Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in _eclypse_'s LiveJournal:

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Thursday, February 9th, 2006
11:41 pm	Our good friends in in the "Religion of Peace" continue to show the world how nice they are!!! Over the past few days it has been quite amusing to me to watch the headlines about the flak over the drawings of Muhammad in the foreign newspapers. I think foxnews.com has had some of the best ones - they seem to like the whole "cartoon violence" thing. One of my favorite articles on this subject comes from my favorite political columnist - Ann Coulter: http://www.anncoulter.com She not only hits the nail on the head, she had me laughing my ass off the entire time! I just can't wait until our President decides to stop telling the one lie that I know he is telling - saying that Islam is the "religion of peace" with a straight face. Current Mood: amused (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Sunday, January 1st, 2006
9:36 pm	Favourite places in Azeroth Just thinking of what my favourite places are in Azeroth while waiting in queue for Laughing Skull *sigh*: Like: 1) Dun Morogh - I love the snow, really neat place and probably my favourite starting area (what Winterspring wishes it was) 2) The Barrens - I like the fact that it is just different from any of the other Alliance areas 3) Stranglethorn Vale - (aka Ganklethorn) very pretty and I like the jungle, but I do hate the Horde 4) Teldrassil - really neat, like the trees and lack of Horde 5) Mulgore - a little boring, but I kinda like it 6) Thousand Needles - I think the lifts are neat 7) Silithus - I know this is crazy because I absolutely _HATE_ all of the bug areas, but this area got me to my first 60, so I kinda like it Don't Like: 1) Azshara - While it is a pretty area, I can't stand this place because it feels to me like there is no good way to get to anywhere easily 2) Felwood - Nasty, long, narrow area - lots of ganking and takes forever to get anywhere, generally unpleasant 3) Desolace - what can I say - the name says it all 4) Plaguelands - eek 5) Arathi Highlands - just doesn't do much for me, but not sure why 6) Theramore - drab and boring - I don't like going there much 7) Anywhere with Silithid (bugs) - these areas (in the Crater, Tanaris, and Silithus) just creep me the hell out! Current Mood: amused (1 Comment |Comment on this)
10:39 am	On tap for 2006 This isn't exactly a list of resolutions of any type, this is just kind-of a few things I have that I would like to do or am going to do this year. It may be unexciting, but that's okay, we all know what the "back" button does! =) Books: I feel pretty good about getting back into reading more this past year. I was really hoping to finish the last two Harry Potter books before yesterday (I'm mid-way through OotP), but that just didn't happen - too much WoW time and I haven't found a good indoor reading spot just yet. I usually read out on my porch, but the weather hasn't exactly been accomodating there lately. However, that should be fixed in a couple of months. At least I did get through GoF before the movie came out - not that it mattered much - it was hard to tell that they were about the same thing. There was a guy named Harry Potter, a bad guy named Voldemort, and I believe there was this Tri-Wizard Tournament with four wizards, but that was about it. Enough about that, though. I'm going to try to finish those books up, then go back to the Sword of Truth series and finish that up. I finished Faith of the Fallen back in August, then started re-reading the Harry Potter stuff. I also found a new (hopefully Drizzt) book by Bob Salvatore - Promise of the Witch King that I want to try out. It's out-of-order with the last three Drizzt books he had out and looks like it actually happens before and focuses on Artemis Entreri and Jarlaxle, so hopefully it will be okay. I would probably like to re-read that series from the beginning again one day, but not just yet. I also have the entire Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis that I would like to read this year - I've read those before, too, but it's been a long time ago. They're all packed into one big book and they're in the proper order of occurance (i.e. The Magician's Nephew is the first book). That ought to be enough to keep me busy for a couple of days. Projects: Well, looks like I have a few things that I will probably need to/like to do this year. First up, new home theatre system. My Harman-Kardon AVR-7000 has finally assumed room temperature and the boards that it needs apparently aren't available from HK anymore. I love when that happens. I was working on replacing my old hodge-podge of speakers (Jen hates my old Peavey 1210HTs!) with the Bose Panaray stuff since I really like the 502B sub (and it's smaller, so you get form and function!), then found out that the subwoofer output on my receiver was dead - not a happy day at my house on that one. So, I've looked around to see what else is out there and I'm looking at either an HK AVR-7300 (although I'm a little unhappy about my last HK situation and they've tripled the price they're asking for these things nowadays), an Onkyo TX-NR900, or a Denon AVR-3806 (since I'm just not paying the $6k for the 5806 today). I have also looked for a pre-amp so that I could buy that and then use the external amplifiers that I want (a stack of Crown Macro-Tech 3600VZs comes to mind or maybe some McIntosh tube amps) instead of their nasty little under-built, under-cooled wanna-be amplifiers in these receivers. I have not been able to find any pre-amps anywhere - it's all receivers with built-in amplifiers. Oh well, I'm sure I can get something that will work for me. Until I get a better theatre room, it won't really matter anyway. It also seems like it's probably time for a new computer for Jen or me. Hers is definitely in need of retirement - at least for playing WoW. So, I'm either buying/building one for me and giving my old one to her or I might just buy her one since mine isn't broken and therefore doesn't need fixing. Not sure how I want to do that just yet. I've looked at the Alienware stuff and pretty much anyone that I've found who has one has been really happy with it, but it seems like a lot when I've built stuff that has done what I need it to for a fraction of what they want. So, I'm trying to find the bare minimum config that will allow me to run WoW at 1600x1200 with all the video dials turned up and give good performance. Most of the other stuff is just little stuff like adding motion lights around the house, putting an open/closed indicator on the garage door so we