Sean's Blog Thing

Aging

2011-11-16T09:05:00.001-08:00

Did you ever look at the world and say, "Hey that used to be a corn field." or "Hey that used to be a woods with deer." or maybe even, "I remember when mustangs were running there." Looking at those places these days I see businesses and cheap but expensively priced row homes. Human progress is really going forward but the price seems like too much sometimes as the world you once knew suddenly becomes more and more of a concrete jungle.

The world is an emptier place...

2011-11-07T10:50:00.000-08:00

Two weeks ago from this Friday my grandmother had passed away. This was a woman who played in the local symphony, got straight A's, was an artist, played the violin, piano, and other instruments in her younger days.

Two events changed her life in a big way. The first was when my grandfather was killed in World War 2. He died on D-day on his first jump from a plane. He was shot and bled to death before his boots hit the ground. This loss combined with an accident in a factory left her in a mental institution for 14 years of my mothers childhood. My grandmother received shock therapy along with other treatments.

She never was declared legally sane but she lived with me for all but three years of my life and was a wonderful woman that lived till she was 90. My Mother (her daughter) and I will miss her.

Today's WTF brought to you by....

2011-11-04T05:18:00.000-07:00

The Crystal Cathedral Church! This wonderful mega-church has done well over the years. The pastor Rev. Schuller has built up a nice size church and done really well for himself and his family in the process. Recently the pastors wife fell ill and an email was sent out to members of the church asking for hot meals to be delivered to the church so their limo driver could pick them up and take them to the reverend and his wife.

Check out the WTF, story here. Ooooh does it get better!

Police Response to Occupy Protests

2011-10-28T05:12:00.000-07:00

Police response to Occupy protests wound an Iraqi war veteran in Oakland California. Video showing the individual suffered a fractured skull and as protesters tried to give the man aid police fired tear gas in to the group next to the wounded war veteran.

Check it out here on wired.

Update: He's going to need an operation. Check out more here at Boing Boing.

Colbert on O'Reilly's Book

2011-10-21T05:34:00.000-07:00

I found out on the Colbert Report that Bill O'Reilly was sending copies of his book to the troops in Afghanistan. What they're doing with this book is most amusing.

That report left me amused. :)

Giving to the Stephen and Melinda Gates Foundation

2011-09-28T06:46:00.000-07:00

So I decided to help out with the Stephen and Melinda Gates foundation. It's setup to help American teachers by simply posting a photo.

Here's how I did it.

Truely though I was trying for this when I made the picture.

Irene Pic 2

2011-08-29T05:02:00.001-07:00

Here is a shot of the Sugar Maple's former spot in the ground. Good thing I finished removing the fence that was next to it.

Irene Visits

2011-08-29T04:59:00.001-07:00

The extent of damage from Irene. Lost one Sugar Maple and one Flowering Pear tree. My Saturn Ion is in the picture for a size reference. Both trees were ripped right out of the ground and sheered off from the root systems.

Old Movies

2011-08-25T08:08:00.001-07:00

I'm on an old movie kick. I went and ordered over 25 old movies on DVD and I'm loving it.

* Vincent Price - Last Man on Earth
* Charlton Heston - Solyent Green
* Charlton Heston - Omega Man
* Battle Beyond the Stars
* Them!
* 2 Million BC

and others. I'll have to put together a complete list later for now pass the popcorn.

Fun with character creators..

2011-08-15T08:29:00.000-07:00

I've been playing around with the Champions Online character creator as I unlocked more costume parts.

I can make a Forsaken look good in there and I never have to worry about horrible armor drops some Blizzard art designer thought was good.

Reminded of a Feathermoon Meme...

2011-07-10T06:55:00.001-07:00

I was wandering around Champions Online and I saw this...

I thought to myself, "That doesn't look like a druid?!" The name of the toon was Dawnfire. :)

One of those articles....

2011-07-02T03:34:00.000-07:00

Did you ever just run in to one of "those articles"? It's a perfect example of what Darwin was talking about.

Death of the 4th Amendment

2011-06-22T08:38:00.000-07:00

Take with a grain of salt, but for the most part I could see this being true.

Pulling the Plug on Privacy

Shocking turn of events!

2011-06-07T05:12:00.001-07:00

Representative Anthony Weiner (D) New York finally bared the truth for all to see after being caught with his pants down. Still as prickly a situation as not telling the truth is, it would have been nice if he just told the truth from the start.

There... thats out of my punny bone now.

More Cantor Tornado Victim Fun!

2011-06-03T05:47:00.000-07:00

John Stewart highlighted Eric Cantor's (R) ideas for funding aid for tornado victims. Apparently Mr. Cantor feels there needs to be justification for helping those in need from natural disasters.

On a lighter note...

2011-05-25T11:19:00.000-07:00

FEMA has declared Eric Cantor (R-VA) the House Republican Majority Leader a disaster area. This happened one day after Mr. Cantor did something to withhold funds for tornado disaster relief. Get all the juicy details here.

Updates...

2011-05-24T10:47:00.000-07:00

I did it! I finally got the payloader battery all charged up and started the damn thing! I am happy about this and drove that sucker right in to the manure pile. It's nice to have that pile pushed back now.

On a whole different note, I picked up a Motorola Xoom Android tablet over the weekend. Darn nice piece of hardware though I'm not sure how it will fit in my daily work flow. After two days I am missing my laptop for some things and may go back to it. We'll see.

Mac's no longer safe!

