Guild Wars: Eye of the North review

My newest review is located here.

As per the internet norm, it is followed by the usual squawking. They disagree, so instead of posting the reasons they disagree, they simply sling insults. Mature and intelligent.

Can you tell I like fantasy?

These are the shelves over my desk and behind my desk. It doesn't look like I like fantasy, does it?

Jingle WoW

Jingle bells,
Undead smell,
Taurens suck an egg,
Trolls are goobs,
Orcs are noobs,
and Blood Elves are just gay!

Peter Jackson to produce 2 Hobbit films

YES!

This news made my day. I've been waiting for this to come out since the last Lord of the Rings movie was released.

Ron Paul fundraising email

I thought this was pretty amazing.

December 17, 2007

What a day! I am humbled and inspired, grateful and thrilled for this vast outpouring of support.

On just one day, in honor of the 234th anniversary of the Boston Tea Party, the new American revolutionaries brought in $6.04 million, another one-day record. The average donation was $102; we had 58,407 individual contributors, of whom an astounding 24,915 were first-time donors. And it was an entirely voluntary, self-organized, decentralized, independent effort on the internet. Must be the "spammers" I keep hearing about!

The establishment is baffled and worried, and well they should be. They keep asking me who runs our internet fundraising and controls our volunteers. To these top-down central planners, a spontaneous order like our movement is science-fiction. But you and I know it's real: as real as the American people's yearning for freedom, peace, and prosperity, as real as all the men and women who have sacrificed for our ideals, in the past and today.

And how neat to see celebrations all across the world, with Tea Parties from France to New Zealand. This is how we can spread the ideals of our country, through voluntary emulation, not bombs and bribes. Of course, there were hundreds in America.

As I dropped in on a cheering, laughing crowd of about 600 near my home in Freeport, Texas, I noted that they call us "angry." Well, we are the happiest, most optimistic "angry" movement ever, and the most diverse. What unites us is a love of liberty, and a determination to fix what is wrong with our country, from the Fed to the IRS, from warfare to welfare. But otherwise we are a big tent.

Said the local newspaper (http://www.thefacts.com/story.lasso?ewcd=36475b4d132fc0a1): "The elderly sat with teens barely old enough to vote. The faces were black, Hispanic, Asian and white. There was no fear in their voices as they spoke boldly with each other about the way the country should be. Held close like a deeply held secret, Paul has brought them out of the disconnect they feel between what they know to be true and where the country has been led."

Thanks also to the 500 or so who braved the blizzard in Boston to go to Faneuil Hall. My son Rand told me what a great time he had with you.

A few mornings ago on LewRockwell.com, I saw a YouTube of a 14-year-old boy that summed up our whole movement for me. This well-spoken young man, who could have passed in knowledge for a college graduate, told how he heard our ideas being denounced. So he decided to Google. He read some of my speeches, and thought, these make sense. Then he studied US foreign policy of recent years, and came to the conclusion that we are right. So he persuaded his father to drop Rudy Giuliani and join our movement.

All over America, all over the world, we are inspiring real change. With the wars and the spying, the spending and the taxing, the inflation and the credit crisis, our ideas have never been more needed. Please help me spread them https://www.ronpaul2008.com/donate in all 50 states. Victory for liberty! That is our goal, and nothing less.

Sincerely,

Ron

PVP WoW comic

Made me laugh. Thought I'd share.

Always wanted to have your WoW character made in to an action figure?

Well, now you can, for $100. Well, that and you have to be lucky enough to have your name drawn.

http://www.figureprints.com/Default.aspx

Man trapped in the bathroom for 100 hours.

STORY

What I want to know is: Why didn't you kick the door open? Or use a MacGyver move and unscrew either the door handle or the hinges with a makeshift screwdriver. (i.e. your belt buckle, ring edge, etc...)

Tim Burton + Alice in Wonderland = Awesome!

STORY

I can't think of anyone that would do a better job directing Alice in Wonderland. And, I'd be willing to be that Johnny Depp would make a a fantastic Mad Hatter.

Deputy Lupo saves the last dance

Ah, so this is what she does when she's not saving Eureka with sheriff Carter.

LOST PC game

As always, click for a larger image.
John and Hurley. 4 8 15 16 23 42?

Germany moves to ban Scientology

Go Germany! STORY

Criticism from the US State Department? No way! I still can't believe this obvious con-cult is regarded as religion by anybody. A sci-fi writer (a sh**ty one at that) comes up with a religion, and suddenly there are tons of morons worldwide flocking to it? Ridiculous.

No wonder political parties like the Nazis can come in to power, if people are dumb enough to believe this s**t. No wonder Germany is the first to step in and stop this dangerous cult from existing in their country.

AIM and Google chat

You can now sign in to AIM from your Google chat function in Gmail. You simply have to click the dropdown arrow next to your name, and select sign in to AIM. Nice.
I love this, because I use Google chat all the time when I am at work, so now I can chat with people on my AIM list too, all without installing a client.

Gibson making self tuning guitars

WIRED

How cool is that?

Dell making WoW themed laptops

STORY

Very cool. However, a PhysX card for WoW? Why? It will do nothing but add weight, heat, and power consumption.

Space Aged

I was reading an article on so called "green" office buildings when I noticed the author kept using the phrase "built with Space Aged materials."

