Both Catnipped and I have experienced the awesomeness that comes with selling Cutco Brand knives. We were both duped into attending their "interviews" where the only requirement to get the job is a working car. Even though the whole recruiting process was a bit sketchy, apparently the knives themselves are quite awesome.
The house guests came by and while casually ransacking the home, came across the Cutco Super Shears that I had bought as part of my demo kit a long time ago. They were also one of the first families that I sold some knives too. They went on to rave for 30 minutes about how good the knives were, how awesome those scissors were, and how everyone that uses them immediately want a set of their own. They have been using them for over 8 years now and and are quite satisfied. Certainly makes me feel better about taking their money.
Monday, July 16, 2007
Sunday, July 15, 2007
Woe is me...
My computer is no longer safe. The house guests' 13 year old daughter is a devoted myspace addict.. This may be the last transmission before impending doom....h...e..l....p
Saturday, July 14, 2007
Friday, July 13, 2007
The Adventures of Friday the 13th
Friday the 13th, woooooo, how scary is it? So Scary! Anyways, I am not superstitious at all and didn't really care, however, my mom seems to have had some interesting adventures. Started yesterday when she wanted to swap cars with me so that she can get the oil changed in my car. After telling her that the steering wheel has some problems and asking if she was really sure she wanted to swap, I finally agreed.
Woke up this morning, drove to the park and ride and all was normal. Around noon time, I get a hysterical call from mom stating she had locked herself out of the house. What happened was, the garage door opener was kinda flaky and didn't open the garage when she pushed it, as she went to manually open the garage, she somehow managed to lock the garage from the inside instead of opening it. For some strange reason, she didn't have the key to the front door and the backyard door had that extra cross-bolt on. Because of the steering problems, she didn't want to drive to downtown either but the bus I took to get home apparently doesn't run until 3 pm!!
However, my mom was much more crafty than I thought as she was able to convince a nearby Nissan dealership that she wanted to have her car "fixed." As a result, she was able to use the showroom to get some free food, tea, and AC. She even snuck the groceries she bought inside and hid them underneath the sofa so they didn't spoil in the sun. Good stuff!
Woke up this morning, drove to the park and ride and all was normal. Around noon time, I get a hysterical call from mom stating she had locked herself out of the house. What happened was, the garage door opener was kinda flaky and didn't open the garage when she pushed it, as she went to manually open the garage, she somehow managed to lock the garage from the inside instead of opening it. For some strange reason, she didn't have the key to the front door and the backyard door had that extra cross-bolt on. Because of the steering problems, she didn't want to drive to downtown either but the bus I took to get home apparently doesn't run until 3 pm!!
However, my mom was much more crafty than I thought as she was able to convince a nearby Nissan dealership that she wanted to have her car "fixed." As a result, she was able to use the showroom to get some free food, tea, and AC. She even snuck the groceries she bought inside and hid them underneath the sofa so they didn't spoil in the sun. Good stuff!
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
Jury Duty
Yay, my second official summons for jury duty. Last time I got one, I couldn't make it because I was at Cornell. This time however, I am not sure if I will be able to get an excuse not to go. Now before any of you recommend saying really dumb things at the hearing to get out of it, it did not work for this guy....
Monday, July 09, 2007
Return of the Mom
Mom's back in Houston for a month. Looking forward to some good food and lots and lots of nagging! Yay! =) So glad to be employed...
Thursday, July 05, 2007
Keep the Change!!
So today, I went to buy a monthly metro pass since I figure I would be taking public transportation for all my commuting needs. The lady calculated the total and it came out to be $74?? I was thinking, 2 bucks per round trip, 20ish days a month that I will be commuting, which comes out to be about $40 bucks. How the heck is a monthly pass more expensive than just paying per day? Well, it turns out that the ACTUAL fare is supposed to be $2.50 per trip, so $5 for the round trip. Seems like I accidentally underpaid metro last time round...Funny how the driver didn't even bother to tell me.
Tuesday, July 03, 2007
So How Awesome is Houston Metro?
Sooo awesome. No rain today, even though the weather guy predicted a 80% chance for rain. This allowed my trying out Houston Metro. I basically go to my local "park and ride" and take 1 bus all the way downtown. It was super smooth and I arrived downtown even faster than if I had driven. Plus parking is free and the bus fee is only 1 dollar to and from downtown resulting in a massive transportation expense of 2 bucks. The best part is that Accenture allocates $100 per month for taking Houston Metro while only giving out $50 for parking.
Monday, July 02, 2007
The First Day
Had my first day of work today. It turned out to be pretty much your average first day of work as I was bombarded by about 50 billion different bits of information that I am still trying to grasp.
The day didn't start out too well as it was absolutely pouring rain in the morning. Plans to take the bus were soon scrapped as I didn't really feel like walking half a mile in wind-blown rain. I decided to drive there as it seemed safer. Thank goodness I left 1 hour earlier because the traffic was inevitably horrible because of accidents caused by the rain.
The last time I went to downtown, I had no clue where to park and ended up with a $18 parking fee for 5 hours of parking time. This time though, I was prepared as the nice folks at Accenture had drawn a map of downtown showing all the one-way streets and all the cheap parking garages. There was one slight problem though, they had marked all the one-way streets as going in the opposite direction as what they actually went. With 15 min to spare, I arrived at downtown, but thanks to the ludicrously wrong map, it took 10 minutes to find parking. The lot marked as only $6 bucks a day for the "early bird special" (arrival before 9 am) turned out to be $13. Damn, obviously these birds have taken the Latrell Sprewell path to financial freedom and need that extra 116% to feed their families.
The rest of the day turned out pretty well with nothing particularly disastrous happening. Hopefully tomorrow, the rain will let up a little and allow me to take public transportation.
On a slightly irritating note, it's pretty apparent that Roger Ebert really didn't do much research before writing his review of Transformers.
The day didn't start out too well as it was absolutely pouring rain in the morning. Plans to take the bus were soon scrapped as I didn't really feel like walking half a mile in wind-blown rain. I decided to drive there as it seemed safer. Thank goodness I left 1 hour earlier because the traffic was inevitably horrible because of accidents caused by the rain.
The last time I went to downtown, I had no clue where to park and ended up with a $18 parking fee for 5 hours of parking time. This time though, I was prepared as the nice folks at Accenture had drawn a map of downtown showing all the one-way streets and all the cheap parking garages. There was one slight problem though, they had marked all the one-way streets as going in the opposite direction as what they actually went. With 15 min to spare, I arrived at downtown, but thanks to the ludicrously wrong map, it took 10 minutes to find parking. The lot marked as only $6 bucks a day for the "early bird special" (arrival before 9 am) turned out to be $13. Damn, obviously these birds have taken the Latrell Sprewell path to financial freedom and need that extra 116% to feed their families.
The rest of the day turned out pretty well with nothing particularly disastrous happening. Hopefully tomorrow, the rain will let up a little and allow me to take public transportation.
On a slightly irritating note, it's pretty apparent that Roger Ebert really didn't do much research before writing his review of Transformers.
Friday, June 29, 2007
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Tales of the Abyss
While waiting for people to come back from vacation and between sending out resumes, I was able to finish Tales of the Abyss for PS2. Some interesting points:
1. Although there was no Japanese language option, the voice acting for the characters were done quite well. After hearing some of the Japanese voices, I think that some of the English voices were a lot less annoying than the high pitched Japanese voices. The jokes the characters make are genuinely funny and often times I was LOLing.
2. The fighting system is awesome and improves upon the already fun Tales system. Tales of the Abyss uses the new Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System (FR-LMBS). Aside from sounding like a BF2 assault rifle, the system allows the player to move around a fully 3D arena with ease and makes comboing enemies all the more amusing.
3. The story was superb. It never really slows down and it alternates between seriousness and comic relief. It all plays out in the end and every loose end is tied up.
4. The character development is also done very nicely. The main character is soooo annoying at the beginning of the game that you really don't feel bad for him when everyone (except 2 people) ditch him halfway through the game. But then after a while, he becomes more likable and eventually, you see his progression from teenage angst to something a bit more mature. Of course all the other characters have mysterious pasts and they are all revealed as the game passes.
5. The game was very challenging. Especially the boss fights. I decided to play it through on the "Hard" difficulty the first time through (Beating it once unlocks "Very Hard" and Unknown" difficulties) and many of bosses were pretty rough, taking quite a few tries to beat.
All in all, Tales of the Abyss was a great game, and I look forward to the next Tales game.
1. Although there was no Japanese language option, the voice acting for the characters were done quite well. After hearing some of the Japanese voices, I think that some of the English voices were a lot less annoying than the high pitched Japanese voices. The jokes the characters make are genuinely funny and often times I was LOLing.
2. The fighting system is awesome and improves upon the already fun Tales system. Tales of the Abyss uses the new Flex-Range Linear Motion Battle System (FR-LMBS). Aside from sounding like a BF2 assault rifle, the system allows the player to move around a fully 3D arena with ease and makes comboing enemies all the more amusing.
3. The story was superb. It never really slows down and it alternates between seriousness and comic relief. It all plays out in the end and every loose end is tied up.
4. The character development is also done very nicely. The main character is soooo annoying at the beginning of the game that you really don't feel bad for him when everyone (except 2 people) ditch him halfway through the game. But then after a while, he becomes more likable and eventually, you see his progression from teenage angst to something a bit more mature. Of course all the other characters have mysterious pasts and they are all revealed as the game passes.
5. The game was very challenging. Especially the boss fights. I decided to play it through on the "Hard" difficulty the first time through (Beating it once unlocks "Very Hard" and Unknown" difficulties) and many of bosses were pretty rough, taking quite a few tries to beat.
All in all, Tales of the Abyss was a great game, and I look forward to the next Tales game.
Waiting finally over
After 2 and 1/2 years, Accenture's HR department finally had enough people return from vacation to process my paperwork. I will be starting this coming Monday. Ironically, my manager, Bru Three is going on vacation today and won't be back until Tuesday. I look forward to taking lots of vacations once I start working if the hiring process is any indication...
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
The waiting game
This must be a particular hobby for companies as this is the 4th time I have been told to wait for the "final decision." While the recruiter keeps telling me to hang in there, I am pretty fed up with this crap. I think I will just schedule my tickets and if it happens to be in conflict with anything, too bad. Luckily, there are some other interviews on the horizon just in case Accenture is playing the dog on the leash game with me.
Friday, June 15, 2007
So...I guess they DO look at it
Got a phone call this morning from a background checking service for Accenture saying that they could not verify my employment at Shell Technology and Service Center. I let them know that it was a contracted position through BluWare and gave them their number. Hopefully it will get resolved. Now, I used to think that companies didn't really verify this information and just took it for granted. I am glad I didn't put something like First Sergeant in the USMC!! While this wouldn't have been entirely "untrue", I think forcing them to look through the military ranks for a certain "Cucumbernator" probably would have pissed them off further. Hmmm.....I hope they don't find out about that harem I used to run...
Tuesday, June 12, 2007
Goodbye to WoW
After more than a year of playing World of Warcraft. I decided to step away from this game for an extended period of time. While the social aspect of the game was still very awesome and I enjoyed the company, the game itself was getting rather repetitive and boring to some degree. Here's to exploring new challenges and to my friends still visiting Azeroth on a daily basis: Pleasant Journeys and may all your loot by phat!
