~KK

I have problems with commitments. I may have mentioned that before, but it’s worth repeating. I have a problem with commitments.

Galstaff (Andy) sent us all a message at the end of October telling all his friends that he would not be around much in November because of something called National Novel Writing Month. The name intrigued me so I asked him to tell me more about it. Here’s what I learned Oct. 30th, 2007.

What is NaNoWriMo?

National Novel Writing Month is a fun, seat-of-your-pants approach to novel writing. Participants begin writing November 1. The goal is to write a 175-page (50,000-word) novel by midnight, November 30.

Valuing enthusiasm and perseverance over painstaking craft, NaNoWriMo is a novel-writing program for everyone who has thought fleetingly about writing a novel but has been scared away by the time and effort involved.

Because of the limited writing window, the ONLY thing that matters in NaNoWriMo is output. It’s all about quantity, not quality. The kamikaze approach forces you to lower your expectations, take risks, and write on the fly.

Make no mistake: You will be writing a lot of crap. And that’s a good thing. By forcing yourself to write so intensely, you are giving yourself permission to make mistakes. To forgo the endless tweaking and editing and just create. To build without tearing down.

As you spend November writing, you can draw comfort from the fact that, all around the world, other National Novel Writing Month participants are going through the same joys and sorrows of producing the Great Frantic Novel. Wrimos meet throughout the month to offer encouragement, commiseration, and—when the thing is done—the kind of raucous celebrations that tend to frighten animals and small children.

In 2006, we had over 79,000 participants. Nearly 13,000 of them crossed the 50k finish line by the midnight deadline, entering into the annals of NaNoWriMo superstardom forever. They started the month as auto mechanics, out-of-work actors, and middle school English teachers. They walked away novelists.

So, to recap:

What: Writing one 50,000-word novel from scratch in a month’s time.

Who: You! We can’t do this unless we have some other people trying it as well. Let’s write laughably awful yet lengthy prose together.

Why: The reasons are endless! To actively participate in one of our era’s most enchanting art forms! To write without having to obsess over quality. To be able to make obscure references to passages from our novels at parties. To be able to mock real novelists who dawdle on and on, taking far longer than 30 days to produce their work.

When: Sign-ups begin October 1, 2007. Writing begins November 1. To be added to the official list of winners, you must reach the 50,000-word mark by November 30 at midnight. Once your novel has been verified by our web-based team of robotic word counters, the partying begins.

Still confused? Just visit the How NaNoWriMo Works page!

Well, if you got through all that, you’ll have a good what I just went through. It was hella-hard, but I made it. I even think I came up with something decent. We’ll have to see. Now that editing thing… eek!

So I just wanted to pat myself on the back and say GO ME! I DID IT! FREAKING YAY!

Oh, and “Thanks Andy!”

~KK

Yar peeps,

Over the last few months I have felt the need to post certain things, but did not because, as much as I am an attention whore, I don’t really want the general public to read some things. I’m cool with my friends being able to access it so feel honored. Well almost honored! If you are interested in said posts, shoot me an email at ninefingersATgmailDOTcom. Be sure to include who you are and how I know you. IF I deem you worthy enough, I’ll reply with the password.

I’m doing this to protect my ass from whoever I may need to protect my ass from. Just figure it would probably not be wise to hypothetically post about hypothetical employeers or hypothetical friends. Forgive any misspellingsafdasd. I’m tired and lazy! Rox on!

~KK

DANGIT ALL!

I am not even 70 yet and the new expansion is moving WoW’s level cap to 80. DANGIT! I hate level grinding. H A T E I T !!! I just can’t explain the pain it puts me in. No really.

I guess we all owe the blame to EQ (live). You see, back when Ultima Online was the “big MMO” of the time there was no level cap. Hell, there was no level really. The game based your stats on the “the more you use the better you get” model. (Kinda like StarWarGalaxies was when it first came out.) The game dynamics changed quite a bit while I played, but the game allowed you to master any skills you wanted. It also allowed you to drop the skill in favor of going another direction with the character. There was rarely need for alts. You could just evolve into what you wanted. GREAT SYSTEM MMO MAKERS!

But back to blaming EQ. The game was good. It was fun and immersive. But it was level and class based. So if you started a High Elf Wizard and got to level 30 and then decided you hated it, you had to START OVER with an alt. Ugh. Not only was that a pain in the ass, but once players got to level 50, there wasn’t much else to do but hit the high level zones for phat lewt and hope that it would drop. So, once players got to the ceiling, they started clamoring for more. Verant gave it to them with an expansion and by raising the level to 55. (?) And expansion after expansion they raised it. Most of EQ leveling was all by grinding monsters that gave you the most experience. So annoyingly mind-numbing that people would bash their heads against the wall constantly. (I may have made that part up.)

