Arcade Stick: Layout Chosen

Finally decided on what layout to pick for the arcade stick. Going to go with one of my original ideas and include pretty much everything that I need on it to play 90% of all arcade games released on the market.

Sure, it jumps the cost up a bit but it will give me the practice I need for when I put pretty much the same pieces on my control panel for my MAME cabinet when I build it at a later date.

New Years Woes

Sat down to do my finances and realized it really isn't a good idea to go out on Saturday for a night out drinking with friends. If I want to be able to afford bills and the first pieces to my arcade stick for my computer that is.

I can always plan a night out later on, bills and my project come first.

Unity Is In Another Castle

I wrote awhile back why I was finished with Unity, and I even gave it another shot with the release of Ubuntu 11.10. I ended up going back to KDE very quickly.

Casino Lucky Streak

Hit a bit of a lucky streak this weekend, but it dropped off on Sunday so I had to call it quits. Started with $11 on Saturday night to enjoy myself a bit at Downstream Casino, walked out with $13.

Kongregate

Been spending a lot of time on Kongregate recently. Forgot how much fun some of the flash games are, and several of them are updated by the developers on a fairly regular basis. Check it out if you want a good site to waste some time on, look for me in the Ant Hill chatroom where I hang out most of the time.

Kongregate

Moving Time

Finally time to pack things up and ship them out. Also means I'm gonna have a lot of profiles to update with a new address

Bored Today

Think I may sit down and start randomly joining Minecraft servers.

It's either that or work on getting Linux Mint set up on this laptop. Hopefully a pain free process, should be if it is based off of Ubuntu. Last distro I tried that wasn't Ubuntu was Arch and I never could get it to install properly. Probably a configuration error somewhere.

Time to load up Virtualbox and do a test run on the install process before I dive in. Oh, and I better not forget to bring my towel.

Android Quick Tip

For those of you with a rooted Android phone, you should look into getting yourself set with custom MTD partitions. I just finished editing my system and cache partitions to double the amount of space I have available for storing apps and their settings.

Take a look here for the downloads and information.

To prevent yourself from dealing with the headache of the Market not downloading apps, set your cache partition to 18 and make sure you download at least version 1.5.8 of Firerat's tool.

Unity 3D (Why I Am Jumping Ship)

Ubuntu has been my distro of choice for Linux for many years now, but I may be jumping ship with the prevelence of Unity that has replaced GNOME. Unity 3D creates dead zones on my screen where I can't click in that area, and Unity 2D isn't all that appealing.

For the moment I am just using the "Classic Desktop" login which loads up GNOME, but how many more releases will have this option? I am hoping that a new variant of Ubuntu pops up that ships with GNOME as the default again like Kubuntu ships with KDE or Xubuntu ships with XFCE.

Another viable option is to look at another distro based off of Ubuntu, Linux Mint. Been wanting to try it out anyway and this gives me enough reason to make the jump.

Phone Audio Solved

This is a problem I had been having with my HTC Hero for some time now. Cyanogenmod 7 introduced a new little glitch that effectively made it impossible to listen to any sort of audio through a headset. Plug one in and the volume gets all distorted and crackly. Even at low volume the audio has annoying clicking noises.

The solution is actually really simple: delete the system app DSP Manager. Seriously. Do that and reboot the phone. Bam, clear audio through the headset jack at full volume again. Thanks XDA Forums for the solution.

HTC Hero Android Phone (Sprint)

Dedicated To

Sitting outside listening to a dj cycle through this collection of mixes. Earlier in the night he played the song that I dedicate yearly to my friends. At least the ones that were lost. Keep playing the music dj, I know everyone can use right now.

Schedule of Visits

Word has reached me that the religious zealots of Westboro Baptist Church are planning a protest in Joplin. Lovely, just what I'd like to see amidst the tornado damage. At least I've read on Facebook a bunch of people planning a peaceful counter protest to keep them away from the damaged section of town.

Come Sunday, we will have a visitor. President Obama is showing up to pay his respects to the 125 confirmed dead, a respectable gesture from him. I'll see if I can attend the proceedings and snap a few photos.

Joplin Curfew

Starting today, a curfew has been imposed on Joplin, MO. It goes from 9 PM to 6 AM so graveyard workers like myself will need to drop in at one of the four locations set up to get a permit. If you are a resident in one of the damaged areas, someone should come around and give you a permit. Make sure to get one, you get caught driving around without one during the curfew and your ass gets fined.

