Up and Running

I fixed my PC and all is right with the world. Turns out that there is an alarm if I do not have my auxiliary power cable plugged in. This made my life difficult because they (as in the computer industry) do not make the style power supply that has this connector. After a little searching on the internet I found a warehouse that sells an adapter and long story short, problem solved.

Vacation was unbelievable. We tent camped on the North Shore of Minnesota in the Eckberg State Forest. While it was not directly on the coast of Lake Superior we did have this:

That's me having my morning coffee at our campsite. Pretty outdoor-sy and stuff right? That's the Baptisim River and it was full of crawfish (flashbacks of New Orleans, am I right Bombadee?!) and the most fantastic river rock I have ever seen. Judo Boy and I pulled pounds and pounds of rock out of the water to bring home for the rock tumbler that he got for his birthday. I also happened to grab another 300 lbs(!) to trim around our rock garden back at the house. Our gas mileage took a nose dive for trip back home.

This area is also known for it's waterfalls and they are spectacular. Take a look;

The last pic is of the Mrs. and Judo Boy standing in the middle of the middle falls at Gooseberry Falls. All told we tracked down about 8 or 9 sets of falls. Good times.

Maybe next time I'll share my story of how rude the border guards were when we went to Canada, both on the way there and on the way back into the States.

Crash and Burn!

So I unplugged my computer because we were having a thunder storm in the area and the last thing I need is fried computer syndrome with having to write a review that was due 2 weeks ago (although my boss casually forgot to mention that), pay taxes for 3G, build an invoice for a wedding that 3G did 2 weeks ago (I see a trend here), and having to do research for vacation which happens in 2 days. Next day, after the thunder storm, I go down stairs to the office and plug in the surge protector and immediately there is a flash out the back of my tower. I'm sure you can see where this is going.
Push the power button and I get nothin'. Absolute zero juice. I do what any logical person does. I swear like a MFin' Marine. I don't have time for this BS. I guess that it's the power supply and replace it. I get juice but now I have an alarm. I run the tower with the side panel off and notice that my Northbridge fan is not spinning so I replace that but I still get the alarm. I have one more thing that I can try but after that I'm out of ideas.
Anyway, I'm going on vaca in 2 days to the North Shore of Minnesota. Turns out that there is a ton of waterfalls there and there is a huge band of Lake Superior Agate that runs on the surface in that area. So the family is going camping, waterfall hunting, and rock collecting. Good thing Judo Boy got a rock tumbler for his birthday. I'll post pictures in about 2 weeks. See y'all then.

Time for a Little VaCa.

Work is NUTS! Holy Crap! My boss went on vacation so I was doing her job, my expeditor went on vacation, my lead generator went on vacation, one of my designers went on vacation, the Ops manager left, my dept. lead pulled a muscle in her back so she was out for a couple of days and on light duty when she came back, AND we all had inventory prep which doubles my regular work load by itself. On top of all that the hours just totally sucked. But that's over now.
Now I can worry about the Home Show that I was try to put together and no one cares about. All the dept. supers could care less and I really don't blame them. There is so much work to do that no one has the time to do... just... one... more... thing. So it'll come off as cheesy and half baked but it will be done and the next one in the Winter of '09 will not suck.
Judo Boy and I are going fishing in the morning, which we haven't done in forever. Consider it practice for when we go to Minnesota in mid August. More on that later.

Sick in Head

I absolutely hate being sick. It is the worst. And I become the biggest whiner when I get sick. So, yeah, I'm sick. As a bigger punch in the mouth it's a Spring cold which REALLY sucks 'cause you're all ready to be outside in the warm sun and do yard work and play with the kids and fire up the grill and think about putting up the pool and yeah, who cares, I'm sick.

The Student is Now the Master

Judo Boy is kickin' ass. He has moved from the easy setting on Guitar Hero III to Medium. For those of you that have not played this game, this is quite the accomplishment due to the jump in difficulty. At this rate the kid is going to be shredding on Expert in about a month and then I'll have choice but to put him in a rock band and book his first tour.
Did I mention that I'm still on the Easy stages?

