Gates can't be that bad.

First, Read this Blog.

Full text: An epic Bill Gates e-mail rant

I have had the exact same frustration with trying to download something from the Microsoft downloads site.

I'm glad that Bill Gates has experienced this first hand and yelled at those responsible to get it fixed. 

Seems like he's just as much an end user as any of us. 

The thing that blows me away, is the fact that someone thought that no one would be trying to Download a Microsoft Product from the Microsoft Download site.

There's an adage that goes: The Combined I.Q. of a committee is that of the Lowest I.Q. in the group, divided by the number of members of the group. I don't know if there's any truth to that, but it seems true-ish. (There is an interesting Thread on the subject here, the final post may surprise you a little.) 

Spore Creature Creator

I have been waiting for Spore for Three years now. Tuesday, the Creature Creator was released as a demo, as well as a way to make sure that the Universe is populated by all kinds of creatures when the Full product releases in September. I HIGHLY recommend downloading the trial version of the creature creator. The trial version comes with a limited palate of creature parts. But it is still very very fun to play around with.

So far most of the creature's I've created are pretty standard fare — I haven't really really branched out like I have with the Wii Miis.

More about Wii Fit.

Last time I mentioned this, I explained that I had been foolish and had not pre-ordered. I was under the impression that I would not have a Wii Fit until the 16th of this month (that was when new stock shipments were due). Tuesday my friend that works in a warehouse called and told me that he was bringing one home for me.

First — when you are just playing this on your own and not messing around with a group of friends, you can really work up a sweat. Second — the game thinks it's funny. Since I had played it lightly a couple times and then the device went home to my friend's house, when I started into the game again it made fun of the fact that I had not played in a while, it acted as though it had forgotten my name. Third — it's a lot more fun to work up a sweat to Wii Fit than any other exercise program I've ever tried.

Thing is, I hate exercising, it's boring; but this makes it into a game — and I love to play games (sports do that too, but. . . I hate sports). So an hour goes by fast. When I'm jogging in place and my legs are hurting as my Mii is running all over a cartoony island jog park, I have to keep pushing forward, because it is a game that must be beaten. I keep saying to myself keep going, you've done this before, this "level" cannot defeat you. I really hope that they make more fitness titles that use the balance board.

So now that I've done it just about every day for nearly a week I can truly say I'm really pleased with the product. It's fun and will help me get in some much needed physical activity; I've really been turning into a couch potato.

Zombies!!!

This is old news, but I wanted to mention it.

A couple weeks ago (see, old news) we had a game night at the home of a friend of ours. — I may have mentioned before that I like Games— We started the evening with some light chatting and then when it was time to bust out the games, we started with Zombie Fluxx.

The only reason I have the original Fluxx, is that I found it on clearance at Barnes and Noble. They had marked it down to $10, and if you bought one, you could get a second free. I quickly read the back and the concept of a game where the "Rules" were in constant Fluxx appealed to my Inner Demon that Loves all things Random. I picked up two. I gave one to my sister as a gift, and for a while it got thrown in to the Game Rotation.

As a game however it was lacking in something. Strategy and Goal setting mostly. Since it's always in "Fluxx," It's a total Crap-shoot as to who wins. So it gets a little boring, though I still like the concept.

I'm glad I got that original game, because it led to getting Zombie Fluxx when it was released (and anticipating the upcoming Martian Fluxx). Zombie Fluxx introduced a new element to the game: cards you do not want. This introduced a (small) element of strategy, as you are attempting to get rid of (or collect in some cases) said cards.

The Zombie theme itself adds to the game as well. Though it must be played with the right group of people, some people just can't get into the Campiness of a Zombie theme, but some can. Which is what happened a couple weeks ago. Everyone was having fun with the Theme, which puts fun into overdrive.

Naturally when the random winning wore thin (it always does eventually with this game) we busted out Zombies!!!.

It was one of the best sessions of Zombies!!! I've ever played. This game definitely has to be played with the right group. First of all, everyone has to kind-of "get" the whole zombie thing. I mentioned how I feel about zombies on my Sketch Dump Blog. I think if everyone playing has a similar attitude, and also understands that the rules of Zombies!!! are more Video Game than Ultimate-German-Style-Board-Game-Extravaganza, then everyone involved can have a good time.

