VoteDifferent.org
Recently I have become disenchanted with the election system we have in most areas of the United States. Simply put, I feel the two-party system is nurtured too much in the USA and we need to find ways to nurture new ideas in our political structure. So today I registered votedifferent.org with the idea that I will create a page dedicated to supporting this ideaology. However, at this time, I do not have the cash and time to put up a new site so I have linked it to my blog posting that are tagged `politics`. Feel free to give it a try. If you would like to help with VoteDifferent.org feel free to contact me and we can discuss how to approach this new venture.
If however you would like to help financially I will be setting up a way to donate via PayPal soon.
A Message from John Cleese To the citizens of the United States
I got this via e-mail today and it was so funny I wanted to share it with anyone who decides to read this blog.
> In light of your failure to elect a competent President of the USA and
> thus to govern yourselves, we hereby give notice of the revocation of
> your independence, effective immediately. Her Sovereign Majesty
> Queen Elizabeth II will resume monarchical duties over all states,
> commonwealths, and territories (excepting Kansas, which she does not
> fancy). ...
>
> Your new prime minister, Tony Blair, will appoint a governor for
> America without the need for further elections. Congress and the
> Senate will be disbanded. A questionnaire may be circulated next year
> to determine whether any of you noticed.
>
> To aid in the transition to a British Crown Dependency, the following
> rules are introduced with immediate effect: You should look up
> "revocation" in the Oxford English Dictionary. Then lookup aluminium,
> and check the pronunciation guide. You will be amazed at just how
> wrongly you have been pronouncing it. The letter 'U' will be
> reinstated in words such as 'favour' and 'neighbour.' Likewise, you
> will learn to spell 'doughnut' without skipping half the letters, and the
suffix 'ize' will be
> replaced by the suffix 'ise'. Generally, you will be expected to
> raise your vocabulary to acceptable levels. (look up vocabulary).
> Using the same twenty-seven words interspersed with filler noises such
> as "like" and "you know" is an unacceptable and inefficient form of
> communication. There is no such thing as US English. We will let
> Microsoft know on your behalf. The Microsoft spell-checker will be
> adjusted to take account of the reinstated letter 'u'
> and the elimination of -ize.
>
> You will relearn your original national anthem, God Save The Queen.
> .July 4th will no longer be celebrated as a holiday.
>
> You will learn to resolve personal issues without using guns, lawyers,
> or
> therapists. The fact that you need so many lawyers and therapists
> shows that you're not adult enough to be independent. Guns should only be
> handled by adults. If you're not adult enough to sort things out
> without suing someone or speaking to a therapist then you're not grown
> up enough to handle a gun. Therefore, you will no longer be allowed
> to own or carry anything more dangerous than a vegetable peeler. A
> permit will be required if you wish to carry a vegetable peeler in
> public.
>
> All American cars are hereby banned. They are crap and this is for
> your own good. When we show you German cars, you will understand what
> we mean.
> All intersections will be replaced with roundabouts, and you will
> start driving on the left with immediate effect.
>
> At the same time, you will go metric with immediate effect and without
> the benefit of conversion tables. Both roundabouts and metrication
> will help you understand the British sense of humour. The Former USA
> will adopt UK prices on petrol (which you have been calling
> gasoline)-roughly $6/US gallon. Get used to it.
>
> You will learn to make real chips. Those things you call French fries
> are not real chips, and those things you insist on calling potato
> chips are properly called crisps. Real chips are thick cut, fried in
> animal fat, and dressed not with ketchup but with vinegar.
>
> The cold tasteless stuff you insist on calling beer is not actually
> beer at all. Henceforth, only proper British Bitter will be referred
> to as beer, and European brews of known and accepted provenance will
> be referred to as Lager. American brands will be referred to as
> Near-Frozen Gnat's Urine, so that all can be sold without risk of
> further confusion.
>
> Hollywood will be required occasionally to cast English actors as good
> guys. Hollywood will also be required to cast English actors to play
> English characters. Watching Andie MacDowell attempt English dialogue
> in Four Weddings and a Funeral was an experience akin to having one's
> ears removed with a cheese grater.
>
> You will cease playing American football. There is only one kind of
> proper football; you call it soccer. Those of you brave enough will,
> in time, be allowed to play rugby (which has some similarities to
> American football, but does not involve stopping for a rest every
> twenty seconds or wearing full kevlar body armour like a bunch of
> nancies).
>
> Further, you will stop playing baseball. It is not reasonable to host
> an event called the World Series for a game which is not played
> outside of America. Since only 2.1% of you are aware that there is a
> world beyond your borders, your error is understandable.
>
> You must tell us who killed JFK. It's been driving us mad. An inland
> revenue agent (i.e. tax collector) from Her Majesty's Government will
> be with you shortly to ensure the acquisition of all monies
> due(backdated to 1776).
