RANTS:

9 Sep 2006 by Jon

Sangpo has informed me that the FIT page is broken in opera, but I think it's worse when working correctly in IE; every page has a totally different layout.

A LAN would be cool, but not this weekend though; there's a giant beer/wine/mead fest in Socorro at the moment. But next weekend I might be able to go up for a night before I have to come back and do homework. I don't have any long weekends until October, sadly.

12 Sep 2006 by Daniel

That is the sorriest excuse for a webpage I've seen in a long time. Not much has happened since I last posted. Jason has stopped by the house, Sangpo uploaded our NYC stuff (good times) and Joel is pissed for whatever reason that Sangpo uploaded that video of us being drunk to Youtube. I, on the other hand, have already posted it in a forum.

Anyway, when's your next big break block Jon? We were thinking of having a lan soon and since we're in ABQ it might be feasible for you to drive out. We do happen to have a decent stock of alcohol that Chris insists on maintaining.

I've been playing alot of Dawn of War and WoW these days. There's an expansion coming out for Dawn of War that looks awesome. I'd say to download the demo of it but, it's horribly limited.

In other news, the roofers are here right now fixing the roof leak. Apparently we had a solar panel on top of our roof which was news to all of us. I finally got almost all of my stuff up here which includes: Various spare computer parts, cds, my dresser, books I've already read, an end table and various console stuff. We're on the look out for a decent sized T.V. for the living room so if you find a cheap one give me a holler.

Oh yeah, Jon, we got our first Jehovas Witness the very first day we moved in. Apparently, they thought we weren't home so they were nice enough to write a note and leave some pamphlets. I'm thinking we should frame the note. And Sangpo, how in the hell did you manage to make that ASCII for the Ventrillo message of the day? That thing is bad ass. Also, check out this comic.

6 Sep 2006 by Jon

Haha, Sangpo got into a school because of affimative action because he's male and asian.

Holy Fraktits, that FIT webpage is ugly.

6 Sep 2006 by Sangpo

Hey all, it's good to hear the news updates from NM! 90 degree angles are overrated and tetrahedrons would be a better unit of measure than the cube..but oh well, whatever the case, sounds like good times out there ^____^

It's been wayyy to long since my last post here, there's a lot to say, but for your sake most stories will be omitted.
Although I was starting to doubt that it would ever happen, I'm finally going back to school. I would be a junior but, sparing you a long dull story about transfer credits or lack thereof, I'm once again a Freshman... I would have never imagined myself going to "The Fashion Institute of Technology" but, if you glaze over the "Fashion" part, you might realize that it is a technology school. Well, a tech school with a lot of chicks...and a really appealing CG/animation BFA program :)
They said that out of 40k applicants only 1600 students were accepted this year...which is kind of disturbing. When I find myself wondering "wtf am I doing here?" I need only remember that statistic to change potential regret into motivation. Today the math teacher said "I know you guys aren't going to be mathmaticians or physicists or anything. So just relax." This is the first math class I've gone to which doesn't require a text book. It's also the first class in which the teacher looks wackier than the students, today his shirt had the McDonald's "M"double-arches logo followed by "Marijuana: over one billion served". He said he'll wear a normal professor type suit on Holloween...

Anyway, uhh yeah, today I did a bunch of work on the server. Gonna follow Daniel's lead by making a list! The updates are:

-> Dedicated |HE| Ventrilo server hosted: pod.podzone.net port: 3784
-> Compiled Quakecon2005 & Quakecon2006 Photo galleries. (NYC pics too *don't have the pics Joel took yet*) check O.
-> ...alright so it's a short, rather pathetic list. <( 9__9)>

Here are a couple recent random sketches:
The scanner isn't hooked up so I had to use my camera for those -__-

Keep up the good posts! Oh, and since we're all over the place now, the ventrilo server will prolly be useful for us. I'll be on it.
Good fun, have luck.

4 Sep 2006 by Jon

Hi dude(s)! I'm renting a house in Socorro with a few buddies (really cheap rent ~500 split three ways), but it's kind of in a seedy neighborhood; So far we've had three beggars knock on our door asking for money/rides, but other then that it's awesome: there's not a single 90 degree angle in the whole house. School's a lot of work as always, and I really haven't had a chance to play any games (other than halo and mario cart) in a while. Thank the heavens for three day weekends.

Also, a few weeks ago I took the GRE General test (similar to the SAT, but for grad school) and did fairly well (perfect in math, in the 53 percentile for verbal). So now I have to go through that whole apply to college thing again... *sigh*

You should post those NYC pics dude!

GGNORE

30 Aug 2006 by Daniel

And we're back!

Well, we as in me I guess. I'm back! Back in the place I just moved into in good ole Albuquerque. What's that smell? The smell of incense. Chris kind of went crazy with it. Hey, at least it doesn't smell like ass. Oh yes, the first month of bills is gonna be crazy. Something like what we're paying in rent. Sad times but, everything should be all set up now! We just have some major house improvements to do(such as fix the roof leak that leaks through the light socket).

I made a list though, I got to scratch taking my cats down here off of it. My list isn't really meant to be taken seriously anyway but, Joel made a fix up list. On the subject of my cats, they hate being locked inside however, there's not much I can do except buy a harness and a rope or something. Otherwise they'll probably get eaten. Let's face it, they're pushing 12 years old. They may have been the head hanchos back where I was living but out here they're just the new pussy. Gimpy is adjusting far better than I expected, she only hide under Chris's bed for one full day and now she roams about the house mainly shedding on Chris's and Joel's stuff because they're allergic.

We do, however, have loads of booze! $16.99 for a 24 pack of Shiner Bock at Costco was god send! We have the lan all set up now! Chris and I even lost to some Dawn of War bots! Joel however didn't want to install it. Just as well, Chris's machine was being brought to a stand still like a mexican stand off. Not good for either party involved.

