Harold's Blog About Anything

King's Quest

2006-10-20T11:05:00.000-05:00

If you were around computers during the 1980's and 90's you have probably heard of King's Quest. These were the hottest adventure games that featured graphics rather than text based game play. Well King's Quest I, II and III have gotten makeovers from fans of the adventure gaming genre and have made them available for free.

King's Quest I and II can be downloaded here:

http://www.agdinteractive.com/

King's Quest III can be downloaded here:

http://www.infamous-adventures.com/

Those of you who have played these games will find yourselves right at home. The updated graphics are wonderful, the music is great, and the voice actors have done an excellent job. It is interesting to note that the man who did the voice of Graham in King's Quest V volunteered his time and voice to these games. Both King's Quest I and III are direct 1:1 remakes as far as the story and puzzles. King's Quest II was considered by many fans to be lacking in plot and illogical puzzles. This version of KQ II has an updated plot and the puzzles are better. So while the game will seem familiar, you will find that there is better character development, an expanded story and better puzzles.

If you find you enjoy these games, you can find more adventure games at http://www.bigbluecup.com/. This is the website that created the Adventure Game Studio which is the engine that was used to write these games. The engine is also freely available for download; so if you fancy yourself a programmer and have always wanted to make your own game, you can do that too.

United States takes up space...

2006-10-20T10:14:00.000-05:00

I was recently shocked when I read the following article:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/6063926.stm

The upshot of this policy, bars from space any country that the U.S. government considers hostile. So what happens when any country decides to launch a space flight that the U.S. does not like? Does the G.W. Bush seriously think he can deny other countries access to space? If so he's completely loopy.

There is this thing that the U.N. has called the space treaty. What did you say? North Korea hasn't signed it? Yes I am aware of that. However, this type of language in the policy that the U.S. has adopted should be an amendment of that treaty, specifying that all nations that signed that treaty have the right to defend themselves against hostile nations that would have space based armaments regardless of whether the attacker signed the treaty or not.

The treaty could be further amended to state that the nations who signed the treaty would back each other using both diplomatic means and military force to stop any aggressor nation that uses space based weaponry. Despite the status of the lack of U.S. popularity, I have a feeling this would pass without a problem. This would also ensure that the North Korean government would think twice about launching armed satellites.It's a matter of diplomacy that the U.S. is seriously lacking in of late. It would behoove our government to stop stepping on other nations toes as it were.

We may be the only super power in the world right now, but that does not mean it will last forever. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Medo-Persia, Greece, Rome, Ottoman and England all had there times when no other nation was stronger than them. It is the height of hubris to think that the U.S. will be any different. How we act while we are on top will be taken into consideration when we fall from our lofty position. It may not happen in our life time or even in our grand children's life time, but it will happen. You know what they say, be careful of who you step on when you on your way up, because you might have to kiss their ass on your way down.

So I have been busy...

2006-10-20T10:09:00.000-05:00

Ok, I know I probably don't have too many readers. Most likely the few who do read this probably think I have abandoned this site. Well no I haven't; I have just been somewhat busy lately, but I am back, and I have some content for today. I will try to get back to updating on a regular basis.

tailsteak.com

2006-09-20T21:10:00.000-05:00

tailsteak.com

This website is run by a fellow named Mason Williams, a.k.a. Tailsteak. He wrote a web comic for awhile called one over zero http://oneoverzero.comicgenesis.com/. At first it was a comic that seemed to be trying to find it's place but later matured to a commentary on society. Another nice thing is that the comic actually has an ending. Anyhow, Tailsteak has moved on to other things. At present his site is running a few one off comics. He has quite a bit of material in his archives. Most of the work on his site is funny, insightful or both. It's well worth checking out.

Steve Irwin Dead :-(

2006-09-04T13:17:00.000-05:00

Steve Irwin was killed by a stingray while filming a documentary off the coast of Australia.

http://www.news.com.au/adelaidenow/story/0,22606,20354261-5006301,00.html

http://www.lse.co.uk/ShowbizNews.asp?Code=ZK44187L&headline=steve_irwin_killed_in_diving_tragedy

I am teaching...

2006-08-22T18:40:00.000-05:00

Starting Monday August 28th, I will be teaching two computer classes for five weeks. I will teach a Monday class for beginners and a Tuesday class for intermediate students. So far I have two students in my beginner class and six students in the intermediate class. The class consists of retired school teachers so I know I will have intelligent students. Who knows if I get far enough with the intermediate students, I may even show them how to blog.

Octopus Eats Shark

2006-08-18T18:59:00.000-05:00


Apparently octopus pwns shark.

A few pictures..

2006-08-11T21:06:00.000-05:00

Noah and I blowing bubbles

Joe smiling for the camera in his new hat.

You can tell he is up to something.

Chicken and Sausage Gumbo

2006-08-03T16:01:00.000-05:00

I made a gumbo yesterday and boy did it come out good. One of my favorite past-times is cooking and since I am a cajun, I know how to cook good cajun food. For those of you who like to cook, I am going to share my recipie for chicken and sausage gumbo. I like to share this recipie because in many places in the country seafood is expensive. One thing that you should know how to do before making a gumbo is how to cook a roux. Instead of trying to explain how to cook a roux, I will send you to this excellent site that describes the process better than I could.

http://www.cookinglouisiana.com/Cooking/Making-a-Roux.htm

Boil 2 lbs of boneless skinless chicken breasts. Skim off the top. Do not over cook the chicken or it will lose all of its flavor.

