Category: Geek Interest
I pulled this one straight off of a Digg story. Filter your spam inbox by "MSNBC," this seems to be all the rage in the world of email annoyances. Though they may be the scum of the world, at least they are getting creative. Don't actually click on the stories by the way, they are still spam...
Dr. Horrible's Sing-Along Blog is free again via Hulu. It is a musical tragicomedy directed by Joss Whedon (of Buffy, Firefly, etc fame) and starring Neil Patrick Harris, Felicia Day, Nathan Fillion, and Simon Helberg. It's three 14-minute episode series about a super-villain, a hero, a girl and so much more! Short, sweet and awesome. You must watch it, there is no reason for anyone not to watch it!
I used to watch anime constantly in college. My interest in it has tapered off since graduating (and being employed and thus able to purchase every game that I was too poor to buy or lazy to pirate). People talk about Gurrin laggan and Gode Geass frequently; I don't know anything about the other two other than they are supposedly good and worth watching. I'll acquire the first 5 episodes or so of each and give them a go:
...I like having things to watch while I level characters. Getting Doombeard to 70 and possibly leveling the mage before Fall is my next project.
I have some WoW pics from brewfest, tips and other such musings for another post either tonight or tomorrow. I haven't done a general interest/review post in a while.
Oh, so November is NaNoWriMo. NaNoWriMo (National Novel Writing Month), for those who haven't heard of it, is a creative writing project that challenges participants to write a 50,000 word (175 page) during the month of November. I have always wanted to participate in it, but could never find the inspiration or time to write that much every day for a straight month. I might actually attempt to this year or at the very least: NaBloPoMo. I imagine an undertaking of this magnitude requiring vast amounts of alcohol (home) and caffeine (work).
Television
Normally, other than a few old standbys, I don't bother watching many if any new television shows unless it features a spaceship or men in armor :P. I actually bothered watching a few of the new shows this season.
Bionic Woman: It's a re-imagined version of the original series done by the same person who did Battlestar Galactica. I was somewhat disappointed with the pilot because I semi-expected something with the depth of BSG. I don't really like the protagonist, the special effects where cheesy, and the show/plot was pretty average overall. It is though, difficult and unfair to judge series based off of the first show, so I will continue watching it (given that I don't blow it off for WoW). Oh, it has Starbuck in it.
Reaper: Two thumbs up for being funny and interesting. The pilot was after all, directed by Kevin Smith. Continuing from last season: Stargate Atlantis, Heroes, Lost (February lol), Battlestar Galactica (4th and last season, I think it starts in November?).
Music
The new Foo Fighter's album "Echo, Silence, Patience, & Grace" was released late last month. I was to be honest, a little disappointed at first. But as I listen to it I am enjoying ESP&G more and more. It's just one of those albums that you appreciate over time. I am really digging it at the moment. ESP&G is a good listen, offering a fairly wide range of genres and sounds that flows easily from one track to another. It's not a black and white, "quiet side and loud side" album ala In Your Honor. Favorite Tracks: The Pretender, Let it Die, Come Alive, Strange Things Have Happened.
The new Radiohead album, In Rainbows is slated for release on the 10th of this month. The preorders are currently available online in two forms: A "discbox" (CD, bonus CD, booklet, and extra stuff) and a digital download where customers are able to name their price. How cool is that? If it's good, I am really tempted to purchase the boxed set to support purchasing models like this.
Gaming
The Orange Box pre-load is available for Steam orders now (or is it out? I've been busy this week). I really want to purchase it but I don't see myself obsessing over yet another new game at this point. I am devoting most of my extra gaming time to levelling dear ignored Doombeard to 70 <3.
So speaking of games, I am interested in purchasing a new game console either this year or early 2008. ONE game console, I don't have enough time or interest for two. I am almost completely sold on purchasing a Wii for Zelda, SSBB, Metroid, Mario, etc. But, if the PS3 price drop speculation is true, I would be tempted to go Sony. Hmmm...
I have a Weekly WoW post stored on a text file somewhere that I will post Thursday or Friday. Thought that it would be nice for once to highlight one of the non WoW games that I enjoy playing. Yeah yeah yeah, I picked up Oblivion again and rolled a new character.
I love RPGs of all styles, but the problem is that I just don't have the time to sit and play them straight through to the end anymore without getting distracted or busy with one thing or another. Oblivion is great because it is based off of a quest system, not too incredibly different than WoW (sort of). This means that I can set it down for a month or two, pick it up, and not lose my place since it's not super linear.
The leveling system though feels counter-intuitive because it is very easy to screw your character to the point where the game is unbeatable. This is the way it works: There are a total of 21 skills in the game (blade, stealth, illusion, etc). Upon class creation, you choose 7 major skills, the rest are minor. If any any time you raise any combination of your major skills by 10 points, you level up.
The problem is that the enemies scale with your level. If you were to say, level your character a lot exclusively using non-combative skills (alchemy, security, etc), all enemies that you face will be at your level, but you will have the combat skills of a lower player.
Spellblade Assassin
I'm going to play this class as a stealth character designed around blade assassination and destruction magic kiting (for non-stealth encounters). You can either stealth via leveling illusion spells or through good ol' fashioned sneaking. I left it open for either because I myself haven't decided yet.
The skill choices are strange because I selected them around the philosophy of 100% leveling control. The major skills listed are all ones that are controllable and I will not be forced to use too often.
