Why are those Jawas smiling?!

Well, can't say that I have much to update the site with, as far as information regarding anything interesting to read. But on that note, I can say that my lovely wife, yes, again started playing Star Wars Galaxies and soon will inherit this "beast" of a PC (once I get the aforementioned PC) and all will be well for both of us at that time. Heh. I was almost tempted to re-open my old FFXI account, however, as I noted, my character (from more then 3 months ago) was completely deleted and I had no wish, therefore, to start anew. Especially with my fluttery attention span or whatever. Very few things are very ... all-consuming for my attention and it seems MMO's are not it. Or at least, not yet. Maybe this upcoming D&D MMO will be fine.

As long as I can go off, adventure, level, etc. by myself without having to always have a party at my back, then I will be fine. Sure, having a party would make the thing go more quickly most times (especially a healer) but, other then that, if I can solo it around then I should have no problems whatsoever. Start off as a Fighter, kill *hordes* of orcs and everything else to get good equipment and should be no problem. If it's 3rd Edition / 3.5 Edition to the T, it should be *damn* easy for a solo fighter to wander his way up to 20th level. 10 fights of equivalent level, sure, might be nice to have a Cleric backing you up, but a fighter should be able to go one vs. one and win 9 times of 10 of an opponent of equal level. A single opponent. See, that's where it gets tricky, I guess. Hit'n'run tactics for orcs and shit like that (assuming you can run or 'outrun' as the case may be) the orcs chasing you around. Heh. Not so in FFXI.

Started reading "Last Mythal" book 1, pretty smooth. Working on a Thieves World dedication site here, although it is as of yet, unfinished. Although I have good placeholders going, and short & sweet stuff for several (but not all, half really) of the books. But, I will get around to that soon.

Very excited for my PC... and my vacation...

Oh well.

Later

\Koltur

Alienware Area-51

Yes, I often preach the advantages of building your own pc. Yes, I have a custom built PC (custom built by me), yes I have built, have ordered and have done all that with a PC. So, now is my turn to buy a "pre-packaged" machine, customized with many of the 'best' parts for the $$ I was able to spend. Where did I purchase this PC from (or rather, where am I going to purchase it from?): Alienware.

Why? Because they make some kick-ass machines... I want a new machine, have wanted a new machine for a long time and I am finally getting one. That's all there is to that (although my wife had the final say-so) but I am damn happy. Happy as a pig in its own slop. Well, I suppose I should volunteer the specifications.

Chassis: Alienware® Full-Tower Case (480-Watt PS) - Space Black

Motherboard: Alienware® PCI Express Motherboard with Intel® 925 Chipset

Processor: Intel® Pentium® 4 Processor 560 w/HT Technology 3.6GHz 1MB Cache

Memory: 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 SDRAM at 533MHz - 2 x 512MB

Video Card: ATI RADEON™ X800 XT PCI Express 256MB DDR3 w/ Digital and TV Out

Video Cooling: AlienIce™ Video Cooling System - Fusion Red

Sound Card: Creative Sound Blaster® Audigy® 2 ZS High Definition 7.1 Surround

System Drive: Extreme Performance - Serial ATA RAID 0 - 148GB (74GB x 2) Western Digital® Raptor™ 10,000 RPM w/16MB Cache

Storage Drive: Additional Storage Drive - 80GB Seagate® Barracuda 7,200 RPM w/8MB Cache

Optical Drive One: Lite-On® 16x DVD-ROM Drive with Software DVD Decoder

Floppy Drive: 3.5" 1.44 MB Floppy Disk Drive - Black

Network Connection: Integrated High Performance Intel® Gigabit Ethernet Adapter

Operating System: Microsoft® Windows® XP Professional with Service Pack 2

And the rest, the less interesting information:
Automated Support: AlienAutopsy: Automated Technical Support Request System
Free Alienware T-Shirt: Free Alienware® T-Shirt - Black (a $10.00 value)
Cable Management: Alienware® Cable Management System
Benchmark Software: 3DMark®03 Standard Edition
AlienRespawn: Alienware® Respawn Recovery Kit
Free Alienware Mousepad: Free Alienware® Mousepad (a $14.99 value)
AlienWiring: AlienWiring - Exclusive Internal Wire Management - $99.99 Value - FREE!
Desktop Enhancements: Exclusive AlienGUIse Theme Manager
Keyboard: Microsoft® Multimedia Keyboard - Space Black
Warranty: 1-Year AlienCare Toll-Free 24/7 Phone Support with Onsite Service

Well, I don't know exactly how to say it, but I am absolutely exhilirated with the idea of getting a new PC, as well as how Saturday is going to be a pretty kick-ass D&D game with what I've got planned.

Ah well, not much more to say other then that, but I am going to watch one of a few things:

Final Fantasy Unlimited
Samurai 7
Tenchi GxP
or Futurama Season 4

I'll probably go with Futurama since that involves sittng on my comfy couch.

Later

\Koltur

Naruto 98?!?!

