Well, I hope everyone had a fun and productive 5th of May. On a retrospective note, I hope all my comrades had a good May Day as well.
I managed to scratch the side of the newer of the two Webster family vans pulling into the garage, I swear that my father takes up too much space with the Accord. I am, or have been, very good a pulling really close to the far wall, but I guess after a long day of work I misjudged the angle, Oh well. I'm now "Not allowed to park [that] van in the garage anymore." Whatever, I'll just park it on the driveway when I take it and let her pull it in, one less stressor a day I guess.
Tuesday, May 04, 2004
Alright, I rescind my previous statement. Well, you know, whatever the version of a forced rescind after being terribly corrected would be.
Anyways, just got back from the Super Walmart. It's a scary place. Loads of employees doing inventory and restocking today apparently. Either way, the things encountered there made me question the future of mankind. Somehow I feel that "Ketchup Blast" Pringles are an omen of worse things to come. When you reach the point where you have a potato chip flavored like a condiment, it's just bad. Also, the middle ground is getting increasingly more difficult. For Pace salsa you can have your pick of medium, mild, or the legendary extra mild. It also appears that Disney has teamed up with Kellogs (or vice versa depending on your take of the issue) so there is now a Disney Princesses Cereal. I just hope it doesn't go any further than that. I'd hate to see every new Disney movie be transformed into a cereal, or worse yet, to see two seperate Disney mergings get fused. I can picture it now: Disney Kellogs Square-Enix present some game wherein the protagionist gets to join forces with the heroes of Final Fantasies IX and XII alongside some of your favorite Disney heroes like Mickey and Simba as well as Kellogs' fine additions to the crew. The fiesty Captain Crunch and the mighty Tony the Tiger. Just think, Huey Luey and Dewy could run the weapon store and then Snap Crackle and Pop could handle the item store.
Well, back to removing the crap from 10th grade from my bedroom. Melchor'll get a few updates now that grades have gone live. *Angry Mumbling*
Anyways, just got back from the Super Walmart. It's a scary place. Loads of employees doing inventory and restocking today apparently. Either way, the things encountered there made me question the future of mankind. Somehow I feel that "Ketchup Blast" Pringles are an omen of worse things to come. When you reach the point where you have a potato chip flavored like a condiment, it's just bad. Also, the middle ground is getting increasingly more difficult. For Pace salsa you can have your pick of medium, mild, or the legendary extra mild. It also appears that Disney has teamed up with Kellogs (or vice versa depending on your take of the issue) so there is now a Disney Princesses Cereal. I just hope it doesn't go any further than that. I'd hate to see every new Disney movie be transformed into a cereal, or worse yet, to see two seperate Disney mergings get fused. I can picture it now: Disney Kellogs Square-Enix present some game wherein the protagionist gets to join forces with the heroes of Final Fantasies IX and XII alongside some of your favorite Disney heroes like Mickey and Simba as well as Kellogs' fine additions to the crew. The fiesty Captain Crunch and the mighty Tony the Tiger. Just think, Huey Luey and Dewy could run the weapon store and then Snap Crackle and Pop could handle the item store.
Well, back to removing the crap from 10th grade from my bedroom. Melchor'll get a few updates now that grades have gone live. *Angry Mumbling*
Saturday, May 01, 2004
Saturday, April 17, 2004
So, I was given the privledge of going with my mother to take my brother and his girlfriend to their Junior Prom at the Atlanta Zoo. Before we left my mother had mentioned hearing of an accident at Peachtree Industrial and 285. Apparently said accident did not end happily for all involved, as we were forced to turn off onto 285 in the opposite direction of the one in which we'd have liked to take because of a police barricade. There was nothing barricided other than the road itself being examined by two policemen with measuring tape. But of course, that couldn't be the only highlight of such a trip, no no, fate would never have that. Instead I got the rare 'treat' of watching someone, in what I hope will be a unique experience, at a GA toll booth in the "50 cents only" lane get out of their car to make change with the vehicle behind them, giving me no choice but to believe that what they say about over half of all americans being functionally illiterate is true.
That said, we can move onto the afformentioned disturbance that bothers me. So, here, I offer the fastest and simplest way I can. Search Google for the phrase Penis Envy, click on the second link from the top, read it. When you get to the "the saga continues", brace yourself for graphics of a phallic nature, the second of which is the true cause of my disturbance. As for why, I'll put that in white so a not to spoil the suprise, unless you do want to highlight it yourself and spoil it yourself, so here goes: What bothers me is, of course, the second of the dildo images, Joan of Arc. I can understand the greater meaning of the entire show and the subsiquent displays, but that one bothers me. Jeanne was a mere 19 at the age of her death, a chaste girl who heard the voice of God. I quote from a biography the following "Much was made of her insistence on wearing male clothing. She was told that for a woman to wear men's clothing was a crime against God. Her determination to continue wearing it (because her voices hadn't yet told her to change, as well as for protection from sexual abuse by her jailors)" and rest my case as to distrubance there.
There you have it. More on the adventurers of my family later.
But before I go, my last odd statement on life in general, again keeping with the whole Prom thing. Here goes: Anyone who gets laid on Prom night obviously did not dance hard enough.
That said, we can move onto the afformentioned disturbance that bothers me. So, here, I offer the fastest and simplest way I can. Search Google for the phrase Penis Envy, click on the second link from the top, read it. When you get to the "the saga continues", brace yourself for graphics of a phallic nature, the second of which is the true cause of my disturbance. As for why, I'll put that in white so a not to spoil the suprise, unless you do want to highlight it yourself and spoil it yourself, so here goes: What bothers me is, of course, the second of the dildo images, Joan of Arc. I can understand the greater meaning of the entire show and the subsiquent displays, but that one bothers me. Jeanne was a mere 19 at the age of her death, a chaste girl who heard the voice of God. I quote from a biography the following "Much was made of her insistence on wearing male clothing. She was told that for a woman to wear men's clothing was a crime against God. Her determination to continue wearing it (because her voices hadn't yet told her to change, as well as for protection from sexual abuse by her jailors)" and rest my case as to distrubance there.
There you have it. More on the adventurers of my family later.
But before I go, my last odd statement on life in general, again keeping with the whole Prom thing. Here goes: Anyone who gets laid on Prom night obviously did not dance hard enough.
Again with the Blogs responding to Ting, so here goes. The Closet eh? I was just trying to remember the name of the French film that I got to see only the second half of (missed the first half to AP Lit testing). I even had a profile statement expressing my sheer amazement that the google search: french movie condom factory pretends gay returned nothing unsightly. Stupendous coincide, now if only I could find a good way to get my hands on a copy of it. So, that all said, what'd you think of the movie, deary?
On the note of disturbing things, I need to do some more research into the life of Joan of Arc before I can form this thought and hopefully get rid of it. Accursed Mightygirl and her links. Alas, now I am distraught.
Note to self so I remember why this all disturbs me, "Penis envy."
On the note of disturbing things, I need to do some more research into the life of Joan of Arc before I can form this thought and hopefully get rid of it. Accursed Mightygirl and her links. Alas, now I am distraught.
Note to self so I remember why this all disturbs me, "Penis envy."
Friday, April 16, 2004
This won't be the full blown post that I had intended, not that many of you readers really want to hear Colin on a strategy RPG tangent anyways, those games are so crappy, or so I'm told, I'm still a fan, but as I said, that's totally not the intent of this one here.
Anyways, looking and listening around has shown me that just about everyone got a piece of the wonderful e^(theta * i) + i sin theta so I say that everyone should mark their calendars for April 15, birthday of the good man Euler himself (that's pronounced Oiler btw, I case I haven't gotten a good chance to yell at you recently about it and you've forgotten). Notably it is also the anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic and the death of Abraham Lincoln, but I say that we shouldn't allow such things to interefere with the great glory of a Mathematician.
Just think, I'm in college, I've got well more than a great excuse to get drunk, but I'm not. Damn Inhibitions, underagedness, Java homework, oh, and rationality, like anyone could imagine me drunk anyways. It's never going to happen, I've got enough troubles walking as is.
Anyways, looking and listening around has shown me that just about everyone got a piece of the wonderful e^(theta * i) + i sin theta so I say that everyone should mark their calendars for April 15, birthday of the good man Euler himself (that's pronounced Oiler btw, I case I haven't gotten a good chance to yell at you recently about it and you've forgotten). Notably it is also the anniversary of the Sinking of the Titanic and the death of Abraham Lincoln, but I say that we shouldn't allow such things to interefere with the great glory of a Mathematician.