Looking through the NYC pictures and the movie has been a great blast. I forgot just how drunk those Asahi's got us till I saw that video. Good times! Anyway, I have yet to start school. Chris and Joel are already off but, it seems like there might be a few job opportunities for a guy like me. Such as, setting up a computer lab and online tech support for World of Warcraft and Diablo 2. If I can't get those jobs I can always do a service job. At least I know the ins and sometimes the outs there. Anyway, I should probably be heading to bed. I'll ask Sangpo how to upload pictures on this shindig later because there's a few you have to see. That is, if anyone checks this page anymore. Hey, that's a good idea. How about someone posts when they check the page. Just this once? For me? I have beer...

31 Jul 2006 by Daniel

Worthwhile Webpages(Now with Tags!):

Hope is Emo(Podcast)
Ask a Ninja(Podcast)
Nine Planets Without intelligent life.(Webcomic)
Live House S.S.H.(Video game remixes. Site in Japanese)
OBJECTION! For Edgeworth type (edgey) before your statment, for von Karma type (karma)before(he has different music with (tunes) too) and for music type (tunes) before your statement. Have fun.
Video Uncovered! (Lots of Asian music videos. Youtube links)
South Park Every South Park Episode ever aired.
Sweet emotion! (Objection!)

Worthwhile YTMNDs:

Explains the "NEDM" fad.(YTMND)
Epic Windows XP Manuever.(YTMND)
Dr. Dre Featuring Cosby.(YTMND)
Cosby Bebop(YTMND)
The Sound of Ultimate Suffering.(YTMND)
YTMND Gameboy Edition.(YTMND)
YTMND Happy Edition.(YTMND)
YTMND Japanese Edition.(YTMND)
YTMND is Dangerous.(YTMND)
Math Defeated.(YTMND)
Jack Bauer can't stop Eon8.(YTMND)
Can't stop the rock.(YTMND)
Get to the Choppa(Contra edition)(YTMND)
Nigga Stole Carnegie Hall.(YTMND)
Rave Heart.(YTMND)
Noooler Coaster.(YTMND)
YTMND(YTMND)
My all time favorite.(YTMND)

Potential for more updates!
And here they are :

YYMND prepares for WW3(YTMND)
Telemarketing has never been so hard(YTMND)
Sonic on telemarketing(YTMND)
Captain Kirk is God. (YTMND)
Sim terrorism(YTMND)
Marty and Doc prevent Scientology(YTMND)
Giggity(NSFW)(YTMND)

Stay tuned for even more ninja updating.

Staring Contest(YTMND)

17 May 2006 by Sangpo

Hey hey, So meanwhile, back at the ranch...Yep, I'm back in New Mexico. I'll probably be visiting here for about a month. The weather has been nice and I look forward to some awesome LAN party-ness. Posting this message using dialup on an old 366MHz Celeron COMPAQ :( Been playing Oblivion, Black & White 2, and F.E.A.R. singleplayer lately. ggz.

Thanks Jon for hooking me up with this un-noobifying video! Everyone needs to watch 911 Loose Change. It is an extremely interesting documentary that analyzes the events of September 11th. (It might also be streamable from video.google.com)
The 9/11 News Special You Never Saw isn't as in-depth as Loose Change, but is still worth watching.
Then try to find out how many people in the White House are in the elusive "Skull & Bones". Let the conspiracy theories ensue!

26 Apr 2006 by Sangpo

So a while ago, I found a nice Pentium III system that was cruely abandoned in someone's trash. It took forever, but it's finally all setup running quietly in the corner with a nice fresh install of Debian, apache2, AND most importantly, this website! err..on second thought, the OS and server software are equally important..(*_*)

In other news, I finally posted a new comic! Yeah, it's been too long for anyone to care, but oh well. It exists. Another one is in the works.
Hmm, that's all for now. Gotta go update this website a bit. pod out.

22 Feb 2006 by Jon

I broke down and was reading a forum out of boredom, and came across this and found it humorous.

END OF LINE

17 Feb 2006 by Sangpo

Happy Birthday Jesse!
Hope the b-day LAN party is good times. Wish I was there. Need LAN party "4lyfe" (as jesse would say).
So, since traveling thousands of miles for the LAN party wasn't an option last night, I ended up going to a "Draw-a-thon". I found an ad for it on a bulletin board near NYU. I didn't know what to expect of an 8 hour drawing session (lasting till 3am) in Brooklyn at some place I'd never heard of. It turned out to be really good times. You can see most of my sketches here (warning: large image). It was interesting.

In other news, I was watching the Jpop musicvid shoutcast and found a Japanese Jessica Alba. Okay, not quite..but the resemblance is there! <(*_*)>

05 Feb 2006 by Sangpo

Hey hey, the Hilarity-Ensues domain name is finally working again! Doubt anyone reads this anymore since the website has been so unreliable for the past year...but anyway, I'll try to stop being lazy. Expect updates here.

So here are some random things I just scanned:

Phil on Learning Japanese (page 1)
Phil on Learning Japanese (page 2)
Regarding Public Displays of Affection
Oh and here's the random "Entertainment Mobile" doodle I did while you dudes were connected to VNC.

Superman wears underwear over his tights D:

25 Jan 2006 by Jon

# 121,675: Superman could kill someone by quickly flying to the other side of the world then punching the ground so hard that a shockwave is sent through the Earth launching the guy into space, killing him.

This message has been brought to you by the 200,000 Ways Superman Could Fucking Kill You Consortium.

31 Dec 2005 by Sangpo

W000T! The server is back up!
Unfortunately my ISP is lame and blocks port 80, so we are forced to use web forwarding. At least it's working now.

So I've been really busy since I arrived in NYC back in October. Long story.
Oh yeah, HAPPY NEW YEARS!
So I fixed up a VNC server and now Jon and Daniel are both spying on every word I type over the internet...It's kinda unnerving. It feels like someone is watching my computer screen from over my shoulder, but really they are not there -___-
Well, I'll work on scanning some sketches and hopefully finishing the next comic. I should be able to upload something new in a few days.

31 Dec 2005 by Jon

Sangpo got the server working, go Sangpo! to the max for the win.

