Attacked!!!

I got a virus. T-T

It fucked up my 'pewter. Any time any program tries to connect with the built in HTTP libraries it generates an error and craps out.

Where am I? Puh-leaze, son, there are computers all around me.

What's interesting is that Firefox uses the same HTTP libraries as Internet Explorer. It just uses it's own code to render the recieved data. Any internet program that uses raw sockets doesn't seem to have this problem. Also interesting that IE crashes also when I load a local (non-network) HTML page.

In any case, I'm trying a bunch of different solutions and nothing's been working so far. I'm not looking forward to a reformat and reinstall. I mean, it's nice if I can do it because the machine could use a good cleaning, but it's a HASSLE and I've got maybe 4 days to finish it until I leave.

And most of my driver disks are, yes, in storage. Storage I forgot to pay: just slipped my mind. Now it's probably going to take twice as much money to pay it up for the month and I'm praying they don't smear my credit score. I guess I'll find out soon. Sonofabitch...

Garage Kit Destruction part 2

Current damage report on that garage kit:

Side blocks are shaved off and they don't look as horrible as I worried. Her torso is tilted at an angle such that it looks convincing if her sides are straight. And it makes sense because the sculpt near the blocks is without wrinkles. Then again, it was also supposed to house those little thingies so... I dunno. Maybe if I stop mentioning it then it won't matter anymore.

As far as sculpting hair, wow, that was an amusing adventure in futility. The epoxy putty is so sticky I couldn't really do what I wanted, which was roll it out into long ropes, stick it on her head, and then file it down later. I put a blob on where the hair portion was supposed to be and tried shaving it down to a "hair hook" but it looks horrid. I'm hoping the paint over it will hide the shame. Unlikely, but, meh.

Next step is to drill holes for wire. The idea for this is that glue alone may not be strong enough to hold. Resin isn't heavy, but a bunch of pieces in a row can be. So the point of the wire is to give pieces a stronger joint than they might otherwise have which would be good in case any one piece all of a sudden finds itself a load-bearing piece.

Now 1/16" seems to be the diameter du jour so I bought bits and a collet for the Dremmel. Bits? Two of them, like $1.79. Cool. Now, the 1/16" collet... $3.99?! W-HAT?!

Oh well.

I bit the bullet and did it. Yeah, I could borrow a drill. But I don't have any control with a big old honkin' drill. So I'm drillin' and going nice and shallow. So far so good. Nice clean holes. Then I get over confident and drill right on through the back of her hair.

D'oh. Dough. Dou.

Nothing putty can't fix, but, still, it was pretty shameful. If you've ever used a rotary tool, you know to put as little pressure as possible. So when the resistance gave way while I was drilling my hand went "FUCK" and then I pull it out and turn it off and then look and then the rest of me went "FUCK".

I'll keep you posted on the continuing progress. There's a deadpool going on that I will cause a fire.

I'm so dumb.

So I've wanted to get into garage kits for like years and years. I just never really felt brave enough to invest in the tools and things to put them together. But, armed with an unhealthy bout of fearlessness of cancer for all the dangerous vapors and powers I'll inevitably breathe, I'm gonna put an effort in.

One of the kits I got was this one. I also got a nurse. These characters look alright to me, but I wanted to get something I wouldn't LOVE because it wouldn't be too heartbreaking if I fucked it up royal.

I spent the last week of spare time trimming and sanding the warriorish chick. I have all the stuff I need to do a proper sanding but I just wanted to do a rough one so I can gauge the work involved and how complicated it is. Naturally I picked the more complicated of the models to try that out. And, it's not hard to do. It just takes a little common tool sense. I guess I was sort of lucky buying from Hobby Fan because their recasts are really really nicely done.

RECAST?! YOU SCOUNDREL!

Well, it's either $30 for a recast of something I don't like which I may cause to go FUBAR, or I spend $120 for an original that I could barely buy not knowing Japanese or where to go to get it and fucking that up and feeling more like I wasted a bunch of money instead of just feeling like I have NO artistic talent. Sure I can live with both outcomes, but confirming I have no artistic talent to go with my callings sounds a lot better when I save a c-note with which I can use to rent a stripper who will make me forget about those misgivings. :D

Anyway, I did a quick passthough and decided I should probably clean it before doing anything more so I can look over my work and do a fine-grit pass and see if I missed anything. I read about people using Castrol Super Clean to easily remove the mold release. During my lunch at work I popped over to Pep Boys and looked for it but could not find it. I settled on some other purple degreaser, figuring I'll probably be ok. And to store? I can't exactly keep a vat of chemicals anywhere here, so I got some cheap Gladware at the supermarket.

First problem: The Gladware isn't water tight. I tilted the canister and degreaser dripped out. Really slippery stuff, too. But I can deal with that. Next day decided to dump the chemical and try to dry the pieces off.

Second problem: I'm an idiot and I left the drain open. Look at the parts picture for this model and you'll see a little baggie with three small parts. I think you know where I'm going with this.

