DEEP in the uncanny valley

Sorry, rough coupla weeks

It's been nonstop chaos, confusion, irritation, illness, and general mayhem around here lately. It's kept me from writing much useful or good in the past few weeks.

Rest assured, I'll be back on the job as soon as I can be. In the mean time, daily filler and status updates (as has already been happening) will let you know I aint dead yet.

Laptop is compute... mostly

So after working on the problem all day yesterday... well not directly... Much of the day was taken up in trying to restore from a backup unsucessfully, and then to take (successfully... eventually) clean backups off the drive in the laptop. Then much of the rest of the day was spent working around the problem so I could actually, you know, work, at the job, that pays me money...

Anyway.

I finally figured out this morning what was causing the problem. I have a corrupted data partition, on which are stored some critical files. Every time windows accessed some parts of that partition it would start to fail ungracefully, eventually locking up totally.

By booting to a rescue disk, and force mounting the other partition, I was able to get a full backup. Now I just need to wipe it, scan the disk for bad sectors, and recreate it clean so I can reload the data.

In the mean time, I've removed the partition from the volume manager so windows programs can't try and access it, causing another crash. I've moved my critical work data onto the primary partition, and I'm running off that for the work day, until I can do the full cleanup job.

Hopefully the many crashes in between haven't corrupted windows badly enough that I need to reinstall; though I probably should anyway, and will when I have time.

Laptop is no compute

This morning, the OS on my laptop decided to go into a repeated crash and burn cycle, which eventually thoroughly corrupted the filesystem on the OS partition.

I'm trying to recover from backups at the moment. Not having a great time with that so far.

In the mean time, it's not like I don't have enough computers; and if it comes down to it, I can always recover the data from the data partition easily (I don't store anything on the OS partition, just in case I have to wipe and reinstall); it's just a major PITA.

The worst thing is, all my work files are on that data partition; and for some reason every time I try and copy them off the system tries to crash somewhere between 1/2 and 3/4 through (it's different each time), even when I'm booted of a linux recovery disk.

It's probably due to filesystem corruption; so I may need to pull the hard drive and attach it (through one of several adapters and docks I have. Remarkably useful things those) to a running system to get a clean copy.


Oh and I'm still sick, which makes it doubly fun. I'm at least keeping the food down (barely), and not getting dehydrated; but food poisoning leaves you funky for a couple days.

To Kim:

Thanks for the free ice cream.

That is all.

The pellet with the poisons in the vessel with the pestle

Once, when I was a young boy... I think about 7 years old; I was very ill. I ended up sick at home from school for about two weeks.

I was SO sick, that I couldn't concentrate enough to read (even then my favorite thing to do indoors) so of course I was terribly bored.

One of the local UHF television stations used to play old movies; and one day, they had a Danny Kaye triple feature, with "Hans Christian Anderson", "The Court Jester", and "The Five Pennies".

I was absolutely enchanted. I've loved Kaye's work ever since.

I was really amused, when I started playing Fallout 3 (a video game), and one of the songs on Galaxy News Radio, was Kaye's "Civilization".

I'm sick today, and funny enough, one of the websites I read had this clip, the most famous sequence from "the court jester":



Not Kaye's best work as an actor ("the five pennies" definitely takes that), but some brilliant writing, and great fun. If you've never seen it, you really owe yourself to watch it.

Coming back out the wrong way

Well.... that was fun.

I made the brilliant move of not eating anything all day but coffee and doughnuts this morning (or rather yesterday morning, since it's about 1am now), then going to help my mother move all day.

By the time I got home it was 9 o'clock already, and I was starving so I just grabbed some Burger King; my "usual" big meal from BK (if once a month can be considered "usual", a plain chicken sandwhich and a bacon double cheeseburger.

Well, the burger tasted a little weird, but I didn't think much of it at the time; and I finished it.

Mistake on my part.

I was fine for a couple hours... basically until just after I finished the last post. Or rather, the food didn't sit well with me from when I ate it, but it didn't seem serious; more like the normal indigestion you'd get after having a large meal after several hours of vigorous excercise on an empty stomach, plus a bit of a headache.

Then, all of a sudden, I started feeling very nauseous, and I started getting red blotches all over. I spent the last almost two hours puking my guts out, with great force and vigor.

I would say it would be fair to characterize the vomiting as "projectile".

God I hate puking.

