26.7.04

What Happens When I'm Bored

A while ago I was bored, so I wrote out a long e-mail to a friend. This was before my days of blogging, so I ended up venting. A lot. Here you go.

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Hey-  

I'm sitting in class right now, bored out of my mind! Why couldn't you have just stayed sick... jk. I'm glad your feeling all better. I'm going to work on this e-mail intermittantly, as random things pop into my head, so expect it to get a little.... random. Heh.  

Anyway, I think I need a new e-mail address. This one is getting too cluttered with junk mail (I filled up my block list!) So, if you have an any suggestions, feel free to let me know. It'll prolly be with Hotmail again, cuz I love these guys, and I can check my e-mail using Outlook Express, which is a bunch easier to use than the normal website interface.  

Hrmmm... just checked my Netscape Mailbox. I got it for free, comes with a AIM account. I don't usually use it, but the little icon was flashing, and I got annoyed. AGGHH, there it is again!... Okay, thats done.  

So, what do you think of this real time e-mail thing so far? I'm just doing it cuz I'm bored. I really should do something else. Homework?....nah. Maybe I'll start my rants again. If I do, I'll be sure to include you, because I know you like them so much... well, the ones I showed you.  

Sigh.... stupid webcomics, they update too slow. I need my stories in one shot bursts, not in GIGANTOR (for some reason, I'm pronouncing that word in Spanish, so the G = H, as in HIGANTOR!) extended sessions, stretched out over weeks and months... I've got too much free time for them to be lolly gagging. Heh, I'm not one to complain, tho. Not like I have MY OWN webcomic... yet. *Can't draw worth a crap.* Oh yeah... oh well, scratch that idea, then. I'll just stick to my own rants and stories, and other text-based art forms. *Wonders: do ANSII naked girls count as text-based art?*  

Last night, I was watching Moulin Rouge (not ROGUE, though I believe a rogue [a ranger type fellow in a fantasy story, like Strider from Lord of the Rings] is definately cooler than a rouge [a pink? does that even make grammatical sense?] hehe, side tracks are funny) with a friend from Washington. No, we weren't together; we both started the movie at the same time in our respective locations, and chatted about it as we watched. If you've never seen it before (or even if you have, there's no stopping me!), theres a scene where the main characters (guy [Ewan Macgregor, by the way, the total bad ass who plays Obi-Wan in the prequels, and he's got my name smack dab in the middle of his last name, too!] and girl [Nicole Kidman, just to be fair]) are singing a romantic love song and dancing, and they step off the balcony, and are dancing around a minature version of Paris (its some sort of love trippyness or something). The conversation between me and Anya (the girl I was watching it with) went something like this (and no, I'm not going to use the actual screen names, because I'm too lazy):

"
Greg: OH NO!
Greg: EWANMACGREGOR IS ATTACKING PARIS!!!
Anya: lol
Greg: SUMMON GOZILLA!!!
Anya: how romantic
Greg: heh
*five minutes pass as she realizes that summoning Godzilla is not romantic after all*
Anya: hah
Anya: dork
"

So there you have it, unequivical proof that I am a dork. AND PROUD OF IT.   At this point, I have 3 major tangents bouncing in my head, but this one wins out: "I AM SO COLD RIGHT NOW!!!!!!" *sHIVERS* *Remembers he left caps lock on, debates whether to go back and fix that last bit* *Goes back and DE-fixes it* 

Oh yeah, I wanted to talk about my signature in that last e-mail you got. I don't usually go by the nickname of "Johnny". (Hell, I don't usually spell Johnny that way, I spell it Jonny, or just stick with John.) I included it as a reference back to myself being labled a type: "Johnny" Magic player, i.e., someone who likes making wacky and tricky decks, like the unbelievably long winded Leveler Deck I made yesterday. I do hope it didn't bore you. I usually throw in some random quip like that at the end, in the format Greg "something" Levine; or Greg Levine, something of something; or just Greg Levine, something. Today I'm leaning towards Greg "HIGANTOR!" Levine, but I think I have more stuff to tell you, so who knows.  

Plus, I have another hour to tell it to you in. gahh, I can't take this 3 hour stretch of NOTHING in between classes. I'm so glad I have you to get me through it all.  

