So what do you all think?
Oh, right. You guys can't see the way it works. But I'm tellin' ya, it's a behind-the-scenes menagerie of codin' brilliance!

Well.. maybe not. But I still think it's pretty cool.

So anyway, if you wanted to check out the old news, I am going to keep it around. You can check it out here.

Also, I've made my friend Ginnsu an administrator of the site (nepotism abounds!). This means that you will see news updates posted here by him.
I'm hoping that with someone other than just myself posting crap up here, it will make it a little bit better. Instead of 2 line updates of sheer madness (and/or stupidity).

Anyway, that's all for now. Catch y'all on the flip side!

Would you like to donate to the "Buy Rob a Computer" Fund?
It's quite easy actually, you simply email me and tell me you want to buy me a new computer. Then I'll give you the information about where to send the money so that I can buy myself a new computer, or if you wish, you could just send me a brand new computer pre-built.

Remember, that address again is krawlie@hotmail.com!
Buy me a computer, today!
The future is now!

The "Buy Rob a Computer" foundation and Rob Saunders are not responsible for any lost funds, merchandise, or sanity. As such you cannot sue the aforementioned parties for physical distress, emotional distress, infectious distress, or any form of sexually transmitted disease. Including, but not limited to: Chancroid, chlamydia, gonorrhea, syphilis.

'Tis Ginnsu here, and I'm only posting here because Rob said I should. I currently have nothing really interesting (for anybody who visits this site anyways) to report, I'm just testing out the new news system, but I'll include something moderately interesting in this post just because it'd be too plain without it.

What is the reason that Rob is letting me post here? Well I figure it's something to the effect of "I want more funny updates so I can get more hits." I suppose that means I got to start going around looking for funny stuff. Well too bad, I'm not going to do that (at least no more then usual.) What I will do is post when I do find something funny, or interesting, or maybe even down right stupid.

Here's your interesting find for today: The sun is gonna blow! ... And no, numb nuts, it's not real.

Yesterday, almost exactly around the time that I was posting my first news post some one by the name of Sauron left a message in a channel on irc.habber.net called #randi.org (A temporary channel I created dedicated to discussion of topics covered by the James Randi Educational Foundation).

Here is what Sauron had to say: "Every time I visit my parents, I bring home a plant. Every year, so far, their damn cat 'Sasquatch' has eaten my plants. Today at the Agora (an open staging area in the university centre), I bought a plant I have lovingly named 'Spite.'"

And here is a picture of that plant affectionatly named "Spite": Cat food?

Thats your topic of interest for today, thanks for reading.

So I'm playing the campaign mode in Red Alert 2, I've got it on easy 'cus I suck, and I'm in this one level where I have to build a Chronosphere, and then after I build it a Soviet base appears that's got 3 friggin nuke silos! It took me forever, and about 5 restarts to get it done, but I finally did it.

Now, I know this has nothing to do with the site here, but the truth of the matter is, I really had nothing else to say. And I figure, since it's the only thing I've really been doing lately, I'd mention it.

So yeah.. on that note, let me introduce you to Mr. Stan Jones. He's blue, like my site. Maybe he could be my official representative. ;)

And that's all for now. Sorry for the crap update.

Whoever came up with that name anyway? Blog just sounds.. stupid. I don't know if it's an acronym for something, I imagine it is, but I just think it sounds really... stupid I guess. But that's just me.

*Update: I was bored, so I checked. Blog is short for Weblog, so I guess it's technically 'blog... but I still think it sounds stupid.

Anyway, so I'm sitting here on the computer looking at some code or something, when my sister brings the phone in to me. It turns out to be the manager at Overwaitea, and he tells me that he wants me to come in for a job interview this coming Monday. So I accept of course, because I do not have a job and the chances of getting jobs in this town are very slim (I've had 2 interviews in the last 2 years, what does that tell you?). Of course, only seconds after I hang up I suddenly realize something. A friend of mine, Shawn by name, is visiting some friends in Edmonton during the Thanksgiving weekend, and he graciously offered to take me with him considering I have another friend who only just recently moved there.

So, my problem is this. I have the job interview this coming Monday, the 7th, and Shawn is leaving here the following Wednesday evening or Thursday to return on the Monday after that (9/10th-14th). If the manager wants to do hiring shortly after the interviews, then I either have to not go to Edmonton, or miss my chance to be hired. As I've already explained, job opportunities here are not really great, so if it comes down to it, I will be staying here in town unfortunately for Mark and myself. I know he's looking forward to seeing me, and I him, it's been a little while.

Anyway, I'm just venting here really. I'm not looking for ideas or suggestions, so please don't offer any. ;)

That's all for now. I'll post later, I'm working on something neat.

Okay, so "later" ended up being today instead, but I do believe I have the H.A.C.K. recoded entirely to my liking. It's less complex, at least for me, because it's less compact. There are now 9 files involved, whereas there were 6 before. I personally like it more this way as it makes my code easier to read, and therefore easier to fix/change later on. There were a few things I'd wanted to change about the HACK before, and I just couldn't because I always got lost in the code (Yes, I got lost in my own code. That's what I get for not commenting everything).

Anyway, I don't think you'll all notice a whole lot of difference between this version and the previous version. If you see any bugs, or differences, then let me know. The only real aspect that should have changed is the behind-the-scenes work. Oh, actually, I removed the ability to add bold/italic/underline tags simply because they weren't really being used anyway, except by me.

So I guess that's it. Talk away, that's what it's there for. I know it's overdone, and pointless, it doesn't really help with the site, but it's there for idle chit-chat. And remember, I have access to an editing utility, and the IP addresses are shown so don't bother trying to be a smartass. :)

Oh, I saved all the old posts to a file, so you can still read that if you want. It's quite large though, it's 249kb, with 460 messages.

Rob out.

Okay, so this is gonna be a boredom post, and for anybody from #OCReMix this is also probably going to be old stuff, but ah well.
I was in the channel just now, and something reminded me of this comic I made.
MS Paint Comic - I made it completely with Microsoft Paint in like maybe an hour, if that.
I've made better stuff before. Most of it is based on people and events from the channel, so you won't get a lot of the humour and such. But yeah.

So anyway uh...

I guess that's it. Hopefully Ginnsu will post something today. Bye for now. Dinner is ready.

Well, I went to the interview at Overwaitea yesterday. I talked to a guy named Cam, the assistant manager of the place, and everything seemed to go well. I even informed him of my predicament concerning the trip to Edmonton. He told me that I should know if I'll be hired before Thursday, so I shouldn't cancel my plans yet. But if I am hired then I'll have to cancel, as he wants the new people to come in on Friday for safety training I believe. I was hoping I'd hear from him today, but alas I have not, so I'm supposed to definately hear from him tomorrow. I figure, if I haven't received a call by around 3:00 or so, I'm gonna call down there myself to see what's up.

A friend of mine, Shawn, was over at Ginnsu's place last night, and had another friend there, by the name of Ryan I think, who presently works at Overwaitea. He told Ginnsu that out of all the people interviewed, I was apparently the only male. I'm not sexist or anything, so I won't say this holds sway over anything, but it would seem that the store employs most of the females for cashier jobs only. I have not seen many females working in other areas of the store. So who knows, the fact that I was the only male may mean something.

Anyway, I guess that's all I had to say. I figured I should give a little update to the whole Overwaitea thing. Plus I couldn't think of anything else to say.

Ugh. Ginnsu! Post something interesting, I don't want this turning into an online journal!

A few days ago, I grabbed this book from the library called "Philosophy for a Modern Man" written by L. H. Grunebaum. In the first paragraph of the first page of the first Chapter it says "Homo sapiens, wise man, is the rather arrogant scientific name given to our particular species of man which is about 70,000 yeas old." This of course, is the evolutionist estimation, that most scientists (as do I, not that I'm a scientist) subscribe to.

I found this of interest, because in the next paragraph, it states that man began to write about 5,500 years ago. Now, if you've ever looked into Creationist theory, or studied the bible at all, you might have noticed (or even believed yourself) that the idea proclaimed there is that the earth was created 6,000 years ago.

Now, all through this past 5,500 years since man has begun to write, (and most probably before) man has used stories to convey messages, or just to entertain his friends. Stories to convey messages would usually be those with morals, and those for entertainment are those that we usually refer to as jokes, of course. These stories would also be used to help understand and describe the world that man saw around himself. Even if his understanding or interpretation wasn't right, it would still at least make sense to him, and possibly those he told.

It's fairly easy to see how some one might grow attached to the characters in these stories, especially the ones with morals. Hoping that the characters survive their quests, or succeed in their missions. This emotional attachment would grow to the point where the people who were told these stories worried about the outcome so much, that they had to ask the story tellers to tell more and more. After some time, these stories could become so popular they were recorded in the writings of some people who knew how, and passed down from generation to generation.

All this seems a little too rational, logical, coincidental (I know, scary words) to just say that "There was Adam, and there was Eve. They got smart, realized they were naked, so they put on some clothes. They realized that when they were naked they were horny and so they had sex. Which in turn led to babies. The babies grew up, practiced lots of incest and created the human race. Hallelujah! Oh yeah, and I forgot to mention: the earth was created by a Super natural being in one day. This super natural being, you can't see him, but he'll speak to you. Snakes could talk."

Of course I must mention, the idea I have put forward here is not at all and old one. Look up evolution.

I also bastardized the story of Adam and Eve, so if you want the real one go find a Bible (hint: hotel rooms, churches, but not book stores. You don't really need to spend any money.)

Check out the Infidel Guy. They got some hilarious radio going on there.

And lastly, its an opinion. You don't like it? Nobody says you got to believe it. ;) Thanks for Reading.

Disclaimer: if you find this post offensive, then don't read it.... a..again.

Well, it's official now. I do not have the job. Thus, I will be going to Edmonton for the weekend.

Shawn wants to leave today, in about 15 minutes actually, and he said he plans to start heading back on Monday (Thanksgiving Day for us Canadians). This means that for the next 5-6 days, I won't be posting anything here. Luckily, I have Ginnsu to do all my administrative duties.

That's all for now. See you in about a week!

So, when Rob left for Edmonton I had told him I planned to try and update every day he was gone. As you can plainly see this has not happened. And quite frankly I have no clue what to put up here. I think that this is because this site has no aim what so ever. Rob designed this site so that he could design a site. Thats pretty mucch it. So it's designed around the interests and activities that he is involved in (PHP, Photoshop, OverClocked Remix, Wed Design, HTML, JavaScript, etc.)

In other words, I have no real guidline for what I should post here. Most of the information that I would like to get out there, isn't the type of stuff that I would think would fit here or be accepted. That post on Creationism being a myth was really an experiment to see how it would be accepted. Since there was no response to it either way, I have no idea whether it was excepted or not. It leads me to assume that either everyone here agree's to some extent but isn't extatic enough to respond in any manner (not that I expected it really, I didn't say I wanted that or give my e-mail for that matter) or nobody likes to read (in which case this line probably isn't even being read, but thats ok.)

Does this site need goals? Maybe, but then again it would probably loose it's perfect representation of Rob's character (which, mind you, I am actively destroying as we speak [evil grin]). Rob really just wanted me to post here to give you funny stuff. Noting that this post fails miserably in that aspect, I offer you this: Infidel Guy's Flashtoons. These flashtoons are increadibly hilarious at times, but also have some meaning that really hits home. So I suggest you check them out.

Thats all for now, thanks for reading.

Thats right. It's Thanksgiving Day in Canada. So I wish all you Canadian's out there a Happy Thanksgiving.

And on that note, you ever wonder why the Canadian and American Dates for Thanksgiving are different? I figure it's because Canada, being more northern, has to harvest earlier to get the most out of the food before the fall frost comes. I've never actually looked that up so it's complete speculation, but it is the most logical answer.

Thats all I have for today. I'm thinking much more about food then I am about writing. Thanks for reading.

Hey everybody (that includes you)! I'm back from visiting Mark in Edmonton. It was fun as hell. We hung out, watched TV, visited the West Edmonton Mall, and just generally had fun. He introduced me to Brandon and Dean, two of his roommates, cool guys. Brandon was hilarious, he had a bunch of drunk stories to tell, good times.

Also, I gotta give out my undying thanks to Shawn, without him that weekend wouldn't have happened. He drove me out there and expected nothing in return. He drove for 14 hours straight, on the way back, just to get us home as fast as he could. Mad props for the Shawn-man. I don't know what "props" means, but he's getting them anyway.

And lastly, there was a great big bear shot in Alaska.
Here are pictures. Look at that paw! And that head! It's massive!

That is all.

Oh, and you know what? This is becoming a blog. But you know what? Fuck it. I don't care. It's my page, and I'll do what I want, haha!

Rob told me last night that he doesn't care what I talk about on here, so I can say whatever the hell I want. I can even fucking swear! Woah, did I just do that? He only gave me one restriction, and that is that I'm not allowed to talk about that kick ass porn I watched last night. So, if anybody (girls only please) wants to ask me about anything of that nature, you're going to have to e-mail me or contact me on AIM or something. Don't be shy! (If I get any genuine response to this, I'm going to be totally suprised.)

So in short, no more posts of me distressing over what to say. YAY!

If any of you visited the wallpaper page after I left for Edmonton, you'd notice that I posted up a wallpaper called Rings of Gold. It was a tentative post. I had been working on it while waiting for stuff to happen, and when stuff did happen, I had to rush away. I posted it before I left anyway, even though it wasn't really done, with the idea that I would work on it when I came back. Well, I worked on it. And I think I'm satisfied with it. So go check it out.

Also, you'll notice when/if you go to the wallpaper page that it's changed around a bunch. I liked the graphical tables I had setup, but they were a little too limited. So, like my menu on the left, I converted most of it to plain CSS styling. I left the graphical tables for the thumbnails though, because I really liked the way it looked. But the columnistic style of the description tables is now gone. I personally think it's much more presentable now, and easier to read as well (Which is of course, the important thing).

That's all for now. Night.

A few hours ago, I watched an episode of "the practice" that I found rather interesting. The title was "The Cradle Will Rock," which was about how the featured law firm defends two parents of a 3 year old child who are charged with the murder of that child. What transcends that conflict far deeper then the normal conflict you would expect when a child is murdered by a parent who you would expect to be normally loving and compassionate, was the fact that the parents believed that they were doing everything in their power to save the childs life, not lose it.

The story goes that the parents were Creation Scientists, who had a child that was very ill with a painful and possibly lethal disease. The parents firmly believed that praying to god was the only way to heal their child. The rational behind this belief was that with every step we take in medical science, we stretch another boundary. A majority of people used to think that blood transfusions were immoral when we first discovered it was possible, and now it is accepted. Same thing with organ transplants, and other medical procedures. Their fear was "Whats next?" Now that stem cell research and cloning are possible, are those going to be accepted, just because it's possible? or just because it might save a life?

The opposing argument was that not taking this child to the doctor, was neglect. The neglect led to the death of the child, which is murder. Since that child was only 3 years of age at the time of death, it was unable to make the decision that it should call the paramedics to come ease its pain and suffering. That was up to the parents who decided that it was a better plan to pray that their child got better, and use whatever technique they knew of and felt did not go against their beliefs to save their childs life.

One of the defence attorney's argued that the trial is also an argument of free speech, or more specifically: freedom of religion. How can we convict these parents without throwing the First Amendment Right out the window? They were not hurting (yes, you could defiantly argue against this) anybody. They were not trampling anybody else's rights. They were simply practicing their chosen beliefs. (It all ties in to 9/11, terrorism, etc. as well.)

The argument to that is of course, what about the rights of the child? Who, in this situation, wasn't protecting their rights, where they should have been? Which ultimately pins the blame on the parents, of course. While the parents certainly have their right not to go to the doctor if they feel that it goes against their beliefs, the child also has right to life.

The final verdict came out as both parents were guilty of Murder (in varying degrees.) My question for myself, and anybody out there who cares to answer it for themselves is one I can quote straight from a poll located on the web site of "the practice": "Is it criminal to not seek medical help for a child, due to religious beliefs?"

My answer would be yes, absolutely! And that is all, thanks for reading. Oh and if I may add, I thought the show excellently portrayed both arguements in an informative manner, while still remaining entertaining. More then I can say for myself. ;P

First things first, I'm a moron. I had my news post written up here and then I hit refresh and lost the whole thing, so suffice to say I'm a little disappointed right now.

A few days ago my dad and a friend, Jason, left town on a hunting trip. It wasn't meant to be long, about 3 days, and it was hoped to be successful...
It was.
Just today they returned with the first moose we've had in, what seems to me, years. It wasn't a large moose as I understand it, but it was still large enough, and heavy enough, that Jason needed a little help, from yours truly, lifting the two larger quarters so as my dad could string them up. As I was typing this, they were just finishing skinning the larger quarters. Now they've come inside to relax and share stories of the good times they had.

That's all from me for now. Take care everybody.

Having a little HACK trouble, the person who posted with a space for a name pointed something out to me. I don't want people posting messages with no names and no comments (yes, the comments could be filled with just spaces also). I'm a little stuck on getting the code to work, but as soon as it's fixed I'll probably post up here again.
For now you can read it just fine, but posting to the HACK is totally disabled.

*Edit: D'oh! Okay, I'm a moron, I had some code typed in the wrong spot and that's why I couldn't figure it out.
It's all fixed now.

Well.. what to say indeed. I don't have much to report right now, nothing much going on here at all, which is my explanation for not having posted anything in the last several days, and I'm sure it's Ginnsu's as well ;).

I'm going to reset the hit counter. Hits aren't something that I'm really all that concerned about, I've met people online who think hits mean everything and so they strive to have a huge number, I personally just like to use it as a way to see how many people are visiting. Not as a bragging tool. And with the hit count being up where it is now, it's a little more confusing to try and keep track. "1568 hits today, what was it yesterday.. 1564?"

I finished reading a book the other day. Starman by Sara Douglass. Good book. A tale about a man who becomes an integral part of an ancient prophecy and must destroy not only the Ice Lord Gorgrael but also must expose the lies set down by the Seneschal of the great god Artor. Being the third book in the first of a set of two trilogies, I believe it was originally intended as a 6 part series but the distributor didn't think a 6 part series would sell well in America and instead broke it into two trilogies, it brought most of what happened in the first two books to a close. I don't know what to expect in the next set of books, but I'm really looking forward to reading them. I'm currently reading a book titled Elvenborn, which is the third book in a trilogy that I read the first two books of several months ago, thus it's a little hard to get back into the flow of the story, especially having just come from another novel and storyline entirely. Written by Andre Norton and Mercedes Lackey this series tells of a world where elves, humans and dragons all co-exist, and not necessarily in peace. The dragons are recluse, believed by humans and elves to not even exist, they refuse to become involved in the troubles of human and elf alike. The elves rule over their world, taking the ungifted humans for slaves, and what humans do have magical abilities are repressed with enchantments. It's an interesting read if the genre is your cup of tea, it is in my case.
Oh, I also read the final book in the Sword of Truth series, written by Terry Goodkind, it was also quite good but I'm too tired to review it right now, and wouldn't remember important details as it's been several weeks since I finished reading it.

I suppose that's it. I hope I didn't bore you all (all 3 of you) that much. Hopefully Ginnsu will pipe up sometime soon with something interesting to say. I'm taking over the news section with my boring drabble ;).

Interesting link of the moment (AKA: a link I grabbed out of my favorites): Created By Cheney

That's all for now, night.

Well, Rob is looking for something interesting up here and since I just happen to have something on my mind, I might as well offer it to the world.

Warning: This post might cause you to think, and you might find it offensive. If it isn't already, this will put Saunders Server on the American Family Online "Filtered sites list. (I'm sure it's already long since on that list, but I couldn't figure out any other way of linking to that atrocity.)

I was listening to the Atheist Radio Network when they brought up something that I remembered from the days when I attended sunday school. We spent a morning at the beach celabrating easter, I believe, and the topic of discussion centered around Friendship and the Christian Fish symbol. It was said that two Christian people would get together and proclaim there friendship by drawing this symbol in the sand. One person would pick up a stick and draw an arc and then give the stick to their friend. The friend would draw from one end of the arc (usually left to right) an arc that was inverse, and would cross the first arc at the opposite end. The symbol would look like a fish.

Now, since then I have learned that most of what they taught in sunday school is a load of hogwash. And one of the things that I learned today is that this whole fish symbol wasn't born out of Christianity, and not even so much an idea of friendship. The idea apparently origionally came from Pagan ideas of fertility awareness and sexuality. If you turn this fish symbol 90 degrees counter clockwise, it actually represents the female sex organ, the vulva. This comes from the idea that the vulva apparently smells of fish (I honestly wouldn't know, losing faith isn't always synonymous with losing virginity. Not to mention the fact that vulva's probably weren't quite as clean in those days, so maybe they don't smell like fish.) Some Pagan's also had this idea that Friday, being the day of Venus, was also the day of love making. There arises another connection carried into and still practiced in the Catholic Religion, of eating fish on Friday's.

For more information about this topic check out A Fish Story, because believe me when I say that I barely skimmed the surface here. I'm trying to keep these posts as short and interesting as possible (or maybe I'm just to lazy to write any more.)

Thats all for now, thanks for Reading.

I don't like fish.

Yeah I know I'm early, but I couldn't wait to spring this festive little layout change on you all. No worries, it's not sticking around for long. I do kinda like the change, but it was a bit hasty to put it in full effect for an extended period of time.

I don't really have much else to say right now, so for now I shall bid you adieu.

Rob changed this site's colour scheme and I think I'm going to boycott this site until he changes it back. I mean what kind of goof would pick orange anyways? Halloween shmellalikebeans anyways. Who cares about these festivities? Now kids are going to come by my door and expect candy? Pffffft. I'm going to give 'em all tricks instead. I call it the "I get to steal a hand full of the best stuff you got in that pillow case" trick.

So I said I'd be boycotting this site right? Well here's how this is going to work. I'm just going to keep visiting every 5 seconds like normally, hoping somebody posted something in the HACK. Keep on posting stuff here every time I think of something, which is of course never. So I'm not a rebel and I have no cause... What. The. Fuck! This is pointless, and that is so awsome. Strong Bad is point less too! Check out his e-mail. Please ask him why he didn't answer any e-mail on the week of Halloween! That just sucks.

I watch Law & Order religiously. I watch a lot of TV shows religiously, but thats not the point. The thing I like about Law & Order is that the end of the show usually leaves you with a question. One that hopefully makes you think. Well, at least it makes me think. Today's episode went to the issue of the Death Penalty. Three men went into an apartment and stole a flat screen plasma TV, and were accused of killing the victim of the burglary. The District Attorney's office asked for the Death Penalty in an effort to make a public statment. The evidence was that the removal of the flat screen plasma TV was caught on tape, and that there were finger prints of the defendants found at the scene of the crime. They were convicted by the jury of murder, and sent to prison for execution. The catch was that they weren't guilty. And luckily before they were executed the DA's office figured this out, and arrested the real killer.

Why do I tell you this? Just one of the reasons I think that the Death Penalty one hell of a risky method of punishing criminals. I personally don't see a reason for it.

Thats all for tonight and thanks for reading.

I went downtown this morning to bring some library books back, figure out what was up with my welfare cheque (I dinna ge' it), and submit resumes to prospective employers.
After I did all that I realized I had not eaten since waking up (woke up: 9am, realization of hunger: 10:50am), so I said to myself, "Zounds! I do be close to the Dairy Queen establishment! I shall partake of their culinary delights!" Actually, I guess it was closer to, "Hungry now. Dairy Queen close. Go eat." but regardless of the specific thoughts going through my mind, I went. While awaiting the preparation of my foodage I picked up a copy of the Kitimat Sip'n' Chat, it's a small 6 page paper with jokes, horoscopes, fun little stories, etc, that is published every couple days I believe. Anyway, there was a joke in this paper, which I'm sure you're all expecting now considering the title of this post, which made me giggle like a school girl and so I've decided to relay it to you all.



Bwahahahha! Isn't that just high-larious!?
No? Fine then. How about this quickie.



Whoo! Hahaha, I've got a million of 'em folks, was that great or what?
No again? Damn you people have no sense of humour!
One more, and if you don't like this then you can be damned.



Dooooohoohoohoo! Wasn't that greaaaat?
WHAT!? You didn't like that one either!?? Okay fine, screw you guys I'm leaving!

Rob's last news post about Canadian Jokes in the Kitimat Sip'n' Chat reminded me about a few of things. The first of which is that I don't write enough funny posts, but then I shouldn't try either. The second thing it reminded me of was that Rob's idea that the Kitimat Sip'n' Chat is published every couple days is outrageous, and that this would be a perfect opportunity for me to insult the bastard. Numb skull! Just so that he can go out of his way to prove me wrong. Which he just might, you never know what he'll think up. Some absurd scapegoat, or maybe even proof that would cause me to completely reverse my statement and give him a sincere apology with a great big grin on my face (the makings of an oxymoron.) The third thing that this reminded me of is how much horoscopes really do suck. I'm sure any self respecting person who actually reads these posts wouldn't even think of actually paying for one of those things. Which is why I have decided to give you your horoscope today completely free. Believe me when I say that this horoscope has every bit of prediction accuracy, and relevance to your life that any horoscope would that you could ever pay for.

Capricorn December 22-January 19
There is a possibility that the house you are living in or one of the houses you visit today will be egged sometime in the evening hours.

Aquarius January 20-February 18
One of your friends, relatives, relatives of friends, or maybe even friends of relatives will be frightened in the near future.

Pisces February 19-March 20
Listen closely for weird sounds. And remember, fear is a defence mechanism.

Aries March 21-April 19
Pumpkins are fun to throw off tall buildings, watch your head.

Taurus April 20-May 20
Just because your sign is a bull doesn't mean you aren't a sissy one day of the year. And that day might not even be today, maybe tomorrow.

Gemini May 21- June 21
Who needs logic? Throw it out the window and follow your heart. Throw the pumpkins out the window with the logic.

Cancer June 22-July 22
Just because you have the same sign as me doesn't mean you're so great. Get that idea out of your head, and by the way: I am your god.

Leo July 23-August 22
The Wizard of Oz applies to you, coward!

Virgo August 23-September 22
Eggs make good chucking objects. If you happen to pass by any Capricorn's houses, do the dirty deed and run! Run like the wind!

Libra September 23-October 22
You watch to much TV, cut down.

Scorpio October 23-November 21
You have the same sign as Rob! Numb skull!

Sagittarius November 22-December 21
You will be blessed with two days within 2 months where you get presents.

Everyone watch out for this:
Groups of very strangely clothed people will come to your door, ask for stuff to eat, and then promptly leave. They will most likely leave you with nothing more in return then a thank you. Whatever the little voice in your head is telling you, follow it.

What the hell was that?! And What the hell is this?

That's right, Halloween is over, and so is the appearance of the orange layout.
I personally wasn't overfond of it, although I might have been biased against it because I knew how much of a pain in the ass it was to make this site layout-changeable. I should have set it up that way in the first place.
As for what's going on now, I don't really know. I have created a new moderator for the news section, so you might see some posts from him in the next couple days, depending on how busy he is, and if I remember to inform him that his profile is setup.

I'll bet you don't know. What's that? Oh.. well yeah, it was November 2nd.. but that's not exactly what I meant. I was thinking more along the lines of, "I'll bet you don't know what the significance of this day is." And- What? Oh.. your cat had kittens one year ago today? No, no, no, that's not what I meant either! I meant with signific- No! Not religious significance! Significance to me! Ah crap, forget it I'll just tell you. Today was my birthday, I turned 20 today, jeeze. You people suck at guessing.

;D

*tap tap* is this thing on? Can they, can they hear me in the back? Lemme see..

TESTING, TESTING. UNO, DOS, TRES. Did they hear that back there? Good.




ALRIGHT, LISTEN UP! ANTONIO PIZZA HAS BEEN GRANTED ACCESS TO THE NEWS UPDATES HERE ON THE WORLD FAMOUS SAUNDERS SERVER. AND FIRST UP I'M GONNA....awww screw it.

Nobody comes to this f****** page. All they want are the pictures, the pictures, the pictures. Nobody's gonna read this. They'll leech some music and then they'll go. *sniffle* I'm so sad. After all this time, I've finally been accepted and for what?

For bunch of music software and porn hungry teenagers to ignore my usefulness, only to scoff at my misplelings and tYPOgRFIfcal erross.

Oh wise Canadian Sexybitch! Why have you forsaken me? Why? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY???????????!!!!!!!!!!!


.....
Okay, granted that made absolutely no sense whatsoever, but the above only proves how much I belong here on SS. Wow.
IP, OCR, ABJ, SS...I'm just full of acronomical organizations to belong to!
527 all up in this bitch!
Bye folks! Enjoy your day!


Till next time, Piece Owt, God Bless, and May the Force be with you.

Improved News scripts and functions implemented? Check.
New moderator updated on status and posting? Check.
Looks like everything's in order.

So, now you've all met AntonioPizza. What a way to make an entrance, no?
Not meaning to overshadow his post or anything, but I just wanted to leave a note that I have changed some of the ways the News script works, and that if you see anything that isn't right, anything at all, then I want you to notify me.

THANSK FOR COMIGN TO TEH SIETE!!!!!
- Suanders

I'm bored, and I haven't posted anything for a while, hence this post. Fatal Error sent me to a quiz he'd made about himself today, and I kinda flunked it.. so after that, he convinced me to make my own, and then he flunked mine. So I don't feel like such a loser now. Anyway, that's all I have to report, so just click the link below and go take my quiz. Chances are you'll all SUCK, but that's okay, I know you tried. ;)

Take el quizzo del Saunderosa

Congratulations folks! There is now ANOTHER channel in IRC for you all to idle in! Head on over to #ourownlittlechannel and watch the paint dry! It's on the enterthegame.com server, so you folks familiar with #ocremix can waste time and make sex jokes here as well!

The formation of this page is a bit of a wacky story. For the complete 20 minute story, check out the log file here (It starts to really come together around 4:10). The punchline is as such:

Basically #ocremix was quiet as usual given the hour when tri-emplem and World of Ruin started quoting each other over and over again. In Protricity's case, his posts consisted only of "..." Eventually alot of people got in on the act and after 20 full minutes of virtual insanity (no pun inteneded on the Jamiroquai song) and chaos, the ops came in and cleaned house (as they should have). The climax occured when I posted this:


{AntonioPizza} {Suzumebacha} {Suzumebacha} {Suzumebacha} {AntonioPizza} {AntonioPizza} {AntonioPizza} {AntonioPizza} [04:15] {AntonioPizza} {Suzumebachi} [02:12] {DiscoDan} {AntonioPizza} {AntonioPizza} {Suzumebachi} [02:10] {DiscoDan} {AntonioPizza} {Suzumebachi} {DiscoDan} {Suzumebachi} {DiscoDan} {AntonioPizza} {DiscoDan} {WoR} {DiscoDan} {AntonioPizza} {DiscoDan} {AntonioPizza} *** DiscoDan has joined #ocremix


after a few other people had already been kick/banned. :) I was kicked and rejoined and laughed my ass off. I shit you not, everyone involved was PAINFULLY laughing non-stop for 20 minutes.

The resolution to the story comes with a comment made by Nacostradamus.

[04:25] if you wanna spam go spam in your own little channel
[04:25] dont do it here

Purely to be a smart ass, I replied with:

[04:25] #ourownlittlechannel

and joined it. Well muh buddy Disco Dan popped in 3 seconds later. Within 5 minutes we had a crowd of 8 morons all pushing and shoving and spamming. Now we're a registed channel by ETG and we got Goofball's good friend Weirdo to join us as well. So we can stats grab, "seen" each other, and poke fun at poor defenseless little bots. Come and check us out. We're the same idiots from #ocremix, only now you'll have to deal with us in TWO rooms at once!


#ocremix AND #ourownlittlechannel
FEEL THE LOVE, FEED THE INSANITY!!!










oh yeah. Rob's gotta new wallpaper or some shit like that...

El bastardo! I asked him nicely to pimp my new wallpaper and this is what I get? That's the last favor I do for YOU mister Pizza! I kid, I kid, but seriously, I did up a new wallpaper yesterday, worked on it for several hours and I think it came out really great. Check it out in the wallpapers section of the site, it should be up at the top. I think it's one of better ones, and it's not blue either! It's a bit of a change!

That's all for now.

*Edit: Fuck, why didn't anybody tell me that the link was broken. :(

So, I'm feeling sorry for Rob's site here, feeling all lonesome and shit. Athough I don't have much to say, I'll give you what I got.

I have Rob's latest wallpaper as my desktop background. And yes, that is news worthy, especially as the first item. Don't question it!

Miss Cleo is apparently having some troubles with the Federal Trade Commission according to this article. Her company apparently made some deceptive claims about the nature of their call in service But thats beside the claim that your call will be serviced by a psychic who can .truely tell you your fortune which is protected by the fact that it's classified as entertainment. So its still legal for people to go around claiming they're psychic, and classify it as entertainment. You psychics out their need not worry about that.

And unfortunatly thats all I have/care to write about. Thanks for reading.

Hey there everybody. Rob here with an odd news update.
Today I was browsing through the skin listing for Winamp 2 when I had the urge to search for Chrono Trigger, and when I did, I was rather surprised.
While scrolling through the search results, I saw a skin I recognized, right at the bottom, titled: "Evil Entity." (Also available here.)
And following that, there was another skin I recognized, called: "MagAMP." (Also available here.)
See, the reason I recognized these skins is because: They're mine.
I had them both posted on an old web site of mine, called Krawlie's Lair, that has since evolved into Ozzie's Fort and is now hosted on my computer. I was almost worried that I wouldn't be able to prove these skins belonged to me, not having any of the original files used to create them, but then I downloaded them, and in each of the readme's included there is my old site URL and my email address! What a fool this Raymond Gonzales is!
So now I'm going to report this "skin ripping" to Winamp, and see what happens. I'm not going to encourage you to email or spam this Raymond fellow, as I sort of doubt that the email is even valid, or checked anymore, but if you feel like it, his address is there, and I really can't stop you from doing whatever you want.

Cya later.

Update:
Evil Entity rip request here: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=114350
MagAMP rip request: http://forums.winamp.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=114349

Okay, so I finally got fed up with this problem that I've been having for a while, and decided to go to Microsoft's site and see if they had any clues. So I ended up posting in their newsgroups. And just because I'm lazy and don't want to summarize it all, I will paste that post here:


And I haven't had any replies to it at all, and the way it's setup my post will eventually fade into the background never to be seen or heard from again. So what I'm doing is asking anybody who visits this site, I know there aren't many of you but I'm stuck, for some help.
If anybody can offer some help that isn't, "Reformat and reinstall," then I will greatly appreciate it. I know they say, "Beggars can't be choosers," and I am begging, but I considering the Reformat option to be a last resort and will only fall to that when I've given up hope on a simpler solution.

Thanks for reading, and visiting the site.

Thanks to Protricity, a man wrapped within a cloak of mystery and intrigue, I fixed my font problem, YAYA!
Together (mostly him) we surmised that the reason my fonts were "fux0red," as we in the web industry say, was because back when I had Windows XP installed, I copied my WinXP font directory over the Windows 98 font directory (I had both OS' installed) and WinXP fonts are made differently and contain different information. Anyway, to make a long story short, I extracted all the .ttf and .fon files from my Win98 CD to a folder, and then swapped it with the Fonts folder, and it all works fine now.

Okay. Uh...let's see. News, news...
Well I bought Star Wars Episode II on DVD. I don't care how much people complain about the movie, I liked it. Some folks just can't survive the daily grind unless they have SOMETHING to bitch about.
Am I being hypocritical by bitching about their bitching? No. Because someone is bound to bitch about my "bitching" about folks bitching. But I'm not bitching about folks bitching, nor am I bitching about folks bitching about my "bitching" over their bitching.

Hmmmmm...more news.
Oh. Childern of the Monkey Machine aka Cotmm-68030 is going to be MIA for an undisclosed amount of time. Seems the bandwith cops came and severed his internet connection which means he *gasp* stick in...*GASP* the REAL WORLD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!


Let's seee...that probably isn't enough. Oh yeah. If anyone out there has a REALLY cool computer microphone that they're just itching to give to ol' ap, contact me via the forums, aim, email, or mIRC. All of that information is in my profile at OCR. Ummmmmmmmm....hmmmmmmmm. Oh yeah.

rob1 = sexybitch.
das it!


-ap

-Rob Saunders.


And I, kiddies, have a beautiful one. You see, factory people are quite interesting folks. As some of you are aware, I work at the International Paper Beverage Packaging plant in Kalamazoo, Michigan where I make milk cartons. Today, one of my coworkers decided to enlighten me with a dream he'd had the other night. Now my memory isn't top notch, so I'll recite what I can.


Basically he, his wife and his sister (of which he has neither in reality) all have sex with each other. He humps his wife, he humps his sister and then they go on a killing spree. After killing each victim, he humps her corpse. Well one victim isn't killed, but left for dead with half of her face missing or something. After a while, she comes back to seek revenge (I guess), but THEY wind up humping and killing people and humping them too. I forget the rest...

He said what disturbed him was the incest. Even though he doesn't HAVE a real life sister, I can understand how this would bother him. But this is what bothers ME...serial killing didn't bother him. Necrophila didn't bother him. Apparently slicing some chick's face, humping her, leaving her for dead, having her come back, and humping her again so they could kill and hump corpses together didn't bother him. It was the incest.

It's not that I'm saying the incest shouldn't have freaked him out, it's that he didn't seemed to be troubled with the idea of SERIAL RAPE AND MURDER!!!



The moral of this story? Stay in school kids. Stay in school or you wind up working in a factory with people like this...not to mention a 1,908lb roll of paper might fall on your left leg.


STAY IN SCHOOL!!!
-ap

I know the webmaster lives in Canadia. I know the server is in Canadia. I know that in Canadia, today is just another day.

Well I'M FROM AMERICA, JACK! AND IN AMERICA, WE CELEBRATE THANKSGIVING DAY TODAY.

So I wanna wish you all a safe, happy, and enjoyable Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Quit 'cher bitchin' and be thankful for whatcha got. Believe the Pizza when he tells you that things could be MUCH worse.

If you wanna do yourself a big favor, don't fall into the traditional crap about friendly Indians and thankful English settlers. You should know the truth already by now. If you don't, pick a book called "Lies My Teacher Told Me" by James W. Loewen. If you'd love to make your history teacher look stupid, this is the book for you. If you're just too damn lazy, hit me up via mIRC or AIM and ask me to tell you about that book.

Welp, das it! I bet you can't WAIT for my Christmas post, huh? Maybe Rob should let Protricity do a guest post on Christmas...

...that isn't posted by me. ;)
For the last while I've been looking at the news section and thinking, "Rob, you should post something." And everytime I reply, "Yes. But what?" This usually leaves me feeling confused and irrationally paranoid because I've begun talking to myself and I can't answer that question. Then I start to argue with myself. You can just imagine the looks on people's faces when you walk into the Dairy Queen to get some lunch and then start arguing with yourself about what you're going to order. "I'll have a double cheese and nine nuggets." "No you won't! You're gonna have a chicken sandwich and a chocolate milkshake." "Fuck you alternate mentality boy!" "Oooh, you kiss your mother with that mouth?" And so on and so forth, and on and on, etc, etc, 'til death do you part, Amen.
So, needless to say I've been abstaining from posting any news whatsoever in hopes that eventually something would come to me. Well, it didn't. So I continued to abstain, and in the last couple days when I might have had something to post (actually, I didn't) I've barely been able to get on the computer. And so now, with about 10 days having gone by without a post from your's truly, I finally have some stuff to say and sites to link to.

1. Whilst talking to Protricity one evening (or afternoon, I really don't remember), the matter of game pads (ie: controllers) for the PC became a topic of our conversation. Prot mentioned that he had one for his PC but it was broken and he needed to get another one, and he probably said some other stuff but I never listen to that long winded bastard. He drones on and on about the most pointless things forever and ever and ever and ever and ever... But anyway! I happened to think, and say, paraphrasing, "I wish I could use the SNES controller on my PC." Protricity agreed that it would be cool (I think. That part of my logs was lost), and so when I got to searching for "SNES to PC adapters" in Google, guess what I found.
   I found this page: DeepDarkSea.com and on this page, a guy by the name of Dustin builds and sells SNES to PC adapters, among other things (modified and unmodified SNES controllers, and modified NES controllers), sometime today, hopefully, I'm going to head down to the bank, send this guy some money and get myself one of these adapters (and an extra controller to boot!).


2. Yesterday I had to go downtown to get a book I'd reserved at the library and do some other stuff too, when I stopped into the Video Stop (movie/game rental store) and I was going to rent Mario Kart 64 when I seen the case on the shelf but when I brought it to the counter, the clerk had to apologetically inform me that the case shouldn't have been out because not only was the copy not in, it was 4 days overdue, and their only other copy was out until the 30th so I reserved it. But in the meantime I thought I should rent something anyway, seeing as I'd put some other stuff on the counter (mmm Campinos) and would feel kinda goofy buying just candy at a video store, and even goofier putting it back and leaving. So I perused the N64 section for a bit, their games are cheaper ($5 for 7 days is a deal here), but found nothing I hadn't played and didn't like or beaten already, so I moved to the PSX section. Well, they had Wild Arms 2, haven't played that yet. But then again, I've got an RPG-ish game I'm playing at home already (Dark Cloud) and didn't really feel like getting into another RPG, I wanted something fun that I could goof around in, not have to make too much of a commitment to, and to make a long story short, I eventually decided on Zone of the Enders. I'd heard some good stuff about this game, I believe my friend told me that the game was good, but not "buy it" good (something to do with short game length and lack of replay value, I believe) and it is quite good. I played for most of the evening yesterday and as I'm typing this I almost want to get up and go play it right now (which means a lot coming from a real conputer addict like me). So my suggestion, if you haven't played it yet (which is unlikely considering it was one of the earlier PS2 games, I think) and you like the look of it (click that link!) then check it out, it's a fun game as far as I'm concerned.


3. Campinos are super great!


4. This morning I woke up to a wonderful sound. Our dog, Becca, was howling, loudly. It scared the bejeezus out of me and my brother (my brother and I). First thought in my head was smoke detector, then I realized it was steadier and thought, "Becca? She sounds hurt!" so I jumped out of bed, thinking maybe she'd knocked something over onto herself, opened my door and there she was. Sitting in the hall, looking completely innocent although happy to see us. My brother and I sat down next to her and pet her for a while until I decided to take her for a walk. The walk was uneventful, although she did crap in someone's yard which I try to discourage her from doing.


5. Now for something a little more interesting. I believe it was the day before yesterday (Wednesday I guess) that my dad bought a car from someone in town. He'd been planning on buying another vehicle for a while just so I'd have something easier to practice with, and also something I could practice on while he's at work. I still don't have my full license. Hell, I only have 1/3 of a license. See, BC has this system of driver's licensing that works like so:
   
   1. When you become 16 you can take a knowledge test to get your Learner's license. The restrictions to a Learner's license are as such: Qualified supervisor required, one passenger only (ie: you, instructer/supervisor, passenger. 3 people altogether), restricted driving to 5:00 am to midnight only, no operation of motor vehicle with alcohol in body, and must clearly display official new driver sign (which is a small rectangular red sign with an 'L' on it).
   
   
   2. After having the Learner's (Class 7L) license for 6 months you can take the Class 7 road test. If you pass, your license moves up to Class 7 (Novice). The restrictions here are: No operation of motor vehicle with alcohol in body, and must clearly display official novice driver sign (which is a small rectangular green sign with an 'N' on it).
   
   
   3. After having the Novice license for 18 months you can take the Class 5 road test. If you pass this test, your license moves up to Class 5 and you are a fully licensed driver with no more restrictions on you than any other driver.
   
   I currently am a class 7L driver. That's right, I'm a Learner. What can I say, when I hit 16, unlike every other kid my age, I had no real desire to drive. I didn't have anywhere to go I couldn't walk (small town), and never really thought about the advantages, employment wise, etc, that having a license would provide. It was only about 2 years ago that I even thought about getting my license. And in February 2001 I got my Learner's. You might be thinking, "Rob. It's been almost 2 years now, and you still don't even have your Novice license?" Well yes, that's true. I don't get a lot of driving time in. I'm intimidated by my father, and hate to ask him for anything really, and my mother doesn't have a license, she doesn't drive, so I don't often get out on the road much. My father is also working a lot of the time, and before this new car (used actually, but it's new to us!) there would be no vehicle here to practice on while he was working, even if I had a qualified driver to take me out. And plus learning in a truck is difficult for me. My judgement on distances isn't, and never was, very accurate. So now that we have a car (Ford Escort, apropos [Thanks DiscoDan!]) I believe my learning curve will be less of a slow climb and, hopefully, more of a steep ascent.

And that's all I can think of saying right now. I know my news posts don't often pertain to the site, and as such shouldn't really be called "news" posts I suppose, but I don't really care when it comes down to it. Like I said in a previous post, "Is this becoming a 'blog? Maybe, but I don't care." At least I've got some other guys to post, that way there's a little variety in here. *Reminds self to nudge Ginnsu into posting something*

Oh, one last thing (I know, I know, this is huge enough already), if you haven't noticed, and I hope you have, at the top of the left column (you might have it toggled off, turn it back on real quick) there is a box that says [Change Site Skin] on it. If you mouseover that, you'll see it contains a list of skins that you can apply to the site. Currently they're mostly hue shifts, the graphics are still the same just different colours (although the Inverted! skin is neat), but I've been working on another skin that will probably be introduced to the list the beginning of December. Like Winamp 2, my site skins are graphical only. I don't have the skins change the actual HTML layout of the page, so the site will always have restrictions. I just didn't feel like making up a whole new system of layout. Yet. So, check out the new skins, and pick one that's to your liking. I'm still partial to the blue myself. :)

Rob out.

Do you all like the Christmas skin? If not you can always change it with the skin selector at the top left.

It's late. Goodnight everybody.

I Am.

I Am.
I dream.
I laugh and I weep.
I live and I die.
I create and I destroy.
I am loved and I am hated.
I love and I hate.
But most of all, and above all else,
I am loved as I love.
Therefore, I am till the day that,
I once was.

- Chris Hughan aka Ginnsu

Earlier this year I watched the movie A. I. with a friend. While it did seem far fetched, once I ignored my brains compulsion to concentrait only on what is real in our lifes today, I realized that whether the possibility of robots with emotion is possible or not, there are plenty of issues that would surround it if it did become a reality. Even if it did not become a reality, these same issues do play a big part in our society today, just in different ways. I'm not going to delve into the specifics of anything today because I have other things to say.

This poem was a result of the way the movie A. I. touched me. Our emotions, our ability to reason, even our very existance defines us as who we are, each individual person. The feelings of people (asking too much in a lot of cases, I know, but I'm going to keep saying it anyways), and on a greater scale the laws of governments should reflect that each person is an individual with an equal chance at life. That is regardless of Sex, Race, Belief, etc. You know the spiel, right?

For those of you who are often in the #ocremix chat, or on the Overclocked Remix Forums, you may have noticed a guy by the name of Digital_Coma. He liked my poem so much he put it on his blog (with a small modification) and forgot to check who wrote it. The really coincidental thing that suprized the both of us is that the same thing that prompted me to write the poem, the movie A. I., was exactly what prompted him to post it on his blog when he first read it. He commented, "its interesting how you can think alike with another person in such a specific manner." I would just like to expand on that by saying that it happens with two different people in totally different parts of the world, with totally different life experiences and even different up bringings. You can find more info on Digital Coma's thoughts on the issue, here.