What, exactly, does that crap mean? Is Space Aged a company that makes modern building materials? Are these materials from some future age where we live in space and these things are teleported back through time for us? Does it mean the materials were aged for years in space to improve them? Tell me, what the f**k does this mean?

I mean, we're obviously using them here and now. Wouldn't they really just be modern building materials? Are you some geriatric author whose intellect is still blown away by the concept of the computer? Are you, in fact, thinking you are typing away on a "space aged" input device?

The mind boggles.

Very cool proposal

2008 Presidential Election

Just in case there is any question: No, I am not a Republican. Usually I think they are the worst of the bad choice we normally get, the Democrats not being much better. (I'm a registered Libertarian.) However, Ron Paul is one of those guys you vote for because of what he stands for, not because of who his party is. (I'd vote for Schwarzenegger, too.)

Basically I agree with Ron Paul's stance on everything. There are some small nit-picky things I do not agree with, but by and large he stands for everything I could want in a presidential candidate: Less taxes, less government interference in our lives, more freedom, and an end to war.

Family Weddings

Funny how nobody in my family gets married for like thirty-some odd years, and now everyone is getting married.

Of course, it now sounds like my brother and my cousin are both getting married next Labor Day weekend. Guess whose wedding I will be attending if they are? I'll give you a hint: Not my brother's.

The downstairs bathroom

Still working on this, albeit pretty slowly now. I've painted the threshold, some molding that was attached to the old, crap threshold, the wood frame around the mirror, and a good deal of my workbench downstairs. Hey, what are workbenches for if not saving your floor from the same mistreatment?

The sink is all hooked up, bolted to the wall, and working nicely. It leaked at first, but then I figured out that you can't be stingy with the plumbers tape.

The floor is mostly done, thanks to my wife. She did the difficult pieces that had to be cut in weird shapes. She's pretty much waiting for me to clear the plaster from the entryway and put down the threshold so she can finish.

Also, the paint doesn't smell too bad, so I might just paint all the woodwork this winter, so by summer all I will have to do is replace the walls. (And I say all because I am - as usual - clueless about how much work it will actually entail...)

Asus Crosshair pictures

My review of the Evoluent Vertical Mouse 3 is up @ MMORPG.com

You can check it out HERE.

Vista 64 and 4GB of RAM - Part Two

My new motherboard - Asus's excellent Crosshair - came in today. I hooked it up, wiped my hard drive, and installed Vista 64. Then I plopped in my new sticks of RAM, and it booted flawlessly. I'm now gaming in 64-bit with 4GB of RAM. Yay!

Seems like it was entirely the MSI motherboard that was keeping my from using the extra 2 sticks of RAM. That's OK, though. MSI wiped themselves off my hardware approval list, and Asus is back on. (Had some issues almost a decade ago with their motherboards and cards.)

Vista 64 and 4GB of RAM

So, here's my latest quandary in dealing with PCs: I bought another 2GB of Corsair XMS2 DDR2 RAM to install in my PC. When it arrived, I installed it and tried to boot up the PC. No dice. The BIOS sees it just fine, but Vista 32 Home Premium was not booting. In fact, as soon as the post completes, the screen goes black, and that's all she wrote. Tried to boot Vista in safe mode, it hangs at crccheck loading. Every time.

No problem, I thought. I want Vista 64 anyway. So, I ordered the 64-bit version of Home Premium from MS. It arrived yesterday.

After a gruelling install (Thanks so much for that, Microshaft...) I ran in to the exact. Same. F**king. Issue.

Now, I have done my research, and it seems quite a few people have this issue as well, and people with other motherboards are having similar issues.

I have tried installing the MS patch KB9297777 with no luck. I tried backing down the RAM timings from 4-4-4-12.

I scoured the web today, and tonight I am going to try a few remaining options before I go ballistic. In the BIOS, I am going to attempt to change the RAM voltage to 2.2. (It's already upped to 2.1 per manufacturers specs.) Then I'm going to make sure it's running at 667Mhz as opposed to its 800 rating. (A memory limitation of current chipsets, apparently, is that they can't run 4 sticks at the rated speed.)

I will, of course, post the results here, in the hopes that if I can fix this, I can help others who are having this very irritating issue.

System Specs:
MSI K9N SLI Platinum motherboard (NVidia 570 SLI)
AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200
4GB Corsair XMS2 DDR2 RAM (4 x 1GB)
EVGA 8800GTS 640 MB
X-FI ExtremeMusic
BFG PhysX card
Killer NIC M1
Hiper 580W PSU


UPDATE:
Nothing has worked. I even tried removing everything from the system but the CPU, RAM, and HDD, but nothing will cause Vista 64 to boot while there are 4 sticks of RAM on this motherboard. I'm sorry folks, I have no fix for this.

Instead, I gave up and ordered an ASUS Crosshair 590 SLI motherboard. Lots of people have great luck with 4GB of RAM and this board, so I am hoping I do too.

http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16813131593

Upgrading Vista 32 to Vista 64

Installing a 64-bit version of Windows Vista on computer that is running a 32-bit version of Windows Vista

If you
have purchased an Upgrade license together with a Windows Vista DVD, you must
use one of the following methods.

Method 1

Purchase a full version of the 64-bit version of Windows
Vista.

