Old
News: May 24th to July 1st, 2002 (10 entries)
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10:20 p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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1 Jul. 2002 (Mon);
Post #194
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Ee, I haven't posted in a while. Been busy moving into the Sharkey
house next door (pictured below). Had a LAN get-together at Phillip's
on Saturday, been losing at Go w/ Hanwool. Still waking up at 7
every day to go to Sociology. Got a lot of office furniture (yet
to be assembled) today. Moved Shirley
over to the Sharkey house today. Gonna get Hanwool, Justin, and
Phillip to help me build stuff tomorrow (I'll buy 'em pizza or something).
Getting a bed tomorrow, hopefully. Bought a SOYO
KT333 Dragon Ultra motherboard a few minutes ago (from NewEgg).
Vrry nice mobo. Going to replace the VIA POS in Chesty.
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11:07 a.m. [GMT-8:00]
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26 Jun. 2002 (Wed);
Post #193
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Just a quick note to say that Hanwool and I (and Toodi, or however
you spell her name -- Hanwool's little sister) are going to see
the 12:40 p.m. showing of Minority Report. I tried to go yesterday,
but Justin and Phillip didn't want to/couldn't go and then I found
out I had homework to do for my Sociology class (had to read 36
pages in this boring book), plus the continuing jet-lag...
anyway. I'm back from Spain/England. It was an... interesting...
trip. I sweated a lot. I'll post some of my 87 MB of photos from
the trip (bought a 128 MB memory stick for the camera right before
we left). Mrs. Sharkey is all moved out of the house next door and
I've been watering the lawns, trying to get them to come back to
life. It is nice to back in a house w/ AC tho after the condo in
Spain (no AC). Erg, my text is getting less coherent. There's a
neat 'airship society' thread on GURPSnet right now that has been
a really interesting read. Oh, and speaking of reading, I read a
lot of books on the trip -- N-Space (700 pages, BTW),
The Ringworld Throne, Hit List (a Lawrence Block book -- surprisingly
good), Moving Pictures, Protector. And I beat Tetris DX.
Um. Later.
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12:28 a.m. [GMT-8:00]
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12 Jun. 2002 (Wed);
Post #192
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Well, just a quick post to say that I'm going away to Europe for
12 days tomorrow (well, technically, today). I'll be back sometime
in the evening on the 24th. Staying in London for 2 days, then Benedorm
(Spain) for 9 or 10, then back to London to fly home. Feel free
to e-mail me and I'll
read it when I get back (or I may check my Hotmail acct. while I'm
over there... internet cafes and all that). Anyway. Phillip
is having a LAN party-BBQ-trip to the movies thing on Friday which
sounds like a lot of fun (too bad I can't go). ION, I got Jolly's
picture a few days ago (it's framed and hanging on the wall, of
course) and I sent him and Tracy Casper at Kenzer & Co. a thank-you
can of candy and snacks via 1800flowers.com. I cannot say enough
nice things about these KenzerCo ppl! Oh, and I picked up N-Space,
Protector, and Ringworld Throne at B&N this weekend.
Okay, well, bye!
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11:22 p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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5 Jun. 2002 (Wed);
Post #191
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Hm... missed a few days of posting... oh well. I'm currently addicted
to Genma
Onimusha for the Xbox. It is extremely kewl. Also, Jolly Blackburn,
author/artist of Knights of the Dinner Table is sending me an autographed
picture of sorts! Here's a clip from an e-mail I received from Tracy
Casper who does Customer Service at Kenzer & Co.:
The picture I am sending is one that Jolly had hanging
on his wall. It is a
printout of a characature picture of Jolly that the Fraim's drew
of him.
(The Fraim brothers do a lot of the HM art work). He said he could
get a
new one up for himself and said it was no problem to send it to
you. I
think you will like it! He also signed it for you.
Is that cool or what? BTW, if you don't read KODT, you should. Even
if you're not into gaming, it's a hilarious comic/magazine. I've
been a reader since #4. Oh, and I've been reading those Dungeons
& Dragons comics that KenzerCo puts out... I hadn't been that
thrilled by them, but the last couple installments of 'In the Shadow
of Dragons' have been very interesting. I'm hooked. There's a really
suprising [minor spoiler] plot twist in #7. Okay, gonna play more
Genma Onimusha. That game kicks ass.
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1:47 a.m. [GMT-8:00]
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1 Jun. 2002 (Sat);
Post #190
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Quick summary: Thursday, I went to Infinite Frontiers and got a
ton of comics -- KODT
#63, 64, 65, 66, & 67; D&D: Tempest's Gate #2 & 3; Robin's
Laws of Good Game Mastering (okay, technically not a comic, but
it's only 32 pages); Girl Genius #2, 3 & Secret Blueprints for
Vol. 1; Everknights #-4, -3; D&D: In the Shadow of Dragons #6
& 7; Dork Tower #16; and Nodwick #12. And I got Frag Expansion
2: Fire Zone. We'll have to play that sometime soon. Friday, I finished
The Ringworld Engineers. It was pretty good, but I'm starting
to get tired of Niven. I gotta get The
Ringworld Throne. And Protector
(I didn't get all the Pak stuff in TRE because I never read the
book that the Jack Brennan story appears in... apparently, Protector
is it). I've been wanting to build a small system like the mailbox
computer (pictured below) this guy at Neima did, but I haven't
seen a tiny ATX mobo with an AGP slot yet. I need AGP. Hopefully,
there'll be some sort of game today/tonight.