Just something for you to ponder, if it please you.

So... The last couple days my computer has been rather annoying. It was freezing up at least every 30 minutes due to blue screens, illegal operations, and "white errors" as I like to call them (error windows that have the old Win3.1 style). Usually the errors were caused by Kernel32.dll, which you might recognize, and you might not. It got to the point where I didn't want to use the computer until the problem was resolved because I had a feeling if I was in the middle of something and lost all my work again (happened 3 times the first day before I gave up) then I was going to put my fist through something. Something expensive. Like the monitor. And I'd hurt myself. That idea didn't appeal to me so I decided to get in contact with a friend of mine by the name of Shawn. Shawn's kind of like the town computer genius, and I believe a lot of people depend on him to fix their problems, as did I in this case. I originally intended to just ask him what I should do, when he generously offered to come by my place and help me first hand. After he got here, he quickly surmised that the processor itself was causing the problems because it was overheating, to the point where it was actually visually burned and damaged. After trying several things throughout the day and well into the night it was decided that the processor was garbage and could not be salvaged for it's original use (maybe it'll make a neat paperweight now). Shawn has very generously lent us a 300mhz processor that he wasn't using until we can get things sorted out. Unfortunately replacing the CPU won't be as easy as I had hoped. I had thought we could just buy a new 500mhz CPU and slap it in there, but they would be hard to find considering CPUs are no longer manufactured at that speed. It turns out the best way to get everything fixed will be to replace the CPU with somewhere in upwards of a 1ghz processor, and to replace the current motherboard with one that will support a CPU of that speed (this board probably only supports a 600mhz at most). So that's what Shawn and I are going to look into next. In the meantime, if the server seems to run slower, now you know why.

Lastly, I just wanted to give a big thanks to Chris (Ginnsu) and Shawn for all the help and support they were able to provide yesterday. Thanks a bunch guys.

- Rob

Watch this flash!
Watch this flash!
Watch this flash!
Watch this flash!

I CANNOT pimp this enough. Get over to Newsgrounds and check out Volume one of 8-Bit theater in full Shockwave Flash goodness. It is directed by TLF and stars CotMM-68030, Rhyos Beoulve, and Compyfox. Maridia was on board as a creative consultant. Vote 5 and tell your friends. If it gets a good enough response, you better believe more will be on the way!!! And be sure to drop by the chatroom or the ocr boards and let the cast/crew know what you think! Warning to 56k'ers, it's a little over 2.6MB....

Hey, what's this?
Ahhhhhh! Mango juice!







-ap

It's funny. If you didn't know, Chris (Ginnsu) and I are close friends, we live less than a block away from eachother, so we've been discussing the lack of news on the site here. It's not really that there has been nothing to "report" as it were, it's that neither of us could build up the initiative to actually write about anything. I know that myself, I kept assuming he would write something and I'd be in the clear without having to so much as lift a finger. It appears I was wrong. ;)
So, what have I to say? Well, I guess I'll start off with one of the oldest pieces of news I have.

A few weeks ago, Chris and I did some unofficial, unprofessional, volunteer, bartending for a dance setup by the local Union. It was quite entertaining. We had to serve a variety of bottled liquor (from Molson to Labatt to Corona to a few types of coolers) and several types of hard liquor (vodka, gin, rye, etc). Not being a drinker myself, I found it a little awkward when people would ask me for specific mixed drinks ("Can I get a screwdriver?" "Screw..driver?"), or when someone would ask, "What goes well with rum?" I could only simply reply, "I don't drink. I don't know."
There were a few interactions that really left Chris and myself confused, such as at one point two women came up to the bar and asked for, if memory serves correctly, a "Brain Eraser." Chris and I looked at eachother and simply asked, "A brain eraser?" One of the women proceeded to tell me how the drink was made, and something needed was milk. I told her we didn't have any milk, only alcohol and a few sodas, but I pointed her to a table setup for coffee, and said there might be some milk on that table. She returned from the table with an empty milk pitcher and told me, "Come on, hurry up. Squirt the cow or whatever." Again I told her we had no milk, but she was distracted as a friend called her away.
By the end of the night, there were a few people who looked like they'd had plenty enough to drink, although I don't recall anybody "falling-down-drunk" unfortunately. I imagine it would have made the night even more interesting to see people tripping over their own feet.
All in all it was an entertaining several hours, although my feet were not soon to forgive me for standing all night.

Well, that's the major news worthy item that's been harassing my mind to write down and post, but there are some other less long-winded things I have to say.

• One of my good friends, Jason, is back in town for about a week from Victoria. Chris and I went to his place yesterday to see if he'd gotten into town yet, and he had. We sat at his parents place (where he is staying while here) and talked with him and his friend Dave about stuff in general, how life has been treating us, how Kitimat is slowly dying, etc. It was great to see and talk to him again, it's been a while since he was last here.


• I've been playing a lot of Red Alert 2: Yuri's Revenge at Chris' house lately. I don't know if that's news worthy, but it's been keeping me off of this computer a lot lately, which contributed to the lack of updates.


• Christmas is soon.. I don't even want to think about it really, I've bought absolutely nothing for anybody yet, and I have no clue what to get for.. anyone.


• I got the SNES-PC adapter, and it rules. I can now plug a SNES controller into my computer and it works perfectly. I was using it the other day to play some roms on ZSNES.


• I currently have Time Splitters 2 rented, and while I'm disappointed in not being able to setup the controller the way I was used to in the first game, it's still a great game. The story mode is still.. well it's lacking an in-depth story, but it's more than just grab and smash at least, there are actual objectives to complete.


• Found out a couple people were linking to my wallpapers and it was putting a drain on my bandwidth and transfer speeds, so I redid the wallpaper section. I no longer link directly to the images, and I've changed all the filenames so they can't be linked to by anyone who doesn't know the new filenames (read: me). It now goes through a PHP script just to view them, and if that is linked to from anywhere not on my site then they will get this image.


• I've also added a new wallpaper or two since the last update. There's Burst, which comes in orange and blue. And just recently I posted EMP, which comes in 3 tasty flavours. Check them out.

Well, that's all I can really think of now, and I'm starting to get distracted. So I better just post this before something screws up and I lose all this stuff.

Hope you all have a safe and happy holiday and if you like Carol of the Bells, here's a .zip (16.7mb) of six versions of the song.
So as my youngest sister used to say, "HO! HO! HO! MERRRRRY UN CHISS CHISS!" (What can I say, she was like 3).
Have a good one.

- Rob Saunders

Last night with it being Christmas and a friend in town for the week from Edmonton, we decided to skip town and go see The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. It's a 45 minute drive (60 Km, or 37 miles) out of our home town of Kitimat to the nearest town with a crappy theater that was playing the movie. So we all hopped in my parents Toyota Tercel. Except for an SUV sitting in the middle of the road with its flashers on, the trip was un-eventfull. We arrived at the northern hick ville that goes by the name of Terrace, and took a few moments to find the ruddy theater. After paying, and deciding that we didn't want any of the crappy food, we decided to go sit down in the crappy seats. Now, except for the fact that the projector operator didn't seem to have a clue what he/she was doing, the movie was great. The previews started with the film all on a slant, and when they did finally get it centered it didn't take up the full screen like it does in the theater we usually go to back in Kitimat (for once I get to make Kitimat out to be superior to another town.)

So, about the movie. I'm not going to give anything away at all except that if you like battle scene's, you'll like this movie. The first one was based much more around storyline, just to get you interested. There was much less focus on storyline, except where the hobbits were involved. I personally loved the character Smeagol.

And then came the ride back into town. All was we well until we hit this hill where the snow got progressively deaper as we climbed it. We saw a car in the ditch and thought it'd be a good idea to pull over and see that everyone was alright. They informed us that their tow truck was on it's way and there was nothing to worry about, so we continued on our way at 60 - 80 Km/h (roughly 40 - 50 Mph)as going any faster would have landed us too, in the ditch. And once arriving back in Kitimat, we took the opertunity to try pulling doughnuts in some parking lots in town.

And that is all....

Wait... you were expecting a point to this?

Okay, true to my nature I had written this BIIIIIIG LOOOONG schpeil about the year in review and what happened and blah blah blah. Wanting to make a news item worthy of Saunders' Server, I was well into paragraph 5 or so when I closed the wrong window and lost everything I wrote. Sufficie it to say that the subject line conveys my mood and you all will just have to settle with THIS as the last post of the year (unless rob1 or ginnsu steps in last minute...they ARE 3 hours behind me...). So there. Happy fuckin' New Year. This incident truely demenstrates how much I want this year to be over.

So, last night Rob and I had been at my place playing some Yuri's Revenge. After two games of that, we decided that we should find something else to do, so we called my sister on her cell to see if we could use the car (the car is so much more fun to drive then the van.) She informed us that it was parked across the street from a friends house. She couldn't park it right at the friends house because the parking lot in front of their town houses had not been plowed, and the car being a very small and low to the ground vehicle would not have made it over the snow. Rob and I drove the van up to where the car was parked and parked it ahead of the car so that I could move the car and then park the van where the car was. I moved the car ahead of the van, and then proceeded to back the van to where the car was, at the corner of a side street and the main street. Just before I moved the van, a tow truck drove on to the street and carried on driving. I thought nothing of it at the time, but it soon became apparent that he wasn't just cruising around. After the van was parked, I got out and was about to head to the car. A guy came out of the house where I had parked the van, and said "You're not going to leave the van there, are you?"

I said, "Well I was."

Sounding slightly miffed, he said "Do you know how many times that car has almost been hit by people coming around that corner? You can't leave that there."

"Ok, I'll move it then." I said quickly. And I proceeded to get back in the van. As I did so, the tow truck came around again and parked in this guys driveway. I drove the van around and put it in the parking lot over where my sister's friends house is, which was an interesting endeavour to say the least, with all that snow on the pavement. I went over to my sisters friends place to see who might be home, and although my sister a and her friends weren't their, her friends son was. I talked to him for a bit and found out that they've been trying to get their driveway cleared for some time, but their land lord couldn't (or wouldn't) get the tractor in to do it. By the time I had stopped the van, a cop driving an SUV had pulled up in front of the guys house, stopped, and went up the driveway to talk to the tow truck driver. At this time I realized what this was all about. So I went over to talk to the police, and the tow truck driver to sort things out and get an idea of where I might be able to put the van. I apologized for the position of the car, and explained the situation as best I could. The tow truck driver and the cop realized that I was at the scene with Rob completely by coincidence, and expressed that whenever you're parking a vehicle in the winter, just don't park it on the side of the street. It's illegal to do so because the plow that clears the streets, can't clear effectively if there are vehicles on the side of the road. The tow truck had been sent out by the Police to tow the car for being parked illegally. We saved the car from being towed only because of perfect timing.

I don't know how many of you reading this understand the whole system of getting a driver's licence here in BC, I've mentioned it on here once before I think, but I'll briefly/simply explain it:

• When you turn 16 you can take the written test.
  
• If you pass you get your Learner licence (Class 7L).
  The Learner licence let's you drive with a fully licenced driver and one other passenger during daylight hours if you have 0% blood/alcohol level, and you display the Learner sign at the back of your vehicle (magnetic red sign with large black 'L').
  
• After having your Learner licence for a minimum of 6 months you can take the road test.
  
• If you pass the road test you get your Novice licence (Class 7).
  The Novice licence allows you to drive at any time, alone or with as many passengers as the vehicle will allow as long as you have 0% blood/alcohol level, and you display the Novice sign at the back of your vehicle (magnetic green sign with large black 'N').
  
• After having your Novice licence for a minimum of 18 months you can take a second road test.
  
• If you pass the second road test you get your full licence (Class 5).
  With your Class 5 licence you have no more restrictions than any other driver.

Okay, so it wasn't so brief, but regardless there it is. Well, today I had my road test for my Novice licence. It was my first time taking the test. Ever. None of my friends have passed it on their first try so needless to say I wasn't really expecting to pass it either, and after I totally fouled up the parallel park, I thought for sure I had failed.
I didn't. :)
So as of today, I can now drive without a licenced supervisor, and all I have to say is, "Ah, the freedom."
Not that I have a lot of places to go, but now I don't have to rely on anyone else when I want to take the car somewhere.

Anyway, that's all. Just thought I should mention that since I haven't posted anything here for quite some time. I really need to get some more news admins, three of us aren't enough, especially when we don't have anything to say half the time. Ah well, I'll find some people to do it somewhere.

Cyas.

Somebody on a Message Board quoted this Jerry Seinfeld bit, and I just found it extremely funny and had to pass it along:

"There are many things that we can point to as proof that the human being is not smart, the helmet is my personal favorite. The fact that we had to invent the helmet. Now why did we invent the helmet? Well because we were participating in many activities that were cracking our heads. We looked at the situation, we chose not to avoid these activities but to just make little plastic hats so that we can continue our head-cracking lifestyles. The only thing dumber then the helmet, is the helmet law. The point of which is to protect the brain that is functioning so poorly its not even trying to stop the cracking of the head that it is in."

I'm thinking what you're thinking right about now. What the hell am I doing here? Well, it seems that my general stupidity has captured Rob's interest, although I can't imagine how or why. And for that matter, how did I let myself get into this? Could it have been a calamitous combination of untapped intellectual potential, a subconscious yearn for attention, and a deep need to release my inner thoughts to an adoring anonymous public?

....

Nah. I'm not setting out high hopes here, and let's be honest: I know that I'm a fool, and you know that I'm a fool. And if you didn't already, you'll find out soon enough. So let's just try to have a little fun along the ride, and satisfy ourselves with my occasionally amusing absurdity, so that I'll never have to let you down with any false promises. Hey, it's worked before. And you know what? I think we're starting off on a damn good note.

It would seem that somebody pimped a url for a page called KageYume. "Why does Ginnsu make special mention of this?", you might ask. And I would asnwer, "Because it doesn't suck. Infact, it is increadible." As far as I'm concerned, there are two types of people in the world. The first type is those who are creatively inept (like me.) The second type is those who are creatively inclined. The creator of KageYume is beyond inclined, the art work is down right amazing. I strongly advise you to visit that site and check out that art work. Now, before I go and turn into a raving "fan boi," I'm going to shut up about KageYume and talk about something else.

You see all that text I just wrote? That was just so I didn't look like a bastard for using this space to pimp my own site, which is what I'm going to do now. Not that its anything half as spectacular as KageYume or anything, but its the best a person as creatively inept as me could come up with. Now, just because I'm creatively inept, doesn't mean I don't have a talent. Specifically, a talent for coding. As such, coding will be the focus of the site. More specifically, it will proably focus especially on PHP, since PHP is the most powerful and productive language I have been dabbling in lately. You will also probably find some mIRC script, although I spend far to much time staring blankly at mIRC and should probably shove it aside. So, anyways, thats whats up and I do hope you check out ginnsu.no-ip.com. Don't forget KageYume either though, because it seriously is amazing. If you have any comments or questions, post them in the hack on my site or e-mail me at ginnsu@hotmail.com.

Okay. First off my prayers, thoughts, well-wishes, and condolences to the loved ones and colleagues of those who perished in the Columbia space shuttle disaster on Saturday. Not like any of them are fans of rob1, but hey, it's the thought that counts, right?

Second: You shouldn't be here right now. You should be at Newgrounds.com checking out the second episode of 8-Bit Theater Animated and voting 5 on it.

Third: Once you're done roffling, go here and pick up your OFFICIAL OverClocked ReMix t-shirt or baseball jersey. I picked up 3. Two for me, one for my little brother so he can pimp OCR at school. If you want an OLDSKOOL OverClocked.org shirt or other apparel, head over to CafePress. Hmmmmmmm...that's all I've got to pimp. Well, I suppose I could to the lame Kalamazoo, Michigan site and the KVCC site (KVCC = po' people college = where ap goes to school).


Lessee, lessee, news, news...hmmmmm. Well, it's a bit of old news, but new to those who care. Antonio Pizza is now officiallly WinMe free and operating on a fresh new copy of WinXP. I'm up to 383MB RAM with two hard drives, 80GB and 30GB. Given this humungous amount of space, cable modem, and no one else to use the computer, I've taken to downloading large quantities of instrumentals, accapella renditions of old songs, tv & movie themes, and oodles and oodles and oodles of porn movies. My goal is to eventually rival Digital Coma. For some reason though, my Internet Explorer is being a poo-poo head. My history folder won't keep the name of sites, but if I go to the search option under it I can find what I'm looking for. That and I can't copy/paste items from the Temporary Internet Files folder anymore. I can count on one hand all the times I've gotten it to work since upgrading shortly before Xmas.


In additon to being on the submissions panel at OCR, a full time factory worker, part time student, and aspiring author, Antonio Pizza is adding another title to his repitoire...voice actor. Thanks to a string of events and the proper connections, I have recently hooked up with the Star Alliance Voice Actors Guild Extreme (SAVAGE). If you're into creating mods for PC games (especially StarCraft), give these guys a holler. They're not exclusively mod only, but it's what they seem to get the most requests for. But if you ever need a voice actor for a project you're working on be it Flash, mp3, a movie, a school project, or ya just want an answering machine message, give me a holler. I promise, not every voice I do is as annoying as "Fighter." Fighter is annoying on purpose, dammit!



Cool and semi-cool programs I've found:

Wall Random. Actually look at those 54 desktop backgrounds you have but never use.

Winpulse. Optimized for WinXP, you can use it on other Win OS's as well. It basicallly tells you everything you need/want/don't wanna know. WinXP could probably tell you most of this stuff anyways, but the best feature is the ability to free up RAM. ctrl+alt+Backspace. Voila, you've gone from using up 70% of your RAM to 65%. It's only 5% but every bit helps when your porno movie keeps skipping due to lack of RAM, right? If you don't register, a little reminder thingy'll pop up each time you restart it, but it's only a matter of clicking no, ya know?







URL review:
8-Bit Theater Animated episode 2
Official OverClocked ReMix t-shirts and jerseys
Official OverClocked.org t-shirts and merchandise
Official site of Kalamazoo, Michigan
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Star Alliance Voice Actors Guild Extreme (SAVAGE)
Wall Random
Winpulse



That's it kids. If you read all of this, you have my deepest thanks.
tntpogbamtfbwy.




-ap

The day after hanging out (translation: buttsex) with Disco Dan, djpretzel, and Majin GeoDooD on the night of December 27 in Northern Virginia, I showed my eight year old brother the pictures we took. After all, knowledge of STDs at an early age is a good thing. Later that afternoon, he nonsensically informed me that he had "seen" a certain David Lloyd and Daniel Cabrera at the local mall. Unsurprisingly, I foolishly chose this moment to be the one time to trust the annoying one. So I sent an IM to Daniel (Disco Dan) asking if he was just in the area. He told me he was close by with David just a few hours ago. So I said, "Oh, so you were with djp?" He quickly responded with "I think there's some confusion here..."

Daniel was with his brother, David Cabrera, watching him play in his band. He sent me a link to Unveiled Faces, the band's site. I didn't have much of an opinion until I listened to the song that at the time was the only one fully available by download: Better. Like OMG!! I was genuinely impressed by the production and execution of the acoustic guitar and vocals.

Fast forward to 8 P.M. of January 28. I'm enjoying this killer cinnamon roll when the phone rings. Hey, hey! It's Dan the Man telling me out of the blue that Unveiled Faces has a show at Jammin' Java, a coffee shop ten minutes away from my place, and asking me to come ... in half an hour. After being promised a sweet cup of sex for complying, I dutifully obeyed.

Did you know that a band's music, apart from how you may judge it from recordings, sounds approximately 1.3457 X 10^4 better played live in a well constructed concert hall? Well, Unveiled Faces' stuff was good as mp3's, and ended up being quite a treat in person. When I came in, I thought Daniel would already be on stage, but the person most closely resembling him, although also vertically challenged, was clean shaven, which Daniel hardly ever is. Lo! It was his bro, David. I should have known, because this person actually knew how to sing. And how! The acoustics of the room were carrying the vocals and instruments very pleasantly. It was charming fun, and if I had any skillz, I might've bust a groove on the flo' - which would have made no sense given the subject matter, but I digress. I was sort of startled to see Chad Morris (guitarist) and not David sing Better, but it made some sense considering that David's pieces are high-octane energy and Better is more of soft thoughtfulness. Their songs are based on generalized spirituality and a few are blatantly Christian gospel. While I'm agnostic and personally don't relate to some of the lyrics, I can still appreciate good music.

After a few numbers, Daniel finally got on to play the piano for Like You, a song that came about due to David's inspiration from Lord of the Rings. I thought it was kind of funny to hear him rhapsodizing about Bilbo for a few lines, but no one was laughing, so I kept quiet. Oh yeah, Daniel. He did GREAT!! Actually, it was hard to focus on his piano playing since he was close to being drowned out by the guitars and whatnot. But I know for sure that he didn't screw everything up, and that's all that matters. I kid; he got a solo, and it was obvious that he was playing a cool tune. It was amusingly odd to hear him do anything related to music other than videogame matter. It's on Unveiled Faces' CD, eplay, so I have this little Disco Dan anomaly in my safe-keeping.

Speaking of which, the true highlight of the evening lay in introducing myself to Daniel's family.

Daniel: "Mom, my friend wants to buy a CD."
Mrs. Cabrera: "Sure, your name is...?"
Me: *inaudibly* "Binnie.."
Mrs. Cabrera: What was that?
Me: *incoherent* "Hi Mrs. Cabrera, I'm Binnie"
Mrs. Cabrera: "Vinnie?"

For some reason, I have a hard time getting my voice heard above a crowd, and I proved that point remarkably well. After I realized that I had introduced myself to Daniel's mother as a mentally retarded child, he then showed me off to his younger brother, Peter.

Peter: "Are you Mustin?!"
Me: "Haha, no."
Peter: "Are you PROTRICITY?!"
Me: " ... "

So to wrap up:

Disco Dan's brother, David Cabrera, heads a cool band called Unveiled Faces

I watched them and Daniel play

It was neat

I took a crappy picture

Yes that's right folks, you read it here first (except Protricity and Ginnsu, I told them beforehand): Saunders Server is providing a hit counter service. It's still young, and fairly untested in public so there are bound to be some problems (unless I'm a better coder than I thought :D), but I think it's ready for general usage.
To find out more, go to the counter page!
Saunders Server; Counter Service

That's all for now, but give it a try.

It's the only phrase that can possibly define this, except maybe ridiculous, but that just doesn't have the same factor of lame that's needed. Anyway, if you read Penny Arcade chances are you already saw this, but I just needed to pimp it here as well.

As Gabe said, "just look at it"
http://www.gamedesigner.net/news.phtml?id=41

I don't remember where I got this, or have any idea where it comes from, but check it out. If anybody does know where it comes from E-Mail me and I'll figure out if I can give some credit.

"Our Father, who 0wnz heaven, j00 r0ck! May all 0ur base someday be belong to you! May j00 0wn earth just like j00 0wn heaven. Give us this day our warez, mp3z, and pr0n through a phat pipe. And cut us some slack when we act like n00b lamerz, just as we teach n00bz when they act lame on us. Please don't give us root access on some poor d00d'z box when we're too pissed off to think about what's right and wrong, and if you could keep the f3i off our backs, we'd appreciate it. For j00 0wn r00t on all our b0x3n 4ever and ever, 4m3n."

For those of you who are so often in the #ocremix chat on EnterTheGame, there have been changes made to how the ever present Quote Script works. It used to be that the Quote Script was run solely by Rob Saunders. He had a Quote Script running on his mIRC that stored quotes in a queue file. Whenever he felt like adding quotes he'd go through the queue file, find the "good" ones and and add them, and discard all the crap. Then one day he had to format one of his drives, and since he forgot to back up the Quote Script all was lost. I made one feeble attempt at re-writing it and got no where. Rob didn't feel like writing it at the time, so all that could be salvaged was a copy of the Quotes File that luckly somebody requested from Rob before the format.

Then one day, along comes a chap interested in only the best humour, AntonioPizza. Having seen the Quotes up on Rob's site, he was intregued and thought it'd be nice to have the Quote Script back in the #ocremix. After some pestering, Rob finally conceded, and re-wrote the once lost Quote Script. Unfortunatly, Rob had not been spending as much time in the #ocremix any more, so I offered my assistance since I tend to idle there all the time. Around the same time that this happened, Rob pointed out a script that somebody wrote in PHP. The script allowed PHP to connect to IRC, and then retreive and send information. The script was called Betabot, and was written by a guy by the name of Benjamin Kuz. He's got quite a few other interesting coding projects on the go. If you're into that kind of thing you might be interested. I saw an opertunity to do some interesting things, as I love working with PHP, and PHP's MySQL support makes data handling even easier. Thats when I set out to write the IRCPHPBot, and then finally the Quote Bot Code. The Quote Bot Code has actually been complete for a while now, it's just got a few bugs here and there, and I'm slowly working on weeding them out. But the most integral part of the of the Quote Bot Code's operation, the QuoteBot webpage, has just become functional in the past couple days. All people who chat in the #ocremix should check this out, especially those who use the QuoteBot.

All that being said, I must mention a few name over again and thank them for helping me make this little project possible. Rob Saunders, thank you for writing and re-writing the Quote Script. Benjamin Kuz, thank you for writing the Betabot. AntonioPizza, thank you for being around at the perfect time to weed out some problems in the voting, and initially voting on the quotes to help start that process of sending all the crap to the bottom. And whoever it was who "saved" the Quotes file, the quotes would be a lot more bare if it wasn't for you (I'll get your name on her as soon as I find out who that was). Finally, thank you to all those who add quotes, request the quotes, laugh at the quotes, and vote on the quotes. Because it doesn't work, if it doesn't get used.

FIRST!
Yesterday I was on the computer coding some stuff for the server when this guy messages me on MSN. He had messaged me previously saying how he liked the remix I had made for OCR and wondering if I was going to be doing another. After I told him no, I had to leave, and I didn't hear from him again til now.
He started off the conversation by asking, "Who is this?" Novel way of going about things, but I obliged him. After he remembered/realized who I was, he started talking about video games and web design and stuff, and then it got back to video games, and the conversation took an odd turn.. you just have to read it for yourself: It's fun chat!

SECOND!
So I got up early today (early being 8:00am for me [what? shut up]) to take the garbage out (everyone says we have the shittiest garbage pickup time, Monday morning, I agree) and lo and behold, what do mine eyes and ears perceive: The computer is off. Turned off completely. Now, you may be wondering, "What's the big deal? So the computer was turned off. I turn mine off at night too."
"Well," I would say to you, "do you have a web and ftp server running off your computer?"
"Well," you would begin, "no I don't, but-"
"That's what I thought!" I would rudely interrupt.
So. I point out the fact that the computer is off to my Mom, and she says that Dad insists that it get turned off at night, and that she's been doing so for the past several days, because, quoth the father: "Nevermore." Er, I mean: "It doesn't need to be on all the time."
Well at this point I go ballistic. I start throwing the furniture around the kitchen, pulling stuff down out of cupboards, smashing dishes on the floor, and generally just causing mayhem and destruction (well okay, I did none of that, but I wasn't very impressed). After my violent and dangerous temper tantrum, I went on the computer and decided to type this up as a news post and here I am now.
So now it just comes down to what I need to tell my Dad in order to convince him that it's okay for the computer to be on all the time. That leaving it on overnight isn't going to make the CPU burn out like our last one did (the last one burned out due to heating problems. Seriously, the CPU actually burned because the heatsink wasn't large enough).
So here I am stuck. I don't know what to say to him. My Dad and I don't often see eye to eye anyway. I mean, we don't argue as much as fathers and sons on sitcoms or as much as any teenage weblog would have you believe, mostly because I hate arguing with him and will avoid it if I can, and I don't have an undying hatred for him, I do love the guy even if I don't like him all the time, but we don't have an easy speaking relationship. I avoid talking to him and, he wouldn't admit it but, I think he avoids talking to me (unless it's to berate me about something). I honestly can't remember the last time we had a decent conversation, but I was probably 4 and it most likely centered around a box of crayons or a new toy.

Done.

Just a quickie.
So earlier today, my little brother is playing the PS2 and he hands the controller to me so I could do something for him. While I was doing that, my Dad came in. So when I finish, my little brother says, "Okay Rob, let me play my game now."
And then Dad says something along the lines of, "Jesus, haven't you played enough games today? You've been playing for 3 hours."
Brother: "No I haven't."
Dad: "You've been playing since I got up at 9:00!"
To which I reply, "Dad... what's 10 minus 9?"
Dad: "What?"
I point to the clock. It's 10:18.
Dad: "Oh. Well, he was probably playing all morning before I got up anyway."

Now, granted, that's probably true in this scenario, but that's how a lot of arguments with my Dad end up. He exaggerates something, someone corrects him, and he either falls back on an answer much like the above, or criticizes you for something completely different.

Yeah, that's my Dad. I still love him though.

There is a lot of stupid stuff that floats around the internet. Stuff that makes some people wonder, "can people really concieve of this kind of stuff, much less believe it?" Like, how about those forwards that tell you that your going to have bad luck if you don't pass it on to at least 10 frieds? Can be kind of presumptuous and insulting don't you think? Do you even have 10 friends? Ok, ok, I'm kidding. Everyone knows at least 10 people by aliases. But it's still presumptuous to assume that you want the information. And then they stick you between a rock and a hard place with the whole bad luck thing if you don't pass it on. Well here is a little something for you folks who have had enough of the forwards. You people who look for what you want when you want it... not that I'm promising you'll find it... or that I'm assuming that you want this... ok, just check this out and stop reading my BLAH BLAH BLAH.

Watch this guy on a SoapBox: SaopBox
*edit: "SaopBox" ?? - saunders*

That wasn't too presumptuous of me was it?

Come one, come all, to the grand redesign of Saunders Server!
I've been working on this design for a little while now and I believe it's complete and ready for action.

Along with the new layout, we also have a new News Admin. Drum roll please.
And it is............

DISCODAN!

Also, I dropped the downloads and rock paper scissors sections.. for now. I might bring the downloads back, but I'm not sure about RPS.

That's all for now, hope you all enjoy the new layout as much as I do.

Oh, and if anyone sees something that doesn't look right, then please contact me right away.

So yeah, my Mom setup a PayPal account and I see all these sites with "Donate to me!" PayPal buttons. Granted, they deserve money because they provide entertaining content, whereas I'm just a mook with a web server and some free time. So, like the subject says, the donations are welcome, and appreciated, but they're not expected or, unfortunately for you, rewarded. Yes, that means that if you give me money you get nothing for it more than the self satisfaction of, well.. giving me money I guess. Well.. giving my parents money actually, as it goes to them. It's basically a way to help my Dad with the bills, internet, computer, or otherwise.

Thanks for reading.

I really do like cheese cake. I like the really thick kind that you get at gourmet restaurants (i.e. not McDonalds) that usually has something like raspberry mango sauce poured on it (that was the good stuff, man). But this one girl I know made this "cheese cake" once and I was like "Oh man! Cheese cake!" ('cause I really like cheese cake) but then I tried it and it was more like... cheese PIE. It was very disturbing.

But anyway, Friday, I drove up to visit Binnie (Digital Coma) and David Lloyd (some loser you probably haven't heard of) for the day. Now, originally I was going to pick up Binnie at his school a la Ferris Bueller's Day off (yes, with the kissing included) but Binnie decided to be a jerk and drove to school instead which was fine by me since I was already 2 hours late leaving.

So anyway, I show up to the guy's house and he's like "um, can you please take off your shoes?" And I'm like, "ummmmm.... ok, what is this? Some sort of crazy religious thing?" And he proceeds to smack me and tell me to respect his culture and so I take off my shoes. Then he's like "well we ordered pizza, would you like some?" And I'm like "Sure! Free food is good!" Oh, but there's a catch! It's VEGETARIAN pizza! No meat?!? This was culture shock of the worst kind. I was thinking "what kind of bizarre people don't eat MEAT on their pizza?!?" Ok, so we finish our "pizza" (I put it in quotes because pizza without meat can hardly be called pizza), and I'm like "What's this jar of rocks?" (pointing to a jar of rocks). And he says "Oh, it's candy. Try one." And I'm thinking "This is a bad dream. I'm going to wake up soon." So we go upstairs and he shows me the entertainment room. In this room are many machines, like consoles, and a computer. But his computer is running on windows 98. So at this point I start to pinch myself every once in a while to make sure that I'm still there.

After that we headed over to dave's place to hang out, get drunk, abuse his consoles (read: play "Zusar Vasar" on the dreamcast) use him for his undying hospitality and watch "The Two Towers" in the comfort of his living room. All in all, it was a pretty "chill" night, and really there was no reason to mention all of this except that Rob was like "Get off your lazy ass and make a news post! You begged me to make you a news admin and now you take my generosity for granted! YOU CUR!" So anyway, it's not really news. But I think what we can learn from this is that you should always fear cultures that you don't understand. That way you stay safer.

"The more you know...."

Daniel

Last week sometime I got an e-mail from somebody (who's name I will not disclose because he's already pissed off at me enough as it is) who wanted Quote 298 (can you guess who yet?) removed from the Quote DataBase. I figured this was a great oppertunity to start off the Removal Requests part of the Quote DataBase. The reason the person wanted the quote removed struck me as funny. I almost thought there was a possibility that they might have been totally kidding. The only reason thye gave was that they "seriously hated that quote." So I displayed it on the very front page, and requested that anybody who agreed or disagreed with the person who wanted the quote removed. Not suprizingly, nobody e-mailed. And nobody even bothered to comment on it to me at all. The only thing that did happen, is that the quote rapidly grew in popularity. It is now resting in the top ten list of top scoring quotes, and I would suspect that the only reason that happened was that it was sitting on the front page with a silly removal request. Then finally I did here something about it. The person who requested the removal of the quote thanked me for being so discrete (yes, I think that was sarcasm) and then we proceded to have a short and frank conversation about my "Quote handling."

This was where I found out that the person who wanted the quote removed made a few mistakes. I'm telling you all this so that you don't have to make those mistakes, so listen up.

(1) The first mistake was that he assumed that it'd be handled discretely. The problem here is that the quote was popular before the request for removal was made. And I needed more compelling reasons then the one that they gave me, so I asked for them. Maybe putting the name of the person who requested removal was going a little too far on my part. But I would still have to make it known that there was a request. With the quote we are speaking of here, the only person who could possibly whine (oops, complain) about it, is obvious.

(2) The reason was far from anything that would compel me to remove the quote. You can "seriously hate" all the quotes you want, but that doesn't get them off the site. "This quote is racist." followed by an explanation of how it is racist, might just get you what your looking for.

(3) They took offense to the quote. Here is where the core of the problem lies. Don't seriously expect me to remove a quote that offends you because it makes fun of you, and then in turn laugh at the quotes that make fun of others. You know what I've noticed about people who don't laugh at others? They're all uptight, so don't take that route either. Instead, lighten up, learn to laugh at yourself, and don't take offense to the world of IRC. If you do, then you're not enjoying yourself anyways, so why stick around?

(4) They weren't kidding when they made the removal request. Because, if they were, I would have found that funny. Wait, who am I kidding? I did find it funny.

So, there you have it folks. Don't make those mistakes. I'm sorry to the person who requested the quote for putting your name up as the person who requested the quote be removed, and I'm sorry that I can't fullfill your request.

*Door Opens*
Religious Solicitor (RS): Hello there, I'm collecting money for less fortunate children in places like Africa.
Me: Sorry, no.
RS: But sir, God wants you to help these children!
Me: God, eh? I don't think so.
RS: You don't believe in God? Have you no faith?
Me: Faith? In what? You're here asking for money to help innocent people who are suffering through no fault of their own. Why would I place faith in a being that allows that to happen?
RS: So you don't believe in God? Is that what you're saying?
Me: No, I'm not saying that. What I'm trying to say is that there's not enough proof either way to make me believe that what you say he wants me to do, is what he wants me to do.
RS: But God wants us to help our fellow man. He wants people to be kind and loving to eachother! The only proof you need is that I am here! God is working through me to lead you along the right path in life.
Me: Well he's not doing a very good job then, cus you're certainly not convincing me. I figure that an omnipotent being would be able to come up with something better than some unconvincing nerd. You know, as far as that goes, how do I know that God isn't punishing these people for some reason. I mean, as far as I can tell they haven't done anything, but maybe in his eyes they did something bad, so he's punishing them with famine and pestilence, and here you are, trying to get money from me to help them, which would be going directly against God's will, no? Maybe you're an agent of Satan, come here to convince me do his evil deeds.
RS: That's silly! I would never follow the Devil!
Me: Even so, how do I know that it's God's will that these people be helped? Did you ever think that maybe he wants us all to help ourselves and the ones that come out on top are the only ones who get to bask in the greatness of eternal life?
RS: But the bible says-
Me: I never read the bible. I'm not a fan of fiction that old.
RS: *Gasp* You are going to hell! Do you know that?
Me: Maybe. Who knows, I might even see you there.
RS: I rather doubt that. Goodbye and may God have mercy on your soul.
Me: You too, O Minion of the Dark Lord!
*Door Close*

If you enjoy that QuoteBot that I got sitting in the #ocremix, you should probably know that I went and screwed up the votes. It started with my coding negligence and ended with some really bad math. So I erased all your votes. And now I'm telling you that you all have to... I mean, uhm... you can vote again, if you would like. PLEASE! I mean, it would be really really nice if you all voted again, on all the quotes. And speaking of which, I made it easier to vote on all the quotes by making a toggle on the webpage. The toggle allows you to turn off all the quotes on which you have not yet voted. SO VOTE DAMNIT! Because the more you vote, the more the quotes don't suck.

There will be another feature added within a few days as well, so stay tuned.

If you've been in the chat lately (which if you're viewing this site, you most assuredly have), you may have noticed my recent fascination with a woman named April Winchell. The question I get alot? Who is April Whinchell?

First off, April is an angry bitch.
Second, April is a FUNNY, angry bitch.
Third, the cartoon fan in you may recognize her as the voice of Baby Herman's mother in "Who Framed Roger Rabbit?", Peg on "Goof Troop", and Ms. Finster on "Recess." Her dad is Paul Winchell, better known to your little cousins as the voice of Tigger on Winnie-the-Pooh or better known to you as the voice of Gargamel on "The Smurfs."

I don't recall how I came across April's website, but it was probably during another search of voice over actors. Anyways, April used to host a radio show in L.A. but her show was cancelled (if you can find out why for me and provide proof, you'll win a coveted auto-@ in #ourownlittlechannel. Either that or I'll mail you a dollar.) so she guest spots on Friday's with Mr. KABC.

Her site has a crapload of humorous mp3 on it, such as the infamous "My Vagina" that I keep playing in mIRC. If you feel like torturing yourself, she's got clips of washed up and B-list "celebrities" singing showtunes. Why? Purely to torture you.

She's got archives of her radio shows on there (commercial free) so you can listen to her bitch for a few hours while your doing your homework. When your stuck on problem #4 for that damn algebra class and your all pissed off because the answers in the back of the book are only for the ODD numbered questions, flip on some April Winchell and let her get angry for you.

I must point this out though:
http://www.radiosavant.com/media/mp3/fox_roar.mp3

The man you hear is Howard Stern. He's talking about how much he loves this radio spot she did. And yes, it really is one of the mp3's that's worth downloading even if you're on a 56k.





In Summary:
April Winchell is a funny, yet angry bitch. I'm sure she would agree.


Linkage review:
April Winchell.com
Radio Savant. This is her production company that produces radio advertisements. This is where I got the Howard Stern thingy from.
IMDB filmography for April. I know some of you think IMDB is evil. Well...fuck you. It's all I got.
Nancy Cartwright's website. If you can find a way to put 5 Nancy Cartwright samples in a song (but only using one of Bart Simpson) without them having a forced or overly gratuitous feel to it, I'll give you a dollar. What does Nancy Cartwright have to do with any of this? Not a damn thing. Who is she? Well she's Nancy Cartwright, who the hell are you?


AP's official OCRFriends hunk/babe of the post:
Protricity You go girl!

You ever known someone who never really says much, and when they do, it's not usually something anyone really cares about, and it's more for the sake of hearing themselves speak (or seeing their text on a screen, as the case may be)? And have you ever known one of these people who jumps at every opportunity to argue and then rollicks in their own victory as if they've acheived anything more than alienating themselves from society in general?

Let me post an example. Keep in mind that the identity of the individual I am using as an example has been changed to "angrygeek" for the sake of anonymity.

<DiscoDan> the Dixie Chicks, whose music I hate, were on tour in europe, and said that they were ashamed to come from texas because of this whole thing
<DiscoDan> and so coutry stations stopped playing their music
<DiscoDan> YAY FOR FREE SPEECH!!!
<angrygeek> how is that not free speech
<angrygeek> they didn't get shot for it.
<Dragonking> wohoo, now if only we could get people like jennifer lopez to say the same thing we would be on our way to true world peace
<DiscoDan> good point
<DiscoDan> shut up angrygeek. stop trying to make trouble. go back to you hole
<DiscoDan> your hole
<angrygeek> when you speak controversially, or against the ideas of the majority, you risk the consequences of people being pissed at you
<DiscoDan> yup
<angrygeek> discodan: sorry, you'd have to do a lot more than that for me to 'go back to my hole'
<DiscoDan> but censorship is sort of old-fashioned
<angrygeek> discodan: how is it censorship?
<Dragonking> a hole? angrygeek must be from afghanistan
<Dragonking> buddum ching!
<angrygeek> they can still say whatever they want, whenever they want
<DiscoDan> stopping playing their music? radio stations, stopping playing their music because they don't like what the group said?
<DiscoDan> I'm not talking about the Dixie Chicks
<DiscoDan> I'm talking about the radio stations that banned their music
<angrygeek> news flash, that's called selective playlisting
<DiscoDan> simply because they stated an opinion
<DiscoDan> yeah, ok, you're pretty much pointless to argue with. Have fun.
<angrygeek> discodan: if you think it's about 'opinion' or crap like that, you're deluded.
<angrygeek> most country music listeners are hicks from georgia who WOULD shoot you if you said that, so, they'r enot going to want to hear, or buy, music from said people
<angrygeek> hence, pulling it from radio rotation to avoid bad image and loss of $
*** Beatdrop (~dcolsen@209.32.113.82) Quit (Quit: be back in a bit)
<angrygeek> in conclusion, you're an idiot and are looking way too deep.
<DiscoDan> good. Way to make a conclusion that has nothing to do with my point. But this is typical angrygeek fashion, so I suppose I shouldn't be surprised
<angrygeek> what's your point, again
<angrygeek> OMG LOL RADIO STATIONS SUXXXXXX FOR PICKING SOMETHING THAT'LL COST THEM MONEY AND NOT KEEPING IT
<angrygeek> ?
<DiscoDan> yes, that was precisely my point
<DiscoDan> but, you have so deftly proved me wrong
<DiscoDan> so congratulations, you are the smart one here
<DiscoDan> you are right. you win.
<DiscoDan> you're king of the world
*** Bruk (Bruk@evrtwa1-ar10-4-40-045-113.evrtwa1.dsl-verizon.net) has joined #ocremix
<Bruk> whee
<Bruk> I got my food handler's permit
<angrygeek> w00t, go me
<Bruk> not like anyone cares or anything, but whee!
<angrygeek> thanks for conceding.
<Dragonking> angrygeek, im just curious, are you arguing that the radio stations have stopped playing dixie chicks for other reasons than what they said or that they banned the music intelligently because it would cost them ratings and money?
<Bruk> uh oh
<Bruk> I came at a bad time
<angrygeek> also: bruk, congratulations, food handler stuff is hard to not sleep through
<Bruk> indeed
<Bruk> hahaah
<Nacostradamus> naco goes away
<Nacostradamus> have much fun with teh arguments
<Nacostradamus> time for xeno
*** Nacostradamus is now known as Naco|Xenosaga
<angrygeek> dragonking: they stopped playing it because 99% of their audience would be pissed by statements such as "i'm embarassed to be from texas" which would directly translate to loss of appeal and sales
<angrygeek> discodan is looking way, way, way too hard and trying to say that they pulled it because they're trying to CENSOR and REMOVE FREE SPEECH
<angrygeek> when noone has ever guaranteed that your opinions have to get equal press all over everywhere
<Dragonking> true, but do you see that as correct? forget about it being a smart business move, but do you feel thats morally just?
<angrygeek> what
<angrygeek> how does that have anythign to do with morals?
<angrygeek> stop looking so hard.
<Dragonking> so hard how?
<angrygeek> morals, feelings, etc, etc, never entered the picture
<Dragonking> are radio stations run by robots?
<angrygeek> i can almost guarantee it was pure buisness.
<Dragonking> there are people running them who have opinions
<Dragonking> and feelings
<Dragonking> and morals
<Dragonking> and to think taht they dont affect their decisions isnt very prudent
<angrygeek> i can guarantee almost to a certainty that execs care more about buisness than imposing their personal beliefs on everyone
<angrygeek> and if they do care, their beliefs most likely consist of "i believe i should make more money than everyone else"
<Dragonking> a point well taken. alrighty then, t'was all i wanted to know. :) now back to the news!
*** RamaLuvsRobbynAlot[Naked] (sgtrama@AC9A2482.ipt.aol.com) Quit (Write Error: Connection reset by peer)
<angrygeek> i'm on FIRE.
<angrygeek> 2 wins in a row, go me
<angrygeek> (although discodan is over there brooding and being pissy because i was right and he didn't have anything to challenge me with)


So you can see that the individual in question took great pride in his "victory." He obviously felt that he had "won" something and could now put it on his list of accomplishments in life. Let's look at a more brief and more recent example of his greatness:

<DiscoDan> ah the mixed blessing of university internet service
<DiscoDan> unlimited high speed internet, and big brother at your back
<angrygeek> if you didn't DL pron or warez, you'd have nothing to worry about from 'big brother'
<angrygeek> (i put it in quotes, as the idea of big brother is completely inapplicable to universities, who have every right ever to monitor and guard your access to their servers and bandwidth. i won this one without DD saying ANYTHING.)

Now, I post his and my text as they appeared in the original conversation, but I cut out the things that other people said in between since they were essentially part of a different conversation or were not directly pertinent to this one. However, I guess my real question is what is gained by this sort of behavior? Is there truly a sense of accomplishment and victory in these sorts of situations? Does one look away from the monitor after "winning" take in one's surroundings and feel better about oneself because of this? I am unable to answer this. But it strikes me as interesting that this behavior is consistent and predictable. Ah well, perhaps I should just not talk, and maybe he would have no need to respond? Possibly.

But I think we can all be part of the bigger solution by solving these problems before they get out of hand. So if you know someone like this in person, give them a good punch in the mouth (even if they haven't said anything!) and tell 'em "DiscoDan says, 'Shut up. No one cares.'"

Thanks and God bless,

Daniel

Click, zoom.
Mom got me to scan this from the local paper last night. She thought it was funny and cute and I'm inclined to agree with her.