>
> Thank you for your co-operation.
Tradeskilling in Everquest 2 - Harvesting
If you've never played Everquest 2 you can give it a try for free with Trial of the Isle
Tradeskilling is a part of Everquest 2 that I have been into since before I started playing. I remember playing Everquest 1 and reading about the new tradeskilling in EQ2. Since I had been getting into tradeskilling in Everquest 1 at the time, I found out as much as I could about tradeskilling before I started playing. I have been very successful. In fact, I always try to keep my tradeskill level well above my adventure level. ...
For instance, my main tradeskiller, Theloniuss, is a 42 Woodworker and only a level 25 Bruiser. He would probably still be below 20 but once Achievement points came out I wanted to get him over 20 so he could earn exploration achievement points.
Tradeskilling has been changed quite a bit since the beginning of the game and is now much easier for people less interested in it than I. However, some people still don't get some basic principles and helpful hints that I would like to share. Like many topics in the game, tradeskilling takes quite a lot to discuss so today's article is just about harvesting. The key to successful and pleasurable tradeskilling.
Some people don't like to harvest and they either buy the components themselves ( expensive ) or have friends and guildmates do it for them. If you've never thought about it, here are my reasons for harvesting all my own materials ( except when I need a few more to finish a writ ).
1. Rares - you have to harvest a lot to get the components you need and you are bound to get more than a few rares. If the rares are of no use to you this can be your major source for in game funding. This article is written with the idea that you aren't just trying to harvest rares, but to harvest the components so you can raise your tradeskill level.
2. Collectibles - Collectibles can be the source of adventure and achievement experience as well as in game funding. It is much more likely you'll find collection points when you are already looking at the ground ( and sometimes other places ) for stuff to harvest. Collection points are basically another type of harvest node so you might as well follow the same rules that I talk about below.
3. It is peaceful - Once again, this article is not written for people just trying to harvest rares. Which, in my experience, can be very aggravating. If you follow my rules for harvesting, it isn't a chore and isn't too stressful. Of course, aggro mobs wandering in front of you in mid-harvest or just when you click to harvest can be annoying but that won't happen too often.
4. Meet nice people - You may not think of harvesting as a way to meet other players. However, follow my rules below and you'll meet some of the nicer people I have met in the game.
5. It's a whole lot cheaper than buying the components - It will cost you a whole load of dough to level up without harvesting, unless you have friends and guildmates harvesting for you. If that's the case, though, you are dependent on someone else having what you need when you need it.
Those are the reasons to harvest your own components but let's get down to the rules I have set for myself and they have treated me very well. They are simple rules, so you should have no problem following them.
1. Harvest everything - And I mean everything. If you need it, harvest it. If you don't need it, harvest it. Harvest nodes ( and collection nodes in their own way ), are placeholders for other harvest nodes. If you are too selective about your harvesting, like people looking for rares, you end up with a whole bunch of the nodes you don't need. That's why you'll often see a zone with so many bushes. No hugely profitable rares so the rare hunters don't harvest them. That's okay, just harvest them. In no time your node type(s) will pop all over the place. And what do you do with all the extra components you have? You have 3 choices: destroy them, sell them( more profitable than destroying ) and / or give them away( see below ).
2. If someone else is harvesting in your area, talk to them - This makes all the difference in the world. This is where you meet the nice people in Everquest 2. Here are the types of responses you are likely to get from people as you strike up a conversation with them.
- "I'm looking for rares." If that's so they will most likely give you stacks and stacks of the other components they have that they "don't need".
- They are looking for the same thing you are - Since all tradeskilling takes many different types of components they may be able to help you out with some that you are having a little trouble coming by that they don't need ( and vice versa ).
- "You need feyiron and feysteel? I have 2 feysteel. Do you want them?" - That's right, if you are polite, some people may actually just give you rares. You heard me correctly GIVE YOU RARES! While this happens as often as harvesting rares it does happen. In a social game, talking to people and being polite is worthwhile.
- "I'll go ( harvest ) somewhere else." - Some people don't like to get in other people's ways, especially if they feel it isn't as important for them to harvest at the moment. Under these circumstances they step aside and let you have the area / zone.
- You find a new friend / guildmate - As long as you are talking to them, add them to your friends list. If they aren't in a guild ask if they would like to join yours. If you aren't in a guild, ask them about theirs. If neither of you are in a guild maybe you can get 4 more people together and start one.
That's just a sample of the conversations you will have. If you approach the conversation from "What are you harvesting? I'm harvesting x,y and z" and be polite, then the conversation should go well.
3. Help other harvesters - This is really an extension of rule 2 and the golden rule. Treat other people the way you would like to be treated. I once gave a guy 1 rare because he gave me a stack and a half of something I was having the hardest time harvesting. Then I found another of the same rare and gave that too him as well. I'm pretty sure that made his hour if not his day. I've also given away plenty of stacks of stuff I didn't need or had more than enough of. On the selfish side, these acts make you feel good about what you did.
