Swelling...
Is kind of a cool thing. I remember when I got a massive bump on my head from racquetball the night before my flight physical that I spent a lot of time touching it and going ooooh that's neat. Yeah so yesterday I was stupid enough to play football (two hand touch mind you) for pc with my section... On some random play I got a pass and proceeded to juke my way diagonally across the field doing the same move on like six guys in a row, eventually juking my own ankle out of its socket or something. It didn't really hurt when it happened, but by the time I got home it was beginning to be annoying. It kept me up most of last night because I couldn't find a position under the blanket that didn't make it bend and hurt, and by this morning was nice and swollen. Had to cancel both my flights today, quite annoying. Was beautiful weather too, it had better be that way the week I get back when I have to do all three flights I have left or I'll be real bitter.
So what's a guy to do when he can't even walk to the fridge without hopping? Well a computer game or two is always good. Over the past few days I'd been working on one of two games I'd actually gone out and bought to entertain me for the next few weeks before I head off to ASBC, and as predicted Black and White Deluxe ate up a decent chunk of time. I got to the last level which is especially difficult and it was getting old though (this is after somewhere around twelve hours of gameplay) so I decided to move on to something fresh until I had another craving that made me go out and buy the thing in the first place (the downloaded copy isn't patchable, and the bugs in the game without the patch make it basically unplayable. The Myst trilogy was the other game in the back, with both of them only costing 10-15 bucks. My bill at most restaurants is bigger than that. I'll give you the low-down on Black and White when I finish it, but let me say my piece about Myst and its successors. For those who like puzzles, logic, or thinking in general, you really need to install these games. There is a reason that for a while this was the greatest selling PC game of all time. To date the series has sold ten million copies. TEN MILLION. Imagine what small percentage of the population are gamers, and you have to figure a huge percentage played at some point. I'd truly forgotten how much fun it is. There are two feelings that will become familiar to those that dive into the world the developers created. The feeling of having utterly and completely stuck and having no idea what to do. This is the most frustrating thing in the world. Unfortunately, it used to be a lot more so. Before Google, or the devil as I call it when it is used in reference to the term "walkthrough." A walkthrough is a step by step solution of an entire game that someone has posted on the web so anyone who is stuck can immediately go and find the solution and move on. If you're going to try any of these games, I recommend repeating the phrase "walkthroughs are the devil" repeatedly. No matter how stuck you are. This is important for two reasons. First of all, when you realize what little thing you missed, or how simple the solution really was, you will feel like the world's biggest idiot. You can try to pretend like you would have figured it out eventually, but admit it, you caved. Second, the feeling of actually solving a puzzle, and in the case of some more complex ones watching it all come together, is one of true satisfaction. I tell you I almost feel as good solving a major problem as I do winning a jackpot. Almost. Then again you don't get paid to play computer games. Then again I do.
If you don't get stuck, Myst is only about 5-6 hours or so. In reality, it might be something like double that. Although I'd never even beaten the game prior (I'd got stuck when it first came out in 93, before walkthroughs) I had the advantage of having the memory of how to solve many of the puzzles. Thus about 2/3 of the game went through very quickly. Speaking of quick, since the game is so old, and modern computers are so fast, the game runs MUCH faster than previously. Literally split second load times for each frame, you can migrate around islands in seconds. Funnier still is the fact it only takes 2mb of hard drive space. As a good comparison as games travel through time, Riven takes up what at the time was a tremendous 85mb, or forty times the space of Myst. Then you have the more recent Exile, which takes up an astounding 2.1 gigs, or 2100mb or so. Cha-ching. Anyway back to the games, as a whole, the difficulty of the puzzles of Myst are not very difficult. I didn't use a walkthrough then, and I didn't use one this time either. Now if you move to the next title in the series called Riven, you're taking a big step. First of all I recommend playing them in order if you care that much, because the storylines make a lot more sense that way, kind of like a movie series. Second, the puzzles in Riven are much more difficult. Individual puzzles are still very doable, but there are a few greatly complex ones that require applying a whole bunch of stuff you've learned along the way to one conundrum. When I first played this game when it came out (I bought it, but later let someone borrow it and they never gave it back, the bastards) I made it a pretty good distance with no walkthrough, I'd say about halfway. Then I caved and used it for what turned out to be the most difficult quagmire, then for some reason stopped and never finished the game. This time around obviously getting back to that point was relatively easy, although I only really remembered premonitions about different parts of the game. There are really a couple parts that are just ridiculously fiendish. You'd literally just have to click all over the screen at times to randomly accidentally flip some hidden switch or push some hidden button. The vastness of the world makes it impossible to know where you should be doing this, as if you're stuck on one island logically it will seem like something somewhere else will unlock that door, or open that hatch, or whatever, when in reality the answer is right in front of you and wandering around everywhere else gains you nothing.