A week or so ago, I dropped off a resume at a pizza place called Pizzarama. Several days later I got a call to go up there and fill out an application. Before I got there, I assumed that the application was just another part of the employee choosing process. It turns out that it was actually because I was hired.
After more than 2 years of looking for a job in this town, I finally had one (and I got it in a period of less than a week no less). I was happy. I had applied for the "position" of "delivery boy." Now, I must point out again that I've never had a real job, so when I pictured a delivery boy job and heard the pay was $6/hour (pay for my own gas), I saw me scooting around town in the car dropping off pizzas and getting tips. What I ended up with was a lot less fun, and a lot more realistic.
I'd like to do a public service now and fill in everybody who has the same ideas that I did about delivering pizza. It's not all fun and games.
Today, my first day, I had to chop vegetables, grate cheese, refill the bakers' topping bins, ball dough, and of course, make several deliveries. It might not sound like a lot just typing it out, and for you working guys out there it wouldn't seem like a lot anyway, even if you had to do it, but to me, a first time worker, it was a bit of a surprise, and a bit more than I expected. But I got through the three hours (although it was only supposed to be one) just fine, and made myself $5 in tips.

Well I've got to wrap this up a little sooner than I hoped because my sister is practically usurping the computer. So that's all for now.

*edit* Usurping was the wrong word. Yeah that's right, it's like a week later and I'm only noticing how stupid it sounds now.. shut up.
*edit2* So it's more like 2 weeks... shut up again.

Garian:

The staff of Saunders Server in conjunction with #ocremix, #ourownlittlechannel, #coolness, #starkyland, the OverClocked ReMix staff, Mystery Videogame Theater 3000, the cast of 8-Bit Theater Animated, Ginnsu's server, Kwix's server, LavoSpawn's server, Six-Something.org, StarBLaSt.org, Iterations.net, Videogamemusician.com, Megaman.net, OHHLA.com, the state of Oklahoma, Digital Coma's little brother, Antonio Pizza's little brother, Disco Dan's older brother, Western Michigan University, Davenport University, Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo Valley Community College, Kalamazoo Public Schools, Kalamazoo Public Library, Tiffani69Gurl2001, Suzumebachi's dog, and Sasha the horny hentai rabbit's best friend not only wish you a happy 19th birthday, but have arranged for you a special treat.

At approximately 8pm (CST), the Nice Work Guy will arrive at your house to PERSONALLY wish you a happy birthday. How was all of this set up? I got it like that.



In summary:
Happy 19th birthday Garian!






Linkage review:
OverClocked ReMix
Mystery Videogame Theater 3000
8-Bit Theater Animated Ep 1
8-Bit Theater Animated Ep 2
Ginnsu's server
Kwix's server
Six-Something.org
StarBLaSt.org
Iterations.net
Videogamemusician.com
Megaman.net
OHHLA.com
The State of Oklahoma
Western Michigan University
Davenport University
Kalamazoo College
Kalamazoo Valley Community College
Suzumebachi's Dog
Sasha the Hentai Rabbit's best friend. <<< click this one at your own risk



AP's official OCRFriends hunk/babe of the post:
Garian, but since his picture is unavailable, Avien will accept in his honor. Work it bay-bay!

New wallpaper featuring The Brothers Strong (minus Strong Sad) and The Cheat.
All characters © The Brothers Chaps; HomestarRunner.com.

Ok, so recently, I've been on this stuff some of you might be familiar with called "prozac." Now, usually with any of these drugs, you run the risk of side effects like: headaches, nausea, diarrhea, bloody nose, etc. Well, the most bizarre thing about this drug, besides the fact that it's the most slowly acting drug I've ever encountered, is that it has actually made my stools more solid since I started on it. I've had more regular bowel movements and less messy runny toilet sessions since then. It's either that or I've got a tapeworm, I'm not sure which. But it's been a while since I could depend on at least one satisfying poo per day, and I'm back in the swing of things. Let me tell you, there are few more satisfying experiences in life than letting loose a good clean bowel movement that requires little to no clean up and leaves none of that messy debris that we all hate. And I haven't had any floaters lately either. All of them have been solid chunks. Although I did notice that my poos of late have been greasy, which is intriguing.

Anyway, I thought if anyone would appreciate this news report it would be the many thousands of visitors to Rob Saunders' monolithic website. I hope this has brought joy to many of you, and I hope to have a wonderful excremental experience tomorrow as well!

Peace,
Daniel

Another quickie from me, I just posted three new wallpapers. I say new because they haven't been posted before, but they're actually kind of old. Two of the images I started a long time ago and never finished. I decided that I'm probably never going to finish them and so figured I'd just post them up here and be done with them. Aside from the fact that Work Force is more recent, the same story applies. I've been working on this one for a while, I showed an earlier version to several people, and now I've decided that I can't go any further with it. I've kind of hit a dead end with the image. So instead of just deleting it, or leaving it to age like the other two posts today, I figured I'd just put it in the wallpapers section and put it out of my mind.

So in summary, I posted three wallpapers that probably never should have been posted. If you like them, great. If you don't, meh.

So it's nearing the end of my shift, I've been on about 5 hours, and I'm ready to go home. Another delivery comes up so I go grab the bag and see where it's going. The North Star Pub. Okay, I've been there before, no problem.
So I grab the bag, head to my car and drive on down to the pub. I head inside, and as I approach the bar, the tender points to a man sitting there. I walk up, place the food on the bar beside the man, and politely tell him that it will be $21.15. He grumbles about the food not being worth that much, pulls two $5 bills out of his wallet, hands them to me, and in a drunken gravelly voice he slurs, "Tha's good." And returns to his drink.
As I pause to decide how to tackle this situation without angering this obviously drunk old man, another man beside me laughs and when the bartender asks what's so funny, he tells her, "He owes him 20 bucks, and he gave him two fives."
So I say to the customer, "Uhm, it's 21.15," pointing to the bill. "You gave me 10 dollars."
Drunken grumble, "What?"
The bartender intervenes here, "Hey (name I can't remember), you gave him two fives, you were supposed to give him a five and a twenty."
"Are you fuckin' tellin' me what to do?"
"Pretty much, yeah. Just take back a five, and give him a twenty."
So I hand him back one of the fives, assuming he'll give me a twenty. He then says, "Tha'll be good."
Realizing he's not sure what he's doing, I tell him, "Uhm, no, no, now you give me a twenty."
"What!? I'm not fuckin' givin' you a twenty, then you'll have 45 fuckin' dollars."
By this time I'm getting frustrated. I was intent on going home before this, this is my last delivery, I just wanna get back to the pizza place and cash out.
I hold up the one five I have, "No. See, I have five, if you give me twenty, that will be twenty five."
And as if someone just turned a light on, the man blinks, "Oh! I thought I fuckin' gave you twenty dollars!" He now hands me a twenty dollar bill, "Aw jeeze, I'm sorry about tha' man. I thought I already gave you twenty bucks."
"Hey man, that's all right. Enjoy your food."
So I go back to the store, cash out, and get home. Finally.
At the time I was just annoyed, but in retrospect I find it quite humourous.
Hope you all enjoyed this little story of mine.

I liked the premise and the result of this test, and the other news admins seem to be ultra-busy lately, so I'm just gonna post this and be done with it.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	Very Low
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Very High
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	High
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	High
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Very High
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Moderate

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

Work tonight~~~
Oh yeah, and I promised Maridia that I'd get the jungle comics done and now that I've written it here for all to see I'll have to actually do it or face ULTIMATE DEATH CHALLENGE or something. Long sentence. ByE!
Oh, and here's my car.

So this guy at work hands me this brochure that he's got for this Laptop and he's like "is this a good deal?" Ok so I start looking at the specs. It's $400 (USD) which for a laptop, COULD be good. But then there's the specs. The first thing that in my mind was wrong was a listing of 48 MB of ram. Then a whopping 2.1 gig hard drive. Oh then on the back I see that the processor is a Pentium 233, and it comes loaded with (check this out) A 3.5 INCH FLOPPY DRIVE AND A CD-ROM DRIVE!!!!!!

Ok, well I basically told him that it was a rip off so he didn't get it.

BUT, that reminds me of something else. Being known for being good at something can be good and it can be bad. Somehow, every one at my job knows me as "that guy who's good with computers" as if I'm like the free tech support they've always wanted. Which is bullshit in my opinion, since I don't know half of what REAL computer geeks know, but just because I can tell someone how much hard drive space they have left, or whether or not their computer is indeed fucked or not, doesn't make me an expert by ANY means.

So, the moral is this:

Don't let people know you're good at something or else they'll bug you about it. Unless you're like, REALLY good. See, the thing is I'm not superb at this, so I can't really charge for it 'cause I might not be able to help someone or might even screw it up worse than it was when they showed it to me.

Anyway, it's annoying. Everyone should just hide their talents and abilities and never do anything with them. Everyone should work fast food.... which reminds me. I want some fast food.

D

I thought I'd do this test that Saunders brought up and post it. Just because I can.

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Moderate
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	High
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Extreme
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Test

I like being a Heretic. Fits quite well with my outlook on life.

There is actually something that has been bugging me for a while, and I suppose I should spill it. There is no such thing as evil... Ok, well there is, but it depends on how the word is used. What bugs me is when people refer to somebody such as Saddam Hussein as being the "child of Satan" type evil. Or Osama Bin Laden, he's another one people seem to like to think that has been bestowed upon with powers direct from the devil. Come on now people, get real. These are people (dare I say it) who are just like you and me, except for the fact that they are power hungry power abusers who are probably just a little messed in the head. Ok, so thats a horrible understatement, they are probably extremely messed in the head, and if they'd seek therapy we'd probably find out what the true root of their problems are. But thats a non-issue because everyone who's that insane believes they are as sane as you and me. Ok, maybe not so much you, you scare me because you're still reading this. Me? I'm perfectly sane. *Gnaws on his own arm.* Lovely day isn't it? *Spits out pieces of flesh*

Here I was, playing floor hockey in my elementary school gymnasium. It was part of an after school sports program or something like that. The coach running the program was a your regular everyday female sports nut. She was very demanding that we always gave it our 110%, so I gave 120% and kick ass while I was at it. There was only one other person on the team that could kick ass as well as I could, another of the opposite gender. So, the situation for this game was that we split up our team into two halfs, 5 on 5, and had ourselves a friendly little scrimmage. I was tearing up the floor boards with my lightning speed and fantastic stick handling as usual, but most everyone else was sucking, as usual.

The coach decided to stop the game because, as usual, almost everyone else was sucking. They needed to be shown how the game was played. So, she selected my female teamate and myself to play a small game with us two verses her, the coach. She noted that both myself and my female team mate were atheists, and wondered out loud if that was the reason we kicked so much ass.

Our little 2 on 1 game started quick. It quickly became evident why the coach was not hesitant about taking the 2 of us on. She could move like something fierce. My team mate passed the ball to me infront of the net, but I barely missed it. Having lost the ball, the coach picked it up in the corner opposite our net. She had a clear, unobstructed path. I realized at that point that the only way that myself and my team mate could win this game was to pull something increadible... something the coach had never seen before. I ran as fast as I could towards the wall. Before she could even start to move, I ran until I reached the wall and jumped. My feet, with the momentum I had generated moving towards the wall continiued to move across it at lighting speed. When the moment was perfect, I flexed my legs and pushed myself off the wall to do a flip in the in the air so that I landed right infront of my coach before she could do anything with the puck. It was seriously like something out of the matrix. With one quick flip of my wrist, I flicked the ball off my coach's stick and passed it to my team mate, who quickly scored on our coach's net.

At that point, my coach had witnessed her fill sheer skill and agility. She made me play a game with a bunch of new players. It was a test for me to see if I could make them better, coach them, while I myself was involved in the game, on their team. The team had to win the game, or else I would fail. My team mates arrived. 50 of them, and they all had to play on the floor at once. They wore navy "dresses" that we like large loose sweatshirts that went down to their knees. They had slits up the sides from the bottoms, up to their waists. I pressume that was so they could still move their legs without tripping. Under the "dresses" they wore very baggy white pants. I was informed that they were Muslims. The team that we faced were the best of the best that the coach could find, including herself. 5 of them verses 50 Muslims plus me.

The game began and the ball was dropped. I got possesion of the puck and passed it ahead. The only way to help them become better at this sport, I figured, was to help them play as a team. One of them shouted out of the blue "We must shoot the ball at the net as much as possible to score, because Allah says it is so."

Out of no where, slid a carpet on the floor into the gymnasium. On it sat a man cross legged who was wearing all white. And he said as in response to the spontaneous speaker he said, "That is correct, and that is fact, as decreed by Allah."

I was too busy, up until this point, paying attention to what was being said to realize that the opposing team had vanished. I also realized at that point, that all the 50 Muslim's were not carrying hockey sticks, but shovels. Then suddenly I awoke in my bed, and realized it was all a really strange dream. I told the story to Rob in significantly less detail and he analysed it with the following statement: "Ok, so you really want to see the matrix (Reloaded). You see muslims (or theists in general) as those who suck and you being an atheist are better then them all. And you like to play hockey."

I found this article called The Empty Box which is part of The Weathers Report in the Memphis Flyer. I found it on a site called TheDeepDark.com. It talks about a lot of what I've been thinking about concerning Religion, especially since 9/11 and cases such as this one. Many thanks to Ed Weathers for a great article.

So last night I, along with my sister, Ginnsu, and another friend, went to the theater for the new Matrix movie. I must say it was pretty impressive, the fight scenes were of course awesome, and overall it looked really nice. Unfortunately, being as simple minded as I am, there was quite a bit of storyline and such that flew right over my head, like 3/4 of the stuff that french guy was talking about...
Anyway, if you were a fan of the first movie, I definitely recommend going to see this one as soon as you can. Of course, if you hated the first movie you should probably go see X2 or whatever else turns your crank. Oh, and if you're a little slow like myself, you should probably bring an intelligent friend along so as you can pick his brain for answers after the movie is over. Then you might just want to go see it again so you understand what you're watching. I'm seriously thinking of doing so myself, after I meticulously pore over Ginnsu's current knowledge of what went down.
Anyway, just thought I'd mention that I have indeed seen the movie now (and so has Ginn, in fact I expect him to make a post pertaining more to the movie itself and not so much the event of seeing it).

So... yeah.

THASIT!

btw prot r u suxz? ya i thot so!!! LOLZL!

I swear, Rob's trying to turn me into his content bitch or something. I'm close enough that he can drop a hint in passing that I should post something. But instead of doing that, he'll be even more devious and just mention in a post that I might have me to offer then he does on the subject that he was posting on. Bastard. Thats all I have to offer.

Actually, there is more. I have a site to suggest. And I certainly hope you appreciate my suggesting this site, because I'll be going to hell for this. Well, if there is a hell... but thats a question for another day. So, anyways, the site is called NormalBobSmith.com. This guy really likes to mock, and for that we should love him. The best part of the site? That would have to be the Satan's Salvation Comic. Hate mail is of course allways much fun as well. And then there is what this site is famous for: Jesus Dress Up!.

Thats all from me for now. Have a really good crappy day.

By the way, I guess I'll be a content bitch out of love for free speech and this fantabulous page or something like that, but I'll be a really cranky content bitch.

So yeah. I was hanging out in #ocremix the other day when SgtRama (or "wtfever" his name was at the time) mentions something about a new Weird Al CD. Being a fan of Mr. Yankovic's music, I get excited at the prospect of hearing new stuff. So Rama points me to a place where I could download the WHOLE ALBUM FOR FREE! So I downloaded a couple of songs that Rama mentioned were good (specifically A Complicated Song, and the Angry White Boy Polka), and to make a short story even shorter, after listening to these two songs I decided to buy the CD. You know, because of that whole, "support the artist," idea, etc. And I must say, I wasn't disappointed. There were two songs on the CD that I downright didn't like (Wanna B UR Lovr, and Genius in France) and a few I wasn't so hot about (Trash Day, eBay) but for the most part I enjoy the CD and I suggest that you get it if you're a fan of Weird Al's music.

And uh.. yeah.. that's it. Cya!

Update to this post can be found here. Where you can actually download the 13 episodes of Bullshit.

Bullshit! is just another term for what James Randi likes to call "Flim-Flam." The famous magician, Mr. Randi even wrote a book with that title. Another term you might here sometimes is "pseudoscience." Anyways, back to Bullshit! Who is saying "Bullshit!" these days? Well that would be another couple of famous magicians, these two are far more prominent in the minds of this generation then Randi, and well known for their comedic magic shows performed in Las Vegas. Penn & Teller! Well, ok, mostly Penn, because Teller isn't known to talk much. Bullshit is a TV series that the duo put together for Showtime (those living outside the United States of America should note that this link will not work.) 13 episodes of Bullshit! dedicated to talking about various brands of Bullshitters who either want your money, or want to sell you a line. Mind you, often times these people seriously believe the line they are trying to sell you. Such as the first episode where they talk about those who believe they can talk to the dead. Like James Van Praagh or John Edward who talk to the dead an make lots of money off of it. The other episodes of the Bullshit! series cover topics like:

Alternative Medicine - chiropractic medicine, reflexology, magnet therapy, etc.

Alien Abductions - Pretty self explanatory.

End of the World - How many claims did you hear before the end of the last millennium?

Second Hand Smoke / Baby Bullshit - Second Hand Smoke... not a health risk? And Baby Bullshit, people will try to sell you anything.

Sex, Sex, Sex - This is fun. But no, your size will not increase. And no, that food does not actually make you horny.

Feng Shui / Bottled Water - Learn how you can move your furniture for no good reason, and spend $1.75 on a bottle that you could have just as easily got from a tap, for free.

Creationism - In church or private school, its one thing. In public school, its quite another. The Catholic Pope, who recognizes Evolution, knows better.

Self-Helpless - Walk on fire and it'll make you a better person. Really!

ESP - technical remote viewing, talking to animals.

Eat This! - Diet fraud.

Ouija Boards / Near Death Experiences - Witches, more talking to the dead, and the light at the end of the tunnel.

Environmental Hysteria - No silly, its next year that we're going to run out of food, not this year.

So now, why am I talking about this? Well you see, I just finished watching the series yesterday. Now, some of you maybe me wondering, "How does a Canadian get Showtime, so he can watch Bullshit!? Satellite?" No. I downloaded the lot of them on Kazaa. Took me a couple months because a lot of the (the more recent ones especially) are rare. I even tried using emule for some of them. But besides the fact that all emule did was waste my bandwidth, they were only available in XviD AVI format (which is, in my experience, a crappy codec or there are a lot of crappy encoders of this codec, or something.) The file sizes were huge, and the video didn't work at all with the old codec?s I had installed, and with the new ones it worked but only partially. On Kazaa, I found the files to be available in Divx and (fully functional) XviD codec?s, MPEG (by far the best overall quality, but the same file size as the AVIs), and WMV. I downloaded the whole series in WMV because it's a small file size and it doesn't diminish the quality too much. Best of all, it always worked consistently.

I'm getting sidetracked here. If you're still reading this, you're probably wondering how you can get these. Well, not from me you can't. But, my suggestion would be to:

• download Kazaa Lite if you don't already have it. No spyware, or adware. :D
• Use this Epguides site as a reference to see which files you do have, and which you need. Note that the file names are not always the same as the episode names, but they are similar either in wording or in meaning.
• Search for "Penn Teller" in Kazaa lite and you will usually find at least a couple files. If not, try the search more option. As I mentioned earlier, I would suggest downloading them in the WMV format. Although harder to find, the MPEG format is consistently excellent quality, but you have to put up with large file sizes.

And that is that. Here is a recap on what I linked to here:

James Randi
Flim-flam, a book by James Randi
Penn & Teller
Showtime
James Van Praagh
John Edward
emule
XviD Codec
Kazaa Lite
Penn & Teller's Bullshit! on Epguides

By the way, think before you buy. Hell, think before you do anything.

So, I've got a hairline-cracked rib, a slightly chipped bone in my back, and a fractured wrist. Apparently I fell out of a tree in central park, but I don't remember it. So anyway, the doctor prescribed me Percocet because of the pain (oh yeah I also apparently had a concussion/head trauma) and as I'm reading about the effects, it says that it may make me drowsy and that taking it with alcohol may enhance those effects. So I just read the first book of the "A Series of Unfortunate Events" series, entitled A Bad Beginning, which, despite it's intended child audience, is quite a good quick read. Anyway, it's now about 2 AM and I'm still not tired so, after noticing the warning on the bottle of Percocet, I figured that if I take the pill with a spot of wine, it might make me tired faster, not to mention it would ease the pain in my ribs everytime I breathe. Hmm, after inhaling, I can see the pain-relief part of this medicine is already working. So now I'm off to bed to see if my wine-percocet combination will have the desired sedation effect, though I have a feeling that my liver will not be pleased with my choice. Anyway, hope everyone's summer is starting off wonderfully. I know mine is! I just need to set windows to left-handed mouse control...

D

So I wake up this morning and waltz into the everlasting #ocremix channel on ETG, and what do I see? A war. Well, I wouldnt consider this much of a war, more like a battle. A battle of misinformation more than wits. What was the origin of the battle? Why, the OC Judge panel ofcourse.

The reasons were the same; Those who uphold the policies and rules set forth by the Remixer Guild of OcRemix vs those who believe that all popular songs should be on ocremix without persecution. I, as a judge, took the side in defence of the current system, but only for a short while, because I noticed something right away: Some of those who opposed the system before, now agreed with it. I noticed that a lot more people were rallying to the defence of the system than before. I noticed that they indeed understood the reasons behind it; Quality Control, Fairness, Feedback, and Self-Improvement.

This made me quite happy as I realized I did not have to do nearly as much argueing as last time. Sure, I don't have to argue at all, but its more of an erge that I really cannot resist. I LOVE arguing. I love it more than many things, but like anything else, it is tiring.

Luckily, this whole thing got resolved within half an hour of starting. Some evil posts were made, people got riled up, and then David Lloyd himself comes down from heaven and puts everyone in there place leaving a great degree of calm and reason in his wake. It is known that none can resist the logic of Mr. Lloyd... well.. except when he defends Xmen 2... er..thats something else.

Anyway, I believe that many are confused about the system simply cause the FAQ was never finished or released. I think a good stable FAQ regarding how the system works NOW would be most benificial to OC and might just prevent things like this from happening at all. This is something I may address soon within the panel.

Thats all for now. Writing news posts are fun. This was my first, and I hope to do more.

TTYL to all my friends out there, I <3 u all lol :D :) :-) *heart* *kiss* *hug* *ASS VIOLATION*

So I went over to Rob's place the other day. I handed him a briefcase, and within this briefcase was, well, a piece of paper with my password on it... and some other pieces of paper... lots and lots of pieces of paper...

But seriously, this is (obviously) my first news post on Rob's site. I feel it is a great honor! One which most of you probably will just hover your mouse over for a second and then move on. I don't really know WHY I wanted to write a news article for Rob's site, but I've been feeling a lot lately that I've wanted to do some writing, and since I've yet to come up with some names for characters for a story that I've contemplated writing while my computer is broken down, I decided that perhaps I could come up with something interesting to share with all of you who actually read these news posts.

Anyway, it seems that a lot of people seem to take me as some sort of authority on categorizing electronic music into its many different genres. The funny thing is, while I do think I have a good idea how to classify different types of music into genres, I don't think I'm any more of an authority on it than anyone else.

Recently, someone I know, who shall remain nameless, asked me to listen to a new song he was working on. This isn't the first time he's asked me to do so, and I'm sure it won't be the last. At any rate, he told me that he'd been listening to surprising amounts of R&B lately, and that he had started working on this song to see how well he could pull the genre off himself. Well, upon listening to this song, I realized that it didn't really sound like R&B. And just to clear this up right now, my idea of R&B is along the lines of Marvin Gaye, R. Kelly (that child molesting bastage), and Seal. This person's song sounded more to me like the kind of backing you'd hear in a modern Rap song. Now, there are two kinds of Rap: West Coast and East Coast (there are probably a lot more specific styles within those two genres, but that's about as high up as the genre tree goes). I can't remember where I learned this, but I'm pretty sure it was on TV somewhere, and as such, it was probably a lie anyway. I told this person that his song sounded a lot more like one of the above styles of Rap to me than R&B, primarily because of the drum rhythm. Naturally, being human, he disagreed, and I continued to carry on in support of my idea as to what genre of music it was. It came down to us realizing that we don't agree on anything and him deciding that we should just stop casually talking for the GOOD OF MANKIND (no, he didn't say that, but I did just now, so sh'up).

Shortly after this argument, I realized that it didn't really make a difference what technical name for the genre the song should be given, since it wasn't my song to begin with. Basically, we argued and got pissy over nothing.

I think what I'm trying to say is that genres don't really make much of a difference. All they do is to help people who are looking for a specific style of music find it. I think all of us musicians should just label our music "Pop" or "Rap" in order to get it more exposure. I'm sure the people, upon listening to their newly downloaded Beatdrop rap music, would be rather infuriated that what they found was Melodic Trance or Schranz or some other crazy genre they'd never heard of (and would thusly end up calling it "techno shitz" because that's the way the world works), but at least someone new has heard my music who otherwise wouldn't have.

YOU WANT A GENRE? I'll give you a genre! Suck Music! Music that sucks! I can think of a whole bunch of other genres we could just take and dump into that one, but I'll keep that to myself so as to only be stoned to "almost dead" as opposed to "all dead."

A friend of mine, whom I doubt any of you (except Rob) who reads this site would know, asked me to join him in attending a political rally/protest/hours of being bored while hearing others yell until their voices started scratching. The event was that the Premier of the Canadian Province in which I live (British Columbia) was coming into town (Kitimat) to talk to local Community and Industry Officials about what they are going to do about stuff. I won't go into detail on what "stuff" is because that'd bore you, but as you might well have guessed it's stuff that sucks. Anyways, the Premier is this guy. Internationally, the most you've probably heard of him is "that political official who went drunk driving in Hawaii".

Back to talking about the protest. To be quite honest, the only reason I went was because when my friend invited me, he informed me that this cute girl we know would be there. If it wasn't for that, I most likely wouldn't have gone. When I got there, there were far more people there then I had expected. And as you could imagine, none of those people were supporters of Gorden Campbell. By the time my friend and I arrived, the Premier and most of the officials involved were already inside, having their meeting. Various Community Council members walked in as we stood in the designated "protest zone." Of course, a few members of the Local RCMP Detatchment were there, to make sure that the crowd behaved themselves. Directly infront of the door of the building where the meeting was held, sat a van. The van's engine idled the whole time the meeting went on with the driver in his seat, prepared to leave at a moments notice. Around the van stood 2 men in dark suits that I could only best describe as "Body Guards." The meeting didn't end until almost 2 hours after we had arrived, and when it did it immediatly became evident to me that the Premier pulled a fast one. Some official looking people opened the door to the front of the building where the van sat. At that point, of course, the growds eyes were focused there while they waited in anticipation of who would emerge. Some people stepped out, but none of them were the Premier. At that point, I happened to be looking off in another direction, when I saw a white car pull out from behind the building and make its way swiftly out of the parking lot. At least half the crowd remained completely unaware that anything had happened. And of those who were aware, some were furious at the fact that the Premier would make such and effort to escape the voices of the people.

After people settled down and the news spread throughout the crowd, people approached the RCMP Officers and Community Council Members to see if there was any information on where the Premier might have escaped to, Two locations were mentioned, so on a hunch my friend and I chose to proceed to the second mentioned location. As it turned out, we were right about the fact that the first location mentioned was a hoax. With the lack of organization of the protesting crowd, the numbers had dwindled significantly. It soon became apparent that the Premier was going to exit the building at this new location, as both the van, and the car were moved into position infront of the door. In all the ruckus that occured as the Premier exited the building, I'm not sure exactly what happened. But I do know that one person was arrested for being hostile, and two others had to be delt with by the Premier's "Body Guards" because they were standing infront of the Premiers van, blocking its path out of the parking lot, while shouting at him for avoiding the voice of the public and making it very aware of the fact that they were unhappy with him.

After all the excitement, I was about a 10 minute walk from home, so I told my friend that I was out of there. This Political Activism stuff is interesting and all, but I personally think I am just going to vote in the next election, and leave it at that.

Now that I've sufficiantly bored anybody who actually though I might have something interesting to say, I would like to mention that tomorrow I hope to write about that Road Trip that Rob, our goofy friend Matthew, and myself went on over the weekend. That'll be just to show up Protricity, Digital Coma, AntonioPizza, and DiscoDan who have so far failed to talk about their road trip. WTF! Get on the ball people!

I know I promised I'd write this two days, but I got all caught up in helping Rob watch his Dad change the brakes on their truck. That makes for a really exciting afternoon, let me tell ya. I won't complain though, cause I suppose I learned stuff.

So anyways, a week ago yesterday I left my house here at about 5:45 AM to go get Rob's Mom to wake Rob up so that we could go pick up our other Road trip companion, Matthew. Rob and Matthew, as it turns out, both only managed to get 3 hours of sleep that morning. Rob had mentioned the day before that he would probably end up sleeping for the first leg of the journey because he'd have to work that night before we left, but that never happened. Instead we spent most of the morning talking and playing "25,326 questions" (you know that game were some one picks a random object, and the others try to guess what it is? yeah, we sucked.) My 20 Questions object was the best, I must say. You'd be suprized how long "License Plate" can be elusive.

On we travelled in my parents Toyota Tercel, pass slow vehicals, road construction, small towns and villages, cows, and lots of trees. Not much to speak of happened while driving, except that I love driving that car. Besides the fact that it's got a manual transmission, and just enough power to pass those pesky motor homes and those damned slow law abiding citizens that obey the speed limit (100 kM/h or 60 Mph), it's also fabulous on gas. It got about 17 kM/L (40 MpG) which probably cost us about $67 for the distance we travelled over the whole trip (gas prices were $0.754 per Litre or $3.43 per Gallon over the weekend.) You've just expereinced my daily Math homework.

We arrived at 10 Mile lake, at around 5 pm that evening, and soon found the camp site where we'd be staying. We decided to get the tent up as soon as possible, because it looked as though it was going to start raining soon. Of course, as soon as we started putting up the tent, it started to rain. While doing so, Matthew managed to snap one of the polls, and spent the rest of the time avoiding touching anything that could possibly be fragile. Luckily the poll was only splintering, and was still intact so we continued to set up the tent without incident. After the tent was fully set up, and anything important was safe from getting wet, it stopped raining. We confirmed our reservations for the campsite and got a hold of some firewood for the evening. While Rob watched me split wood, Matthew went off looking for people to get stoned with and to his fortune (and his brains misfortune) he found a bunch of teenagers who had access to weed on practically his first encounter. Unfortunatly for Rob and myself, he also thought it'd be funny to fake like he was unconscious and we almost ended up dragging him back to camp. After I got a fire going, I took a drive to the nearest A&W to buy dinner. After chowing down, we didn't do much other then talk, and eventually retired to out beds.

The next morning, we we decided to search for a tent poll. To our dismay, we spent the whole day in the nearest city of Prince George searching for places to buy a tent poll. Finding none, we finally decided to drive to Quesnel where we had plans to have dinner with Matthew's Uncle's Girlfriend's family. Of course, it was only after getting lost, and using the emergancy cell phone to call them up and ask for directions that we found them. Friendly family though, and dinner was great. It would have been better, though, if Matthew hadn't decided to hit on the girlfriend of his Aunt-to-be's son. Half the time he's funny to be around, the other half he's an embarresment (please don't tell him I said that :P.)

We decided, with the weather being overcast and having one tent poll that could break at any time, that it would be a good idea to ask if we could stay the night. They had no problem with that, as long as we agreed to play lots of ping-pong. Ping-pong was played, then we went for a walk around the residential section of Quesnel. After that we attempted to watch the movie "Watchtower" with Matt's step-cousin-to-be and his girlfriend, but it sucked. I would not recommend it. It was amusing, though, listening to Matthew ask lots of personal questions of people he barely knew.

The next morning, after an excellent pancake breakfast, we drove to a museum town called Barkerville. It exists so that people from all around the world can come closer to the expereince of the gold rush. Barkerville was once one of the busiest towns in British Columbia, because of the prospect of finding gold. Today, it makes for a somewhat boring afternoon. So, after purchasing some goodies to bring back to our gracious hosts, we drove back along the winding road to Quesnel.

Since it was Fathers Day, there was more then just us visiting for dinner. Matthews future Aunt had invited her parents, as well as her brother to join us. After dinner, this made for some even more exciting games of Ping-pong. Rob and myself were put in our place as to how much we really suck while watching the Son and the Brother of Matthews future Aunt wack that little white ball back and forth, curving it and slamming it every which way. Later, the company left, and our hosts grabbed another movie. This time the title was "They". Although the production quality was far better and the intrest level was higher, to me it was just another crappy horror flick designed to scare and give you nightmares about creatures that don't exist. However, I must admit, I flinched twice.

On the following morning we started off on our trip home. Rob and Matthew were much quiter heading West then they were when we were heading East. So I spent the day speeding along the highway, trying my best to leave my sister with as little gas as possible for when she would aquire the car that evening (the brat left me with an empty tank before we left). Rob became lazy when it came round to talking about how the car would need to be cleaned when we arrived home. Matthew was helpful enough to stick around and assist in the cleaning before I brought him back to his house. And that concluded our Road Trip to Quesnel. Check out the route we took to get there. (The only possible route we could take.) Under Total Esimated Time, that site says that the trip should take 14 hours, 35 minutes. We did the trip in 11 hours, and if you didn't stop at all, the trip could take 7 or 8 hours. But I suppose they make a high Estimation for those driving big slow vehicals like Motorhomes.

Picked up a copy of the August 2003 issue of PSM today. For free. Don't ask how.

Anyway, contained within was a 10 page article on MGS3: Snake Eater, containing tons of screenshots, an interview with Hideo Kojima, and a little thing making the connection between Solid Snake and Big Boss. I also found a run-down of every single game showed at E3 for the PS2. This was sort of exciting, since I discovered a few things that really interested me. One of them, surprisingly enough, is a videogame rendition of the sport of Quidditch, as seen in the Harry Potter series. The miniscule screenshot in the run-down of this game looked interesting enough, but the concept of turning Quidditch into a videogame is what really had me going "Heeeeeeey..." You know, I'm sure there were other games listed in that run-down that had me interested, but I really can't remember what they were right now.

Oh, I do remember that I got quite a chuckle at Judge Dredd: Dredd vs. Death. Apparently, it's a Judge Dredd game that pits Dredd up against Death himself. Don't forget the Double-Whammy setting, Dreddy.

In a different section of the magazine (towards the front), I found a listing of all the games that are going to be released in August, as well as those that are scheduled for a September release. But that wasn't what really interested me. What did was a Top 10 list of all the games that readers of PSM most want to come out. You know what was at the top of that list? Final Fantasy X-2. I really don't think I have to say anything more about that.

Well, I'm sure you all found this forray into the new issue of PSM through my eyes to be very interesting, but I figured I was doing you all a favor after Ginnsu's entirely boring posts of late.

HEAR THAT, GINNSU? YOUR NEWS POSTS AS OF LATE HAVE BEEN RIDICULOUS.

FISSION MAILED.

If you were around Saunders Server last year, at about this time, you'll remember that my family and I went away on vacation for about 2 weeks. You should also remember that during that time the computer, and thus Saunders Server itself, were shutdown. I had Ginnsu host a temporary page, that primarily consisted of the HACK.
This year will be more of the same. Yet again we are going on vacation for about 2 weeks, to the same area no less (Spruce Grove/Wetaskiwin/Edmonton, AB), and the computer will be turned off, as the person who will be checking on the house is not computer literate, nor could we find someone who is. I don't know if Ginnsu will be able to provide a temporary hosting solution this time around, as he will actually be coming with us, although seeing as his family won't be leaving, there's a higher likelihood that his server will still be operational.
Now, I know that not many of you are too concerned about this, as you shouldn't be, it's only 2 weeks and the server doesn't currently provide any great services, but I figured I would give you all a decent amount of warning this time around, in case you wish to grab images off the OC Friends listing, or other files from wherever.
The date we have scheduled to leave is July 5th, and the date to return is July 19th. This is the period of time that I have off from work, I work for 3 days right up til we leave, and I've been told I'll be scheduled to work the day after we're supposed to get back. You probably don't care, but I'm just trying to make it obvious that I will be back by the 19th, so if you don't see the server on the 20th then something is wrong.

Now, I know that any of you who were really awaiting news from me aren't very satisfied by this post, as you were probably hoping for something along the lines of, "OC Friends Uploading Re-Enabled!" Well, sorry. I've been busy, and when I wasn't busy, I was tired, and when I wasn't busy or tired, I couldn't get on the computer, and when I wasn't busy or tired or I was able to get on the computer, I was uhm.. something else... Regardless, I apologize for taking so long, but hopefully I'll have come up with something shortly after our return from Alberta.

Thanks for reading.

Note: If any of you wish to contact me about meeting Ginnsu or myself in Alberta (only in the areas listed above) then feel free to eMail me and we can talk further.

Note²: Shuttup DiscoDan.

A year ago today we adopted a dog from the SPCA, her name was Becca. At first I was hesitant about having another pet, I had a feeling that the duties that my sister swore she would be responsible for would end up falling upon my shoulders, and I didn't much care for that idea. But then I met her, she was just so cute and adorable, I fell in love with her. Of course, I kept to the facade that I wouldn't hesitate to bring her back to the SPCA if my siblings didn't keep to their responsibilities, but they were idle threats, I could never get rid of her. Shortly after adopting her we went away on vacation, which wasn't the brightest of ideas, only having been with us for a short time she wasn't accustomed to riding in our trailer, and thus destroyed a good portion of it (screens were ripped out of windows, curtains torn, table chewed, etc). Needless to say, she caused us a lot of grief at first, along with the trailer mishap, she also refused to listen to us, and took every chance available to run away but here we are, one year later. She's more obedient now, at least she doesn't run away every chance she gets, and she listens to us... sort of... when she wants to. Anyway, I just felt I had to write something as she's had quite an impact on our lives, I know that I for one sincerely appreciate having her here with us.

So here's to Becca, the most tolerant, goofy, lazy, lovable dog I've ever met.

More pictures, although I'm sure you've seen enough.

Thanks for reading.

Yay, it's Canada Day! Today is Canada's 136th 'birthday.' Celebrate it well my Canadian brethren.

And uh.. that is all.

So yes, we're back from our venture to Alberta, I can't say for sure about Chris (Ginnsu) but I certainly enjoyed most of my time there.

We stayed for about a week with my dad's brother and his wife, Nev and Pat, who live in Gwynne, which is around Wetaskiwin and Camrose (which are all South of Edmonton), we got there Sunday the 6th I believe. There wasn't really much to do around the house that we couldn't have done at home, so we tried not to spend too much time there. Instead, we went into Edmonton (about an hours drive) and visited a friend, Mark, who had moved there last August. We didn't stay for too long, as he had to work in the morning, but we made plans to head back out and spend the night in his room in the next day or two, which we did. While we were with Mark we went to the Southgate mall (just your average mall) and watched the entirety of the Outlaw Star series, which captivated me unlike any anime I'd seen in quite some time, I just kept wanting more.

After our couple days with Mark, or perhaps before, we went to the Reynolds Alberta Museum. It was a collection of old restored vehicles and aircraft, some of it was interesting, but nothing worth mentioning here really. My memory of exact days is a little hazy up to that point, but I know that on Saturday (the 11th) we went into Edmonton once again to visit my cousin Mike.

We hung around his place for a while, and went to the West Edmonton mall for some fun. Chris, Steven, and Kristie (friend, brother, sister. Respectively) went to the waterpark and stayed there the whole time (5 hours) while Mike, Miranda (other sister) and I strolled around the Mall. We went to the movie theater and watched The League of Extraordinary Gentlemen which I personally enjoyed quite a bit. After that, Mike and Miranda went on the Mind Bender (a roller coaster) and then we had a bite to eat, they had some New York Fries, and I had an Arby's Homestyle Pot Roast sandwich with horseradish sauce. The meat was good, the sauce was awful. After that we picked up everyone from the pool and went back to Mike's place where we were privileged enough to listen to his band play some music. They were really quite good, they took Chris by surprise actually, he had been expecting some amateurish, maybe half-decent music, but as he said when they were done, "That was fuckin' awesome."

That night when we went back to Gwynne, to my aunt and uncle's place, to go to bed, it was storming, which wasn't a rare occurrence, even for the short amount of time we had been there, but unfortunately for us, when we got back to the house, not only was it empty (and locked, with no perceivable way in) our tent was blown onto it's side and practically filled with water. Luckily for me I had put all my clothes in the car... unluckily for Chris, he hadn't. Although it wasn't so bad, his clothes were relatively dry, but as can be expected we weren't very happy. My parents and aunt and uncle had gone to Red Deer to visit some friends, and before we left my uncle had told us he'd put a key to the house outside for us, when we looked where he'd told us it would be we couldn't find it and so we just assumed they had forgotten to leave it out. Thankfully, they had all gone in their vehicle and left the truck at the house, so I unlocked the truck, told Chris and my brother, who had come back with us from Mike's place (the girls stayed there), to sleep in the truck (I had keys, and it has bench seats) while I'd take the car with Becca (which doesn't have bench seats). In the middle of the night (although it had already been around 10-11 when we went to sleep) my dad woke me up so we could sleep somewhere decent. He also asked me why we didn't go in the house, when I explained that we couldn't find the key he told me that it was exactly where it was supposed to be, I guess we just overlooked it completely.

The next day (we're at Sunday now) we dried out the tent as much as possible and then put it away, as we were planning to continue on to my mom's sister's place which ended up not happening anyway. Mike showed up, with my sisters in tow, and we all had breakfast. Then around 5:30 Chris and I went back into Edmonton for a last visit with Mark. That evening, while we were there, Mike called us from his place. He'd brought the girls back with him again, they were going to a movie, Pirates of the Caribbean and wanted to know if we'd like to go with. After a quick check with Mark, we decided we'd all tag along for the movie, and it too was quite enjoyable. We got out of the movie at 1am, and seeing as Mark had to work in the morning decided we'd better get him home to rest as much as possible. After we dropped him off we jaunted on over to Mike's again and spent the night there. The next morning (now it's Monday) he made us some breakfast and then we just lazed around his place for a while, watching some TV, and eventually another movie (This time it was Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets) on the big screen TV. Eventually my dad called from my mom's sister's place, they had gone on without us (as we'd expected) and they were starting to wonder if we'd ever show up. Not too long after that we all decided we had better get going, so we said our goodbyes (and it occurs to me just now that I never really said goodbye to Pat and Nev.. bah, now I feel bad :\) and headed to Spruce Grove.

Think this is long enough yet?

So we got out of Edmonton without many conflicts (just one guy cursed at me) and to Spruce Grove with minimal mistakes (just one wrong turn), and we spent the next couple days with my aunt Kelly and uncle Boyd, and their dogs and cats. Our first day was pretty much just setting up the tent, saying our hellos, and getting some sleep. The next day we didn't do much of anything, Boyd and Kelly both had to work so my parents just took some laundry into town while the rest of us sat around and watched TV. The day after that, we went to the Valley Zoo in Edmonton, which was alright, not as good as the Calgary Zoo, and we couldn't see the wolves (which was our primary reason for going there) so that was a little disappointing (it was also hot as hell). We got home and dad, Steven and Boyd climbed into the hot tub, while the rest of us played Scattergories. After we played a few rounds of that, the girls all hopped into the tub and the rest of us went to bed. The next day was another slow day, at least for Chris and I. The girls (mom, Kelly, Miranda, Kristie) went to the Spruce Grove mall for some shopping, dad and Steven went fishing for a short while, Boyd was working, and Chris and I watched some TV and played with the dogs (I also went into town to have another Arby's pot roast sandwich, this time without the horseradish sauce, it was much better). Kelly had started spaghetti that afternoon and had been letting it simmer all day, so when they got back from the mall we had some for dinner. I'm not much of a spaghetti lover, and I'm a pickey eater to boot, but it was pretty good. After dinner the girls had been started implementing some hair dyes they had bought at the mall, so dad, Steven, Chris, Becca and I went down to the Saskatchewan river for some swimming. Just like last year, it was a lot of fun. The river has a fairly strong current so you can lean back and let it sweep you along, the only non-fun thing about it is walking back up river to do it all again. So we did that for a little while, and when we got back they were just finishing up with the whole hair dye thing. After that we kind of just sat around and talked, except for Chris who hopped in the hot tub and stayed in there for a couple of hours, then we all went to bed. The next day was kind of depressing as it was all spent getting ready to leave, so we said our goodbyes, hopped in our vehicles and drove off. We spent all of that day and most of the next driving, and we were home by around 6pm or so. And now you know, the rest of the story... or something... Yeah I know, the end just kind of fizzles out there doesn't it.. hmm, how about this. When I got home, I was kidnapped by evil space aliens who were plotting the demise of all humankind, but through some miraculous feats I was able to thwart their nefarious scheme and I destroyed them all. The end.

Excuse any bad grammar, punctuation, and general hard-to-understandingness. It's kind of late, I'm kind of tired, and I kind of don't care.

Oh, also, the OverClocked Friends is back online and working, although all your pictures are gone, kind of. I'm keeping them here (user/pass is ocf/ocremix) temporarily just so you don't all lose stuff you don't have, but they won't be going back in the OCF directory unless you do it yourself.

Thanks for reading.

I spent the day Saturday in Chicago. After having spent 21 hours awake the previous day, and catching about 5 hours sleep that night, I got up at 9am to begin the 2?-3 hour trip to Chi-town with my buddy Jen. Our main goal was to catch the Field Museum, Shedd's Aquarium, The Museum of Science and Industry, and Navy Pier (with fireworks at 10:15pm). Well, we only caught the Field Museum, Navy Pier (which is basically a ? mile long mall), the Hard Rock Caf?, and the fireworks.

If you ever get a chance to catch the fireworks in Chicago during the summer, definitely take it. These aren't the little Smallville things you see in your town. They put on a hell of a show over the waters of Lake Michigan. They got the fireworks to form pink hearts and smiley faces with 3 different colors...

How the HELL do you create a 3-color smiley face out of fireworks?!

I don't know, but they did it. We probably walked a total of 10 or 15 miles throughout the day, and believe it or not, we never really got lost.


Stuff I bought:
A "National Pimp Association" t-shirt
a Hard Rock double shot glass (even though I don't drink)
A "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co." hat. (There's a "Bubba Gump Shrimp Co." restaurant in the Navy Pier mall, but we didn't eat there.)
a model 1957 pink Cadillac. (because a pink caddy is so pimpalicious)
"Charlie and the Chocolate Factory"


Cool stuff I saw:
a Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant
a sweet fireworks display
a museum employee screaming at a guest like he was her child to "GET OFF OF THAT!!!"
the grandson of a Polexican.
insane taxi drivers
A wedding party that rented the greenhouse section of Navy Pier. So rich was the wedding, that each guest had their own personal mini-bottle of champagne. Later on, they rented one of the BIG boats and sailed into the lake to catch the fireworks.
LOTS OF HOT CHICKS.

My challenge to you all:
Find me a subway system more nastier than Chicago's.

Trip rating:
8 slices.


A few pictures were taken and when I get copies I'll upload one or three to the OCREMIX thingamabobby.

Chicago = awesome. Thus concludes my forced news post.
*looks around*
Whew... saunders is finally gone. Good. I made the whole thing up.

This will be the shortest news item ever, so what I want you all to do is email rob ( krawlie@hotmail.com ) and have the subject line be "OMFGIREADAPSPOSTONYOURINTARWEBSITEPAGELOL!!"

