In Between the Lynk

You get me?

2008-01-22T22:33:50Z

Dammit, I still have a freakin' crush on Michelle Branch.

Unabridged Leave

2007-11-10T04:38:24Z

Hi ho, everyone. Has it been a while?

Surprisingly enough, I'm back. I'm not staying. You see, I have a hard time picking up a project after leaving it for an extended amount of time, so I'm afraid this might be the end of In Between the Lynk. It's been a good few years. I do apologize for departing so suddenly. Good news though. I have another blog. I want to give it to all of you, and at first I was thinking about having readers drop me a quick message if they were interested in it, but I think I will drop it here just to make it easy.

http://lynk-1up.blogspot.com/

You'll like it. It's better than this one.

Anyway, how the hell is everyone? I realize that my entries over the past year or so have been about 50% boring. Don't worry; my life is no longer subject to the anger monger that it had been for about a year. Let me explain with an anecdote.

Dating a girl with a dick is detrimental towards expression.

It's really as simple as that. I'm glad I snapped to, although, honestly I did months ago. This shit is no longer a concern for me, and I've quite simply moved on. I just figure since this is my first entry since that time, I'd do a little house cleaning to keep you all up to date.

She was a controlling, insecure, immature brat and if it weren't for my inexperience on such things, I wouldn't have let it gone on. I do thank all my friends who warned me with great effort. I really should have listened. In fact, readers, you have been great sports about my blog and it's ways of expressing things that... might just happen to offend. I do hope you find it entertaining as much as I do. I promise you, I won't let some miserable little miscreant jeopardize my soul ever again. I'll never let some selfish hoe try to get between me and my friends.

She can go off and live her own miserable life, perhaps graduate college at 30, and continue telling everyone how horrible of a person I am. From what I hear, 3 or 4 months later, she's still on it. Of course, I can say that I am too, but just long enough to finish this post. There are people in this world who know what it takes to be a good person, and there are others who want to claw their way over good people. It doesn't matter if you declare your actions in the name of some just cause, whether it be liberty or feminism, a bitch is a bitch is a bitch.

In fact, (and I do this for a personal chuckle) I've found an article about bitches, and I realize that it is very safe to say that I was encountered by one. It's credentials are very much certified:

" Noun: Bitch (bich):

A miserable person who sucks all joy and happiness out of life, and makes life a little less worth living by her consistently shitty attitude. When not complaining, her drama and gossip will fill the void. He or she (but usually she) refuses to do something with a group, and will forego hanging out with said group unless they're doing something she wants to do. She will put her interest ahead of others every single time, just for the sake of being a bitch. A bitch hates fun.

"Hey guys, sorry we can't check out that cool new Brazilian restaurant, Janet is being a bitch."

A status you assume when you take one in the pooper while incarcerated.

What you become when you fail at pool, bowling, Super Dodgeball on NES, English, math, Street Fighter Alpha, etc.

Having a thankless job where you work lots of overtime without pay while your boss is on vacation.

Having to sit in the middle seat between two people in a car or plane.

Being last in line to get cake or ice cream at a party.

Crying and throwing a tantrum about something nobody gives a shit about, including you.

"I'm not going to give you $6 for my share of an $11 pizza when all I owe you is $5.50. I shouldn't have to pay extra, waaaaaah!" "

Quote from Maddox, of The Best Page in the Universe.

I thank you everyone for the great time. I'll be keeping this up so I can post, and so my archives will always be available. Good night!

Last Year...

2007-08-25T20:23:03Z

Watch me Dance

2007-07-26T18:31:19Z

Three-sixty-five

2007-07-15T06:42:40Z

After one year, my feelings for Lindsey have only grown stronger. Constantly getting to know her more and more is so much fun. I love sharing hilarious moments with her. I am about ready to pass out, so I will make this mega-quick.
I went to spend the day with her up in Glens Falls/Saratoga. It was such a lovely day. I really wish it didn't go by so quickly. There was so much I wanted to do. Oh well. We had such a great time. I strongly suggest that everyone go out and see Ratatouille right now. I cannot wait for her to be back in Oneonta.
Gah. I am so sleepy. Goodnight.

My Life is Tron 2.0

2007-07-08T06:06:14Z

    It's time again for a computer update. I descry future agony if I don't perform regular maintenance once in a while. Little morsels of issues have hinted to me that it's time for a reformat on The Machine. It should be pretty cut and paste, especially now with half a TB of external driveness, but I always get nervous around software licenses, and fear that I will forget to back up something.

    My goal is simple. I will make it easier for myself to do monthly backups. Perhaps even weekly backups. This mostly just involves me organizing where my software looks for configuration files, and how organized I keep my own files. Once I install XP and the windows updates, and get my drivers updated, and install all my software (an endeavor that takes about three full days) I will do something I should've done a long time ago. I will ghost my system drive. For those of you unfamiliar, what this does is creates a mirror image of one drive to another, basically. It works like a restore disk that a computer manufacturer would package with a system. I'm just raising the bar, and telling it that the factory defaults include all my applications, updates, and settings. It's a pretty sweet system. That way, if I had to restore again, I'd have a very advanced restore point and generally not have to fuss for nearly as long.

