Well today I filled out an application to take part in video game testing sessions at some place called Enzyme Testing Labs. Man that would be sweet. It isn't the first time I apply somewhere regarding video game testing, yet before I was declined because I didn't have a high school degree. That's when I decided to go get my damn degree. This time around, I doubt it requires it, but we never know. Hey, I won't get anywhere if I don't try anyway. It's better to try it out and be declined again rather than simply not trying.

Nonetheless, I still plan on getting that high school dregree this year, or whenever I can afford to go back to school, and re-apply at the bigger gaming industries in Montreal again once I have it.

So I've tried out my Linux Distros, and more than I intended to do at first. I tried out Fedora, FreeSpire, Ubuntu and some of it's derived projects; Kubuntu and Edubuntu. I also wanted to try Xubuntu and Gobuntu, but my Xubuntu Live CD was defective and I didn't feel like making a new copy of it, and Gobuntu itself does not have any Desktop Live Media yet, therefore I could not test it.

I'll make some short paragraphs about them, and how I liked them or not. Note that every Linux Distros have several desktops, meaning you can open for say, your web browser in desktop 1, then click on the 2nd desktop icon to have a free of any windows desktop. Nice little feature for anyone who always have a million windows up at the same time. Each of them are also entirely customizable, even highly customizable.

Ubuntu: I start with Ubuntu since this has been a favorite amongst Linux users for a while now. And in all honesty, I don't see all the hype about it. It is a pretty typical Linux distro, good for the all around user. It just isn't the one I've tried that felt the most comfortable, although in terms of features it is complete. What I definately liked about a Live CD of Ubuntu distros, each of them, is that you can perform an integrety test to check for any errors on the disc before actually booting the Live OS. It's just a nice little touch, since it prevented me from booting Xubuntu and get a bunch of errors while trying to run it. Nonetheless, Ubuntu is a good distro for newcomers to the Linux world and to those who don't want a single little thing having to do with windows. That includes MP3's, since most Linux Distros will work with OGG format instead. Of course, you can download the different codecs required for it to read basicaly anything that Windows can. OGG often has sounded better anyway, but it's MP3 that is widespread. It comes with every programs for what you would expect; Browser (FireFox), Email client (Evolution), Instant Messenger (Pidgin), Paint (Gimp, OpenOffice.org Drawing), Text editors (OpenOffice.org, Text Editor), Music and Video playback (Totem video player, RhythmBox music player) and some pretty occasional games such as Mines, Sudoku, Mahjongg, etc. The interface itself feels good and smooth and LOOKS good too as with most Linux distros. I just found it to be too typical with nothing truely special, out of the blue, for all the hype it gets amongst Linux Users. Oh, and for a clean looking taskbar, the menus are situated at the top of the window, and every windows you open will appear in aa thin taskbar on the bottom.

Edubuntu: Plain and simple, Edubuntu is Ubuntu, all the way from A to Z, if you add a new letter to the alphabet after Z. Edubuntu, as the name implies, is aimed at education and it does a pretty good job at it. It has absolutly all the same features as the primary Ubuntu distro, with the added Educational parts. For example, it has what they called Kalzium, which is the full table of molecules, atoms, whatever, I don't remember what it is, although I did learn it in school and although it was my strongest ****lol. They even have an app called KStars, which is the full solar system, with the constellations and everything. They have a BUNCH of other applications as such, all aimed towards education. Some are more typical education stuff. But all in all, the rest of the OS is exactly the same, works the same, does the same as Ubuntu. Still, it felt better.

Kubuntu: Ah, Kubuntu. The Ubuntu derived distro that is nothing like it's original product. Kubuntu actually feels empty, yet feels much smoother, much prettier than Ubuntu, for some strange reason. Now, the default apps are different this time around. Browser (Konqueror), Email Client (Kontact), Instant Messeneger (Kopete), Multimedia playback (Amarok and Kaffeine which works as multimedia themselves, instead of one for each), Text Editors (OpenOffice again, also Kate Advanced Text Editor) and that would be it in terms of similarities to the other Ubuntu's out there. Now, I did not say anything about Paint, because I didn't see any. Of course, Gimp could easily be downloaded from the net once Kubuntu is installed. The OS does not have any games either. That's typically where it felt empty; Games and Paint. But that's not such a big matter. Instead, Kubuntu have an IRC Client (Konversation) and a PDF file viewer (KPDF) which is a nice addition. All of these seems to work pretty good, and Kubuntu, in my opinion, looked and felt better than the 2 others I have tried. Note that this time around, it's a windows like taskbar situated at the bottom only.

