I've been sick as hell for the past couple of weeks so since I don't feel like writing much when I am sick, here are video reviews of the weird (really really weird) video game I bought to entertain myself while my body heals like a good little bitch.
(Afterthoughts)
I guess to get the whole story you have to play the game through 3 times, or just look up the answers online.
Thursday, January 20, 2011
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Is It Really A New Year???....
In a sense it is not a new year as much as it is in a more conventional sense. By which I mean that when you spy a calendar the date has changed over to 2011 from 2010, but if you consider the actual chronological meaning of the time frame of a year, then for most of you it is not. For a new year to start in the more real sense, that would actually occur upon your birthday since another year of clock time has passed when reaching that point. This is just simply calendar time which we have clicked over on now.
Now there is a tradition that occurs at this time which I strongly disapprove of called "new year's resolutions." If you have fallen pray to making such a thing, I feel sorry for you because they are pure rubbish. My reasoning for that description is not because they are worthy changes to make in one's life, but I see them as such for a more valid line of reasoning.
If you have an important change to make in your life, then you just simply need to make it. Waiting until a new calendar year begins is nothing more than a form of procrastination and an excuse to signify the change with an arbitrary date. Everyone has stuff they want to change about themselves unless they are a megalomaniac, so why not start right away at fixing that instead of using the excuse of waiting for January 1st. That is a two-fold excuse since it is common knowledge that most resolutions eventually fail from people not following through with them. By setting such an important life improving decision at that particular date, you have given yourself an excuse for failing since they are not taken seriously and defeated yourself before even giving it a real chance to succeed.
Granted that there are stories from people that you know who managed to pull off their new year goal, but those are grossly overshadowed by the number of people you can personally point out who have utterly given up and failed in the exact same circumstance. When you are ready to make a change to your life, there is no better time than then to do so, and if you are not, then saying that you are just because of the date in the year has doomed you to failure before you even start.
(Afterthoughts)
Don't give in to the pressure to attempt to commit to a change you are not ready for because when you do, you are simply conditioning yourself to accept failure and a sense that you can not change for the better when you really are capable of doing so when the time is right and not just because you had to buy a new calendar.
Wednesday, December 8, 2010
NUMB3RS
It is not often that I complain about Facebook, er, OK I actually complain all the time but rarely write about how annoying that site can be because if I did it would quickly turn into a book instead of this sweet, humble blog. The last time I did so was several months ago about the "Boobquake Idiocy." (It's a good post, click the link and read it too.)
The most recent derangement is a fun (assume I wrote fun sarcastically because, um, that is exactly what I did) little game where you email a person with a number and then that person will post an anonymous comment about what they really think about you using the number as an identifier as opposed to something clear, such as an actual name. On the surface, it sounds about as much childish pointlessness as passing a note saying "check this box if you like me, or check this box if you want to rip my guts out with a rusty spork." Then the reality of the game sets in and we start to see where it all goes wrong (even without a rusty spork).
First off, this game can be fun if you are in that same category of people that passed the above-mentioned notes. For the rest of us it is the same as listening to one of our friends chat away on their phone, only being able to catch one side of the conversation. Granted that you have to expect to get stuck reading some of that kind of posting from time to time, but now with this game going on I have to scroll through at least a couple pages of posting in order to maybe (maybe maybe maybe) catch a post that I actually want to read (and those are always hit or miss on a normal day). Might as well call it McFacebook because most of what it is feeding me is worthless fattening fluff with no nutritional value. Sure, some of the juicier bites might taste good but it is only putting unhealthy weight onto your karma and turning your mind into a lethargic lump.