The text shall be "Apples are yummy"
Will rob be pissed? Who cares? He's all the way in Canadia. WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY in Canadia. He's not even near the other Canadans in Canadia. The most he could do is sell your email addy to the pornbots but it's not like you're not giving it away anyways. You think ISP is blocking those assholes??? OHHHHHHHHHHHH no. So why post here instead of the H.A.C.K.box? Because by posting here, I've deferred my turn to post by another 3 MONTHS!!! AAAAAHAHAHAHHAHAHAHAHAH~~~!!! Take that, other news admins!!

---

Edit by Saunders:
At the rate we're presently going, you'll still probably be making the next news post... 3 months from now. :P
By the way, I've recieved one email with that subject line and contents, and it was from Ginnsu so it doesn't count anyway. :D
Edit²: Recieved 2 emails now, one from SgtRama.

So I made a major change to the Counter Service that I provide from this server. I probably should have mentioned this a few days ago, when the change actually occurred, but ah well, it's doubtful it would have been noticed anyway. :D
So, a (semi-)quick explanation. The way the counter script worked before, PHP had to load and manipulate a bunch of PNG files, which was slower than the current method, although not noticeably, and wasn't as compatible as using GIF (browser support for PNG isn't as widespread as support for GIF). The reason I didn't use GIF in the first place is because PHP has no GIF support, so I couldn't create a counter the way most sites do. Then Protricity pointed some stuff out to me, and prompted me to implement something I'd been thinking about anyway; JavaScript. Now, instead of using an image tag to display the counter, script tags are used. The JavaScript code parses the number and displays multiple images (one for each number) instead of a single unique image everytime the counter is loaded. This allows for the images to be cached, which allows for faster loading times on the user end. Also, my server doesn't have to expend energy manipulating images, hence the (slightly) increased speed from the server end. This also allows for more customizability on the user end. For example, if you are an adept at JavaScript, you could simply have the script load the number of hits from your counter, and then do with that what you may. I provided an example or two on the counter site as well.
So, to sum this up in an even shorter form:
If you use my counter, and haven't updated from the image format, to the script format, do so now. All counters that haven't been accessed in one month, via the new script method, will be erased/reset.

Thanks for reading!


God damn, I've got to get the other news admins posting. I can't believe I have 6 admins and we've had 4 posts in the last 2 months, by only two different people! Christ! You think I provide this site as a service to others? Hell no! The only reason I keep it going and have all these other news admins is so that I have something to read other than my own useless drivel. And another thing! Since when is... er, shit. Is that thing still on? ... FUCK!

So, the last couple of days I've been goofing around with PHP and it's image creation/manipulation abilities, and I've come up with something. Several nights ago, as I was drifting off to sleep, I had the zany idea of making a comparison of the world population to an image. Something along the lines of figuring out the formula for estimating how the population is growing, etc, and then taking those numbers, and creating images based on their sizes (ie: 2500 pop. Squareroot 2500 = 50. So 50 x 50 pixel image = one pixel per person). Then I got a look at the current estimated world population... 6,314,738,055. That makes for an approximate 79465 x 79465 pixel image. That's really big... That's really, really big... That's so big, that Photoshop won't even create it. It maxes out at 10,000. So to make a long story short, I veered off in a slightly different direction with my script. Instead of basing it on world population, I'm basing it off of visitors to the site. When you visit the ImageBook page, you'll see a big square image, with a bunch of smaller squares inside. Click on any part of the image to see information about the "owner" of that particular section (and by, "information," I mean contact info and/or a comment or two that they wrote). If that square has no "owner," then you can lay claim to it yourself. You can choose the colour you want that square to appear (out of the basic 16 colours), and leave some information about yourself.
The ImageBook link has been added to the Sections block on the left, so you can get to it from there after this post has moved along, but for now, you can click right here:

ImageBook

Been quite a while since I've made a news post, and this one may be interesting to some and entirely uninteresting to others. What this concerns is a number of movies I didn't know were in the works, and what info I could dig up on them. Keep in mind that the movies I talk about will obviously be ones from genres I like, but whatever. Read or don't read. Completely up to you.

First of all, after watching Resident Evil a few hours ago for the second time, I began to do my search for the sequel again. Last time I made this search, I turned up nothing except for some information that it was "in the works" but in actuallity had been put on the farthest back shelf they could find. HOWEVER, the search I did tonight turned up a wealth more of information. Resident Evil: Nemesis is going to take place immediately after the first movie, and is going to introduce a couple of characters straight out of the games: Jill Valentine and that unpopular Carlos guy from the third game. Alice, still played by Milla Jovovich, is the returning main role in the movie, and the guy at the end of the first one that got infected from that big nasty Licker is back as the mutated Nemesis. I think you can predict the plot line for yourself based on what you saw at the end of the first movie, but the supposed release date is sometime in 2004, probably early Spring.

While looking up information on the previous movie, I came across information on a new Blade movie. Blade III: Trinity takes place right as the vampires begin to gain control over the world and the apocalypse is coming about. Wonderful. Anywho, all your favorite heros from the previous movies (that old fogie, Whistler, included) are back. One thing I read said that the vampires apparently resurrect Dracula himself in this movie, but referred to him as "Drake." However, yet another thing I read said that Blade forms a team of vampire hunts called the Nightstalkers, and Drake is one of the members... or something. Oh well, only time will tell! There're sure to be more nifty gadgets and guns, and probably a whole array of cool new action sequences. And hopefully a good soundtrack.

Similarly, through a big chain of links, I found out about a movie called
Ultraviolet. And wouldn't you know it? It stars Milla Jovovich as a genetically modified person (one of MANY such people) who have been changed to have vampire-like abilities. Anyway, this isn't really one of the movies I was looking for info about, so if you want more, look for it yourself.

Other movies are coming, like Aliens vs. Predators (probably butchered the funky pluralization of the title, but who cares?), which takes place on modern-day Earth and is probably going to kick some bootay, Matrix: Revolutions, which you'd have to be completely daft not to know about, and Van Helsing, a movie that features the most infamous of all vampire hunters taking on all of the most infamous movie monsters (and it's directed by the guy that did The Mummy and The Mummy Returns, so it'll probably be pretty good).

Aaaaaall it takes is a little Google-ing.

Get Your Copy of Relics of the Chozo Today for ONLY $28 + S&H .. er.. for FREE!!

Relics of the Chozo is a project aimed at producing a collective and collaborated interpretation of the soundtrack of Super Metroid. It turned out quit well in my opinion; far better than I had ever hoped or intended. Sort of a hefty download, but its quite worth it.

I recently fixed up a final version without static (some people were complaining about static... n00bs) and you can get it here. Thanks to rob for the KEWL ASS Counter and a mirror for the files. If he wouldnt mind updating the files to the latest version, I can post the link on the main page *hint hint :D

Enjoy!

Okay, if you're a frequent visitor to the site, you probably noticed that it was up and down recently, there were two reasons for this:

1) A fan on the motherboard (I'm told it was the "Front side bus fan") died. Well, it didn't completely die, but it was like that sick old guy in the intensive care unit that kept smoking after he developed lung cancer even though he was told not to and now all he can do is cough and wheeze and occasionally fart if he's helped. Anyway, I went back to the store to ask for the right kind, when I was told that they're hard to come by, and that they don't have any, so then I went looking for longer screws because the new fan was too thick, but I couldn't find any so I went back to the store again and he told me just to widen out the holes in the new fan so that the short screws would sit inside, but I didn't have any tools for something like that, so I had to go back home to get the fan to bring it to the store so that he could do that for me *BREATHE*. So that was the first thing.

2) We were running low on space on our two hard drives (about 1gb each) largely because of my pack-ratishness (I don't often delete things that I should, I put them in "Misc" or "Temp" or "Stuff" folders and put them away somewhere to never be seen again), so I decided to spend some (almost all) of my money to buy myself (meaning mine, not the family's) a nice big harddrive. At first I'd settled with a 60gb, then I decided that since it wasn't much more for an 80gb I'd go with that. SO, the day I bought that there were all kinds of little problems as well. We have an old case, meaning there isn't room for more than 2 harddrives in their usual place, so I had to get some brackets that attach to the side of the harddrive to make it wider so that it will sit where CD-ROM like devices sit, in the 5.25" bays. Unfortunately, the only set of brackets I could find were at RadioShack... and they came with 3 fans fitted to a piece that could be placed in a 5.25" bay to provide cooling for the case, this cost me something like $28. Unfortunately, again, it doesn't fit in the same spot as the harddrive, and since I only have three of these bays (current setup: 1. CD-RW, 2. DVD-ROM, 3. HD), it's useless to me. So, seeing as I've kept ALL receipts, I'm thinking of buying some brackets alone (from the next town over if I must) and returning this set of fans to RadioShack.

So, in closing, I'd just like to say that I now have a whole bunch of extra space (and it's MINE all MINE!!) and hopefully the server won't be going down anymore. Although my parents had a big argument about the internet this morning which could result in my dad pulling the plug on the whole shebang, I don't know what I'll do then. :(

Bye.

Uhm... it appears that when I moved everything to the new drive, I forgot to fix the WinXP service reference, which wasn't a problem... Until the computer was rebooted... which apparently happened this morning at 11am. I didn't know about it at all until I happened into #ocremix just now.
Excerpt from #ocremix (I'm JESUS_CHRIST... in the chat, not in life):
*** Now talking in #ocremix
*** Topic is 'FAQ! http://www.ocremix.org/faq.php - Comments, Complaints, Questions -> 68030@usa.net | New Govn'r of Cali... THE TERMINATOR!! also, Red Sox > Yankees. also, Dr Octagon > j00'
*** Set by Vigilante on Wed Oct 08 15:20:17
<+Protricity> hie rob
*** PosiBolt sets mode: +v JESUS_CHRIST
<+JESUS_CHRIST> hi
<+Protricity> hows the server comming?
<+JESUS_CHRIST> well, it's there
<+JESUS_CHRIST> and it's doing it's thing
* +Protricity is listening to Quinn Fox - - Free and Fixed
<+Protricity> working finally?
<+JESUS_CHRIST> ..
<+JESUS_CHRIST> er wtf
<+JESUS_CHRIST> LAGALGKJALG
<+Protricity> wtf
<+Protricity> jds;akljf
<+Protricity> asj
<+Protricity> fweklr
<+Protricity> wekl
<+Protricity> ;l
<+JESUS_CHRIST> WTF IT"S NTOW ROKGIN!
<+Protricity> HOLY CRUD
<+JESUS_CHRIST> when did it stop working??
<+Protricity> ITZ BEEN LIEK THAT ALL DAY <+JESUS_CHRIST> goddamn

Anyway, it's fixed now, so yay.

So much crap has been happening lately in the life of Beatdrop and in the world itself, and since none of the other news admins are posting jack, I figured I'd say SOMETHING. Poor Rob needs to get some fresher writers...

First of all, I'm sure most of you have heard about my recent breakup with my girlfriend of nine months. Allow me to quickly address this by playing the following song for myself: J. Geils Band - Love Stinks

Okay, now that that's out of the way, I'd like to thank everyone with the support I've been given in multiple ways. Everything you all have said has really helped me tackle the whole thing, and I think I've come out on top of my emotions... with gun in hand... WAHAHAHAHA! Anyway, moving on.

Kill Bill, as most of you know, is a dazzlingly excellent movie. Words can't accurately describe what the experience is like, but boy is it fun to watch. The big sword fight scene in the House of Blue Leaves could be watched eight or so times in a row without every movement being noticed. She cuts so many people in so many ways, it's insane. Also, I absolutely love seeing this in the theater. It's great to hear everyone's reaction to the violence. While this movie doesn't have the most in-depth plot ever (in fact, the plot is pretty simple), what plot it DOES have is clear and concise and really moves the movie along quite well, especially with the twists it has, as well as those that were heavily foreshadowed for the next and last part. Blah blah blah, just go see it. It's definitely worth the admission fee, if not more.

Next up on the list of happenings is the Blue Man Group tour, which is currently circling the U.S. up until the end of November, for their new album, The Complex. If you're unfamiliar with Blue Man Group, they're the guys from the Pentium III commericals. However, as musicians, they're far more amazing. The rest of their band (two guitarists, one bassist, one keyboardist/vocalist, and four (!) percussionists) consists of some very top-notch musicians who I was surprised to discover are actually quite young. The show seemed really tight, and the light show was MINDBLOWING. Also, the whole thing seemed very intelligently orchestrated, from the comical marquee signs along the left and right sides of the stage to the whole concept of having an audio tape describing how to be a rockstar playing between songs. Said audio tape (which usually appeared on the large background LCD screen as either a large VU meter or as a white CG video displaying some kind of graphic correlating with what's being described) helped the audience at times by teaching the moves necessary to enjoy a rock concert: the head-bob, the one-armed fist pump, etc. The show itself combined comedy with music as well as, if not better than, STOMP is able to. However, my favorite part was the opening acts. Tracy Bonham and Venus Hum, who both collaborated with Blue Man Group on songs on The Complex, are touring the country with BMG and are both very capable in their own rights. Tracy Bonham, if you didn't already know, is an acoustic rock/pop chick with some very interesting song writing. She had a hit awhile back called "Mother, Mother," which was basically a story of where she was after she dropped out of music school, where she played the violin. Venus Hum, however, is a new band that fuses stylings of pop music with sounds of electronic music. They consist of a female vocalist, who seems to take some inspiration from Bj?rk at times, and two other guys who handle all of the synth work, etc. I was so awestruck with their performance that after hearing two songs, I knew I had to have their CD. And the CD's wonderful, too. In fact, I'm working on a remix of the first song from the disc that's turning out quite well. The electronic part of their sound ranges from clubby dance music to upbeat breakbeat to slow IDM. Blue Man Group made sure to pull both artists out during their performance to do the collaborative songs, and that was a real treat. I don't know exactly where the tour goes from here (I think they played in Minneapolis on Tuesday, and then I think they went to Iowa or somewhere), but if they come near you, GO SEE THE DAMN SHOW. It was GREAT.

On the way back from seeing Kill Bill for my second time tonight, my friend (who's rather strange in the head) brought up an interesting philosophical topic: what if trees screamed in Arnold Schwarzenegger voices when being cut down? Wouldn't that be freaking weird? I pointed out to him that I felt it would be stranger if they sounded like mentally handicapped people running into walls, but that's just a matter of opinion.

In other news, I judged some songs the other day! Like, SIX of them! Amazing stuff. Okay, enough blathering on about whatever comes to mind in order to make Rob's site seem more active than it is.

I shall extemporaneously disclose my current condition and impulses in the unadulterated magnanimity I have for binnie-afficionados such as yourself.

LoL!!~

So I've been living on campus for a month now, majoring in IT. I've spent my time and money here quite wisely. For instance, I blasted videogame music out of 140 watt speakers until my four roommates almost bought me headphones. I had two of them convinced I was gay after I penned a rather ambitious checklist in the spirit of a bathroom survey onto the walls of stalls, including items such as "engaged in dorm circlejerk" and "participated in transsexual strip show." I pragmatically yet begrudgingly attended frat parties at the opportune promise of free drinks, where at one the president, being Indian, insisted I was a long lost cousin of his and that we must, of course, set aside an immigrant playdate to bond as only American-Born Confused Desis can.

Intending to resume my glorious judging duties after I moved in, I quickly realized after a few days that blaring rejects throughout the hallway wouldn't exactly be appealing. So I got myself Grado SR-60's, inexpensive for their performance. That and women downstairs barging in to tell me to "quit that Starfox shit" past 2 A.M made forking over $70 a lot easier.

And before you ask, don't be so na?ve as to think that in the proximity of other males I've neglected to trip the cock fantastic. All it requires is a little ingenuity, caution, and thirty pairs of underwear.

Anyway, no matter what else happens here, nothing can be more tragic than the zombified existence that was highschool. [/angst]
No, really. [/doubleangst]
SHUT THE -- [/stillangst]

...

Though others more experienced than I am may tell me otherwise, I hope independent academia will help me finally find a life-groove. It's preferable to slithering through self-wrought cracks, lemme tell ya.

Pleasantville, here we are.

My fellow people of the internet, today is not only a great day for man kind, but a great day for all peoples. It is on this great day that I was approached by a Mr. Robert W. Saunders (I'm not sure what his middle name is, but the W stands for women) to become the newest news adminiser person for the website server in which he created. On this wonderful day of music, celebration, and postachio, I would like to thank all the little chicklets and chickettes, and little and big and medium-sized people, that got me here today. I promise all of you that I will do the best I can to bring you stuff that's kinda-like-news-but-not-really-more-like-stuff-that's-just-random-and-stuff but at the same time wholesome and so you can gather the little chillens around the monitor for a joyest time. Lastly I promise that I shall finish this post quickly so I can finish this plate of pizzghetti in which I have made myself. So in conclusion, I am totally awesome, and Saunders is Awesome Xross too because now I can make cool posts.

-Peaces and cream, yoz.

In this news post, I'm going to share with you all a couple of papers I wrote for my Intro to Philosophy class a couple semesters ago. My teacher was amazingly good, and really inspired me to think in-depth in terms of EXISTENCE... or something. Anyway, give 'em a read. They aren't too long, so it shouldn't take you long. The first one is about freewill in the afterlife, and the second disputes whether or not chaos governs reality:

Do We Have Freewill In The Afterlife?

If I were a Christian or followed some other Western religion that has the basic view of heaven, hell, and God, then I don't know if I could answer this question. From that point of view, I would say that we probably don't because with God governing heaven, there would be no choice to do right or wrong, only the option to do right or not to be there at all. Kind of a disappointing thought, isn't it? Maybe if one thinks that people don't have freewill during their life, it isn't. However, most people don't think about freewill during life too much because the answer to whether or not we do have it during life is typically an assumed "yes."

Getting on to the question at hand, as viewed from my beliefs, I consider myself an Athiest, and I'm also starting to adopt some Buddhist beliefs. Therefore, my afterlife is just another life. However, if one wishes to be more thorough when covering the entire afterlife, there's possibly a period of time after one dies and before one reincarnates. I think that during this time, a decision is made outside of our own will as to who or what we reincarnate as. This could be determined by what we did in our past life, taking out fate from karma, or it could end up coming down to what creature on Earth is born next. If it's a female human, for example, then one's "soul" might just instantaneously zap down to take own the role of that person for your new life. Basically, that part of afterlife doesn't contain an ounce of freewill.

After having been reincarnated, we lead a new life. During this life, we have the same amount of freewill that we had during our past lives, the amount of which is hard to determine. I think that during this time, we take part in soft determinism. This is based on the fact that karma probably determines about half of what is going to happen to use and we make up the other half as we go on, thus helping fuel karma for our next life.

Perhaps there's a "Great Will of the Macrocosm" out there, governing our fates, leaving us with absolutely zero freewill about what happens in our lives, as well as our afterlives. This is definitely a possibility because, since most people believe that when we supposedly go to heaven, we retain our identities, or bodies, if you will, that would help support the idea that if we do have freewill in the afterlife, we would want our bodies to hang around on Earth, rather than decompose, or perhaps come with us to "heaven." The fact that they do decompose says that there's a certain aspect of afterlife that we don't have any control over whatsoever. And if there's a definitely a part of afterlife that we can't control, who's to say we can control any of it?

Chaos: Fact or Fallacy?

Dictionary.com defines "chaos," in terms of mathematics, as "a dynamical system that has a sensitive dependence on its intial conditions." This basically translates to say that chaos is a constantly changing structure in which the variables that are put in have a major impact on what was there at the beginning. What I'm going to attempt to do in this paper is determine whether or not this is true for existence as a whole by discussing what Chaos Theory incorporates.

When one thinks of chaos, disorder and confusion probably come to mind as well. Chaos Theory describes something of this nature for all of relatiy. Small changes have major, and at times random, impacts. An idea such as this emphatically removes any reason for anything. Life essentially loses its meaning behind the Chaos Theory. If one was to think that anything he or she would do in his or her life would mean anything in the long run, he or she would be sorely mistaken because anything that could be done would influence huge and unpredictable changes on existence. This is not to say that one could kill oneself and it wouldn't mean anything, it just wouldn't affect all of existence in a way that could be predicted. Committing suicide could eventually mean that someone who wasn't going to be born ends up actually being so.

The basic elements of chaos can be seen in the world around us every day. Just by turning on the telelvision and watching the news, one can see the confusion of chaos gripping all of reality. A man walks into a post office and shoots numerous coworkers without remorse, but does it really change anything in the end? Apparently not noticeably because I'm not sure about anyone else, but I sure can't remember who that man even was. I don't even remember where this incident took place. It basically had zero impact on existence in any noticeable way. With chaos, one could look at that and say, "Yeah, his heinous act probably did something silly like cause an ant to get stepped on." Or, one could possibly say, "What he did is going to cause the world to end some day." There's really no way of knowing what is going to happen as a result of what he did. It's entirely erratic and chaotic.

So what can a person say against Chaos Theory? There's always the entire step-by-step nature that existence tends to have. Let's look at George W. Bush for a moment. He was born to someone who is now an ex-president, meaning that his family was very politically involved. George W. Bush was probalby raised to be a politician even in his younger years, which would explain why he's president today. Now, this may be a glance at a change on a much smaller scale than Chaos Theory usually entails, but it alone proves that not all of existence is entirely random. Plus, the entire idea that stepping on a bug could cause 100 people to die in a mining accident halfway around the globe could be viewed as lunacy.

Often, when looking at Chaos Theory, many mathematic equations are factored in. Fractals, geometric models that repeat their structure into infinity, are commonly associated with the ideas of Chaos Theory. It's believed that they are basically a visual representation of the simultaneous order and disorder that the Chaos Theory illustrates. So if we know of things that show the ideas behind Chaos Theory, that pretty much greatly increases the chances that the Chaos Theory is the governing force behind existence.

It's starting to look more like chaos is all there is in reality, but let me get back to some of the basics that argue against it. If I were to walk up to a police officer and smack him in the face with a rock, what would happen? I'd get arrested, a predictable outcome from such an act. Since it was possible to ascertain what would happen, we can know that not everything is doused in chaos. With certain manmade rules governing our lives, we're restricted from letting chaos play out as it normally would. Without these rules, it's very possible that everything would be in chaos, and that's the situation in which the word is most commonly used. Let me use another example. A riot breaks out in the streets of New York City and absolute chaos is let loose. People are going out of their minds, committing heinous acts of an unpredictable nature. So how do we deal with it? Riot teams are called in to control the crowd, therefore putting a leash on chaos. This example shows that even when unpredictable things suddenly happen for seemingly no reason at all, there are usually ways of controlling the matter. Now, what actually could cause an incident like this is unable to be known, therefore bringing back in the possibilities of Chaos Theory.

I believe it all really depends on the scale at which you are viewing things. If you're looking at everything from a much larger perspective, then it's very possible that chaos is ruling our lives and there's nothing we can do about it, but then there's the smaller scale of things where you have the predictability of cause and effect to say that there's no such thing as chaos.

My personal view on this matter is that Chaos Theory is just a crazy idea of how everything relates. It's true that people can be just as random as math equations, basically opening the door for a bit of chaos, but they can also be very predictable, with outcomes of their actions as readable as the pages of a book. To me, it seems rather maniacal to approach life as though every little action is going to cause some huge thing to happen at random. A person could honestly go out of his or her mind thinking that, in picking up their can of coke and taking a sip, they brought about the downfall of the entire human race. Plus, you have to look at the fact that actions are often repeated by entirely different people with the same result. What does this mean for Chaos Theory? It's definitely a fallacy.

Hey internet dudes (and dudettes)! You too can sound tr?s bourgeois with profound five paragraph dissertations from school days of yore that would tickle the most introspective Mensa reject's fancy! It all starts with a little thing I like to call "ctrl-C and ctrl-V."

Here by Accident?

We live here on this planet we call Earth, engaged with our busy little lives, scurrying about being concerned with our own needs and worries, hardly ever possessing the time to wonder how and why we are. You and I like to picture people are here now for a very important reason, yet we cannot imagine what reason that could be. But no one considers that we are, by accident.

Okay, this might sound sacrilegious, but bear with me, because when you lie in your bed wide-awake at odd hours in the morning, your brain churns up a lot of strange stuff. I don?t know if there is something in science called the "Accident Theory." A scientific theory that states "life" is an accident. There probably isn't such a theory, as it would be very controversial, but a lot of science is controversial, isn't it? What if there were no big plan, no big picture? What if everything we see now?were not meant to be?

There is this theory, The Big Bang, which is supposed to be the scientific answer of how life was created. Well tell me; what happens if the Big Bang were an accident; in other words, wasn't supposed to happen? I mean, if no one was controlling the actions that led up to the Big Bang, that led up to such an enormous impact on everything, that would be very, very weird.

Picture, in the deepest, darkest ditch in your mind, that there was absolutely NOTHING in the universe before Earth. Think about it: nothing. Nothing to hear, nothing to see. Just a lot of space with nothing in it. But because of some bizarre coincidence, the Big Bang, a meteor, a star, or whatever, did something to our world and caused it to breathe life. Specifically, microbes that became sea dwellers that became land dwellers that became US. Could it be possible that life, the concept of life, was an accident? Could it be that the "big plan" was to be nothing?

If you take apart the word being, you get a word and a suffix: be and -ing. We are all beings, so that means we are be-ing. We BE. What does be really mean, anyway? How does you define the word? Does to be mean to live, or could it simply mean to have animation, meaning, to move around?

You could look at all of this in another way. Does it really matter if life or "being" was an accident? Maybe we should all just be content we are alive, and quit asking questions. May-be.

Silence

Immersive, absorbing
Silence.
Consuming, exhausting
Silence.
The dimensions hold me sole inhabitant
SILENCE
The absence of sound rings sharp in my ears
Silence overcomes him and he becomes part of silence.
Silence.

Where's the Snow?

Spring, here, already?
NO!
Where the hell is all the snow?
Snow closes school, and makes me glad.
Clear skies and warm weather make me sad.
The meteorologist needs a kick,
Smiling about this weather makes me sick.
School's never canceled from too much sunshine,
Only icy roads and sticking snow give me some free time.
Spring should be banned; I feel so low
Now there's no more winter, and no more SNOW!

Having fun yet? I know I am!

The Blue Star

Huh??

"MOMMY!"

"What is it, honey? What's the matter?"

"I just had the worst nightmare ever!" the little girl embraced her mother.
"Come here, and tell me all about it," she comforted.

"Well, it was really strange and scary; we were here, on Lunar, but all of a sudden a big fire thingy hit our home and we were blown into space and we had to live on the Blue Star forever!" the child sobbed.

"Ha, ha, ha! Oh come now, that's just silly! Here, why don't I tell you the story of how we got where we are?"

"Ok," the girl said, wiping her tears away.

"Well, a long time ago, our great ancestors used to live on the Blue Star?"

"Really? Wow!" the curious one exclaimed.

"Hush! Anyway, they used to live on the Blue Star way over there in the sky," said the mother, pointing into space through her child's open window.

"It used to be a very nice place to live; trees growing everywhere, lots of fresh air and water. But one day the people on the Blue Star got into a lot of fights with each other and they ended up having a really big war. During the war, the Blue Star was hurt by horrible weapons and it got to look the way it looks now; deserts everywhere, no water, and nasty air."
"That doesn't sound nice."

"It's not nice, honey, but our ancestors didn't care that much about the Blue Star. After the war, the few people who survived went into space and had just enough fuel to land on the closest place possible; Lunar."
"Did they call it Lunar, Mommy?"

"No, they called it?actually, Mommy doesn't quite remember, but I know it starts
with an 'm'?anyway, we come from those people who landed here on Lunar!"
The small girl gazed outside her window in absolute wonder. "Wow?I can't imagine living on the Blue Star at all."

"It's all so strange, isn't it dear?"

"Mommy? Will we ever have another big war?"

We probably will. "No, of course not! Now, go to bed, you've got a lot in your head and you need a rest," she said kissing her daughter good night.
"Mommy?"

"What now dear?"

"What did the people call the Blue Star before coming to Lunar?"

"I think?Urth, or something."

The Tale of How the Blue Whale Lost Its Teeth

Long, long ago, there was a Gigantic Fish-Mammal of a Deep Blue Color named Sapphira, who lived far from land in the Great Big Water. He had a humongous appetite for food, and all he used to do all day was eat, eat, and eat some more. He believed he could eat anything, and his boasting about this was ten times bigger than anything he could ever consume. Dapphar Dolsar, the clever Banana-nosed One (reader- sounds like a dolphin), Tentactulous the Big Strange Creature (reader- could that be a giant squid?), Stalactitus the Fierce Toothy One (reader-maybe a killer whale), and many other Great Big Water dwellers began to get extremely annoyed at Sapphira?s bragging ways. They decided to teach Sapphira a lesson he would never forget.

Dapphar Dolsar, who was the clever one as we said, thought of a plan. He and the others would find an object so large that even Sapphira would be at a loss trying to eat it. Tentactulous, Stalactitus, and the others agreed to the cunning plan and helped Dapphar Dolsar find the object they searched for. They hoped it would be even larger than the Bluish-White-Blanket-Touching-Red-Orange Glowing Ball.

The next week, Stalactitus, who himself had a good appetite, challenged Sapphira to a no-holds-barred eating contest. Sapphira couldn?t refuse the feeling of pride and victory and another chance to brag if (or when, as he thought) he would win, so he accepted with a boasting smile while Stalactitus slyly grinned.

All the Great Big Water dwellers attended the match, and most of them knew about the plan in effect. Stalactitus and Sapphira went on devouring anything and anyone they could find, except their friends and family, until Dapphar Dolsar halted the feeding frenzy.

?There?s not that much left to eat here, contestants! Let us move to the freezing part of the Great Big Water. I know there is more food there!?

Sapphira nodded in agreement.

?All right. What are we waiting for??

Earlier that week Dapphar Dolsar?s little band had traveled to the freezing part of the Great Big Water, otherwise known as the Arctic Ocean to us humans. They had found something there that would now bring the plan to its climax.

It took only about two days to reach there, because Dapphar Dolsar made sure the eating contest was nearby. And as soon as the contestants and the audience got to the freezing part of the Great Big Water, Sapphira noticed an object greater than he had ever seen before: a gigantic glacier that made all Big Fish-Mammals of a Deep Blue Color look like specks of dust.

?I have never seen such a creature before! It must be a?big, big, BIG Fish-Mammal of a Blinding White Color!?

Dapphar Dolsar, Stalactitus, and Tentactulous could barely restrain themselves from cackling at Sapphire?s stupidity and ignorance of glaciers.

Sapphire regained his composure and pride.

?I have sworn that I can eat anything, and so I will!?

Everyone watched as the idiot braggart Sapphire sank his teeth in the incredibly cold glacier very quickly. First there was a sign of shock on his face, then piercing pain. His perfectly lined sharp teeth shattered slowly and disintegrated into tiny shards of sky as they fell out of his bleeding mouth and reflected the Bluish-White Blanket.

The Great Big Water dwellers? roar of laughter could be heard all across the Plateau of Land and Water. Sapphire would never know pride again. Over time, tiny hair appeared where his teeth used to be and he looked even more ridiculous. And all he was able to eat were Incredibly Tiny Fishes (reader- reminds me of plankton). No more foolish boasts came from Sapphire?s bloated mouth. And no longer could Sapphire have his beautiful teeth, and neither can his descendants, the blue whales, to this day.

Even after all this time, such witticism makes me teary in the eye.

Concerned with Being Liked

It was a dark night, almost pitch-black save for the occasional street lamps. Around 1:30 A.M., to be precise. I was fourteen at the time. My friends and I had decided to spend the night at one of our houses and do the usual thing: video-games, TV, movies, etc. Well, that was all well and good but by 1 A.M. is was clear that we needed to do something exciting, or we'd all just fall asleep. I'm not exactly the leader, especially at that time, so I was just ready to follow suggestions. That day, my more adventurous friends and a few I didn't know too well were in an agitated mood over a guy they knew who lived nearby, and tensions built as the discussions about how he mouthed off behind people's backs, acted like a general ass, his backstabbing, etc. went on. They then came to the conclusion that we should walk down to the offender's house and defile its door and windows with eggs. Now, I wasn't exactly a big fan of egging people's houses. I thought that it was stupid, immature, and pretty juvenile. Plus, this soon-to-be-egged guy lived right near me, and I didn't want his vengeance to be taken out on me, when I didn't even know him! So, how did I resolve this situation?
Well, you can see by the title of this story how my decision turned out. I didn't want to look like a goody-two-shoes and I wanted to make friends with the guys who were friends of my friends, so I went along with the egging plan, even though I would have been happy with falling asleep. We walked through the neighborhood as a party of eight, each armed with two eggs. As soon as we saw this guy's house, we threw the eggs at it. I looked down at my hands. What the hell was I doing? This is the most idiotic thing I'll have done in a while. What are we, twelve?

In mindset, apparently. The eggs that were in my hands were soon splattered on windows. My genius friends and I ran back home, did the same stuff we were doing before, and fell asleep. How exciting.
Now, as I look back on this as a more mature individual (I hope), I realize that my friends wouldn't have killed me if I had refused to partake in this misadventure. In fact, I could have used it as a test to see who my real friends out of that group were, and to gain a little respect from the guys I didn't know. Basically, there was no point. And the person my friends expressed themselves so crassly against would have had no idea why they were mad at him, so an opportunity to make amends was lost. I wish I could have learned my lesson. Over the following years, I've gotten myself into similar, but more, lets say, mature situations. Maybe one of these days I'll understand why I, like so many other teenagers, am so concerned with being liked.

Ode to a Pickle

The pickle
monstrous green
bristling with a minefield of sour bombardment
dark savage green, a head like a giant
a tail like a missile
thickness of the ages, eternal temptation.
Headstrong and stalwart, bursting with demoniac strength
yet in need of knowledge.
Knowledge of the ancestral past.
So off the pickle goes
in adventure, a soul search
For where have I come from? To where do I go?
Such questions must be answered to fully quench
The fiery essence of the burly jade beast.
Fellow friends, follow me hither! O ketchup, nectarine, olive, and onion!
Red pepper, plum, okra, and eggplant!
To the farmer's garden we go, to learn of our splendid past and our humble
beginnings.
The assorted products of the earth, without identification
of their inner selves joined the march, to seek the answer
A prism of colors, dark, bright, and muddy
A myriad of sizes, tall, short, and stout
Journeyed as brothers, a symbol of horticultural unity
an agrarian alliance.
Upon the sweet rice paddies and the sparkling strawberry vines
did they see perched a certain Grandfather Cabbage
who narrated to the young ones, such a tale
as to make them pop out of their red, green, and yellow skins
or wrinkle and slither of a faint under a blinding incandescent sun.
Dizzy and disoriented, the pickle recounted what it had been told
Long ago, a seemingly infinite reach into the past
a forgotten life began as an opposite of the emerald behemoth
sweet, salty, a palate of gentle touch
cool caressing cucumber.
Born from atop the sky, plentiful of dew drop seed
smooth, silky, pleasant the cucumber sang.
Sang it did, with its fellow super-surface brethren
until it sang no more, dropped by a grinning toothless old man
into a jar of all-consuming, absorbent brine.
A bizarre primordial mixture
melding a cocoon around the innocent cucumber
a cocoon serving to reincarnate the innocuous child
into an evolved form, the great pickle, the vegetable with a mission
A mission to protect, to defend, to safeguard
all that is good and well in the vegetable world.
And that, dear pickle, is your responsibility
given to you in a past life
held sacrosanct in the present
the wise cabbage sage said.
The brawny lush pickle, with renewed strength
Inspired its brothers to follow and dragged the rest.
To the vegetable market, ho!
The dastardly market-man will sell the pickle's brethren no more
to a cruel and debilitating end.
And then, Alejandra, the pretty little girl
asked the market-man for a prime, juicy pickle
and lo! It was our pickle, resigned to a fate
due to lesser creatures of the garden.
The protectorate, the proud, the mighty pickle
penetrated soft lips, soured a salivating tongue.
With canine teeth, its visceral skin split asunder,
bitter sweet juices flowed from a dismembered body
left to digest in stomach acid.
And so you have it,
The strapping pickle, of green profession,
with millennial knowledge gained
its glory ended with disgrace
its glory of green.

Truly one of my best.

An Assessment of Crime and Punishment

Authors throughout time have played on the theme of what is the true essence of human beings. Simply calling the core, the ballast of a person a ?soul? and leaving it at that underscores the magnificent unknown that makes us who we are. Our manner and demeanor shown to society is always at conflict with what we feel we actually are. In fact, in a purely psychological sense, each person represents two people: one person on the outside, and another on the inside. Looking into the ?real? character is a popular theme among contemporary authors. Fyodor Dostoevsky explores this theme of looking beyond the fa?ade of a human being into the deepest recesses of the soul. The protagonist of Crime and Punishment, Raskolnikov, is a clear example of the conflict between the inner and outer self; namely, the conflict between the thoughts of the human mind and one?s demeanor practiced in public.
Raskolnikov is conflicted between two selves. His key character traits are self-centeredness, intelligence, and simultaneous cruelty and kindness. However, he is seen as much more by his sole friend, Razumikhin. As an outside to Raskolnikov?s cold soul, Razumikhin sees Raskolnikov as conflicted:
?I have known Rodion for a year and a half; he is morose, gloomy, proud and haughty, and of late ? and perhaps for a long time before ? he has been suspicious and fanciful. He has a noble nature and a kind heart. He does not like showing his feelings and would rather do a cruel thing than open his heart freely. Sometimes, though, he is not at all morbid, but simply cold and inhumanly callous; it?s as though he were alternating between two characters. Sometimes he is fearfully reserved! He says he

is so busy that everything is a hindrance, and yet he lies in bed doing nothing.?

Razumikhin's remarks contribute to the seeming inconsistency of his words ("noble and kind heart ? inhumanly cold and callous"). The specific mention of "two opposite characters in him" seems to point to the unrelenting tension that Raskolnikov experiences as a result of his conflicting desire to confess and to evade capture. As a whole, this impressionistic depiction captures Raskolnikov's essential schismatic nature: he has detached himself from humanity and thus only engages in social behavior when it fits his needs.
Additionally, this passage sets up Razumikhin as Raskolnikov's foil, emphasizing the contrast between Razumikhin's external friendliness and good nature and Raskolnikov's external sullenness and antisocial nature. Raskolnikov?s troubled nature seeks balance between his generosity and his hate. Therefore his internal and external forces are balanced within himself. Yet the external force, affecting the demeanors of others, must be balanced with their outer selves as well.
The inner sense, the essence of our lives, is not an isolated fore sheltered from the environment and society. On the contrary, the inner being is influenced by the ?outside?, because it is active in determining one?s course and actions in life. Dostoevsky demonstrates this as the sullen society and grim hopelessness of the world drives Raskolnikov to attempt a murder as an experiment for his own perverted purposes.

Raskolnikov may in fact have been a healthy, wonderful human being, for deep in his soul he is noble and caring as Razumikhin says. The fa?ade of the human being is universal to all. No one exposes their true selves to the world, for reasons as varied as humans itself. Yet the fa?ade is most consequential to our being. Raskolnikov is practically driven to a silent insanity due to his demeanor in public versus who he feels he really is. Dostoevsky shows that even as they are completely in conflict, the deepest recesses of the soul is in fact not isolated from the ego and exposed manner; both are intertwined and rely on each other for balance.

My anus bleeds from the brilliance.

?Sestina?

Sestina, while being Elizabeth Bishop?s most structured and formulaic poem, is her most symbolic, surreal, and mesmerizing work. The title itself would seem to choke this poem into a confining, asphyxiating corner. Yet it gives birth to winged words, rife with abstract metaphors and ethereal ideas. Within the six six-line stanzas lies a rhythmic spiral of seasonal life and death, foretold by an unassuming almanac that represents fate itself, and offset in its starkness by the small hope of a young child.

The sestina is a one of the most difficult and complex poetic verse forms, consisting of six six-line stanzas and a three-line envoy, or conclusion. This form of poem is unrhymed, with the effect of rhyme taken over by a fixed pattern of end-words demanding that in each stanza they be the same, though arranged in a different sequence each time. The first stanza?s first line ends with house, the second line with grandmother, the third line with child, the fourth line with Stove, the fifth line with almanac, and the sixth line with tears. As per the rules of the sestina, the second stanza?s first line ends with tears (the sixth end-word in the preceding stanza), the second line with house (the first end-word), the third line with almanac (the fifth end-word), the fourth line with grandmother (the second end-word), the fifth line with stove (the fourth end-word), and the sixth line with child (the third end-word). This pattern continues until the envoy of three lines, which ingeniously contains all the six end-words of the stanzas. The sestina is laid-out like a veteran battalion on the field.

And still, it is Bishop?s most ambiguously beautiful poem. The structure gives a calm, soothing rhythm throughout the poem, like the September rain softly falling on a house in the first line. The grandmother mourns a lost loved one while keeping the child busy with play and seeking solace in the seasonal predictions of the almanac. The mundane objects around her: the teakettle, stove, the rain, all remind her of the inevitability of sorrow. The almanac?s yellowed pages foretell cyclical fate, the rhythmic spiral of joy and distress, coming and going as smoothly as the passing of the seasons: ?She thinks that her equinoctial tears / and the rain that beats on the roof of the house / were both foretold by the almanac.? The grandmother only sees tragedy.

She is oblivious to the tiniest beginnings of happiness around her. The child draws a house with a man ?with buttons like tears?, constituting the acceptance of the grief of loss. More notably, the child then plants the sorrow of the unchangeable to make way for future happiness: ?the little moons fall down like tears / from between the pages of the almanac / into the flower bed the child / has carefully placed in the front of the house.? The almanac itself instructs that it is ?time to plant tears.? The seeds of sorrow are planted to give birth to new joy. New hope arises, and the natural cycle of life continues.

Through painstakingly intricate construction emerges a poem of pontification on the endless spiral of life, misery, and happiness. Bishop demonstrates an unsurpassable talent here unlike in any other of her poems. Although the sestina may be complex, the motifs and multi-layered symbolism buried within are even more so. ?Sestina? is born from structured rhythm, and matures into a lyrical marvel.

Even the ruthless chaos of the instant messaging medium parts like the Blue Sea before my linguistic parries.

MiNiMiKe4242: hey
MiNiMiKe4242: who is this
MiNiMiKe4242: huhu
MiNiMiKe4242: huh
Digital Coma B: hi nick :-)
MiNiMiKe4242: who is this
Digital Coma B: lol :-) you know me dude
Digital Coma B: search within your heart
MiNiMiKe4242: who
MiNiMiKe4242: riley
MiNiMiKe4242: brandon
MiNiMiKe4242: brett
MiNiMiKe4242: who
Digital Coma B: U KNOW DUDE lol
MiNiMiKe4242: mary catherine
MiNiMiKe4242: i am not goin to play games with u
MiNiMiKe4242: ryan
Digital Coma B: you already are sweetie pie
MiNiMiKe4242: if u are a boy and i find out i will haunt u
Digital Coma B: in my dreams? :-)
MiNiMiKe4242: if u r ur gay
MiNiMiKe4242: literaly
Digital Coma B: lol :-)
MiNiMiKe4242: if you send 1 more im you are a gay fag
Digital Coma B: 1 more im
MiNiMiKe4242: yeah
MiNiMiKe4242: ur gay\
MiNiMiKe4242: see
MiNiMiKe4242: i told u
Digital Coma B: U GOT ME
MiNiMiKe4242: who is this
MiNiMiKe4242: tell me
MiNiMiKe4242: please
Digital Coma B: y shuld i after u call me gay :-(
MiNiMiKe4242: because
MiNiMiKe4242: just tell
MiNiMiKe4242: me
MiNiMiKe4242: if u are a boy u r gay
Digital Coma B: take it back
Digital Coma B: take itall back then i give u asl
MiNiMiKe4242: that is y i called u that
MiNiMiKe4242: ok
MiNiMiKe4242: sorry
MiNiMiKe4242: now tell me
MiNiMiKe4242: tell me
Digital Coma B: ALRIGTE
Digital Coma B: i am
Digital Coma B: the one they call "MUNG"
MiNiMiKe4242: who is that
Digital Coma B: MUNGALOO
MiNiMiKe4242: god
MiNiMiKe4242: tell me
Digital Coma B: I'm no god
MiNiMiKe4242: come
MiNiMiKe4242: on
MiNiMiKe4242: please
Digital Coma B: cum on what?
MiNiMiKe4242: tell me ur name
Digital Coma B: look deep within your soul
Digital Coma B: and within your butt you shall find the answer
MiNiMiKe4242: who is this
MiNiMiKe4242: tell me
MiNiMiKe4242: now
MiNiMiKe4242: fine dont tell me
MiNiMiKe4242: i dont care
Digital Coma B: OK OK ok ok ok okOK
Digital Coma B: lol i dont need to tell u
Digital Coma B: you already know dude :-)
Digital Coma B: can i come over now?
MiNiMiKe4242: cool
MiNiMiKe4242: no\
Digital Coma B: ok heres the deal
Digital Coma B: go downstairs, open the front door
Digital Coma B: and ring your doorbell 5 times
Digital Coma B: then you'll see me
Digital Coma B: i'm right outside :-)
MiNiMiKe4242: nop
MiNiMiKe4242: nope
Digital Coma B: then you wont know my name
MiNiMiKe4242: i dont have an upstairs
MiNiMiKe4242: this is nick
Digital Coma B: i know you dont
Digital Coma B: now go outside and look
MiNiMiKe4242: stupid
MiNiMiKe4242: no
MiNiMiKe4242: i no u cant be on the cpu and be outside too
MiNiMiKe4242: i am not stupid
Digital Coma B: dont u remember?
Digital Coma B: i have a laptop
MiNiMiKe4242: i am educated
MiNiMiKe4242: unlike u
Digital Coma B: yes u are
Digital Coma B: but see
Digital Coma B: if you dont believe me, go outside
MiNiMiKe4242: no
Digital Coma B: i'm right near the bushes with my laptop
MiNiMiKe4242: NO
Digital Coma B: if you dont come out then i guess i have to come in
MiNiMiKe4242: ok
MiNiMiKe4242: be my guessed
MiNiMiKe4242: g9o
MiNiMiKe4242: go
MiNiMiKe4242: ahead
MiNiMiKe4242: do it
Digital Coma B: i'm on the roof
Digital Coma B: you'll see me in a second
MiNiMiKe4242: ok
MiNiMiKe4242: riley mac'
MiNiMiKe4242: stop
Digital Coma B: in the chimney
MiNiMiKe4242: is this taylor
MiNiMiKe4242: who won the mcgil game
Digital Coma B: lol
MiNiMiKe4242: who[
Digital Coma B: your chimney is real tight
MiNiMiKe4242: who
Digital Coma B: crap
Digital Coma B: i'm stuck!!!!!!!!!
Digital Coma B: HELP
Digital Coma B: CALL 911
Digital Coma B: I"M STUCK IN YOUR CHIMNEY
MiNiMiKe4242: ur an idiot
MiNiMiKe4242: who can we call in the fire dept.
MiNiMiKe4242: ?/
MiNiMiKe4242: ???
MiNiMiKe4242: huh
Digital Coma B: OH CRAP
Digital Coma B: UM
Digital Coma B: CALL OFFICE DEGUILLE
MiNiMiKe4242: who is this
MiNiMiKe4242: tell me no
MiNiMiKe4242: now
Digital Coma B: OH DEAR GOD
Digital Coma B: CALL MY MOM
MiNiMiKe4242: or i m getting off
MiNiMiKe4242: who is ur mom
Digital Coma B: DUDE
MiNiMiKe4242: who
Digital Coma B: GET THE ALABAMA STATE POLICE
Digital Coma B: I"M IN YOUR CHIMNEY HELP
MiNiMiKe4242: who
MiNiMiKe4242: who
MiNiMiKe4242: i am getting off
MiNiMiKe4242: bye
Digital Coma B: HELP ME NICK
MiNiMiKe4242: no
Digital Coma B: THIS IS BRETT
Digital Coma B: HELP
MiNiMiKe4242: bye
Digital Coma B: HELP YOUR DEAR LOVER BRETT
Digital Coma B: I WANT TO MAKE OUT WITH YOU
MiNiMiKe4242: no it isnt
Digital Coma B: GOD HELP
MiNiMiKe4242: bye
Digital Coma B: I"M CALLING MOBILE STATE FIRE DEPARTMENT

MiNiMiKe4242: bye
Digital Coma B: HELPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPPP

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Previous message was not received by MiNiMiKe4242 because of error: User MiNiMiKe4242 is not available.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

I had two or three guys blowing me. They were better than any woman I
had ever had

...err, I'm still typing up news?

