Friday, December 29, 2006

The World Peace Process

Oh Snap!

(This by the way was stolen from Stephen Colbert, and is, to date, the greatest pun ever.)

Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Greatest Work

So I started out with a fairly simple goal in my most recent grand piratry project. Since then it's become a grand celebration of that which is holds. The only way it could pay more tribute is if I legally aquired the various bits of it, but those aren't out for legal resale yet anyway. I started with just one CD, now I've got most of the work done on a DVD set with a bonus CD, complete with disc art. I even managed to work in bonus tracks. It's going to be awsome.

Tuesday, December 26, 2006

Screwup / Collectors Edition

I was looking back on that series of images I posted in edit posts mode and noticed it listed twice. I deleted one, and apparently that one was the real one. So I'm reposting, essentially for myself.




Amusings

#1. The word Amusings. That was actually a typo at first, but now it's a hybrid word showing that these are amusing musings.

#2. My laptop has always had heat issues. It turns out I can use these as a warming plate for less then fresh biscuits

#3. I can't find my WoW CDs, but I can run CoV which has finally gotten over its last patch, which was apparently applied by holding the new content up against the server and beating it repeatedly with a crowbar. This means that I can finally play with Mayhem Missions, which are literally sending you and your team into the City of Heroes setting, and you all just run along blowing shit up, taking out the law enforcers which try to stop you, and eventually Rob a Bank. In the classic drama of a comic book setting a superhero will show up just as you open the vault. Breaking the classic rules though you, as a supervillain, can then pummel that hero into dust. Shoot a few more cops and run away. Taking all that in mind it's at least a bad sign, if not an ominous portent, how much I enjoy those.

Monday, December 25, 2006

X-Mas

Ahh X-mas. Today we gather to celebrate the glorious plenty of America, and pay homage to Illuiminor, god of brightly lit objects. And now I'm off to do what I do every X-mas. Make fun of my Jewish friends.

Sunday, December 24, 2006

Written on the Walls

If the fundament is a projection of the collective conscious, rather then something that the conscious is subjected to, then it is created by The Lord God, because the collective consciousness is simply the surface of the source, and the source is God.

If it is a projection by God then it's motivation may be made clear. The projection is experienced from the infinite perspectives that make up the overmind, and hence make up God. All of reality as we know it, the Fundament, may simply be an effort by God to observe itself. If one is all things, and all things exist within oneself then where is there to look but within.

If this is true that the tendency of people who are spiritually inclined to look within themselves, and the cross cultural religious phenomenon of hearing God speaking from withing oneself is simply an extension of what the overmind itself is doing. The theory that these people are more sensitive to it is strengthened by this, because they feel the will of the all being.

Ultimately though the macro looks in on itself to see the micro, and the micros are all looking into themselves to see the macro. It is, as all things seem to be, cyclical.

Planning

I've begun cleaning my room because, well because it really needs to be cleaned and I can't sleep. As I move the various things back to there assigned positions, and more often then not assign positions to items that have drifted amongst the myriad of flat surfaces that my lethargy has declared shelves. These surfaces really are amazingly diverse in nature. A dehumidifier I'm not sure I've ever used, An old essentially broken keyboard, and the top of my old now defunct dell desktop have all been dubbed shelves.

So has the floor.

Going through the items I find myself either reflecting on when I used them, or taking note that they may have use in the future. I've decided not to move my car up to Seattle this winter, not so much because I'm unwilling to manually raise the roof of my car, but because I'm unwilling to have my first experiences driving through snow on a trip that would already be difficult. I've also decided to move my car up this summer. I'm going to try and gather the money to fix it, but failing that I'm going to use a combination of cruelty and force and cause it to be in a more useful state of non-functionality. It can't say for certain when the road trip will take place, I'm not sure how long I'll be in Houston this summer, but this grand journey will be the final chapter in Project Exodus. The singular grand reflection on it all.

