Old
News: July 25, 2003 to August 31, 2003
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1:26
a.m. [GMT-8:00]
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31 Aug.
2003 (Sun); Post #361
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Today's
special: Justin's weekly meal schedule! (It's the same every week;
never changes unless we drag him to a restaurant.)
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Day
of the Week
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Lunch
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Dinner
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| Sunday |
Ham
& Cheese sandwich, Cheetos, Pepsi |
Two
grilled cheese sandwiches, apple sauce, Pepsi |
| Monday |
Ham
& Cheese sandwich, Cheetos, Pepsi |
Quesadilla,
peaches, milk |
| Tuesday |
Ham
& Cheese sandwich, Cheetos, Pepsi |
Steak,
macaroni & cheese, milk |
| Wednesday |
Ham
& Cheese sandwich, Cheetos, Pepsi |
Fish,
cheese sticks, peaches, milk |
| Thursday |
Ham
& Cheese sandwich, Cheetos, Pepsi |
Two
hot dogs with cheese, apple sauce, Pepsi |
| Friday |
Ham
& Cheese sandwich, Cheetos, Pepsi |
Two
slices of cheese pizza (stuffed crust), Pepsi |
| Saturday |
Two
slices of cheese pizza (stuffed crust), Pepsi |
Cheeseburger,
Pepsi |
For
snacks, Justin prefers: Goldfish crackers (extra cheesy) and fruit-punch
flavored Gatorade.
Justin
looking like... Justin. Which is to say weird and scary.
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9:48
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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28 Aug.
2003 (Thu); Post #360
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Beefy,
Hanwool, and Justin have all submitted character outlines to me
for Saturday's game. Phill, of course, will be playing his robot
character with 50 points in upgrades. Found a really informative
site about Michael Moore's "documentary," Bowling
for Columbine. Apparently, he's a dirty, dirty liar.
Finally found someone to download "Sorami Cake" by Oranges
& Lemons from. It's the opening theme song to Azumanga
Daioh. Very good, but better when you can see the video that
goes with it. There are some translated
comics floating around, but they don't do the anime justice.
I worked out some solid robot rules/ laws for my space campaign.
Also, some stuff for cyberware stigmas and laws.
Spent the entire day fixing computers. First, over at Patty's, then
at the clinic. Had a nice lunch from Mongolian Grill.
Lots of zucchini and chicken and a super-sized Coke
from McDonalds.
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6:45
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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25 Aug.
2003 (Mon); Post #359
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Been
having some stability issues with my new system. Some of this
"driver irql not less or equal" BSOD stuff. Anyway,
updated all my system drivers. Haven't had it happen again yet.
Still, it's possible that it's my virus scanner causing the
problem. If it happens again, I'll prolly switch to AVG (right
now, I'm using PC-cillin, which is my favorite). I need to move
my 40x12x40x CD-R drive into the new system, but I'm lazy.
High probability of GURPS this Saturday. Hopefully, the PCs will
decide not to wreck the campaign this time. We'll most likely
be playing the space setting again. 150 point characters. Normal
humans are expected to have the following advantages:
- Interface Jack, 10 points
- Chip Slot, 5 points
- Panimmunity Level 2, 5 points
Characters
without these advantages would be as uncommon and possibly as stigmatized
as an illiterate in modern America. Additionally, most physical
disadvantages and some mental disadvantages aren't likely to occur
since genetic engineering is so commonplace that children are routinely
cured of defects before they're born. Of course, there are ppl who
avoid any form of genetic modification, usually for religious reasons.
If they have any obviously preventable flaws, they may qualify for
some sort of social stigma. Of course, acquired flaws are
fairly common, provided they're not very easy to fix (like a missing
hand or worsening eyesight due to age).
Robot characters are allowed, but the maximum "model cost divisor"
I'll allow is 2.5x.
Keep in mind that the setting is generally TL10, but with some
more advanced biotechnology and stasis technologies and retarded
force shield, nano, and energy paralysis technologies.
Anyway, if anyone needs more information for character creation,
just contact me.
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2:46
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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24 Aug.
2003 (Sun); Post #358
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So
I turned 21 on Thursday. My parents wouldn't tell me where they
were taking me for dinner; ended up being Red Robin. But I made
them promise not to let the waiters do that stupid birthday song
thing to me (they did anyway). When I got there, a bunch of ppl
I know were already at a table. Apparently, my mom organized something
with Phill. Yadda yadda, embarrassing, decent food, dessert, etc.