Something I found Interesting, with previous groups that I've played with there has been a tendency to forget that you have cards in your hand. The cards, when played properly really enhance the game.

One thing I've noticed that happens in a lot of games, not just Zombies!!!, is the tendency for everyone to still be having a lot of fun when someone gets close to winning, so they gang up on that person —Realistically, I was only half way there (10 zombies in my pool) but cards were a flyin' and I found myself standing bewildered back at town square after all that had been thrown at me— That in and of itself is all part of the fun. However then what happens is that everyone spends the rest of the game ganging up on that person, regardless of who is now close to winning the game. That person becomes the person not allowed to win. I don't know what causes this behavior, but in competitive games where you can "stab-your-buddy," this seems to happen frequently.

I have to apologize to everyone we were playing with, I made a mistake concerning the rules. Don't worry, we ended up playing it right. I must have been thinking about another game (though I still can't figure out what game that is — Zombietown maybe) when I stated that you could combat another player. Someone asked how, and I couldn't remember exactly how (because you can't — though I know exactly how it could be done based on the current rules) so we continued on without even trying. The following is from the F.A.Q. located on the Twilight Creations website:

Combat

Can I kill other players?
Uh, no! You are trying to escape the zombie horde, not trying to become a world class murderer.
Source: Kerry June 16, 2005

But I really want to, can't I please?
NO! Now knock that off!
Source: Kerry June 16, 2005

D&D 4th Edition

For the past few years I have had jobs that have downtime. I've had to wait for a call to come in, in order to do anything. My current job is much more hands on, but it also has an element of waiting for things to break — as a result I have familiarized myself with a number of web comics.

One of the comics I read is Penny Arcade. (My only disappointment with PA is that they use strong language from time to time.) The artist and writer are very much involved in Video games and tabletop gaming, though they have very different taste in games. I also read PVP, which is written and drawn by the artist. PVP is video game/tabletop gaming related.

Dungeons and Dragons is coming out with the 4th edition of their rule-set in less than a week now. It's interesting to watch how people respond. Some act with apprehension (My GM for instance, because he has invested in well over $200 on 3/3.5 edition[which I totally understand, this is the very reason I do not even toy with the idea of CCG's]). Others are excitedly anticipating this new upgrade to the most well known Pencil & Paper roll playing game.

A few months ago Tycho and Gabe (a.k.a. Jerry and Mike) of Penny Arcade and Scott Kurtz of PVP got together with some marketing folks from WotC (pronounced wot-see: referring to Wizards of the Coast, publisher of Dungeons and Dragons) and played some 4th Edition D&D. They played Keep on the Shadowfell, which as of this writing is the only 4th edition product on the market. At the time they played it, it had not been released yet.

Background information given, here's what's interesting about all this. They recorded the game. They played for a good eight hours, they are breaking it up and distributing it in podcast form. The first of which has been released.

I listened to the episode. Here's what I found interesting:

As far as experience goes. One of them is a D&D veteran and has been playing for years. One of them is a Noobe and has NEVER played, and one of them used to play back in 2nd edition. They all picked it up very easily.

The magic system has been revamped, and there are 3 types of spells: At will, which can be used as often as wanted; some that can be used once per encounter, and some that can be used per day.

It seems that they have tried to simplify things a bit. No one ever did spot checks or listen checks; it appears they've lumped all such checks into a single perception check.

Healing. Everyone has a number of self heals they can do per day. These self heals are for a certain number of hit points and can be used once per encounter. If you have a cleric or other healer class in your party they may assist during an encounter to set off one of your heals on your behalf even if you have already used one during the encounter.

I'm looking forward to the rest of the podcasts in the series. There is some language though.

Last Night's Gaming Session

No fights, very little rolling of the dice, and a Mission that seems eerily familiar.

While I don't mind the High RP nature of the session, in fact I prefer it, but there's just something about the random number generation of a die skittering across a tabletop that excites something primal within me. What's going to happen? I don't know, but let's allow this die to determine the outcome.

I have now a mission from a ghost to seek out and find missing spell-books. Which is odd, because I had to do that in another game with a different GM.

I'm a little concerned that my GM has turned my character into Luke Skywalker/Harry Potter. I won't get into too much detail as to my meta-gaming thoughts, as he reads the blog.

