Ten Things I hate

Below I have finally compiled a list of ten things I hate. I should note they are in order, but the first three are so close they are basically all number 1. It was tough to narrow it down to just ten. Some of the honorable mentions include: people that clean a clean house when company comes over, people that make their beds, people that aren't rich but try to pretend to be, and people that ask me questions in the movie theater. So now that you know what didn't make the list, here are the ones that did.

I. Grammar misuse.
A. I know I do not have perfect grammar, but I do make an effort. I hate when people do not use punctuation or capitalization at all. You can see an example of this anywhere on the internet.
B. People that say 35 cent make me want to kill myself. I cannot stand when someone says “I got 35 cent in change”.
C. People need to study the commonly misused words list in most grammar books.

II. Hypocrites. This one is self explanatory. I think everyone hates hypocrites. I can't stand anyone that says one thing and acts another. Or even worse those vapid, vain, and vexatious people that do things, simply because they think everyone else does/enjoys it. An example is a certain family event (not my direct family) was capped off when someone suggested a toast. I nearly died laughing at the great joke, until I realized he was serious. I am sorry, but unless you are in a corny romantic comedy, a toast is not necessary.

III. Fair weather fans. I am a 49er fan. I think you know this if you are reading this, especially since I just said it. I have been a 49er fan forever. I am also an Oriole fan, which I have been forever. In the past ten years that has given me a total of two division championships and three wild cards, for both teams combined. And still I am the proudest fan of my teams as can be. So the one type of fan I can't stand is a fair weather fan. I know someone who was a Raven fan, until they lost to the Colts last year, then he was a colt fan. The worst kind of fair weather fan is someone that is a Yankee fan that doesn't live in New York. And you might say “but you said the 49ers were your favorite team, shouldn't it be the Ravens” to which I will say “The Ravens didn't exist when I started liking football, now go kill yourself in punishment for your ignorance.”.

IV. Humor.
A. My family’s sense of humor, for the most part, is embarrassing. For example, I was trying to mind my own business when my someone started playing a Larry “the Cable Guy” Christmas set. When I did not burst out laughing, she turned it up, stared at me, and then asked if I could hear it. Of course I could hear it, so could the neighbors and I bet they did not laugh either.
B. People that laugh obnoxiously loud at their own jokes, especially when no one else is laughing, are exceptionally annoying.
C. I really have distaste for people that constantly make jokes during a movie. I am talking about the people that make so many jokes you cannot even hear the people talking in the movie.

V. The way people argue. “Be that as it may”. I don't thinks there is a more infuriating statement someone can say when arguing with me. What the person should say is: “OK, I can't argue that expertly made point, but for the sake of my argument I am going to ignore it, not counter it.”.

VI. The way people Drive. I would go into this one, but I don't think you want to read pages of content on the way people annoy my while driving. Instead I will simply list a few words and you can guess what about them annoys me. Cell Phone, Turn Signals, Tunnel, EZ Pass, Fast Lane. I had to stop there before I got an aneurysm.

VII. People that complain about guns/items/powers in videogames. I instantly hate people that use the word noob in a serious way. So when someone says that a certain gun is a noob gun, I automatically assume they have been killed by it too many times. I am currently playing the COD4 Beta and there is a small debate in the game about the power of the M4. People claim the M4 is overpowered because of its small recoil and fully auto setting, but the gun is balanced in the game. Sure it has a higher rate of fire and more stability then the M16A4, but the M16A4 have more power and accuracy.

VIII. People who crave acknowledgment. Everyone likes to be recognized for the work they do, and to a certain extent I am fine with it. It is the people that like any recognition, for anything, no matter if they did it or not that annoy me.

IX. “Kids” movies with “Mild Language”. This is simple, Disney and Pixar and all the other people making kids movie need to cut out the curse words. Kids will learn them from other sources soon enough, trust me.

X. Helping everyone with computers. I love helping people, I just hate feeling anxious that I won't be able to. Every time someone ask me to look at their computer I have a mini panic attack. It is gratifying when I can help someone. I just wish I could do it without all the worry.

Good Things Come in Threes

So I have one more things coming to me. Yesterday two good things happened. First, I got an AP running in repeater mode. Secondly, I got into the COD4 beta.

