An Emerald Shade of Blue
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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in
Digital Dragon's LiveJournal:
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| Wednesday, May 16th, 2012 | | 1:32 am |
Pretty!
For those of you into dice, you may want to visit http:\\www.chessex.com - the site for the makers of all those wonderful dice sets you see in your local game stores. While I'd not buy directly from them cause they are a bit pricey, they do have some really nice dice... such as this set: black & blue with gold gemini...  | | Sunday, May 13th, 2012 | | 7:57 pm |
New game
For those of you that enjoy dice games, you may have noticed some new die on the shelves at your local gamestores lately. Its all part of a "collectable" game called Irondie. The starter packs are pretty pricey (I've seen them running as high as $50), though the dice are silver-plated and covered with covered with a colored varnish. To learn more, the website is http:\\www.irondie.com | | Friday, May 11th, 2012 | | 2:10 am |
PS3
if anyone wants to friend me on their ps3 account my user name is Bahncriaao. yes, I have one thanks to a roomie that sold me his at a really low price. | | Wednesday, May 2nd, 2012 | | 11:44 pm |
25 years too long.
Why is it that we are still way behind on the technology front? Its been 25 years since Virtual Reality (VR) games hit the arcades running on Amiga computers. You can still get headsets and (if you look hard enough) the occasional PC game that'll work with them (though the games won't work under new versions of windows as they're too old!) I remember having a lot of fun with the VR FPS-game at the local mall – far better than today's 3D offerings – you could move in one direction, look in another, and shoot in a third, all in real time and incredibly smoothly. 25 years ago!!! This sort of thing should be commonplace in every household already! Why isn't it? We have 8-core processors and spectacular graphics and sound cards available, and all capable of 3D. CPU's are running at amazing speeds. Back then the Amiga only had one core running at 60Mhz, a palette of 4096 colors (or 16.5 million with a graphics card), and 4 sound channels in 2 stereo pairs. Its time for the tech industry to get off their collective asses and bring us up to date already. | | Monday, March 19th, 2012 | | 8:26 am |
I know its TV, but still...
Pandering in Glee? Christmas episode in season 3, right at the end of the tv show the kids are producing for PBS, the Irish kid says he's not going to do Frosty but another story the outlines the "True Meaning of Christmas" from another book. Basicaly the Nativity Story. Afterwards they mention how the show got cut short before the final song could be done (not Christ-related it turns out.) The next episode targets marriage. Shu and Pilsbury want to get married. Pilsbury's dad refer's to Obama as "Comrade Obamba" because he's suprised people are stil allowed to have Christmas trees up in January. Talk about smear campaign but thats pretty much they kind of thing the right-wing would say to win people over. Then there's a problem with babies. She's OCD and everyone want's to know how she's going to deal with that. I want to know where its written that you HAVE to have a kid when you are married? I personally know several married couples that are childless by choice. | | Saturday, March 17th, 2012 | | 8:44 pm |
I so did not get that...
Granted I was a little kid when my brother took me to see it, but I've watched it several times since then. This was said about the first Alien movie: " Critics have also analyzed Alien's sexual overtones. Adrian Mackinder compares the facehugger's attack on Kane to a male rape and the chestburster scene to a form of violent birth, noting that the Alien's phallic head and method of killing the crew members add to the sexual imagery.[63] Dan O'Bannon has argued that the scene is a metaphor for the male fear of penetration, and that the "oral invasion" of Kane by the facehugger functions as "payback" for the many horror films in which sexually vulnerable women are attacked by male monsters.[96] McIntee claims that "Alien is a rape movie as much as Straw Dogs (1971) or I Spit on Your Grave (1978), or The Accused (1988). On one level it's about an intriguing alien threat. On one level it's about parasitism and disease. And on the level that was most important to the writers and director, it's about sex, and reproduction by non-consensual means. And it's about this happening to a man."[97] He notes how the film plays on men's fear and misunderstanding of pregnancy and childbirth, while also giving women a glimpse into these fears.[98] Film analyst Lina Badley has written that the Alien's design, with strong Freudian sexual undertones, multiple phallic symbols, and overall feminine figure, provides an androgynous image conforming to archetypal mappings and imageries in horror films that often redraw gender lines.[99] O'Bannon himself later described the sexual imagery in Alien as overt and intentional: "One thing that people are all disturbed about is sex... I said 'That's how I'm going to attack the audience; I'm going to attack them sexually. And I'm not going to go after the women in the audience, I'm going to attack the men. I am going to put in every image I can think of to make the men in the audience cross their legs. Homosexual oral rape, birth. The thing lays its eggs down your throat, the whole number. " - as quoted from the wiki. | | Friday, March 16th, 2012 | | 10:54 pm |
