Saturday, June 30, 2007

Paintballing tomorrow

Finally going paintballing again. We leave tomorrow for jungle island. My paintballing friends tell me they're going to have an all mech group to play. Honestly, I prefer playing electros only because dumping paint makes them sloppy. It's a lot of fun to let someone pound ropes of paint into your bunker, and snap shot them out with a pump.

I realize I've never posted any pictures of my markers, so I'll do that while I clean...

Click any pictures for larger size.

Here's the Tippmann 98 custom with it's guts spilled all over everywhere...


The cleaned marker with assembled internals


Assembled and completed...


And closer...


Now I disassemble my Phantom for cleaning...

And realize that I forgot the part that I always forget on the Tippmann...

The ball detent. (the orange thingy)


Pull the Tippmann back apart... And put it in its place... There!


There it is in there.


Now the Phantom assembled again...


And again.


And my Chipley S5 pump, which wasn't that dirty so it only got a barrel swap, a wipe down, and an oiling.



Ok, all done.

I feel like I should post more, but I've got nothing.

Friday, June 29, 2007

ooooooooooohhhhh.....

WRONG        for my $key ( keys %hash_of_hashes->{$hash}){
WRONG        for my $key ( keys %hash_of_hashes{$hash}){
WRONG        for my $key ( keys {%hash_of_hashes{$hash}}){
WRONG        for my $key ( keys (%hash_of_hashes{$hash}){
WRONG        for my $key ( keys $hash_of_hashes{$hash}){

RIGHT!         for my $key ( keys %{$hash_of_hashes{$hash}}){

Aaaaahhhh..... I see what you did there...

I like that with perl, I have the flexibility to find correct syntax by simply trying out what makes sense. When I do have to actually look something up the answer was usually pretty close to my guesses.

Thursday, June 28, 2007

Daft Hands


Wait till the music picks up, it's totally worth it.

Defeat of the Immigration bill

This was a serious victory for the people.

Forget being for or against the bill, the point is that all those folks in Washington who are convinced they're better than us wanted this. They wanted it. They wanted it badly. We, the people, were the only thing that stopped this convoluted cermudgeon of caveats and confusion from flying through.

It was like music to hear the phonies express their astonishment (RABBLE RABBLE RABBLE) at the sheer volume of calls they received calling for the death of this bill.

I'll see ya at the bill sign'n!


Warms my heart to see that this country still has some fight left in it. God bless America.

Overheard at work

Chris: Dude, I just found this box for a gun vault!
Me: Oh yeah, that's one of those touch ones that you can open in the dark.
Mark: Awesome! I've never seen this before!
Chris: No, guys, this box is from us!
Boss: Oh yeah, that's [the CEO], he's always had a gun in his desk.
Chris: What? Always? Great, we're all gonna get shot!
Me: Dude. How long have you worked here without him shooting you? Relax.

Yeeeahhhh... I don't know if it's the same way in other states, but here, most techies are gunnies (or the other way around!) When people talk about rednecks, I tell them to go to their IT department and announce that you'd like to go shooting and see how many people offer.

Wednesday, June 27, 2007

Quick desktop screencap


Clicky for larger size

Virtual insanity

We're setting up some virtual servers and finding out more about the operating system that runs the virtual servers. Virtual servers are (is) one server pretending to be many. The software that gets installed on the virtual servers doesn't know the difference between a virtual server and a regular server. That means that connections to hardware is all faked. All those virtual servers think they have their own NICs, processors, and RAM, but they're really only sharing one of each piece of hardware. That means that the NICs, processors, and RAM are all virtual. They're just software, they don't really exist.

The funky thing is, the virtual machine software offers virtual versions of other hardware, like switches, and routers. Which, of course, spawned the idea of setting VLANs on those virtual switches... Virtual virtual local area networks. And if you set a virtual interface on a linux box, you get virtual virtual network interface cards. When the guy building out the virtual servers selected a full install of fedora 7 (bad idea) he realized that he'd inadvertently installed a virtual machine on the linux box... Which, of course, lead to virtual virtual virtual interfaces, and virtual virtual virtual networks...

Yeah, I don't know how to end this one...

Ah! I'll share this e-mail with you;
Sender: Mark
Recipient: NOC
Subject: DO IT
Body: Let's just order syrup!

He forgot to include the link to a place to order barq's root beer syrup, and resent his e-mail with the link, but I insisted that his first e-mail was far more awesome.

Cheater!



This person was trying to find a way to change his save file so his character has a wand of wishing.

If you're going to cheat, just run `nethack -D` and you'll start in wizard mode with a wand of wishing. Then you can wish for some kick-ass kit and kick ass all the way down the mazes of menace. Great for messing around.