    To make this easier, I am doing the preliminary test on Lucky. She runs just fine as it is, but I wouldn't mind wiping the drives to start from scratch. She'll be part of my file backup system anyway, being as she's practically a server. Plus, I want her set up to game on my television, so I plan on getting a wireless keyboard and mouse eventually. The biggest thing I am worried about are my software licenses. The only real issue I can think of is my antivirus, which might run me another $50. I know they are kind of huffy about how many times they are installed, even if on the same system. I ran a Belarc scan and got seven pages of system information, so I might be able to trick it. The only other issue I may have involve plugins for my art software. I'd hate to purchase those again, as they were very expensive.

    If all goes as planned, The Machine's reformat will occur in eight days.

Adventures in Alchemy

2007-06-17T00:39:03Z

NyQuil Gets Lynk to Talk

2007-06-16T01:19:29Z

    Leapin' Leonardo Dicaprio, am I getting bad at dictating my life to this vessel. I am not sure who I am writing this for exactly. Perhaps there is an audience of super-intelligent Furbogs out there who greet my entries with such joyous verve that they wave their candles around in celebration. I tip my hat to them, if I had such a hat.
    I am in fact working now. I am not sure if I've mentioned this. In fact, I've signed documents agreeing not to. Basically, I'm the man you need to talk to for all your IT needs, whether it be your SQL database management languages not operating quite as "cross-platform" as you'd like, or perhaps you don't know how to click the little mailbox thing to get your email. I rise to the occasion, like a Paladin with a few handy seals.

    Fortunately, I woke up this morning thinking I was about to die. I believe it's about every twenty to twenty-five livejournal updates that I come down with a very bad sinus infection. This of course, is no exception. Fever, green nostril excrements, sore throat, and the wondrous ability to drive someplace and not remember how I got home. I passed out on the sofa with The Matrix in the PS2 (not the game, the movie) and when I woke up, I decided to get pissed off at chicken. Damn you chicken. Why must you need to be thawed? I hate you, chicken. Of course, this is what happens when Lynk takes NyQuil. Dammit, I want chocolate chip pancakes.

    It seems my newfound illness has made me somewhat disgruntled. I did get through work okay. I hope Lindsey is having a better day than I am! I'm missing her like crazy. Next semester is going to be great. Michael, Jones, Pacelli, Jessus, and of course Lindsey, spending quality time here at O-town. I should get huge beanbag chairs and cover my living room in them for movie nights. Now if only we could talk Michael into kidnapping Jennn to complete the deal. I can't believe it has almost been a year since Lindsey and I have been officially a couple. It is really exciting for me. Allow me to speak like a high schooler and say "It's just liek, wow, u kno?" I can't wait to see her again, and spend long afternoons in the park, and intense nights of Tetris and New Super Mario Bros. More than anything, I miss laughing with her.

    Has anyone checked out my sketch-a-day blog? I swear, this is the last tangent of the evening. I feel like I should scrap the project, since it was supposed to be updated near-daily. Would it be right to change its fundamental schematic? Historically, and personally, I'd say no. Maybe the sands (or winds) of change (or progress) will stir (or folly) and I will make something of it yet. Either way, I am going to kick a frozen chicken through my window and make something out of chocolate chips. Even if it is just chocolate chips served in hand.

Al-bany

2007-06-03T00:01:48Z

    It took longer than I had wanted it to, but I finally got settled into the new apartment, A.K.A, Lynk Manor. It's a welcome change, although there are many things I have to get used to. I also have to slaughter a few ants. It's under control though. I realize I promised you pictures, and they are on their way, but I want to finish installing the furniture before I snap off some official shots. The hardest thing is leveling up my cooking skills. My shower has a body wash dispenser, my bed is also my office. Yes sir, I've got it made. The twenty-seven phone calls a day from home need to stop, but other than that, I'm doing just fine. The sofa should be here any minute now.

    I see there has been a lot of drama lately streaking across the face of the Internet. First Flickr, then Live Journal. I'm sure you've caught wind of it all by now. For both situations, I think neither website is at fault. Flickr didn't give Rebekka Guðleifsdóttir's photography to some crappy art retailer to sell. Flickr provides a service, and some bastard took advantage of it. By the way, check out Rebekka's gallery. It's good. Now, as far as Live Journal goes, I never... hmmm, can we do something to emphasize "never" even more? I ~~never~~ thought Live Journal would be able to cause drama. If I could type "never" with the an octave pitch change and rolling eyes, I would. In case you were wondering, I'm using a traditional form of expression that originated in the Casm del-Sar. It seems people were upset because their Papa-fox on Baby-fox Furry Fan-Fiction was accidentally suspended from the outer crust of Live Journal after a large scale reporting spree occurred across the subjects of child-pr0n and incest. While I am all about taking away everyone's right to freedom of speech and expression, I feel this was a couple steps too far. There is nothing I enjoy reading more than fan-fiction involving children, anthropomorphic animals, and characters from Dragon Ball Z in epic, lust-filled romances written by the lower teen-crowd. Seriously to reiterate, again, it was obviously just a mistake, and a lot of people were offended by Live Journal's course of action. This goes doubly so for the anti-incest and anti-child pr0n groups, which is understandable. Losing the trust of the Live Journal staff would be foolish malarkey, as they were mostly adhering to their zero-tolerance policies. For those who weren't actually in the wrong, the Live Journal staff is rolling back the suspensions. What more can you ask of them? Of course, I break the Live Journal terms and agreements contract at least eight times an entry, but that's besides the point. Either way, I think Live Journal handled the situation the best they could, while admitting they messed up. Good for you, Live Journal! I still support you... despite my slight love affair with Blogger that is ever-growing.

