Got my X3 modchip installed! It works nicely. Also notice the decal Angela got me for Xmas from www.decalgirl.com.

I'm getting old

Well I turned 30 yesterday. It wasn't so bad, I had sushi at Happy Sumo for lunch and for dinner cooked some homemade Fish and Chips at home with the fryer Angela's mom gave us for Christmas. I got a new Alpine MP3 deck for my truck and put my Kenwood in the accord to replace the one jacked on Christmas Eve. Angela also surprised me with a new wedding ring (since my old one doesnt fit). The only problem is the ring is the exact same size as my old one so I can't wear it. I'll have to find a place that can resize the ring and be able to keep the engraving on it. Since it's a Hawaiian ring it has engravings all around it and apparently is difficult to resize. The only place that can really do it right is in Hawaii and it is a pain to send it over there. All in all it was a pretty nice day - I didn't have to work so I was able to spend time home with Angela and Makena.

I got a great Christmas present this year. Apparently someone decided to pay my house a visit Christmas eve and stole the stereo out of the Accord. It wasn't even a year old yet, I got it for Angela in Feb of this year - Alpine MP3 deck. Whoever took it is lucky I didn't catch them in the act or they would be in the Intensive Care Unit at the hospital right now.

Christmas is almost here

and I am still not done with my shopping. Lucky for me my wife did all the family/friends stuff and left me with just her to buy for. I'm getting up early tomorrow to see if I can finish my shopping before the crowds start to appear. I hate driving around during this time of the year - too much traffic.

Finally Finished Half Life 2

I finally finished HL2. I still think it's the best game I have ever played. The graphics and sound were awesome, the plot was awesome and the ending albeit unresolved was awesome. I hear they are making a HL3, if it takes them as long as it did to make the second one I'll be almost 40 when it comes out. I hope it doesnt take that long.

I'm listening to Laura Pausini's Escucha Atento. It's pretty good but I need to find the Italian version of the cd. Maybe Media Play has it...

I love XBMC!

My arms are on fire

I didn't want to lift this morning but Ammon messaged me at 5:15 am and reminded me that we wouldn't skip anymore. I'm glad we ended up going but my arms are on fire.

Today's workout:

Skullcrusher w/close grip bench supersets 3x5
French Press 3x5
Over/under standing curls 3x10

Weather shot of the day

Another shot of Kuki's tree, proceeds go to the Primary Children's Hospital.

Kuki's tree at the Festival of Trees

Well my computer died last Wednesday thanks to me going over a median in my truck with my PC in the back. The shock of the bumps must've been too much for the hard drives because when I got home and hooked my PC up it booted to a BSOD (blue screen of death) and continually rebooted. I ended up having to order a 200gb drive off of Outpost.com that has a $50 MIR (mail in rebate) bringing the total cost after rebate to $89. I could've used a 200gb in my Xbox but instead I have to put it in my PC because I was too lazy to go around the median instead of over the top of it.

Geeking it up at Protocol42. A LAN party held at the U of U once a month.

Cellphone Pic of the Day:

Logitech MX1000 Laser Mouse

MX1000 in the cradle

The Logitech MX1000

So my old mouse started to die on me and it came time to pick up a new one. I started to research them on the internet and narrowed it down to the Logitech MX510 because it was a gamer mouse and allowed you to map all the buttons to keystrokes that you could use in-game. Most mice I've used in the past never allowed you to use the 'extra' buttons. This one claimed it could so I headed off to Staples to look for it. When I got there they didn't have the MX510, instead they had the MX1000 - the new laser mouse. The laser mouse is supposed to be 20x more accurate than the optical. This mouse had it all, looks, 8 buttons, and best of all... cordless. I knew right then and there I had to have that mouse. That was until I looked at the price tag. $80 for a mouse? I thought "you have got to be kidding me". Even though I really wanted to buy this one I knew deep down inside that $80 was way too much for a mouse. So I put it back on the shelf and left the store. There is an Office Max about 1/4 of a mile down the street so I decided to go there. As I walked in and started towards the mouse section I noticed the MX1000 box as I approached. As I drew nearer I saw the price tag $52.00 "Manufacturer Instant Rebate". JACKPOT! The MX510 that I wanted to buy was $49 so it was a no-brainer to pick up the new 1000 for only $3 more.

When I got home and opened it up the first thing I noticed was the weight of the mouse. This was no pansy lightweight cheapo of a mouse. This thing had some weight on it. I plugged in the docking station (RF transmitter) and powered it up. When I put the mouse on the table I noticed that there was no red light emitting from the bottom like on optical mice. I loaded up the drivers that came with the mouse and began to test it out. What kind of a difference could there be between an optical and a laser, you may wonder? Well, let me tell you there is a difference. The laser mouse tracks MUCH better and faster. Also there is an LED on the mouse that shows if the battery is low. When it does run low you just dock it in the RF station/cradle and let it charge up. The battery inside is a Lithium Ion so it should last for quite awhile. The mouse is more geared towards right-handed people but I'm guessing that most left-handers use the mouse in their right hands (at least my wife does). The contour of the mouse fits perfectly in your hand and is very comfortable.

On to the testing. The first test this thing got was on Half Life 2. The mouse performed flawlessly and was extremely responsive. Even the button mapping that I had assigned in the mouse software (Setpoint) was working without a hitch. The next test was Counterstrike: Source. Again the mouse worked much better than the optical counterpart. I noticed the control of the crosshairs was even more precise than with an optical mouse. After trying out the mouse in games I decided to try the tracking on different surfaces. It worked on the mousepad, the table, my hand, and even tracked with no problems on my pant leg and couch.

