Shipped Off

 

Well next week Im being shipped off to a week long tech training course in Dallas. Its actually a Novell Zenworks course. These are kinda fun cause its a break from the norm. I get to drive down to North Dallas, and sit in a classroom and learn some new stuff. I dont have to listen to any of our users cry and whine for help. No deadlines, projects... stress. Just sit and learn. Plus my buddy Top Jimmy works just down the street, so I have a lunch buddy. About the only down side of the entire week will be the drive through traffic to get to the class and the two toll boothes I have to pass through. Luckily work will reimburse me for gas and tolls, which is nice because I actually come out slightly ahead after it all adds up. So, its Friday, the weekend is about to start... then im off to the Novell classroom! 

Playing in the Fire

Well that's at least what it feels like. Outdoor soccer in Texas is always a warming experience. Which is why for the past 3 years I have avoided getting myself into an outdoor season. I don't know if it was all the World Cup soccer I had been watching or if I just missed the pain and suffering of playing outdoor soccer, but I've committed myself to a new team. My buddy Ken approached me last week and said they needed a striker (forward) for a Men's Over 30 4th division team. I had never played in the Over 30 division before. Normally I played in the "Open" division because of better competition. But I decided to come out and see how they looked. Also, another factor in this was this team was gearing up for the Fall season. Which meant about half our games would be in cooler, more barable weather. So Sunday rolls around and I show up for their training session to get signed up. The coach gets me and Ken's information and we join the group in warming up. I notice there are a lot of guys there and some look pretty old. Then one of the guys tells me this is a combined practice between the Over 30 team and the Over 40 squad. That would explain the older, heavier guys. They split the group up into two teams, light shirts vs dark shirts. I was wearing white so i got put on the team with the majority being the Over 40 group. It didn't bother me much because this would give me a chance to play against my future teamates and see what skill level they are.

The scrimage kicked off and we were playing. Many of these guys knew eachother from previous practices. So I was just going to play it low key and not go 100% until I got the feel for the pace and how to play with this group. I started out in midfield, just recieving some short passes... knocking the ball around.. not playing too hard. I noticed our outside midfielder was getting the ball a lot, so I moved to the left inside midfield position near him. He received a pass along the side line and looked up for help since a defender was already covering him. I made a run to him and he layed the ball off to me. I quickly one-touched the ball behind the defender and into the large open space behind him down the field. My player who just gave me the ball sprinted down the line and got to my pass. He crossed it to the center and our forward shot it wide. But we had sucessfully put together an attack. Now, I was getting the ball much more frequently. I guess I had earned some trust or something. I noticed our forwards were becoming exhausted, so I moved from midfield into a forward position. I pushed up the field to their last defender, staying on-sides even though there were no linesmen to call offsides. Suddenly, one of our midfielders steals the ball from theirs. I look at him and put my arm up, calling for the ball. He see's me and sends a perfect pass over the head of the defender next to me. I pour on the speed to meet the ball about 10 yards out from the goal and its 1 on 1 with their keeper. The ball bounces once and the keeper starts to come out. I jumped into the air and with the outside of my right foot, calmly flick the ball by the charging keeper and into the right side of the net. Goal! Immediatly, guys on the Under30 team began coming up to me and asking me my name and which team I was on. It was funny. I soon learned they were so happy to see that because the one thing they were missing last season was a forward with a scoring touch. Defense has always been their strength. Which I did learn there are a couple very good defenders on this team. Lots of good hustle and mental toughness. These are good signs to see in my new teamates.

So today during my lunch hour, I took a trip down to a local sporting good store to look at some new outdoor soccer cleats. I didn't expect to find anything I liked really, since local stores are known for carrying only 1 or 2 types of shoes and not very good quality ones at that. I was pleasantly surprised to find several decent pair to choose from. But one pair of Adidas cleats caught my eye. They had a good cleat design for hard ground, good colors to go with most any uniform, seemed well built and most impressivly they were feather light. I mean so light, it didn't even feel like i was holding a soccer cleat. This was an important factor since by the second half my legs feel like 2 cement bags tied to me. Light is good! So I found my size and bought them. Im looking forward to getting them broke in. This is the first time in 12 years I have worn another brand of shoe besides Kelme. I feel bad about being a traitor and not buying them. Kelme's are such high quality boots I hope these $50 Adidas can compare to them. Don't be fooled by the price though. The Kelme's I usually wear run $100, double what I paid for the Adidas. But the Kelme shoe's are imported and all imported soccer shoes carry a bit higher price tag. Maybe these USA made cleats can win me over. We'll see as the outdoor soccer action pics up!

Zidane Fest

And the comedy begins...

Rebirth!

Besure to check in on my main website, thorpeland.com in the coming days. A total transformation is about to take place. Changes have already begun. A new look, a new webhost and some new features! Oh, the excitement. I know... I know.

Vacation Time!!

 
After being gone for the past week, Emily and I have returned from Puerta Vallarta Mexico! What a blast we had. We arrived Wednesday, July 5th at 8:30 in the morning. We got checked into the hotel and began to explore the area, eat and hit the beach. That evening I was able to take a bunch of pretty good pictures as the sun set.

Thursday morning, we were up early and on our way outside of town to the jungle for the Canopy Zip-line tour. A network of 13 tree-top platforms with cables running to each. They suit us up in our harness gear and we fly through the canopy along these cables at high speeds. Fun! We returned to town that afternoon to relax and hit the beach. Since our trip was an all-inclusive package, our meals were included and we could eat as many times as we wanted. Surprisingly, we didn't gorge ourselves as much as the average toursist might have. Which is probably good, since we had so many things planned.

Friday was another early morning out of bed. This time we had to be at the Marina to catch a boat. We were headed down the coast for some snorkeling and exploring. After about an hours ride on the catamaran, we stopped at a small cove and everyone suited up with our masks, snorkels and life vests. As we hopped into the water, we were handed a dinner roll by the tour guides. This was to feed the fish underwater. What I did not expect was the ferocity of the little buggers when they saw the food! I looked down and saw one colorful sunfish coming out of the coral and seaweed at the bottom. Suddenly, I was caught in what best could be described as a pirranha like frenzy. I could feel fish all over me and they churned the waters around me. I struggled to quickly take out my waterproof camera, and I think I got some decent pictures. I still have to get them developed. A bit later while swimming, Emily tells me she lost one of her swimming fins! I look down and its sitting on the coral floor about 15 feet down. So, I wiggled out of my vest and gave it to Emily to hold on to. I took a deep breath and began my decent. About half way down I began to think, "what if i get down here and there is a barracuda in these rocks?". Ha! Well there wasn't and I returned to the surface safely. We all got back onto the boat shortly after that and got served a good lunch. Emily wasn't able to enjoy it as much because she was getting a bit motion sick from the rocking boat. But she kept her eye on the level horizon and never threw up. A few minutes later we arrived at our second stop, the remote village of Yelapa. This is a town only accessible by boat and which only recieve electricity five years ago. Our tour guide gave us a walk thru tour of the small village then lead us down to a picturesque beach. We stayed there for about an hour, relaxing and swimming. Then we all boarded the boat for the return trip back to Puerta Vallarta. Our tour guide Jovani was a real comedian and kept everyone entertained the whole way.

Saturday was another day of getting up early. We had to catch a ride to the airport at 7am, even though our flight wasnt until 9:40. Emily took a little fall at the airport on some stairs. But she was alright. Just slipped on a couple stairs, bruising her backside a bit. We got on our plane and landed in Dallas by 12:30 in the afternoon. Home in time to unpack, relax and still enjoy the weekend before returning to work Monday.

On Sunday, I was able to meet up with Dan (who was in town for work from L.A.) and Kirk at Hooters to watch the World Cup Final. It was a great time and a very entertaining game. The French scored first on a penalty kick, but a short time later, Italy got the equalizer off a corner kick header. Very nice! The game went into extra time, then into a penalty shootout. Italy won it 5-3 to claim the World Cup trophy! It was a great time since both teams played some decent attacking soccer. And being able to watch the game with my old college buddies made it even more fun.

I took a TON of pictures while in Mexico. Check them out at HERE! 

Free Fun??

 
Few things in this world that are truly fun are, well... truly free. There's always a cost... somehow. Right? Well I've come across something that is very fun and very free. My buddy Barmy pointed to towards a game called TrackMania Nations. Its a PC game that is free to download, but has the quality of a game you'd pay $50 for at the store. Its a car racing game. Its simple to play and tremendous fun. I spent about 3 or 4 hours this weekend racing against my buddies online. And a nice thing about it is you do not have to have a high end gaming pc to play it. It will run on most older computers. And its some crazy fun. The tracks have jumps, loops and insane turns you'd almost have to see to believe. Not to mention all the mods and skins there are for the cars, created by players all over the world. This game is truly a great find in a sea full of crappy $50 retail games. Check it out at http://www.trackmanianations.com See you on the track! 

