Two Loves...

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This video combines my two favorite loves... The song "Code Monkey" by Jonathan Coulton and hot Night Elf chicks....

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4Wy7gRGgeA]

For the past year, Jonathan Coulton has released a song every week through his fabulous Thing A Week podcast. He makes his songs available via the Creative Commons license, which enables projects such as this video.

Mike Spiff Booth is a Program Manager at Adobe who though this great song really deserved a video. This video is a tribute to Jonathan's amazing Thing A Week experiment and all the great music it produced.

Before you ask, since apes, goblins, and night elf receptionists don't tend to interact much in the wild, I couldn't only use captured game footage to make this video. Every frame of this video was composited together by hand using images captured from the WoW Model Viewer, WoW Map Viewer, and the World of Warcraft game itself.

No monkeys were harmed in the making of this film.

The song at the end of the video is "Big Bad World One", another great Jonathan Coulton song.

All you ever wanted to know....

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Leeeeroooy Jenkins... If you are unfamiliar with this term, everything you ever wanted to know, PLUS SOME is here in a link to a Dever newspaper article on Leeroy and all that is Mr. Jenkins. If you wanna see Leeroy's stats you can check them out at the World of Warcraft Armory. And of course the movie that started it all...
[youtube=http://youtube.com/watch?v=iv4KrxCbTO0]

At least I got chicken!

First Try…

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Here's my first try using iMovie. We are practicing trying to learn some of the techniques Brandt will be using for a school project. It's just over 36 seconds and less than 1MB of a download. BTW, I'm the bald guy and Brandt is the guy in the lower right of the intro. Sergent Gatowag if you have good eyes.

Wow Test.mov

UPDATE: Here's a little better version. I think we both like this one best.

Wow Test2.mov 

Wow, that was quick..

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So I play a "little" poker on PartyPoker. Well I used to anyway. I haven't played with my own money on PartyPoker in about a year. Just before christmas they gave me $25. The only catch was I had to play 250 raked hands to keep it. Well I did, and then more. Then in March they gave me another $25 with the same 250 raked hand stipulation. Once again no problems there. Long story short, I've ran this free $500 all the way up over $250, down to less than $5, and back again, at least a few times. A couple of weeks ago I lost about $100 one evening in hold em' leaving me about $25 or so. Well I figured it was free money so I'd just go loose it playing Omaha. That didn't happen, some how I held my own in Omaha. Well just a few minutes ago I figured I'd spend a little time in a $.50/$1 Limit Hold em' cash game. Three minutes, count them, THREE minutes is all it took for me to loose the final $25. Two bad beats in a row. I lost with a set of J's on the first and a boat Ten full of J's. I think that's enough poker for me. Well at least for today. :)

Tuff Evening

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Crash Photo's
So tonight I'm flying around SoCal in X-Plane, just playing in the mountains... In a 747 no less. I was just minding my own business when I got a fire warning light and the master caution started screaming at me. I had a fire in number one engine. The sim doesn't have fire handles or extinguishers but I still managed to get it shut down. I killed the start switch, batt, gen, fuel boost pump, and evenentially the throttle. The fire looked to go out, but there was still quite a bit of smoke from the engine. I declared an emergency. I didn't know the area very well and didn't have any of my charts out. ATC directed me to KPOC (Brackett Field Airport, La Verne). It's a halfway decent size run way. Lil' bit narrow, but still landable. I kicked on the autobreaks and spoilers, kicked out the flaps and gear and headed down. It was a straight in approach landing on 26L. I couldn't have made a prettier approach. Nearly a direct head wind I thought would give me a nice slow ground speed for touchdown. It wasn't so. It was VERY gusty even if it was right now the runway. I had to carry a bit more speed than I would have liked. This of course casued me to float long. With just barely 4800 feet of runway I didn't have much room to spare. I floated and finally touched down about 1/3 of the way down the runway, with nose gear finally coming down about 1/2 way down. I jammed on the binders and tried to stop. I probally should have dumped fuel on the way in but I didn't. I was pretty heavy. I didn't immediatly throw back the thrust reversers with an inop engine. That could be problems. I finally, about 3/4 down, decided to at least extend the TR's and about the time I went past the overrun and through the lights I went to full reverse. I finally did stop, about 10 or 15 foot from a rather large embankment. I'm sure that wouldn't have been very good on it. Anyway, here's some pics of the aftermath. Crash Photo's

P.S. Notice how far off center I drifted after using the reversers with an engine out.

