Category: tech

Holy Plasma Weapons!

Ratchet: Deadlocked!

I just discovered they are releasing a new version of Ratchet & Clank! I’m ecstatic! R&C is one of my favorite playstation games. It has lots of action and skill levels and is more than worth the $40.00 bucks.

I just pre-ordered from Best Buy and I can’t wait! (The release dat isn’t until the 27th.)

This version seems to be heavily geared toward online game play which I’ve yet to venture into. Maybe this will be the spur.

I don’t like a lot of online games because they involve killing off other players as humans and that bothers me. I much prefer games where I’m dealing in complete fantasy and any killing involves monsters and gruesome bad guys. I could go on and on about my feelings on violent video games but lets save that for another day when I’m desperate for a topic.

Wouldn’t it be great if I get back from my vacation and there is a fantastic new video game in my mailbox just waiting for me?

Hello Mr. 115697522

Do you ever feel like a number when you have to call in for customer support? And what is it w/my phone/pda and vacations? Last time I went on a trip, I misplaced the damn thing. This time it just up and died.

Ok, died isn’t exactly the best term. Here I am sitting at work, dutifly working (uh yeah) and I get an email from HP about a new ROM update. I log on and dowload. Everything is going smooth as owl shit at this point. The software updates, reboots, powers up then it happens. It locks up on the startup screen. Soft reset, no luck. Hard reset, no luck.

@#$!

Forty-five minutes later after being thru an online chat w/HP and phone support w/Tmobile at the same freaking time, they decide to send me a replacement?

The irony is I was unhappy as of late w/the pda part of the phone. Tmobile’s phone service has been impeccable but they’ve put out some shoddy updates for the wireless & bluetooth services. This ROM update was supposed to fix all the previous bugs. Well, I guess my baby decided to give up the ghost and just quit.

And wanna hear something else? My warranty expires in just 7 days! I can’t believe how lucky I am. Normally, my shit breaks right AFTER the warranty expires. I have the old pocket pc at home so I have a substitute until the replacement arrives this week. I’m just hoping it arrives in time for the trip.

I can only imagine what hell this would have been were I not such a technophile! *g*

News Flash

In an attempt to be more of a “topical blogger”, I’m adding some random news stories that struck my interest. They may or may not be top stories (usually on the “may not” side).

In local news, our very own MUNI is apparently planning to offer free wifi to the masses. However, the mayor expects a lawsuit from SBC and Comcast. Wouldn’t surprise me if they did. Selfish stingy bastards that they are. People are always going to want to pay for dependable service. So the big fear of municipalities taking away revenue is nothing more than a shameless attempt at a monopoly. Let’s hope Muni wins.

In not so local news, The Wyoming State Board of Pharmacy has rejected a proposed rule that would have allowed pharmacists to not fill prescriptions based on their personal beliefs. Had the motion passed, it would have allowed a pharmacist to refuse to fill or refill any prescription based on personal beliefs. So in other words, “…I don’t like you because you are gay or lesbian. I decide I’m not going to fill your life saving prescription.” This was a no brainer folks. I can’t believe some yahoo had the balls to submit it for consideration.

Dipshit Alert! Dipshit Alert! Courtesy of Good As You, Mr. Dipshit (aka I’m a former gay) has his nickers in a knot over all those damn gays on the tele.

America better wake up; that’s all I say. I don’t mean to sound harsh or angry, but it’s gotten to the point right now where homosexuality is just so accepted now, it’s being promoted on every television show.

DUH!

For you pez fanatics out there, Pez has come out w/their new Pez MP3 player. How cool is that! It is MAC compatible but doesn’t mention itunes. Thought to ponder. It plays mp3’s wma/wmv files which is nice as you can play your existing collection as well as any “downloaded” music files as well. And the price is right at a low $99.00
Wahooo!

Scientists have discovered that black holes aren’t quite the super over-eaters as previoulsy expected. The discovery shows that stars can actually form near blackholes. Who knew?!

What’s Your Stats?

On a completely different topic, my blog hits are up to on average a thousand a week now. And if you’re NOT a techie like me you might want to skip this post.

Sometimes, I get spikes and lows, blah blah blah. That’s all good and well but a huge chunk of that is search engines crawling my site. I’m flattered the little bot buggers love me however, I do need to consider my bandwidth usage. I’m in no danger for the moment as my host gives me a fat amount. That said, knowing the net and how one odd key phrase can sometimes spark a wildfire of hits, I’m starting to get concerned.

So I ask you, my fellow bloggers, do you block or limit your bot crawls? (bot is short for crawler robot’s which is slang for search engines that use “crawler” programs to index the internet.) Google in particular seems to just LOVE my site. Of course, if you are using a free blogger site such as blogger.com, this doesn’t apply to you. I’m refering to bloggers who host their own blogs like me. I’m thinking I don’t want to block the bots completely but maybe limit their searches to once a week/month. That way, I still get visibility on the net w/o having my bandwidth taxed.

Tidbits

I forgot to mention I had lunch w/roblog. As always, I enjoyed it. I was glad to hear things are slowly improving in his world.