4. Harvest in dense node areas / harvest in a circuit fashion - Don't wander all around a zone hoping to run into harvest nodes. Learn where the best places are. Create a circuit you walk that works well for harvesting. This will make your bags fill up with components quicker and then you can cast Call of the Overlord / Qeynos and get down to tradeskilling faster. Where these places are depends on the zone, your level, your server and along with the day and time. In a future article I may right about good places to harvest when your level is too low for a zone. I'll try to at least start harvesting in Tier 6 zones before that article though.
That's it. Four simple rules for harvesting that seem to make it go quicker and easier. While it may seem like common sense to some of you, I hope many of you can glean a tip or two from this.
Happy Harvesting and Merry Tradeskilling.
--
My characters( all on Nektulos Server ):
Diacre: 37 Armorer, 30 Shadow Knight
Leroy: 40 Templar, 39 Tailor
Theloniuss: 42 Woodworker, 25 Bruiser
Lutte: 38 Provisioner, 27 Warden
Froche: 28 Carpenter, 18 Swashbuckler
Diakono: 27 Conjuror, 20 Tailor
If you'd like to join a high level ( currently 32 ), casual ( real life comes first ) guild send me a tell and I'll invite you to the Black Moon Syndicate.
Starting my blog today
I'm starting my blog today. Well, one that is easier to manage anyway. I had tried to set one up at my own website but it didn't look all that great and I didn't want to take the time to get all the settings perfect. If you want to take a look at posts previous to this one take a look at Deacon's Blog at deaconwrestling.com.
I hope this blog can be a way for me to share things with family, friends and eventually write some articles on things I know about.
Edit: I have moved my previous posts to this blog ( timestamped correctly and everything ) and will most likely delete the old weblog. The links to the old posts in their new home are:
September 11th makes me think...
If you are an American September 11th brings back a lot of memories of seeing 2 landmarks of American culture fall to the ground in an amazing act of violence. For all American's and anyone else touched by those events thoughts and emotions are evoked every time it is brought up.
For me many things come up. After reading some of the word said yesterday during 5th anniversary events I had many things to think about. And here is one thought I had. ...
Think about the people who are most important to you. Your wife, your husband, your parents and your children. More people, such as friends and your extended family can most certainly be included here. Now imagine one or more of them died in some tragic event. How would you feel? You would have to deal with the loss of your loved ones.
In dealing with grief we go through 5 stages. Those five stages, in order, are denial, anger, bargaining, depression and acceptance.
Now back to your loved ones dieing, first you have to go through denial that it even happened or that your loved one died from it. But you are a logical person and when something so horrific happens even your hope gives way quickly. You soon pass on to the next stage, anger.
In anger you are mad at everyone you see responsible for the tragic event occurring. Your government, who is suppose to protect you. Yourself, for letting them go that day. And whomever others are saying are to blame. Let's hold on to that anger for a bit before we get to bargaining.
Before you get to bargaining though, where you try to make deals with whomever you think can assuage your pain you find out more information. You find out from sources you trust who the ones responsible for this terrible act that killed your loved ones are. You find out that the people responsible did this because they said your country's government did the same type of damage to them. Your anger, that you still hold on to because the pain is so great, gets a little more fuel. You didn't do anything! Your loved ones didn't do anything! Why did they have to pay the price for something my country's government did. I don't even believe my country would do such a thing.
You are close to bargaining here. Trying to make deals with your god so you can make sense of it all. Then you learn more about these evil monsters who could do such a thing to innocent people. Information comes out that your country had nothing to do with what happened to these evil monsters. Just as you suspected.
Then a voice of reason is heard. Someone, who believes what you are starting to believe about these monsters. This person starts calling you to action. We need to do something about these monsters before they destroy more of our lives. You listen a little, but like I said, you are a logical person who and you don't do anything. You don't like the idea of killing people.
You don't want to get involved in a war against anyone but now your glasses are covered with a new filter. A new filter that looks upon some group of people as evil monsters. And you start to see and hear more proof. You start to see startling images of people they have taken prisoner. How can they be so cold? Your answer be cause they are monsters not humans. All of the sudden you are listening to that voice of reason. You are listening to the person who tells you to do your part. Take up arms if you can. Do whatever you can to defeat these monsters or else these atrocities will never cease.
