I'm playing Lord of the Rings Online again. A few of my friends are playing it and there is an upcoming expansion which I hope is good. I'm playing on a different server (Gladden) but this other server will have some people I know and some new acquaintances. They say the only constant is change. I guess that's true, as I'm not in the gaming industry anymore and am finding my footing as a programmer on web and other projects. I'm still in Tucson, and it's very hot. Here is a picture of cooler times in Erud Luin.

We're nearing the one month mark since the release of Age of Conan, and to be honest, I'm not sure how I feel about the game. On one hand, the game is visually stunning and it's combat is a bit of a breath of fresh air. It captures the Conan universe and the visceral feel of the world. It has what is by far the best music I've heard in an MMO. However, with all these positive points, it's hard to ignore the fact that the game is largely unfinished. Now, I have come to expect some level of incompleteness in an MMO upon it's release. Part of the appeal of MMOs is that they change and evolve, so it's easy to forgive the game being not completely "done". What is hard to stomach, however, is seeing patch notes like the following nearly a month after the game's release: "Stat bonuses from items (strength, wisdom, dexterity and constitution) will now affect your character properly". It took a month since the release of the game for itemization to work. There are numerous broken quests, a lack of upper level content, and a general feeling that the polish that was so apparent in the early game is simply dropping off. One of the professions I picked for the crafting is Alchemy. The system in Conan for Alchemy works in that you get drops from NPCs in order to craft. In order to progress to the next level of crafting recipes, you have to complete all the tier 1 Alchemy recipes. You can't get to tier 2, however, because at least two or three of the crafting items don't drop. Building cities and having sieges is said to be one of Conan's major features, but you can't build a tier 3 city because of bugs. I could go on, but I think I've made my point. So now I'm to the time where I have to decide whether to keep my subscription, and I'm not sure what to do. The game is fun and I think there's a good chance Funcom could still make major strides soon, as they did at the end of beta for the release of the game. I really want for them to succeed, but they have their work cut out for them. I also don't know how long I want to pay for the promise of a game that may come to pass. I did my time in SWG with that. As far as MMOs go, AoC is all I have left. My World of Warcraft account is off and my DDO guild has pretty much all moved to Conan. If I cancel AoC then it'll be the first time in years that I'll have no active MMO subscriptions. Maybe they're doing me a favor.

Truth be told, I'm probably far overdue for my obligatory Nintendo fanboy Wii post. Judging that I woke up more than an hour early today, proceeded to stand in line at 7:15 in the morning and then leave work again at 10am to go stand in line again to use my newly aquired reserve ticket for my preorder, I guess it's fairly fitting that I write a loving page about Nintendo's new console. This is the first console that I've ever preordered and, with the exception of the Gameboy Advance, the first console I will ever have bought at launch. This is partially due to the fact I have money now, but still notable since it shows how strong the wii's launch lineup is. The first console I purchased with my own money was a Nintendo 64, and it was Starfox 64 that made me make that purchase. The Gameboy Advance was more of a trival purchase. I'm pretty sure I went home that day with Tony Hawk DS and some other game, only later realizing that I was very, very bad at the Tony Hawk series and that I didn't enjoy them. The GameCube was purchased for Metroid Prime, pure and simple. To date, I never have put up the review of that like I had promised in an update like this one. Finally, the DS purchase was for Metroid Prime Hunters, although, to be fair, I've played more Mario Kart DS than I have MP:H. After all that pointless history, one thing is clear. Every system I've owned has been Nintendo. It should come as no surprise that I quickly took to Nintendo's new console, holding it above the Playstation 3 and the X-Box 360. With a lower pricepoint, more games that interest me, and what could be called a revolutionary controller, the Wii has interested me and kept me waiting for the better part of a year. I can look past the graphics of the Wii, which side by side comparisons of Call of Duty 3 have shown are not even in the same league. I can look past it's lesser hardware because of the developers that Nintendo has. I mean, there's a new Metroid Prime game coming out. I think if I could have given my money to a company to reserve a wii when they showed the first screenshots, I would have. My office pretty much came to a standstill while we all watched the E3 presentation of the Wii live on GameSpot. And so, two other employees and myself left our homes early today and were determined to get a system, if possible. The plan was to have one of us go to one store and the other check a different store, seeing if we could find a store that didn't have a line longer than the amount of Wiis that store would be getting. As it turns out, We imagined that it would make us two hours late for work, but an employee of GameStop came at 8am and gave us the tickets. For much for playing hooky, even if our boss knew exactly where we were (he would have came himself, but his phone was turned off so he didn't get my calls when I was telling him that the line actually had less people than there were systems). The end result? Ninety five dollars in preorders assures that I won't have to fight my way to get a system in another 36 days. Well, make that 35 days and 5 minutes...

