Nothing to see here

Update

2006-08-07T15:08:00.000-05:00

This is just how it will work.
- James

Last week Rocked?

2006-07-10T17:59:00.000-05:00

Well, mainly just worked last week. Did go to the Pat Benatar concert sat night at Billy Bob's Texas. Got to see bull riding, drink some beer, and eat some bbq. Had a hockey game last night (we won:3-2).

The concert opened with a band called Hangface. They were pretty good, hard metal. Pat was outstanding, playing a bunch of old favorites and some newer stuff (and even a couple songs that were redone). She still can hit the high notes. Wife was happy.

Saw some bull riding at Billy Bob's (while waiting for the concert to start). Was cool I guess, did not look like anyone got hurt real bad, so I dunno if the crowd had fun. Dunno if I will go out of my way to watch it again, but I doubt I will freak if I had to watch it again.

Beer was cold (and expensive). Bbq just plain sucked. Sauce was water, bbq meat was over done. Note to self: goto Cattlemans before going to BB's next time.

Hockey last night was intense. We won, 3-2, but we took 4 penalties in the last 5 minutes. We spent 4 minutes of that time in a 5 on 3 situation, but I think that worked in our favor, as the other team did not really push that hard until all the penalties were almost over. It was a good win for us. Good news is we finished the first round of games 4-3, on a 4 game win streak. The bad news is we play the 3 teams we lost to next (they all blew us out). Next game is Tuesday, we shall see if we are playing better.

What's going on

2006-06-28T11:04:00.000-05:00

Tired. Played 5 hockey games in the last 9 days. Have 9 days off before my next game. We finished strong though, after loosing the first 2 games we went on a 3 game winning streak. Last night's game we had to win in a shoot out (I did not let them score at all, and we got one in on the other goalie).

Monday was cool, my Civil Air Patrol squadron went to tour the wid tunnels at UTA's Aerodynamics Research Center. Got to see some really cool stuff, supersonic tunnel, hypersonic tunnel, etc. Took lots of pics, if any of them turn out ok will post em up.

Wife went to Vegas for a convention Sunday, came back last night/early this morning (picked her up at the airport @ 2 am...).

The Sidekick 3 is available as of today (if you are a current TMobile subscriber). Price is still a little steep for me, being $300 with a 2 year contract. I might have to wait a few months to see if I can get it under $200 (my personal price point on it). Some good sites with Sidekick 3 info:

www.hiptop.com
www.hiptop3.com
www.sidekickiii.com

* FYI TMobile calls it the Sidekick, the company that makes it calls it the hiptop

More nothings

2006-06-21T14:26:00.000-05:00

Busy week. Hockey every other day until next Wed.

Bonus comic I found:

http://dndorks.com/comics/2%2f11%2f2002.aspx

The Empty Chair

2006-06-13T16:55:00.000-05:00

I dunno what to say. Just check it out.

http://www.kenzerco.com/Operiodicals/kodt/nemptychair.php

To the dump dump dump

2006-06-12T14:24:00.000-05:00

The city here had a free hazardous waste dump day (you usually have to pay). Since I had 3+ large sized closets full of old computer junk at work, we decided to have a treasure/trash day at work. We would let the employees take whatever treasure they wanted, and the rest would be trashed.

I setup and inventoried what turned out to be 55 PC's, ranging from one lonely 486 to dual-P3's. Also included were several keyboards, mice, speakers, RAM, UPS's, tape drives, sound cards, video cards, network cards, monitors (CRT's, some 21" too!), and other misc stuff. Some junk, some nice stuff, most somewhere in-between.

Friday was the T/T day at work. People were allowed to select 1 item from the pile, then had to get back at the end of the line. The original line was formed based on how long you worked at the company.

All said and done, I ended up with 24 PC's, a box of misc parts, and some keyboards. I would guess about 3/4 of the stuff was taken. Very nice.

So, what did we do with the rest of the stuff? To the dump dump dump...sorta. I only had my truck (tried to get some others to help, no dice), so I loaded it up with monitors and went to get in line to dispose of them.

The dump day started at 9 am, I got there around 9:15 am. The line was already almost a mile long. Took me a little over an hour to get to the end of the line. The dump day ended at Noon, so I did not have time to go back for another load. At least I was able to empty 2 of the 3+ storage closets.

Hmm, I wonder if any other cities around here are having another dump day...

