Things I learned today

I've decided to create a type of log, and hopefully an information site over things I learn day to day that are of interest to people. I first wanted to create this space for solutions I found on the internet to problems that were not readily available on a quick Google search. I realized that might be boring, and would not create enough content to make a blog worth reading. So I've decided to use this space as an information blackboard for anything that I've learned about that is worth reporting about. I'm not taking about the latest news story, or day to day info, but more like random clips of possibly helpful information. Starting with the next post.

This is my bitch post

I totally mean to bitch, I wont deny this – you’ve made Pepe and Sofie very sad.  It would be awesome if you guys would comment on my blog so I don’t feel like im writing to no one.  People keep asking me why I’m moving my office, so maybe no one is reading :(  Either way, comments will keep me posting. THE POWER IS IN YOUR HANDS!.

Movin’

I’m moving to a new office on Friday and we’ve been busy packing up everything this week.  It’s been fun to do something different at work and to get to go through all the years of shit they’ve never thrown away.  I must have thrown away tons of copies of Windows NT, Word Perfect 6, and all kinds of random programs I’ve never heard of that were made to run on 95/98. Fun times.  The picture below is the trashcan I filled up with junk, but check out the two disc formats specifically.  One from 2000, and another from 1988 both found in the same cabinet.  Fun times.  I’ll post pictures of my new office when we get moved in.  I’m pretty pumped because I get a real office, four walls and a door.  It’s gonna be rad.

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Sofie is awesome

Look at this awesome dog.  It was nearly 80 degrees here in Norman, and we had a really nice evening.  Sofie noticed it too and took a sleep on the couch out on the porch.  I had the door open and enjoyed some Left 4 Dead with almost everyone I know that owns it.  It was so awesome.  Okay, short update, time to go to sleep.  Enjoy my beautiful dog of awesome. Oh and she just turned four last weekend, how crazy is that, my little girl is growing up..

 

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Ok, ok. As I was about to hit “update” I looked over at Sofie, and she’s got a face covered with sand.  I had emptied the sand out of my fish tank to replace it with rocks, and put the old sand in a big tub and was waiting for the sun to evaporate any water that remained, etc.  Anyways, I look over and she’s just looking at me with a beard of sand, and smacking her lips, I can hear her eating the sand :( Oh Sofie, don’t eat sand.  I snapped a pic at the last second.  (I’m also trying out this “photo album” feature of Windows Live Writer, let me know if its cool or not, because I’m going to update this and go to bed. Tell me if you like it.

 

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I broke my blog trying to fix picture sizes on my last post

I hope updating fixes it, here we go!

Better Fish Tank Pictures

I got out Max’s expensive camera and took a few awesome pictures of my fish tank.  I think sometime soon I might invest in a really nice camera, not like a cannon rebel like max, (I don't want to spend 1300) but maybe something a little cheaper.  Time to start saving!  Enjoy some pictures, I’ve recently added lots of plants and new fish to my tank!  It’s more of the crowded jungle feel that I’ve wanted.  Most plants are fake, but there are are several bamboo/other live plants mixed in there.  Check out the driftwood inside there too, I love that stuff, you can buy it with live plants in the wood, it really makes the tank look awesome.

I just discovered a new Vista tool!

 

Let’s see how this works.  How shall I begin my discovery…hmmm. Well, it all began when I wanted to take a picture of my fish tank in panoramic view, and I recalled that Vista had once advertised a new photo device that would let you stitch together pictures and create your own panoramic pictures!  I looked through the menus but could not find it.  I did a quick Google search to find out that you have to download it through the windows live package.  After doing so it offered to sign me up to Live, Hotmail, etc, but I told it to install three things, Windows Writer (I’m using it now to update my Google blog, it has already downloaded my exact colors and formats so I can see what it looks like as I write this, its very cool), Windows Live Photo Gallery, and Window Movie Maker Beta (thought I'd try it out).  So far I’m really liking this simple blogger tool, I’m glad to know its in Windows 7 standard. (why isn't this in Vista out of the box?)  Anyways, I like this service, now I’m going to try to stitch together some photos.  Brb.