Second, if we assess the game within it's own value system and pretend that it is a valuable and productive pastime, it still breaks down even within it's own rules. The main point of it is that you can receive either validation or refutation about your character anonymously, yet still in a public forum to give it a sort of voyeuristic quality. However (always seems to be a however) the majority of the posts I have seen (and I have seen way too many) have also been "liked." So out of curiosity to see if my suspicions were correct, the people who "liked" those posts were always different people for each of the postings (the few exceptions I found to that were from people who tend to click "like" for everything that people post and were easy to filter out). However (hmmm, another however can't be a good sign) there are a lesser number of people who actually then comment a reply to these posts. While there is no way to be 100% sure that people are giving up their secret identities by doing such replies, it is a safe bet that a high majority actually are because that is how stupid human nature works. If you happen to be playing this game as the poster of secret comments to numbered people I would love for you to read though your posts and count up the number of people who outed themselves compared to the ones who did not and leave me a comment with the totals (even though we wouldn't be able to be sure that you are not "adjusting" your numbers because you obviously like the game and may want to falsify support for it, or not and give us accurate numbers, but who can say for sure with things being so "anonymous").
Thirdly, for playing such a game on what is supposed to be a social site, it is really more of an anti-social game. While games meant for only 2 people are fun for them, it gets rather boring and tiresome watching people play tic-tac-toe, and even more so when you only get to see one persons side of the game.
Fourthly, I have only seen 2 negative posts out of about 100 in the last 2 days. While this does make sense because most people are not Facebook friends with their enemies, it tends to turn the game into more of a sad cry for validation and it seems that they are receiving just that.
(Afterthoughts)
If you need validation that bad, buy a damn puppy!!! (And I am still giggling about the phrase "McFacebook.")
The most recent derangement is a fun (assume I wrote fun sarcastically because, um, that is exactly what I did) little game where you email a person with a number and then that person will post an anonymous comment about what they really think about you using the number as an identifier as opposed to something clear, such as an actual name. On the surface, it sounds about as much childish pointlessness as passing a note saying "check this box if you like me, or check this box if you want to rip my guts out with a rusty spork." Then the reality of the game sets in and we start to see where it all goes wrong (even without a rusty spork).
First off, this game can be fun if you are in that same category of people that passed the above-mentioned notes. For the rest of us it is the same as listening to one of our friends chat away on their phone, only being able to catch one side of the conversation. Granted that you have to expect to get stuck reading some of that kind of posting from time to time, but now with this game going on I have to scroll through at least a couple pages of posting in order to maybe (maybe maybe maybe) catch a post that I actually want to read (and those are always hit or miss on a normal day). Might as well call it McFacebook because most of what it is feeding me is worthless fattening fluff with no nutritional value. Sure, some of the juicier bites might taste good but it is only putting unhealthy weight onto your karma and turning your mind into a lethargic lump.
Second, if we assess the game within it's own value system and pretend that it is a valuable and productive pastime, it still breaks down even within it's own rules. The main point of it is that you can receive either validation or refutation about your character anonymously, yet still in a public forum to give it a sort of voyeuristic quality. However (always seems to be a however) the majority of the posts I have seen (and I have seen way too many) have also been "liked." So out of curiosity to see if my suspicions were correct, the people who "liked" those posts were always different people for each of the postings (the few exceptions I found to that were from people who tend to click "like" for everything that people post and were easy to filter out). However (hmmm, another however can't be a good sign) there are a lesser number of people who actually then comment a reply to these posts. While there is no way to be 100% sure that people are giving up their secret identities by doing such replies, it is a safe bet that a high majority actually are because that is how stupid human nature works. If you happen to be playing this game as the poster of secret comments to numbered people I would love for you to read though your posts and count up the number of people who outed themselves compared to the ones who did not and leave me a comment with the totals (even though we wouldn't be able to be sure that you are not "adjusting" your numbers because you obviously like the game and may want to falsify support for it, or not and give us accurate numbers, but who can say for sure with things being so "anonymous").
Thirdly, for playing such a game on what is supposed to be a social site, it is really more of an anti-social game. While games meant for only 2 people are fun for them, it gets rather boring and tiresome watching people play tic-tac-toe, and even more so when you only get to see one persons side of the game.
