I got a free typewriter today

I remember wanting one of these when I was much much younger and it was brand new, It actually works properly, but I need to find a manual for this model.

The action is a little mushy, but the sound and experience is unmatched. All that violent smacking with every key stroke and I can type as fast as I can on my MacBook because it has memory so it buffers keystrokes.

I bought it because I want to experiment and try to write in as many of it’s forms as I can. This is a correcting model, so it will be a good first step backwards in time before I buy one of these:

I’m having my second eBay blowout!

Here’s the link. I have textbooks, books, video games for Mac and PC, and a bunch of other stuff. Check back because I plan to keep adding stuff all week.

Thanks for checking it out.

How my baby boy made me cry today

After I put my 16 mo. old down for the night, he started to yell for me, “Da dad d-da-d!” So after I figured out he had something to say, I went in his room. He was standing in his crib and he made the motion that means “pick me up,” so I did.

He then gave me a hug so big I was surprised. He even patted my back three times. Then he backed off, gave me a kiss and turned and pointed at his crib.

I fought the tears in my eyes, laid him down and covered him up. He let out a little baby sigh of releaf, and I said all my goodnight stuff, and turned and left his room, and cried a little.

That was one of the sweetest things he has ever done. He called me into his room for a hug and a kiss, and he has been sound asleep ever since.

Filco keyboards (finally) have a US distributor

The site is EliteKeyboards. The price is much better now that there is no broker fee, overseas shipping or troubles with Customs anymore. For now, three models are available, all with Cherry brown switches – the 104 key models, one with and one without n-key rollover (great fro fast typists and gamers), and the 87 key model which has the normal layout without the number pad. They are high quality and are quite popular in Asian countries.

I have no affiliation with this site or anyone involved, I just think Filco keyboards are fantastic and I want them to stay easy to get over here in the US.

A quote from the files of “But what do you really mean?”

“The press is a gang of cruel faggots. Journalism is not a profession or a trade — it’s a cheep catch-all for fuck-offs and misfits, a false doorway to the backside of life. A filthy piss ridden little hole nailed off by the building inspector but just deep enough for a wino to curl up from the sidewalk and masturbate like a chimp in a zoo cage.”

- Hunter S. Thompson

Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

Sick to death of Obama haters

Take the first line from this blog entry (and this is by far not the first mention of this sort of a thing).  the quote is, “Count former GOP presidential candidate Fred Thompson among the growing chorus of prominent Republicans who want President Obama’s policies to fail.”

Doesn’t this prove once and for all that Republicans don’t give a sh*t about the citizens of this country? What that quote is saying is that Thompson wants Obama’s policies on the war, health care and the economy to fail on all counts so the next (white) republican to get in the office will just swoop in and everything will be fixed automatically. And that the American people should all suffer in a recession with no jobs or health care just so this f*ckhead can say I told you so.

Hey republicans, your boy Bush Jr. did a bang up job. The public, us, your cattle, were terrified of that idiot. He got us in two wars, at least one of which is totally unwinable from the onset. Bush made this economy this bad – not Obama. And then the first black president gets elected into this terrible seat and we think he will just up and fix everything? I have a feeling even you, Fred Thompson, idiot that you are, can admit that fixing the f*ck ups of your party’s last president will take years, maybe decades to fix.

So Fred Thompson, go burn a cross or a flag, don your favorite hood and go f*ck yourself.

Even Obama desives a chance.

Video Game Review: Prey for Mac

I just finished the game Prey and it was great. It wasn’t the hardest game or anything, and the ending was of the “insert sequel tie-in here” variety, but the storyline was unexpected and fun, and all the weapons are a blast to kill aliens with. Similar to the old Doom model, once you fight a big boss, that enemy becomes a regular baddie to fight in the following levels. In fact, I’m fighting what I believed to be the last boss, and then he turned into a common enemy. For a couple levels after that fight, he was the only enemy I saw, about a quarter of the boss version’s health, but two and three at time. The devices used in level design are fun and new feeling, and the puzzles are also good.

More screenshots here

The main character’s drive to save his girl from the beasties is kind of thin. I mean, I would never take on a race of aliens on their own turf to get back my GF. Sorry. If that happened to anyone I know I’d wave goodbye and try to get on with my day. But not this guy, no. He’s all like “I’m gonna kill all you bastards.” His name is Tommy, and he swears throughout the game, F bombs and all, and there is quite a bit of blood and gore, so don’t rush out and buy this game for tween. Hell, they even show titties in this game.

But the play mechanics are good and well thought out, the carnage is splendid, and above all else, the game is fun. Running through a level with your guns blazing is not going to do it in this title. You need to use cover and look for traps, and most of the enemies take quite a bit to kill, and as with all modern first person shooters, taking careful aim and going for head shots (when the creature has a head, that is) will always pay off.

Level design is good, though game play is completely linear. You’re always on the lookout for the one door that will open and then when you get there you will face more uglies. There is some sort of gravity invention that allows you to walk upside down while on special tracks. There are other gravity things that you activate by shooting them and that answers how to get the health pickup you just noticed on the ceiling. Enemies can be on any level, just like you, so you’ll have to shoot aliens straight up in the air, though they are on the floor you just walked over. Confusing at times, but it makes for some interesting battles.