Just think, I'm in college, I've got well more than a great excuse to get drunk, but I'm not. Damn Inhibitions, underagedness, Java homework, oh, and rationality, like anyone could imagine me drunk anyways. It's never going to happen, I've got enough troubles walking as is.
Saturday, April 10, 2004
Saturday, April 03, 2004
Alright, to start with, anyone know what the average age of Blogger users is? Cause I thought it was younger than 21, but perhaps Blogger people know something I don't. I ask because of this message on the main page:
"Some of us Blogger folks are going to SXSW and to kick things up a notch we're serving up free drinks and t-shirts Monday evening from 6:30-8:00 on March 15th over at Club De Ville in Austin, TX. We provide beer and schwag to our users because we care."
I added the bolding myself so you could see what I was talking about.
Warning: Colin is sick, sore throat, cough, etc. So a mix of allergies and perhaps some minor infection of the sinus, just be forewarned.
I think next time I come home I'll move all my home .mp3s to Asgard so that I can expand my music selection at school past Anime, DDR, and misc extra. Now it'll be even more anime, death metal, metal blade.
So, I present the "Lesson of the Week:"
When collecting items of Earth-shatterning importance, like say the powerstones to an ancient art of magic that could destroy the world, or the keys to a viral plague, that come in sets of 4, do not put them all in one bag, it is bad from and generally an unwise idea. Remember, easy to be transported also means easy to steal.
"Some of us Blogger folks are going to SXSW and to kick things up a notch we're serving up free drinks and t-shirts Monday evening from 6:30-8:00 on March 15th over at Club De Ville in Austin, TX. We provide beer and schwag to our users because we care."
I added the bolding myself so you could see what I was talking about.
Warning: Colin is sick, sore throat, cough, etc. So a mix of allergies and perhaps some minor infection of the sinus, just be forewarned.
I think next time I come home I'll move all my home .mp3s to Asgard so that I can expand my music selection at school past Anime, DDR, and misc extra. Now it'll be even more anime, death metal, metal blade.
So, I present the "Lesson of the Week:"
When collecting items of Earth-shatterning importance, like say the powerstones to an ancient art of magic that could destroy the world, or the keys to a viral plague, that come in sets of 4, do not put them all in one bag, it is bad from and generally an unwise idea. Remember, easy to be transported also means easy to steal.
Monday, March 22, 2004
Just a couple of directed comments to various friends of mine (most of whom likely don't even know that I still update), and yes, dear readers, I swear that I shall eventually add some links to this so you can figure out who it is that I am talking to, perhaps, 'till then I suggest Jiaz's blog as a nexus to figure out who exactly it is that I'm speaking to.
First order of business; Jefe, it's Nathan and I. That said, I'm now aware that I misspelled 'cause' at the start of the previous post, and also that technically the end of the previous paragraph here ends in a preposition, which'd be another of those grammatical no-no's. Then, mmm...resisting the power of burning, Jiaz, you sense the powers of Project Chibi at work?
Third, Ting, aren't you worried that the athletes have had the reciprocation of your thoughts. I mean, if my roommate is anything to judge by, those who build muscles primary have little actual food on hand, especially meat. Just beware. And that said, you might want to check your coding on your later links, they seem to have http:// repeated a few extra times.
First order of business; Jefe, it's Nathan and I. That said, I'm now aware that I misspelled 'cause' at the start of the previous post, and also that technically the end of the previous paragraph here ends in a preposition, which'd be another of those grammatical no-no's. Then, mmm...resisting the power of burning, Jiaz, you sense the powers of Project Chibi at work?
Third, Ting, aren't you worried that the athletes have had the reciprocation of your thoughts. I mean, if my roommate is anything to judge by, those who build muscles primary have little actual food on hand, especially meat. Just beware. And that said, you might want to check your coding on your later links, they seem to have http:// repeated a few extra times.
Tuesday, March 16, 2004
The previous thing I just never published caus I had hoped to do something with it, but as all can see, it took the path of the post before it in falling short of accomplishing anything. I figure above all else I think I need to bump that Piers Anthony post slightly further down the page. Anyways, I did start the post before this one, the March 8 one before Jefe posted his little swipe, but that's okay, we're all friends here, right?
That all said, the world is again beginning to worry me. Cindy and I, during break, stopped by at a CVS so I could be proven wrong in a bet I don't recall making (nor had what I said been made into a bet, do I recall making it so specific as it was so that I'd lose), either way. On the way out we were confronted with a conundrum. The store has only one entrance, a pair of side by side single sliding doors, kinda like Wal Mart. Confused yet? I mean that there were two sliding doors side by side, and once inside, there was another pair; typical right? Enter on one side, leave on the other? Apparently that wasn't made too clear here, as Cindy and I looked were we stalled for a moment by the fact that both of the doors that we needed to immediately pass through were marked "Not an Exit", or whatever it is such doors say with the red circle with a diagonal slash. Of course, I do presume this was a mistake (possibly a broken door had been replaced with a spare, but backwards) since there were no other exits. I know for a fact we wouldn't have been the first people to oppose the writing on the wall cause there wasn't a pile of bones anywhere in the store. Okay, so perhaps I'm making a big deal out of an oddity, perhaps I am, but it's things like that that start to worry me. If one is going to mark something as "Not an Exit" there had better damned well be an exit someplace else people will start making one. It is like the door on the Textile building that not only proclaims "Not an Entrance" but is regularly propped open because apparently it locks automatically if it closes. Conflict of interests here perhaps?
Rockapella was a good show. I enjoyed it, and Jiaz's nice seats, which tells me I need to definately get a couple rush tickets to some good shows next semester, because invariably they are rather nice seats, even if the Ferst Center line tends to be massive. It was a different style from going to see the Mikado, so I won't try comparing the two. They sang a good number of songs, despite the long opening act sequence (Emory all-guys acapella group (3 songs), Gatech all-girls acapella group (2), Gatech guys acapella group (2), Gatech guys and girls combined (Evanescence, rather well done too). Rockapella did mostly classics, a few originial pieces and all the member specifics (each person has a song they chose or specialize, or whatever, they did all of those (though the vocal percussion guy doesn't have one). The bald guy wasn't too fabulous, but he seemed to be a decent songwriter. Personally, I knew Carmen Sandiago and Folgers had to be preformed, as well as a couple of the 80's song they came to fame through, but the lack of any of They Might be Giants (Putting on the Ritz, Istanbul), Build me up Buttercup, Ants Marching (I don't think they regularly do this, but I think they do it well anyways). House of the Rising Sun really made it good, but it came at the start when they could have done anything and I'd have been alright with it. Zombie Jamboree gets a thumbs down from me because I don't like the mutant calypso style that it involves, nor the song itself.
That all said, the world is again beginning to worry me. Cindy and I, during break, stopped by at a CVS so I could be proven wrong in a bet I don't recall making (nor had what I said been made into a bet, do I recall making it so specific as it was so that I'd lose), either way. On the way out we were confronted with a conundrum. The store has only one entrance, a pair of side by side single sliding doors, kinda like Wal Mart. Confused yet? I mean that there were two sliding doors side by side, and once inside, there was another pair; typical right? Enter on one side, leave on the other? Apparently that wasn't made too clear here, as Cindy and I looked were we stalled for a moment by the fact that both of the doors that we needed to immediately pass through were marked "Not an Exit", or whatever it is such doors say with the red circle with a diagonal slash. Of course, I do presume this was a mistake (possibly a broken door had been replaced with a spare, but backwards) since there were no other exits. I know for a fact we wouldn't have been the first people to oppose the writing on the wall cause there wasn't a pile of bones anywhere in the store. Okay, so perhaps I'm making a big deal out of an oddity, perhaps I am, but it's things like that that start to worry me. If one is going to mark something as "Not an Exit" there had better damned well be an exit someplace else people will start making one. It is like the door on the Textile building that not only proclaims "Not an Entrance" but is regularly propped open because apparently it locks automatically if it closes. Conflict of interests here perhaps?
