Update: Buyer Beware

Ladies and gents, today I would to make you aware of something that is plaguing our video capturing industry. What you must be aware of is Dazzle of SCM Microsystems Incorporated. Today, they fill our market with their so-called ultimate solutions for creating movies, but in reality, it is the ultimate solution for pissing off their customers such as me. I made the mistake of purchasing their Dazzle Digital Video Creator 150. I honestly wasn't dazzled in any way whatsoever. Last night, I installed their software with complications of XP not liking it though the package says it's XP compatible. I installed it anyway, thinking that this is just a plain error since XP doesn't like anything. I did not have a chance to test it out since I was almost dead to world by the time I finished setting things up. I return home from work this evening in a jolly mood (this whole new "whatever" attitude is really working. ^^;) and turn my computer on. It loaded with no issues. The software installation said that I should check for updates and being that I always try to keep my computer updated, I did as they recommended. It was down hill from here, folks. On installation, I followed the steps as per their webpage. Apparently my scanner did not like this. What the online instructions failed to tell you was that not only do you need to remove the USB cable of their capture device, but you should remove all other USB devices or they will go haywire. >.< So, my computer constantly tried to reinstall the scanner software no matter how many times I tried to cancel it. Even unplugging it did me no good. I forced my computer to shut down and after doing so, all hell broke loss. On restarting it, my video driver was shot to hell. ... I said fuck it at the moment cause Roo was trying to check her mail. I waited till she was done completely with using her computer. Luckily, I was able to reinstall that... ... ... of course not with ease. After dealing with that, I uninstalled the capture device software and started from scratch, not even bothering with the recommended update from them. Success! No problems! Alright! Let's get this sucker going! I launch their bundled software and set the device to their DVC 150. ... I wait. ... It loads! ... a .... green and black screen. Now, I know I have all the settings correct. It was very basic. I pull out the instruction book and read through it. I follow their troubleshooting and do as it says. ... ... Nothing. I basically had it with this load of crap. Boxed it up and preparing to stand in the Returns line tomorrow at Best Buy. So, folks, DO NOT BUY anything that has the Dazzle name on it or is made by SCM Microsystems. It'll only cause headaches as it did for me.

On the positive side, I did get a $50 gift card from Best Buy. I asked the cashier what I did to get it. The guy told me cause I was so hot looking. What can I say, everyone digs my super sexy body. ... ... ... @.@ Nah, seriously, the guy just shrugged and said sarcastically that I was their millionth customer. We all laugh and move on our way. I hope they don't want their gift card back. ^^;;;

In other news, I'm surfing Live365 trying to find a good game music station and I noticed no one has anything dedicated to Capcom. So, I'm currently working on something for the Capcom music loving folks. I mean, yeesh, they have a bunch of classic tracks from their arcade days to their Nintendo days and so forth. ::shrugs:: I get such silly ideas.

The end!

Update: Evolution

It's amazing how graphics have evolved in the video game industry. Behold my 8-bit Noah as he grows up through the many bits of life! I mean, look how stunning he is when he reaches 128-bits! Man, video games sure have come a long way. ::nod nod:: And my Noah is better than yours, Roo. >p

I keep forgetting that I have this... that and I'm getting REALLY lazy in updating since I'm normally been tired lately from me job. Speaking of which, I went in today with only one thing on my mind: "Whatever". Yup, that was my attitude for today. I focused on what had to be done for this day and that's that. All these major deadlines? Whatever. "Hey, Jon, the printers are messed up again". - "That's cool. I'll check it when I'm done hear". This and that and that and this. You had to wait in line, folks, cause Jon was gonna take his sweet time and not stress about it. I'm trying to control how I react to things at my job, trying not to let my job control me. I control my job. Gah, for once, I came home feeling good. Top of the world. Course, mind you, I was still tired. Can't change that whole manual labor part and all, you know. But, it just felt good. And Roo made fried rice tonight. I mean, this day could not get any better, though I am waiting for it to. ^_~ LOL. I feel like such a dork right now. Course, I really need to be positive about it. I was thinking that this whole new "fight the stress" attitude won't last long and that's the wrong kind of thinking. As one of Diamond Dallas Pages' old personas use to say: "It's not a bad thing, it's a good thing". ::big smile:: ... I miss DDP. ^^ So, I come home from dropping off some videos later and Roo was wondering if there was something wrong. I didn't quite know how to answer her cause I really don't know how I feel... I mean... I feel loopy.... or light... ... or as I told her, "weird". ::shrugs:: She tells me whatever makes me happy and I told her I don't know what makes me happy. ... And I don't. She said something after words but I didn't quite hear her cause I was messing with the chain on the door. Drats. This is gonna take some time for me to become.... uh, relaxed, I guess? ^^ I can feel a great tension still in my shoulders.