*SORROW*

The sides of her torso have two, um, whatzits. Sharp and pointy. I should know. They were a pain in the ass to trim and file. Yes, file, because they didn't have any rounded portions with seam lines and I just can't get sandpaper in there without shrinking my hands. Also her hair, for some reason, has two locks in a separate piece. I'm thinking it has something to do with the way the model is built. Scientificly speaking, you probably can't really mold an object with more than one predominant curve direction because the smaller of the directions just won't fill up with resin.

All three are now either stuck in my drain (no I'm not willing to learn to be a plumber to get them out) or are floating about in a sewer somewhere (no I'm not willing to-- well, you know). The hair I could probably swing by using epoxy putty and just jamming it in there and sanding that down until it looks natural. But those little spiky things? Bullocks. I'm going to have to file off the guides on her torso and "sculpt" what's supposed to be there. Either way I'm probably going to ruin the sexy hips.

*SORROW*

Also worth noting is that the kit doesn't come with a stick for her weapon. It comes with the weapon and the end of the stick, just not the stick itself. Well, I lost that end of the stick, just not down the drain.

Problem-before-first-problem: I tried sanding this tiny 3mm x 2mm x 1mm resin piece while standing up. I didn't even hear it hit the ground, let alone find it.

And the stick? Sure, epoxy putty. But my craftmanship can't possibly make one that size and have it come out well. I still don't know what I'm gonna do about that. At least this putty is really easy to machine when it dries. If I had a lathe I'd probably give it a whirl. But I don't.

...

*SORROW*

 > Link < 

Maybe it should be called a 1-Up?

I'm itchy.

I got an itchy bug.

I blame it on something.

What?

... ... ...

Um, Game Boy+1?

The Game Boy micro I won on ebay arrived today. Used, sixty five bucks including a game. The game was Tak 2, so, not exactly an amazing find. But it had all the stuff it came with minus the original box. I think it was the toys-r-us edition. It had a silver faceplate (the one it comes with), a camoflauge one, and a flame one. All have external scratches, but, thankfully, the screen under the faceplate is clean and unscratched. Plus the bag it comes with (which is pretty cool and a first in my book for any Nintendo products), charger, and earbuds. :)

Yet I'm a stickler for these things as you know. I'm gonna get the "official" nintendo faceplates now and a replacement silver because I can't buff those scratches out (even though they are really light). And, while I'm at it, picking up the link cable, link adaptor, and wireless doohickey.

So much for a steal off of ebay. But it's my own anal self that's the problem with it.

And with the airbrush and stuff I'm going to pick up and start to play around with I would have officially spent my moving out funds. :P It's ok, there's not much work around here anyway. Why move to North Miami if I don't even know if my job will be around next month? Hopefully I can get something at a company that has a moving bonus and I can use that to get over there.

Ahhh, many steps backwards.

I'm still fucking itchy. What the hell, yo?

Also

My monitor sucks. It's now giving a high pitched whine. I showed it to my brother and he can't hear anything. The volume changed based on how bright it is versus how dark. It's bugging the hell out of me.

The older one I used made a really loud almost arcing noise after a while. I always run them at the maximum refresh rates because my eyes are sensitive to it. They weren't always sensitive. My first computer had the shittiest 15" monitor you could imagine. But the phosphors were so slow that 60Hz didn't even matter. The only thing that did hurt my eyes in those days was 1024x768. It was interlaced, ran at 72Hz (meaning it was effectively 36Hz for each set of rows). That was headache fodder.

So I take a look on Newegg to see what I can see for monitors in the 19" persuasion.

4.

4 monitors to choose from. Everything else is LCD.

PROBLEMS WITH LCDS:
a. Response time. The response time you see on the label corresponds to the fastest time across all changes of pigment. For a while that corresponded to small changes and it was REALLY SLOW to change from all black to all white. Hence the ghosting. Now displays are really fast going from all black to all white and back again. But more subtle changes take longer. There's something called "charge overdrive" that really improves dramatic change response times, but can slow down subtle changes a lot. A typical "gamer 12ms" LCD panel can take as long as 30ms to change shades of red. So instead of normal ghosting all over the screen you will get SELECTIVE ghosting and pink hues everywhere. CRTs have consistant timing always.

b. Color definition. LCD's don't really produce light. There's a light behind it and each cell blocks the light to some degree to "produce" light. This means that contrast becomes an issue. CRTs are consistant in color definition across settings, LCDs are finicky. Cranking up the brightness can wash out colors and dark brightness can mute colors excessively.

c. Refresh rates. LCDs don't have refresh rates. They stay in the state they are in, polled by the video card to change. It's almost like the monitor has memory all its own. (it doesn't, really, there's a lot of technological mojo that goes on.) Running an LCD on 60Hz looks the same as running it at 100Hz. The only difference is that at 100Hz is that the video card is sending the complete screen over the cable to the monitor at 100 times a second, meaning changes have a higher time resolution. Ultimately it doesn't mean much, since the pixel can be requested to change while it's changing. A 10ms response time can catch up with 100Hz, except that longer times will be interrupted and change in possibly a different direction. CRT refresh rate is a refresh rate.

