Let's Get it on!!

I just got in from the first game from my teams summer soccer season. We played a team called "Dragons", who had won the championship in the "B" division and were promoted to the "A" division this season. Let me just say, it's going to be a long, long season for those poor guys. We beat them 15-0! Let me repeat that.... fifteen to zero. I finished the night with 2 goals and 4 assists. Not too bad of a night considering it had been almost 4 weeks since the end of the spring season. We picked up several new players, which will greatly increase our chances at winning the league this season. Still, it will be very tough. I dont expect us to win any more games by the margin we did tonight. But if we play like we did tonight, we are going to be very tough to beat on any night. Could be an exciting season. Stay tuned!

AWESOME!

So, here's how my "hypothetical" discussion went with my friend yesterday;

Thorpe: So Stan, how is it you make exact "backup" copies of the DVD movies you own?
Stan: It's easy Thorpe. Just download the free programs DVD Decrypter and DVD Shrink.
Thorpe: Wow Stan, is it really that easy to make "backup" copies of the DVD's you already own?
Stan: Yes it is Thorpe. Give it a try.

So I did. After about 2 minutes of searching the web for those 2 programs I had them downloaded and installed. I popped in a movie ran DVD Decrypter. In 20 minutes an exact copy of the movie was on my computers hard drive. Ok, easy enough. Then I fired up DVD Shrink. I selected my movie file and clicked "Go". Ten minutes later, the movie was re-compressed and ready to be burned. I checked the box in DVD Shrink that said "Use DVD Decrypter to burn DVD Image". Two clicks later, my movie was being written back to a blank DVD-R disk. After 35 minutes, I went in to check on the process. It was done! I quickly removed the DVD from my PC and ran to my living room DVD player under my TV. I popped in the disk and sat back on the couch. BINGO!! The movie quickly started to play. Despite using a higher compression ratio than the original, I could not tell a difference in quality. It was a perfect 1 for 1 copy! I can now make backups of all the movies I own. ;)

Finally!!

After 5 months and various attempts, I finally was able to set up Therese's PC she purchased back in January! She "found" time and I was quick to get there early and get that thing set up and out of my place. We still had a problem with the internet connection working, but that will be resolved soon. Now, Therese is probably mad that Ive noted this day in my Blog. But how could I not?! This is a day to celebrate! I have reclaimed the large spot in my living room that was previously taken up by a large computer tower box. Sorry Therese, you have a new computer now. You are just going to have to grin and bare it. I know it sucks, I know its rough. But it will be ok. Life is good with a new computer. Thats why you bought it after all, isnt it?

On a totally different note, as I am typing this I just noticed the latest spam downloading into my inbox. The title is "READ THIS NOW!! IT WILL IMPROVE YOUR LOVE LIFE!!" Please! As if spam is going to help me in any way in that field. Ironically, my love life couldn't be going any better at this point in time anyhow. ;) It's good to be in Thorpeland right now. LOL And that's all I have to say about that. hehe

If you're up to seeing a funny movie, make sure and catch the new Ben Stiller movie "Dodge Ball". Freakin hilarious! I haven't laughed that hard in a movie in a long long time. Yes, the movie has cheezy moments. But it knows its cheezy and doesnt try to hide it. And that's part of what makes it so funny and enjoyable. It actually made me want to go out and play dodge ball. Ha!

For the first time in a while, I didnt get to get out on the lake on the jetski this weekend. Cloudy sky's and sporadic rain kept the aqua rocket on its trailer in the parking lot. No worries though. Its early in the summer and many hot dry Texas summer days are ahead! Jimmy and I are planning a July 4th cookout at the lake with some friends and the jetski's. Should be fun! I'll be taking pictures at that one for sure.

This weekend my old buddy Dan was back in town from L.A. He was my college roomie who now lives in California. He comes back every few months and visits or work sends him to their office here in Dallas. Friday night, Dan, me, Emily, Kirk and his girlfriend Jennifer met up near downtown Dallas at a place called "Hook, Line and Sinker". Its a nice little sea food place where you can sit outside and people watch. We had a good time hanging out and telling old stories of back in the day. Fun times.

Well its about 11pm on Sunday night and Im getting ready for a Monday and another work week. I guess Im rested up and ready to take it on. There is light at the end of the tunnel. Im off work next friday, making this only a 4 day work week for me. Woo whoo!! Then its a 5 day weekend for me as the 4th of July rolls around and Im taking an extra day off the next week too. Yay for me!

Migrating

Today is day 3 of our domain migration project. Not a lot of fun. In fact, none at all. As our old domain controller nears its death, the new shiny PDC is up and ready for its new users. But, because of the type of network we have, we have to physically go from department to department migrating users to the new domain. And if there are problems, we have to do it manually. A real pain. Of course, while this is going on, work still piles up back at my desk. Im glad its already Wednesday. The weekend is near.

