The World According to Elsimer

Here we go again?

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 05 Aug 2008 14:29:00 +0000

Well, T has decided to go with one of her last boyfriends on his truck for the next few days. Perhaps as part of that, she now says the only reason she isn't back with her ex-husband is that he doesn't want her. I don't know if this is a normal thing, all I know is she seems to be running away from me yet again. Every time I get a little close to her she starts up saying she "doesn't know" or some such. This time around, she proposes that I start dating other women. Just not the ones she doesn't approve of, evidently. Why? So I can find out if she's really "the one" or not.

I'm just tired of the games. I'm tired of being told I'm such a great guy, then the next minute get yelled at for being such a crappy guy. One minute she's talking about "our house" and the next minute she's not sure if she ever wants to leave her drama-enriched county.

An Uncle - Again!

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Fri, 01 Aug 2008 20:01:00 +0000

Wednesday, my sister-in-law delivered a healthy baby boy over at Davis Hospital. He was 20.5 inches and 7 lbs 6 oz with a healthy bunch of blond hair to boot!

I went to visit Joshua Carter Jones and his parents but didn't hold the baby - although I'm sure tonsillitis at this point is not contagious it can't hurt to be too careful around a newborn.

T got to see pictures of the baby but had to work on Thursday so she had to drive back home earlier in the day. Now she's psyched up to come see the baby as soon as possible - good news for all of us!

Another Panic Attack

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:38:00 +0000

Well, it happened again. When I got back from Vegas last Tuesday all was well - relatively speaking. I'd had a rough day because my best friend had asked me to pick up some medical records for his kids and the person with them was completely unfamiliar with how to get to her hotel then after about an hour of driving around Vegas and finding her hotel she hadn't bothered to step out of her room! My soar throat wasn't helping matters but life could have been worse - I was going to see T and was looking forward to a soak in the hot pots that night.

We're at Walmart and S calls up. To make a long story short, she had been having issues with anger and depression because of our breakup and some other issues in her life. She lays into me hard, and I start getting a strange feeling in the pit of my stomach. She threatens me with legal action if I can't get her computer returned within 2 days in the state it was in when her ex-fiance started using it. At that point, I feel my legs going out from under me and I had to hang up the phone. T was with me and made me hold onto the cart while we checked out quickly. I got worse and worse, to the point where we couldn't go over to T's mom's house because I would lose it again and couldn't even talk straight. Between T and my best friend in Arizona, I made it through and calmed down. In short, I'd had an intense panic attack. I've set up an appointment for counselling today (Tuesday) and hopefully it'll help me figure out how to avoid future attacks.

What Happens in Vegas....

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:21:00 +0000

Well, I said there were a few things that happened. I wasn't lying was I? Starting last Sunday and ending Monday (I thought it ended Tuesday - doh!) we had Dragonrider 2008 - a place for members of my guild to meet in real life and get to know one another. Five of us showed up for billiards on Sunday afternoon - four of us continued to play tourist Sunday and Monday.

I showed up at Excaliber on Sunday afternoon with my computer and luggage. Baggage isn't usually set up to handle full gaming rigs but the manager was kind enough to put my computer and one of the monitors (the other was stowed in my suitcase) behind the desk while I checked in. For those with similar plans I suggest checking in then getting your rig - it saves aggravation for everyone involved. I was able to check in around noon and get everything up to the room.

Once the computer was set up ($12.99/day for internet access - they didn't mention THAT on the website!) I went looking for everybody else. We met at a pool hall around 1pm and played two games in about an hour to an hour and a half - yes we all sucked that badly. The only reason it was two games was Zemus sunk the 8-ball early on (the first ball to go in the hole that day lol). It was fun to meet some of the people I've been gaming with for almost a decade now.

After that, we headed up to Prediant's room and played Texas Holdem with our new poker chips until close to dinner time - Tournament of Kings. To keep it short - excellent show! I would strongly suggest not getting the first row however since you risk dirt on your food if the riders get too close. We cheered for the Dragon section of course. It was a blast to just unleash everything and have fun in the moment. Afterwards, we went back to the room to digest and play some more poker before turning in. I had two Mike's Hard Lemonade Pomegranites.

