I Hate Livejournal

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slowestzombie 


As of today, I'm going to quit using this account for any posts.  I am consolidating my online persona and thus I dramatically declare that I shall henceforth be known as "The Slowest Zombie"

Well, almost.  I've registered TheSlowestZombie on every site I can think of, but LiveJournal thinks that username is too long.  So for LiveJournal I am just SlowestZombie

Holy crap I haven't posted since I got engaged!

So, I got engaged. October 26, 2008. The current website with all the pertinent info is at http://elope.faintidea.net/

Pretty frickin' sweet! I love Kathy and I can't wait to marry her and take her to Japan.

I've had a few things to post about lately but today's update will be dedicated specifically to my friend and coworker Nas.

Nas is a part of a Weezer coverband called Geezer and on Friday they will be performing on-stage alongside Weezer. Although I'm not a huge fan myself, the band is popular enough that I'm pretty impressed. Congrats Nas!

In other musical news:
I've come across new favorite artists lately. At the top of the list is That 1 Guy. No really, that's the name of his solo band project thing. He often tours with Buckethead and has been said to steal the show. He made his own instrument that looks like something he stole from the car wash and added a kick pedal to. His lyrics barely make sense but flow so well that it's a lot of fun to listen to. It's not about the indivudal lines in the song, but the overall picture that it paints. Also, either he's a bit repetitive or he references his own songs a lot within his albums. I choose to believe they are intentional references and help the album to flow together.

Here's a music video from his album "The Moon is Disgusting". The song is called "Buttmachine"



Next up on the list is Ronald Jenkees. He is an independent musician and is awesome on the keyboard. That's a gross understatement btw. I describe him as "What Tay Zonday wishes he could be."
Oh, and he lives in Arkansas. Here's a couple youtube video of his. One is my favorite (open it in YouTube and click "Watch in High Qaulity"), and the other is just to prove that he's from Arkansas:

Kathy is awesome. That is all.

I'll post about the Miracle Fruit later, but for now...

Why aren't our hamsters doing THIS?




Yes, I know it's not exactly "new" but it's still "rad".

Through Evite.com, I got an invite to go to a Rock Band 2 party (started Friday night at 10 PM) at Dave and Michelle's place (the ./Shutdown ones, not my coworkers with the same names).  I completely forgot about it until I was at my parents around 8 PM.  I wanted to check the invite but for some reason I couldn't get my email to load up at my mom's computer.
No big deal, but I decided I better get home and get ready and get Kathy.
Well, Kathy wasn't feeling well / didn't want to go / had training for a new job tomorrow morning but she didn't want to hold me back.  I didn't want her to feel guilty about keeping me from my friends even though I wouldn't mind staying in with her.  Dave and Michelle's place is small and gets crowded at parties... 
Since I forgot to get snack stuff to bring, I just grabbed the bag of ice from the freezer and an unopened pack of diet coke with lime.  I decided to wear the grossly neon green colored Evite.com tshirt I recently pilfered from work because it's funny on multiple levels but innane at the same time.

While driving there, I blasted some MSI on my car CD/MP3 player to get me pumped up and it worked.  I practically ran upstairs to the front door.  I knocked really loudly since I was sure the music inside would be hard to hear over.  Well, I mean...  there should be music. I didn't hear anything but some apartments (like mine and Kathy's) have very good insulation.

There I was, pink ice chest in one hand, diet lime coke with a green hue that matched my hideous shirt in the other.  Michelle answered the door.  I immediately started walking in.   Into an empty room.  Well, David was there too, in his pajamas with a shirt that said NERDGASM.  He saw me and immediately asked if I was okay.  Michelle added an "Are you okay??".  They probably noticed the jaw-dropping look on my face as I peered around at the empty and cluttered room.

...The party isn't until next week.  My evite.com tshirt had even more innane levels of funny piled on top of it.  Fortunately they're awesome and had me stay for a wihle anyway.  We started playing rock band and then a guest they had staying over wandered in from a back room to further add to my embarressment.  Wow.