Poker

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Last night we had a poker game. It's the first one I've had in like six months at least. It's been a while. Way to long if you ask me. I'm thinking about having another just after the new year. We didn't really know how it was going to turn out. We didn't have enough people until really the last minute. It ended up being myself, Lynda, Jon, Ed, Thomas, Rob, Brenda, David, Julio, and Troy. I was nearly knocked out early. I took a pretty big hit on like the third or forth hand. I thought for sure I had it, but the guy I was up against hadn't ever played with live ppl. He'd only played online. It took a little bit for me to figure him out. Of course by that time he had a big chip lead. We started out with $2125 in chips, by the 3rd or 4th hand I was down under $800. It seems I play short stacked a LOT. Would that be art imitating life? Well that's a whole other story. Anyway, I waiting until the cards came back and was able to get back even with the starting amount, but by that time a few others were building their stacks. I ended up all in for about $3000 and two pair Q's and 9's. I lost, but I ended up in the money with third. That's $50 in winnings. So I doubled my money. That was great and all, but I think the coolest part of the night was Lynda. Friday night she came over and with her never really playing a serious Texas Holdem game, we did some training. Lynda, Brandt and I played a learning game for about 4 hours or so until LATE Friday night. We would play then hand and then turn up our cards and say why we played the hand the way we did. That way we could discuss the hand and decide if we could have played it better next time. So by the time last night came around she was awesome. She kicked so much ass, including my own, and tied for 1st. She and Troy were playing heads up for quite some time. They decided that they were just going to call it and split the winnings. Troy actually, since he was ahead at the time, insisted that he get more. So he won $101 and Lynda won $99. Not bad for a $25 tournament. Anyway, next time I should probably not teach her so well so she won't beat me so bad. :)

Game #4

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So this past weekend I played in Game #4. Yes, we lost, but we actually did MUCH, MUCH better. You can defiantly tell that we are starting to come together. The game was much closer than the score says, 12-2. I batted twice. The first I was thrown out at first. It was a controversial call. Pretty much everybody thought I was safe, including me, but the ump with the coke bottle glasses didn't see it that way. My second at bat I singled, but was put out by a force at second the next batter. Brandt's science teacher was on the other team so I 'm sure he'll be making an A this years in that class. My batting average for the year is now down to .800. How many big leaguers can say that... :P Course it is slow pitch softball, but that's besides the point. Anyway, we are playing another average team this week. Maybe we can pull one out....

Ouch, 15-0

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So we are 0-3 now in Softball. We actually played a much better game this time. Teamwork was much better, fielding was much better, however our hitting, althgouht wasn't bad, was let's say unlucky. Lots of pop flys. The team we played was tied for first place so they weren't a bad team. They've definatly been together for a few years. I started at catcher and only batted once. I got a single so that keeps my batting average at 1.000. Course I've only batted three times so I guess you have to take that into effect. Anyway, I gotta get. Tomorrow I gotta get up early and take Brandt to his mom. See ya's...

Game #2

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Well late Friday night we had game number 2. We sucked. It took us two innings to get through the batting lineup. Since I played last week I didn't get to start this week. After the second inning I went in as catcher. Unfortunatly the game only went three innings and we didn't make it through the lineup so I didn't get to bat. I don't know if we ran out of time or it was a run limit thing. We lost like 19 - 4 or something like that.

P.S. Brandt's posting now if you haven't noticed. :)

Game #1

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Our first softball game was Friday evening. We lost 6-2 but it was a pretty good game. We'd had two practices and this being our first game, you'd know it had to be against a team that had been together a couple of years. I didnt' do to bad batting. My first at bat I singled with a line drive right into the pitchers mouth. I didn't see it cuz I was running, but this is what I hear. I scored two batters later. My second at bat I singled into shallow center field. I got stranded on second. So anyway, I guess that means I'm batting 1.000. The game was ended for time in the 6th inning. We did MUCH better than I expected. I came down with a bad case of shin splints. I'm just now able to walk again pretty much. Nothing else on me hurts which is quite a surpize. Anyway, can't wait until next friday.

P.S. Modded another xbox. I forgot to document it, next time...

Ouch

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So I can hardly walk now. I had softball practice tonight and my shins are FRIGGIN KILLING me! They hurt a little bit last week, but I think the fact that my arm were actually bleeding from throwing so much made my shins seem inconsequential. Now this week my arm is all healed up so I notice them more. Anyway, I did very well. My fielding of course needs improvement, but I saw a lot of improvement over last week. My batting was solid. I did manage a in the field home run with a little help from our lack of fielding of course. :) We are kind of like the Bad News Bears, only with more cursing. :P

On another note, I've been having a lot of luck on the Xbox. Some of it good, some bad. Luckily enough for me I've learned a lot on the way. I actually hosed my drive over the weekend but I had learned enough to be able to recover it. I've gotten many things that didn't work on the original modded box to work. I certainly don't know everything but I'm pretty confident about the things I did learn. I don't really know how this will help me in life, career, or love, but if you know a hot blonde that needs to hire someone, a date as well as a knowledge of softmodding an Xbox, I'm your guy.

xBox mod

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.........The story.........


.........The Fix.........


.........The Steps.........


