i'm actually kinda enjoying KOTAR even though I only play it for literally 20 mins at a time. Maybe .. MAYBE .. close to an hour in a day if that. But, its ok enough to just jump in and out of here that there (so far.) Biggest complaint though, oh my god: The voice acting for the aliens is SO retarded (no offense enron). The line will be something like "I want the bounty on his head!" and it will literally take 60 fuckin seconds of gibberish alien talk to get that 1 tiny sentence out. SO STUPID. Otherwise, bet this game was tits when it came out!

They were saying on public radio the other day that on new year's day 2002, gas in the los angeles area was average of $0.99 a gallon. Can you friggin believe that!?

My brother in law bought a Prius and it was really pretty cool with all the technological doo-dads and whatnot. I liked the voice interaction with the computer, including blue-tooth compatability with your cell phone to call people on command and patch them through the speakers. The trip computer is pretty kick ass too. I think it's connected to traffic-reporting servers that alert you of traffic jams ahead and provide you with alternate routes, even.

Actually, his Prius was where I got the idea for our road-trip route from Washington to Vegas. For kicks, we plugged in the two cities and it came up with that route as a comparably fast route because of the highway speeds and lack of mountain passes.

Anyway. When we get our current vehicle paid off, we're probably going to buy some kind of hybrid. The only problem with them is that the battery is MEGA expensive to replace and it needs replacing every five years or so (or so I hear). Not sure how cool that is, but anyway.

Prius, Shmeeus

Well, we are TRYING to offload the Infiniti and pick up a Prius. We are basically trying to get an equvalent payment per month that we have with the FX, and if we can't, we need to re-group and see what alternatives there are. The thing is, the Prius is basically just a tricked out economy car... a comparatively really expensive tricked out economy car, and we just can't see giving up what we have with the FX, which is sort of a low-end luxury-ish car, to pay more for a Prius. Our payments are outstanding with the FX 'cause we traded in Leslie's Jetta at the time, and if we can't match those payments, then like everyone else in the world, we have to put Mother Nature second, and our family and our payments first.

I agree, it is a cool ass funny looking car. Kinda like the FX. And Enron, I guess the mileage is "pretty good", if 51/60 is "pretty good"! And yes, I know that the printed is not what you actually get, but c'mon, 51/60?!?!?!

Not to mention, I actually fit in the car, which is weird, and Leslie can fit comfortably BEHIND me while I drive, which is saying something.

So, it will be cool if it happens, but the more we wait, the more I doubt.

Finally got all my software re-loaded and updated and all that jazz. I feel like a real computar owner again. Yay.


Lost in the midst of all this mirth, the Big E said: I'm going to buy a Prius

I have to say, I really, really dig these little guys a lot. Not just because they get a bazillion MPG.. but the technology involved is really kick ass. The bluetooth stuff is amazing.

rise against the grain

I've never really listened to Rise Against, but just checked out their upcomming cd, and i like it! Heard about them basically from that BR Live DVD. Nice shit here, get it!




You know, Stranger Than Fiction is a PRETTY DARN GOOD album! Definately some stinkers on it, but for the most part, some of their sickest jams I think! My favorite BR song for the last 2 days has been "News from the Front" from that cd.
EDIT: Hmm, looked up BR on amazon and "news from the front" only seems to come from a punk-o-rama?! Darn it, I have it tagged for Stranger than fishin, dammit I dunno, that song is the rockinest tho.

Old metal-heads at work busted out cassette tapes of Exodus and another band (I think called Overkill or something stupid like that.) They talked about seeing Metallica open for Exodus in NY and taking 7 hits of acid n shit. Fuckin' old metalheads.

I Heart Games

Man, Caylus was awesome! I have forgotten just how much fun a good game, played in it's entirety, can be. Wylie is starting to sleep through the night to the tune of 12 - 13 hours, which means two things for me:

- First, it looks like I might be able to play a game or two on the weekends again!

- Second, I am probably sleeping less than before right now because I need to check on Wylie all night long to make sure he isn't dead. The little guy sleeps SO hard and soundly, we get nervous when we don't hear a peep from him for like 5 hours at a time! Kids. Good times.

Hopefully gonna play some Twilight Struggle with Denis tonight, so more fodder for Data's Base.

Mkay

I'm gonna delete the joke entries to the game log unless someone else does first. Mkay?

Thanks. I'm feeling like crap, and might be starting to come down with something. Tahoe sounds like fun though. Take pictures and call me when u guys get back.

Famous on the Internet Since 2002

In one of my follow the links for no apparent reason quest for more.less useless knowledge in my life, I found myself on the Alexa website and looked up theactionteam.org. It said there were 3 links to it from external websites: One from Blogger, but the other two...

I AM A DONUT

About 2/5 down the page I found this!

"Surfed on to this blog this am. No idea what it's about, but I like it. Has always the qualities to make it a good blog - it's irreverent, witty, to the point and totally existential. Have a look."

SCOOP.CO.NZ

I didn't even read this page, just searched for the actionteam in the page source. Anyway, apparently:

"Finally, according to Scoop's own logs the following have been the top 910 referring pages to Bev Harris's "Inside A U.S. Vote Counting Program"

We are the third rated "3" on the infinite list of referring pages. Great.

That is all.

Ortz

jA-eL: I will also be in the land of Tahoe this weekend. Aimey and I are driving up this evening. Sure you dont want to go? Last chance to catch the A train to T-Hoe. I dont think their will be much pole polishing going on this morning. But that's just me.

