all things me

Finally I found out what the amazing intro song of Splinter Cell is: Name of the Game by Crystal Method. The title of this post is partly from it, excluded the bad language (m*****f***er, fill in the blanks if you want to).

Some updates. A friend of mine, Fritz, told me he had problems with the fancy JavaScript pop-up window thingamabob on LGM (my alien collection). So, I added normal links, too. The pictures will open in the frame and if you have a smart browser like Mozilla or Mozilla Firefox they’ll also resize if the pictures are too big.

Alas, I read in an article my Grandma sent me that Stephen King is retiring. I can’t see nothing on this on the official site, nothing apparent at least.

Note to self: Adding a nicer search function a la Raena. I removed the counting of search results because I use pagination so if there are 10+ results it would show “There are 10 results…” even though there were more. Also, I changed the length ($excerpt_length) of “the_exceprt_rss” function in template-functions-post.php, line 194.

Added a Statistics hack for my own fun. Note to self: Doesn’t show private messages.

An observation: I don’t understand what the word count really counts… it always seems to be missing a few words. E.g. it claimed there was 18 words before this note here, and I counted 19…

I downloaded a lot of goldie oldie games from Pelit [Games] magazine’s site (you need to be a subscriber and registered to download): New Adventures of Zak McKracken, Maniac Mansion Deluxe, and Mario Forever. I also downloaded Codename Gordon, a 2D game with a Halflife motif. I was looking for Space Quest: Replicated, a fan-made game, but didn’t find it.

*insert proper curse word here* I’m going crazy with these mad insects flying around. They’re attracted to my desk lamp. If only I could whack ’em.

Last night, around 1:50 I finally got to the Final Boss Fight in Beyond Good & Evil. I fought the darn thing for about half an hour and finally after a whole lotta K-Bups and going through the “choreography” over and over (I ended up playing with my eyes closed — hey, I was tired! ) I beat it! The end movie begins, good. And then, no voices, screen fades to white. The background music seems stuck. Nothing happens. I hit del, esc, any key. Nada. Ctrl + Alt + Del opens the program list, luckily. It was 2:20 then and I couldn’t stay awake anymore so I had to leave it at that.

This afternoon I decided to try it again. There had been a saving point just before the final battle but that was alright. <irony>I knew it by heart anyway…</irony> This time it took me 10 minutes to beat, not flawlessly though. And this time the end movie worked. *phew*

So, now I can say I beat Beyond Good & Evil.

I joined BG&E fanlisting, by the way.

Yesterday when Dad left for his annual volleyball tournament (company vs. company) I stole Beyond Good & Evil which he’d been playing. It’s an interesting game — a nice change after FPSs (well, I just played NOLF II which isn’t all FPS either). And very very funny! The installation music, which later is playing at Akuda Bar, was a hoot!

On Ubi Forums I read how to get the song, so now I’m listening to it over and over and over… “Propaganda!”

The game is set on a planet called Hillys and you play Jade, a reporter/photographer who joins a rebellious group, the IRIS Network, which is trying to reveal the truth and free the Hillyans from their oppressors, the Alpha Section. Along the way you get to fight alongside with uncle Pey’j and Double H.

In addition to making money by exposing a conspiracy, Jade photographs the fauna of Hillys for a Natural Museum catalogue.

There are a few (I’ve found 4 so far) pirate caves on the planet. Once you enter the pirates (or looters) steal 100 Units from you and you have to chase them. At least I didn’t pass the “race” on the 1st try, so after a couple of dozens (in total, not per cave) “Look out, Miss Jade! Looters! Don’t let them get away, Miss Jade!” a la Double H, I felt like banging my head against the table (I took an easy way out, I turned the volume down…). But once I do catch the darn looters and get their treasure, plus a big pearl with which I’m able to buy all kinds of goodies to my (sorry, Jade’s) hovercraft — ah, what a feeling.

Game’s website

The game site is very very odd. Or not the main site, but the “side sites” of
Hillyan News and IRIS Network. On Hillyan News it says “Others News” and on IRIS Network “Lastest News”. Bah! And none of the sites can decide if it’s “Hillyan” or “Hyllian”, “Hillys” or “Hyllis”.

Updates: Read The Little Prince (Dad had got it from “his English teacher” ; some business English course) and finished Unreal II today. Made a card for my little cousin (literally ‘little’, 4 yrs) whom we are visiting tomorrow

Didn’t have work today (hurraah!!) and I slept for almost 13 hours.
And yesterday, I did leave at 2pm. I have my opening statement sketched in case they drag me to court…

Yesterday Dad had installed (or whatever you call it) 256 Mb more memory to my computer… behind my back! I noticed something was “wrong” when I saw my monitor light blinking (if you leave it on, it blinks when there’s no signal) but I thought I had just forgotten it cause I had to do some bachelor’s thesis stuff late the previous night.

