http://search.deviantart.com/?q=by:TweekDragon&section=today deviantART RSS for by:TweekDragon en-us Copyright 2009, deviantART.com Mon, 07 Dec 2009 23:50:20 PST deviantART.com http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss http://s.deviantart.com/minish/widgets/apple-touch-icon-precomposed.png http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9863472/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9863472/ Sat, 26 Aug 2006 14:58:09 PDT
Now, the only reason I'm reporting this is because when people make a big deal about nothing in news stories, it tends to get me pissed off, and that's just what this is.

Let's take a look at the discontinuation of this critical Vista feature.

AMD has been selling 64-bit processors for 2 years and 11 months. Their standard processors are the Athlon 64 lineup, high-end is the X2 and FX, and low end is the Sempron. With the exception of the Sempron, that's all 64-bit. Intel sells 64-bit parts too, the Core 2 Duo is all 64 bit, and some of the later Pentiums were. Today on Newegg you can get yourself a 64-bit AMD chip for $86, maybe cheaper chips are available elsewhere. Point is, the hardware is out there, it's the standard.

Microsoft's feature cut would mean, unless you have one of these processors, you can't watch your 1280x720 or 1920x1080 discs such as Blu Ray and HD-DVD.

FUCKING WAAAAAH. First of all, with the exception of people who bought high-end 32-bit hardware right before all the high-end went to 64-bit, the only people with 32-bit processors will find an immediate problem when playing ANY video at 1280x720 or higher: Their processors cannot handle it. People with bargain 32-bit chips will find themselves woefully unable to play even 640x480 using H.264 codec, much less 1920x1080.

One also wonders what the HELL a person is doing with a $300-1000 Blu-Ray or HD-DVD drive, new graphics card and display with the proper HD-secure cables to prevent copying of the signal, Windows Vista (which alone requires at least 1 GB of RAM to do much of anything smoothly, and a fast processor) and some bullshit $60 Sempron. "Dropping" support for 32-bit versions of Vista and playing HD-discs is the equivalent of game developers saying that you have to have a hardware graphics processor to play a game; ignoring the special features such a processor provides, trying to use an antiquated software solution would simply be too slow for it to work.

And honestly, even if you do have a 32 bit machine, plan on getting Vista and a HD drive the moment they come out, and not getting a processor upgrade, there is some good news. First, you can still do HD video in general, such as stuff right from files... just not discs. Although really it is possible to do the discs, you just have to do it right through Windows Media Player. The reason for this change is that Hollywood execs are afraid 32-bit versions of drivers will allow circumventing of HD-protection schemes.

Damnit I hate it when people make a big deal out of nothing. What's next, people have a hissy fit because their insurance stops coverage for using leeches for blood-letting? Get with the damn times. ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9685426/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9685426/ Fri, 11 Aug 2006 00:48:03 PDT
Apple sucks balls.

Why is this? Well I've spent 50 minutes watching part of the Apple World Wide Developer Conference or whatever WWDC stands for. Let's take a look at some of their top 10 innovative new features for OS X.

It's 64-bit. Oh snap! Because Windows XP doesn't have a 64-bit edition, and Vista definitely isn't 64-bit (sarcasm there folks).

They're shipping what was previously beta software, such as Front Row (which is essentially Windows Media Center, shipped for years now and will be in every version of Vista), Boot Camp (gives you an OS X vs Windows XP menu when you start up your Mac, if you have XP installed) and Photo Booth (a useless application for taking pictures of yourself and applying photo effects).

They're adding "Spaces" which are essentially the Virtual Desktops that PCs have had for years. You can install them and have multiple virtual desktops to organize your applications on. Now they're animated, because Apple loves to animate shit. And of course it's new.

Spotlight, which they use to search the computers, now has features that Windows users should recognize--especially stuff ripped from Vista. Now they can use Boolean operators such as AND, OR, and NOT which you can use in Windows Desktop Search. You can also specify file types, which you can do in WDS. For example, "2 AND Gryphon NOT *.jpg" would give you stuff of 2 Gryphon which weren't jpegs (if you're searching for audio and video clips of/by him). If you go right to Spotlight it is by default a Recent Items folder; XP has had that for years, I can't even remember if they had it or not before then. If you open Spotlight and type, it auto-selects the best choice, so you can type in "WoW" and hit Enter and it should auto-launch World of Warcraft. Sounds neat, only problem is, I was doing this over a month ago on my Vista Beta machine (minus WoW. I don't like WoW.) which means they must've added the feature months or years ago.

Some developer-targeted animation technology which matters dip shit to users.

A new voice and braile support for some programs.

The ability to make widgets of a portion of a website, which auto-update...?

Sure, there are a couple things I didn't mention, which aren't entirely retarded. The point is that out of 10 fascinating features which are supposed to keep us on the edges of our seats, most of them are either things that have already been done by other people (especially Microsoft), or useless to end users. So every time Apple people whimper about "But you're COPYING us!" when Microsoft throws together a calendar program (and how many ways are there to make a calendar program, really? You can only add so many features and move the views and controls around so much) that looks similar, or adds the ability to instant-search (originally previewed on Vista, ripped off by Apple, now Apple says that Microsoft ripped them off) files on your desktop, do the world a favor and slap said Apple person. If we do it first somehow, Apple says it's a useless feature until it gets a cute name and a slight tweaking. If we do it at the same time, it's because Microsoft ripped Apple off. If we do it later, then we're "behind" and "copying". But when Apple copies us, it's not copying, it's improvement. Intel processors, which Apple publically hated for a decade? Now they're delighted to have Core, Core 2, and Xeon processors in every new mac they've designed. Right-clicking mice with scroll wheels? Oh, Apple did complain about it being too complicated, but they didn't copy us--no, they improved on it by removing the physical distinction between the buttons and making the wheel a sphere! It's like we're dealing with fucking children here. Rich children with expensive toys that glow and hum pleasantly and don't have a single sharp corner or exposed flaw. Children who love to put down others because they don't play with the same toys, and who go batshit insane and get excited when they gain 0.1% of the computer market share over the course of a quarter year (an increase of this sort being the first and only increase Apple has made in any quarter since Jobs started working). Like any rich children, take away their toys and they will cry... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9674829/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9674829/ Thu, 10 Aug 2006 08:10:33 PDT


First category! You Never Thought You'd See This Happen... (but it's true!)

What is it: AMD announces plans to buy ATI. For those who aren't in the know, AMD is the smaller of the two main PC processor designers and manufacturers, competing with Intel. ATI is the smaller of the two main PC graphics card designers, based in Canadia Land. This rather unusual business move would give AMD all the ATI products, names, brands, employees, and everything. Valued at 5.4 billion USD, it's twice as much money as AMD even has!

Why is it: Nobody knows for sure. It's been theorized that, if AMD didn't buy ATI, they would go out of business in 5 years for some reason. It's also been theorized that buying ATI would allow AMD to have very powerful graphics parts and motherboard chipsets, which would allow it to compete more directly with Intel and take a swipe at where Intel really blows: integrated graphics. It's also possible that AMD is trying to make a hybrid processor using the highly-threaded nature of graphics processors (in addition to the 10x performance increase over modern CPUs) to beat Intel's architecture in 5 years or so (which is as long as it takes to design, test, and make a modern CPU architecture).

Why it matters: Hard to say as well for now. It could mean a significant increase in processor or graphics card performance from the AMD/ATI products, or that AMD would make ATI graphics cards (ATI doesn't own any chip fabrication plants). Or maybe it will spell doom for ATI's graphics cards if AMD just wants their tech. It's mostly an interesting and unexpected twist right now.



What is it: Apple uses Intel Processors. Apple is this small company that has a stranglehold on 3% of the computer market, those 3% coming mostly from the ranks of the corporation-hating, artistically gifted, aesthetically correct, and white plastic supremecist subgroups of the human race. They also make the iPod, which I've heard has a rather nice vibrating dildo attachment that matches with the beat of your music. Note that Apple does not make the vibrator. Intel is that non-AMD processor maker who has been seen as the CPU leader for most of the lifetime of the device.

Why is it: Apple hates the shit out of Intel. Or at least, they did for 10 years. About a year ago they realized that a decade of Intel-bashing would have to come to a swift end when the PowerPC chips they were using failed to meet their needs. Basically they did it because they had to, nobody in their right mind would make a complete architecture overhaul like that unless it was needed. This is the company (Apple) who only really sells one computer anyway, a PowerPC chip with some DDR and a hard drive, usually built into an LCD and with a white plastic keyboard and mouse. Not to be confused with the white plastic PCs which Apple wants to distance its users from.

Why it matters: It's funny as hell. If you'd spent years watching Apple compare their computers to Intel-powered PCs (always Intel, very rarely AMD!) and then suddenly use their marketing to twist a 180 degree change in direction so it looks like they never faltered in their plans, you'd find it funny too.



What is it: Intel secretly admits to having fucked around for 5.5 years. They messed around with the Penium 4 since it was released in November 2002, only to replace it with the Core 2 Duo in 2006. These 5.5 years were considered having "fucked around" because in the end they just took the Pentium M, which is basically a modified Pentium 3, and based their new arcitecture off of that. That's right, the C2D is just a desktop version of a laptop version of a desktop processor from 1999. Intel spent 1 year working with something so good they'd use it 6-7 years later, and then spent 5.5 years using something so terrible they didn't even call the successor "Pentium 5."

Why is it: The Pentium 4 used the Netburst architecture, which sucked past about 4 GHz. They were hoping to push it to 10 GHz but after about 4, it simply produced too much heat.

Why it matters: Again, it's funny. While you could say "Wow, look how fast the Core 2 Duo processor is!" you can also say "Wow, Intel had to go back to their 1999 designs to actually get a decent product! I'm so glad I've been paying their brilliant design team since 2000.



What is it: Dell plans to use AMD processors. Dell, who is the largest and last big PC vendor not to use AMD processors, is finally planning to buy millions of them and se... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9656258/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9656258/ Tue, 08 Aug 2006 22:05:35 PDT ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9513345/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9513345/ Thu, 27 Jul 2006 15:44:16 PDT ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9018165/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/9018165/ Fri, 09 Jun 2006 11:53:19 PDT
It's the same question really. Taking two very different series and taking out a character from each, asking who would win. It can be fun to wonder, sometimes, but it can also be stupid and without reason.

[This isn't aimed at anyone reading my journal, I just need to vent on this topic and it's better to write it out. And better to share than keep it couped up on my computer.]

I'd heard about the Star Wars vs Star Trek debate before, even read part of a Wikipedia entry on it (Star Trek versus Star Wars, they call it). But it was today that I saw someone reading a book about why the Empire would wipe the floor with the Federation. It was then that I realized it's a totally stupid argument.

Now, I've seen all Star Wars movies at least once each, and I've even read a book and played (and enjoyed!) a few of the games. I've also seen a couple dozen Star Trek: The Next Generation episodes, the first 3.5 seasons of Voyager (about 90-100 episodes), some Original Series episodes, a bunch of Deep Space 9 episodes, and movies 4+7-10. The more that you watch, the better understanding you get of it. They're very different series. Star Wars is about, you guessed it, wars. It's about races spanning massive parts of the galaxy who are geared up for combat. There's some politics in it, romance, and the whole "Jedi religion" but those are mainly to advance the plot. The main focus of the races in the movie is to fight. Star Trek is like a polar opposite. While the Empire loves armed conflict, the Federation is all about nonviolent methods of making friends and harmony. See? Megatron fighting Barney.

Here's the first question I pose. Why would you ask who would win in a fight? If the answer is anything other than "It's fun to imagine" or "I'm a geek and I have free time" then I'd like to hear it. Now, I have plenty of reasons why with those two answers provided, the comparison isn't fair to make.

First, they're totally different universes. Second, they're totally different universes. And third, they're totally different universes.

Seriously guys, they weren't intended to be compared. But for some better reasons...

The Federation and the Empire aren't comparable no matter how you look at it. Star Wars-favoring people love to say they are, but that's a load of shit. The Empire is the big, bad, doom-bringing antagonist of Star Wars. What's the Star Trek equivalent? Well, it depends on the particular series, but in Voyager at least that's the Borg. The Federation has never been the equivalent of the Empire. If you want to try and draw silly comparisons, the Federation is like the Rebellion. They're the underpowered team who is on a quest for understanding and peace. If you want the Empire equivalent, you've got baddies such as the Borg, Species 8472 (the only people ever to royally beat the shit out of the Borg), the Klingons, etc... races who are portrayed as trying to conquer without diplomacy.

"First, Star Wars vs Star Trek normally means "could the Empire kick the Federation's ass". If it's a question of taste (ie- "do you like Star Wars more than Star Trek"), debate becomes impossible because the answer is subjective. Anyway, once we agree that we're talking about military prowess, people like to perform substitutions: instead of Federation vs Empire, suddenly it's the Borg vs the Empire, or Species 8472 vs the Empire, or the Q vs the Empire, or perhaps the race that built the Dyson Sphere vs the Empire, because all of them showed up at some time or other in Star Trek. But lest we forget, Star Trek is basically about the Federation, remember? That's the technology base. Subject changes are quiet admissions that the Empire would wipe the floor with the main characters of Star Trek, so you've got to resort to one-episode wonders (even if they're long-gone, or just as likely to turn on the Federation, or if they've been stymied by the Federation in the past, which would call their abilities into question)."

That's what Stardestroyer.net has to say about it. Am I a Trekkie trying to shift the argument away from whether the Federation is strong or not? No. Star Trek is about the Federation, and Star Wars is about the Jedi in episodes 1-3, and the Rebellion in episodes 4-6 (though it's still sorta about the Jedi). Star Trek and Star Wars both follow underpowered and idealistic groups who are trying to conquer over evil and all that shit.

Then there's the issue of technological differences and "god-modding." Anybody who has ever tried to RP with somebody who pulled powers and stats out of their ass knows how difficult it is. Well, that's what Star Wars is like. If it's a duel of the godly ships, then that's a fair fight, but if you're trying to have an i... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8944074/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8944074/ Thu, 01 Jun 2006 19:33:08 PDT
Now, I'm not saying cosmetic changes are WRONG. Cosmetic changes, in my mind, are things that are more about looks (improving, degrading, or changing without getting better or worse) than function. A new paint job on a bike is cosmetic. A breast implant on a woman is cosmetic. Botox, hair dying, clothing, makeup, that's all cosmetic. Function might be impacted a bit, that paint makes the bike faster, the implant makes the woman slower, the botox through makeup change appearance (some people don't like the look however). Corrective changes are generally to restore lost or intended functionality. A person who loses a leg and gets a mechanical one undergoes corrective surgery. Getting a bone set or a gouge stitched up are corrective. Even things like fixing a birth defect or, if it were possible, restoring color vision to a man who was born being colorblind, can be considered corrective to me.

In the context of humans specifically, I guess there are several ways one might perceive corrective surgery, and they all have to do with what the "intended" goal is. One might say your physical health at birth is the intended goal, so if you have a birth defect, that should be left alone. Injuries like broken bones should be considered corrective. One might also say that your genetic makeup determines what's corrective and not. If you should've developed one way but you ended up being born differently, then changes to that genetic ideal are corrective. By that definition, if you've got the genes for colorblindness, then fixing that isn't corrective. To make it corrective, you have to consider something much less precise, the "human ideal" which is just more or less how we're supposed to be. Two arms, two legs, two eyes, 10 fingers, 10 toes, stuff like that. Diseases that physically impair your living ability can be corrected. Diseases that mentally impair your living ability can also be corrected. So the first place you can differ from your view of corrective surgery is the "How far is too far" of when something stops becoming corrective and becomes cosmetic. Let me give some examples, and let's hear what you think.

1) A girl has always dreamed of being supermodel-pretty and wants to get breast implants, liposuction, botox, and a new wardrobe.

2) A woman has an accident which paralyzes herfrom the waist down, and she wants to undergo a procedure that can return control of her lower body.

3) A man has long had the desire (several years) to get a sex change surgically.

4) A man is born colorblind, and some type of surgery promises to give him good color vision. He wants to try it out.

5) A man is gay and some medical procedure suggests that he could become heterosexual if he were to undergo it.

6) A woman has a leather fetish and wants to have leather surgically grafted to her body.

7) A man is a furry and wants to have fur surgically grafted to his body.

The common theme with these things is that there's a person who wants to undergo a certain surgical change, and that change will in theory make them happy. Let's see what I have to say about them all.

1) Cosmetic. Maybe it'll get you more sex or give you more self confidence, but it's cosmetic and not restoring anything your body should have been.

2) Corrective. By all means, that woman should walk, and it's restoring functionality necessary for her life before the accident, and the intended life of any human.

3) Cosmetic. Some people are guys and some people are girls, just like some people are black and some are white. Being one or the other isn't disadvantageous, really, they're just different flavors of the same human popsicle. Changing your gender is akin to Jackson changing his skin color, you're still the same person.

4) Corrective. Everyone is supposed to see in color, and it's only an improvement of life.

5) Cosmetic, though some would say otherwise. It's not fixing any physical flaw, or anything that makes it hard to live in society. Also, bisexual people can still "do" everything nature intended us to, are you really curing them if you remove an added interest that isn't harming anyone?

6 and 7) Cosmetic! Nobody was supposed to be born like that, and just because you really want to look that way doesn't make it a real need. It's no more of a need than the surgery in 1).

Alright, so here's a point I've been wanting to make. People have lots of urges and desires and such. I have the urges to do things. Smokers and alcoholics and movie fans and otaku and chefs and athletes and EVERYONE has various urges to do things, some good and healthy, some sorta neutral, and some bad and dangerous. Now, I think that people have to take responibility for some of t... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8828097/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8828097/ Sat, 20 May 2006 17:51:21 PDT
My dad asked me last night if it felt right. Yanno, like 1/4th of a college education. I said it didn't, because 4 of the classes I took were Spanish and English, which were loads of suck-tastic work, and that right there is a full semester's work. The rest was programming I already knew, Stats I already knew, and then History of Info Science and Linear Algebra. So I only really learned stuff in those two classes... Linear Algebra was a waste of time and sucked, I can't remember any of that now, but I do remember msot of the Info Science stuff. Some factoids here and there, the general progression of communications from the 1700's to 2000's, etc. Next year my schedule looks like this and I have Astronomy (I already know that stuff), but everything else should be new. Language processing? Web stuff? Math stuff? Psych stuff? Neat! And that's just the first semester too

So yeah... I'm on break now, for like 3 months. Sweetness! Working at the lab as much as I can, going to quit my job at Regal 'cuz it sucks and the hours are highly irregular and it's inconvenient to get there. Bill says I should be able to get up to 40 hours a week here anyway, and that's like $250 a week after taxes and lunch breaks and gas are accounted for. $1000 a month sounds nice, considering I don't do much around here.