Rockapella was a good show. I enjoyed it, and Jiaz's nice seats, which tells me I need to definately get a couple rush tickets to some good shows next semester, because invariably they are rather nice seats, even if the Ferst Center line tends to be massive. It was a different style from going to see the Mikado, so I won't try comparing the two. They sang a good number of songs, despite the long opening act sequence (Emory all-guys acapella group (3 songs), Gatech all-girls acapella group (2), Gatech guys acapella group (2), Gatech guys and girls combined (Evanescence, rather well done too). Rockapella did mostly classics, a few originial pieces and all the member specifics (each person has a song they chose or specialize, or whatever, they did all of those (though the vocal percussion guy doesn't have one). The bald guy wasn't too fabulous, but he seemed to be a decent songwriter. Personally, I knew Carmen Sandiago and Folgers had to be preformed, as well as a couple of the 80's song they came to fame through, but the lack of any of They Might be Giants (Putting on the Ritz, Istanbul), Build me up Buttercup, Ants Marching (I don't think they regularly do this, but I think they do it well anyways). House of the Rising Sun really made it good, but it came at the start when they could have done anything and I'd have been alright with it. Zombie Jamboree gets a thumbs down from me because I don't like the mutant calypso style that it involves, nor the song itself.
Monday, March 08, 2004
Monday, February 23, 2004
Cause the post for yesterday (which I'm technically still living since I've merely not gone to bed, as opposed to having awoken this early the next day) is really bothering me. I've decided that I can conjure up another blog on some manner or another, at least I hope so. So, cross your fingers dear reader, as I attempt to find something, or not. I'll leave this here to remind me to post later, but for now, it's sleepy time so I can finish the afforementioned essay.
Sunday, February 22, 2004
Okay. Admittedly I should be working, but goddamn it! I think I might want to do On a Pale Horse by Piers Anthony, assuming I can find a good synopsis to refresh my memory and some credible book critiques on it. Okay, I knew that Disney was acting to perhaps turn the book into a movie; which worries me, because within the first two chapters the main character kills Death and thus takes his place and then proceeds to collect his first soul from a female who killed in a car accident when the windshield of her car impaled her. That wasn't the bad part, it was the detail in describing how said mass of glass had punctured into her breast.
The next chapter he goes to collect the soul of a man who has tainted himself by experimenting with black magic who asks Death for him to wait a moment longer so he can complete a spell that will allow him to transfer half his sins to his daughter so that he won't have to go to Hell. He promises Death his daughter in exchange (who then promptly arrives naked on the scene, coming from the shower, sees Death, and goes to get prettied up). Unfortunately for the girl, her father doesn't know that she was mind-raped (actual words from the book) by a demon and so his burden of sin will send her over to the side of evil in terms of purity, but that is not an issue until later. Sounds like a great start to a Disney movie eh?
Anyways, all that aside. I stumble upon Piers Anthony's site, hoping to find something of usage, perhaps links or something, and instead find.
Warning, Dangerous to read material ahead. Colin takes no responsability for any of it, at all.
"I trash most spam, but one amused me. It said (I'm cleaning up the language) that the average girl's rectum can stretch up to three inches in diameter, while the average horse's member is five inches in diameter. Apparently the site shows stallions painfully buggering girls. It says I won't believe it. Right on: I don't believe it. If I were a stallion, my sexual interest would be in the vagina of a mare in heat, not the rectum of a hominid. But each according to his taste. Not directly related: there was news of the discovery of 425 million year old fossil they named Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which translates into "Astounding Swimmer with a Large Penis." Maybe he needed to swim well enough to catch a female with a small rectum. "
Near Immediate Edit
Okay, a few quick things to add before I decide to cap this topic and try and find another book:
Firstly, there apparently was a comic book that was started on the book, before going bankrupt.
Check it out, it worries me as well
And Piers Anthony also apparently wrote a book...well, I'll just copy paste it and let it sit:
Other Works:
Pornucopia (1989) is a pornographic fantasy.
Yeah
.........
The next chapter he goes to collect the soul of a man who has tainted himself by experimenting with black magic who asks Death for him to wait a moment longer so he can complete a spell that will allow him to transfer half his sins to his daughter so that he won't have to go to Hell. He promises Death his daughter in exchange (who then promptly arrives naked on the scene, coming from the shower, sees Death, and goes to get prettied up). Unfortunately for the girl, her father doesn't know that she was mind-raped (actual words from the book) by a demon and so his burden of sin will send her over to the side of evil in terms of purity, but that is not an issue until later. Sounds like a great start to a Disney movie eh?
Anyways, all that aside. I stumble upon Piers Anthony's site, hoping to find something of usage, perhaps links or something, and instead find.
Warning, Dangerous to read material ahead. Colin takes no responsability for any of it, at all.
"I trash most spam, but one amused me. It said (I'm cleaning up the language) that the average girl's rectum can stretch up to three inches in diameter, while the average horse's member is five inches in diameter. Apparently the site shows stallions painfully buggering girls. It says I won't believe it. Right on: I don't believe it. If I were a stallion, my sexual interest would be in the vagina of a mare in heat, not the rectum of a hominid. But each according to his taste. Not directly related: there was news of the discovery of 425 million year old fossil they named Colymbosathon ecplecticos, which translates into "Astounding Swimmer with a Large Penis." Maybe he needed to swim well enough to catch a female with a small rectum. "
Near Immediate Edit
Okay, a few quick things to add before I decide to cap this topic and try and find another book:
Firstly, there apparently was a comic book that was started on the book, before going bankrupt.
Check it out, it worries me as well
And Piers Anthony also apparently wrote a book...well, I'll just copy paste it and let it sit:
Other Works:
Pornucopia (1989) is a pornographic fantasy.
Yeah
.........
Monday, January 19, 2004
Look! Colin's still alive! Woo!
Alright, the brief Christmas blog.
In addition to the usual Gift cards and Cash I also recieved a Printer, two pairs of sunglasses (one of which I brought to Tech), a blue jacket (not especially stylish, though it'd be a rare day when Colin pays great attention to style), a bowl (the shallow variety, you know the kind your parents use to keep old matchboxes or coins or keys, that sort of thing, for, actually, basically the same reason, to keep my keys and pens and everything else I usually splay out on the counter), I also got Neverwinter Night's Gold (essentially the original + Shadows of Unrentide (if that's how it's spelled), but not Hordes sadly) and have beaten the SoU campaign with Maudraum Vi~~~ something (Human Paladin w/ the Valiant Set from the Elven Crypt, black skin and dark hair), and am at the end of Chapter 2 of the original campaign with Loriel Oakwarder (Elven NE Rogue going Dual Wield), there'll be more detail about games in a later post (ie: not one taking place past 3:00 AM (I'd add in the morning, but that's just screaming superfluous redundency), also got Suikoden III which I've yet to have the time to play and Disgaea which I've put a bit of time into. Finially, I got a little kitten that is made of rabbit fur (though I'm told they didn't kill the rabbit for the fur, so my father and I are betting that they killed it for the feet and took the fur as well), it's pretty soft, but the fur seems layered oddly. Oh, and the standard stocking stuffers: LED flashlight, lifesavers, tic tacs, that stuff.
Well, that's pretty much the thrills of Christmas (I did have the largest box of anyone (that blue jacket came in a massive box)), so I'll hopefully have a nice blog/critique later detailing Ratchet and Clank and the Sequel, Disgaea, Unreal 2 and XMP, NWN and SoU, to the extents that I've played them. Melchor'll be getting touched to talk about Lab Practicum, First semester Finals and the aftermath and the current semester outlook, D&D (yes, that old thing) ought to be seeing a few more Legends that I thought up in the time of a few classes and hopefully I'll eventually get motivated to turn my Prism Gatech site into something beside a completion grade for a past CS class.
Oh yeah, I need to do a New Year's Blog (not that I made any resolutions) and talk about some other games. D&D Heroes, SSX3, Double Dash, as well as a bundle of movies that I've seen recently (or, not really, or not at all, I've not seen any movies save LotR and Treasure Island recently).
Alright, the brief Christmas blog.