I WAS GOING TO SAY SOMETHING HERE, AND I FORGOT IT!!! ...Oh wait, now I remember. This is the first e-mail where I have ever used those little ** brackets, or done any 3rd person narration like that at all. And I have you to thank for inspiring me.

Random tangent: I was watching School of Rock the other day, and theres one part where the principal is coming, and they have to make it look like they're really doing work. So they all scramble to clean up their rock stuff, and as she walks in, he says, "...and so, E=MC^2." (More on Einstein in a bit [and some other math related stuff, if I can remember it][This is more a note to me than to you, but I'm going to leave it in here, as a window into my odd little brain.) One of the random figures he has on the board, though, is this: "!x?". I just thought that was a funny little thing.  

This random memory was brought to you by this poster sitting in front of me. The headline reads "FREE TUTORING!!" which suprised me, because I wasn't aware the tutors are being held captive. Anyway, below that is a picture of someone with glasses teaching someone without glasses, because we all know people with glasses are smarter than people without glasses. (Listen to the track by Jim Gaffigan I sent you for more on that, and ask me to act out the things he does with them, because they need to be seen to be fully understood.) The girl with glasses, again, because girls are smarter than boys (you > me ^-^), is pointing to "2 x 4 = 8" and "2 + 4 = 6", and the boy is just sitting there with a confused look on his face (-.o, sorta) and a question mark above his head.  

Wow, do I love tangents. I just spend more time describing a poster that triggered a memory than the memory itself. I'd better nip this paragraph in the bud, before it gets too big, too. *Nips.* 

On Einstein: E=MC^2. Now, you know what that means, I hope. Energy is equal to Mass time the speed of light squared. C is the speed of light, mostly because he needed something REALLY BIG to make the conversion work, and the square of the speed of light (which i dont feel like writing out right now) is indeed, a big number... but its also a trippy number. It has been defined as constant, and that if, say, you are at a stand still and you shoot a lazer beam, it will go C. And if you are in a spacecraft traveling at 99.99% of C (because no object other than light can apparently travel that fast)and shoot a lazer beam, it will ALSO go at C! The usual way this would work, of course, is different. If you are at a standstill, and fire a projectile at Xmph, it will go Xmph, minus whatever decelleration factor it has, and if you are going Wmph when you fire the same projectile, it will travel at W+Xmph, the combined speed of itself and you. Okay, this is getting boring, so I'll stop that, because its starting to sound like a physics lesson.  

However... *dives back into the subject* what if you were in a spaceship going 30mph below the speed of light, and fired a projectile (not a lazer) with a speed of, say, 45 miles per hour. Logic, to my knowledge, dictates that is speed would be your own speed plus its own, in essence, (C-30)+45, or C+15, 15 miles faster than light per hour!  

Okay, now that your all excited, thinking I'm a genius, I've just been informed that I was wrong about light speed. Its not a Universal Constant, it is constant to the observer. So, if your standing still, a light beam will go by you at Cmph, and if your going 200 mile an hour, light going by you travels at 200+Cmph. Light is just screwy. I hate it, and I still think Einstein fucked up.  

Gee, I hope I spelt Einstein right.  

Hrmm, information is coming to my brain in slower clips. From the second paragraph through now, it has all been one straight shot of writing. ("Righting"; heh, damn I suck at spelling.) I crapped out again right about here.   I like this e-mail, I'm going to send a copy to myself. *Adds gtom5556@hotmail.com to "To: " space.*  

Hrmmm... I just randomly tried to check my Netscape mail (its squirrelmonger34@netscape.net, if your wondering, but dont send me anything there). (Actually, just about any of my screen names on Aim [don't put spaces] in followed by "@netscape.net" works). But this time, it won't let me. Grr.....   I'm sleepy. It's too bad there's no beds around here, or I'd be napping right now. Actually, I guess, for you, its a good thing I can't sleep now, because otherwise you wouldn't get this amazing e-mail! (Is it too big? I think this is just big today because my mind hasn't been dumped like this in a while.)  

