You may notice that the Schizm banner on the front page is gone and with good reason. I am not going to support a game that does not work on my computer which surpasses the requirements of the game in every way. When I got the Schizm DVD in the mail a while ago, I was confused right away. On one side, it said "Side A" and "Side B on reverse." (It's a double-sided DVD.) So, I put in the DVD with side A facing down, right? Wrong. Evidently, side A is where you'd think side B is and vice versa. Gee...whoever designed it like that was just brilliant. So since I put it in upside down, it thought it was some audio CD and would not recognize it as a game DVD even if I put it in the right way until I restarted my computer and put it in the right way.

So I finally get the thing to start, I installed it and started playing. I'm not more than two minutes into the game when it freezes (before I could save the game of course) and causes me to reboot my computer entirely. I thought it was just a fluke so I try again. It freezes yet again. I reboot. I try again...freeze...reboot. So I email tech support asking what the problem might be. While waiting for the reply to my email, I try again...freeze...reboot. Surprise surprise. So I get an email back from tech and they say I have a bad DVD and they will send me a new one. I think, Oh, good. Just a little while longer, then I'll get to play the game.

I get the new DVD in the mail, put it in, play it, and it freezes yet AGAIN. After more emails with tech and patches, over time it froze six more times for a total of 7 times with the new DVD. PATHETIC. My computer more than surpasses the requirements and the game SHOULD work without a problem. So eventually, I get an email from tech saying that they will send me yet ANOTHER DVD because they say I have another bad DVD but they say they'll send the CD set when we were CLEARLY talking about DVDs. They can't even keep track of their own emails. So I remind this guy (I've been talking to the same tech guy from the start) that I want the DVD instead of the 5 CDs and that he's already sent me a new DVD. He says that he's sorry but the game will never work on my computer. THIS IS PATHETIC! But not surprising. Dreamcatcher (publisher of Schizm) has not had wonderful games. I have two more of their games called Crystal Key and Cydonia (now named Lightbringer) and both of them have had complications of crashing but not nearly as much as Schizm.

Bottom line: I will never buy a Dreamcatcher game again. Their support could not solve my problem and aside from bad gameplay, their games are almost guaranteed to crash/freeze your computer at least once causing you to reboot. I refuse to support a non-functional game with bad gameplay (well, what I've seen of it). Am I allowed to say this? Of course I am! It's my site and I may talk about anything I feel. Yeah, I sound smug, but that's the way I feel.

Friday, November 23^rd 2001 — 10:20am Central Time
Happy Thanksgiving to everyone! (A bit late, I know but better late then never, right?) What did I do for Thanksgiving? Not much. We didn't have any relatives over for visiting which was fine because we didn't have to act out of the ordinary towards them. You know how that is. You can't quite be yourself when grandparents come to visit. You must be on your best behavior. Not that I'm not always on my best behavior though. ^_~ For the majority of the day, I played an old computer game that I could not drag myself away from. The game was called RAMA based on the book series by Arthur C. Clarke. Basically, a giant cylindrical vessel has appeared in Earth's orbit and a team of scientists are sent up to it to research it. When the capitan mysteriously dies, you, the player is sent to replace him. Not as a captain but as a normal member of the team and your mission is just to explore the vessel and learn more about it. The graphics aren't that amazing considering it was only made in 1996 and not by people who have such amazing talents as Cyan but the game was still intriguing and kept me playing until midnight when I finished it. Yes, I used an online walkthrough for the bulk of the game but I seriously could not have finished the game on my own with some of those ODD and HARD puzzzles that didn't seem to make much sense. I got the game from a guy on Ebay for free when he forgot to send part of another package I bought from him. He sent it as an apology for the other item being late. Nice guy! I gave him very nice feedback on eBay. ^_^ So, would I recommend someone playing RAMA? Sure! It's Myst-ish-like in it's slideshow style navigation and puzzles so any Myst fan would enjoy it. The acting isn't too bad actually! There are live actors and they are actually convincing in their roles. I was very impressed with that. Go out and play it. I'm thinking of reading the RAMA book series now. ^_^

In other "news" I've been playing around in my wonderful program called CorelDRAW 9. I never really made anything impressive or "real" in Corel that could be used professionally in something or another. So a couple nights ago, I sat down and just did whatever came to mind in Corel. I was quite surprised by the results. I've gotten positive feedback my work too. ^_^ That always feels good. I made two images. One on one night and the other the next night. The images which are named Inner Mind and Inner Mind 2 (creative, eh? :P) are below. Clicking on them will open up new windows with the images in them. Hope you like them...I know I do!!! Let me know what you think of them by either filling out the suggestion/comments box over there to the left or email me.

Inner Mind	Inner Mind 2

Right now, I'm so incredibly bored it's not funny. Today is my day off from classes and I didn't do a thing but write a stupid paper about something I define. I defined what a collector is. BORING! Other than that, I've done absolutely nothing all day except surf the net and watch TV. How lame is that? I really need a life.

One of my best friends is coming home from college today for Thanksgiving vacation. It'll be great to see her again. We've been chatting via AIM ever since she left and we probably will for as long as possible. ^_^

Oh, this weekend from tonight until Sunday morning (16-18) the Leonid meteor shower will be visible. It should be GREAT if it's not cloudy. I hope it's not cloudy! I've heard conflicting predictions of how many will be visible. I've heard that there will be one a second, one a minute, and even as much as 800 to 4000 an hour!!! That's not a meteor shower...that's a meteor storm! I'd prefer the 4000 an hour of course. ^_^ But I'll be satisfied if I even see ONE. I've seen two in my entire life and I think they are amazing. I'll be looking for them tonight. If I see any I'll post them here. Oh, the apex of the meteor shower (best viewing time) will be on Sunday early morning from 3am - 5am Central time. Here's hoping that it's clear all weekend!

Tuesday, November 06^th 2001 — 10:51pm Central Time
Woah!!...Who did this to the site?!...Oh yeah, I did. ^_^ Like it? Don't like it? Let me know by filling out the suggestion box and hitting submit! Anyway, I had fun doing this redesign. The layout is the same. It's just the colors and graphics that are different. For all the graphics, I used the same Xara 3D program to make the text except this time it's a different font and a different texture. I used one of my many, many cloud pictures as the texture. I think it looks nice and much easier on the eyes. The text is easier to read too instead of a bright white on a black background. Chances are, I'll change all the graphics yet again in several months just because I get tired of seeing the same thing over and over again. Kinda like my desktop wallpaper. I change that almost every day. ^_^

So, what have I been up to? Why haven't I been posting as much? To be honest, I just don't feel like it often enough. I feel that it'll pick up again very soon. I'll try to post more often from now on. I've been busy with classes lately. I'm really enjoying astronomy though. We learn wonderful things every class and I look forward to each class. There is yet another big ugly test coming up soon...ugh. I'll be studying for that a lot. Tonight, it is supposed to be possible to see the Northern Lights from where I am if I look north, but I can't see them. My teacher said that they would be like red and green ribbons but I don't see anything. *sigh* I've wanted to see the Northern Lights my entire life and I have yet to see them in real life. Sure, I've seen thousands of pictures but it's something completely different when you see them in person. Hopefully someday I'll see them.

I have also started my Saturday class. Ugh. The class is scheduled from 8:00am-11:30am, 12:00pm-3:15pm. Naty times, I know. Why I ever signed up for such a long course on a Saturday of all days is beyond me. It's an 8-week course and there are only five more classes to go so as long as I keep thinking about that and the month-long winter vacation I have afterwards, I'll be alright. Fortunately, my class thinks the way I do personally: finisht the class and lab and get out of there as soon as possible to enjoy the Saturday. So we generally get out at around 12:15 or so which is great. They just scheduled the class until 3:15 to have extra time if needed (it's never needed thankfully). I think I have a nasty quiz coming up this Saturday on the unit we discussed last week. That won't be fun. I'll have to study for that too. Darn college. :P We'll see how I do.

You may also notice that the graphics throughout the site (not the big pictures taken by a camera) load faster now. That is because I finally wised up and made every single graphic a gif and thereby reducing the size greatly. I find it much easier to work with and I hope you do too. Enjoy!

Friday, November 02^nd 2001 — 12:21pm Central Time
Happy November! What little there was of the October ramblings have been moved to the October page in the Archives section. Why am I saying Happy November? *shrugs* I don't know. It's just a thing I do. ^_^

Boy...did I have an active Halloween. Not. I really didn't do anything for Halloween. I handed out some candy to little trick-or-treaters who came around but that's it. And that's fine with me really. I'm too old to go trick-or-treating any more and I just didn't feel like doing anything anyway. I still managed to get some candy though. ^_~