theNthDoctor's Dumped His Brain Again...

Definitely Ditching Blogger

2011-01-30T11:46:00.004-05:00

I've decided to make some changes to this blog. There are only two that have the potential to affect anyone negatively:I'm moving the blog to Wordpress, or some venue that gets regular improvements.I'm removing the low-quality, low-lucidity posts.Yep... it's time to follow that old American tradition, of shamelessly revising history to suit the new paradigm.Oh, and, good news - I won't have to

So, Was Compiz the Problem?

2011-01-30T11:25:00.004-05:00

For about 2 weeks now, maybe more and not less, my main PC has been possessed. To my knowledge, I hadn't made any changes that should affect performance, certainly not affect it so drastically; but I know enough about computing to know, a shrug doesn't mean I'm not the catalyst.It did mean, however, that my computer's system load was flying skyward at random times, even after I'd been asleep for

Linux Versioning Snafus Kill Penetration

2011-01-25T14:10:00.012-05:00

Or: If Your Open Source Business Model Involves Lying About the Size of Your Software's Dick, Stop It. For Your Grandma's Sake.In which I cry fail, and throw Jolicloud and Fedora under a bus to back it up.Lies, Damn Lies, and Blog PremisesSo... Jolicloud Linux is stable. It hit version 1.0 last year, and that means it's a solid product. You can ship it now. You can install it as your

Elitism is Awesome Nowadays, says article

2011-01-24T09:50:00.017-05:00

In high school, I had a U.S. Government AP class with a really good teacher at John Marshall High School. Mrs. Ferris (someone correct me if I'm remembering the wrong name) was a far cry better than the girls' basketball coach who taught the same class at Wheeling Park, and she was thrilled that I chose to tackle the immense and meaty "The Power Elite" as my first-semester critical analysis

Can't Connect to ICQ with Pidgin and Empathy?

2010-12-01T07:49:00.006-05:00

For a couple weeks I've been using ICQ on a secondary computer to connect to ICQ. Yesterday, even that didn't work. Something of an issue since that's how I keep in touch with a main client.Luckily, I found this old thread on the Archlinux forum and, after a little deduction, had a full solution figured out. In a nutshell, here's the Empathy solution:Find out your ICQ account tag according to

Corporate Auto-Sodomy: Oracle in Q3-4 2010

2010-11-02T18:46:00.006-04:00

HAHAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!Some months back, I mentioned that Oracle was stark raving insane. They were attempting to confuse the digital marketplace by advertising "Oracle OpenOffice" as a pay product, when OpenOffice has been free, open source software (aka FOSS) for so many years. I mused that I was going to enjoy watching the fallout from this nonsense.Viewing Slashdot.org's Oracle

Just a Public Service Announcement

2010-09-07T00:00:00.003-04:00

You cannot un-spoiler. BEWARE of TV Tropes. 13+ hours of work, and my first thought when I finally started relaxing ... "I wish I hadn't known what was going to happen at the end of Dexter season 4, before seeing it! D'OH!"Copyright © theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it is used in a fair use context unless otherwise noted. If you are getting this content

Ezekiel, Through Modern Eyes

2010-08-23T23:47:00.000-04:00

A Modern Translation of EzekielChapter 11: So it happened on April 5th of the 30th year, that I was with some prisoners by the Chebar river, that the sky parted, and I saw something and assumed it was God.2: It was the 5th of April, and king Jehoiachin had been a prisoner for five years.3: God talked specifically to Ezekiel, the son of Buzi, on Chaldean soil, by the Chebar river; and something

Thoughts on the Intro to 'Dexter'

2010-08-17T01:07:00.003-04:00

Yes, really. Why not?The intro to the Showtime show called Dexter is disturbing, apparently. It depends on your point of view. I thought it to be a good use of storytelling in the time spent for opening credits. But, I've read that it's disturbing, and I get that.The thing is, it's supposedly more difficult for some people to watch the opening credits to Dexter, than to watch the show itself.

Fedora 12 Linux is Fucking Garbage

2010-08-14T10:40:00.005-04:00

To anyone to whom I've ever advocated Fedora Linux, I'm truly, deeply sorry. To anyone I've told, "Linux is way more stable than Windows, and Fedora is a great mix of easy and stable," I must now admit, I told you a half-truth.As several friends already know, I'm falling out of love with Fedora. No, actually that's the wrong simile. I'm sick of watching Fedora 12 soil itself on my couch and

Helping Newbies RP

2010-07-12T14:52:00.003-04:00

I came up with some cards to help new players understand role-playing for their first session ever. Feel free to use them, suggest your own, etc!Out-of-character Lifeline(First episode, infinite; next few episodes, two per hour of play)You can pause in-character play and ask the other players for suggestions, reminders, help etc. Normally this is discouraged or forbidden, and in-character

call to brains

2010-07-10T04:14:00.002-04:00

pardon the lack of decent formatting, this is typed via VNC and while drunk, meaning i have limited control over all matters of quality.star trek play-by-skype tabletop rpg. dig it.want to hear from any mature people into, or curious about roleplaying; realize i'm wasting my time here. have time to waste at 4am on saturday morning.Copyright © theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property

Adobe Can't Do Shit Right

2010-06-22T10:49:00.003-04:00

I don't feel like trying to chase slippery searches through a disorganized bug testing database right now, so I'll just say it here. Right-clicking any instance of Flash Player plugin, locks up my browser completely, 100% of the time. Completely inexcusable.Windows users are reporting a ton of crashing too, which says a lot about their testing process. They never right-clicked during testing.