can tell if we've left it open without going outside, putting more bookshelves in the office so I can get the rest of my books out of the boxes from when we moved and get the rest of my records on the shelves I meant for them to go on, maybe selling my old mixer and cd players and getting something smaller and newer, finding myself a good indoor reading spot so that next winter I'm not ignoring my books completely, re-routing the wires for my weather station and re-calibrating it (forgot to point the anemometer to the north when I installed it), etc. Other: Well, the only other things I can think of for this year are to stop playing WoW long enough to do something to shrink my fat ass just a bit and get married this spring. Those are last, but not least on the importance scale. They're pretty straightforward, though and don't require a lot of explanation. So, that's my "agenda" (not "resolutions") for this year. Last year was pretty good and I don't really have any major complaints (other than what I've posted about here and those aren't exactly major), so I'm hoping for another one. Let's see what happens! =) Current Mood: optimistic (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Tuesday, December 20th, 2005
5:58 pm	When did Red Hat hire Microsoft Developers? I started out today trying to install RHEL 4 ES on an IBM HS20 blade server (because it is "supported"). I am planning to upgrade my existing DNS/DHCP/TFTP/whatever server that is currently running RHEL 3 ES and since I'm booting from SAN (a FAStT 700), I want to test all of the failover stuff (because the Linux RDAC driver is picky), so I am testing on a spare blade. Because this box is going to mainly run non-graphical, non-CPU-intensive applications, all I want is a bare bones configuration with the kernel source and a compiler. So, thinking that I have bought a Linux distribution and not a Microsoft Windows distribution, I start the installer and de-select all of the GUI crap and select only the development packages (just so I can compile drivers, modules, etc.). As I watch the install proceeding, I notice that there are things there that I am pretty sure I specifically told it _NOT_ to install. Now, I don't take too kindly to a piece of software doing exactly the opposite of what I told it to do. But I keep watching and sure enough, I see several xorg-x11 packages, cups (no one will _ever_ print via this box), GNOME, and a myriad of other applications that I have no need for and don't want. I'm starting to think I should have just thrown in a Sony music cd so I could get even more unwanted software installed. Well, ok, I figure that because I picked the "graphical" install, this equates to "loser," so I select the "text" install and hope that it will allow me to select just the individual packages that I want. Nope. I de-select everything, and start the install, and here it goes again, installing crap that I don't want. So, I think I remembered seeing a "minimal" option on the graphical install, so I try that again. This gets me down to about a 600MB install (from 1700MB) and I'm at least thinking that I am making some sort of progress. So, I watch the installer and it is installing things that appear to be in the realm of what I might be needing for what I would consider a "minimal" configuration. Things are going really well, then I see "CUPS" flash by again and more print drivers and some xorg-x11 stuff. At this point, anyone who is walking near the back door of our data centre is probably starting to get an ear full of four letter words. WTF does it take to get a basic Linux install anymore? Did they hire developers from Microsoft or do their developers want to go work for Microsoft? This mentality of "we know what's best for you" gets on my last nerve. I kept thinking of that commercial that goes, "when all you want is the bare minimum..." Too bad there are no good Broadcom and Qlogic failover/multi-path drivers for OpenBSD - those guys know what the definition of a minimal configuration is. You get just what you need to get going and it doesn't take 50GB just to load the base OS. All of the basic server apps are there (DNS, DHCP, isakmpd, httpd, pf, etc.) and are usually compiled to be as secure as possible and it doesn't cost anything. So, why can't Red Hat, which I have to pay for, have a non-Windows-user-oriented installer? Except for the fact that GNOME and the CUPS printing system probably aren't sending my personal information back to people to do bad things with it, the Red Hat installer might-as-well be classified as malware as far as I'm concerned. Current Mood: annoyed (6 Comments |Comment on this)
Saturday, December 17th, 2005
8:30 am	Apprentice winner shows his true colours I am not usually a fan of reality tv shows and especially not of the "real-ities" themselves (a term coined by Mike Straka from Fox News to describe the people who participate in these types of shows), but one of the ones I happen to like is "The Apprentice." I like it because most of the real-ities on this show are not your typical Jerry Springer-types and while there are many people who do not like Donald Trump for whatever reason, he is a very successful person and there are very few people who do not know who he is. Not only that, being his "apprentice" is a fantastic opportunity. Having said that, this season of "The Apprentice" was noticeably different and when it got to the finale Thursday night (I didn't watch it until Friday night), they made a big deal out of how strong the two candidates were. In the end, Mr. Trump picked Randal - and there is no doubt about it that Randal has an education that most people can't imagine and is a superstar in just about every way. He would be an obvious asset to any organization. What I really had a problem with - and I realize that Randal was on the spot here - is the way that, after he'd already won, he pretty much stabbed Rebecca in the back. Mr. Trump handled the situation badly as well by trying to offer to hire Rebecca and letting Randal make the decision, but either way, it's not that Randal said 'no,' but that he let his two-faced, backstabbing side show through. He didn't even preface his comments by saying anything nice about her at all. He basically let her know that he had no respect for her and now that it was over, he didn't have to keep pretending. There is nothing I hate worse than a person who is a two-faced liar, hence this post. During the entire show last night (and I keep making a big deal out of this part because aside from the details of their last tasks, it was presumably live and unedited), Rebecca never said anything bad about Randal except when she was