The next day my throat kind of hurt and I figured it had something to do with the Tournament the night before. We hit the Valley of Fire with Prediant's rented Hummer. Kendryck and I tried some basic bouldering and we had fun as a guild. Mostly we talked about life and about WAR. We had lunch at the buffet and did some walking around before convincing Zemus to go see Fantasy with us that night. We hit up the Star Trek Experience since it's going to be closing in September. We did both the Borg Experience and the Klingon ride. Most of us thought the Klingon ride was better than the Borg 4D thing.

Just before the show, we had dinner at Dick's Last Resort - a bar in Excaliber that features extremely rude servers. I got carded (yes, I'm 32) and we enjoyed the service overall. Great atmosphere and the way you're treated kind of encourages you to let everything go.

The short (kid-friendly) review of Fantasy is it's a great show, nice theater, great format. The girls look great (yes, I was thinking of T the whole time) and the music choreography was well thought out. The comedy interludes were nicely timed and we all had a lot of fun.

Anyway, long version short on Tuesday I was planning on just kicking back and relaxing. That didn't happen for a number of reasons. By Thursday night it became obvious that I did not just have a sore throat and I ended up going to the ER. There I found that I did NOT have strep throat but instead had a "severe case of tonsilitus", for which they gave me a shot of... something I have to assume was an antibiotic and a prescription for Amoxicilin (875mg twice a day). So I have to keep taking the antibiotics and ended up missing work on Friday because of the throat and threat of contagion. That and the medicine made me drousy on the drive home...

T and I - back together

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 14:08:00 +0000

A few things have happened in the short week (a week?? yikes!) since my last post. I'll split it between two posts.

First, T and I are back together. On the 18th, something happened while I was at the movies with her. We went to go see Dark Knight (excellent movie by the way). I don't know if it was the mood or if everything we'd experienced just kind of came to a head but we looked at each other and knew that we wanted to be together.

She still doesn't know how to tell her ex-boyfriend that we're together again and he quickly dumped her when she asked him for some time to think then came back to try to get her back. We're together and I'm trying not to screw things up this time by moving too fast or committing myself prematurely. I know I love her though, and that makes it hard to keep from pouring everything about myself into our relationship.

With the change in our relationship, I broke the news to S. She... didn't take it well and broke down crying and angry. I tried to talk to her, comfort her but she believes that she was just being used to make T jealous. It just isn't true, I never intended for things to work out this way. She's started to forgive me, even said she still loves me but realizes that I have to follow my heart. I guess we'll see where our relationship leads us - to happiness together or to misery. My main worry is that T will be too afraid to commit herself to one relationship and will end up hurting both C and myself.

I'm back!

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Fri, 18 Jul 2008 15:37:00 +0000

I haven't added anything to this blog in ages. So much has happened.

Let's see here, I got divorced last November when the wife decided she was lesbian. Yes, I'll probably post more on that later. The legal stuff didn't seem difficult and we ended up doing it ourselves - that didn't work well in the long run but I'll get to that later. Short version is I get Ben (Sam isn't mine legally) every other weekend from Friday 6pm to Sunday 7pm and we trade holidays.

I met a girl (I'll call her T), fell in love, broke up, made up, broke up again, and now she's getting married to another guy while wondering if she is making a mistake. Yes, I live in a soap opera world.

Meanwhile, I started dating her sister who used to be engaged to my best friend who is also T's unofficially adopted dad. We started out as friends while I was trying to talk her through coping with her breakup and things just sort of... happened. We aren't planning anything long term but she is moving in with me in August - something T really doesn't like since she's not entirely certain that she and her fiance will work out and wants me as a "backup" of sorts. And during all this, I have mixed feelings about which one I really want to be with depending on whether i'm listening to my head or my heart. Both of them seem to love me and I love both of them, I'm just tired of getting hurt by the one and I'm not sure if the other one (I'll call her S) is really ready for a relationship or just looking to get out of the area she's in. Am I just making a big mistake either way? I'm trying to move on with my life and it seems like every step I take hurts somebody.

Anybody Need A Cheap Computer?

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Thu, 02 Nov 2006 16:37:00 +0000

Need a cheap file server, Linux machine, or emailing machine? How about a refurbished 700MHz Celeron for $47.91. It's really bare-bones, with only 128MB of RAM, a 10GB hard drive, Windows 2000 (not installed), onboard Video and Audio, two PCI slots, one AGP slot, and four USB slots.

