Boom Shakalaka

Powerful title eh? And totally unrelevent to anything.

Lately I have been thinking about what I would do if my career in game development decides to not take off immediately. I'll have the skills to be a regular code monkey. While not glamorous, it will pay the bills. Also I keep on hearing tales of people getting bored and/or sick and tired of doing game development. Game development is not like other jobs within the computer industry. Games are very risky and for start up companies cash will be dictated by mile stones achieved. If a goal is missed, then no money for the rent. You could draw parrells to the movie industry. But it's a lot harder to get a game in the can than a movie. Belived dat!

Something else I'm interested in is writing. Yes, the mute boy wants to write. Ironic that I can't write my lab report for Bio. I don't know how many times I started to do it and nothing gets down. Yeah, but anyway, writing is something I'd also had an interest in. At one time I even went to the Young Authors regional conference when I was in 6th grade. But it's a profession that I put up there being a big name movie actor. Not everyone can do it. I have lots of ideas, but ideas are a dime a dozen. One needs to follow through to completion and that's where I falter. However, if time permits, I want to invest some time to be better at writing.

But what do you want to write about, Keith? Well, mainly science fiction and fantasy. Is that so wrong? I don't think so. But you always want to write about what you know. So I should include some fiction based in reality as well. Anyway, it's a long way off. Something to ponder about.

So, untill next time...

Advertising, it's for the birds!

Just a little note to say I edited out the R* found in my last post. I found ads related to their ticket sales far too often. More later....

Misc. Thoughts

My first thought, DAMN THE SEAHAWKS!!!!! Why must they tease me so??!! The whole game was great, even the first two quarters up to the last minute of the half. 3 to 3 up to then. Then Seattle breaks out and gets two touchdowns back to back on quick strikes. It was great! I loved it! So Seattle goes into half time with a 14 point lead. The second half was better too. Seattle continued to score. Scoring in the 2nd half of games was something Seattle didn't do enough of in their previous games. True they have had several comeback victories, but this one was the first I've seen in a long while where the Seahawks stayed ahead. Then, in the fourth quarter, Seattle's offense begins to putter to a stop. The R* began to find flaws in the Seahawks defense. Here's the kicker. With about a minute left in the 4th quarter, Seattle needed to convert on 4th and inches. They didn't. 4th and inches...man, how can you not do that. Seattle still led at this point by 3 points. I still held out hope as the R* had to march a good distance down the field to get into field goal kicking distance. Pentalties and some good defense plays by Seattle got the R* offense to a 4 and very long situation. R* had only one choice if they wanted to win the game. They had to go for it. It would seem unlikely that they would convert. They had to go over 20 yards for the first down. So the pass play unfolds. The ball is thrown down the field. Glee fills my eyes as I see a Seattle defender jump up and go for the ball. The ball falls into his hands. However, the horror sitting at the back of my mind came to the forefront with the force of a freight train as the ball then bounces out and into a R* receiver's waiting hands. And the R* convert on 4th down. It was unbelievable. All that damned Seattle defender had to do was beat the ball to the ground. No, he was more worried about his stupid interception stats. The flaming egos of these players always seem to come before that of the team. So, to make the long story even shorter, the R* tie and eventually win in overtime. I have never been as pissed with the Seahawks as I have been at the end of this game. Seattle falls a game back to St. Louis as they had an easy game against Arizona. Thus continues my love-hate relationship with the Seahawks next week where the Cleaveland B r o w n s come to Seattle for Seattle's second to last home game. It's a 1pm game on Sunday. Again, I'll be watching....love-hating them.

In other misc. thoughts, I noticed that I've been added CV's list of blogs on his site. So, I return the favor and he is added to mine. Thanks. :) And if you haven't yet, check out his Princess Bride website. It's pretty slick.

And in closing, I will be cooking turkey and all the goodies for Thanksgiving this year. May your bowels have mercy.

Once and future King

I'm not talking about the WSU Cougars either. The suckers lost to the Huskies in their yearly Apple Cup matchup. They started out promising. They were winning last time I looked. I decided to stop watching after a little while into the 3rd quarter, feeling confident that they wouldn't "coug" it again. It was a really bad game too as there were 10 turnovers total between the two teams. Seemed like a high school game. Anyway, so yet another let down by the Cougars. I'm just happy I go to a branch campus and not the main campus.

So, the Seahawks play tomorrow morning. Some hope remains for them. I mean, they are a professional team. So, like anyways, until next time.