It's not a standard "food poisoning" as such, because it happened too quickly after ingestion. I suppose it could be a bacterial toxin... a possibility strengthened by the secondary symptom of the rash; but it's still unlikely.

The rash, lack of fever, and the rapidity of the reaction suggest I ate something I'm allergic to; though that's a pretty limited list of things, none of which seem likely to have shown up in a Burger King burger.

As far as I know, my allergens are pretty limited. Onions antagonize my ulcerative colitis (not a true allergy), I'm allergic to certain fungi and substances derived from them (but not table mushrooms), I get amoxicillin rash (not a true allergy); and I'm not allergic to shellfish (I eat shrimp, lobster, clams, and scallops all the time, no problem), but I am to the red dye they make from concentrating the pigment from their shells.

Weird.

Anyway, now that it's all out, I feel MUCH better. The rash is going away, I'm not nauseous, and my headache is gone.

I'm going to take some benadryl just in case, and if symptoms return, or I pop a temp, I'll go hit the urgent care; otherwise I may have found a new food allergy.

Update: Well, it's definitely some kind of food poisoning, because just drinking my morning tea triggered it again. An hour after something went into my stomach, and I'm losing it out the wrong way again.

Also, since it's persistent, it's possible that I mistook the incubation period and it was something I ate on Saturday, or even Friday; the funny taste was there because the food poisoning was already on me, and I hadn't noticed it earlier because I hadn't eaten anything.

Vacations Over

So I took a few days off, as I'm sure you noted.

I was thinking back, and I realized something: this is the first time I've actually had five days off work in a row (that didnt involve at least two days of travel time in the middle and while I was employed) since... ever.

Ok, not really ever, but since I got out of the Air Force anyway.

Consider me relaxed. Actually, up until this evening it was very restful. Mels dad had the kids this weekend, and we slept in, cuddled, read, watched TV, and managed to get out to see "Quantum of Solace".

A damn near perfect weekend really... at least until, as I said, this evening.

Why this evening? My mother called me up Friday and said "I have to move out of my house by Monday at 5 pm, but I can't get into the new apartment until Monday. Can you rent me a truck and come over on Sunday to help us move".

I told her I wouldn't rent her the truck, but I would help her pick it up on Sunday. She said she would call me Saturday night with the details, and when to come over. Turns out she didn't call 'til 2pm Sunday.

Oooh boy...

Oh well... she's my mom. I'll be helping her out tomorrow after work too.

Quote from "Shadowforce"

I loved this line from the new hitler channel show on PMCs, "Shadowforce".

"No, it's not the way I'd do it at all... but hey we're just attached to them. They're in the front, mainly, so, they'll run into whatever first."

... Ayup.

532 nanometers

I just picked up a relatively cheap (on clearance for $20 each, from $49), 5mw green laser pointer (powered by two AAAs)... and man these things are way more fun than red lasers.

Superbright, and MUCH longer visible range. I took it out in the street and was able to easily see a dot 1/2 mile away.

I've only had it for a few hours, and I've already gone through a set of batteries.

Man... I REALLY want one of the 150mw versions now.

Lawyers and Money

No guns, and no hitting of fans with excrement, though my jaw and the floor got uncomfortably familiar.

The hopefully final legal bill of the year just came in... MY GOD.

The donations from our readers took us up through the summer, but were exhausted in August.

Since August, we've accrued another $24,000 in legal bills, of which we've paid $7000. We didn't know what that final number was until today though.

$17,000...

We had expected about $10,000 but they dragged the pretrial stuff out a bit, and then had to file post hearing paperwork and responses and all this other crap...

Christ, that's a lot of money all at once.

Oh and of course when they finally lose, they're going to file another pointless appeal, which we're going to have to respond to, probably another $10,000.

Before anyone does anything, no we are NOT asking for donations at this time. This is a very different situation than we were in at the beginning of the year. As of right now, there is no danger we'll lose the kids without additional legal services; and our lawyer will be understanding in allowing us some time to pay him. I don't know if he'll be understanding enough to stretch it out to a year though, which is what I'm going to need; but we'll get by.

Now if the judge would just issue the damn ruling. Apparently he has 60 days from October 24th to do so, but we're still checking with the court every day.

It's not QUITE like that...

... but it's close

Another year gone...

and hopefully a better year ahead.

Tomorrow is my 28th birthday, and it could not have come soon enough.