Monday, June 11, 2007
Bird rescue
The BlupnutMM couple were walking their dog, when all of a sudden, they found a baby chick that had fallen from it's nest. After a bit of convincing, I was swindled into simply picking up this baby chick and putting it into the nest. Sounds simple? Not really, since after I had picked up this bird, BlupnutMM informed me that she had no idea where the nest was.... So okay, after wandering around a bit looking for a nest, a decision was made: Let the bird die, or attempt to save this bird by taking it to an animal hospital. After little deliberation, it was decided to take the bird to the animal hospital. When we got there, I was informed that they did not accept birds, and that the local wildlife shelter did. So after another 30 minute drive, we managed to get the bird to the right people. The bird turned out to be a dove, and apparently was only a couple of weeks old. Consider it my little contribution to world peace.
MisBehavior
Just finished up the Behavioral Interview. It went very well and I think that's the last step in the process. I called the recruiter afterwards and she told me an offer should be made on Thursday if all goes well. I would really like to thank Moonfleck for the excellent links to the behavioral interview questions as all of the questions asked were listed on the page, some even word for word. Almost makes up for her C4ing my LAV last night!!
Sunday, June 10, 2007
Misconduct
Accenture has scheduled a "Behavioral" interview for me tomorrow. I am not sure exactly what kind of interview this is gonna be, but the recruiter told me that it's going to be scenario based. So something like, angry customer calls regarding something, how do you react. I am pretty sure that "Convince them to give Lans all their gold" isn't the best answer.
Saturday, June 09, 2007
Dog Days of Summer
The BlupnutMM couple are crashing over at my place for this weekend. Of course, they had to bring their lovable dog, Teddy. Being a pretty laid back lazy person, I have never really wanted a pet. There was a brief brush with insanity where I almost got 2 kittens at once, but thankfully I recovered just in time.
I try to ignore this dog as much as I can, as I just really don't want to play with it, get slobbered on, etc etc, but he seems to have some kind of power with those eyes of his. Must... resist.....gah, have to go walk it...or something, randomly barking at door.....
Okay, so this dog seems to want to go out, it goes out, sits on the grass for 2 min, then immediately wants to go back in....what the heck...isn't it supposed to pee or something???
I try to ignore this dog as much as I can, as I just really don't want to play with it, get slobbered on, etc etc, but he seems to have some kind of power with those eyes of his. Must... resist.....gah, have to go walk it...or something, randomly barking at door.....
Okay, so this dog seems to want to go out, it goes out, sits on the grass for 2 min, then immediately wants to go back in....what the heck...isn't it supposed to pee or something???
Friday, June 08, 2007
Judgement Day
Went for the Accenture interview today. I believe the interview went very well. Met the members of the team and they were all pretty enthusiastic about having me on board. The project lead was also quite happy with how the entire thing went. I also had lunch with the team and it felt like I was a member of the team. There are still 2 more candidates after me and since I don't know who they are, I cannot send my ninjas.
Update: Apparently, just the mere thought of sending ninjas has discouraged my other competitors and the Accenture recruiter has informed me that they will be extending an offer next week! yay!
Update: Apparently, just the mere thought of sending ninjas has discouraged my other competitors and the Accenture recruiter has informed me that they will be extending an offer next week! yay!
Thursday, June 07, 2007
Basketball at it's Best
Wednesday, June 06, 2007
2nd Interview
The recruiter told me that I have an on-site interview with Accenture this coming Friday. Time to prepare for this interview!
Monday, June 04, 2007
BasketCrawl
Ran full court basketball for the first time tonight in about 4 months. All I can say is that man, I need to do more cardio instead of just weight training. I was so winded at 5-5, I am not sure how I managed to survive to the end. Also, the things I used to be able to do, I couldn't pull off. The shooting...well let's just say if I hit the rim, I counted it as a moral victory. Luckily, this has given me new perspective and I look forward to doing a lot more cardio and playing a lot more ball this summer.
On the non-outdoory note, Papaya's brother recently picked up BF2 and is having a blast. This stirred some very fond memories of =VGI= turning many a tide of battle. The thrill of parachuting out of the Blackhawk on Wake 2007, and our awesome moments of domination. Who can forget Ender's famous "Go get that tank".... Soo, anyone interested in picking this thing up again?
On the non-outdoory note, Papaya's brother recently picked up BF2 and is having a blast. This stirred some very fond memories of =VGI= turning many a tide of battle. The thrill of parachuting out of the Blackhawk on Wake 2007, and our awesome moments of domination. Who can forget Ender's famous "Go get that tank".... Soo, anyone interested in picking this thing up again?
Tuesday, May 08, 2007
Not so impossible after all
Kolaap recently posted about what a Mario Bros. level would be like if I designed it. Well, perhaps it's not so hard after all, as here is a video of a speedrun through it.
Monday, April 23, 2007
Curses!!
Today, had lunch with Papaya, Frank, and some Russian guy from Frank's work place. Apparently, this Russian guy is trying to learn Chinese and Frank had been "teaching" him choice phrases. Well, these phrases turn out to be cuss words. This lead to an interesting question being asked. Does Mandarin have many cuss words/phrases? Or is it just a few choice ones and people recycle them with random additions?
Tuesday, April 17, 2007
Tonight, we dine in HELL!
Awesome video of a Doom3 speedrun on nightmare difficulty. If you are bored and have nothing to do, check it out.
Monday, April 09, 2007
Kung, this one's for you!
Kung loves his Elite Beat Agents. These people go around, singing and dancing to help cheer up people in need. Apparently, there is a line they won't cross.
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
Tuesday, March 20, 2007
This is.. SPARTA!!!
Finally saw 300 over the weekend. I went into this film expecting a bloodbath of epic proportions. While I was not disappointed at the amount of killing, I was quite surprised by the quality of the acting. Sure some of the roles came off stiff, but these are killing machines, bred for battle. Probably not much time for sensitivity training. The choreography in the fight scenes were superb. The fluid motions of block/parry/stab in one motion was cool enough, but watching the entire Spartan force do it was just awesome. I was also surprised at how historically accurate the portrayal of Spartan society was. All in all, great movie. Makes me want to build a bottomless pit of my own so I have a way to deal with wandering mormons/salesman/etc etc.
Mormon: Hello sir, how are you doing today?
Me: This is STAFFORD!!!!!!! *KICK
Mormon: Hello sir, how are you doing today?
Me: This is STAFFORD!!!!!!! *KICK
Tuesday, March 13, 2007
The Hunt Continues
The job hunt continues. Had an interview on monday, but it turned out to be one of those "group" interviews where everyone gets into a huge room, then the "interviewer" proceeds to make a sales presentation instead of an actual interview. Ended up costing me 4 bucks parking since I parked for 1 hour and 32 min which pushed me into the 4 dollar bracket. While the product was this identity theft shield/pre-paid legal service, it actually seemed pretty useful to have a lawyer on call 24/7. Not that I would need a lawyer....for anything....of course.
Wednesday, March 07, 2007
Veggie invasion of PAX?
The Penny Arade Expo (PAX) will be on August 24th to 26th of this year. I think it would be a good time for the Veggies to meet up again, much like the one held on New Years. Catnipped, being the gracious host she is, has decided that we can crash at her place and has offered to pay for all of our tickets (okay maybe not quite, but vicious rumors is what I do best!). What say all you Veggies?
Tuesday, March 06, 2007
The Hunt continues
Been pretty busy signing up for all different kinds of job searching services and such. So far, I have tried Monster, Robert Haff, Texas workforce commission, and working on getting the Houston Chronicle for the classifieds. Anyone else have some other strategies to share? On the lighter side of things, I believe this is a good example of how to motivate a geek to work out.
Wednesday, February 28, 2007
Second worst day of my life
Well, as of tonight, I am officially unemployed. I was let go today from my company because I "didn't fit in" the company. When I joined, they had just received a very big project and needed the extra help. Now that the project is completed, they no longer have ample work for me to do. At least that was the basic explanation.
Obviously, now lies two paths to follow:
1. Go to business school: This option is available to some degree as my boss did say he would still be a reference should I decide to choose this route. However, this is not the most financially reasonable option.
2. Find another job: This is probably the most likely route I will take if I cannot get any major grants for business school since as it stands I can hardly afford even a single semester at a reasonably ranked business school.
Although I must admit, I was not particularly enjoying my job as a programmer there and I certainly did feel like I was on the outside looking in the entire time. Here's to rolling with the punches
Obviously, now lies two paths to follow:
1. Go to business school: This option is available to some degree as my boss did say he would still be a reference should I decide to choose this route. However, this is not the most financially reasonable option.
2. Find another job: This is probably the most likely route I will take if I cannot get any major grants for business school since as it stands I can hardly afford even a single semester at a reasonably ranked business school.
Although I must admit, I was not particularly enjoying my job as a programmer there and I certainly did feel like I was on the outside looking in the entire time. Here's to rolling with the punches
Tuesday, February 20, 2007
Chinese New Year!
This past Chinese New Year, I went over to the BluPnutMM couple's house. The food was great, but the highlight of the night was playing Taiko Drum Master. It's just really really fun banging to great classical hits like Beethoven, Hungarian Dance, and William Tell Overture. What's interesting is there were actually some relatively recent songs like "Toxic".
And speaking of rhythm and beats games, check out this guy playing Freebird on his...keyboard? I didn't even know Freebird existed as a DDR song. While obviously not as exciting as my epic duel with Kung in Karaoke Revolution, this contains quite a bit of drama. Just when you think it's over....it's not
Don't like playing the default songs? Put in your own songs!! Full Song here.
And speaking of rhythm and beats games, check out this guy playing Freebird on his...keyboard? I didn't even know Freebird existed as a DDR song. While obviously not as exciting as my epic duel with Kung in Karaoke Revolution, this contains quite a bit of drama. Just when you think it's over....it's not
Don't like playing the default songs? Put in your own songs!! Full Song here.
Friday, February 16, 2007
Thursday, February 15, 2007
FC on Freebird?
This is a very interesting video of a 100% FC of Freebird on expert. Some say he used the hyperspeed "cheat" but meh, it's still pretty damn amazing.
Wednesday, February 14, 2007
What is Love?
Baby don't hurt me, don't hurt me, no more... donedone donedone donedonedone donedone donedonedone donedone donedonedone..
Seriously though, very interesting study about the brain activity of people in love and of people who have had their hearts broken.
On another note, my faith in humanity was increased a bit more today.
Seriously though, very interesting study about the brain activity of people in love and of people who have had their hearts broken.
On another note, my faith in humanity was increased a bit more today.
Monday, February 12, 2007
And today during lunch...
Lunch with the BlupnutMM couple always leads to interesting topics of discussion. There has been a huge increase in the number of rhythm and beats games lately. Games like Guitar Hero/Karaoke Revolution/some kinda Drum game so this got us to thinking about possible new games in the same genre.
Chef Hero: The main prop for this game would be a cutting board and knife with fake left/right hand. As you chop your vegetables, it measures how thin your slices are. You have to hold the left/right hand on the food as you chop so if you accidently chop off a piece of the fake hand, you get points deducted. Sounds like a winner to me.
Vaccum Hero: Ahh, it's impossible to get children (and adults) to vaccum the floor. So why not make it fun and exciting. The prop for this game would be an actual vaccum and you get points on how much dirt you collect using the vacuum. The more you suck, the more you rock. Maybe some kinda star power mode where your vacuum goes into overdrive and tears the carpet from the floor.
Harp/Piano Hero: While having the same mechanics as the other music games, it just forces you to purchase a larger and more expensive prop. $$$ for the win.
Chef Hero: The main prop for this game would be a cutting board and knife with fake left/right hand. As you chop your vegetables, it measures how thin your slices are. You have to hold the left/right hand on the food as you chop so if you accidently chop off a piece of the fake hand, you get points deducted. Sounds like a winner to me.
