Thursday, March 31, 2011
Exciting new features!
The ear from a Dungeon Lords imp works amazingly well for opening the shrink wrap on a new board game...
My new favorite way to crash a server...
(...as revealed by one of the developers for Rift on a podcast...) Apparently, during Beta 1 he logged into the game as a GM user, and tried to spawn monsters to "help out"; but he reversed the quantity and the monster's object ID, which tried to spawn several million of the mobs... And the entire server came down.
I'm highly amused.
I'm highly amused.
Sunday, March 27, 2011
An end-of-winter's eve...
So it's starting to get late on a Sunday, and - instead of sitting around the house, or vegging out and playing computer games quite yet - I decided the weather was far too nice to pass up and have gone up to Peebles Island to sit at a table and do just a little bit of writing. Not much - after all, soon it'll be sundown, and the park will close - but just a little bit of peace and quiet by the waterfront sounds like an excellent plan to me. The temperature isn't perfect, I'll admit. In fact, it's a bit chilly even for me. Still, that being said, I can't imagine any other way that being at home would be superior right now. The sun is shining, the sky is clear, the birds are calling, and the little things that people do as their days wind down are going on around me. A couple of people are fishing here at the park, and I can see a couple more on the boat-ramp across the river to the east. Two lovers are cuddling at a picnic table near the pavillion, and I passed three pairs walking dogs on my way in (I say "pairs", because at least one pair appeared to be mother and daughter).
Funnily enough, there are seven wireless networks in range of me now, and I'm truly impressed. Two from the Troy Boatyard across the river (I have no idea why they're separate, but there you go); one from a visitor's center, and I have no clue where that is; and several more with unfathomable names. Technology is occasionaly surprising.
Soon, I'll head home. I'll put gas in the car, think about dinner, and decide what I'm doing for the rest of the evening. Hope I find Samantha online, log in to work to see if I can get a couple of things done, play y games for a little while. But for now, I'm out here, I'm at peace for a little while, and I have no worries for just a little bit of my day.
Yeah I guess in the end of it, I had nothing really interesting to say. But a nice interlude-, it definitely is.
Funnily enough, there are seven wireless networks in range of me now, and I'm truly impressed. Two from the Troy Boatyard across the river (I have no idea why they're separate, but there you go); one from a visitor's center, and I have no clue where that is; and several more with unfathomable names. Technology is occasionaly surprising.
Soon, I'll head home. I'll put gas in the car, think about dinner, and decide what I'm doing for the rest of the evening. Hope I find Samantha online, log in to work to see if I can get a couple of things done, play y games for a little while. But for now, I'm out here, I'm at peace for a little while, and I have no worries for just a little bit of my day.
Yeah I guess in the end of it, I had nothing really interesting to say. But a nice interlude-, it definitely is.
Saturday, March 26, 2011
Friday, March 25, 2011
Mindful
I went out to my car this morning, and while cold, it was right and clear and looking like a great day. An hour and a half later at work, it was dark and overcast with snow showers. Now it's mostly blue skies (with scattered clouds, of course) and (if still cold) quite pleasant again.
Make up your damned mind! And stop getting my hopes up!
Frothing at the Mouth
I was just listening to one of my podcasts - "Fear The Boot", in this case - and they got very, very badly off-topic and spent most of it talking about artificial intelligence, as there was an AI researcher/scientist (Bob Arens, though the name wasn't familiar to me previously) at the convention. I mean, he was there playing/running games, but still. Anyway. They sidetracked very briefly into the Uncanny Valley, and someone commented that it might be an evolutionary response to things like Rabies, a theory I hadn't heard before. Pretty much, if it looks like a person, and acts like a person, and talks like a person, but isn't *quite right*... The safest response is frequently to run the hell away.
Interesting.
Interesting.
Thursday, March 24, 2011
Maybe a gong?
I realized this morning I'd never taken my pills yesterday. I have two alerts on my phone plus a big blue pill case I leave in plain sight, and yet I still forget. That probably had an effect on how I felt last night, too.
*sighs* I need a keeper.
Wednesday, March 23, 2011
Progress? Or just a progression?
So things have been surprisingly quiet over here recently. I find that I've been kindof drifting - not in a bad way, just... Quietly going through life and cruising from thing to thing. Except for being very tired at the moment (I didn't sleep an enormous amount the last two days) and slightly headachey, things are actually pretty good. So lets see, what's going on?
