loonyblog.

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It took me 96 hours and two separate characters (I didn’t want to do the Dark Brotherhood quests with #1, since I planned to go back to him again), but I’ve hit 100% achievements in Oblivion. Whee!

Of course this doesn’t mean anything really…I still have much to do in Cyrodiil. But it is pretty cool nonetheless.

So Nintendo has renamed their upcoming console system from Revolution to Wii. It’s a pretty lame title…particularly since I thought Revolution was kinda cool. But we’ll all get used to it in time. Xbox 360 is pretty silly, and let’s not forget the absurdity of Game Boy Advance. But it is a pretty stupid title. It’s a good thing the system has more going for it than just a name.

With a name like that, the puns were flowing…here are some of the headlines I didn’t use:

• Houston, wii have a problem. (Too cyncical)
• Wii will rock you. (Too enthusiastic)
• Wii can work it out. (Beatles reference #1)
• While my guitar gently wiips. (Beatles reference #2)
• Why don’t wii do it in the road? (Beatles reference #3)
• It ain’t wii babe. (Too nonsensical)

And so on.

I love press releases. Especially game press releases, where poor PR people are forced to quickly explain a completely absurd concept (I truly felt sorry for Majesco’s people who had to do that for Psychonauts). Kuma came out with an extra specially wacky one today. Here’s the description:

With a script penned by former Maxim Magazine editor-in-chief Keith Blanchard, DinoHunters involves the wanton and bloody destruction of dinosaurs for a fictional sports broadcast style-hunting show. This wild action comedy stars three dysfunctional celebrities, a sexy TV producer, a one-of-a-kind time-travel premise and numerous mean-spirited, hungry, yet soon-to-be extinct giant reptiles. Hilarious scripted sequences bring a televised sit com-style flavor to the game, which is developed on Source – the same engine Valve created to power Half-Life 2.

Um. Okay. Good luck with that.

I probably should have asked this yesterday when, you know, it was actually Earth Day, but does anyone know how to properly dispose of a non-functioning LCD monitor? I’d rather not just curb it, and will happily take it to drop off somewhere in Manhattan or Brooklyn, or failing that, ship it somewhere. Apple has their nice recycling program, but only if you buy a new computer from them…since my new monitor is a Dell, that doesn’t work for me.

Also, my new monitor rocks. It’s a huge improvement over my old ADC display.

Last weekend my friend Dan and I attended Dr. Sketchy’s Anti Art School. It’s basically the same as the Thursday night drawing sessions we used to do (some scans of my stuff are up on my .Mac page), but it’s at a bar in Williamsburg and held every other weekend.

While I don’t think I did anything good enough to bother scanning and posting, I did oddly enough, win an award. One of the wackier things they do at Dr. Sketchy’s is give out awards…they tell you that a particular pose has a specific theme, and at the end, they do an audience applause-o-meter to determine whose is the best. In this case, the theme was to draw our model “being attacked by her natural enemy.” She was dressed in a unique catsuit, but I really wasn’t sure what to do, so I just drew the model, and then quickly drew an anvil over her head. And incredibly, I won. The prize was a piece of paper that reads “I am entitled to one free Dr. Sketchy’s [ordinarily it costs to get in] because I draw good.” And then there’s a little doodle of a stick figure with a paintbrush and beer.

Anyway, some pictures have been posted on the Dr. Sketchy’s blog from the session, including this one featuring the applause-o-meter competition that I won. Mine’s the drawing on the left, being held up by the host:

Like I said, it’s not a particularly good drawing. But hey, that’s an anvil!

I’ve covered the wonders of the Guinness scientists a couple of times (see here and here), but what about all those other companies? Don’t they have scientists of their own working on beer-related technology? Probably, but this news comes from a third party.

Sometime in mid-2007, Miller (one of those beers I tend to avoid at all costs), will begin shipping in a self-cooling can. Similar in concept to the self-heating coffee can, this will drop the temperature to a minimum of 30° F in three minutes. This is good news for those people who like their beer cold, but of course has no effect on those of us who like our pints at room temperature.

That’s not entirely true…I do like a cold beer in the summer as much as the next guy…I just prefer it in bottles, not cans. Generally speaking, beer that comes in cans tends to be the kind I try to avoid (Guinness being the exception, because the can is just a receptacle, with the pint glass as the actual serving container).

So the Heroes V demo is out there…naturally, I had downloaded it within hours of its release, and I’ve spent some time playing it. It’s fun, it sounds great and it looks good, but there’s a thread on the official forum that brings up a very good point — it’s very difficult.

Read the rest of this entry »

The healthcare system in this country sucks.

That is all.

After four years of loyal service, my 17″ Apple display has up and died on me. That sucks, but I am surprised at how cheap monitors have gotten in the last four years. I settled on a 20″ Dell 16:10 2005FPW, and getting it for less than half what I paid for my 17″ 4:3 monitor just four years ago (and that was with a steep discount added for buying it with a G4 at the same time…without the discount, it would have been three times what I’m paying now).

What sucks is that because that Apple monitor was ADC, I have to get a completely new KVM switch as well, which is an extra $150 to deal with. Oh well. I knew this was going to happen eventually. At least the Dell has a three year warranty.

Of course, what’s really scaring me, is the possibility that now that the monitor’s gone, the G4 is going to be next. Considering that it’s been coughing and sputtering along for a while now (replacing the video card was a big improvement, but it was only one of many problems), it’s only a matter of time before that goes. And then there’s my iBook, which is in even worse shape (let’s put it this way…I lost the tab key somewhere over the Atlantic). I think I’ll eventually replace both machines with an Intel-powered Mac laptop, but I really don’t want to do that this year, as I’m already going to have to decide whether to get a Series 3 TiVo or launch-time PS3. The life of a geek is a hard one indeed.

But hey, at least that Dell monitor’s sexy. Take a gander:

I know I’ve flirted with other cities, but you know you’re the only one I love. Let’s never fight again.