Riven as a whole is more like ten hours if you have an unfair advantage of previously playing parts of it like I had, and I'm guessing at least twenty or thirty otherwise. Definitely one of the longer games out there, and more difficult. I'd really seriously like to watch someone else play it. Someone of high intelligence especially. Other than the previously mentioned fiendishly difficult parts, there's really no reason someone smart shouldn't be able to beat this game. It's just interesting to see what kinds of things get different kinds of people stuck. What is completely obvious to me seems impossible to someone else. It's kind of like that who looks up when they walk into a closet thing. Some people check their back seats every time they get in a car, some people would carry around an alligator back there for days before noticing. Being observant helps tremendously in these games, you might walk down a hall or path like twelve times before finally spotting what you needed to. I seriously recommend it to anyone smart enough to enjoy the challenge. If you want hints ask me, it's much more satisfying to receive a bump in the right direction and come to the right conclusion yourself eventually than just reading it in plain text and going OH DUH.
So yes, get your hands on a copy of this game if you like a challenge. It's simple, takes five seconds to learn how to play, and can provide hours of entertainment. Did I mention the worlds, Riven's in particular, are asbolutely beautiful? I'm seriously looking for some of the stills to use as desktops. They truly look like what a fantasy world would be, to the point you pretty much feel like you're there. I won't give away any details, but at one point I literally flinched in a big way and started away from the screen due to an event that occurred. Pretty rare that you see that in a game that doesn't involve grenades at point blank range.
Ah, the clock strikes midnight, guess it's time for sleep. Tomorrow, I'll try out the third installment in the series, Exile. Never played it, and I'll be darned if I'm not going to beat it without using a walkthrough. Hm triple negative there. Think it made sense. Should be interesting to see how long it actually takes... This whole can't walk thing is rough I tell ya.
Friday, December 19, 2003
A Different View of the World...
Yesterday was by far my favorite day flying thus far in NIFT. The obvious explanation is due to a couple things. The wind for the first time wasn't a big deal, so the vast majority of the ride was smooth as silk. The other thing was the day was absolutely beautiful, and you could see for fifty miles in any direction. Luckily we happened to be doing a cross country, so it was my longest flight thus far, and by far the most comfortable. Took a bunch of pictures along the way of just what it looks like to be just chillin at six thousand. Another cool thing about the flight was due to the winds the active runway was runway 3, which is the runway always used by the major airlines. I got to taxi all the way over to that side of the airport alongside the terminals with gates and whatnot, and we performed the runup right alongside a massive Southwest plane. I found it quite hilarious that someone was crammed in coach looking out their window at me in my dinky Cessna out for a stroll. I felt even sorrier for the Continental plane behind them, because we actually got to take off in front of them, so hundreds of people had to wait while we putt putted down the runway. It's also kind of fun to be on the radio with tower and ground as they give these massive jets orders to hold short of the runway because we're on a five mile final, as was the case when we landed on the return trip. We did a touch and go way down in Live Oak County at an uncontrolled airport. Those are kind of fun, because first of all I'm actually beginning to enjoy trying to land properly, and then just being able to do the aircraft equivalent of flooring it and taking off again is pretty cool too. The other neat thing was all the navigation calculations I did during the trip planning to compensate for the wind and whatnot were pretty much right on, which is always a good feeling given my career track. I should also mention we flew a low level on Tuesday which was good times as well, where you just skim along about five hundred to a thousand feet off the ground and use dead reckoning to navigate; stuff like "there's a river" "ok here's the river on the map we need to go south" to follow along a predetermined course. Low enough you can see dogs running across lawns or what kind of clothing is hanging from a line is pretty cool. Only three flights left, doubling up tomorrow with a cross country and the second low level, and then backed up the last flight until after I get back from the holidays to allow more time to study for the FAA test while I'm sitting on planes in transit and sitting around home.
