31 August, 2006

Today was pretty great

I discussed my idea for taking over the world and uniting it in peace with Patrick. He pointed out where my idea was weak, and where it was strong, and we modified it a bunch. Also we made more specific plans of action and came up with a bunch of ideas that could actually work. Basically, awesome. I'll detail exactly what our plan is later, but I'll wait until we have a more developed one. But we have some great ideas for specifically how a world government would work, and all kinds of things like that. Obviously, the hard part is getting there, but I mean, that's not a reason not to do it. Just a reason to be wary and not get our hopes up. Anyway, yeah, I'll detail plans later.

29 August, 2006

AWESOME POST

THAT IS SO TRUE THAT THIS IS THE MOST AWESOME POST THAT WILL BE MADE THIS MONTH. Akshaya moved in yesterday and I saw him today, and then I saw him again, and then I gave him all his stuff and helped him pimp out his room and then we ate dinner. Also I went to help out at the Yard Sale for a few hours. There actually wasn't much to do there. Weird.

My RA put up all the name signs on the doors, and they have MONSTER TRUCKs on them. Anyway, I don't think I'm going to get a better ending line than that, so ciao, chochichuelos!

Risk!

The only expansion that I have not incorporated into my game right now is the Mars expansion. It would be cool if I could get that, and then also get a second board. That way, a completely epic game of Risk could happen, starting on Earth, and expanding into Mars. It seems to me that this could be really awesome, or really horrible. Either way, it's something to be in the mood for. I have already thought of a pretty awesome way that Mars could be incorporated, but I don't think a single person who has even played the game reads this. So I'll spare you. Goodbye.

28 August, 2006

I hate everything and everyone right now!

Not really. This post is a lie, actually.

My phone works!

That's right, chochichuelos! You can now call my phone! 565.7870. My answering machine will pick it up instead of voice mail, my voice mailbox is no longer locked, AND they are going to come by to fix my phone (the numbers 6 and 3 do not work on it). GREAT

27 August, 2006

Friend! Friend!

I guess I'm friends with my RA now? I just ate dinner with him. His name is Ryan and he is an industrial engineer. He is, well, he's the kind of a guy that I would be friends with, so he'll probably be a good RA too.

26 August, 2006

Zoombinis!

I just bought this online. I will never regret this decision.

Also the Move-in-maker meeting happened. It was basically what you would expect a mass meeting to be like. I talked to a couple people I didn't know. One of them was named Lauren, and the other was named, er, I forgot her name. I'll ask her later. I never really know how to act in this kind of situation. It's not that I don't know how to act around people I don't know. I'm actually really good at that. It's how to act around people I don't know that I am supposed to become friends with. That's the one. Peers, in other words, I guess. Yeah, when I'm in a room full of adults I don't know, it's really easy to be what everyone wants me to be. All I do is listen to everybody's story, and everybody thinks I am great. But when I'm among people that I will see again, I am expected to have things to say, and I rarely do have anything of substance.

So I either come off as quiet and boring, or loud and boring. Yet I somehow manage to make friends eventually. I just hate this part. I have to go. Bye.

25 August, 2006

Night!

My dorm room is now clean. Not "tidy," but I'll get on that tomorrow. At this point, everything is in its place, and that's good enough to go to bed. Tomorrow I will make it look neat. Night.

I am in my room right now.

I am unpacking. I do not have much more to say. I will probably go and get something to eat later. Because, I mean, come on.

24 August, 2006

grrrphhgglump

My brother is listening to a rap song that goes something like "FUCK THE WORLD AND LET THEM DIE"

Good news folks! I found my earplugs! Also I move in tomorrow.

23 August, 2006

A big hello!

A big hello to everyone who reads my blog! I hope you have a very good day!

22 August, 2006

Daaaaamn

I just found a bunch of my England friends on facebook. Also my brother ended up with a 114% in his online civics course. What a weird day!

Sandals / Tech Commander

I've taken to running in my sandals a lot, and now my feet are hardcore. I mean, not as hardcore as walking around barefoot, but the tops of my feet are also hardcore. It is a kind of middle ground where all of my feet is hardcore to a lesser extent.

Also the Tech Commander went up to $50 already, and the auction ends Saturday. Shiiiiit.

21 August, 2006

RISK!

I discovered that there were expansions made for Risk 2210 (which is a version of Risk that I like a lot). There were five expansions made in total, and none of them are, or ever were, available for purchase (they were used in tournaments hosted by the game, and given out as prizes). Two are expansions I can make easily myself, and the rest I can probably make myself but would do a bad job. Here is a list of them and my opinions of them (if you don't know how to play Risk 2210, reading this entry will only confuse you—it is pretty different from regular Risk):

First: Five new cards; one for each commander. Basically they are just good cards. However, since the game comes with blank cards, it would be easy to write the cards down on the spares. Not as pretty, but I'm not going to go planet hunting for 5 cards that look prettier.

Second: Mars. And its two moons. You do this instead of Earth. The Martian board reminds me of the Lord Of The Rings version of the game, where every territory seems to border 6-8 other territories, making paths of attack unpredictable. I don't think I would use this very much if I had it. Unless I had two sets of pieces, in which I would play with Mars instead of the Moon. Or maybe have all three moons as well. That could be awesome, if rather confusing. Point is, I'm not in a hurry to find this one.

