I've Got The Power (It's Gettin' Kind Of Hectic)

09.14.2005

This week is the annual Spiritus Camping Trip, or as I call it "You guys go hike for a week while I stay here sleeping in the bed with air conditioning". I've never been one for camping so I don't really feel like I'm missing anything. Plus, there's all the preparation beforehand which I get to hear about, followed by the stories of what happened when they return. So, except for actually going through all the discomfort that I associate with camping - and this is real, pack crap on your back and tote it around for survival camping, not pitching a tent 20 feet from the car camping that I remember from my childhood - it's like I was really there.

The only true drawback is that while everyone is gone, I'm in charge. I'm good with that as long as nothing breaks. Yesterday, something broke. We have a maintenance contract with a group of lawyers downtown. One of said lawyers computers was acting as if infected with a virus. 3 virus checkers and a lot of rebooting later, 97 spyware cookies were removed but no notice of virus removal. Once I left, I got a call that the computer was acting all virusy again.

I make web pages, what do I know about viruses?

So I've been searching for other tools and causes of the symptoms (the system reboots randomly, usually after a keypress). It sounds like the Zotob worm, except they're running WinXP. It's just blasted frustrating! Let me go back to making web pages and I can get stuff done! Or maybe Greg will hurry back and make everything better. He's good at that. Don't get eaten by any bears, Greg!

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It's a Mad Mad Mad Max

09.07.2005

Taking advantage of the extended holiday weekend, I took the opportunity to plop down on the couch and indulge in some movie watching. With the everpresent news coverage of Hurricane Katrina and the affected rising gas prices, I was in the mood to watch some old fashioned Mad Max movies. I had enjoyed them back in the day (circa '85), and thought 20 years was a good anniversary to celebrate by watching them again. In retrospect, it may not have been the best idea.

The 80's gave birth on celluloid to the Post-Apocolyptic era. In the near future something bad happens, all the cool parts of civilization crumble, man pulls a cockroach method of survival and muddles on with whatever's been salvaged. There aren't a lot of Post-Apocolyptic movies made anymore. I think there's a reason. Here's what I learned in my 20 year review of the MAd Max trilogy.

* Mad Max (1979): This isn't really Post-Apocolyptic, it's just lawless motorcycle gangs that can get away with pretty much anything against the Australian Police Force of 7 officers. Max get's "the last of the V-8s", but other than that it's your generic low-budget movie that went on to earn $100 million since its original 1979 release.

* Road Warrior/Mad Max 2 (1981): In the opening montage they show scenes from Mad Max interspersed with WW2 footage and a story about how tribes went to war and bad mojo came from it. Max, along with the bad guys, are in an ever present search for gas. I'm amazed at how in Post-Apocolyptic Australia, the good guys defending a petroleum refinery all have white football shoulder pads and the women have gone a little crazy with a hair-crimper. In the end, Max takes a tanker full of dirt to distract the bad guy in a hockey mask from the escaping good guys as they blow up the refinery. I've always wondered if Max was supposed to know that he was the decoy with the dirt?

* Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome/Mad Max 3 (1985): This is realy 2 movies in 1. In the first part, Max goes to a Tina Turner video shoot and tussles with a misunderstood bad guy in the cage match Thunder Dome. This leads to the 2nd movie, where Max enters a remake of Lord of the Flies and is mistaken for Peter Pan. Max ends up returning to the Tina Turner video shoot to save an Umpa Loompa. Being the true hero, Max stays behind so our rag tag fugitive fleet of Fly Lords and Umpa Loompas can fly to Neverland, or maybe Post-Apocolyptic Sydney. Meanwhile, Tina keeps calling Max "Raggedy Man" while driving off and leaving him in the desert.

See, those were nothing like the movies I remembered. They lacked the cutting edge coolness that I remembered. Or maybe I've gotten old enough to look at a picture and think "I wouldn't want to be trying to survive in the desert in black leather".

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Gametime Again

08.30.2005

I've once again reached a point where I seem to be stocking up on video games. After my last plunge into gaming overload, I've been mainly playing Forza Motorsport. After spending countless hours going through races trying to earn points and money to unlock everything, I finally came across a code to do the same thing (with none of the pain). So, now it's time to turn to some different games!

Nascar 06 comes out tomorrow. I've skipped the last couple years worht of Nascar games, but I still like virtually driving around in circles. I think it's time to catch back up and see how many circles I can drive in.