While I could while away pages in romantic weavings about the trip, the nature of the sublime, and mind free of body I would like to remain on items of more immediacy. Namely my cargo. There are a number of items here which I intend to load into the back seat, if it can be called that, of my car when I make this sojourn. Most of them are books, a few of them are souvenirs and mementos of the earlier chapters of my life, but the one that stands out most is the flail.

While I'm not certain of the exacts of it's origin I'm fairly sure that I first received this flail as a gift from my brother. It's a legitimate medieval weapon, two spiked balls, chain, etc. It's part of the small assortment of melee weapons that I have on my mantle, none of which am I sufficiently trained in. I have a fondness for the flail though, and if I were pressed into some form of actual melee battle it's the weapon I'd choose.

Well, if I could I'd choose a high powered ranged weapon, but I'm assuming this is a relatively fair melee battle.

I think that if I ever faced someone armed with a melee weapon that wasn't an improvised weapon they would probably be using a sword or a staff. I think this because I assume the person will have some knowledge of the weapon they use, and that implies martial arts training, and almost exclusively eastern martial arts are taught in the states. The person would probably be armed with something they learned as part of Tai-Chi or Kung-Fu training. It could also be some other martial art, but those are the only two that I'm certain have an armed aspect to their curriculum. Going on that assumption the person will be fighting as an art form, they will have learned how to fight as a means of physical training and mental balance. If they're sufficiently trained they may even have a form of elegance.

The flail is a distinctly western weapon. It's design is based on Newtonian science, not on eastern artistry. It is devoid of elegance. They may be trained to use their own weapon defensively, to parry or divert an enemy blade. A chain can't be parried. They may try to brace the blow against their own weapon. My weapon has leverage. If you do manage to block just right and make contact with the spiked ball, you probably won't have the strength to actually stop it. And if you block wrong and hit the chain, the spikes will arc around and hit you anyway. The only real weakness of the flail is that it can't be used to stab. If my hypothetical opponent does make any kind of lunge manuver the battle will be instantly over. Either I dodged it, giving me a clear shot which I would use to cave their head in with my flail. Or I didn't, they stabbed me and I'm down.

Friday, December 22, 2006

Photoshoppery


A bit more of my photoshoppery.

Wednesday, December 20, 2006

Invisible Payments

I really need to line up my monthly fees. Every time I check my account I've spent anoth $11 without realising it.

Then again this is just another "I need to keep better track of my spending" issues though.

Worse

Well Damn.

Sunday, December 17, 2006

Not Dead Yet

I can't write much because I'm at work on the wifi using a guests account (don't worry I'll comp their wifi) but I thought it may be a bit too ominous that two days ago I ended a post with "I'll inform you if I survive till morning" and then I haven't said anything for a few days.

So yes I'm alive, no I don't have power, but I'm doing essentially okay. For some reason we're the only ones in our apartment complex who seesthe greenbelt in our backyard as Firewood and not scenic glory.

Thursday, December 14, 2006

Fear

Good to see that the winds have only tampered with my cable TV and not my cable Modem.

So we have a huge wind storm coming tonight. From what I've heard one newspaper depicted it's impact as being something akin to what would happen if the nightmarish winds of Pandemonium were suddenly made manifest on the mortal earth. In preparation for the ensuing Ragnarok I was going around to all of the doors, windows, etc. and checking to make sure no unnecessary electronics were on, and all of our hatches were duly battoned. Well I went to check on the sliding glass door that leads to our patio, and as I pulled back the blinds I saw something that caused me to freeze in abject horror.

A massive man with long ragged hair dressed in hollow nihilistic black was reaching for the door. His soulless gaze was filled with harsh intent but devoid of the humanity you could expect from a simple burglar. Clearly this man was a maniac of the highest level, killing all he met and all who had the misfortune to cross his path. His bloody hands know not reason, his broken mind knows mercy and his tattered soul knows not remorse. This was the agent of death himself. Usiel, throne of the sundered, reaper of souls had sent his champion to claim my life. Terror seized me; I was helpless to resist its chill bindings. I waited for the reaper's blade to rend my spirit from the mortal coil.