Yesterday was by far my favorite day flying thus far in NIFT. The obvious explanation is due to a couple things. The wind for the first time wasn't a big deal, so the vast majority of the ride was smooth as silk. The other thing was the day was absolutely beautiful, and you could see for fifty miles in any direction. Luckily we happened to be doing a cross country, so it was my longest flight thus far, and by far the most comfortable. Took a bunch of pictures along the way of just what it looks like to be just chillin at six thousand. Another cool thing about the flight was due to the winds the active runway was runway 3, which is the runway always used by the major airlines. I got to taxi all the way over to that side of the airport alongside the terminals with gates and whatnot, and we performed the runup right alongside a massive Southwest plane. I found it quite hilarious that someone was crammed in coach looking out their window at me in my dinky Cessna out for a stroll. I felt even sorrier for the Continental plane behind them, because we actually got to take off in front of them, so hundreds of people had to wait while we putt putted down the runway. It's also kind of fun to be on the radio with tower and ground as they give these massive jets orders to hold short of the runway because we're on a five mile final, as was the case when we landed on the return trip. We did a touch and go way down in Live Oak County at an uncontrolled airport. Those are kind of fun, because first of all I'm actually beginning to enjoy trying to land properly, and then just being able to do the aircraft equivalent of flooring it and taking off again is pretty cool too. The other neat thing was all the navigation calculations I did during the trip planning to compensate for the wind and whatnot were pretty much right on, which is always a good feeling given my career track. I should also mention we flew a low level on Tuesday which was good times as well, where you just skim along about five hundred to a thousand feet off the ground and use dead reckoning to navigate; stuff like "there's a river" "ok here's the river on the map we need to go south" to follow along a predetermined course. Low enough you can see dogs running across lawns or what kind of clothing is hanging from a line is pretty cool. Only three flights left, doubling up tomorrow with a cross country and the second low level, and then backed up the last flight until after I get back from the holidays to allow more time to study for the FAA test while I'm sitting on planes in transit and sitting around home.
Monday, December 15, 2003
Some Mondays...
Are better than others. After a lackluster weekend of not getting a whole lot accomplished, I went to bed relatively early last night motivated to get off my ass this morning. And so I did. At 5am, even. Boy did I have flashbacks to what life was like for about twelve weeks. And boy am I glad those weeks are over. Getting up that early is a lot easier when you're getting eight hours of sleep per night instead of four or five. So yeah, was up way before the sun, and went off and ran the equivalent of a 10k again. What puts me in an especially good mood is that I did it in about 50:30, or just over an 8 minute average mile. This goes way back to about junior year in high school to find the last time I ran that far that fast. It isn't anything ultra amazing, as a freshman I ran one in 42:25 or so, which is under a 7 minute average, but it's really showing how far I've come. A couple years ago I could barely run one mile in 8:30, and I wasn't even attempting to run a 5k without walking. Now I can run a 10k nonstop at a faster pace than I used to run a mile. It's a really great feeling when you finish a solid lengthy run. Just about your whole body is tired, and you actually feel like you did something. It reminds me of the feeling after a race, the switch from utter torture during that last mile to jubilation as you cross the line the victor. Suddenly the weakness just leaves the body and you feel like you could go dance all night long. It also does wonders for the ego, I lose at least three pounds every time I run, even on cold days when I barely sweat at all. I've been holding steady at the 175 mark, but I continue to improve my endurance and keep adding more arm work, and have finally gotten around to throwing ab work in as well. One of the things that really works for me is watching some kind of motivational clip when I first wake up on days like these. Whether it's the Where Eagles Fly music video thing about F-15s, or something like a "The Thrill of Victory" segment from ABC, or even the finale to one of my favorite performances or shows, it really makes you wanna get up and get busy. Least it works for me. Even to the point I don't even listen to music when I run, I just use the time to think about everything going on, and dream about what might eventually be.
