http://theworldofstuff.net/ The Blog of Stuff en-us Nucleus CMS v3.2 Weblog http://backend.userland.com/rss http://theworldofstuff.net//nucleus/nucleus2.gif http://theworldofstuff.net/ http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=116 A: I've been around, I've been reading posts every day, but I've been pretty busy with other stuff and didn't want to be on the internet while I was home.

Q: What do you mean you've been busy? What has been keeping you away from us?
A: As you've read elsewhere, I am engaged. Working on ideas for the wedding and talking with the woman I love have taken up most of my free time. As was proven by my last couple of cell phone bills. But it's not just that, work has been crazy, too, and I haven't been able to post from work due to being so busy.

Q: Why has work been so crazy? I thought you were in your slow season.
A: Yeah, I thought so, too. I am actually back in Albuquerque currently. My company signed a contract that requires an extra tech, and I got the offer to come out here and work on that project. It probably doesn't help that this office has lost three techs in the last week, either.

Q: Wait, you're back in Albuquerque already and you didn't mention it?
A: Yeah. I flew in on Monday night with Erin to attend a funeral on Tuesday. I talked the company into just letting me stay since I was already here, and they were looking to bring me back next week anyway.

Q: So how long are you there?
A: I have no idea. Until this project is over and they don't need my help here anymore. They said it is between 2 and 4 months, but honestly we really don't know.

Q: But Nacho's getting married in May. What happens if you're not back in CA by then?
A: No worries, I've already had that discussion with my boss. I'll be back there for the wedding. And speaking of Nacho, he's being a badass and watching my place while he's in that area.

Q: Nice, that's pretty awesome of him.
A: Yes it is, and that wasn't a question.

Q: Sorry. So when and where are you getting married?
A: August 9th in Albuquerque.

Q: Am I getting an invitation?
A: You're a web server, so probably not. But Big Mo is going to be putting our invitations together for us, and they will go out at some point. You know, once we get him the info on what we want.

Q: Where can I get more information about the wedding?
A: I am currently putting together a website, and I will give you guys the link once it's done.

Q: What else do you have to tell me?
A: I don't know, maybe someone else has other questions.]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=116 Sat, 15 Mar 2008 11:39:27 -0700 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=115 pictures from Thanksgiving. Enjoy.]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=115 Sat, 08 Dec 2007 21:27:23 -0800 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=114
So after 16 years, after everything that has happened between us, we are finally together, which seems to be something that we both knew would happen eventually. Only now that we've grown up/matured/become more experienced are we able to truly realize that we are pretty much perfect for each other. ]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=114 Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:40:25 -0800 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=113 Around The House photo album with eight shots of the new place. I have most everything unpacked now, so now all I have to do is enjoy it. So far I'm loving it. I don't know what else to say about it right now, but I do have more pictures to put up, and another blog post to write, so I'll go do that instead. ]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=113 Sat, 08 Dec 2007 20:23:36 -0800 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=112
So you've decided to read on, huh? Well, check this out. Remember how stressed out I was when I was getting ready to move out to CA? Well, it's back again. When I got out here, Ryan was already about 5 months into the 1 year lease on this house. I knew we'd be moving again at the beginning of December, so I should have been prepared for this, but I'm not. At all. Here we are, 3 weeks until I have to move and I don't have anything packed, and worse than that, I don't have a place to move into yet. See, about a month ago we started really talking about the move, and I got the impression that he was thinking about moving in with his girlfriend. Which is cool, no big deal. I just wanted to know one way or the other so I knew whether I was looking for a house or an apartment. Well, I pretty much just found out today that he is indeed moving in with her.