Late Night Rant

Hmmm, it's a little after 2am in the morning. I'm chatting with the fellow from Florida that thinks it is fine to download commercial games for free. Several of you know I plan to maunver myself so I can get into the game industry. So, hearing that he takes these new releases just pisses me off to no end. Is this hypicritical of me? Perhaps a little as I have done my fair share of music sharing. Though I have yet to download, nor will I ever download an application that has been commercially released without that program being Freeware, Open Source, or shareware. Of course there's many subdomains of open source, but I think you get the picture. My main problem here is that he gleefully admits to downloading these programs with a big ass emote grin on his face.

He then begins a spiel about how wrong it is to charge between $50 to $1200 for various pieces of software. I tell him it all bubbles down to choice. The applications he rambles off are not a need, but simply want. A side thing to keep him entertained. I tell him he chooses to want to play these games. An example he gave was that of 3D Studio Max, a 3D graphic software used to make many of the 3D models used in many of the top games. He says that charging $1200 for it is unrealistic for him. I tell him the program is for large companies that don't want to spend millions of dollars in developing their own piece of 3D software that may or may not work the first time out. He then tells me that even that system is wrong. However, that's business. The financial gain of only spending $1200 per a license of 3D Studio max far out weighs the time and money spent in developing in house software. Discreet, the makers 3D Studio Max, knows this and thus makes it their business model. And it works for them. Another example was Doom 3. He wants to play that, he will have to spend the $50 for the game in addition to all the hardware upgrades (hmmm could you call that hardgrades?) which could potentially lead up to thousands of dollars to play it. His mentallity is since I have to buy said hardgrades, he'll just get the game for free. Yet another choice of him wanting to play the game, yet he feels he's being bilked out of house and home because he just wants to play a game. The game is bleeding edge so you have to buy the bleeding edge hardware to play, yet another choice to be made. Make it and deal with it.

I continue on with how most things in life are made of choices. He doesn't buy it. Nor does he understand what it really means to make a choice. He happens to be confined to a wheelchair. So what. You can make the choice to be mobile or not. So he chooses to spend $5000 for a decent wheelchair. Then he complains about how the companies are ripping him off by charging that much for the wheelchair. Well, he made the choice...deal with it and everything it includes.

I've made the choice of going to school. I am now dealing with the finacial ramifications that came of it. It's a choice and I am living with it. Having thousands of dollars of debt is really a bad thing, but balanced with the outcome of the education, school will win every time.

Well, that's all for my ranting and raving. I know it's not a popular opinoin, but it's my opinion and it was my choice to share with you. I'm tired...and you're tired for reading yet another long post from yours truly. So, until next time.

Playing with myself

Ok, today I got slightly embarrassed. How you might say. Read the title. It says it all.

Let me elaborate. After I got done with my Bio test (which sucked cause even after I studied all that crap, there was still crap I didn't study) I went down to the student lounge to relax a little. There's a pool table down there. And I like playing pool. So two and two equals me playing pool between classes.

So, there's some other guy down there and we get a couple games of 9 ball in. For those of you freaking out that you don't know what 9 ball is, relax. Just know you play with on a pool table with 9 balls. Ok, on with the story. We just started the game and the initial break looks pretty bad. At that moment of time, I wanted to make the comment of how when I normally play 9 ball by myself, I usually get a better break. If you don't know what breaking is, my good friend Google can tell ya. Some of you might already know where this is going. Once again, my mind proves faster than my mouth. I then said aloud "I normally get better breaks when I play with myself." I quickly corrected myself by saying "...when I play by myself." Things only got worse when I kept on saying about how the balls were on the table. So, yes. I felt kind of stupid. I didn't know anybody down there in the room at the time. I noticed the chick playing Fussball look up right after I had said that. The room seemed to get really quiet. But I kept on my normal routine of shooting pool as if nothing had happened. I would have liked to have a video camera running at that point so I could see my reactions. Oh, look, yet another sign of the end time, me laughing at myself in the same day an event occurred and not 6 or 7 years from now. Yup, I think tomorrow will be the day that hell rains down upon us. Sorry. I was hoping I could have waited till I got my degree.

Wow, so much food for thought today. I hope I didn't strain you eyes. Ok, well, until next time.

Staring down the face of EVIL

I dunno if you have ever attempted to do stare down EVIL before. I think I'm doing it right now. Taking multiple tests on a quarter and semester school system. Yes, that is EVIL. As you all probably know (and if don't, why don't you know?) I'm attending CBC and WSU at this point of my school career. You all also may know that CBC is on a quarter system. Knowledge of WSU being on a semester system may also be free information stored in your brain...somewhere. The EVIL part of all of this is the number and frequency of tests I have had this quarter/semester.

