Some of you know I'm kind of a videogame nerd.  But recently my nerditry reached new hieghts when my brother talked me into playing Diablo 2 again.  He gave me the install CDs and I was pumped up - well I was until I first started up the game. 

To my dismay it wouldn't run~!

I was left with a blank screen because my monitor (a 21" NEC Multisync) couldn't handle the Default 640x480 resolution because it was too damned small!!!

I began scouring the internets for a solution and soon came across this:

http://phrozenkeep.planetdiablo.gamespy.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=51560

The results were spectacular.  I was able to kick up the resolution to whatever I wished and after about 24 hours am now the happy owner of a lvl 24 soceress

Here are some sample screen shots

800x600 (640x480 default but 800x600 is available in the regular game I found out)

1024x768 - It's what I use because anything higher and you really start to notice the blank square sprites around the edge of the screen and it becomes obvious that the game wasn't designed for this kind of resolution

http://www.imagefrog.net/show.php/28709_Screenshot004.jpg

And Finally 1280x1024 - Just to let the program flex it's stuff.  A host of other resolutions are possible (widescreen included) but I have a regular old CRT monitor so no widescreen here.

http://www.imagefrog.net/show.php/28710_Screenshot006.jpg

I think perhaps because I live near a college campus and 8 different churches in the area I have an unusually high amount of door knockers.  That being said, I relish when they come by, I talk their ears off about the questionalbe source material in the bible as well as the metaphorical arguments against god.   But the last pair I talked to was particualrly troubling.  They seemed to think that the rapture was comming sometime in the next month or so.  I didnt have the scripture with me at the time but I'd like to share it with you the community

 Matthew Chapter 24 Verse 36

But of that day and hour knoweth no man, no, not the angels of heaven, but my Father only.

Remember this verse when a philosophically impoverished person approaches you speaking of the rapture.  Even their own sources argue that it's impossible to know when the end is comming.

There are people in Hollywood with class.  And there are people like Corey Feldman. Now I can see where the idea of toasting the man via wearing a suit might come into play but come on, it's not a fucking costume party.  Urgh speaking of which does anyone else here dread all the Michael Jackson haloween costumes that are going to be around this year?

    I imagine they are going to put him in the casket with wig on and donning a Sargent Pepper suit but I personally think they should do something a little more traditional.  It's the guy's funeral after all, give him one opportunity to be normal. He spent so much of his life being exploited that it's easy to forget that undernieth it all he was a real person.  The whole situation reminds me of the painting Marge Simpson made of Mr. Burns.

Behind Michael Jackson's fame, behind his bizzare childhood, the memories we all have of growing up with him, the makeup, the scandals, his children, the plastic surgery, and after 50 years of life, there was nothing left but a frail man.  His death, because he was almost a representation of the good and bad in all of us, made a lot of people reflect on their own lives.  And looking back at the rollercoaster he lived on, it's no wonder he turned out the way he did.

When I first read this on my news tickers i thought it was an Onion headline that I had misappropriated to slashdot.  Truth is stranger than fiction my friends, I'm worried that we're only a few steps away from drugging the water in order to "Keep people safe" (in Iran anyway)

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Iranian state television's Channel Two is playing a Lord of the Rings marathon in an attempt to keep people inside watching hobbits and not protesting in the streets. Normally people in Tehran are treated to one or two Hollywood movies a week, but with recent events the government hopes that sitting through a nine hour trilogy will take the fight out of most. Perhaps this was not the best choice in films if you want your people not to believe that "even the smallest person can change the course of the future."

From - http://idle.slashdot.org/story/09/06/25/1535219/Iran-Tries-to-Pacify-Protesters-With-emLord-Of-The-Ringsem-Marathon?from=rss

Bush-era interrogation memo: No torture without 'severe pain' intent

April 16th 2009

• Story Highlights
• Memo: To violate torture law, must have intent to inflict severe suffering
• Obama says releasing memos vital to maintaining transparency, accountability
• Legal memos offered guidance to CIA on "enhanced interrogation"
• No prosecution for actions consistent with memos, official says

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Interrogation tactics such as waterboarding, sleep deprivation and slapping did not violate laws against torture when there was no intent to cause severe pain, according to a Bush-era memo on the tactics released Thursday.