    Breaking away from Internet drama, I'd like to share a little recent experience with you. Lindsey, Mr. Jones, Ryan (from ancient Save A Lot) and Jess (likewise) got together to go to Albany to see the Weird Al concert at the Palace Theater. On the way, yours truly received his first major traffic violation. I had a wonderful time otherwise. It's nice hanging out with Jones again, and I don't nearly see Ryan as often as I should. Lindsey of course, well, it has been a couple weeks since I last saw her; it was so great to spend time with her again. I miss her so much when she's away. You probably know this. Anyway, Weird Al's latest tour is a very incredible show, with a better sound and light system than even the last tour, and the energy level is even higher. It's always so nostalgic for me to see him. He inspired me to become interested in music back when I was just a lad. Of people who have played a major role in my growing up, he's right up there with Super Mario and Sonic the Hedgehog.

    After the concert, we hung around the dump that is Albany for a while. Oh, and we managed to get some pretty sweet photographs...

Al is evidently amused by my giddy demeanor, or the fact that I brought an accordion he already signed years ago.
He seemed very exhausted after the show, so we didn't stay very long to pester him.

I love this photo, but I am really not sure what to think about it. It appears there's an exchange of evil ideas, or perhaps Lindsey's hair was smelling that good.

And of course, Mr. Jones brought his cube to meet Al. Al always seems to be a great sport when it comes to fans. He's just an all around swell guy, and doesn't hold that cocky celebrity persona at all. Best of all, his fans are always so energetic, and they come in all ages and demographics. As the times change, and the cultures change, Al shouldn't have to worry, because there will always be audiences who want to laugh and have fun, and appreciate his work.

Nerf

2007-05-27T00:10:03Z

You know, I knew full well this would happen eventually. I thought I was prepared. Thirty seconds is a pretty long time to be sheep-ed. Besides, these things need to be altered every now and again for balance. I guess it just hit a bit too close to home. I even promised myself I wouldn't get upset. It's not that easy. Evidently, Blizzard hates Mages. That's right. The Polymorph Spell? That last patch cut down the thirty second Polymorph to an eight second quickie. What good does that do for me? Lynkmatic can't crowd control an bunch of elites if he has to use his little gnomish fingers to cast Polymorph every eight seconds! Come on Blizzard! Go fuck with the Paladins or something! Oh well. My account expired a few days ago. I won't be showing my face in Azeroth for quite some time. They of course made up for it by announcing (finally) a confirmed Starcraft 2. Unfortunately, I've got the MMO virus, and Guild Wars can't be anything more than temporary relief. I'm considered Eve-online, or maybe I'll wait for Vanguard. Any suggestions?

Pack-Man

2007-05-25T15:25:00Z

    Wakka wakka.

    I've been keeping myself intensely occupied between Pokemon Diamond and packing all of my possessions into as few containers possible. I hate moving to a degree, and what I hate most is taking trips from the van with just a armful of loose items. I'd rather have everything contained in a few large trunks, bins, and drawers. This is proving to be difficult, as I have a dickload of stuff. I have a feeling any item left here will be buried in the backyard of a randomly selected mobile-home lot, so I have very little margin for error here.

    I am very set to move in though. I've got the Internetz subscribed to, with a hopeful install on Tuesday, between the hours of six a.m. and six p.m. Time Warner gives me a very precise twelve hour window for my convenience. As you can see, I appreciate it...bastards. My sofa and Lynk-throne ™ will be arriving the fourth of June, which I highly anticipate. All I need to do now is decide whether or not to go 42 inches on the television, get a PS2 (to play DVDs) and a glass measuring cup. I've been given quite a few hand-me-downs as far as kitchen utensils and tools (!) go. While some things are brand new, never before used, others are simply the refuse of kitchens long forgotten, ancient relics and methods of measurements that no longer have meaning. So, I need a Pyrex. I appreciate the help I've been getting from my parents, but knowing my mother, every crumb of assistance equals a cake of onus. I don't care what anyone says, I'm not eating a chocolate onus cake.

    I begin moving on Sunday. Pictures will be posted on Tuesday, or whenever Time Warner can figure out their jobs. I shalt not jinx it though. As for now, I must go. I need to pack my Pogs.

    One last thing, I'd like to congratulate Lindsey on completely PWNING at the job searching game. May the luck-gland be with you!

Circumstances Eat Themselves

2007-05-18T21:02:24Z

I quite enjoy the bits of life that carry you through with no personal effort. What started out as a pretty sucky week turned into something a bit different. I sign my lease tomorrow. I need to start packing. I'm quiting my current job, because being a salesman is gayer than Jack Thompson at an arcade. In fact, there was honest talk of the store cutting back one of the four salesmen. I'll save them the trouble. I put in my two weeks. I then proceeded to eat my bag lunch, and wandered over to a computer tech support/networking office and got hired instantly. I've got a little while to plan out my moving procedure. Along with that, I need to figure out the status of the Weird Al Concert. I'm not sure who all is going at this point. In fact, if you are some bizarre reader who is interested in a Weird Al concert ticket or two, for June 1st in Albany at the Palace Theater, let me know, and if I have any extra when all is said and done, we can work something out.