29 Nov 2005 by Jon

Ok, I take it back; Quake 4 does get quite a bit better the farther you get into it. At first it felt like Doom 3: Now with Lights!, but the story and gameplay start to pick up a couple of hours into it. Weird how many FPSs suffer from the weak begining, the only ones that I can think of the really brought one into it at the start are Half Life, Half Life 2, and Call of Duty.

29 Nov 2005 by Sangpo

Hey, woot woot for the server fix! I was going to make a huge rant post with pictures and stuff, but the FTP server doesn't seem to be up.. So the uber rant will have to wait :(

Quake 4 probably isn't worth buying. The multiplayer is pretty much the same as Q3A DM/CTF but with some slight weapon changes and better (?? haha, I mean much more resource intensive) graphics engine. I really enjoyed the latter part of the single player game. Un-inspired? Well, almost all games are these days. I found the sp game to be very entertaining.
Multiplayer..well if you like Q3A DM's (which I actually did) then you'll probably like this. There a few new things that are worth noting: The new Darkmatter gun (bfg inspired) is balanced in multiplayer - it can be devastating in some situations, but for the most part it isn't too effective as the slow-moving energy orb that it fires can be easily evaded. The Nailgun is great, being able to ricochette nails off walls is great as long as you aren't hitting yourself ^_- The tournament ladder system in tourney mode is cool...
It's just another Quake. I decided to buy it because, despite all of the good times I've had playing Quake games, I've never actually purchased any of them. It was definitely time for me to put some money towards ID (and yes I "owe" Raven as well).

Anyway, this turned out to be another rantzor =/
So now I'm in NYC and moved into a new apartment. The internet here is simply awesome (actual 8Mbit/600+kbps up) - sure is a nice change of pace after using dialup. 18.5GB downloaded in the last day and a half =P

If I can find a spare computer we might be able to setup the Hilarity-ensues server here for a while at least... Alright, gotta go. GLHF. Pod signing off.

28 Nov 2005 by Jon

The Server is back up after so long!! Turns out it was just a fried power supply, so it was easy to fix.

Not much going on here, Thanksgiving was ok, but Daniel and Joel need to work less then 60 hours a week so we can go to movies or do *something* :( Also, Pod says that Quake 4 might be actually worth buying; I'm unable to play the multiplayer, but so far the single player is uninspired at best.

8 Oct 2005 by Jon

In case you did not know, dystopia is out. I haven't played all that much of it, but it's similar to a cross between Deus Ex and ET in that you choose a class, a weapon, and implants, and it's in a futuristic environment. It has ET like objectives and respawn, but one cool thing is that with the correct implant you can go into cyberspace to open doors, complete objectives, and control turrets for your team. As I said I haven't played it that much so I can't speak to balance, but I can say that it is very impressive and professional looking from a graphics point of view and is very fun.

2 Oct 2005 by Sangpo

Well today I finally purchased a plane ticket to NYC! A one-way ticket for only $118.40! It really is amazing that, despite the massive increase in fuel costs, airfare is still really cheap. No wonder the airlines are going out of business =/
I was originally planning on driving to New York, but after taking into consideration that my Pathfinder would use about 100 gallons of gas to make the 30 hour (one-way) trip, I realized that it would be ridiculous to drive there with the current gas prices.

Anyway, in other news, I'm now forced to figure out a way to fly to NYC with my computer without having to forfeit clothes and other such arguably necessary items. The GearGrip LCD Harness will probably allow me to take my monitor as a carry-on. I'm then going to dismantle my computer and put the really important items (disk drives, video card, ram, etc.) into my second carry-on bag. Hopefully my case w/mobo will be safe in a suitcase with other checked baggage.
You might think I'm being overly paranoid... I think not. Last time I flew to NYC, my checked-in luggage was lost. Fortunately, almost a week later, they found it... The lock on one of the bags had been hack-sawed (or somehow cut) off and they'd searched its contents. Anyway, I sure as hell won't risk losing my computer to poor baggage handling. Going through security with a backpack full of computer hardware in anti-static bags should be fun!

My flight is at 9am on October 15th. If there is a LAN in the next one and half weeks, count me in!

29 Sep 2005 by Sangpo

Thanks for el Opera hookup Jesse!
So I'm still working on packing my stuff for the trip to NYC. I spent most of the day sorting through old files and records, most of which I could probably throw out... All of my tax stuff is sorted out by the year, which is a definite improvement over the random W-2's and bank statements that I used to have laying in dusty piles throughout the house. Basically everything is sorted. Those of you who know me, can understand how amazing and rare it is for Sangpo to organize anything sensibly ^_^

Anyway, during my sorting frenzy, I also organized all of my (HE)Comic material into one(!) sensible binder. I placed this binder high-and-dry safely above the sea of half-packed boxes and I really want to draw a new comic very soon. There's a lot of hopefully-better-than-mediocre story to be drawn!
Yarr Ima Pirate! Sea-Pod OUT! *smacks self*

21 Sep 2005 by Jesse

About three weeks ago, I posted about the 24hr free Opera key thing due to their birthday. Well, Opera decided to completely remove ads from their client from now on. They are now making all their money from Google/Amazon/Ebay from the builtin searchbars. Here's a link to their new version (8.50): LINK LOL

19 Sep 2005 by Sangpo

Sorry to hear that Jon. Having an absessed tooth sucks...not that I know it from personal experience, but I've heard plenty of second hand stories about it.
This time of year isn't too great for my health either.
I returned from Qcon with a cold and I had recovered from it for one week before another cold hit me... At least I'm past the (second) sore throat now... I'm just congested and miserably packing my stuff into storage so I can finally go to NYC.

I haven't yet purchased my ticket, so the departure date is, as of yet, unknown. Most likely I'll be leaving in early October.. I haven't been able to work on the HL2 mod. If anyone on broadband can, please please please, download the XSI installer for me... Somehow I managed to lose it when I reformatted for Qcon.
Jason, I actually didn't know that you had gone to UNM until I read your post here (a few weeks ago before the server went down), those pics were good. You should post a photojournal or something! I might go to UNM next fall(?!?).
Anyway, I'll probably post again before I leave NM. Keep up the communication!