Yes, we're both partly to blame. I should have followed up with him sooner, and he says he did tell me, although I don't remember that conversation happening, which means if he did tell me I wasn't paying attention. Either way, I'm 3 weeks from being kicked out of this place and don't have a place to go. Tomorrow I'll be getting up and visiting as many apartment complexes as I can to try to find a place that is a) within my price range (more difficult in CA than you would think, especially with my salary), and b) has an apartment available on December 1 at the latest. On top of feeling like I don't have enough time to get ready to move, in about 2 weeks I will be in Albuquerque for Thanksgiving weekend, giving me 4 fewer days than I would normally have.

So I have to pack all my stuff again within 2 weeks (I'm not sure how much time I'll have the week after Thanksgiving to do last minute stuff, and I definitely don't want to feel like I forgot stuff), find a place to live, and notify places of my change of address. I've never had one, but I think I feel a panic attack coming on.

On top of that, I have been given the task of learning another position at work to add to my workload. Don't get me wrong, it's easy enough, but being so new to doing this new task makes me feel like I don't know what I'm doing, and that stresses me out more. I was also told on Monday or Tuesday that I needed to do some certifications and have them completed by the 21st of this month. And those certifications, if I'm just doing them in normal free time at work, would probably take me a month at minimum. With my added workload, probably closer to 6 weeks. And I have to have them done in 2 weeks. Which means that I'm going to have to work on them a lot at home over the next 2 weeks. While packing and getting ready to move, as well as getting ready to go to Albuquerque.

Also, the holidays are sneaking up on me too quickly again this year. As such, I'm already having my standard panic that I won't have presents for everyone in time. Sure, it's only the 9th of November, but with the move and everything, I'm of course worried about money. I feel like I won't have any until about the middle of December, which is about the time when I will be in full freak out mode. I know, I know, Christmas isn't about presents, they're just material belongings and it's okay if I don't get them for people. Well, that's not how my brain works. I will always be freaked out that I didn't get the right thing for people up until Christmas morning when I can't do anything else about it. So even if it's stupid to worry about it, I do. A lot.

STOP SCANNING NOW. The next paragraph is the summary if you didn't read any of that.

So what's going through my head? No money, no place to live, no chance I can do my job properly, and no idea what to get people for Christmas even if I do have the money to buy stuff. That's pretty shitty. I'm sure things will work out. I'll find a place to live in plenty of time, I'll get everything packed before it needs to be, at the very worst I'll have to tell my boss that I need an extension on the time to get the certifications, and people will forgive me if I don't get them a present. Unfortunately, that's not how it's working out in my head, and it never will. I am a fully committed worry wart. I don't fuck around when it comes to stressing over little things (or big ones, for that matter). Therefore, I will not put in any extra effort to update my blog this month. It's just one more thing to think about, and I don't have the mental capacity for that right now.]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=112 Sat, 10 Nov 2007 01:05:10 -0800 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=111 General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=111 Mon, 05 Nov 2007 23:19:33 -0800 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=110
Or have I been homesick and just not known it? I don't know what it feels like since this is the first time I've ever been away for any length of time (with the exception of the two months in 2000 when I marched drum and bugle corps). So do I just not know what it feels like and am assuming the feelings I'm having are something else? Possibly. I probably seem insensitive if I say I don't miss Albuquerque, but honestly I haven't really thought about it too much.

Last night I got bored and read through every blog post I've put up, along with you guys' comments. At some point, Big Mo had made a comment about having to get away and making it feel more like I have to depend on myself to live, even though I know I can do it. Oddly, I haven't even felt that yet. 7 months gone and I still haven't gotten the feeling of, "Hey, I really can do this on my own." Maybe it's the fact that I have a roommate. If I lived on my own I might be feeling more self-sufficient.

So as you can see, moving out here hasn't done a lot of the things I've wanted it to yet. Maybe I'm just impatient, maybe it comes with more time, but I'm starting to wonder what's wrong with me, why I'm not having the normal feelings that everyone has when they move.