In Hindsight

2007-05-13T00:57:33Z

    By my own admission, I feel that lately I have been somewhat of a canuck the past few weeks. On most accounts, especially to friends who long ago admired my cynical sarcasm and my hatred for all things foolish and popular, this returning phase is probably getting past the radar undetected. I've changed a lot this past year. I can safely say that having Lindsey in my life has helped me forge a few hidden attributes that I otherwise couldn't tap into. The past few weeks though, I feel I've just been struggling with myself. Upon postulating probable causes, my guesstimate comes down to me being uncertain with what I want to do, should be doing, and am capable of doing. I've been clawing desperately for a sense of comfort and self confidence. I'm not saying I am anything but brimming with self confidence, but in some situations, it seems to conveniently withdraw. Is this out of the ordinary? I am sure it is not. I desire something worth focusing on. To make matters worse, I have that which I desire, tenfold. I have several projects in mind, some of them potentially quite salubrious but only time can tell.

    As literary conventions would have it, I'd like to bridge to the coda, and temporarily change the subject. I found an apartment in Oneonta. It's a beautiful, two bedroom, one and a half bathroom upstairs job, all freshly remodeled with hardwood floors. It's a little small, but really, apartments are small. Everything is always small to me. I think it just seems small because the stairway is a tad bit narrow, and there's no actual hallway. If I could compare it to anything, I'd guess it is about the size of Jennn's last apartment before she moved in with Mike. I only mention this for my own reference, so that I can sum up the pros and cons later. The rent is a little high, but it's about what everyone has to pay. My job seems lucrative enough that I can handle it with no problem. This will be determined as soon as I get payed next week. The spring semester is coming to a close, and I marvel at how quickly it's gone by. Granted, I don't even go to college anymore, but my people do. Friends are graduating and going away for good. While that's never been easy, this semester it seems like it is all the people I am pretty close to, but haven't been able to hang out with over the past year or so. I do, of course, congratulate them for getting through their sentence at SUCO. Lastly, Lindsey is going home for the summer. She will be greatly missed, but I think it will give me a good chance to overwork myself this summer, while still having time to drive up to see her every so often. I hope someday to spend a summer with her. A good friend had once told me, "Summers are like the Saturdays of life. They are few, so make the best of them." I really want to put forth more time to explore the world with her, and to go out and do things that everyone is far too gangster to do. I figure if I keep working hard, I can get used to it, and make the best of my time without suffering from exhaustion after a long day of selling washing machines and explaining the differences between HDMI connections and coaxial cables. It's getting better every day, as I get more and more comfortable with it, and it has caused me to realize something; I can do just about anything. Actually, Rainbow proved that to me, my new job at Rex Electronics just simply double-checked my work. I am not at all unhappy with my new job. I just hope I can make the best out of it, and earn some money. If I earn some money, I'll retroactively have more time later to experiment with other ideas from my manifests. Hmmm, it really doesn't seem bad that way. It's just a means of getting to where I want to be.

    Perhaps with all this on my mind, I've been trudging through life with a crummy outlook without even noticing. I apologize to anyone it has affected. It is really hard to mean to do well, but all you end up doing is disappointing. I've probably seemed distant lately, or maybe even boring. Perhaps I seem inattentive? Either way, I think I am back on the highway I wanted to merge onto way back before that asshole in the little Volvo of Life cut me off. From here on out, I'm going to strive to be more gregarious. Has anyone else felt this sort of temporary distance from the world, regardless of how much you really do appreciate that around you? Feel free to discuss it if you'd like.

It's time to Pokemon!

2007-05-05T02:06:53Z

    First of all, in case any of you aren't in the know, I figure I should make a few things clear before reviewing Pokemon Diamond on the Nintendo DS:
        I am a 24 year old male.
        I live at home with my parents. I sleep in the basement.
        I hate children, and made-for-retard anime, such as Yu-gi-oh, Sailor Moon, InuYasha, and the Pokemon television series.
        I played the original Pokemon (Blue) long before the seven year olds thought it was cool.

    With that squared away, we may continue. It's been well over ten years since the original Pokemon cartridge snuck past the American lines, and since then, there have been dozens of incarnations of the little pocket monster series. It goes without saying that the idea itself is particularly toyetic. Hundreds of cute little beasts with pun-inspired names lined up for a massive adventurous cock-fight is a concept more marketable than fucking car magnets. Since 1995, where only 151 (strangely, a number familiar to alcoholics) species of Pokemon had roamed the tall grass, about the only major change has been in the genealogical variance. In fact, in a little over ten years, the number of Pokemon species has more than tripled to a ghastly 493. For the anal-collector, who's mantra is in fact, "Gotta' Catch 'em All," this is both a joygasm and a threat to steal more hours.

    As usual, the game starts out pretty typically. You are a young boy, (or girl, if you so choose) and you've just hit that age where you get the fuck out of the one bedroom house that you and your mom live in, to go explore the world and pit animals against each other. You do a bunch of stuff, and things happen, and there's always a professor or doctor who gives you a choice of three Pokemon. You can pick one to start out with. The douchebag next door picks one of the others, and his choice is always the one that is better at kicking your ass. This is how it has always been, and it will never change. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl is no exception. There are differences, and they are minor enough to make everything feel so familiar, while keeping things just a little fresh.
    Of course, now that you have a little friend to carry around, you can leave your crap-hole of a town and explore the world. Your goal is to travel to each of the major towns to battle your Pokemon against the Pokemon of Gym Leaders, who will give you badges. That seems pretty straightforward. There are many other trainers who will want to agitate whatever cute monsters they've caught, causing it to savagely fight yours. You're given the quest to catch every Pokemon to catalogue them into your Pokedex, acting as a researcher. The formula is exactly the same. What makes Pokemon Diamond/Pearl really stand out though, is the amount of polish.

