Life is hard...

Here's a poem: Yes, I know It's not professional, but its the best I could do.


UNTITLED

You know, sometimes life is a real pain in the neck.
Listen, my children, for you will hear,
Of the tale of 5c0rch, the freelanceer.
You know, He's a sniper, so hit the deck!

It all began in the glorious month of May,
I was ecstatic, for I had been freed,
From the chains of homework and education, indeed.
I am speaking of school, the place that devours my day.

I was enjoying my break and life was good,
Until I was put in the workforce.
My job? Cleaning the pool at the club, of course.
Too bad I wasn't being paid as I should.

The fateful day when my eyes were opened,
Was the day when I put down my skimmer and broom,
For cleaning this pool was like cleaning a tomb!
So I quit, by not working, not a cent earned, not even a token.

Now it's late June and I live in fear,
Because I know not if my internet will work,
Man, my router's being a jerk.
I dream about FiOS being near and dear.

All this, my child, in a single week,
I do not understand how I can remain,
Sane in this crazy week, taxing my brain.
However, I hope the future is not so bleak.

For this sharpshooter needs some fun,
A good server to play on,
Some n00bs to own.
Just give me some digital bullets and a coded gun.

This is the story of 5c0rch's dilemma,
A story of good fortune gone bad.
Life is much worse than what I had.
Can't think of anything to rhyme, so..........Emma.

THE END

By 5c0rch

Sequel to the Buddy Icons post...

Well, I guess there is another alternative to buddy icons, you could just use a forum and signature combo. Instead of IMing, just post on online forums and use a personal signature. Here is mine for an example:


If youre too artistically impaired to make one of your own, (like me), ask a friend or someone who specializes in graphics on the forum to make you one. that's what I did and now I have an awesome form of expression no thanks to killtodeath, or course.

There goes Halo 3....

Its exactly what Bungie feared, Halo 3's ending has been posted on the internet by someone other than bungie.org. If you don't believe me, go to the following link right to proof. http://halo3ending.ytmnd.com/

Gamers are terrible at conversation.

We've all heard the words. We all know how it goes. OMG!!!, LOL!, stfu!. Sure it makes sense to use these in a fast paced game, but the moment people use these acronyms in RL(real life), the whole meaning of human conversation itself begins to change and degrade. The other day, a friend of mine walks up to me and says, "LOL! LOL! LOL! I just saw the funniest thing! At first I was like, OMG!!! then I was ROFLMFAO!!!" He then just walked away. For a moment I just stood there, trying to translate what he meant. After a while, I just gave up. That just leads me to why I made this post. Some gamers need help with their social skills. As for the rest of us, we just stand there and laugh when they try to speak.

Buddy Icons are a pain.

The more times I see them, the more I get annoyed. Buddy Icons can be funny, cool, pointless, or a way to express yourself while IM-ing. In case you've lived in a cave or have been sleeping for the past few years, IM-ing means Instant Messenging. Now that that's out of the way, let's get to exactly why Icons are a pain to install. When you have one working, they usually are great, but if only Instant Messenging services let you UPLOAD your pics to their systems, that would make some lives easier.

For example, say I have an AIM icon on my computer at home. When I go to a friend's house, and I log on to AIM, I don't have an Icon. Why, you ask? Simple. I don;t have the icon on my friend's computer. On the other hand, if one could upload a file to the AIM along with the Buddy List, I would have my Icon anywhere I go. I know its a minor problem, but i felt it was important. By the way, Here's my icon:

Epic's got a trump card!

|UnreaL|
|TournamenT|
|2007|
----------------
|GearS|
|of|
|WaR|
----------------
|UnreaL|
|EnginE|
|3|
---------------

All three are products of Epic Games, A small developing company whose products rival Bungie's Halo series. Although Epic is slightly smaller than many other game development franchises, such as Infinity Ward and Gearbox, it still shows results to stand a fighting chance.

First, the Unreal series. Unreal Tournament all began with the original, and picked up with UT 2k3. With it, the second installment in the series brought a complte visual makeover. About a year later, Epic released UT2k4 with new vehicular addition which filled Unreal-a-holics with splattering glee. Now to the Present: Its been a couple years since Epic released its award-winning, fast paced, shells-on-wheels offering. This period of time has left many Unreal Tournament fans hungry and waiting. Early demos of UT 2k7 show another major graphic upgrade along with miscellaneous gameplay addition. That makes Unreal Tournament 2007 a very anticipated title. Hopefuly Epic can meet the hype.