I recommend:
blessed scroll of charging (gotta recharge the wand!)
blessed +2 gray dragon scale mail
blessed greased fireproof +2 cloak of displacement
*read scroll of charging* (wand is unlikely to take another charge after this)
blessed greased rustproof +2 helm of telepathy
blessed fireproof +2 pair of speed boots
blessed rustproof +2 gauntlets of power (or dexterity)
Reset the wand of wishing to 'z' and hold 'z' down until you squeeze one last charge out of your wand. (wand will be unusable after this)
blessed +2 amulet of life saving (might get ring of levitation if you want to rush down and take madusa and the castle)

Good generic kit that should work for most classes.
Replace the last item with a good weapon if you need it, but with speed, strength, displacement, AND a freaking low AC, you should be able to coast through the dungeon with your eyes closed.

Make it stop...

Also, this;

Please enjoy this too!

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

Monday, June 25, 2007

Please enjoy this.

hashes of hashes

for my $omg (keys %hoh){
my $wtf = ${${%hoh}{$omg}}{'name'};
print "$omg $wtf\n";
}


._.

<_<

>_>

o_O...

Wait, what?

Friday, June 22, 2007

edit: Nah...

edit: Fuck that.

Tuesday, June 19, 2007

The muse returns!

I can code again!

Ever since this move got started I've had difficulty working some of my coding projects. I just wasn't feeling it.

Time to sit down and get some code on the screen...

... yep...

*klack* *klack*...

...

#!/usr/bin/perl


OOOOOkayyy... Now we're rolling...

... hmmm...

Oh yeah!

*klackitty* *klack* *klack*

#!/usr/bin/perl
use strict;


Alright...

...

C'mon. The project is challenging, the fingers are nimble, the vi session is opened... wtf???


I was talking to a coworker who mentioned that he hadn't coded in weeks. I told him I hadn't either, and we speculated as to why. I asked another coder and he said he hadn't done a thing either, not even personal projects. Some kind of bad code mojo or something.

But that seems to be behind me. I'm starting to feel it again (though I have yet to actually code anything), so I'm revisiting my notes in preparation. The environment hasn't been just right yet, and I haven't had the opportunity to make my environment good for coding yet.

The cursor blinks on...

Blargh

Craziness at work. The move is over, but now there's personnel movement... Stupid high-school pissing match bullshit is finally getting addressed. It was addressed in a roundabout way, but it was dealt with nonetheless. Everyone's still kind of reeling from the change, and some folks are trying to get a bead on their position. Plus, cool new ideas coming up that yours truly will be involved in! Excitement for the first time in about a year!

I'm so excited that I'll treat my readers to some delicious hex.

4c 4f 4c 20 49
4e 54 45 52 4e
45 54 20 53 41
4d 4d 49 43 48
20 43 41 54 20
52 4f 42 55 54
55 53 53 49 4e

mmmmm hex-o-licious...

Friday, June 15, 2007

Why play nethack?

One reason. It's hard.

It's not hard like; Aw man! This game is going to take more than 8 hours to beat, I'm going to have to stay up late doing my algebra homework! or hard like; Man, this guy's hard, I'm gonna hit gamefaqs for some tips on how to beat him!

It's hard like; I don't get it, I started a new game, took a step, fell into a pit, climbed out, tripped a rolling boulder trap, and died. What kind of game is this?

When you play a game, you expect it to be somewhat difficult. You expect to be challenged.

When you play a game, you don't expect it to be impossible or even near impossible. If the game seems to play unfairly or seems to cheat, you'll lose interest. You're still playing a game, you want to have fun.

When you play nethack you can expect to be mercilessly killed at any opportunity. The random number generator (Random Nethack God) will roll in your favor from time to time, but it's not there to give you an easy time, it's there to challenge you. You get one life to live. There are no checkpoints to go back to. You can save and exit the game, but once you return you cannot reuse that saved game. This isn't a game you play for days or weeks or even months in some cases. You can play this game for years without beating it.

To make things worse, (or better) the Random Nethack God comes armed with quite a few methods of killing you instantly. This means that your character, no matter what level or how far in the game, can die instantly if you're not careful. Most of these methods can be defeated once you have the proper equipment (equipment you hopefully can find), but many remain that you can only decrease the likelyhood of their effect on you.

The RNG isn't trying to make things difficult for you.
The RNG isn't trying to challenge you.
The RNG is trying to KILL you.

You might die of starvation. You could randomly step on a level teleport trap and be sent to hell. You might fall into a pit with poisoned spikes. A cockatrice could touch you. A swarm of killer bees could encircle you. A horde of fire ants could attack you. Even a relatively harmless gnome could be wielding a wand of death. Any number of things could happen (and probably will) that would result in your death.

The only way to cheat is to enter wizard mode where you get infinite lives and your score doesn't count. Even in that mode, it's possible to get yourself in a position where you cannot win.