I don't count my years from New Year's to New Year's; to me, a year is from birthday to birthday.

By no means has this been my worst year ever; my worst year was 2003/2004, especially if the first week of December is included. 2004/2005 comes in second.

However this year yielded some difficulties I did not expect, and some joys as well. This will forever be the year of silver linings for me, as the catastrophes that did come along could have been much worse.

Yes, I did end up filing a very expensive response in the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, but in the meantime I find out how many people out there give a damn, as many people aided us with both donations and words of encouragement. Also, the case would have been much more expensive if the 9th Circuit had gone forward with the scheduled oral arguments instead of sending the case back to state.

Yes, I did end up in state court (once again an expensive endeavor) but it was court on my turf and I'll be receiving the judge's ruling any day now.

Yes, my mother did pass away after a brief, grueling, and horrific illness, and I doubt I'll recover fully from what I've seen, learned, and had to do. I was there to give my father counsel, there to give my opinion on whether or not to take her off life support, there when she died, and there to watch my entire family apart. However I experienced much kindness along the road, and should my mother have lived she would have endured many years of chemotherapy and debilitating pain. Letting her go was the best decision we could have made given the circumstances.

The same is true of Springer; it was hard for me to deal Saturday, making the choice to put our poor cat out of her misery so soon after advising the same thing for my own mother. But she was suffering more by the minute, with no hope of recovery, and so we let her go as well.

It's been a hard year, and I've had to grow up a lot, but it could have been much worse.

I'd like to say this year will be better, and I honestly hope it will. We're finally getting legally married after all, and the light at the end of the legal tunnel is fast approaching. However, both my grandparents are ailing (they're both in their 90's), Chris's mother and brother are terminally ill, the health of my favorite uncle is declining rapidly, and we have two pets who may need to be put down in the very near future. This year is likely to feature even more death than the last.

However, in a few more we'll start growing the family even more and there will be life again. Even this year featured the addition of life; I gained a nephew, and we added Jayne to the family. There will be more children and more pets in the years to come.

At some point in the near future, winter will become spring and we'll be all right.

In the meantime I'll try to enjoy the holidays, but it will be hard. This will be the first Thanksgiving without my mom and I don't think it will be easy for me at all. Thankfully I have enough to do and enough people around me to keep me busy, so I'll be okay.

Hopefully this year will be better than the last.

Mel

Springer

One of our cats died Saturday.

I wrote a few weeks ago that we would have to put Kimber down soon, and that's still true, though she's doing well enough at the moment that it may not be for another couple months, or at least a few more weeks.

Unfortunately, this was our other cat Springer. She had sudden onset kidney failure. Thursday she was fine, Friday she was hiding from us all day, and Saturday she was gravely ill.

We took her to the emergency animal hospital where they made it clear there was no chance of recovery; and likely there would not have been even if we had got her in there the day before; because there was no clear cause of the kidney failure. The vet said it was likely poisoning, but could have been an unnoticed congenital condition. So, we put her down.

The kids haven't really absorbed it yet.

Causality Awareness

Methinks Dilbert is having a causality awareness failure.

It's not that the internet is more interesting... the fact that 90% of the internet is fanboys, spam, and porn (and no, the porn isn't good enough to be more interesting than actual people) means that it has to be the remaining 10% worth looking at he's talking about.

That 10% doesn't happen without interesting people to write it.

So the problem isn't that the internet is more interesting than people; the problem is that Dilbert knows the wrong people.

This supposition has been confirmed observationally...

Sorry for being content free

... But one of my best friends on the planet is staying with us for a couple days. Normal ranting and raving to resume Monday

Seven Score and 5...

Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.

Abraham Lincoln,
Gettysburg, Pennsylvania
November 19th, 1863

How Obama Got Elected

Zogby Poll from HowObamaGotElected.com

512 Obama Voters 11/13/08-11/15/08 MOE +/- 4.4 points

97.1% High School Graduate or higher, 55% College Graduates

Results to 12 simple Multiple Choice Questions

57.4% could NOT correctly say which party controls congress (50/50 shot just by guessing)

81.8% could NOT correctly say Joe Biden quit a previous campaign because of plagiarism (25% chance by guessing)

82.6% could NOT correctly say that Barack Obama won his first election by getting opponents kicked off the ballot (25% chance by guessing)

88.4% could NOT correctly say that Obama said his policies would likely bankrupt the coal industry and make energy rates skyrocket (25% chance by guessing)

56.1% could NOT correctly say Obama started his political career at the home of two former members of the Weather Underground (25% chance by guessing).