...and so ends my adventuring in the land of Azeroth. It can be said that there are major problems with WOW. For one, it has really changed my stance on PvP. It seems that merging PvE and PvP playstyles doesn't work. I'm not sure it will be something that can ever be achieved. You either are doing PvP or you're fighting computer controlled mobs. You can't exactly do both at the same time, unless some sort of intelligent AI was applied to monsters and allied NPCs. However, I don't see that coming anytime soon, in any game. The fact of the matter is that the game's design doesn't give much incentive to help anyone else out, or even interact for that matter. Whereas Star Wars Galaxies had you talking and socializing with players, World of Warcraft is built on the bnet philosophy. Why help another player when you can help yourself? After all, you aren't rewarded for it. It doesn't hurt me to quit the game. I actually took a month off of it already, and now achieving 60 has left little to no reason to return. Since the implementation of the so-called "honor" system, the ganking and corpse camping that occured has only worsened. Blizzard's response is that these problems will cease when they implement battlegrounds. I am less optimistic.

Fall 03 Graph Schedule   Mon Tues Wed Thurs Fri  9:00  C SC245 -006 HARV 411  9:30   10:00   10:30   11:00  MATH124 -012 PAS 318 MATH124 -012 PAS 318 MATH124 -012 PAS 318 MATH124 -012 PAS 318 MATH124 -012 PAS 318  11:30   12:00   12:30   1:00  C SC245 -006 BIO W 301 C SC245 -006 BIO W 301 C SC245 -006 BIO W 301  1:30   2:00  C SC335 -008 ECON 110 C SC335 -008 ECON 110  2:30   3:00   3:30   4:00  C SC335 -008 HARV 103  4:30  stolen from the University of Arizona website

The final talley of my summer school experience: B, A, A, C, A. I didn't do so well in my Chemistry 152 class, but it transfers to the U of A as credit so I'm happy. Learning that much information is nigh impossible, so I'm glad I managed to remember enough of it to barely pass my tests.

I'm amazed at how most of the democratic presidental candidates are pushing the promise of "And the first thing I'll do as president is undo EVERYTHING that Bush has done for the last 4 years!" I mean, I know that it's partisan so you're supposed to have some deep rooted anger at the other party and use voodoo magic against them, but come on. Not to keep bashing Dems, but I'm also amazed at their simplistic view of environmental issues, specifically when it comes to our national forests. Bush understands that we need to clear out old-growth to essentially simulate the patterns of natural wildfires that we have stopped with our presence. Either that or he just wants as a favor to his big-business logging buddies. Either way, we end up with what we need to have done being done. Works for me. Unless you want a national forest that you can enjoy with your family just like the one in Tucson.

Remember to patch your Windows XP and 2k boxes, kids.

Wow. It's been 4 months since I've updated this page. I suppose that's a testiment to how busy I've been. Actually, the period from spring break until June wasn't as busy, but since then school has taken all my time. Being a glutton for punishment, I'm taking 13 credit hours of summer school. So far I've completed 8 of these credit hours, with grades of A, A, and B. This fall I'm starting at the University of Arizona, which should be equally fun.

The world has changed (or hasn't changed depending on your point of view) so radically in the last months that I don't even know where to begin. I suppose that everything will work itself out eventually. Or not. Who knows at this point. I could dwell deeper into the subject but I have talked about this too much and at this point I'm tired of it.

The entertainment scene has been a mixed bag lately. Star Wars Elite Force II seemed good at first until I realized that the story is an insult to all things Star Trek. The Enterprise being beaten down by 4th grade tactical manuvers? Check. Aggravating acts of war with no consequences? Check. Pointless end bosses? Check. Jumping Puzzles? Check. Yup, EFII is offically not a good game. Warcraft III's expansion 'The Frozen Throne' is also a mixed bag. Now, I thought War3 was pretty good, and The Frozen Throne is certainly more of the same... but that's the problem, it's pretty much a lot more of the same. Unfortunately, most of the missions seem to be timed, have limited forces, or have otherwise annoying cavets. Oh well. Matrix Reloaded was a mixed bag but I was pleasently surprised by Terminator 3. It had a little too much stupid humour in it but it was otherwise very solid.

July 22nd is 'all Myer/Haujobb day' on the Fineline Radio stream. Surprisingly, Metropolis sent me 4 copies of the new album to give away along with 3 copies of the last EP (Penetration) and a ton of stickers. If you haven't done so, go to the Fineline Web Page and enter. Do it. Do it now.

Oh yeah, Arizona's burning again. Kudos to the brave firefighters who are fighting to keep it from burning up Mount Lemon, including the scout camps. Your work is greatly appreciated.

It's been awhile since I've updated, so here's the news on what's going on:

I will not be getting my Associate of Applied Sciences degree this semester because I don't have CIS103 (Windows Operating System) and Pima is insisting that I have to take it, regardless of the fact that I have all the higher level Windows classes, some of which are not even required for my degree. While I find this setback to be annoying and/or pointless, It's pretty much my fault for skipping the lower level course. I had taken CSC105, which is a prequirement for CSC109 (CIS103), but then the next semester they renumbered the courses. This in turn led me to believe I was done with the low-level courses. My mistake.