specifically asked by Mr. Trump. Even when she said what Randal's few problems were, she always prefaced it with something nice and was very respectful- Rebecca is a class act, even if she isn't a Rhodes Scholar and doesn't have two degrees from MIT. She also had too much class to let Randal in on the fact that the one loss she did have as project manager was in no small part caused by him. They did (during the non-live parts) make a big deal out of showing the two of them hanging out and presumably showing (through the conversations presented) respect for each other. Rebecca certainly helped Randal get to the final two. My conservative, traditional side says that sometimes people win and sometimes people lose. I'm certainly okay with the fact that not everyone is a winner. However, in this case, Randal had already won, he had an opportunity to add another asset (which I believe that Rebecca would have been) to the Trump Organization, but he chose to think only of himself and pretty much (to me) made it look like he never respected Rebecca and had been playing her (and all of his team-mates) the entire time. That is just pathetic and it pretty much shows that all of the "heart" that Randal was said to have is an act, too. I hate people like that. What I also have a problem with is that she would have taken away nothing from him - they both would have worked on separate projects, would have had separate offices, wouldn't have to share paychecks, would have both been given good positions within the Trump's organization and both been good assets. What I also saw was that Mr. Trump really respected Rebecca's loyalty - something that Randal showed he had none of and I really hate to say it, but I hope that comes home to him. After Randal's backstab, Rebecca, being the class act that she is, only said, "That's unfortunate." I also think that "The Donald" made a poor choice in the way he handled this whole situation. I think he was actually trying to do something nice and it bit him in the ass - big time. If he was going to hire them both, he should have just done it - I don't think either of them didn't deserve it. What I think that neither Randal nor Rebecca deserved is the way that this played out. Mr. Trump looks bad because he dangled an opportunity in front of Rebecca for the the second time and yanked it away, then he also let Randal make the decision and made him look like a bad guy (which, as I've said, Randal helped himself to look bad here). Just another example of how no good deed goes unpunished. Now, I've read others' comments about this and there are varied responses that Randal shouldn't have had to share, Mr. Trump couldn't stand to have to hire a black person so he needed to balance it out with a white person, that if it had been Marshawn up there that Randal would have said to hire her, Randal is a racist because his company had no white people, Mr. Trump has no black people, etc. I don't really care about all of the racist stuff or believe most of it, I just have a problem with the backstabbing and the lack of loyalty and lack of respect Randal showed Rebecca. Either way, all of the participants in the show were already successful in their own right and I am sure they will continue to be successful - working for Donald Trump, themselves, or someone else. Current Mood: disappointed (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Thursday, December 15th, 2005
8:54 pm	John McCain should be ashamed of himself! John McCain should be ashamed of himself! I also think that he should leave the Republican party and join his best friends - the liberal democrats! This latest legislation he is sponsoring is nothing less than a terrorist bill of rights. I've said it before and I'll say it again - when these Islamofacist terrorists (they are _NOT_ insurgents!) stop cutting off peoples' heads, then I will care how they are treated by the US. Until that happens, I really don't care. I don't believe it is right for our own politicians - especially REPUBLICAN politicians - to be sponsoring bills that aid and comfort the enemy in a time of war. I'm even more aghast that President Bush is even humouring McCain and giving him the time of day with this! These people want us dead. Every one of us. They don't care which side of the aisle you're on - if you are not one of them, then they believe you deserve to die and they are more than happy to see to it that you are dead. So, if we hurt their feelings a little bit by taking naked pictures of them, you can rest assured that I do not care at all. In fact, I really have a problem with how well we are treating most of them already. These people are not US citizens, they do not belong to any country, they do not deserve our rights and privileges - especially if they are unwilling to show that they can treat their own prisoners with the same rights that the entire world demands of us. Where are all the whiners when it comes to demanding that they stop beheading people? I really wish some of these people would get a grip on reality, but I know that is expecting too much... *sigh* Current Mood: pessimistic (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Friday, November 18th, 2005
10:51 pm	Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie After seeing Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban, I really didn't think they could screw up a movie any worse. Well, they can. I don't know what happened after Chris Columbus quit directing the movies - the first two were really good. The third one even grew on me a bit, but I can't even begin to say how disappointed I was with GoF. It was worse than watching The Matrix Reloaded for the first time. Where do I begin? Well, let me start by saying that Michael Gambon makes a downright shitty Dumbledore. I wish Richard Harris was still alive - he really nailed that part. Next, they cut out so much stuff for seemingly no reason again (that's what made the third movie so bad). They could have made use of thirty more minutes - things just jumped around too much. I took Jen with me and she's not read any of the books and she thought the movie sucked, too. If you didn't know what was going on by having read the book, you'd be lost and I think she was. Hermione was either screaming or crying during the whole movie - that was not good and in general, the interaction between the kids wasn't very smooth - I was looking for David Caruso to show his ugly face and bad acting skills at any moment! They totally re-wrote the Quidditch World Cup stuff - they didn't sit in the top box for some reason, it didn't even show them using Harry's wand to conjure the Dark Mark. They re-wrote all the