in which I sign up for a social network

After my rant on the complete non-understanding of social networks sites like myspace and facebook... I signed up for facebook.

I know, I know... I said that this blog and the flickr account are the ONLY things I needed to stay in touch with the world.

But I realized that if I'm ever going to come out of the insular shell that I'm in socially, I'm gonna have to start SOMEWHERE.  I figure if I can find friends on facebook, then at least there some commonality to it.  I'm a very sociable guy, just not in traditionally sociable places.  I'm more likely to strike up conversation with someone at a bookstore than I am in a bar or club.  I don't drink and the bar/club scene has never been one that I've felt comfortable in.

Basically, I'm trying to say that if I'm ever going to make my way in the world, I have to be connected to world in more ways that I am now.

And I think that facebook is going to be a good start.

Banker's Hours

I work in a bank.

I work “banker’s hours”

Not anymore.

The bank that I work for is switching from “2 weeks vacation/paid holidays/5 days sick time/2 personal days” to Paid Time-Off.

And I’m not sure if I like that yet.  We may or may not have to work bank holidays.  If we don’t work the holidays, we HAVE to use our PTO.  We can’t take an unpaid day off so we can use that time somewhere else.  I won’t be getting 3 weeks vacation (like the old system).  I could take 3 weeks vacation and holidays, but I wouldn’t have any sick time to work with.

I really think it sucks, and it’ll take some getting used to. I’m thankful I have a job that is steady and won’t be going anywhere, but at the same time I feel like I’m getting screwed over on my time off.   I signed up to work in an office environment, not a retail store.  I signed up, knowing that 5 years in that I’d get 3 weeks paid vacation.  I kinda feel robbed.  I really feel that the time and work that I’ve put in at the company has been for nothing – no reward for the years of service I’ve given them.

But at the same time, I do like the complete flexibility that PTO offers.  I might not want to work President’s Day, and I could use that time that I would have used and use it on another day.  If I want to take every last Friday of every month off, I could.  It’s better than most retail/food service.  Most other jobs I’ve held offered NO vacation/sick time/benefits, so I should be grateful for what I have.

But I still can’t shake the feeling that I got shafted.

In which I rave about DOSBox

I love retrogaming.

 

There is something about old PC games from the 80’s and 90’s that you just don’t get in the current run of titles.  The only downside of being a retrogamer in this day and age is the fact that computers are too fast to run anything written 20+ years ago.  Couple that with the fact that the Windows platform makes it nearly impossible to get even Windows 95 games up and running on a modern (XP/Vista) computer.

 

But there is hope.  And hope comes in a package called DosBox.

 

What DOSBox is, is a x86 emulator that runs on XP/Vista that allows you to run old DOS programs.  How DOSBox works… well... that’s beyond my technical expertise.  But the end result is one of retrogaming bliss.  Tack a frontend to the program (like D-Frontend of DOG), and you have the best way to run DOS games.

 

Take the classic exploration game Starflight.  It flat-out WON’T run on a Windows Machine. Period.  I tried for months to try to tweak settings in XP to run it, and it just wouldn’t work.  I downloaded DOSBox and DOG, and within 5 minutes, I was playing one of my favorite childhood games, with no errors or slowdown.  Now couple that with the plethora of abandonware sites out on the internet (Home of the Underdogs and Abandonia come to mind), and you, too, can experience the treasures of computer gaming past.

 

I strongly recommend that if you download DOSBox that you also download a frontend.  DOSBox’s command line is ancient compared to what current users are used to, and unless you learned how to operate DOS back when it was the operating systems of choice (remember c:\ = the stick shift of operating systems), it’s a very difficult thing to wrap your head around. The frontend allows you to go in and actually tweak setting for each individual game, giving you the ability to setup profiles for each game, and making the experience virtually pain-free.

 

DOSBox + a frontend = Gaming Bliss….

To quest or not to quest...

Well, after much anticipation, World of Warcraft: Wrath of the Lich King released on Thursday.

And therein lies a dilemma.  I’m still 4000 gold short of buying my epic flying mount, and (sadly) the great run of daily quests in QuelDanas have had their gold rewards drastically reduced. So what do I do?  Wrath is geared for high level playing and end-game content, but what about new players or players that are just getting back into the game?  Getting an epic flying mount help tremendously in Outland, but getting 5000 gold is going to be tough, especially since Blizzard dropped the gold rewards on the Level 70 daily quests.  So how am I going to make any money?

I really wish I had transfer onto the PvE server earlier – I could have had my epic already! J

And it’s been less than 24 since Wrath’s launch and someone on the EU’s Drek’thar server ALREADY HIT 80!  Ten level in less than 24 hours?  Do these people even have lives?  I mean, it’s a fun game and all, but jesus – get out and breath some fresh air every now and then!

I’m beginning to wonder if Blizzard even thought the whole level progression through.  80 in less than 24 from 70?  Maybe it’s time to rethink XP in the game.  Either stop giving the Rested XP bonus after 70 if you are in the inn – or maybe extending the amount of XP needed to level.  I’m wondering if these people in their rush to 80 even bother to enjoy the game that Blizzard worked hard on creating.  They are in such a mad rush to be the first to 80 (by way of achievements) that they skip quest lines, and just grind and/or quest until they achieve their goal.