Method 2

1. Remove the 32-bit version of Windows Vista.
2. Install Windows XP.
3. Install the 64-bit version of Windows Vista by using an installation method that is listed earlier in this article.

Gee, thanks Microsoft. Instead of just letting me install clean or upgrade my Vista 32 installation, I have to remove Vista 32, and reinstall XP 32, just so Vista 64 can look at it and then erase it anyway.

Assholes.

Self reviews

My "day" job has me filling out a self-appraisal form. I hate these things. They're like a resume for a company you already work for. You basically have to BS your way through it, since honest answers gain you nothing.

Name 3 major personal accomplishments in the last year. Are you joking? I help people remotely. It's all I have time for, since that's my main job function. What the hell is a major accomplishment?
Time to dig deep and pull something out of my ass, but what I really want to list is:

1 - I haven't quit and become unemployed, thus endangering my marriage and financial welfare.
2 - I haven't killed any of you bastards or the customers.
3 - I'm not in an asylum yet.

List three major disappointments. Well, this is much easier, but again, listing my real disappointments would probably cost me my job.

1 - You haven't fired my supremely incompetent supervisor yet.
2 - I didn't get the other jobs I interviewed for, so I still work here.
3 - I make a lot less money than some of the other people who work here who can't even do their own jobs. I have to help them and do my own job, and I work a lot more hours.

Newegg reviews

I thought these were screened before they were posted. I guess not. Here's a helpful review I found posted under the new AMD 9500 Phenom processor.

shes nice

Reviewed By: joe write on 11/22/2007

Tech Level: high - Ownership: less than 1 day

Pros: your mom is cute. i would rate her at 2.4mhz with a FBS of 2000.

Cons: she didnt like it when i just got up and left after we where done.

Other Thoughts: dont make ninjas mad. they are scary people and have mad sillz. tell your sister i said hi.

Well, that certainly tells me a lot about the Phenom...

Thanksgiving 2007

Thank God it's only 1 day of the year.

My wife and I got to spend most of the day being ignored. Everyone got right up after dinner (which was my breakfast) and sat in the living room to watch a football game. I took the dogs out, and when I came back in, I was alone in the kitchen. We ate dessert, and then my wife and I tried to sit in the living room with everyone else, and they all packed up and moved back in to the kitchen.

And everyone wonders why I have no interest in inviting my brother and his clan to Christmas at our house. Hmmm....

Dell 1720 Review up at MMORPG.com

You can read it HERE.

I'm getting there...

The Brushed nickel outlet/lightswitch plates are on. They match the brushed nickel handles on the new cabinet, and the brushed nickel faucet. The cabinet is espresso, so I bought the same color paint to do the doors (that won't happen until summer)and the threshold, as well as the wooden frame around the mirror.

Right now the sink is just sitting on the cabinet because I need to bolt the cabinet to the wall and I don't have the bolts. (Thought I did...) Also, the a**hole that built this place did such a monkey-f**k job with the plumbing that I am having a hard time hooking up the water and drain.

I have insulated all the cracks that led to the basement under this room, from which there was a very cold draft. Now the bathroom is nice and toasty. I swear, if I ever meet the person who built this house I will beat him severely.

Anyway, the plan is to rip out the walls next summer and replace the sh***y wood paneling with Hardi-Backer boards. We're going to paint them white. Then add some molding on the floor, painted espresso. Hopefully this bathroom job will add some value to this house should we decide to sell it. It definitely makes it look nicer for us, though.

Mr. T WoW ad

Watch Here

Too funny.

Funny as hell WoW comic

Click the image for a full size version.

Somebody repurposed the old alcoholic comic for WoW. This made me laugh my ass off, so I had to repost it. I'd give credit, but I don't know who did this.

Sleepy Dog

Poor guy, the vet violates his pooper with the thermometer every visit, and today he had to get two shots. He has been sleeping all night now. We think the shots made him tired.

It started off fun....

I'd give you a nice caption here, but right now the only words that come to mind are these: F%$#&^% stupid son of b#$%^ motherf&^%$#%^ bastard &%^%^^^&^&!

Old School Sesame Street is apparently not sanitized enough for today's children

NY Times Story

Makes you wonder why kids today have such a tough time when they get out in the real world and figure out s**t isn't quite as nice as their TVs told them it was. Hooray for the religion of PC.

The best description of why the writers are striking

Corsair Memory

I was a naughty little monkey tonight.

For most men, this might mean that they made out with the secretary at work, or paid a hooker for some oral action.

For me, it means I spent money I shouldn't have on computer parts.

You see, the game Crysis came out yesterday. I've been waiting for a couple of years for this game, as it was made by the guys who made one of my all time favorite shooters, Far Cry. It looks fan-f**king-tastic. The downside is that you need to travel to the future and bring back PCs from 2010 to get it to run smooth at the very high graphic setting.

My PC runs it just fine in Medium, with a couple of settings turned up to high.

I don't want to run it with a couple of settings turned to high. I want to be high. Period. (I know, get the stoner jokes out of the way...) So, I am snapping up anything that might net me more power.

2 more GBs of DDR2 RAM should help out. Then I will have 4GB total. Of course, general 32-bit Windows weirdness will only be able to use about 3.2GB of that, but that ties in with my plan to order the 64-bit version of Vista when I get home. (It only costs $10 if you already own the 32-bit version)

Any anyway, there's a $40 rebate, bringing the price of this RAM to $52. I wish it cost that little when I bought the original 2GBs earlier this year for over $200.

