In order to assist in thinking of how crapy my car is I have devised a whole new way to graph it's general crapyness. Any good internet geek is familiar with the "uncanny valley." Well in much the same way as the uncanny valley is a measure of turning people off to a concept (in that case the use of robots), the rogue's peak is a measure of turning people onto a concept (in this case the theft of some object).

The uncanny valley measures how human like a robot is on the 'X' axis and people's likability of the robot on the 'Y' axis. The rogue's peak on the other hand measures the destruction of some object (where a zero would mean the object is brand new and the object's X axis would increase as more damage was done to it). The 'Y' axis is the chance of the object being stolen.

When an object left in the general public is brand new it has an average chance of being stolen, if it's a little bit damaged (in the case of a car let's say its scratched) its chance of being stolen is probably decreased (ie when it has that lived in look). But once some major damage to the structure occurs, like say a window being busted out, then the chance of it being stolen or stripped dramatically increases. And once someone has started stripping a car or its obviously stolen then other thieves will be even more attracted to the car.

This theory is not totally pulled from ass. In Criminology there are several studies concerning cars being left in less than savory neighborhoods. Cars that were brand new would remain untouched for the most part. But cars with flattened tires or cars with a broken window but were otherwise new would be stripped or stolen within hours.

Now that you have the setup allow me to execute the point of this lecture.

My car is quickly approaching a condition where it will appeal to thieves without any single major damage being inflicted upon its poor abused body.

Actually the real point of this was to come up with a spiffy name for my pseudo statistical analysis.

It looks like someone has hacked my AIM account and changed my password. I'm not sure why anyone would bother doing that. Its not like there is any benefit to having my AIM account but there it is. I can't seem to get it back either since none of my email addresses seem to be working as the registering email which probably means I did a mailinator job on it or that part got hacked as well.

Basically it means I can't recover from it. If you have an AIM account please respond so I can add you to my new list.

I've been playing Champions Online for the past few months and for a while it looked like I was going to get a character to the max level (something I've never actually done in an MMO before despite playing most of the major ones out there). Then along comes a game called Dragon Age: Origins made by Bioware. As names go its quite stupid, but then again that's rather the standard for the industry.

Dragon Age is an over the shoulder/overhead hack n' slash RPG with your now Bioware standard dialogue tree and quest system thrown in. Unlike most (if not all) of the previous games in this genre the graphics even up close are not half bad. You can zoom out so that the game is played as strictly overhead but I prefer to zoom in quite a bit and play over the shoulder using the WASD format to control movement.

However unlike Bioware's previous forays in this genre, this game does not carry the Dungeons and Dragons license. That means that when I go to pick a spell for my elven mage I don't see things like 1d6 in the damage description. Actually I really have no way of comparing spell damage. I know energy cost, and then my damage is controlled by my stats.

When I first heard of Dragon Age I thought I was going to miss the D&D license quite a bit. Now being around 8 or so hours into it I can say that not only do I not miss it. I actually find it extremely refreshing to see a list of spells and have no idea which is really better then the other or how they will work. That may sound odd, but really after having played 6 or so D&D games I'm ready for something more then Magic Missie and Scintillating Shield or whatever its called.

Overall I'm extremely happy with Dragon Age and expect it to consume a lot of my gaming time for the next few weeks/months ... years? ;-).

Sometime in late October, early November (depending on which book store you listen to) the very last book in the Wheel of Time series is going to hit the street. This is a book that even death itself could not kill. I say that because the author, Robert Jordan, has been stone cold dead for two years now.

This is also one of the very few series I have read through from beginning to end more the once. For the most part I don't enjoy reading books more then once, but when I do it usually means the books are something special.

There are 13 books in the series total counting the new one and the preque. Each book is around 500 to 900 pages long. Adding all that up it means I have spent more time on this one series then any other single series be in TV, books, internet, music, or movies.

I am currently re-reading the last published book in preparation for the final edition and I have to say I am slightly more excited to get my hands on the darn thing then I was for any of the Harry Potter books.

Here's hoping it can live up to my unrealistically high hopes. ;-)

Much has occurred!

Since my last post my brand spanking new computer was diagnosed with a faulty motherboard, and I gained a new hobby.

First the computer:

After much consternation I was forced to admit that my computer had serious faults with it. Specifically every 3 hours to 10 seconds the computer would bluescreen then restart, it was most inconvenient. After swapping out every single part in the computer except for the mobo, cpu, and psu I was forced to admit the most likely candidate was the motherboard. I thus obtained a RMA number and sent it off, no word on when its due back at this point.

Now for the hobby:

I am now a junior padawan woodworker in training. How did this come about? I'm so very glad you asked. A few weeks ago I became interested (the less charitable might say obsessed) with obtaining a high quality kitchen knife to replace my current less then stellar faberware pro chefs knife. After much research I settled in on a Blazen 210mm Gyuto (gyuto being a japanese chefs knife for all you normal less obsessed folk out there). With awareness of knives came awareness of cutting surfaces. Specifically that the best surfaces available are end grain wood cuttingboards. End Grain being a cuttingboard made up of little blocks with the grain of the wood facing up towards the cutting surface (or the same direction the tree once grew). This style is easiest on the knife edges. Sadly these kinds of cutting boards also tend to be somewhat expensive when bought in decent sizes.

Ahh but how hard could it be to make such a board? Well as it turns out, with the proper tools and a bit of patience, its not too terribly hard:




That thar is 16 (3/4)" by 19 (1/4)" by 1 (7/8)" of pure black walnut. Its also the very first woodworking project I have ever constructed. I doubt very much it will be the last.

Today is a day of geeky spectacular! Today is a day I built my new computer. I have come full circle on names and my new system is known as “doctorwho” as it damn well should be. After all this is truly an impressive beast:

Intel i7 920 processor

6 gigs of DDR3 RAM

Nvidia 260 GTX

500 gig HD for OS and 640 gig HD for games

  

Oh and I decided to run Windows 7 on it as well. Not only does it save me some money running a beta rather then trying to pay for a new OS. But the darn thing is pretty near shippable as is.

