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Full Moon Blog - Ver.2p0 Saif Khan rants. He Raves. Somehow, we survive. Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... So it's 1pm on a Sunday and I've been up for easily over 3 hours. This isn't the norm. Church 'shopping' has been interesting. I've gone back to Believers - and enjoyed it, but find it feels more "well if I was married and had a kid - this would be perfect"ish. I checked out a place on Friday night [course I thought I was going to see Cooke perform, and it was more of a service heh. Still - good times] and it had great praise and worship - jus yea, that was it. Still - not a bad Friday night option. After finally making it to that [wanted to see Gungor last week, didn't make it] I decided to keep the good streak going, and check out that church in Jenks that Mark had also pointed out today. Jason decided to opt to stay sleeping, the pain. There's nothing like getting out of a building and going - where am I? Woah. I'm in Jenks. Scary. How do I get out? After fumbling my way back to reality / Tulsa [I didn't want to go back the way I came, eh me] I found myself wanting to do things - but Jason was jus getting up / woke up, and I didn't figure anyone else was accessible. I guess it's just muscle memory from all those years of going to church with the group I hung out with, and doing stuff right after service. Eh. I arrive at my house to find - sleeping people. They seem to be stirring now - much like watching your ant farm start up. I've been thinking over Destiny again. They have a Thursday night service - course that would clash with game night some, but eh.. However, upon actually going to the site and watching the semi-scary video of theirs; let's just say it didn't really push me in their direction. Meh. I actually have been to Destiny like 3 times. Never once did I hear the main pastor speak. Why? Various outages. Just kinda funny. In this part of the country - if you wanted to - you could go to a church service every night of the week. In the end - I like Believers - but don't feel at home there as much anymore - I think the new Pastor Nix grew it into something good - jus not great for Saif. Life Connection is alot more preppy feeling than I'd usually enjoy - however once the guy starts speaking - it's actually pretty good. Course. It's also kinda scary - even for a "hard veteran" of church going - to have the pastor starring at you. He knows I'm new. He spots me during the praise and worship. And I'd wager to say - at least .17% of the service was spoken directly TO me lol. But still - seems like a good place - jus so far into - shudderJenksshudder - and still, very family / gotta have kids oriented feel. I went to Rhema just to make sure a while back. It's still there. And I don't feel they'll really 'feed me' or do anything past what they've already done. It's a great 2 year church for the students / people. But yea. I've done my 2 years. So I've thought maybe Destiny would be the answer. Probably not lol - but we'll see. The Friday night place could be interesting; and I could split Sundays up between BC and TLC based on when I can actually drag myself outta bed... But - I'd like to find a place that really fits - if possible. Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... You know, rarely do you really think about things, such as thanking a huge industry and horribely corrupt and cruel place, such as Hollywood - but I gotta say, thinking back, and now forward - thanks Hollywood, for the X-men, and now Batman, and perhaps other films in the future. You've really made me heart movies again / at all in a time where I would just spend more time watching something else. With what seems to be the first official X-Men 3 teaser poster, and no doubt the first move of a huge campaign for it, I've got to say - I'm looking forward to it. Mentions of it being perhaps darker, to the point of risque, and just the fact that it's a solid comic book story line, something that can take me back to when I was kid studying art to try and learn how to draw better - just makes me happy. I've got mixed feelings about the idea of a Magneto spinoff movie - however if it's got the same level of detail and love put into it, I'm sure I'll end up being happy for it. Thanks to whoever and all, I gotta say, I've hearted your stuff. Saif Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... So - I SOO have been having issues with Winamp 5 and one little bitty thing - EVERY TIME I load it up I get a "ERROR!@# - Cannot Load Mediakey.vxd" Well - despite the fact most people hear Media Key and think "oh - that's DRM" or whatever that right protection stuff is - this has nothing to do with that. I found a article about using Winamp and your Multimedia keyboard controls which FINALLY vindicated me / allowed me to find I wasn't the only one with these woes - oh no, there are others. But - I - being a newb / silly went through Winamp preferences - many times - trying to find this absurd lousy plugin that was being a problem. In the end - it wasn't something I could access from the software. I did a date search, found where c / winnt / system32 - mediakey.vxd was - and found it's date. Did a search, found nothing else on that date. Went into the plugin directory, viewed by details - and bam - infact yes there ARE other files. How to get rid of this little annoyance? Get rid of gen_mmk.dll That's the problem. All you have to do is pull that file from the plugin folder - and you'll be set. Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... So I'm falling a bit behind on the Soul Calibur Directory this week - jus cause - I'm going to Michigan! Carl invited me up, I was about to swing it [or so I hope lol], and here I go. There are some great updates to the SC3 watch on SC.com [including Ruliweb releasing a video from e3 play - Tira 2p baby! Boy, she does seem slow...] - go to the directory - hit up the forums in the sc2 forum - look for e3 threads - good lovin!@# As for me, I'm going to be probably in Ann Arbor or Chicago on Saturday, then on Sunday Chicago from 2ish till 6ish playing hopefully XCTU, VVyzt, a livejournal guy named Guruoflife? and such. So - should be good times. I'm hopin for some good games, then some grub! lol. So - Friday - Monday = Saif gone. Like woah. [ Want to get in contact to play? Jus go nerd pendants / lj sync. to get to my lj, then post a comment on the last post!@# ] Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... So I went to a themed party last night - and I fell in love... ...with a camera. Upon arriving at this "Japan party" I found myself noticing a small thin device hooked up to HP computer speakers of all things lol, pushing the parties MP3 lovin - the Cowboy Bebop way. Course they had good musical tastes, but to find out later that it wasn't a mp3 player pushing the sound, oh no, it's a digital CAMERA?!@ That - jus pushed me over the edge. Upon getting closer to it - and checking it out - it was OMG - WTF - SO THIN LIKE WOAH. The D-Snap AS30 had been bought in a JP airport and brought over by this awesome guy named Mosa. [? on spelling] I pushed him for as much info as possible, but beyond reading the 3mp rating on the thing, and the fact that it was SO SMALL [thin, according to the spec's only 14mm at the LENS man.] and jus SOOO damn sexy. Turns out Panasonic puts out these "D-Snap" camera's and various other things under that name, and I eventually found a awesome JP Panasonic page about the AS30 - course if your not much into trying to read / navigate foreign languages, then you'll want to check out either Camborg's detailed review of the AS30 or this interesting Photokina 2004 expo [Germany] review of the AS30 and sister model AS3. Eitherway. Man. mp3's. digi that is SOO thin and osim. 3 frame per second burst shots. Mpeg 4 video capabilities. PURE SEX!@# The only real downers I can find would be that I'd love to see it a higher mega pixel of course, and the card cost [sd card] could of course kill a man. Still... It's so damn sexy. Between checking out this current to this post at least Ebay sale of the AS30 and this site evidently sporting 1 gig cards for less than 100$ - I could almost literally pass out. Sigh. Damn you Panasonic - for owning me so much with a design that FINALLY matches form and function in a digi. Saif Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... So a friend made the mistake of posting a "cry for help" when it came to the issue of donations / getting help from the community. Lately - with people like Katie and others around me "doing good" - I've felt the urge to volunteer more / make a difference - as I've not done anything lately / in the last few years at all really lol - and in school / work wise I was alot more active, and did fundraisers and things like that. So - I let the girl have it. Poor Erin lol. She got a lil comment of mine jus pointing her the right way; then our collections workload - a similar field imo heh - turned the right way for the day, and I got to feeling good... ...so now the little comment has 2 much larger comments of my own right afterwards consisting of about 3 pages of advice lol. I realized alot of the advice - probably came from being around Carl too much. Ahh yes, Carl you pain in the arse. Between him and [him draggine me into lol] getting into this 'working for yourself' lifestyle, and fundraisers, and working at Sears and learning 'professional sales' - I've learned alot - and paid alot of attention - as a result I've got all these neat lil tricks of "closing expectantly" and "benefit benefit benefit close" and "do a funny high number / commitment close to lower their guard, then slip in a real now more realistic sounding smaller close at the end, and jus wait to write down their order" kinda thing. I know Carl didn't do it all - but I'll blame him for the most of it lol. As I review where I might have gotten all this crap now in my head, I can jus remember back in the day, when we'd be wrestling down some client or 'mark' practically lol - ahh