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Wednesday, May 14th, 2008
mister_neil
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6:50p
Schtuff
I usually do crossposts with DasienComic.net when my art stuff and real life stuff intersect, although lately I've been doing it more frequently. I usually do it so that people who read my regular blog could, if they're interested, go over there and subscribe. That's basically the reason I've got the hypno-butt avatar out.
So anyway, there are a couple spammy things I wanted to go over. I did a couple minor edits to the Drunk Duck Wiki page a little while ago, because it badly needed it. I'm hoping that by bringing it up, that some of my LJ friends who are more in the know with Drunk Duck could maybe either expand upon the changes I made or do a V8 headbonk to the ones who normally watch over the page. Namely Spang, Volte, and Black Kitty.
Also, I thought I'd bring your attention to the Crossoverlord comic forum that we set up a few weeks ago. We've gotten a lot of hits, but you know me. We could always use more. Go there and spread the joy. ...And marvel at Al Shroeder's comicbook nerdiness.
And as long as you're at it, check out Crossoverlord!
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(comment on this)
fuzzycuteness
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1:32p
News from the front:
Woah. This Just In:
I now have enough spanish knowledge to but into conversations
~KM
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(comment on this) Tuesday, May 13th, 2008
(comment on this) Sunday, May 11th, 2008
mister_neil
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11:25p
What Video Game Should Neil Play Next?
Okay, so I have a little delemma. I have a stack of unplayed RPGs. I go through them at my liesure, usually for an hour or two before I draw in the evening. There are quite a few of them that I own which I haven't played, though. Some of which are well past the decade-old mark, but I don't care about that. I'll still play them, because I like retro games. And nothing is more retro than playing a game that was actually made in the classic era! To paraphrase NBC, if I haven't played it, it's new to me!
So, I finished Paper Mario: The Thousand Year Door a little while ago. Actually, I had played both Paper Mario games back-to-back. And let me tell you, that was something else. It was a lot of fun, but I was glad it was over. And yes, I beat both the Master and Bonetail.
But now that those two games are out of the way, I need something else with which to unwind when I get home. I'm looking through my stack of unplayed RPGs, and I'm rather undecided. There are some here that I bought many moons ago, and I'm just drooling to play them. The question is, WHICH ONE!?
You'll notice a few of these are bundled together. The reason is simple. In cases such as Golden Sun, one game continues into the next. In fact, you can transfer your game save data via the GBA link cable. A similar system is included with Arc The Lad, where game save data can be moved from one game to the next. And since Arc 1 is supposed to be a really short game, I have every intention of playing it back-to-back with Arc 2.
But then I have stuff for like the Saturn and Sega CD that is crying to be played. I have all those Shining games. I've played the Shining games. They're awesome. I really should get around to playing the four that I've missed. Especially since one of them is a Working Designs release!
And then there's Begger Prince. I've actually played some of it, but it was at a time that my attention was really divided. I really want to get back to it, but since it's technically a new game, I keep pushing it off in favor of others.
So, here's the poll. All you need to do is vote for the game that you think I should play next.
Poll #1186378 What Video Game Should Neil Play Next?
Open to: All, results viewable to: AllWhat video game should Neil play next?
(And yes I voted, because I wanted to see the results. I didn't realize that I didn't have to do that. Oh well...)
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(comment on this) Monday, May 12th, 2008
kingnat
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1:30a
Note on Calorific intakes and muscle growth/fat loss nutrition
Working out my calorific intake requirements for rest days and workout days.
I'm of the opinion that if I can get away with less calories and still feel like I have energy, then that just helps speed the process along.
I'm using an "A+B+C= Daily calorific requirements" formula taken from this article on macrobiotic nutrition.
It's mainly about bodybuilding nutrition, and whilst I've decided to do some level of bodybuilding, I'm not aiming for huge size; I'm going for an athletic physique appropriate for a martial artist, which I feel would help me in my general health as well as with my development as a combatant. (The link is taken from a source which is more about that sort of physique than the bodybuilding physiques shown on the document). The ebook is largely about getting huge (without doing cardio, but doing weights instead; which is not my goal, as I need to up my aerobic recovery times, so the extremely cardio centered activity of running is a fairly large part of my workout arsenal) but the nutrition information is still appropriate to anyone wanting to shed the fat and/or gain muscle (or in fact, just gain muscle without shedding fat).