Now, if the price of that Athlon 64 X2 6400 processor would just drop by another $50...

New Music

I just picked up a couple of new, mainstream (mostly) albums last week: Avenged Sevenfold's self titled album, and Blackbird by Alter Bridge.

Avenged Sevenfold (AX7) seems to be going off on that weird path some bands follow: We got famous by doing a certain style of music, but now we're going to keep changing it up so that we alienate all but the most hardcore fans. AX7 jumped on the scene doing intricate metal music with a mix of screaming and clean vocals. I understand the frontman injured his voice and was inclined to switch singing styles on their third album, but City of Evil by and large was a metal album, still having intricate, heavy music.

By contrast, the new album has a mix of songs that sound similar to AX7, songs that have no similarity, and a song that makes you think they lost their f**king minds. The singer sounds like he is trying to emulate Axl Rose (badly, I might add), and the album as a whole seems disjointed and schizophrenic. The songs that sound like metal are fairly good (though they ruin one right at the end with some weird pre-pubescent vocals that sound awful), but the other songs are bad. Really bad. They close the album with a song that comes off like they tried to mix circus music with metal and rock opera lyrics, and a country western tune complete with pedal-steel guitars.
I am expecting either a complete return to form on the next album, or a completely ridiculous release that kills their relevance.

On the other end of the scale, Alter Bridge returns (finally!) with a new release that does them justice. On their first album, they were basically Creed with a new singer. That's not really a bad thing, but it left many of us wondering why they didn't just continue under the Creed moniker. Blackbird is truly a release from a band that is no longer Creed. Singer Myles Kennedy contributed heavily to the composition of this new album, and the rest of the band molded itself in to a new entity.

Blackbird is still filled with the stunning guitar work of Mark Tremonti, but he breaks new ground here and manages to stay away from his signature Creed guitar riffs. They even changed his guitar tone for most of the album to further differentiate themselves from their former band.

All in all, Alter Bridge delivered a very listenable and enjoyable album while proving they are much more than just Creed with a new singer. Here's hoping that they can keep releasing good albums without weirding out like some other bands.

New knife (or short sword, depending on your viewpoint)

The old bathroom floor

Redoing the downstairs bathroom.

I somehow rope myself in to doing projects I had no intention of doing anytime soon.

Take the downstairs bathroom. I decided during a trip to Lowes, that I would simply remove the old, crappy linoleum and replace it with newer, self-stick tiles. Right.

That has quickly snowballed in to "Hey, as long as I'm replacing the flooring, I might as well get rid of this old, leaky faucet and replace it."

Which led to "Hey, as long as I'm replacing the faucet, I might as well replace the whole f**king sink too!"

At the rate I am going, I'm almost afraid that I might get the urge to burn the whole damn place down and start from scratch...

Verizon burns down an apartment and offers the couple in residence $1800 compensation

The article really bashes on Verizon like everyone in the universe has a problem with them. I have Verizon wireless and DSL, and I've always been pleased with the service.

However, for a multi-billion dollar company to cause the loss of over $50,000 worth of possessions and offer $1800 in compensation, that's a bit ridiculous.

STORY

Received: Guild Wars - Eye of the North

So it looks like I finally get to review an actual game again, instead of just hardware.

Of course, the last game I reviewed was the last Guild Wars release. Last year about this time. Poetic.

Update

I know, I know. I'm not updating very often as of late.

I apologize to anybody who reads my little blog. (All 2 or 3 of you...)

Crichton is doing well. Or he is until I kill him, anyway. Potty training is very frustrating, and he is pretty adamant that he is not going to cooperate. I can't wait until we get past this phase.

My band, 13 Steps, is also frustrating me. I've got this great guitar player who wants to come try out, but one of the current members is having issues with scheduling. Specifically, we schedule a practice, and then he lets his ex (or not ex, who knows...) use his truck and texts me asking for a ride. Uh...no. I'm a singer, not a taxi service. I let everyone practice at my place, foot the bill for the electricity, and put up all the ads, yet somehow I am expected to do more. Not happening anymore.

I'm also still looking for a drummer. Apparently they are a rare breed anymore.

Also, I'm playing unhealthy amounts of Hellgate: London in between bouts of fixing things around the house. It's like a futuristic Diablo. Shocking, since it's made by the same guys who made Diablo, and then split from Blizzard to form their own software company.

Don't worry, Crichton is fine...

... and I'm having s**tloads of fun potty training him.






Not really. It seems cleaning puppy pee has become my main hobby for the moment.

Poor Crichton is sick already...

Crichton had some bloody, watery stool this morning, so we had to take him to the emergency vet. (Which is not cheap...) The poor guy has some intestinal problems, so he's now on two different medicines, both of which we are assured taste horrible. He takes them like a trooper though, true to his heroic namesake.

Of course, he already doesn't like the vet, since they had to insert three separate things up his bum. He was not pleased with that.

And to top it all off, mean mommy and daddy decided that he needed to start crate-training anyway, since we both have to go to work tomorrow. He's downstairs now, crying up a storm. He was fine for a while, but the cat decided to go downstairs and torture him. She got locked in the back room of the basement for her trouble.

Daddy, Crichton, and Mr. T-Rex

We got a puppy!