So I have to find stuff to do here. In the past few days I've downloaded and renamed and sorted all of Peter is the Wolf (straight, furry, tame-ish/mature versions), Boy Meets Boy (gay, semi-mature), Jack (gay/straight/whatever, furry, mature and violent), VG Cats (just plain awesome), and Sabrina Online (straight, furry, semi-mature). It's all good fun. I also have to make sure my ExterminatusNow! comics are up-to-date and sorted. Ahh, good times. I have some more webcomics to download, but if anyone can recommend more, I'm interested. I mean hell, I read all of Sabrina Online's 10 years worth of comics in a matter of hours last night. Granted they only do one strip a week, but still...

So yeah. I'm in the collecting business now. Downloading and such, web comics and pictures, music and movies, TV shows especially. Come to think of it, I don't really get music and movies. So fuck off RIAA and MPAA. I'm only after the TV shows that I could've seen when I was in college last semester. Commercials? Bah, modern commercials offend me more than impress me and I never buy what they show. Nothing lost or gained from the TV folks.

So anyway! I have tons of old cartoons and such, newer shows as well. It all looks wonderful on my 20.1" LCD, and I have my monitors and speakers all set up back at home now... 5.1 baby! It's sweet.

I realize this entry is lacking consistency or flow. That's just how my thoughts are right now. Ideas pop up and they are written! Hoo-ha!

My plans for the near future if anyone is wondering... Anthrocon in just over 3 weeks! Woohoo! That should be super-fun.

I wanna have some get-togethers with my former IHS buddies, not that any of them read this. Watch cartoons that were the shit in the 1990's such as Gargoyles and Sonic the Hedgehog (NOT the crappy one, don't even think about that!) and Beast Wars, even though that's not a cartoon... Yeah. LAN parties with 19 year old guys and cartoons. How much awesome can you get under one roof? ;3

Fascinating that I used to write a journal every day. Now it's more like every month. My, how times change. ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8780374/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8780374/ Mon, 15 May 2006 16:12:18 PDT
And yet somehow I'm very much content with various products. Let's take a look, and please go into this with an open mind! Oh yes, almost all of these things... are Betas.

The first one that was put out there was Microsoft AntiSpyware Beta 1, then Beta 2. Now it's known as Windows Defender, and it's still a Beta. As the names imply it is spyware protection for your computer. Now, to be fair, Microsoft bought this from someone else originally. Hell, last I checked it showed up as Giant.exe because it was Giant AntiSpyware. Microsoft bought it up, stripped out some features they deemed unneccesary, and released it. It's gone through three revisions and now we've got Windows Defender Beta 2. Basically it catches anything bad you download or attempt to install and it scans your computer regularly (4 AM each day for me) for any threats that might've slipped by. The newest version, Defender, is good stuff. Simple and straightforward, it doesn't even leave a tray icon. And it's a System level service, not user level, so apparently it can run before you've even logged on. It's good stuff and hasn't given me any problems. Whether or not my lack of viruses and spyware is due to this or not, I don't know, but either way it hasn't actually let anything slip by as far as I know. It's free and you can get it here: [link]
Top ratings from me, for never failing, being free, and easy to use (though really it does all the stuff it needs to automatically).

Next up we have Internet Explorer 7.0 Beta 2. Yes, I know. Firefox rocks. And IE sucks. But sometimes you don't have a choice about it. Windows Update goes through IE (although in Vista it will be through the control panel) and some sites, such as Yahoo games (play Bejeweled 2! It roxxors) only work with IE. I'm sure you've come across sites like that and groaned at their demands for IE 6.0. Well, never fear, IE 7.0 Beta 2 is here! It takes some hints from Firefox and other browsers and is a huge improvement. It's got tabbed browsing using the same commands as Firefox (Ctrl+T to make a new tab, Ctrl+W to close the current, Ctrl+Tab to move to the next tab) and also a nice added feature. When you have more than 1 tab open a button appears which shows semi-live thumbnails of all the tabs. The main window empties out and is divided up with previews of the websites, updating as they load or change. It's good if you have a bunch of tabs (5 or more) and it's hard to read the title from the tab itself. IE 7.0 also makes printing better and easier. It has a completely redone user interface which in fact lacks menus. It has built-in support for RSS feeds, which it combines with bookmarks and history and... yeah. It's got a bunch of new stuff. And it's supposed to be a lot more secure as well. Given that it's free and stable, there's no reason not to get it. If you like Firefox it probably won't replace your main browser, but sometimes you have to use it, and you might as well use something more pleasing on the eyes and secure for your computer. You can get it here:
[link]
High ratings for being good at what it does, but not top ratings--it lacks an awesome fox in the upper left corner!

Getting into developments in the past month or two, I move on to MSN Messenger 8.0 Beta... or should I say, Windows Live Messenger Beta. In what appears to be an attempt to make Xbox Live feel at home, Windows is rebranding all sorts of things as "Live" if they're related to the internet/MSN service. I got this a number of weeks ago through private invitation, and then they made it a public Beta again. Now, the problem with this one is only that nobody else is really on it. Seems that most kids don't use MSN Messenger, instead they tend to default to the shitty AIM client. Well, ignoring that fact, let's take a look at Live Messenger. If you're familiar with MSN there's not a whole lot new here, but I'll do an overview of it anyway. It's another IM service, MSN (it's predecessor, which is compatible with Live Messenger) is on every Windows computer that's shipped in a while. Awesome features include: Automatic conversation logging
Real-time custom user names and descrip... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8761160/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8761160/ Sat, 13 May 2006 17:13:01 PDT
Who else here has seen the new Mac ads? They piss me off so much because... well... they're just such bullshit! Is Apple the ONLY company that has to directly and deliberately poke fun at its rivals? It's not just "Best power rating in its class!" or "5 star safety" like in car ads. No, they draw direct comparisons to PCs which are just such crap. This is just pissing me off, a new sort of "Switch" campaign. In fact, even though nobody is gonna read this, I'm still going to do it... go through their list of points one at a time, and give it a fair analysis.

1. "It just works

Your toaster doesn’t crash. Your kitchen sink doesn’t crash. Why should your computer? Think of the countless hours you would save if your PC worked on your time — not the other way around. Then think about a Mac.

If you spend more of your precious time figuring out why your PC crashes than you spend taking out the garbage every week, you need a Mac. Still not convinced? Just ask the millions of people who use and love a Mac why it’s become such an integral part of their lives, and most will tell you the same thing: it just works. Letting them do what they want to do. When they want to do it. All the time.

That’s because a Mac offers absolutely flawless integration of hardware and software. Only with a Mac do you get a system built by the same people who make the OS, applications, and the computer itself.

Take a Mac out of its box and you experience that hand-and-glove fit from the get-go. Plug it in. Turn it on. And you’re ready for anything. With a Mac, you’ll find all of the essentials built right in. USB. FireWire. Ethernet. Every new Mac comes with built-in antennas for wireless networks, so getting on the Internet from anywhere is a mere matter of turning on your Mac. No reconfiguring your network settings. No plugging in some clunky wireless card.

The real secret behind the Mac’s crash-resistant performance lies deep within the operating system itself. Beneath the surface of Mac OS X lies an industrial-strength UNIX foundation hard at work to ensure that your computing experience remains free of system crashes and compromised performance. Time-tested security protocols in Mac OS X keep your Mac out of harm’s way. Most Fortune 500 companies, governments and universities rely on UNIX for their mission-critical applications. And now, so can you.

Of course, should you happen to experience the occasional hiccup with your Mac, you won’t get the runaround. Because Apple makes the whole enchilada, one phone call — or better yet, one visit to the friendly Genius Bar at your local Apple Store — can solve both hardware and software problems in one fell swoop. And when you add the AppleCare Protection Plan, you extend your support options to include three full years of free telephone help and comprehensive repair coverage. That ought to save you some time and sanity, too."

Ah, the old crash argument. I built my computer from parts, no fancy tech-support or anything like that. Mixed and matched parts that were fast and cheap. And somehow it rarely crashes. When it does crash, it's my own stupid tinkering that is the cause. I turn down my fan speed using a potentiometer when I'm not doing intensive stuff, like gaming, and turn it back up when I am doing those things. That is my own choice; I could make it run cooler and not have to adjust it if I just turned the fan up. Sometimes I forget to change it back, so it overheats and restarts. If you fucked with a Mac's cooling system I'd expect no less. This isn't the days of Windows ME, folks, and a fully patched Windows XP SP2 system is pretty stable.

2. "You can make amazing stuff

If you’ve ever wanted to make a movie, publish your own podcast, create gorgeous coffee-table books, produce a Hollywood-style DVD, state your views in a daily blog, make beautiful music, or any combination of the above, you’ve definitely come to the right place."

I cut this one short because it doesn't really need to be fleshed out. Basically, they say that iLife beats everything because it's all seamlessly integrated. iLife contains iPhoto, iMovie HD, iDVD, GarageBand, iTunes, and iWeb. What sort of pitiful examples do they have? "How easily can you transfer photos you used in a photo book to burn onto a DVD or incorporate as a still in a movie or quickly add to a blog? They may work pretty well apart. But how well do they work together?"

Apple admits there are good programs out there. Lots of good programs. Their only argument here is that iLife stuff works together. Let's look at one of my favorite programs, Picasa2. That does what iPhoto does. It also allows you to burn a CD or DVD of photos. And you can export pictures to a folder, then use those new... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8528667/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8528667/ Thu, 20 Apr 2006 06:52:29 PDT .>

Dear Bethesda,

I am a level 40 Fighter/Thief who is fairly accomplished in both fields. I have 449 health, 448 fatigue, 154 strength, 109 agility, 105 speed, 100 endurance, 117 blade and 100 heavy armor, so I can hold my own in battle. I also have 124 sneak so I can do a good bit of snooping. I'm known as "Grand Champion" to some, "Gray Fox" to others, and "bringer of death" to 245 people. My skills have increased 959 times since I started playing 123 eventful hours ago. I think it's fair to say I'm strong. I go into battle wearing full Daedric armor, the best-looking and most expensive and protective armor known to Tamriel. I weild 4 fast and light Daedric daggers with the most powerful enchantments I can create to do fire damage, drain health and mana, and trap souls. I go into battle with everything lethally honed to 125% condition, helped out by my level 100 armorer skills. My presence is more frightening than a lich or even a Daedra prince.

How is it that when I go into battle against a goblin who is virtually naked, save scraps of clothing, and is armed with only a rusty war axe and common Elven shield, I have to make two tactical retreats to heal just so I can crawl out of battle with my guts hanging out? I mean, I started with a 6x powered up sneak attack with an 125% condition, fire-enchanted Daedric dagger on an unarmored foe whose type I've seen since the start of the game... and I can barely survive the fight.

I have to ask, honestly, are you out of your fucking minds? Let's take a look at this experience, shall we? From the perspective of an in-game character, I have nothing to gain. No matter how many times I hack and slash, my blade skills will not improve. No matter how much damage I take, my armor skills will not improve. I have top-of-the-line equipment straight from the gates of Oblivion, so that's not getting better either. I gain no experience or skill improvements or advancements from this encounter. My character gets NOTHING. Not even a cool item or money or loot. These goblins carry beat-up equipment that sells for less than the potions I made from the flowers and mushrooms right outside the fort. The fort itself is devoid of treasure, unless you count the meat I scavange off of a rat which can be turned into more potions. So what do I get as a game character? NOTHING. What do I get as a player? Oh, well, I get the humiliation of nearly getting my ass handed to me by a lowly goblin with an axe and an attitude. Also, the frustration of having to hack and slash and heal and retreat for the better part of 5 minutes... and realizing that it was all because of a lowly goblin. In short, it's not fun, and it doesn't benefit my character. Why do I do it, then? Because with a Sneak skill of "only" 124 out of 100, I can't get through the dark tunnels to explore the dungeon without getting the attention of a fucking GOBLIN!

I wish, now more than ever, that I become a professional game designer and get a budget and development team behind me. I will show you ALL how a game is supposed to work. Really, do you spit these games out and not look back, or do you actually play them? Where along the lines did 5 minutes of hack-and-slash with an accomplished character to get a grand prize of NOTHING become appealing? I had an easier time fighting in the Arena than this damned Goblin. Now, I could make fun of a hundred different things in your game (which I'll surely do later) but instead I'll only talk about this encounter.

Here's how it works. You engage an enemy for two possible reasons:

First, you the player enjoy the experience. There's a dynamic to the battle that you enjoy, maybe it's a new type of enemy with a new weakness and strength which you have to exploit and counter. The environment is different, the tactics are different, the weapons are different, the _____ is different. You have to mix it up, or establish a very fun standard (those weak guys in Halo who shouted and ran around in circles when you shot at them. FUN!) and go with it. Make it fun each and every time so it doesn't become a chore and bore.

Second, you the character must improve. If you have level and skill caps, or the best gear around, that's not the case. If there's no pot at the end of the rainbow, why the hell would you bother following it?

As a game developer, it is your obligation to make one or both of these occur. And guess what? You FAILED! Seeing if there's anything neat in that dark dungeon is no longer a 3-5 minute detour from my regular adventure, it suddenly takes at least a half hour of game time, more of my own time if I die, just to find out there's nothing interesting in there. It's walking barefoot over a field of flaming glass shards just to see if I can.

Remedy this situation in one of several ways.... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8415032/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8415032/ Sun, 09 Apr 2006 06:55:39 PDT
Myth 1: Consoles are cheaper.
The Myth: A good gaming computer costs anywhere from $1500 to $3000, but a console costs $299 brand new, and the price declines over time. A console is thusly much cheaper.
The Truth: Not really, that's just part of the story. For $1500-3000 you're getting a complete computing solution that can do games, online functions, MS Office, digital media playback, etc etc. I bet that $299 console is going to be loads of fun without, say, a TV. Those new HD-graphics which have been standard fare on PCs for the better part of a decade are going to look real nice on your lack of a TV, isn't that right? And here comes the large hidden cost with consoles: The TVs. Whether it's an older system like Xbox or Gamecube, or a new (or future) Xbox 360 or PS3, you're going to need a TV at the least, and an HD-TV with theater system for full effect. "But that's not fair!" you may cry. "You can't count a $2000 TV as part of the price tag for my Xbox 360!" Alright, I say, then don't count the $1200-2500 for the rest of my computer as part of the PC gaming price tag. You see, there's a base assumption when you get a console that you have a TV, so people don't consider that to be part of the cost. Well, I argue, there should be a base assumption that when you get into PC gaming, you've already got a good PC to back up your new graphics card. Because that's what they both boil down to: Would you like to spend $300-500 for your console hardware (don't forget the $30-50 controllers, remote controls, headsets, memory cards, hard drives, and HD cables!) or the same amount on your new... graphics card? That's the only difference between a PC and a gaming PC, folks, and that's why I don't consider PC gaming to be more expensive than console gaming. What stuff makes a game run well on a PC? Graphics card for sure, that's already covered. A good processor, possibly multi-core? There's place for that for the regular consumer. Digital video editing, photo editing, downloading via BitTorrent, compressing things to RAR files, making DVD-rips and CD-rips, all of those things benefit from a fast and/or multi-core processor. Even general responsiveness and ability to multi-task are helped greatly. So the processor isn't a gaming-only cost. RAM? Same things as before. Those processing-intensive tasks also need plenty of RAM to run. My laptop sucks down all its 768 MB of RAM just downloading off BitTorrent and browsing the web at the same time, and 1 GB is the minimum I'd recommend to people. 1.5 or 2 GB is better of course, though the benefits are less. Still, RAM has a non-gaming purpose, one that too many people don't realize and short-change themselves with too little of it. What about a nice sound card and speaker setup? If you want your digital music collection and video/DVD collection to sound great, then they're both reasonable expenses. Hard drive space? That's actually more for things -other- than games. A large game takes maybe 3-5 GB of drive space, for dozens or hundreds of hours of entertainment. A good quality DVD-rip is 1.4 GB for 2 hours, so you can get about 3-6 hours of standard-def video in the space for that one game. Display? Mouse? Keyboard? All of those things are for computing in general. A comfortable mouse and keyboard make all computing easier and smoother. A larger monitor makes all your tasks less constricted and makes it easier to multi-task, and makes watching videos and viewing pictures more enjoyable. It helps games, but if you have a computer, you're probably spending more time doing things -other- than games than actually in gaming mode. So in the same way that a good TV isn't considered part of the console price, nor is a good computer part of the computer gaming price.

Myth 2: Consoles have better compatability.
The Myth: PCs are plagued with errors and spyware and incompatabilities. There are countless hardware combinations, thus countless ways for a system to go wrong. A console has one set configuration which is tested and honed to the pinnacle of performance perfection and stability. Consoles by their very nature experience better compatability with their games.
The Truth: See above. That's all true! However, it leaves out some important points. First of all, consoles aren't error-free. When playing Metroid Prime for Gamecube--Metroid PRIME! a highly anticipated, gorgeous game that probably got a lot of bug-checking and polishing done to it--I experienced lock-ups. I'd go on the lifts from one level to another, the cutscene would play while it loaded, and then the camera would cut to the... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8155011/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8155011/ Tue, 14 Mar 2006 00:28:04 PST
The benefits... Sleep 2 hours, awake 22 hours, while feeling as good as (many people report feeling better than) if you were sleeping 8 and awake 16. Add an extra 6 hours to your daily schedule.

The bad side... Takes a week or two to adjust, and during that time period, you feel like "you're being constantly run over by a bus." When you have adjusted, you have to sleep regularly for the right amount of time. Oversleeping is just as bad as missing a nap. Confuses the hell out of your body, like when you pull an all-nighter. Also, it's socially difficult to maintain such a sleep schedule--most jobs are more than 4 hours long!

Basically if I were to start this, it would be during the summer of '06 when I have the time. Work might be difficult if I'm constantly sleepy while my body adjusts, and driving doesn't sound like such a good idea under those circumstances. Special effort would have to be taken to get me through those weeks. However, if successful, I could get by on much less sleep. Imagine. A short nap (how many times have you just fooled around for 20 minutes doing something? It's nothing, right?) at midnight, work for 3 hours 40 minutes. Nap at 4 AM. Do stuff. Nap at 8 AM. Do stuff. Nap at noon. Do stuff. Nap at 4 PM. Do stuff. Nap at 8 PM. Do stuff.

Of course, it depends on the classes I'll have for next year. If it turns out I can't find a 20 minute block every 4 hours apart, that works with my classes and job (I have lunch break after all, whenever I want!) then I simply won't be able to continue it. And it's a rough transition back I have heard. But if it works...! 6 extra hours a day. That's enough time to play games for a few hours, watch a movie, and *still* see an anime episode or two or three. Certainly I'll run out of movies in a few months at best, so that's the solution to my anime "problem"...

What do you guys think? I've never messed around with sleep deprivation or scheduling before... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8075369/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/8075369/ Sun, 05 Mar 2006 14:41:48 PST
Simply put, I am running exceptionally low on real, good, physical friends. I have plenty of people online who are concerned about my wellbeing, but this isn't so in the real world. People who I've known about from 6th, 7th, 9th grade, and are in the same college as me... well, it simply seems like they don't care anymore.