In pointless videogame news, I'm anxiously awaking my copy of Zelda: The Wind Walker. Before you start to whine about it being kiddie and/or stupid, stop. Other than waiting for that, I've been playing Freelancer, which should have had joystick support, and Ghost Recon. Freelancer is a pretty fun diversion and the multiplayer is decently fun. I do belive, however, that they will need to add some features quickly if they want people to keep playing. If Digital Anvil went so far as to add player-built bases and dynamic trading (ie, price changes), I could see this game turning into a real favorite of people who used to play Tradewars and the like. As it is now, once you hit level 38 and get the best ship and weapons, there really isn't much else to do.

Interplay also just announced Fallout: Brotherhood of Steel for the PS2 and X-Box. Yes, I agree with the fact that making spin-offs is a desicration to the series. I think the fact that everyone is calling it Fallout Enforcer is quite amusing. Suffice to say, we probably will never see a true Fallout 3. However, the way that No Mutants Allowed and Duck and Cover have been covering this news is childish and inane. I know you're pissed guys. Hell, we went through the same thing with X-Com Enforcer, but whining like a sixth grader and cursing Interplay isn't going to help your cause.

My CIS238 (Integrated Software Packages, ie MS Office) is done, which means I now qualify for the Associate of Applied Science 'Small Business Computer Administration' Degree from Pima. Go me, or something.

Other than School, i haven't been up to much... although I will admit that I've put in some Command & Conquer: Generals time this week. It's pretty good, but I have some qualms about it. Maybe I'll put a review of it online. Then again, I said the same thing about Metroid Prime. Let me just sum up my problem with Generals in one phrase: When they said they were removing the cut-scenes so that the player could get straight to the gameplay, I assumed that meant you were putting in more missions, not less.

School has once again started, so expect to see me online less at times. Fortunately, I have worked my school schedule so that I only have classes on Tuesdays and Thursdays. Hopefully, this will allow me to get a part time job and actually have money. I recently applied to Hollywood video. It's not the most glamorous work in the work, but it's work. Apparently, some 250 people applied for the job, and I actually got a call because I was one of the 25 people that the manager was interested in. Somehow, I doubt I'll hear back from him. Such is life.

The Steam Debacle
Today the Steam v2.0 BETA was slated to start. Steam, as you may or may not know, is a program that allows the distribution of games over it's broadband network. This is important because Counter-Strike v1.6 is being distributed via Steam. The Installer program was slated to be released at 3pm PST, but thanks to the wonders of the Internet, it was out earlier in the day. Before 3pm PST even arrived, Steam's 500 megabit network was filled to capacity. Thus, the Steam 2.0 / Counter Strike 1.6 BETA was pushed back until more network bandwidth can be established.

A lot of people are angry about the fact that the program was leaked. This isn't the problem. If a limited leak can put enough users on the network to completely saturate it, imagine what a full release would do. Obviously, this is due to the fact that Steam forces the user to download 400 megabytes of data to get the newest Counter-Strike release. While Steam is good in theory, I'd much prefer a patch that is only 80-100 megs.

Since I haven't had the time to plug it yet, I'd like to tell you all about Fineline Radio. Basically, it's the live365 stream Scott has plugged full of bad industrial/ebm/idm music. For the most part, I choose the playlists so you know you're going to get something good. Or bad. I'm not sure which. You'll get something, though, and that's what counts.

There has been a lot of collective bitching and whining about Star Trek: Nemesis, and a lot of it is unfounded. Yes, many parts of it were moments in which the movie really wanted to be The Wrath of Khan. However, there was a good movie if you look past that. The art direction, for once, was really good. Surprising for a Trek movie, I know. The electronic score that everyone commented on was pretty good. The problem is that people were so busy looking for things to be annoyed by that they missed details they would have enjoyed. For instance, the parallels between the opening of Star Trek: The Movie Picture and the ending of Nemesis were a nice touch. The editing got a bit flustery at the end, but I assume that has to do with the 37 minutes of footage they cut. Hopefully, Paramount and the B&B will listen to the fans for once and put out a director's cut. You hear me? Director's Cut!

Finally, I'd like to give my condolences to the Howard family. Sorry that this had to come after some rants about Star Trek, but this whole thing has been pretty unexpected. Scott Howard was a fellow Eagle Scout and Symphony member that I probably spent some 4 or 5 years of my life with. While I haven't seen him much in th past 3 or 4 years, his death still brings me sadness. He was entirely too young and too good of a person to go. It's just been one of those years, I guess.

New college edition Pete doll.

Complete with dark circles and high blood pressure! Press the button and hear him say one of six phrases.
"Sleep?  That's not on the schedule till Tuesday."
"I have to have this finished by when??!?"
"I can't, I'm busy.  Call me in January."
"Ooooh, shiny!"
"So-shul luh-eye-fe?"
and of course: "I really can't wait for this semester to end."