And there you have it. You obviously read every single last word, because you're here to be astounded and dumbfounded by our intellectual musings.

So the point I was trying to make is, is.. is -
oh yeah
LoL!!~

Okay, don't feel like writing a lot, so I'm doing this in point form:
1) New wallpaper. I found an old wallpaper that I liked but forgot about, I posted it. Check it out here.
Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention I reset the wallpaper view counters, not that many of you care.
2) New (old) computer. Recently, the fan on Ginnsu's video card died, and it wasn't a replacable variety, so he came to me because I had an old one from my old computer. He was willing to buy it from me, but then asked if I'd rather trade it for an old computer that he had instead. I'd been expressing interest in having a computer that I could do simple word processing on when I couldn't get on here. So, now I have it. I don't know a lot of specifics, but I had to install Win98se on it because all it had was DOS. It has approx. 1gb hard drive, 64mb of RAM, and I think runs at 100mhz.
3) New posting guy person. This has already been announced in a way, but I figured I'd at least make some note about it, seeing as I am the site administrator and all that. I recently added Doug aka SgtRama to the list of people who can post "news" to this site. I started thinking about adding him when I read a large post he made on the OverClocked forums. I don't have a link to the post on OCR, but I do have it saved to a text file.
*) Bonus item. Just figured this might be worth mentioning, I'm trying to think of a decent, more appropiate, name for the news section. I want to steer clear of all the cliched names for such things, ie: Blog, Rants, Diary, etc. And I also want to stay away from anything silly like, "Crap to read." So any ideas you have to contribute would be nice. I've had a few suggestions from Beatdrop and some others, and I'm currently thinking of going with "Writings."

Thanks for reading.

Today started like most days for me. I woke up around 3 PM after having a dream where Britney Spears came over to my house and got naked, had my glass of Coke, sat down and went online. It wasn't until later in the day that I realized it was bulk trash day. Bulk trash day in Cooper City is more like Christmas, because these rich idiots don'tknow what they're throwing away! First thing we find, is a 32 inch Sony TV, AWESOME, (which would've worked, but, i'll explain why it doesn't later). Afterwards, we find 3 more TVs, 2 of which work, a few lawn chairs, and a table or 2. So now we're moving the tables outside, and my friends decide to THROW one of the broken TVs at the 32 in TV. Holy CRAP. I don't know how many of you have ever BROKEN OPEN a TV, but this thing fell and went KABOOOOOOOOM! Sounded like a bomb went off. Smoke and half in thick glass flew EVERYWHERE. Awesome. Except, now this really cool 32 in TV in nothing more then pieces of glass in my driveway...that part was alittle upsetting. It's Ok though, because I still got at least 2 NEW TVs that DO work.

During this whole thing me and my friends also thought up an idea to start up our own business, with a bunch of TVs an computers and games and consoles (because we technically have it all) and since we never sleep we could be open 24/7 yadda yadda yadda. Sure we'd need permits and leases and stuff, but we're willing to work that all out. Sadly though, we all THINk it sounds like this AWESOME IDEA, but us actually going through with it? Chyeaaaaaa right. None of us have any DIRECTION in life. I'm just gonnna go to non-existing college and major it Pwnin' n00bs in Soul Cali 2. That should give me a pretty good heads up on the business. I think i can make a real career out of that kinda thing, ya'know?

It was probably about a week ago, I had a great idea for an at least somewhat interesting news post. I got all hyped up, come to the famed http://rks.no-ip.com, go to the news admin login, type in my username, then my password and then...what the crap. INVALID? I didn't know what to do. I was a rollercoast of emotions. I was upset because I'd likely forget my interesting topic (which I have), but more importantly I was angry. I wasn't sure at what exactly I was angry at, perhaps myself for changing the password and not remembering, but I was angry at somethin' that's for damn sure. So I did respectable young computer nerd would do, I went and I cried to Rob. If figured he can do anything, he's Rob, I mean, right? So I sought out the one they call Saunders, and I explained my situation. At first we thought there may be no solution. The great powers that had been bestowed upon me seemed to be lost forever. Then, a noticed a strange glass object floating over his head. "What's this?", I thought, it wasn't until a few seconds later that it hit me, that object was none other then a light bulb! "What is it?!", I queried. "I'll just reset the password!", Rob explained in a sudden stroke of genius. And so it was written, and so it was done. Now I have been granted passage to the realm of the admin once again, and the people can rejoice!

Well there it is. I've finally gotten around to making the Christmas skin. Not a lot of work, just a little tedious adjusting my style sheets so the rest of the site looks nice. It's not all graphics, you know?

Anyway, other than being busier than I was last year around this time, I really have no excuse for taking so long. But don't get me wrong, I have been busy. Ginnsu and I have been helping out a local church that's been having a drainage problem. We've been digging a big deep pit so that we can get at the wall that's allegedly leaking, getting paid $8/hour too. What? I should be doing it for free? Spirit of giving and all that? Help out the House of God, you say? No thanks, feeling all warm and tingly inside doesn't pay my rent, money does.

I'd like to be able to say that I've been working at Pizzarama a lot lately, and that it's been busy... but that would be an absolute lie. I haven't been to the store in several days, and since the winter season started, I've only been getting around 9 hours a week if I'm lucky. I guess nobody wants pizza in the winter time.. bastards.

I've also been, let's say, 'hired,' for now, to do some work on a Realtor's website. That's been something to do also, and it's netting me $10/hour. In US dollars if all goes according to plan, current exchange rate puts that at $13.31 CAD.

Other than that, and a few trips out of town, the only other thing keeping me busy, is this CD I was recently asked to burn. A friend, well, her mother, wanted a CD full of Christmas music. Newfie Christmas music. If you don't know what that means, don't worry about it. Suffice to say that even though I was given a list, that stuff was hard to find. I actually ended up coding an upload utility for the site just so I could get my friend to send the songs she had directly to me. I finally got that done on Saturday, after having the list since Tuesday, and not even starting until Friday night.

And now I have to go up to Ginnsu's place to help him clean his car. It's currently filled with mud from the digging job, and his dad would appreciate us cleaning it up a bit for Christmas or something.

So, that's all for now.
Take care, and have a Merry Christmas, or Happy Holidays, or whatever.

Rob.

So, over the last week or so I took on a project to keep myself busy with the site. I decided to create and implement a table of users that would be site-wide instead of going the lazy route and creating a new table for every new purpose I found.

Also, I found and installed an email server so I can actually send automated mail finally. This means that when you register a user account you don't have to wait for some lazy admin (read: me) to get off his ass to activate your account, instead you'll be emailed your username, password, and an activation key. This is just to make sure I don't get a bunch of people signing up multiple accounts so they can upload extra pictures.

Oh yeah, did I mention, the OverClocked Friends (OCF) users are part of this table now too? There's a new control panel for changing your profile stuff, which currently is just your password and a "bio" section, and uploading and deleting your files, unless you're an admin, then there's extra stuff for you too, bwahaha. Oh, also, if you had an OCF account before, then you already have a site-wide account, they were just copied over, so you can login with your same old username/password, the only difference is you're now allowed to have 10 files instead of just 5.

Oh, also I'm going to be changing it to SS friends, OC friends just sounds kind of limiting. I just have to get around to changing the code.

I also mentioned in the HACK, dunno if you noticed or not, but when you're logged in, your HACK messages will come up with bolded names and your username is entered automatically. This is just to show that the post is from the registered owner of that name, this will prevent impersonation (ie: If Ginnsu tries to post as Digital Coma he will appear unregistered, and then Digital Coma can log in and refute that Ginnsu was being a bastard and etc etc).

So yeah, I'm just rambling at this point, and for those of you who've read my news posts before you know what it means when I realize that I'm just rambling.

Night.

I would just like to take this moment in time to say happy day of giving thanks on behalf of all the other moderators who forgot (certainly they forgot with all that busy prepairing for dinner) to post this before me. So for everyone giving thanks on this jolly day of football, parades, and food, happy Thanksgiving!

I just thought I'd copy this here, seeing as all the entries themselves will soon be deleted.


Now, up until the last two lines, every message on there was posted from the same IP, 207.111.26.4. The last line was from 63.186.200.197.

It would appear that this person came here by searching Google for Daniel Saunders, which sent him to this news post. And oddly enough, amidst all that HACK spamming, he actually deleted one of his messages. Just one though, right after he said, "we havent had a good lynching lately maybe we could hang mike"

Ah well, just thought it was interesting.

So, as some of you who frequent the #ocremix may have noticed, I haven't been there in some time. It's been a week and a couple days. With my absence, has followed the absence of Quotebot, which should be expected as I host it. This absence was not my doing, nor was it caused by any misshaps with my computer (see Robs misshaps with his computer,) nor was it caused by any lack of internet service. As I have recently found out, my absence is something I have absolutely no control over. "Who controls my absence?" , you might ask. Well I'll tell you:

-Ny.EnterTheGame.Com- *** You are not welcome on this network.

-Ny.EnterTheGame.Com- *** Autokilled for [ G-Line AutoKill ] Ginnsu!~ginnsu@mnet-ki-244-41-100.monarch.net - [Ref#:86950 - Expires:10/27/03] Ginnsu - illegal channels (2003/10/27 18.40)

-Ny.EnterTheGame.Com- *** Your hostmask is Ginnsu!hughanator@mnet-ki-244-41-100.monarch.net

-Ny.EnterTheGame.Com- *** For more information, please mail support@enterthegame.com and include everything shown here.

Closing Link: 0.0.0.0 ( [ G-Line AutoKill ] Ginnsu!~ginnsu@mnet-ki-244-41-100.monarch.net - [Ref#:86950 - Expires:10/27/03] Ginnsu - illegal channels (2003/10/27 18.40))

Some of you might recognize what you see above. Some of you may understand it. Others will not understand a tidbit of this information, and will have never seen it before or had it explained to them. So I guess I should fill those poor folks in. What this basically says is that a server wide ban has been issued, with the reason that I was in "illegal channels." What are these illegal channels that they speak of? Well those would be: #CLAN_MAAS, #converge, #maas, #maasive, #saam and #WE.R.NOT.MAS. Apparently the ETG does not like people who join and participate in these channels. How much do they not like it? Well I'll show you: End Of #saam

I was idling at the time that the ETG staff came into the channel and decided to randomly start "Executing" people, and I don't have any logs from any point after this either. So I'm not sure if they just removed everyone in the channel from the server or only a select few. My guess is, they did their very best to get everyone. If they did get everyone, many props to the ETG staff for their valiant efforts. It's nice to know that I'm not being treated any different than anyone else.

Since I was banned from the server (the G-Lines happened October 20th of this year by the way) I have sent serveral e-mails to support@enterthegame.com inquiring for information and/or a lift of the G-line, but I have since received no replies at all. It's almost as though they don't want to talk to me, nor deal with me, nor have anything to do with me. As any increadibly insecure nerd would do, I'm currently asking myself "Why do they hate me so?"

It's also interesting to note that the G-Line says "Expires:10/27/03." One might assume that this would mean that the G-Line would be lifted on October 27th, of 2003. Not so. See it's now October 29th, of 2003 and I'm still G-Lined. So I've been pondering what other date this combination of numbers might mean. Maybe it's March 27th of, 2010. Than again, maybe it's March 3rd, of 2027. Or even October 10th of 2027. You never know. Would you issue a server wide ban against somebody you didn't or hardly knew that lasted 24 years for idling in illegal channels? Nah... well maybe, if I really liked to spite people. Then again, maybe I've just made too many repeated attempts to rejoin the server or something, and they've decided to extend the G-Line for a few days until I stop flooding them with mIRC connections. :o Sorry ETG.

Well, now it's time for me to make my appeal to you, my friends and foes from the #ocremx. I call upon you to help me to at least get the Quotebot back on the server. As Zeality keeps reminding me, I've just got to have my quotes god damnit. So, go into the channel #ETG and politely inquire as to why Ginnsu with the hostmask "Ginnsu!hughanator@mnet-ki-244-41-100.monarch.net" is still G-Lined. You could also give them the fantastic G-Line refrence number "86950" if you think it would help. Hell, give them the link to this page and let them read all this. Please? Do it for me. I promise I'll thank you, or something... Maybe even give you a candy. E-Mail me at ginnsu@hotmail.com

Update: Yippee! I got 1 e-mail today in response to my many sent, and it said the following:

Working on removing the ban.

ETG Support

Wow, that sounds promising. Although, so far it's not removed. Suppose I'm still asking for too much?

I did it again. For those of you around the site last year, you probably remember that I made a Halloween skin for the site. It was rushed, and in the end didn't look very good. This year, it was even more rushed, as was the scripting to make it work, but unlike last year I didn't design the header image this time. Also, I didn't go for an orange scheme, I think that helps. This year, the header image was designed by none other than Zero Ryoku, a good friend of mine, who excels at this kind of stuff. Seriously, if you ask him nicely he might even make something for you, for a price of course.

This time around, I'm also not going to automatically change to the new skin. If you want to see it, you can use the skin changer (right column, under the HACK), or press this button:

Well, that's all for now. Take care and have a happy Halloween.


Edit:
Oops, I forgot to set the expiration date on the cookie that stores the chosen skin. I think it defaults to like 5 minutes... ah well, if you choose a skin now the cookie will be saved, allegedly, for a year.

Whee!

SING WIT ME!

HAPEE BIRTDAAI TWO U,
HAPPI BIRTDAE 2 OUY,
HAPY BIRTDYA DEAR SERVRE HOST GUY!
HAAAAAAPY BIIIIIIIRTDAAAAAAE.... TOOOOOOOOOOOOOO YOUUUUUUUUUUUUU!

EVRY1 REMEBMR 2 WIHS ROB1 A VERI HAPI BIRTDAE!

...

my goodness, I'm so bored.

So a lot of people have been asking me about the Kumabachi/Suzumebachi Jr. thing. I think I'll explain here, and save myself the trouble of explaining it 300 more times in various e-mails, PMs, and instant messages ala AIM.

So you guys remember back in August when my dad was in a car crash right? NO? Ok then. Back in August my dad was in a car crash (bet you didn't expect that one!). He was driving home, minding his business, doing 65 in a 75 zone, and all of a sudden, WHAM some crazy lady hits him from behind, spins him around, and hits him AGAIN. So of course, the incompetent police force doesn't do any investigation, or ask either of the drivers what happened. No. The find ONE witness, who says my dad was doing a U-TURN IN THE MIDDLE OF THE DAMN FREEWAY.

So my dad's car was totalled, his back was badly injured, and of course the insurance refused to pay for any of it.

My dad couldn't work with his back all screwed up. So eventually, our bills just piled up until we couldn't even afford to eat anymore. Then we got evicted.

Luckily, my aunt and uncle decided they would take me in, while my dad and my brother went to go live with a friend of his up in Albuquerque.

I was trying to pull a ghandi thing or some stupid philosophical heart-wrenching publicity stunt to gain some pity from the overclocked and vgmix folks with the whole Kumabachi thing, but you damn people are too thick.. or you saw right through it.. but mostly thick. Like I said too many people kept asking me about it and it got downright annoying, considering I must have explained myself 93 freaking times already. So back to Suzumebachi it is.

I'm still living with my aunt and uncle. It's hard getting adjusted to these people. They are way different than my old lifestyle.

For instance, my dad would go to this canned food store that sold all the dented cans and shit for cheaper, while my aunt will toss out any can that has even the SLIGHTEST dent in it. Or when we're eating dinner at my dad's, they will pass me whatever's left of theirs if they're full and I'm still hungry, but over here, they toss everything they don't eat. At my dad's house we would use one cup for a whole day, but here, you get a drink of water, and 15 minutes later you get another one, but you use a different cup. I dunno it's just weird. Also: for my cousin's birthday, they bought him an $800 TV, and a playstation 2. But they won't let him use the ps2, ON THE $800 TV. He's only allowed to use it on the shitty 15" one. Just very wasteful overall.

But still. They're family, and I can't help but be greatful for taking me in. It's better than living on the streets, or in Albuquerque and having to commute down here every day for college (the school's only 1.5 miles from my uncle's house).

In other news, I am boring you. Guess what else, I don't care. This is my only forum for exerting my angst outside of dumping it on the folks at #ocremix, which I am going to continue doing anyways.. don't worry folks, I haven't changed.

Until next time,
Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley
tguenley@unm.edu

AkumaRob: OMG U SHUD POST ON MIE SIET
SamuraiHornet: oh ok
AkumaRob: hey nice buddy icon
SamuraiHornet: loel
AkumaRob: GOTTA GO! BYEZ
SamuraiHornet: BYE
AkumaRob: later
SamuraiHornet: k

OMG I R TEH POSTIGN ON UR SIET OKE!11 loelweleol.

anyways. MAYBE i'll use this space to tell you all about some more recent events in my life. k? MAYBE.

so like, remember when i said my dad and my brother were living with a friend of his up in albuquerque? well like, yesterday, that friend was all drunked up and he called here where my dad was having dinner with us and he said for him not to go back. and he was apparently really pissed off about something. so my dad and my brother are now living in my uncle's 5th wheel in the back yard.

this morning they went to albuquerque to get their stuff from the drunk "friend" and to take back his truck they were borrowing because he threatened to report it stolen. while they were there, he was still drunk as shit, and was all pissed off about how somebody broke his 40 year old fucking chair so he decided it was reason enough to toss them out.

so yeah, that's not cool. he didn't even ask what happened he was like "OMG U R TEH BROEK OF DIS CHARE U NEDE TO LEAV AND TAEK ALL UR CRUD WITH U MKAY THX!!!11"

this is after my dad has known him for 30 years. he still owes my dad a motorcycle. and like all the dinners my dad got him at the outback and carry-out and cigarettes that the guy bummed off my dad, even though he knew my dad had like a grand total of $14 to his name, and he has $30,000 in the bank.

so yeah i'm kinda flustered over that. next time i see that asshole i'll probably have to punch him in the face. twice. maybe once again after he regains consciousness.

other than that the situation is about the same. the insurance folks sent my dad a check finally. but he can't use it for 11 business days, which is like 2 1/2 weeks or something. so in the meantime i'm still living here.

i'm not sure if i'll even be moving out soon either. the insurance company only sent like $7800. which in the grand scheme of things is not much. that $7800 has got to get us back into a house, a car, and well, a life basically. and there's no more income after that. and my dad's too fucked up to go back to work, and the insurance company won't give him disability.

so i dunno wtf we're gonna do.

anyways i only have a week of school left. not including finals. not sure what classes i'm gonna take next semester, but i gotta pass the ones i have now first. which i'm not doing very well. i'm doing pretty good in my math class. in fact i'm like finished with all the homework for the rest of the year. just gotta do the final, which should be no problem considering I'M FUCKING SMART, K? CS150 should be easy, that is if I can get my hands ahold of a copy of microsoft powerpoint before tuesday (gotta make a presentation or something). but i'm severely slacking in english and history. i had two essays due on wednesday, and neither of them got finished. my life's just been too hectic to actually sit down and write something 14 pages long, and do all the research and shit that goes along with it. god i hate being behind in my classes, but sometimes it's just so hard to avoid. :(

so. that's how things are here in suzumebachiville.

Till next time,
Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley

So.. about all you guys' comments being reset, that's kinda my fault.

You see, I was reading some crap about security issues with MySql queries that use user input, and realized I had, what I thought, were a few small holes in my code.

So I went inspecting it all, and found one of these holes, and decided to find out, could I indeed exploit it?
Answer: Yes.

I created a new user, and using a downloaded and edited copy of the profile editing page, I was able to send some unexpected sql code and changed Ginnsu's password.

Now, I wasn't able to change it to something usable, because all the passwords are encrypted, and are stored in the database looking like useless garbage (like 11e40eae29ab2a4a056d16), and the login functions I use expect this useless looking garbage. So I wasn't able to access someone elses account that way. But, I was still able to change whatever settings I wanted for whatever user I wanted, which means I could still fuck shit up.

Anyway, I patched that hole, and several others, but not before I kind of screwed up something in everyone's profile. You see, the thing with mysql, is when you're updating a field, like for example user comments, if you don't specify which row you want to modify, then it will just modify them all. Which is what happened in this case. So I reset everyone's comments back to the default, which is just something along the vein of, "This is a default comment, set it in your profile."** So if you haven't already, go set your comments in your profile.

Later,
Rob.

**Edit: Actually by default, the comments are empty. So now they're empty.

This is the kind of utter shit I do when I'm tired.

[10:51:36] AkumaRob: *POKEZ*
[10:52:04] GinnsuNyph: WUT?
[10:52:10] AkumaRob: I DONON
[10:52:16] AkumaRob: i made $20 today
[10:52:25] GinnsuNyph: SHOW ME UR TITS
[10:52:31] AkumaRob: OK!
[10:52:33] GinnsuNyph: OMFG RONG WINDOW
[10:52:38] AkumaRob: *FLASHES WEBACAM***
[10:52:52] AkumaRob: OMG IM SO EBMBARASD!
[10:52:58] GinnsuNyph: OMG GNO< I DID NOT WANT 2 C THAT U FUKR
[10:53:04] AkumaRob: I HOP U DINT TK A PICTR
[10:53:21] AkumaRob: HAY FUK U IM BREATUFUL
[10:53:42] GinnsuNyph: I DID< I AM SO GOING 2 BLAKMALE U NOW, I HAET U
[10:53:48] AkumaRob: OMG
[10:53:54] AkumaRob: Y U HAETEN ON ME!>?
[10:54:05] AkumaRob: ITZ CUS UR GAYFGT RITE!?
[10:54:52] GinnsuNyph: CUS U BLINDD ME< I HAEV SENE TEH ULGLYNES
[10:55:01] AkumaRob: HAY FUK U
[10:55:12] AkumaRob: IM THE BESAT BEATUFALINESS!
[10:55:26] GinnsuNyph: IM NOT HOMOFGT< CUS I HAET FGTS
[10:55:44] AkumaRob: FUK U UR A CLOSOMOEXTUAL
[10:56:06] AkumaRob: UR SLEF HATIN FGTFUKR
[10:56:09] GinnsuNyph: FUK U< FGTS SCAER ME< I HAETS THEM
[10:56:21] AkumaRob: FUK U! YA LIK TEH FGTS WANT TO!!
[10:56:47] GinnsuNyph: STPO IT UR MENA!
[10:56:55] AkumaRob: NO UR TEH MEAN
[10:57:10] GinnsuNyph: I DON"T LIEK FGTS< OK?
[10:57:16] AkumaRob: FIEN
[10:57:19] GinnsuNyph: I LIEK WOMENZ!
[10:57:23] AkumaRob: I DNT CARRE
[10:57:24] AkumaRob: ME TO
[10:57:30] AkumaRob: TEH BOBOBIEZ
[10:57:57] GinnsuNyph: YEAH! THATS Y I SED SHOW ME UR TITS
[10:58:08] AkumaRob: U THOT I WUZ A GIRL!
[10:58:13] AkumaRob: DINT U?
[10:58:17] AkumaRob: CUS U WER RONG
[10:58:25] GinnsuNyph: BUT I MENT TEH WINDOW THAT IS FUR THIS CHICK I WUS TALKING 2
[10:58:25] AkumaRob: IM A DUDEZ
[10:58:33] AkumaRob: OMFGGGG
[10:58:37] AkumaRob: IS SHE SEX Y?
[10:58:52] AkumaRob: DUZ SHE HAVE L337 TITYZ?>
[10:59:05] GinnsuNyph: SHE IZ SO CUTE! BUT SHE CALD ME STUPD ADN I DUNT GNO Y!
[10:59:35] AkumaRob: HAHA CUS UR DUM SHE HAETS U GIV ME HER SN I WIL TAK 2 HER AND SEE HERE TITZ
[10:59:56] GinnsuNyph: SHE WUDNT SHOW ME HUR TITS< I THOUT THAT WUS WUT WEB CAMS WER 4!
[11:00:20] AkumaRob: FUK YA
[11:00:28] AkumaRob: THER USLZEZ OTHERWIS
[11:01:08] AkumaRob: MABE U HAV TO SHO FIRST
[11:01:09] GinnsuNyph: YA< BUT SHE SED "FUK U ASSHOL" ADN LEFT. WUT A PRUED!
[11:01:20] AkumaRob: OMGF
[11:01:24] GinnsuNyph: OH< OK>!
[11:01:30] AkumaRob: SHEZ A BITHCAKSNk
[11:02:15] GinnsuNyph: YA< SHE AINT NEVAR GETING LAID< SHE PRBLY DEF SUM JESUS LUVR
[11:02:31] AkumaRob: TOTLY PRY DEF
[11:02:50] AkumaRob: OR SHE PRY LIKZ WOMNZ
[11:02:57] AkumaRob: LESBOZZ HAHAHALLOWEL
[11:03:25] GinnsuNyph: OH YA!!! I HOEP SHE HAS ME OVR 4 FUN WIT HUR GURL FRENDS!
[11:03:38] AkumaRob: LOLZ TAHT WUD RULZ
[11:03:59] AkumaRob: TENH U CAN HAV SXEX WIT DEM
[11:04:19] GinnsuNyph: LOLZ OMG LIEK 4 OR 6 BOOBIES INSTEAD OF2!
[11:04:35] AkumaRob: YA OR LIK 7 IF ONE IS FREKY!!!!!!!
[11:05:31] GinnsuNyph: OMFG THAT WUD BE INSANE! BUT I CANT COUNT HOW MANY BOOIES IF THAR WUR 5 WOMENZ? LIEK> 11?
[11:06:16] AkumaRob: LIK YA FUK THAT WUD RULZ
[11:06:31] AkumaRob: CUD HAV SUM AWSUM SEX WIHT TMEH
[11:06:33] GinnsuNyph: YA OMFG
[11:06:51] AkumaRob: ND WHN UR DON U CAN WACH THME FINSH
[11:06:55] AkumaRob: EACHTOTER
[11:07:02] AkumaRob: CUS THER LESBZIANZ
[11:07:43] GinnsuNyph: YA LIEK< I WUNDR WUT DU? GET BIG FAEK DICKS OR WUT?
[11:08:00] AkumaRob: NO TEHY USE THER TUNGZ
[11:08:15] GinnsuNyph: OMFG RULLY?
[11:08:19] AkumaRob: YA ITZ SEXY
[11:08:42] AkumaRob: U DINT KNO? U NEDE EXAPLNATION OR WUT!!LOLOWLWL!!HAHHAHHA
[11:08:44] GinnsuNyph: GROOOOOOS! WUDNT THAt TAST BAD?@?!
[11:08:59] AkumaRob: I DNO I GUES So
[11:09:03] AkumaRob: UHHHHH
[11:09:08] AkumaRob: I MEAN NO ITS AAWSUM
[11:09:09] GinnsuNyph: NO I M VIRGIN
[11:09:16] AkumaRob: I TRID
[11:09:24] GinnsuNyph: OMFG U HAENT EITHER?
[11:09:25] AkumaRob: ITS GRETA! LIK CHIKEN
[11:09:27] GinnsuNyph: NO U LIE
[11:09:31] AkumaRob: FUK U
[11:09:35] GinnsuNyph: U JUST COVR
[11:09:39] AkumaRob: IM TUNGZ SOME LEZBOZ
[11:10:07] GinnsuNyph: OMFG U R JUST AFRED I WUL TINK U R GAY
[11:10:13] AkumaRob: NO UR GAY
[11:10:15] AkumaRob: FGT!
[11:10:23] AkumaRob: U LIOK GAYFGTASS
[11:10:31] AkumaRob: I LIK TEH PUSY!
[11:10:32] GinnsuNyph: SHUT UP
[11:10:43] GinnsuNyph: I LIEK TEH PUSY @
[11:10:44] GinnsuNyph: 2
[11:10:56] AkumaRob: YA K SUR I TINK UR LIEN
[11:11:26] GinnsuNyph: NO I JUST HAEVNT DUN IT YET< BUT I WUNT 2
[11:12:14] GinnsuNyph: so yeah
[11:12:20] GinnsuNyph: you made $20?
[11:12:35] AkumaRob: HAHA! i win!

20 minutes of that.. damn.

WELL now, I was doin' alittle exploring on CNN.com, and I found this article:

U.S. eyes return to the moon
( http://www.cnn.com/2003/TECH/space/12/04/us.moon/index.html )

As I was reading along I noticed something in the article, it said this:

"It remains to be seen if any of the plans actually lift off or if China and the United States embark on some form of a "space race". But on the table of American ideas is a permanent presence on the moon and even a manned mission to Mars."

After reading this I thought to myself, "Holy crap, US and China are gonna be having a space race to see who can colonize the moon first? All those people who bought Lunar Property are gonna be BANKING!" So I went out to see where I can get some Moon land of my own, and I found this:

http://www.lunarembassy.com

"Welcome to the computer center of the Lunar Embassy, the leaders in extraterrestrial real estate and the ONLY company in the world to be recognized to possess a legal basis for selling and registering extraterrestrial properties"

This company has legal and binding contracts signed by the US, USSR, and UN, stating that YOU can BUY these pieces of MOON PROPERTY, legally, and own them. So I was thinkin', "Damn, but can the US override the contract?" So i found this in the FAQ:

"Further, the Outer Space Treaty of 1967, which is law, clearly states that the Moon and the other celestial bodies are the heritage of all mankind for the purposes of exploration. Well there we are. NASA can do what they like and where they like, as long as they are exploring which is in general what they are doing of course. If someone though wants to build a house on your property, that is quite a different issue altogether."

You LEGALLY own that MOON PROPERTY! And the US can't touch it as they have no actual ownership or say in what goes on on the moon! So on an infinite timeline it's only logical that eventually the moon will be terraformed and colonized, and in that event, if the US decides they want your land, they're gonna be totally pwned. You could probably rip them off bigtime, which is awesome because moon property cost $20 an acre! That's right, $20 an acre!

"Each single property comes with three documents (The Lunar Deed, the Lunar Map and the Lunar Constitution and Bill of Rights), as well as the shortstory: ?YOU OWN THE WHAT?? which includes the declaration of ownership filed with the United States, the USSR and the United Nations."

Awesome? I think so. So if you're looking for something that'd be totally awesome to get for someone, that they can put away and give to their great grand kids, Moon property all the way baby!

And when you're buying it, remember who told you about it. As I can't afford any moon land of my own. :(

( http://www.lunarembassy.com/lunar/shops.lasso?-database=aa654s5677556pr&-layout=US$_pr9981_en&-response=index_e.lasso&-NoResultsError=index_e.lasso&-token.affindex=&-token.trackindex=629933&-token.rn=82947190&-token.cs=US$&-token.rs29=33&-token.rscd=LE&-token.firstlogin=&-token.skip=&-show )

IT'S THAT TIME AGAIN! Yes! Time for Dain to update you on all of the events taking place in his life! Woohoo! I know I'm excited.

Okay, so, like, I met a girl. Isn't that amazing? I'm starting to discover that it's actually a lot easier to do than I made it out in my mind to be previously. Basically, I was playing DDR at the arcade, and I was doing so freakin' awesome (as usual), and she was watching. So I beat the first of three songs with an A and it was a pretty hard song and I just owned. From behind me, I hear "Will you father my children?" I laugh, and go back to playing. I clear my second song with a level of awesomeness equal to the first one, and this time, I hear her say "Seriously." So I go about playing for a bit, and then she disappears. I'm kind of angry at myself for not having said anything, so I just kinda stand around, continue playing, glancing all over the place constantly to see if she'd come back. Eventually she did, and I casually initiated conversation with "I'm Dain, by the way." And it just kind of took off from there. Man, that was so easy. I won't go into details, but she's really awesome.

MOVING RIGHT ALONG!

Dru Sjodin's disappearance. Yes, I was there at the mall the day that happened. My car was parked in the same parking lot that hers was, and the same parking lot from which she disappeared. At the time she disappeared, I was most likely sitting on a bench outside the arcade right near the door to the parking lot, drinking water and conversing with the previously mentioned girl. What a trip, huh?

In other news, my remix album project is under way. For those that haven't heard about it (since I posted about it in UnMod), it's an album consisting of twelve songs, 6 requests and 6 personal selections, that covers music from games that lack coverage already, as well as games that were very much inspirational to me in the past. Lots of SNES and Genesis stuff on it. I'm doing songs from Strider, Contra 3, Super Ghouls 'N' Ghosts, U.N. Squadron, Megaman 3, Sonic 2, and more. I've completed two of thirteen remixes necessary for the album (yes, I said twelve songs, but that's because one of them is a medley of two individual songs, both from Revenge of Shinobi). The first track is a remix of a song from DDR Extreme called "Xenon," and the second is the second part of the RoS medley, which is the boss battle theme, "Terrible Beat." Thirty-two second samples of both of those songs are available in the thread on OCR, which can be found here: http://www.ocremix.org/phpBB2/viewtopic.php?t=28160

Or you could just go to my file space on Rob's server here, and navigate into the BBB (Bit by Bit) folder.

That's really all there is for now... The semester is almost over! Fucking rox! My brother's coming to visit, and we're gonna go and play DDR and shit, and it'll be great. I love breaks.

But then again what "news" posts on this site really are news? I'm not sure exactly. More like retarded blogs or something. But I'm pretty sure I'm retarded, and I know for fact that SgtRama is, so it's all good.

Anyways Saturday I went with strykerhorse down to the Abeytas Fire Station and we used their garage to record our band and stuff. Only the recording didn't work too well because strykerhorse's laptop sucks and randomly skips while recording.

So Sunday I decided to finish my english paper. I was up until 4:30 AM. Fun. Then my uncle got me up at 7:00, this morning and was all pissed about me staying up late, so I don't understand why he got me up so early.

Anyways I think I'm going to buy an acre of land on the moon for my stepdad for christmas. That's the kind of stuff he likes. Weird stuff. I think it would be cool if it truly was legitimate, but it most likely isn't, and never will be (some day someone's gonna shut that guy down, but it's still kinda fun to be able to say you own a piece of the moon).

So like, today I get to go register for my spring classes. I'm gonna have like... Pre-cal, Programming Fundamentals (C++), English 102, History 161 or political science or something, and possibly Music Appreciation. Hopefully I get some financial AIDS too. mmmmmm AIDS. I don't know how much longer I can pay this crud outta pocket before I gotta get another job.

Yesterday I ate lunch with my mom at Johnny Carino's and she gave me $125 which was really cool. So after my christmas shopping is all done, I think I'm gonna buy me a new guitar pedal. I saw just the one I want on eBay too. Johnson J-station. Apparently they were discontinued. I don't know why because I've only heard really really good stuff about them, and they're also very very affordable.

This weekend is gammathon by the way. SO IF TEKNOBUNNY EVAR REDEZ DIS HE SHOUD LIEK STOP BYE FOR A VISAT OR SUMTING< AND BRIGN TAHT WIDERULD GUY 2. U NO WUT I MENE?

So. I remember matt saying something about a christmas tree bon-fire somewhere around Jan 12th? I might be free then. And I should have insurance by then. Only I wouldn't want to drive MY car to South Carolina, but maybe I can borrow my grandma's. Her car is awesome for long trips... So comfortable. 1991 Mercury Sable LS. Beautiful Car.

I am very much bored sitting here writing this in the Library. I suppose I should have gone and gotten lunch (my class starts in 13 minutes) but I'm already fat enough anyways. And I save more money that way.

So I guess that's how things are over here.

End rant.

I stepped outside today and I noticed that the sky was NOT falling. In addition to this, I noticed no 4 horsemen, no pigs flying, no snow in Florida, and I'm not certain, but I'm fairly sure Suzumebachi isn't engaging in sexual intercourse. So if all this is true, then HOW on Earth can it be that there has been a steady flow of news flowing through this site? "The news posts haven't been this consistent since 1965!" said crazy old Tom Smith when queried about his feelings on the current situation, and although my reports show that this site, nor the internet at all, were availible in 1965, it's clear that not only is crazy old Tom Smith still incredibly old AND crazy, he's right in the sense that there hasn't been such a consistent flow of news in some time. So what could be the cause of this? Some say a higher power may be pulling the strings behind the curtain, others blame extraterestrial activity, while still others stick to the old "fellatio" excuse. Whatever it is, it certainly has things around here jumping, and it also has Suzumebachi doubting my incredibly accurate sources about moon property. So with that, I shall close my new post of that day, and Suzu, you'd better make sure you keep your damn moon buggy off my acre because I will TOTALLY sue your ass if I find 1 hair off your back on my land.

Ok, so usually I wouldn't do this but I just HAVE to right now because I have some GREAT NEWS and it has ABSOLUTELY NOTHING to do with saving tons of money on my car insurance with Geico but regardless it's just one of those things that you HAVE TO TELL THE WHOLE FRICKEN WORLD ABOUT BECAUSE IT'S SO TOTALLY AWESOME.

So, at the time of my news post yesterday, I had just gotten my DSL back. Awesome, VERY awesome, and at the time I didn't think there was any awesome awesomer then my current awesome but boy oh boy was I wrong.

Just a few moments ago I was talking to a friend of mine who turned down a longterm drug addiction so he could play RTCW morning, noon, and night, and tries to get everyone he knows to play too. Upon seeing him logon I told him that I had FINALLY gotta DSL back and all I need to do now was wait until I get my 128 MB video card for Christmas before I could totally pwn all kinds of n00bs in ET (Enemy Territory). He then proceeded to tell me that he had just bought a new computer and happen to have a SPARE 128 MB PCI ATI RADEON 9200 SE XSTACY JUST LYING AROUND HIS HOUSE AND I COULD HAVE IT FOR FREE! This ONLY knocked the awesome level up at LEAST 5 notches, but then it hit me, NOW instead of asking for a VIDEO card for Christmas, I can get an Audigy game! THEN it occured to me that I no longer need my dialup modem either! So that opens up ANOTHER PCI slot WHICH MEANS MONITOR 4 BABY!!!!!!

So lets review:

-DSL
-Free RTCW
-Free Video card
-Audigy Gamer
-4 Monitors
-No Geico

And on a lesser extent there's a chance I'll see Robbyn today! So this is quite possibly one of the bes days in the Raman history books. If I don't get into a car accident on the way up to West Palm, I'm gonna be the happiest boy in the world when my video card gets here tomorrow! >_

As an update to my earlier post about Bullshit! I would just like to let you all know that I have made all of the episodes of Penn & Tellers Bullshit! availible for download from my web server. Download the whole series of Penn & Tellers: Busllshit! now! Enjoy!

Here is a list of all the availible Episodes of Penn & Tellers Bullshit, linked to the downloadable WMV files, in the order which they were aired in. Download them all now as they are excellent.

Talking to the Dead
Alternative Medicine
Alien Abductions
End of World
Second Hand Smoke, Baby Bullshit
Sex, Sex, Sex
Feng Shui, Bottled Water
Creationism
Self-Helpless
ESP
Eat This!
Ouija Boards Near, Death Experiences
Global Warming Environmentalism

TREMBLE AT MY POWER!!!!!!!!

*Edit*

Right, I was supposed to add more to this...
So yeah, uh, not much to say, I've been busy with work and stuff. With the new season, business has picked up a bunch. Also, Ginnsu has moved into an apartment, and I've been spending a lot of time hanging out there. He's got no computer, worth talking about, yet, so you won't be seeing him online much (unless he goes to his parents' house).

Also, starting tomorrow, I'm going to be attending a a security guard training course. It's in the town next to ours (1 hour drive away), starts at 9:00am (tomorrow anyway, it might be starting at 8:30am afterwards) and is 8 hours long. It's going from the 15th to the 24th (with one day off on the 20th). Hopefully the certificates it brings will help me find a good job, something that I can actually support myself with.

Anyway, I'm going to bed now. Stupid crap having to get up early and drive for an hour, bleh.

*Edit^2*

The course was interesting. Mostly just note taking and discussion so far. Turns out we'll be starting at 8:00am every morning now... "yay". I could handle getting up for a class at that time, but I don't like having to drive for an hour to get there.

Ahh man, I bet everyone in my history class thinks I'm a crackhead or cokehead or something. I was just sitting there, trying to keep from falling asleep, and I got like a killer nosebleed out of nowhere. So I tried to deal with it, but I just kept bleeding out all over the place. All over my notes, my hands, my camouflage jacket, the carpet, everywhere. So I took off in the middle of class and everyone was staring at me like "wtf? omg he so snorts the coke."

So now I'm in the library again, waiting for my next class which isn't until 1:30 PM. It's 10:24 as of right now.

Anyways, in other news... JAXX is back at VGMix? Wtf is up with that. I thought he said that he had more important crap to do than remix videogames anymore. Or something to that effect.

Also, might finally get to move out of my uncle's house. This afternoon my dad and I are going to go look at a big nice trailer house out on the west mesa of Belen. Even more out in the desert than the last place, and there's no way in hell I'll EVER get broadband out there, but oh well. I mean EVER too. It's hard enough trying to get asshole broadband ISPs to move into Belen, a town of 11,000 people, let alone trying to get them to move to your house 6 miles outside of it in the middle of a freaking desert in a tiny subdivision with a population of 16. That includes dogs.

My dad also went and looked at a truck yesterday. It's a 1990 Isuzu Trooper II. Just like the one in the wreck only 4 years newer, and 135,000 less miles on it. And it's blue. And has 4 doors. Seems like a winner to me. I liked the old Trooper. It was a cool truck. Too bad it's smashed to holy fuck and gone.

So as I sit here typing with a paper towel in my nose I have come to a conclusion about libraries. They are too quiet. I feel like I'm in a mausoleum or something. The only signs of life I hear are coming from the heavily breathing guy on the computer next to me. Yes heavily breathing guy, I mean you.

So I actually remembered lunch money today. I think I might just go eat lunch and go home. I don't feel like bleeding all over my english class either.

Well, seeing as I doubt there's gonna get news posted today, and I have company so I STILL can't finish the big post I'm writing, I'll share with all of you the most bestest Christmas gift I have ever recieved. I got it from a Mr. Ty Hunter Gnuely (spelling is ghey), and I would like to share it with you all because it can't be wasted on just me.

Subj:

sup fgt
Date:

12/10/2003 1:04:31 PM Eastern Standard Time
From:

Ty Guenley
To:

Douglas Arley
Sent from the Internet (Details)


A PRESANT FOR DOUG

teh suzumeabchi ascii art colectiun v1.10102.sixtynine!

TEH BOEMRMAN

{0_0}
{u_u}
{x_x}
{o_O}
{n_n}
{^_^}

TEH FURIE ANIMULS
{\_/}
(='.'=)
(")_(")

(\_/)
(O.o)
(")_(")

[\_/]
[=.=]
["]_["]

()_()
(^_^)
(")_(")

{\_/}
{n.n }
{"}_{"}

TEH SNOWFATMAN!!!! LOWEL

(o.o)
( | : | )
(____)

AND OF COURSE< DIX

====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D
====|_|_|_|==D
=|_|_|_|=====D------------------------------------------SPEW

OK SO LIEK CONTACKT ME LATAR FOR TEH NUMBAR MUNCHAR CUZ HE LIEK CAN"T BE
PASTED INTO AN EMAIL BECUZ OF HIS COLORZ< LOWEL DAM COLORD PPLE!!1111111

merry christmas fgt. i hope u like it. i hop this crud getz ther in tiem 2.

So there you have it! I hope you all enjoy it as much as I did! Make goos use of it, because I know I did!

As for real new post, look for one soon, as soon as...there's not a million people at my house. Which I don't know when that'll be because it's winter break =P Regardless, FAREWELL!

GUESS WHAT EVERYBODY. I'M A LEGAL DRIVER AND STUFF. As of today my car (1972 volkswagen superbeetle, faded red!) is insured and registered. I got my license about a month ago (bout damn time). Now to fix up teh littol blue car!!1

I'm also the best driver ever. You know why? Because I don't crash into things! The only dents in MY car come from OTHER people crashing into IT, not me crashing into THEM. Ask my cousin. He's backed into it twice already. My uncle once. My grandma clipped the bumper... hmm come to think of it, maybe I should find a new parking spot.

Anyways, my dad's car is also all licensed and registered etc etc. I like this new car a lot. As I said before it's a 1990 Isuzu Trooper. Navy Blue and Silver. 4WD, 4 Door, V6, 5 speed. Really a cool truck. I want one. Or a toyota 4 runner or something. Japs make the best cars :(

So like, one more final left on thursday, then I'm out till January 20th. Which is cool, because I get the 21st off for my birthday. WHEEE WUT R U AL GONNA GET ME!!!?!?/!/1/1/1 NM DON"T TEL!!!1111

So tomorrow I'm gonna drive around a bit. Legally. How cool is that.

Also: SgtRama told me to post something so I did. Bitch at him, not me.

so I met a girl she had nice hands I touched them they were nice I don't know her name I'm sure it's nice too but her hands are really cool did I say I touched them? yes I did she asked for my name afterwards she left do I have nice hands too? probably not where was I going with this? she ate a string of cheese (the whole time) also it was snowing we talked about snow actually we were mostly quiet then she left I already said that I left too

Well, recently I've been doin' alittle dabble around the internet, and registering on a few forums. Two in particular are the Need For Speed: Underground forums, and the forums for the UO Free Shard I play on called Alternate-PK.

Here's an example of a post from the Need for Speed Boards, posted in the "Members helping members" section:

----------------------------------------------------

Original Discussion


THIS GAME IS A WASTE OF MY $$
by motorheadnorm, posted Dec 11, 2003 3:05am

Bookmark
THE MECHANICS AND TUNING OF THE CARS IS POOR AND THE SELECTION OF CARS ARE VERY BAD THEY TOOK ALOT OF TIME BUILDING THE MOTORCITY ONLINE PLATFORM AND SHOULD STAY WITH THAT GENRAL IDEA. I THINK THERE IS NOT ONE GAME OUT THERE AS GOOD EVER AS M.C.O.
AND THEY WOULD SELL TWICE AS MANY AS THEY DID IF THEY OFFERED AN OFFLINE VERSION MAYBE SOME IMPORTS FOR THE IMPORT GUY AND AMERICAN MUSCLE FOR ME AND MY GENERATION.. I AM 31 AND LOVE THE OLD MUSCLE AND LOVE THE IN DEPTH TUNING IDEA M.C.O. CARRIED. HECK IF THEY WOULD OFFER A PATCH FOR MY M.C.O. GAME TO PLAY IT OFFLINE I WOULD PAY 150.00 FOR IT.
THATS WHY GRAN TURISMO WAS SO GOOD AND SUCH A HIT.
IT WENT IN DEPTH WITH THE TUNING AND M.C.O WAS BETTER BECAUSE THE PARTS WERE REAL PARTS.. ANY ONE ELSE FEEL THE SAME??
SIGNED.... MISSING M.C.O.

