http://www.damodred.net/ No Title en-us Shattered Halls part pick-up group, part guildie. It was going just fine with my healing until the Gladiators, who proceeded to 2-shot everyone. Ouch. Also wanted to show off what my monitor resolution is right now Had a great weekend unpacking, decorating, grilling and generally taking a breather. How about you?http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1011 News Aggregate #9 September 1, 2008, 10:20 pm A.k.a., avoid The Witcher if you've ever ran any emulation software. Or sneezed on your DVD drive. Or disc. Or are on TAGES' shitlist. You might remember this post; I was quite pleased that the version I got had all the content I was looking for (uncut Polish dialogue) and then some. However, once I updated it to version 1.3 on this machine, it simply refuses to run, and I refuse to go through thhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1010 News Aggregate #9 August 30, 2008, 12:04 am I should've done it ages ago. Fortunately, the widescreen gaming community is well-established now and I can research what will and will not work in those massive resolutions. Just Cause, GTA:SA and Mafia are first up, I think - I can't wait to jump out of an airplane in glorious 1600x1050. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1009 News Aggregate #9 August 28, 2008, 11:05 am Arkham Horror has made an appearance! Soon, we shall investigate and perhaps defeat the unearthly doom horrors! Now reading Abercrombie's "The Blade Itself" since part 3 showed up as well. Finally, the 22" widescreen monitor showed up for happy widescreen goodness - only the 360 remains to show up for happy large screen Mass Effect, Crackdown and Mercs (soon) gaming. Mmm, widescreenhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1008 News Aggregate #9 August 27, 2008, 10:59 am So this weekend I: - regained all the gold I used on my healy mace, - got my mage to 16, - PvP'ed for the first time, - investigated dailies and rep quests in SMV and Netherstorm both. Stupid game. We also got an additional bookshelf for comic books, a small entertainment cabinet for purposes of enriching the living room with music, and I got a couple of routers to get wired internet downstairs http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1007 News Aggregate #9 August 25, 2008, 11:04 am I've moved all the posts from the tempblog. I still need to fix the dates, which I shall do at home tonight ... The 360 coffin arrived and the box is on its way to MS. We shall see what happens next. We now have internet and cable, although the Tivo is not on the same floor as the internet so ... I'm not sure how that'll work. Finally, I upgraded security to WPA (from MAC address filtering) so http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1006 News Aggregate #9 August 20, 2008, 10:43 am I built a pond separated from the river by a grate, and I should be safe. Of course the fact that I seem to have picked a smaller, shallower river has nothing to do with the absence of carp no.... Anyway, this fortress will hopefully go further. I got good rock, plenty of trees, safe water now, and most of my structure is fortified and dug out - now I can start getting fancy in the metals departmhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1005 News Aggregate #9 August 19, 2008, 10:41 am Good BBQ with Garage folks, great gameday with ... gameday folks, a bit of unpacking and organizing the Cave bookshelves (yay finally enough bookshelves! sort of), and a bit of grilling. It was about 95 degrees at the BBQ, and now it's 60 and grey and rainy, which is a great antidote from the last week of massive HEAT. The change was so drastic it required thunder and lightning, which we don't reahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1004 News Aggregate #9 August 18, 2008, 10:40 am XBox 360 prepaid box on its way from MS to me - check. Grill last night was in fact delicious - check. Grilling tonight will also be delicious - preemptive check. We are now out of the cottage entirely - check! It's frigging hot in Eugene - ch... well. Poop! King of Dragon Pass arrived (and I can play it w/o internet!) - check! We're having an "unseasonal heat warning" type thhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1003 News Aggregate #9 August 14, 2008, 10:40 am I mentioned my desk already, but it seems that the 360 has also bit it Fortunately, the repair should be free since it's red-ringing on me with graphic corruption freezes and all those symptoms quite like the everpresent graphics chip failure that MS finally fessed up to. Here's hoping I get a newer model in return Unfortunately, it means being without my premier (and it is surprising how muchhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1002 News Aggregate #9 August 13, 2008, 10:39 am Made it halfway up the hill on my bike without dying; now, to add a foot per day to that. In about 2 years, I should be at the house. Also managed to park the car in the garage; there is exactly ONE approach you can make to make it happen, and it's slightly tricky and there might be occasional scrapes. Still, higher profile tires are 400 bucks, and putting in any sort of lift will probably messhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1001 News Aggregate #9 August 12, 2008, 10:39 am Turns out that "stupid with exhaustion" isn't just a turn of phrase - the mind does work slower when you've been hucking boxes all day (or at least feels like all day). Doing a little better today, but still need a full night's sleep for optimum results. While I am taking a break from packing today, I *do* have our rather steep hill to bike up on the way back from work ... so that'll http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=1000 News Aggregate #9 August 11, 2008, 10:39 am The furniture is done and in the new house, as are all the books and a huge chunk of clothing. Remaining are kitchen, bathrooms, and 2 closets - not sure which will be the biggest pain but from now on it's all stuff we can actually, you know ... lift. That's important. An interesting new development on the d.net front; turns out that the Sanctum/Mancave/Network Room/MY ROOM ... has no internhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=999 News Aggregate #9 August 9, 2008, 10:39 am Toast, tehWalter, Dain.net, froggyfish, and most importantly damodred.net will be offline until we're set up in our new digs hopefully early next week. Thank you for your RAWR. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=998 News Aggregate #9 August 8, 2008, 10:38 am A Shacker put together a set of Guild Wars panoramas; whether you play or not, they're pretty neat. Wrath of the Lich King beta - woo! That first arrival into Northrend is quite spectacular, and the Death Knight quests are fantastic. I wonder what the Bears will do - descend to the Death fortress en masse to wreak noob (level 55 noob that is) havoc together, or frantically level their 70s to 80? http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=997 News Aggregate #9 August 7, 2008, 9:31 am 16 boxes of books - about 2.5 shelves' worth - packed. I estimate 8-10 more for the upstairs half-shelves and the remainder of my desk, and then on to the fragile stuffs off the shelves. The goal is to have all furniture emptied out (not worried about the kitchen since that's the slowest process by far; we'll only move what we're able to get to) by Friday evening, and the floors cleaned at the newhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=996 News Aggregate #9 August 6, 2008, 10:35 am Packing this week, and moving end of the week. Pics to follow. In the meantime, I play Mass Effect with great relish. If you ever wanted to compose your own "away team" and explore new planets and civilizations (with upgrades and combat galore), you can't really do better than ME.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=995 News Aggregate #9 August 5, 2008, 4:26 pm And it looks great. The floor should be done tomorrow, along with roof treatment, a small cabling fix, and maybe some solutions for a big scratch in the dining room that we've never seen before. We were in fact nearly convinced the ceiling guy did it, but we have to apologize for our assumptions - we watched our home movie and it's pretty visible even in the fraction of a second that the camera pahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=994 News Aggregate #9 July 31, 2008, 4:39 pm After a week of trying to figure out what to do with our one odd duck room, we finally have a vaguely economic solution. Here's how it went down. So there's this room. It has carpet. It's the only room in the entire house that has carpet - so we want it out. But here's the thing - the rest of the floor downstairs is engineered hardwood (which is hardwood bits with other fake bits added to it fohttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=993 News Aggregate #9 July 27, 2008, 9:12 pm I guess this E3 is fairly productive after all ... here's a 3 page interview about Borderlands, the open-world, quest-driven, drop-in and drop-out coop shooter. Sounds pretty awesome to me. We have a few days of peace now, while the ceiling is being scraped and reformed from "popcorn" type to the much more spiffing "skip-trowel" type. It's expensive, but not really, when you chttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=992 News Aggregate #9 July 24, 2008, 12:51 pm Brilliantly mad FPS/space shooter/adventure/RPG from the people behind Boiling Point. Can't wait, I'm buying two copies on launch. Friday was Garage Games outing day, and boy did we out. There was volleyball, which I'm happy to say I rallied at least two people towards - turns out the game gets better the more people you have (well, up to 6 on 6 anyway). Who knew? Not me - I always figured 4 onhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=991 News Aggregate #9 July 22, 2008, 7:57 pm Up-to-date updates may resume possibly in 3 weeks. That is my estimate of when the current house-closing, update-doing and moving mayhem will be completed. Of course at that point we might still be shellshocked so ... who knows At the moment, that's all the strength I have to write about it. Currently playing: Quake IV. Why Q4? Couple of reasons. First of all - quicksave. Its usefulness cannot bhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=990 News Aggregate #9 July 20, 2008, 6:44 pm No, really: Go watch Dr. Horrible's Sing Along Blog now! (it's going away on the 20th, so get in there) http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=989 News Aggregate #9 July 17, 2008, 7:34 pm I am now working ... with beer. Yes! We also just had a nerf invasion. *snerk* As an aside, I gotta say Vista isn't so bad. I haven't had any real issues yet, and there are quite a few improvements to navigation that I quite like. Flip is no Expose though. Not even closehttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=988 News Aggregate #9 July 11, 2008, 4:21 pm I seem to be slacking with the updates; my excuse is that it was the 4th and I was asleep! Yes, all 3 days. So, we're looking for some ways to get the money for the house. We had one loan more or less lined up, but I talked to a dude at work that just went through this ordeal recently and he recommended someone else. Long