Tag: Game

I Finished Writing My Book

On By Michel McDonaldIn BooksLeave a comment

I am happy to report that I finally finished writing my book.  I have edited the hell out of it about 20 or 30 times but it’s finally done.

I sent the file to 2 friends to proof read and send me bug reports if you will lol.  Basically, they are beta testing my book for the lack of a better term lol.

The book in doc format is only 181 pages but in epub format it is 289 pages.  I don’t know why there is a huge difference but there you have it.

I have learned a boatload of stuff about myself while writing this autobiography.  For example, I remembered things that I had blocked because they were too painful.  I don’t know how I remembered them but I’m glad I did.

The timeline of some memories were wrong in my head and it took writing it for me to remember when everything happened.

Well, I am just exhausted from writing.  My eyes are killing me from staring into a white screen for 6 to 8 hours a day.  I can’t even imagine this being my regular job.  I mean blogging is my job but I’m not doing it for 6 to 8 hours non stop day after day.  Some weeks I’m lucky if I have 2 posts written.

To celebrate my victory today I decided to play Lord of the Rings Online.  I finally did an epic quest so I can check that off of the list of things I have to do in the game.

The book won’t be published until my beta testers have read through the whole thing and given me their input.  When they do then I will have to read it one or two more times before I send it out just to make sure it’s right.  Who knows, I may even have more editing lol.

I’m pretty sure that it is finished so I do plan on getting it copyrighted this or next week so that I can sell it through Amazon and Barnes & Noble as ebooks.  If they sell enough copies then I will have it printed for those who don’t have a Kindle or a Nook.

Wish me luck!

My New Video Card Arrived

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer2 Comments

Last month the video card in my computer went bad.  I started getting the blue screen of death (BSOD) saying the issue was video hardware.  I had no money to buy a new video card so I had to wait until August when I got some money to buy a new one.

I finally got the money and bought a new video card and HDMI cable (pictured above).  It has taken 7 days from the day that I bought it until the day it arrived.  It was supposed to come this Friday but luckily it came today.

I immediately install the darn thing and plug everything back in and turn it on.  Nothing.  I don’t understand why it’s not turning on so my instinct is that I must have installed it improperly so I unplugged everything, opened it up and looked to see that it was properly seated into the motherboard, which it was.  I plugged everything back in, turn it on and still nothing.

I stood there with my hands on my head thinking “oh crap, this card is incompatible with my motherboard and I have to return it.  I’m going to have to bring it to the computer store and pay $60 to have them diagnose the problem and buy another video card.  But I don’t have any more money to do that, what am I going to do?”  Then suddenly it turned on.  At this point I’m very happy but confused at the same time.  I don’t understand what happened, why it won’t turn on.

Since I bought an HDMI cable for it, which by the way wasn’t long enough.  I mean it’s just long enough but it is more visible behind the tv than I thought it would be.  I thought it would be long enough that it would be laying down on the floor but it’s not.  But I had it plugged in and cloned on the tv.  I loaded Lord of the Rings Online and the resolution on my desktop shrunk down for some odd reason.  I didn’t turn the tv to HDMI 1 to find out what it looked like there but that doesn’t matter as much as it matters how it is on my monitor.

I shut the computer down because I really didn’t have anything else to do on it for the night and I figured since it is starting up normal now it’d be ok.  I rebooted a couple of times and it started up right away.  No problem.

Problem!  I went to the store and came back with a receipt which has to be entered into the Microsoft Money program.  I turned the computer back on and it won’t turn on.  It wasn’t like before where it was only a minute or 2.  It was 5 minutes before it even turned on.  Again, I’m thinking “CRAP!  What am I going to do now?”.  Then it turned on…

So I’m not sure what I have to do now.  Should I leave it on 24/7 with the occasional reboots to refresh everything?  Should I try sleep mode then in 20 minutes try to turn it back on to see if it works?  Should I throw the tower out the window?  At this point I have no more money to spend and I have already cut the proof of purchase off the box because I have to send that in to receive my $15 rebate gift card.  So, I can’t return it at all.  I screwed that up for myself.  All I can do is just deal with it I guess.

Just when you think it’s all good it turns out to be crap.  I guess I have to live with a slow booting computer.  It really sucks that I couldn’t just afford to buy a brand new computer instead.  Oh well, not much I can do about it now, I have to live with it.

I Bought My Video Card

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer6 Comments

 

Today is an awesome day because I was finally able to buy my new video card.  I was going to buy it from Tiger Direct but bought it from Amazon instead because of the free shipping.  I was going to buy a cheaper card from Tiger but I went with this one because I’d rather pay a few dollars more and get a better quality video card that might last.

