Now there is four words I have grown absolutely sick to death of hearing. It’s nearly as bad as someone calling me Colorado. Forty four years and it’s still not funny. Every time I hear “That’s bad for you.”, all I want to do is develop inhuman strength and punch a hole in the person’s head.
Of course it’s bad for you. Just about every thing in the world is bad for you. I’m pretty sure they air you are breathing reading this is likely bad for you. Pollen, dust, dander, allergens, toxins from cars, factories and every other byproduct of all things man made that we’ve created over the past millennium . Though I’m pretty sure you need to breathe or you will die. So in a way it’s also very good for you.
Don’t get me started on sex. It’s likely more bad than good for you. STD’s, children, the next morning trying to remember his or her name… Yet that doesn’t stop people from having it. I know someone who has had more sex partners in the past 2 months, than 5 average folks would have their whole lives combined. But hey, they’re on birth control, so it makes it alright. (shudders)
Diet foods contain insane amounts of sodium in many cases. Which for a person like me is very bad. Nuts, while fattening, is good for the heart.
Even though I’ve radically changed my diet. Got my cholesterol in check and have been losing weight. It never seems to fail that at least once or twice a week, I hear these words because of something I am about eat or do, is bad for me in their opinion.
God bless everyone for their concern, but holy cow give it a rest! I can’t even really be sure if it’s genuine concern, or some sort of programmed response based on something they hear, or read about once. Which really brings to question if they remember it correctly.
Yes, I still splurge on eating ice cream or something. I’m not going to die a complete miserable bastard. Sure there are diet deserts, but I like what I like. Just because there’s some healthier choice out there, I’m still going to eat what I like. I still manage to keep things in check to my own satisfaction.
And for all the carb counting and fearing humans… I present unto thee my Lord and Master!
Foamy makes a good point in the next video, about the health ramifications of puncture wounds in the throat.
Besides, constantly saying “That’s bad for you!” or continuing to call me Colorado, may end up being bad for you!
One of my biggest annoyances with social networking, is how we simply degrade the meaning of terms. Terms that once held, in what I would call, a higher standard before as opposed to the way it’s used today.
It’s funny how the term hacking has really lost most of its meaning. Hacking used to require skill to obtain the previously thought unobtainable. Now all one has to do to “hack” is wait for someone to forget to log out of their account and simply mess with openly available settings… I’m so very disappointed that just about anyone can be considered a hacker now. Back in the day, you wouldn’t even get called a hacker if you used a known exploit to obtain your objective. You were looked down upon as less than a hacker, and given names like “script-kiddies” or something along those lines.
To me, what is happening in most cases, should simply be referred to as a “prank”. The target person or so-called victim, didn’t pay enough attention to the fact that they forgot to log out of their account before walking away. Someone else simply took advantage of this situation to be mischievous. In the case of my nephew doing this very thing yesterday, he’s now being punished for hacking the account. He hasn’t discovered the password, he didn’t bypass any security measures and he is certainly not posing any threat to any other users on Facebook. He merely took advantage some someone’s carelessness in order to have a little harmless fun. I am certainly not against him being punished. However, punish a person for their crimes, not for the victims ignorance, and then label the perpetrator something they are really not.
I’m sure when his mom figures out why I wrote this post, she will likely refer to me as a stalker. It seems everyone is a “stalker” now. All one has to do to earn this label today, is merely read what is publicly available to them. It used to be that this term, was a gross and disgusting label that was once given to only people, who literally had some mental issue that would instill fear in to their targets. I cringe every time I get called a stalker. It makes my skin crawl and turns my stomach, as I would never ever want to be labeled a stalker. I don’t think it’s remotely funny, I do not find it a cute term of endearment, or even think it should be referred to as someone who reads. That’s all it amounts too these days. What the hell happened to society. I mean, if you don’t want my opinion, reaction or want me to know something. Then don’t post it where I’m likely to see it. The object of social networking, as far as I know, is for community involvement in one means or other. The first and foremost is through commenting. This post actually started out as a comment to my nephew’s incarceration as it were. However, it turned into the straw that broke the camels back of my frustration with the flagrant misuse of these two terms, and has evolved into one of my “I hate how the world has become more ignorant and stupid”, rants.
…
I realize this is my own personal pet peeves with society in general these days. I also realize that the majority rules. So many people do this kind of nonsense thanks to the wonderful world of the internet and social networks. Everyone has to do something in order to make themselves feel cool now.