Contributed by Crystal.

Chronic Niceness

1. The state in which a person offers assistance to anyone, including those who may take advantage of said assistance.
2. The inability to refuse an action even if it means unwanted situations.
3. see also: Gulliable
4. see also: stepstool

So, I went to Zia's tonight, as I had $20 and I wanted to see if the domestic release of Covenant's Northern Light was out yet. Before entering the store, a man of around my age started to talk to me. He informed me that he had locked his keys in his car and wanted to know if I could give him a ride down the street to his house to get a spare set. Being a nice person, I told him I could do this. I often see situations and wonder if I should stop and help. Well, this was my chance. So, off we went to the man's house. We pulled into the house, and he left to go get the keys. He came back a minute later saying he couldn't get in. So, we went to the Circle K so he could make a phone call. He made the call, and then told me that we were going to AutoZone so he could get a key made. He also was short on money by six dollars, so he asked if he could borrow it. He assures me that he can pay me back as soon as he gets to his bank. I only had a twenty so I let him borrow it and he agrees to give me the money later plus a little extra for my troubles. He then tells me that the AutoZone was at Prince and Fairview. There was no AutoZone there (which I knew), so we stopped at Walgreens. He walked to the payphone, but couldn't use it as it was broken. He then entered the store and came back. Apparently the man from AutoZone was coming to give him a key. Yes, yes. I know that something is amiss. I'll get to that later. So, another man drives up in a old car and the man trades something with my passenger. All this is done very low key. The exchange is made and the car leaves. The passenger of mine wants to leave quickly as well. He tells me that he needs to go to his bank. At this point I am freaked out, so I do what he asks. We drive, and on the way he asks me if I wouldn't mind speeding as he's "late for work". I agree. It's not something I prefer to do, but at this point I'll do whatever he says. We go to Campbell and then turn right. The bank is on the right, he tells me. I ask him what bank it is and it replies that it's a credit union. I ask him which CU it is, and he says he doesn't remember the name. He has me turn onto a street with an office building next to it, and he leaves to go to the "bank" to get money. I sit there a minute with the car off contemplating on whether I should stay and see if I can get my money.

Needless to say, I didn't stay.

Please don't bother to point out the points at which I should have known better. I can do that on my own.
(a) Wouldn't show me car, as it was in the adjacent parking lot.
(b) Wanted a ride to AutoZone to get a new key, but didn't have keys for duplication.
(c) Wanted to go to the AutoZone at Prince and Fairview, which doesn't exist.
(d) Said man was coming to give him a key.
(e) Wanted to go to his Credit Union, but didn't know the name. (this is after I really had any say in what was going on, mind you).
...and of couse:
(f) Shouldn't have given him a ride in the first place!
 

When I got home, I told the story to my mom, my beloved girlfriend, and a friend of mine online. "Life experience", they say. "At least you learned something." Well, that is true. I won't be giving rides to strangers ever again. Still, I'm annoyed. I'm annoyed that I was dumb enough to do something like this in the first place. I'm annoyed that I'm out twenty dollars. And there's something else, which I later realize.

I feel bad for leaving him there.

Yes, that's right. He used me as an accessory to what was probably a drug deal, and there's a possibility that he would have hurt me and stole my truck... and I feel bad for leaving him there.

Oy.

I do not know what prompted the Sci-Fi channel to redesign their logos and advertisments, but it's a mixed bag. The new logo is fine. The advertisements, however, are not. 

Last night was the first episode of Stephen Spielburg's Taken, and I found that to be a mixed bag as well. The premise of aliens coming to Earth is always interesting to me, but the episode was long and drawn out. The special effects were pretty good, although the Greys seemed very plastic. I'll have to see another episode or two before writing it off, as there is still a lot of promise to it and the first episode was mainly setting up the premises. It's a shame though, as I'm sure Sci-Fi will notice a dip in viewers tomorrow. Personally, I was bored as hell through a good portion of it.

Can't talk, playing Metroid Prime.

Actually, let me note a couple of things. Metroid Prime, as expected, rocks the party. Buy it. If you don't have a GameCube, buy one. If you are having problems with your game locking up, I suggest that you make sure that your GameCube is not in an enclosed area. In other words, make sure that the vents on the sides of the console are not blocked. Also, make sure that the disc isn't dirty (obvious). Finally, a review of this game will be online as soon as I finish the game. That may be awhile, however.

I'd also like to thank the admins at joe.to because they rock. You run the best CS and NS servers on the net. Keep it up.

Version 1.6 of Counter-Strike and a new version of Half-Life are slated to be released sometime this month, and to obtain this beta you have to sign up for Valve's new Steam technology. Basically, Steam downloads the game and updates when needed. I like the idea of automated patching, but I'll reserve my final judgement for when CS 1.6 comes out. If I can actually download the patch on the first day, I'll be sold.

