Beam me up?

Things in the sky last night.
Last night, I saw the space station go whizzing by - and shortly afterwards, in a different part of the sky, I saw two lights traveling along before they suddenly disappeared. As for the space station - I waved hello and they all waved back. Nice people.

Autumn is creeping up.

Each day that goes by brings more colors to the leaves out front of my house. The greens have given way to yellows - officially announcing the beginning of autumn. Autumn is by far the best season - so I hope it lingers for a few months before the nastyness of winter sinks in.

Photo : VISITORS

Greetings.

The FINAL countdown.
That's right - we're heading to Venus - though maybe they've seen us....

And now back to our regularly scheduled programming.
So it's been a bit since the last update - but not MONTHS overdue. The end of summer brings guests, events to celebrate and other fun things. I might even mention that I've now been married for 10 years. Yes, it sounds just as long to you as it does to me! Scary. What did we do to celebrate? Nothing. Well okay I was dragged into 'dancing the in full moons light' once, but other than that, we're just not the type that celebrate anniversaries - at least not yet. Maybe when we're horribly old and have nothing else to keep us going.

HALLOWEEN IS COMING!
Everyone decorates for pissmas 3 months early - so I'm starting on halloween 2 months early. I've scoped out what I've got halloween-wise in my basement so I can start bringing it up and setting up. This year will be good - we'll have some help decorating and handing out candy. That's right - we're bringing in some hired help this year, which leads me to the next bit of info.

Mzebonga returns!
That's right - Mzebonga will be here for halloween!

Photo : By DecoyRobot but no longer online =

I want a pool.

I would like a swimming pool.
It doesn't have to be a HUGE pool, just a nice sized one that I can swim around in without bumping into the edges every 5 seconds when swimming. It doesn't have to be really deep - 6ft at the deepest is fine. I would like it out in my backyard, and not need a lot of fussing to keep it clean and safe. I really wish I had a swimming pool.

Insane Q&A updated!
Hard to believe isn't it?! So yea, I had to get the interface fixed by an admin - and then actually go in and update. There is a question still in there unanswered - it's a long one and I didn't have the time to give it a good answer, so I've held onto it for now. Hopefully I'll get to it tonight.

Facebook? Sigh.
I've had two people asking me about that this week. Should I get a 'fan' page for TheInsaneDomain? I don't know. I'm still thinking about it.

Photo : Blue world by decoyrobot

ZOMBIES!

"A zombie outbreak is likely to lead to the collapse of civilization, unless it is dealt with quickly."
Link to article.

Guess what I did?

That's right - the questionnaire results. Wow - I'm SO prompt with ALL my updates!
Oh, shut up. Go check out your answers and see if you got a good question award. It seems that I (for all but one question) gave out only FOUR good question awards and NO bad question awards.

I had started giving the GQA to anyone that put effort into it - but now I'm back to just awarding those that I find funny, or something like that. That means it should be harder to get one now - well, in theory. If you send me cash and/or shiny things, I will gladly award you with many GQAs.


LIARS.
All those weather jerks should STOP saying that there will be thunderstorms when there is no chance in hell that there will be one. It's been weeks of this nonsense and still, NOTHING. All sorts of other people are pelted with crazy storms but what do I get - NOTHING.

Who took all my popsicles?!
They should somehow generate new ones every time I take one so I am never without one.

Photo : REDRUM by decoyrobot

A Sims 3 uh, review?

Well, maybe not a proper review, but it’s me blithering on about the sims. Don’t say I didn’t warn you.

Those of you who know the site (TheInsaneDomain.com) know that I like to play the Sims and routinely kill them for my own amusement. There is a whole section of killing the sims on this site, so we can all be amused. (Killing the Sims) I now have the Sims 3 and, well, it’s just not the same. I’ve had the sims 3 for a few months now and quite frankly, it’s just not as good. The graphics are nicer, the neighbourhood is great, the objects are neat, but the sims, they’re just not the same. They have no real personality, despite the fact that now you can customize them more than ever. I know it sounds like that doesn’t make sense, but that’s how it is.

Aging.
The neighbourhood now ages around your sims, which is sort of interesting in ways, but also means you don’t really get to know any of them. Instead of always bumping into that idiot Angela Stamm and then eventually liking her enough to have your friends sim knock her up, you now barely notice she’s alive before she’s old and dead. Aging can be turned off, but then your sim doesn’t age either, and damnit, they need to DIE before they get beyond boring.