Me on the phone today with the Carmel Mountain Party City:

"I'm having a parade.  Do you have ticker tape?"  They replied with a lot of stuttering so I added "You know, like a ticker tape parade?".  After being put on hold three times I was awkwardly told that Party City has paper confetti and tinfoil confetti.

Lately I've been really enjoying work.  That's not to say I've been kicking ass or anything though.

Warning - Nerd Post
I've self-imposed a project upon myself.  I'm making a custom Windows XP install CD that is customized to automatically install the OS with no user intervention after picking the partition to install to.
Things the Windows install CD can do:
Have an answer file to answer all questions asked during a Windows install
Include specific hardware drivers for various hardware (beyond what comes on the CD by default)
Encrypt the Administrator password that was set in the answer file
Launch custom scripts one time/the first time a user logs in
Have a Default Template set so any user added to the machine will have a preset wallpaper,  icons, bookmarks, etc.

In addition, it will also install the default apps that every computer that comes through Helpdesk would get.  That includes:
Lotus Notes (Seems like crap, but Exchange/Outlook would be just as bad I'm sure)
ACDSee (a photo editing app that we use that I HATE)
.NET Framework
Zune desktop theme and a collection of corporate-branded desktop wallpapers
Microsoft Office 2003
Other corporate software

Currently none of this stuff is done automatically at work.  We use a Ghost server to clone drives that are already set up but those clones get old and cant be updated unless we have that same set of hardware somewhere in the helpdesk lab.  Having the stuff on a custom XP CD means any component or driver can be updated and then a new CD just has to be made.

The drawback is that Ghost images can be made after Windows Updates have been run.  With the CD, SOME hotfixes can be added, but there's still about 100 updates to be downloaded and installed before the machine is "ready."

The most fun part of all this has definitely been writing the scripts that installs our software automatically.  It all works expect ACDSee which I was still able to get *mostly* working (you have to copy and paste the serial number but everything else is automatic.)  There are all kinds of little quirks that pop up and it's a constant struggle to get everything tuned just right.  And then I have to think of ways that the script could break and find ways to add checks and balances.  It's a delicate dance.

Because I'm having so much fun with this project, it's hard to concentrate on work I should be *actually* doing.  It is kind of slow, but there's always stuff to be done.  Randomly throughout the day I'll realize it's been an hour since I checked my company email.  That has the potential to be pretty bad.  Sometimes (like today), I'll randomly remember a bunch of things I needed to do and have about 30 minutes of mad rushing to take care of things I could have done much earlier in the day.  Things still get done but I hate to have my coworkers picking up on my slack.

Other fun work perks
1.5 hour lunch
Driving around a golf cart to move around computers or just to be lazy
Enough free time to do things like write long LJ posts.
Paid time off practically whenever needed
Because of the location, any leftover meals from corporate luncheons/meetings/etc usually go to us
Schwagg
If nothing is broke, there's nothing that has to be done
Video games during work hours
Occasional opportunities to do voice acting for games, acting in commercials (like the kind that are shown at kiosks inside Walmart)
Free copies of any games released by our company
Free rentals of any PS3 game
Monthly free CD from any Sony label
Access to the latest and greatest technology (I'm looking at two 20" Widescreen monitors, on a top of the line computer with a top of the line nVidia GeForce card
Huge discounts on things like HDTVs, cameras, camcorders, PC laptops
Small (but still nice) discounts on Apple products
I don't support the end-user.  I do tech support for programmers so there's not too many really dumb questions and it's challenging and rewarding because the problems are actually complicated and not "is it plugged in?"
HUGE window office

Life is good, and I hope at some point my friends and family will feel the same way about what they're doing f they don't already.

And now it's time to work on my game pitch for another 20 minutes, and then back home to be with the girl I love sharing this good life with.

I've been going rather crazy waiting for Spore to ship to me.  Through the process , I'm getting closer and closer to swearing off anything EA-related forever.

