Is there something in the collective water? I have no intention of leaving (because I've got nothing better to do, not because I think slashdot is number one super fun awesome site). I don't know or think about what people on my friends list think of me. I didn't even know LG had breasts. Job sucks, but whose doesn't? A new mame came out yesterday, so I'm content and downloading.

Maybe I need higher life standards.

http://www.achewood.com/index.php?date=10312003

Which is more attractive (on men or women)?

Form fitting and fully covering clothes?
- or -
Revealing and loose fitting clothes?

Seriously, could this movie drag itself out any longer? It's no wonder he had to split it in to two movies - for every second of actual movie there's a padding of about 10 seconds more on either side of it. Lots of great references, some pretty cool fight scenes, nifty camera work and nice little nuances from the actors, but this was the longest 2 hour film I've seen in a very long time, and I saw Dreamcatcher (hint: Dreamcatcher has poop monsters - and they aren't even funny!). I'm sure I'll still go see the second volume, but damn.

Also, on a completely unrelated note, if anyone has any idea how to manipulate WS-FTP Server on winnt to list complete path names (i.e. /winnt/system32/filename.exe instead of just filename.exe) when doing a directory listing on the client side, I'd like to hear about it.

"You need to do something about Cheerios. Really, they're awful. Yes they are good for my heart, but this is overshadowed by the fact that they taste like my butt."

On a whim I decided to put burn:/// in to the Nautilus location bar this evening since I'd heard that there are new drag and drop CD burning capabilities built in to it. I was completely floored when I dragged a 380MB file to it, hit the "Write to CD" button and hit OK on the dialog (it already knew that my CD burner was a SONY DVD+-RW) that it worked without any problems whatsoever. It even figured out max speed and burned it quickly. Tested the CD in another (Windows) PC and it reads fine. Did I mention that I'm not using scsi emulation? Super neat. Why the hell can't any other gui based burning programs do this? Now if only I could get it to make an audio CD...

Is anyone else getting randomly logged out of slashdot these days? It seems like it happens any time I do something journal related.

I need some suggestions. The more multiplayer the better. I got a platinum Gamecube, a wavebird, and Zelda for ~$190 total - $30 to be coming via gift card. I know I'll probably get F-Zero even though it'll certainly beat me senseless, and the standard fare of Super Mario Sunshine and Metroid. Anyone?

Don Hertzfeldt creates some nifty animation, including the now sorta famous Rejected. He's got a couple other shorts that are pretty hard to get a hold of, and someone was kind enough to wrap them up in to one convenient torrent on suprnova.org (would link to the torrent but they seem to dislike offsite linking). If you like it, go buy stuff and catch The Animation Show when it comes to your town.

Had to come in to work at 5am this morning and can't find anything to do (since no one is here yet), so I figured I'd write a little something. I'll certainly be rambling a lot so feel free to ignore - I'm just trying to stay awake.

So, the girlfriend and I have gotten in the habit of checking out the new season of TV using the TV guide synopsis as a preliminary filter. Since Tivo has come into the picture, we have a very focused television schedule - rarely is more than 10 hours a week watched. The general rule of thumb is to skip pretty much all sitcoms and see if anything sounds good, record an episode, watch it, and if it's any good season pass it until it sucks. If it lasts until the end of the season, then it gets another shot next year (unless it's cancelled which seems to happen frequently (John Doe, Firefly, Andy Richter Controls the Universe, etc.)). Here's a couple things we're sticking with right now:

The Restaurant - Since she's spent time waiting tables for a couple years and I spent time waiting and cooking in restaurant kitchens, this has proven to be a pretty interesting show. Only two episodes in it's hard to tell, but it looks like the staff and owner are interesting enough to keep me entertained.

Nip/Tuck - This show is slightly too hip/cool for it's own good, but it is well written and shot. I'm curious as to where the little 6 year old daughter has gone - maybe her contract didn't work out?

Survivor - I've managed to stay away since the first season, but the pirate theme was a little too much to resist. Good cast with the usual suspects (minus the old tough guy). Lots of beautiful people backstabbing each other with camera-induced drama.

Boomtown - This show will probably be referred to as a show that was good in it's first season until the network made them change their format. Telling the story from multiple characters' viewpoints worked really, really well, but NBC made them "dumb it down" for the masses. It's still well acted with a very decent story (especially for a cop drama), but I miss the original style. New season starts this week, so we'll see how it works now.