Killing them?!
Killing them isn’t near as fun or easy in this version. At least, not on purpose. My one sim worked on a broken dishwasher ONCE and he gets fried. Another one dies by setting a birthday cake on a wooden table, and suddenly half the family is dead. When I TRY to kill them by luring them into rooms to starve – it takes FOREVER for them to finally die. One sim I had locked in a room with rugs and other items, left food on the oven to burn and the whole room burns except for the bed my sim was sleeping on. ?!?!? It took several tries to kill him, and no way of getting a fire sparked without the oven. The sims 2 had a nifty fire ‘party’ device that would always do the trick. Trying to get one killed any other way just isn’t easy period – it takes forever or I just haven’t managed to get it to work.

Evil? *Yawn*
You can pick traits for your sims, and even though Evil is an option, it is not very evil at all. You can imply someone’s mother is a llama, which is funny the first time you read it, but after that, things aren’t very evil at all. You don’t get wants to kill other sims, to knock up several unsuspecting ladies, or anything truly evil. You get to call them names and maybe kick their ass, whoopdedo. That’s not very evil, that’s being an asshole. The mean-spirited trait is even more lame, stealing candy from a baby isn’t as thrilling as it always sounded. An ‘evil’ sim I created was given a whole backyard filled with neighbours that were starving to death – and he somehow got offended by something they were doing and got all upset. He should have been by the giant window I put in his bedroom, watching them all cry and suffer. You make a few sims upset and have a nemesis or two and that’s about that for being evil in this game. I haven’t tried having anyone follow the crime career just yet, so maybe there is something that might resemble fun for an ‘evil’ sim there.

Yeaaaaaaaaaaa baby.

Random things I didn't like:
Your sim baby/toddler now waits to be EXHAUSTED before falling asleep. If left to fill the energy bar - your child will be starving, lonely and dirty. When they age up, you're told they had a difficult upbringing.
You don't always get to pick a trait, so it picks one for you, but then it never appears in their list of 'traits'.
You sit there FOREVER while they sleep.
When having them make a meal, you have to then click on the disk and make them EAT it.
There are things to 'collect' in the game, such as diamonds, but after getting them cut, all you can do is sell them. What is the point? Same goes with the fish and seeds. You get these things, but you don't really get much out of them.
There are no fire sprinklers to help put fires out.
You can only grant 4 'wishes'.
There seem to be NO aliens, crazy creatures or anything. How boring.
Things break down WAY quicker it seems.
There are no crazy devices that mess with the weather, bring back the dead or anything fun like that.
They don't fart and laugh about it anymore.
You can customize everything about them, but the little preview pictures make them all look similar.
Kids end up coming out with the same haircut as their mom, and each time they age up, they get it back again.
The vegetarian trait is a total rip-off and I'd be surprised to hear Sims didn't get a lot of hate mail over that particular trait and it's side effect of 'getting sick more often'.

Wow, do I suck for updating or do I suck for updating?!

I think I suck at updating.

What's really funny is that about two weeks ago, I told myself I'd try to update this EVERY DAY for TWO WEEKS. Look at ALL those posts! Such clever and insightful things were said. Sigh.

So, let's see if I can try and update once a week. That is something I should be able to do, right? Sure. Maybe I'll make it a TIDTuesday thing. We'll see how long that lasts - feel free to place your bets as to how long I actually keep it going, or if I even start it!

Seeing as we're on the topic of never posting, how about we address TheInsaneDomain and it's lack of anything good for what, years now? I think part of the problem is that the writers/contributors, though mainly me, is getting older. Okay, we're ALL getting older but the content of the site hasn't been growing up with me. I guess it's time to make it grow up. When the start first started, I was finishing highschool and just 'playing' with HTML. I still lived at home, and was still working my first sort of serious job. Now, I've been married for 10 years, I own a house and I've moved away from where I grew up. Needless to say, my world has changed a lot since a lot of TID was written. I need to start updating with things that are more relevant to me, and ask the previous contributors to return, and share what they think. I realized the other day that a half of the TID contributors are now parents. How is THAT for frightening?! Out of those, I'm sure all of them are good friends with those who have children too.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that TID needs a good update, and I know it. I'm going to have to stop pretending we're not actually responsible adults in reality, and start writing about these things that ARE in our lives. Makes sense doesn't it? Yea, well time flies and suddenly you're an adult doing adult things. Maybe my previous contributors will agree to help me, and we'll tie into their sites (if they have them!) and things that they feel the need to spam us all with.

