, it's reliving a framed bitrate nightmare. sniff...

For the guy talking about his wow characters at the convention: I wonder if there's a game out there that caters to adults-minded audience, not as in porno, but a mature crowd. What I like about in wow, is equally cancelled by the childish immature 12-18 year old punks that thinks they know everything and that the way they do it is the only "right" way. It's one thing to blabber it on the forums, it's another when you have to deal with it in the game.
Although i like to see a game where it bans anyone under 18 from playing (or anyone that doesn't have a fully developed frontal lobe and emotional control), that would eliminate a great 80% of your dedicated paying audience.

Just thinking out loud. I promise to write about more interesting things in the future.

Johnny

Friday, May 19, 2006

Quote of the day:

"Why on earth would you overclock a 7800? That's like adding spikes to a nuke so it's more intimidating."
LV, the scourge of the rug of the orient

Yeah I have no idea how you deal with that town. It is fun for about ohhh... two days and then, ugggg... Well I take that back. The two trips that Elzar and I made up their while you were living there was pretty good shit and those were something like 5 days long. Granted one of them was fueled by long hours of Doom II. However, only O rugs with his Civic's back seat human boost baster a la Sublime stylie, could make that happen for more than 2 days.

Honestly, Aimey and I have talking about getting renter's insurance for a while but have been procrastinating. I doubt my Auto insurance company will give me any deals. If they find out I am living in SF but have kept a comparatively cheap LA based insurance (ironic, but true) for 3.5 years, they would probably put my head on a lance and parade me around town. Go go gadget In$urance prices.

One more year eh? Sweet.

PS all this talk of sushi is making me hungry.
What happens when Aaron meets the unstoppable force?

Rhetorical question. Aaron doesn't budge a millimeter, of course. ;)

E-to-the-Hizzle: Hey, no worries man. I know the drill. My school schedule through June is pretty simple, I have Thursday through Sunday off every week until about July 5th or so. Without looking it up, I'm pretty sure it's the same thing in July, although maybe I don't get Thursdays. Not 100% sure on that. Worst case scenario, we'll either try to do a real quick drive by, say hello for a minute, drop the loot and keep truckin' on a greater trip through Cali.

ROOD: WTF, mate? If we can help out in any way, please let us/me know what's going on. That's why we're here.

Ja-el: Sucks about the banking situation. That doesn't make a whole lot of sense to me.. although when I worked for Farmers back in the day, we had a similar problem with th state of Texas. They had a completely seperate computer system and billing/claims system than the rest of the country for some unknown frigging reason. It was a serious hassle, and we had to deal with it all the time from the frequent military transfers up to Tacoma/Seattle from Texas area military installations.

School update: Been doing some hard calculatin' and I think there's a slight possibility I'll be able to graduate next summer if I can handle 18 credits in the Spring and can knock out 12 credits in the Summer. That'd be rough, and it would take a miracle to fit all those classes into my available class-taking schedule.. but it's a possibility. The sooner I can get out of Vegas, the better. I really have no love for this town.. I just can't handle the utter and total lack of community spirit, culture, or the overall "hey, up yours!" attitude of the transient residency.

Bonus track: I'm volunteering for a youth organization that teaches underprivledged children about business, finance and entrepreneurship. I'm looking forward to it, should be fun.
Gonzo Bankzor

Man, IMHO banks generally suck. Bunch of bureaucratic bastards. Oh wait... I think I work for one today, then again maybe I work for no one today... Long boring story. Banks are the best. Ja -El that money is not yours. You own the little print up that says $xxxxx.xx, but the money is all ours. MuwwHUHUHU! Seriously, I will be working for a company privately held by a bank. Booo.. Already the IT bureaucracy is killing me. The computers are going to be so nailed down I am going to pee myself with anger when I run into the first problem and their wonderful IT department. Especially when it will take more than a day to get it solved! Oh wait. That was yesterday, and it’s still not solved. a$$holes! WTF kinda company removes the ability to release and renew your IP when they have DHCP. Dicks! Gotta restart every time.

Rude: Yeah what’s the dealio. Inquiring actionteam minds wanna know.

Elzar, yeah Berkely is bank AND full of bums. Boooo... Nice place otherwise, if a bit to uber-nazi-liberal political for me. I can not say I have been to Sebastopol or Botany Bay. But I have been to Santa Rosa. They have a good pizza place and a lame strip mall that I went to. But that was all the time I had in Santa Rosa. Just passing through.

fArt: 10-15 dollars. Man that is one 'superb' order or two 'good' orders of sweet sweet Toro. Cant pass that up. Besides they smoke your Toro downstairs. How can I pass that up?

