Stuff I Put on the Internet

Christmas was awesome

2009-12-30T10:47:00.000-05:00

That's a fact. Christmas was awesome. I got to spend it with Nikki! There was lots of food, good times, hanging out at the Waters house, Christmas movies, I got a new bible (ESV), a snuggie, some dvds, some books, some DS games, some clothes, a Wii game, a sketch book with pencils, money, a gift card, I had a stocking full of candy... umm...

~~I don't like it when people type with the crossed out words. If they are no longer relevant, then just delete that part of your blog, or write something else altogether.~~

And one more thing unrelated to anything, I was trying to make my PC a Hackintosh, with the Snow Leopard, but I always get this "still waiting for root device" error. It seems to be impenetrable. I say that now, but I usually figure these things out with my mutant powers.

Sometimes, it's hard to blog.

2009-12-09T12:07:00.001-05:00

Coke floats are yummy. I like Mexican Coke. I like regular Coke too. Pepsi is weird and I do not approve. RC is awesome, but good luck finding it. RC is good with a Goo Goo cluster, not the pecan kind, the peanut kind. There's no point to any of this, I just feel bad that I've not blogged lately.

My brain slowly leaks out my right ear almost every day.

The Twitter feed has been removed from this blog, at least for now. I don't know why it seems to show everyone in the whole world's tweets, I don't care to see such retardness and foul language.

Which reminds me of the immature foulness I have to put up with online. Sometimes, it even infects Warcraft, which makes me sad. No, I WILL NOT sign your precious guild charter. I know I look really cool, but I don't know you nor do I want to know anyone that dares interrupt my precious auction house time.

Speaking of the WoW, I think I'm slowly figuring out how to make gold with this AH thing, but my fears of the risk keep me from doing too much buying and selling. Also, the 3.3 patch has just been released. It includes the infamous Icecrown Citadel. When I replace my gimp video card, (that won't let me play WoW for more than 5 minutes at a time) I'll be sure to check it out.

I may be about to bring back "the hackintosh" side of my PC. It's alot of fun. I doubt Apple thinks so, but I like doing it.

Christmas shopping is coming together nicely. I'm bad at wrapping gifts.

Merry Christmas

A somewhat disappointing realization

2009-11-13T13:32:00.005-05:00

75% of my gaming was (before PC issues started) spent playing WoW. In addition to that, I have a Wii and I love my Wii. I love Beatles Rockband, the virtual console games, the Mario and Zelda games. BUT, as I was looking around at all the available Wii games for what I may want for Christmas, I noticed there wasn't anything else good out there. It's as if the games I have are the only ones worth playing. All the other games look either really cheap or like they're made for 8 year old girls (such as remakes of old PS2 and gamecube titles, High School Musical/Disney Channel related stuff, and TONS of games involving ponies, kitties, puppies and the like). There's nothing out there that makes me go "Wow, that game looks so AWESOME!!!". Part of that might have to do with fact that the other 2 systems (PS3 and Xbox 360) have realistic full HD graphics, while the Wii has good, but cartoon-ish looking graphics at best. Example: Modern Warfare 2, this was released for PC, PS3 and 360 a few days ago. Everybody is going nuts for it, but you can't get it for the Wii. Why? Because like so many other titles, the Wii hardware is too limited to play it. No, I probably wouldn't buy that particular game -maybe. I'm not big on the realistic war games, but I do respect it as something cool. There are lots of fantastic looking titles out there for the other systems and the ability to stream Netflix movies directly to those consoles is nice too. Both other systems double as DVD players (PS3 even plays Blu-Ray). This is not a Wii bashing, the Wii is really good for people that don't normally play video games, children and maybe even the elderly. The sad truth is that the Wii's 3rd party games aren't up to snuff, and the past few months, people have started to take notice. I don't regret buying the Wii, but it doesn't completely satisfy the grown up gamer.

It will still serve it's purpose to hold me over until the day I can afford a PS3 and a hopefully an awesome HD TV to play it on :-)

your typical stack of fodder from the local Wal-Mart

*sigh*

I did something crazy

2009-11-10T13:50:00.001-05:00

It's not that crazy under the circumstances. I took the fan and heat sink off my video card, cleaned up the old thermal compound, replaced it with some compound that I happened to still have, then i put it back together and put in my PC. This isn't that crazy for me because I've installed many CPUs with heat sinks, fans and that magic goop. The fact that I'm pretty sure that the card is about half dead anyway gave me some extra courage too.