Vaccum Hero: Ahh, it's impossible to get children (and adults) to vaccum the floor. So why not make it fun and exciting. The prop for this game would be an actual vaccum and you get points on how much dirt you collect using the vacuum. The more you suck, the more you rock. Maybe some kinda star power mode where your vacuum goes into overdrive and tears the carpet from the floor.
Harp/Piano Hero: While having the same mechanics as the other music games, it just forces you to purchase a larger and more expensive prop. $$$ for the win.
Tuesday, February 06, 2007
Best Around
So the local radio station I listened to had a contest to give away some Gwen Stefani tickets. The game they happened to be playing was movie trivia. The DJs give out some hints about a movie and two listeners have to guess the title. They take turns and whoever has the most at the end wins. So anyways, today was "Favorites" day as the DJs got the favorite movie of everyone in the studio and used those as the movies. Let's see if anyone can guess these:
1. Scrawny neighbor boy learns martial arts from an old hermit to defeat local bullies and gets the girl at the end.
2. Grizzled Vietnam Widower leads neighbor kid to success over the local gang
3. A troubled boy learns lessons in life through painting houses, washing cars, and sanding patios
4. Inspirational tale of the fight of one individual against the oppression from many through the help of an elderly hermit who likes to cut Banzai trees.
5. So and So DJ's favorite song is from this movie: "You're the Best!! Arrrrrouuuuuunnd.."
The sad thing is, neither of the women participating in this game knew what any of these movies were. You would think they would catch onto the pattern after the first couple...
1. Scrawny neighbor boy learns martial arts from an old hermit to defeat local bullies and gets the girl at the end.
2. Grizzled Vietnam Widower leads neighbor kid to success over the local gang
3. A troubled boy learns lessons in life through painting houses, washing cars, and sanding patios
4. Inspirational tale of the fight of one individual against the oppression from many through the help of an elderly hermit who likes to cut Banzai trees.
5. So and So DJ's favorite song is from this movie: "You're the Best!! Arrrrrouuuuuunnd.."
The sad thing is, neither of the women participating in this game knew what any of these movies were. You would think they would catch onto the pattern after the first couple...
Monday, February 05, 2007
Why we watch
The titanic struggle of teams, leading up to the ultimate battle for dominance. Weekend warriors preparing for the final clash with the winner tasting the thrill of victory and the loser a humiliating defeat. Eternal glory for the winner and simply the first loser for the other. This is the reason we watch Superbowl commercials. Oh and there was some kinda sporting event or something involved too.
Wednesday, January 31, 2007
A Change of Surroundings?
A good friend of mine in California recently encountered a startup that was looking for people to do data analysis and some SQL/Java work. This seemed right up my alley so I am submitting a resume and hoping for the best. I have always loved the West coast and so this may be my chance to finally move back there. Hopefully it all works out.
Tuesday, January 30, 2007
I think I'll name it...Pony
Thanks to the charitable donations of a few Oomites, I was able to purchase my epic flying mount in WoW. It's worth every penny imho as it speeds up travelling significantly. It also makes mundane tasks such as mining/herbalism incredibly easy. Blizzard really should allow players to name their mounts (maybe just the epic ones since it's such a big investment).
Thursday, January 25, 2007
The Force is definitely strong with this one
Wish I could find the full length of this video. Notice the awesome special effects and the severe decapitations...
Monday, January 22, 2007
The Grind
So, WoW expansion is already out and the first level 70 occurred a mere 28 hours after the release. Some helpful tips I found for questing/grinding:
1. Get an epic mount. Yes, it's expensive, but it's also fast! I would say, at least 40% of the time it takes to complete a quest is simply travelling back and forth between destinations. Even if it takes every last penny, getting an epic mount should be a #1 priority. Gold is really easy to make in the expansion; since tuesday, I have already made over 850 gold (not selling any greens/blues/playing AH) which is more than enough to get epic mount/training.
2. Get as many quests as possible (ideally all of them) from a specific quest hub. Take a general look at all the quests, and plan a route that knocks out as many of them as possible in an efficient manner so that you can...
3. Go to town as little as possible. This reduces travelling time significantly (increases exp/hr) but runs into one very small problem...
4. Get at least all 16 slot bags. Bank all things that can possibly be banked. Not going to town very often will lead to a vast collection of vendor trash/crafting materials/etc being accumulated. This point sucks for a hunter since I have to give up 1 whole bag space for the quiver.
5a. Use crowd control as a method of queuing up mobs. As a hunter, when I have to kill X number of a specific mob, I usually put pet on one, then pull another one into a freeze trap. As soon as first one is dead, put pet on trapped one, then go trap another. Basically leads to constant stream of mobs. Disadvantage is when unlucky spawns occur which leads to way too many mobs to handle. If your class doesn't have a way of reliable crowd control, or is very mana intensive and requires frequent breaks....
5b. Kill every yellow mob while questing. This helps reduce the significant downtime when searching for mobs to kill for a quest. It also ensures that when actually killing the quest mobs, no other mobs get in the way (since they are dead already). It also leads to a good amount of income from the extra vendor trash.
6a. Quests that go by better in a group:
i. Kill X quests: pretty obvious since all group members get credit
ii. Kill X to get Z item: Group only if it's a SURE drop and everyone gets credit (usually the case if only 1 item is needed)
iii. Kill exceptionally difficult mob: These are usually the end of a chain and leads to good rewards.
6b. Quests that go better solo:
i. Kill X to get Z number of items: These suck, since every other player adds more mob kills
ii. Gather X number of items: same reason as above
Of course, all quests go by better in a group if team members are good friends/family/Class with special skill that speeds up travelling.
1. Get an epic mount. Yes, it's expensive, but it's also fast! I would say, at least 40% of the time it takes to complete a quest is simply travelling back and forth between destinations. Even if it takes every last penny, getting an epic mount should be a #1 priority. Gold is really easy to make in the expansion; since tuesday, I have already made over 850 gold (not selling any greens/blues/playing AH) which is more than enough to get epic mount/training.
2. Get as many quests as possible (ideally all of them) from a specific quest hub. Take a general look at all the quests, and plan a route that knocks out as many of them as possible in an efficient manner so that you can...
3. Go to town as little as possible. This reduces travelling time significantly (increases exp/hr) but runs into one very small problem...
4. Get at least all 16 slot bags. Bank all things that can possibly be banked. Not going to town very often will lead to a vast collection of vendor trash/crafting materials/etc being accumulated. This point sucks for a hunter since I have to give up 1 whole bag space for the quiver.
5a. Use crowd control as a method of queuing up mobs. As a hunter, when I have to kill X number of a specific mob, I usually put pet on one, then pull another one into a freeze trap. As soon as first one is dead, put pet on trapped one, then go trap another. Basically leads to constant stream of mobs. Disadvantage is when unlucky spawns occur which leads to way too many mobs to handle. If your class doesn't have a way of reliable crowd control, or is very mana intensive and requires frequent breaks....
5b. Kill every yellow mob while questing. This helps reduce the significant downtime when searching for mobs to kill for a quest. It also ensures that when actually killing the quest mobs, no other mobs get in the way (since they are dead already). It also leads to a good amount of income from the extra vendor trash.
6a. Quests that go by better in a group:
i. Kill X quests: pretty obvious since all group members get credit
ii. Kill X to get Z item: Group only if it's a SURE drop and everyone gets credit (usually the case if only 1 item is needed)
iii. Kill exceptionally difficult mob: These are usually the end of a chain and leads to good rewards.
6b. Quests that go better solo:
i. Kill X to get Z number of items: These suck, since every other player adds more mob kills
ii. Gather X number of items: same reason as above
Of course, all quests go by better in a group if team members are good friends/family/Class with special skill that speeds up travelling.
Friday, January 19, 2007
No internet makes Velius something something.....
Internet down....thanks to the bad weather here in Houston. Windstream says that 134k of their customers are without internet and that they are working around the clock. Woke up this morning....still no internet.... Urge to kill rising.....risinnnnngggg
Thursday, January 18, 2007
TBC Hunter
I believe hunters got a pretty big buff in TBC. The beastmastery tree has often been the laughing stock tree for endgame hunters. Despite this, I always liked the beastmastery tree and I just thought that a hunter should always have a good pet at his side. Well, thanks to the expansion, Beastmastery is weak no more.
With the improvements in the tree, I now gain health/armor/attack speed/frenzy along with my pet. My pet also does more damage and everytime it crits, everyone in the party gains a damage increase. My attack speed now hovers around 2.2 seconds thanks to serpent's quickness. This is perfect with the newly implemented steady shot.
With steady shot, I can weave a shot between each autoshot which gives me an effective attack speed of ~1 second. The old 9 second cycle has been replaced with my own customized 5 second cycle.
With the improvements in the tree, I now gain health/armor/attack speed/frenzy along with my pet. My pet also does more damage and everytime it crits, everyone in the party gains a damage increase. My attack speed now hovers around 2.2 seconds thanks to serpent's quickness. This is perfect with the newly implemented steady shot.
With steady shot, I can weave a shot between each autoshot which gives me an effective attack speed of ~1 second. The old 9 second cycle has been replaced with my own customized 5 second cycle.
Monday, January 15, 2007
I don't wanna be...
Before going to China, my mom charged me with a very important task. I had to swipe a discover card twice each month. Apparently, as a stipend for taking out a large no-interest loan, Discover required them to use the card at least twice a month or else the interest rate would skyrocket to something like 27%. The card itself also had a very high 19% interest on items purchased. Luckily, I usually circumvent this by buying 2 packs of gum at 20 cents each.
Well, today, as I was doing my usual round of purchasing 2 packs of gum at a local store. There was quite a long line and this guy behind me was obviously growing inpatient. So as I proceeded to scan a pack of gum twice, he looked at me VERY suspiciously. The problem is this card is in my mom's name, so in essence, I am committing credit card fraud twice every month by forging my mom's signature (with her permission) on the receipts. This guy kept staring at me like I was a criminal until I finally finished, and kept staring at me as I walked briskly to the exit.
Well, today, as I was doing my usual round of purchasing 2 packs of gum at a local store. There was quite a long line and this guy behind me was obviously growing inpatient. So as I proceeded to scan a pack of gum twice, he looked at me VERY suspiciously. The problem is this card is in my mom's name, so in essence, I am committing credit card fraud twice every month by forging my mom's signature (with her permission) on the receipts. This guy kept staring at me like I was a criminal until I finally finished, and kept staring at me as I walked briskly to the exit.
Thursday, January 11, 2007
Oh where does the time go
A non-WoW related post? What is going on?? Yes yes, this post is actually going to be about work. We always complain about how some programs we use can be faster, how we can do a better job programming them. Well, it may not be as easy as it seems. After toiling away at this project for a month, I have managed to optimize a routine used in it. The total net benefit? I managed to shave 1.5 seconds (3.5s -> 2s) off the run time....whoopie... Of course, this is cummulative, so in regards to runs with huge amounts of data, this change could save hours in overall runtime.
Okay, gotta have SOMETHING WoW related sooo uhhh, Expansion in 7 days!!! Looking forward to powerlvling all my characters to 70! WSG tonight.
Okay, gotta have SOMETHING WoW related sooo uhhh, Expansion in 7 days!!! Looking forward to powerlvling all my characters to 70! WSG tonight.
Tuesday, January 09, 2007
3-man Onyxia
I have always advocated the idea that paladins are the most mana efficient healers in WoW. I would almost say better than priests. Here's the power of paladin healing as a group 3-mans Onyxia.