- Sign: Thief
- Specialization: Stealth
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Attributes: Speed, Intelligence
- Major Skills: Alchemy (int), Restoration (willpower), Marksman (agi), Acrobatics (speed), Block (endurance), Blunt (str), Speechcraft (personality)
- Race: Male Dark Elf is ideal since it boosts all necessary stats. I will though, probably stick with Imperial for aesthetic reasons :P
If you want, Atronach or Mage are both viable sign alternatives. Atronach though is expensive since you will be chugging down pots to make up for the 0 regen disability. It also might not be all that wise since I chose alchemy as a major skill. Mage is fairly safe, magicka bonus and no diability. Thief in my opinion is a good general stealth sign...the luck bonus is nice too.
I thought that I would try playing something different for once, rather than rolling yet another paladin. I actually love games that facilitate stealth based FPS/3rd person play (Thief is a favorite series of mine). But what can I say: I like hybrid classes.
I like reading the "
Reader WoWspace of the Week" articles over on
WoWInsider. It's interesting seeing where other people play, in addition to giving me purchasing ideas (naughty naughty, I spend enough on "stupid computer crap" and "personal ergonomic comfort.") Figured I would do my own:
- Desk: Beech Veneer Ikea Galant table. My old deks was a large awkward computer cart. I like this one because it's plain, sturdy, and spacious. I am considering going back over to Ikea and getting the cable organizer that attaches to the underside of the desk, so that I can run the cables through it and hide them a little more.
- Chair: It was on sale at Office Depot for around $99. It's cushy and it's leather.
- Monitors: 19" Samsung SyncMaster 914v and 22" widescreen Samsung SyncMaster 225BW. Both were Black Friday sales, for 2005 and 2006.
- Speakers: Cheap Creative 5.1 speakers from Best Buy. One day, I'll replace them with a nicer set of PC surround sound speakers, but these are sufficient for the time being.
- Nostromo n52 Speedpad: I love this thing, it's so handy. I have just about every single ability and macro that I could ever want to use bound to the gamepad. It does though, take quite a bit of time to get used to. I don't think I can play without it now.
- Logitech G15 Keyboard: Newest toy, posted an article about it lately. My other keyboard drowned in a tragic coffee incident.
- Razer Diamondback Mouse: It's a low profile mouse with on-the-fly sensitivity adjustment options. Pretty, glows blue, very responsive.
- Burning Crusade Collector's Edition Mousepad on top of an IcMat (bought it from CompUSA and hated it...the noisy scraping noise eventually drove me nuts). The MC mousepad is a bit small though...
Computer:
Built it during early August right when the socket 939 chips and boards dropped significantly in price. Had originally purchased a Radeon x1800XT, but it was a bad. Returned it to Newegg and bought a cheaper NVidia card in its stead. Figured that I would eventually replace it with a DX10 card.
- Case: Antec p180, It's the mini-fridge case, but it's large, quiet (sides are insulated), and designed well. It's also made of steel...and kind of heavy lol.
- CPU: AMD 64 X2 4600+, CPU Cooler: ARCTIC COOLING Freezer 64 Pro
- Motherbard: Abit KN8 SLI
- RAM: 2GB Corsair ValueSelect 184-Pin DDR SDRAM DDR 400
- Graphics Card: BFG Geforce 7600 GT OC with a Zalman VF-900
- PSU: OCZ Powerstream 520w.
- Harddrives: HDD 1: 400g SATA Seagate Barracuda, HDD 2: 250g SATA Western Digital Caviar (video and bittorrent drive), HDD 3: 250g IDE Maxtor (junk drive)
- That's a 5.25" in floppy drive installed, in it's beautiful faded beige glory.
- Below it is the Creative X-Fi front audio panel with my Ventrillo mic plugged in (I know I know, will chat more with it one day I swear). Probably wasn't worth an extra $100 just for the remote and panel, but I <3 buttons.
- Case = dusty. I haven't cleaned out the front intake filters in several months. Luckily though, the inside of my case stays relatively clean. The filters seem to catch most of the dust.
- Top of the case: Old ass TI-85 graphing calculator sitting on top of a scientific calculator , and an external HDD enclosure.
- To the right is my old computer, which actually isn't functional at the moment because I don't know where my C drive is. When turned on, the entire case hums and emits a horrid blue glow. It's irritating.
Other Stuff:
I just cleaned my desk, otherwise there would be food and an assortment of paper work everywhere.
- My rooster mug <3.
- 30g iPod video. It's how I keep sane during the workday.
- PS2 and Gamecube with Jabba the Hutt perched on top.
- BC collector's edition.
- Miscellaneous games, DVDs, and literature. Typically the games, books, and DVDs that I am currently playing, reading, and watching.
- X-Fi and TV remote. I usually store these on the floor on the other side of the room :P
- $20 tensor lamp from Costco with a loose switch. Been broken for 2-years, keep meaning to fix it.
- Junk under the lamp: Small pile of old harddrives and a plush frog pencil holder. Both are sitting on 2 old computers, stacked on top of each other to form a table.
- Ugly black file box under the table is what I use as a foot rest.
- Right above my mouse is a white dish like thing with a clear blue d20 in it. It's actually an incense holder that I use as a spoon rest. When the weather is not hot, I love sipping hot cocoa in the evenings.
- The d20 makes important decisions for me.
Site Note: Updated the Karazhan Guide to include Prince M and several other things. Blocked a bots/spiders, IP banned several IPs who were obviously spammers. The CAPTCHA module seemes to be holding up well so far.
Character update: Bah, I need to rechant and regem around half of my gear. Shuffling stats around to compensate for having a tanking weapon that does not have spell damage and regemming more items with stamina. Need to farm more gold, burned a lot of consumables this weekend.
