Yeah, I put my phone number out on the internet. I'm sure it was a stupid thing to do, but whatever. Yeah. I got a cell phone for Christmas. It's schnazzy. It's got a camera in it, even. But yeah, I'm on Sprint, so I guess that people with Sprint are free or something. I dunno. This is my first one of these. Oh well. Also, I ended up with a few Transformers, including the awesome Omega Supreme! Also, I got a 200 gig external hard drive, which is good, cuz I was down to my last 10 or so gigs out of 60 on my laptop. No PS2, or games for it, but I got couple of GBA games for my birthday, FF1&2 and Metroid Zero Mission.
I've also pretty much stolen my cousin's copy of Pokemon, cuz I'm trying get females of all three of starting Pokemon. I'm going to start breeding!!! O_O So far, though, I've just got a Squirtel-ette. Working on the other two. Lemme tell you, it's annoying as hell.
Okay, that's about it for now. I'm gonna get on Amazon later and refresh my wish list a bit. Surprisingly not much of it was given in the past few days. u_u; Anyone feel like donating to the Greg Levine Get Cool Stuff Fund?
25.12.04
22.12.04
Small Miracles
So I made it home. I hate this house. It’s always a mess. Nothing works. NOTHING. Our 6 foot TV’s projector is being fixed and as such, we can’t watch anything on it. It’s Tuesday now, so we probably won’t get it back before I leave for Jersey… Sigh… All those Christmas gifts of movies and games are gonna go to waste. Hrmm… I was hoping to beat Kingdom Hearts on the big screen. I’m on Hallow Bastion right now, ready for my first fight with Maleficent. So it shouldn’t be long now, I’ve just got to do some more leveling up. I’m 44 now, so maybe at 47-50 or so…. I should be fine. Now I’m actually doing runs through the Hercules Cup in the Coliseum. Cloud is a bitch, but I can beat him, and then lose to Hercules. X_X Speaking of which, I’ve been bad again. I hope none of you bought me the GTA Double Pack, cuz I bought that at Walmart yesterday. Vice City really is a blast to play. And I know we already had GTAIII but that was Danny’s copy. He won’t let me take it off to college, so now I have my own. Here’s hoping Disgaea is in the cards on Saturday too. And my whole list, for those of you not in the know, is available through a link I should have placed over to the right. Yeah, I plan on actually keeping that one more or less updated year round, which really makes no sense, because there’s only one time of year when people need to get me stuff, but oh well.
I failed English and Political Science this past semester. No real huge surprise, its just what happens when you stop going to classes for half the semester. The surprise, to me at least, was that I actually passed Calculus and Computer Science, getting a B+ in Calc and a C in Comp Sci. I really hated Comp Sci, mostly cuz I’d basically learned ALL of that stuff years ago. I was tired of it. So my next course should hold my attention and I plan on getting the A. The B+ in Calc is quite simply a miracle. Either that or some poor schmoe got my grades mixed with theirs, which I wouldn’t doubt too much. Ah well. Onward and upward, right?
After Christmas, it seems that I’m going to Jersey, as I’ve mentioned. I plan to see at least a few old friends, and if I’m lucky my dad will let me borrow a car so I can drive off on my own and find them. Gonna have to spend some time with his family, I suppose. I dunno, they’re not all bad. I still say Wendy’s a little nuts, but then again, I’m pretty sure I’m nuts too, so it all evens out. Dylan gets along great with PJ and Dan, being another musician in the family, while James and I have a surprisingly large amount in common. I still need to get him to run a Magic Tournament quick before December 30th so I can get my pal Rob (who’s also visiting Jersey from Lakeway – small world, eh?) in on the fun.
Agh…. I’m tired. And my computer is NOT working properly, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it. I’ve half talked my mom into giving me the unused third desktop computer as a fixer-upper, and I may need it to get online if this laptop fails, like it seems to be going. If my uncle can’t get me hooked up, I’m thinking I’ll send it in to HP for refurbishment again, while I’m still on vacation, keeping all my files backed up on my shnazzy new 200 gig external HDD that I’ma get for Christmas. Anyway, night for now.
I failed English and Political Science this past semester. No real huge surprise, its just what happens when you stop going to classes for half the semester. The surprise, to me at least, was that I actually passed Calculus and Computer Science, getting a B+ in Calc and a C in Comp Sci. I really hated Comp Sci, mostly cuz I’d basically learned ALL of that stuff years ago. I was tired of it. So my next course should hold my attention and I plan on getting the A. The B+ in Calc is quite simply a miracle. Either that or some poor schmoe got my grades mixed with theirs, which I wouldn’t doubt too much. Ah well. Onward and upward, right?
After Christmas, it seems that I’m going to Jersey, as I’ve mentioned. I plan to see at least a few old friends, and if I’m lucky my dad will let me borrow a car so I can drive off on my own and find them. Gonna have to spend some time with his family, I suppose. I dunno, they’re not all bad. I still say Wendy’s a little nuts, but then again, I’m pretty sure I’m nuts too, so it all evens out. Dylan gets along great with PJ and Dan, being another musician in the family, while James and I have a surprisingly large amount in common. I still need to get him to run a Magic Tournament quick before December 30th so I can get my pal Rob (who’s also visiting Jersey from Lakeway – small world, eh?) in on the fun.
Agh…. I’m tired. And my computer is NOT working properly, so I don’t know what I’m gonna do with it. I’ve half talked my mom into giving me the unused third desktop computer as a fixer-upper, and I may need it to get online if this laptop fails, like it seems to be going. If my uncle can’t get me hooked up, I’m thinking I’ll send it in to HP for refurbishment again, while I’m still on vacation, keeping all my files backed up on my shnazzy new 200 gig external HDD that I’ma get for Christmas. Anyway, night for now.
16.12.04
All I Want For Christmas
Greg's Amazon Wish List
I spent all night looking through the Amazon.com files, searching through and clicking on things I wanted, didn't want, already had, etc. I made the mistake of saying I owned Shrek 2 (SHHH someones getting it for Christmas), and so it recommended GARFIELD of all things. Agh. Anyway, I eventually got them straightened out. They recommended a few different manga and anime titles for me. I still need to get that one title from James about the robot-battle-school-girl-thing. Yeah, that's about the broadest manga description possible, but he knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, gonna go get some sleep before my big drive tomorrow morning. Night all. Merry Christmas!
I spent all night looking through the Amazon.com files, searching through and clicking on things I wanted, didn't want, already had, etc. I made the mistake of saying I owned Shrek 2 (SHHH someones getting it for Christmas), and so it recommended GARFIELD of all things. Agh. Anyway, I eventually got them straightened out. They recommended a few different manga and anime titles for me. I still need to get that one title from James about the robot-battle-school-girl-thing. Yeah, that's about the broadest manga description possible, but he knows what I'm talking about. Anyway, gonna go get some sleep before my big drive tomorrow morning. Night all. Merry Christmas!
15.12.04
The Long Awaited Relgion Post...
...is getting dropped. You know how I feel about religion, and right now I'm just a little bummed out about having failed at least English and Political Science, and possibly Computer Science and/or Calculus. *Sigh* What am I going to do? I don't wanna end up in some dead end stupid job. No offense to anyone out there holding a highschool graduate level job, but I am capable of much better than that. I just don't know how I'm gonna get there. If anyone out there is reading this and thinking "Hey, I wanna employ this kid in a writing job," I'll give you a yes. Anyone wanna buy my stories I wrote in here? Please? Something I can do? Anything? Sigh. I'm screwed.
Sleepless In Lubbock
I can't sleep. It's 4:00am. I have a final in 6 hours. And I can't sleep. This is what I get for throwing my sleep schedule into the trash heap during finals week. Sigh. One more test, and I'm done for the year though. Yay Christmas. It really is my favorite time of year. Why? Because I'm human, I'm greedy. Christmas is the one time of year when people give me stuff for being alive. And, yes, I give them stuff too, but I'm special because my birthday is then too. So I end up getting not quite twice as many presents... thank goodness for Santa Claus. Yeah, I know, I'm too old to believe in St. Nick, but the beauty of having a big family is, there's always SOMEONE young enough to still believe. Santa isn't mean; he wouldn't slight the rest of us just because we didn't believe, and only give Lena and Clara presents. So I end up with about a dozen gifts from family members, and then around 10 more gifts from S.C. Of course, there is always a difference in the quality of gifts. Santa never brings us the PS2s or guitars or what have you, those are always from a family member. Best I can expect from a Claus gift is a GBA game. Oh well. In any case, the over-all present quality drops between my birthday and Christmas Day, but only because it is diluted by a bunch of lesser North Polean gifts. Not to say that I don't appriciate everything I get, because I honestly do. I have a terrible tendancy to complain about things in my life, but really, I shouldn't. I have it really well. I am somewhat scarilly reminded of the whining of Harry Potter's cousin Dudley, complaining that he only has 37 presents when he got 38 last year. "Ah, yes, but some of these gifts are quite a bit larger than-" "I don't care!!!" *Sigh.* I'm not like that, honest. I'm lucky, and I know it, most of the time. I guess that's why I like the Christmas season. It reminds me how truly blessed my family is, to be so happy together with each other, and really, quite well off, for the time being. I'm fucking spoiled, if I hadn't mentioned that before. I do hope I don't come off as spoiled rotten, but just spoiled, I won't argue about.
Got a couple of gears to shift through before I'm done tonite. First I wanted to point you to this little discussion I've got going on at the PSPvsDS forums. I've pretty well flip-flopped my earlier decision on the DS. Of course, my earlier decision was made well before the DS was released, and was partially based on the fact that the forums two admins were pretty obviously PSP fans. Since the entire site is based on which system is better (an argument I think should be null and void, but I'll get to that), I felt a little counter culture was in order, so I raised my flag in support of the DS. Of course, as time went on, I discovered that A) the DS wasn't going to be able to run any of my older Game Boy games - for some reason they decided to only let it go back as far as GBA, and I have no idea why, and B) the DS's launch titles weren't all that great. It's for those reasons that not only did I refrain from saving my cash to buy a DS, but I have actually made it known that I do not want one for Christmas, thus my current position on the system. Here's my take: The DS is an expensive toy. I mean, yes, all video game systems are, but the DS is more like a Virtual Boy than a PS2 or GBA, in my book. If you don't remember what a Virtual Boy is, then you are a luckier person than I. It was, for all intents and purposes, a gimmick system, much like the DS. The DS's primary pitch is not "Look at the amazing games you could be playing, it's "Look! I got's two screens! And one's touchable! Ain't it cool? Don't you wanna touch it?" That's not what I look for when I decide to get a game system. I look for the games I want to be able to play. Which goes back to where I thing the forums premise argument is a moot point. The PSP and the DS shouldn't be competing. They're two different animals. The PSP is a high end multimedia system, primarily for gaming but it could just as easily be a pocket PC. The DS is an experimental system, and even Nintendo says it isn't meant to be the next level in Game Boy Evolution. More like an offshoot. So the two shouldn't be competing. Ah well, people are dumb. But like I say, I'm not deciding that the DS is worse than the PSP. I don't know enough about the PSP yet to really decide whether I want one, though I'm leaning towards yes. I've decided though, as far as the DS, that not having one is better than having one. It's just one of those things I don't want, just like the other things I've listed in the thread - Virtual Boy, X-Box, Segway, Aztek, Super Mario 2, etc. Anyway. I've got to get a move on.
As I stayed up tonite, I glanced through various people's blogs in my insomniatic state (no, they weren't really updated). And I wondered. Who the fuck reads this? The last comment I got was from Gina being a sobbing mess because I'm a dumbass, and she didn't even care enough about what she was saying to reply to the right post. What does that say about this sad excuse at journalism? That people only write in it when they're mad me, and even then they don't care enough to make it clear why they're mad at me? Unless Gina was mad at my hot dog contest thread, in which case she's got further issues than me. (And no, I don't think she does. I know she was just upset, and I'm up too late to make good jokes.) But seriously, why do I write in this thing? Does anyone care that I don't like the DS, or that I'm listening to the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack (which I'm loving by the way ^_^)? I mean, really, who am I? Some random college student who's never done anything for anyone. I'm a non-player character for 99% of the world. And I need this shirt to identify that fact to people. Anyone wanna get it for me for Christmas? ^_^?
Oh well. I've been blogging for a good 40 minutes. I should try and get back to sleep and get ready for that test. Sigh. I hope I do alright. Nah, fuck that. I KNOW I'll do alright. Night folks. Folk. You there, my ~1 person audience. Thanks for listening.
Oh yeah, I still owe y'all that treatise on my religious beliefs. I'll get it out tomorrow, again, after the tests.
Got a couple of gears to shift through before I'm done tonite. First I wanted to point you to this little discussion I've got going on at the PSPvsDS forums. I've pretty well flip-flopped my earlier decision on the DS. Of course, my earlier decision was made well before the DS was released, and was partially based on the fact that the forums two admins were pretty obviously PSP fans. Since the entire site is based on which system is better (an argument I think should be null and void, but I'll get to that), I felt a little counter culture was in order, so I raised my flag in support of the DS. Of course, as time went on, I discovered that A) the DS wasn't going to be able to run any of my older Game Boy games - for some reason they decided to only let it go back as far as GBA, and I have no idea why, and B) the DS's launch titles weren't all that great. It's for those reasons that not only did I refrain from saving my cash to buy a DS, but I have actually made it known that I do not want one for Christmas, thus my current position on the system. Here's my take: The DS is an expensive toy. I mean, yes, all video game systems are, but the DS is more like a Virtual Boy than a PS2 or GBA, in my book. If you don't remember what a Virtual Boy is, then you are a luckier person than I. It was, for all intents and purposes, a gimmick system, much like the DS. The DS's primary pitch is not "Look at the amazing games you could be playing, it's "Look! I got's two screens! And one's touchable! Ain't it cool? Don't you wanna touch it?" That's not what I look for when I decide to get a game system. I look for the games I want to be able to play. Which goes back to where I thing the forums premise argument is a moot point. The PSP and the DS shouldn't be competing. They're two different animals. The PSP is a high end multimedia system, primarily for gaming but it could just as easily be a pocket PC. The DS is an experimental system, and even Nintendo says it isn't meant to be the next level in Game Boy Evolution. More like an offshoot. So the two shouldn't be competing. Ah well, people are dumb. But like I say, I'm not deciding that the DS is worse than the PSP. I don't know enough about the PSP yet to really decide whether I want one, though I'm leaning towards yes. I've decided though, as far as the DS, that not having one is better than having one. It's just one of those things I don't want, just like the other things I've listed in the thread - Virtual Boy, X-Box, Segway, Aztek, Super Mario 2, etc. Anyway. I've got to get a move on.
As I stayed up tonite, I glanced through various people's blogs in my insomniatic state (no, they weren't really updated). And I wondered. Who the fuck reads this? The last comment I got was from Gina being a sobbing mess because I'm a dumbass, and she didn't even care enough about what she was saying to reply to the right post. What does that say about this sad excuse at journalism? That people only write in it when they're mad me, and even then they don't care enough to make it clear why they're mad at me? Unless Gina was mad at my hot dog contest thread, in which case she's got further issues than me. (And no, I don't think she does. I know she was just upset, and I'm up too late to make good jokes.) But seriously, why do I write in this thing? Does anyone care that I don't like the DS, or that I'm listening to the Kingdom Hearts soundtrack (which I'm loving by the way ^_^)? I mean, really, who am I? Some random college student who's never done anything for anyone. I'm a non-player character for 99% of the world. And I need this shirt to identify that fact to people. Anyone wanna get it for me for Christmas? ^_^?
Oh well. I've been blogging for a good 40 minutes. I should try and get back to sleep and get ready for that test. Sigh. I hope I do alright. Nah, fuck that. I KNOW I'll do alright. Night folks. Folk. You there, my ~1 person audience. Thanks for listening.
Oh yeah, I still owe y'all that treatise on my religious beliefs. I'll get it out tomorrow, again, after the tests.
14.12.04
Giant Fighting Wheelchairs!!
I WANT!!!
I'm sure I've told you that I want to live out my days in a robot body. If not, consider this my way of telling you. When my currnt body craps out on me, I'm gonna hook it up to a robot body, and live that way. Nothing fancy. I don't want a Gundam or Battletech mech. Just something that'll fit me and every day life. Either a spider-type thing or a transforming body: robot to helicoptor, personally would be my favorite alternate mode. Normal, human size - six foot tall, tops. But yeah, point is that they're developing my technology for me.
Meh, final final tomorrow - Political Science. I should do okay on it. If not... I dunno. I'm prolly redoing most of the other classes this semester, so what's one more, eh? X_X My mom's gonna kill me. Anyway, I've got a blog entry about religion brewing in my head, but am too tired to put it up now. Maybe tomorrow. Also have to see if I can snag a Christmas gift for my mom before she picks me up on Thursday... I gotta stop Christmas shopping for myself. I picked up Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories the other day, and it's been on my Christmas for like a month. So I'm gonna prolly get it again. Which means I'll have to return it. *Shrugs.* I got a buncha other games to trade in... Armored Core 3 sucked ass, as did some other games I have. Oh yeah, I need to trade in Iridian 3D, for GBA - that game was absolutely terrible. Or maybe I just sucked at it. In any case, I don't want it any more. Oh, and a really old game of Pokemon Blue that decided to stop working. I wonder if they'll take it. *Shrugs.*
Okay, I gotta go. I'm expecting a call from a special someone. ^_^; Ciao.