New Computer arrived!

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 17 Oct 2006 21:07:00 +0000

It's finally here! After just over 3 months of problems and waiting, my new computer arrived last week. Of course, I had to insure that it did indeed POST and had all the hardware that it was supposed to have (it did). After that, I installed 3dMark06 and had it take my new gaming rig through its paces. The score (if you don't want to follow the title link) was 7208. Yes, there are machines faster. Yes, I could probably optimize that and overclock the rig and get a better score. Oh, and yes the score will go down now that I've installed anti-virus (Grisoft's AVG Anti-Virus Personal Edition). I've also turned off the integrated soundcard in favor of a Soundblaster X-Fi XtremeGamer with accompanying speakers (thank you Newegg!).

So why haven't I tweaked it? Well, first of all I had to get the sound system configured. I still don't know what was going on, but for some reason the speakers were only outputting this barely audible scratchy whisper on some of the speakers and nothing on the two peripheral front speakers. Then a couple of reboots later (and disabling AMD Live) it worked just fine! Second, my keyboard still isn't working quite right - it seems to lag a bit in DAoC. I'm thinking it's probably because it's a wireless so I need to change out keyboards and see what happens. Third, I want to rerun benchmarks and see what they look like now. And fourth, I haven't found a game yet that really takes my computer and hits it hard. I'll have to wait for NWN2 for that I guess.

Complete Free iTunes Downloads List

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 17:09:00 +0000

Tired of searching thru iTunes for the latest free downloads in the iTunes Store? This site collects them all on one page, separated by category (songs, TV shows, short videos) and provides an RSS feed for updates. Since I use Anapod Explorer for most of my iPod-related needs, this page is awesome - it lets me know when I have to fire up iTunes!

read more | digg story

Net Neutrality in Action: Google vs Comcast

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 20:41:00 +0000

Today, Comcast gave us all a perfect example of the abuses that can occur when net neutrality is not legislated. The long version along with updates can be accessed via the title link. The short version is that Comcast users this morning found that they could not access any of Google's services. Gmail, Adsense, Adwords, and Google Calendar were immediately affected while Youtube was also reported as not working. Those who called Comcast were first told not to use Firefox, since Comcast doesn't support any browser but Internet Explorer. When that line failed, they would tell users that Windows settings were to blame (Firewall, Anti-virus software, Windows Update were among the services initially blamed). In the event that a customer was fortunate enough to make it past that line of defense, Comcast simply blamed Google and said that it was down.

So where's the kicker? Well, if you used the ip address instead of the domain name you could access the services without issue. If you were using some other provider, you could access Google. If you were using a VPN to go through another connection you could access Google.

Update: Evidently Comcast had a DNS server issue in MA and has taken it offline to fix the problem. Most of the affected users are now able to access Google. Any requests for a refund or partial refund are being denied.

I had Comcast here in Utah for awhile. Yes, the speed was good (at the time, 1.5Mbps) but the cost was outrageous and the service nonexistent. I'm fortunate enough to live in an area with an independent telco that has committed to DSL and will be offering FTTH within a year or two. Incidentally, this kind of thing will become commonplace without net neutrality legislation. If you can make a buck from tying enough tubes and slashing enough Internet dumptruck tires...

Housing Secretary Told Staff To Award Contracts To Bush's Allies

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 20:02:00 +0000

A new report from the Housing and Urban Development Inspector General found that HUD Secretary Alphonso Jackson instructed staff to award HUD contracts to President Bush's political allies and withhold them from Democrats.

read more | digg story

ALL GMAIL USERS CAN USE WRITELY Word Processor

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Thu, 21 Sep 2006 15:30:00 +0000

Just released. All gmail users can now use writely. This means that even if you have never signed up for it, if u have a google account you now can. If you dont know, writely is a free online word processor which was merged with google a while ago.

read more | digg story

FedEx Fights Missiles...

