So, today we see how they fixed XP and treasure in 4E D&D.

It makes me happy.

And as of now, my 'share' of the Vote Buying Act of 2008© has cleared to my PayPal, and has been used with my PayPal debit to pre-order the gift set on Amazon.

I should of seen it coming really. But I held out hope... and it was shat on.

I should of known it was going to be a steaming bowl of wart-covered wang when I saw Nick Cannon was in it. I'm speaking of the most recent raping of Romero's "Blank of the Dead" series.

1. "Of the Dead" is a slight misnomer in this as apparently this outbreaks of zombies is caused by the flu... the kind of flu that causes small microbey thingies to burrow into your neural tissue and cause you to get cataracts and a taste for human flesh...
2. The military in this movie... ugh... don't get me started. Like the first time that the female protagonist (Mena Suvari) has a conversation with Nick Cannon (who apparently she outranks) and is accused of having relations with some private. She just tells him it didn't happen... no other punishment for such brash disrespect to someone of higher rank.
2b. Mena Suvari's character has no bullets in her sidearm due to some "complicated story". Durr? Oh, and she has a "'tude".
2c. The bumbling male private that accompanies her through Bumfuck, CO also does not have a working weapon because "He's in communications. They don't get issued weapons."
2d. Nick Cannon. Everything about Nick Cannon. From his amazing portrayal of "Disgruntled Urban Youth A" to the fact that HE was the big badass. When your movie features Nick Cannon being the bad ass, and not Ving Rhames (who is in the movie for like 15 minutes), you have issues.
3. The zombies are like goddamned spider monkeys! They leap! They run! They climb! They DEFY FUCKING GRAVITY WITH AMAZING WALL CRAWLING POWERS!
4. Shaky Camera. Alright, I admit that shaky camera style is sometimes really cool. It gives the feeling of having a real perspective in the events. Or... it's fucking irritating because it seems as though I must be having a seizure while watching the events. Or perhaps a crack head going through detox.

I'm done with the movie review. I enjoy bad movies. Then there is the new Day of the Dead. If you think about this the next time you are at the video store, rent "Fido" instead. Or perhaps watch one of the new "Night of the Living Dead" after drinking a pint of paint thinner. The first option will lead to a wonderfully quirky movie experience. The second will lead to what you deserve if you are still thinking about seeing this movie after this.

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): The daytime TV soap opera *The Young and the Restless* has been the most highly-rated show in its time slot for more than a thousand consecutive weeks. First appearing in 1973, the show ascended to the top slot in 1988 and has never slipped since. I'm happy to announce that in 2008 you have the potential to begin a comparable run of success, Taurus. Whether you're able to cash in on that potential may depend on the preparations you make in the coming weeks.

The legislation, which would give the Food and Drug Administration the power to oversee tobacco products, would try to reduce smoking’s allure to young people by banning most flavored cigarettes, including clove and cinnamon.

Yep, no more cloves.

Odd how the party that claims to be for personal choice and freedom keeps sponsoring bills to take those freedoms away from you.

More odd how people who value their freedom keep electing them, over and over again.

okay so my Science and Ethics classes are done, with an A- in Ethics, and i'm still waiting for word on my Science class.

on a side note: I saw a dead squirrel on the side of the road this morning. it got me thinking; if bepople believe in the "happy Hunting Grounds" when they die, then I guess the animals are just plain fucked no matter what... they must get sent to the "Happy Hunted Grounds" to forever be killed....poor little squirrel....

anywhoot..

This is supposed to be the last season, right? The show was canceled, yes? Well, yes and no. Instead of tying up, or even really making any sort of climactic progress against the armies of the Ori, this is just another season of Stargate SG-1. They've got just as many retrospective episodes, character history episodes, Jaffa infighting, Baal (GOD! JUST SHUT UP YOU CLONED JERK), the NID, actual Goa'uld implantations, and Tok'ra bailouts as past seasons. What it doesn't have is a conclusion. In fact, it has the opposite of a conclusion. Hell, it didn't have a buildup or climax, so why would it have a conclusion?

I enjoyed nearly every episode, on its own. But even if it hadn't been the last season, there would have been a cliffhanger at the end. It feels like I was in the passenger seat of a car that was being driven off a cliff.

