One testicle: $30,000
I wouldn't do it.
I was going to take pictures of my day and make an entry about Saturday in Iraq and I did take some pictures but a lot of stuff I did I couldn't take pictures of. So it's mostly "what brian eats on Saturday in Iraq". I'll still post the pictures but it won't be anything special. Just more boring pictures.
Doom is still not boring. People are still making new levels for Doom. I'm currently trying to make it through a short partial conversion called Zen Dynamics. It's insane. The weapons need reloading, there's a bunch of new monsters, and there's little health. It's hard but I want to keep going just to see what else is in it.
I'm not particularly attached to my testicles though we've seen plenty of good times. I just think $30,000 isn't really enough to justify missing one.
Nothing to see here, move along
Okay I think everything works. Katie helped me plug some holes (huh huh, plug some holes) before my DNS itself could update so most stuff was working before I could actually get to it. I've got a pretty big entry coming soon so this is good.
I'm totally ready to come home now.
Changes in the future
Okay so I've got my domain transferred and my new webhost purchased so I'm just setting stuff up right now. At some point I'll make the switch and hopefully no one will notice the difference.
What is up with David Lynch?
Go to davidlynch.com and see. Watch his daily weather report. Read his interesting questions. Download a ringtone or two.
Counting days
I'm down to less than 30 now. That magical day couldn't come sooner.
I'm compiling a list of all the things that got me through the deployment. It's nothing like what other people should do to pass time or what not, it's just acknowledging what kept me sane. It's going to be some mega entry by the time I'm done though. A year is a long time.
Musically I'm in the damnedest mood. I'm alternating between Poison the Well and Fall Out Boy. Isn't that horrible?
Encrypted
I've used this quick little guide from Lifehacker on encrypting email in Mozilla Thunderbird to setup keys for all my email accounts. The only one that really matters here is my "default" email account so here's the public key for brian(lol)dreamofwaking(what)com:
-----BEGIN PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
Version: GnuPG v1.4.3 (MingW32)
mQGiBESUJqoRBAD+e591wpRWrtsbi3FA4Us433OxqdpoCTYpinMZO9JLLce7m479
3x7W8XKxJtykdt5pKwS+2skc8xznDO2KLb2Wat8eowmjyQdxmUJH6sl8kQd43Apu
FmhwaM9s8+rDX+QJd8rmoTRfiV0r6qq0JR+9r61KjMv/A+VrhyynmfeTBwCgtt+r
R2JdfEags9HLNdy8nuutZGsEAINuN56gPJUh72v8VAA3v/naWJ0MYeKijurKH4fM
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YML/8Zv/IdCB/9XUq8YkjhJffJxS3w5hvL+D5j8eCGY8s+vussNP5V1TwL9xKlGk
cQG6ejdRMPmtoXiLyf9amq4jLbx2RvQkiE6cpXYLJXFKCigwcEIkORgE+N6iHIFj
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9rFjAKCnluHaFcHD56cv9BYykJ2rArH3EQCeOLRrSK+Lwuabd+43DCvEbFFk3KA=
=UvlG
-----END PGP PUBLIC KEY BLOCK-----
I'll update my "where to find me" page to reflect this. Note: I'm using an enormous 4096-bit key because I'm insane. Also note that this kind of thing works two ways. You can send me encrypted emails but I won't be able to send an encrypted email back unless you set up something similar (as in, PGP and not something else) on your end too.
Technical Difficulties
Bad news, kids. My host is going under by the end of the month. The good news is that I'm resourceful and I've got a new host and domain registrar lined up. So Katie and I are backing up our stuff and I'm getting the domain transferred so stuff might break for a time. I'm going to get the new host set up before I move anything over though so downtime will hopefully be minimal. I've got everything backed up so nothing should be missing when I do swap over though. Bear with me.
Half-Life 2: Episode 1
Holy crap. $17 well spent. It's shorter than Sin Episodes: Emergence but it's a different game and the atmosphere alone was worth the price. It picks up immediately after the ending of Half-Life 2 which I won't spoil but I can safely say it kind of feels like you're working backward through the end of Half-Life 2 through the first part of the game. There's a couple new enemies, no new guns, but they do some neat stuff with what you've got such as one section where you've got little to no ammo and you're relying on using your flashlight to point out zombies in the dark so Alyx can shoot them. Valve also did an awesome job of keeping the gameplay varied. At some points you're sneaking around and conserving ammo and others you're running and gunning and later you're not using weapons at all, just the gravity gun and whatever is laying around you. The new (well, not exactly new but in greater use) HDR effects really add to the atmosphere as well. Sometimes the lights are so bright they're blinding and everything looks really good under it. It also has a "commentary track" where while you play through the game you find little blurbs that will tell about the design process of Episode 1 and whatnot, which I haven't gone through yet as I just finished the game for the first time but I'll definitely be checking out on the second play through.
Now I'm stuck waiting for winter for Episode 2.