Third: Tech Commander. I WANT THIS ONE. All it is is a sixth commander called the Tech Commander, along with his set of cards. But they are awesome cards, and, I, really want this. I found it on ebay. Right now it's at $20, but it may go up to $50-$75, looking at past auctions. However, my brother said he would chip in, so I am tempted to do this. I probably will.

Fourth: Factions. This makes the game more similar to diplomacy, in that everyone has a national, well, not national, but perhaps political identity. Also each faction has advantages and disadvantages, and start with different commanders and cards etc. This would be very easy to do myself, because the only physical thing to copy is a place-mat that everyone gets, showing what their faction does and everything. I mean, I could make them in InDesign and print them off. In fact, I'm going to do that when I finish writing this.

Fifth: Invasion of the Giant Amoebas! Aliens are attacking during the game. Basically at the beginning of every turn, the player turns over an amoeba invasion card, which can do a number of things. Usually, amoebas attack a random territory. They all roll 8-sided dice. Other cards do things like doubling the number of amoebas in every territory, etc. This is something I'd like, but it isn't something I'd use every game, like the factions and tech commander (and special cards). I want this much more than, say, Mars though.

My order of wanting these would be: Third, Fifth, Fourth, Second, First. Matt OUT.

20 August, 2006

Decemberists

As I said to Gynelle, I think I am my only friend who does not care about the Decemberists. Not that I don't like them, I've just never listened to them, and everybody is all "OMG DECEMBERISTS" and I am all "what."

Goodnight everybody!

Third post in a few hours

I decided that I am not going to buy the Optimus Keyboard when it comes out. I have a couple problems with it, and, cool as it is, it isn't worth it to me for these reasons.

First of all, it's not a very dust-proof or cleanable design. That is also one of the reasons that I dislike Apple's keyboard (I heard they fixed this problem recently?); after a while it gets disgusting. I think that for a keyboard that is this beautiful, they should ensure that it will stay beautiful.

Second, I don't like OLED technology. As far as I know, anyway. OLED is faster than e-paper, but I still would rather it use e-paper because of longevity. OLED pixels can be on for about 5000 hours, which is apparently a couple years of regular use. Some people might like getting a new keyboard every couple of years, but when I get things, I plan on having them for 5 or 10 years if possible. Electronic Paper, on the other hand, seems to last basically forever. Plus it has a memory, so it will display things even while off.

It seems like the OLED/e-paper trade-off is between animations and longevity. I can see how a lot of people would want animations, and I can see how that would be a better starting place, but I would rather hold out for the latter. I mean, if you want to market this new awesome idea, I can see that animations are the best thing ever. That way people go WOW and take out their wallets. A changing keyboard is great, but not great enough for a first idea.

I'm hoping that after the shock wears off and Optimus gets off the ground, they will come out with the improvements I named. I don't really want an animating keyboard. It would be really cool the day I got it, and would be awesome to show people, but for me the excitement would be temporary, and I'd rather the keyboard not be temporary as well. If I want animating keys, I'll buy the Mini-3.

So, Artemy Lebedev, in case you happen to read this, I will buy your product if you do those two things.

Bummer. That's a bummer.

I doubt I'm the only person this happens to, but more often than not, when I read a blog that talks about something sad that happened to the author or that the author is really depressed or some other form of bad news, I get the urge to comment with "bummer, man." The urge doesn't make me bad, I know. But would it make me bad if I followed through?

Also, I have Pennies In Heaven stuck in my head FOR NO REASON.

DHTML

The HTML I did yesterday made me want to try something. I hope it works.

Awesome

19 August, 2006

PS on the previous post

P.S. I just finished cutting my hair. If you see me without knowing that I cut my hair, you probably won't notice that I cut my hair. I need a mirror that I can hold in my hand, because right now I cannot see the back of my head when I cut my hair. If you haven't read the post I made a little while before this, there is a post that I made just before this, you should read it. Goodbye. -Matt

And my saga continues

Last night I got 14 hours of sleep from 10 to 12. I can only assume that my body is making up for my lack of sleep the night before (which is healthy—see my previous post on this subject). Although I apparently did get one hour of sleep the night before. That makes 15 hours of sleep in two nights. After keeping track for a while, I am pretty sure I need 7-8 hours of sleep per night, so that sounds right.

Yesterday I could not get the scanner to work and my brother needed to scan something. So I rode my bike to the fishbowl to scan it. I also went to Stadium Hardware to get a couple things I needed to fix my chair, to that market (Arbor Farms?) by Panorama to get shampoo and soap (I ran out of shampoo a couple days ago and have been using my parents'), and to Big Ten Burrito to get dinner for my brother and myself. I decided that would be a good celebration dinner and he agreed (he finished his class yesterday). Before you ask, yes, I did jump on the James bandwagon and I am now using Pine Tar shampoo and soap. It smells really nice. No, nice isn't the right word. Strong. It smells strong.

The fad right now seems to be using Vox, and particularly using some book feature incorporated within it. I am going to use the HTML knowledge incorporated in my memory to do the same thing: