Irrelevance Embodied

So here at NASA we appear to have co-opted the word "nominal." This, in and of itself, is not unusual... NASA repurposes the English language at nearly the same rate as lawyers (and then there are acronyms... which I'm fairly certain is NASA's primary output). What's amusing here is that the meanings are so often contradictory. In regular usage "nominal" means something like "in name only," but NASA uses it to mean roughly the same thing as "normal." I'm quite keen on figuring out where the NASA usage came from, but there doesn't seem to be any information on that which is easily googlable. If anyone finds any answers which are more than speculation, lemme know!

Also of note... this is hilarious as a result of what it implies: "Ironic" redirects here. For the Alanis Morissette song, see Ironic (song). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Irony

I'm moving just up the block soon (gaining some roommates and shedding a little bit of rent), and with this move comes the decision to finally get a TV. I've been lamenting the problems of HDCP and my 30" Apple Cinema Display for awhile, so one set of my reasons should be clear. In any event, coupled with the purchase of a new TV (1080p 120Hz 52") is going to be my entry into the current console market. Initially I'll be getting a Wii (a social gaming system seems like a logical pair with roommates), but I'm heavily leaning toward getting an XBox 360 or PS3 in the near future in addition. So here's the current war as I see it:

( The War )

Followup to earlier meme about atheism: http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/richard_dawkins_on_militant_atheism.html

Album Cover meme, from sedesdraconis (in turn from blue_j)

1 - Go to “wikipedia.” Hit “Random Article”
or click http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random
The first random Wikipedia article you get is the name of your band.

2 - Go to “Random quotations”
or click http://www.quotationspage.com/random.php3
The last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album.

3 - Go to flickr and click on “explore the last seven days”
or click http://www.flickr.com/explore/interesting/7days
Third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover. (I add mutation: unless it has been set as non-downloadable by the owner, in which case I respect that and reload for a different photo.)

I had to try my hand at this... as it's another excuse to play with The GIMP, which has come a long enough way that I can really use it in place of Photoshop for most things...

( As long as they fear us. --Colomac Mine )

Random song title meme:
Put your mp3 player on shuffle. Answer the following questions with your song titles no matter how silly the answers become.

I do this twice, because what's on my MP3 player is a small subset of what MP3s I've got:

( on iPhone )
( Full MP3 collection )

Use http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Random or navigate to your favorite random wiki entry of the moment.

Clicking only links which don't take you outside of the wikipedia.org domain, navigate to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mornington_Crescent_tube_station trying to minimize the number of links. The goal should be less than 8 links.
( Some Variants, including The Detective Riley Game )

I wish for both its creators and its proponents to die horribly in a fire. That is all.

This rant actually starts in the 3.0 patch days just prior to the expansion, because it stems from a change unifying spell damage and healing. Since that fateful day my chances at gear have dropped further and further. In the BC days if it was cloth and +heal... well clearly it was a priest primary item. If it was jewelry and it had spirit (especially after regen changes) the same could mostly be said for it. All was well... there was specific gear for healers and every item type went to one specific healer. Then 3.0 came and the trip downhill began... damage gear and healer gear... well they look the same now. Spirit is useful to warlocks (and far less useful to priests than it once was)... the only earmark of damage gear is +hit now and the only earmark of healer gear MP5 (which still sucks). Well, you may say, this just means that when gear drops it's more likely to be useful, and surely all the healers are facing this? Well here are your gear brackets:

Cloth, Caster: Priest, Warlock, Mage
Leather, Caster: Druid
Leather, Melee: Druid, Rogue
Mail, Caster: Shaman
Mail, Melee: Hunter, Shaman
Plate, Caster: Paladin
Plate, Melee: Paladin, Warrior, Death Knight

Now I'm not altogether certain exactly where the DK lands in terms of desirable gear, but I KNOW that the other brackets have SINGLE CLASSES in them. This means I've gone from a relatively special gear class which the other healers also enjoyed (and continue to enjoy in large part) to being in the same bracket as the majority of almost any raid team. If that weren't bad enough, there's a lot of preconceptions from the BC days about what gear is "good" for healers which is mostly inaccurate now. Here's a link for some thoughts on that http://dwarfpriest.com/2008/11/11/wotlk-priest-survival-guide/. That's right INT!... INT is now the most important stat as a result of the new mana recovery mechanics... and crit is becoming integral to mana efficiency tricks. Sounds like DPS gear doesn't it? This is yet another complaint on a long list of "what did you THINK that would do to your healers?" questions for Blizz. There was some indication that they wanted to make the game more fun... but it seems like us healers are just going up against more handicaps, making forming a reasonable group that much more difficult... well I suppose that's the end of my rant for now.

Gloria
Honorifice
Pralium Facio

( ... )

The new music in Wrath of the Lich King isn't universally my favorite for background music (wandering piano themes work in the context of the Dragonblight, but aren't great for regular listening). That aside, the new music is pretty damn good. I've payed some special attention to the main title music (login screen). It's very well composed, filled with new themes and old that are already or are fast becoming recognizable. I've broken down the themes and labeled them (some of these I'm not very confident with for exactly what they are themes for... feel free to chime in in comments)

Themes in new intro music:

1. 0:00 - The Frozen Throne
2. 0:39 - World of Warcraft Theme (recognizable login theme, pieces from all expansions)
3. 1:30 - Northrend Singers
4. 2:12 - Arrival of the Fleet
5. 2:29 - Men of the North
6. 3:01 - Night Elves in Northrend
7. 4:08 - Blood Elves in Northrend
8. 5:27 - The Frozen Walls of Icecrown
9. 6:04 - Battle in the North
10. 6:54 - Hymn for the Heros of the Third War
11. 7:31 - A Call to Arms (Theme from Warcraft III)
12. 8:08 - The Frozen Throne Reprise

I has it!

