Bye-bye

I don't know if you've noticed, but this blog has been abandoned.
I've been blogging on my own personal site at http://www.patricksrealm.com - so stop on by, if you feel so inclined!

Friday Smorgasboard is dead

After some consideration I came to the conclusion that my Friday Smorgasboard was crap - and I'm sure you're thinking the same. So I decided to put it out of it's misery and let the girl sleep.

Instead, I'll dedicate myself to posting on Fridays. Seems like a simplier, more readable solution.

Anyway, back to more important things (my life), Darlene and I have been busy this week not seeing each other. Tuesday I go to play Dungeons & Dragons at a local hobby store now. Wednesday Darlene went out to dinner with a friend. Thursday we spent some time together, but we both had things to work on. Friday she'll be with her mother and some family friends (Why am I not family? - I think it's more of a girl's night, actually. That's fine if I'm not there then, since I don't have juggs). Saturday I'm playing the first session of a different D&D campaign with 'the guys', as they have been called by Darlene to refer to the collective mass that is my life-long friends. Sunday we are going to see elephants walk through Pittsburgh. Hopefully they go berzerk and destroy things, but I'm not holding my breath.

There. Now you know what I've been doing. Why don't you tell me what you've been doing by commenting in my blog, looser? Oh, yea, that's right, it's because I don't care.

Have any of you heard about Microsoft's idea to federally regulate privacy policies? In short, Microsoft thinks that customers should be notified any time the privacy policy changes and every time data is stolen from them that may compromise personal information. This sounds like common sense, however every state handles this in it's own way - some prefer the 'not at all' approach from what I read.

Microsoft's proposal goes farther than that, requiring proof that companies that hold personal data proove that they have taken reasonable measures to virus-check and hack-poof their systems. Also, Microsoft believes that customers should be able to ask to see the information that a company holds about them ("within reason").

I think they are on to something here! And are you surprized that Microsoft would do something 'nice' for the consumer? You shouldn't be, since this makes their job a lot easier. Instead of having to abide by 50 different sets of laws, they just have to follow 1. Simple as that. You still have to give them credit for proposing something that gives consumer's rights.

Although you have nothing better to do than read my blog, I'm done. Scram.

Monday's suck - go buy something

Well, it's another Monday. Not any worse than the ones before it, but not any better, either. Such is life. If I don't make the best of it soon I'll end up going home in a bad mood. Although I'm sure this project I'm suppose to be working on will do that anyway, so why fight it?

Because I should, freakin-A! Screw you!

See? I'm already getting hostile.

So tonight is Holloween and Trick-or-Treat in Pittsburgh. And the Steelers are playing at home this year in a Monday night game. *cringe* This will be my first year handing out candy as an individual; as in not me being forced to sit on my parent's steps and hand out candy.


So I think this is cool - in Japan (they come up with so many great ideas! First the p0rn-station, now this!) they are introducing a chip for your cell-phone that will scan itself in retail stores to allow you to purchase your goods (p0rn). The chip acts like a refillable credit card. You use a terminal or call them with your phone and move money over to the chip (holds about $450 US). You are now free to roam the city with even greater fear of loosing your phone! This is great news for people who can't even keep their shoelaces tied (read: me).

So, what do you think of the latest-and-greatest from our over-worked brethren of the isle? Would you get this chip? If it was a standard feature, would you use it?

Friday Smorgasboard - Government and Gamer Gurlz

Last night Darlene and I got dressed up and went to the preview of new loft appartments in Pittsburgh by the river (I'm not telling you which river! Ha! We got three of 'em, too, so good luck, buddy!). A friend of ours asked us to attend, so since we're suckers we went.
We didn't have enough money to rent the cheapest appartment. Heck, we didn't have enough money to pick up a coffee on the way there. All the same, it was very nice and it wasn't a bad time.
We followed that up by going South when we should have gone North on Rt 579. *shrug* That only added 40min to our 5min trip home. No kidding - how does traffic get that bad at 7:30 at night?! Go home, people!