In addition to the usual Gift cards and Cash I also recieved a Printer, two pairs of sunglasses (one of which I brought to Tech), a blue jacket (not especially stylish, though it'd be a rare day when Colin pays great attention to style), a bowl (the shallow variety, you know the kind your parents use to keep old matchboxes or coins or keys, that sort of thing, for, actually, basically the same reason, to keep my keys and pens and everything else I usually splay out on the counter), I also got Neverwinter Night's Gold (essentially the original + Shadows of Unrentide (if that's how it's spelled), but not Hordes sadly) and have beaten the SoU campaign with Maudraum Vi~~~ something (Human Paladin w/ the Valiant Set from the Elven Crypt, black skin and dark hair), and am at the end of Chapter 2 of the original campaign with Loriel Oakwarder (Elven NE Rogue going Dual Wield), there'll be more detail about games in a later post (ie: not one taking place past 3:00 AM (I'd add in the morning, but that's just screaming superfluous redundency), also got Suikoden III which I've yet to have the time to play and Disgaea which I've put a bit of time into. Finially, I got a little kitten that is made of rabbit fur (though I'm told they didn't kill the rabbit for the fur, so my father and I are betting that they killed it for the feet and took the fur as well), it's pretty soft, but the fur seems layered oddly. Oh, and the standard stocking stuffers: LED flashlight, lifesavers, tic tacs, that stuff.
Well, that's pretty much the thrills of Christmas (I did have the largest box of anyone (that blue jacket came in a massive box)), so I'll hopefully have a nice blog/critique later detailing Ratchet and Clank and the Sequel, Disgaea, Unreal 2 and XMP, NWN and SoU, to the extents that I've played them. Melchor'll be getting touched to talk about Lab Practicum, First semester Finals and the aftermath and the current semester outlook, D&D (yes, that old thing) ought to be seeing a few more Legends that I thought up in the time of a few classes and hopefully I'll eventually get motivated to turn my Prism Gatech site into something beside a completion grade for a past CS class.
Oh yeah, I need to do a New Year's Blog (not that I made any resolutions) and talk about some other games. D&D Heroes, SSX3, Double Dash, as well as a bundle of movies that I've seen recently (or, not really, or not at all, I've not seen any movies save LotR and Treasure Island recently).
Tuesday, December 30, 2003
Fear not! There shall be a Colin Christmas Blog, mostly because those are really freaking easy, but as for now, it's sleepy time cause work hast totally worn me down. It's pretty much David and I holding the fort, Cathy's in for her bits, but Kristjan and Val and Bill are on vacation (and Bill was sick all last week) and Nick is just MIA and likely vacation as well.
As for the previous post, the double 8ths don't appear on the posting screen but a squares whereas the single 8ths did, and then it reversed going into the actual blog, interesting. I still need a function editor for this, but that's a whole 'nother game to be playing.
As for the previous post, the double 8ths don't appear on the posting screen but a squares whereas the single 8ths did, and then it reversed going into the actual blog, interesting. I still need a function editor for this, but that's a whole 'nother game to be playing.
Wednesday, December 24, 2003
Alright, I think I can manage a semi-coherent blog at the moment *crosses fingers*, though I seem to have misplaced most of the mini-notes I make from time to time to try and keep my thoughts in some sort of order (or just keep them at all);
"It's called efficiency, look it up."
"Wouldn't it be faster for you to just tell me?"
"Ah, see? Now you're catching on."
As usual, don't expect most paragraphs to flow together, they are a bundle of thought stretch out over a vast amount of time.
Anyways, apparently Pottery Barn Kids makes mini appliances for kids. Trust me on this statement, I packed some, umm, like a week ago. (There was a really long pause here that I attribute to watching West Wing with Yo Yo Ma which I'm only watching because I've settled into blogging and I don't want to get up to go turn it off) (Long pause continues, blending Bach and dramatic flashbacks is a great way to distract me apparently, that and some great pyschological analysis stuff that I could very easily see David doing). Anyways, they had a mixer, a blender, and a coffee machine, complete with the everlasting phrase ~"enjoy the thrill of pretending to brew morning coffee." ?ô?ô?ô?ô ♫♫♫♫ <--- Damn, the double 8th notes doesn't work here in blogger.
Anyways, speaking of appliances, anyone want to tell me what the hell an osterizer is? If it helps, they apparently have on, off, and pulse settings. Apparently it's a kind of blender, but I'm too lazy to find a better site than that (I already scanned the top hits on Google, perhaps I'd be better off with Jeeves).
I played some Double Dash, and damned if I can't get Powersliding (aka Blue Sparks) to work. I really dont' know what tricks they want this time, but I'm sure when I play more than 5 minutes of driving I'll have it figured out. With just the basics it seems like a rather complicated process of mixing cars and drivers (and the stats are hidden unless you're plaing solo (or 2 in one car) and I wasn't doing that, so that'll again take some solo time then I'll have that logic down pat). It plays rather well, no drastic changes which is good, but it seemed pretty short, I'm certain that there's more to unlock though. I can play either position with enough maliciousness, I'd rather drive cause I can maneuver better than anyone, but being the "gunner" person is fabulous as well (sorry for the fabulous, Queer Eye's on, I'm killing it now) since I've gained plenty of skill abusing surronding racers by playing SSX: Tricky. Ahh, the fun of game synergies.
Alright, Bill's out sick so I'm playing backup manager (which sucks, cause having been out for college, I have no idea where Bill keeps things), I'm either chronically understaff or bored out of my mind at this store and the customers don't make things any easier. Let me ask this, is there anything about Colin that would make you think that I have X-Ray vision? Several dozen times in the past week I have been condescendingly told by customers after asking if "anything was breakable/fragile/in need of bubble wrap" (I vary it cause different phrases get different answers from select morons (ie, "Is anything fragile?" "No, but this needs to be bubble wrapped"). Is there some way that I should be able to predict glass in a bag of presents? Honestly, if you hand me a 5 bags with a combined 37 odd presents, don't be suprised if I ask if anything is breakable, and definately don't get snippy with me. I can't see through wrapping and it's quite aggravating to get people who seem to think I should be able to.
Further, this job has quite proven to me that the statistic that 3/4ths of America is functionally illiterate is very true. UPS has, since last Christmas (when most of these buggers were last here) changed the minimum password requirement from 3 characters to 5. Not only do I get freaks who don't understand what I mean when I say it's now required that it be 5 characters (and then get further confused when I clarify by saying 5 letter ("Oh, I can't use numbers anymore?" Right after I say that we suggest using the Zip Code. I don't know what planet stores the hole these fsckers (sorry for profanity, but it's been building and I'd rather take it out here then on someone at work, cause that'd look bad) came out of, but on Earth, we use Zip codes with numbers, shocking, no?). So, besides these people who take a good 5 minutes to get into their address book, we have those rebels who have used their own User ID's (we strongly suggest Phone Number) and then have forgotten them and expect me to be able to help. Also, we have those who were hit stongly with the object of my prized theory (the Retard Stick) and do things like try and stand on my side of the cash register, or ask for me to add bubbles (they mean peanuts, but somewhere around fertilization there was a bit of other substances besides protein involved I guess).
Well, Melvin is still alive, the Advent is being collected (though the servers are being a pain and the featured games are lousy ones (great Christmas spirit that have). The big question is, how do I break it to Sean that Lord_Malystrix, while he was the proud Christmas Wocky is now, well, umm...she's kinda stripey right now shall we say.
"It's called efficiency, look it up."
"Wouldn't it be faster for you to just tell me?"
"Ah, see? Now you're catching on."
As usual, don't expect most paragraphs to flow together, they are a bundle of thought stretch out over a vast amount of time.
Anyways, apparently Pottery Barn Kids makes mini appliances for kids. Trust me on this statement, I packed some, umm, like a week ago. (There was a really long pause here that I attribute to watching West Wing with Yo Yo Ma which I'm only watching because I've settled into blogging and I don't want to get up to go turn it off) (Long pause continues, blending Bach and dramatic flashbacks is a great way to distract me apparently, that and some great pyschological analysis stuff that I could very easily see David doing). Anyways, they had a mixer, a blender, and a coffee machine, complete with the everlasting phrase ~"enjoy the thrill of pretending to brew morning coffee." ?ô?ô?ô?ô ♫♫♫♫ <--- Damn, the double 8th notes doesn't work here in blogger.
Anyways, speaking of appliances, anyone want to tell me what the hell an osterizer is? If it helps, they apparently have on, off, and pulse settings. Apparently it's a kind of blender, but I'm too lazy to find a better site than that (I already scanned the top hits on Google, perhaps I'd be better off with Jeeves).