| | Monday, March 5th, 2012 | | 10:29 pm |
| | Wednesday, February 29th, 2012 | | 9:19 am |
Post-Op
I'd like to thank ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif?v=92.1) gwyndragon for the gift. It's with some difficulty that I type this as I have to hold my head at an odd angle to read the screen properly - my prescription has changed a bit now that my left eye has been operated on. It's no longer near-sighted and of course the cataract was taken care of. I have two weeks of eye drops for that and then and some checkups, then its time to work on the right eye. The op itself apparently only took around 12 minutes. I had them sedate me early though because I was already feeling the onset of anxiety (seizures). Its a good thing I did because when I woke up they had me strapped down and told me I had moved around a lot. I've been told not to lift anything heavier than 10lbs or do anything strenuous, or even rub the eye for 2 weeks! | | Saturday, February 25th, 2012 | | 12:34 am |
| | Saturday, February 11th, 2012 | | 1:46 am |
Trading Places and Seeing Clearly that Frontier has Gone?
Looks like I will be moving again in the near future, but not too far this time. Right next door most likely. Its a 3 bedroom and I'm in a 4 bedroom so the landlord/s want to switch us because there's a fourth meant for the other group (the developmentally challenged) and our house is is already near completion with renovations. And has tile floor which is easier to keep clean... We've been waiting on a 3rd ourselves. In the meantime I actually (or rather myself or my roomie) have a chance of getting a place about two blocks away as well if we want. This will only happen around March. I have cancelled my Frontier account. Ever since Verizon gave them the nod its been downhill. My bandwidth got lower and lower and it came to the time where I had to reset the modem every week to get so-so speed. Then they jipped me on payments (their online billing system doesn't work too well). After going around and around with them I just called it quits, paid them money I supposedly owed them and said goodbye. They still owe me at least $60. I have proof of the transaction. Anyways... My roomie jumped onto Clearwire for his internet after finally getting rid of Comcast (they could not figure out how to just switch the previous owners account to his name, or just create a new one and leave the existing cable installed). Clear isn't the best right now as it is "highspeed" wireless broadband, which means having to find a best spot in the house to put the the router seeing as they don't have a tower in Everett yet - the nearest ones being Seattle and Bellingham. Still, I'm going to get my own because that way I won't be a drain on his resources, and I'll get better speed because right now I'm using two bridges and a 25' 5e cable. Still when I get my setup it willl cost the same as having a phone and DSL. I don't need a phone seeing as I have a cell that's PAYG. Costs me about $60 a year, if that. More on my SOPA rant: Here's another thought for you folks to ponder; ACTA is one way to get around the Freedom of Information Act. Or is it? Of course that is also only applicable to the USA and companies with head-offices on its soil. What is everything on the 'net but another form of information? And do we not, as the public, have the right to access whatever we want? Here's another: I believe that people behind MPAA and sundry are just getting pissed that folks are releasing original material without going through MPAA and cronies. The Industry isn't getting their share and they are jealous! So they yell "PIRACY!" whether or not its true. I know for a fact there is plenty of free music/software/articles/what-have-you on the net, released BY-THE-AUTHORS. | | Thursday, February 9th, 2012 | | 9:30 pm |
Change the Acronym Time.
So we finally beat the hell out of the SOPA bill by 100M votes. That was a month ago. Has that stopped anyone? Not really, they've just become sneakier and started deals behind closed doors – internationally. A new thing called “ACTA”. With this they don't need to go through any government, instead they can just get ISP's to spy on you. You want to prevent this then go HERE. Now here's my say on why Hollywood is really losing money:
- paying actors waaay too much (letting them name their price). Using expensive sets when computer technology can do a lot of the work at a fraction of the cost – models can be re-used you know!.