I have been having problems connecting to the Internet in the basement where my room is. The signal in one part was strong enough for my 360 to get an OK connection, but in my room my computer was in a dead zone. A couple weeks ago I read an article online about turning a WAP54G access point into an repeater, and as luck would have it I had one literally lying around. After several failed attempts I discovered I had to use a specific security setting. With some tinkering yesterday I finally got it working. So now the repeater is sitting in the living room directly one floor above my computer passing on the signal from the router in the second floor office. I have a full signal and a smile on my face.

I also got into the beta for COD4 last night, just before 12 A.M.. I quickly downloaded the game and played it until about 3 A.M. last night. It is by far the most fun I have had on the 360 in a multi-player FPS. I really liked COD2 and 3, and I am especially glad Infinity Ward returned to make this one after taking a break during COD3. What I really like is the custom class system. This allows you to select your primary weapon, side arm, attachments and camouflage for both, and grenades. It also lets you pick three "Perks". These perks do things like let you reload faster, do more damage, take more damage, etc. My favorite setup is:

Name: Punk Buster
Primary Weapon: M16A4 with M203 attachment and woodlands camouflage.
Side Arm: M9 with Silencer.
Grenades: Stun.
Perk1: M203 attachment uses this slot.
Perk2: Stopping Power (bullets do more damage).
Perk3: Deep Impact (bullets go through tougher materials).

That's it for now. I am going to go play more COD4

Thoughts of a Wondering Mind

As I was walking from the basement to the second floor to get on the Internet, a thought occurred to me. Why doesn't the 360 have a web browser? The PS3 has one. Even the savages at Nintendo that have an irrational fear of the Internet have a browser. So why doesn't the 360? They could just add a new blade that would obviously, and tragically, run a stripped down version of IE. If I was really ambitious I guess I could jerry rig my 360 to run a browser, but should I have to?

On to another topic. Last Tuesday we played Woodlawn in a game of Softball, the last of the season. We had already lost three games to them while winning only one, so this game was to try and salvage some pride. I went 2-4 with two doubles but we lost regardless, I think mostly to the lack of three key players; Rob, Bard, and Steven. It is embarrassing to loose to them. We have much more talent but almost no one understands the fundamentals of the game. It is weird/annoying playing alongside people that didn't grow up playing baseball, but with practice I think we can beat them easily next year.

Harry Potter > 3 Hours

Having given up movie theaters a little over two years ago I am constantly tempted to break my oath every summer with some superhero or Johhny Depp movie. This time, however, it was a HP movie, and the call was almost irresistible. I was anxious to see David Yates first crack at the HP series knowing he was already signed on for HP 6. I have no problem with going to an Imax theater, with the lack of posters and trailers I see nothing wrong with them. Living in Maryland I know that the only Imax in the state is located at the Maryland Science Center. I also knew that they have never shown a feature film there, probably trying to perpetuate the snooty atmosphere that hangs over this state like a fog. Undeterred I went online and found the nearest Imax showing HP, in Harrisburg PA. With a round trip of around 3 hours and a running time of just over 2 hours, I was afraid the 5 hour commitment would yield me an unholy experience the equivalent of watching Goblet of Fire again. Luckily, my fears were unfounded.

Order of the Phoenix is, by far, my favorite book in the series and it is the longest, so I had more then a few worries about its transition to the big screen. Obviously with a book over 800 pages it is impossible to get all of the moments on screen. I think this movie comes about as close as you can in the current running time. From the very beginning it feels like a very different movie then the last four. It is difficult to describe the feeling I got from the movie. It doesn't look like a HP movie, in a good way. Order of the Phoenix is the first book where things start to get nasty, and so the movie should be darker to get that feeling across.

I also think that Yates was very smart with almost every shot. He couldn't have an entire chapter of character development like Rowling, so he had to do in seconds what she did in pages. The perfect example of this is when Harry first enters Umbridge's office. A split second before Harry comes in it shows Her adjusting one of the items on her desk to make sure everything is in place. This speaks volumes of the character to me; her need for control, perfection, and her desire to appear better than people she deems lower than herself. And the movie is filled with these little moments that tell you so much about the characters. My final thought is that this is the first movie that I felt the actors really had to act. For the first time they were given better lines, and the chance to really show emotion.

In all I loved the movie. The 3D at the end was nice, but not the best since the movie was not filmed with 3D in mind. The end result was that it just gave the movie a nice depth and made the final fight that much more enjoyable.