A Day in the Life of a Nomad

RIUM+ in the house, what what? RIUM+ in da house, say what?

2006-05-27T04:48:51Z

riumplus was nice enough to syndicate my new blog/RSS/thingamabob, so all of you people can still read my fascinating and utterly silly blog on your fascinating and utterly silly F-lists!

check it out!

nommie!

To greater things...

2006-05-20T03:33:47Z

Well people, I'm off of LJ and now I'm over here. To anyone reading me on Mystblogs and their syndication programs, the transition has already been made, they won'tt even see this message. This is for everyone on my F-list. A bit of "I'm sorry for the inconvienance". I'm not going to pay for an account to syndicate my new feed. I think most everyone here reads me on mystblogs as well, so nothing will really change for you. I do hope you all continue to read, it's been fun and I hope that you make the little extra effort every day to check your bookmarks after you're done reading your friendlist, I'll continue reading the ones here and will keep up with all of you.

Hope to see you all on the other side.

Photo-expedition

2006-05-18T05:12:52Z

I felt a bit like heinrick today. Not because I'm cool or have badass skills, but because I got out during the wonderful weather and explored an abandoned building.

Today orangesuicide, and sgrant22 and I went to an abandoned barn in the middle of the country with our cameras for a little exploration.

This was a good excuse for me to flex some artistic and mental muscles that I haven't flexed in a long time.

The following pictures are from that day.

Events happen in real time.

I'll stick these up on DA if people say they don't suck!

From the Barn: Fragment; Orange Suicide Looking Dramatically Out A Door I; Orange Suicide Looking Dramatically Out A Door II; Orange Suicide Looking ~~Dramatically~~ Curiously Out A Door III; Stuff Growing in an Abandoned Fridge I; Stuff Growing in an Abandoned Fridge II; The Window
From the Parking Lot at College as I was Waiting for my Ride (featuring me!): Exploding at the Waist; Obscured; Under the Sun

Titles, Crops, Post-Processing and whatnot are all preliminary, if I post on DA a lot of that shiznit will change... I think...

The most awkward moments in television history.

2006-05-16T07:40:19Z

Bunch of YouTube Links

The BBC mistakes a cabbie for an expert! Check out that accent!
The Worst Weatherman Ever. And two like totally valleygirl newscasters like duh.
A Sports Reporter stutters and sighs a lot. If you've ever spoken in public, you'll feel empathy for the poor guy.
Watch closely.... You might just miss what's wrong here!

Oh, and this YTMND made me giggle quite a bit Cosby Bebop, suprisingly lacking any Jello references.

"When I was a little boy we would play stickball!" X D

G-vite Fiasco 2.0!

2006-05-15T21:25:22Z

Uhh, if anyone has a writely account and some spare invites, could you throw one my way? Comment here and I'll give you the nesissary info.

Pretty please?

Aroundness...

2006-05-15T11:28:27Z

So, here's the situation. Many of you (like the two of you that actually pay attention to this blog, you know who you two are, you're both so sweet! : D ) may be wondering where I've been the last couple of days. Well I have a perfectly good answer for you, actually, I've got more than one answer for you, here they are!

Our phoneline sucks: Every single time it rains, our phoneline (and as a consequence, our DSL) goes out. We have no idea why this happens. This seems to be getting worse every time, I've just now gotten back online after 24 hours of not being able to talk on the home phone and not being able to get online.
Linux System Administration: I've got a shiny new class that's going to suck 12 hours of classtime out of every week. Fortunately, this class only lasts until June 8th. Unfortunately, I have no idea what level of homework I'm going to need to do for this class, so it might actually suck more than 12 hours of classtime out of every week. Yippy Skippy! The Evil!
I'm going crazy: Three weeks left of school, 'nuff said

URULive

2006-05-12T10:12:22Z

Well, the URULive site finally works for me. The site's already been up for a few days, and sure people have criticized the design and others have criticized those who criticized the design. Yet that's not what's really caught my eye, what's caught my eye are the pages for future development and naturally Screenshots and Concept Art.

Let's just take a look at what's in store here.