2011-05-20T07:56:00.001-07:00

For years Mac users have poked and prodded PC users about virus infections and how their Mac's are amazingly immune to the problem. A few years back I saw two Mac servers and a desktop get taken down by a nasty infection in our IT department so I knew it was just a matter of time.

Today the problem is getting worse as Macs take off in popularity, we find that Mac users are no different from PC users in the virus world.

* Support Reps told not to confirm Mac infections.

* AppleCare support rep says infections are getting worse.

It isn't ever a nice thing when your computer gets something it shouldn't and you lose control and data. Still after years of jeering from Mac users I can't help but let out a little "Tee Hee!"

What do I want?

2011-05-16T07:41:00.000-07:00

I read a comment on some forum that said there are two questions everyone asks in life.

"Why am I here?"

and

"What do I want?"

Well I think the first one was answered for me after this past February more clearly. It's to take care of those that raised me and go on remembering them when they're gone. Aunts, Uncles, God Parents, Parents, Grandma's, Grandpa's, etc.'

Now the second question "What do I want?" I always asked myself without even thinking about it seriously. What do I want?

Well based on my life so far, to smile. I like laughing, I like making others laugh over time. I'm not really a comedian but I enjoy doing that when it happens.

Some would say wife, kids, etc. I've not had that luxury in my life yet and I'm thinking I may never have that. I've met some wonderful women and some not so wonderful women. Some of the really good ones were already married and/or far away.

So all I got to fall back on is a smile.

Now I just have to figure out what to do for lunch since I got all that other stuff sorted out now.

I have totally reached a new conclusion...

2011-05-13T10:09:00.001-07:00

I'm really enjoying Champions Online more then WoW game wise. My little comparison below wasn't too far off on how things work, I could refine it more but I'd just say go and play the game since it's free to play up to max level.

The best part about the whole game I found is the fact that all my characters look the way I want them to and I can find more costume pieces along with regular gear to use on existing or new characters. In World of Warcraft I hated how my night elf druid from 2004 never had the bear claw hands I wanted him to get. That bugged me every single day even when I played my Tauren and couldn't get him to look the way I wanted at all times of game play.

I still miss people from Feathermoon and would love to be able to gab with with them regularly. RP was always fun there and people came up with some fun and crazy characters. CO isn't bad either, I finally found an RP super group (guild) and things are going pretty good. I think I tapped in to the role play community on CO and it's pretty good.

I only have a few characters but here's the stable I got so far. It's amazing the diversity of looks you can come up with. From a regular grumpy old dwarf in plate to angels, demons, semi-modern soldiers, and even zombies! The random look generator is even more wild in the creations it sometimes comes up with.

I decided to be brave and follow the path of Grizz with some characters. Never really rolled female characters before but I've done an even mix as you can see.

Can't wait till they come out with secret lairs in CO. It'll be fun sticking my zombie guy in the "Parents Basement" themed secret lair.

Osama is gone.

2011-05-03T04:05:00.001-07:00

Late in mentioning it but I noticed on Sunday night they finally got him. Can't say that I'm overly happy (Yet I am happy) because wishing for someone dead isn't a good thing. Then again this fellow wasn't exactly a wonderful person to begin with since he did head up the group that caused the attacks on 9/11.

Ah well, at least the world is a safer place since that nut job is gone. Now if only they could find that crazy Waldo guy! Him and his red and white striped shirt have been the bane of my picture hunting expeditions since forever! *shakes fist*

Differences I noticed between WoW and Champions Online

2011-04-26T09:40:00.000-07:00

I've been comparing the differences I've noticed between WoW and Champions Online. Both games are fun but here's the list of things I noticed coming from the "I played WoW for six years and just started Champions" perspective.

Characters

* WoW has two factions with multiple races on each faction. Neither faction has races from the other faction.

* Champions has only one faction and no real race concept. Characters can be made to look like different races.

* WoW has a fixed class base system.

* Champions offers arch types, like fire thrower, tech gadget dude, etc. Champions also lets you make hybrids with a mix of powers from any arch type. The down side to this is the more diverse the powers you have the less "Powerful" powers you can get. You can spread yourself out too thin.

* WoW lets you customize the base look of your character which can be hidden by the gear they obtain. Character looks are fixed and cannot be scaled or altered beyond the base body pieces. Hair and such can be changed.

* Champions lets you not only customize the basic body types but change individual body parts. Elongated arm(s), fat or thin, hooves or feet, almost anything you can imagine. You can also use a color pallet to change gear and body parts coloring.

Leveling

* Both are experience based.

* WoW has a talent tree system.

* Champions has a power point system similar to talents.

* New abilities level based.

* Both games abilities scale with level.

Gear

* WoW uses a paper doll system.

* Champions uses a checker board split between offense, defense, etc.

* WoW gear changes how your character looks.

* Champions gear has no effect on how your character looks.

* Champions has a costume system where you can purchase additional costume slots with a monthly stipend of Atari points. Stipend is for subscribed users only.

Quests

* WoW's quest system was revamped in Cataclysm. The transitions between quest hubs have been smoothed out very nicely. Quests are broken in to normal in game world quests and dungeons/raid quests.

* Champions has a decent quest system. Quests flow pretty well but there are some rare points where I have encountered a "Where do I go now?" moment. That isn't as bad as it sounds because you have random NPC's run up to you now and then with a randomly generated quest in other areas that leads you to find new quest hubs usually.

* WoW's quest system can let players of vastly different levels group together. The down side is players of lower level don't get as much XP from mob kills because the higher level player drains the amount rewarded.