Fourthly, I have only seen 2 negative posts out of about 100 in the last 2 days. While this does make sense because most people are not Facebook friends with their enemies, it tends to turn the game into more of a sad cry for validation and it seems that they are receiving just that.
(Afterthoughts)
If you need validation that bad, buy a damn puppy!!! (And I am still giggling about the phrase "McFacebook.")
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Repeat... repeat... repeat...
This post is a repeat. That doesn't mean I have written this before but refers instead to something that those who are more tech savvy can only think about with a twitchy eye.
Exactly one week ago, we finally got our internet upgraded out here at my Mom's farm homestead. We were using a usb internet stick from a cell phone company. Now I totally hate those things and did everything I could to talk interested people out of purchasing those when I did my prison time at the AT&T call center (cell phone division, customer service via Alorica), but it was a bit faster than our other option of dial-up (and satellite is too expensive with all the usage restrictions they pile on you). We now have wireless internet, actual wireless internet (not talking about wireless home network) that is kinda like a totally landlocked satellite connection (tower on our house gets a signal from a tower in a town 5 miles away). It's not quite up to what I consider high speed but is still a hella lot better for being dsl's clumsy little brother.
My biggest gripe with it is that I am stuck with a NAT 3 rating when I go online with my PS3 which means online gaming is petty much suckier than a dockside whore. And there is no way to fix it through router reconfiguration cause I have wasted several hours trying. I have not however attempted plugging directly into the system yet since that means moving the PS3 into a different room & I am lazy, but I did attempt wiring directly into one of the wireless routers which theoretically should have given me a NAT 2 rating and still failed to satisfy {insert lame boyfriend joke here}. While disappointing {add a 3rd bad sexual pun} I do have enough toys to keep my happy {enough sucky jokes because 2 is company, 3's a crowd, 4 is too many, & 5's not allowed}.
Now time to address the repetition alluded to earlier. Our internet is piped into the house in a room upstairs. That room is kinda like an entertainment room mostly for my nephews (it's actually my old bedroom) and has directv, a PS2, a Wii, and a computer (tower version). Wiring up the computer to a wireless router (small room, short cable) was simple. Picking up a wireless signal was no trouble for my laptop & PS3 down the hall in my bedroom either. My Mom's computer downstairs is where the trouble began. It is easily within range of the wireless router IF we lived in a more modern (i.e. cheaper built) house. Instead we live in an old farm house built when they made walls by cutting an entire tree into a long rectangle and stacked & mortared them together to make walls before bricking them in to add some polish to the design. While that means that this house will lose its roof several times over before any walls will fall down, it also means that a wireless signal gets kicked in the shin and laughed at for trying to do anything. So the problematic side effect is that I can't get enough of a signal to Mom's computer.
So although I was already using a Belkin N wireless router, there are a few more powerful options that might broadcast stronger, faster, and able to leap multistory building 2 out of 3 attempts. So a couple of trips to Radio Shack buying and then returning the best routers they carried (screw you Netgear) with unsatisfying results, I decided that using a repeater was going to be the best option (see, told you this would be about repeating). Of course no place actually sells those locally, but the max range Netgear (I still hate you Netgear) has a repeater funtion built into it. That was great because otherwise I was going to have to flash software (DD-WRT) to my other Belkin G wireless router to get it to do that and I didn't really want to run the risk of bricking the damn thing if I screwed up a step during that process.
So basically after hours of feeling like Netgear's products would work just as well whole as when smashed into bits from a hammer, I did several more hours of troubleshooting research to discover that wireless repeaters are a pipe dream for a home network due to the lack of standards wireless routers use. The best chance you have is to use the exact same brand and model of routers throughout your entire network, and even then it is still going to be iffy. Hell, even different models of the same type of brand will fail more often than not so using devices manufactured by different companies had me screwed before I even started.
