FNFD.BLOG

After several months of installing patches, and reading help message board posts, I finally managed to get Spore to run on my computer. And thus ending any hope that I will ever leave the house other than for work. Well, at least for now, I typically get really involved in some unending minor part of a game and eventually stop progressing through the main plot and then one day stop playing. Which reminds me that my empire in the space phase is primarily an economic one, so all I really do is fly around and buy something in one star system and then try to sell it for a better price elsewhere, set up trade routes, and eventually buy planets from other empires. It certainly beats me needing to find my own planets.

Not that there isn’t a good chance I’ll stop trading and spend all my time terraforming planets to make them more habitable. That one seems like eventually the other empires will notice I’m not doing things for them anymore and then they will stop being my friends. Which as near as I can tell just means they won’t always come running to me when someone attacks them, or some animal on their planet has a disease (which means I need to hunt it down and shoot it with my laser. Spore: It’s not for vegans).

Oh well, the roommate is back tomorrow, so I probably can’t hang out in my room all the time anymore. And if the weather stays like this for a while, I probably won’t anyways. I got outside to do some garden stuff today; After the frost the things that were still alive were pretty dead. I probably could have resurrected one of the tomatoes since it had a few leaves down near the base still alive, but i think it would be better to just get all the grass and weeds out of the plot and start over again.

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I’m almost certain there was a story in there somewhere, but it got kind of lost in the “someone put the Blair Witch camera work in a cement mixer.” It probably is pretty authentic of what would happen if you gave a camera to someone who has never seen one before and then had him flee New York, but an authentic documentary of what not to do with a camera may not have been the primary goal. I have a fairly strong constitution, but watching this movie made me feel like I’ve been on a really poorly maintained rollercoaster, suffering from headache and nausea.

Other than that, it wasn’t too bad. There was a big monster, things collapsed and exploded, people acted against their own best interests (ie the interest of not being killed) with predictable results. In general, a monster movie. And one in which I hope that somewhere out there there is someone who was able to watch closely enough, long enough to tell me what was going on.

On the plus side, there as a preview for Ironman, which could very well be an actually good movie based on a Marvel comic.

Filed under: I'm a geek, Scott Complaining
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Over the last few months, my computer has been having more and more problems of the “freeze up and then refuse to boot anymore” type. So, it’s been getting time to upgrade, and since I don’t do that very often, when I do, no new component is compatible with anything I already have, so I have to do everything at once.

This leads to the problem of trying to figure out where the problem is if (or more accurately, when) it doesn’t work, since I have no way of testing the individual components.

Which leads us here:

The bare minimum bits of the old computer needed to run so that I have something to use while I fight with the various problems that have taken residency in the case they used to occupy.

I’m going to have to remember to A) Not put my feet in it, and B) Turn if off when I’m done so the cat doesn’t lick it.

In other, less home bound news, I went and played some whiffleball with some MeetIN people yesterday. I’m not sure 2 on 3 with copious use of ghost runners is regulation whiffleball, but it was a pretty good time. Particularly considering that I was on the team of 2 and we won quite handily during the almost complete inning we actually played. It was very hot, and we had other things to go do.

Like watch a modified version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream in a park in Sierra Madre. The essential change was of the “What if it was set on 1950’s Georgia college campus where the Dean for some reason has the power to execute students who don’t marry who their father wants them to marry?” Even if I do make fun of the premise a bit, it was a good show, and now I want to see a more traditional version to see what is in it and what was added for this version.

Filed under: I'm a geek, Scott Complaining
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“Oh yeah,” I said to myself, “summer time is the time of blockbuster movies, and more importantly, movies are air conditioned.”

Since I am a male child of the 80’s, I had to see Transformers. Since I am a Transformers nerd, I really could have done with more giant robots and less “Teen guy gets the girl who is “out of his league”, but really isn’t because she has %secret backstory making them compatible%.” Not that I’m bitter or anything, what with the number of times I stole the girl away from the football star back in high school, I’m just thinking it may not be the ideal primary plot thread for a movie whose main audience will be A) Children who want to see giant robots blow things up and B) Adults who would willingly go see a movie based on toys from their childhood, not to mention the blowing up of things. Very important is the blowing up of things.