Well it didn’t work, how disappointing.  I guess the fish tank looks the same on each picture, and it can’t match the image well enough because there are so many plants and things that are similar color. :(


Well here is a half ass attempt from Photoshop :(

Why do dogs lay under your computer desk?

Tonight I moved my computer out of the downstairs Lan and back into my room upstairs. As soon as I've got all my things set up Sofie wedges her way through my legs and into the spot where my feet go under the desk. She's always done this at every house I've ever had. Sometimes she just sleeps at my feet, or rests her head on my leg and looks up at me, and sometimes she even just sits down there and doesn't do anything. I know dogs are den animals and like to find spots that are enclosed so they feel safe. I figure this is the closest explination to why they do that, but I really have no clue. This post isnt really a complaint, I kinda like that she does that. I havent had my computer in my room in almost a year so I forgot all about it. I guess I'm a dog person so I'm gonna naturally find a lot of Sofie's "qwerks" cute. I like knowing that she likes to spend time with me I guess, even if it's at my feet.

In other news part of my tooth fell off on Thursday. It's a tooth I've had problems with before, namley a cavity 4 or 5 years ago. When it was filled the dentist had told me that I might need a root canal someday on the tooth, since the cavity was so deep. I'm not sure why my tooth fell apart (I'm afraid it's dead), because I didn't bite something hard. It doesnt hurt either, which is really good because I wasnt able to get an appointment till Monday at 8:45am (tomorrow). I guess I'll get all my answers then, although I don't think this will be my first visit. My guess is that I'll just get a diagnosis tomorrow, then have to come back in later for the real nasty stuff. I'm kinda afraid of the densit, it's the closest thing I've got to real surgery or whatever. I've never been to the hospital, broken something, stitches, etc. So a needle in the arm, or needle in the gums is the worse I've ever gotten. I know the novicane and drugs make everything happy times, but I guess it's just the anicipation before the actual work they have to do, than the work itself.

Thinking on the dentist is why I'm unable to go to sleep yet, and even though I'm not very tired I should probably try to go to sleep soon.

Podcasts

Around a year ago Joewaka told me about a few podcasts he had begun listening to on his Zune. At first I didn't think much about this; it sounded boring, what was a podcast anyway? In my head it was a radio show where people talked about stuff, but since I didn't know these people I wasn't convinced I should listen to what they have to say. Well for the most part I was right. A podcasts is a digital radio show that you download from Itunes/Zune/Internet and listen in your mp3 device of choice (for the most part). As it turns out I found that podcasts were extremely entertaining, highly enjoyable, and really funny. When I started working at Computer Nerdz in Dec 07, I also started driving a lot, a whole lot. As much as I love music and listening to music in my car, something about a podcast became much more enjoyable to me. At first it was hard to imagine not listening to my favorite band in my car, or a new album I stole. Quickly though I changed my mind, I started listening to Shackcast. Ironically Shackcast fell apart just a few months after I started listening to it about a year ago from today. It wasn't the best podcast (as I soon realized), but it had some crazy guys bitching and talking about video games and that was enough for me. Driving around with one of these "radio shows" became addicting, the longer I had to drive the better. The longer I could listen the more fun I had, and the quicker time went by. Working at Nerdz was great, because I spend so much time in my car. I kinda miss that...

