Have been since I can remember.

About 24 or 25 years ago, my parents got me an Atari 7800 for my birthday. It was used, I didn’t care. I could now play video games like my friends. Most of my friends had the less advanced 2600. Of course, I could play most of their games because the 7800 was backwards compatible. Unfortunately, they couldn’t play mine. I was hooked. I eventually aquired several different models of 2600. I remember having a big box of games. I don’t remember how many total cartridges I actually had, though I do remember it had 52 different games.

By now you’re wondering what the point of this post is. It’s simple. I started a new site with a few friends of mine to explore our love for old games. Why only old games? Well, there are plenty of sites about new games and few about old games.

Well first up, I got a promotion yesterday at work. I have mixed feelings about this. I am happy I got the promotion because it means more money and hours. But the supervisor we had had to get demoted for it to happen. I feel bad about that. He had one bad day and had to pay for it. Apparently he had a few mistakes I didn’t know about. A supervisor in Miami got fired for mistakes, so I guess demotion is better. I need to be careful to not make those mistakes.

A couple weeks ago, my step-mom was murdered. Supposedly she was to retire in January and my dad and her were going to retire out here in Tucson. Now as soon as the life insurance goes through to cover the funeral and burial my dad will move down here were 2 out of the 3 of us kids are.

About the blog, I’m planning on posting more content on a more regular basis. I’m going to try to post something at least once a week. I have some ideas about revisiting the most popular post on the site. My post about the full moon causing strange behavior seems to get a huge spike of traffic every (Yep! You guessed it!) full moon.

Also, I’m currently working on a new blog theme that comes complete with a new look for both the about me page and the homepage. I based the homepage on the theme I did for the Gatecast Podcast site. That’s another project I need to get involved with again, the show was my idea and I was one of the original hosts.

I was going through old pictures on the memory card I had in my camera and came across this gem I took almost a year ago.

Notice something? No? Well lemme zoom in for you….

That sign was up for over a week and nobody at the school noticed the misspelling? That is pretty sad. I guess that shows the quality of school in this country.

I managed to see the new Dragonlance Movie recently. I have to say, I’m extremely unimpressed. I’m a big Dragonlance Fan. I had high hopes for this movie. The animation looked decent, but they combined traditional animation with 3d rendered animation. Sometimes studios can pull it off. They didn’t with this movie. They should have picked one style and stayed with it. The difference, just seems to take you out of the movie. They need the difference between the two to be subtle.

The voices were good. Flint sounded a little like Yoda though. Lucy Lawless did a good job with Goldmoon. So did Kiefer Sutherland with Raistlin.

Speaking of Raistlin, his eyes didn’t even look like they are supposed to. He is suposed to have hourglass shaped eyes. I expected normal eyes with hourglass shaped pupils. Instead his eyes have no pupils and the iris is hourglass shaped. Also his voice seems too strong for the character. Keifer should have lowered his voice for the parts.

Overall it was a watchable movie and may bring new readers to the Dragonlance Saga, but sadly, I’m not happy with the way it turned out. For a novel adaption, they sure cut alot of story out. One of the highest points was seeing someone I know in the credits of the movie.

First, it’s too expensive for me to live here. I earn $7.50/hr at my job. Here studio apartments start in the $700/mo range. Tucson they are around $350-400 range. Sometimes even less than that.

Second, my friend isn’t the same person he was before he got married. He has become someone I’m not sure I can call my best friend. That and I’ve come to hate his wife. She treats me like garbage. Several times I’ve become so angry that I came very close to attacking her.

Third, I’m very tired of living 15 miles outside of town and having to rely on others to drive me into town. I’m feeling trapped when I have a day off work. At least in Tucson I can hop on a bus and go places to get out of the house.

Joe Murphy, a beloved podcaster, died today of Cancer. He was diagnosed four months ago. He had leiomyosarcoma, a nasty form that is radiation and chemotherapy resistant.

He was a real person where most podcasters are “on air” personalities. I only met him once. It was right after his first surgery where they found the cancer was inoperable. I spent 2 hours on a bus just to get to the other side of town where the hospital was that he was in. I spend only 20 minutes with him then went home. He never knew I was coming.

More information:

• Our memorial thread on the Farpoint Media Forums
• The Joe Murphy Memorial Fund
• Leiomyosarcoma information

Digital cameras take pretty bad video.

I’ll post the pictures in my image gallery at a later time and update this post.

Update: I’ve uploaded the pictures. I’ve deleted all the pretty bad ones. I kept 72 of them. The ones I didn’t keep were out of focus and planes too far away to look good.

View the images here.

Obey gravity, it’s the law!

The RPG I’ve been playing most is Ultima: Exodus. Its the first NES Ultima, but its actually the third in the Ultima series. It was created by Richard Garriot (also known as Lord British) in 1983 on the Apple II. That shows how old it is. I was 3 years old when the game came out. But even though its old, the graphics suck, and the sound is horrid, the game is rock solid. It’s actually the game that got me into RPGs.

Somehow most of the new RPGs don’t interest me like the once did. Maybe its because they dont get your imagination going like the old ones. With all the graphics and sound the new ones have it’s easy to play the game without using your imagination. I guess thats why I still love the old RPGs.

I didn’t get much else for Christmas. Another co worker got me a little Xmas bear figurine.

If anyone has any ideas for some more website tools drop me a line. Also, I’m thinking of adding a section with tutorials and promotion articles and stuff.

This post was brought to you by Nyquil on Elm st. – The sniffling, sneezing, slashing bleeding, rip your head off so you can rest in pieces medicine.

