I realize all you Wintel owners have already had this game for a year or two, and grown bored with it. That's fine. I'm not driven by trendyness, I just want the fun games eventually. And since I'm completely uninterested in online play, the fact that the gamer's community has moved on to the Next Big Thing disturbs me not in the least.
So I saw on Slashdot a couple of days ago that Neverwinter Nights was available as a downloadable tech demo. I grabbed it and have been playing it ever since (thus temporarily displacing both Dungeon Siege and Fallout as my time waster of choice).
I've seen player reviews on GameFAQs.com give wildly differing ratings of the game, so I've been unsure if I wanted to get it when it came out on the Mac. Playing it myself, I'd more or less convinced myself that I'd go ahead and buy it, until tonight, when midway through a long section of the game, it crashed. Granted, it is a tech demo, rather than a completed game, but many of the negative reviews for the PC version ding it because it frequently crashed. If this is so, no way am I going to spend good money on it. So I'll wait awhile after the full release and check the reviews...
Thursday, June 19, 2003
Tuesday, June 17, 2003
Monday, June 16, 2003
QOTD
The process [for dippin' dots] was determined around 1988 by Curt Jones (a biologist interested in cryogenics...the science of freezing...not cryonics, the science of "Disney on Ice").
Kaz Riprock
Friday, June 13, 2003
Tuesday, June 10, 2003
Routine Shift Coming
I've got a block of time alone coming up. In a way I look forward to it, as I get some time to waste in ways I choose. Realistically, my experience is that after a couple of days, I'll be wandering the house looking for distractions. I always complain about the routines which command my day, but I miss Jean and Kelly when they are not around.
Jean and Kelly are going to Michigan to visit Jean's parents, so I've got the house to myself from Saturday afternoon, June 21st, through Sunday, June 30th. Ideas for things to do:
Jean and Kelly are going to Michigan to visit Jean's parents, so I've got the house to myself from Saturday afternoon, June 21st, through Sunday, June 30th. Ideas for things to do:
- Do extra work on a project at my job (timely, as I've got high demand on my time right now)
- Watch all my Hong Kong movie DVDs in evening marathons
- Study up on Mac OS X programming
- Play all my PS2 games and Mac games until I puke
- Visit Tom/Alan
- Clean house (don't laugh, I actually did a lot of that during their last trip without me)
Thursday, June 5, 2003
Irony
My back has been giving me pain of late, conveniently getting worse after 1am or sometimes 3am. So I wake up and try to find a comfortable position, but sleep is hard to come by. It seems my lot in life is to find out how little sleep a human can get by on, long term.
Anyway, a typical mental habit of mine while lying awake and dealing with discomfort is to replay a song in my head. Usually, when very tired, I end up playing a single lyric over and over, often degenerating to a single verse. When my neural twitch problems were at their height, this led to my totally ruining my enjoyment of an album I had recently bought, Prolonging the Magic by Cake.
So last night I'm bouncing back and forth between thoughts about my back and music I've been listening to recently, and eventually fall into the rut of bopping over the same lyric over and over, when I suddenly realize what it is I'm 'singing': In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning as sung by Frank Sinatra.
I guess I better get a copy of It's Quarter To Three (the Fred Astaire version from The Sky's the Limit, please).
Anyway, a typical mental habit of mine while lying awake and dealing with discomfort is to replay a song in my head. Usually, when very tired, I end up playing a single lyric over and over, often degenerating to a single verse. When my neural twitch problems were at their height, this led to my totally ruining my enjoyment of an album I had recently bought, Prolonging the Magic by Cake.
So last night I'm bouncing back and forth between thoughts about my back and music I've been listening to recently, and eventually fall into the rut of bopping over the same lyric over and over, when I suddenly realize what it is I'm 'singing': In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning as sung by Frank Sinatra.
I guess I better get a copy of It's Quarter To Three (the Fred Astaire version from The Sky's the Limit, please).
Tuesday, June 3, 2003
Brain Freeze
A couple of nights ago, I went through the evening routine, making sure Kelly took her shower, helping her get the tangles out of her hair, toothbrushing, then a half hour watching Mahou Tsukai Tai. Then off to bed, and time for Daddy to work on his own tasks.