Well, this past weekend I spent with my son and my parents. All four of us took the dogs out to the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge/Walkway Across the Hudson for a very nice walk. The temperature was slightly on the chilly side, and the wind was up in the middle of the river, but it was still really quite a nice day to go out. Plus, I was happy to use my Empire Passport for the first time! Yay random fun.
Sunday, my son and mother and I worked on more plates and food for my niece's dollhouse. Y'see, we make it out of this clay that you bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 275 degrees, and it hardens quite nicely. I stuck with relatively innocuous things, like bananas, apples, strawberries, and the like. I did make a head of lettuce (which came out... okay), but that's about as advanced as I got. Aidan - being the far more adventurous type - made a cake, a couple of pies, a bearskin rug, an old banana (going brown, don't you know...), and a dog.
The dog, of course, was brown with a pink head and legs.
Monday, I had my son in the evening; played board games, got home at 8 to watch a little TV, didn't sleep nearly enough, and have been feeling it ever since.
Yesterday, I picked up my new (prescription) sunglasses, and bought a new jacket. Met a very nice woman at the store, and had a lovely conversation about her wedding on September 10th. She looked extremely familiar - I'm not sure if that's just my faintly remembering her from the previous time I was in there (which was a while ago) or if I'd seen her more recently at the other store she alluded to working at, or even just somewhere else entirely. Whatever - I like my new jacket. Still didn't catch up on sleep, still feel like crap.
Today? My plans are... Well, mostly, buy something to cook at the supermarker, cook it, and collapse. Because I *still* feel like crap, and I need more sleep than I've been getting.
Very exciting, huh? Bet you're sorry you asked.
Well, this past weekend I spent with my son and my parents. All four of us took the dogs out to the Poughkeepsie Railroad Bridge/Walkway Across the Hudson for a very nice walk. The temperature was slightly on the chilly side, and the wind was up in the middle of the river, but it was still really quite a nice day to go out. Plus, I was happy to use my Empire Passport for the first time! Yay random fun.
Sunday, my son and mother and I worked on more plates and food for my niece's dollhouse. Y'see, we make it out of this clay that you bake in the oven for 15 minutes at 275 degrees, and it hardens quite nicely. I stuck with relatively innocuous things, like bananas, apples, strawberries, and the like. I did make a head of lettuce (which came out... okay), but that's about as advanced as I got. Aidan - being the far more adventurous type - made a cake, a couple of pies, a bearskin rug, an old banana (going brown, don't you know...), and a dog.
The dog, of course, was brown with a pink head and legs.
Monday, I had my son in the evening; played board games, got home at 8 to watch a little TV, didn't sleep nearly enough, and have been feeling it ever since.
Yesterday, I picked up my new (prescription) sunglasses, and bought a new jacket. Met a very nice woman at the store, and had a lovely conversation about her wedding on September 10th. She looked extremely familiar - I'm not sure if that's just my faintly remembering her from the previous time I was in there (which was a while ago) or if I'd seen her more recently at the other store she alluded to working at, or even just somewhere else entirely. Whatever - I like my new jacket. Still didn't catch up on sleep, still feel like crap.
Today? My plans are... Well, mostly, buy something to cook at the supermarker, cook it, and collapse. Because I *still* feel like crap, and I need more sleep than I've been getting.
Very exciting, huh? Bet you're sorry you asked.
Tuesday, March 22, 2011
At least it's only in test!
"Come on! A whole 0.05% of our users have that set correctly! It can't be all bad.
/facepalm
/facepalm
Tuesday, March 15, 2011
A-shopping we shall go...
My ingredients list for Saturday:
0.25 cup (0.5 stick) butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1.25 teaspoons curry powder
0.5 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 cups small cauliflower florets
0.5 cup diced red bell pepper
0.5 cup chopped green onions
1.5 cups long-grain white rice
2 cups water
0.75 teaspoon salt
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
4 large garlic cloves, pressed
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary or 2 teaspoons dried
1.5 teaspoons coarse salt
0.5 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 2.5-pound boneless pork loin roast, well trimmed
Fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)
0.25 cup (0.5 stick) butter
1 tablespoon finely chopped peeled fresh ginger
1.25 teaspoons curry powder
0.5 teaspoon grated lemon peel
2 cups small cauliflower florets
0.5 cup diced red bell pepper
0.5 cup chopped green onions
1.5 cups long-grain white rice
2 cups water
0.75 teaspoon salt
1 cup frozen peas, thawed
4 large garlic cloves, pressed
4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary or 2 teaspoons dried
1.5 teaspoons coarse salt
0.5 teaspoon ground black pepper
1 2.5-pound boneless pork loin roast, well trimmed
Fresh rosemary sprigs (optional)
Monday, March 14, 2011
From the mouths of babes...