Madden 06 came out a couple of weeks ago. Last year I really enjoyed the ESPN 2K5 Football, but thanks to EA's exculsive licensing deal with the NFL, Madden is the only true flavor of football out there. I've been avoiding the Madden legacy of games since it started around 200 BC, but now I'm taking the plunge. Since I consider myself a part-time gamer, I've always thought the controls and play-making concepts would be too much for me. Now I'll find out.

WWE Day of Reckoning 2 comes out for the Game Cube today. The only reason I have a Game Cube is for the handful of wrestling games that were released for it. I even picked up a newer, bigger controller for the system that will hopefully better fit my meaty hand, thus allowing me to play the game without cursing the stupid controller that's sized for a 7-year-old. I have no idea what this new wrestling game is supposed to offer, but it is a new wrestling game so I must possess it.

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Should I Spell That?

08.25.2005

Yesterday Mom and Terry were in town for a doctor visit, and afterward I went out and had dinner with them, followed by a round of playing Scrabble with Mom.

Sometime in the past couple of years, mom and I have taken to playing Scrabble. I vaguely remember playing with her eons ago, but it's just been something we've picked back up while visiting each other lately. I think it may have been that Mom and I hit our crosswords phase around the same time, so we were learning new words - why else would I remember that another name for elevator is "Otis" (named after the inventor, although nobody ever calls a cotton gin a "Whitney") or that the Thin Man's dog is named "Asta". But Mom and I have moved on to the Scrabble board, and on average we're pretty evenly matched.

About 2 months ago I came across the PC version of Scrabble on one of the bargain shelves at CompUSA. I went ahead and picked it up, partly for practice, partly just because I like to play Scrabble, and the actual boardgame doesn't really lend itself to solitaire play. I loaded the game and found that I was not only getting better in my playing strategy, but learning some new words that would come in handy along the way. Now when I pulled a "Z" tile, I wasn't limited to HAZE, ZOO, or ZONE, I could now try for ADZ!

Last night was the first time Mom and I have played since my extra curricular computer training. I was a little leery of playing some of the smaller words, because I'm so used to the computer correcting me when I'm wrong. I was focusing more on playing on the premium tiles to get letter and word bonuses. It was here that a high scoring tile in combination with a triple letter and double word score made me hesitate. I had a valid word, but it's not a word you want to play when going against your Mom. But I did it anyway:

"VAGINAL". 30 points at the time.

It made me feel so dirty. But I ended up winning.

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Weekend At Large

08.22.2005

I had a busy weekend.

Friday
After a fun day at work trying to wrap up code to be released to the live public (well, two people at least), I headed out to meet my new chiropractor Trevor. Now, Trevor is not Trevor's real name, but a name bestowed upon him about a year ago by me when Gina started to see him for her chiropractic care. His name is actually Trent, but I like Trevor better. I told Trevor as much when I met him. But I digress. My first visit to Trevor the chiropractor went well. He was able to man handle me in such a way as to make me pop well. This was followed by joining mom on a trip to Florence to visit grandparents. I've been die a grandparent visiting trip for a while now, so it was nice to go see them and have a nice little visit.

Saturday
I went on a spending spree Saturday, gathering things for the house that I've been putting off since this past Christmas. For example, my microwave has been need of replacement since the Memorial Day Lightning Strike of 2000 as teh digital readout has been losing more and more digitals. Now I have a new replacement microwave, and as a bonus it matches the stainless steelness of the refrigerator and garbage can! I'm so grown up. I also replaced my cookware. When I moved into the house, I got a lot of hand me down cookware that I pretty much never use. I think the only thing I've used in the past 5 years has been the cast iron skillet that had been passed down to mom - and I only use it for hamburger helper lasagna. So, my favorite part of getting new cookware was emptying out the cupboard of the old stuff. Pots, pans, Corningware, tea maker, Tupperware tops with no matching bottoms. No wonder people were giving me this stuff. It all sucked! But now I've pared everything down to a pile that's managable that I may actually use. I won't be making any casseroles, I have no casserole dish. I never knew I had one before, so I've yet to make a casserole anyway. But now, can't make one if I wanted.

Sunday
By Sunday I was worn out, so I watched Mission Impossible 2 and Sin City before settling in to a marathon of Ultimate Fighting on SpikeTV.

I've got a pretty full schedule of things I need to do while not at work this week. It makes me look forward to another day like Sunday.

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