.
     Misc. Stuff
Well,  I haven't updated lately, so I thought I'd give you a huge update today :)  I just installed the NT4 SP5, so hopefully the random system lock ups will come to an end.  I've been devoting most of my time to... something... not gonna tell yet, but you'll find out soon enough.  Someone posted a link to this image the other day on IRC.  So sick, yet so funny.  I hope it doesn't offend anyone... too much. :)

Heh heh... I was doing a spell check on this before I uploaded it, and I got this.  I thought it was kinda funny.

     IE/GoToWorld Rant
OK, since I haven't been updating lately, I thought I'd provide you with a little rant (like it or not:) <rant>I decided to check out this GoToWorld thingie...  Hey, make a couple bucks while surfing... why not?  It required Internet Explorer... grr... I'm not fond of IE, but I decided to download it anyway... only a couple megs.  Bah!  That's just the installer, now it's gotta download this huge file.  I went on with it figuring it would be useful for testing web page compatibility.  I get everything installed.  Gotoworld's this big, ugly thing that surrounds an IE window and has an ad on top.  That's not what bothered me though.  What bothered me was the fact that it kept timing out after 3 mins and it keeps having problems receiving ads (probably due to my sucky isp).  I had been using the thing off and on all day, keeping the ad thing going.  I know it was up for at least 5 hours, but what does it count? 1 :P  So I continue to use it counting only about 1/5 of the time i'm actually on.  Another thing it does is say the friends you've referred have used what is actually 1/2 the time they've been on it.  Dumb.  Now to learn all the wonderful "features" of IE.  Fun.  The thing I hate the most is the download window.  Instead of downloading to the drive you set it to download to, it downloads to some temporary file on the C: drive, then copies it over.  50% of the time I'm typing and the copy dialog comes up right when I hit space or enter and it cancels the copy.  @$&$%&@$%.  Gotta download again (or find the file, which so nicely doesn't show up in Window$' find even if it does exist).  I downloaded a 40-some meg game demo (Thief) with IE... It's almost done, then I suddenly become concerned about disk space on my C: drive (even though I'm downloading ot to G: which has plenty free).  There were a couple hundred megs free before I installed IE.  What now?  0 bytes.  Delete something quick!  Download dies... file's gone.  Gotta start another day-long download.  Another thing I hate is the "Download Complete."  It's especially annoying when you're playing Quake or something...  Pops back into Windows just to remind you, "Hey there! Aren't I annoying?!"  Then there's always the "Download complete" *system hard locks*  Lovely.  Netscape crashes about as much as IE, true, but at least it doesn't bring your whole computer down with it.  OK, last part of this rant, it's getting to big to put in any more details.  I thought I'd clean up some disk space by deleting all the "temporary internet files."  So I just do a select all and hit delete...  Five minutes and 250 yes answers (no yes to all, of course) to "This is a cookie, are you sure you want to delete it?" later... it's all... still there.  Ugh.  Then the stuff is hidden in these stupid named system directories like "JM7YM6KB" and "QZ8I4AIN."  What's up with that?  Ugh, anyway, enough ranting... For those of you who wondered why I don't use IE.  I think this is a pretty good explanation.</rant>  Oh, yeah, one more thing... I got this error on Microsoft's site.  <rant>Their own browser doesn't work right with their own site?!  That's pretty bad!</rant>

     Links of the Day...
Well, since I don't have anything useful to give you, I thought I'd throw up some useless but mildly amusing site links.  First off, cat-scan.com.  There's more than one way to scan a cat!  Second... Time Tremors (don't be fooled by the name, it's not cool).  This is Cherry Coke's game... or something.  Instead of paying for the game, you have to "Look for the specially marked bottles of Cherry Coke to collect Time Tremors access codes. Use these credits to play and to buy special tools during game play."  Uh-huh... Coke cans to help you on your journey through time.  It's about as realistic as the plot.  This big technology company working on a time travel device decides to let a bunch of little kids tour the place for a field trip.  Ya gotta pee, so you find this big pod thing, which doesn't require top level security clearance and there just happens to be nobody around to yell at you to get out.  "Hey, that looks like a bathroom!  Oops, it's a time traveling pod, muh bad."  So then you like... loose the stuff in your back pack and gotta go through time to find them.  "Oh no!  Not my history book!  Ack!"  Yes, this post was a total waste of time.  Someone on IRC wondered how I always managed to find the stupidest stuff on the 'net.  I guess I'm just talented.  I was gonna try the game out for kicks, but it appears my computer doesn't meet the minimum system requirements. *sigh*

Ok, two more links...