  • Downloaded 007 game save hack.
  • Copy hack to mem stick and then transfer to subject xbox HDD.
  • Booted to 007 game, loaded hack as a saved mission, and booted into EvoX.
  • Put xbox on the network and let DHCP take care of the IP.
  • Make backups of software.
  • FTP'd the original C and E drive out for safe keeping.
  • MAKE SURE TO BACKUP MOD. Even though you don't have one at this time this step is important to create the eeprom.bin file.
  • Install the softmod. I don't believe this is 100% necessary. I'll know for sure next time.
  • Remove the original HDD, place in a anti-static bag, and put into the safe for future generations to enjoy.
  • Download xboxhdm and extract.
  • Place your backed up C and E drive in the C and E folder of xboxhd.
  • Place your eeprom.bin in the eeprom folder of xboxhd.
  • Run the bat file to create your iso image of xboxhdm.
  • Burn xboxhd to cd.
  • Install blank large HD into a surrogate PC as a primary master.
  • Boot to xboxhdm.
  • Type xboxhd.
  • Choose #1 then choose #1 again. This will drag you through the rebuild of your blank drive. Just follow directions.
  • Choose #6 to Generate HD key.
  • Reboot with the xboxhdm disk.
  • Chose #3.
  • Type lockhd -a
  • At this point you have an upgraded and modded xbox HDD.
  • Put HDD back into xbox and boot. If all went well you'll boot right into EvoX.
  • Start loading it up with stuff...

    • Doom3

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    So last night I finished Doom3. I did finish it on the medium level of course. I'm now playing it on the hard level. I think I'll play a couple of days on this level and if it looks like it's doable I'll move things up and play on nightmare level. If I remember correctly from past doom games that level the bad guys respawn after you kill them. So it's best to just keep running and don't look back. I'm not crazy about playing that way. I want to clear the place out so I have a safe zone around me in case I get into trouble. Anyway, we'll see I guess.

    The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly…

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    First the good. Today I finally got around to hooking up the 5.1 surround on my computer. I fished the cables up into the attic, mounted the speakers in the corners, added extensions to the cables and fished them back down the other wall and into the computer. Let me just say right now Doom3 sounds COMPLETELY AWESOME in surround. I'm sure it's just a matter of time before the neighbors call the cops.

    The Bad, we had to cancel my poker game that I had planned for tonight. We were short on ppl anyway, there were going to be between 6 - 8 players. We had a few drop out at the last minute so we just canceled it until next time.

    The Ugly, we used to have this really nice ride between Anna, to Celina, to Pilot point. It was about 30 miles of nearly perfect roads with tons of twist and turns. It was a motorcyclist dream. Well they have decided to repave it. Now that means something different to txdot. I didn't think it needed repaving anyway, but to them repaving mean to put down oil and rock. This means it completely ruins it for bikes cuz gravel is a big problem. This also sucks for auto traffic as well. It may smooth it out a bit for about a week. But it only takes one day with temps over 90 to bring all the oil to the top. Now you are splattering this crap all over your car or truck. Not to mention the rocks are sticking to your tires and throwing them everywhere. Now after a month of wear the road is now worse than it was before they decided to "fix" it. I don't know what they were thinking. Whoever decided that this was a good idea has evidently never driven on one of these roads. They did the same thing to CR78 here just a half a mile from my house. A matter of fact they have done it three times since I've been here, last year and a half, and each time it only gets worse and worse. Idiots......

    Plan B

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    Well after a lot of reading and some serious consideration I think I've made a change in my Xbox hacking attemp. That is unless I hear of a better way to do it. I'm still going to hack it but I'm going to do a mod chip instead. The chip I want is at www.system-mods.com but is not due in until the end of the month. I heard of a couple of people having issues with the save game hack's and them vegging out their systems... I would rather not do that. I figure this way when I have the mod chip in and working nicely I can than upgrade the HDD. It'll be better that way so I can do the movie/mp3 thang.

    XBox Hack

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    So Kevin Rose's article convinced me that I really needed to hack an Xbox. Ya know since I've hacked like half the appliances and machines in my house it's time to add one more to the list. I thought about hacking one of my other Tivo's, got 3 of them now, but that's old stuff now. What I've decided to do is a chipless mod on an Xbox. Many of the other hacks on the Xbox require to you add a mod chip. Some of these are soldier on but many of the new ones are just a contact connection rather than soldier. I'm sure I could handle either one of those types of mod's but I figured that many people would be more comfortable with something that is software only. Plus there is something about they way the hack is performed. This is the sort description of the hack. First you purchase a Xbox, by Microsoft. Then you pruchase MechAssault, by Microsoft. Then you order a free usb keyboard adapter for Fantasystar Online, by Microsoft. Are you starting to see a pattern here. :) From that point it's just a bit of software. You use a hack on the audio system to access the Xbox at a level lower than the default xbox software.

    I'm just about to a point of getting ready to try this. I purchased the Mechassault over the weekend. It was $12.99. Two weeks ago I ordered the fantasy star online adapter from Microsoft. It was just under $7 for shipping and handling. I have downloaded all the software and read all about the procdure. I'm using a bastardized version of the hack instuctions. I hope it works. I'm basicly changing the way I get parts of the software to the Xbox. It should work just as normal but saves me from purchasing another piece of software. As soon as I get the adapter I'll be ready and then at that point I'll go purchase the Xbox. I didn't want to get it early and then get attached to it and not wanna take the change of the hack.

    Anyway, wish me luck and I'll let you know how things turn out...