My 2 Cents on Nath's Open Web Rant

2010-06-16T13:11:00.002-04:00

A good friend, and a far superior developer than I, posted a rant today at the W3C mailing list. The W3C is responsible for making the web cooler, basically. They're the people who set the standards for what features are available in HTML and most of the technologies that work in your browser.The reason I'm republishing this is a) to reply to it, and keep the ball rolling at least a tad, and b)

[Insert Expletives Here] PulseAudio for Linux [Insert more expletives]

2010-06-14T13:13:00.004-04:00

PulseAudio became the default way of handling sound for most GNU/Linuxes some years ago. That's a big shame and a huge mistake, since more than half the computers, and more than half the Linux installs I've ever worked with, had major issues, and the only solution for those issues was uninstalling PulseAudio. Underneath PulseAudio, at all times, is ALSA ... and once Pulse gets the fuck out of

Metroid Billing LLC

2010-06-03T00:27:00.005-04:00

Y'all who've followed my blog for a couple years now, you know how I do. I warm back into it each year. Gradually.Well, current things I feel like noting: I beat the original-Metroid-like part of Metroid: Zero Mission and got to the 3rd save point of the, uh, hard part - the part where you run around in a zero suit with a pea shooter. Definitely looking forward to unlocking Hard difficulty,

My Identity Online

2010-05-16T00:43:00.002-04:00

After more than two years of thinking my twitter bio was awesome, I've updated it.Previously: I write for a living. Isn't that awesome? I think it's awesome.Now:Frequent F-bomber, freelance writer, GNU/Linuxer, web dev, open source lover, RPG DM, rights online/privacy consumer, sexual revolutionary, & silly fool.I've decided that all the above facts fit comfortably into my online, advertisable

Very Amusingly, Some Still Being Paid for Twitter Spam

2010-05-06T23:08:00.004-04:00

Small business slow on the uptake when it comes to social media trends? Noooooooo, really?Despite every savvy internet user knowing that Twitter can boast less than 1% of its traffic is spam, certain numbskulls continue hiring spam writers to create extremely-short-lived Twitter accounts, much to my own personal amusement.In a perfect display of just how out-of-the-loop these people are, they've

WTF is "Oracle Open Office?"

2010-05-04T20:48:00.008-04:00

Today, I got spammed by one of the biggest software companies in the world. Fucking FOUL, that is.As of a year ago, Oracle owns Sun Microsystems. Neither of these companies is extremely important to work-at-home, low-budget lifestyle folks like me, that is unless you program in Java, OR unless you use OpenOffice.org, the free/open source alternative to Micro$oft Office.Well, today, I got an

Maemo Unicode Vote

2009-12-02T12:42:00.002-05:00

WHAT?!?!Ok, here's the deal. Maemo is the GNU/Linux operating system that's used on a variety of handheld ultra-mobile PCs like the Nokia N800. I own one of those machines.The N-series has traditionally not had a phone. It's a computer with wifi that fits in your pocket. It runs GNU/Linux. It's a geek tool.So, with this in mind, how the hell is this machine going to be useful if we get rid

And on the flipside of that...

2009-11-12T13:58:00.003-05:00

I haven't tallied up the per-word cost on this job yet, but here's what I do know: I just won a bid for a job where I charged $400 more than the next-higher bidder, for almost 150 articles at $5 an article. The client is personable, isn't giving me any flak or caveats about making up-front payments, isn't crawling up my ass with personal questions or eating up my time with unproductive chatter.

Suck my dick.

2009-11-11T09:54:00.003-05:00

Some piece of yard trash who wants to buy writing work on Scriptlance, wrote:Please be mindful with your bids. Gone are the days of $1/100 words. I estimate paying $525 for 300 articles/web content of 450 words each. Please note this work will be available to you every month. Mister or madam, you can suck my dick. You're asking for someone whose native language is English, to work full time, all

So, My Dad Died.

2009-10-12T13:47:00.000-04:00

I don't have any particular feelings about that.Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it is used in a fair use context unless otherwise noted. If you are getting this content from any site other than thenthdoctor.blogspot.com or thenthdoctor.com, please notify Nathan Hawks via nhawks (at) gmail (dot) com.

I want this as a tee shirt!

2009-10-01T15:49:00.005-04:00

Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it is used in a fair use context unless otherwise noted. If you are getting this content from any site other than thenthdoctor.blogspot.com or thenthdoctor.com, please notify Nathan Hawks via nhawks (at) gmail (dot) com.