I also started listening to the Penny Arcade Podcast (not updated very often), which is short and sweet, pretty funny, just not very frequent. Joe recommended Uncle Gamer, a podcast from a website I don't even remember. I listened to them for about 3 months, I thought I liked them, but the more and more this stupid bitch talked, the more I realized I didn't like their podcast. It was biased and boring. The bitch is fucking Major Nelson, the head community guy for XBLA. Anyways, I was glad to ditch that because I had come across RetroforceGo (Destructoid's number one retro podcast), which has been a serious gift from the heavens to me. If I ever had one podcast to recommend, it would be this one. I've been listening to RFGO for almost a year now, but have gone back through almost all of their back catalog of shows just to make sure I hear all of them. It's that good. Destructoid also has another podcast that I like (just not as much), called Podtoid. Podtoid is a more general podcast that focuses on current events, new games, topical gaming news stuff, and it's pretty funny. Lately I find myself angry at the show though, sometimes those guys can be elitist assholes who get to serious with their conversations and don't make me laugh very often. BUTWhATEVER. Overall Dtoid puts out some awesome podcasts, and it's all because of their awesome editors that make all of their shows enjoyable to listen to. Lastly, 1up. The 1up podcasts are probably my favorite of all, the editors work for EGM/1up.com (not just bloggers), and I usually enjoy their opinions / arguments they have on games. I don't know why I like their podcasts so much, part of it is their professionalism. When they record they do it up right, soundproof rooms, mic/headphone setups like DJ's at radio stations, segmented shows with different reoccurring topics, etc. The full list I listen to is 1up FM, 1up yours, retronauts, and Lanparty (or GFW Radio). Well at least that is what I did listen to.

2 weeks ago a website called UGO bought out 1up.com from Ziff-Davis, and decided they didn't need a magazine, just a website. As a result 30ish people were fired (or let go) from their jobs at 1up/EGM. Of course these actions would lead to the murder of all my favorite podcast from the 1up network. This is a sad day, all my favorite podcasts end simultaneously thus ending my true happiness in life.

By some act of Spaghetti Jesus (or what have you), Rebel FM was created. A new podcast, independently operated by ex-members of the 1up network. They started it the same week they found out they lost their jobs. The dedication of these people to their community and fanbase is amazing, no incredible. That being said, their community came through 10 fold. The week that Rebel FM launched, so did a donation PayPal account that was created to help support the new podcast (a good podcast isn't cheap apparently), with no advertisers, equipment, etc. A week later Rebel Fm posted a tally of the donations received in little over a week, they had brought in some 11k worth of donations from their community, and fellow editors / supporters from other gaming sites. I know the owner of Destructoid, Neiro, had donated as well. Hearing about the donations totally lifted my heart, just knowing that they still had support from their community during the hard times they were facing. Now they have enough money to buy equipment, etc to keep the resurrected show going. Which is just so fucking awesome.

So here are some links to the aforementioned podcasts. I suggest that if you have time at work, or in the car, to give them a listen.

Destructoid : Podtoid & RetroforceGo!

1up slew of podcasts.

and

Rebel FM from Eat-Sleep-Game.com


Sorry this was so long, I'm bored at work. Hey look at that, it's almost 4:30! Time to leave!

It's almost February

I can't believe it's almost February 2009; this year has been going by so fast already. A bunch of fun stuff has happened since I last posted, I turned 25, went to Tulsa for Christmas to visit family and friends, went to Tulsa again for new years at Erik and Tara's house, White James came to visit down in Norman, and a few days later Pepe came as well! Last weekend Amber celebrated a birthday, we went to Yamato steakhouse where we sat at a hibachi table (so awesome) and went to a movie. Tara and Erik also came down last weekend for the festivities and added to the awesome January I've been having so far. To top it all off today, President Obama was sworn in today which has been pretty cool to watch history happen live on CNN's feed. Regardless who you voted for this election does represent one of the most historic days that America has seen and it's been really interesting to watch. I specifically liked what he said about science:


"We will restore science to its rightful place, and wield technology's wonders to raise health care's quality and lower its cost." -President Obama.


I guess I like specifically his views on bringing science to a higher standard, to use it to help meet some of the challenges we face regarding health, environment, cars, etc, etc. Having a president who is more electronic savvy, and overall interested in science development, and is interested in using technology to our advantage is really important to me. If you missed any of that this morning I'm sure it will be flooded in news updates today.