cool stuff about each task and made it look like Harry didn't do too much - the whole thing with the dragon seemed a bit crazy - seemed like they could have just done it as written and moved on. They totally goofed up the way he tried to save everyone in the second task and how they came to decide his score on the second task. In the last task, well.. that was not great, but by that time, I don't think I cared anymore. They never said how Dumbledore discovered the fake Moody in time, then they totally blew past all of the stuff that was going on after they came back and Cedric was dead. They never showed Hermione getting even with Rita Skeeter. I could go on and on, but I think this is enough for anyone to get the point that I was not happy. Okay.. there were a couple of things that seemed pretty accurate. The very beginning of the movie was pretty close with Harry's dream about Voldemort, but then he woke up at the Burrow and got up to go to the Quidditch World Cup - which no one seemed to know where they were going for some reason. The scene where Voldemort comes back seemed pretty close, albeit hurried. I think this is the last time I will try to see a Harry Potter movie when it first comes out. In fact, I'm probably going to wait until the next one hits video unless I hear some pretty convincing reasons to go see it. OotP is my least favorite of the books anyway and if that movie is as bad as this one, then I won't be missing anything. I'm at least glad I left work early and went to the early showing - I would have been really pissed off if I'd paid full price for this piece of crap. I think I'm so mad because I'm so disappointed - this is my favourite book and they completely fucked it up. I just hope that Jo Rowling puts her foot down and says, "Stop screwing up my stories!" Current Mood: pissed off (1 Comment |Comment on this)
Saturday, July 23rd, 2005
4:20 pm	Funny t-shirt I saw Liberalism: The haunting fear someone, somewhere can help themselves. Current Mood: amused Current Music: Siruis Radio: Channel 62 (Comment on this)
Sunday, July 17th, 2005
3:50 am	Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince I have just finished reading the latest Harry Potter book - took just under 14 hours. This is the first time I have read a book that size from start to finish in one sitting in at least ten years. I might never have done it before (I do have CRS, after all!). I am even surprised that I was unable to put the book down the entire day. I won't say too much - no spoilers to be found here, but I will say that I didn't care for the ending of this book one bit. However, I didn't care for the ending of OtP, either. I think that the fourth book (GoF) has been my favourite so far (and I'm looking forward to the movie this November) because it's the last book where things are still pretty fun for Harry and pals. I'm not sure why I seem to relate to these books more than even the Sword of Truth series, which is certainly one of the best written bunch of books I've ever read (thanks again, Paul, for the recommendation!!). Oh well... I'm really too tired to write much more tonight... although I have to say that I am definitely awaiting the next book in the series with equal parts enthusiasm and dread, mostly since Ms. Rowling has said that it will be the last one. I can't wait to read it, but I just can't stand for it to be over. Oh well, I guess that all good things must come to an end eventually... even things that may not be that great - this post, for example. Time for bed! Current Mood: drained (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Monday, February 7th, 2005
4:03 pm	World of Warcraft - update I never thought that anything would ever be better than Diablo II (what's that?). I thought wrong. I think I am definitely addicted to this game, but it rocks so much that I don't care. I pretty much do nothing except work, sleep, and play WoW. I have (currently - on Laughing Skull) a level 45 Night-elf Rogue (Mystshayde), a level 21 Human Mage (Cyrilla), a level 19 Dwarf Paladin (Fundin), a level 9 Human Priest (Stargleam), and a level 7 Gnome Warlock (Kneehighpimp) that I like to play around with. My main charachter, of course, is Mystshayde - she rocks pretty well (yes, most of my charachters are female - since you almost always view them from behind when playing, I decided that I would rather look at a chick's butt all day and night instead of a dude's), but to get some variety (feeding my ADHD there) I made some other charachters to play when no one else is on or when I feel like playing by (not with) myself. There's not much else to say - I just haven't posted anything in forever, so I thought I would post something completely non-political. =) Current Mood: anxious (1 Comment |Comment on this)
3:51 pm	Wild Hair Well, this past Friday night, I got a wild hair growing somewhere that I'd rather not mention, so I decided that I needed a red RX-8. I'd taken my Titanium Grey one in to get a squeak in the dash fixed (they kept it for three days before they finally found the source of the annoyance) and it was ready Friday morning. I went to go get it on Friday afternoon - the guy told me he didn't see how I was able to keep from beating the dash to death with all that noise - and decided that I'd just see what it might look like to trade cars. There was absolutely nothing wrong with my car, so I figured while it wasn't broken I should get rid of it. Don't know if that makes any sense or not. At any rate, they start running some numbers, find out what I had left on my other car and make me an offer for it, I start to sweat a lot and almost ran screaming out of the dealership about three times (I hate spending money sometimes - makes me nervous). However, by the end of the night, I end up spending less per month (I always pay more than what the payment is, but if I had to only pay that, it would be less), my insurance dropped a little bit, and they have a new thing they've got going called "Tires for Life". I had to get them to make a special contract, though, because they wanted you to wait for at least 25,000 miles and my grandmother couldn't even get 25000 miles out of these tires, so anyhoo, that's the long and the short of it. I even got more options than before (spare tire, front and side ground effects, wind deflector for the sunroof, and all-weather floor mats). I will try to have pics posted soon - https://babylon5.millerind.com/~eclypse/stuff/rx8/. It is definitely very red. Velocity Red, or as I like to call it, "Arrest-me Red." =) Current Mood: giddy (Comment on this)
Wednesday, January 5th, 2005