Monday, January 08, 2007
Please don't eat me.
Recently found that my house was infested by termites! While I do enjoy watching what kinds of intricate patterns they can eat into my walls, I enjoy not having my roof collapse on me more. As such, I hired Orkin to come and eliminate them. Didn't start out too well as the first lady I talked to accidentally signed me up for "pest control" instead of "termite control" and so I wasted half a thursday waiting. After getting signed up correctly, the people did a overall fantastic job.
They came and drilled holes in my walls and foundation, then foamed the house up good! Then they replaced everything they cut and left it pretty much just as it was before. Overall, I rate their service as very professional.
On a completely different note: I was finally able to pick up my Grand Marshal's Dirk this morning. All I need is a +15 agility enchant and I am all set. Never realized how much fun Combat Daggers can be!
They came and drilled holes in my walls and foundation, then foamed the house up good! Then they replaced everything they cut and left it pretty much just as it was before. Overall, I rate their service as very professional.
On a completely different note: I was finally able to pick up my Grand Marshal's Dirk this morning. All I need is a +15 agility enchant and I am all set. Never realized how much fun Combat Daggers can be!
Friday, January 05, 2007
Passionate Love for lunch...mmmm
Had lunch with Papaya couple, BluPnutMM couple, and squash at this new place called Cafe 101. What is supposed to set this cafe apart, was that the waitresses all had to wear a flannel shirt and really short shorts. BluPnutMM advertised it as the "Asian Hooters". A look at the wonderful drinks menu gives you an idea of what kind of atmosphere they wanted. I felt really really awkward ordering.
Waitress: "What would you like"
Me: "I'll have have the pork chop with blackened bean sauce"
Waitress: "And would you like a drink"
Me: "Yes, I'll have Passionate Love".... or
Me: "Yes, I would like a Young Girl's Dream".. or
Me: "Yes, gimme a Little Lover"....
Besides the obvious gimmick drink names, the food really wasn't that good. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't good either. The service was pretty bad and it took them FOREVER to calculate the bill properly. So.. in conclusion, as much as I would like to have Intimate Love everyday, I will have to pass on Cafe 101.
Thursday, January 04, 2007
I suck at poker
The last day went by pretty fast. Dropped Catnipped off at her aunts house in the morning, then went to breakfast at IHOP with the rest of the crew. Kung displayed his awesome pancake eating ability by ordering the all-you-can-eat pancakes and devouring 4 plates. This was followed by another session of Guitar Hero.
After Guitar Hero, we tried to play table tennis at the local Chinese Civic Center, but didn't have any ping pong balls. We decided to go to the grassy field across the street to play some football, but the rain cut our game short. After getting back, we decided to play some Texas Hold'em poker (no actual betting of course). This was my first time playing the game and it obviously showed since I repeatedly lost my house/car/firstborn to Ender. Thinking back, I got cleaned out by Tochi twice and Ender 357569875478 times. Kung was the most experienced poker player out of all of us and he pretty much went conservative the whole time and let us enjoy screaming "All In" on hands where we had pocket 3s.
The day ended with dinner at Pappadeux's and a round of some PS2 card game that I cannot remember the name of. I do remember Ender owned the other team with his Vampire toll booth.
After Guitar Hero, we tried to play table tennis at the local Chinese Civic Center, but didn't have any ping pong balls. We decided to go to the grassy field across the street to play some football, but the rain cut our game short. After getting back, we decided to play some Texas Hold'em poker (no actual betting of course). This was my first time playing the game and it obviously showed since I repeatedly lost my house/car/firstborn to Ender. Thinking back, I got cleaned out by Tochi twice and Ender 357569875478 times. Kung was the most experienced poker player out of all of us and he pretty much went conservative the whole time and let us enjoy screaming "All In" on hands where we had pocket 3s.
The day ended with dinner at Pappadeux's and a round of some PS2 card game that I cannot remember the name of. I do remember Ender owned the other team with his Vampire toll booth.
Legomyegolas
Day 4 brought about the unveiling of Ender's amazing archery abilities. The day started off with... Guitar Hero, much like the other days. After rescuing Catnipped, who was briefly kidnapped by her aunt to have lunch, we proceeded to Viking Archery. At this location, you could either shoot regular Recurve bows or the more powerful Composite bows. Being beginners, we all shot the recurves. The shooting range there was called Viking LANES.
We each had a paper target (the usual concentric circles with a red center) to shoot at, placed at about 30 yards away or so. We intimidated the targets all day long. Shooting many arrows in a circular pattern around the target, but not actually hitting it. I am sure they were quivering in fear at the end. The highlight of the day was a brilliant display of shooting by Ender.
About halfway through our session, Ender drew back his bow and let an arrow fly. What happened next left us all unable to draw our bows....because we were laughing so hard.
Ender's arrow had managed to fly over the targetting board and pierced the "E" in Viking Lanes. The "E" then hovered there for a split moment, then split in two and crashed onto the ground, leaving the sign reading Viking Lans.
We took some hunting-pictures (Note: Picture is just a random example of what the pose in the actual picture was) of Ender posed with the mortally wounded "E". Here is the kill-shot. Ender didn't want his identity revealed so I altered the picture using my 1337 MS Paint skills to depict his Tomato roots. After Ender's spectacular kill, we went to Korean BBQ to finish the day.
We each had a paper target (the usual concentric circles with a red center) to shoot at, placed at about 30 yards away or so. We intimidated the targets all day long. Shooting many arrows in a circular pattern around the target, but not actually hitting it. I am sure they were quivering in fear at the end. The highlight of the day was a brilliant display of shooting by Ender.
About halfway through our session, Ender drew back his bow and let an arrow fly. What happened next left us all unable to draw our bows....because we were laughing so hard.
Ender's arrow had managed to fly over the targetting board and pierced the "E" in Viking Lanes. The "E" then hovered there for a split moment, then split in two and crashed onto the ground, leaving the sign reading Viking Lans.We took some hunting-pictures (Note: Picture is just a random example of what the pose in the actual picture was) of Ender posed with the mortally wounded "E". Here is the kill-shot. Ender didn't want his identity revealed so I altered the picture using my 1337 MS Paint skills to depict his Tomato roots. After Ender's spectacular kill, we went to Korean BBQ to finish the day.
Monday, January 01, 2007
Day 3
Ender and Tochi stayed up pretty late playing this Gundam fighting game. The game seems very fun and all, but the way the characters scream was a bit annoying. Nothing like going to bed to anime battle screams.
In the morning, we went to have dim sum at Kim Son (not Kim Sum). We were able to make it there JUST before morning rush. It was good for us because all the carts were filled and there weren't that many customers. The instant we sat down, the carts came to us like vultures circling prey. Our table was filled with various foods in a matter of seconds. The entire meal lasted no less than 20 minutes. Usually, Dim Sum lasts quite a while because people chat or read newpapers....we just ate.
The BBQ went just fine. Kung demonstrated his mastery of the grill by cooking up some very juicy burgers and hotdogs. He also added some grilled chicken breast. The BluPnutMM couple brought asparagus wrapped in bacon (Doug would be proud!!!) and some spinach/cream cheese triangle thingies. Potato provided the dessert and Squash/Plum brought some rolls. List of things we did:
1. Karaoke Revolution: My throat hurts......we separated into teams and did a sing-off. Team Awesome (Me, Ender, Tochi, BluPnutMM, and Papaya) won the first game 3-1 but Team Better Than Awesome (Kung, Catnipped, Papaya's wife, BluPnutMM's other half, and Potato) came back with a string of 5!!! perfect songs and took the next 2 games 3-0 and 3-1.
2. Super Monkey Ball: Lots and LOTS of button mashing, no real monkeys were hurt in the playing of this game.
3. Mafia: Nothing like a game of mistrust and deceit to finish off the night. Many villagers were slain, but the mafia for the most part didn't stand a chance until the very end when we altered the rules a bit to give the mafia a better chance. Catnipped and Ender make particularly deadly mafia.
4. Guitar Hero: Ongoing still, but I am pretty sure Ender is hooked =p
In the morning, we went to have dim sum at Kim Son (not Kim Sum). We were able to make it there JUST before morning rush. It was good for us because all the carts were filled and there weren't that many customers. The instant we sat down, the carts came to us like vultures circling prey. Our table was filled with various foods in a matter of seconds. The entire meal lasted no less than 20 minutes. Usually, Dim Sum lasts quite a while because people chat or read newpapers....we just ate.
The BBQ went just fine. Kung demonstrated his mastery of the grill by cooking up some very juicy burgers and hotdogs. He also added some grilled chicken breast. The BluPnutMM couple brought asparagus wrapped in bacon (Doug would be proud!!!) and some spinach/cream cheese triangle thingies. Potato provided the dessert and Squash/Plum brought some rolls. List of things we did:
1. Karaoke Revolution: My throat hurts......we separated into teams and did a sing-off. Team Awesome (Me, Ender, Tochi, BluPnutMM, and Papaya) won the first game 3-1 but Team Better Than Awesome (Kung, Catnipped, Papaya's wife, BluPnutMM's other half, and Potato) came back with a string of 5!!! perfect songs and took the next 2 games 3-0 and 3-1.
2. Super Monkey Ball: Lots and LOTS of button mashing, no real monkeys were hurt in the playing of this game.
3. Mafia: Nothing like a game of mistrust and deceit to finish off the night. Many villagers were slain, but the mafia for the most part didn't stand a chance until the very end when we altered the rules a bit to give the mafia a better chance. Catnipped and Ender make particularly deadly mafia.
4. Guitar Hero: Ongoing still, but I am pretty sure Ender is hooked =p
Day 2
Things went very smoothly today. Picked up Lemon/Tochi/Ender without a hitch. The nice thing was that all three of their flights were late, so the mutual lateness cancelled each other out. This was thanks to a perfectly executed Triangle offense. Lemon/Tochi flew into Houston from IAH but Ender decided to be cool and fly in via Hobby. This is truly awesome because I had to travel along a triangle in order to pick all of them up. However, the sheer amount of driving involved allowed me to give a very brief tour of Houston on the way back.
Had lunch at umm some Golden Cafe place that's VERY big (according to Blupnutmm). The food was good for the most part. After dropping off their belongings, we hit up the local Walmart to pick up the grillables and other necessities for the 1st. Picking up the grill though proved to be quite a bit more challenging.
Not only was this grill not at the original intended location, but it turned out there was no way I could pick it up in my Camry. Essentially, I had to borrow a truck just to get the BBQ pit from some random person whose daughter had borrowed the grill from the original owner. But, everything worked out again.
The rest of the night was filled with varied amounts of Gears of War, Guitar Hero, and Karaoke Revolution. I found out that, trying to imitate Whitney Houston can cause much pain... My throat is sooooo sore this morning. Went to sleep on bloodcurdling japanese battle cries. Grill is today, should be fun!
Had lunch at umm some Golden Cafe place that's VERY big (according to Blupnutmm). The food was good for the most part. After dropping off their belongings, we hit up the local Walmart to pick up the grillables and other necessities for the 1st. Picking up the grill though proved to be quite a bit more challenging.
Not only was this grill not at the original intended location, but it turned out there was no way I could pick it up in my Camry. Essentially, I had to borrow a truck just to get the BBQ pit from some random person whose daughter had borrowed the grill from the original owner. But, everything worked out again.
The rest of the night was filled with varied amounts of Gears of War, Guitar Hero, and Karaoke Revolution. I found out that, trying to imitate Whitney Houston can cause much pain... My throat is sooooo sore this morning. Went to sleep on bloodcurdling japanese battle cries. Grill is today, should be fun!