Sure, there are different kinds of friends for different things. While having almost nobody express interest in rooming in the same vicinity as me (except for two guys down the hall) was rather upsetting for me, I can understand that some people don't want to be the sort of friends who share rooms or have nearby rooms. But really...

Nobody ever asks me to go to dinner. Nobody asks me to see movies with them. Nobody asks me to play games with them. Nobody asks me to hang out with them. Nobody asks to stop over and chat with me. In short, nobody wants do do anything with me. Exceptions of course are the two guys who I mentioned before. So if you have a friend who doesn't want to socialize with you, what kind of friend are they? They aren't one. This leads me to believe that all the friends I made in the past 7 years, with about 2 or 3 exceptions, simply... are not friends.

This is not meant to be angsty or whiny. It's the simple logical truth. Maybe if people gave a shit about me as a friend, they'd ask to do things now and then. ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/7988164/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/7988164/ Fri, 24 Feb 2006 08:36:41 PST
There are many things that I love. There are many things that I hate. Let's list them off, maybe we can discuss them in comments!

Things I love
Anthros
PCs (the computer, not the Political Correctness thingy)
Games
Loud classical music
That feeling you get when you wake up an hour early and get to lay in bed, half-asleep.

Things I hate
Religion
Apple
iPod
Digital Rights Management/RIAA/MPAA
Fanboys
Loud Rap music ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/6940241/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/6940241/ Wed, 02 Nov 2005 22:07:35 PST
I learned tons of stuff about wolves, nature, people, etc. I won't detail all the stuff because it's late, but it was much fun to see the wolves up close. Not as close as I would've liked, because (unlike lots of other people) I didn't get my face licked all over. Normally I don't like that sort of thing from dogs, but it's different with a wolf. That's just coooool. Plus apparently they don't have smelly breath.

Yeah. If you wanna know stuff I learned etc, just ask about it in the form of comments. If nobody reads this then there's no point in pouring time and energy into it, ne? ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/6593969/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/6593969/ Sat, 24 Sep 2005 21:43:15 PDT
Are there some good ones out there? I'm sure there are. But I'm saying in general, they're a beastly group that I'm developing a strong hatred towards.

"Why," you may ask, "Why would you hate these people with their cute colorful devices that make all sorts of happy bleeps and have pretty lights and such?" It's their attitudes towards technology. Being somewhat techy myself, I see attempts to completely remove the user from the loop as a bad thing. People don't fully understand what they're getting. They get caught up in marketing terminology, which in case you haven't noticed yet, is only bettered by a more expensive model from that same company. But really, I can understand why they do this--it isn't always necessary for someone to know all the particulars about how their MP3 player or computer or software works. They just want to get something done. The place where I have a problem is their attitudes towards other stuff and their insistence on inventing everything under the sun.

Apparently at some Apple conference in the past, they put up banners that read "Redmond [place where Microsoft is based] Start Your Photocopiers". What, they accused Microsoft of stealing all their ideas? No, surely it was just a few Apple fanatics who wrote that. There's no way that the company itself would endorse such a message.

"Microsoft is copying us with its operating system... Dell's trying to copy us with its hardware. That's fine but we'd like to not give them a map and show them where we're going to go. At least they can follow our taillights."

Despite bringing Windows users into the fold with an iTunes for the PC, Jobs rebuffed the idea of making all Mac apps compatible with the Redmond giant's OS. "We put iTunes on Windows and kind of helped them out there. Microsoft has to earn a living too - we'll leave some software for them to write," he said.

That... just... infuriates me. I could rant for pages about why this is total bogus in the business world, especially computer world, but instead I'll pull up current and relevant examples. Within the past week or two, Microsoft announced they're going to have something in Windows Vista [read: The next version of Windows after XP, due out in a bit over a year from writing]. This feature will be called Microsoft Gadgets, and there's little doubt that it's intended to compete directly with the Apple Widgets. In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if the name was even intended to mirror it. For those not in the know, a Widget/Gadget is basically a miniature program on your desktop that does a particular task. Simple ones are like clocks and calculators or email notifiers, more complex ones tell you when news stories come out, or do real-time currency (money) conversions. Apple put out their Widgets back when they released Tiger in the past year. However, on the PC you could already use Widgets (under the exact same name, nonetheless) using a free-to-try, cheap-to-buy program named DesktopX. That has been available since 1999. Apple claims that Microsoft is stealing the idea from them, when in reality, it was around around the time when OS X.0 was coming out, way before OS X.4 (Tiger). Some people claim that the idea was first mentioned by Apple back in the early 1980's, but since they kinda stopped using it for 20 years, that's a moot point. It's like saying that a cave man invented the bulldozer because he said "Check it out! I made a stick with a board on the end to push stuff with!" It's a totally bogus argument that Apple innovated the idea. Regardless, the important thing is that the idea is getting wide-spread use, right? If it's a good idea, why not let several companies do their own takes on it to see who does it best? Tell that to the Apple fans.

Recently Microsoft opened a website dedicated to just their Gadget feature, so people could leave useful comments on an open forum. I'd say the ratio of Apple hate-posts to constructive or intelligent posts are about 10-to-1, with rude statements like "How do you microsoft programmers look at yourselves in the mirror and still live" or "Redmond start your photocopiers LOL" or "It's a little known fact outside of Microsoft that they refer to Apple as "R&D South"". Now, I understand that the internet brings out the worst of a lot of people, and you tend to get more idiots than intelligent people. But Steve Jobs directly saying that Microsoft is trying to copy their Widget idea (arguably copied itself) is just bogus. Consider these screen shots: [link] and [link] . The second one from 2003 is the one that has the most detail, but as you can see... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/6308537/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/6308537/ Tue, 23 Aug 2005 16:51:50 PDT
The Good
The Food. Oh my god, it's good. There are two all-you-can-eat buffet places within a 5 mintue walk. Among the things to eat... Mongolian Stir-fry, Chinese food, Burgers and hot dogs and fries, quesadillas, burritos, bagels, salads and salad bars, pork chops and mashed potatoes and waffles and fruit and pizza and tacos and sandwhiches and veggie burgers and cookies and cakes and pastries and such... My breakfast consisted of crumb cake, a bagel with cream cheese, sausage, scrambled eggs, juice, a Maple Donut, and mashed potatoes. My lunch was pizza, a burger, salad, ice cream, and Sierra Mist. Dinner was Antipasto salad, chicken dumplings, Cajun flavored pork chops, and... yikes, this is getting long. The food is damned good. And those were just two eating places out of dozens...
The Rooms. It's not as large as I'd hoped for, but I've got space for all my stuff and it doesn't look too crowded. The bathroom is 10 feet away and shared among 7 people, so it's never too crowded. Just a half-flight of stairs away is a common room with a big-screen TV, ping pong table, pool table, fire place, and lotsa chairs and couches.
The People. I've got lots of friends and friendly faces around campus, and I haven't really met anyone "mean" so far. Unlike IHS (and every other public high school, DJ) you know that, if a person is here, they're at least smart, likely open minded and liberal. When I walked by a person standing and smoking outside my residence hall today, he made eye contact and said "Hey, how's it going?" It was totally out of the blue, and we'd never seen each other before.
The Courses. The Arts and Sciences college has nearly 2,000 courses alone, and there are 6 other colleges! The book with listing and descriptions for the classes is 700 pages thick, mind you. There's soooo much I want to take!

The Bad
The Size. It takes nearly 20 minutes for me to walk from my dorm to Barton Hall (a little more than halfway into campus). It takes 30 minutes for me to walk to work. Until I get this TCAT schedule figured out, I'm gonna be walking well over an hour a day, and that's assuming I don't go BACK to my dorm until the evening/last class is over.
The Food. It's soo good and you get all you want--two meals a day for me, plus $500 a semester to spend on whatever I want. I'm gonna put on weight if I'm not careful!
Fees. They're everywhere. Want to take Massage in PE? That's $105. $98 for Yoga. $45 for Archery. $200 for Rock Climbing, Pistol Safety, or Riflery. Bring alcohol to your rooms? That's fined. Bring cinder blocks to raise your bed? Fined as well. They fine you whenever you do something wrong or unnecessary.
Text Books. I expect to pay $500 or more per semester in text books. There's simply no way around it.
Signing up for classes. So complicated! I was walking halfway across campus and back to get stamps of approval for being in certain class times and sections. Cooomplicated! And I got stuck in 8 AM spanish... erf...

The Ugly
The Grass. The drougt in Ithaca has wreaked havoc on the flora here. The grass is yellow and brown and dead.
Meeee. There are so many better-looking people here, no fair! ;_;
No Monitor. I'm still... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5871447/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5871447/ Thu, 07 Jul 2005 21:00:26 PDT
Physical Status
Pretty simple and straightforward, really. I'm healthy. I have no known diseases or alergies. While I might not be the best lookin' guy around, I'm not one to turn heads in the BAD way. The largest notable flaw in my physical self is that I need glasses--which some people consider to be very cute! ^-^

Mental Status
Somewhat lazy, actually. No--let's call that "relaxed." I do things when I want. I've got very little stress on me now. This will, of course, change with college--but for now I've got a good headstart, working on things that I've been meaning to get around to. It's a nice feeling.

Material Status
What I've got is also a major contributor to how happy I am. I know it seem shallow and materialistic--maybe it is, but I'm generally happier when I have stuff that lets me do stuff that I enjoy. I have a computer I built with good parts within the past 6 months, a 17" LCD to go with it, a new IBM ThinkPad for school and work, a Gmini, and I'm planning on getting a 20.1" LCD very soon as well. I've got lots of fun gadgetry that lets me have some good times.

Future Status
While it may not be the best Computer Science program in the world (though I think it's #4) I'm going to be heading for a Comp Sci degree at Cornell University. Again, not the best place, but it's close, my friends are going for the most part, I'll be able to afford it *somehow*, and I've already got jobs set up for me. That brings me to my next point...

Work Status
I've got two awesome jobs. The first is minimum wage working at the theater. It's kinda fun, but is actual work! Pay isn't so great and the hours generally suck, but on the plus side, me and my family get free movies every week that I work. That means until I quit!

My second job is at my dad's lab. It pays a handsome $7.65 an hour and is very little work. Let me clarify: My most pressing job is to refill a few printers and take care of paper jams. I don't even have to check them, as I have a computer in my office that doesn't do much more than tell me when there's a problem with them. In the past 6 hours I've been working here, I've had nothing at all to do. In the 2 hours preceeding that, I transfered 2 phone calls, filled a humidifier, and put paper in 2 printers. This job has better hours, much more flexible, and as I said, the pay is wonderful for the level of work! I just watch Kenshin and chat until the rare (less than 1 every 3 hours) need for my services arises.

Really, what more could I ask for? A new graphics card, a foot in the gaming industry "door", a great boyfriend, and an apartment in College Town are the only things that immediately come to mind. And hey, that's what goals are for, right? One takes money, one takes luck, and one takes money and luck, and one takes luck and an outgoing nature. See, already I have goals to work towards! Things are going great for me, so maybe you can see why I'm so happy about my current/future status =^-^= ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5581870/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5581870/ Tue, 07 Jun 2005 17:17:19 PDT
I don't like that. It damages other companies that offer more innovative, feature-rich solutions--even ones that are cheaper and better in every way won't get nearly the same publicity or business that the iPod will. It's all in the name.

However, I'm here to report some good news. In addition to getting at least one online friend to get a non-iPod product that's quite definitely better (Gmini400), I now have more success to report.

Back in February I wrote an article, a review for the Gmini400, for our school's underground newspaper, The Issue. I wrote for the March Isssue, as it was called. I found out that somebody who read my article at the school got a Gmini400 as a result.

That makes me happy! Somebody was a smart consumer. Although he didn't actively search out my article and likely stumbled across it, at least he actually bothered to read about it. How many people do you know who might say, "I don't need/want to read that. I've already got an iPod" or "I'm already planning on getting an iPod" ? Too many, in my case. You're voting with your dollar every time you make a purchase, giving a company a vote of confidence. If you're getting something that isn't necessarily the "best" product out there for your need, not only are you telling the industry that it should make stuff that's not the best for other people/you, but you're actually hurting the very people who might be creating products that would be better for YOU.

Regardless, this guy got something that wasn't an iPod. Maybe it's because he wanted to be different from the norm but didn't want to have a crappy player. Maybe he was in the market for a media player and I hit him at just the right time. Maybe, like me, when reading about it he was so interested that he decided make an unexpected purchase or (unlike me) actively save up money for the new device. Either way, he did something good. He helped build competition. Because, my friends, if people keep buying from one company only, not only will everyone have the same product (which will consequently become normal and boring comparatively) but there won't be as much development or any competition.

Capitalism is based off of competitive goods and services, just like Democracy is based off of competitive political parties and agendas. They both require intelligent individuals to make choices that yeild the best results. If, in the market, a single business becomes completely dominant (or in politics a party becomes completely dominant) it falls apart and there's no incentive to improve upon things. So, you see, every time you buy an iPod, you're helping to seal the doom of the free, competitive market. If you look at all the products out there and think the iPod is the best, you're still hurting the competitive process, but at least you're being an intelligent consumer. If you find another product that's similar but better and get that instead, you're helping to foster competition and ensure the future of companies working feverishly to better their products.

In the case of the iPod, I think most people who looked around would find other things that are cheaper, smaller, lighter, and more feature-rich for their own needs. Apple's motto is "Think Different" which is remarkably funny, considering they own a product that has the most unremarkably bland, basic look, and is almost entirely uniform amongst portable-music-player owners. "Think Different, until you get to our products" is a better motto. Maybe it's because they're not used to having the most popular ANYTHING that they tell people to think different. Regardless, it should still hold true--follow Apple's motto, their own advice, and don't get an iPod. Think different from the popular choice and get something that distinquishes you.

And if Gmini's end up taking up 90% of the market share, for godsake, get something different than that. Although it's cool to see a couple people every day with your same media player, I would think that every 4th kid carrying an iPod would make you feel even more uniform and uninteresting. That's how I feel at least. Give each media player company with a good product a roughly equal market share, and they'll all compete and b... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5505930/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5505930/ Mon, 30 May 2005 20:08:03 PDT
1.Wolf's Rain - GODLY ANIME. Love the music, storyline, characters/character development, action scenes, and cute wuffies. Wow, it's awesome. There are serious moments, and a lot of it is more like a movie than anything else. The animation style was really nicely done, too... no complaints with the audio or video aspects of it at all. The sound tracks are actually quite amazing, too, because there is such a variety of music styles, and different languages... If there's a single thing I disliked about this anime, it's that it ended. Well, that and the lack of some decent guy x guy action
This anime taught me: Wolves are very sexy.
Tweekie gives it:

2.Gravitation - Music. Mr. K. Boys who dig boys. Ryuichi. Shining Collection. This anime's just too cool. Yeah, the plot is kinda confusing, and after reading the manga you realize there are plot holes and things that just don't make the most sense. But you can get over it really easily because they have awesome musical performances, and the usage of music with tense scenes never fails to give me shivers... especially that song they play whenever Yuki beats the crap out of somebody... it's a shame that the series is so short, though. At least you still have the sound tracks, manga, and OVA to suppliment the Gravitational enjoyment!
This anime taught me: Watch out for Americans with pistols.
Tweekie gives it:

3.Full Metal Panic! - This anime's got the mad cool killer fighting robots! Now THAT, my friends, is what anime is about (juuust kidding, I know it's about women with huge breasts TOO). But seriously, this anime's got so much good stuff going for it. Humor, a modern setting with futuristic robots (which is somehow REALLY cool), good music, cool characters, and, did I mention, the mecha are really really cool? You wouldn't really understand unless you were to watch it ^_^.
This anime taught me: The power of the Lambda Driver!
Tweekie gives it: http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5285143/ Fri, 06 May 2005 13:56:04 PDT
Humanity is doomed. I'm talking about things in very real, physical terms too. I'm not saying "People are so mean, we're going to kill eachother in a big war!" or "I have lost all faith in humanity" or any of that stuff (some of which might be true also). I'm looking at the logistics of it all.

I recently saw, in my Biology homeroom, a graph of global human population versus time. For thousands of years it was pretty low, less than 1 billion individuals on the planet. Then some time around 1900, the population hit a billion. Right now, there are considerably more. What is it, 6 billion, 8 billion people? I don't know the exact numbers, but the shape of the graph scared me. The population spiked up so quickly, thanks to medicine, elevators, electricity, refrigeration, and all sorts of other things that let us stick more people in more space. Like most populations, there was a period of exponential growth, and it was still going like that at the most modern part of the graph.

Now, looking at popluation vs. time graphs in general, there's only one real pattern. It's logistic growth--a maximum and minimum that are never reached. The minimum would be 1, because there never could have been just one person. The maximum... well, we don't know that quite yet. We could predict it by doubling the population right when it's increasing the fastest. That is, as soon as the rate of population growth starts to slow down, the Earth should be able to sustain roughly twice as many people, maximum. Well, it hasn't slowed down yet, so we know that maximum is more than twice as many people as there are now!

Assume, if you will, that our population keeps increasing as it has in the past 100 years. What will the year 2100 look like? Tens of billions of people, easily, maybe 100 billion. You think things are crowded now? Imagine sticking 4, 5, 6, or 10 other people in your bedroom, and having to live like that.

You might think the notion is absurd, because people will keep expanding, make the cities wider, and find other places to live. But in reality, that's an even worse alternative than sardine-can lifestyles. Think about it. We're already tearing up the rainforest, destroying current forests in the US, and expanding cities upwards and outwards. If you want to have 10 times as many people but not compromise your personal space, you need 10 times as much colonized land. Who knows, maybe we have twice the population density and 5 times the colonized land. Either way, it means we will have to 1) tear down nature to build more cities and farms (don't forget about the food!) or 2) stick more people into the same amount of space. Or likely, 3) some compromise between both of them.

Let's be more realistic, though. Maybe there won't be 100 billion people. But there will definitely be more. Think about it: people tend to be greedy, self-centered bastards. And they have very limited abilities to think about the future. While it may be good fun to get married, have a child, or two or three or four, and raise them... it's not good! If all parents had three children by age 25 and never have kids again, and this were to repeat, how would the population look? (Note: This is very simplified. I'll talk about it in a moment.)

Year 2000: 9 billion people born (from 6 billion, or 3 billion couples)
Year 2025: 13.5 billion people born.
Year 2050: 20 billion people born.
Year 2075: 30 billion people born.
Year 2100: 45 billion people born.
Year 2125: 68 billion people born.

Notes on the simplicity of this: Not everyone in the world will have children. 10% are homosexual. Some are too lame to ever get married or have kids. Some don't want kids. Some only have one or two kids. And not everyone has kids at the same time. Unfortunately, there are enough people who like to have 4, 5, 8 children, that it probably balances out in the end.