When I was playing Splinter Cell he came there to watch and asked how my computer was working and “how much memory do you have? Do you know?” I couldn’t understand what he meant and said “256 of course, or you mean hard drive?” He made me Alt+Tab to desktop and check; My Computer –> Properties. “Look! It has multiplied!!” Dad said and slipped away.

The computer, sorry — Simon, does run smoothly. The thermo-goggle mode in Splinter Cell looks amazing (well, the whole game looks amazing, all the lights that weren’t there before on Geforce).

To another thing, yesterday our study councellor and her dog were here. I was “stupid” enough to talk to the dog so I was its best friend after that (and also, my hand smelled like cheese rice cakes). I was already on my way downstairs when I hear ‘clickclickclicketyclick’ down the stairs. I had to turn back and ask them to keep the dog entertained so I can leave.

Anyway, this morning I noticed that it had decided the front of our library is good enough place for a toilet. Nice one. Hopefully no one steps on it.

Hmm… I was going to write about something… oh well.

I forgot my key this morning (the key to the room here at work) because I had taken it off that thing, that loop thing on trousers to slip the belt through. What is it? I don’t even know it in Finnish (at least not right now). Anyway, luckily there was a cleaning lady (the same that said good morning to me the other day) around so I asked her to open the door for me.

There’s this man (I think he’s Indian, but that’s not the point) who hands out free magazines every morning (or how could I know, he could be there all day). He says “have a nice day” in a high-pitched, monotonous voice to every single person (almost). And he chases you!! Almost forces you to take the magazine (I usually just shake my head). Also, when he sees someone running to a tram he pushes the button to open the door and holds it open until the person has reached the tram. So, then the person must take the magazine cause the man has been so kind. The “have a nice day” is a sneaky way too cause who can say no to that? Well… after a while and too many unnecessary magazines, I could.

Talking about monotonous… there’s a monotonous drilling going on somewhere in the building. Agh. *drrr drrr drrr* *drrrrrrrr*

Hehey, the next entry (if it’s not today’s) will cause the 1st entry to scroll off this page. Exciting!!

Can’t wait to get home (have to go via the library, I’m taking Carrie and the two translation studies books back) and start playing Conflict Desert Storm II (I stole it from Dad cause he’s playing Hitman II at the moment, and very well too) with my brand new graphics card. I could play Tomb Raider too but I’m in an annoying place and my switch-target key doesn’t work! It’s the same key as roll (I’ve changed it to Alt) and it should work when the gun is drawn but Kurtis just ROLLS! No “typo” there, I do mean Kurtis. Uh oh… a spoiler. I think the problem is that the roll key should be tapped and my Alt is a bit sticky. I have to change it to Ctrl or something and try again cause I’m not giving up now!

Updates: Notes on Carrie in TGWLSK
I started playing Unreal II after I got stuck in an annoying place in Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness (if you’ve played it: I’m stuck at the Ghost part… not because of the ghost but because of the damn picture…). TRAOD is a good game adventure wise (lots to play) but very bad quality wise. It has lots of bugs, suddenly Lara’s leg disappears and is replaced by a funny line that goes diagonally from her waist to the ground (I should take a screenshot the next time that happens…) or she shakes uncontrollably when she’s crawling under something (or running/walking up/down the stairs in a not straight line). Also, she goes nuts when she has a gun drawn (and there’s an enemy nearby) — automatic aim is not always a good thing I’ve noticed. Especially when it’s badly done. It’s VERY annoying when the enemy is somewhere below you… And, of course — there was the chipmunk + Lara thing (speech going too fast) which I got fixed though (by tinkering with the DirectX settings.
As I told a friend of mine, the game designers were probably concentrating on something else than the overall quality of the game (namely, the jeans-covered quality of Lara’s behind…).

STILL listening: Maroon 5 This Love

Last night I dreamt that we got a new dog — a white poodle that I suggested we’d name Simone (I just realized… it’s almost like Simon (name of my computer)). Dad’s been telling how he’s seen very cute bichon frishés; one of his colleagues (at least) has bichons and sometimes they visit the office — I saw one last summer.