I had a very set idea of who my character was when we started this campaign. I had a very fleshed out character to begin with because last campaign I felt like I had no motivation. I do not enjoy playing FI TOR. So I came up with a background. Nothing overly creative, more an amalgamation of several cliche's. But GM has expounded on my unknowns and I have no idea what my character is anymore, at least it's still interesting.

A friend of ours came over late into the game. Generally he's a munchkin, but last night he had pretty much missed the last 3 gaming sessions, and was really confused as to the nature of the current situation, so he reverted to his munchkin ways and his character just stayed in his room at the inn and made potions. There was only about an hour left in our gaming session when he showed up with his brother. Due to things my character had recently learned my character had a run in with his brother's character. It was late and I was quite tired. I fell asleep for a bit, while the two of them were conversing with a ghost.

I've noticed that in our group, when our characters are getting along we don't speak as our characters; but as soon as our characters have a disagreement, regardless of how small, we jump right into character.

This is when we have the most humorous gaming moments.

Bus Blogging

I am currently sitting on the bus, riding home from work. I am riding a fast bus. The fast buses are the same type of buses that are used for tour buses. They have a lot of Cargo space under the seats, and they have used that space to install networking equipment. I must say, it works rather well.

Teleportation

Do objects teleport?

Stardate - years ago when we were first married. We were living in a basement apartment, and it was time to go to church. We got ready and headed out the door. When we arrived at the car we discovered that neither one of us had the keys. Not only were we locked out of the car, but the house as well. We could not get let in by the owners, as they were at church. So I started checking if we had left any windows open. We did not.

So there we were stuck. We were attending a Student Ward and the church was much too far to walk. The Owner would not be home for several hours. I came walking back to the front yard after checking the windows in the back yard (Again), and what did I find in my pocket? The Missing keys.

No, they were not there before. When something is missing, I check where it is supposed to be every two seconds, because there is no possible way that I left it elsewhere. They simply weren't there before. Now they were, 20 minutes later.

What brought this to mind was the fact that Yesterday, my wife was holding an open house for a client of hers (she's a Realtor) and I decided it was time to delve into the Flopside Pit of 100 trials, and get it over with. I powered up the Wii, but a friend of ours had been over and he had been playing Metroid. In fact, I recalled seeing him pop Super Paper Mario out of the Wii and place it gently on the entertainment system while he put Metroid in, however I did not see what he did with the disc after that because I walked out of the room.

I checked the Obvious place first, the case for Super Paper Mario. Empty.
I checked the Zipper Case in which I keep Wii and Playstation 2 games. It was not there.
Then I checked the Entertainment system where I had seen him lay the disc. Nope, not there either.
Then I checked ALL the Wii cases on the shelf. It was not in any of them.
Then I checked ALL the slots in the Zipper Case. No. . . not there.
Then I checked the extra, empty DVD case that sits on the shelf for lending DVD's to people. Still empty.
Then I checked all those places again. . . . . and again . . . . . and again.
Then I called my friend's brother, because my friend was at work. He checked the Wii game cases at his house. Nothing of mine was found in their cases.
I checked All the DVD players because we had had a Babysitter over the previous evening, and you never know what kind of Hijinks are going on when that's the case. Nothing out of the ordinary.
Then I checked All the Wii cases on our shelf and the Zipper Case AGAIN.
It was nowhere to be found, and I gave up looking.

This morning I was sitting here and I was mulling over where in the world the game disc could be.
I walked over to the shelf and checked the Super Paper Mario case again.
The first place I looked. (And the Fourth, and the Eighth, and the Twelfth, etc.)
I'm standing there feeling rather . . . odd. Kind of like that cool floaty feeling I get when I'm really zoned into an art project I'm working on, except twisted and weird. I don't really know how to explain.
Confused times several.
There it was, right in front of me, acting like it had been there the whole time.

I think that sometimes objects teleport.

Wii Fit

I've been meaning to mention this for about a week now.

A friend of ours that works someplace that sells electronics obtained an early copy of Wii Fit. (This would have been a much cooler post if I had actually posted before Wii Fit was released.)

So, early impressions.

The Yoga and Strength Exercises are more workout than I thought they would be.
For an Obese fellow I have excellent balance.

The Balance and Aerobic Sections are just plain Fun; and I can see actually burning some fat playing. Mostly because I read this. I played for about 45 minutes and didn't feel like I had really exerted myself that much.