I just got off the phone with my ex. She was asking about a movie - Aidan's insisting that the "Thomas and the Magic Railroad" she has is different than the one I have (as far as I can tell, the only difference is the one she has is a DVD while the one I have is VHS) - but she also sarcastically thanked me for introducing him to Pokemon. Apparently, she's been refusing to watch it at home.
The part that's hilarious, though? His response, according to her, was "Well, you should just sit down and watch it for a couple of minutes. If you watched it, you'd understand."
She sounded sorta pissed. I just couldn't stop laughing.
The part that's hilarious, though? His response, according to her, was "Well, you should just sit down and watch it for a couple of minutes. If you watched it, you'd understand."
She sounded sorta pissed. I just couldn't stop laughing.
RE: Friday News Feedbag
"What's that stuff that's in tomatoes?"
"Ketchup?"
/facepalm
And yes, guys, I strongly suspect that if you investigate it, you'll find far more battles were historically fought in summer than in winter. I also strongly suspect you'll find it has far more to do with the difficulty of moving troops through mud and snow than with tempers from the weather. :)
"Ketchup?"
/facepalm
And yes, guys, I strongly suspect that if you investigate it, you'll find far more battles were historically fought in summer than in winter. I also strongly suspect you'll find it has far more to do with the difficulty of moving troops through mud and snow than with tempers from the weather. :)
Friday, March 11, 2011
A little humour for the evening...
Person 1: Knock Knock.
Person 2: Who's there?
Person 1: To.
Person 2: To who?
Person 1: To whom, surely!
-----
Q: What cheese do you use to coax a bear out of its cave?
A: Camambert!
(say it out loud)
Person 2: Who's there?
Person 1: To.
Person 2: To who?
Person 1: To whom, surely!
-----
Q: What cheese do you use to coax a bear out of its cave?
A: Camambert!
(say it out loud)
Thursday, March 10, 2011
267 Steps
Author's Note: this entry was written as one piece, but only the first portion is being posted publically. It is therefore appearing in some form on both my blogs. I suspect this won't really matter to many of you, but there ya' go.
267 steps; 162 seconds. That is what it took, today, to get me from my desk to my car. In that time:
I moved 34.785 miles due to the rotation of the earth. (The speed of rotation is 1674 hm/hr at the equator; that times the cosine of 42 degrees, where Albany is in North latitude, is 1244 km/hr, or 733 m/hr; and that's 0.21 m/sec, times 162 seconds.)
675 people were born (per answers.com and 4.17 birthsper second)
291 people died (per answers.com and 1.8 deaths per second)
Someone working minimum wage at the Subway where I had lunch earned $0.32 (per NY's current minimum wage of $7.25.) Yes, this is significantly less than I make.
The US's public debt increased by $8,491,438.36 (found by taking Wikipedia's increase in 2010 of $1,653 billions and dividing by 31,536,000 seconds per 365 days.)
My cat Boggart's heart beat 432 times (per answers.com's low-end rate of 160 bpm and the assumption he's currently asleep on my pillow).
78,466,909.1 gallons of water went over Niagara Falls (based on Wikipedia's average flow rate of 64,750 ft/sec and 7.48 gallons per cubic foot.)
267 steps; 162 seconds. That is what it took, today, to get me from my desk to my car. In that time:
I moved 34.785 miles due to the rotation of the earth. (The speed of rotation is 1674 hm/hr at the equator; that times the cosine of 42 degrees, where Albany is in North latitude, is 1244 km/hr, or 733 m/hr; and that's 0.21 m/sec, times 162 seconds.)
675 people were born (per answers.com and 4.17 birthsper second)
291 people died (per answers.com and 1.8 deaths per second)
Someone working minimum wage at the Subway where I had lunch earned $0.32 (per NY's current minimum wage of $7.25.) Yes, this is significantly less than I make.
