| It's finally happened!!! |
[Apr. 12th, 2005|02:02 am] |
24 days and 20 hours, give or take some minutes.
Level 60, bitches!!! |
|
|
| It's a Warcraft thing. You wouldn't understand. |
[Apr. 10th, 2005|01:47 am] |
So the girl and I are hanging out in Ironforge at the end of a long day of questing. We're both halfway through level 59, eager to hit the level cap so that XP ceases to matter and we can wholeheartedly get behind all the raiding our guild does.
We're standing around in the area between the Bank and the Auction House, and a guy /tells me to start a conversation that goes something like this.
Dude: can i have some money im jumping
Me: Nope. I've seen jumping before.
Me and the girl: *start jumping*
Me: See? Everybody can do it. Not really much of a show.
Dude: no i meant so u would know hu i am
Me: Can't. Busy jumping now.
I hate Warcraft beggars. Denying them money in entertaining ways is a hoot. |
|
|
| Does this make me a man-whore? |
[Mar. 31st, 2005|04:45 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  happy | ] |
I am on record as clearly recognizing and appreciating that the girl spoils me.
Earlier this week, she bought me a shiiiiiiny new PSP, once we tracked down a bundle that didn't force you to buy a gawdawful Gretzky game with it. Don't get me wrong - I am willing to bend over a little bit on a new hardware launch, and indulge the manufacturers who can't seem to fathom that there are three perfectly good games that I WANT to buy, and that forcing me to buy a not good game that I do not want to buy takes money away from the guys making the aforementioned good games.
I've never played the Gretzky games, but the average score over at Gamerankings isn't kind.
For the record, I tried to talk her out of it repeatedly. But she won out in the end, and now I spend those moments in the evening which aren't glued to Warcraft resharpening my dulled Tony Hawk skillz, and trying to beat the first level of Lumines.
And I have had the song for that level stuck in my head all goddamned day.
That is all. |
|
|
| Some good news for a change |
[Feb. 21st, 2005|02:06 pm] |
|
The fun thing about good news from cancer patients is that you get to say things like "Suck it down, tumors! When you get to hell, tell 'em chemo sent ya!" |
|
|
| If money was no object... |
[Feb. 21st, 2005|01:34 pm] |
...I would buy the following items.
-A widescreen TV. Nothing fancy. Just a 30 or 34" CRT (I do not believe there is currently a viable technology for gaming beyond CRT yet).
-A nice surround sound system. Again - nothing extravagant. I will even go so far as to say that surround sound still seems kind of 'gimmicky' to me (and I'm a sound engineer). But I'd like it.
-A Paul Reed Smith custom 22, a Warwick Thumb 5-string, a Schecter 7-string, a Tele, and an Ibanez Iceman. That and a Chapman Stick would pretty much complete my guitar wishlist.
-A new soundcard. That firewire bad boy from RME looks like the shizzle.
-A new MIDI interface. No more parallel port badness.
-Every piece of software that Native Instruments and Waves make.
-That new Drumkit from Hell software. Holy hell is that ever sweet.
-Maybe some amps. I'd love to have a Mesa half-stack and maybe get a Gallien Kreuger bass rig.
-A DW drumkit.
-A new wardrobe from Ikea.
-A new sofa. My current Futon is the embodiment of 'albatross'.
-I would pay off my car.
-I would buy my girlfriend's house for her and pay for any renovations she wanted.
-I would buy my parents anything they wanted. Maybe a summer home somewhere nice. Sparkly stones for mom, and Dad would get a motorhome and a Gretsch Country Gentleman and a nice amp to play it through.
-I would pay off my ex girlfriend's car. It's the least I could do.
-I would buy myself a house, and I'd pay off my housemate's mortgage for him.
Most importantly, I'd relax. And I'd throw a big party for all my friends and hire Mike Doughty to play at it and we'd all be cool like that. |
|
|
| BWA HA HA HA HA HA |
[Jan. 31st, 2005|02:44 pm] |
I was at CNN earlier, and read the following statement from dulcet-toned crooner John Ashcroft (seriously, if you haven't heard his warbling ode to patriotic bullshit entitled "Let the Eagle Soar", you're in for a treat), concerning the threat of nuclear terrorism:
...the entire world might be very seriously disrupted by a few individuals who sought to impose their will, their arcane philosophy, on the rest of mankind...