In fact, I’m using a new program “Winodws Live Writer” to upload this journal entry rather then go through the main livejournal website. I don’t think I’ll be using this program very often, but I was quite impressed to learn it supported livejournal natively.

  

And now for your viewing pleasure, obligatory computer build pictures:

 

 

 

Well its been a few days, I now think I am in a better place to parse my thoughts on Mirror's Edge.

Since my first post I went back and beat the game again, this time I definitely took only about 5 hours total. A lot of that is due to my increased playing abilities, but some of it is simply from knowing where to go next. I also have tried a few of the game's other modes, basically you can race yourself to complete certain areas in the game if you want.

Of the problems that can strip away ones joy for this title, combat is probably number one on that list. I can see why that is as well. The combat in this game is really not very smooth. That's probably because this is NOT a combat game. It has combat in it, it has guns, and folks that need shooting. But that does not mean you should partake in such practices. The entire point of the game is to move smoothly a dramatically from one position to the next. Combat breaks that flow, and its designed to. Combat is literally an obstacle in the game that is as much psychological as it is physical. As gamers we are trained to solve problems most often by going through them. Example:

(man with gun) + (door behind man) + (desire to get to door) = (kill man, then go through door)

Mirror's Edge requires, yes requires, you to break that time honored solution. Instead Mirror's Edge formula looks like this:

(man with gun) + (door behind man) + (desire to get to door) = (jump off the building, swing on a pole, and slide into the door via a railing)

Yes just killing the fellow would be more direct, but combat in Mirror's Edge is unwieldy. While it is almost certainly technically possible to take on two opponents at once in this game, I certainly have not managed to do so successfully. When fighting one the other has ample time to plug you full of holes, and unlike other games where combat is desired, in Mirror's Edge your avatar is simply not made of the sterner stuff.

Sometime over this past summer I bought a Unicomp Customizer Keyboard. Essentially it is a recreation of the old IBM Model M keyboards (the big heavy clicky kind). At the time I bought it, I thought it was pretty great and I kept on thinking it was great right up till a month ago when I accidentally spilled my beer on it. After that, it didn't work quite right (like at all). So sadly I had to revert back to my old Saitek II keyboard.

Last week I finally decided it was time to put the past behind me and search out a new keyboard, one that could provide the tactile feedback I craved. I could have bought a new Customizer, but I really wanted to try something new. Specifically I wanted to find out what all the fuss was about with Mechanical Keyboards. These are keyboards that use individual switches under each key rather then a rubber membrane (as most keyboards use) to provide key resistance.

After a ginormous amount of research I came to the conclusion that there are only 3 possibly models of keyboards that I would be comfortable with. The first is the Das Keyboard, the second is the Steelseries 7g, and the third is the Filco Majestouch. The latter is the best of the 3 but its only sold in Japan. Or so I thought.

Apparently a company calling itself ABS is selling the darn Filco board in this country under their own brand name. Today my new board arrived and so far I must say it is pretty darn awesome. The keys have better tactile feedback then any normal board but not quite as much as my Customizer. Its also not quite as noisy as the Customizer. Despite there being less feedback I don't miss the loss at all. There is enough meat to these keys that it doesn't feel like I'm typing on mush like a lot of membrane boards.

It may seem like a silly thing to obsess over but as someone who plays a lot of video games on this machine, I can say that the implements of my hobby are quite important.

And now... back to more Mirror's Edge.

There's been a lot of crap going around in the review department about Mirror's Edge.. and if you are some poor soul enslaved to a console I can see where you would feel the pain.

However, if you are one of the dynamic wonders that has seen past the allure of the console and been, dare I say 'inaugurated,' into the pure blissful realm of the PC, then unruly control restraints have fallen away and you are free, FREE I SAY, to experience the outstanding symphony of delights that is Mirror's Edge.

If you have never heard of Mirror's Edge then you might wonder what the heck the game is about. The short short answer is that its about jumping from roof-top to roof-top while big bad men with guns try to stop you. This is a concept I have expressed interest in before.

I have as of a few moments before conquered this magnificent game and now I write to you good people as my way of basking in the afterglow of my favorite game of 2008. That's right, I'm giving it a big ol' Game of the Year Award. Yes technically it came out in 2009, but I cite stupid Electronic Arts execs as the cause of such things. The game by all accounts was ready to go in 2008 and so that is when I shall count it as being released.

Why do I like this game so much? Top on the list has to be immersion. I have not been so unmindful of outside considerations since I played "The Longest Journey." Then there is the flow. You could argue the entire game is basically about the concept of not breaking the flow. The better your character is at moving seamlessly from point A to point B the more the game rewards you. After considerations of flow come the wow factor. There wasn't 5 minutes going by in the game where I didn't see some challenge up ahead and say "are they serious!!" Then almost effortlessly I was able to steer my avatar through that challenge consistently impressing myself with the jaw dropping grace in which the game operates.

All this praise does not mean the game is without flaws of course. The story for instance is pretty near awful. Whoever did the writing needs to consider a new career. There are street signs that emote more from the reader then this game can coax out of its user. I have half a mind to mention the combat as a sour note as well, but the other half persistently points out that if you are fighting more then 1 person at a time you are doing something wrong. I could write a lot more about this... and probably will but I need to let the experience decompress some more....

I just finished reading two books by up and coming author Ilona Andrews, and now...now I must blog! or journal, or contemplate or whatever.. Andrews appears to be a fairly new author (as in brand new) she has thus far written two books of a series. The first book is called "Magic Bites" the second is called "Magic Burns" and the third book which will not be released till March is called "Magic Strikes" (do you sense a theme here?).

Anyway these books are best described as pop-sci-fi. Yes its that special category I created sometime ago. The basic world premise is that in the not so distant future (a matter of years rather then decades) magic returns to the world...but not completely. Magic comes and goes in tides and when its in control technology simply stops working. Such things as phones and computers and sometimes cars simply will not function. But magic will recede and technology comes back into effect. Often it will be hours or days before a shift will occur, in the meantime either magic or technology will hold sway.