* Champions has a feature called side kicking. This lets two players team up and the second player's level can be adjusted higher or lower to match the party leaders. That way both player can quest together and lower level players are rewarded fully while not having overpowered help. This also lets higher level players get some help from lower levels while rewarding the lower level players with proper XP for the help.

Dungeons

* WoW dungeons are fixed difficulties with normal/heroic (Heroic not available on all dungeons).

* WoW dungeons are also level fixed, lower level players can't help higher levels. Higher level players can help lower but the lower level player loses experience as a penalty with mob kills.

* Champion dungeons all appear to have several difficulty modes that can be adjusted like WoW's normal/heroic. There are three to four difficulty modes to play at which gives a little more flexibility in the challenge level you can take.

* Champion dungeons benefit from the side kicking feature so players of different levels can receive the maximum reward and quest experience while balancing things out so you don't blast through with a higher level. Higher level players can be scaled down to lower levels.

Raids and Looting

* WoW raids are fixed loot rewarding limited numbers of players in the group. They're also on lockout timers.

* I've only done limited raiding in Champions with a non-maxed level character. No single group can tag a boss in open world raid encounters. From what I can tell everyone that participates and gets on the aggro list gets rewarded. The reward isn't crazy powerful but it can still be useful.

Travel

* WoW offers four basic modes of travel. Run/walk of the character, a fixed flight taxi system, ground only mounts, and flying mounts. Ground mounts start out at 20, flight at 60, and taxi as you discover other taxi hubs.

* Champions offers travel powers to hero's. This means you can fly the minute you leave the start area if you want. You can fly, bounce, ride flying objects, web sling, speed run, tunnel, etc. Normal character run/walk is also available.

Quick note, while flying has been a grumbling point in WoW for PvP, Champions offers talents your character can take which will debuff enemy players of their travel powers. So you can ground a flyer quite easily for a brief period of time if they're in the air already.

****

I will say this about Champions, it isn't perfect but it's really nice to be playing a game where I have full control over how the character I make looks regardless of their gear and what they're doing.

Also if I really missed one of the races from WoW I could make most of them in Champions. Forsaken (zombie parts), Trolls (monster parts), orcs (humanoid body shaping), draenie (monster parts), elves (body shaping), dwarves or gnomes (body shaping). The only thing they don't have is cow people heads even though they got the legs/feet/hands/tails for em. :/

Edit: Champions also features a built in FlagRSP for your characters. See zombie guy in previous post. :D

More Outragous Character Fun

2011-04-26T07:42:00.001-07:00

Behold Roadcone!

He has beastial powers which fit right along the zombie fighting style of clawing and such. His super travel power is digging in the ground like Bugs Bunny.

Games

2011-04-25T04:04:00.000-07:00

So recently I stopped playing World of Warcraft. After six years of fantasy gaming wearing me down and losing my Dad in February I decided to try something completely different.

I tried the free to play Lord of the Rings but it was boring. I looked over some other games and they didn't perk my interest. Then I looked at super hero games like DC Universe and City of Heros but what I settled on was Champions Online. They have a free to play silver package that just beat out the other two.

Meet... the Negotiator!

He's one of my many little characters I spent lots of time on setting up since I decided to subscribe. I also have another guy which is a zombie from Plants vs. Zombies. He's got a road cone on his head.

The best part about the whole game is you can spend HOURS customizing the look of your character and no matter what gear you get they will retain their look unlike in World of Warcraft. You can also setup other RP clothing slot sets and have tons of outfits. It cost game tokens per set but it's nice not having to worry about crappy looking gear. :D

Tidbits

2011-04-19T05:35:00.000-07:00

Reading through FARK I found an article that talks about how the Republican voucher program under the budget plan Paul Ryan put out could backfire on the Republicans. It's an interesting read on how profits could win out over old people.

Life at home is just going for the most part. The work I did to lay more stone in the driveway in front of the barn worked out well. So far water during rain storms is going away from the barn and not pooling up in front of and getting in to the barn. More work needs to be done though, it's still not perfect but it's a little better then what it was.

I think this weekend I'm going to start moving dirt and filling in holes in the yard. Leftovers from when the back of the house was worked on need patched up as well as the back yard itself with more dirt.

The cement slab is in where my Dad is buried. Soon they'll have the tombstone out there and my Mother is looking forward to that. Oddly enough I am as well since I guess it could be a form of closure.

House Hunting

2011-04-06T07:42:00.000-07:00

I miss how Google Maps used to show houses for sale in my area and their prices. Now when I search for real estate they just show realtor's offices. I really wish they'd go back to showing the actual houses and prices. It was such a nice interface to look around with. Most other real estate sites suck and are cluttered all to hell and back.

Think of the Executives!

2011-04-05T07:57:00.000-07:00

GE helps John Stewart give up.

Transocean the company that brought you such fun things as the Gulf Oil spill has given out bonuses to it's executives for a good safety record.

So after finding this video, I'd say my day is complete now. :)

The Mall

2011-04-03T05:47:00.001-07:00

Years ago I worked in retail doing stock room work. My days were spent lifting heavy furniture, stocking shelves, and unloading freight trucks. Back then I worked in the mall, a brutish hell hole of humanity where lives are dragged through the misery mud of other peoples success. Stare deep in to our eyes and feel the pain of being chained to the phrase "The customer is always right." for only minimum wage and see if you keep your sanity.

So when I went over to Cracked.com I found this handy dandy Mall Survival Guide. It's good, really good.

TSA Goes for the Gold

2011-03-24T08:11:00.000-07:00

No criminal record for father and son? *Check*
Father has proper identification? *Check*
Son has legal last name that is different from Father? *Check*

So pretty much model citizens are detained for over 18 hours by the TSA for being too clean.

