• We Can’t Find the Algae Eater…

    Posted on by suguay

    We cant’ find the algae eater is one of the first things out of my mother’s mouth when I recently stopped by. This comment brings back memories of “And please don’t send the big truck.” My family’s motto is “Making Memories”. When it comes to critters, we seem to do a lot of that.

    My parents have a fish tank and they somehow lost the algae eater in the tank. I think it must have been playing with them because it finally decided to show itself when the pulled the rock out that it was hiding under. This is entirely different and much less eventful from what turned out to be a flying baby squirrel incident. 

    The squirrel event started with the strangest sound in the dryer area. It sounded like something was in the vent hose. The scratching and scraping and all. It was a little weird. Now where my parents live, they have been known to have a bat or two. Unfortunately for the bats and myself, we don’t have a very good history. Somewhere in the mountains of southern California there is a bat flying around with a very old headache. 

    So the squirrel.

    Well, we couldn’t figure out what to do and try as we might we really couldn’t get the thing to hang out in an area of the dryer vent tubing that we could trap it. So Mom decided she would call someone. Who do you call with a problem like that at nine o’clock at night. Apparently the Fire Department. I do remember one of the things that she said to the dispatcher was something along the lines of not sending the ladder truck or at least not using sirens. 

    I guess the Firemen were bored. We got the big truck. No sirens. They got the squirrel. One of them took it home to his kids. Years later, when my father had a health issue that required the paramedics, one of the paramedics had been to the house on the flying squirrel incident. 

    We have had a variety of pets. Guppies. A dog. Two farm cats. One of which thought my father looked like the perfect midwife for her kittens. The other gave birth a few days later in the same box with the others. The only male kitten out of both litters, turned out to be the runt. He didn’t make it. We figured he opened his eyes, saw he had all those sisters and decided it wasn’t worth it. My sister had a hamster and a jumping, leaping Angel fish. We as a family had a couple of white lab rats.

    Most recently we’ve had birds mostly. It started with one that literally came to my mother out of a tree in southern California. We then acquired one that had been walking down the street in San Diego. We moved from southern California to the Seattle, Washington area and the thing with the birds just escalated. My parents joined the bird club. We had and aviary of finches in the kitchen. Mom even hand fed a baby finch that got kicked out of the nest. Yes. Finch. Yes, the little birds that tend to be about an inch long. 

    Then there were the squirrels and butterscotch brownies. As best we can tell the squirrels thought mom’s butterscotch brownies were great stuff. We didn’t know squirrels could make those sorts of sounds. They went a little orgasmic for them. Good thing I guess, none of the family were able to eat them. Of course after that they tended to come nearly knock on the back door for food. 

    So by the time we’ve had all this, moved to Florida and had the flying squirrel issue, and geckos in the house, well the announcement that they can’t find the algae eater doesn’t really require much thought to deal with. It’s called, get the flash light, make sure he didn’t decide to do acrobatics and help look for him. 

    I once saw on Master Piece Theater a production of Gerald Durrell’s book “My Family and Other Animals”, it was so comforting I had to buy the book. My favorite line is towards the end as they board the board to return to England from their stay in Corfu. “On the little card, in the column headed Descrition of Passengers had been written, in neat capitals: ONE TRAVELLING CIRCUS AND STAFF.” 

    Life is an adventure to be lived and along the way we should all be Making Memories.

    Cheers.

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in The Blog!

  • Another Blog About Games….

    Posted on by suguay

    Just what the internet needs right? Another blog about games. Yeah, that’s what I thought. And don’t have the hours and hours of game play and ‘expertise’ as so many of the other people that write about games, what could I possibly be thinking?

    Someone in one of the games, asked me what it was I like about that game and it got me to thinking about the different games that I have played and about the differences amongst them and the differences in the styles of play and what I like and don’t like about them. So when the idea of this blog came up I thought ‘sure, I’ll give it a shot’. Here we are now with the inaugural article on the Games Land blog. I suppose a little background would help.

