Randomness
Jun 2nd
For you newcomers, we have just recently changed our theme to Daily32 by DailyBlogTips. Pxl_Buzzard has been working very hard for about three weeks editing it, to ensure it to be bug free. However, bugs are unavoidable, so we would love you to test out our new theme, and post any comments, critique, or any bugs that you may find while browsing the blog. Thanks very much!
- Thomas, Japanerd, and Pxl_Buzzard
And thank you WordPress, for making this beautiful blog software.
May 30th
There are very many types of art. According to dictionary.com, art is the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance. What that means in plain terms is that art is an expression of a person, who creates a work that is pleasing to the eye, or is perhaps odd, out of place, but it is something that draws a person to it! I would like to introduce graphic design, which is the production of art using electronic devices, such as a computer, or in this case, Adobe Photoshop. Adobe was founded in 1982, and some of their main products are computer programs used to aid graphic designers. Their most famous program is called Adobe Photoshop, a graphic design editor program, who’s current version at the time of this writing is CS3.
Photoshop works in a very unique way. Picture Microsoft Paint, but way better, with way more options, and way more tools to create the artwork. But Photoshop is also a lot more expensive, and the current version is running at the upwards of $800 with a discount. The good news is that on Ebay, you can usually find a copy of Photoshop 7 for around $150 – $200. At this time Adobe has shut down all their trials, however, so unless you have the extra cash, or the access to the program through friends, you’re going to miss out.
Once you obtain the program, there are a million tools, so you better start familiarizing yourself with them! Play around with all of the stuff, messing around on blank documents, making sure you understand the program and how it works before you actually use it. I will be doing a mini-series on specific Photoshop tutorials, and some tips and tricks along with it. The tutorials I review should be very easy to follow, for beginners only, to help those who just started who have no idea where to go or what to do. If you don’t even know how to open a document (which you should, honestly), I’ll tell you how to do it. Don’t get frustrated if you cannot figure something out, just ask ask me in a comment and I’ll see what I can do to help. Just have fun with it, and be creative!
With that, expect my first post to come out soon, and you can bookmark this post as I’ll be updating it with links to each one.
May 29th
Each year, the FTC (Federal Trade Commission) hires many 13-16 year olds to go shopping. They aren’t just shopping for anything though; these teens are out to buy products that have Parental Advisory Labels, or PAL’s. Specifically, they’re attempting to buy R-Rated movie tickets and DVD’s, PAL’d CD’s, and M-Rated video games.
As you can see by looking at the graph to the left, the sales of M-Rated games to minors has drastically decreased in the past couple years, from 69% being able to purchase the games to 20%. This means that video game retailers are paying closer attention to minors without parents trying to buy M-Rated content.
The FTC doesn’t just stop at grand totals, they track which stores allow the minors to buy the games. If you’d look at the table below, you can see, in order of percentage of sales, the stores that sell M-Rated video games to minors.
As you can see, Gamestop denies almost any sales, while Hollywood Video really doesn’t give a care who they make a buck off of.
Just remember kids, if you want to buy an M-Rated game, bring your mom, dad, or guardian with you to the store so you don’t look like an idiot.
May 28th
Hello dear readers. I am Japanerd, and contrary to popular belief, I am not from Japan. I am a Missouri guy with a knack for speaking his mind when no one wants to hear it. So, I decided to move my opinion to the internet, where everyone is accepting and loves me (at least everyone who doesn’t post irrelevant criticisms about my posts. Your mother probably told you you “If you don’t have something nice to say don’t say anything at all”, that better apply to my posts). I enjoy reviewing stuff that people seemingly don’t care about, but thats never stopped me before, so it wont stop me now.
I’m on a mission. I have noticed, in my many late nights spent on the internet, that there is something missing. I am sure that many of you frequently use energy drinks. Thats fine and dandy, but the realm of Energy Drinks has become cluttered with the riff-raff of sub-par beverages, and there is little to help you defer from said riff-raff and the quality energizing beverages. Thats where I come in. I am going to begin reviewing energy drinks, but don’t think I’ll stop there. I may just feel like reviewing flash games, cool websites, or anything that strikes me as awesome. Thanks for your attention, and keep reading Pxl’s blog!