Nifty story I must say.

(With disturbing bonus picture of two TSA guys and the kid.)

Changes...

2011-03-12T17:10:00.000-08:00

Life is full of change, if it wasn't it'd be boring. That said my life changed drastically in the past two months and in one way it sucks and in another the optimist in me is looking at this new chapter in life with a little excitement.

My leg is feeling better somewhat.I've been moving around a lot more other then sitting and doing the computer thing constantly. Morning and evening meetings with the horse unit and a dash of evening stall cleaning is helping me lose weight. Up side!

Today I put together four new dining chairs for my mother. I went through my Dad's tools and found a socket wrench and and 1/2" socket and an hex head socket attachment which let me whisk those chairs together in no time. Those cheap tools they give you with the chairs SUCK.

On another note, I miss my Dad since he passed away. It would have been really great to have him there to tell me where the socket wrench was for the two attachments I found first. Could have saved me a half hour of searching.

Also on another another note, I'm going to have to clean up and organize my Dad's tools. I did manage to find that he had a laser level. He was high tech and didn't tell me. >_>

Oh noes! My Weighted Companion Cube!

2011-03-04T12:49:00.000-08:00

What ever will I do now?!!

Truely I will need to craft some swords. Must go and get raw materials at Papercraft!

Old games gone new!

2011-02-25T12:15:00.000-08:00

If you are a gamer of old, you'll remember such names as Quest for Glory and Kings Quest. Look no further old timers, Anonymous Game Developers Interactive has released Kings Quest 1-3 and Quest for Glory 2 FREE! These games are remade for newer versions of Windows while remaining true to the originals.

Check it out!

It's finished...

2011-02-09T15:44:00.000-08:00

Today was the funeral for my Father. It's sinking in that my life is a bit emptier then normal these days. My Father knew how to give to others. I just wish he knew how to give a little more to himself by asking for help more so he'd still be here to give to others.

I had the best damn father I ever could have gotten. I'm very thankful for the time I had with him. I will miss him.

My left leg is sore, glad I'm going to the doctors on Friday for a checkup after that viral infection.

Remembering is all I can do now..

2011-02-05T02:28:00.000-08:00

I couldn't have asked for a better father, he overcame my grandfathers alcohol problems and grew in to the greatest Dad I could ever hope to get.

He always pushed to do better and his work ethic showed it by working 10-16 hour days for 6 or 7 days a week sometimes even in to his 60's. He pushed himself so my mother could have as good a life she could possibly get with her health problems.

I've always been proud of my father and always will be.

Rest in peace Dad.

:(

Lunch

2011-01-31T09:02:00.000-08:00

So... I was thinking I'd have the egg salad sandwich but the yoke was on me and I grabbed tuna.

Healthy

2011-01-24T10:04:00.001-08:00

Yay! I'm healthy again, it wasn't flu but some virus. Life is good again. On a side note, I pre-ordered a four book hard cover set of The Art of Computer Programming by Donald Kunth.

Being sick...

2011-01-16T07:38:00.000-08:00

Is such a wonderful thing. What was going to be a nice three day weekend where I just putz around has turned in to a four day weekend where on Friday I kicked things off with a prayer to the Porcelain God. After a doctors visit and prescription pickup I've been spending my past few days getting to know my throne.

Might be flu, might be gastric, I'm leaning flu. Since I've gone from hourly visits to the throne to congestion and other things. Doctor ran some blood work on me so we'll see.

One interesting thing out of all this is I've been prescribed my first suppository! That is in case the pill doesn't stay down. No butts about it, it's an interesting feeling and not something I want to do on a regular basis.

Things that make you go wow...

2011-01-08T17:46:00.001-08:00

More Map Madness!

2010-12-28T20:25:00.001-08:00

Check out this isometric view of my compound in the map I posted yesterday. Pretty fun stuff!

Top left side of the map has a small building that is the spawn area for the world. I made that safer to spawn in by building around it. Lower right by the water is the docks. Both spawn building and docks are linked by a service tunnel to the central compound.

Running to the left is the rail tracks for mine carts to my mine. In the compound itself is a Greenhouse in the upper left, house just under it, mine cart station below the house. On the right side of the compound is a workshop with about 10 ovens and a fountain down and to the right. Between the fountain and mine cart station is the monster pit which farms monsters. :P

Maps, maps, maps...

2010-12-27T13:41:00.001-08:00

I found a program that lets me make maps of the areas discovered in Minecraft. It's a pretty slick little program and can do everything from general surface mapping to cave mapping based on the save file. The program is called Cartograph by someone named ZomBuster.

Check out this map of one of my saves below, you will have to zoom in to the pixel level in an image viewer to make out some really small details. Larger things like buildings and stuff shouldn't require as much zoom.

See if you can make out my settlement in the map. Should look like a goofy pipe with the tail going to a snowy peak near by. That tail is a dual mine cart track which allows me to ride a mine cart roller coaster of sorts over mobs safely as well as carry extra ore back in carts with trunks.

Minecraft Monster Grinder

2010-12-19T19:14:00.000-08:00

So I've had an itching lately for blowing things up. I want to play with a TNT cannon that I've only been able to gather enough gunpowder for one shot in the past month. That means I need a LOT more gunpowder but I don't want to cheat to get it either.

So whats the best way to get gunpowder? Kill Creepers. What's the safest way to kill em? Drown em! So I did some research and came across this monster trap in these two videos. Props to Colbycheeze for the videos.