I won't say much more about the plot since I am confident at least 1 or 2 readers of this journal will be interested in these books, but I will mention one more detail. The closest books I have found to compare this series to are Laural K. Hamilton's Anita Blake series (with a lot less sex), and I like these books for the same reasons as I like Hamilton's work (at least her early work). The books won't win any literary awards but they are fun quick reads that distract from most everything else going on around you. Enjoy!

So for the last couple of weeks I've been reading pretty heavily. It began with a book by Iain M. Banks called "Consider Phlebas." This is a science-fiction - action book written during the 80's and its pretty darn decent. Its not fantastic. It doesn't make the top 10 or even the top 20. But it does fit somewhere in my top 75. The basic premise of the book is that in the distant future (probably 20 thousand years out) the human race is massive and actively involved with various other races it has discovered. "Consider Phlebas" is the story of a war between "The Culture" which is essentially high-tech socialism (probably the only way socialism can ever work since you get mindless robots doing all the drudge work) and non-humanoid race of religious fanatics.

After finishing "Consider Phlebas" I took a break from Banks and tried to read Karen Miller's "The Innocent Mage" which is the start of her seemingly popular series. I say seemingly popular because every book store seems to have a this series set off on its own shelf and the consistent covers each book has makes it stand out on the shelf. I say "tried to read" because I got 500 pages in thinking it was a decent story and then during a 10 page shift in perspective the author reveals that the menacing enemy in the story will not be some shapeless entity that was somewhat intriguing, but rather just this jealous support character whose internal monologue was so pathetically predictable I had to put the book down, then ultimately shelve the thing without finishing.

In order to wash the bad taste out of my mouth left by "The Innocent Mage" I immediately dived back into a Banks novel, this time "The Player of Games." Whereas in the first Banks novel I read The Culture was merely in the background, in the second novel it was absolutely the focus. This makes sense once you consider that the series is called "Culture Novels." The story follows a member of The Culture whose essentially a professional game player (think board games on crack with intellectual underpinnings). This premise is actually more exciting then it appears on its face. The effect is actually to create a book that is significantly better then "Consider Phlebas"

At any rate, any book that has sentient faster then light spaceships and bio-engineered humans can't really be bad.

So to continue the theme my next book is the third Culture novel called "Use of Weapons." Huzzah for decades of writing condensed for my pleasure!

This year the good Hanukkah fairy came and paid me a visit.. Well actually my parents gave me a wad of money. But that's not the point. The point is that I have finally gone and bought myself a kitchenaid stand mixer. I have been wanting one of these things for years..literally, but I've never gotten the nerve to just sit down and buy one.

Well that is no longer the case, behold!



Note: the flames add both ferocity as well as speed to the final product. For those interested this is a Kitchenaid Professional 600 Stand Mixer. (the flames were my own separate addition)


So far I have used the mixer to make 1 cheesecake, and 2 different breads.

Today bread, tomorrow the world!

It might have taken 21 years of education, but today I am officially a lawyer.

The last hurdle to clear was the swearing in ceremony this morning, and it wasn't much of a hurdle. I stood up, said my name, repeated an oath and then I was handed some paper. Actually I was handed my "shingle" as folks seem to call it. I suppose so they can say they are "hanging out their shingle" when they go into practice for themselves.

Which brings me to my next point. The shingle itself... its not really high quality. Actually its pretty low quality. So much so that I've spent the last four hours online trying to figure out if they sell better quality versions, something like how my undergrad did with our degrees. So far no luck.

That hasn't stopped me from buying a frame for my low quality shingle. I figure if folk like the frame enough they won't look too closely at whats inside. ;-)

The best thing about tech support is the wonderful people you meet.

Wait no, that's the worst thing.

Well it is with Comcast anyway. Last week my roommate forgot to pay the cable bill. As is typical when this happens Comcast shut off the internet. That's fine and proper, I don't expect to get internet for free. Well not from Comcast anyway.

What I do expect is something approaching prompt service when my roommate pays the bill. I would ask for some reasonable time to elapse and then the internet to turn back on.

This did not happen. What I ended up doing is calling Comcast between 1 and 4 times a day every day for six days. The first few days was spent dealing with their billing system which recognized that the payment was made, that the balance was zero and that the service should be working but that their system refused to process. The monkeys on the phone didn't know how to fix it. Their suggestion was to keep waiting for it to fix itself.

After the billing situation resolved itself (through the divine influence of a supervisor) I only had to deal with the technical problem of my cable modem simply not working. Comcast tech guys seem to come in 3 types. The first type is wickedly intelligent. The kind of guy that has no business working there really but is for some ungodly reason. The 2nd type is fairly intelligent and knows enough to follow the handbook when needed but also knows to skip ahead to simply solve the problem when the answer is clear. The third type is a reject from the Burger Academy. The complexities of asking "would you like fries with that" were too much to handle for this special individual. So now they are Comcast tech support.

When my problem was a billing issue I got the first and second type. As soon as it was solely a tech problem I got introduced to the third type. Literally one person's solution to my problem was to ask me to turn off my computer and my modem, then turn them back on. It took her 10 minutes to come up with this grand idea. I have no idea what she was doing in the meantime, to be honest nothing would surprise me. She could have reported that she was currently smoking crack and her pipe kept burning her fingers and I would merely have made non-committal noises and said "that can be frustrating... about my cable?" The point is I'm a computer geek. I know about resetting a modem, I tried that. I had to tell their automated computer system I tried that just to get talking to this phone monkey. So why is she asking me to do it again? More to the point does she really think that will accomplish anything?

At any rate today I finally ran into a type 2 Comcast employee and 30 minutes later my internet was resorted. Huzzah!

I have now learned my lesson however. When type 3 comes on the phone make up a plausible excuse like "my hair is on fire" or "I have to go lasso a meteorite" then hang up and call back. Saying anything else to type 3 is just a waste of breath.

While wandering around the local grocery store after thanksgiving and wondering what to buy I came across a vat of frozen turkeys. While I regularly cook chicken, when it comes to the whole fowl I've only ever dealt with the genre twice before. Once was a chicken I roasted and the other was a duck treated in the same manor. Looking at the post-thanksgiving sale I couldn't resist expanding my culinary arsenal.