Anyway, without further delay, your Friday Smorgasboard:

The Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert (Republican, Illinois) has taken the time to start his own blog that is linked from the official Speaker of the House website. In his first entry he talks about the damage we have seen over this freakish hurricane season and about oil (are we surprized about that one? Actually, I don't think that he owns any oil companies, but his plea for more oil refineries are questionable. Does he want to get gas to the American people cheaper and faster or does he want to add the the considerable wealth of oil companies?).
I'm hoping that Hastert's committment is not based totally on publicity. Blogs are big right now. Their shining moment has come and gone, if you ask me, but the word is in the hands of almost every American now. I know that I'll be keeping a close eye on this page to see what our Speaker has to say next.

To keep with the government topic: Keeping secrets is not anything new when it comes to the Government (always done with our bests interests, right?). Over the past two years, however, the NSA (National Security Agency) has been having it's own patients blocked by government - deemed to have information in them that would benifit terrorists.

I find this alarming, since this is now knowledge that is denied to the people. The NSA wants to give us new ideas and tools and our government is blocking the path of progress. From 2000 to 2003 no NSA patient has been blocked. In 2004 5 where blocked, while so far this year 9 have been blocked.

Ok, that's enough about government. I didn't even mention 'his' name, even though I wanted to...


Recently PMS Clan and Frag Dolls where at a discussion about Professional Female Gamers. For those of you tuning in late on this, yes, companies are paying people money to play games in tournaments just like they sponsor BMX and Nascar. And yes, there are girl-only gaming groups that play games like Unreal Tournament and Halo 2.
I think it is good that there is a voice out there that says that women can play games other than Bejewelled.

That's all for this Friday. No sense in making you read any more. If you are that bored, you should probably be fired anyway. So go do some work. I know I should.

The 'Burg going Country?

For a while now everywhere I turn I see references to country music. It's as if everyone in Pittsburgh got bit by the country bug. Heck, even Darlene and I listened to a country music station recently. Voluntarially.
There is a new country-themed bar in Pittsburgh (Saddle Ridge), friends are talking about country... there are a few more signs, too, that my tired pea-brain can't recall right now - but the signs are there. Country is freakin' everywhere all of a sudden. And I though I moved to the city and away from the country.
I've made a slight upgrade to PatrickzRealm.net the other week. Looks a little better - at least better than it use to. I'm also updating the history of my Dungeons & Dragons campaign setting, Avonia. I think I'll keep all D&D stuff on PatrickzRealm.net.
Darlene and I carved some ultra-ubercool pumpkins last night. She made a cat while I made a skull. I used a steak knife to carve it with, so it isn't the greatest, but that's all right. We watched "It's the Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown!" on TV while we did so. That show is so cool. Now if only I'd be able to find the Garfield Holloween special.
Well, I have to get back to procrastinating. Later,

Friday Smorgasboard - Games and Self-Improvement

My sister-in-law is visiting this weekend. She runs her own business and has a trade show to attend this weekend. I would plug her company, however since I get a little 'crazy' once in a while, I'd rather not taint her site with a link from me. That would be like the CIA offering free, public, private e-mail services. Well, not as bad. At any rate, I got up early this morning. Like before 6am. I was at work by 6:30am. Since I tend to work through my lunch hour (since I just screw around all the time anyway) I'll be outta here by 2:30 today. Score! Sucks to be a hard-working American!

I scratched up my car again. Ok, I put a huge freakin' dent in the front driver's side and scrapped the paint off of it. I hate my garage setup. I think I'm just gonna wash it, cover over any exposed spots with a paint-pen I have that matches the car's collor and let it be. It's not worth fixing at this point.

