I'm just about over the problems that I reported last post. I've stopped being so bored with everything and have gotten back into the swing of things; namely coding.

I've still got the LiveSteel webpage and the LeftOfTheMiddle webpage to work on, not only to get them finished and working, but also so that I can use them as examples for job interviews. PhP, while being the most foul and evil language I've ever had the misfortune of grokking, does have some decent routines for retrieving SQL data and parsing arguements. I'm utterly frustrated that I can't do much of anything while I'm at work, due to the fact that the PhP/web interface for administering the mySQL databases, while being very helpful and user-friendly, is running on a port that is blocked by the proxies here. I wonder if I could install NetScrape to get past that...

I've stated keeping a journal of my more spiritual thoughts. Not online, naturally, but in a very nice leather-bound book that Rhi got me this past Spring. It's kinda tough to write in, with the floppy cover not lending much of a writing surface, but I like it all the same. On one side of the book I'm keeping my journal, and on the other side I'm writing down dev notes, code examples, phone number, and sketches of stuff.

Only 3 more working days (couting today even) before I will never have to set foot in Stream again. I'm excited for a bit of a break, but I'm worried that I might not be able to find a decent job before my severance pay runs out. I've got all of my avenues open, but times are rough in the valley.

If there's one thing that I absolutely can't stand, it's existential quandaries. And I'm stuck in one right now. It's not like it has been in the past, but it's bad nonetheless.

I'm just really confused. I will be without a job in less than 2 weeks, and I'm not very close to getting my stuff filled out for the National Emergency Grant or for unemployment.

I am fairly close to a new job, but that's still a variable that hasn't been set. The next school seemmster starts in 1 month, and I've got NO information about grants or anything. I'm not even sure what school I want to go to. The University of Great Falls has dropped a lot of the stuff that I was interested in from their catalogue of courses, making them a less-than-optimal choice. Not that I was very interested in attending a Catholic college to begin with, but that's another story. I've discovered that while the University of Phoenix Online does have some great programs, they charge an INCREDIBLY high amount for online credits. I mean, sure, it would be great to be able to get my Bachelors Degree in Information Technology, but with a running price of $550 per credit/hour I could get 5 certifications from the Gnomon Institute for the cost of 1 semester!

There is hope, though. There are other schools online that will lead me towards my bachelors degree far easier than that. I've got a few bookmarked for study when I have some leisure time.

But back to my quandary...

I just don't know what to do with myself these days. I'm frustrated with my iniability to do really cool stuff with Maya yet, making pursuing that avenue annoying; I'm burned out on coding ever since last Thursday when I spent 18 hours straight coding for a job interview; I've played every game that I own 'ad-infinitum'; and swordpractice is only once a week. I'm getting bored and really frustrated.

At least I've got so much anime that I could seriously watch for 3 days straight and never run dry.

I think that I'll start researching PhP now. I've got work to do on the LOTM page...and I'm running late (as usual.)

My ex, Fawn, is trying to invade my life. She's basically recruiting any of my friends that she can, and indoctrinating them to believe that I am a loser, and Rhi is a slut. She showed up at Jason's work yesterday with Jaine (one of her fuck-buddies) to talk to him.

Jason is taking a neutral stance on this issue. He doesn't like to get involved in anything that he can avoid, and he's avoiding this one like the plague. I understand his position, and can't really blame him for not wanting to be a part of it, but at the same time, I'm kinda hurt. I know it's not his fight, and I know that he's not the kind of person to stick his neck out for just anything; I guess that if jason was in the postion that I'm in, I'd be on his side 100%, and I expect my friends to do the same. With so few people that I know that aren't actively scheming against me, I hold dear everyone that I can trust. When it comes right down to it, though, I really don't blame Jason for his stance.

Money got tight again, but I think that everything has been fixed. The bank was very nice and removed one of the check-overdraft fees so that we could come up with the money needed to pay our bills. It's only taken five trips to the pawn shop to bring our liquid capital up to be able to set things right.

I'm going to go talk to an organization, Project Challenge, to see if I can't get some help with my tuition. One of my friends, William, got a $9000 grant for schooling at the institute that I want to attend. I really hope that I get that grant. Not only is it exactly what I need to get ahead in my college career, but if I don't get it, I'm going to be very angry...I can't even begin to describe the sheer anger that I would feel if I get screwed out of this financial aid as well. I'm going to do everything that I need to get in, though, though it may mean sacrificing Georgia... Yarrr, there be rough waters ahead, me mateys...

I'm scared, but I'm going to win!!!

I had a post on Monday, I swear. Something ate it. Maybe it was Jason's imaginary pet Ferret, Heimdall. It won't be too long before Heimdall is no longer imaginary, though. Jason wants to buy one ASAP. I'm inclined to conceed another furry body in the house, as is Rhi.

Anyways, ficticious tube-rats aside, as the topic would indicates, we have finally found the time and moey to go food shopping. We're only minus about a dozen items that we would need for the apartment to be a place of normal consuption again, but I'm satified with having something other than canned pears for every meal.

To be truthful, Rhi and Jason made me a rather good spaghetti dinner the other night. It's just a bit of a shame that I wasn't there when they made it, and it sat on the stove for an hour before I was able to sit down and eat. It was dry and weird, but at the same time it was the first real meal that I'd had in days.

Cleaning up sucked. Sauce wasn't meant to be left on a burner, regardless of the heat level, for any amount of time exceeding 40 minutes after is is completed cooking.

I went SCUBA diving last weekend with Jason at both Dickie Lake and Swan Lake. Both times I had a blast, and ended up seeing some really neat things. I didn't even get decomrepssion sickness. Yay me!

In further ground-breaking news, I FINALLY GOT MAYA WORKING IN LINUX!!!!1 It's more beautiful that I could have ever imagined. It was quite easy actually. Maya uses your MAC address to generate a unique key, making Serial Numbers impossible to be illigally distributed without knowing the algorithm that generates them. I wasn't able to find that algorithm online, and the Windows Maya 5.0 cracks weren't working, so I was stuck, until I realized that all that I had to do was to copy my Maya-Win license file over to Linux, and run the 'InstallLicence' script that came with the Maya install.

Now the only reason that I need to reboot back to Windows is to play Priston Tale, or to play NeverWinter Nights multiplayer (because my NWN version is different in Linux than it is in Win) and to play Priston Tale, which I have admittedly not played for some time now.

There's still a few things that I can't quite do In Linux...yet. At least everything has been cleared off of my 'Mission-Critical: Must Convert to Linux' list, leaving only the 'Not-Quite-as-Bad: But Stil Must Convert to Linux' list. I need a decent image manipulation program. The GIMP, well...the GIMP sucks. I can't stand the interface, and the tools are impossible to work with. I mean, I can't get a tool outline; I can't resize the brushes (except for the preset sizes;) I can't set brush opacity, stepping, density or hardness; I can't remember if I ever found the vector line tool; and The GIMP apparently can't export to GIF, except in the Windows version. I tried looking for a plugin for GIF export options, but I guess it just doesn't exist for Linux. There's also Pixel32, but it's demo-ware and watermarks all of the images. Pleh.

Despite the fact that there's plenty of food at home, I'm starving at work. I never remember to grab anything on my way to work, thinking that I can survive the day without food. After 3 or 4 hours (often less) just about anything sounds good. I'd eat my shoe, if it weren't so dirty.

Things that sound good to eat right now:

• Steak Fries with Mayo
• Roast Beef Sandwich: Au Jus
• Papa Murphy's Chicago Style Pizza
• "The Back Room"s Rib Sampler Platter with extra Fry-Bread
• Beef and Cheese Ravioli in Tomato Sauce
• Oriental Flavored Ramen with Crab Meat
• Toasted Cheese Sandwiches and Tomato Soup
• A BLT Sub from Subway: Lettuce, Tomato, Onion, and Pickles, with Oil and Vinegal Dressing, American Cheese, and Honey Mustard

I think I'll stop tormenting myself now...

Yup. Still haven't gone food shopping yet. We've overdrawn our bank account, spent most of the cash that we had on hand, and bounced a check, all in the past 3 days, meaning that food is a thing of the past, and probably the far, far future.

Money is really, tight, but I don't want to talk about that. I get enough of that at home already.

I'm continuing my eternal struggle to get everything working on Linux. There's just one high-priority thing left...Maya. I've got a copy of Maya for Linux, but I have not been able to find a crack for it yet. The registration and copy protection is different in Linux thatn it is in Windows, otherwise I could just use my license files from Win and be good to go. (If Alias-Wavefront or anyone associated with them ever reads this; I promise to buy Maya as soon as I'm not poor.) I'll continue my vigil. Maybe I can track down some of the groups that made the cracks for older versions of Maya for Linux.

Out of all of the business deals that I've been a part of, I've got to say that the upcoming merger with LOTM is probably the most compatible union ever. I mean, he's lazy, I'm lazy. He's bad at establishing contact with me, as am I with him...we're perfect for each other! Just as long as nothing really needs to be done.

So I went and saw Pirates of the Caribbean last night, and I was quite impressed with everything that I saw. I knew nothing about this movie when I went to go see it, but the presence of the word 'pirates' in the title was more than enough to entice me. Not only did I have a good time, but I've got to admit that it was probably one of the best movies that I've seen in a while. The story was great, the characters were likeable and balanced, and the special effects were awesome!