And yet.....

Only 13.7% failed to identify Sarah Palin as the person on which their party spent $150,000 in clothes

Only 6.2% failed to identify Palin as the one with a pregnant teenage daughter

And 86.9 % thought that Palin said that she could see Russia from her "house," even though that was Tina Fey who said that!!

Only 2.4% got at least 11 correct.

Only .5% got all of them correct. (And we "gave" one answer that was technically not Palin, but actually Tina Fey)

I've been saying it for years...

But now Jules Crittenden, the Boston Herald (that's the relatively good Boston paper, vs the other one which is wholly owned and operated by the New York Times)and the members of VirtualTourist.com have all affirmed my opinion that:




Boston City Hall is the UGLIEST BUILDING IN THE WORLD (or at least the ugliest public building anyway. There are some industrial sites uglier).

I came to this opinion the very first time I saw the monstrosity; but that opinion was solidified in the early 90's, when I actually worked at Government Center (what they call the "square" surrounding the damn thing).

I worked at a book shop in the little concrete trough at the southwest corner (basically just to the bottom right corner of the second photograph); and had to look at the hideous concrete wedding cake every day.

Worse of course is that it is situated in the heart of Bostons most beautiful buildings (especially the work of Charles Bullfinch). This is the view from the southeast facing windows, out into Fanueil Hall, and Quincy Market:


And here's Fanueil hall itself:


And here is the old state house, which is not quite directly across the street (it's across the street, but there are a couple of smaller buildings in the way):



Of course it's only made worse by comparing it to other public buildings around Boston, like the NEW state house (new being a relative term; it having been built around 1798, vs. 1713), which is a few hundred yards to the west (on the edge of Boston Common):

Or say, the Boston Custom house tower, a few hundred yards to the east (you can see the old north church steeple in that picture to the right):


And it's not just Bostons Colonial, Georgian, and Federal architecture that works. We generally get it right when it comes to new construction as well.

This is Rowes Wharf, and the new Boston Harbor Hotel; a development from the 80s, about 1000 yards from government center:


I don't know... perhaps how much of a blot Government Center, and City Hall, are on Boston can best be appreciated from above.

In Boston, the architecture follows the city; unlike in most other cities where the city follows the architecture. Boston isn't a grid; the streets were laid out as natural pathways in the late 1600s; and then again in the early 1800s, as land was reclaimed from the harbor. There are no straight lines in Boston.

Boston is full of organic shapes, and the buildings were made to fit into those shapes naturally. Boston is green, and red, and brown. A city for walking. A city of small public squares, none of which are square; and many parks, and public spaces, and little almost villages.

Boston may be a metro area of 5 million people; but the core of the city is only about 600,000; and it is scaled to fit.

Look at Government center in these photographs:



It's just one gigantic concrete and brick paved geometric space, right in the heart of Boston. Not only is it ugly, it is completely at odds with the entire city. It is surrounded by green, and round, and natural; and there it is, gray and concrete and the worst parts of artificial.

It is, simply, the worst public building in the world.

Don't just take my word for it though, here's the Herald:

"It’s official now. Boston City Hall is the ugliest building . . . in the world!

Bostonians didn’t need VirtualTourist.com and City Hall’s top billing on the World’s Top 10 Ugliest Buildings and Monuments list to figure that out. Residents have known it pretty much since the hard-on-the-eyes pile of concrete and bricks went up.

And like a good hard-nosed pol, Mayor Thomas M. Menino isn’t sulking. He plans to use the slur as ammo in his long-running battle to abandon the architectural eyesore for a City Hall on South Boston’s waterfront.

“Coming out and saying it solidifies it in my opinion,” Menino said. “People all around the world agree with me.”

City Hall was singled out for its dreary facade, cold interior, its big, empty, windswept plaza, as well as the way its monstrous, angular frame dominates its surroundings, said VirtualTourist.com general manager Giampiero Ambrosi.

The Web site, which claims 1 million members, placed the Hub horror ahead of such architectural atrocities as the Port Authority bus station in New York City, Montparnasse Tower in Paris and the LuckyShoe monument in Tuuri, Finland, a golden horseshoe overshadowing the Baltic country’s second-largest shopping mall.

