tolitz.com

Caught this little news link in one of the sites I visit:
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/199825_celldrive16.html

Which brings up the question: Is it about time that cellphone use while behind the wheel be considered a driving offense? I mean, the situation is so obvious you begin to wonder why the hell the police are so lax in trying to deal with these yahoos.

Anyone who has driven the streets of Los Angeles know as much as I do that cellphone-using drivers are one of the biggest nuisance on the road. Ever drove your car behind some dumb bitch in an SUV who’s busily chatting on her cellphone? Better yet, have you ever seen her make a left turn at a “yield” intersection, with your car right behind her?

I dunno… the signs are so fuckin obvious it’s a wonder it’s not yet restricted. Driving distractions like this are so common. Some cellphone “activists” will try and say that cellphones are useful in cases where someone needs to report accidents, abudctions, felonies, etc. I say bullshit. That doesn’t give you the excuse to use your cellphone every freakin time you drive. How are you supposed to report an accident if you’re busy talking to your friend about last night’s American Idol? How can you report felonies when you don’t even have enough attention focused on the road? It’s not the ownership of a cellphone that’s the point here, it’s the reckless usage of it while driving!

I bring my cellphone in my car all the time, but I NEVER try to call up someone while I’m driving! I keep it beside me, just in case of emergencies. When someone calls me up, I pick it up and say hello just to see who it is, and then afterwards I tell the caller I’m driving and that I’ll call him/her later. If it’s an important call, I pull over and call them back. It’s that simple.

It’s always ironic that they impose the seatbelt law because it saves the lives of the driver, when they totally ignore cellphone use even if it actually endangers the lives of OTHER drivers.

Everytime I encounter someone on a cellphone obstructing traffic, I honk at them. I keep honking at them until they’re out of my sight. Call it road rage or whatever you like. These idiots must be dealt with if the police won’t lift a finger to deal with them…

Technorati: ban, cellphone, distraction, driving

I had to spend the last two days feverishly updating my module for Neverwinter Nights and pushing for a weekend release of the new version to the NWVault. I’ve gotten some fresh new comments and suggestions, and I’m trying to see which ones I can put into the module.

This has led me to think of my possible future in module making. The Lord of Terror module has eaten up more than 8 months of my life this year. I have since broken up with my fiancee along the way (well, the module wasn’t really the reason for that, but it was a catalyst of sorts). Thankfully, all the time and effort I put into the module has translated well to the people who played it, who could see the fruits of such dedication.

But this pleasant feedback has inadvertantly motivated me to plan future modules for Neverwinter Nights – a game that is more than two years old and is on its last legs, relatively speaking. I know for a fact that my next modules will be drastically better, both in quality and in scope, than my fledgeling efforts on the Lord of Terror, but it also means that I have to once again devote time to module-making – probably for a length of time longer than the 8 months I spent creating my first module.

Hence, I am hesitant. I like to create visual stories that other people can appreciate. Storytelling has been a strong point of mine since high school, and with Neverwinter Nights I could create these stories in a very fun medium. But the time it takes to complete a module is immense. One cannot just whip up a fun module in less than three months and expect it to be any good. Even the best module makers spend more than six months just creating short modules.

And my ideas for my next possible modules are by no means short.

I think the best motivation for a module maker in NWN is the postivie comments and praises by their peers. I know that I created a fun module, but it was still surprising to see the overwhelming reception it got. It was very encouraging.

So right now, I’m thinking… should I continue to make modules for a game that is past its prime? Or should I move on with another hobby that is less time-consuming, even if it’s less satisfying?

Maybe a weekend’s worth of sleep will work wonders…

Technorati: campaign, diablo, lord, module, neverwinter, nights, nwn, nwvault, of, terror, vault

Chilling title, isn’t it? What’s scarier is that it might become a possibility. In a bid to sweep away the last remnants of liberalism in this country, the Bush administration will make sure to spread the radical conservative message and turn America into the next “holy land”…

Well, sure, that might be an exaggeration, but… is it?