    The game looks beautiful. It's fairly simple and very clean looking. All the Pokemon are very simple sprites with only a few frames for each, but it's presented in a way that makes it very charming and fun. The music is very catchy and well composed, with both new material and older tunes, and the sounds are designed to sound like they are coming from an original Gameboy. I'm not sure how much I enjoy that. I would have loved it if they re-recorded all of the sounds the Pokemon make, in a more realistic style, instead of electronic buzzes and bzzts, but that's just me. Using the touch screen in all of your battles and menus was a nice touch, making it a convenience. I wish the main menu was on the touch screen at all times, but again, that's just me. Instead, there's a calculator and a pedometer. It's just as good I suppose, if not a little outlandish. Throughout the game, conflicts arise, and you find out that the douchebag next door is an even bigger douchebag than you thought at first. His mom is a bitch too. There are a lot of neat mini-quests and side missions thus far, and I am only about 18 hours into the game.

    I never would have gauged my reentry of Pokemon to be so fulfilling. I ran across a trainer with a Psyduck and I felt a sparkle of gaiety. I think any casual listeners out there should know that I expect them to own a DS. If you even have to question it, you should be running to the store to pick up two of them. Pokemon Diamond/Pearl seems to be a very good pick. If you ever enjoyed Pokemon, you will like the game. If you've never given it a thought, you probably won't be very disappointed.

Spring is Here!

2007-04-23T08:41:28Z

    It's late, after a long, adventure-filled day, so I will keep this short and simple.

    Lindsey and I wandered along the Susquehanna on a little trail she discovered, donning our cameras. It was so much fun taking pictures with each other and enjoying the warm weather. She has a lot of artistic talent, and an amazing natural eye for composition. I love being there when it comes out. I greatly enjoy our long walks together, as I cherish anytime I spend with her, whether it be lying on the grass at a park, long drives to nowhere in particular, amazing conversation, or even the aggressive head-to-head melees we have on the DS or the Wii.

    I hope that everyone in the world could feel towards someone else the way I feel towards her. I think there wouldn't be stupid frat guys or white trash if that were the case. Before I depart, I will leave you with some pictures. Maybe sometime this week I'll talk to you all about Pokemon Diamond. Look forward to it!

So beautiful...

This one just makes me laugh. It reminds me of all the countless times she's been able to make me laugh and cause my day to be better. That, and I think it's a pretty hot picture.
I don't think I could have had a better time today.

Somewhere I'm Selling Rainbows

2007-04-14T03:44:51Z

Somewhere I'm showing Rainbows
With my tie
Giving demos to home owners
No obligation to buy

Somewhere I'm selling Rainbows
Please sign here
Here's your financing papers
With no interest until next year

I'm setting up some appointments
My closing average is forty percent on my leads
I've got a six and then an eight
Earthquakes or snow, I won't rain-date
I will not concede

Somewhere I've got my Rainbow
In my car
Drove out to your home in East Bumfuck
To find out that's not where you are.

Your vacuum sucks and spits out dirt
That's one point I reassert, you filthy slob
Your carpets will be worn right down
You see this gritty dirt we found?
This is just my job

Somewhere I sold a Rainbow
For full price
Twenty-one eighty-nine plus tax
Damn this commission is nice.

Weak in Review

2007-03-25T02:57:51Z

    The Machine is busticated. Remember? I named my Alienware "The Machine?" Well, it made a little internal dump in it's casing today. I've been repairing that all day. For those of you who aren't completely out of the loop with the things in life that will either benefit you or enslave you, I'll explain exactly what happened.

    While operating, I got a little pop-up warning saying a file was missing or corrupt, informing me to run ScnDsk. Of course, the best way to run that utility is by rebooting. I was already driving an unstable session, so I figure it would be a good chance to figure out what's up. Of course, upon rebooting, the machine never gave windows a chance. I got a message stating that hal.dll was missing or corrupt. Fuck. So I grabbed an XP installation CD from my collection and tried to repair my windows installation. That just installed it to the other drive. Huh... that's weird. I didn't tell it to. I made the best of it, and copied the hal.dll file I needed from the new installation to the old location, and tried it. It booted up differently, but still would not run. If I could just get it to run at all, I'd be able to perform a rolling restart and roll back 24 hours.

    I called up the Geek Squad. They told me I should go to Best Buy. I really had my hopes up about them. Don't bother with it unless you live near a Best Buy. Then I called Microsoft, and after the usual half hour of waiting, they gave me some advice that started to get me on the right track. Then I called Alienware, and I was worked through some of the best tech support I've ever had to deal with. We couldn't figure out a way to fix the problem, but we tried for an hour and a half. He told me to try our procedures a few more times, if not, I'll unfortunately have to reformat and start anew. Oh well.

    So now I'm pulling every last file from my 380 gigs of disk space and sticking them all on my external. I love my giant external drive. I hate doing this. I will reformat my system drive. Then I will painstakingly install all my software and drivers and get all my settings back to the way I like them. It will take days, maybe longer, like it usually does. Long term readers, you know exactly what I'm talking about.

    As for the rest of my week, let's just say it hasn't been the best week ever. A lot of it has been my fault too. I've been really distracted this week with everything, and I don't know why. I've been almost depressed about stuff. I think I just needed some extra sleep or something. Work hasn't been going all that well. I like it and all, it's just not a steady paycheck. When it is a paycheck, it's a good one, but it's too much dedication when you are full time. I'm still in the market, occupationally. I've got my fingers crossed on a couple of options, but I'm not holding my breath.