Nethack has been developed for longer than any game on the market. The Dev team is constantly tweaking things to make the in-game reactions more realistic.

I play this game because it's hard. It's merciless. It's unforgiving. It demands perfection.

Don't believe me? Try it. (Just read the guidebook first)

Wednesday, June 13, 2007

Revenge of the Pizza

Had some pizza before leaving work last night and felt fine.

Went home, stayed up, went to get some food (I didn't get any), then went home and went to bed.

Couldn't sleep because I was shivering uncontrollably. For what must have been hours, I lie awake shivering in a warm bed under warm sheets. Eventually I managed to doze off and woke up about an hour later sore all over my body with a headache. I felt like someone beat me up with a crowbar. It was hard to move, and I my heart was racing. I had strange memories of a dream I must have had about arguing with someone about rifles or something. I couldn't remember what the argument was, but I knew it was extremely heated and made me feel like we were arguing so violently we were trying to kill each other. My mind was racing about the argument and the more of the argument I remembered, the more confused I was. I got up and stiffly wandered around the apartment, finished, and refilled my water bottle. My heart rate wouldn't drop and my mind was still spinning with thoughts. I returned to bed and eventually dozed off only to wake up again several times. I imagine I was thrashing in my sleep over whatever I was dreaming about. I woke up around 4:30 and felt just as terrible. I felt strange and detached (emo!) and couldn't shake the feeling. I tried to sleep again but my mind was still racing, and I felt just as terrible after I slept for a short while. My stomache was turning over and I felt like I needed to throw up, but I couldn't. Eventually I managed to throw up the small amount of food in my stomache (all that was left was the tomatoes that were on the pizza) (everything else digested except the tomatoes???). I still felt terrible, but managed to fall asleep. I woke up several times and was feeling a small bit better. Still sore all over, head still pounding, heart still racing, with what seemed like a minor fever. I was woken up by a call from work just in time for me to slowly get ready, and drive myself in. By 1 I'm starting to feel a bit better, and less like I'm going to throw up. Now, it's two and I'm starting to feel back to normal.

I told one of my coworkers that I threw up the pizza, and he said he did too. So I figure all this insanity was related to the pizza.

That must have been some messed up pizza.

Update; two other coworkers tossed their pizza. Something was wrong with the Hawaiian...

Tuesday, June 12, 2007

angor, hate waiting periods, etc...

4 more hours until I can pick up my legally purchased property.

"Ok, just sign these last two papers, and the new car is yours!"
"Al--... right! Where are the keys? Can I drive it off the lot?"
"Oh, nooooo. You can't have the keys now! We have to hold on to it for 10 days."
"What?"
"Yeah, its a safety measure. Just in case you were really upset and wanted to kill lots of people by plowing your brand new car through a crowd of people, we hold on to it for a 'cooling down' period."
"What?! That's crazy, why would I do that to my new car?!"
"Hey, you're the one who said 'crazy'."
"But it makes no sense! I already HAVE a car! If I wanted to kill people with a car I'd just use the one I already have! This waiting period would do nothing to stop me!"
"Really?... That's... something..." *frantically pressing alarm button under desk*

Monday, June 11, 2007

Quote of the AWESOME

Just what we need--an emo powderkeg with a gun and a badge.


From David Codrea

Wait, what?

Democrats, NRA agree on checks for gun buyers

The NRA fighting for more gun control.

In related news; the Brady Campaign took the day off.

Way to go guys. Keep up the good-- Oh wait...

Hat Tip to David Codrea

Nethack: Post Mortem

[Hildegarde's quest continues...]

I guess I probably owe you an explanation as to what happened between here and here...

Well, after fleeing the mines I continued down the regular dungeon to find something to deal with the problem of that damn priestess... Mjollnir was proving to be too much for most of the monsters I encountered. I went a few levels lower than I had been before and found the Sokoban mazes. Ah, the prefect way to get my mind off that damn priestess, and pick up some good loot. After the uneventful completion of the Sokoban puzzles, I returned to the main dungeon and continued down making notes of what to find on each level. Damnit. Still no altars. I found a wand shop on level 9 and ambled around checking prices on the wands. 1000 zorkmids?! A wand that expensive had to be either wishing or death! I buy it quickly and head to an open area where I can do a quick test (without being in danger of a ricochet). Zap! Blue lines fly from the wand, hit the wall and bounce back for a few spaces. Expensive AND blue?! I've got me a wand of death right here! My Lawful character's face curls into an evil smile. I return to the wand shop to pick up a few more wands, but find myself eyeing the plethora of powerful wands greedily...

