Archives: August 2004
Friday, August 13, 2004
Microsoft's service pack 2 seems, so far, to have mostly solved (or greatly reduced?) the issues I was having when running UT2K4, which would lock inexplicably for up to 10 or more seconds at a time, often several times, in quite a number of levels. A problem that is well documented on Atari's UT2K4 forums among users with all kinds of different systems and specs since around March. A problem that has also gone unanswered by Atari/Epic, to the ire of many users, as well as myself. Previously reinstalling all kinds of new drivers for various components which might help solve the issue didn't really help, neither did reducing the settings and resolutions and all that.
PreZ went through a couple of levels I knew froze on me when I played them previously, and I played a few others, and so far only PreZ had it freeze maybe twice for shorter times than it did, and on only one level. This is an improvement seeing as that particular level usually made me freeze many times. Here's hoping that this makes the game more playable for me again, rather than have me end up swearing at my comp whilst playing when it freezes for the sixth time in a level for 10+ seconds.
Doom 3 actually runs fairly well on my system, even though my comp isn't that far over their minimum specs. I haven't played it yet, PreZ gave it a short run through on my system before and after he installed the service pack.
On the very low end of the graphics and game play scale, especially in comparison the graphic orgasmifests that are the above two games, is RPGWO, which Shadow, Ghost and p0m got me into, and hooked on. Damn you! :P They also dragged in ShadowWolf as well. We now have a little goth.net commune happening in one of the sectors, with four of us having adjacent plots of land and complimenting skill sets. Zarathustra will be joining us after he gets his skill levels up enough to claim land, and Crazed_Succubus just deleted her character to restart and get a higher skill level before rejoining us, seeing as the main island beasties are way more advanced than the ones on newb island (Haven) and she wants to get more fighter training in before trying to tackle the level 20-40+ monsters.
If anyone else plays, and wants to join up with our little GN Commune, let me know and I'll give the coordinates for where we're all located ;)
@ 04:22 PM EST
Doom 3
Need I say more?
@ 04:21 AM EST
Wednesday, August 11, 2004
Yesterday Tom linked to a, very old, livejournal post someone made about livejournal being evil. It's apt in relation to some stuff recently, which I assume is why he posted it.
Now while I can sympathise and agree with a lot of what she said, I don't think you can really blame the format. Basically it all boils down to the often petty, stupid, nasty, bitchy thing we call human nature. Livejournal is only a venue, and it only becomes a vengeful gossipy bullshit forum because of the people that use it. As someone titled a subsequent comment: Guns don't kill people, people kill people.
Anyway, I made it through the first page of comments, and there was one that stuck out:
"I would literally die without my LiveJournal! I'd feel so completely isolated from the world! Many a time, I've felt lonely and bored, but then I enter REAL peoples lives through LiveJournal and find myself thoroughly entertained by people sharing with us their lives. Anyway, how boring life would be if "misunderstandings" didn't exist. Misunderstandings were invented so that we may eventually, kiss and make-up, whether it be romantically or in a platonic manner."
She definitely embodies one of the lj users I dislike, immensely, and that's aside from her supposed ultra dependence on lj in the first place. The segment of her comment that really bothers me the most is where she basically says that life is made the more interesting for all the misunderstandings and resulting bullshit and drama. Well, I don't think so. Those kinds of things are useless and emotionally draining, as well as a complete waste of time and energy. I don't enjoy wasting life on some petty unimportant thing that's been fluffed up by some screwed up person seeking validation or attention, or who has crappy reading comprehension. I don't enjoy conversations spiralling out of control when things get misconstrued. But I guess she might be one of those people who thinks it's unhealthy if you don't ever argue or fight in a relationship.
I just don't understand people who seem to thrive on all the bullshit, on all the conflict and drama and resulting hurt and anguish. I don't enjoy that state, I'll avoid it when I can, though I'll stand my ground if involved, but I do aim to get out of those kinds of situations in a timely manner, if only for my own sanity and sense of peace.
Then again, people like that seem to enjoy that state seem the perfect definition of psychic vampire, don't they?
@ 06:35 AM EST
Monday, August 9, 2004
"Our enemies are innovative and resourceful, and so are we," Bush said. "They never stop thinking about new ways to harm our country and our people, and neither do we." -- President George Dubya Bush. August 5th, 2004.
Another Bushism, and quite an unfortunate one at that. His handlers must have been groaning inwardly at this one.
@ 10:39 PM EST
If you have the time and inclination, this 20 minute speech Al Sharpton gave to the Democratic National Convention is well worth seeing. Links to the video are on this page: http://www.michaelmoore.com/words/index.php?id=114 which also includes a transcript if that's more you're speed.
Maybe Kerry should be ordained as a minister too... that's definitely the major influence in the Reverend Al's public speaking voice/method.
@ 12:37 PM EST
Monday, August 2, 2004
R.I.P. Merijn Van Wezel
I just got word from a friend back home that Merijn died yesterday. I've known Merijn for most of my life. His mother and mine are second cousins, his eldest brother and I are only months apart, shared a crib together as babies and were good friends over the years. His second oldest brother, and mine, were best friends all through childhood. I didn't know him that particularly well, and I haven't seen him in a few years, but he was a really nice guy.
And so this afternoon an email from a family friend, and neighbour of him and his parents. Merijn had an accident while on holiday in Italy. He went out for a walk with his girlfriend in the afternoon, she returned earlier and he wanted to stay out a bit longer. When he didn't come back after a couple of hours the alarm was sounded, and they searched until dark. He was found Monday morning. He'd fallen 20 meters into a ravine, leaving him unrecognisable. He'll be brought home at the end of the week to be buried at the small local cemetary in my home town.
@ 03:05 PM EST
Sunday, August 1, 2004
I'm not sure I'd ever recommend the Simplicity cheongsam pattern to any other people. It's definitely turning out to be a hassle. Partly I guess our own fault for not checking that certain pattern sizes would mean things like an excessively large collar, too large even for Kit. So now we have to redraft the pieces to change the collar, and the neck hole into which it fits, which is something that has to happen at a later date when Kit brings his drafting tools, because he didn't have on him today.
Another reason I'd not recommend the pattern is that it's 22 pieces, and while that includes the interfacing pieces (I believe), 22 is way too many for a dress like that, and I think it has way more interfacing in it than it really needs. So, in the event that I might want to make more cheongsam dresses, I'll try and find another pattern that's somewhat more simple than this one.
We had both Tom and Kit over yesterday. Karen had gone to a Lammas celebration and so Tom asked if he could come up and hang out, which he did. A lot of geeking out, UT2K4 playing, and case mod talk. Kit didn't join us until 11pm or sometime. Lot's more geeking, and lots of tea drinking. Both Tom and Kit crashed here and this morning the three engaged in more UT2K4, and more case mod talk.
I believe Kit will be coming over next weekend, as will Kevin, an ex-colleague of PreZ's who will be helping with the case modifications as he's an engineer. Kevin's coming over on Sunday, Kit might head this way on Saturday and crash again. Hopefully we'll make some headway on that damn cheongsam.
I also took my corset apart. The top trim needed to be redone anyway, and I need to take out the bottom because it didn't quite fit like I wanted it to. I'll see if I can do some of that this week. It'd be nice if I can get that corset finished, and the cheongsams done before we leave to go to L.A. in 3 weeks. I think PreZ is probably desperately in need of a vacation at this point, his boss is working him like a dog. He spent chunks of this weekend working on stuff that needs to be finished tomorrow.
@ 11:59 PM EST