#include

shibaakinari @ 2006-06-23T18:18:00

2006-06-23T23:18:38Z

I decided to have some fun with my camera on my way out of work today.

shibaakinari @ 2006-06-06T19:19:00

2006-06-07T00:19:42Z

I suppose I should update this at some point.

Work is going as well as could be expected. I've learned an awful lot in the past six weeks or so (I'm too lazy to grab a calendar right now), and there's still an awful lot more to learn. I'm in noob training all this week, even though I've been there for a while. I suspect I won't learn anything useful, but I'm trying to keep a positive outlook on it.

Completely unrelated quote of the day "You had me at Zombie Santa" (though I suppose technically it was posted on Sunday)

shibaakinari @ 2006-03-17T14:59:00

2006-03-17T20:59:44Z

UWM! UWM! UWM!

shibaakinari @ 2006-01-01T09:43:00

2006-01-01T15:43:41Z

PrefBar, possibly the greatest Firefox plugin ever, has finally been updated to work with Firefox 1.5. Now all I'm waiting for is for an update to Diggler, and for the developers to fix that blasted memory leak in 1.5 so I can switch over to it on all my computers.

Oh, and Happy 2006 everybody.

shibaakinari @ 2005-12-23T18:26:00

2005-12-24T00:26:53Z

My Christmas shopping is officially done.

Actually I haven't bought anything since Monday, but the last thing I ordered online came today. Now I can watch the news stories about the stores being filled with crazed last minute shoppers and snicker.

I are smart!

2005-12-11T23:50:23Z

You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 10/10 correct!

Could You Pass 8th Grade Math?

shibaakinari @ 2005-12-05T15:58:00

2005-12-05T22:04:20Z

True. Very, very true.

shibaakinari @ 2005-11-18T21:46:00

2005-11-19T03:46:17Z

I somehow managed to leave Dwayne Wade on the bench for my fantasy basketball team today. He has a game today, too. How on earth did I manage to miss that.

Not dead

2005-11-16T22:02:52Z

So I haven't updated in a while. It's surprising how busy you can be while not actually doing anything.

The last few weeks have consisted of:

Being woken up by people putting new siding on our house.

Playing NCAA 2k6, trying to win the Heisman as a DT (for non-sports people, that's nearly impossible. I probably won't be able to do it).

Fixing my web server (which should be working now).

Writing for my L5R home campaign. (one session complete, and counting)

Going to work in the afternoons.

Occasionally remembering that I'm supposed to be looking for a better job.

I don't know if I'll get around to posting vacation pictures or not, because I don't think anyone really cares. If you would like to see them, I could probably be persuaded to post them somewhere.

shibaakinari @ 2005-10-10T10:47:00

2005-10-10T15:47:25Z

Back from vacation. Trip was fun, there will be pictures and description later.

Two surprises waiting for me when I got back.
Good Surprise: Diploma arrived intact and un-crushed-by-the-mail-man
Bad Surprise: Web server is busted, and it will take me a while to fix/replace.

shibaakinari @ 2005-09-22T09:31:00

2005-09-22T14:31:44Z

You are a
Social Moderate
(41% permissive)

and an...
Economic Moderate
(56% permissive)

You are best described as a:

Centrist

Link: The Politics Test on Ok Cupid

I think the problem with quizzes like this is that, while they may accurately represent a person's feelings, they don't accurately represent views on government. I'm rather socially conservative myself, but I don't think the government needs to enforce all of my beliefs.

shibaakinari @ 2005-09-18T18:28:00

2005-09-18T23:28:19Z

Jebus. Worst team in the league.

shibaakinari @ 2005-09-13T10:19:00

2005-09-13T15:19:45Z

Life is returning to normal... sort of.
The crunch of the last few weeks is over. Brief rundown of what happened:
Week of 8/14: Finish project for Independent Study.
Weekend of 8/20: GenCon and back again in one day.
Week of 8/21: Stress over a project at work for an outside organization. Fail when the directions in no way resemble reality.
Week of 8/28: Do two other people's jobs during the busiest week of the year at work. Rush Grandpa to emergency room. Worry.
Week of 9/4: Attend Grandpa's funeral. Explain many obvious things to students during the first week of the semester.
This week: Begin new work schedule.