It's one o'clock, so much stuff yet to do. I have that 600 word paper on optimism due tomorrow, which I'm sure I can complete (see, optimism!). I have two more classes today, no homework in them per-se, but I need to get a move on on my C++ Programs. I also need to read my History Book report book, so I have some idea of whats going on. Oh, and Math homework. That's been sitting next to me this whole past 2.5 hours. Hah, like I'm going to get started on any of that crap now.   Well, I've really enjoyed talking to you. Like I said, I needed a mental dump, and I think you've helped a lot. Thank's a lot.

Still got more time, and more random thoughts in my head. I listened to an Audio Cassette of a Power Rangers episode this morning. Finding old collections of childrens tapes is awesome. Anyway, it was the first episode with the White Ranger, and made me miss those spandex wearing freaks. Not the ones they have now, but the old and cool ones. I have like one random episode from the "Green Ranger Saga" on Video, but its not really worth watching. Once, when I was babysitting for some lil kids, they popped in the tape for the Mighty Morphin' (not "Morphing) Power Rangers Movie, and I saw like the first 15 minutes of it. THAT IS NOT ENOUGH! If you have it, could you bring it to me tomorrow?I need to finish it. I've already watched it before, but I feel its worth completing, and its starting to bug me.  

Other random Power Rangers things:     

     As much as I want to, I have yet to answer the question "Do you know what time it is?" with "ITS MORPHIN' TIME!" though it was once an away message. I'll remake that when I get back home tonite.     

     When and if I get a cell phone, I MUST make one of its ringtones the sound for the power rangers theme: "beep beep boo-beep beep - beep."

     Currently stuck in my head is the orginal rocking Power Ranger theme, as well as the Red Rangers amazing cry of  "TYRANNOSAURUS!"
     Whenever I see the card Sabretooth Tiger, or hear any random reference to the creature at all, I can't help but think of the Yellow Rangers equally amazing cry: "SABRETOOTHTIGER". Some how, she managed to make it all one word.  

K, thats enough of that. I really need to head off to class now.

-Greg "betcha forgot all about HIGANTOR!" LeVine

p.s. Just wanted to see the difference between LeVine and Le\/ine... hrmm much l33tn355 is included. I am so glad that the V in my name can be capitolized.

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Okay, that was fun. I only edited it to turn brackets into **'s, and to protect the identity of the friend I sent it to. All spelling errors and other typos are from yours truely, as of Monday, October 6, 2003 1:23 PM. That was fun to re-read.

OK, later days folks.

Misetings article

Found some old stuff, wanted to post it for posterity.

The following is based on actual events;
Only the names, places, and events have been changed.

"DCI Bans 'Scissors'"
by Squirrelmonger (me)- January 06, 2003

Renton, WA -- Citing the results of a recent 'Rock, Papers, Scissors' tournament, the DCI has banned the use of Scissors from all forms of sanctioned play.
 
Jeff Williams, a spokesman for the DCI, explained, "The statistics don't lie. Over 30% of last weekends matches were won by players running Scissors. It's obviously too powerful for competitive play. It is a direct foil to any sort of Paper strategy, and that's simply not the kind of environment we want to encourage."
 
In a recent poll done by the DCI, Scissors was the number one picked symbol used by players. Rock, the only dependable way to beat Scissors, was a close second, but Williams believes "this is a backlash and only helps further drive home Scissors dominance of the game."
 
Since it was first revealed in 'Rock, Paper, Scissors' first release, Scissors has been one of the most dominant strategies in the game. Many players have feared the "two-pronged menace". Now, however, Williams hopes to allow Paper players to step out of Scissors' shadow and finally flourish on their own.
 
"This is a great time to be a Paper player. 'Flat-handers' finally have a chance to show their worth."
 
Many Rock players have worried that this change may also adversly affect their play as well, but Williams remains confidant. "Remember, this is a changing game. We may make a mistake from time to time, but we're always working for what's best for the game." 

22.7.04

Random Babbilngs

I just watched Independance Day. Or at least the last hour of it. It was good. The best part, though, was seeing the DVD extras they show on FX for some reason, including the deleted Bi-plane scene, where instead of flying his jet, Russel, the drunk, crashes his crop duster into the alien superweapon. You hadda see it, I guess, but it was hilariously out of place. Also funny was the idea that the human's resistance plan required an absolutely perfect record against the aliens. Had one of the alien city-ships survived long enough to regain its shield, it could have gone and enslaved the planet on its own. It was an all or nothing. In fact, it lead my to envision my own deleted scene for the movie.

