journal for 2002-05-20
samaritan
“IRCMonkey__” joined #qmail on one of my IRC haunts today, and I felt obliged to be helpful. </p> <blockquote class='chat'>
IRCMonkey__:
I have no idea what I'm doing.
acestus:
</code></pre>
- Do you need help with qmail or IRC?
</p>
IRCMonkey__:
Both?What's qmail? How do I run it?
</blockquote> This went on for about an hour before he finally just took off. What I really wonder, now, is whether he will ever return to IRC. I get the feeling that people, these days, are much more interested in AIM, which is just awful, primarily because its "Chat Room" system is populated almost entirely by people whose ability to use English ends when they get their hands on a console.
r u m/f? i m 2 HAWT 4 u! pics?
I hope that my hour was well-spent. IRC has the potential to remain 1337, if people on it remain helpful, interesting, and at least mostly in control of their desire to demand "ASL!" of every newcomer.
## party
My co-worker Andy had a party this weekend, and Gloria and I headed out east to put in an appearance. Andy just bought a house and a nice plot of land, and this was the pre-housewarming party. The house is a bare shell; it looks pretty sturdy, but it needs to be finished in nearly every way imaginable. Still, it was pretty sweet, especially with immediate access to two different bike trails.
I had some beer, but took the opportunity to try for free the stupidly expensive Smirnoff Ice. It was good. I thought it tasted the way hard lemonade should taste but never does. I also met the son of another co-worker, to whom I lent both my Perfect Dark strategy guide and my Legend of Zelda cart. I can only hope that they have the wholesome, righteousness-inducing effect on him that I imagine they should. If I'd had Zelda 64 when I was 10... oh! the things I could have achieved!
## more video game related nonsense
What with Zelda pushed back, I'm really waiting on the rest of 2002's offerings from Nintendo. The next, Super Mario Sunshine, won't be out for three months. I can only hope that something really sweet comes around in the meantime. If not, I'll have to devote more time to "worthwhile" pursuits, like reading or programming. Oh, the humanity!
I've switched my game of choice, lately, and I'm playing a lot of Super Monkey Ball. I'm stuck on the last level, and I spent about five continues on it today. Once I beat it, I will retire from the Advanced levels and work on Expert---at least until Expert makes me pull my hair out.
## darwin's deathbed
In my search for tips on beating that last Monkey Ball level, I found a Christian game review site that ranked games, instead of on gameplay, graphics, and so forth, on adult content, violence, etc. Weirder than that was the site, linked from there, that answered the question, "Did Charles Darwin die a Christian?"
I don't understand why anyone would care. If Darwin, on his deathbed, renounced his theory of the descent of man, it wouldn't do anything to make the theory less proven by his own scientific works. What would be interesting, though, is a site describing how, on his deathbed, he produced a volume describing how he had forged his original findings for a bet. Maybe I'll have to make that page myself and see how it does.
## movies
I saw Spiderman and Star Wars II. Both were pretty darn enjoyable. The Anakin-Amidala love scenes were beyond awful, but the two-fisted lightsaber action made up for it. Someone on eBay was selling a home made lightsaber, which was very tempting. There are actually several listed custom lightsabers, and a lot of official replicas, but the replicas, while really awesome, started around $200. While I'd pay two hundred dollars for a working lightsaber, I won't for a toy.