It's Late, I'm Tired...

...and here are a handful of words that I find really hilarious during this moment of severe sleep deprivation.

Chainsaw
Ammo
Jeep
Push
Slurpee
Ski Lift
Van
Lipstick
Pizza
Blog (Blaugh)
Pie

Remote Control Makes Everything Cooler

Here's a little tip: if you want me to obsess over something way more than I ought to, then allow me to mess with it without needing to be tethered to it with wires.

A while ago I had Malachai assist me in setting Zeus up as a Linux server (dual-booting, of course, because although Wine is getting better, it still does not run the overwhelming majority of my games without horrible glitches). Webmin was installed, as was an SSH tunnel. During my trip to Rivals today (in which there was no D&D, only GURPS this week) I whipped out the ol' laptop and SSH'd to Zeus. Then I did the geek thing and ran Irssi. Because although the laptop already has a copy of mIRC installed (registered, to boot - about time I bought the damn thing), it's just cooler to do my IRC through an SSH tunnel. This also means that, thanks to Webmin, I can essentially do this from anywhere in the known universe. As long as said universe has an Internet connection, at least.

About the only problem is that I need to boot Zeus into Linux in order to do this, as there is no Windows equivalent of this sort of thing (to my knowledge). Which is precisely the purpose of the Ferretcage project - my mini-ITX server in the making will be set up specifically for use as a remote machine, to which I can access files, IRC, and other such functions from any other computer. Plus I can fire up lynx and browse sites that might be blocked in that portion of the world, since it's Ferretcage that's accessing the net, not the machine I've connected to it from.

Ferretcage, however, is quite unfinished. I will need several things before I can even begin to get it running:

1. A hard drive. The system at the moment consists of its motherboard, the onboard hardware, and 256 MB of RAM.
2. A way to mount said hard drive in the case.
3. A dremel tool with which to customize the case and create holes with which to mount The Power Button, HD44780 LCD screen (Malachai obsesses over these things - he must have a hundred of them just lying around), and the various ports and sockets.
4. A way to stick my faux-IBM "WW" logo and "FERRETCAGE CT-180" designation on the faceplate.

Pop quiz: which game series had a technology called the CT-180? Bonus points: What did the CT-180 turn out to be?

We Must Resist! We Must Push Back!

I finally own a copy of Resistance: Fall of Man, widely hailed as the finest launch title for the Playstation 3. I see before me: a rather competent first-person shooter with some really inventive weaponry and a few small flaws.

While I'm only a few chapters in to the game, I'm liking the weapon designs (even the apparently cobbled-together M5A2 assault rifle, which is equal parts M14, M203, and L96). The Bullseye is pretty inventive and presents some fun opportunities for killing from cover.

The small flaws I spoke of, though: I cannot stand the default control configuration. While you can rebind controls - a welcome change that was not present in the playable demo - you can't change the crouch to a toggle, making a Call of Duty-like control scheme impossible, and the zoom function is hardwired as a toggle and can't be changed to a momentary button press. This nature of the controls forces me to place Crouch on one of the shoulder buttons, making it rather difficult to throw grenades (which are on the other shoulder button). My control scheme needs more tweaking, but too much tweaking and I'd be stretching myself to adapt to a control scheme that's nothing like I'm used to. I'm amazed Insomniac hadn't patched those functions in.

All things considered, though, this game does seem worthy of the praise that it has been receiving. While it's not the best game ever...what launch title really is? I mean, aside from Super Mario World...

The Blaugh Shops At [Insert Reputable Fashion Store Here]

The Blaugh has received a makeover once again, this time courtesy of BloggerStyles.com in the form of the Dark Marble theme. Basically, I got bored of the solid-color, mobile-friendly look and wanted to do something a little more unique, a little more image-intensive, and a little more frustrating to you dial-uppers out there. (Or would the term be up-dialers? Dialer-ups? Meh, whatever, according to my Analytics data, there's probably only one of you that reads Blaugh that's still on dial-up anyway...)