Golly - wouldn't that be a scary state of affairs! I'd sure hate to think that a handful of backwards asshats could screw things up for the rest of us.
Oh, wait.
Damn. |
|
|
| A reflection on a truly fucked value system... |
[Jan. 26th, 2005|01:42 pm] |
Last night (more accurately at sometime this morning at least an hour
after I swore to myself I'd stop playing), my Paladin character in the
much-ballyhooed World of Warcraft hit Level 40. Level 40 is one
of the most significant milestones in the game. You get a bunch
of sexy new abilities, many new tiers of quests are opened, you are 2/3
of the way to the level cap, you are officially a badass, and you can
get your mount (or, as I insist on calling it - free horsey!!!).
Unlike most other suckers who have to fork out 90g (which translate
into let's say fifty thousand dollars - a figure not so big as to be
inconceivable, but something your
broke ass isn't ever going to realistically have in your pocket unless
you never buy a single thing ever again), Paladins get their horsey at
no cost, which means your guildmates will constantly whine and curse
you as they scrounge every copper piece and are reduced to blowing Orcs
behind Hinterland farms.
Playing has been a lot of fun. I still think the game has many
problems of every conceivable manner and degree, but I get to play with
my friends and with my girlfriend and that's been fun and relaxing and
enjoyable at a time where I really need things to be fun and relaxing
and enjoyable. (I can't believe that my own personal parade of
bad news has yet to stop.)
I'm short on sleep because I figure the average signoff time for my
mates hovers around the 2am mark. Not long ago, I used to
admonish myself for not watching the Daily Show at 11pm and staying up
instead to watch the midnight showing on CTV. These days I find
myself exhausted and bleary-eyed catching the 3am showing on the Comedy
Network.
As if that isn't weird enough, I acutally feel a not-insubstantial burst of pride over this "achievement" of hitting L40. I realize that it's just a videogame. The nine fucking days and seventeen hours of playtime it took me to reach this goal seem for this strange moment to be totally worth it. I know that's strange.
But I'm actually pretty happy right now, and I'll take that where I can get it. :)
(Incidentally, the girl and I are even a nauseatingly cute couple in-game,
barraging one another with a stream of gooshey emotes that would make
even Harlequin fans gag. Deal with it. You don't argue with
a man with a free horsie.)
|
|
|
| Scenes from a maul. |
[Jan. 6th, 2005|01:30 pm] |
Today, in World of Warcraft...
She: So what's the plan?
Me: Rush the big guy.
She: *rushes in*
Me: *sits down to recharge*
He: Wait for me to recharge my mana.
She: *dies*
He: *dies*
Me: *dies*
Me: We need some kind of 'ready? go!' protocol.
She: You told me to rush!
Me: No, I said the PLAN was to rush. Coming up with a plan and executing that plan are very different things. For instance, we PLAN to cremate my father... |
|
|
| Still no cure for cancer. |
[Dec. 29th, 2004|03:24 am] |
The most productive thing I did with my day was learn the bass solo to Mission of Burma's "That's When I Reach For My Revolver."
I fucking love holidays. |
|
|
| In which we celebrate the birth of the baby Santa |
[Dec. 26th, 2004|12:46 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | full | ] |
Unbelievably bad drive home. First, I got on the wrong highway which, instead of taking us completely around Toronto, wound up taking us directly INTO Toronto, and into the parking lot that said highway had become following a three-car collision. Eek.
Once we finally escaped the GTA, we wound up in blinding snowsqualls. We had visibility of maybe ten or fifteen feet, and moved at a slooooooow crawl through the night. We pulled off the road for a facilites break, and for me to call my family to let them know that I was running a few hours behind schedule thanks to the bad luck but were still safe and would be there shortly.
I want to emphasize at this point that I NEVER pull off the road during a trip. I like to get in the car, hit the gas, and stop when we're at our destination. But nein. Just this once, I stopped. And as my punishment, I managed to lock the keys in my running car as I went to get the brush out of the back and clean it off before we took to the highway again. I called CAA (who made a lifetime member out of me over the course of this little incident) and they told me that I was put on the priority list, and somebody should be there in a mere hour and a half. Yay. Fortunately, people showed up in under a half hour, and the snowsqualls didn't carry on too much farther north.
