Moving again

So, we're packing for a move. That's, what, the fourth time since I started this blog? Well, we learned our lesson this time. Last time, I may have mentioned, I had to do most of the move myself, between Mrs. D's infirmity and our legions of friends utterly (with scant exception) failing to appear. It took me almost three days, I kid you not.

This time we're paying a company to do it for us. We pack, then sit back and watch them do all the actual lifting. As someone who has moved more times than I've eaten curry (again, I kid you not) this seems a bit wimpy. But then I remember struggling to lift Mrs. D's antique china hutch in and out of the Uhaul and I think "you can take wimpy and shove it".

See you on the other side, possibly.

Oh, and for those waiting, CRUSADER is squeakingly close to finished. Proofreading and then it'll be out. Keep it here.

Merc'ing It Up

I have been tussling with Resident Evil 4 on the PS2 for a while now, and I have nearly destroyed the game completely.

I played it through on normal, unlocking the Mercenaries and Assignment Ada mini-games, plus the Matilda burst pistol and the first special costume.

A second run through, much easier with improved weapons and the body armour, unlocked the infinite missile launcher.

Completing the Separate Ways scenario on normal gave me the Chicago Typewriter - an infinite machine gun - and the second special costume.

Playing the main game through and then the Separate Ways game through, both on the pro setting, gave me the PRL-412 - the experimental light-based gun that treats bosses like a fart in a cyclone.

Playing the Mercenaries game gave me some trouble, but after some practice I managed to unlock all four special characters - Ada, Krauser, Hunk and Wesker - by getting 4 star ratings in all four scenarios.

There is but one thing left to unlock, according to the various guides I found at this point.

The hand cannon - an infinite .44 magnum.

The guide I used says that all I had to do was get a 5-star rating on each scenario and it would be mine.

So I did, using the totally awesome Krauser to do 3 scenarios and Hunk the fourth.

And nothing.

I checked the guides again.

Yep. What am I doing wrong?

Well, I was doing some deeper research and, apparently, there is a difference of opinion concerning what you have to do to get it. Some guides say you need a 5-star rating on each scenario (I know that's not true), some say you need a 5-star rating with each character (harder, but not impossible) and some say you need a 5-star with each character on each scenario.

And that seems damn near impossible, considering how much Leon sucks.

Still, I'm going for the second option, and if that doesn't work, I'll have to go with the third.

Here's where I am so far:

Leon:

Pueblo:................3 stars
Castle:................4 stars
Military Base:........3 stars
Waterworld:..........4 stars

Ada:

Pueblo:................3 stars
Castle:................4 stars
Military Base:........0 stars
Waterworld:..........0 stars

Krauser:

Pueblo:................5 stars
Castle:................5 stars
Military Base:........5 stars
Waterworld:..........5 stars

Hunk:

Pueblo:................2 stars
Castle:................5 stars
Military Base:........4 stars
Waterworld:..........0 stars

Wesker:

Pueblo:................0 stars
Castle:................2 stars
Military Base:........4 stars
Waterworld:..........0 stars

(0 stars indicates I've never even played the scenario with that character - you get 1 star just for turning up)

So, if the second scenario is correct, I need a 5 star rating with Leon (who sucks, so that should be fun) Ada and Wesker. If third scenario is correct, I have a lot of work to do.

Happy Arbitrarily Decided Day!

Happy First Square On The First Page Of The Calendar Day peeps!

10 Signs You've Been Playing Way Too Much Resident Evil

When you see a potted plant, you check to see how you feel.

The sound of a dog's claws on tile makes your right index finger twitch.

When out after dark, the sight of moonlight glinting off of broken glass causes you to turn and take two steps before you realise what you're doing.

You get a quiet, nagging urge to reload before opening doors.

The sight of a parked police car gives you a surge of hope.

You think typewriters are for the weak, but still make a mental note of where you saw one.

A broom leaning against a neighbour's wall looks like it might be handy in a tight spot.

You peer into alleyways to see if there's anything useful lying around.

You understand what all of the above mean.

