Saturday, July 28, 2007

8 months later....

They are now making displays out of PS3's still can't find a Wii to save your life though

Sunday, July 22, 2007

A thousand diamonds strewn across the blue blanket...

More back porch blogging.... it's only 95 according to the weather thingy in Firefox. This is the first time in a while when I've been outside and it's not been stiffeling or something like that.

July in Phoenix... it's a wonder people live here this time of year. It's only 110+ during the day in the shade. When the wind blows it feels like a blast furance and lets not forget the generous amount of particulate matter that make the overall feeling of a sand blaster.

Now on the "cooler" days, you know the ones where it doesn't feel like a oven or blast furnace, it's got to be some cruel joke by the people responsible for the weather. The "cooler" days in summer are like a messed up sauna. Puts out alot of heat a just a bit of humidity enough to drive you up the wall but not enough to truly do anything.

The heat is sometimes maddening... but you know what makes it all worth it? Come December/January/Feburary you can't swing a broken laptop with out hitting a damned snowbird. In other words it's great weather just alot more people are around.

The big difference between right now on the back porch and earlier musings of a back porch is the ambient noise. I normally can hear Dobson and Guadalupe roads. Tonight all I hear are crickets, and I can't remember the last time I heard crickets. Now the lack of traffic might also be chalked up to the 7 A/C units that are within earshot and going full boar. I'm going to say it's because there is no one out tonight.

Friday, July 20, 2007

The 300(th)

So if your a long time reader you may remember that when I was in the process of moving to Phoenix from Kingman 2 years ago I wrote about my then 14 year old cousin who came to visit.

Well Matt returned to Kingman for another visit. I didn't get up there this time around but we had a conversation that made realize that the kid is going to be alright.

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Matt:
its the only way to do it in my opinion i ever pose/convert/paint my own models you should see my demon prince hes sick looking



ME:
Your not playing the video game?

Your playing the table top?

I am so proud of you right now it's not even funny.




Matt:
ahh well warhammer 40k is a table top game i play chaos(demons) they had a video game made after it called dawn of war maybe youve heard/played it

ME:
Haha... No...

Supreme Commander and Wii those are my current addictions.


Matt:
ahh well if ya got alot of free time then you could consider playing warhammer 40k



ME:
Oh you know the usual, work, friends, and more free time then I know what to do with.


Matt:
hows life treating ya
-------------------------------

The kid is going to be alright, the rest of the family might be worried but I'm not.

How does one tell Flickr....


That you only want to be friends?

Thursday, July 19, 2007

Dream on....

So in the last 3 weeks I've sat down four or five times to try and put some sort of drivel up for you my loving horde of 3.2 readers to look at, consume, digest, and throw back at me at "crap" it is the order of things here in this little corner of the interweb.

So in the course of the last three weeks I've given you

2 - posts about my personal ramblings on the iShit.

1 - 4 year old singing German death metal

1 - email from a uncle about he and my aunt's tour across the Maryland country side (ok I have to admit I did find the picture with the tank rather unique and I will probably print it out to put on the fridge)

and 1 - post with quotes from work.

I already have fairly low standards for this corner of the internet... ya know. Most all of the words spelled correctly, almost proper grammar (thats more miss then hit), and a something that is more then two sentences when I'm dones.

When I started doing this back in 2000 (shit I have been doing this for some time) Actually I've been doing "blogging" in one sort or another for damn near 10 years now I just don't have any of the old websites and I really didn't start doing it "consistently" until 2000. Getting back to the point of this paragraph was to relate that when I started "blogging" I held my self to the standard of at least 2 pages of text in word. Can you tell I was in school when I was started?


The point of this post? No real point I'm just padding numbers to #300 on blogger and I'm just trying not to make them all pictures from the phone.

Tuesday, July 17, 2007

Bike Like No One is Watching...

I got this email today from a Uncle that has a flair for the writing and creative stuff. Since it involves neither computers or cell phones I thought it would be a nice change of pace and it also confirms that at least one member of the clan is quasi-normal.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Hi,

A few pictures to share with the family about Monica's transition to becoming a biking babe. Cycling over 50 miles the first day, Monica easily completed a half century in an estimated four hours as she peddled her way across the back roads of Maryland's Chesapeake at a brisk pace of 12 mph. She started out the day with an easy thirty miles as the goal, her farthest distance prior to participating in the three-day Cycle Across Maryland event, http://www.onelesscar.org/CAM/2007/index.php.

Feeling the cool morning air (7:30am) breezing past and eyeing the lush green farm fields ahead, she confidently followed me to the "right" of the fork in the road instead of the "left". Without even a glance back and still following the painted fluorescent arrows on the road marking our path, she powered forward knowing the day's accomplishment would put her into the Kern-Cornelsen Hall of Fame. Friday's ride began at the University of Maryland Eastern Shore campus in the town of Princess Anne and followed a meandering route through extensive areas of wetlands and coastal villages to the Chesapeake fishing town of Crisfield, better known as the "Crab Capitol of the World," http://www.onelesscar.org/CAM/2007/images/map_crisfield.pdf.


