Archive for May, 2004


Site done.. again

5/12/2004

Man it seems I change this web site like I change my socks… but anyway, it’s done. Cool. I’m goin’ ta bed. (grin)

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The Friday Report (grin)

5/14/2004

I stayed up ’til 2am last night finishing up my new computer, so I am dead tired today. Right now I’m feelin’ it.. and it’s not good because I have to drive later. I don’t like driving tired because that’s dangerous. Fortunately I drive slow most of the time, and today I’m going to take it super easy on the road.

The mood around the office is light today, which is good. In my opinion, you can never be too serious at work, because if you are, it really drains you in a bad way. Basically it makes you very cranky and irritable. Fortunately the current job I have recognizes that it’s ok to have fun every so often, which is good. If the fun factor didn’t pop around from time to time, this would be a very miserable place to work.

The Counter-Strike server I have at ReconGamer had a few problems last week, but they seem to be resolved. I personally think it’s pretty funny how RG handles problems. Say your server crashes for a few days in a row, so you call to report it. RG says “there’s nothing wrong”, and then the problem seems to magically fix itself very shortly afterwards. I’ve had this happen 3 times, so it’s not a coincidence. RG states there’s nothing wrong and then goes and fixes the problem without telling you. I suppose that’s ok - but I really wish they would admit when there’s a problem that needs to be fixed.

More about the computer I built: It’s by far the fastest computer I’ve ever owned. It’s a 1.9GHz AMD with 512MB of 400MHz RAM with a 128MB Chaintech NVIDIA Video card, and an NVIDIA Chipset on the mobo (Shuttle) itself. Good setup, the thing cranks right along very nicely. Windows XP boots up in less than 15 seconds (for real!) Hopefully the computer will continue to keep its speed as I add more software to it.

I am slowly but surely beginning to write new music - completely new stuff no one has ever heard before. It’s got my style, but it’s nothing from my archives (and I have a ton of stuff there). I will have to find a singer - but due to a recent bad experience with my previous singer I’m not exactly trying very hard to look for one if you know what I mean. (grin) And I am definitely not taking the old one back!! I’m also debating whether I should keep my existing project name or go with a new one. We’ll see.

Tonight when I get home I going to veg out - maybe play some Counter-Strike.. I dunno. (grin)

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Technology can suck ass sometimes

5/16/2004

Slowly but surely, I am putting on all the programs I normally use on the new computer I just built. I’ve decided along the way to upgrade a few programs. Bad idea for the most part. Newer is not always better (as it states very plainly on OldVersion.com - a site I could not live without).

New version of AOL Instant Messeger: Sucked. I use a version that’s 3 versions behind. Runs much better, faster and does the same job.

New version of CuteFTP, really sucked. A lot of crap added for no reason whatsoever. Does nothing but slow the program down and just make it confusing as hell. Thank God I kept my original paid copy of 3.0.

New version of WinAMP 5.0, sucked beyond belief. I hated this thing from the moment I installed it. Yeah, it’s free so you can’t bitch I guess… but sheesh the older versions (I use 2.91) is so much faster and just easier to use. The new version put everything in a different place and put in a “fade” that I could not shut off when switching between MP3’s. Screw that.

The lesson to be learned here is this: If you have programs that do the job you want, the new version most likely won’t do the job any better.. it will probably do nothing but slow your computer down.

Old WinAMP rules.. :-)

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In September…

5/17/2004

Last night I was doing my financial calculations, which I do from time to time. What this means is that I was attempting to figure out how long it would take to pay some bills completely. (grin)

After breaking out good ol’ Windows Calculator and spending some time researching the bills, I believe I will have my car paid off by September. Very cool. It’s a little later than I expected, but, there is a light at the end of the tunnel and I believe I will reach it.

I’ll tell ya, it will be so nice to have that darn car paid off in full. I don’t know about you - but I hate car payments. After the “newness” of your car wears off, you feel like you’re paying on something not worth the money you’re sending. At this point I am sending slightly-more-than-double payments on it right now so I can get it paid off by September. What a sweet victory that will be once that car is paid in full. And yes, I think it’s a victory whenever you can pay something off. (grin)

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Browser broke? Nope, it’s just Java

5/19/2004

Yeah, I surf the ‘net quite a bit (and if you’re reading this now, you probably do too). Recently I was visiting a few web sites that showed what looked like a broken image (where you normally see a box with an “X”), and I was saying to myself “Huh? I just installed Windows on this computer.. why am I seeing the X?” Then I said to myself “Oh yeah, I don’t have Java installed”. A quick run to java.com fixed that.