A = Bodyweight in lbs (sorry, couldn't be bothered to work out the conversion in to kg) multiplied by the value X, where X depends on your goal.
X = 13 if you wish to gain muscle AND bodyfat
X = 10 if you wish to gain muscle and maintain bodyfat
X = 7 if you wish to gain muscle and burn bodyfat
X = 6 if you wish to gain muscle and burn a lot of bodyfat.
I went with a value of 6, because I'm impatient and want results to be sooner rather than later. I think it depends on the sort of person you are, but I see no point in going with X= 7 if you are able to cope with X = 6 unless you are simply fine tuning and only have an extremely small amount of bodyfat to drop. A good guide I'm told is that if when you put both hands behind your head and look in the mirror, if you can't see the top two abs and you wish to burn it all off, then you should be using the C = 6 value.
B = Bodyweight (once more in lbs) multiplied by the value Y, the value of which is determined by your lifestyle.
Y = 3 for a sedentary lifestyle
Y = 5 for a moderate lifestyle
Y = 10 for a very active lifestyle (e.g. your work is a physical labour profession , or you are a professional athlete etc)
You might want to fine tune (e.g. you may feel that your lifestyle is pretty active, but it's not at the level of a professional athlete, or someone who is lifting and carrying heavy weights all day, so you can use a value of 7) but only you can be the judge of that.
The value C relates to your workouts.
C = length of workout (in minutes) multiplied by Z, where Z depends on the type of workout you are doing.
Z = 10 for weight training and low intensity cardio.
Z = 12 for high intensity cardio... like running.
Add those figures together, and you can work out how much you need to eat on training days (A+B+C= Calories required) and on rest days (A+B= Calories required).
For me that comes to 1926 calories per rest day, with an extra 300 calories on top per half hour of weights, and 360 calories per half hour of running (more or less).
Of course, it's not all about the calories, because you can eat a diet of rice cakes and chow down all the multivitamins and cod liver oil tablets you like, and you won't be in good nick. Those calories need to be balanced, with plenty of fruit and veg (mainly fruit and veg actually, with the emphasis on the veg) and a proper balance of Carbs to proteins and fats.
Try to make your diet consist of the following
42-48% Carbs
32-38% Protein
17-24% Fat. (Keep the saturated fat to a minimum)
Which just about covers it.
The ebook has some recipes in it, but I'm not completely convinced by them. They use eggs, but only the egg whites for the most part which seems counter intuitive to me; the yolks may well contain the cholesterol, but on the other hand they actually contain the highest concentration of nutrients in the egg.
I'm still a fence sitter on the eggs issue, and to make matters worse I've been made even more confused on the matter of whether it's better to be eating eggs raw than cooked... but for the most part I think that you just have to accept that everything is bad for you if you have too much of it, and that if you are one of those people who does the raw egg thing (Rocky style or otherwise) then you have to be careful with where your eggs come from, and inspect each egg carefully before consuming it raw.
Anyway, in the end it mainly comes down to just eating healthily, and getting educated on exactly what healthy eating actually consists of.
P.S. Eat whole/natural foods over the boxed and processed stuff. Wholemeal bread and pasta etc, much better for you than the processed stuff.
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(comment on this) Sunday, May 11th, 2008
mister_neil
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7:20p
Someone pulled a sneaky on Wiki
Every now and then, I do a Wiki search for ol' Das, just to see if anyone has sneaked her into an article. Apparently, someone snuck a quick mention into Wikipedia's Superhero article. Okay, I didn't do it. I swear!
"However, with people adding their own definitions of superhero to the mix, Superhero may mean a specific type of superpowered hero, such as in the webcomic Dasien."
~http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Superhero
The full context of the statement, I think, is that a superhero in the Dasien universe means that you actually have super powers, as opposed to the DC universe, where a powerless hero like Batman fits the definition. Again, I think that's what it means. Otherwise, I think one of my fans apparently thought they could sneak a little Dasien reference into Wikipedia, which is fine. I won't throw a fit, though, if someone deletes it.
That reminds me. I should take advantage of this and update, but I'm so backed up with work. I have to finish some crossover stuff first, and then you'll see some new Dasien.
Sorry 'bout that.
