Why…

… Am I still up right now? I honestly have no idea, but I’m not really all that tired, to be fair. (It’s nigh on 4 AM, as I write this). But I’ve discovered something: I seem to write best when I’m in a half-unconscious mindset. For sure, it might not be very coherent (this article may be gone in the morning when I’m actually awake and can see what blather I’ve posted on t3h blog), but it’s pretty well… worded?

Like earlier on IRC, I used “pantomimed” and “liquor” in the same sentence without thinking about it. I honestly don’t know of very many people who would regularly use “pantomime” (or any variations thereof) or even “liquor” (with a fakking “Q” in it) around here. Much less in the same sentence. But here I am, just conversing in a normal IRC conversation, and “SHAPOW!!” There they are, for all the world to see. I must say, I was rather impressed with my diction tonight.

Even though I am only halfway of conscious mind right now, I do realize that this article is already a bit ramble-y, so I will try to appease you all with something… less so. Tonight, I discovered something about relationships. It’s not something I can readily say at present, but let’s just say if I’m right, things will be interesting. So, yeah, that’s not any less ramble-y, and even more obscure. Good game, me.

A New Year

So, as I look at my clock, I’m officially 18 minutes into THE FUTURE, also known as 2008.

The new year seems to become “less cool” with every passing year. I barely even remember it was the new year until someone in IRC said, “Happy New Year Chicago” (And I only realized it then because everything related to computers uses Chicago as the marker for the Central Time Zone). I guess it doesn’t really help when your “celebration” for the new year’s is sitting at home playing Oblivion because all your friends are off somewhere with their family doing stuff or they’re… who knows what. Either way, I wasn’t invited, so I just get to sit here at home, doing nothing.

Bleh. Doesn’t seem like a very good start to the New Year.

Another Semester Down

So, finals were last week, which means I’ve completed yet another semester of UCA without dropping out. :P

To celebrate the end of the semester, my roommate and I went and bought Rock Band. We then had a massive Rock band marathon. We bought the game at about 4:30 PM, and continued to play until about six in the morning the next day, with only one break in between for Taco Bell. Basically, it was epic win. Über epic win.

Other than that, I haven’t really been doing much since then. Sleep (lots of it) and going to watch I Am Legend with some of my friends (it’s weird. I may or may not write up a review in the future). That’s basically it.

And in case you were wondering what grades I got, I got 4 A’s and one B (damn you, American Government and Politics!!!).

Worst Week Evar, Mb?

OK, so last week was quite possibly the worst week ever for me. :(

I had four tests: two in American Government and Politics, one in Accounting (the worst class ever), and a listening test in Music Appreciation. On top of that, I had a group presentation in my Government class which meant I had to do a shitton of research to fill in the gaps in my part of the presentation, I had to compile my sources, format them in MLA format, and send them to the person in charge of the Bibliography, and I had to make our group’s PowerPoint.

Overall, it was just a really stressful time over the past week or so for me, and I’m so freaking happy that I finally have some time where I can just sit back and chill. :)

Ever So Close

So, in a mere six hours, I will be leaving for Tulsa, Oklahoma to see Brand New in concert. I’m pretty freaking excited. We’ve been counting down the days since we ordered our tickets about two months ago, and we’re ready to go see it. (That count definitely included a “fortnight”, as well.)

The only bad thing about it is that I have another class in the morning at 9:25. :(

In other news, Orbis Sanctum made a new video, this time starring Will Smith… er, his Halo look-alike. That’s right, we made a short Machinima featuring the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air intro. Check it:


If you want to download it, then right click and save as

Super Mario Tesla

This is just too cool. Someone setup two Tesla coils to play the theme from Super Mario Brothers.

From the description on the YouTube page:

Twin Solid State Musical Tesla coils playing Mario Bros theme song at the 2007 Lightning on the Lawn Teslathon sponsored by DC Cox (Resonance Research Corp) in Baraboo WI.
The music that you hear is coming from the sparks that these two identical high power solid state Tesla coils are generating. There are no speakers involved. The Tesla coils stand 7 feet tall and are each capable of putting out over 12 foot of spark. They are spaced about 18 feet apart. The coils are controlled over a fiber optic link by a single laptop computer. Each coil is assigned to a midi channel which it responds to by playing notes that are programed into the computer software. These coils were constructed by Steve Ward and Jeff Larson. Video was captured by Terry Blake. What is not obvious is how loud the coils are. They are well over 110dB.

Regarding Halo 3 and Other Items of Business

OK, so, this place has been severely neglected lately (four entries in roughly two months? For shame!), so I’m going to try and make a resolution to make an entry at least once every three or four days (maybe more, depending on what I find interesting on the ‘tubes). So yeah… that’s the “Other Item of Business.” Now the Halo 3:

As I’m sure you know, roughly two months ago, Halo 3 has been released, and I, being a huge Halo buff (so to speak), I’ve been playing it quite a lot. Beat campaign on Legendary (the highest difficulty, for those of you unaware) on one of my Xbox Live accounts (yes, I have two… if you want to play with me, then you can send a friend request to my “public” gamertag of II galador II [those are capital i’s]), and made “Spartan Officer” on both (reached the rank of Lieutenant). So, as you can tell, I’ve done quite a bit with it.