------------------------------------------------------

Ok now. First off, I don't remember seeing where this is the MOTOR CITY ONLINE forums. In fact, this is a very good example of the majority of posts here, as almost every other posts is either crying because the Motor City Online servers got shut down, or because the people are just plain rock dumb.

A) Hi, your 31 and you're crying on a MESSAGE BOARD, about your game getting shut down.

B) If you bought Need for Speed, expecting it to have cars from like the 50s in it, that's extremely ignorant and just plain dumb.

C) Need for Speed Underground is the closet to Grand Turismo that the PC has EVER seen.

D) What the FUCK does he wants me to help him with short of HANDING HIM A FUCKING TISSUE?

And EVERY single post is like this. I shit you not they complain that EA included cheat codes in the game that give you 1/3 of the parts you need. You get ALL level 1 parts, when there's 3 levels of parts in the game, AND PEOPLE COMPLAIN! It's not like they're saying HERE'S HOW TO GET INFINITE NITROUS SO YOU ALWAYS WIN AND GO ONLINE AND PISS PEOPLE OFF. No, they're saying, "HERE'S HOW YOU CAN GET THROUGH THE GAME QUICKER ON THE 2ND TRY AND UNLOCK THE STUFF YOU DIDN'T BEFORE" Yet, at the same time, people'll complain about having to play through the game a second time to have to unlock more stuff. This is Chewbacca. Chewbacca lives on Endor. Why, would a 7 foot tall wookie, want to live on Endor, with a bunch 4 foot tall ewoks? IT DOES NOT. MAKE. SENSE.

Next, I'll give an example of the Alternate-Pk forums. Now, first off, the Alternate-PK shard, and server, and forums, is mostly German people, the thing is, german people aren't the ONLY people there, and the people from CANADA, talk JUST AS BAD, as the people from Germany! It's SUCH A PAIN IN THE ASS. Not ONLY do they whine, but they WHINE IN CRAPPY ENGLISH!

Example:

---------------------------------------------------------

GM Tammy
Gamemaster
Joined: 11 Jun 2003
Posts: 430
Location: earth?


Posted: Fri Dec 12, 2003 5:34 pm Post subject: New Swords
ok guys in a outer topic a player sugguested a lightning sword, then i got the idea..


we already have : fire,water,air all of nature elements..

then i start think, what about,

lava ele sword? ice ele sword? lightning ele sword?


all would be thinked on BUT.. as sword names dont help much, i need some special effects there have to do whit there names...

if u have a idea how it should hit and dmg your welcome to tell here

important you tell

1: what sword
2: special effects
3: dmg and speed
4: and how it look when it hit? (use the "spell cast look" for ideas)

-------------------------------------------------

JESUS, CHRIST.

That's not even barely english. THat's like, CRAP. Completely ASIDE from the fact that LAVA ISN'T A FUCKING ELEMENT MORON, and the fact that she REFUSES to listen to any ideas for swords other then hers. GOD DAMN AN EARTH SWORD? NO FUCKING WAY THAT'D ONLY MAKE MORE SENSE THEN MY RETARDED ASS LAVA SWORD BUT I'M A STUPID DUTCH BITCH WHO CAN'T SPEAK ENGLISH. Also, WHY the FUCK does it have to be a fucking SWORD? There's something liek 5 different melee combat skills in UO, and there's like bows, crossbows, Scythes, halbreds, axes, swords, krysses, knives, hammers, maces, hammer picks, fucking everything. Not to mention new stuff that they added in specifically for this shard. SO WHY THE FUCK DO THEY HAVE TO USE SWORDS? And this is completely beyond the fact that they already have too many different types of special weapons, and NOT enough fucking variation in gameplay. BUT WE'RE NOT FUCKING WORRIED ABOUT THAT, WE WANNA ADD MORE FUCKING ITEMS TO LAG TO SERVER EVEM FUCKIMG MORE. I mean only fucking crap, Smoke is Dutch, but Smoke has a good website, isn't a moron, and talks in PERFECT ENGLISH. WHY can ALL the fucking Dutch people follow in his damn footsteps?

So next time you think OCR forums are that bad, take a look around the rest of the internet. Things are ALOT fucking worse. Praise allah that OCR isn't the Need for Speed forums.

Also:

Mp3 recommendations of the day:

OTT - Smoked Glass & Chrome

&

Immortal Techniques - Dance with the Devil

The first is a cool sounding funking ambient track. Really awesome.

The second is a somewhat depressing, kinda disturbing rap song but the lyrics are awesome, and it has a good message, it just tries to REALLY scare you straight in a way :-P.

I'll link to both later, on my webserver, but you're free to look elsewhere too, although they're both kinda rare.

Christmas pictures!

-Christmas dinner (this was actually on Christmas Eve-Eve [Dec 23])
-The computer with the new set of speakers that dad got for Christmas. As you can see, I had to move a few things around, so now it's a bit different from the way we used to have things setup.
-Snowball & Bear; Gifts from my sisters.

And uh.. that's all for now, maybe I'll add more pictures later. But I'm secretly hoping that other news mods will edit this post and add their own Christmas pictures.

Merry Christmas!

Still no internet access though. That sucks giant monkey balls. But that's ok, because the Veteran's Administration might give us money for internet access under this new program they have called Z-ACT which basically gives disabled veterans money for stuff like computers and that kinda crud and then trains them to use the computers to sort of vocationally rehabilitate them so they can work from home on the computer since they're disabled or whatever.

Anyways, I've been doing lots more music stuff lately. I've got several new songs I'm working on, mostly originals, and one remix from seiken densetsu 2 (that Rose and Ghost song). Too bad I can't show them to you guys, because in my personal opinion, they are actually turning out pretty good. Which actually kinda says something since I always think my music sucks. Almost always. Anyways.

School isn't going so well though. It's almost midterms time and I'm behind in ALL my classes. I still can't afford my books either, which certainly doesn't help for shit.

So umm... >_>
<_<

IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO MAKE A DONATION TO THE SUZUMEBACHI FOUNDATION PLEASE MAIL ALL YOUR MONEY (OR JUST SOME) TO:

Ty Guenley
06 Pi?ata
Belen, NM 87002

THX THX! ^_^

Also, this is my new address, so if you were to mail me a copy of ultima online (*hint hint* doug) then this is the address you would send it to.

Have a nice day and crud.

Until next time,
Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley

PS- You know what sucks the cock? According to mapquest.com, the street I live on doesn't exist. Stupid computers get all confused. It's an "?," not an "n" damnit! I guess the mapquest search thingy is limited to the 26 character SAE alphabet, so anything outside of that gets lost. Oh well.

So I'm pretty sure almost everyone has seen those commercials with that retarded little smilely guy in his Zorro outfit or his Robin Hood thing. Runnin' around droppin' prices.

Well, up until now I didn't really CARE about Walmart, or it's prices. All I knew is its RIGHT next to my house, 24 hours, and Coke their ALWAYS costed 98 cents. Where as at the grocery stores it costed $1.25 UNLESS it was on sale. So just about everyyyyy night. Except one night, I walk in there with my 2 dollars and 8 cents and walk up to the register with 2 2 liters and BAM. $2.40. WTF?! Even the cashier who's the usual guy there when I buy Coke didn't know what was goin' on. APPARENTLY one of the higher up thought 98 cents was alittle too cheap for Coke, or so it seemed at the time. So, for a week or so my Coke buying was alittle messed up. Now if I wanted to get Coke at 2 AM, it was gonna cost me almost a quarter more, and whether you realize it or not, a quarter is ALOT of money to me. Ask Pizza, he said I'll send you a dollar, I said please do, that's a 2 liter of Coke right there!

So anyway, a week passes by and I keep goin' to walmart because it still IS the best deal even if they're jackin' their prices. THEN Friday I walk in and I see a big Coke display, ALWAYS LOWS PRICES! Little fucking smilely guy, and COKE 98 cents, NEW LOW PRICE. Man WHAT the fuck? you charged me 15 cents more, for a fricken WEEK, just so you can drop it back down a week later and call it a new low price? there's a word for that. It's scummy, but alas, it IS marketing, and at least it DID drop back down.Just seems really really ghey that they pull retarded shit like that.

me = outty.

Well then, not but 5 secs after I walk upstairs from watching the news about president bushes new plan for illegal immigrants in the US getting citizenship if they hold jobs, did I read the latest hate mail on Maddox's site:

Date: Thu, 18 Dec 2003 02:00:01 -0800
From: Rian Alden
To: maddox@xmission.com

Your a fuckin idiot. If you hate how Americans are pissed about
Illegal Mexicans or any others taking our jobs, then why don't you take
your loud mouthed, appeasing ass down to Mexico and fight the good fight
with those Wetbacks? Oh, I'm sorry, That was Racist, but I guess I am,
so all those Spics, Gooks, Nips, Russians, Sand-Niggers, and any other
fuckin foreigners come here and decide to take our job for less money
even though they don't belong here, they can kiss my ass and lick my
balls. And just for you, I will leave a spot right in the middle and
forget to wipe ya dumb fuck.

Well guess what Mr. Racist, your president just shit on your face once again, but this one I can actually sorta agree with. Bush has a pretty decent plan written up which you can find here:

http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/01/08/immigration.congress/index.html

At least he's doing something that I can agree with, right? But it's not enough to make me vote for him. Hell, 5 grand wouldn't even make me vote for him seeing as his deficit has already put me 74 hundred dollars in the whole before I've even enter the financial world.

Well then, Friday was quite an adventure. I signed up for this Soul Calibur 2 tournement in West Palm Beach, and me and my friends were gonna leave around 5. First problem at hand, was that West Palm Beach was an hour and a half to 2 hours away, and the tournement was to start between 5 and 6, but we figured if we were late, we'd just watch and learn some stuff. So we take the Florida Turn Pike to West Palm Beach, to Okachobee Blvd., and we follow Okachoboo Blvd. We follow it through West Palm Beach, through Royal West Palm Beach, through Loxohatchee county, by now there's no more civilization, or street lights for that matter, just long, dark road, and alot of trees. So we follow it to our next turn and turn onto another seemingly endless street of long dark road. Ok, no problem, so we drive down this road looking for the street we have to turn at, and end up coming to a sign that says "Pavement ends 250 feet" and BOOM, dead end. So hmmm, now it's time to BACKTRACK about 10 miles. Blah, so we find the nearest gas station, and get directions to, yes, the farthest western point of civilation on the east side of South Florida (Rememebr the whole center of Florida, from the southern tip up past lake Okachobee, all the way to Disney is STILL and will "forever" be Everglades.) So we find this kid's house, in the middle of the freakin' swamp, at the very edge of the planet to find a grand total of...3 cars. Yes you heard me, 3 other people showed up to this tournement. Now on the message board AT LEAST 10 people said they'd be there, BUT no. So I go in, i get introduced to everyone. They seemed like pretty cool guys, they were:

Jaeger: 19 (or so) kid from Texas, Texas Mitsurugi Master

Midas: 20, Dexter from Miami Lakes, drove even further then I did, mildly good Maxi player

IceKid: 16, house owner, played a pretty crapp Xianghua, but the sickest Kilik I have ever seen.

Up to here, these people are ALL really good, but beatable, which is NOT what I was expecting, I was expecting some sick people, and had it just been these 3, and my 2 friends, it wouldn't be a problem, but then I met that 4th man...

Im A Beast: Andrew, 21, plays as Ivy & Taki, reigning Florida Soul Calibur 2 Champion. Pulled off the sickest shit with Ivy I have EVER seen.

...fuck...

On top of all this, I soon realize they're playing ona GAMECUBE. What the hell?! I DON'T PLAY ON A GAMECUBE! Everyone already there didn't really mind because they all use Arcade pads, but me and my friends were quite upset about that one. So, we play a few practice arounds, and since me and my friends don't know how to use Gamecube controllers OR arcade sticks, we get prettyyy bad for the bulk of the first matches. FINALLY I figure out how to use the Gamecube controller at least SOMEWHAT and beat, yes, Im A Beast's Taki. Right there that's all I really needed, I had just beat the best player in Florida's 2nd best character, and that was way more then I expected to do that night, plus I had a huge disadvantage too, but after that I went on the beat the 3 other kids too! Thing is..my friend Cesar ended up beating me, so that kinda sucked. So, after all the practice was over, it was time to get on with the tournement. My friends, of course, chicken out and don't enter. Soooo great, we drove 100 miles to play a 5 man tournement. Team NDS (Nicaraguan Death Squad: http://sgtrama.no-ip.com/NDS/index.html) Has thus disgraced their names, way to go guys, but whatever, I'm not gonna give up. That's not what Raman's do. So I get up to go get my money, and I come back into the room and everyone looks at me, so I say some cocky stuff, to make it look like I'm not scared or anything, and Andrew (Im a Beast) looks at me and goes, "Well that's Ok, we just drew numbers, and I got YOURS." Welllll shit. Things couldn't be much better right now. Why don't I just give him my $10 right now, right? So whatever, I figure I'll give it a try regardless. So when we start, this is what we have:

Jaeger vs. IceKid

Rama vs. Im A Beast

Mids takes a by.

So, Jaeager and IceKid go at it, and Icekid loses pretty bad, ok, no problem, they're not my challenge, but it IS double elimination, so I'm gonna have to play IceKid next match, (this is predetermined because Andrew is gonna kill me.

Now it's my turn, Rama vs. Im a Beast, Mitsurugi vs. Ivy. Best 3 out of 5 rounds, best 2 out of 3 matches. I swear to you, I lost all 3 rounds (2 perfects in the first match, 1 in the 2nd) in not but 30 secs minus fight intro and outros.

Well shit, didn't even have a chance though, so time to play IceKid. Me and him go at it for I win first match, he wins second, last match comes up, I win first round, he wins next round, he wins next round, I win next round, down to the final fight, the LAST HIT, against CERVANTES, a character I KNOW, but thank's to the shitty Gamecube controller, the kick button takes up half the controller, and I went to guard impact, and KICKED, game over, Rama = outty.

Whatevaaa, didn't expect to win anyway, right? So, my friends decide it's time to go, and I get home, and the next day IceKid's on AIM so I'm like "Hey, who came in second" and he's like "Oh, I did" and I'm like "Damnnnnnnnnnnnnnn." So what THAT means, is I could've COME IN SECOND FRICKEN PLACE. Blahhhhhhhhh. No worries though, Next Friday at Doug's house, Soul Calibur 2 tournement extravaganza! On XBOX, so we'll see how THAT goes. I'm not hoping to win, but damn I'll kick alot more ass ;-)

Also:

Follow up to retarded forums stories:

The UO shard forums I'm posting on are becoming almost completely unuseable, if a thread gets 1 post off topic, and even if it gets back ON topic, all posts UNDER the off topic post are deleted, and thread is LOCKED. Disccussion ENDED, and THIS is in the general discussion forums, and THEN, yesterday, we get THIS:

QuasiCoolGM: JaR Off for a Bit, due to minor misunderstandments JaR has been kicked off staff. JaR will be back in 2-3 days...maybe...

(He's lying, he's moving, but he'll be gone 3 days)

VillageIdiot:And when u gonna help me with house looter ? .......

VillageAsshole: never, no one on staff likes you lifelines, why should they help you

Me: Because it's there JOB to help people no matter how their personal feelings toward them are.

MoronGM2k4: Actually, It's not our job because the Dictionary description of a job is :
A regular activity performed in exchange for payment, especially as one's trade, occupation, or profession.
We are all here volunteer, so personal feelings DO affect the way some peoples/staff react.

(Wait a second, RED FLAG)

WTF?! I don't give a DAMN if your personal feelings get in the way of shit, you're a SELECTED Volunteer, picked a do a fucking JOB. That's like saying I work at a soup kitchen, but this homeless looks pretty ugly, so he doesn't get soup today! Anyway, the topic went on like this:

VillageIdiot: rofl@vamp, ur not 100% rite.

MoronGM2k4: This is an administrative Matter.
And we are all having certain condition when we join staff, but emotions still have an effect on everything, we are not machines.

*locked*

Worst. Forums. Ever.

Song recommendation of the day:

-=[1]=-=[Atmosphere - Trying To Find A Balance]=-=[4:17]=-

I have decided to run for president of north america. I will take command of the U.S. and Canada, and when Mexico refuses to go along peacefully, I will invade them in full force, with a million white ninjas dressed in purple with totally awesome guitars and they will beat the mexicans with their awesome guitar skills in ultra guitar duels of death!

In other news, I have moved. Into a real house. Yay! No more putting up with my uncle and my cousin and their bullshit.

On the down side, however, we do not have internet yet. We don't even have a phone. Shit, we don't even have a mailbox!

And when we DO get internet, it might be a while before I'm back in #ocremix because my computer has taken a shit. Once again. The hard drive's boot sector somehow corrupted itself. This is the second time it's done this (NOT including the time my brother stuck a magnet on it), Last time I fixed it by simply reinstalling windows. Too bad I can't do that now because for some reason unbeknownst to me, my CD drives refuse to work in my computer. I think it's the motherboard's fault, because I tried one in my brother's computer and it worked fine. I dunno wtf the deal is. CMOS and windows reads them just fine, and windows says there's nothing wrong, but they refuse to read ANY CD I PUT IN THEM.

So anyways. This semester of school has gotten off to a GREAT start. By great, of course, I mean terribly shitty, if you can't decode my sarcasm (I GNO< IT IZ TEH HARD OVAR TEH INTARWEB!!!!!1). Apparently my application for a Pell grant was rejected, even though I am probably the poorest kid in the school. What apparently happened is that after I applied for the FAFSA, they mailed me a PIN thingy I was supposed to sign and mail back. Well the PIN thingy got lost in the mail. So then they mailed me a notice saying my Pell grant was rejected and how to go about fixing it, and go figure, THAT TOO GOT LOST IN THE MAIL. So now the state won't give me ANY scholarships, including the ones that DON'T EVEN REQUIRE A FAFSA BECAUSE EVERYONE AND THEIR UNCLE IS ELIGIBLE FOR, because my Pell grant is rejected. So guess what. I have until the end of the week to straighten it out or I get dropped. It takes 3 days to get a new PIN.

So basically, when I become the president of north america, I will appoint someone I can TRUST to postmaster general. Like Rick. Hey Rick, wanna be Postmaster General of North America? I'll give you an army of purple guitar ninja mailmen to deliver the mail for you. You could even write notes to people.

"DAER BRAD PIT<
OEN TIEM I LIEK TOTALIE SAW U IN A MOVY< THAT MOVI SUKED!!1 SO NOW I SEDN PURPLE NINJA GUITAR MONKEY MANS TO KIL YOU!!11 HAVE A NICE DEY!!!!

LOEV<
POSTMASTAR GENIREL RIX!"

That would be awesome.

Have a nice day,
Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley
samuraihornet@yahoo.com

P.S. - TOMORROW IS MY BIRTHDAY FGTS!!!1

WELL now, since Adrienne decided to start her own little RPG forums ( http://www.unbroken-truths.net/yalpelor ) I decided it's only fitting that RamaServ have it's own forums too. So I downloaded all PhpBB stuff and started editing away. I'm actually learning alot through editing my forums, for example I learned how to add the "10 Most recent topics" feed to my main page, I now have an XML news feed that displays my 3 most recent topics, it's good stuff. The forums are actually starting to developed a sense of community too. Soon I hope to make it a nice little place where people I know (IRL and online) can congregate and discuss and what not. Mind you nothing incredibly ground breaking, but still cool to have, even if it's pretty small right now. Check it out at: http://sgtrama.no-ip.com/PhpBB2/index.php

Note: If you go to register it'll try to send you confirmation email, but CAN'T so if you get an error, just ignore it, also if you get a 404 when logging in, it logs you in anyway, I still haven't figured that one out.

Secondly:

This Friday we're ACTUALLY GOING to Orlando for the massive Soul Calibur 2 tournament. I never saw us actually making it, but we are. I'm excited to say the very least. We'll be competing with the best in the country, and although we're fairly sure we're not gonna win, we WILL see how we fair against them. Plus it's on UCF campus so we hope to meet and greet some ladies at the college parties. Good times. Good times indeed.

In addition to all this, I tend to remember it being someone's birthday today, but I'm not 100% sure who's. So, whoever's birthday it is, have a good one!

Edit:

Google search reminded me who's birthday it was! None other then TV legend, BENNY HILL! Interesting note: Benny Hill shares a birthday ex-Baby Spice Emma Lee Bunton (whom is now 28), and the late General Thomas "Stonewall" Jackson, whom would've been 180 today! For complete list of people's birthdays today, see: http://www.famousbirthdays.com/jan.html#21

I was reading a thread on the OCReMix forums about Bums, and the topic of welfare came up. I decided to reply to someone's post about my experiences with welfare, but at a certain point decided that I'd strayed too far from the topic of the thread, so I just decided to put it up here instead.

My reply was prompted by part of a post someone named damathacus wrote, quote below:



And I had to agree, even in my near-jobless, crappy town the welfare system offered all kinds of free workshops to help people better themselves. I attended a whole bunch of them, and learned all kinds of crap (the ones I attended focussed on personal/social skills and interacting with different "types" of people [ie: for job interviews, getting along with employers, etc], not specific job skills, but they still helped!).

But I'll admit something right here, I'll be honest about it, yup. I didn't need to be on welfare. I was living at home. Technically, in the eyes of the government, I was paying my parents rent to stay at home while I looked for a job. Did I really need to? No, probably not. But I live in a home with 6 people, so applying for welfare and then giving it to my parents really helped out with their bills.

For those of you who haven't been on welfare, I figure I'll explain just a bit. Every month, I was given $510. They arrive at this number by giving you a $185 'spending allowance' or whatever (for groceries, or whatever other bills you have) and then whatever your rent is (negotiated with your landlord/whomever) at a maximum of $325. To sum up, if your rent is $200, then you'd get $385 a month.

So yeah, I was on welfare, living at home, while searching around town for work. During the time I was on welfare I managed to attend 5 or 6 workshops, finally get around to earning my driver's licencse, and get 4 job interviews. 3 of which led nowhere, the other almost led to a job. I job-shadowed for a few nights, but then some 'new employee' training program the government had, got cancelled and he didn't want me anymore, bleh.

Anyway, as any re-visitors to the site know, I'm working now, I hopped off welfare last April sometime, and by the end of this week I'll have my 500 hours (In BC, there's a "First Job/Entry-Level" wage which sets your min. wage to $6/hour until you hit 500 reported [read: declared to Canada Customs and Revenue Agency] hours, then it bumps your min. wage up to $8/hour). I'm not working the greatest job (it's enjoyable though), with the greatest hours, but it's something to earn me money and work experience, considering all I had before was some volunteer work from school. And of course I've been doing some other small jobs on the side, one of which might turn out to be pretty big, as long as I can keep up!

So now you know, the rest of the story...


About me being a welfare bum...




And stuff...







What? You think I know why I wrote all this out? Beats me, I guess it's just been a while and I wanted some more real content on this site.


Oh, also, I might be working on a new wallpaper... or maybe it will be a site skin... or.. hell I don't know, but I've been goofing around in Photoshop with some neat stuff and stuff, so there.

This post finished while listening to Gummi Bears - Cartoon Theme.mp3

Last Thursday I was driving home early from school. Down La Entrada, doing 55 in a 40 zone, with people passing me constantly over a double line (they must be doing 70-75). Get down to the end, near strykerhorse's house, turn around the corner, and get to the stop sign before you turn on to Highway 47, right? (yeah, like you guys know anything about La Entrada or Highway 47). Anyways, I wait for the traffic to clear on Highway 47 before I make my move. Put in the clutch, shift into first gear... oh wait. There IS no first gear. My clutch cable just broke. So I managed to roll my car off the road (all the assholes going 75mph started honking at me) start it up again in third gear (2nd and reverse no longer work either) and limp it back to my uncle's house.

Fortunately if it IS only the clutch cable, it's only gonna be like $35 to fix, including installation. I already dropped the car off at the repair guy in albuquerque. If not, and it's the whole clutch or even worse the transmission itself, it could cost me anywhere from $300-800. If that's the case then I'm pretty much fucked.

If it's just the clutch cable, then yay. Sigh of relief. I should find out later today. While I was at the car place in albuquerque (all they do is VWs) I asked them about Baja kits and stuff. I could get a Baja kit for my car for about $200. Which would be freakin awesome. I could strip it down, put new headers on it, maybe a dual carb system, baja it, put some fat tires on it, paint it black, and it would be nice.

In other news, my dad is borrowing one of his friends' cell phones. I tried calling Doug yesterday but he was "down the street at his friend's house" or so his mom says. What surprises me most is that this cell phone actually gets reception in the MIDDLE OF DAMN NOWHERE where I live now.

Anyways, my psychology class starts in like 10 minutes so I better get going.

Until next time,
Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley
samuraihornet@yahoo.com

So, I have this idiot friends. WHENEVER we go out to eat, that don't want to go out to eat ANYWHERE but Hooters. Why? The OBVIOUS reasons. Last time we went, they stayed there nearly 2 hours after they had finished eating. SOMEHOW they seem to think that going to Hooters and staring at waitresses in short shorts makes you LESS of a loser then sitting at home and playing video games. If anything that makes equal if not MORE of a loser, for oogling girls who you'll never get, AS WELL AS throwing your money away too them, for doing what ANY OTHER waitress does, EXCEPT they hit on you and wear less clothes.

PERSONALLY, I don't even LIKE the food there. I HATE the idea of having to pick my meat off of little bones. If I wanna go out to eat, I wanna go to a REAL fricken restaraunt like CHILI'S or APPLEBEE'S or CHEESECAKE FACTORY or OLIVE GARDEN and get some REAL FUCKING CHICKEN. Not this fried in 300 gallons of grease CRAP.

When I go to Chili's I get:

Margarita Chicken- Grilled chicken, covered in 3 types of cheese, served with seasoned rice, and steamed vegetables. Also: Coca-Cola (free refills)

At Applebee's I can get:

Fiesta Lime Chicken- Pretty much the same as Chili's Margarita chicken, with a less catchy name. Also: Coca-Cola (free refills)

Olive Garden has:

Chicken Parm AND Chicken Alfredo- Both come in HUGE portions, with all you can eat pasta AND breadsticks. PLUS option of soup or salad. Olive Garden also has free refills of Coca-cola products.

Cheesecake Factory has:

More Chickens then I can name- They have a menu that's about 28 pages long, with every chicken you can think of. MY personal favorite is the Crusted Chicken Ramano. It's chicken cooked with so many cheeses on it, that crisp over and form a breading. Served with a HUGE plate of angel hair pasta. There's NO WAY you can finish this all in one sitting. Even if you were a human vacuum cleaner.

At Hooters I get:

Curley Fries- Nothing special here. It's the only item on the menu that isn't served with the phrase DEATH BY GREASE not included in the recipe. I USED to get the turkey club, until I realized $9 for a hotdog bun with 1 lbs of turkey and 2 strips of bacon wasn't worth it. Oh yea, and Hooters doesn't serve Coke boys and girls, so I'm stuck with WATER.

It's like a damn strip club with less skin and dancing and a bigger fricken dinner menu. Oh, but my friends won't go to a strip club. Why, might you ask? They think the idea of paying some hot girl to torture you is retarded.

What did the 5 fingers say to the face?

SMACK!

You're a MORON. WHERE'S THE SENSE? Then, when I propose we go SOMEWHERE ELSE TO EAT, they all stare at me as if I was a retard. GOD KNOWS THERE'S NOT ANOTHER FRICKEN RESTARUANT IN THE UNIVERSE THAT CAN EQUAL UP TO HOOTERS IN BOTH STYLE AND QUALITY, RIGHT?

Regardless...I don't drive...so I'm never going to eat out anywhere but Hooters unless I go with Sandy or Rachel. Such a sad sad story.

In other news:


My Stats
448 people would bang you
129 people would not
No. 531 Most bangable guy
No. 2301 Most bangable person
Vote Stats
All Votes
78%
Members Votes
80%
Girl Votes
83%
Guy Votes
60%

Hell yea.

See also:

[17:53:50PM] *** Douggie (SgtRama@adsl-211-166-202.mia.bellsouth.net) has joined channel #ocremix
[17:53:50PM] *** Signoff: Douggie (Killed (Services.EnterTheGame.Com ([Ref#:205 - Expires:2/17/04] We are sorry but this domain has been banned do to repeated violations of the law from a user of it. please call your isp and have them contact whiz@enterthegame.com to have this ban removed.. sorry but we had no choice..)))
[17:53:51PM] < DJ_Siamey > wtf was that

Yup, apparently ETG felt the only way to stop this law breaking was to BAN BELLSOUTH.NET and thus completely cut off 50% of the entire south eastern United States. THANK GOD.

Anywho...

Cpt. Hottness, signing off.

Holy crap am I ever bored.

Earlier today, when I didn't really have much to do, I made this quiz.

I call it, "Uh.. a quiz of doom. OF DOOM! FRAGALAGABOO!!!"

Check it out.
And check how people are doing here.

Oh and, other news mods like, post and stuff. Rama and Suzu AER TEH SUX MANG!@

Also, the new Quizno's commercials are "teh PWN."

"We love the Subs"
"Any coupon works"

and don't forget the original Sponge Monkeys!

Well folks, here it is. The day we single loser nerds look upon with angst and resentment every year. Valentine's Day. Aside from spawning a kick-ass track from Outkast and tons of November birthdays, there isn't really much to come out of Valentine's... unless you're the CEO of a card company, chocolate company, or flower shop.

Remember those days of getting V-day cards in elementary school? How lame was that? Boys giving other boys cards with hearts on them? C'mon, what are we teaching these kids here? The sad thing is, you were always upset if you didn't get any... even if it was from another boy.


Well the days of not getting any didn't decide to catch up until early adulthood. Whereas good friends will be inevitably humping the brains out of their significant others, I (and most likely you too) will be spending the night staring at a computer monitor either in some loser ass chatroom, a loser ass game, or with some loser ass porn.

I'm only grumpy because I'm single. If I had a lady, I'd be milking today for all it's worth. It's one of the few overtly commercial holidays I'd be willing to give into. Now "Sweetest Day" (all 13 of them) on the other hand... ugh. Never mind.


Happy Valentine's Day whether you're celebrating it with your girlfriend, your boyfriend, your wife, your husband, your fiance?, or your palm. May they all show you tons of love.


Inanycase, it's been a while since I posted some "news", so now I get to idle for another 790 weeks. I didn't even have rob1 solicit me this time! Awesome!

P.S. to rob1: Link SOC on the main page, dude. Show a little love! It's Valentine's Day, dammit!

So last night I'm doing this delivery, and when I get to the house and knock on the door, it's answered by two guys... who are handcuffed to eachother... One of whom is wearing naught but his boxers, and the other some sort of black leather speedo thing. Oh and a cowboy hat, can't forget the cowboy hat. There was a lot of laughter coming from somewhere in the back of the house, and there was a girl at the door with a camera. She was taking pictures of, I presume, my reaction to this little prank, as every picture she snapped was aimed at me. Being as unimpressed by the stunt as I was, I tried to keep as neutral an expression as possible, keeping away from such reactions as abject horror, anger, or what they probably expected, embarassment. So I hand them their pizzas, and it was then that I realized that 'speedo guy' had a brown substance, later identified to be chocolate, on his hand. He apologizes profusely as he takes the pizza, and then when I asked who had the money, makes note of a $50 bill hanging from his speedo, he again apologized. I then asked if anyone else had money. He told me no, and that that was the only money I would get. I refused to even reach for it, and eventually he gave up, withdrew the bill himself and handed it to me, again apologizing, and waving his hand around as if it weren't chocolate on his hand, but something more sinister. It was then that his 'partner' turned him around, pointing to his ass cheek, which also had the brown substance on it, and said something to the tune of, "Oh you bad boy, you've got shit on your ass." Unfortunately, I couldn't leave yet, as their bill only amounted to $35.60. So, even though in retrospect I wish I had just walked away with a near $15 tip, I asked them if they wanted change. Speedo guy replied, "Of course." So I gave them $14, they gave me nothing back (which meant a measly $0.40 tip), and I left.

Thinking back, I had several ideas that I really wish I had thought of, and implemented, at the time. Foremost is the idea that once I had the $50, I should have just got in my car and driven away. Two near naked men handcuffed to eachother weren't going to be fast enough to keep me from getting away. I also had the notion that perhaps when they asked for their change, I could have taken a handful of coins from my pocket and tossed them on the ground. I don't imagine there's anything more pathetic than two 20-something year old men, joined at the wrist, wearing next to nothing, scouring small change off the ground in the middle of winter. Now that's something worth taking a picture of. Or I could have just been spiteful about the whole thing, and made a noise/alcohol/drug complaint to the police, I'm sure one of the three were involved. I have to wonder what their reaction to cops suddenly coming to the door would be. Alas, as with most good ideas, at least the ones that come my way, I thought of none of these until after I got back to the store. Ah well. Maybe next time, although I personally never hope to find myself in that situation again.

Well, that's all from me for now, cya later.

PS- Hey Chris, I bet now you're glad that you didn't have to work last night.

I've been watching a lot of anime lately. Two particular series have seriously caught my attention: Happy Lesson, and Neon Genesis Evangelion. For some reason they both make me really sad. Happy Lesson is supposed to be happy, but... It just reminds me of how disfunctional my family really is, and how I basically was raised without a mom. I had a mother, and she loved me, but she never cared for me like a mom would. Or at least I think.

Neon Genesis Evangelion on the other hand is entirely different. The story itself is really sad. It's almost like a greek tragedy. I'm really drawn into this one, which sucks because I only have the first 20 episodes.. how many episodes are there anyways? It seems like it's not even close to being over at 20, though most Anime shows only do 26 episodes (not including DBZ, but DBZ sucks nuts anyways...).

What's the deal with Ayanami Rei? She's like suicidal for some reason. And she says if she dies, she can just be replaced... I'm gonna call it now, that she's either like a clone or an alien or something.

Anyways, I need to find out how to get the rest of the series. I wonder if I can get it on DVD somewhere. That would be cool. The episodes I have are japanese with subtitles... is there any in english? That don't suck? A lot of the time when translating Anime to english, the voice actors do a really shitty job.

Oh I also saw the Cowboy Bebop movie, which I thought was pretty good too.

Is there any anime that isn't depressing? At least the Cowboy Bebop movie has a somewhat happy ending... somewhat.

Until next time,
Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley
samuraihornet@yahoo.com

PS- I've eaten nothing but sugar today so forgive me if I'm a little "off". Kthx.

Let's start off with a photograph.

For all 2 of you that might care out of the 10 that frequent this site regularly out of the 53 registered, that is my truck. Unfortunately it don't look that pretty no more. I totaled it today (my mother's birthday) on my way to work. As a matter of fact, I no more than 10 yards away from the driveway entrance. I stupidly ran a stop sign thinking that God would bless and the Force would be with me as always.Well, there must have been some ysalamiri lurking around because for some reason I failed to check to the right for oncoming traffic. Sure enough, traffic was coming on and then kerploosh. The lady who hit me and I walked away completely injury free. Actually I should say she DROVE away. I got a ride from Officer Phelps away. So God WAS blessing, but the Force... well...maybe I just need a good blaster at my side (though not in view of the cops. Their trigger fingers have got to be miiiiiiighty itchy after those two Detroit cops got shot)


Well I know there's a lesson to learn from this. Number one, LOOK BOTH WAYS BEFORE CROSSING THE STREET. My brother disobeyed this and got hit by a van while riding his bike. He got off with a broken leg, so I assume he's learned. Meanwhile, I got off with a wrecked vehicle, a $105 ticket, 3 points on my license, a day of work missing from my paycheck and a bad attendence point to go with it. All of that seems very very minor considering no one was injured at all, let alone killed.

What troubles me isn't the accident. Shit happens, you know? What troubles me is that I know the main lesson is this is to cease procrastinating. Stop being in such a hurry. Slow down. I ran the stop sign because I was rushing to work. I waited until the last second to leave, now I have nothing. Tomorrow I was going to drive away to get my computer repaired on the last day of its warranty. Now I don't know if I'll make it. If I'd have took my time getting to work, I'd be alright, but if I'd have taken care of the computer problem over a YEAR ago, that wouldn't be an issue either.

I'm disturbed because I know I haven't learned my lesson.

I know what I'm supposed to do, but I just don't feel the drive to. Does that make any sense? I know I'm gonna keep waiting until the last second, but I really need to stop. This should be my turning point. I've missed out on so much good stuff because of tardiness and I could be blowing opportunities to get the heck out of that factory.

Inanycase, I'm exhausted, physically and mentally. Any one out there wanna donate to the "Buy ap a Honda Civic" fund, you know how to reach me.

Till next time, Piece Owt, God Bless, and May the Force be with you.


-ap



EDIT: Dagnabitall, I forgot to mention this. I came home from a birthday lunch with my mother and there's this college age lady standing at the front door to my building. Obviously she's not a resident or she'd have a code to get in. Now there's nothing special looking about this girl. She's not Jessica Alba, but she's not Ma Beagle either. Just another normal looking girl.

Well as I approach the door, she says "Excuse me? Are you a single guy? I got kicked out of my place and I don't have anywhere to stay."

...

I paused before saying anything, as my brain was flooded with various forms of "Fuck no", "aww haaaail naww", and "is this bitch crazy?" Seeing as how Kalamazoo was expieriencing a dreary, wet, windy and 40 degree February 20th and she was just standing there outside, I said "I... can't help you with that, but I can at least let you in. Get you out of the cold."

She said something along the lines of "I understand" followed by a "thank you" or something. She went up the stairs, I went down, and that was that. It just struck me as super-odd. I dunno. What I DO know is that after my auto-wreck, I sure could've used a bit of stress relief. I'dve been damn near tempted to let her stay the night if she'd have helped calm my nerves. Okay. Enough of that crap. You're sick of reading, I'm sick of writing.

THE END!

Feb 14th (yeah it's late, I know):
"The antics of a plastic puppet dog ignited a national-unity uproar yesterday, as anti-Quebec remarks made on the Conan O'Brien show forced its Canadian broadcaster to apologize."

That article sort of works as an all encompassing explanation of what happened, but for those of you who don't want to read it, I'll sum up.

Last week, Late Night with Conan O'Brien, which is normally recorded in New York, moved itself to Toronto, "in an effort to boost tourism ... after last year's outbreak of severe acute respiratory syndrome." While there, they did a lot of Canadian aimed humour, from having the CN Tower and the Seattle Space Needle have it out in a three event competition to see who was the better tower (The CN tower prevailed), to inviting a mostly Canadian group of guests, including Mike Myers, Michael J. Fox, and Jim Carrey, just to name a few.

They also brought Triumph the Insult Comic Dog along for the trip, and in what might have been a bit of a mistake politically, but made for, I feel, a hilarious skit, they sent him to Quebec City. There he spoke to several French speaking people and, as expected of Triumph the Insult Comic Dog, made fun of them. Saying things such as, "I can smell your crotch from here." And "You're in North America; learn the language." A bit more here.

Now, as I said, I found it quite funny, as I tend to take all these things in stride, I suppose it could be because I'm not French Canadian. But a chunk of politicians and government officials were not as amused and although Conan apologized (Read more), Madeleine Meilleur, Ontario's minister of culture and francophone affairs, was quoted as saying, "It's too late, but it's better than not giving his apology." and "The comments should never have been made."

So tell me, what do you think?

GlobeAndMail.com search results for 'Conan'. It's how I found most of the articles I read.

Nothing else to report, but I figured since I finally posted this thing after waiting for almost a week, I'd make a short announcement about it.

Blind Horizon

Donkey Kong Country Arrangement Collaboration

After finally deciding to organize a DKC1 remix album, I spent the last couple days asking artists if they were interested in participating. This is a collaborative idea I've had for a while now. The DKC soundtracks are different from most games' in that they excel at so many musical fronts: they're developed in form, strong in melody, and impressive by today's standards even in sound quality. They are a challenge for any talented remixer to rearrange without willfully replicating the original compositions, yet there remains plenty of room for creative liberty and personal interpretation.

DKC1 set a benchmark for videogame graphics, gameplay, and -yes - music. There's a lot of love for this game, probably more than for its sequels, and for good reason: it started it all.

This project is going to be rad. We've got a lot of excited people on board who are doing good stuff. Check out the OCR forum thread and come chat with us in our irc channel (irc.enterthegame.com, #dkcproject).

http://members.cox.net/skaddi





HAPPY NOW ROB?????

I was just reading Dain's Live Journal and found this nifty quiz, I was bored and not quite ready for bed (at least, when I started it, I'm about to drop right now) so I decided to fill it out:

Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 18, and find line 4. Write down what it says.
"Enemies nearby are overwhelmed by her ferocity and strength, and suffer a reduction in"
- Lords of Everquest instruction manual

Stretch your left arm out as far as you can. What do you touch first?
A chair

What is the last thing you watched on TV?
Law & order

Without looking, guess what the time is.
12:30am

Now look at the clock, what is the actual time?
12:22am

With the exception of the computer, what can you hear?
-My parents and their friends talking and playing cards
-The stereo playing my parents music

When did you last step outside? What were you doing?
It was around 10pm; I was coming home from visiting my boss at work

Before you came to this website, what did you look at?
My server access log. It showed a reference from Dain's LiveJournal and reminded me I hadn't read it in a while

What are you wearing?
Glasses, an old black shirt with two white "racing stripes," some pant/shorts with zip-off legs

Did you dream last night?
If I did, I don't remember anything about it

When did you last laugh?
Today at my BST course when the instructor made someone suffer

What is on the walls of the room you are in?
Not much actually... a set of curtains and a set of cabinets

Seen anything weird lately?
Not particularly... I guess when one of the students in the BST course was able to manoeuvre out of the instructors grasp that was kind of surprising... not necessarily weird though

What do you think of this quiz?
I?ll have to agree with Dain, it's certainly unique

What is the last film you saw?
Jeeze I have no clue... I guess it would have to be a good portion of Porky's

If you became a multi-millionaire overnight, what would you buy first?
First? Wow... uhm... to be frank, it would probably be like a burger or a sub or something

Tell me something about you that I don't know.
Uh... I prefer brussels sprouts to cabbage. How?s that?

If you could change one thing about the world, regardless of guilt or politics, what would you do?
I?d make everyone be more accepting of new ideas and concepts

Do you like to dance?
No. I will tap my foot, nod my head, but full body dancing is something I don't like and don't look forward to ever having to do again

George Bush: is he a power-crazy nut case or someone who is finally doing something that has needed to be done for years?
Never met him, but I might go with the first choice

Imagine your first child is a girl. What do you call her?
"Beautiful"... er oh, you mean her name? I haven't a clue... I?ll just go with Holly for now. Good friend of mine

Imagine your first child is a boy, what do you call him?
Er crap... another one? I don?t have time to think in depth about these... actually... Keith. My dad's name. I was always particularly fond of the name itself

Would you ever consider living abroad?
Not now. I don't even want to leave the city I?m in, let alone the country

Will you pass on this survey?
Pass it? I didn't know it was being marked! Can I change my answers? What's it out of? What percentage of my grade?

The following is a section I found in a book titled In the Grip of Grace written by Max Lucado (all of the bold texts are mine.):

We Lose Our Standard

When I was nine years old I complimented a friend?s model airplane. He curtly replied, "I stole it." He could tell that I was stunned because he asked, "do you think that was wrong?"

When I told him I did, he answered simply, "It may be wrong for you. It?s not wrong for me. I didn?t hurt anyone when I stole the plane. I knew the owner. He is rich. I?m not. He can afford one. I can?t."

What do you say to that argument? If you don?t believe in life beyond the rafters you have little to say. If there is no ultimate good behind the world then how do we define "good" within the world? If the majority opinion determines good and evil, what happens when the majority is wrong? What do you do when the majority of kids in a certain group say it?s all right to steal or raid or even fire pistols from a moving vehical?

The hedonist?s world of no moral absolutes works fine on paper and sounds great in a college philosophy course, but in life? Ask the father of three children whose wife abandoned him, saying, "Divorce may be wrong for you, but it?s OK for me." Or get the opinion of the teenage girl, pregnat and frightened, who was told by her boyfriend, "if you have the baby, it?s your responsibility." Or the retirees ripped off of their pension by a huckster who believed anything is right if you don?t get caught.

A godly view of the world, on the other hand, has something to say to my childhood thief. Faith challenges those with cricket brains to answer to a higher standard than personal opinion: "You may think it?s right. Society may think it?s OK. But the God who made you said, ?You shall not steal??and he wasn?t kidding."

By the way, follow the godless thinking to its logical extension, and see what you get. What happens when a society denies the importance of right and wrong? Read the answer on a prison wall in Poland: "I freed Germany from the stupid and degrading fallacies of conscience and morality."

Who made the boast? Adolf Hitler. Where are the words posted? In a Nazi death camp. Visitors read the claim and then see its results: a room stuffed with thousands of pounds of women?s hair, rooms filled with pictures of castrated children and gas ovens that served as Hitler?s final solution. Paul described it best: "Their foolish minds were filled with darkness" (Rom. 1:21).

Come on, Max, you?re going too far. Isn?t it a stretch to state that what began as a stolen model plane will conclude in a holocaust?

Most of the time it won?t. But it could, and what is there to stop it? What dike does the God-denying thinker have to stop the flood? What anchor will the secularist use to keep society from being sucked out to sea? If a society deletes God from the human equation, what sandbags will it stack against the swelling tide of barbarism and hedonism?

As Dostoevsky stated, "If God is dead, then everything is justifiable."

Section ended.

What do you say to that argument? If you don?t believe in life beyond the rafters you have little to say. If there is no ultimate good behind the world then how do we define "good" within the world?

Because, of course, without ultimate morals... divinely inspired morals... morals given to us by God... we are all horrible people. How can you expect the masses to recognize what is right and wrong when we are all sinners? Every single one of us from the time that Adam was tempted with the fruit in the Garden of Eden... a Sinner. Incabable of deciding what is right, and what is wrong.

Edit: We are at least limited and fallible people. I don't think that Lucado is saying that we are horrible, just without a definition of ultimate (or absolute) "good" without god.

The hedonist?s world of no moral absolutes works fine on paper and sounds great in a college philosophy course, but in life? Ask the father of three children whose wife abandoned him, saying, "Divorce may be wrong for you, but it?s OK for me."...

Ones search for pleasure leads only too anothers pain. Those with selfish interests will inevitably end up doing whats right for them with no considerations for the feelings of others.

A godly view of the world, on the other hand, has something to say to my childhood thief. Faith challenges those with cricket brains to answer to a higher standard than personal opinion: "You may think it?s right. Society may think it?s OK. But the God who made you said, ?You shall not steal??and he wasn?t kidding."

A secularist may say to you that stealing is wrong because we should have consideration for others belongings, and that if we all refused to abide by the rules of the land we would surely launch society into a spiral leading to chaos, death, destruction, and humanities ultimate demise. He/She was either kidding, tricked by God into saying something of that nature in the interest of God's ultimate plan, or tricked by the Devil into saying something of that nature to lure somebody away from God into the evil clutches of hell to fuel the fires that burn souls.