9:00 pm	Finally... After years and years of reading and waiting, I finally finished The Dark Tower, by Stephen King. I'm not sure exactly what to think. The last three books were pretty strange. I think the thing I like about the series the most is how he plays on the idea of parallel universes and things that are real in one universe carry over into the fiction of another (i.e. the "sneetches" from the Harry Potter books). I also like the idea of finding abandoned worlds/cities/lands/etc. and technology that is ancient to the people who made it, but advanced and somewhat new to us (I think that's why I liked Babylon5 so much). The made up language stuff was getting annoying and I thought it was thrown in there too much (when there really seemed to be no reason for it) and I also can't help but think he's making fun of Louis Farrakhan with the whole "19" thing (I'm not saying that is a bad thing - just listen to the crazy speech he gave at the Million Man March thing - he started going off into the whole numerology bit - I thought for a minute he might have cut his nuts off and tried to catch a comet or something). I have to say that the ending, while not exactly what I was hoping for, wasn't totally unexpected or shocking. I was somewhat disappointed to get to the end anyway. I hope he didn't rush the stories just to get them done. I would rather have waited if they would have been a little better, but I suppose what you get is what you get. I kind-of compare the last three books to "The Matrix Reloaded" - pretty neat, but nothing as innovative and exciting as the original movie. Anyway, here are some things I liked and disliked: Liked: * Roland's story about Susan Delgado and the summer he, Alain, and Cuthbert spent in Mejis * Blaine the Mono * The "Bends o' the Rainbow" - neat concept, reminds me of the Palantiri from LoTR * The "Artist" formerly known as Patrick Danville - neat concept of drawing things into existance (thought they could have done MUCH more with this, like drawing Roland some new fingers and Susannah some new legs just to start with) * The city of Lud and some of the technology that was associated with it - would have liked to know more about "slow-trans" engines (hehe) * The whole thing with the doors that opened up into other worlds, Dogans, all of the tunnels beneath Fedic * The Walkin' Dude finally got what was coming to him * The idea of the Beams and the Guardians - wish he'd elaborated more on that * "We deal in lead" - no whining, no pussyfooting around, black and white philosophy * The concept of "You have forgotten the face of your father" to mean that one has strayed from doing what is right Disliked: * Stephen King being in his own book - way too cheesy for me * The "chap" - I got to where I never wanted to hear that again in my life * Susan Delgado assuming very extreme temperature before permanently assuming room temperature * Everyone seemed to be afraid of anything that the "Old People" touched, he makes it out like any technology is bad and I hate that attitude * Seemed like Roland's quest to "save the world" and put things right, while succeeding, maybe didn't stop the world from "moving on" or didn't "move it back" * No one knows how to pronounce "Mejis" * Roland's fingers getting bitten off at the beginning of The Drawing of the Three * Mia was annoying * Some things were just way out there (yes, I do realise that this _is_ Stephen King we're talking about) and so much so that it was more cheesy than imaginative Current Mood: perplexed :I (Comment on this)
Friday, December 24th, 2004
11:39 pm	Merry Christmas! Just a quick post to say Merry Christmas! Hope everyone is doing well. =) Current Mood: content (Comment on this)
Sunday, November 7th, 2004
7:02 pm	World of Warcraft Well, after much persuasion by The Female, I have started playing the World of Warcraft beta. I didn't think anyone could convince me that there was more to gaming than Diablo II. Anyway, we installed the game and started playing on Thursday night. We even had a friend visiting from out-of-town who brought his laptop with him and was playing as well. Needless to say, we've not left the house very much this weekend. The graphics are pretty kickin' and the gameplay seems to be pretty good. Things take a lot of time to do, so you can't make it to the end of the game in 15 minutes like in Diablo II. However, it seems to take forever to get anywhere - the quests keep you running back and forth between the cities that just happen to be the farthest apart - and that is a little frustrating (I don't have much patience sometimes). One nice feature is what I call "cruise control" or auto-run. You still have to "steer" basically, but your charachter will keep running until you want them to stop. You can also follow other players and let them do all the navigation and just sit back while your group goes to its destination. This reminds me a lot of a MUD with the way the fighting is done and the way the emotes and other things are set up. It has a monthly subscription fee which I am not excited about (even if it is cheap) - I've been spoiled on Diablo II for the last six years with free online play. I hope they keep Battle.net up and going for a while - I think I still like DII better. I haven't been "converted" yet. Unfortunately, it's doubtful that there will be a Diablo III. Too bad, because if they made the same improvements that they have with WoW, it would be utterly kick-ass! My main problem with DII is that it is over too quickly - you can make it to the end of the game in hell level in one day and even though the layout of the world changes, it isn't enough to be challenging - you can only do so many Baal runs in one day before you go crazy. Still fun, though. I have never played any game for as long as Diablo II (in fact, the last time I was in Austin, I think I spent most of my time on the computer instead of outside doing stuff). Oh well, I suppose it is time to move on and not be like Garth from Wayne's World ("we fear change"). I can't wait to keep exploring the lands in WoW. I'm tempted to take a vacation day to keep playing. =) Current Mood: exhausted Current Music: Diablo II game music in the background (2 Comments |Comment on this)
Wednesday, November 3rd, 2004
