1337’s Blog

This entry was supposed to be put up on the 10th, but for some odd reason, I could only load the site through a proxy the last few days!

A few days ago, I blew the dust off my Live messenger and actually used it (Xfire and Steam made it previously redundant.) As I installed my usual hacks (Messenger Plus! Live - a free plugin), I decided to give messenger a facelift since it hasn’t received an update in a while (next update won’t be out until the end of ‘08, at the earliest.) Originally, my tweaks started out by patching the resource files to change the online/offline/away/etc… icons in the taskbar and on the contact list. Well, the taskbar hacks worked, but the contactlist hacks caused the theme to break (that’s M$ propriatery MSRLE for ya, no way to save to that format!)

Starting back at square one, I decided to use Messenger Plus! Live’s skin feature to change the icons that way. So I put the new images into a folder and added the needed code into a XML file. This worked until the contactlist multi-image, which showed the whole image (several icons) instead of the needed icon (M$RLE again!) A hour and several Googleplex searches later, I found a skin that looked like the default messenger skin, but had the default resource images already hacked and converted (to make it easy for new skinners) so it was just a matter of replacing the hacked images with the ones that I made. While I was at it, I also changed some of the text strings for epic lulz.

The final result of hacking messenger to bits… (it’s not much, but I might put more hacks in if I have the time and energy)

Today I went shopping with my mom and grandparents to find gifts for a birthday party (for a 1-year old). So we went to the local outlet mall.

Before we did any actual shopping, we decided to eat at Eat-n-Park. There, everyone but my grandfather got the breakfast buffet. The buffet was good, though it sent my digestive system into turmoil later. Afterwords we went into a bookstore to get a few books for the birthday boy. Then while the women went to another bookstore, my grandfather and I went into the Bose store to look around. While we were at the Bose store, we decided to try out that Bose experience-thing (small theater w/ Bose sound system) and HOLY **** the sound quality was AMAZING! After going through the experience, the women called and told us to head back to the vehicle, so we did.

After leaving the outlet mall, we went to Wal-Mart (sometime refferred to as the Evil Empire) and then the bank.

Finally, as per my asking, we stopped at a local bakery (I heard from a friend of mine that they have good baked goods over there such as donuts]). There, I got a cookie-like-thing that was shaped like a monster’s head.

Afterwords, we went home and I played Gmod and chatted online for the rest of the afternoon (too rainy to do anything outside).

Hopefully, entries will come out more often, Gmod and RL is taking up my time.

Map of trip here.

This is the first part of a 9999999 (I have no clue!) part series.

PICTURES COMING SOON!

The trip began with me waking up around 3:30 in the morning. After eating breakfast and all that, my group met up with another other group and officially started the journey at around 5:15AM (this was done so we could get around rush hour down in the ‘Burgh). After getting past the ‘Burgh (who knew that it’s suburbs extended almost 25 mi. south!) and driving through half of WV (and missing the exit onto US-19 to go over the mountains!) , we stopped at the New River Gorge bridge (after missing the intersection to the visitors center, M$ Streets 2008 failed me again ) to eat lunch and tour the lookouts (got plenty of pics!)

Leaving the bridge, we traversed the mountains of WV and VA. While passing through a tunnel on I-77, the opposite side was backed up almost 4mi due to a lane closure!  We eventually entered the state of Tennessee. The northeastern part of the state was relatively flat until we neared the destination, where it began to get a little steep. After getting off of the freeway, it was a straight shot to Pigeon Forge by way of a divided surface road called the Parkway. As we traversed the city, we turned onto a winding side road where we eventually settled into the cabin … (To be continued, dun…dun…dun! )

Rest of Day 1 and Day 2 tomorrow!

Well, I’m baaaaaack from vacation and it was fun. A multi-part series of posts will detail what happened. I would make the first megapost tonight, but I’m too lazy and tired to even move a finger, lol. Well, back to exploring the internets, part 1 of 9999 of the log should be posted tomorrow.

This is my first ever blog entry, so go easy on me.

Today starts my EPIC five-day vacation to the Smokies in Eastern Tennessee. The past few days have been hectic as everyone involved were busy packing, getting food, going insane about gas prices, etc.

Speaking of gas prices, they are precariously hovering just below the $4.00 mark, with West Virginia being the highest in the trip route at over $4.10!!!!!!! Thankfully, Tennessee gas prices are the lowest at around $3.85-$3.90 (probably due to lower taxes.)

After braving the insane 10-12 hour ride time (HA, you will never see me on a plane if the airlines keep up with their f——- fare increases and random BS fees!) the group will settle down in a cabin in the picturesque TOURIST TRAP! town of Pigeon Forge. I’ll talk more about the cabin when I actually get there; hopefully there’s free Wi-Fi over there, or else no entries until I get back.

Whew… who knew that writing a blog entry would be so difficult (then again, I find writing in general to be difficult, that’s why I started a blog to try to make writing easier.)

By the time you read this, I will be on the road so see you on the other side!

Useless info below

Trip status: IN TRANSIT

Weather:

There:

Wed Jun 18		Mostly Sunny	82°/56°	20 %
Thu Jun 19		Mostly Sunny	83°/58°	10 %
Fri Jun 20		Isolated T-Storms	83°/61°	30 %
Sat Jun 21		Isolated T-Storms	84°/62°	30 %
Sun Jun 22		Isolated T-Storms	89°/63°	30 %

Wed Jun 18		Showers	62°/48°	40 %
Thu Jun 19		Few Showers	66°/51°	30 %
Fri Jun 20		Isolated T-Storms	74°/52°	30 %
Sat Jun 21		Partly Cloudy	78°/58°	20 %
Sun Jun 22		Scattered T-Storms	78°/58°	30 %

at 5AM tomorrow.