I'm sure I've told you that I want to live out my days in a robot body. If not, consider this my way of telling you. When my currnt body craps out on me, I'm gonna hook it up to a robot body, and live that way. Nothing fancy. I don't want a Gundam or Battletech mech. Just something that'll fit me and every day life. Either a spider-type thing or a transforming body: robot to helicoptor, personally would be my favorite alternate mode. Normal, human size - six foot tall, tops. But yeah, point is that they're developing my technology for me.
Meh, final final tomorrow - Political Science. I should do okay on it. If not... I dunno. I'm prolly redoing most of the other classes this semester, so what's one more, eh? X_X My mom's gonna kill me. Anyway, I've got a blog entry about religion brewing in my head, but am too tired to put it up now. Maybe tomorrow. Also have to see if I can snag a Christmas gift for my mom before she picks me up on Thursday... I gotta stop Christmas shopping for myself. I picked up Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories the other day, and it's been on my Christmas for like a month. So I'm gonna prolly get it again. Which means I'll have to return it. *Shrugs.* I got a buncha other games to trade in... Armored Core 3 sucked ass, as did some other games I have. Oh yeah, I need to trade in Iridian 3D, for GBA - that game was absolutely terrible. Or maybe I just sucked at it. In any case, I don't want it any more. Oh, and a really old game of Pokemon Blue that decided to stop working. I wonder if they'll take it. *Shrugs.*
Okay, I gotta go. I'm expecting a call from a special someone. ^_^; Ciao.
13.12.04
I'm Popular
I've just gotten messages from two random people. It's rather interesting. One of them went like this:
(Sigh, so much for formatting that... oh well.)
And then this one, who caught me as deceptikhan34 and squirrelmonger34. (Stupid thing merged them, so I've gotta split em up.)
----------------------------
Anyway... I'll go and relax. I had my computer science final earlier today. Just gotta get through Political Science and I'll be alright. ^_^
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: hello
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: wats ur name
me: xxl33tn1nj4xx
me: yours?
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: streetrace4livin
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: lol
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: no but im serious
me: kay
me: im greg
me: u?
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: greg wolf
me: nope
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: greg wat?
me: greg "i dont give my last name out to random people online"
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: i go to horner
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: im chris
me: howd you get my screen name?
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: i got it from nicholes profile buddy list
me: ooh
me: k
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yea
me: wheres horner?
me: nvm
me: your xanga was quite helpful
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: quite helpful?
me: eys
me: chris
me: *yes
me: from california
me: you're 12
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yes
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yup
me: and you like ddr
me: heh
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: yup
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: so do u go to horner junior high
me: i live in texas
sTreEtRaCe4LiVin: oops
me: i go to texas tech university
me: so... nope
(Sigh, so much for formatting that... oh well.)
And then this one, who caught me as deceptikhan34 and squirrelmonger34. (Stupid thing merged them, so I've gotta split em up.)
UAroRock: yo
me: hello
UAroRock: u no me
me: i do?
UAroRock: IM NOT ANDREW
me: oh
me: alright
me: who are you?
UAroRock: HIS FRIEND HES AT MY HOUSE
me: okay
me: whos andrew?
UAroRock: UARO ROCK
me: oh right
me: i dont remember him
UAroRock: K
----------------------------
UAroRock: HEY
me: hey
UAroRock: DOES ANDTREW NO U
me: im not sure
me: you're already talking to me on deceptikhan, btw
UAroRock: LOL
Anyway... I'll go and relax. I had my computer science final earlier today. Just gotta get through Political Science and I'll be alright. ^_^
11.12.04
One Down
...three to go... x_x. Finals, that is. I managed to muscle my way through the calc final earlier today, and it wasn't as bad as I'd feared. Luckily, that was supposed to be the hardest one, so it should be smooth sailing.
It looks like I'm gonna go Christmas shopping tonite. Dunno why, because I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping. I need to find something for my mom. I have something in mind, but I dunno if they'll have it. I'd better go check quick before I get swept away and forced into something else. Bye!
It looks like I'm gonna go Christmas shopping tonite. Dunno why, because I'm almost done with my Christmas shopping. I need to find something for my mom. I have something in mind, but I dunno if they'll have it. I'd better go check quick before I get swept away and forced into something else. Bye!
9.12.04
Hot Dog Whating What?
I can't believe this is real. O_O
Time for a nice light subject - hot dog eating. I just saw the greatest thing on ESPN2. Of a contestant in the contest, one announcer said: "She doesn't let emotion get into the game." The game of HOT-DOG EATING?! I'd always considered it was a completely emotion drivin sport. *Shrugs.* Live and learn, I guess.
Time for a nice light subject - hot dog eating. I just saw the greatest thing on ESPN2. Of a contestant in the contest, one announcer said: "She doesn't let emotion get into the game." The game of HOT-DOG EATING?! I'd always considered it was a completely emotion drivin sport. *Shrugs.* Live and learn, I guess.
I'm Scum
I've been lying to all of you. All of you. And I'm not proud of it, not at all. I'm scum. I'm fucking lying scum. Here's why:
You see, I'm shy in real life, but as many of you know, I'm a huge flirt online. Or something. I dunno what it is, but I can make chicks online feel loved or whatever. It's a good feeling, I think, to make other people feel happy about themselves. Problem is, I've got a tendancy to take things too far with them. To each one of you out there who think's you're my only one, I'm truly sorry. I really hope you didn't have to find out about it through this entry, and that I'd told you about this on my own, but if not, well, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt anyones feelings. But I did. What I thought was harmless flirting ended up snowballing, and now I'm fucking screwed. I can't do anything to take it back, though. I can understand any feelings you have against me. I deserve it, because, like I said, I'm scum.
I want to especially apologize to my one true girlfriend, Jackie. She was actually the one who brought it up. If it wasn't for her, I would have continued my dumbassery. She's been really cool about this, and I really love her for it. I'm so lucky I found her, and luckier still that I've been with her for nearly a year. So why, then, didn't I tell anyone about it? Quite honestly, I'm a pussy. The last time I had a girlfriend, I'd met her online, and my family teased me to no end over it. So I decided I'd be secretive about them in the future. Thus, my current mess.
Okay, enough apologizing. To all you non-Jackie girls, sorry, but I'm taken. Commence the Greg-Hate in 3...2...1...go. X_X
You see, I'm shy in real life, but as many of you know, I'm a huge flirt online. Or something. I dunno what it is, but I can make chicks online feel loved or whatever. It's a good feeling, I think, to make other people feel happy about themselves. Problem is, I've got a tendancy to take things too far with them. To each one of you out there who think's you're my only one, I'm truly sorry. I really hope you didn't have to find out about it through this entry, and that I'd told you about this on my own, but if not, well, I'm sorry. I never meant to hurt anyones feelings. But I did. What I thought was harmless flirting ended up snowballing, and now I'm fucking screwed. I can't do anything to take it back, though. I can understand any feelings you have against me. I deserve it, because, like I said, I'm scum.
I want to especially apologize to my one true girlfriend, Jackie. She was actually the one who brought it up. If it wasn't for her, I would have continued my dumbassery. She's been really cool about this, and I really love her for it. I'm so lucky I found her, and luckier still that I've been with her for nearly a year. So why, then, didn't I tell anyone about it? Quite honestly, I'm a pussy. The last time I had a girlfriend, I'd met her online, and my family teased me to no end over it. So I decided I'd be secretive about them in the future. Thus, my current mess.
Okay, enough apologizing. To all you non-Jackie girls, sorry, but I'm taken. Commence the Greg-Hate in 3...2...1...go. X_X
Meanwhile...
The Inner Workings Of A Ph34rBot.
I don't know why I linked that. You all know where Megatokyo is by now. Oh well. I like it. Also, I wanted to point out they're RSS feed. I discovered them when I got Firefox, because it will single out sites with such a feed and allow me to link to it, which I usually do. I now have six of my twenty of so webcomics linked via RSS, as well as a number of blogs. Unfortunately for all you Xanga users, Xanga doesn't come with an RSS feed, at least as far as I've been able to discover. If you find one, please feel free to tell me. Thus far, however, I've found that Blogger and Live Journal both have feeds for their users, as well as something called Moveable Type, but that's a professional tool, and as such a pay service, and I don't have the money for anything like that.
Okay, I've wasted enough time talking about this stuff. I'm gonna sleep. G'night.
I don't know why I linked that. You all know where Megatokyo is by now. Oh well. I like it. Also, I wanted to point out they're RSS feed. I discovered them when I got Firefox, because it will single out sites with such a feed and allow me to link to it, which I usually do. I now have six of my twenty of so webcomics linked via RSS, as well as a number of blogs. Unfortunately for all you Xanga users, Xanga doesn't come with an RSS feed, at least as far as I've been able to discover. If you find one, please feel free to tell me. Thus far, however, I've found that Blogger and Live Journal both have feeds for their users, as well as something called Moveable Type, but that's a professional tool, and as such a pay service, and I don't have the money for anything like that.
Okay, I've wasted enough time talking about this stuff. I'm gonna sleep. G'night.
8.12.04
I Need A New Risk Board
South America is unifying.
*Shrugs.* I found it interesting. It'll make all my frequent trips to Rio De Janero (so far none) that much easier. Yay Carnival!
Anyway, I'm watching Jon Stewart on Larry King Live. He's raising some interesting points. He always does, really. I suppose I'm a dumb person because I trust a comedian more than trained political analysts. Or maybe he's just more likeable. Politics today is just so depressing. The current administration is ready to tell us that there are boogie men out there ready to kill us every waking minute. They are PROUD that the terror level has been at the second highest for a full year. And the other side really can't do anything but complain about they're opponants. It's all fucking rediculous. Okay, back to pool. Bye.
*Shrugs.* I found it interesting. It'll make all my frequent trips to Rio De Janero (so far none) that much easier. Yay Carnival!
Anyway, I'm watching Jon Stewart on Larry King Live. He's raising some interesting points. He always does, really. I suppose I'm a dumb person because I trust a comedian more than trained political analysts. Or maybe he's just more likeable. Politics today is just so depressing. The current administration is ready to tell us that there are boogie men out there ready to kill us every waking minute. They are PROUD that the terror level has been at the second highest for a full year. And the other side really can't do anything but complain about they're opponants. It's all fucking rediculous. Okay, back to pool. Bye.
Tic Tac Toe is HARD!!!
...or coding it is. When my brain was unable to fathom creating a set of rules for a computer to follow (mostly because I had painted myself into a corner with my earlier "dumb" design), I set out to encoding every possible situation that could arrise, and the approrpriate action for the computer to take. It was all going rather well... Until the compiler decided I had too many nested "if statements." Sigh. So I gave up. Cropped the situations list to an acceptable amount, and had my dumb function solve anything it couldn't. And you know what, I'm tired, I don't care right now. In future, though, I'll give myself more than a night on programming AIs.
7.12.04
'Go Canadian'
CNN.com - Company lets U.S. travelers�'Go Canadian' - Dec 7, 2004
This is just hilarous, I think. My family often goes on long out of state vacations, and this is just the thing I need for my next trip out of the country. (Note: My first was when I went to China last year.) Or I could just wear it domestically for fun. That would be great, show up at class wearing a Canada shirt. ^_^
On a more serious note, I just wanna add that it is something of a sad state of affairs that Americans are so hated around the world that they need to travel abroad disguised. And no, I don't want to blame this on Bush, or at least not completely. My mom spent a year of college in Scotland, and was so polite to the locals that no one would believe she was American, she had to be a Canadian. And this was thirty years ago, about.
So why are Americans so despised? Are they just jealous of our status as the most powerful nation on Earth? Or is there something we have done to make them angry? I wish I could tell you. Unfortunately, I fear our domestic news services are in fact blinded by bias towards the US. Not just Fox News, either, though that was the channel where I heard an anchor declare, "Am I slanted and biased? You damn well bet I am." So I doubt that if we DID do anything wrong, it wouldn't make major headlines. I wish i could say that's why I started subscribing to the BBC website, but really its just because they're the only ones who've got an RSS feed, and I love those things. ^_^
In other news, I've contributed close to 1000 hours of CPU time to the SETI@home project. For those who don't know, its a program that runs in the background of your computer, using all time that would be spent idle to instead analyze incoming signals from space. Most is just normal radiation and such, the static of outer space, but the goal is to find some form of a signal with an intelligence behind it. Anyway, it's also a cool screensaver, and hell, why not, right? I'm not using those cycles anyway.
This is just hilarous, I think. My family often goes on long out of state vacations, and this is just the thing I need for my next trip out of the country. (Note: My first was when I went to China last year.) Or I could just wear it domestically for fun. That would be great, show up at class wearing a Canada shirt. ^_^
On a more serious note, I just wanna add that it is something of a sad state of affairs that Americans are so hated around the world that they need to travel abroad disguised. And no, I don't want to blame this on Bush, or at least not completely. My mom spent a year of college in Scotland, and was so polite to the locals that no one would believe she was American, she had to be a Canadian. And this was thirty years ago, about.
So why are Americans so despised? Are they just jealous of our status as the most powerful nation on Earth? Or is there something we have done to make them angry? I wish I could tell you. Unfortunately, I fear our domestic news services are in fact blinded by bias towards the US. Not just Fox News, either, though that was the channel where I heard an anchor declare, "Am I slanted and biased? You damn well bet I am." So I doubt that if we DID do anything wrong, it wouldn't make major headlines. I wish i could say that's why I started subscribing to the BBC website, but really its just because they're the only ones who've got an RSS feed, and I love those things. ^_^
In other news, I've contributed close to 1000 hours of CPU time to the SETI@home project. For those who don't know, its a program that runs in the background of your computer, using all time that would be spent idle to instead analyze incoming signals from space. Most is just normal radiation and such, the static of outer space, but the goal is to find some form of a signal with an intelligence behind it. Anyway, it's also a cool screensaver, and hell, why not, right? I'm not using those cycles anyway.
6.12.04
Enchanting cards
So I came home today and decided to finally make the Green and Blue Enchantress deck I'd been thinking about for a while. After digging around and seeing what I had, I settled on the following janky little build:
4x Elvish Pioneer
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Verduran Enchantress
4x Enchantress's Presence
4x Wild Growth
3x Seal of Strength
4x Centaur Glade
2x Words of Wilding
3x Shimmering Wings
2x Future Sight
3x Standstill
3x Words of Wind
2x Yavimaya Coast
1x Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
(Wow, that took a while to type out. Don't expect me to make a common thing of this.)
Yeah, it's pretty janky. Anyway, the gist of the deck is, get an enchantress card into play, then start playing enchantments. (Really Greg, I couldn't tell!) (Shut up, you. x_x) The deck runs really slowly, but it isn't REALLY for competition as much as a fun combo thing. The real fun starts when I get out a Words of Wind, an Enchantress effect, and a couple of cheap enchantments. At that point, you can flip the two back and forth, skipping the draws you get to the Words of Wind. While you're returning Wild Growth or whatever for the umpteenth time, you're opponant runs out of permenants to return, and has a very full hand. Granted, it takes several turns to pull it off effectively, but when you do, the game becomes pretty much locked unless your opponant has some one mana enchantment removal spell, and even then, you should have enough of an advantage to beat the other guy easily.
At least, that's how it usually works. When testing it out earlier tonite, my opponent refused to accept that he was locked out of the game. In any case, I won, but only because, really his deck isn't that great. In other words, this deck I have made is bad. I'll have to work on it some more. If any of you Magic savvy peoples have anything to say, I'm open to suggestions. Until then, I'll need to go find food and water.
4x Elvish Pioneer
4x Llanowar Elves
4x Verduran Enchantress
4x Enchantress's Presence
4x Wild Growth
3x Seal of Strength
4x Centaur Glade
2x Words of Wilding
3x Shimmering Wings
2x Future Sight
3x Standstill
3x Words of Wind
2x Yavimaya Coast
1x Okina, Temple to the Grandfathers
(Wow, that took a while to type out. Don't expect me to make a common thing of this.)
Yeah, it's pretty janky. Anyway, the gist of the deck is, get an enchantress card into play, then start playing enchantments. (Really Greg, I couldn't tell!) (Shut up, you. x_x) The deck runs really slowly, but it isn't REALLY for competition as much as a fun combo thing. The real fun starts when I get out a Words of Wind, an Enchantress effect, and a couple of cheap enchantments. At that point, you can flip the two back and forth, skipping the draws you get to the Words of Wind. While you're returning Wild Growth or whatever for the umpteenth time, you're opponant runs out of permenants to return, and has a very full hand. Granted, it takes several turns to pull it off effectively, but when you do, the game becomes pretty much locked unless your opponant has some one mana enchantment removal spell, and even then, you should have enough of an advantage to beat the other guy easily.
At least, that's how it usually works. When testing it out earlier tonite, my opponent refused to accept that he was locked out of the game. In any case, I won, but only because, really his deck isn't that great. In other words, this deck I have made is bad. I'll have to work on it some more. If any of you Magic savvy peoples have anything to say, I'm open to suggestions. Until then, I'll need to go find food and water.