We have 1:30 muster this week instead of 8:30, which means more sleeping in if I feel the need. I'm just going to take over the FAA study book for the test I have to take at the end of NIFT and use that time to get a couple hours in each day. Basically just have to memorize the answers to about 730 questions and I'll ace the test. We'll see how that goes.
Are better than others. After a lackluster weekend of not getting a whole lot accomplished, I went to bed relatively early last night motivated to get off my ass this morning. And so I did. At 5am, even. Boy did I have flashbacks to what life was like for about twelve weeks. And boy am I glad those weeks are over. Getting up that early is a lot easier when you're getting eight hours of sleep per night instead of four or five. So yeah, was up way before the sun, and went off and ran the equivalent of a 10k again. What puts me in an especially good mood is that I did it in about 50:30, or just over an 8 minute average mile. This goes way back to about junior year in high school to find the last time I ran that far that fast. It isn't anything ultra amazing, as a freshman I ran one in 42:25 or so, which is under a 7 minute average, but it's really showing how far I've come. A couple years ago I could barely run one mile in 8:30, and I wasn't even attempting to run a 5k without walking. Now I can run a 10k nonstop at a faster pace than I used to run a mile. It's a really great feeling when you finish a solid lengthy run. Just about your whole body is tired, and you actually feel like you did something. It reminds me of the feeling after a race, the switch from utter torture during that last mile to jubilation as you cross the line the victor. Suddenly the weakness just leaves the body and you feel like you could go dance all night long. It also does wonders for the ego, I lose at least three pounds every time I run, even on cold days when I barely sweat at all. I've been holding steady at the 175 mark, but I continue to improve my endurance and keep adding more arm work, and have finally gotten around to throwing ab work in as well. One of the things that really works for me is watching some kind of motivational clip when I first wake up on days like these. Whether it's the Where Eagles Fly music video thing about F-15s, or something like a "The Thrill of Victory" segment from ABC, or even the finale to one of my favorite performances or shows, it really makes you wanna get up and get busy. Least it works for me. Even to the point I don't even listen to music when I run, I just use the time to think about everything going on, and dream about what might eventually be.
We have 1:30 muster this week instead of 8:30, which means more sleeping in if I feel the need. I'm just going to take over the FAA study book for the test I have to take at the end of NIFT and use that time to get a couple hours in each day. Basically just have to memorize the answers to about 730 questions and I'll ace the test. We'll see how that goes.
Sunday, December 14, 2003
Cool Sounding Words...
I've always wanted to come up with a really cool sounding word. If I could find one that was totally unique, I'd probably use it as a permanent nickname or something. A word like Samurai. Just rolls out of the mouth and exudes power. You are correct in thinking I must have headed out to see The Last Samurai yesterday. This was quite a feature. I'll have to give it 6 M's out of 7, a pretty rare score. Speaking of score, that was possibly my favorite part of it. Whereas some scores are passive and some people think the best score is the one you don't notice, I disagree. The score of this movie took a very active role, and served to further the drama at every level. I've never had any problems with Cruise as an actor, which usually leads his movies to be at the top of the agreement list when heading out with a female to see something. I was over at the Regal Cinemas under the loop on Pat Booker, and was pretty impressed with the theater. The sound was pretty good, not an IMAX or anything, but at least the theater I was in was gigantic. Definitely the kind of place you want to see those rowdy crowd movies like LOTR or Star Wars. But anyway back to the movie, I really enjoyed the performances of all the actors. Cruise's love interest in particular did a tremendous job putting those non verbal looks on her face that let you feel yourself what she was feeling. The storyline itself had a couple hard to belief aspects, but had they been left out there would have been a lot less closure. This one jerked quite a few tears/sobs out of the audience, so be forewarned if that isn't your thing. Pesonally that's what I look forward to, movies that make you feel.
