Portal 2

This morning I forgot to mention that I indeed played and beat Portal 2.  I think that Portal 2 is worth the $50 on steam, because the single player is 3 times longer than the original portal, and because it has multiplayer co-op.  Now, I haven't played said co-op yet, but it seems like a blast.  The ending to Portal 2 is a bit crazy (why do games these days ending with a 2 end in a unbelievable fashion?) but still clever and funny.  If you liked Portal 1, Portal 2 will instantly have you laughing (seriously, they say like 50 funny things in the first 15 min).  Shut up, get it, VALVe is well worth the $50 you stingy bas****s!

Web Development

Happy Easter!  I've been quite busy with family and school lately, so I couldn't make another post until now.  Today I started learning PHP5 and MySQL.  If you visit my webpage (located in my links), you will see that I have a login page up and running.  Since I'm going to bed soon, I won't make a create user until tomorrow, so if you want to test out my login page, you may use the username "user" and the password "password".  One of the shortcomings of this login page is that it does not check for duplicate users.  Do not fret! I will of course add this feature tomorrow; after all, I only started this website about 2.5 hours ago.  If you are interested in learning PHP or any other web development language, I would suggest hopping over to W3CSchools.  They got me up to speed very quickly.  TTYL Droogs

Achievement Unlocked: Dragon Age II - Defeated!

Whew!  I finally beat Dragon Age II.  Steam says I logged in 21.5 hours into the game.  I honestly don't know what fans of the Dragon Age series are complaining about.  Maybe I am just a shallow gamer, but the story was almost more epic than the first game.  Sure, the blight was pretty epic, but Dragon Age II's storyline repercussions are much greater than Dragon Age Origins.  Also, from the game's epilogue, I felt as if the warden did not really do much.  This is not the case in DA2.  I will not spoil the ending of DA2, but I will say this.  The only complaint I have against DA2's ending is that it is blown a tad bit out of proportion.  Yet, having said that, I think that the game is justified in doing so because, last time I checked, Dragon Age 2 is a FANTASY game.  So, there you go.  Play Dragon Age 2!

On a side note, here are the games I would like to complete in the next few weeks:

• The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion (Many side quests completed, very little main story)
• Fallout 3 (Just started)
• Borderlands (Just started)
• Bioshock (Half-way through)
• Then possibly Bioshock 2
• Grand Theft Auto: Episodes from Liberty City (Just started)
• Super Meat Boy (At Salt Factory)
• Battlefield: Bad Company 2
• Portal 2 (Comes out this Tuesday)

Happy Day, Consumerism FTW

Several packages arrived at my dorm today, all from Amazon.com.  The first packaged contained Dream Theater's CD Black Clouds and Silver Linings.  This CD is epic, but not for the faint of heart.  The shortest song on this album is 5:25 minutes.  I know what you are thinking: Solid, that isn't that bad!  Well, I'll put you in your place: the other track times are 8:36, 12:49, 13:09, 16:10, and (last but not least) 19:16.  If you were keeping tally that adds up to a whopping 1 hour 15 minutes of straight music spread across 6 tracks for a total of 12.5 average minutes per track! But, what can I say, I'm becoming a progressive head!  Make sure to check this album out.  Its lyrical content varies widely, so don't let the metal riffs discourage you.  There is no satanism to be found.  Also, I love the album art!  Yes it has black clouds and sunny skies, but its also got elephants, mice, little children, scary pictures of the band, and a lighthouse!

The next package was the Diablo II battle chest.  Inside is Blizzard's (now Activision-Blizzard) classic 2000 game Diablo II and its 2001 expansion pack Diablo II: Lord of Destruction.  I've only played a little bit of it at my best friend's house for a small lan party, and I didn't really like it that much.  However, I think that is only because I wanted to play Age of Mythology way too much that day.  The graphics take a bit of familiarization (it was made 11 years ago), but I heard that its re-playability is amazingly deep.  I'm going to play it as soon as I can.  I just hope I don't start buying Starcraft or World of Warcraft months...

Lastly the third package contained the Logitech G110 Gaming keyboard.  Now, I've always been cheap when it came to keyboards, but this time I decided to splurge a bit.  So, $64 later, I now own a back-lit keyboard with 12 macro keys.  I don't use macro keys, but I might start using them, who knows?  Additionally, I just realized that the media controls are compatible with media monkey, so no more switching out of game just to change the song or mute it!  I think I've typed enough today, so I'll see you later gents and dolls.

P.S. Make sure to check out Steam today and tomorrow, they have several 2K deals.  Today's is All Boarderlands  stuff is 75% off ($7.50 for game and all DLC!).  I already got that and Bioshock 2.