He's a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. We named him Crichton. (My name is John Crichton - an astronaut...)

Gryphon!

DING!

After 10 months, I finally hit level 70 in World of Warcraft! Flying mount, here I come!

Driving home from Long Island

Spooky mask

The in-laws' house

We're spending some time with the in-laws due to the funereal proceedings. I just wanted to point out how green everything still is down here on Long Island. If you look very closely, you can see a couple of leaves that are yellow on the tree. It was in the high 70s/low 80s all week here, and muggy. In October.

Flowers from the funeral

Long Island Funereal Proceedings

My wife's grandmother died this week, so we are out here on Long Island for the wake and funeral this week. Or rather, she is here for that, I am here for moral support. I don't do funerals.

I just wanted to note that even though I am about 400 miles from home, squirrels are still making me insane.

And it's warm here. High 70s. October? Hello?

No, I don't think it's global warming. Global Warming is the boogeyman of the 21st century. He's big, mean, scary, and he doesn't actually f**king exist.

Moron the Breastest Dentist

See what I did there? Yeah...

An unofficial pole of the women at my workplace reveals the following information:

10 out of 10 women at ***** agree, this lady is a dips**t.

Funny posts on the WoW forums

Ladies and gents, I direct your attention to the most annoying kind of person found on forums:
The guy who thinks he is an intellectual, but is really a dumbass.

Yes, the post making fun of his guild name is by me. I can't help it. Having a misspelled guild name is like advertising the fact that you are an idiot.

Deadly Rouges - Makeup with built in ass-kicking!
Protectors of the Flam - We keep the deception going!
Harbringers of the Skull - We bring the skull all the Har it can handle!

Dentist claims breast massaging to treat TMJ

STORY

Question: If your dentist stuck his hand up your shirt and fondled your boobs, why the f**k would you keep going back to him so that he could do it six times?

Possible answers:

• You are a dumb b***h. Seriously.
• You liked it, but he did something to piss you off, so now you are trying to get revenge.
• You planned in advance to sue him after the first time, so you kept going back hoping the more he fondled you, the more money you could get. Which makes you a whore.

Jack Lalanne on turning 93

Fitness guru Jack Lalanne turned 93 on Sept. 26th of this year. He had this to say:

"I'm feeling great, and I have sex almost every day. Almost on Monday, almost on Tuesday, almost on Wednesday..."

Half-Life 2 Episode 2

I bought this the moment I could pre-order on STEAM, and played it the minute it was unlocked. I just finished it tonight, after playing casually between bouts of WoW.

WARNING: Spoilers Ahead!

Noooo! Not Robert Guillaume! Say it ain't so! I worked so hard to save him in Half-Life 2! Ah well. The game was short but sweet, with an ending that actually elicited an emotional response. And, they managed to tie in Portal to the plot. Nice.

Oh, and I believe Gordon Frohman from the webcomic Concerned made a guest appearance. (Even though he's supposed to be dead...) And, oh yeah, the LOST numbers appear on a PC screen in game, as well as a hidden Dharma Initiative poster. Very cool.

All in all, well worth the money for the game. I can't wait for the conclusion.

Another Chinese Toy Recall

Thanks to Kristy N. for passing this along.

Brewfest Ram Mount

Apparently it's World of Warcraft week or something. Anyway, I earned my new Epic mount today: A Swift Brewfest Ram.

Office Space and WoW

Because I'm on a YouTube kick today...

WoW Toyota Commercial

Too funny.

WoW Coke Commercial

More and more pervasive as the months crawl by....

Moonlight

I watched the premiere episode of the new TV series Moonlight today. My one word review:
Ugh.

Kevin Weisman (Marshal on Alias) was a guest star. That's the best I thing I can think to say about this God awful vampire show.

"Hey guys! I've got a great idea for a show! Let's rip off Forever Knight and Buffy, but make it really suck!"

Haha, suck. I get it.

Again. Ugh.

Penny Arcade on the Nintendo Blogging Issue

As always, click to view the original image.

Funny Work Stories: The Return of the Back Gate!

Long story short, I got an email at work today admonishing me for leaving the back gate open during the lightning storm last week. Apparently since I chose to write back to the first email explaining that I wasn't about to stand in the lightning storm and close the big metal gate, they chose to rip on me instead of understanding. I was told I need to follow procedure.

What f**king procedure? We have no procedure. You morons make this s**t up as you go along. How am I supposed to know what the procedure is when there isn't one until you decide that I'm not following it and need to be reprimanded?

So, I asked my supervisor. Apparently I was supposed to know that I needed to call a supervisor about the back gate. I advised him that I didn't think it was such an all important function of my job, but now that I know that they feel so strongly about it, I would be sure to call before leaving it open again. I also told him that in the future, letting me know ahead of time about "procedures" would avoid this type of headache for both of us.

He replies "I would have thought it was common sense."

Common sense? COMMON SENSE?!?!? You *string of expletives deleted*, common sense would have been you saw the fence was open, you realized that there was a huge storm, and you went on with your f**king life! Your "procedure" is going to arrive at the same f**king result with about 15 more steps, since regardless of what they say to me, I'm not closing that f**king gate in a lightning storm!

New WoW pet: Wolpertinger

I like collecting these strange things.

WoW: Brewfest!

This is what happens when you overdo it at Brewfest!