Copyright 2009 Nathan Hawks

2009-09-04T02:18:00.001-04:00

Christians are anti-reality, and pro-Armageddon.Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it is used in a fair use context unless otherwise noted. If you are getting this content from any site other than thenthdoctor.blogspot.com or thenthdoctor.com, please notify Nathan Hawks via nhawks (at) gmail (dot) com.

My New Position as an Atheist

2009-09-02T07:30:00.002-04:00

The Phelps family of Westboro Baptist Church are the only real Christians in all of popular culture, to my knowledge. Let me put that in plainer language for people who've never heard of the Phelps people. The god of the bible hates fags and America. If the Christian god was to decide that now was the time to act on his views of America, then America would be reduced to smoking rubble from

Dammit, Google...

2009-09-01T09:46:00.003-04:00

Google, we need to talk.I've always loved you. My brand loyalty is so strong that you are literally the only corporation that I trust to take over the world benevolently.That CAN change, you know.Maybe it's a change we need. Especially when you start taking down YouTube channels like CSPANjunkieDOTorg.Now, I need to be kind of clear about something. I ... I really don't give a flying fuck what

Star Trek Must Die (part 1)

2009-08-30T13:26:00.002-04:00

Old vs New Branding, and Why it's Important, part 1This is a long, quasi-educational rant about branding, marketing, businesses as cultural institutions, and why I am falling out of love with Star Trek, Final Fantasy, and Doctor Who. It's every bit as self-serving as you could accuse it of being, but I expect it'll resonate with a lot of people. And, more to the point, I just need to say it.I

Starfleet Academy at a North Carolina School

2009-08-15T18:19:00.007-04:00

Okay, say it with me.Cripplingly unlikely = inherently disingenuous. North Carolina Agricultural and Technical Institute wants to launch Starfleet Academy. This is apparently not a joke. According to the North Carolina state Representative who sponsored the bill, “the project could help spur science education by playing on the popular science fiction series’ brand.” On cursory investigation,

I have decided spam is a miseducation campaign.

2009-08-08T08:54:00.006-04:00

Yep, just now, I decided that. Here's the proof for my theorem:Every spammer insists they are successful, often wildly successful - and like any success, they keep doing whatever got them there, namely spamming.Spammers want you to replicate their business patterns. This is a key element - of course, not everybody offering a business model is a scammer, but stay with me here...Spamming 1,000

My attitude lately

2009-07-23T21:07:00.003-04:00

My attitude lately completely sucks. During moments of clarity, I work, and generally try to make use of the time, so that I can semi-stabilize my life in time for winter to start. Other than that I, as usual, isolate myself and try to keep my brain alive. Also, I'm learning to be more concise.Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it is used in a

John Ma, Norm Eng, Think Tank Learning

2009-07-22T05:10:00.004-04:00

This is how Think Tank Learning pays its contractors -- via bullshit.This email, received from their "finance manager" John Ma, is basically a direct copy/paste of the one Norm Eng sent me a month ago. You'll notice that it completely avoids the question of signed paperwork while being carefully crafted to come across as insulting as possible. I am 110% convinced that there is no John Ma, there

Medical Drones

2009-07-12T10:39:00.005-04:00

I don't want to spend much time blogging today, so I'll just get straight to the link:Robot crawls through veins to heal you - A little robot that looks alarmingly like a teenage housefly, controlled by a doctor with a magnet, can be used to seek and heal vascular issues.Imagine the potential for horror if the little bugger was self-propelled.And the robot shouldn't run out of power mid-procedure

Still a Lie

2009-07-11T09:57:00.005-04:00

Anybody watching my daily interwebs habits already knows that I've recently discovered the 3-year-old game Portal and fallen totally in love. If that's you, go ahead and skip the next paragraph.I've barely even played it yet, 'coz obviously I'm not spending money on video games right now, but Youtube fills the gap nicely. I've watched the whole game played through at least 3 times. It's a very

How to make a bland RPG

2009-07-10T09:54:00.003-04:00

[Insert game name here] is a completely new, unique RPG experience unlike anything ever seen before! Featuring totally fresh gameplay mechanics and a spectacular character development system, [our game] will revolutionize the MMORPG market FOR EVAER!!11Just look at these ground-shaking features:Pets that don't do shit except hang around you being obnoxious, making other players want to shoot

I am not about to kill myself

2009-07-08T08:27:00.005-04:00

Ok, to anybody who is stressing me out right now, or who's worried, or who owes me money and can't pay it on a snap-snap basis: I am not shopping around for something to do myself in with. Also, let me put on my Captain Obvious hat: this blog (and the recent blog post "Worse instead of better") is, in part, a ploy to get attention, so make of that what you will. But right after I wrote it, I

My Gas Company Has a Soul

2009-07-07T10:51:00.002-04:00

This has been a shocking morning. My web host, 1&1 Internet Services, sent me a fairly "eh blow off" style email last night regarding an emergency tech snafu, but this morning another rep apologized for the email and gave me real information. I have half a hope that what started as a definite "wtf" might actually get squared away. To anybody who uses 1&1, especially if you're doing so at my

Processing Email with PHP?

