My guild made the front page on Wow.com.
First, Wow.com. Next, the world (of Warcraft)!
Showing posts with label w00t. Show all posts
Showing posts with label w00t. Show all posts
20091112
20081105
At the End of the Tour
Last night Obama secured his place as the 44th President of the United States of America. For twenty-two months I have followed his campaign with ever increasing vigor and intensity. For almost as long as I've lived in Texas this election has been at the center of my attention. It is over, and yet everything is just now beginning.
As I remember this election the chain of memories flows back years ago when my mother first uttered the name Barack Obama. She was reading, if I recall correctly, Obama's book Dreams my Father and said in her direct no-nonsense style "he makes a lot of sense, I'd like to see him run for President someday". I was in high school at the time, blissfully ignorant of politics, but the conversation we had that day stuck with me for reasons I couldn't possibly have understood at the time. My mother talked of how he represented a new generation of politicians, and how all the "old farts" in the system now needed to move aside. We needed people with a new perspective, young people who understood the new age and the generations that with which it would come. My mother's uncanny insight is now almost prophecy.
Barack Obama gave his speech announcing candidacy for the Democratic nomination nearly a decade later. By coincidence I turned my radio on as I drove to work and caught snippets. With just the fleeting glance the program provided I was overwhelmed by the ideals and goals it presented. Moments before I had given politics a disinterested and disaffected cold shoulder, but despite my cynicism I quickly pulled up the entire speech at work and listened with rapt attention as this candidate, now my candidate, made his first case. The resonance I felt was strong enough to break crystal.
It wasn't until much later that I made the connection. By then he had already won Iowa, lost New Hampshire, and recieved my first $25 donation. In viewing for the first time his famous 2004 speech at the Democratic National convention I remembered my mother's words and hope that he or someone like him would ascend into and transcend our politics. Even as the other candidates began to disappoint, both practically and in timbre, Obama continually defied my cynical eye I developed from being sandwiched between my adamanty republic college roomates and my sister's passionately democratic circle of close friends. In situations where another politicians would weasel their way around giving a definitive answer, Obama stood his ground and staked a claim. He gave clear, if non-Manichean, answers to the issues of Abortion, gay marriage and race. Each passing week reinforced my feeling that he was a democrat because of his positions, rather than holding those positions because he was a democrat. "Messianic" was used to describe him, an image that has a certain appeal in these troubling times.
His messianic purity is, of course, a myth. Obama would eventually disappoint me in how his campaign spun the various metrics used to measure success in the primaries, and his less than honest excuses for backing out of public financing. The former became moot eventually, though I really wish he'd simply said, "I'm backing out of public financing because I feel it best allows me to compete with the republican financial machine" in regards to the latter. These sins I have forgiven, though I will certainly pounce upon him should he fall short again. Still, two black marks in twenty-two months is an almost unreachable bar for politicians, it was uplifting to find one who could clear it.
And so, hundreds of gaffes, stump speechs, sound bites, polls and policies later we've come to the end. It's ephemereal and unbelievable, but the election is over. I don't have to mention John McCain, save for if he truly goes maverick and decides to thwart any Republican attempt at a filibuster. I don't have to read polls, demographic turnouts, projects and pundit analyses. The paradigm of these last years is over, and I am left in bewilderment.
In a way it's back to square one. In the past I paid as little attention to what happens after an election as I did to what happens before. Just as watching the primaries with intent was a new experience for me, so too is this period of transition. Yet for the time being a quiet elation wells within me as I think about how my support played a role in this outcome.
I pose a final question, one I think is entirely pertinent: Why does Kenya get to have a day of celebration and we don't?
As I remember this election the chain of memories flows back years ago when my mother first uttered the name Barack Obama. She was reading, if I recall correctly, Obama's book Dreams my Father and said in her direct no-nonsense style "he makes a lot of sense, I'd like to see him run for President someday". I was in high school at the time, blissfully ignorant of politics, but the conversation we had that day stuck with me for reasons I couldn't possibly have understood at the time. My mother talked of how he represented a new generation of politicians, and how all the "old farts" in the system now needed to move aside. We needed people with a new perspective, young people who understood the new age and the generations that with which it would come. My mother's uncanny insight is now almost prophecy.