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 19 Sep 2006 14:50:00 +0000

A FedEx MD-10 freighter, equipped with Northrop Grumman's Guardian infrared laser jammer, is slated to become the first wide-body commercial aircraft in scheduled service flying with technology to counter terrorist missile attacks.

read more | digg story

Photorealistic CG Water

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 23:09:00 +0000

This video, titled "Flow" shows off new footage of Scanline's Flowline VFX software. It was shown at SIGGRAPH 2006. I would strongly recommend going to the Quicktime page instead of the digg link's youtube video.

http://www.flowlines.info/gallery01.html

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Bush's Get Out of Jail card | Salon News

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 17:05:00 +0000

When he announced last week that he would be transferring 14 alleged al-Qaida terrorists from secret prisons and that the "tough" methods employed by the CIA had pried loose valuable intelligence from the suspects," President Bush also unveiled a bill to set up military tribunals to try the prisoners. This bill is more than meets the eye.

Among other provisions, the White House is also seeking to roll back the ability to enforce the Geneva Conventions in U.S. courts that was established in the GOP-sponsored War Crimes Act. In the White House legislation, this effort is unambiguous. "No person in any habeas action," it states, "or any other action, may invoke the Geneva Conventions or any protocols thereto as a source of rights, whether directly or indirectly, for any purpose, in any court of the United States or its states or territories."

read more | digg story

Professor of Arabic barred from returning to U.S. from Canada

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Wed, 13 Sep 2006 14:42:00 +0000

An asst. professor of Arabic at San Francisco State University has been stranded in Canada for three months, unable to return to campus, after the U.S. State Dept. canceled his visa and began reviewing his security status. He arrived in the U.S. 7 years ago, has an American wife and 2 children, and received his doctorate at the Univ. of Wisconsin.

"It does not mean that Dr. Salama is a bad guy. He is the kind of guy we need in this country right now." Which is why the government is going through such pains to insure that it's as painful and difficult as possible for him (and people like him) to get back into the United States of course.

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No more burning with this bad boy

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 15:01:00 +0000

It literally bridges the gap between PC and TV. Expensive, of course, but a nice solution for those truly looking for a PCTV solution without alot of PC experience.

read more | digg story

Flight Aware Flight Tracking Database

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Mon, 11 Sep 2006 22:54:00 +0000

Listen to this: "Currently Tracking Tracking 4,499 airborne aircraft (182 VFR) with 28,634,854 total flights in the database. FlightAware has tracked 41,729 arrivals in the last 24 hours."
This tracker is amazing in its detail and interesting information.

read more | digg story

Sexual urges of men and women

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Fri, 08 Sep 2006 17:12:00 +0000

An awesome story (work safe, kinda) comparing a woman's need to shop with a man's need to.... do other things with women.

read more | digg story

GMail Hacks/Tips

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Tue, 05 Sep 2006 16:00:00 +0000

A great article detailing some hacks that can be accomplished with GMail, including using gmail as a web folder!

read more | digg story

Dictator-in-Chief: Has Bush Become One?

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 22:09:00 +0000

An excellent article by Jacob Hornberger, founder and president of The Future of Freedom Foundation. The article defines dictatorship, explains what a democratic dictatorship means, and gives historical precedence for its existence as well as tests for determining whether Bush wields dictatorial power.

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HELL of falling sand: NOW with zombies!

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 23:10:00 +0000

Simple little graphics experiment, but truly addictive for some odd reason. Water feeds the pin-wheel, salt kills it, fire sets it ablaze...

read more | digg story

A Gentle Introduction to SQL

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:59:00 +0000

Interactive SQL tutorial, learn about: SQL Server, Oracle, MySQL, DB2, Mimer, PostgreSQL, SQLite and Access.

read more | digg story

Woot! Level 50!

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Mon, 28 Aug 2006 18:39:00 +0000

On Saturday, Creesis (my cleric) finally hit level 50 in Dark Age of Camelot - Bedevere server. Currently, all his artifacts are level 9 and on their way to level 10. Now all I need is Enyalio's Boots and I can wait for Labyrinth to come out before buying some MP crafted armor. In the meantime, RvR is going to see a non-bot cleric!

RIAA Backs Down 1 Day After Being Counter-sued

noreply@blogger.com (Elsimer) — Fri, 25 Aug 2006 18:14:00 +0000

In Warner v. Stubbs, in Oklahoma, the defendant filed her answer and counterclaim against the RIAA on August 23, 2006. In it she likened the RIAA's tactics to "extortion".
The very next day, on August 24, 2006, the RIAA turned around and asked the Judge for permission to withdraw its case:

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