Another note about the numbers above: That's people born. Keep in mind that people die, too... far too slowly. Is it nice that adults train for 25 years to become productive, spend 40 years working, then the last 20 years relaxing? For them it is, but for humanity it's not quite the case. Let's do the numbers again. This time, I'll assume (for simplicity's sake) that all 6 billion people start out, in 2000, as newborns. Age 0. And with modern medicine, they die at age 75.

Year 2000: 6 billion people born. Total human population:... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5062500/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/5062500/ Mon, 11 Apr 2005 16:46:44 PDT
The United States is not supposed to be a moral country.

What I'm talking about, specifically, is about the issue of censorship versus morality. Some people think it is wrong for certain things to exist or be thought, said, or displayed. They think it violates the sense of morality in the country. Think for a moment, how many times have you heard morals being used to defend things? "We can't have gay marriages, it's a degredation of family values and morals." "Pornography is a proven cause of immorality." "Rap shouldn't be allowed because it teaches children bad morals." "Videogames depicting realistic violence or mature themes should not be sold because they foster immorality in young minds." Ever hear crap along those lines? I've got news for anyone who thinks those things, though. Morality isn't protected by law. Freedom of expression is.

What's the first ammendment to the Bill of Rights? Clearly whatever got put there is the most important of the fundamental rights our founding fathers wished for us to have. Guess what it is? FREEDOM OF SPEECH! Among other things, the right for people to say and think whatever they want is protected. You know what isn't mentioned, however? Morality! We are a country that was founded on the principle of free speech and expression, NOT on the protection of moral codes of conduct. Anyone who resides within the United States and wants to censor expression in the name of preserving morality needs to GET OUT. I know it sounds cruel, I know it sounds harsh, and yes, it does sound rather rude. But that's the plain and painful truth. If you want to live in a country where morality is the most important thing, and for which anything can be sacrificed, move to a different country. Find a more moral place to live, because under NO circumstances should freedom of expression be censored just for moral values. You have to have more substance than whining that the moral fibers of the fabric of our society are being unwound.

Dislike child pornography (which I myself think is quite creepy)? Point out that it's violating the rights of the children and ban it for that reason--morality doesn't have anything to do with it. Want to ban gay marriage? Fine, then show me why that is a reasonable, fair, and logical answer, discarding moral arguments. If you want a law to be passed or a change made to society, do NOT bring morals into it. If you think cigarettes should be banned, prove to me how they're hurting other people and how banning them would fix it, moral issues aside.

I hear far too many people these days who want to do things to "protect the moral fiber" and all sorts of crap like that. Hey, I'm all for protecting reasonable morals (which, by the way, are completely open to interpretation, and change as time goes on. Slavery used to be the coolest new thing, and now it is almost unanimously frowned upon). I'd prefer to live in a country where the people are kind and courteous, they don't beat down old women for their jewlery, and they treat eachother with decency. But would I choose to live in that country if, for example, I had to hide my political or personal opinions? No, and that's exactly how it should be with the United States. Some people may say to me, "If you don't like it here, then leave." But the thing is THEY'RE the ones who need to leave, at least if they're in support of censorship to preserve morals. I don't CARE if the majority of Americans think that morals are more important, just like I don't CARE if the majority of Americans think that Iraq did have weapons of mass destruction and that they were the 9/11 bombers. That doesn't make them right. How many people thought that the world was flat before the era of sailing? And were the right? The fact of the matter is, we live in a country that's all about freedom of expression. If you can't handle it, you've been living in the wrong country for your entire life and nobody's had the heart or the guts (or the sense) to break it to you. Hey, if 85% of the population has to leave in order to have a country where freedom of speech is valued over morality (though morals can still exist), that's fine by me. That's what the country is supposed to be about.

Some people might argue that, because the US is based off of Christianity and the founding fathers were Christian, a moral code is implied. I'll have to state that as false as well. Ignoring the fact that a sizable portion of the founding fathers were not Christians, let's turn to the Bill of Rights. If the country really WAS based off of Christianity and the Christian morals that go hand-in-hand with it, I think the founding fathers would have explicitly stated that in th... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4963430/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4963430/ Thu, 31 Mar 2005 18:00:55 PST
Here's my anime:

Anime Title [Eps Obtained, Language]
.hack//Liminality [Complete , Japanese]
.hack//Sign [Complete, Japanese]
.hack//Udeden [Complete, Japanese]
Ah! My Goddess [Complete, Dual Audio]
Ai Yori Aoshi [Complete, Dual Audio]
Berserk[Complete, Dual Audio]
Bleach [1-25, Japanese]
Blue Gender [Complete, Dual Audio]
Blue Submarine [Complete, Dual Audio]
Catgirl Nuku Nuku OVA [Complete, Japanese]
Chobits [Complete, Japanese]
Chrno Crusade [0-17, Japanese]
Comic Party [Complete, Japanese]
Cowboy Bebop [Complete, Dual Audio]
Crest of the Stars [Complete, Dual Audio]
Devil Hunter Yohko [Complete, Japanese]
Dragon Drive [Complete, Japanese]
Dragon Half [Complete, Dual Audio]
Escaflowne [Complete, Dual Audio]
Excel Saga [Complete, Japanese]
Final Fantasy Unlimited [Complete, Japanese]
FLCL [Complete, Dual Audio]
Fruits Basket [Complete, Dual Audio]
Full Metal Alchemist [1-28, 34, Japanese]
Full Metal Panic! [Complete, Dual Audio]
Full Metal Panic? Fumoffu [Complete, Japanese]
Geneshaft [Complete, Japanese]
Get Backers [Complete, Japanese]
GITS: SAC [Complete, Japanese]
GITS: SAC 2nd GIG [1-4, Japanese]
Goldenboy [Complete, Dual Audio]
Gravitation [Complete, Japanese]
Gundam SEED [Complete, Japanese]
Gundam SEED Destiny [1-15, Japanese]
Gundam X [Complete, Japanese]
Hellsing [Complete, Dual Audio]
Hunter X Hunter [Complete, Japanese]
Hunter X Hunter OVA1 [Complete, Japanese]
Hunter X Hunter OVA2 [Complete, Japanese]
Hunter X Hunter GI Final OVA [Complete, Japanese]
InuYasha [Complete, Dual Audio (1-80)]
Jubei Chan the Ninja Girl [Complete, Dual Audio]
Jubei Chan 2 [1-3, 6-7, Japanese]
Kazemakaze Tsukikage Ran [Complete, Dual Audio]
King of Bandit Jing [Complete, Dual Audio]
King of Bandit Jing OVA [Comlpete, Japanese]
Last Exile [1-8, Japanese]
Lupin III [1-4, Japanese]
Macross 7 [Complete, Japanese]
Macross Zero [Complete, Japanese]
Mahoromatic [Complete, Dual Audio]
Martian Successor Nadesico [Complete, Dual Audio]
Mobile Suit Gundam [Complete, Dual Audio]
Mobile Suit Gundam 0083 [Complete, Dual Audio]
Naruto [1-121, Japanese]
Neon Genesis Evangelion [Complete, Japanese]
Noir [Complete, Dual Audio]
Outlaw Star [Complete, Dual Audio]
RahXephon [Complete, Dual Audio]
Ranma 1/2 Season 1... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4849697/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4849697/ Fri, 18 Mar 2005 21:31:25 PST
Slavery. We all know about slavery, right? It was abolished about 150 years ago. That's what we've been taught. Lies. We're all slaves, you see--every last one of us. We're not slaves to any particular person or group of people, but rather to an idea. We're slaves to this modern world. Other people have noted this, but it finally makes sense to me...

We're slaves to this society, this world, this capitalism... everything that we seem to love, we're slaves to. Think about it. Why do you work hard and learn things? One good reason is to get a good job. Why do you want that good job? So you can get lots of money. What good is that money? It buys your freedom. It buys freedom from the world around us, freedom from responsibility, freedom from working... freedom from stress. You work really hard at your job, then you make enough money and get time off so you can go elsewhere. Maybe you take a trip to a tropical destination and simply bask in the sun. Maybe you go to another part of the world that's more advanced or primitive, but simply different. It's all just a temporary escape from the slavery that we live in.

When Europeans first came to this country, there were people already living here who had a very different way of life. Things were more laid-back and relaxed than today's world. Take a look at where Native Americans are now, however. They tried to live simply off the land, without money, without guns, and that failed. They had land taken and were hunted with superior weapons. Just to survive, they had to turn to the things that were killing them off: money and greed. What use does a traditional, land-loving Native American have for paper currency? It keeps his land from being taken. What use does anyone have for money? It all boils down to the same reason; it keeps land and property in ones posession. It keeps people from taking the few things that you actually do have. If you lose your money and go into debt, watch as your belongings disappear. If you lose your money, watch as the time you'd rather be spending away from the stressful world degrades into more stress-generation as you struggle to find food. Can you go back to living off the land by hunting for food and making natural shelters? Not by the rules that exist by the slavery we're born into. Building codes, hunting licenses, and more... they all make it almost impossible for us to break free of money and live simply and naturally.

So we work. We work as hard as we can to get some leisure time in. Why do some people become wealthy lawyers and doctors? They work a lot and also get huge amounts of money--allowing them to buy their freedom for weeks or months at a time. When unable to buy freedom, they can improve their daily lives with entertaining tools.

You want to escape from the slavery? Tough. The more you try to get away from and around it, the more you fall victim to it. The more you work with it and prosper from it, the further removed you can become. Backwards and confusing behaviors if you ask me...

I know this really doesn't relate to anything I've done in the past or will likely do in the future. I just felt like writing it, and I've seen far worse uses of DA journal space than a little insight into the world we rarely analyze anymore... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4793726/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4793726/ Sat, 12 Mar 2005 12:02:03 PST
I guess I should start out with some updates.

We're in the third marking period now, the year is going by so quickly. On a day-by-day basis, everything crawls, but now that I look at how far I've come... it's pretty amazing. As far as school goes, my grades are somewhere around the following: A-range for AP Comp Sci, AP Chem, English, Physical Education, and Government. B-range for Calculus, as is typical of me. I just got a D+ on my Calc quiz, lowest grade ever in that class!! Then again I was only present and mentally functional for about 3 days of the entire unit. It's all cleared up by now, I understand the material. I could go on for a while about school stuff, but my rough performance is all that really matters.

I wrote an article for The Issue. For anyone who's been out of school for the past month, The Issue is the 'replacement' for the Tattler, which is run by a lot of ex-Tattler staff. I don't really know what's going on with The Tattler. Is it dead? Is it just hibernating until a new advisor is appointed? Either way, the Issue is trying to take over its role, without being influenced by the school administration. I think it's a good idea, because people have the right to print what they want. If it's mostly balanced reporting, or even if it's just opinions and things related to the school, then it's still of interest to a lot of the students. So yeah, my article (which was on DA as soon as I wrote it and is still here,iFound aBetter iPod) got into The Issue as a feature of sorts, alongside a pro-iPod article. I wrote it because Rob, the senior editor (I think!), called me up and asked for a counter article. I like how it turned out, even if iPod people won't want to read it. Can't force change upon people easily, nor can you make them listen to your opinions, no matter how well-validated they are...

I heard back from 2/3 schools, RIT and Binghamton University. Both said "You're very qualified! You can come if ya want!" RIT is something to the tune of $30,000+ per year, I think, and Binghamton is a considerably lower $13,000 per year. Then again, RIT offered an automatic $8,000 scholarship every year, and Binghamton only offered a $1,500 IBM scholarship. We'll see how it plays out after I hear back from Cornell University ($42,000/year!!). Of course, I get something like $12,500 shaved off of the Cornell price just for my dad working there, and probably some sort of financial aid. People keep telling me "You'll get into Cornell." and "You'll get financial aid. You're a good student." and all I can do now is hope that they're right! Will I be spending the next 4-5 years of my life in Ithaca...? Who knows o.o

I've been working on coloring more stuff. Coloring is great fun. I just recently got a massive piece, "teh projekt" from NachT. It's a ~12600x3500 pixel compilation of scanned versions of over two dozen pictures that he has done. They were made to fit together into a massive piece, I think, because some of them are interacting with eachother. At 45 Megapixels, it's quite a hefty workload, but it should be fun to do (even if it will take me until 2006... seriously...) and will definitely improve my skills. But seriously... the magnitude of the whole thing... It started out with almost 30 layers, then I added another 26 before I even got started on coloring. Each character has between 8-10 layers each, do the math... 200+ layers in the end! I'm up to 70-some and I've only done basic coloring for 2.5 of the characters. The biggest bit of work however will be to obtain the color palletes for each. Lots of art to search through and extract colors from...

I have a Gmini! Yay! Read my iFound aBetter iPod article. It's truly godly. I didn't exaggerate anything in that article. Wellll... there's a thing with the battery life. It's supposed to last 10 hours for music, 5 for audio. I haven't actually had the batteries DIE on me yet, but the three-bar battery gauge goes down 1 bar per hour for the first 2 hours, then stays at 1 yellow bar. Maybe it does last 10 hours. I dunno. Alls I know is I get Anime Music Videos and tons of songs wherever my feet take me.

School's coming to a close. AP Exams in just 2 months, school ends just over a month past those... wow. I'm gonna be a college student soon!

On an interesting note, I've met a guy in New Mexico. He's really cool, clever, energetic, physically fit... seems like an awesome guy by all my guesstimates. He's somewhat infatuated with me, good gravy! But it's nice to have somebo... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4515951/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4515951/ Sun, 06 Feb 2005 21:05:46 PST
"Why" shouldn't really come as a surprise to anyone who watches me. Or maybe it would, to the people who watch me but don't check anything. I've been getting somewhat of a lack of comments. Since school started back in September 2004, I've gotten a total of 39 comments on my journals (excluding my own). Over 11 entries, that's an average of ~3.5 comments per journal. Why does this bother me? I spend at least an hour on each journal entry (ignoring the short ones that take twenty minutes), trying to include stuff that's fresh, original, interesting, or can help people see what anime will be added to my (and potentially their) collection. Over 1/4 of all my comments were from a single journal, where Mikau and Kevin went back and forth for a while about "What's the GSA?" and other short spurts. Two of my journal entries have had zero comments, period.

Now, I don't want to sound like I'm a whining, angsty teenager. "Oh no, I'm so sad, look at me, I'm going to write depressing poetry and cry because I'm alive." No, that's not like me. The only people here that I really see on a daily basis are Ben and Don. That means, for everyone else (and the two of them even) the main way to find out anything about me is on here. I REALIZE that early on, I posted utter crap. A paragraph about what I did in a 45 minute class. 8 times a day. Plus more stuff. Once every day. Yeah, that was excessive. I figured that I've honed it down a bit, posting maybe once every week, every two weeks, whenever I get around to it. In this case it's been nigh a month. To get back to the thread of thought, the reason this all upsets me is because it means you either don't know [don't read the entries] about my life or simply don't care enough to even say "Oooh! I love that series! And that was a sweet game! But you're way wrong about quesadillas being good." Of course this blanket statement isn't true for everyone, a select few have tried to leave a comment on most of my journal.

But honestly folks, there just doesn't seem to be much point to it. An average of 2 comments on my past 5 deviations? The way I see it, if this stuff is so ho-hum that you won't even say "That was kinda neat" or "You gotta get your eyes fixed, because that's CRAP!", then I figure I oughtta just keep it to myself.

That issue aside, I guess I should just pretend this is any other journal entry and list off what's been happening.

Well, I'm into the second semester now, and things are going great so far. I managed to pull off a B in AP Calculus BC last semester, and I'm hoping that by actually doing homework and staying awake in class, I can bring it up to an A-range. Not that it really matters, however, because I'll be accepted or denied spots in my colleges before they get to see what I did on Q3 of the year. Also I'm planning on retaking it in College to make sure I have it down solid. But anyway, that grade was likely pulled up by my A+ on the quarter project, and the A- I got on the final test of the marking period (midterm).

Band is the same as always. I've fallen asleep a few times but I'll hopefully not do that so much if I get more sleep. I've done 25 semesters in the K-12 learning process, I figure that I can chill a bit for the last one.

Chemistry is a fun course, as always. I brought in my computer to school the other day and showed it to my teacher, so he could see what a computer game looked like. He'd never seen one before. I think he was impressed, even if he couldn't drive a buggy more than 10 feet without hitting a wall. I've got an A/A+ in the class, and had a high 80's range grade on the midterm. For those of you not in the know for AP Chem, a 65-70% translates roughly to a 5/5 on the final exam. Even if I drop 10 points because there's more content on the final than a midterm, I'll still probably pull off a 5.

I'm out of Econ (with my 100+ in the class!) and in Government, which I know I'm going to love a lot more when things get good, and hate a lot more when things get bad. I've got a number of rednecks in my class, whose intollerance for non-christian non-Bush-loving and non-racist persons has made things a bit frustrating so far. Granted that our teacher has tried to keep them quiet when they say things they admit are "inflamatory" ("Huh huh, Michael Moore is like the liberal Jesus. He's their messiah. More like Michael Moron."). When the debating is good and the ideas are flowing, I think I'll enjoy it. And I'm SO down with the low-homework policy (a week in and I've not done a thing). But... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4268678/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4268678/ Sat, 08 Jan 2005 10:20:01 PST
School is looking a bit brighter for me. I'm pulling an A +/- average in every class except for Calculus, which I'm working on pulling up. Just hope I can hit a B for the end of the marking period... school work is a bit lighter for me now, too. Strange, seeing as midterms is fast approaching (of which I only have 2).

My new computer is assembled and bsically bug-free at this point. I've got most of the important stuff installed, I have the noise level under control... it's fast, relatively quiet, and has over 400 GB of space. Pretty sweet in my humble opinion.

Just yesterday I went to the apartment of a guy who works at my dad's lab. His name is Selden, and he's kinda like me but a lot older. He's a huge astronomy buff (well, I'm not, but it certainly interests me) and he's quite the sci-fi and fantasy nut. His walls were covered, literally floor to ceiling, with books, anime, and sci-fi TV series. His audio system ($3500) and computer dominated the largest room in his apartment and he has a projector in the back of the room as well. Pretty sweet. I was at his house to help him set up his computer 'cuz he wasn't allowed to lift stuff after his recent surgery. Either way I'm going back soon to help him out with his stuff.

Selden introduced me to a program I stumbled across years ago: Celestia. It's a really awesome, completely free... universe browser. That's the only thing I can really call it. You can zoom out and look at the Milky Way from 12 billion lightyears away, or you can say "Go to: Ithaca" and it'll fly through space and zoom in to the city of Ithaca... in Europe, or the USA. The installation itself is quite tiny, just 20 MB or so, but the add-ons are where you can totally go wild. I have 5 GB worth of textures and normal maps (make flat surfaces cast shadows) for our solar system, and there's a lot more stuff I could get. It's so totally detailed, you need to check it out. Google Celestia and try it!