Sadly, it looks like WoW is doing the same thing. Sure they have a better endgame system (Arenas, PVP, BGs, Raids, Faction Grinding, etc…) but it is the same old same old. WHY CAN’T THEY COME UP WITH SOMETHING NEW?!? I can’t stand the thought of leveling to 70 much less 80. I just can’t bring myself to do it. At least not yet. I don’t care how freaking cool some quests can be, it just isn’t worth the trouble. When you got master “whatever” in UO, you relied on yourself and friends to have fun. The game was created in such a free for all style that you had soooo many choices. You could become the evil Player Killer. You could become the PK hunter and take the fight back to the evil ones. You could raid other player houses if they weren’t careful. You could put a trapped chest in your inventory and pray that a thief would snoop and try to open it. Call the guards and his ass was grass. Then it was looting that moron. You could mine and create your own armor. (One of my favorite things in the WHOLE GAME was) The teleport/recall system was amazing. You could carry around stones that took you ANYWHERE you wanted to be in game. Just mark the stone at the location you wanted to be and you were set. Easy travel. Easy escape from PKers.

Yes, I loved UO. They have a new expansion coming out that actually looks interesting. Seems the guys at Mythic (DAoC fame) helped them polish the game up a bit giving it an updated look and UI system. It is very nice looking. The game had some serious flaws, but overall it is what an MMO should be. I guess that is why I am so dismayed by the recent announcement of “The Wraith of the Lich King” expansion. “Yawn” I say. Give me something NEW damnit.

KK

Due to a bizillion viruses slamming our hospital systems, I have recently spent much of my last 2 weeks installing year old Windows XP patches on our systems. This should have been happening from the start, but things get put on the back burner and the rest of us get burned because of it.

But it seems that the lack of security patches aren’t just effecting boring hospital systems. Tens of thousands of WoW accounts are being hijacked by key logging programs. Just a heads up.

On a similar note, one of our poppycock interns recently left the hospital for a programming job. This guy was one of those paranoid, everyone wants to screw me kind of guys. He printed out a label and put his name on the PC titled “****’s PC”. He wrote a keylogging program and put it on his computer so he could see if anyone had used his computer. He was constantly hacking programs and installing them so he could “test” them at work. (Vista, DeepFreeze, etc.) Before I even knew he did this crap, there was just something I didn’t like about this guy. One day, I sat down on his computer, opened notepad.exe and typed “Joe sucks donkey balls.” Sure enough, the next day he comes in, sits down and checks the log saying “Who wrote that I suck donkey balls?!?” I fessed up and openly laughed at him. Hmmm maybe that was a bad decision in hind-sight.

Anyway, after he left I started talking to another one of our interns and the conversation turned to the poppycock guy. The intern told me that Mr. Poppycock had installed his program on one of the public PCs in the library and then went back a few weeks later and retrieved the file. There is NO TELLING the information he got off that file. He could have gleaned CC numbers, personal email passwords and any other information that a person would have entered. The intern also told me of a few other things this guy did that really bothered me. I sincerely think this guy was amoral. When I first found out that he had a keylogger program I asked if he ever installed it on a public PC and he got all flustered saying “I’d NEVER do that man!” All the while, he was doing it left and right. For him, there was no right and wrong. These type of people are dangerous. These are the people that code the crap that attacks your computer.

All of this to say, don’t be a asshat and make sure you get all your updates!

PSA OVER,

KK

Pirates, I have sad news. It seems we have been discovered on the net and now they are after us. Please be sure to watch the following video.

Remember, it’s best to keep your booty hidden.

KK

Dear Seadogs,

We at Foam Pirates / < the Pirate > have decided to start a twink group for the 10-19 BGs. This group will be devoted to putting beat downs on Alliance foozles like what happens to a crippled old man at the front of the Walmart Line the day of Black Friday. OUT OF THE WAY GRAMPS! *crackle snap pop crunch*

Since many of us are doing this for the first time, I figured it would be a good thing to share all the information we can. A “BG Twink” page will soon be created where you can find all sorts of information. If you have some kick ass guide or information that you’d like to share with your other foozle slayers please post a comment or email them to kitten.killer@foampirates.com. I’ll be sure to add it as soon as I can. Let’s see how kick ass we can be!

KK

KK began the story of his nickname, but I feel it is too shameful for him to finish.

While it does begin with the kitten picture, that’s not where it ends.

Way back when KK and I were paid to make fun of people assist people with all their computing problems, “we”