The Open Water and Good Friends

Yesterday, my friends Gregg and Stacey came out with me, Top Jimmy and his friend Steve. Jimmy had his boat and I brought out my jetski. We hit the lake at noon but it was cool and cloudy. There was even a light rain coming down. Within the hour, the clouds broke and it was 100% sun! We had fun pulling the tube behind the boat and blasting the waves on the jetski. About half way thru the day, my jetski's main tank ran out of gas and I had to switch to the reserve line. I drove it over to local marina and bought some gas there. They charged a whopping $3.59 a gallon! I guess they figure if you need gas, you don't have many choices so they can charge as much as they want. It was a great day on the lake and we hope to get more people out with us in the coming weekends. I'll have to take some pictures to post.

Eating Their Words

In preparing for this past Friday's Coed game, I learned two things. One, this was a new team made up of all great players, girls and guys, they would be very tough. And two, someone on their team told our team they wanted to beat us so badly this Friday that we'd not want to play in the Friday night league anymore. Well, those is fightin' words!! Our team was definatly fired up by that statement and came ready to play. Apparently, they weren't quite as ready. We won the match 11-4. They put up a fight early in the game, but we wore them down with constant attacking pressure and solid defense. I'm sure this is a team we will face in the final championship game. I'll look forward to beating them again.

Soccer Update

Things are going well on my soccer front. My coed team has been blowing away everyone in our division so far this season. Our last win was something like 23-1. And the team looked very good in warmup. I thought we were in for a battle. Not so. I scored our second goal and then resorted to just passing the ball to our girls, trying to set them up for a score. Suposedly this coming friday, we play a team that could really give us a run for our money. I'll update with what happens.

On the men's team front, we're doing ok. Currently at 2-2, we won last Tuesday 6-2. I scored 2 goals, the last one being on a penalty shot. We have some tough games ahead so im not sure how we'll end up this season.

Longest Week... Ever.

Is it just me or this week just crawling by? It's only Tuesday but it feels like it should be Thursday at least. I guess that because I dont really have anthing happening this week. Well anything very interesting. Took the jetski out last Saturday with Emily and met Top Jimmy at the lake. It was a blast getting back out there again. The water was nice, although a bit lower because of our drought. But we still had fun. The jetski ran great after coming out of its winter hibernation. Im looking forward to getting back out there this saturday. Ah yes... fun times ahead.

They Do!

Last weekend Emily and I drove down to Galveston (TX) for our good friends Mike and Cheryl's wedding. But not only were we attending their wedding, we were in it! Emily was the maid of honor and I was a groomsman. We hit the road early Friday morning and had made great time on the normally 6 hour drive, making it in about 5 hours. Just in time for lunch with our hosts. They took everyone out to a BBQ place. Which is probably the last place I would have chosen to eat at, but oh well. I had a burger and fries, its all good.

That night came and it was time for the Bachalor and Bachalorette parties. Emily had spent the past month planning Cheryl's and the best man Aaron had evertything arranged for Mike's. The girls were getting to gether to play odd games like "pin the penis on the man" and later have a stripper show up acting as a doctor, since Cheryl is down there for med school. Our plan was to take Mikey boy out to a strip club and make him think twice about this whole marriage thing. Ha! Well without divulging too many details, they both had fun at their respective events and still wanted to get married the next day. The wedding went off without a hitch. No one tripped or forgot their lines or went the wrong direction. The reception was a lot of fun. They had rented out a building in The Strand (tourist area of Galveston). Food was catered and they had a good DJ for the tunes.

Our drive back seemed longer than going down, but was uneventful. No traffic jams or problems. We took my new car and it was smooth riding the entire trip. I cringed at the fact I was putting almost 1000 miles on my new ride! haha I guess thats what I got it for. Oh yeah, the day after the wedding Mike and Cheryl headed off for the Bahamas for a 7 day vacation. I bet they had a blast! Congrats guys!! We're all happy for you!

The Beast

So the time has come for me to begin building a new powerful home pc for multi-media and gaming use. Unlike my last rig, where I merely built it to run the current app of the day, I wanted to build this one to handle whatever the next 3 or 4 years may throw at it. By that I mean it doesn't necessarily have to have the power currently to run everything that will come out over the next four years, but be capable of upgrading with the latest technology as needed. Of course, I want to build it powerful enough to not need any upgrades for as long as possible. In the ever changing world of computers, this is a tough chore.

I started planning out what I now refer to as "The Beast" by hitting the web to do my research. After all, it has been at least a year since I upgraded my current PC and so much has changed since then! I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing out on any cool new tech that would give me an edge. One of the best places to start out with research, price comparing and buying is the website NewEgg.com. What makes this site so great is first off, their low prices. Few sites can beat their discounts. They also offer cheap or free shipping on items and often sizable mail in rebates. After weeks of planning, Ive mapped out my new rig. Below is the parts list, which Ive begun buying peice by piece over the past few and next few months.

RAM - 2GB of Corsair DDR400, Dual channel
Hard Drive - 120GB 720RPM W/8MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s
MoBo - MSI K8N Diamond Plus Socket 939 NVIDIA nForce4 SLI X16 ATX AMD
PSU - Rosewill 600W Power Supply, W/SLi support
CPU - AMD Athlon 64 X2 4800+ Toledo 2000MHz HT 2 x 1MB L2 Cache Socket 939 Dual Core
Video - DUAL Geforce 7900GT 256MB 256-bit GDDR3 PCI Express x16, Running in 16X SLi Mode
Case - COOLER MASTER Centurion 532

So far i have recieved my RAM, MoBo, PSU and the Case. I havent started assembling anything yet. Waiting till i get it all ordered and in. Im salvaging a CD/DVD burner drive from my current pc. So I did not have to purchase another. The last thing on the list I will be buying is the CPU. Currently the 4800+ is one of AMD's top processors. And of course the top dual core CPU's currently out fetch a high price. Right now the price sits at $683. Ouch, I know. That's why im holding off for a couple more months to see what the price does as Intel gets closer to releasing its new "Conroe" line of CPU's which are claiming to be the fastest around. That normally starts a domino effect of prices falling. I plan to make updated posts, with pictures as I assemble "The Beast". I'll then post performace results and some benchmarks. Oh, the excitement!!

A Clean Sheet!

My Coed Indoor soccer team finished the season a perfect 10-0, winning the championship last Friday night. We pulled off a rather close 9-3 victory. I say close because we beat most teams by double digit margins. Im looking forward to next season, so we can "Threepeat" as they say in pro sports. If we keep the same team together, there is a good chance we can do it again!

It's a Done Deal!

 
After nearly a 2 year wait, Verizon FiOS has been installed! For those who aren't in "the know", FiOS is a fiber optic connection directly to the home. This gives internet connection speeds which make DSl or Cable internet look like the days of dial-up. After it was set up I did some tweaking and was able to get my speeds to 15.33MB Down/2.38MB UP. That's darned fast! These speed are important to me because I don't just check email and surf the web from my home pc. I host video game servers, upload video's and download a lot of large software installs. This is definatly a good day in Thorpeland. :) Above is a picture of the Verizon installers patching the fiber line into the side of my house. 

The Perfect Lunch

 
Many of my friends despise sushi. To me, this is an extremly tasty and fulfilling lunch! I highly recommend trying various types of "cali-rolls" if you get the chance. So many are so delicious! Don't be a wuss and be scared because it has some type of raw fish on it. Consider it a healthy break from the deep fried everything topped off with a loaded hamburger that you usually get for lunch. 

Testing the YouTube

Watch me drive a lap in the Cart class in Toca Race Driver 3. Mainly im just posting this to test the embeded video feature from youtube.com. Enjoy.

Into the Playoffs!

Both my Tuesday men's and Friday Coed soccer teams had their first round playoff games this past week. And both ended in wins for both my squads! Tuesday we played the badly outmatched "Average Joe's", beating them easily 11-3. This puts my men's team, Menace FC, in the B division championship match next Tuesday. We could have been playing for the A championship, but lost the our last game of the season, putting the top championship game out of reach according to our points standing. On Friday night, my coed team finished off our first round oppenent 9-5. This puts us into the final championship match and a chance to finish the season with a perfect 10-0 record! I see no reason why we should lose that game!

The Perfect Regular Season!

Last night was the 8th and final regular season game of my co-ed soccer teams indoor season. We finished a perfect 8-0 and head into the playoffs next week. We overwelmed practically every team we faced this season, scoring a total of 73 goals and only giving up 21 goals. We did something funny las night. With 3 minutes left in the game, we pulled all our guys off the field(3)and replaced them with the girls on our team who were still subs on the bench. So we had an all girl team playing against the other coed team. We were up 8-3 so it didnt matter. They held the ball at our opponents side for practically the entire 3 minutes and almost scored once! In the last seconds, we passed it back to our keeper and he made a bad pass out of the goal to one of their girls who scored making the final 8-5. Oh well. Fun game and we're on to the playoffs. I fully expect we will win it all fairly easily. This is the best coed team ive ever played on.

