Random musings of the "off" guy

Today's blog is a very special one. I want to share with you the greatest comic of all time, Calvin and Hobbes. For those of you who doesn't know who they are (blasphemy!) Calvin is a clever, misbehaving kid with a wild imagination. Hobbes is his stuffed tiger (and voice of reason) that becomes alive when no one is around. You fall in love with all the characters in this comic. When you read old comics of calvin and hobbes, you don't just think "That was a funny one" and go to the next. It feels like you feel like you have memories of them. I have so many fond memories of the antics of Calvin and Hobbes. If I met Bill Watterson (creator of C&H) I would go up to him, give him a hug and say "What the f#&k is wrong with you?!"

Yes, that is what I would say. Bill Watterson is a selfish bastard. He has created the best comic of all time yet you will NEVER see any C&H merchandise other than books. No dolls, no stickers, no shirts, not even 1 f#&k!ng poster or calendar. I might mention the Calvin peeing on X is illegal and the company has been sued by Mr. Watterson. He has fought tooth and nail to keep any C&H from being commercialized because he believes it would cheapen his creation. You know how much I would cherish a Calvin and Hobbes stuffed animal? I would even go as far as buying 2 sets and putting 1 in a plexiglass case. I LOVE calvin and hobbes but you, Mr Watterson... I HATE you.

Everyone has heard "You get what you pay for"
Meaning if you buy some cheap piece of junk, don't expect it to work well and last long


What about this thought for the day

"Sometimes you don't get what you pay for"

This time it means You may pay 200-300% more for an item but it won't be 2-3 times better than the cheaper item. cK jeans actually perform MUCH worse than cheaper pairs in shrinking and sturdiness. Nike T shirt may be better than fruit of the loom but not 2 times better (2 times the price). Clothing is the easiest to pick on but it works for men too. Is a $500 video card going to give you 25% more fps (frames per second) over the $400 one? (that would be a no).

There is a happy medium between those 2 statements called "best bang for your buck". Don't let anyone *coughmechanicscough* make you feel guilty for not buying the premium product when it won't perform even close to the price you paid for it... audiophiles I am looking at you!!

http://monstercable.com/productPage.asp?pin=32
10 ft of speaker wire $300

Then again, some people are complete idiots

What is this world coming to?

If you haven't noticed I have some commercialization on my blog. I know no one clicks on those things but I did just out of curiosity's sake. It led me to Overstock.com which is actually a really good website I go to to buy cheap items that were... well overstocked at a different store. Check it out!

The other one is DLP.com. It appears to be a Tv/projector search engine that use dlp technology. Hmm I like this site!! One day I will get a projector because good projectors are superior to tv's in 3 ways. They are smaller. they use less juice, and you can have a MASSIVE size screen (easily a 6 footer or more!) that you can't achieve with a HDTV. But like I said, get a good one or the picture might be low resolution, it will be dim, and without much color. This site is handy!

Now there is another one tigerdirect. com. Computer parts price engine. Good site but if you are more technically inclined go to pricewatch.com

Who decided that the work day starts in the morning? I bet if you took a survey of regular people I bet most of them wake up around 9 am. Why not start the work day at 10 and end at 7?

Why does the obvious solution get stomped out by the minority?

Next semi-related topic

You can't idiot proof everything. To the man that won a the lawsuit for picking up his lawnmower to trim his hedges, or the man (who also won) who set his rv on cruise control to go to the back to make a sandwich, or the one that sued a doctor because the blood pressure medicine did not work on their 300 lb fat @%$ who refuses to diet or quit smoking or drinking...

YOUR KIND IS WHAT IS WRONG WITH THE WORLD!!

None of this hippie love, everyone is beautiful crap... some people really need to be removed from the face of the earth. That is why I love the darwin awards. Self disposal has to be the most deliciously ironic way of it happening. Support the darwin awards!!

MMORPGs.

If you are not a gamer MMORPG (massive mulitplayer online role playing game) means you play an online game inwhich you play with other people online and gain levels and get better at it. Also you have to pay about $15 a month to play it. I get a lot of smack talk from nongamers and gamers alike about that. "Why do you have to pay constantly to play a game?" Well I will tell you

Here is your typical great game. You play it for about 16- 20 hours and beat it. Then you play it some more and unlock the things you looked up online... this encompasses another 6 hours or so. Next you hopefully have a friend that will play multiplayer (if it even has multiplayer) with you until you both get tired of it (another 12 hours). Thats the end of $50 for your game. You paid $50 to play about 38 hours of a game and then it sits on your shelf until you sell it.