Let me present the facts: for Math 143, 4 regular and 1 final; for Bio 111, 2 regular, 1 semi-final; for MIS 372, 5 regular; for MIS 375, 2 regular. Some of you are now laughing at how incredibly whiney I am. Yes, this is a little whiney. I admit that. That's about the only thing I really do well in life. Well, there's others...wink wink nudge nudge. And then some of you are thinking, well, that's what you do in school, take tests. Yes, we take tests. That's what we do. We take tests and whine about it in our blogs later.

Now this quarter/semester has been unlike all my other periods put together. First and foremost, I'm actually studying for my tests. This is yet another sign of the end times. Again, have you repented? I offer repenting services on Friday and Saturday nights for a fee. The EVIL part of studying for my test is the amount of time I have to put in to study. It's just EVIL. For my bio tests, I have started studying two or three days before the test. I then write out 6 or 7 pages of double sided notes. How can this not be EVIL? I want to get carpal tunnel syndrome from typing a lot, not from writing. EVIL.

So, that's the amount of time I have to spend on each test, give or take two or three days depending on the test. Let's add up the total number of tests and find out the average number of tests per week given the start of CBC in September and the end of WSU in December. That's 15 tests total. 12 weeks from the beginning of CBC to the end of WSU minus the week for Thanksgiving. You can already see that there will be multiple tests per week. That results to 1.25 tests per week. But alas, we can't have .25 of a test at any given time. So, we have to round up to 2 tests per week!!! Yes, my stats are a little off, but I'm just showing how EVIL this is!

So, in conclusion, quarter/semester school systems need to be abolished and replaced with year round school, as soon as I get my degree. By going to a year round system, the average student could possibly only have about .3 tests per week. Now who couldn't argue with that? But you can't have .3 test per week, so in this case you have to round down because it's less than one. So that would come to zero tests per week. Now with that going on, what student would fail? Anyone who wants to question my rounding skills can sign up for my repenting services, offered Friday and Saturday nights, for a reduced fee, since you aren't really repenting. But if you want both, I'll give you the weekly deal!

As anybody who has gone to school can tell you, school is just EVIL. So I stare down EVIL on a daily basis. So, don't cry for me Argentina. Umm yeah.

Oh yeah, as an aside, the Seahawks won last Sunday 35 to 14 against the Lions. No big feat of skill, but a win is a win. This coming Sunday will be against the Ravens. Tied for first place with the Bengels at 5 and 5. Imagine that. Anyway, I think it's a 10am game on Fox. I hope for your support. And if you sign up form my repenting services for Saturday, I'll throw in the game for free!

Ok, well, that should make up for not posting yesterday. So, until next time.

What's in your wallet?

Nothing, because I'm poor!

Anyway, tonight I thought I would share the cartoons I enjoy watching. And now, in no particular order, except for Invader Zim, which is number one, always!! I need to tell you now, only kids cartoons are on this list. No anime as they occupie a whole list by themselves.

• Invader Zim


• Fairly Oddparents


• Teen Titans


• Star Wars: Clone Wars


• Samurai Jack


• Jackie Chan Adventurs


• Various Warner Bros. Toons featuring Bugs Bunny

And there you have it. Well, there are others, I just can't remember what they are right now. I'll think of them when I watch them. So, untill next time.

Profound from Observation

Look at me!! I'm gonna be profound!! Check this out...

While catching up on my reading in the eating area at school, I noticed an older gentleman, walking his dog by the river outside. I took pause for a minute as this was far more interesting than what was in the bio book. Anyway, I observed him stretching his arms out, like he was trying to balance on something. Or he was an airplane. I'm thinking balancing. But anyway, I was wondering why he would be balancing at all. First off, I know that he was walking on the bike/ped path that runs along the side of the river. I couldn't see his feet, but I've been down there enough times to know what's there. I thought why he might want to do such a thing. Thinking for a few more seconds, nothing could come to mind. As most of you know, I'm all about the functionality of a decision. The benefits and consequeneces. Some people (you know who you are, Dawn) have even has gone as far at to call me an unfeeling robot. But here, I present proof that I am not a robot here sent to destroy you! *cough* anyway...