Menino noted a bright side. The world’s ugliest building could be a tourism boon. “We really do have it all, the most historic places in the world and the ugliest building in the word,” he joked.

But whether a tourism campaign can be built around that blockhouse remains to be seen. Yesterday, out-of-towners passed it by without giving it a second thought.

“That’s gotta go,” said Ivette Arenas of San Francisco, when it was pointed out to her on her way to the Common. “You have some of the best (buildings), and right here you have the worst.”

“It is a pretty ugly building,” agreed Carol Sue Graves of Orange, Va., as she walked to Faneuil Hall.

An example of the “New Brutalism” school of design, City Hall was seen as a clean break from Boston’s past, said Jeff Stein, dean of the Boston Architectural College.

“They were looking for something new and startling,” Stein said. “And boy did it succeed.”

But Councilor Michael Flaherty, a skeptic of moving City Hall, said that even with the world’s ugliest edifice, it’s what on the inside that counts.

“You can have the best-looking building in the world, but what matters most is accessibility, transparency and accountability,” Flaherty said."

Oh and here's the rest of the list of the 10 worst:

"2. The Montparnasse Tower in Paris, France. Ugh la la!

3. The LuckyShoe Monument in Tuuri, Finland. Step away!

4. The Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool, England. Spaced out.

5. The NYC Port Authority Bus Terminal. Get outta town!

6. Torres de Colon, Madrid. They call it “The Plug.” Pull it!

7. The Liechtenstein Museum of Fine Arts. No masterpiece.

8. The Scottish Parliament Building in Edinburgh. Nae, laddie!

9. The Birmingham Central Library in Birmingham, U.K. Shhhh!

10. The Peter the Great Statue in Moscow. Like Ivan, it’s terrible!"

HT to Coyote Blog

Fallout Boy

Well, I meant to have the optics uberpost done today, but Fallout 3 has eaten my brain; so instead I'm going to give you some tips.

First thing, I'm not even going to bother reviewing it; because if you've been paying any attention at all, other than the stability problems, this is probably the best game since portal came out. It's almost certainly the best action RPG to come out since the original DeusEx.

So, if you're a fan of the genre, you're going to love the game. In fact I'm presuming the only reason you don't have it already is because you haven't bothered upgrading your system since the LAST good game of the genre came out (Oblivion probably; and that was almost three years ago).

For this game, you really do need a recent processor; either a dual core of 1.8ghz or above; or a single core in the 3ghz range. You also need at the least a Geforce 8600, or something similar, to run at a reasonable resolution at high quality.

It runs just fine on my $80 GeForce 8600gt 512 (DDR3); even with everything turned all the way up at 1680X1040 windowed. I'd say that's about the minimum I'd want to run it on though. I do have to turn the details down from ultra to high when I go fullscreen 1920x1200.

Oh and it runs just fine on my laptop, which has an 8600GS 512mb discrete card, running at 1440x980. Again, if I shrink the window a bit it runs on ultra high in windowed mode, but wont run well at full rez on ultrahigh. I get jitter and slowdowns (unfortunately it also crashes like mad either way - less in full screen than in windowed - ; but that has nothing to do with performance, because it happens no matter the settings).

So it doesn't take THAT much horsepower. Crysis is far worse.

Alright first things first, character creation is CRITICAL. You don't get to increase your basic attributes (called S.P.E.C.I.A.L. in this game) very often, if at all, during the game; and they effect everything that comes after them very strongly, so you have to get it right.

No matter what type of character you want to play, intelligence is the most important stat by far; and should be prioritized above all others. You should start the game with a minimum of 8 in intelligence, and give serious thought to 9 or 10. Remember, intelligence determines your base score for all your technical skills, as well as the number of skill points you receive per level; so max it out.

Also critically important are agility and perception; again no matter what type of character you want to make; because they control your gun skills, your sneaking skills, and your manual dexterity skills like lockpicking (a CRITICAL skill in this game).

The wildcard is endurance; because it controls basic toughness, but is also the relevant stat for assault weapons like rocket launchers, miniguns, and cannons. Dont reduce it below 4, and consider taking a 6 just to have it for later.

Physical strength it relatively unimportant in this game. It accounts for inventory capacity (which is important certainly), and melee damage; but that's about it. Since you can't really play an all melee character successfully I'd deprecate strength. Don't go below 4 though or bad things happen (you lose access to certain perks etc...)