Now all I need is a well designed website. Sigh. Site design has come a long way since I started, and really, look at the site. It's clunky and has SO much text to it. Maybe I'll just try something new, without killing the old one. I'll think about how to do that.

I've also got an adventure to finish writing for TID - It's 2/3 done - I just need some time to sit down and FINISH it. No really, for real. Really. Shut up, I will try! Really.

Ok, enough of that already - my to do list is getting longer and to accomplish anything, I've got to pick ONE thing and just DO it. So I'll try posting more here. Lucky you.

Photo : Small talk by decoyrobot

Halloween is coming - are you ready?

YEAAAA BABY.

Did I mention?

Faith No More is getting back together for a tour. BASTARDS aren't coming to North America. THEY SHOULD. They should come and play in Toronto so I can see them. They should also release another album so I can have more FNM music.
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Random posting.

Earth hour.

So, now we all have to plan to spend time sitting in the dark? Maybe all those people who sat in the dark should shut off lights when they don't need them, recycle more, buy less and just generally live every day as though they care, not just one hour a year. Bah. How many people took the time to go outside and see what stars are hidden from them the rest of the year? Shutting off all the lights for an hour should be done weekly so more people can see the stars.

What I'm reading.

Yep, it's come to this - me telling you what I'm reading. I've been reading a bunch of these new Dune books and have enjoyed them. It's hard to find new sci-fi stuff to read that is consistently good, and so far the Dune books have been keeping my interest.

Is it spring yet?
This winter has seemed to drag on forever! Finally I'm starting to see the ground outside and be able to wander out there without piling on layers upon layers of clothes.

New list!
There is a new list on TheInsaneDomain - Facebook sucks!
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Yay - Friday the 13th!

Did I scare you?
Apparently, people are actually afraid of Friday the 13th. Not ALL people, but some people. That just seems so strange to me - to be afraid of a day due to its number. Then again, people are afraid of the weirdest things. There was a show on the other day about a woman who was horribly afraid of thunderstorms and tornadoes. She spends several hours a day watching the weather network for signs of trouble, and when there is a storm, she hides in her bathroom praying with her sister. (Of course, she lives in tornado ally - which does not help.) While I do have some fears (we all do), I don't think I've got any that border on that level of weirdness. I know that I prefer not to be around very large animals (horses and anything larger) but that's only if they're not behind a fence. Even then, I wouldn't run screaming from them, but merely hope they don't decide to come over and stomp on me. I also don't spend hours a day worrying about them, thinking that they might be right outside my house, waiting for me to come out so they can harass me. It's the strange and obsessive fears that I find interesting. It's sad for those who have them, but it's always interesting to see what variations humans have to offer.
What sort of fear do YOU have?



Randomness.
Many of us are on some sort of website where people post things and then you post them and so on. So here is a snippet of something lame I filled out and posted.

I hate commercials. They're poorly written, are a thousand times louder than the show I'm watching, and just plain stupid. There are a few I like, but the rest make me yell at the TV, or just turn it off. Yes, they bother me THAT much. And anyone who has had the misfortune of watching TV with me will verify that no, I can't just block it out. I shouldn't have to block out chunks of my life because of stupid commercials!

I hate to take baths. I shower.

I hate throwing plastic things in the garbage when there are no recycling bins around.

I hate when people say "Let's get this party started" or "That's what I'M talkin about" or "You know what I'm sayin".

I like coffee. I do not like cream in it, just sugar.

I'm not a morning person.

I like that sore achy feeling the day after a good workout.

I've had a website since 1996, and been using computers since I was about 13.

I can't imagine my world without music.

I love to read and hear about space and the universe. It gives me hope and makes me feel like I'm part of something important.

I always feel like I should be doing something, but no matter what I do, it doesn't feel important enough.

My favorite smells are cinnamon, vanilla, garlic and campfire. I hate walking into Shoppers Drug Mart or other places that have the perfume counters right at the door. I hate the smell of perfume and flowers.

My favorite planet is Jupiter. It's huge, it's awesome and it has lots of interesting moons.

I'm not convinced we're all the same species. Just because we all look like we're human doesn't mean we are. There are just way too many people doing horrible things that I can't even begin to comprehend.

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