Well, I've been doing some coloring and such, but I should really focus on Closet Coon stuff. Not nice of me to do a couple colored drawings and then just get lazy. Check out the stuff that I've done at the closet coon site. It's considered an adult site, though I haven't done any of the "mature" comics... even though they're hardly mature in content c_c;; Anyway mine are at the bottom of the page, and yes, the name is now "Twile Dragon" It's origina this way, instead of being a Fur Fighters character name ripoff.

Sure is snowing outside... pretty...


My creative side's Status:

Current coloring jobs:
Various NachT pieces
Closet Coon

Recently completed images:
18 ID
Closet Coon Page #33 - Bring It On
Closet Coon Page #34 - Oh NO, you di-int.
Closet Coon Page #35 - Sizing up the Competition


Anime Status!

Share Ratio: .987

In Queue:
Berserk [Complete, Dual Audio]
~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4186191/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4186191/ Wed, 29 Dec 2004 14:56:04 PST
Nomake-Wan and I are no longer dating. I realized some stuff, I won't go into it in juicy detail because it's not really stuff that other people need to know... just know that I feel differently about him. We're still friends, and things actually won't change much-- our previous dating was just a relgular friendship with the idea of devotion entwined. So yeah... friends. Don't worry, it shouldn't harm anything really. And I still want a drawee of me and NW snuggling!

Umm... that's pretty important, but after that I guess I could say I got my computer parts. I'm going to try and transfer my stuff to the new setup as soon as this DVD backup is done burning.

I went to a sleepover party last night, and I'm proud to say that I only slept for 3 hours out of 15. Not a bad ratio, 1/5.

That's about all... I could go on for a while about me and NW, but it's a personal relationship, not a f'ckin soap opera. You all get to see the end result, not the way we got there.

Current DA projects:
Closet Coon Coloring

Share Ratio: .97

In Queue:
None

Newly Obtained:
None

New DVDs burned today:
None

Computer Part Status
Overall System Status: In my house, ready to be assembled
Part Selection: Complete
Cash Reserves: $380
Old Parts in need of purchase (Hey kids, here's where you come in!): Athlon XP 2700+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe, 512 MB of HyperX PC2700 DDR all for $200-250
Enthusiasm about getting a new gaming rig: Fluctuating--I'm nervous!
Estimated Time of Functionality: December 30th, 2004--early in the AM

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Relieved and Hopeful
Current Fav Song: Maroon 5 - This Love
Current Fav Game: Half Life 2
Current Fav Anime: Fruits Basket
Current Clothes: Yellow T-shirt, Black and red Chili Pepper PJ bottoms
Current Craving: Food...
Current Desire: [Cool! My past Desire was fulfilled! Let's go for 2 in a row XD] 17" Flat Panel Monitor [which I saw today as I took it from the FedEx delivery truck to my parents--who prompty took it away and hid it for the next 2 weeks]
Current Complaint: Things didn't work out the way we had wanted them to... but they might work out in the end, just differently is all.

Tweekie's Recommendation List

Anime:
Wolf's Rain
Hellsing
http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4149829/ Fri, 24 Dec 2004 22:10:10 PST
Things have gotten a bit better as of late. I was able to recover all of my data from my old computer, with the exception of a handful of files (mostly pictures) from the 60 GB drive that fried. I don't think there's anything I can do about that...

So I got the files onto another drive, then reformatted the 300 GB drive. Now it's behaving nicely. My old computer should be sufficient for the next week until I get my replacement case, at least I can do everything I normally do.

I've made good work on Closet Coon page 36, all I have to do is possibly change the color of a background section (ten second fix) and change how shadows and highlights are therefore cast on the characters and objects (one hour fix x_x). The next strip looks like it'll finally be a bit more of a challenge. Takes place in a bowling alley, so there's a bit going on in the background. Also it's the first strip I'll be coloring with Aidyn in it, who has a tertiary color... darker gray on dark gray on light gray. More complicated, but should be fun. Aidyn is cute!

I'm in a considerably better mood now than I was on the 21st when I wrote my last journal entry. Aside from saving my computer, I got to see Nick E from United World College of Hong Kong. Old friend of mine, left a few months ago for this college-type deal in Hong Kong... I kinda intro'd the program to him, he got in and I didn't. He's really awesome. Funny guy, damned smart, and *cough* cute. Best of all I've told him all that, and he doesn't seem to mind any of it

I'm actually trying to have Nick over some time so he can see Half Life 2, and other cool things on my computer. Nick's a Mac user, but he likes games. I gotta show him the niftiness he's missed out on by not even having a mac laptop with him for the past few months.

I heard from newegg.com and they got the RMA for my computer case, they're just checking it over before they send off the new one. The problem is, today was Christmast Eve. Nobody working there today. Tomorrow is Christmas. Nobody working there either. Then comes Sunday. Probably won't work then either. They'll probably look over it on Monday, possibly ship the new case the same day. They're not paying for priority overnight delivery, that's like $100. I'm gonna see it by Wednesday to Friday of next week, so it's a no-go for taking the compy to Paul's party...

But anyway, another reason I'm happier now than 3-4 days ago is that I took the 4 solid periods of tests on Thursday. First up was a full period of multiple choice Chem questions. Easy enough. Then a period of extended answer Chem questions. Also easy. Then I had 18 multiple choice questions about Economics and a single paragraph to write, that was a 1-period test. Finally I had a 17 question, multiple-choice only test in AP Computer Science. I think I did reasonably well. So the tests were easier than I had been told/had thought.

Band concert on the 22 went quite well, people loved it. Our best performance ever. It was amazing how we were crappy up until a week before the concert, then we suddenly turned good. I kid you not, ask anyone in the band.

I got my Christmas shopping done! This is lucky because people will be opening the gifts in 7 hours. And I'm only ALMOST broke.

My Cornell application essays were recovered along with the rest of my files, those need to be sent out ASAP after being fixified.

More random, unimportant stuff happened. And is still happening. Yay.

Current DA projects:
Closet Coon Coloring

Share Ratio: .97

In Queue:
None

Newly Obtained:
None

New DVDs burned today:
None

Computer Part Status
Overall System Status: In pieces, scattered over the country. At least I'm using the Hard Drive right now.
Part Selection: Finalized, replacements on the way
Cash Reserves: $40
http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/4115012/ Mon, 20 Dec 2004 21:19:50 PST
I think it's my new 300 GB hard drive. It should've been pretty sweet, but it promptly kills any other installed copies of windows that I have on my computer, and refuses to boot. And it currently has every file I've made in the past 6 years. No fun at all...

Professional data-recovery services cost hundreds to thousands of dollars easily, so that's out of the question. I'm broke at this point. God, this all sucks. There go my files! All I can hope is that it'll work on my new system when I get the replacement case...

Yeah, I don't really want to talk too much about it. After all the time and effort I've put into saving for my new system and trying to make it work, the added pain of losing all my un-archived anime and school work/personal documents is rather stress-inducing. Whatever happens will happen.

Still chugging along in college applications. I wish the guidance office would get my stuff in...

Got some 5-week grades and various test grades over the past few days, here's how things are looking now:
Band- A-B range
Calculus- A-B range
Economics- A+
Computer Science- A
Chemistry- A+
English- A-B range

So I'm not exactly slipping, but I'm not on top of the situation either. Stupid Calculus...

I'd say mostly I'm depressed right now. School work aside (which is a lot to ignore, even for a few minutes) I have college applications, a band concert, many tests, a computer to fix, stuff to color and write, programming I want to do... always busy, I shall be. Not much time for fun, and my compy isn't even working right so I can't have the fun when I have the time.

I did get GIMP 2.0 installed on this computer so I can do more Closet Coon editing... Jeff said I could post no more than two colored comics at any one time, and that I should link to them on his site when he updates. Here's comic #33 for your viewing pleasure. It's clean, don't worry about it.

Current DA projects:
Closet Coon Coloring

Share Ratio: .97

In Queue:
None

Newly Obtained:
None

New DVDs burned today:
None

Computer Part Status
Overall System Status: In pieces, scattered over the country. Entirely non-functional.
Part Selection: Finalized, replacements on the way
Cash Reserves: $40
Old Parts in need of purchase (Hey kids, here's where you come in!): Athlon XP 2700+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe, 512 MB of HyperX PC2700 DDR all for $200-250, ATi Radeon 9700 Pro for $100 to $150
Enthusiasm about getting a new gaming rig: Smothered
Estimated Time of Functionality: January 4th, 2005

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Depressed
Current Fav Song: Maroon 5 - Harder to Breathe
Current Fav Game: Half Life 2
Current Fav Anime: Full Metal Panic!
Current Clothes: Red T-shirt, Black and red pants
Current Craving: Nachos
Current Desire: My o... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3985307/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3985307/ Sun, 12 Dec 2004 08:08:35 PST Update
Well, due to the complaints of my family, I removed every trace of my house tour, except for pictures of my own room. Sorry.

Yar, I should keep people up to date, not that anybody *actually* responded to my last journal a week ago...

My grades have been slipping a bit, and I can't quite figure out why. I'm hoping it's a random fluctuation, because I do understand the material...

My parents are being biatchy about my computer setup, they won't order the parts until I complete my college applications. That bites, except that 1. SUNY Binghamton has rolling applications that aren't recommended ot be turned in until February 1st or 15th, I can't remember which. 2. Cornell has very little to do after the Common Application is completed, just 2x250 word essays. 3. I don't think I have to do any supplimental stuff for RIT, actually... So I might be able to just write a couple essays and call it a day, then get my parts. I hope.

Update!
Well, I completed and submitted the common application, along with payments to RIT and Corenll. I have the supplementary materials in as well, with the exception of the Cornell essays. My parts were orderd on Wednesday night, the ETA is Tuesday, though Monday would be nice.

My part selection changed a bit in order to save $340 and make the system somewhat better. Amazing, isn't it? Cheaper and better stuff. The price is currently $1066 with shipping

I killed my headphones yesterday. Manslaughter, not murder. Now only the left channel works. How appropriate that I can only hear stuff from the left... a shame, it means I'll have to get another $30 pair >_> *grumbles*

Update!

And I got a new pair! $31 for a better-seeming set with a lifetime warrenty. Sweet.

Current DA projects:
Closet Coon Coloring, assuming Jeff-kun lets me post them

Share Ratio: .951 (improving)

In Queue:
None

Newly Obtained:
Blue Gender 19 [Dual Audio] (replaced a faulty version I had)

New DVDs burned today:
None

Computer Part Status
Overall System Status: En route
Part Selection: Finalized, purchased
Cash Reserves: $1450, stable
Anticipated Price: $1066 + LCD Monitor
Old Parts in need of purchase (Hey kids, here's where you come in!): Athlon XP 2700+, Asus A7N8X Deluxe, 512 MB of HyperX PC2700 DDR all for $200-250, ATi Radeon 9700 Pro for $100 to $150
Enthusiasm about getting a new gaming rig: Quite high indeed
Estimated Time of Arrival: December 14th, 2004

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Lazy
Current Fav Song: Cake - Opera Singer
Current Fav Game: Half Life 2
Current Fav Anime: Wolf's Rain
Current Clothes: Black T-shirt, plaid PJ bottoms
Current Craving: Chocolate!
http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3928194/ Sat, 27 Nov 2004 19:26:04 PST
I visited the doctor the other day and he said my recent bout of sickness is likely because of a light flu that I had for a few days. My immune system, doubly weak from lack of sleep and the flu, wasn't able to fight off a secondary infection from all the people around me in school, so I came out with "a touch of bronchitis" according to my physician. I'm on some mild antibiotics for the bronchitis and some more to help clear up the cough, and I am indeed feeling better.

I've had lots of free time, so much that I've sometimes just sat and wondered what to do. First I replayed some levels of Half-Life 2, which totally rules. Then I decided to do some light image editing, because I love GIMP so much. But what should I work on? I realized that Closet Coon strips beyond #32 are uncolored, so I spent 12 hours and colored #33. Why did it take so long? I had to teach myself the best way to go about doing the coloring and mixing, which I'm still figuring out...

Anyway I finished #32, and emailed it to Jeff-kun. He liked it enough to offer to put it on his page. That makes me really happy because lots of my friends are familiar with Closet Coon, and now they'll get to see something that I worked on that relates to it!

I asked Jeff-kun if I could post the non-mature comic strips here, and I'm waiting for a response... we'll see what happens!

Current DA projects:
None

Share Ratio: .917

In Queue:
Berserk [Dual Audio, Complete]
X - TV [Dual Audio, Complete]

Newly Obtained:
None

New DVDs burned today:
None

Computer Part Status
Overall System Status: Hypothetical
Part Selection: Completed, undergoing slight tweaking
Cash Reserves: $1400, stable
http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3747384/ Sat, 13 Nov 2004 17:45:30 PST
Wow! It's been a long while since I updated anything at all. What's the world coming to?

Huh, lots of stuff has happened in the past month. I've picked up Chain Mail (Ring Mail) again, for those of you who don't know what it is you can check it out here.

I've been picking up Java quickly, and I now write little snippets for fun. Trying to make the framework for a game, we'll see how far I get before quitting! Fun.

Halloween came and went, wasn't too much in my book. Would've loved to be a cute foxy, but I couldn't get the costume together. Maybe some year.

I've been doing pretty strongly in most classes, around the A-ish range (+/-). Sadly I've been falling behind in college applications. The ones I want to go to are Cornell University, Rochester Institute of Technology, and SUNY Binghamton. All of them in NYS.

I recently got Gravitation, books 6-8. I now have 1-8 and I'm willing to loan them to people whom I trust. I'll handle requests on a per-person basis. I'm almost done with book 8, these are really top notch. Or at least, they're damn entertaining!

I have Fruits Basket! Woohoo!

Newest Deviations:
Halo vs FLCL
Sunrise 1
Sunrise 2
Tweek and Shiro Background v2

Current DA projects:
None

Share Ratio: .917

In Queue:
Berserk [Dual Audio, Complete]
X - TV [Dual Audio, Complete]

Newly Obtained:
Hunter x Hunter OVA GI Final - 14
Dragon Drive 5-8 [Dual Audio]
Bleach - 1-5
Naruto - 104-108
Gundam SEED Destiny - 1-... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3528327/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3528327/ Wed, 06 Oct 2004 16:37:50 PDT
Life is ok. Homework is plentiful. Anime is good. Games are fun.

Share Ratio: 1.08

In Queue:
Chobits [Dual Audio, Complete]
Dragon Drive 5-8 [Dual Audio]
Hunter x Hunter OVA GI Final - 14

Newly Obtained:
Victory Gundam 31-51
Sonic X 1-52 [Complete]
Wolf's Rain 6-10 [Dual Audio]

New DVDs burned today:
Sonic X [Complete]
Victory Gundam 26-51

Computer Part Status
Overall System Status: Hypothetical, Feasible
Part S... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3429288/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3429288/ Sun, 03 Oct 2004 11:37:33 PDT _o

Due to complaints from, of all people, my older sister (who knew she read this?!) I'm going to be posting an update. Yup! Here it is.

School's been going along well enough, the homework load keeps me occupied from 4 to 11 or so, which is managable. I've been doing a little extra credit in Chem, and keeping up to par with the assignments and grades in most classes. Let's see how far I can go without slipping up!

Anime Club is also going pretty well. We've got a good turnout. I'm bad with approximating people, so I'll say 30+ each meeting. Enough people that anybody looking in the room after school says "WOW. That's anime club?" So we are a good-sized force! Get Backers is pretty sweet, and of course I love FMP! so things are going well enough. And, for now at least, I'm needed to provide some misc cables.

I'm trying to get more people to come to Loaves and Fishes. It's fuuun, just nobody believes me! But NW said he might go for a school assignment, and Paul said he might go just because. That'd be pretty nice...

Nothing much exciting is happening with my life, though. I'm applying to Best Buy, and if that doesn't work out, Regal Cinemas. I need a real job, I'm tired of not getting paid for workin' for Penny. It was a nice job, now it's just a crappy job with no benefits, respect, or salary.

Yan showed me a cool animation done by one person on their Athlon XP based system. Pretty neat. [link]

Share Ratio: 1.13 [Last time I checked Boxtorrents, which is down right now]

In Queue:
(Each , , or is 10% done)
Victory Gundam 31-40
Victory Gundam 41-51
Sonic X 27-52
Wolf's Rain 6-10 [Dual Audio]

Newly Obtained:
None

New DVDs burned today:
None

Computer Part Status
http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3365872/ Tue, 14 Sep 2004 20:54:22 PDT
Basically, the main thing in school has been the arrival of Principal Wilson. This ISN'T a place to discuss him, however, so anybody who says ANYTHING about him will be yelled at. He's enforcing lotsa new rules (by 'new' I mean rules that didn't exist or simply weren't enforced before.) He's also generating a lot of controversy. Today he met with the Senior class, he's supposed to be doing it with every other class over the course of the rest of the week. It was nice to have him explain stuff for a change, most people just give rules and don't defend them. Not that we got around to discussing everything on my mind, but we covered a few things. I still don't see how food become unsanitary as soon as it's removed from the Cafeteria... maybe some things are just beyond me. Either way, he's controversial, he's here to stay, he should loosen up a bit over time (according to parental predictions and his own hinting at relaxing rules slowly.)

My classes are pretty nice. Sure, I have three AP courses. And... umm... that's a lot of work. Ten hours of homework over the weekend, that was just sick. But since then, it's been manageable. Hey, I have time to write this, don't I? On a nice note, I only have to go up stairs twice during the day: to go to homeroom (or 1st period, after they phase out homeroom) and then to 4th period. Aside from that, I'm just wandering around on the 2nd floor between G and H buildings! Nice... 7th period lunch sucks, but I know sooo many people in there. Tim, Nick, Anthony, Alex, Shu, Paul, Yan, Brendan, Ben, and NW to name a few.

Anyway, back to the title of this journal entry: Anime Club!

NW and I spent at least 1-2 hours last night coming up with a list of things we could watch. All that preparation payed off when we showed up at Anime Club today, the co-presidents...

Many people. I have only been to one year of anime club before, but this was the biggest group I'd yet seen! I mean, I counted at the end and there were 31 people. That was after people started to leave... according to the vote totals, we actually had something like 40-45 people. Throw in NW's mother and possible non-voters, and we have less than but close to 50 people! Last year, we probably had 15-20 people on good days.

Having done the prep-work made the voting process a bit easier, though in retrospect having 40+ people cluster around the name of the genre they wanted to see wasn't such a great idea... I wasn't expecting that kind of turn out. In fact, I was so thrown by the large group and lack of practice in adressing them, that I leapt right into the overview of the voting process. NW's mother was kind enough to introduce us and the club AFTER I told everyone just how we'd be picking the anime to watch! Heh... heh... >.< Stupid tweekie.