D>M>
*beach?*

you can buy a brand new beach here for practically the cost of a home in berkeley. Although you won't have the access to Top Dogs, but IMHO, overated. Although their garlic dogs are pretty good. Other concerns are trivial and don't even concern yourself with it. Beach and hot dogs.

Art: (psst... it's not all about santas helpers... it's about the boobs) I laughed at the Bush speech paraphrase. BTW Google video has some goodstuff too.

This, however, was too close to home! " It's easier to go to work, come home, plop down in front of the TV with a beer..."

Today:
I wasted 5 hours being driven to the city (just to withdraw money) just to be told that Citibank Philippines does not have interconnected access with Citibank US. WTF?
Me: "Can I withdraw 4000 dollars of MY money?"
Teller: "No. YOU can't. Okay?" (fuck-off you foreign infidel marring our country with your POS gangstar attitude and american imperialistic elitism) in not so many words.
Me: "Sorry."

I'm in the hunt for a used car, but since I can't even withdraw cash, I'm not sure how I can buy it. The only way is basically to start a local account and wire transfer money there to withdraw. yay.

Thursday, May 18, 2006

Ah, The Great Gay North

I assume that Berkeley would be out of our price range, as we are looking to buy, rather than rent, but I am sure I would like it. If I recall though, I think Leslie is somewhat tired of homeless hippies badgering her for change. She grew up in Santa Cruz as you know, and basically took mass transit everywhere she went, which leads to lots of panhandling, Dirty Hippy Stylee.

We are ever so casually, and without haste, looking in the Santa Rosa/ Bodega Bay/ Sebastapol region up there. Our goal would be to get more for less, and still maintain the beach climate to some degree, and stay NEAR the ocean. Neither of us have been more than 20 minutes from it ever, so we are a bit concerned about leaving it.

Seeing as HOPEFULLY the other house closes escrow tomorrow, and we end up not losing our shirts on the whole deal (we actually are), we have some options and some planning to do as to the future of the Hess clan.

NOTES:

- And Rudy, you gotta spill the beans man. A move like that requires explanation, even if it is brief! Do it! Whats going on?

- Picked up the British order of battle for ASL this week, so now the Americans can fight the Russians, and Germans can fight the Finnish, and the Brits can fight the Partisans. Is that how it went?

- Wylie smiles at me every morning as an ever so sweet morning time wake up. Adorable.

- fArt, I will have to check with Leslie about the June schedule. I know we have two weekends, and the middle of one week, already taken (does it ever end?), but I don't know which ones.
Ever considered a move to San Francisco! It's where all the cool kids are going. At least the kids who aren't having kids. I weep for their lost innocence, but those corrupted souls may not pass the guardian wards protecting this city of purity.

Random Thought: Aeryk. Ever been to Berkeley? I don't mean the hippie parts of Berkeley, but the rest of it. It seems like a place you might like. Just sayin'.
hi from the void! Or to keep with eric's wow redux, "greetings from the twisting nether!"

yeah, my life has been pretty topsy-fuxorington-turvy last month or so. It looks like in September I shall be moving again, but prolly a more major move. Something like up near Portland with my sister, or someplace completely different. Long and complicated story that i have no heart to write in a blog, but yeah, mean people suck. that about sums it up. so, without further adu, I vanish once more into the ether.
Sorry about that. Heh. I guess now that I'm out on break from school.. I've got too much thinkin' inertia-energy I've got to burn off. BTW.. is there a weekend after the 10th of June that works good for you guys to have some visitors? We'd love to drop by and say hello and drop off some goodies.
On point:

Getting women college students to sign a petition to end women's suffrage:

http://thatvideosite.com/view/2033.html
Oh shit! Now he's edjumucated!

We like to keep things light, meaningless, unnecessary, frivolous, and petty 'round these parts. We don't serve your "thinkin' man" kind here. So unless you are going to keep the discussion 'bout posting random pictures of Topless Santa Girls (Johnny), links to gay porn that crash your computer (Rudy), discussions about bloody hemorrhoids (Jon), Mila Jovovich (Denis), Baseball and related bullshit (Ryan), punting for your school (Mike), the nuances of computer parts (Aaron), and games no one will ever play (Eric), take your posts somewhere else.

We like our blog uninformed, uneducated, and unrefined, fucker.