Coming Soon

Repeatable game play: No thanks, I've already played through The Cleft about a thousand times, like... every time I joined a new server in Until Uru.
Multi-User ages: Now this is intriguing. I never did much like the "instanced" ages, but I suppose that's really the only way you can do an adventure game played by multiple people. I think it would be neat to see multi-user ages outside of D'ni. Like rest ages, maybe?

Far Future

Transportation vehicles: A good concept, yes, but not really useful currently, considering what the sizes of most ages are. This could be a lot of fun though if they add some good physics models to the vehicles
Player mounts: Same as Transportation Vehicles, but slower... and usually much cuter...
Pets: Now this is something that I know a few people have dreamed about, heck if Cyanworlds would want to really bolster their sales, throw in a free pet squee for anyone who pre-orders URULive. Special prizes are given to those who pre-order other MMOs, those who pre-ordered SWG got nifty keen sunglasses, those who preordered the expansion pack got special mounts and vehicles. Do you realize how many people would shell out the money to get a pet squee in the game?
Guild System: Now this would be great, and extremely in-character as well. Though I'm not sure what the guilds would actually do together.

Apparently the game has a new slogan. As seen on the bottom of the website

Destruction is coming. Find a Way. Make a Home

Let's take a deeper look at this...

Destruction is coming: ... from where? I appreciate this sense of urgency, especially since this is a great marketing ploy that could get quite a few people interested, it just seems a little bit tacky when set in the frame of a MYST-related game. Though seriously, where is this "Destruction" coming from? The Bahro get a little bit drunk over Cinco De Mayo and accidentally got into the gun cabinet? Is the cavern going to collapse? If destruction is really coming to D'ni then... leave... or something. Though we all know D'ni is standing in Myst V.
Find a Way: I like this, especially since it suggests player interaction with their environment. Like we're actually going to have some say in the overall story arc. Actually, this is one of the things that intrigued me about URULive in the beginning.
Make a Home: I remember reading an article from a long time ago, all about what Rand and Robyn would do after Riven. This was way back in 1998. It talked about URU, though it never mentioned it by name. I remember that this whole "making a home" aspect was quite emphasized in this article. I really do hope that this isn't just reffering to our Reltos. This also speaks a bit of the game environment. Like URU is a safe community, like a home for anyone... Then again I could just be thinking metaphysically but it seems to suggest this.

As for the screenshots; Most of them are things that we've already seen before, but the two new concept art images, now those are a subject of interest.

Concept Image 1 looks a bit like Eder Kemo or the exterior of Garrison, no real evidence that this is a new age at all. Though we haven't seen moss like that anywhere. The stone to the left in the foreground and the stone in the background off to the right look a bit too regular to be created naturally. I think we might be looking at some bona fide ruins here.

Concept Image 2 seems to be in the same place as concept image one, note the moss on the left side and the bright sky.

I mentioned Until Uru earlier, let's talk about Until Uru for a bit.

As I see it, Cyanworlds has two options involving Until Uru.

Keep Until URU running as a free taste for those who aren't sure about whether or not they want to buy Uru

Shut down the authorization server that allows clients to connect to the server list

2. is obviously the most economical option, the cost of hosting the Authorization server (which will probably be turned into the authorization for URULive anyway) will be a bit out of their wallet. The cost of running D'mala (which will probably be turned into a server for URULive anyway) will be a bit more out of their wallet.

It's undoubtable though that the fine people at Clockwork Orange are going to find a way to work around the authorization server and connect directly to someone hosting an Until URU server. Which is probably fine, at least from a fiscal standpoint. There are dozens of people running their own Everquest and World of Warcraft servers and it doesn't take a bite out of SOE or Blizzard's funds.

1. is an intriguing option. Many MMOs offer a "trial version" of their games, which set a time limit (and a few limits on characters) on accounts. Something similar, allowing someone to only taste the non-expanded version of URU to see if they would like URULive is definately an interesting thought. But much much less economical.

After all, isn't it better to for someone to decide they don't like a game after they've shelled out the money for the product and the $15 for one month? Sure! Though it's not very nice.

Something tells me that Cyanworlds is going to come up with a third option, one I won't even see coming, because they're getting very good at doing stuff I don't expect.

And now that he's gotten that off of his chest, it's time for the llama to sleep.

The Hatch

2006-05-11T00:56:46Z

Today we found a hatch on the ceiling outside of our lunchroom. The administration tells us that this hatch is used to access some of the school's electrical system, but we all know there's something more sinister behind it.

