Playing with photo shop

This weave effect is pretty cool.


I'm finally finding time to get back in to digial art so is a start.

Another black and white

Irish Car Bomb


I just love black and white photos. I feel like the details sometimes gets lost in the color.

Another picture from Iowa

I drove past this little building everyday when I was in Iowa. I'm not sure what this building is or was but I thought it would make for a good picture.


Maybe it was an old grain silo or maybe a windmill of some sorts, but it captured my attention and my interest.

Samsung's Solid-state Laptop

Samsung will begin shipping to the Korean market its Q30, the first notebook PC with a solid-state hard disk. The 12.1-inch screen notebook will be equipped with a 32GB NAND flash based solid-state disk (SSD) with a read speed of 53MB per second (300% faster, according to Samsung) and write speed of 28MB per second (150% faster), allowing it to boot up 20 to 50% faster than a conventional laptop.

The lack of moving parts will also allow it to go fanless, making it absolutely silent, plus it'll be more efficient, boosting battery life. Here comes the downside, though: it's going to cost $3700 for all this solid-state goodness, and it's saddled with an old-fashioned Celeron M 753 (1.2GHz) chip.

Press Release

The Dublin

This was my favorite bar in Iowa City. A perfect little pub that has not been tainted by the college crowd. Best draft Guinness around there.

1 more day and I'm coming home

This is Iowa.

Yep, nothing but a lot of corn.

My first parking ticket

It's been a pretty good week all in all. Of course with today being Friday I was glad to make a short day of it. As I was driving back to the hotel, I decided to swing into the downtown district of Iowa City. Affer circling the blocks a few times I found the perfect spot, right in front of a bunch of bars. So I parked and walked along the square checking everything out. This place is a huge college town and somehow I don't seem to "fit in" with the college crowd anymore. I did however find a great tavern called the Dublin Underground. I was at home! They had the best Guiness and to top it off when the bartender gave me my beer it had a shamrock poured into the head of that heavenly lager....AMAZING!! I will have to go back and take a picture to prove it.

So after a drink or two I decided to head on back to the hotel and there I saw my first parking ticket underneath the wiper on my rental car. $5.00 due to Iowa city. Hell, for $5 to park so close.... it was well worth it.

I will probably just go check out the mall next door tomorrow and do my laundry. That's the bad part about traveling so long.

Until next time.

UPDATE!!



So this morning I went dowstairs into the lobby to find this in the newspaper machine. Oh really, parking tickets down huh, well kiss my butt.

Things about Iowa

1. Everybody drives slow and in the left lane

2. CORN lots and lots of CORN

3. 1 paved road to every 10 dirt roads

4. At exactly 8:00 pm until 7:00 am the whole state smells of pig shit

5. For some strange reason, a lot of people jog all the time

6. There are fork lift drivers named Bubba who you wonder who needs to be driving who.

7. It's not getting dark until 9:00 pm

8. And they say I have a funny accent

9. People are not as friendly as you would expect, nothing like the South

10. For god sakes at the CORN!

I promise to be back.....Sometime

I can't begin to explain how busy I have been. I was promoted to a new position at work and I haven't had time to stop and take a breathe. My emails are piling up on me and I am really behind on my feeds, but when things slow down I'll be back in the saddle.

Hello to all my friends and I'll catch up when I can.

My New Toy

I've been without a pistol for a while, and I decided to pick this little Taurus up. It's a Millenium Pro PT-140 (.40). A nice compact, perfect for carry and packs a punch. After two weeks of it sitting in the box, I decided to break it in a little. I put 50 rounds through it and was pleased. I was able to keep a pretty tight pattern from 25 yards (considering it is a compact). I have heard a lot of people complain about the how difficult this gun is to field strip. Now maybe they just do not understand simple mechanics, but all there is to it is pulling the takedown pin out and removing the slide. All-in-all, it's a great weapon for personal defense or target shooting. Taurus also offers a lifetime warranty so you never have to worry about parts.

Check out the product page

I am such a Geek

A long time ago, I posted about being in office space hell. I realized I had my very own TPS reports.

Well it gets worse.

Today I acutally got exited about a Pivot Table!!!! I even said "Yeah, that is some good data"!

I know it comes with the territory and it's just part of my job, but how lame is that.