The question is, what’s next? Will I soon be considered a rapist because I “friended” (there’s another idiotic term…) the daughter of a close friend of mine, who just happens to be under the age of 18? Honestly, that would be a seriously sick accusation. Then again, I don’t think being called a stalker is much better.
Sometimes you just need to celebrate life’s little victories. I have one to celebrate today as I got an email confirming that I’m not crazy after all. At least, less like I’m going crazy. You know, that feeling you get when you know for a fact, that you’re right when everyone else says you are wrong….
Let me explain…
While I am an Evil Genius and all, I have a lot of tools at my disposal. There is however, a secret weapon I use to help me when I make these gorgeous websites. It’s not part of my freeware. So when I ran across a show stopping issue with it, I tried my best to make the community of users aware of this issue via their forums. As I had thought that the best place to bring it up. Hoping that the developers paid attention to their users concerns. However, I guess not all companies pay attention to their customer forums like other companies do (Hi Blizzard!).
I ended up wasting several days of my time trying to argue that I had found a very serious problem and that it should be addressed. Instead I was met with self proclaimed experts who clearly thought I was off my trolley, as it were. Instead of them following my carefully laid out explanation, or trying to reproduce the issue themselves… They merely made suggestions that I must have overlooked something obvious or that my WordPress installation was somehow incorrect.
I’d like to think that after 5 years of using WordPress, I’m somewhat of an expert of what I can do with it, how to install it and how to operate it to nearly it’s full extent of use. I don’t go advertising myself as such, as I don’t want to start taking a billion questions about it. I make it look pretty and I use it, but I don’t want to be tech support for it. I save my tech skills for computers. It’s where I excel in life.
As it turns out, this company apparently only focuses only on customer support tickets. So carefully playing the side of the customer, I was sure to cross my t’s and dot my i’s and made sure that I had every detail they needed right up front (god I wish customers would do that for me, instead of making me beg them to read the WHOLE ERROR MESSAGE!!!! … er sorry got sidetracked…). Anyway… and with just a few days passing, I received the following email response today:
Hi Denver,
Sorry for the delay in responding.
Thanks for reporting this issue.
We were able to reproduce it and it’s currently investigating by our developers.
The fix should be included in the next update of our software.
We apologize for this temporary inconvenience.
So neener neener neener to all those useless self experts that troll forums trying to make themselves sound important! Of course, I still have to wait for the next release to find out if they actually fixed it, but since they confirmed I did find a problem, I am at least for now hopeful that I did a good thing.
It’s been a couple of weeks since I posted anything. While I am working on a project, it’s not ready for public view. It’s a long view plan, so I may drop hints from time to time about it. As for now, an update for those who still would like to know
Waiting… Yes, I’m basically just waiting. I hate waiting. Feels like I’ve been doing it all my life at times. From waiting in the parking lot for my girlfriend to come out of school (way back in the day). Waiting in line at boot camp. Waiting for summer, waiting for special events. The list goes on. Right now I’m waiting to move. May is the target month. Still not sure of the exact date. Some days it gets very hard to wait. I made a promise to wait for someone else though. Otherwise I would be in the car right now. Still… Waiting sucks.
Weight… Sadly I am still just over 300 pounds. I did not make my goal by Christmas as I had hoped. Just means I must keep trying. I did stop doing my walk during the two weeks of shopping frenzy. I know I could’ve just went elsewhere, but the idea is that I just couldn’t take the crowds. Short of driving miles away from here just to get some peace, I just said phooey on the lot and took a couple of weeks off. Probably was a good idea as the flu is running wild here. Virginia is one of the highest outbreaks of flu this year. I don’t relish having it along with all the other crap I deal with. I’m back to walking, I will succeed.
WoW… Yes, I’m back to playing World of Warcraft. I just can’t find a game that “does it” for me like it does. I’m sorry fellas (and ladies), it is what it is. (I cringed typing that last part after the comma.) The pandas aren’t all that bad, except for the Larry the Cable Guy references and a couple of others. That and the whole Pandaria area is all about managing anger and feelings. Over sensitive wankers are even taking over games now… Annoyed I can’t fly there until I’m 90, but whatever. Sadly, I can’t raid anymore. Sitting for more than 2 hours is just out of the question for me anymore. I can do dungeons, crafting, fly, do achievements, exploring, quests and loads of other stuff. It’s basically what I was looking to do in a single player, except I still get the social interaction I want. At least until I get back home to Michigan where I can visit friends face to face again and put together a garage band for fun.