Do you have trouble playing that stupid rock paper scissors game?  Are you always the one that gets stuck with the unpleasurable duty of doing something unpleasurable?  Well, guess what?!  I've got the link for you!  The Official Rock Paper Scissors Strategy Guide!  I didn't actually bother reading any of the stuff on the site.  Just the fact that it existed was enough.

And, last but not least, corcknut.org.  Here you can find lots of other useless links to useless but amusing sites and news articles.  It's maintained by one of my IRC #level_design friends, BabelFish.
 
     LAN Party
Ahh, yes, another LAN party.  After raiding the grocery store for essential food supplies and swimming off the dock at Ashere's house, where Wyvern did a nice head first fall off the rope swing into the shallow water, we proceeded to have a great LAN party.  We played a ton of IKDM6.  That map is great with 5 ppl on it -- the way deathmatch SHOULD be! :)  I managed to do quite well despite my horrid framerate <rant>no friggin TNT</rant> and the fact that when I moved the mouse really fast to the side, I wouldn't even turn.  I'm not sure if that was due to the fact that the framerate was so bad and q2 bases everything on framerate, or if it was because my mouse was screwed up or something <rant>I am NOT messing with that thing again</rant>.  I was in the lead when we first started IKDM6.  Tak, however, taught us all how to quake ;)  After the quaking (and Tak's and my attempts at juggling cookies and catching them in our mouths... I succeeded a couple times.  Tak... came close:), we had an Adam Sandler like event -- "The Severe Beating of a 15in Monitor."  After a little toe-smashing soccer and rodeo action, we attempted to implode it by throwing a chunk of cement brick at it.  This did not prove very successful as we had bad aim, and when it was hit, it did nothing more than chip it.  Wyvern successfully broke the seal after throwing it at a tree a couple times (he hit the tree on the second try).  Nothing spectacular happened.  We didn't even hear the seal break (perhaps the seal was already broken and that's why it quit working, heh).  The only way we found out it actually broken was after some more kicking and Tak's repeated jumping on it.  The plastic casing came loose and we removed the RGB gun as a trophy!  LAN parties rule.
 
     AP Scores In
Woohoo!  I passed physics!  <rant>I wasn't sure if I would since, well, my teacher wasn't that great (understatement).  I got a 53% on the midterm, and that was the highest score!  I was also the only one in the class who passed the practice exam... just to give you some ideas.</rant>  My AP Calculus teacher, on the other hand, was the best :)  I got a 5 on the exam.  I got a 5 on the AP Computer Science (C++) exam as well, which was pretty easy.  I recommend you take this if you know anything about coding.

     Quote of the Day...
"I've known a few Anime-chick-obsessed guys in my day and quite honestly, hon, they're all a little fruity in the head." - Mynx
 
     More Images
I've collected 20-some new funny images.  There's now categories for the images as well.  Check 'em out in the Jokes section.
 
     Comp Back... Sorta
Ok, I could post a huge rant about this, but I think it would brighten up my mood a bit (and make it more fun for you to read) if I put it in poetic form.  I was just gonna put it right in here with the news update, but it ended up being so long (it had to be in order to encompass most of the major problems I encountered!) that I couldn't.  I present to you a jitspoem: "Computer Blues... Computer Blows"

     I'm BA-ACK!
I've actually been back for a couple days, but due to some computer problems (read above), I haven't been able to update.  Ugh, I'm still in a poetic mood, And I just ate a lot of food. *slap*  OK, that's better.  The trip wasn't extremely exciting... 40-some car hours and visiting relatives.  We went to the family reunion of my mom's dad's mom's and sister's descendants (or something like that), and I knew nobody there :)  There were, however, a couple highlights to the trip.  I "conned" a waitress into a kid's ice cream sundae with sprinkles (I'm under 12, really!) which was followed by two slices of cheesecake when I got to my aunt's house.  I ate a lot during that trip, and I don't think I gained a pound.  <sniff>I'll never be anything but a skinny computer geek!</sniff>  I bought another good yo-yo.  I can now do 2 yo-yos at once (one in each hand, or 2 in 1 hand).  Doing around the world with 2 yo-yos is quite a challenge :)  Another thing I thought was kinda funny - ya know those capsules that are filled with powder?  They don't dry swallow very well.  One was kinda stuck in the middle of my throat, then I burped.  It sent a big puff of sinking "smoke" out of my mouth making it look like it was a really cold freezer or something.  I think I'm one of the very few privileged people to experience such an event :)  I also finally beat that labyrinth game (the one made of wood with a couple knobs where you have to maneuver the marble from start to finish without falling in a hole).  My fingers were cramped, my back was hurt, my legs were sore, my neck was stiff, but I beat it!  It is probably considerably easier with contacts in.  I was sitting on the floor hunched over it with my eyes about a foot away from the ball.  Oh, I also beat the + shaped peg leap "for genius only" (beat it with the colored peg being the only one left and in the middle).  The greatest highlight, however, was right before we left for home.  It was 3:00am (I had gotten almost a whole hour of sleep after beating the labyrinth), and my mom was being extremely quit as to not wake the relatives.  We quietly packed our stuff and snuck outside, then my mom presses the horn button instead of the trunk button.  Well, so much for not waking the relatives up.  The horn started honking, and the lights flashed.  I think it woke up everyone in the neighborhood.  She was quite embarrassed while I thought it was hilarious.
 