Anyways, if I have a point, it’s that the movie is named Transformers, so, perhaps the primary story should focus on the Transformers. If I had a second point it would be rabid fanboy ranting about character design, which could easily go on for days. Fortunately, I do no have a second point, because I’m trying hard to avoid the trade off in extra geek cred for the loss of whatever normal person cred I’ve ever acquired. Which isn’t much, but it’s all I have. And I’m probably down to a sliver after somehow finding a reason to discuss lich paralysis at work on Friday.

It’s just sometimes, the words that come out of my mouth don’t get run through the “appropriate context” filter. It all looks good in the moment, you touch a spider, it falls over on its side motionless, you say it’s paralyzed because you are a lich, and lich paralysis is permanent. And then the context filter catches up. I blame the new guy at work, fresh out of college, has that shiny passion for life coating still on him. Makes me move back towards my college memories and things I’m passionate about. Both of which tend to fall into the geeky subculture.

Looking back, I see that I’m supposed to be talking about a movie. So, yeah, I felt it was a pretty good movie if it is judged for itself in terms that there is action and some sort of plot. It can’t compete with one’s memories of childhood though, which I guess would be hard to do.

Filed under: I'm a geek
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Cowon D2 PMP

* 2.5 inch QVGA (320×240) 16 million color 24 bit LCD touch screen.
* 30fps video playback
* TV ouput
* Available in black (2GB and 4GB) or white (Only 4GB)
* Audio codecs include MP3, Ogg, Flac, Wav, WMA
* Video codecs include WMV, MPEG4 (Divx, Xvid)
* Image viewer in JPG format
* Plain Text viewer
* Audio recording capable
* FM radio
* SD/SDHC and MMC card reader slot
* Up to 52 hours music, 10 hours video

So far I’m pretty happy with it. Ok, so maybe all I’ve done is transfered music onto it and listened some, but still happy. I don’t seem to have any video to transfer over, but at some point in the near future I’ll probably buy a DVD drive for my computer (the old one went crazy, and the spare I thought I had turned out to be a CD-ROM drive), and start figuring out how to convert video. Which could be a nice thing to have for the flights I’m planning next month for family visiting. If it doesn’t work out, at least I’ll have music to listen to.

Filed under: I'm a geek
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So, on Sunday it was “Help Melody Move Day.” It seemed to go without much trouble, there were at times as many as 15 people helping. Or maybe not so much helping as being there, but at least there were enough people around for the various heavy appliances. It’s a good looking place, two bedrooms, 1 bath, nice big living room and kitchen, detached studio with it’s own kitchen and bathroom for massage use, fenced in back yard and a front yard. I’m a bit jealous. Apparently something fell on me at some point because I appear to have some bruises along one arm by my shoulder.

Today there was a company picnic, so other than two hours this morning to take care of the essentials, I had the day off.

Tom, Michelle, Dali, Eva, Soon, and Francis in the back

There was food and cotton candy and, obviously, snow cones and various games, some for the children (since it was a family event) and some not. We played some volleyball and some softball. I managed to get hit in the back with the softball, it got thrown to me after I’d turned away, I don’t think it hurt me much though, probably just a circular bruise under my shoulderblade.

I spent some time trying out my new camera, a Nikon D50 DSLR with 18-55 and 55-200mm lenses. Even without being able to use the more advanced settings yet, I think I’m doing pretty well with it. Needing to swap out lenses will take some getting used to, but I love the response time on the shutter and it takes nice pictures.