The initial reviews of Metroid are coming in, and they're glowing to say the least. Naturally, this is making people who don't own a GameCube very angry for some reason and a lot of these people are being vocal about it. If you are bothered by this kind of thing, I'd recommend you stay out of forum threads about Metroid unless you want to see "this game is going to be gggggggggggggggggggggggggaaaaaaaaaaaaaa aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!! !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!because it is on Gay Cube".* Why this occurs is beyond me.

If you haven't been living under a rock (also known as 'if you haven't watched TV or looked at the internet in the last two days'), then you surely know that the Republicans now have majority in both the House of Representatives and the Senate. If you're a Democrat or an independent, you've probably been whining about it for two solid days now. Well, here's some advice for you:

Shut your yap!

Seriously, be quiet before you make a total ass of yourself. Take Moby for example. Moby writes:

This is a prime example of showing the world that you are a complete moron. Yes Moby, all Republicans are against the environment. We all are pro-guns and pro-war, we're against medicine research and we are entirally against education. However, we Republicans are not against using capitalization and proper grammar in our writing.

Honestly, the fact that the Republicans are in control isn't going to change anything. Gun Control laws wouldn't have passed anyway, and they won't now. In your case, that really isn't even an issue because you are trying to get guns banned outright, and there is no chance of that ever happening. Alaska is not going to be drilled for oil because there's always idiots that will go out and protest for the sake of protesting. Don't even get me started on your "don't touch the forest" outlook that caused half my state to burn this year. AIDS research cuts? I'm not sure where to even begin making a counter point for that. Why AIDS research would be cut is beyond me. However, if people took more responsibility they wouldn't really have to worry about it. I know that there are a percentage of people who get it through blood transfusion and the like, but that's a small percentage of the whole. If our culture wasn't so adament on having random sex with people and doing drugs like mad, AIDS wouldn't be even close to the problem it is now. But that's the fall of morality for you. Oh, I'm sorry. You're against morality because you consider that part of religion, and religion is bad.

Whatever.

Natural Selection 1.01 is out, and I must say that the NS team has done a fine job fixing some of the balance issues quickly. If you haven't gotten this terrific Half-Life mod, I strongly recommend it.

It's coming up on crunch time for school, as I've had a ton of take home tests, so I apologize for my absence online. I simply don't have the time to log on to AIM and such. When I do have time, I've been playing Counter-Strike and Natural Selection. Natural Selection is a new Half-Life mod and it's definitely worth the download. It requires a lot more coordination between players but when done correctly, your team works as a well oiled military machine. Plus, it's dosed in Sci-Fi vibe and that's always worth bonus points.

Oh yeah, in case you forgot:

It's Coming.

Ripley, I'm Scared.

Well, the hype machine is starting to run again for the holiday season. Call me a fanboy, but I seem to have gotten myself caught up in this hype. Currently, I'm drooling over Metroid Prime. I'm a huge fan of the Metroid series, especially Super Metroid, which was hands down one of the best SNES games and best games in gaming's history. So, naturally, I took an interest to this new game (as well as Metroid Fusion, which is coming for the GBA).

I recently got to play a demo of this sweet looking game and I've posted an impression in the Opinionated section.

The Washington area's killer could have learned his technique from "any video arcade," said Derrick Bartlett, president of the American Sniper Association and executive director of Snipercraft Inc., a Florida firm that trains police snipers.
- Washington Post, 10-09-2002

Everyone was waiting for this, and here it is. The media is trying to link the sniper killings to videogames. We all knew it would happen, because it would be either this or a link to a bad 1993 Tom Berenger movie. You know, the one where he shoots the other sniper through his sniper scope? With the gun? Yeah.

I don't really need to say how ridicolous this is because... you know. Yeah, video games did it. They did it in the same way that terrorists trained and possibly even picked the targets of 9/11 by playing Microsoft Flight Simulator. The Washington Post article even talks of the shootings in Germany by a Counter-Strike player. Well, I don't believe that this 'sniper' is a game player just yet. However, I can be convinced. After you catch this guy and you interview him, if you ask him how he got his sniper rifle and he replies "Oh, you know. Press 'b', then '4', then '6'", then you can consider me sold.

Stupid AWP whores.

Anyway, You'd better watch it. I've been playing Robotech: Battlecry all weekend and if I happen to find a 40-foot transformable robot, you're all fscked.

Although I have been complaining constantly about not having a job and/or not having any money, I bought a Gamecube yesterday.

Well, not bought entirally. EB stores have been running a promotion where you can trade in your old systems for credit towards a new one. Since I had a Nintendo 64 which I haven't used of late, I decided to see what I could get for it. It turns out, I could get the following:

Ok, thirty nine dollars. That's not that great... oh wait, games. EB, as part of the promotion, takes all games at the price of no less than $7, but possibly more. All games have to be in boxes and include the manuals, but I'm a packrat so I have all that crap. For once, my Packrat syndrome pays off.