Secondly, Gears of War shows a lot of promise as Epic's first attempt as a next-gen zombie shooter. It paints a picture of an Earth of the future. This would be an overused plot, except that people on Earth are suffering a type of genocide inflicted by a highly organized undead military. That leaves it up to a group of human soldiers to fight back amongst the rubble and ruin of an age past. Utilizing the new Unreal Engine 3, it allows for more detailed environments, weapons, people, and most importantly, more ferocious, terrifying, and realistic enemies. Unfortunately, however, GoW's makers have not shown much about the game. For shame.

Lastly, The Unreal Engine 3 is a very hot item for many development companies. Some of which: Atari, THQ, Gearbox, and many other A-list game publishers. It has proven that it can handle a whole new level of detail when it comes to gameplay and graphics. Did I mention it has PS3 support? Not only that, but it can also handle, with visually pleasing results, a Physx processor. That ability alone, is a major way to beef up a game's potential. Thanks to Ageia, of course.

Epic has a lot on its plate, but in this gamer's opinion, I'm certain they can handle it.

The side effects of a good time....

You usually rant and rave about stuff you hate, right? Well, I always rave(with ecstatic excitement) about Call of Duty Online, but now its my turn to rant about joining a tough server.

The idea, or Golden Rule of Online Gaming, is to find a server you like, and do well in, and attend that one regularly. You could even make some friends if you'd like. The only tough part is finding one. That brings me to the purpose of this post.

I was just looking for another server to play on just in case I wanted to make lunch out of some unfortunate piece of newbie cannon fodder using more than just rifles. That was my first mistake. I had already found my strong-point and a server to cater to it, but I wanted more. I just broke the Golden Rule. Putting that aside, I joined, and found out quite quickly that the guys in the place were on a different standard. In a nutshell, I didnt get a shot off. The only kill I got was achieved with a grenade, after death, of course. Clearly, these guys were spawn killing.

When I finally disconnected, I felt disheartened. I just remember thinking, I thought I was good at this game. Sure I was having fun on the good ol' sniper server, but my attempt to gain SMG glory had failed miserably. I can only hope that my emotionally distressing online calamity can prevent another from suffering such a fate.

Now that I'm done complaining about losing, I can talk about how I'm a force to be reckoned with on the rifle servers. However, a Brag-fest like that would take another full post, so I'll take a raincheck.

*Golden Rule of Online Gaming-Not a completely accepted truth. More like a sad excuse for my lack of SMG skill.

Dang futuristic machines!!

Online gamers will agree, the less ping the better. If you have low ping, you have low lag. Its a simple concept. Anyway, Verizon's FiOS is their technology of the FUTURE. It harnesses the power of light and uses it through fiber optic cables, to provide you with literally lightning fast internet access. Verizon Normal DSL playing Call of Duty on an average server gives me 40-60 ping. On the other hand, Verizon FiOS offers 20-40 ping. That's, on average, 50% less lag than normal DSL. By the way, super-fast browsing isn't bad either. In conclusion, I give FiOS two very painfully cramped trigger fingers up.

Gamers rejoice!!!!

Well, E3 has come and gone. Although most, if not all of us could not attend in person, we still got in on the action. No thanks to one of my friends, gametrailers.com. Even though going there would have been awesome, avoiding the BO of most of the nerdiest attendees is a godsend in itself. With it, E3 has brought glimpses of many new games and future goodies for us to get our greedy little hands on. Such as, the PS3, Windows Vista, and, God forbid we mention Nintendo's offering, the Wii. I don't think I need to mention how incredibly stupid that sounds. But, I'll say it anyway-
"Hey Guys, Let's go play on my Wii!"
"Your what!?!?!?!?!?!"
"My Wii."
"Hey man, we don't go that way."
"I meant my Nintendo Wii game console."
"Oh....well. We still think its crap." They would then leave him for someone cooler with a PS3 and the "wii" child would have no friends(No scottish pun intended). All beacuse its nintendo's fault. isn't that sad? Isn't it?!!!

Wii or no Wii, Watching previews for Medal of Honor Airborne, Halo 3, Brothers in Arms: Hell's Highway, and UT2k7 from E3 0wn3d doing endless math homework anyday. The only other sad part is now we must all recover from our sleep deprivation and get back to our normal lives....and wait for E3 2007!

Well, I'm off track already.

Our local swim team happens to have a trip to Georgia this week. Im not going due to a certain chronic disease called Slacker's syndrome. Nonetheless, a lot of the guys are going, so don't expect much more news about the swim team for a week or so.

The maiden thread!

Well, here it is. the first one. dont expect much. But do check back for more news in the world of software and hardware and other miscellaneous stuff.