However, just like most of the toast that I make, this story of movie-watching happiness has a darker side. The movie kind of took precedence over something very important...going food shopping. There's barely a bite to eat in the house, and I've been starving for days now. I haven't got any cash at all, the debit card is just about empty, and Rhiannon is holding the only money that we've got; roughly 50 bucks in cash. I wanted to go food shopping yesterday before the movie, but she was just...I'm not even going to get into it. It will suffice to say that she was enjoying fucking with my head, and wouldn't answer my question of whether or not she wanted to go food shopping or not. After 20 minutes of asking her, she finally said "no," but by then it was too late to go get food anyways before going to the movie.

Fuck. She might be able to go without more than 1 meal a day (she gets free food at work) but I need something like 3 meals a day, plus snacks to keep me going. I'm not even a very large guy, but a high-metabolism can really jack up the food bills. Plus I refuse to eat out. It's way too expensive and we're moving soon, so we need all the bucks we can scrape together.

I'm just pissed off because she got all mad at me for not realizing the difficult situation that she's in right now (new job,) when I'm dealing with more shit than she is. Job hunting (coming home empty handed every time) car hunting (same) bandersnatch hunting (tricky little bastards) and being STARVING FOR 4 DAYS!!!!!

Damnit, I promised myself to make no more of these pointless rants online. Hunger, this round goes to you, but I'll get you next time...

After getting hooked on NeverWinter Nights again (thank you BioWare, for your perfectly working NWN-Linux client) I've almost managed to shake myself of the game, yet again. The main reason that I got bored with it so fast was that I had to re-play the entire first chapter 3 times through! There's a nasty little glitch in one of the boss battles (the Intellect Devourer) that will cause one of the plot-critical items to dissappear forever! Unless you go back to a previous save game, you're basically fucked and left to start the game over. The cool thing is, you can save your character and play with that same cahracter again and again. So, after playing the first chapter 3 times, I've got some pretty god-like items, and I'm something like 4 levels ahead of what one normally is at this point in the game.

Jason is also just about ready to take his ShadowBane addiction down from 'harmful-to-your-health' to 'mildly-obsessive.' He's going to spend the rest of his spare time working on coding for our game project.

I'm starting work on the LeftOfTheMiddle page with more gusto now. I spent about an hour today figuring out CSS compatibility for Linux based systems, and even that wasn't enough to faze me. I'm going to try to get the new page up and ready by the end of the week. Or, at least, the basic layout of it and some of the CGI code.

On a slightly related note, I got what might have been a job opportunity just a little bit ago. One of the head trainers here at work asked me if I was still in business doing webpages and artwork. I told him that I was, and he asked if I could drop by a business card for him. Hello, is that WORK that I smell??? Mmmm...it smells like stew!

I think I'll go to Albertsons on my break and buy some stew.

I think that I need to sleep for about a week. I got so badly sunburned (sunburnt?) while camping that sleeping isn't much fun. Neither is getting up at 10 AM to take your girlfriend to her new job across town despite the fact that you went to bed at about 4:30 AM because your roomate started you talking about boats, and didn't go to sleep until 5 or 5:30 AM because your skin feels like it's been rubbed with 100-grit sandpaper and tabasco sauce for hours on end, and once you've finally gotten awake at that ungodly hour, taken her to work and come home again, you can't fall back asleep because of, once more, your treacherous skin hates you and wants you to scream in pain for the rest of your miserable life....

Yeah....

I reiterate; I think I need sleep.

And french toast. Fuck all you mo-bitches who want to take away my french toast. You tried to feed me 'freedom fries,' well, you can take your Nazi, book-burning ideas with you to hell!

...not getting MY french toast, you fuckers...

I'm sitting here at work, and I almost told a customer "blowjobs and boobies."

Let me explain.

When I hear that 'ding' that indicates there is another customer sent to annoy me my brain drags up my opening script and spits it out into my headset pickup. I don't even think about it anymore. It just kinda, comes out. Somewhere in my brain there's a little ticker-tape reader, the kind that you see in old movies that tell stock info, that contains my opening script in it's little clicking dome, and it's set to kick out its contents automatically when I hear that little 'ding.'

It's kinda creepy, actually. If I'm not paying attention, which I rarely am, the subconscious response to my phone ringing takes over of its own accord. There have been times that I've been sitting here reading or working on something else, and the next thing that I know, there's a customer talking in my ear. If I try and think back, I can't even remember saying my script, or asking for their details, or anything. I lose 10 seconds of my life every time I take a call.

Anyways...you know how if you say a word over and over and over again, and the word starts to not make sense anymore? That started to happen with my opening script about 8 months ago. So now, instead of rattling of that my name is Matt and I'm in some department that does stuff, sometimes my brain kinda forgets what it's talking about, but instead of checking the script again it will take words that I'm reading and randomly stick them in with the rest of my script. Needless to say, that really fucks with that little ticker-tape machine. I've said, and almost said, some really bizarre things. "Thank you for calling Hubrius Pachyderm..." "Thank you for calling boobie support..." "...I'm with the puppy-rat support..."

