The Threshold

A few days ago, I had to take my laundry in to be done. I was pretty much right out of clothes and it was really the first day that I'd felt good enough to go out and do some chores since the surgery. Because of the depleted supplies, I was forced into wearing a shirt that I really prefer to keep as an "at home" item.

The shirt is one that I picked up from the Penny Arcade Expo a couple years ago. Along with several other shirts of mine, this one was given away as a promotional item during the expo. I'm a whore for anything free, so I took it gladly.

The design of the shirt has Dungeons and Dragons written on the back in the typical cluttered fashion of game t-shirts i.e. the game logo, copyright info, developers logo, etc. On the front is a massive red, circular emblem with a gold dragon design on it. It simply screams geek.

Now, I have no problem with being a geek. I'm not ashamed of it and I quite often wear more esoteric pieces of clothing like my I hate Jack Thompson or The Merch shirts. I like the idea that most people have no idea what my shirts are about. I get asked about the JT shirt almost every time I wear it. But I have a limit.

I'm not the stereotypical smelly geek with no social skills and I don't want to be. When I go to PAX, it's like I'm on the outside looking in. So when I walk outside with an obvious geek shirt on that doesn't even look good, I'm a little self-conscious. But I digress.

After dropping off my laundry, I decided I would stop by Value Village on the way home to do some shirt shopping. I found a couple things I liked and when I get up to the till, the girl starts ringing my stuff through and she says to me, "Oh, what's that symbol on your shirt mean?"

"What? Oh, no idea. Some free shirt I got somewhere."

I am so fast on my feet it's scary.

I should really get rid of that shirt.

Corrupt Preferences

I really don't know what I want in a girl.

I came to this startling realization last night while talking to a female friend online. The types of girls I've been actively seeking really don't interest me at all. After a strangely long discussion about kinks and sexual history with someone I really don't know, I found myself very physically and emotionally attracted to someone that is probably the furthest thing away from what I've been looking for.

She's cute, sexy, funny, interesting, and shares the same kinks as me. Now, obviously, that is something that I have been looking for, but the rest is completely different. She's not a geek. She plays hockey. She doesn't play video games. But she's kooky and fun and just what I'm looking for.

The chances of anything ever happening with this particular girl are next to nil for various reasons, but the impression was still made; I'm looking for the wrong girl.

Which then brings me to this point: is there a right girl to be looking for? Is there some magic combination of interests and hobbies that make up my perfect girl? Probably not.

So where does that leave me? I suppose I just need to meet more people. Expand my horizons and whatnot until that girl appears.

Ah, don't you just love these meandering, pointless posts?

Vampire Chipmunk

Losing a period of time is always a strange experience.

I had my wisdom teeth out on Wednesday and for anesthetic, I was put on Valium. I was a little nervous going into the surgery and I really had no idea what to expect. They went through the prep before finally injecting me with the Valium. The doc said I would feel a burning sensation as it traveled up my arm and, sure enough, I felt it go up, up, black.

The next 8 hours or so are almost a complete blank.

I don't remember anything about the actual surgery itself, which is most likely a good thing. I do remember lying in the recovery bed immediately after with an ice pack and a vaguely remember the trip to London Drugs to get the prescriptions filled, but nothing all that specific. I found out later that Greg had said I looked like a vampire chipmunk: pale, puffy cheeks, and blood on my mouth.

Apparently there was also a phone call from my mom that I don't remember at all.

Then I woke up at 4:30 like nothing happened. The drugs had basically worn off and I felt fine.

A very surreal experience. I'm glad to have it over and done with and I'll be even more glad when my body hurries up and gets me back to normal.

Review - Boyfriend 2142

And here we are at another collection of tangents and digressions that I call a review. This time I’m taking a look at Battlefield 2142. The new BF is much the same as the last outing, Battlefield 2 which came out in 2005. It uses the same engine and the same front end. The gameplay is very familiar and will appeal to anyone who enjoys the BF formula that was originally brought out with Battlefield 1942 back in 2002.

First off, anyone who played BF2 will know that the front end and server browser was a joke. I’m pleased to say that it has been improved to the point where it’s almost useable. The server browser actually works now and doesn’t randomly empty and won’t refill when you refresh or change a search option. You can actually save your favorites and see a history which is a HUGE addition. I don’t understand how developers can justify launching a multiplayer game that doesn’t have these basic features.

The brutal load times still abound, but are slightly improved. The “optimizing shaders” bullshit is still there, but since it’s only when you change your graphic options, I can deal with that. What still really annoys me is the fact that I have to load the menu. It’s a good five second load. That’s ridiculous. If you made your front end so flashy that it needs a loading message, you fucked up. You either need to optimize your front end code or tone down the graphics and effects.

Once you’re in the game, everything is pretty awesome. As with BF2, if you can get through their barbed wire packaging and actually play the game, it’s a whole lot of fun. There are far fewer bugs in 2142 than there were the last time I played 2 (which would have been more than a year ago). I haven’t noticed any bugs that hinder gameplay, so I’ll give kudos to EA for that.

BF 2142 has all of the awesome rewards, unlocks, badges, and achievements that BF2 had, although slightly reorganized. The interface for it is much improved and there is much more information available to the player in terms of hard numbers and progress. Another change that I like is that a lot of the class abilities are locked when you first start playing. For instance, you can’t resurrect a fallen player until you unlock the defibrillator, a level 1 unlock.

On a side note, EA is ever striving to piss me off. Their latest outing has to do with the first expansion released for BF 2142. Even though I don’t own the expansion, all of these servers still show up in the browser and I have no way to filter them. The only way to even know for sure that it’s an expansion server is just to try to join. You’ll get a little message pop up telling you that you need the expansion and, thank god, they have a link right to there store. Exactly what I wanted.

Anyway, get this game. It’s fun and overall it’s a solid title. Always more fun with friends, try and get a group together and create your own squad.

Nerdgasm

I finally got my laptop today. It's delicious.

Mmm...

I plan on violating it's universal ports later tonight.


In other news, Vista sucks ass. Super buggy and noticeably slower than XP. The first huge issue I noticed is the newest version of Windows Live Messenger isn't compatible with it. Good job. The next chunk of awesome is my favorite. Sometimes when the computer locks up and you open the task manager to close a program, the task manager will just crash over and over.

How does this shit make it out the door?

Vista is an unnecessary upgrade. XP was fine and could have remained fine for many more years. Microsoft is simply pushing this because it means more money for them, but it's hard to justify the upgrade. All Vista adds is a whole new set of Bullshit for Retards® that you can't turn off.

I will give it this though, the interface is pretty sharp looking. Not an entire OS upgrade sharp, but sharp none the less.

Bottom line: Keep your money. Wait until it's the standard unless you really need it for something that XP won't do.

Thoughts

I'm dizzy
I'm angry
I'm jealous
I'm nauseous

These thoughts
invade
Ruining happy memories