And number 1:

You suddenly remember that it's been a few days since you last blogged, and when you check, it's been more like three weeks...

4th July

Tomorrow (well, actually, today) is the 4th of July with all the fun that that date entails. Independence Day! Fireworks! Revelry! Parties! Patriotism!

A day off!

Cool.

Happy 4th everyone, whether you're American or not.

The Birthday Boy

Mrs Doombreed has been treating me like a prince all day, and I've had a whale of a time. We had the most amazing dinner, followed by a very tasty cake, and earlier, we went and saw Fantastic 4: Rise Of The Silver Surfer.

The cinema had a life-size plastic replica of the Silver Surfer in the lobby. Brilliant.

Twelve down.. NONE TO GO

Aaaaaaaand.. relax..

This Page Intentionally Left Blank

Blogging is going to be a little light tonight because I'm in the middle of building a hot rod out of some WWII tanks using only a chainsaw and an arc welder.

Not buying it?

Okay, I'm actually playing games over at Neopets.

Yeah, really.

Mrs Doombreed is a big Neopets fan and she is trying to fulfill all the daily challenges, but there's some games I'm better at playing, so I get drafted.

Fun.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Like Christmas

This is the sight that greeted me yesterday morning. Snow what fun..

This is our new car, experiencing her first real taste of winter weather.

It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Christmas

We were finally caught by the big winter weather that's been messing with surrounding states for the last few weeks. Severe temperature drops, high icy cold winds, and snow.

Luverly.

Random rambling

I missed posting last night because the stupid computer ate the post I was nearly finished writing.

I'm wiped tonight, so I'll re-post it at some time in the future.

Today involved me baking an apple pie, and act which, were it not preceded by the use of a power tool, might have resulted in my man licence being revoked.

The new season of American Idol has started. I'm not watching. Honest.

And, to round things off, here is a linky to one of my favourite blogs, the LITTLE things, and 3vil g3nius' hilarious post about wierd domain names.

G'night.

Merry Christmas

Whoever you are, whatever you believe, however you mark, celebrate, observe, or otherwise deal with this day, whether you do anything special or not, whether you even acknowledge this day, I hope you had a good day and a great holiday season.

Merry Christmas, Felize Navidad, Joyeux Noel, Happy Hanukkah, Merry Solstice, Happy Kwanza, Mele Kalikimaka, or even just Have A Great Day, it's all the same.

Peace and goodwill.

P.s., just because it's hilarious and seasonal, here's a re-post of that great Daily Show clip from last year.

Doombreed's Theory Of Extremely Special Relativity

After careful first-hand observation, I have formulated the following theory:

T(v)=T(o)[T(a)+A]

Where:

T(v) is Perceived Time before vacation starts, in minutes;

T(o) is the Time Off, in days;

T(a) is the actual time before vacation starts, in hours;

and

A is the Anticipation Index, defined as the number of weeks since the last vacation ended.

Thus, it can be shown, the last 2 1/4 hours of my shift today, with A being 21, T(o) being 11, took 4 hours 15 minutes 45 seconds to go by.

This can be readily demonstrated by showing that, despite quadruple-checking my formula and readings for over two hours, the clock only moved on a few minutes.

QED*.

*QED means Quod Erat Demonstrandum, which is italics for "that which was required to be shown" or, in non-nerd speak, "told ya so".

2 days to go

I'm counting down to my holiday. I have to work tomorrow and wednesday, and then I'm off for the rest of the week and all of next week. And I didn't even realise I had scheduled my week off just after thanksgiving, thus giving me two extra days.

Sweet.

Thursday is, of course, Thanksgiving, which involves eating too much and watching the Cowboys play.

Heffalump O'Lantern II

And here is a picture of the pumpkin unlit with the lights on.

Heffalump O'Lantern

This Hallowe'en marked my first ever attempt to carve a pumpkin. Mrs Doombreed wanted it carved with Lumpy, the heffalump from the movie Pooh's Heffalump Movie, and the results can be seen above.