Okay, sixty nine dollars. That's more like it! Now I have $108 in credit. But wait... my brother Mike has some old games.

Ok, so now I stand at $142. That means I pay around ten dollars plus tax (which brings it up to $20 somehow. don't ask me). So, I got a Gamecube for $20 thanks to EB's desire for obsolete games and my brother's generosity. I also sold off some Game Boy and Game Boy Advance games to get a memory card. I don't have games at this point, but that's what rentals are for. Currently, I'm having fun with Super Mario Sunshine. What I hope to get is Robotech: Battlecry. I've played the PS2 version and 'r0x0rz h4rc|c0r3' or something to that extent.

Anyway, I might get around to putting up some game reviews in the Opinionated section if I have time, and time is one commodity that I seem to have in abundance these days. My sheer laziness will be the next obsticle to pass if I want a fleshed out section of game reviews. I did put up a review of Icewind Dale II for the PC, however. As for employment, the plan is this: Now that I have a GameCube, I'll want to play it, so I should get a call back and get a job soon to occupy my time, thus keeping me from ever playing the GameCube. That seems to be how my luck has been lately, anyway. 

*shrug*

I know that most of my readers (hi dan) aren't from Arizona or aren't in Arizona, but I'm going to cover some election details anyway. It's my feeble attempt at being an informed voter. Or something.

If you do live in Arizona, you've probably been beaten about the head with people trying to get you to vote yes or no on one of three propositions. 200, 201, and 202. All three propositions deal with Indian Gaming and all three are a big mess.

Proposition 200
Prop 200 proposes that Gaming sites would have to get a license which they pay for, and that is all the money the state would see. Basically, this is the literal equivalent to saying "we didn't start our casinos to give the state any money." The only reason I say it is because they said it first.

Proposition 201
Prop 201 is the "give the money back to the state" proposition. It features "Joe from Arizona" talking about how the proposition would be good for both the Indians and the rest of Arizona by letting them continue their gaming while giving the state much needed revenue. They even have a website (www.joearizona.com) that talks about all it's benefits and the money that would go to good and such. "Do the math," it says.

Oh, and if you look at a small blurb in 201 near the bottom is says "Slot machines at racetracks". That's right, all the racetracks would now be casinos. The entire bill and the campaign of 'more money for Arizona and you' is a cover because they want slot machines at the racetracks.

Proposition 202
Prop 202, the "17 tribe initiative", has probably had the most advertising of the three propositions, although none of the advertising talks about what the bill does. Their advertising focuses on the "out of state racetrack owners" that have tried to shut them down. The proposition says that the state would get up to 8% from the casinos revenue and would allow them to expand their operations.

So, that's it for the gambling propositions. The other proposition that I'm concerned with hasn't gotten much attention, and that's why it corcerns me. If people don't know what it is, they may not vote on it, so it'll pass from all the people who do know about it and are voting yes.

Proposition 203
Basically, the cover of this bill is that it puts a larger jail time on repeated offences of Marijuana use. The side they don't want to tell you is that it would make the DPS have to give out free Marijuana to people and makes possession a civil offense. So, you get caught with pot and you go to a drug class then it's off your record. Oh yeah, it lets all the people in jail for marijuana charges out.

What's next, a dealer's license? Legalized Heroin? Legal Crack Cocaine? Classes in high school telling students how to roll a joint?

Nothing good can come from this. First of all, if this passes then the Federal Government stops giving us money for highways. Plus, it makes all the DPS officers into pharamicists, which they aren't trained for. Last of all, to hell with pot smokers.

Since I last complaned about not having work, I've submitted around 12 or 13 new applications. Suffice to say, I didn't hear back from the six and so far I've heard only one response to one of the twelve. That response went nowhere. This week, I already have two more places in mind that I'll be going to. Hopefully, more will present itself in time. Pima is having a job fair in a few weeks, so I'll probably go to that so I can be beaten over the head with people telling me to apply at AOL/Convergys/Tele-Tech. I do need to apply at Converys, but I'd prefer not because they only want full-time and it's around 15-20 miles away. Besides, I'm sure they don't want someone who actually has familarity with their product... no one ever does anymore.

I think the worse part of this is that when I tell people that I've put in 10 or 12 applications across a month, they give me a blank stare and say "That's all?". Gee, yes. That's all. I'm very finicky about where I work, and as such I don't throw in applications to where I'd be miserable. On top of that, I don't like to put in applications to places that tell me that they won't be hiring for 2 more years. I suppose I could easily boster my number by filling out worthless applications to places that aren't hiring or for jobs I'm not qualified for, thus wasting time and resouce. I figure if I tell people I've applied at 50-some places in a month, I'll get the recognition that I deserve.

Until I tell them that they all rejected me.