In other news, Wrestlemania sucked. Limp Bizkit sucked. More than half the matches and their endings sucked. Did I mention it sucked? ^^ ... I need a drink! ::ZOOM:: Anyhow, Matt Hardy Version 1 won! YES! Long live Mattitude!!! HBK and Jericho. Great match. Ending sucked. ... I can't believe HBK won, though. What's that? Give Jericho a push? Nah, let's just crush all his hopes and dreams. I mean, as long as you're sucking Triple H's cock, you'll always get to win. Does that mean he sucks his own cock cause he did beat Booker T? I know, I know horrid image. Don't worry, I'm being hung at dawn tomorrow for those comments. ... ::disappears to watch Roo play Dark Cloud 2:: .... Huh? Where was I? OH! Right, HBK vs. Jericho. Sucked. Jericho was awesome though when HBK was taking 20 minutes to get to the ring. Jericho just flips him the bird with his pouting face probably saying something along the lines of "Fuck you". >D Jericho rocks! Hardy rocks! ANGLE ROCKS! ... Gah, it's a shame Brock missed the last spot of finishing Angle off with the Shooting Star Press. He constantly looked at Angle judging if he could make it or not. Man, Brock, you should have moved to the center of the ring just to be on the safe side. Drats. You could tell he was disappointed after the match. That, or really out of it cause he turned late while doing it and landing badly on his head. It was quite the scary sight. But, Angle and Brock hug and we all cry cause we know Angle will be disappearing for a while. Course, me and Roo screamed in utter joy after Jericho and HBK hug. Why? Cause Jericho gave good OLD HBK a kick to the crotch. >D Can't wait to see what stories will develop now since Wrestlemania is suppose to be the big turn in stories in the company. We'll see. Oh, and Goldberg is coming. CARE! He and his stunning acting ability and amazing aresenal of 3 moves! Make him a heel and make sure someone else does the speaking for him.

Enough about wrastlin'! How about personal life now? Well, besides what I said on top. I figured I would post some artwork. Sprite artwork. >D The following pic is from me new RPG that I'm throwing together. I'm playing around with RPG Maker 2003 and there's so much more that I can play with now. So, what I decided to do was do something different so that I can learn all the new features of RPG Maker 2003. And when I mean different, I mean different:

That's right, folks! It's gonna all 8-bit! >D I went and looked up the Famicom's (NES - Nintendo Entertainment System) specs and now working on an RPG based off its limitations. Well, mainly its color limitations: a color palette of 52 colors, that maximum of 16 colors on screen at once, and the maximum of 4 colors per sprite. I will make exceptions here and there. Why on earth would I do something like that? Looking around at these RPG Maker review sites, these guys can be really harsh and biased about their opinions of these homebrew RPGs. So, I want to put them to the test. I want to see if these guys have been spoiled or are just stuck up cause they think they know it all. Honestly, there is more to a game then just its graphics and I want to prove that graphics alone does not make a game. So, there is my thoughts. Oh, the guy is named Noah. He was originally named Hikaru but I asked my bro for suggestions since I'm always naming my heroes something Japanese sounding. So, he spat off a few and Noah was the winner.

Speaking of my bro, he was the only person to piss me off today. We were working in the same office and I had my music playing. It was a mix of several Final Fantasy albums that was in the CD player at that time. I was talking to a co-worker who feel in love with my Chrono Cross soundtrack and is constantly listening to it. So, I'm telling him there's more. He needs variety besides that album. As I step back in the office, my bro says that I should listen to my own words cause he was tired of listening to that "Finaly Fantasy crap". Well, I already knew where he was going with it. He pops out his CDs and I immediately tell him no, cause I don't like his music. He says I was already passing judgment without giving it a try. I know my bro's style of music he is into and I don't enjoy it. And he can't quite get the point across his head. But, in the end, we end up yelling at each other and he's all upset cause I'm not giving his music a chance when I have on several occasions. Anyhow, this is the EXACT reason why we will never be able to live with each other. We have TOO many differences that we'd end up killing each other.

Um... I had a couple of sexual fantasies last night which I haven't had in ages.... HEY! Come back here. I'm not going into detail about them. Anyhow, all of you have had one one time or another or will someday! =p ANYHOW, just thinking about them makes me realize how they are either a) very squishy cause I'm such a hopeless romantic or b) something that would appear on Skinemax, er... Cinemax. ... cause... yeah... well,... You get the point. Figure I'd share cause... I'm a DORK!!!! 

... The end! ^_^

f r e s h   b r e a t h

Thanks for the tip, Sammy! >D ::spend spend spend:: o.o;

4 mints on my pillow.