NOTES:

- Back off the WoW wagon again. Wylie is relaxing/sleeping for serious chunks of time at night, so we like to keep him in the dark to let him know it's nighttime, and I am sick of watching TV, so back off the wagon I go!
GUY AT CONVENTION THAT TELLS YOU ABOUT HIS CHARACTERS>

Brothersimon: Male Human 46 Cleric Tailor/Enchanter
Whylee: Male Night Elf 25 Rogue Skinner/Leatherworker
Fared: Male Gnome 20 Warrior Miner/Blacksmith
Theride: Male Gnome 12 Warlock Miner/Engineer
Sueperbia: Female Dwarf 10 Hunter Herbalist/Alchemist

RIP Docnorvell, I feel silly for deleting him now, but it was something I needed to do for closure. Yeah, that worlked.

GUY AT CONVENTION THAT TELLS YOU ABOUT HIS CHARACTERS/>
And, I wouldn't really call myself religious.. no. I don't claim to belong to any sect or belief system really. But, I have been studying up on things, trying to get my own perspective and slice of the Truth. So far, no definitive answers. But, I have excluded a whole bunch of proposed "answers" by way of elimination. :)
Ah, I see. I guess I spend too much time elsewhere on Al Gore's Interwebnet these days. But.. no. Jebus and Allah aren't the same. Allah = Jehova = God. Unless you're into the whole trinity concept anyway (but then, who was Jebus praying to in the Garden then, himself? LOL) ... The big J is of equivalent standing to Mohhammed in the Islamic world as a prophet of God/Allah.. but not God/Allah himself. The big stink between the major religions of the world doesn't have much of anything else to do with except for disagreeing on the deity-status of the J-man, and how we aught to pay tribute to the Holies on the whole.

Even "Christianity" had to hold a vote at a council meeting nearly 400 years after he was on this planet (Council of Nicea) to formally vote on the establishment of the nature of, or level of, divinity of the Big J. If that doesn't spell out the relative uncertainty of things before the compilation and editing job (for uniformity of belief) of the anthology of scriptures (Bible).. I don't know what else can or would.

As for "most" Christians not understanding that.. that isn't really all that suprising, is it? Most folks can't point to Iraq on a map, or our nation's CAPITAL for that matter. Hell, nearly 50% of this country believes in the young-earth theory of fundamentalist Christian creationism (but don't ask them where God came from). Seriously now, I'm not making that up. Now, if a monumental tidal wave of ignorance isn't enough to scare the hell out of you, I don't know what is.

Most people in this world are complacent and pacified. They are content to believe, think and love/hate what they are told to by their "leaders".. never questioning the indoctrination and group-think. It's easier to go to work, come home, plop down in front of the TV with a beer and not actively use one's brain than to take an active role in exploration, thinking and to critically examine the world in which we live.

BTW.. got a huge "WTF" belly laugh out of Bush's speech the other night, calling for people to stop using hate and fear mongering to further their agenda one way or the other when it comes to immigration. I think Jon Stewart had the best retort, "Yeah, we need to save that for the Homos and Terrorists!"

Funny, but sad that most folks won't connect the dots of hypocricy.
Oh Shit Now He's Religious!

I compared Satan and Allah in jest, I was purporting to be a narrow minded fanatic Christian, but apparently my characterization was flawed and therefore my joke flopped. Also, I'm not so sure that Muslim and Christian folks believe they are one in the same (Jebus and Allah). I actually think there is some sort of schism between the two camps, but I'm not sure. I think I heard about it from a Mormon who heard about it from Joseph Smith's hat.
Also-also.. Aaron:

Seriously. Buy Renters Insurance. Just do it. There are so many things in life you have no control over.. whether it be getting robbed, a water pipe breaking in your place (or your neighbors place), the resulting costs of having to move and rent a place in the meanwhile until your unit is repaired or you find somewhere else permanent to live.. someone suing you .. so on and so forth. For the $10-15 a month-ish it would cost.. it is so worth it to protect all of your things and legal-financial self. The world is full of "things only happen to other people" people on the 10 o'clock news, crying about how they never thought anything like "this" could happen to them. Don't be one of those Jonses. I'm not saying you aught to throw yourself into a panic and become a hermit or *.phobe.. but you really aught to spend the equivalent of a sushi roll once a month on protecting all of your personal belongings and legal/financial self. Nevermind, most insurance companies offer discounts on your auto insurance if you get a package deal.