I was essentially given two options, the local safeway bird (of which the smallest was 19lbs) or some other brand name which weighed in at a modest 10 lbs. Considering that I'm cooking for myself and maybe my roommates I chose the 10 pounder.

However, I would be remiss if I left you my reader with the impression that I bought this creature simply because a deal presented itself. That's not the story by half. The truth is I have been watching the Food Network most of the week leading up to Thanksgiving (or TG as a friend of mine calls it, an acronym too easily synonymous with Trans Gender for clarity sake - thank you gay pride people for ruining another harmless word for me). Specifically on the Food Network I've been watching my personal cooking hero: Alton Brown. And when the good Mr. Brown cooks a turkey, he brines the bastard!

That means submersing the bird in salt water and spices for a period of 6 to 8 hours. This reportedly makes an amazing difference in the taste and texture of the finished product. To say I was eager to try this method would be an understatement. Upon buying my defeathered friend I immediately went out to buy a cylindrical cooler (of the type described to me by Alton Brown) to brine the bird in. 3 (count them three!) stores later I had secured just such a cooler. Upon returning I immediately set out to thaw my soon to be permeable Meleagris Gallopava (google is neato!).

And that's when my happy little ship hit an iceberg and sank killing Leonardo DiCaprio... or something like that. You see while I was situating a pot lid ontop of my submerged birdsicle I happened to notice a label that I had overlooked before. The label read "Oven Roasted - Fully Cooked, JUST HEAT UP!"

So instead of brineing my very first turkey I will instead merely be microwaving a thawed critter that was cooked undoubtedly on some assembly line by the bird-blaster6500.

I was not a happy camper.

I just finished "The Name of the Wind" by Patrick Rothfuss.

Lets start with the bad:

The author has a fetish for titular lines.

The book doesn't pick up till after the first hundred pages.

Now with the good:

EVERYTHING ELSE.

Yes this is truly a good fantasy novel. Its quite rare that I run across a book that so easily meets my expectations and finds its way onto my list of top 10 series (that's series not books). And even more rare when its the authors very first goddamn book. Actually that last part has never happened before.

While I wouldn't go as far as to put "The Name of the Wind" in my top 10 books (as opposed to series) I would put it in my top 25 books, and it would probably make a decent showing if I ever sat down and really analyzed things.

This doesn't mean that I recommend the book to those that haven't taken the time to read "A Game of Thrones" or "The Moon is a Harsh Mistress." But if your like me, and you believe that you have currently exhausted every good fantasy novel that exists, its well worth your trouble.

This morning (or last night depending on your perspective) I had a weird dream. I believe it started with a meteorite crashing into a large body of water, but it may have been some other event that caused massive wave action. Either way myself and a group of folks were running away from the rising waters that were approaching in the form of a series of waves.

Our immediate thoughts were to get to higher ground. Fortunately there was a giant mountain/mountain range with easy to climb slopes right next to us. So we left whatever village or hamlet we were in to flee the rising water.

The mountain range was very strange in the way on dreams or video games can be. The entire thing seemed to be about 30 feet wide at the top, completely flat on the 'z' axis but still capable of going up and down on the 'y' axis as it followed the contour of the land (like a road essentially).

Most of the dream was taken up by running on this mountain top road always staying just ahead of the water or just in the last few tired inches of the wave. Towards the end we thought we were finally safe because the wave action didn't seem to be as strong anymore, plus we were running out of mountain. At the very end of the mountain road high up on a slope and in the middle of the road was a house. It wasn't a big house or a grand house but it was a structure. By now my group consisted of 7 or 8 folks with at least one having been washed away or abandoned while fleeing the water.

Just before we reached the house another wave sprang up from the opposite direction of the first. This wave came crashing down overtop of the house to come rushing at us. I believe in my dream I said to the others and to no one in particular "now we're fucked" and then my alarm went off and I woke up.

I believe my dream is telling me not to build a house on the beach cause then waves somehow manage to climb mountains to blow it away. That's the moral of the story I'm pretty sure.

Why is today a good day?

Because today I passed the bar! And no that is not the kind of bar that is a rod of metal nor is it the kind you get drunk at.

Though once I got home the drunk part seemed to take care of itself.

Next stop: world/lunar domination!

For the last few days I've been playing SPORE. What is SPORE you ask?


Well I could describe it in detail but really there's no point. Just go to the website and find out for yourself. To sum it up in a few words, SPORE is a video game where you futz around with virtual play-dough to create creatures who eventually rule the galaxy.

Its incredibly addictive, and super fantastic. Its also the target of a small bit of controversy both among gamers (for its godawful DRM) and among non-gamers (for its inherent lessons on evolution - [insert comedy here]).

Anyway the point of this post was simply to say, if you are a person who enjoys computer games and you do not own SPORE, then shame on you! This game contains digitized fun.

For some time now I have been consistently amazed that certain products are never decent quality no matter how much you choose to spend. Power buttons on computer cases are this way. You drop $100+ on them and the power button is worse then then $.80 switch you could buy at RadioShack. Another item that always (I mean always) sucks is the toaster. Every one of these I have ever seen just feels crapy and cheap when using it. I've only bought 3 or 4 of these things in my life but I'm consistently on a quest for "the" toaster.

The other day I found one that at least was slightly above the usual par but I didn't know if I was getting shafted on the price. So I go home and look it up online. This is a comment on amazon from someone who took my much more casual search a bit too far.

"With my last 3 toasters I have had to rotate the toast half way through toasting to be sure the top 20% of the slice was done. This time I decided to get the toaster with the largest toasting depth. Unfortunately that dimension is not defined in any toaster specs. that I could find. Therefore I visited every store appliance store in our area and measured the effective toasting depth on every display model. Most toasters have a toasting depth of 4.0 ins. to 4.25 ins. The DeLonghi has a toasting depth of 5.0 ins. I bought it and my toasting problem has been solved."


Just thought I would share that with ya.

I continue to play World of Warcraft but already I look towards my possible salvation/enslavement.

Warhammer Online is coming out September 16th. This game has been promising to be a World of Warcraft killer since it was first announced several years back. More to the point it actually has the staying power to make it happen.

