oblivion

The first thing that I have to say is "wow". And I mean "WOW" in the fullest possible meaning. The last time I really enjoyed a game this much, it was The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. I mean it, I haven't been excited to really play a game since then. Well, maybe I was pretty excited about Ocarina of Time, but it didn't pay off quite as well.

But, I wasn't totally won over by the hype. I really try not to be, after all it's hype. Usually it's junk and doesn't tell you anything about the game. One thing that I was worried about was the silly names in the game. This is my first Elder scrolls game, so I had not been exposed to just how cheesey the names can be. I mean, come on. "Hammerfell" and "Bosmer". What is this. The only guy who can make up words that sound good is Tolkein. He had a complete consistent system. He also had an unfair advantage: he as an etymologysit by trade and qualified at making up languages. But my point is this: it didn't matter. The environment is engrossing enough that I don't care what the words are, they're just placeholders so that I remember where I am going. Maybe that is why they picked the words that they did, so they would be memorable.

What really makes it is the controls. That's what did in Fable in my opion. The controls where to complicated- counterintuitive. These are simple, I had them down before I finished the opening quest. Just like Zelda. Only a few buttons, just make them do a few things. Don't make them each do ten things, depending on weather you are breathing in or out, or one eye is closed, or you're holding down this other button. But I still like that game. It's just that this one is even better.

Two more things. This place is huge. It is a really big game. I haven't used the fast travel yet, just walked form the Imperial City to Chorrol to Kvatch. It took how long you would expect, and covered a lot of stuff. And the views were great. You could see mountains, and then cross those mountains.

The other thing: it plays like I always wanted dungeons and dragons to play when I was a kid, but never got people to play. There are dungeons all over the place and treasure old ruins and all sorts of great stuff. It's like a massive d&d game. How great is that. I expect that I'll play it a lot. With Zelda it was one story. With this, it'll be fun to play a mage, as a warrior, as a thief, as on and on and on. You don't have to play it the same way each time. What fun.

Bottom line is- yeah I'm enjoying it. I'll probably mention it again here. But I really should be studying for the gre for the next week and a half. I can play after. I'll probably have Steph take it to work with her or something so I don't play when I should be studying.

hater of gamer news-blogs

grrrr. or should I say GRAW. I'm more than a little annoyed with the gamer blogs that I rss. Here are the annoyances:

1. typos typos typos! Don't you people proof read? At least have your computer read it out loud before submitting it. Sheash!

2. misinformed. Get. A. Clue. Don't publish some rumor (such as "the graw demo is up on xblm!") until it is confirmed.

3. all that babbling. This is my own fault: I'm addicted to news. I just shouldn't read it.

vortex

vortex
Originally uploaded by justingarofoli.

see, I really do have a flickr acount.

Flickr

I've got a flickr account.

gre general test

I'm taking the general test on Monday.  It looks like it won't be too much trouble, but I am a little nervous.  I haven't had a test in a couple of years!

Blogging from the dashboard:  That's it, maybe with this I'll be able to say something.  I don't have to log in, I don't have think about it.  Probably all that you'll really get out of me is a bunch of one liners like "this sucks" or "that's great".  Ha!

It's July

and I haven't written anything in months. This is aweful.

(not) haiku on you

just like this...

"The whirr of knobs on pavement
the swish of cars at my elbow
just a way to the trail."

You see, it is not haiku. But it is haiku inspired. It is going to be an entry in the bicycling magazine's winabike contest. I've got 27 more written so far. That, uh, includes revisions. This one probably will be revised too. But they all will get entered in the contest. Since I'm not a professional, I'm taking the scatter shot approach: the more entries I make, the more chances I've got!

been a while

hasn't it? Well, I don't have much to report. I've done some mountain biking, still can't believe it isn't winter (it's going to be 60 today). At least it rained the other day- it keeps the dust down. That's my latest thing, the dash. I think I use it a bit too much.

funny trains

those funny funny trains. Something, unusual, happened to me on the way home from a friends place tonight. I thought I would share it. Silly me, driving down a road that I drive quite regularly. It's got a couple of train track crossings. One has got gates to stop traffic, the other two just have blinking red lights. I've never seen trains on the other two, but tonight I got lucky. Real lucky. As I approached the first train crossing, jammin' out to the radio (something I rarely do), something on my left side looked a bit, uh, off.

The particular train tracks come out from right behind a building. I mean right behind, probably only five feet between where a train would be and the building wall. The building comes right up to the sidewalk too. Plenty of room to hide.