When we finally got to our destination, the streets of my hometown were completely caked with ice, which slowed down the last leg of our journey, but we got in just before midnight, and I got to see my parents, my brother, and my dogs, for the first time in too long. Most importantly, they got to meet the girl for the first time. Dad took me aside to say I'd found "a winner", which is cool. I knew they'd love her. After all... I do. :) (Aww.)
There was quite a haul come Christmas morning, too. I haven't seen this kind of bounty since my brother and I were wee. Everybody spoiled me (and I did my best to return in kind), but the girl as always went tremendously above and beyond. She got me two t-shirts from Dusty that I've wanted forever (and that I've probably only mentioned once, so I can't believe she remembered - they may be my favourite gift of all just because I'm so touched that she remembered and got them). She also got me the remakes of Dawn of the Dead and Texas Chainsaw Massacre on DVD (because an early part of our courtship involved a weekly horror movie night). And as if that wasn't enough, she also got me a hundred dollar gift certificate for ThinkGeek which makes me an extremely happy geek. They have a hoodie there that I've wanted since my first visit to the site (and it's impossible to find a good hoodie - a neccessity in my freezing office - in my neck of the woods), and I can get all the swag I've had my eye on at the site with a few bucks left over to cover some of the shipping.
I can't believe how much she spoils me.
It's been a really wonderful Christmas. I love getting to spend time with the family, and I'm so happy that the girl could be part of it. We have to head back south on Monday. It's a little earlier than I'd like, because I don't get to spend enough time here at Family HQ, but we've got to get back to her cats, and we can't risk falling any further behind our pack of co-workers in World of Warcraft. :) |
|
|
| It's like crack. Crack crack crack crack crack crackity crack crack. |
[Dec. 21st, 2004|02:09 am] |
So I've hit that point of nerd addiction where the bulk of my day seems like this nine-hour hurdle I have to overcome before I can start playing World of Warcraft. And even though today was sort of a write-off, where we started off doing boring fetch-quests in this incredibly drab corner of the game world that seemed to answer the age-old question "What if Tolkein set his epic fantasy masterpieces in rural Saskatchewan?", and ended off doing some ultimately fruitless exploration into the newb zone of a new territory, wherein even the most vicious denizens were mere fodder whose existence and near-instant evisceration was barely worth any of our attention...
...it was still lots of fun because we were doing it together.
And I made some kickass Runed Copper Pants and Gauntlets for us both. They're very shiny, and show off one's calves.
The irony of this is that, even though I have a blast playing the game with her, I still don't think it's as good as City of Heroes. And yet I'm still hooked. This is why it's quarter past two in the morning and I'm updating my LJ, fresh from the day's virtual adventuring, instead of enjoying my second hour of sleep. This is not to say that the game isn't awesome, or that it doesn't do a number of things better than CoH did. I'm just noting that most of my complaints in the game have to do mainly with interface issues that CoH handled far better.
I can't believe I'm adding caveats into a weblog so that nobody gets mad because I have a few small issues with their most favouritest game.
Yeesh. :) |
|
|
| There and back again. |
[Dec. 18th, 2004|02:04 am] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sleepy | ] |
I'm just logging out of World of Warcraft and packing in for the night. The girl and I were travelling the countryside, laying the smack down on evildoers. Very, very geeky, to be sure. But it was a lot of fun, made moreso by the fact that we were doing it together.
It isn't dinner and a movie, but why get bogged down in tradition? Besides - in a virtual world populated by thousands and thousands of people, all moving from quest to quest only to find out their princess is in another castle, it's cool to have somebody on your team. And it's fun having this little venue where, if you mess with my girl, I'll explain the finer points of etiquette to you with the business end of a very large hammer. |
|
|
| That sword cuts both ways. |
[Dec. 17th, 2004|11:46 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | geeky | ] |
| [ | music |
| | Demo tracks for the new Arturia ARP2600 VSTi | ] |
Ha!
She went out and bought the game last night, too. With my luck, I'll tire of it before she does and I'll be the videogame widower. Although if we both get really into it, there's certainly an appeal to fighting the forces of evil together.