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(comment on this) Friday, May 9th, 2008
mister_neil
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3:00a
Superman in Metal
Call me dorky, but I've always kind of thought that of all of John Williams' scores, the Superman theme would be awesome if it were to be adapted into heavy metal. The theme opens with that swelling chug, it's got a gallop that would make Steve Harris proud, it's got lots of powerful sections that would work excellently on guitar, and, best of all, it's even got several parts where you KNOW there's a cue to sing Superman's name along with the music.
Look up in the sky!
Who's that guy?
Beat up the bad guy!
SUPERMAAAAN!
...Er ...Actually, that would be the lame version, but I posted that knowing that it will be stuck in your head from now on, thus torturing my readers for years to come. Every time you hear the Superman theme, you will hear those lyrics in your head and curse my name. Yes, I am such a bastard.
Anyhoo, I went over to Youtube to see if anyone out there shared my warped revelation that the Superman theme should have a metal tune. Much to my surprise, there are actually a couple people out there who've recorded themselves playing it. None of them are particularly outstanding, but this one sort of has the right idea, I think.
...Not to sound like Strong Bad or anything, but that could have used a lot more chugga-chuggas and meedly-mees, but not bad.
Of course, the worlds of heavy metal and superheroes have crossed, and just like Mr. Reece getting chocolate in his peanut butter, the result was oh, so good! Thank you, Paul Gilbert!
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(3 comments | comment on this) Thursday, May 8th, 2008
mister_neil
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5:45p
Crossoverlord Page 4
There was a new page of Crossoverlord last Tuesday, even though I completely forgot to mention it. Guess my attention was really divided this week.
http://www.drunkduck.com/Crossoverlord/index.php?p=395217
Dead Debbie's introduction concludes this week. Next week: MINDMISTRESS! ...And then two weeks after that, DASIEN!
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(comment on this) Tuesday, May 6th, 2008
mister_neil
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11:00p
Wow...
The most amazing thing happened today.
But before I even get to that, let me backtrack a bit and tell you about my family. My sister and I were never brought up with any sort of religious values. It was completely absent. We were told that there was a God, that he loved us, and, if we're good, there's some magical place we go when we die. Now, that may sound like religion to you, but there was no practice beyond that. We never went to church. We were never taught about Jesus. We didn't even have a Bible in the house. It was basically a universalist upbringing.
Of course, it didn't take me very long to look around at all my friends and realise that there were other flavors of theism. Of course, I wanted to know why we believed one thing and other people believed another, and there was never an answer. After a while, I started asking even more interesting questions, such as the strange preference for monotheism over polytheism. Honestly, what's so implausible about the latter if we already believe the former? Again, no real answer.
So, obviously, I came to the conclusion that this belief that we had was tacked-on and completely unnecessary. And from that point on, it was kind of strange approaching the subject with my family, because it felt like I had walked away from something that everyone else seemed to value intensely, even though our brand of theism was as innocent as it was (universalism is about as secular as theism gets, next to deism).
So, today, my mother has the whole family over tonight, and we're talking over dinner. Now, my family knows that I'm an atheist, but nobody's ever really cornered me on it. ...until tonight, that is! And it wasn't at all what I expected. I expected a lecture. Since I have a tendency to speak out against believers, I expected to hear, "You shouldn't be disrespectful of people for having different beliefs.". ...but that didn't happen. Instead, my family totally came out to me. My mother, my sister, and my uncle all basically told me that they are totally agnostic.
Now, normally, I would groan at the term "agnostic", because of several run-ins I've had with certain internet agnostics. You know the types. The ones who think that it's arrogant for atheists to outright reject the alleged existence of whatever arbitrary supernatural being (in this case, a god) they think we ought not to dismiss. And yet, the same argument could be applied to other supernatural things, such as pixies, but nobody's agnostic of pixies. The notion of pixies is dismissed outright, as it should. Atheists simply argue that gods are in the same realm of unverfied claims as pixies.
Rather, the agnosticism that I encountered tonight wasn't that kind of agnosticism. Rather, it was a refreshing sense of indifference. In other words, to the subject of God's existence... eh... they could really give a damn. But there is a definite preference for people who choose to think about morality rather than fishing it out of an archaic book written by ancient sheep hearders. Better to be thoughtful than mindlessly obedient.