A Very April Update

Time for an update to my life.  Its officially been April for 10 days now, so approximately 3 weeks of spring has passed.  There is a HEAT WAVE in Milwaukee!  The dorms are having a thermostat competition with hell itself!  In other news, I spent the majority of the weekend hanging out with friends and working on a Linux server.  Being a geek is fun, but becoming a super-geek is more fun! (A geek is good at computers or video games, but not outstanding with networking.  A super-geek will get into networking and let you know how to set up your network with a subnet mask, port forwarding/triggering, VPN, VNC, SSH, etc.)  Right now, the webpage for our server is underconstruction and will be accessed by http://solidserv.dyndns.org.  If you want to become a part of our Minecraft server, comment on this below or email me.

Dragon Intoxication

As many of you know, I am a gamer.  And, as all the gamers know: a gamer has to do what a gamer has to do!  And I did.  I've been playing through Dragon Age 2 as fast as I can.  Yet I'm only 2/3 through.  Great Game!!! I think it is a fine successor to Dragon Age: Origins!  Don't knock it because it was streamlined or has a less epic story than the original.  Bioware just decided to take Dragon Age in a different direction, and you know what?  It works!  I like DA2 partly because I like Mass Effect 2 (btw, if anyone wants a free copy of Mass Effect 2, I have a code for it, read: its legal).  If I would compare Dragon Age: Origins and Dragon Age 2 to another pair of video games, I would compare them to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Majora's mask.  These were both excellent games that took two different takes on the series.  Ocarina was the standard Zelda much like Origins was the standard RPG.  Epic quest going against unbeatable odds, there is little to hate.  Majora's mask was a developer challenge: how can a game be based on one city with surrounding areas over the course of 3 days??  This challenge led to a huge step up in writing and it was AWESOME!  Dragon Age 2 is much in the same.  It happens in one city Kirkwall and a few places outside of it.  While I don't think its writing is better than its predecessor, I think for what it aims to be, it is an example to be followed.

Lots of Stuff to Attend to

Last night I bought Dragon Age II (sooooooo excited!), so I have to sink my time into that.  I heard that DA2 is not as good of an RPG as DA:O, but who cares?  This is Bioware we are talking about.  They don't make crappy games.  DA2's problem is that it sucks in comparison to near perfection, ergo DA2 should be a decent game.  Additionally I have to write up a formal physics lab report, read/watch A Clockwork Orange, and finish off my cancerous Steam library of games (like 50 or so games).

Goodbye Droogs

You Learn Something New Every Day...

Today I accidentally discovered how to better tie shoes.  The alteration is on the first (arguably universal) step in which you "criss-cross" the laces.  Well, after crossing them but before tightening them, loop one around again.  This leaves a 2nd cross for stability.  Its a shocking development in the field of Shoe Tieing!

Its Monday...

Ever wake up from a slumber that began on Sunday night only to realize that its now Monday morning? Yeah, me too, and it sucks.  I didn't even have that much stuff to do today and it just sucks.  Just the thought of waking up sucks!  Not to mention the first thing you have to do in the morning is lug a heavy backpack down a 10-floor elevator ride, then 3 blocks, then up 3 abnormally long flights of stairs.  UGH!  At least I'm done at 11:00AM  That's a plus.

Blog Improvement

In an effort to increase blog traffic / awareness, I've added a poll to the right hand side of your screen.  Please vote for what kind of content you would like to see on this blog (i.e. what would make you read this blog on a regular basis).  If selecting other, please comment on this post stating what you would like to see.

Big Post: Goals and Sleep

First, I would like to start out by saying that I cannot do Uberman until Fall Quarter of 2011.  Having recently been hired for a respectable high paying internship, Uberman is not compatible with my summer.  However, I have a game plan for next year's Uberman.  It will start off by a caffiene assisted 2-3 day stretch without sleep.  I feel that the caffiene will make the long nights much more bearable.  Then, I will adopt a napping schedule.  Having gone without sleep for 2-3 days, I should be able to go straight to REM, accelerating the process.  So... there... no more Uberman (I may pickup Everyman-3 though).

Second, I have several goals this week.

1. Pick up PHP scripting and all the HTML related stuff that comes with that.
2. Become familiar with the .x (Direct X) object format so that my *heavily delayed* video game development can get back on board.
3. Consider buying Dragon Age 2
4. Finish the Ubuntu-based image for my solidcraft minecraft server.
5. Design a webpage hosted on said server giving information and links

Here's to Spring Quarter Week 5

Nevermind Uberman

I'll talk about it later.

Uberman Revisited

I am now back on Uberman Adaptation.  Instead of regular posts about Uberman, I will update the ticker at the top of the screen.  I will post any major changes or advances in my Uberman schedule.  All that is important right now is that I am almost done with Day 1, and the nights are already hard.

Album Debate: Six Degrees or Black Clouds

My sister told me awhile back that she would buy me an album.  I could not give her a definitive answer as to what album I wanted.  Now, I am seriously considering taking her up on her offer.  I want to get a Dream Theater Album, but, do I get Six Degrees of Inner Turbulence? Or, should I get Black Clouds and Silver Linings?  Listening to Black Clouds right now, very good opener (A Nightmare to Remember).

Edit: FYI, I don't do April Fool's