Windows 8… I’m still not a fan of Metro. I don’t like it, I don’t use it and I think those responsible for it should be flogged naked in public. Just so you know, I’m actually being nice about how I really feel about it. Though I did actually upgrade both my desktop and my laptop with Windows 8. As a tech I need to know it. Like it or not. Using Classic Shell, I can bypass Metro completely and it’s actually a rather nice OS outside of that. If only Microsoft could see that. I think they think they are setting a trend. Although I think the sales records speak volumes of how the people think. Then there are the calls I get from the poor unsuspecting bastards that just decided to buy a new PC unaware that there is a new version of Windows on the streets. They call me and start with “What the hell is this shit?” as if it’s somehow my fault they see gigantic live squares of redundant bullshit. I even had one guy ask when my company was going to fix the email problem (refering to the email app that only uses Windows Live mail accounts). When I suggested downloading a free email client that would work, like Windows Live Mail, he got hostile. (sigh) People just don’t get it sometimes…. However, my official suggestion to friends and family is stick with Windows 7 or buy a Mac. Don’t be a square
(hehe Mac should use that as an advertising campaign)
If you’ve looked at the Ventrilo status that used to be on the side bar in the past few weeks, you’ve noticed it’s empty. It’s not because all my friends stopped hanging out, they have just moved to a new medium to hang out on. It’s similar to Vent, but it’s free. It’s called RaidCall.
With Vent, it was only free for others to install the software, set it up and then enjoy talking with everyone. This actually proved more tricky that one might imagine. In-so-much that I had created a detailed tutorial that proved popular among other people. Even then, it wasn’t without daunting issues. Such as feedback noises, god awful static and the ability to accidentally mute yourself and it would take forever to get people straight.
I’m not fully sure of how the move took place, as I hadn’t been on Vent in weeks myself. Getting away from the computer, has sadly left my friends wondering where I am, or how I’m doing. (of course they are all free to text me or call me on the phone
) Though I imagine a lot of it was a cost issue. As Vent, costs to have a server. Unless you violate the license, and run a private server. We’ve had an account with UGT-Servers since 2007. So each year I’d solicit donations from everyone. We’d renew vent and life moved forward.
In truth though, I’m a bit sad over this. Even though I’m not on much, I liked having a central place for my friends. I might not be logged on, but I would load up my website on my laptop, or my Android just to glance at the status to see who was online. It almost became a tradition as we in our own way became family. It’s like that old house you grew up in. Even though I moved away, I always want to come back and visit that familiar place. Now it’s like that empty old house on the street where I used to live. No one is there anymore. The family has moved out and into a new home across town (metaphorically speaking).
I know I can simply log on to the new RaidCall channel they’ve setup. Somehow, it’s just not the same. We’ve had that Vent account for a number of years now. It’s actually going to be hard for me to hit the cancel account button. Even though it was a digital hangout. Once it’s gone, it’s gone forever. And another piece of my history will become nothing more than fond memories.
I did setup a RaidCall group for CastleRain, even though most have joined other groups. This one will be around just if anyone wants to group and chill. 5315200
I cannot believe the stupid things we concern ourselves with in this country. I’m so absolutely sick of signing on to my accounts to see the constant barrage of Gay Marriage (Pro/Con) issues, Bullying which is also coupled with whatever trivial mindlessness the media can dump down our throats. Currently that would be the Olympics.
I cannot believe this is all we seem to give any consideration too. Honestly, I can’t believe for one second that I am part of some minority group who also think there are far, far more important and immediate issues this country needs to address. It simply boils my blood that we prefer to talk about where to buy a decent chicken sandwich because we don’t want to offend anyone. That’s another thing. What the hell is with all the overly sensitive people the past few years?!?! It’s enough to drive someone insane!
Here’s my thoughts on the current topics and then I never want to hear about them again:
Honestly, as far as I’m concerned, Gay people can have marriage. It hasn’t worked so well for straight people for several decades.