There was some updating going on today: Snow Leopard, World of Warcraft, my outdated Nvidia Drivers and Firefox on the Mac. What else are you going to do before work on a Tuesday?

I've become more fond of hot tea. I don't know why really, I've never had much of an interest in it before. I've always been the coffee drinker. Also, I watched some movie about Mothra last night while i was falling asleep. Mothra is a giant moth from Japan, and apparently there's these little bitty women that can call him to fight other ridiculously big critters that live only in Japan. If you are a really big creature, that makes you angry because there are no beds to sleep in your size, no toothbrushes and no shoes that will fit you. When you are in this situation you are more likely to just go around tearing up stuff because you can't get a job when you are bigger than all the buildings you would otherwise work in. I think that's why there's lots of giant monster destruction in general. Mothra doesn't have these issues because well, he's a big fat moth. He wouldn't wear shoes anyway because he flies and he wouldn't need a toothbrush because he has these non distinct furry mouth parts. This puts Mothra in a situation where he becomes a clear thinker as apposed to being angry at everything.

Mothra will flap you to death

This man is almost as big as Mothra. He's the tallest man in the world, but I've never heard of him before. It looks like he found big shoes to wear. I bet he's a nice guy.

Are you there internet? It's me, Robert.

2009-11-03T20:44:00.001-05:00

Well, I was WRONG about my PC. It is not fixed. The new power supply did not fix the issue, as revealed by recent random restarts. The next 2 candidates are the video card and the motherboard. I will not go into this in detail here, but there are some ways I can test this -to a certain extent.

My Macbook has the Snow Leopard. This little laptop has been through hell, but I rebuilt it as much as I could. It's amazing after the physical damage, how the little thing just keeps ticking. I will forever gush over the Mac. Call me a fanboy blinded by the black magic of Steve Jobs and his Techno-wizards, I don't care. If I had more cash, I'd have a huge crazy iMac, the one with laser guns mounted on the sides and the optional cloaking device (iHide).

Update and Good Times

2009-10-13T13:15:00.001-04:00

To follow upon the last blog, I tell you that my PC got better.

I came to the realization that much of it is so antiquated that selling it is not an option... dang. I was really hoping to begin my journey toward an a take-no-prisoners mac.

This past weekend was great. Good times with Nikki, we traveled the world. We ate good foods, we explored, looked at random items to buy (like various decor, useful housewares and giant-screened macs), drank beer from foreign lands, watched "Flash Forward" on Hulu. I wish we could have more time to do things together... oh well.

What makes a computer just restart itself?

2009-09-19T18:08:00.002-04:00

Ghosts? Aliens? Pirates?

If I leave my computer alone and let it sit there, It most likely will not (but it still does occasionally) restart itself (unless you slightly bump it). If you start up a video game like WoW, it restarts itself within a few minutes. Umm... I don't understand. It was doing this a few months ago and then it "got better" however the crap that happens. Now, I'm like "run my games!!!" and it's like "but I'm le tired". Let me clarify: restart as if someone were to use the power button on the machine to quickly power it off, then back on again. This may or may not be a clue to the problem, there is a big open space on the front of my computer case (because it is a big old ghetto baige case from the 90's) and through this opening, you can push or tug directly on the main power cable that runs from the power supply to the motherboard. If you ever so slightly push, pull or touch that cable, the computer will restart. If the computer is off and you do that, it will power up the computer!!! That sounds like a loose connection, but guess what? I checked and there are no loose cables. My inclination upon going through all this is that perhaps the power supply or subsequent cables that are running out of it are in some way bad. If not that then what? The motherboard? The video card? Memory? Gremlins?

Help... If you see this message and know something.... help...

I SOLD OUT!!!

2009-09-14T17:07:00.004-04:00

I've got ads, full-blown ads (for the next couple of days, they'll be PSAs). On the off chance that some day, teh interwebs send me a check for 72 cents, I monetized my blog. So, I'm not allowed to click on my own ads, you guys do that. I hope the ads are good. I talk about awesome things like crispy crunchy McDonald's fries. Hint hint...

