Planting Time!

Today, I went out and purchased a bunch of things I would need for this year's planting season, to include the actual plants I intend to grow.  In regards to flowers, I won't need as many annuals this year as I usually do, because of all the bulbs I planted last year.  Surprisingly, almost all of the gladiolus are coming back up.  That's pretty damned cool. 

So anyway, in the way of flowers, I got three different kinds and that should be enough to fill out all the space I have.  One flat of impatiens, one flat of petunias, and one flat of marigolds. 

In addition to all of this, I also purchased some bamboo stakes to use when the gladiolus get too tall for their own good.  Also, I got a strawberry plant, some pepper plants, and a few tomato plants.  I may not like to eat vegetables, but I certainly do enjoy growing them. 

Now playing: The Fray - Happiness

Apiphobia

I have borderline apiphobia, which is a fear of bees.  I say “borderline” because I don't actually have an irrational fear of them.  I just hate the mean little fuckers. 

This exceptional hatred comes from past experiences, and I'm pretty sure they're all out of get me.  Let's summarize my traumatic experiences with bees over the course of my life:

• While I was swimming one day, a bee hid in my towel.  Worst after-pool surprise ever.
  
• One early morning while I was still sleeping, a bee crawled into bed with me.  What…the…FUCK. 
  
• One day I walked into a barn and a bumblebee attached itself to my back, stinging me over and over again until I reached back, grabbed it off of me, and threw it.

These are only the most traumatic examples.  I've been stung many other times, and I think it's quite obvious that they're all out to get me.  And I now have another one to add to this list.

Fifteen minutes ago, I took a shower.  I got out of the shower.  I stepped out onto the bath mat.  AND STEPPED ON A FUCKING WASP WHO STUNG ME ON MY FOOT. 

Fucking bugs.  ._.

 

Now playing: The National - Exile Vilify

Damn you, Murphy!

Okay, so I've been known to make mistakes.  I've also been known to sometimes make bad assumptions.  Thinking that Brink would be good is apparently one of them. 

First of all, I will admit that I've played a total of 18 minutes of the game.  I'm quite aware that 18 minutes is hardly enough time to warrant a justified opinion on the quality of the game.  Sadly, I was so fucking bored after those 18 minutes that I couldn't fucking stand it any more! 

Part of the problem is me.  See, I should have done my research a little better on this one.  I don't like tactical shooters.  I played a lot of Counter-Strike, but that's as advanced as I'm willing to get into that sub-genre.  Modern Warfare can lick my balls.  My kind of shooters are Half-Life 2, Painkiller, Serious Sam, etc.  No tactical planning is needed.  You just fucking shoot things.  Yes, please. 

So yes, I take full responsibility for not realizing that Brink is a tactical shooter at its core.  You have objectives, and you must complete them.  Oh great.  Doing shit like this on my own is no fun at all, and the AI (on my team) was really pissing my mittens.  But I figured, hey, maybe this would be really fun to play with someone.  It boasts co-op after all, and I looked through the menus a bit and it seems easy enough to get someone into a game.  What I saw of the game looked like it would actually be pretty enjoyable to run through with a real person I could talk to and team up with.

But, I wasn't about to make the same mistake twice in a row, so I went online to see how solid the co-op play was.  And I quote:

“Online games regularly suffer lag.”

Thank you and good night!

Now playing: Incubus - Adolescents

Dungeon Siege III

Dungeon Siege II was my first foray into the RPG genre.  I still remember my hesitation.  "Swords and sorcery?  Why the hell would I enjoy that?"

Okay, so I was young and stupid.  Sue me.

So for me, the Dungeon Siege series will always hold a special place in my heart, because it introduced me to a whole new world of gaming.  There are so many aspects of an RPG game that I take for granted these days, it's actually kind of sad.  I remember being utterly fascinated by how HUGE the world of Dungeon Siege was, and how much detail every little item had.  It's hard to still be amazed by that kind of thing, because I've seen it so many times now.

So now, Dungeon Siege III is on the horizon, and it contains what has become for me the most important feature a PC game could have -- co-op multiplay.

Lewis (from the Yogscast) linked a short video trailer for the co-op portion of the game.  View it here.  Obviously this doesn't show you any mechanics or stuff like that -- it's all fluff -- but the simple fact that the Dungeon Siege series is going to include co-op is enough to get me excited.  The game comes out in about a month, and I'm looking forward to taking a stroll through the vast world with John at my side.  

