Had to take one of our dogs to the vet this week. He was urinating in the house (which is very unusual for him.) And when he pissed his bed, we knew something was up. Well they did the bloodwork and found not a bladder infection, but that he has diabetes. Just got the blood and urine tests back today. It's Trakker the half husky that has it. He's around 10 years old now. He's always seemed to be the healthy one. But the vet said we caught it just at the very beginning of it, so we can slowly transition to the new diet and insulin tests.

Poor Trakker, this is going to suck for him.

Well, as I've been predicting for the past few months, the BT machine breathed its last breath sometime this morning. It won't boot at all. Bow thinks the video card's fan died and it's overheating/dead. It doesn't really matter because the machine is almost 7 years old. It needed to be replaced and this is the excuse I was waiting for to get it done.

Now thanks to the suggestions you guys gave me a couple of weeks ago, I've got some stuff on a newegg wishlist. I shall link these items now! Because honestly, I'm really worried I got a bunch of expensive crap that isn't compatable. I've decided to make this my new work machine, so I need good stuff (plus writeoff!) I picked some of these brands specifically because I'm pretty brand loyal. All my machines have Asus motherboards in them, for example, and they've been great to me for years and years.

1. Windows 7 Pro 64bit

2. CORSAIR CMPSU-850TX 850W ATX12V 2.2 / EPS12V 2.91 SLI Ready CrossFire Ready Active PFC Power Supply

3. AMD Phenom II X4 965 Black Edition Deneb 3.4GHz 4 x 512KB L2 Cache 6MB L3 Cache Socket AM3 140W Quad-Core Processor

4. ASUS Crosshair III Formula AM3 AMD 790FX ATX AMD Motherboard

5. 2 x Crucial Ballistix Tracer 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR3 SDRAM DDR3 1600 (PC3 12800) Desktop Memory

6. SAMSUNG 2494SW Glossy Black 24" 5ms Widescreen LCD Monitor

Already have the case, dvd/cd drive, hard drives (though might buy more, right?) And I've already got the video card for it. I think all I'm missing is a CPU cooler, but I'm not sure what I should get for that. I need to know what will fit in the case really.

I hear all the time about how WoW is full of little kids, which I noticed myself when I tried it. It was also one of the reasons I stopped playing it. I get enough immaturity on SL, I don't need it in a game too.

Well, I recently discovered that I'm one of the youngest people in my guild on Vanguard. And I'm about 15-20 years younger than most of the people in my regular daily group. Talk about putting things in perspective. I'm the annoying kid to them!

And of course, one of them hilariously said yesterday (not a direct quote since I don't have chat logs), "lol, jakkal, you were 4 years old when I was getting high for college graduation."

Nice.

And of course, people don't ever leave VG early because their parents are making them go to bed, or they get grounded. No, they get spouse aggro, or their kids are over to visit.

This is why I love VG. Old people ftw.

I know I've posted about this a bunch of times, my secondary machine is 6 years old now, some of the parts are 10 years old (The hard drive too). It's BSODing about once a day if I use firefox on it a lot, so I try to avoid websurfing on it. But really, it could use an upgrade. Originally I just wanted to put some cheap stuff in it, just to keep it running. But now, really, I'd like to put Windows 7 Pro on it and make it my main work machine. That way I have two machines that I can test and compare my work on, this would be quite helpful for my job. Plus, because it's for work and I'm self employed, it's a tax writeoff.

But... I need advice on what to put in it. I've been looking at processors and mobos and everything else and it's just boggling to me about all the stats and stuff. Remember I do graphics works, this is 2d and 3d work. I need something that can handle a motherlode of abuse.

Just keep in mind I have two requirements: nVidia and AMD (Mostly because I just bought BFG-295 graphics cards which will go into the new machine :P)

Parts I will need: Power supply, Hard Drives, Fans/heatsink, Processor, Motherboard and RAM (I think that's all. All the rest will be covered by stuff we already have).

So lemme know what you guys think would be the best bang for the buck. I'll be shopping on Newegg for the parts, so links on their site would be really helpful!

The guy has been on SL since February. I'd say that's not a newbie. And he's in a ton of RP groups as well. So I guess he really is just a flakey spaz. I sent him the following reply:

[18:02] Jakkal Dingo: I have paid you back your $1500L for the failed delivery. While you are reporting this to Linden Labs, make sure you mention that it is their server to server communications error that causes these failed transactions to occur quite often. Please do not buy from us in the future if you require absolutely immediate support at midnight on a weeknight in the timezone of my staff.

I'd rather not have the business if I have to put up with their attitude.