The entirety of Warhammer has been structured towards Player vs Player (PvP) or as they call it Realm vs Realm (RvR) gameplay. In Warcraft the same mechanisms were more or less thrown together at the last minute or added in after launch. The advantage this gives Warhammer can not be overstated. At this point I have not played Warhammer extensively (despite the fact I was in the closed beta for a brief period), but in my mind the only thing that could stop it from destroying Warcraft is the company that develops the game. Mythic is a decent enough company but they are no Blizzard. The two things Blizzard does better then anyone else is balance and polish. Mythic is a company of mere mortals and already folks are talking about balance issues in Warhammer that could ultimately mean it losing out to a Blizzard's 4 year old game.

In the mean time.. I pre-ordered Warhammer... something I haven't done in years and years. I did it because it will get me into open beta, and also to give the mechanism another chance. Previously I have been burned by pre-orders because the shop I secure them with fails to get the game on day 1, a feat other stores in the same area manage easily. Here's hoping the system has progressed.

We all have friends that linger over bad relationships. You know exactly what I'm talking about probably. Their significant other is just an awful awful person but for some reason no matter how many times they break up they always get back together.

World of Warcraft is my bad relationship.

I restarted my account today.

The shame!

A few months back I bought my very first MP3 Player, a Samsung P2. I bought it primarily for car trips when my preferred radio stations go into commercial, or do something stupid like put a juvenile DJ on who talks more then plays music (I'm looking at you Grease Man). In order to hook it up to my car I used a FM Transmitter. This system had its ups and downs. The pros being that its spiffy to beam my music out of my Mp3 Player via radio waves. The cons being that it doesn't give very good sound, and needs constant babying as I travel any distance longer then about 30 miles.

Then my good friend Trish pointed out that my car had a cassette player. Up to that point I actually didn't realize this fact. I literally had overlooked the cassette player since I long ago deemed it to be some anachronistic device best set aside and ignored.

Now the relic was suddenly useful to me. $10 and a trip to Walmart later, and I was the proud owner of a Cassette Adapter. Trying it out in my car blew me away with the quality of the sound. True audiophiles would certainly be unsatisfied with the quality of sound being output here, and instead would opt for the more intensive direct line install. I however prefer not to take apart my car's stereo if I can help it. And besides which we are still talking about lossy music to begin with.

As it stands I couldn't be happier with my Cassette Adapter. Hooked up to my MP3 Player the device delivers sound that easily equals and probably betters what I would receive from my headphones, and this of course blows away the lowly FM Transmitter.

I have just completed Peter F. Hamilton's "Judas Unchained" a thousand page novel which itself is the continuation of a thousand page novel called "Pandora's Star." The end of law school and then the Bar really put the kibosh down on finishing this novel. By my best estimate it took me five and a half months to finish "Judas Unchained" easily making it the slowest read I've ever done.

Overall I have to say I am quite pleased with the story. Hamilton writes with such amazing detail (especially when he is making stuff up) that the level of immersion climbs an order of magnitude above many of his peers. I can safely recommend the book to anyone who enjoys epic science fiction space battle mysteries.

Next in my book line-up is Ian McDonald's "River of Gods" a science fiction look at a future India. I thoroughly enjoyed "Lord of Light" which is sorta kinda not really about science fiction Hinduism, so I have a lot of hope for "River of Gods."

A few days ago I took my much thought about "Bar Trip." As the name implies you take this trip after you finish the Bar Exam... and no it does not necessary need to include copious amounts of alcoholic beverages. But that helps...

My Bar Trip originally included camping and fishing as the only sure things. Then at the last moment my Dad wanted to join in which I was completely thrilled with. My Dad however did not want to go camping, but that is all I could afford. However, with his economic muscle thrown into the mix we turned what was going to be a camping trip into a cabin trip. Specifically a Cabin trip to "Deep Creek Lake" which is located in the farthest god damn reaches of western Maryland. We're talking a place so far away that I was positive it succeeded to France long before now.

Deep Creek Lake is a man-made fresh water lake that is stocked pretty thoroughly with fish. I have not done much in the way of fresh water fishing in the past (as in probably less then 10 trips total), and when I did go I was very very rarely successful. This time my father and I decided we would do things a bit differently and hired a fishing guide for a 4 hour trip one day. The result was as expected, we caught fish. Specifically we caught Smallmouth Bass, Yellow Perch, and Chain Pickerel (the latter being a species I had never even heard of before). Fresh Water fish almost universally are smaller then Salt Water fish but fresh water tends to be a lot more accessible. Now that I know how to do it properly I will almost certainly be doing more fresh water fishing in the future.

The real purpose of the trip however was to give me some time to decompress which it certainly succeeded in doing. I start my new job this Friday and I'm really looking forward to it. Especially the whole pay check vs additional bills transition.

And now... here's some fish:

Ho now citizen!

Stop a moment and stare into the endless areas that exist before you. See the moments where in times before now there were only trials, now exists pure void. Know in your heart that this time as all times that come after is what you make of it and not what others expect. You are free to experience all possible futures where before you were tied to one path. Now is the precipice upon which all actions change. Truly all future potential is now as pliable as clay in your hands. Make of it as you will.


So endeth the Bar.

No, the title does not refer to an establishment that serves alcoholic beverages.

Tomorrow and the following day are going to be rather busy for me, what with the most important test I will ever take and all.

Yes it has come time for the Bar Exam. This is a two day test that goes over quite a few subjects that I learned in Law School (and even a couple I didn't). I knew from the moment I decided to be a lawyer that this test would come, I've dreaded it most of that time as well. You always hear bad stories about people that closet themselves away the whole summer studying for the Bar. These are outright lies. The Bar is at the end of July so you only need 2/3rds of the summer.

The challenge of the Bar Exam is not really the depth of knowledge it encompasses but rather its width. No subject will be tested on a degree even approaching a typical law school exam. But there are so many subjects on the Bar that depth isn't needed. The sheer amount of average difficulty questions is enough to crush anyone unprepared.

