The Robot's Thoughts

Last night I went over a friend's house to fix a problem with their wireless internet. It was the easy stuff, powerbook, wireless linksys router, verizon internet. All stuff I've used in the past.

Thankfully, before we got down to business, the person I was helping was cooking steak with a chili cream sauce. It was a good way to be paid in advance.

I'd been eating fast food all week, as I prepare to return home for holidays. A family member of mine has terminal liver cancer; they are not long for this world.

To add to that understatement, its a bit of a downer. So I haven't been eating/sleeping very well. Much less have the energy for grocery shopping.

And a new policy for all my friends: No more alcohal gifts for christmas. I appreciate that everyone likes the idea of me having a stocked bar at my house, but I don't really drink enough anymore to justify it. When I'm here in Fairmont, I don't really know enough people to do anything more then have a beer with a meal.

And besides, I'd like my friends to give me something more permanent, that I could show off to other people without remorse.

On the other hand, since I did get alcohal for christmas, it looks like I've got new years covered.

(13:54:34) Redrobot5050: i wonder if anyone's done a comparitive IQ test between a housecat
(13:54:37) Redrobot5050: and a sorority slut
(13:54:46) valatruck: its obvious
(13:54:54) Redrobot5050: its insulting to the housecat, even
(13:54:55) valatruck: you can scare a housecat away w/a spary bottle
(13:54:58) valatruck: and it will learn
(13:55:09) valatruck: but a sorority slut can get 400 gallons of load blown on her face
(13:55:11) valatruck: still doesn't learn
(13:55:24) Redrobot5050: can i put that on my blog?
(13:55:27) Redrobot5050: like right now?
(13:55:30) valatruck: please
(13:55:36) valatruck: i'd be honored

Macs are more expensive?
Read this guy's counter FUD.

http://www.usdoj.gov/usao/paw/pr/2005_september/2005_09_08_1.html

He's being sentenced Monday. For the amount of kiddie porn he's possessed on his computer, he may get as much as 65 years in a Federal "Pound Me In The Ass" Prison.

This guy was somehow involved in my Pinning ceremony, nearly six years ago, when I was 18 years old. He'd be about 23-24 then. And I saw him in every freshmen class of mine where there were girls. (Chemsitry, Physics, and Astronomy).

Always really creeped me out.

And he's one of the many 'successful alumni' of my former fraternity. The key word there is former.

Others, more or less better off then famed child pornographer Boaz, have found their calling doing the following:
Bagging Groceries
Working as a Bank Teller, so they can continue to party with the bros, d00d!
Living at Home and Bussing Tables at Bob Evans.
Not getting into any law schools what so ever.
Not standing a chance in getting into legitmate medical schools.

They're all lucrative careers, totally worth sending your kid to college for four years. Its not like road construction in PA pays $20.00/hour to drive a dump truck or anything.

But mostly, its one of those "go figure" situations. As in, "go figure why those buds never got their collective shit together."

I hate being sick.

But I have health care. So I got a blood test, which showed that my throat problems were not a viral, but bacterial. Which means I now have an anti biotic which can help me knock it out of my system. Go me.

Anyway, I'm turning in. This week is going to be crazy.

Omniweb was one of the first web browsers. It ran on NeXTStep machines.

I remember watching it load slashdot.org on Tom's powerbook back when he was running a Rhapsody Developer Preview in 1999. It spawned 255 threads. One for each image on the page, including spacer gifs.

It was the fastest pageload I had ever seen (in this point in time). I was like like /. just appeared out of nowhere.

I'm trying the latest version, for 15 days or so, and right now, I'm pretty impressed. Feel free to check it out.

Also, for mac heads out there that complain Camino and Firefox don't scroll 'elegantly'. OmniWeb is the smoothest scrolling browser I've ever seen. Period.

Everyone this holiday season has been talking about video games. It could be because of the XBox 360 launch. It could be that with the Steeler's record in the "not-so good" sector again, we need something else to talk about, or maybe more people have come over to way of thinking that hot, barely legal teen girls playing nintendo is really all you need to have a good time.

