80gb video ipod

I dunno why people throw such fits over having to use itunes. It's pretty slick to use and makes syncing with the ipod a snap. Within the first half hour of using the thing I had 10 cds worth of music and 3 podcast subscriptions setup. Most of that time was spent downloading the latest long ass diggnation podcast video.

Some other things I've been having fun with:

Battlefield 2142
Red Steel
Trauma Center

And I've managed to upgrade my server to use my old desktop PC. It's been a good vacation.

New blogger stuff

Yeah I converted. Not exactly sure what all the huff is. Seems about the same as it always has, but I'm not exactly what you'd call a 'power' blogger.

Child's Play 2006

Even the smallest donation will go a long way to helping kids that could use some holiday cheer. I personally am spreading the good word of Sonic where I can. No kid should go without experiencing the joy of those games.

Jesus Camp (dup)

Fucking post won't get made. This is a pretty sick video tho. I never thought I'd see a group of people so bent on manipulating children.

Ummm... yeah, nevermind, it posted. Still sick tho.

Jesus Camp

I dunno where the world would be without crazies. Maybe the grand Eutopia they seem to preach about all the time but do nothing to further our advancement towards? Yeah, probably.

Warhammer Online Sales Pitch

This alone is enough reason to buy and play this game when it comes out.

So how is the thing?

Pretty damn fun is how it is. Wii sports are a kick in the pants. At first I was kinda timid to really let loose on it, the window to the outside world is right there afterall, but after a few losses I had to cut loose. Mii's are pretty cute, but I dunno anyone else with a Wii so they're pretty limited. The channel idea is absolutely brilliant. I'm highly tempted to blow $10 on some Wii points so I can grab old school Sonic. Zelda, well what can I say, it's Zelda. They could paint Link on a paper bag, sell it, and it'd probably make best game of the year.

Two birds, one stone

Not only did I get a Wii, I got a Wii on the busiest shopping day of the year. The icing on the cake? I got it at the mall, the busiest shopping area on this, the busiest shopping day of the year. I pretty much rock.

Bill O’Reilly’s an idiot

If people are spending so much time escaping life and becoming "know-nots", how exactly are they able to afford nearly $1500 in video game consoles? That's not including the games, TVs, electricity, and shelter necessary to make any use of them. It sounds like it's not the gamers out of touch with reality here.

Wii

No Wii yet, it's too fucking cold to sleep outside of Fred Meyer all night. The good news is that it looks like the pipe will be full from now until christmas which means in a week or two I should be able to walk into your favorite local electronics department and pick one up. Meanwhile PS3 fans have been found all across the country crying themselves to sleep and reports indicate they'll continue to do so until some time next spring.

Universe asplode

I don't know if I like that because of the info in it or if because the music reminds me of playing Sonic the Hedgehog games back in the day. Either way, here's the ytmnd it references at the start:

New Size of Our World

Second verse, same as the first

And yeah, I know it's Dylan. Vedder just nails it that good.

Pearl Jam

Be a sad, sad day when these guys throw in the towel.

Lik-Sang shuttong down

So much for the last bit of hope I had for SE. I guess I was right in deciding anything playstation was evil.

In other news, new ATHF last night. Hillarious as always. And also this:

http://shadowdane.shackspace.com/cats.htm

is funny regardless of what you may think.

Cats in ur stuff doing things

This shit is too hilarious:

http://catsinurstuffdoingthings.ytmnd.com/
http://headcrabslol.ytmnd.com/
http://headcrabsrofl.ytmnd.com/
http://headcrabsrofl2.ytmnd.com/
http://www.yikers.com/picture_gallery_funny_pictures_animals_ceiling_cat.html

WoW on South Park

kekekek

Savior Sorrow

I dunno exactly how I feel about this album just yet. I like Mushroomhead's old work enough that any kind of change is bound to set me off to them. With the departure of J Mann and the inauguration of Waylon their overall sounds is sort of the same, but not really the same at all. I really miss the hip-hop influence J Mann brought, but Waylon has a really strong melodic voice that mixes well with Jeffrey Nothings hardcore style.

It's definitely a lot more metal/hardcore influenced than their older albums, which tended to be more metal/hardcore/techno/hip-hop. I guess I'm not really happy that they've taken the easier route, but the last few albums have sort of been gravitating that way so it's not entirely unexpected. I'd say a solid 8/10 for this one.

White and Nerdy

I dunno if the best part is Seth Green showing off the toy collection or Al buying a copy of the Star Wars Holiday Special from a street dealer.