Suddenly, while watching him a little longer going further up the path, it kind of hit me. He was only doing it for fun. Doing something just for the hell of it. Because it's fun. Fun is something that is severely lacking, everywhere. This thought led to another thought. Yes, two kind of semi-coherent strings of words from my mind in one day. It is one of the signs of the End Times! I hope you have repented! This second thought was that without society, there could be more fun. But without society, we would defiantly not be where we are today. It simply cannot be done. And furthermore, there cannot be some happy medium where fun and a successful society can coexist. Case in point, we all have to work to live. Just to live in our society. There are very few that manage to have a job they consider fun. Another point is that if we were all having fun, there would be no garbage haulers, no water meter readers, no people to make copies at a moment's notice. I dunno about you all, but those are not fun jobs. So, what I'm saying here is that in order for society to exist, fun needs to bury itself under a rock and die.

I could be totally wrong here. I am human and have this terrible problem of being wrong, a lot. I am only going on what I know and assumptions I am making on my environment. This isn't all that ground breaking compared with the course of human history and quite possibly not even the first time it's been thought. See my previous post about how I'm the last to know about everything. However, it's new to me and it's something I will take into consideration while deciding things in the future. Provided that society doesn't beat me down!!!!

Bruce Campbell's Next

I know quite a few of us can't get enough of Bruce Campbell. Here's the site for Bubba Ho-tep. Watch the trailer! Though I could be the last one to know about it. Anyway, enjoy!

Holy freaking crap!!

Gee, I'm talkative tonight.

Anyway, I have this tendancy to listen to the same song over and over and over and over again. I don't know why I do it. But when I hear a song that I really like, I hit repeat and listen till my ears bleed. Ok, not that extreme, but it seems that way. For instance, I'm currently listening to Andrew WK "I Get Wet". I think i'm on the 15th listening too. Maybe less. Hard to say since I don't keep track. But this particular song has this great beat that I just can't get enough of it. Other songs of this calibur include "Needs" and "Compliment" from Collective Soul and "Heaven" from DJ Sammy and et. al. "Yes you can" from Jewel also has a beat that I can't get enough of. It's crazy though. You'd think I'd get sick and tired of these songs, but I don't. They are forever on my playlist. Some people like to read 1000 page books over and over again. Other's like to draw the same picture over and over again. I like to listen to the same song over and over again.

Welp, onto more listening to Andrew WK.

Holy crap, part two

Geeze, that was a long post. Sorry to make you read it. Here's a summary instead: Today was a good day.

Holy Crap!

It's a little after 10:30 and I haven't posted anything for the day. Yes. I'm a slacker. Well, I guess I'll describe my day. Started out watching a little TV. Saturday morning cartoons seems a lot better these days than back in my day. Yes sirree bob!! There's so much anime on, it's hard to watch it all. Actually, if I watch at all it's mostly Digimon and Medabots. The rest of it seems like too much kids stuff. Hence why it's on Saturday mornings. Though if an episode of Spongebob that I haven't see is on, I'll be more than happy to watch that. Curiously, I did watch a few minutes of the National Geographic Channel. Something to do about the earth's climate hundreds of thousands of years ago. It was actually interesting.

Fast forward past my shower. I went to my dad's to pick up some "hush" money. You know, the money that will hush me up and not cry like a baby for more money. Naaa actually my dad is being really nice and I really really really appreciate it too. It lets us live for another month. While there, I picked up some stuff headed for the dump and goodwill and went to the school's library to actually study. Me, doing homework on a weekend. Crazy huh? I decided to do about 3/4th of it as I was getting tired reading through my bio. I almost stopped in the middle but I continued so now I only have on chapter to read tomorrow. And only one section of math. Groovy eh?

Ok, I then went to the bank and deposited said money. I got in line in the drive thru lanes. All three had 3 cars in them. I have this abismal luck of selecting the slowest line. Today, I must have choosen wisely as I only was there for about 10 mins or so. Maybe less. I wasn't sure. So anyway, I go deposit the check and get my reciept back. The reciept said it was for $100 more than what was on the check. I stared at it for a few seconds, wondering the best course of action. Being the goody two-shoes that I am, I alerted the teller of the $100 oversight. I thought it would be better I say on my dad's good side.

After my good deed of the day, I headed off the goodwill to drop off the stuff then I came home. I was only for a half-hour before I was out again. But this time we were heading to a place called Major's in Kennewick. Now, if you are anybody who's grown up in the Tri-Cities, you know about Minor's in Yakima. The home of the largest bugers in the Mid-Columbia. Well, now we here don't need to be driving an hour to get one. Major's has the largest burger now in the Tri-Cities!! Rejoice!! I had a Major cheeser burger and my, was it filling!! Only 3.95 too. What a deal! They also have BBQ stuff as well. Something I will have to try on a return visit. So for those of yes here in the Tri-Cities, Major's is the place to be!!