Greetings Hildegarde, welcome to my shop!
Oh! Uh, yeah; hi.
...is there anything-
Oh, no... No. Nope. I'm, uh, I'm just, uh, looking...
...
Uh, how much is this platinum wand?
350 Zorkmids, finest quality.
Ah, yes... yessir. yessirrie bob. Finest quality...
...
Soooo......

bzzzzzzZZZAAAOOO!!!


*WHUMP*
............ yyyeahhhhh...

Tyr is a lawful god, and he'll be a bit upset with me, (what with my slaying of an innocent, and all) but the three wands of create monster I just came into recent ownership of, I'll be able to sacrifice tons of nasties to him to get back in his good graces. I gather the wands up and begin identifying them by using them or engraving with them. There's some great stuff here! I need to get this all sorted out! I spend about half an hour sorting my backpack and moving things around into different piles so I know where to go when I need something. I update my notes and repack my backpack for light traveling because I've got a destination in mind... As I leave my new shop I lock up, pause, then go back in and retrieve the wand of fire. I think of something pithy, but decide to keep it short to save on the wand charges. I use the fire wand to burn the message GO AWAY on my doorstep. Heh.

On my way back to the mine town I run into some higher level monsters and handle them more easily than I thought I would. Man, Hildegarde is getting pretty tough! I gather some more equipment, but nothing worth mentioning. When I make it back to the mine town I realize that I lost my telekinesis! Damn gremlins, stealing my intrinsics! And I JUST passed up a floating eye corpse! But it didn't matter, because knew she was on her way to the stairs when I left, and that with my Infravision I'd be able to see her easily in the dark corridor. I set myself an appropriate distance from where she should appear. I try to get as close as possible so she could be hit on a ricochet in case she dodges the beam the first time. POW BIATCH! She didn't. I find little on her corpse, but my mind's on my new home, and reconciling with Tyr.

I find the west side of the town in shambles. Apparently an overzealous Dwarf lord has been digging for treasure all over town. Most of the walls are missing, but my temple retains its integrity. I enter and am frozen by the gaze of a ghost. This is what happens when a temple priest(ess) is killed, even if the ownership of the temple shifts. The ghost was not big concern, sometimes they freeze me for a few turns, but it wasn't something I was very concerned about since I had work to do. I zap my wand of create monster a few times and sacrifice to Tyr (unfortunately they were mostly small monsters) when I get a message about an unexpected draft. This message means some monster on the level is digging through walls. Damnit! You gotta go. It's only a matter of time before you destroy my temple! I head to the peaceful dwarf lord and give him a good whack.
Dwarf lord gets angry!
Yeah, yeah... *WHAM* There. Wait; a dwarf lord is a large monster... I pick him up, and drag him to the temple, and offer him on the altar.
Tyr seems mollified
Sweet! *CRASH* DAMNIT! Another frickin' dwarf just dug through my temple wall! *WHAM*
Dwarf king gets angry! yeah, yeah, what are you going to do about it?
Dwarf king zaps wand of death! --more--

!!!!!!


You dodge the death ray! The ray bounces! The ray is absorbed by the door!
SHIT! DAMNIT that was lucky! I can't hit him with my wand of death, I'll get hit on the ricochet! I'm gonna have to try to beat him! *WHAM* He's down! Damnit! What the hell! ... Well, now I have TWO wands of death! *OFFER*
You glimpse a four-leaf clover at your feet!
Nice, more luck. But how am I going to fix that wall... Wait, I nailed a giant a bit ago, and they have boulders; I can use that to plug the hole. I head out and spot a leocrotta. These are very fast, and pretty tough, but not as tough as me! I head out to fight it, and it hits me very quickly, Wait, why kill him out here, and lug him back, when I can kill him closer to the temple? I'm almost to the temple when he lands a good series of hits. Ouch, I've got to be more careful, well, I'm only one move away so he's about to get a pounding. I step into my temple and a ghost appears, paralyzing me for a few turns. Uh oh.
Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! --more--
Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! --more--
Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! --more--
Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! --more--

7 health!!! I sure hope the next message is the ghost touching me, and my turn starts, or I'm fucked. I slowly tap the space bar.
Leocrotta hits! Leocrotta hits! You die... --more--

...

Goddamnit! I had TWO wands of death, and was MORE than capable of taking that thing out, but I was fucking around instead of taking every threat seriously! DAMNIT! iiiiii'm dumb. I still can't believe myself.

Sunday, June 10, 2007

I fail.

                       ----------
/ \
/ REST \
/ IN \
/ PEACE \
/ \
| Hildegarde |
| 144 Au |
| killed by a |
| leocrotta |
| |
| |
| 2007 |
*| * * * | *
_________)/\\_//(\/(/\)/\//\/|_)_______


Farvel Hildegarde the Valkyrie...