Omerta

"Whoever appeals to the laws against his fellow man is either a fool or a coward. Whoever cannot take care of himself without these laws is both, for a wounded man shall say to his assailant, 'If i live i will kill you. If i die you are forgiven'. Such is the rule of honor."

Couldn't have said it better myself

From those same comments:

"The statistical likelihood of the average American being hit by some kind of terrorist attack is tiny. Tiny. You have more chance of getting a heart attack or being in a car crash. So why the fear mongering? Why are you so afraid? I remember when this country used to be full of brave people - 'the only thing we have to fear is fear itself.' Now its all this fear mongering bullshit from people like you.

I'm living my life the way I always lived it, and I refuse to give in to fear, and I categorically refuse to give up my FREEDOMS that my forefathers fought for, just because some fucking dumbass says I have to cower and quiver like a fucking coward."

One of the better Digg articles

Watch the video, read the comments. Good stuff.

Gloucester

Hot on the heels of traveling to NYC and living up east coast style, it looks like there's going to be a trip to Gloucester, England in late September or early to mid October. While a trip I would look forward to greatly, I was hoping to get in a trip to the cabin around that time to enjoy the cold weather again. They've been talking about sending us to the UK for some time now so who knows if it'll actually happen. I'd guess there's also another Toronto trip in the works for December or January but that's even more unsubstantiated than the UK trip.

New York

Leaving Monday at 2pm, returning thursday at 11am. Going to be a rough thursday as our flight leaves from LGA at 6am (that's 4am Idaho time). So far the plan looks like this:


Tuesday - work from 9am to 2pm, get some lunch and see some sights until dinner at a fancy restraunt finishing with a trip to the Barcade for some beer and video games

Wednesday - meetings most of the day ending with a yacht trip around the hudson bay


I'm pretty excited as I've always wanted to visit Manhattan. Hopefully we'll get to see ground zero, the empire state building (and the crysler building), the statue of liberty, central park, and times square. I'll make sure and take my good camera this time to get some shots of whatever it is we do get a chance to visit.

I have had it with these motherfuckin snakes on this motherfuckin plane!

This also hillarious:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h59p9kOZkLI

GP2X

Sweet shit this thing is cool. I think I'ma put python on it during my lunch break so I don't have to deal with getting these cross-compilers working. USB networking makes the thing a real kick in the pants too. Full access to the embeded linux they've got running on it. I can see many hours of fun wasted on this bugger.

Warhammer Online

This is probably the *only* game that will be able to pull from WoW permanantly. Why? This sentence right here pretty much sums it up:

"This is the game that will cater more to the hardcore Player versus Player."

This will be the game that finally topples the giant.

Google Browser Sync

This is pretty much the coolest way of keeping a multitude of Firefox copies sync'd together. I can finally have all of my bookmarks everywhere I go. I can even keep a seperate set for work and home (though it annoyingly needs two gmail accounts to do that).

I could set the world back on it's heals

So the same day my water's turned off because of a broken pipe, my baby breaks her toe and we spend our friday night in the emergency room. If you add onto this the dehydration induced headache and the coming of armageddon in the middle east I think we have ourselves quite the cosmic coincidence here. Perhaps as the toe heals, so will the bonds that tie our species together. Or something. Maybe not.

My gp2x arrives today so I'm gonna make a special trip out to pick it up. Hopefully UPS doesn't screw everything up by requiring someone to be there to sign for it. I'm not sure exactly what I plan to do with the thing but it'll be cool when I do it.

Also, the guild downed Ragnaros last night for the first time. First try of the night so that was pretty cool. We brought our A game and it showed.

Things to avoid feeding your dog

Grapes and Raisins
Chocolate
Onions
Garlic
Macadamia Nuts
Hops (the stuff they use to flavor and stabilize beer)

Lead PHP developer quits because...

ZEND, the company behind PHP, is run by two Israelis. Apparently he's angry because the US blocked the UN from condemning Israel for attacking a UN post in Lebanon. I don't know what's more disturbing, that this guy would quit over something like this or that my own country is actually defending what's going on over there.

So true

Screw you marketing.

My painful third nipple

Apparently getting shot in the side with a paintball creates a sort of third nipple looking bruise. I'm happy it's finally starting to look more like a bruise now, I was afraid the thing was going to start leaking milk soon. Next time the fellas and I will have to go somewhere we can run some better tactics and maybe take a stab at a CTF type game or something. Team last man standing in a tiny warehouse can only go on for so long.

I'm also happy this week is that final week. Yes it means less time to run 5 mans and farm mats I need, but the tradeoff will be well worth it.

Rabbit Killer

I can't have my baby eating any old generic rabbit. No, it can only be the special rare breed rabbit the neighbors left unguarded in their garage. That's the rabbit for my girl.

