Thursday, January 19, 2006

Lessons Learned as a Merc Battle-Mech Pilot

Come on and take it...[Dave/Scott]
I spent the last week and a half playing MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries making Inner Sphere corporations pay top dollar for my mercenary company to wipe the floor with their enemies, while taking some time off to compete in Mech tournaments on Solaris. In that time I learned a couple things.
1. Rushing in first gets you smacked first
2. Running around and shooting mechs in the back of the head is better
3. Shooting people in the back of the head tends to piss them off if they don’t die
4. Shooting many mechs in the back of the head can lead to gangbang thrashings
5. Letting incompetent mech-pilots use expensive equipment does not usually end well
Well, that’s all the mech-piloting knowledge I have to pass on to you at this time. Hopefully you all won’t have to learn these things the hard way like I did. Spectre signing off.
♪…LIVE, WIN
DARE, FAIL
EAT DIRT
BITE THE NAIL…♪
Song of the Moment: “Carpe Diem Baby” by Metallica

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Science Lessons Courtesy of Warren Ellis

Iron Man[Dave/Scott]
I routinely check Warren Ellis’ weblog from time to time since he has a knack for posting rather interesting articles every once in a while. Ellis is a comic writer that enjoys grounding his stories with real-world facts or scientific theory. These two articles are a bit hokey, but they were interesting reads.

▫ Israeli Nanotech Armor
Recommended Reading:New Nanotech Armor Called 5 Times Stronger than Steel.” World Tribune.com. 9 Jan. 2006.

If this is true, the Palestinians have no chance, at least militarily when this stuff is in full scale production in a couple years. Here’s a snippet:
ApNano has tested armor said to be five times stronger than steel and twice as strong as any impact-resistant material used in protective gear.

Last year, a sample of the ApNano material was subjected to tests in which a steel projectile traveling at a speed of up to 1.5 kilometers per second slammed into the material.
Those crazy Israelis. First they give us the uzi submachine gun, now this?

▫ Make the Jump into Hyperspace
Recommended Reading:Take a Leap into Hyperspace.” New Scientist Space. 5 Jan. 2005.
Star Wars geeks rejoice! Well, it’s only a theoretical paper. Here’s a piece of the article:
Every year, the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics awards prizes for the best papers presented at its annual conference. Last year's winner in the nuclear and future flight category went to a paper calling for experimental tests of an astonishing new type of engine. According to the paper, this hyperdrive motor would propel a craft through another dimension at enormous speeds. It could leave Earth at lunchtime and get to the moon in time for dinner. There's just one catch: the idea relies on an obscure and largely unrecognised kind of physics. Can they possibly be serious?

The AIAA is certainly not embarrassed. What's more, the US military has begun to cast its eyes over the hyperdrive concept, and a space propulsion researcher at the US Department of Energy's Sandia National Laboratories has said he would be interested in putting the idea to the test. And despite the bafflement of most physicists at the theory that supposedly underpins it, Pavlos Mikellides, an aerospace engineer at the Arizona State University in Tempe who reviewed the winning paper, stands by the committee's choice. "Even though such features have been explored before, this particular approach is quite unique," he says.
Those who believe themselves to be scientifically inclined should give the full article a look. It gets somewhat technical about how this idea should work.
“…NOW THE TIME IS HERE
FOR IRON MAN TO SPREAD FEAR…”
Song of the Moment: “Iron Man” by Black Sabbath

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

New Roommate and Other Ravings

Whoa![Dave/Scott]
He’s Normal!
My Dad’s right, at least in that I always have some sort of problem with any set of roommates. Being worse than Matt was going to be hard to top, but we had this new guy that management told us was coming in our sights in case anything went bad from the get go. Turns out instead of totally ruining his first impressions with me and Jack like Matt had, he turned out to be pretty normal, which is good! He drinks beer, watches sports, doesn’t mooch, and doesn’t scare away potential guests! Oh, his name is Ryan and this beer’s for him. Yes, I know it’s 2 PM…

Collisions are Better with Hotties Involved
I was driving back to the apartment with Ryan after going to the grocery store when some girl decides to turn right on red without stopping, almost leading to an accident. I begin to shout, “You fucking bi…” and focused in on the driver of the other car and completed my sentence with, “Oh, you’re pretty cute.” Ryan concurred.

