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Feet in the pond

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It's crazy here. Fog machines are awesome.

The Ludo Guy

I totally forgot that i had this on my phone. Here's a phone shot I took of the Ludo guy. He's very cool and friendly.

Overheard In New Brunswick

I overheard this little tidbit over dinner in New Brunswick last night:

Old Man to rambunctious kid: "Chill! You know what chill means?"
Rambunctious kid: "No!"
Old Man: "Well act like you do!"

OK, maybe not the funniest thing in the world, but I found it amusing.

World Of Warcraft Plugin

I've added the ability to use item pop-ups form World of Warcraft data site WoW Head. This will allow me to put item information directly into the posts and pages. For example I got this nifty drop hanging around Un'Goro Crater: Taran Icebreaker

I've been contemplating breaking off the WoW info into a separate site for the Guild, but I think I'll leave it intertwined for now. I'll put it in the guild notes to see if the team wants to have their own site where they can each post. I'm sure that Paeen wouldn't mind posting about how I was so generous in handing him the Fiery War Axe.

For those of you who don't know... the purple color means they're Epic level items (which is a good thing).

I've also switched to a new theme for the site here.

Any feedback on the change is welcome.

A Bunch Of New Things

It's been awhile since I've updated so I thought it'd be good to give a rundown of what's been going on.

Since my last update, works been keeping me busy traveling back and forth between the coasts. I think we're done traveling for a bit now though. I did get a nifty coin out of it though!

Hmmm... what else has been going on? I bought a bunch of new hotness in the gaming department (Rock Band, Grand Theft Auto 4, Wii Fit, On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One) and I've put a bunch of more time into playing WoW again. My guys have been sitting idle for a few weeks.

Vivendi leaked some data that the blizzard expansion for WoW, Wrath of the Lich King is going to be out by the end of 2008. I'm guessing probably somewhere in the late November time frame. With the new WoW expansion comes the first Hero Class in WoW, the Death Knight. To create a Death Knight you need a level 55 character on a server. As most of you know, I'm a very casual WoW player and I don't have any 55 dudes. So to get ready for WotLK, I've been leveling up my main hunter. He's sitting at 53 now and should have no trouble dinging 55 by that time. Now the conundrum is at 58 I can hop into Outland and score some better gear. I have the feeling that once I ding 55, the urge for 58 will be too compelling to pass up. Not that that's a bad thing.

Rock Band is a blast. We've held a few Rock Band parties and everybody seems to enjoy. Even a friend or two who are completely unfamiliar with the music in the game, can pick it up and chug along with many laughs. I really haven't touched it in a few weeks, but we really haven't had alot of people over. Also the drums are annoyingly loud, especially when you're playing by yourself.

Grand Theft Auto 4 is a godsend. The game is so gosh darn good. The story is more mature and more interesting. The characters have much more depth to them than previous games characters. The game looks damn good, even on my poor mans standard def tv. One complaint is that the text is basically unreadable on a standard def tv, that includes the cell phone. This is by no means a new issue on the 360 (and presumably the PS3), but I guess I'll have to deal until either game devs consider standard def tv people as viable customers or I get an HDTV. Aside from those issues, the game is near perfect. It's enjoyable to walk around the streets and see distinct people, carrying conversations with the people around them or on their cell phones chit chatting. The addition of built-in multi-player (no more mods woot!) is fantastic and fairly easy to use. It's integrated well with the main game play and it's accessible via cell phone. Much like how we generally initiate multi-player in the real world. I could go on and on about all the WOW moments I've had playing the game, but go out and try it or play it at a friends house to see for yourself. Judging by the sales numbers, you're probably not more than 2 degrees of separation away from somebody that has it. Hell, you bring a six pack and you can come play at my house. Call ahead to arrange time :)

Rock Star has tied GTA4 to their Social Club which has some nifty features and shows some overall stats. I dig when games have that depth of integration with the real world. WoW started doing that with the WoW Armory, but I wish companies would take it further. Like in GTA, I should be able to check my in-game email and maybe my text messages and what not, especially with my problems reading the text in-game. In WoW I'd love to be able to check how my auctions are doing and check any in-game mail.

Wii Fit is a blast. I've been trying to follow an exercise regime these past couple weeks and it's tough, but it makes me feel good. I picked up Wii Fit as soon as it came out, although I had to hit up a few stores before I found one that had available copies. I really want it to track my status over time, but the exercises and activities it comes with have their own fun. I like the balance exercises where you get to really see what the balance board peripheral can do in terms of game play. I plan on picking up We Ski soon as it integrates well with the balance board. After the balance games, I think yoga is probably my second favorite. I like the idea of doing the yoga poses while also having a visual indicator of my balance. A visual indicator, to me, is really helpful. I've always been awkward in trying to figure out if I'm aligned properly. After a few weeks of use, I'll have to remind myself to put an update as to how I've progressed. I know I always say I'll update and never do, but I'll do my best to remember this time.

