Behold! My very first YouTube video upload!

It's kind of morbid, really, but, at the same time, it's really, really funny. A clip from the Lost season one finale, where a guy named Dr Arzt tagged along with the "heroes" of the show when he learned they were going after some dynamite. Apparently, Arzt knew a thing or two about explosives and wanted to make sure nobody killed themselves with carelessness. ...and, well, as you can tell from the title, it didn't work out as well as he planned.

Capella kept bugging me to upload this so she could watch it over and over again.

Well, I got a Beta Confirmation email from Cyan today. At first I thought I was accepted, but, alas... they just wanted to let me know they know I've asked to test. Okay. At least they acknowledge I've signed up, heh.

In the email, they said I can support Cyan by signing up for Gametap (the game service, and their new publisher) using a special link. (Here's the link, in case you want it: http://www.gametap.com/uru-offer) So I'm like, "okay! I want to support Cyan, and I'm bored. Let's check this Gametap thing out."

Now, I know I talked against Cyan yesterday, but please realize that I still love Cyan, and I don't want them to die (again). I might not like the community, or some of the things Cyan does, but I still support them. They're one of the coolest companies there are!

Anyway... I checked out the Gametap games list, and my jaw dropped. There are around 650 games ready for users to download and play... legally. For free. (Well, during the free month.) It's $10 a month and you have access to 650 games, ranging from the good ol' days of Arcades, to present day (albeit older than cutting-edge) games. ...and, of course, new Uru Live! $10 a month for an MMO plus over 600 games at your disposal.

Most MMOs are about $15. Some are $20, but most are $15. $10 for Uru Live AND Gametap is an amazing steal, people. I don't want to hear anyone whining about how expensive it is, that you don't want to spend that much money. Now, I can understand if you seriously CAN'T, but I don't want to ever hear anyone say $10 is too much for Uru Live, because it's not. It's not too much for an MMO, and it's not too much for an MMO and 600 other games!

So after I picked my mouth up off the floor, I decided to give Gametap a try! You get a free month if you sign up right now (unfortunately, they ask for a credit card at sign up, anyway) and everything works as it would be if you were paying. I am currently downloading Battlecruiser Millenium, Beyond Good & Evil and Homeworld 2, yay! They just... like... have all the games I've always wanted to try.

But see, I don't think I would buy Gametap if Uru Live wasn't going to be there, too. I would prefer to buy all these games separately in their boxes. But see... World of Warcraft is about $14 a month. Not too bad. It's less if you commit to a contract of more than one month. $10 a month is amazing for a game that's constantly updated and multiplayer. Apparently, you don't even have to buy a box for Uru Live (at least I don't think so), so you don't even have to buy a $50 box, and then $10 from then on out. It's $10 for an MMO and then you get mountains of games in ADDITION to it.

So yes... I am very impressed. So far, Gametap seems to be treating Cyan very well, also. I mean, it was pretty obvious that Ubisoft was screwing around with things even before Uru came out the first time. I don't get that feeling this time... unless they're doing a really good job covering it up.

Apple Warns Companies About 'Pod' Naming

Okay... with all the fanboy activity around Apple that claims how such an awesome company they are, even I thought they were above this. I mean, not even Microsoft has tried to pull this. Well, I'm sure they've tried with the word "Windows", but this is like trying to own the word "Win" because you own "Windows."

Let me clarify...

Apple made the iPod. It's an MP3 music player, and it's extremely popular in the United States. It's called iPod. eye-pod. Not "i". Not "pod". "iPod." That's the name. iPod. I've never heard anyone calling it anything differently. If they did, we wouldn't know what they were talking about. There are different versions of the iPod, such as the iPod Nano, the iPod Video, the iPod Shuffle. But, hey! Guess what? They're all still called iPods!

So what's Apple trying to do now? Well, see, they don't like people using the word "pod" in their products anymore, because people might get "confused" or some such bologna they're spewing. It's just rediculous. Some companies are changing names because Apple is aggressively running after a few others. They're using scare tactics here on something they simply don't own. Take a look at Wikipedia's list of what Pods are. No... Apple doesn't own the word "pod".