Saturday, December 30, 2006
First Day
Picked up Catnipped today from the airport. Even though her flight came in 45 minutes late, the TV monitor brightly displayed her flight as being "on time". My Xbox360 is working just fine. We spent about 6 hours playing the Gears of War Coop campaign. This was a terrific experience.
The ambient sounds and general atmosphere of the game is just so creepy and very well made. The coop elements made it actually feel like we were helping each other, instead of just the usual "it's just another extra life for me." Gotta pick up Lemon, Tochi, and Ender tomorrow. Should be fun!
The ambient sounds and general atmosphere of the game is just so creepy and very well made. The coop elements made it actually feel like we were helping each other, instead of just the usual "it's just another extra life for me." Gotta pick up Lemon, Tochi, and Ender tomorrow. Should be fun!
Friday, December 29, 2006
Remember, it's Houston, TEXAS
Those of you coming, please remember that your destination is Houston, TEXAS. If you happen to mistype and get yourself lost, I will not be held accountable for your inability to type. However, being the nice guy that I am, I will provide the information on some possible other Houstons that you may end up at:
Houston, Renfrewshire: Claims itself as the "original" Houston. Has some breweries and some castles. Why practice archery, when you can do REAL archery?
Houston, British Columbia: An awesome mining community. Go find some gold!
Houston, Alaska: Sooo, Catnipped, you are coming down here to escape the cold. On the bright side, if you end up here, Washington will seem like a tropical rain forest!
Whitney Houston: Not really a geographical location, but I am sure she can host a better party. You know, drugs and all. "And I will Alllllllways Love youuuuuuuu ouuuuu ouuuuu ouuuu" probably referred to her drugs.
Paris Hilton: Not sure how a person can mistype sooooo badly as to end up visiting her, but just throwing it out there in case
Houston, Renfrewshire: Claims itself as the "original" Houston. Has some breweries and some castles. Why practice archery, when you can do REAL archery?
Houston, British Columbia: An awesome mining community. Go find some gold!
Houston, Alaska: Sooo, Catnipped, you are coming down here to escape the cold. On the bright side, if you end up here, Washington will seem like a tropical rain forest!
Whitney Houston: Not really a geographical location, but I am sure she can host a better party. You know, drugs and all. "And I will Alllllllways Love youuuuuuuu ouuuuu ouuuuu ouuuu" probably referred to her drugs.
Paris Hilton: Not sure how a person can mistype sooooo badly as to end up visiting her, but just throwing it out there in case
Thursday, December 28, 2006
Pure Grillage
Found a nice gas-powered grill, courtesy of Mrs. Papaya's network of friends. Supposedly, it's about 3 feet long! Time to pwn some n00b chicken/beef/etc.
A bit chilly
Might be a bit chilly in Houston, so those of you coming, please bring a sleeping bag or some extra blankets. I have a few extra blankets, but when it gets colder, they may not be enough.
Wednesday, December 27, 2006
Carry-On please!
Because of the bizarre nature of this incident, I hereby advise that a certain electronic device being brought from Washington be brought on as carry on. =p
Tuesday, December 26, 2006
Wedding Bells
Saturday was the wedding of Papaya! The ceremony was held at this medieval castle sorta looking place. It looked more like a medieval chapel than a castle, but the entire atmosphere was still very good. I am probably just too geeky for my own good, but the very first thing that popped up in my mind when I went inside for the first time was: "Hey, this place looks like the final level from Hitman 2!"
We were "supposed" to have a rehearsal the night before at 6 pm. People were told to get there at 5:30 (Me and the Best Man showed up on time) as to give plenty of time to rehearse. Of course, 5:30 actually means "whenever the hell you feel like showing up" in Chinese speak so most people didn't get there until 6:30, leaving only 30 minutes to "rehearse." Needless to say, we got very little rehearsing in, and so I was a bit sceptical about the next days wedding running efficiently. Of course, just the opposite happened. (You know, this is strange as everytime I think something is gonna be totally bad, it turns out totally good. Most of my WoW friends can attest to this. Everytime I complain about a raid being terrible or something, we usually do really well...) We had a rehearsal dinner afterwards at some chinese place and the conversation floated between religion and Chinese politics.....so much fun, I know. On the bright side, someone managed to get "Do or do not, there is no try" as a fortune from a fortune cookie. It's official, Yoda is now on par with Confucius.
The wedding itself turned out to be very very smooth. The wedding planner, Audrey, did a spectacular job organizing and directing the whole thing.
The wedding went off without a hitch. Some points of interest:
1. The grooms side were all very tall, while the bride's side were all pretty short. This lead to some strangeness while walking down the isle as me and the Best Man had to kinda hunch.
2. The bridal bouquet was caught by none other than BluPnutMM. She informed me that she is planning her wedding to be around the same time next year.
3. The bridal garter was caught by.... the flower boy. This was obviously a blow to any of the other guy's hopes as they won't be able to get married for another 15 years or so since the boy was only 5 years old.
4. The wedding rocked because they played Numa Numa as one of the songs.
5. The Best Man (Papaya's brother) gave a spectacular speech. It was funny and heartfelt at the same time.
6. Plum and Squash were hired by the CIA (pictured)
Congrats to the new couple, may they have many happy memories together!
We were "supposed" to have a rehearsal the night before at 6 pm. People were told to get there at 5:30 (Me and the Best Man showed up on time) as to give plenty of time to rehearse. Of course, 5:30 actually means "whenever the hell you feel like showing up" in Chinese speak so most people didn't get there until 6:30, leaving only 30 minutes to "rehearse." Needless to say, we got very little rehearsing in, and so I was a bit sceptical about the next days wedding running efficiently. Of course, just the opposite happened. (You know, this is strange as everytime I think something is gonna be totally bad, it turns out totally good. Most of my WoW friends can attest to this. Everytime I complain about a raid being terrible or something, we usually do really well...) We had a rehearsal dinner afterwards at some chinese place and the conversation floated between religion and Chinese politics.....so much fun, I know. On the bright side, someone managed to get "Do or do not, there is no try" as a fortune from a fortune cookie. It's official, Yoda is now on par with Confucius.
The wedding itself turned out to be very very smooth. The wedding planner, Audrey, did a spectacular job organizing and directing the whole thing.
The wedding went off without a hitch. Some points of interest:1. The grooms side were all very tall, while the bride's side were all pretty short. This lead to some strangeness while walking down the isle as me and the Best Man had to kinda hunch.
2. The bridal bouquet was caught by none other than BluPnutMM. She informed me that she is planning her wedding to be around the same time next year.
3. The bridal garter was caught by.... the flower boy. This was obviously a blow to any of the other guy's hopes as they won't be able to get married for another 15 years or so since the boy was only 5 years old.
4. The wedding rocked because they played Numa Numa as one of the songs.
5. The Best Man (Papaya's brother) gave a spectacular speech. It was funny and heartfelt at the same time.
6. Plum and Squash were hired by the CIA (pictured)
Congrats to the new couple, may they have many happy memories together!
Thursday, December 21, 2006
For Great Honor!...and lewtz
I never actually pvped much in WoW. Always thought it was a pointless grind where the rewards weren't really worth the effort. However, with the recent PvP changes, the rewards became a lot easier to obtain. I was still against PvPing, although probably just based on laziness and not wanting to endure the long long queue waiting times.
However, with some inspirational talk from Ender, (Okay, maybe not THAT inspirational, more along the lines of "yo, why don't you pvp?") I decided to take a foray into the great unknown. Turns out, PvP sure is a lot of fun!! Some observations:
The queue times weren't very long at all. This is because you can queue up for all 3 battlegrounds at 1 time. You can then play in whichever one comes up first (usually Warsong Gulch), but you can STILL be in queue for the other two. I usually just turn on the TV, or play FFXII until they pop up for me. Currently, I am trying to hoard Arathi Basin marks for the Field Marshal/Marshal epic sets for my rogue so I spend a lot of my time in Arathi Basin.
Alliance for the most part, SUCK at AB. Of the 14 or so AB matches I have played, I have only won 2. However, this may be because the Horde groups are almost always premades, and they usually outnumber us by at least 3 or 4.
Alliance for the most part, ROCK at Alterac Valley. Only played two games, and both times, the alliance rushed Drek, and down him in a mere 15 min.
Warlocks suck......Deathcoil, Fear, DoT, DoT, DoT, Death. Repeat at nauseum. I have only managed to kill a warlock twice. First time, I think the warlock sucked or was totally focused on someone else, as he went down before he cast anything (His warrior friend, charged blindly into 2 other alliance, quickly dying as well). Second one, I had to use all my cooldowns and a vanish, only to die about 2 seconds after I killed him from DoTs. The other 80 times I faced warlocks, I get off 1 cheap shot, 1 kidney shot, before I go down.
All that talk about being "pvp" speced and stuff. It all doesn't really matter since it's very rare to have 1v1 situations. The times you win will be when you have numerical superiority, and the times you lose will be when you are outnumbered or facing warlocks.
However, with some inspirational talk from Ender, (Okay, maybe not THAT inspirational, more along the lines of "yo, why don't you pvp?") I decided to take a foray into the great unknown. Turns out, PvP sure is a lot of fun!! Some observations:
The queue times weren't very long at all. This is because you can queue up for all 3 battlegrounds at 1 time. You can then play in whichever one comes up first (usually Warsong Gulch), but you can STILL be in queue for the other two. I usually just turn on the TV, or play FFXII until they pop up for me. Currently, I am trying to hoard Arathi Basin marks for the Field Marshal/Marshal epic sets for my rogue so I spend a lot of my time in Arathi Basin.
Alliance for the most part, SUCK at AB. Of the 14 or so AB matches I have played, I have only won 2. However, this may be because the Horde groups are almost always premades, and they usually outnumber us by at least 3 or 4.
Alliance for the most part, ROCK at Alterac Valley. Only played two games, and both times, the alliance rushed Drek, and down him in a mere 15 min.
Warlocks suck......Deathcoil, Fear, DoT, DoT, DoT, Death. Repeat at nauseum. I have only managed to kill a warlock twice. First time, I think the warlock sucked or was totally focused on someone else, as he went down before he cast anything (His warrior friend, charged blindly into 2 other alliance, quickly dying as well). Second one, I had to use all my cooldowns and a vanish, only to die about 2 seconds after I killed him from DoTs. The other 80 times I faced warlocks, I get off 1 cheap shot, 1 kidney shot, before I go down.
All that talk about being "pvp" speced and stuff. It all doesn't really matter since it's very rare to have 1v1 situations. The times you win will be when you have numerical superiority, and the times you lose will be when you are outnumbered or facing warlocks.
Wednesday, December 20, 2006
Ringing in the New Year with Yao?
Tochi has added a comment about possibly attending a live Rockets basketball game sometime during the gathering. I have been to two of the New Years games so far, and they were just pretty average games, nothing out of the ordinary. Your thoughts?
World of Gnomecraft
Many people feel slighted that there were no gnomes in the BC intro video. As such, someone has recreated this video as Blizzard INTENDED it to be.
Monday, December 18, 2006
NOOOO WAYYYY
ZOMEGADEMONCHAOS. There may yet be hope for the Dodo. To think, it only took a massive historic power outage.... Next step: WoW?? Maybe if we found life on Mars.
Thursday, December 14, 2006
_____ : It's what's for dinner
To the people coming to the nice little BBQ here in Houston:
What would you like to see Kung Grill? So far, we have chicken, beef, beef burgers, corn, potatoes.