Carnivale - Acquired the first two episodes of this show about a traveling Carnival and a young man with mysterious powers (dun dun dunnnnh), and I'm really enjoying it. Everyone's comparing it to Twin Peaks, but the only thing it has in common (as far as I can see) is the pacing and mystery. I'd actually pay to get HBO if I wasn't required to get a stupid digital cable box. It costs as much as HBO just to rent the damn thing from Time Warner, so I just can't justify it. Plus it would screw up the crazy wiring I had to put together to combine the Tivo, MythTV box, VCR, DVD player, Nintendo and PS2 across 5 TVs. I actually learned Visio just so I could write out how to do it (I swear we don't watch that much TV :) ).

Monster House - I like this show. If you haven't seen it, try it once. It's definitely silly, but you can't beat Trading Spaces with a larger budget, themes (70's Disco House, Old West House), and a different surly build crew every episode.

Alias - This has turned out to be my favorite show in recent years. Looking forward to the premiere this weekend (where the hell has Sydney been for two years?!?).


Welp, writing all that managed to kill half an hour. Here's a quick review of Final Fantasy Tactics Advance:

I don't like it as much as the original PS1 version. Having multiple races hasn't done anything for me - in fact, I prefer all humans just because it's easier to tell who does what kind of job at a quick glance. I find myself checking the status of the moogles frequently just to find out what they're capable of doing to me. It is pretty easy - I haven't run in to a battle that just blows me away, whereas in the original one out of every three could potentially wipe out the whole party. They could also stand to do away with the "Land that you've freed is under attack!" random scenarios. They just end up being annoying - I'd prefer random battles to that. The plot isn't as silly as it initially seems and the portability is definitely a plus, but it just doesn't do the same things for me. The whole law/judge thing, however, is super great. Getting into a battle with a couple mages and adding a "No color magic" law is cool. Here's hoping for a combination of the laws/judge system, the old job and ability system, and a new plot on a console sometime in the near future.

Ok, off to do work. Hope everyone's having a good week. Buy a $99 Gamecube if you get the urge.

I was just offered an upgrade in position here at work to become a full-fledged daytime systems administrator with a healthy little raise. My boss went out on a limb and insisted on having me over the guy they wanted to hire from outside, despite some argument from his superiors. I'm a wreck of nerves and excitement over getting to do more interesting work and a fear of totally screwing up - I feel like I could vomit all over my desk! Wheeeeeeee!

Since my previous journal topic has been preempted, I thought I'd just mention that I haven't shaved in about a week and a half and I look like shit. That is all.

From this Register blurb...

FBI arrests Blaster suspect
By John Leyden
Posted: 29/08/2003 at 17:38 GMT

...

Parson (AKA teekid or t33kid) reportedly admitted to FBI Special Agent Eric Smithmier that he modified the original Blaster worm and created a variant which used the filename penis32.exe. Parson, who's reportedly 6 foot 4 inches tall and weighs 320 pounds , is alleged to have run a website where viruses were available for download.

Journalism or kicking him while he's down? You make the call!

This is mostly based on a single full day's worth of playing around.

Soul Calibur II:
If you've played Soul Calibur in the arcade or on the Dreamcast, you've more or less played Soul Calibur II. There's some differences sure, but mostly it's a refined version of the original. That is to say, it's really really fun. Arcade modes are still fairly easy to breeze through, even for a button masher like myself. The quest mode can be a little agonizing (especially in the "dungeon" type areas), but some of the extras are fun (and being able to play with the extra weapons is a nice change). Two player, however, is where it's at. It's weird playing a fighting game where you don't have to know a whole lot, but can still feel like you're in control of the character and can make neat looking things happen.

Positives:

Looks neat

Controls great

Decent load times (believe reviews when they say load times on Xbox/GC are faster because it seems to be very true)

Nice soundtrack

2 player mode is butt-fucking animal-ass fun

Having Heihachi isn't nearly as bad as people make it out to be - I think he's kinda fun

The VS. screen is hilarious when their animatronic-like mouths spout out some weird phrase "No chance!"

Easy for average joes and experienced fighting gamers to get into

Negatives:

Load times on PS2 can be occasionally slightly unbearable

Occasional slowdown on PS2 (supposedly not present on other consoles)

Could've used a couple interesting new characters (how many characters that can do other characters' moves do you need?)