In other video game news Grand Theft Auto IV is released today and it seems to be the best one in the series. Watch a review here. It's expected that this will be the biggest and fastest selling game of all time. I have to admit the series is well done and I've enjoyed my time with it. Of course, there has been a great deal of controversy around the games as well because you can do all manner of criminal things such as gun people down, steal cars, and have (implied) sex with hookers. The beauty of the series is that you do not have to do those things. You can put out house fires, take sick people to the hospital, and play pool in a bar.
The biggest problem that I have with people that rail against these games in particular and video games in general is that typically they are uninformed or misinformed. They may criticize GTA but would consider The Godfather (or Good Fellas) to be a shining example of American cinema. The subject matter is pretty damn close what separates them is the method of delivery. Film is established, video games is a new medium. I will admit that video games started out as a medium that appealed to children but they have come a long way in the last 30 years.
Several states have tried to pass laws that would restrict the sale of mature rated games to children under 18. While this may be overkill of the part of government I don't have a problem with it. If parents don't have the time or are too lazy to check on their kids to see what kind of content they are consuming then I suppose we do need the government to raise our kids for us. We talk more about this later.

All Hail the Guitar God!

So I got Guitar Hero III finally from my EBay win last week. It kicks total ass. It takes a little getting used to the guitar controller but it is more like playing a real guitar than I thought it would be. Even on the easy setting some of the songs are somewhat difficult. Of course with practice it will get easier but I'm the kind of gamer that likes to complete things 100% so I'm breaking out into a sweat just thinking about how tough it will be on Expert.

Judo Boy is trying to get used to the whole concept of the guitar and having to push the fret buttons and strum at the same time. Granted it takes coordination but he is easily frustrated and it's a challenge to get him to calm down and focus. The good news is that he has the ROCK (yes, it rates all caps) movements down. As soon as he starts to hit a string of notes and gets the rhythm he goes into rock star mode and dances/gyrates around. I have no idea where he learned it and he has never been one to practice the fine art of air guitar, so it baffles me where he picked it up.

I also have a new found respect for anyone that can play the guitar. I'm just pressing colored buttons and clicking a strumming bar that simulates strings and that's kicking my ass. I can't imagine having to press the correct string(s) and strum those string(s) in any sort of pattern that makes sense.

So if any of you out there have Guitar Hero III and you want to challenge me to a dual go ahead and send me an invite. But know this, I suck and I'm easy prey. Be gentle.

Oh and one more thing. It looks like Vanilla Gorilla will be working with me at the end of the month. That's all I can say for now.

Rock On!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So I was able to find Tony Hawk Proving Ground Limited Edition for Xbox 360 on clearance about a month ago for $7.49. It just so happens that there is a demo of Guitar Hero III on the disc so I thought I would give it a try.

I'm hooked.

This whole Guitar Hero thing has been going on for awhile now. It's the "hot new thing" in video games and it seems to be drawing a whole lot of interest from people other than hardcore gamers. There have been stories on the local and national news. It's showing up in bars and at school fun fairs. And the ultimate sign of mainstream; it's the game demo of choice at Walmart.

The idea is pretty simple. Make the player feel like they can play a guitar as well as Slash from G'N'R when they really suck with the real thing. Sounds great in concept but the critical part is the execution and they nailed it. It's fundamentally a rhythm game where you press the correct button at the correct time. Kind of like an elaborate game of Simon Says. The beauty of the game design lies in the music. Once you start to "feel" the music you can almost guess which buttons you will need to press and when.

I was playing the demo with a regular controller but you can buy a bundle that has the game as well as a controller that is a mock-up of a guitar, so you can really feel like you are rockin' the house. So I went on EBay to take a peek at what I get my hands on. The bundle at retail with the wireless guitar runs $90. I found an auction for a new, open box unit and won it for a total of $55. Not a bad savings. I have yet to get my paws on it but when I do I'll post an update of impressions.

Did I happen to mention that I might have gone a little overboard I bid on an auction for Guitar Hero II and won that one for $45. So I'll have two guitars that Judo Boy and I can play together since there is a Co-Op mode where one person can play lead guitar and the other can play either rhythm or bass guitar. I can see this being a kick ass party game where we get the friends together and after a couple of cocktails they strap on the ax and rock to Even Flow by Pearl Jam, Rock This Town by the Stray Cats or even the all time classic request Freebird by Lynard Skynard.

Of course this is all part of my master plan to get Judo Boy to learn how to play a real guitar in the near future. Until then you'll find us playing to packed arenas full of rabid fans all around the world. Rock on brothers and sisters! Rock On!