Come on, Max, you?re going too far. Isn?t it a stretch to state that what began as a stolen model plane will conclude in a holocaust?

Most of the time it won?t. But it could, and what is there to stop it? What dike does the God-denying thinker have to stop the flood? What anchor will the secularist use to keep society from being sucked out to sea? If a society deletes God from the human equation, what sandbags will it stack against the swelling tide of barbarism and hedonism?

Godlessness eventually leads to moraless, barbaric, societies, where the law of hedonism is the law of the land. We will kill those different from us, out of jealousy, or hatred. Steal airplanes because we aren't rich and our "friends" who have them and are rich can always by a new one. And worst of all we will rape, murder, and mutilate the bodies of our friends because we feel like it, or their use has been wasted to us.

As Dostoevsky stated, "If God is dead, then everything is justifiable."

No God = No Morals. Simple

Excuse me if I don't sound completely sincere, but the truth is, reading this section of this book feels like it's about to drive me mad. For some strange reason I can't comprehend the idea that my morals come from a god. That my parents, my teachers, my friends, my elders, and all the experiences I have had with all these people has taught me nothing... OR that everything that has happened I have god to thank for.

To me, it seems entirely plausable that everything we as humans know about the way society works, that has been passed down from generation to generation about how we should treat others, and ourselves, is just experienced, learned and taught. (Edit: This of course means the good and the bad. For example, slavery, was discovered, learned, and taught because it brought pleasure [or at least lease work] to those who owned slaves.) I can easily imagine that in the cave-man era, people would refrain from hurting each other either because they would usually get hurt back, or because they might loose a friend who was a part of their enjoyment of life. Over the passed Six Thousand years, those simple concepts got more and more complex until we came to where we are today with Law books, Police to enforce the laws; Court Systems, Lawyers, Judges, to persecute the offenders. Edit: Our Justice systems in this world are however, not unlike the humans who created them, not perfect. I would contest that neither is the word of God, for if it was it would forsee the technological advances of the future, and make light of exceptions where stealing might be the right thing to do.

And no where in this system is a god required. However much people like to invoke "God", and swear on the bible; it is simply an unnecessary side effect of tradition and culture passed down over time along with the laws themselfs.

Edit: Where the ideas of right and wrong are derived from is not necessarily important. A person from a message board, tamara, made light of this to me with the following: "One of the questions people do ask in ethics is how do we know good and evil? There are several hypotheses. One says our knowledge comes from God. Others say it is innate, comes from nature like our knowledge of "bitter". Some say we do not know, and it's all relative. I have a problem with the last, but not with the former two. I think it does not matter where it comes from. Maybe God arranged it in such a way that we do know, just like we know bitter. Or maybe we just evolved that way. The main thing is... that we do know. All of us, not just some Christians, like that author would have it!"

Not once does he recognize the efforts of Mankind to make the world a better place for Mankind itself, only the efforts of a god. A god who he has no proof even exists, only the faith to rely on.

With all the ignorant statements in this section, I have to wonder what kind of research this author does. Whatever research he does do, he certainly hasn't done much research on Hedonism, and what other paths that Hedonism could take us down besides the one he has described.

Have you ever thought that seeking pleasure might lead us to learning from our experiences? Edit: No law, no philosophy, no theory, no person is fool proof. This is why there is an exception to almost every rule. Our courts recognize this, but I sometimes wonder how well some people do.

Edit: Special thanks to tamara for help with all the edits. For refrence refer to this page: Atheists Anonymous Message Board Topic: Another Book

Alright, so .. yea, im reviewing games here at rks.no-ip.com. I love writing reviews, i love games.. and im friends (or so i'd like to think) with a large portion of the people who browse the site, anyway, That aside, I hope i can give you a nudge in the direction that might help you determine if a game is worth it, or isnt. With that being said, ill *only* be reviewing games that I think are going to be big hits, or games i get into big time. I'll be Reviewing based on 7 things, and averaging for a total score.

Now, lets get started, for my first review.. Crystal Chronicles.

Game Title: Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles
System: Nintendo Gamecube
Graphics: 8.2
Sound: 7.4
Music: 9.2
Plot: 5.7
Gameplay: 7.2
Replay: 9.0
Tilt: 8.0

Overall Rating: 7.8


Sooo, To start things off, let me first say that i am a huge fan of Squaresoft/Enix in general, i have been for a very long time, and I always say "I've never played a bad Squaresoft game" .. simply because i doubt i ever will. Now, Square-Enix's most recent title, Crystal Chronicles has shaken this belief slightly, not to say I hate the game, because i don't.. I enjoy it plenty.. However, i just don't feel its up to par.

I enjoy the game in general, but there are to many issues that bother me to keep playing it

The Graphics in Crystal Chronicles are blatantly gorgeous, you'll almost instantly fall in love with some of the images shown to you, right from the very start, the cuteness will just sort've "get" to you.. Its weird. the "Chibi-ness" factor of the game may get to some, but when you look at the big picture of things, it really feels intended, and it really does help immerse you inside the game world. It feels kind of Ethnic, in a way, the music really helps with this feel, but the graphics do they're part aswell. All of the stage designs are unique and present a nice perspective on things, You can expect to fight Many of the famous Final fantasy monsters, infact thats one of the strongest links to the final fantasy series in general, is the monsters.

When you begin the game you get to "Create" a character by picking a race, then a slight variation of that race, a choice of 4, considering there are only 4 races in the game, They don't really give you much freedom of choice, even more-so They have a LOT of NPC outfits that are much "cooler" then yours but you don't get the option to pick them, which is depressing. During the course of your adventure the only thing that really changes is your "holdables" meaning your weapon and defensive item, if any.. (typically a Shield) It would've been nice to see other things change, like helmets and armor, instead you get a very basic set of choices and thats about it.

One thing that deserves mentioning is the water in Crystal Chronicles, It will be the prettiest water you have ever seen, the smallest ripple compared to the biggest wave, the effects that are layered over the water are simply stunning.

My Biggest Gripe with the graphics though, relies in the animation, specifically, its poor for a Square-Enix game. The Attack animation is Basic at Best, you get a "3" attack combo and thats about it, and even then the animation for it really doesnt flow, the walk animations are rather quirky for some, It really had a bad effect on me. This may not seem like a big deal but when 50% of the time you spend with the game is "Slashing" .. it had better be a damn good slash. The Charge Animations are definitely a bit better, but still nothing overly increadible, Kingdom Hearts was much more impressive, *especially* for a Real-Time game. I expected more here.

So Overall, the most memorable aspect graphically is definitely the monsters and stages, Every stage is increadibly unique, diverse, and presents its own challenges. Graphically Speaking Crystal Chronicles will definitely impress, once you get past the Chibi-factor.

The Sound is Nice, but not memorable.. There are certain game sounds, like Mario's jumping noise and fireball, or the sound of an X-Buster unloading, or.. well .. there are plenty examples.. And Crystal Chronicles really doesnt do much here, i mean, the sound is great in its own right, things sound good.. its "nice" you wont complain, but you wont stop yourself in the middle of playing like you might in another game and take "special" note of the sound. Its just simple "there" it does not impose in the slightest, nor does it really add to much besides what you would expect.

Alright, so the one section where I feel Crystal Chronicles really delivers is in the musical department, The Opening Clip is proof that your in for a real musical treat, i expect Square-Enix to put more effort into "vocal" type tracks as they release more games, but the opening here will have you not only Listening Intently, but *restarting* the game simply to hear the track again and again. Impressive. A Real "Ethnic/Worldly" type style is produced here, and it definitely goes with the mood and style of the game, the music is enchanting. One can't help but take note of how moving the music in this game is, I honestly think Square-Enix will only get better from here on out.

The concept of the game was definitely cool, get 4 friends together and beat up monsters, I mean.. Not many console-gamers have had such open opportunity to play 4-way before in a good, solid RPG. You basically have a city that needs to gather a water-like substance to survive. This substance grows on special tree's scattered throughout the land, and so the town sends out caravan's to go collect the stuff on a year-ly basis. Thats the entire plot in a nut-shell, it does not focus on your character in the slightest, but rather the events that happen in the world.

This presents some troubling issues, there really isn't much of a hero here, its "you" .. and all you do is go around and collect this stuff, and Then you go back home and have a "party" and a new year passes. Thats *literally* all you do for the most part of the game, you go to areas.. do a Quest (and by quest, i mean a dungeon that never changes where you run and defeat the boss) and collect the juice, then when a few years pass, the juice comes back so you can DO IT AGAIN!

Now, as one can imagine, this isn't the most entertaining thing in the world, nope.. It gets boring quickly. Once you explore all of the areas and learn where things are, it gets worse because things become static, nothing in the world *really* changes. Luckily Enough.. there is a bit more to the game, see, you have this "caravan" .. and while you travel around, the game presents "Random Events" that happen, now the events really are random, and can range from you being thiefed (:O with no chance to fight back) or from people offering you free information. The events are never that large really, and consist of you getting some very basic items, The worst part about this is that you *often* encounter the EXACT same random event over and over again, which is disheartening. Once you finish the Event, you will get an "entry" in your diary, and at the end of the year you hold a party (which consists of 4-5 pictures of the entire town dancing together) and your journal gets shown over-top of that.

Suffice to say, there isn't too much here, once in awhile you will get something truely fun to do, but the majority of your game experience will be spent trying to level up your character. Diablo 2 had more plot then this game, yep, im serious.

So the gameplay is pretty fun. I will state now that you should not buy this game if you plan on playing it by yourself, there are so many better games out there, go get Viewtiful Joe or something. The game has 2 sections, one of them is the world map, the other is in a "place" where the majority of the game takes place.

When your on the world map, you get a nice display of the year and everything, you can access the options and such, And move your caravan to new lands, this is where random events will happen, when you move accross the roads and such. The meat of the game is played inside "areas" so lets get to that.

Now when you play, you have a Chalice that you *MUST* carry with you, no matter what. if you don't you will die because of the thick fog, pretty simple concept, when you carry it, you can do nothing else, but drop it, you also Auto-drop it if you take any damage, The chalace presents an aura that you cannot go outside of, or you will take continous damage.

In terms of raw gameplay it feels limited, you have a basic attack and defend (which is a bit different for each race) your simple attack can be linked 3 times, which *never* changes or varies in the slightest, making combat feel overly static, and then you can do a "Charge-up" attack which is a slightly more powerful attack, this attack *does* change with each equipped weapon, it isnt learned or anything, it just comes with the weapon, this forces you to play favorites and limits the customization even more. After all that you have a magic system, you basically collect "orbs" that are items, and let you cast spells infinitely. There is no limitation, but when you leave an area, you loose all the orbs you pick up. So .. magic really isnt permenant, its just something you "get" as you progress.

As for Experience, there is none, instead you are rated in score based on how well you performed durign the adventure (you get different goals each time) Basically, when you beat a "place" you get to pick an artifact to keep, there are like 200+ artifacts in the game so collecting them all would make you the strongest character in the game. So basically the concept of "Powering" up your character is to beat these places to collect 1 artifact each time. The artifacts have unique powers such as "+2 Strength" or "Gain another Heart" or "Defense +3" .. to show a few examples.

You can *only* access the multiplayer option if you have a GBA or GBASP for Every person who wishes to play, this almost FORCES you to pick people who love Nintendo and have purchased an Advance/SP. It's a cool concept because your menus and everything are displayed on that screen instead of on the main one, but when you look at the big picture, it *would* be possible to do it all on one screen, very very easily. Despite that, if you *can* get everyone together, you will absolutely love the fun that comes with it. For an RPG game, it really delivers in the "multiplayer" section. This really adds a new element to how you play the game, unfortunately there really isn't much plot backing it, this really takes away from the magic of RPG multiplayer and makes it feel more basic rather then unique and original.

Replay Factor is definitely there in CC, you will spend many hours collecting artifacts up and searching for new ones, when you add friends to the formula you really spice things up. The fun of challenging how powerful your friends characters are really helps this out, unfortunately there is no vs mode or anything like that.

Overall Crystal Chronicles is definitely a solid game worthy of some praise, but there are some *definite* glaring issues that stop this game from becoming everything it could be. Personally im much more excited about FF12 then CC. If you have a group of friends with Cubes/Advances/SP's and want to have a good time, fork up the cash to pick this one up because you will have a Ball, but if you don't have anyone to play with and appreciate a good plot, then Stay away from this one, it will only disapoint.

I finished reading this book, In the Grip of Grace, this morning. The concept of "God" is lost on me, because it always comes back to a question of empirical evidence. However, there are concepts presented in this book that reminded me of the things that I remember (it's been a while since I've been in the church and have forgotten a lot) liking about Christianity. The concepts are as follows:

1. Forgiveness: Living life dwelling on things that one feels guilty for diminishes ones quality of life. It seems to me that this is why one of the steps in Anonymous 12 Step programs is to ask for forgiveness from those hurt by ones Addiction/Disorder.


2. Acceptance: This seems to be what people offer to someone when they are feeling down, depressed, or recently failed. "You might not be very accepting of yourself right now, but I accept you just as you are." That sentence has to be one of the most comforting lines I've ever read. And when ever anyone even hints at that concept it does indeed make me feel better.


3. Trust: That we will always be there. That even when we storm away mad, we will come back looking for love. That we won't intentionally judge or scorn or hurt. That we are looking out for what is best for another.

Theists and I live in two different worlds. I will talk about my world first since I know mine far better. In my world I need Grace (Forgiveness, Acceptance, and Trust) to live a good quality of life. At times it seems like I don't get enough of Grace. I get by, but not without an internal struggle, thoughts of dieing, or taking part in self-destructive activities. When I'm happiest is when I get a lot of Grace. They come to me from Family, Friends, sometimes those exceptional people who pass through our lives that tend to leave a radiant air of warmth, and often times the most important place I receive Grace is from within me.

Now before I talk about the theists world I have to say that I do not live in the theists world, and I lack a lot of understanding. Consequently, parts of what I say may be ignorant or half truths, or maybe it will be completely untrue. I can't say for sure. Forgive me if I am ignorant anywhere in this text, but especially here.

The theists world seems to be mostly the same as mine, except for one very important point. The theists get Grace not only from all the same places I do, but you also believe you receive them from God.

As Max Lucado points out when these come from God, Grace comes in an eternal and infinite form. Here is the point that you must understand. Because I lack belief in God (or even god, gods, goddesses, supernatural, etc.), I also lack belief that Forgiveness, Acceptance, and Trust come in an eternal and infinite form. At least not from one specific being.

Now, noting the previous paragraph, it is easy for me to see how you Christians can look at a guy like me and say, "You are at a loss, because you do not know God's love." You could also easily say "Maybe that's the reason for your depression," or "No wonder your outlook on life is so bleak." I have even contemplated these ideas myself. That I am at a loss, that this is the reason for my depression and that this is the reason my outlook on life is so bleak.

This would be all a bit more concrete, though, only if I didn't personally know people who believe the same way I do, and life happy, fulfilling lives. This brings me to my next point.

In the Grip of Grace demonstrated to me how Christianity is The Means to The End. The Means is to live a life of giving and receiving Grace to and from God, Family, and Friends. The End, is a happy, fulfilling life. Does it work? Of course it does. This is what we as humans need regardless of faith. Of course, in Christianity's concept of The End, there is also the eternal after life, as with most other religious and spiritual concepts in the world. Eternal non-existence is, I would say, an almost impossible idea to accept. How can we as humans possibly understand the idea of eternal non-existence when we will never ever have a chance to experience it? How can we experience something that we have to not exist to experience?

By now, I'm sure you're wondering why I have written this. The best answer I can offer is that I wish to promote understanding. Understanding is the reason I am glad I read this book. Even though I would have to say that I agree with less than %40 of what it says, I still managed to get something out of it. That something is that I managed to free myself from at least some of my ignorance of what it is that Christians believe, and why Christians believe it. And I would also, conversely, like Christians to understand what I believe (or don't,) even if they agree with less than %1 of it, at least you'll understand where I am coming from. I believe that ignorance breeds fear, fear leads to hate, and hate results in insults and violence. Being ignorant is no way to be a person who Forgives, Accepts, and Trusts even those far different from themselves, easily.

The one section in the book In the Grip of Grace, which I really have to contest. The one that I cannot let go unchallenged. The section that I find most ignorant of Hedonistic, Humanistic, and Secularist ideas is the section entitled "1. We Lose Our Standard" that starts on page 33, of Chapter 3 (Godless Living.)

"If there is no ultimate good blind the world, then how do we define 'good' within the world?"

The simple answer I have, is that in the sense that Max Lucado is trying to define 'good,' we can't define it. We also can't define 'evil' in the sense that he is trying to define it. Why? Subjectivity. There will always be things that won't be able to be universally boiled down into the categories of 'good' and 'evil.' Is self defense killing 'good' or 'evil'? Is stealing a gun to protect its owner from killing himself 'good' or 'evil'? I'm sure there are many arguments against any question I could possibly ask, but the questions themselves aren't really the point.

The point is that Ultimately, God decides. The problem is that in these situations God doesn't give an answer that is universally true to all of us. And then there are the atheists who don't accept a god. So, it ends up being entirely subjective.

"A godly view of the world, on the other hand, has something to say to my childhood thief. Faith challenges those with cricket brains to answer to a higher standard than personal opinion: 'You may think its right. Society may think it's OK. But the God who made you said, 'You shall not steal'-and he wasn't kidding."

This suggests that if a secularist says "if we do what is in the best interest of the community, we will make the community better for ourselves by making it better for each other" (what goes around, comes around) was kidding. I'm sure that's not what Max Lucado meant, but that's how it sounds. This is why we have democracy, and not fascism where one person was (self) chosen to be a direct line to God. In history, fascism demonstrated how well it ultimately worked through Hitler, and Mussolini. Stalin also tried to impose an ultimate "right" way to do things through his dictatorship of Communist Soviet Union, and look at the millions who died there. What I'm trying to get at is that there is a better way to do things than to look for the ultimate good, because a good that works for everyone might never be found. However, if we look for the good that does the most good for the largest amount of people, we might find an achievable goal. Will some not like it? Of course, but look who turns out to not like it the most in secular society. It's the people who neglect to abide by the law of the land.

I'm not saying that in places where democracy is the way of life, the world is perfect. Clearly it isn't. Good people fall through the cracks, and don't get the attention they should. Criminals get away scott free, while their victims suffer. And innocent people get persecuted for crimes they didn't commit. But this is because of something else Max Lucado pointed out. We are human. Fallible human beings, that don't always quite get it right. And we shouldn't be expected to. We should be Forgiven for our failures, Accepted for who we are, and Trusted that we will continue to try and do our best. That's all I can ask of anyone. And if anyone asks any more than that of me, tough luck. If they want perfection, they can try and create it themselves, but I know what the outcome has been, is, and will always be.

In conclusion. I am a good person. My moral values aren't based on absolutes that recognize the difference between good and evil. But I am a good person regardless. I am not a perfect emotionless, robot, who can complete tasks flawlessly, consistently, without fail, and always on time. But I'm still a good person (and glad I'm not perfect and emotionless too, sounds like I'd be quite boring). I lack faith in a god who provides me with eternal Grace, and in his power knows and judges everyone equally and fairly, every time and all the time. And yet, I'm still a good person. Will I go to hell? According to some, yes. And that's fine, they can believe whatever they wish. But I am a good person.

Just because I am a Good person, does that mean that anybody not like me isn't? Hardly. I believe that under the right circumstances every person is capable of good. Is my belief that we can't say for sure if God exists or not the right, good and true belief? How can I say for sure? Is the theists belief that God does exist, the right good and true belief? How can you say for sure? Is Joe Schmoe's belief that there is no god the right belief?...

I don't think it is possible for any of us to know for sure. And in the end, I don't think it matters. I think what does matter is that we make the best of this life that we can. I also think that Christianity and my philosophy in life (whatever you want to call it, I'm not sure myself what it would be called) both are a means to that end. The End of the best life we possibly can lead.

You may be having mixed feelings about what I've written, especially if you are a theist. Maybe on the one hand, you do think of me as a good person. Maybe on the other, you feel that like yourself I should be a faithful Christian who loves and accepts God, and that because I'm not if I died today I'd go to hell. Myself, I don't know how to help you with that, because from my perspective, the theists life ends up no worse then mine when all is said and done.

My reasoning is flawed? Feel free to correct me. There may be some discussion about this post at the Atheist Anonymous Message Board

A living? If you can call what I do in my waking hours a living, then I suppose I slowly waste away as I'm eaten from the inside out by my own tormenting and self deprecating ideas.

Someone asked me that question the other day, and I couldn't think of an answer. And I didn't want to say something like above, for fear of them running away and/or contacting the school counsellor. So instead, I told them I was a "student."

In all reality, if being a student was what I did for a "living," I would be failing miserably at life anyways. This week is mid-terms week. How much work have I done? A 90% on 1 out of 3 psychology exams, the first paragraph of the first of 3 papers I'm supposed to have done already in english, nothing in my online math class (it's pretty fucking hard to do online classes WHEN YOU DON"T HAVE INTERNET ACCESS) and I'm supposed to write a review of 2 concerts for my music class, and I have not attended any.

I'd like to make excuses... so I probably will. I *still* don't have any of my books, which makes it incredibly hard to actually.. you know... do the work. If I could afford them, that would be nice, but then of course that would mean having to get a job, which would mean cutting my dad's pension short.

So in general, school sucks.

So if any of you have any ideas on what the hell to do with myself, then shoot away.

I'd like to focus more on music, but oftentimes that requires money as well, which as you know, I don't have. And the other guys in the band actually DO have lives. They all go to New Mexico Tech (must be nice to be able to afford to go to a real school) and have classes, homework, or studying, 24/7, which makes it really hard to practice as a band, which makes me even more sad because I'm the only one with free time and I have NOTHING to do with it.

If I actually did have money, I'd consider taking my spring break and going and visiting some people, but unfortunately, my spring break is a week AFTER the other 99.95% of the country's, so I'd be all alone THEN TOO.

It'd be nice if I had friends who came to this school too. It'd also be nice if I had the ability to make new friends, but that part of me died several years ago (we're not gonna go into that now, that's a whole seperate episode of this "living" thing). I'm so chock full of pent-up angst and social anxiety that it's impossible for me. I try to be nice to people, but for some reason they are just repelled, so I don't even bother anymore.

Anyways...

What do you guys do for a living?

Okay, so .. This game has stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Some people seem to enjoy it a *bit* while others really seem to slam this game down, it seems like a pretty fun concept, *especially* with squaresoft behind the game. Unfortunately, i think i played my first sub-par Squaresoft game.

Game Title: Drakengard
System: Nintendo Gamecube
Graphics: 7.2
Sound: 6.4
Music: 4.2
Plot: 5.7
Gameplay: 3.2
Replay: 6.0
Tilt: 6.0

Overall Rating: 5.5


Alright, so .. to get started, most people know what this game is all about, there are two "things" going on, fighting thousands of troops on the ground, and fighting thousands of airial units in the air, riding on your trusty dragon. This concept, at a glance, immediately seems fun, after all the series of Dynasty warriors has spawned a cult following because of how fun it can be to run around and kill thousands of troops and build up your warrior, add a flyable dragon into the mix that you can ride at any time and the game feels like a winner! atleast in theory. let me promise you that the execution of this game was godawful.

So, to get started with my review, i will list to the good points of this game, first off, the graphics aint to bad, seriously.. the textures are all nice, you can switch up your weapons and the whole visual feel of the game is pretty promising, *especially* when you consider the FMV Clipscenes, which there are actually quite a few of. They really help bring the story to life, and honestly, they can be the best part of the game. We also have some pretty decent "clips" too, where some nice animations are displayed.

Another cool aspect is the weapons and weapon system, your character at any point in the game can switch between weapons, and every weapon looks unique, and has a different way of fighting, so it can be fun just trying to collect them, they are also displayed in "groups" which is cool, so all your "longswords" will be in that group and all look close to the same, and then you can go to shortsword, axes, and all those fun weapon categories. Its worth noting that every weapon is able to be "leveled" up by defeating opponents with, and every weapon also has a special attack unique to it.

Oh, the sound is pretty fair too, at some points it really sounds like war is going on, the slashes are all pretty cool, along with the nice running of footsteps. things are pretty good here.


Okay, so you might be thinking at this point "hey.. this game sounds pretty cool" let me change that opinion.. and if your thinking "ew, i dont want this" then stop reading right now, because things are gunna go downhill from here.

Lets start off with the Combat system. Considering you fight hordes of enemies.. constantly.. this is a critical element of the game, i mean, if you don't have a good combat system, you don't have shit. games like Devil May Cry have had extremely inventive and good combat systems that really make the game *fun* to play.

Let me assure that this game fails horribly to recreate anything remotely close to what Devil May Cry gave us. When you start the game, and run to an enemy and slash him three times, you will know. you will *immediately* know how boring, simple, and Dull this combat system is. you get three strikes (which later becomes a much bigger # based on your weapon) and thats about it. your weapon will also flash and you can push the other button for a special attack that will typically kill/make all your opponents fall. The problem with this idea is that there is absolutely NO limitation on it, so Beating Drakengard is a stupid and simple task of hitting "Square, Square, Triangle, Triangle" 12 times to defeat a group of enemies. The same idea each time. using this theory will let you pretty much beat every stage of Drakengard without taking damage, its also the most damage you can deal too, and since it doesnt cost you ANYTHING to do it, Why not?! Adding to the stupidity of this game is the fact that you regain life while fighting, aslong as your in combat, you gain life, the game makes no attempt to explain this (or much else) in the slightest, so aslong as your fighting and winning your okay.. if a boss hurts you a bit, NO PROBLEM! go defeat some more lackeys to get your life back! doesnt that sound like fun?!

If you get hit by an opponent, you immediately fall down if your in the air, or you immediate go into a crappily done "im hurt" animation, then preceed to BLINK until your okay at which point your invulnerable for a short time, the Best part about this is you can do 1-2 combo's and defeat a whole bunch of opponents WHILE you are invulnerable.. which means you can :O regenerate the damage done to you and then some! WOW.

Now, lets talk about the AI in this game, because this concept has been done before, i mean, they really arent doing anything new here, they have games to look at and LEARN From, but the developers can't even manage to get this right, each "section" of troops puts out a blatantly obvious "sight aura" its a circular field around them and if you go *into* this field, they will turn and come to you, the best part is that if you run away, they will return. This is true for every single unit in the game, including boss units. So just grab a ranged weapon and you can actual cheat the system by luring them back and forth and slowly killing them!

Based on that the idea of that bad of a "Combat" system, i really don't want to play this game.. but things still drift downhill. Lets talk about the music.. oh yes.. the music. I'm not kidding when i say that they should've hired ME to do the music, because i could've done a better job. If anyone's familiar with my *astounding* musical record, thats saying something. Seriously, the music tried be very War-like.. Pounding orchestral music.. the only problem is 90% of the trakcs actually loop themselves after each measure.. at some points of the game i turned the music off because of how painful it was to listen too after the 50129318234 times it repeated. Ow. Music goes a long ways in games for me (and you too, probably) so this is a killer.

The plot of this game is simple, your fighting a war against "imperials" and your "rebels" and you find a dragon who has been "next-to-slain" and your apparently "next-to-slain" (my health was at full and i didnt get hit once mind you) so we form a bond to save both our lives because the soldiers are still "coming" into the castle (after i killed 8 commanders and 60% of they're troops? im 1 fucking guy. talk about a morale downer) So yea.. then you form a bond "ala Dragonheart" and your mystically friends with the dragon. An *interesting* decision on the developers part, the MAIN character, after forming a bond with the assumingly female dragon cannot talk because of the bond apparently, so the female dragon speaks for the main character.. sort've. The funny part is 90% of the dialogue is directed AT the main character who just says "..." it gets old after awhile.

Despite how bad i've slandered this game, it *can* be fun at times, i mean, once you power up a few weapons the game will get slightly better, you can collect a few and see how each weapon functions and things like that. You don't get to ride anything besides your dragon, and the Dragon "levels" up as you do throughout the game.gaining power and going back to previous stages to kill everything and reap all the rewards tends to be a mix of being fun and boring at the same time. Oh, lets talk about the dragon combat.

There are 2 types of "missions" in this game, ground and air missions..you can fly the dragon in both, thankfully, but you can ONLY fly the dragon in airial missions. (obviously) SO to get started lets talk about movement, its actually one of the better designed aspects of gameplay, you can twist turn and contort the dragons body to all angles, the tail also follows with that cool delay that makes you watch the dragons movement, you acn also perform a quick turn around and such, it can be fun just to fly. The dragon has a fire attack, and a charge-up fire attack, and a homing fire attack. Thats IT. those 3 attacks are alll you ever seem to get. the first fire attack is a streat "ball" of fire that just.. goes and kills anything in its sight, the 2nd kills most everything on the screen, and the last lets you target targets with your cusror then unleash 3 balls at once that automatically go to them (but deal less damage) once powered up, the abilities get better and become more deadly. When you get into combat with other, more agile flying units, it becomes a nice & fun dogfight, with a lot of turning, spitting, and shooting.

So i guess that covers it.. at the end of the Drakengard ends up pretty boring, the dragon can be fun to ride, but its only a matter of hours until the concept of it ends up and you realize how boring it *really* is. anyone who enjoys a good combat system, stay the hell away. And if you *still* wan't to buy it after all this, please..for the love of god.. RENT it first!

For once I have some "real" news...

Part 1:
Remember a little while back I posted about attending a Security Guard Training course? Well, I finished it this past Saturday (24th) and while I won't know if I really passed or not for another week or so, I think that I did really well. On our pre-quizzes I got in excess of 80%, and the final exam wasn't much different.
I do know for a fact that I passed the practical exam, but it wasn't really that hard. We only had to demonstrate that we knew how to perform the specific maneuvers we were taught (straight arm bar, bent arm bar, wrist lock, a few others) and I only hurt myself once!

Part 2:
Perhaps you noticed, perhaps you didn't, more than likely you don't even care but the site has a new skin.
If you'll look in that select box on the right, you'll see a new entry at the bottom titled 'Pink Embers'
This skin was created from a photo my dad took of a campfire. He said that it was burning so hot the embers were pink.. I wasn't aware that pink was one of the colours you'd see in hot coals, so I'm kind of wondering if the camera didn't just distort the colour somehow (hey, it changed our graduation gowns from black to purple).
Anyway, just figured I'd make an announcement. It might have gone unnoticed otherwise (it might still go unnoticed now), plus it's not like I'm around all that often anymore.

Cya,
Rob.

Today I got up early to put the garbage out, and decided since I hadn't heard from them, I would call Ultimate Security to see if I could get any news on my marks from the course, when the certificates were coming, etc.

I call up, and surprisingly, Marc (the owner) himself answers the phone. Usually I would get his secretary, but not this time. So I ask him if he's got any news regarding the certificates.
He says, "Yup, I got your marks right here."
I hear him leafing through folders and papers, muttering people's names under his breath.
Then I hear, "Ah, Saunders, yup. Okay, the marks are in two parts, BST1 and BST2."
Me: "Okay."
Marc: "Okay, for BST1, you got 85.2%" (I'm not positive on the .2, but I'm sure he said 85)
Me: "Okay."
Marc: "And on the BST2, you got 92.6%"
Me: "Oh, wow."
Marc: "Yeah.. actually, the highest mark in the class was 100%"
Me: "Ah, that's cool."
Marc: "Yup, but you did better than 3/4 of the class."
Me: "Oh, cool."
Marc: "Yup. Oh hey, what's your address again? Are you in Terrace or Kitimat?"
Me: "Kitimat."
Marc: "Ah, you're out of town... Well that's okay. How would you feel about doing some call-in work for us?"
Me (surprised): "Uh, that would be cool."
Marc: "Okay, well we're gonna be calling people throughout the week to get them to come in and fill out applications, so we'll probably give you a call around Wednesday or Thursday."
Me: "Okay, sure, sounds cool."

Summarized and paraphrased for conciseness of course, but regardless it's good news for me! It means a possible, dare I say, career change, or at the very least, my certificate will have the official seal stating I met national standards of security (Had to get 80%+ for that!), and with something like that under my belt, maybe I'll be able to get a job at like Alcan, then I wouldn't even have to leave town, which is my ideal job solution.

Anyway, I've been wanting to tell everyone that I can just because I'm so happy. It kind of sucked this morning when I first found out, cus I wanted to tell everyone I knew, but it being only 9:00am, all 3 of my friends in town (I'm not anti-social, I swear) were still asleep. Lazy bums... Well granted, Edward worked last night, and so did Chris, and he did have to get up early and pick his parents up from the airport at 10, but still, Holly was in bed when I called her at 11, so she's still a lazy bum.

Ah, that's all I guess.

*Edit* It's Marc, not Mark.

What this site needs is some action. I'm not talking about hot site-to-site sex. I'm talking about NEWS FRICKEN POSTS. Has everyone forgot about their news privelages?! Or probably just haven't had much interesting happen to them. Well I haven't had anything TOO interesting happening. I'll think back and try to find something interesting....

Exhibit A)

Sometime, a few weeks ago, the highschool had it's prom. My friends, the cool guys they are, said let's go out to the beach and find some after parties. So my friend comes and wakes me up at 9 PM, saying "OK OK OK WE GOTTA GO NOW IF YOU DON'T GET UP I'M LEAVING YOU."

Now I just woke up so I wanted to like EAT something or get a glass of Coke, but nooooooooooooo, gotta go NOW, so we hop in his car and go...............to my other friend's house.

"Why the FUCK are we at Steve's house?"

"Because we need to wait for everyone else."

"If we have to WAIT FOR PEOPLE, THEN WHY THE FUCK DID WE HAVE TO RUSH OUT?"

"I dunno I just wanted to be hear first."

"... ... ..."

SO we wait....for about 30 minutes. Other friends start showin' up. Now they're all like "Yea well......prom doens't get out until 11:30, so we're gonna wait until 11 to leave. Oh awesome I got rushed out of my house to wait 2 and a half hours, great.

So FINALLY we get out of there, and on our way to the beach (which of COURSE I'm the only one who knows how to get there.) So we get to the usual hangout spot and wait...NO ONE'S FUCKING THERE. Well, no sorry, that'd be a lie, no one's there but THE WHOLE FRICKEN POLICE FORCE ON SECURITY DETAIL. So that's awesome, I didn't want to go to these afters parties in the FIRST place but damnit if I'm gonna get dragged to the beach at MIDNIGHT for a party, there better DAMN well be one. So we walk along the beach looking for parties and LOW AND BEHOLD we run into the captain scumbag of our senior class. He's wasted beyond all comprehension, and me and my friends are sitting, talkin' with him, havin' a good time until he's like "Hey let's check out the Double Tree [other annual hangout]. Ok, fine, we'll follow you Ari.

"Ok that's cool, but DOUG come with me."

"Wahhhhhh, ummmm, I don't think that's such a good idea, these guys can't get around at all without me."

"NAHHhhhhhhhhh man, it'll be FINE they can follow you, besides I don't wanna ride alone and I don't know those other fags."

"Yea but, I think it'd really be better if I went with them."

I'm literally being DRAGGED into a car by a drunk kid who's twice my size and MORE then capable of plowing me into the ground, and my friends are slowly slipping into their cars anyway. AWESOME!!1~ Abandon me with a DRUNK FUCKING DRIVER. So we head out, and this kid is doing 70 down a 1 lane road, and to no one's suprise, we lose my friends. We make it to the hotel, and they never do.

So here's the tricky part. I don't know anyone's cell phone number. NOR do I have a cell phone to call anyone. So I'M being dragged around a hotel who's rooms are probably around $250 a night, with a DRUNK kid, who's RANDOMLY KNOCKING ON DOORS AND LOOKING FOR PARTIES. Oh this is awesome. So somewhere around floor 10 I find a girl who used to be best friends with this girl I had a HUGE crush on, so she knows me, I manage to squeeze out a "help me" and she pulls me out of the clutches of the drunk kid before he realizes what's even going on. He goes down the elevator, I get stuck with a hot, half-dressed girl. GOOD DEAL so far.

So now we have a new problem. This girl can't find her room. Room 1013. We walk around the floor, looking for the room. 1009. 1010. 1011. 1012. 1014. 1015-...wait a fucking second, WHERE THE HELL DID 1013 GO?! After about our 3rd lap of the floor this girl is almost in tears that her room DOESN'T EXIST. Plus the fact that she had recently gotten her finger smashed in a door so it looks something like a miniture eggplant. As we get discouraged and blop down in the middle of the hallway, we see someone come out of a room down the hall, and her head snaps over and steam starts coming out of her ears (literally.) "THAT'S NOT FUCKING ROOM 1013, THAT'S FUCKING 1018!!" The kid who walk out of the rooms like "I thought you knew?" and she's like "I'VE BEEN TRYING TO CALL YOU PEOPLE FOR A FUCKING HOUR!! COME ON DOUG, YOU CAN STAY HERE FOR NOW."

Yayyy, so now I'm staying in a hotel room with a hot girl until I can find a way hom-...HOLY CRAP! As I step in the room I notice something. THIS ROOM IS FULL OF ALL THE HOTTEST GIRLS FROM MY HIGHSCHOOL RUNNING AROUND IN THEIR UNDERWEAR AND/OR HALF-DRESSED!! SWEET MOTHER OF GOD I LUCKED OUT. Suddenly the problem of getting home didn't seem like too big of a problem anymore, but Krystle's (the girl) finger is still pretty bad looking so I go to get her a bag of ice. I come back, give it to her, I'm talking to her alittle and she's all like "So what're you gonna do?" and I'm like "I really don't know..." and she's like "Well you can use the hotel phone, because I'm paying for it." So I go to the hotel phone and I see:

1) for Front desk
2) for Other rooms
99) long disctance

And I'm thinking to myself "HOW THE HELL DO I MAKE A NORMAL PHONE CALL?" Before I actually get the chance to ASK someone, or if anyone has a cell phone, the bedroom door bursts open (the hotel had a bar, living room, and bedroom all seperated...with a beach view...corner room too), and a VERY angry, very drunk young man walks out. "I WANT EVERYONE THE FUCK OUT OF MY ROOM" at this point I'm thinking to myself "Your room? I thought Krystle payed for it too." and as I'm thinking this she gets up and goes "YOUUUUURRRRRRR room? I PAYED $40 FUCKING DOLLARS FOR THIS ROOM" So now things are getting great. I'm with about 5 or 6 hot girls, maybe 3 guys, and now i'm GETTING KICKED OUT? "NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOoooooooooooooooooooooooo!!!!!!!!!!!!!" That's when the guy's girlfriend came out and told him to go downstairs and cool down. This girl ALSO happened to be the girl who (practially) dated one of my best friends for around a year.

"Doug? How the hell are you here? Where's Cesar and Anthony?"

"Yea well...they kinda...left me here...alone..."

"WTF?! They LEFT YOU? How the gay?"

"Yea..."

"So what're you gonna do?"

"I'm still trying to figure that one out..."

"Well I'd say you can stay here, but Andres is throwing a fit, so here, use my phone to call someone."

"Right-o"

So I take her phone and start calling my friends (since their numbers are saved into her phone, thank god). Meanwhile as I'm doing this 2 people sneak into the bedroom behind her, strip naked, and start having sex...right there...in front of everyone...with the door open...with someone else passed out in the bed next to them (it was a queen sized bed.)

So I go through the lsit f all my friends and I FINALLY get one of them who HASN'T turned his phone off and *gasp* he's already HOME, and SLEEPING. So...wtf. Now I'm proper fucked. ESPECIALLY now since KT's boyfriend is BACK and REALLY pissed now because "THERE'S PEOPLE HAVE SEX IN MY BED!!

So anyway, I return KT's phone, say my goodbyes, and make my way down to the lobby. By now it's 3 AM. I have no other choice, so I hope on a payphone and call my mom.

"...Doug?"

"Yea, I knew you'd be up"

"Why're you calling me? Where is everyone?"

"They kinda...left me"

"...they what?"

"They left me."

"... ... ...This is a joke, right?"

"Nopers, no punchline here, I'm stranded."

"Holyyyyyyyyyy crap. I can't come get you, I've been drinking"

"Super!"

"Let's call your dad, maybe he can get you"

"Is he even up?"

"Who knows, brb"

*she clicks over and calls him, clicks back"

"Ringgggg, Ringggg, Ringggg, *click*"

"Well Doug doesn't look like he's up."

"Ugh. So now what?"

"I dunno I'll try again"

"Ringgg, ringgg, Ringgg..."

*30 minutes later*"

"Ringggg, Ringggg, He..hello?"

"Terry?"

"...yea"

"Doug's friends left him at the beach, can you go get him?

"...it's 3:30 AM"

"Yea well...I can't go get him, you're gonna have to."

"... ... ...Ok whatever I'll be there as soon as I can"

Long story short, after spending around 30 more minutes in the hotel, with half-dress highschool girls running around EVERYWHERE (since I was right near the vending machines/pool/public bathrooms/water fountains, blah blah blah)my dad showed up, and I got home around an hour later, and it was only that fast because my dad picked me up in his police car so he could speed.

THAT was an adventure of a lifetime, and my friends got the SCUMBAGS OF THE YEAR AWARD.

Exhibit B)
The girl of my dreams (or at least my current love interest) invited me to go see Troy, which was wierd in itself. The conversation went something like this:

"I wanna go out tonight, but I don't know who I wanna take."

"Oh, so it's not so much 'Who's gonna go out with me tonight, as much as it is, who deserves my attention tonight, eh?"

"Haha, that's EXACTLY! What it is. :-P"

"Yea, I kinda figured as much. You have a right to be that picky."

"Ya'know what Doug, YOU deserve my attention tonight"

"Aww, that's sweet Rachel, but I think we BOTH know I ALWAYS deserve your attention."

"LOL! Yea well, let's go see Troy"

"...wait...you're...SERIOUS?!"

"Yea, let's go!"

Right about here I had a heart-attack and had to be rushed to the emergency room for immediate rival (in my head).

She dress up in this really hot outfit, with white pants, I thought I was gonna die, everyone at the movies was SO jealous, but she doesn't REALLY like me, so jokes on them.

ANYWAY, the movie.

This is my summary of the movie Troy:

Opening: Start, with weird backstory.

Cut to Brad Pitt, naked...

Cut to people dying.

Cut to Orlando Bloom being a whiney bitch, and stealing Helen.

Cut to people dying (because of Orlando Bloom)

Cut to Greeks defacing religions memorials, killing priests, raping servant girls.

Cut to Brad Pitt, naked...

Cut to Orlando Bloom saying "i'll fight the king one on one for helen, he wins, he gets her, and leaves, I win, the romans leave"

Cut to Orlando Bloom LOSING, and RUNNING, from a DUEL TO THE DEATH. CRYING LIKE A BITCH.

Cut to people dying.

Cut to Brad Pitt...naked...devirginizing servant girls.

Cut to more people dying, Orlando Bloom KILLING BRAD PITT (in his coolest role ever, minus the nakedness), cut to Orlando Bloom, BEING THE ONLY MEMBER OF HIS FAMILY ESPACING FROM TROY, ALIVE AS THE ENTIRE CITY BURNS TO THE GROUND...BECAUSE OF HIM.

Cut to Rachel yelling "I DIDN'T KNOW ACHILLES DIED?!"

To be entirely honest there had to be about 20 minutes of naked Brad Pitt in this movie, and I'm not talkn' scrawy Ocean's 11 Brad Pitt. I'm talkin' fuckin' HUGE Brad Pitt (bigger then in Fight Club) with long blonde hair, and just a huge destructive force of nature. There were literally 5 minute intermissions so girls could run tot he bathroom and ringe out their panties. It makes perfect since, get guys to the movies with senseless voilence, get girls to the movies with naked male stars. Everyone's happy!

Also: Don't cry about spoilers, anything I told you in this you should've learned back in middle school.

Exhibit C)
Games:

Ultima IX) The last Ultima game in the single player series, the only one to be in 3D, the only one made AFTER the Ultima Online relase. Lots of UO references and sound effects, cool gameplay and storyline. Good graphics for it's time. Just a tad glitchy, turning clipping off gets helpful pretty quick. Think Morrowind with a smaller world, cooler stories, and no "walk across the planet and bring me back a blade of grass" subquests.

Knights of the Old Republic: Doesn't live up to the hype. I don't even FIGHT anything for God sakes, it's all AUTOMATED, WTF?!

Star Wars Episode 1, Pod Racer: The PC port of the old N64 game. I didn't even know they MADE that, but apparently they did, and like 5 years ago so the requirements are generally low, the graphics are obviously BETTER, slap on my XBOX controller PC mod, and 8 player LAn play, and HOLY CRAP YOU HAVE THE BEST FUXING GAME EVER!!!!!!

FFX: Girly Final Fantasy, but I still love it. Started playing it again, fun times.

FFX-2: Girly Final Fantasy Sequal! Haven't played it...want to...awesome soundtrack though! :D

World of Warcraft: Looks retarded.

Monter Hunter: LOOKS FRICKEN AWESOME.

Viewtiful Joe 2: OMFG DANTE!

Devil May Cry 3: OMFG DANTE!!!11 x2

Exhibit D)
OverClocked ReMix 4:

-OMFG MY EYES HURT. *tissues for all*

-OMFG SEXY

-OMFG MY BLACK BACKGROUND PWNS

Exhibit E)
OCR Modern Winamp skin:

Yea...I need to work on that...tomorrow...

Exhibit F)
RamaServ/H0t4uServ69/MyrmidonServ/JetServRadio`Future:

I HAVE 10,000+ FUCKING MP3S ON THERE, OVER 125 FULL GAME SOUNDTRACKS, ABOUT A BIJILLION MOVIE SOUNDTRACKS (TROY, PIRATES OF THE CARIBBEAN, LAST SAMURAI, ETC.) AND NO ONE FRICKEN USES THE THING. COME ON PEOPLE.

Exhibit G)
...

...

...

But if none of that happens us Californians just need to worry about earthquakes seperating us from the rest of the United States...to go chill out with Hawaii...Alaska can come too (w00t!)

THE END!!!!!

Soo.. hi there.. Alright, I know a few of you guys own Unreal Tournament 2k4, and i also know there are plenty of you that do Not, But i think its time i show off some things the mod community has been doing because not only is this stuff on-par with some of the pro games out there today, but some might even call them better. SO lets get Crackin'

First up: Nvidia Competition Mod Video
This is the best way to sum up what the mod community has been doing, from Marble Madness to RPG games, this video covers just about every high quality modification thats currently in the contest.. if you havent seen the video yet, please check it out.. Star Wars, Aliens, just to name a few of them.

Link: http://www.unrealtournament.com/news/view.php?id=1776


Alright, now im gunna link a few screenies to give you guys some ideas of whats going on. Even if you dont like FPS games, a lot of the stuff being done is more RPG/Tactic like.

http://duffers.beyondunreal.com/
A Golf Game.. a GOOD golf game.. quite a turn from UT2k4.
http://unwheel.beyondunreal.com/
Driving game, Unwheel is sweet. This has some focus in the video. Nice stuff.
http://www.ut2004troopers.com/
Star Wars.. Nuff said.
http://www.redorchestramod.com
WWII Mod that rivals Battlefield in terms of tactics and Vehicles, very cool.
http://www.shatteredoasis.com
Post-Apocalyptic Shooter. Nifty.
http://dynamic4.gamespy.com/~chaotic/index.php
Bringing Hot Melee-Combat Action to UT. Nice.
http://www.blackcatgames.com/swarm
Amazing Top-Down Tactical Alien Sci-Fi Shooting game that will instantly remind of Fallout. Sweet! Oh, its one of the best Co-Op games.. in .. ever.
http://www.frag-ops.com
Impressive Realistic Mod featuring all those real weapons and stuff.