Earth's counteroffencive has succeeded, and all the alien ships have been destroyed. The rubble from crashed cityships is being cleared away and salvaged. But, as one particular panel is pushed aside, one surviving alien jumps the worker, then turns to the camera, and lunges for it. Fade to black, and the words "The End?" appear on screen.

IT'S GOLD!!!

If you ask me, the muslim's got it all wrong. If you're going to have a religion-based dress code for women, it should not involve large amounts of clothes. Especially in the desert, which is like a beach except for the lack of ocean. If I were making the rules,  I'd go just the opposite. ENFORCED FEMALE NUDISM! (Like the Ferengis!) It makes sense. The female form is the most beautiful natural gift from God, and should not touch any man made clothes, nor should anything obstruct it from view. Also, to avoid the unsightly "ugly chick," mandatory exercize regimines will be ordered. Now, its been proven that sexual intercourse burns off tons of carbs and fat. Therefore, a good fucking will be vey neccessary.

21.7.04

Where Does The Time Go?

AGH! This stupid game is giving me a headache. It was due a while ago, and I was lucky to get an extension, but now I'm STUCK. I'm getting weird linker errors I don't know how to fix. If you think you can help me, feel free to IM me.

Anyway, let's see, what all has happened in current events. Since my last post, that is. Let's see, my last MAJOR post was when I was on the way back from Jersey. Okay, that's a good way to segment it. Since then, what has happened to Greg? Well, first, the multiplayer deck I mentioned and then decided to not talk about got built. It was completely sucky, but that's okay, cuz its for multiplayer. I built it really hurriedly, though, because last Friday I took it out to a Multiplayer tournament. Actually, a 2v2 teams format, which was fun. It preformed horribly. Absolutely horribly. However. I did manage to resolve my game winning combo once, so the night wasn't a complete loss. In fact, that was my goal for the night: to play a kickered Desolation Angel with Last Laugh and Sphere of Grace on the table. (Don't worry if you don't understand it; basically doing that meant "I won".)

After going losing two rounds out of two, Matt and I decided to leave. Our destination: I, Robot. Despite my anger with the movie earlier, I do have to admit, this movie was spot on to Asimov, with the minor exception of a robot brain being purposefully built without the three laws. Even the red lights, which I had laughed at when I first saw them in the previews ("Why are the robots going from blue to red?" "Well, cuz they're angry, I guess." "Okay, why would USR equip their robots with lights for that occasion?"), even they served a purpose and made sense in the context of the film. It was great, and not quite the dumb action shooter I thought it would be, though you are welcome to view it as such. The special effects were fantastic. (The movie is like the Matrix in that while you CAN enjoy it as just an explosive action film, if you take the time to think during the film, you will get a little more out of it.) Also, though I haven't heard plans for a video game, I believe it has the possibilities to make an exceptional movie-game like "Goldeneye" was on the N64. Were I to make it, I would have a gaming engine simlar to Grand Theft Auto 3 and on, though with more emphasis on the non-car parts, as well as a tighter storyline rather than the random "Greet person, accept misson, do mission, repeat" game that GTA is. Don't get me wrong. I love that kind of game, but when basing the game on a movie, the storyline should take a little more precidence. (I'm under the impression that Spiderman 2's game succeeds very well without a tight storyline, but for I, Robot, I believe a tighter storyline is neccessary.)

Wow. I really had a lot to say about that movie. One small side note: while in the theater, I saw a mother and her two young daughters. Young as in like 3-5ish, which I thought might be a little young for the movie. Oh well. It wasn't really too bad, so whatever.

Also in the news for me: .hack fever. Or something. I dunno, ever since I noticed they were showing .hack//Legend of the Twilight on Cartoon Network, I've been scrabbling to watch and read everything about it as possible. The third volume of the manga is still a few months off, but until then, I have pleanty to keep me occupied. Legend of the Twilight is great, and I bought the first volume box set DVD (which comes with the soundtrack too! ^-^), as well as set my TiVo to record it. I will still buy the newer DVD's, though, because I have this funny belief about actually paying for things I like. *Shrugs* I've gone on that rant before. Also, I got from matt all 27 eps of the original .hack//Sign, and the four Luminality episodes. Both are subtitled, though, making following the majorly dialogue based story a little harder while doing other things. I will watch it, though. I also am still entertaining thoughs of creating a game like "The World", the emmersive MMORPG .hack takes place in. I'm pretty sure the technology is all there, it just needs to be implimented. One issue: the specialized controls for the game. More on that later, maybe.