That funny thing I mentioned a moment ago was, yup- you guessed it, a train. A great big one, with really bright lights. It was the lights that gave it away. I screamed like a girl. You would've too if a giant train (it _was_ bigger than a normal train, I swear) was only three lanes away from the side of your car, T style.

Know what that engineer did next? He blew the horn. By now I'd realized that something else was a bit off with that train. It wasn't moving. The bastard was waiting for me! No blinky lights, no gates, just a train with bright lights and a big big horn. Bleep!

Anyway by the time I was a block away, I started to think how funny this was. Hil-arious. Then the blinky lights went off, the train started moving. I passed the second crossing, it's lights started blinking. By the time I was three blocks away the third crossing had sprung into action- lights, gate, and all.

Wow. True story. Just happened about 1.5 hours ago.

music

ladies and gentlement: we've scored. This may be old news to some, but tuner2.com has been a revelation for me. I used to not listen to music online because, well, we've only got a dialup connection. There was no way to suffer through the frequent rebuffering process. A total interruption. With the 24kbps feeds (starting on page 2), I've had zero interruptions (except when I try to open, like, 10 web pages at once- but that is expected). So here's to aacPlus! The guy who invented that dererves his millions (I hope he got them). It sounds great.

Here's the really cool part. With one of those $25 dollar fm transmitters I can listen to it on my stereo in the other room- and not be on the computer! I know, I know, when would that ever be. Well, for me, that is oftener than it must be for you. I plan to modify the transmitter to take a wall wart so it isn't the most expensive radio station on the planet. I'll see if I can make a post about it.

Thank you tuner2.

blogs

How many blogs does a person need? I don't understand it. Blogger has this drop down menu in the upper right hand corner of the "blog this" tool. I've got just one blog in there. I expect that there is at least one person who has dozens of blogs listed there. I can hardly write in my little blog right here, let alone another and another. At anyrate, this is all that I've got to write in, and I think that is enough.

un-ill

mostly. I caught a cold this weekend, and am now starting to clear it. I plan to go to work tonight, so it will probably relapse a bit. Yesterday I could barely move, I had a fever of 101F. But it broke last night.

Now my grad school application is almost done. I just need to find a couple of more book titles, and I should be good to go. I think that I mailed the wrong envelope though and sent the incomplete stuff already. But, maybe I left it at work....

snowride update

not everyone showed up (I almost didn't, Thanks Norm!). Norm and I met up with the Chinook Cycling Club at state patrol to try our tires in the snow. Last night the tri-cities recieved about 4 inches of fresh snow, which made not only riding tough, but getting also there. We only rode up most of Big Tire, then cut off to the road and went most of the way up the hill. On the way back down Norm and I decided that we'd rather take a trail back than the road. Lesson learned: going down snowy trails is _way_ more fun than going up them. Take the road up, the trail down.

Those shoes I mentioned earlier worked out great- my toes were quite toasty!

At anyrate, it was a bunch o' fun. I'd do it again.

snow

ain't it great? When I grew up, we didn't get snow all that often. There would be years in between winters with snow. These past two years, in our new locale, we've been treated with snow. Last year we had a good sixteen inches piled on our deck and in the yard. It made getting out of the driveway a bit of a trial (the snow plows plowed a three foot pile!).

This year I'm really taking advantage of it. I've already had one ride in the snow. Tomorrow there is supposed to be another. Last time my toes about froze off (but, as you can see, it didn't really deter me). I lucked into some half price shoes at REI that were just what I was looking for. They should accommodate the extra socks and keep my feet toasty warm! Hooray for the snowy ride.

I just hope that I can actually get to the ride.

credit

Just printed my free credit report from equifax. It was easy as pie, though I expect that if I have anything to dipute it won't be so easy.

https://www.annualcreditreport.com/

This is the state of the servos when the IFO is locked and in CM. 

This is the state of the servos when the IFO is locked but not in CM 

1978 Sonoma Count Pedroncelli Cabernet-Sauvignon 

new year

and fine wine. A 1978 J. Pedroncelli Sonoma County Cabernet-Sauvignon to be exact. One of the finest wines I had the pleasure to drink. That was last night at a "not new years eve part" party. A brief description... nose: smooth and pleasent (unfortunately I do not remember which scents were present); body: very smooth and well balanced with a developed hazelnut flavor. Extremely pleasing. Amazingly, almost no sediment. Of course we didn't pour it straight from the bottle, it went into a decanter first. It didn't need to breath at all, and was ready immediately after decorking. It did get to breath some anyway, but this did not lessen it any. I just wish I had a case of these!