Strange Commentary

Most of the time, people in the forums at MMORPG.com leave two types of feedback about a hardware review:
1 - They agree; or
2 - They don't agree.

Either side of the "argument" has its share of intelligent comments and... not so intelligent comments.

For my G9 review, user PaulScott decided to buck the trend and post something that fits in an entirely different category. One I like to call WTF?

it's just a mouse.
you need a REALLY big ego to have a mouse like this.

I'm sorry, what exactly are you trying to say?
PaulScott later "clarifies" his position:

don't bother bringing a fancy mouse to work it's something they use to test
the size of your ego. for each button beyond two your ego is double the
size. and yes managers do pay attention to that.

Again: What? What are you talking about?

Checking PaulScott's profile, I find he claims to be 19. That would certainly fit in with his wacky theory that managers check your mouse button count. Maybe you work in a very strange office, though. Maybe you can quantify peoples egos with mouse button counts.

Or maybe your just f**king weird.

Finally made it through Blood Furnace

Took a long time to find a group who didn't wipe over and over on this ugly bastard.
The annoying part is, he's not even the final boss. He's the second to last, and he's probably one of the hardest dungeon bosses I've even run in to, simply because you get beat to a pulp by groups of orcs before he is released, and then you get no chance to heal and gain mana before he comes through the gates and kicks your ass.

Logitech G9 review up at MMORPG.com

Check it out HERE.

Obviously, I really liked it. However, after writing the review, I went right back to using the Razer DeathAdder as my main mouse.

Why? I don't know, so I can't explain it. I gave both mice the same score, I really like them both. Maybe I'm just so used to switching mice out every couple of weeks that I have to keep doing it.

Fired for Blogging?

I just read a story about a 23 year old woman fired by Nintendo for blogging. She had blog entries about work, but she did not mention her specific company, and changed the names of the people she was writing about. Apparently her boss recognized her from her picture.

I have one word for you: Sue.

Freedom of Speech apparently does not protect you from your employers whims, but if you do not mention their name, change or do not mention co-worker names, and generally avoid giving away who you really work for, you can probably sue them for firing you for it.

Then again, some people post racy pictures of themselves in company uniforms aboard company transportation and wonder why they got fired. That's just ignorant. If you took a Poloroid of yourself peeing on the boss's chair and stuck it in the breakroom, wouldn't you expect to get fired? This is like stealing a car and posting a video of the theft on YouTube. Duh.

I complain about my day job here quite often. I don't mention names, I never mention who I work for. I'm sure someone could figure it out by doing a little research, but it's not obvious. If I were to get fired for posting about the insane way this company is run, you bet your sweet ass I would sue the everloving s**t out of them for it.

Or burn the place down. It depends on how nuts they've made me on any given day.

Authors note: Threats of physical violence, arson, or other questionable activities are intended as humorous commentary. At no point in time did the author actually intend to carry out such activities or mean them to be taken for threats, real or imagined.
(i.e. Get a sense of humor, d**kwads...)

Funny Work Stories: The Lightning Rod

So I get an email today from one of my many bosses, wondering why I haven't closed the back parking lot gate the last two days when I left work.

Now, we play this game here all the time.Here's how it goes:

My "job" is to close the back gate when I leave. I have a key that fits inside a slot on the side of the building that can do this. This slot, obviously, is on the outside of the building. Sometimes, for obvious weather reasons, you don't want to stand there turning this key while the gate slowly closes.

Well, there exists a number of garage door openers - or "clickers" as we refer to them - that can close the gate remotely. You simply open the back door, click the button, and the gate closes while you are protected from inclement weather.

The man who emails my boss and complains about the back gate being left open is the very man who likes to hide all of these clickers so that the closing employee cannot find them. For the most part, I grin and bear this childish bulls**t because I need this job to pay my mortgage. Until I find another, less idiotic job, I have to deal with it.

Now, if you were to check the weather reports for the last two nights in the Binghamton, NY area, you would see that we had severe thunderstorms. We're talking small flash floods on the roads, hail, wind, and some crazy-ass lightning.

Ask yourself, does any job pay you enough to stand in the lightning storm, holding a metal key in a metal slot that is attached to the largest metal object in sight?

F**K NO!

Busy busy busy...

Well, I just knocked out another review. Logitech's G9 mouse down, uh...a few more to go. It's very easy to fall behind the amount of stuff being piled on my desk. When I started doing hardware reviews, I had no idea how much stuff we would pull in this year. It's a lot more than I could have ever dreamed. I like it!

I also have another interview for a full time job coming up, and I'm still waiting to hear about the last interview.

Oh, and I'm trying to divide me free time between Bioshock, Team Fortress 2, WoW, Zelda on the Wii, Ghost Recon 2, and Guild Wars. Yeah, that's not going to well, and next week Quake Wars gets added to the list. Ah well, it's all in good fun.

Razer Deathadder firmware issues: Press release

Dear Razer Gamers,

It has been brought to our attention that the Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse firmware version 1.21 has some compatibility issues with several recently released PC motherboards* (full list of affected chipsets and motherboards below) in the market. Such issues include instances where the mouse has intermittent power issues and exhibits undesired performance issues when plugged into this isolated range of PC motherboards.

We would like to thank the gamers who have helped us update the list of incompatible motherboards, which we are constantly updating and will be posting it onto our web sites if any other affected models are found.

