Wednesday, November 26, 2003

Digital Splendor

Last night I was playing Final Fantasy XI Online when something really cool happened that reminded of one reason I love video games so much - the unexpected beauty you can sometimes find.

I was busy slaying Giant Wasps and Brutal Sheep on the La Theine Plateau in the pouring rain:



Then the rain stopped and this happened:



Everyone on the server just stopped what they were doing and stared. It was really something else.


The New Chosen People

For those not clued into the tech news sector, a company called SCO has been throwing a non-stop hysterical raving litigation tantrum for about 6 months, threatening lawsuits against anyone using the open source linux operating system. Their claim is that linux contains lines of code which were taken from their intellectual property, however they refuse to say which lines and their blustering has become something of a joke. They are threatening lawsuits against IBM, OSDL, Linus Torvalds and Andrew Morton (maintainers of the linux community) and now Google.

Most people think it's a giant publicity stunt to drive up the executive's stock shares before running to Tiajuanna but I saw an amusing theory on slashdot that I thought I'd share:

"You can only spend so many millenia making bad things happen to the Jews before it gets boring. Linux users are now the new 'Chosen People'." - ameoba [sic]

*chuckle*

Tuesday, November 25, 2003

Political Correctness Reaches New Heights Of Stupidity

Anyone who has ever put two hard drives on the same ribbon ( and I realize this is only a subset of my readership, but bear with me ) knows that the CPU needs to determine which one to look at first when booting the computer. Since 1970 the primary has been called the master drive, while the secondary drive is referred to as being "slaved" to the master.

Apparently someone in the LA bureaucracy took offence to this terminology and now all vendors are required to change their literature. http://www.snopes.com/inboxer/outrage/master.asp

This is possibly the most asinine, ignorant, dumbfuck thing I have ever heard of with regards to PC idiocy, and it makes me embarrassed to live in this country. The government's job is to put police on the streets and keep the lights on, not "clean up" the language.

Sheesh.


Coldness Update

It is still nut-frostingly cold.

As a matter of fact, TV weather personalities here in Wisconsin do not discuss the windchill factor in terms of degrees, but in terms of how much damage the chill will do to your nuts.

A -10 in Boston corresponds to a wind chill factor of "Can't feel the boys" here in Milwaukee.

A -20 here in the Mid-West is a factor of "So much for ever having children..."

Finally, a -30 in Boston is a "Oh snap, my nuts just shattered like a nitrogen-soaked T2000!" in Milwaukee.

Tom, I know you have one for -40. Just leave it in the comments section.

Monday, November 24, 2003

*Brrr*

So I stepped out of my apartment this morning and a wellspring of happiness grew in my soul for beautiful flakes of snow were drifting from the sky.

Sadly, unlike Boston where there's 2 to 3 weeks of lovely New England snow weather, Milwaukee goes straight for the nuts with a wind chill factor of -10. After about 1 minute my childlike delight turned into a fount of bitter, freezing resentment against God, the weather, and my life in general, until I reached the warmth of my office and gradually thawed out.

Mom: I am considering purchasing and actually wearing a hat and mittens. That's how cold it is.

P.S. For the dorks out there (Carina I don't know if you read my blog but if you do I know you're going to laugh at this just like the 'Two red dragons ironed on his vest' incident) the title feature on blogspot doesn't insert a break automatically, so in the html today's title is "*Brrr*< br >".

Which makes me happy. ^_^

Sunday, November 23, 2003

Grossness + 'Smunchie

So Thursday morning I woke up around 4am because I needed to run to the bathroom and boot. Suffice it to say, I decided to stay home. I determined that the cause of the problem was some chicken I had possibly not cooked all the way. Firday was equally crappy, but by yesterday I felt better. So today my company is burning a crapload of electricity lighting up the entire 4th floor so that I can make up my hours. It's eerily silent here. I am the only one in the office. Strangely, with no one here to look over my shoulder, I am even more productive.

Anyway, the real reason all this was a shame is that Wednesday night I spoke to Royale, who I hadn't talked to in a long time, and promised to mention her on my blog. So finally, Ro, here we are.

