MenZa’s Weblog

I just returned from supper–consisting of hotdogs.

Again, I’ve been on IRC. I also have an insane need to go to the bathroom–which is what I’ll do now.

A long time ago, I was still sitting at my dad’s old 133mhz computer (I don’t remember the brand, sorry), playing such games as Commander Keen and later advancing to Jazz Jackrabbit, Quake and Doom.

To date, I find that very few games have the same standards as these games. Sure, Half-Life 2 is fun–and so is Day of Defeat: Source, but they’re unable to capture me for hours at a time–all the above mentioned games could do that, and more.

And it gets worse. FPSs were popular for a long time–to me, it kind of feels like that era is over.

Ever since the success of World of Warcarft, more and more game studios have started to create RPGs or similar.

Sure, new FPSes are continuosly coming out, but the main focus has been directed onto RPGs.

Which is why I can’t wait ’til Team Fortress 2 and Half-Life 2 Episode 2 are released– they look like hours of fun.

Here’s another status report from the blogging front.

Right now I’m struggling with my laptop. It’s been a pain the last few days; Ubuntu doesn’t seem to like my Synaptic touchpad, causing the mouse to die some time after startup–sometimes an hour, sometimes just five minutes.

If I get around to it, I might even try and install another distro, such as Gentoo tonight.

I also restyled my main template a bit, forcing a linebreak between the meta data aswell as the tags used and added a timestamp to it, as suggested by Ulaek.

I’m going to go back and try to get my laptop working now–I’ve been blogging off that for the past some time and it’s a major setback if it turns out not to work.

Remember, you can still chip in for my blog here. You’ll be charged once the Blogathon is over.
Every penny goes to the Association for International Cancer Research.

It’s no secret I’m very fond of using IRC, and I have done so for 5 years or something like that.

It all started on #battlegrounds on irc.gamesurge.net, a channel for a Half-Life mod I used to play.

I still do on occasion, and I’m still in a clan for it.

Since then, I’ve been on several networks: GameSurge, QuakeNet, AusIRC (don’t ask), Moznet and tons more I don’t remember.

Nowadays, all I use is Freenode, a FOSS network housing such projects as Ubuntu Linux, WordPress and SimplePie.

Why?

So…. why do I IRC? I find a lot of interesting topics to talk about. I know a lot of people from various IRC channels I use a lot (#wordpress, #freenode-social and #ubuntu-offtopic), and we keep finding interesting things to talk about.

That’s why I IRC.

We’re now two hours into the Blogathon, and I’m still going at it on IRC–not only in #blogathon, but also in #wordpress.

I finally got hungry (yes, two hours in) and decided to go and fetch some noodles–of which I’m eating my second bowl right now.

Tonight should be interesting :)

A couple of days ago, I fell over a VoIP called Gizmo.

I assume most of you know Skype. Gizmo is the same thing, only you can call any phone in over 60 countries for free!

There’s just one hitch: the user has to be a Gizmo project member, and add his or her phone numbers for public display.
I don’t mind it myself, but I know certain people that are more careful with giving out sensitive information like address, phone number or even their surname online.

I personally think Skype is a great application, and I’ve used it a lot the past days (and I probably will tonight, too) for talking to other people. And yes, that’s free, as long as you only call from computer to computer.

Gizmo is free for both computer to computer, and computer -> regular phone.

The sound quality on Skype is definitely better than the of Gizmo, which is why I prefer Skype for online use, but I have used Gizmo to call my friends and family members every now and then.

It’s time for the first status report–as I mentioned in my first post, I don’t think I’ll be able to blog anything interesting 48 times in a row–so I’m skipping every other and replacing it with a status report.

Right now I’m busy talking on IRC with other Blogathonners in #blogathon on irc.freenode.net.

Feel free to join us, whether you’re ‘thonning or not.

I’ve also set up my laptop, which is where I’m writing this post from.

That way I can play a computer game or watch a movie without having to minimise it.

Let’s hope it all goes well.

For now, I’m gonna go and update my Ubuntu (apparently I have updates available), then I’ll be headed back to IRC :)

As I write this post, I don’t do it to tell you why I post–I’m doing it to find out myself.

I’d like to note I don’t really know why I blog.
One of my main reasons is probably to improve my written English. It’s above average, but not good enough.

Another would be to share my thoughts with the outside world, friends aswell as strangers.
I’ve always been comfortable online–seeing as I’ve been in communities where we played computer games from the age of eleven or twelve.

The bottomline is… I don’t know why I blog, but I hope to find out one day.

This is my first post of this years’ Blogathon.
I’m supposed to be blogging for 24 hours, every 30 minutes–which, if you do the math, will end up with 48 posts.
Why? To support a charity of our choice.
Please, support my cause, the Association for International Cancer Research by clicking this link.

My first post is four minutes late, for which I apologise; I haven’t forgotten about it (my computer is a bit slow on startup).
I’m going to come up with subjects as I write–hopefully I won’t run out of ideas, or I’ll have to meme me out of it.

Every hour I’ll do one post about a thing I like, a rant–a regular blogpost, aswell as a status report.

I’ll be dedicating this Blogathon to a friend of mine who passed away from cancer at a very young age.

So… without further ado: let the games begin :)

I was just browsing through a few blogs today, when I read about Zooomr offering free Pro accounts–if you have a blog, with at least one Zooomr photo on it.
Thus, I’m posting one:

Here we go–my latest desktop.
If you want to grab this offer and use it, here’s the link.
Now I’m gonna go and claim my free pro account, though I think I’ll stick to flickr most of the time ;)