Consider this excerpt from an article in the Village Voice:

“The provision we challenged [that the judge struck down],” says Jaffer, “allows the FBI to issue NSLs against ‘wire or electronic service communication providers.’ Telephone companies and Internet service providers [are included.]” As Judge Marrero noted, the FBI could also use an NSL “to discern the identity of someone whose anonymous web log, or ‘blog,’ is critical of the Government.”

Jaffer adds that by requiring information from telephone companies and Internet providers, “The FBI could . . . effectively obtain a political organization’s membership list, like the NAACP or the ACLU, [and could] obtain the names of people with whom a journalist has communicated over the Internet.”

As Judge Marrero said in his decision, this omnivorous invasion of privacy is so broad that it mandates this gag rule “in every case, to every person, in perpetuity, with no vehicle for the ban to ever be lifted from the recipient.”

To all those who encased constitutional violations into a neat little wrapper and called it the ubiquituous “Patriot Act” so that no one can oppose it without being called “unpatriotic,” your plan seems to be working. The majority who voted for Bush doesn’t seem to know the difference…

And they call me paranoid…

Technorati: act, blog, critical, government, patriot, village, voice

Linkage:
http://www.cnn.com/2004/ALLPOLITICS/11/15/powell/

Just when I thought the current state of government can’t get any scarier, this happens. The New World Order is falling into place.

Technorati: colin, powell, quits

Saw this little link in one of the forums I visit:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/2004votefraud_review.html

Here’s a taste:

Vote suppression. Residents turned away from polls. Shortages of voting locations and ballot forms. Foreign monitors ‘barred’ from polls. Global monitors find faults. Unmatched exit polls/actual results – actual results always skewed to Republican candidates. CNN drastically changed Ohio exit poll page. Masses of e-Voting software “glitches”. Computers lose votes. Presidential votes miscast on e-Voting machines throughout the US. More votes than voters. Republicans gain by 128.45% in Florida counties using optical scan voting machines while Democrats show 21% loss – some districts show gains of over 400% while one, Liberty County, gained over 700% for Republicans.Warren County officials locked down the county administration building on election night and blocked anyone from observing the vote count as the nation awaited Ohio’s returns. Bush’s ‘incredible’ vote tallies.

7% turnout in Cleveland precinct? Cuyahoga County: different towns have the exact same number of “extra” votes. Several Republicans win by exact same number of votes. And on, and on…

Interested? Here’s the link again:
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/2004votefraud_review.html

Not that I actually believe all the claims made in the link, but with the way these elections have taken a turn, one should never discount the possibility…

Technorati: 2004, election, fraud, presidential

Spent the most part of today trying to incorporate the new layout (yeah right, new layout… I just moved the graphics column from the left to the right). I planned on using Wordpress as my weblog script, but decided to stick with Moveable Type coz it was so much easier to customize (“easy” is a relative term – it was still a pain in the ass trying to get the fonts behaving the way I wanted them).

I am now in the process of installing an image gallery (chose 4images coz it was free and it came with Fantastico in the Cpanel). I’m still kinda miffed that there was no good “free” review script, so I guess I’ll have to reinstall Reviewpost.

This time, I decided not to include a forum in this site. It was not gonna be used as much as I want to, anyway. I’m not THAT famous…

You may be wondering about the Google ads on the left? Well, call it webmaster’s prerogative. You’ll never know when people might visit the site and see the ads. A little extra cash didn’t hurt anyone, most especially me

So anyway, that’s it for tonight. Hopefully I can get all this shit done within this week.

Tolitz out.

Technorati: ads, adsense, cpanel, fantastico, google, moveable, reviewpost, type, typepad, wordpress

I’ve decided that enough time has passed for me to slack out on site duties.  I’ve spent a large part of this year trying to do a module for Neverwinter Nights.  Now that I’ve finished that thing, it’s time to go back to where I’m good at – sex… err, web design, I mean…

So anyway, I’m gonna jumpstart my weblog at my personal site this week.  These past elections have really pissed me off.  America was not the country I thought it to be – its majority has become the embodiment of almost everything I loathe.

Tolitz.Com is coming back, and this time, the angst is for real…

Technorati: elections, module, neverwinter, nights, nwn

*Tries to part the cobwebs in the site*

Hehe … funny editorial pic

Technorati: conservative, funny, jesus, republican