Royale is going crazy with lots of activities and stuff, most notably Tony Kushner's "Angels in America" which Stage Troupe is doing this year literally on overlapping weekends. Also weird is that Royale has the same role as Julie, so it's a very small world after all.

She's also applying to grad school - currently she wants to get a masters in theater (or is it fine arts?) because she wants to be a college professor. More power to her, right?

Finally, Royale, you must learn that the blog is a powerful weapon and even I cannot control it. I am forced beyond my will to explain to the masses the origin of "Smunchie".

So when I was 15-16, our oper Emma (she's the subject of a whole other entry) was really into Beavis & Butthead, and so consequently was I. I spent the next 2 years talking like Beavis and calling Royale an "Assmunch". However she did not like this and prevailed upon our Mother to make me stop. So my secret code that mom couldn't decipher was to call my darling sister "Smunchie" instead. Thus was born a nickname which led to many episodes of physical violence.

Now back to tabulating health interview questions into a statistically analyzable data format! woohoo!

P.S. Is "analyzable" a word?

Tuesday, November 18, 2003

Nostalgia

I was tooling around the Troupe site and reading through old emails, (lee == awesome + hilarious / competent) and I thought I'd get a round of nostalgic blog posts going. If you were in Troupe, answer the following 5 questions on your blog:

1. Most uncomfortable stage troupe moment:

OK I don't know about the rest of you but I felt really really uncomfortable during Kim Chistensen's proposal for "Les Liasones Dangereuse" at the Fall 2003 proposals meeting. Especially cause I was sitting down front. And she kept looking at me. And reading in French.

UPDATE: Upon further reflection I've decided this moment ties with every single time I had to explain to someone about Amy Bishop.


2. Best cast bonding moment:

Unquestionably coming back in 45 minutes with pizza. During A Night With Edgar, there was a cast bonding at 35 Chester (which is now burned to the ground MUAHAHAHA), wherein Katherine Buckman snapped my last nerve by telling me I was replaceable and I should leave.

I stormed out, but since I loved everyone else there and had not thrown a tantrum in about 8 years, I returned 45 minutes later calmed down and bearing 5 large pepperoni pizzas.


3. What was your legacy?

Heh, the Gilhooly amendment.


4. Favorite play?

It's a toss-up between Earnest, and Edgar. Really I'd have to say Earnest because while The Raven was like acting heroin, it only made up the last 10 minutes of the show. Plus Earnest was written for me. Had I been as good as I wanted to in it, Othello would have been better. But I didn't feel I lived up to the role, plus as Raffile will tell you I'm a pasty white jew with a small dick.


5. Best Party?

Hmm, I'd have to say Peach at Chester (is that the one I'm thinking of?). Mandie drunk wearing Ben's beret and hugging everyone in sight, Bent and I laughing about Shirakawa-sensei (and of course, the always-amusing SOOOOOOOOO Drunk!), Cara Bolin nowhere in sight, Go Go Daddy from Raffile, and sitting in a bathtub with Riggs and Willow talking about tattoos and Allah.

OK! So now it's up to you, troupies. Post away! Procrastinate and multiply!



Oops! She did it again...

I know I'm going to get shit for this but seriously, when I read this it blew my mind:

When asked about her recent change to a raunchy image, Britney had this to say:

"I think the reason why everyone talks about the younger fans so much is because the parents are concerned," she said.
"And in the end they shouldn't be concerned because they should trust their kids and believe in their kids.

...

Parents, please remain concerned and involved in your children's lives despite what Ms. Spears thinks.

That is all.

Friday, November 14, 2003

Newfound Respect + Blog Envy

The project I've been working on the past 3 months is called QuickQuote. It's moving to production today, mainly because my small team moved heaven and earth the past 4 days, working 12 hours a day, to get it ready.

ATTN LEE: I don't know how you do it. I have newfound respect. More, I understand where the laziness comes from - you're making up for lost time.