Arright. I managed to score outta work early and I am damn happy about that. I still have the flame of energy burning in me as I work a bit on my website some more (constant minute adjustments..) to make it look this and that much better give or take, that and working on a couple of offshoot sites that I will have working within a few days/months or years, depending on how motivated I get to working on them. They will have the same basic template as the original site (this) and will follow the coloring rules basically but they will pertain specifically to various things that I am interested in. So far, to name a few: Anime, Dungeons & Dragons and the Thieves World series of books. (I think a Thieves World tribute site would be awfully nice, don't you?) So, once I get motivated into doing that stuff, I will have a couple of interesting websites for people to take a look at.

Now as for today, I have a gew plans of things to do. First, I will watch Naruto 98. That being first and foremost as the most important on my list. Second, I will finish this rip-off novel, rip-off as in taken and written based from a popular PC game (see post from yesterday) entitled Baldur's Gate 2:Shadows of Amn (Throne of Bhaal) specifically, I already finished the SoA, so, working on the ToB one right now. Some real horrible stuff happened in the books that I don't recall having happened in the game.. and well, either way, the book is *okay*. Not "Great" or "Excellent", but only "Okay", although I will say that the writing style of this author (which is different from the original 2 books) is a slight bit better then the other author.

Either way, after I finish these two things, I have several options available to me. I have several PS2, Xbox & Gamecube games that could possibly arouse my wandering attention span. I have several novels I could begin to delve into. I have several PC games I could mess around with... I have several sets of movies / anime, etc. I could watch as well, so I have a large plate of things I could take a crack at although I am undecided what I will do at this time. (I'm tending to lean towards Futurama Volume 4 however.) .. Note, I also have Issue 3 of Naruto in manga form I could read. I can also mess around in the Neverwinter Nights game, I recently downloaded "Demon" a module by Adam Miller that is "so far , so good", although I will note I was more greatly enthralled by his other campaign : Dreamcatcher. Either way, he's one good module-maker/custom-content maker and I am glad he's working for/in/with/etc. the NWN community. Too bad it's not as easy to Mod KoToR or.. perhaps steal from KoToR to use in NWN. Either way, it could be and I'd never know about it, but, I digress.

As I said, Naruto 98. Then whatever else. Perhaps I'll start doing some scans of my Thieves World novels and writing up a short description of them, but I also want to map out (for D&D) a few things.

I plan on making a few changes, etc. to some things that my character "Koltûr Azzur Tôl-Amrac" is currently doing. Right now, he is running a business of sorts, a "Retrieval Agency & other odd jobs." For a 10GP consultation/assessment fee, he (or one of his employees) will assess the employers job and whether or not it falls within the realm of his business. If so, we will take the job, finish the job & collect our loot. However, our "shop" is currently run from some 2 level townhouse building that I want remodeled, enchanted/warded and "enlarged" on the inside, or dimensionally offset so that the interior is larger then the exterior. After that, I want to make some other changes/arrangements as far as my character's equipment (based solely on the fact that Gaellen, his "friend/etc." (occasional intimate connections, although not a "steady" relationship) has gained levels in her Wizard class so as to be able to enchant objects to a greater degree now, or "upgrade" current magical objects, which is my goal.)

Not only that, but I have several ideas about various events that will take place around Faerûn around the time of when we are playing and whatnot, so that our big, medium & possibly new characters will have spawned adventures. Essentially, I have an outline of various events that will occur and depending on how the group reacts will depend on how much adventure we will receive. Also, I am basically creating ideas for our DM to work from. (I.E. our DM runs out of creativity, however with a few good story-based ideas can make a whole lot more from nothing then I can. I can come up with the ideas, implement them and let our "real" DM take over from there...)

Oh well.

Anyway, I am going to go watch Naruto 98.

Later

\Koltur

Demonstone ...

Hello. Today is Wednesday. I have had a nice long night at work tonight where I was short-handed and had to work hand-in-hand with a woman from Honduras (yet again), and although she is a good worker, I am still very tired (mainly because of the shorthandedness). We managed to finish the good majority of everything that was taken care of and whatever.

But, as per the title, I digress. [/endbitchsession]

Demonstone. This games graphics give the game a lot to look forward too... *However* gameplay may not be nearly as good as what the graphics make it look to be. What I mean to say is this. There are many factors that affect whether or not a CRPG or Computer-Role-Playing-Game is any good or not. Graphics. Certainly, this is one of the things that is very important to a CRPG. Sound. Also, very important, and when I state sound, I mean both special effects & background music. Gameplay. When I say gameplay, this is almost all-encompassing... of what you ask?! The control. How well you can control the character, how your character moves, clipping issues, fluttering of your cloaks when you run, twinkling of water as you step in it, stuff like that. But mainly, how you control your character. Many games can be absolutely broken in the graphics & sounds department, but the Gameplay is solid, which makes the game generally good. Good Gameplay can make or break a game. And last, but not least, and probably most important. Story. Without a story, your game is nothing. At least for CRPG. If your game has *Great* visual & audio effects, however it sucks shit in the Gameplay & Story aspect, then, your game isn't worth as much as the toilet paper in my bathroom.

What is the greatest CRPG of all time?!

This is a very difficult question, but first you must understand the full aspects to this question.