story short, I went, I talked, we shaved off a few thousand, and we mighthttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=987 News Aggregate #9 July 7, 2008, 6:21 pm Sort of. I still am figuring things out at work. I had a bit of a metaphor moment in the morning, so I'll share it with you. Keep in mind this is based on a measly 7 days of work Here goes; ladies feel free to replace gender Working at GG is sort of like dating a hyperactive punk rocker. You never know what to expect, she'll keep you up all night, she'll turn up in the most unexpected places anhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=986 News Aggregate #9 July 2, 2008, 12:29 pm So we released Legions, that was fun. I'm going to every meeting I can to see what I can poke my fingers into, but at the same time there's only so many things I can hold in my little head. There's a lot to learn, and a lot to do, and I don't feel super useful quite yet. It'll be fun getting there, though. House inspection went well, with one rather serious thing and several small ones. There ahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=985 News Aggregate #9 June 30, 2008, 4:56 pm What a weird, weird day.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=984 News Aggregate #9 June 23, 2008, 10:56 pm The previous post was short because it was made from the tablet; it works fine and is much handier to carry along than a laptop, but typing speed suffers. The touchpad is fine, but its predictive text is bollocks and it seems there's no autocorrect. I think even my phone can do that now ... ah well. Still twice the resolution of an iPhone, so no help from that quarter. They actually put in a normahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=983 News Aggregate #9 June 23, 2008, 8:29 am Well, this is all very exciting. I'm writing this update from McMenamins pub in Bend, and I'm pondering all the things going on at once. The new job starts monday, and the house offer should be coming in tonight. Also, the bartender in front of me is setting thins on FIRE. Ahem. How did we go from pooh-poohing every single house we saw to putting in an offer in just a few days!!! Yikes.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=982 News Aggregate #9 June 21, 2008, 3:06 pm Good times! However, Sportsters are loud and they vibrate a lot, so next time I'm taking a FAT BOB. o_O walTer does claim that the issue is endemic to those, so perhaps my opinion of Harleys may yet be swayed. I got in our car after I finished the ride, and felt like I got in some toy conveyance. Surely a device that provides movement should make more noise and vibrate a lot! I did this ride andhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=981 News Aggregate #9 June 19, 2008, 4:57 pm Starting off with a semi-catered 2hr breakfast meeting (breakfast starts at 10 on Yahoo time), and ending with minigolf at noon. Harley reserved for tomorrow, and hoping to see a couple more houses before we leave for Bend this weekend. Noob Squad II went off well last night, with a surprise visit by my sister, and much banter from High Girl and Economics Lad (you know who you are ). We're justhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=980 News Aggregate #9 June 18, 2008, 10:26 am Great weekend overall. Walter got his 360, I moved him over to d.net hosting, saw 6 houses (and rejected all but one, in case you're curious), caught up a bit on Dr. Who, and rambled around the riverfront in a 2-seater bike-carriage type thing. Harley still planned for Thursday. Hope the weather holds. I've been playing with the Spore critter creator, and it's great fun despite the parts being mhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=979 News Aggregate #9 June 16, 2008, 1:40 pm Or both? I'm obtaining the expansions to Oblivion so I can install the Popehat Oblivion Overhaul Project (known fondly as POOP) and see if I can play this game again, now new and shiny and new PC and everything. But, in case I'm still all Oblivion'ed out (although the 20 level single player Conan campaign that I thoroughly enjoyed seems to indicate otherwise) Evochron Renegades just showed up on http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=978 News Aggregate #9 June 13, 2008, 9:37 am Update: Well, it's public knowledge now. I have accepted a position as Sr. Web Developer at Garage Games here in Eugene. I will be working on their gaming portal, Instant Action and other projects to bring some excellent casual (yet strangely hardcore ) gaming to all. It's probably needless to say that this is the satisfaction of some 20 years of vaguely formed career goals. I will post as soon ahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=977 News Aggregate #9 June 9, 2008, 9:26 am I played a shackbattle (TM) couple of nights ago, and my impressions are favorable. I was in the beta and didn't think much of it, but after spending some quality time with it and learning how the objectives and experience system works, I find it to be a deeply entertaining game. It's probably going to take a while to become familiar with all the map icons and the flow of a map, but somehow, in alhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=976 News Aggregate #9 June 5, 2008, 8:54 am For a while, I thought that the more actiony melee combat, interesting locale and promise of world PvP would keep it going, but it appears that polish, performance, and game design triumph over the new and shiny. A good example is this MattPlays video, where he spends over half the time simply trying to get out of the city in order to do some quests. The problem with realistic cities is that, as nhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=975 News Aggregate #9 June 3, 2008, 9:25 am Two more things make the combat entertaining: sprinting, and fatalities. Having the ability to sprint up to a pesky mage and split his (or her) face with a broadswords is very satisfying in an actiony sort of way - you don't have to worry the melee guy that engaged you first is going to hit you 3 times and daze you as you plod your way to the mage. Second, fatalities are sort of kill-criticals. Thttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=974 News Aggregate #9 May 28, 2008, 10:58 am Several things I like over WoW, which tend to the more casual crowd a bit: - No learning skills (at least so far); they just show up as you level. They also scale up with your level, so no buying swipe 1,2,3,4 ... I always disliked that particular moneysink. - Fast fast fast lowbie leveling. I hear the leveling is fast in general. - Lots of classes have stealth; it doesn't necessarily work very wehttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=973 News Aggregate #9 May 27, 2008, 11:53 am Lots of screens in the gallery. It's a very interesting game, in many ways. First is the way it gives you alternating single player with multiplayer at levels 1-20; it's like a super extended tutorial covering all aspects of the game, including grouping and dungeons should you choose to check them out. There's also a neat weaving of the early game storyline between the different classes, so you onhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=972 News Aggregate #9 May 26, 2008, 10:41 am Yes, new game frenzy time! Instead of "most wanted" and "now playing" I should really just have "currently lusting after", regardless of whether I have the game or not. Sigh. Woe is me. Edit: That was for Age of Conan. I really sorta kinda want to play it now. Edit Edit: So in response, I puttered about various WoW servers, checking pings. Turns out that Arathor hhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=971 News Aggregate #9 May 22, 2008, 5:30 pm I stopped reading the Escapist some time ago, as they started to tend towards the obvious and didactic, but they have a couple of articles that I found neat in this issue. Play like a 3 year old is an interesting take on gameplay vs. narrative (although I'm not sure I fully agree), and The Fall of Black9 is just ... interesting. Damn money. Now playing: more GTA! Edit: I will probably make use http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=970 News Aggregate #9 May 20, 2008, 9:35 am You can now upload pics and post comments properly. Text edits can be made as well. I guess I forgot I was supposed to do that ages ago. Unfortunately, most of the media has been lost in the transition, but I'm pretty sure all of the words are still there. I peeked in the admin and there are 7 or so articles still there, by folks such as myself, Mike, walTer and Qui. Heh. No real urge to log in thttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=969 News Aggregate #9 May 19, 2008, 6:59 pm I do recall that upon hitting 50 in City of Heroes, the urge to play did not wane immediately. I am now excited about the possibility of warlocking around in full facemelty fashion, and maybe doing justice to the Engineering profession this time (it's about the helicopter, really). We'll see how it goes; at least that "one more bub/level" urge to keep playing is now gone now that Trinarihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=968 News Aggregate #9 May 16, 2008, 1:47 pm I tried out both MonkeyQuest and QuestHelper now, and I find MQ is superior simply because it condenses the quest information into more readable form without simplifying every quest into "bring up map, go to hotspot, kill, go to hotspot, repeat". Sure, if you want to rip through quests in the smallest amount of time possible that's fine, but since for me exploration of the cool new areashttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=967 News Aggregate #9 May 14, 2008, 12:48 pm What's not to like? Despite the abundance of toys that the shaman gets, I have a feeling this will win on the basis of pure awesome. I think I just had a complete reversal on how I perceive gnomes As for the hair, you know how gnomes kinda lean forward to run and hurtle themselves ahead? Well, this style keeps Potrzask more aerodynamic! This is a great set of Real Life vs. Liberty City pics. Mahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=966 News Aggregate #9 May 13, 2008, 9:02 am Good to know that if push comes to shove, we have more than Portland to choose from. I'm not sure but it might even be greener here. The water all around is nifty too - you can't go 5 miles without hitting a bridge in just about any direction. On the other hand, apparently second worst traffic after L.A. That's not so hot.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=965 News Aggregate #9 May 10, 2008, 1:53 pm 'nuff sed.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=964 News Aggregate #9 May 9, 2008, 8:29 am I've been playing this more or less nonstop since it came out, and no rant yet? I'll have to remedy that, although it's hard to rant when you tend to like all the gameplay mechanics they've introduced. Let's see. I find that the forced time limits on dating and whatnot (cue Dead Rising whiners) only enhance the need for decision-making that's part of any decent game. Not including a garage a la Shttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=963 News Aggregate #9 May 8, 2008, 9:53 am Free mappack for Portal, apparently clocking in at several hours of playtime. I should go back and do some of the extra levels, but I always felt the game was so fully self-contained that to play anymore would be to dilute the experience. Or something like that. Rapidly closing in on level 70, made faster and more painless by flying form. Pop in, take down the bad guys and pop out vertically. I vhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=962 News Aggregate #9 May 6, 2008, 11:25 am The World Ends With You video review. Looks nifty and different, I'll have to pick it up. Erm, once everything else on the list is done. Oh dear me. Again. At the moment, the World is WoW and GTA4. I can almost smell level 70, so much so that I made 4 new alts (just made! haven't played! promise!). Yeeeess .... Edit: flight form is amazing.