Archive for the 'General Stuff' Category

My somewhat retarded friend

I’ll make this quick. I have a friend and he’s somewhat retarded. For the sake of the story, let’s call him E. Mowinckel. No that’s too obvious. Lets say Edward M.

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I first got to know Edward by playing Team Fortress 2 with him. He always played as the Medic and his name was "Edward the Retarded Medic"… he assumed the role very well. He would scream absurd things like "THERE ARE VERY BAD MEN OVER HERE! RUN! RUN!" in a silly retarded voice (I can’t stress the word retarded in this post enough).

He listens to The Cardigans. He makes French Onion Soup about once a week (which probably says much about what his breath smells like). He replaces the word "fuck" with "frak" because he’s an huge Battlestar Galatica fan. He has a compulsion to put sandwich bags on his head… because… why not put them there? He tweets non-stop. OH GOD DOES HE TWEET NONE STOP. Here’s a few examples:

I made my own waterproof skin for my netbook, it works really well, check it out; http://bit.ly/ckOXOO

I am completely out of food, I really need to buy more. Tomorrow’s French onion soup and Caprica day, I can’t mess that up, man.

Oh, I rule. I am the number one search result on google images for The Cardigans, and Viper checklist.

I think I frakked up my sub while experimenting with the brown note.

Just a few examples. Oh and my favorite part. He’s completely unable to communicate with females:

When a cute girl at my school asks ’so what do you do outside of school?’, I really shouldn’t answer with ‘Mostly sit home and watch BSG’

Metaphorically speaking, this is what it’s like when he tries to do anything:

But at the end of the day, he’s a pretty good guy. I’m just glad we’re thousands of miles away from each other (did I mention he’s Canadian and lives in Canada? Sorry I should have said that sooner).

Chihuahuas and my Nexus One

evil_dog Let me just get this out of the way… remember my post about how I sorta dislike chihuahuas? Today sealed the deal for me. The stupid thing was taking a dump in my daughters room… you know where she plays on the carpet and all… and my wife started screaming at it. Instead of running away, it sorta waddled away… while it was still pooping. Creating what I can only describe as a “model train replica” of dog shit. The “engine” or front of the train was in Ashlyn’s room, which was followed by all the shit cargo containers. The “caboose” or end of the train was in our upstairs hallway. The entire time it was shitting my kids were following it screaming and laughing. It was a horrible moment.

On a lighter note, I got a new phone. I was really excited to get the T-Mobile G1 when it first came out, but as the Android OS has been developing more and more, and the phone wasn’t built with specs that could keep up. I’ve been stuck on Android 1.6 while 2.1 is already out.

Not only that, but I’ve gone through 3 G1 phones. Its a great phone when its working, but not so much when the camera stops working or the phone locks up for random reasons (trust me, its a hardware issue, not the OS).

nexus_one

So I upgraded. The Nexus One is pretty amazing. I can’t believe how fast I’m browsing websites (especially with the new multitouch). The camera (with flash!) is really good, and my pictures Gallery even syncs with my Picasa account so I can see any image from my Web Albums. Right now I have no complaints, but to be fair I’ve only had it for a few days so I’ll be sure to do an update in a few weeks or a month or so.

Blog updated

I decided my blog needed to be tinkered with. I didn’t do an overhaul or anything, just messed with fonts and added some more CSS3. I uploaded two more headers into the rotation, too.

I need to start writing more about what I’m working on. People are always asking me and I never know where to begin. Here’s the thing: I’m always working on something. What it is can be totally different each day. Although right now I’m pretty focused on Zinger!. We’re closing in on the deadline for the Fretta Contest and we’re really excited about it. Not much is left, actually we’re just finishing up a few odds and ends.

I’m going to be writing a few articles related to Lua soon so you can look forward to seeing those. Actually I’ve already started… I just need some spare time to finish the first one (work has kept me so busy lately!). Technically I shouldn’t even be writing this now, I should be writing those… GOTTA GO!

Twitter killed my blog

Anyone else feel this way? I feel like everything I could say on my blog has been covered by my tweets.

I’m just sayin’

I hate chihuahuas

I fucking hate them. They are the worst form of dog in my opinion. Really, they are borderline dog. I’ve seen cats that qualify for dog more than chihuahuas. Let’s go over the reasons why I hate them… specifically my wife’s chihuahua.