My brain is trying to get me fired.

As one would imagine, I wasn't able to get everything done by the camping trip. Not only am I not finished with all of my gear, but I wasn't able to get the day off!

Yup, you guessed it. I had to return home early from the camping trip today to go to work. It's no big deal, though. Today is Friday, and I'll be returning to stay through Sunday. My costume is assembled, with the exception of my cloak. I can't seem to find my green cloak: the one item that makes me look just plain cool out of my entire ensamble. Well, aside from the sword, that is.

Stream, my arch nemesis, has finally bowed down to my overall surperiority. After almost exactly 3 years of waiting and enduring, Stream is leaving Kalispell. By the end of next month, Stream will close it's doors for good, never to darken the town of Kalispell with it's evil again. Of course, this is not without scarring the community deeply. Humor aside, our economy is pretty fucked up around here. I've got a 2 year degree and plenty of job experience, yet I can't get a job ANYWHERE in the valley. At least, nowhere decent. I'm sure that I could end up being a clerk at OfficeMax, and Smith's would likely take me back again, but I'm not about to jump onto one of those options right quick. Especially with the blooming joy of severance pay (and probably unemployment pay) awaiting me. I'm not looking forward to unemployment compensation, and I'm going to do everything that I can to stay away from it, but it just might be the best that I'll be able to come up with for a while. I can only thank my lucky stars that I've actually got my Associates degree to back me up when applying for a new job, as the market is going to be flooded with applicants very soon. I'm going to have to go to to job services on Monday to look for something.

I'm still working on the new web page for LeftOfTheMiddle. Work has been slow, mostly due to the fact that I've got a lot of webcomics to read through at work every day, but also because I've got more projects lined up than time as of late. I'm working on it, though...really.

Blah. I'm kinda tired. I think I'll have another bag of pop-grease and Coke to wash it down.

I don't drink Coke for the taste anymore. I drink it for the antibiotic properties. Seriously though, have you ever seen any animal live when submerged in Coke? If you drop a small insect into Coke it dissolves within a minute, as the carbonic acid eats through the protective exoskeleton like boiling water through icecream. I've never heard of anyone getting sick because their Coke went sour or bad. All other forms of food go bad with time; milk becomes cottage cheese, potatoes become sludge, and kool-aid becomes wine-cooler. Why then does Coke just remain Coke?

The reason is that bacteria and gremlins, the two primary culprits in food spoilage, can't tolerate the harsh conditions that Coke provides as a medium. Instead of a nice, warm, protein-rich environemnt, they instead find a hellish nightmare of burining acid and empty calories. Subjecting any organisms to that kind of habitat is like setting a hamster loose on the surface of Mercury. (I'm making a note to include a visual to detail this effect later)

Today I am quite sure that Coke has saved my life. I was sitting in my cube at work, shirking my duties as usual, and eating a bag of pop-grease with a Coke to wash it down. A piece fell to the floor, and before I could even stop to think about what I was doing, I reached down, picked it up and devoured it. I chewed and swallowed, only to find that my tasy floor-snack had left me a little present. With a horrble feling in my gut I reached up and plucked from the tip of my tongue...a hair. And not one of my hairs either. Keep in mind that the floors in this office haven't been cleaned since the building's construction over 3.5 years ago, so a lot of sweaty dander, spilled food, and general bottom-of-the-boots grossness has accumulated on the floors since then.

Quickly I guzzled the remainder of my can of Coke, and felt the wonderful burning going down my esophagus that meant that the Coke was eradicating all traces of bacteria, as well as a few layers of my throats protective lining.

Ahhh, mysteriously flavored salvation.

Stay tuned for my next dissertation where I concoct a cure for scurvy out of margarine.

Once more I've managed to squeak past some rather difficult events with nary a scratch on me. This instance hinges on the fact that Rhiannon's 21st birthday took place the day before yesterday. As usual, I slacked off and put everything off until the last second. I ended up planning out the secret party last Friday, and inviting everyone on Sunday afternoon. I am a slacker of titanic proportions.

I'm also the luckiest fucker alive.

Starting at the beginning: Before the surprise party, she opened her gifts. She absolutely loved both the ring and the Ansel Adams photograph that I got for her, despite my rather 'creative' wrapping job. I will post pics as soon as I am able to. In addition to that, Jim got her a book that identifies all of the reptiles and amphibians in the continent. The gift that I was, admittedly, a bit surprised by was the copy of Shadowbane that Jason got her. I didn't think that she was going to enjoy it that much...but she played it for 4 hours after she got it installed, and played at least 6 hours yesterday. I'm pretty jazzed about that, seeing as I will now no longer have to worry about Rhiannon getting bored when I want to do something de solo. She asked me if I minded her playing it. I told her that I not only didn't mind, but that I was probably the happiest geek alive. I'm not in Shadowbane myself, but that matters little. We can now share gaming stories.

