For those of you who have alarm systems, this may not seem to be such an issue: But pay attention to what is said about insurance companies, and you'll know why 90% (according to them) of key-based mechanical locks may be insufficient (read: easy to bypass) We need better key-based locks... or perhaps not make them key-based at all. Personally, I don't think I'd mind carrying around a USB key with a 4096-bit key ;> But that might be a little complicated for others... Bump key video

Recently, a friend of mine told me about a game named Okami, which I've gotten a copy of and so far has been a fairly interesting and very beautifully made game. While I've been able to find a few glitches (mostly related to invisible walls), it's been a fairly solid experience and I've been trying not to play it too much - I've limited myself to only an hour or two per day so that I don't finish it too fast. I also appear not to be the only one who thinks there are similarities to Zelda in this game - I think my sister may enjoy playing this game as well, so perhaps next time she's around I'll introduce her to it :) I've found the music score to be so beautiful that I've written and highlighted the OST on my wishlist (Which, by the way, has lost most of it's items due to the database loss previously described.). I've already found a download for the whole OST and gotten it, but I'd much rather actually have those five CDs... as well as the game itself. Normally, I'd also back this up with And hey, I'd be supporting the company!, but it turns out that Clover Studio, the creator of Okami, will be dissolved by it's parent company, CAPCOM. I've got a digit up at 'em. Speaking of music, though, I've been finishing some uploads at Jamendo, and the music is pretty sweet. I'd recommend having a listen to Simon Slator and/or Saelynh, depending on your music tastes, or perhaps just browing by tags. It's too bad there aren't people as interested as I am in choruses*. Hard to find, that.

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I don't seem to blog often anymore. It kind of bothers me, because it usually causes me to forget things, or put stuff in "blocks" (or updates), like this. Then again, I've also been ignoring my todo list... I suppose it's because I'm still getting used to my job. Yes, I know that I don't have to get up that early (I have flexible hours, apparently, but I don't put too much faith in those words.), but while the sleepiness is a little difficult to deal with, there are some perks to getting up early. Not to mention that half the time, the cat wakes me up anyway... After the second day of work - that is, on the 3rd - I went to The Fox And Feather Pub along with my brother and some of his friends (and his boyfriend). The menu was a little bland, but I went for the shrimp linguine - finding out then what the name of "that sauce I kinda don't like" was - which wasn't too bad. Were it not for the sauce, I probably would have enjoyed it much more - the shrimp and pasta were good, so perhaps I'll go for something else next time or ask if I can get another sauce instead. The night went well and I enjoyed myself, but I think it would have been better if my brother hadn't decided to schedule this on a Tuesday on the second day of work; I really don't understand why he decided to make it that day. Perhaps to celebrate me getting a job, but I really want to avoid being late at my job... I did it too much at my last one and I don't want a repeat performance. I know I can do better than that. The reason I mention all this is because after finishing our meals there, most of them decided they'd go to another pub (or was it a bar?), and I decided I'd go back home (given the time left, I didn't have much of a choice if I wanted to get up early).

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Thanksgiving was... interesting. First, I thought that we were going to my sister's new apartment for a dual purpose: For Thanksgiving, naturally, and also to help her move. So, I packed fairly minimally - clothes, a few board games, a this or a that here and there - since I figured that I'd spend most of that weekend helping her move. Turns out that her friends had already helped her move, and that everything she had was out of the old apartment. Well. Have lots of spare time then, don't we? It wasn't so bad, though; I had the sense to bring myself a book, and I also brought my portable media player, and when I wasn't the only one with nothing to do there was the games - I had brought Calypso (didn't get played), Tsuro (played several rounds), Escape Velocity: Nova (didn't get played, but then again, there wasn't a point where only me and my brother weren't doing anything), and Skip-Bo (which, being my mother's favorite, got played quite a bit). We enjoyed ourselves, had fun, yaddi yaddi yadda. Oh, and because Rona was having a sale during that weekend (or at least that Rona did), my brother decided to buy his bathroom tiles at that point. Heh. The way back, however, is another story.

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Pretty hefty winds out there today. I think it managed to open the screen door for the cat a few times now. In fact, I'm not sure if the cat's outside or not, at the moment... My brother and I have been playing Starcraft on and off recently. Yeah, it's a nine year old game, and people still play it - they (Starcraft players) account for over a third of the people on Battle.net, still. Only about 3% of those don't have BroodWar (the expansion set), which is interesting: By now, most people have noticed that the Starcraft Battlechest / Set goes for about 20-30$ - even here. Oddly enough, my brother only recently got the expansion set from Futureshop, along with a copy for me (so that I would have a legal copy - I somehow have two keys spare to use, but no actual copy of SC)... ...and somehow managed to buy the French version. (By the way, when I checked Battle.net just now, there were 48517 games in progress. Of those, 20189 were reported to be Starcraft: Broodwar games (43%)! Only 598 (1%) of them were regular Starcraft games, however. Mind you, neither comes as a total surprise: More SC games are required for more players fairly often, considering two things: People often play private games with their friends, not allowing in the general public; Also, people often don't wait for their games, as the average age is fairly low, and the average attention span is lower.) Anyhow... It seems I've not spoken of Wombat here yet (at least not of his currenct condition); He had a lump growing on the side (behind) of his jaw. He was diagnosed with a curable form of cancer, and is undergoing treatment. It's pretty bad for him; He can't go to work, and his work only pays him for the days he works. He can't do much and has a reduced attention span, not to mention being fatigued all the time. And his hair is gone. It's really taking a toll on him...

I'd rather: Go Play Air Buccaneers Day, honestly. A least then we'd spend time playing friendly games of 3D in-the-air-"battleship". ;P

I believe Nightwish nailed it, here:

IRC is a protocol which has been working flawlessly for more than 15 years. It simply doesn't need all that modern crap. It works and that's all most IRC users expect from it. I haven't seen a single serious IRC user who complained about "missing features". IRC has all features which are needed for a stable and relieable chat environment.

I was reading an article about the Do's and Don't's of traveling/tourism in The Citizen today. The article was from the Los Angeles Times, so you can read it too, if you like: Fear not frog leg soup, and other tips. As I was reading the first "What not to do" paragraph, it was as though I wasn't reading it from the context of travel; Instead I saw it from an entirely different perspective... read it, and I will tell you afterwards what the context was... then read it again.

Do not plan. Have no expectations. Don't force an experience but rather let the experience come to you. The best times are unscripted. If you go into a big trip with everything planned, it takes away the fun and spontaneity that each city/country has to offer. Wake up and simply ask yourself, "Where do I want to go today?" then get up and go.

Sane advice for traveling. Even better advice for (at least with NaNoWriMo) writers.

I gots m'self a Canon PIXMA iP1600 Photo Printer for ~40 CAD. Mmhmm. Ish sweet. :> It's fast, it prints colors, and it prints in fine detail. What more could you want? ^_^ (And yes, you can tell it to only use the black cartridge and spare your color cartridge for when you really want to use it.)

It seems I've forgotten an important rule: You can remind her of an ex (even a horrible one she always refers to as an asshole), but god forbid if she reminds you of any other female, ex or not. It doesn't even matter that it's probably mostly fictional. It's only been three months, and I've already got the key to her place... and the key to her heart. Is this normal? Apparently I should feel ashamed because I left a light on. Note, though, that it's one: I remembered to turn off the others, and I did lock the door on my way out. I don't know what to think these days. I'm always tired, short tempered, and short on time. Taking off a work day didn't help a single bit either, though I didn't have it to myself (Normal, considering what yesterday was.). I'm starting to think I'd rather only the company of men.

Some of you may have played, and may remember, the old Lemmings games made by Psygnosis. I found a version which will play on (fast) computers, through a web browser (IE, Moz, FF compatible): DHTML Lemmings! NOTE: Make sure you read the known issues, it might answer a few questions, such as why it runs so slowly, or why sounds and music are disabled outside IE (by default, not permanently). It's ironic that the original version of Lemmings could run on a really slow computer, and this browser emulation of it requires a fast one... WARNING: Proxomitron users should add the site to the bypass list, or enable bypass mode, while visiting this site; Otherwise, odd problems may occur, such as media player showing up and crashing... EDIT: Gameplay notes:

• Climbers, floaters and exploders cannot be selected when falling, unlike the original.
• Move your mouse to select a lemming. Again unlike the original, you will not automatically select a lemming when they pass under your pointer.
• Animations will cease if there are too many lemmings onscreen. This is normal. Similarly, fast-forward mode may not work as expected when there are many lemmings present.
• Climbers and floaters will still appear (and be named as) as walkers even when skilled. It seems to me that the original wouldn't call them floaters, but perhaps I'm too used to Lemmings 2.
• You can unselect the current skill and be left with pointer that does nothing when you click. Don't panic, it isn't a bug - you can still select skills normally.