F.E.A.R. : Extraction Point (Demo)

It is at this moment that I am scared beyond what I could have expected. As many of my friends know, I completed the game "F.E.A.R." over the course of one single night (in celebration of my 7800GT). There were many times that night that I thought about stopping, mainly because I was getting scared more than I wanted to be. Or at least that's what I thought. It was only after completing the game that I felt a certain relief, though that may have been because of the sun rising outside. During the course of the game, I was so troubled at points that I did not dare turn around and look behind me. Or even get up and flip the light on. Even though I knew it was "only a game," I was truly afraid!

That fear has been redefined. You know that feeling you get when you know something has gone horribly wrong? That sick feeling inside? Add that to chills up and down the spine and goose bumps rushing down your arms and you have the effect that this demo brought. If you click the image above, you'll see one of the enemies encountered during this (very) brief demo. As shown, it doesn't seem very frightening right? Okay, well imagine walking into a dark room only to see red lights and shadows moving around ever so faintly, suddenly they're behind you, next to you, in front of you. The way they move, the way they sound, and the way the rest of the game's ambience plays out, this is the most haunting moments I have ever experienced in a game. I typed this blog to try and rid myself of the chills and paranoia, but no such luck. I guess the only cure is killing more Nazis. But I am definately getting "Extraction Point." I might just have to play FEAR again soon...
Oh.. and the new minigun is awesome. Freakin' awesome.
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Currently Listening To: Nothing... I have to listen for the shadows. o.O

Don't Touch Me

Really.
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Currently Listening To: The Cranberries - Zombie - No Need To Argue

Who Said I Was Addicted?

Funny thing about being gone from home for a while combined with playing a really, really good game. It can make you do crazy things. Things like... Quit World of Warcraft. Again. Yes, I quit WoW. Why? Because I came home and logged in only to be bored. I took a step back and realized the futile goal of the game was the same nonsense with no sense of achievement. Add that to the fact that I've been playing the Company of Heroes demo ALL the time and it's pretty much a no brainer. When a demo is good enough to play all the time, it's good. It's really good.

I was worried that Nathan would be put off by my leaving, but then I realized he has made several friends in-game. And I sent him nearly all of my gold from both main chars (nearly 200g). Who could complain about that? So I just figured I'd inform everyone of my big life changing event. Hahahaha.. riiiight. It is good to actually get stuff done now.
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Currently Listening To: CCP: Jon Hallur & Reynir - Modern Thinking - EVE Online Soundtrack - 2001

Alicia

Happy eight months baby! The best eight months of my life. Thanks!

-Technical Stuff-

Camera: Canon 350D (Digital Rebel XT)
Lens: Canon 18-55mm
Filter(s): None
Shutter Speed: 1/160 of a second
F/number (aperture): f/9
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 55mm
Post: Processed JPEG in CS2, levels, saturation, color balance, border.

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Currently Listening To: Muse - Stockholm Syndrome - Absolution - 2003

What's Going On

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Usually I say that there really isn't much going on in my life right now, but that would be far from the truth in this case. In fact, I think there's more going on right now that in any other point in my life. I'll start with the simple stuff and work my way up.

1. I adjusted the placement of my soundcard yesterday in hopes of alleviating the buzzing in the speakers whenever the graphics card had a heavy amount of processing. It fixed the problem (moving it the the bottom PCI slot), but now my right channel is gone regardless of any driver changes or audio output. How the right channel could go but not the left, I have no clue. Either way, I have replaced it with a new X-Fi off of Ebay. Got it for $45 cheaper than retail.

2. We had our range fire drill this past weekend. Since we're in the middle of unit transfer (from 281st to 733rd) we have no weapons or ammo. So how do we do range fire? The brand new simulators of course. Imagine screens a little less than half the size of theater screens. Then imagine replica M-16's dongled through an air powered system, to a computer, and with awesome sound. Now, with the simulator, there are dozens of training plans (range fire qualification, battle zero) and scenarios (room clearing, convoy ops, checkpoint ops, guard, reaction, the list goes on). The examples use videos of very realistic (but not) scenarios, such as a mob of angry locals walking up to the checkpoint throwing rocks. First reaction is "Hey! They're throwing rocks! I have a gun!" But trust me, that's the wrong answer.. hahah. Anyway, so when you think that you're not going to shoot and that it's not an issue, some guy slips out a gun and there is about 1 second of reaction time before he starts firing. After the firefight is over and the video stops, it shows you how many shots you fired, how many missed, and how many were lethal shots.

