Snowman Studios
Off to Nashville or Murray for the rest of the week. Hopefully I won't run into any cops like the ones in the Deliverance section of
this article. Aren't country folk smart...
Well, Christmas went off without a hitch.
The drive to Pheonix passed by quickly (between my GBA and watching fansubs on my laptop). I purchased The Legend of Zelda (the old one, but for GBA) in preparation for this trip. I was amused by how well I was able to remember various secrets. I couldn't find all of the places where you could find easy money, but I was able to track down where each of the levels were and where all of the hearts were. My only complaint is there seems to be an emulator running underneith the NES game (which is no surprise), but that it has slow downs in scenes with large enemies, which did not happen at this degree on the NES. Considering that the SNES emulator they use does much better (if they use one, maybe they don't and that's why SNES games do better on GBA).
I've started working on a decent website for myself. I'm still using the same address and hosting before, but now I'm taking the time to make it look right. The URL is http://www.snowman-studios.com/ .
There will be some pretty heavy duty changes to it in the coming weeks. This is just for starters to get the underlying structure and sub sections. The final product will (hopefully) look a lot better and have a couple more sections that aren't on there now (Martial Arts and Anime).
Yesterday, Lord of the Rings: Return of the King arrived (Extended Edition). Run time: approximately 250 minutes. I just finished watching it, and I started it last night.
First off, Sam takes the prize for the hardest falls and still getting up after them. It doesn't matter if it's a thump to the head or falling from 20 feet up and almost landing on his head. He does it, and then gets up and lays the smack down.
Second, there were certain scenes that people complained were not in the theatrical release. I think that most of that were feasable were added, plus some other ones. I won't go into too much detail on that.
Lastly, dwarves are hilarious.
The drivers here are really retarded. It's like a different type of "bad driver" than what I saw in Chicago.
One ran a red light (it had been green for me for a while) and hit the car 100 feet infront of me, sending it rolling. Another flipped out after I changed lanes infront of them with the intent of changing more lanes and getting off the freeway. There was
plenty of space. She proceeded to block me from getting off (I know she was doing it on propose as she was waving and smiling while doing it, and no I did not know the person). Yet another had rigged strobe and neon lights in their car to go with their sound system. Looked really stupid, and the car looked even worse.
I was going to write a satire about why short people are bad drivers (the red light was a short asian girl, and there's a certain someone who's built a reputation for being an unobservant driver). I was going to talk about maybe requiring booster seats incase it was because they couldn't see over the dash or something. But I'm just too tired from getting my butt kicked by short people at Aikido to write it.
So at the Christmas party for work we were given $50 gift cards to Best Buy. Once I get my certificates for the rewards zone, I'll have a fair amount to spend there. Considering that I have spent a whole lot more there in the last 12 months than I could have imagined spending, that rewards zone card has really paid off (and I haven't been going to Best Buy over other retailers because of the rewards zone either). But if that wasn't enough, there was some gift-exchange thing at the party I went to tonight and I ended up with a $10 gift card for Best Buy (am I the only one who didn't understand the concept of "White Elephant Gift"?). So there will be much spending at Best Buy in the coming months.
Also, I am extremely impressed with Sony's rebate system. I bought a Sony monitor just before Thanksgiving that had a $100 rebate. I sent it out at the end of November and today I recieved the rebate check (so, less than 3 weeks). The instructions said that after 8 weeks, call them. But considering that rebates have a reputation of not being processed I am pleasantly surprised.
Work has been crazy, but progress is being made on the project I'm currently incharge of. I've learned a ton as this is something I haven't done before and isn't covered in any class I've heard of. But it's close to being finished, and should be finished before the company Christmas party tomorrow evening.
Last night I was driving home and got yet another rock in the windshield. It's something of an annoyance since the other one was a week before. This one is even smaller than the first, and looks to be little more than a surface abrasion. I'll contact my insurance provider soon and look into it, but with the current stuff with work I'm probably not going to get it fixed until next week.
With the way work has been and all, I think I'm coming down with something. I hope not, but I was definately sneezing hard today. Tomorrow I'll go in late so that I can get some rest.
This afternoon the guy came to fix my windshield. He did a good job and now the spot where the glass was hit looks like it has a water-spot, so I am very pleased.
I've been asked to do some web design work for my church. I haven't figured out how I'm going to do it, but already I have been asked to do a feature that I said "I don't have the knowledge to do it" (it was a flash thing). This is even more reason to do work on my webpage as practice / preparation (and since I have recieved no info on going to a service project on Saturday as of yet, I might have a lot of time on my hands this weekend).