Weekend Wrap

Ok so it's Tuesday, I suppose I should update everyone with last weekends events. (Deep breath...) Here we go.

Friday night: Started out with the group meeting up at the LoopHole sports bar for some food and drinks. We even pried DMC out of his hole to come join us! Mandy showed up and brought her album of pictures from her recent trip to Hawaii. Very cool. Makes me want to go visit! Later, Therese showed up to join our already growing group. From the Loophole, we headed over to the bowling alley in town. At 11pm they have something called "Cosmic Bowl". This is where they turn off the lights, turn on black lights and blast rock music while you bowl. Its really fun. Unlike the last Cosmic Bowl, I was on fire this time. I won all but one game for my team, beating the evil EVP each time. Ha! Although, EVP bowls much better once he's had a couple pitchers of beer. I dont know why or how, but its true. Mike bowled pretty good, racking up a few strikes. I give him extra points for his exagerated form when releasing the ball. LOL Cheryl did MUCH better this time, actually geting the ball all the way down the lane! Its amazing how much better you bowl without 6 glasses of beer and 4 tequilla shots in you. Isnt it Cheryl? ;) One of the best improved bowlers was my Emily. :) She even scored a 133 in one game. Very impressive!

Saturday night: This was the big event I had to keep secret, because of EVP. It was his birthday, a whopping 41 years old! haha Secretly, me and therese planned to surprise him and take him to Medevil Times. This is the place that's in a castle. You eat dinner and watch nights in armor fight and joust. Tons O fun! Well, EVP knew we were going, but what he didnt know was we had paid extra for them to call his name and have his picture taken with the castles King. He was very surprised and seemd really happy. His 6 year old son also came along and had a blast. Although, the evening almost had a setback. Emily's cable guy caused her to be late, which threw off our time schedule for the evening. Kudos to Therese for some speedy driving down 35E! She was peddal to the medal the entire way down.

Sunday: With the weather looking a perfect 95F out and clearing sky's, the lake was calling! Emily and I headed out to the lake to meet up with Top Jimmy and a new female friend of his. We covered a huge amount of the lake this weekend, riding way north, past Party Cove. It was a fun day on the lake. And my newly shaved head didnt even get sunburnt. :) Party Cove was PACKED this weekend. Probably 60 or so boats had grouped together by late afternoon. I took some pictures with the disposable water-proof camera i had bought. As soon as I finish the roll, I'll post some pictures!

I went in for a normal hair cut and decided.... heck cut it all!! It's amazing what the 1/8 inch guard will do to a head of hair. I guess I don't look totally like a dead baby bird? At worst, it will grow back in two weeks. Not like I have a lot of foliage to regrow! haha I'll definatly save on shampoo for a while! ;)

Its that time again! Time to hit Lake Lewisville with the SeaDoo and have a blast. If you have a jetski and ride on Lake Lewisville or Lake Texoma, shoot me an email at thorpe@thorpeland.com.

Ready, Set... GO!

Its Friday, 4:21PM CST. Im sitting at my desk counting down the minutes till an action packed weekend begins. Well, I supose the term "action packed" is subject to opinion. lol But I do have a lot of fun things planned. Im not going to write completely about what they are until probably Sunday. Some of it is still top secret. Certain people are not to know until the timing is right. haha

On a different and much less interesting note, I have purchased new clean sand for the crabitat and will rebuild it tonight. Im sure the hermies will be estatic to get back into their home again. They can once again begin digging, exploring and having fun in general.

Well I will be sure to take pictures this weekend, and try to get a few of them up! Oh, 4:27! Time is just flying by now. Wooo Whooo!

Me, to the Rescue!

Last night I rode with my buddy Doug, to his parents house down in Arlington. They were having a computer disaster. Unable to connect to the internet and no fix in sight. They called the Dell "technical support", where they were told the system was unfixable and to wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall everything! BUZZZZZZZ!! Wrong answer! Then they called their local ISP's support line. They were completely stumped and told his parents it was probably the network interface card and that they need to go buy another one. So they did. DOH! Wrong answer.

So I went to work, examining their system. After a quick run of Adaware and Spybot Search and Destroy, it was found their system was infected with almost 200 spyware, adware and other baddies. Using Adaware and Spybot, I cleaned off all the garbage and hey, the internet began to work again! There were 2 real nasties on there called TCP Blocker and UDP blocker. These were most likely the cluprit responsible for killing the internet connection. I patched up Windows XP to the lastest and greatest and had them on their way. I was horrified to find they use their computer with NO antivirus software and NO firewall. Great googly moogly!! I advised they purchase both, soon.

A big thanks to DMAC for the huge seafood dinner as payment for services rendered!