Just after chosing your SPECIALs, you'll be asked to "tag" three skills. You will then get an initial bonus to those skills. I recommend you chose your tagged skills out of the pool below.

I don't see how you can build a socially oriented character in this game and win; or even have fun. Although there is a lot of social interaction, the game doesn't give you many social ways to avoid combat; and most of the quests are... not quite combat oriented, but would be very difficult to accomplish without combat.

You MIGHT be able to get by with a sneaker though, by putting everything into sneaking, stealth oriented stuff, and science(for terminal hacking). Also, at some point you can pick up a sidekick (actually, you can apparently pick up several simultaneously; though I haven't got there yet)and it may be possible to survive with stealth alone until you do; then have them handle combat for you.

...Maybe... I kinda doubt it though. Sidekick characters in video games tend to do dumb things, like wander randomly into the line of fire, fall into things, and set off traps. Stealth is not their friend.

Now, onto game play.

In general, conserve and collect like mad. Everything is saleable, so if you see something that has a value more than 4 times its weight; it's worth picking up to sell later. This is a HIGHLY resource constrained game, so you're going to want to explore everywhere you can, grab and conserve all the ammo, stimpaks, and money you can.

Dont ignore Karma; it does make a difference.

Also, don't ignore luck. It determines how much ammo and money you find.

Once you get past the first storyline quests (past Moriarty in "following in his footsteps") stop following the main storyline.

Go and talk to everyone in megaton, and get their quests. Then talk to all the people you meet on those quests and get their quests. Do the little side quests etc...

Unlike most open world games, Fallout 3 ends when you complete the last mission of the main storyline; so do all the side quests as they come, don't save them for later.

Get up to level 5 or more (I'd say take it all the way to at least 8), and build up your stats.

Get your repair, and lockpick skill up into the 75 or more range. These are by far the two most important skills in the game. You will be using them constantly; and I recommend putting them up to 90 fairly quickly (it's easy to have items bring them to 100)

Medicine and light guns, are also important; especially in the beginning of the game; and again I'd say bring at least light guns up to 90 eventually.

Science, Explosives, Heavy guns, and energy weapons get more important as you go; but are little help in the beginning. You'll want to get science up to around 50 at least by the time you hit level 7 or 8.

Honestly, although the other skills do provide some value, and some interest; You really need to concentrate on the core skills I've mentioned. You need to get good to survive the higher level enemies; and "barter" doesn't help you much there (though it's certainly useful in the shops).

When you do your side quests, build up inventory and caps. If you haven't already got your intelligence at at least 8 (10 would be better... actually I'd say start the game over if you didn't initially set it to 8 or more), and your perception to at least 6 (8 would be better) take the "intense training" perk every level until you do.

Grab the Thief, Gun Nut, Educated, Toughness, and Swift learner perks as soon as possible (prioritized based on your play style), and consider taking multiple levels in each. Oh and hunt those bobbleheads for the skill and ability bonuses.

Then, when you're well sorted, get back on the storyline. You'll be much more likely to survive, use less stimpacks, deal with the big baddies a lot better in general etc...

Did I mention conserve ammo? Use your VATS; and use the cheap ammo weapons, like the 10mm pistol and 10mm submachine gun. Wait until they get close, and then go for multiple headshots at high percentage.

Get good at light guns, and use the hunting rifle A LOT. It is by far my most used weapon. Once you're good, you can do some serious long range sniping with it using VATS. No, it's nowhere near as accurate as the sniper rifle; but the ammo is far easier to find, and far cheaper.

The combat shotgun is the best close quarters weapon of the first half of the game. The hunting rifle, the best for medium to long ranges, until you can get the lincoln repeater (and the .44 ammo for the lincoln is a pain to find in comparison). The assault rifle and SMG are useful for the midrange as well, but are wasteful of ammo, and inaccurate. I much prefer using my hunting rifle and VATS to make precision kills.

You're going to be in the washington DC metro tunnels a lot. Take every opportunity you can to pop up out of the stations, so you can set a map marker, and fast travel back there when you need to.


Repair, repair, repair, repair. Gather a half doezn duplicates of items you want to use and keep, and repair constantly. Keep your armor and wepaons as close to 100% as possible.

Lots more to come as I continue playing.