Draginol

Saturday build (1Z1) is available in Elemental Dev Journals JoeUser Forums

The team got a Saturday build up. Kudos to Boogiebac and the team burning the midnight oil to squash some fairly basic stability issues.</

Beta 1Z News and Info! in Elemental Dev Journals JoeUser Forums

Greetings! Today we released beta 1Z. There are a number of stability hicups that will need to addressed with an update this weekend but overall we’re pleased with the results so far. However, it is our determination that beta 1Z is not sufficiently stable enough yet to proceed to beta 2. Sorry guys we just want to make sure we aren’t rushing anything. What’s next The remainder of Beta 1 will be about stability. Making game mechanic

47% of Americans pay no federal income tax in Politics JoeUser Forums

Today’s USA Today has a bombshell – at least for people who haven’t been paying attention: Nearly half of Americans pay no federal income taxes. I’ve tried to explain this before to my liberal friends who insist that “rich people” don’t pay their fair share and whenever I’ve brought up that nearly half of Americans pay zilch to the fed in income taxes they scoff that it’s probably some

Rough sketch of the races of Men in Elemental Dev Journals JoeUser Forums

This likely won’t make the final cut into the game because it’s too much for new users. But for those of you interested in the lore of Elemental and how races, factions, and allegiances work under the covers: <img style="border-bottom: 0px; border-left: 0px; display: inline; border-top: 0px; border-right: 0px" title="image" border="0" alt="image" src="http://www.draginol.com/images2009/Roughsketchoft

King of Copper in PC Gaming JoeUser Forums

I am very much enjoying Starcraft 2. I think Blizzard’s concept on leagues is very cool too. I just wish I understood the execution of said leagu

I told you…consequences of taxes.. in Politics JoeUser Forums

Great article: What the Top US companies pay in taxes . The reader is meant to get fired up by the fact that these hugely profitable corporations aren’t paying Uncle Sam taxes. Oh, they’re still paying taxes. Billions of taxes. Just not in the United States. That’s because companies liek Wal-Mart, General Electric, AT&T and so forth have overseas divisions an

Fair weather environmentalists in Politics JoeUser Forums

One of my big frustrations with the environmentalist community (that I like to think I’m part of) is jus how ideological they are. Today’s big hub-bug on TreeHugger.com is that apparently Sarah Palin is hosting a show on TLC about Alaska’s natural wonders. Personally, I don’t care much for Palin one way or the other. I think there’s much ado about nothing with regards to her. She’s a conservative politician. But the Treehuggers are absolutely going bonkers about it be

“But Europe does it…” in Politics JoeUser Forums

The answer is almost always: No, actually it doesn’t. In almost any debate, we’ll hear about how the “United States is the only X that does Y [or doesn’t do]”. Except that’s not the case when you compare apples and apples. One of the constant, long-time, ongoing debates in the United States is one that Europeans now find themselves in as well – where do the “states” stop and the “union” start? When you dig into countless numbers of political topics, you find th

Favorite childhood memories in Blogging JoeUser Forums

In no particular order, here are some of my favorite memories of being a very small child. Blue toilet water The theme song to Bewitched Catching Locusts (Ciquadas) Eating angel food cake made by our neighbor Beverly Going to the Great Sand Dunes with my parents and thinking the clouds were where we were going. Getting a TCR track delivered by Santa after Christmas Catching lizards in my neighbor Betsy’s

A quick perspective on politics in Politics JoeUser Forums

I am glad that people are actively following politics more these days. However, I am somewhat concerned with the amount of passion that’s been directed towards it. I enjoy a good political debate but I never for a second believe that I’m going to be brought in as Emperor of the world to institute my theories. Discussing topics to try to persuade or educate others on political philosophies that you think are good is a noble thing. However, hating other people

Less than 170 in Diet JoeUser Forums

Well for the first time in 4 years I have dropped under 170 pounds. My slow diet has a total of 11 lost pounds in 11 weeks. The main thing I’ve been doing is greatly reducing my liquid calories. I was not aware of how many calories I was consuming by drinking juices and pop a day until I measured it. The other thing has been a family-wide re-design of our dinners to be much lighter, healthier and frankly tastier.

New home office in Blogging JoeUser Forums

This is the chair I want.

The Health Care Bill passes in Politics JoeUser Forums

People tend to project their hopes and dreams onto things based on their name. They hear “health care reform” and they see their ideological allies supporting it and they assume it does all kinds of magical things. For those of you glad that the bill passed, be aware that what was passed resembles nothing like what is in Europe or Canada. Here’s what it does (you can read the details at CBS Ne

10 pounds in 10 weeks in Diet JoeUser Forums

About 10 weeks ago, I started a diet called 10 pounds in 10 weeks. I was 180 pounds. 10 weeks later (technically 11, I took a week off for a trade show) I’m down 10 pounds. I’m going to see if I can get down to 165 pounds (another 5 pounds).

Michigan rocks in Blogging JoeUser Forums

Sometimes you get pictures from friends and family that really do justice to the phrase “a picture is worth a thousand words”.

Elemental: Destiny’s Embers in Elemental Dev Journals JoeUser Forums

Random House announced its new initiative (see this <a href="http://online.wsj.com/article/SB100014240527487040899045750935627

Intelligence is overrated in Business Experiences JoeUser Forums

I feel bad for the current generation of kids in some respects. They are being told that intelligence is the end-all be-all. It’s all about being smart. In reality, no, it’s not. Being intelligent is helpful but it isn’t a key ingredient to success. Being above average in intellect is probably a pre-requisite for being successful but beyond that, it does very little. So what does matter? That is, in the real world, what makes the difference? In a nutshell i

The Huston Statement in Politics JoeUser Forums

<span style="text-align: left; line-height: 18px; fon

I’m not that evil…okay…yes, yes I am. in Building a home JoeUser Forums

I sometimes wonder what the various greenie sites I visit would think when they realized that I was using their info o

Climate is cooling according to Jones in Politics JoeUser Forums

Phil Jones is “the guy”, as in THE go-to guy when it comes to climate change. In an interview where he complains about skeptics “spinning” statements he ultimately reveals this: "I'm a scientist trying to measure temperature. If I registered that the climate has been cooling I'd say so. But it hasn't until recently - and then barely at all . The trend is a warming trend." You can read the whole thing here:

Grrr. We’re gonna get bumped in Elemental Dev Journals JoeUser Forums

There’s a big Impulse announcement on Wedn

The “green” construction continues in Building a home JoeUser Forums

My wife and I are trying to have our cake and eat it too. A large house that relies largely on renewable energy.

Uh, yes, that IS socialism in Politics JoeUser Forums

During my daily journey to Digg to see what’s cool and new I usually fail the temptation test of reading the comments on some of the political articles. For example: http://m.digg.com/political_opinion/George_Will_Progressives_and_the_growing_dependency_agenda The most dugg comment (indicating that the Digg community found this comment to be insightful):</

Why Ironclad is so successful so quickly in Sins Developer Journals JoeUser Forums

I work at Stardock and those of you who follow my journals know I’m pretty opinionated (see “ Kudos to Good old Games ”, “ Happy about Steam ”, “Don’t blame the pirates”) . So let me give my 2 cents on why the young studio, Ironclad Games is already so

The politics of energy in Politics JoeUser Forums

As a kook, I’ve been into alternative power sources for a very long time. Before being “green” became fashionable and dumb people started parroting what “the wise scienti