And now, for a very full Friday Smorgasboard:

I can't say this guys name enough - Jack Thompson is still giving me a nice steady stream of news to comment on. I should send him a Christmas present or something. He has been the source for much blogging this week and last. Recently Mr. Thompson, the attourny from Florida who has been (and read the following with an open mind) fighting to protect the children from violence in video game media is being investigated. Remember when Jack called the Seattle Police on Penny Arcade earlier this week? The Penny Arcade faithful have compiled a list of questionable actions taken by Jack Thompson and have submitted them through the propper channels. This is being taken a little more serious than you would think, since Jack has been there before.

In addition to this, Jack Thompson has contacted the Video Software Dealers Association (VSDA) and the Interactive Entertainment Merchants Association (IEMA) asking to settle things without goverment involvement. Jack appears to be willing to regulate the game industry without the Federal Government's involvement, although I doubt that Mr. Thompson would be willing to compromise much (a key ingreediant in such situations). In the same call for peace, Thompson ridicules the Entertainment Software Association (ESA), namely their president Doug Lowenstein, claiming that his way of conducting business makes him appear to be a clown. Not to say you don't know, but the ESA currently lables all video games with the current raiting system (E for everyone, T for teen, M for mature, AO for adult only). Duel wielding an olive brance and a sword it seems.

Enough about games. Lets talk about... games!

More specifically, a new hand-held multimedia 'toy' is being released at the end of November called GP2X Game System. While not a catchy title, it claims to have support for NES, SNES, NeoGeo, and about 8 other old-school console units, TV-out to playback MPEG4 and other video formats and support for e-book and a dictionary. Claimed to be easy to program for the GP2X Game System will have a price tag of about $180.

I've found it before and couldn't figure it out until someone dugg it, but here is a little game called Gravity. There are several red balls on the screen that attract a particle that you place by clicking on the play field. When the particle collides with the red balls the round is over. The point is to get as many points as possible (but you need to get so many points to go to the next level). On my first try I got 1,088 points by the start of level 4 - try to beat it! You'll be glad you did.

Researchers at MIT have decided that habbits can never be forgotten. While they observe brain patters of labratory rats in a maze they conclude that if you see something that reminds of you of your old habbit it is possible that your brain will run on 'autopilot' - carrying out the action you use to do. While I don't see how studying a creature based on instinct will help us to study ourselves, at least it gives us a point in the right direction, since it seems that people do loose their will power when they come in contact with the familiar. (I don't do this piece justice - just read the article yourself, you lazy piece of crap).

The Simpsons are visiting Arab television, but with a few changes. The show is now about Omar Shamshoon, who still works at a nuclear power plant and drings Duff ... soda at a friend's house, Moe. 'Badr' still causes teachers grief and pulls pranks, however, and Omar is just as lazy and messed-up as before, so not all is lost.

I died on level 4, and again on level 5, but going into level 6 I have 2052 points.

For those of you haven't heard, the popular MMO World of Warcraft was accused of having built-in spyware(1, 2) that would read the title of every open application on your desktop. The presumed use of this is to determine the programs that people use to cheat or otherwise break the terms of the End-User Licence Agreement (EULA). This disturbed some people who have created a program called Governor, which will 'sniff out' the behavior of the World of Warcraft 'spyware' program called warden and will report the findings to the user. The source code is also given away as a way to prove that the watched doesn't need watched, so to speak.

Loved Super Mario World for the Super Nintendo? If you play around with emulation you can try out this neat SMW Level Editor.

Scientists have developed a car that is 4 nanometers across.
*tumbleweed*
Your hair is 80,000 nanometers across.
*tumbleweed*
I know, it's sorta dumb - it doesn't even drive (it rolls), but they wanna make little trucks at the molecular level so they can move protiens and medicine and very, very small things around. If you where cooler you'd understand!
*tumbleweed*

Ok, ok, I'm getting to the end, just shut up and take it.

Death. Final score: 2153. I'll try again later.