The US's public debt increased by $8,491,438.36 (found by taking Wikipedia's increase in 2010 of $1,653 billions and dividing by 31,536,000 seconds per 365 days.)
My cat Boggart's heart beat 432 times (per answers.com's low-end rate of 160 bpm and the assumption he's currently asleep on my pillow).
78,466,909.1 gallons of water went over Niagara Falls (based on Wikipedia's average flow rate of 64,750 ft/sec and 7.48 gallons per cubic foot.)
Friday, March 4, 2011
A The Mystic's Dream...
Browsing through my music, I hit this song and was reminded how much I love Loreena McKenitt. I wonder if I could get my son to listen to Celtic music?
Thursday, March 3, 2011
Not terribly PC, but it amuses me...
On Terrorist Threats (by John Cleese): The English are feeling the pinch in relation to recent terrorist threats and have therefore raised their security level from "Miffed" to "Peeved." Soon, though, security levels may be raised yet again to "Irritated" or even "A Bit Cross." The English have not been "A Bit Cross" since the blitz in 1940 when tea supplies nearly ran out. Terrorists have been re-categorized from "Tiresome" to "A Bloody Nuisance." The last time the British issued a "Bloody Nuisance" warning level was in 1588, when threatened by the Spanish Armada. The Scots have raised their threat level from "Pissed Off" to "Let's get the Bastards." They don't have any other levels. This is the reason they have been used on the front line of the British army for the last 300 years. The French government announced yesterday that it has raised its terror alert level from "Run" to "Hide." The only two higher levels in France are "Collaborate" and "Surrender." The rise was precipitated by a recent fire that destroyed France's white flag factory, effectively paralyzing the country's military capability. Italy has increased the alert level from "Shout Loudly and Excitedly" to "Elaborate Military Posturing." Two more levels remain: "Ineffective Combat Operations" and "Change Sides." The Germans have increased their alert state from "Disdainful Arrogance" to "Dress in Uniform and Sing Marching Songs." They also have two higher levels: "Invade a Neighbor" and "Lose." Belgians, on the other hand, are all on holiday as usual; the only threat they are worried about is NATO pulling out of Brussels. The Spanish are all excited to see their new submarines ready to deploy. These beautifully designed subs have glass bottoms so the new Spanish navy can get a really good look at the old Spanish navy. Australia , meanwhile, has raised its security level from "No worries" to "She'll be alright, Mate." Two more escalation levels remain: "Crikey! I think we'll need to cancel the barbie this weekend!" and "The barbie is canceled." So far no situation has ever warranted use of the final escalation level.
My poor cat. My big adventure yesterday was his first trip to the vet. And yes, blah, blah, I've had him for a year and a half, how could I be so cruel as for it to be my first trip to the vet with him... Okay, lets just take as given how horrible a person I am and move on. He's been having various troubles with his mouth for a little while, including utterly freaking out whenever you try to get close and see it or something similar, so I took him in. The vet checked him out, and said "well, he has really severe gingivitis and a secondary infection in the lymph nodes in his neck."
The vet, of course, could not get the cat to open his mouth, so we were not able to look for a cause to the inflammation and infection. Not that I blame him - he had enough fresh scratch-marks on his hands from other pets that day, and Boggart isn't exactly helpful about your getting in to his mouth.
The vet then was talking about FLV and FIV, because - apparently - feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency disease (or "feline aids", as the vet - but not the assistant - called it) are the two most common causes of a severe mouth infection. And I, of course, hadn't been able to find his immunization records before taking him in, so we had him tested. The test came back negative for both, thank god; but that left us with little more than a mystery and a bill.
So now my cat is on oral antibiotics twice a day (yeah, lets try and imagine how much fun *that* is with a cat who doesn't want someone touching their gums?), and I'm supposed to be away for two days this weekend, and my roommate won't do the antibiotics while I'm gone. And the vet "strongly suggested" anesthetising the cat and getting his teeth cleaned, which I can't afford right now either way. And he's pissed, because last night and this morning I caught him, wrapped him tightly in a blanket, and then fought him for 15 minutes to get 1 ml of apparently-bad-tasting-liquid down his throat.
*sighs*
Time to call the vet and find out if it needs to be a consistent course, or if he can miss Saturday's two and Sunday morning's. Depending on that, I'll figure it out. Just frustrating.