This video card is Sapphire Radeon HD4650 1 GB DDR2 VGA/DVI/HDMI PCI-Express Video Card 100254HDMI and it was $46.99 (from $82, saving me $35.01) with free shipping.  What I didn’t realize when I bought it was that it has a $15 rebate which I am trying to get now online.  I filled out the forms but it brings me to the final page which I have to print but if I can’t turn on my desktop then I can’t print anything so it will have to wait until I get the video card.  They need me to send them a copy of my receipt anyway to prove that I actually bought the video card.  But once I get the rebate (in 2 months time) the video card will have only cost me $31.99 so that’s actually not too bad.  I mean, I have to wait a long time and when I do get it I’ll get a debit card instead of a check but that’s ok I guess.

I chose free shipping which means it will take longer for my order to get to me, the email said that it would take 6-8 days, my estimate delivery dates are August 9th – 13th 2011 so it will be awhile.  The rebate offer is for if I bought the card between 7/18 – 8/15 so I should get it in time to be able to print it out and send it in.

I also bought a 6 foot HDMI cable so that I can hook up my computer to my HDTV.  That way I can watch my web shows on TV full screen the way they were meant to be seen.  Heck, I can even play my game using the TV.  Not that I would but I have the option now.  The HDMI cable was only $5.50.  The reason I wanted to buy it with my order is because if I had bought this from Sears or any other place, I would’ve paid $20-$40 easily.  This  cable even had free shipping with orders $25 and over and since my order was over $25, everything was free to ship.

So, I am very happy about my purchase.  I wanted to stay loyal to Tiger but I also need to get what I need at the price I can afford and not spend that money on shipping fees.  See, I could have paid $29.99 for a video card then $8 to ship it to me.  What would be the point in spending that much money to ship it when I could spend that $8 on a better video card?

I could have gone to the computer store here in town on my bicycle but they are really expensive there.  We bought Darrin a new video card a few months ago and his only has 256mb of DDR memory (not DDR2) and his is an AGP video card.  His was $49.  That was a few months ago.  If a 256 DDR AGP video card is $50 then how much would a 1GB DDR2 PCIe card cost?  Probably $80 or more.  So that’s why I wanted to buy it online.  I’d rather wait a week for it to arrive than have to overspend getting the same or less quality.

The video card that is still in my desktop cost me over $100 from that same computer store.  In fact, I believe it was $125.  That was a Gigabyte Technologies GeForce 7600GS 512MB DDR2 PCIe Dual Link DVI HDTV.  I looked that up online and if I were to buy a new one it would cost $113 but the website I found it on has discontinued it so I can’t even buy a replacement (from that particular site).  I wouldn’t want to though because that dual link DVI thing bugged me every time I booted.  It would tell me it didn’t detect another video card or the dual link or whatever.  Every time I booted…  I didn’t have a 2nd card so naturally it didn’t detect anything.  Why would I have 2 video cards in when I only need 1?

So, it will take about a week to get it.  I’ve gone about 3 weeks without my desktop so I’m pretty sure I can wait another week.  As long as I have my netbook I’m pretty set.  And actually, not having my desktop to keep me busy playing Lord of the Rings Online has gotten me to start reading again so at least something good came out of this video card crashing like it did.

Lord of the Rings Online

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, MMORPGLeave a comment

I was first introduced to the world of MMORPG video games in late 2001 by my cousin who had played EverQuest since beta.  He wanted to play with me and so he bought me the game at Fry’s Electronics for $10.  I played for 6 years and quit for personal reasons.  Believe me, I didn’t want to quit but things were going on here at home that was a direct result of my neglect thanks to me being on EQ for up top 16 hours per day.

I haven’t played an MMORPG game in about 4 years now and I really miss it.  A friend of mine who was my EQ guild leader introduced me to Lord of the Rings Online ironically in 2007, the same year I quit playing EQ.  I only played it for an hour with him then I never played it again because I was too freaked out that things here were going to go south again.

Since I’m home alone for about 12 hours a day now, I figured it wouldn’t do any harm if I started playing LOTRO.  So without emailing my friend to ask him what server he was on, I just got on and created a character and started playing.  A week later I emailed him and found out that he’s not even on the same server.  So I have a choice, I could either delete my character and all of my progress and create a new character on his server or pay $25 to move my character to his server and that’s what I did.

I had already bought a horse with real life money and I couldn’t justify deleting that character or even playing on 2 regular characters on 2 different servers so I just bit the bullet and transferred.