For the longest time (much longer then my friends) I wasn't nervous at all about the Bar. I felt pretty comfortable with my knowledge and my test scores. But in the last few days my nervousness has picked up quite a bit. I'm lucky in that even if I fail the Bar my career is not really effected since my job will allow me to simply take it a 2nd time with no negative repercussions whatsoever. However, I don't want to have to do that, and I really don't want to have to tell people that I failed the Bar, which in this state is a rather minority position to be in. Approximately 75% of people taking the Bar pass it in Maryland, and that number rises to the high 80's when just counting people at my school.

Despite my nervousness I have a positive attitude about this whole thing. On paper I look like a rather average Bar test taker which means I should pass easily. My nervousness is mostly directed at the unknown. Like what if I can't fall asleep tonight, or what if I get there and the test makers decided that this Bar should be all about obscure questions that everyone else knows but me, etc. etc.

Oh well, right now the only thing I know for certain is that at approximately 5:00pm on Wednesday I'm going to be looking to get drunk.

Just came back from seeing "The Dark Knight."

A lot of people have been saying its freaking fantastic. They are all correct. I liked "Iron Man" more but that's a personal opinion based on just how amazing the characters and acting in that movie were. "The Dark Knight" probably has the better plot. As for the Joker.... well he stole the show. Absolutely my favorite super-villain ever.

If your planning on seeing it though, you might want to order your tickets in advance. A friend of mine and I tried to see it yesterday but the show had sold out 5 hours beforehand. Today we ordered 10 hours ahead of time so we got tickets. But we showed up 20 minutes before the show started and sat in the third row back from the front.

You have been warned.

For the past few weeks my DVR has been down (the motherboard most annoyingly and inconveniently fried itself). Now its been awhile since I was without my wonderful DVR, so watching normal TV like some kind of civilian has been rather horrible. Some good has however come of it.

For instance, I have over the past few days watched Robocop 2 and 3, both of which are playing via Comcast "On Demand." Its been probably close to a decade since the last time I saw these movies and the amount of humor present inside a delicious satirical shell is simply staggering. Yes that's right, Robocop is a Satire. I certainly didn't remember it that way. But that is simply the only word that fits to describe the plot.

Lets examine the facts, you have a giant slow moving actor who spends not one, not two, but three movies doing the Robot. Then you have the most sterotypical giant evil corporation ever devised trying to destroy Detroit and rebuild the city in it's own image. Toss in some bumbling criminals, a few child geniuses to act as sidekicks or enemies, and why the heck not.... a jet pack, and you have a movie.

If its been a while since you saw these movies and you have fond memories, then know that they get me gold star of approval. There is simply too much comedy here to let them slide by.

Joss Whedon has created an internet short called "Doctor Horrible." For some readers of this journal that is all that needs to be said. But for those that aren't now already trying to find and download this creation let me tell you that its pretty darn funny.

The entire title is "Doctor Horrible's Sing-Along Blog," and yes there is singing. Joss Whedon has basically made a few 15 minute long movies that he is going to play one at a time. The premise is that a mad scientist called, you guessed it, Doctor Horrible is making a video blog about his attempts to take over the world. The one essential premise of the world is that it is completely ridiculous.

As of the time of this writing the site hosting the video has been totally hammered into submission. If its back up you will be able to find the blog here: http://www.drhorrible.com/


In other news, studying for the Bar Exam is a slow grueling process. Someone of authority should pass a law allowing the entire studying and taking of the Bar to be outsourced. I hear that's the way to create efficiency these days.

Most days when I go to my Bar prep class I carpool with some friends of mine. However, some days for the return trip I take the light rail. Today was one such day.

So I'm on the light rail doing my normal, starring-out-the-window-at-nothing, when a guy sits down behind me and asks me for change for a 20. I tell him I don't think I have that many 1's and he tells me that what he is trying to do is give me two 10's for a 20. He said he is trying to buy a monthly light rail pass and needs the larger bill to do it. Now I know this sounds stupid. But consider that I just did 3 hours of bar prep and my mind is mush. Also I like being a nice guy and if it makes this fellow happy to have a 20 instead of two 10's I'm going to help him out.

So I give him the 20. Then he says the monthly is actually 30 some dollars and he needs to do the trade again. I can see he has enough money to change the two 20's so I give him another 20.

Now he says the monthly costs $50. Well as the old saying goes, fool me once shame on you, fool me twice................ well shame me, but I'm sure as heck not letting you fool me three times.

So I tell the guy that a monthly doesn't cost $50 and that I want my money back. He is more or less ignoring me now saying that at the next stop he's going to get off and show me that a monthly costs $50. I tell the guy that he is stealing my money. I know that once he gets off he's going to walk away so I start looking around for someone with a cell phone I can borrow so I can call the police. A lady tells me to just go tell the driver (we are actually in the driver's car now luckily for me) so that is exactly what I do. I went up and knocked on the driver's window but before she could respond to me the guy yells up that he's giving me my money back.

He hands me back my money but folded up in the bills is another $1. Now I don't know if this is a bribe to leave him alone or a trick so he can say I took his money. Either way I wasn't interested and gave him back his buck telling him I didn't want any of his money just my own back. I then go and sit back down. He leaves and life goes on. None of that occurred quite as cleanly as I've written here. There was a lot a mumbling, repeating lines, and belligerent conversation thrown in. But the above records the core of the story.

So the lesson is, I'm a great big sucker. Also, never give money to anyone on the light rail, even if its just to make change.

So about once every 2 or 3 months I get a message on Skype from someone I don't know. I mean really don't know.

These people can take all shapes. I have gotten messages from girls in foreign countries, old men from the deep south, and even the Skype equivalent of a telemarketer.

The latest is probably my favorite, not for the content (I have no idea what they said since its in another language - probably Spanish). No the real reason its my favorite is because of the name.

So without further delay, I reveal my favorite Skype name:

"sweet judy fille sexy brune sexe - girl sexy for sex"

Yep, that whole thing is one name. I have no idea who this person is. I certainly have never contacted them before, but this is what happens when you leave your name searchable in the open directory ;-).

Its just past midnight on the 23rd of June so that means I am now officially 26 years old. Huzzah! I continue to rock well into my later 20's.

This will be a big year for me. I graduated law school and will start my first real job. I'm also moving to Charles County. I'm moving out of my house in Baltimore and renting that out to one friend, and two strangers yet to be determined.