Also, I have blog envy visa vis The Bent. I wish I had come up with "Scienced!".

More over the weekend, when I have recovered.

Friday, November 07, 2003

The Onion Does It Again

These headlines kill me. From TheOnion, Novermber 1918: "Corpse Eating Rats now Largest Military Force in Europe".

Also, Stu, I had an idea for a video game.

Glengarry Glen Rocket

In the high stakes world of real estate, you play a sales agent who must kill off enemy salesmen to take their "good leads" and bring them back to the office. Your co-workers give you hints and tips - "You gotta kill him, just blow him away, just kill - I mean, you gotta kill the cocksucker, just kill him and take his leads out of his jacket pocket. Just kill him. Kill him and take the leads out of his goddamn pocket." The game features an impressive awards system to motivate players - high scorers will get a cadillac to drive around in. Medium scorers will get a set of knives to help improve their score in the future. Low scorers get a game over.

What do you think?

Thursday, November 06, 2003

New Word of the Day

Today I learned that a recent addition to the english language is "hedgehoglet", the term for a baby hedgehog. Apparently this word has become the de facto standard among hedgehog enthusiasts (who knew?) and so was added to the OED.

Given the outstanding success of last month's baby boar photos, I thought I'd start a tradition; here you go.

Wednesday, November 05, 2003

Re: Lee's Poignant Peer Pressure Post ( and alliteration )

Why the hell doesn't Stacy have a weblog? She obviously has enough time to dick around leaving little comments on everyone's blogs. I say we pressure her into getting one so we can all find out how her new "Sex and the City" life in fancy-shmancy New York City is coming along.

Agree? Disagree?

Also, Erin Wilson should have one too. I know for a fact from last summer's email conspiracy that she both a) has enough time to write something once a day and b) is entertaining as hell.

PS Since nobody cares, I got my main character from Disgaea from level 450 to 800 over lunch break today (although admittedly it was longer than I was supposed to take. By a factor of about 3. Shhhh!)

Tuesday, November 04, 2003

Life or Something Like It

So Friday I came down with "The Strep" as the kids are calling it these days. A quick trip to the clinic and a z-pak later and I'm doing fine. Plus despite evil illness I went down to Chicago on Saturday to see "Taming of the Shrew" with my aunt and uncle, who have season tix at the Chicago Shakespeare Theater. I saw their premiere production a few years ago (A Midsummer Night's Dream) which was possibly the best piece of theater I have had the pleasure of enjoying in my life. Shrew was similarly excellent. Willow and Mandie would be pleased to hear that it was set in 1970's Italy, with the only changed prose being about the motorcycle Petruchio rode to the wedding instead of a knackerd old horse.

Lately I have been spending my spare time playing Disgaea: Hour of Darkness, an excellent RPG from Nippon Ichi, released here in the states by Atlus. The danger here, for those who were present in Chester during the 2-week Kingdom Hearts debacle, is that Disgaea has character levels up to 9999, and about 600 hours worth of hidden extras and alternate endings, as well as a game+ feature. It's been all I could do to resist skipping work for the past week to stay home and play it. I almost didn't go to Shakespeare but I decided I wouldn't be that guy (even I have limits) and ripped myself away for Saturday.

The coolest thing about disgaea is that you can go to the "Item World" inside every item in the game and level it up. Everything from the smallest potion to the most powerful sword in the game has 100 levels of item world with increasingly difficult enemies to defeat, and each level you defeat adds to the stat of the item. So if you take a really weak sword and level it to 100, it becomes a lot more powerful than most of the weapons in the game. If you manage to do it to one of the good weapons you become godlike.

Also there is a Dark Assembly, a kind of Congress of evil monsters, who you can petition to make the game harder, open up secret areas, etc. But unlike the real world, if they refuse you can beat them into submission and force them to pass your resolution!

Suffice it to say, it's a lot of fun. Now, back to work.

Deuce, have you had a chance to try this one out? It's so good it's like chocolate-dipped chocolate with chocolate jimmies and hot fudge to Lee or Bent.