So Close

Tonight was my soccer leagues Championship Match. We had worked our way back to it, to face the dreaded IMEG soccer club. In the end we came up short, losing 7-4. Not too bad considering what a stacked team they are. Game high notes include me getting our opening goal and minutes later a nice assist. After a making a save, our keeper Steve throws a long ball over half the distance of the field to me. I trap the ball quickly and notice we have a two on one attack going. Teamate Sahal is on the oppisote side of the field signaling for the pass. I dribble the ball forward towards their defender. I quickly fake an instep pass to Sahal and push the ball out to my right. Then, a quick right footed shot, driven straight across goal into the far lower corner, puts up 1-0! They answered with 2 goals in the next few minutes. I feared it would turn into a landslide unless we scored some more. A minute later Jamie dribbles into our attacking third. I post up infront of their goalie inside the goalbox with my back to the goal. Jamie gives me a quick pass to my feet. I know their keeper is closing in on my fast and hard. I flick the ball to my right perfectly to an onrushing Cody, who burries it home, tying the game 2-2. They kept the pressure on us, slowly wearing down our defense. Late in the second half, we were down 6-4 with less than 2 minutes left. We knew we needed goals and fast. We pushed our defense up to put more pressure on the attack. The gamble cost us, as they scored on a break away. It didnt matter though. All in all, our team played a solid match. We have a week off, then time to prepare for the next season starting. Hopefully we'll pick up a couple new players and be back in the championship to win it this time!

It's A Miracle!!!

Last week, disaster struck. Well, hermit crab disaster. With the sand in the crabitat getting a bit too wet and nasty, I decided to remove the crabs, all of their climbing things and fill the tank with fresh dry sand. I put the hermies in a temporary crabitat, a Nike shoebox with a lid. They had water, food and some climbing toys and seemed happy in their vacation home. There was a small hole on one side of the box for air. It seemed way too small for anyone to squeeze thru. Or so I thought. I come home afterwork and open the box to check on them. One, two....... hhmm... one... two.... ok, WHERE IS NUMBER THREE!!!?? Moe had escaped!! He aparently forced his way thru the small hole, dropped off the kitchen counter and was loose in the apartment! There were only about a thousand places he could hide. Under furiture, clothes, computer equipement... anywhere. I looked for hours, nothing. I sat down, and just accepted the fact I'd lost my little buddy. A day goes by and I come home from work. I finished dinner and walk into the bathroom. As I open the door to come out, something catches my eye. I look down and... THERE HE IS!! Sitting in the middle of the hallway, looking at me is Moe, alive and well! I pick up the little explorer, his little beedy eyes staring back at me. After further inspection, he seems healthy and active. I put him back into the box and seal the hole to make it way too small this time. Im still trying to get the right kind of sand, but until then the hermies are safe and happy again... together.

Just another day on the job of "Driving Mr. Craig" around town. haha No, just our group on our way back to work from lunch.

Just Plain Funny

If you enjoy drinking the Starbucks Doubleshot drinks, you're familiar with this hilarious Ad. Wait for it to load and enjoy.
http://content.collegehumor.com/media/movies/starbucks.mov

Relative Funniness

Working in the computer field as a network administrator, gives me the pleasure of constantly fighting the evils of spam. Comedy Central recently did an interview with one of the largest spammers around. Or as he calls himself a "high volume email deployer". Check it out, copy and paste this link into your browser!

http://www.comedycentral.com/mp/play.php?reposid=/multimedia/tds/cord/cord_8121e.html

UPDATE: Comedy Central has removed this lone video segment for some reason. Perhaps legal pressure from the spammer, since they posted his personal email addy on the screen in the story? LOL

One More Time

A 7-2 victory last night in Indoor soccer is sending us back to the league Championship Game next Tuesday. Of course, its against the undefeated "IMEG" jugarnauts. This time, we have a few new tricks up our sleeve. A few strategy changes may change the outcome of this final. But we'll have to wait and see.

These are 2 of the dogs at my parents house. Bo (left) and Fossil (right). They really aren't very bright dogs. Friendly, but not so smart. They remind me of hyenas, the way they jump around and yelp when they see a person. Really annoying.

I found this big guy sitting on the porch at my parents house. I thought it was interesting how brave he was. He's sitting about 6 inches to the right of their front door. People, dogs and cats pass by him, yet, he doesn't even flinch. My dad has named him "Herbert". Why I dont know.

Much Smoother

I hit the lake again Sunday with Jimmy. Without the 100 mph winds the lake was much smoother and didnt beat us down. It made for a much more enjoyable day. Jimmy ran into mechanical problems. Its seems he started his jetski in too shallow of water (less than 3 feet). The water intake sucked sand and rocks from the bottom of the lake, up into his coolant track. His jetski began to overheat, forcing him to kill the engine and put it back on the trailor for the day. Bummer. We made the best of things by inflating his innertube and I pulled him around the lake for the afternoon, doing my best to fling him off in the turns. haha It was still a lot of fun! Soon i will be picking up one of those disposable water-proof cameras. I'll post some of the pics on my site. Its just too risky to take my digital camera out on the open lake. Jetski's and technology dont mix.