6:12 pm	America makes right choice It's nice to see that Americans made the right choice for President. There's hope for us yet. I doubt it will stop the hatemongering liberal Demoncrats from doing anything they can to make Bush look bad, but at least there was enough of a margin (and the fact that Bush got more popular votes than _any_ president in US history, even Ronaldus Magnus himself) to shut them up concerning stolen elections. Glad to see that Mr. Kerry, unlike Mr. Gore, had the decency to admit when he lost the election and didn't resort to ridiculous lawsuits to try to steal the election, then ask for recounts (in mysteriously Democrat-only counties). Perhaps the liberals can take time out to figure out why liberalism is the wrong choice for America and why their party of hate and lies and deceit wasn't popular with the American people. The Democrat Party had nothing to offer but Bush hatred and surrender. Perhaps next time around, they'll figure out that no matter how much they try to impugn traditional values, that's what the majority of people in this country want. So, to sum up: Winners: Bush, America Losers: Terrorists, Hollywood, George Soros, moveon.org, Democrats Current Mood: ecstatic (Comment on this)
Saturday, October 30th, 2004
10:50 am	Schwarzenegger Pumps Up Bush Crowd, accidentally shows true colours of Demo(n)crats In an article by Scott Lindlaw, http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=492&e=4&u=/ap/20041030/ap_en_ce/bush_schwarzenegger , the Governator is quoted as saying the following in Ohio: "President Bush knows you can't reason with people that are blinded by hate, but let me tell you something: Their hate is no match for our decency, their hate is no match for America's decency, and it is no match for the leadership and the resolve of George W. Bush." What's funny to me is that Ahhhnold was talking about the terrorists, but was also describing liberal Democrats. It's amazing (to me) the lengths that these people will go to to steal, er, sorry, win, the election. Not only that, they have their lapdogs at CBS and ABC to help them out with any lies they want to spread. Thank goodness for Fox News! And of course, the Governator also said: "I'm here to pump you up to re-elect President George W. Bush." Current Mood: amused Current Music: None (Comment on this)
Thursday, October 28th, 2004
7:00 pm	Stone of Tears Just finished Stone of Tears by Terry Goodkind! What a kick-ass book! Getting ready to start The Dark Tower by Stephen King. Weeeeeeeeeeeeeee! Current Mood: excited Current Music: None (Comment on this)
Wednesday, October 20th, 2004
8:57 am	Get your drag queen name! Something on the lighter side of things: http://www.femininechaos.co.uk/drag/name.html -=Eclypse=- (a.k.a. Sonia Sequin) Current Mood: amused Current Music: the usual - CPU fans (Comment on this)
Sunday, October 17th, 2004
10:47 am	Why I am not and never will be a liberal There are a lot of reasons I'm a conservative person. I figured I would share a few of those with you all so that when I post things on this forum, you all will know where I'm coming from. Please note that being conservative does not make one a Republican (and usually not a Democrat, either). There are plenty of examples of liberal Republicans (NY Mayor Mike Bloomberg and former Republican Jim Jeffords just to name two) and a couple of conservative Democrats (Zell Miller and (to some degree) Joe Lieberman). At any rate, I don't believe that liberals are bad people, but I don't agree with many of their ideas. 1.) I work for my money and I do not enjoy the prospect of giving it to others who will not work for it. Those who can't work for it need some help and I don't mind my tax money going to them. There are also a lot of good private charities. There are a lot of people who like to help others who need it. Give them the backing to let them do what they like to do. 2.) I do not hate rich people. In fact, I hope to be one someday. When I am, I do not want to give away the money I worked for to those who do not deserve it unless I decide to. Liberals blame all the injustices of the world on rich people while ignoring the fact that rich people create JOBS - the same jobs that they say they want people to have. Not to mention that all these liberal celebrities and elitists are RICH PEOPLE. It's a classic case of the pot calling the kettle black. All poor people are not benevolent and all rich people aren't greedy. Jerks are found in all tax brackets. If the rich get richer, the poor do not get poorer. Our economy is not based on a zero-sum game. If the rich get richer, everyone gets richer. Achievement should not be punished. 3.) It amazes me how most liberals will always side with every country except ours. Give war a chance (we've given peace a chance and it hasn't gotten us anywhere). 4.) I believe that 2+2=4, even if it hurts Little Johnny's feelings because he thinks that 2+2=5. Little Johnny needs to be told the truth. His feelings will adjust. We waste a lot of money on education. The "three R's" haven't changed in a long time, but we constantly need more money for education. We don't need computers in the classroom until kids can read, write, and figure out that 2+2=4 by themselves. I also believe that some children should be left behind. Kick out the troublemaking punks who don't want to learn and stop punishing the ones who do. I remember my 7th grade history teacher would paddle you in front of the class if you didn't do your homework. Needless to say, I didn't forget but one time. As Mr. Limbaugh is fond of saying, "fear is a powerful motivator." 5.) I believe that parents need to be able to spank their children - that's what's wrong with these little punk bastards nowadays. I have seen so many children who have no respect for anything and could not sit still to save their lives. Their self-absorbed parents think it's just great when Little Johnny runs around screaming and throwing things that don't belong to them. I can't say I never got away with anything, but when my father said it was time to shut up and sit still, I knew he would back it up with an ass beating, so I would STFU. Now, before the liberal hysteria sets in, there _IS_ a difference between discipline and beating just for beating's sake. 6.) I believe everyone should be judged on their individual merits, not on how good their suntan is (or isn't), where they come from, or how much money they have. I don't believe anyone should get special breaks because of anything except their individual merits. Affirmative action doesn't help anyone. If you're good enough, people will want you, no matter where you come from or what colour you are. It may have been necessary upon its implementation, but today it only encourages mediocrity. Why work to be the best if you just have to show up and get a job (or admission to certain universities) based on something other than your qualifications? I also believe that the practice of paying women less than men for the same jobs is a bunch of crap. If any person can do a job and that job pays x, then that person should make x. Not x-25% just because they