We have released a new firmware update (Razer DeathAdder firmware version v1.25**) which addresses these compatibility issues for all Razer DeathAdder mice that are already on firmware version 1.21. Please note that all other owners of the Razer DeathAdder not using firmware version 1.21 (i.e. firmware version 1.1) are not affected by this compatibility issue.

In the meantime, all users with a Razer DeathAdder gaming mouse on firmware version 1.21 are advised to upgrade their firmware to version 1.25, even if your motherboard is not amongst those listed. This is to prevent any inconveniences that may occur should the mouse be brought to any LAN events and/or tournaments with computer systems using the conflicting PC motherboards.

The firmware is available for download at our Razer Support website here. For further assistance, please contact a Razer support staff on our website.

Razer is committed to providing all gamers with an arsenal of the best gaming peripherals and constantly ensures that all relevant platforms support Razer peripherals as intended.

* List of Motherboards:

• Intel 865P Chipset

• Intel 865PE Chipset

• NVIDIA nForce4 Ultra Chipset

• NVIDIA nForce 680i Chipset

• Intel P965 Express Chipset,

• Intel P965 Northbridge, i82801HR Southbridge

** Requires Razer DeathAdder driver version 1.08

Headquartered in San Diego, California, Razer™ collaborates with gamers to develop, manufacture and market cutting-edge gaming peripherals utilizing proprietary technologies that give gamers the competitive edge. Razer products have earned critical praise and won multiple awards from around the world for their precision, sensitivity, usability and distinctions in product design. Engineered to near perfection, Razer’s reputation of being the leader in gaming peripheral technology is embodied in every single Razer product. For more information, please visit www.razerzone.com.

Amazon MP3 store

Amazon is now selling MP3s. Why is this better than iTunes, Napster, or any of a host of other sites? It's a very simple answer:

Amazon sells DRM free MP3s.

What does that mean? It means you own that MP3 when you buy it. It means you can put it on all of your PCs (iTunes an others limit the number of PCs), it mean you can burn it to a CD to put in your car, you can copy it to an MP3 player, in short, you can pretty much do what you want with it, short of redistributing it.

All for the same price as an iTunes DRM loaded file. Nice.

ABC news has a story on it HERE.

I purchased several single songs, and an entire album tonight. The purchase was fast, and the downloads were very speedy. And the MP3s are all 256kbps encoded, so they sound great. I've been waiting for this service to go live for a long time, and I'm very happy with it now. The only tiny problem is that not all labels/artists have signed on yet, so you can't find every song you want, but I think most of them will sign on in time.

Stargate Atlantis Season 4 Premiere

STARGATE ATLANTIS (Season 4) premieres Friday SEPTEMBER 28 at 10PM - Watch it LIVE! - Let others know 9/28 is the Official 1st Watch it LIVE day. Stargate fans across the nation need to band together for this- no DVR's.

Of course, I don't have cable, myself, but you can bet I will be getting it from iTunes as soon as it is available.

Robert Jordan's wife posts epilogue to his life

Dragonmount Post

Razer Copperhead review up @ MMORPG.com

Razer Copperhead Review

Ridiculous double standards in the workplace

Leaving a job:
If the company needs to lay you off for any reason: You are out of there immediately!
If your boss gets pissed at you: So long, terminated immediately!
If you screw up one too many times: Hasta la vista, pronto!

If you get so fed up with taking crap from people you work with, customers, and management; If you are annoyed by working years with only one raise, knowing that incompetent baboons unqualified to do their jobs make a lot more than you; If you are tired of doing other peoples' jobs on top of your own; If you are expected to work 10 hour days at the office and then take calls for hours at home, in the middle of the night, and during holidays; If you are so sick of policies that seem designed to make your life difficult and piss the customers off so that you lose more business that you ACTUALLY GO AND FIND ANOTHER JOB:

We expect you to give us two weeks notice. It's common courtesy.

Sure, bend me over and give it to me without lube for two and a half year and then expect me to turn around and thank you for the pleasure. I got your common courtesy, right f**king here, buddy!

When they ought to be thanking Jesus that you haven't showed up shirtless, wearing a red headband, and screaming Rambo quotes while you fire an M-60 in to the crowd, they are instead worried that you might somehow inconvenience them on the way out by not giving them two weeks to replace you. F**king amazing.

Vista Start Menu: Changing the Power Button Function

This is the quick and dirty way to make the power button on the Vista Start menu actually turn off your PC, instead of putting it to sleep.

1. Click the start button (The little Windows flag on the bottom left of the screen, duh.)
2. In the search bar, type: CMD - hit enter
3. In the command prompt window that opens, type: powercfg.cpl,1 - hit enter
4. A Power Options window will open.
5. Expand the Power buttons and lid section (click the little plus sign, dummy)
6. Expand the Start menu power button section (the little plus, again)
7. Click either On battery or Plugged in and use the dropdown menu to select Shut Down
8. Click OK and you're all set!

Talk like a pirate day!

Today be t' international Talk Like A Pirate Day holiday, matey! Arr!

SITE

Excellent tribute to Robert Jordan by Woody Hern

Nebraska State Senator Sues God Over Natural Disasters

STORY

He is suing to protest laws against frivolous lawsuits. He says that frivolous lawsuits are protected by the Constitution. Sure, a**hole, let's let everybody sue everybody for anything they can think of, and tie up the justice system forever. That's a great plan.