Yay for release date. Yay for fry's. Boo for install patching having a duration :D

Also to all y'all at Sunnyvale Fry's thanks for making the wait painless.

...when one woman and her faithful pig can get the job done.

I had said something at pseudo-game about me doubting the abilities of pets as tanks post-3.0... boy was I wrong. When one remembers to spend the new pet talent points in such a way as to make the pet capable of generating threat... well Uvuros is now no more... no I didn't use pots or pull any extra special tricks. Perhaps not *the* most impressive encounter in the game, but certainly a solo effort that went far more smoothly than any of my other recent ones (no need to FD through the entire thing!). I still don't think I'll spend too much time on the PTR, but it's good to see that they've fixed some of the pet mechanics. Though, on reviewing the way the battle went I need to more closely reexamine my rotation as per the changes to steady shot.

I has it!

Yay for release date. Yay for fry's. Boo for install having a duration :D

What kind of atheist are you? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Scientific Atheist These guys rule. I'm not one of them myself, although I play one online. They know the rules of debate, the Laws of Thermodynamics, and can explain evolution in fifty words or less. More concerned with how things ARE than how they should be, these are the people who will bring us into the future. Scientific Atheist 92% Angry Atheist 67% Spiritual Atheist 58% Militant Atheist 50% Theist 33% Apathetic Atheist 25% Agnostic 25%

I WIN!, wait a minute.... more spiritual than militant... odd. Also, More Theist than apathetic or agnostic... yeah I suppose that's true these days... I'd rather have a belief that I could reason through than a complete lack of belief, especially on something as volatile and war prone as religion...

Sooo... it's been awhile since I said anything on my soapbox facing one of the tiniest corners on the internet:

Still only raiding two nights a week. No longer playing as my hunter (raid leader requested I switch to playing a priesty). We're now 8/9 in BT and 4/5 in Hyjal... so that's all pretty good (I have 3/4 major pieces in the fake T6 set for priests, which is my favorite set graphically in the game). This is all fine and good, but I'm beginning to be seriously annoyed by how the raid leader is treating me... so I'm not sure how much longer I'll stay.

Work is... not holding my interest... and I really hope that changes soon, cause it's pretty miserable just feeling like I'm not getting enough done and that's not helping my attitude improve.

Facebook and Flickr are still pretty awesome.

Still playing with my camera a whole lot. Got my 35mm L and I'm quite happy with it. Ordered some macro tubes which should be here pretty soon... also a remote release. You can always head to my Flickr stream and see more about that whole situation.

As for everything else... I'm still single... I'm still missing having somewhere to go where I could count on being social... I'm still *sigh*... really I could complain about all this bullshit again, but it's not helping me to say this stuff anymore... It's high time I made a change, all I need to do is figure out what that is and hope I'm not such a chickenshit that I don't follow through.

Some of these things I keep to myself... but life seems to be going pretty well right now, if a bit compressed.
( A Nutshell )

Raz: Lili! An evil madman is building a fleet of psycho-death tanks to take over the world, and we're the only ones who can stop him!

Lili: OH MY GOD! Let's make out!

--Psychonauts

The Dante's Inferno Test has banished you to the Sixth Level of Hell - The City of Dis!
Here is how you matched up against all the levels:

Level	Score
Purgatory (Repenting Believers)	Very Low
Level 1 - Limbo (Virtuous Non-Believers)	High
Level 2 (Lustful)	High
Level 3 (Gluttonous)	Low
Level 4 (Prodigal and Avaricious)	Very Low
Level 5 (Wrathful and Gloomy)	Moderate
Level 6 - The City of Dis (Heretics)	Very High
Level 7 (Violent)	Moderate
Level 8- the Malebolge (Fraudulent, Malicious, Panderers)	Moderate
Level 9 - Cocytus (Treacherous)	Low

Take the Dante's Inferno Hell Test

I was listening to Paul Simon, when I ran across Feuilles-O.

Fèy, o! Sove lavi mwen. Nan mizè mwen ye, o!
Fèy, o! Sove lavi mwen. Nan mizè mwen ye, o!
Pitit mwen malad, mwen kouri kay gangan Similo.
Pitit mwen malad, mwen kouri kay gangan. Si li bon gangan
Sove lavi mwen, nan mizè mwen ye, o!

I swear, it must be his theme song.

1. pick 15 of your favorite movies.
2. go to imdb and find a quote from each movie.
3. post them here for everyone to guess.
4. fill in the film title once it's guessed.
5. no googling/using imdb search functions to make/confirm your guesses. In other words, don't cheat.
( The Quotes... )

Update 1: I'll unscreen the comments when at there are at most two movies remaining or a week has gone by. I'll be crossing out and listing credits to guessers in the order their guesses where received.

Update 2: There are now only two movies remaining, I'm going to show all current comments, come Friday I'll fill in the blanks.