Hold on a second while I go back to last mental image.

OK, since I'm re-entering the console gaming world shortly after Xmas with the purchase of a gamecube and a DS, my friends and I have kept talking about the thing that sucks the most about the gaming world: The gaming press. There really isn't a nice way to say it, but game reviews blow.

Either you're not in the mood for a 9 page review covering the latest RPG's voice acting, plot, scenery artwork, cast of characters, cool inventory items, etc, ad nauseam, or you find yourself reading a brief 1-page review when you wanted the 9-pager.

Why does one game get an 8 and another 9? What's the criteria here?
Why do bad games still get 8s?

So, upon discussion, allow me to present the only game review system I trust:

Double Thumbs Up: Don't miss this game. It is to be played by all.
Thumbs Up: Loved it, recommending it to friends.
"Eh" (Shakey Hand): Game is so-so. Wouldn't recommend it. In other words, if you were going to buy it, buy it. If you weren't, don't worry, you're not missing much.
Thumbs Down: The gameplay is so bad, you're considering replacing 'jailtime' with 'playing this game' as soon as you take over the world, as you're sure 'playing this game' will deterr people who wouldn't be afraid of jail.
Double Thumbs Down: Officially nominated for addition to Seanbaby's Top 20 Worst Nintendo Games of all Time

The system should follow a normal distribution, which means instead of even the shittiest little shit getting an '8' because the same company makes Unreal Tournament and the site's editors want to cash in on those upcoming Unreal advertising dollars, the majority of games should be "Ehhh..".

Let's face it, there are few franchises out there like Zelda, where you could feel safe in buying it without reading a review, because there really hasn't been a bad Zelda. (Except Zelda 2, and shut it.)

And even franchises that have made great games in the past can jump the shark: Metal Gear Solid 2 was enough that I never will get excited for another MGS game, ever. Final Fantasy? I liked 7 and 8, but I just don't have the desire to spend 25 hours in 'random encounters'. If I was down with the whole random encounters, I'd have just bought 'Final Truckstop 7'.

Online RPGs? If I have broadband, chances are I'm using the internet to be a jerk already, so why pay $15/month to hang out with even nerdier jerks? Maybe once they patch the whole "dude pretending to be a lady to get gold" jerk out of the game, I'd consider giving it a free trial.

So what's left?
Games with good gameplay.

And that's all I really want.

Can't you tell I'm wearing this business suit ironically?

The Xbox 360 (or Xbox 2pi, if you're a complete nerd) is going for INSANE prices on ebay. A $500 bundle of the Xbox system, 2 game controllers, and 2 games, new in box with receipt, is going for something like $1500 on Ebay.

I think as soon as pre-orders for the PS3 are accepted, I'm going to reserve one at every game-stop EB in the area. 'Cause I bet they're going to be Ebay gold as well, next Christmas.

A Canadian Newspaper's article on Bush's 'Plan for Victory' in Iraq.
They seem a little skeptical.
I feel bad for countries that don't have such a Dear Leader to guide them in their struggle for freedom in such times of woe and crisis.

Alan would like me to clarify a few things.

Alan is not metrosexual, ghetto fabulous, a yuppie, or in any way a transgendered clone of Martha Stewart.

He's just a gentleman. And he dressed as such.

Pardon me for jumping to conclusions. When a former frat boy of yours takes you to the capital city mall to visit stores like Sephoria and Aveda so they can buy male purfume and specially formulated, pH balanced bath salts, well...er..I'm going to stop before I make it worse.

But then again, I did buy lip gloss. Canadian lip gloss.

But its just chapstick. See, its snowing in WV. There's windchill. I don't need chapped lips, is all. Yeah.

So in conclusion, don't judge Alan, because in the words of Derek Zoolander, "It's hard to be this ridiculously, ridiculously good looking."

And in all seriousness Alan, it did color my perception, but your rant on soapbox straightened me out.

I just hope my blog posts, didn't um, chap your lips. :)