It's a g33k thing. You wouldn't understand. :) |
|
|
| The widowmaker. |
[Dec. 15th, 2004|09:18 pm] |
It's all her fault.
As part of her spoiling me for my birthday, she bought me a gift card
for Best Buy, which was enough to cover a copy of World of Warcraft
(resistance is futile, and at last my housemate will stop hounding me
to buy it) and a two month gameplay card. I had to cover the
taxes, which means I'm basically out of pocket five bucks a month for
three months of hawt Orc on Orc action.
Although my room is basically serving as a resonant chamber for the
roomie's subwoofer when he plays, so I've been subjected to the lowest
octaves of the game (which sounds like the symphonic consequence of
some otherworldly chili cookoff) for the past few weeks. I've
been warned that it's the gaming equivalent of crack and that I shold
prepare to surrender my life to it.
I'll do my best to balance issues of gaming, sleeping, working, and
showering her with attention. But I hope she - as my enabler -
will forgive me.
After all - it's all her fault.
|
|
|
| Post-script. |
[Dec. 8th, 2004|12:32 am] |
Oh, yeah - the DS seems pretty awesome. She got me Super Mario 64 to go with it, and good golly is it ever pretty.
She totally spoiled me, and whatever else is going on, I know that I'm a very lucky guy. |
|
|
| The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away. |
[Dec. 8th, 2004|12:17 am] |
"24 Hour Party People" is one of my favourite flicks, and I think it would be even if I wasn't all about the Madchesta bands. But beyond all the fascinating almost-biography and wonderful, whimsical music, there's one scene that has always struck me as being particularly poignant. Tony Wilson passes a homeless man on the street, and upon giving him some spare change is told this:
"I'm Boethius - author of The Consolation of Philosophy. It's my belief that history is a wheel. 'Inconstancy is my very essence,' says the wheel. 'Rise up on my spokes if you like, but don't complain when you're cast back down into the depths. Good times pass away, but then so do the bad. Mutability is our tragedy, but it's also our hope. The worst of times, like the best, are always passing away.'"
I can't tell you how comforting this has been to me in the past few months, where it seems like any breathing room between incidents of massive drama has just been life winding up for the next kick.
But six months from now, this will all be ancient history. Every struggle I'm in right now will have resolved, one way or the other. And some changes will be for the better, and some will be for the worse, but the noise in my head that has kept me up at night and worried during the day for weeks now will be a distant memory. This will all blow over. I have braced for the worst in a lot of cases, but continue to hope for the best. After all, I've made it this far with a little luck and perseverence, so I think it isn't unreasonable to hope that a bit more will see me through the next phase, and maybe even to a couple of happy resolutions.
But as the man says - good times pass away, but then so do the bad.
I've quoted that passage in several other places, and a copy (unread as of yet, which I really need to fix) of The Consolation of Philosophy is sitting on my shelf right now. It's a small thing, but it helps. Maybe philosophy is the agnostic version of finding religion. |
|
|
| The haul |
[Dec. 7th, 2004|12:04 am] |
| [ | mood |
| | hopeful | ] |
The girl bought me a DS. The geek in me is pretty thrilled. I'd love to tell you that it's awesome, but as with any Nintendo handheld, the excited tearing off of wrapping paper and exhilirated first holding of the new gizmo has to be immediately followed by the charging of the battery. I expect it will be awesome tomorrow.
And she treated me to an exquisite dinner at the Keg, where we and a bunch of friends from work enjoyed some damn delicious food. I'll admit, the french onion soup was a pale imitation of that made by my good friend Dawn, but the Teriyaki Sirloin was the very definition of succulent. In other words... mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.
And now she's here and we're watching the Daily Show and we're gonna curl up really soon and fall asleep.
I won't lie - there's a lot more on my mind today than anybody should have to deal with on their birthday. But it's ending on a pretty happy note.
And I got a DS. :) |
|
|
| Worst birthday EVAR? |
[Dec. 6th, 2004|06:20 pm] |
Don't get me wrong - nothing bad happened.
But I got precisely ONE birthday card, and it was from my Insurance Agent.
I think it's the most pathetic thing I've ever seen.