Because of the strength of the individual episodes, the small amounts of Ori plot advancement that did happen, the twist involving ( SPOILER ), I gave this one four stars. Let's hope that the movie ties up -something- besides a rushed and forced bow-out of the ( SPOILER ). I mean, REALLY.

I'm feeling quite the urge to aggregate and list the various incarnations of me that exist across the web. I have several home pages, blogs, memberships in rental/rating sites (like Netflix and GoodReads), information networks (better descriptor for Google and MSN/Live?), photo sites, and IM protocols.

Home pages are evolving into just such an aggregation, it seems. Since data is strewn across different networks and servers, but is readily available and backed up by those immense and professional services, why duplicate the information on a local server? Why not simply hotlink? That's what the web is, right? It's come full circle, except blue underlined text is replaced with super-mini-logo-icons.

You've seen them, you know what I mean. They're up there, next to the URL in your location bar. Only now those itty bitty logos are popping up as identifiers for linking to and from those popular, immense, professional services.

I suppose the only reason to duplicate one's data in this scenario would be for backup purposes. Because, really, what will it take to make Google (Picasa, Blogspot), Yahoo! (Flickr), LiveJournal, or the rest unavailable? What would it really take to wipe out the data that's scattered all over the net for each of us?

In aggregating these links, are we making it too easy to be tracked onilne?

It's been a long weekend. Lots of driving. Still, lots of fun. But I'm tired and I'm not leaving this house again till I go to work tomorow.

Wednesday night I actually got the next game for my WoD chronicle in. Nothing says joy like going to the hospital in Silent Hill... except next game where they arrive at the school. Yeah. I'm a bastard.

Two more and they get back to their normally scheduled freaky shit in Wyoming.

Work this week has been a challenge. Imagine the amount of detail in your average dictionary or glossary, with phonetic notation and diacritic spellings, and guide words. Now imagine making that work within a system based upon the arrangement of series of 6 dots in a 1 cm^2 area. Yeah. Crazy.

Too add to the fun, the boss will be in Vegas this week till Wednesday seeing his mother (I guess she lives in Vegas... ), so it's just my brain and the rulebooks to figure it out. Maybe I'll start another file/section of this grammar book till he gets back...

The weekend, I never saw home for more than 2 minutes at a time from the time I left for work at Doc's till I got home about an hour ago. We went down to Lansing to see Joe and Julie as Julie graduated from college, and were we asked to join in the celebrations. They showed up for mine, so only fair... the girls went to the bar, Joe's brother watched the kids, and Joe and I went to see Iron Man, which might very well already be one of my top 5 favorite movies. Kinda glad I made plans to see it with Doc this next weekend. Gives me an excuse to see it twice.

And today was Mother's day. I avoided my mother by fleeing Lansing this morning, and instead went to see Kelly's Mom. It was fun. Food, family, and Indiana Jones on the tele.

But I am tired, and we used all the gas we put in the car this weekend already. NO MORE DRIVE!!! NO!!!

I am officially done with my 1st year at the Univerisity. Right now my GPA is still at 3.61, though it will drop down a dad as I have a feeling I might be getting a C in my Science class.

Starting on the 12th, I'll have two new courses, a World Religions course and another Psychology course. seems interesting enough how I scheduled my courses to make som relevant sense with other classes; example is that my World religions class is paired up with a Psychology class that is going to discuss the Body, Mind and Soul... along with the Brain.

so Im quite content.

need to work on a new bio for the new term though... I think i used the last one enough for the year... :)

posted my final for my Ethics class today; still working on my science one....should have that finished by tomorrow evening. Thank goodness for a DC to AC converter... :)

SnS got slammed last night; had to start refusing people because they had some national gymnastics team come though... guess they're be here til the end of the month...

joy.

the non smoking bit is getting on everyone's nerves...including the servers.

after an early close last night (midnight) to prevent people from comming; we all stood out at the back door, having two cigarettes before cleaning the mess up.

other than that, things are well. Have to get ahold of Darcie today so I can see if there's been any mail for me and terry.

hey darthwk

Just in case nobody posted it on the 501 boards.

The 501 has been featured on
http://leasticoulddo.com/comic/20080505

three or four strips to check out.

There was once this super secret project, back in the day. mathmanatm and I were all hush-hush about our weekly meetings (Liasons? No one will ever know!) as we worked to make our grand idea into a reality. Stumbling block after stumbling block after brick wall cropped up in our path, and our idea changed and evolved over time.