- charging theaters waaay too much for a copy of the films, thus pushing ticket prices up, thus fewer people are going.
- forcing the rental stores out of business by charging waaay too much for copies compared to what they'll offer retail stores to sell to the public.
- because rental stores are no longer around, people no longer get to see the direct-to-disc stuff (so are forced to go online and download it). This also means having to go online in search of Indie stuff. I'd say that RIAA/MPAA is already censoring what is available here to the USA public. RIAA/MPAA cannot blame piracy for its own shortsightedness. There is simply nowhere else to go to get what a person wants, especially if you aren't into whatever's “hot” at the time. Me, I'm a non-conformist. I like what I like, not what someone else tells me to like.
You have a problem with this? Oh well... I'm just a genderqueer pansexual dragon. Slurp me. | | Sunday, February 5th, 2012 | | 8:05 pm |
A Great Answer
To the majority rule (read "status quo") </i>"...And if there is any doubt why such an opinion might be met with hostility, it has to do with privilege. You can write it off as “political correctness” if you wish, but the truth is that privilege always lies with the majority. They’re so used to being catered to that they see the lack of catering as an imbalance. They don’t see anything wrong with having things set up to suit them, what’s everyone’s fuss all about? That’s the way it should be, any everyone else should be used to not getting what they want..."</i> - excerpt from Bioware's response to a complaint by a Straight Male Gamer. I thought this particular piece was appropriate in many situations. | | 7:47 pm |
Stage This
So, does anyone else think Sue Sylvester ("Glee") is a cross between Ann Coulter and Sarah Palin? In other news; have you noticed that there is now a lot of junk being added to most brands of packaged peanuts? Chemicals that should not be there. I saw it the first time over a year ago and so I stopped buying peanuts unless the label did not list any ingredient other than what I wanted (and the expected dosage of salt.) At what point did food companies decide we needed more crap with our nuts? Were they too healthy for us on their own? (yes, technically peanuts are not nuts but legumes, but you get the idea. check out other nuts as well.) | | Monday, January 16th, 2012 | | 7:08 pm |
Meanderings of a Mundane Mind
The Good: If you like M&M's, and you've been enjoying the new recipes that have been coming out (pretzel, coconut), then you need to try out Cherry! It's as decadent as the coconut (so be careful!) though I still prefer their triple choc that came out a while ago. The cherry can be found at Target and Walgreen's thus far, AFAIK, and only in the medium sized bags. Probably only a limited release in time for Valentine's so grab them while you can! For you diabetics out there, try out Werther's sugar-free hard candies. They are available in a variety of flavors (depending on where you go) including original - and get this - they don't cost more than the regular hypersugared versions. They also do not contain maltitol or malitol (both of which are laxitives). If any of you are having a hard time trying to find regular Rooibos (red bush) tea (ie, the kind that isn't blended with other herbs and flavors), you'll find that Numi has it available in whatever store sells that brand. Its pricey though, at $5 for 18 bags. Better to go online if you can, and visit one of the South African food shops for a 50-pack. The Plea: Will Food stores please stop adding salt to their fries? Let your patrons add their own. That way they have it the way they like and those that don't want any don't have to ask you to make a special batch. Its also healthier in the long run - There's already salt in everything. Will food companies please stop adding corn syrup to everything? sugar is plenty and people are now getting (and allergic) to corn products. The Illogical: Prisons keep getting closed. Remaining prisons get overcrowded. Problem here? Inmates get treated to 3 meals, gym facilities, cable, library, a roof over their heads. Hollywood movies show a picture of nothing but violence and maltreatment. Do cons keep committing crimes to get back in? Is Hollywood just promoting fear? Even the idea of having a stiff one up the bum really wouldn't scare me. Been there. Done that. Enjoyed. The Odd: I sorta noticed one day when buying clothing at Target, that one of the brands is actually "Made in Pakistan" | | Thursday, January 5th, 2012 | | 8:07 pm |
Fling This