First of all… their name. What the shit is chihuahua? It sounds like a made up word a 2yr old with a speech impediment would say. Or like the tail end noise of someone trying to not sneeze, but sneezed, but didn’t want to get snot everywhere so they let the air out weird at the end… yea like that. Totally. And whoever decided to spell it that way is fucking dumb. Che-wah-wah. What’s this ‘hua’ thing? ‘Hua’ doesn’t sound like ‘wha’ it sounds like ‘wooah!’, like what a cowboy says when he takes off on his horse.

And then what’s up with the way they look? They look like someone took a rubber squeeze toy and squeezed the shit out of it and it got stuck that way. Like when god was molding them out of the clay of life he sneezed and clenched down too tight on the neck and the face swelled up and the eyes bulged out and he was like “FUCK I’M NOT STARTING OVER AGAIN!” and left it that way. Which probably explains the name because that’s the noise he made when he sneezed.

THEIR BARK! Oh man, oh god, oh man, oh god. They don’t woof like a normal dog. They have this high pitched piercing noise that goes on forrrevvver. Which is compounded by the fact they BARK AT EVERYTHING. Our dog will bark non stop whenever anyone knocks at our door. Its so embarrassing to have friends come over and during that initial “omg hiiiii how have you been” moment all you can hear is the ear shattering yelp from a piece of shit dog.

Not only do they bark at everything but they also have little dog syndrome. They think they’re big, tough shit and can fight off anything, when in reality they CAN’T DO SHIT ABOUT SHIT. My cat beats up our chihuahua. Every so often when the dog is acting stupid he just walks up to him and punks him across the face with a single bitch slap. IT. IS. AWESOME. The dog runs off with his little tail between his legs and I swear the cat smirks at me like, “lol did you see that shit? what a pussy”. Which is what I was thinking anyways.

Chihuahuas shake like a bitch. Seriously its non stop like someone who has Parkinson’s. I think the little fuckers are just nervous because, really, anything that fell or stepped on them would pretty much kill them. Which adds to the fact they piss everywhere. I lean down to pick up our dog and he pisses. Anything I do, he pisses. If I take him to piss… he don’t piss, but when I lock the door behind him after he’s been outside, the noise of the door locking makes him piss. WTF?

They’re high maintenance. They’re needy little twats that require you to baby them left and right. They need special food and special collars and special steps to get onto the couch and special this and that and this and ughhhhhhh! Can’t you be anything close to a normal fucking dog and just chill the fuck out. If our sprinklers have been on and our grass is wet, he walks across the grass like some stuck up bitch stepping in mud for the first time. I stand at the door and watch him and the only think I can say is “GOD DAMMIT JUST SHIT! JUST SHIIIIIIT. TAKE A DUMP YOU STUPID DOGGGGGG. UGGGHGHHHHH!”. And he looks at me with those bulging, creepy, rat-like eyes and his nose twitches back and forth like some diseased rodent and I close my eyes and dream of a hawk swooping dog and snatching him up and tearing him apart and feeding him to the baby hawks— err, you get the picture.

They have separation anxiety. If we lock him up because we’re leaving (because if we don’t lock him up he’ll piss and shit all over our house) he starts yelping and crying and shit. Seriously. Its truly pathetic. The purpose of a dog is to be a companion; not a parasitic, shit expelling demon that needs assistance in every aspect of life. They can’t even be an outside dog. Put aside their size and their wuss-like behavior; but their entire life revolves around their owner doing everything for them and they know it!

Don’t get me wrong. I’m an animal lover and I really like dogs. But the key element is that a dog acts like A DOG. Eat grass, chase birds, roll around in dirt and lick your own balls and ass. THAT’S what being a dog is all about.

I’m sick

Baaaad. I dunno how it got so bad, but my cough is so harsh my stomach and back muscles are actually sore from coughing so much. The doctor prescribed me a bunch of medicine and put me off work for a week. There’s no way I’m taking a week off though :(

Medicine

Also some bonus pics of my cat sleeping where I least expected a cat to sleep:

The Dude napping

The Dude woke up

Reflection: Arcadium Software

What can I say? I’m a hobbyist. I like working on anything related to games. Even if I don’t finish a project per-say; I still enjoy the journey.