Barack Obama gave his speech announcing candidacy for the Democratic nomination nearly a decade later. By coincidence I turned my radio on as I drove to work and caught snippets. With just the fleeting glance the program provided I was overwhelmed by the ideals and goals it presented. Moments before I had given politics a disinterested and disaffected cold shoulder, but despite my cynicism I quickly pulled up the entire speech at work and listened with rapt attention as this candidate, now my candidate, made his first case. The resonance I felt was strong enough to break crystal.
It wasn't until much later that I made the connection. By then he had already won Iowa, lost New Hampshire, and recieved my first $25 donation. In viewing for the first time his famous 2004 speech at the Democratic National convention I remembered my mother's words and hope that he or someone like him would ascend into and transcend our politics. Even as the other candidates began to disappoint, both practically and in timbre, Obama continually defied my cynical eye I developed from being sandwiched between my adamanty republic college roomates and my sister's passionately democratic circle of close friends. In situations where another politicians would weasel their way around giving a definitive answer, Obama stood his ground and staked a claim. He gave clear, if non-Manichean, answers to the issues of Abortion, gay marriage and race. Each passing week reinforced my feeling that he was a democrat because of his positions, rather than holding those positions because he was a democrat. "Messianic" was used to describe him, an image that has a certain appeal in these troubling times.
His messianic purity is, of course, a myth. Obama would eventually disappoint me in how his campaign spun the various metrics used to measure success in the primaries, and his less than honest excuses for backing out of public financing. The former became moot eventually, though I really wish he'd simply said, "I'm backing out of public financing because I feel it best allows me to compete with the republican financial machine" in regards to the latter. These sins I have forgiven, though I will certainly pounce upon him should he fall short again. Still, two black marks in twenty-two months is an almost unreachable bar for politicians, it was uplifting to find one who could clear it.
And so, hundreds of gaffes, stump speechs, sound bites, polls and policies later we've come to the end. It's ephemereal and unbelievable, but the election is over. I don't have to mention John McCain, save for if he truly goes maverick and decides to thwart any Republican attempt at a filibuster. I don't have to read polls, demographic turnouts, projects and pundit analyses. The paradigm of these last years is over, and I am left in bewilderment.
In a way it's back to square one. In the past I paid as little attention to what happens after an election as I did to what happens before. Just as watching the primaries with intent was a new experience for me, so too is this period of transition. Yet for the time being a quiet elation wells within me as I think about how my support played a role in this outcome.
I pose a final question, one I think is entirely pertinent: Why does Kenya get to have a day of celebration and we don't?
20070304
Ring ring ring ring ring ring ring...
... banana phone!
For some time now, I have wished to imbue my nifty cell phone with nerdy and silly ring tones. To this end I scoured the internet attempting to find some method by which my extreme geekiness might be profoundly adapted to my portable communications device. At ever turn I was thwarted by inane policies, monthly subscription fees, and abominations pretending to be faithful renditions of 8-bit classics.
I had all but given up.
Last night I had an epiphany. I encountered a service that sent video game mp3s to your phone, for some stupid price again. However, the transparent nature of what was occuring lead me to conclude one thing, all I had to do was find a way to send an mp3 to my phone. Finding the mp3s that I desired would be no issue, I have such things in great numbers. All I needed was the delivery.
Eureka moment in hand, I immediately found a website which would send my mp3s to my phone at no cost. This tool is so freaking awesome.
It not only works with mp3s, but just about any other commonly used sound file format (such as ogg/vorbis). You can select the starting second, the duration (between 5 and 40 seconds) and more. It has a comprehensive list of all phone models and carriers, and simply is amazing. The only thing it asks is patience, as it cna take up to 72 minutes to send.
You can donate if you like, and doing so allots you some credits you can use to speed up the time it takes to send the files. I'm planning on donating a lot.
Why this altruism? Because quite simply it's the first site with a sane setup for dealing with ringtones, and also the most liberating of any. Every other website was charging some ungodly price for a midi file of the Super Mario Bros theme written by some failing music student who'd obviously ignored video games up until someone paid them $5 to massacre a tune. Some services even required you to start paying before you could even browse to see if they had anything remotely interesting. The whole ringtone thing is the most sinister plot to rob us of money in recent times.
