Possible Server Downtime

The host for Zim’s Gizmos (Fast Domain, great host, highly recommend them!) is updating the servers to give us better performance for the website! There is a possibility that the servers will be offline soon for a couple hours while the techs at Fast Domain install the updates. After the update, there may be a few parts of the site here that may not work entirely correctly, please let us know if you find such a problem!

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Game Review: Bastion – 86.2

I realized I have not done one of these in quite a while! :O But here’s a new one! I decided to review one of those Indie games out there, this one is called Bastion from Supergiant Games. It is a simple hack and slash game with a very intriguing and addicting gameplay and storyline. The game begins with you on this floating rock, asleep, with a narrator in the background talking about what you’re doing. The entire storyline is presented via narrator who explains what’s going on and even makes a few comments about what you do in the game. Continue reading

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Have a Happy New Year!

I hope everyone found 2012 exciting to enter! I found myself faced with a rather large mess to clean up first thing in the new year, but regardless: The New Year is great! I look forward to another great year with all of you!

On a side note: Congratulations to Blackfox260z, the winning entry into the Desktop Giveaway! It will be shipped out later this year to the winner, hopefully it brings you many years of fun as it did for me!

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Desktop Giveaway!

Its not much, but I am giving away my old desktop. Its a decent PC, loaded with Windows 7 Pro. It is a slightly modified Compaq Presario SR5010NX with two GB of RAM and a GeForce 9400 Graphics Card, otherwise the specs are as shown on the manufacturer’s website, it does NOT include a mouse, keyboard, or monitor. This is a giveaway drawing, no strings attached, nothing extra, just send an email using this form. It is open from my birthday, 12/16/2011 at 12:00 AM MST, and ends on New Year’s Day, 1/1/2012 at 12:00 AM. The desktop itself will be shipped to the winner’s address sometime during 2012. As for the legal mumbo jumbo: We reserve the right to terminate this giveaway at any time. We reserve the right to substitute an equal or greater value item for the one in this giveaway. The winner must reply to the email we send within 24 hours to receive their prize. Etc. Etc. Good luck!

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Who’s really the master? The owner or the pet?

That’s a question I must admit I have wondered about for a while. I enjoy having pets and most people think themselves the master of them… But who’s the real master? We’ll take my cat, CC, for an example. Sure, I own her and stuff, but she is always able to get the attention she wants by climbing up on my lap, getting on my keyboard, and doing all sorts of other things to get exactly what she wants. Each morning I wake up to her meowing for food, and I feed her. Each evening I go to sleep with her laying on my lap. Honestly… I think my cat is the master here since I can not help but give her whatever she wants. Same goes for dogs and other pets that are more of the active variety (turtles don’t really count, same with hamsters and lizards and pets like that). Anyone else have an idea on this or am I the only one? Fleet Admiral out.

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The End of Minecraft is Nigh!

Well, not really nigh… Its here! The End of Minecraft, no not as in the end, but The End! A new realm you can travel to with tons of work involved in the Minecraft world! It is home to the eery new endermen as well as one exclusive boss: The Enderdragon. The End is a rather dull world full of endermen and the single Enderdragon, which, when defeated, shows you something called the End Poem (I’m not sure what’s in it, since I’ve not gotten that far yet, hehe) and the credits and essentially the end of Minecraft. This is with the long-awaited release of the full game. That’s right, a game that’s been around for YEARS is finally coming out of beta!!!! WOOT!!! Well, that’s enough for this rant, until next time. Fleet Admiral Ra’Zim signing out!

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Naughty or Nice?

Today I was bored out of my mind house sitting for my mom and watching Boomerang and all those old cartoons… I must say I am shocked now and then by some of the lines in the shows… The only one that comes to mind is the one I heard when I decided to write this and it came from Powerpuff Girls (yes, I’m THAT bored with my desktop out of commission). Near the end the announcer made this comment: “Oh nurse, isn’t it time for my sponge bath?” Now I ask you… They wonder why there are so many teenage pregnancies and stuff nowadays and yet with rather raunchy lines like that in cartoons…?

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GWC’s Explained

This comes from our Wiki on the Jargon page! We use a lot of terms that are not exactly normal for others and thus they need to be defined! As I have done with the GWC’s, known most commonly as Gizians in White Coats.

Gizian Wampo Corporation. The GWC was originally an independent corporation created by Wampo’Lork for the purpose of research and development for other corporations. The corporation was led by several generations of the Wampo clan before eventually Wampo’Lork’III began to deal with the Gizian military. The GWC began to create vastly superior products for the Gizian military that eventually the entire corporation was absorbed by the military as part of the drunken decision of Wampo’Lork’IV. That change was irreversible as Wampo’Lork’IV died only a few hours later of alcohol poisoning, leaving no other descendants to carry on the Gizian Wampo Corporation. The GWC was made up of groups of scientists that the rest of society found too insane to allow them to do such work, the GWC scooped up these scientists, allowing them to continue their passion in a relatively safe and supervised facility. The GWCs as these scientists became known as were not inhibited by the morales that other scientists held to allowing them to create many fascinating and deadly inventions. When the Gizian Wampo Corporation was absorbed into the military, these GWCs created individual groups aboard many ships and continued their craft, while others created entire colonies just for their research. The GWCs are often referred to in a derogatory manner as the Gizians in White Coats mainly because of the common occurrence of a GWC being dragged away in a straight jacket.

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Work Has Begun!

I have begun work on the new forum design! Same functionality, new look! I will be working to make it work better with the homepage and actually have that feeling of belonging that the homepage and forums have never actually shared, but now I’m bustling down to work, I will have the playground up shortly for anyone who wants to check out my progress! (Please leave any suggestions you may have on here or the forums!)

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The Slaaknoer

The Slaaknoer have been finished by one of our most valued members, Casanova! He did a phenomenal job with this adopted race, creating a fully-developed society! Read more here! I will say I am highly impressed by the work he put into this.

The Slaaknoer are a humanoid race Icthoreptilian in appearance, with more lean to reptilian. A race of average height, they stand between 6 and 7½ feet in height. The Slaaknoer have no sexual dimorphism. Their build varies between lean and muscular, and are very athletic. They have very sharp non-retractable claws on both hands and feet and a tail (approximately ½ of their height) with fins to aid in swimming. They are covered in fish-like scales from head to toe and come in various colors, with patterns dependent on how the light hits the scales. Besides their tails, they have fins on their arms, legs, back, and the top of their reptilian-shaped heads. Female fins are more frillish than male fins to differentiate the two sexes. Their eyes have round pupils with the iris coming in one of three colors, predominately brown or gray, with violet being very rare and only seen in the higher castes, believed to be Ssawden’s mark of leadership; it is almost unheard of in the lower castes, but in lower castes their position within the system would be promoted. With the exception of violet eyes, the colors are not associated with the caste system.

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