Modulus Software… Bakburner Etc… Arcadium Software. What’s up with all the name changes? Its just a branding really… nothing official. And to be honest they’re all 100% pointless. I’m pretty sure Arcadium Software is where we’ll stop, though. I’m confident in that because its the one that really means something to us; not just a name we invented just for the sake of having a name. We started out writing stuff for The Arcadium and all of our projects have evolved from that. It fits.

We’ve had our ups and downs as far as projects go. Those of you who’ve followed us from PGM to GATM until now have seen some interesting shit come and go. Successes? PGM+gNIX, Hoverboard, Firebox and MuseX, The Zinger Gamemode… plus Chad’s numerous useful modules. Failures and disappointments? GATM+Gear, Gadget, Zahmbeez!, The Zinger XNA Game/Arclyte, etc, etc, etc… lets not dwell on those; what we take away and learn from them is more important.

What have we learned? LOTS!

Chad and I both have what we’ve come to refer to as Developers A.D.D.! We really have a hard time focusing on projects. Its not a lack of commitment, its just we often find other things of interest that detours us from— holy shit that cat has a big nutsack!

Secondly, we’re also O.C.D.-ish perfectionists. Which is why we “start over from scratch” oh too often.

And finally… although we both retain the ability to do all sorts of extravagant stuff, including writing a game engine from scratch, what we’re really best at is developing for Garry’s Mod. Why? Its simple: its where our roots are at. And as a couple of programmers, using all the already existing content of Garry’s Mod makes our work so much easier. When we try to do standalone projects we find ourselves like a couple of bums wandering around town begging for content… “maps for the poor? a few models please? just spare me a texture or two? no I won’t buy alcohol with it… ninjas kidnapped my family I need assets to buy kung-fu lessons”.

So whats Arcadium Software up to these days? Surprisingly to most of you… LOADS. We don’t talk about our projects much anymore. We’ve learned that hype isn’t really something you need at the start. Sure, once you have something to show… something worth showing… then you can start fishing for interest and find yourself some followers to get decent feedback.

On my days off when I’m in my garage (because the rest of the family is sleeping) I’ve started working on the Arcadium Software website from my laptop. I’m trying to manage my time better. So instead of working on the website stuff during the day (when I have access to my desktop computer), I work on whatever project I’m currently occupied with. I’m maximizing my time! A concept new to me ;)

If you know what we’re up to, you sneaky bastard! If not… patience. Because we are up to stuff :D I’d like to invite you all the rejoin the forums and tinker with them; let us know of anything that needs to be fixed. (read this thread as to why you need to rejoin the forums)

Derp derp derp

Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaghhhh. I never update my blog anymore. Its like… I can’t find anything to blog about. But I have stuff to blog about, just too lazy to blog about it. I have stuff I want to say and talk about, and to be honest I don’t really care if anyone reads it. But its shit I need to verbally (textually?) vent to help me sort things out. Sorta like when you talk out loud to solve a math problem…. yea, totally like that.

So to those who read this: Hi. Sup? Remember when I loaned you that $10? You totally need to pay me back now. Thanks.

Okay so I’ll post more about stuff I’m up to. K?

Pacifica

I stumbled across this video, really enjoyed it:

Tomorrow I’ll talk about my trip to the Jimmy Kimmel show.

Relinquishing my PS2

playstation 2 logo

I had to give up my PS2 this evening… why? It’s all about growing up.

No no no… you got it all wrong… I’m not growing up, silly goose. My son Aidan is growing up. Seeing as I have an Xbox 360, Dreamcast and 2 laptops in my garage, I figured I could spare the hardware (well not really, but I’ll find a way to cope with my loss). He’s 3 1/2 now and we’re trying to find ways for him to become more independent.

First thing first is getting him out of our bed. I totally blame my wife and she takes full responsibility, but he’s used to sleeping in our bed. It all started when he was really young and I worked shitty hours. My wife didn’t like sleeping alone so she brought him in bed with her. Now that’s all changed and its becoming really annoying waking up in the middle of the night with a sharp pain in your back because his elbow or knee is digging in. So how do we solve this dilemma? Bribery. I told him I would give him the PS2 (along with the Guitar Hero controller) if he started sleeping in his bed… then after a solid week of doing so he’ll get a new game.

I’ll report back in a week and we’ll see how it went. By the way, while searching for the PS2 logo I came across this image. Holy fuck.

Video unrelated…