This website lets me take MY mp3s and put them on MY phone! THIS SHOULDN'T BE SO DIFFICULT A CONCEPT. Why is it that so many companies want to make it hard for people to do what they want? It's simply baffling. That I have found a service that enables me to do the simple, obvious thing for no cost only lends credence to the idea that these other sites are the ringtone equivalent of those fake ebay and paypal e-mails. There is absolutely no intent but robbery.
Without further ado, here is the link to the website. I've already tested it and found it worthy. All that remains is to have my phone blurt out "OHNOESITSYOURBROTHERANDHEISCALLINGYOUQUICKPICKUPTHEPHONE
ANDTALKLOUDLYEVENTHOUGHITSGOINGTOMAKEEVERYONEMADORYOUWILL CRASHYOURCARORSOMETHINGOHNOES!" whenever my family calls.
For some time now, I have wished to imbue my nifty cell phone with nerdy and silly ring tones. To this end I scoured the internet attempting to find some method by which my extreme geekiness might be profoundly adapted to my portable communications device. At ever turn I was thwarted by inane policies, monthly subscription fees, and abominations pretending to be faithful renditions of 8-bit classics.
I had all but given up.
Last night I had an epiphany. I encountered a service that sent video game mp3s to your phone, for some stupid price again. However, the transparent nature of what was occuring lead me to conclude one thing, all I had to do was find a way to send an mp3 to my phone. Finding the mp3s that I desired would be no issue, I have such things in great numbers. All I needed was the delivery.
Eureka moment in hand, I immediately found a website which would send my mp3s to my phone at no cost. This tool is so freaking awesome.
It not only works with mp3s, but just about any other commonly used sound file format (such as ogg/vorbis). You can select the starting second, the duration (between 5 and 40 seconds) and more. It has a comprehensive list of all phone models and carriers, and simply is amazing. The only thing it asks is patience, as it cna take up to 72 minutes to send.
You can donate if you like, and doing so allots you some credits you can use to speed up the time it takes to send the files. I'm planning on donating a lot.
Why this altruism? Because quite simply it's the first site with a sane setup for dealing with ringtones, and also the most liberating of any. Every other website was charging some ungodly price for a midi file of the Super Mario Bros theme written by some failing music student who'd obviously ignored video games up until someone paid them $5 to massacre a tune. Some services even required you to start paying before you could even browse to see if they had anything remotely interesting. The whole ringtone thing is the most sinister plot to rob us of money in recent times.
This website lets me take MY mp3s and put them on MY phone! THIS SHOULDN'T BE SO DIFFICULT A CONCEPT. Why is it that so many companies want to make it hard for people to do what they want? It's simply baffling. That I have found a service that enables me to do the simple, obvious thing for no cost only lends credence to the idea that these other sites are the ringtone equivalent of those fake ebay and paypal e-mails. There is absolutely no intent but robbery.
Without further ado, here is the link to the website. I've already tested it and found it worthy. All that remains is to have my phone blurt out "OHNOESITSYOURBROTHERANDHEISCALLINGYOUQUICKPICKUPTHEPHONE
ANDTALKLOUDLYEVENTHOUGHITSGOINGTOMAKEEVERYONEMADORYOUWILL CRASHYOURCARORSOMETHINGOHNOES!" whenever my family calls.
20061119
Whee
One word: HolyzarquonsingingfishIampsychedbeyondachocolatebunnieslifeexpectancyateaster.
I had some fun with the console last night. Setting it up would have been easier if it wasn't A) 12:30 AM B) terribly exciting and C) mind debilitatingly awesome. It only took half an hour to do, despite my being completely unprepared for any of the extremely simple setup instructions.
In any case, the thing rocks hard. I've barely had an hour's experience with it and I am already extremely happy. I will go straight back to my gamer's paradise box once this post is done.
For your enjoyment I took photos of my experience. Enjoy.
20060705
Jobification
If you're hearing about this for the first time here, it's a testament to the following:
1) How busy I've been.
2) How bad I really am at informing people.
3) Bear-riding mice wearing a fez.
In short, there is big news. I have a job.
In long, t h e r e i s b i g n e w s. I h a v e j o b.