You died in The Gnomish Mines on dungeon level 6 with 67998 points,
and 144 pieces of gold, after 20462 moves.
You were level 12 with a maximum of 99 hit points when you died.


Still didn't learn my lesson. NEVER GET COCKY! Stop reacting, and start THINKING!

Nethack: It can wait...

[Hildegarde's quest continues...]

Ok, I'm doing alright. I just got in a tad over my head...

I played it close the the cuff, like I learned to. I picked up the right stuff, and didn't take any stupid risks (drinking unidentified potions, reading unidentified scrolls), and I took copious notes. I even lucked out and found a djinni in a bottle, and I lucked out AGAIN that he was kind enough to grant me a wish! Hellooooo Blessed +2 Grey Dragon Scale Mail!

Making good progress through the dungeon, I decided that I was going a bit fast (slow and steady wins the race), and decided to go back to explore the Mines. I kept playing it light, and safe, so when I hit a bit of bad luck, and dropped down too many levels, I had little trouble getting back up. When I hit the mine town, I was sad to find that the temple was oppositely aligned with me. I could still use it to identify blessed/cursed status but I wasn't going to be offering any sacrifices to my god for fabulous prizes. I could try to convert the altar, but that makes the priest(ess) angry, and they can be tough sometimes. Oh well. I haven't found any other altars yet, so I should be finding another soon...

I checked out the shops, reworked my inventory a bit, and headed deeper. I took my time, and made sure I kept track of all the items of possible use. I ran into a bit of trouble when the Random Nethack God (Random Number Generator) decided to drop me down a few levels by hidden trap doors, but it wasn't anything I couldn't handle. A few more rough battles and I was feeling pretty good. I made it to the bottom of the mines and decided to go back and sort out my inventory and do a little R&R up in the town.

Back up in the town, sorting the useless stuff from the somewhat useless stuff and the possibly useful stuff from the useful stuff I was eyeing the priestess of Loki. Hildegarde is a lawful female Valkyrie, decked out with Dragon Scale Mail, a +1 long sword, and 15 daggers she can throw at 1-3 per turn. The priestess of Loki is just putzing around my storage area. I'm trying to sort stuff out, and she's getting in the way, and bugging me for donations, this isn't the way to do things. I'm pretty tough. This bitch is going down.

I step out to find a suitable sacrifice just as a cockatrice steps up, 5 daggers drops it from a safe distance, and (after making sure I have my gloves on) I pick up the corpse, and bring it to sacrifice it at the altar in the hopes that my faith for Tyr will overpower Loki's altar and convert it.

Your sacrifice is consumed in a flash of light! --more--
You feel a conflict between Tyr and Loki. You feel the power of Tyr increase. --more--
The altar glows white.

WIN! On the first try too!
The priestess of Loki is angry!
You got a problem??? Bring it.

The fight was on. She was tougher than I though, but I was sure she was going to drop any moment... yep... ANY moment... er... uh oh... Ok, she's soaking up a lot more damage than I thought she'd be able to... Ok, now she's just kickin' my butt.

