I interrupt your current military broadcasting in order to ask for some input regarding a new computer.
Right now, I'm sitting at my eight-year-old desktop PC, a P4 2.66 GHz with 1 GB of RAM and an ATI Radeon 9000 Video Card.
OK, you can stop laughing now. When I bought this in 2003 it was pretty frickin' sweet, and it has performed admirably over the years.
But now, alas, it is beginning to melt down before my eyes. Despite my very best efforts, my CPU regularly heats up far too much, compel
It doesn't take a whole lot of brain power to look at the current match-up between Polaris and those attacking her and to realize where this may very well be headed.
Will it go global? Oh, almost certainly.
My question, though, is how long will it take before some poor alliance is put in the position of having allies and adversaries on both sides? It doesn't take a lot of playing connect-the-dots to make this happen, assuming that people don't activate the non-chaining clauses in their treatie
Alright, so first things first: my 'confession'.
Six or seven years ago, I took a number of training courses and then did the exams for A+, Network+, Security+, MCSE and CCNA. I did this for the same reason I studied Mandarin for a year; I was curious. I still remember much of what I learned, but the fact is that, like many people who do these courses/exams, I learned that there are three possible answers to just about any computer-related question:
The right answer.
The wrong answer.
Every now and then I'll notice that players have their Political Compass score as part of their signature. I cannot tell you how many times I've tried this test. More than three but less than ten, probably. Each time, I gave up somewhere around Page 3.
Way back when studying for the priesthood, I took a variety of personality tests. I was interviewed by several psychologists. Before that, while working in public policy, I was given security clearance in order to fête various government-types fr
I am currently at war with a rogue who decided to hit Nordreich on his way out of CN. This individual didn't plan very well. He had plenty of nukes but not enough cash to sustain him beyond one round. By the time said round ended, he had dropped into my lowly range. He hasn't paid his bills in days and, if he were to collect, still wouldn't be able to pay them. Bill-lock after one round of war? How very embarrassing.
This has gotten me thinking about rogues in general. On one level, rogues are
I've written before about my idiot neighbor and my landlord's efforts to get him evicted.
Well, today we resumed our hearing. And, while we didn't get the result we were looking for, it was most definitely a 'win' for the good guys.
Turns out my landlord had filed their paperwork incorrectly, which meant that the case could be dismissed without prejudice. It would start all over again, probably sometime in January.
However, my neighbor, recognizing that his case was completely and irretrievab
A few weeks ago I made a blog post about my charming next-door neighbor.
Today we had our day in court to get him evicted. Unfortunately, the hearing did not conclude so I am unable to discuss my testimony.
What I can say is that getting to the court at 0900 and waiting until 1530 for our case to be called was made extremely worthwhile by the last two minutes of the proceedings.
At 1625, the judge announced that she was adjourning proceedings until a future date owing to the time. (The court
OK, let me begin with a few caveats.
1. I'm not American.
2. I was involved in the policy-making process for many years and, having seen how it's done, I have very little respect for most politicians.
3. My Bachelor's degree is in Broadcast Journalism.
4. I have actually worked 'in the field' before, and I have less respect for journalists than I have for politicians. (One day I'll have to share my story of my one encounter with CNN's John Roberts. Perhaps in my next post.)
All that being s
More RL adventures here, kids.
Let me begin by saying that I live on the second floor of a two-storey, wood-framed building. It's not ideal, but we moved here back in 2006 for a reason. At the time, my mother-in-law was fighting a comeback of breast cancer (she died on Boxing Day the same year) and my father-in-law had recently been diagnosed with Parkinson's Disease. Their house is two blocks away. We've been on call 24/7 for four years now.
I don't mind, really. This is what families do. Wel
I have been appointed Military-Diplomatic Liaison to the Commander of Nordreich's Armed Forces.
For those who are interested in what this means, the moment I know I shall let you know.
Carry on.
So the missus and I took the kid soff to McDonald's to get a McFlurry or two.
On the way back, my wife (who was driving) poked me in the leg and said, "What's Jack singing?"
It went something like this....
I get up every day.....it's a miracle I'm told....somehow I live to work....so I hit the road....
Don't shoot! I'm a maaaaaaaaan.
I could not have been a prouder parent than I was at that moment.
What the boy was singing.
By the way.....
He's five.
I play another online game rather a lot. On that game, I'm a server admin.
Tonight, one of my fellow admins confided in me that he had 'taken a fit' the other day. He went to the hospital, where they found three tumors in his brain.
The punchline?
These were actually secondary tumors. He actually has lung cancer.
Like me, he's forty-four years old. Unlike me, he has never smoked. (I quit a year ago, and think about it damn near every day. God, I miss it.)
