I came across this little practical joke online today to pull on someone. I’ve got to try this:

1. On your mark’s computer, go to the Desktop and make a new folder.
2. Rename the new folder to e.g. “Porn”
3. Make a screenshot
4. Delete the folder that you’d just created
5. Install the screenshot image as a Desktop wallpaper
6. Enjoy!

I’ll let you know if I try it and what the results were.

Ok, so it’s now been about 24 hours since I installed World of Warcraft on my computer again. I’ve played a bit last night and today, and the world is every bit as vast, rich and engaging as I remember it to be.

However… I also was quickly reminded of some of the annoyances of the game. Not a lot… and nothing too serious… but for some reasons they’re bugging me more this time around than they did last time.

1) Running
Holy crap is can take FOREVER just to get from one place to another (especially at the lower levels when you don’t have spells or a mount to get you around faster. Even just running the simplest of beginners quests can take ages just to run to the place you need to do it and get back. Heaven forbid your inventor gets full before your quest is done and you want to run back to a town to sell the stuff… only to then have to run back, finish the quest and run back to the town again. I understand the advantages to this system… but that doesn’t stop it from being a bit annoying when you’re starting.

2) Repetitive grind leveling
Pretty much the only thing to do when you’re starting out as a level 1 character is to get to level 2… then repeat for a few more levels before you get into the really interesting stuff. I’ve only been back at it for a day and for some reason this time around I can’t stand sitting at my computer more than about 20 minutes at a time just doing the same thing over and over and over an over again. Killing the same easy monsters in the same way repeatedly. It gets annoying… and worse… boring

3) Use Stone only once per hour
You know the stone… the one you can use to teleport yourself back to your inn. It’s a great help against the annoyance of point #1. The problem is once you use it… you can’t use it again until its “cool down” period elapses… which is 60 minutes. Grrrrr… that bothers me.

The game is still one of the best ever made…. but I gotta tell you this time around I’m really not worried at all about getting addicted to it again. Now I’m not even 100% sure I’m going to play it again tomorrow (I probably will… but not 100% sure)

“I may not agree with what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it” – Voltaire

For the last few months I’ve been contemplating getting myself one of these “Smart Phones”. You know, the ones with applications and web surfing and email capabilities. Anyway, I narrowed it down to the Treo and the Blackberry. There were a couple of things I absolutely wanted:

1) Full Keyboard – I HATE HATE HATE typing on a phone pad with multiple letters per key. I MUCH prefer having a qwerty keyboard to type on.

2) Email – I find that I need potable email much more than I need a phone.

3) Calendar syncing – I can forget stuff… so I want to be able to sync up my calendar on my computer with the device

4) Speaker Phone – I don’t like holding a phone while I’m driving at all. It’s not safe.

Things I didn’t need:

1) Web – I know it’s cool to have it… but I don’t need it on my phone. Not to mention data plans are fringing expensive.

2) Camera – I’ve got digital cameras already thanks

3) MP3 Player – Got an iPod Nano thanks

AND I ABSOLUTELY DID NOT WANT A CONTRACT! I’ve been using a pay-as-you-go cell phone for the last 2 years specifically because cell service providers SCREW you every chance they get, so I was NOT going to sign a 2-3 year contract. The problem is that without a contract the phones can cost up to $600+ bucks.

I decided I’d get a refurbished or used one to keep the cost down and I started looking at the Treos and the Blackberrys. Both had their pros and cons and I looked around for a few weeks. One night, but friend Bruxy came over to record our podcast, and I knew he had a Blackberry. I asked him if I could see it for a second, and he pulled out this BRAND NEW one. I said “Hey, this isn’t your blackberry”. To which he replied “No, I just got this one this week. I still have my other one in the car…. DO YOU WANT IT?”

So Bruxy GAVE me his old Blackberry which is still a current model… the Blackberry 8700r. I JUST LOVE THIS THING!

So since I had the phone, i went to Rogers and signed up for a plan WITHOUT a contract. Included in the plan was a $25/month data plan for email. It works just fine… BUT… I found a way to get my email… and send email… WITHOUT needing a data plan. Here’s how it works:

Rogers (my service provider) gives each cell phone an email address that will be converted into an SMS Text message to your phone. For Rogers the email address is your phone number@pcs.rogers.com. So if you email to that address, it will show up on a persons cell phone as a text message. Sooooo….

Now when I go out, i just set my “john@themovieblog.com” email address to forward a copy to “my phone number”@pcs.rogers .com and VOILA! I get my email on my phone… FOR FREE… without needing to use a data plan.

Also, did you know you can send email using text? It’s a little more complicated… but it’s free and doesn’t need a data plan. This only works on Rogers, so it might work differently on your service provider:

First, send a text message to the number 0000000000 (yes, ten zeros)

Next, make the very first thing in your message the email address you want to send the message to

Lastly, after the email address leave a space, and then type out your message, then hit send

The service will turn your text message into an email and send it to the email address on the first line of your message. VOILA! Free outgoing email without needing a Data plan.

I tested this system out for a few days to make sure I liked how it worked… and it works great. So I just went ahead and cancelled the $25 data plan…. because I don’t need it.

So now I have a free blackberry that I can use as my phone, calender (and other applications) and email WITHOUT needing a data plan or any sort of contract. I’m very happy.

A little over 2 years ago Doug and I had an idea for a movie, so we started writing it… the problem was another movie came out shortly after we started the writing process that we thought was too much like our idea… so we ditched it. That really sucked, because we liked our idea a lot.

Anyway, last year Doug and I had another idea for a script. The only problem was that I was neck deep in my documentary “Prince of Peace – God of War” and didn’t really have time to do anything. Well, the documentary is now done, and last week Doug and I started writing again. Writing is a LOT of fun.

The best part is that we’re able this time to take some of the ideas we had from our last script that we really liked and we’ll be able to to seamlessly work them into this one. We worked for a few more hours tonight and made a lot of progress. We still haven’t got around to doing dialog yet since up to now it’s just been developing our plot and characters… but it looks like Monday after we do our Podcast we’re going to get down to scripting out some actual dialog and action. I’m really actually pretty excited about it.

I’m the type of people who always needs to have some sort of creative project on the go… even if it isn’t for anything in particular. This project we’re working on has already been a lot of fun… and we’re just getting started.