Sick time

2006-06-05T12:07:00.000-05:00

Been a painful week. Sinus problems. Don't want to gross you out or anything. Let's just say it was bad...

What day off?

2006-05-30T14:46:00.000-05:00

Another busy weekend. Spent Sat at a Coin-Op Arcade auction (really cool!), and went to the Rangers game that night (they lost). Sunday went to Scarbourogh Faire. Monday, fielded several calls from work, and actually had to go in 3 different times. Oh well, at least I have a job.

Road Trip!

2006-05-22T13:37:00.000-05:00

Went down to Houston this weekend (brother's grad party sat). Left Sat around 7am, got home around 8pm Sun. Got to spend time with the family and friends down there. Played some Guitar Hero, ate a lot of bbq. Was a good weekend.

Web Comics

2006-05-19T09:20:00.000-05:00

I think I am getting addicted to web comics. Here are some that I check at least once a week:

**** CAUTION **** Not all Comics are children appropriate! Some language and possible adult situations!!

http://www.gucomics.com/

http://www.vgcats.com/comics/

http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript

http://rvb.roosterteeth.com/home.php

http://www.chickenwingscomics.com/

http://www.thenoobcomic.com/

http://www.ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php

http://www.wtfcomics.com/

http://thunt.comicgen.com/

http://www.thedreamlandchronicles.com/

And the one that prompted this post:

http://www.squidi.net/comic/amd/view.php?id=372

Is mostly funny, has it's slow parts though. Sad to say, it has been discontinued. Good read nonetheless.

Busy weekend

2006-05-15T17:37:00.000-05:00

Was rather busy this weekend. Played goal for a friend's team, did the yardwork, and fixed the fence.

Goalie: It was the last 2 games of the season for them. Both games were against playoff teams, and they were gonna finish next to last (in a 12 team division). First game ended 11-2 (lost), second ended 6-3 (lost). I played ok in the first, stopping several point-blank shots. They just were too good. The second game, I played great. Stopped 7 of 8 break-aways (only the first one scored, and that was a luck goal). Also stopped a penalty shot. Again, they were just too much for us, and were able to bury us in the 3rd.

Yardwork and fence: cut and edged the yard. Repaired a broken fence post, and several planks. Took most of the day Saturday, and about 1/2 the day Sunday.

This is not a video game

2006-05-08T15:30:00.000-05:00

Have you ever flown in a small airplane? Like, a 2 seater? How about an open cockpit plane? Say, maybe one that was built in the 40's?

I got to fly in one this Saturday. Reminds me of a Tiger Moth (airplane), but most people will say it looks like a Sopwith Camel (another airplane) . It was a French built plane, they called it a Stomp (I think that was a nicname, not the real model).

How about flying upside-down in one of those airplanes?

Well, I did that too. I always wanted to fly in an open cockpit biplane, and I was treated to just that. Bonus, it was at an aerobatics demo, so they were flying loops, barrel rolls, half-cubans, etc.

We flew upside-down for over 30 seconds, loops, barrel rolls, cork-screws, and a hammerhead. Unbelieveable fun.

I will try to see if I can get some pics of the plane up later.

Video Games!

2006-05-04T17:14:00.000-05:00

The owner of the company I work for bought a coin-op video game (Metal Slug 3). Good news is it uses cartridges, so we can buy different games for it! Bad news is he is thinking about charging for the games...Good thing I will prob have the key to it...

Rats!

2006-05-03T10:10:00.000-05:00

At least, I hope so. I don't think any of my co-workers are this hungry:

That is a $140 component video cable, around 40' long, used in our Rec room (where we do presentations, demos, etc). Chewed the green wire completely. Guess they favor green...

Good, bad, and the...

2006-05-02T14:57:00.000-05:00

Good news! We bought a new car! It's a VW Jetta TDI (Diesel). So far, the wife has had a low of 42mpg, high of 52mpg, avg around 48mpg. And it is still being broken in! Hopefully, they mileage will continue to creep up.

Bad news. The Stars loose to the Avalance 4-2, and are out of the playoffs. So much for a good regular season, loosing to a team that barely made the playoffs.

And the...ugly?!? Dunno what else to say, lots of things going on, nothing worth mentioning right now. Stay tuned...

First post in a while

2006-04-18T08:45:00.000-05:00

Wow, it has been a while.