Grhm… and I was going to refrain from babbling… (at first there *was* only that line about the update)

[edit]
@ 20:55
Updates: Fanlisting check and I joined Brad Pitt fanlisting; I’m a real convert. I used to think he was only a pretty face along with Johnny Depp (and he’s really good too!) and Tom Cruise (still can’t stand *him*…) but he’s REALLY GOOD! Especially when he has to fake an accent. I mean *act* an accent.

I’ve also started liking Kiefer Sutherland because of 24 (2nd season)…

I’m living in yesterday… Anywhooo.

Updates: FINALLY a Splinter Cell Fanlisting; I was this –> <– close to starting my own…

Been very tired today. Slow start in the morning. Don’t know why though cause I slept perhaps for… about 6 hours. Maybe it’s the sleep deficiency from the beginning of the week.

Oy vey! A tv critic claimed in the newspaper today that the Sleepwalkers is based on a Stephen King book that “experts say is thicker than Xmas ham”. And what book might that be, Mr. Critic?

Started playing Tomb Raider: Angel of Darkness today because my sister stole the Morrowind…….. I had problems with the sound though (think of chipmunks and Lara…) but I found a tip how to fix that so I’ll try with better luck tomorrow or w/end.

Tomorrow I’ll be moving to a new desk at work. I’ve been separated from the other people working on the same project so I’m really out of the loop. I mean, they should be telling me what they need from the ontology. I’ll also get my hands on the parser soon.
Hopefully my lunchbuddies will remember me even though I won’t be on their way… If they don’t, I’ll be eating 1 choco cookie per day for lunch…

Announcement: Dark Tower VI: Song of Susannah out in 5 days (June 8)! And DT VII: The Dark Tower is coming out on September 21 — King’s birthday

If Meredith chooses Ian tomorrow in the Bachelorette, I’m going to cry! Not of happiness!

Finally decided to join the clique A Year of Reading. I’ve been reading DT5 crazily to get it read in May (one of the rules, one of two, is to read one book per month (at least try) and I was determined to do that even though I wasn’t in the clique) and because of that I’ve stayed up preeeetty late. I have 4 days to finish it now but I only have about 300 pages so it’s no biggie. I’ve been reading Everything’s Eventual for my translation studies paper but I don’t know if I’ve really read it or just skimmed for the appropriate words (realia). Some stories I’ve read and some just skimmed. Maybe I’ll be true to myself and admit it doesn’t count as reading. Besides, I’ve read it before. I am going to read Carrie — and EE in *Finnish* — after the paper’s done, though. Cause I can keep them till (*checks To Do list*) mid-June.

Luckily I’m working for the summer, so I get to read Black House on my way to/from the department. I know nothing keeps me from reading my backpack books in more places than bus stops, buses, train stations, trains, trams, University, cafes… but when I’m not in one of those places (or similar), I’m at home thus I can read my bedside book.

A bit silly, but I updated previous entries. I noticed I had forgotten to add some things to the new layout’s blog after writing them to the old one (i.e. written while I was making the new layout). Anyway, nothing serious, just some spider stuff. Check out May 14th and 22nd if you want.

@ 13:50
Quote of the day: Purple sold scary books better than any other color, Mike had been told. — Stephen King: Everything’s Eventual, 1408

@ 23:18
Day 5 without my TV: I hope the Stand they showed on Estonian Channel 2 ended last week cause my tv is the only one which shows that channel…

I started wondering how many games I do in fact have installed… Let’s see: 1. Black and White, 2. Blair Witch II, 3. Desert Storm, 4. Enter the Matrix, 5. Ghost Recon, 6. Globetrotter II, 7. Half-Life, 8. Half-Life Blue Shift, 9. Half-Life Counter Strike (haven’t played though, cause it’s only multiplayer), 10. Half-Life Opposing Force, 11. Hitman I, 12. Hitman II, 13. IGI II, 14. Iron Storm, 15. Monkey Island III, 16. Grim Fandango, 17. Max Payne I, 18. Max Payne II, 19. Morrowind, 20. Need For Speed Porsche 2000, 21. Need For Speed II, 22. No One Lives Forever I, 23. Outcast (it’s a great game, must play again sometime), 24. Prisoner of War, 25. Quake II, 26. Rogue Spear, 27. Starsky & Hutch, 28. The Longest Journey, 29. The Sims (plus extensions), 30. Sum of All Fears, 31. X-Files, 32. Splinter Cell, 33. Tomb Raider II, 34. XIII.
Eh…. maybe… I could… uninstall… a few… I mean, most games keep their saved games so I wouldn’t have to worry about starting everything from scratch…
Got rid of some other programs as well while I was at it.