Bill Gates spoke at Washington DC's Howard University as part of a 'collage tour' he is doing. This time he spoke about the Blue-Ray vs. HD-DVD. Although Microsoft is officially backing HD-DVD as the format of choice for games and movies in the future, Gates stated that both are doomed to be useless soon enough to ignore both formats. Instead, all multimedia content - movies, games, music, everyting - will be downloaded using digital rights management software. Although he admits this won't happen tomorrow, Bill says that he doesn't see a point to pushing either format anymore and that focus should be given to digital rights management.


Look who I am! I took a sci-fi/fantasy character quiz and I'm Yoda! Repect! Darlene is Princess Leia.

I also went to ColorQuiz.com. Here is what they have to say:
Sensitive and understanding but under some strain; needs to unwind in the company of someone close to him.
Suppresses his innate enthusiasm and imaginative nature, for fear that he might be carried away by it only to find himself pursuing some will-o'-the-wisp. Feels he has been misled and abused and has withdrawn to hold himself cautiously aloof from others. Keeps a careful and critical watch to see whether motives towards him are sincere--a watchfulness which easily develops into suspicion and distrust.
Seeks the determination and elasticity of will necessary to establish himself and to make himself independent despite the difficulties of his situation. Wants to overcome opposition and achieve recognition.
Disappointment and the fear that there is no point in formulating fresh goals have led to anxiety. Desires recognition and position, but is worried about his prospects. Reacts to this by protecting at any criticism and resisting any attempt to influence him. Tries to assert himself by meticulous control of detail in an effort to strengthen his position.

I gave you a lot to chew on - enjoy!

I can't own anything nice.

This morning while I was pulling out of the garage I turned the wheel too soon and I put a huge dent in my front left of my driver's side. I just had a similar dent fixed on the back of my driver's side!
So I'm pretty angry, so I need to toot my own horn a bit:


You should take the Sci-Fi character quiz. They have sci-fi personas from Babalyon 5, Star Trek, Lord of the Rings and more.

And while I'm analyzing myself, here is what ColorQuiz.com had to say:

Generated on Thu Oct 13 18:59:22 2005.

Your Existing Situation

Sensitive and understanding but under some strain; needs to unwind in the company of someone close to him.

Your Stress Sources

Suppresses his innate enthusiasm and imaginative nature, for fear that he might be carried away by it only to find himself pursuing some will-o'-the-wisp. Feels he has been misled and abused and has withdrawn to hold himself cautiously aloof from others. Keeps a careful and critical watch to see whether motives towards him are sincere--a watchfulness which easily develops into suspicion and distrust.

Your Restrained Characteristics

Very exacting in the standards he applies to his choice of a partner and seeking a rather unrealistic perfection in his sex life.

Circumstances are restrictive and hampering, forcing him to forgo all joys and pleasures for the time being.

Your Desired Objective

Seeks the determination and elasticity of will necessary to establish himself and to make himself independent despite the difficulties of his situation. Wants to overcome opposition and achieve recognition.

Your Actual Problem

Works to strengthen his position and bolster his self-esteem by examining his own accomplishments (and those of others) with critical appraisal and scientific discrimination. Insists on having things clear-cut and unequivocal.

Your Actual Problem #2

Disappointment and the fear that there is no point in formulating fresh goals have led to anxiety. Desires recognition and position, but is worried about his prospects. Reacts to this by protecting at any criticism and resisting any attempt to influence him. Tries to assert himself by meticulous control of detail in an effort to strengthen his position.

There, you all know that I'm a screwed-up Yoda.

Sorry for the brief updates recently. I've been trying this cool thing out called 'working for my pay.' You see, instead of serf the internet for 6 our of 8 hours, I work 6 out of 8 hours. Sometimes even 7 out of 8. It's really screwed up, but I'm gettting so much work done! I might try it for a little bit longer, since I got a raise this week and all.

Get out of here - I'm done talking to you.

I'm giving him more attention than he deserves...

If you've gone to Penny Arcade you should know this already (but don't go now - their server is getting slammed), but apparently Thompson was only kidding about giving money to charity!