I have a C-note from Christmas that has been patiently waiting for Wii Fit to arrive. But I think I may have been a little too complacent about the whole pre-order thing. I went to purchase it Wednesday and it was sold out at the 3 different locations I tried. I'm having my friend check if he can pick one up for me.

I think why I delayed writing about this was that I wanted to have my own copy first, so I could play it a few days consistently before I made any judgement. Since my obtaining of the device has been delayed, and I have been prodded by more than one person that I need to make a new post, I have decided to comment regardless. As you can see however that has made my thoughts on the subject a little bit disjointed.

One of the balance games is a Ski Jump, and another is a Slalom. Both very fun, if somewhat short, though I have not played long enough to unlock longer/advanced versions of all the games.
One of my favorite arcade games of all time, was Alpine Racer. I dropped many a quarter into that machine. While it's not quite the same, it's similar enough to make me nostalgic, and now I really really want to Pick up We Ski.

Also skate it has been announced for Wii, which will utilize the Balance Board.

I will probably have more to say, but my thoughts are too disjointed to say more at this time.

Zune 2.5

Yesterday the Zune software and Firmware were updated. And I must say. I'm loving it!!

Let me tell you how I got a Zune. At the beginning of this year I was working as a telephone technical support technician. The project to which I was assigned, was to support Microsoft Employees. This was a new project and they planned to have us train for one month starting December and start taking calls early January. Training only took 2 and a half weeks, and the phone system wasn't ready for prime time until Late February. That's a LOT of time sitting around doing nothing. Now, as an incentive they put our name in a pot each day we were there for training. Now the funny thing is that I only missed one day of training. The day they drew names out of the pot. That's how I knew that my chances for winning would go through the roof, it's always the guy not there that wins. Luckily this was just after the 2nd generation Zune was released. So I found myself the owner of an 80 Gig Zune.

I had never even considered getting a Zune. But now that I have it. I can honestly say that I like it lot more than the iPods with which I've played. If the Choice is between a classic iPod and a Zune, get the Zune. If the choice is between a Zune and an iPhone/iPod touch that question is harder. The iPhone/iPod touch is definitely the cooler gadget, but comparatively has a dinky hard drive.

Anyway, I loved just about everything about the Zune. There was a little learning curve as far as the synchronization (shortly after I filled up the Zune, I plugged it in and it promptly removed All the movies I had loaded). Once I learned how this worked, it was no longer a problem. It's the one thing that I did not find intuitive, well that and the way it sorts Albums is a little odd. Albums that have Multiple artists (mostly Soundtracks in my case) end up being broken up by artist so you can't just play the Whole Album without a play list. But a little research on my part discovered that it sorts by a metatag called Album Artist, so I just had to edit those tags.

This brings me to the first part of the update that I like. Previously, I pretty much ignored the Zune software and used it solely for syncing my Zune to the Computer. I could not edit the Metadata with the Zune software. I used iTunes for that. However this new iteration of Zune software allows for metadata editing.

The Second thing I noticed is that the Status bar at the bottom of the software that tells you how much space is used, has more divisions. Previously it told you how much space was used by music and how much was used by video. I've noticed that now it has a separate section for Podcasts, I don't know if it has a section for Images, I have so few on my Zune that if it did the bar would be far too small to see.

Speaking of Podcasts. It now will play podcasts like it does music. When one ends it immediately goes to the next in the series. I no longer have to tell it to start playing the next one, which was the only thing that I didn't like about the way it handled podcasts. It was a very very minor qualm, that none the less has been resolved.

One of my biggest annoyances with the Zune software, was the way it handled the Thumbnail image for Videos. It didn't cache them and had to regenerate them every time you scrolled up and down the list. That has been fixed and it speeds up dealing with Videos. Also the Metadata for Videos can be Edited as well, which is Awesome.

You can now create what iTunes called smartlists, dubbed Auto playlists.
When the Zune Synchs, it now displays the percentage on the Zune screen as well, which is a nice touch, so you dont have to go back to the Device Status screen in the software to see how far along it is in the process.

They added some features to the "Social" section as well, but I'm not even part of the Demographic that those features are aimed toward, so I've never joined the "cult" I don't share what I listen to with the Internet. The Internet should not know. Stay away from me you lousy Internet! Get off the Lawn!! . . . Dang Kids.