This person has to be new to SL, cuz 'veterans' of SL know just how buggy it is most of the time, and how often failed deliveries occur. I'm well aware of it too, and that's why we have signs in our stores telling people what to do if their item is not sent to them. But every now and then you get someone that pays for an avatar, the delivery fails, and they just spaaaazzzzzzzzz. Notice I'm not jumping up to help this guy, I don't want to deal with someone flipping out over something so minor. He'll get his avatar. But I don't want his attitude right now.

Keep in mind that he's IMing me at around midnight. I don't think he stopped to consider that some shop owners actually have to sleep sometime. Regardless, I am up, but I'm not on SL as I work on other things.

Name changed to protect the spazzing.

First, the friend request, sent at 12:13am:
Spaz Master has offered to become your friend in Second Life.

Would you be my friend?

Log in to accept or decline the offer.

Then comes the second friend request, sent at 12:17am:
Spaz Master has offered to become your friend in Second Life.

Would you be my friend?

Log in to accept or decline the offer.

Then come the angry PMs.
[21:17] Spaz Master: i just bought the black wolf avatar from the critters vendor and it didnt send it to me
[21:17] Spaz Master: it was 1500
[21:17] Spaz Master: and all i got was it sayinhg it contacted the server for it
[21:17] Spaz Master: it never sent it to me
[21:18] Spaz Master: [21:14] CritterVendor NW: Contacting server for your product...


Yes, this is what typically happens on a failed delivery. The server can't get through SL's bullshit, and so the request times out. A lot of avatar vendors have to deal with this. As I mentioned, most customers understand and will wait, or rebuy it and ask for a refund for the failed one. NBD, you give them the stuff and move on.

This guy? Oh no.

[21:19] Spaz Master: CAN I HAVE MY MONEY BACK

5 minutes. Spaztime.


[21:21] Spaz Master: im going ot send the report to linden labs

[21:21] Spaz Master: its against tos to take money like that

[21:22] Spaz Master: callede scamming and fraud

[21:22] Spaz Master: and noone who "works at this place is on or has been on


Oh god, a report! He's going to report me! Considering what all griefers get away with when they are PURPOSEFULLY stealing people's money, and LL does nothing, I'm really not concerned. What gets me is that he doesn't even wait 10 minutes for a response, at a time when most people are asleep, before he starts threatening.

You know, anyone else that sent me a PM stating they didn't get their av, I usually jump on SL as soon as I get it and give them the av and apologize. But this shit. Fuck. I don't want to deal with this. I'll wait til I think he's offline before I even try to contact him. What I don't get is why he thinks we'd go on this elaborate ruse to create a shop just to steal his money. His $3. Just to add insult to injury here, he bought an avatar earlier. So he knows that, yes, we are a legit avatar company.

Jesus christ.

I finally reached top-level 55 in Vanguard on my main. This is something Bow and I have been struggling with for months. That is one hardass grind. But now it's worth it, I don't have to worry about losing XP to dying in raids, and I can work on the impossible stuff like the gryphon mount quests. I love this game man, but I never want to do that again. 19 hours grinding Saturday and 15 hours grinding Sunday (During Double XP weekend) netted us 3 levels in as many days. And on VG *THAT* is significantly amazing.

And BTW if anyone would like to try Vanguard, they have a Free Trial. I find Trial Island lots of fun. I'm on the Seradon server. Just drop me a line if you want some help through it, I can make some alts and run people through the ropes.

Here I thought the GOP was the party for morals. Ahah! No.

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
Rape-Nuts
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Ron Paul Interview

Yay! I'm on Crack!

You know you're getting old and turning into your parents when the highlight of your month is using a new dishwasher for the first time.
...

Than having someone watching over my shoulder while I'm working.

That includes signing up for sites mid-design and complaining nothing works right. Duh, nothing works right. I'm in the middle of building it, retard.

Jesus fucking christ. I didn't want to have to go through all the admin options to turn off signups cuz I figured people would be intelligent enough to realize, no, you can't navigate a brand new comicpress setup when there is ONLY ONE PAGE UPLOADED. The two "Working on it" and "Testing" blogs should have been a big damn hint that I'm checking to see how everything looks and works.

For god's sake.

I think it's time I looked for another staffer for my shop in SL, The WereHouse. I figure I'd ask here because you guys have seen my Don't Do This segments, and you probably know what I'd be looking for in a staffer. I'm not exactly sure how I'm going to do this, because I can't keep paying my current staff at the rate they're paid. I think for this particular position, you'd just be answering the everyday, common PMs for me. No avatar demoing or extensive support. And I'd probably offer to pay you on a per-PM basis.

So Requirements: Need to be familiar with SL, so at least a resident for a few months. Available a few days a week. Don't mind dealing with assholes online.

Helpful: Having some WereHouse avatars.

Edit: Okay, I got two, that's all I need. Thanks guys.

Your support is ass.* I would think for reeling in shittons of money, you could hire competent people that are well above the average age of your players. (Or at least maturity).