    I started playing online games out of curiosity. I read a magazine article about this person who had made money in a game

    and then spent a lot of money on virtual property in the same game. Then, some time later I read a different magazine article about Anshe Chung and the land barons in Second Life. I thus got the two games confused. Still they peaked my interest in the online worlds. 

    I started out in Second Life. I met some really nice people. One person who was so very helpful in my learning about the world and how to do things in it. I maintain a presence in Second Life still. I don’t spend as much time there as I did at first. It has some really great things about it. 

    Some of the things I really like is that it is very creative and Linden Labs has been very forward thinking with their approach to in world creations. At last check, if you create or build stuff in world you maintain the intellectual propery rights to it. So, you can legitimately sell your creations for real money. You can also use it to create models and proto-types of products that you can then produce in the real world and make money off of it. There are of course certain constraints. Things like if you are using someone else’s textures and things it starts to get a little sticky. Aside from that, I like the ease with which you can either own land that can hold a house, a business, or whatever you want there. I also like the idea that someone can send you a message from in game and it will automatically be redirected to the email account you set up your game account with. I also like that you can legitimately trade in game currency for real world dollars. 

    Ah, so all the good stuff. What’s the downside? Well, it’s a lot like life. You don’t have someone to give you quests so you have something to do and that will help you develope a reputation. You don’t really have much to start out with and you gotta figure out what you are gonna do. 

    They do have different in-world events for different times of the years. I’ve been to a birthday party in-world, and I’ve been to a Winter’s party where I danced. I’ve even held a part-time job. It’s a lot of fun. And like life it takes some work. 

    I’ve played other games. The primary criteria for the games has usually been that I could play for free. At least in theory. I’ve tried Entropia Universe, Shadowbane, Anarchy Online,Space Cowboy, Silkroad, Voyage Century Online, 9 Dragons, and a few others. I have even tried a couple of subscription games. I find it interesting what they have incommon and the things that are different. I also find the differences in attitudes of the people that play the different games. I’ve had some good experiences and some less than ideal experiences. 

    It is my hope to explore some of these things through the course of this blog and not just rip on the latest upgrade or bug in whichever program. These online worlds have become so much more than they started out and they are worth looking at a little differently. 

     

    See you in the machine.

    Games

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in Games Land

  • Upgrades…Holy Cow

    Posted on by suguay

    Ok, so I’m supposed to be the family geek. I’m the one that works on computers and such. My job entails working on computers and while I have other hobbies, often times when I get home I get right back on the computer. Sometimes just to browse, sometimes to goof off and play a game, and sometimes to do work. Like writing this article.

    I am also a fairly conservative person when it comes to my desires in my equipment and my willingness to spend my own money. I have a laptop that is about 2 years old and still serves my needs for it very well. I have a desktop that is 4 years old and is really reaching it’s limits. I do have a flat screen on that machine, it’s a 14 inch screen. Ok, you get the picture of what I’m starting with.

    I have been thinking for some monthes that I needed and wanted a new computer. I couldn’t decide if I wanted a new laptop or a new desktop. They both have their merits. I finally decided on the desktop and started looking. I considered a build your own type thing and the cost was not prohibitive. I considered the barebones kits to put together. I even considered an out of the box. I knew the minimum I wanted and I wanted a good graphics card. 

    I ended up with a base machine that I have added a, for me, smoking graphics card. And I got a 19 inch wide screen monitor, and I invested in one of those gaming keyboards. It felt good as far as the key response. Then I got it setup and realized it is at a really comfortable angle. 

    So after playing a game that really like to have nice graphics and seeing how really awesome it looks with the new card, and now typing on this new keyboard. Well… there’s a reason the title of this article is “Upgrades…Holy Cow”. Holy cow. What a difference. I didn’t know how comfortable computing could be. Now I just need to decide what to do about the mouse.

    Holy Cow. What a difference. 

     

    Originally published at: suguayproductions.com/joomla which has been discontinued.


    📂This entry was posted in The Blog!