I Am Iron Man

I caught Iron Man this weekend. Unlike all the other super hero movies that have come out in recent years, Iron Man is a story with which I am not familiar. I loved every minute of this movie. I loved Robert Downey Jr's portrayal of Tony Stark. Comic Book movies that are done right, take the source material seriously. In fact they act as though the source material were classic literature. They make sure that all the classic Icons and trappings are in place, though the only one I was even remotely familiar with was S.H.I.E.L.D.. That is not to say that you cannot make fun of the source material. The scenes where Tony was testing the technology were hilarious, in fact, a lot of this movie was hilarious. But unlike some recent Marvel Comics Movies (Namely Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer, Spider-Man 3, Ghost Rider, X-Men: The Last Stand, Fantastic Four, & Hulk [i.e.nearly every Marvel Comics movie made since 2003]) I was never pulled out of the moment because I lost my suspension of belief. This is one of the greatest super hero movies ever made, which surprised me. I was excited for all of the above listed movies and was let down in varying degrees by all of them, so much so that I didn't buy any of them. I will be buying Iron Man.

Go see it, it's fun.

I got trapped

The company I work for has a new building that they are moving people into. As part of IT I am helping set up phones. Usually when we head over to the other building my supervisor drives. Today he asked me to check out the car.

So we were driving and then I saw a cop behind me. So I pulled over. And he pulled behind me. My supervisor asked how fast I was going. I said 35 (which was the speed limit). I hadn't run a light. Needless to say, I was confused.

He asked me why I didn't yield to a pedestrian. I told him that I had not seen a pedestrian. When he went back to his Car. I asked my supervisor if he had seen a pedestrian. He said he saw a guy standing on the sidewalk.

Now I must point out the fact that the person behind me was pulled over by a Motorcycle Cop. OH! and the person behind her was pulled over by a Motorcycle Cop.

Yeah, how convenient that 3 people in a row didn't stop because a guy was standing on the sidewalk, and there happened to be 3 Cops watching.


Edit: I forgot to mention. The handwriting on the ticket is so horrible, I have NO idea of the amount of the fine. Frankly, I can't even tell if there is an amount listed. It hasn't been posted on the website yet either.

My Dice

This is just a tangent of a comment from the the last post. As I said, I have a bit of an obsession with unusual Dice. The Bottom View's color is a little off, because I had to take it without a flash and I was just too lazy to try to actually get enough light in the room.
(Click for Full Size)

My Gaming Realization

Several years ago I was introduced to German style boardgames. The first game I played was at a the home of a friend to my wife. Carcassonne a tile laying game. It took about 20 minutes and we played a couple times, it was very fun. Some time later we visited their home and we played again, but with an expansion pack that added some new rules and extended the game playing time.

Then there was a family gathering where we played the Ever popular Settlers of Catan. I was so intrigued that I looked into it more and found that there was a whole new world of board gaming that had nothing to do with Milton Bradley or Parker Brothers (Both owned by Hasbro these days apparently).

We bought Settlers of Catan and it became the game of choice at parties. When we were introduced to the game we were also introduced to a house rule. The house rule says you can buy, sell, or trade at any time. With our college friends this made for a Fast paced trading game that rarely lasted more than half an hour. We bought all the Expansion Sets for it (except the difficult to obtain German releases) and I enjoyed it very much, in fact it was my game of choice for a long time.

We then started obtaining all the Carcassonne expansions. It is no longer a quick game. With all the expansions Carcassonne now averages 3 hours. While this is very enjoyable for me, it does not get out of the box as much as a result.

After finding that there are specialty game shops we tried a number of games including, but not limited to Bang! (and Expansions), Zombies!!! (and Expansions), Ticket to Ride (and Expansions), Fluxx (and Zombie Fluxx), Munchkin (and Expansions), Guillotine, Battle Cattle, Killer Bunnies and the Quest for the Magic Carrot (and expansions), Colosseum, Cranium, Cleopatra and the Society of Architects, The Dread Pirate Games, Loot, Mystery of the Abbey, Pirate's Cove, Shadows over Camelot, The Haunting House, MidEVIL (and Expansions), Zombietown, Cartagena, Puerto Rico, Descent, Arkham Horror, Heroscape.