That's the worst closing paragraph ever.]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=110 Mon, 05 Nov 2007 00:11:17 -0800 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=109
No, seriously. That's all I can come up with today. Actually, this month of blogging is going to come hard for me. For some reason my life seems extremely boring lately. I can't come up with anything to have a conversation about, much less blog about. Unless you want to read the boringness that is my daily job, a movie I watched or something I did in a video game. But if it's the video game you want, my Xbox 360 already blogs for me every day.

Shit, I should have just signed up that site for NaBloPoMo. There's almost no way I would fail.]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=109 Sun, 04 Nov 2007 00:22:32 -0700 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=108 Pancake Puff. Now, don't get me wrong, I think the thing is a horrible invention, but during said commercial they said something I couldn't understand. They were mentioning all the amazing concoctions you can devise with this miracle food preparation device, when suddenly they mentioned the cinnamon roll puff.

"Cinnamon roll puff?" I asked Nacho, to confirm that I wasn't hearing things. "How the hell do you make a cinnamon roll puff?" A cinnamon roll is flat dough that's rolled up, which, after cutting, makes a swirl shape out of the dough. A puff is a roughly spherical shape which has no such intricate shapes internally. I suppose they came to the conclusion that since puffs are spherical, they can easily roll down a hill, thus justifying the name. Sorry, As Seen On TV folks, you advertising department has yet again failed to convince me to buy your products.]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=108 Sat, 03 Nov 2007 02:41:59 -0700 http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=107
Nintendo launched their Nintendo Wi-Fi service near the end of 2005. The first experience I had with it was Mario Kart DS. Nintendo decided that they wanted to start their online capabilities with their portable system to judge exactly how their servers would hold up, and get an idea of how people would be using it. This makes complete sense and I don't bash that. The first time I turned on Mario Kart DS to play online, I had to set my system up to talk to my router. Unfortunately Nintendo decided to only allow WEP encryption over the wireless network. I wanted to play, but had my router set up with WPA encryption. I had to lower the security of my entire network just to allow me to play online. This could be rectified with a firmware update, but to this day it remains WEP only. Strike one, Nintendo.

After playing a few games online, I was happy with the speed of the connectivity and the apparent lack of any lag over the network. Great job on the network speed, Nintendo, but why do you make us use friend codes? I may want to go online and play against some random person, just to meet new gamers and see how good other people are. But that is not possible on the Nintendo Wi-Fi Connection. You have to enter the 16 digit friend code from your friend's game. On top of that, you have a different friend code for every online game you have. So if I want to play Nacho at two different games online, we have to exchange four different 16 digit friend codes. Strike two, Nintendo.

As I only had a couple of games that have online capabilities for the DS, combined with the fact that I don't play my DS much, I set my router back to WPA. In fact, according to NintendoWiFi.com, the last time I've played online was December 13, 2005. If that doesn't show you how unimpressed I was with it, nothing will. Part of why I haven't wanted to play online has to do with the apparently lack of any true online hub where you can check your status on any given game.

You can say that I am comparing Nintendo's Wi-Fi Connection to Xbox Live, and technically I am. But I am mainly looking at what I like and dislike about each online system. I am not talking about individual games, but leaning more on the company's web portals where you can see your online status. Microsoft has pretty much nailed their online experience. Sure, there are games that have very lame online services, such as Guitar Hero II. You cannot play anyone online, but you can check your scores on each song against everyone else on Xbox Live. Yes, it's lame, but when I go to Xbox.com, I can check how many achievements I have completed in the game.

You probably all have a general idea of what the achievements are, but each game has it's own achievement list, programmed by the designers. For instance, you get a certain number of points for beating Guitar Hero II on easy, medium, hard and expert (each one giving you more points than the previous). When you go to Xbox.com, you will see how many you have achieved, and how many you have to go. But it goes far beyond that. You can compare your achievements against anyone you want, whether they be on your friends list or not.

