Welcome to the Windy Weather Website.
These are musings from my vantage point on the Oregon South Coast.
A long-time software engineer and general geek, I continue my exploration with Photography, 3D Graphics, Linux and other nonsense. Come along for the ride.
My Photo Gallery is here. And of special interest are the albums of the beautiful models that I’ve worked with. If you are of age, and enjoy artistic photos, you should register on the photo gallery to see all of the beautiful pictures. If you are a model or need photos for any other reason, my rates are very affordable. And for special clients, I will consider TFCD. Contact me and we can discuss your needs.
Look on the left for links to topics of interest as well as my photographer sites on modeling portals.
I fix computers, and software and build websites. For more information, check this page. I’ve built Wordpress based sites with custom themes, and photo galleries based on Coppermine for several clients.
Enjoy, and don’t hesitate to drop me a note at djduffy at windyweather dot net if you have a question or comment that you don’t want to just leave here on the site.
As you may know from reading other posts here or from checking out my photo site, I use a Nikon D300 and a Nikon S550 camera. I have about 16GB of CF cards for my D300 and an 8GB SD card for my S550, but these are not enough for a week long vacation where I’m going to be taking quite a few pictures. For past trips, like the trip I took to Boise, ID for a week, I have taken my older laptop with me. And while on that trip I bought a 160GB USB hard drive as a second backup device. As you can imagine, a laptop is not a convenient device to carry on a trip.
We have all reached Level 60. Here are some recent family portraits:
Windy Flayer here. It was pretty easy for me to level up to 60. Using Brandish, a dual weapon skill, I was able to kill the Monsters of Crespo and level fairly quickly. I look forward to working to higher levels at Crespo. While Crespo is a good place to level up, it’s not that good a place to hunt for stones to fortify armor and weapons, so I often take sorties to other areas to harvest stones from Akris.
Dear Mr President,
We the people of this country are no longer in control of the debate on Health Care reform that is occurring in Washington. This debate has been co-opted by the special interests of the Health Care Insurance Agencies and the American People are not being heard.
We the people elected you to guide the debate on Health Care as well as the other issues vital to the future of this country. We need you to get engaged on this question and take back the debate so that all parties are heard.
We, those of us listening to quiet voices, have heard all the arguments in voices such as:
- Sicko - http://www.michaelmoore.com/sicko/index.html
- Bill Moyers Journal: http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05222009/profile2.html http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/05222009/profile.html
- Frontline: Sick Around the World http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundtheworld/
- Frontline: Sick Around America http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/sickaroundamerica/
I am again embarrassed and ashamed that leaders such as Senator Max Baucus (D-Mont.) have restricted the debates in so clearly a self-serving and narrow way. We know that he and many other members of congress are beholden to large contributions from the special interests that are and have since the time of Jimmy Carter held back progress in this area.
It is time for you, Mr. President, to help lead us out of this nonsense into the light of day that all the other countries of the developed world, and many of the developing world have already seen.
It seems obvious from listening to all the voices, including the more quiet ones, that the largest problem that needs to be addressed is profits acquired by health care insurance companies. This leads to most of the problems that we have now including:
- The large number of uninsured. Since companies make higher profits by denying coverage, raising premiums and employing hundreds of workers to deny claims.
- Higher infant mortality in the US than most of the other developed nations.
- Higher overhead in the delivery of health care – about 24% of every health care dollar spent compared to most other nations where it is more like 7%.
- The large influence that the health care insurance companies have to protect their own interests.
It seems clear that the way out of this dilemma is for you to let the American People know that you personally support:
- Opening the debate in Sen. Baucus committee to all the voices including doctors and nurses voicing their concerns about Single Payer approaches.
- Talk publicly about how a new system must include taking the profit out of Health Care Insurance, either by requiring that all insurance for basic coverage be conducted by companies whose sole business is basic health insurance on a non-for-profit basis, or by adopting a single payer system. Separate insurance companies are free to exist to provide extra insurance as long as they are separate companies. I am sure we can all see how companies providing both non-profit basic insurance and for-profit supplemental insurance would be in conflict. This would surely lead to abuses. The lack of profit is a common theme in systems around the world.
- Talk about efficiencies that a single payer system would afford, such as a single standard of care and lowered overhead in the delivery of Health Care. This is not a matter of siding with one constituency of the debate, but of siding with what is best for the American People.
We are looking to you to lead and guide in these troubled times. This whole argument of Health Care Reform is being co-opted by the special interests. Since your administration has not sought to lead by drafting the legislation for congress to consider, it seems clear that you cannot sit by and watch while it is being rail-roaded in the wrong direction by the Special Interests.
We must be heard, and you are our leader.
Thanks for listening,
Darrell Duffy
Coos Bay, Oregon.
Am I the only one that sees that 12cm disks should be dead?
I know that we have just, finally after much gnashing of teeth and political finagling, decided on a new standard for the next generation, but there are too many disadvantages to these 12cm optically read disks or discs if you prefer.
Hello, from Requies Coast. We brothers and sisters are all at level 30 or above now and are hunting monsters in Requies Coast. We expect to be here working until about level 50. At this point we are hunting lobsters called Sylvans.