At that point I was ready to flash dd-wrt to my old G router but as luck would have it, the version of the model I have is not compatible with that program (although several other versions of my model actually are, grrrr). Now the Netgear was compatible with that program and although it already did have a setup for wireless repeating (which wouldn't work for me), dd-wrt would work. But that also meant that I would not be able to return it to regain my money and there was a chance I could break it by forcing new firmware into it's spiteful guts.
Last chance I had was to run a cable from the upstairs to the downstairs (which is frowned on in this household) and in order to be clearance from the household boss to do that I had to find a way to get the G router to work as a wired repeater and have it stashed out of sight under a cabinet in the room next to Mom's computer. It took a few different configurations in the router settings (I don't even remember what they are after trying so many different ones on multiple routers) but finally victory was mine, and it only took 5 days to grasp it.
(Afterthoughts)
1) Screw Netgear, 2) If you manage to setup a wireless repeater, immediately go buy a lottery ticket, 3) Screw Netgear.
Exactly one week ago, we finally got our internet upgraded out here at my Mom's farm homestead. We were using a usb internet stick from a cell phone company. Now I totally hate those things and did everything I could to talk interested people out of purchasing those when I did my prison time at the AT&T call center (cell phone division, customer service via Alorica), but it was a bit faster than our other option of dial-up (and satellite is too expensive with all the usage restrictions they pile on you). We now have wireless internet, actual wireless internet (not talking about wireless home network) that is kinda like a totally landlocked satellite connection (tower on our house gets a signal from a tower in a town 5 miles away). It's not quite up to what I consider high speed but is still a hella lot better for being dsl's clumsy little brother.
My biggest gripe with it is that I am stuck with a NAT 3 rating when I go online with my PS3 which means online gaming is petty much suckier than a dockside whore. And there is no way to fix it through router reconfiguration cause I have wasted several hours trying. I have not however attempted plugging directly into the system yet since that means moving the PS3 into a different room & I am lazy, but I did attempt wiring directly into one of the wireless routers which theoretically should have given me a NAT 2 rating and still failed to satisfy {insert lame boyfriend joke here}. While disappointing {add a 3rd bad sexual pun} I do have enough toys to keep my happy {enough sucky jokes because 2 is company, 3's a crowd, 4 is too many, & 5's not allowed}.
Now time to address the repetition alluded to earlier. Our internet is piped into the house in a room upstairs. That room is kinda like an entertainment room mostly for my nephews (it's actually my old bedroom) and has directv, a PS2, a Wii, and a computer (tower version). Wiring up the computer to a wireless router (small room, short cable) was simple. Picking up a wireless signal was no trouble for my laptop & PS3 down the hall in my bedroom either. My Mom's computer downstairs is where the trouble began. It is easily within range of the wireless router IF we lived in a more modern (i.e. cheaper built) house. Instead we live in an old farm house built when they made walls by cutting an entire tree into a long rectangle and stacked & mortared them together to make walls before bricking them in to add some polish to the design. While that means that this house will lose its roof several times over before any walls will fall down, it also means that a wireless signal gets kicked in the shin and laughed at for trying to do anything. So the problematic side effect is that I can't get enough of a signal to Mom's computer.
So although I was already using a Belkin N wireless router, there are a few more powerful options that might broadcast stronger, faster, and able to leap multistory building 2 out of 3 attempts. So a couple of trips to Radio Shack buying and then returning the best routers they carried (screw you Netgear) with unsatisfying results, I decided that using a repeater was going to be the best option (see, told you this would be about repeating). Of course no place actually sells those locally, but the max range Netgear (I still hate you Netgear) has a repeater funtion built into it. That was great because otherwise I was going to have to flash software (DD-WRT) to my other Belkin G wireless router to get it to do that and I didn't really want to run the risk of bricking the damn thing if I screwed up a step during that process.