I say evolved, because it adapted to survive. And the changes are so severe that they might just be generational. Of the ideas, I'd say that this one, the one that will finally see life ( *knock on wood* ) is the third generation.

Our working title is Fight or Flight, and the grandchild idea is a webcomic. The current plans are to update weekly, and we plan on having a several-month-long stockpile before the site goes live. The main character, tentatively named Willy, is pictured here. He was drawn by Rick Schlaack, who is one of the most amazing artists I've ever met. And the irony is, HE is waiting on US to get scripts finalized so that he can draw. Talk about a reversal!

With the concept art that he's given us, I have absolutely no doubt that this project will take off. I've got my eyes on Penny Arcade, PvP, Megatokyo, and Looking For Group. And I think that we can do it.

Part 1 of Lesson 8 (a lesson so large it is submitted in two parts) was corrected and returned to me today.

I had one error. Just one.

BOOYA!

I will play and enjoy 4.0 D&D I'm sure, but this idea; subscription costs for D&D Insider can fucking bite me.

I quote, for those who hate links;

"When the initial beta period comes to an end, subscription rates will go into effect. Initially, we’re going to roll out a special, limited-time introductory pricing offer. Those who get in on the ground floor will be able to take advantage of some great deals to gain access to D&D Insider and all its great features. After this introductory period, the regular subscription pricing that we’ve previously announced will go into effect: $14.95 per month, with discounts for longer subscription commitments."

Now, there's a lot of stuff there... the online versions of Dungeon and Dragon magazines, (the license so brutally ripped from Paizo after all these years), online game tools, digital minis and maps, sounds good. But Dragon never cost me $15 an issue even near the end.

Hey WoTC, I'm not giving Blizzard my money to play a game I already bought, not doing it for you either. I've been running games a long time, don't need your digital tools to make it work. Thanks.

General Jack O'Neill (two L's) has left for another assignment, General Hammond is long-promoted out of anything but cameos, so we get yet another new leader for Stargate Command. I liked Weir (though the second actress beats the first, I think) as a civilian commander, and now we have General Landry. His biggest pet peeve is that he doesn't get to yell at anyone. Okay, I liked this character right out of the gate, I have to admit.

We also have Cam Mitchell, a fighter pilot who aided SG-1 in the Antarctica mission, and risked his neck so that they could activate the drone weapon. That particular mission gets darker than it was by looking at some of the sideline death that happened to protect SG-1. In fact, that's a continuing theme for this season. Anyway, Teal'c is off on Dakarta trying to help form a Jaffa government, Daniel Jackson is finally going to Atlantis to decode all of the Ancient goodness that's there, and Samantha Carter is at Area 51, busting up some scientist heads. Mitchell arrives, expecting to lead the old SG-1, and is told to pick his new crew.

Blues Brothers references about putting the band back together have never been so funny to me.

This season is -good-. It takes a while for it to get its rhythm after the abrupt change in casting ( /bin/import --partial_cast --main_characters Farscape.castlist ) and that's the reason it got four stars, instead of five. I definitely recommend it.

"What are you knitting?"
"A sock."
"Oh, that's pretty cool!"
"Thanks."
"Is it for the monkey?"

.......................

well it's been good. except for last night when we were worried because we were hearding metal on metal for a moment when we were driving. after putting in reverse back into the Walmart parking lot and let it sit for a few hours, it worked fine again.

other than that the kitties are getting bold... okay well not that bold, though oscar does love to sit on my lap now while we're driving. Little One still yowls a bit when in the kitty caddy, though he seems to be getting over that as well.

changing the litter tonight after it stops raining and we'll see how the kitties respond.

many of our buddies at wal-mart now know about our tepee on wheels, so it's plesant to have a knock on the door while in the parking lot to have someone hop in the van for their lunch break.

other than that, it seems pizza hut is our spot for internet, as Subway seems to be in need of a resetting of the router, as we can only get a local connection through them now.

So I think now, I'[m gonna sign off, as I have my final projects to work on for class; two papers due on sunday.

phone is also limited right now as the minutes are under 20, so if anyone choses to get ahold of me, do it by e-mail since I check it and respond everyday.

Oh Kristel, this is something you can't do in Guild Wars (mind you, it's pointless with the magic "ZoomPoof!!!© Map", but still)...

I can has kitty cat!

Only to get around faster, but man... it's fun.