After a 22 mile rest stop for replenishing the body with Gatorade and a buffet of fruits, donuts, peanut butter sandwiches and other carbo delights, she mounted her trusty Jamis hybrid and peddled off into the morning sun with her sights set on cold watermelon served at the finish line and a shower in the luxurious dorm accommodations. Lacking neither breath nor stamina, Monica effortlessly cycled her way into the hearts of the many veteran cyclist cheering her on to becoming another lycra clad, but oh so cute, peloton.

Barely did Monica break a sweat during the three days of riding as she chatted animatedly with fellow pelotons cruising down the roads of Maryland about the condition of corn and soybean fields to be harvested passing by, the calls of Killdeer and mocking birds heard on quiet lanes, the colorful sights of caterpillar and foliage or the latest in comfortable cycling apparel. Braving temperatures in the mid 80's and humidity levels climbing, Monica cycled over a hundred miles from Friday thru Sunday. Slathered in sunblock and stocked with pints of water and protein bars in her Camelback, Monica's only luxury was a 30 minute massage provided by sports massage therapist on the second day of her adventures.

Should anyone be interested, her husband's claim to fame is completing two half centuries back-to-back (one which turned into a 60+ due to incorrect interpretations of a clue sheet and finding the mistake after miles in the wrong direction) and final three-day mileage of approximately 150. On our last day, winding down the three-day adventure with a quick 36 mile route, we discovered the newest defense system in the Maryland's farm land. While our seats still fondly remember the curve of the saddle, our pictures provide more entertaining memories.

Love,
Dean & Monica

----------------------------------------------------------------
For the record I responded to my uncle asking when he was going to join the 21st century and start a blog of his own to record his exploits. You know surely what he has to write is better then my drivel.

The reply went a little something like this "Maybe if you put better stuff out there, the social life would improve?"

That's just COLD Uncle Dean....

Friday, July 13, 2007

Quotes from work...

I don't talk about work much.... but here are some out of context quotes from this week that hopefully you too drop on your coworkers


"We're saving lives here man, were not rolling out grass and planting trees"

"When your space shuttle is going 19,000 miles an hour and 1 inch off the launch pad, you best make sure your shit is working like it should"

"Dan read your monitor" (As Dan is trying to figure out if a character is a "5" or a "S" on a 6 foot projected image)

Q - "Why do you guys have such big monitors?"
A - "Easier to look at porn on"

Saturday, July 07, 2007

Go Go iShit!

Ok the iPhone has been out for a week now and every technology pundit with a computer and internet connection has given their $.02.

Time for me to give my $1.25 about their $.02.

There is no way to make a technology pundit happy... they always find some flaw with the item in question that will then be repeated by every half twit out there (I would have used more colorful language but this particular half twit has used technology pundititry in more then one or five cases...) So the biggest complaint about the iPhone has been the lack of inclusion of 3g data for it's data service (HSDPA for the GSM folks or EVDO Rev 0 or Rev A for the CDMA folks). The official line from Apple is something to the effect of...

"Current 3G chips suck power and we have included WiFi to use instead of 3G data" And they are absolutely correct. I will take a shitty WiFi connection over a good EVDO connection any day of the week.

Now for the counter point to the iPhone when Palm released the Treoo 700P it included EVDO data for CDMA (The Treo 750 on GSM has HSDPA) and what did the technology pundits roundly criticize?

"But it doesn't have WiFi"

Mary MOTHER OF FUCKING.......

And now I remember why I stopped watching TV news... because at least with technology pundits I know they are idiots... With political talking heads they could be feeding me a steaming pile of shit and I wouldn't know the difference... though that probably has more to do with the fact that I tend to skim over the politics sections of CNN and the BBC.

So where does this leave us? Well the iPhone is a interesting piece of technology that will be unlocked shortly (I give it 3 weeks from this posting and 6 weeks after that before it's so easy that my brother and mom could both do it) I'm still out in the cold since there will not be a CDMA version of the device unless Apple launches the iPhone in Japan and just happens to leave the door open for the device to work with CDMA carriers in the states.

Me? I'm going to pass on the iPhone in it's current revision and wait for the iPod with touch screen and upgrade. Of course I need it to be at least 40 Gigs before it's worth the money to me. I don't feel this great need to condense my gadetry down to one device between my Treo and iPod I'm good and for those long hauls I always take my laptop with me.

So there you have it kids the iShit from the iTwit's brain.

Thursday, July 05, 2007

Never thought to question why.....

Web 2.0 is a wonderful thing.... it has brought us many sites

myspace...

facebook...

gmail....

you tube...

Ah youtube the first place to look for bad video's or once upon a wonderful time to find clips from the daily show. Sadly I have been reduced to watching the daily show on my DVR.

A unfortunate side effect of you tube type technology coupled with cell phones that take video and cheap digital video cameras.... is every freaking website has a video show on it now.

Ok not every website but the web sites that I goto that I actually care about.

Case in point Tom's Hardware... they have a review of how "Games of the year" hold up down the line. It's not a article it's a clip! Ok it may not be the best example but come on guys I don't want to listen to a good gamer / bad gamer banter about games that I stopped playing LAST YEAR! It's quite frustrating when all you want to do is read article and you people completely kill it for you.

Damn you web 2.0.

Here is a thought guys... do a PRINT article on the best games your not playing "Supreme Commander" anyone?

Beuler?

Beuler?

Beuler?