Amber, seriously, you've got to get with the times

I'm writing this on my blog. Although normally I would twitter 140 characters about this, so far as I know you do not follow my Twitter, Amber. The point of this, is thus: Look what trouble you've caused.

My girlfriend said that my present this year depends on me being available on the 30th. This was fairly depressing for me, since I did not want to go see Grease. Also depressing was that I had asked for Fallout 3, and nobody got it for me. So here I am, instead of getting what I wanted, I have to be terrified because on the 30th I have to go see something that will be not great.

So, basically I'm a dumbass, despite all my intellect and great ideas and everything I've ever accomplished or thought of in my lifetime, which while not unsurpassed, is exceptional. My girlfriend got tickets to Spamalot for me. Which you can research on wikipedia. It's basically pretty much the sweetest present I've received since I got the lego monorail. I'm always impressed with how she always puts a personal touch into gifts, so that regardless of money, or my mood, or whatever, she always comes up with a gift that really makes me feel the love, but this year she has outdone herself. While this does mean I have to leave the house to enjoy the gift, this is pretty much the most awesome thing I can think of. More thanks to follow.

Flip-Cup Survivor

I think most inventions happen in parallel. For example, once everyone heard that people were trying to fly, everyone with an IQ over 120 probably figured out how to do so. Now, that doesn't necessarily mean everyone built an airplane. Fuck. Who had airplane parts at that time? Nobody. BUT... the idea was probably not all that unique. To that effect, I present you with the following.

Tonight, I was at a party, where an invention of mine appeared totally out of the blue: Flip-Cup Survivor.

Flip-Cup Survivor is where two teams play flip-cup, like normal, but the loosing team has to vote one person off their team, leaving them with one less person. Then, the additional cup must be claimed by someone on the team. I invented this game earlier this year, although as I have said, I'm sure others have invented it also.

The primary advantage of flip-cup survivor is that people get to yell about survivor while the game is going on, and during, and after someone is being voted off. Additional advantages include the teams having to drink more as people are voted off. If, for example, two teams of 8 start out playing, and each team, purely by chance, ends up voting off 7 people, then by the last round, each person is drinking 8x the amount a normal person would drink. Which totally enhances the drinking game.

So... there you have it. Go forth and drink. Unless you already are in this manner, in which case fuck you, because I've been playing ping-pang-pong since you were swimming around in somebody's nut sack. And you're ugly.

Vista Upgrade - Part 3

So Vista has some quirks. First off, if I restart with my USB thumbdrive plugged in, it won't start. Secondly, every time I restart it tells me I've installed new updates, which at this point I can tell is not true.

I installed my first game, FarCry, and it came up saying the program wouldn't work, here's a suggestion. I tried the suggestion, installing .Net 1.1 framework, and still no luck. Apparently there's a missing DLL, which Windows is unable to figure out... so...

Not thrilled so far.

Vista Upgrade - Part 2

So after hanging out on the phone with Microsoft's India-based tech support for an hour and a half, I discovered that their tech support has no fucking clue what they're doing. I was even given improper instructions for putting my computer into selective startup mode, so lucky I knew what I was doing myself.

I gave up on the whole upgrade idea, and decided to do a clean install, which worked. Windows Vista installer asked me almost nothing, and in turn, installed a bunch of crap I didn't want. If you're seriously still using a fax machine... just... just stop.

So the first thing I did was install drivers for my new Netgear wireless adapter. It worked, but it took me telling windows:
1> I want to run the file I just clicked on, yes...
2> Yes, I want to install this driver
3> Yes... I want to install this driver...

Also, why does the screen have to black out twice while I'm installing a network adapter?

Next, I tried getting updates from Microsoft, since things like my audio and video drivers weren't working, and I'm sure there are all kinds of security updates. I was not shocked when the updater tool reported that it was unable to find updates, and gave me an error code. Fortunately, I am armed with many a Microsoft tool, and decided to restart! Something I have not done with my mac for about a month now.

Hitting start, and then the power button icon, however, did not turn my computer off, but put it instead, into some kind of blank screen mode, where my computer's fans are still humming away, but the computer becomes useless. Hitting a key on the keyboard, the monitor sprung back to life, and presented me with a mouse pointer. Nothing else.

Fortunately, I am armed with many a Microsoft tool, and decided to restart! I hit the power button, and then Vista decided to shut down, for real this time. Lucky me.

After restarting, it was able to find updates, which is where I sit now.