However, not ten minutes passed after I put Kelly to bed before she came into the den. "Daddy, I'm scared."
I'm sorry to confess that I was annoyed. It seems that two out of every three nights Kelly complains about being scared, and I'm convinced that it's just a ploy to stay up later. So initially I was brusque. "What are you scared about? What do you want me to do about it? Hasn't Mom worked with you on how to overcome your fears?" That sort of thing. So I sent her off to bed again.
After a bit, I got over my annoyance and went into her room to check on her. "I'm still scared Daddy."
"So what are you scared about?" I asked.
"I don't want to talk about it because it makes me more scared."
Annoyed again: "I can't really help you if I don't know what's scaring you."
After a pause, Kelly finally shared her fear. She's going on a 'field trip' to 7-11 with her class in a couple of days. I'd make a crack about budget cuts, but I understand this is just an end-of-the-school-year treat for the kids. They're all gonna get Slurpees.
Anyway, some kid named Ally told her a spooky story about the walk-in freezer at 7-11. Apparently, the story says it's haunted, and it snares children with it's power cord and drags them inside to freeze to death. "I know it's just a ghost story, but it still scares me."
So now I've finally got my fingers on the Boogieman, and I'm not so frustrated. "Kelly, you're right. This is just a story, and you know the difference between fiction and real life. In fact, so long as you stay with your teachers, about the worst thing that can happen to you when you're at 7-11 is that you'll drink your Slurpee too fast and get..."
"Brain Freeze!" Kelly's hand whips up and grabs her forehead.
"Right. Now that's pretty nasty, but nothing to be scared of. Even I have had brain freeze before. I was even trying to go slow, but this shake was so cold that even little sips were enough to give me brain freeze..."
I paused a moment and then began to demonstrate: "sip ... ow ... sip ... ow ... sip ... make it stop! ... sip ... ow!"
By this time Kelly was giggling, and soon she was joining in on the silliness. I got her calmed down and said goodnight. Checking on her maybe a half hour later, she was asleep.
That felt good.
However, not ten minutes passed after I put Kelly to bed before she came into the den. "Daddy, I'm scared."
I'm sorry to confess that I was annoyed. It seems that two out of every three nights Kelly complains about being scared, and I'm convinced that it's just a ploy to stay up later. So initially I was brusque. "What are you scared about? What do you want me to do about it? Hasn't Mom worked with you on how to overcome your fears?" That sort of thing. So I sent her off to bed again.
After a bit, I got over my annoyance and went into her room to check on her. "I'm still scared Daddy."
"So what are you scared about?" I asked.
"I don't want to talk about it because it makes me more scared."
Annoyed again: "I can't really help you if I don't know what's scaring you."
After a pause, Kelly finally shared her fear. She's going on a 'field trip' to 7-11 with her class in a couple of days. I'd make a crack about budget cuts, but I understand this is just an end-of-the-school-year treat for the kids. They're all gonna get Slurpees.
Anyway, some kid named Ally told her a spooky story about the walk-in freezer at 7-11. Apparently, the story says it's haunted, and it snares children with it's power cord and drags them inside to freeze to death. "I know it's just a ghost story, but it still scares me."
So now I've finally got my fingers on the Boogieman, and I'm not so frustrated. "Kelly, you're right. This is just a story, and you know the difference between fiction and real life. In fact, so long as you stay with your teachers, about the worst thing that can happen to you when you're at 7-11 is that you'll drink your Slurpee too fast and get..."
"Brain Freeze!" Kelly's hand whips up and grabs her forehead.
"Right. Now that's pretty nasty, but nothing to be scared of. Even I have had brain freeze before. I was even trying to go slow, but this shake was so cold that even little sips were enough to give me brain freeze..."
I paused a moment and then began to demonstrate: "sip ... ow ... sip ... ow ... sip ... make it stop! ... sip ... ow!"
By this time Kelly was giggling, and soon she was joining in on the silliness. I got her calmed down and said goodnight. Checking on her maybe a half hour later, she was asleep.
That felt good.
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