I ordered the "Galactic" collector's edition of Spore.  It comes with posters, DVDs, and other crap that I'll look at once and then put on a shelf.  Despite how negative that sounds, I kind of like it.
Spore came out officially on September 7th - Sunday.  People who bought the regular game received download codes a few days early and could start playing the game immediately on the release date.  Makes sense I suppose since they don't have to wait for a box o'crap.  But here it is on Tuesday and my order is still "being processed."  What the hell?  I placed my order a month early on EA's website, spent an extra $25 or so on the game, I have no idea when to expect it, but people who showed less interest (financially or otherwise) in the game have already beaten it.  I haven't pre-ordered stuff much in the past but I thought that companies tend to ship the product a day or two in advance so you can actually receive it on or near the release date.  In fact I specifically ordered directly from EA rather than Amazon or something expecting to get shipping priority.  So much for that.

To make things even worse, every time I go to EA's website to check my order status it tells me my password is incorrect.  Maybe at one point I did forget it, and had to have it reset.  No biggie, there's not even a security question.  I just have to have access to the email address I previously used and bam, password reset.  Then I am able to log in to the store and blankly stare at the "Order being processed" text.  An hour or two goes by and I decide I want to stare blankly some more (really, I've been looking forward to this game a lot).  Oh look, my password is apparently incorrect.  Again.  Repeat the whole process a few more times, exactly the same.

After having gone through password resets 6 times I decided to contact EA's customer support.  The first thing I had to do to get support was to log into my account.   For some reason though, it likes my password to get into support.  I poked around and actually my password works just fine for everything BUT checking order status.  The customer support form to fill doesn't really have any way of marking that the problem is with EA's website - they expect me to complain about Rock Band or Sports or something.  The closest thing I could find was "hacked account" which seemed alright and maybe I'd get faster service anyway.  I was assured through automated response that my ticket would be addressed and responded to within 24 hours.  (That was about 24.5 hours ago and guess what.  No response yet).  I think I have a very legitimate concern that a constantly reset password meant that someone else was mucking with my account.  I keep checking to make sure the shipping address for my order hasn't been changed or something.  It makes me angry that they aren't taking this more serious.  It makes me even angrier that there's no phone number listing for EA tech support on the website.

I've been arguing with myself all morning about how maybe I should cancel my order and just go buy the regular version down the street at Gamestop.  I asked my coworker Nas his opinion and he summed it up in one word:  RENTAL.  I was shocked.  Why??  Then he pointed me to Amazon.com's reviews of the game.  Check this out.  It'll take about 10 seconds to look at and understand.
http://www.amazon.com/review/product/B000FKBCX4/ref=dp_top_cm_cr_acr_txt?%5Fencoding=UTF8&showViewpoints=1

If you're too lazy to follow the link, here's a summary:  Less than 1600 reviews, and almost 1500 of them are 1 star reviews.  Part of it is a massive attack on EA's DRM (Digital Rights Management) policies.  Apparently when you buy Spore you can only install the game 3 times before it stops working.  Then you have to call EA (err... good luck finding their phone number on their website  Good thing Google has me covered).  People complain even more saying if the license servers that EA hosts go away, the game will stop working permanently for everyone.  I doubt it's forseeable in the next 3 years and chances are good that by then something better will be occupying my time.

To sum it all up, there is a LOT of negative karma with Spore right now.  Seems like the best solution would be to cancel my order and go play more Metal Gear.  But at the end of the day I still want the game, and I'm pretty sure Kathy does too.

At least I still have LittleBigPlanet to look forward to.  And sometime around Sept. 22 I think I get to be in the beta for it (I love my job).  Some people said it was weird that I draw connections between Spore and LBP, but both games are obviously about the ability to create and shape.  And my opinion was justified in an article recently where the Spore lead producer herself says she's looking forward to LBP because of its content creation features.

http://www.joystiq.com/2008/09/03/multiverse-to-reveal-and-probably-never-release-buffy-mmo/

Buffy MMO computer game. Here's hoping it makes more progress than the Firefly MMO


Unrelated note: I'm getting hooked up a with Little Big Planet beta invite. SWEET!!!!