Java, dear friends, is a thing made by Sun Microsystems. I won’t get into the tech details of what it is because it would probably confuse most people, but what I can tell you is this: On the internet, Java has got to be one of the most awful things to ever be put in web pages.

Don’t get me wrong, Java itself is a cool thing considering what it can do (which is quite a lot), but the end result is that the majority of internet surfers out there (including myself) find Java very annoying. That’s because it slows down web pages to a crawl - even on fast computers, and when you don’t have it installed, it shows nothing but an “X” - making you think you have something wrong with your web browser. At least Flash (made by Macromedia) is smart enough to TELL YOU when you need it. Java does not do that. I knew enough about internet surfing to install Java when I needed it. Most people wouldn’t.

Previous to Sun’s version of Java, Microsoft used to (until told by Sun not to) bundle Java with Internet Explorer and called it “Microsoft Virtual Machine” or Microsoft VM for short. Not anymore. You have to know enough to get it yourself now. Bummer. Granted, it was Sun’s prerogative to make people get their version - after all they invented it… but like I said, most people won’t know to do this. Two of our Armed Forces web sites, Navy and Marines, both use Java on their home pages (look for the scrolling “News” on the left side for either web site, that’s the Java). Without the Java, a nice fat X shows up where the Java is supposed to go.

This is why I will not use Java or Flash on any of my web sites. I make all my sites “plugin-free” to ensure backwards-compatibility - and to avoid annoying anyone. (grin) When it comes to corporate intranet web design - that’s a different story because many corp’s insist on Java (mainly due to the reason “it seemed like a good idea at the time”) so you have to deal with it. Goes with the territory I guess… but you’ll never see it here. If for some reason I were to use it, I would at least put a little “heads up” web page stating “Hey you need this - go download it”.

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New Audio Card

5/20/2004

I noticed this really annoying buzz noise coming from the on-board audio card on the motherboard. The buzz existed when nothing was playing - I had to turn up the volume to actually hear it. “Time to get another card” I said to myself. Fortunately, good audio cards are cheap. I got this one. Installed easy. Works. No more buzz. Price? 18 bucks, that’s including shipping. Awesome. (grin)

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Whole lotta shakin’ goin’ on

5/23/2004

Sheez, where to start.. a lot of shit has happened over the past few days. Ok, here goes.

First, at work a girl named Judy appeared and was visiting for the day from some other department in the company (I think… I don’t pay attention to those things), and she seemed to take quite a liking to me, platonically of course, but that’s not a bad thing. She happened to be good friends with my “cubie” (i.e. person who sits w/me in the same cube) Deb. In some strange twist of fate, the conversation leaned my way and the subject went straight to the fact I have no girlfriend right now. Judy somewhat elected herself to be matchmaker for me. Good thing? Bad thing? Not sure at this point.

I’ve traded a few AIM’s (that’s instant messaging for those who don’t know) with Judy and she’s already invited me to go hang out, probably at a bar or something. And of course she will bring the intended (the girl she wants to hook me up with). Honestly speaking, it’s not meeting someone new that scares me. It’s the fact I would have to go to a bar - which I don’t ordinarily like. I will wholly admit - I cannot simply sit somewhere and drink because a) I don’t drink and b) I get bored to tears very, very easily. The whole thing just seems like a complete waste of time to me. It would be so much cooler to street hike in Boston, or go to a museum, or go to a show, or even something as simple as a movie… you know, something to do. I made sure to ‘warn’ Deb in advance that I hope there are pool tables at whereever I’m taken to (if the stars line up and this actually happens), because if I just sit there it’s not going to be a pretty picture.

In addition, the intended is Judy’s sister.. I think that’s what she said. I don’t remember. Being that I have the attention span of a stump, I don’t remember details like that. But, what I do remember is Judy saying all sorts of good things about the intended, of course. I also remember telling her (more or less) “Why are you doing all this for me, you hardly know me”, to which she replied “I trust my gut.” I thank her gut, because that at least makes me feel like I am a good person to some out there. It is the general consensus that I’m just an outright asshole most of the time, but maybe she was able to see beyond that and tune in to the fact that inside, I’m not all that bad. :-)

Secondly, my Counter-Strike Team has really been picking up steam by leaps and bounds. We’ve recruited in several new members (good ones this time), and are still getting blasted with tryout requests. Awesome, but it can drain you. My only beef at this point is that I have to get my team captain off his ass and start conducting tryouts more often. I am starting to get comments from existing team members that some people who are wanting to try out never get a shot. That is supposed to be Don’s responsibility to attend to that, he is the team captain.. so I will have to deal with that.