have tits. However, I also believe that if a person can not do a job, that person should not be given that job just because of quotas. Case in point: Hooters guys. Eeek! 7.) Political correctness is a waste of time. It's time to stop being the United States of the Offended. Toughen up, you can't make everyone like you. 8.) While I no longer like SUVs and I despise minivans (mostly because of the idiots who drive them), I don't believe that people like John Kerry (who claims not to have any - along with other celebrity hypocrites), should tell you what kind of car to drive. If you want to drive the biggest gas-guzzler on the planet, more power to you. If you don't want to drive a pussy enviro-weenie car, don't. I love my 8 and it will be a cold day in hell before I trade it in on a Prius. But if you want a Prius, go buy one. 9.) I like guns. I'm not going to shoot anyone who isn't trying to break into my house and/or kill me or my family. Guns don't commit crimes, people do. Guns don't kill people, people do. That may be a cliche, but that doesn't make it any less true. If you take away guns from citizens, criminals will still have guns. They already don't respect the law. They won't mind breaking one more. Guns do discourage crime. 10.) I believe in the death penalty for capital crimes. Dead people don't commit crimes anymore and don't keep costing taxpayers money. If it doesn't work, it isn't being applied consistently enough to discourage bad people. 11.) I believe in personal responsibility - even when I screw up. No one likes admitting when they're wrong and I am no exception, but at the end of the day, I am responsible for my actions. Me. Not my bad childhood, not the 23409824 people who molested me, not the man trying to keep me down, just me. If I'm not a millionaire right now, it's not George Bush's fault, it's not John Kerry's fault, it's not my parents' fault, it's not my boss's fault, it's not my company's fault. It's because I haven't worked hard enough for it. If I say something stupid and get my ass kicked, that's my fault for not shutting up. If people die because some idiot straps on a bomb and blows them up, that's not the fault of the US or its policies - that is the fault of the dumbass with the bomb. 12.) Human life is more important to me than animal life. I don't kill or hurt animals unnecessarily, but if I have to choose between myself and Fido, sorry Fido. I am not a vegetarian. I don't believe it is wrong to kill animals for food. Animals kill and eat other animals. That's just how things work. I do not feel guilty eating things that have or had a face (now, where is my prime rib?). I also can't help but be amazed at how far some liberals will go to protect a snail darter, but be perfectly happy if you kill your child before it's born. 13.) The environment is not fragile. There is nothing we can do to this earth that it can not recover from. That is not to say that we might not manage to wipe ourselves out, but the earth will eventually recover. 14.) I believe in private property rights. If I want to plant or cut down a tree in my yard or move a ditch, as long as I do not affect anyone else's property or its value, I think I should be able to. 15.) If you don't like what's on TV or radio, don't screw it up for me. Turn the channel. I don't like Rap (notice I didn't put "music" after it), but if you want to listen to it, go ahead. 16.) Liberals can not win in the arena of ideas. They have to force their beliefs on people through the courts. 17.) Liberals exempt themselves from their regulations and policies. They want to tell you how to live and what you can do, but they don't want to do what they tell you you have to do. They can drive SUVs, but you aren't supposed to. Liberals are the elite and enlightened, you don't deserve the same privileges as liberals have because you aren't as smart as they are. That is one of the main reasons I am not a liberal - if it's good enough for me, it's good enough for you should you want it. If I have earned a million dollars, I want you to be able to have the opportunity to earn a million dollars as well. I don't believe in excluding people from opportunities - even if they don't believe the things I do. 18.) I believe if your religion tells you to kill people who are not part of your religion, your religion sucks. Find a new one. 19.) If 99% of terrorists are male muslim extremists between the ages of 18-49, a little profiling by law enforcement seems like a good idea to me. If you don't want the attention, discourage anyone who fits your description from doing things that will bring you to the authorities attention. I don't want to get blown up because someone might get their feelings hurt from a little extra attention. No one wants to be falsely accused of anything, but it sometimes happens. It's not nice, but neither is being blown up because a bunch of idiots don't want to point their finger at anyone and say, "you're a bad person". Those are just a few things. I am not silly enough to believe that all conservatives are good and all liberals are bad - I have a lot of liberal friends, but these are some of the things that I disagree with them on. Current Mood: sore from working out too hard Current Music: none - female still sleeping (12 Comments |Comment on this)
Sunday, October 3rd, 2004
10:14 am	Children of the Eighties You're probably a Child of the 80's if... If you're a Child of the Eighties you have probably recieved this list via E-Mail at one time or another. I have recieved it many times, and it always brings back memories. * You wore anything Izod, especially those windbreakers that folded up into a pouch you could wear around your waist. * You owned a Jordache anything, or you remember when Jordache jeans were cool. * In your sophomore class picture, you're wearing an Izod shirt with the collar "up." * Your "dressy" wardrobe centered around pastels and linen blazers - guys included! * You know, by heart, the words to any of the first "Weird" Al Yankovic songs. * You remember when Madonna was just hitting the scene. * "The Reflex" was a cool song. You wanted to be Duran Duran. * You remember "Battlestar Galactica." The Movie, The Series and the Toys. * Three words: "Atari, Apple and Pong." * Three more words: "Commodore64, Colecovision and Intellivision." * One more: "TRS-80" * You remember the days that hooking your computer into your television wasn't an expensive option that required gadgets - it was the ONLY option. * You remember the original version of Windows - Macintosh. * You thought "Weird Science" was a masterpiece. * You ever had a Swatch Watch (I still have three of them - two I bought in