I also forgot to blog about The Life of David Gale which I got around to watching a few days ago. This was another superb movie, and who knows maybe I'm in a giving mood, but I'll have to give this one... well okay I won't I'll give it 5.5 M's. Only because it didn't have that extra oomph to get to 6. As crime whodunnit type movies go though, this one was great. I've always enjoyed Kevin Spacey, and Kate Winslet held her own as his counterpart. There were plenty of twists involved, and the only weak part of the movie is the final outcome is entirely predictable, although that's difficult to avoid. At any rate an interesting one to go see with someone on the other side of the death penalty issue as you. For conversation sake if nothing else. It shows some bias, but gives ammunition for both sides. So yeah, couple good films.
I should also mention that they showed the preview for Troy which was the most impressive I'd seen in a while. We're talking very large scale movie here, with some impressive panoramic scenes of just how gigantic the army that fought was. Yeah it's probably mostly computer generated, but what do you expect. Definitely one I'll go see for the effects side of things if nothing else.
On the other side of entertainment I also blew through Deus Ex - Invisible War a few days ago. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of good things to say about it. If you're a fan of the original by all means play it, but don't expect a higher level of entertainment. Unfortunately the engine requires a tremendous level of computing power, to the point my 1.7ghz gf3 system couldn't handle anything about 640x480. This is the first sign that it's soon finally going to be time to upgrade after over two solid years with this machine. I'll probably hold out for the hl2/doom3 era though. Back to the game, the inventory and gui are quite clumsy, and it's difficult to move between menus, so if you're instantly attacked it is unlikely you'll be able to turn on any biomods and pull out the most useful weapon at the same time before you're hit. The game is also entirely too easy, I had a ridiculous amount of credits at the end, and way too many extra biomod canisters and weapon mods, I could have upgraded everything multiple times over. This is a complete turnaround from the original game, where you really had to pick and choose your upgrades unless you abused the infinite credit bug during that one conversation. The game itself is much much shorter, with me finishing it in something like ten hours of gametime. It's one of those that keeps track as you go, so you can tell how bad your obsession with your computer is. It doesn't count all your loads after dying though, so in reality it's probably more like twelve. But the original was something ridiculous like thirty, and even then you hand't really done EVERYTHING due to the non-linearity. This one tries to be non-linear as well, but you really end up in the same places no matter what path you choose. There are four endings to play with, but I wasn't even interested enough to play through the other ones after choosing the one I did. There are some really cool lighting effects I'm sure, but my system couldn't handle them so they lost their luster at the lowest settings.
There was one really fun thing about the game though, and that was maxing out your strength biomod to the point you could pick up the body of a bad guy, and launch it about fifty feet in the air, and watch it slam up against a wall and crumple down to the ground. This type of realism with the body actually crumpling in a nonscripted motion is something I didn't expect to see until hl2, so it entertained me at various points in the game. Also interesting is the default is to play as a female character, and you actually have to change it to make it a male one. Just shows how creepy computer geeks would much rather watch a female barbie looking model running around taking guys out. I personally changed it to the one that looks most like me like I always do, but hey, that's narcissism for you.
Hm yeah think that's enough entertainment talk for the day. It's finally getting out of the 30s at night, so running in the early morning instead of midday should be doable.