He has such a sense of humor!
So, once again, to prove my theory right, he is babbling away to get more attention. I would stop listening to what he has to say if I didn't get so annoyed with his banterings.

Breaking News! Mr. Thompson is an Over-Sensitive Zealot! ... Wait...

That's not news at all! I'm sorry, everyone. False alarm.
Read this first - I don't even want to paraphrase it...

If someone produced 'I hate Patrick Waddingham' tee-shirts and constantly slammed me on their personal web site, I could tell the cops, too. They would look at me, nod, say 'We'll look into it' and then take a big bite out of a doughnut, not because they are lazy or fat, but because there is nothing that would be worth doing over it.

If you visit Penny Arcade, they have news on their front page (the real address is www.penny-arcade.com, by the way), one past article talks about a conversation between Thompson and the artist of Penny Arcade. I'm sure more news will surface as the day goes on. As of right now, it is 8:11am there, so everyone is just getting into the swing of things (or still sleeping - I know I wish I could have been).

LOL U R dA SU><0RZZZZ!!!!!!11!1!!11

I like to be civil about things - it's the only way important, intelligent information is spread. However, I can't help but laugh while pointing at Jack Thompson. For those of you just tuning in, Jack Thompson is an attourny from Florida that has started a crusade against video games because (in my opinion, mind you) he is getting old and is trying to justify his life's work in his field. Everyone will go through this towards the end, and Jack is enduring it right now. I just wish he would give it up already... Then again I need articles about him to read so I can extend my frequent coffee breaks. What a dilema.
Anyway, he has been using the National Institute on Media and the Family as a reference for pratically everything recently, and the president of the company told him to stop it. God bless Dr. David Walsh.

That is the life. If I had talent and if I wasn't married, I'd do this - quit my job and make games for a living. It can be done. For every 4 people who play Bejeweled online, there is 1 giving the developers $10 to play the extended version on their PC. Darlene and I even purchased a casual game off of the web for $20 off of Yahoo! a while ago. So, ignoring development costs (I'd need to pay someone to do the art - I can't draw a decent stick figure) if I sold games directly to consumers at $20 a pop, I would need to sell a little more than 1,400 games a month to maintain my current salary. That's 325 a week. Which means that's more than 1,600 unique visitors I'd need every week to try out my game. That's depressing, now that I look at it.

Well, I guess it's time for lunch followed by more work. And dreaming. And procrastination.

Friday Smorgasboard - First Weekly Edition

Between the 13th and 15th years of my life I spend 2 summers working on a Christian camp ground washing dishes. Every week-day the head cook prepaired a different meal for everyone on the grounds. On Sunday we would have a freezer full of leftovers. So on Sunday we brought out all of the good leftovers and had a Sunday Smorgasboard.

So I'm going to give it a go and have a 'Friday Smorgasbord' (since I don't blog on the weekends). This is just a collection of random thoughts and links that I want to share with you in an atttempt to slowly turn every individual in the world into a form of me - at which point world domination will be mine.

So here it goes...

Want to leap over tall buildings in a single bound? How about have a spine that never wears out? How about shoe laces that don't get cruddy and bunch up and completely screw up your shoes? That might become a reality. Australian scientists have been working on duplicating a rubbery substance from insects called resilin that insects use for various functions. The incredibly durable rubber allows insects to beat their wings more times in their short lives than we bend our spine by the time everyone eventually gets a bad back. I think this is great - this is the kind of research that we should be doing more of. Screw bombs and fuel-efficiency. I don't want my back going out on me when I'm 50.