2009-07-06T09:22:00.003-04:00

That's what I've been doing on and off for a week... writing and refining a script to pull formmail output from a POP3 box and enter them in vTiger. Since vTiger has a SOAP command for adding new leads, I've also been doing that. The script gets all the email bodies, parses them, enters them with SOAP, then updates them with MySQL. (I figure the SOAP will create any records in tables I don't

Worse instead of better

2009-07-05T20:03:00.003-04:00

For some reason, aside from a brief bit of euphoria when it first got warm, I seem to be getting worse instead of better. For the first time in a long while, I'm pretty scared of what's going on in my head. I really feel like I'm losing myself. I have absolutely no interest in anything most of the time, and even though I can laugh, sleep, and exercise sometimes, there's always this feeling of

I Got Scammed

2009-06-26T08:37:00.003-04:00

Motherfucking asswipe bitchhole is trying to scam me. This is something that is not allowed to happen. I am careful about this with every client because whether or not there is an escrow, people can twist words and cause a project to fall apart, with the possibility they will have received work and paid for it with nothing but an extremely amateurish song and dance.Think Tank Learning in

I want to be a game content developer.

2009-06-25T12:02:00.003-04:00

I've been finding hours here and there to play with Inform 7 and study its intermediate tasks, and I find it a lot of fun, but Im' starting to think about how rich the waters already are with text adventures. Of course, the longer term goal is to spawn my own online game, but there again, I've never been great at leading nor gathering a team, and I don't want to fire a dud or, even worse, fire

Bah, Stuck

2009-06-24T16:31:00.002-04:00

I was almost there, and I'm still almost there, but I'm stuck. Where's there? Active and decisive. Working on goals. Content and not feeling much anxiety. More on days than off days. I need to start making a lot more money per month than I'm making now, and starting very quickly. There too, I was almost there - I am cutting it, but I was about to get ahead and said meh instead. One thing

In Defense of the Ellipses

2009-06-15T20:04:00.002-04:00

Yes, the ellipses is overused. Yes, I personally use it too often. I am going to try to avoid fully self-serving arguments here, but your mileage may vary.People speak with ellipses all day long. There's more to the ellipses than just a pause, of course. People trail off, they realize the listener understands and omit words to start a new sentence. They realize that to continue explicitly

Adventures in Short Videogame Breaks

2009-06-15T00:43:00.003-04:00

I just whooped two Klingon Birds-of-Prey in Star Trek: Bridge Commander quick battle mode. I used to own the full game, and I got to the final stage somewhere during the assault on Cardassia, but I didn't beat it. Now that I haven't played in years, I'm so rusty I have to be proud of beating two little computer-controlled destroyers using a gigantic gunboat. In my defense, Klingons in Bridge

Typecast by RPGs

2009-06-13T09:55:00.003-04:00

Who decided that role playing gamers were mentally limited people unable to mentally grasp anything unless it's a sword or a scantily clad titty?How did they look at the market place occupied by nerds and decide that what we all really wanted was a nice mainstream heap of brainless violence?Maybe it was the charts and tables. They opened up a D&D 2nd Edition handbook and found a chart or a table

"A ________ Is You"

2009-06-11T11:02:00.006-04:00

Being a writer doing niche and culture pieces that mostly revolve around the Internet, means I get to say a lot of weeiiiiiird stuff. In case anybody saw the title "A Prototype, Is You" and wondered why I'm talking like Yoda, it's a trope. Need proof? Go to Google and make sure auto suggest is on. Start typing:An adv...First suggestion before you even get to type the v: "An adventurer is you

Random Linux Tip: MS Office 2007 Formats

2009-06-09T11:39:00.006-04:00

I have a gig whose client uses Office 2007 extensively, apparently to the extent of deploying its automation via scripts in the office suite. Running Fedora 9 Linux, my OpenOffice balked at the docx and xslt files they were sending me. Word 2003 and Excel 2003 formats are the most recent versions of Office proprietary formats OpenOffice can read......if you're still using OpenOffice 2.After

Inform7 Interactive Fiction IDE is So Cool

2009-06-07T12:19:00.007-04:00

Early this past winter, when I was slipping swiftly into the darkness of the MMO-addict lifestyle, a friend threw me a life preserver in the form of a link. The link was to the home page of Inform7, an app of a kind I hadn't thought about since I was a kid.When I got my first PC as a teenager, of course I started collecting mail-order shareware catalogs and spending my allowance on them. I was

The Longest Winter

2009-05-26T12:47:00.002-04:00

I was going to renovate the tone of this website this spring and un-personalize it. I got to thinking a lot about my professional prospects, and it made me nervous. With my main gig's client making itself very secondary and tertiary due to reorganization, that's understandable. "Hey, buy professional services from me," says the guy with the I'm-bipolar-blog.I worry less than you'd think about

VNC Sticky Key Problem Solved, Sort of...