I played some Double Dash, and damned if I can't get Powersliding (aka Blue Sparks) to work. I really dont' know what tricks they want this time, but I'm sure when I play more than 5 minutes of driving I'll have it figured out. With just the basics it seems like a rather complicated process of mixing cars and drivers (and the stats are hidden unless you're plaing solo (or 2 in one car) and I wasn't doing that, so that'll again take some solo time then I'll have that logic down pat). It plays rather well, no drastic changes which is good, but it seemed pretty short, I'm certain that there's more to unlock though. I can play either position with enough maliciousness, I'd rather drive cause I can maneuver better than anyone, but being the "gunner" person is fabulous as well (sorry for the fabulous, Queer Eye's on, I'm killing it now) since I've gained plenty of skill abusing surronding racers by playing SSX: Tricky. Ahh, the fun of game synergies.
Alright, Bill's out sick so I'm playing backup manager (which sucks, cause having been out for college, I have no idea where Bill keeps things), I'm either chronically understaff or bored out of my mind at this store and the customers don't make things any easier. Let me ask this, is there anything about Colin that would make you think that I have X-Ray vision? Several dozen times in the past week I have been condescendingly told by customers after asking if "anything was breakable/fragile/in need of bubble wrap" (I vary it cause different phrases get different answers from select morons (ie, "Is anything fragile?" "No, but this needs to be bubble wrapped"). Is there some way that I should be able to predict glass in a bag of presents? Honestly, if you hand me a 5 bags with a combined 37 odd presents, don't be suprised if I ask if anything is breakable, and definately don't get snippy with me. I can't see through wrapping and it's quite aggravating to get people who seem to think I should be able to.
Further, this job has quite proven to me that the statistic that 3/4ths of America is functionally illiterate is very true. UPS has, since last Christmas (when most of these buggers were last here) changed the minimum password requirement from 3 characters to 5. Not only do I get freaks who don't understand what I mean when I say it's now required that it be 5 characters (and then get further confused when I clarify by saying 5 letter ("Oh, I can't use numbers anymore?" Right after I say that we suggest using the Zip Code. I don't know what planet stores the hole these fsckers (sorry for profanity, but it's been building and I'd rather take it out here then on someone at work, cause that'd look bad) came out of, but on Earth, we use Zip codes with numbers, shocking, no?). So, besides these people who take a good 5 minutes to get into their address book, we have those rebels who have used their own User ID's (we strongly suggest Phone Number) and then have forgotten them and expect me to be able to help. Also, we have those who were hit stongly with the object of my prized theory (the Retard Stick) and do things like try and stand on my side of the cash register, or ask for me to add bubbles (they mean peanuts, but somewhere around fertilization there was a bit of other substances besides protein involved I guess).
Well, Melvin is still alive, the Advent is being collected (though the servers are being a pain and the featured games are lousy ones (great Christmas spirit that have). The big question is, how do I break it to Sean that Lord_Malystrix, while he was the proud Christmas Wocky is now, well, umm...she's kinda stripey right now shall we say.
Thursday, December 04, 2003
So much for tomorrow eh?
I hard a really great new subtitle for this place but I've now forgotten. Something to the tune of: now with 20% less superfluous redundancy, but I'll worry about that later.
I don't really have too much time to blog, seeing as it is close to 2:30 before my day with a 9:30 Class (9:35 technically, but whatever, and I've stopped counting CS as a class cause Ericson doesn't teach anything in there anyways) and it's the week before finals, at Tech, and they matter and also aren't getting exmpted.
Anyways, this'll be retrograde as far as events go, because that seems like the most logical of orderings, so recents events will be at the top.
Alright, tonight was a day of Mario Kart 64 between Cindy, Jeff, Kevin, a bit of Will, and myself. It was quite a violent game by the end, with several stages being replayed multiple times to settle grudges. In the end, we managed to trample every stage in both 100 cc and Extra as well as every battle stage, though mostly Block Fort and Double Deck. As far as players go, Will had been out of it quite awhile, Cindy was a rookie but played frighteningly well at times, Jeff was a bit of a hobby player, and Kevin and I were the most professional, knowing all the possible maneuvers and tricks.
As the game went on a few patterns became apparent. Namely that Jeff got worse as time went on, for the most part, whenever Cindy won it was by a huge margin, and when it came down to Kevin and I at the wire, whoever started with the lead on the home stretch usually kept it despite firepower. The usual bloodbath events occured that can be expected in any mass run of Mario Kart 64: a come from way behind to victory on Moo Moo Farms for Colin, complete decimation of everyone but Cindy on Extra Toad's Turnpike (nothing like racing in oncoming traffic, eh?), far too many runs of Rainbow road, all of them close and filled with the devastation of Lightning Goddess Cindy's Lightning bolts, Jeff getting nailed on all the stages with nasty jumps: Wario's Stadium, Mushroom Speedway, and Bowser's Castle, and a dominating triumph by myself at the nasty Yoshi stage. Oh, and several bouts of Kevin kicking ass at taking the shortcut on Koopa's Beach. Good times were quite had, though I finished with 30 1st place finishes, 18 second place, 4 3rd, and a unknown, non-zero, moderately large, single-digit number of last places, as well as 10 Victories in Battle out of some odd 18 battles.
Going back before this: FFX-2 is awesome. It's varied, it's interesting, it's learned from the mistakes of past games. One definately needs to have played FFX to understand it fully, though alot of story elements are new. Actually, I recind that, you need to have played FFX and have seen the extended ending from FFX-International which bridges the two, if being annoyingly repetitive and sappy.
Pros of the game: It's diverse with alot of different minigames and missions, it's got multiple endings, has newgame+, has jobs and classes, a great variety of accessories and abilities to learn, new areas to explore, bonds well with the old and the new.
Cons of the game: The Layers of loading are painfully obvious: when battle begins your characters appear sans weapons, which are added only moments before the actual battle begins. AP System is never explained so it remains unclear forever as to what solves what, hard to figure out what to do as some missions aren't ever marked and others that are marked really aren't. Cannot carry across anything but the core abilities of a class and not all of the classes even have this ability: for example, it's not really worth being a white mage, black mage, or warrior, because their extra abilities and auto functions are overrriden by others, similarily, Thief skills are easily better emmulated elsewhere and with the Mug Garment grid and Lady Luck can superceed most abilities, not really a cohesive storyline: things happen and then other things occur as a result, much of the game is from the extras around. New areas aren't incredibly inventive: it seems like a rather poor War III Custom: everything is merely palletshifted and size increased from the old characters.
Though the Cons look bigger, they are not nearly as hidering as the Pros are mouth watering. The pause of loading after every battle is annoying, but the variety of actions to take in battle and the resulting statements outweigh.
Rikku "Ducksoup!"
Paine: "Duck what?"
Beserker Rikku "Bite me! Better yet, I'll bite you!"
All in all, the game feels alot like an older Final Fantasy (Anything pre-X, cause it has actual levels), most likely FF5 for the classing with alot of overlays from Charlie's Angels (and if you think I'm kidding, you are greatly mistaken).