We are thinking about maybe some Salmon or Pork ribs.
Just think of some other foods that you wanna try and Kung will grill it. Be reminded that if you request a food then you MUST eat it. Itching for some grilled Bald Eagle? Well, if somehow I manage to get some and grill it, you better eat it.
What would you like to see Kung Grill? So far, we have chicken, beef, beef burgers, corn, potatoes.
We are thinking about maybe some Salmon or Pork ribs.
Just think of some other foods that you wanna try and Kung will grill it. Be reminded that if you request a food then you MUST eat it. Itching for some grilled Bald Eagle? Well, if somehow I manage to get some and grill it, you better eat it.
Wednesday, December 13, 2006
Tier 2
I have finally picked up my first piece of Tier 2. It started with the Tier 0 SNES. Afterwards, I was able to do the Tier .5 upgrade to PS. Then I picked up two pieces of Tier 1. One was at half price (Bought used PS2, complained it was broken, got new replacement PS2), and the other one was free (exploitable MS tests FTW!). Now finally, I have purchased a brand new Tier 2 Xbox360 from a member of the evil empire who will remained unnamed. This person also promised a free copy of Gears of War to seal the deal.....how nefarious.
Apparently, also included in the bundle is Viva Pinata. This game masquerades as a children's game, but I got the inside scoop from unnamed member of evil empire.
These pinatas seem cute but DO NOT BE FOOLED. They are actually vicious cannibals who devour each other in a battle for survival of the fittest. The fittest then get to have incestuous relationships with their fellow brother and sister pinatas to produce pinata offspring. You would think that the best pinata would retire to a luxurious existence surrounded by beautiful pinata cousins, but NO. They get sent to the execution house also known as children's party. At this "party" they are strung up by their necks, then brutally beaten by blunt objects repeatedly until their bodies explode. These "children" then greedily gather up the pinata's internal organs, and hungrily devour them in a violent ritual, often times getting high and causing untold destruction.
Apparently, also included in the bundle is Viva Pinata. This game masquerades as a children's game, but I got the inside scoop from unnamed member of evil empire.
These pinatas seem cute but DO NOT BE FOOLED. They are actually vicious cannibals who devour each other in a battle for survival of the fittest. The fittest then get to have incestuous relationships with their fellow brother and sister pinatas to produce pinata offspring. You would think that the best pinata would retire to a luxurious existence surrounded by beautiful pinata cousins, but NO. They get sent to the execution house also known as children's party. At this "party" they are strung up by their necks, then brutally beaten by blunt objects repeatedly until their bodies explode. These "children" then greedily gather up the pinata's internal organs, and hungrily devour them in a violent ritual, often times getting high and causing untold destruction.
Tuesday, December 12, 2006
A Brief Poll
As most people know, there will be a Raid of Houston going on this New Years. Lots of people should be coming, so I am just trying to plan out what sorta activities we will be doing. Here is what is set in stone atm:
January 1st: Hunt down various gentle woodland creatures from Randalls/Walmart. Visciously skin them, grill them, and devour their corpses. Kung will serve as master of the grill. Expecting about 14-15 people here, so it should be a good time. If any druids object, too bad. I personally do not drink, but I am sure some of you do, so whatever you all want, lemme know so I can pick it up.
January ??: Have dim sum at the Kim Sum next to my house. Probably need to get there a bit early so we won't have to wait too long.
That's about all I have that is set in stone. Other things to consider:
Kemah Boardwalk: This place is pretty nice, has some nice views but mostly, it's just a shopping district with some very nice restaurants. It has some rides and stuff as well.
Space Center Houston: Oh yay, Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the blah blah blah. This place is pretty interesting for first time visitors, but it's a bit too kiddy museum-esque. This will probably be an all day affair if we decide to go as it's FARRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (Mmm, Deviate delight) away.
Galveston Island: Fun place, lots of beach and surf. However, this is the dead of winter and so, going to the beach may not be the best of ideas. Also, very far away.
Museums and stuff around Houston Area: Any of these are fair game. Most of them are fairly nice. Personally, I really have no gift for artistry, nor do I know how to truly appreciate it enough to enjoy Art Museums.
Sightseeing in Houston: Ummm, see this, take a good look. Done? Good, you've seen Houston, Congrats.
Board games/Card games/Video games: We have lots of fun party games to play, including Taboo, Pictionary, Cranium, etc etc. Card games: Mafia (Random, Senseless Killing, so awesome), Bang! (Random, Meaningful Killing), maybe some others. Video games. I am gonna pick up an Xbox360 and Patronus will be bringing some of her games so it should all work out.
Please lemme know what you all wanna do ahead of time so I can plan it out and stuff (Sheep Star, Sleep Triangle, Sap Circle, Kill X, etc etc). If there are other places or events you all wanna go to (Bowling, Achery, Basketball, Movies, Giving Me all your money) let me know as well. Hopefully this will be a blast for everyone and maybe we can make this some kinda annual event.
January 1st: Hunt down various gentle woodland creatures from Randalls/Walmart. Visciously skin them, grill them, and devour their corpses. Kung will serve as master of the grill. Expecting about 14-15 people here, so it should be a good time. If any druids object, too bad. I personally do not drink, but I am sure some of you do, so whatever you all want, lemme know so I can pick it up.
January ??: Have dim sum at the Kim Sum next to my house. Probably need to get there a bit early so we won't have to wait too long.
That's about all I have that is set in stone. Other things to consider:
Kemah Boardwalk: This place is pretty nice, has some nice views but mostly, it's just a shopping district with some very nice restaurants. It has some rides and stuff as well.
Space Center Houston: Oh yay, Space the final frontier. These are the voyages of the blah blah blah. This place is pretty interesting for first time visitors, but it's a bit too kiddy museum-esque. This will probably be an all day affair if we decide to go as it's FARRRRRRrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr (Mmm, Deviate delight) away.
Galveston Island: Fun place, lots of beach and surf. However, this is the dead of winter and so, going to the beach may not be the best of ideas. Also, very far away.
Museums and stuff around Houston Area: Any of these are fair game. Most of them are fairly nice. Personally, I really have no gift for artistry, nor do I know how to truly appreciate it enough to enjoy Art Museums.
Sightseeing in Houston: Ummm, see this, take a good look. Done? Good, you've seen Houston, Congrats.
Board games/Card games/Video games: We have lots of fun party games to play, including Taboo, Pictionary, Cranium, etc etc. Card games: Mafia (Random, Senseless Killing, so awesome), Bang! (Random, Meaningful Killing), maybe some others. Video games. I am gonna pick up an Xbox360 and Patronus will be bringing some of her games so it should all work out.
Please lemme know what you all wanna do ahead of time so I can plan it out and stuff (Sheep Star, Sleep Triangle, Sap Circle, Kill X, etc etc). If there are other places or events you all wanna go to (Bowling, Achery, Basketball, Movies, Giving Me all your money) let me know as well. Hopefully this will be a blast for everyone and maybe we can make this some kinda annual event.
With no power, comes no responsibility...sweet
Apparently, there was a miscommunication of some type and it turns out that I am actually NOT the Best Man for this upcoming wedding. Papaya's brother, SourTomato, will actually be the Best Man. This makes sense, since he is the brother and all. I am actually just a groomsmen. I won't have to sweat over making a speech anymore....though that might be for Papaya's benefit ^^b
Friday, December 08, 2006
Reservation: Confirmed
Yay, Patronus has confirmed her flight for Houston. Looks like it's shaping up to be a nice little gathering. Change your plans Grapes, change them NOW! =)
Thursday, December 07, 2006
sunortaP: noitnettA
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ot ecin eb lliw ti dna lla yb dah eb lliw emit nuf A
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(= !emoc tsuj dna ti tuoba kniht t'nod oS
ot ecin eb lliw ti dna lla yb dah eb lliw emit nuf A
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Edit: Well, apparently, the peer pressure tactic is working and Catnipped is now trying as hard as she can to get tickets to come on down to Houston. While her penny-pinching asian conscience is still nagging at her to not purchase those tickets, I am sure the elaborately spending American cultural influence will prevail. Come on Grapes, I KNOW you wanna come on down too now =p
Wednesday, December 06, 2006
Aftermath
As expected, the servers were down for much longer than initially stated. I think overall, the patched introduced some very good concepts:
The Good:
Arenas: Haven't tried, don't PvP so no real opinion
New Talents: For the most part, the new talents were very good. I didn't actually get to experiment too much except on mage.
Empowered frostbolt is a tremendously awesome talent. I was criting so much with spells, it was rather surprising.
Water Elemental seems like a very good "offtanking" pet sorta deal. It actually does very good damage with the waterbolts it was tossing (~500 average, ~800 crits) and has surprisingly decent tanking ability.
Additional Bank slots are now capped at 25 gold. This is just awesome as storage has always been a problem.
Balance druids got a major boost in this patch. I was watching Molridia in action, and only with a paltry amount of spell damage (~110), she was doing ~400 wraths (700 crits) and ~800 Starfires (~1300 crits). Plus the INSANE mp5 from Dreamstate (10% of intellect) helped keep her mana from going down rapidly. I believe we may have to rename the "Oomkin" to the "Pwnkin".
Purchasable "book" skills: The skills that were previously only available through books are now fully trainable from trainers. I am SOOO glad I didn't pay those ~200-300 gold buyouts for the new skills.
Armor upgrades: Most plate pieces had their AC significantly boosted. Items that add to defense, also had this increased by quite a bit. While I think this is because the formula has changed and you need more defense to mitigate criticals, it's still a solid boost.
The Smern (Bad):
Threat Reduction nerf: I am not sure if this is a bug, or if 20% less threat is just THAT significant. But I was easily pulling agro off the MT with frostbolts. I could usually start dps with 1 sunder and if the tank continued sundering, I could dps the entire time (crits included) and not pull agro. However, last night in BRD, I would start dps at 3 sunders, and if the first hit was a crit, I would instantly rip agro off the MT. This happened many many times.
Hunter Agility->RA normalization: 1 point of agility only gives 1 ranged attack now. This was actually quite a severe change as now, my hunter who previous had around 1100 RA has been dropped down to ~ 980. This makes items like tarnished elven ring not nearly as good as they used to be. +Agility enchant effectiveness is also effectively cut in half.
AQ20 loot: The only real reason to run AQ20 was for the class books. The loot for the most part is pretty lackluster. I am hoping Blizzard ups their loot tables.
The Ethereal Tabard (Vomit-inducing):
Addons: As expected, this patch broke just about every addon. While some have already been updated, many very useful mods remain incompatible: Gatherer, SmartAssist, SmartBuff, Lockbox, Decursive, Itemsync, Theorycraft just to name a few.
The Good:
Arenas: Haven't tried, don't PvP so no real opinion
New Talents: For the most part, the new talents were very good. I didn't actually get to experiment too much except on mage.
Empowered frostbolt is a tremendously awesome talent. I was criting so much with spells, it was rather surprising.
Water Elemental seems like a very good "offtanking" pet sorta deal. It actually does very good damage with the waterbolts it was tossing (~500 average, ~800 crits) and has surprisingly decent tanking ability.
Additional Bank slots are now capped at 25 gold. This is just awesome as storage has always been a problem.
Balance druids got a major boost in this patch. I was watching Molridia in action, and only with a paltry amount of spell damage (~110), she was doing ~400 wraths (700 crits) and ~800 Starfires (~1300 crits). Plus the INSANE mp5 from Dreamstate (10% of intellect) helped keep her mana from going down rapidly. I believe we may have to rename the "Oomkin" to the "Pwnkin".