Foriegn Policy is running an article on 16 things that will be no more in 35 years. Each item has an article written about it. For those of you just interested in the list:

• The Sanctity of Life - bull
  
• Political Parties - bull
  
• The Euro - has a point - but bull
  
• Japanese Passivity - leaning more towards bull
  
• Monogamy - agree (unfortunatly)
  
• Religious Hierarchy - bull
  
• The Chinese Communist Party - agree
  
• Auto Emissions - leaning more towards bull
  
• The Public Domain - agree (*tear*)
  
• Doctors' Offices - bull
  
• The King of England - *tosses into the who-cares bin*
  
• The War on Drugs - bull
  
• Laissez-Faire Procreation - agree
  
• Polio - agree
  
• Sovereignty - bull
  
• Anonymity - agree

PS: Sorry about the subscription on some of those links - I'm working on it.

Just what we need, an excuse for potheads to smoke more...

Looks like we just found the answer to our procreation problem *wink* - not really... It doesn't matter if we find another planet that is identical to Earth that we could walk to. That wouldn't solve anything - it would just be duct taping it. But, if this holds true, the resources would be a great excuse to hollow out the moon for profit.

Central Michigan University has a page that helps you examine your leadership potential, evaluating your strengths and weaknesses. Thought is was interesting to browse.

Need an idea for that special geek-girl in your life for Sweetest Day? How about a tank-top shirt with LEDs in it that play the original game of Life? (not the board game where you get children and a car and retire, but the classic game of cell life-and-death)

Clean, fresh, cheap power generation that is good for the environment? Or spinning blades of death that claim the lives of countless birds? You decide!

This is amazing - imagine find this while you are dry-humping it the back of a library!

And now for the important news - this weekend is the open stress-test for City of Villians. I heard that City of Heros was a great game, so let's hope that City of Villians doesn't flop. I wish that NCSoft would stop making City games and finish Auto Assault - that's what I'm eager to get ahold of.

Finally, Sony is getting what their arrogent, egotistical hides deserves. Since Kutaragi is so demanding about 'quality', developers are starting to look at the XBox 360 over the PS3 for game development.

Well, that's all I have for you. Hope it's not too dissapointing. Lemme know what you think - I need opinions to disreguard about this idea.

Oh, and Darlene, that title is for you! ;)

N Game Review

Since I felt like it, here is a review of a web-game named N from Metanet Software.


A lot of gamers are at a crossroads. They see pretty pictures down one very wide road, and great gameplay down a small, unkept and poisonous-scorpion-covered path. Most feed the machine by taking the easy route, while a small group will travel down the path and play great games such as N from Metanet Software.

Funny thing is, N is more entertaining and cheaper (read: *FREE*) than most games on the market today.

N is an action game where you control a ninja who must (for no particular reason) brave rooms so full of death that it makes a cemetary seem empty. The goal of each stage is simple - unlock the door and step through it. However it wouldn't be a great game if it was just as simple as that.




The game primarialy is a ploatform-jumper where you avoid dangerous traps. You are given so many seconds to finish each episode (which consists of 5 levels each), and the time left over is your score for that board. Little yellow blocks can be collected to add time to your timer.

The game can be played on the internet in your web browser, or you can download it so that you can see the whole game and save your progress. With over 500 levels, I'd recommend getting the download version, although playing online is a great way to get fired from your job because you played a game on the internet for an hour. It uses Flash, so if you don't have the plugin, now is the time to download it.

While not in poor quality, it does not have as great of graphics that a Flash game could. We have all seen some impressive offering from the Flash community. The simple graphics, however, do not get in the way of the fun and will cling to you after a few levels.

What makes the game so great is the physics behind the ninja's movement. Death (which happens often) uses physics the most as your lifeless body will tumble and fall over obsticals and will even split into bouncy pieces when you explode.

Metanet Software also gives you the ability to create your own levels for the game. I have not tinkered with this feature, so I do not know how friendly or easy it is to make levels for N. 50 great user-made levels are included in the download version.

I will not kid you - this is possibly one of the best games available to you right now. It has appeal to casual gamers and to hard-core gamers. I've played it for 10min at a time and hours at a time. Always an enjoyable expirience.

So if you need something to do during your coffee break or you are looking for something that is missing from a lot of the modern games - fun - then check N out.