2009-05-23T16:01:00.003-04:00

This is not a permanent solution because it is very annoying for a fast typist to leave enabled. However, it does make VNC usable in cases where your keys are repeating.Before trying this, you should try the other solutions I found which did not work for me:- If you're using x11vnc, try the -norepeat option.- Turn your keystroke repeat rate on the host machine to maximum delay.- Change your

Frickin' Lasers

2009-05-22T09:28:00.012-04:00

This morning I had a rare session of semi-random web crawling and found out about the National Ignition Facility, a new laser lab that just became fully operational this month.I'm honestly not sure where to start. I'll go with "damn, that's cool" first. You see, this laser is designed to make whatever it's shot at, explode. But we're not talking about some lame gas-powered 20th century

The End of Fuck-Around Politics

2009-03-20T12:08:00.004-04:00

Oh please, let this be the beginning of the end of fuck-around politics:Republican Senator Charles Grassley called on AIG executives to "resign or go commit suicide."From "America has a new enemy" at CNN.comI am excited about this comment because I'm sure the Senator had not forgotten about the suicide of Enron's Corporate Vice Chairman after his company was backed into a moral and legal corner.

Still Breathing

2009-02-26T15:03:00.004-05:00

My cat and I haven't starved, I haven't missed any rent or bills, and I still have my job. To that extent, I still exist. However, as antsy as I'm starting to get about the way my world has only two views during the winter -- those being the computer monitor and the inside of my eyelids -- it's not over yet. The furnace thermostat is still set to "vigilant," and my own brain is still a thug

Water, Scrap Paper, Kitty

2009-02-22T11:59:00.004-05:00

I had fun this morning inventing something silly to say to my friends, so I thought I'd share.Water / Scrap Paper / Kitty!Plays just like Rock/Paper/Scissors.These are the rules!Kitty destroys Scrap Paper!Scrap Paper absorbs Water!Water defeats Kitty!Enjoy.2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl=location.href;Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it

A Replacement for Existing

2009-01-25T13:57:00.005-05:00

I have found a replacement for existence, at least for now. It's a game called Dofus. There's no snow there, it's easy to meet people and make friends, and there's something enjoyable to do, usually in a group, 24/7.I've been spending about 16 hours a day for the past 4 weeks playing Dofus. My house is an absolute sty, my grocery shopping is happening at the pizza shop, I haven't touched any

Blogging While Disturbed

2009-01-15T09:47:00.004-05:00

A little friendly goading from Immi has opened the floodgates, and now here I am, blogging while disturbed.This is the part of the wintertime where everything is always wrong. I woke up in a relatively fine mood, but almost instantly began feeling loopy. Two hours later I am imagining myself speaking before an outdoor rally in Washington as the poster child for why abortions should be used very

The Christmas Post

2008-12-26T09:57:00.006-05:00

Well of course I have to blog a Christmas post... it's a very important day for my culture. We celebrate the arrival of a mysterious savior who appears on Christmas Day, causes awe and terror when he opens his mouth, and reminds us all to be the best people we can, and to eat our jelly babies.Joy to the world, Timelords have come!(There's a new special Christmas episode for Doctor Who.)Haven't

The Final Stretch

2008-12-23T12:21:00.005-05:00

In terms of winter, of course, we're just getting started, but in terms of the holidays, we're almost in the clear.I've been managing both the money, and the money panic, pretty well. I've spent my time working on a new business services site, and, once it's ready to launch, I'll spice up the older one a tad as well, then I'll think up a couple of promotional discounts and start promoting them.

Being a Guy is Dumb

2008-12-19T23:59:00.003-05:00

I don't recommend it. Being male may result in comic-strip-grade stereotypical behavior. Mixing with alcohol negates any defense.Tonight I met a couple women and told them that I'd once joked I wanted to add a person to my rent. Ha fucking what?These are the symptoms of being male. Anything is like... every totally prick thing a person could do is passe. (What the fuck about that is

You Heard It From William Gibson First

2008-12-16T14:30:00.005-05:00

...even if you didn't.In his early novels, cyberpunk pioneer William Gibson thought up a device called the SQUID, which stands for Something QUantum Interference Detector. (I forget what the "S" really stood for.) What's a SQUID for, you ask? It reads your mind - even up to a few hours after you're dead.Japanese scientists are halfway there... they can only read images from your visual cortex

Google Now Hand-Editing SERPs

2008-12-15T07:33:00.004-05:00

Note: This article apparently isn't true. Such a move has been expected for some time, and industry bloggers/reporters are eager to catch Google in the act, but according to a different analysis, the Register author jumped the gun. Oh well.A SERP is a Search Engine Result Page, and since Google was founded, the company swears it has never edited them by hand. The work of organizing page

Catching Up

2008-12-12T15:35:00.006-05:00

I've started a couple of posts in the past two weeks and not felt the drive to finish them. I plan to marry myself to the blogging soon, but right now I'm still on the planning.Of course by now I've finished the two episodes of Penny Arcade Adventures: On the Rain-Slick Precipice of Darkness. The second ep had an 'Insane Mode' difficulty, which added replay value for me because I didn't get the