I contemplate one of my many escape methods and decide on using the wand of teleport to escape. Wait a minute; this is Tyr's temple now, SHE's the intruder! SHE gets to leave. I pull out the wand of teleport, and use it on her! Take that! I quickly close and lock the door. I put on my blindfold to focus on my telekenesis. The image and location of all intelligent creatures on this level coalesces in my mind. Ah, she's a ways away, and she can't get in here until I unlock the door. But now what? I'm locked in a room, I can stay in here until I heal a bit, but I can't stay in here forever because monsters keep spawning in, and if I wait too long, I won't be able to leave without facing more than I can handle... I can't even sacrifice anything because I'm trapped in here and monsters don't generate in temples... Wait a minute... I dig around in my bag and find what I'm looking for, a wand of create monster! I create a slew of monsters and sacrifice them all getting tons of luck, and finally Tyr granted me what I was hoping for; Mjollnir, the hammer of Thor. Kick ass, lets see what that priestess has to say about this! I dig back into my bag and pull out two other wands I found, wand of speed monster and wand of slow monster. I put on my blindfold and watched her move around outside the door until she was in the right position. Perfect! I took off the blind fold and zapped myself with the wand of speed, then I unlocked the door. Come on in... As soon as she appeared I zapped her with the wand of slow and started beating on her with the hammer of Thor. She summoned insects; damn, I forgot they could do that. No matter, my armor class is low enough that they're not going to do much damage, and since I'm moving so fast, I should be able to take care of her and worry about her pests later. I continue to attack her. She's missing me a lot, no way she'll be able to handle much more of Mjollnir... Ok, she's still coming, but she's not doing that much damage... WHOA, she just did 30 damage on that attack! Ok, it was probably a fluke, she's gonna drop any second now... BAM! She just did 25 damage! 8 health! Those damn bugs! 3 health!!! I dodge her second attack! Thank god, it's my turn! I can't teleport her out because the bugs will still be around, and I might not be able to take them like this, I teleport myself somewhere random on the map and wind up in a corridor on the west side of the map when the stairs up are on the east side. Don't worry, you didn't use your prayer on that last fight, you can use it now. I pray to Tyr and he protects me for a few turns while I complete my prayer, and he heals me. WHEW! I just start thinking of how I'm going to make it to the stairs when the second worst monster to have you at a distance in a corridor steps into my corridor; a red naga. I've been in this position before. It sucks. At a distance they use their fire breath excessively, but up close, they just bite and I can take them. I try to remember how far their fire breath attack goes but I compulsively jab the key to run for the door before I completely think out my move. Fire streaks across 10 spaces and hits me hard. Two potions bubble and explode, a scroll burns, my cloak smolders! I can make it to the doorway! I run another space; fire shoots shoots toward me again, my +3 shield gets burnt! My armor class increases 2. Shit! My shield! Fuck this! I hope this wand has another charge in it! I zap myself with the wand of teleport again and find myself much closer to the stairs up. I don't want any more surprises! I put on my blindfold and spot my escape route. I note that Lule (my dog) is still in the temple, but wisely stayed out of the fight. I back track a bit to get the priestess to the opposite side of the group of shops so I can make a clean escape with her behind me instead of heading me off near the exit. I make it to the stairs and note that the Naga is not too far off. I blow my magic whistle and teleport Lule to my side just before I run upstairs. I lick my wounds and think about my next move. I update my notes to reflect the immediate death I'd suffer upon returning to that level. After I rest up to full health, I realize a that I should probably go back and soften the the level up as much as I can before leaving to find something to take care of that priestess. Fortunately I managed to leave with most of my daggers. I put on my blindfold and return to the level fully healed to deal with a few imps, a gargoyle, and that damn naga that burned up my shield. The gargoyle took more damage than I thought it would, and I took out the naga at close range where it didn't use its fire breath, and the Priestess was still a ways away.

I need to stop playing. This is when I'm going to do something that I don't think completely through, and get Hildegarde killed. Just remember the lessons you learned from the Ellora, when shit happens, don't react. Stop playing the game. Think about it. Then come back, and choose your moves carefully.

Ok. I'm going to stop. Wait, why don't I take a screenshot for my blog?

There we go.

Click for full size

Wait, why don't I write an explanation for any readers?

There we go.

Click for full size

Why don't I write this blog post to tell any readers how I got here?

Done! :D



So, what do you do in nethack when you've got an obstacle you can't defeat with brute force? Get creative. Find a wand of polymorph, and change your foe into something more manageable (like a newt :] ). Try chucking a potion of sleep or paralysis at them (damnit, I had a potion of sleep). While I was writing about locking the priestess out, I realized I could probably lock her IN one of the many rooms on the level if I could get around her (which is also good because if the priestess of a temple is killed the temple becomes haunted, if she's still alive but trapped, I won't have to worry about the minor inconvenience of a haunted temple). Find a wand of death, and just give her one good zap. Find a cockatrice corpse and beat her with it to turn her into stone. Dig a hole down to the level below and get her to fall into it. Or just get a gnarly wand (magic missile, striking, cold, fire, lightning) and just pound on her until she gives. I'm sure there are more ways of dealing with this problem, but I'm leaning toward the polymorph idea. Maybe after I sleep on it, I'll come up with an even better solution.

Until tomorrow...

[To be continued...]

Saturday, June 09, 2007

Nethack: It begins...

Velkommen Hildegarde, welcome to NetHack!  You are a lawful dwarven Valkyrie.













---- ------
.........d|
|.%......@|
...$......|
-----------



Hildegarde the Stripling St:16 Dx:16 Co:16 In:9 Wi:10 Ch:8 Lawful
Dlvl:1 $:0 HP:18(18) Pw:1(1) AC:6 Exp:1


[To be continued...]

also...

Blunk Drogging

Alright folks. It's been done before, and now I'm contributing.

It's time for a drunk blogging.

But before we get started, here's a quick pic from the move.


lol i aer teh downsize

Ok, enough messing around... Get this out of the way.

(fyi, I've already started drinking so this is a bit harder than it should be)



oh, wait, hang on, ok, first a before picture. (<-that's a lot of commas!!!!,,,,)


Hey, hows it going? (why do i look weird already?)

The drink of the night is Bloody Mary.