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9:37 p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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29 May 2002 (Wed);
Post #189
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Did I mention that Greg the Bunny was getting cancelled? Well, anyway,
while searching for more information on Google (I was hoping it
might get picked up by another network) I happened upon a petition
to save the show... it's called "Give
Me Greg the Bunny or Give Me Death! Blah!" Funny, ne? I'm
signature #4,073. Oh, and I read today that the people that call
IEEE 1394 [sic] "1394" are now calling it FireWire b/c
of some agreement
with Apple. Remember the Conan O'Brien bit where Triumph the
dog interviewed/harrassed ppl in line for Star Wars Ep. II? No?
Go download it on Kazaa. Anyway, there was this guy who called himself
"Blackwolf the Dragonmaster" (that's him in the picture
below) who was... there... for some reason. Some guys associated
with Something Awful
called him up (having found his Geocities website) and talked to
him. They made an MP3
of the 18-minute conversation. OMG, it is so-o-o funny.
Since the original site was taken down, I made this
archive from Google's cache. I'm making a card game about Spaceships.
Hopefully, I'll get to test it this weekend. Well, l8er.
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9:24 p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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27 May 2002 (Mon);
Post #188
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I decided to find and download the song from that Target commercial
(you know... the one that goes, "Orange you glad -- Orange
you glad it's summer")... well a search on Google
for "orange you glad it's summer" took me to wunderland.com.
There, I saw a link to something labelled 'Nanofictionary.'
It looked interesting, so I clicked through and learned about Nanofiction.
It's really kewl! In the words of this website, the rules for nanofiction
are that:
[...] each story must contain the following four elements:
1.) a setting, 2.) one or more characters, 3.) conflict, and 4.)
resolution. Plus of course, the whole thing can only be 55 words
long, not counting the title, which must be no more than 7 words
long.
Pretty neat, huh? Here's a nanofic written by Andrew Looney:
The Relentless Follower
by Andrew Looney
Two pirates shuffled down the leafy sidewalk, followed by a
tall man wearing a suit. The man waited in the shadows whenever
the pirates raided a house, demanding candy, but he was always
nearby. "Your dad's starting to give me the creeps,"
Eric whispered at last. "Wait," said Pete. "I
thought he was your dad."
I'm gonna write my own. Maybe a Microfiction (which is the same
as nanofiction, but can be up to 250 words). [update:] Here's
my Micro/Nanofiction page.
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3:00 p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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27 May 2002 (Mon);
Post #187
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OMG, guess what! My 'Reader's Tip' got published in this week's
Roleplaying Tips Weekly!!
I sent it in like 9 months ago, but it finally got in there! Wow,
I really wish I'd written it better now... Anyway, here's how it
appeared in the issue:
READERS' TIPS OF THE WEEK
1. Use NPC Reactions For Small Rewards
From: Henry O.
======================================
Handing out experience points and magic items willy-nilly
can rapidly unbalance a game. Therefore, when I feel the
need to reward one of the players for clever actions, I
often employ boons like simple NPC approval or a good
(local) reputation.
You'd be surprised how little things, such as housewives
smiling at the PC in the street, kids asking for stories, or
innkeepers knocking a few copper off the price of a meal can
truly appeal to the player's ego.
Just knowing that people, even those in a small area,
recognize his/her name can make a player a bit more proud,
and thus, a little more enthusiastic.
Is that kewl or what? Wow. You'll be able to read the whole issue
(#125) on their website (roleplayingtips.com)
soon. ION (In Other News), I joined the Munchkin
Guild, a Yahoo! Group (mailing list) for Munchkin
players. Can't wait for Star
Munchkin. I'm on Chapter 7 of The Ringworld Engineers.
Good so far, but [minor spoiler] I don't like the fact that Louis
became a wire-head. Also, I miss Nessus... he/she was one of the
best characters, much better than the Hindmost. Um.
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8:43 p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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26 May 2002 (Sun);
Post #186
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Water
on Mars. Wow! Lots of it, in ice. Makes me wanna go buy GURPS
Mars. I really need to get down to Infinite Frontiers -- I haven't
emptied my box (where they put my reserved items, books) in like
a month and a half, at least. Anyway, I finished Three Books
of Known Space last night. Will start on Ringworld Engineers
tonight, probably. Watched a couple episodes of ST:TNG on TNN. Saw
some neat stuff about Nemesis on TrekToday.
Oh, that reminds me; I saw Enterprise's season finale, Shockwave,
last night. I thought it was pretty good, except the ending. I hate
'To Be Continued...' endings. Ecch. Really good dinner last night,
too. Lobster, corn on the cob, and rolls. Later.
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12:23 p.m. [GMT-8:00]
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24 May 2002 (Fri);
Post #185
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Archived the old news. Yesterday, I picked up Ringworld Engineers
from Barnes & Noble (they couldn't find my family's 'Reader
Advantage' card in the database though, which was kinda annoying)
and got Vis-a-Vis overhead transparency markers (for the hex-maps
we use in GURPS combat). I'm on page 396 of Three Books of Known
Space, right in the middle of A Gift from Earth. AGfE
sort of sucks. It's prolly the least interesting Niven story I've
read yet. Salon has a blogging
article... doesn't apply to me a whole lot tho -- I like to
think my blog is more a record of events than it is a place to put
my opinions. The opinions that I do express are usually about things
which really arn't that important, or that ppl wouldn't care about.
I don't think I've ever mentioned politics... anyway, talking to
Clear Sky about
getting wireless broadband installed at the place where I'll be
living after July 1. If it works out, it'll be really nice (finally,
a ping less than 500 ms). The image below shows my best pings
to a couple well-known websites... pings to jaybill.com, cnn.com,
and slashdot.org all timed out.
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"On
the whole human beings want to be good, but not too good, and
not quite all the time." — George Orwell
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