On the other side of SquareEnix's spectrum is FFXI, which I cannot stand. I gave it a fair trial, and it is simply not worth the hype of the 5 freaking discs it was forged onto! The game, which took a good 5 hours to install and was a bitch about it (ie: Please insert Disc 2 followed immediately by "Wrong Disc Inserted" and a load of code that only with careful observation could one decipher that it wanted Disc 1 again whereupon it immediately asks again for Disc 2). Moreover, the game requires the disc to run but inserting it automatically takes you to the uninstall screen, not that I'm complaining, it just wasn't a game for me. I don't mean to bash it, but anything you've read in any online comic is true. I don't mind that it has an odd feel to it, that half the time I examine Japanese characters I get nothing out of their detail and other times I get minor detail. But I do find something wrong in a game that is meant to be diverse and varied yet I see always the same Sword, always the same Armor, Always the same freaking Pumpkin helm! Moreover, I don't know what the idea of having the same monster vary drastically was, but it's stupid. More of the pallet shifts, mostly just name changes though, and close to 50% of the time I have no freaking clue what I'm trying to fight. Partying seems like a great idea, but finding a decent party is hard enough, let alone getting them all to find their way through the interface of doom to actually accept the invitation. I feel like I'm running tech support occasionally, and I've only got a mere 5 hours logged into the game. I think it might get slightly better with a few more levels, but then I realize that I'll eventually be back to level 1, again using crap items (the same crap as everyone else) running around fighting the same uninventive enemies who have much better skills than I, getting crap for doing it. I mean, I don't really mind getting .2 Sword Skill every few swings, or that I have to be fighting rather tough enemies to do it, but the fact that if I were to switch to an axe, I'd be at skill 0 but have the same progression and have to fight the same tough enemies, and rarely do I get the points anyways. Perhaps I'm not an MMORPG person, but I can't help but feel that I'm playing a glorified version of Diablo II with a few differences. Firstly, theres' no channel, all the spammers and morons are in the game with you. Secondly, that it was a version of Diablo II that was made not only by monkeys, but they were all being infused with mercury as they programmed it: It's like a retarted version of Diablo II with all sorts of odd requirements. Thirdly, the Rogue Encampment is roughly the same size as, say, Neptune. You run slow, you have no way to get faster, you die and you go all the way back, and finding an NPC to sell you maps (let alone finding the cash to buy them with) is nearly impossible. No matter where I try and go I end up at my Mog house, apparently every freaking extra pathway leads to the apparently extradimensional home of mine with a rather ugly floating whitish blob with a little red rounded blob that's supposed to be the enchanting Moogle that always lit up my day with dancing back in the days of yore (American FFVI, SNES) which now reminds me of a poorly rendered version of the Mog from the Moogle Game in FFVII after you fed him a few too many nuts. Fourth, instead of a 1 minute patch, it's a few hours.
The game has little conception of what a mission is: I'm supposed to see someone but I have no idea who because I lost track of the name amoung the 1300 other NPCS would I even be likely to end up where I am supposed to did I know their name, but I do know that I'm supposed to take my Blue Acid tester somewhere into a place far deadlier that I and find a place where it changes color, but I don't know where in this place, how I'm to survive, how I'll know when it changes color, or anything else. The opening isn't skippable, and while it's unlikely you'd have too see it too often, I'd much rather listen to Decard Cain than whoever the game spawns for me. It's nifty that different races, classes, and starting locations all get different jntros, but had that effort been placed somewhere else, like quality or patching, I'd have been much happier. All the steps in the right direction that I felt X-2 made, FFXI seems to ignore of blatently oppose.
I hard a really great new subtitle for this place but I've now forgotten. Something to the tune of: now with 20% less superfluous redundancy, but I'll worry about that later.
I don't really have too much time to blog, seeing as it is close to 2:30 before my day with a 9:30 Class (9:35 technically, but whatever, and I've stopped counting CS as a class cause Ericson doesn't teach anything in there anyways) and it's the week before finals, at Tech, and they matter and also aren't getting exmpted.
Anyways, this'll be retrograde as far as events go, because that seems like the most logical of orderings, so recents events will be at the top.
Alright, tonight was a day of Mario Kart 64 between Cindy, Jeff, Kevin, a bit of Will, and myself. It was quite a violent game by the end, with several stages being replayed multiple times to settle grudges. In the end, we managed to trample every stage in both 100 cc and Extra as well as every battle stage, though mostly Block Fort and Double Deck. As far as players go, Will had been out of it quite awhile, Cindy was a rookie but played frighteningly well at times, Jeff was a bit of a hobby player, and Kevin and I were the most professional, knowing all the possible maneuvers and tricks.
As the game went on a few patterns became apparent. Namely that Jeff got worse as time went on, for the most part, whenever Cindy won it was by a huge margin, and when it came down to Kevin and I at the wire, whoever started with the lead on the home stretch usually kept it despite firepower. The usual bloodbath events occured that can be expected in any mass run of Mario Kart 64: a come from way behind to victory on Moo Moo Farms for Colin, complete decimation of everyone but Cindy on Extra Toad's Turnpike (nothing like racing in oncoming traffic, eh?), far too many runs of Rainbow road, all of them close and filled with the devastation of Lightning Goddess Cindy's Lightning bolts, Jeff getting nailed on all the stages with nasty jumps: Wario's Stadium, Mushroom Speedway, and Bowser's Castle, and a dominating triumph by myself at the nasty Yoshi stage. Oh, and several bouts of Kevin kicking ass at taking the shortcut on Koopa's Beach. Good times were quite had, though I finished with 30 1st place finishes, 18 second place, 4 3rd, and a unknown, non-zero, moderately large, single-digit number of last places, as well as 10 Victories in Battle out of some odd 18 battles.
Going back before this: FFX-2 is awesome. It's varied, it's interesting, it's learned from the mistakes of past games. One definately needs to have played FFX to understand it fully, though alot of story elements are new. Actually, I recind that, you need to have played FFX and have seen the extended ending from FFX-International which bridges the two, if being annoyingly repetitive and sappy.
Pros of the game: It's diverse with alot of different minigames and missions, it's got multiple endings, has newgame+, has jobs and classes, a great variety of accessories and abilities to learn, new areas to explore, bonds well with the old and the new.
Cons of the game: The Layers of loading are painfully obvious: when battle begins your characters appear sans weapons, which are added only moments before the actual battle begins. AP System is never explained so it remains unclear forever as to what solves what, hard to figure out what to do as some missions aren't ever marked and others that are marked really aren't. Cannot carry across anything but the core abilities of a class and not all of the classes even have this ability: for example, it's not really worth being a white mage, black mage, or warrior, because their extra abilities and auto functions are overrriden by others, similarily, Thief skills are easily better emmulated elsewhere and with the Mug Garment grid and Lady Luck can superceed most abilities, not really a cohesive storyline: things happen and then other things occur as a result, much of the game is from the extras around. New areas aren't incredibly inventive: it seems like a rather poor War III Custom: everything is merely palletshifted and size increased from the old characters.
Though the Cons look bigger, they are not nearly as hidering as the Pros are mouth watering. The pause of loading after every battle is annoying, but the variety of actions to take in battle and the resulting statements outweigh.
Rikku "Ducksoup!"
Paine: "Duck what?"
Beserker Rikku "Bite me! Better yet, I'll bite you!"
All in all, the game feels alot like an older Final Fantasy (Anything pre-X, cause it has actual levels), most likely FF5 for the classing with alot of overlays from Charlie's Angels (and if you think I'm kidding, you are greatly mistaken).
On the other side of SquareEnix's spectrum is FFXI, which I cannot stand. I gave it a fair trial, and it is simply not worth the hype of the 5 freaking discs it was forged onto! The game, which took a good 5 hours to install and was a bitch about it (ie: Please insert Disc 2 followed immediately by "Wrong Disc Inserted" and a load of code that only with careful observation could one decipher that it wanted Disc 1 again whereupon it immediately asks again for Disc 2). Moreover, the game requires the disc to run but inserting it automatically takes you to the uninstall screen, not that I'm complaining, it just wasn't a game for me. I don't mean to bash it, but anything you've read in any online comic is true. I don't mind that it has an odd feel to it, that half the time I examine Japanese characters I get nothing out of their detail and other times I get minor detail. But I do find something wrong in a game that is meant to be diverse and varied yet I see always the same Sword, always the same Armor, Always the same freaking Pumpkin helm! Moreover, I don't know what the idea of having the same monster vary drastically was, but it's stupid. More of the pallet shifts, mostly just name changes though, and close to 50% of the time I have no freaking clue what I'm trying to fight. Partying seems like a great idea, but finding a decent party is hard enough, let alone getting them all to find their way through the interface of doom to actually accept the invitation. I feel like I'm running tech support occasionally, and I've only got a mere 5 hours logged into the game. I think it might get slightly better with a few more levels, but then I realize that I'll eventually be back to level 1, again using crap items (the same crap as everyone else) running around fighting the same uninventive enemies who have much better skills than I, getting crap for doing it. I mean, I don't really mind getting .2 Sword Skill every few swings, or that I have to be fighting rather tough enemies to do it, but the fact that if I were to switch to an axe, I'd be at skill 0 but have the same progression and have to fight the same tough enemies, and rarely do I get the points anyways. Perhaps I'm not an MMORPG person, but I can't help but feel that I'm playing a glorified version of Diablo II with a few differences. Firstly, theres' no channel, all the spammers and morons are in the game with you. Secondly, that it was a version of Diablo II that was made not only by monkeys, but they were all being infused with mercury as they programmed it: It's like a retarted version of Diablo II with all sorts of odd requirements. Thirdly, the Rogue Encampment is roughly the same size as, say, Neptune. You run slow, you have no way to get faster, you die and you go all the way back, and finding an NPC to sell you maps (let alone finding the cash to buy them with) is nearly impossible. No matter where I try and go I end up at my Mog house, apparently every freaking extra pathway leads to the apparently extradimensional home of mine with a rather ugly floating whitish blob with a little red rounded blob that's supposed to be the enchanting Moogle that always lit up my day with dancing back in the days of yore (American FFVI, SNES) which now reminds me of a poorly rendered version of the Mog from the Moogle Game in FFVII after you fed him a few too many nuts. Fourth, instead of a 1 minute patch, it's a few hours.