And you have spirit powers. The main character is Cherokee Indian, and everyone knows that Cherokee Indians have superpowers that kick in after their first death, and they are in the game too. You can separate your spirit and body and walk through force fields and find hidden items and spirit walkways. He even has a bow and arrow which is really strong when you whack a sumbitch in face with one. There should have been more abilities like this, but that is my only complaint about it.

So yeah, Prey (I played it on my C2D MacBook in OS X) is an all around fun game that lasts for several hours and is well worth the few bucks a copy will cost you on eBay.

4.0 out of 5

The sweet horror of a fake escape

Spring break is here, and I’m going nowhere. Isn’t it grand? Well, in a way it kind of is. My boy is walking and talking (at least trying to talk) and he’s really fun. My marriage is going better than anyone’s I know, and I have all I need to be happy. I think my life is better when there is a lot to do.

As for school, it goes well. I have a math class, so a hit to the GPA was expected going in, but I’m taking a writing a class so that should soften the blow. I’m only taking two classes this term, a light load, but there is so much more to do in this time of transition. I’m about to move my family to brave new world, one that promises to be better all around, but now it’s all up to me, and I’ll be the first to tell you I’m dumb as a f*ck when it comes to this sort of a thing. Here’s where I have to confess that if I wasn’t in the situation I’m in, I wouldn’t even lift a finger toward any goals out of sheer laziness. But I now have others who count on me so I’m forced to step up. Ain’t that a b*itch?

The answer to that is a quick and forceful “No,” but my biggest wet dream is to be able to pack a couple bags and just hit the road claiming to be a religious traveler. I would “walk the earth and get in adventures and sh*t, like Kane in Kung Fu” (can anyone place that quote?). I don’t know why, maybe I’ve read too much Taoist literature lately, or maybe too much Kerouac, but that is what I think about during the day when it gets rough with baby or whatever. It’s my happier place where I know I wouldn’t be happier. Just hit the road, hitchhiking, hiking and seeing everywhere. Maybe start the thing on a Greyhound and just go somewhere. Anywhere really, who cares where?  Check the place out, ride the bus and transfer all day. Find a place to dig in and start over, the whole while knowing it’s not for the long term either, so who cares what happens? What a dickish thing to even think about, much less admit to actively dreaming about.

It’ll never happen, so that’s why I think it’s safe.There is too much love in this house, and that is something I have never had. It feels foreign to me sometimes and I just want to run from it and hide until it goes away, but why? I know it’s a good thing, and I know that feeling is what civilized man has worked toward for all these years, so was I so mistreated for my whole life prior that good things feel bad and I want to run from what comforts? Jesus. What a bummer, and I think I just realized that right now.

And this new world I’ve entered by becoming a parent is a whole new level of interaction with people who would never have talked to me five years ago. That’s a trip and a bad hang at the same time all day long, kind of like acid but with guilt. I was a drug user for too long to take this stuff yet. I always think people like there are trying to look through me or something (like your dealer when he’s thinking, “is this looser really going to have $25 bucks to pay me tomorrow?”) so I end up playing constant D and just f*cking squirming until I can prematurely end the situation before I terminally embarrass myself or worse. I feel that now, even after having been sober for years. If it wasn’t such a taboo, I’d move to the woods and seclude myself from civilized man for a decade or two. Live in a cabin and, do stuff, like maybe write a manifesto. But the truth is city boys like me die trying that sh*t so I don’t think I’ll be doing that either.

So, like some warrior who did something before me, I’ll stand and fight for the good of the many, and like an indentured servant, I’ll continue the f*cking grind until I die of it.

Cheers

It’s all behind us

Holiday season ’08 is over. On break from school.

All the stress those things cause, and all the family hardships and inlaw insanity behind me, which I followed with a good lonely drunk on New Years to seal an uphill battle of a year. Now I start the new year at the crest of all that ugly right where I left off. Time isn’t real. Neither is tomorrow or next week, and past becomes intangible as it happens, so is it really real? I don’t think so, but if we have these memories in our mind to build off of and to use in the present (which is real), then the past must be real, but we can’t trust it because everyone remembers it different.

Sorry.

Anyway, I guess my head is kind of straight but I bought this heady translation of the Tao Te Ching with a gift card from the recent holiday of which we do not speak, for it shall not rear it’s ugly, perverted head for another year, and that book is making me think about things in different ways. I have read as many translations of that book as I I’ve found, and this one is older and really awkward and deep. I like it but I haven’t been able to fully wrap my head around it yet.

So now that the smoke’s cleared, and not that there was even that much, I had some good times and some hard times, I got all A’s in school except for one B, so I think I’m doing good. I didn’t get too many gifts or anything, so I won’t go into that, but a couple were cool. Next holiday is Valentine’s Day, but that one is better because it usually ends in a whole bunch of freaky sex, so I can weather the storm. Plus, there are no inlaws after we drop off the kid.

And in a few weeks, school starts again.

But none of that matters. I read on Engadget that Apple has a deal with a manufacturer to start producing netbooks this year. They might not come out for a while, but when they do, I will have one. I guess we’ll find out this Tuesday at the MacWorld keynote.

So anyway, I’ll write more later. For now, I’m gonna make a peanut butter and jelly and sandwich, a second stiff rum and coke, and watch an episode of Mad Men.

Deliciously creepy video

This one is damaging but worth watching … once. It is by Mark Twain, after all.