Here is how a great MMORPG works. You pick and customize your character (1-2 hours). This is important because in online games it ACTUALLY matters what your stats are and what you look like. (and I think it is one of the funnest parts). You play until you get through the beginner lvls (20 hours). You play with other people online who will play the same game with you and go exploring/making new equipment/helping new people out/working the market... until you beat it with the character you created (200+ hours!!). Next you make a new character that works totally differently and starts off somewhere completely new and play until you beat it (120+ hours (less hours because you are experienced)) Totaling 342+ hours on this game.

The point is, is that on an online subscription fee based games you are actually accomplishing something. You are gaining levels and working with real people... you are having fun with people and being useful. Other games are fun but once you are done its over it is a pretty short lived experience unless it is a great party game AND you have a friend that will play it with you then it will extend your game but no where near an mmorpg's level.

On that note here are a few MMORGP's that are tons of fun.

Everquest 2 - Fantasy character game, moderate learning curve, TONS of stuff to do, extremely long game that has the level grind (work long and hard for the next level) great character graphic, bland world

World of warcraft - Fantasy character game, very user friendly, bright and colorful live world, no grind

Eve online - Spaceship game, feels and looks like real outer space (very pretty and BIG), very high learning curve, learn skills so "leveling" makes sence

City of heroes/villians - Be a super hero/villain, TONS of character customization, no item creation type stuff, moderate learning curve

Guild Wars - no subscription fee!!, short lived game (only lvl 20), not much camaraderie due to no real penalty for death or abandoning group mid mission, lots of kids play it


You will find me on EVE or World of warcraft the most

After the launch that never happened and soon a move and I really hate military computer based training... I have been busy!!

What tid bit of info shall I use today?

There is a piece of equipment almost the size of a large plane the military is testing out, well on a boeing 474. It is a new weapon to take out missles in flight. It is a laser. Pretty cool huh? This huge missile destroying laser has 1 fault (other than size and weight)


It has only 7 shots


The reason is because to create a laser that can heat up a missle and destroy it takes a massive amount of energy. It blends 2 different chemicals and supersonic speeds together to create this energy.

To some people this sounds like a waste... I mean 7 shots on a 747 costing 2.1 billion dollars!! Why not stick with missles to take down missiles? Well because missiles are no where near as fast as a laser. Trying to hit a missile with another missle it like trying to make 2 bullets collide in mid air... its very hard to say the least.

This is only step 1 of functional lasers other than annoying/blinding people in movie theaters and I look forward to step 2

Eclectic

What do you think when you read that word?

Most people that I know of think of highly inteligent people that know a lot of everything like the people who get all the questions to categories 16th century knitting and Gravitational physics on Jeopardy right.

Some of eclectic people just have a short attention span. These people dive extremely deep into 1 subject that they need (want) to know for the period of a week or 2 and then they get bored with it. There are so many interesting things out there, why stick with 1? There is a slight problem with that. Does anyone know any jobs in which you are not very good at any 1 thing?

Seriously, I am asking you

I am car shopping and I have narrowed my car that I am going to drive for a very long time down to 2. I have done a ton of research on each car and their manufacturers but I want to know what you think. For an unbiased opinion I will call them car male and car female.


Car male - Very reliable, stronger and faster than car #2, requires more fuel than car female, needs engine work after 100,000 miles, the car will last about 73 years before it becomes unusable due to age, straight forward easy controls, a little less accessories than cars 2, do anything go anywhere kind of car, very nice looking in a rugged way, less expensive to buy and for upkeep costs, any dings or minor fender benders cost only a little bit to have worked out, requires more and more horsepower upgrades

Car female - Has problems 25% of the time you drive it, weaker and slower than car male, needs a lot of accessories replaced or worked on after 100,000 miles, lasts 85 years before it becomes unusable due to age, complex machinery that NEEDS a large manual to use correctly, a little more accessories than car 1, can go off road but not recommended... mainly a road car, beautiful and sleek looking, more expensive to buy (often compared to the price of a large diamond) and depending on accessories a little bit to A LOT more expensive on upkeep costs, any dings or minor fender benders cost a lot more and can some times show back up. Requires brand new and often tire purchases and paint colors... takes hours to change them







So the final question


What brand couch is the most comfortable?

There is a battle going on in the US that will determine your future movie purchases.
The fight is over the new high definitions Dvd's. Dvd's have a clear signal over VCR tapes but they still have the low resolution of todays tvs. You can tell the difference when you get a screen over 36 inches between a High Def dvd and a regular dvd.