I managed to get about 10 people showing up for the party, which was held at FatBoys Sports Bar, where we then proceeded to drink ourselves goofy. Not only did Rhiannon get to drink some pretty wonky drinks, she had a great time and didn't even get sick (of course, 5 shots isn't exactly barf-fodder.) After that we shot some pool, and called it a night.

Rhiannon was pretty far gone by the end of the night, so, as one might imagine, she got herself a good supply of birthday-sex too.

Anyways, moving on...

Everyone in our apartment got sick last weekend. At first I was kinda scared that it might have been SARS (we had just recieved a few packages from overseas,) but it turned out to just be some kind of stupid cold. Rhiannon and Jason got over it pretty quickly, but I've been stuck with laryngitis for the past 3 days. I missed work on Monday, partially because of Rhi's party, but also because I wasn't able to talk correctly. Now, with 1 day already absent from my pyacheck, I've no other choice but to come to work and just work around my condition. Needless to say, it bites.

The bank has been doing some weird shit with the account that I share with Rhiannon. Checks have been clearing late causing havoc with our book-keeping, the ATMs have been fucked up thanks to the mainframe computers being replaced in the bank, and our account has been reporting various nonsensical levels of balance over the past few days. I've been scared out of my mind; with visions of overdraft fees dancing through my head. As it is, I managed to get it mostly cleared up with the bank today. All that remains is to check with the bank tomorrow on a few straggling withdrawls that seem a bit suspect to me. Rhiannon's checks should clear soon, and both she and I will have another check to deposit this Friday. I may have to tighten my belt and dump all of my cash into bills, though. Rhiannon swears that we've got the money to take care of the DSL / Electricity / Gas bills with a bit to spare, but I'm not entirely sure. Just to be safe I'm going to go over the account again tomorrow, and calulate out our expendiatures and bills to see if we're going to need help or not.

And if any of you doubted that I'm still at Stream, I just had a customer read the word "initializing" as "iznitializilizing." You just CAN'T make shit like that up.

I got started on Maya 5 last night (demo version, of course) and I've got to say that I'm impressed with what it has to offer. All last night while Jason and Rhi played SB, I meddled around in Maya. It was quite a bit of fun, and now that I've started to get a grasp on how some of the tools are suposed to work, I think that I just might kick gaming altogether and get back in my graphics groove.

Jason has started getting back into coding a little bit, though he's still playing SB quite a bit. He wants to charge ahead and start making an MMORPG. I wasn't so thrilled with the idea before, but now that I see how much fun Priston Tale is, I have a greater appreciation for the MMOG genre. We've got some pretty damn cool ideas for it. I really shouldn't say too much about it, but there's going to be at least 3 playable character races which will all constantly be at odds with each other based upon a set of PvP rules and goals. We've got it balanced out to the point where we think that PvP won't get out of control, yet will still be a big part of the game. There will also be more to the game than just the leveling treadmill, if players choose to take part in that.

Before we can do much of anything with the game, though, we're going to have to experiment a little more with the CrystalSpace graphics libraries. Jason is researching more about C++, and I'm continuing my tirade of graphics, eventually to be working on character models and landscape. I think that I can probably get up to the level that I need to be without to much trouble. Only time will tell, but my hopes are as high as a hobo with a can of turpentine.

I still do game, though. I've sometimes just gotta do something to free up my frustrations, and sinking balttle-cruisers does the job.

Battlefield: Desert Combat is WAAAAYY more fun with a flight stick. I dug my old flightstick out of the closet yesterday and hooked it up...dayyaammmnn. The throttle controls actually work the way that they're supposed to (sometimes a little TOO well) and I can now strafe and bomb targets with the greatest of ease.

I'm still in Priston Tale, despite my frustration with leveling a few days ago. I figured out that I was jumping WAAYY too far ahead in my attempt to level faster. You can gain exp pretty quick if you're with a bunch of guys your own level and taking on the hardest beasts that you can find, but you canalso level up quite well fighting creatures all on your own if you pick the location well. I'll probably keep playing until I either hit lvl 70 (the cap) or they start charging for it.

I went to circle again this past weekend. I was really nervous going there, not unlike a second date, but once I was there I felt great. Some pretty cool stuff happened that night as well. What kind of stuff? Well, just stuff-like stuff. Stuff and things, ya know? (if Rhiannon ever reads this; no, it was not an orgy. calm down =)

And last, and most cetaily not least, is my progress with the webmaster of LeftOfTheMiddle.com, Butters. He likes my idea, and has given me the go-ahead to whip something up for LeftOfTheMiddle.com. I'll probably start work on it next year, if my currect record is any indication of my work ethic.

