HTML5 Video Testing

How to use git with Fallout 3 to make modding nice

Fallout 3

Fallout 3 is a wonderful game created by Bethesda Softworks. It has quickly become my favorite game that not a single other has been able to usurp to this date. One of the things that has given Fallout 3 it's longevity with me is its ability to be modded.

This means that 3rd parties, like you and I, can create game changing features and plug them into the game. This ability has greatly extended the games lifespan and is what has kept me up until 2am this evening.

In my next post I will go into detail on how my recent self-taught lessons on how to use git, a distributed source control software, has lead me to use it in conjunction with Fallout 3 and the merits doing so has brought me.

Accident.... :((

See that pretty bike pictured off to the right? On the 14th of August, maybe three weeks after buying the bike, I got into an accident....

On the way home from work I got off 280 towards 19th Ave and took Alemany since the may road seemed pretty heavily trafficked. I came to a stop sign. Pulled away normally and legally, wasn't even speeding which is an easy thing to do on this bike. I was in the lane 2 (the right or slow lane) and suddenly a woman comes flying out of the parking lot near Hollywood Video.

I tried to swerve but there wasn't enough room, so I braked.... unfortunately a little too hard. I managed to prevent myself from hitting her, but I went high side; the bike flipped and hit the back and flipped again before sliding down the road on it's left side.

Now, I have been riding for about a year. That's not the longest of times but it's not exactly a short period either. I was riding an old beat up 1980 Suzuki GS750E before getting the Ninja. I think the biggest problem, outside of the lady shooting out in front of me without warning or even slowing entering the road, was that the old bike performed so differently under breaking pressure than the new bike.

I suffered a fractured right should bone near the rotator cup and some road rash to my knees and waistline. The road rash is mostly healed now and the sling is off my right arm (although it still hurts enough to use). I am now in a position to start dealing with the aftermath.

The San Francisco police department sucks when it comes to making a police report available to you or your insurance company. As of this post (the 10th of September, 2007) my insurance company has still not received word from SFPD regarding my accident report. I wait on bated breath because unless the woman is found to be at fault, I will have to pay nearly $7,000 dollars out of pocket to fix the bike. This is $7,000 dollars I don't have mind you. I have some but not nearly enough.

This brings me to my next biggest mistake. If your local bike dealership tells you your loan company doesn't require full coverage insurance, you ignore them and get it anyway. I purchased a GAP insurance policy which I misunderstood would cover the remaining loan amount owed when a bike is totaled. My loan company doesn't require that I have full coverage so I got liability only (I WILL NEVER MAKE THAT MISTAKE AGAIN). Here are the two problems with that scenario in my case:

1. GAP insurance covers *only* the difference that your Full Coverage Insurance company will not cover in the event that your bike is totaled. Full Coverage Insurance is not required in conjunction with a GAP insurance policy.
2. In the event you don't have full coverage (and here's the part I didn't know), GAP only covers the amount that your hypothetical full coverage insurance party wouldn't cover. So if, for example, your insurance company would cover $7,000 dollars and your loan was $10,000 then GAP should cover the missing $3,000. If my bike is totalled they would cover the hypothetical $3,000 dollar amount leaving me to pay the remaining $7,000 out of pocket (the part my missing full coverage insurance wouldn't cover).
   
3. My bike's value according to the services that are used by GAP is roughly $7,450, the damage to my bike is roughly $6880. Therefore my bike is not totaled and GAP will do nothing for me.

So, unless the police determine her to be at fault or uninsured (I do have uninsured motorists coverage), I will have to pay the full amount of my loan (over time as per normal) plus an additional $6880 to fix the bike. In addition I am not even sure what my medical bills are going to run. I, very luckily, have medical insurance but I am not sure how much will be covered. The emergency room visit was $10,000 by itself.

I will be screwed. I can muster maybe half of what I owe right now. If she is found to be not at fault and with insurance, then I need to decide if legal counsel or counting pennies is the best approach.

I really don't know where to turn. I am not the type to beg, but if anybody wants to help donate to my cause, this would be one time when I wouldn't turn you down. I have ashamedly setup a PayPal donation link for this as well. I doubt I will see much come from it but....



I am really at a loss. Have any of you experienced a similar situation? Do you have any advice that you can share? If you do, please let me know how it worked out for you? Were you found at fault? What were the circumstances?