When is the last time you ever saw an HDTV that was 36 inches or smaller? I know I never have.

So the fight is on between HD-DVD and Blu-ray. You should be well informed when and if one day both dvd's pop up at the store. Here are the facts so far.

• Size on the disk - HD-DVDs - 30 GB Blu-ray - 50 GB
• Can play your old dvd's - HD-DVDs - Yes Blu-ray - Most likely (some manufacters will add regular dvd lasers to their machines at extra cost)
• Cost - HD-DVDs - $500- $800 Blu-ray - $1000- $1900
• Support - HD-DVDs - Intel, Microsoft, NEC, and Toshiba Blu-ray - Disney, Fox, Dell, Apple, Pioneer, Sony, WB, Fox
• Encoding - HD-DVD - efficient and better MPEG 4 Blu-ray - Older MPEG 2 and possibly MPEG 4
• Movie time on it - HD-DVD 8 hours Blue-ray 4.5 - 9 hours (if using MPEG 4)

There you go. You can make up your own mind of which one to support when the time comes.

You have to check out this article. When I read it I was throughly pissed.

www.gear.ign.com/articles/691/691408p1.html

It pretty much says hollywood has determined that HD-DVDs will only be transmitted through 2 different kinds of connections. If you did not purchase a HDTV in the past year or so (and did not get the top of the line one) you will not be able to play HD-DVDs at all because you will not have either connection. (DVI or HDMI)

Lets say you do have the connection you won't have more than one of them so you have 2 options.

1. Unplug and plug everytime you want to watch a HD-DVD or play video games or any other Hi-def thing
2. Get an expensive box that allows you to use more than 1 of these plugs.

The reason for this massive screwing of 100's of thousands of people (if not more) is because they can't keep their own movies from being copied (RIAA).

So it comes down to 2 companies to blame for this worldwide screwing is Hollywood DVD rights and RIAA.

On top of all this there are 2 formats of high definition DVD's fighting to be on top. Neither is compatible with one another. Maybe more on that tomorrow

There are 4 (technically 5) types of batteries you use; alkaline, nickle cadnium, nickle metal hydride, lithium ion and the technical is lead acid.

This is imporant... why?

Because each battery is finicky in its own way.

Alkaline holds a large charge but you have to throw them out. These are your typical AAA, AA, C, D and 9 volt batteries

Nickle cadnium was the 1st home rechargable battery. These also hold a good charge but they have a fatal flaw. They have a memory effect. A memory effect is when you charge a battery before it is completely empty. Lets say it is getting weak at 1/4 full and now you recharge it. You battery will now only charge up to 3/4's the way full and no more. A couple more recharges like this and your batteries will not charge at all.

Next and the most popular is a lithium ion. This is usually in cell phones, laptops, and if you look for them typical home batteries. They hold large charge for their size for slow discharging things like cell phones and have no memory effect. Charge them at any time and they will always charge to full. Unfortunately the age of the battery determines their fullness. At 1.5 years your lithium ion batteries will lose half their charge. That is 1.5 years after they are made not after you get the cell phone. So if your battery has been hanging out ina warehouse for 6 months you already lost a portion of your batteries life

The least popular batter is nickle metal hydride. It holds a decent charge and has zero side effects. Sure if it gets really old it will eventually die on you. You can also get these as rechargable home batteries.

Lastly is lead acid. This is a car battery. It has a large charge and puts out hundreds of amps at a time but it is huge and the chemicals inside are hazardous.

Now don't you feel a little more geekish?

I bet being a civilian looking at the military has got to look pretty cool/mysterious. There are all those commercials on T.v. with people jumping out of planes or driving tanks or shooting large weapons or working in a dark secret looking radar room. Those jobs are out there and I am sure they are pretty cool.

But what about the rest of the military?

There are tons of paper pusher jobs, running computer cable jobs, and working in cubicle jobs.
Not every job in the military is cool and adventurous. For the most part I fix video cameras and professional VCRs that you would see at CNN's studio. I work in a shop in a hanger type building and I have a cubicle inside and office building. I am sure one day my job might be adventurous but not today or within the next 1.5 years. My job is actually 4 full jobs smashed into one. Next base I go to I might be doing something completely different. A nice change of pace but I will never fully learn 1 job.

Not all jobs here are the gun toting, high flying, super secret, blowing up stuff that the TV makes it out to be. One thing the military does stand out from any job anyone will ever get is that in the military everyone signed up knowing full well that they might have to fight and die for their country for a pretty meager wage. Think about that next time you see anti-military people. People like that piss me off. We are protecting your right to be free and you try to hate us. Essentially biting the hand that feeds you.