I can't fscking believe it. I had a BIG FREAKING post, and the STUPID DEFECTIVE proxy server lost it.

Let me explain: while I am serving my 8 hour tenure in damnation (work) as I am right now, I make it a point to waste as much company time, resources, and bandwidth as possible. Hence, that's why I usually only post in my journal every other day. I'm part time, and a slacker to boot. Deal with it.

And during this lengthly vacation from everything that I know and love, the only lifeline that I have to everything else is the Internet, or at least a mockery thereof. They blocked most of the best sites, but that's not even the worst part. The worst part is the fact that if the proxy server recieves an error when trying to locate a host name, half the time it just barfs up an error, but the other half of the time it locks the request down tighter than the fit of my socks. Naturally, when the request locks like that, the browser and all browsers that were spawned by that browser freeze with no hope of recovery. And that's what happened. I spawned a browser window off of the window that I was working in and tried to access something, therefore killing my entry before I could do anything to save it. Fucking. Weak.

Anyways, the REAL entry continues from here.

I can feel Priston Tale's hooks slipping from me slightly. It may just be because that leveling has gotten quite difficult for me over the last few levels. I'm lvl 17, and of the two places that I can go to level, one is too easy, and the other is too hard. My main problem is not being able to handle the monsters; quite to the contrary, I can handle most creatures just fine...one on one. It's when I get stuck inbetween 2 or 3 creatures that I get messed up. It may be because I messed up in appying my stats somewhere, but I think that it may also be beacuse I'm not approaching the game correctly. I've hit the same point that I did about 9 levels ago, where I'm just too strong for most creatures, but not yet strong enough for the ones that give me decent amounts of exp, although the reason for that is mostly because monsters are rarely seen alone, and if one is found alone it's almost a sure thing that more will spawn as soon as you start to fight it. Monsters travel in parties, so I guess it just makes sense for the players to do so as well. When I'm partied up with even 2 other people I can kick ass, so long as I don't have to take all of the hits and I keep a good store of health potions on hand. I'll probably keep at it for a while yet, just to see how far I can get. Plus the game is constantly under development, so there's bound to be all kinds of cool things that the developers are going to come out with in the time to come.

Money problems have arisen with me and Rhi. Right now, the paychecks are slim, and the bills are mighty and strong. Not only do we have to finish paying off hospital bills from over a year ago, the remainder of which totals $170, but we also owe the phone / DSL company $140 (setup fees are a bizzatch!) Fortunately, Rhi is going to be getting more hours at work in the weeks to come, meaning that we've only gotta tighten our belts for a couple more weeks, and then we should be fine.

I've been giving a bit of thought lately to making a page of my own, kind of like the homepage of my friend Blake. I mean, Slashdot is a great place for a blog, and I can read the daily news while I'm there, but I don't really see any traffic, and blogs are all about providing would-be voyeurs with the chance to feel all secrety and sneaky about reading someone else' innermost thoughts and ramblings, aren't they? Yeah, I thought so too.

When most people set up their first homepage early on in their 'Net experience they tend to give it an incredibly stupid name, like Deepz Crib or The Azure Turle's Lair. I didn't want my new creation to give that kind of an impression, so I started thinking of something alightly more creative than that. Whatever it was, it would have to be something that matched my rather unique personality. So in essence, something totally random and pointless. After pondering for some time without coming across any real gems, I then remembered the fictional production company that I made for my Video Making college course last semester; Left-of-the-Middle Productions. Yeah, I'd say that that's sufficiently random and non-mainstream.

So, I headed over to Mr. Iexplore.exe to check the domain...and found that it was already in use. At first I was afraid that the domain would be taken by some company that would never ever release it, as two of my previous ideas had been; Gryphon.com, and BeyondTheBlue.com. As it turns out the domain is owned by some guy from...somewhere. Actually I know almost nothing about that guy, except for the fact that his name is Butters, and that he likes banana smoothies.

He's currently using LeftOfTheMiddle.com as a blog / rant page, with a fairly concurrent update schedule. His stuff is very...stuff-like, and it's oddly satisfying to read, in a penny-arcade sort of way.

So, in the spirit of corporate America, I decided to buy him out.

I sent him an e-mail asking if he would sell his domain. This is the distilled-down version of his response: "No i'm not interested in selling. Plus I don't really know how to do that. What are you all about? I don't know, make me an offer." in response to his rather ambiguous answer, I will reply to tell him my grand scheme for that domain.