So things are about as normal as they can be right now, except that I'm only working half days. I don't know exactly how this new schedule is going to shake out yet, but I'm limited to 20 hours/week. It's kinda weird not being at work all the time.

In Memoriam

2005-09-07T01:53:15Z

Albert John Karasch
October 18, 1923 - September 4, 2005

shibaakinari @ 2005-08-22T13:35:00

2005-08-22T18:35:44Z

Gas to get from Milwaukee to Indianapolis and back $48
Tickets for GenCon and the Heroes of Rokugan Day of Thunder: $30
Becoming the Phoenix Clan Thunder: Priceless

Saturday starts about 6:30, I get up shake off the urge to go back to bed, grab something to eat, and go pick up Garth (Kuni Fugano). Garth and I get to Alex's (Mirumoto Tenku) just after 8, and after a couple short delays we're off to Indianapolis. I run the mod Tao of the Naga for Alex and Garth on the way down, because they could probably use the cert from it. About 4 and a half hours later, we arrive in Indy. Registering for the con and the event are surprisingly painless. Then, off to find other people and obtain food. We then discover that we have another cert waiting for us, Major Touch of the Last Wish. There is much purchasing of stuff in the dealer hall. I'd forgotten how much stuff you can get at a major con. I bought a book from each edition of the L5R RPG, leaving me now only one major product away from a complete set of 1st Ed. stuff. After a bout of spending, we sit down to wait for the Day of Thunder to begin. I mention that I'd only need 2 xp to hit rank 4. So we grab Myatt, to power through a mod. We finish what would normally be about a three hour mod in 45 minutes. Rank 4 gets me the Asako Inquisitor path, which fulfills my Driven disadvantage. Sweet. The bunch of us wander off to the interactive.

A little background may be in order for those not familiar with the timeline of HoR. It is approximately the time of the Day of Thunder in the normal L5R timeline. The Scorpion Coup didn't happen, however Emperor Hantei the 38th was killed in an earthquake. The Lying Darkness has been covertly attacking the empire for some time, and a few people suspect (or know) that the new Emperor Hantei the 39th is a Goju. The Dragon and Phoenix have been at war for over a year, a conflict which has now drawn in the Lion, Unicorn, and Toturi's Army. The Dragon were until recently lead by the corrupted Mirumoto Yukihera. The Phoenix elemental council were corrupted by both the Shadowlands taint and the Lying Darkness. Isawa Tsuke attempted to fight back and was killed. Shiba Ujimitsu was held prisoner until recently in the Iron Citadel which had replaced Kyuden Isawa. The Crab have been in civl war with Kisada and Yakamo allying with the Shadowlands, and Sukune leading the rebel faction. Lady Shinjo returned to the Unicorn and began ridding the clan of Kolat. Crane Champion Doji Hoturi had been corrupted by both Shadowlands and Lying Darkness. A few people in the empire know that the Emerald Champion and Toturi are carrying bloodswords. A few people also know that the Jade Champion is a maho user.

That pretty much brings us up to Saturday. Before the interactive, we are told that the true Hida Kisada has been found, and that the imposter leading the Crab was actually Hida Atarasi. Otaku Taro (the Emerald Champion) has murdered the Emperor and Toturi now sits on the throne. The Jade Champion, Isawa Akei, is performing a ritual to make herself the dark oracle of Rokugan. The Empress, Isawa Kaede is being held captive. The components needed for a ritual to banish the Lying Darkness were being gathered on Seppun Hill.