Dueling Banjos

This has to be one of the most hilarious versions of Dueling Banjos. Either that or a subliminal Ad campaign for the South.

April Wrap-Up

I haven't really had the chance to blog much this past month. Each week fly's by and the weekends become packed with stuff going on! About 3 weeks ago, Emily and I took a trip down to the Dallas Arboritum. Pretty cool place for photography and to walk around and explore. I suppose that place would be a gardners dream. It was a fun afternoon, I still need to process the pics I took that day so I can post them.

Last weekend I met up with my jetski buddy, Jimmy, at Lake Lewisville. He was out there with his new boat. Nice boat, about 27feet long with an inboard motor. Seats about 12 people and has a canopy for shade. Which is nice so you can just park out in Party Cove and relax without baking. The water was still way too chilly for me to jump in. I heard it was 67F. That didn't stop a lot of people though. It was sad to see how low the lake had become with the lack of rain we've had. Even after gaining almost 2 feet after our last major rain storm, it was still about 6 feet lower than normal. Hopefully it will fill up more before June and the official start of our jetskiing season.

On the home upgrade front, we broke down and had ceramic tile installed to replace ALL of the original linolium tile in the house. Sure it was a good chunk of money spent. But it looks great, is much more durable and raises the value of the house nicely. We are very happy with how it all looks now. It took the work crew 2 full days of work to finish. If I had tried this by myself, it would have been 2 months of trial and error. A disaster! But its done and it looks great!

On the friend front, my buddies are biting the dust left and right. By that I mean getting married!! Steve and Monica.. getting married. Cheryl and Mike, yup... getting married. Doug and Jennifer, getting married. And now even Craig and Bex have announce the M word. Wow, is there something in the water? Not that them getting married is a bad thing. But everyone at once!? Well, I guess its bound to happen to everyonee eventually. haha

What's next? Ah yes, the computer front. In gaming news, Ghost Recon 3 or "GRAW" (Ghost Recon Advanced Warrior) is set to come out in May. This one is long awaited and really looks like a great game. We'll see when the reviewers get ahold of it. On the Battlefield 2 front, Tour 3 over at www.bf2combat.net has started up today. I played the first half of our battleday and we weren't doing so well against the dreaded 2MC. But the day isn't over! Im also in the early stages of planning my next PC. Its almost time for a major upgrade and later this year it will be time to do it. So far, I should be able to build it for around $1800. Unfortunalty, technology has changed so much since I built the one I have now, that I am not even able to take any parts from this one to use in the next one and save me money. The new one is from scratch. But it will be SWEET. Dual PCI-Express cards, DDR2 3200 mem, SATA drives, Dual core AMD CPU... the focus with this PC being on speed, power and upgradability for the future.

Yard Boy

The weather is getting warm, we are finally getting rain again and that means its time to get the yard ready for spring. Ive been in the house just over a year now and the lawn finally lost its newly sodded look. Last week a fertilized and began regular watering and I think its already paying off. I got green stuff sticking up thru all the brown winter grass. Woo Whoo! A small setback has been the front of the yard where Verizon dug some holes and trenches to lay the fiber lines for the upcomming FIOS. But since Im anxiously awaiting that service, I will forgive them for tearing up the small area of my lawn. This weekend Im going to get some grass seed and replant the area. Also on a good note, the front hedge bushes which I thought were killed by the ice we got this winter, are spinging back to life with lots of new leaves and branches. Good stuff. To brighten things up, Emily and I bought a new glass storm door for the front entrance. Now we can leave the solid front door open and let light in. It really brightens the living room nicely. Now that we have had some time to really get settled in the house (a year). Im going to take some pictures to post soon.

Rally Racing!!

There are few motor sports as exciting to watch as Rally Racing. Big in Europe, this awesome race type has yet to really catch on in the USA. I wish it would. Watch this clip as this team races through a dirt road course at 70mph!

Brother Steve, You'll Be Missed

 
Its been almost a month since my last blog post. On Saturday, January 21st my older brother Steve passed away after a 2 year battle with cancer. That would be his picture above. Steve was only 48 years old. Techincally, he was my half-brother. But he was always around my entire life, so to me, he was just my brother. Steve was a great guy. A comedian, a dedicated bass fisherman, a Harley rider and a guy who could fix, upgrade, or modify anything. He was very creative. When I was a kid he would play a game with me. He called it, "make Thorpe laugh till he can't breathe". Steve was never short on jokes and wisecracks. One of the funniest guys I ever knew. I found out just over a year ago about his cancer. He had wanted to keep it a secret and just take care of his treatments in private. I guess he just didn't want us to worry or be burdened finacially with him. I'll never really know. I do know I'll miss the guy. I still find myself out somewhere and I'll see or hear something and I think, "oh, I gotta show Steve this!". Then I remember.
We had a small funeral for Steve on January 25th, a Wednesday night. It was attended by me and Emily, my family, his girlfriend Flo and her family and about 25 others from his work and circle of friends. He was cremated and the small urn sat on the table at the head of the ceremony. It was all so very strange to see his hat which he always wore and his leather riding jacket laying out on the table, knowing I just saw him in them a couple months back. At the funeral, my dad told me when he was with Steve in his final hour, Steve told my dad he had no regrets about his life. Knowing that,I supose, is at least some consolation to bring out of such a sad event.

Now that I've found the words to post about my brother Steve and his passing, I can begin updating my blog on a regular basis again. I just didn't feel it was right to continue posting about my daily trivial events until I talked about Steve in the way I wanted to . 

One Crazy Weekend!

It was finally here! Last Friday, I was off to Las Vegas, Nevada to meet up with a few of my buddies for our friend Kirk's bachaelor party. We had this planned for about 3 months and everyone was looking forward to it.

I arrived at DFW airport around 7:30AM for my 8:40AM flight. I was to meet Kirk there so we could try to get seats together on the plane. A quick cell call later, I had found him just inside the baggage check area and we were off to our gate. That's when he turns to me and says, "there has been a change in plans". I look at him puzzled and ask what in the world he's talking about. He then say's, "Jennifer and I got into a big fight last night and the wedding is off". My response is, "dude, im still going to Vegas". I tell him to hold off telling Dan this news until we unite with him at the Vegas airport. I just had to see his face when he told him.

So we board the flight and lift off. I manage to talk the kid sitting next to me, to allow kirk to sit there instead. Kirk takes the seat next to me and within 10 minutes he's doing the head bob as he falls alseep. Why bother switching seats? On top of that, Kirk is a rather furry guy and his Wookie left arm is brushing up against mine on the arm rest the entire flight. Akward.

We land, finally get off the plane and trek thru the airport to find Dan. We meet up at the baggage claim and now we are three. Dan then tells me that one of our planned group, Mark, was M.I.A. and was an assumed no-show for this trip. Oh... bummer. I don't have to listen to 3 days of trash talk, bragging and exagerations. This trip just got better. LOL So now, we were just missing one more guy... Ziggy.

I found out Ziggy had flown into Vegas on Thursday, the night before. He was already at the hotel casino awaiting us. So to the cab and off we went, headed for the Monte Carlo. We get there and no sign of Ziggy. The hotel check in counter couldnt find record of him in their system. Not good. He's not answering his phone either. So we decide to walk the casino floor to find him. Within 15 minutes we find him, sitting at a "Texas Hold'em" table. Turns out there was some confusion with names and reservations and he had already checked in. We pull him away from our table and go to get our rooms.

The rooms were basic hotel rooms, 2 beds, a TV and bathroom. But it was clean and comfy. We were on the 17th floor over looking the New York, New York hotel and a few others. It was a nice view! We spent most the day down in the hotel's casino. I played a few slot machines while the other guys went into a poker tourny room. This lasted until evening and dinner time.

Dan had dinner plans and reservations already set. Although Kirk had already announced the wedding was off, we still wanted to have a nice dinner as a group. Everyone got cleaned and dressed up and met in the sports bar downstairs. That's when Ziggy tells us he's lost almost $5000 in the casino. But then he add's that he's been given the card of the casino manager and to call them if we need anything. So he whips out his cell phone and gives the guy a call. Fifteen minutes later, we have a limo to use for the evening. We all jump in and head to a restaraunt called "El Frisco's". Its a very unusual feeling to pull up to a restaraunt and have open your door. Then when you step out everyone else waiting to eat turn and stares to see who's in the limo. That was a new one for me! We go in and it turns out this is a VERY nice place. I felt a bit underdressed, but oh well. We get seated, order and then the food arrives. Wow! I'm not a huge steak fan, but this had to be some of the best steak I've ever tasted. The meal was delicious and I was stuffed. But I should be for $60.

Saturday was a normal tourist day in Vegas. Well, except for breakfast. Dan recommended we head over to the Wynn Hotel. The Wynn Hotel's rooms average around $400 to $500 a night. Not a cheap place. But their breakfast buffett is nothing short of amazing! For about $28, you get to choose from literally hundreds of different types of food. Everything from waffles, pancakes, eggs and bacon... to king crab legs, fillet minion and chef prepared omletts while you wait. Every corner I turned, I found a new type of food. This was truly a dangerous buffett. I could eat myself into a comma if not careful. Six plates later, I had almost done that. I had our waiter bring me some coffee, hoping to bring me out of the deep sleep I felt coming over me. We finally left the buffett and decided to walk off our food.