Factoid of note: Antonio Banderas is not Mexican, he's Spanish.

"Duff man never dies, only the actors who portray him"

Dead eyes

"Sancho, When you are a man, sometimes you wear stretchy pants... in your room... for fun"

He sort of talks like Antonio Banderas, who, as we all know is the only authentic Mexican, truly, cuz he is zorro. In fact all mexicans talk with a muffled rasp, with a lengthened slur and sounds like you pissed him off by drinking his corona homebrew and has a guitar case "fuuuuull ov Guuuns".

Although, for a true lovin Californian without a slightest idea of what a real mexican sounds like (only seen em run on tv) (doh- i'm a racist fuck - all i see is racist facist), DAMN that movie rocks a la casa mia hombre!

Aran, sure I can go and partake in the festivities. Will it be at that italian restaurant? Man time flies. What are you and amies plan this weekend while Jon is up in tahoe getting his poles polished ur I mean skiing down the mountain... heh.. joke dude, that's my new rapper name Crass-eus Claysius!

Johnny

Back from the Dead. Elzar, read: No Rest for the Dead

jr0n: I think the spreadsheet will have to work as a solution for now. Not elegant, not good for data drilling, sorting, etc... We can always export/import it into a DB later.

eLzar: Gettin' a prius eh? Cool I guess. They are pretty good on the mileage. I just can not get over the booty on that car. Did you offload the TRUCKUMS too? Last I heard you were looking for a home for it.

fArt: Bummer/Sweet. Nothing more sad than the death of a good friend, the gaming rig. Boooo... You can only cure those wounds with a sweet replacement rig.

ja-El: Like fArt said, digital still cameras really are not very good for video and vice versa. They are okay for a funny little clip or something quickly portable, but by mno means are digital cameras going to produce VCR quality or even broadcast TV quality. So what ever your application is, keep all that in mind. Also, since you are in town, Aimey is having a B-Day dinner thing on either Friday the 16th or Saturday the 17th? Aimey said most of the people have voted 17th. What say you?

BTW Elzar, the crazy lady said, after we you and I said "Oh, shit I made eye contact with her", that she was going to tear "not one... not two... but all three of your balls off."

Why did I just watch that guy yell at that kid for 6 minutes. Geez. It was boring. Nacho Libre on the other hand was sweet, if only for the great caveman midgets.

D>M>

The Back Room

So I'm re-re-cleaning/organizing the back room to make more space for continued accumulation of unused but awesome wargames, as well as Wylie crap. I have started to work through my separation anxiety from all my games by boxing a huge chunk of them up and letting them rot in a storage unit. No more with HERO or Buffy RPG to sit on my shelf. No more White Dwarfs, no more Hacker. I figure the longer they are out of site, the easier it will be to eventually get rid of them.

*weep*

At least now I get to look at and salivate over games I am more excited about: ASL, C&C Ancients, B-17, Carcassonne (weird), and the like.

Pointless post. Sorry, I'm killing time at a car dealership looking to unload the lease on the Infiniti and pick up a Prius.

Back online, sort of.

My motherboard went tits up a week-plus ago so I had a difficult decision to make. Pay about $200-$300 for a new mobo/powersupply and/or RAM.. or just bite the bullet and get mostly all-new guts for a new machine. So, knowing that I *should* be able to sell my Rambus on newegg or pricewatch or whatever at a decent price (as the damned things are rediculously expensive anyway).. the $400-$600 I'll get from the sale of my old RAM will hopefully offset the $850 I just spent on new components. But, for my trouble, I'm now the proud owner of a brand new AMD 3800 dual core, 2gig Corsair RAM monster machine. Yay, me.


Regarding cameras/camcorders: The major difference you'll find is that the digital camcorder provides a LOT more recording time, at a much better quality/resolution/sound-capture than a digital camera.. BUT they usually are fairly crappy for taking photos. Whereas.. digital cameras (the right ones, anyway) are great for photos, and vary greatly in their ability to capture video. I finally settled on our Fujifilm S7000 camera because it provided the best mix of amateur/pro camera abilities along with 30 frames per second motion capture. If you get a digital camera, beware their ability to capture motion but only at a reduced frame rate. You'll be very unhappy with the motion capture at anything below 24fps. The plus to using our digital camera (mini-SLR) for motion capture is that it automatically stores video as AVI, and it's as simple as plugging in the USB cord to transfer it over to our computer. The minus is that the sound capture is a little bit limited (microphone is an "area" mic, on the side of the camera).. and you can't change the zoom while it is recording, and it has no on-board lighting for video.

Oh, the other thing to make sure of is the resolution at which the camera records motion-capture. Some cameras will allow 24+ fps but only if you select the smallest available capture size.. (meh)

So, I guess it depends on what you need it to do for you, and how much you want to spend, and how much you care about the ability to take quality still photos as well.

ya i watched it the 1st time u posted it - it was really funny - i really liked the way it was shot - looked "classy" kinda. BUT saw a regular tv-spot for the movie and it was a lot more "standard" and didnt look as funny to me. i havent been to the movies since Independence Day, so dunno if i'll catch this one. Maybe on dvd tho 4 sure. nice spreadsheet. should i enter my cell-phone games into the database, or is it for u and eric??? ?????? ?? ?????

edit: i noticed that little moment you were talking about - yeah, that made me el oh el for sure heh. good eye peterson!