1.) Video
2.) Audio
3.) Gameplay
4.) Story

There are many *great* CRPGs out there, but not many can be *great* in all 4 categories. I will list a few examples of some CRPGs that are excellent in all 4 categories (although, some may contain dated graphics, in their time they were *EXCELLENT*)

1980's:

Wizard's Crown

Demon's Winter

Phantasie

Phantasie II

Phantasie III: Wrath of Nikodemos

Temple of Apshai

Pool of Radiance

Curse of the Azure Bonds

Secret of the Silver Blades

Champions of Krynn

Death Knights of Krynn

Dark Queen of Krynn

Eye of the Beholder

Bard's Tale

Bard's Tale II

Bard's Tale III

Ultima III

Ultima IV (although after this one, they went downhill)

Final Fantasy (Console - Nintendo, circa. 1989)

Phantasy Star (Console - Sega / Sega Genesis, circa. 1989)

Dragon Lord
And more...

1990's:

Baldur's Gate

Baldur's Gate 2 (My personal favorite CRPG of all time next to WC)

Planescape:Torment (One of my top 10.)

Stonekeep

Elder Scrolls:Arena

Elder Scrolls:Daggerfall

Dungeon Hack

Final Fantasy 7!!

Legacy of Kain: Blood Omen (in the top 10... for pure malice)
And more...
...
However: I will say that there are not as many memorable games for me as there were from the 80's, and that is just because the stories for games began to not be as big of a deal. Nope, graphics & sound were more of a deal with the advent of new technology, however story & gameplay went in the shitter. So far, in the 2000's, there've only been a few games worth mentioning in the genre. I mean, really seriously worth mentioning.

2000's:

Elder Scrolls: Morrowind

Baldur's Gate 2: Throne of Bhaal expansion (Added to BG2: SO...)

Final Fantasy 10! *GASP*

Knights of the Old Republic

Neverwinter Nights***
And *maybe* a few more, if that.

*Note, Neverwinter Nights had all the potential to be a mighty kick-ass rocking game. But unfortunately the official campaign was absolute shit, although it was decent enough storied, it was boring, the control is a little shaky (especially for spell-casting classes) but the Graphics & Sound were Phenomenal. The real staying power for this game however, came not from the actual campaign modules put out by Bioware, but rather, user-made modules made by the community. Information can be found here.

Now that I've gone through and given several examples of *GOOD* games, I can simply only hope that this Demonstone is a good game rather then some horrifyingly pathetic piece of ass.

Thank you for your cooperation. Have a nice day.

\Koltur

Baldur's Gate ... Tutu?!

Greetings and salutations. Today is Tuesday. I hate Tuesday. Especially when I know that when I am going to work tonight I will have to work especially hard because one of our members is calling in sick because he has someting important to do, leaving us only two people for tonight. Great.

Anyway, as you can see, I've found an interesting *MOD* for Baldur's Gate 1, yes, you thought it was dead, but this Baldur's Gate MOD (As per the title) allows you to play the original Baldur's Gate with the Baldur's Gate 2 engine (which contains many tweaks & fixes & upgrades) and run BG1 in the not so nasty higher resolutions. This is important for many reasons. First, BG1 has dated graphics (in 640x480) but when run in the BG2 engine, you can set it up to 1024x768 or even higher if you want, although it looks best in 1024x768 (in my opinion.) So, I am getting use out of an old game once again.

It is minorly buggy that I've noticed, but I can live with that compared to the hours of fun I can re-obtain by playing this old game. It's just a shame there is no Planescape: Torment version of this patch, although maybe with a little digging I can find something of that nature and once more, relive the adventure & excitement and just plain good story-telling of Torment.

Oh well, not much else to say. I can't wait for Naruto 98.

I'll post later (as in later, this week.)

Later

\Koltur

Dungeons & Dragons Documentaries?!

While reading a news article over at Slashdot I noticed the nifty article about several documentaries about Dungeons & Dragons as well as other various RPG systems. Documentaries. That in and of itself is something to be interested in reading about, as I am a rather avid D&D fan/player/collector. Although I may not be as big and bad of a collector as my neighbor (which could be for all I know) I still do have almost a complete collection of the Original books (actually, I think I *do* have a complete collection) and I am working on a complete collection of 3rd Edition books (2nd edition wasn't all that impressive to me to be honest) I will probably hold on to these books til I am old and gray and they are of no use to me anymore. That, or I'll take 'em with me into the ground goddammit.

I watched the next installment of Naruto (Naruto #97) and I must say that I *love* Naruto. I do love many other series of anime, but none are as good to me as Naruto is. It holds a lot of things cartoons should hold. Action, Adventure, Pervert Hermits and the like, Ninjas, Honor & Moral Codes and I would recommend it for anyone who is at least honest with themselves and not a complete asshole (like most of you out there) to check it out if you haven't already. There's a lot of real good anime out there if you can get past the fact that:

1.) It's animated. Screw You, it's *better* then Live-Action. (All women are beautiful unless intended to be otherwise. Too bad real women don't look this good, eh??)

2.) It's in Japanese. Also, screw you, don't be so egotistical as to think other cultures should make everything in your native (English) Tongue.