So basically after hours of feeling like Netgear's products would work just as well whole as when smashed into bits from a hammer, I did several more hours of troubleshooting research to discover that wireless repeaters are a pipe dream for a home network due to the lack of standards wireless routers use. The best chance you have is to use the exact same brand and model of routers throughout your entire network, and even then it is still going to be iffy. Hell, even different models of the same type of brand will fail more often than not so using devices manufactured by different companies had me screwed before I even started.
At that point I was ready to flash dd-wrt to my old G router but as luck would have it, the version of the model I have is not compatible with that program (although several other versions of my model actually are, grrrr). Now the Netgear was compatible with that program and although it already did have a setup for wireless repeating (which wouldn't work for me), dd-wrt would work. But that also meant that I would not be able to return it to regain my money and there was a chance I could break it by forcing new firmware into it's spiteful guts.
Last chance I had was to run a cable from the upstairs to the downstairs (which is frowned on in this household) and in order to be clearance from the household boss to do that I had to find a way to get the G router to work as a wired repeater and have it stashed out of sight under a cabinet in the room next to Mom's computer. It took a few different configurations in the router settings (I don't even remember what they are after trying so many different ones on multiple routers) but finally victory was mine, and it only took 5 days to grasp it.
(Afterthoughts)
1) Screw Netgear, 2) If you manage to setup a wireless repeater, immediately go buy a lottery ticket, 3) Screw Netgear.
Thursday, September 30, 2010
Zack Attack, er, Dedication
There once was a man named Zack,
Who tried to teach ducks how to quack,
He had quite a cow,
When they only would meow,
And this story is totally fact.
So he went on a great big attack,
Drove over them in a semi named Mack,
We got quite a laugh,
When he cut them in half,
For their insides were really part cat.
(Afterthoughts)
Dedicated to all the Zacks I know and the ones I don't (whether I want to know them or not).
Who tried to teach ducks how to quack,
He had quite a cow,
When they only would meow,
And this story is totally fact.
So he went on a great big attack,
Drove over them in a semi named Mack,
We got quite a laugh,
When he cut them in half,
For their insides were really part cat.
(Afterthoughts)
Dedicated to all the Zacks I know and the ones I don't (whether I want to know them or not).
Friday, August 20, 2010
Riding The Rails
After a long 3/4 of a year bumming around on unemployment the time has come to hop the train and move to a new city. My decent job options are pretty much burned out here in Terre Haute so much to my family's joy and excitement I am moving back to them (which Mom has been begging for every week for the past 3 years lol). I start with the 1st of X amount of trips transporting my possessions 180 miles away (3 1/2 hour trip each way) beginning this very morning.
My decision to make the move is 2 fold:
(1) My job potential is better in that location due to the much higher amount of machine shops in the area mainly due to a few of the world's biggest orthopedic manufacturers having their corporate headquarters in the small city of Warsaw.
(2) If I have not obtained employment by the time my unemployment runs out in a few months, the money I have saved on rent will be enough to support me for a while so that I can take a contracting job again in a different state which will earn me a much higher paycheck than working anywhere else.
So while I have enjoyed my time here in T.H. the time has come for me to adventure on back to my old stomping grounds while I wait to turn the page to the next chapter in my pretentious life ;-)
(Afterthoughts)
Woo Hoo, new record set for the length between blog posts.
My decision to make the move is 2 fold:
(1) My job potential is better in that location due to the much higher amount of machine shops in the area mainly due to a few of the world's biggest orthopedic manufacturers having their corporate headquarters in the small city of Warsaw.
(2) If I have not obtained employment by the time my unemployment runs out in a few months, the money I have saved on rent will be enough to support me for a while so that I can take a contracting job again in a different state which will earn me a much higher paycheck than working anywhere else.
So while I have enjoyed my time here in T.H. the time has come for me to adventure on back to my old stomping grounds while I wait to turn the page to the next chapter in my pretentious life ;-)
(Afterthoughts)
Woo Hoo, new record set for the length between blog posts.
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