I'll be building a new computer sometime during the fall, and at the end of the year I'll be looking for a job that I could work in for potentially years to come. In short, this year is the great transition year of my life.

Here's to the future.

Artificial Intelligences is one of those problems that looks real simple till you try and solve it. Then it blossoms out to be stupidly difficult. kvance once told me that the best idea any one had so far for a working AI was a series of searchable tables that would contain all human knowledge. The computer would then be able to act as an AI by compiling information from these tables. Of course creating a series of tables that contain all human knowledge is currently so difficult it needs its own word just to describe it. I'm going with "Malus Difficult" cause it sounds latin.

Anyway - As I was reading in a bath a thought came to me on how to solve the whole AI problem (it was a very Archimedian moment).

The fallacy of the ultimate tables idea is that its not a true AI. It would just look like a true AI. The human brain does not need all knowledge that ever exists to be able to answer a question or solve a problem. To make an AI we need to make something that sorta kinda works like a human brain.

So how does a human brain work? The human brain assimilates information and then uses that information to solve new problems it doesn't have an answer to. In other words it applies concepts it knows to be true to solve new problems. So if a human doesn't know how to boil water, but it knows fire is hot and boiling water is hot, but non-boiling water is colder then boiling water, then the human brain will figure out that it needs to put a pot of water over the fire.

A working AI will figure out the same. It doesn't need all human knowledge, it only needs to know how to make an educated guess. That is the hard part though, how do you get it to know enough to make an educated guess? Well annoyingly this is still difficult. Just as it takes people years to develop from infants to functioning adults it would probably take an AI years to develop. First it would help to put the AI in a limited context. Lets say a video game FPS. You give the AI a game level and give it instructions to shoot the player before it can get shot. The first thing the AI will do is shoot at the player. But if the player is behind something the AI will not be able to shoot it. So the AI will need to figure out what to do next.

Now the human brain deals with this kind of situation by doing something random. Observe: I shall ask myself what the square root of 5600023 is. My answer is: asparagus! See I didn't know the answer so the output was totally random. The AI controlled character would do something similar. It might jump up and down or walk backwards or turn the other direction. The key is that it needs to remember what it does and what doesn't work. Then eventually it will do the right thing, walk around the obstruction. After that it needs to record not just what it did but start to figure out the principles of why it worked. It needs to know that to the solve the problem it needed to move to an area that gave it line of sight.

Even as I write this I know that will be the truly difficult part. Finding a way to make an AI record the information it learns using a method that allows it to draw basic principles from this newly gained knowledge. And really the only way I can think of to make that work is to create a way for the AI to create its own symbolic logic problems. Yea you know the ones I'm talking about, the whole If A then B kinda problems. Basically the computer needs a lot of that as a framework it could then apply symbols to the different events it does and record the positive and negative outcomes. Given enough situations the AI would be able to control the character in the FPS in a fashion identical to a real player.

Stuff has happened. I have begun studying for the bar. I have begun re-grouting a bathroom (something I have not done before). My roommates have moved out and I need to find new ones. I bought a buckling spring keyboard ala the old clicky IBM models.

But that is all minor compared to the really awesome stuff.

Beyond Good and Evil which was previously rumored to have a sequel in the works now really really has a sequel in the works. The kind of sequel that comes with its own teaser trailer.

Rejoice and know happiness!



P.S. I think the setting looks like Firefly meets Beyond Good and Evil, a concept so wonderful I don't know if I can properly contain it, or if I like the Ecto-Containment Unit before me must surely explode.

Yea.... I went there.

I already posted once today but I realized after I finished that I had totally failed to mention that I was no longer a part of the educational system.

Since I was 5 years old (or roughly 21 ago years) I have been in school. First elementary, then middle school, high school, college, and then finally law school. Its been a very long journey but its finally over.

On Friday, May 16, 2008 I graduated from Law School. I found out on the 13th that I had passed all my finals so the graduation really was just for show. All the same it really marked my last link to formalized education and I'm quite pleased to have it behind me.

Now I just wish that was all I had left. It would be nice to be well and truly completely finished but alas, it is not to be. Towards the end of May I begin formally studying for the bar. This will continue all the way to when I take the bar at the end of July.

For those that don't know, graduating law school does not actually make you a lawyer. Passing the bar makes you a lawyer and you can only take the bar if you graduated from law school. The bar exam is to lawyers as the driving test is to pimply faced 16 year olds, only a lot harder and more stressful. Specifically its 2 days long. The first day is entirely essays on state law while the second day is (mind you I could be wrong, this is all based on legend and hearsay) on federal law and multiple choice. A lot of people dread the multiple choice but thats the easy side for me. Long association with standardized tests gives me superpower like clarity when faced with non-mathematically oriented possibilities.

Unlike other standardized tests the results from the bar take an inordinately long time period to appear. I won't know if I passed the bar that I'm taking in July till sometime in October. This creates all kinds of annoyances for law students whose jobs depend on passing the bar.

Lucky for me that won't be an issue. My job depended only on successful completion of law school which I already accomplished.

At any rate, now you all know what I'll be up to for the next few months ;).

So for a little while now my speakers have been giving me crackling sounds when I play music. My first thought was *shit! I blew the speakers.* This was quickly disproven when I swapped them out for some spares I have and the sound remained. Then I thought *crap the control node on my logitech speakers died............again!* This would be the second time this happened. The first time I got them RMA'd and a new set was delivered (which is what I'm using these days).

I had even gone ahead and started shopping for speakers swearing off any logitech brands for the foreseeable future. Then on a whim I started playing around with the Creative drivers. I have a sound blaster Xtreme Gamer card in this box, and its relatively new.

Eventually I just deleted the drivers all together and let windows re-install the WDM defaults. Lo and behold it worked. No more crackling sounds. I played around with a little more to confirm it but in the end I concluded that it really was the Creative drivers. The latest creative drivers literally broke my sound. I always knew creative drivers were shit but before this I thought their crappiness was confined to being bloated and annoying, not actually breaking someones computer.