There is a brief interactive. Some spells are passed around (there are now a few samurai glowing red) and decisions are made about how to best use troops. After interacting, we are separated into four groups, each fighting for one of the above objectives. Having known for some time that the Jade Champion is evil, I think it's time for her to go. Hurray, it's time for the Shadowlands battle table. First round (at Engaged): No wounds, spot a goju infiltrator in our lines and burninate it. Second round (at Engaged): 3 wounds, and face to face with a Kyoso. I call for help, and get none other than our army's general. We knock down the Kyoso in one round. I spend my first fire spell of the day. Third round (at Heavily Engaged, to get myself off the battle table): 5 wounds, heroic opportunity involves me making a perception roll, but doesn't matter as the general is already off the battle table. Everyone in my army seems to have gotten through the battle to this point, if a little wounded. Before taking on Akei, we take a few seconds to apply medicine. In waiting for a judge for our mini-mod combat, I note that good seems to be winning all the tables. This looks good for us. We do eventually take down Isawa Akei, her Crane guard, and two revenants. The ritual on Seppun Hill is successfully cast. Moon and Sun are summoned... and then Lord Moon kills himself.... followed by Lady Sun. Not so good for naming the Shadow. Just as all seems lost, Isawa's Last Wish appears having finally been completed (by a PC in a previous mod). The bearers of the Jade and Obsidian hands (Myatt/Kakita Kokaru and Bruno Marques/Bayushi Suzahara) agree to ascend to become the new sun and moon. As kind of an inside joke, the Shadow is named Shoju.
But all is not right in the empire just yet, Fu Leng has taken Toturi as his vessel, and now sits on the throne as emperor. Rob announces the Thunders. Alex is the Dragon Thunder. I am very surprised when I'm announced as the Phoenix Thunder. The Seven Thunders are lead to the throne room by Shinsei. Once there Shinsei opens the 12th Black Scroll, binding Fu Leng to Toturi's body. Shinsei is killed when Fu Leng drops a large chunk of imperial palace on him, and we roll initiative. I am largely depleted at this point, I've got a single fire spell left and two void points. Fu Leng is, as he should be, pretty bad ass. I cast Heart of the Inferno, using my last fire spell slot and a void point to make sure I hit him. Big Daddy Fu has carapace 9 and takes half damage, even from magic. He drops another chunk of imperial palace on the Crane Thunder, but it doesn't kill him. The Scorpion Thunder manages to disarm the enemy. The bushi Thunders, everyone except the Lion and myself, attack. Next round, being the only offensive spell caster, I spend my last void for another fire spell... and Fu Leng catches it and throws it back at me. Ouch. Now I've got wound penalties and no ability to cast my best spells. Rob announces that offensive school techniques only work once during this fight. That's not good. Fu Leng grabs and bites?! one of the Thunders, trying to infect him with the Shadowlands taint. With very little left in the tank, I draw my Jade Wakizashi and join the others attacking the dark god. With wound penalties, there's not much I can do to make my 4k4 attack hit TN 40. I warn the others to run and announce that I'll be life casting Jade Strike. Fu Leng attempts to knock me unconscious before I can cast, but doesn't do enough damage. I put all my character's life energy into casting a Jade Strike with 4 raises, on 7k7 one die cracks carapace. Then comes the hard decision. Do I let the spell Vengeance trigger on my character's death, and possibly kill the rest of the Thunders (since none of them ran), or play it safe, and hope that they can finish him off. The in character thing for me to do is trigger the spell, so I do. On 10k10, again only one die cracks carapace. The other Thunders each take 54 damage. Fu Leng doesn't fall. Crap. The Crab Thunder announces he's using his rank 2 tech to avoid the damage, and uses a Naga Pearl cert to automatically succeed on the roll. Score, we'll have one Thunder not in the middle of suck for wound penalties. The Crab wins initiative next round, and proceeds to bring Fu Leng hot stabbity death. Good wins! There is much cheering. Ben (Hiruma Hitomi), who is for some reason carrying beer in his backpack, hands me one. And neglects to tell me that it's somewhat shaken. I proceed to make a mess by opening it. After some conversation with people we rarely get to see and a lot of handshakes, it's time to hit the road again.