I went to study hall the next hour and printed this out.

I taped it to the hatch.

Hopefully it'll still be there tomorrow.

Into the Pixel 2006

2006-05-10T09:49:30Z

This year's Into the Pixel artwork is now up on the website.

Revel in the shininess.

Also be sure to check out the galleries from previous years.

'cause they're shiny too.

Halo 3 Goodness.

2006-05-10T03:59:42Z

Before you read the rest of this entry, Download the Halo 3 Trailer.

WMV:	small	large
MOV:	small	large

Now, are you confused as I am? Let's go through the checklist.

Destroyed and decimated place. check

Deranged version of Cortana spouting Yeesha-like phrases. check

Masterchief looking really badass. check

Marty O'Donnell more than earning his pay for the soundtrack. double check

A lot more Covenant ships than you remember. check

NO idea what's going on. check check and check

Now read this.

A Solution to Doom

2006-05-10T00:04:18Z

If you have a problem with Urulive.com give this site a shot. (thanks chucker!)

URUObsession apparently has a bit of concept art and a screenshot (which was really from the first metting of the DRC Liasons). (thanks again chucker!)

AHHH TALKING LLAMA.

2006-05-09T19:59:10Z

Plasma Pong is a lot of fun. It never ceases to amaze me how many times Pong can be redone with different elements. This time the wheel has been reinvented to simulate liquid motion. I challange you all to beat my score of 21 (on the third try).

The URULive Site still redirects me to Mystworlds, I hear it's still down anyways. What would be nice is to see Cyanworlds' Website updated, since it still has a "Coming Soon Mystery Image" for the section on Myst V, which came out at least five months ago.

Someone should figure out a way to combine World Wind Stellarium and Celestia, all of which are neat open-source applications that allow you to explore our world and worlds beyond.

PLANES on a SNAKE!

2006-05-09T03:31:48Z

So tomorrow on Ellen they're showing a clip from Snakes on a Plane!!! I'd tell you to watch it but it'll be on YouTube a few hours afterwords anyways!

On an ordinary day, the extraordinary way...

2006-05-09T01:24:21Z

So... this is back...

"They tried to kill us, they did kill us. Yet here we stand, and that's what makes us mighty." -- Joss Whedon, said under similar circumstances.

And on this note, SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! Way to overcome the odds and do the unthinkable Cyanworlds, let's hope that things go better this time around!

Wordpressification.

2006-05-08T07:48:11Z

This is the last time I'm going to mention my new feedburner feed. This shiny button is something you should click if you're still reading my feed from LiveJournal.

Feedburner is going to make the transition over to Wordpress so easy, especially when I talk to amon-re and have him have mystblogs.com point over to it. These statistics are uber shiny too.

Now all I have to do is.

1) Addres issues with people reading me via friend-lists.
2) Make (read as: "Modify an Existing") layout that won't make me want to soder my eyes shut.
3) Actually start posting on my wordpress blog.
4) Profit.

Nothing really happened to me all day today, I just sat around and played Tremulous and a little World of Warcraft. Was one of those crazy hazy lazy days that you hear immortalized in terribly annoying oldies songs

However, I did find and play around with and listen to this keen little thing that was mentioned on amon-re's blog. It shows not only the evolution of electronic music throughout the ages, but also how each genre relates to one another. The best part of all of this though, is the music samples.

Oh, and take a listen to "Get out of Myspace" on Pure Pwnage.

More FPS Stuff

2006-05-07T09:12:26Z

So, remember those games that I mentioned yesterday, which I gave no context for at all? I downloaded all but one of them and played the crap outta them, here's what I think...

First of all, these games are both meant for online play, there's no single player campaign or in-game tutorial in either. Nexuiz has an "instant action" feature which lets you go head-to-head with some bots, but with Tremulous you're thrown right into the fray, lucky for you though, all of the keys are explained onscreen by default (which can be turned off later once you've learned them).