In sanity, I recently (well, not recently anymore) had a job interview with Raytheon. The peculiar thing about this interview was that it was in Texas, 20 minutes away from where my grandparents and uncle's family live. Stranger still was that Raytheon deemed fit to fly me down there, equip me with a rental car, and pay for my meals. Oddity continued to climb when the rental car I was supposed to have reserved for me wasn't availible, and so I was given a free upgrade to a Monte Carlo LT (if an infinite number of monkeys can write shakespeare, what can an infinite number of horses do?).
Anyway, I interviewed down in Texas. The interview was far less stressful than I imagined it would be. I basically told two guys how awesome I was, an arduous task for me, and then listened to them try and convince me that Raytheon was equally awesome. Then they fingerprinted me and took a urine sample.
Odd, yes?
In any case, I got a job offer the Monday thereafter. I decided to be indecisive as rushing into what would obviously be an excellent experience for me, near to relatives and providing more than enough benefits and salary, would be too obvious. However, a cold, dagger-like wind came from the south every time I attempted to seriously consider turning down the job. I suspect that had I done so, certain southern folk by my mother's maiden name would have come for my head.
So yes, I have a job at Raytheon in Garland, Texas. I'll make gobs of money, have gobs of benefits, and be near gobs of relatives.
I also recently aquired an apartment about five to ten minutes away from work, and twenty from my relatives. $480 a month, 646 sq ft, no fireplace. I was adament about the fireplace. Up until that one I was astonished that every apartment in Texas had a fireplace where a bookshelf, a lamp or a TV would have been perfect. This is Texas folks, and not Texas from the Day After Tomorrow. It's not cold in Texas, ever.
So there you have it. I start work the 31st, I'll probably be down there the preceding Friday.
Part of me will miss being able to goof off all day. The rest of me is won over by te promise of great heaps of money.
1) How busy I've been.
2) How bad I really am at informing people.
3) Bear-riding mice wearing a fez.
In short, there is big news. I have a job.
In long, t h e r e i s b i g n e w s. I h a v e j o b.
In sanity, I recently (well, not recently anymore) had a job interview with Raytheon. The peculiar thing about this interview was that it was in Texas, 20 minutes away from where my grandparents and uncle's family live. Stranger still was that Raytheon deemed fit to fly me down there, equip me with a rental car, and pay for my meals. Oddity continued to climb when the rental car I was supposed to have reserved for me wasn't availible, and so I was given a free upgrade to a Monte Carlo LT (if an infinite number of monkeys can write shakespeare, what can an infinite number of horses do?).
Anyway, I interviewed down in Texas. The interview was far less stressful than I imagined it would be. I basically told two guys how awesome I was, an arduous task for me, and then listened to them try and convince me that Raytheon was equally awesome. Then they fingerprinted me and took a urine sample.
Odd, yes?
In any case, I got a job offer the Monday thereafter. I decided to be indecisive as rushing into what would obviously be an excellent experience for me, near to relatives and providing more than enough benefits and salary, would be too obvious. However, a cold, dagger-like wind came from the south every time I attempted to seriously consider turning down the job. I suspect that had I done so, certain southern folk by my mother's maiden name would have come for my head.
So yes, I have a job at Raytheon in Garland, Texas. I'll make gobs of money, have gobs of benefits, and be near gobs of relatives.
I also recently aquired an apartment about five to ten minutes away from work, and twenty from my relatives. $480 a month, 646 sq ft, no fireplace. I was adament about the fireplace. Up until that one I was astonished that every apartment in Texas had a fireplace where a bookshelf, a lamp or a TV would have been perfect. This is Texas folks, and not Texas from the Day After Tomorrow. It's not cold in Texas, ever.
So there you have it. I start work the 31st, I'll probably be down there the preceding Friday.
Part of me will miss being able to goof off all day. The rest of me is won over by te promise of great heaps of money.
20060607
Nibbles and Bits
I just got my first response from a job opportunity. A REAL LIVE PERSON sent me an e-mail concerning a job down in Garland, TX with Raytheon! They want to interview me! It'll last three hours! I'm freaking out from both joy and pure terror!
Time to get Dad to help be in shape for the interview.
::dances::
Wait, the last time I danced... uh oh...
Time to get Dad to help be in shape for the interview.
::dances::
Wait, the last time I danced... uh oh...
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