That only covers part of the online portal. Then you have the fact that you can chat (text or voice) with anyone on their Xbox at that time while in game, and depending on the game, you can play against other people. And you don't need to know who they are to play them. Most games allow you to play someone who is approximately as good as you are at the game (which is all computed on the backend, so you don't have to worry about it). You can jump into an online game of Tony Hawk and play with someone you've never met, which causes for a much greater challenge in most cases.

Nintendo then released the Wii, and it finally had WPA encryption capabilities. This is great because now I can be online with my Wii, go shopping for new (old) games, see and trade my friends' Miis, and surf the web among other things. This is a great step forward, but I still have to know my friends' Wii system code to chat with them. And on top of that, they have to know mine too. No voice chat at all, and the only messaging available is through the main Wii menu, so you have to actually exit your game to go back to see the messages. Like I said, a great step ahead of the DS online play, but still far more complex then it needs to be.

So we get down to what really brought this rant out today. Guitar Hero III is coming out this month. I have been back and forth in my mind about which version I want to buy. There are so many pros and cons for each system, and I have been fighting with which I really want. I almost decided that I wanted the Wii version, so I checked out everything from that viewpoint, and here's what I came up with. The Wii Remote plugs into the guitar. This allows a number of different things. First, the motion control of the remote is what controls the "Rock Out" or "Star Power" action in the game. This is good because it brings the manufacturing price of the guitar itself down, thus bringing the price of the whole package to $10 less than any other version (except the PS2 version). Next, the speaker on the remote is what plays the "you missed that note" sound. This is great when you're playing multiplayer, because then you know who really missed the notes.

Then you have the cons. Online play. It always comes down to this. Now, don't get me wrong, I'm not a big online gamer, but it will affect my take on some games. For the Wii, you have to enter a friend code (another 16 digits for every friend you want to play!) to play online against them. The Xbox360 version allows you to download new songs every so often if you choose to (for a small fee, of course). The Wii has only 512MB of storage space, so downloading new song packs would be damn near impossible if you want to keep saved games as well. Also, you get to play anyone, anywhere at anytime on the Xbox version. If I really feel up to playing online, Wii is just not the way to go in this case.

Don't get me wrong, I played Guitar Hero II a lot on the PS2, but once I got the Xbox360 and borrowed the game from Nacho, it's a whole new world. I don't know if it's the achievement list that does it, or the simplicity of their online portal where I can check my progress, but something keeps bringing me back for more. When the developers put achievements in the game, it gives you something tangible to work toward. When I can check my current achievements against my friends (or anyone else, for that matter), it makes me remember why I started gaming in the first place: the fun factor.

When we were kids, we played to get the high score. We would tell people at school that we had gotten to level 47 of Bubble Bobble without dying, and people were impressed. It was a way to play for fun and challenge all at the same time. And that is what Microsoft has brought back in achievements. Only now you don't have to go to school to tell your friends, you can show them online, on the Xbox, or send them a text message on the system itself to let them know. Friendly competition is back, my friends.

I am not saying that Nintendo has completely dropped the ball on this, far from it. They are about 5 years behind Microsoft in the online department. I'm sure they will come through with some great innovations yet. I am also not saying that Xbox Live is prefect. It is far from perfect, but right now it is by far the best online service available for console gamers.

So what does this all mean? It means that Microsoft has somehow stolen my heart when it comes to online games AND replay value. Going back through games a second time to try to get more achievements is what we all did as kids. We wanted to perfect the game. Nintendo has games that have amazing replay value: Wii Sports, Excite Truck and Super Paper Mario just to name a few. But what if they gave us something physical to shoot for. Force me to get an A rating in all courses in Excite Truck to get a few gamer points. I flat out guarantee you I'd be playing your games more. Nintendo, you're moving in the right direction, but you have to get rid of your friend codes and give us something to play for. Otherwise, I will always choose the Xbox over the Wii for online games.]]> General http://theworldofstuff.net/index.php?itemid=107 Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:20:50 -0700