In my opinion, Apple's actions are no better than the RIAA. They don't own the items in question, yet they're deploying scare tactics to get people to stop using it because it's "too similar to the name iPod". Hah, well, if you didn't want that, you shouldn't've called it an iPod! I don't think they'll win if someone were to actually take them to court over this, and, if they DID win? I would have lost all faith in Apple and our legal system.

This is not a bash against Apple. Well, I guess it sort of is... but it's not a bash against Apple because it's Apple. It's a bash against Apple because what they're doing here is stupid, arrogant, and greedy. I have an iPod, and I really, really want a Mac system, so I don't hate them just because they're Apple. But this is insane.

So Cyan has started the Uru Live beta testing... only... they said it was going to be a first-come-first-serve basis. Okay, that's great! So everyone signs up in a rush, crashing the website. Well, then the beta opens and... hmm. Something's a bit wrong.

But then Cyan clears it all up for us. They didn't actually mean it was first-come-first-serve from the beginning, see. They wanted a closed beta with hand picked players. But they didn't seem to bother to tell us until after they'd done it. Yeah... I have a pretty good idea of who they picked. It's the people who always get picked for everything.

The community fosters elitism, promoting people into high positions based on connections alone, with no consideration to skill. At first I thought it was just the community itself. But, lately, I've noticed it's not the community alone... Cyan themselves are somewhat passively promoting it, as well. The DRC Liasons, the early explorers in Mudpie, etc. Perhaps they don't mean it that way, but it gets twisted and people start thinking they're pretty tough stuff because they got picked. Sure, some of them are good at what they do, but, mostly, the position goes straight to their heads. They get promoted and then tend to forget about everyone "below them".

...and then when you try to say something? You get pegged as a sore loser, and some even go as far as to say "if you don't like it, then leave". Oh, that's brilliant. Way to alienate everyone not in the clique. ...and then Cyan does this.

Oh, yeah, I know someone's going to come along and say "oh, you're just mad because you didn't get picked". Well, let me say, no, I don't care about not getting picked. I really couldn't care less about Myst, Cyan, Uru or anything else related to them anymore. It's nothing but a shade of what it once was and it will never come back. I'm still not interested enough in actually purchasing new Uru Live. I am, however, mad because Cyan and the community used to be above all this.

This time, I'm not the only one who's noticing it. Hopefully more people will see it, too, and speak up? Then I won't be the crazy idiot on the block who's just upset because I was never important.

So there you go folks. You (*coughMYSTBERTcough*) claim that the reason you don't comment is because I never post anything interesting? Well, here you go! Commence the thoughtless flames against me... now! Oh, and comments supporting me are always welcome, too.

When I took my shower tonight, the water smelled like boiled eggs.

Behold! The epitome of nerdiness... using a 500 dollar digital camera to make sure you can match all the cards and get all the items in Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island. Did you know that when you match all the cards, the last two cards you match turn into a 10-UP? So make sure you leave what you don't want until the very last... I usually leave those crazy question-mark clouds. Never really figured out what they were for, so I leave them for 10-UPs.

Oh, also, I was actually able to sit down and flesh out my very first music track. 22 seconds of ambient goodness! Adopting TW's brilliant naming scheme, I have aptly titled this song "Song 002". Song 001, sadly, decided it didn't want to be my first released music, and is currently sitting in an unfinished form on my computer. (In other words, it sounded terrible, so I stopped and moved on.) Song 002 sounds pretty cool, in my opinion... I couldn't figure out how to make it a longer track, though.

So the "Mystralia Committee" decided to quietly issue in a new webmaster without telling me.

That was nice of them.

Nobody ever asked me if I wanted to stop administering the site, yet the new webmaster announcement (which, incidentally, I only saw today after the new webmaster needed to ask me how to change the layout... which was a shock to me) declared that I was no longer interested and that the site was falling into disrepair and that it lacked new features.

Excuse me? Nobody ever asked! How can I add features that nobody asks for. I might also add that they're wanting to add features I suggested from the very beginning, and was told 'no, that's too much trouble'. Hmm. Interesting.

I am not happy.