Hail!
So I wake up at 10 and decide to actually leave for class. 0_0! Good thing too, I managed to figure out when my final in that class is - Monday at 7:30. One down, three to go. Anyway, the reason I wrote this log is that it's hailing. That's right. When I arrived at class it was a beautiful day, if a little cold. After a short class (just a over view of the final details and then a teacher evaluation) I came outside, not a half hour later, and its raining. And by the time I made the five minute bike ride back home, it's HAILING. Tiny blocks of ice, pelting me... Garr... Anyway, I guess I'll get back to work and procrastinating it. ^_^
5.12.04
Under Construction
Not really, but yeah... I've been going through fixing up little things, working on my blogger profile, what have you. Check out the cute picture I put in there. I had a hard time deciding what to use, because most of my pics are of cute girls, but I was worried that might give people the wrong impression about me, as I am not, in fact, a girl. So I put the Tails plushie up instead. *Huggles.* Hrmm... maybe I AM a girl. O_O!
I put up a few links to the side, but it feels empty. I don't wanna link to ALL my webcomics on rotation, just those two for now, anyway. If you think of any I should include, feel free to tell me. For now, I'm off to fill in the blanks in my profile, why not? Chao! (No, I didn't misspell it, it's a pun. Nevermind.) x_x;
I put up a few links to the side, but it feels empty. I don't wanna link to ALL my webcomics on rotation, just those two for now, anyway. If you think of any I should include, feel free to tell me. For now, I'm off to fill in the blanks in my profile, why not? Chao! (No, I didn't misspell it, it's a pun. Nevermind.) x_x;
Late Night Linkings
Hikikomori
I found this hitting a little too close to home. Thought I'd link it. Anyway. That's three posts tonite. I'm tired. Oh yeah, while I'm linking things, did I show y'all these? They're awesome. I need them. I will have them re-enact WWII battles on my shelves. Okay, enough linkings. I'm gonna sleep. For real.
I found this hitting a little too close to home. Thought I'd link it. Anyway. That's three posts tonite. I'm tired. Oh yeah, while I'm linking things, did I show y'all these? They're awesome. I need them. I will have them re-enact WWII battles on my shelves. Okay, enough linkings. I'm gonna sleep. For real.
4.12.04
Version 2.0
After over a year looking the same, I decided that I needed a new look. So voila! It's Blue!!! I'll have to redo everything sooner or later, with links and such. Ah well. It was getting pretty bland though, so... enjoy.
My Deck Is Cursed
I just played like a dozen games against Matt with my random red deck. I made it using just random, cheap, efficient burn and creatures. Not my best work, but I like it. Anyway, despite it not being that good, it as a fool proof secret weapon - luck. Out of most of the games, I won due to him not getting enough or the right color mana. One game I actually lost due to the same fate, and then one he won through a long drawn out battle. Anyway, I like that.
Lately I've been wondering about the possiblities of sentience (which is basically being alive or self aware, either artificially or otherwise.) For instance: Given the stated (actually false, but work with me) premise that the Furby toys learned, how long do they take to become self aware? Matt and I debated this to some length whether or not a Furby even had the memory capacity to store sentience. While he used the fact that no advanced computers have achieved sentience, with undoubtably more memory than a Furby, to prove that a Furby doesn't have the memory, I counter by saying that sentience isn't about memory, but rather programming technique, So memory shouldn't be a factor. Anyway, that's just one of my little ponderings. I know Furbies don't have the capability to reach self-awareness. However, it is NOT because they lack the memory, so much as they're not really learning.
I still want to figure that out, though. The way to give a computer sentience. Having a computer child of my very own (most likely shut off from the outside world, so he doesn't cause trouble) would be very cool. That's what i want for Christmas. A self aware computer program. Please Santa? ^_^
Okay, I'll sleep now. Or just shut up. Either really works. G'night!
If Johnny Cochrain gets to play the race car, I want the thimble.
Lately I've been wondering about the possiblities of sentience (which is basically being alive or self aware, either artificially or otherwise.) For instance: Given the stated (actually false, but work with me) premise that the Furby toys learned, how long do they take to become self aware? Matt and I debated this to some length whether or not a Furby even had the memory capacity to store sentience. While he used the fact that no advanced computers have achieved sentience, with undoubtably more memory than a Furby, to prove that a Furby doesn't have the memory, I counter by saying that sentience isn't about memory, but rather programming technique, So memory shouldn't be a factor. Anyway, that's just one of my little ponderings. I know Furbies don't have the capability to reach self-awareness. However, it is NOT because they lack the memory, so much as they're not really learning.
I still want to figure that out, though. The way to give a computer sentience. Having a computer child of my very own (most likely shut off from the outside world, so he doesn't cause trouble) would be very cool. That's what i want for Christmas. A self aware computer program. Please Santa? ^_^
Okay, I'll sleep now. Or just shut up. Either really works. G'night!
If Johnny Cochrain gets to play the race car, I want the thimble.
Happy Blog Birthday
Yeah, apparently I've had this for a year. Not much has changed. Hrmm... Maybe over Christmas break I'll actually break down and write those stories I was talking about a year ago. Oh well. And I've been getting shorter winded. I used to type out pages of stuff. I guess I've just gotten it all off my chest. I dunno why. Oh well.
Anyway, I'm watching White Chicks right now. It's a TERRIBLE movie, but not as bad as I'd feared. Like, take every buddy comedy ever, it's terrible. Wait...
Oh my God. I've been doing this for a year and I was about to my first anniversary rant about White Chicks! Someone kill me. So, new topic... Ummm.... I've got it. A brand new story, which I will make up right here on the spot. There's no telling whats going to happen. Ready? Here I go. (Yeah, I have a tendancy to write myself into my stories.)
------
Greg rapelled down the tunnel. His rope was tied to his truck, currently on the surface twenty meters above him. He glanced up, at the daylight rapidly grew smaller and farther away. He glanced to the sides, and saw the dust covered walls all around him. Looking down just revealed more darkness, rising up to surround him. It was in this darkness, as his body thoughtlessly plunged deeper, that Greg's mind began to wander. He thought back to his ships long journey to get here, and how that even after this, he still had another month in hyperspace, alone, before he reached the nearest colony world. Another three months after that he would spend traveling with some company, at least.
Greg sighed. "Another four months till Virginia Prime, and Mayleen..." It'd been that long since he'd said goodbye to his beloved wife. He hated that his job was keeping him away from everyone he loved, but the money was good. Very good. And in between the months of travel, he did usually get a good solid day or two of fun work. That's the real reason. Love what you do and do what you love. That's what Greg's dad had taught him. And besides, after only 5 years of treasure scavaging, Greg had earned 40,000,000 Unicreds, enough for he and Mayleen to retire on for a long while.
"After this last find, at least." Greg focused on the light now coming into vision beneath him from the drill scout he'd launched earlier, creating the tunnel he was now dopping down. Greg's time in hyperspace hadn't been spent idly. He'd spent his days pooring over maps (both starmaps and the usual kind) and historical essays, searching for this one site. The last of the original fourteen Earth Venture Expiditions.
The EVE project had been humanity's first careful steps into deep space. Over a dozen probes, loaded with stasis-helf crews and enough supplies to start a colony that would hopefully one day contact Earth again. It was a terrible failure. After a millennia, none of the colonies had been heard from. The main flaw in the plan was that for the most part, the probes had been launched blind. Remains of seven of the fourteen ships had been found inside of stars or gas giants. Four had landed, and the inhabitants were found mauled by the native predators. Two more, surprisingly enough, had been passed by ships traveling at lightspeed, found drifting hundreds of light-years from earth. The last one, Pod 14, was similarly dismissed as lost.
By most, anyway. Greg thought he'd been able to track it down. Using collected readings of anomalous readings of sublight drive trails intersecting hyperspace drive trails, along with Starmaps dating back to the early Third Millenium Standard Years, he was able to track down a possible landing spot for the mysterious EVE Pod 14. As he touched down on his drill pod's landing pad and looked around, Greg started to believe that he was right. Two hundred lightyears from earth, this planet, Marvis 87, was a footnote to a footnote on Unification Starmaps. It was set apart, though far from unique, by it's pecular structure, having a thin crust surrounding a light atosphere underground, and a lower, more fertile surface under the darkness. On his initial approach, Greg's scan's had revealed a single hole in the outer crust, just the size that an EVE pod would have made if it had tried to land.
As he looked now, he saw no ship where it should have been, but what he did see amazed him. A gigantic city had sprung up, seemingly abandoned now, with buildings growing almost up to the roof. Apparently the colonists had been fearful of piercing the crust, for fear of causing a cave in, crushing their budding settlement, so many buildings were exactly the same hight, and no higher. A more detailed look showed a large garden had been build under the inital impact hole, directly in the only direct sunlight their claustrophobic city ever recieved. Aside from that, apparently they had set up a number lamps to light their lives.
Also, as Greg looked upon the land, he found a number long unused drilling vehicles. "Apparently they found something worth digging for," Greg mused. He wandered into the villiage, his visor feeding him still more miscelanious facts from around him, all of it being recorded into a computer on his back. He looked past it, at the marvelous archetecture surrounding him as he walked through the city streets. The computer was just showing him data and figures, but he was walking through history. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was very much in an Ancient Earth style, obviously free from the much more cosmopolitan tastes Unification Citizens were surrounded with from the myriad of species comprising it.
As he thought about that, his mind wandered back on course: the colonists. Where were they? Surely some remains had to be here. Greg flicked a switch on his side, activating the bioscanners in his visor. Slowly the green, almost ghost-like sillouettes of decayed bodies appeared, contrasting and overlaying the dirty-yellow sides of the buildings. As he followed them, slowly creeping through the barren streets, he noticed a definite cluster effect to the bodies, a focal point of death, so to speak. Greg felt a grim look come upon his face. The worst part about relic hunting, he thought, was the dead. He couldn't stand looking at them. Eventually, though, the bright green filled up his vision, and he had to flip his vision.
Once he did, he was able to see unobscured the reason all these people had died like this. A treasure room. Glimering piles of gold, the kind of stuff told in legends. This couldn't be happening. It didnt. It just didn't happen. Sure, relic hunters loved to dream about it, but honestly, this wasn't supposed to happen. And yet it was. Greg was face to face with an honest to God treasure room. And aparently a rather fatal one, judging from the piles of dead bodies littered among the piles of gold. As Greg surveyed the room, he found a central point, to both the treasure and the corpses, appeared to be a large altar in the middle of the room. He walked up to it, in half-disbelief of where he was. Greg looked at the dust covered plaque adorning the monument.
"For helping us to get where we were, this great wealth is left in loving memory of our forefathers, the first generation of Earth Venture Expedition Pod 1" Pod one? That had been found decades ago. That couldn't be right. Greg extended a hand, and wiped some dust from the plaque, revealing instead, Pod...
"18?" Greg said aloud. "Then this means, there were survivors of the survivors? Fourteen launched her own pods!" That last bit Greg said excitedly, and a little too loud. The cavernous room began echoing, and as it did, heard an inhuman rumbling coming from all around him. "Oh shit, I woke the guard dogs." Greg grinned at the two sentry robots slowly awakening from their centries slumber. He wasn't going to wait for their systems to boot fully. Reaching for a pair of pistol blasters at his hips, Greg set at a dash for the door, and back to his ship. He'd done enough treasure hunting for one day.
The machines, however, were not as friendly. A pair of lumbering, ten story, faceless metal golems came charging out of the treasure room, each one more than armed to take out any would be bank-robbers the colony could spit at them. Greg, though, had half a millenia and the combined technology of ten thousand square lightyears of civilization. He could hold his own against these relics. The real challenge, for Greg, was bringing himself to shoot up these antiques, no matter how deadly they were. As the machine's gunfire traced its way closer to his path, Greg leapt into the air, and a pair of hover jets on his back fired, propelling him higher into the air. Greg spun and looked at his adversaries, and saw that they were indeed able to raise their guns above the horizon. "Fuck, and I thought you guys wouldn't use drones to go duck hunting." Greg took a few potshots at the drones before juking and hiding on the top of a building, out of range, for now.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't buy him much time. Looking left, Greg saw another building with a wall torn in, seemingly by those guard drones in one such chase. He wasn't safe for long. Even now, the sound of bullets ricocheting of the side of his own building rang clearly to his ears. Greg peered over the ledge and took a couple of shots at the "head" of one of the monster robots, managing to take out its sensor unit, effectively blinding it. After ducking for cover, Greg looked over again and tried to similarly blind the second unit, but found that both it and the "blind" bot were prepared for him this time. "So, you can talk to each other, hmm?" This was going to be a little harder than he thought. Greg rolled away from the edge and stood, surveying his landscape weighing his options. Straight ahead he was what might be his only option. A river, and crossing it a golden gleaming suspension bridge, apparently leading off to the mines.
Greg launched off, and dove in over the mechs, distracting them from their twisted demolition attempt. He zigged and zagged down the streets in front of their fire, dancing, occasionally taking a random shot back at his persuit. He was actually enjoying the danger, in spite of it, or perhaps because of it. As he neared the bridge, though, a stray shot blew out his starbard hoverdrive, causing him to lose altitude. Greg hit the ground at a run, and dashed towards the bridge, off to the left side. He started firing in two different directions. One gun shot behind back at the walking death mechs chasing him. The other, though, was shooting ahead, fraying the delicate suspension wiring. Meanwhile, the sub par accuarcy of the robots was completing the job on the wires Greg passed. Greg soon felt the bridge starting to sway.
After the twenty somethingth cord broke, the bridge jerked to its side. Using his remaining hover turbine, Greg was able to maintain his footing on the tumbling tower. His foes were not so lucky. The lead one, the blind one, fell first, landing in the water and frying out, just like that. Apparently the colonists weren't expecting much rain. The second drone, though, was a little smarter. It jumped off the bridge, and landed with one foot on the island that was its compatriates head. It stood there, for a second, balanced like a six-year-old balerina, until it made a surging lunge to shore.
Greg, meanwhile, had made it to the cover of a mine. The drone followed him in, but was unable to see where he had gone. It's visual sensor no good in the pitch black mine, the machine began to improvise. Bang. A bullet rang from the machine's turret into the nothingness. Bang. Another. Bang. "Sonar," Greg thought to himself. "I am impressed." Unfortunately for the machine, the colonists hadn't seen any reason to program the caves topography into the machine, so it couldn't recognize a man resting flat against the wall. After the tenth step into the building, the machine found itself as Greg's new mount. Like an unscratchable itch, Greg was in the machines blind spot. With surgical precision, Greg sliced into the top of the machine. Just above the sensor unit was computer core of the robot, its "brain". And Greg wanted it. Let the historians have their eighteenth pod out of fourteen. Greg wanted the machine who could use sonar.
When he slipped the computer core out of the mech, it went dead, silent in an instant. Greg sighed with relief and slid off to the ground. He packed the core in his pocket, and headed out the door. After surveying the rest of the city, finding nothing of particular intrest, returned to his drill probe, and began the long slow trip to the top. "So," he thought. "There are still four other EVE Pods out there. I wonder if they're as interesting as this one...."
The End.
------
Wow, that was fun. Alright, I'm off to bed. Be sure to tell me what you thought.
Anyway, I'm watching White Chicks right now. It's a TERRIBLE movie, but not as bad as I'd feared. Like, take every buddy comedy ever, it's terrible. Wait...
Oh my God. I've been doing this for a year and I was about to my first anniversary rant about White Chicks! Someone kill me. So, new topic... Ummm.... I've got it. A brand new story, which I will make up right here on the spot. There's no telling whats going to happen. Ready? Here I go. (Yeah, I have a tendancy to write myself into my stories.)
------
Greg rapelled down the tunnel. His rope was tied to his truck, currently on the surface twenty meters above him. He glanced up, at the daylight rapidly grew smaller and farther away. He glanced to the sides, and saw the dust covered walls all around him. Looking down just revealed more darkness, rising up to surround him. It was in this darkness, as his body thoughtlessly plunged deeper, that Greg's mind began to wander. He thought back to his ships long journey to get here, and how that even after this, he still had another month in hyperspace, alone, before he reached the nearest colony world. Another three months after that he would spend traveling with some company, at least.
Greg sighed. "Another four months till Virginia Prime, and Mayleen..." It'd been that long since he'd said goodbye to his beloved wife. He hated that his job was keeping him away from everyone he loved, but the money was good. Very good. And in between the months of travel, he did usually get a good solid day or two of fun work. That's the real reason. Love what you do and do what you love. That's what Greg's dad had taught him. And besides, after only 5 years of treasure scavaging, Greg had earned 40,000,000 Unicreds, enough for he and Mayleen to retire on for a long while.
"After this last find, at least." Greg focused on the light now coming into vision beneath him from the drill scout he'd launched earlier, creating the tunnel he was now dopping down. Greg's time in hyperspace hadn't been spent idly. He'd spent his days pooring over maps (both starmaps and the usual kind) and historical essays, searching for this one site. The last of the original fourteen Earth Venture Expiditions.