Starbucks' 5 Cents for Africa Campaign

2008-12-01T10:34:00.006-05:00

These ads I'm seeing all over Facebook are annoying me. Starbucks is spending a lot of money on advertising that you'll be donating to relief programs in Africa, by buying their coffee on a certain day. Surely, they can afford more than five cents out of each overpriced cup of coffee, if they can run a social media and advertising campaign for a month. It's a nice thought, but five cents is

Random Linux Tip: Pulseaudio and Audio Capture

2008-11-29T20:20:00.005-05:00

Note: This post is of absolutely no interest whatsoever to my mental health bloggin' buddies.I use Fedora 9 Linux and was trying yesterday to take a movie capture of myself playing On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Ep. 1. The audio wouldn't record. I knew right away this was going to have something to do with Pulseaudio, Fedora's new replacement for a desktop sound system. Well, long

Coming Soon

2008-11-29T11:35:00.004-05:00

Coming soon to a computer sitting right in front of me... "On the Rain Slick Precipice of Darkness, Episode 2."Here's a trailer for Episode 1, the one I bought and beat yesterday. It more of the gameplay and features.a2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl=location.href;Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it is used in a fair use context unless

Halloween? Meh. Thanksgiving - Now it's official.

2008-11-27T09:23:00.003-05:00

As of today, it's officially "the holidays."The holidays aren't my favorite time of year. The worst thing that ever happened to me on a holiday - having a stepdad drag the tree, decorations, and gifts into the front yard and light them on fire - is not nearly as bad as what some people have gone through.All my long-term friends are aware of my rocky relationship with the holidays. I don't know

What is Cool?

2008-11-26T19:55:00.004-05:00

This is another "file it under 'had to post something'" type of post. I am catching up in my Google Reader today, and that has included my folders of things I'm interested in but can't be bothered to blog about. And after a lot of reading about space, and developments in tech a2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl=location.href;law and gadgets, so on and so forth... we got to the "Cool" folder

AWOL Report

2008-11-23T11:41:00.005-05:00

Don't worry, I am not one to guilt-trip myself because I haven't blogged. I have been recovering from the long string of all-nighters I pulled early last week. It's made me grouchy and unmotivated but I've dealt with them both by keeping myself occupied and at home. I don't mind my shut-in phases so long as they're short. Staying indoors and at my computer all day was a custom I developed

Doing Other Things - Meanwhile...

2008-11-22T18:05:00.001-05:00

(06:01:10 PM) me: i bought like 6 things of truffles because they were 2 for $5... i am SET for winter :D(06:01:20 PM) anon: lol yeah cool(06:01:36 PM) anon: i got a 6 lb bag of baby candy bars(06:01:44 PM) anon: i am set for a week or so:P(06:02:37 PM) me: woooo! :)(06:03:27 PM) anon: lol yeah.. well it was on sale:D(06:03:45 PM) me: double plus!a2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl=

Lazy Blogger Gets Drunk, Posts Videos

2008-11-20T14:48:00.003-05:00

That's the hap's for today, kids. I should warn folks that this song treats pain and injury as if it's a lighthearted muse.Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the property of third parties; it is used in a fair use context unless otherwise noted. If you are getting this content from any site other than thenthdoctor.blogspot.com or thenthdoctor.com, please notify Nathan Hawks

Star Trek XI - New Trailer

2008-11-19T13:46:00.002-05:00

Enjoy!a2a_linkname=document.title;a2a_linkurl=location.href;

Fedora 9 x86_64 Has Issues

2008-11-19T01:24:00.005-05:00

For anyone who has no idea what a Fedora 9 x80-whatsit is, you can skip this post. Or not. If not - it's a variant of GNU/Linux made by a company called Red Hat. It's a free, open source operating system -- that means it replaces Windows or MacOS.Overall the experience with Fedora 9 has been good, compared to the horror stories I heard about 64-bit computer ownership.Good, aside from the fact

Give to Wikimedia

2008-11-18T15:15:00.003-05:00

It's better than PBS. The people at Wikimedia work hard to edit the site appropriately, to bring content creators new shortcuts for making content better, and bring the world lots of ways to share and consume democratically-created content. And they give you a nifty sticker after your Paypal checkout.Did you know Wikipedia is only one of several sites run by the Wikimedia Foundation? There's

Manic Freakin Crazy Awesome Weekend

2008-11-17T02:48:00.006-05:00

This is what I consider to be the upside of my condition. Just like I get intense lows, I also get intense highs in mood. Today and yesterday have been what I'd call manic...I launched two websites from scratch this weekend. It's about to be 3AM, and I'm not sure I'm done. Gotta lotta coffee in me, after all.Blog In Second LifeNow anyone can create a blog about their second life experiences!