I HAVE A DVD BURNER!!! YAY!!!! *Installs it, waits...* IT DOESN'T WORK!!! Grrr.... Yes, when I noticed my grandfather had 3 DVD-RW burners and only two computers, I decided to take one off his hands. Unfortunately, the software isn't there. I shall have to spend a bit more money on my quest. I was at Fry's Electronic's last night, buying bargin blank discs (try saying that 3 times fast), and decided to get a program to let me burn. Unfortunately, I only had enough money for a cheapo brand program. It SAID it burned DVD's as well as CD's. The Fry's employee I consulted said that as well. (He recommended the 60$ program, but I didn't have enough for it; point is he said the 20$ one would work.) Guess what guys. It. Doesn't. Work. I'm pissed.

I had more, lost it. Later days. Pizza time. All that.

12.7.04

Multiplayer Madness

It's been a while since I posted a Magic deck on here, so I think this is as good a time as any to start. Especially now that Wizards is working on official Multiplayer rules. Here goes, a revamp actually, of my classic multiplayer Last Laugh deck.

I'm too lazy to... ah, fuck it, I'm too tired to do anything. If you wanna learn about the Last Laugh deck, ask me, I'll either play you (if I'm feeling mean) or give you a decklist (if I'm feeling friendly), or just act like it doesnt exist (because I'm either evil or lazy and didn't make it). Shrugs.

Comments Now Available

I got home, and decided I needed a change. So, Voila, you can now post comments. Lucky yous. Knock yourselves out.

Edit: turns out that I've had them all along? I dunno, its done with that little number thingy, anyway. I may change my template to make it easier, or something. I dunno.

Airport Blues

Any Mac users thinking the title has something to do with a wireless LAN, stop it. I’m talking about the real airports, the kind airplanes live in. And, no, they don’t have wireless connections here. Fuckers. Anyway, I’m sitting here between gates 24 and 25, and am bored. I left the house with a poorly charged Game Boy – Mistake number one. I also packed only one book: Asimov’s Robot Visions, a good read, and one I have finished now, after the three hour flight out of Houston. Also not helping was the five hour delay. While PJ and Dan had enough warning that they didn’t have to leave Philly today, I was not so lucky, I don’t know why Dad couldn’t manage to get all three of us on the same flight. Oh well, I get to spend an extra night in my own bed, finally. I was getting a cramp because none of the beds up there were really meant for me. One of the odder things was the tiny mattress, smaller than the bigger mattress is sat on, that I called a bed. It was comfortable enough, though my feet were somewhat odd being a level below the rest of me. *Shrugs.* On second thought, I should have pushed it down farther, and had the pillow sit on the lower ledge, therefore keeping me balanced. Oh well, too little, too late.

This is going to be a bitch to edit. Assuming is still gives me the odd characters that I can’t show without trying (possibly this “– a quotation, or the hyphen, who knows) I’m gonna have to go through and edit every line of the entry where a non-alphanumeric character appears. Oh well. Also, speaking of editing, it turns out you cannot spell Houston with an ‘I’. Thanks spell checker! *Thumbs up* ^-^

Random Wireless networks are odd things. I have somehow acquired a barnacle of a network signal. “AJRWireless” or something. It sorta annoys me, cuz it doesn’t do anything except occasionally boot me off networks that actually DO work. Or something.

The guy next to me says there’s a free network connection over there. *Points.* Anyway, I’m gonna finish this and then go and see if I can get on. ^-^ *Closes WMP.*

I’ve become obsessed with robots lately. More so than usual. I said I was reading the Asimov book, and I’m looking forward to seeing I, Robot, and then heckling it for not being anything like the original story. Actually, if it ends up looking really bad, I’ll just wait and rent it in a few months. Merry Christmas to me! Here’s my major beef with the movie. The robots in it are supposed to have Asimov’s three laws of robotics built in. I repeat them here because not everyone knows them:

1: A robot may not harm a human being, nor through inaction cause one to come to harm
2: A robot must obey any orders given to it by a human, except when doing so would go against the first law.
3: A robot must preserve its safety, unless doing so would go against either the first or second laws.