Barbados in 1997!) * You remember any or all of the following: Echo & the Bunnymen, Cutting Crew, Scritti Politti and/or Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark. * Chevy Chase was really funny in those Vacation movies. * You remember "Friday Night Videos" and a hundred other early MTV wanna bees. * You remember when MTV actually played Music Videos all the time, and you know that the very first video they played was - Video Killed The Radio Star. * A predominant color in your childhood photos is "plaid." * While in high school, you and all your friends discussed elaborate plans to get together again at the end of the century and play "1999" by Prince over and over again. * You remember when music labeled "alternative" really was. "Just whip it." * You took family trips BEFORE the invention of the mini-van. * Schoolhouse Rock played a HUGE part in how you actually learned the English language. * You ever dressed to emulate a person you saw in a Duran Duran, Madonna, Michael Jackson, Rick Springfield or Cyndi Lauper video. * Michael Jackson was black. * You actually know who Rick Springfield is. * You remember, with pain, the sad day when the Green Machine hit the streets and made your Big Wheel obsolete. * The phrase "Where's the beef?" still doubles you over with laughter. (the old lady's name was Clara Peller) * You remember when the film critics raved that no movie could ever possibly have better special effects than those in the movie TRON. * This timeline appropriately describes actual events in your life: _____Star Wars opens, you are still in single-digit ages, and you think the creatures are WAY cool. _____Empire Strikes Back opens, you are now in early double-digit ages, and you are convinced that the special effects are much better, the characters are cool and you want one of every collectible item out there. _____Return of the Jedi hits the theaters, you are now a teenager, and you cannot get your eyes off Princess Leia's tits/Hans Solo's ass. *You remember when you couldn't talk about what a fine actress Traci Lords was in front of your mother. * You actually remember Benetton. * You knew what it meant to be gagged with a spoon by a valley girl. * U2 is too "popular" and "mainstream" for you now. * You remember when there was only "G, PG and R" -none of this PG-13 crap! * You learned to swim about the same time Jaws came out and still carry the emotional scars to this day. * Mr. Jaws helped you finally cope. * "Wonder Twin powers activiate...form of an iceberg, shape of a hammer." * "By the power of Greyskull...I have the power!" * You jammed to the Miami Vice theme, and thought Jan Hammer was so cool. * You wanted to move to Hawaii because that's where Magnum lived. * Your hair, at some time during the 80's, became something which can only be described by the phrase, "I was experimenting." * Guys: You remember when a guy piercing his ear was radical to the max. * You were in school both when Reagan was shot, and when Pee Wee was caught. * Your generations brat pack was Judd Nelson, Emilio Estevez, Alley Sheedy, Andrew McCarthy, Demi Moore, Molly Ringwald and sometimes Anthony Michael Hall. * You know in your heart nobody understood us like John Huges did. * You spent endless nights dreaming about being the Bionic Man/Woman, Wonder Woman or the Incredible Hulk. * You ever wanted to learn to play "Stairway to Heaven" on the guitar or choreographed "Dancing Queen" by yourself in your room. * You know all the words to the double album set of Grease. * You remember when The Scorpions, Van Halen, and even Journey were considered heavy metal. * You ever rang someone's doorbell and said, "Landshark." * You wanted to live in Hazzard County, and jumped into your car through the window just cause the Dukes made it look so cool. * You bought a pair of Vaans and wanted to order a pizza in history class so you could be just like Jeff Spicoli in Fast Times at Ridgemont High. * You ever had PAC MAN fever. The album or the condition. * You remember, "Hey, let's be careful out there." * You ever uttered the word "Radical!" * You wore jelly shoes and jelly bracelets * You thought "Ghostbusters" was by far the coolest movie * You can remember what Michael Jackson looked like before his nose fell off. Or even when he had those freaky eyes in "Thriller" at the end of the video. * You wore a banana clip in your hair or one of those slap on wrist bands at some point during your youth. * You rolled up the bottoms of your splatter painted jeans. * You knew what Willis was "talkin' 'bout." * You know the profound meaning of "Wax on, Wax off." * You have seen at least 10 episodes of Fraggle Rock. * You know that another name for a keyboard is a "Synthesizer." * You hold a special place in your heart for "Back to the Future." * You know where to go if you "wanna go where everybody knows your name." * You thought Molly Ringwald was REALLY cool. * You know what "sike" and "not!" mean * You fell victim to 80's fashion : big hair, crimped, combed over to the side, big hoop earrings, and possibly the worst:you wore spandex pants. * You wanted to be a Goonie, or Elliot from E.T. * You knew "The Artist" when he was humbly called "Prince." * You ever wore flourescent -neon if you will- clothing.... * You could breakdance, or wished you could. * You know who He-Man and She-Ra are. * Pizza Hut was the coolest place to hang. * Poltergeist freaked you out. * You carried your lunch to school in a Gremlins or Star Wars or an E.T. lunchbox. * You have ever pondered why Smurfette was the ONLY female smurf. * You wanted to communicate with some being named Cinergy, or you wanted green hair like that lead singer of the Misfits. * You totally LOVED Barbie's cooler, punkier counterpart, "Jem" and her "Rockers" * You wanted to have an alien like Alf living in your house. * You wore biker shorts underneath a short skirt and felt stylish. * You wore tights under shorts and felt stylish. * You had a crush on one of the Coreys * You remember when Saturday Night Live was funny. * You had WonderWoman or Superman underwear. * You wanted to be The Hulk for Halloween. * You thought that Transformers were more than meets the eye. * Partying "like it's 1999" seemed SO far away!!!!!!!!!!!!! * You remember when Deborah Gibson was "Debbie" Gibson. * You wanted to be Michael Knight and drive around in K.I.T.T. and hook up with the hottie mechanic chick. * You owned a pair of Jams Most of this list came from http://www.parody-pages.com/80s/ and http://www.inthe80s.com/80schild2.shtml because I couldn't find my original email of this... Current Mood: sleepy Current Music: None (female still sleeping) (Comment on this)