Anyway, we picked Sci-Fi and Fantasy as the genre. From Sci-Fi we picked Full Metal Panic!, much to my satisfaction. From Fantasy, we picked GetBackers, which I think made NW happy too. I knowww he was wanting to see Initial D, but nobody voted for the "Realistic" genre. Not even NW himself! But as it is, I'm glad with the anime we are watching, and I think NW and the rest of the club would do well to see FMP!. 'tis funny and awesome at once.

I find myself providing all of the anime this time around! So far, at least. FMP! and GetBackers were obtained by I, the foxeh! Guess I can feel like I'm always contributing to the club this way, eh?

One thing that I think was demonstrated was my ability to thrive in the spontaneity of life. Whether addressing everyone formally or just goofing around, I showed that I can think on my feet. I seem to be a decent enough speaker! Also, if you laugh in my presence, it's not premeditated or orchestrated. That's canned humor, and not as healthy for you. Anybody who finds themself laughing more than others or tries to push humor is feeding off of canned humor! >.o

Anyway, after the voting and explanations of anime, etc, we played some clips of misc things. After a bit of technology trouble (the component video cable on the back of the TV doesn't work, and the cable for the audio was so insanely short) we finally managed to play the stuff. Credit goes to NW for trying my S-vid cable. We watched a FMP! trailer, followed by a nice AMV of it. Then we watched Brendan's FLCL AMV to the Futurama theme. FLCL-goodness! ^_^

I went to Loaves and Fishes, where I helped prepare about 200 servings of desert.

Then I got home, showered, ate, and worked on homework. On an unrealted note, there seems to have been nobody who's read my Computer Making Guide to really understand ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3338712/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3338712/ Sat, 11 Sep 2004 10:05:22 PDT
Maybe I'm oversimplify things, but it seems as if we have 4 groups of people. The first doesn't like Wilson because of the new rules. The second like him because of the rules, and is royally pissed at anybody who disagrees with them. The third and fourth groups are kinda joint groups, the first doesn't have much of an opinion or they're mixed on the issue, and the other is mostly pissed because everyone is fighting. I belong to the last two groups.

It's not that I hate the guy, that would be a far too simple way of seeing things. Nothing is black and white. Nor do I love him. I'm mixed, AND I hate how this is breaking us all up.

There are things that I dislike about the rules, whether or not he created/added to them, or is simply enforcing them for the first time. And there are things that I think are probably good ideas.

Bad thing.
Good thing.

Let the listing begin.

The dress code is logical in some spots, and maybe a little silly in other spots. I've never been distracted by anything a guy or girl has worn, maybe it's just me. Either way, I like how guys have to pull up pants and stuff, I like how girls can't show off their cleavage. I dislike how showing your shoulders, bra-strap or not, is unacceptable. Bellybuttons too seem silly, what's sexual about those? Mixed opinions here.
Getting rid of homeroom seems silly to me. I haven't heard too many good arguments for it, other than people already skip it. Just beacuse some people skip it doesn't mean we should do what they want and get rid of it, right? I like it 'cuz it's a few minutes to see other people I wouldn't otherwise, and it's useful for announcements, etc. Also if you get to school a few minute late it isn't that bad, because homeroom give you a 5 minute buffer before you start to eat into your educational time. I dunno why he wants to get rid of it.
Getting security cameras. I dislike the idea of being watched, even though I don't do anything wrong. Then again, people who cause trouble will more likely be punished or not cause trouble in the first place. That's a bonus. But still I feel odd being under constant surveillance. Oh well, I'll deal with it either way.
He's everywhere. I saw more of Wilson in the first day than all other principals combined in IHS. That's nice because it means he himself is enforcing rules and not just leaving it up to the APs. It's also kinda creepy because he hovers around our table at lunch. I gues s overall it's a good thing... still, those announcements on day 0 and 1 annoyed me a bit. "Your beloved principal" seems to be a bit of a leap. Hearing all these things like "you WILL be on time to EVERY class EVERY day of the ENTIRE year" also made me a bit nervous, like I'll get freaking OSS if I show up a minute late 'cuz I had to use the bathroom really bad. Just kinda weirded me out.
Equal enforcement of rules. I like the idea that rule breakers will be pinned for it more often. Then again, I'm not a trouble maker so I feel as if the rules should bend for me. Nothing serious, I just don't want to get in trouble for going from one place to another without a pass. Yeah yeah, it's easy to get passes. But not when the teacher leaves the room for a few minutes, or is busy, or there simply... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3300624/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3300624/ Mon, 06 Sep 2004 19:04:57 PDT
Building a computer is easier than you think. It's faster, cheaper, more fun, more empowering, and more educational than buying a pre-made system, as well. I learned this about 20 months ago when I made my first system. In about an hour, you can go from a pile of parts in boxes to a running system, if you know what you're doing. There's the one catch, though, you need to know what you're doing and which parts to get. This is a bit easier than one might expect, surprisingly, and here I'll run through the process of picking parts. When I actually get my own parts in 4-5 months, I'll maybe even do a photo guide to building your own system.

So here we go,

Tweek's Guide to Computer Building

I could go into detailed descriptions of how computer stuff works, but I'll dilute that information a bit and spread it throughout this 'article.' But let me start with the core of any modern computer: the Processor.

The Processor, also known as a CPU (Central Processing Unit), is the equivalent to the brains of the computer. Basically it's just a wicked souped up calculator, manipulating numbers. Pretty much all information in a computer eventually goes through the CPU for processing, whether you're typing letters, watching anime, listening to music, or browsing the web. The Processor is therefore the key component to a computer. The faster your processor is, the faster everything will run. Games go smoother, video playback is faster, editing audio and video takes less time, and so on. Processor speeds roughly double every 18 months or so, and prices drop quite quickly for processors as well. 20 months ago, when I last bought a processor, it was about $350. Now you can pick it up for about $100

There are a few things to look for in modern processors. What kind of applications will you use it for? How much money are you willing to spend on it? When do you plan on next upgrading? Each processor brand and model has strengths and weaknesses, so I'll run through a few. Intel is the maker of the Pentium line of processors. These are probably the most well known ones out there, currently the Pentium 4 is their leading brand. These processors range in speed from about 1.5 GHz (1 GHz is one billion operational cycles per second) to 3.4 GHz. The low end can be quite cheap, under $100, and the high end is approximately 10 times that price. The fastest Pentium 4, at 3.4 GHz, comes to the tune of $999. Wow, that's not bad for a new computer, you say. Ha, ha, ha. That's a single part, and if you base a system off of that chip expect to pay three times that for the entire thing. Something to keep an eye out for with Pentium 4's: Does it have "HT"? HT stands for Hyper Threading, or multi threading, which allows a processor to do parallel tasks at once instead of waiting for the first to finish. It only really speeds things up if you do several applications at once. Pentium 4 processors are very fast, and are generally the highest performers on video editing and other very demanding applications. However, the current ruler of the Gaming segment of the market is Intel's only 'real' rival, AMD . AMD's mainstream processors are the new Sempron and Athlon brands. The Sempron is now the bargain processor, ranging from $58 to a $123 and with speeds from 1.5 GHz to 1.8 GHz (though the equivalent level of performance ranges from 2.1 GHz to 3.1 GHz.) The Athlon is the high end processor, with speeds ranging from 1.8 GHz to 2.4 GHz (again, the effective levels of performance are higher, from 2.8 GHz to 3.8 GHz). Prices are from $136 to $950. Athlons have traditionally been not as good at video editing as Pentiums, because their actual speed is slower. However, they still run fine with all applications. They are, however, better in the gaming portion of the industry. The current high end Athlon is simply the best processor for a game-oriented computer, such as mine will be. Hence, I choose AMD as the core for my system.

I'm actually not yet sure which model I'd pick if I had the money now. The Athlon 64 3800+ and Athlon FX-53 are currently the high-end processors, the FX being the fastest of the two. However, an Athlon 64 3800+ can be had for as little as $630, whereas the FX-53 commands a high-end premium and ranges from $739 to $839.... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3298326/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3298326/ Mon, 20 Sep 2004 03:42:33 PDT Added September 6th

New month, new Weekly Update. Keeps it clean and readable so you don't have to dig through a dozen comments all the time!

Right-o then! After getting back from Tall Ships on Wednesday night, I was glad to find out I didn't have work on Thursday... I spent that day sitting around and getting caught up with all things computer! My parents got pissed because I hadn't started on this drainage ditch we have to put in our back yard... I'll see if I can get some piccies of it.

On Friday I had work from 10 AM to 1 PM. After that, I pretty much wasted my time for the rest of the day. I had been expecting to go to a party that night, but it turns out that's NEXT Friday night... I started my Sat. morning chores instead.

On Saturday, I went to work from 9:30 to 12:30. I didn't do a whole lot, but I got cake and lemonade. Yumm... (and $15 for working). After that, I got home and started to work on the diggin in our back yard. I only got 45 minutes of time clocked before getting a shower and heading off to the party with NW, Tara, and her friends. Party was fun, even if I left without getting any real food to eat. Who hasn't had dinner by 8?! (aside from NW.) Then I went to Tim's house to talk about Tall Ships. Turns out, we spent most of the time eating Krispy Kreme donuts, chips 'n' salsa, quoting Anchorman and watching The Chapelle Show. It was fun either way, though I wish I'd spent a bit more time with NW.

On Sunday, I got up late. 11:15. My mom was pissed that I got up late, because I still had/have tons of digging work to do. So I started the digging, though not until about noon. After that, I got a shower and started to eat lunch. I was interrupted, however, by Nick's mom coming to pick us up. My lil sister and I were going out to see a movie with my friends, so we had to go at 1:15... I made a Pickle and Bagel sandwhich, 'cuz that's all I had time to do! It wasn't bad, but not that great either. We saw 'Hero' which was just 20 kinds of cool... I loved it, I highly recommend that people go see it. Especially NW. Care for a mix of Kill Bill, The Matrix, and The Last Samurai? That's Hero for you, kinda. It's got the sword fighting of Kill Bill on steroids (it's by the same director, dur!), the slow-motion effects of The Matrix, and the overall coolness of The Last Samurai. Just... go see it! I got back and did a bit more ditch digging, about an hour (earning $7.50 an hour by the way!.) Then I had dinner, Pesto Pizza... yummm... After that, I kinda wasted my time for the rest of the night. My dad downloaded the Tribes: Vengence Open Beta and burned it to a CD for me, installation was a bitch and it was kinda buggy... but the game has potential! It's only 75% completed.

And here I am! I'm thinking about adding a new Journal Entry to keep track of my computer stuff... after all, it is a significant part of my life. Ideally I'd keep a running list of what I want for my system, and go through to explain to the readers exactly why that part is desirable. I'll also have offers for purchasing my parts from meh... I gotta sell them off some time! The journal would be informative, hopefully, if I end up doing it Until then, I'll have a little thing in My Status to let you know about it.

Computer Part Status
Overall System Status: Hypothetical
Part Selection: In Progress
Cash Reserves: $1500, increasing
Old Parts in need of purchase (hey kids, here's where you come in!): Athlon XP 2700+ and Asus A7N8X Deluxe for $150-200, ATi Radeon 9700 Pro for $100 to $150, 512 MB of HyperX PC2700 DDR for $80 to $100
Enthusiasm about getting a new gaming rig: Fanatical

Tweek's current status:
~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3270902/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3270902/ Thu, 02 Sep 2004 14:20:29 PDT
I was first introduced to Tall Ships in late 1999. I don't know exactly who we heard about it from, but all we really knew at first is that it was a Sailing camp on the Great Lakes, aboard an old-fashioned vessel. I can still remember sitting in our now-guest bedroom, using our ancient 333 MHz computer, and reading up a bit about it online. We called and asked for an application through the mail and, in the July-August 2000, I was aboard the ship. My first year shall be detailed later, but here's a quick description of the ship from this year's training manual:

The St. Lawrence II is rigged as a brigantine (some purists will insist on calling her a hermaphrodite brig), carrying full square rig on the foremast. With this working rig, she carries 7 fore and aft sails and 2 squares with a total area of 2,490 sq. ft. For light weather, she can wear a big genoa jib, a "golliwobbler" (very modern) and studding sails (very old-fashioned), totaling an additional 1,600 sq. ft.

St. Lawrence II is fitted with an auxiliary diesel engine -- a "must" when operating on a schedule and when canals and narrow rivers must be negotiated. A diesel generator provides electricity for refrigeration, pumping, lighting, and navigation. But after these concessions to modern machinery have been made, we have returned to the "traditional" equipment of a windjammer -- hand windlass for the anchor cable, and blocks and tackle for handling sail. Three 11-ft. dories, nested on deck, serve as duty boats. For extra safety, the hull id divided into six watertight compartments, with watertight doors between the three accommodation compartments. Construction is particularly heavy throughout. The vessel has an all-welded steel hull, is 72 feet in length overall, with a beam of 15 feet and a draft of 9 feet. There is accommodation for a complement of 28.

*drools* Wow... brings back fond memories already... *drool snaps, and mind snaps back to reality* Sorry!

Basically, for $75 a day, you go out on this ship and sail the Great Lakes (usually Ontario) between the USA and Canada. Cruises last between 5-10 days on average and make occasional stops in ports in both the USA and Canada. During the ~week that you are on the ship (all the cruises I've been on have been 6-8 days) you learn to manage the sails, clean the ship, steer and navigate, and handle different weather conditions.

There are between 12-18 trainees on board [although one cruise this year had only 5 trainees!!], with ~10 more experienced crew members to train them. Every day is divided up into 4 hour blocks, or "watches", during which Red Watch, White Watch, and Blue Watch [each of these watches contain 1/3 of the trainees and 2-3 crew members] cycle through On Watch/Standby/Off Watch status. The status determines what you have to do during that 4 hour time slot, so there's always someone to do any particular task.

The "On Watch" status means you're always up on deck. Always. You can't go below deck unless you're seriously injured. If you're cold, too bad. Tired or hungry? Suck it up. You're the first people in line when something needs to get done, and have 4 hours of it.

After being On Watch, you are "Off Watch". That means you don't have to do anything! You can sleep below deck for 4 hours, if you want. If you're on deck, you can be asked to help out... but you have the greatest flexibility with what you can do.

After being Off Watch, you are "On Standby". If you're on Standby, you have to help out the people who are On Watch, though you're the second choices for getting work to do. Also, whoever is on Standby has to be ready to go up and adjust the sails and rigging, if need be.

So basically, you spend 2/3 of your awake time doing work or waiting to work. The night is the same as the daytime, with 4 hour shifts, except from 8 PM until 6:30 AM, anybody who is on Standby can sleep below deck too. The watch schedule is as follows:

12 AM to 4 AM [Officially known as Graveyard shift, because everybody looks and acts undead at this hour]
4 AM to 8 AM
8 AM to 12 Noon
12 Noon to 4 PM
4 PM to 6 PM [This is known as a Dog Watch, it's sh... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3269369/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3269369/ Thu, 02 Sep 2004 10:00:08 PDT
12th Grade High School Schedule, Semester 1
0 - Home Room
1 - AP Calculus BC - Drix
2 - Concert Band - Lloyd [Days 1 3 5]
2 - Free Period [Days 2 4 6]
3 - AP Chem Lab - Tuori [Days 1 3 5]
3 - Free Period [Days 2 4 6]
4 - AP Chem - Tuori
5 - Honors Economics - Strippel
6 - AP Computer Science - Teukolsky
7 - Physical Education - Schneider [Days 1 3 5]
7 - Free Period [Days 2 4 6]
8 - English 12 WISE - Lang

12th Grade High School Schedule, Semester 2
0 - Home Room - Staff
1 - AP Calculus BC - Drix
2 - Concert Band - Lloyd [Days 1 3 5]
2 - Free Period [Days 2 4 6]
3 - AP Chem Lab - Tuori [Days 1 3 5]
3 - Physical Education - Schneider [Days 2 4 6]
4 - AP Chem - Tuori
5 - Regents Government - Pickens
6 - AP Computer Science - Teukolsky
7 - Lunch
8 - English 12 WISE - Lang

If you look closely, you'll see that my schedule is a bit screwed up. I don't have an official Lunch period during the first semester. I do have a free period 7th period, which could be a lunch... but that's every other day. I wouldn't make a big deal about it, but it turns out NW and I both have 7th period lunch. Like hell I'm giving up seeing him every day! Also, look at periods 2 and 3 for the first semester... half the time I have Band and a Lab, the other half the time I have 2 free periods in a row! How stupid is that? I'm going to see if I can get my PE class pushed back from 7th period to 3rd period, which is how it should be anyway. With that simple change, I'd have a lunch period every day 7th period for the FULL year with NW, and I'd also have a free period every other day 2nd period for the whole year. I dunno why, but a lot of people's schedules [those that I've talked to] have been screwed up similarly. Ah well, it's a reasonable change, I should be able to get it fixed!

Anyway, about going back to school... it'll be nice to see people again and have structure to my life, even if I've set myself up for a killer workload... 3 more AP classes? Oh wait... Those are all I really have to worry about. Band is damn easy, Econ and Government shouldn't be too hard (they're only half year courses!), PE is always a breeze, I actually have a lunch, and WISE should be fun... spend the second half of the year writing a book, with any luck!.

That's my schedule! Post yours or tell me what we have in common, if applicable ^^

Oh btw, my younger sister will be coming to the high school this year. Treat her nicely! She's a good girl, even if she can whine about me occasionally >.> Throw in NW's sibs, and it should be an interesting year of old faces in a new school! ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3175513/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3175513/ Fri, 20 Aug 2004 20:13:18 PDT Cats tonight. Now I'm SURE some of you would love it, if only because there are 20 people running around stage in skintight cat suits... but it wasn't a hit with me.

As it turns out, Cats doesn't actually HAVE a plot. They had a song at the very beginning, then another about some random tabby cat. Then they had a song about a second cat. He was, like, last in the cast list, so I figured he wasn't a major part. I wondered, "If they're having a song for this fairly unimportant character, maybe they're having a song for every character?" Then I figured, "Naw, there are 20 people in skintight cat suits on stage, if they each get a 6 minute song... that's 2 hours of singing and dancing!"

Oh, how right I was. That's exactly what they did.

I slept through about 75% of it. Even the second-to-last song, which is supposed to be very climactic and exciting. When my sister poked me into conciousness, I was greeted by a very, VERY loud opera-style female singer. I don't know how I slept through that song, but I was awake for just the last 20 seconds of it. I amaze myself sometimes. And it's not from lack of sleep--I went to bed at 11:30 last night and got up at 7 AM, 'cuz NW was too busy with StepMania to talk to meh. So it was boredom that got to me.

On a separate note, not that anybody will probably read this, I've noticed how nobody... reads my stuff. At least, they don't comment on it. Now, some of the pictures and stuff that I take, people do comment on those. But, like, the Journal entry for my Project: Photo Tour? I put that up on the 18th after spending 5+ hours uploading the pictures and linking them together, and I nobody read it. Or at least, nobody commented on it, which in my book is about the same as nobody reading it. Most people at least leave a "Cool idea!" or "Wow, you must really be bored." but I haven't gotten any of them. Meanwhile, SAT gets 3 comments on her quick, random journal entry that was posted a day after mine.