15 Sep 2005 by Jon

This time of year is not good for my health. Last year at the beginning of October, I gave blood. I consequently went into shock and was taken to the hospital for an IV. Also, sometime during the fall of that year I cracked a tooth in my sleep, which leads me to my current troubles. Last week on Monday September 5, I woke up with an extreme toothache, easily the most pain I've ever been in. The next day I went to the dentist, and after xrays and a cool optical dental camera they determined that I had an absessed tooth and needed a root canal. So on Thursday I had it done; it was surprisingly easy, only about 2 hours. Anyway,sorry about the server downtime, that is if anyone even looks at this, but my dad was doing electrical work on the house and forgot to turn the server back on.

30 Aug 2005 by Jason

Jason's room of horrors

So, I didn't know much of anything to expect of my room. Luckily I'm a Junior so I was able to get a single room, instead of a double.
My first discovery was a mysterious fridge in my room. I assume it's there because of an oversight of the fridge rental people. Anyway, my first priority was to set up my computer of course. It's quite a convoluted position really.

I had totally forgotten about my quakecon prizes, so those went up afterwards. You can see the "Fueled by Bawls" and Quakecon 2005 poster on the wall. Of course, I had to fill up the rest of the space, so I busted out my wallscrolls and manga and went to it.
After dealing with that, I still had this mystery fridge. So, I hid it in the closet. I don't know if anyone will come looking for it. Sometime I'll call the fridge people and tell them I have one. Notice the extension cord going from the closet to the outlet. It sure is nice having a 2-person room to myself, so I can do such neat things as hiding a fridge in the closet.

And last, but not least, I had to fill up the rest of the drab wall. Some more colorful wallscrolls did the trick. Every one of them has fallen down atleast once or twice, so I've been adding more and more scotch tape to keep them up.

My only real beef is that virus infected computers on the network give me horrible lag with TCP applications. I was very pelased to learn that the showers have private stalls, instead of the dreaded communal showers. I actually live in a co-ed dorm, there are three floors, the bottom floor is male, the top two are female. Not that I have a chance to meet anyone in the dorms, there is no activity or living area like many of the others. My chances are still good however, there is a female to male ratio of 1.3:1, with an excess of about 3,000 females.

There are many good stories to tell, like how I forgot a pillow and simply stuffed a towel into a pillowcase instead. I don't reccomend sleeping on a towel, they are rather stiff. Not too far from campus is a 24-hour Wal Mart, which I am very excited about. I try to wake up at 6am every day, but I usually end up hitting the snooze button till 7. I have class at 8am monday through friday, and I'm finished with classes by 1pm.

Anyway, that's all I have for now. More pictures sometime later.

30 Aug 2005 by Jesse

Free legit ad-free version of Opera. They are celebrating their 10th birthday or something. http://www.download.com/Opera/3000-2356_4-10421507.html?tag=excl has the details, and if you don't have version 8.02, you might as well pick it up there. Basically, all you have to do is send an email to [email protected]. Oh, and excuse my laziness, I didn't feel like putting the html in to make those links because I'm tired and don't feel like thinking about it.

26 Aug 2005 by Sangpo

Heyas, sorry for being MIA for so long. QuakeCon X was ggz. I owe a big thanks to Chris and Joel for transportation and the other expenses that my broke negative $80 (bank) + $40 (cash) budget could not possibly afford =/ Karma probably does exist as Chris aquired a nifty copy of Doom3 signed by everyone at ID software which is pretty awesome.

It was a fun QuakeCon. I spent over an hour playing Quake4 and although I dislike the game engine, I do plan on buying it when it is released. I should have tried playing against Fatal1ty. After getting an hour of Quake4 practice I think I probably could have killed him at least once..and the prize woulda been nice ^_^

Randomly it seems like we all recieved some publicity at this QuakeCon...I was happily playing Q3 and noticed a lame light glaring at me from the main isle, then I looked over and saw a film crew and Kevin Pereira(G4 TechTV) interviewing Jason. Apparently Jason was the "2nd place" pr0n king of QuakeCon. Ah also the manager of CiCi's Pizza there in Grapevine, TX asked all of us |HE| to sign a QuakeCon t-shirt so he could hang it on the wall along with many other t-shirts signed by sports teams and stuff... I made certain to draw a large <(^_^)> Noobigator on the shirt. Hilarity will most certainly ensue when people go eat at CiCi's, see the t-shirt and wonder "Who the hell are those guys??"

Soon I'll hopefully be able to upload all the Quakecon pictures as well as some DirectConnect chat logs (showing the rise and fame of Daniel the plastic-bag ninja and the infamous ROOM6102.jpg).

My sister Chiyoko has been visiting for the last week. It's been cool, but busy since Quakecon. Now I need to start looking for a plane ticket to NYC and then find a way to store all my junk.

Maybe, just maybe, if I can make the time I'll be able to get a new comic done in the next week. I'd like to anyway...

15 Aug 2005 by Jon

Check this out. Funny, I thought there were only 168 hours in a week.

13 Aug 2005 by Jon

for those interested, I've found a thread with an experience chart for Guild Wars of how much XP you get from monsters at different levels relative to yours. Basically, starting at 100 XP for a monster of equal level, killing a monster one level above/below you increases/decreases the XP given by 20, and each successive level above/below you increases/decreases the XP by 16 (to a minimum of 0). This XP is then divided by your party size (counting henchmen).

4 Aug 2005 by Jason

Quakecon news:
I've got it all worked out now. I'll be arriving in Dallas at 8pm on the 10th, and my flight leaves on the 14th at 11:45am. I'll probably be staying in Chris' room and splitting the cost. I don't know if Joel has a room or will be doing the same.

