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.