"To violate the statute, an individual must have the specific intent to inflict severe pain or suffering," said an August 2002 memo from then-Assistant Attorney General Jay Bybee to John Rizzo, who was acting general counsel for the CIA.

"Because specific intent is an element of the offense, the absence of specific intent negates the charge of torture. ... We have further found that if a defendant acts with the good faith belief that his actions will not cause such suffering, he has not acted with specific intent," Bybee wrote.

Other memos allowed the use of such tactics as keeping a detainee naked and in some cases in a diaper, and putting detainees on a liquid diet.

The Bybee opinion was sought on 10 interrogation tactics in the case of suspected al Qaeda leader Abu Zubaydah.

On waterboarding, in which a person gets the sensation of drowning, the memo said, "although the waterboard constitutes a threat of imminent death, prolonged mental harm must nonetheless result" to violate the law.

The memo also authorized keeping Zubaydah in a dark, confined space small enough to restrict the individual's movement for no more than two hours at a time. In addition, putting a harmless insect into the box with Zubaydah, who "appears to have a fear of insects," and telling him it is a stinging insect would be allowed, as long as Zubaydah was informed the insect's sting would not be fatal or cause severe pain.

"If, however, you were to place the insect in the box without informing him that you are doing so ... you should not affirmatively lead him to believe that any insect is present which has a sting that could produce severe pain or suffering or even cause his death," the memo said.

Authorities also were allowed to slap a detainee's face "to induce shock, surprise or humiliation" and strike his abdomen with the back of the hand in order to disabuse a detainee's notion that he will not be touched, the memos said.

Bybee noted in the memo that the CIA agreed all tactics should be used under expert supervision. Other memos said waterboarding can be used only if the CIA has "credible intelligence that a terrorist attack is imminent" and if a detainee is believed to have information that could prevent, disrupt or delay an attack, and other methods fail to elicit the information.

http://blog.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/03/texasevolution.html

^JJ I'm praying that science will trump creationist bullshit here.  Wait, instead of doing that I'll do something productive like write to my school board about why we should keep science in science classrooms.

I am loving being able to keep in touch with family and friends, but my twitter would not be complete without Christopher Walken who has - to put it lightly, cracked my shit up.

cwalken I claim to be frightened of horses but do so only to get out of attending parades. It's peculiar but has served me well. The horses get it.

cwalken I made a little pimp outfit and put it in the yard. The bluejay hasn't come back since. Some weird shit going on with the squirrels though.

cwalken A soldier on leave told me how much he admired me. Without really knowing me at all. We're alike that way. I hope to see him again too.

cwalken I spent $40.00 on a bag of food for a dog that eats extension cords. That's still probably cheaper than a bag of extension cords I suppose.

Havn't seen the videosift fundraiser move in several days (since I started watching it last Friday).

I dont know about the rest of you but I seriously hate watching TV.  Part of the reason I have become more active on the site latley is because I really dont want to see it go.  I started out my membership here only so I could participate in the conversation, my drive to put a little effort into upgrading my status was (i have to admit) mostly due to BillOreilly's idiotic comments and the frustration I had not being able to down vote some of the worst ones.

Since then I've really enjoyed the debates and discussions i've been a part of and dont want to have to put up with the morons on YT.  

I'm going to make a personal  pledge to donate $20 every payday while the fundraiser is going on and while I dont expect the same from everyone I would encourage you to ignore Dag's plea to "Not dig deep."  I really do like this place and dont want to see it go the way of Old Yeller.

DIG DEEP, donate what you can and dont forget the site is still not out of the woods!

-JiggaJonson

just signed up with twitter

my life is about as entertaining as a dead mushroom butttt sometimes those can be intersting

twitter: JiggaJonson