I may be going to war the end of this year. I do not expect to be spat on if I return

I have been a bit busy the past day so I will let you read the funniest thing I have ever read in my entire life.

Notes From An Inexperienced Chili Taster Named Frank:"Recently I was honored to be selected, as an "Outstanding Famous Celebrity in Texas", to be a judge at a chilli cook-off, because no one else wanted to do it. Also the original person called in sick at the last moment, and I happened to be standing there at the judge's table asking directions to the beer wagon when the call came. I was assured by the other two judges (Native Texans) that the chilli wouldn't be all that spicy, and besides they told me I could have free beer during the tasting, so I accepted.
Here are the scorecards from the event:

Chili # 1: Mike's Maniac Mobster Chili
JUDGE ONE: A little too heavy on tomato. Amusing kick.

JUDGE TWO: Nice, smooth tomato flavor. Very mild.

FRANK: Holy smokes, what the HELL is this stuff? You could remove dried paint from your driveway with it. Took two beers to put the flames out. Hope that's the worst one. These rednecks are crazy.


Chili # 2: Arthur's Afterburner Chili

JUDGE ONE: Smoky (barbecue?) with a hint of pork. Slight Jalapeno tang.

JUDGE TWO: Exciting BBQ flavor, needs more peppers to be taken seriously.

FRANK: Keep this away from the children! I'm not sure what I'm supposed to taste besides pain. I had to wave off two people who wanted to give me the Heimlich maneuver.


Chili # 3: Fred's Famous Burn Down the Barn Chili

JUDGE ONE: Excellent firehouse chili! Great kick. Needs more beans.

JUDGE TWO: A beanless chili, a bit salty, good use of red peppers.

FRANK: Call the EPA, I've located a uranium spill!! My nose feels like I have been snorting Drano. Everyone knows the routine by now and got out of my way so I could make it to the beer wagon. Barmaid pounded me on the back so hard to help get my breath that my backbone is now in the front part of my chest.


Chili # 4: Bubba's Black Magic

JUDGE ONE: Black bean chili with almost no spice. Disappointing.

JUDGE TWO: Hint of lime in the black beans. Good side dish for fish or other mild foods, not much of a chili.

FRANK: I felt something scraping across my tongue, but was unable to taste it. Sally, the barmaid, was standing behind me with fresh refills to save me the run.


Chili # 5: Linda's Legal Lip Remover

JUDGE ONE: Meaty, strong chili. Cayenne peppers freshly ground, adding considerable kick. Very impressive.

JUDGE TWO: Chili using shredded beef; could use more tomato. Must admit the cayenne peppers make a strong statement.

FRANK: My ears are ringing, I can't focus my eyes and my legs have gone completely limp. I farted and four people behind me needed paramedics. Linda seemed offended when I told her that her chili had given me brain damage. Sally saved my tongue by pouring beer directly on it.


Chili # 6: Vera's Very Vegetarian Variety

JUDGE ONE: Thin yet bold vegetarian variety chili. Good balance of spice and peppers.

JUDGE TWO: The best yet. Aggressive use of peppers, onions, and garlic. Superb.

FRANK: My intestines are now a straight pipe filled with gaseous flames. No one seems inclined to stand behind me except Sally. It pisses me when the other judges asked me to stop screaming.


Chili # 7: Susan's Screaming Sensation Chili

JUDGE ONE: A mediocre chili with too much reliance on canned peppers.

JUDGE TWO: Very Ho Hum, tastes as if the chef threw in canned chili peppers at the last moment. I should note that I am worried about Judge Number 3. He appears to be in a bit of distress.

FRANK: You could put a grenade in my mouth and pull the pin and I wouldn't a freakin thing. I've lost the sight in one eye and the world sounds like it is made of rushing water. I can't feel my legs. My clothes are covered with chili which slid out of my mouth at some point. Have decided to stop breathing because it is too painful. If I need oxygen I will suck it from the 6 inch hole in my stomach. At least the autopsy they'll know what killed me.


Chili # 8: Helen's Mount Saint Chili

JUDGE ONE: A perfect ending, this is a nice blend chili, safe for all, not too bold but spicy enough to declare its existence.

JUDGE TWO: This final entry is a good, balanced chili, neither mild nor hot. Sorry to see that most of it was lost when Judge Number 3 fell and pulled the chili pot on top of himself.

FRANK: ------- (Editor's note: Judge #3 was unable to report)