With all the latest crap in the news about Creative deliberately sabotaging the limited competition I have to say I'm completely disgusted with the company right now. I swear that regardless of the status of my current sound card, my next computer will be creative free.

So for a while now I have been playing EVE-Online. I've gotten a character up to a respectable level if not one that is particularly good at... well anything really. But I am no longer simply waiting for someone to blow me out of space.

My interest in EVE does not mean that I have lost interest in other MMOs though. In fact my recent interest in EVE has made me come to the realization that I like MMOs. I like them quite a bit. Probably more then almost any other type of game. So when a new major MMO is set to come out I get a bit interested. That is how I would describe my thoughts on the Conan MMO.

And I was interested right up till I heard that there is exp loss in pvp death! There is conflicting reports that this occurs in pve death as well but just isn't registered at low levels.

Experience loss is an absolute game breaker for me. Which is really unfortunate considering that almost all major MMOs do it. The only two I know of that don't do it are EVE-Online and World of Warcraft (no idea what the Lord of the Rings game uses). City of Heroes pretends it doesn't subtract experience but instead gives you a debt. The end result is the same however, you take longer to level after you die.

The reason for this mechanic is quite clear. The devs are trying to create a system whereby goals are achieved by traveling through a film of frustration. By this I mean that death and losing experience is frustrating (sometimes extremely so). However when you finally reach whatever goal you set, the reward while internal is supposed to make up for it. People as creatures are more likely to forget the bad times when they are basking in the wonder of the good. This philosophy is put into action with most MMOs through their exp loss systems.

I am however a firm believer that experience loss is the inane game mechanic for the pathetically backwards developer. I can not find proper words for the bile that rises in me when I think of a NEW game putting experience loss into effect. By taking away experience the only thing a developer has truly succeeded in doing is ticking off their players. World of Warcraft in my view proved once and for all proved that experience loss is NOT necessary to make a good game. Yet even after World of Warcraft developers continue to push this experience loss idea forward. I think in part the reason why they continue to implement this incredibly idiotic idea is to extend the time it takes to reach maximum level, and thus the number of months folks will pay for a subscription. For some players this may be true, but for the vast majority what exp loss means is that they are less willing to take risks with their character, and thus less likely to have a really good time. Instead they will run away more often and get frustrated when they die. This decreases the number of months players will pay for a subscription.

I could go on and on about this subject but I doubt I can actually order my thoughts coherently. I simply detest this mechanic too much.

Well I was commanded to post an update to my livejournal which has been neglected for 2 months. I'm not entirely sure why I let the livejournal stew for so long, but its not from lack of events going on in my life.

For my entry back into the livejournal scene as it were, I'm going to keep it lite. By that I mean: this is what I'm playing.

Assassins Creed is one of my favorite games to come along this year. Considering its a console port and I'm playing it on the PC thats fairly impressive all by itself. Theres a number of things I like about it but near the top of my list is the fact that it takes advantage of my Core 2 Duo processor.

Not a single other game takes advantage of this processor in any meaningful way. Most simply treat it like any other 32 bit cpu and move on. Assassins Creed not only uses the darn thing, it flat out requires it. From my understanding you simply can not play the game on anything less then a 2 core cpu. Related to this tidbit is the undisputed fact that the game looks gorgeous. Seriously I can't think of a single game (that I can RUN, I'm looking at you Crysis) that looks as good as this game. For instance when you target a character it doesn't just turn a shade lighter or something like other games. Rather you get a whole series of little technical drawings and DNA strands wrapping around the character in an almost aura like way. The sheer number of places they found to use motion blurs and blooms is wonderful all by itself. And the models and textures they use are really way above par.

But by far my favorite feature of the game is the ability to tear ass over the city by rooftop, jumping from one building to the next, maybe swinging off a pole and then jumping on top of a wooden crane to a roof garden then onto the next ledge. Its just so perfectly done I can't think of a way to make it better. Combine that with rooftop guards placed every so often and you get some really great scenes where you get to sneak up on guards and throw them off ledges or just run away from them.

The really funny part about it though is that the game is not very highly thought of, both in the console market and especially on the PC. In fact the PC is almost universally getting worse scores then the console version but I can't even imagine trying to do this game with a clumsy gamepad. I'm sure it can be done but the mouse and keyboard are superior for a reason.

In other news classes are almost done. By that I mean they will be done on Thursday and then finals begin! But this weekend I'm going camping and I can't wait!

Alright as weird dreams go this is probably a 7 or 8 on the ol' scale. Which by itself says something about how weird my dreams can be I suppose.

For some reason there was a mountain that had structures at the top but no internal plumbing. They wanted to figure out the best way to get water to the top of the mountain without putting in plumbing cause that would have been too expensive. So they hold a competition and whoever can get water up the top of the mountain fastest wins.

I am not in this competition, but for some reason I'm helping out a completely random individual who's idea is the most basic. He has a truck that has a large but very open container in the back and a really long hose. He screws in the hose at the base of the mountain and drives his truck as far up the mountain as he can get then lets the hose fill up his container. It takes a while and finally he's done. He wants to just drive his truck up the rest of the way but for some reason I convince him that I can run it faster if he just gives me the container. And the fellow agrees! (mind you this probably 50 gallons of water when he agrees).

As soon as he hands me the water it shrinks in size to something more manageable, probably a gallon maybe even half gallon. For some reason I put it in an open container and carry it on top of a push lawn mower. I then begin the trek up the mountain which is strewn with rocks, trees, grass, and in general is rather hard. Halfway along and again for no apparent reason the whole setup changes to a white styrofoam chinese takeout box. Oh and the water changes into soy sauce and now instead of a gallon I'm carrying around probably a half pint or so. After literally pulling myself up a really steep climb I am finally at the top. I go into the nearest building and see a good portion of my extended family there. They explain that I am third in line and that the other contenders are having their soy sauce taste tested by another part of my family because now the whole thing isn't just about whether it made it to the top but also which one still tastes good. I sit down and we sample some teriyaki chicken (which was decent). I also feel generally annoyed that I am not first but I feel confident that my soy sauce made it there in the best shape. Then I wake up!

The first thing I say to myself... "Soy Sauce!! Why Soy Sauce!"

Today is already a strange day.