And I’m not the first to say this, but I wonder how unhealthy this type of behavior is.  I am a believer that video game/internet addiction exists, and players like these prove it.  I, for one, have a life outside of the game.  Don’t take that as a slam against ALL MMO players.  I know plenty of people that have a job, family, friends and still play WoW.  But there are people that, sadly, WoW is their life.  That’s all they do. And to me, that paints a sad, sad, picture of today’s society. When a computer game can eclipse real life as a priority – I begin to wonder about humanity ability to thrive.

My new home...

Well, Sorta.

I finally decided to take the plunge, and pay to transfer my level 70 Hunter off the PvP-Bleeding Hollow server, and move it to the PvE-Trollbane server.

And I couldn't be happier.

I was able to, in one hour, run 20 daily quests and get over 100g for my time. Something that would have taken me at LEAST 3-4 hours (if I didn't give up) on the PvP server.

The process was pretty painless as well. From the time I put through the request to the point at which I could actually play on the new server was about 45 minutes. So 25 dollars and 45 minutes later, I was actually having playing again.

I also took the gold and purchased a Guild Charter, got my 9 signatures, and started up The Dragon Guard on the new server. So when Damastus, Pipsie, Rellas, Ransue, Grothen, and Arlilith get the money to come over, the guild will be ready for them to go.

You know, I really am looking forward to running the guild for the time being - Most of the people that signed are low-level characters, so I think it'll be great to help them out, and hopefully they will like the gameplay that we (the guild) are accustomed to.

In which I find out I can suspend a service...

I’m actually saving money this winter.

For the last 3 weeks, I think I’ve watched a total of 8 hours of TV.  Not that I don’t like watching TV – on the contrary – I love it.  NCIS, Heroes, Criminal Minds, Dirty Jobs, Mythbusters, these are a few of the shows I watch on a weekly basis. But lately, because of winter starting to settle in, I’ve been watching movies in my bedroom.  Which is the only room I heat during the winter, due to the fact I have to heat using electricity.

So I was agonizing over the fact that I wanted to get rid of my cable.  I haven’t been watching it, and It’s 70 a month that could go to heating this winter.  So I bit the bullet and went to TWC’s website to go about disconnecting my service. 

But a cool thing happened.

I found out about the Seasonal Suspension Plan.

Here’s how it works: There are a lot of older folks that live here in Maine during the Summer and then go to a place further south (usually Florida) during the winter. So TWC created a way to suspend your cable service while you aren’t living in the state!  Awesome!  It’s only $5 a month to suspend your cable, and then you choose the time when you want it turned back on.  So I figured I use it to suspend my cable during winter (when I’m not watching TV in my cold living room), and then turn it back on in April when it’s warming up again.

I’ll be saving $420 over the next 6 months – and it’ll all go to heating an medications. 

 

I voted.

After some confusion on which Ward in Auburn I reside in, I finally made it to Auburn Middle School to vote (huge thanks to Chuck for carting my butt around last night).

And now that it’s over, I’ll say I voted for Obama/Biden.  The reason?  I honestly think that we, as a country, can’t take 4 more years of Bush-style politics in the White House.  We need a new direction in our economy.  We need to re-think our strategy in the Iraq War.  We need to change – and I think we are now on the right track for that change.

And as an aside, is it me, or does McCain look like a “Mini-Me” to George Bush’s “Austin Powers”?

 

6.8!

Woot!

My hemoglobin A1C tests result came in – 6.8%!  6.0% or less is normal, and my doctor wants mine at least at 6.5%.  We think the reason it’s a bit high is because the test incorporated some of the pre-medication blood sugar (+500) so it skewed the result slighty.

My Cholestrol is 162 – Blood Pressure 128/70 (Awesome) – and my doctor said she was impressed with my results over the last 3 months.

And to be honest with you – so am I J

Finally!

After 6 days, Blizzard finally got around to returning my mounts to me.

I can finally get back to doing daily quests in Shattrath, and I can also try to finish off some of the achievements that I’m near completing as well.

Headless Horseman FTW!

Epic.

It was just plain epic.

After traveling to Southshore – fending off the Horde from killing a brewmaster, riding to the Scarlet Monastery, and wading through the Gauntlet of Horde that was in the entrance hall to the instance – the Level 70’s in our group finally went to defeat the Headless Horseman.

After finally reducing the Horseman to 1 HP, we figure out that we need to target and kill his head to defeat him.  Well after our 5^th TPK, we almost called it quits.  But I piped up. “I think we need to do one more run.  What do we have to lose except time?”

And so began the defeat of the Headless Horseman.  On our sixth time, we finally kill the beast, with only 1 casualty (our Guild Leader).  2 Achievements, tons of Tricky Treats, and a few loot items (Arlilith got the riding broom), and we called it a night.  An epic way to finish off a weekend.

Still no word on my mounts/pets. Grrrrr…. L

ArkInventory - Why didn't I get this before?

Ok, I don't think I've ever posted this much about WoW before.  But with the recent patch, the headaches, and the cool stuff about it, I figure if I'm going to blog, I'll blog abut stuff that interests me.

ArkInventory is a incredibly cool add-on that basically allows you have and infinite number of bags at your disposal.  It doesn't give you extra bag slots (that is control by how many bags you carry and the amount of slots in each bag), but it does allow you to create inventory slots in a new panel based on your criteria.

