December 30, 2003
Nemesis Game Riddle
I just saw this movie and it was kind of stupid but there was a riddle that I never saw answered and I can't figure it out. It was something like this:
What does a spider weave?
It has no eyes, but it can see.
I'm not sure if that's the exact wording but it's close. This movie had a few riddles in it, half the type you've heard a million times before and the other half being nonesensical. Like this old one:
When is a door not a door?
When it's ajar.
December 29, 2003
Cold
Yikes, it's -17° outside! I guess I got used to the summer-like weather and now I don't want to go outside. :(
December 25, 2003
Beagle 2 where are you?
Still no response from the Mars lander, Beagle2. Well that's a drag, I'm starting to think our little, green friends don't like us! Three-legged bastards!
Finished Warlords Battlecry II
I finally finished Warlords Battlecry II last week [?] and it was a pretty excellent game, but with a few flaws. It was very deep with a lot of spells to learn, different creatures to kill and races and professions to chose from. There were also a lot of different scenarios with assorted winning conditions to keep it interesting. The hero system with all the upgrades you get to use was a lot of fun. The chance to build Titans was also very cool. When your titan finally appeared, you knew you were ready to kick ass! I played as the humans throughout the game, so my titan was the Sirian, a slow-moving giant, but packing a big-ass fiery sword. It's a real-time strategy game but you can set the speed and set orders during pause. I accepted the enemy's offer to cede victory to me after 48 wins as I was getting a little tired of the game and I wanted to move on.
As to flaws, there were a few. There wasn't much of a story. While a story isn't absolutely necessary, it would have enhanced gameplay. The graphics were rather mediocre. Units would converge into one big blob during battles. It was also a very dark game, graphically, even when the gamma was set to its highest setting. To make matters worse, there was a 'night' spell enemy heroes could use that would make everything even darker. Very frustrating, luckily my hero had a spell to turn the 'sun' back on. In one scenario, the enemy hero kept turning it into night and I would use my spell to turn it back into day, but then he would immediately turn it back into night! Very irritating, I hated that one.
The worst problem, for me, was the single-game save system, ala Diablo. Many times I would save thinking I was doing good, only to have a huge enemy army come along and slaughter me, right after I had saved the game, screwing up my only save-game, forcing me to start the scenario from scratch again. Not to mention times when a unit would end up 'stuck' on a rock or something, rendering it useless for the rest of the game. This only seemed to happen when reloading saved games.
Another problem was the cannon-fodder nature of the gameplay. Trying to build up units in your retinue from scenario to scenario was pretty well useless. To do this, you had to babysit your retinue units to make sure they didn't die. I gave up after awhile as it wasn't worth the effort. Too bad.
Overall tho, this was a great game and I'd highly recommend it despite its flaws. Of the few games I played this year, I would put them in this order:
- Rise of Nations - great game, very polished, same old RTS gameplay but very well done and fun
- Warlords Battlecry II - great game marred by a few flaws
- Kohan - mediocre game, highly overrated, the balancing of resource collection against army size was an interesting twist on the old RTS gameplay, but it was still an average game, very simple
- Warcraft III - worst game I've played in a long time, a total waste of time, I played it to the last scenario when it bogged down on my old computer, never bothered to finish it on my new computer, absolutely putrid
Well, that's what I played, and completed [except WCIII], in 2003. I know, not much, it's hard to find the time to play lately.
Merry Christmas!
That's the Christmas spirit!
A former caregiver will serve two years in federal prison for swindling a dying priest out of a $350,000 life insurance annuity, then gambling it away at casinos.
"Hey Herman, how's it going? Are you still a Nazi?" he said to Herman Baurer, who helped care for Father Paul Zeller as colon cancer killed him.