Dude, seriously, with all sincerity, please do it.
I enjoyed the book, but more for the premise and intellectual excercise than for the plot itself (which I thought was weak and served only as a flimsy delivery vehicle for the premise). Therefore, I belive the movie is going to suck, as most book-to-movie screenplay conversions are based on plot.. and.. well.. the plot sucked. Now, Demons and Angels was a much better PLOT.. but I didn't like the premise quite as much, even if it was a much better crafted story. The other thing that becomes readily apparent about The Code is that it uses the exact same template of characters (and very similar plot elements as well) as the first book Brown wrote.. which makes it a bit stale as well from a plot/craft angle. I strongly recommend both books (sans Digital Fortress). They are very, very good.

------------

Elrock, just as a point of order.. "Allah" is one and the same God as the Christian "Jehovah", which is about as far away from "Satan" as it gets. Islam is an offshoot of Christianity and holds true the Old and New Testaments. Think of Islam as an expansion pack for Christianity. Kind of like Mormonism. Muslims got Mohammed and Mormons got Joseph Smith as their latest and greatest prophets of God. The book of Mormon is an add-on to the original Bible. That being so.. they are still all based on a foundation made up of the same half-truths, purposeful exclusions and man-made mythos from the first unified church and Council of Nicea (held about 400 years after the whole "Christ" thing).

If you're looking for some words of wisdom and Truth, may I suggest reading the Gospel of Thomas, the Gospel of Mary, and the Gospel of Judas which were all discovered in the last few decades unaltered through the millenia.. and all banned from accepted Catholic cannon for the last 2000 years.. mostly because they say (in order), that you don't need a house of rock and stone (church) to be spiritual and connected to God/Yahweh/the-creator/nature/the-universe (or whatever designation / vision one might have of the circle of life), women aren't actually demons and Mary (Miriam, really) was more likely the highest ranking apostle than reformed whore as the Church likes to paint her, and finally, Judas was sacrificing his reputation and life so that Yahushua (his name wasn't Jesus) could shed his mortal shell and complete the whole prophecy thing.

I'm not even 100% sure where I stand on life, the universe, and everything, but I am pretty well sure that neither the Catholic church nor any of her harlots (Revelations 17) have it right. Also, Matthew, chapter 7 lays things out fairly clearly I believe. It's a short read, I whole heartedly recommend it even if for nothing more than intellectual/philisophical exercise. I happen to believe it a warning against Catholocism and her many offshoots who have clearly not born good fruit throught the millenia, nor have they stopped judging or done onto others.. so on and so forth. Now, it bears discussion on whether or not the Bible is really the direct word of God, or more of an anthology a la the "New Yorker" for the first few centuries.. a political/social commentary and collection of oral traditions, rites and rituals.

But, enough with the religious postulation. On to something more fun and light:

-----------------

YAY FOR ME. Spring Semester is officially ovar as of yesterday.. my last final. Now I get three weeks off before I hit the books again for three classes over Summer term. The great news is that I just got my final financial aid award information back and it looks like I'll have enough grants and scholarships to pay entirely for school without a dime out of my pocket. On top of that, I'm thinking seriously about accepting the student loans (both subsidized and not) because the interest rate is substantially lower than either my credit card or equity line of credit. Might as well replace higher interest debt with zero percent loans (or measely 3% student loans).

Wheeeeeee!

Big Daddy O
the reviews

i think the cardinal would have been better off letting the movie choke itself to death on as a "lousy movie" rather than igniting interest as an "anti-religious" movie. The cardinal could have brushed it off like so many critics as a "dull fictional movie, at best, that didn't translate well from book to screen" and that would probably have been it. But alas...


enron! Well if that's the kind of stuff they serve in that restaraunt, fire insurance is the least i would buy. Try health or life, with accidental iron and wood chip overdose.

Wednesday, May 17, 2006

Meanwhile, in my life, I've got a PS2 and have taken advantage of the fact to finally play bizarre, German-fetishistic, vaguely perverted Japanese RPGs. Yes I speak of Shadow Hearts 2. The only game in which you control a party consisting of a female German officer circa WWI with huge boobs and anime eyes/hair, an intelligent dog, a vampire who is trained as a pro wrestler and whose primary weapon is a mailbox, and Gepetto. I've also got Ico but fuck that solemn, poetic, beautiful bullshit.
Glogger© Nogger

Ja -El : They serve the best Medium Well done Sashimee® & Shooshee® eVar. Flame kissed over ALL natural "burning plastic fans" and "smoldering structural lumber".