For instance, I have a slot for Cloth/Leather, Potions, food, Ammo, quest items, and one for weapons and armor drops.  It takes your existing inventory slots and gives you a fully functional way to sort them in a way that's easy to manage.

And it's not just your personal inventory that can be sorted.  Your personal Bank slots and the guild bank can also be sorted in this fashion.  Another bonus is that if you open your Bank, it saves a copy of the contents.  So someone decides to ask me to craft something (like Grothen did yesterday), I don't have to travel all the way to a bank to see if I have the materials available to do it.  It pops up as a separate window, and I can see if I need to farm the materials, ask for them, or buy them off the auction house.

A really amazing add-on.

Muppets! (Cheers!) and Mounts (Jeers..)

Well I finally found a program that will convert my Muppet Show DVD's into iPod movie format - without the annoying 6 second audio delay.  DVDFab is a great conversion utility that allow you to basically convert DVD's into ANY format conceivable. And it works like a  charm, and I'm planning on finishing off the 7 DVD's I have left.

My mounts on the other hand are still nowhere to be seen.

I received an in-game email from Blizzard saying that I would be receiving an e-mail with all the mounts/vanity pets that I had.  That was over 36 hours ago.  Now it's not something that I'll quit the game over, but it is something that annoys the frickin' hell outta me.

The Achievements however are starting to be a lot of fun.  Today I basically toured Azeroth and Outlands, collecting Hallow's End Candy (and 3g 75s on the side from each inn) , and I earned 50 achievement points. 10 points for all the inns in Outland, Kalimdor and the Eastern Kingdoms, and a bonus 20 for completing all there.  It's pretty dang fun. :)

Trouble in Azeroth

With the latest patch (3.0.2.), Blizzard introduced many new features and classes, tons of new things to create, and new ways to manage our characters.

Sadly, it seems, they have been have a tremendous amount of difficulty getting it to work.  Considering it's the basic groundwork for WotLK coming next month, it needed to go smoothly.

It's been anything but.

Among the affected things are vanity pets and mounts.  I loaded up Gillrisper (my Level 70 Night Elf mohawk), and proceeded to put all my mounts (all 5 of them) and my vanity pets (all 6 of them) into the new Mounts/Companion window.  This allows you to carry an almost infinite number of mounts/pets in the game without taking up any of your valuable inventory slots as it used to.

The problem came when the server crashed.  It crashed, and when I logged back in, ALL my mounts and pets were gone. Not just a couple.  ALL of them.

So I opened a GM ticket and told them what happened.  Turns out it happened to a LOT of people.

That was 2 days ago.  I'm still mountless, and I'm really hoping they fix the bug before this weekend.  I'm not buying a mount to ride (I'm not wasting money) - I want my mounts!

Now I see a lot of people on the server blaming Blizzard.   Yes, they are partially to blame, but run the numbers.

They pushed a 1.2 GB patch (the largest in MMO history) to 11 MILLION players.  Everyone downloaded it, installed it, and then logged in and started doing new stuff.  I figure Bleeding Hollow was completely full 2 days ago - the servers crashed. All of them.  And Blizzard knows that they have a lot of fixing to do. 

So to all the people complaining to Blizzard - cut them some slack.  They are working as hard as they can to fix the problems.  The least we can do is show a little patience.  After all... it is just a game.

Patch 3.0.2 nerfed?

Unreal - I just got finished installing the lasted patch for World of Warcraft, and sadly, I haven't been able to log on to my server for 2 hours.

According to WowInsider.com, most if not all servers are still down.  But all of them are listed - except the server that I play on Bleeding hollow.  Which is terribly frustrating.

It is mentioned that this patch is probably the largest in MMO history (over 1GB in size!), and that this probably wasn't going to go off without some pain involved.  Even still, Blizzard is hyping us up for Wrath, and I'm hoping that they iron out all the glitches in 3.0.2 quick.  I'm really looking forward to some of the UI and Hunter changes!

Trackmania Nations Forever

I accidentally loaded up Steam last night.  Normally, I don’t load Steam when I’m playing Portal or any of the Half-Life games, only because it’s a hassle to wait to get up and running.

But I accidentally click on it last night, so I figured I’d see what they had available to download and play. I found a great racing game called Trackmania Nations.  It’s not realistic at all, and the controls are as simple as you can get – up arrow to accelerate, down arrow to brake, left and right arrows to steer.  It’s pretty simple. But the game is a really fun, really fast, racing game with tons of level and a thriving on-line community.

Not only does it have a bunch of tracks to win medals on (an subsequently unlocks more tracks to race), but it has a full-fledged level editor, which allows you to create, validate, upload and race your own tracks of your own design.  Tons of track pieces, obstacles galore and lots of features, it’s a great download.  And the best part is that it’s completely free.  The only downside is the clunky UI, but other than that it’s a great, simple, racing game that can provided unlimited hours of entertainment.

Retronauts Redux

Well, I’m now listening to the new and slightly improved Retronauts from 1up.com.

My fears were for nothing! Woohoo!