Home

God damn it's hot here

8 Cheap Places

Dug that story today. Minneapolis was actually kind of nice flying over it, though to read about it you'd think the place was a racists dream come true. Between that and the crime I'd say it'd be ruled out. Olympia, though. That one looks pretty nice. The interstate runs between the coast, Olympia, and Seattle. Seems like it'd be the place to be and yet only 40k people? Guess them hippy kids at the university end up chasing everyone off or something.

Boise news... in Ireland?!?

I've been following this crazy story about a guy that was in a head on collision with a lady and her two daughters here locally. The lady and her youngest daughter died on impact while the eldest daughter survived. The interesting thing is that there was an additional severed head found at the scene of the accident. The head of the wife of the guy driving the truck that hit the car with the lady and her two daughters in it.

While somewhat interesting and such what really amazed me is that while perusing Google News today, I came across the story being carried by the Ireland On-Line news. Now if that in itself isn't strange enough, I've linked up there to all of the sites carrying this story (according to Google News, anyway). At the moment, there are over 300 sites carrying it, including Reuters, ABC News, Times Online, and USA Today. I suppose the world really is that small of a place.

N3

Q4 '06? I can only hope.

The dangers of WoW

roffles

Junpei invades AG

I have high hopes that Hawk and Ananth will make good use of the characters and styles left behind the wake of MegaTokyo going to the girls. I can't help but chuckle a bit at the joke strip a bit.

Stolen sidekick

I'm sure we've all dugg this story by now, but I'm still somewhat amused by it.

Seriously

Awesome

New grep features

That gets me all warm in the pants.

Flogging Molly

Whiskey on a Sunday
July 25th, 2006

Ouch

Things like that are why I'm always a little worried about leaving my laptop on all the time. It also serves as a reminder to why even though I despise Kevin Rose and everything he touches, I continue to find far better things at digg than slashdot. Times change, I suppose.

Did anyone else know Morgan Webb got a myspace?

Things you need to know and probably don't

Found this article on digg today. I'd like to highlight a few things:

For better sex, crank the thermostat way, way up. Working on the same concept as Bikram, or hot, yoga, this momentary splurge on your heating bill will have you breaking the social taboo of getting sweaty together. Taboo-breaking ups her vulnerability and makes her feel closer to you. Plus, everything will just be a whole lot slipperier.

To get your partner in the mood, turn down the Barry White and feed her Good & Plenty. In a study by noted Chicago smell researcher Dr. Alan Hirsch, women exposed to the scent of licorice experienced a 13 percent increase in vaginal blood flow. That compares to a 14 percent reduction from the scent of barbecue smoke.

In a related study by Hirsch on penile blood flow, topping the men's list was an interesting pairing of lavender extract and...pumpkin pie. The number two slot? Licorice and doughnuts.

If you think yoga is a great way to meet hot women, think again -- it's a great way to meet hot, turned-on women. Certain poses, such as the eagle, direct blood flow to a woman's pelvis, increasing sensation, says Rutgers sex researcher Beverly Whipple.

Oh em gee, House, oh em gee

Was thinking to myself this morning about how last night's House was pretty good and how I wished I'd not deleted it so I could go back and watch it again knowing that all of the dialog was entirely internal. Naturally I got a bit curious and did some digging into the episode. A few things I found out:

1) The guy that shot House, his name is Jack Moriarty. If you know anything at all about Sherlock Holmes and the connection House has to it, you know why that name is so cool and important.

2) Jack Moriarty was played by Elias Koteas, aka Casey Jones from the Ninja Turtles movies. How cool is that?

3) The character that plays Wilson (aka, Dr. Watson) was in Dead Poets Society as the kid that was going to be a doctor but ends up shooting himself.

The pooper

The pooper here at work has a tendency to run a lot. Jiggle the handle a bit and it usually rights itself fine. The thing that's kind of strange about it is that it's not a public bathroom, only one toilet, so you have to give a knock before using a key to open it. When someone's inside they tend to give a head's up before you start opening the door so you don't walk in on them. I also tend to give a listen for water running so I can wait a second for someone to finish up washing and walk out (the reason for this is that a lot of people will give the don't come in noise while washing their hands, so you go back and sit down for another 10 minutes or so for no reason).

Somehow I've developed this dellusion that I'm going to walk in on someone who didn't hear the knock because of this running toilet. This has caused me to be a bit more cautious when opening the door, just in case. Today was one of those generic days like that, where the toilet was running so I gave a knock, got no response, and opened the door up to the welcome site of a cold, dark, water closet with a running toilet that just needs a quick jiggle of the handle.

