7 days and change

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Well, it’s been an exciting 7 plus days since the birth of Tomi. We’ve finally gotten a fairly decent schedule down, with me, Amani and my mom taking shifts (although Amani ends up being up at least every few hours to pump out milk). Tomi’s color is getting better, she’s gaining weight well and it seems every few hours she becomes more and more aware of her environment.

Although I already have a son, I didn’t get to see him until he was 5 months old, so all this is pretty new to me. I was pretty old when my brother Micah was born, so I remember some from that experience, but I’m still surprised at times. First off, breast feeding is not easy. Especailly when the mom has quarter size nipples and the baby has a nickel sized mouth. And I know for sure I’ve never been so estatic about bowel movements and urination – it seems right now to be the only validation that we’re doing anything right with her. She smiles in her sleep sometimes, but hasn’t developed much past the look of open wonder, crying, and some odd eyebrow arching that I think indicates disbelief in the sensations she’s experiencing for the first time.

Of course one of the absolutely hardest parts has been watching my wife slog through sleep deprivation and discomfort from the episiotomy and nipple trauma. It’s gotten better in week 2, but week 1 was a real bitch. It looks like she’s finally seeing the light at the end of the tunnel though, and it’s a hell of a lot of fun just sitting with her looking at our daughter together.

Here’s looking forward to week 3…

Fatal Flaws Of Kanaka Only Sovereignty

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1) The population of hawaii in 1890 included 15.6% pure haole (non-kanaka maoli) nationals. When looking at resident aliens, the number of non-kanaka maoli goes up to 54%. Returning the government of the monarchy to only one racial group that existed at the time of the overthrow is unjust on it’s face. This would be akin to returning the government of the monarchy only to kanaka maoli ali’i, and disenfranchising all the kanaka maoli who hail from “common” stock.

2) The claims that “native hawaiian” should be a racial category describing the “indigenous” people of hawaii are specious. Historical evidence shows that the Hawaiian Islands were colonized by Tahitians or Marquesans around 400AD. Although kanaka maoli can claim that their ancestors have lived in the Hawaiian Islands for a longer period of time than other “racial” groups, there seems to be no clear definition as to the amount of time a colonist to the island has to live there before they can be “indigenous”. Just as other immigrants to these islands came from other lands, so did the kanaka maoli. The fact is, we are all indigenous to earth in general, and to a small roaming band of primates in africa to be specific. The “indigenous” labels used to divide us are poison.

3) Another justification used by kanaka maoli is the “we’ve been opprressed because of the color of our skin” argument. This clearly argues for a system of benefits targeted at anyone who is darker than a brown paper bag, rather than one of racial origin. Both are arguably poor ideas.

4) Given the pervasive mixing of kanaka maoli families with haole families, it is unfair to create a 1 drop rule by which two people who only differ in 1% of their blood quantum get different rights. To all apperances, both cultural and physical, they may be the same, but because one has the right “blood” they get superior rights. People who are 50% kanaka maoli and 50% haole who ask for consideration just because of their kanaka side, but refuse to take responsibility for their haole side are hypocrites.

DiscBall

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Well, Tom hosted another pseudo-lan party last night, and as usual, it was a doozy. We had Halo 2 running, Dungeon Siege 2, a bit of UT2004 and last but not least, DiscBall.

What is DiscBall? Well, here’s the basic setup:

1 tennis court
4-5 players on each side
4 frisbees
1:00am

Each team starts off with two frisbees. When the referee yells “DISC!”, both teams try to get all the frisbees off of their side of the court.

Frisbees must pass over the net to be validly played. On the side of the court, an imaginary net is extended. Invalid side throws are fouls which require the offending player to retreat to the side, and sing “Happy Birthday”, or do 10 pushups, or both, depending on the sadistic tendencies of the referee.

Frisbees thrown out of the gated court area stop game play and count as a point for the other team.

Frisbees are considered in scoring position when they are touching the ground, in the hands of a player, falling through tree limbs (stuck frisbees count as out of bounds), or thrown in the air by a team member but clearly with no possibility of clearing the net (the NO JUGGLING rule).

Teams switch court sides every 10 points.

Points are not taken seriously, and may randomly change as people’s memories are altered by the lateness of the hour.

Rules on switching teams or taking a break on the sidelines are completely optional, but generally proportional to the age of the player.

No other projectiles may be in play besides frisbees. Teams placing unauthorized projectiles in play are penalized a point, and game play is started over.

New rules may be added as necessary, but are typically ignored.

When there are no longer 4 frisbees available due to out of bounds play, or random acts of god, the players will begin randomly throwing other projectiles (basketballs, tennis balls, footballs, paper airplanes) and try to start up something else.

DS2 Quest Bug Fix Howto

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Okay, for those people running into problems –

I used a modded TankViewer from here.

I used Rapid Tank Creator from here, and made the following changes to the tank after I created it:

  • renamed to *.ds2res
  • changed 2 bytes at offset 2 and 3, from 6967 to 6732
  • changed 2 bytes at offset 8 and 9, from 0200 to 0001

Extract the Logic.ds2res tank using TankViewer.

Search for the flick files that might have the problem. In the case of the Old Man, I looked for “scholar”.

What you’ll probably have to move around or change is something that looks like:

  • SetQuestBool (a1_p_colony, scholar_saved, true);

Sometimes, there will be more than one QuestBool that needs changing:

  • SetQuestBool (a1_p_colony, scholar_saved, true);
  • SetQuestBool (a1_p_colony, log_removed, false);
  • SetQuestBool (a1_p_colony, movie_played, true);

You’ll want to put these changes in some conversation logic that is still accessible in the game…then, next time you talk to them, the quest will be finished.

Delete all the files you didn’t modify, and use Rapid Tank Creator to create a ds2res. Remember to hexedit the necessary bytes listed above.

In the ‘advanced’ tab of Rapid Tank Creator, I set the priority to 1.

Put your new ds2res in your resources directory, restart DS2, and try it out!

Genuine

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If ur just looking for updates (like me), this is an easy one

u need sp2 installed
Do this in IE:

Tools -> Internet Options -> Programs -> click Manage Add-ons
Find the Windows Genuine Advantage add-on in the menu and then click Disable in the Settings box.
Now go back to the Windows Update page and everything will be back to normal.