Turns out that the “new format” was just a tightening of the subject matter of the current format.  Instead of tacking an all-encompassing vague-ish subject (like Adventure Games), they are focusing on one particular game per show.  Episode 51 is all about the original Fallout game (in relation to Fallout 2 being released later this month).

I like it.  Even though 1up no longer has a PC game side to their website (which is a damn shame), having them focus on one game make much more sense than trying to do “histories” or “evolutions” (although I still think that an Ultima History podcast would have been cool).

Here to another 50 Retronauts episodes!

Testing... testing... 1.2.3... (take 2)

Sadly, my work has pretty much closed off ALL social networking sites (myspace, facebook, flickr), including blogger.com.  I can’t even READ a blog now.

But thankfully, blogger has a “mail-to-blog” feature that should work.   Unfortunately, yesterday I attempted to mail a test blog to the e-mail address they provided, and….

NOTHING.

Nada.  Zilch. 6 hours later I got the dreaded “Undeliverable E-mail” e-mail.  Turns out I was trying to e-mail to blogspot.com and not blogger.com. 

So hopefully this one works! 

Retronauts last gasp?

The latest Retronauts podcast was an interesting one.

For those not in the know, Retronauts is 1up.com's retro-gaming poodcast. After 50 episodes, Jeremy Parish [sic] has said the format is changing because he doesn't know enough about retrogaming. But after saying he doesn't know enough about retrogaming, he then announces that Retronauts is going to a weekly podcast. Considering he also said that he was having a hard time thinking of topics, it make me stop and think about the viability of the podcast from here on out.

Now, Retronauts hasn't been the most reliable podcast to listen to. In fact there were times when it updated every week for 3 months, and then nothing for a month. They tried going every other week, but even that fell through. So how are they going to make a weekly podcast viable?
I have no idea. Hopefully they will keep it interesting, because I think the podcast is funny, insightful, and very informative.

And as for topics, they've done 50 (although 3 of those were repeated - Castlevania, DragonQuest, and MegaMan). And personally I thnk they haven't even scratched the surface of retro-gaming. For the most part they have stuck to console gaming, but PC gaming has been around longer, and there is treasure trove of info to be mined. I have a few topics that come to mind.

1.) History of the Ultima Series
2.) The evolution of the 1st person shooter
3.) Atari 8-bit games
4.) Colecovision/Intellivison
5.) The evoultion of the 4x game genre
6.) Multiplayer gaming
7.) Puzzle games
8.) Movie Based Games (a crapfest, with few exceptions - but would be a great bitch-fest)
9.) Tomb Raider
10.) Bard's Tale
11.) Star Wars games
12.) Rogue-likes/NetHack (evolving to Diablo)
13.) Construction Set Games
14.) PC RPG'S (non-Ultima)
15.) Tetris/Tetris Clones/Tetris Spinoffs

And that is just a start.

I'm just hoping that Retronauts doesn't change to much. I like my Retrogaming goodness.

Scrabble for the iPod - Review

I love playing Scrabble. It's one of the best board games that exists, and has withstood the test of time. 50+ years on forming words with tiles.

So imagine my joy when I found that Electronic Arts created a official Scrabble game for the iPod. So $4.99 later, I started playing the game on my 80GB iPod.

Plus Side: Graphics - Considering the small-ish iPod screen, I'm impressed that it looks as good as it does. It uses the current Scrabble motif - the reds and pinks, and the tiles can be read easily.

Word list - The dictionary used is the current Official Scrabble Players Dictionary, 4th edition. This one doesn't have all the naughty words (that is reserved for tournament players), but it has every word that I know, and a tons of obscure words as well.

Stats - Statistics tracking is neat. It shows how many games you've played, your win percentage, highest scoring play, highest scoring game, best bingo and number of bingoes played.

Neutral Side: Game mechanics - The click wheel is a semi-burden in the game. It's very sensitive to where you place you tiles on the board and sometimes if you are listening to music while playing, you may accidentally pause the track or skip to the next track. Annoying to say the least.

The Zoom - Maneuvering tiles around the board is easy, but when you zoom into the board, it only zooms into one part of the board at a time (whereever your cursor is), but then after the play, it zooms out to the full board. There is no way to zoom into the board and keep it zoomed in. It needs a Zoom toggle.

Down Side: Challenging - Challenging plays is non-existent. It basically follows the British "single challenge" rule, where if you play a word that is not valid, you get to take your tiles back and try again. Which basically makes it easy to just put as many words on to the board until you find a good one. It's not conducive to learning strategy and new words this way.

No game recap - Sadly there is no way to see a recap of the game (what the plays were, what the blanks are, etc.)

The other huge down side is the "Best Word" function. "But wait", I hear you say. "That helps you find words in your rack! How can the be a down side?" Easy. First, for those who want to use this version of game to help their real-life game, there is NO way to turn off this function. Personally, I find it hard to resist the temptation of just hitting the "Best Word" function. Second, it only finds the highest scoring word, and doesn't take into consideration your rack leave. Sometimes the highest scoring play isn't necessarily the best play. You have 4 uses of "Best Word", and it's far to easy to use them and outscore the computer AI.

Overall impressions: I like the game. It's a decent implementation of the game for the iPod. For living room players and casual gamers, it's great. But it falls short in areas that tournament players would like to see.

Grade: B+

On Cryptograms

I love puzzles.