     Trip
Well, I'm going away for a little trip up to Champaign, IL <rant>Little? Hah! Only a 16 hour drive!</rant> so I'll be gone for about a week.  I really doubt I'll be updating while I'm there :)  Oh, and if you want to email me, send it to jitspoe at yahoo dot com.  If I do ever get online, that's the account I'll be checking.

     Stupid Comp
<rant>Ugh, my computer is the most stupid, retarded @$%&@%$&@ @$%& @$%& @$%&@$%& &I^ (*@ $%& *&@$%^*^ @%$&^ !$@^$ &^!$#^%$@!@# !$@#!@ !@&* !@!*@!&^*! piece of !#$^$% %!&!$!#$^ bent up scrap metal excuse for a computer on earth! (other than my old 386, of course, which only runs for about 10 minutes before it starts doing some really strange things) My mouse seemed to be running slower and slower, and I keept adjusting the speed in the control panel until it was finally a the max.  After a while of dealing with the slow mouse, I decided to unplug it and plug it back in to see if it would "reset" the speed or anything.  Bad move.  The screen went black and it rebooted!  When the computer started back up, neither the mouse NOR the keyboard functioned!  I'm using my parents computer to do this news update.  There's something seriously wrong with my computer.  This is the last time I'm getting a Tyan motherbard!</rant>

     Funny Images
I've put together a rather large collection of funny images in the Jokes section.  It should give you plenty to look at while I'm gone. :)
 
     Pictures!
For those who wonder what my family and I do/did look like, I put some pics together.  I also made a perl program to display pictures with descriptions.  I'm putting together plenty of new stuff to look at as I will be going on a little trip for about a week (and I REALLY doubt I'll be updating during that time :).  They're in the About section.

     News Archived
The news was getting a little bulky, so I archived the news from March 30th to may 6th.  You can access it from the news archive box down at the bottom of this page. 

     New Anime Drawing
It's been a while since I've drawn any anime, so I decided to work on one today.  I was experimenting with some techniques to make it computer drawn images a little bit easier and better looking.  I drew Achika, Tenchi's mother.  Check it out in the Art / Anime section.
 
     SAT Scores In
Welp, I just got my SAT scores in - I did fairly well: 1340.  I only missed 3 problems in the math section (I think they were the ones I randomly guessed on towards the end 'cuz I was taking my sweet time and didn't realize how little I had left :)  <rant>The thing I don't get is how I only got 730 of 800 points when I only missed 3 of the 59 questions.  That's 95% correct.  95% of 800 is 760.  Also, if the minimum score you can get is 200, 200-800 is only a range of 600, so 95% of 600 + 200 is 770.  My math score shoulda been a minimum of 760, not 730.  I'll have to call them about it or something.</rant>  Verbal was... well, not as good :}  I only got 610.  <rant>I hate those questions that are like "What do we thing you would think this author would think of this other authors opinion?"  Those stupid critical reading questions killed me.</rant>  Overall it was pretty good.  I was hoping to break 1400.  Oh well.
 
     Tide Online
I've been working on gathering images and other funny stuff for the Jokes section.  I made an image myself as well, making fun of the new AOL cd's.  Somebody had to do it sooner or later...  Check it out here.
 
RAWscape Released!
Finally got it "done" enough to release.  I probably should have called this an alpha or beta, but hey, if you do everything right it works.  I give you RAWscape 1.0! (in the Gaming / RAWscape section)
 
[Back to the Joint]