My character’s name was Rego on the Riddermark server but since that name was already taken on Silverlode, the new server, I had to change the name so I chose Xanapus.  It’s not very original but I couldn’t think of anything else on the spot.  He is a Hobbit Burgler and his trade skills are Crafting Yeoman; Cook, Farmer and Tailor.  And his hobby is fishing.  I figured the fishing and farming would help in cooking, the tailoring is just bonus.

I really love this game because it gives me the feeling of being in the world of The Lord of the Rings.  There are many differences between LOTRO and EQ such as the never-ending zone.  When I was in EQ and went to go from let’s say Butcherblock Mountains to Lesser Faydark, I would have to go through the “zone” which took time to load.  Sometimes fast depending on my computer speed and/or my internet speed.  In LOTRO there is no zoning.  All of a sudden I see words on my screen saying I’m in such and such place.  There is a jolt sometimes when that happens and I tend to spin out of control when it freezes me up but I recover.  The only time I zone is when I go into a building.

Quests are much different in LOTRO too than in EQ in the way that they have a Quest window and a Deed window which allows you to see what quests you have going and what your progress is so you know what you have to do to complete the quest.  I have done quite a few quests and deeds in the shire since my character is a hobbit.  I am only level 13 but I hear when I get to level 15 I can buy a house.  One of my hobbies is Fishing and they have certain fish which are mountable and I have already mounted 10 for the walls of my future house lol.

Yes, I do plan on buying a house in this game because they really aren’t that expensive.  I would have to do a lot of farming and selling what I make to be able to make up the money to buy a house and to keep it up but I’m willing to put in the effort.

I’m having fun in this game and even if that fun wears off I won’t regret playing because I’m doing it because it’s what makes me happy.  Yes I have other things that need attention in my life but my brain needs this too, not just those other things.  I can play this game during the daytime when I’m alone then at night pay attention to Darrin so he doesn’t feel neglected.

CR-48 Upgrade Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn CR-48Leave a comment

Earlier today I was sitting here doing a survey on e-rewards on my CR-48 netbook and I look over at the wrench and see that it has a little dot on it.  That dot lets me know there is an upgrade.  I go ahead and let it upgrade which means I lose the survey (which was boring me anyway, no loss) and it reboots.

After it loads back up I immediately check my Gmail settings which I always do when there is an update so I can check to see if the mic is working yet.  Finally it works!  Not only does the mic work but the volume control works as well.  FINALLY!

So now when a friend wants to video chat with me either in Facebook or Gmail I can.  I was able to video chat before, I could hear them but they couldn’t hear me so now they can and I’m so happy.

Although, I sent an email to a friend of mine who has wanted to video chat with me and every time she asks I say no.  She has yet to return my email the whole day and now it’s after midnight so it’s too late cause she’s 3 hours ahead of me so she’s in bed lol.  Maybe tomorrow.

I know the mic works because I opened the Aviary audio editor and recorded my voice and it worked.  It wasn’t as loud as I would have liked for it to be but I’m sure they’re working on mic volume control.

Another thing I tried was Runescape and they still have yet to upgrade the missing plug-in for that game.  Oh and I hope they open a file structure soon too.   :p

I know, I’m like a child with this thing lol.

Google Queues

On By Michel McDonaldIn Google ChromeLeave a comment

I don’t know if I am just very late to the game but thanks to reading the PC Mag on my new Nook, I am a little bit more educated than I was before I got it.

I read an article in the PC Mag about a new (or is it new?) thing from Google called Gpanion which is very handy. It’ basically has these app icons (like apple iPhone apps) that open a website for certain google websites. Like your email, calendar, youtube, maps… etc.

One of those things in there is called GQueue. What that is, is if you have a ton of things that you need to get done you type them out with a date that it needs to be completed by and as you get that item done you check it and that item disappears forever. Be careful you don’t prematurely uncheckulate it because it is a disappointment when you have to reenter the monster back in.

I am not ashamed to show mine here. It’s not showing up in my screen so I’ll see what happens when I publish this post. But it should show you a list of the books I have in my queue. I have not bought all of them whether I said so or not but that list is only 1/4 filled. I decided I would finish it later since I have to get to bed.

Which reminds me, tootles. Goodnight. See ya’ll in the morn when I try to finish it.

Comic Books

On By Michel McDonaldIn eBook, Nook1 Comment

Wow, I didn’t know there were so many comic books out there.  I knew about the obvious ones, Spiderman, Superman, X-Men etc.  But there are some that I didn’t know about like from tv shows that I watch or used to watch but are now gone.