Oh well - the girl is taking me out for a lovely dinner at The Keg later (which I mention because one of my earliest observations about how special this girl is was that if a vegetarian will treat you to dinner at a steakhouse, you know you've got a keeper) where we'll be joined by some co-workers for some good food and drink, and lots of off-colour commentary about people's mothers.
(Sniff - I should point out that there's another yuletide tragedy afoot, in that I recently found the PERFECT gift for a former friend of mine - a T-shirt reading "My other ride is your mom", which plays to a long mutual history of such commentary between the two of us. Alas, we're not really in 'gift-giving' mode with one another right now, and that's a drag.)
So that'll be fun. And at some point tonight, I'm gonna buy my long-sought-after car dealership in San Fierro, when I get my GTA on back at the ranch.
But it's kind of weird to think about how many of my friends won't be able to make it. Curse this getting older and moving all around the province and such. Ron, Mike, Stuart (and assorted Assmonkeys!) - I wish you guys could be here, and we could ring in surviving another one.
I'll let you know if there are any cool presents! |
|
|
| It's the little things that will kill you |
[Dec. 1st, 2004|12:57 am] |
Gah!
I downloaded Thunderbird to use as my email client, but it can't talk to Hotmail (and I don't feel like messing with the extensions right now), so it's not really that useful to me. But I guess that, since my only useful email addresses are my Hotmail (mainly because I've had it forever) and my Gmail (because it's pure, uncut awesomeness), I can really just use the web pages for all my mailing needs.
Still, I was looking forward to using Thunderbird and beeing all 1337 and shit.
Dagnabit.
And one of my housemates threw out the box for my computer case yesterday. It's a tiny thing, but god damn it it was MY box and I was deliberately saving it so that the next time I had to move my gorgeous case (which IS all 1337 with its pretty window and LEDs galore) would be safe from being scratched and banged around. And the box was in the basement with MY STUFF! GAH! It's really a tiny bit of frustration and a whole lot of the principle of the thing. My dish sponge is gone too, and you just don't throw out somebody else's stuff, you know?
Don't get me wrong - both my housemates are delightful, awesome people and I do so love my new place. It was just a tiny drag to start off my day by seeing my property - even something as insignificant as a cardboard box - out at the curb. Sigh.
And QVC bought all the 30-in-1 Commodore 64 joystick games gizmo that I've been craving, so I've got to deal with them before I can get my Winter Games on, and they don't ship to Canada. Argh!
And I stopped by the EB (yes, I'm a shameless geek) and asked if Alien Hominid and Prince of Persia 2 had come in yet, and the manager said no, but asked if I wanted to reserve them, and I said "no" only it came out "yes". I have no willpower.
(rant over)
For some reason, I'm completely exhausted once work lets out, and I haven't even had the energy to get my Grand Theft Auto on for the past few days when I get home. Fortunately, I spent a great evening with the girl tonight (we hold hands, exchange meaningful embraces in parking lots, and make out like teenagers - we're sooooooooo "that couple" and we don't care so nyah!) before coming home and collapsing. Don't you hate falling asleep during Law and Order before you even find out who the bad guy IS?
Ah well. I got up for a drink, to catch the Daily Show, and do the goodnight thing over MSN. It's nowhere near as fun as in person, but spending a few nights a week with us each at our respective abodes helps justify the rent, and reminds us that things like laundry and dishes still have to be done, no matter how much we'd rather be cooing. Now I'm crawling back into bed and hopefully into a very deep slumber until morning.
And I'm still all giddy at the simple prospect of just seeing her again in the morning. It's a good feeling. (To borrow a phrase - hell yes, I'm in love.)
G'night! |
|
|
| Ow. |
[Nov. 23rd, 2004|03:09 pm] |
| [ | mood |
| |  sore | ] |
I had a Doctor's appointment this afternoon, for a teeny tiny surgery.
I'll spare you the details. It was gross. And it hurts like all get out.
The local was wearing off before I reached my car, and I reckon I've still got another ten or fifteen minutes before the percocet (whee!) kicks in.
In a word: OUCH.
Believe me... it can be extrapolated quite easily to many words - none of them repeatable in mixed company.
Ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow ow.
Ow. |
|
|
| navigation |
| [ |
viewing |
| |
most recent entries |
] |
| [ |
go |
| |
earlier |
] |
| |
|
|
![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif){kind=small}
lostinalunchbox's journal