Purchasable "book" skills: The skills that were previously only available through books are now fully trainable from trainers. I am SOOO glad I didn't pay those ~200-300 gold buyouts for the new skills.
Armor upgrades: Most plate pieces had their AC significantly boosted. Items that add to defense, also had this increased by quite a bit. While I think this is because the formula has changed and you need more defense to mitigate criticals, it's still a solid boost.
The Smern (Bad):
Threat Reduction nerf: I am not sure if this is a bug, or if 20% less threat is just THAT significant. But I was easily pulling agro off the MT with frostbolts. I could usually start dps with 1 sunder and if the tank continued sundering, I could dps the entire time (crits included) and not pull agro. However, last night in BRD, I would start dps at 3 sunders, and if the first hit was a crit, I would instantly rip agro off the MT. This happened many many times.
Hunter Agility->RA normalization: 1 point of agility only gives 1 ranged attack now. This was actually quite a severe change as now, my hunter who previous had around 1100 RA has been dropped down to ~ 980. This makes items like tarnished elven ring not nearly as good as they used to be. +Agility enchant effectiveness is also effectively cut in half.
AQ20 loot: The only real reason to run AQ20 was for the class books. The loot for the most part is pretty lackluster. I am hoping Blizzard ups their loot tables.
The Ethereal Tabard (Vomit-inducing):
Addons: As expected, this patch broke just about every addon. While some have already been updated, many very useful mods remain incompatible: Gatherer, SmartAssist, SmartBuff, Lockbox, Decursive, Itemsync, Theorycraft just to name a few.
Tuesday, December 05, 2006
Respec
Since the 41 point talents are made available today for WoW. Here is how I plan to spec my characters:
Cattie: Not as mana efficient as my previous build, but I do regain Ice Barrier and Improved Blizzard. Empowered Icebolt should make up for the lost damage/crit from losing arcane instability.
Lans: Lose Blessing of Sanctuary, but overall healing capacity is much increased
Lilis: Everyone is saying how nerfed warriors are gonna be, but I actually like this talent build a lot more, the only thing I really lose is 10 defense
Velius: No aimed shot...whee. But since aimed shot resets the autoshot timer, probably only get one of these the whole fight anyways.
Xhandra: Should be Just as effective as before
Tishani: Probably massively less direct damage than before, but much much stronger DoTs
Nadiya: Reading up on the new Balance Talents, I would really like to try a Moonkin druid and steal all the casters' spell damage gear. Molridia, give this build a try and lemme know how it works out =)
Cattie: Not as mana efficient as my previous build, but I do regain Ice Barrier and Improved Blizzard. Empowered Icebolt should make up for the lost damage/crit from losing arcane instability.
Lans: Lose Blessing of Sanctuary, but overall healing capacity is much increased
Lilis: Everyone is saying how nerfed warriors are gonna be, but I actually like this talent build a lot more, the only thing I really lose is 10 defense
Velius: No aimed shot...whee. But since aimed shot resets the autoshot timer, probably only get one of these the whole fight anyways.
Xhandra: Should be Just as effective as before
Tishani: Probably massively less direct damage than before, but much much stronger DoTs
Nadiya: Reading up on the new Balance Talents, I would really like to try a Moonkin druid and steal all the casters' spell damage gear. Molridia, give this build a try and lemme know how it works out =)
Monday, December 04, 2006
RAID!!!
It's worth mentioning here that the "Veggies" will have a meeting this year to Raid Houston! Ender, Lemon, and Tochi? (I am sure it's a fruit or veggie in some ancient dialect) edit: Tochi are already signed on. Hopefully also coming will be a few members of the newly formed OOM squad on WoW. It's gonna be around New Years and should be a good time. I am hoping this entices fellow members: Grapes and Catnip into signing on as well. A fun time would be had by all. There is plenty of bed/sofa/floor/cardboard box space for everyone!
Once we are all gathered, the plan is to Raid Houston. This probably includes just lounging around and playing video games, but still, other more active pursuits may occur: We will first clear the trash mobs to the local Walmart. Afterwards, we will "take a 5 min break" since it was soo tiring. Then after a prolonged 20 minutes of downtime, we will engage the Walmart boss known as BXox063. The main strategy will be to pull it away from it's adds, WeeWee and the PiEs3. I am hoping to call upon Catnip's expertise in this encounter.
That is just one of many different encounters, all fruits and veggies are welcome.
Once we are all gathered, the plan is to Raid Houston. This probably includes just lounging around and playing video games, but still, other more active pursuits may occur: We will first clear the trash mobs to the local Walmart. Afterwards, we will "take a 5 min break" since it was soo tiring. Then after a prolonged 20 minutes of downtime, we will engage the Walmart boss known as BXox063. The main strategy will be to pull it away from it's adds, WeeWee and the PiEs3. I am hoping to call upon Catnip's expertise in this encounter.
That is just one of many different encounters, all fruits and veggies are welcome.
Thursday, November 30, 2006
Cold Snap
Why is the weather so strange here? Last night, it was a comfortable 71 F outside. I wake up this morning and it's 40s. Forecasts say the temperatures will drop below freezing later in the day. What the heck? My one hope is that it starts snowing and we all get the next week off and can sit home and play Xbox 360 all day long while looking up random Clay tidbits....like SOME people who will stay unnamed. Did I forget to mention that said SOME people also just got back from Hawaii for Thanksgiving break AND received a FREE Xb0x360 for "evaluation" purposes? Those MS people get all the benefits.
The best I can hope for is if my boss decides I should get some free barrels of crude oil to test our refining software. Yeehaw, so much better than Xbox...At least I can set them on fire to stay warm. Can your Xbox do that? I think not!!
The best I can hope for is if my boss decides I should get some free barrels of crude oil to test our refining software. Yeehaw, so much better than Xbox...At least I can set them on fire to stay warm. Can your Xbox do that? I think not!!
Tuesday, November 28, 2006
Karazhan
Some people have requested this movie. It basically details some of the encounters in Karazhan. Shows the "Wizard of Oz" encounter in the opera house and the Chessboard room. The opera house fight is especially cool since all the characters are there and each have their own trick.
Cowardly Lion-> Can be feared indefinitely
Scarecrow -> Vulnerability to Fire
TinMan -> Can be hit by frost based attacks to cause "rust", slowing it down by 10% and stacks up to 8 times
Dorothy -> Summons dog to fight as well as tossing around water bolts (water kills wicked witch at end, hence the water bolts)
After you kill all 5, the wicked witch spawns. The witch fight looks really cool with the whirlwinds spinning you up into the air.
Cowardly Lion-> Can be feared indefinitely
Scarecrow -> Vulnerability to Fire
TinMan -> Can be hit by frost based attacks to cause "rust", slowing it down by 10% and stacks up to 8 times
Dorothy -> Summons dog to fight as well as tossing around water bolts (water kills wicked witch at end, hence the water bolts)
After you kill all 5, the wicked witch spawns. The witch fight looks really cool with the whirlwinds spinning you up into the air.
Monday, November 27, 2006
Not so Potluck
What was "supposed" to be a potluck, turned into a dinner/movie type of deal. Last year, we actually had enough people to have a potluck. This year, we only had 6 people and being the lazy person that I am, I didn't want to cook a turkey (easiest thing in the world) just for that. We just decided to go to Fuddrucker and then watch Casino Royale.
One of the first things that struck me was early on in the movie, we see Bond driving around and the camera slowly pans up his shiny new car (Strangely, doesn't look like a "Bond" car). The logo slowly comes into view and it's a.........Ford? Since when did Bond drive around in a Ford? I can see it now, "OMG, I Sooo want that 2006 Ford Taurus "Bond" edition!!!" Of course, the REAL bond car is unveiled later in Montenegro.
I really need to get to the bahamas. I mean, where else can you find bikini-clad women riding around in the surf on horses while little happy children chase after them. The scene was just so ridiculous in my mind...There is a reason why cowboys ride horses in jeans and NOT shorts. It's called chafing. Even with a saddle, it still causes bruises. This lady was essentially naked and riding saddle-less.
Another interesting observation is that James Bond is probably just Wolverine in disguise. In one of the earlier scenes, his face gets horribly scratched up while trying to save a jumbo jet. In the next scene, you see his face and it seems to have open wounds and scars everywhere. However, in the next scene on a train, his face is absolutely perfect. No signs of scratches or scars anywhere! According to Blupnutmm (registered nurse now! Grats!), being defibbed is not the most pleasant feeling in the world and the person would suffer from some serious side effects for a while after the zap. Bond however, gets defibbed and is back playing poker as if nothing is wrong within minutes. As much of a WoW addict as I am, I don't think I would be able to just jump back and start playing again after a defib...well okay, maybe for Naxx or something.
Overall though, the movie was great. I loved how witty the dialog was between Bond and Vesper. It actually seemed like they were discussing on some equal level instead of the usual male-dominated Bond dialog.
One of the first things that struck me was early on in the movie, we see Bond driving around and the camera slowly pans up his shiny new car (Strangely, doesn't look like a "Bond" car). The logo slowly comes into view and it's a.........Ford? Since when did Bond drive around in a Ford? I can see it now, "OMG, I Sooo want that 2006 Ford Taurus "Bond" edition!!!" Of course, the REAL bond car is unveiled later in Montenegro.
I really need to get to the bahamas. I mean, where else can you find bikini-clad women riding around in the surf on horses while little happy children chase after them. The scene was just so ridiculous in my mind...There is a reason why cowboys ride horses in jeans and NOT shorts. It's called chafing. Even with a saddle, it still causes bruises. This lady was essentially naked and riding saddle-less.
Another interesting observation is that James Bond is probably just Wolverine in disguise. In one of the earlier scenes, his face gets horribly scratched up while trying to save a jumbo jet. In the next scene, you see his face and it seems to have open wounds and scars everywhere. However, in the next scene on a train, his face is absolutely perfect. No signs of scratches or scars anywhere! According to Blupnutmm (registered nurse now! Grats!), being defibbed is not the most pleasant feeling in the world and the person would suffer from some serious side effects for a while after the zap. Bond however, gets defibbed and is back playing poker as if nothing is wrong within minutes. As much of a WoW addict as I am, I don't think I would be able to just jump back and start playing again after a defib...well okay, maybe for Naxx or something.
Overall though, the movie was great. I loved how witty the dialog was between Bond and Vesper. It actually seemed like they were discussing on some equal level instead of the usual male-dominated Bond dialog.
Wednesday, November 22, 2006
So Touching....
This is possibly the best movie of all time!! Shame on you Mol for killing all those poor innocent turtles for their scales!!!!! -_-p
Tuesday, November 21, 2006
Treeform dance
I thought the moonkin dance was out of control...but this.... Might I remind people that this is supposed to be a freaking TREE. How the heck can a tree twist like that without breaking itself.
Tuesday, November 14, 2006
TBC Crafts
Found some cool information here about the new stuff that can be crafted in TBC. I think the best thing ever will be the portable Mailbox. Considering I use my mailbox almost like a bank, this would be just like having a mobile bank. So awesome!!
Friday, November 03, 2006
Guitar Paragon
ZOMG.... This is just crazy, this song lasts almost 10 minutes.....I know my wrists are gonna be sooo freaking tired when I get GH2.
Thursday, November 02, 2006
Change of Surroundings
My guilding experiences in WoW have been a very mixed bag at best. While I have met lots of very nice people, the endgame organization of these guilds had a lot to be desired. As such, after much thinking, I decided to try my hand at applying to a "raiding" guild. After much research, I decided to try to get into Ethereal. Two of my friends from WoW were already in it and it offered a good mix of casual game play with strong organization in Raids. I didn't know which of my billion alts to apply with since the guild was rather full on just about all classes...except druids.