Tremulous is in a word, fun. Did you ever play Starcraft and wonder what it was like to be a Protoss? If so, this game is not for you. However, if you ever played Starcraft and wondered what it would be like to be a Terran or a Zerg, this game is definately for you. Tremulous combines RTS building and resourcing elements with FPS destroy-everything-that-moves-and-doesn't-look-like-you gameplay. The makers of Tremulous took everything fun associated with being an alien and stuck it into this game, freakish speed, wall-climbing, human-grabbing, acid-spitting, disgusting noises and an Overmind. As well as all of the good things about being a Space Marine, Flamethrowers, Mecha-suits, Repeater guns, Turrets. and packed them all into this game. Your teams actually level up, based on the amount of kills that you get, allowing you to spawn as more advanced fighters. A few things are missing though. Most of the levels are entirely indoors, which can get old after a while. There's no option to go into a third-person view, which could really help out first level aliens. A couple of the maps seem incomplete in areas, with lack of texturing. One thing that could really use some fixing is that you have to connect to a server in order to configure your options. On the main menu there is no "Options" section, only "Play" "Mods" and "Quit". Only after you connect to a server can you press escape and configure your controls, video and sound settings.

Nexuiz is beautiful. Absolutely beautiful, especially with the Bloom feature turned on. This game is the prettiest thing I've seen come out of any opensource project. The game itself is a throwback to a time when FPSes didn't have to make sense or be realistic for someone to play them. It's definately in the spirit of Quake III, Doom, and Duke Nukem. There's a good variety of weapons to choose from. Most have both primary and secondary fire. The game is extremely fast paced. The blood and gore is extremely overexaggerated to emphasize the fact that this is not in any way meant to be a simulation. The game does have one major problem, for me at least... Even after I dialed down all of the settings I still got major control lag, which is something that never happens with me. I really don't know what the problem here is, it caused me to lose more frequently than I otherwise would have. It's a real shame too, because I was having an otherwise wonderful time playing this.

Both of these games can be run off of a USB flashdrive in case you're in need of a distraction when you're away from home.

For those of you who can't stand FPSes, this is probably the last I'll talk about these games. For those of you who love FPSes, well, maybe I'll play you in Tremulous some time.

Thanks to those of you who have switched to my Feedburner Feed. This will make things move more smoothly when I (eventually) switch over to Wordpress. Not to mention I can keep statistics on all of you for my own creepy little reasons! : D

Important PSA:

2006-05-06T23:23:02Z

Hey, so for those of you who are reading me with aggregator programs and aggregator websites and whatnot, could you point your doohickeys to here instead of here?

And then the llama saw something interesting...

2006-05-06T08:58:54Z

Whirled is an absolutely wonderful CD. Completely worth the $15 for this song (which, once translated is called 90 French Fries o.o) and Bambodansarna.

So, tonight fire_phantom and I scored a win for all of geek-kind.

A delicious way to stay awake for those long nights of coding.

Caffine that jiggles when it slides down your throat.

Yes ladies and gentlemen we made Jello with Vault.

Instructions:

Stir 1 cup boiling ~~water~~_^Vault in medium bowl at least 2 minutes until completely dissolved.

Stir in 1 cup cold ~~water~~_^Vault.

REFRIGERATE 4 hours or until firm, makes 4 (1/2 cup) servings.

And it was good. No word yet on whether or not I'm going to try it with Coca-Cola BlaK.

Yesterday I talked a bit about Freeware FPSes... well, if you want more of where that came from, I present you with an unordered list.

I haven't actually played any of these... Maybe I should before I just start passing out links.... nah! ^_^

Tremulous

Nexuiz

Legends

So you like TV and you've got a high speed connection?

2006-05-05T07:21:36Z

These were both posted on digg, but I figured that some people who read me, yet don't read digg (both of you) might enjoy these two links, presented with comic-book punching sound effects and a post that's all just one run-on sentence because I'm not in English class and don't feel at all like puncutating because it's been that sort of day.

Peekvid (which is related to the much larger Guba). Supposedly has 700 episodes of TV on it, I see much less than that, but whatever. Questionable legality, unquestionable fun.

Channell Chooser Streams of actual TV stations... Wait... this has Sci-Fi channel on it?! Well, looks like my Friday is booked for some Atlantis action then! Watch out for porn links on the bottom right, unless you're actually looking for porn links, in which case, they're on the bottom right.

Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

2006-05-05T03:12:39Z

I am Coca-Cola's bitch.