Yesterday Joe Walker resurrected his blog and begun posting on blogger! I fully support his new blogging campaign and look forward to his cynical posts. Joe's site had a pretty sharp design, or lack of design, just simple. I really liked how simple it was so I tried to cut back on my own websites design myself, changed a few colors, and grabbed my old blog's mascot back when we all posted on the oefnetwork. So I hope you like my small tweaked design, and new colors. The little guy up there is Makar, from Legend of Zelda : Wind Waker, he's awesome and he plays the violin. I think that's about all that is on my mind today, except for Aretha Franklin's hat, or bow, or present, whatever the hell she was wearing. That won't leave my mind, it's too big. Also, my new years resolution list is here:

1. Learn to play my acoustic guitar.

2. Keep working out, and get less fat.

3. Update often!

25 get!

Looks like people at work knew it was my birthday today, so as you can see my desk was bombarded with streamers and balloons! Kinda fun so I welcome it, thanks work people. So, twenty-five years of age, kinda crazy to think about but kinda cool too. I'm gonna have to call my insurance company later and see if my rates have dropped, because I'm paying too much right now for insurance. I guess you can tell when you're getting old when you're excited to save money on car insurance..... I just sounded like a Geico commercial.

The day has already started very well, I woke up this morning and James, Amber, and Max were up watching Dexter. I kinda got freaked out because they all looked very awake and I wanted to know what they were doing up at 7:30am. I looked at my watch, confused, making sure I didn't sleep through work, or forgot it was the weekend. James was up because he didn't go to sleep, and knew Amber was coming over at 6:30am to make me BROWNIES (funfetti), and Max was awoken by the squeal of nobody's favorite pig, p-chan. So, nice way to wake up in the morning, friends watching a show about a murderer, making me brownies, while a pig runs around the living room. Thanks for the brownies Amber!

This weekend a lot of people are coming down for my birthday part on Saturday, which is going to be very awesome. I'm really excited to see some people, namely Joe, Tara, Erik, and my friend Matt Saucier! Even Ashley will be driving down for my birthday (not for Christmas, just my birthday then driving back and not staying in Tulsa for her winter break) which is totally nice of her, thanks Ashley!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY!



Streamers everywhere!!!!!!!!


I Can't see my monitor but who cares? NOT ME!


YAYAYYA

Pepe's headed home for vacation!

He'll be driving home in his 1969 Camaro, right over the waters of the Australian SEA! LOLZ!


Seriously though, Pepe is coming home to Tulsa on Monday and I'm super excited to see him. He said he will make an effort to come down to Norman eventually before he heads back to Australia, but his schedule is very busy :( PEP PEP! Either way, I will be down in Tulsa for Christmas time and hope to see him a lot with Erik and White James during that week.

Everything else is going good, got a raise at work, I just bought an acoustic guitar, and Munkie moved in down stairs so we finally have 6 roommates! That is until Max moves out in May. I'll try to get some pictures up of Munkie in his room, well wait a minute, I have one on my iphone from last night! As you can see he's playing guitar, trying desperately to teach me a thing or to at the same time. I've always wanted to learn, in fact, it was my 2008 new years resolution (I almost missed it)!

It's hard writing on this stupid blog because I only think a few people read it, Amber, Erik, Ashley, and maybe Bekah. I enjoy writing up posts, so I'm sure I will keep on updating but knowing that most people know whats going on with me on a daily basis makes updating feel pointless.

I turn 25 in one week, which is just insane for me think about. It's so insane that I don't even want to think about it, it's just to weird. 25 is way to old, oh well, at least I finally got the job I wanted, and have begun to settle my financial debts and start saving money. That feels good at least, and I suppose I'll be getting a discount on insurance as well!

Speaking of birthdays, I'll be having a party on the 20th of December, a Saturday. The Facebook invite is imminent, so save the date! Come up to Norman and shower me with video games and hugs, if you do I will love you forever.

Pictures below :

Me trying to learn to play chords and learn my way around a guitar.
Munkie trying to impress me with his mad skills.

Back in time!

I've spent a lot of time today going through my old blog and found a funny entry regarding thanksgiving 4 years ago.

