rowrbazzle

A quiz cuz no time to really post...

Wed, 15 Jul 2009 19:32:14 GMT

D&D Home Page - What Monster Are You? - D&D Compendium

An open question...

Wed, 22 Apr 2009 16:50:34 GMT

Is it chivalrous to defend your mate's honor? Or is it considered over protective in this day and age? Or something else?

Holidaze

Wed, 24 Dec 2008 16:10:47 GMT

I'm so happy to have RAWC home...it's the same but different, if that makes sense. And it's hard to really know how different, because it's been non-stop since she returned for "break" that I wonder if she's ready to return to school to relax ;) Nah, not really, I know it's still a break for her mind to not have to study constantly.

She has some exciting news, but I'll let her share.

Merry Christmas Everyone!
Happy New Year!

Looking for Console Input

Sat, 22 Nov 2008 03:22:51 GMT

So I'm considering replacing the old PS2. The obvious question, xBox360 or PS3?

Things to consider:
1) I'm no fan of Microsoft, but I don't hate them as much as I used too ;)
2) I like supporting the underdog...but who's that anymore, probably Sony if they can really be called an underdog.
3) It'll be solely for Guitar Hero and Rock Band franchises. (maybe some DDR)

I doubt any of my PS2 equipment will be compatible, so not gonna worry about it.

Anyone have any PS3 vs xbox360 experience? Any insight would be welcome ;)

Back to the grind...

Mon, 17 Nov 2008 16:42:30 GMT

Just returned from trip to see RAWC. I miss her already!

Nope, not terribly "good to be back" either. Currently managing 2 homes, 4 cats and 2 dogs split among them as my brother's family is out of town for a month. I'm sure there are some benefits, but they slip my mind at the moment...all I can think of is coming home to 2 empty homes instead of one ;)

Seriously though, I do have dish network at my brothers, so I guess getting to watch mythbusters from time to time is one benefit! (see! "always look on the briiiight side of life!")

Fucked up...

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 20:49:20 GMT

Ever have one of those days you realize just how fucked up in the head you are? (not asking you, Sareth, I know that answer ;)) And you wonder how you got that way? What happened to that other you that you can remember being but can't seem to find? What do you do now? Can you find that you, you remember? Do you want too? Are there elements of the previous you, you'd like to leave forgotten, and if so how do you recover just those elements you want? Or is it possible yer too fucked up too ever fine the earler you?

And then you wonder...what caused me to lose me? Was it an outside influence or would that just be looking for excuses? Perhaps some would consider it looking for excuses, but then one has to consider that experiences shape who we are, we can make certain conscious decisions on how to handle experiences, but there are some things we cannot address until we realize how they've affected us. But how can we address them when we don't realize it for years, maybe decades?

How do I address the fear and uncertainty that shouldn't be nagging at me? Do I rage at my past, the years of experiences that lead to the current fears and uncertainty? Do I discuss them w/ anyone? Does anyone have the time to listen or care? Of course they do, or say they do, but is that really the case? We're all busy these days...what are my fucked up issues compared to someone else's busy schedule?

Just some of the small questions that I ponder...

Give up on Google

Tue, 28 Oct 2008 17:56:06 GMT

It's time to give up on Google. I used to use their iGoogle home page, as I use gmail for all my personal emails now and it's convenient to use their customized home page as well. Until they broke it. From what I can tell, 99% of feed back is negative to the forced left-hand tabs that waste a good chunk of screen-estate, yet Google ignores this feed back and keeps thrusting this crap on to their once loyal users.

Well, fuck you Google. That's said without any raised voice or irateness, just reciprocating the way we users feel when you force this on us.

I plan to voice my opinion by finding another home page, another search page and just maybe another email provider. The only way to make evil corporations listen, is by removing their revenue, so not using them or their search results seems to be the best we can do.

Sigh...

A lesson on being polite...

Tue, 14 Oct 2008 15:54:50 GMT

If *you* ask someone to offer a time and date for a conference call, it is polite AND required of you to respond PRIOR to the date and time they suggested.

Otherwise you leave people like me sitting around on my fucking hands wondering if you just haven't responded yet or if the email was lost or what the fuck is going on. I do not have time to waste my time waiting for imbeciles like you. Do your fucking job or and let me do mine.

Thank you...