I go to the site Sony setup to handle the recall. I fill out a form and I find out I have one of the faulty adapters. After filling out my mailing address it said the adapter would get back to me in 4-6 weeks. They also said not to use the adapter untill the new one arrives (like I would do that). To make a long story short, I recieved my replacement today. I got it 3-5 weeks earlier than they said to expect it.

Now, that’s service

Chris Pirillo from the Chris Pirillo Show and LockerGnome has mentioned he doesn’t like Google Talk. He thinks its not breaking any ground in the IM area.

While I do agree to a point, I personally think that Talk is a nice program for being a beta. Thats right, BETA, not the final version. I hope this is the first beta release and not a release candidate. I know they plan to try to get some kind of system that allows people with Talk to communicate others on other IM systems. I hope they can, as it would make the first IM client (correct me if I’m wrong) that works with all of the networks that comes from a large company not just some small developer. I think they should approach the major IM systems with a minimalist approach. I think they should allow only text communication with the other systems and all the bells and whistles with Googles system. They could tell the major IM providers that users wanting all the special features of the providers they should download the providers client. If they want to just chat or share files with their friends they could use Talk.

I like Talk being lean as it is. I only wish it had a file transfer ability. If they could add chat and file transfer from other IM networks and still keep the program lean and fast like it is now, I’d be very happy.

To the plugin page!

UPDATE: I have been notified of the image path being incorrect when the blog isn’t at the root of a domain. I have fixed it so it should work with blogs in subdirectories of websites.

That is all. Go back to your regularly scheduled browsing.

That actually made my day. I feel kinda warm and fuzzy inside.

10:30pm power went out on monday and I was without electricity for 14 hours. It happened from a big storm. Something called a microburst. It took out 15 telephone poles. It left my apartment complex for 14 hours with no electricity. Power went out at about 10:30 pm and went on at about 12:30pm the next day.

I had to be at work at 3am that night. There were a few of us waiting outside the store wth no power because we didn’t wanna be inside the store. When we were sitting there there was an accident on the street. Soon after the assistant manager got to the store and sent me inside to go get milk crates and other containers so we could save the parishable food items and put them into refrigeration trucks. I went back outside and someone told me a cop came by and asked if we saw a person running through with head trauma. He also said that some guy hit his head during the accident and left blood on the windshield. He was nowhere to be found, so he must have ran off.

Today was a very hectic day for me. I did manage to take some pictures of some of the damage caused by the storm. Lots of it was cleaned up by the time I got off work. I even crossed some police lines that were put up for public safety to take pictures of the damage.

• Tucson Citizen Article about the storm
• Pictures I took of the storm damage in my neighborhood.

WordPress Translate Project page

I may like the newer Star Treks more than the original series, but I gotta admit Scotty was a better character than the engineers on the other shows. Scotty was always my favorite of the original Star Trek crew. I always wanted to be like him. I guess I still do. He’s the kind of guy that was happy with who he was and didn’t want anything more.

He never wanted to be famous. He never wanted a command of his own. He liked being an engineer. He liked just tinkering with the engines and giving what Captain Kirk needed when the mission called for it. Even though he denies it, he was a miracle worker.

I hear James’ ashes are going to be shot into space like Gene Roddenberry’s were. It seems fitting. I wish I couldn have met him at least once. I hear he’s the most likable of the actors that played on the original Star Trek.

On a semi-related note, I heard the bakery manager talking about trying to get me a raise. The thing is, I’m not done with my probation for another month. As I understand it, I get a raise when my probation’s over anyway.

The rock was found near Alexandria, Minnesota in 1898. It has an inscription that places Norwegians here in 1362.

Were Vikings exploring our land more than 100 years before Columbus? Or is the Kensington Runestone a big fake? New research suggests the rune stone is genuine, and a hidden code can prove it.

Minnesota geologist Scott Wolter has uncovered new evidence that has taken his research in a very different direction. He now believes the words on the stone may not be the record of the death of 10 men, but instead a secret code concealing the true purpose of the stone.

Lucas’ themes of democracy on the skids and a ruler preaching war to preserve the peace predate “Star Wars: Episode III: Revenge of the Sith” by almost 30 years. Yet viewers Sunday and Lucas himself noted similarities between the final chapter of his sci-fi saga and our own troubled times.

Sadly, I’m begining to dislike the United States more and more every day. If this country was like it was suposed to be as outlines in the Constitution then I’d love it here. It seems citizens are losing freedom and our elected leader seems to want more and more power. It seems that citizens only exist to amuse our politicians.

Everyone thought I’d cry when I cut my hair. I didn’t, but I do feel naked. I hate short hair. I feel I look wierd.

UPDATE: I was hired as a stocker for $6.50 an hour.

On a semi-related note, scientists seem to have discovered dark matter.

Things like that get you kind of thinking. Makes you wonder what things would have been if they were still alive. Most of all it just makes you think about them. Jamie, if your out there, you rule!

Apparently the calls we make are routed through the server and through T1 lines. From what I overheard the server couldn’t connect with the T1 lines and Qwest couldn’t come out till tomorrow to fix it. They did what they could and couldn’t get the server working.

As much as I would have liked to stay the whole shift so my paycheck is as big as it can be, I’m happy we got sent home. I just hope the server is working Friday so I don’t have another day off.

Apparently with physics as we currently underatand it, its possible to escape this universe and enter a universe next to our own. It involves wormholes (sometimes called Einstein-Rosen bridges) to travel from one to the other. The article also goes into detail about making artificial wormholes in case we cant find one to use.