The EVE project had been humanity's first careful steps into deep space. Over a dozen probes, loaded with stasis-helf crews and enough supplies to start a colony that would hopefully one day contact Earth again. It was a terrible failure. After a millennia, none of the colonies had been heard from. The main flaw in the plan was that for the most part, the probes had been launched blind. Remains of seven of the fourteen ships had been found inside of stars or gas giants. Four had landed, and the inhabitants were found mauled by the native predators. Two more, surprisingly enough, had been passed by ships traveling at lightspeed, found drifting hundreds of light-years from earth. The last one, Pod 14, was similarly dismissed as lost.
By most, anyway. Greg thought he'd been able to track it down. Using collected readings of anomalous readings of sublight drive trails intersecting hyperspace drive trails, along with Starmaps dating back to the early Third Millenium Standard Years, he was able to track down a possible landing spot for the mysterious EVE Pod 14. As he touched down on his drill pod's landing pad and looked around, Greg started to believe that he was right. Two hundred lightyears from earth, this planet, Marvis 87, was a footnote to a footnote on Unification Starmaps. It was set apart, though far from unique, by it's pecular structure, having a thin crust surrounding a light atosphere underground, and a lower, more fertile surface under the darkness. On his initial approach, Greg's scan's had revealed a single hole in the outer crust, just the size that an EVE pod would have made if it had tried to land.
As he looked now, he saw no ship where it should have been, but what he did see amazed him. A gigantic city had sprung up, seemingly abandoned now, with buildings growing almost up to the roof. Apparently the colonists had been fearful of piercing the crust, for fear of causing a cave in, crushing their budding settlement, so many buildings were exactly the same hight, and no higher. A more detailed look showed a large garden had been build under the inital impact hole, directly in the only direct sunlight their claustrophobic city ever recieved. Aside from that, apparently they had set up a number lamps to light their lives.
Also, as Greg looked upon the land, he found a number long unused drilling vehicles. "Apparently they found something worth digging for," Greg mused. He wandered into the villiage, his visor feeding him still more miscelanious facts from around him, all of it being recorded into a computer on his back. He looked past it, at the marvelous archetecture surrounding him as he walked through the city streets. The computer was just showing him data and figures, but he was walking through history. He couldn't believe what he was seeing. It was very much in an Ancient Earth style, obviously free from the much more cosmopolitan tastes Unification Citizens were surrounded with from the myriad of species comprising it.
As he thought about that, his mind wandered back on course: the colonists. Where were they? Surely some remains had to be here. Greg flicked a switch on his side, activating the bioscanners in his visor. Slowly the green, almost ghost-like sillouettes of decayed bodies appeared, contrasting and overlaying the dirty-yellow sides of the buildings. As he followed them, slowly creeping through the barren streets, he noticed a definite cluster effect to the bodies, a focal point of death, so to speak. Greg felt a grim look come upon his face. The worst part about relic hunting, he thought, was the dead. He couldn't stand looking at them. Eventually, though, the bright green filled up his vision, and he had to flip his vision.
Once he did, he was able to see unobscured the reason all these people had died like this. A treasure room. Glimering piles of gold, the kind of stuff told in legends. This couldn't be happening. It didnt. It just didn't happen. Sure, relic hunters loved to dream about it, but honestly, this wasn't supposed to happen. And yet it was. Greg was face to face with an honest to God treasure room. And aparently a rather fatal one, judging from the piles of dead bodies littered among the piles of gold. As Greg surveyed the room, he found a central point, to both the treasure and the corpses, appeared to be a large altar in the middle of the room. He walked up to it, in half-disbelief of where he was. Greg looked at the dust covered plaque adorning the monument.
"For helping us to get where we were, this great wealth is left in loving memory of our forefathers, the first generation of Earth Venture Expedition Pod 1" Pod one? That had been found decades ago. That couldn't be right. Greg extended a hand, and wiped some dust from the plaque, revealing instead, Pod...
"18?" Greg said aloud. "Then this means, there were survivors of the survivors? Fourteen launched her own pods!" That last bit Greg said excitedly, and a little too loud. The cavernous room began echoing, and as it did, heard an inhuman rumbling coming from all around him. "Oh shit, I woke the guard dogs." Greg grinned at the two sentry robots slowly awakening from their centries slumber. He wasn't going to wait for their systems to boot fully. Reaching for a pair of pistol blasters at his hips, Greg set at a dash for the door, and back to his ship. He'd done enough treasure hunting for one day.
The machines, however, were not as friendly. A pair of lumbering, ten story, faceless metal golems came charging out of the treasure room, each one more than armed to take out any would be bank-robbers the colony could spit at them. Greg, though, had half a millenia and the combined technology of ten thousand square lightyears of civilization. He could hold his own against these relics. The real challenge, for Greg, was bringing himself to shoot up these antiques, no matter how deadly they were. As the machine's gunfire traced its way closer to his path, Greg leapt into the air, and a pair of hover jets on his back fired, propelling him higher into the air. Greg spun and looked at his adversaries, and saw that they were indeed able to raise their guns above the horizon. "Fuck, and I thought you guys wouldn't use drones to go duck hunting." Greg took a few potshots at the drones before juking and hiding on the top of a building, out of range, for now.
Unfortunately, it wouldn't buy him much time. Looking left, Greg saw another building with a wall torn in, seemingly by those guard drones in one such chase. He wasn't safe for long. Even now, the sound of bullets ricocheting of the side of his own building rang clearly to his ears. Greg peered over the ledge and took a couple of shots at the "head" of one of the monster robots, managing to take out its sensor unit, effectively blinding it. After ducking for cover, Greg looked over again and tried to similarly blind the second unit, but found that both it and the "blind" bot were prepared for him this time. "So, you can talk to each other, hmm?" This was going to be a little harder than he thought. Greg rolled away from the edge and stood, surveying his landscape weighing his options. Straight ahead he was what might be his only option. A river, and crossing it a golden gleaming suspension bridge, apparently leading off to the mines.
Greg launched off, and dove in over the mechs, distracting them from their twisted demolition attempt. He zigged and zagged down the streets in front of their fire, dancing, occasionally taking a random shot back at his persuit. He was actually enjoying the danger, in spite of it, or perhaps because of it. As he neared the bridge, though, a stray shot blew out his starbard hoverdrive, causing him to lose altitude. Greg hit the ground at a run, and dashed towards the bridge, off to the left side. He started firing in two different directions. One gun shot behind back at the walking death mechs chasing him. The other, though, was shooting ahead, fraying the delicate suspension wiring. Meanwhile, the sub par accuarcy of the robots was completing the job on the wires Greg passed. Greg soon felt the bridge starting to sway.
After the twenty somethingth cord broke, the bridge jerked to its side. Using his remaining hover turbine, Greg was able to maintain his footing on the tumbling tower. His foes were not so lucky. The lead one, the blind one, fell first, landing in the water and frying out, just like that. Apparently the colonists weren't expecting much rain. The second drone, though, was a little smarter. It jumped off the bridge, and landed with one foot on the island that was its compatriates head. It stood there, for a second, balanced like a six-year-old balerina, until it made a surging lunge to shore.
Greg, meanwhile, had made it to the cover of a mine. The drone followed him in, but was unable to see where he had gone. It's visual sensor no good in the pitch black mine, the machine began to improvise. Bang. A bullet rang from the machine's turret into the nothingness. Bang. Another. Bang. "Sonar," Greg thought to himself. "I am impressed." Unfortunately for the machine, the colonists hadn't seen any reason to program the caves topography into the machine, so it couldn't recognize a man resting flat against the wall. After the tenth step into the building, the machine found itself as Greg's new mount. Like an unscratchable itch, Greg was in the machines blind spot. With surgical precision, Greg sliced into the top of the machine. Just above the sensor unit was computer core of the robot, its "brain". And Greg wanted it. Let the historians have their eighteenth pod out of fourteen. Greg wanted the machine who could use sonar.
When he slipped the computer core out of the mech, it went dead, silent in an instant. Greg sighed with relief and slid off to the ground. He packed the core in his pocket, and headed out the door. After surveying the rest of the city, finding nothing of particular intrest, returned to his drill probe, and began the long slow trip to the top. "So," he thought. "There are still four other EVE Pods out there. I wonder if they're as interesting as this one...."
The End.
------
Wow, that was fun. Alright, I'm off to bed. Be sure to tell me what you thought.
29.11.04
What I Did Over Thanksgiving Break
Yep, I celebrated Thanksgiving over the past couple of days, as did most of you I'm sure. So let's see. How did it go?
Wednesday I come in and right away go out to a movie with some friends I haven't seen in a while. We saw the Spongebob Movie. Aside from the like "I Have Ridden The Mighty Hasslehoff!", it turned out to be a lousy movie, but I was in good company.
Next morning, I wake up, go shopping for some little things before the big meal. When I get back, Mom makes me an offer: The TV only displays black and white. If I bring over some techy type friends and we try to solve the problem, she offers to buy us pizza. If we FIX the problem, she buys a round of video games. So I decide to go in and take a quick look see to figure out what the problem might be. About five clicks into the investigation, I have the problem fixed. I actually felt kinda bad about this, because It meant Matt and Dan didn't get any video games. Or pizza. Next time that happens, I'm going to unfix it and invite over Matt and Dan and then together we will "Fix" it. ^_^
Thankgiving dinner itself took place at a resturaunt called Threadgills. That was fun, because I don't really like turkey. Ham though... Ham I like. So I had ham. And it was good. And so were the carrots and salad. And that's all I have to say on that.
Black Friday was surprisingly bright, actually. We went out shopping, and I'm pretty sure I have something for everyone in my "direct" family. Twelve people, if im counting right. Also, I got that game Mom promised me - Pokemon Fire Red. Yep. I'm a Pokemon fan. This game is actually really cool, though. I really liked the extra tidbits added for the Ruby and Sapphire versions. That, plus the old-school goodness of the original Pokemon storyline, fromt he old Red and Blue, makes me happy. I picked Charmander for my starter, who is currently a level 27 Charmeleon after fifteen hours. Named Piro (not pronounced "pie-row", but "pee-row", after the Megatokyo character who was in turn named after a cat from the Kanon series who was named after a Russian meat-bread o_o)... Anyway, I've taken to nicknaming my party Pokemon, a task which has gotten easier since I just recently arrived in Lavender town, home of the rename person.
Lessee... I got to see National Treasure on Saturday night, which was alright. I will say till my dying day that the movie looked like it was written for higher caliber actors, but it couldn't get them, namely Seth Green as goody sidekick and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as sexy love intrest. The funny part of the end, too, was Nicolas Cage's character stepping out from the shadows, letting the villian know he wasn't dead after all, which raised the question, can Nicholas Cage truly be killed? See the bottom for answer.
Also saw the Stepford Wives. Matthew Broderick plays a guy who is married to Nicole Kidman, and simply not satisfied. I found the premise unbelievable, ignoring also the robot wives and such. Anyway, I just found that funny.
So that's what I've been up to. I'm gonna go do more stuff.
_______________________________________
By the way, killing Nick Cage requires three silver bullets one to the heart and each lung, plus a gold tipped spear. Needless to say, it's not an easy task. Plus, he's simply not that much of a threat.
Wednesday I come in and right away go out to a movie with some friends I haven't seen in a while. We saw the Spongebob Movie. Aside from the like "I Have Ridden The Mighty Hasslehoff!", it turned out to be a lousy movie, but I was in good company.
Next morning, I wake up, go shopping for some little things before the big meal. When I get back, Mom makes me an offer: The TV only displays black and white. If I bring over some techy type friends and we try to solve the problem, she offers to buy us pizza. If we FIX the problem, she buys a round of video games. So I decide to go in and take a quick look see to figure out what the problem might be. About five clicks into the investigation, I have the problem fixed. I actually felt kinda bad about this, because It meant Matt and Dan didn't get any video games. Or pizza. Next time that happens, I'm going to unfix it and invite over Matt and Dan and then together we will "Fix" it. ^_^
Thankgiving dinner itself took place at a resturaunt called Threadgills. That was fun, because I don't really like turkey. Ham though... Ham I like. So I had ham. And it was good. And so were the carrots and salad. And that's all I have to say on that.
Black Friday was surprisingly bright, actually. We went out shopping, and I'm pretty sure I have something for everyone in my "direct" family. Twelve people, if im counting right. Also, I got that game Mom promised me - Pokemon Fire Red. Yep. I'm a Pokemon fan. This game is actually really cool, though. I really liked the extra tidbits added for the Ruby and Sapphire versions. That, plus the old-school goodness of the original Pokemon storyline, fromt he old Red and Blue, makes me happy. I picked Charmander for my starter, who is currently a level 27 Charmeleon after fifteen hours. Named Piro (not pronounced "pie-row", but "pee-row", after the Megatokyo character who was in turn named after a cat from the Kanon series who was named after a Russian meat-bread o_o)... Anyway, I've taken to nicknaming my party Pokemon, a task which has gotten easier since I just recently arrived in Lavender town, home of the rename person.
Lessee... I got to see National Treasure on Saturday night, which was alright. I will say till my dying day that the movie looked like it was written for higher caliber actors, but it couldn't get them, namely Seth Green as goody sidekick and Rebecca Romijn-Stamos as sexy love intrest. The funny part of the end, too, was Nicolas Cage's character stepping out from the shadows, letting the villian know he wasn't dead after all, which raised the question, can Nicholas Cage truly be killed? See the bottom for answer.
Also saw the Stepford Wives. Matthew Broderick plays a guy who is married to Nicole Kidman, and simply not satisfied. I found the premise unbelievable, ignoring also the robot wives and such. Anyway, I just found that funny.
So that's what I've been up to. I'm gonna go do more stuff.
_______________________________________
By the way, killing Nick Cage requires three silver bullets one to the heart and each lung, plus a gold tipped spear. Needless to say, it's not an easy task. Plus, he's simply not that much of a threat.
Preview Of Things To Come
Greg's sleep schedule continues to suck. I need to work on that I suppose. Anyway. I need to tell you about several things including:
Thanksgiving - I hate turkey, opted for ham.
Pokemon Fire Red - Fuck. I gotta catch them all. Again.
National Treasure - Can Nicholas Cage truly be killed?
The Stepford Wives - For the man who won't settle for just being married to Nicole Kidman.
And more. All tomorrow. Maybe. *Shrugs.*
Thanksgiving - I hate turkey, opted for ham.
Pokemon Fire Red - Fuck. I gotta catch them all. Again.
National Treasure - Can Nicholas Cage truly be killed?
The Stepford Wives - For the man who won't settle for just being married to Nicole Kidman.
And more. All tomorrow. Maybe. *Shrugs.*
21.11.04
Unhinged Awesomeness
Yep. I finally got to sleep last night. Turns out it was OUR heater (among others) making the sound, and it did eventually end. But I still have the images of a pair of dormies beating their heater with broadswords. Anyway, I got up at noon. Not enough sleep.
Well, apparently enough, since I was able to come in first at the Unhinged Tourney! ^_^!!! Yep, I got first (out of twelve, this wasn't a normal release tournament). It was sealed deck with three rounds of swiss. In other words, everyone played three matches, and then prizes were dealt out accordingly. After opening my five packs and being startled at the repitition in them, I made the following deck.
Alright, enough bragging. I'm gonna go to bed. Again. O_O.
Well, apparently enough, since I was able to come in first at the Unhinged Tourney! ^_^!!! Yep, I got first (out of twelve, this wasn't a normal release tournament). It was sealed deck with three rounds of swiss. In other words, everyone played three matches, and then prizes were dealt out accordingly. After opening my five packs and being startled at the repitition in them, I made the following deck.
9x IslandI have to admit I felt a little guilty, making a deck that was actually trying to be GOOD, as opposed to be something fun. Keeping in mind the different minutia of this set, I made sure to get every land by a different by a different artist and, if possible, from a different set. Being the only one to bring basic lands, I got first pick of the lands. ^_^ Anyway... Some fun stuff that happened - ummm... I can't remember. It was fun, though! And... I won!!! Yeah, I got first. Went undefeated the whole night. It was awesome. I managed to walk away from it with 13 packs worth of cards, plus 7 DCI premiums - two Ass Whuppin's, two Booster Tutors, and one each of Ashnod's Coupon, Bone Splitter, and Darksteel Ingot.
6x Forest
1x City of Ass
1x _______
1x Artful Looter
2x Bursting Beebles
3x Carnivorous Death-Parrot
1x Double Header
2x Loose Lips
1x Mouth to Miuth
1x Smart Ass
1x Fat Ass
3x Our Market Research Shows That Players Like Really Long Card Names So We Made This Card To Have The Absolute Longest Card Name Ever Elemental
1x Shoe Tree
3x S.N.O.T.
1x Stone-Cold Basilisk
1x Supersize
1x Symbol Status
1x Rod of Spanking
Alright, enough bragging. I'm gonna go to bed. Again. O_O.