First stop, the Ferrari dealership inside the hotel. This place was pretty amazing. First off, it costs $10 just to walk around inside it... unless you are a prospective buyer. This was a showroom like nothing ive seen before. Each car, sits on a rotating pedestal with its doors and engine hood open. Prices ranges from $100K to $1.2 million. Yes... that's for a car. Of course they had ropes around everything so there was no sitting and taking pictures in the cars. And I had forgot to bring my digital cam on the trip to the Wynn Hotel, so I had to use my cell phone camera. Not the greatest but i can at least show some pictures of the day. The dealership has an upstairs main show room then a downstairs repair shop and museum. The repair shop reminded me of an operating room. It was spotless, clean and very sterile looking. You could probably eat off the floor. It was all very amazing. But hey, when you spend hundreds of thousands on a car I guess you want to give it the best money can buy. We learned a Ferrari oil change and basic service runs $3000. Holly crap!

From there we headed out to walk the strip. Its always fun to people watch out there. We'd walk for a bit then stop off at a hotel to check it out, the guys would gamble some then we'd hit the sidewalks again. We probably walked 5 miles that day. My feet were killing me. One of the things that really gave me a chuckle last time I was in Vegas was the guys who stand on every street corner handing out what looks like baseball trading cards. But if you look at them, you'll see they are escort calling cards. The card usually has a risque picture on it with the girls "name" and number. I started joking with dan that I was going to collect the whole deck of cards this trip out. So as we walked down the stip, I accepted every card each of these people were handing out. By day two, I had probably 60 "trading" cards. I guess its nothing more than a humorous souvenier from Vegas for me to look back on.

Sunday was quite a bit slower. Dan's flight left at 8am. Kirk and I were flying out that night and Ziggy's flight left Monday morning. I spent the day watching the NFL playoff games down in the casino. Unfortunatly, my Bears decided not to play much defense in the biggest game of their season. They allowed the weak Panthers to score early and they never quite caught up, losing 28-21. Close but not enough. Oh well, next year. It was a memorable game to watch in Vegas. I was surrounded by Bears fans, which was pretty cool. Everytime they made a big play or scored a touchdown, we all cheered loudly.

Our flight home was a beating, in true Las Vegas tradition. My 8:40pm flight got delayed by 30 minutes. So after a 3 hour flight, then the 2 hour jump ahead in time zones, I got home at 2:45AM local time. I hit the bed and was out... quick. Fun trip, guys. Lots of good memories from this one. Yes Dan, you'll get you're hot wings next trip to Dallas.

An Easy Win

My Tuesday "A" division team played a new team last night. I dont think this new team did their homework before signing up, because they should have easily been placed in the C or even D division. We had no problem beating them 7-0. And their season will only get worse, because we're probably the 3rd or 4th best team in the division right now. I finished with 1 goal and 1 assist. The assist was especially nice because I beat two defenders on the dribble, and made a no-look pass to the back post of the goal, where my teammate Thomas was standing un-marked. He had an easy tap in for the goal. The score should have been higher than 7-0. We missed several easy chances. Im not sure if I like these kind of games because it doesn't make our team any better or sharpen us up for the tough teams that lay ahead in the schedule.

On to the Playoffs!

 

Well the Bears have won the NFC North and a first round bye into the playoffs! I won my lunch bet with Brotha James, although he has yet to pay up. He's completely disgusted that the cowgirls didn't make the playoffs and the Bears did. HA!! So, I'm hoping the Bears will play the Buc's in their first game at home. They should, and better, beat them! Then it's off to a real game. The NFC Championship against the Seattle Seahawks. Tough game! But its just amazing that just 2 winnable games stand between the Bears and the Superbowl! Im not predicting a SB appearance yet, but hey, they've got a better chance than some of the other NFC teams also playing for it. This has been such a great season, considering they looked like a college team the past couple years. With the return of Rex Grossman to the offense (pictured above), they are now a real threat to anyone they play. GO BEARS!! 

Just Say No, Dan

In the world of "I told you so's", I had a huge one this past Wednesday night while out with some buddies. Since my old college roomate, Dan, is in town from L.A. for the week we thought we'd meet up with some other old college bud's at a bar in downtown Dallas. As we are going into the bar, Dan and I notice what looks like a homeless guy walking around out front of the bar, holding a tray with a bunch of sandwhiches wrapped in tin-foil on them. I didnt pay much attention to him, but Dan say's, "dude im starving I should buy one!". I tell him forget it we'll get something to eat after the bar. So we go on in, meed up with our buddies and have a good time. A couple of hours later we come out. The homeless guy is still there with his sandwhiches. Dan see's him and whips out his wallet and asks the guy how much for a sandwhich? I look at him and say, "are you kidding me?" He quickly answers "man im starving, its just a sandwhich". Its at this point I go on to tell him about the FDA, restaraunt food inspectors, food vendors licenses, ect. But he pays no mind to me and buys the tin-foil surprise. He opens it up and starts chowing down. All I hear is muffled talk about how good the BBQ sandwhich is and how he could NEVER get anything this tasty out in California. I take him home and drop him off.
The next morning I get a text message, "dude you dropped me off and i threw up". He calls me a few minutes later to also say he was throwing up and had diarhea most the night also. I gotta say it, I told you so man!! DONT BUY FOOD FROM A HOMELESS GUY!!! Who knows how old that BBQ was, or if it was even BBQ! Maybe it was dog food with BBQ sauce. HAHA! He's lucky he didn't end up in the hospital getting his stomach pumped. Lesson learned Danny boy.

They're In!!

It's been awhile since my last post. I finally have something news worthy to announce. Although it really isn't about me directly. Yesterday my Chicago Bears beat the dreaded Greenbay Packer, sweeping them in both games this season and winning the NFC North division. On top of that, they are in the playoffs with a first round bye! To make things even sweeter, the return of injured starting QB Rex Grossman has sparked a completely new offense. They are now putting points on the board and will be a much tougher team to beat in the playoffs. They'll need it. I fear they will face The Seahawks, who are awfully good. With this latest win, it also puts me closer to winning my best season record bet with Brotha James. Subway lunch will be mine! Be sure to watch the Bears in the playoffs, there will be some very exciting football on TV!

Consulation Victory

My men's "A" division team won the championship last night! Well, sort of. After last weeks loss in the semi's, we were out of contention for the first place match. So the league decided to make the 3rd place match, the Division II championship match. Odd, but hey, I'll take it. We beat our opponents fairly easily. I scored one nice goal and played a large roll in 2 more goals in the 7-4 victory. At least we get the free champ T-shirt. I can always use another T-shirt.

The Statistics of War

 

For anyone who is a Battlefield 2 fan, check out the website www.bf2s.com for a full break down of every statistic of every player in the game. It's very interesting to see how you actually stack up against players from all over the world. 

They're Actually Doing It!!

 

My once laughed at Chicago Bears have now won 7 games in a row. They hold first place in the NFC North and have silenced the doubters by beating NFC East leaders, The Carolina Panthers and then the NFC South leaders, The Tampa Bay Bucs. My lunch bet with Brotha James is looking better and better each week. His dallas cowgirls lost last week dropping them to a 7-4 record while this latest Bears win moved me to 8-3. The Dallas schedule only gets tougher from here out. They face the Giants, Redskins, the Panthers and the Rams. All tough teams for the cowgirls. The Bears face the Packers... twice, the Steelers, Falcons and the Vikings. I see a nice winning record by seasons end. No Super Bowl, but I'll take a couple good playoff games! 

BEAT TO THE PUNCH!!

 

My sister emails me today to break the news she bought this (see picture above). A 46 inch DLP widescreen TV. What are the odd's I was just blogging and thinking about getting a similar version for my place and so was she, at the same time?! Although I'm looking at the 50inch version, her's still does look quite nice once in the living room. She is having Direct TV set up the high definition reciever and dish tomorrow. I'll be there very soon to check things out. Dang it... beat to the punch!! 

Must...Have...Need...Bigger!!

The last thing on my mind recently had to have been my TV. Well that all changed yesterday when I got a Newegg.com flyer in the mail advertising their deals. They are selling a 50 inch DLP television for $2047. Not bad I thought, for a DLP big screen. So I went down to Best Buy to see what they had. They are selling the exact same TV for $3400! Wow! Then my mind starts to reason and bargin. Yeah... I could afford two grand. I'll just work hard to pay it off soon! Then reality kicks in. DOH!! Save your money boy! Either way, when my current Sanyo 32 inch TV dies, I know what I WILL be upgrading to. Oh how nice the picture looked while in Best Buy. That would make watching my Bears unbelievably awesome. They offer a 60 inch screen evenm, but it's like $3000 and thats just crazy for a TV.