2 Aug 2005 by Jason

I'll look into Guild Wars sometime. Nice comic Sangpo! Keep em' coming! Speaking of comics, don't forget to hit up Transplant

I haven't had much opporunity to come up with anything entertaining to post. I haven't been trolling forums as much, just trolling people in WoW, which is only funny if you know the backstory.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to quakecon. Currently I can get round trip airfare for ~$250, which seems like much less of a hassle than driving. I only have to figure out how to ship my computer.

I check into my new dorm on the 18th, and classes start at UNM on the 22nd. My dorm is kind of a tradeoff, I get a whole room to myself, but I have to use the dreaded communal showers! It's a good room for one person though, it's usually split between two people. You can check it out.

That's all I got! Get out of there, it's gonna blow!

29 Jul 2005 by Sangpo

Sorry I have not posted anything for a while. I haven't purchased GuildWars yet, so I can't use that as an excuse...but hey, I have been keeping busy. For instance, I finally completed a new comic! That's right "Medic! Part 2" is online so that you can fill those little happy holes in your head (eyes) with arguably-psychotic goodness.

Umm..sorry I'm always a bit strange after coloring a comic. Auf Wiedersehen!

28 Jul 2005 by Jon

As you may have noticed I bought Guild Wars.

I haven't played any other MMO's of this style so I can't really make a comparison to Dark Age or WoW, but I like it. I guess it's not a true MMO because the only places where you can see other random people is in towns, so it's more like battle net with an in game lobby. This kinda creates problems with meeting up with the same group of people unless you're in the same guild or whatever, but I think that this also solves the problems of lame ass ganking pvp and competing for the same monster spawn. ( I generally like to play either solo or with people I know, so this is a plus for me. ) The game seems alot more tactical and fasted paced then others, as you can only have 8 active skills at one time, you have only enough attribute points (skill boosting points) for 2 - 5 attributes at max level, and you don't have much health/mana (compared to other MMOs) but it regens quickly (especially while out of battle so there's rarly any downtime between fights for that). Also, the items aren't as uber as in, say, diablo 2, so camping monsters for items isn't *as* important. The game is also very PvP centered (but in a competative, fair way), which is fun (although I suck). To be fair, it does have a shallow crafting system (you just take the stuff needed for an item to a vender), but I never really liked crafting in UO, so I don't care much about that. Anyway, if you guys are interested (I know at least Jesse and Sangpo are), you all should play ^^

21 Jul 2005 by Jon

Learn to make a dalek!!. (stupidest person on the internet)

10 Jul 2005 by Sangpo

8 Jul 2005 by Sangpo

Yesterday, I met another "Sangpo"! The whole "Hi, I'm Sangpo."/"Hi, I'm Sangpo." introduction sequence was weird to say the least. There were some interesting coincidences as well. For instance, this Sangpo dude is going to visit Sikkim, that little known region of northern India (between Nepal and Bhutan) where I visited back in '98 (?). He'll be staying in Ganktok which is a short drive from where many of my Tibetan relatives live. So anyway, I sure didn't see that coming... Oh, and Sangpo's real name is Joe ^_- (bet you didn't see that coming)

In other news, today I'll be going to ABQ. to attend a watch-our-part-of-into-the-west party. That's right, this Friday, Saturday and Sunday, part 4 of Into the West will be showing on TNT. If you watch it you might spot me; workin on de railroad, workin in de RR tunnels, standing around in random crowd scenes and CG'ed dangling in a harness in front of a cliff. Hilarity should ensue!

6 Jul 2005 by Sangpo

Wow, Jon almost sounds psychotic! That poor cricket :( He was like a house pet man, how could you? Grats, I guess :)

Welcome to the team Joel! Joel's going to mix the l33t beats woo!
I just sent out a massive rant on our new mailing list...sorry if I wasted your time. <(^_^)>

Animation isn't really completely unmanned...it's just the only guy who'd be doing it (me) has wayy too much to do in other areas. I will be using XSI to create and texture the models. XSI is also used for creating the animations, so I can do some crappy animations if we're desperate...but really I just won't have time. So if anyone wants to give it a try, you can;
(1) Download XSI and the Valve source addon for free,
(2) Activate your exporter.
(3) And check out the Valve XSI documentation.

5 Jul 2005 by Jon

The cricket is finally fucking dead! No more chirping for you motherfucker! HAHAAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Anyway, we now have Joel recruited to the mod team for sound, which leaves only animating completely unmanned (although Sangpo could certainly use some help with map making and modelling). I don't think animating would take that much artistic skill, you'd really just have to learn the tools and use some sort of live or recorded model to get the timing right.

Edit: I've made a mailing list for private discussion about the mod, contact me if you want to be on it.

5 Jul 2005 by Daniel

Alright alright. In all seriousness, I'd be willing to help with this mod but, as you all know, I have no skillz. Maybe I could help play test! Woo! I'm about as usefull as any other internet dude with 100% less of the random assholery. So anyways, not much going on here. Just playing WoW and I doubt anyone wants to read about my accomplishments there. Oh shit, I forgot to skyrocket gman out of an office window. Oh well, perhaps tomorrow.

4 Jul 2005 by Daniel

hai guyz sangpod(lol) sez no1 psts so hear i m. kthxby

4 Jul 2005 by Sangpo

So uh, you guys seriously should post here more often! Anyway, as most of you know Jon and I were talking about creating a mod for HL2. We have plenty of awesome ideas for this game, but we're seriously lacking people who can and are willing to help us build it. :(
Jon would be able to explain the details of this mod, but basically this will be a thirdperson team-based multiplayer game set in ancient Japan. Each map will have relatively simple objectives which can be accomplished using a variety of tactics. What will really set this mod apart from the rest is the unique action-oriented gameplay. Each of the three classes will have a variety of skills available to them and the player will be able to pick from these skills to customize their character. Ideally, melee combat will be exciting and more similar to a console fighting game than umm.. the relatively mindless SW:Jedi Academy. The ninja/archer type class will be able to place an interesting variety of traps. The sorceress/priestess will have some very creative offensive/defensive spells and the way mana will work is like nothing I've ever seen before in a game.
Anyway it should be fun and totally different.. If any anyone is interested in helping us please email me or Jon.