My Grand Scheme, which I have entitled "The Great Mess of Grey and Yellow," will be a blog space, but also a spot where I can host my own personal stuff, like art galleries, movie clips that I have made, programs that I have written, game music and movie reviews, etc. Basically, everything that Butters is already doing, but prettier, and with CGI-Perl as the base. In addition to that, I'm also going to offer Butters the ability to keep posting on LeftOfTheMiddle as much as he wants so that he doesn't have to give up his brain-child (or brain-tumor, or whatever he wants to call it. Seriously though, I like his content, and would like to keep him around.) Maybe I'll even get a few more blogs hosted on that site. Who knows?

Anyways (and I'm not sure that that's a real word...I think that it's supposed to be 'anyway') I'm going home now. Work = over, and I...just got a call...damnit! And it's an Arabian guy too. Just my fscking luck. It's not that I have anything against Arabian people, but DAMN this guy has the WORST accent ever, and he's about as bright as the underside of a rock. I swear, this call must be the gods of the queue playing with my head because I tried to stay on the phones for an additional 15 minutes tonight...grrrr.

Rhiannon's birthday is on Monday, so I've got a LOT of planning to do for her birthday party, which will probably consist of me and a bunch of her friends going to the bar for a couple of drinks. I fear that I may have screwed it up already by not talking to everyone before now...I hate myself sometimes. I just hope that it turns out better than I fear it will.

It hit home today exactly how much of a slacker I've been recently. I mean, I sit around all day and play video games. Shit, just last yesterday alone me, Rhiannon and Jason played Battlefield 1942 for something like 13 hours straight! Our apartment needs cleaning, as does my room, not to mention me and my clothes. I'm sure that I'm pissing Jason off with my stench.

Alrighty then, no more fscking around. I'm going to set my day tomorrow in stone: I wake up NO LATER than 10 AM. After I wake up, I take a shower, shave, and have breakfast. Then, I gather up my clothes and take them back to my parents house to wash them, and while my clothes are washing I do something productive, like calling around for cars that I might want to buy, or working on the LiveSteel webpage. I really dislike the idea of being stuck at my parents house for a couple of hours at a time, but it's either that, or I walk to and fro multiple times (OK, just 4 times, but I'm lazy...) or I borrow a car. I'll figure that one out tomorrow. I'm also going to dedicate at least an hour or two to cleaning my room and the living room. Once I've finished all that needs to be done I will allow myself to have the rest of the day to do whatever I feel like. I'm sure that I'll feel better after all of that is out of the way, and especially once I'm hygenic again.

The job at MT Digital is not going anywhere, according to their secretary. She said that there are no jobs open, and that there won't be until they ramp up to home user service in July. I even tried plugging my web-expertise, to no avail. I'm going to call them in mid-July and ask about employment then.

Jonah has found me a potential contract for web design. There's a lady in Hot Springs, I think, that runs a ceramics shop who is in need of a web storefront. Jonah says that she won't be needing anything elaborate, simply something to advertise her wares, although I think that I could probably set up a simple storefront with CGI easy.

Still no work has been done on my costume, and the day of the trip grows ever closer. As a matter of fact, I haven't even gone to swordpractice in a few weeks, but in my defense I believe that both times it was because of a late engagement the night before.

I suppose that I wouldn't have such a hard time working on the costume if I wasn't so very hooked on Priston Tale. The fact that Jason is now in it makes it just that much mroe difficult to avoid. I have to admit, it is a very fun game, and I'm enjoying it greatly. I just need to moderate my game time and start organizing my priorities. (Sweet zombie Jesus on a pogo-stick...I never thought that I'd be saying anything like that with a straight face in my life. Somebody save me from myself!)

If I keep on going the way that I've been going for a while now, I'm never going to make it back to school this fall, and all of my dreams will be dashed to pieces.

I found a really cool band while searching for Beastie Boys on Kazaa, Cobalt Party Revolution. They're a hiphop-rap-fusion band, and I guess they're something called 'Indie Rock,' a name thats means nothing to me.

Either way, they rock hard, and I'm buying one of their albums today off of CDBaby.com.

Man...this weekend was crazy! I went to a LAN at Zach's on Friday evening where Adrian, Zach, Aaron and Jason were playing Emperor: Dune. The game looked awesome: it's a mix of Command and Conquer - Red Alert, with some StarCraft thrown in the mix. The only thing that I didn't like about the game was the fact that the interface SUCKS! The left-mouse click does just about everything in the game, including moving units, selecting units, assigning actions, moving the map, and Gaia alone knows what else.

I was WAAAAY to tired to be there, however. If we had been playing a game that I was familiar with it wouldn't have been such an issue, but I was trying to learn a completely new system and set of game rules. The book/movie Dune was already complicated enough, so naturally the game was kinda complicated too. My resources were quickly exhausted, and I crashed @ about 5AM after only one game of Dune.