My Drug

 

This would be a screenshot of a game called Battlefield 2 for the PC. This one of the most action packed, fun games I've ever played. To top it off, you can track the stats of you and your buddies in-game progress over at www.bf2s.com! Rarely do I think a game is worth $50. But this one is an exception. I'm definatly getting my money's worth out of this one. Never have I had so much fun, dying over and over again in a game. :) 

This is a humorous picture of the two little monsters that went camping with me this weekend. Actually they are two great kids. They gave us a ton of laughs and some great times to remember. Taylor (left) and James had a great time hiking, building the fires, helping cook and most of all helping eat during our trip to Fobb Bottom Wildlife Preserve at Lake Texoma.

 

This is one of my favorite shots from last sundays MLS game. My 300mm lens really helped it seem like I wasn't actually sitting in the 21st row. With some slight cropping, I was able to really bring the action up-close to the lens! 

GOAL!

Well the Major League Soccer championship game was a blast. We had great seats and I was able to take some really good action shots. The Los Angeles Galaxy beat the New England Revolution 1-0 in overtime. Have a look at some of the picturs I took!

MLS CHAMP GAME PHOTO'S!

Excitement Ahead!

I have two events coming up which I am really looking forward to. This weekend Ive been invited to go with some soccer buddies to the Major League Soccer Championship Game. (MLS) I'll be sitting at midfield in row 22. Should give me a great chance to put my Digital Rebel to good use. I hope to get some really great action shots! This is the first time MLS has held the championship game in Texas. I think its because of the newly finished "Pizza Hut Park" which was built for FC Dallas of the MLS.

The second event is the following weekend. Another campout is planned! This time we'll be heading up to Lake Texoma to do some trail hiking, fishing and of course... camping. Accompanying will be EVP, little EVP and a work buddy, Clay with his son. Should be a blast of a time. Pictures of the events coming soon!

Going, Going... Gone

This past Saturday was the big day for our first garage sale. We had combined stuff from mine, Emily's, her friend Sheila and my mom's homes and piled it all into my garage. We stuck price tags on it all and waited for the people to arrive. Ive learned some intersting things about garage sale shoppers. First, they re-define the term "cheap". If you're selling something for a dollar, they want it for 50 cents. If the price is 50 cents, they want it for 25 cents. And if you won't bend on your already cheap price, they act offended. Secondly, some people will try to steal items they cannot get the deal they want on. A young girl came up to me and asked if she could have 3 music CD's for $2, even though they were marked $1 each. I said, no... they're $3 for the 3. She said ok and walked off into the crowd. A few minutes later, we noticed those 3 CD's were gone. She took them anyhow. How nice of her. Another thing that annoyed me. A large hispanic family arrived. They had 4 adults and about 4 or 5 children. They immediatly spread out to look at everything. But the adults completely stopped watching any of the kids. One of the girls digs thru a box of random stuff for sale, finds a tube of eye liner and begins to draw on on of Emily's stuff animals for sale. We take it from her and luckly were able to clean it off somewhat. Then the family begins to leave. They decided not to buy anything, yet I notice EVERY kid is carrying something back to the car!! I walked down the driveway to stop them. It wasnt till then that the parents looked what the kids were carrying and reluctantly paid for what they were taking.

By the end of the afternoon we had actually done pretty good. A lot of stuff had been sold. I made about $80 and Emily made about $120. Not bad for a bunch of our junk we didnt want anymore. We may have another in a few months. But this time, security will be a little tighter.

An Evening With Suse

Or more accurately, SUSE 10.0, the latest release of the Linux distro from Novell. Up until recently, I had thought Novell was charging $60 for this Linux version. But come to find out, that's only if you want their full tech support. If you don't, its 100% free. So I figured I'd give it a look. To play it safe, I decided to install the OS as a virtual machine in a handy program called VMWare. This will allow me to run Linux, on my high-end pc, without the danger of losing all my Window XP Pro settings and work.

I spent about an hour downloading and burning the 5 CD SUSE 10 setup disks. Then, about another 45 minutes installing the disks. It was a pleasant surprise to find this Linux install was about as easy as any Windows XP install ive done recently. I chose the default options and let the install do what it found best for my system. I was glad to see it only wanted to use 4GB of disk space and only 256MB of RAM to run the OS in. This hardly puts a dent in my 1.75GB of total installed system RAM. Once the install finished, I was prompted to set up my root password and create a normal user log in. After one final system reboot, I was up and running in SUSE Linux!

I had decided I was going try to use only Linux for the evening. Which immediatly excluded any gaming, since few real games are written to work on Linux. Web surfing seemed about normal. Using Firefox browser, I was able to install their browser extensions and surf pretty much like I normally would. My first problem came when I encountered a site using Macromedia Flash. I tried to install the Flash plug-in but found out that Firefox tries to download and install the normal Flash.exe file. The problem being, Linux does not use .EXE install files. It uses something called "Tarballs". Yeah, I laughed for awhile too. And unlike Windows where you simply click on the install file and a wizard walks you thru setting up the new program, tarball files, or ".tar" files must be de-compressed first, then installed thru a variety of command line based phases. I haven't quite figured it all out yet. There's a bit of a learning curve here. I even tried to follow some guys tutorial, but that didn't go so well. This "so-called" beginners guide, took for granted I knew certian things. One of his first instructions was, run some type of compiler to un-tar the files to a specific directory. Yeah, back up and tell me how to do that first!!! So, long story short, I was unable to install a Linux version of Flash. Or, any other software for that matter.

Thats ok, onward with whatever I could do then! I was impressed with the amount of software that came bundled with SUSE 10. There's a fully functional Office Suite, GIMP, the image editing package, a fully fuctional multi-client chat program and tons of others that come included. Even plug & play has greatly improved since my last Linux experience with Mandrake 8. I turned on my HP 1350 color printer and it was quickly detected, installed and ready to use. Nice. SUSE now even has its own version of Automatic Update. It popped up prompting me to check for updates. I clicked yes and in seconds I was shown a list of 15 or so updates. One more click and they all downloaded and installed on the system. Again, nice! I just wish installing a normal program was that easy. I decided to give the Office suite a compatibility test. I created a text document and wanted to see if I could open it on my Windows XP system in Office 2000. After typing up a few quick sentences, I clicked on "Save As". The drop down list gave me a choice of various Office suites and versions to choose from. I selected Microsoft Office 2000 and clicked save. I emailed it to myself and checked my email on my Windows PC. Office 2000 opened it easily with no format problems. Nice!

Overall, this latest SUSE 10 release is a very useable, pleasant experience. With the exception of not being able to install any software packages, there are some people who could use it right out of the box and be perfectly productive. Installing is a peice of cake, and using it only takes some time to get the hang of where everything is. Security is nice, but its Linux so thats a given. Making any changes to the system prompts you for the root (admin) password. I wish windows did that. I feel that SUSE (or Linux in general) is so close to becoming wide spread on peoples PC's. If they can just make installing software easy, it will explode in popularity. Then hopefully game makers will ship games for it. Look out Microsoft, and ambush looms.

Greatest Sunday EVER

Ever since the begining of this NFL season, I've had an ongoing bet with Brotha James. The bet being, my Chicago Bears would finish the season with a better record than his sorry Dallas Cowgirls. At first, it was looking like I was in trouble. My bears fell to 1-3 while the cowgirls jumped out to 2-2. Then they went up to 4-2. Luckily da Bears were able to get another win, giving them a 2-3 record. Then, this past Sunday happend. Dallas suffered one of the most embarassing losses an NFL team could have had happen. With the game tied at 10-10 against Seatle, 10 seconds on the clock, Dallas throws an interception which is run back to the 35 yard line. Seatle comes on the field and kicks a 50 yard feild goal to win it. At the same time up in Chicago, my Bears solid defense held the Ravens to only 2 field goals and beat them 10-6! Now, with a 3-3 record they are gaining ground on the 4-3 cowgirls. Dallas has a tough schedule ahead, with the Bronco's and Eagles to play. Chicago, has much better odd's with Detroit and happless Green Bay in its sights. Things are looking better!

One Very Cool Toy

Yesterday Apple announced the release of the new Video iPod. So, being the techie that I am, I looked up its specs to see if it was all its cracked up to be. I'll have to admit, this is one very cool device. Not only does it play music, show photo's and it will now hold up to 150 hours of video. Here's is where I figured there would be a catch, for sure. I thought surely they would screw it up by only allowing playback of copy protected, limited release, expensive video clips that I wouldnt really want to watch anyhow. I stand corrected. You can play .avi, .mov AND MPEG4 video. Meaning I can carry around homemade video clips and photos... or even (gasp) ripped DVD's from my home collection! Suddently this little device becomes the ultimate road trip, time killing, hand held entertainment device. The lowest priced model is the 30GB unit, which retails for $300. Thats a little steep but the price is much more justified with the features is packs. I'll be keeping my eye out for deals in the coming months on this little item. I may just have to break down and get one.