19.11.04
Need Some Sleep
Okay, it's 1:48 AM, and I'm still up. I know, most of the time this isn't a big deal, I've stayed up later than that. But tonight, Matt and I decided to get to bed early. No big reason, just that he felt tired early, and since I couldn't watch TV after that, I decided to follow him (into my own bed, you sickos). So, why am I still awake? I swear, this time it's not my fault. Some jackass is banging on the pipes. I don't know where its coming from, because its coming from all the pipes at once. But it is REALLY annoying. I first heard it in the middle of a dream. I think it was about Magic and this deep, rumbling voice said "I win." I was a little shocked by this, as my opponent didn't have a deep, rumbling voice. I don't remember who it was, but I do remember that much about them. So just as I was about to ask the voice something, it repeated. And in the middle of a normal dream, it was creepy. It probably didn't help matters that the voice didn't go away after I woke up. It just got louder and less understandable as my grogginess faded. It's elevated to what was a low grating noise to a loud, repetitive clanging, coming through the pipes, which is creepy because now it sounds like it is surrounding me. Anyway, I'm going to stay up a little to try and wait it out, but it seems to just be getting louder and faster and more persistent. I may before morning be forced to seek out the source. >_< I hate this dorm right now.
16.11.04
I'm Weird
A conversation with my step-brother:
Jamesu san 5789: do my math workI've been in school to long. I'm starting to snap.
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: i seriously had no idea what the card did before i tried that
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: whats this math work?
Jamesu san 5789: stupid algebra
Jamesu san 5789: wtf? "solve pV/nT for p"
Jamesu san 5789: i didnt do that section yet!
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: solve pV/nT for p?
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: theres no equal sign?
Jamesu san 5789: oops
Jamesu san 5789: R=pV/nT*
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: k
Jamesu san 5789: stupid fingers
Jamesu san 5789: i hate letters!
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: R*nT=(pV/nT)*nT
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: which equals just pV
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: then divide both sides by V
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: RnT/V = p
Jamesu san 5789: >.<
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: you wanna know whats REALLY scary?
Jamesu san 5789: what?
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: i enjoyed that
xx L33T N1NJ4 xx: o_o
15.11.04
What is up with my hair?
I've had troubles with my hair recently. I swear I'm washing it regularly, but no matter what I do, I end up with knots in the back of my head. Only on the right side, too. It's freaky. Am I sleeping on it funny you think? Or am I just weird? Oh well. I am ALWAYS weird. ^_^
That's all, aside from the picture for my desktop being being uber-cute! Lookie!
Okay, I'm gonna finish watching the climax of Ocean's Eleven.
That's all, aside from the picture for my desktop being being uber-cute! Lookie!
Okay, I'm gonna finish watching the climax of Ocean's Eleven.
14.11.04
Another For Today
Matt wouldn't let me watch the whole Green Ranger Mini-series. ;_; Oh well. In other weekend news, I control Asia in a game of Risk 2210, though I doubt that will last until the beginning of my next turn. Sigh. Red has really conquered a bunch... North AND South America, Europoe, and both of the three island water continents. I don't think we're gonna stand any chance. *Sniffle.*
GO GO POWER RANGERS!!!
I am watching the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers now.
Instead of sleeping.
I think I'm going nuts from being up all night.
Oh well.
By the way, it's the original series.
The first episode of the green ranger mini-series, to be Precice.
It's awesome.
Especially if they run all five episodes this morning.
Okay, enough of that, later.
Instead of sleeping.
I think I'm going nuts from being up all night.
Oh well.
By the way, it's the original series.
The first episode of the green ranger mini-series, to be Precice.
It's awesome.
Especially if they run all five episodes this morning.
Okay, enough of that, later.
12.11.04
C-c-c-cold
Sigh. I got bored tonite, so I rode down University to the 'nearby' Magic store - Challenge Games. Yes. I rode. My bicycle. In 40 degree weather. It was about a half hour, each way. I dunno if it was really worth it, either. I mean, the tournament was free, and I managed to beat a rival Tooth and Nail deck. Apparently TnN is my only Standard format deck. Anyway. I managed to win one game out of three. The first game was a rather odd matchup. I managed to counter his Darksteel Collossus with one of my own just in time, but he still was able to burn me out with a fireball, I think. It was alright. Second game poor guy, Patrick was his name, was sorta stuck. Add in that I managed to Mindslaver him twice. Once to fireball hisself for 6, and then another time when it was just a 10 mana time walk. I managed to barely squeeze out my own lethal fireball, shortly after Naturalizing a Sundering Titan as it was being copied with Kiki-Jiki. (If you don't know the names, don't worry. Neither do I ^_^) Anyway, the third game I was stuck with a lone Cloudpost after mulliganning once. I kept because I had enough mana fixers in hand that if I got one more land I would be set. Not only did I never see the second land, but when Patrick finally got enough Cloudposts on his side that I could have played a Solemn Simulacrum, he then turns around and Reap and Sow's my only post. ;_;! Ah well, so needless to say, I found my next land, a Forest, about 3 turns after I died. Shrugs. Twas a single elimination, so I went home after watching a few other games. Ah well. I'm looking forward to the Unhinged release tournament next Saturday - No not tomorrow. I'll be sure to tell you all about it.
Also in my news... .Hack Vol 3 FINALLY came out!!! It was FANTASTIC!!! I LOVED IT!!! I CAN'T EVEN... *POP*
Okay, but yeah, I like it a lot. ^_^ I'm gonna just leave it at that, and say you all must read it now. Alright, so long.
Also in my news... .Hack Vol 3 FINALLY came out!!! It was FANTASTIC!!! I LOVED IT!!! I CAN'T EVEN... *POP*
Okay, but yeah, I like it a lot. ^_^ I'm gonna just leave it at that, and say you all must read it now. Alright, so long.
10.11.04
A Little Quiz For You
Feel free to E-mail / comment you're answers, whatever. I can't wait to read them.
01. Give me a nickname, and explain why you picked it.
02. Am I lovable?
03. How long have you known me?
04. When and where did we first meet?
05. What was your first impression?
06. Do you still think that way about me now?
07. What do you think my weakness is?
08. Do you think I'll ever get married?
09. What makes me happy?
10. What makes me sad?
11. What reminds you of me?
12. What is my best quality?
13. How well do you think you know me?
14. When's the last time you saw me?
15. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
16. Do you think that I could kill someone?
17. Who would play me in a movie?
18. If I were to be a color, what one would I be?
19. Describe me in one word.
20. Do you think our friendship is getting stronger/weaker/or staying the same?
21. Do you think that I am stubborn?
22. Are you going to put this on your xanga and see what I say about you?
23. Have you ever liked me as more than a friend?
24. What do you think I'm going to be when I grow up?
01. Give me a nickname, and explain why you picked it.
02. Am I lovable?
03. How long have you known me?
04. When and where did we first meet?
05. What was your first impression?
06. Do you still think that way about me now?
07. What do you think my weakness is?
08. Do you think I'll ever get married?
09. What makes me happy?
10. What makes me sad?
11. What reminds you of me?
12. What is my best quality?
13. How well do you think you know me?
14. When's the last time you saw me?
15. Ever wanted to tell me something but couldn't?
16. Do you think that I could kill someone?
17. Who would play me in a movie?
18. If I were to be a color, what one would I be?
19. Describe me in one word.
20. Do you think our friendship is getting stronger/weaker/or staying the same?
21. Do you think that I am stubborn?
22. Are you going to put this on your xanga and see what I say about you?
23. Have you ever liked me as more than a friend?
24. What do you think I'm going to be when I grow up?
8.11.04
Time For Something With Substance
Funny thing happened just now. I saw a person log onto AIM, and briefly considered saying hi, but he beat me to the punch. I got the one word message "fag" from him. Then he signed off before I could say something back. I'm confused. But also, I'm a little flattered. The idea that someone cares enough about me to want to sign on and off again soley to offend me (I guess) is sort of an empowering feeling. Especially because I don't know what I did to piss him off. He know's I'm bi. I know I'm bi. What's he trying to prove? Ah well. I feel special, kinda. ^_^;
Lesse... I got to go back home this weekend! The internet there sucks. Terribly. Sigh. I hate that house. I've been spoiled by the T1 line here at school. However, it was good to be able to go back and see my family. I spent Saturday at the mall Christmas shopping for others, and got things for about 5 people, I think. I also picked up the last three volumes of CCS I need. Now I can finally finish Sakura's tale of whimsy and wonder. Afterwards, I got dropped off at my Aunt's house and played with Clara, my two-year-old cousin/niece. (Don't worry, my Aunt isn't also my sister, or some random hillbilly nonsense. They call me Uncle Greg, but I'm really a cousin.) After that, and a nice family dinner at the Guadalajara Mexican resturaunt, I went home, finally got in touch with Matt and Dan to go see the movie we'd been planning on seeing since Thursday, The Incredibles. While I waited for the 955 showtime, I got to go back and finally defeat Oogie Boogie, clearing Halloweentown once and for all. I was PLANNING on doing that Halloween Weekend, but travel plans sucked for me. Anyway, I did manage beat that, though only after putting the game on pause at the very end of the Boss battle to see the movie.
The movie, by the way, was GREAT! Its not really a kids movie, the way most Pixar films have been thus far. I mean, yes, most Pixar films had jokes in there that both adults and kids could enjoy, but some parts of the Incredibles, including a man suing the hero for foiling his suicide attempt, may require some delicate conversations with parents. I enjoyed it, though. I have a big interest in the field of Superheroics. Jason Lee plays the fanboy villian, and you can almost tell that the role was written just for him. It was like Kevin Smith flashbacks all over again. Also, it was sort of neat how none of them could really fly. That's the one super power that so many people take for granted in their super heroes.
So then the question remains, what super power would I pick? Hmmm... And I'm not just talking about in the ones from that movie. I'm talking about all heroes ever. (Except for ubermenches like Superman. He's just unfair.) I think I'd have to go for Nightcrawler's (X-men) teleportation. That would be cool. It's not inheriently violent, and being a pacifist, I appriciate that. It's also got a really cool sound effect, "Bamf." That's the mark of a good power. ^_^
Alright, later. Oh yeah, along with that question, I still have the question of "What famous actor would star as me in a movie of my life?" Any suggestions on this would help me out. Okay, so long.
Butt dance butt dance.....
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Butt dance butt dance.....
Lesse... I got to go back home this weekend! The internet there sucks. Terribly. Sigh. I hate that house. I've been spoiled by the T1 line here at school. However, it was good to be able to go back and see my family. I spent Saturday at the mall Christmas shopping for others, and got things for about 5 people, I think. I also picked up the last three volumes of CCS I need. Now I can finally finish Sakura's tale of whimsy and wonder. Afterwards, I got dropped off at my Aunt's house and played with Clara, my two-year-old cousin/niece. (Don't worry, my Aunt isn't also my sister, or some random hillbilly nonsense. They call me Uncle Greg, but I'm really a cousin.) After that, and a nice family dinner at the Guadalajara Mexican resturaunt, I went home, finally got in touch with Matt and Dan to go see the movie we'd been planning on seeing since Thursday, The Incredibles. While I waited for the 955 showtime, I got to go back and finally defeat Oogie Boogie, clearing Halloweentown once and for all. I was PLANNING on doing that Halloween Weekend, but travel plans sucked for me. Anyway, I did manage beat that, though only after putting the game on pause at the very end of the Boss battle to see the movie.
The movie, by the way, was GREAT! Its not really a kids movie, the way most Pixar films have been thus far. I mean, yes, most Pixar films had jokes in there that both adults and kids could enjoy, but some parts of the Incredibles, including a man suing the hero for foiling his suicide attempt, may require some delicate conversations with parents.
So then the question remains, what super power would I pick? Hmmm... And I'm not just talking about in the ones from that movie. I'm talking about all heroes ever. (Except for ubermenches like Superman. He's just unfair.) I think I'd have to go for Nightcrawler's (X-men) teleportation. That would be cool. It's not inheriently violent, and being a pacifist, I appriciate that. It's also got a really cool sound effect, "Bamf." That's the mark of a good power. ^_^
Alright, later. Oh yeah, along with that question, I still have the question of "What famous actor would star as me in a movie of my life?" Any suggestions on this would help me out. Okay, so long.
Butt dance butt dance.....
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Butt dance butt dance.....
4.11.04
Then They Came for Me
I was reading over CNN, and got the inspiration to seek out this poem I learned in school a few years ago:
For those of you who were on the winning side on Tuesday, and need a little help with the analogy, here's my modern revision.
...
Tyrannies of Majorities scare me. ;_;
First They Came for the Jews, By Pastor Martin Niemöller
First they came for the Jews
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Jew.
Then they came for the Communists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a Communist.
Then they came for the trade unionists
and I did not speak out
because I was not a trade unionist.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
For those of you who were on the winning side on Tuesday, and need a little help with the analogy, here's my modern revision.
First they came for the Arabs
and I did not speak out
because I was not an Arab.
Then they came for the homosexuals
and I did not speak out
because I was not homosexual.
Then they came for the liberals
and I did not speak out
because I was not a liberal.
Then they came for me
and there was no one left
to speak out for me.
...
Tyrannies of Majorities scare me. ;_;
3.11.04
Shut Up Wesley
24 Hours Later
Bush won.
I found out as soon as the news broke. I woke up at 10, checked out CNN.com, and found that it was still a dead heat, with Ohio becoming the deciding state. "Oh great," I thought, "Another Florida." The debacle last election was still being contested even today, and the thought of having to go through another four years of that was almost as disheartening of the fact that my candidate lost. Then a funny thing happened. I checked out Fox News, who had early on called Ohio for Bush. They had a headline I had never expected.
"Kerry Concedes."
What? It's over? I was just getting ready for a good week at least of vote contesting. All those people who filed lawsuits are probably kicking themselves now. Oh well. Kerry conceded, and I'm sure that he wouldn't have done it unless he was sure he didn't have a chance. I have to admit, I don't see why Ohio wan't being called for anyone by CNN. It had a larger difference than some of the other states that had already been called one way or the other. I think they were just holding out until everything was settled, not wanting to make a pre-emptive call.
I've made no secret that I don't like Bush's presidency. I think that he's destroyed America in the eye of the World. I think the war in Iraq was a mistake, and I'm disheartened that now no one will make Bush own up to it. Honestly, that was the only issue that I felt strongly about. I know different people who feel very strongly about certain moral or domestic issues. I don't, really. Honestly, I respect their opinions, I really do, I just have over the past few weeks gotten tired of people who have opinions about things they really don't know about. I've met people on both sides of the fence with this problem, and I suppose the point of a campaign is to simplify complex issues into simple black and white coinflips for voter processing. And really, the Bush administration has been working on this since 2001. The Axis of Evil, himself being sent to do God's will, drawing definative lines between people, places, ideas. I think it's a little bit scary that (A) they believe they have the right to do this all unchallenged, and (B) they HAVE gotten away with this mostly uncontested. I remember watching the Daily Show, when Zell Miller was speaking at the Republican National Convention, berating the Democrats for questioning the President, which Jon Stewart then paraphrased with "How dare the Democratic party field a candidate; And during an election year!" I've seen similar sentiments expressed by far to many people. I have to admit, when the Daily Show hinted they may postpone the elections indefinitely, I only partially dismissed it as a joke, and I'm still not ruling it out for an October surprise in '08.
Gah. I need to calm down. Bush really isn't that bad a guy. The country didn't blow up over the past four years (except for that one time, but I'm not dumb enough to blame him for that). I may not agree with him, but I'm not the first time to note that there are much worse candidates for presidency. In the mean time, I've started preparing for the 2008 election: Jeb Bush vs Hilary Clinton. O_O!
I found out as soon as the news broke. I woke up at 10, checked out CNN.com, and found that it was still a dead heat, with Ohio becoming the deciding state. "Oh great," I thought, "Another Florida." The debacle last election was still being contested even today, and the thought of having to go through another four years of that was almost as disheartening of the fact that my candidate lost. Then a funny thing happened. I checked out Fox News, who had early on called Ohio for Bush. They had a headline I had never expected.
"Kerry Concedes."
What? It's over? I was just getting ready for a good week at least of vote contesting. All those people who filed lawsuits are probably kicking themselves now. Oh well. Kerry conceded, and I'm sure that he wouldn't have done it unless he was sure he didn't have a chance. I have to admit, I don't see why Ohio wan't being called for anyone by CNN. It had a larger difference than some of the other states that had already been called one way or the other. I think they were just holding out until everything was settled, not wanting to make a pre-emptive call.
I've made no secret that I don't like Bush's presidency. I think that he's destroyed America in the eye of the World. I think the war in Iraq was a mistake, and I'm disheartened that now no one will make Bush own up to it. Honestly, that was the only issue that I felt strongly about. I know different people who feel very strongly about certain moral or domestic issues. I don't, really. Honestly, I respect their opinions, I really do, I just have over the past few weeks gotten tired of people who have opinions about things they really don't know about. I've met people on both sides of the fence with this problem, and I suppose the point of a campaign is to simplify complex issues into simple black and white coinflips for voter processing. And really, the Bush administration has been working on this since 2001. The Axis of Evil, himself being sent to do God's will, drawing definative lines between people, places, ideas. I think it's a little bit scary that (A) they believe they have the right to do this all unchallenged, and (B) they HAVE gotten away with this mostly uncontested. I remember watching the Daily Show, when Zell Miller was speaking at the Republican National Convention, berating the Democrats for questioning the President, which Jon Stewart then paraphrased with "How dare the Democratic party field a candidate; And during an election year!" I've seen similar sentiments expressed by far to many people. I have to admit, when the Daily Show hinted they may postpone the elections indefinitely, I only partially dismissed it as a joke, and I'm still not ruling it out for an October surprise in '08.