A new header graphic is in the works at the moment. Something about the theme seems to make Don Corleone look a little out of place.

<@Atma> it's like mexico puked in my mouth

Tomorrow is April the 20th, which I am told quite forcefully is the tenth anniversary of a certain infamous high school shooting. In accordance with the Official Weasel's Blaugh Tenets of Publishing, we will not be observing any special practices on this day. We will not mention, remember, or think about the event. We shall not read Wikipedia articles about it, we absolutely should not skim over any news articles on the subject, and we most assuredly will not come to any frame of mind even tangentially related to this.

That is all.

I Am Concealed And Potentially Hazardous

The cheapest game I've ever purchased (outside of all the "free" ones I've got): Hidden & Dangerous 2, for 99 cents. I was at GameStop in Lloyd Center and they had mounds of them in the bargain bin. They were practically giving them away, and since I had the four quarters to rub together, I just opted to toss them over the counter and buy the thing. And I don't regret it.

The Hidden & Dangerous series has always been something of an underdog; the first one had the misfortune of appearing at around the same time as Rainbow Six: Rogue Spear, which essentially robbed its audience, as both games are hardcore tactical simulation shooters. The second game didn't fare much better in sales; Raven Shield and Ghost Recon were out about the same time due to some unfortunate delays.

If you're got the dollar to spare, I'd go looking for a copy of H&D 2. No need to go searching for the first game, though; it was released as freeware by Illusion Softworks to promote the sequel. If you can get a handle on the interface - and the game's nigh unforgiving difficulty - it's well worth a try for fans of the "classic" style Rainbow Six games, or anybody that wished Commandos: Strike Force were more like the first three games.

Chisel By Numbers

I'm fending off a Picross addiction.

I've played through basically every one of Nintendo's Picross games: the two for Game Boy, the Super Nintendo edition and most of the NP volumes, Picross DS, and even the majority of some non-Nintendo editions, like Demiforce's Drymouth, Logic Pro 2, Tongueman's Logic, and Armor Picross Deluxe (yes, I bought it).

And now I'm going through it all over again now that I've been alerted - thanks to Siliconera - to a currently Japan-only title called Rittai Picross (Block Picross). As the title implies, this is Picross with blocks - as in, three-dimensional cubes. It's Picross in 3D. The game is essentially what would happen if somebody were to take Ken Silverman's SLAB6D voxel editor and added puzzle elements to it.

While I haven't bought a copy yet - bless you, R4 - I intend to if it ever gets released in English. I like what I see.

Oh, and I'm even spreading my Picross addiction to others - Malachai found a Picross implementation for the Android G1 phone and has been playing it for a while, and hell, I'm sure if EksFaktr reads this post, he's going to end up getting a copy for himself. To Hell with the language barrier - the instructions are pretty easy to follow since they have graciously added visual aids.

Wherein Weasel Is Decidedly NOT Shamus Young

It's that time of the week - time to blog about D&D. For those who are not interested in this sort of thing...well, I suppose you could go look at some cute little kittens or something.

When we last left the group, we had just finished setting fire to the Evil Bugbear Temple, opting to take only a handful of the 11 Statuettes of Infinite Number. Grog Bash had just taken and equipped a pair of Gauntlets of Karate Chopping (1d10 damage for karate chops), and I had just discovered our long-lost Rogue (Camellia, who hasn't been seen with our group for four weeks) sleeping in my portable bedroom (a donkey cart, which we represent in miniature form with a figurine of a robot cat). I must have really failed my spot check to not notice a rogue sleeping in my giant robot cat cart for four weeks' worth of campaign, but it wouldn't be the first time. On the topic of misplaced miniatures, Grog is now represented in the game as a giant ogre wielding a tree.

We've circled the wagon - the giant robot cat cart in the middle and everybody else in a circle around it - and suddenly the party is under attack by giant rats. Since Grog is on watch, he immediately starts yelling and draws his great axe. All of us except our bard, whose name I've now realized is Chaifnell, manage to wake up from the noise. Chaifnell (whose name makes me think of the word "chafe") fails his listen check spectacularly and merely ends up snoring loudly.