I drank about three of these in the span of five hours (after being intrigued by the product after it was mentioned on ZeFrank's The Show). Sure, coffee mixed with Coca-Cola might sound disgusting to the average layperson, but to me, it is divine water squeezed from the Coca-Cola/Coffee trees of heaven. In addition, I had one Vault, also made by Coca-Cola. I concieved this post while still fighting off the jitters from both.

I've seen him, the human equivelant of an albino dodo-bird. What us World of Warcraft players call EPIC. Yes, that's right people, I saw a Liberal Christian. Such things that have been only whispers in shady corners for generations has revealed itself to me. His name is Jack Nelson-Pallmeyer, and I had to watch him give a speech called "Is Religion Killing Us?". No word yet on the hotly awaited sequels. "Someone Help! Religion Is Killing Us!" and "Religon Killed Us, Way To Go Dickheads..."

When he got on stage I thought of calling the San Diego Zoo, such ~~rare~~ EPIC things should be seen by all people. But I was content to let him wander the world free. A natural wonder in his own right.

Sincere apologies to anyone reading on Myst Blogs as breaking the page seems to be a habit of mine. Special apologies to Magi, whoose name was obscured for a good two hours by the letters E, E and E.

Anyone remember Tribes? That revolutionary FPS that was way before its time? Yeah, it's free now, in fact it's been free for two years. And there's a portable version, to stick on your USB drive. Take one of the best games of the good ole' days with you for FREE on your USB drive!

So, apparently our military did some weird stuff back in the Cold War era.

Oh, and the Entertainment Software Rating Board... little message for you, you can't change the rating on the box for something that isn't in the box!. Modders have been making nudy skins for years. Why do you choose now to change the rating for a player-created content? Jedi Academy had blood mods, naked skins and a whole mess of unsavory things on mod websites, yet the ESRB did nothing to the rating of that game. Don't take action on Bethseda and their products for something that they aren't responsible for.

Oh, and this looks a bit interesting, a mashup between Star Wars and Lord of the Rings. I'm downloading it at the moment so I can't say anything about it, but it piqued my interest!

Never before, have I made a SQUEEEEEEEEEE noise so many times in one day.

2006-05-01T05:11:33Z

Awesome things.

1) Find a shirt that my mum gave me, realize that it's got Jimmi Hendrix on it. *SQUEEEEEEE*

2) Find pants that my mum gave me, realize that they're courteroy. *SQUEEEEEEE*

3) Go to the Cities, eat ice cream at Blue Sky Cremery *SQUEE*

4) Go to Half Price Books *SQUEE*

5) Find Diablo II, Lord of Destruction Expansion Pack *SQUEEEEEE*

6) Find Robert A. Heinlan's Book; The Moon is a Harsh Mistress *SQUEEEEEEEEEEE*

7) Buy both of these *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

8) Go to a Våsen concert *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

9) Buy a Våsen CD *SQUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE*

10) Go home and blog. *squee*

And the compy just pee'd all over the carpet

2006-04-27T21:59:38Z

ABC FUD FTL

2006-04-27T01:03:16Z

Well, this is going to be shown on ABC in a couple of weeks. In preperation for this "Major Television Event". I would like to recite a few well known quotes on the subject.

Why don't you read with me?

"The only thing we have to fear is fear itself."

-- Franklin D. Roosevelt

"I must not fear. Fear is the mind-killer. Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration. I will face my fear. I will permit it to pass over me and through me. And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path. Where the fear has gone there will be nothing. Only I will remain."

-- Bene Gessrit Litany

"Fear is the path to the Dark Side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."

-- Yoda

And now, that this has been said, let's all give ABC a big hand for taking our fears, and turning them into a few hours worth of low budget thrills. You guys officially win whatever award they give to people who spread FUD. You people rock.

Salvation in a file format.

2006-04-26T08:30:55Z

Lordy lordy, I'm a believer! After listening to DigitallyImported's AAC+ streams, I have shed my old ways and am basking in the light of salvation.

AAC+ is truely the way, clear audio quality at 24k! Join me now brothers and sisters let us tell others of the great things we have heard through AAC+!

I admit, I was a skeptic at first, like you must be now. but then the good word and I will never change my ways. (at least, not until something better comes along).