By the Way, I've Unquit

2008-11-16T20:56:00.003-05:00

Apparently it is very important today for me to be inhaling smoke with every possible breath.I unquit smoking. I quit smoking a few months ago via the patch. I lasted about 2 and 1/2 months. Now I'm un-quit. I'm choosing to live with it for the moment.The nearest store ran out of Kite so I got the taste for Black & Milds, and some nights when I'm at the computer ... let's just say I'm not

Forbes: Bipolar in the Workplace

2008-11-16T19:44:00.003-05:00

I was thinking about how much more peaceful I feel about working since taking the leap to full-time freelancing a few years ago. By comparison, working in an office was not a peaceful experience.Since my being aware of my diagnosis is a new thing, I'd never gone looking for professional articles about being bipolar at work prior to last week. Back in 2006, Forbes published a an article and

I Also Write Straight-Facedly

2008-11-14T18:05:00.004-05:00

Every once in a while, I think it's a good idea to give an example to prove that I can, and do, write about things other than what's going on between my ears. For those of you who wonder how on earth I make money writing online, here's a hint: It has nothing to do with my Blogger site!No, for meat 'n potatoes, I plunder press releases and poke at PDFs, hoping to notice something interesting

Tag, I'm It

2008-11-13T19:35:00.004-05:00

Anonymous Drifter, of the Disjointed Thoughts blog, has “tagged” me in a chain meme. I needed a prodding, so what the hey.The tag rules are as follows: Each player starts with eight random fact/habits about themselves. People who are tagged need to write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules. At the end of your blog post, you need to tag eight people and list

Episode Conclusion

2008-11-10T10:06:00.004-05:00

There seems to be a trend where I don't blog as much during the transition from normal to not-ok, and back. This weekend was one of those times. Social drama ensued, but I think that, aside from my strong dislike of it having happened, that there was zero-to-minimal interaction between my episode, and that drama.I did a lot of writing on the d20 RPG and had a creative meeting with the co-GM,

I Wish Sometimes

2008-11-05T11:19:00.008-05:00

...that I had the ability to get angry at someone, and put up a screen that allowed me to say what needs said, in a way that gets the anger out of me -- but the other party hears only the common sense parts where I'm making a decent point.It would have to be a pure on-off device, no finesse to the controls. That'd be just like doing anger normally! For me.Except I wouldn't have to live choosing

Bull-Baiter Deux

2008-11-03T22:17:00.005-05:00

Tonight, I had the balls to create a small scene. The bull-baiting bartender who inspired the "People Who Bull-Bait" blog post started shit with me tonight, coming in as he did on his night off, and I was fed up enough a few minutes later to walk up and have this dialogue:Me: I just want you to know that I'm only leaving because you're here.Him: Why?Me: Because you're a fucking dick.Him: Why

Truth or Consequences?

2008-11-03T11:03:00.005-05:00

Someone posted a link to this Youtube video in my local Craigslist Rants 'n Raves section, and I was lucky enough to decide to click it. It's a cartoon satire of American presidential politics and the public's way of seeing things. The person posting it to Craigslist brought it with the question, is this how we really are now?I admit that I do see a lot of truth in that video. It's irreverent*

2008-11-02T17:47:00.002-05:00

To anyone who craves some food for thought, go readYou’re Crazy, You Smell, You Must Be Homelessby Homeless Tales blog. It uses a sample of Twitter tweets including the word "homeless" -- a cross section of quick-fire thoughts by a sample of English-speakers. As I posted in comment there, if this was Slashdot, I'd rate +5 Ominous.Copyright © 2008 theNthDoctor.com. Some content may be the

My Diagnosis and Ultradian Cycling

2008-11-01T14:10:00.015-04:00

I've noticed a lot of other bloggers make an important distinction that they are not doctors, physicians, or any other kind of health care professional.I am not trained in medicine or psychology. I am not a doctor, nor do I work in any such related field. Any material I write discussing medical or mental health is the discourse of a layman. This post got edited.I recently learned that the

What Is a Role Playing Game

2008-10-31T14:39:00.006-04:00

I just wrote I quick tutorial for a friend on how to play a tabletop role playing game. (...a.k.a. books 'n dice RPG, a.k.a. pen and paper RPG...) It might as well become a blog post!In my experience with gaming (of the tabletop RP variety) it's unpredictable for everybody, and always a lot of fun if everybody knows about the most important part - the collaborative storytelling.It's also

People Who Bull-Bait

2008-10-30T23:21:00.009-04:00

This is not a post about Scientologists, because I don't even know if I've ever met one. And since I haven't, and this post is about people that I have met (and anyone who's like what I am about to describe) do not interpret this post as if I'm judging Scientologists. But I learned about a social tactic called bull-baiting via some Scientology-related, wandering web sessions last month, and now

The New New New Doctor

2008-10-29T22:30:00.006-04:00

I just got the news that the role of The Doctor, from the longest-running science fiction show ever (Doctor Who), is changing hands for the 10th time.This is a mixed curse.The current lead actor, David Tennant, has played the role for 3 seasons and has done a marvelous job. I have a lot of complaints and a lot of praise about his portrayal of The Doctor. (For non-fans, that's his actual name --