Any type of puzzles, really. I love Word Searches, Fill-ins, Sudoku (technically Dell's Number Sums), and especially cryptograms.

It's one of the few things my Mom got me into while growing up. She got me into doing word searches, and I slowly graduated into doing Fill-ins and other word games. But it was when I was in High School I finally realized how to solve the elusive cryptoquiz/cryptogram.

Cryptoquizzes are easy (at least now they are - back then it was a triumph for me to solve them), It's usually a list of words (usually 10-12) that are encrypted. And all the words have a common theme. Like "Oscar Winning Movies" or "Frozen Foods". Since the words all have a common theme, it's easy to spot patterns in the words and solve the quiz.

The cryptogram, on the other hand, is a bit tougher. Normally it's a standard substitution cypher, where one letter is substituted for another (T is replaced with J, etc.). But the challenge is finding word and sentence patterns within what looks like nonsense. For example, if I see the cypher - DJKD DJU - I'm 99% positice that the real message is THAT THE. You can see the DJ combination at the beginning of both words and follow the logic from there. Or noticing that if the quote ends in a question mark, I can be sure that the first word is usually WHO, WHAT, or WHY.

And I really believe that growing up with all these puzzles that have challenged my brains over the years have helped me throughout my jobs, especially here at the bank. Seeing the patterns of numbers, looking for logic behind outages, and just letting the logical portion of my brain take over when something has gone wrong.

And to top it all off, I can get Daily Cryptograms and Cryptoquizzes in my RSS feed on a daily basis. Much easier than buying a book and forgetting to bring it in to do at work :)

Thank god I love salad...

Because if I didn't, my food choices would be sorely lacking.

Being newly diabetic, I've had to undergo a lot of changes, mostly in my diet.  I'm restricted to 240 grams of carbohydrates a day.  Considering a normal person needs 300 grams, it's akin to skipping a meal for me, even though I eat 3-4 times a day.

So I'm trying to eat healthy, but I also want to watch my sodium intake as well.  And sadly, I do eat a lot of pre-packaged foods.  I'm a single guy and I find it hard to actually cook a meal at home, because I usually end up throwing leftovers out.   And I for one HATE wasting food.  So I tend to lean towards quick, easy pre-packaged meals that I can toss in my microwave and then chow down on it.

I'm still trying to find that balance of eating healthy and eating what I like. It's a happy medium thing right now, at least until I figure out what is good for me and what isn't.   But I'm nailing those down too.  I like chocolate every now and then, but I try not to eat an entire candy bar in one sitting.  Weight Watchers puts out a low carb Peppermint Patty (by Whitman's Chocolate) that is really good.  So I'm also starting to find substitutes for all the crap stuff I've been eating over the last 30+ years and seeing what I like and don't like.  For instance, I got a Healthy Choice soup with Beef and Noodles. Ugh. The combination of the two sat on my stomach like a lead pellet.  But the Chicken Noodle Soup?  Delicious :)

Soda was the tough one though.  For the longest time, I went without soda or caffeine. I think I went at least 3 years without touching a caffeinated drink. But slowly I started to drink Pepsi again.  And that's pretty much what did me in, diabetes wise.  so I've switched to Crystal Light type drink mixes that have no carbs at all, and they taste pretty darn good.  No more Sweetened Iced Tea from 4C.  But I do occasionally will drink a Diet Pepsi.  I still don't like the taste of diet soft drinks, but I can live with it.

WoW update!

Well it took over a year, but I finally hit 70 two weeks ago.

And now I'm trying to figure out the best way to make money, because I'd love to get my flying epic mount.

The pseudo-easy way is to run the daily quests in Shattrath and Quel'Danas. The Shattrath quests are fairly simple - and not that time consuming.

Quel'Danas on the other hand, is a pain in the ass. It's basically a free-for-all PVP area that guarantees someone will gank you within 5 minutes of leaving the main areas. But the monetary rewards for completing quests out there almost outweigh the constant dying.

Not only that, I decided to go back to the starting areas of Ironforge, Stormwind and Exodar and grinded rep with each of the factions. The starting quests are so easy it took me literally an hour to get through them, and the reputation bonuses (150-500 points) made it super easy to finally get Exalted status with all but the Gnomes. Why not the gnomes? Because I'm a Night Elf, I'm "too big" to ride the mechanical chickens. Oh well. No big deal - I now have epic riding mounts from 4 of the 5 major Alliance Factions. You know, I'm not really in a huge rush for my Flying Epic. With Lich King just around the corner, I'll be on my way to level 80 soon enough - I figure that I should be able to get more money once the expansion hits.

So for now, I'm going to try to grind reputation with some of the other factions (Argent Dawn comes to mind), and run dailies when I can, and just have fun now. Also try to level my Rogue up to 20 :)

Moving aftermath.

It's pretty much finished.

On Saturday, I ended up moving my bed, headboard, dresser and clothes into my computer room for the winter. After 4 hours of moving, cleaning and re-arranging, it's done.

And I've moved everything around so I can access my books and my closet. As long as I keep the room clean, it should work for the winter. All that is left to do, is to get plastic and tape and tape up the windows for the winter and I'll be all set.

It's Private...

I really despise election/voting seasons.

Now before anyone clamors on me for not liking it, let me explain.