Please note: I do not play any Blizzard games. Oh hey, maybe this is why the support is ass.

So why do I need their support staff's help? Some jackass kid tried to merge his WoW account with something called a Battle.Net account and he used MY EMAIL ADDRESS to do it. Yay. WoW spam. THat's really what I want to see in my inbox. So I went to their support site LIKE THEY SUGGESTED*, and sent them an email letting them know that I do not want my email addy in their database at all.

So what's the reply I get?

This is Matt from the Billing and Account Services department here at Blizzard  Entertainment. I've had some time to review the issues you have encountered and I may have some suggestions for you. If after you read the entire message you still require assistance in this matter,  or if you have any further questions or concerns, please feel free to contact me by replying directly to this email.

Account security is a paramount concern at Blizzard Entertainment. As such we require extensive verification in order to disassociate a World of Warcraft Account from a Battle.net Account.

For your security, after we disassociate a World of Warcraft account, we recommend associating (or "merging") with a Battle.net account registered to the individual who originally created the World of Warcraft account. If you have not already created a Battle.net account, please follow the steps below:

a.) Go to the following website: http://us.battle.net/login/
b.) Click the "Sign up now!" link.
c.) Complete the Battle.net account-creation process, being sure to follow the instructions carefully and enter accurate information.

In order to remove the World of Warcraft account we require the following:

- A legible photocopy of the identification of the registered account user. Only a government issued photo ID or Birth Certificate will be accepted for the registered user. (School IDs are *not* accepted.)
-  A copy of the TOU form (http://us.blizzard.com/support/article.xml?articleId=26361) completed by the registered account user. Be sure to use the same email address as your Battle.net Account, so that we may merge the World of Warcraft account to the correct Battle.net account. When filling out the TOU form, you may additionally circle "Secret Question Retrieval" and we will provide you with the Secret Question Answer that was chosen upon the account's creation.

Please email these materials as an attachment to our Billing and Account Services department at AccountServices@Blizzard.com. This file must be under 5 MB and be in the jpg, gif, or bmp format. For ease of processing, please use the account login name as the subject line.


I DON'T HAVE A FUCKING WOW OR BATTLE.NET ACCOUNT AND I DO NOT WANT ONE.

In retrospect, what have I learned from this? I should have validated the account that someone signed up with my address, logged in as them, and did whatever in their account to get them permanently banned for life.


*Their support site doesn't even work in Firefox. (You'd think for reeling in shittons of money they could make it work)

Bow found these little guys on the side of the road tonight. He almost ran over one, and someone else nearly ran over the other!

They've been dewormed already, and they're pretty clean and in good shape. I'd hate to think some asshole dropped them off on the side of the road.

I've named one Arakoun (The root of raccoon for the mask on his face) and the other is Hunter.

Finally finished it. The progress is all posted on my art journal, drakkolupen


Motionless by ~Drakkolupen on deviantART

Got a b'day coming up.

...

I really want a pink bubblegum ice cream cake from Baskin-Robbins. I loved these as a kid, I haven't had one in at least 15 years.

Barring that... http://www.baskinrobbins.com/Cakes/fudgecrunchcakes.aspx

A baby snapping turtle was in a puddle near our driveway. If he stayed there, he would have gotten run over! I took some pics of him but I'm too tired to put them on the comp yet. I'll do that when I wake up.

I picked up the poor little thing and moved it to the pond. It's supposed to be 100f today, so the puddle would be gone tomorrow anyway. The shell was only about 2" long.

Well now I know not to wade in the pond! I didn't know we had snappers in there!

I Just got on SL and I got this PM .. "Werehouse Avatars Event Proposal."

...

And I was like, "okay, maybe someone wants to use the avatars for a fashion show or whatever. Whatever, I figured I'd just see what it's about.

( ... Jesus fucking christ, why do people send me this stuff? )

I got a summons this weekend. Ugn suck. This is the 4th or 5th time I've been summoned for Jury Duty, but so far I haven't had to go yet. I'm guessing this will be the time that I actually have to.

I'm weighing my options if I should seek to be excused if only for two reasons (otherwise I realize how important this is as a citizen). #1. I'm self employed. I can't just take 'time off'. I've heard they're fairly lenient with the self employed (Esp contracted workers). #2. I work nights. I may very well fall asleep during the trial or the waiting between.

I'm wondering if I should bother to seek the excuse or suck it up and go. I guess if I make 'my case' and explain my worries then the judge can decide if I'm okay or not. I just feel that if I'm not going to be awake enough to listen to dilberations, then I will not be doing my duty as a citizen. I have tried many times before and I just cannot adjust my sleeping schedule so easily. And let's face it, Jury Duty is /boring/ and can last several days.

If anything, does anyone (with experience) have any suggestions for what to do while I'm serving?