Video #1

Video #2

So now I have a basic blueprint, time to build! First I need a place to build my trap, hmmmm.. time to dig!

I won't go too deep for this.

The bottom of the trap, that is where I stand so all the drops float right to me.

As you can see, the monster will sink to where the glass is in the distance and drown. Their drops will float out from under the glass to me. Notice also how I have the ladder above the water so it doesn't interfere with the current?

The room above is the second safe zone, notice the cactus plants in the wall? They catch spiders since spiders are so big and can't fit down the drowning hole. Spider drops fall in to the hole as they die and float to me. I also made good use of lighting and storage chest placement so I don't hurt myself accidentally against the cactus.

It's hard to see in this shot, but notice how the water stop just at the edge of the drowning pool drop? That is a key thing about the whole water trap. Also those above floor glass walkways make a nice safe way to pull monsters from the back of the trap area.

This final shot is a view of what a monster would see if they spawned back against the far wall. The lights leading up to the water wouldn't normally be there so it'd be pitch black in this area with the exception of the center trap area shining the in the distance.

Notice my service tunnel in the ceiling near the edge of the water on the right? That lets me go out in the dark zone and mine the area surrounding the trap further back. I'm collecting a ton of gunpowder now and I've had some nice explosions along the back walls clearing out space. The more empty dark space you have the more monster spawn up to 200 I think.

Fox News makes you less informed.

2010-12-16T12:28:00.000-08:00

According to this study, Fox News is a big source of misinformation in America. There's also a summary article here.

Be warned, there are pop-ups. Take it with a grain of salt, there are some valid points and there could be some not so valid points.

This is a WTF picture...

2010-12-10T05:12:00.000-08:00

Apparently there are more then just deer out in the Louisiana woods. Check out this article here.

So I ask you all that watch this blog...

2010-11-15T17:11:00.000-08:00

What is a Gilligan without having a Skipper as well?

Preview

Skin

Skinning

2010-11-14T03:16:00.000-08:00

I've come to realize Minecraft is like a survival game of sorts the way I play it. You're trapped with no phone, no light, no motor car, and not a single luxury. Like Robinson Crusoe, it's primitive as can be.

So I made a Gilligan player skin with my lousy art skills. :)
(Version 2 with fixed hat)

Here is a preview screen shot.

More Minecraft Pics

2010-10-29T20:00:00.000-07:00

Showing off my greenhouse second floor and someone I found in my mine!

Green House

The Blob!

Giant Fish

2010-10-20T12:33:00.000-07:00

What is 5ft long, 100lbs, and teeth like a shark? Why this giant Piranha of course.

Minecraft Pictures

2010-10-11T18:56:00.000-07:00

Behold, ready for battle!

Defend the tower!

Spawn base in the distance!

Spawn base closer!

It's a long way down to China!

Mine command center!

Make sure the work area is safe. Did you hear something?!

Glad it's a game, I'd hate to have cleared all this by hand for real.

I've been really dig'n Minecraft!

I don't think I have enough stone.

Minecraft Addiction

2010-10-11T10:35:00.000-07:00

I'm hooked, it's not as flexible as NWN was when making things but what it gives in return for that lack of flexibility makes it much more enjoyable. I remember posting earlier on this blog how I was looking for something to not only be fun but challenge me to think and be creative. Minecraft has accomplished this nicely.

I've been doing the single player survival game ever since I purchased the alpha. While I've not built anything massive except a mine shaft and a large mining area square shaped at the bedrock of the Earth. I'm slowly figuring things out and trying different things.

I'll post a screen shot of my mining project as well as other shots later on. :)

Cake vs. Pie

2010-10-08T09:26:00.000-07:00

The debate is over for cake vs. pie.

BEHOLD!

CAKE WITH PIE BAKED INSIDE!

Also for you're viewing pleasure...

Sintel

Observing the Obvious

2010-10-04T07:05:00.001-07:00

I decided to observe the obvious today at work. Rain is really wet.

Some may say I need to get back to work. This I agree with and I am actually working, but since my partner in crime is away on vacation things are kinda on hold for the most part since I don't have his access to systems since he's a DBA. This is a good thing since as a developer I could muck up things fierce trying this or that to see how things work more. :)

Ah the joys of maintaining things till people return from vacation.

Playing with blocks...

2010-09-30T08:22:00.000-07:00

Sometimes the simplest things are the best. With games that is no different and with Minecraft I've been playing with blocks. Now there is an online Alpha version at the main site and a first draft version here.

The alpha (main link) is a multiplayer version and has things like saving builds. The first draft is just a single player with no saving. It's been fun to mess around with since I'm waiting till the product is more finalized before deciding to buy.

The basic thing to do in the single player game is build things and explore. So far I've built three houses and have done some serious cave diving in to the earth to the point where I found lava. I also ended up flooding one cave with the water I captured for my swimming pool from the ocean.

NOTE: You will need Java installed to run the game in your web browser.

Six Years

2010-09-24T08:34:00.000-07:00

Someone said it in Tawa chat yesterday, "Six years playing WoW." My first thought was, "Damn, they're right. It's almost six years come November." So I did some thinking and thought of what I got out of six years of playing WoW.

Over the past six years I've met and hung out with some really great people. My social life has revolved more around online then off line. Personally I don't think it's too big a deal since everyone I know off line is married and in their own world and I'm still single. There's a weird thing that happens when friends get married, part of it is me, part of it is them, but over all its just life as people drift apart.