I was, and several of my classmates were bullied when we were kids (teased, beat up and I remember being pelted with a can of vegetables in the back of the head once). I still sometimes get teased because of my name. I may have cried emotionally or in pain, but I haven’t committed suicide or shot someone over it. I got over it. Parents, take some damned responsibility for your children and teach them to handle the situation intelligently. Today we don’t take the time to discipline children in nearly any faction. They don’t fear reprisal, so they end up being the bullies, or they end up murdering or committing suicide from being the victims of bullying. We didn’t have nearly this problem when mommy and daddy could whoop some behind for bad behavior. Parents today also don’t seem to take the time to sit them down and help their children understand the shortcomings of others like our parents did.
This event has nearly bankrupt some countries who have hosted it in the past. Sure it’s nifty that someone can ice skate all pretty, or flip around some bendy bars or do hand stands that many of us are incapable of doing. But what does that do to help the worlds issues? Might bring them some people joy or hope, but over all. Nothing relevant. There’s the old saying, put hope in one hand and defecate in the other. See which hand gets a healthy dose of reality.
All of these issues are completely and utterly trivial as far as I’m concerned. There are more important issues that this country needs to be concerned with and we need to put aside all the trivial issues to come up with answers to the following topics: (These are in no particular order as they all are, as I feel , equally important.)
Obama promised us change. Change he did bring. I don’t recall him saying it would be good change. So I guess he kept his word. I hate the changes he brought. I don’t want him in office this next election. He brought us Obama Care. But does he really? However, I don’t like Mitt Romney either. With the both of them campaigning, it’s like watching two clowns in full dress, with red noses and clown shoes, beat each other over the head with rubber chickens. Why can’t there be a spot on the ballot to choose two new candidates? As far back as I can remember, Jobs, Health Care and Income have always been on a Presidents plate. Yet, term after term, promises and taxes later, the problems still exist. We continue to have the problems and somehow still tolerate it. I’m not understanding why. Not that I know the fix, but doesn’t anyone else question why it’s still going on after all these years?
We keep outsourcing more and more. I’ve talk about this before. Soon we won’t have any jobs to offer. If the products can be purchased online, we won’t have retail outlets for them soon. Gas stations will be virtually unmanned. Only jobs that will be left, will be governmental jobs and grocery stores. I’m over exaggerating, but you get the idea. This isn’t even close to including the issues of immigration, although they too won’t have any jobs soon either if this keeps up.
As a person who has worked in the tech field for over 18 years, I and my colleagues are still stuck in lower paying jobs since the whole outsource issue started in the early 2000′s. There are many people in many fields of work in this same exact boat. They have years of experience and do their jobs at an outstanding level, yet are so poorly compensated. To find a better paying job at a parallel company is next to impossible. In so much, that many of us still can’t afford a home, even with all the assistance in this world, the income is still too low. While gas and food skyrocket in cost making each year making living harder and harder. Personally I blame a lot of it on lack of local spending. We do not support our community businesses like we should. As well as we need to stop outsourcing everything.
I guess this sort of relates to bullying. Because these kids are shooting up kids in school, killing people at random in theaters. Of course this also relates to the fact our educational systems are hurting and our local enforcement suffers from budget cuts as well. But that’s OK, let’s just explore Mars while we cut education and law enforcement funding. Yet, I don’t feel safe much these days trying to just catch a movie knowing some psycho can just waltz into a theater, whip out a gun and kill women, children and men without prejudice or remorse. Some of my kids still go to college, I fear every day that some nut will just walk into a classroom and shoot them or stab them. It’s hard to even walk through a parking lot anymore wondering if a child will be abducted or woman raped, or someone getting held up or shot just for shopping. I am always looking around me when I take my walks for exercise, wondering if the person near me is about to rob me or harm me. We shouldn’t have to live in this kind of fear.
This topic is near and dear to my heart. Literally. Why is it that I can spend a 20 day vacation in the Caribbean and spend only a third of what it cost me to be in the hospital a couple of days? I can’t even afford to take a vacation to the Grand Canyon, let alone one to the Caribbean! The companies that run hospitals and medical supplies are unbelievably filthy rich! They have to be. Where does all that money go? My doctor isn’t driving a golden McLaren and living in the Bahamas full time. Someone, somewhere is getting a boat load of cash from all the insurance companies and patients.
Also near and dear to my heart, is the medicines I must take daily now and pay for monthly. Effient alone is roughly $250 per month. Even with insurance, it’s $100 out of pocket. Plus paying for the insurance, plus the 4 other medicines I pay for monthly. What is this stuff made out of? Plutonium?!?! You’re telling me that a 10mg pill per day is worth over $8? Someone is really filling their pockets with the paychecks of anyone who takes this medication. I do get my Advair from Canada, oddly that costs $150 per month here, but if I get it from Canada, it’s almost a third of that cost. So who’s screwing who over here?