On the road about 1:00 am. This is going to be interesting. We stop for food (which meal would it be at 3 am?) at a random Denny's in Indiana. We arrive safely in Milwaukee about 6:30. What a day.

shibaakinari @ 2005-08-18T11:24:00

2005-08-18T16:26:59Z

I turned in my final project this morning. Pending paperwork, I'm done being a student.

Finally, card art that says "Look at me! I can blow scrolls around the room!"

2005-08-08T14:30:56Z

Nothing says powerful magic user like blowing scrolls.

shibaakinari @ 2005-08-05T17:15:00

2005-08-05T22:15:39Z

Okay, so I haven't posted for a month. I haven't really gone away, I've just been really busy doing really repetitive things.
For anyone who cares, the following describes what I've been up to:

while(! two weeks from today){
     if(weekday)
          goto work;
     if(friday)
          meetWithAdvisor();
     workOnProject();
     sleep(3600 * 8);
}

Two more weeks of this. Then three more weeks of work. Then vacation, finally.

shibaakinari @ 2005-07-05T20:24:00

2005-07-06T01:24:10Z

Am I the only person who goes back and forth between being bored and having a million things I want to do at once?

Mostly this relates to gaming. I've started reading RPG books again, and I'd like to flesh out some of the adventure/campaign ideas I've come up with. I've also started attempting to build decks for an upcoming l5r tournament. I don't remember how the heck open is supposed to work. On another, much more ambitious note, I really don't like the way that Lotus Edition is looking for L5R. The ambitious bit is that I'm thinking about how I'd design a CCG. I doubt I'll get very far into CCG design though.

shibaakinari @ 2005-07-05T11:36:00

2005-07-05T18:36:47Z

You Are 73% American

Most times you are proud to be an American.
Though sometimes the good ole US of A makes you cringe
Still, you know there's no place better suited to be your home.
You love your freedom and no one's going to take it away from you!

How American Are You?

shibaakinari @ 2005-07-04T19:14:00

2005-07-05T00:14:34Z

I think I know how I'm going to accomplish my independent study. I've been beating my head against a wall about it most of the weekend, and now I feel like dancing.

Now that I look back through the last few entries, I don't think I've ever posted about my independent study.
The official title is Improving Digital Photograph Quality Via Multiple Exposures. To be technical, I'm attempting to extend the dynamic range of digital CCDs by taking a bunch of exposures with varying shutter speeds. If you didn't catch that, I'm trying to get detail in both the light and dark areas of a digital photo by combining a bunch of pictures. It's a requirement for the path I'm taking through the master's program, and it should be the last college related thing I ever do.

shibaakinari @ 2005-07-01T08:30:00

2005-07-01T15:37:58Z

I've always claimed that I'll drive my van until the doors fall off. Unfortunately, that may happen sooner than I'd like it to. The sheet metal in front of the driver's side door has somehow been pushed into the door itself. I have no idea how that happened. I noticed it this morning, yesterday I parked with the front of the van facing the outside of the parking lot, and at night I park in a place where I'm pretty hard to hit. There doesn't seem to be any other damage. Gonna be fun finding out how much this will cost to fix.

shibaakinari @ 2005-06-29T11:03:00

2005-06-29T16:04:26Z

You scored as 20-35. You are in your prime, but are feeling a little up-tight about life. Chill out!

</td>

20-35

85%

Age 13-19 years

50%

Age 36-70 years

35%

Age 0-12 years

20%

Age 71+ years

How old is your SOUL?
created with QuizFarm.com

Draft Night

2005-06-29T03:01:37Z

The Bucks picked Andrew Bogut in the first round. For once, I think they made the right decision.
Not so sure about this Ersan Ilyasova character they picked up in the second round. Not that I know anything about him.

And Travis Diener is headed to Orlando. In some ways I'd like to have seen the Bucks take him. In other ways I'm glad they didn't, because I don't think he's going to be all that good in the NBA.

shibaakinari @ 2005-06-23T13:29:00

2005-06-23T20:31:11Z

Anyone want to go see Howl's Moving Castle with me?