>_> Not that this is new to me. I do weekly updates and such, rarely getting more than 1 or 2 comments if I get any at all. I noticed this before! Is my work really that boring?! Am I just a failure of a person?? ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3147542/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3147542/ Tue, 17 Aug 2004 23:36:19 PDT
This should allow a glimpse of my home to people who, for some reason or another, can't visit it. Even some of my close friends haven't seen everything I show here. It's pretty cool, better check it out. Just start here and click around in the Movement Options menu thing, and you can move into different rooms, different angles sometimes, and go all around the house.

...wow. That was fun. Enjoy! ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3052342/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3052342/ Thu, 05 Aug 2004 19:31:35 PDT

I am writing this because I realize that, when in heated discussions, I can get carried away, talk in ways that upset other parties involved, and lose my train of thought. I hope this will help me to clearly convey what it is I wish to say.

I am upset; with my family, and because of my family. I feel powerless, as if my opinion matters as much as that of a parasitic insect living in the house. Yes, I am the son, but I am also a human being. As such I feel my opinion and views should at least be considered by others.

To me, it seems that the largest thing at stake and in question here is family. The concept of family, what is owed to whom, and how a family runs are all greatly disputed amongst us. Some feel that, as the son, my opinion matters not. What I think isn’t really significant, simply because of who I am. I, naturally, have a distinctly different view. I do recognize a family hierarchy, but like to think a family should be based on more than just a competition for power.

Ideally, I think there should be cooperation between family members. Cooperation makes life generally more pleasant for everyone, even if certain sacrifices must be made for it to occur. The opposite, struggling for power and bickering, leads only to constant upset and argument, which I feel is the reason for this very piece.

The core issue behind this, in my opinion, is that of values, and how they are conveyed. It seems to be a natural habit of humans to gravitate towards a specific interest or broader group of interests, which their lives are based around. Some people have strong interest in automobiles and engines, they collect and modify cars and become mechanical engineers. Others become involved in school sports, watch the Superbowl, and get together with friends to talk about football stats and teams. Still more become avid media enthusiasts, who like to collect, watch, and modify movies, music, and other forms of expression. I fall into the latter category, and it is a well known fact that I enjoy music, anime, movies, video games, and digitally edited video clips.

Although people can certainly have their own opinions about what they like and dislike, it should naturally be up to the individual to choose what they do and do not. This, of course, is restricted to things that don’t impact the ability of others to do what they enjoy. This, I feel, should also extend to family life. A child should be able to do what he or she values, so long as it is not detrimental to the other members of the family. Whether a child likes playing classical music or rock, hockey or tennis, writing sci-fi or love stories, or just hanging out with friends should NOT have anything to do with the other family members, so long as it doesn’t disrupt their lives. If anything, a family should support a child and his or her dreams, trying to help bring them within reach. Such is not the case with me, where attempts to further those activities which I enjoy are met with resentment and limitations. Not once have I heard a “We’ll help you with that, because we know it’s important to you.” In fact, I have had to, and will continue to have to, purchase my own computer parts and software. That, however, isn’t all that surprising, such expensive hobbies and interests should be funded by the interested party. What’s surprising are the attempts to limit access to what is essentially the base of my hobby.

To me, being on my computer opens up doors to me and lets me do things I couldn’t otherwise. Using my computer has introduced me to dozens of people, local and across the world, whom I try to maintain regular contact with. It has allowed me to obtain and translate a Spanish comic, working directly with the author. My computer setup has provided me with ample raw audio and video, which I can edit together in a creative way to produce something new. It also introduced me to anime, which subsequently lead to the discovery of anime club, a new group of friends, and directly allowed me to become the co-president of the anime club. Thus it seems, to me at least, that using my computer has benefitted me and expanded my interests.

I feel it’s also unfair to assume that I do nothing more than use my computer. I’ve worked regularly at a community-service oriented job for 2.5 years now, and almost three full at a soup kitchen. To supplement my income, I’ve worked at a gardening job since the beginning of the summer. Whenever I can, I have friends over or go to their houses. I enjoy seeing movies and playing games with my friends, having intellectual conversations... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3049821/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3049821/ Fri, 03 Sep 2004 05:02:49 PDT Added August 6th
Hmm, I haven't updated in about a week or so... here's the general layout of what I do:

Thursday and Friday: Work my boring job from 10 to 4, then screw around the rest of the day.

Saturday: Work my boring job from 10 to 12 and do chores the rest of the day

Sunday-Wednesday: Do yard work from 9 to 12 and screw around the rest of the day.

Yesterday, Wednesday the 5th, was a nice break from the usual. I went over to Tara's house from 1 to 8 or so, NW was there from 1 to 5:30. We watched a few short videos about S.T.A.L.K.E.R., talked about a lot of stuff, looked at funfun artwork, made food, etc. After NW left, I copied Golden Boy to Tar's computer and we watched a cool part of a Hellsing episode. I had dinner at her house: home-made ravioli. Pretty good stuff.

Today was back to the regular boring work schedule. I also have to wash all the rest of the windows before we head off to my cousin's house, on Saturday morning.

Oh, I also decided that, as a birthday present to myself and for turning 18, I'll get a computer upgrade then. Not a new mouse or stupid crap like that. I'm talking total overhaul. New processor [-$500], new Graphics Card [-$500], new Mini-PC case [-$250], more memory [-$220], maybe a new monitor... this shit won't be cheap. I'm just hoping I can sell off some of my parts to my friends and family, like my graphics card [+$100!] and processor [+$75] and motherboard [+$100] and memory [+$75]. I hope to pay for it with money I get for christmas and my birthday, money I save from now to then, and maybe my parents would go for a combined christmas/birthday present of helping to pay for it... I'll keep you updated

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Worn Out
Current Fav Song: M - DJ Taka / A - DJ Amuro
Current Fav Game: Metroid Prime
Current Fav Anime: Golden Boy
Current Clothes: Gray T-shirt, Khaki Pants
Current Craving: Rainbow Sherbert... *goes to get some ^_^*
Current Desire: Doom 3
Current Complaint: Summer's half over...

Added August 14th

Well, it's been a while since I updated this, so here goes!

Things haven't been going that badly, really. I've worked out the problems that I had before in Parental Troubles Part II so that's a plus... transportation won't be a problem.

I had a lot of fun at my cousin's house from Saturday through Tuesday. Mostly we played Unreal Tournament 2004, and on Monday I showed him Full Metal Panic!. Now, my cousin has liked anime ever since I showed him Hellsing a year ago, and several episodes of Outlaw Star. But Full Metal Panic!... man, he tore through it. I can't really describe it any other way. I watched the first few eps with him in the early evening, and eventually fell asleep... by the next morning, he'd seen the first 12 episodes of the 24 ep series! Honestly, people, there's a REASON that he saw half of it in one sitting, and that I ranked it so highly on my Anime Ranking. It's just freaking cool. The animation is smooth and crisply drawn, brightly colored, and mixed with a little bit of CG I think. It's funny, action-packed, and I just love the mechs they have... seriously, this is a GOOD choice of something to watch in anime club *nudge nudge wink wink*.

Also on the anime note, I gave my cousin a copy of Hellsing, which he ALSO loved... (wow, I'm just DAMN good at picking out cool anime to watch) and we started watching Blue Gender. We saw... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3032889/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/3032889/ Wed, 11 Aug 2004 12:07:19 PDT

I'm trying to create AMVs that are coooler than the default background vids for StepMania, especially.

Drop the Bomb - Full Metal Panic!
In the Navy - Full Metal Panic!
One Two (Little Bitch) - Trigun
It's Rainin' Men - Gravitation
Halo 2 Trailer Audio - Full Metal Panic!

I should also remake my old AMVs, getting rid of the lousy DivX symbols in the bottom corners, and using higher video quality source vid (Trigun in particular, now that I have the entire thing without the subtitles). ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2958703/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2958703/ Sat, 24 Jul 2004 17:33:57 PDT
We headed out maybe 12:30 PM on Friday. I skipped work so I could get ready, which turned out to be a smart bit on my part. I took with me a bedsheet, fur blanket, body pillow, and 15 lbs of college brochures. During the car ride to RIT, which was ~2 hours, give or take, I went through these brochures. Some I was able to elliminate--like hell I'm going to some no-name school in Ohio or North Carolina! But still, I have to go through a bunch more, and even when I've eliminated random liberal arts colleges in southern states, I still have to go through the remaining ones with a fine tooth comb, so to say. Yale, Harvard, Harvey Mudd, RIT, SIT, GIT, MIT, Cornell, etc etc etc... I want to apply to NO MORE than 5, for time and money considerations. But I still have 2/3 of the brochures to open and go through... yikies.

We got to RIT around 2:30 and I'd signed in and gotten a room by 2:45. We were on a tour before 3, and saw several of the buildings. Some interesting facts about RIT:

All the buildings at RIT are built of bricks, because they don't require cleaning and take a long time to age. RIT has more bricks than the Great Wall of China has stones, and has the world record for the single largest brick order ever placed.
The newest building in RIT, the computer-software-programming-etc building, has been used for less than 1 year--it came into service November of last year.
Most RIT buildings have 4-5 computer labs (20-30 computers each lab) per floor. Each building has at least 2-4 floors.
RIT consists of 8 different colleges, one entirely for people with hearing disabilities.
There is a wireless Local Area Network in every RIT building, and some of the dormitories. This extends into some of the outside areas, too, and every social sitting/resting/studying area has wall jacks for the LAN as well. The connection at RIT is over three times as fast as a T3 line, and I've heard people can get downloads as fast as 8 MB/second there (for a frame of reference to the computer ignorant, your average song is 3-5 MB, most cable connections get .3 to .5 MB/second, and my highest file transfer speed EVER recorded was 2.2MB/second, and that was absurdly high and quite a freak incident. Also, if your computer is a few years old or more, it isn't likely that your hard drive can actually write faster than 8 MB/second or so).
Each RIT dorm room, although small, has a 2 cable TV jacks and 2 LAN connections.
There are ~15,000 students at RIT total, 1100 of whom are deaf.
1 year at RIT cost a total of $29,000, assuming you pay for the entire thing yourself. It takes 4-5 years to graduate, but 90% of RIT graduates get and keep a job within a year of graduation.
RIT has both Biology/Chemistry/Genetics study areas, and Computer/Software/Programming classes. That way, NW and I could both go... and room together... ^_^

Well, a brief overview is what I promised. Now I shall provide it!

After the quick tour, my mom left for home and I went to the 3:45 Welcoming Ceremony. There were 600 people there, and we endured a short Powerpoint Presentation welcoming. After that, we watched 4 guys doing improv comedy. Think, "Who's Line Is It Anyways?" but live, and with our input. It was pretty good, but I'd done half of the activities on Thursday at work with a local improv group ^_^

That lasted until 5:15, at which point we headed off to dinner. It was handled nicely, with meal cards that they swipe,... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2942528/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2942528/ Thu, 22 Jul 2004 14:22:35 PDT
On an unrelated but still important note, today marks 4 months of NW and I being boyfriends! Yaaay, it may not be a big number like 6 months or a year, but it's still somethin to be proud about, riiight?

Anime Status:
In Queue for the Queue:
Nuku Nuku OVA
Big O
Neko no Ongaeshi
Fake
Full Metal Panic! {Dual Audio, Complete}
G Gundam
Initial D 1st Stage
Initial D 2nd Stage
Macross Plus OVA + Movies
Perfect Blue
Irresponsible Captain Taylor {Dual Audio, Complete}
Tenchi Muyo OVA {Dual Audio, Complete}

Share Ratio: 1.16

In Queue:
(Each , , or is 10% done)
Read Or Die the TV - 14-26
ZZ Gundam - 21-40
Record of Lodoss War TV {Dual Audio, Complete}
Kare Kano {Dual Audio, Complete}
Crest of the Stars - Lost Chapter

Newly Obtained:
InuYasha 55-57 {Dual Audio}

New DVDs burned today:
None

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Worn out
Current Fav Song: Queen - Bohemian Rhapsody
Current Fav G... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2936763/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2936763/ Wed, 21 Jul 2004 20:11:11 PDT
Indoor Outdoor was a comedy, maybe 100 minutes long without intermission, and a total of 4 actors (2 male, 2 female). What really made this play different from others that I've seen is that the main character was a cat. The play detailed the life of the cat, from birth ("Hi mom!" "Sorry kid, I've got no time to talk, 20 more on the way.") to a tear-jerking finale. Yes, I cried >.>

I really enjoyed it, though. The basic theme was finding out who you are and where your place is in life, that's what the cat wanted to do. The owner, however, kept saying "She's a cat! Cats are simple! They don't talk! Why do you keep trying to talk to my cat?" because this vet receptionist had the ability to communicate with cats

It's playing through the 24th, so you'd better get tickets really fast! NW might've liked this, aside from the humor, it had half the characters as cats :3 ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2926275/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2926275/ Tue, 20 Jul 2004 11:56:01 PDT
I had DJ over on the 18th, which was lots of fun. We played some games and stuff, a little StepMania, piling stuffed animals on his head... it's all in good, innocent fun. Gawd, it's great to have somebody to play wif :3

On the 19th, Monday night, I had a few people over for a sleepover. It was originally supposed to be a group of cool, cute, anime loving guys: Nick Elser, Damian Dodge, and DJ. Well, Nick was able to make it, so was DJ... though, I later found out, only for a few hours. Damian couldn't make it at all 'cuz he has summer school. Bastard! Grr, I'll have to have a repeat of the party to get him over, he's a fun guy.

I ended up inviting Tim and Paul so I'd still have 3 people sleep over, and 4 to watch the movie. Things worked out OK, but everyone except Nick was late... DJ by over an hour. But, hey, we watched the movie and ate my 'famous' quesadillas. Both very good things. Then we played a Zone Of The Enders game, which had neat fighting action!

After that we did a little Soul Caliber 2, etc etc, then went off to bed. Paul had to sleep alone in the guest room because nobody wanted to wake up at 5:30 with him >.< He had some Crew thing.

Yesh, anyway... I have to be going now, or face the wrath of parents. ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2902050/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2902050/ Fri, 30 Jul 2004 20:17:17 PDT Added July 18th
I got my AP results back, and I'm very very happy! 5/5 on each, I wasn't expecting that at ALL!

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Sleepy
Current Fav Song: BUS STOP - One Two (Little Bitch)
Current Fav Game: StepMania
Current Fav Anime: Gundam SEED
Current Clothes: White "Texas" T-shirt, Khaki cargo shorts
Current Craving: Gummi Worms!
Current Desire: DDR Dance Pad
Current Complaint: I want my maaaaan!

Added July 26th

Well, today didn't go as planned. NW was supposed to come over at noon, but due to factors beyond his control but certainly in the hands of his parents, he was nearly 4 hours late. Got here around 3:45-ish. We fooled around on my computer briefly and I showed him my Tesla Coil, before playing Dreamcast. Lastly we watched part of the Gackt concert. Man, was that neat... I'll have to watch the whole thing now ^_^

At 7 I headed over with my mom to stuff more letters. If you didn't hear it from me already, I'm volunteering some time to help mail out these letters to people... namely, every household in Tompkins County. Yup, 25,000 of them. It's part of a non-profit attempt to raise money for the quality of life fund here, or something like that... either way, a guy is gonna swim 42 miles straight, and people can pledge money on each mile he does. If everybody pledged $1 per mile, that would be over $1 million raised from this event, and that would be pretty substantial. Then again, if everybody pledged $5 per mile, it'd be $5 million... wow, people can make a difference. I did this for 2 hours before heading home, getting a little more driving practice along the way.

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Bored
Current Fav Song: .59 Live
Current Fav Game: Fur Fighters
Current Fav Anime: Dragon Drive
Current Clothes: Blue T-shirt, Blue and Red Plaid PJ Bottoms
Current Craving: Candy
Current Desire: More pillows for my bed!
Current Complaint: NW's parents can be quite irresponsible. We should start a shonen-ai anime series, called The Irresponsible Otaku Parents.

Added July 30th

Well, I had a pretty fun time over the past two days! On the 29th, which was Thuuursday, I went to work, which was really lame... but at 4:30, I was ready to go and headed over to NW's house for a sleepover party! It was fuuun, but his friends were all late! I thought I'd be the last to arrive 'cuz Damian was slated for 4 PM and his friends from Oswego were supposed to arrive at 3:30... but I was the first there!

My impressions of them were pretty good. They seemed to like anime, videogames, computers, RPG stuff, etc, so they were ok with... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2855352/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2855352/ Sun, 17 Oct 2004 17:29:59 PDT
Key:Not/Barely started, Partially Complete, Mostly or Entirely Complete

Misc
Improve, edit, and add to my pre-writing work for my novel/game (4% done)
Spend time with NW >.< (37 hours so far)
Study for the SAT I and II's (0% complete)

Game Specific:
Replay Unreal II, Halo, and Morrowind (Done, Done, 5% done)
Beat Halo on Easy, Normal, Heroic, and Legendary Difficulties (5% done, Done, Done, Done)
Beat Fur Fighters for PC (7 % done)

To Buy:
Complete Computer Overhaul ($1600/2500 saved)

This Week's Earnings: $80.80

Completed:
Wash the windows in our house (Done)
Send money to Shuik! (Done)
Buy 50 DVD+Rs (Done)
Pay for my vacation on Tall Ships (Done)
Pay for comission from Shuik (Done)
Obtain Fur Fighters for PC (Done)

Cancelled:
Make a Full Metal Panic! trailer (Cancelled)
Get a head-start on my Java course before school starts (Cancelled)
Work on my Tesla Coil with NW (Cancelled)
Replay Sonic Adventure 1 and 2, Crazy Taxi, and ESPECIALLY Fur Fighters (Cancelled)
Finish Final Fantasy Tactics (Cancelled at 80% done)
Buy PC Dance Pad (Cancelled)
Buy stuffed Animals! (Cancelled)
Commission from Micah Fennec (Cancelled)
Comission from Ian Soulfox...? (Cancelled) ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2855112/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2855112/ Sun, 11 Jul 2004 10:11:11 PDT How well do you know Tweek?

Right. Based on Tara’s oh-so-frightening quizzes, I shall have a sort of online quiz. About me. Use it to test your knowledge of me, and maybe learn a bit about me in the process. I’ll be posting the answers right after I post this quiz, and you can reply to it and tell me your score/what you got wrong. Fun!

1. From where did I get the name “Tweek?”
A. The stoner term for smoking a marijuana cigarette. Light up, baby.
B. My parents called me that when I was younger because I liked to fiddle around with electronics.
C. It’s from a less well-known game called ‘Fur Fighters.’ Go small-name games.
D. I just thought it up myself, ok? Why’s everything have to be so complicated...?