3.) It's expensive. Again, screw you, anything of value is worth paying for. All you fags out there that only pirate and whatnot without ever buying the DVDs can all go *expletive deleted* yourselves. Sure, I may download these unlicensed anime, but the minute they are in the USA up for sale, I am there buying every one of them that I can. (Until my wife steals away my check card...)

And those are the 3 main factors that I can think of for people to not like anime (that, and of course lots of people are just generally eediots and wouldn't realize something was cool without the church saying so, or a big-ass baseball bat of coolness to the face) although I would hope that more and more people are introduced to it so that it can spread across the USA like wild-fire, get rid of the stupid-ass leftover 90's "urban" comedy and move on to something good on television.

My #1 complaint about cable television, the fact that you got to pay for 50 channels of bullshit while you get like 10 channels of goodness (although, my main 3 are Cartoon Network, Sci-Fi & Comedy Central) is that of those 50 channels, there is the BET. Give me a fucking break. Where is the White Entertainment Channel? Isn't it a bit biased to presume that there should be a Black Entertainment Channel without a white one?! *And* of course, if I want basic cable, I have to pay for that trash?! And that's why I don't pay for cable. If anything, I will pay for Satellite, assuming my cable provider ever notices they are giving me free cable here at the townhouse I rent. Oh well. I'll steal 30 minutes of cable a day (maybe 30, if that..) without reporting to them that I am stealing it, because I am not doing it by any fault of my own. They just never disconnected it for the last person that was living here, so... I see absolutely nothing wrong. Of course, all you (1) people out there reading this, don't bother to go to the cable company with this information, I know where you all (1) live.

Oh well, it's weekend. I am going to go hang out for about 30 minutes or so, then pass out next to my lovely wife and wake up around 3-ish so that I can hang out and have a happy Dungeons & Dragons day.

Later

\Koltur

Infected in 20 minutes.

By reading the title you may think that I am going to post about your PC becoming infected within 20 minutes of first plugging into the good ole' internet. An out-of-the-box, original Windows XP-enabled PC will supposedly become infected within 20 minutes, however with the various updates from Windows Update, as well as a virus scanner & firewall, this should severely lessen that possiblity (as told in the article above). The problem is, that most PC users are probably not yet up-to-date and what I mean by this, is that of the 250-odd million people living in the USA, with, let's say... 10 million PCs (at a random guess), the majority of those 10 million are not interested enough in using a PC to understand certain mechanics about their PC and therefore vulnerable to that sort of thing. I'd imagine something like 1%-10% actually know what they are doing enough to the point to protect themselves and the rest...

shouldn't probably have a PC.

Unfortunately this does not account for people with NAT Firewalled routers that are often prescribed by Cable & DSL providers although I am unfamiliar with Satellite connections.

The DSL router I was given out-of-the-box provided NAT and therefore I imagine my PC when first connecting to the internet was probably off less vulnerability then your average Dial-up(per). That and of course, my unattended installation disc comes (now) pre-installed with SP2 integrated. (before, only SP1). So, I guess that's good in my case.

Regardless, my blog post is unrelated to the above.

~

Is there ever something that you really, really, really want? And, you have the money? But, you have other things on your plate that you must first purchase but you have no credit with which to do it (because it is required) and you find out that if said object is $10,000 and you have $6000 to use as a downpayment, with no credit you will not get yourself a loan? Boy. I think about my credit situation without having ever had a co-signer when I was younger and I must say that my head swims with the impossibility of the whole money-lending system.

My specific problem will be remedied soon enough, however I am currently pining for a new PC with which to run these cool games on that I have and are running like absolute KA-KA. (Doom3 is my prime example, although there are others..)

I could go on and on about this, but even as I type this, I am becoming sleep-fogged and so I must shift my attention away from this to something that *will* keep me awake so that my sleeping schedule is re-affirmed, although with it being Friday there is no real need. I can just suffer through another night of work without any problems... only to collapse from tiredness on saturday.

Nah, I think I will sleep a lot today.

Later

\Koltur

Thursday - Never could get the hang of Thursday.

Bah. Thursday, much like Arthur Dent, I never could get the hang of Thursdays. Why you ask? Probably because I don't have a towel on hand, however, I doubt that is the key of the matter. More likely, it is just that near the end of the week I am beginning to become very tired, lashing out at any and all around me and killing mercilessly... or, not. No, more like, I am just tired and wishing for my last two nights of work to be over so that I can enjoy my particularily enjoyable weekends. Why are they so enjoyable you may ask?! (or don't ask..) Well, I'll tell you. It goes a little something like this: (insert strange music here) I love my weekends, I love them so much that I dread going to work after my weekend. I tend to think that the more you absolutely *hate* your job, the more you will enjoy your weekends. And trust me, I absolutely *hate* my job. Well, not necessarily. I always say that I hate my job because that is the common thought amongst most of the plebes like myself, unfortunately for the $$ I am getting paid and for the work that i have to do, I actually rather like my job. Certain aspects to my job are very easy (mentally) even though physically my job is certainly not for the faint-hearted. Most people I know are not willing to work as hard physically as I have to every day. Sure, you say.. you push a buffer around. Yes, I do, around a rather large wal-mart. All night. It involves walking somewhere in the nature of 20+ miles per night. Yes, literally. Oh well, such is life.