Oh. This is the vet where Elendil was put down, a couple of weeks back; and apparently they only had one vet on duty, and it was busy. So I spent almost an hour and a half in the room where Elendil was killed. *That* did not put me in the best of moods. I should have just asked to be moved.
The vet, of course, could not get the cat to open his mouth, so we were not able to look for a cause to the inflammation and infection. Not that I blame him - he had enough fresh scratch-marks on his hands from other pets that day, and Boggart isn't exactly helpful about your getting in to his mouth.
The vet then was talking about FLV and FIV, because - apparently - feline leukemia and feline immunodeficiency disease (or "feline aids", as the vet - but not the assistant - called it) are the two most common causes of a severe mouth infection. And I, of course, hadn't been able to find his immunization records before taking him in, so we had him tested. The test came back negative for both, thank god; but that left us with little more than a mystery and a bill.
So now my cat is on oral antibiotics twice a day (yeah, lets try and imagine how much fun *that* is with a cat who doesn't want someone touching their gums?), and I'm supposed to be away for two days this weekend, and my roommate won't do the antibiotics while I'm gone. And the vet "strongly suggested" anesthetising the cat and getting his teeth cleaned, which I can't afford right now either way. And he's pissed, because last night and this morning I caught him, wrapped him tightly in a blanket, and then fought him for 15 minutes to get 1 ml of apparently-bad-tasting-liquid down his throat.
*sighs*
Time to call the vet and find out if it needs to be a consistent course, or if he can miss Saturday's two and Sunday morning's. Depending on that, I'll figure it out. Just frustrating.
Oh. This is the vet where Elendil was put down, a couple of weeks back; and apparently they only had one vet on duty, and it was busy. So I spent almost an hour and a half in the room where Elendil was killed. *That* did not put me in the best of moods. I should have just asked to be moved.
Tuesday, March 1, 2011
More randomness
Today's random word: Shining. From the iTunes search...
"Shining", by Phil Wickham, had a nice sound, but I didn't really like it. As an aside, I am bemused that the last 8 or 10 iTunes searches I did for music came up with a Christian artist in the top three results. Odd coincidence.
"Shining", by Girugamesh, was definitely noteworthy; the band themselves are fairly good. However, it reminded me too much of the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack for me to want to spend money on it.
The album "Shining" by Blackjazz just wasn't my style of music *at all*.
The album "Shining" by Neil Greenhaw is in fact yet another contemporary Christian artist. I rather preferred his sound to Phil Wickham, but the lyrics annoyed me enough I'm going to be forced to pass.
"Shining" by The Misfits (from their wonderful album, "American Psycho") again just wasn't my type of music. Very much a pass.
Last on the front page, "Shining" by MTC, from their album "Buddha Lounge 5", was actually quite good. From listening to the sample, it came across sortof as a mix of Macy Gray (that is, the singer reminded me of her) and Portishead or Massive Attack. Going through more of their songs, the Massive Attack vibe got much stronger, though with a bit more... Livelihood. "Cuba Libre", for example, is a song Massive Attack could never make - I think their brains would melt from the beat. All in all, though, very good. I'll have to look in to them more later.
"Shining", by Phil Wickham, had a nice sound, but I didn't really like it. As an aside, I am bemused that the last 8 or 10 iTunes searches I did for music came up with a Christian artist in the top three results. Odd coincidence.
"Shining", by Girugamesh, was definitely noteworthy; the band themselves are fairly good. However, it reminded me too much of the Final Fantasy VII soundtrack for me to want to spend money on it.
The album "Shining" by Blackjazz just wasn't my style of music *at all*.
The album "Shining" by Neil Greenhaw is in fact yet another contemporary Christian artist. I rather preferred his sound to Phil Wickham, but the lyrics annoyed me enough I'm going to be forced to pass.
"Shining" by The Misfits (from their wonderful album, "American Psycho") again just wasn't my type of music. Very much a pass.
Last on the front page, "Shining" by MTC, from their album "Buddha Lounge 5", was actually quite good. From listening to the sample, it came across sortof as a mix of Macy Gray (that is, the singer reminded me of her) and Portishead or Massive Attack. Going through more of their songs, the Massive Attack vibe got much stronger, though with a bit more... Livelihood. "Cuba Libre", for example, is a song Massive Attack could never make - I think their brains would melt from the beat. All in all, though, very good. I'll have to look in to them more later.
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