(Oh yeah, for my birthday, I got a calligraphy set and book, some
sushi dinnerware and book, a wall-scroll, a Terry Pratchett book,
a bowl, and, of course, my Radeon 9800 Pro AIW video card.) After
dinner, some of us went to my house and played some games.
On Friday, I drove to my sister's house in Pullman (140 miles, according
to MapQuest) to set up her cable internet connection/ router/ computer
stuff. Took a while... couldn't get the cheapo CompUSA router and
Windows XP to work together with WEP, so ended up just wiring her
and her roommate to the dang thing with CAT5. Got home around 10:00
pm and did chores at my parents' house (they're in Seattle this
weekend for a dog show).
Saturday was our GURPS game. I'd write up a detailed summary, but
I'm kinda short on time. Here's a quick one: Everyone but Drew shows
up and Beefy joins the game. Some stuff happens, then Justin decides
to incite a mutiny against Hanwool's character. He restrains him.
For no apparent reason, Hanwool's character's long time friend,
Archer Black (Ryan) starts attacking him, punching him in the gut
again and again and again while the old man is immobilized. Things
got worse from there. They dump Rhee (Hanwool) into stasis, then
take him out and remove his gun. No one frisks him or even ties
his hands behind his back; they just wait for him to regain consciousness.
He does. Then he whips out his other blaster and starts shooting
at Duran (Justin). Duran dodges, fast-draws his gun, dives to the
ground and shoots Rhee dead in the chest. Zamwo (Phill) then decides
to open the cargo bay doors, thereby decompressing the entire ship.
Silverman (Beefy), who was working on some ship systems in the cargo
bay, is promptly sucked out into the vacuum. Black manages to grab
his vac-suit helmet and man the laser turret in time to kill Silverman.
Duran dives into the stasis sphere generator. Zamwo dons his jetpack
and flies to the communications satellite the crew was investigating.
Black then decides, for reasons beyond mortal comprehension, to
fly the ship into the atmosphere of the ice world they were orbiting
and disable the magnetic shielding on the fusion reactor, thus killing
himself and destroying an $18 million ship. Drew's character is
floating in a stasis sphere somewhere in deep space about 120 light
years from Sol. Duran is in stasis on the surface of Garet VIII,
but probably won't be found for another 50 years and may be killed
by the implosion/ pressure differences if/ when he's released.
Oy, anyway. Gonna see American Wedding at 4:45 pm at Carmike w/
Beefy. We called ppl, but no one who we could get ahold of wanted
to/ could come. If you're reading this, feel free to come, call
my cell.
Played SoC, Lunch Money, and Pictionary last night with Phill, Beefy,
and once with Sheree. Bought Scrabble when I was in Pullman.
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4:47
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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20 Aug.
2003 (Wed); Post #357
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Not
a whole lot going on. Beefy and JD came over last night and we played
Settlers of Catan (Beefy won) and Upwords (JD 150, Beefy 174, and
Me 222). Oh, I scored 5333 on 3dmark2003 on my new system (non-OCed).
Here's an amusing AIM log:
XeoBllaze: ok wtf man
XeoBllaze: I have 30sec
XeoBllaze: WTF is this thing
XeoBllaze: something has stopped
XeoBllaze: shutting down
hjo333: what are you talking about?
hjo333: omg
hjo333: i know
XeoBllaze: quit hacking
hjo333: virus!
XeoBllaze: u [omitted]
hjo333: no, you have that worm!!
...
XeoBllaze: okok
XeoBllaze: run what
XeoBllaze: 6sec
XeoBllaze signed off.
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6:31
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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17 Aug.
2003 (Sun); Post #356
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Some
things are somewhat better now. Big changes and news over at Beefy's
site. It's a little sad though; I'm going to miss my favorite
webcomic, Dots.
KIDDING! Anyway. I got this neat pagoda thing and some china-white
rock to occupy a grassless circle in my lawn (which I mowed today
at 9:00 am with the dang push-mower). Pics below. Going to Pullman
to help my sister on Friday. Prolly going down to grandparents'
in Coos Bay sometime later this month.
A little strapped for cash at the moment since I've loaned various
ppl a total of $238 and they aren't being very quick to repay me.