Gah. I need to calm down. Bush really isn't that bad a guy. The country didn't blow up over the past four years (except for that one time, but I'm not dumb enough to blame him for that). I may not agree with him, but I'm not the first time to note that there are much worse candidates for presidency. In the mean time, I've started preparing for the 2008 election: Jeb Bush vs Hilary Clinton. O_O!
2.11.04
Big Day, No Time For Titles
Wow, what a day. Election is still going on, so I'll save that for another day. First: IT SNOWED (a little). Oh well.
Also, I recently got invited to a forum - PSP vs DS. Since I really don't care for either of them, that makes me a perfect impartial judge. Anyway, I proceded to take an active part in the boards, and currently have 44% of the posts. I was, this evening, named moderator of their off-topic board. So I guess I would encourage you all, especially the gamers out there, to join up and voice your opinion over there. Registering is free, easy, and its a cool place to hang out and just talk about whatever. Especially my forum, where basically anything goes. I dunno what that is exactly, but its probably a lot. Alright, I guess that's it. What an election, eh? I'll voice my opinion on it when I come back.
Official Forum Plug: Voice your opinion on the war of the hand-held consoles @ the PSP vs DS forum: http://s8.invisionfree.com/pspvds or visit the easy to remember www.freewebs.com/pspds for the redirection link!!! Spread the Word
I feel like such a whore. ;_;
Also, I recently got invited to a forum - PSP vs DS. Since I really don't care for either of them, that makes me a perfect impartial judge. Anyway, I proceded to take an active part in the boards, and currently have 44% of the posts. I was, this evening, named moderator of their off-topic board. So I guess I would encourage you all, especially the gamers out there, to join up and voice your opinion over there. Registering is free, easy, and its a cool place to hang out and just talk about whatever. Especially my forum, where basically anything goes. I dunno what that is exactly, but its probably a lot. Alright, I guess that's it. What an election, eh? I'll voice my opinion on it when I come back.
Official Forum Plug: Voice your opinion on the war of the hand-held consoles @ the PSP vs DS forum: http://s8.invisionfree.com/pspvds or visit the easy to remember www.freewebs.com/pspds for the redirection link!!! Spread the Word
I feel like such a whore. ;_;
29.10.04
TIC TAC TOE BITCH!
Want some three in a row action? Check this shit out:
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FUCKING HTML!!!!
Okay, I stayed up all night working on my CS project. Actually, it was more like a couple of hours, but still. *Glances at clock.* Hmm, its seven. I have class in three hours. Oh well. Lemme tell you about the night.
I played Magic.
Yeah, I promised, no more fan-boy-ish-y stuff, but let's face it. I AM a fan boy. So all the stuff about me will be fan-boy-ish-y. I'll try to spare the in depth details. Anyway, the decks I made were alright, if you ask me. Mana screw was a common occurance at the table, with four players. It was odd, if you ask me. Shouldn't have happened THAT much. Anyway, my Last Laugh deck went off a few times, which pissed people off, so the time I DIDN'T get a good hand with it, I was being double teamed from the start. My squirrel deck preformed admirably, I think, and the enchantment deck... Well, it needs some work. Actually, I have long been planning to make a tournament quality Enchantress deck, so I may do just that, and swap out red for blue, and cheaper, less wacky enchantments. Or maybe go White/Green. I dunno.
The point is I'm tired. Two and a half hours till class, I think I'd better get some sleep. If you wanna see the Tic-Tac-Toe game, message me, I'll send it on over. Laters.
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FUCKING HTML!!!!
Okay, I stayed up all night working on my CS project. Actually, it was more like a couple of hours, but still. *Glances at clock.* Hmm, its seven. I have class in three hours. Oh well. Lemme tell you about the night.
I played Magic.
Yeah, I promised, no more fan-boy-ish-y stuff, but let's face it. I AM a fan boy. So all the stuff about me will be fan-boy-ish-y. I'll try to spare the in depth details. Anyway, the decks I made were alright, if you ask me. Mana screw was a common occurance at the table, with four players. It was odd, if you ask me. Shouldn't have happened THAT much. Anyway, my Last Laugh deck went off a few times, which pissed people off, so the time I DIDN'T get a good hand with it, I was being double teamed from the start. My squirrel deck preformed admirably, I think, and the enchantment deck... Well, it needs some work. Actually, I have long been planning to make a tournament quality Enchantress deck, so I may do just that, and swap out red for blue, and cheaper, less wacky enchantments. Or maybe go White/Green. I dunno.
The point is I'm tired. Two and a half hours till class, I think I'd better get some sleep. If you wanna see the Tic-Tac-Toe game, message me, I'll send it on over. Laters.
26.10.04
Multiball!! MULTIBAAAALLLL!!!!!
Umm... The title is cuz shouting Multiplayer just doesn't have the same ring. Anyway, I just spent the early afternoon making up two magic decks. It felt good. It's been far too long. What prompted me to make not one but two decks after such a long period of not? My roommates brother. He calls us last night, telling Matt that he arranged a multiplayer game or two with a friend. Naturally we accept. Problem is, he didn't have a deck. So I got drafted to make one for him, because none of my other decks, aside from my precious Last Laugh deck (you can't spell slaughter without laugh...) aren't really cut out for group games. So, I asked him what kind of deck he wanted. "Black and white or red and green," comes the responce. As I'm looking through my rare binder, which I often do for inspiration, I notice a large number of "Junk" enchantments in the colors. So I mention them to him, and he says "Sure, I haven't done an enchantment deck in a while." My original plan was to simply have it be you're basic dumb red and green deck, elves and fast mana on the first few turns, then ramp up to huge mana for huge stupid-big effects. However, upon him calling the idea an Enchantment deck, I'm reminded of the four Verduran Enchantresses I have, and the four Enchantresses Presences. Stupid Enchantress Deck was made shortly thereafter, with a light sprinkling of all the junk enchantments I could find. I through in Confusion in the Ranks for sheer dumbness, as well as Teferi's Puzzle Box out of Masochism. I will annoy EVERYONE at the table tonite, even though I didn't play the deck. Maybe Mike will annoy everyone, instead, while I quietly Armageddon the field to death. Speaking of combos, based on the sheer number of one- and two- ofs in the deck, there are some spiffy interactions. My favorite is the Mana Flares with either Saproling Burst or Words of Wilding (or even Dragon's Roost if things get really out of hand), to create ungodly amounts of mana. Meanwhile, there are maybe two mana sinks in the deck. Umm.. Oh well.
Also, as I sloshed though my common and uncommon boxes for cards to fill out "the most expensive deck I've ever owned I think," I passed through the remains of my old squirrel deck. Once I had the Red Green Dumbness created, I went about making a better squirrel deck, if only for flavor. I hope Unhinged has more squirrel cards, I need them. Oh, and Deranged Hermits if anyone out there has some. Plus, if you couldn't tell from my nonsensical rant, I'm excited to test these babies out. If you're up for an online game over AIM, lemme know when I get back from class. Speaking of which, I gotta go to class now, bye!
....Oh, and sorry about the pair of nerdy-type rants in a row. I'll see about putting up some non-fanboyish posts later on, promise.
Also, as I sloshed though my common and uncommon boxes for cards to fill out "the most expensive deck I've ever owned I think," I passed through the remains of my old squirrel deck. Once I had the Red Green Dumbness created, I went about making a better squirrel deck, if only for flavor. I hope Unhinged has more squirrel cards, I need them. Oh, and Deranged Hermits if anyone out there has some. Plus, if you couldn't tell from my nonsensical rant, I'm excited to test these babies out. If you're up for an online game over AIM, lemme know when I get back from class. Speaking of which, I gotta go to class now, bye!
....Oh, and sorry about the pair of nerdy-type rants in a row. I'll see about putting up some non-fanboyish posts later on, promise.
25.10.04
Revenge Of Starcraft
Here's something I wrote in Calc and Film class for this. Enjoy.
I've told you about how I bought Diablo II and such. Honestly, I'm getting bored of the game. One of these days I'll start a game from scratch, and play through at a normal place. It's no fun rushing through what should be a long and in depth story line in an hour or three with my higher level friends' help. I know for some people see customizing their characters as being half the fun, but it doesn't have any appeal to me. Questing for the sole purpose of leveling up seems pointless. I prefer the adversarial nature of Starcraft because it puts each player on an equal playing field. The "collect and dress-up" element isn't there. It's just one player against another, winner take all. Or none. I like the Red Vs Blue description of the situation.
I for one like that semi-rediculous nature of games. Two players are boiled down to their cores. It is sport at its purest. In a Starcraft match, your name doesn't matter. All those hours you've spent on the campaign don't matter in a match when your mining SCV train wanders through a canyon overlooked by Dragoons. Each player starts the same every time. Four peons. A town hall. Fifty minerals. Zero vespine gas. And the knowledge that your opponant starts with the same. After the game is over, nothing has changed. The winner gets nothing but a tick mark somewhere on the Battle.net servers, and maybe bragging rights. Aside from pride and dignety, nothing is taken from the loser.
And then there are the memories. Both players take a small bit of experience with them of the game. The loser is made aware of a strategy, and either learns to adapt it for his own use, or how to beat it next time. The winner may have noticed something he could do better next time, or some tip from his opponants strategy could be gleamed. Or maybe it was simply two comrades-in-arms enjoying a friendly skirmish. I've got a few memories that still bring a small smile to my face. Like the time I hid my last building in a random corner of map to avoid the enemy gang of roving Carriers. ("Our big... spaceship... gang." "Ar-ma-da?" "Yeah, that.") Or the time I finished my opponents last two buildings with the most overkill ever.
One of my favorite memories wasn't actually from a multiplayer game. It was a campaign mission: Johnny the Homocidal Ultralisk from New Gettysburg. Anyone who's ever played the mission tell me if this sounds remotely familiar. The mission has three goals: Protect a Zerg outpost, destroy the attacking Protoss forces beneath you, and don't let Kerrigan die. However, while you are protecting the Zerg, they are feeling no such thing about you, and see no reason to not attack you. Ingrates. Anyways, at one point in the mission, the Zerg rise up and swell past any defences you have set up. The first few times I played it, I noticed an even more shocking event taking place. One lone Ultralisk, who we shall call "Johnny, the Homocidal Ultralisk", was charging straight past any other units I had, and made a direct bee line to the lone chick in the ghost uniform. Bam. One solid swipe of the tusks, and that's it. Kerrigan lets out a high pitched scream/squeal, and the game alerts me that the game is over. I watched this happen at least three times before I caught on, and on the fouth time, I knew how to beat it. I went in and immediately built a dropship for Kerrigan. As soon as it was done, the USS Canadia set course for parts unknown, far from the intense violence, miles (I guess) above the looming Ultralisks, and out of my mind from then on. I was able to beat the mission on my own, without worrying about pissy dignitaries or whatever Kerrigan was.
***********************************SPOILERS************************************
Then, Kerrigan dies (captured, really) to the Zerg anyway!!!! Talk about a downer.
***********************************SPOILERS************************************
Anyway, I ended up with a small tick from that mission. I have a tendancy to favor using dropships from now on. I like them. I trust them. They're nice. Now you may all go ahead to plotting my eventual downfall by destroying my dropships... If you dare!
Sigh. That was a long rant half of you probably don't care about. Oh well. Anyone who wants to play, lemme know. You will be destroyed. Or not.
I've told you about how I bought Diablo II and such. Honestly, I'm getting bored of the game. One of these days I'll start a game from scratch, and play through at a normal place. It's no fun rushing through what should be a long and in depth story line in an hour or three with my higher level friends' help. I know for some people see customizing their characters as being half the fun, but it doesn't have any appeal to me. Questing for the sole purpose of leveling up seems pointless. I prefer the adversarial nature of Starcraft because it puts each player on an equal playing field. The "collect and dress-up" element isn't there. It's just one player against another, winner take all. Or none. I like the Red Vs Blue description of the situation.
Simmons: Seriously though, why are we out here? As far as I can tell it's just a box canyon in the middle of nowhere...no way in or out.
Grif: uh huh...
Simmons: The only reason that we set up a red base here is because they have a blue base over there. And the only reason they have a blue base over there is because we have a red base over here.
Grif: Yeah, that's because we're fighting each other.
Simmons: No, no, but I mean, even if we were to pull out today and they were to come take our base they would have two bases in the middle of a box canyon. Whoop-dee-fucking-do.
I for one like that semi-rediculous nature of games. Two players are boiled down to their cores. It is sport at its purest. In a Starcraft match, your name doesn't matter. All those hours you've spent on the campaign don't matter in a match when your mining SCV train wanders through a canyon overlooked by Dragoons. Each player starts the same every time. Four peons. A town hall. Fifty minerals. Zero vespine gas. And the knowledge that your opponant starts with the same. After the game is over, nothing has changed. The winner gets nothing but a tick mark somewhere on the Battle.net servers, and maybe bragging rights. Aside from pride and dignety, nothing is taken from the loser.
And then there are the memories. Both players take a small bit of experience with them of the game. The loser is made aware of a strategy, and either learns to adapt it for his own use, or how to beat it next time. The winner may have noticed something he could do better next time, or some tip from his opponants strategy could be gleamed. Or maybe it was simply two comrades-in-arms enjoying a friendly skirmish. I've got a few memories that still bring a small smile to my face. Like the time I hid my last building in a random corner of map to avoid the enemy gang of roving Carriers. ("Our big... spaceship... gang." "Ar-ma-da?" "Yeah, that.") Or the time I finished my opponents last two buildings with the most overkill ever.
Game: Nuclear Launch Detected.
Game: Nuclear Launch Detected.
Him: I KNOW NUCLEAR LAUNCH WAS DETECTED!!!
(Silence as not one but two nuclear missiles, one per building, crash into his final installations.)
One of my favorite memories wasn't actually from a multiplayer game. It was a campaign mission: Johnny the Homocidal Ultralisk from New Gettysburg. Anyone who's ever played the mission tell me if this sounds remotely familiar. The mission has three goals: Protect a Zerg outpost, destroy the attacking Protoss forces beneath you, and don't let Kerrigan die. However, while you are protecting the Zerg, they are feeling no such thing about you, and see no reason to not attack you. Ingrates. Anyways, at one point in the mission, the Zerg rise up and swell past any defences you have set up. The first few times I played it, I noticed an even more shocking event taking place. One lone Ultralisk, who we shall call "Johnny, the Homocidal Ultralisk", was charging straight past any other units I had, and made a direct bee line to the lone chick in the ghost uniform. Bam. One solid swipe of the tusks, and that's it. Kerrigan lets out a high pitched scream/squeal, and the game alerts me that the game is over. I watched this happen at least three times before I caught on, and on the fouth time, I knew how to beat it. I went in and immediately built a dropship for Kerrigan. As soon as it was done, the USS Canadia set course for parts unknown, far from the intense violence, miles (I guess) above the looming Ultralisks, and out of my mind from then on. I was able to beat the mission on my own, without worrying about pissy dignitaries or whatever Kerrigan was.
***********************************SPOILERS************************************
Then, Kerrigan dies (captured, really) to the Zerg anyway!!!! Talk about a downer.
***********************************SPOILERS************************************
Anyway, I ended up with a small tick from that mission. I have a tendancy to favor using dropships from now on. I like them. I trust them. They're nice. Now you may all go ahead to plotting my eventual downfall by destroying my dropships... If you dare!
Sigh. That was a long rant half of you probably don't care about. Oh well. Anyone who wants to play, lemme know. You will be destroyed. Or not.
21.10.04
Here I Am Again
So anyway, it turns out that just after I posted my last entry, they showed Mean Girls on the college network. It wasn't too bad, actually, though I suppose I can now never watch it again. I won't be worse off. In other news, I believe Lindsey Lohan is 18. *Does his "yay, another celebrity is now old enough to turn me down legally" dance"* Aww, I made myself cry...
Also, someone needs to explain to me why 9/11 caused an economic downturn. As I recall, last time there was an attack on American soil by a foreign enemy, there was a 10 year depression, but, no, wait, that was the decade BEFORE Pearl Harbor got attacked. If memory serves, that attack brought our economy into a boom. Yeah, most wars have, in fact. So, then, why are we currently in a recession again, or just coming out of a small one, or what have you? Sigh. I'm serious, though. Anyone who can explain to me why the 9/11 attacks created a downturn, please do so. Thanks.
Oh yeah, and here's who I'm voting for come November:
I approve of their middle class values, coming from a middle class family themselves. I know their war record, I served with them through all three of the Mushroom Kingdom Wars in the Plumber Battalion, and the continuing Tours in Dinosaurland. I know they won't hesitate to use our armed forces when threatened, but at the same time they know the risks, and won't put our troops in unnecessary danger. They're the ideal candidates.
Vote Mario Mario / Luigi Mario in '04.
Also, someone needs to explain to me why 9/11 caused an economic downturn. As I recall, last time there was an attack on American soil by a foreign enemy, there was a 10 year depression, but, no, wait, that was the decade BEFORE Pearl Harbor got attacked. If memory serves, that attack brought our economy into a boom. Yeah, most wars have, in fact. So, then, why are we currently in a recession again, or just coming out of a small one, or what have you? Sigh. I'm serious, though. Anyone who can explain to me why the 9/11 attacks created a downturn, please do so. Thanks.