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=961 News Aggregate #9 May 4, 2008, 10:28 am I have proof - the timestamp of 12:10am last night (this morning) on the walmart GAT4 receipt. It was a civil affair, even though the PS3 till broke down (haha). There were about 30 people when I arrived, and 20 more arrived right at the crack of midnight. I was out of there in ten minutes, and off to play. Initial impressions: it's the next level of GTA. Smoother, more immersive on all counts (http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=960 News Aggregate #9 April 29, 2008, 8:45 am Did an impromptu run of Auchenai Crypts - it's a nice trend that all the noob dungeons in Outland are like Scarlet Monastery, divided into 4, munchable parts. It makes every dungeon a much more concrete and non-mind-numbing proposition. I begin to see why the old dungeons are beginning to go stale after finding out Maraudon can be a 4 hour run. Eugh. So yeah, Crypts. It's another in the series of http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=959 News Aggregate #9 April 25, 2008, 8:56 am Work's keeping me busy, so this place is going to be a bit sparse. I'm playing Ikariam on both Ikariam.com and Ikariam.org - you can have the same account name if you use both domains like that. It's a realtime, civ-building multiplayer game with a good balance of complexity and simplicity. My cousin tried to get me hooked on Travian as well, but nothing ever appears to happen in the game - that ihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=958 News Aggregate #9 April 24, 2008, 9:03 am And I got something nice ...http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=957 News Aggregate #9 April 22, 2008, 7:21 pm Although the warmth is taking its sweet time getting here. Here's our attempt at the blossoming phenomenon - I have no idea whether these are cherries or plums, but we got'em! It's not quite as uniform as in Japan I'd guess, as some are looking fantastic right now, and some are already halfway to being fully leafed. No more alts. 70 or bust (again). Anyone wanna help me with some Group quests ihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=956 News Aggregate #9 April 18, 2008, 9:00 am Kat hit 38 and got some upgrades 4 new shots added to gallery. Scarlet Monastery - demolished the right way.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=955 News Aggregate #9 April 16, 2008, 10:26 pm So there I was in Healthy Land, the bath to end all baths and I was presented with a puzzle, a real poser. Do I leave my glasses in the storage cubby and possibly utterly fail to observe all that Healthy Land has to offer, or do I take them with me and well, see? Truly, a question for the ages. It didn't help that this realization occurred to me while standing stark naked in the changing room. Anhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=954 News Aggregate #9 April 16, 2008, 10:28 am I've started playing ultimate (Ultimate? ULTIMATE?) with a few guys (and potentially gals) from work and their various acquaintances. We're in C league which I guess is the least aggressive, even if there's still ample aggression on the field. It's a great sport for letting you know how out of shape you are ... yay. Looking forward to the next practice, and I'll bring bandaids for my blisters thishttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=953 News Aggregate #9 April 14, 2008, 10:11 am I have replaced WoW with Mount & Blade. They actually have quests in there now and they're very entertaining, not to mention that there's something greatly rewarding about 40 vs 40 medieval battles. I'm really impressed how much they've managed to do with this thing - it actually reminds me somewhat of EVE Online. Travel between various points, trade and perform quests, and stop at points of ihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=952 News Aggregate #9 April 13, 2008, 2:39 pm The best cure for a WoW addiction is new games, new games, and then some more new games. I picked up Call of Duty 4 and have been multi-ing it up virtually nonstop. I'm level 24 (of possible 55) and have unlocked some attachments for my weapons. It's a neat system: leveling gives you perks and attachments to weaponry, but doesn't provide any basic HP or damage increases. In fact, the two perks thahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=951 News Aggregate #9 April 7, 2008, 10:15 am My impressions are still pretty jumbled and I'm not really sure where to start. Maybe I'll have some thoughts organized by the weekend. Couple of points to start off with ... 1. Rules. Lots of adherence to rules. 2. Lovely and copious public transportation. 