I've had no less than 15 calls in the last week from various political/lobbyist groups asking me how I'm going to vote this election year.

I have 5 words for all these people.

IT'S NONE OF YOUR BUSINESS.

Now, I understand that these people believe strongly in the people or propositions that they are representing, and they really want said people/proposition to get through.

But the whole point of the secret ballot (and how all political voting is done in the US), is to protect the voter's political privacy.

To quote Wikipedia:

"A vote is an individual's act of voting, by which he or she express support or preference for a certain motion (e.g. a proposed resolution), a certain candidate, or a certain selection of candidates. A secret ballot, the standard way to protect voters' political privacy, generally takes place at a polling station."

Whether or not I decide to vote (which is another matter altogether), my vote is just that.  MY vote.  I may tell my family or close friends, but no one has the right to know how I plan to vote this coming election.

Plans for Saturday

This is going to sound really boring.

But It's time to winterize my apartment!

I rent a 2 bedroom apartment, but I have electric heat. Which gets very expensive over the cold Maine winters.

So I move my bed into my computer room, and only heat one room during the winter. 

But (there is always a 'but'), the process is not easy.  First I have to clean.  Now I'm not a complete pig, but I am a single guy living on my own.  So I tend not to keep my apartment sparkling clean. So today's agenda looks like this.

1) Clean my computer room, and move my bookcases into the living room.

2) Move my headstand, bed,  and dresser into the computer room.

3) Arrange the computer room so it's not a complete disaster area.

4) Collapse in bed and watch some QI on the computer.

Tomorrow, I'll post my results! :)

Trip Details - sorta...

I'm really excited for the trip to Florida next year.

Moreso than any Florida trip I've taken over the past 10 years. I normally go by myself to Daytona for 2 weeks, hang out with my friends, and relax.

This year, it's different. It's the first "family" vacation I've taken since my family was all together. The last time I had a family vacation was back when I was in high school (1989-1990), and we went down to Florida and went to Disney.

This year, it's my new family. Well, new to the internet/blog world. Chuck, Heather, Charlie and Annie are my family. I might not be related to them, but they are the closest thing I have in the world that resembles a family.

So this trip is going to be cool. I'll be experiencing Disney World 3 ways. First, this will be the first time I've ever visited Florida and stayed on Disney Property. Normally, I would stay in Daytona, and then my friends and I would go to Disney (getting up at 5:00am and driving 1 1/2 hours to get there). This time, no driving, no waiting in long line, no paying for a rental car/parking. It's gonna be darn conveinient.

Second, I'll be experiencing the park for the first time in over 10 years. A lot has changed to WDW. Some rides have come and gone, some new attractions, heck - even a new park has opened up. And I'm going as an amateur photgrapher as well. Being able to take pictures is going to be awesome.

And thirdly (and kinda most importantly), I'll be experiencing Disney through the eyes of kids. Charlie and Annie have never been to an amusement park of this size. Charlie's been to Canobie Lake Park, but Disneys is on a scale that's exponentially larger and more grand. I'l never forget my first trip to Disney/EPCOT. It was an incredible, awe-inspiring feeling. To see the grandeur of the parks and the size of the buildings, I literally felt like I was walking into a new world, a new dimension. That the outside world didn't exist and there was something cool or surprising around every corner.

And now that Charlie and Annie will be able to experience it for the first time, I can get to experience it with them.

And maybe - just maybe - I'll feel like a kid again.

I don't get it.

Not about diabetes today.

I don't get mainstream social networking.

I have colleagues and friends that say "You need to have a mySpace/Facebook page".

Why? I have 2 "presences" on the net. My Flickr page, and this blog. The MySpace's and Facebooks don't appeal to me at all (although I wish I were on Facebook during the heyday of Scrabulous - I would have loved to play multiple games at the same time), and Everything that happens in my life (that I feel comfortable sharing with the entire world) can be found at these 2 sites.

And to be quite honest, I've never seen a good-looking MySpace page. Most of them have garish, ugly backgrounds, and weird text color/backgorund combinations that cause my eyeballs to dry out just looking at them.

Why the need for on-line social acceptance? I'm not knocking anyone who uses mySpace/Facebook. If it works for them, then more power to them. But the fact that some people have thousands of "Friends", but how many do they actually know? I mean I have 5-6 really close friends, and I know them pretty well. But to say "I have hundreds of friend on my mySpace page" is ridiculous. For instance - Leo Laporte (of This Week in Tech, and the TWiT Network) is in a friendly "friend race" on Twitter (another thing I don't get) with John C. Dvorak and Kevin Rose (the founder of Digg). Why? They have literally tens of thousands of people following them. Now I know that they have a certain geek celebrity status, so the rules aren't quite the same for them, but for a normal person to say there are thousands of people following there every word? Hehe.. to me it's almost like high school - it's a popularity thing, and I've always hated popularity contests :)

So to all the people that have been telling me to join a social network - please stop. I have my blog, and I have my Flickr. I might not be on the leading edge of Web 2.0, but I'm happy where I am.

Wow Addons Part Deux - a relief to the insanity

Back in January, I posted about my unbelievable frustration with maintaining the addons for World of Warcraft. Finding the right places to download mods, installing them correctly, making sure all the libraries are up-to-date... it was a mess.