to good times. And good new times. So yea. Eventually - I'm so going to have to get back into fundraising or something for people. Cause all this advice is still bottled up! lol Saif Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... Man - Check this article out - it's the one linked to in the conversation 04:35.PM - Stick Ben: http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/english/doc/2005-03/30/content_429246.htm 04:38.PM - XianghuaALPHA: lool 04:41.PM - Stick Ben: now -that's- an asshole level to strive for 04:41.PM - XianghuaALPHA: hahahah 04:41.PM - Stick Ben: you jack my CoF I kill your family = teh win 04:42.PM - XianghuaALPHA: hahaha That's jus. Wow. And Ben - he owns. Saif Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... That's right sports fans, erm. Gamers. Soul Calibur III will be here in the fall of 2005. Amid the rumors of sc3 never coming, coming sooner than we expected, and it being more like SC2 - Tag [much like a form of Tekken Tag], rumors got destroyed into actual facts 25+ characters, make your own character mode, 3 new characters and alot back... and a few more questions - PS2 only? No arcade? Ring blade?!@ All kinds of facts and fictions swirl as Soul Calibur III information has been popping up this week. Go here for a directory of all the information I've managed to gather, and a complete break down - as this is serving for your quick summary lovin - http://onedamnpixel.com/soulcalibur - Soul Calibur 3 directory [ That's my makeshift directory thrown up to keep data and info in one spot, wow a concept! Also serves as image mirror from a few sites ] Soul Calibur 3 - what's up? [ all links in the directory btw ] Characters - the mighty 3, plus New features - Character CREATION? omg. Game play - SC2 remix? Characters Info hailing in from the official Namco game site tells us we are dealing with a cast of over 25 characters - three new characters joining the mix named Zasalamel [Big black guy with a spear], Tira [a Ringblade?!, and the palette from Link goes to a rave], and Setsuka [Hi, I'm Namco's Auska in SC as the answer to vf4's Pai/Aoi]. With the confirmed number of a lineup of over 25, minus these 3 new characters, we can pretty much start to assume every new and old character from Soul Calibur 2 - in. Excluding the US console playable Lizzy, Bezerker and Assassin. Eh. New characters - Tira the raver elf wanna be screams "TiraALPHA Saif, TiraALPHA" - only because at first - I was concerned X would be in [still not confirmed though...]. The character, aged 17, seems to be more of a 'better attempt at a Talim' from the SC2, as Talim was such a step towards a new fighting style, and really fashioned off a bird [Tira's description even references a bird as well...], however lacked real punch for follow through against her heavy duty opponents - Tira - might just break that, as she seems to be a 'darker' figure, and based off being an Assassin. Setsuka, 24, seems to be your average Post Edo era whore? But with weapons! She sports an umbrella to hide her blade, and is a model for cosplayers out there everywhere, that need to reuse that red light district outfit they've been holding on to. Zasalamel speaks of Astaroth and the need to fit the Necrid / Spawn's fans wishes in there. He seems sturdy, and with a obvious 'undead' look and based bio - he's going to be a interesting addition - perhaps another heavy mid character to go along with Nightmare on the roster, only perhaps he won't rely so much on 50/50's. Checking out the JP scans [ check the directory / JP mirror ] my first impression seeing Rave master Tira, Zasalamel and Setsubrella was - wow - Soul Calibur just turned into a Fantasy RPG... ...then I read about character creation. Ahh- I was right. Confirmed back through watching of "The Making of" video [ so either through gameplay -- or sketches ] Rapheal Taki Mitsurugi Astasroth Cassandra Ivy -- Nightmare/Seigfried Cervantes Voldo? [ I didn't see heh ] Kilik and Xianghua are thought to be seen being motion captured [I'm thinking for a final battle or ending sequence if so, else that ain't X imo], but only time will tell. Really - it's 25+ characters [they did say over 25....] - I'm thinkin most everyone if not everyone is going to be back.... Check the directory / Sc.com / Famitsu for more details on bio's and character conversations! New Features Confirmed modes include a 'console mode' or character creation - literally jus picking out everything from sex to weapon to costume and 'occupation' - o_0. The usuals like story and VS will be in there, practice mode and anyone familiar with the console releases of Soul Calibur 1 or 2 will be getting the precious Museum and such back. Also is a 'special vs mode' Soul Arena, and a 'Lost Chronicle' mode that seems to be a mix of strat and conquest mode. Gameplay Can we say SC2 tag, and Tekken 5 advances? Heh. Breakable walls, ground exploding on hits [ala Tekken, and hints of old SE and SC1 being put into the disk, much like Tekken did with it's home 5 release], and from some interesting 'insider' reports if you could call him that lol, it's jus SC2 revamped. We can hope - without as much glitches... And.. Only for the PS2? It seems to be true. All reports are pointing at a console only game here. In fact, as of now, no Arcade release has even been announced / hinted at... RIP arcades - ? - 2005 [ Support your local arcade damn it, go and have tournaments there!@# ] SC2 rehashed gameplay cannot be confirmed, but the feel overall in the making of video pushes you to believe the creative team behind it saw this as the chance to really 'make up for the mistakes of 2' when it came to - originality... So we've got new characters and new stages, and some neat new affects - but what of the play it's self, the core? With such little time to develop it, one hardcore fan of SC1 and eh, sure 2 must wonder - how many advances - and real solid advances could have been made between 2's release and now... We'll see. Saif - aka XianghuaALPHA aka TiraALPHA? lol. Aka Sup. Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... One of THE most tempting things about owning your own company, working without contact with / required contact with clients, and being - well a designer - is the idea to put things off / working late into the night. "Oh, I'll just pull a over nighter" becomes a theme, and eventually, the pattern your living off of. And why not, afterall, your more creative at night right? I hadn't really thought bad about it [or enough to really trend away from it and stop], till jus during this last project, in which I had a project, a deadline, and a way of life - all own me. No more late night'ers for Saif. For one, that's not when my working peers are awake, and thus, I run into problems. Toydrum, started out crazy, schedule wise. Rodney literally lived in the office for a few weeks - his way of getting software done. Coming in to his curled up body on the couch, or his 'cave' created through is make-shift 'desk' setup, car stereo speakers built into the back of the desk.. Probably didn't go far for my initial working schedule concepts. Oh yea, we never got that software lol. But, that kinda start up, that kinda first impression... Perhaps that's what further helped to perpetuate my endearment for late jobs, beyond my already present fondness for late nights. Really - maybe it's also a way of setting myself apart from peers. An identity - the late guy blahblahblahb. Or perhaps it's jus part of the base persuasion and allure of designing; the base characteristic that can be said to appeal to the role of designer, the real true ambiance in some people's eyes. Eh. In the end, graphic designers are corporate whores. Any good instructor will tell you that; we sell out to do what gets us paid. We like to eat. Live. Create. And yea - not be bloody poor all the time, yet still create, and be a artist. Or - at least that's the way it's sposed to be heh. Eitherway - today I realized, for the last time hopefully, that this needs to end, that I need to revert back to day schedule, and leave the vampires to the movies and lil cute goth girls. lol. Harbinger to growing up? Perhaps. I jus know, it's cast the shadow of frustration, concern, and dissidence for the last time. I know for years I was more productive at night, but the older I get, the more I realize - it's not about productivity and creativity; when you exclude creativity with your peers and communication that keeps the life blood of a company flowing. Staying up late to optimize on my creativity might happen on occasion, or it might not from now on - but to tap into productivity? It just flat doesn't, late nights, I bid you adieu. This will optimize the time I have with partners, and working wise will lighten my load in the end. Also - this will create better synergy and better working relations. Communication is key. And, in the end, free's me up more for a social schedule as well; there's nothing more frustrating than having to leave because you have to work, or leaving a event or gathering knowing that your just going to be up for 5+ more hours working on something. Yes - it is ironic I write this at 3am - shush. But in the end, I've fought, and prided myself, and defended - but I see it more now than ever, you need to work when the team is working. You need the energy, that's part of the whole positive nature of teaming up. You need the motivation and competition, if your me or some I know at least. It's jus the way business works. K. Gotcha. Moving on. Saif Warning: array_merge(): Argument #2 is not an array in D:... Hmm. Maybe I'm getting tired or jus a lil silly, but I've got to say... - this one seems like a winner... Always use a Jigger to measure you torani out. What - you want it in content? Eh, not sure it'll help - but okay. JD’S TERMS & DEFINITIONS: MEASURE TORANI - Always use a Jigger to measure you torani out. It does not matter if it is syrups or sauces you always want to measure. There you go. My contribution to the interesting phrases of the day. Newsfeed display by CaRP