May 26th
My name is Thomas, (aka Cigil), and I have recently started writing for this wonderful blog. I have known Pxl_Buzzard for a while, and it’s been my pleasure to be a blogger with him. Most of my experience in the Internet world has been forum related, where for five years I have been involved in many different forums of entertainment, which have only contributed to furthering my interest in the technicalities of programs and games. I have a large background in video games, mostly MMORPG’s such as World of Warcraft and Runescape. However, even as my time is limited due to sports (football), I hope to become an active writer of this blog, using my knowledge that I have obtained in the last few years of trial and error, only now to bring you the best of Thomas.
May 25th
Typing is a very important aspect of using your computer, whether it be a Mac or PC, that takes time to master. One attempt at mastering this skill is TypeRacer, an online so called “competitive” typing game, which involves many users entering into a race, and then proceeding to all type the same random quote from a movie, book, song, and quotes from the popular media. As you type this quote, your racer icon moves along, and also displays a handy wpm (word per minute) icon by your name. The races range from a few racers to many competing to win the title of ultimate racer so that you get absolute reverence from your peers! This game also has incorporated an anti-bot, which was instituted very quickly after its release, due to the huge number of bots typing 180 wpm or higher. After the anti-bot was instituted, every time you type 110 wpm or higher (until they incorporate a permanent account system) you must complete a CAPTCHA-style paragraph in your wpm – 20 or higher. Still, even with the anti-bot, there are some true freaks typing 150 wpm or higher every day. This is one of the most effective games at boosting your typing speeds (for whatever purpose you have) because of the variety. Since the quote you type is random, you get a large variety of texts with odd punctuation here and there, to stop you from getting in bad habits. It even makes you correct every single mistake before you can move on.
I personally thoroughly enjoy TypeRacer, as it gives me a 30 second long break in between studying. The only flaw I personally can see in the game are periods of lag every few minutes, which has mostly been fixed since the launch of the game. I found that every once in a while you can learn something from the quotes, because of the diversity in the subject matter of the typing. Even though it may not be the best waste of your time on the internet (and it has it’s flaws), it certainly ranks well for its creativity.
May 15th
I realize that this isn’t something new in the overall scheme of things, but I thought I would mention the fact that the blog now has a new theme thanks to these guys, but of course I modified the theme to make it a black and green combo instead of full green. I hope to use this theme for a good while, as it is very customizable so that I can do whatever I feel like doing to it (maybe having a spot of tea on Sunday’s or something like that). If you have any suggestions about what could make it EVEN awesomer looking, feel free to leave a comment.
Oct 20th
During my daily internet escapade of the day, I came across what looks like a great reason to play through HL2 again. Some modder dude figured out how to get the Portal gun into all of the HL2 levels, and he posted a Youtube video along with the blog post. This is the coolest looking game mod that I’ve seen in a while; the only downside is that you can’t just run an installer, you have to do some manual editing. In any case, take a look at it here.
Aug 17th
I just read an article over at Shacknews that told about how someone from the EA Headquarters has been making lots of changes to the EA Wikipedia page. Apparently he has been editing out nearly any reference to Trip Hawkins, who originally founded EA back in the day. He was even removed from the “key people” section (look for it on the right sidebar), even when people would try to add him back in. Since this whole shindig went down a couple days ago, there is already a content section noting the changes this staff member was making to the page.
In my opinion, this has to be one of EA’s dumber goof-ups they have made, which is saying something, because bad game support is key with EA. Why doesn’t EA monitor their employees (or the new CEO, if he was the one making the changes) better? If they continue down this path, they aren’t going to get very far into the future without a lot of ridicule from other people (as if they don’t have that already). Of course, I am forgetting a key fact; they have money, so they can get away with crap like this and still come out on top.
Aug 16th
Welcome to WordPress. This is your first post. That means, spammers, post here!