November 18, 2004
Lansgiving

Ok folks. Adam, Token whats the deal? Are we going to try to have thanksgiving lan at your place? If so id like to be there. I know everyone has family obligations, and that's cool, but if we can make this work in between all of that, it would be very enjoyable. My work schedule is surprisingly nil, I don't have to work till Saturday morning, so I've got Tuesday night - Friday night open for Tulsa. While I am in Tulsa, I might call Starworld and ask to work on Thanksgiving, or maybe the day after, because I can get time and a half (w00t). Well, id like you fools feedback, leave a comment!! I hope to see most of you in Tulsa even if we don't lan. Plus WoW will be out, and we need to get to playing it, at least Erik, Joe, and I. (Adam you should reconsider!!!! And Token, I better see you buying that next Tuesday too....and J.P.....I will turn you over to us, YOU WILL JOIN US. MUHAHAHAHAH

outy.


Adam told me to post this, and I'd like to point out his hesitation on picking it up :D Look at us now, 4 years later! In similar news, Blizzard gave out free 4 year anniversary pets for those people who logged into to the game sometime yesterday! They were cute little baby polarbears :D

Belated Halloween Post

I look like Micheal Cera if he stopped running! LOLZ

New post on iPhone with shozu application

Hey everyone, I'm in weatherford at an OCC area confrence! It started off really boring but most of my OCC coworkers snuck out of the main room and we've spent the past 3 hours in these really nice chairs! We've kinda ditched most of the presintations, it's great were just hanging out. More posts later!

Nothing to blog about

(I found this picture and I think it's awesome)

So, I look up at my "Blogger: New Post" button everyday and talk myself out of writing here. I know that the problem isn't me not having enough time, or having better things to do...because I do have enough time, and I don't have better things to do. I'm at work for about 9 hours a day, and I get to spend a lot of time on the internet (between working of course) and have plenty of time to write. Why don't I? Mostly because every time I sit down to write, it ends up being about Video Games.... (see I just did it again!) I suppose there is nothing wrong with writing about what you enjoy doing, nothing at all. I just know that a lot of people who read this are the people I don't live with, and most of you don't really play games, or know what I'm talking about. I guess I'm afraid that my friends won't actually read what I have to say, so I should make it about something more interesting, or as I said in my last post "more general". So, I'm trying to think of a topic I could write about. I guess I can go over what's going on the past few days.

Randomness:

I beat Metal Gear 4, it was freaking awesome. I'd like to go pick up Fallout 3 really soon, but I'm out of money till tonight around 12am. The election is coming up, get out and vote! Unless you're for McCain, then you can go to hell (jk). I think there is only one McCain supporter among my friends and roommates, so there's that. I've got last FM installed on my computer at work, it's a pretty cool music radio application that lets me listen to a pretty specific and wide variety of music. No advertisements, or set number of skips, just lots of cool free music. I really like VoJo EXTREME energy mints (citrus) I eat like 5 a day at work. I've been having fun at work lately, more to do more often. Our VPN server broke, and I've been trying to pinpoint the problem, it keeps rebooting. I figured it was a heat issue, but the thermal paste I ordered didn't really help (nice to have though). I've fixed a registry error in the event log, and I've had the computer on for a few hours now, but I don't trust that it's fixed unless it lasts over night. So we shall see how smart I really am. I've been playing a little bit of Fallout 1 (1997) on my laptop during lunch, it's pretty cool, and pretty old. Trying to get in the post apocalyptic spirit before I delve into Fallout 3. Halloween is coming up, that's kinda cool. Amber and I are going as Pauly Bleaker and Juno MacGuff. I can't find any yellow running shorts, I found some gold/yellow basketball shorts but I don't think they are good enough. They will have to do if I can't find some really gay yellow shorts though.

Blogs!

I noticed today that a lot of my friends (most of which don't live around me anymore) have started blogs on blogger. I of course believe that it was me who has started this amazing trend among my friends. When I stopped updating (oops lolz) they just felt it was a good chance to steal my readership and my thunder. Well fuck all that, I'm back and I'm here to reclaim my Blogger throne.


I hope everyone's fall is going well, fall is definitely my favorite of the four seasons, one might say it's 'baddass'.