Another round of sleeping awkwardly as I noted yesterday. I knew it would happen, and yes. It did. Oh well, I can say that through my own actions and those of the beautiful wife's cats, I did not sleep very restfully, however I will once again be able to make it through work if only because I am strong. Yes, strong. I don't work out or exercise, but my job manages to keep me rather fit and in pretty good physical condition (even though I am sore a lot of the time) and strangely, I am stronger then many of those around me, although from my form I wouldn't look it. I got that tall, lean thing going for the most part, with a slight acquired belly from the wife's cooking. Yep, I am a pretty happy man to have gained a small belly, although it is hardly noticeable from looking at me. Suffice it to say, I am rather happy about being able to keep my shape without exercising, because my job is physical. Mind-numbingly physical.

During my job, I easily slink off into the nether regions of day-dreaming to help me pass the time. Day-dreams about world domination or other such fun things occasionally enter into my mind as I walk around pushing a heavy machine (not unlike a lawnmower) while at the same time making my floors here at the old big "W" look nice and shiny (that is, shiny if they had different wax on them) and all is good.

...

I am still reading a MYTH book by Rob Aspirin (but this one is Co-Authored by Jody Lyn Nye) and it is pretty good so far, I will be finished if I can concentrate on reading so that I can then start reading some of the Phule's books, Tambu, Cold Cash War, Bug Wars and a few others of that genre. Then, I can go back to the Thieves World' offshoot novels that I obtained through www.Barnesnoble.com for a rather relatively cheap price even though I had to pay multiple shipping charges. Suffice to say, some 20 books for around $50 was a pretty good score in my opinion, much cheaper then I'd have ended up paying on Ebay.

Currently I am about to watch Naruto#97 and I imagine that it will be absolutely awesome in the wake of 95-96 and I am very excited to see it. I will run it through to the other PC in the living room to play on the big 47" HDTV (Widescreen) where I will also run the sound out through the Kenwood Reciever/Speaker System. Yes, that is what I will go do , right now.

Have a nice day. Thursday.

Later

\Koltur

Wednesday. I hate Wednesday.

Contrary to popular belief, Wednesday is a horrible day. Why?! Because it is in the middle of the week. Sure, you got 2 days of work under your belt, but you got 3 more to go and hopefully you can survive it until you make it through friday and into saturday. Why do I *hate* wednesday so much?! Well, I'll tell you.

First, monday you start out trying to re-adjust your schedule back to nights because you've been sleeping nights with your *hot*, beautiful wife, it is hard to adjust back to sleeping days immediately (note: I am one of those day people anyway, like Farmer Joe, I can wake up every day around 4 or 5 am... with the sun) so, Monday you manage to sleep sunday night and wake up early monday morning, which makes it so that you are generally awake all day monday. Then, lo' and behold, you must go to work monday night and through it all you are somewhat energized, it being your first day back to work, however you are generally overwhelmed with tiredness pertaining to your lack of sleep during the day. Okay, well.

After work monday (tuesday morning) you go home and try to go to sleep or whatever, but the problem is that if you go home & crash out immediately after work, you will sleep, then again.. awake during the day, so instead you stay up and go about your business til around 1pm or 2pm. (All CST) Sure, you crash out, then 9pm you wake up, eat, shower, etc. and go to work. Note, by this time you have to recover from monday, however you don't exactly sleep more to do this, you just sleep regular, which gives you a sort of negative, making you more tired tuesday night. Also note, that this is a physical job, so your muscles are all rather sore, then by wednesday morning you are absolutely drained and ready to crash out.

So, you do.

And when you wake up, you notice that it is like 3pm and that you have 7 hours before you have to work, so what is it that you are going to do? After talking to the bee-u-tee-ful wife at work, you find out some cool stuff or whatever and then you go back to whatever it is you would normally do, however, you gain a certain sense of dread for the night because you know you will be tired, sore and whatever, but hopefully by thursday morning (wednesday night) you will be fine again and stay up normally after work. This is *sometimes* the case.

Either way, by Saturday morning (friday night) you are ready to just pass out and have a nice weekend, but you end up switching back to day schedule and screwing yourself all up for the upcoming week.

Again.

And so the cycle continues.

***

I *would* like to note that I am not unhappy. I have recently obtained Highlander:Season 5 (a show which I used to watch every sunday night during high-school) and I can say that I am very happy about that, as I will mow through those episodes quite quickly. I do not watch much TV as such, however I do like to watch DVDs and I have somewhat of a nice collection of them, although you people that are younger than I will probably note that the vast majority of DVDs that I own are from the 1980's. Why, you ask??