Make a roux of 1/2 cup of olive oil and 1/2 cup of flour in a large stock pot until dark brown. {almost looks like melted chocolate}

Add a package of seasoning (onions, green onions, bell peppers, celery) to the roux. You can usually find the seasoning either in the vegetable section of the grocery or the frozen section. (If you can't find it use a 2 large onions, 1 bunch of green onions, 2/3 cup of celery and 2/3 cup of bell pepper and chop them so they are diced. Do this before you start the roux because it will be too late after.) Add two heaping tablespoons of minced garlic. Cook until the onions are clear.

Add two pounds of sliced sausage of your choice. Cook until it looks like the sausage is starting to plump out a bit and the juices are starting to flow.

Chop up your chicken and add it to the pot and check the amount of chicken stock you have. You want about a gallon of liquid in the stock pot. Add the chicken stock and water until you have a gallon. If you don't want to add water you could buy a couple of cans of low sodium chicken stock.

Add 1/4 teaspoon of Creole seasoning, usually I use Tony's Chacheres or Zattarans, a small splash of Tobasco -- that's about 4-5 drops, 1/4 teaspoon of cumin, and 1/2 cup of dried parsley .

Let it come to a low boil for about 10 minutes and then turn it down to simmer for a minimum of 40 minutes. Add filé to taste and serve over rice.

If you can't find filé in your area, you can buy it online:
http://www.zestgourmet.com/store/gumbo-file-p-120.html

The longer the gumbo simmers the more flavorful your gumbo. You will also find that gumbo tastes even better the next day. :-) Enjoy and let me know if you like it.

Update on my Condition

2006-08-03T15:55:00.000-05:00

I am starting to feel better. My neck and back are stiff. I have been going to a chiropractor so I think that is helping me more than anything else. On the X-rays of my neck he found that my top three verterbrae are not moving independently. Hopefully with time and some adjustments this will be corrected.

Car Accident

2006-07-26T17:45:00.000-05:00

A lady rear-ended me yesterday when I was stopped in a traffic jam. I had my neck in a brace and was strapped to a spine board and rushed to the hospital. Fortunately, the worse I suffered a strained ligament in my neck and a nasty bump on the back of my head. I am a bit sore in my back but the muscle relaxers help. The car is still drivable but it is obvious that the frame is bent. From what the police report says, it looks like I was pushed about 25 feet. I am just glad no one else was in the car with me.

My links...

2006-07-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

I am sure by now you have discovered the links. At the moment I have three. I plan on adding more when I get around to it and tell you why I find them interesting. In the meantime, I'll talk about the links I have up here now.

Google:

If you haven't been living under a rock, then I am sure you have heard about this fantastic search engine. What you may not know is all of the different features, services and products that are available at Google. This page is a list of the many features of Google and this page showcases the services and products that are available. Don't forget to check out Google Labs on that last page; it has some really amazing stuff there. I like the idea of the Google Notebook and I will probably use it sometimes when I am blogging to save time.

Detroit Sports Blog:

You are probably wondering what is someone from South Louisiana is doing with a link to a Detroit sports blog. Well my blog is about anything. :-) Anyhow cochise asked me if I could help them with a formatting problem because the page would not render properly in IE so I spent about an hour researching and fixing the difficulty. After investing so much time in fixing the page, I figured I should read some of it. While sports are not my main interests, I really enjoyed reading it, so if you happen to be from Detroit, or you like their sports teams, this blog has informative and insightful commentary about the Lions, Pistons, Gullwings and Tigers. If you like some other sports teams and you can't find a blog about them, you may want to write your own; if you do then this site would be a good guide for you to see what others might find interesting.

Joy of Tech:

This is a really funny web comic that is updated three times a week on http://www.geekculture.com. As the name suggests, the comic is about technology. Every once in a while a comic might be something just a geek would laugh at {if you don't get those ask your geek friend} but most of the time I find the comics are funny for everyone. The creators, Snaggy and Nitrozac, also have plenty of merchandise available that is fun for geeks who love both new and old tech. The site also features a forum where the comics can be discussed along with a variety of geeky subjects. The people are friendly for the most part but there are two things that you should not do if you go there.

Do not advertise your products on your first post. Let the people get to know you first or you will put them off from visiting your site or buying from you.
Do not ask for help with your homework unless you can show that you have worked hard on it but you "still don't get it".

If you find yourself posting frequently and have some extra cash, you can join the Superfans. Being a Superfan gives you perks such as a personalized avatar, a private forum and creating a web poll. At the Solid Nitrozanium level, Superfans can be appear in a web-comic. So go check it out, and if you happen to post in the forums, give a shout out to me; my nick is CrawGator.

The Beginning

2006-07-20T23:06:00.000-05:00

Hello there,

I know I know you are probably thinking get to the content man. Well this is my first post to my brand new blog so be patient while I explain what will be happening here. This blog is basically a journal of sorts. If I find something interesting I will post it here for you to see. A post could be about anything personal thoughts, recipes, puzzles, links, pictures, fun stuff... well you get the picture I think. I am not promising to update this regularly, but I will attempt to do so at least once a week. If you find something I posted useful, challenging, insightful or enjoyable then I will have accomplished my mission. Come back soon. :-)