Anyway, the point is I recently had an experience playing Settlers of Catan with a group that insisted we play with the actual rules. I do not see what people like about that game when playing with the actual rules it takes Sooooooooo Looooooooooooong, and Frankly is quite boring. Then I got to thinking about the last few games of Settlers that I had played, and I realized that I now hate Settlers of Catan, with or without the house rule. I just don't enjoy playing it anymore.

My current favorite game. Hard to say, but almost anything is better than Settlers of Catan.

My battle with The Flopside Pit of 100 Trials, a Mouse, and a Skunk (Over Explained Version)

I did much battle last night.

My wife was conducting business at the dinner table after we put the little bean to bed last night. So I did enter the Flopside Pit of 100 trials. (For the uninitiated, the Pit of 100 trials is a beast of a challenge that the folks at Nintendo included in the game "Super Paper Mario." It is 100 Small Rooms that must be defeated sequentially. There is no saving; you have the option to leave every 10th level, but if you leave you must start over again. There are two pits. One in the City of Flipside and one in the city of Flopside. I thought Flipside was tough to defeat. You get to the end with hardly any life left and then you have to defeat a Dragon. Then I found the Pit of trials in Flopside and realized how easy flipside is. I stopped playing the game for a long time because this thing is so hard to beat, and boring at that.)

I learned of a little cheat in the game that allows you to Level up quickly. (Those not into the Gaming lingo, that means your character is more experienced. i.e. You can deal out more damage and can take more damage without dying, and you have more Skills.) There is a level in the game with a tube that spits out a bad guy, and when it had been defeated, it spits out another. To take advantage of this you go there with Bowser and blow his fiery breath, as they fall out of the tube they are defeated, you gain XP (experience points) and level up. The thing with levelling up is the amount of XP needed to get from level to level continually increases. So now that I'm into the upper levels, this method takes longer and longer. I have tried taking on the Flopside Pit on with 50 HP (Hit Points [technically Super Paper Mario calls it Heart Points, but it's the same thing], i.e. the amount of damage you can take before dying) and 60 HP multiple times. But the furthest I made it was about level 61. Over the past couple days I have spent a little time exploiting the levelling cheat and reached 85 HP.

I was leveling up Last night. As I was playing I saw a Mouse looking at our DVD collection. It looked and then jumped toward the shelf and then jumped back. It was odd for two reasons. 1) Mice usually don't venture out in the open when there are 3 people in the room with normal noise/conversation levels; Sometimes if everyone is watching T.V. with the lights off they will venture out briefly. and 2) It seemed really agitated. It was curved, like a cat that is trying to look bigger than it is. Its body was up off the ground; usually you can't even see mouse legs because they are hidden under the body as they scurry about. But this was raised up and it was jumping around a bit. I paused the game and ran over. It hid under a backpack. I lifted the backpack and it was scurrying back and forth in the space between the entertainment center and the DVD shelf. But something didn't look right, it was happening so fast that I couldn't tell what, but it was almost as if it was being rolled back and forth rather than running. Then it ran in the direction of the living room, I dropped the Backpack on top of it, and it disappeared. I went back to the game and hit 85 HP.

Then Justin came to the door, prepared to play a game of Ticket to Ride. Emily was still helping her client. I was Levelling so he dove into an online game of Ticket to Ride. I filled my inventory with Items that refill HP and tackled the Flopside Pit of 100 trials.

Ten or Fifteen minutes later Emily squealed a bit and moved to the other side of the Kitchen. I asked what was going on and she said, it just popped out from Sparky's food and was flying through the air. I spotted it in the Kitchen near the DVD shelves. It looked like it was having a seizure and it was literally bouncing around the kitchen floor. It bounced under the microwave stand and disappeared. I grabbed a flashlight, but could not see it under there. I moved the trash can, but it was nowhere to be found.

I returned to the Pit, Justin returned to his Rail Baron ways, and Emily and Josh returned to the selling of his house.