Well, I would like to say that in my opinion, movies stemming from the late 70's to late 80's, were full of humor and just generally rather nice to watch. After the boom of the 90's, I say that I think the humor all turned to become "Urban" or for those of you who are racist or at the least less PC, it became Black humor. Why? Well, it seems that the black people are getting more and more into the entertainment business and although I have no qualms about that as such, I do have qualms about the low quality humor that they are placing in their urban movies or just the general low quality to a lot of things that are made by blacks. Maybe black people like some of the crappy stuff that is made into movies but whether they do or not, I think their urban humor stinks like week-old cat pooh that needs cleaning out of their litter box. Not to say I don't find a lot of white humor just as much of shit, it's just that I *hate* the way the Urban blacks talk. And I *hate* the way sub-urban whites try to act like they are all mean and tough like urban blacks.

I have nothing against a black, green, orange, yellow or indigo skinned person. I do however have a lot of things against trashy, uneducated idiots. Which, these urban-types typically reflect upon being.

Maybe in the future, we'll all merge into one color and all act the same way (like in the episode of South Park) and there will be no more of this crappy movies & crappy linguistic skills.

***

That is my speech / lecture / gripe for today (apparently everyday really. heh)

Later,

\Koltur

Thank you. Thank you, thank you very much. Well, today I am quite delirious. Yes. Delerious. It must be because I had little to no sleep today, or yesterday, or whatever it was when I last slept. I woke up, had a nice day during the day then noticed I couldn't fall asleep so I had a nice dinner with my beautiful and lovely wife, then.. yes, went to work. And from there, it went to hell. No, really, work wasn't so bad, other then the fact it was like being on acid and wanting to come down, but unfortunately I didn't have any vitamin b-12 handy, or a bed & blanket. Then, unfortunately for me, I noticed that Highlander Season5 series was out on DVD and I absoultely *MUST* have that, so I did buy it, yes, my precious, I did, and yes, I am watching it at this very moment. Well, maybe not at this -very- moment, however, I will be returning to it shortly after writing this absurd journal, err... blog entry.

Regardless of this, I plan on watching some more Highlander and perchance reading some of my cool Myth Novel before crashing out, although I am quite looking forwards to crashing out (amazingly enough, considering) so.. I think I will keep this brief. Very brief in fact.

.
..
...

Well, there you have it. Hope you young hopefuls don't become the "Don't let this happen to you crowd" or, like me. Mleh.

Later

\Koltur

I certainly have to say that I am sometimes very glad to be alive. This is certainly one of those moments, just as most of the moments I am conscious and not Hungover are. Thank god for !Alcohol, because with a choice like that, I definitely choose the right way. I will have to say that in my younger days however, that was not necessarily the same choice I made and therefore there were periods of where I did wish I were dead, if only to stop the headaches and other such feelings I typically received from being hungover. Well, this is not the case, and thankyouverymuch.

I read a lot this weekend. Saturday we did some D&D as usual. My "rogue art dealer" managed to acquire several enchanted paintings of exceptional power, such of the kind that is not really ever seen. These paintings were painted with some magical paint brushers by apparently the most skilled painter in the realms and bound with unborn souls stolen from the Bastion of Broken Souls. My current character a Level 12 (ECL 18) drow/half-fiend rogue didn't have much problem locating and smooth-talking the paintings out of the previous owner's hands as they were not all that interesting to the owner, although what I offered them in recompense apparently was. That or maybe I am just able to wittily RP maneuver around my DM.

Either way however, I received a lot of Gold and magical items for finding these paintings for some Archmage who propositioned me at the opening of my "art" shop. Heh.

Other then that, I finished reading Sweet Myth-tery of Life by Robert Aspirin and I am currently involved in reading the next book and I can say that I am having a fun time of it. Very much so.

Also watched a couple of movies starring Sonny Chiba, those being : The Executioner & Golgo13. Both being "low-quality" for today's day and age although both were rather good in my opinion. Sort of "Vintage" is what I would call them, as I tend to enjoy old movies however badly recorded. Sure, the quality might be bad, but the style of movies back then (1974 & 1977 respectively) was much different culturally then the films created nowadays. Same with The Pink Panther, which is another movie I watched, circa. 1963. I must say the lead female role (i don't even know her name) was a very attractive woman, similar in appearance to the woman in the 1969 Romeo & Juliet release. (These women look much like my wife by similarity : note) and I can easily appreciate the difference in style and body-shapes presented back in the 60's & 70's, even though that time-period is long before me.

Ah well, you obviously do not want to read my rambling about beautiful women and so I will cut this short. Although I have a couple more things to say before I wrap it up.

Codemonkypublishing.com has released an update to their Mega-Wizards of the Coast-Bundle Pack for eTools 1.5, which includes updates for several of the data sets, along with the Complete Warrior data set for 3.5 Edition (which I installed and it looked nice!) and so that will make some things at Saturday easier of course. (Esp. for Tom)

And that's about it, I guess.

Later.

\Koltur

Well, today is Friday. Now. Work was somewhat pleasant, my Mexican friend and I waxed (recoated) a large area of the front "action-alleys" of Wallyworld and I will say that in my honest opinion : IT LOOKS LIKE ABSOLUTE SHIT. When I say that it looks like Shit, I am not implying that Laz and I did not work hard. No, In fact, we did work rather hard to achieve the "as good as it is" look that it currently has with the Oh-so-spiffy-Expensive Butcher's wax that we are currently 'forced' to use, however things will change soon enough so that we will once again use Johnson Signature Wax once more. Anyhow, I digress, the floor looks like shit, but that's mainly because instead of 'stripping' the previous wax, we simply re-coated which means that the dirt and such that is already in the tile of the floor is still there under previous layers of wax. Although we did do a rather good job of clearing away the old wax by recoating, it does not remove the sealer that was used originally and in the original sealer, there is a lot of dirt and whatnot so that it has a nice (un)healthy brown color going for it. Bee-u-tee-ful, ain't it?!