The rats gain initiative and start swarming Grog, but since they're rather weak, most of them just bounce off Grog's plate armor. The last one critically misses and somehow ends up biting himself (the DM does not actually take any of his hit points for this though, disappointingly). Grog's turn comes next as the other party members use up their whole turns just getting up, so his first instinct is to...well, what else? Kill the rats, of course! He makes a successful hit with his tree-axe, but the DM opts to just kill the rat without letting Grog roll for damage. Asking why reveals that the rats only have five hit points each. Grog would probably have exploded the thing regardless of how much damage he does.

Now that the rats have been defeated, Camellia decides to cook them - and by "cook them" she means "give one to Grog on a ten-foot pole and have him hold it over the fire, then go to sleep." Grog obviously wants no part of it, but a battle of wits (i.e. both characters roll for Charisma) ends in a victory-by-default for Camellia, leaving Grog in the position of Master Chef. (If any of you accidentally read that as Master Chief, I will punch you.) Predictably, the half-orc's cooking leaves much to be desired, and most of the people still sleeping are awoken by the noxious fumes emanating from the solid chunk of carbon that was once a rat.

Something I glossed over and forgot to blog last week was the Secret Ingredient, the "real" treasure from the Bugbear compound. We had interrogated the Bugbear chef to figure out what the Secret Ingredient was, but the box containing it was locked and nobody could open it. Camellia, however, succeeded on her first attempt - but nobody knew what the thing inside was, aside from it being a plant. Richard almost proved useful here, attempting to identify the mysterious vegetable, but failed his skill check in such a way that he could identify it but could not remember the name. So we ventured to the town of Velgar to get somebody else to identify the thing. It didn't look like a two-horse town, but try finding a decent appraiser...alas, our attempts failed, and we ventured to the local tavern instead.

During our visit to the tavern, we learn that Richard is even further from a ranger than I previously suspected (he attempted to eat a rat steak). "Ranger" must be an honorary title - he went to the trouble of having Camellia gain him a five-finger discount on a donkey and cart. So now I am no longer the only character with a mobile bedroom. In the process of stealing the donkey, Camellia somehow managed to seduce the stable boy due to her ridiculously high Charisma (more than me, I believe).

We stop for a moment and realize that we were on a quest at some point, to locate some treasure. The party elects to embark upon the arguably more interesting quest of identifying the Mysterious Box of Secret Ingredients. Grog converts his pack of Statuettes of Infinite Number into a slightly smaller pack of 11.

But before we get going at all, we decide to stay at the inn. Johnny Walker (who has remained unmentioned up to this point) splurges on the best rooms for everyone, including ale, wenches, and some male belly dancers for Camellia. But late at night, Richard's room has been broken into, meaning 800 gold goes missing, since Richard left all his equipment in a locked chest outside. The thugs that broke into Richard's room also stole his nobleman's outfit, meaning he is now quite nude. Karma? I think so. Camellia takes advantage of the confusion to steal a half-empty jug of some unidentified liquid, which prompts Malachai (Grog's player) to engage in a lengthy discussion about poisoning one's own drink, but only if the character is already immune to such poison.

Richard, though, has a vendetta against the bastards that left him naked. Since his traveller's clothing is locked in his chest outside, there's no way to get his clothes on without first leaving his room. So Richard steals the sheets from his bed, somehow makes his way to his donkey cart and gets his traveler's clothes on without any of the other players really realizing it. Since nobody really paid attention to the state of Richard's nudity, I brought it into question, at which point it was briefly determined that Richard was in a state of Schrodinger's Clothes: he was both nude and not nude, at the same time. Such a state only lasted for five seconds, however, as Richard's player made it quite clear that he was now clothed.

Camellia's serial kleptomania (in the finest tradition of DOUG The Eagle) comes in handy, as she somehow disguises herself as the (sleeping) innkeeper and takes his accounting ledger. Within it, she discovers complete records of payments made, as well as bribes taken by the real innkeeper. She makes herself scarce, but realizes that she cannot ride her "discount" donkey without a saddle. She somehow fails her Sleight of Hand skill check and retreats to another stable - the one where she previously charmed a stable boy - and gets a saddle from there instead.

