Oh whoa, updates.

A few points:

*** Vagary.TV is doing well, a new site has been contracted and will be live within the month.
*** The Vagary.TV Crew went to PAX East in Boston and Covered it as Media and got their faces out there (IGN.com and XBox Dashboard)
*** Myself and some Vagary.TV crew people are going to E3 this summer as press! (woot)
*** Evan turns 6 months next week.
*** We are leaving California in October for Ohio.
*** Things are going pretty well.
*** I need to do more real updates in the future.

The Oil Change from Hell, Courtesy of Wal-Mart

Edit 9 Feb 2010 – After a complaint with the BBB and a few weeks, I got a phone call from Walmart’s insurance company asking where to send the check :)   I win ;)

It all started on the day of my wife and I’s first anniversary.   My car was due for a standard oil change, and I decided we’d get it done before we went out and spent the evening celebrating.  I decided to take it to Walmart for the oil change; as I had done the previous two changes with no issues.   So, I took it in, and my wife and I did a little shopping, and then we paid and left.  About twenty minutes later I heard a grinding sound, but since it was a windy day I dismissed it for wind and finished the trip home.  When I got home, I noticed the belly plate for my 2005 VW Passat was hanging on the ground.  I was immediately furious.  I decided to try to put it back up, hold it together with some tape, and to get it to Wal-Mart to show them what they had done.  Obviously that failed. It fell down again,dragged, and ended up tearing off and breaking; which could have easily been a very bad and dangerous thing. When I returned to Wal-Mart a few of the employees in the automotive department noticed right away, knew who did it, and also knew he was an inferior worker.  I let them pull the car in to survey the damages.   The guy who did it proceeded to try to tell me the car was broken when I brought it in, which it clearly was not.  He made the outlandish claim that it was missing screws, and then said that he documented it on his comments.  That part he did do. However, no one pointed that out, and no one had the sense or courtesy to even try to check it out or put in screws if it was missing screws; which it was not.  He later then stated, twice that I heard and twice again when I walked away, which my wife also heard, to his boss that he tried to reattach it but the screws didn’t fit.  Which meant, there were indeed screws, and he did indeed reassemble it incorrectly.    The assistant manager of the store then offered to pay 350.00 up front from the store for the damages or I could let it go to the insurance.  The damages were estimated at $520.00 by the VW dealership and I was not going to pay out of pocket, nor was I going to let them pay for the part and then touch my car again.  I let insurance handle it, spent a day driving all over to get the quote and returned it to them.  Two days later I got a call from the insurance company saying they declined my claim because “Screws were missing”; which again, they were not and I even have one of them that fell off after the fact in my driveway.  The part itself is woven together and if not replaced correctly obviously the screws will not fit, VW mechanics can verify this.

Here are some obvious facts to support it was their negligence in service.

1.)  Over 10,000 miles driven and never an issue, yet 20 minutes after I leave their store my car is broken.

2.)  I have the bill from my previous oil change which states nothing about missing screws, this was dated 30 October 2009 and I had this oil change performed 16 January 2010.  So somehow, in driving around on base my car lost screws?  Yet it held until I got to Wal-Mart and then broke after?  That is not sound logic.

3.)  Volkswagen mechanics can verify that had screws truly been missing the part would not have held in place that long – It was incorrectly put together by the servicing mechanic at Wal-Mart.

Here are some additional things to consider.

1.)  The dragging part could have done considerable damage to the car.

2.)  The dragging part could have heated up and caused a fire.

3.)  When the part detached it could have caused an accident.

Thankfully, these scenarios did not play out but they are all very real and reasonable scenarios.  The entire 10 minute drive to Wal-mart was one completely ridden in fear shared by my wife and I, on our anniversary with our 3 month old son in the back seat.  A simple oil change should never have come to this.

If my negligence damaged someone’s property it would be my responsibility by the law to pay the cost of the damages, and in fact I should be happy to only pay the cost of damages.  It’s the law.  However, apparently multi-million dollar corporations are clearly above the law and don’t feel they need to be held accountable for their actions.  I however, am going to be sure that they are held accountable

My Favorite SNL Skit – Bill Brasky

“Bill Brasky is a son of a bitch!”

“Bill Brasky is the father of every kid in this town!”

“Bill Brasky once showed me a video of him making love to my wife, and it was the most beautiful thing I ever saw!”

“One time I was with Brasky in the back of a pickup truck, along with a live deer. Brasky goes up to the deer and says, ‘I’m Bill Brasky! SAY IT!’ Then he manipulates the deer’s lips in such a way as to make it say, ‘Billbrasky’ … It wasn’t exactly like it, but it was pretty good for a deer!’”

“He’d eat a homeless person if you dared him!”

“His poop is used as currency in Argentina.”

“He sweats Gatorade”

“He once breast-fed a flamingo back to health.”

“He hated Mexicans! And he was half Mexican! …….And he hated irony!”

“I once saw him scissor kick Angela Landsbury.”

“He sheds his skin once a year.”

“He makes brooms somewhere in Georgia.”

“He did 3 tours in ‘Nam…… I was in Corpus Christi on business a month ago. I had this eight foot tall Asian waiter, which made me curious. I asked him his name. Sure enough it’s Ho Tran Brasky!”

“I once saw him eat a whole live chicken.”

“His favorite movie is ‘One on One’ with Robby Benson.”

“He sleeps eight hours a night! …….. well, he was pretty normal when it came to that.”

“Bill Brasky was a two ton man-mountain who could palm a medicine ball!”

“Did I ever tell you about the time Brasky took me out to go get a drink with him? We go off looking for a bar and we can’t find one. Finally Brasky takes me to a vacant lot and says, ‘Here we are.’ We sat there for a year and a half and sure enough someone constructs a bar around us. The day they opened we ordered a shot, drank it, and then burned the place to the ground. Brasky yelled over the roar of the flames, ‘Always leave things the way you found em!’”

“Bill Brasky had a four day heart attack…a day for each chamber. At the autopsy, they said his heart looked like a basketball filled with riccotta cheese.”

“He once punched a hole in a cow just to see who was coming up the road.”

“He taught me how to make love to a woman, and how to scold a child.”

“They found $60 in change in his stomach.”

“He did all the makeup on the ‘Planet of the Apes’ movie.”

“He grew a 3rd arm and kept it in a vault.”

“Brasky drank a full glass of liquid LSD with his eggs. Then he slept for 8 months straight. When he woke he rubbed his eyes and said, ‘All in all, I prefer gin.’”

“They say Gene Roddenbery got the idea for Star Trek from listening to Brasky talk in his sleep.”

“He date raped David Bowie.”

“He once inhaled a seagull.”

“The Pope told him it was ok to have a mistress.”

“It was the sight of Brasky’s naked body that drove Brian Wilson insane.”

“He once had sex with a cigarette machine.”

“He killed Wolfman Jack with a trident.”

“He uses the Shroud of Turin as a golf towel.”

“He once ate the Bible while water skiing.”

“He drives an ice cream truck covered in human skulls.”

“He sired a baseball team.. an orchestra if you count the bastards!”

“You know, he would shoot whiskey into his neck with a syringe!”

“He has dandruff the size of mice!”

“He jogged with a fridge on his back!”

“Bill Brasky was a 10 foot monster who slept with all our wives! And punched us all in the face! And we loved him for it!”

“His first name is Bill! ……. I’m drunk.”

“He’s a ten foot tall beastman who showers in vodka and feeds his baby shrimp scampi.”

“He orchestrated the merger between Unicef and Smith & Wessen.”

“He went public with his own buttocks and made $7 million.”

“Did I ever tell you about the time Brasky went hunting? Brasky decides he’s going to hunt down all four of the Banana Splits. He stalks and kills every one of them with a machette. They all begged for their lives…except Fleagle.”

“We once had a bachelor party for Brasky. He ate the entire cake before we could tell him there was a stripper in it.”

“Brasky once hosted the Grammys and gave every award to Corey Hart.”

“He has a toenail on the end of his penis.”

“Brasky once got his wife pregnant and gave birth to a delicious 16 ounce steak. The after birth was sauteed mushrooms.”

“Brasky’s family crest is a picture of a baracudda eating Neil Armstrong.”

“Brasky ranked 18th in the AP College Football Pool.”

“Did I ever tell you about the time Brasky was in a production of, ‘The King & I?’ On opening night, Brasky chloroforms the entire cast and slowly eats them in front of the audience for two hours. The production got pretty good reviews.”

“He breastfeeds John Madden.”

“Brasky named the group Sha-Na-Na. They did NOT want to be called that.”

“If you drop a phonograph needle on Brasky’s nipple, it plays the Beach Boys’ ‘Pet Sounds.’”

“They use Brasky’s foreskin as a tarp when it rains at Yankee stadium.”

“Brasky directed that commercial where the women play basketball in high heels.”

“All the ‘Yes’ album covers are Brasky family photos.” “He wears a live rattlesnake as a condom.”

“Did I ever tell you about the time he taught his son how to drive? He did it by entering him in the Indy 500. The kid wrecked and died. Brasky said it would’ve happened sometime.”

“Brasky’s semen can form into a liquid human – like the guy from ‘Terminator 2′”

“Brasky still believes in Santa Claus, and he wants to put him in porno films.”

“He thinks then iron man is gay.”

“He framed Roger Rabbit.”

“The character of Johnny Appleseed was based on Brasky – except for the apple tree planting and not raping men.”

“He gave a handjob to a manta ray.”

A List of things I’d like to do (but probably never will)

Live overseas again.
Finish my associates degree and get my bachelor’s degree.
Go to culinary school.
Go to film school.
Finish a script.
Direct a movie.
Have a part in a movie.
Perform stand up comedy.
Travel, travel and more travel.
Live in New York City for a while.
Become fluent in 1 or more foreign languages.
Learn a new computer language. (I’m looking at you PHP)
Find a job I actually like.
Have a shiba inu again.
Join the peace corps.
Get rich so I can pay for everything Evan wants/needs.
Figure out how to keep my fish from dying.
Train my dogs to not be assholes.
Save a lot of money.
Retire.
Hold a public office.
Do something good for humanity.
Help complete strangers.
Have more time to relax.
Play more video games.
Be more happy.
Play in a band again.
Learn to make awesome pad thai.
Find a cure for cancer.
Raise money for a charity.
Adopt a child.
Own a ranch.

— Maybe next week, a list of things I probably will do, but don’t want to do.

Politics

The following is a letter I recently sent to some fellow Libertarians on my views on the state of the nation and philosophy in general.

I love my country, I’ve been around the world and studied several other countries and cultures and there is no place I would rather be. Not only do I love my country but I innately love people, I am driven by compassion to do what’s best for the greater good. The country I was born in and have lived in my entire life is not the country we are seeing today. There are very ominous clouds hanging over the horizon, these are the clouds of Socialism. Whilst Socialism is a great “Paper Government” it is not a realistic one, and if we continue down this path we will be in for very hard times. It is very safe to say that given this track in the next few years we may cease to be the U.S.A. but more like the U.S.S.A. In order to understand why Socialism is an entirely flawed system first, we need to understand ourselves and human nature in general. Humans, by nature – are extremely competitive (on various levels), and are greedy (we always want more) – by that alone Socialism has no ground to stand on. The Democratic Party is looking for these quick fixes to appease the people and increase the power of the Government entirely disregarding human nature. For instance, let’s talk healthcare reform.

This so called “public option” will be a damning bill in the end if it is passed as the Democratic Party intends it to be. Not only will is greatly reduce the quality of healthcare overall (which I’ll elaborate on in a moment), but it will continue to spend money we don’t have, increase the roll of government, and eliminate several American people’s jobs. South Korea is a good example of a “Universal Healthcare System” that works, and an even better example of what our current healthcare system is fundamentally lacking. Healthcare in Korea is what it ought to be here, a business. It sounds crazy but trust me, it makes sense. In Korea there is a very high demand for healthcare, surgeons of all sorts of medical needs – to meet this demand there are medical facilities everywhere and what makes this work even better is competition. As I mentioned before human nature essentially can be summed up as competition and greed, in this case the competition for money. Korean citizens go to the most reputable doctors who also charge the least, a good doctor will not do well if he charges too much for his services. Now we come to the problem in America. Hospitals are very sparse, right there that kills competition and also does another thing – does not adequately meet the demand for services. So, what the Democratic Party is doing is killing thousands of jobs in the insurance industry, increasing taxes on all of us (even if they say they’re not, they will in some form), and forcing all people to go to these hospitals which can barely handle the patients they have now. Healthcare reform needs to start with less regulation, more waivers for treatment so people cannot be lawsuit happy (a practice Korea has and there are very few malpractice issues due to reputation meaning so much), a stimulus for opening clinics would go a long way, and incentives for people to become doctors. They’re extremely important so I say the government is okay to compensate them in some way or another, just like teachers all ready are.

To end my long winded speech, I’d like to make a few final points. The government in the past year and a half has taken a considerable stake in the auto industry, banking industry and are now working on the insurance industry. The government is getting more and more powerful every day, and its time we fight for some of our freedom back. It is critically important to bring these issues to light with all the facts and sound logic to debunk what the government is doing so that we may began on the road to recovery from this mess. In these dark times it is very important to constantly question the roll of government, what they’re doing and what the constitution says they ought to be doing. Remember, first and foremost the government was founded to protect its people, their rights and liberties. It seems each day our rights and liberties become more challenged.  I can only pray that somehow I can open the eyes of those who will listen to me, and our party will continue to grow to wake up all of America and return our nation to the way it was always intended to be by the founding fathers.

Thoughts on being a dad

I’ve been a dad now for a week and 3 days and although it is hard work its very enjoyable. I don’t mind the diapers, or the smell, or the crying or the never sleeping – and I don’t even understand why people complain so much. Maybe its different when you see a little clone of yourself smiling back at you… as he’s peeing over his shoulder. You learn to manage time way better with a baby, and 30 minutes of sleep feels like 3 hours of sleep – to me these are good things. It can be stressful at times but never too bad. I’m pretty sure this is just one of those things I was born to be good at.

Moving on…

So now that that creep got the message (read it twice) – hopefully I can post again without having some ugly bastard looking over my shoulder. I’ll avoid talking about my family for now until I’m certain that its safe to do so – however I can say that it looks like I will be cross training to Korean Linguist in the next few months. Meaning we’ll be headed to San Francisco for a while before which should be fun. Short post for now, will write more later when I stop seeing hits coming from Kao-Hsiung, Taiwan.

_Ryan

A quick plug —

Check out GameByNight.com – it’s a site my friend Chris started about gaming and the like, I also am an occasional contributor to the site. Most definitely worth a look!

-Ryan

Love this song.

Before there was WoW, there were MUDs

Depending on which definition you read, MUD stands for either Multi-User-Domain or Dungeon.  Their origins go back to 1976 when Adventure which was programmed on a computer likely running with a Dorito processor.  This was a dungeons and dragons themed (D&D) text based game where users played by entering commands into the game to perform actions and reading descriptions.  The following year Zork came out on the ARPANET (great grand father of that thing we call the Internet) – this was the first Multi-User game that people could dial into the ARPANET and play together.  Much like WoW of today MUDs also had a reputation of consuming people’s lives.  At their height of their popularity some of them were even pay-to-play and made even more money than WoW in subscription fees. MUDs of more modern day are connected to via TELNET (built into all operating systems) or more sophisticated MUD clients which support an array of different things.

And now, here’s how I come into this:

In 1999 the Internet was still a relatively new and exciting thing to my friends and I.  One of the people outside of my group of friends began playing a MUD – this gradually spread like wildfire and soon there were about 30 of us playing in our area.  I spent the next 4 years playing it, ignoring other graphical online games just because I had so much fun and enjoyed it with all my friends.  We always would tell stories of our exploits either killing other players or completeing quests, or our tragic down falls to some super NPC or even sometimes bitch to each other when one of us killed the other.  I always look back at that period of my life fondly, you could no doubt about it label me a geek.

Sometime in 2002 – our beloved game went offline without much warning.  We were all in shock – some of us began to bide our time, some of us went off to find new MUDs and then there was my friend Chris and I.  Sometime in June 2002, we pushed off the shore in his dad’s canoe with a notebook and brains bursting with ideas.  Together we drafted our initial idea for a game at that point we called “Mystic Shadows” – this was all great and all but neither of us knew the first thing about creating one of these games or the language that was used to make them.  It was later on in that summer I began to press myself to learn C, and after finding a suitable code base to build up from I began to slowly but surely make the changes to the code and add in the features we had discussed.  In the fall, “Mystic Shadows” would occasionally go online from my Windows 98SE box for a few hours a night on the weekend and my friends would come in and play and give me feedback.  Surprisingly, there was little bad feedback.

Around this time the game I mentioned that inspired me to work on this came back online – and is still online to this day, it is nearly 20 years old now!

I continued to write areas along with friends and put it all together until February 2003 we finally went online live as “Realm of Shadows”!  Within the first few hours people began to pour in, I think it was one of the proudest moments of my life.  Looking back on what the game was then compared to what it would be later after I continued to improve my skills, it was really not that impressive – I think one of our hugest successes was to have such a dedicated and friendly staff there to help people when they needed it.

From February 2003 – until January 2006 I spent thousands of hours working on making the game better and better.  The game was doing fairly well, much better than several other games I had seen and before it was over I even inspired a spin-off which still is online today running large portions of my code.

The doors were closed in January 2006 due to my increasingly busy life.  Being a firm supporter of the Open Source movement, I put my code where my mouth was and released it to the public.

3 years passed.  I often would think back on those days very fondly and how exciting it was to run to the library to check in on my world and see how everything was going.  I’ve made many friends, met many people and learned so much – and as I mentioned, spent thousands of hours on it.  I literally have 5,440 hours in game alone.

On July 1st 2009, the code base for Realm of Shadows was dusted off, recompiled and fired up again after buying my old domain name back and tracking down a new host.  It is open to the public and has been seeing steady amounts of new players coming in daily.

For those of you who used to play this type of game maybe when you were just a teen like me – or those who have no idea what it was like before WoW -  I invite you to come over and play with me!  I look forward to seeing you there!

Realm of Shadows