On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness: Episode One. This guy is unique. From the site:

"On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness is an episodic RPG-adventure game series set in a deranged comic-book meets-pulp-horror 1920s universe. Armed with unconventional weaponry and witty repartee, you join forces with the Gabe and Tycho, the crime-solving team of the Startling Developments Detective Agency to make war on bizarre enemies and solve the mysteries hidden deep in the sinister heart of New Arcadia."

- playgreenhouse.com

If you didn't know already, this is a game that's been in the works for while. It's a creation of the dudes from Penny Arcade, a well known gaming web comic. It's the first game on their new game distribution site Green House, and it's pretty fantastic. It's got a funky setting and a funky style, and it works great. The games style is all comic book. Cut scenes are in classy 2D, and the game play is all 3D. It's got a diablo-esque left click interface. Combat is sort of Final Fantasy 7-ish, but it's not seperated from the main world. When a creature is defeated, it's smoking husk remains a smoking husk in front of you after combat. Not the mention the selflessly defiled fruit. I like that the combat offers a mechanism for blocking attacks. Successful blocks drasticly reduce the damage taken. I've got to cut in some time for this game between WoW, GTA, Wii Fit and Sudoku on Brain Age 2 to get deeper in. So far the dialog is great and the game play is fun. I'm excited about getting deeper into this one. My pal omlette, though, has had trouble getting the game to run. It will most often not load at all, and when it does, the mouse doesn't work. I hope that's something that can be remedied.

Some great movies have come out lately also. Namely Iron Man and Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull. I saw them both, and I enjoyed them both, but I'm not a movie critic so I won't get into the granularity of what I liked and didn't like about each. If you like good guys winning and kicking some bad guy ass, then you'll like these movies. Oh yes, Indy can still kick some ass. If you're looking for fancy-this or fancy-that or some other crap like that, then you're probably gonna like it anyway. Who doesn't like good guys winning and kicking some bad guy ass? Unless you don't have time to spare from chillin in starbucks writing wrist-slit poetry.

I've started to use Twitter as a way to keep people up to date as to whats going on with me, so feel free to check me out there. I'll probably throw up a Twitter widget or something on here as well. I'll have to see what plugins WordPress has for Twitter.

Mark is going to India for a month next month for work! Craziness, I know! Last weekend we took a trip down to Atlantic City to unwind. We had a great time. Harrah's turns their pool in to a club at night. Quite fantastic. That's gonna be the place to be in the summer time.

Saturday is a music fest in New York City. That should be fun! I like music!

This is a lot of text... congrats on reaching the bottom!

A Room With A View

Here's the view from our room in Harrahs. They put us up in the new tower.

I’m expensive…. in bed!

OOOOOOOH!

I love those jokes... except this time I'm dead serious.

Through statistically accurate and scientifically honed methods, I've been able to determine how much this ass would pull as a gigolo.



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Yes, that's right. I can fetch upwards of $1,117 per hour!

And to top it all off, the page was topped off with this page topper: "Congratulations, you're worth MORE in bed than the average ($140.12880875522) person taking this quiz!"

The average person is only worth $140 per hour?! I thought I was gonna be on the low end of the spectrum. For so many years I've been short changing myself.

So ladies (sorry fellas, ladies only), you know the price, set up an appointment!

UPDATE: Looks like I'm getting some competition here! Either that or the short end of a looooong stick.

Look At Me!

Getting some inspiration from my lady friend, I've decided to run a couple pics of me through the myheritage.com face recognition filter. It's given me some surprising results.



Keira Knightley? Come on... I look good, but not that good. Sean Connery I can deal with. Most of those people flatter me :) As you'll see below the Colin Farrell theme continues.

Nifty side note: I actually saw Jon Voight when work had me trucking around California. He was getting the pat down from TSA security.



Here we can see the repeat of Colin Farrell. I'm still flattered, but Usher?! I wish I could dance that good. At least now I know what the woman is talking about when she says I'm a sexy beast!

I'm in good company.

It's a fun site to play around on. Go enjoy! Leave some comments as to who YOU look like!

2 Accomplishments Achieved

No... I'm not talking about on the Xbox 360. Besides, that'd be achievements accomplished anyway.

First Accomplishment achieved is I've gotten an apartment! I now live on my own in Highland Park, NJ with my lady love. Pics will be forthcoming once it's in a reasonable shape. I think a "Welcome to the new place" party will ensue at some point also.