All of this stuff was made through the NVidia contest and idonno how many people are keeping up with development and such, but if you own the game you *really* need to check this out, and if you didn't shell out the 40$ .. Look up that video and see how many games your really missing out on.

theres some news.

So I know it's been quite a while since the last time I posted, more than a month really, and I wish I had the excuse that I've been busy, but I really haven't. Honestly, I've just had no desire to sit down and write a news post. It's not even like my life has been completely eventless, it hasn't been filled with parties or anything, but some stuff has happened, and I figure I'll fill you in on one such thing at least.

So my last post was about how I'd talked to Marc from Ultimate Security, and he'd given me my marks on the security training I took. Well since then, I've recieved my actual certificate, and just as recently as Tuesday, my security license has also come in (not specifically to me, but Marc has it). I actually called on Monday to ask about it, and left a message but never received a call back, but on Tuesday, the phone rang, and it went something like this...

Marc: "Hi, Rob, you called yesterday about your license?"
Rob: "Yeah, I was just wondering if you had any information about it, it's been a while." It had been like 3 weeks.
M: "Yeah actually I do have some information, it appears there was a problem with your criminal records check."
R: "Oh yeah?"
M: "Yeah, I guess it came up with multiple drug trafficking charges."
R: "... Really?"
M: "Yeah."
R: "Wow.. uh.. that's gotta be some kind of mistake."
M: "Haha, yeah I was just kidding. I've actually got your license in my hand right now, it just came in today."
R: "Oh wow, neat coincidence."
M: "Yeah. So we're thinking of getting you working at the hospital sometime this weekend in the evening, say around 8:00pm or so."
R: "Oh.. uh.. okay. That sounds cool."
M: "Okay, well I'm going to be in Kitimat a lot this week, so I'll get a hold of you when I'm in town and we can go over the regulations and stuff."
R: "Okay, so you'll contact me sometime this week?"
M: "Yeah, I'll have to."
R: "Okay, cool. Talk to you later then."

That's totally paraphrased and stuff, it's been a few days so I certainly can't do any quotations, but that's the gist of the conversation. Unfortunately, I haven't heard anything from him. I don't know if he hasn't had time, or maybe he wants to wait 'til next weekend, I don't know. In the meantime I've been spending a lot of time at work, even when I'm not working. I just like the pizza place a lot, especially when Holly is working, I always feel better, happier, when I'm around her.

Anyway, that's all for now, I just figured that I should post something considering the lack of updates that has been going on lately. Which reminds me, big, huge, thanks to SgtRama and k-wix for trying to keep the site alive. I appreciate it guys.

Oh, and one last thing, Jeremy, or Tri-Emplem, or EtherStyle as I guess he's going by now, asked me to host a site for him, and I am doing so, I haven't linked to it in the hosted section at this very moment, but you can get to it via the link that will be there, or by clicking here.

Take care everyone.

Just like Mr. Saunders, allow me to state that I am in fact still alive. Along with good old fashioned laziness, there are two main reasons I've been inconegro for so long.

#1: I got sick of the internet and it's people.

#2: I've moved.

No longer will I be able to pimp Kalamazoo, Michigan as my locale. In late June of this year I packed up my stuff and headed about 250 miles south to a little town called Indianapolis, Indiana. The two main things I must caution anyone on who plans on coming here are not to drink the water and to avoid driving at all costs if possible. I've seen more auto accidents in a 2-week period in Indy than in the almost 7 months I was in Kzoo this year. It's that bad (and so is the water).


I'm making a half-arsed attempt to learn my way around my side of town (West SIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIDE!) and I've set up an account with a financial institution. As for employment, well... there's an awful lot of street corners in this town :/

Inanycase, the third thing I should mention is that Rob Saunders is pretty freakin' awesome and way too humble. The hell of a nice guy that he is, Rob has already tutored me a tiny bit in mIRC scripts, using Cool Edit, and now webmaStarring. I've copied his pimpness once again and set up shop with myownlittlechannel, er, my own "no-ip" webpage.

Visit my constantly W.I.P. "The Palace" - http://ap.zapto.org/ I can't draw, I don't have much vision, I can't script or code, and it's constantly under construction. Why should you bother to visit? Because it's by Antonio Pizza, dammit. So you know once I get things rolling, it'll be worth at least a couple minutes of your already useless time.


And on that note, I'm going to see what else I can work on. Catch you later kids!

-ap










P.S. Is Ginnsu still alive? What about Suzumebachi?

So, yeah. Stuff has happened since I last posted here. It's a long story but I'll only give you the summary:

- The bracket's that hold the struts in place on my '92 Ford Escort Wagon rusted out around Christmas time.
- An '87 Nissan Sentra 2 door coup was aquired around New Years so I could keep my job at the Pizzarama.
- I got a cat and called him Fuzz Butt in mid March.
- I moved out of my parents house, into an apartment with a friend of mine, Matthew, who is an increadibly stupid person. No seriously, he is. And no, I don't talk about all my friends that way. Click here for one small example.
- I have an evil stalker bitch, who is married, and I get blamed for stepping on the Husbands toes. The silver lining on this dark cloud? She has a sane friend who likes me.
- The first and second cylinders in my '87 Nissan Sentra loose all compression, and the engine thus becomes pretty much useless without a complete rebuild, in early July while at work.
- A '94 Mazda Protege is aquired to replace the '87 Nissan Sentra in hopes that maybe the third time is indeed, a charm.
- The alternator belt on the '94 Mazda Protege dissapears while I'm at work, and it is then determined that I have absolutely no luck with vehicles. For a detailed account of this Click Here
- I promptly take the '94 Mazda Protege back to the local Ford Dealership where it was purchased, and make use of the handy 30 day warrenty on used vehicles.

And that, my friends, is a recap of my life for the past 8 months. Some more info might be found at my new web site, Ginnsu. You know what's cool? I own the domain aRCee.ca. BOOYA!

Take care all.

Ginnsu (aka: Chris Hughan)

Don't even bother putting any of the following links (besides http://rks.no-ip.com/ but that'll just take you back to Saunders Server root) in your address bar. I checked them out and they are all one of those crappy search portals that take over multiple domains to generate hits. All of them end up at the http://www.uchase.com/ portal site.

Recent Referers: 2004-07-16 01:06
Target	Referer Host	Referer Path
http://rks.no-ip.com/	http://www.investment4cashiers.com/	http://www.investment4cashiers.com/
http://rks.no-ip.com/	http://www.flowershopentertainment.com/	http://www.flowershopentertainment.com/
http://rks.no-ip.com/	http://www.wordfilebooklets.com/	http://www.wordfilebooklets.com/
http://rks.no-ip.com/	http://www.midnightlaundries.com/	http://www.midnightlaundries.com/
http://rks.no-ip.com/	http://www.yuppieslovestocks.com/	http://www.yuppieslovestocks.com/

I did some security work. It was nifty. I was guarding a helicopter. I made a bunch of money on it, but I haven't heard from them for a while, no biggie.

I've been at the Pizzarama a lot the past week, Joe and Minoo, my boss and his wife, went to Vancouver for a wedding. While they were gone, I wasn't scheduled for a lot of hours, but I decided to hang out at the store and help out where I could anyway. I'd like to think I made things easier on the cooks at least, if not the delivery guys.

Also, I'm kind of addressing the thing Ginnsu mentioned in his last post there, about all those references. I looked through my hit logs, and found out that all those hits are coming from the same IP, just different hosts. So I decided to email the people at this UChase.com and tell them to cut it out. Here's the email:



And that's it.

As some of you probably know, much of the functionality of this server is because of a script language called PHP. It's a powerful little tool Rob and I use to design many things such as command line tools, text parsing and altering scripts, IRC bots, etc. Not just web pages. All of this is about to become a bit more feasable, portable, and powerful with the long awaited release of PHP 5. The most anticipated feature being the ability to compile PHP script into executable programs. I expect Rob and I should have a lot of fun with this, and you might see some new features on this site and my site, due to PHP 5's expanded functionality. Things will possibly get a little more complicated as well, scripts might break, and site features might need to be re-coded. So bare with us, as we destroy and rebuild.

July 17th, 1:00am sometime, I finally got pulled over for speeding. I speed all over the place, I don't consider it dangerous, everybody does it, it's rather common here. But I got caught this time.
Here's how it went.
My sister asked if we could go for a drive. I was feeling kinda down, and driving always cheers me up, so I said okay.
So she, her boyfriend, and I, pile into the car and take off. Now, I only intended on going as far as Onion Lake (about halfway to Terrace) considering it was like 11:30-12:00 midnight, but when we got to Onion Lake I didn't stop, and just kept going. So we go all the way to Terrace, and I fill up on gas, and get some snacks and shit, and we turn around and are heading back.
As I'm going up a hill, there are two semis in front of me, we're in a passing lane, so I speed up and pass them, I'm going like 115-120km/h. As I crest the hill, I take my foot off the gas, and let it coast down the otherside. I see two sets of headlights coming towards me, but, no biggy, they seem like they're going pretty fast, they're just people in a hurry to get home, like me. Then BAM, red and blue lights, from both of them. Shit. It's the cops.
So I pull over, and the cops pull around into my lane and up behind me. Both semis pass, along with about 5 other vehicles I'd passed, all probably laughing their asses off at me.
So the cop comes up to the window.
"Do you know why I pulled you over?" He says.
"Yeah, I was going to fast," I replied dejectedly.
"That's right. Do you know how fast you're supposed to be going?"
"I guess I was supposed to be going 100."
"That's right. Do you know how fast you were going?"
"115?" I asked, hopefully.
"Little higher."
"120?"
"Little higher."
"I was going faster than 120?"
"Yup, I clocked you at 125km/h."
"Wow..." I was surprised, I didn't realize I was going that fast.
So he grabbed my licence, and my insurance, and he's looking over it. He asked me where I worked, how much I make, which isn't much, then asked, "Do you know what the fine is for what you were doing?"
"No, I haven't a clue," I replied.
"Oh yeah, is this your first ticket?"
"Yeah, I've never been pulled over before," regardless of what I've told other people, but that's another story...
"Okay, well the fine is $196.00. Because you weren't speeding excessively."
"Oh man, really? What's excessive?"
"Excessive would be 40 km over the limit. But yeah it's expensive, eh? Hang on a sec, I'll be right back," and he headed back to his car.
So now I'm thinking, well maybe he'll go easy on me. My first time getting pulled over, he knows I don't make much, he'll let me off with a warning, right? Wrong.
So he comes back, tells me that if I pay the ticket within 30 days I get $25.00 off. Great. So I only have to pay $171.00.
So for the most part I was determined to dispute it, I read the back of the ticket with the instructions on how/what to do everything like 10 times, and finally decided to do something today. So I went down to my government agent's office to ask them about it. The lady there grabbed the ticket and started fiddling with the computer, so I asked, "So how do I dispute this?"
She stopped typing, "Oh you want to dispute it? Well then you can't pay it. If you want to dispute it, you have to go to the office in Terrace."
"Oh..."
"Yeah, and then you'll have to go back to Terrace for a court hearing. But if you pay it now you get $25 off."
"Okay.. can I pay for it here then?"
"Yup, cash, check, debit."
"Well, I have my bank card, I guess I'll use that."
So I did.
So now it's all cleared away. I don't have it hanging over my head anymore, sure I'm $170 poorer, but that's what I get for speeding. I also told my dad, I was hiding it from him at first, I wanted to wait til I got it all sorted out one way or the other, but now he knows, so I don't have to worry about him finding out from some other source.

Question: Should I scan the ticket and post a picture?

So the moral of the story?
Don't speed. Unless you're sure there are no cops around. Or maybe if you can safely do it within a large line of traffic, no cop is gonna pull over 10 speeding cars.

Also, HAPY BRAITHDAYA GUINNSUUUU!@#$$$$%^^^^^^^^^^^^

Yesterday at around 6am I believe, Telus, my internet service provider, decided to take action against all the people running webservers that weren't paying for a server hosting package. They blocked port 80. This means that the server is severely buggered, because while the No-IP service I use can do redirects, they don't work the same way. It basically redirects anyone going to http://rks.no-ip.com to http://MYIPADDRESS:8008 which fucks some shit up, but I can't talk about it now cus I just got called into work.

I'll clear more up later.

Look at this. If you use this Starware search, then my site is the first result for "raping highschool girls"

(Don't look at me, it was someone with the IP 67.160.213.194 that went searching for crap like that)


Edit:
Oh yeah, I was supposed to update you on the status of the server. Well here goes.

As it stands, the server will remain running, but I'm stuck with the redirect for now. Hopefully this will be only a temporary solution. I'm looking into possibly switching ISP's, because I checked out what I'd have to do with Telus to keep my server running properly, and their FAQ states this:

Can I run my own Web, FTP, mail or similar server at home or in my office?

Yes, you can, if you are using the Velocity 2.5 Server or 4.0 Server package. Note, however, that data connection traffic limits apply to such services. 2.5 Server: 8 GB per month download, 4 GB per month upload. 4.0 Server: 10 GB per month download, 5 GB per month upload.
Quoted from here

That seems reasonable, right? Until you see the price. The "TELUS high speed Server 2.5" package, is $84.95/month, the 4.0 package is even higher, at $154.95/month. That would kind of make sense if I had some kind of crazy bandwidth eating machine running, but I don't believe my server generates all that much traffic, I know it certainly doesn't generate me any money. I don't have the cash for a service like that, I'm almost literally broke, I have $72 in the bank, and I'm going to be spending $50 of that today, $67 if I'm lucky... but that's another story.

So anyway, I started talking to a friend today, who I assumed was also on Telus, thinking we could rant about them together, but then I find out he's with Uniserve. So after asking him how they are and checking out their prices and such, I discover that not only are they cheaper, but their services, at least in writing, are better! I mean, look at this:

Account includes:
20 dial-up hours for back-up
3 email boxes
10MB personal webspace
2 dynamic IP addresses
Server operation permitted
6GB traffic
free email virus protection

Notice the italicization? I certainly want to switch. The only hassles I see are losing our Telus email addresses, and the potential downtime between switching providers. Oh, and actually convincing my dad to switch. That's going to be a big hassle right there. But I'm hoping that with some subtle hints and sly maneuvering, I'll be able to get him to see it my way. Plus if I handle everything aside from the actual payment, then he doesn't have anything to worry about except a less expensive bill every month.

Off topic, but pertaining to something I said earlier. I'm going for my class 5 driver's test today, I've posted before about how the BC graduated licencing system works, so I won't go into details here, but suffice to say, if I pass, I'll be very happy. The only downside is that the test itself costs $50 to take, and, if I pass, getting my licence updated will be another $17. That's what I was getting at earlier about the $67.
That happens today at 2pm, just a little more than 2 hours from now actually, so wish me luck!

Rob.

I have been gone so long, the people I once knew have forgotten who I am, and there are too many damned new people who bloody well don't know why it is I propped myself upon a pedestal and spat down on them after they asked me retarded questions, such as "who the hell are you?" and "why are you hurting me?". That's right, I'm back, and I'm mad as hell. At my insurance company anyways. They billed me $1674.54 this month. Can you believe that? Sheesh. Who'd have known purposely running over pedestrians in order to collect points would raise your insurance premiums.

I have a job now too. I work at Wal-Mart store #3596 in Los Lunas, New Mexico, selling video games to angry 9 year olds who cry to their parents until they buy their god damned pokemon (is it just me or are kids these days more terribly spoiled than ever?).

So umm... What's new with the Saunderses and Hughans...es? A little bird told me that them guys aren't gonna be around OverClocked ReMix anymore. I'm guessing it has something to do with djp's hostile takeover and the random distribution of power to angsty 12 year olds with ADD. Or maybe someone farted. More likely a combination of the two, eh?

ANYWAYS. Totally like respond to this message and tell me how much you hate me because I'm beautiful.

Kthx,
Ty "Suzumebachi" Guenley
samuraihornet@yahoo.com

Buy this shirt!

You know... if you want...

And sorry for the FTP not working for some people, I haven't got a clue why it doesn't work though. Anybody have any ideas?

Hopefully I'll be able to convince my parents to switch to Uniserve for our ISP.

It would appear the shutdown of this server is quite imminent. My parents were in a big argument last night and this morning and it appears my dad has moved out. He claims that he will be cancelling TV and internet on Monday. This is perhaps goodbye.

Rob

Update: My dad is back, my parents are going to try and work things out, guess the internet and everything is sticking around for a while.

So, I awoke to some pretty horrible news today: My aunt supposedly had a heart attack and was in the hospital. My parents went to see how she was doing. A few hours later they came home and told me she was gone. She had collapsed this morning at around 4 AM and when the ambulance arrived 2-3 minutes later, they pronounced her clinically dead. They were able to resuscitate her but she was without oxygen for 45 minutes or more, so brain damage was very likely. There was no apparent brain activity, her pulse was virtually nonexistant and her breathing kept up only by machine.

My parents went back at around 5 PM to check how she was doing and returned a little under an hour ago (around 7:45). Apparently, about an hour after they left her the first time, she started to stabilize. Her pulse strengthened a bit, she's sporadically breathing on her own, and apparently she even opened her eyes, wide, momentarily. The doctor isn't sure if it's because she's aware of what's going on and she's recovering, or if it's just a nerve reaction from the medication. They are going to send her to a hospital in Prince George to do some more tests. I'm not religious myself, but we're all hoping for some kind of miracle at this point.

This is about the best I can manage right now, if anything is left out I'll try and clarify later.

Rob.

**********
There is an update to this post.
**********

To appraise yourself of the situation please read the previous news post.

Once in Prince George, the hospital performed a CAT scan on my aunt, it was determined that she had only a small amount of brain activity, not even enough to keep her heart beating. So yesterday, at about 9 PM, my aunt was taken off the respirator and the drugs keeping her heart going were stopped. She didn't survive.

We're still not sure exactly what happened to her in the first place, but an autopsy is going to be performed. Apparently because she and my uncle were going through a divorce he has automatically become suspect. I can't imagine how that must be for him. There are also some horrible rumours going around about the cause of death that my uncle hopes the autopsy will put a rest to.

A viewing of the body is planned, sometime after Monday when some other relatives can get into town. I chose not to go visit her in the hospital because I didn't want to ruin my good memories of her by seeing her kept alive only by being hooked up to a myriad of machines. My mother said that it wasn't her laying on that bed anyway, it was just her body, my aunt was gone from the beginning. I believe I will go to the viewing though. I haven't seen her in so long... why didn't I visit her when she asked me to. I just kept putting it off... and now it's too late. I feel I have to go the viewing, to say goodbye at least. I know that it won't be her that I'm saying goodbye to, but I have to do something.

Thanks for the support everybody, I appreciate it all.

**********
Update:

The viewing is this Thursday, and funeral has been finalized to Saturday. And again, thanks for your support everyone, both here, in person, and on the instant messengers.

First off, my condolences to the Saunders family. It's hard to follow up a post like that. But I felt the site needed some of my absolute nonsense in order to break up the somber mood. So here I am! Tadaaaa! Hey, you're not laughing.. you're not even clap--HEY STOP THROWING TOMATOES AT ME, WHAT DID THE TOMATOES EVER DO TO YOU??

So I told you all I work at Wal-Mart now right? Let me tell you something about Wal-Mart. It sucks. Ok you already knew that. Let me tell you something else. It sucks more than you could ever imagine. I feel sorry for the people who start working there, and next thing they know, it's 10 years later and they're still working there, and they haven't made it past the glorified cart pusher position. I think that would make a good case for some psychotherapy. Or just hang yourself and blame it on the kids. Damn kids. Always getting in my way. AND NO IM NOT WEARING A HALLOWEEN COSTUME YOU LITTLE SHITS. IT'S CALLED A SCRAGGLY BEARD AND SOME REALLY MESSY HAIR. DAMNIT I AM NOT A CAVE MAN!!!!! umm... Anyways my German is terrible. In fact I'm pretty sure it's not German. I make up 90% of it anyways. Same with my Spanish. Dealing with customers in Spanish for me is always interesting. Because I learned like Spanish Spanish, not Mexican Spanish. They're trying to tell me, "Sir, I need a new DVD recorder because my other one burned out!" and what I'm hearing is "HEY MAN, MY OUTBOARD BOAT MOTOR IS FROZEN IN PICKLE JUICE AND I NEED YOU TO VACUUM THE TIRE IRON!"

I'm also completely drowned in noise from the moment I get to work to the moment I leave. Especially in the electronics department. There's the endless pages where it sounds like some heavy set asshole can't stop breathing on the god damn reciever, the store radio, and the mindless bullshit that customers are constantly spewing at one another, which is common throughout the store. In electronics however, we also have 25 TVs set on 8 different channels, 6 different home theater displays with different content, 8 of those damn dealies where you scan the CDs and play tracks from them, 12 different shelf stereo systems, 7 CD players, 6 Alarm clocks, 5 video game systems, 4 working cell phone displays, 3 satellite radios, 2 talking computers in the photo department, and a partridge in a pear tree. My head is ready to explode at the end of the day. But I got a 40 cent raise! Thank Wal-Mart and their endless generosity... in case you couldn't tell that was sarcasm. They can take their 40 cents and shove it.

I hope to be getting a new job soon. Eclipse Aviation in Albuquerque, NM. They got a plentitude of well paying jobs. It's worth a shot.

Beats the shit out of catering to whiney ass 9 year old pokemon nerds.

Until next time...

This is the fourth flash episode in the 8-Bit Theater flashed series. Join in the hilarity of it all by watching 8-bit Theater 4. Oh, and TLF reminds you all "vote teh fiev!"

So, in case you didn't know, today is Rob's Brithday. He's the site owner and head administrator of this site. So, uh... be nice and wish him a very happy birthday. There is also something else that's fairly huge and important going on today, probably somewhere south of the border, so it's probably lame. So wish Rob a happy birthday! Then you can let me know what that thing is you crazy Americans are doing south of the border that's... so lame.

It's not often I come across content that is truely worth posting here. Infact compaired to this post, all the rest of my posts are completely worthless. Rob will most definatly appreciate this. Check this out! Transformers!... anyone?

So I have this idea. Possibly the best idea ever. What idea is this, might you ask? I shall tell you my idea, but DO NOT STEAL IT, for it is mine, and mine it shall be.

I was walkin' home from Walmart, and I was thinkin'. "Man, I wonder if the VGMix newsletter is ever going to come out..." and then I thought to myself, "Man...Larry should start a news letter. That'd be awesome. When he can't do the show anymore, he can do the news letter and give everyone the heads up on what's goin' on in the community." but then I thought "But how the hell do you even do a news letter? That'd probably be kinda complicated. Why not just make a website? YEA! A website. With information from all the sites! Yea, a community central information site. With non-biased reviews and updates on good songs at VGMix, maybe bi weekly reviews of what goes up over at OCR. Information about new projects or albums. Every once and awhile maybe a game soundtrack or game review. Man this site would be fricken awesome. All my VGM community informaiton IN ONE FRICKEN PLACE. Kinda like a slashdot for the community. Where news posts go up, people can reply to'em and leave comments...but not forums...we have too many and forums breed trolls :o"

So anyway I got home and started PMing important people that I KNEW would have to be involved if this site was gonna go anywhere...

So I PM'd Larry, zircon, Mythril Nazgul, obligatory disciplining percy (Garian, Suzu, Dragonlord). Garian sent the info to mv. Myth said I should PM endblink.

I'll probably make the forum posts on all the sites soon, but I just wanna hit the important people first before I through it to the sharks, ya'know?

So what do ya say Saunders server people, you want in? :o

So it's happening again, as if it ever stopped. Parents are arguing. Mom has friends that she likes to talk to online, and Dad just doesn't seem to care. Granted, I believe that Mom doesn't need to be on as often or as long as she is, but Dad takes it to extremes. So the outcome of this argument, besides lots of yelling, is that Dad is, "Cutting off the internet on Monday!" Granted again, he has made this threat before and failed to carry it out. But Mom just came and told me that I should go say my goodbyes because she actually thinks he might do it this time.
It's kind of ironic (?) that I'm even writing this post, seeing as this site is running off our home computer, because if the internet is cut off on Monday then nobody who didn't read this will even know what happened. I don't really know what to do, I don't feel like mass-messaging people on my contact list to tell them, "I might not be able to talk to you after Monday." Especially since the threat has occurred before but nothing happened. If I start telling everyone I'm gone on Monday and then I'm still here, again, I'm going to look like the little boy who cried wolf.
I guess it doesn't really matter though, I'm online, and talking, so rarely now that it hardly seems like I'll miss it. I know I will. I won't just be able to pop online and look something up, or check out new programs, or find out what's happening with my "online" friends.
Anyway, I guess there's not really much else to say. Maybe I'll link a few people to this post. Or maybe I'll put a link to it in my away message on Trillian.
Either way, for the people that see it, it's just a heads up.

Or something...
So as you might have noticed, the site is still up, I'm still online, etc. We still have internet (yay!) and Mom and Dad are not parting ways (yay!). So we got some extended family involved (aunt, uncle, and their daughter and her husband) and a big family meeting kinda thing. We (the kids) left Mom and Dad over at their place one night to talk things through, and a couple days later, we all piled into the livingroom at our house to have the full family talk. Things were addressed that each of us needs to do if we're going to pull the family through all this. Most of it we all agreed with, some of it not so much, but overall it made sense. I'm happy at where we are now and, if all goes well, where we're going. Dad will try and be more understanding and supportive of us all instead of hollering at us all the time, and we'll try and be more respectful and responsible.

So to sum up, things are going better.

So one day I'm gonna land a rocketship on the sun!

They never did it before, or never gave us a place to check, but my Mom notified me today that now they are.
This is what they have listed for last month's usage:

So yeah... apparently they aren't enforcing overages until April, so we're in the clear for now. But we're going to keep an eye on it, and if it seems like the server is sucking up too much bandwidth (although I kinda doubt it, I don't have that much to offer) I'll have to disable some stuff, cut it down to a barebones site.

Later.

So until I get some time to rebuild the site to be more bandwidth efficient, or
our bandwidth consumption issues are resolved, I'll be using other sites to host
images and files, like all the images in the nifty wallpaper section below.
Later I'll put it on it's own page, but I'm being kicked off the computer right now.

Put the wallpaper in it's own page. Less file loadingness on this page now.
At the moment this page is just a bunch of text. Looks like about 3kb at the most.
More stuff later. Maybe.

Moved stuff around, played with some PHP, page is a little more streamlined now.

Added an Applications page. It hosts my two most recent
programs created with AutoIt.
Also, I just realized this site isn't centered in Mozilla. I'll have to figure
out why and fix that. Right now I'm off to work.

Well, I got the call from Roger yesterday, it's been confirmed by him. The hospital
is coming down tomorrow morning. Not sure when exactly, but we're to convene at a place
across the street at 4:30am. This was originally supposed to happen last Sunday (July 24th)
but apparently the explosives were held up at the US/Canada border. Who would have thought
it'd be difficult to transfer explosives from one country to another, especially when one
of those countries is the US. ;)

Anyway, I will be bringing the video camera. I was hesitant at first thinking that a
security guard walking around with a video camera would look silly, but then Roger pointed
out that a video camera is an extremely useful piece of equipment for a guard to have.
It's so obvious I don't know why I didn't realize. If you catch somebody doing something they
shouldn't be, you've got hardcore evidence right there.

Foreword: This is a long (read: loooooong) post, so you might want some popcorn or something
to drink if you intend on reading the whole damn thing. It just goes on and on, like the goddamned
energizer bunny or something. The fact that I added this to the beginning doesn't help either, so
I'll just let you get at it.

To start: Holy. Shit. So, yesterday the implosion happens. It all went well, I'm still in
one piece, as is everybody, except, well, the hospital. I was posted to a position I wasn't
exactly thrilled with, seeing as I had the video camera with me, and about 30 meters of trees
were blocking my view of the hospital (I was to ensure nobody went cavorting through the bush
for a close up view of the blast). So I managed to call my parents to zip up and grab the camera
from me in hopes they could get it on film. That all went off without a hitch. The hospital
went boom, well, several booms actually, and they caught it on the camera.

Now for the problem.

I get home from the blast, it's like 8am. I stay up for a while, but then get a call to
inform me I'm needed for work that night (Telus is on strike, and I get to guard the building
from midnight til 8am). So I decide to go to bed. I get some sleep, that's all good. I get up
and decide I'll try and put that video on the computer. So I hitch up the camera to the firewire
plug it in, open up Windows Movie Maker (WMM), and hit capture video. Then I get an error. "Class not
registered" it says. Okay then.. try a couple things, nothing works, so I pop open Google, search
up "Class not registered" and find it's not an uncommon problem (which is a rarity for me, more
often then not it seems I have a problem that NOBODY has ever experienced before). So one thing
mentions re-registering qvd.dll, or something similar. So I give it a try. Try WMM again, and nothing.
Okay, well duh, I left the program open, gotta close and reopen. So I close the program and BAM!
Blue screen error (these are uncommon [for me] in Windows XP, but always fatal). So I restart
the computer. And it's going reaaaalllyyy sllllooowwww. Then I have trouble logging in, then once I'm
logged in, it's still slow, then I try and access the G:\ drive (my personal harddrive, 80gb and
it's mine all mine, bwahaha!) and... it fails.

Uh.. shit?

I'd opened the Command Prompt and just tried to get to the drive typing G:. It had hung
for a bit and then returned something to the effect of "The semaphore timeout period has expired."
Uh.. WTF? So I end up disconnecting that drive, and things are running peachy (with the exception that
my drive is unavailable.. of course). So I hit up Google again, this time for "Semaphore timeout."
I read through several things, nothing especially heartwarming. Especially this page.
There is a quote from someone named curtybob who describes the following:

Now I don't know about you, but the idea of anything digging into the surface of my hard
disc does NOT entice me. I have a feeling that's bad for the data, and at this point I'm thinking my hard
drive just turned into an expensive paperweight.

So anyway, I have to get ready for work, because by this time it's 10:30, and I have to be in Terrace
(45-50min drive) by 12. Preferably a little earlier to be briefed on the particulars of the situation and
just 'cus it's a courtesy (would you believe I had to look up that word?) to the other guard on shift.
Not to mention I was about to start breaking things, and seeing as the computer was the closest object, I
figured I should vacate myself from the area.

Fast forward to today (the security shift went well, only got called a scab once, whoo).

I sleep til 4.. I think.. can't remember. I'm woken up by my brother, who didn't realize that I was
up until 9am, and he figured I should be getting up. I told him why I was tired and he left me alone.
But not before mentioning a wonderful little gem of information that had to do with my uncle, though
I loathe to call him that, spending our inheritance. The whole works! This has a lot to do with stuff
that happened months ago (aunt passed away, bank trusts in her name became his assets, then he
got fired from his job, etc, I'll clear it up later), but to sum it up: We each (myself, my 3 siblings,
and my aunt's 3 children) had $1,000 put in trust in our name (but primarily my aunt's I guess, hence
how they became his) when our grandmother passed away. These trusts were unable to be touched
by us until we turned 21 (I turned 21 a while ago, but left the money in trust for the sake of the
interest. I didn't need the money yet, so why not let it keep earning). When my aunt passed away in
September, all that money became his. Even mine. Even though I was old enough that I was able
to withdraw every penny had I taken the opportunity. It still became his. And now it's gone. I don't
know what's going to happen now. It was my dad who talked to him, and apparently he was so angry,
he was afraid to stick around to get any particulars as he didn't trust himself to not beat the crap out
of him. I was half tempted to drive up to his place and start busting shit up. Really tempted.
And if you know the kind of person I am, I'm not usually like that, I'm admittedly a big puss. So there
was nothing I could do at the time, and to try and curb my rage I just put it out of my mind and went back
at the computer (which is ironic because I was so angry with the computer yesterday).

Anyway, to make a long (loooong) story a little, uh, less long (Since it's by no means short at this
point [Not that my breaking off like this makes it any shorter (There I go again!)]) I tried the hard
drive on another IDE cable and it worked. So I was able to attribute it to the ATA/RAID slot that I had
the HD on, and after frigging around with getting new drivers, panicking at a "Delayed Write Failed" error
message I kept getting, and then swapping some cables, I got the thing working. The drive letter had switched
with the DVD-ROM, but that was easily fixed. So now my HD is working again (Hurrah!), I don't seem to have
lost any of my files, and all is well. But needless to say, I'm now afraid to even try and put that video
on here. Just what I'd need is to do this all over again.

Pictures concerning the following story found here.

Well, let's start where most stories start, from the beginning, Sunday, August 14, 2005.

It's Sunday morning, and I've just finished a security shift guarding the Telus compound in Terrace, the shift was from midnight to 8am. So I drive home, which takes about 45 minutes. I get home at about 9am, after watering some plants for a friend who is out of town. I go right to bed because I have to work at the pizzaria from 4:30 to 8pm, and after that I'm back out to Terrace for security again. I fell asleep around 9:30am and I wake up at about 2pm. I'd planned to sleep right til 4pm so I stay in bed for another 30 minutes before giving up. It's just too warm and too bright to sleep. That's 4.5 hours of sleep, not good, but I'm not really feeling tired, so I don't think anything of it. So I get up and do some stuff around the house, on the computer, etc. Just killing time until I have to go to work. So at 4:15pm I head up to the pizza place.

Work went well, even made some decent tip if I remember correctly, and I get home at about 8:30pm. Since I have to leave at 11pm to get to Terrace for work on time (giving myself a 15 minute leeway in case something happens) I figure it's not worth it trying to get some sleep, since I probably won't fall asleep anyway, and even if I do, it'd only be like 2 hours, and that's if I fall asleep right away. I'm not feeling so bad, so I just shrug it off.

So 10:45pm arrives and I take off for the pizzaria since I'd ordered some food for work. I stay and talk for a bit, and I'm out of town by 11pm. The drive is not fun, I'm just starting to get tired and I'm squinting at opposing traffic a lot, which makes me tired. I roll on into Terrace at about 11:40, and I'm at the compound in another 5 minutes. I talk to the guard on duty until midnight and then I'm alone. The shift itself goes well, except that I'm having a hell of a time staying awake. 8 hours later, the other guard comes to relieve me and I take off.

I get through Terrace fine, and head out on the highway. When I hit the 100kph sign, I put the cruise control on, so that I can focus on steering. I'm thinking that as tired as I am, if I can concentrate solely on steering instead of dividing my attention into speed as well, I should be okay. In hindsight it sounds stupid, but I was tired enough at the time that it sounded logical. So I'm cruising down the highway, having a hard time keeping my eyes open, and I get to the bottom of Onion Lake hill, it's about 8:15am. There's a pull off at the bottom, and for a moment I consider stopping there and taking a nap or something. "Nah I'll be okay," I think to myself. "If I get much worse I'll pull over at the next stop." From there, the road has a soft "S" curve. It veers left, then right, then goes left again. I remember starting the first left turn, and then I only seemed to blink, and I was in the gravel shoulder on the right side of the road, I later found that I'd made it through the first left, and the right turn, and gone off the road on the third left. I'm not sure what's going on, or why, but I hit the brakes and turn back towards the road, thinking everything will be fine, but it's like I'm pulled right off the road. Now, as clich? as it sounds, the next part is just a blur. I remember bouncing up and down as I crashed through the bush, like when you go down a pot-holed road too fast, and then it was over. The car had come to a stop.

There were trees and brush in front of me, and to either side. There was a small tree, the diameter of the trunk at least 5 inches, laying on the hood. The car was still running, Rammstein's Sonne blaring through the speakers, so I shut it off. I felt fine, my leg hurt, I must have banged it, but otherwise I didn't have a headache, I wasn't dizzy, and nothing felt broken, so I decided to get out. I tried the driver's side door, it wouldn't open, it felt blocked. I tried the passenger side door, it wouldn't budge. The window was gone so I tried to climb out, but the tree on the hood was in the way, and I didn't feel like I would fit anyway. I climbed in the back seat and tried the passenger side door there, it wouldn't move in the slightest, so I tried the driver's side and, amazingly, it opened without a problem. I climbed out of the car and looked at it briefly. The driver's side didn't look so bad. The only reason the door wouldn't open was because of a tree in the way, it didn't even look too badly dented. I walked around the back, since the front was enclosed with brush, it looked fine, nothing broken. I get to the passenger side and it's a disaster. The rear wheel is sitting at a 45 degree angle, the front door is caved in, the window smashed out. The back door is fine, the window isn't even cracked, but the exterior panelling, the virtual skin of the door, is ripped off, hanging on by only the tiniest shred of plastic, exposing the mechanisms for locking the door and opening the window. Knowing there's nothing I can do about it, I climb up the embankment to the highway. I look down at the car, where it's sitting it's perpendicular to the highway. It looks like as I was driving along I stopped, made a hard right turn and drove off into the bush. I'm so frazzled I don't even remember how I went off the road and I start trying to discern how I could have accomplished parking my car in such a manner without damaging the bush leading directly off the road. Then I hear a vehicle coming, so I stumble into the middle of the road, ready to flag them down.

A minivan comes over the top of the hill, I wave my arms and get them to stop. It's the owners of a local business, I recognize them even if they don't recognize me. The man, Ken, offers me the use of his cell phone, and holds out a handful of tissue.

"What's this for?" I ask.

Ken replies, "Your head.. it's bleeding."

I reach up with my fingers, brushing my forehead, and sure enough there was blood. So I accept the tissues and wipe my head. That's when I notice a bit of blood on my arms as well. None of the bleeding was major, it appeared to have already stopped, I'm guessing it was only from the glass shards from the broken window.

I don't know who to call, I would normally call my Dad, but he was out camping, so I decide to call my security supervisor, Roger. So Ken asks for his number and dials him up. After a bit of moving around to get a better reception, we get through.

Roger answers, and I reply, "Hey Roger, I uh.. my car just.. went off the road."

"Oh my gosh, are you all right?" He asks worriedly.

"Yeah actually, I feel fine."

"Oh good. Okay, what do you need me to do?"

I can't even think. I stutter and mumble into the phone until Ken says, "Tell him to call you a tow truck."

My thoughts fall into place, "Yeah, that's right. Could you call me a tow truck? I'm part way up Onion Lake hill, on the Terrace side."

"Yeah of course I can do that," he says, then I say goodbye, and thanks, and we hang up.

Now, while I had been on the phone, another two vehicles had stopped, between them three women got out and asked what was wrong. Ken, his wife and I explained the situation. When I looked at the women I worried for a moment why my vision was so blurry, then I realized my glasses had come off, so I climbed back down to the car and found them on the floor on the passenger side, I grabbed my hat as well since it was starting to rain. When I came back to the group Ken and his wife were just explaining that they were on their way to catch a flight, they asked the women if they would mind staying with me until the tow arrived, they didn't have a problem with that. I thanked them for stopping and letting me use their phone, and said goodbye, then they left.

So we're standing on the side of the road, waiting for the tow truck. All three women are friends and so they talk amongst eachother, and ask me questions every now and then about who I am, what I do, etc. I learn two of their names, Debbie and Julia, the two who were riding together. I never caught the other lady's name. I actually recognized Julia from the hospital where I've guarded patients before. At one point when they were talking to eachother, I crossed the road just to have another look at the car, Julia followed me. I climbed down the embankment, inspecting the wreck, she climbs down as well. I lean inside the car, just looking around, not really taking notice of anything though. Julia is looking at the car and expressing her confusion as to how I got my car where it was without leaving any significant marks on the edge of the road.

Then she points down at some churned up dirt in the brush, a skid mark from the car, and points down the road, "It looks like you skidded in here from that direction." She walks through the brush parallel to the road, "You did, you flew through all this brush." She points at a chunk of black plastic, "Look, here's part of your wheel well, and here's one of your wiper blades," continuing through the brush, "and here's more of your wheel well." She stops, "Dude, this is where you went off the road. Look, here are the tire tracks!" She pauses, and looks back at where the car is from where we're now standing, probably a good 50 feet away. "Wow, you're really lucky."

But all I could think about was how my Dad would react. After all, the car wasn't actually mine, it was his. Sure I probably would have gotten it when I left home, but in the meantime he was teaching my sisters to drive with it, and we all liked the car. It was a nice vehicle, good power, pretty good mileage, comfortable, virtually rust free, and we'd only had it a few months.

Eventually, at about 9am, a Pronto tow truck arrived. When the guy looked at the car he told me it'd probably be a write-off. Unfortunately, we only had liability insurance on it, no collision, so it didn't matter, we couldn't make an ICBC claim anyway. He had to take it back to Terrace to his impound lot, so the two girls who had been riding together gave me a ride into Kitimat. I hated inconveniencing them like that, as they were on their way to work in Terrace, but they replied they didn't mind and that they hadn't been looking forward to work anyway. I'd given them the perfect excuse to be late. Yay for me.

They dropped me off at home, telling me to go to the hospital and get myself checked over. I went inside, and told my sister, the only person home, what happened. She asked if I want her to come with me when I go to the hospital, and I figured it might be a good idea. Who knows if I have some weird head trauma, and half way to the hospital I could fall down and go into conniptions or something. But I didn't. Left for the hospital around 10am, and got there without a hitch. They looked me over and asked me some questions, put some ice on my sore leg as it was starting to swell, told me to watch out for certain signs, but otherwise there was nothing they could do. Sometimes the symptoms of whiplash, or whatever else can happen, don't show up for 72 hours, they said. The doctor gave my sister, who she assumed was my girlfriend, that was weird, a sheet with stuff to watch out for. She said the symptoms sounded like a drunk: Dizzy, unsteady, vomiting, unusual behaviour, etc. So they sent me home at about 12pm, lunchtime, and they told me to get some sleep, so I when I got home I tried, but to no avail. Remember, at this point I've been up since 2pm, Sunday afternoon. It's now 12pm, Monday afternoon, 22 hours later and of course now I'm not a bit tired. It was like one friend joked when I was telling the story to him, "Sleep?! I'm never sleeping again!"

I'm laying in bed, trying to sleep, when I decide it's a lost cause. I just have too much running through my head. So I pulled out a binder with some paper, and began writing down my thoughts. That's what this writing started as. I wanted to write down everything I remembered, because I was afraid I'd forget details otherwise. At about 1:30pm, my parents came home. I decided to face the problem head on. I was nervous, but otherwise fine. I was actually surprised by that. Throughout the whole morning, the only emotion I'd felt to any degree had been anger. I was really mad at myself for letting this whole thing happen, but I hadn't been scared, upset, sad, anything. Even when I was crashing through the brush I was more confused and calm than panicking. So anyway, Dad's pulling the trailer up onto the lawn, and I go stand outside and wait for them. Mom gets out of the truck and is walking over to me.

"Where's the car?" She asks curiously.

I try to reply, "It's.. I.. I..." and then I just start breaking up, I start to cry, and I can't figure out why.

Mom gets a look of panic on her face, "Oh my god! What happened?" She starts to cry herself.

"I'm okay," I say quickly, but then I realize what's running through my Mom's head. I'm not much of a cryer, the last time I cried openly was at my Aunt's funeral, so just imagine what Mom's thinking when she sees me breaking into tears, the car is gone, and my sister hasn't come out of the house yet. I quickly tell her, "Everyone's okay!" I'm in full blown tears by now, blubbering like a 3 year old who skinned his knee, and probably just as coherent. My Dad has gotten out of the truck by now, and I just keep saying, "Don't worry, everyone's fine." And finally I stutter through, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I had a car accident. The car is ruined."

Both my parents are hugging me fiercly, and Dad just says, "God Rob, don't worry about the car, the important thing is you're okay."

Eventually I calm down, and I'm able to tell as much as I can recall about what happened. After we go inside and we all calm down Dad figures we should go to ICBC to let them know what happened. So we go over there and they tell us that because we didn't have collision there's really not much they can do, and all we really should do is make a report with the RCMP. So the next stop is the RCMP station where I have to make a written statement. The Constable asked for as much detail as I could give. I'd kind of like to show him this when it's done, I've got a lot more detail in here than the statement I wrote there. After we finished there, Dad and I decided to go out and have a look at the car and get the rest of the stuff out of there. We also brought the camera so I could take some photos to show the rest of the family how the car had turned out.

So we drove out to Terrace, called up Pronto and got in to look at the car. It was a mess, worse than I remembered. The bumper was falling off, held on with one of those rubber bungee cords. The windshield was smashed and caved in at one corner. The doors were no worse than I remembered, except the panel that had been hanging by a thread had been torn right off and put inside, but the rear passenger side wheel was almost right off. So we hauled the stuff out of there. Dad had decided it was definitely a write-off, not worth fixing at all, so we stopped off at an auto-wreckers and described the car to him to see what we could get for it. He told us that the maximum would be about $650, but not to get our hopes up, he still had to see it for himself. So we went home. I'd gotten in touch with work, both places, before we left, and let them know I wouldn't be working for a while, so when we got home I had nothing else to do and by 8pm I decided to go to sleep, which I promptly did.

So there you have it. From 2pm Sunday afternoon, to 8pm Monday evening. 30 hours of being awake, and honestly I felt like I could stay up even longer. As I write this it's two days after the accident, and we still don't know where we stand with the car. We went out to Pronto's impound yesterday to get a few things we forgot, and the licence plates to cancel the insurance on the car. While there, the guy asked what we planned to do with the car, when I mentioned the name of the auto-wreckers we'd talked to, he told us they were cheap and wouldn't give us a good price for it, then he called someone else who came over and had a look at it. That guy asked for our number and said he would get back to us either that night, or the next morning. Well, he missed the morning, and it's now 8:30pm, so I don't think we'll hear from him. We got his number from Pronto and tried calling him, but the first time it was busy, and the second time was just voice messaging. My Dad's friend has convinced him that if we don't get a decent price from either place he'll actually get another friend of his to tow it back into town where we'll take the engine out and sell it ourselves. He figures we could get $1,000 for the engine alone (which is what the first wrecker said, but they only pay out 10% of what they think they can make on the parts, ie: if they can sell the vehicle in parts for $6,500, they'll buy the wreck for $650), and the transmission is still good too, not to mention the interior is fine, although covered with glass sprinkles. Tomorrow Dad wants me to give the second place a call and see what he's going to offer us. He's hoping for $1,000, and if he can get it, he'll let the guy have it. At the very least it will help pay for the tow job ($257, which actually wasn't bad considering where it was and everything).

We're not sure what we're going to do about another car. In the meantime I'm kind of stuck for work, Roger mentioned something about leaving the company jeep in Kitimat just so I could get out to Terrace for work, the company is short on people right now and they need people for the Telus compound, but he has to clear it with the head guy first. Until something happens though, I can't work for the pizzaria, delivering is out of the question, and the alarm calls that I normally do here in town are a no-go as well. Unless Dad's truck happens to be here, Roger will actually have to drive into Kitimat to attend the alarm himself. For his sake, I hope that doesn't happen very often. Anyway, Dad's got an appointment with the bank on Monday to see how his money is doing, and how possible it will be to get another car, but it could still be months before I'm back on the road. Hopefully things will work out.

Pictures concerning the preceding story found here.