Contrary to how it may seem, I do not enjoy complaining about my lack of employment. The fact that it works it's way into most of my conversations from time to time is do the fact that it really distresses me. I'd call it'd a deep-seeded emotional trauma, but it is neither deep-seeded nor trauma. However, it is emotional. It probably bugs the hell out of all my friends, and for that I apologize. Someday, I'll look back on these months of cynicsm and self-pity and I'll laugh. Or I'll hit myself. Repeatedly. Around the nose and mouth.

Oh no, I don't want to play with Delta children. And Epsilons are even worse. I'm so glad I'm a Beta.

In case you haven't turned on the news in the last week and heard it a thousand times, tomorrow is the one year anniversary of 9/11/01. Yes, that's right, an anniversary takes place exactly 365 and 1/4 days from the previous date. Way to go CNN, your math skills are flawless.

Nevertheless, I find myself struggling to come up with an approriate response to the day. Obviously, I'm going to avoid television because I believe that being beaten over the head with memorial programming telling me to be sad is not the answer. I know that I'm supposed to be sad. I'm sad about the situation and I grieve for the lives of my countryment without you telling me. I know that we are now at some Super Red Alert, but as an average citizen, I see no need in sitting in my bedroom under my covers screaming about the end of the world. Yes, people in other countries hate us. I see that as insufficient reason for me to run around like a chicken with my head cut off.

Personally, I'm just going to remember the day, remember the people that died, say a silent prayer, and then move on with my life. Terrorists attacked us in the hope that fear would destroy our nation, and by continuing to live our lives we overcome that.

Or something.

Because of this anniversary, the following arguments are popping up on all message boards on the internet: "The US got what it deserved because of [insert cause here]...", "terrorists can kiss my ass because of [insert something here]...", "The US sucks because of [insert reason here]..."   As you can imagine, it gets quite old quite fast. Most of these posts are simply too ignorant to even reply to, but here's a few points I'd like to make.
 

And that's about it. In conclusion, I'd like to say that "terorrists sux0r!" and point out that "we'll put a boot in your ass, 'cause it's the American way". So don't tread on us, or we'll run around and freak out.

God Bless America.

First things first, because of the inefficiency of New Edge's repairs, I have switched to Comcast High Speed Cable Internet. As such, I am in the process of killing my 6 year old AOL account for no reason. In the future, please use 'pnolen@comcast.net' to contact me. No, this desire to end my account on AOL has nothing to do with AOL's reluctance to hire me. That is an unrelated point. It comes down to the fact that the BYOA plan is up to $15 a month and my parents don't really want to pay it. Yes, my parents pay for it. I'm that lame.

After more than two months of searching, I still find myself unemployed. As for as jobs go, Tucson is a barren wasteland providing no substanance in which to survive. The few places that are hiring have rejected me or have deemed me so unworthy that I recieved no word at all. At this point in time I have six (6) applications that are pending. I truly doubt I'll hear from any of them.

Of course, this entire situtation is my fault. If I truly needed a job... if my life depended on it, I would check into foodservice or manual labor. I have been picky, as I need employment that doesn't destroy my attempts at college education. So, when I talk of the lack of jobs, be sure that for the most part I'm talking about the Tucson tech center. It's funny... there's at least 5 colleges or trade schools churning out mediocore technicians like myself and yet there are little jobs for us.

On the Retry front, I have been working on music again. Obviously, I missed my mark when it comes to the release of the new album this summer, but that's quality control for you. I'm so picky that it may never be finished, although it's getting back to the point where I just need to record fresh vocals for some tracks.

Retry formula for music creation:
(01) Write generic song
(02) Insert Soundclips
(03) Improve music
(04) Remove excesive soundclips
(05) Think of intelligent concept for song
(06) Write generic and bad lyrics for song, ruining thought provoking ideas
(07) Sing horribly
(08) Release song
(09) Remove song from internet, stating that it was a 'demo version'
(10) Redo vocals
(11) Remaster song, realizing it was really poorly done
(12) Song is finished, although it is now 2024 and no one listens to 'music' anymore

Like many in America, and especially Arizona, I am in an unfortunate situation. This situation is called unemployment. In Tucson, there simply aren't that many jobs right now, and even less that I want. You see, in Tucson this is what the ads for computer jobs look like:
 

Well, maybe not that bad, but it is a discouraging task.

I saw Minority Report last night and I think I agree with the 97% percent of critics when I say that it's good stuff.

Oh, the guestbook doesn't work because right now all of Zwei's sites are on a colocated box and the PHP3 w-agora points at an IP. I could change it, but... meah.

Well, we didn't die. So much for listening to the Government.
 

