Wednesday, December 19, 2007

My Christmas List: Part 2

Someone to Please Explain to Me Why Halo is So Popular
I don’t get it. Halo isn’t a bad game by any means, but it’s not fantastic. I happen to be an FPS fanatic and I play ALL of them, even the weird ones that come out of Eastern Europe, so believe when I say it simply isn’t that great. It definitely doesn’t rank up there with Half-Life, Call-of-Duty, the original Unreal, or even Marathon, Bungie’s first FPS. I find it very confusing.

To Finish My D&D Campaign
I’ve been DMing a D&D Campaign for almost 14-years now and its getting really close to finishing (as in the entire story arch has been completed). It started in California with three players, moved over 700 miles to Redmond, WA and ballooned out to 7 players, with the three original players still participating. For non-nerds out there, finishing a campaign is the Holy Grail for a DM. Most campaigns peter out. It’s like what would happen if the Fellowship of the Ring got bored and gave up. Another couple of years and it’ll be done (I hope).

A Vacuum Cleaner That Will Pick-Up Cat Hair
Seriously. I have never had a vacuum that could pick up my cat’s hair. I have to rake the carpet to get it up, which defeats the entire purpose of vacuuming in the first place. Granted, that would destroy my excuse for not vacuuming, but even I get tired of having a crunchy carpet.

Tomorrow: The Conclusion

9 comments:

Ribbo said...

Get a sphinx cat obviously :)

Unknown said...

Only thing besides a good whipping that gets cat hair(and dog hair and rat hair and..) out of carpets even close to decent, is one of those TV-shop electrical swivel-sweeps thignys... they imho totally suck for most of the fabulous things they demonstrate them being so great about, but the are ok at getting bigger-than-small screws up (if you are to lazy to bend your back and pick it up) and they do surprisingly ok against cat-hair. That is when they are new... the damned things wear out and break pretty soon...

Still, If you can afford to buy one JUST for getting cat hair out of your carpet - try it.
Preferrably borrow one to try from some aunt or other that bought one and loves it :)

The reason I know this is a very nasty allergy towards rats, and my wife is allergic to cats, and guess what? Mum used to have cats in her (rat infested) country home....YAY!!!!!

Good luck in the battle against the hairs.....gonna need it.

Glad you liked my advice on diet btw.

/Andrew lakehill (aka Pengan)

Anonymous said...

Jason, here's my Christmas present to you: some valuable cleaning and maintnenace advice from the caretaker of two indoor cats.

Advice Point #1: I don't know the temperament of your feline companion--my two boys are fairly mellow about it, and enjoy it for the most part--but the Number One controller of excess cat fur is *brushing*. My older fellow, Joshua, sheds much more than his housemate, and requires brushing every 72 hours to prevent him from getting nasty hairballs. It's easier to spend a nice 20-30 minutes bonding time with him brushing than clean up a large hairball mess hucked up on the carpet. I recommend the Furminator, medium size.

Advice Point #2: save up if you have to, but *invest* some money into a worthwhile vacuum in the range of $400-$500. No, I'm not kidding. Vacuums in this price range will typically include HEPA filtration, 12 Amps of power (and up), have some sort of sound dampening mechanism (which makes a big difference if you vacuum often), some kind of dirt/debris sensor (often handy), a motorized brush array on the carpet head (this will work better than your rake), and adequate suction. If you have a Sears or similar store in your area, go in and make some brand comparisons. Do a real world test challenge and bring in some cat fur, rub it into the demo carpet and have the sales person earn their salary by showing you what certain models can and can't do.

As far as brands go, Dyson gets a lot of hype, but the attachments aren't powered, which decreases their effectiveness. Electrolux is a good brand but sometimes overpriced. I personally use a high-end Kenmore cannister vacuum with cloth HEPA filter bags, and the amount of fur it picks up is staggering, even with regular vacuuming.

Bottom line: you need to invest in a brand/model with the power to deliver the performance you need, and the filtration to keep an effective level of suction.

Maybe Santa can help out some way with the cost for you this Christmas... ;-)

Meowy Kissmouse and a Furry New Year --

Anonymous said...

Wonder what my wife's excuse for for not vacuuming is... I made sure she has a good enough vac to do the job... (Thanks MIL). This one's some sort of Hoover thingie that'd suck the paint off the wall, and you can detach the big handle part, and the wheelie part, and hook up a hose and do just that if you had a mind to...
Considering I don't, and apparently she doesn't have a mind to use it too often even on the floor, that doesn't happen too much.

But I do know, if you don't empty it often enough (which she never does) it backs up and fries the belt with clogged cat fur. You have a nice mess of burnt rubber and burnt hair smell I call the 'full bag alert'. Of course, it's technical enough unjamming this mess that it's the mechanic's job, not the operator... Which I guess is why she never empties the bag. (Me being the mechanic, of course.)

(And remember, I have ... er, what'd we figure? 500# of animals? Plus the horses, but they don't get too much fur on the rug.)

Jason Janicki said...

Thanks for all the vacuuming advice :) I guess I'll need to splurge on a new vacuum sometime soon.

Anonymous said...

I know exactly what you mean about Halo. I thought that the first one was pretty fun, but two and three were distinctly average. Compared with Half life 1&2 they are nothing. It seems that only rational PC gamers (I assume that you are one since you mention Half-life) seem to know so.
Love your comic, cant wait for the next one!

Jason Janicki said...

Yeah, Halo's popularity is one of those great mysteries of life.

The original Half-Life is still the best shooter ever (save for those horrible alien levels at the end).

Thanks, we'll be back after the Christmas break :)

Anonymous said...

Can you hoover the cat and get rid of the hair at source? A friend of mine hoovers her labrador retrievers with the curtain brush on her hoover and not only do the dogs seem to enjoy it but it keeps their seemingly infinite supplies of hair off the soft furnishings.

Jason Janicki said...

I considered that, but my cat is afraid enough of the vacuum as it is. I would probably give her a little kitty heart-attack if I chased her around with it :)