Pat-o-ramic-a-doosie Rating: 8.9/10

When Justice meets Ego

Slashdot has been reporting news about the 13-year-old that was sharing MP3s online who got into legal trouble from the RIAA. At first legal actions where being taken against the mother, Candy Chan. She claimed that she couldn't be held responsible for her daughters actions. This prompted the RIAA to sue the child, Brittany, directly. However they said that the (now) 14-year-old could not be sued without a legal guadian.

So the RIAA is appointing one.

There is so much wrong with this story, and it really pulls the whistle for me. Here are links to the original news articles:

Court forces RIAA to dismiss case against mother & child
Big Music wants Brittany Chan

Reactions to People More Successful than me

I know I blog a lot today - screw you.

Bob Parsons is the founder and president of Go Daddy, a web service provider who specializes in domain name registration. Bob maintains a blog called Hot Points that is linked off of GoDaddy.com that I frequent. It (usually) has sound advice for business-oriented people, although almost all pratical advice can be used in personal life as well.

This is a reaction to Bob Parsons' blog entry for October 5th:
Sometimes you need to be told things you already know to learn something new.
Everyone knows that the calmer they are the better they perform (mental tasks, anyway). So why is it when we try to solve a problem in our lives, be it at work or home, we get tense and let stress ride shotgun?

If a buddy of yours asks for your take on a problem they have, you usually have an answer ready the instant they are done explaining their situation. I think this is because you don't have the weight of the consequences on you. Not only do you not have to think about them, but you don't have to care. As long as your solution solves the problem at hand you have done your job and you feel good about it. If something negitive or positive results from it you can't (or don't have to) take part of it.



On a totally different topic, I think this is sweet - people tutoring people in the art of playing video games. If I had talent, I'd do it. I wouldn't mind getting $20/hr to talk to someone about a game.

Oh, and satellite radio isn't safe from the RIAA, either...

I ar speshal and rich!

The Stalk Market hit - total we got nearly 1.6 million bells out of a 210,000 bell investment. Don't you wish that this would occur in real life? You and me both...

Darlene took the Tickle IQ test and scored 129. For those of you just tuning into the IQ channel, that's pretty good - as in the top ~7% of the population. I'd imagine she would score a little lower if she took a full test, but I'd imagine she'd still be above 120. As for me, I know I'm around 108 - 115, no testing required. I know I have more than average since I graduated college with a BS in CompSci, but I know I have less than 'smart' since I do math and programming like a slug. *shrug* I have the paper now, suckers!

Speaking of having no programming skill, my new blog isn't comming along too great thanks to how the online editor impliments storing the posts. Can't win them all, I suppose.

Geeks, Freaks, and Sneaks... ... what?

Well big-time geeks all across the world rejoiced yesterday as Peter Jackson announced he agreed to do the Halo movie. If you don't know what I just said you don't desrve to know (although it's easily explained by saying the director of Lord of the Rings is making a movie based on the best-selling Microsoft game). Geeks love Peter Jackson. Geeks love Halo. The combination of both gives the drooling puppy-eyed loosers a shimmer of hope.

What makes my mouth slobber is the 20-minute video demo of ES4:Oblivion. It's worth the 120mb download, so start it and come back after dinner and a walk. I'm very eager for it. I've been in a gamming low for a while, so the crisp action and new features of Obllivion make me extatic. Buying it will be close to being a MED (marriage-ending desision). But it won't be - I love Darlene more than video games, believe it or not. I am worried about my poor computer, however. It's a little old, and I'm afraid that it won't run it well.