3. Lots and lots of people on the streets ... but only at certain times. Other times it's like ghost towns. Where does everyone go? See #1 fohttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=950 News Aggregate #9 April 2, 2008, 12:30 pm Pics are at the usual place. I'll have a longer update in at some point, but I'm frantically catching up to work email and happenings at the moment. Great trip, we're exhausted and need a weekend to rest up! Loots include: ~800 photos, 111 yen, about 50 different receipts, ticket stubs and business cards, 2 self-assembly gundam models (one chibi), various chopsticks, about 10 Sarubobos and 5 packhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=949 News Aggregate #9 March 31, 2008, 9:48 am Behold! Even the toys have'em!http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=948 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 10:15 pm We've had lots of adventures including nude bathing in the snow, sake tasting, awesome ancient Japanese architecture scaling ninja-style, sake tasting, eyewear destruction, snow rally driving, sake tasting, introduction to the wonders of the Chu-HI, fellow gaijin meeting and patch 2.4 discussion and finally, sake tasting. And now we go back, although there might be some sushi in my future yet. http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=947 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 6:02 pm Will most likely be out of touch for the next few days; next update from *sigh* Nagoya on our way back. I'm gonna miss Oyster Festivals...http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=946 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 6:02 pm Which is a tiny tiny (ok, 10,000 people) town inside the bendy part of the Noto peninsula. It's where my sister is teaching (or rather, co-teaching) English to Japanese high school kids. We had yakiniku yesterday; it's something that would never happen in the United States without entirely too many FDA officials fainting or committing seppuku. You see, they bring you raw foodstuffs to the table anhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=945 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 6:02 pm Went to the fantastic Nijo-jo castle today and got to see some luvverly screen paintings and walk on a genuine (as in, from Genoa) nightingale floor. That was neat. Also saw Kinkakuji, the Golden Pavillion, and visited a random "oldest" temple on the very northern outskirts of town. It's nice to get off the beaten path. Finally, wandered down many a funky alley (they call them strehttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=944 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 6:01 pm Went to the Nishiki market today and had many a random delicacy from the hundreds of vendors there. Also tried the (supposedly) local beer - drinkable - and local sake - delicious! Now gonna crash for a few hours and rest our weary feet and heads. Sights overload. Also saw the Kyoto Imperial Palace, not to be confused with the Imperial Palace for which we searched for about a half hour - it's ihttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=943 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 6:01 pm Just had our first Japanese breakfast, suspiciously similar to our Japanese dinner. Mmm, riceballs pickles miso green tea the holy quadrinity. Or something. Not much else to report; now off to the war room to plan our campaign for the day.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=942 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 6:01 pm But afore I go, I wanted to post a photo of what I like to call a lovely evening. Behold! Have I mentioned Ninkasi started bottling? http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=941 News Aggregate #9 March 29, 2008, 6:01 pm ... and was I glad that I remembered how to do the "running" thing. I was worried there for a few seconds. Apparently I can also perform the "catch" maneuver, although I'm far better at the "bat the disc out of the air" maneuver, which is handy on defense! Now I just need some serious Stamina gear. Purplez, at least.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=940 News Aggregate #9 March 13, 2008, 9:59 am Through Axe's devious cleverness (or clever deviousness) Katuus is well on the way to becoming a jewelcrafter - somewhere around level 65. Which, to my sudden realization yesterday, is not all that far away - and she's only 4 levels away from a mount. How fast they grow ... I highly recommend Stillpine hold on Azuremyst island for grinding copper. Just walk around it, mining every node you see, ahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=939 News Aggregate #9 March 12, 2008, 8:47 am This was going to be a huge treatise on raiding as seen by noob, but I decided to skip it. I'll just say that I enjoyed it for being a crazy romp with a ridiculous amount of people, and that I'm not sure if I'll be doing it again "for reals". I'm sure I'll go along with some of the Drop Bears retro raids, but actually doing one that people actively want to profit from sounds like way toohttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=938 News Aggregate #9 March 10, 2008, 2:01 pm Ton of new pictures at the gallery from Zul'Gurub, the fun after Zul'Gurub, and something that a lot of people probably don't remember anymore (and the noobs probably have never seen). Now to see what these ZG tokens are good for.