So for the past few days I've been learning to use Valve's level editor (Hammer). I figured out how to make 3d skyboxes and finally, just yesterday, displacements! Now with displacements I can finally start making the smooth nature landscapes that I've been imagining. Hopefully I'll have a test map done within the week. I sketched a few concept sketches today just to get some general ideas on paper...I posted them in the "Sketchbook" at right>
The final models of course need to be very realistic - so we're going to have to get photographs of an asian chick from various angles for the sorceress <(^_^)> Hahah, anyway that's a long way off. I haven't even figured out how the main fighter/samurai class should look. If anyone finds some good reference pics please send them to me! (I can't spend much time online since I'm using someone elses connection)

And regarding the comic... I'll try to finish the next comic by next Sunday. I had some trouble with Webcomics.com as they weren't updating the (HE) comics correctly. Now that it's fixed (I hope) I'd like to let HE_02-02 get some views.

Have a great 4th of July!
-Pod signing off.

24 Jun 2005 by Sangpo

Well, I now realize that I will have to upload updated versions of every single HTML page on this site every time I post a new comic. This is necessary to update the Noobigator miniMenu. As you might imagine this is a hassle, but the Noobigator is worth it! I gotta thank the Quality Assurance man, Daniel for noticing that the Noobigator on some of the pages wasn't up to par.

In other news, last night I stumbled upon an old webpage of mine that I totally forgot about. It has some random text files that are slightly entertaining.

I made a little banner for Hilarity Ensues which might be good to use in our forum signatures or wherever. I'll make customized banners for each of us in the future with our (HE) names if you guys are interested in using them. Until then:

http://www.hilarity-ensues.net/webimage/HE_ButtonBanner.jpg

http://www.hilarity-ensues.net/webimage/HE_ButtonBanner260.jpg

Woot for email! That's awesome that you setup the mail server GJ Jon! I'm actually really stoked to have [email protected] There's a certain amount of l33tness in being one of the few people with an email at that domain and if you other fools don't realize it..joo be noobs! (aka. chris)
If there is a LAN in LA this weekend, the earliest I can get there is Saturday afternoon.

24 Jun 2005 by Jon

I am so smart! S M R T!

For those who care (i.e. no one), EMAIL WORKS!!!! I'll put up a http based client if anyone wants me to, but for now you can send/receive email via imap (port 993), pop (port 995), or terminal. All the certificates are self signed so it'll hassle you unless you install them. If you want this email to forward somewhere else you can log in and make a file called ".forward" in your home directory that contains the email address to forward to (or ftp it to the server).

Edit: Oh, I forgot to mention, for sending mail use the server mail.hilarity-ensues.net, port 25, use TLS, and AUTH LOGIN for authentication.

Beyond Divinity kinda sucks, but for shitty reasons. The game itself would work jst fine if you only had one character, but controlling a party is lame as hell. It's only two characters, but they don't auto attack when being attacked (forgivable in a game where you only control one character, but with a party this fucking blows) and you can't queue up orders (so you either ignore one of the characters and he dies causing a game over, or you have to constantly be switching back and forth). Also, there's no formation system or anything, meaning that if one of your characters is a mage he's walking up front with the tank, and as soon as an enemy starts attacking the mage you can't get him off him. The game itself works just fine (not plagued by bugs like sacred), and would be playable if only you had one character rather than two. Also, the skill system is pretty awesomely deep, for example instead of having just "sword mastery" like in diablo 2, there is melee -> one handed -> slashing -> damage, accuracy, crushing blow, etc. This works similarly for spells as well, for example there is spells -> focused -> instant -> fire, water, air, or earth. Another cool thing is that any character class can put points in and skill as long as he's learned it from a book/trainer (the starting class only determines initial possible skills). From what I've read it seems the game that came before this (Divine Dininity) is alot better because it is essentially the same but with only one character and worse graphics (oh noes).

23 Jun 2005 by Sangpo

Alright, I just uploaded comic HE_02-02. Enjoy.

If you guys are planning a LAN party this weekend, I think I will be able to attend. Oh, and I uploaded Jason's B-day gift to the sketchbook - the colors aren't *that* funky on paper, my scanner just hates me. I actually drew this the day after Jason's B-day but he had left the LAN party before I could give it to him... So anyway, this was originally supposed to be a drawing of your character in WoW. I have no idea what inspired me to write "GANKAZON VICTOLY SMASH!" but hey, it works! So uh, I'll give you this belated gift next time I see you.

Pod signing off.

17 Jun 2005 by Sangpo

Well, I finally learned to tie a tie yesterday. Indeed, as an extra in Bordertown, I was supposed to be an asian businessman. Myself, and many other business people (including Jennifer Lopez), attended a video presentation/lecture provided by "Trano Tex", a potential manufacturer for our products. This movie was a reasonably entertaining experience and having another opportunity to work with many of my old friends from Into the West was cool...oh yeah, and spending over an hour in a room with jLo as well as almost walking into her while she was all dressed up after the dinner party scene was interesting. (I need to watch where I'm walking...) jLo's bodyguards looked as if they could rip someone's arm off and casually sip tea at the same time. I heard that a few days ago there was a huge crowd of people/kids (non-extras) that had gathered in an attempt to see her and someone got pwned by a bodyguard. I wish I could have seen that.
It feels kind of strange seeing a famous person in real life...
Anyway, yesterday was alright, but "Into the West" was much more fun.

Sadly, I still have not gotten a haircut. It has been almost six months since my last haircut, which was done by myself in the mirror. I went to "Into the West" hoping that they'd cut my hair but instead they liked it and told me not to cut it until we finished filming. Now, I went to Bordertown with the hopes that they'd cut my hair to make me look business-like but instead they slicked it back and put it in a ponytail... No free haircuts for me :( Sheer desperation will force me to go to a barber shop to get it cut next time I go to town. In case you didn't know - I fear barbers the way that most people fear dentists...well not really.