As soon as I sat on the toilet, however, a thought occured to me. A thought that really is the point of the whole tale. What would one do when faced with an incoming turd and a dead man at the sink of said facility? What if the last fellow to use the crapper had himself a heart attack right there at the sink, hands only partially washed and you walked in on it while on the brink of ejecting excrement through your pants and onto the floor? Would you call for help or take your dump? I honestly don't know what I'd do. So many factors are in play here. Is it an explosive dump or just a casual time killing run of farts? Does the dead guy stink? Has he bloated yet? Each case has a different answer, I think. What would you do?

Another winner

This one's funny just because he says whoopitty shit:

"I can't stand cowards/whiners/pussies and their "it's too soon!" bullshit. Immediately isn't soon enough for things that offend people.

For some reason, people have this idea that they have the right to never have their feelings hurt. Well fuck them. If being offended by stuff is the worst thing that ever happens to you, then you've lived a charmed life.

I swear, when a people are so spoiled and safe that they can get upset about a VIDEOGAME, it's time for war. Spending a few hours every night in a shelter waiting for the tanks to stop shelling your neighbourhood is just the kind of thing people need to remind of how enormously trivial a videogame is. Seeing your neighbours being taken away to deathcamps is good too. I suppose going to a deathcamp yourself might serve as a reminder, but you would never really get a chance to implement that knowledge...

To summarize: it's just a videogame. Whoopitty shit. Find something serious to care about, like the fact that the USA is adopting fascism, or that Europe has become a power-keg for racially/religiously/economically driven violence. Those things matter. Videogames based on what was possibly the smallest massacre in human history do not."

I really find it funny that people think a game like this will inspire copycats. Are we really so naive that we believe a video game is the difference between an upstanding citizen and a sociopath? That somehow if we could just keep murderers away from TV and violent entertainment they'd be reformed? Things like this do nothing but further my contempt for people today.

Yeah, I laughed. There a problem with that?

So I've linked to an article up there about a new game based on the Columbine shootings. Naturally I'm opposed to it, but my country is one that allows us to do and say as we like so long as we don't infringe upon the inalienable rights of others, so I'm not freaking out demanding the people's heads over it.

I was doing like I tend to do and read through some of the higher moderated comments about the article when I saw this gem and felt I just had to share it:

"Compared to WWII, all those other wars (plus Columbine and 2001/9/11 for that matter) were about as tragic as a guy stubbing his toe. No disrespect intended for the veterens of these events, but compared to 62 Million deaths from combat, bombing, starving, nuking and mass genocide, every other nasty event in the four thousand odd years of written history of violence seems like a jolly piece of fun."

The general debate raging seems to be about how we find it okay to glorify and defend things like WWII games and violent games such as the GTA series, but when someone recreates something like the Columbine shootings we go up in arms about it. Somewhat interesting to see the various sides of it, especially when one considers that delicate line of defending free speach vs defending morals and values. I also thought this comment was a good one:

"WWII makes a good setting for a game for a number of reasons.

It fits a basic good v. bad story model, as it's hard for there to be much of a grey area when one side is shoving people into furnaces and gas chambers.

The combat was very mobile and the weapons are interesting--no boring trench warfare (I imagine a WWI game as playing more like Oregon Trail than an FPS; "Billy has trenchfoot!") and no fire-then-reload-for-a-minute (the ONLY reason a Revolutionary War FPS hasn't come out, and the community total conversion mods that have tried it were never very popular).

There's machinery like tanks and aircraft, but it's not fire-and-forget yet. You still have to see the enemy, dogfight, etc. Fast-paced and up-close action.

Luckily, the WWII setting also makes for some great experiences for the player. One can experience just a little bit of the horror of infantry combat in the mechanized age. It's hard to get across some of the horrors of other wars in the medium of the video game--again, trench warfare would be silly (It's the WWI choose-your-own-adventure game! *you are being shelled AGAIN. Do you a) wait it out or b) go 'over the top' and get mowed down by a machine gun?*), while much of the horror of wars like Vietnam weren't the *action*, but rather the way that day upon day of tension might play out after a close call that lasted maybe a minute.

I really do feel like a have a better handle on what that war was like after playing several WWII games. I'm NOT trying to compare it to the real thing at all, but I know that the first time I played the crossing-the-river scene in Call of Duty and "our side" (the Russians) called in a massive artillery strike less than 100 yards from where I was sitting, I was physically shaken afterwards. It's 1/2 of 1% of what the real thing is like, but it's more than you'd get anywhere else (outside of actual war, I mean). It gives a person a new respect for what a bunch of ordinary people went through over there, and what they accomplished in spite of it all."