It was just so strange to hear this, because I never knew that unbelief was a progressive force sweeping through my family. For all I knew, they were still the same bunch of God-Lite believers that they were when I was a kid. I just assumed that I was the black sheep and they were just letting me have my little space and they politely disagreed. Absolutely not! Somehow.... somewhere... my family finally kicked away the final vestige of theism.
...of course, considering that we started out universalist, it wasn't exactly a tough shackle to shake free.
And then the conversation turned into this really funny topic about how characters from the Bible, assuming they even existed, would be in jail today. We speculated as to whether or not Jesus would be locked up, but we concluded unanimously that Moses and Abraham would definitely be in jail if they existed in today's society.
My mom even went on to state that Abraham, who is the founding figure of all three of the major religions, was clearly delusional or perhaps even eating shrooms on the day that he decided to sacrifice Issac. But thank goodness he had that second hallucination in which God told him to stop!
It was just a laugh-a-minute table conversation over dinner. It was good and therapeutic.
And best of all, the weirdness isn't there anymore.
Well, I'm gonna sign off for now. I'mma go watch TV. There's a special about the disappearance of Madalyn Murray O'Hair on Investigation Discovery starting... RIGHT NOW!
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(9 comments | comment on this)
mister_neil
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6:30p
Jackie Chan is Awesome
James Rolfe provides yet another tribute to Jackie Chan.
By the way, if you're reading this RIGHT NOW at 6:30, tonight is the airing of the episode of Wheel Of Fortune I attended. You can't see me in the audience, though.
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(comment on this) Monday, May 5th, 2008
mister_neil
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11:50p
Holy Crap, Mrs. Crapperson! It's the Strong Bad Videro Game!
Riddle: What do you get when you combine the geniuses behind Sam & Max with the geniuses of Homestarrunner.com? Well, aside from a major release of every bodily fluid imaginable directly into your shorts, you'll also get Strong Bad's Cool Game or Attractive People!
Yes, so it seems that even hold-outs like me finally have an excuse to buy a Wii (other than Virtual Console, of course).
More awesomeness: http://homestarrunner.com/sbcg4ap.html
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(comment on this)
fuzzycuteness
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7:36p
Half Rant, Half Normal Entry
So incase yall missed the news
I gained OPs at Sleepershostel.com
and have turned it from a dilapidated shithouse into a respectable business website.
all the while adding hella span, div, img etc. title="" tags to everything,
putting shit in the img alt="" tags,
tagging a title="fuckin Russel" somewhere on every page,
etc.
also, as a side note
Google's WYSIWYG editor's generated code is unholy bag of shit. oh my god.
I was going through it today. I turned a 8-inch-by-4-inch block of shitty redundant image markup into 4 lines.
not kidding.
srsly tho.
I'm proud as fuck of my volunteer unpaid lovely work.
Today, I wrote everything on the Location page from scratch. From memory of my personal travels.
Except the "From Tilarán:" section. I've never been there. I asked someone for that shit.
Also, I am mindful of the increase in the level of my cursing. That's an unnamed anon wiki's influence over me.
I just now ate a hella-nicer-than-my-host-family-cooks dinner made by the wife of the sleepershostel guy. complete with seconds. man. I'm stuffed.
Tomorrow="more yummy dinner"
yeah
I love you
~KM
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(comment on this)
fuzzycuteness
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7:35p
//oops
Okay so...
Ive kinda been doing this thing where,
Ive been waking up at 5:30am naturally, sans alarm,
regardless of what time i get to sleep at,
and i pretty much love it.
Mornings are the shit.
Oh man.
I wish I'd done this last year.
I usta be totally a night person, but now.
Total flip-around. Its an amazing change in perspective.
I hope i stay like this when I get back to the 'States in a month
also, of all the verbs in Spanish, estar is by far, the biggest asshole.
~KM
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(2 comments | comment on this)
mister_neil
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3:00p
Too darn cute!
Wook at da kyute widdle squirrel!
This is a Thunderfoot video. According the video description, he found the baby squirrel abandoned and in the middle of a road. He rescued it, nursed it back to health, and then gave it a new home in an animal santuary.
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(comment on this) Thursday, May 1st, 2008
mister_neil
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8:10p
Dasien this weekend? Maybe?
Working on it. Have a ton of stuff to do, but I think I can squeak one out.
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(comment on this)
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