Ok, so here's what the scene lookedlike about 30 mins ago...

nothe the tobasco. they way you can tell if you're using enough tobasco, is if you can get close to the drink without your eyes watering; theres not enough tobasco in it.


yeah, it's got a straw. fuck you. it lets me drink it faster (none of that fucking ice gettingvs mi my way. also, to give you guys the full drunk experience I won't be correcting my typso.., TAKE THAT

ok, so that drink was done pretty wuickly (after my girlfriend stood behidn me until i finished it). WIN.

...

Comedy Centeral is already funnier.

After the first one, my girld friend filled up the next one so I din't have a picture of that one. Instead, here's thes edcond one.



Ava looks eral funny to me, soyou get to see her.


yeah, you dumbshit, take a pictue.

Ava ran away to her cage when I tried to pet her. I don't now how I should interpret that...d

Ah! my gf )shorter than girlfriend) is making me another. I suspect hse has malicisous intent! but you know what they say about intent! i don't. it's hard not to correct my mistakes.

Eeee-skalent! A NEW CHALENGAR APREARS!!!
sddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddddwhoops


SUDDENLY BROCCOLI!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!111

were't expecting that were you? that's a lot of broccoli.I had to cover the logo on my shirt also i type a lot better when i'm not looking at the keyboard. see that, was not evenslookingtat it. <-thatwas looking. anyways i was erasing thelogo and cot alitle carried away. it'sa ll good.

By the eway wer'er up to numbet...


did i mention that I'm a lightwaeight for hard alcohol? I wiegh a lot but I dget my alcohosl tolerance from myh dad who doesn't have a godo alcohold tolerance. ok i"m correcting some of the spellsings becuse it's getting reals man bad I mean.

comedy centerasla is getting less funny. DRINK MOAR!!!!!!11OMG


Also, this;


Vision getting pblurry...





name that movie!

or don't i dont' care

ok, enough of that.

...


ok, that was twoa more. i'm trying tnot to fall alseep when I sit down.

...

THE END

Friday, June 08, 2007

Real-life tales from the other side of the Internet! Part 4



The horror.

THE HORROR

MSI

Stop ignoring me.


Don't act like you're not thinking about me. Don't act like you don't remember the fun we had. Don't act like you don't remember the hours and hours we spent together. Don't act like we never had something. Don't act like we didn't have good times and bad. Don't act like I didn't take your breath away. Don't act like we didn't soar in victory together. Don't act like we didn't suffer crushing failure together. Don't act like you don't want to go back to those times.

Don't act like you don't want me.

Don't act like you don't want to play.

You'll only be fooling yourself.

DO YOU FOLKS LIKE COFFEE!?

DO NOT PASS GO, DO NOT COLLECT $200














I'm such an ass.

Real-life tales from the other side of the Internet! Part 3

(so soon???)

James found a good cat picture that was just begging for a caption, so I invoked the powers of the other side of the internet.

The original is below, and is followed by the suggestions (that I felt safe posting)
Clicky for larger size














After a few responses someone got smart and thought Kitty might not like being captioned and could possibly...

...eat the thread.

As for the stuff I CAN'T post...

The horror.

THE HORROR.

Real-life tales from the other side of the Internet! Part 2



The horror.

THE HORROR!

Wednesday, June 06, 2007

MSI

youthinkyou'resayingsomethingreleventasyouconnectthedots

Monday, June 04, 2007

Quote of the AWESOME

Via PDB, who still rocks.

Imagining a sight picture on everyone you encounter during the day is a wonderful way of keeping your mental balance.

Blame Josh.

I blame Josh for making me buy this.

I think the conversation went something like this:
ET: well... off to the eye doctor then b&n then range... must... not... go... to ... gun show...
J: Dude, just give in. Go to the gun show.
ET: ok
J: wow...that was easy
ET: yeah... did you really think it would be hard?


I take that as an admission of guilt.

I pulled out 100 bucks and my list of stuff I need from the gun show. I made a pretty good dent in the list.

2 canteens and canteen belt holders
1 high quality gun belt
1 shotgun 5 shell holding butt sleeve
1 shotgun shell bandoleer
1 belt double pistol mag pouch
1 belt single pistol mag pouch
1 metal rail to attach to AR plastic handguard
30 rifled shotgun slugs ($20!)
1 mid-grade rail-mountable bipod

I spent every last penny of the $100 (was actually 60 cents short on the belt, but the guy gave it to me :) and had a good sack of loot to show for it.

I didn't have to leave though first building, I could have gone around it...

But I didn't.

8 days to go.

Art of the Rifle

My order of Art of the Rifle by Jeff Cooper finally came in. It's easy to see why he is so idolized by gunners.

I had no idea that a sling can be used to increase your accuracy by making your firing position more stable.

He speaks of the purpose of a rifle, the mindset of a marksman, and of an emotional connection with your rifle.

I took my tactical sling apart and remade it to a military-style sling that I could use in firing positions.