Fedora: I personally did not find Fedora all that good, despite the hype I've seen about it within Linux magasines. It's pretty much Ubuntu, which I was disapointed since I was looking forward to something different. The only notable differences I could find are the Text Editors, which Fedora provides us with a simple Text Editor, AbiWord and Gnome Spreadsheet. Basicaly nothing that OpenOffice doesn't do anyway. You are greeted by a beautiful welcome screen though. For those of you with support for good 3D can activate 3D effects in Fedora's desktop, which for some reason did not work for me other than mess it up entirely. It's probably the only note worthy difference in my opinion, assuming it works for you. Otherwise, it's basicaly Ubuntu under a different colored scheme.

FreeSpire: Now, that was my favorite of them all. Why? Because it is so widely addapted for anybody and for whatever you want. The OS comes pre-installed with different codecs allowing a playback of many different media formats that other distros do not offer. My W-Lan worked without the slightest issue on this one, straight off the Live CD, unlike any of the past distros I had tried. Just this felt already better. The interface is beautiful, works like a charm and feels comfortable. The taskbar, like Kubuntu, is at the bottom. It comes also comes with my favorite browser (like most of them) but especially with my favorite Email Client. Browser (FireFox), Email Client (ThunderBird), Instant Messenger (Pidgin), Paint (KolourPaint which is a basic paint program), Text Editors (OpenOffice, Kate, Kwrite), Multimedia playback (Kplayer, RealPlayer, Lsongs). If you miss anything basic in this one, you have a big problem. You can also have desktop widgets, download additional widgets, themes, applications entirely free with a simple click, through CNR which is provided on your desktop right when you start the OS. It looks very good and feels very smooth. You are also welcomed with a nice, 2-3 pages wizard setup which allows you to change settings such as timezone, username, etc. and also setup your master sound level from the start. Every programs worked like a charm. Definately my favorite of them all for it's wide range of utilities that will be avaible, all because of the many different codecs that comes pre-installed on it, which other distros lack.

That's pretty much it, in short terms anyway. I will never know what Xubuntu really is like most probably, and Gobuntu is Ubuntu, but entirely open sourced. Most Linux distros are open sourced, allowing you to do mdoficiations and create your own distro out of it. And Gobuntu does just that with Ubuntu.

I tried to make it as short as possible. These are all good distros, if one of you is looking for Linux or would like to make a Dual Boot machine, I strongly suggest to check out FreeSpire, Kubuntu and Ubuntu. Eventually, once I get down to learning in an efficient manner how to Dual Boot, I plan on doing so with XP and FreeSpire, since I have a couple programs that are specifically windows based that I need to keep, therefore can't change entirely to Linux, which would be much more simple than Dual Booting, but sadly, not every company out there realises that Linux's user base is growing each day very fast, very quickly, and that one day it'll simply hit them in the face. Bow to the penguin!

For my birthday I received the PS2 Dual-Pack of Guitar Hero I & II. Yes, my birthday is only on wednesday, but nonetheless I got it today lol. Pretty sweet. I am currently working on completing GH1. Completed the easy career quite easily, since in GH3 I am currently on Expert, but hey, have to do it entirely, don't we? Well do.

So as I engage my Medium career playthrough on GH1, I can't wait to finish it so I can also begin on GH2. Man, two great games. Now once they are all completed, I'll have a BUNCH of songs for Guitar Hero if you combine all 3 games together. I'll never get bored with it..sadly though it also means that all my other, currently playing, PS2 games are basicaly going nowhere, while I am right in the middle of the games or even at the end of it, all because of Guitar Hero monopolising my PS2 time ever since Christmas.