After the great food, went to the mall and cruised the shops. With no money, it wasn't all that fun, but hey, I get to see all the christmas decorations. LOL I did managed to find a copy of Munchkin at Uncles. I really wanted it. But no one to play with. It's a fun parody game on all that is Dungeon And Dragons. It's hella fun (waits for the comments on that).

Finished up the night with a slamming good time shopping for groceries. Actually, I'm finishing up the night with this post. And I will quickly sign off so I can get this in before midnight. Oh yeah, Seahawks play tomorrow at 1pm.

1 down, some unknown number to go

I beat the single player game of Crimson Skies today. And now it's a time for rejoicing. Yay. Say it with me. Yay. Yeah, you can tell I'm very exicited about it. The game didn't take all that long to beat. Oh well. And with that, adieu.

Which are you?

Ok, in the recent flood of "which are you" thingeys floating around, I have to post this in response. Take This Poll! I'd like to thank CV for having the decency to post the original site this came from. Enjoy!

In Other News...

Today I only have one class. My 7:30am instructor had a court date for her speeding ticket in a school zone. <rolls eyes> My 4:15pm instructor is at a conferece. That just leaves my 1:30pm class of Biology 111. We are finally getting into interesting stuff. Like the theory of diveristy, crossing over on the genes and the like. So much more interesting than what elements make up polypeptide chains. <snore> Too bad it's like near the end of the quarter. Hopefully next quarter will be more interesting.

Been playing Crimson Skies for the Xbox lately. I've been looking at some reviews and they are mostly if not all positive. Which is odd because I started playing the game before I read any reviews. And I liked it. It's a good arcade fun time! I still need to play it on a LAN to check out the multiplayer. I have to say that the single player story mode is very much repetitive. It's mostly "Oh no, here comes more baddies." However, the level design is far from bland. The levels are sometimes hard to navigate, specially the parts that take you underground. You quickly lose your sense of direction. Was that something they planned on? I'm not sure, but if they make another, I would like to see a way to get it fixed. The story line is pretty much linear, but on the big level maps, there are several missions you can do out of order or not do at all. The racing missions are fun. There is this one level which I can not do due to the above complaint of not knowing which way was up. If you have an xbox, and I know you do, go play it. It's a grand ol time!!

Wooden Mallet?

Ok, I know some of you keep up on current events. So I'm sure you're aware of the new campaign in Iraq coined Iron Hammer. Do I have put a trademark thing up there? Eh, nevermind. Anyway, so now that there is another name for the situation indicating yet another phase of the grand plan that is the liberation of Iraq. I dunno about you, but stick and stones...blah blah....and names will never hurt me. I mean Iron Hammer? Come on! Who are the brillant people who try to come up with these names? My own thinking is the same people who didn't want the "french" in "french fries" anymore. <sigh> I guess "The Indeterminate occupation of Iraq" was too long? Too hard to say in news broadcast. Well, I'm glad someone is looking out for those reporters.

Pool

Today, I played pool today with a friend that I have never played pool with before. And I have known him for over 11 or 12 years. I have to say you're not really friends till you play pool together. Ok, you can be friends, but really it's a friendship that will have the mark of the Devil on it. So, have you played pool with your "best" friend lately? Hmmm?

In any event, he won some, I won some. It was a good ol time catching up and finding out where things are going. He's pratically the only one I still know from High School and I'm glad we can still get together and do stuff. Albeit it's a random connection. But it's alll good in the end.

This post happens to mark the first time I have posted outside the safety and security of my own home. Yes, it's a scary thing but I felt it was neccesary to post. The pants command me! Invader Zim reference for the layperson.

What are we gonna do tonite? The same thing we do every night. Try to take over the world.

Well, not so in my case. As I had stated yesterday that I could catch up on my homework and start on the project. As it happens to be, I didn't do it. So, really, the same thing I do every night. Someone just slap me silly.

Welp, Clone Wars, Chapter numba 3 is gonna be on in a few minutes. Until 8:05.

OH!!! Let the Zimminess flow!!!

Great news!! I have just stumbled across a little news posting saying that Invader Zim, the best animated series ever to be made, is finally coming to DVD!! Rejoice!! Here's is the news blurb for your own reading pleasure!! Yes, I'm really excited about this!!!! Lots of exclamation points!!!!

If you are cool, you will buy these DVDs. Not only will you buy it for yourself, you will buy it for all your friends. And their friends! And so on and so forth. But one of you lucky readers will buy me a set!! Lucky you!!! Well, considering that I read my blog, I guess that lucky reader will be me. LOL Anyway, get ready for it in Spring 2004!!!!!!!

And remember, "It's me!! I was in the turkey all along!!"