Both of us are quite lazy and our schedules have been busy, and those are the excuses we're sticking with as to why we're not setup yet. We still have some furniture to get though. My dad called up yesterday to say he'd like to buy us a kitchen table and chairs and stuff. This may work out well.

Second Accomplishment achieved is that as of this morning I weigh less than 200 lbs! Woot for me! A steady, yet painfully slow process of telling my self to eat less and eat better has paid off so far. I've also switched from mostly regular soda to mostly diet soda. I think that played a big role. I will note that after spending most of my younger life as a scrawny 145, I enjoyed being a big guy. I was just big in the way that didn't benefit me so much. That is something I'd like to change. I wouldn't mind being 200-220 lbs if I was more impressive to look at.

Now I need to have some sort of plan for bulking up in an appropriate manner. Although, until that happens, I'd like to continue my downward trend to the 175 area of the scale. Maybe it's time to scope out craigslist for some weight-lifting gear.

Weight-lifting is such a funny phrase because it means so much yet it's so simple. Lifting weight. I would argue that everything you could possibly do involves lifting a weight of some kind... the weight of your arm, a pencil, 2 or 10 beers. They all have weight, they're all affected by gravity. Pumping blood through my body is a constant battle with gravity.

What spurred this post is a good conversation I had recently with my chica. She helped me understand the complex logic that whining about not getting anywhere in life doesn't actually get you anywhere in life. Mystifying to say the least! I think that'll be my Third Accomplishment achieved, maintaining such a satisfying relationship for so long.

I need to focus more of my free time on what I want to do in my life. Especially since work has been so hectic and focused these past couple days. I need an outlet. I've been playing a little WoW lately for relaxation. We got a good run last night with all 4 of our guildies! That'd leads to an Ancillary Accomplishment, which isn't really mine. Danny got his mount! Woots!

So that's where I've been... Oh one more thing.

MAN ALERT!

VALENTINES DAY IS THURSDAY!

New Content @ Databyss.com

I've put up a few new pages on this site that are non posts.

I try to expand upon my interests so I can share them with other folks.

I put up a page about gaming, to discuss my interests in games, and I put up a page about programming to do likewise.

I have decided, as part of my focusing effort, that I am going put more effort into this site. I am going to use this platform as a public bulletin board for my progress, projects and projects progress.

One thing I have failed to mention so far is my work on a Google Chart Designer project. It's a small tool I am developing that provides a simple web (html/javascript) interface to building the URL's that are specified via the Google Chart API. I'm glad to say that as of right now, there have been 51 downloads of my project and less than 5 of those have been me.

That project also serves as my introduction to the world of open source programming, and using a cvs system for my personal projects. Generally I would manage source control for my own projects by using multiple directories.

New Year?

Another new year? meh.

I feel like I've just woken up for the first time, but not in the good I-can-get-my-life-going kinda way. More along the wtf kinda way.

I've got no goals, no plans, no motivation and no money. I live to pay bills right now.

If I'm doing such a meager job at that, how can I expect myself to obtain anything better?

Is it relevant to my future?

Is my current situation indicative of my potential?

How do I get motivated?

Why should I be motivated?

I don't know what to do. I don't know what I can do.

I don't think I can do anything.

I'm not even sure I like who I am anymore.

I know what some of my problems are. How do I solve them?

I'm socially awkward, either too obnoxious or too quiet.

I can't carry a conversation if my life depended on it, everything I say always feels too forced.

I'm horrible at time management.

I don't talk to, or see my friends enough.

I don't put time into the hobbies I enjoy, or tell myself that I enjoy.

I'm not dedicated to any one thing.

A listing of my problems is too boring for even me to read.

I think what I need here is focus. I need to pick several areas to concentrate on. That to me is the difference between average folk and famous/notable folk.

Bill Gates is the Microsoft guy. I'm sure he likes other things as well, but his focus is Microsoft and that probably envelops 90% of his time. He will be leaving his full time roll soon and I think it will be interesting to see how he handles losing his focus.

Everybody who is known as 'that _____ guy/chick', is generally successful at that. Is it because they were successful first or because they were focused? Does it matter? They're there and they're focused on their topic. (grammar fun, notice the 3 proper uses of they're, there and their!)

I was really inspired today by a post from Jeff Atwood about Magpie Developers and the obsession with the new and shiny.

I need to stop trying to understand everything and focus on a few things.

Another new year sounds like the same old year to me...

Life stays the same regardless of our relative position in orbit around the sun.


Damn, after reading all this, I feel like tacos.