The game itself really hasn't been all that bad or good as time wore on. I think Wrath of the Lich King has been the most boring it's been for me as far as content goes. There isn't anything that really caught my interest like in Vanilla and BC.

Cataclysm actually strikes me odd even though there are some things I see that I like. (31 point talent trees from 51?) A lot of the preview stuff I've seen so far shows not much new talents, just a few odd abilities. Whatever, and the armor preview I saw was a yawner since I know it's going to be replaced quicker then ever if I progress through raiding again.

The only thing meaningful I got out of the game over the years was the friendships I made online. The game itself has grown to be more of a disappointment as time wore on. I like PvP but as I get older the twitch I used to have when I was rocket jumping off peoples heads in Quake just isn't there like it used to be and Blizzard's ability to balance classes don't help things in that regard very much. You also just can't jump in and hope to do much without getting some gear first.

The thing I really miss the most though is being creative while having fun. You can't do that in WoW. I used to do that a lot in NWN and it was a hoot building things for myself and other people in the Toolset. Part of me really wants to go back to that or play a new game that recreates that. These days though MMOs are all game companies seem interested in.

I can still run NWN but as time goes on it's not going to run on the latest and greatest very well or at all with new OS updates and no updates on it's end. There won't be anything as simple yet fun to replace it either. Bigger and better will also bring more complexity and less access for the end gamer to be creative and have fun.

Meh.

Diamonds in the Sky

2010-09-14T09:11:00.000-07:00

Imagine if you will, a diamond that is 4,000KM wide. Well it's real and you only have to travel 50 light years from Earth to get it. In about 7 billion years our solar system will have one too.

Funny Church Signs

2010-09-13T09:51:00.000-07:00

So I was going through a side bar CNN had about church signs and I snagged three that made me giggle.

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-418644

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-419182

http://ireport.cnn.com/docs/DOC-420485

UFO Story

2010-08-24T06:35:00.000-07:00

A 2007 UFO sighting and an interesting pre and post interview talk with a guy from the Chicago Tribune.

Take it for what you will. :)

Posting Something

2010-08-03T09:31:00.000-07:00

I haven't posted in a while so I'm posting. Blizzard gave up on their RealID push for the forums. It kind of left a bad taste in my mouth even though I'm glad they aren't doing it for now.

On the lighter side of things I got my rogue to 80. Zoogie is quite fun to play in PvP, rogues have soooo many tools to win at PvP. If it weren't for my eye sight mixed with my reaction times I'd really clean house with Zoogie.

Ah well, I'll have to settle for what I do get with him. And at last nights Nox RP night it was trying to sell ripped orge loin cloths to everyone at the fire as something to fix male erectile dysfunction treatments.

Max bought the autographed picture of Tigol and Furor for a pumpkin which Zoogie promptly slammed on Max's head for jumping up and down on his chest when he was sleeping under the tree at the start of the meeting.

So it was a fun night. :P

Activision and Blizzard

2010-07-08T06:08:00.001-07:00

Blizzards recent update for RealID has stirred some seriously strong response in their General Forum. Over 1800 pages at the time of writing this little entry.

It looks like Activision-Blizzard is getting in bed with Facebook. Another article on Activision's CEO gives an interesting insight to the direction of WoW, Guitar Hero, and other games.

I really don't like the direction things are going with RealID. Real names being used in the public forums isn't something I want to accept and I'm not sure I like the notion that it's part of a larger picture still. I'm honestly debating canceling my WoW account at this point. I figure I'd give it a month to see how things go.

Oh and for something amusing despite this crappy news, Hitler's reaction to Starcraft 2 and RealID.

Learning, Maths, and Stuff

2010-06-28T05:00:00.000-07:00

Apparently this is a non profit university and it only has one instructor. Kind of a nifty story, he started out by helping out family over YouTube and grew from there. Check out the Khan Academy and while you do that I'm going to purge the visions of William Shattner screaming from my head. :)

I'm with stupid ->

2010-06-25T18:12:00.000-07:00

Some days even flying a fighter jet gets dull and you have to liven things up like this guy did.

Oil Spill in the Gulf

2010-06-15T10:05:00.000-07:00

I would take this with a grain of salt, but it's something I thought should be posted here. This article explains what is going on in the Gulf and why they are doing what they're doing out there. To sum things up, lets hope we win the race.

BP Cleans a Coffee Spill

2010-06-10T09:49:00.000-07:00

I LOL'd. :)

Empire Strikes Back 1950's Style

2010-06-09T16:10:00.001-07:00

Some days I really miss old movies and then I found this little gem.

Facebook face down.

2010-05-19T10:15:00.000-07:00

So I deleted my Facebook account yesterday. The social networking thing just doesn't work for me. That being said, if you ever do decide to delete your account be sure you delete it and not just de-activate it. It's a much different process and in theory if they hold up to their part of the deal will wipe your entire existence from Facebook.

I enjoy my privacy and would much rather just maintain this blog page then dork around with Facebook.

ZZzzzzzz

2010-05-15T06:13:00.001-07:00

"I'm good, where are you going to sleep Sean? What do you mean you didn't pay all that money for?"

Oil Volcano

2010-05-13T13:10:00.001-07:00

Interesting take on the oil spill in the gulf. It's suggested that the oil spill is more of a volcano. Always keep the grain of salt handy for some claims.

Check it out here.

Restored Floor

2010-05-09T19:48:00.000-07:00

Huzza! The floor is restored and not looking to bad for my newbie stain'n skillz. :)

Ubuntu Linux

2010-04-29T17:58:00.000-07:00

So I updated my netbook today from 9.10 to 10.4 LTS. Daaaaamn it's running sweet! I'm going to buy 20 more CD's from them and give them out to people. Check out the Ubuntu link on my side bar for a peek.