Sick report

Yesterday's "feeling sick" has turned into today's full-blown coughing and wheezing attacks, which led to a trip to see the doctor and a diagnosis of bronchitis. One inhaler and a bunch of antibiotics and I'm merely feeling sub-human.

koff-koff-hack-hack

G'night.

P.s. This whole coughing and hacking came to me via Mrs Doombreed, who came down with a cold late last week and, by Sunday, had infected yours truly.

At least we're being miserable together.

Single guys, beware

I love Mrs Doombreed. I really do. But the picture above is the end result of what I used to call "a day off."

Single guys everywhere should be aware of this. When you get married, suddenly a day where you are not actually at your job is no longer defined as a day off, it is defined as a day to "get things done around the house."

In this case it was finishing off assembling the last two of four new bookcases, plus the assembly of one of two new bedside tables, and act which will involve rearranging the bedroom furniture in order to fit them in. Done, probably, on my next "day off."

But worse, oh so much worse, is that I like it. I realise that sleeping 'till 3pm and then spending the afternoon staring at the TV, moving only to get a new beer or wipe the drool off of my chin, may be more relaxing than getting up in the morning and doing stuff all day, but at the end of the day, you end up with a feeling of accomplishment rather than that nagging feeling of having wasted an entire 24 hours.

I enjoy the feeling that comes from actually having done useful stuff instead of simply knocking minutes and hours off of my life. It's satisfying, something I never thought I'd say when I was younger.

Of course, if any of you tell my wife this, I'll deny it.

DVR

Digital Video Recorder. TiVo is the brand name, but may other brands are available. And it is, without a doubt, the best thing ever. We've had DVR on our cable for a while now, and, like DVD and VCR before it, I don't know how we ever lived without it.

We can rewind and pause live TV. We can record two different channels at once - and watch something we've already recorded. We can set it to record every episode of any series (oh yes, Stargate SG:1 is being recorded).

This got me thinking about two things. The first is that, in essence, a DVR is really just a hard-drive connected to your TV, so the technology has been available for a couple of decades now. I wonder why it took so long to think of it. I mean, it seems so bloody obvious when you think of it, yet that is the beauty of hindsight.

The second thing is this: I wonder what the next big thing in home entertainment will be?

I guess being able to spot it would make me a rich man.

Fluorescent discs were supposed to be an up-and-coming thing a few years back. Everything that makes a DVD cool but with - well, at last estimate I heard - twenty times the capacity. Imagine having every episode of your favourite TV series on one disc. Yep, you don't even have to expend energy getting up to change discs. Wow. Of course, that's not that big a deal, because you can get DVD multi-changers even now.

But imagine a fluorescent disc multi-changer. Build a toilet into your armchair, drop a fridge next to it, and you'd never have to move again.

Of course, DVR ain't done yet. Bigger hard drives, more channels at once, that kind of thing. But I wonder how long before DVR goes the way of the VCR, which is to say that almost everyone has one, but we use them less and less.

Interesting that it took both DVD and DVR to truly take over for VHS. Shame it kinda preempted DVD-R and DVD-RW as the next great way to record stuff.

(And I wonder if there's an award for most acronyms in one blog entry).

I'm going to make a prediction. If DVRs have a shortcoming, it's that fact that you can only deal with the TV/cable/satellite transmissions it's hooked up to. In the future, possibly the near future, the DVR and the home computer will come closer, maybe even meld together. Ports to connect your digital still and video camera and download the contents. Card slots for storage cards for transferring programmes and saving them. Maybe the ability to download videos to your iPod video player or other portable device.

Maybe one day you'll be able to take video on your camera, watch the video on your television, and then email it to your mother all from the same set-top box.

Write that down, make it, patent it and make a fortune. And don't forget to chuck some cash in the way of your ole pal Doombreed.

Of course, people have been predicting the ultimate all-in-one entertainment centre for a while now, so don't count on me being right this time. Any money you invest is entirely at your own risk.

Ahem.

Too much time on my hands...

Ouch Night

Okay, so another migraine took me out of the running last night. What a doozy. I hope I can figure out what is causing these and stop doing whatever it is.