I would definitely recommend this mouse to anyone who spends a lot of time on the computer. The $80 price tag is hefty, but if you can find it on sale pick it up - you will not regret it.

Smacktard! Cutting a zombie in half with the Gravity Gun.

So I've finally been

able to put in some time on Half Life 2. So far I am amazed with the game. Completely amazed. This game is definitely living up to the hype and has even surpassed it. The player models are extremely detailed, the faces have subtle movements that make them almost realistic. The environments are rendered beautifully and the water reflections are so real looking even my wife who is not into video games said "wow the water looks cool". I have found that I can play this at 1600x1200 with antialiasing on at 2x and have minor stuttering in the video here and there. At this resolution it is simply breathtaking.

Ok enough about how it looks, how does it play? This has to be THE best game I have ever played - and I've played a lot of games in my time. The story so far has kept my full attention. I like this game so much I am playing it on the hardest difficulty just so I won't finish it too quickly. There is a good mixture of action and some puzzle problem solving. I don't believe that there will be too many people disappointed in this game.

To summarize this review I would have to say that I give this game a rating of 10 out of 10. So far I can't think of anything that could make this game any better than it already is. Great job Valve, you have not left your fans disappointed or wanting.

Your old friend the crowbar is back! 

Water Reflections 

A couple more screens from HL2 

It is finally here... 

Stay

on target...

1 more minute

ALMOST THERE....

3 minutes and counting

It's almost here...

Why am I

up so late? Well in about 10 minutes Half Life 2 is going to go live and I'm ready to get mine activated. I was supposed to go to sleep early tonight so I could wake up and activate my preloaded copy via Steam. Instead I was up until midnight watching Hidalgo. Well it's just about here - the moment gamers across the world have been waiting for. It's time to see if HL2 lives up to the hype that's been generating for about a year now. Maybe I should've just stayed in bed and activated it sometime tomorrow. I am taking my PC in to work with me tomorrow so I could do it then... Are you crazy? I'm not missing this even if it's only to play for a couple minutes it'll be worth it. Or will it? Only 5 more minutes and I'll know...

I did it

I finally finished the single player campaign of Halo 2. I still think Halo 2 rocks and the ending sequence was not disappointing as others have said. Let's just put it this way, they definitely left it open for a third installment. I would recommend watching the credits all the way through for the extra cinematic at the end.

Sick Again

Well, it's Monday and I'm home sick. Again. I'm getting really sick of being sick. This started out as a minor sore throat last Tuesday and has evolved into a full blown cold/flu. I say flu because last week I had a fever that came and went in the early morning. Right now it feels like someone has been rubbing sandpaper across the inside of my throat. Not only that, I think I'm starting to get an ear infection now (which commonly occurs in my case). Well after a week I have decided it's time to go see the Doc and get some antibiotics for this ear infection. I also hope to get an Rx for this wonder cough syrup he gives out called Histussive. It tastes like pineapple candy and knocks me out so I can sleep at night. I tried some Robitussin PM (which tasted horrible) a couple nights ago and it took 2 full hours for it to take effect. I'm looking forward to a good night's sleep tonight thanks to the pineapple syrup... Well that's it for now, excuse me while I go cough up a lung.

Halo 2 First Thoughts

As everyone is aware, Halo 2 was released 3 days ago and broke entertainment retail records in its first 24 hours on the shelves. It was announced that 2.4 million units were sold in the U.S. and Canada raking up a cool $125 million. It made more money on its first day than any of the major box office movies. Of course at $50 each it wouldn't be fair to compare it to a $10 movie ticket but still it shows how big the gaming industry has become.

Now on to the review. Upon starting up the game I noticed that the graphics looked nice but not completely different than the first one. The lighting textures is improved as well as the look of the weapons. The sound is incredible. The voice acting is just as good as it was in the first one with the occasional humorous line from both the aliens and your human allies. The positioning of sounds in DD 5.1 is excellent and background soundtrack is perfect, drawing you in to the game making it feel like a cinematic experience. The game looks good in both 480i and 480p although I was a little disappointed to still see some jagged edges but with the xbox sporting 4 year old hardware it still looks awesome. The gameplay is pretty much like the first, run and gun although there is an added feature the 'dual wield' ability to have a weapon in each hand. This comes in handy when trying to dispatch those tough enemies with shields allowing you to unload each weapon in tandem so while you are reloading one you can start firing with the other. This results in being able to unload on your foe without having to worry about stopping to reload. This will definitely come in handy in the multiplayer aspect of the game. I decided to play this the first time through on Heroic so that it wouldn't be too easy to beat. So far I've put in about 6 hours of gameplay and I don't have anything to complain about.
As far as multiplay I played online for about an hour and the action was nonstop. I did notice that with about 8-10 people in the game it seemed to run fine. Once more people joined it got laggy fast. I was in a game with 16 people and it was terrible. Note: I didn't play on Xbox Live because I don't like the idea of having to pay to play so it could be better on Live but I'm betting it isn't. As an alternative to Live there are some tunnel programs out there that will let you get online and play for free, two of them are XBConnect and Team Evolutions XLink Kai. (www.xbconnect.com, www.teamxlink.com) Both are excellent as far as connecting and finding games and best of all they are both free.
In conclusion I would probably agree with the ratings out there and give it a 9.8 myself due to the fun I've had so far playing it online and playing the single player campaign. If I find anything that makes me decide to lower the rating I'll post again.

My First Blog

Well, after all the whatnot about blogging and blogs I decided to look into it myself and get with the times. Here is my first blog! Why did I decide to start blogging? Is my life interesting enough to blog? The answers to those questions; I dont know and no it isn't. I guess that's all for now.