Worst Company in America

2010-04-27T11:53:00.000-07:00

Congratulations to Comcast, they have won the Golden Poo Award. All those nights on vent hearing guildies complain about Comcast, all those grumblings in the chat channels, and I can say this is no surprise to me.

Gratz Comcast!

Glad I have dsl. :)

Interesting article...

2010-04-21T10:12:00.000-07:00

Apparently the man who co-invented the UNIX operating system and C programming language was not allowed to submit code at his job. Ken Thompson was working at Google to create the programming language Go.

This amusing tale can be found here.

Old Books...

2010-04-02T08:20:00.000-07:00

So I found this old book at work and it's been pretty interesting. Understanding the Professional Programmer by Gerald M. Weinberg. Some how I get the feeling it used to be a text book but either way it's the 1982 hard back copy.

I've been reading this book a chapter a day roughly during the work days to get any nuggets of information I can from it. Someone who retired from where I work had made good use of it judging from the book marks.

So far the best thing I found in the book was the Preparation H test for software. It asked a series of questions about programs you may have to maintain. The best question was "Does it give me a pain that only Preparation H can relieve?"

It's safe to say there is gold in them thar old books!

ASCII Portal

2010-03-15T12:06:00.000-07:00

It may not have the fancy graphics, it may not have fancy sounds, but ASCII Portal is damn fun to play. The best part is it reminds me of the games I used to play when computers had up to 16k ram only. Ahh the good old days!

The third skater from the sun pulls her arms in...

2010-03-02T04:26:00.000-08:00

.. and the days on Earth just got shorter by about 1.26 microseconds. The earth quake in Chile has done more then you might initially think.

Update: Here's a report on the topic from CNN.

Side Note: Spring transition to daylight savings is gonna suck with 1.26 microseconds less sleep on top of the spring ahead an hour. :)

Healthcare Debate

2010-02-25T10:31:00.000-08:00

I'm watching it as I code at work. I have to admit this is way better then anything I've seen in the past. It'd be nice if they would have had someone from the CBO there to clarify things when one side says the CBO said this and the other says that the CBO said that.

The only other thing I'd change about this right now is the moderator should be Larry the Cable Guy. I'd be highly amused if he'd keep everyone in their time limits and telling them even just once to "Git r done!"

Lego Robot Solves Rubix Cubes

2010-02-18T18:54:00.001-08:00

Someone built a robot out of Lego Mindstorms that solves Rubik's Cubes in under 3 minutes. Check it out here.

Garbage Island

2010-02-17T10:14:00.000-08:00

An interesting blog about traveling to Garbage Island.

Let it snow 2.0

2010-02-10T06:02:00.000-08:00

Call me an Eskimo, it's more snow! About 2/3'rds of the snow on the bird bath was from the first snow.

It's been snowing since 4pm last night.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

2010-02-07T06:25:00.000-08:00

And it did, over a foot and a half fell yesterday as you can see.

Life Sized Gundam in Japan

2010-01-21T12:51:00.000-08:00

Speaking of robots, there is a full sized Gundam robot built in Tokyo Japan.

Old Age and Robots

2010-01-20T10:06:00.001-08:00

So on a more humorous side of things I just read about robots being used to help the elderly. Wired's web site has a nifty article about robot nurses.

Now aside from the obvious where I'd take tape and ballons and have them walking around with extra's at the home. I could also get an RC controller and maybe have some fun that way. Nothing really serious mind you, but a geriatric geek could go to town with these if they really wanted.

Yes I know I'm evil, but I don't want to be bored when I get older. :P

I remember when I was younger...

2010-01-11T07:57:00.000-08:00

I used to go over to my Great Aunt and Uncles house. My Mom would chat it up with my Aunt while my Uncle, Father, and I went downstairs in to their basement and play billiards. I was and still am horrible at billiards.

Let me try to describe this...

Your standing at the top of a stair case looking down a concrete stair well that's painted white. The stairs are carpeted in a red and there's a fine wooden banister on the right. As you go down you notice separation between the first floor and the basement is painted wood along the edges with painted white concrete block above and below.

You reach the bottom of the steps and as you enter the room you notice that it's white painted concrete block with more red carpeting. There is a second living room parted by a half wall, there are beer steins on that wall, and a round table in the far side of the room with the pool table. In the middle is a nice sized pool table with cues hanging on the wall.

There's a leather covering on the table protecting it when it isn't used and when you remove the covering you see a nice green felt pool table sitting in what could only be described as a 1950's furnished room with everything clean and spotless.

My Uncle passed away in 1986, my Aunt this past Friday. She sold that house with the pool table long ago but I'll always remember them both at that house. Tomorrow I go to see her one last time as they lay her to rest.

Happy New Year!

2010-01-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

It's the new year and with new years come new things. That being said, my desktop computer decided to blow it's SATA drive controller on the motherboard. I am now without a desktop but I'm lucky enough to have my Netbook. Still gaming is now cut down to nothing since the Netbook isn't a gaming machine. TIME FOR A NEW COMPUTER! :D

Moo.

2009-12-17T14:14:00.000-08:00

I've been greeted at my door step.

And promptly had to bump the elf to one side.

Figure Prints

2009-12-16T07:35:00.000-08:00

So, my order shipped the other day. I should have a Raga by the end of the week. Pics to follow. :)

Toot toot toot!

2009-12-11T14:36:00.000-08:00

Behold my horn!