Oh and I finally have a DVD burner. Ohh yes...and a 100 pack of DVD-R's.. HD space will nolonger be a concern for me! WOOooooo!

I've been busy, but hopefully I'll be able to finish the next comic by next Wednesday - unless I go to a LAN party like I did last week. I also want to do a minor redesign of this website, but since time is limited, I'm going to focus on the comic first.

12 Jun 2005 by Jon

Your mom's a rant.
I think that first person shooters and strategy games do work split screen provided a big enough screen/resolution, arguably not as well in free for all type games, but the split screen method is much more conducive to teamplay. If you have two (or more) consoles involved in a team game with one team at each console, each team can work together alot better because they can see where any of their teammates are at a glance and they're all sitting next to one another making it easier to communicate. Of course, this is all reliant on an affordable large screen HDTV.
The PC certainly has more functionality than the console (for the time being), but my point is that the console will replace the PC for gaming and multimedia because it it much better suited for the role, mostly for its everyman, ease of use appeal and price. Speaking of which, gaming is why most people's PCs are so expensive; if we all used consoles for gaming it would save us money. Also, the all-in-one systems that Sangpo talks about are most likely going to be evolved from consles and work in a similar way; integration is the future, and I think that if Microsoft/Sony/Nintendo realize this thay could crush the PC. Remember it isn't people like us that determine the market; Joe Everyman doesn't like the bullshit he puts up with using his PC, and if something that was easier to use and worked as a game platform, a DVD player, a CD player, internet access, a word processor, etc in his living room he'd go for it over the PC and that will be it's downfall.

7 Jun 2005 by Sangpo

That's quite a rant there Jon.
I agree that consoles are in many ways probably better for gaming than PCs - and consoles sure as hell should be since that is for the most part, all that they're good for. It is true that console games do promote more real-life socialization than PC games, which could pretty much be attributed to the fact that everyone shares a single display (TV). Although this promotes more socially-induced "fun", having a single display severely detracts from the gameplay of many game types, i.e. first person shooters, RTS, etc.. The split screen solution that consoles present is totally unsatisfactory. Having seperate displays for each gamer is an absolute necessity for a good first-person-shooter experience. So in reality, some types of games are are simply more appropriate for social/party entertainment than others, regardless of the gaming platform. Fighting games and the regular console games *could* be played just as well on a PC with gamepads, providing the same social experience as we often find with consoles, if only game developers would create more of that type of game for the PC...which they do not, and they probably never will - until, the day when they develop all-in-one systems for the livingroom that provide all the functionality of a computer, game console, dvd player/burner, tivo, music jukebox, etc etc. Once HDTV displays become more widespread systems such as this might start cropping up, although they still won't solve the shared display problem.
The game platform is really irrelivant, the technology is practically the same nowadays anyway. The real issue is that some types of games, are and always will be, better with a mouse/keyboard and a display for each player. The future of everything is integration, and the PC already has all of the functionality necessary to be the only piece of equipment anyone would ever need in their home for work, multimedia and gaming.
Consoles exist of course because they're (arguably) more affordable than PCs. So, if all you want to do is play games with your friends in front of your TV then get an Xbox or whatever. If you want to be able to do work, take part in piracy, look at pr0n, and do an infinite number of other things AS WELL AS play games - then get a PC. In my opinion, the PC is the clear winner here because of it's versatile functionality - it would be the ultimate home entertainment system if only they made (or ported) more console games for it.

Uhh, anyway at 5am I couldn't help but rant..

5 Jun 2005 by Jon

Console v. PC

Winner: Console

Well, in the long run anyway. Obviously, for the time being the PC can't be replaced because serveral genres of games work infinitely better on the PC (such as FPS and most strategy games), but the differences are minor and can be worked out. Also, the consoles have games that work much better on them such as sports games, platformers, and fighting games; so, neither is going away. What do PC's have that consoles don't? 1) Good controls for first person shooters. This one is debatable because Halo did a good job making easy controls with the xbox controller, and many people (including myself) prefer it. However, it's highly dependant on auto aiming, and a mouse and keyboard is far more precise. The mouse and keyboard presents a problem with console because no one is going to keep 4 bulky keyboards in their living room. So, something similar to Joel's minikeyboardFPSthingy would probably be the best solution (it would have to be wireless though to be practical); that combined with wireless mice that work on many surfaces would solve the problem. 2) Consoles have no free mainstream internet play. I know there are free alternatives to Xbox Live, but they are not widely used enough to really replace online play with a PC. This one is entirely in the hands of Microsoft, Sony, and Nintendo; if their too stupid to realize that making people pay to play online hurts their business, then someone else will step up to replace them (in the console market anyway). 3) No full function keyboard for any game that requires typing. This one is already half solved because Xbox Live already has a voice communication thing that allows you to mute fucktards. The other half of it will require voice recognition software for games like civ so you can name your cities or characters or whatever. That is on its way. I have no idea how good it is currently, but it will exist someday. 4) Graphics. Really reasonably sized readable font. Current games look fine as it is but are hindered by resolution. The only solution for this is for HDTV or equivalent to become mainstream and cheap, then RPG and strategy games become more playable. 5) Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! Developers! the guys that currently make the good games for the PC willneed to switch over to consoles; this will probably happen by attrition once everything else is in place and the PC starts to die (really it already is). 6) Multimedia. Again something that already exists (at least for the Xbox) but is not in the mainstream. To fix this the consoles have to become the multimedia center of the living room with the ability to store and play any format of music and video. Simple. Most these things already exist in some form, but they are not *mainstream* enoough to take out the PC just yet. The reason that consoles are fundimentally better that PCs as a gaming platform is simple and twofold: ease of use and sociablity. Its easier to use because anyone can make a console work; there's essentially no set up: just turn it on and put in the game. With PCs you constantly have to worry about installing the game (and freeing up space to do so), driver issues, cracks, patches, and so on. Sociablity comes from the fact that whenever you play you are right there sitting next to one another playing together, making it more sociable and thus more fun. The PC is not out yet though games are still being made for it, and I imagine several stubborn people will cling onto it to the bitter end.

wooda wooda wooda <(-_-)>

5 Jun 2005 by Sangpo

So uhh, I guess it's time I edit the "SANGPO SUCKS" post that Jon created using my login. I've been going to many LANs for the past few weeks so I haven't had time to work on this website - there are a few improvements planned..although it's been so long I've almost forgotten what they were going to be.
I should be able to get the comic done when I have free time over the next week. Anyway, these noobs are waiting for me to join their game, gotta go.