    The best part of this week lies somewhere between me finding a sweet apartment to check out, and having an amazing geological pun-fest with Lindsey tonight.

Lynk Vs. Sunshine, round three, fight!

2007-03-18T18:57:26Z

    It has been a long couple of weeks. Actually, the days go by fast. I continuously discover I do not have enough minutes in a day to do everything I want. Having an official full time job is kicking my ass. Of course, this is an inevitability that I have a full time job, as it is what most people do. I hope someday to be doing exactly what I want, but for now, I've got to do what I need to. While I haven't done exceptionally well when it comes to sales, the boss seems to favor me. Perhaps he is toying with my confidence, and my self-pride, but it's making me willing to stick with the trade. It is a tricky job, with a lot of psychology involved. The product sells itself. It's my job to convince people they can afford it.

    I've also been using what little free time I have to enjoy a lot of unique experiences with Lindsey. Older readers may remember my unwillingness to sample the bar scene in Oneonta. In fact, everyone can probably gather from my monologues that I hate people who drink to get drunk. Synthetic-fun, as I like to call it, makes nothing but disgusting people. Well, Lindsey talked me into trying the Pub about a week ago. There was an amazing jazz/jam band playing, and I knew a few of the members. It was a lot of fun, and it was a fairly quiet night at the pub. We had such a great time, it was really refreshing.

    We went back to the pub last night, on National Nobody-Knows-Why-But-It's-Time-To-Get-Wasted-Day. There was a Frank Zappa cover band and a video game remix band called The Kode there. They rocked it so hard. I was absolutely thrilled. We had a lot of fun, and we didn't need to drink anything either time we were there. Although, last night, being as it was the Holiday of Beer, the Pub was congested with scum and villainy. I'm not saying there weren't good, considerate people there, but it only takes a few jerkwads to overcome that. I'm sure you know the type. The big, ape-sized jock-ass frat guys? The kind that pre-game and become so plastered that their brains cannot function properly? I'd imagine if their brains were in proper working order, they wouldn't be such retards. You see, most humans have a natural safety mechanism that causes them not to make fools of themselves. It comes in the recipe of one part guilt, two parts embarrassment, and a pinch of social fear. Unfortunately, when you add alcohol to the mix, it becomes completely ineffective. You become less of a human. First of all, it disgusts me that all those fucktards look exactly the same. They are like the orange-skins of males. Not a single one of them has any physical attributes that make them distinctive from each other. They have skewed perceptions of life, women, and the world around them. They panic when someone is different. They are overconfident, thinking that they can do anything they want without repercussions. Worst of all, dumb drunk girls find this totally acceptable. It feeds the fire.

    So Lindsey had to throw a few assholes around. I did my fair share of shoving too, especially when it got too crowded for me, and the really jocky-ape guys kept rubbing their asses against me. I have nothing against gay people, but listen, you filthy guido yankees fan, go pack your brownies with your chest-pounding, sea-shell necklace wearing boyfriends. And if you are the type of lumbering, tall drunk who holds cups of beer above peoples' heads while dancing? That shit is not funny. Some of us aren't there to shower in beer. I cannot figure out why people are so retarded. Drinking to get drunk is not cool. Being drunk is not funny. Asking a video game cover band, mid-concert, if they know any Zeppelin is not a sign of class. Oh well. It was generally fun. In fact, I can't wait to do it again with Lindsey.

    I do believe one of the highlights was seeing my boss completely hammered.

New Quest in Quest Log!

2007-02-20T03:03:22Z

    It seems I've joined a new faction.

    I don't update as much as I should, and I'm leaving everybody uninformed. As usual, I'll make it up by a quick recap.
    I finally got a job. In fact, I started today. It's a bit outlandish, at least to me anyway. I demonstrate fancy water-driven carpet cleaners and air purifiers in a way that is sort of like the chain-mail version of door-to-door. It's complicated, but if I keep remembering that I want a nice big screen television, and a butler, and a solid gold full-scale statue replica of Borat, I'll do just fine. It's going to be a lot of work, and take up a lot of time. I suppose normal people have jobs that take up a lot of time, and involve doing things that aren't necessarily fun. Frankly, I do think I could learn a lot from it. It involves a lot of quick witted thinking, and socializing. I don't think I'll have too much of a problem, once I get into it. I never have really found a particular job to be very difficult. Everything is easy once you get into the swing of things.

    My hands smell sexy, and have given me a Rank 4 Buff in confidence.

    I really should keep working on my artwork. I was being pretty persistent for a little while. As usual, I think it's the environment. That's going to change soon. I find that I repeat myself quite often. I don't know why. I think things will be much more... eventful should I say? Yes. I think things will be much more eventful and exciting and fulfilling once I can get out on my own. I've been planning this for a very long time. Of course, it's all been held back due to a lack of opportunity. I really hope this is it. I need to get things started.