The mouse emerged again, this time it was moving like a normal mouse and went under the door that leads to the Garage. I paused the game, ran over and opened the door. There he was, standing on the second stair. I tuned on the light and it Jumped to the top stair and began to run towards me. If I had been wearing shoes, I would have stepped on it. I was not wearing shoes so I slammed the door on it. Slammed doesn't accurately describe what happened though, because that door has a weather strip there is too much drag and it doesn't slam. Nevertheless when I opened the door it was halfway down the stairs, a little dazed I think. I chased it down the stairs and it ran toward the bottom stair and thus just out of my sight. It was moving to the right and I thought it was cornered, but when I got to the bottom it was gone. It must have gone through the tight squeeze between the stair and the wall, DARN RODENTS AND YOUR COLLAPSIBLE RIB CAGES!!!

I set a mousetrap at that corner. Nothing could get out without being trapped.

I returned to the pit. Josh had gone, and Emily and Justin were enjoying a nice game of Switzerland Ticket to Ride. I reached room 100. I expected to have to defeat another Dragon. Instead I was told that I had Fought Valiantly, but I was not worthy to face the foe there until I had once more reached the bottom of the Flopside Pit of 100 trials. I was then presented with an Exit tube.

I was happy to have defeated the pit, but annoyed that I have to do it again. I saved and shut down. Emily wanted to wind down a little before going to bed so we watched some T.V. When we got up, Sparky wanted to go out. The door was locked for the night (by Emily), and in hindsight I should have just told him that he was done for the day. I let him out, he was barking like Mad, I figured it was just a cat. Then I started to smell something foul.

I poked my head outside. He had been sprayed by a skunk. At least I think it was a Skunk. It smells a bit different than what you smell driving down a Highway, a little more musky, a little more like burning rubber. This was at 11:30ish at night.

I found a concoction on the Internet that was apparently developed by Chemist Paul Krebaum
(Chemical & Engineering News , October 18, 1993, p. 90)

Here is a Paul's website.

1 quart 3% hydrogen peroxide (H2O2)
1/4 cup of baking soda (sodium bicarbonate)
1 teaspoon of liquid detergent.

For the record I just used what we had and did not mix the formula exactly as stated and it seemed to work just fine. But maybe that's just my nose getting used to the smell.

I did much battle last night. A Pit, A Mouse, A Smell.

F.B.I.

I kinda freaked out when I had a big Manila folder from the F.B.I. in the mail today. Then I remembered that I had requested a background search, and that I was supposed to not open it and take it to the HR department.


UPDATE: I took the envelope to the HR representative in my building. She opened it up in front of me. The Note from the F.B.I. said (and I quote), "No File Found"

So I don't have a record with the FBI, but now they have my Fingerprints.

Christopher Columbus & UFO's

As I have mentioned before, I enjoy listening to Coast to Coast AM. I have also mentioned that you have to take everything said with a Grain of Salt.

Yesterday I listened to A Broadcast that confirmed to me that my suspicions about UFO's are at least partially true. I have maintained that UFO's are probably Classified Military. The B-2 Stealth Bomber project started in the late 70's and was hidden from the public physically and financially until its official public announcement on Nov 22 1988. Not the first Secretly Developed Aircraft, but certainly one of the most public arguments over "Black" Budget was a result of the B-2 Stealth Bomber. I'm certain that other top secret projects are handled much better than this, in fact I wouldn't be surprised if Expensive projects like the B-2 were part of the "Black" budget cover up. Like one of my favorite quotes from Independence Day, "You don't actually think they spend $20,000.00 on a hammer, $30,000.00 on a toilet seat do you?"

Okay, now to get to the point. On Coast to Coast they spoke to Luke Fortune. Luke is a Lawyer that had a UFO encounter in 1997. He began researching the UFO phenomenon, but ran into dead ends speaking to "UFO" Authors, who apparently had "Smoking Guns" that they had discovered and were preparing for release in their next books. These Charlatans had nothing but here say. (A lawyer would recognize that)

At the time he was doing work for a client that involved searching records at the US Patent office, and he began to research "UFO" technology in the patent office, and he has been doing this for 10 years now. He has released 10 books on How to build a "UFO." The Basics is an introductory "Layman" explanation of all the different technologies involved. Volumes 1-9 delve into the Specifics of different components of the Technologies involved in "Exotic spacecraft." For instance Volume II is about electrogravitics, Vol IX Hydrogen systems. According to Luke any one volume could be used to build a "UFO," but each volume concentrates on one particular field of exotic engineering. Excluding The Basics, these volumes average 575 pages and are 99% Patent 1% comment. I sound Like a commercial, but this is Fascinating.