Quickies!

2009-12-09T09:33:00.000-08:00

First up is a confirmed holy cow for your reading pleasure. I think they said his name was Mooses?

And last but not least, I got my trumpet last night. You should be amazed at my personal impression of the sound a cat makes when it gets tossed in bath water. Pics will follow later. ;)

Tooting my own horn.

2009-12-05T20:38:00.000-08:00

So I took the plunge last night and decided to order a trumpet. I'm really not sure how I feel about this but I figured it'd be fun to give it a try. The price wasn't too bad and it wasn't too cheap-o either so hopefully I picked a good one to start with.

We'll see!

LHC Smashes a Tevatron!

2009-11-30T03:47:00.000-08:00

Huh? Ooook... they're smashing particles. Still this article is rather amusing from The Register. If anything I really need to invest in a crowbar just in case!

Sinkholes!

2009-11-17T16:04:00.000-08:00

Behold the sink hole just outside my wall! In just a year or two that sink hole grew over three inches in depth till the concrete slab was ripped out tonight and it gets filled in.

On the Shelf...

2009-11-13T11:05:00.001-08:00

So, Bullhoof sits on my dresser right now next to an elf. I did some thinking last night and decided to not condemn him to an eternity of sitting next to an elf the rest of his days. Next month she should arrive I'm guessing and I'll post a picture of them when she does.

Obviously he will still be sitting next to the elf, but she will be on the other side so she doesn't sit next to the elf. ;) Now I just have to find a small keg to put there with them.

It's dark, I think I'll shine a Torchlight...

2009-11-08T15:54:00.000-08:00

Sometimes a game comes along that is just really good. This is one of those times, like Plants vs. Zombies this game is the bees knees.

Check out a trailer for Torchlight here.

Check out the Torchlight game sight here.

And yes, it plays just like Diablo 1 only much more updated. :)

Holy Ubuntu's Batman!

2009-11-02T09:49:00.000-08:00

So today I sat down with my netbook, which is an EEE PC 1000 40G, and I was greeted by an upgrade notice from my operating systems update feature. It told me there was a new version of Ubuntu out that I could download and install. In a nut shell, my little PC would upgrade the whole operating system from 9.04 to 9.10.

Being of sound mind and not wanting to lose anything I backed up everything in my home directory to a USB drive and said, "Ok! Sure!" What happened next is the stuff of legends, something even Microsoft has yet to achieve in all their Windows 7 glory. The operating system downloaded all the files necessary for the upgrade and installed everything without a hitch. I didn't even have to restore from my backup, everything was just there.

Now I realize everyone has different hardware and things going on their systems but for my configuration of hardware and what I was expecting (DOOM) I was really shocked to see it go smoothly. It went better then my Windows 7 install which was easy peasy from the DVD it installed from because I didn't have to wipe the drive or anything.

After everything installed and I booted up things looked different.

I have to say it was a great experience and things look snazy and respond very nicely.

More pics!

2009-10-26T20:17:00.000-07:00

The hole starts to close!

More here!

For those that keep track of Linux things...

2009-10-08T04:53:00.001-07:00

Specifically...

Some More Pictures!

2009-10-04T10:09:00.000-07:00

I has more pictures, first my wall and lack of bookshelf. (qq)

Check out the rest here!

Daily HAHAs!

2009-09-10T05:14:00.000-07:00

First up, a pigeon is faster then the internet at sending data! In South Africa a pigeon beat the countries leading internet service provider in a time of 2 hours and 6 minutes, half of which was flight time for the pigeon and the other half downloading the data from the hard drive it carried. Meanwhile the ISP only transmitted 4% of the data during that period.

Next up, last night President Obama gave his speech about health care on TV. Regardless of what side of the fence you sit on for this issue, I found something quite amusing about the whole deal. Before his speech began last night a reporter on CNN commented on how he'd face a tough crowd and how our legislation is not like the British legislation where they got hecklers and whatever else going on in there. In a sense they said we were more polite and respectful. I have to admit, it was quite an amusing build up to this.

Work or not work?

2009-09-02T09:42:00.000-07:00

Someone said to me yesterday that I spent a lot of time solving technical problems and must be tired.

Recently I finished a loan disbursement application for the financial aid office at the college I work at. It grabs all the students loan disbursement information, packages it in to PDF files, and mails the files to the students school email accounts.

There were technical bugs, but things worked out and I ended up replacing a system that was originally running on Cobol and doing line printer output with a nice neat form. Now that it's done the application is working and people are saving money on printing and postage costs. (5000 letters is a lot of stamps!)

I feel like I didn't do any work, I just had fun.

Repairs...

2009-08-13T17:16:00.000-07:00

So recently four of the floor boards under my bed supporting the floor rotted away on the one side of the house. Here's the pic's of the start of the repair work!

Tute my flute!

2009-08-07T17:52:00.000-07:00

So I finished it and most likely it's not perfect but it plays! Though I can't play a tune so; yeah. It was still fun to make though.

Adaptive Eyecare

2009-08-04T09:31:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure if it's snake oil or actually something good but I found it interesting either way.

First up a man by the name of Stephen Kurtin is working on a pair of glasses that has an adjustable slider for you to twink your prescription on the fly. It's pretty cool and you can check it out here.

Next up is Joshua Silver, he's apparently made an adjustable pair of glasses that are simple to use. To adjust your sight just add or remove water. He's a professor at Oxford and has a project going on for third world countries to get his glasses.

All and all interesting stuff to read about, though I'm not sure how valid it really is.