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=937 News Aggregate #9 March 8, 2008, 11:23 pm a near-complete set of healing gear. It was a bit insane, and every 70 in the instance was giggling. I'd say 85% of the gear that was dropped was healing, which is amusing since I was considering that as an alternative for Trinaris. Zavulon's still a baby, and I guess in the high end stuff healing is a bit tougher to come by than DPS, so ... what the heck. That also lets me go Shadow on Zavulonhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=936 News Aggregate #9 March 6, 2008, 9:19 pm Because you get more XP that way. We did some South Shore and Desolace stuff in preparation for dungeons, though. There was also some mad skinning going on, although it does not appear to be very lucrative on the AH just yet. Still, I should go back in a free moment (yeah right, with my altitis??) and maybe skin a bunch of yetis solely for the AH. Mount time is fast approaching. I can't decide ifhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=935 News Aggregate #9 March 5, 2008, 10:53 pm I finished Assassin's Creed and will be publishing a write-up on it at E2 pretty soon. Great game, and I didn't even mind the story because it very cleverly explained away all the gameplay mechanics like the life gauge, death, and fast forwarding to the cool bits. The ending was a bit ho-hum (the post ending ending, not just the ending) and Altair actually got a bit likeable, so ... I guess I was http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=934 News Aggregate #9 March 3, 2008, 3:30 pm Here's some shots from noob night, yesterday. Fantastic interview with the maker of Dwarf Fortress. I got readdicted again.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=930 News Aggregate #9 February 28, 2008, 7:17 pm Not only are the prices dropping, it's a somewhat drab time of the year when this otherwise very green area is a bit greyer and deader. Sure there's a lot of evergreens but even their colors are a bit duller than in summer. Despite our current non-house-buying situation, I'm still looking at the various hits that I get from my daily feeds and I'm just struck at how lackluster the yards look in winhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=928 News Aggregate #9 February 28, 2008, 9:27 am I'm on the last assassination in AC; I guess guild event confusion is good for something after all. Hopefully I'll be wrapping up the game this week, and then seeking those oh-so-elusive (not really) achievements. I think I'll skip the flag collecting though, I'm not sure I have the patience. The others look like a matter of time just playing the game. I wonder how much oomph I'll have once I've chttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=927 News Aggregate #9 February 27, 2008, 9:35 am So Safari doesn't list the path in the file upload dialog; it only lists the filename. I can't decide if that's nice or annoying. Anyway, saw this pic on the Bears forum and wanted to share ... I'm writing up Assassin's Creed, but it'll be a while - I still have to finish it. It's a great game with some very obvious and annoying faults. I wrote up Astro City's Samaritan in the meantime, as I ghttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=926 News Aggregate #9 February 26, 2008, 10:54 am First, I wandered into Gnomer, aggroed half the dungeon and ... survived. I used a special dodge boost, and then Frenzied Regeneration in bear form saved me. Good times. Then, I flew on a ghost bird over the plaguelands. Also good times. Sadly, all the quests left now in HFP are group quests, so I'm wandering old Azeroth and seeing what I can snag there to take me to the next zone - I think it'http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=925 News Aggregate #9 February 24, 2008, 1:40 pm Got this sweet piece of armor which nearly doubles the armor rating and stat boosts yesterday: This handily allows me to skip the "Gather 50 things here and 12 nonexistent things on the other side of the world" quest which I was frankly dreading. I'll find a way to repay at some point - like, move my druid over . It would make things a lot easier and make me a bit less of a dead weighhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=924 News Aggregate #9 February 22, 2008, 9:10 am No pants still, but a new stat boosting shield, a level, and some knowledge about a slow weapon. I'm not convinced; it may be good, but man it feels ..... yawnerific. Still, Corpsemaker is my best weapon now and it does look fantastic so I'm using it in non-instance cases. I still need a decent one-hander to go with that shield though - that's for another time however, as now I simply must complhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=923 News Aggregate #9 February 20, 2008, 10:57 pm In no order whatsoever ... Exodar, dragon, and top of the world! Oh yes, also dressing up as blood elf. Scary stuff. Edit: Shackers first episode! Made by real live nude Shackers!* *not really nudehttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=922 News Aggregate #9 February 18, 2008, 10:03 pm That was one of the faster and easier Gnomer runs I've ever done; of course the fact that it was post 2.3 patch probably had something to do with it but still. Painless Gnomer - who'd a thunk? Some pics in the gallery. This would be perfect except the dwarf's too short (*snort*). This is probably second best: I got some splendid shoulders, a pair of pants as quest reward (althoughhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=921 News Aggregate #9 February 13, 2008, 10:38 pm I still have to tweak the avatar display so that the class icon isn't quite so huge but overall I like that display better. I should grab Damage Meters and Threat Counter before next noob night. I should also respect Kat full Protection, and fly her down to Ratchet to grab Berserker Stance just because. At some point I should also get her that fire armor but not until Zavulon gets caught up to Nohttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=920 News Aggregate #9 February 12, 2008, 9:24 am I think it's time to install my own roster