Well, aside from that, I have been having a hoot during my breaks at work and whenever else I manage to set time aside from whatever it is that I am currently doing ((one of the many random things that I do to occupy my time and yes, there are many - esp. cause I am so scattered, I can't seem to concentrate / focus on any single thing, but rather start several projects and several more, then return to the original ones and switch off all the time, always starting new things and rarely finishing the old ones or... at least not finishing them until I return to them.) --Gemini. Yes.) by reading a bunch of books (lately) by Robert Aspirin, Editor for the Thieves World series which is so cool and writer of a bunch of stuff on his own like the MYTH series and Cold Cash Wars and Tambu and Bug Wars and so on. Well, as I was messing around to see a BIO for this guy and compare how many of his books do I own vs. how many he has put out, it appears as if there are only 3 or 4 books by him (which are not related to MYTH, PHULE, THIEVES WORLD) and that I will (MUST) get them because this dude is an excellent author with a good sense of humor and I would have to say with all the crappy authors out there, I want the good ones to keep putting out great material. I have been absolutely enraptured with his joke-filled fantasy adventures of Skeeve & Aahz (although sometimes I wish the books were longer..) and I would recommend them to anyone that A.) Can read B.) Likes Fantasy C.) Has a sense of Humor and D.) Is not George Bush as I doubt George Bush would find anything about them humorous. But seriously, these books are awesome (of what I've read) and I am currently in the midst of re-reading everything by this dude that I possess and obtaining everything that I don't so that I can enjoy every last bit of it before my attention gets back to some other Offshoot Thieves World books that I want to read. Got a Shadowspawn offshoot novel, a few more Tempus novels, Jaime the Red, Lythande, Samlor hil Samt and a few others... then I have a bunch of other novels I just picked up recently to read... Suffice it to say, I have good reading for a long time to come.

So anyhow. I am about to go put my brain back into the books and have some more fun reading that stuff. I've (re)read the first 7 MYTH books and now I am about to sink into MYTH-NOMERS & IM-PERVECTIONS ... (I own 2 omnibus editions , Myth Adventures (1-4) and Myth Alliances (5-7) and a recently released Book with Volumes 1&2 in it... cause I think someone noticed how good the books were. Bastards) and of course on and up through the rest of the MYTH series until I can start reading other books by this dude. Bug Wars, Cold Cash War, Tambu, Phule's Paradise and so on , and a couple by him I don't own. License Invoked sound pretty neat, so I will check into that one and maybe buy "Catwoman" (released in 1995 or so apparently) to put some more $$ into this guy's pockets so more books get made, which is what I want.

Anyhow, have fun. (Hopefully as much as I do.)

\Koltur

I watched a release of Naruto this week, it happened to be a 2-part 1-hour long episode (#95-96) and it is quite the watch. Tsunada / Jiraiya vs. Orochimaru (Naruto & Kabuto on the sidelines). All 3 opponents use the infamous "Kuchiyose no jutsu". Heh, suffice it to say, it is definitely worth the watch and hope any of you that watch it, enjoy it as much as I did, cause it's damn good and if you didn't like it, you're dumb. Meayah. Suffice it to say, watch the damn episode!! :P

Anyhow, I have little else to report other that I am reading a different book now and will soon engage on a different one after this one, although it will be much smaller and I will burn through it quickly (mainly because the last few novels have been "Omnibus" editions, kinda 4 Books-in-1 Book... ) And they've been pretty awesome. Can't wait to get further into the series, although this will require some digging through stacks of books and whatnot to get to the others. Heh, it'll be fun, I'll see books I haven't read for a long time and get the (re)urge to read them.

Later

\Koltur

I notice that when using cookies and after setting blogger to "Edit HTML" mode, I can then use Opera to successfully post to this medium. Well, isn't that a treat? Too bad for IE and Active X and all that crap. When will Mosiac-Based Internet Explorer get a serious revamp?! And when will other 3rd Party "cooler" browsers be able to support all the same technologies (perhaps in different ways) then Internet Explorer?! Sheesh.

Well, I woke up. I slept when I got home, so I am now totally awake. Isn't that a treat? I finished my Myth Adventures book and will today start on my Myth Alliances book, although I have a Manga book, Naruto #3, and I have a few more new books, Baldur's Gate, Baldur's Gate 2:Shadows of Amn & Baldur's Gate 2:Throne of Bhaal. Although these novels will most likely totally be similar in most ways to the actual PC-RPG (CRPG) the first one, I noticed had a rather nice introductory chapter and I was rather impressed with the writing, so they should probably be pretty good. I just finished War of the Spider Queen #5:Extinction? Annihilation? I don't remember the title, but the book was awesome. Spell-duel between Gromph Baenrae and the Lich guy, although I don't remember his name cause he's worm food. :P

I feel pretty chipper right now, although I am dirty and in sad need of a shower. Although I think I will get in there soon, but I am just feeling pretty lazy right now.