Beginner GIMP excercise

Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:19:36 GMT

I did this for a company website I'm updating. The original was designed by a marketing company and cost way the hell too much, but it's pretty. (at least on the outside, the underlying html is horrendous) Anywho, they did this nice effect on some of the images and since our marketing department wanted to add/change images I needed to recreate the effect...cheaply (meaning no photoshop)

Here's what I did:

How to blur image edge:
200x200 images
Use GIMP

1. Open image
2. Layers Window
Add Layer Mask [white (full opacity)]
3. Image window
Select All
4. Image window
Rectangle Select w/ rounded edges @ 5.0 radius
mode="subtract from current selection"
5. Fill outside border w/ 'black' using 'bucket fill tool' (it should become "transparent")
6. Deselect (ctl-shift-a)
7. Filter -> blur -> Gaussian Blur @ 20vertical, 20 horizontal, Method=IIR
8. optional - Save as GIMP file for future mods.
9. Image Menu
Merge Visible Layers (do this to be able to save as a JPG)
10. Save as .jpg - You will be told that jpg's can't handle transparency and then to export, the transparent section will be replaced w/ white, which is what we wanted ;)

I'll try to get images up soon...no where to host them at the moment.

Before:

After:

Sigh...

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 22:09:51 GMT

WTF...I just listened to a song on the radio w/ the OH SO PROFOUND (gag) lyrics of: "in the end we're all just chalk outlines on the concrete." Who let this person get past childhood? Is this the kind of "artists" we have to look forward too? Has all the real thought provoking and creative ideas already been taken?

Bah...rubbish

rowerbazzle!

The day looms ahead...

Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:05:57 GMT

The waking-in-a-panic episodes are becoming more frequent as the day draws nearer.

Hrm....

Huh....

Mon, 12 May 2008 15:39:12 GMT

Marvel Superhero Personality Test
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards

You are the super nerdy, intelligent and adventurous Mr. Fantastic.

Mister Fantastic/Reed Richards

100%

Iron Man/Tony Stark

75%

Human Torch/Johnny Storm

75%

Wolverine/James "Logan" Howlett

75%

Multiple Man/ James Madrox

67%

Thor/Thor Odinson/Donald Blake

67%

Nick Fury

67%

Cyclops/Scott Summers

67%

The Punisher/Frank Castle

67%

Silver Surfer/Norrin Radd

67%

Deadpool/Wade Wilson

58%

The Hulk/Bruce Banner

58%

Ghost Rider/Johnny Blaze

58%

Daredevil/Matt Murdock

58%

Doctor Strange/Stephen Strange

58%

Power Man/Luke Cage

58%

The Thing/Ben Grimm

50%

Professor X/ Charles Xavier

42%

Iron Fist/Daniel Rand

42%

Captain America/Steve Rogers

42%

Winter Soldier/Bucky Barnes

33%

The Sentry/Robert Reynolds

33%

Spider-Man/Peter Parker

33%

Gambit/Remy LeBeau

33%

Softball

Wed, 30 Apr 2008 15:24:07 GMT

Played in my first softball game since college last night. I'd always wanted to play, just never knew anyone around here with a team. Now I'm playing for the TSA's team 'Bomb Squad' (I find it an ironic name, yes). My brother's on the team, but asked if I'd be interested in subbing for him as he'll be spending much of his time back in DC again this summer. So sure I says! Had a great time, reaffirmed how old and out of shape I am. I played lousy defense, but in my defense it's been 15+ years and I was placed in left-center field when I never played out-field before. Offense I had one at-bat, I hit a single, got an RBI and came across home-plate myself a few batters later.

The important thing was it was fun! (oh, and we won ;) )

Sigh

Wed, 02 Apr 2008 22:41:05 GMT

I've been wanting to write a scathing entry on the stupidity of the claim "First Male Pregnancy." When It is not a man. The problem here though, seems to be that my irritation is possibly misplaced. It appears that some how legal definitions of words have gotten all kindsa mussed up. At what point did legal definitions begin to detour from biological/scientific definitions? I mean...XX=female and XY=male (with few exceptional cases of extra chromosomes). Seems pretty damn simple to me. But apparently now, if I "feel" like something that I'm biologically not, I can simple choose to say I'm that thing and legally I am! AMEN (so be it!)

Hmm...I "feel" like I'm a millionaire!

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

*waiting*

....dammit... :(

Been meaning to post

Wed, 27 Feb 2008 16:37:14 GMT

forever now it seems. I've alot on my mind that I'd like subject the general populace too, however I can't seem to find the time to get it all down into a semi-coherent message. So this'll have to do, a brief update:

Picked up RockBand for PS2 the week it came out (mid-late December), been playing it every Friday and Saturday where I have it set up at Hnickar's place (my house is too small). Haven't played the guitar but 2-3 days since then, it's all been drums! I'm now playing the solo career through on Hard having completed easy and medium. I don't often get to play solo so it's taking time, but I have been playing hard and expert w/ the rest of the "band." What a blast! I only wish I had room at home to set it up and play even more often, but I'm afraid I'd end up straining something, I mean after 5 hours of drumming Saturday, I was REALLY beginning to feel some pain!

Yet another reason to avoid "best" buy

Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:14:17 GMT

This is truly amazing to me, I hope "best" buy realizes how much money they have just lost by perpetuating these types of shoddy business practices.