Now imagine for a bit that you are not an American but an Iraqi, Pakistani or any middle eastern inhabitant for that matter. All of the sudden stuff starts blowing up and innocent people, including your loved ones, are getting killed. Hold on, I said pretend you are not an American. You don't get to tell yourself that is the price of war. You are someone else who is not in a war. All you are trying to do is survive, go to work or school, and support your family. Imagine then that the reasons they did this is because someone blew up 2 of their buildings ( yes more were destroyed and/or damaged but you aren't an American and the Pentagon is not an important symbol to you and neither is WTC building 7 ). Later you find out that they are mistreating their prisoners of war. You start questioning who the criminals are here. Then, you find out that these attacks had nothing to do with those buildings. Your anger would be boiling and you may not have any problems fighting back any longer.
In conclusion, we need to remember that people act violently for many reasons. We don't want to give people more reasons to be violent, we want to give them reasons not to. If we truly consider ourselves to be better, which makes little sense in the global scheme of thing, then we need to take the high moral ground. I have a short thought to finish on. More people die each year from car accidents than terrorism. More people die each year from cancer than terrorism. In fact, more people die each year from their appendix bursting than terrorism! Yet our focus is on terrorism because of the images that hold on to us. Let's handle our grief and move all the way to acceptance so we can make some rational decision about the matters at hand.
Summerslam 2006
Summerslam was a great pay-per-view this year. While there were matches that weren't anything spectacular and unfortunately one of those was the main event. Most of the card more than made up for it. Let's start from the beginning. ...
Chavo Guerrero vs. Rey Mysterio
I wish I had seen more of this match. I always love to watch these two guys in the ring. Unfortunately it was the first match and people were showing up when I was watching it. What I did see of it though was classic work from these 2.
Big Show vs. Sabu
I don't know much about Sabu. To be honest I don't know much about ECW in general. I became a fan of wrestling after it's downfall. So I had no notions that this would be much of a match. And while it got outshined by some matches later on it was very entertaining. Man is Big Show looking strong though. It's good to see him doing something that seems to work for him.
Hulk Hogan vs. Randy Orton
I'm of 2 sides about Hogan. On the one hand he doesn't seem to move well in the ring anymore and it is obvious. On the other he is Hulk Hogan! The man who worked his butt off to make professional wrestling accepted in the mainstream. In the '80s, when he wasn't working, he was working. I have a ton of respect for that. Anyway, back to the match. Due to Hogan's lack of in ring ability it was a slower match but he does know how to use what he's got to keep it going. What most impressed me though was that he sold the RKO. Sure, it didn't finish him off ( Hogan won so it must not have ), but he didn't kick out of it either. That's a great nod to Randy Orton from the Legend that is Hulk Hogan. For that alone I give the match a thumbs up.
After that we had the triumvirate of thumbs way up matches. Starting with...
Ric Flair vs. Mick Foley
Any match that has either of these two in it is worth watching. Two great wrestlers who know more than tricks, who know more than gimmicks, they know how to tell a story in the ring. Even though this was an "I Quit" match, and basically a hardcore match, this match definately is definately something to study. Ric Flair screaming "I'm gonna kill you!" and Mick Foley's confidence of being the hardcore legend were worked well. As I said before, thumb way up on this one. I just wish it had gone on longer. These guys had more story to tell.
Batista vs. Booker T
It's tough following up a great match like Flair vs. Foley but Batista vs. Booker did it. From a hardcore match we went to a straight wrestling match that was not everything you'd expect. I'm glad to see Booker on top, and Batista, dang he is impressive in so many ways. To call him an animal is an understatement and not descriptive enough. You have to specify an animal of confidence, cunning and sheer dominant power. 2 amazing athletes put on one hell of a show.
D-Generation X vs. The McMahons
If you think following up 1 stellar match is tough try following up 2 matches. But I had no questions this matches would be good. Of course, I am a total Triple H mark so I am biased, but I have a ton of respect for Shawn Michael's in ring abilities as well. Once again a great story, even if it was a bit of the usual schlock. The McMahon's, trying not to have to do the tough work, send out the Spirit Squad (with my old trainer Mikey). They of course get quickly dispatched by DX. Then, Vince and Shane sends out their big guns who really do a number on HHH and HBK. And just when you think DX has a chance to fight back they bring out the REALLY big guns, namely The Big Show. Of course the best part of the story is that the biggest pop of the night went to...Kane! All he did is come out and lay into Umaga and the crowd was just on their feet. A great match.
Edge vs. John Cena
Now following up 3 amazing matches is damn near impossible and unfortunately I don't think Edge and Cena lived up to the headline status for the night. While the match wasn't terrible there was just lots of little things that didn't work for me in that match. Number one, Edge and Cena did too much stuff that you ALWAYS see. I understand having to do stuff people know but there's a difference between that and telling the same exact story that's been told a million times before. The did have a couple spots that suprised me. Don't get me wrong I have a ton of respect for Cena and Edge. They are absolutely phenomenal athletes. I just don't think the 2 of them were on top of their game last night. Plus, they had to top 3 off the charts matches.
This was a great way to come back to watching wrestling.
Reposted on Monday August 21 2006 @ 07:09PM PDT