Frivolous Profundity

Tried out something interesting late last night with World of Warcraft after reading a few forum posts – I set my laptop up next to my desktop, like so:

In this picture the black keyboard standing upright beneath the monitor is USBed into the laptop; the white keyboard, mouse, and Nostromo Speedpad are hooked to the desktop (my normal setup). So, I then logged the laptop in to a WoW character I have on my sister’s account, logged the desktop in to my own account and one of my oh-so-many cool characters, and after grouping the two characters together I played my own little mini-party for a while, controlling both characters simultaneously! It definitely took some getting used to, but I had a blast – the desktop tanked and the laptop provided support. I’m not sure how fun this would be in an actually hostile area (we…um, I…were just bopping around the Undead newbie zone), and it’s not like I expect this to become the normal way I play the game (too hectic, not leisurely enough for my hippy streak) – but it was definitely a cool change of pace.

I eventually realized that 99.5% of the time I never move my hands off the speedpad and mouse, so I swapped out my desktop keyboard for my laptop keyboard, saved a lot of hassle. With some practice I was actually able to run (as in jog) both characters simultaneously, using my left hand and the speedpad for the desktop character and my right hand and the keyboard arrow keys with my right hand. Now that feels weird!

Anyway, just thought I’d share the love!

(In case you’re wondering, no, this is NOT against the Blizzard Terms of Service – go ahead and ask ’em. I’m not using any kind of bots or hacks, only a few of the macro functions already built into the game, and both accounts are legal and paid for. It’s also not unethical, as anyone else with a laptop/second machine and a friend’s account can do the exact same thing … true, not everyone has those, but then not everyone has the one computer necessary to play at all, and I don’t see people giving up their WoW accounts in protest because some folks out there don’t have a computer.

So there.)

…

And now for something completely different:

Forum Discussion

The season finale of Alias was on a few days ago – great show, highly recommended, I haven’t missed an episode since numero uno. As a rule I try hard to not watch shows while they’re actually on, but rather tape them for later – takes less time to watch (FF through commercials) and is more convenient (can Pause, Rewind, etc.). I get into a pretty good rhythm with the shows I enjoy – at the moment it would look something like:

Sunday: Simpsons, Family Guy, American Dad
Tuesday: Gilmore Girls, The Shield
Wednesday: Lost, Alias, Law & Order

So here’s what happened on Wednesday – at 8:00pm I hit my trusty “REC” button on the VCR and wandered off to play some ‘Soldier of Fortune’. Two hours later, when I noticed that it was 10:00pm, I popped over to the VCR just long enough to change the channel from ABC (for Alias) to NBC (for Law & Order) and then returned to my gaming. Unfortunately, what I hadn’t remembered is that Alias was a two hour season finale that night, and was on until 11:00 instead of the usual 10:00.

What does this have to do with why I love the net (reason #1138) you may ask? Well, the next day I snuggled my buttocks into the comfy chair, grabbed a drink and a snack, and watched the Alias I had taped. It was fun, lots of action, good plot, and then just as things really started picking up – BAM, the tape switched to the ubiquitous Law & Order “doink doink”! Oopsie!

Luckily I have a good friend that records almost every episode of every show I watch – not only that, but he usually cuts out the commercials and records in HDTV! His name is The Internet (and our mutual friend, Bit Torrent). Sure enough, I got in touch with my buddy and a couple of hours later I had downloaded the tragically missed Alias finale – 42 minutes after that I had watched it. About another 30 minutes after that I had finished my weekly “Jennifer Garner Will You Marry Me?” fan letter, complete with the usual lock of my hair and a small vial of my blood (I hear women find that romantic – at least that’s what Angelina tells me), and added a few new magazine pictures to the altar I keep here at home (the restraining order says that’s fine, as long as I still stay more than 1000 yards away at all times).

And that’s the #1138 reason I love the internet.

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