Arcade mode kinda easy - endings (as with all fighting games) are lame

Disgaea:
I'll admit, I'm a sucker for the tactics strategy type game. It's probably one of my geekiest traits. I've been looking forward to the release of Disgaea for a while as it looked like a nice upgrade to the usual suspects in the field, but I don't think I was prepared for this thing. It has more ridiculous bells and whistles than you can shake a stick at. Disregarding the bizarre penguins that you start out with (that say "dood" a lot and explode when you throw them), there's also an item world where you can apparently take on battles inside your items to upgrade them. There's a system that's easiest to describe as "weird crystals on colored titles that cause various status ailments/improvements that you can throw on to different colored tiles and attack to make anyone on those tiles take damage." Sooner or later I'll get access to this whole senator system where you can bribe or fight dark senators to get their votes to do... something. And a fighting combo system that allows four characters to occasionally chain together attacks on one enemy. Still haven't figured out why that happens. Yep. As I've only spent a few hours playing this thing, I can't get more in depth, although it seems like it'll get reeeeal complicated sooner or later. Sweet.

Positives:

Disturbingly in depth. Lots to do.

Genuinely funny dialog

Team based turns (i.e. player sets up all moves and attacks and executes all first, then the enemy sets up all moves and attacks second).

Exploding penguins with knives in their fanny packs

Negatives:

Kinda screwy control. Moving over a tight grid with the analog pad is a Bad Idea

The graphics are kinda low rent, but not as bad as some reviews are making them out to be.

Sometimes it's hard to find the time to spend on this place. I've barely glanced at the front page in a few weeks - instead I've found myself reading journal entries as if it's "the news." Couple fun things have been going on:

First and foremost, I did something I never thought I'd do. Pay someone to remove an old cat's colon. I was never much of a cat person growing up, but this particular one* has really snagged me. So, a fine surgeon at Mission Medvet was kind enough to remove Cat's colon for a mere** $2,000. I just couldn't justify letting the animal suffer despite the fact that we have nothing even resembling that amount of money. However, she's home as of last night and doing well looking much thinner and much more energetic. Neat.

The girlfriend's truck has been useless for about two weeks now. This results in a whole lotta driving my car around to various places far away to drop off/pick up from workplaces and errands. Averaging about 1 tank of gas every 1.5 - 2 days. Having completely different work schedules doesn't help. I'm getting a little tired of driving and not getting to spend any time at home, but there's worse things in the world. Fortunately this should be resolved on Monday. Note to consumers: Don't go to Tires Plus. Ever.

After about two months of hiatus, the band is once again wasting time in the dank semi-filthy shed trying to write music. It's not as easy as it used to be, but it's still as good an excuse as any to turn the guitar up loud and drink.

Working a lot of overtime performing the uncomfortable task of automating my own job***. While this sounds like a bad idea on paper, it sounds worse spoken aloud. I'm taking the risk that the company will do what they promised and provide our department with the appropriate training to get out of this piss poor job and move into an equally piss poor job with better pay and hours. If they back out and fire us after we're automated, well... at least what I'm doing is good resume fodder.

That's about it for now. Royals are (temporarily) out of first. The MythTV Xbox project has some structure. Disgaea and Soul Calibur II come out for PS2 next week. I've started smoking pretty heavily again. Suprnova.org remains open despite all of the other bt shutdowns. I still use Gentoo and I still don't extoll its virtues every time I exhale. I still love the laptop (even though proof of the model's existence, even on the linked webpage, is almost unfindable - I believe it's an S307). The search for a good case is still on. Rented the movie Comedian and found myself quite interested.

So what did we learn today? Don't have a girlfriend. ****



---
* My girlfriend found this cat as a kitten with a broken hip and leg. Managed to teach it to walk perfectly on its lame leg and keep it healthy for 16 years so far. It even had diabetes and then 10 years later stopped having them. I didn't know that was possible.
** Mere in that "I've-never-had-that-much-money-at-one-time-in-my-life" kind of way.
*** I'm a 24/7 operator along with three other people at a lab which basically consists of babysitting servers and running batch work. The automation has consisted of a bunch of VMS DCL scripts that are a collective Ugly Hack (some would say that that's an accurate description of VMS itself). The promised training consists of Windows NT/2000 server training in which my skills are moderate but lacking. Not unlike the current system administrators here.
**** That's a joke.

I know it's just one game, but it was a good game dammit.

And to dorkify the journal a little, here's a link to the mailing list beginnings of running MythTV on Xbox, thus creating a cheap PVR.