I don't have a lot going on this fall, just working, and playing a lot of video games. Like a whole lot. I've finally started to focus on my own backlog of stuff instead of just buying new things (although I'm still buying new things). I've torn very slowly through the Metal Gear series, since this summer I've finished Metal Gear 1-3, beating 3 just last Thursday. I enjoyed all of them equally, each one with their own high points and low points, but I wouldn't change anything. MGS4 has been great, I'm not very far in but I like where the story is going. MGS4 has been bringing back old characters, similar game themes, and mixing that all up in a new way to play the game, and topping it off with the HD graphics is as close to perfect the series has become.

I picked up Little Big Planet, and Rock Band 2 this weekend. I can't stress enough how amazing LBP is, it's a unique game nothing like I've played before. On the surface it's a simple 2.5D platformer, with great graphics and creative gameplay, but underneath it truly is so much more. The 'feel' of the game is nothing like I've ever felt, it's witty, charming, cute, and overall just makes me very happy. The game really shines with the online community that is easily integrated into the game. With a click of a button any of my online friends can join me in my own "world" as we go level to level together, talking on voice chat, and allowing others in the living room to join in (up to 4 players, local or online). On top of what I've previously mentioned the game offers a very broad level creator that allows the user to literally do almost anything they want. Just ask to see Joe's level, in a few hours you can create a truly unique experience that is fun, challenging, and can easily be shared online with the rest of the community base who are also sharing their levels. Last thing about LBP, most of it's charm is discovered after picking up the controller, looking at screenshots and videos doesn't describe the experience of playing this game with your friends. You won't want to stop, it's addicting, cooperative, and competitive wrapped up into awesomeness.

As far as RockBand goes, it's still RockBand. A lot of fun, you should buy it.


I have a feeling that the only people who read this blog probably don't care about what I just talked about. :( I guess the only audience I have, I live with! BAH. I'll try to keep the next post more general. Seriously though, I do recommend Little Big Planet to ANYONE, so next time you're over don't be surprised if I force you to play with me.

I need to get a rolladex of ideas to write about, because I stare at my "Blogger: New Post" link on Firefox and never think of things to rant about.

Hope everyone is doing well.


Here is Solid Snake* as a sackboy.
*Old Snake

A much needed (and awesome) update

Welcome welcome faithful readers (LOL JOE) to Nick's most awesome blog. It is time to gather around and start planning Quakecon 08! It is about a week away (pretty much), and it's going to be so super awesome I had to dedicate a post to it! In case you haven't been informed we are leaving Wednesday night after everyone is off work. We will be heading down to Dallas and try to arrive at a good time before 12am on Thursday morning so we can get this con started right!

I hope everyone is preparing their computers with as many PC games as you can. Install tons of stuff, because you don't want to be asking for a cd down in Dallas when everyone else is ready. So mount images, bring discs, whatever it takes. Download no-cd patches, cracks, updates, etc.

List of stuff I'm going to install-

Diablo II
Starcraft
Warcraft III
Quake Wars
HLDM
Counterstrike
Team Fortress
Unreal Tournament
Battlefield 2142
Battlefield 2
Serious Sam
Jedi Academy
Quake 4
Quakelive

Then Joe's weird list wtf are some of these?

sim city 2000
x-com terror from the deep
planescape: torment
pool of radiance
thief 2
daikatana
anachronox
sexbutts2


I'm guessing were gonna have to wait in a line when we get there Wednesday night, but it will only be followed by Computer Bliss. We will get our choice of rows, and seating. Plus a full extra night (and pretty much afternoon) of Quakecon, and it's going to be awesome. As far as food, I figure we will go to walmart and stock up on saltines and water bottles, ramen, and lunch meat.

I'm super excited as you can tell, plus I got a hold of some (once lost until this afternoon) pictures from last year. View some of them and rejoice!

Josh's Blog

http://jamthought.blogspot.com/


I thought I'd link to it since I haven't updated much lately, go read that!

Sometimes, life is so awesome

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/ctds/