27 May 2005 by Jason

Dude! Ranting? I can rant. Check it out, you didn't even see it coming, but I'm ranting right now. Anyway, just as I am able to post this, I was also able to use FTP. I'll try out the email later.

As it stands, it's less than 2 weeks to my 21st birthday (June 8th). Either on the 8th or the 9th I intend to goto the DMV to renew my drivers licence, so it will be purple and horizontal instead of red and vertical, so as to avoid people telling me I'm not 21, then me telling them to look at the 'Under 21 until: date' at the bottom. I am not looking forward to being the new beer bitch, but this will not drag me down! What is getting me down, however; is that my current video card is having serious heat problems. It hit a record high of 105° celsius recently. The manufacturer claims the threshold is 135° before it underclocks itself. I'm sure the problem is entirely due to the card's fan, but this card has one of those proprietary heatsinks, so I might not be able to fix it myself. If I'm lucky I can just buy a 40mm fan and solve the problem.

Moving on, I came across this picture that I believe represents my fire mage in World of Warcraft. (I'll explain the irony later)

Also, right around my birthday, on June 10th, Into the West starts showing on TNT. I'll be looking out for the pod!

Anyway, that's all I got for now. I'll rant more, later.

25 May 2005 by Sangpo

Wooo, I'm in a ranting mood right now, but I'll try to cut it short.
So I have some mildly painful drawing-callouses at the moment, but damn it was worth it! Today I completed first/second draft drawings of four comic pages. I rewrote HE_02-02 and HE_02-03 as I was drawing them and I think they are far funnier now. Every comic is becoming progressively more comical! I can't wait to draw the final draft of HE_02-02 so that I can put it online, but I probably won't be able to get to that until the website is more complete...I have some major re-designs planned for the website. Trying to come up with pages that fit into the categories of "R","O","F" and "L" is incredibly lame... I owe a big thanks to Jon for all of his help with the website (and for hosting it), solving my noobish DNS mistake and for fixing up the Rants script so that we can easily post here! So, I guess all of you old let-it-go ranters can post here now using your old login/passwords (except for Chris *haha*) So uhh, you better post..as well as tell me the info you want in the "About Us" section.
Oh yeah where was I? So I came up with two new comics during the drive home from Santa Fe today (and I nearly ran over a kitten). I just finished drawing first drafts of these two comics and wish I could put them online...problem is story wise, they take place quite a while from now, so they have to wait..and wait. Since I rarely am happy with anything that I do, my current enthusiasm for these four new comic sketches can give you an idea of what to expect...if that makes any sense at all.
Anyway, all in all today was a very productive day following a night of playing Sacrifice (a much under-appreciated 4 year old PC game) and 5 hours of sleep. Damn, this turned out to be a total rant. Please accept my sincere condolences.

Cyaz at the LAN this weekend!

23 May 2005 by Jon

We finally transfered the site to my server and got (almost) everything working. After some initial mishaps with the DNS configuration (*cough* Sangpo put the IP in the wrong place *cough*), the domain is also pointing to this server. Now, all that's left to do is email configuration, so you can expect email to be working a year or two from now by the time I figure out how it works.

The let-it-go.net posting stuff has been ported to the new format; although for now you are only able to make news posts, and Sanpo is forced to update things manually. So, everyone's old username/password should work for posting, email (if it ever works), and ftp. Chris's old password was 'shithead'; I thought that was mean and crackable, so I changed it and Chris needs to get his new one from me.

In other news, a new ET was announced that takes place on earth between Quake 1 and Quake 2. Unfortunately, it's based off of the Doom 3 engine, so it'll be laggy as hell. Also, rather than stick to ET gameplay they're including vehicles and large open-ended maps essentially making it Battlefield: Quake with nonflag objectives. See the official press release here.

15 May 2005 by Sangpo

It's been a long busy day. I've reworked almost all of the website design trying to make it suitable for 1024x768 resolution displays (rather than the old design that was for 1280x1024+). I spent a while trying to decide on pictures to use in the "About Us" section of the "Other Stuff..." page, I think you guys (pictured) will find them acceptable, but if not let me know. There are many other options.

11 May 2005 by Sangpo

Another day, another moral dilemna... This is a story about a l33t PK and a n00b. However, unlike most n00bs that are guilty of high levels of idiocy, this n00b was totally innocent.

10 May 2005 by Sangpo

Today, as usual, I arrived to my 3d-design class an hour late. I blame it on the the fact that I stayed up until 4am and that I have a cold... The hour long drive to school was entertaining since nice juicy insects kept hitting my windshield and I got into a 30 minute debate with myself trying to determine if hitting people or animals with my car is any less "wrong" than hitting insects. My conclusion to the debate is irrelivant - I probably should have dealt with that moral dilemna back in 3rd grade...

9 May 2005 by Sangpo

Well for some reason (a.k.a. 3d-design class final-project procrastination) I decided to make a website for the comic since Let-it-go.net is still down and it isn't the right format for a comic that is broken up into different chapters anyway. So the design phase of this website is coming along nicely - I really wanted to learn MySQL and PHP to help me dynamically generate webpages for the comics, but I learned to create and use templates in Dreamweaver. Using templates doesn't automate everything 100% but bah, it sure saves time - so for now at least, this method will suffice.

SKETCHBOOK:

04-28-06

01-21-06

01-17-06

11-03-05

11-03-05

07-08-05

07-04-05

07-04-05

07-04-05

06-10-05

07.10.04

05.01.04