So please just stop with all the stupid images, and protests of things that honestly should be taking a back seat to other more important issues. Such as survivability of our own people in this country. We are supposed to be the most powerful country, yet we are so close to having a large chunk of our population becoming hungry, homeless and dying. A small chunk already are.
If you didn’t happen to remember, earlier this month it was my birthday. As normal, it wasn’t any kind of spectacular day. It was nice that 3 people at least remembered it and wished me a Happy Birthday.
A couple of months ago, I ended up in need of a car. The one I had needed almost the whole front end steering replaced (struts, mounts, ball-joints, control arms, etc…). It was going to cost me over $2000 to fix, and that was just what was needed to get it back on the road. It also needed brakes, tires, tune-up and a few other things. After gnawing it over in my head for weeks (and driving the company van instead), I finally sold the car for a few hundred dollars and set out to find me a new set of wheels.
Yesterday, thanks to Amber and her boyfriend Robert, I have a nice enough vehicle that should get me by for a couple more years
I’m beside myself as to how happy this has made me and how it’s helping me get through my rough patch
~ Thank you both!!
Metaphorically speaking that is. I don’t know why I love to torture myself so. This website is enormous as it is. Why I keep wanting to flirt with other websites is beyond me. It’s just more code I need to update, more content I need to come up with to keep the sites somewhat fresh. Honestly, you’d think I would’ve learned by now that one is enough for one person. I can publish my updates to all the hot social networks from one place and just keep it simple.
With that thought, I’ve moved everything back to CastleRain.com, and if my sanity lasts, it should stay. I like working on websites and designing new themes. I just need to do that for other people. All that’s left is the tweaking. It’s always been my online blog, journal or diary. Whichever you prefer to call it.
Besides, I’m not as much of a gamer as I once was. Now that all I come home to is the dog, I really crave social interaction. Need to make me a small circle of real life friends and go chill with them. Get away from the endless hours of pixel filled fun. I love my games, but I need conversation and interaction more. The walking is helping that too. Managed to find a new friend just by saving her from a flat tire
With that, my Gamers Den site is closed. Back to my beloved Castle. Whatever I decide to do from here will keep all my friends and family up to date in one easy to remember location
Introducing my third addon for gaming. Like my ever so fun, I’m So Random for Runes of Magic, and my AnnouceRes for World of Warcraft, here’s another time sucking addon for the masses guaranteed to make being annoying fun again
This one is for World of Warcraft.

Based on Feli’s Emote Button Leiste. This is a smaller version that uses the 20 most popular emotes. It’s a tad leaner and the buttons equally sized for easier reading. English Only. The original author gave me permission to publish this addon and I thank them very much
Just click a button and Emote!
At some point I would like to add a border to grab and move it with. To move the button bar, click just below the buttons to move them to your desired location. If anyone knows LUA better that can help me put a transparent border or grab spot, let me know.
Things in my life over the past six months or so have been crazy to put it the most mildly. Divorce, Bankruptcy, Heart Attacks and more. So I may have made a brash decision or two as well. One of which was closing my website CastleRain. Since that day I have been asked by numerous people why I did that. My rational at the time was I had built it with the hopes that others whom I was involved with at the time would also get involved. That never came to pass.
Friends have reminded me time and again of this obvious truth. CastleRain was of my own invention and I have had it online since 1999. Nary a word or assistance from anyone else ever. So why should I abandon something because of someone else especially since they had really no part of it.
I almost gave the domains away to a comic book company who has been around for just about the same amount of time with nearly the exact same name. It’s a good thing they never replied to my emails.
So in all, I brought it back. It’s back to being my official blog. I’ve pruned out all the gaming posts and kept them on my Gamers Den site. Removed all my blog posts from there and kept them here. Plus I still have my whimsical story site from my adventures in technical support going on as well. All sites linked to one another. Just so happens, I have another domain that was supposed to be a guild name for Warcraft, but I decided to use it as an anchor for all my websites. I call it the Suspicion of Mischief Network.
EDIT: All sites have been recombined to just this one
It’s good to have it back. Perhaps the next significant person in my life will appreciate what I do and who I am more than the previous has.
As with any move or changes, things get broken, lost, duplicated and so on. If you see something I missed, please let me know so I can fix it