Here is a list of comic books from tv shows that I used to watch

  • Futurama
  • The Simpsons
  • Eureka!
  • Farscape (I actually missed that show because we didn’t have cable when it was on.  I found out about it way later and by then they were in their last season so I just got to see a few episodes)
  • Buffy the vampire slayer (I actually knew about this)
  • Star War
  • World of Warcraft (from the game?)
  • Angel (is this the Buffy spin off or something else?)
  • Doctor Who
  • Ghost Whisperer

This list is from G-Mart, that page you can order comic books.  I seriously didn’t know that there were that many comic books.  I used to love comic books as a kid, especially Mad Magazine and I wish I still got it or some comic books.  That would be so neat.  I’d love to get the Buffy, Angel, Doctor Who and Ghost Whisperer comic books.  Eureka! and Farscape would be cool too.  Some of them are $2 a month and some are $5 a month.  Too much for me right now.  Plus I’ve missed all the earlier from the beginnings so I’m sure I’ve missed tons of information.  Oh well.

Bokni Magus

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

Yay!  I finally defeated this bastard.  And it didn’t even take me 2 weeks like someone posted on a message board that it took them.

As I said in my previous post about Untold Legends (Warriors Code) I was just experimenting to see what would happen if I exited the game, then came back but when I loaded my character instead of clicking continue that I’d click restart chapter.  I thought it would take me back to the beginning of that zone that I was in but instead it took me all the way back to the very beginning of the game.  But my advantage was that I was still level 16 and I still had all my weapons and armor and trinkets.

That sorta helped me and in fact as I went along going back to the Bokni Magus I was being upgraded for my level with equipment.  But when I did get back to the Bokni Magus last night he was just as hard to kill as before.  But, this morning I went back to the monastery and bought some upgrades from the merchant along with some new augments and I was able to beat this Bokni Magus once and for all.  Because the new augments were Petrify for 4 seconds and Charm for 4 seconds.  Along with 3 Health Drain.  So those helped me a bit.  Those effects are on my weapon.

So now I’m finally on chapter 2.

The Bokni Magus

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games, PSPLeave a comment

Well, I finally got my character back up in level so he is back to where he was last night.  I’m even back to the mob boss I was at last night who kept killing me which eventually lead me to exit the game and start playing the other one.

I’m back to him and I thought that the only thing that would help me was my ranged weapon but I shot at him over and over and over until all my ammo was gone and had used up almost all my HP potions and I still died.  That guy just won’t die.

What I’ve read other say in message boards is that the only way to kill this guy is to run around the edge of the walls until he stops to recharge his mana or whatever then try to kill him.  I’m not sure if that will do me any good because he heals so fast.  Even if I did wait for him to gain more mana then try to attack he’d probably gain his mana fast enough to heal himself and I’d never kill him.

I read that it took 1 person 2 weeks to finally off this guy.  Someone said try the multi-player mode and get help with it but most of the people chatting in the multi-player chat room are little children from the way they are talking to each other.  You know the way kids talk to each other, 1 insult after the other.  Yeah OK, some adults are like that too so I’m not sure who is who anymore lol.

I’m going to try one of the techniques I’ve read about tomorrow.  For now my left hand is hurting me from the analog stick thingy.

EverQuest

On By Michel McDonaldIn GamesLeave a comment

In March 2007 I paid for 2 years of my EverQuest subscription and that 2 years is up in a couple of months.  Before they automatically charge me for another 2 years for $200 I would like to prevent getting shot in the foot by myself of course for not canceling in time lol.

I really had a good time in EQ for the 6 years I played it.  The last year doesn’t count for my 7 years because I haven’t played it for a year.  But the amount of time I did play it was so much more fun than I could even say.

Every time I got online someone would invite me to a group and if they didn’t I would have to just go to a zone where I knew would be populated and start shouting or saying out of character /ooc that I’m available by saying my race, class and level followed by LFG (Looking for group).

I had so much fun playing with friends and strangers would usually become friends unless they were a douche in the game then I’d never see them again.  I can’t replace the fun that I’ve had but just hope that I get something similar to it again in my life.  Maybe perhaps in real life?  Then again I don’t know anyone who wants to kill gnolls or giant skeletons.

I still have until mid March to play it so I’m going to be making some appearances here and there to say hi before I can no longer log into the game.

I heard that Sony will store all of your stuff in their systems for 6 months but after that you either have to pay for 1 month then cancel again and do that every 6 months or you just lose everything.  I don’t know, maybe things have changed.  We will find out soon enough.  I would like to sell my account since I highly doubt I will ever play the game again.  But then again I’d only consider it if it’s someone that I know and know for a fact that he knows how to play a high level wizard.  I don’t want to sell it to someone who has no clue what he/she is doing.  That would be a definite insult.  And they must change the name from Xanapus to something else.  I don’t want anyone to have that name but me.