I applied WindowsXP Service Pack 2 (RTM) to my Unattended installation of Windows XP and that went fine. Now I just need to scrounge around for the boot-files so that I can make it a unattended self-booting CD-ROM that will automatically install XP-SP1-SP2- Misc Progs. (As much as I can fit on 1 CD-ROM) although, when i get it totally completed, I will move to DVD-ROM for ease of that, so I can fit more on it, and have it all automatically install, heh. That will take time. And Energy.

Anyways, not much else to talk about (I'm waiting for Naruto #95) and I can't wait til pay-day (obviously) and I hope that I can get me a co-signer so that I can buy a smooth new car (*hopes!*) and once I get credit I can use that credit to charge me a shitload of nice *NEW* PC parts for an absolute MonsterPC... (but all that is wishful-thinking *sniff*)

Anyhow.

Later,

\Koltur

Well, what can I say?! Today is monday and I will have to work tonight. Woe and betide. Although my friend "Mortanious" (as his D&D character is known) came over today and we spent some time together. I went out to Shinders and bought a couple things, the new "Races of Stone" book which will provide me with some interesting stuff about dwarves, gnomes & Goliaths apparently, as well as a couple of the "Giants of Legends" miniature packs which contain some really cool dudes, including "Mordenkainen the Mage" ... the epic 27th level guy, although his stats can be found in the Epic Level Handbook, the dude is an absolute bad-mother*expletive deleted* and also one of the 'Circle of Eight', Eight of the most powerful Archmages to walk Oerth (or Teleport around) as the case may be.

I'm pretty happy with the cool guys that I've managed to score in these packs although I continue to wait in earnest for the ones my wife ordered from Ebay (either the guy didn't send them or else the mail fucked up and I'll never get them) *sniff* , but regardless we got some cool stuff to use in our next D&D campaign/game session/whatever. Heh.

I also picked up several DVDs over the weekend, including season 1 & 2 of South Park, Season 7 of friends and the 3-Disc set of Sonny Chiba, heh, some oldschool flicks that i'll certainly derive enjoyment from when I watch them (when I have time away from Doom3 that is). I would like to note, that my PC is barely up to the task of playing Doom3, but the graphics/sound & gameplay are what can be expected from ID Software, which is : Unimaginable. I can't wait to build a new, up to spec, kick-ass machine to run this game, but I can't do that til I get some things sorted out as far as a new car, yes a new car, is concerned. I hate cars.

Also started playing "Demon" the user-made module/hak/movie for Neverwinter Nights, and that can be found here. And so far, I will say that although it reduced my character to level 1 and took all my nifty equipment, the Tile-sets and the general module itself is to be expected of that author. EXCELLENT. To say the least. His Shadowlord & Dreamcatcher module series were both excellent and I would just like to give a nice big "THANK YOU" to that guy who continues to release seriously kick-ass stuff to keep Neverwinter Nights alive as a game for me. (The Gift that Keeps on Giving) as it were.

Anyhow, I am going to go read my book for a bit, I am currently reading Myth Adventures by Robert Aspirin. It is a compilation of the first 4 volumes of the M.Y.T.H. series and I must say that this series is more excellent than most people give it credit for (or do they??) And I will also note that Rob Aspirin is the guy who put together the Thieves World series, so, if you read any of those, you know his name through this. Once I get through this Myth series, I have some other books I need to take care of by the same author, the Phule's ... series, and those ones will also be a hoot. Gag fantasy is awesome, I wish there was more of the genre.

Anyhow, I'm off.

Later,

\Koltur

Naruto 94. Oh my god. Rasengan! All I can say that is this episode absolutely kicked ass although at the end, it leaves you hanging and therefore the artists or whomever should be shot on behalf of all the fans who are absolutely ... whatever because of that. Anyhow, as I was saying, Naruto 94 kicked some serious ass and had me rather enraptured throughout the entire episode and thank god I watched it.

And on another note, I must say that DOOM3 Absolutely kicks ass, even though the game requires an incredible computer for optimal performance , it still runs dandy on my current machine... although it could be better. *mutter* Either way, I will continue to play it and read the books I have been reading and hope that all is well in PCLand for any of our avid readers. (All 2 of them). Mlegh.

Later

\Koltur

All I can say today, All I want to say today is Doom3. If you are afraid of the dark and you are afraid of Zombies, I suggest you DO NOT play Doom3, as it is perhaps one of the most "frightening" games in my experience, which is considerable when compared to your average 16 year old boy who cannot afford to buy his own games, because mommy and daddy do not buy them for him at his behest.
Okay kiddies, I'm off to bed though, although I am currently talking to my bee-you-tee-ful wifey-type, I am going to pass out into a nightmarish-coma where I will never (at least hopefully) awake. Heh. Or maybe I will, cause I need to go to work. dammit.

Later

\Koltur

PS: Beware of the BFG-7000!