Ubuntu Linux

I have started using Ubuntu Linux 5.10 "Breezy Badger" in one of my workstations at the office. In so doing I have come across several issues of note that may help others in need. The first is that our machines reside behind a firewall here at the office and in order to get outside (via the internet) one must configure all internet based applications to use at least our http proxy. One tool often used by Ubuntu's Synaptic Package Manager is the command line tool wget. Wget has a configuration script in the /etc/ directory called wgetrc.

Modify /etc/wgetrc and enable all http/ftp proxies in order to have successful installs via Synaptic Package Manager.

Additionally in getting Flash to install correctly in Firefox 1.5 one must first install all the 'gsfont' packages. Perhaps not all of them but we all need more fonts in our lives so...

Thats it for now.

It's been months

Well all it's now been months since I've updated this. I mentioned to a friend that I needed to keep notes about something I was working on and he said, "...if only you had a blog." Knowing that I do I've taken it as a subtle hint that I should visit my blog page.

Lo and behold the page has completely irrelevent info about my recent life so here goes...

In September I visited Hawaii with my first Japanese girlfriend, Keiko. It was a pleasant trip but our trip together was not meant as a means to rekindle our relationship despite a hidden agenda on her part. I do miss the girl and she is a wonderful woman but we are simply not compatible for long term goals.

Since then I have also severed any ties that might allow Megumi and I to rekindle our relationship. It was difficult but we are looking to be in different places in our lives. I wish her luck with all her endeavors and future relations.

There is a new girl in my life. Although very new, things initially look promising. I will give her a shot and see how things go. Her name is Yuki. She hails from Japan (yeah yeah I know; predictable).

Well I am off to finish some work I have here in the office. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's to any of those who happen across this humble blog.

Ok that last once was a joke for a good friend...

So it's been a little while now since I've posted. Things went well as you may have expected. Previously I stated that I got the girl and luckily I've managed to keep her. She makes me happy and suprisingly enough we're pretty darn compatible. :D

I have some exciting business opportunities on the horizon but they have to stay under the wraps for a bit longer for ... er .. um political reasons. :P I started playing World of Warcraft again and even got my girl an account so we can geek out together with some of my friends. Given that she has more free time than I do I she is quickly catching up to my level. Already she is 25 and that was last night, it wouldn't surprise me if she makes 27 today. I am a mere 5 levels above that so pretty soon she'll be my in-game sugar momma. LOL

That's all for now but I will try to update more in the future for all to see. Besides I am sure the one and only other person who reads these posts will be very interested in the results. Ta ta for now.

So finally for an update

Gabe is happy

Woohoo!

Meg and I hooked up. It was the quickest and yet most fullfilling single to "in-a-relationship" I've had in a long time. We're being monogamous and we're dating so that qualifies for a relationship in my terms.

She's great. I spent the weekend with her and I am completely satisfied. She has a wonderful personality and I think we match well in many ways. Today is Valentine's. I can't wait to see her again and show her off to my friends (as bad as that may sound).

Japanese test tomororw...Date vs. Books

So I met this incredible girl on craigslist the other day. She responded to my post and I was floored. Most of the people who have responded to my ad were either not what I wanted or were guys. Why is it that gay guys respond to an ad in the Men for Women category?

Anyhow this girl is creative, intelligent, gorgeous, tall, multi-lingual and Japanese. She grew up in Japan and later in South America. She speaks portueguese, italian, spanish, english and japanese fluently. That's enough to put me to shame for sure. She's everything I've wanted in a girl for some time.

On top of the language skills she rides a sport bike and loves science fiction. I keep thinking even though she saw my picture she won't like me or something like that. I will know after tonight. I have a Japanese test tomorrow but I am going to go on this date instead. I'll just speak to her in Japanese! That's it, it's like studying but the best of both worlds! Who am I kidding?

Anyhow I am nervous but resolved to just being myself and hoping for the best. Megumi-chan, boku no garufurendo ni naritai ka na?

Argh! Math test...

Hmm, had a math test last night. Everybody's been pretty supportive so far. "Hey Gabe, how'd it go?" and "Did you do well?" and so on and so forth. Not sure how I did to be honest. Truth of the matter is that I think I might have done "OK" but I know for sure I need to study harder...

Let everybody know the details later...