And here I thought we were in a recession... Seen in Everett (WA, USA) in the two weeks before Xmas: Lots of people driving Lexus, from sedan to SUV. Including kids. Even saw one parked at a McDonald's! Up here it was like the Star Bucks of cars - one on every street. More and more people catching the Swift bus rather than the local Everett Transit - heading downtown - a difference of $1.00! ET only charges $0.75 and has a lot more seating. People with bicycles get on the express bus from Everett - Seattle ($2.25 off-peak) only to get off at the South Everett station. They could have just paid $0.75 for a local, or cycled the distance in the time it took to wait for the bus - and most of the way there are bike trails and they are even or down hill! People getting on the bus and getting off 2 - 3 stops later. I get 2 letters for a class actions suit against Honda's 2003 - 2009 Civic Hybrids for poor performance (advertised mileage etc.) I never had any trouble with mine, in fact I got exactly what was promised at for highway. Ohhh - I guess maybe I just took better care of my car. Needless to say that as much as I would like the $100@, I will be excluding myself from the case simply because I am not greedy. | | Saturday, December 24th, 2011 | | 12:46 am |
Name Games
You know what really gets me about some online gamers? The names the come up with for their characters. I mean Just tonight on Castle Age I see someone calling himself "Pimp Daddy Thong Bandit." I mean, REALLY??? Come On! I see something like that and several things come to mind: 300 pound teenager, pimply, living in mom's basement, jerks off to internet porn because thats the way he's ever gonna score; white trash/red neck type that thinks the world of himself and everybody loves him, meantime everyone is really laughing at him because he thinks the world owes him a favour for his existence; an alternate version of the 300-pounder is the little kid who thinks he's quite brilliant at coming up with a really stupid name and actually daring to use it publicly. Elsewhere I've seen worse than this with names involving sexual innuendo, or just dumb-ass names containing the word "death" or "demon" or "blood" or "satan/lucifer" and/or including the numbers "666" because they think they are being absolutely original and non-comformist. A lot of these "sexy" names are so obviously guys you just sit there with your head in your palm. I go to MMOsite and you should see some of the topics there: guys are actually becoming afraid of being classed based on the gender of the character they prefer to play! HELLO? Back in the day all video game characters where "male." Gee. And here I thought the reason two genders where introduced into the gaming world was to help our female players feel more welcome. Okay, so nuff said, rant over :) | | Thursday, December 8th, 2011 | | 12:07 pm |
In case you missed it:
Most of you reading this probably don't watch the Pokemon show at all. It can be quite entertaining, none so much as the last episode "Purrloin: Sweet or Sneaky." In it, both Meowth (now having left Team Rocket for good) and Oshawott fall for Purrloin and will do anything for this pokemon. The are completely infatuated to the point of fighting each other for a date with Purrloin. At the end of the episode the purrloin's trainer tells the two that purrloin is really a guy. (purrloin was looking at both bundles of roses being presented to him at the time and apparently considering who to go out with :D ) I'm like, yeah! the first flamer pokemon and nobody on the US networks caught it! | | Monday, December 5th, 2011 | | 11:51 am |
Kung Fu
KF Panda I was not impressed with. Furious Five I was, "Meh." The sequel was somewhat of an apology. The TV show I am really enjoying! Its become almost a watered down version of "Father of the Pride." I think Tigress is my fave char so far. | | Friday, December 2nd, 2011 | | 12:27 pm |
Games
I'm currently playing a new isometric view game over at Cartoon Network called "Conqueror of all Worlds." For those of you that enjoy a good dungeon crawl I highly recommend this one, though you'll need to make a free account to play it properly. It's your typical beast-bash game where you need to keep stocked up on potions to keep going (though you can get a badge for dieing 10 times!), hoard gold, and look for weapon/magic item upgrades. You are given 2 companions to help you fight your way, so you a whole "pseudo" MMO deal going on, though you can't interact with them at all aside from healing them (they will auto-resurrect if they are killed.) There are two stores in town for you to buy and sell things from. Just shift-click on the item you want to buy/sell. Scrolls are confusing - I find it best to quick-slot them and then use them before starting any combat. Weapons in this game range from a bat (called the "skull cracker"), staves, swords (some look like large pizza cutters...), clubs, and various guns. You can have 3 weapons at once and just switch between them with a hot-key. You also a variety of armaments from "shoddy" to "epic" and beyond. The game is very easy to get into and I'm already at lvl 36 after playing for about 8 hours. If you don't already have installed by some other app, you'll need the Unity 3D web player. Its pretty much like Flash and has been out for years, but it was designed for 3D apps/games. |
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