Oh yeah, and here's who I'm voting for come November:
I approve of their middle class values, coming from a middle class family themselves. I know their war record, I served with them through all three of the Mushroom Kingdom Wars in the Plumber Battalion, and the continuing Tours in Dinosaurland. I know they won't hesitate to use our armed forces when threatened, but at the same time they know the risks, and won't put our troops in unnecessary danger. They're the ideal candidates.
Vote Mario Mario / Luigi Mario in '04.
19.10.04
Villians
In English class today, the professor presented three topics for discussion: a plan for re-buffaloizing the mid-west plains, and something about expatrioted, two things I didn't know anything about, and then the third topic, a discussion on whether girls the "Plastics" from the movie Mean Girls, girls who are the rulers of the school and exist as a kind of elitist nobility among the students, really exist. I've never seen the movie, but I saw the commecials enough, combined with how most Hollywood movies work, to put forth a nice theory for the class. I said that the reason the girls are portrayed as such, as being some how in power while at the same time being universally hated or what have you, is simply an attempt by Hollywood to villianize the girls. I pointed out that if the movie had been done with them not being in power, and just bitches, then the hero, Lindsey Lohan's character, whoever, would lose all credibility and justification. "Those girls picked on me so I'm going to be mean back to them" isn't as persuasive an argument as "Those girls are tyrannical and evil incarnate and must be stopped."
Of course, we couldn't talk about this all period long. We had to actually learn. But the issue tugged at the back of my mind, and I decided to show them to you, since I must release my ideas somewhere, and I have no friends, it seems. Anyway, the whole thing stems back to the nessessity to villify characters in movies. The plastics are BLATANTLY evil, partially because its funny, and partially because audiences are stupid. They need things laid out for them in very obvious terms. The girls are evil because they're the bad guys, its just that simple.
I also realized that there were two kinds of bad guys, in general. The overlord and the minion. The mean girls are obviously overlords, the big bad guys, whatever. They're the characters who personify evil. They come from a long line of overloards. Darth Vader, the Iceland Team in the Mighty Ducks, Saddam Huissein, whoever. The minions are just that. Faceless pawns. They're interesting to me in how similar they are. Stormtroopers (who many people thought were robots when the first movie came out) and TIE Fighter Pilots all wear face-concealing helmets, where as their rebellion counterparts have their faces in full view. Remember the beginning of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, how they show the rebel soldiers lined up ready to defend the princess? They show a close up of a soldier who looks like he could be your grandfather, not so much that he's old, but that he has a loveable face. Right away you look at him and think: "This guy is a good guy, I like him."
Then he gets shot. WHAT THE FUCK! I LIKED THAT GUY!!! YOU BASTARDS KILLED HIM! I HATE THE EMPIRE!!! Yeah, that's how movies works. I noticed a similar thing in Top Gun. Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer barely wear oxygen masks, but their Russian (or whoever) bad guy enemies have their faces entirely concealed, and have tinted visors. They aren't human.
Gah, I hate when I get all rambly. Seems like a good reason to stop and lie down.
Of course, we couldn't talk about this all period long. We had to actually learn. But the issue tugged at the back of my mind, and I decided to show them to you, since I must release my ideas somewhere, and I have no friends, it seems. Anyway, the whole thing stems back to the nessessity to villify characters in movies. The plastics are BLATANTLY evil, partially because its funny, and partially because audiences are stupid. They need things laid out for them in very obvious terms. The girls are evil because they're the bad guys, its just that simple.
I also realized that there were two kinds of bad guys, in general. The overlord and the minion. The mean girls are obviously overlords, the big bad guys, whatever. They're the characters who personify evil. They come from a long line of overloards. Darth Vader, the Iceland Team in the Mighty Ducks, Saddam Huissein, whoever. The minions are just that. Faceless pawns. They're interesting to me in how similar they are. Stormtroopers (who many people thought were robots when the first movie came out) and TIE Fighter Pilots all wear face-concealing helmets, where as their rebellion counterparts have their faces in full view. Remember the beginning of Star Wars IV: A New Hope, how they show the rebel soldiers lined up ready to defend the princess? They show a close up of a soldier who looks like he could be your grandfather, not so much that he's old, but that he has a loveable face. Right away you look at him and think: "This guy is a good guy, I like him."
Then he gets shot. WHAT THE FUCK! I LIKED THAT GUY!!! YOU BASTARDS KILLED HIM! I HATE THE EMPIRE!!! Yeah, that's how movies works. I noticed a similar thing in Top Gun. Tom Cruise and Val Kilmer barely wear oxygen masks, but their Russian (or whoever) bad guy enemies have their faces entirely concealed, and have tinted visors. They aren't human.
Gah, I hate when I get all rambly. Seems like a good reason to stop and lie down.
18.10.04
Internet Has Returned
Well, I got the Internet back, as well as my perennial lazyness. A bunch of stuff has happened recently, but I haven't really been keeping track. Oh well. Lemme go over recent memory...
I'm not gonna be able to vote! Not on time, anyway. I forgot to update my voter address, so I'm gonna do an absentee vote in Lakeway, most likely after the election. Oh well. MY VOICE WILL BE HEARD. *Imagines someone in 1946 discussing a possible retaliation to Pearl Harbor.* Agh. I suck at analogys it seems. Anyway, next item.
My mom visited this past weekend. She brought doughnuts. Not much else there, except to note that I'm coming home some time soon. At the very least I'll be there the weekend of the 5th. November 5th. WAI~! I can't wait. I wanna go to Frys and Borders and all sortsa... Well, I guess thats it. I dunno. Anyway. I need to go about building a computer when I get there. I'll post more on that when I know more.
I also need to get that CCS boxset. The guy at the local anime shop says they're not out yet, but I KNOW I've seen it. He's got a varied selection, but none of the things I want. He doesn't have CCS, or a new title I've decided to try out, Azumanga Daioh, which seems pretty popular. It's a bunch of four panel comics about schoolgirls, and their comedic lights. The pictures I've seen of the characters are cute. In the chibi way, not cute sexy.I wanted to at least give it a try, possibly buy it.
Oi! I found a source for Chobits DVD #5. Whee! Anyway, thanks to Kathy and Stacy for giving me their copy. I owe you two.
Here's a final version of my wish list to finish things off. By the way, I'm PISSED that Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories isn't coming out till just AFTER Xmas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Alright, I suppose I should go. Sorry I've been gone for over a week, I'll try to post more often. So long.
I'm not gonna be able to vote! Not on time, anyway. I forgot to update my voter address, so I'm gonna do an absentee vote in Lakeway, most likely after the election. Oh well. MY VOICE WILL BE HEARD. *Imagines someone in 1946 discussing a possible retaliation to Pearl Harbor.* Agh. I suck at analogys it seems. Anyway, next item.
My mom visited this past weekend. She brought doughnuts. Not much else there, except to note that I'm coming home some time soon. At the very least I'll be there the weekend of the 5th. November 5th. WAI~! I can't wait. I wanna go to Frys and Borders and all sortsa... Well, I guess thats it. I dunno. Anyway. I need to go about building a computer when I get there. I'll post more on that when I know more.
I also need to get that CCS boxset. The guy at the local anime shop says they're not out yet, but I KNOW I've seen it. He's got a varied selection, but none of the things I want. He doesn't have CCS, or a new title I've decided to try out, Azumanga Daioh, which seems pretty popular. It's a bunch of four panel comics about schoolgirls, and their comedic lights. The pictures I've seen of the characters are cute. In the chibi way, not cute sexy.I wanted to at least give it a try, possibly buy it.
Oi! I found a source for Chobits DVD #5. Whee! Anyway, thanks to Kathy and Stacy for giving me their copy. I owe you two.
Here's a final version of my wish list to finish things off. By the way, I'm PISSED that Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories isn't coming out till just AFTER Xmas.
~~~~~~~~~~~~
Transformers
Mom has a list of transformers I need, except for the Toys’R’Us exclusive reissues. Here’s a list of the one’s I want:
Power Master Optimus Prime
Rodimus Prime
Dirge
Hoist
Tracks
Hound
Game Boy Advance games-
Pokemon Fire Red
Metroid Zero Mission
Final Fantasy I & II (Releases Nov 21st)
Mario Pinball
PlayStation 2 games-
Slim console unit
Disgaea: Hour of Darkness
Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas
Grand Theft Auto: Double Pack
DVDs-
Chobits # 2, 3, 4, 6, 7
Star Wars Collection
Invader Zim #2, 3
Aladdin Special Edition
Tech Equipment-
Longer battery, light-weight laptop (I’ve been eyeing the Compaq V2000 series)
Ipod, other portable mp3 device
Flatsceen Moniter
Wireless Keyboard / Mouse
Magic Cards-
Boosters / Booster boxes from the following sets:
Darksteel, Fifth Dawn, Champions of Kamigawa, Unhinged
Alright, I suppose I should go. Sorry I've been gone for over a week, I'll try to post more often. So long.
8.10.04
WHERES THE BANDWIDTH!?!?!
Those damn dirty Techs, they blew it all up. I got in from calculus, and was exstatic about getting a B++ on a test I didn't really prepare for. If I'd studied, if I'd done the stupid notecard thing, hell, if I'd just remembered that (d/dx)sin(x) = cos(x), which isn't the hardest thing on Earth to remember, I'd have gotten an A. As it was, and I don't know what B++ means, cuz I did the math and the grade was 255/300 = 85% = solid B, but whatever. I'll take all the ++'s I can get. Oh, and also, aside from doing better than I'd though I'd done, that test was the Midterm for Calculus. Not hard at all, if you ask me. So yeah. I was all happy.
Then I came home, and my room had no internet connection. "OH CRAP," though I. I went through and found out it wasn't cuzza my router, that thing was working fine. No, it was the fault of my good for nothing data port, and the fact that they weren't porting data. I called up the Tech support line. They said I got shut off because its against tech policy to allow wireless routers. Or any routers at all, for that matter. So yeah, that means the $100+ I've spend on routers has all been a waste. U_U. They should tell me this stuff sooner.
Seriously. I doubt anyone from TTU tech support or w/e is reading this, but if you are, for future reference, give me some warning and a reason as to why you're shutting me out. And give me a day to figure it out, and solve the issue on my own. Just randomly shutting me down is a huge problem. I thought for about two hours that the problem was on my end before I thought to call in. It wasn't fun. Also, the way you have it set up now, its currently YOUR fault I can't get online. I didn't do anything (that I knew not to do) to get me offline. Your actions were seemingly arbitrary, and now because of YOUR random actions, I can't get online for probably the whole weekend in my dorm room. I'm in the schol library now, btw, and probably will be all weekend, it seems. U_U
DAMN YOU TECH SUPPORT!!!
Then I came home, and my room had no internet connection. "OH CRAP," though I. I went through and found out it wasn't cuzza my router, that thing was working fine. No, it was the fault of my good for nothing data port, and the fact that they weren't porting data. I called up the Tech support line. They said I got shut off because its against tech policy to allow wireless routers. Or any routers at all, for that matter. So yeah, that means the $100+ I've spend on routers has all been a waste. U_U. They should tell me this stuff sooner.
Seriously. I doubt anyone from TTU tech support or w/e is reading this, but if you are, for future reference, give me some warning and a reason as to why you're shutting me out. And give me a day to figure it out, and solve the issue on my own. Just randomly shutting me down is a huge problem. I thought for about two hours that the problem was on my end before I thought to call in. It wasn't fun. Also, the way you have it set up now, its currently YOUR fault I can't get online. I didn't do anything (that I knew not to do) to get me offline. Your actions were seemingly arbitrary, and now because of YOUR random actions, I can't get online for probably the whole weekend in my dorm room. I'm in the schol library now, btw, and probably will be all weekend, it seems. U_U
DAMN YOU TECH SUPPORT!!!
3.10.04
Read This, And Be Amazed
FuzzyElf22: here's that joke
FuzzyElf22: The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam paper:
"Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat), or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof." Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant thereof.
One student, however, wrote the following:
FuzzyElf22: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since, there are more than one of these religions, and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to Hell.
FuzzyElf22: With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell, because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities
FuzzyElf22: If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Krissy Jones during my Freshman year that "it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you" and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then (2) cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic.
This student got the only A.
---
Thanks to Mike Hill for forwarding me the source.
FuzzyElf22: The following is an actual question given on a University of Washington chemistry mid-term exam paper:
"Is Hell exothermic (gives off heat), or endothermic (absorbs heat)? Support your answer with a proof." Most of the students wrote proofs of their beliefs using Boyle's Law (gas cools off when it expands and heats up when it is compressed) or some variant thereof.
One student, however, wrote the following:
FuzzyElf22: First, we need to know how the mass of Hell is changing in time. So, we need to know the rate at which souls are moving into Hell and the rate at which they are leaving. I think that we can safely assume that once a soul gets to Hell, it will not leave. Therefore, no souls are leaving. As for how many souls are entering Hell, let's look at the different religions that exist in the world today. Some of these religions state that if you are not a member of their religion, you will go to Hell. Since, there are more than one of these religions, and since people do not belong to more than one religion, we can project that all people and all souls go to Hell.
FuzzyElf22: With birth and death rates as they are, we can expect the number of souls in Hell to increase exponentially. Now, we look at the rate of change of the volume in Hell, because Boyle's Law states that in order for the temperature and pressure in Hell to stay the same, the volume of Hell has to expand as souls are added.
This gives two possibilities
FuzzyElf22: If Hell is expanding at a slower rate than the rate at which souls enter Hell, then the temperature and pressure in Hell will increase until all Hell breaks loose.
Of course, if Hell is expanding at a rate faster than the increase of souls in Hell, then the temperature and pressure will drop until Hell freezes over.
So which is it?
If we accept the postulate given to me by Ms. Krissy Jones during my Freshman year that "it will be a cold night in Hell before I sleep with you" and take into account the fact that I still have not succeeded in having sexual relations with her, then (2) cannot be true, and thus I am sure that Hell is exothermic.
This student got the only A.
---
Thanks to Mike Hill for forwarding me the source.
Yawn
Tired now, go sleepy. Tomorrow, rant about Terra in Teen Titans, as well as my dad's visit to Lubbock. For now, I sleepy.
1.10.04
Webcomics Of The World, Unite!
I present for your viewing pleasure, my new and improved bookmark list, full of all my webcomics, for easy access to me.
There you have it, in no particular order, the webcomics I check out at least once a week. The codes written next to them, if you hadn't figured it out, are the days of the week each one is supposed to update. They don't always, but they usually try.
And yes, I'm sure there are more out there that I'm forgetting. I thought of one just in between the time I made that screenshot and posted it to photobucket. However, if you can think of any that I might like (and I obviously have extremely varied tastes) feel free to pass it along.
That's all for today. Just a short one. Part of me wanted to do a song parody about last nights presidential debates based on "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", replacing Devil with Dubya, Georgia with Florida, and Johnny with, umm, Johnny. Anyway, I lack the skills to write a song of any sort, but if you have the inclination, I'd love to see it. My personal thoughts on the debate, as an aside, were that nothing really was accomplished. If you supported Bush before the debates, you supported him after it too, and the same goes for Kerry supporters. It seemed to me like "I'm right" "No, I'm right." Back and forth all night long, with very little actual debating going on, just reiteration of the same facts over and over again. Ah well. I zoned out for much of it.
There you have it, in no particular order, the webcomics I check out at least once a week. The codes written next to them, if you hadn't figured it out, are the days of the week each one is supposed to update. They don't always, but they usually try.
And yes, I'm sure there are more out there that I'm forgetting. I thought of one just in between the time I made that screenshot and posted it to photobucket. However, if you can think of any that I might like (and I obviously have extremely varied tastes) feel free to pass it along.
That's all for today. Just a short one. Part of me wanted to do a song parody about last nights presidential debates based on "The Devil Went Down To Georgia", replacing Devil with Dubya, Georgia with Florida, and Johnny with, umm, Johnny. Anyway, I lack the skills to write a song of any sort, but if you have the inclination, I'd love to see it. My personal thoughts on the debate, as an aside, were that nothing really was accomplished. If you supported Bush before the debates, you supported him after it too, and the same goes for Kerry supporters. It seemed to me like "I'm right" "No, I'm right." Back and forth all night long, with very little actual debating going on, just reiteration of the same facts over and over again. Ah well. I zoned out for much of it.
30.9.04
You've Got Gmail
Squirrelmonger@Gmail.com
Is
Mine!
Muwahaha.
Yeah, I broke down and made the switch to Gmail. I don't know why. Oh well. I got tired of all the junk I was getting in Hotmail. Hrmm.. not much else here... I got it working under Thunderbird, which is cool, but that's it. Make a note, I guess.
Is
Mine!
Muwahaha.
Yeah, I broke down and made the switch to Gmail. I don't know why. Oh well. I got tired of all the junk I was getting in Hotmail. Hrmm.. not much else here... I got it working under Thunderbird, which is cool, but that's it. Make a note, I guess.