I want a new computer. AMD Athlon 64 dual core, a gig of ram, NVidia 7800GT (maybe 2 evetually, but I'll settle for 1 initially), SATA hard drive (I don't need raid)... . o O (dreams)

.\*pop*/. Oh, yea, I'm poor... that's right... So maybe I'll get a new computer sometime before my 35th birthday :( I'm underpaid, according to salary-reporting web sites. By $7,000. If I had that extra money per year... ... I'd still have no savings, LOL, who am I kidding. Maybe I should stop feeding my fat mouth so darn well and eat like a normal human being. Either that or stop going to the tittie-bar. *shrug* (read: I'm a looser and can't even get into a tittie bar)

Farewell, Deltran

Well, today is the 28th. *salute's Deltran* *plays taps* *21 gun salute*
Although it is time to move on, I will miss that pile of bytes.
Bye-bye, Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst...
...
Hello Ferentus! Honestly, I have no idea what it is. But they are having an open beta test (I think it's open - we'll see!) so I will probably hop on it. It is a classic-fantasy setting that has a few new ideas (to MMORPGs), so it might be cool.

• You're character can 'die' so you can make a new one with a new focus - and apparently you keep some benifit from one life to the next.
• It is rather social. There are titles/positions that grant you in-game benifits.

We'll see how well that goes. I got Tales of Symphonia for my GameCube, so between that and Animal Crossing I might not even play, save when Darlene is using the TV.

Speaking of Animal Crossing, Darlene time travelled (in AC, you can set up the game clock so that a village is running 12 hours off or on normal time, or to any other time you want, really. Since our main village, Pwn, is running on normal time and she doesn't play until late at night she will adjust the game time so that people are still awake and the shop is still open) and decided to set it back in time... ... ... A YEAR! All of my turnips spoiled. All 120,000 bells worth (that's a lot). And last night the Stalk Market boomed, too... ... ... *cries*

I'm not that upset about it, but I was sad - I was almost rich, virtually speaking.

I have a new site layout comming along. Right now it is at http://www.patricksrealm.com/nindex.php - but if you click on it and it isn't there just goto http://www.patricksrealm.com - I'm sure it'll be up. I like it. I'll be designing some blogging software for myself to use, so I won't be using this blogging space anymore *gasp!*. As you can see, if you are using Internet Explorer, the right bar doesn't stay up when I use the Google Ads (which you should be clicking on every day, jerk), so I'm giving this site the axe.

'Tis 'nuff fer today. Until next time, keep your ear wax on the ready and watch the horizon...

It's International Talk Like A Pirate Day!

Do ye know what today be?
Avast! It be International Talk Like A Pirate Day!
Git to http://www.talklikeapirate.com, you blige rat, and learn to speak pirate!
Then git ye a pirate name here!
Smartly, me lad! As for the rest of ye, call me "Runnin' Edward Cutty"...

Revolutions and Revilations

Now that's an inovation I'd like to buy! Wonder if the chick comes with it - would make a complete package. Could call it the porn-station.

The Raw Feed has posted an entry about a Japan-made computer desk for people to use in a bed. It has pratical applications, like people who where recently hospitalized and people who need to look at porn, but I think introducing it to America and Japan is a big mistake. It would be a big mistake in the rest of the world, too, but Europe doesn't seem to be as lazy as the US, and all of the other countries are too poor to afford a computer, so it's ok.

But I can totally see Americans getting skinnier (if you have your computer at your bed, why get up? screw food) and Japanese getting more and more lost in MMOs. If they could attach a computer cybernetically so they could be online all day long, they would. Heck, I'd consider it, although in the end, after much much much debate, wouldn't do it. (Like, a lot of debate)

So I've cancelled my Phantasy Star Online: Blue Burst account. It bites the dust on the 28th (since you pay a month ahead of time for service, you get to play until the next bill date). I'm sorta sad to leave, but I think it's time. I did start a new character (I'll screenshot him later for you) for my last few days , so Deltran is pretty much officially retired, save maybe to get my new character a few cool pimpin' items.

I was considering getting Guild Wars. But I stood in my hallway last night debating w/ myself for like 10min as to whether or not ot spend the money on it, so I came to the conclusion that when you put as much weight into a video game purchase as you would with how to invest a quarter million dollars that it's time to unplug, of which I did.


*unplug*