YEEEHAAA Jester's nuts are dead.
doh box cars,

About fire-policies - I would probably get insurance provided that there were risks beyond my control that I absolutely would not be able affect the outcome. Me leaving the stove on is just too small of a chance and probably wouldn't happen or cause enough havoc to be worth it. Having a med-risk restaurant downstairs probably would make me think about it. Having a nuclear test site downstairs definitely TIPS the scale. I dunno, why is a japanese sushi restaurant using fire? Tell those murloc-slaying bastards to can it.

About movies - Its funny how when the church opposes a movie that it tends to draw more people to want to watch the movie. But it makes sense, since only about 20%? roughly 1 billion according to a site poll I read are catholic in the world. Ironically the movie probably does much better when it gets condemned. But I guess the desired effect is achieved by keeping it's religious members away as the latter probably wouldnt be swayed regardless. I probably won't watch it unless my friends happen to have a dvd copy or if it's on the plane and I have nothing else to watch.

Blogger: damn blogger.. was down and took me 10 minutes to log on. Surprised google hasn't changed the name of blogger to something like bloogle.
The eNron "Firehouse Java Love" Banjo-man Combat fuck da Vinci Code

You know any movie the church bans or otherwise has a hissy fit over, I wanna see. I had no interest in seeing Da Vinci Code before. It just didn't interest me. Plus I have not read the book. But now, well you bet your last dollar I will go see what the latest stick in the church's ass is. Or maybe I am too lazy. Yes, yes, too lazy to complete the training. Too lazy to rebel. Wait on that bet, you might lose some money. I donno.

I think spending more money on miltary, a la National Guard at the Pimentos and Shit border, is a great fucking idea. Why not enlist the entire country's productive population to stand evenly dispersed along the entire US border/coast with machine guns-a-ready. Gotta protect our borders from the sinister invaders.

D>M>
Th Da Enron Code

Hell, even if Enron DID have renters insurance, he is still an idiot. J/K d00d, rofl, xoxoxo, plz thx.

So the The Da Vinci Code has recieved putrid reviews from pre-screens apparently, and the Catholic Church and Opus Dei cells the world over are pissed, scared, protesting and attempting to get the movie banned. This seems like a perfect setting for some Holy Wars on everyone's ass! I think Hanks, Brown, and Richie Cunningham are all Muslim Athiests who hate the church and love Satan and Allah! (but seriously, is there difference?)

One quote I enjoyed from the CNN article was this:

The National Council of Churches in Singapore, which also had requested a ban, planned lectures to refute aspects of the film and the book on which it is based. The censorship board gave the movie an NC16 rating, barring viewers under 16, arguing that "only a mature audience will be able to discern and differentiate between fact and fiction."


Three cheers for the censorship board. They have a perfect handle on the age when kids can tell fantasy from reality. If I recall, when I turned 16 I finally realized that D&D was just a game, and that I wasn't really a sterile, hairless, muscular dwarf living on a harsh desert planet that hung out with an insect man that would flay humans and stick the flesh on his shell to make human jerky and then offer it to other human friends that we hung out with as a joke.

And also Chocolate Winter was NOT really my girlfriend.

I'm still going to see the movie cause a) Dan Brown needs a new Lamborghini, and b) I thought the book was fun and clever and would like to see how they made a movie out of it. I think it will be bad.

And never read Digital Fortress by Dan Brown. It was a stinker.
Mi pene es el pene del fuego

Fortunately the foul BBQ smell has dissipated in all areas aside from the stair where a faint smell lingers. On the other hand, the lady downstairs may not be so fortunate. Time will tell on that one.

Renter's insurance you say? Never heard of it. Let's just say I like to live life dangerously. I’m a gamer, die rolling is in my nature. I figure my odds are long for a repeat performance now. I would definitely be throwing money to the statistic gods now.

Pump: Yes it probably was the shortest drive that firehouse has ever had to make on a call.

D>M>
Enron:

Your renters insurance will cover smoke damage to your property if it's gotten into your shit and has made it all smell like BBQ (just depends on how bad the smoke was in your unit.. but if the alarm was going off.. it had to be pretty bad). Renters insurance will also pay for you to live in a different place/unit while your place is getting cleaned and your shit is being replaced. If you don't have a renters insurance policy with replacement cost on it.. you're an idiot for not paying the roughly $10-15 a month to protect your domicile and goods.