29.9.04
Religion Wars
Got an e-mail from Scott Adams this morning. You know, the creator of Dilbert? Anyway, yeah, I subscribe to the Dilbert newsletter. Its fun, he sends out all the stupid phrases that he gets sent in from what he calls "In-duh-viduals." I enjoy the little bursts of cynicism whenever he sends those out. Anyway, I bring it up today because today's letter included a little note: his new book, "THE RELIGION WAR" is coming out soon.
I'm sure some of you read that and thought "What an odd name for a Dilbert book." I'd have to agree. It's not a Dilbert book, luckily. It's the sequel to his other non-Dilbert book, "God's Debris." I read that book back when it came out. It was a great read. It's not a humor book, but a philosophy book. The entire story is just one long conversation between the world's smartest man and a delivery boy. It's really very interesting, the conclusions that are brought forth by the book. I don't want to spoil it, but its really great. You should go get it. And the sequel too.
Before you go though, I just want to talk about the sequel. It takes place in the future, where the religions have become polarized to the point of global ideological war. Obviously, this future is based on a somewhat pessimistic view of current events. Unfortunately, the way things are looking, it doesn't look too far off. Of course, as I see it, America is becoming polarized within its own borders. You look around, and see people who outright HATE people with political differences. I can imagine taking those maps of the election predictions, you know, red states vs blue states, and in 10 years, overlaying that onto a map of two separate nations. The battleground states will literally be battlefields, the demilitarized zones between two warring nations. I realize that this is a bleak outlook, but really, I can see this happening in a few years. Republicans vs Democrats is an argument that has almost drawn to outright hatred of their opponants. I realy hope this is just a side effect of the election. If not, I'm moving to Australia asap.
Oh, and have you seen these WTC memorial silver dollars? Which they are selling for TWENTY DOLLARS!? I really want to see the economic repercussions of trading American currency for other American currency at a ratio of twenty to one. I'll bet its bad. Alright, I'm off. Don't get yourselves killed.
I'm sure some of you read that and thought "What an odd name for a Dilbert book." I'd have to agree. It's not a Dilbert book, luckily. It's the sequel to his other non-Dilbert book, "God's Debris." I read that book back when it came out. It was a great read. It's not a humor book, but a philosophy book. The entire story is just one long conversation between the world's smartest man and a delivery boy. It's really very interesting, the conclusions that are brought forth by the book. I don't want to spoil it, but its really great. You should go get it. And the sequel too.
Before you go though, I just want to talk about the sequel. It takes place in the future, where the religions have become polarized to the point of global ideological war. Obviously, this future is based on a somewhat pessimistic view of current events. Unfortunately, the way things are looking, it doesn't look too far off. Of course, as I see it, America is becoming polarized within its own borders. You look around, and see people who outright HATE people with political differences. I can imagine taking those maps of the election predictions, you know, red states vs blue states, and in 10 years, overlaying that onto a map of two separate nations. The battleground states will literally be battlefields, the demilitarized zones between two warring nations. I realize that this is a bleak outlook, but really, I can see this happening in a few years. Republicans vs Democrats is an argument that has almost drawn to outright hatred of their opponants. I realy hope this is just a side effect of the election. If not, I'm moving to Australia asap.
Oh, and have you seen these WTC memorial silver dollars? Which they are selling for TWENTY DOLLARS!? I really want to see the economic repercussions of trading American currency for other American currency at a ratio of twenty to one. I'll bet its bad. Alright, I'm off. Don't get yourselves killed.
26.9.04
Dead Words
Edit: For some reason, both posts ended up being published, which I wasn't counting on. Oh well, they both make somewhat different posts, so I'll leave them both here. No reason to do all that writing and then not get credit, right?
----------------
Stupid Blacker...
My first attempt at this post got eaten. Oh well. And for some reason I ache all over. In my bones. Maybe I'm coming down with something. Photobucket's acting up too. Sigh. Anyway, enough pointless bitching, I'll get to the heart of the matter.
I like to write. Okay, that a revelation of Akbar-proportions, but let's all assume its a given from here on out, Kay? Anyway, the problem is no one reads my writing. I have, what, three people who read this blog without my begging. By the way, I've stopped begging, so if you're reading this, thank you. Anyway, the problem is that the written word as a medium is dead. No one simply READS anymore. It's boring. As a people, we want a visual narrative, not simply letters flying across the screen. We want pretty pictures. So, that said, I suppose I should skip to my pitch:
I want to write a webcomic (webmanga, really). If you've been paying attention, you may remember me saying something along this line earlier, but basically, the artist fell through. Story of my life, eh? So I'm stuck with these story ideas, and I want to share them, cept I can't, because I have no artistic talent, either of my own or of a friends that I can get to. I suppose this is a plea to the aspiring artists of the world. If you'd like to see your works published online, I might be able to help. You've seen the quality of my writing here, and you've (hopefully) read my two short joke stories I posted here a while ago. If not, they're back in January, I think, feel free to go look them up. Note: this new story I have will not be as silly or humorous as those were. There will be a humor element to it, because I can't stand writing something completely deadpan, but I was aiming for something of a slightly more serious tone. Anyway, if you're interested, scan me some of your work, or ask me what I'd like, THEN scan me some of your work. That'd be killer. Alright, enough delusions of grandeur for Greg, but seriously, if you wanna draw a webmanga, lemme know; my email and my screen name are linked over to the right there ->
Later. I'll go see if any pigs are flying now.
----------------
Stupid Blacker...
My first attempt at this post got eaten. Oh well. And for some reason I ache all over. In my bones. Maybe I'm coming down with something. Photobucket's acting up too. Sigh. Anyway, enough pointless bitching, I'll get to the heart of the matter.
I like to write. Okay, that a revelation of Akbar-proportions, but let's all assume its a given from here on out, Kay? Anyway, the problem is no one reads my writing. I have, what, three people who read this blog without my begging. By the way, I've stopped begging, so if you're reading this, thank you. Anyway, the problem is that the written word as a medium is dead. No one simply READS anymore. It's boring. As a people, we want a visual narrative, not simply letters flying across the screen. We want pretty pictures. So, that said, I suppose I should skip to my pitch:
I want to write a webcomic (webmanga, really). If you've been paying attention, you may remember me saying something along this line earlier, but basically, the artist fell through. Story of my life, eh? So I'm stuck with these story ideas, and I want to share them, cept I can't, because I have no artistic talent, either of my own or of a friends that I can get to. I suppose this is a plea to the aspiring artists of the world. If you'd like to see your works published online, I might be able to help. You've seen the quality of my writing here, and you've (hopefully) read my two short joke stories I posted here a while ago. If not, they're back in January, I think, feel free to go look them up. Note: this new story I have will not be as silly or humorous as those were. There will be a humor element to it, because I can't stand writing something completely deadpan, but I was aiming for something of a slightly more serious tone. Anyway, if you're interested, scan me some of your work, or ask me what I'd like, THEN scan me some of your work. That'd be killer. Alright, enough delusions of grandeur for Greg, but seriously, if you wanna draw a webmanga, lemme know; my email and my screen name are linked over to the right there ->
Later. I'll go see if any pigs are flying now.
Written Word == Dead
Why the fuck do I write this thing? Maybe three people out there read it. I guess four if you count myself. Does anyone really care about the things I say? Fuck, most of the time you people only read it because as soon as you pop on AIM I hit you with "GO READ MY BLOG" like I'm some attention whore. No more of that. If you want to know what's going through my mind, you can check on it yourself. I'll leave the link in my profile, but that's about all I'll do. I guess I'll try and maintain a semi regular schedule, or at least promise to put up a post once a week at the very least, so you can check it on Tuesday's or something when you've got nothing else to do.
Seriously, though, part of the reason no one cares about my blog is because quite frankly the written word as it's own medium is dying out. My own handwriting is proof enough of that. As soon as I get a scanner, I'll let you all see it for yourselves. But lets face it, not enough people really read any more. I'll admit, I'm one of them, I don't read nearly as much as I should. Which, if you think about it, is a crying shame. I used to LOVE to read. True enough, I'd mostly read Star Wars or other science fiction books, but I was at least doing something that didn't involve a cathode ray tube or liquid crystal display. And more often than not, I'd do it in silence, letting my internal narrator and my own imagined sound effects fill in the quiet as I read. It was edifying, I suppose. A good experience. Now adays, if you let me loose in the local Barnse and Nobles, I make a b-line (bee line?) Straight for the manga section. Yep, the only books I read now adays are the ones with pictures. It's pathetic. I read more intellectually challenging stuff back in the fifth grade.
Ah, those were the days. I was the only kid in my class who got in trouble for reading in school. Not for reading porn or anything dirty. Though I have very fond memories of reading a book in third grade that was aimed at adult readers (not that it had adult content, but that it was simply aimed towards non-kids; it had a highschool and over reading level). Anyway, it was a book of science fiction stories involving dinosaurs. Like any other red blooded american kid in the early ninties, I was FACINATED by dinosaurs, so I got Mom to order me the book from her science fiction book club. Anyway, so there I am, reading this absolutely HUGE hardcover book with a dinosaur on the cover (and for the life of me, I can't remember or imagine what the other kids were reading at that time) when a curious combination of letters appeared on the page. "Shit," the book said. This was not a particularly vulgar book, mind you, and the situation being discribed was a perfectly appropriate place to put the swear word. But being a third grader, I couldn't help but nudge the kid next to me: "Hey, look, my book says 'shit'!" This right young fellow, in turn, alerted my teacher. She came over, gave the book a good looking at, gave ME a good looking at, and determined that it was okay for me to read it. Yay for being the smart kid, eh?
Other times I remember being caught reading the Lord of the Rings in class, after the first movie had come out. I still need to finish that, by the way. The amazing part of this, though, is that I really only read during class. I wouldn't read outside of class, so my progress was rather meager. Coupled with the fact that despite being rather smart, I'm not the fastest reader ever. I know this, but most other people assume that because I'm smart, I must also be a fast reader. I'll admit, the two appear naturally together in my head as well. Ah well.
Now, though, the time of books is dwindling. The concept of eBooks, while a good one (basically a portable screen / hard drive for reading text files on), is trounced by the following gaping flaw: IF I HAVE WHAT BASICALLY AMOUNTS TO A COMPUTER WITH ME, WHY AM I READING ON IT INSTEAD OF PLAYING GAMES OR WATCHING VIDEO? (That probably shouldn't all be in caps, but I'm too lazy to go back and fix it.) Given the choice, I've got to go with the video for my airline storytelling, if I'm going to the trouble of having electronics. If I want to read, books work fine for me. Is the thing really worth the extra trouble as opposed to just packing the books? I suppose if you're a book reviewer and need to read like fifty books in a week, and commute a lot to boot, then sure, such a device could be useful, but for the general public, its no good.
Anyway, the reason books are dying out is because more visual mediums are so much more accessable to the general public. Given the choice between paying five or so bucks for a paperback copy of the Borne Supremacy, or paying six or so for a movie ticket to SEE the movie, and in a good deal less time than the book would have taken, the average person is going to watch the movie. Personally, I went out and bought the books to read, though I haven't started on them yet, but I hadn't even HEARD of the story before the movies came out, and if it hadn't been a half interesting story, I probably wouldn't have bought the books, either. How many people out there had never even heard the name Asimov before Will Smiths face started appearing on his book? Would Jurassic Park have been a best seller without an accomanying movie? Or ANY book by Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton(sp)?
And the troubling thing is I have great stories I want to get out. You've read my detective stories, right? If not, scroll down and read them when you finish this. Or search the Archives. Maybe I'll edit link them later, I'm too lazy now. I need to finish my third story, too, but then again, what's the point? Will anyone read it? Nope. Not really. No one is going to proclaim me the next great... fuck, I can't even think of a famous comic short story writer before me. Shows you how much the world cares about writers, huh? If it hasn't been made into a movie or TV show, no one cares about it. This is why I was contemplating doing a web-manga all those months back. The trouble is, I've got what I think is an okay story idea, but no artist to draw my ideas, and definitely no artistic talent of my own to draw them. My single greatest artistic achievement, I think, was turning this into this. Sigh. Do you think I should practice? Get lessons? Go out and become an artist so I can bring you my sub-par story idea? BUY A MAC!? (No, never! One button is not enough...) Anyway, I dunno. Hey, anyone out there with decent artistic abilities but nothing to draw (and a scanner, I'd hope), gimme a ping. I'll send you some story ideas, you can tell me what you thing, etc. It'll be great fun.
Anyway, from the world of the written to the land of three readers, so long.
Seriously, though, part of the reason no one cares about my blog is because quite frankly the written word as it's own medium is dying out. My own handwriting is proof enough of that. As soon as I get a scanner, I'll let you all see it for yourselves. But lets face it, not enough people really read any more. I'll admit, I'm one of them, I don't read nearly as much as I should. Which, if you think about it, is a crying shame. I used to LOVE to read. True enough, I'd mostly read Star Wars or other science fiction books, but I was at least doing something that didn't involve a cathode ray tube or liquid crystal display. And more often than not, I'd do it in silence, letting my internal narrator and my own imagined sound effects fill in the quiet as I read. It was edifying, I suppose. A good experience. Now adays, if you let me loose in the local Barnse and Nobles, I make a b-line (bee line?) Straight for the manga section. Yep, the only books I read now adays are the ones with pictures. It's pathetic. I read more intellectually challenging stuff back in the fifth grade.
Ah, those were the days. I was the only kid in my class who got in trouble for reading in school. Not for reading porn or anything dirty. Though I have very fond memories of reading a book in third grade that was aimed at adult readers (not that it had adult content, but that it was simply aimed towards non-kids; it had a highschool and over reading level). Anyway, it was a book of science fiction stories involving dinosaurs. Like any other red blooded american kid in the early ninties, I was FACINATED by dinosaurs, so I got Mom to order me the book from her science fiction book club. Anyway, so there I am, reading this absolutely HUGE hardcover book with a dinosaur on the cover (and for the life of me, I can't remember or imagine what the other kids were reading at that time) when a curious combination of letters appeared on the page. "Shit," the book said. This was not a particularly vulgar book, mind you, and the situation being discribed was a perfectly appropriate place to put the swear word. But being a third grader, I couldn't help but nudge the kid next to me: "Hey, look, my book says 'shit'!" This right young fellow, in turn, alerted my teacher. She came over, gave the book a good looking at, gave ME a good looking at, and determined that it was okay for me to read it. Yay for being the smart kid, eh?
Other times I remember being caught reading the Lord of the Rings in class, after the first movie had come out. I still need to finish that, by the way. The amazing part of this, though, is that I really only read during class. I wouldn't read outside of class, so my progress was rather meager. Coupled with the fact that despite being rather smart, I'm not the fastest reader ever. I know this, but most other people assume that because I'm smart, I must also be a fast reader. I'll admit, the two appear naturally together in my head as well. Ah well.
Now, though, the time of books is dwindling. The concept of eBooks, while a good one (basically a portable screen / hard drive for reading text files on), is trounced by the following gaping flaw: IF I HAVE WHAT BASICALLY AMOUNTS TO A COMPUTER WITH ME, WHY AM I READING ON IT INSTEAD OF PLAYING GAMES OR WATCHING VIDEO? (That probably shouldn't all be in caps, but I'm too lazy to go back and fix it.) Given the choice, I've got to go with the video for my airline storytelling, if I'm going to the trouble of having electronics. If I want to read, books work fine for me. Is the thing really worth the extra trouble as opposed to just packing the books? I suppose if you're a book reviewer and need to read like fifty books in a week, and commute a lot to boot, then sure, such a device could be useful, but for the general public, its no good.
Anyway, the reason books are dying out is because more visual mediums are so much more accessable to the general public. Given the choice between paying five or so bucks for a paperback copy of the Borne Supremacy, or paying six or so for a movie ticket to SEE the movie, and in a good deal less time than the book would have taken, the average person is going to watch the movie. Personally, I went out and bought the books to read, though I haven't started on them yet, but I hadn't even HEARD of the story before the movies came out, and if it hadn't been a half interesting story, I probably wouldn't have bought the books, either. How many people out there had never even heard the name Asimov before Will Smiths face started appearing on his book? Would Jurassic Park have been a best seller without an accomanying movie? Or ANY book by Tom Clancy or Michael Crichton(sp)?
And the troubling thing is I have great stories I want to get out. You've read my detective stories, right? If not, scroll down and read them when you finish this. Or search the Archives. Maybe I'll edit link them later, I'm too lazy now. I need to finish my third story, too, but then again, what's the point? Will anyone read it? Nope. Not really. No one is going to proclaim me the next great... fuck, I can't even think of a famous comic short story writer before me. Shows you how much the world cares about writers, huh? If it hasn't been made into a movie or TV show, no one cares about it. This is why I was contemplating doing a web-manga all those months back. The trouble is, I've got what I think is an okay story idea, but no artist to draw my ideas, and definitely no artistic talent of my own to draw them. My single greatest artistic achievement, I think, was turning this into this. Sigh. Do you think I should practice? Get lessons? Go out and become an artist so I can bring you my sub-par story idea? BUY A MAC!? (No, never! One button is not enough...) Anyway, I dunno. Hey, anyone out there with decent artistic abilities but nothing to draw (and a scanner, I'd hope), gimme a ping. I'll send you some story ideas, you can tell me what you thing, etc. It'll be great fun.
Anyway, from the world of the written to the land of three readers, so long.
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