    I keep growing closer to Lindsey. I'm so very happy with that particular aspect of my life. I can say it's a pretty big aspect too, in the same way a cartoon coyote in the desert can say the catching of a roadrunner is a pretty big deal in its life. I really enjoy being with her. I know it's not an easy time for either of us, but I also know that she really cares and appreciates me. She's a great girl (World's biggest understatement). I got to see her for a couple hours today after getting out of work, and we wandered the tiny mall, and grabbed some dinner at the campus food-factory before I drove home. It's going to be nice moving to Oneonta. I've still got a handful of good friends there. In particular, I've promised Mr. Jones that I'd spend some much needed catch-up time with him. I can't wait. I enjoy the town as it is. It's not perfect, but it's a cozy little town that has a pretty strong art scene, and the townies seem to be for the most part educated and friendly. The college? Well, everyone knows that 19-year-old demographic are the worst fucking pieces of shit ever. I'm not ageist. I just hate immature people. Just like I hate dumb people. And orange skins. But everyone hates those dirty orange skins.

Snow Day!

2007-02-14T16:57:34Z

I adventure sometimes. You know, I raid dungeons, usually to complete a linear goal that I rarely understand. I just know I have to. I find bombs, and I end up needing them. Then I find a frisbee, and I go back a ways and find I needed it too. Then I get slapped around by something dark and scary, or maybe a whole lot of rats, or a lava-gator. With my health meter blinking, sending a shrill repeating tone through my spine, I decide to slice up some tall grass. Or I break some pots. Damn, nothing but Rupees. Fortunately, for me, it's easy to replenish my hearts.

Happy Anniversary Lindsey!

Wintereenmas '07 Day Seven

2007-02-01T03:08:54Z

    I had a really hard time deciding between two games today. It was such a hard decision, I let Youtube do it for me. Since I couldn't find a good Youtube video of Super Metroid that I thought would be an appropriate sample of the greatness that is that game, I decided to stick with Megaman X. On the other hand, the Metroid series as a whole has done amazing things with the Metroid Prime games. The 3D, first person Metroid games are just as true to the series as the SNES title. Anyways, on to the last review of Wintereenmas, 2007!

    I've been playing Megaman games ever since I was a kid. I loved being a machine designed to be as human as possible. I've played many of the older games of the original Megaman series. I didn't become passionate for the little blue guy until Megaman X though. (Actually, Megaman Soccer did it for me for some reason, but we won't discuss that.)

    X is a new model of robot that Megaman's original creator built and buried. A few decades later, X is uncovered by another scientist and studied, and an entire race of machines are constructed with X's basic design. These new sentient machines, called Reploids, are just as alive as people. Unfortunately, (or fortunately, as we wouldn't have a game if this did not happen) they all get the Sigma virus and start killing people, as any good robot should. It's up to X to kill the maverick machines and save the day.

    The reason I like these games so much is the insane story and plot twists that happen throughout them all. As you progress through the game, you fight enemy bosses. They (as in all the previous Megaman games) reward you with a new power whenever you kill them. For instance, Tornado Hawk gives you a Tornado. It's very complicated. Flame Mammoth gives you... fire! That's right! Each weapon happens to be a weakness of another boss. Whoever organizes evil teams of robots certainly doesn't plan ahead. Oh well.

    The game takes advantage of the Super Nintendo's ability to allow cartridges to have extra processing power, so the visuals are very clean and colorful and beautiful. The enemies are very animated, and despite that they are all machines, breathe life into the game. X controls very precisely, as a little blue robot should, as he kicks himself up walls and dashes over spike pits. The game is not very challenging for Megaman lovers, but it still holds up it's own compared to other games. I shouldn't talk, since I can nearly go through it blindfolded at this point, my judgment is not applicable.

    That about wraps up this Wintereenmas. I'll still be gaming of course. I wish Wintereenmas was long enough so I could cover all the games I wanted to. I could list them right now... but I won't. It's a long list. It's incomprehensible to the non-gamer. Maybe some other time! Anyways, I hope all of you had a safe and happy Wintereenmas!

Wintereenmas '07, Day Six

2007-01-31T02:06:24Z

    Some games are what I like to consider "timesinks." These are the types of games that simply require a large percent of the gamer's life. These aren't games like Mariokart, or Halo, which don't offer you hundreds of hours of play time. I'm talking about games like Final Fantasy, or most MMO's, which you pour your life into for days, and even weeks at a time just to earn a new fancy ring of enchantment. Some games are very open ended, and don't stop you if you wade off the main path. In fact, it is usually rewarding when you do.

    Take the Elder Scrolls series for example. The game started out as a pen and paper RPG, and in 1994, hit the PC gaming world with it's first in the series, Arena. The Elder Scrolls III; Morrowind (2002), was where it started to get popular. Morrowind snuck up behind me and stole away a large chunk of my life. I never completed it. It was one of the most incredible game worlds I've ever drawn myself into, and I barely covered a fraction of the story.

    In 2006, the long awaited fourth Elder Scrolls game, Oblivion, really turned heads. The game is primarily gorgeous. It came out for the Xbox 360 and the PC. If you have a very powerful gaming PC, I recommend Oblivion. On the Xbox 360, it's not as immersive, and little issues like constant load times and dreadful fade-in can pull you from the experience. The game boasts amazing rag doll physics, realistic lighting, procedurally generated forests, hours of dialogue, and more lore than the entire Christian faith. Within the game, there are scores of books, amounting to hundreds and hundreds of pages of text. There are hundreds of dungeons to explore, towns and cities to visit, complete with large populations and shops and secrets. Everywhere you go, you'll find a side quest.

    The game starts you out in prison, which seems to be an Elder Scroll tradition. You pick your race, and spend about an hour if you want adjusting every single feature of your face until you look exactly how you want. Then, the story begins. You are given the opportunity to sneak out of prison, following the great Emperor, Uriel Septim, who is voiced by none other than Patrick Stewart. By the time you escape, you'll know you are in for a big adventure. Whether you choose to follow it is your choice.