However, compare me to this guy, and that’s nothing. This guy is already up to General, Grade Four. Now, for those of you who don’t know the Bungie Rating System (that’s mine, so you can see the experience required to level up, as I’m not too terribly high ranked), I will provide a short explanation:

  1. For every game you play and win, you get One Experience Point
  2. If you leave a game, or are otherwise disconnected from the session, then you lose one experience point
  3. When you reach a certain amount of experience, you “rank up” in a system much like that of the US Army (there is some artistic liscense as to what ranks are used and in what order)
  4. Once you reach the level of “Spartan Officer”, in addition to having a requirement for experience, you also have to have reached a certain level in one of the Ranked Playlists (For example, to advance to lieutenant, you have to have a rank of 10 in one of your playlists)

That’s basically how it works. Now, to reach the level of General, Grade Four, you have to have 5000 and a rank of 50 in one of your playlists. Yes, that means you have to win at least 5000 games in order to gain this level of rank. Now, before you go on to say, “Holy crap, that guy must be incredibly good,” then first realize this second fact: the guy cheated to get that high.

What happened here was that this person used a technique called “boosting” to get to such a high rank. Basically, what happens in boosting is to get together some of your friends (or use a guest account[s]), go to a playlist called “Social Doubles” (an unranked playlists where you can bring in guests. There are only four players per match), get one kill, and then have your guests to leave the game, letting you win. Free win for you, no loss of experience for your guests.

This is douchebaggery at its finest. Not only did he cheat to get so high a rank, he did it to get something that has absolutely no value in real life. Good job on wasting a large portion of your life to get a worthless picture next to your name. Good game, man. Well played.

A Sad Day in Streaming Television

Though I didn’t use it myself, a lot of my friends swore by http://www.tv-links.co.uk/. It was a site that compiled a listing of many sources for Television shows and movies from around the weberchats. The key thing was that it did not specifically host any of the files available, just provided links to them.

“Sites such as TV Links contribute to and profit from copyright infringement by identifying, posting, organizing, and indexing links to infringing content found on the internet that users can then view on demand by visiting these illegal sites,” said a spokesman for Federation Against Copyright Theft (FACT) today.

“The theft and distribution of films harms the livelihoods of those working in the UK film industry and in ancillary industries, as well as damaging the economy,” said FACT’s director general Kieron Sharp.

Strangely enough, this was done in the guise of “cutting down on piracy.” Why not go to the actual pirates then, instead of a lowly middleman? Doesn’t particularly make sense to me.

R.I.P. TVLinks.

SOURCE

Sweet AIM Prank

First some background. For those of you who’ve yet to figure it out, Nofirefrog (Of HIH fame), who posts comments on this site under the “pseudonym” of Jason, and I go to the same college. Since he lives in some skanky Freshman dorm (that’s what he gets for transferring from LaTech), he’s often over at my apartment doing… stuff. (Usually clogging up my tubes with his pr0n Mythica downloads or XBL. As such, he has access to my computer.

Secondly, I’m a moderator over at High Impact Halo, so I randomly get messages on AIM (AIM seems to be the one most used, as you can send a message over the chatterwebz without the need for the recipient confirming you as a friend) asking something like, “Hey could you close this thread?” or “Hay, WTF wuz mah 7r3@d cl0zed, dud?” You brighter readers out there may see where this is going…

As I’m infamous for leaving my Trillian open, Jason has been known to respond to them for me (although, I’m usually always around, doing homework or shit). One particular time lead to extreme lulz, which shall be recounted here.

This first part was when he was talking to the person on the other end. I was standing behind him giving “suggestions” to increase the lulz factor:

Him: yo
Him: im the kid whos topic you locked
Him: how old is that?
Him: ..
Me: ZuP created his thread on the 29th of November
Me: September*
Him: oo ok
Him: well did you figure out why its like that?
Him: and how did u get to be a moderator?
Me: Server side error on the former quest
Him: ?
Me: 1337 h4x and magic on the latter
Him: lol
Me: Man, my typing is terrible today, it’s as though I’m not myself
Him: how did u get to be a mod
Me: Dude, I don’t cheat
Me: :P
Him: wow, moderator
Me: yeah, I know.. hence, yes hence, the smile
Him: i no i no
Me: I yes I yes
Me: :P
Him: holy shit dude lolz
Me: I’m quite funny
Him: lol
Him: will u register on my forum?
Him: forum.halouniverse.org
Me: want me to be honest?
Him: no
Me: brutally honest
Him: u wont register
Him: yea ok
Me: No, I’ll register, but that’d be the last time I ever visit
Him: y
Me: most likely
Him: lol y
Me: Hell dude, I barely remember to check HIH
Him: ….
Me: jk
Me: or am I?
Me: >.>
Him: how can i get my site to look better?
Me: I don’t really do site design
Me: I’m not good at those kinds of things
Me: shit, my socks don’t even match
Me: wait, no
Me: they do
Me: do you require any more of my services
Me: ?
Me: but seriously, I didn’t set out to become a mod, I just kind of got picked
Me: I guess I did something right
Me: Good day, Sir
Him: lol
Me: I told you I don’t mod… I don’t know about this terminology…. crazy kids
Him: wtf, r u rlly 19?
Me: Dude, I don’t even see a single word in that “statement”
Him: …
Me: ‘you’re using numbers and shit’
Him: lol omg wtf h4x mb?
Me: seriously, you better not be hacking my megahurtz
Him: LOL
Me: WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!
Him: mega hurts
Me: leprachauns on lemurs?
Him: leps
Me: Larry of Lithuania?
Me: Like Ovulllary Libel?
Him: …?
Me: “lol”… what does it mean?
Him: u really dont know?
Me: I told you, I don’t cheat/mod/hack
Him: laugh out loud.
Me: You’re joshing me
Me: straight up
Him: \stop fucking with me
Me: Wait, what?
Me: there is no sexual innuendo here, friend
Him: your messing with my head LOL
Him: LLMAO
Me: Llama… it’s spelled llama
Him: Laughing my ass off…
Me: why would you want to do?
Me: how do you poop?
Him: do what?
Him: Out my mouth
Me: is that, like a metaphor or something?
Him: no
Him: i dont have an ass man
Him: Its a long story
Me: let me guess, you “laughed” it off?
Him: kinda
Him: morel ike a 3 hour long giggle
Me: how did you breathe?
Me: seiously
Me: Like, inhaling is important
Me: very important
Him: out my….ears
Me: now, it is you who is the one to be “fucking” with me
Him: No I dont fuck men
Me: Um, ok…. I didn’t bring up the “fuck” talk
Me: its you kids that always talk about “stick it in the pooper…”
Me: you’re weirding me out
Him: LOL wow
Me: I’m no longer comfortable with this converstation
Me: conversation*
Him: kk
Me: _
Me: you realize I was just kidding… right?
Me: just messing around with you
Me: This isn’t even galador
Me: I’m just that pro
Me: n00bs and their open programs
Me: fuck, I need to go…
Me: he’s coming
Me: shit, shit
Me: shit
Me: shit
Me: What the hell am I to do?
Me: I hope there isn’t a keygen
Me: quick, where does trillian normally save logs
Me: I need to get rid of this
Me: fuyck, shit
Him: wow
Him: dude
Him: fucking wow
Me: Oh damn
Me: dude, you never talked to me
Me: NEVER
Him: kk
Me: he will so kick my ass
Me: thanks man
Me: I owe you
Me: g2g
Me: ;)

At this point, Jason stepped away from the computer, and I actually took over typing. The dramatic end to our prank come hence:

Him: yo
Him: oyy
Him: o
Him: yo
Him: yo
Him: yo
Me: Hey, what’s up?
Me: How may I help you?
Him: who is this
Him: LOL, how did u become a mod?
Me: … galador
Him: ?
Me: I do hope you AIM’d me for a reason
Him: yes….
Him: but nvm
Him: i was just talking to some other dude on this aim
Him: so im confuesd
Me: … WHAT?!?
Me: What did he say…
Him: well, where u the 1 being a smartass? and saying.. I dont know what LOL means?
Me: No, man. I just got back from a meeting with a study group
Me: Was that asshole on my AIM again?
Me: >_>
Him: ur bro?
Me: No, my roomate…
Me: Soon to be ex-roomate… I’m going to kill his ass
Him: NO DONT
Him: he said not to tell ne 1 i talked to him
Him: I thought it was u messign with me and testing me
Him: but i really had to know
Me: Kill him in a metaphorical sense, of course.
Him: …lol
Me: He told you not ot say anything?
Me: That sonuvabitch
Him: dont kill him
Me: …
Me: Anyways. You needed something?
Him: just wondering why u locked my topic
Him: Now I know though
Him: so yea
Me: Allright, then.
Me: Glad I could… Help?
Him: lol pm pm
Him: thanks and
Him: dude
Him: dont kill ur roomate
Me: Alright. Later, man.

Fairly epic, eh? ;)

Holy Schlapskie! An Entry!

So, yeah… during school, this thing has been a bit neglected, and that’s not a good thing. Part of the problem is that besides Epic Mondays, where my friends and I get together and watch the newest episode of Heroes, class, and doing random stuff around Conway, I really don’t have much “free time.” Nor has anything particularly interesting happened, and I don’t like “forcing” myself to blog. If there’s something cool, I’ll write about it, but if there isn’t, then… what’s happened lately happens.

However, in the next couple of weeks, there are at least two interesting events happening: On October 26, Demetri Martin and Seth Meyers are coming to perform at UCA. Then, on November 12, me and some of my friends are going to see FUCKING BRAND NEW. Those two are going to be really amazing, and I can’t wait. :D

There’s also a secret plan in the works that may or may not involve ninjas. More details later.

Basically, that’s a neat little summary of what’s happened since last entry and what will happen in the next month or so. Stay tuned for more entries in the exciting life of me. :p