Deep Inside My Thoughts

I needed some techno music to get me through the day today…so I tried Scooter’s new albulm called Excess All Areas. It was pretty damn good. The beats kept me awake all through work, and I really think I drove faster because of them too. It’s funny how music can keep your concentration and reaction time up. Maybe it is just a placebo effect…but I know when I’m really really tired….it’s loud, fast-paced techno that gets me home safe.

Funniest screen name on Yahoo ever :  bondageslutforjesus

Recently I lost all the data on my laptop while playing around with linux. No…I didn’t screw up configuring a boot-loader this time. Rather, Partition Magic hosed my partition when I tried to resize it back to full after deleting Ubuntu. I’ve played around with Partition Magic from time-to-time, and I’ve never had this happen. Luckily, I was smart enough to back up most of my stuff on my Desktop, so I really didn’t have a problem with loosing data.

The real problem is passwords. I’ve grown lazy with Firefox remembering all of my passwords. Take for example, this blog. The password was randomly generated, and I didn’t bother to write it down. So, after my laptop got turned into a brick, and after installing everything again, it kicked in—I locked myself out of my own website! What was I to do?

Wordpress (the blogging software I use) encodes passwords as MD5 hashes. This means while I can see all the data in the SQL database, I can’t see the plaintext password. I have to crack the encryption on the md5 hash in order to input the proper password. I remember seeing a website months ago that had a listing of about 200k or so hashes, and of course I couldn’t find it right off the bat. Another hour later, I finally find GDataOnline, and finally find my hash about a simple search. I think I had this website actually bookmarked before I lost everything.

It’s kind of funny that I could get access that quickly to something I locked myself out of. Kind of funny, and kind of scary at the same time. Anyone who had access to a SQL server would be able to do the same thing that I did. Of course, there’s an added layer of protection with the SQL server, but probably not as vast as a randomly generated WordPress password. It makes me wonder about how many thousands of personal websites are open to attack simply by evaulating MD5 hashes like I did.

I’ve been bored on the gaming front lately, and nothing seems to have been holding my attention. I’ve basicaly have given up on World of Warcract, and even Oblivion seems to bore me anymore. I found a game that held my attention for awhile—Knight of The Old Republic 2. I beat the game being evil the first time I replayed it, and kinda quit halfway through the 2nd time when I tried playing lightside. It’s funny…because it’s so much more fun being evil in that game.

But about a week ago, my friend Dustin brought up Everquest again. I played the game for damn near 16 hours a day…and I kinda missed it. So I end up resigning up for a free trial, downloading for seven hours, and I finally am able to play again. I’ve been so hooked since I’ve came back. My goals have changed–no longer should I be the best, I just want to have fun again.

And since I’ve been back that’s what I’ve had. I’ve been accepted into the very guild I helped to form so long ago. All my friends from Recon are gone…but there’s still the idea of the guild that lives on…I will make the current memebers remember that. I’ve grouped a lot so far, and I’m trying to get my flags back up to par so I can raid again. if I can raid…I’ll have A TON more fun.

Honnestly…I never thought of returning to Everquest…Have I awakened the sleeper per se, or is just harmless fun?