Gyration

Was talking to a buddy yesterday about some cool new tech when he brings up this fancy new gyro-mouse thing he played with at Micron. Apparently these people are the ones that came up with the Wii controller. I'm now quite curious as to how well something like this might work with some of my PC games.

House

From the digg comments regarding the below 'disease':

"Sounds like a job for House."

I think that's probably why I find the whole thing so interesting.

Also, check these pictures out:

http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/fighorfly/detail?.dir=2aa4&.dnm=fa04.jpg&.src=ph

Is it just me or does it look like a bath and some hand lotion is all this guy needs?

Morgellons

This is some crazy x-files shit here:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morgellons_disease

Check out the links at the bottom where people take pictures of it. I originally came across this via some epidemic in Texas. Thousands of these people with fibers coming out of lesions that no one else seems to see. It's absolutely insane.

PS3 vs Wii

PS3:

$500 low-end model
$600 high-end model
A controller that looks functionally the same as the PS2 controller as well as having features jacked from the Wii controller
E3 presentation a let down:

http://blogs.guardian.co.uk/games/archives/2006/05/09/ps3_conference_letdown.html
http://blog.wired.com/games/index.blog?entry_id=1476047

Wii:
A new style of controller that wasn't jacked from one of the three big players
A speaker in the controller
27 titles available to play at E3 (that's a really big number for a not-yet-released console)
A Wii only version of Twilight Princess (the new Zelda game) in addition to the Gamecube version (both of which are actually playable on the Wii) - both will be out by launch
E3 presentation better overall, but more fluff than substance:

http://www.gamedaily.com/e3-2006/e3live.asp?p=&fn=Nintendo-Press-Conference

Blame Hofmann

Nurse: Excuse me, doctor, do you have a moment?
Doctor: A moment? What's the question?
Nurse: More of a situation, a gentleman in Exam 3.
Doctor: What's the problem?
Nurse: That is the problem: we're not sure.
Doctor: You've got the chart?
Nurse: Right here.
Doctor: Hmm... not much here, is there?
Nurse: No doctor, no obvious physical trauma, vitals are stable.
Doctor: Name?
Nurse: No sir.
Doctor: Did someone drop him off, maybe we can speak to them? Let's get some background on this fellow.
Nurse: No ID, nothing, and he won't speak to anybody.
Doctor: Well, let's say hello.
Doctor: Good morning, I'm Dr. Watson. How are you today? How are you today? Look son, you're in a safe place, we want to help you, in whatever way we can. But you need to talk us, we can't help you otherwise. Now, what's happened? Tell me everything.

--------

Alrighty, then ... picture this if you will.

10 to 2 AM, and
actually eating up, you know,
a box of Krispy Kremes,
at my need-to-know post
just outside Area 51 contemplating
the whole "chosen people" thing
just when a flaming, stealth banana split the sky, like, wide open.
I never expected to see it in a place like this.
I do believe I spilled something wet
right on my Birkenstocks.
Then yelping

Holy fucking shit!

Then the X-File being,
who was like some kind of blue-green Jackie Chan
with Isabella Rossellini lips with breath that reeked,
did a wicked jump there
also while making the sound a-banana-da-banana
hovered above my bug-eyes, my gaping jaw,
and my sweaty L. Ron Hubbard upper lip,
and all I could think was,
"I hope Uncle Martin here doesn't notice
that I pissed my fuckin' pants."

So alive in this way
Like an apparition,
He had me crying out,
"Fuck me
It's gotta be
Deadhead
Chemistry
The bottom got on top of me
Got me seein' E-motherfuckin'-T!"

And after calming me down
with some orange slices
and some fetal spooning,
E.T. revealed to me his singular purpose.
He said, "You are the Chosen One,
the One who will deliver the message.
A message of hope to those who choose to hear it
and a warning to those who do not."
Me. The Chosen One?
They chose me, and I didn't graduate from fuckin' high school.

You'd better...
You'd better...
You'd better...
You'd better listen.

Then he looked right through me
With somniferous almond eyes
Don't even know what that means
Must remember to write it down
This is so real
Like the time they floated away
See, my heart is pounding
'Cause this shit never happens to me

I can't breathe right now!

It was so real,
Like I woke up in Wonderland.
Also a bit terrifying
I don't wanna be all alone
When I tell this story.
And can anyone tell me why

It was a repeat experience
Will I ever be coming down?
This is so real
Finally, it's my lucky day
See, my heart is racing
'Cause this shit never happens to me

I can't breathe right now!

You believe me, don't you?
Please believe what I just said!
See they're telling the truth
And this wasn't all in my head.
See, they took me by the hand
And invited me right in.
Then they showed me something
I don't even know where to begin.