d. DEAD PIXELS. All LCDs are prone to dead pixels, or dirt. The first Game Boy Advance SP I got had a bright pixel. It wasn't that, really, it was a speck of white dust between the glass plate and the plastic cover. I sent it off and they fixed it free of charge (shipping included also). PSPs aren't that kind. Sony won't replace them unless they have 5 or more pixels. Some manufacturers won't replace monitors unless there are 10 dead pixels. Some don't consider a pixel "dead" unless it's all black or all white... it's possible to have pixels stuck on any maximal color (red, green, blue, yellow, cyan, magenta).

Looks like I'm stuck for now.

 > Link < 

Hmph.

Is it just me or has everyone I've spoken or communicated with today given me a weird vibe?

It's awfully hard to feel sorry for something I didn't realize I did.

I'm probably just imagining things. Work's got me jumpy and distrusting. And I've been in a sour mood from extended family visiting over the weekend. You know what the extended means? It means I have to use an extended pole to touch and aknowledge them. This group of 4 is the black sheep of the family, and I'm the black sheep of the black flock I guess. What does that make me?

Anyway, he's my donation to society.

2g L-Arginine
1g L-Lysine
50mg Zinc

Not for use with people with herpes. And since I don't have herpes, it's further proof I didn't have sex with --- ha! I bet you thought I did, too. Who? Pfft. You know what they say: nobody takes care of community property as if it was theirs.

Anyway, L-Arginine is sold in caps of 500mg. L-Lysine in tabs of 500mg. Don't down them all at once. They're all big pills, and they may cause stomach discomfort. The way I did it when I needed protein supplements as a kid (and I took a LOT more than just those two amino acids) is space all the pills out with 5 minutes between them. Thankfully, since I hit puberty I didn't need to take them anymore, but it was about 5 months before my doctor at the time told me I could skip it. And when I did I noticed certain... ahhh.. physical downgrades. After some researched, I realized that the above two (plus the Zinc) compensate for the most major physical downgrade.

What does it do? Hm. Not sure if I should say.

Let's just say it's one of my secret powers that very few women have first hand experience with.

I am sharing this with you because I'm such a nice guy. >>

...

Well, not that nice. There's another very important aspect that I'm intentionally leaving out.

Hey, I still gotta preserve at least SOME things as my own.

I can just picture Sam now. I bet she doesn't know whether to be disgusted or intrigued. Heh, "BECOME A HETEROSEXUAL ALREADY!" :P

Opinionation

Review time!

Tetris DS:
It's a revival of classic Tetris for the DS. No "bombs". No deattached pieces. Just 7 simple shapes and an urge to pack them in as tightly as possible.

There's a classic game that gets progressively harder and harder until it caps at an insane level 20 speed, a "push" mode where two players battle with the same stack from both ends (lol, it's so gay), a rotating-snowball thing kind of play method, a puzzle mode where you have to eliminate all lines with a small set of blocks with unlimited time, and a push the blocks with your stylus game that, naturally, sucks.

Anyway, the game seems to be an old school orgy. But beyond using sprites and animations and backgrounds and music remixes of old games, there's not much else. There's just so much of it, though. I mean, Tetris as a game is pretty unskinnable. So they had to do something I guess.

How's that saying go? How can I miss you if you're always around? I know Nintendo is more franchise-centric these days and using old intellectual property is easier and cheaper than having new stuff made up, but it smacks of such obvious fan service it makes me a little pukey.

They didn't even make new art for the franchises. All non-game related graphics are recycled.

The game doesn't feel rushed, but it feels incomplete. WiFi mode (which is perhaps the most compelling reason to get the game) just seems to be missing a bunch of game modes. They have 1 on 1, 4-way, and Push mode (that gay thing). That's it. 1 on 1 doesn't have items, 4 way does, and that's the only way it goes. Gone are "rivals" and "region" from Mario Kart DS. WiFi... well... it's just stunted. You have ratings instead of keeping track of a win-loss ratio (although it keeps track of how many wins you have... ???)

And the lack of pairing up means they get some horrible matchups. For instance: my rating was around 6700. But I just played a 4-way where not one of my opponents was over 4500, with the lowest at 3200. But I got a bad shuffle of blocks and was hammered on by the other opponents ganging up on me. I wound up around 6200 when it was done. Dropping 500 points in one match is kind of rediculous: this coming from a guy who've seen ratings before in Magic. And the items really do break the game. I mean, an item where all you get are long blocks? An item where, if used against you, you can't rotate any pieces for 10 seconds? BROKEN!

All in all, it's OK to get. But not one of Nintendo's finest.