There was initially some trouble in gettng the camera of the type where if you find a listing of what a digital camera online scam looks like, that’s exactly what happened. So, I cancelled that order, and with any luck it really is cancelled, but I’ll be watching my credit card just to be sure. I ended up getting it locally due to the two lens kit not being in stock anywhere reputable online. I got pretty lucky in that they happened to have the telephoto lens, but weren’t really sure why they had it since it wasn’t the one someone had paid for and they were waiting for it to come in. So I got it. Also they were running a promotion in which I got a rebate, and a 1GB SD card, and a tripod I’ll probably never use, and a carrying case that I might, but will probably look for one a bit smaller. I seem to have spent the rebate on UV filters, but it wasn’t too bad of a price, and being able to just take it home is always a plus.

In other news, my hosting company has moved me in some way that while I can still ftp things to where I always did, there is no way to access them other than by ftp. So, I had to figure out where I have to ftp to now. And if there is a picture showing, I suceeded.

Filed under: General, I'm a geek
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Friday: The last going out with the people at work in the forseeable future.

The person who plans all of our happy hour type activities had her last day with us on Friday, and is now off to Monterey to try to open a restaurant. As she was well liked, it was quite the event with just about everyone coming out to buy her a drink, or other people drinks, or just random unclaimed drinks. I’m pretty good about pacing myself, so I didn’t have any trouble getting home, although, things where a bit questionable round about 7 where I ended up with two tequilla shots essentially back to back. One being “Take a shot with Kim” and the other being “Take Kim’s shot too because ???” I’m sure there was a reason, but I don’t think anyone ever told me.

I always seem to leave just before the interesting things happen. Which I guess means I need to stop leaving.

Saturday: Hooray work and stuff.

Only about an hour at work, so it wasn’t too bad. Then off to do general shopping. I got a 1GB flash drive for $25, so that was a nice find. I don’t expect it to last long for that price, but I don’t really care. I also continued the never-ending quest for new hiking boots. I was close to getting a pair, but they just didn’t quite fit right, so I didn’t. Someday I’ll find you, oh legendary size 8 1/2.

Sunday: Oh right, with the destroying of the world.

I finished Might and Magic VI. That was pretty much my day. When you destroy the alien reactor at the end, you have to use a special item, or it will explode and destroy the world. I always forget about that. But on the plus side, if you do happen to forget, it still says “Congratulations!” on the ending screen. It just explains that you’ve done something wrong as well and now everyone is dead.

Monday: Yay! More work. And food.

Back to work for 4 hours or so. Nothing was horribly wrong, so it was pretty easy. Then it was off to Melody’s for some vegan BBQ. MmmMm….corn, and gluten, and probably soy. And perhaps some of the best peanut butter and chocolate rice crispy treats I’ve ever had.

Oh, and I was supposed to meet someone I might get set up with. And I met her, but apparently no sparks were observed, so that’s probably not going anywhere. So, now I’m waiting until someone from Huston I’m supposed to marry visits in July.

Filed under: Geek Love, General, I'm a geek
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Serenity synopsis with hand puppets

I found it generally cute and amusing.

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Google+Mars=Love

I’m now very happy I figured out what setting I needed to turn back on to be able to see Google maps pictures. Now I can look at Mars, and the locations of things on Mars, like the rovers Spirit and Opportunity.

I don’t know why I like Mars so much. Maybe because I’m an Ares, and Mars and Ares are analogous gods. Maybe because it’s the closest planet one could survive landing on with reasonable planning and equipment and I’d like to go there. I think I may have mentioned it in my livejournal sometime that I’d still go, knowing that it would be a one-way trip.

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Ever notice that the Romance and Sci-fi/Fantasy sections in book stores are always next to each other? It’ s not just that they come next to each other alphabetically, I’ve noticed other sections being randomly scattered about. I think it’s some sort of social experiment on the part of the book stores. Trying to mix two things that cannot be mixed, like oil and water, cats and dogs, women with somewhat unfulfilled sex lives and geeky guys…..wait, I think I’m seeing the up side now. Apparently whoever lays out the stores deserves some sort of prize.

I need to start shopping for books more often, by which I mean, being in a book store and paying close attention to those whose author begins with “A”

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