    While it is not perfect, the game is worth getting your hands on. Especially if you have a few hundred hours to put into it. The best of all, on the PC it comes with the very editor they used to create the game, so users can tweak and add buildings, items, quests, NPC's... anything they can think of. Massive amounts of player-created mods are available on the Internet.

Wintereenmas '07 Day Five

2007-01-30T04:11:43Z

    I haven't been gaming as much as I've wanted to lately. I have been playing a lot of Meteos, for the Nintendo DS. It is a damn fine game. Pick it up. I shouldn't even have to review it for you. You should trust my word and take a leap of faith and get it. You'll thank me.

    Anyways, on to today's official review. This one is a bit more recent than the others, hailing from late 2005, for the Playstation 2. Shadows of the Colossus stole my heart from the very first demo.

    The story of Shadows is simple. You've got the corpse of your girlfriend, a sword, a bow, and your horse. You've traveled to some ancient sacred land, that has been damned for centuries. You make a deal with the local god concerning reviving your girlfriend. In return, you need to destroy sixteen stone statues. Sounds easy enough, right? Well, the only way to do this is to seek out the giant monsters the statues represent, and kill them. By this point, your character probably mutters, "She had best put out for this."

    You hop on your horse and ride throughout the giant sprawling land, over dozens of terrain types, scaling mountains, climbing ruins, getting lost in forests, using your magical sword to guide your way to the next Colossi. When you reach it, you realize how tiny you are in comparison. Most Colossi are enormous, hundreds of times your size. They are generally covered in thick, mangled fur. This is to your advantage, because it will be your ladder to climb up to their weak spot, which is normally on their head, but sometimes on their butt, which is fun. Then you stab away at it. All the bosses are unique, and you never experience the same battle twice. A particularly exciting one involves a giant flying Colossi that takes you on ride while you try to stab it.

    The game is beyond anything else I've seen on the PS2. The camera work is incredible, and provides a thrilling cinematic feel. The textures are a tad bit muddy, but it's still beautiful. The character himself is decked out with clothing and hair that reacts to wind and movement. Throughout the game, the character appears to look more sickly and weak as you slay these giant beasts. In fact, you start to feel bad for these poor, usually docile creatures. Many of them only get pissed off at you when you start climbing on their fur. A few, however, do not like your presence.

    This game actually would have made me purchase a PS2 if I did not already have one. It's a relatively short game, lasting only about eight hours the first run, but it is extremely worth it, and it has plenty of replay value.

Wintereenmas '07 Day Four

2007-01-29T00:16:19Z

    Narrowing down games is not an easy task. I'm trying to not limit myself to recent games, and I'm trying not to pick quite obvious ones either. Anyone could say Tetris, or Super Mario Bros, or Quake III. Those are all milestones in the history of gaming, and they are all high on the list for me. I'm trying to expose the lesser known games that had a big impact on me. Homeworld came out in 1999 for the PC, and was voted game of the year, but I am assuming not many of you have played it.

    Homeworld was sort of a cult classic, being the first realtime strategy game in a fully 3D Universe, and it was also quite difficult. You had to very carefully monitor your resources throughout the entire single player campaign or else you'd be screwed over by the last few levels. The storyline was very engrossing. A race of people have been living on a hot, dry, desert planet for longer than they can remember. For some reason however, they never quite fit in with the planet's uncomfortable climate, and this made them curious. One day, they discovered an ancient starship buried beneath the sand. They found a map of the galaxy, with a point marked as "home." After a few generations, they built a mothership capable of traveling through hyperspace. Quite the technological feat since they were hardly space-faring for centuries before that point. Unfortunately, their planet and most of their race was destroyed a short time after the mothership departs. Now, you've but one place to lead them; to their homeworld.

    The game lets the player control quite a bit as they click and direct orders to your fleet. You can choreograph formations, and control whether or not your units watch their sixes or go in heads first, turrets ablaze. You'll need to be careful not to lose too many units, because resources are tight throughout most of the game. Despite the age of the game, the visuals are fairly detailed, although a bit fuzzy. The ships track their enemies, explosions burst across hulls, and the vaporous space backdrops are awe inspiring. We picked the wrong part of the galaxy to park our planet, evidently.

Wintereenmas '07 Day Three

2007-01-28T03:24:33Z

    Not many video game mascots last an incredibly long time. You have Mario, Link, Rayman, and a handful of others, but it seems one of the most popular avatar still existing today is Sonic the Hedgehog. Certainly, everyone knows of Mario, everyone recognizes Pac-man, but the little blue bundle of quills is featured on more deviant art galleries and has as many sprite comics as there are emo kids on Myspace.

    Sonic has been around for well over 15 years, and with age, he's gotten a little clumsy. Granted, I still play and enjoy all of his new titles, they will never match up to the original series on the Genesis/Master Drive. He was primarily a character developed to rival Mario. My personal favorite of the series is Sonic 3, locked on with Sonic and Knuckles.

    Artistically, the backgrounds and sprite work were the best of it's time, with each stage having many layers of foreground and background, and there was a lot of character in the sprites. The music, which is rumored to be correlated to someone who worked on some of Michael Jackson's tracks, is all very diverse and takes the Genesis's midi sound capabilities to places that I never thought were possible. The game is fast and easy to get into. I find that reviewing older games is much harder than I thought, so I think I will let the video show you what you might have missed out on!