Finally, life at Northwestern might have been rather ... interesting... if policies such as described
here were the norm.
In other news, the owner of this blog has finally gotten off his lazy butt and added Holoscan commenting to the posts here. This feature is long over due and was chosen to be added months ago... but never was.
On the drive to work today my windshield got nailed with a rock. The damage was small and localized, but I was concerned by the fact that money is tight and I didn't want to have to pay for a repair.
Then I found out that my insurance covers repairs of windshields 100%. If the windshield had to be replaced, then it would be based on my deductable ($500, probably higher than what it'd cost on my car). So they are coming out tomorrow afternoon to fix my windshield. Problem solved.
After the windshield but before I got to work, I stopped by Best Buy to pick up Soul Calibur II for GCN ($20) . It's a better pick-up type game than Mario Cart. The battle modes for Mario Cart for GCN just aren't that great, and the tracks get old fairly quickly as they aren't as impressive as the SNES Mario Cart. Unfortunately, this means that I have to unlock everything once again... which is going to be a pain. Oh well, I'll do it slowly but surely.
Best quote of the day:
"You remember Cliff. He used to bartend for us. Well now he's all grown up..."
You know, playing stickball in an office with $500 LCD screens all over the place (some are even higher, 23") just doesn't sound all that smart, but it sure was fun to watch. The only thing broken was the stick.
I moved in my futon, 19" tv, tv stand, and GCN to the office. When I was talking about wanting a futon in my office, people seemed very iffy about the idea. It wasn't really discussed for the common area, but for in the office they were thinking it might be too crowded. Now that it's there, people are enjoying how cozy the room feels and chilling on the futon. As for the GCN, it's been played some and people were amused by it, but as there is no perminent location for it yet it is in a lesser space. Someone commented about pillows for the futon... I think I can manage it.
I was on my way out for the weekend when the receptionist asked me if I could drive her to Ikea (since I have my truck). When I told her I was on my way out, she said I could bring the truck Monday. That made me more interested in doing the task at that time. A few weeks ago at church they did a bit about posessions and do you own them or do they own you. They showed part of Fight Club where he is talking about the Furni coffee table of a yin yang and glass plates with bubbles, followed by the destruction of said items and the main character's initial descent into insanity and imagination. After going through Ikea this time (the first time was with Mal, and my mind was less about getting things done and more of curiosity), I felt like a rat in a maze. They have you walk this zig-zagging path that takes you past every aspect of ones home, office, and tree house. They do have some short cuts, but you can not walk into an Ikea and walk directly to a section like you can in a Circuit City, Best Buy, or grocery store. You must go by the clock that costs $3 and the flooring that costs $1.75 per square foot. Returning there with the thoughts of consumerism plus the fact that I wanted to start my weekend, I was sickened (only made worse by the lazy warehouse people who take 30 minutes to fill an order... makes me think of jobs that John has told me about).
Tomorrow our company officially moves from one office to another within the building. But everyone was so eager to move that we did it this afternoon. So after carrying multiple desks and computers and boxes as well as one
love sack (that's the brand name). What a bunch of programmers are doing with a love sack I don't know, but 1) the thing expands when you pick it up, so going through doorways was a pain and 2) it's rather comfy and easy to fall asleep in. But anyway, tiring work.
I'll be taking my futon in to set up in my office tomorrow. There's room for it and I am definately looking forward to having that around as it is something I have missed sitting on for the last few months. Also, I will be taking my GCN and a spare tv to setup at the office. I have no clue what's happening with that, but people seem interested (although most said "Xbox"...).
<>Today I join the ranks of heroes such as Clark Kent and Gordon Freeman, strategists such as Pmart, villains such as Garl, and medical personnel such Roger. How?
I now wear glasses.
I had to rush to the place from work when I found out, and thankfully they weren't closing as soon as the receptionist on the phone said they would. They were still putting the finishing touches on the glasses even. Unfortunately, with two people working on one project it seems that one of them messed up in the process of the allignment of the right lense, so when I put them on it did not look as crystal clear as I was anticipating. The woman looked at it and noticed that it was 90 degrees off, so if I held the glasses to my face the right way I got the clear picture I want, but otherwise it wasn't quite right.
At first they said it was going to be a few days before they could get new lenses, but then they went and looked and found that they did have another lense with the right prescription. After a little bit of work in the back room, they presented me with the tweeked product and the picture is excellent. Right now my eyes are still getting used to it, but the difference in vision quality is definately there (plus I've just spent a ton of time at the computer, so my eyes are tired from that as well).