Check out the details here ---> Apple Video iPod

Late Entry

I almost forgot to post some of the pics I took in the Wichita Mountains. I let it slip from my previous post about the trip. There are alot of my friends EVP and Little EVP because he mentioned he didnt have a lot of pictures of just the two of them. So I figured I take a bunch so he could print them out. He was very happy with them
Check out the pictures! ---> Wichita Mountain Camping Trip

Pagers Suck

Its Friday morning and I've been "on-call" all week for work, carrying our pager because its my turn in the rotation. Normally the routine goes something like; the pager goes off in the evening and I call the person who paged, back and see if its something I can fix over the phone. If I can't, I notify the next person who can help them. But thats not what happened at 3AM this morning. That freakin pager goes off twice! Its beep tone is so loud, it startles me and I jump out of the bed like I was hit by an electric shock. I sit up confused, trying to figure out what that incredibly loud noise is and where its coming from. Finally, I grab the pager and press the little button to see what its beeping about. It simply says "servername - UP" UP?! UP?!! Its beeping just to notify me a server has come back online..... at 3AM!? On top of that, today is my early day at work so my alarm is set to go off at 6am. Sleep is more precious than gold at this moment. Needless to say, I wanted to smash that worthless little black box.

Back From the Wilderness

This past weekend was a true guys weekend. Myself, Brotha James, EVP and Little EVP (james), packed up gear... loaded it all into my Sportage and headed up to the Wichita Mountains in Southwest Oklahoma for a weekend of hiking, camping and exploring. This was EVP's first time up there, so I knew he and the kid would have a blast.

Our first stop was at the famous Meers Restaurant for one of their giant longhorn burgers, some onion rings and some cold drinks. Needless to say, we were all stuffed by the time we left. Figuring we needed some time to let things settle before starting out on our big hike for the day, we decided to make a stop at Mt. Scott. It was a fairly short stop. We took pictures of the vista's overlooking the mountain range. Great views on that hazy, cool morning!

From there we drove down the road to the Elk Mountain trail head. This is a hike ive done a few times before. Its only about 2.5 miles, round trip which I thought would be the perfect length since we had Little EVP with us who is only 7. Despite it being a shorter trail, it still had its challenging times of climbing as we navigated our way to the top. Finally we reached the summit and were rewarded with an incredible view of mountain tops patched together with tree filled valley's. There was a strong wind blowing across the top of the mountain, so we all just relaxed and let the breeze cool us down after the climb up there. While up there we hunted for the large lizards ive seen in the past, sunning themselves on rocks. But were unable to find any.

We hiked our way down and drove to the campgrounds. We arrived at Camp Doris to find it was a popular weekend for camping. All the prime spots had been taken, so we had to settle for one that was closer to other people camping that we had hoped. A cool thing happend as I was setting up my tent. Something moving out of the corner of my eye caught my attention. I looked up and it was a deer just casually walking down the road near the campsite. Then a few minutes later, we saw a doe and a buck casually walking up from the nearby lake. Again, they were walking almost right thru our campsite very casually. I took out my camera, put the 300mm zoom lense and began snapping pictures of them. The buck began walking towards me and I was having to zoom out to fit him into the frame. He kept walking towards me and before I knew it, I had to walk backwards to get him in the frame because he was TOO close for that lense!! When I backed up, he saw me and stopped. He then looked around for the doe and trotted over to her quickly. It was a very cool thing to see them so close up. After we got the campfire going we cooked some chili-dogs and smores' for desert. Good stuff! The weather was perfect all night. Mid 60F degree temps made it easy sleeping weather. Although the ground was so hard I kept waking up to rotate my self in my sleeping bag. When I woke up for breakfast, my back and legs were a bit sore, but I stretched out and felt better. We cooked scrambled eggs & bacon for breakfast and had some banana's and apples to top things off. With our stomachs full, we packed up camp then headed out on a short hike to finish off the trip.

The ride home was pretty quiet. Everyone was exhausted. Little EVP lasted about 15 minutes into the ride. He was out like a light very quickly. The others drifted in and out of sleeping. I wanted a nap so bad, but I probably should stay awake since I was driving. We got home about 3:30pm and began the unpacking. It was a great trip and I hope to have the pictures up very soon on my site! Stay tuned!

One Plus One Equals...... One!

This past weekend Emily finished off her apartment lease, handed in her key and we moved all her stuff into my house! The two of us have combined our powers into one now. She's the first girlfriend Ive ever actually lived with. But thats because until her there has not been one I could imagine living with. But Emily's the greatest and I love having her around me at all times of the day. Things were a little tight because she had so much stuff. But we managed to get everything in. I was very glad we hired movers to bring everything over. Im DONE moving apartments. No more stair climbing, whew! Of course, Emily has already taken to decorating the place. Which is fine by me because, well, I had no decorations up. For the past six months, my house looked like a person had just moved in. She's helping to fix that problem. We'll see if she gets tired of me after a while. haha Although I doubt that will happen. C'mon!!, its me!

A Funny

Ok, this one just cracks me up.

Ah Yes... Da Bars

Or, Da Bears as most would say. So I was asked how I think my beloved Chicago Bears would do this season. Well, after many seasons of acting as the leagues punching bag, I think the Bears are finally on the right track. They have two potentially decent young QB's in Grossman and Orton. They finally have a dangerous threat in the reciever core with the new addition of Muhammed catching the long ball. And last but not least, the running game is looking great with 1st round pick Cedrick Benson and Thomas Jones. All the elements are in place for a good season, or even a playoff spot. Especially with a weakend NFC East division. Greenbay is struggling already. The Vikings are sucking big time after losing Moss to the Raiders and the Lions are pittiful. Chicago could actually have a .500 season and still make the playoffs. I'd be pretty happy with an 8-8 season if they made the playoffs and gave me a better record that BJ's cowgirls. I actually think they have the potential to go 9-7 or better. We shall see. Next stop, week 3 and the now dangerous Cinncinati Bengals. After last weeks 38-6 whipping of the Lions, my hopes are very high!

Just Made My Week!

Last night was a big night for Monday Night Football. The Dallas Cowgirls vs The Washington Redskins. The Redskins were 1-15 against the Cowgirls in recent seasons. Not good. But I had faith. Their #3 ranked defense just had to hold out against Dallas. The trash talk started and Brother James had plenty of it to dish out. After Dallas' win against the Chargers in week 1, he was already talking playoffs and possible Super Bowl. Can you believe it?! I told him, its a long season and you are about to see the true cowgirls colors. Well by the 3rd quarter it wasnt looking good. The cowgirls were winning 13-0. A touchdown and 2 field goals seemed to be putting the game out of reach. The phone calls started to pour in, but I wasnt going to answer the phone. The answering machine picked up each time to hear BJ taunt and brag. We had made a small bet and he was already claiming victory. But then, with 3 minutes left in the game, the Redskins score on a 35 yard bomb into the endzone!! Touchdown! 13-7!! Suddenly there was hope. The cowgirls then did EXACTLY what I needed them to, they wasted their possession of the ball and had to punt. The first or second Redskins play on their drive they did it again! This time a 70 yard pass for a TD! They kicked the extra point to make it 14-13, Redskins. My phone went silent. The trash talk stopped. I tried to call him, I was laughing so hard I couldnt wait to feed him some crow! Ha! The phone rings, but he quickly answers and hangs up on me. So I text message him my own taunt now. All I get back is "Shutup!". That was satisfaction enough. I was happy. The Redskins stopped dallas' next desparate drive, burning the final seconds off the clock and winning the game! That just made my week!

Bunny Suicides

I suppose is a rabbit wanted to end it all in a creative manner, this is the instruction manual it would follow. :)
http://unix.rulez.org/~calver/pictures/bunny_suicides

My "Big Day"

Yup, today... September 12, is my birthday. Bring on the clowns, the monkeys, the air horns, the noise makers and the presents. Woo Whoo! For today I am 34 years young. Man, 34... is this possible? It just doesn't seem real. I swear I just turned 25 like... oh.. a year or 2 or 3 or 4 or something ago. Oh where have the years and my hair gone??

And So It Ends...

That is, another jetski season has come to a close. (Sad sigh) We took the jetski out this weekend for one more run on the lake. Emily and I met Jimmy at the park around 2pm. We had planned to meet at 1pm, but Jimmy was stuck in construction traffic for almost an hour. That had to really suck. We got to the boat ramp about the same time and began putting the boats into the water. I stepped out of my car and into the water to pull my jetski off the trailer, and ... WHOA!! The water had dropped about 10 degrees in just these past 2 weeks!! It was actually chilly! It was at this very second I heard Emily let out a scream. She had just waded into the water and discovered the same thing. I had to convince her it would be fine once we got going on the lake. Which I knew wasnt completely true because when the water would hit us, followed by the wind, it would be chilly! Because of the lack of rain this summer, the lake was at an all time low. There was enough new shore line to make a very spacious beach if we were to lay down sand. There were rocks and stumps sticking out of the water that never see the light of day during normal rain periods. Id guess the lake was 10 to 12 feet lower than normal. This didn't really worry me. I just have to keep an extra eye out for stumps while moving across the open waters.