I've always wanted to come up with a really cool sounding word. If I could find one that was totally unique, I'd probably use it as a permanent nickname or something. A word like Samurai. Just rolls out of the mouth and exudes power. You are correct in thinking I must have headed out to see The Last Samurai yesterday. This was quite a feature. I'll have to give it 6 M's out of 7, a pretty rare score. Speaking of score, that was possibly my favorite part of it. Whereas some scores are passive and some people think the best score is the one you don't notice, I disagree. The score of this movie took a very active role, and served to further the drama at every level. I've never had any problems with Cruise as an actor, which usually leads his movies to be at the top of the agreement list when heading out with a female to see something. I was over at the Regal Cinemas under the loop on Pat Booker, and was pretty impressed with the theater. The sound was pretty good, not an IMAX or anything, but at least the theater I was in was gigantic. Definitely the kind of place you want to see those rowdy crowd movies like LOTR or Star Wars. But anyway back to the movie, I really enjoyed the performances of all the actors. Cruise's love interest in particular did a tremendous job putting those non verbal looks on her face that let you feel yourself what she was feeling. The storyline itself had a couple hard to belief aspects, but had they been left out there would have been a lot less closure. This one jerked quite a few tears/sobs out of the audience, so be forewarned if that isn't your thing. Pesonally that's what I look forward to, movies that make you feel.
I also forgot to blog about The Life of David Gale which I got around to watching a few days ago. This was another superb movie, and who knows maybe I'm in a giving mood, but I'll have to give this one... well okay I won't I'll give it 5.5 M's. Only because it didn't have that extra oomph to get to 6. As crime whodunnit type movies go though, this one was great. I've always enjoyed Kevin Spacey, and Kate Winslet held her own as his counterpart. There were plenty of twists involved, and the only weak part of the movie is the final outcome is entirely predictable, although that's difficult to avoid. At any rate an interesting one to go see with someone on the other side of the death penalty issue as you. For conversation sake if nothing else. It shows some bias, but gives ammunition for both sides. So yeah, couple good films.
I should also mention that they showed the preview for Troy which was the most impressive I'd seen in a while. We're talking very large scale movie here, with some impressive panoramic scenes of just how gigantic the army that fought was. Yeah it's probably mostly computer generated, but what do you expect. Definitely one I'll go see for the effects side of things if nothing else.
On the other side of entertainment I also blew through Deus Ex - Invisible War a few days ago. Unfortunately I don't have a lot of good things to say about it. If you're a fan of the original by all means play it, but don't expect a higher level of entertainment. Unfortunately the engine requires a tremendous level of computing power, to the point my 1.7ghz gf3 system couldn't handle anything about 640x480. This is the first sign that it's soon finally going to be time to upgrade after over two solid years with this machine. I'll probably hold out for the hl2/doom3 era though. Back to the game, the inventory and gui are quite clumsy, and it's difficult to move between menus, so if you're instantly attacked it is unlikely you'll be able to turn on any biomods and pull out the most useful weapon at the same time before you're hit. The game is also entirely too easy, I had a ridiculous amount of credits at the end, and way too many extra biomod canisters and weapon mods, I could have upgraded everything multiple times over. This is a complete turnaround from the original game, where you really had to pick and choose your upgrades unless you abused the infinite credit bug during that one conversation. The game itself is much much shorter, with me finishing it in something like ten hours of gametime. It's one of those that keeps track as you go, so you can tell how bad your obsession with your computer is. It doesn't count all your loads after dying though, so in reality it's probably more like twelve. But the original was something ridiculous like thirty, and even then you hand't really done EVERYTHING due to the non-linearity. This one tries to be non-linear as well, but you really end up in the same places no matter what path you choose. There are four endings to play with, but I wasn't even interested enough to play through the other ones after choosing the one I did. There are some really cool lighting effects I'm sure, but my system couldn't handle them so they lost their luster at the lowest settings.
There was one really fun thing about the game though, and that was maxing out your strength biomod to the point you could pick up the body of a bad guy, and launch it about fifty feet in the air, and watch it slam up against a wall and crumple down to the ground. This type of realism with the body actually crumpling in a nonscripted motion is something I didn't expect to see until hl2, so it entertained me at various points in the game. Also interesting is the default is to play as a female character, and you actually have to change it to make it a male one. Just shows how creepy computer geeks would much rather watch a female barbie looking model running around taking guys out. I personally changed it to the one that looks most like me like I always do, but hey, that's narcissism for you.
Hm yeah think that's enough entertainment talk for the day. It's finally getting out of the 30s at night, so running in the early morning instead of midday should be doable.