2. What animal am I?
A. A dragon. Read my name, duh.
B. A fox. Get a clue!
C. A cat. Get your pussy right here.
D. Undecided/Unknown

3. What interesting item is in my bedroom?
A. A real human skull, or at least the seller assured me it was real.
B. A hut that I built myself.
C. A fully assembled, highly detailed Deep Space Nine space station model.
D. An original Nintendo Entertainment System. Go classic games ^.^

4. Which sexuality best describes me?
A. Straight, just like the rest of my family.
B. Bisexual, enjoying the best of both worlds.
C. Gay, which makes me part of the elite 10% of the human population!
D. Damned if I know! Check up on me in 5 years.

5. What’s my favorite anime ever?
A. FLCL. Inspired by pot, made by Gainax, it’s colorful and fun to watch.
B. Lain. C’mon, you know I’m a huge computer fan! The digital God... @.@
C. Wolf’s Rain. Wolves are cool, the OSTs are great, I love Bones ^^
D. Hellsing. What could be hotter than a vampire chick with a massive gun?

6. Where am I in terms of relationships?
A. Still single after all these years. Sad, isn’t it?
B. Recovering from the last emotional blow from my last breakup.
C. Rather attached to that special someone :wink:
D. Going through rough emotional times.

7. Who do I currently live with?
A. My mother, father, and both sisters. Full house of 5.
B. My mother, father, and younger sister. My older sister is currently away.
C. My father and younger sister. Where’s everybody going?
D. My father, and nobody else. Guys rule the house!

8. What am I terrified of?
A. E.T. the friendly alien. His neck is creepy...
B. Large crowds, especially LOUD ones.
C. Spiders, and the thought of how you can swallow them in your sleep...
D. Cross-dressers, because you don’t always notice that the girl you’re talking to is
a guy.

9. Approximately how much anime do I have?
A. 250 hours
B. 400 hours
C. 600 hours
D. 800 hours ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2849350/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2849350/ Sat, 10 Jul 2004 15:09:49 PDT
1.Wolf's Rain - GODLY ANIME. Love the music, storyline, characters/character development, action scenes, and cute wuffies. Wow, it's awesome. There are serious moments, and a lot of it is more like a movie than anything else. The animation style was really nicely done, too... no complaints with the audio or video aspects of it at all. The sound tracks are actually quite amazing, too, because there is such a variety of music styles, and different languages... If there's a single thing I disliked about this anime, it's that it ended. Well, that and the lack of some decent guy x guy action

2.Gravitation - Music. Mr. K. Boys who dig boys. Ryuichi. Shining Collection. This anime's just too cool. Yeah, the plot is kinda confusing, and after reading the manga you realize there are plot holes and things that just don't make the most sense. But you can get over it really easily because they have awesome musical performances, and the usage of music with tense scenes never fails to give me shivers... especially that song they play whenever Yuki beats the crap out of somebody... it's a shame that the series is so short, though. At least you still have the sound tracks, manga, and OVA to suppliment the Gravitational enjoyment!

3.Full Metal Panic! - This anime's got the mad cool killer fighting robots! Now THAT, my friends, is what anime is about (juuust kidding, I know it's about women with huge breasts TOO). But seriously, this anime's got so much good stuff going for it. Humor, a modern setting with futuristic robots (which is somehow REALLY cool), good music, cool characters, and, did I mention, the mecha are really really cool? You wouldn't really understand unless you were to watch it ^_^

4. Hellsing - This definately deserves a place in the top 5. I mean, I know people who don't like anime, but think this is pretty hot stuff. It's got a fairly realistic look to it, which I like. Kick ass animation style, gritty undead theme. Hell yes. Alucard is so cool. The Police Girl has that cute fang thing going on, too. And she carries a big sniper rifle, my gods... The weapons are nice, the vampires are awesome, the storyline is decent... all around, it's fun to watch and has action aplenty.

5. Trigun - This is the second anime I ever saw, and it is somewhat of a classic, I've been told. Well, I loved it, and still do. Again, it's got the same stuff that all other great anime have... cool characters, good storyline, appropriate music, and some solid action scenes. The old western theme is pretty unique, as far as anime go. If you haven't seen it... damn, get watching!

6. FLCL - FLCL is insane. It's hard to understand unless you allow your imagination to strech a bit. Then again, what do you expect from the creators of Eva? It's SO good for AMVs, because of the variety of content. The characters are wacky and wonderful, the animation is bright and crisp, and it's very pleasing overall. All this in 6 episodes? That's about the length of a movie. Watch it now if you can!

7. Neon Genesis Evangelion - A classic for sure. I first saw snippets of Eva in a Weird Al Music Video, years ago. This anime... it's just special. Sometimes hard to understand, with lots of weird terms and sci-fi stuff, it is nonetheless enjoyable to watch. I don't know why, but Evas are among the coolest of the 'killer-robot' variety I've ever seen (I KNOW they aren't really robots). The characters annoy the crap out of me because they are really complex and do some stupid stuff, but it's still a great anime.

8. Outlaw Star - CtarlCtarl Empire! Gene Starwind. Casters. The XGP. Cool stuff. Fun Sci-fi. I describe it as, more or less, Han Solo with a little kid, a couple of wacko chicks, no money, and really bad luck. And no wookie. That's OS for you. Heh, sounds a little bit like Cowboy Bebop, actually... OS has a pretty generic animation style, doesn't stand out too much. The music is pretty standard too. But the elements in it--the races, ships, and technologies-- those make it lots of fun. I saw OS in English, I liked the dub.

9. Dragon Half - I really enjoyed this anime, and almost entirely because of the humorous elements and animation style. Kiddy and light, without a lot of violence. It's a feel-good anime! Sadly, it's only 2 episodes long, or that's all they ever did...<... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2842301/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2842301/ Fri, 09 Jul 2004 19:52:52 PDT
The trip was basically four parts: Getting there, Staying in Oaxaca, Staying in Huatulco, and Getting back. Now I shall detail each a bit more!

Getting There

Well, we left Thursday afternoon. We drove up to Syracuse and dropped my mom off, because she was going on a different flight. We went to the Syracuse Airport's hotel, a Best Western. Before retiring to bed, we went to the Carousel Center (Mall) and saw Shrek 2. Seriously, that's a funny movie. See it if you're lame enough to not have seen it already. If you have seen it, see it again >.>

Our flight was Friday morning, down to South Carolina. From there, we got another flight to Mexico city. From THERE, we caught an Executive Class (better than First Class) bus ride to Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-HA-ka).

Staying in Oaxaca

This was, all around, the worst part of the trip. We stayed in Oaxaca for a full week, and for at LEAST 1/2 of the days, we had abosolutely no scheduled activities. What proof do I have of this? 20 extra hours on my FFT save file, one less pair of batteries, more wear and tear on my CDs, and pages of stuff I wrote and drew. A pair of DA journal entries in Mexico, too, show I had free time. And some people were lucky enough to chat with me on AIM or YIM while I was in Mexico. So obviously, I had free time.

Oaxaca was a pretty nice place, though. Yeah, there were some beggers, usually playing acordians for money (one guy had an acordian, saxaphone, and recorder. My ass he's poor >.> ). It's a decent sized city of ~270,000 people, I think. It's probably the capital city or something of the Mexican State of Oaxaca, that would make sense (then again, New York City isn't the capital of NYS).

Fun stuff we did in Oaxaca: We saw these anicient ruins, I'll post pictures of them later. They were initially built about 1500 BC, and every 62 years the natives would rebuild the city over the previous versions (on the day that there was an alignment of three particular celestial bodies, which happens once every 62 years). Lessie... what else did we do...? We ate a lot of Mexican food and stuff! Spicy and yummu.

It was really nice when we finally got out of there... I was getting quite fed up with the utter lack of stuff to do. My parents were expecting us to just wander off in this foreign city/country, and find fun, safe, cheap activities to do. The internet was pretty much the only one >.>

Staying in Huatulco

On the Friday a week after getting there, we left for Huatulco (pronounced "Wa-TOOL-co"). The bus ride SUCKED. It was 7 or 8 hours, got in at 7 AM on Saturday. The ride was quite uncomfortable overall, there just wasn't a cozy way to fall asleep.

We got to our hotel and were settled in by 8 AM. My little sister and I were in a separate room from our parents. The rooms were decent, I guess... no phones, but a TV and a bathroom with a shower. Two double beds, too. Not bad for, I think, $25 a night.

Huatulco, the city, wasn't much better than Oaxaca. Not a whole lot to do, aside from some very bad internet cafes. The fun part, however, was going places. Beaches.

We went to three beaches. Well, we made three beach trips, really (one trip visited several beaches, taking us via boat from one to the next). I got sunburned on the first one, 'cuz my mom failed to apply sunscreen to my back in a thorough manner (I didn't get burned anywhere else, though). On every other trip, I managed to keep the sunburn from getting worse or hurting too much by putting on sunscreen and then keeping my T-shirt on.

The first trip took us to several beaches via boat, and included snorkeling over a coral reef. Tons of fish, but not so many variaties. That kinda surprised me...

It was my first time to the Pacific. Salty shit, it is. When snorkeling for 45 minutes, it's impossible to NOT get it in your mouth and eyes. Burns and tastes quite horrible. My younger sister got pictures while we were snorkeling, so I'll post those whenever we get them back from the store...

On each trip we snorkeled and made big pits in the sand. It was a lot of fun, because I never go to beaches! It was a lot warmer in Huatulco than Oaxaca, which made the beach-going experience all the better.

Returning Home

We got a crazy dangerous taxi ride to the airport for our 8:20 flight to Mexico City. Short plane ride. From there, we got a flight to North Carolina, then another to Syracuse. It was really weird, because we ALWAYS s... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2778210/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2778210/ Fri, 02 Jul 2004 12:04:32 PDT
Each day has been about the same now. Since I last wrote, we have had no plans. Utterly no plans. I get 8 hours of sleep, that leaves me with 16 hours per day to do whatever. I've been studying a bit of Java, trying to figure it out without a computer to test stuff on... playing a lot of Final Fantasy Tactics, I've done 120 hours total and 270/300 missions...

Mexican food is good! We usually eat out at least one meal per day. Err...

Money has been a big problem. Do you have any idea how hard it is to get replacement credit cards sent to a foreign country when you are only staying in one place for a few days? Really freaking hard! Actually my parents spend most of the day making long-distance phone calls, trying to take care of that problem.

As things are now, it seems we'll be going to the beach area over the weekend. We are leaving on Wednesday of next week.

Ack. I can't write more now, because we have to go to some cultural museum. First organized activity that we are doing in days. Woohoo.

ADDED JULY 2nd

The cultural museum was kinda cool, we got a bunch of pictures there. It was like, an old castle-style cathedral in the middle of town. It was converted into a museum within the past decade, showing off Mexican culture before and after the European takeover.

We went to Monte Albán on July 1st, one of the main reasons we came down here to Mexico. It's an old ruin site, the construction of which started approximately 500 BCE (or BC, for all you Christians...). That makes it... 2005+500... "very old" years old, or approximately.... many times my age! Wow, it sounds pretty ancient when you put it that way ^^

I got mad pictures to show people when I get back. Look forward to a bunch of new Deviations! Wheeee!

I know some of this stuff can be found throughout the various responses I have sent to people's comments, but I'll just write a bit more summarizing other stuff about me right now!

We're going to the beach today (well, tonight). Rather, we're flying to some city alongside the beach, with a hotel close to the shore. Pretty cool, ¿no? It'll be my first time seeing the Pacific Ocean! *holds his breath and waits for "ooohs" and "aaahs", eventually passing out when nobody says anything >.>*

We'll be staying there for the rest of our trip, Saturday through Tuesday. I don't know how easy it will be to access the internet there, but I hope it isn't much harder than things are right now. I like it simple. 5 minute walk from the hotel, $1, and I get to type for an hour!

I watched some maaad good people doing Pump It Up! on the 1st. The hardest difficulty modes, really fast songs, Perfect Combos of 100 and higher... just, wow. One dude used both dance pads at once, moving back and forth across 10 possible buttons! And another person used some mode I am not very familiar with, where the dance steps just vanish after they're half way up the screen. Therefore, you have to remember all the steps and combos that appeared, you have to have an EXCELLENT internal metranome to keep track of exactly how long has passed since the steps disappeared thus when you should step, AND during this complex memory process, you also have to keep reading and memorizing the new steps in the short period of time (under a second!) before they too vanish. And this guy was STILL getting Perfects and combos! I shall aquire a dance pad of my own, hook it to my computer, and dance in the privacy of my own bedroom, so I don't look like a fool publically until I'm ready to!

I can't wait to watch the VCDs that I bought here. Scary Movie 3, yayness!

I can't want to get home in general, I guess. I miss being able to talk to my friends all the time, have a bathroom that I don't have to share with 3 other people, and having a computer of my own > .>

I really miss NW! When I next see him in person, I shall glomp him senseless ^^

Well, that's about all I have to say now, I should head off before the price of this net session hits $1.40

Anime Status Disabled While in Mexico

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Thirsty
Current Fav Song: Stuff from Mo... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2749017/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2749017/ Sun, 27 Jun 2004 16:34:50 PDT
Alrighty! I spent Thursday packing for Mexico, and we left home at 4PM. We drove to Syracuse, dropped my mom off at the airport, and promptly went to the Carosel (sp?) Mall. We got subs at Subway and saw Shrek 2. It was a verrrry funny movie, I recommend that you all go see it! On our way out after the movie I noticed a Jonny Rockets. So, NW, if ever I want to take ya out to a romantic dinner... well, it wouldn´t be romantic, but you would surely enjoy it!

I slept pretty well in the hotel, and we got a 7:30 AM flight out of there. We stopped over a few hours later in North Carolina, then immediately boarded our flight to Mexico City.

Mexico City. The largest city in the world, I think, with 18 millioninhabitants. Also one of the most polluted cities. You could literally see the pollution in the air, and smell it as soon as ya got off the plane. Aaanyway... my dad and sister and I got our luggage, went through customs, and waited for my mother. She did not show up when and where she was supposed to, so we headed off to a bus station.

For $44 each, we got tickets on this very nice luxury bus. The ride was 7 hours long, but sooo nice. Let me describe it to you: Take a regular Tour bus, take out 2/3 of the seats, and make the remaining seats that much larger so you have more space. Allow each seat to recline fully to a prone position. Because it is so comfortable, complimentary blankets and pillows are included. Free drinks, too, because the ride is so long. For entertainment, add four fold-down flat panel TVs so movies may be watched. And put in not one, but two bathrooms in the back, each twice the size of a regular bus bathroom. Also, ring the windows with curtains so the interior is totally dark. Riding in this thing was like first class in a plane, without the high prices, vibrations, noise, or turbulance that a plane has. Niiice bus ride. We arrived in Oaxaca (pronounced Wa-ha-ka) at about 11 at night. We got to the hotel within a half hour. My mother arrived a little after 12, and we slept.

The next day, it was Saturday. Market day. We went to get lunch at this nutty place where our orders got botched up, then went to a maaaassive market at about 11. Tons of stuff was there. More than can be listed. Mainly food and clothing. My mom got her wallet stolen, which sucked... she lost $300 in cash, bank cards, drivers licence, etc.

Yeah, aaanyways. We fooled around in the hotel room, watched Big on TV, and met up with some friends from the States. After that, I and my sister went to this internet cafe, which charges $1 per hour to use a computer with the internet hooked up to it. Not bad, I guess. I chatted a short while with friends before going off to dinner. For dinner my dad and I got this plate with different meats and cheeses on it, I rather loved it. I watched part of Platoon in the hotel before going to bed.

We got up bright and early today, Sunday, to take a tour. We had breakfast in a muuuch better diner by 9:30 AM, and were in the tour van by 10. We toured nearby cities, saw cool stuff... notably:

One of the largest trees in the world, and the largest around (42 meters tall, 58 meters around, 2000+ years old)
A large market. Woohoo, more marketplaces >.>
A rug-weaving place

After the tour, which got us back to the hotel by 5 PM, I took a well-deserved shower. Then I headed off to this internet cafe, and here I am!

Anime Status Disabled While in Mexico

Tweek's current status:
Current Mood: Alert
Current Fav Song: I have no music *cries*
Current Fav Game: StepMania
Current Fav Anime: FLCL
~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2728664/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2728664/ Wed, 23 Jun 2004 22:58:15 PDT
I've been very lax about my entries. Largely because my days aren't very interesting...yes, I know these are not complete sentences.

Well, I found a cool game called StepMania today. It combines DDR, Pump it Up, Para Para Paradise, and a couple of other arcade dancing games. It's on PC, free to download. The reason it's better than any of these and all put together is... well, there are several reasons. First, you can get as many songs as you want/can find. I have ~800 songs now, including every DDR mix and remix out there, as well as other misc songs for various dance games. You can also view lyrics for the songs, if you have the right files... background animations and movies are possible too, with the right files. The base level of stuff for playing a song is just the file for the dance steps, and the mp3 itself, but you can have backgrounds, animations, videos, lyrics, visualizations, and even customizable dancers. Somebody programmed a dancing version of the Master Chief from Halo... yikes @.@

Anyway, more about StepMania! There are tons of customizable options, it's easy to add new songs and features (there exists a file called *.smzip, which automatically unzips and installs to the right folder). There is also a surprisingly decent sized StepMania community out there, a ring of sites who make their own songs and dance files, or rip them from games and such. Wow, the things that always existed and you just never knew about. If I can get a PS2 dancepad and the proper convertor, I should be able to actually use the dancepad instead of the keyboard... that would be nice, and then it would truly be better than DDR, in every possible way. Even NW admits to that.

That consumed most of my day, downloading over 1 GB of music files and such. I also went to Tara's house today, talked a bit with her and her mothers, etc etc.

Anime Status:
In Queue for the Queue: FAR too much to list!

Share Ratio:1.15

In Queue:
(Each , , or is 10% done)
Rurouni Kenshin - 67-95 {Dual Audio}
Tenchi Muyo! GXP {Complete}
Tenchi Muyo OVA {Complete, Dual Audio}
Princess Mononoke {Dual Audio}
Read Or Die the TV - 14-26



Newly Obtained:
Crest of the Stars {Complete, Dual Audio}
InuYasha - 52-54
Jubei Chan 2 - 2, 6, 7
Naruto - 84, 87

New D... ]]> ~TweekDragon http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2714412/ http://TweekDragon.deviantart.com/journal/2714412/ Mon, 21 Jun 2004 20:04:02 PDT
I'll just update the bottom portion of my standard entries, 'kay? All I did was use computer and argue with my parents.

Anime Status:
In Queue for the Queue: FAR too much to list!

Share Ratio:1.12

In Queue:
(Each , , or is 10% done)
Rurouni Kenshin - 67-95 {Dual Audio}
Tenchi Muyo! GXP {Complete}
Tenchi Muyo OVA {Complete, Dual Audio}
Princess Mononoke {Dual Audio}
Crest of the Stars {Complete, Dual Audio}
Read Or Die the TV - 14-26