December 23, 2003
Work Sleep Work
Haven't been doing much lately, work has been crazy busy. I've been coming home and basically falling asleep in front of the TV. Lazy bastard that I am. Went for drinks [and nachos!] with the Goodwin McKay people after work today. That was cool. Came home, watched the Flames play a crappy game and yet still beat the Oilers. [ha] Last Friday, I went out with my oldest sister Joanne and her husband [Jim] and her daughter [my niece] Arianna, for dinner at Jack Aster's. I had chicken fajitas, which were good once I figured out where they hid the wraps. Tomorrow I only work half a day and then I get a whole four days off! Yea for me!
December 18, 2003
Flames win
I just popped onto NHL.com to check the score for the Flames-Bruins game, as it's not on TV tonight, and holy shit, they won 5-0 with McLennan getting the shutout! That puts them one point behind the Avs and four points behind the Canucks, who have played two more games than the Flames. Wicked. I thought they'd be better this year, but I never thought they'd be this good. I just hope they can maintain this pace for the rest of the season and at least make the playoffs. Which they haven't done for what, seven years? It would be nice.
The Flames last shutout the Bruins in 1976, when they were the Atlanta Flames, 9-0.
December 16, 2003
SMG news
Sarah Michelle Gellar, aka Buffy, won't be guest starring on Angel in May, but she will start filming The Grudge in January. It's a horror movie based on the Japanese original, directed by the original's director, Takashi Shimizu, and produced by none other than Sam Raimi of Evil Dead fame. The original is rated up there with Ringu, which was a pretty cool flick. [remade as The Ring, not bad in its own right] I'm looking forward to this, I like SMG but I'd rather see her in a good horror movie than in such light fare as the Scooby movies. And hopefully she'll leave her husband at home for this one. Thank god.
Canadian 'music industry' to imitate US file-sharing lawsuits
The Canadian version of the RIAA [CRIA] is going to copy their American cousins and launch lawsuits against their customers. It'll be interesting to see if they get the same results up here.
It is regrettable that we'll have to take this action, but we've been forced to.
Forced to??? No, you chose to do this by your own free will. Don't these guys get it? The industry has changed, it's never going back to it's pre-Napster levels. Never. Deal with it. Launching lawsuits is nothing but a temper tantrum, it ain't gonna change anything. Except alienate the few people who still buy their product.
The CRIA has reported that Canadian CD sales have fallen by $450 million, or 23 per cent, since 1999.
These lawsuits should accelerate that trend. Dumbasses.
From this column:
Some have also wondered whether suing 12-year-olds isn't likely to just backfire and create worse publicity for the industry. Mr. Robertson, however, said in an interview that targeting such users may have actually helped spread the message and added to the 'shock and awe' of the industry's campaign. "It did escalate the media coverage somewhat," the CRIA president said.
Yes, I just love handing my money over to corporations suing 12 year olds into oblivion. The streets are so much safer now.
December 14, 2003
Copyright Board freezes music-media levies
Levies on blank media won't be going up in 2004. This is good, I won't have to buy a stack of blank CD-R's before the end of the year. I'm glad to see the so-called music industry doesn't always get their way.
Palestinian Reaction
It's hard to believe anybody would be upset with Saddam's capture. The Palestinians are. Ugh. I wonder why.
Saddam paid over $35 million to the kin of Palestinian suicide bombers, militants and bystanders who died in an uprising that began in 2000.
A Smiling Saddam No More
Interesting account of Saddam Hussein's capture. What the hell are they going to do with him. though? Any suggestions? Ha. And I wonder if the insurgencies will die down after this. You think they would, with Saddam captured, he ain't coming back. They should just try to get on with their lives.
It looks like he'll be tried in a public, Iraqi tribunal.
A US soldier at the 4th Infantry Division base in Iraq, shouting in the pause after US administrator Paul Bremer announced the capture of Saddam: "That's right, we got Elvis, we know where he is and he's going back to Vegas." quotes
He had $750,000.00 in cash with him, but didn't bother to grab a razor at 7-11 before going to ground, literally? What a twit. I bet his socks didn't match either.