Hello from 2Moons. We have all made good progress since we last spoke. We brothers and sisters are all above level 30 now, although it has been a trial for some to get there. Most of us are beginning to get our wide area damage skills now, but Soul Aura, as a Segnale, and Windy Squall as a Bagi Warrior do not have these skills until much later in their training. So they are struggling. More »
Managing a stable of characters in an RPG is a complicated process. My limited experience with MMORPGs indicates that it can be more efficient to build more than one character at a time. At least it is more interesting. In the two MMORPGs that I’ve tried I’ve built several characters to try to learn more about the game and the character classes. In 2Moons I’m currently running six characters. This is efficient since as they level up all the interesting loot is saved for the other characters and one higher level character can finance a lower level character’s purchase of expensive items.
But, the downside of doing this is you have to keep track of all the loot that each character has and what they need. In Guild Wars this was easy because there is an account-wide storage facility where all the loot is kept. But with 2Moons, each character has a separate stash, or storage locker, so you have to remember what’s in each one to avoid wasting time with items that you already have collected.
This is a report from we brothers now that we are all near level 30. Vengeful Breeze was the first one to cross level 31. Level 31 is a significant milestone since it is the level where we get new shiny armor. As you can see, my Thunder Armor set is quite nice and shiny. The miracle coating sheds all the gore that is a constant problem when killing the monsters required to advance in this world.
Greetings and Happy Holidays from Braiken Castle and surrounding territories. I am called Windysquall and I’m a Bagi Warrior. I’m sure you can look my race up on the 2Moons site, so I’ll move on with my Christmas letter. We are now six, we brothers and sisters in 2Moons. I’ve started the letters since I’d like to thank all my brothers and sisters for their great sacrifice to provide me with my new enhanced weapons.
2Moons is an MMORPG that is free to download and free to play. As we have seen, Guild Wars is purchased and then is free from monthly fees, while World of Warcraft is purchased and there is a monthly fee to play. This article will compare 2Moons with Guild Wars. I’m by no means an expert on MMORPGs, but my extensive 3D and software experience may allow me to lend some insights into what is going on with 2Moons.
Since we last wrote from Cantha, Truearrow and I have made much progress. We have both become Weh no Su and defeated Shiro in the battle of Sunjiang District, at least for now. We are now working with the Kurzicks and Luxons to assure their aid in the battles to follow. This is a long process since they are very untrusting of outsiders. Truearrow has become a friend of the Kurzicks and I am near to completing the task of befriending the Luxons. At that point we will each befriend the other group to build our skills and explore more of Cantha. More »
Jora , the other heroes and I have been adventuring in the Charr Homelands and helping Gwen to defeat the Charr. Along the way, we have fought hard and long to gain he assistance of Pyre Fieceshot, a Charr ranger who has taken our side in this battle. Since Pyre is much like a wolf himself and a ranger, we decided that he should have a fitting companion, and so we tamed a black wolf for him.
Hi, I’m Windy Delight, an Elemental / Monk living in Tyria. Just an update on my progress. I’m now a strong level 13 working in the Maguuma Jungle and surrounding territories. Last week I obtained my high level armor at Droknar’s forge. After working my way through the missions in the Shiverpeaks, I was able to get to Beacon’s Perch and then purchased a run to Drok’s to get my armor. I’m forever greatful to my brothers and sisters for helping me fund my armor and runes to upgrade it. I have chosen Ice Forged armor since I like the style better than the more confining Flame Forged armor that I had before.
Hello, all. Just a short note to let you know my progress back here in Tyria. The big news is that the Charr have come and seared the land, and I have pushed on west toward the shiverpeaks. I have taken Ranger as a second profession, and have taken a Melandru’s Stalker as a pet. At first I was dubious and thought that I would trade him in soon for a black bear. The black bears here in Tyria are hard to tame as it turns out. But I find that I’m happy with “Reaper Cat” as I have named him, and we are working together well.
Hi, all. This is a short note to let you know about our progress here in Istan. Both Jacob and I have been working hard to advance here so we can join the fight to save Elona from Nightfall. Both Jacob and I have achieved Sunspear Commander and proudly wear the title. I think Jacob is a little embarrassed that I beat him to that title by a day, but I found the Sunspear Bounty on the various beasts and Corsair pirates before he did. We should have been using that since the beginning since it is a great help in advancing our careers.
We are eight: We brothers and sisters of Guild Wars lands. I am the elder of us and will introduce the rest. I grew up in Tyria, but since then I have visited the land of the Eye of the North to befriend Vekk and Ogden and Jora, and now we roam the lands of Tyria, the North Shiverpeaks and Cantha with our mechanistic friend MOX.
Over the past weeks, which have seemed like years, we have learned to cooperate and communicate, even though we are forever apart. In my small way I have been able to collect materials and funds to bring the others up faster into their skills, armor and weapons. It gratifies me to see how they have progressed. In the following pages you will learn, briefly, each of their stories.
For my part, I will continue, for the time being, to explore Kaineng City. I have been able to build my skills and power very effectively ther and when I grow some more I’ll return to Tyria to pursue the quest to protect the lands from the Destroyers.