3. Our new 733rd 1st Sgt. has informed us that our unit's window of deployment is more than likely late 2007 to mid 2008. I am not worried about it, I have to be personally prepared for it otherwise I won't make it a month over there. Hehe.. But it's all good, we'd be supporting a unit from behind the lines. Of course, where the lines are in Iraq is a little screwy.

4. Today is 8 long months with Alicia! Woohoo!!! I love you baby.
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Currently Listening To: BogusRed - Zelda 3 Into the Golden Sunset - http://www.ocremix.org - 2004

(remember that song at the end of The Legend of Zelda: A Link To The Past? Yeah, this is a beautiful piano version of it.)

Wind Brushes: For The Siege

I hope this makes your day and keeps you smiling!
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-The Tech Stuff-

Camera: Canon 350D (Digital Rebel XT)
Lens: Canon 18-55mm
Filter(s): None
Shutter Speed: 1/200 of a second
F/number (aperture): f/11
ISO: 200
Focal Length: 41mm
Post: Processed JPEG in CS2, levels, saturation, color balance, border.

Oh Yeah

Did I mention that downloading iTunes 7 was the worst decision I've made in computers? It's almost dwarfing that time I installed Windows ME.
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Currently Listening To: Nothing. Nothing at all thank's to Apple's weiner loving testing department.

TGTBATU: iTunes 7.0.0

iTunes 7.0.0 : Latest version of Apple's popular music player and download service.

The Good: It downloaded fast.

The Bad: It sucks. Bad. Scratchy, skippy, audio glitches abound. Only plays audio through the left speaker.

The Ugly: Did they even test this?! They should've kept 6.0.5 as the current and offerent 7.0.0 as a RC or beta. Bad move Apple.

(For those of you who are ready to defend Apple and say "buy a mac," this has been reported on Mac systems as well. I have tried all the "fixes" out there and the only one that cleans up the scratches still has only 1 channel audio output. I wish WMP11 and WinAmp didn't suck so bad.)

Happy Birthday Joel!

Happy 21st birthday to Joel! He's 21 now. Dude. That's crazy. Leik, wtf we're growing up lol.
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Currently Listening To: Eric Clapton - Old Love - Unplugged - 1992

Yes, He Will

I have returned from my trip to Memphis with Alicia and Rebecca! It was filled with fun, good food, and a freezing cold Baptist church. Even though I had such a great time, I'm still pretty sad that Snow is gone. I am confident that he's going to have a much better time down there, but he's not here with me. Especially sad since he was so sweet and good during the car ride! He never once got really freaked out. Most of the time he was peeking around and purring. Interesting right? I know, it was fun nevertheless. Speaking of "nevertheless, " that seems like newspeak. Doubleplusgood.
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Currently Listening To: Evanescence - My Immortal - Anywhere But Home - 2004

Snow

This is Snow. He is cute. And loving. Alicia and Rebecca are hopefully adopting this bundle of joy.. sigh. He's been trying to live behind my workplace for a little while now, I finally decided to grab him and "do the right thing." By "finally decided," I mean to say that I just noticed him today. Such a cute ball of fur! Pure white.

TGTBATU: World of Warcraft

World of Warcraft, popular PC Massively Multiplayer Role-Playing Game.

The Good: Highly addictive, fun, excellent graphics and gameplay.

The Bad: Highly addictive, sometimes repetitive (but improving), really stupid people.

The Ugly: OMGWTFBBQ, Barrens Chat, n00bs, Alliance level 60's that must be completely retarded.

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Currently Listening To: Nine Inch Nails - March of the Pigs - And All That Could Have Been - 2002

Steve Irwin

My prayers go out to the friends and family of Steve Irwin.
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