Also, I am having to ‘go back to school’ so-to-speak concerning running the Counter-Strike server itself. This takes up a large chunk of my free time configuring the darn thing.. and no one seems to understand the amount of effort it takes to do it. Then again - it is my responsibility, so I shouldn’t bitch. I am having to learn more and more about this thing day by day. It is an ongoing process. Someday soon I will have the server to the point where I can let it just run and not worry about it. When will this happen? No clue, but I’m hoping it will be soon. :-)

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I’ll call you in 10 minutes

5/23/2004

The telephone is a great invention, no doubt about it. I mean, think of it: You pick up a receiver, do a beep-bop-bop-beep-boop-boop-bop, the recipient’s telephone rings, and you can have an audio conversation. How cool is that?

It’s not cool when someone says “I’ll call you back in 10 minutes” and it never happens.

This happened today. A friend and I were having a conversation, and he had to go and do something - then said “I’ll call you back in 10 minutes.” Ok, no problem. That was at 11am this morning. It’s almost 10pm now. Ordinarily I wouldn’t give a rat’s ass about this, but, we were talking about something relatively important.

Now if my luck turns out to be the way it usually is, most likely the friend will call me tomorrow and I’ll start cussing him out for not calling me when he said he would. Then he’ll probably tell me something which will make me feel really guilty, like, “My cat died”, and he’ll be all bummed out about it. You watch. Then I’ll think to myself “Well, I just made myself look like a bucket of shit. Again.”

The phone sucks.

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Van Helsing Equals Monkey Vomit

5/24/2004

Hey guess what, I got a contributing editor to the site today. Happens to be a guy I work with who gets features on the SciFi web site quite often in the Letters section.

Check it out, this is what he wrote:

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Normally, I agree with Michael Basil on a lot of points he brings up (Hugh Jackman Makes Van Wilder). Normally, I admire his well-written letters expressing thought out opinions on the state of the pursuit of SF (be it speculative fiction or science fiction).

But not today.

And I apologize ahead of time if I offend Michael, because I think he’s a decent human being with a decent head on his shoulders.

But to say that Van Helsing was anything but a steaming pile of monkey vomit is just not accurate. From the Wolfman crawling on the walls (a motif Sommers seems unable to shed) to undead demon babies to unexplained hordes of knock-off ugnaughts, to the ludicrous plot twist of only a werewolf being capable of killing Dracula, this movie rates down in the basement with the worst Troma produced films. And I like Troma!

So many things were twisted so far beyond recognition, it’s like they were just making it up as they went along. Re-imaginings and re-inventions have finally, irrevocably, gone too far. I wanted my Dracula to be a detached, almost-as-emotionless-as-lifeless, regal being of supreme evil. Not Tommy Lee Jones as Two-Face.

I have to admit, the wolfman transformations deserved a second look?but there were plot contrivances that simply made no sense. Horror flicks don’t need to make sense, but it helps. Glaringly, the literal litters of “young” the brides had. If vampire young are born dead?and we are specifically told they are?and if they are born hundreds at a time?and we are specifically told they are?they must have been very small, on the order of millimeters. So if they’re dead, how did they grow to these huge 2-foot across necrotic amniotic sacs? If we were to invoke fantasy or horror logic, we could say that they grew because they were otherworldly, but if they were otherwordly, why would they need the science of the Monster to bring them to “life?” Wouldn’t a few sacrifices or a few gallons of virgin blood do the trick?

The amazing gadgets produced before the turn of the last century?I don’t know, I resist period pieces that, except for the backgrounds and costumes, could be today.

This movie is one of the very few I have ever gotten so close to walking out of?and I paid 8 bucks for Starship Troopers.

If this is what keeps Transylvania on the moviemaking map, then throw it out there “where there be dragons!”

Sorry Mike, I just can’t back ya up on this one. I’m hoping you were being sarcastic.

Adrian Hunter
josephusz(at)rocketmail.com

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Sleeping is good

5/25/2004

Last night I went against the grain and ignored all phone calls, e-mails and IM’s when I got home from work. I just ate dinner - and then went to bed. It was absolutely awesome. I slept very, very well. Today I am wide awake (for a change) and feel alert. Great feeling. I have to start going to bed early more often, it just feels so much better.

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