Now my friends have shown me the light - WowMatrix.

Here is the best, easiest, and by far most conveinient way to download, install and maintain AddOns for World of Warcraft.

And it's easy - Go to the link. Download the program (no install needed, it's self-contained), extract the zip to your desktop, and run it.

It scans your AddOn Directory, matches up what you have with what it has in it's database, and tells you if you are running any outdated AddOns. Click on "Update All" and.. Viola! Instant upgrades for all your installed mods.

You can also download new mods from the program, but the only downside to that is you have to go online to get screenshots to see if it's something you want to install.

I found 5 new mods that I now can't live without, and I'm really glad my friends pointed me to that program.

The whole diabetes thing...

I'm still trying to figure it out.

My BGL (blood glucose level) has been up and down more often than an elevator in the Empire State Building.

In the morning after I wake up it's about 120 - a bit high (the high morn is 110), but manageable.

The weird thing is I eat a 45-60 carb breakfast, a 30 carb snack at 10:00, a 60ish carb meal for lunch. Then I test my levels at 5-6 pm and I'm somewhere between 70 (which is the bottom of the range for BGL, and 90).

So what is causing my high levels in the morning?

I'm thinking I must be bottoming out over night, and my pancreas is compensating by pumping out the sugar to level me off, and byt he time I get up it's gone over the normal high.

I was told by the nutritionist that I should eat a 30 carb snack before going to bed, but I noticed my levels would skyrocket to 135-145. so I'm not sure if I'm eating to many carbs (therefore naturally increasing by blood sugar from the food) or not enough carbs (therefore increasing my blood sugar through pancreatic secretions).

Needless to say, it's something I'll be talking to my doctor about when I see her in November.

Diabetes - Month 1

Well those of you who don't know about my Flickr account don't know that on 8/8/08 (lucky day my ass..) I fell down a 1/2 flight of stairs, taken to the hospital, and then subsequently diagnosed with Type II diabetes.

So, basically my world has kinda been turned on it's side.

I'm on a carb-restricted diet (which isn't all that hard to follow), and I'm on 4 types of medication to control my blood sugar (Woohoo! NO needles!). I test my blood sugar twice a day, and take meds twice a day as well. And I've basically cut all non-essential foods out of my diet.

The plus side to this (trust me there is one) is that I have more energy, I'm sleeping through the night, and I'm starting to lose weight. I'm down to 250 pounds (I was over 300) and I'm feeling healthy again.

Some days it's really hard to keep a stiff upper lip, but for the most part - I'm doing well. Heather, Chuck, Charlie, and Annie have been a tremendous center of support for me, and without them I don't know what I would have done. Heather especially is great, because she has type 2 as well, and know what I'm going through.

I'm also keeping my job at TD Banknorth. With the merger of Banknorth and Commerce, there was a period of time when our little department didn't know if it was staying or going. We found out last week, and it's relived a huge amount of stress off me.

And next July, I'm headed to Florida with Chuck and the gang for a week's stay at Disney - On property. I'm really excited for this trip, and the fact I get 3 week's vacation next year as well.

Legends who have passed so far

Legends who have passed so far
Originally uploaded by blgbadvv0lf.

Chuck did a good thing - He composed a Flickr photo showing all the legends that have passed...

The Mole is back, but I hate Adobe and ABC...

Ahh.... The Mole.

My favorite show is back - and the deception is on.

BUT (and this is a HUGE BUT), for some insane reason, ABC choose Flash 9 and an in-house (I'm assuming) codec in order to play full episodes on the ABC website.

But why make it so damn difficult to get the video up and running?

It took me an hour and a half to get the thing up and running so I could catch last night episode of The Mole. It was such a Pain in the Ass. Now that I got it running, I'm happy.. but because ABC is so paranoid that honest people are going to steal the shows, the make it way more difficult to actually view the video...

Stupid ABC....

I'm impressed

Uncle Sam actually gave me $600!

The last "Economic Stimulus Package" the government put out, I got about $200 bucks - the norm was about $500. So I was not expecting any more than $300 to show up in my account.

But on Monday I was pleasantly surprised when $600 was present in my checking account.

So I did what Uncle Sam wanted me to do - spend it.

I bought 12 new work shirts ($140), 3 new pairs of pants ($60), A Bluetooth iPod Transmitter ($80), Bluetooth Headphones ($50), an iPod Charger ($25), 3 movies a couple comic books and a nice dinner for my co-workers. And I still have money left over, which is good, because I'm going to see Narnia this weekend and Indy 4 next weekend.

And Speed Racer was great - incredible special effects, and a decent story. Acting was kind of wooden (but then again so was the anime it was based on), but John Goodman made up for it. 8.5/10 from me.

Tony Stark FTW...

Iron Man rocked!

It's probably one of the top 5 action movies I've seen in years, and an awesome comic-book adaptation to boot.

SFX were... unbelievable. Incredible CGI, believable physics (not comic-book cartoony physics), and really funny.

I went into the movie with absolutely NO background info on Iron Man, Tony Stark, or the origin story (with the exception of the fact that the Iron Man suit was really really cool). And I absolutely enjoyed every minute of it.

Worth the $8 I paid for the tix, and I'm DEFINITELY picking the DVD up when it comes out.