"oh, what you got ceramic tiles out of the box we sold you? Clearly that's a manufactures problem, we won't let you return it so we can take it up w/ the manufacturer and help the consumer, no. We'll just shun you, tell you to gfy, and laugh as soon as you walk out the door."

http://yro.slashdot.org/yro/07/10/29/1833227.shtml

Dear "best" buy,

I will NEVER purchase from your store. I will discourage EVERYONE I know or meet from purchasing from your store. And in case you were wondering, I'm not JUST a home consumer, I make purchasing decisions in excess of $100k annually.

Sincerely,
Disappointed Consumer

Hmm....

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 22:30:10 GMT

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight

As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

Batman, the Dark Knight

88%

Captain Jack Sparrow

79%

Neo, the "One"

79%

William Wallace

79%

Lara Croft

75%

James Bond, Agent 007

67%

El Zorro

63%

The Amazing Spider-Man

63%

Indiana Jones

50%

The Terminator

50%

Maximus

38%

Quick way to save $300+

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 17:53:54 GMT

Looks like I won't be forced to purchase a PS3 or xBox yet:

Read about Rock Band

I'm very happy about this, as a PS3 is pretty damn expensive and the downloadable content doesn't seem up to par w/ the xbox. However, the xBox 360 doesn't appear very stable and I don't want more headaches in my life.

So... Rock Band for the PS2 it is! Yay! (just have to wait until Dec 17, ~ 1 month after the release for PS3 and xBox 360)

As time goes by....

Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:43:07 GMT

disillusionment increases.

I'm getting tired, bone-weary, fatigued, fed-up, frustrated, flummoxed, etc. So much to maintain daily, so many projects to focus on, no one to turn to or delegate items too. After 10 years you'd think one would get used to it, but either it's increasing beyond my threshhold, or my threshold for BS has dropped...perhaps both.

Anyhow, after a rousing evening of GH at pirates and squirrels place, we joined the aforementioned in a best 2 out of 3 games of pinochle. As is often our practice, rawc an pirate played as a team vs. squirrel and myself. We won the first game, they won the second and were on their way to soundly defeating us in the third when I pulled the best hand I've ever had in a game of pinochle. It began as only a decent hand, I was dealt aces-around, which meant I'd at least be able to bid well and possibly take the bid with a good shot at closing the gap in our scores. At this point the scores were about 1300 to 740 (we were at 740). I did get the bid in the upper 30's maybe low 40's I think. What then transpired was the most incredible pass from my partner I'd ever seen. Her pass resulted in me not only having aces around, but a straight in my trump (spades) AND double pinochle! Even though we barely had half their score, this handed landed us w/ a score of 780 and we went out and won best 2 out of 3! (I think it's fitting, if I remember correctly last time we played we lost soundly) The most ironic piece was that right before this hand we'd been discussing how close they were to winning and how unlikely it was that squirrel and I even had any chance of coming back, pirate himself mentioned "it's happened" in an odd prophesy of what was to come. Fun times were had by all!

Completed GH 80's on hard Wednesday evening. I'm not sure how I feel about this...it's a great game, I want to think of it as an accomplishment, but I was completing the last set with 3 stars on every song and 68% on several. Sure I completed it...but is that really all I want to do? Thing is, I'm not convinced I can do much better, on songs I've practiced, I still can't hit alot of the ho/po riffs and such...ah well...time to be content in what I can accomplish and not worry about anything else...it's just a game (for those of us that aren't making money winning tourneys and such ;) )

Life is life...

Tue, 28 Aug 2007 17:37:50 GMT

It's been a few weeks, I could continue to expound on how busy things are, but what's the use? Honestly, it's not getting any better, most of you can read it from rawc anyway, and it's not worth spending what little time I do get to update here in worrying about how busy work is ;)

So, moving on! I completed GH2 on hard last night. I wasn't thinking I'd accomplish that so soon. Middle of last week, while rawc was on the way to CA, I finished the one song that had held me up for nearly a month. 'Carry Me Home' has been my most difficult song in GH2 under both difficulty levels, Medium and Hard. I don't plan to continue on to Expert. I will end up trying some songs on expert, but my career is fulfilled at completing the hard difficulty level. My fingers need a break anyway, some pain involved in the "gain" ;)

Huh....

Tue, 07 Aug 2007 16:06:55 GMT

Interesting, considering I ended up as Malfoy in a previous quiz.

The sorting hat says that I belong in Gryffindor!

Said Gryffindor, "We'll teach all those with brave deeds to their name."

Students of Gryffindor are typically brave, daring, and chivalrous.
Famous members include Harry, Ron, Hermione, Albus Dumbledore (head of Hogwarts), and Minerva McGonagall (head of Gryffindor).

Take the most scientific Harry Potter
Quiz ever created.