We opted to go home after that instead of going to the Solstice LAN. After a few good hours of sleep, we got up and went down to the KM building at around 5 PM and got set up. It took us a while to get all of our software installed and updated, most of the patches being stored over the network, and transferring multiple updates @ 100MBs each can be a hassle.

This was both mine and Jason's first time playing Battlefield 1942...DAMN that game rocks! We played for quite some time, just messing around with the two of us, and then when Rhi showed up she actually got in on the action too. She's actually pretty good at BF1942, more specifically at flying. Me and Jason tend to be rather gung-ho in the planes and end up crashing quickly, whereas Rhi takes a smooth approach to flying, and is pretty damn accurate with the flying-fortress bomber.

We also had some fun messing around with UT2K3, another first for Jason and myself. However, the biggest game of the evening was Counter-Strike.

There were a few tournaments going on throughout the LAN; one for UT2K3, one for BF1942, and one for CS. We arrived just barely too late for the UT tourney, and the BF tourney was long over by then as well. The CS tournament was comprised of 3 teams of 5. Our team was Jason, Jim, Bobby, his wife Gayle, and myself. Team two was made up of a few people that I knew only a little or not at all, but the 3rd team was comprised of Scott, Kory, Swede, some guy named 'Blue-Dog' and my rival, Montana.

In the first game Montana's team played the other team...and subsequently squashed the fuck out of them. I don't recall the final score after 35 minutes, but I recall it wasn't pretty. After I finished wetting myself we geared up to take on the losing team. I strongly dislike being the Terrorist team, so, naturally, we played as the Terrorist team.

We were pretty well matched against this team, with the score going back and forth for most of the match. Jason and I were playing point-man, and doing so very aggressively. We got killed almost every round, but we took out at least 1 other person, making Jim's camping and Bobby and Gayle's turtling techniques just that much easier.

The games went back and forth for most of the time, each team taking a victory only to lose to the other team the nest time. By the end of the tourney I was starting to get back into my CS-Groove, and the final score was us: 10 them: 7.

The final round, however, was quite different. Right away we started getting raped. We were Terrorists again, much to my dismay, although the map was slightly tilted in our favor (Aztec.) I was getting rather frustrated and zoned in to CS about halfway through. Surprisingly, and with the risk of sounding like a braggart, I was actually owning some serious shit. After 9 rounds each of the members of the other team had about 12 kills with Montana leading with 18 kills. I was doing the best out of our team, to my surprise, with 17 kills, whereas the rest of the team was hovering around 9 each. At that point we quit the tourney, leaving the score at us: 2 them: 7. It hurt. A lot.

Rod later confided in me that he thinks that one of Mont's teammates might have been hacking, to which I agreed. The member in question, whose name I shall withold (not Swede or Kory) got quite a few REALLY scary headshots. Not just your normal "damn I just got nailed from across the map" headshots; it was more like "damn, he just jumped off of a building, turned a full 180 degrees and hit me through a box and the corner of a building" kind of thing.

Either way, I had a good time...even when Mont won the drawing for a really sexy keyboard that they were giving away that night....grrrr. I did manage to get out of that night with an Unreal Tournament 2K3 mouse bungee and an Elite Audio mug, so that was pretty cool. Actually, Jason and I each won a mug and a bungee, and Rhi got a mug, so we all made out pretty well.

Even Rhi had a blast, thanks to BF1942. Nest we're going to see if we can't install UT2K3 on her box to give her more ammmo for time-wasting. Speaking of such, Sam is going to come over tomorrow to LAN with us for a while. We're going to play mostly 1942 and UT, but we might bust out Neverwinter Nights just for fun.

Speaking of gaming, I'm COMPLETELY AND UTTERLY HOOKED on PristonTale. I can see where MMORPGs get their draw now. It's like DiabloII, but with all the fun of multiplayer and NO worry about hackers. I've got a lvl 10 Pikeman who can kick some ass, despite his low level. It's great. So far I've found pwrekk and Fux0r on the game, and I know that Wesker and Skybase both play too.

I really need to get out of it as fast as possible, mostly because it's been a long time since I got into Maya and messed around, and the game that myself and Jason had been planning has been put on hold.

I still...STILL...have done NO work on my costume, and the trip is something like 2 weeks away. Well, I take that back; I did do some work last weekend, mostly just on a dagger that I want to use for a backup weapon, which really isn't enough. I've still got an entirely new weapon to develop. I'm going to have to kick my ass to get that done.

On an unrelated note, I really want to go paintballing sometime this summer. I miss it a lot, but nobody ever wants to go. I think that if I plan ahead far enough I should be able to get a decent game of at least 5 people (which is pretty shitty, but is good enough for around here.) I'd even like to play an Airsoft game, but that's not likely.