..did I mention the new DVD recorder is working flawlessly?! I bought a no-name brand that didn’t work out of the box. I spent a few extra bucks to upgrade to a Magnavox. I’ve moved all the saved movies off the Tivo finally.

I discovered today SBC didn’t turn off my service as requested. I’m not surprised. Just means I have to call and give them a ‘cussin’ tomorrow. I’m sure I’ll get a thousand excuses.

What else?….Oh, I had a decent workout this morning. Got my lazy carcass out of bed on time and got the gym before work. It ‘felted good!’

Long Life

I can’t remember but I think I blogged about getting a new battery for the laptop. Well it arrived yesterday and I’m kicking myself for not doing it sooner. I bought a laptop back in December as a christmas present to myself. A Dell Inspiron 9200 which came w/a 2.5 hour battery (so they say). In reality it only lasts about 2 hours. The new battery lasted almost 4 hours today!

Incoherent Ramblings II

The only successful task I’ve completed today is watching reruns of Buffy: The Vampire Slayer. I used to be an avid fan but I stopped after things kept getting weird. I regretted missing the season where Tara gets killed and Willow goes mental. (Tara and Willow were lesbian lovers.) I never seem to be able to catch the episode when Giles comes back and teaches Willow the finer points of magic. Well thank god for TIVO! I’ve managed to catch up and tomorrow is the big event. *giggle*

I also caught a great documentry on Logo about the Harvey Milk murder back in the late 70’s. Not knowing a lot about it, I found it moving, eduational, and shameful all at the same time. The guy who shot and killed Harvey Milk only got 5 years in prison, he got out and tried to pick up his life as if nothing ever happended. He showed no remorse for what he’d done thru the whole ordeal. He killed himself shortly after his release. Apparently, he was depressed over not being able to pick up his life where he left off.

I signed up for Comcast High Speed Internet on Monday and the cable tech dropped of the install kit and modem today. Within 10 minutes of cracking open the box, I had my cable internet up and running. Seamless and painless. Hello SBC? Are you listening? Speaking of SBC, they are giving me grief about cancelling my account. After going online to cancel, I get an email requesting account details, no problem. I get a follow up email requesting confirmation of my request to cancel. Today, I get a third email telling me I need to call them to cancel. WTF? Why go thru the trouble of offering the ability to cancel your account online if I’m still gonna have to call, get put on hold for an eon, and then have to answer 50 questions about why I’m cancelling, blah blah blah. Just cancel my fucking service already! *oom-rah….ooom-rah….ooom-rah* Better now.

So, I’m catching up on my Blogroll today and stumbled across this gem. . .

Dragon Thong
*giggle* It’s cute and ridiculous all at the same time. I can’t wait to see it turn up in porno’s. Well, if I watched porno’s. *note to self, start watching porno.*

Moving on, I’ve been neglecting my podcasting lately. I was off to a blazing start then *fizzle*. I’ll try to get one in this week. I’m sure you’re just holding your breath in anticipation right?

Yeah, me neither.

Thunderbirds Are Go!

Ok, if you know where the title is from extra points. (I’m dating myself w/that comment, hehehe.)

Anyway, I remembered one of the things I wanted to blog about. I guess I’m on a roll w/vendor changes this week. I’ve gotten so annoyed w/Outlook lately, I made the switch to Mozilla’s Thunderbird app. I’m giving up some functionality but Outlook crashes so often now, I’ve just had it. I thought originally I’d just overtaxed it w/so much going thru my pc however, the same problem is happending on the laptop. (Which has an even newer version.) I could go on and on about the details but I’d hate to bore you to death. One of the neat features I didn’t know Thunderbird had is spam blocker. It has a spam detection engine built in. Very nice!

Work Work Work

Today is my second day on my new shift. I’m dragging a little. I’m used to 8 hours vs 10 and I’m used to taking my sweet time waking up. I have to get up by 10:00 am now. (I know, poor me) My days off are mixed up this week w/the change. Next week they’ll be all together again.

Saturday was very uneventful. I had lunch w/the ex caught up on a few things. I guess his new boyfriend wasn’t too happy to find out we were still “legally” hitched via our domestic partner registration. (I had to leave him on it so he’d have medical coverage) Well with him finally working he doesn’t need it anymore. He went down and had it dissolved. He was kind enough to bring me a copy of the paperwork. My first divorce! I feel so “legite” now. lolol I was a little sad at first but moving on.

I ran into Tyrone from the BCC committee at Starbucks. We hung out and finished the last batch of images for the 2006 men. I just realized I forgot two pages so I’m working on those today. I’ve finished revamping the entire site so my work is mostly over at this point. I’ll still be doing minor updates but the hard stuff is behind me. (whew) Mostovic also dropped by. I hadn’t seen him lately so we also had a chance to catch up. The three of us ended up doing dinner at Blue and then I volunteered to help Mostovic get his wifi up and running. Three hours later we discovered his DSL line was corrupted and had to schedule a repair. @#$%! SBC! I saw a new offer from Comcast on the tele so I’ve decided to bite the bullet and switch. (Bobby will be so pleased)

I had several things I wanted to blog about today but have completely forgotten what they were. Maybe they’ll come to me later.