Get Sorted Now!

Update...

Mon, 06 Aug 2007 23:35:18 GMT

Busy busy at work, hard to give details...too much happening for me to keep up with and priorities change daily.

Last Tuesday completed Guitar Hero on hard - Never thought this would happen! Have actually completed several songs on expert!

Completed 27 of 40 songs on hard on Guitar Hero II now, need to take a break, my fingers hurt!

Before completing hard on GH1, I 5 starred all the songs and bonus songs on medium...it gave me 'god status', I...don't...think...so! I've seen McBlah play...no god-status for me, I don't want it!

Still a great game, much fun, even got several friends into it every Saturday now it seems!

Been listening to alot of metal lately, also looking for bands out of this country, there's SO much good music out there that we never hear for one reason or another (*cough* RIAA *cough*).

Teaching myself French and brushing up on my German in my "spare" time. (Rosetta Stone rocks)

Not sure how much of this I believe...

Mon, 23 Jul 2007 17:38:18 GMT

but rawc will certainly appreciate it ;)

High-Tech Squirrels Trained to Conduct Espionage

I suppose it's feasible, it's also feasible someone's...mis-informed.

Cool piece of history....

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 15:16:26 GMT

On Ebay.

Update:07.20.2007
Odd, looked like they removed it, but I was able to find it again under completed items:
Enigma Machine

A 2nd post in 1 day!?! -Guitar Hero Post-

Fri, 13 Jul 2007 02:34:40 GMT

Seriously, I hardly ever post...so 2 in one day is pretty rare. I suspect it's also less likely to be read, as I often end up missing 2nd posts in other's blogs. But no matter, nothing said here is really important anyway :)

A couple months ago (?) now, I was invited, by old friends, to a Guitar Hero party. Now I'd heard of the game, mainly from these same friends: mcblah, s0ckm0nk3y, pshort and others. I'd even seen it once at Best Buy (hate that store, hate it with a passion...another time though). Possibly the silliest thing I'd ever seen, I fully expected to go to the party to see old friends and mock those playing...I even cleared it beforehand, though I had to agree to play it once first before I could mock. "SURE, why not?"

It turns out, it's mighty entertaining! We spent the entire evening eating, chatting and rockin out! What fun, and what a great idea for a party! (thanks you guys)

I didn't expect I'd play it again, but when I realized it was for the PS2, and remembered that I owned a PS2 that I didn't play...well, you do the math ;) I had aquired a PS2 from a friend and co-worker who won it years ago at our company Christmas party. She used it to watch DVD's and offered to trade it to me for a simple DVD player. I was all over that! $30-$40 at Fred Meyers and I got myself a nearly unused PS2. But after I got it, I had nothing to do with it... So it's been at hnickar's house for the last year. A couple weeks ago I went a head and got Guitar Hero and 2 Guitars off of Ebay. (when I realized it wasn't GH2, I was then forced to go pick up GH2 used at a local game trading post...rawc's only interested in GH2 really) But both have been most entertaining and well worth the trouble!

So far my most memorable moment in GH2:
Last weekend sareth, hnickar and I were hangin out at hnickar's place. hnickar's got his own PS2 now, so I just brought over my Guitars, game and memory card so we could all play. It was Sareth's first introduction to the game. We had a blast. At one point they both took a short break to let me attempt to unlock a few more songs in my medium career mode. As well as to let me purchase some of the bonus tracks.

Well, I was in set 8(?), it looked like I had to play 4 songs to unlock the next set. I played 3 and was doing fairly well. I had been monopolizing it for 3 songs though, so was going to let them play again but they said go ahead and finish the last one. I played it and it was mighty fast...wore me out! What I had forgotten though...after you complete a set you're offered an encore...now I couldn't turn that down so I HAD to play. Both Sareth and hnickar agreed...then hnickar said what was going to prove to be the greatest line of the night: "it's gonna be freebird!" He was just joking of course, we had no idea where it was in the song list, and had only herd rumors it was part of the game. So fatigued and sweating, I hit "Accept" and was prompted with:

"Do you really want to play Freebird?!" (oh the irony!)

The 3 of us completely lost it...it was freakin hilarious!

I decided I had to take a break before going on and took a few minutes to hit the restroom and grab a drink. I came back and hit "Accept" again, and was prompted with something like: "Only a true hero can play Freebird, are you sure?"

"Accept" again: "Are you really Sure?"

"Accept" yet again: "This is your last chance, are you really really sure?!"

-other 2-3 minutes of rofl-

"Accept" and it began...

10-12 minutes later, I had completed the game on Medium difficulty. It was actually quite a rush. I even had to call mcblah and thank him for getting me "hooked" on this game!

I still doubt I'll get much past the medium level, but it's fun to replay all the songs and career mode is just a small part of the game.

Most fun, highly recommended!