Strapped down on my bed
Feet cold, eyes red
I'm out of my head
Am I alive? Am I dead?
Can't remember what they said
God damn, shit the bed

High...

Overwhelmed as one would be, placed in my position.
Such a heavy burden now to be the One
Born to bear and read you all the details of our ending,
To write it down for all the world to see.

But I forgot my pen
Shit the bed again ...
Typical.

Strapped down on my bed
Feet cold and eyes red
I'm out of my head
Am I alive? Am I dead?
Sunkist and Sudafed
Gyroscopes and infrared
Won't help, brain dead
Can't remember what they said
God damn, shit the bed

I can't remember what they said to me
Can't remember what they said to make me out to be a hero
Can't remember what they said
God help me!
Can't remember what they said

Don't know, won't know

God damn, shit the bed!

Right in Two

Angels on the sideline,
Puzzled and amused.
Why did Father give these humans free will?
Now they're all confused.

Don't these talking monkeys know that Eden has enough to go around?
Plenty in this holy garden, silly monkeys
Where there's one you're bound to divide it
Right in two

Angels on the sideline,
Baffled and confused.
Father blessed them all with reason,
And this is what they choose?

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs they forge a blade
And where there's one they're bound to divide it
Right in two

Monkey killing monkey killing monkey over pieces of the ground.
Silly monkeys give them thumbs they make a club,
And beat their brother down.
How they survive so misguided is a mystery.
Repugnant is a creature who would squander the ability,
To lift an eye to heaven, conscious of his fleeting time here.

Cutting it all right in two

Fight over the clouds, over wind, over sky
Fight over your lie, over blood, over anything
Fight over love, over sun, over nothing
Fight till they die.
Over what? For their ending

Angels on the sideline again,
Benched along with patience and reason.
Angels on the sideline again,
Wondering where this tug of war will end.

Cutting it all right in two

10,000 Days

Pretty good album. Was a little worried it'd be more of the same but in a lot of spots it really shines. Takes me back a ways.

Also, Scott Kurtz put up a pretty good rant about the new Star Wars re-release of the non-re-release original episodes. I know I'll shell out the cash for them, but I have to agree that it'd be nice of I didn't have to feel like George Lucas is just fucking with me all the time.

Wii??

God damn it. Everything starts out all badass like, "Revolution, backwards compatable, huge library of games to download" and what do they do? They gay that shit up by replacing the Revolution with Wii. This is almost as bad as replacing Dolphin with Gamecube. No, you know what? It's worse. It's worse on so many levels. So what's the silver lining here? Xbox 360 is a stupid name and so is Playstation, which means that apparently, people are just too stupid to care.

Has it really been that long?

Been thinking a bit about the last great summer. Probably because of this new PC and having spent some time with the fellas recently. Takes me all the way back to playing Starcraft and Rainbow Six every day at work. Having LANs every other friday in the high bay. It's somewhat disheartening to think days like that are gone for good. The crew is splitting, the resources are no longer available, and without someone to watch the dog everything generally gets put off until a more suitable time. A more suitable time almost always being 'when everything calms down', which is really just a nice way of saying when we're all dead.

In some ways it doesn't help that this blog is now nearly two years old and started right in the prime of those days. I go back and read that garbage now and even though it only hints at certain things, I know from the memories that everything was far too self-centered to have actually been worth jotting down. This is why even though I remember a lot of the best things that happened, they don't show up anywhere. So now here I am, wanting to run through Battlefield Vietnam and Unreal Tournament 2k4 just to try and relive those times gone by. I know it won't be the same and that I'm better off sticking to WoW, where I can chat with Joe for a bit, F.E.A.R., Dawn of War and Quake 4, but the idea still lingers.

So what do we have in store for this summer? A trip to the cabin. Hopefully a few LANs and other such get togethers with those of us that remain. I've already blown my one cosmic twist for this year which can only mean I'll spend far too much time working and not nearly enough time doing anything that I'd really like to be doing. Maybe I'll buckle down and dip my feet back into the ocean that is programming for fun and enjoyment (something I haven't done for an amount of time that only serves to further depress things). Only have 80 or so more years of this crap to look forward to.

Amadan

Friday, May 5th at the Ha'Penny. Clear your shit.

Misanthropic

You really don't get any truer than that.

Trash in the Storm Drain

Wierdest thing just happened. Couple of ladies came by the storm drain here, put some pre-trashed trash on it, polished off the "Don't dump yer trash here cuz it drains to the river and kills fish" medalion on the street, and then took pictures of it. I'm betting I'll see this in the Boise Weekly next week.