Buzzed!

Well, it's done.

After letting my hair for at least 18 months (as far as I can tell I haven't had it cut since at least September of 2006), I finally had Heather do the honors of cutting it for donation to Locks of Love.

So now I hope to grow it out again - so I'll be posting photos of the growth this time. I'll use my webcam so it'll be easier to get the shots to look the same.

Trip Post-Mortem...

Well.

I took a 2 week vacation to Florida earlier this month, and I had an absolute blast. It only rained 2 days out of 14, and was at least 75 degrees every day. Ahh, warmth....

I FINALLY after 3 visits made it to....

And what a day that was - finally rode some decent rollercoasters (the Hulk coaster was worth the wait). And just had a fantastic time.

Also I went to a concert - which I wasn't planning at all - and had a blast. Get Back is a Beatles tribute band, and they sounded great.. HUGE thanks to Shane and Amanda for getting the tickets for us.

And just hanging around Daytona was pleasant and relaxing. Got some great photos of the beach and an INCREDIBLE orange sunset.

Bought a bunch of books and comics, and a fun card game called Fluxx.

But for the most part, I relaxed, listened to books, played videogames, and watched movies.

And I ate. A lot. Great food in Daytona - they have a huge variety of restaurants that we just don't have up here in Maine. Tijuana Flats (awesome chimichangas), Deck Down Under (awesome seafood), Checkers (best fast food burgers on the planet), Ruby Tuesday, Cici's Pizza, and Sonic. All great places to eat in Daytona.

All in all - a great trip!

80gb of iPod goodness, Florida bound, and a battery backup...

Well my old Zen MP3 player broke a few weeks back. So I took some of my income tax refund, and purchased a 80gb iPod. I was hesitant at first (I didn't want to get locked into iTunes). but after downloading iTunes and organizing my ENTIRE library - I decided to go ahead and buy an iPod.

I can honestly say I love it. And I wish I had bought one a year ago. Sadly, a year ago, the 80gb iPod was much more expensive.

I'm Florida bound in March. I can't wait.

And my battery backup actually works. The weather here has been absolutely atrocious lately. And my UPS has pulled it's wait. My power fluctuated a few times and my back up either shut down my computer or gave me a chance to see what happened.

Awesome...

WoW AddOns - The Truth behind the insanity

I love playing World of Warcraft.

It's a fun game with loads to do. And it has a thriving 3rd party scene that create AddOns for the game that either make the game easier to manage or give you information about the game.

For the most part, AddOns are easy to use. Download the AddOn, install it into the Interface\AddOns directory, start WoW and off you go.

I have 2 AddOns that work extremely well - TitanBar (which is a useful tool that tells you all about how much gold you are making, how much XP you need to get, etc.) and Auctioneer (which helps price items going on the Auction House). They work flawlessly and are easy to use.

Now Cartographer on the other hand is a different story.

What Cartographer does is allow you to add notes to the map and reflect Points of Interest. Great for someone who is just starting out and has no Idea where anything is. Just Shift-Right click on the map where you want the note to be, type a description, and POOF! Instant Map note.

But the downside of Cartographer is that if you decide to download extra Modules for it, you may need an AceLibrary in order for them to run. BUT, nowhere in any documentation of any of these extra Modules does it say that you need AceLibrary!

So you go through the frustration of trying to figure out why Cartographer_Mailboxes (a Module that shows where Mailboxes are on the Zone Maps and the Mini-Map) doesn't work at all when it was recently updated.

So after 2 hours of searching websites, checking forums, and even going as far as logging onto a IRC channel to find ANY help, I finally figure out on my own what exactly needed to be done to get Cartographer working again.

A night wasted (I could have hit Level 59 by now), and a few lessons learned. Oh well, Live and learn, Right?

ARRRGH!

Yet again, my glasses have broken!

Cleaning my glasses this morning at work, and POP! The frame breaks. In the same place that my LAST pair broke about 2 years ago.

So I called my optometrist to get my prescription in case I need to get new lenses. The receptionist tells me that my prescription has expired, and I'd need to get my eyes re-examined in order to release the information!

Wait... WHAT?!?!?

It's MY prescription, and my eyesight is good with my current specs. I have NO NEED to get my eyes re-examined. Yet in order to get my lenses replaced, I'd have to go in and spend $$$ to get my eyes checked again.

But I found 2 loopholes.

Loophole #1 - I called ProVision center in the Auburn Mall (where I got my last pair), and THEY have my current prescription on file. So if I needed to get new lenses, they have my script.

Loophole #2 - Mike (my friend since grade school), was able to track down a duplicate of my current frames. So therefore, all he has to do is pop my old lenses into the new frames. VIOLA! New glasses without all the expense.

It just irks me that I can't get my own eye prescription from the doctor.

Not Menacing Enough

Yahoo was smart to put the first episode of "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles" up for everyone to watch yesterday.

I liked it. Lots of action, and the threat of T-1000's showing up was done very well. I won't spoil the opening plot for anyone, but I will say this.

The guy that plays the Terminator isn't menacing enough. I mean he looks the part (makeup helps in this case), but compared to Arnie's 3 performances and the Liquid Terminator's in T2, it wasn't quite up to snuff. Hopefully something that we will see change over the season.