Then I realized it was just my reflection in the glass, checked the lock, and went off to go check the windows in the kitchen. I'll let you guys know if I survive the night.

Tuesday, December 12, 2006

A Bit of My Photoshoppery

Audiolog Entry 30. December 9th, close to midnight.

I speak to you tonight about Mountain Dew MDX. I bought it on a whim because it's extreme mountain dew. So, judging by the extremeness of regular mountain dew assumed MDX was either radioactive or... certainly at least poisonous.

I was not wrong.

I opened the bottle I took one sip. One. Not even a gulp it was a sip. I immediately regretted it. Back of my throat started to tingle, my nose started to bleed, and I got a slight headache. Now I'm not saying that is should be illegal. I'm just saying that under normal conditions exposure to a substance like this would give you super powers. Or kill you. Or half kill and give you superpowers resulting in you becoming a super villain. It's a long story, but I'm saying that this is not a normal... mortal soda.

End Log.

Audiolog Entry 29: December 9th 3:13 a.m.

The Following is the audiolog of Maximilian Willson. December... 8th? I think it's 8th. Yeah December 8th. It's 3:13 a.m.

Oh! Which means it's December 9th.

Okay, The Following is the audiolog of Maximilian Willson December 9th 3:13 a.m. Maximilian Willson Paranormal investigator. Current case study is the Homestead Bellevue.

Case #1 Laundry worker Tien... something, I don't know her names. She reports that she once heard sounds of children playing. She went to investigate, there were no children there but the sounds were extremely loud and visible, er audible. It's clear there was something there. My own attempts at being a medium lead me to believe that there is something here. I sense only youth, and a presence, I can not tell what it is, I sense no malice from it, I deem it to be not a threat, but a clear and obvious presence. Further investigations will go on. Partially in response to this the laundry room, whose inhabitants during the day are the housekeepers, is heavily sanctified. Crucifixes are everywhere. Big cross on the door, all of the markings of a standard catholic warding against spirits. I keep the door open at all times. This may defeat the warding, but I don't fear spirits.

Case#2, also Homestead Bellevue. The haunted coke machine. Strange, freaky coke machine activates, blinks rapidly, and generally freaks out whenever anyone goes near it. Deemed to be not supernatural in origin, but actually an energy saver motion detector, that causes the machine to reset twice whenever someone approaches it.

Further investigations are pending. End log.

Audiolog Entry 28.

You guys really should see this, this is a clever bird. I'm sitting at a bus stop waiting for the bus, and there's a bunch of grackles all over the place. I was listening to the grackle calling and thinking about the calling and what the calls mean. Then I notice this one bird which flies over to the trash can of the bus stop across the street, and it's pecking at the trash can and I figure it's just rooting around in the trash right? It starts pulling stuff out of the trash can and throwing it on the ground, and all of it's other bird friends come over and start pecking at the stuff on the ground. And it just keeps digging. It's gotten all kinds of stuff out of there now. It looks like some... ya'know dick teenager just came along and threw trash everywhere. And at first I thought that's why there was trash around these trashcans. Just people being lazy and people being jerks, but it's actually the birds. That is a clever, clever bird.

Audiolog Entry 27: December 2nd 12:52 a.m.

December 2nd 2:56. This might be my last log entry. I desperatly need new batteries for my auidolog.

Audiolog. Entry 18, 21, & 22

/Entry18

Audiolog. Laundry... Night... I still have to name this.

I have a goal now. I have a long job with a lot of down time. I'm going to listen to my entire ipod. There are 2292 tracks. I just need to get rid of 70 tracks, so I'd have 2222. In either case I'm going to listen to all of them. Every last one of them.

/EndEntry18

/Entry21

I don't know where I got them all, but I have a techno remix of every song ever made. I don't know whose making them, but if you're even thinking about writing a song, the techno remix of it already exists out there somewhere.