By the way, I fully tried out FreeSpire and enjoyed it alot. Those of you who like Windows apps and codecs, yet hate Windows in general, are reccommended to make a Live CD of the Linux distribution known as FreeSpire (LinSpire is the shareware version) and try it out. I'll explain in another blog why since I have yet to fully explore Fedora and Ubuntu.

So today I went a bought a Linux magazine, which included a live boot CD of the new Fedora 8. The new version is called WereWolf, but why? I have no idea. I just wanted to test it out, see how it ran. Live boot CDs are perfect for trying out a distribution without having to install anything. Simply pop in the disc, restart the computer, and let it do the work.

Pretty much as I expected, Fedora 8 looked pretty good. As with most Linux distributions, it looked pretty. I didn't play around with it much though. Simply checked a few settings and that's about it. Of course, I will check it out again and play more with it, mess more with every settings, check out the included applications, etc. Sadly enough since it is only a live boot CD, my internet wouldn't work on it. Probably because the drivers or none of this are found onto the CD. Anyway it isn't like I need to, since it comes with Mozilla FireFox, which is the browser I use in my everyday life.

I'll post more of my opinion on the newly released WereWolf in the upcoming days, when I've come around playing with it more.

I also downloaded the ISO for the distributions FreeSpire and Ubuntu, made a live boot CD for each of them and will test them out as well. The one I am particularly looking forward to the most is FreeSpire. Ubuntu out to raise my curiosity as it is currently the most popular Linux distribution amongst the users. Oh, and don't worry, it isn't stealing or anything, since all 3 of these are entirely free distributions.

Now, I first started this as a blog about me reaching level 29, but soon changed it after going to see the profile of Its_A_Name, otherwise known as Kenny. He has been banned too.

I didn't know him too well. We recently started to track each other since we were both officers at the PC Wallpaper Depot Union. So therefore I can't say much about him being banned. Nonetheless, it feels strange to me that yet another person on my list has been banned. He was a good person as far as I know, remember that I didn't know him too well nor for too long.

I still feel like this is another lost.

Right now it is 4:17AM. Usually, at this time of the night, or should I say morning, I more than ever am able to sleep..sometimes. Now though, as often is, I am not. In this moment of what we could call insomnia that I am experiencing, I decided to write a blog. I still don't know about what exactly. Perhaps dive a bit into the insomnia from my point of view, point of view from a long time, experienced, insomnia companion.

Meeting insomnia again for me is like meeting a good ol' pal from back in the days, or a school buddy from way back then. You know him/her, you spent quite a part of your life with him/her, but when you meet again after a while you only know so little about what to actually do. What do we do? I don't know. You're alright, I'm alright, but what do we do next? You don't know. It's just some sort of cold moment where nothing happens and then a goodbye introduces itself after a big 2 minutes of "Hey, it's been a while". The difference is that you will meet insomnia much, much more often than such an old pal.

I'm feeling tired, yet the sleep doesn't come. The eyes stays shut, but the mind remains overly active. Stuff goes through your head. Stuff you don't really want to remember, stuff you don't want to think about, and they only help to keep your mind overly active as you fight against staying awake. You start having strange thoughts that you normally don't have throughout a occasional day. Of course, we experience strange thoughts often throughout a day, but these aren't any typical strange thoughts. More obscure, deeper, strange thoughts of the past.

What's so special with insomnia? You can't sleep; you can't sleep. End of the line. That's what, people who experience insomnia frequently in their lives, would like it to be. Yet, it isn't. Many things resurfaces in your brain. Past experiences and for some reason they only appear a thousand times harder to take. Simple happenings change into life-decisive phenomenons. Why did this happen? Why didn't I do it this way? Why did you do that? How come everything had to come to this end? Why do I have to go through this tomorrow? What will happen? Endless questions. Only the bad end of things seems to resurface in such a state. Where did the positive, enjoying experiments of life went? Oh, they are still there, but unfortunately, they aren't friends with my insomnia.