Asimov uses these laws in his stories to counteract what he dubs “The Frankenstein Complex”, a fear humans have that, like Frankenstein’s monster, robots will rise up and attack their creators. Being free of that outdated plot device, Asimov uses his robots as tools, not as metaphors or anything morally silly like that.

However, the new movie, (which by the way has Will Smith playing a character who has never appeared in an Asimov Story) has robots attacking people, or so it seems. I actually want to see the movie, if only because I have this strange belief that all the action in the movie is either a case of human driven panic, or paranoia on Smith’s part, OR, Smith himself is a robot, and therefore open to attack by other robots. It could be interesting. It could also be an average “Bang Bang Shoot-em-up,” as my Grandmother used to call them.

I’ve also been watching the Chobits series Matt was kind enough to get for me. (I promise, Hill, one of these days I’ll learn how bit torrent works). I have decided that I need to make a robot computer case. It seems to me that all the necessary components such as a hard drive, Ram, and other hardware cards, could fit into a head sized space, seeing as how they fit in a laptop and smaller devices. All other accessories, such as disc drives and monitors, would be plugged into the head, much the way monitors and external disc drives work today. There could be microphones built into the “ears”, a speaker in the “mouth” and at least one camera in her “eyes.” Yes, her. I plan on building myself a Chi, or at least a female persocom.

With all this attention on the head, why bother with a body, aside from the fact that it looks nice? (I would find it unsettling to plug an optical mouse into the back of a dismembered head.) The obvious answer is mobility. I want a computer that will walk around and follow me, and possibly be able to have conversations. Prosthetic devices work well enough for a human brain; it seems to me that an electronic one would be able to control the motors much better, or at least just as well.

Anyway, that’s my dream. Or rather, part of my dream, who’s finale is to put my brain in a robot body. (AND THEN TO FIGHT CRIME WITH IT!!!... Nah, jk).

Later, gonna see if I got on the flight, or if I got on the internet, or both. (Neither would suck.)

6.7.04

One Man, One Way

I have come to a desicion. We need more movies based on old television series. They're already talking about a Transformers live action movie, so that's good. Another movie I decided we need, though, is Knight Rider.

I told one friend that, and was met with a resounding "hunh?" so I'll explain: Knight Rider was an old 80's show about a guy who drove around in a talking car, fighting crime. Oh, and not just any guy. It was DAVID HASSLEHOFF! MUWAHAHA! Anyway, it was a great show if only for its cheezy-ness.

Other ideas for cheezy 80's goodness that need movie-izing include: the A-Team and a GOOD version of the Super Mario Bros.

Notes From the Garden State

So, I missed writing in from Virginia. Oh well. I've been busy. (i.e. lazy... Or horny and looking at porn. Take your pick.) Anyway, yes, for those of you who are out of the loop, I was in Virginia, and yes for those of you even more so, I'm in New Jersey now. So, here goes.

I'm right now in my stepbrother's room. It's cool here. Or rather, everywhere but here. This is the warmest room in the house. And I like that. This state is too cold. The water is cold, the air is cold, everything. EVEN THE REFRIGERATORS! (Well, duh.) I'm getting by, but having family members who say 75 is too hot... AGH. I'm SAVING YOU ON AC BILLS!! Anyway, aside from that, NJ is good. Most people think of NJ as being the ass of the country. That isn't true, in my experience. My thoughts on the matter are that the "New Jersey is a giant trash-heap" mentality comes from New Yorkers. You see, NJ across the river from NYC is just more of the same cityscape. But because it's not New York, New Yorkers can, no MUST, laugh derisively at it. However, the part of NJ I'm in, the central part, is like pure suburbia. And everyone asks me which I like better, NJ or TX, but really, I like them both the same.

Sigh, I spent all morning downstairs, so I gotta go be in trouble now. Sigh. I had no reason to go downstairs, we weren't told to expect any calls or anything. Sigh. I was happy up here, James was happy up here. I don't see what the problem is. We're both fine. Oh well. Again.

Bai.