We rode for about 45 minutes or so, then headed back to the shore. Jimmy had brought his cook-out gear and we were going to cook up some burgers on the grill in the park. We hadn't been on the lake too long but that was fine with me. I was starving and the lake was pretty empty. We cooked and ate our burgers then relaxed for a bit. I wanted to get in a little more riding before we packed it in for the fall but Emily wanted to hang out at our picknic camp and read her book. So Jimmy and I were back out on the lake to do some final riding. We took the time to explore some new coves on the lake that I either had not been into or had not visited in a long long time. One was very interesting and went way back around a bend, but we had to turn back because of all the tree stumps now blocking our path. After about 30 minutes we finally headed back to shore for good. I loaded the jetski up and headed home. It was a nice jetski season. We got out on the lake a week earlier this season and only missed a couple weekends here and there. Well, I'll soon put it back in storage until next May and the fun starts all over again! Now, time for paintball!

Late News!

I forgot to mention this... big news! Last saturday evening the U.S. Soccer National Team played a big qualifying match against our arch rivals, Mexico. We beat them 2-0 automatically qualifying the USA for World Cup 2006 in Germany! This is big news for a few reasons. First is, we are in the World Cup! Secondly, we now have bragging rights as the first team from our group to qualify. Third, we beat Mexico with a shutout. Which is what they deserve after all the trash talk their coach did. And finally, now we can play the rest of our matches up till the World Cup with 2nd and 3rd string players, letting them get experience. The starters now get to rest, relax and heal up for the big event next summer. Its going to be a great WC06 I feel. The USA made it to the Quarter finals back in 2002 and we've improved greatly since then.

Tough One To Swallow

It was week 6 of first season with my new soccer team, Menace FC. And this week, we had to play my old team U Wish. I knew it would be a tough game normally, but I knew they would do everything they could to keep me from scoring a goal. Right from the start their defenders collided with me hard on my first 3 touches to the ball. Only one was called for a foul. My team began to struggle. We were missing our goalie who had to work late. (Of all nights!) We had a substitute goalie playing but he wasnt anywhere as good as our starter. By half time, we were down 3-1. Not too bad but it should be a closer game. Im back on the field for the second half and I recieve the ball at midfield. I move it up and beat one defender. The defense hesitates to close in on me. I wind up and fire a hard shot towards goal. In the last split second a defender gets his foot out to tip it. The ball is deflected barely at the top of the goal, missing its target. Darn!! We managed to score 2 more goals to make it 6-3 at the final whistle. Hopefully we'll play them in the playoffs and have a rematch with our full team. I know we can beat them.

Interesting Find

I went jetskiing this afternoon, like I usually do on most summer weekends. Ive been to this lake probably close to a 1000 times. No exageration. But this trip, I happen to be lucky enough to be in the right place, at the right time and catch a glimpse of something I did not think exsisted or even could exist in this lake. A freshwater stingray! Jimmy and I were pulling our jetski's up onto the shore and preparing to go get our vehicles, to pull out and leave for the day. I was walking thru water about 8 inches deep when something caught my eye just in front of my feet. I took another look and saw what clearly appeared to be a small brown stingray swimming quickly from rock to rock along the bottom. I bent down to have a closer look. He was about 4 inches long, nose to the tip of his thin tail. He was dark brown with small light brown splotches on his back which really helped him blend into the bottom of the lake bed. When he swam, he glided along the bottem effortlessly and didnt really seem scared. Just botherd that I was moving in his direction. He came to a stop just in front of me so when I bent down to look at him closer, I reached into the water and used my index finger to gently stroke his back. He was smooth, almost like a salomanders skin. At first I was very surprised he sat so still for me. Then right as I thought that, zoom.... gone into the deep. My buddy Jimmy got to my location right as this happened. I told him what I saw and he was just as amazed as I was. I came home and searched the internet for anything on freshwater stingrays in local lakes. But found nothing. I know a few people that are familiar with the wildlife in the area. Im going to ask them if they've ever seen or heard of them. Very facinating... indeed!

Recent Adventures

I forgot to post about my trip last weekend. Emily and I jumped on a plane and flew down to Galveston Texas to visit our friends Mike and Cheryl. We had a great time going to the beach, seeing the sites and eating out. We took the ferry across the harbor to an island. We stayed on the ferry because we didnt really go to see the island, just to ride the ferry and see the dolphins jump along side the boat. They didnt come as close as I had hoped they would. My camera was ready! We also got to check out the Moody Gardens Aquarium. This was a pretty neat place and I was totally surprised such a large park was located on the small Galveston Island. On Saturday morning, Mike and I had some time to kill while the girls went out looking at wedding dresses for Cheryl. (Her and Mike are getting married next May) So Mikey and I headed down to the historic district of town and found the Gavleston Hurricane Museum. Now, the term "Museum" turned out to be a bit misleading. It should have been called a gift shop. There were no historical artifacts, exhibits or relics from the massive hurricane that destroyed the island in 1900. Although they did have a short movie in a little theater you could watch that told all about what happened in that storm. So Mike and I decided to stay and watch that. It was very interesting because the story was told by the nararrators reading old diaries and personal accounts of the storm. It was much better to hear it in the words of the people who lived thru it. That hurricane killed 6000 people and leveled almost every building on the island! Later that night we met up with some of Mike and Cheryls local friends. We all headed down to the beach. The moon was so bright it lit the ocean up! You could pretty much see everything because of the full moon. We could see the faint flickering lights of oil drilling platforms and oil tankers on the oceans horizon.
It was a great trip and on Sunday August 21st I realized Emily and I have been together for a year and 3 months! Wow, time just fly's! She's the greatest girlfriend I could ask for. No insane mood swings or any other defects which i've had to put up with in past relationships. Things with her are just fun and simple. Im lucky to have her. :)

Hilarious!!

A buddy passed this one to me the other day. I laughed so hard I was in tears.
http://www.milkandcookies.com/links/2536

Here's a quick picture I took the other day of my new ride. I took it with my camera phone so it doesn't show much detail.

Breaking the Silence

After a couple weeks of not updating my blog, im back. And im back with actual news! About a week and a half ago, I got rid of the old Saturn I'd been driving since 2000. Im now driving a 2005 Kia Sportage EX! Its black, with power everything and has leather interior. Very sharp! Ive put a link below to the vehicle specs. So far, im very impressed with this little SUV. Lots of features for a very nice price. I'll post a pic of me and the new ride soon.
http://autos.yahoo.com/newcars/kia_sportage_exv62wd_2005/16638/style_overview.html

In the Words of Homer Simpson...

"Urge to kill... growing." That just about how I feel after my latest bout with my former phone/internet provider, Grande Communications. Im normally calm and civilized when it comes to dealing with their customer service. But thats about to change. Allow me to back-track a bit.

Back in April, I was fed up with their horrible service, lack of technical knowledge and inability to provide my new home with the products I had ordered. So I canceled my account with them. You'd think that would be the end of it. Wrong. Two months go by and I find out, they are STILL auto-billing my account!! They've now withdrawn $109 from my bank account!! So I call their customer service to put a stop to this and get my cash back. I get their residential support on the line and begin explaining the problem. He looks up my records and tells me Im listed as a business account and he cannot help me. I'll have to call the business accounts department. What?! I ask him what business could I possibly be listed as?! He reads it back. The company name, is my employer! Somehow they have mistaken my employer as my residence. Idiots. So, I call the business accounts department and explain... all over again. To my disbelief, the guy tells me, "Im sorry sir but to get this fixed you'll have to call up residential services and have them change your account". I tell him, oh no... they just sent me to this number! So he puts me on hold for a bit, then comes back and tells me, "Ok, sorry for the inconvenience. Its fixed now". He then tells me that they can get me a refund check and I should have it in 6 to 8 weeks. Uuggg... longer than I wanted to wait, but at least thats fixed. My blood pressure begins to return to normal.

So I wait. Seven weeks goes by and 2 days ago I get my check in the mail. Im relieved I get to put that money back in the bank. I mean, who can't use $109!? I open the envelope, pull out the check to look it over. I look at the check. I cant believe my eyes. They made the check payable to my employer!!! Its useless to me. Back to square one with these dorks. I used to be a nice guy when calling customer serice. Thats out the window, with my patience. It will take full restraint not vent my anger on the first phone chump who takes my call. Will this hell-hole of a company ever be out of my life?