The game has little conception of what a mission is: I'm supposed to see someone but I have no idea who because I lost track of the name amoung the 1300 other NPCS would I even be likely to end up where I am supposed to did I know their name, but I do know that I'm supposed to take my Blue Acid tester somewhere into a place far deadlier that I and find a place where it changes color, but I don't know where in this place, how I'm to survive, how I'll know when it changes color, or anything else. The opening isn't skippable, and while it's unlikely you'd have too see it too often, I'd much rather listen to Decard Cain than whoever the game spawns for me. It's nifty that different races, classes, and starting locations all get different jntros, but had that effort been placed somewhere else, like quality or patching, I'd have been much happier. All the steps in the right direction that I felt X-2 made, FFXI seems to ignore of blatently oppose.
Sunday, November 23, 2003
Okay, back to blogging since I have the chance. I don't feel like utter scum of the earth for being infrequent, though close, but I'm one day better than our dearest Ting. So, worry not dear reader, there will be blogging, and (hopefully), it shall be good. if I remember what I meant to blog about.
We'll start with a rather vital life lesson: When making hot chocolate using the microwave (cause that's the fastest way when you've used up all the hot water making tea, cancerous or not), always heat the water before adding the chocolate, because otherwise the chocolate won't mix with the water, it'll just sit atop it, and then, for lord's sake, just start over right there, it'll save you the hassle of drinking warm water with bits of chocolate floating in it. Definately the least satisfying hot chocolate I've ever had.
Well, memory lapse, there'll be more tomorrow.
We'll start with a rather vital life lesson: When making hot chocolate using the microwave (cause that's the fastest way when you've used up all the hot water making tea, cancerous or not), always heat the water before adding the chocolate, because otherwise the chocolate won't mix with the water, it'll just sit atop it, and then, for lord's sake, just start over right there, it'll save you the hassle of drinking warm water with bits of chocolate floating in it. Definately the least satisfying hot chocolate I've ever had.
Well, memory lapse, there'll be more tomorrow.
Monday, November 10, 2003
Before I get some debted blogging on the way I'll get this out of the way: fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking fucking. Yep, an overflow of cussing derived from Debate-related stress, rewatching all of RedvsBlue, reading Jeff's blog (yes Jeff, I read it, even the long ones. And umm, I don't have the flexibility to fulfull your request I'm afraid) , and listening to my roomate (who's favorite adjective is still this word). If you're curious as to the point of all that? Now there'll be no profanity for the rest of the posts.
Alright, the Chattahooche Debate Tournament Fiasco, from the top.
The idea behind my being at the event at all was that Mrs. Jolle wanted Cindy and I to be judges for the Indivdual Events (aka: Speech) part of the Tournament. I'd never judged IE before but I'd seen them all at one point or another (okay, not Extemporaneous Speaking, but that's light debate to a degree). Well, Cindy was the communications link and told me that Smiley had told her that all the spaces for judges were full, but then David came to my rescue and told me that Smiley had wanted me to judge. Past that, even if I weren't to judge, my mother had been recruited to help prepare food for lunch (about 2 hours of work for a bunch of moms) and I was going to be doing that with her she said, though that wasn't a request. So, anyways, I arrived with my mother at about 8 to 8:10 ish, about 30 minutes after David. So I went in, and because Smiley didn't give me a 'What are you doing here' kind of look, I stayed. Big mistake. First round that day (round 3) found me sitting in front of what I call the Tag room for no reason other than I'm severely brain damaged by simply being at a debate tournament (I say that because the room is really called the Tab room, aka the Tabulations Room, aka the CHS library). So I sat there and told people that the pairings (schedules, schematics, whatever) for the next set of rounds would be coming out in 30 minutes (in tournament terms, whenever we finished making them) but at least we had seperate rooms for everything (Vestavia Hills sucked for two reasons, 1- Speechers like me had about 2 less rounds than Debaters and take about 30-50 minutes versus the 90-120+ hours for a debate round and 2- They had the same rooms used for both so we had to wait on debaters to get started, which involved alot of Colin sitting on the disgusting floor for 30 minutes after a delayed scheduled time waiting for some windbag to stop screaming about Oceans or Weapons or Capitalism or some other moronic Debate Crap. (Sidenote, all debate, in Colin's opinion, wins boil down to the other team finding something really stupid, stupid thing and latching onto it (like the fact that the Affirmative team used a acronym or the pronoun he instead of he/she) and whining about it). So, my day consisted of sitting at that table, yelling at people, sending people to find morons (err, people that we were paying to Judge who were doing a much worse job of it than me (Cause, see, I've worked 3 of these pieces of crap (err, tournaments) and I know to turn my ballot in ASAP before giving a verbal critique, I know to fill in all the Speaker Points and Ranks and Names and sign a Low Point Win if one occured, these morons didn't all the time so I'd send one of my Asian minions (yes, I have those in Debate as well, and they are related to former Asian compatriots of mine 3/4ths of the time) to hunt people down), a light light light lunch (about 4 inches of bread, two sides, with a slice of store-bought sliced turkey; small bottle of water; and a mini bag of chips), and running ballots to Smiley inside the Library from the desk outside. Yes, running. He wanted me to move faster, cause theoretically the extra 15 mph on my part of that massive 50 ft of distance would make the tournament run that much faster. I played perhaps 15 hands of Spades and another 20 of Chinese Poker (2-3 person, usually 2, with an incomplete deck of cards)) in the time I had. I could rant on and on, but it's all the same boring tedium for the rest of the day. David had planned to go to dinner with his Girlfriend and her parents and grandparents, and by planned I mean they had reservations including him, but Smiley vetoed his request, and by vetoed I mean, made enough of an asshole of himself to easily prove he was replacing Stein. The exact words were something to the likes of "Well tell your girlfriend that you'd love some leftover but that you won't be able to attend." We finially got released to leave at something just before 9 o'clock (Smiley might've felt a bit guilty for David cause it was David specifically out of 4 people he released, but that've been far too little, way way too late). So, to summarize the point of contention here:
1) I'd have been a much better judge than most of the crap there, instead I was basically the public relations liason for said crap. So I got to watch unqualified college kids (Yeah, I'm one too) who were more interested in feeling up the other college girls there to judge (trust me, all of being a female in debate is getting felt up by people you've bested several times in rounds of debate who happen to be at the same place as you do and have a topic they know you share at least a partway intrest in to trap you in conversation of some sort). Nothing quite like having to send out 5 waves of 2-3 people each to hunt down a judge who forgot to finish filling her ballot because she was distracted by her laptop and needing all 5 waves because said judge had stepped off school grounds so they could smoke, or take a cell phone call from someone they wish they were copping a feel off of, but either was smart enough to avoid a debate tournament or was busy.
2) Troop Morale was totally crap and that made my job that much harder. Stein wasn't there because he'd taken the most promising Debaters off to Michigan. I'm told that they've been to triple the number of tournaments of any other team yet not only were they not at the single biggest fund-raiser for the Debate team (the tournament) they also only paid the same debate team fee as everyone else at the beginning of the year. That and I was working next to Jen who just wasn't having a great day (working that table will do that to you), what with a pregnant mother helping at the tournament and getting asked the same thing a thousand times by moronic debaters and having way too much responsiblity and being not in the judging pool so she could devote her efforts to the Tab table with me. So no one really wanted to do anything that was asked of them and I was given more excuses and complaints that night than I've ever made in my life (and that says alot from someone as *cough* indecisive and stubborn *cough* as me.