Maybe it is only my genre of insomnia who acts like this. It's always been the same, everynight that it pays me a visit. Fortunately though, it occurs less frequently than it used to. Everyone with it experience it differently. For some, overwhelming events keeps them from sleeping. Others might simply be too paranoid. I feel as if insomnia presents itself under a form which is against your morals. I live in the present, or try to. The past is the past, the future will be what it will be. Today is the day. Therefore, the present is a step above and is what I must follow. Insomnia presents itself under the form of past and future for me. Hence why I believe it takes the appropriate form which goes against your morals. Never give up, be persistent, and insomnia will present itself as a failure, with no second-chance, with an abrupt stop to your hopes and beliefs. The same applies if you never go to the end of things, always give up, insomnia will present itself in the form of "What if I gave it my all?". All manners to keep your mind overly active, seeking for an answer, pondering on the events.

That, my friend, is the insomnia that has been haunting me for years.

Many people wrote blogs in concern to Dev_Ron's profile being banned. We sure don't know the whole story. Why it happened? Who knows other than himself. Eventually one of us will catch a glimpse of Ron by e-mail or on a messenger and he will be able to ellaborate on what happened. Apparently, I've heard he knew he was going to be banned soon. So now what can we do about it?

Despite our "commemorative" blogs, I doubt it will change anything to the situation as much as we'd like to. We could invade the mods, yeah, we could, but will that change anything other than risk our own profiles? Nope. Some of us are being watched over by mods, I don't know if I am, I don't know if you are, but I know they see our blogs about Ron. Yet it won't change a damn thing.

Once we do catch a glimpse of him by other manners of GameSpot since this is now rendered as impossible, maybe we will learn things we didn't know. But in general, Ron was a perfect GameSpotter to most of us, as I replied in DragonCub's blog. He would invest some time into the community, would get along with the majority of the people, etc. I've seen people get banned in the span of time I spent on GameSpot. I could tell you myself just from having seen their profiles why they got banned. But Ron? Total mystery as far as everyone knows so far.

Hell, we might even be puting our profiles at risk just by talking about it. We're almost raising a controversy with it. Some of us have more edgy blogs about it than others, going straight to the point with what we could consider anger, or even fear. Last thing I'd want to see is one more of us banned. Some more than others. Just as I know other users feel the same way about the others, probably not me, but we all have GameSpotters whom we felt close to and Ron was one of them for most of the people who knew him.

We can talk as much as we want about it, but I doubt it will bring him back. I'm really curious as to why it happened. I haven't talked with him last night therefore could not ask him what happened, why he did get banned. That's something all of us wonder, this I'm sure of.

People, try to not cross the thin line when talking about it all. Wouldn't want any of you to be forced to leave along with Ron. Ron is already a bad departure enough, we don't need more people to have their own departure as well, that is, unless you decide to leave on your own.

Coffee break.

Yes or no?

I'll start with the news on the review. First half of the review for Castlevania: The Dracula X Chronicles is entirely done, which basicaly is the Rondo of Blood half, or should I say the Rondo of Blood 2/3's since it consitutes 2 of the 3 games found onto the Universal Media Disc for PSP. I will gradually start writting the Symphony of the Night parts while I play the game to save some time and that way, I won't forget anything. I don't know how long it will take me, but I hope to be done before the new reviewer emblem gets awarded. If I don't suceed in delivering it in time, well too bad. I also will wish the best of luck to Ron for the emblem. You deserve that emblem and I hope they will recongnize it. Anyone who would like to recommend a good reviewer, whether it is written with text or posted as a video review, be sure to visit the Player Review Recommendation forum. I know that many people on GameSpot are good reviewers, many I don't know of, but if you want to recommend your friends, be sure to do so.

Now, for the part on myself and as for why Cub you need to read this, is because of when we talked on the messenger yesterday night. You wondered just how long I could last without smoking a cigarette. Well I decided to start it now and see how long it will last, or if it will not last. The hardest part simply is losing the habit of having a cigarette in between my fingers or when I take a coffee. Which should be fine. I know I can easily last a good couple of days without a cigarette since I did it pretty often back when I was with my ex-girlfriend, but will I go longer than a couple of days? That's what we will know. Unlike what people would do and say "I'll start the quiting tomorrow when I wake up" I say I start it right here, right now as I write this blog. I didn't smoke as much today to get my mind into it, and anyway I was busy doing other things which ended up making cigarettes burning by themselves in my ashtray. So, it starts now! You're on Cub.