To my surprise, I was actually able to get into the guild as........my Hunter. This came as quite a shock as the hunter corp was listed as full on the website. This is pretty exciting as my hunter was actually the least played, but ironically best geared of my characters at level 60. Hopefully I will get to pull MC for the new guild as I found that to be one of the most exciting parts. Otherwise, hunter is pretty boring in raids: Shoot, Aimed Shot, Shoot, Shoot, Multi Shot, Shoot -> Repeat. Maybe throw in a Feign Death midway if agro is getting out of hand.
To my surprise, I was actually able to get into the guild as........my Hunter. This came as quite a shock as the hunter corp was listed as full on the website. This is pretty exciting as my hunter was actually the least played, but ironically best geared of my characters at level 60. Hopefully I will get to pull MC for the new guild as I found that to be one of the most exciting parts. Otherwise, hunter is pretty boring in raids: Shoot, Aimed Shot, Shoot, Shoot, Multi Shot, Shoot -> Repeat. Maybe throw in a Feign Death midway if agro is getting out of hand.
Monday, October 30, 2006
Wednesday, October 25, 2006
Profiles
During Lunch, I created profiles of my WoW Characters. Sooo
Hunter: Velius
Paladin: Lans
Mage: Cattie
Rogue: Xhandra
Warlock: Tishani
Hunter: Velius
Paladin: Lans
Mage: Cattie
Rogue: Xhandra
Warlock: Tishani
Wednesday, October 18, 2006
If I hate it, I must be good at it!!
Interesting article here about liking math versus doing well in it. There is a very simple solution to reconcile that article. It's called MODESTY. Most pompous nations like the US lack modesty. When asked if they felt they could do well in math, the people surveyed probably put up a veneer of false confidence just to make themselves seem smarter than they actually are. Whereas the nations mentioned as doing well (Japan, Hong Kong, Singapore) where modesty is considered a virtue, the students probably all claimed to be poor at math (no no, I really am not good at math) as a way of showing false modesty.
A simple way to fix the survey would be to hypnotize the students before asking them whether they were confident. If they did that, it eliminates all that falseness. US students would probably state that they aren't very confident in their math skills while the other nations' students probably wouldn't even answer the question (How dare you question my superior math skills, you insignificant worm!!).
On a completely different note, if what the survey says is actually true, then Smern must REALLY REALLY LOVE being a priest!!
A simple way to fix the survey would be to hypnotize the students before asking them whether they were confident. If they did that, it eliminates all that falseness. US students would probably state that they aren't very confident in their math skills while the other nations' students probably wouldn't even answer the question (How dare you question my superior math skills, you insignificant worm!!).
On a completely different note, if what the survey says is actually true, then Smern must REALLY REALLY LOVE being a priest!!
Pristine Hide of the Beast
I have never seen the upstairs so clean. The carpet is vacuumed, the windows are washed, the furniture is dusted. I can even see my reflection in the glass display cases we have. It's like I never lived in the house!! The downside is that I can no longer find anything in all the orderliness.
I used to just have everything spread out around the floor/desk, but there was method to my madness and I knew that underneath that old magazine, next to the gum wrappers was my backup mouse. But now, all my landmarks are gone!!!!
I used to just have everything spread out around the floor/desk, but there was method to my madness and I knew that underneath that old magazine, next to the gum wrappers was my backup mouse. But now, all my landmarks are gone!!!!
Monday, October 16, 2006
Cleaning
Since I am renting the top floor of the house out, I have been forced into cleaning and moving all of my stuff downstairs. While usually this is a very tedious and tiresome task, it has made me realize how great it is to live a geeky existence. I basically only have to move my "necessities" of life: Computer, Monitor. How great is that!! I think I'll go curl up into a ball and cry now
Thursday, October 12, 2006
Monday, October 09, 2006
Ummm, Bad idea....
Taken directly from here.
In a post on the US World of Warcraft forums, Blizzard poster Tyren accounced Major changes to the possibilities for UI Mods.Ummmm.... I can see where not being able to use auto/smart buff won't be THAT detrimental since you have the group version buffs, but not being able to use Decursive? Unless they create some sorta group decursing spell for each class, this change is going to make lives of paladins/druids/mages/priests a LOT harder than it is now. Since most of the endgame fights have bosses repeatedly using the same debuffs on some fast timer, this basically means that the classes that can decurse will all develop Carpal Tunnels. It's okay, it's not like I need to be able to use my fingers/hands/arms anyways.Tyren:
"Hi there, this notification is meant to inform you of some significant changes regarding the way we're handling UI addons. Over the last few years, we've seen a number of awesome, gameplay-enhancing UI mods along with a fair number of UI mods that run counter to our philosophies regarding what addons should and shouldn't be able to do.
Essentially, we don't want UI mods to make combat-sensitive decisions for players and as such, we've made some changes that block functionality that we feel is counter to the spirit of these philosophies. As such, AddOns and macros can't make decisions on who to target or what spells to cast.
That being said, our programmers have implemented a host of new functionality in order to allow many popular and benign UI mods to continue to function (once those mods are updated to take advantage of the new functionality), and will be providing some follow-up information on these forums as to how to take advantage of the new functionality."This essentially means Addons like Decursive, Detox or any Autobuff Addons which intelligently pick targets and cast spells will no longer be functional.
Gooooooooooooeeey goodness
I never realized how hard it was to design a good GUI until a project here at work. I am coding a GUI here for a software package we are trying to upgrade. It's incredible how anal some of the GUI designers are. They want things to be VERY specific. I designed a file browse button that was about 5 pixels too wide. Usually unnoticeable to the untrained eye, but this designer instantly zeroed in on it and told me it needed to be changed to be more square. I fully understand the important of a good GUI though as I know my friends and I have complained greatly over little details in other GUIs we have used.
Friday, October 06, 2006
First defeat?
Well, I guess if you can't beat em, Buy em. Could it be that Google is actually admitting that their own video sharing system cannot beat that of YouTube?
Thursday, October 05, 2006
Interesting Pictures
Tier 4 and PvP set for Burning Crusades are found here. Something I will never wear, but at least it looks cool.
Tuesday, October 03, 2006
Thank you! Dr. Mrs. Ayodam
I woke up this morning, feeling kinda down from a nice hacking cough when I discovered that I had won a email lottery!! (Along with just about every combination of my_name@gmail.com also winning!!) Wootz ore! So here is the following correspondence:
Either way, I am obvious well on my way to easy street, all I have to fill out is this totally convincing confirmation form:
JAPAN JUMBO DRAWWow, I mean how lucky can a person get, winning some random lottery that I didn't even participate in!! Apparently, all the cool lottery type people use Yahoo as their main source of email. I also found the name Dr Mrs Ayodam a bit strange. I don't know too much about japanese naming conventions outside of Ryu (Hakouken!!!!!) so I pose an interesting question: Is it normal to not have any vowels in a first name?
FOREIGN SERVICES MANAGER,
PLAZA DE MAR ZHENG HONG KONG
Customer Service
Ref: JP/7146x4/99
Batch: 042/02/xa192
WINNING NOTIFICATION:
We happily announce to you the draw (#1035) of the JAPAN EMAIL PROMOTION LOTTERY, online Sweepstakes International program held on today in OSAKA JAPAN. Your e-mail address attached to ticket number: 45375600545 188 with Serial number 5368/02 drew the lucky numbers(14,33,36,39,42,46)and bonus ball(13), which Subsequently won you the match 5 bonus prize in the 2nd category match 5 plus bonus .
You have therefore been approved to claim a total sum of US$500,000,00 in cash (five Hundred Thousand, united state dollars) in cash credited to file ktu/9023118308/07.This is from a total cash prize of US$2,650,000.00 shared among the international winners in the Second category.
Participants were selected through a computer ballot system drawn from 2,500,000 email addresses of individuals and companies from all part of the world as part of our electronic business Promotions Program.
Please note that your lucky winning number falls within our CHINA booklet representative office in ASIA as indicated .In view of this, your US$500,000.00 ( five Hundred Thousand, united state dollars) would be released to you by any of our payment offices in ASIA as soon as possible.
Our CHINA agent will immediately commence the process to facilitate the release of your winning funds as soon as you fill the claims verification form below and send to him.
FOREIGN SERVICES MANAGER,
TRANSGLOBE FINANCE SECURITIES
PLAZA DE MAR ZHENG CHINA
xainlu@yahoo.com
For security reasons, you are advised to keep your winning information Confidential till your claims is processed and your money remitted to you in whatever manner you deem fit to claim your prize.
This is part of our precautionary measure to avoid double claiming and unwarranted abuse of this program by some unscrupulous elements. Be warned to file for your claim immediately.
To avoid unnecessary delays and complications, please quote your reference/batch numbers in any correspondences with our designated agent or us.
Congratulations once more from all members and staffs of this program.
Thank you for being part of our promotional lottery program.
Your Sincerely,
DR MRS AYODAM
VICE PRESIDENT INT.PROMOTIONS
Either way, I am obvious well on my way to easy street, all I have to fill out is this totally convincing confirmation form:
CLAIMS VERIFICATION FORM
FULL NAMES OF BENEFICIARY:........................
CONTACT ADDRESS:..................................
EMAIL ADDRESS:............................................
CITY/STATE:.......................................
COUNTRY:..........................................
NATIONALITY:......................................
SEX:.......................AGE:...................
MARITAL STATUS...................................
TEL NO:...........................................
NEXT OF KIN:......................................
ANNUAL INCOME:....................................
AMOUNT WON:.......................................
REFENCE NO:................BATCH NO:..............
LUCKY NO:..................TICKET NO..............
SERIAL NO:.................LOTTERY DATE:..........
Monday, October 02, 2006
The Great Schism
Warning: The following contains content of a dramatic quality, viewer discretion is advised...
Over the weekend, several of us left our old guild in WoW and joined a new one. While there were very nice members in the old guild, the leadership had much to be desired. Organization was poor and the only excuse was that it was a "casual" guild. Unfortunately, disorganized and deaf/blind aren't synonyms for casual. One of the officers made some particularly snide remarks about the people who left stating to the effect of: "Some people are in it for themselves and not the guild"
This to me is extremely hypocritical. This same officer once demanded to get an item because "I already have one ring from the set and it would complete MY set." This is after said person had already gotten a very nice cloak item. Ahh of course, I see this person's logic now: by giving me all the good items, it obviously helps the guild because I am cooler. Robin Hood would be proud.
The new guild is very promising as the leadership seems to be much more organized. One small problem is that it reunites Roza and I with some old "friends" from Diamond Dragons....
Over the weekend, several of us left our old guild in WoW and joined a new one. While there were very nice members in the old guild, the leadership had much to be desired. Organization was poor and the only excuse was that it was a "casual" guild. Unfortunately, disorganized and deaf/blind aren't synonyms for casual. One of the officers made some particularly snide remarks about the people who left stating to the effect of: "Some people are in it for themselves and not the guild"
This to me is extremely hypocritical. This same officer once demanded to get an item because "I already have one ring from the set and it would complete MY set." This is after said person had already gotten a very nice cloak item. Ahh of course, I see this person's logic now: by giving me all the good items, it obviously helps the guild because I am cooler. Robin Hood would be proud.
The new guild is very promising as the leadership seems to be much more organized. One small problem is that it reunites Roza and I with some old "friends" from Diamond Dragons....
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