Clean Slate

There's just something refreshing about getting back to business after you've fdisk'ed and formated a hard drive. I tried to get a clean Win98SE install on this system, but after six hours and a dozen error messages, I gave up and ran the system restore CD after another format. Now OS and ISP and all my software are working in harmony again, aside from those random DUN freezes. I installed newer versions of Firefox, Ad-Aware, and ZDoom. Now I'm just fighting the problems you get with 64MB of RAM.

I actually managed to re-play the first few episodes of Half Life and Blue Shift at a slightly higher resolution than 400x300 and with Direct3D turned on. As much as I love Half Life's two add-on episodes, I'm pissed that the first, Blue Shift, is so much shorter than Opposing Force, the follow-up, also by Gearbox. Blue Shift is much better. OpFor's more detailed architecture more than halved my Blue Shift FPS. Couple that with new enemies (which I did enjoy) that can hit you twice as quickly, and you have some frustrating gameplay. Still, it's fun whomping a useless private in the face with a monkey wrench so you can take his M-60.

Oh yeah, the Griz beat the hell out of the Lakers tonight. It's satisfying watching your team beat someone senseless the night after being robbed of a divisional road win in a fixed game.