How to Get Sex

2008-10-29T17:24:00.007-04:00

I was joking around with my friend who runs FlyNinja.net about SEO and gaining traffic, when I did a quick Google Trends search for a group of phrases to make a point. The phrases were:seduce womenhow to get laidhow to get sexseduce womanbuy an iphoneFor those who don't know, Google Trends is a tool that shows you the comparative popularity of search terms. When you're comparing

Anger is Valid

2008-10-28T14:51:00.000-04:00

Those three words - "anger is valid" - are something I've struggled to accept for a long time, in myself and in others. By that I mean that I have cognitively believed anger to be a valid experience, but emotionally rejected any show, or any shade, of it, in myself and others.I'm just musing here, but I think I've been letting that conflict cause me to act out. My whole life.People who see me

My Second-Oldest Friend

2008-10-28T11:44:00.000-04:00

This is a blog post about my second-oldest friend, in other words, the close friend who I've known the second-longest amount of time. She's very dear to me, and vice versa, despite the fact that we've both spent the past several years asking ourselves why, and coming up with basically zilch as an answer.In case you haven't noticed, I'm crazy. Haha, whoop, doodle-loo -- yep, crazy. When I say

Will There Be an Election?

2008-10-26T17:54:00.000-04:00

Anyone who knows me well, knows I think the last two elections were stolen. In fact I think all our elections are stolen as a matter of systematic design - the popular vote isn't the count, it's the electoral vote. That's not a democracy, and if you bother to look it up you will see that our nation has never been a democracy, but that's neither here nor there.Another thing you'll know if you

Oh Yeah - Regarding the Kentucky Domainer Crusade

2008-10-26T13:47:00.001-04:00

I have received a whopping ONE response regarding my "fucking crusade" from last week. One person responded to my Craigslist post in the Louisville Rants 'n Raves section, and the bad news is that my script let them past the check.I suspected there would be some problems to work out because my own checks were inaccurate. I get online via a large ISP (Time Warner Cable/Road Runner) and the ZIP

Quickie Pickies

2008-10-26T13:18:00.000-04:00

Two things I saw this week that grabbed my dark little attention span.Item one - I hadn't logged into my Hotmail in forever and ever. Something about the new Windows Live logo was tweaking a subliminal neuron in my brain. I stared at it for about five seconds before I realized which part of my brain was responsible. It was the function that I developed all those years ago reading MAD Magazine

Kentucky Ruling, Domainer Crusade

2008-10-23T08:26:00.000-04:00

...or, "This Calls For an Overreaction. I'm So On It."I am on a fucking crusade.Here's my take on the news that caused it...Here's a call from an industry pillar which I totally agree with...Here's my work-in-progress to deal with it.The short version: A Kentucky circuit court has made a decision, whereby the state may grab control of any Internet domain name, anywhere in the world.The only

Acceptable Human Being

2008-10-21T12:33:00.001-04:00

Recently, someone responded to a naughty story I posted on Craigslist, and we became chatty. Last night, I imagined I was having an incredibly shitty night - something that happens when I mix lust and a less-than-alpha mentality. She's been bugging me for "my story." I told her I'd give it up, if she went to the bother of avoiding any advice that was too pedestrian. While we were chatting I

Books, Furniture, Computer Gear for Sale in Akron, OH

2008-10-19T19:00:00.000-04:00

I just posted a bunch of stuff on Craigslist for sale, then figured I might as well list them here as well...PCI Adaptor for Orinoco Wireless Network Cards - $10I bought these expecting that I would someday hunt down two Orinoco wifi cards. The Orinoco was, for a long time, the number 1 wireless networking card for laptops, and these PCI adaptors allow you to use those cards in a tower PC.By way

Does Anybody Know Why?

2008-10-19T17:16:00.000-04:00

Why in the hell does Burger King have signs saying you're not allowed to take photographs or videos?

Want to REALLY See the US Economy Collapse?

2008-10-16T10:11:00.000-04:00

Do you want to fuck everyone you know, yourself included, mercilessly in the ass?Okay, let me put that a way that more people can take seriously. Do you want another Great Depression?No?Then don't panic, and for everyone's sake, don't run to the bank to withdraw all your money. A widespread "bank run" is a situation where everyone takes out their money because they're afraid that everyone else

2008-10-15T22:27:00.000-04:00

Sometimes lyrics come to mind. This morning I programmed my head full of Rage Against the Machine, so not surprisingly, I thought to expand on one of their lines. I'll probably use those lines below again someday, but I had to share something I thought was hella apt.How you gonna get what you need ta get?Tha dollar keeps fallin', but the penny hasn't dropped, yet.

Random Notes of Awesomeness

2008-10-15T18:14:00.001-04:00

Number one: Devo is coming home to Akron Friday night. I just happened to be walking past the old downtown theatre where the show's happening, and saw the marquee. I was so excited, I asked the box office: "Devo? As in, Devo?" and was pleased when he didn't respond: "No, it's actually Dev2.0, the Disney kids' band." Some of the seats are $25 and $35. I am so there.Number two: I finally