3) My mother got picked to judge and I didn't. She was asked to Judge the Ted Turner/Controversy debates, which is what we call debate for non-debaters. None of the participants nor the judge are allowed to have even a single day of actual debate experience. I however, who was only there to judge (and I was never told I wasn't going to) never got to. My mother passed the duty to Jen's mother and went home, I should've done the same but I really felt guilty about leaving others to suffer, plus it would've voided my right to fully complain.
4) It was a waste of a damned full day that I could've spent with better people doing things that benefitted me in some way. And no folks (folks being all the other college people there that I know who did judge) I serious don't think I'm going to get paid my due for being there to judge. $15 a round times 0 rounds isn't too hard for a greedy man like Smiley (no, I don't really think he is, but he won't pay me out of guilt, he gave me a 3 minute break at the end when there was already nothing happening instead of sending me to help reorganize rooms so I bet he feels that was my due).
Subnote, Cooney, much as I love you, you're evil for flaunting your departure like that.
Okay, so maybe I lied about not cussing, but I did try, what can I say?
Alright, the Chattahooche Debate Tournament Fiasco, from the top.
The idea behind my being at the event at all was that Mrs. Jolle wanted Cindy and I to be judges for the Indivdual Events (aka: Speech) part of the Tournament. I'd never judged IE before but I'd seen them all at one point or another (okay, not Extemporaneous Speaking, but that's light debate to a degree). Well, Cindy was the communications link and told me that Smiley had told her that all the spaces for judges were full, but then David came to my rescue and told me that Smiley had wanted me to judge. Past that, even if I weren't to judge, my mother had been recruited to help prepare food for lunch (about 2 hours of work for a bunch of moms) and I was going to be doing that with her she said, though that wasn't a request. So, anyways, I arrived with my mother at about 8 to 8:10 ish, about 30 minutes after David. So I went in, and because Smiley didn't give me a 'What are you doing here' kind of look, I stayed. Big mistake. First round that day (round 3) found me sitting in front of what I call the Tag room for no reason other than I'm severely brain damaged by simply being at a debate tournament (I say that because the room is really called the Tab room, aka the Tabulations Room, aka the CHS library). So I sat there and told people that the pairings (schedules, schematics, whatever) for the next set of rounds would be coming out in 30 minutes (in tournament terms, whenever we finished making them) but at least we had seperate rooms for everything (Vestavia Hills sucked for two reasons, 1- Speechers like me had about 2 less rounds than Debaters and take about 30-50 minutes versus the 90-120+ hours for a debate round and 2- They had the same rooms used for both so we had to wait on debaters to get started, which involved alot of Colin sitting on the disgusting floor for 30 minutes after a delayed scheduled time waiting for some windbag to stop screaming about Oceans or Weapons or Capitalism or some other moronic Debate Crap. (Sidenote, all debate, in Colin's opinion, wins boil down to the other team finding something really stupid, stupid thing and latching onto it (like the fact that the Affirmative team used a acronym or the pronoun he instead of he/she) and whining about it). So, my day consisted of sitting at that table, yelling at people, sending people to find morons (err, people that we were paying to Judge who were doing a much worse job of it than me (Cause, see, I've worked 3 of these pieces of crap (err, tournaments) and I know to turn my ballot in ASAP before giving a verbal critique, I know to fill in all the Speaker Points and Ranks and Names and sign a Low Point Win if one occured, these morons didn't all the time so I'd send one of my Asian minions (yes, I have those in Debate as well, and they are related to former Asian compatriots of mine 3/4ths of the time) to hunt people down), a light light light lunch (about 4 inches of bread, two sides, with a slice of store-bought sliced turkey; small bottle of water; and a mini bag of chips), and running ballots to Smiley inside the Library from the desk outside. Yes, running. He wanted me to move faster, cause theoretically the extra 15 mph on my part of that massive 50 ft of distance would make the tournament run that much faster. I played perhaps 15 hands of Spades and another 20 of Chinese Poker (2-3 person, usually 2, with an incomplete deck of cards)) in the time I had. I could rant on and on, but it's all the same boring tedium for the rest of the day. David had planned to go to dinner with his Girlfriend and her parents and grandparents, and by planned I mean they had reservations including him, but Smiley vetoed his request, and by vetoed I mean, made enough of an asshole of himself to easily prove he was replacing Stein. The exact words were something to the likes of "Well tell your girlfriend that you'd love some leftover but that you won't be able to attend." We finially got released to leave at something just before 9 o'clock (Smiley might've felt a bit guilty for David cause it was David specifically out of 4 people he released, but that've been far too little, way way too late). So, to summarize the point of contention here:
1) I'd have been a much better judge than most of the crap there, instead I was basically the public relations liason for said crap. So I got to watch unqualified college kids (Yeah, I'm one too) who were more interested in feeling up the other college girls there to judge (trust me, all of being a female in debate is getting felt up by people you've bested several times in rounds of debate who happen to be at the same place as you do and have a topic they know you share at least a partway intrest in to trap you in conversation of some sort). Nothing quite like having to send out 5 waves of 2-3 people each to hunt down a judge who forgot to finish filling her ballot because she was distracted by her laptop and needing all 5 waves because said judge had stepped off school grounds so they could smoke, or take a cell phone call from someone they wish they were copping a feel off of, but either was smart enough to avoid a debate tournament or was busy.
2) Troop Morale was totally crap and that made my job that much harder. Stein wasn't there because he'd taken the most promising Debaters off to Michigan. I'm told that they've been to triple the number of tournaments of any other team yet not only were they not at the single biggest fund-raiser for the Debate team (the tournament) they also only paid the same debate team fee as everyone else at the beginning of the year. That and I was working next to Jen who just wasn't having a great day (working that table will do that to you), what with a pregnant mother helping at the tournament and getting asked the same thing a thousand times by moronic debaters and having way too much responsiblity and being not in the judging pool so she could devote her efforts to the Tab table with me. So no one really wanted to do anything that was asked of them and I was given more excuses and complaints that night than I've ever made in my life (and that says alot from someone as *cough* indecisive and stubborn *cough* as me.
3) My mother got picked to judge and I didn't. She was asked to Judge the Ted Turner/Controversy debates, which is what we call debate for non-debaters. None of the participants nor the judge are allowed to have even a single day of actual debate experience. I however, who was only there to judge (and I was never told I wasn't going to) never got to. My mother passed the duty to Jen's mother and went home, I should've done the same but I really felt guilty about leaving others to suffer, plus it would've voided my right to fully complain.
4) It was a waste of a damned full day that I could've spent with better people doing things that benefitted me in some way. And no folks (folks being all the other college people there that I know who did judge) I serious don't think I'm going to get paid my due for being there to judge. $15 a round times 0 rounds isn't too hard for a greedy man like Smiley (no, I don't really think he is, but he won't pay me out of guilt, he gave me a 3 minute break at the end when there was already nothing happening instead of sending me to help reorganize rooms so I bet he feels that was my due).
Subnote, Cooney, much as I love you, you're evil for flaunting your departure like that.
Okay, so maybe I lied about not cussing, but I did try, what can I say?
Saturday, November 08, 2003
Good news first, cause that's about the only way I can mentally handle this, and yeah, no bitching that it's been awhile, I've been busy and have had more important things to be doing, like trying to figure out how the fuck to check for a empty vector. See, It'd been fine if Scheme had told me that the input (empty? vectorofpirates) was invalid, but instead, I spent 2 hours trying to get the rest of the code not to activate on such a condition. Okay, sorry, that was kinda bad news crap, apologies. Back to the good news: REM's CD, The Best of REM in Time 1988-2003 came out this week, or last week, or something. It's a really great CD containing the following:
Man on the Moon, The Great Beyond, Bad Day, What's the Frequency Kennith?, All the Way to Reno, Losing my Religion, E-Bow the Letter, Orange Crush, Imitation of Life, Daysleeper, Animal, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, Stand, Electrolite, All the Right Friends, Everybody Hurts, At my Most Beautiful, Nightswimming. A great collection indeed.
Man on the Moon, The Great Beyond, Bad Day, What's the Frequency Kennith?, All the Way to Reno, Losing my Religion, E-Bow the Letter, Orange Crush, Imitation of Life, Daysleeper, Animal, The Sidewinder Sleeps Tonight, Stand, Electrolite, All the Right Friends, Everybody Hurts, At my Most Beautiful, Nightswimming. A great collection indeed.
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