I studied the pictures and descriptions and practiced dry-firing in some of the shooting positions he layed out, using the sling to achieve a remarkable level of stability. This is something one can practice sitting on the floor in front of the TV in the evening. I hope to improve my stability in the open-legged sitting position, and have little doubt that I will succeed.

Even after only reading part of the book, I regarded my AR differently. I thought that I needed an older rifle with a wood stock in order for it to be a rifle I could connect with, but excused that as clinging to nostalgia. When I picked up my rifle to practice last night, I definitely felt differently about it. I should stop thinking about my rifle as an AR-15 (type), and start thinking about it as a unique rifle with qualities and requirements unique to any other rifle.

I'll continue to cultivate my appreciation for my rifle in practice and hope to impress myself the next time I head out to the desert.

Friday, June 01, 2007

Scraping Bush off your Bumper

Defiant Infidel is mad as hell and it doesn't sound like he's going to take it anymore.

You, our President, continue to fail us miserably in this most important aspect of preserving some realistic degree of national security. Yet you actually have the gall to stand before us and accuse us, your steadfast Conservative base, of "political rhetoric" when we call attention to the actual meanings of the "details" of this abomination we are to endorse blindly in your name??? You wish to quell and extinguish the very real, intentional shortfalls in this deplorable piece of legislation by your baseless slander of your own?


This scathing post begins with a knife drawing ominously near a "Sportsmen for Bush" bumper sticker, and culminates in a picture of the bumper bearing only tattered remnants of the aforementioned sticker.

Yep, DI is on the warpath. I can't say that I disagree with him.

In the past few months I too have grown tired of standing up for Bush when he has done as little as possible to protect the sovereignty of this nation. EVEN under threat of establishing a permanent underclass. EVEN under threat of destroying the greatest health care providers in the world. EVEN under threat of this nation losing its identity. EVEN though the government is specifically noted to have the duty to protect the nation's boarders. EVEN when we suffer overcrowded prisons full of illegal aliens. EVEN as we refuse to find and deport violent felons, cop killers, and child molesters. EVEN as all government systems of welfare bust with fraud from aliens with false documents. And, yes, EVEN UNDER THREAT OF TERRORISM...


He does nothing.





Well, I'm going to do something.

Something I've been thinking about for some time now...

It has never been "my party right or wrong" with me.

Conservatives are like that. As SR put it, we eat our own. When members of our party screw up, we'll be there, condeming, and demanding an apology or a resignation. Problem seems to be that the party in Washington has somehow gotten out of touch with the base that put them there. Seems there's a whole bunch of guys up there sitting on platters with all the fixin's surrounding them. Dinner's ready, but the doors haven't been opened yet.

Even when I disagreed with some of Bush's policies, I kept my bumper sticker on. I thought that it was a defining election, and worth reminding people that I didn't support a "world test" or naively believe that enemies sworn to kill us are going to be "reasonable". I thought it was good to let people know where I stood on this defining issue, because Bush represented the side that I agreed with most. That is no longer the case.

I actually liked Bush, because of all the things everyone made fun of him for. He wasn't a slick-shit politician, or a smooth-talking snake like old BJ Clinton (that's Bill Jefferson :]). He was genuine and honest (or did a helluva job acting it). I trusted him to know what was right for this country, and make the tough decisions when the time came. That is no longer the case.

I know what's coming in '08, and I hate the Republican party for forcing me to do what I'm going to do. Our message is NOT being clearly received, or it's being ignored. Either way, I will NOT be voting Republican this time. I don't care how many promises they make, or how many babies they kiss. I don't care if they promise to return to ultra-strict constitutionalism, cut trillions in spending, and mothball all the bureaucracy-laden, rights-reducing, tax-increasing failures of government agencies. As the old saying goes; FUCK YOU. I'm done.

I want you guys to sit in the corner and think about what you've done.

If that means having to suffer the "H" word in the oval office, then don't come crying to me. You reap what you sow.

I could hold out hope that between now and the big day the Republicans suddenly get it, and totally turn around, but it would take a whole lot of ACTION between now and then to convince me to vote for them. I'll be pulling for someone like Fred Thompson to win, but if they've got an R next to their name, and they haven't yet renounced their party in disgust, they won't get my vote. As much as it pains me to say it; sorry Fred. Replace that republican "R" with a conservative "C" and we'll talk.

I think that just about covers it. Oh yeah! One more thing...











Now listen closely, because I'm only going to do this once.




Conservatives won't keep pushing you up when you keep putting us down.




That's why we're conservatives, we're smart, we think for ourselves.




You guys aren't in Washington because you told us to put you there.




You're there because we told you to go there.




How you've gotten so out of touch is simply beyond me.




Smart folks don't suffer the ignorant very well.




So kindly...




Fuck off.


Come back when you've got your shit together.