A Generation

Some songs I grew up on that I think have brought about a few personality quirks:

Alice in Chains - I Stay Away, No Excuses
Stone Temple Pilots - Vasoline
Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs, Closer
Nirvana - Heart Shaped Box
Soundgarden - Black Hole Sun
Red Hot Chili Peppers - Under the Bridge, Give it Away
Jane's Addiction - Been Caught Stealing
Pearl Jam - Jeremy
Smashing Pumpkins - Today, Disarm, Rocket
Beasty Boys - Sabotage
Snoop Dogg - Murder Was the Case, Who Am I (What's My Name)?, Gin and Juice
Coolio - Fantastic Voyage
Warren G and Nate Dogg - Regulate
Dr. Dre - Nuthin' But a 'G' Thang

I can still remember staying up late at night to watch Kennedy on Alternative Nation any time I was at a place that had cable. I can't imagine what the kids do these days. Stay up and watch the real world? Anime on adult swim? Surf the net for porn? Whatever it is, it's a damn shame. A damn, dirty shame.

Living on the Edge

Fucking Aerosmith. How can you always make me feel better, so?

An Amazon Order Like No Other

You can't do better than this, I promise:

Jimi Hendrix - Are You Experienced
Jimi Hendrix - Electric Ladyland
Jimi Hendrix - Live at Woodstock (2 DVD set)
Pulp Fiction
Resevoir Dogs

And it only cost me $13. God bless Message Labs.

What the shit??

David Hasselhoff is the man.

Insensitive Insensitivity

I was thinking today that it might be a little bit insensitive of me to fall asleep during our sensitivity training. I'm sure I'll learn a few very worthwile things here, so best tune in later for the results.

Also, where's my lunch??

Nerd rap

That's actually pretty damn funny.

Natalie Portman

roflcopter

Uh oh

The Red Green Show's final episode airs tonight on CBC (that's in Canada for those not keeping score).

04/05

12 years and 4 years respectively. Music has never been the same.

<moment of silence>

Lobster

Next friday. Word.

Something must be wrong here

Google news keeps recommending nothing but murder stories and hollywood news to me. I'm not entirely sure what that means, but I will say this, no way does Scarlett Johansson top either Angelina Jolie or Jessica Alba. And wtf is Jessica Simpson even doing on that list? Apparently my thumb has slipped off the pulse of the general public (witty Bill Hicks reference there).

<3

Looks like someone fell asleep on their watch, cuz we all know I don't deserve this girl. How am I supposed to get anything done here at work now?

No way

Genesis games on the Revolution? I think I just crapped myself.

Oh my lord

So first we go here:

Furry

and then we go here:

Yiff

and now we know why the raccoons have giant scrots.

Haha, Uno

I saw this on today's PA post:

"... in addition to (wait for it) Uno, which as a social card game could actually be a pretty good match for the service. Games of skill and chance can bring a person's inner bastard to the fore, but I know of no other game that can turn a person into a complete fucker in the way that Uno does."

The White Stripes

This some good shit here, brother. Somehow I'm always last to get on the train.

Irish Car Bomb

I'm not sick this time, I met a cute girl I really like who's coming to hang with us, my dog's a bitch but in the cute kinda way, and being on the ground floor gives people somewhere to throw up safely. I have a lot to celebrate in the '06.

Side Note: According to Tim Buckley over at CAD, the Irish call it a Depth Charge. Interesting.

MacGyver saves WoW

Where was that bitch tonight when the servers crashed and the login server got hammered so bad I couldn't log in? Fuck you MacGyver. And fuck you Richard D. Anderson. I needs me fix.

Frat pack redux

Owen Wilson is the glue that binds Wes Anderson to the frat pack. Don't believe me? Go look who co-wrote some of those grandios movies we'd all like to think aren't a part of the group. That's right, Owen Wilson. Who has had some sort of role in almost every frat pack movie? That's right, Owen Wilson. This is just one more reason why a) I hate Owen Wilson and b) most of these movies aren't worth the film they're printed on even if they are highly entertaining.

For the record, Jack Black is a member of the pack AND the up and coming Tenacious D movie is considered part of the frat pack canon. So shove that in your pipe and smoke it out your ass.

What a nub

So really, I do have pictures from the last round of buying stuff for the new PC, I'm just too lazy to get them off the camera and shrink them down and what not. It's like a 2 minute deal cuzza the reboot and script run, but come on. That's 2 minutes. The stupid thing is, I now have even more parts on the way so it's all gonna have to get mashed into one big ass post. Ah well. Mebe I'll just be too lazy for all of it. I've also got some WoW screenshots I gotta convert and shrink that I think I'm being lazy about. A durn tragedy this affliction.