This is another taste of martial law, Joplin, so get used to it while we work on repairing the damage from the tornados.

Oh, and you are better off buying canned/bottled soda than trying to get it as a fountain drink anywhere in Joplin while this "Boil Law" or whatever the hell it is called is in effect. The water has impurities in it and it will be awhile before it is safe to drink straight from the tap.

No New Tornados in Joplin

Heavy rain and winds for a good portion of the night. All is quiet right now, but more thunder storms heading this way.

Tornado In Joplin

So May 22nd a tornado ripped through the center of Joplin. I was fortunate enough to not be anywhere near it, but several people I know were. Want to get an idea what it was like? I found this video someone recorded while huddled in the back of a gas station.

LASO: Long Night of Solace

Use the infinite respawning marines near the beginning of the level to fill up on rocket ammo. That will make the first part of the Covenant carrier part a lot easier.

Also, Needle Rifle is your best friend throughout the mission. At the very end when you are defending the Pelican with Jorge, do not let the gun on the front of it get destroyed. You can actually crouch next to it and wiggle around then move backwards while holding X you can actually control gun and be impervious to damage. Otherwise, have fun with the Ultras that come pouring out.

Booze And DMR

I've noticed that there is a fine (very fine at that) bell curve of my Halo: Reach skills in relation to amount of alcohol consumed.

A bottle of the very tasty Smithwick's and a party of people who like to have fun and work together for the win set the mood for some fairly decently paced games. In fact I don't recall losing a game with that team we had going. Probably because Halcylon is a fucking amazing pilot with a Falcon so that made Breakpoint matches a lot easier.

With that team long since departed to snooze, I am ready to set off in my lone quest of this week's LASO challenge. I have finished every other LASO lain down before me, and I aim to finish this one as well. Time to crack open that can of chilled liquid courage and face this beast down.

Xbox Live Mad Scientist

Just stumbled across the Xbox Live Labs deal that was launched a week ago. I never check the "My Community" tab on the dashboard. Basically if you let your console idle and run this piece of software, they'll give you free avatar gear modeled after a mad scientist. Count me in.

Oh, and for those that go after achievements you also get three 0G 'cheevos. Pointless really, but for the 'cheevo hunters out there that really doesn't matter much.

No Way Out

I hate moving when people have stacked up a ton of boxes in your way right after you wake up and are doing your hurried walk to the bathroom. I just woke up, I don't want to feel like I'm dungeon crawling for another twenty minutes.

Defiant

Had my first taste earlier and I love Condemned. The epic battles I had in low gravity...I long for more. That and to play Highlands.

The Endless Progress Bar

Internet is back on and I'm downloading the final version of the Defiant Map Pack to my console. The progress bar is taunting me by simply stopping on a percentage for awhile.

Projects

Now that my high speed has been shut off and cut down my access to being able to play video games online. I see myself as having quite a bit of free time in the very near future.

F You, ISP

Always shut my net off on the day I want to just relax. Slightly annoying.

Thus Unto Oblivion

I've picked up an old game again today, TES IV: Oblivion. I think it is my anticipation for Skyrim that keeps driving me back to Cyrodiil and taking up arms with one of my characters. I must say that the map for Oblivion is horribly taunting me at the moment by simply naming Skyrim as the province north of Cyrodiil.

I think to tide myself over until this November I shall find ways to exploit this game in any way possible for my own amusement. Already have a low level super powered mage character, he was archmage by level 3.

November is a long wait, but I must persevere.

Bash Scripting: Menu

Alright, I came across a note I had made for myself that is a basic outline of how I write simple text menus for my bash scripts when I need them. This easy piece of code was invaluable for piecing together my installer script for Ubuntu that installs all my software on a fresh install. I'll share my code with you so you can use it to your heart's content.

Clear Eyes, Full Hearts

I love it when the Halo: Reach Weekly Challenge is easy. Win 50 games of multiplayer matchmaking? Easy 7,777 credit boost. See you on the battlefield.

Crisis In Japan

My thoughts go out to Japan. Just sat down to read over some of the news reports and look at some of the videos. Japan is home to some of my all-time favorite game developers, not to mention makers of the world's most entertaining sources of weird crap that fascinates the rest of the world.

I suggest you go check out some of the footage over on Youtube. This is going to take them some time to recover from this and they can use all the help that is offered.

Moving Soon

Saw my first glimpse of the new place. Will have to make the best of it for now like any other thing in life. I hold out the hope that something good will come of it, preferably me moving completely out of this area.