I'm off tomorrow, which is good because Nikki is too, and we will play BEATLES ROCKBAND on the Wii!!!!

Update: the actual ads have started. So far, I see one that says "Free Psychic Blog" and another that says "Sexy Tattoos". Google... c'mon you can do better than that, you read my email for crying out loud. Wait, I see a World of Warcraft ad... there's still hope.

level 80

2009-09-14T01:25:00.001-04:00

Blah, blah, blah... game stuff.

Last month, the preview trailer for the next WoW expansion was released (I want it now). Given Blizzard's track record, that means it's at least a year away. Oh well, I can wait. I've played WoW almost 5 years... I think. Before that, I saw my old room mate playing a beta version of it. I never had a level 60 before the cap was raised to 70 nor did I ever have a 70 before the cap was raised to 80. In short, I'm saying that I've been taking my sweet time. Add to this, the fact that my first level 80 is a Death Knight, which means he started off as a level 55. Suddenly, having a level 80 isn't quite a big deal anymore. I raised one character a mere 25 levels in almost a year. I'm obviously not a WoW addict, yay me!

I don't see how people level characters quickly, I don't see how they obtain ridiculous amounts of money. Maybe I do though. It's probably what happens when you're one of those people that obsess over of it. I've had times when I played tons, but it seems to go in stages. After I get my fill, I go do other things. It's a cycle.

I get mad though, when I hear about some stupid guy on the news that dies after playing WoW for several days straight. Or some jerk that plays to the point where his wife is like "it's me or the game". People hear about these things and think "that game must be really bad". In reality, it's about moderation and whether they actually have control over the things in life (or as the saying goes "do things control them instead?"). Some examples: I love me some McDonald's but not every meal! Beer is good, but drinking the whole six pack in one sitting... not so much. If I mindlessly surfed the net or just vegetated in front of the TV... you get the point. People that get addicted, will get addicted to something. It's all about their personalities, it just happened to be WoW for them this time. Later on, the same people will most likely be letting something else take over their empty lives.

Get used to the bad grammar. Get used to blogs about video games. Get used to blogs about computer stuff. Get used to even seeing blogs that may or may not contain action figures.

McDonald's fries sure are good.

awesome weekend

2009-08-31T15:26:00.006-04:00

This past weekend was the official weekend of the word "AWESOME". Not just in the slang, throwing around the word "awesome" type of awesome, but in the actual literal definition of the word. Nikki and I spent the weekend at Winshape Retreat for "Prepare to Last". She stayed in a big nice room, and I could have had my own big nice room, but chose to stay in my usual room (for those of you just joining in on my life via this blog, Nikki is my fiancee and I live in a room at the retreat to take care of random things as they arise). ANYWAY, we got to listen to an amazing couple talk about marriage all weekend. They were so knowledgeable and so funny (Jeff and Debby McElroy). I highly recommend Prepare to Last to any couple that is even considering getting engaged.

Here is a little picture of the place.

I learned enough things this past weekend to realize that I really don't know anything about marriage, and I won't even know how much I don't know until I'm an old guy that's been married for many years looking back on my life... I think it's like that from what I can tell so far.

As of this posting, Nikki is my only reader. I would imagine that as she reads this she's probably thinking about how weird it is for me to keep refering to her in the 3rd person, being that no one else reads this and that's ok. If she's my only reader, then that's definitely good enough for me, but anybody else that wants to sift through my collection of incoherent verbiage is certainly welcome to do so :-)

let's not ignore the elephant in the room

2009-08-28T05:07:00.002-04:00

There's no way around it, I have a blog. What's this first post going to be about at 5 am? It's going to be about me waking up, failing to fall back asleep and creating a blog. I mean really, that seems appropriate to me. There was no blog here, and now you're reading it. Wow! Now, that's progress. What once was a tangled interweb of spam, ads, spyware, and general assorted internet creepiness is now this blog. You should sit down for a bit and contemplate this awesome feat. I know I am and hopefully that will be enough to put me back to sleep.

btw, my grammar is atrocious... get used to it