December 12, 2003
I hate you Monty Hall!
I encountered the "Monty Hall" puzzle on this blog and dived in, like a fool, saying they were wrong, that switching makes no difference. Doh! I feel so stupid, especially since I saw this explained on TV, of all places, awhile back and it made perfect sense at the time. But I forgot his explanation and when I encountered it on this blog, it seemed wrong. I think I became hung up on the donkey scenario and that threw me off. Yes, that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it! :) Actually, I also focused on the "end game" where you end up with two possibilities, so it's 50/50 right, why switch? The funny thing is, if you work through the possibilities, one by one, then you can plainly see that it is in fact better to switch, and then you can begin to contemplate why that is. And as there are only three initial choices, it takes no time at all to work through them all. Double doh! And if you have no idea what the hell I'm talking about, go here. And don't argue that it makes no difference, you'll regret it.
December 09, 2003
Buffy Marathon
Space, Canadian sci-fi channel, is having a Buffy marathon on Boxing Day. They're showing the last 2 episodes of season six on Christmas day and then the entire 22 episodes of season seven from midnight on till 9pm. And then the theatrical film. Holy crap, that's 26 hours of Buffy! I haven't seen much of season seven, so I might give it a shot.
To make you a vampire they have to suck your blood and then you have to suck their blood. It's like a whole big sucking thing. Mostly they're just going to kill you. Why am I still talking to you?
Warlords Battlecry II - Progress Report
I've claimed 41 territories so far, so I'm doing good. I think my hero's up to level 20. But the last couple cities I tried to conquer ended in disaster. I slowly build up my army, keeping them close to my towers, protecting my buildings, when the enemy hero comes along and totally annihilates my entire army with one spell!!! Argh! I'm not sure how you're supposed to get around this, but it is rather discouraging and not terribly much fun. :( I guess I should just avoid those cities until I'm more powerful.
Bad day at work!
My bike was driving me crazy today! One of the brakes pads in my disc brakes [on the front] kept sliding out. I would jam it back in there, but it wouldn't seat properly. The instructions say there should be an audible click when it is properly seated, but mine won't do that. It's too grunged up from all the winter salt, mud and crap I guess. And the brake cable for the back is semi-seized, it won't release the brake completely and I get an extended drag whenever I use them. And my chain is skipping a bit and the shifter cable is completely seized -> no gears. Major suckage, I guess I'll be working on my bike tonight. This is why I wanted to build a simple single-gear bike for winter. But I couldn't afford it. Dammit!
December 07, 2003
December 03, 2003
SOCAN SUX
This editorial in the Montreal Gazette sums up my feelings quite well regarding SOCAN's latest shenanigans, trying to use the supreme court to extort millions from ISPs and innocent internet users. Fuckers.
If somebody robs your store, and drives away in a Chevrolet, you should be able to sue General Motors. This is the absurd "logic" behind a case going to the Supreme Court today.
December 01, 2003
New Books
Two books arrived from Amazon last week: Neal Stephenson's Quicksilver and Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code. I've read the first couple chapters of Quicksilver but it hasn't really grabbed me yet. It seems very dense, there's stuff about puritans, the Salem witch trials, Ben Franklin, Isaac Newton, the Royal Society [?] and a whole whack of other stuff that I'm sure has gone right over my head as I'm not terribly familiar with American history. And that's just the first ~30 pages. Yikes. NS does have a wiki online that provides background essays relating to the QS time period, so that should help. I hope.
I know you are, but what am I?
"Reports that say something hasn't happened are interesting to me, because as we know, there are known unknowns; there are things we know we know. We also know there are known unknowns; that is to say we know there are some things we do not know. But there are also unknown unknowns -- the ones we don't know we don't know."
Donald 'pass the crack pipe' Rumsfeld
Yeah, but you forgot unknown knowns, when you know something but just don't know you know. You know?