Prepare for Liftoff

Its been awhile since I talked about my jetskiing fun I have each summer weekend. Well, I had a particularly fun ride this past Sunday out on the lake. My buddy Jimmy and I hit the lake about 2:30pm. There was a light breeze but nothing that would make riding too rough. We got our jetskis in the water and cruised out to our normal haunts to check things out. Not much going on so we headed out to the large open area of the lake, the "high-seas" as we sometimes call it. We call it that because this is the large, deep area of the lake where the huge yachts and boats pass thru on their way from the marina's to various areas of the lake. So we are cruising along, when all of a sudden we start to hit HUGE swells. My first thought is, where did these come from!? I look around and see a large 35 foot yacht rolling by about 200 yards to our right. We were getting caught in its large wake waves that were being created. I looked at Jimmy and he had the same idea I did. We quickly whipped the jetskis around and headed back into the oncoming waves. At first I was a little hesitant. I mean, these waves were big. When I rode down the first one, so I could launch myself off the second wave... I couldnt see the horizon. Which means the wave was around 6 feet high! Me and my jetski shot off the top of that wave like a bullet. It felt like I was in the air for 30 seconds. Although it was only a couple. I look over to see Jimmy launching himself off the same wave. His jetski got about 4 feet off the water! We followed this yacht for about a mile, jumping waves back and forth like a couple of dolphins. It was a blast!

The large yacht and us ended up at the area called "Party Cove". This is where all the boats link up and well... party. On this day there were probably 40 to 50 boats already tied together. Music was blasting from stereo's on the boats, people were floating everywhere in the water throwing footballs, drinking beer and swimming. Jimmy and I found a corner out of the high traffic area and shut down the engines and jumped into the water to relax. As soon as we did, the sheriffs water patrol came through. We always try to avoid them because they stop jetskiers quite often for random safety checks. We keep our registrations and equipment up to requirements, but its just a major hassle getting stopped and digging it all out to show them. Lucky for us, they just kept rolling on by. I think they were concerned with all the boats and people.

By 5pm we were worn out, hungery and ready to head home. The wind had picked up and the ride back to the ramp was choppy and rough. But I was home by 5:30, relaxing and eating. Now, thats a fun Sunday! :)

"True" Reality TV!

For the most part, I dread reality TV shows. Not the ones on the Discovery Health channel where you get to watch a real face lift or lipo-suction procedure. Thats real and all. What I dread is the half scripted "reality" shows where people have to live together in any form or fasion.

Well, yesterday my buddy EVP and I were talking about a documentary show he saw about the battle in Fallujah last fall. This event facinated me because, as a fan of military stuff, this was one of the U.S. military's largest combat sitations they'd faced in a long time. That, and I'm facinated about what really happens that crappy CNN and MSNBC wont show. Heavens forbid, they may show what real war looks like or how tough it is for the soldiers fighting in it. So... I decided to do some net searching of my own. I figured someone, somewhere out there took along their video camera into this hell hole. I was right. I came across a site where some guy had posted many video's submitted to him from soldiers. Video showing actual combat and the soldiers daily lives. This video is the most gripping, facinating reality TV ive ever seen. What amazed me the most, was despite explosions going off, bullets buzzing through the air and all the kaos, some of the soldiers not only remain calm and cool but show a slight sense of humor in some situations! In one scene, soldiers are trying to blow open a steel gate with C-4 explosives to get into a compound where insurgents may be hiding. The charge goes off, but the gate isnt damaged enough to open. They kick and push on it, but it doesnt budge. You can hear voices off camera laugh and say "re-do!" and "C-4 is so overrated!". So they slap another charge to the gate and blow off the hinges this time. A loud cheer goes up and they storm into the compound. The guy with the camera zooms in on the blow up steel gate and says "yeah, take that!". You can't help but chuckle.

Some of the video seems to be shot by "embedded" news cameramen. But clearly this isnt the stuff that passed the censors and made it to the evening news. This footage shows the more gruesome stuff. Dead bodies in the streets, insurgents scrambling for cover as US soldiers pepper them with bullets. In one interesting scene, they had an insurgent cornered in a garage. The camera turns and does a quick interview with a soldier, asking him what was happening. He says, with a slight smile on his face, "We were patrolling when they opened fire on us. Then they threw a frag (grenade) at us. I turned to run for cover, tripped over a dead body..one of theirs, then made it back to here. Now we're trying to get them." This clearly showed me how they have adapted to this situation. I would have dropped a brick in my shorts and probably just called in a bomb to blast the entire area, once im gone! But this guy was just calm, cool and... smiling. Wow.

Another interesting video on the site was a camera not following US troops, but following insurgents. Of course it was made with a home video camera, using its limited night vision abilities. They were setting up a nightime ambush on a US convoy. They walked along a trail and all lined up behind a dirt embankment waiting for the convoy to cross their field of fire on the distant road in the dark. The entire time every one of them is chanting "Allah Akbar!!", over and over. It was really strange, like they were a bunch of programmed zombies. So, the convoy rolls by and they open fire with machine guns and RPG's. I swear these guys must have the most un-accurate weapons or be the worst shots... or a combo. It seemed like they hit nothing as the convoy just rolls by.

Very interesting site! I plan on downloading the videos so i can watch them more thoroughly. There's about 2 hours worth!

The Genius of George Carlin

Here are some quotes from one of the best and most intelligent comics in my opinion. Tell'em George!!!

"Religion convinced the world that there's an invisible man in the sky who watches everything you do. And there's 10 things he doesn't want you to do or else you'll go to a burning place with a lake of fire until the end of eternity. But he loves you! ...And he needs money! He's all powerful, but he can't handle money!"

"The very existence of flame-throwers proves that some time, somewhere, someone said to themselves, You know, I want to set those people over there on fire, but I'm just not close enough to get the job done."

"Have you ever noticed that anybody driving slower than you is an idiot, and anyone going faster than you is a maniac? "

"Some national parks have long waiting lists for camping reservations. When you have to wait a year to sleep next to a tree, something is wrong."

"Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday."

Downward Spiral

Yikes!! Say Nope to Dope kiddies! --> 15 Years of Drug Abuse!

33Mhz of Blazing Speed!

I recently upgraded my home pc to keep it up with modern times. Also so I can play the latest games and other goodies. Not to mention, i HATE waiting for a pc to load up a program or start up. It should be fast and efficient! As I was upgrading the hardware, I thought back to my families first PC we used. It was 1985 and my dad brought home an IBM X386 model office pc. I dont remember the official name of it or anything. I just remember it laid down flat and was beige. It had a 20MB hard drive, a 5-1/4 inch floppy drive and a 13 inch green text monitor. The poor thing must have had MAYBE 20kb of onboard RAM. But we were so excited when he brought it home, we actually had a PC!! When you powered it up, the fan was so loud you almost had to raise your voice to talk over it. Average boot up time was about 8 minutes. I remember this because I used to hit the power switch (and it actually was a red flip switch) and then go get my drink and sandwhich to snack on while at the pc.

The operating system was only an early version of DOS. Which meant the system booted up to a blank screen with a blinking C:\_ . Oh, the fun. Ha! The first program I got for it was Wheel of Fortune. The graphics were, in all terms... pathetic. But since I had never really seen computer graphics before, they were cool. A choppy, green animated Vanna White would walk across the screen to reveal the letters during play. Hours of excitement I tell you. I later found and loaded up some type of spread sheet software, I believe it was a Lotus office product. I thought this was really cool because I could track my current soccer teams wins, losses and stats. I would create a roster spread sheet and track everyone's goals and assists. I was now, a "computer guy"! hahaha

I often think back, comparing what I use now to what we had then. That little pc ran at a blazing fast 33mhz. My current home pc runs at 3Ghz, or, roughly 3000mhz. The old IBM, as I mentioned, had 20kb (kilobytes) of on board RAM. My current machine packs a mere 1.75 GB (gigabites) of RAM. The IBM's hard drive was a whopping 20mb, large for current 1985 standards. Currently at home, I have 200GB of hard drive storage space. There is no way I could have fathomed those specs on a home computer back then. It really amazes me. But, im sure one day i'll re-read this post and laugh at the puny specs I had in my home computer back in 2005. Man i love computer stuff.

Whats This?!

I just heard a rumble outside my office building. I walk outside to see the sky looking very dark and this strange liquid falling from above. What.... rain? Its been so long since we've had any, I forgot what it looked like! We need it bad here.

Yeah, im bored so im blogging more today. :)

Playing Catch-Up

Ive been so busy latley I almost forgot to post this past week! What is this world coming to? I'll rewind a bit and start with the 4th of July weekend. Emily and I took another drive out to the remote city known as Odessa to spend the holiday with her family. It was a fun trip, the only daunting part of it is the drive. Once there, all is good. The night before the 4th we all drove out to her fathers shop just outside the city limits and shot off a bunch of fireworks. That was pretty fun. Everyone brought some, so it seemed like we had a ton waiting to launch. Shooting everything off took a good 2 hours. While we were out there we checked out the new "War of the Worlds" movie. I'll have to say it was pretty good. Great special effects and very tense and suspenseful through many parts. There were a couple plot holes, but I let those slide because it was good overall as a movie.

The past couple weeks, both my soccer teams have been at low points. My tuesday night team has the worst record we've ever had. 2 wins, 3 losses and a tie have put us in 4th place. We have to win our last game to even have a chance of making the playoffs and playing for 3rd place. We play tonight at 11:15pm. I hate these late games.

Gotta get some work done. More to come later....