More NextWave Plugging
Rather than writing about the upcoming book myself, I’ll just copy and paste what the editor had to say below:
While Lowe would love to simply tell everyone to buy "Nextwave" because it promotes world peace and will change their lives, he chooses to be even more eloquent and tell you why, saying "The answer here is eightfold:

1. "'NEXTWAVE' is the most unique super hero comic on the market.
2. "'NEXTWAVE' is printed with mother's milk.
3. "'NEXTWAVE' will make you fall in love with Warren Ellis (you remember what love is, RIGHT?).
4. "'NEXTWAVE' is the funniest comic book ever (take that, Dark Knight Strikes Again!)
5. "'NEXTWAVE' proves that Stuart Immonen made a pact with the devil to make him the most versatile artist in the world.
6. "'NEXTWAVE' contains subliminal messages that will increase your IQ and lower your cholesterol.
7. "'NEXTWAVE' gloriously brings four lower tier characters back up into the upper tier while creating a few hilarious new characters.
8. "'NEXTWAVE' knows where you live. Don't piss it off."
Comic of the Moment: NextWave by Warren Ellis and Stuart Immonen

Friday, January 06, 2006

Apple Monkey, Chinese Shenanigans, and other Madness

A new toy[Dave/Scott]
Apple Monkey
My Creative Zen Micro was having some problems with its headphone jack, again. I guess the thing has taken too much of a beating whenever I go to the gym, especially when I do preacher curls since the headphone plug pressed directly into the padding of the exercise equipment no matter what I do while doing the curls. Unsure of how much longer the player was going to last (I can’t stand the station the gym plays), I went down to Georgia Tech’s bookstore and purchased a discounted iPod Nano (4 GB). Yes, I know, I bought and iPod, something I swore against in the past… but it’s so small!

Exit Matt
It took a semester but Jack finally got building management to move Matt out of our apartment. He could have been a nice guy had he not talked too much (and so fast), laid off the drugs, and treated the apartment better. With him gone, everything seems a lot more peaceful than they had been in a couple months.

Chinese Shenanigans
Jack thought it would be a good idea to start inviting people back to the apartment now that Matt had departed, so yesterday we had Jessie and her boyfriend, Aaron over for Chinese. They ordered their food before Jack and I did and drove on down the pad and we just hung out until the delivery man called. For some reason he had the food Jack and I had ordered, but not Jessie and Aaron’s so we waited downstairs for fifteen minutes for it to come while the latter two sat there starving. Driver finally comes and we take the food upstairs.

Jack opens up our bag when we get upstairs to find the delivery guy had given us the wrong order. He calls up the restaurant and tries to describe the food in the bag we received as “some meat with broccoli” and “meat on a stick.” Luckily the driver hadn’t given our order to someone else and came back to trade bags. A bit frustrating night, I must say.
”A life, some would argue, is a series of problems. There’s no denying the truth in that – but why get lost in it? Why not rise above the truth... …and lead a good life? Shouldn’t we all look at problems as a chance for us to find… …solutions?
Comic of the Moment: Lex Luthor: Man of Steel by Bryan Azzarello and Lee Bermejo

Sunday, January 01, 2006

Looking Forward to 2006

Nextwave:  Healing America by Beating People Up.[Dave/Scott]
Ok, time to let the optimist in me have some say after the last post, which was a tad pessimistic. It’s kind of weird waking up in the morning and not having to worry about classes anymore, which was something of some certainty at least when trying to figure out what was going to happen the next day. There are a couple things to look forward to for me such as a steady source of income, the possibility of a new Metallica CD (if those lazy bastards get to the recording of it soon), X3, Nextwave, etc. Back to blitzing employers!
♪…HERE I GO NOW
HERE I GO INTO NEW DAYS…♪
Song of the Moment: “I Disappear” by Metallica

Reflections on 2005

Bruce Wayne[Dave/Scott]
I don’t know, 2005 was a mixed bag for me. It’s hard to weigh the good and bad to determine whether or not it was a good or bad year overall. Sure a lot of crap happened in the last couple months, though I don't think it should take total precedence over what happened earlier. I don’t really feel like typing a lot for this post so I’ll put everything into lists.
The Good
1. Graduating from GT
2. The good times with my senior seminar
3. Running around Atlanta with (Little) Chad and Ian
4. The Corrosion of Conformity concert in Atlanta
5. Thanksgiving in Augusta
Honorable Mention: Batman Begins being something actually good

The Bad
1. Almost not graduating due to registrar office’s mishap
2. The timely laptop malfunction
3. Various car mishaps
4. Apartment troubles concerning Matt Kowtko
5. The events leading up to the fallout with Adrianne
Dishonorable Mention: Losing my phone twice in a 24 hour period
Yeah, I could’ve made longer lists, but I really don’t feel like thinking too hard right now. I felt really beat up by the last couple months of the year, but I still came out ok I think. Mixed bag, huh?
♪…SEASONS CHANGE
OUR TIME IS GONE
OUR SOULS HAVE GROWN MUCH COLDER
BELIEVE IN ME BECAUSE I DAMN SURE DON'T BELIEVE IN YOU…♪
Song of the Moment: “Seven Days” by Corrosion of Conformity

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