=P

But, seriously. If, for some reason, you don't have Renters insurance.. for the love of Oy-Dats-My-Leg, call your damn insurance agent and get it.

Tuesday, May 16, 2006

My parole officer says it's ok to post here as long as I don't talk about making explosives or goat porn... Hello everybody!

Aaron - Isn't the fire station across the street? Glad to hear there was no serious damage to your place.

Has anyone tried Pandora.com? You create a radio station based on favorite songs and artists. Based on scientific analysis of said entries (yeah, they get dissected and die), the site offers similar music. I'm creating an all Milla Jovovich station to find more artists to torment Eric with. No really, I'm serious, I really do listen to her music...
Hoorah for the firemen

Okay so now that I can not sleep, I will share my temporary insomnia... I woke up about an hour and a half ago to the sound of a fire alarm going off. I could smell the hints of burnt in the air. In my grogginess I looked about in the kitchen thinking maybe I left something on in the kitchen that was burning. Once I started waking up I realized the alarm was downstairs. Then a minute or so later my alarm sounded. D'oh. I went down to the common area to see two of my neighbors talking. Find out the neighbor below had been the first alarm to sound. We all went out side and could see the restaurant below had a kitchen fire burning. Great! One of us called the fire department; I guess we could have knocked... Anyway they came out and another truck came within five minutes. Then two more, including a hook and ladder. Then the Heavy rescue ambulance. Then the fire marshal. They went in and worked on the kitchen for a bit, and then they went in to the neighbor's apartment and extended the hook and ladder onto the roof. At this point we all started freaking out a bit. Just a tad bit scary. Long story short looks like the burner was left on in the kitchen and lit up the place after a few hours of running.

My place smells like one giant fireplace used for slow roasting plastic fans, built up grease and wood, with subtle hints of mangy dog odor. The fire probably burnt in low oxygen for at least 30 minutes before the alarms went off. This has created a nice aroma that I am sure is going to linger in the air for the next week or longer. Yeaaah firemen, boo fire.

Suck it Trebek.

O: yeah Sorny is going to get a bit hurt I think. Consumers are going to shy away for a while and they are looking down the barrel of an estimated loss of $400 on each unit sold at the current price point. Gigantor losses per unit. Worse then the Xbox losses ever were in the begining. The big ouch is the damn Blueray drive AND Hard disk combo. Hard drives are hard drives and never go down in price below a certain price point because of their mechanical complexity and Blueray is appearently very expensive to produce. Although Blueray will probably come down in cost with economies of scale in its favor in a few years, assuming that consumers buy into it as opposed to HD-DVD or snubing both medias. The first Blueray players go on sale soon and will start at $1000-1500/unit. Also, since the PS3 OS is Linux and can easily be hacked, piracy is going to be a major concern in Asia. I think the 360 and Wii are a little less ambitious and are more apt to succeed.

D>M>
Hey, magically.. I can post again. Something Java-licious was the problem.

True, I have nothing of worth to say. But.. I can post.

A finals-week haiku:

Brain turning to goo
At 'puter for so long now
I can't feel my legs

======

Enron,

That's the beauty of it though. If they price it too high and no one buys it, then the price will come down anyway and people will buy it. Likewise, if they price it too low and every unit sells out immediately (360), then they've screwed up badly and have underpriced their product. If $500 is a fair price, buy it. If it's not, don't. Vote with your dollars. :)

I love the smell of free-market economy in the wee hours of the morning.

/no-doze

Feh. Almost done.

On a good (yet slightly embarassing) note: My animation professor stopped class tonight (which is a last-minute, get-your-assignments polished up for final grading in two days lab-day), captured everyone's screen and made them watch my submitted animation term project as the standard by which their projects would be graded. Cool to be recognized but.. definately an internal (OH FUCK ME) moment as I suddenly had visions of a mob of angry geeks waiting in the parking lot for me.. especially because they all know I'm not even a computer major, also thanks to the professor. I felt bad for the rest of the class because I did spend a lot of extra-curricular time on the project prettying it up a bit.. but that was supposed to be for my own gratification and learning process.. not to screw up everyone else. =/

Elrock, Michelle and I have been contemplating a trip down to the City of Angels sometime in June. We'd definately like to visit with the Hess family. Is there a week/weekend that looks to be better for you guys than another to visit, or just whenever?

Sunday, May 14, 2006

i got a co-worker who's a huge hockey/sabre's fan (he's from buffalo) and he told me this story:

Link, rather than embeded video