and implement avatar display. My crafting isn't high enough to warrant display just yet anyway. Stocks are confusing and taxes suck (we owe this year, guess I didn't pay enough attention to withholding!). Katherine Kerr's Deverry continues to entertain. We tried ten beers at the fest; the ones standing out were Laurelwood's Vanilla Porter, Stone's Oakehttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=919 News Aggregate #9 February 11, 2008, 10:16 am I now have DPS, tanking, and healing; and I have shapeshifting + stealth, awesome armor and weapons, and ... healing. Ok, so priestly perks aren't all that I found out I have Parallels on my work Macbook, and I also have a winXP image. I have confirmed functioning Dwarf Fortress, so I'll be doing a bit of that again. It's a lot easier the second time around, so I picked up a slightly more diffichttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=918 News Aggregate #9 February 10, 2008, 2:10 pm I got a bit cocky in a fight against weakling bandits and ... wasted too much ammo. They were only a bit of a threat but it simply isn't worth it - you'll only get nearly worthless weapons and ammo from them, and the lowest type of medkit. Blargh. Realized I need to carry a gun that uses the other type of ammo, so hoofed it back to where I put my scoped AK74 and grabbed it. I feel better already.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=917 News Aggregate #9 February 8, 2008, 12:13 pm If your Mac ever suddenly stops recognizing your password, this walkthrough should take care of your woes. I swear. Macs. Great time as always yesterday. Quillboars were slain en masse (some by melee'ing priests), Agamagagagagars were skinned thrice over, bosses went down faster than ... well, than my Macbook, and several juicy blues were obtained, including a big axe for me, couple of daggers (mhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=916 News Aggregate #9 February 7, 2008, 9:59 am Good grief, but having decent armor makes a ridiculous difference. It'd be nice if there was some basic info about the game mechanics ... hm, maybe there was, in the manual. Oops. Either way, there are a few things that the game doesn't really let you intuit that can greatly increase enjoyment of the game. 1. Armor armor armor. You *are* your armor in this game, make it a priority to get at leasthttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=915 News Aggregate #9 February 6, 2008, 11:47 am Update: Stalker pics added! Armed with my new fast repeating AK74 and equipped with the new stalker-class armor which is a fivefold improvement over the noob armor and a double improvement over the merc armor I finally saved up money for, I decided to take on some missions from the bar, i.e. the second "safe" location you find in the Zone. One whining mercenary was crying over his familhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=914 News Aggregate #9 February 5, 2008, 10:02 am Lots of UFO: Afterlight, lots of Stalking (hooray for actual armor!) and a chunk of hi-def WoW. 'nuff sed.http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=913 News Aggregate #9 February 4, 2008, 11:01 am Posting from new PC; it's nice to have actual definition on things in WoW. The MBP is adequate but I sure did miss the high quality textures. Fired up a few other things, and warmed up quite a bit to Crysis and Unreal Tournament 3. Now need to take another stab at CoD4 since everyone seems to be playing it these days. Still need to finish CoJ and I have a hankering for some UFO: Afterlight. So fahttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=912 News Aggregate #9 February 3, 2008, 12:10 am Or YaSoft, I guess. Wonder how THAT will affect ... well, everything. I guess we'll put our house-buying further on hold while this plays out. I continue to assassinate; it's very neat how the game keeps upping the difficulty gradually, as you learn new skills, or perfect existing skills. I also see how the critics claim that the game is repetitive; however, that's like saying BioShock or WoW is http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=911 News Aggregate #9 February 1, 2008, 9:53 am Turns out the demo is next Friday, and shit's started working today. Stress levels, drastically reduced. Beer still planned. Newegg was actually shipping *from* Tennesee, and in DFW at the time of me checking it. All is good. Level 30 on the warrior! Next time we should roll RFK, get me Berserker Stance (maybe) and get started on the Fire Hardened Mail quest which should yield some excellent armhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=910 News Aggregate #9 January 31, 2008, 1:36 pm I am beginning to see why devs are glad to see the end of E3; demos are a pain in the ass. Producing code on a strict deadline is nearly impossible, so you end up messing up your nice flow that you've established working previously, taking shortcuts and cutting features left and right, and implementing shitty hacks that have to be reworked later anyway. Blegh. I've ordered my new PC parts, yay. Uhttp://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=909 News Aggregate #9 January 30, 2008, 9:01 am So between assassinations, we've been viewing houses (and enjoying views from houses!), got snowed on, tried on the cold weather biking outfit (with extra aggression) and obtained a sample of the yearly issue of Deschutes' Abyss, the extra super duper stout with extra ... hops? Yeah, it was hoppy, like an IPA. Which is really really odd, in a stout. What's even weirder was that the hops kicked http://www.damodred.net/index.php?newsid=907 News Aggregate #9 January 27, 2008, 8:34 pm