Other news, the 1.10 WoW patch is on the PTR now. I'm kinda excited about some of the drood changes it'll bring. Lotta folks pissed on the forums because priests can heal even better than they could before (they can already outheal me in most cases). I think though that I've found a good spot to be in. I've done some runs with the priest in my guild and it works really well for me to off-heal and take over when the shit hits the fans. With the new 5/10 man caps on the old 10/15 man instances it's gonna be that much more important to have that role down. Personally, I like the challenge offered up. The re-itemization will help a lot with that, but even still I can imagine a 5 man scholo/strat being a real pain in the ass. I've never done a 10 man ubrs run, but several of the 15 mans have fallen apart at around the 12 man level post-beast. Guess the shit players will get their reputations as shit players spread a bit quicker now. Either that or PuGs will find themselves on the way out, replaced by more and more guild only runs.

Most important of all, hot date this coming weekend. Bet no one ever figured that'd happen in their life time. I'm seeing this being quite the drug out week because of this.

kek

David Cross lambasts Larry the Cable Guy. I highly recommend reading this.

Frat Pack?

Well shit, I just got wtfpwned by this one. I had no idea there even was a frat pack, but after a few minutes of reading I now know why all of my friends like the same set of movies. This one really shoulda been more obvious than it was. I wonder if this is what it feels like to realize you dig on pop music?

Taxes

Son of a damn bitch. I owe taxes to three damn places now. $510 to Idaho, $281 to New York, and $1,429 to the damn feds. Plus another $60 to have the damn thing prepared on the internet. So I guess we'll have a slight break in getting PC parts for a while. God damn goverment.

New PC Pt1

That time again. Time to blow some dough on a new PC. Been considering what to put in it for a while and got the start after the ol' x-mas finished itself off. To recap, this is the old junker:





Been a while since I had to think about what I have in it, but it's something like a AMD Athlon 3200 (the free one we got from the club) and a GeForceFX 5700 Ultra. A real stinker anyway. Been through like 3 mobos because of static shoe cling and PSU failures. Like three cases and bad experiences with UPS to go with it. Also had this grand monitor to lug around everywhere I took it:



Pretty sure that's 19", but it's been a while. Point is, it weighs like a jillion pounds and that sucks. Also had a wireless keyboard and mouse from something like 1984, but they're stuff in a box to be passed on to a more useful home.

So the process began with these purchases:



A new Logitech MX5k keyboard/mouse combo. This is actually kinda cool because it's all bluetooth. It likes to disconnect when I gank kids in STV and it has no numlock key (wtf, Linux anyone??) but I'm still happy with it. The keys have an old school kinda click to them and the mouse has the lazerz pew and enough buttons in good spots to keep me busy.



New 19" Sony LCD. This was actually a really good buy I think. It's real clear and bright and doesn't have any real obvious trails. The stupid thing is it only goes to 1280. Double wtf? on that one. I'm used to maxing the 1600 at home. Now I'm back to living in the stone age work world here. Ah well. It's only 12ms response, which I suppose is good because it's not 16. The 8ms woulda been another couple hundred I couldn't put down.

So what's next on the list? Hopefully the case, mobo, and a psu that'll sit until I can get everything together. Gonna have to take it kinda slow this go around because the damn landlord wants her rent. Some kinda bullshit that.

ASUS A8N32-SLI mobo for the SLI, AMD 64, and nForce4 goodness
2 GeForce 6800GTs to make the SLI happen
600W PSU
AMD Athlon64 3700+
2 sticks of 1GB PC3200 RAM
2 WD Cavier SE 160GB SATAII HDDs to be raided to a 320GB drive
DVD-ROM
HP DVD burner
Cool blue case from ASPIRE

Then of course the usual extra fans n shit. Not sure if I missed anything in that list, but the essentials should be there. I think I'm gonna pull the SoundBlaster Audigy 2 from the old PC to put in the new one. No reason to throw down the cash for that when I have a perfect one already.

Oh... and my desk is really stupid. I outta budget a new one that isn't stupid. I'd bet it's crappy layout is half the reason those bluetooth devices shit out on me.

My codes all effed up

So somehow we hand off a cleanup project to one of the new guys (who I'm totally ranting about at a poor time for him, which is a jerk thing to do, but seriously folks) and it comes back all uglified! I pride myself on making perhaps not working or useful code but pretty code! Always formatted good, easy to read, and by osmosis easier to maintain. Now it's full of tabs and crap to make it not run over 72 char per line. Damn I hate that. This was my baby too. It's like they shit on my baby. Shit on it and didn't even thank me. Aggravating.