/EndEntry21

/Entry22

The iPod idea is stupid. I'm abandoning it.

/Endentry22

Audiolog 17: 11:38 PM. Date Unkown

11:38 P.M. night journal, Audiolog whatever I'm going to call this thing, I should eventually think of something... Wait, note to Self: Think of a name for this log.

*Maniacal Laughter*

Okay... I should get back to work. I have a shitload of laundry tonight. That's all.

Audiolog

I have an audiolog. It's a crappy little digital recorder that I bought under the assumption that a digital recorder would have a damn USB PORT. Unfortunatly I bought it from WAL MART which was the first mistake, the second was not lighting it on fire and then "returning" it to wal mart.

All that being said I still make some use of the contemptible little device. I'm going to type up a few of the recent entries. If this were a good world this would be the beginings of my pod-cast, but as I've already explained, this is the stupidest product in the world.

YTMND

A Free shout out to YTMND

(Spoiler Alert! Click Each letter)

Friday, December 08, 2006

Homestead

I like my new job. I like it because it's a night job. I don't mean that it draws virtue from being at night either, it's virtue is drawn from the nature of night jobs. People on the night shift aren't really working. They're just chilling, in uniform, at the office.
The Bellevue job is really true to that standard. I'm "Busy" until about 1:30, busy means that I'm doing laundry and about once every 45 minutes I answer the phone to address some minor detail. After that it's just laundry which is a relaxing simple repetitive process that gives me time to think. Somewhere between 3 & 4 I'm done with the laundry and have functionally no obligations until 6:30.
It's what I've been looking for. It's time for me to think and draw and write. It's the mirror of the darkened lair. I'm not drawn into the core of my self from which my artistry flows freely, rather I'm drawn up into the grand consillium of my mind where my thoughts are free to shine forth in transcendent prismatic intricacy.
I've said before that I was not getting the knowledge I sought, well that was because I was looking for it in the wrong place. I thought the singularity of the dark, but I found it in the omnicognition of the light.

Project Exodus marches on...

Backup

So I'd like to preface this by pointing out that last time I made a list of things I need to blog I never did all of them. I'd like to write about 3 to 5 times as much as I do, but I'm too busy doing stuff to write about it all.

The other issue is a lot of the things I record aren't recorded here. I need to transfer a lot of stuff from my notebook and my audiolog, and I'll do it soon, but I always say that and I know what usually happens.

Sunday, December 03, 2006

A good point

EvilAvatar reports an unusual move by ubisoft. They're working with another smaller company to develop Casino games based on popular Ubisoft franchise, Heroes of Might And Magic V. EA also makes a great point. They, and I, wonder where these casino games are going to fit into the series continuity.

Friday, December 01, 2006

The Greatest Error Message Ever

Arwen server down, will be back back up shortly!


Dec 01, 2006 21:38 EST

Nice job, stress testers! Arwen is taking a short break and will be back up as soon as possible. We're getting some great data tonight! Thanks everyone!

Betas Are Fun

I love stress tests. We all log on in unison at 5 p.m. EST. Hundreds of us begin pouring out of the queue and you can instantly tell what class everyone is because they're still wearing their classes starter gear and wielding the weapon they get as part of their tutorial. Then 1/3 of us being power grinding trying to make it to the highest possible level as fast as possible, 1/3 of us (myself included) begin wandering around looking at the game world and trying to see everything that there is to be seen, and 1/3 of us begin complaining about the lag in general chat.

Then an hour or so later the server goes down, and somewhere at tech at turbine checks the box marked "fail" next to the ledger entry for "Thursday Stress test" The server goes up and down a few more times that night, then stays down for a few hours before the next wave of testing. Then a patch is released and the whole process starts over again, except they made it two hours this time, which is actually an impressive bit of progress, and just one of the many reasons Turbine is my favorite game company.

And no that's not a continuity error, they passed up blizzard a while ago. Sorry Blizzard, but you know why.