Trending Technology

Several years ago, when I first looked into purchasing my own website, there were so many uses I had in my mind that I could get out of the investment.  First and foremost, of course, was the fact that I could have my own webpage or webpages.  At the time, I'd been using free sites such as Geocities and Tripod, and I was rather sick of how many ads you had to deal with.  (It was all free, after all, so of course you'd have more ads than a pre-Thanksgiving Sunday newspaper.

It was after I set everything up that I realized just how much I could do.  Sitting here today, I realize that now NONE of these other things are true.  The technology of the internet has changed, and owning your own web domain doesn't pack the same punch as it used to.  For example:

• This very blog used to be hosted on my own webspace.  No longer, because Blogger added additional functionality and ease-of-use...BUT only if you host the blog in their own space.  And it's free.
  
• I used to upload any videos I would make here.  YouTube is so good, so organized, so easy to use, and just so much better, there's no point in me using anything else.  And it's free.
  
• I would upload files to my webspace so that people could download them.  It was easier than sending an e-mail attachment, especially if it was a very large file.  I suppose this still holds true to an extent, but if it's a video or audio I could just use YouTube quite easily.  File transfers in instant messaging software has gotten a lot better, too, and they can handle larger files now.  Any documents that I may want to share, I'll use Google Docs.  

This, coupled with the fact that I'm not as active in the whole web page design thing anymore, makes me question my need to have the domain.  My cel gallery is something I'm quite proud of, and I really don't have the ambition to move the thing into a blog.  So I suppose that's one reason.  The other is my e-mail address @pastatdude.com, which I use for just about anything.  This is another annoyance for me, though, because the damned thing hasn't been very reliable over the past week.  They migrated to a new platform, and it just simply hasn't been working.  I find it quite ironic that an e-mail address that I'm *PAYING FOR* is less reliable than G-Mail, which is free.  That's pathetic.

Also, there's something else not lost on me here:  I mentioned Blogger, G-Mail, YouTube, and Google Docs.  All free services...and all owned by Google.  They really have taken over the digital planet, haven't they?  I'm certainly not going to complain -- it's all free, and it all works.  What more could you possibly want?

The Difference a Day Makes

Yesterday, I was coughing so badly I honestly began to think I may have something more than just a cold.  Bronchitis, perhaps.  I got about 2, maybe 3 hours of sleep last night, because the coughing was keeping me awake.

But this morning, aside from being EXTREMELY tired, I don't feel all that bad.  I haven't coughed once since I woke up this morning.  I certainly hope it stays that way!

Dialect

This is going to be more of a reference for myself, but I needed to post it somewhere and I figured it would be interesting to some people.  Basically, I need an accent for my Tauren, and I've decided to give him a dialect similar to what you'd hear in northern Maine.  (Heavy New England accent, so to speak.)

So what I've started doing is compiling a list of common words that someone from Maine would pronounce just a little bit different.  

• And = An'
• Lots of = Lotta
• Yes = Ayuh
• Of = O'
• Yeah = Yuh
• To = Ta
• Fair = Fay-yuh
• Idiot = Ijit

Next, I've compiled a list of common words that they tend to throw into their sentences.  In some cases, I've provided the more common word or phrase in parenthesis.  Most of these I'd only use occasionally, as I wouldn't want someone to be completely unable to understand what my character is saying.

• Ah
• Y'know
• Bulkie (sandwich)
• Flatlander (foreigner)
• Gawmy (awkward)
• Middly (average)
• Notional (stubborn)
• Spleeny (overly sensitive)
• Finest kind (the very best)
• Scrid (a tiny piece)
• Wicked (Very, to a high degree.  Example:  "Wicked good!")

Also, in writing this dialect, there are a few rules to follow.  

• Never put a "g" at the end of a word.  (Mornin', Evenin', etc.)
• Some verbs get an "a" at the front of them.  (Instead of saying, "He is going to the store.", you would say, "He's a-goin' to the store."  Or, if you want to apply all the rules, it would be, "He's a-goin' ta the stah."
• Also, sometimes they do not pronounce the "r" in a word.  For example, instead of saying "culvert", you would say "cul-vet".  I would use this sparingly, as too much would make someone sound a bit too simple for my tastes.  
• Words that end in "ar" are pronounced "ah".  So instead of "far", it becomes "fah".  
• Sometimes, words ending in "a" are pronounced "er".  Rarely.  So, "idea" becomes "idear".  I'll probably never use this one.  

I hope to use all this compiled information as a guide to give my Tauren a nice way of speaking.  I don't want him to sound like an "ijit" or have the accent be so thick that no one will understand him, but I instead want him to sound unique and interesting to talk to.