DISCLAIMER: No representation is made that the quality of the contents of this blog is better than the quality of the contents to be found at other blogs.

For illustration purposes

Keeping the 360 out of the cabinet helps keep it cool.



I keep the power supply behind the speaker on the left where it is more open than being behind the cabinet

Elevate your 360

Lift your 360 up a bit to improve airflow

I used a set of cushion feet from Radio Shack to give it some clearance. When it's running, I can feel more air being pulled from underneath.

I'll be back!

Long time no post! I have been so busy at work, I have not been abke to keep up as much as I would like to. Between the lack of bandwidth at home and a slight back injury, all I have been doing around the house is cracking away on the 360 and watching movies with a heating pad on my back trying to regroup.

I have a lot of articles I would like to post and some reviews of some 360 games that have been consuming much of my time.

On anoter note, Congratulations to Buddha and his wife. They have a new baby girl in the family!

Full Auto

The World's Most Destructive Racing Game is coming!

Combine raw horsepower with awesome firepower in a race that demands both precision aim and breakneck speed. Destroy your enemies and tear the world apart as you master a wide arsenal of weaponry and a stunning selection of armor-laden cars.

In Full Auto, the city of Staunton is held hostage by a mysterious group known only as The Shepherds. As a retired driver, you are coerced by the Shepherds into a series of lethal street races, where the cost of competing is far greater than anyone ever expected. "Unwreck", an ingenious new feature that makes mid-race "restarts" a thing of the past, allows players to rewind short periods of time. Botch a turn? Correct it. Miss a shortcut? Go back and take it. Under heavy fire? Use a second chance to evade the competition. And Xbox Live support ensures significant replay value for gamers itching to take on human opponents in both grand-scale arena modes and full-throttle races.

"Play mechanics that would be impossible on current generation hardware - like the ability in Full Auto to turn an entire city block to rubble, then rewind the carnage at the press of a button - will truly define the next-generation experience," said Scott A. Steinberg, Vice President of Entertainment Marketing, SEGA of America. "In Full Auto, you'll never see the same explosive sequence twice and, with our proprietary physics technology, gamers will quite literally see and experience destructive uniqueness every time they play it."



Full Auto allows players to choose from a wide selection of unique vehicle designs and arm them with any combination of machine guns, cannons, and other deadly weapons before taking to the streets. The rules of the road don't apply in this high-octane, no-holds-barred competition.

Get a FREE Full Auto Limtited Edition Faceplate for your 360 when you purchase Full Auto from Rhino Video Games!!

Turtle Beach Easy Audio Adapter

Turtle Beach makes PC surround sound a snap with its Audio Advantage Roadie USB Audio Adapter. Just a regular little USB sound card that snaps into your USB port, it'll hook you up with instant 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound connectivity, as well as all kinds of outputs to connect your computer or laptop to a bunch of different audio devices (like surround-sound headphones or portable speakers). Built-in stereo mics and a 10 Band EQ are also included, all for just $80.

Turtle Beach Audio Advantage Roadie USB Audio Adapter

Imation Flash Wristband

As convenient as the small sizes of today’s flash drives are, they also carry with them the problem of easily being lost. Fortunately, Imation has come up with a surprisingly not too bad looking solution - the Flash Wristband ($TBD).The drive features 256MB of memory, and a simple design that allows the ends of the band to plug into one another. Oh, and about 50,000 "Geek" points with your techie buds.

MCE Xbox 360 Apps

If you have a Media Center and an Xbox 360, then you may want to try these two applications.

Web Browser on your Xbox 360:
Well, sort of. Check out this Media Center app, the MCE Browser. Using windows MCE and your 360 as the extender, you can now browse the web using your Xbox 360.(bonus points for the photo on that web page)

Transcode Video:
This application allows you to transcode video directly over to your 360. To quote the web page "Designed for Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005 and the Xbox 360, Transcode 360 aims to broaden the support for a wide range of video media including DivX and XviD."

New Xbox Live Compatible Router

The Dlink DI-634M has earned our Xbox Live Compatible Logo. This is the first MIMO router from Dlink. It is still 802.11b/g on the wireless side but (as with all MIMO routers) should reduce dead spots and increase range.

Read about the device here.

Stay Tuned

I've been really busy lately and my bandwidth at home prevents me from doing much at all, but I shall return soon.