Now out in the plains, we are accosted by grey, scaly-skinned humanoids with no eyes. (The DM notes that they have very large noses.) A spot check determines that they have weapons. (How useful.) And Camellia somehow steals Richard's donkey-cart and PUTS IT IN HER INVENTORY. The donkey cart - and everything Richard had loaded in it - now exists in hammerspace.

Our humanoids, however, have unclear intentions. My (Remielle's) attempts at gleaning what they want end in failure. So we default to the only diplomatic action we can: full-on combat. While the enemy gets an early turn due to recycled initiative, one of the creatures provokes an Attack of Opportunity against Grog, resulting in its immediate (and gory) death by critical hit. Grog has Cleave as one of his feats, meaning for every enemy he kills, he gets an additional attack action. He takes advantage of this, and kills the only other enemy he can reach. There are only two left, both of which are quickly and unspectacularly killed by the rest of the party, in a manner that I was not really paying attention to. Meanwhile, Richard somehow provokes a friendly-fire incident (not me this time!) by accidentally shooting Grog in the back. While Grog does dodge the arrow, he does go on a rather long tirade about how I shoot him in the back during Left 4 Dead.

Having finished this encounter, we somehow enter another random encounter, this time with another bizarre grey thing, except female and bearing a striking resemblance to Left 4 Dead's Witch. It naturally attacks me first, dealing 14 damage to my current 21, leaving me with fewer hitpoints than a first-level fighter. Thankfully, Gwendolyn fixes this up in her next turn. The "witch" refuses to take any damage except from Grog Bash. During Camellia's turn, she briefly contemplates shooting the Witch with a crossbow, but Grog is in the way and threatening to club her with a tree, should she happen to hit the wrong target (as she already has once in this same battle).

The Witch finally dies. Somehow. I didn't see how. I think Johnny Walker stabbed it with The OMG Stick. So finally we find ourselves in Swamp Edge City...and at that, the campaign is put on hold as Johnny Walker's player must go for dinner, Malachai must go for work, and I must stand up, as my ass hurts from sitting in this chair all day. God damn! Get some better cushions! I ought to start bringing a pillow with me, or else request that D&D be played in presence of the couch.

Party Time! Excellent!

It's Friday, it's 8:30, and it's time to Weasel's World! My name's Weasel, and with me as always is...um...

Right, we'll skip that part.

What have I been doing this past week or so? Well, I'm actually kind of back into the Doom swing of things. My next project is AltMod, an alternative to my usual realistic style of Doom mod. So you'll be playing with unrealistic weapons that do crazy things, and monsters that don't actually speak. Weapons so far are a revolver that, if a shot is missed, will ricochet to hit the nearest monster; a silent auto-pistol that really needs tweaking, and a CO2 nailgun that leaves nails sticking out of walls if you miss. Kind of a cool effect for Doom.

I'm rather disappointed in the Playstation 3's Linux support, since there is no direct access to the system's video hardware, I can't use accelerated graphics and actually put the damn thing to use. I can only hope that it'll play videos decently, because it's failing pretty hard so far. I can't even access it via SSH from outside my LAN.

My room's been undergoing tons and tons of redesigns. Major components of furniture are moving about, and about the only things that haven't moved are my bed and my computer desk. My A/V rig (i.e. every game console I own) is getting renovated on an almost weekly basis as I try to figure out how I can hook up every console at once without having to unplug anything. More difficult than it sounds, and given that it sounds pretty hard in the first place...

And for the Full Disclosure Dept, I have written this post after having had two shots of ouzo. Actually pretty good stuff, smells of licorice, tastes of nothing, and feels like I've started a bonfire in my chest. Bet nobody even noticed that I was under the influence until I said that, did they? (Granted, it probably isn't very strong ouzo, nor were they very large shots...)