Associated Press coverage of Robert Jordan's death

HERE

LFG says goodbye to Robert Jordan

Sohmer at the webcomic LFG posted a farewell message to Robert Jordan today.

Read it HERE.

George R.R. Martin says goodbye to Robert Jordan

LINK

One of my favorite authors mourns the passing of another of my favorite authors.

Robert Jordan passed away yesterday, 09/16/2007

Rest in peace, James Oliver Rigney, Jr. (October 17, 1948 – September 16, 2007).

RJ died after a protracted battle with a rare disease.

Of course, he did not finish his long running series. He was in the middle of writing the last book, Memories of Light, when he passed. Two people, his "brother/cousin" Wilson, and his wife, Harriet, were privy to the plot. Only time will tell if they allow it to be finished by someone else.

Read the sad tale HERE

KEK

Kek - v. - A word used by people with low IQs to denote that they have just beaten you to a pulp. This is almost always used when someone attacks you while you are already in the middle of a fight, low on health and mana, and the enemy has four or five friends along. The word is used to denote their supposed superiority over a fallen enemy - one they could not have beaten in a fair fight.

Game Fuel on Penny Arcade

COMIC

This made me laugh. If you click news below the comic, you'll see they also have the same high opinion of this drink that I do.

Anti-Spam laws challenged by Free Speech claims

STORY

It's already been established that there are limits to Free Speech. One is free to scream "Fire!" in their private residence until they are blue in the face. One is certainly not free to do the same in a crowded public place.

One is free to walk around spewing their personal opinion all day long. One is not free to walk around following somebody and spewing that same opinion at them over and over.

The lawyer in this case is basically trying to justify his client's actions by calling them anonymous free speech, a right protected by the Constitution. Unfortunately, his client's action are more akin to posting fliers with ads on other peoples' private property, using stolen supplies and driving a stolen vehicle.

Razer Tarantula review up at MMORPG.com

Razer Tarantula Review

SSD - Solid State Drive

I was excited today when I received an email from Alienware stating that they now have a laptop equipped with the new Solid State Drive.

For those who are unaware, this is basically the future of the Hard Disk Drive. Instead of using the old platters that spin at high speeds while being read, the SSD uses technology similar to what USB data drives (keychain drives) use. This is good, since it consumes a lot less power, and is a lot less likely to fail. (No moving parts to break down over time.) It's also quite a bit faster.

I had read about these a while ago, and was keeping track of the progress for a bit, and then I forgot about it. Until the email. Of course, I just bought a laptop from Dell, and I'm certainly not going to pay Alienware the premium they charge just for their name, but I figured I could head to Newegg.com and check to see if they had any.

And by God, they do have some SSDs!

FOR OVER $400 A PIECE! And we're talking 16 GB IDE drives for that price. Uh...I think I will pass for now, thanks. I guess I'll be waiting until the prices come way down on these before purchasing one, considering that for $400 I can buy almost a TB of storage with a SATA interface.

Oh well, the concept is still cool.

Vista Recycle Bin missing from desktop

If you're like me, you've probably deleted the Recycle Bin from your Windows Vista desktop by clicking delete instead of empty recycle bin. Don't panic! It's really easy to get it back.

1. Right click your desktop and select Personalize.
2. On the window that appears, you will see Change desktop icons on the top left. Click it.
3. At the top of the pop-up window, check Recycle Bin, and then click OK.

Tada! Now your pretty little Vista Recycle Bin is back on your desktop, where you can accidentally delete again in the future.

St. George police officer violates citizen's rights

And this is why people don't like the police.


Another link, with video of the incident.

Indiana Jones 4 now has a title

And no, it's not Geriatric Jones and the Nursing Home of Doom. Although that might be appropriate.

It's Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull, and it's set to open May 22nd, 2008. I may be a little skeptical of the quality, but you can bet your ass I'm going to be there anyway. (And why not, I subjected myself to Star Wars Episode 2 and 3 even after seeing the first one...)

Received: Dell 1720 Laptop

DHL dropped this puppy off for me this afternoon. I've been configuring it for a couple of hours now. (Taking off Dell bloatware, installing my programs.) Of course, the first thing the laptop did was bluescreen while setting up Vista, so I'm not entirely confident that it's going to live up to my expectations.

In about a month, I will be writing up a review for MMORPG.com.

LASIK: 1 month checkup

I went for my one month checkup today. The doctor tells me I am healing well. He told me I should be pretty much where I am going to stay, vision wise.

Right now that's 20/20 in my right eye, and 20/25 in my left. Not too shabby.

WV Ho!

Our friends Pat and Ame left to go back to WV today. Hopefully we will get them to move up here someday soon.

BBQ at the Star house...

Had a bunch of old friends over for a BBQ today.

Chris, Tony and Pat admiring my grilling skills...

Ame and my wife...

Chris and Tony

Motherf**ker had 18 empty beer bottles on my porch before we ate dinner and couldn't figure out why he was drunk....

Tom and Sunny.

Even though it rained like a motherf**ker the whole time, we still had fun, and managed to drink a lot of alcohol. Three cheers for moving the grill to the garage!

BTW, thanks for peeing in my bushes, you douche-monkeys.