I'm really loving the Avant
Browser. Its automatic popup-blocking feature works great. Lots
of other great features too. The only thing that bothers me is the
way it handles scrollable drop-down combo boxes (it uses the mouse
wheel input to select items rather than actually scroll).
Definitely GURPS this coming Saturday. I'm not entirely sure which
setting yet, but there will certainly be something. I'm extremely
starved for reading materials ATM... wanted to go to the Bookworm
today, but turns out both of them are closed Sundays. I have some
Trinity (RPG) source books to tide me over 'till Monday though.
Concrete pagoda thingy.
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3:26
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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16 Aug.
2003 (Sat); Post #355
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Blah,
blah, blah... ppl were complaining that I hadn't updated my site
lately. Here's a brief rundown: I got my Radeon 9800 Pro AIW (it
works well), went to Momiji (sushi place) in Post Falls, ID on Friday
(it was very good), and finished reading Callahan's Key.
JD and Ryan are having some sort of barbecue today, but I've elected
not to go on the grounds that I'm not willing to stand around in
92° heat in east Pasco for a burger. Actually, speaking of burgers,
I got my sister to agree to buy me McDonalds if I just drive her
around and help her move a desk she's going to buy. Yay.
Once again, for what seems like the hundredth time, Justin and I
are trying to organize a GURPS game. Of course, I'm rather pessimistic
about our chances of getting ppl together; Ryan keeps declining
to come (to put it politely) and Drew and Beefy have to work a lot
on weekends. Anyway.
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3:10
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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12 Aug.
2003 (Tue); Post #354
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I got
a suit from Chong's custom tailoring today. It's really nice; a
combination of worsted wool and cashmere, gray, two pieces, cuffed
pants, single breasted. Ryan, his SO, and JD are here. I understand
Drew, Britney, and Beth are coming over soon. DDRed last night during
the Charter outage. Only slept two hours last night, so I'm little
out of it at the moment.
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8:06
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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11 Aug.
2003 (Mon); Post #353
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Not
a whole lot going on. Getting fitted for a suit tomorrow. Taking
the jet skis in for repairs on Wednesday (earliest the mechanic
could get to them). Switched keyboards on my main system; had been
using an HP SK2506U, now using a Microsoft Office keyboard.
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6:15
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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8 Aug.
2003 (Fri); Post #352
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Ordered
a Radeon 9800 Pro AIW yesterday. Hopefully, it'll be here next week.
Very happy 'bout it. Went jet skiing yesterday with Drew and JD.
Went pretty well except the SL650 crapped out on us (what a pleasure
it was to tow that in) and the 780 seems to be having some
problems with trim and bouncing. Rather exasperating since we just
got them back from the mechanic last week (with an $800 bill). I've
been doing photography stuff for a local realty company.
Something tomorrow. Not sure if we'll have enough ppl for proper
LANnage. Will make some calls. BTW, I highly recommend the movie
The Guru. Love the music in it too. Sore from jet skiing.
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5:00
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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4 Aug.
2003 (Mon); Post #351
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This
weekend was fairly entertaining. Picked up the jet skis on Thursday,
thought we'd go down to the river with them Sunday. Unfortunately,
I'm blind without my specs, so I need special "sports glasses."
(And believe me, you can't just put cords on your regular glasses;
they won't hold up to large amounts of water smashing into them
(lenses would pop out) and they'll inevitably be washed off your
head anyway. I lost an expensive pair of prescription sunglasses
that way.) Anyway, LensCrafters told me it'd cost $120 for a new
pair and I can't really justify such a frivolous expense at this
time.
But still, things went fairly well. On Saturday, Justin, Phill,
Hanwool, and I had a GURPS game (no one else elected to show up).
Justin GMed. Phill played a mechanic, Hanwool a hideously deformed
giant mountain-man, and I played a federal agent. Turned out it
was a zombie game. Went pretty well though. Afterwards, Phill and
I went over to Justin's new apartment and watched this movie called
"Terror in the Aisles."
On Sunday, Sanders (Kevin), Phill, and Justin came over and we swam.
It was fun. Phill brought his masks and snorkels. I found out that
if I lay on the bottom of the pool with a full breath of air (I
used two big bricks on my chest to keep me there) I could blow "smoke
rings" (air-filled tori). They look really amazing.