Like many of the people around the world, i've been stuck in a vile, fiendish trap created by a company by the name of Bethesda. Aiming to destroy unwitting people's lives, they once created a game... if you could call it a game. In many ways it resembled the Hellraiser cube. Awed by it's sheer power, many were sucked inside, left devastated as they wandered it's depths. This game was called Daggerfall. Ask Dan if you need proof. Dan would disappear to us all, busy running around in this game doing nothing at all, not advancing the main quest (yes, there was a main quest Dan!) and ignoring the real world. To this day, he still has my CD. Any attempts at retrieval end up with the following conversation:   Me: "Hello. Dan?" Dan: "Hi. What's up?" Me: "I need my Daggerfall CD back." Dan: "Dagger-what? Who is this?" Me: "It's me, Pete." Dan: "Pete? I don't know anyone named Pete." Me: "Yeah you do. You know me. Besides, there other Petes that you know, Dan." Dan: "Dan? Who's Dan?" Me: "You're Dan!" Dan: "Um, I think you have the wrong number... *click*" Me: "What the hell? Hello? HELLO??!?" *grumble grumble* *hits redial* Dan: "Hello, this is Dan speaking...." ...and so on. Well, little beknowest to him, I have Morrowind. Knowing to the victor come the spoils, I jumped headfirst into a world that I knew would be better than Daggerfall, a task that many thought impossible. Instead of a randomly generated world, we have a hand crafted world with people and places that matches, if not surpasses, the great Ultima VII. This is a world where one actually begins to generate a sense of being. It seems silly, I know, but it is the truth. Once you enter this magnificent world, you may never wish to return to the real.

Meet Cutedge.  Cutedge is a dark elf that was imprisoned for many years by the Emperor, but for reasons unknown, he was placed on a boat and shipped to Morrowind. Upon arriving, he was given some money, was told to find Casicus Corsas in Belmora, and was sent on his merry way. Cutedge set out on this task, only to be delayed time and time again. You see, Cutedge is somewhat of a do-gooder. He helps those in need, and this has the effect of making him take an extraordinary amount of time to get from place to place. It seems like the roads are packed with those who need assistance, from escorting lost travelers to helping find people who have been attacked by cultists. Cutedge eventually made it to Belmora, where Corsas told him that he was to join the Blades, but he needed more experience. Corsas recommended that Cutedge should join a guild. Thinking to himself of his many adventurers helping those in need (perhaps due to his rough past that had him put in prison), Cutedge decided to travel to Genesis and join the Imperial Guard... however, the road to Genesis was long, almost all the way across the island. Nevertheless, Cutedge set out into the wilderness. Finally, after what seemed like ages of travel, Cutedge arrived at Genesis and found the Garrison there. Upon talking to Captain Darius, Cutedge joined the Imperial Guard, where he serves to bring order to this chaotic land.

All I can say is: Damn. I'm a dork.

WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE!!!

Update to last post: Well, it looks like my ATI Radeon All-in-Wonder finally passed. Today it started to do things that were not very friendly for viewing. So, I'm back on the old Voodoo 3 now. However, I have some optimized drivers thanks to the nice people at Omega Drivers.

Not like any of you care.

The random pipebomber seems to have had the idea that he should make a happy face in the pattern of his violence. Too bad Fight Club beat him to the idea. In fact, most of his 'ideas' are pretty old. Yeah, the Government controls you. Who cares? We're all mind controlled? Ok. That just makes everything that much easier to deal with.  If we don't have to think and we're told what to do and our jobs and purpose in life are set by those that control us, then it brings less agony of having to fight through life trying to figure out what to do with our lives and keeps us from wasting our time thinking of the stupid things we do. Bring on the mind control!

Once again it's finals time at Pima CC, so I've been busy racking my brain pretending to study while working on various projects. The project for CIS223 is a pain in the ass, but luckily my group members are pretty sharp, so it's going alright. I may or may not put the final results in the 'Resource' section of the page... I mean, I know how much my avid llamalicious readers would want to see it. It's basically a bid on setting up the network for about 300 computers.

With my brother moved out, I find myself stuck on a Pentium 2 333mhz. While it is better than nothing, it is certainly not the most cutting edge machine. In fact, the edge that once powered Diablo II and Half-Life is now fairly dull. I've been trying to squeeze Dungeon Siege onto it. While I do have a AIW Radeon card, it is semi-faulty and has problems with it's Texture/Color/Lighting unit. Many games don't like the card and have weird clipping problems and flashing textures and many even have polygon warping and such. However, it does work with DS, so I can bask in 6-15 frames of second of the roleplaying game that plays itself.

FYI> I moved current to the top of the opening page so maybe someone will read it. 

Counter-Strike 1.4 is out, once again crashing any web server that dares host it. CSNation has a list of mirrors on their site. In other Counter-Strike news, the german student who gunned his schoolmates down in Germanyland was apparently a Counter-Strike player, leading the government officials to want to ban all violent video games. 

In further news, I myself am a Counter-Strike player. Knowing that, you may be advised to stay 30 feet away from me at all times.

Anyway, go to the Online petition if you enjoy Futurama and sign up.