Really, check this Patent out.(3,774,865) It's the one he has on the cover of all these books.
And that patent refers to all of these: 2949550 3022430 3022963 3339863 3614481 3632065

Check 'em out - cool stuff.

At this point you're probably thinking to yourself, What on earth does this have to do with Christopher Columbus?

Well I was listening to another Coast to Coast AM episode and the guest Claimed that Christopher Columbus witnessed a UFO. He claimed to have seen copies of documents written in Columbus' handwriting that described a Flickering Candle Light that Flew around the Ship and then plunged into the ocean (Unidentified Submersible Object). So after listening to him recount this, I looked into it.

I found it on a UFO site listed as having happened Oct 11, 1492.

So I looked for Columbus' Journal from what I found, it appears that Columbus' original source material is Missing. And what we do have is Abridged by Bartolome de las Casas, Columbus' biographer who had the original source material.

Here is the actual account of Columbus' "UFO" encounter (Translated from the original Spanish):

After sunset steered their original course west and sailed twelve miles an hour till two hours after midnight, going ninety miles, which are twenty-two leagues and a half; and as the Pinta was the swiftest sailer, and kept ahead of the Admiral, she discovered land and made the signals which had been ordered. The land was first seen by a sailor called Rodrigo de Triana, although the Admiral at ten o'clock that evening standing on the quarter-deck saw a light, but so small a body that he could not affirm it to be land; calling to Pero Gutierrez, groom of the King's wardrobe, he told him he saw a light, and bid him look that way, which he did and saw it; he did the same to Rodrigo Sanchez of Segovia, whom the King and Queen had sent with the squadron as comptroller, but he was unable to see it from his situation. The Admiral again perceived it once or twice, appearing like the light of a wax candle moving up and down, which some thought an indication of land.

He certainly embellished that story, and I've gone on long enough. Log this under F.Y.I.

New Resolve

Wow, has it really been that long since I posted?

Every time I read a blog from my brother I'm impressed and think that I need to do more of that. I was glancing over the last few posts and noticing how out of date my blog is, yes I am a slacker.

Moira is Two now and does so much now that there's too much to say. But I do have a Moira Story related to me by Emily.

Emily was upstairs getting ready for the day and heard a metallic/glass sound coming from downstairs and questioned, "Moira?" You know the tone of voice a mother uses. Moira responded with "Need Help." Emily Glanced downstairs and sees Moira standing there with a Knife in her hand.

"Moira what are you doing?"
"Need Help."
"How do you ask?"
"Please."

Emily went downstairs and 32" Tall Moira had pushed her stool to the counter and was attempting to acquire a slice of Banana bread on her own, using the Butter Knife (you were worried about that knife thing weren't you?) that was left in the Glass Bread Pan with the Banana Bread.

What a Kid.

Okay, so that's the Moira story of the Day.

I also needed to mention that the Job I previously referred to as a place that cares about their employees decided that the best way to please their Stockholders was to Screw their Telephone Technicians. They moved us to a New Division (i.e. they no longer needed to report the financial status) and reduced pay and introduced an "incentive program" and NERFED the Benefits.

At the same time this was happening, the project I was on decided it was time to move to India. So I got assigned to a new project that decided that India was no longer working for them.

Interesting tidbit. When a company moves operations to India it is apparently only Profitable for 3-5 years, then due to Language Barriers and Customer Service Snafu's it is time to bring operations back to the U.S.

So I found a new job as a Technology Software Specialist. It's a NON-PHONE job. So my previous post, from so long ago finally applies.

Rhyme or Reason

There is none.

I don't know what prompts me to post. I used to post at work, because work was boring and I had spare time. Now, work is still boring, but it is a new job and I'm not supposed to post at work.

Moira - well she does a lot more than flip over now. (Which I noticed was my last Moira Post) She's 14 months - a little Chatter Box - has quite the Sign Language and Verbal vocabulary.

I'm working on getting my MCDST. Class is over. Now I just have to take the Certification test. Time to do Practice tests over and over and over.

Check out my Sketch Dump Blog: http://vizionsketch.blogspot.com/

That's all for now.

A+

I passed the second A+ Exam yesterday. So I am now an artist with A+ certification. I feel so Conflicted.