We finished swimming, Phill left, we did some CS online (we all
hopped on the same server). Then Beefy showed up and Sanders and
Justin left. Beefy and I goofed off till Ebert & Roeper came
on. Then we went to Wal-Mart and got a bunch of cheap DVDs ($5.88
each). When we got back, we watched Very Bad Things and The
Big Tease. Both were really good. The latter was really funny,
but I'm kind of a sucker for mockumentaries. I made jello.
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9:23
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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30 Jul.
2003 (Wed); Post #350
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Found
out about a supposedly great sushi restaurant through my parents'
friend Reggie Ludwig. My mom said it was called Moshi's, but it
seems she meant Momiji (the full name of the restaurant is Momiji
Red Maple). It's in Post Falls, ID, which is only about 20 minutes
from Spokane. Still trying to get a workable date from Phill, Drew,
and Hanwool. We could bring one more person if anyone wants to come
along, but they'll have to buy their own food.
Mmm, sushi.
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6:21
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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30 Jul.
2003 (Wed); Post #349
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106°
F today. Very, very hot out. Glad I did my sprinkler stuff yesterday.
I have all my computer parts now except the mobo/ CPU/ HSF from
Ceres, CA, and the case.
Been trying to arrange GURPS for Saturday. Hanwool's new setting
(roughly rooted in Chinese folklore) won't be ready for a couple
weeks yet. Most ppl have been wanting to continue either the Upsidaisium
or Theomundi games, but we've been held back by a few players who
can't or won't show up at the scheduled times. If that happens again
this week, we'll just fall back onto the space campaign and go ahead
regardless of absentees. Justin should be getting back to me tonight
with a definite roster.
Here are some pictures from the LAN party before last:
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5:34
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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27 Jul.
2003 (Sun); Post #348
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Had
a LAN party yesterday. Went pretty well. We played a lot of Warcraft
III: The Frozen Throne (everyone seems to be getting quite a bit
better at it) and some CS (fy_iceworld). Also did a little bit of
BF1942, but it doesn't work very well with 6 ppl. We played the
Battle of Britain map, where apparently the objective is for the
Germans to destroy the British radar towers, flak guns, and weapons
factory.
The jet skis have been repaired. I'll pick them up sometime this
week after I get a pair of sports glasses. Need to find my life
jacket too.
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4:07
p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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25 Jul.
2003 (Fri); Post #347
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Talked
to the guy at Tri-Cities Cycle Supply. He said the 650 was pretty
much okay and would probably be ready tomorrow, but that there's
something wrong with a cylinder on the 780 (there was water in it
or something). Apparently we didn't winterize them properly. He
implied the 780 would be ready sometime next week.
Guess I'll go play some WC3:TFT or sleep. Helping Justin move tomorrow
at 12:30 pm. Building fence at 6:00 pm tonight.
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12:35
a.m. [GMT-8:00]
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25 Jul.
2003 (Fri); Post #346
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Just
finished archiving the old news. 17 entries! I kept meaning to archive
it, but there was stuff I wanted ppl to be able to see.
Got DeadLois (1.4 GHz TBird, 512 DDR266, Radeon 7200, 60 GB + 17
GB) running again (though it was a quick job so Kevin S., Kevin
M., and I could DDR on it, so the shell is off and some stuff isn't
hooked up, etc.). The Cobalt Flux does indeed work with the EMS
USB adapter.
I've got some parts coming in the mail. I have almost everything
I need to build a new computer.
-
Barton 2500+ proc., MSI KT4VL mobo, CoolerMaster Heatpipe
HSF: $130
- Kingston
512 MB DDR333/PC2700: $84
- ATX
case, 300 W PSU: $30
- Maxtor
ATA-133 120 GB HD w/ 8 MB cache: $112
All
I need is a video card. I'm thinking about taking the GeForce 4
Ti4600 outta my current main rig, but I'd kinda like to take advantage
of the 8x AGP support. A Radeon 9800 Pro would be nice (and my birthday's
coming up in less than a month so maybe...).
Something this weekend. Either GURPS or LANnage of some sort. Or
maybe jet ski stuff. The fencing needs to get done one way or another
by Saturday morning, so Drew, Phill, and Hanwool: let's meet at
6:00 pm Friday night, k? If not, I'll end up doing it myself which
will be very not-fun and probably result in your houses getting
egged. Heh. Of course, I'm kidding. Maybe.
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"As
long as you derive inner help and comfort from anything, keep
it." — Mahatma Gandhi
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