So we talked on TeamSpeak....for ab
With all the nonsense being spread about the reasons for this war, I think it's time to have a serious discussions about its causes, Ragnarok's reaction and the reactions of NSO's erstwhile allies.
In the course of this I will explain in detail all the information presented to me -- as a representative of a Ragnarok ally -- in the hours leading up to Ragnarok's declaration of war upon the New Sith Order.
No, I wouldn't do that to you. I'm not that cruel. Besides, there are more than enough thr
Moments ago, I was mentioning to my wife that someone had vandalized the Wikipedia's 'Recent Deaths' page yesterday, posting a fake notice of Peter North's supposed death by drug overdose.
"Who's Peter North?" She asked.
"You know....Canadian? Porn star? Nicknamed 'The Decorator'?" I explained.
"Oh, right," she replied. "I always get him confused with Oliver North."
All I can offer in mitigation is that she had just woken up from a nap and was still a bit groggy.
A few days ago on the Nordreich forums, a discussion was started about the Voyager 2 probe. Understabndably, this turned into a discussion about intelligent life in the universe. Aliens. Little green men. Whatever.
It went on for a few pages before Captain Buzzkill decided to drop by.
My entire post is below, although I've had to change the formatting slightly.
==============================================================
In any discussion of extraterrestrial life, there are some impo
Anyone out there still play Rainbow Six 3: Raven Shield?
More than seven years after its release, there's still a decent community of players out there. Just wondering if anyone else is a dinosaur like me.
Oh, btw, if you do play it from time to time or have RVS buried somewhere and decide to re-install it, you will be shocked to learn that I play under the username 'kingzog'. I'm usually on the Obsolete Superstars or Shadow Squad servers.
Also, I have a real knack for TKing my entire squad o
First, I would just like to say that I hate all of you. I hope you and your alliance die in a lake of fire that I personally ignite and that is only quenched by your incessant tears. That's right. I'm talking about you.
That felt pretty good.
You see, the best thing about retirement is that one is free to say whatever the hell one wants while always being able to fall back on the "My opinion - not my alliance's" defense. The worst thing about retirement happens when someone notices this and sa
After my wife and I were married we lived with her parents for a year. It wasn't about saving money or anything like that. Both my in-laws had just taken early retirement from teaching, were in 'fragile' states and needed some help. We continue to live in the same area to this day. My mother-in-law died three-and-a-half years ago. My father-in-law still needs our help. But I digress....
Across the street from us lived a couple with three children: two teenagers and a young son who is/was the sa
Before quitting smoking a little while back, I used to go outside for my smoke breaks. I still go outside to pace back and forth, having still not figured out how to get rid of that 'antsy' feeling I have sometimes.
It's not terribly exciting. I greet my neighbors, admire the trees and, on many occasions, see drivers acting like complete dolts. For you see, I live near an intersection. It's not a particularly busy one, but for some reason it attracts the worst drivers. (My kids cross at this in
Thinking about Admin's current Facebook-related competition....
First, I deleted my Facebook account a while back, but I'm not going to whinge that it's somehow unfair. As publicity moves go, it's not a bad idea and I support it.
However, I feel the need to say this:
If, in a few weeks' time there appears a CN alliance called 'Farmville'*, I want it killed.
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* - Or named after any other FB game my wife kicks me off the computer for.
Some of you will know that my relationship with my Christian faith is a bit, well, complex.
Several years after finishing my Bachelor's degree in Journalism, I attended an Anglican seminary. A few years after that I went to live in a monastery in New Mexico. (I came back after a few months because I made the 'mistake' of falling in love before I left. Every now and then my wife will say, "If you're ever a widower, I know where you're going after the estate is settled." And she's right.)
In bot
We've all seen this picture, I think. It's downright iconic.
Well, seeing it posted in a thread today reminded me of a fun story.
It was 1993 or 1994, I believe. I was working for an economic research institute, and we were expecting a group of economic experts from the PRC, all of whom had the title of 'Vice-Chairman'. (I found that hilarious, for some reason.)
The day before they arrived, a protocol officer from the Canadian government dropped by to make sure we understood who our guests we
Just wondering....
Does this forum design not include the ability to see which people are celebrating their birthdays today? If it does, I seem to be missing it.
There's some (ir)rational self-interest here. Tomorrow is my birthday, and in previous years I've taken a kind of bizarre anti-pleasure in realizing how old I am compared to the average CN player.
Here's how the game is played:
- Alliance X makes a mistake of some kind.
- Someone from Alliance Y calls them on it.
- The second individual is reminded of when they did something, possibly by someone unrelated to Alliance X.
- The above individual is castigated over something else.
- Eventually, you have a loop of people all pointing and calling each other names.
- Lather. Rinse. Repeat. Always repeat.
This would seem to be one of the favorite games these days. So prevalent has it becom