Nothing much going on, wife is looking at new cars again. Seems like she wants something new every 2 years. At least she is looking a little more practicle this time, might be getting a VW Jetta TDI (that's a diesel). 36 mpg city and 42 hiway.

Scarbourough Ren Faire has started up ( http://www.scarboroughrenfest.com/ ). Looks like Ded Bob is gonna be there too ( http://www.dedbob.com/ ). Good times.

And finally, some humor: Order of the Stick ( http://www.giantitp.com/cgi-bin/GiantITP/ootscript ). Good read!

Hello Win Column

2006-03-07T09:59:00.000-06:00

We win again, 6-2. That makes our recorn 9-8-1. Pretty good for losing our first 5 games, and 6 out of 7. We have really come together as a team.

I don't play again until the end of March (other goalie I am splitting time with has the next few games).

Good weekend

2006-03-06T19:26:00.000-06:00

Had a good weekend. A friend of mine runs a camp for intercity kids, and
has 2 major fundraisers each year (spaghetti dinner). Well, we sold over
950 dinners, and fed over 300 homeless. Good weekend indeed.

His web site is http://www.blcministries.com if you want to check it
out.
- James

Guess I'm not so bad after all

2006-03-01T16:45:00.000-06:00

Well, we won. I was not great, but I played good enough to get us the win, 6-3. Game was close until about 8 min left in the 3rd period, when we broke out with 3 goals.

It's official...I suck

2006-02-27T17:07:00.000-06:00

Gotta be a man, and post it up. I bragged when I got the shutout, so now I gotta take my medicine.

Last night, we played and lost. And it was totally my fault. I screwed up. Game was tied, 40 seconds left, puck in the far end of the ice (by the other goalie). Guys were fighting for the puck, and it got shot down towards me. Well, not really shot, as in kinda passed. Very slow. And yep, I missed it. Went right in. Did not even touch the back of the net, it was that soft a shot. 5-4 we loose.

I am so mad at myself for loosing the game like that. Gotta shake it off, have to play again tomorrow night. Let's see if the shutout goalie or the guy who can't stop anything shows up. Read about it here Wed.

What a week

2006-02-20T10:23:00.000-06:00

Wow, could the weather be any more unstable?

Temperatures went from low 40's, to mid 80's, to upper 20's. Almost day to day. One day the high was 40, the next it was 85, the next it was 30. No wonder everyone is getting sick.

As a side note, I got a really cool book Saturday. It is full of cool things to tell little kids :) Things like: Lions use bar code scanners to scan zebras before they eat them so they know how much they cost. Now, where are my nieces and nephews? /evil laugh

Edit: The book is called "Great Lies to tell little kids" by Andy Riley

- James Dale

Shutout!

2006-02-10T13:45:00.000-06:00

Had a hockey game last night. We played a team that beat us 7-0 early in the season. Well, we are playing a whole lot better as of late. We beat them 4-0! That's right, I got the shutout. Sweet revenge.

DnD Fun

2006-02-07T17:10:00.000-06:00

Fun with Spell Levels In Items

Benny is a 16th level bard. On reaching this exalted rank, he chooses Mass Charm Monster as a new 6th-level bard spell.

Not satisfied with his paltry one 6th level spell per day, Benny prudently elects to buy an additional scroll of Mass Charm Monster.

So Benny enters the local apothecary (he is in the metropolis of Waterdeep, so scrolls of any level and caster are instantly available) and asks to purchase a scroll of MCM.

The apothecar opens his heavy blue tome to page two hundred and forty-six. "3000 gold", he says in a brusque tone.

Benny is dumbstruck. "My dear sir," he protests. "Mass Charm Monster is a sixth level spell. I can make this scroll for twelve hundred. You should sell for twice that."

The apothecar is unimpressed. "I run a RAW shop here, buster. MCM is on the 8th level arcane scrolls list. 8th level spell, minimum 15th level caster. Do the math. You do have a positive INT bonus, don't you?"

Benny is momentarily distracted. "Wait. Can I even use this scroll? No bard can cast Mass Charm Monster at the fifteenth level. Is it legal for me to read this scroll?" He glances around the store, where he sees Pat the Paladin buying a base wand of Cure Light Wounds, and his own soulmate Sarah the Sorcerer buying a fifth-caster-level scroll of Fireball -- yet Pat can only cast CLW at the 2nd caster level, and Sara could not Fireball until reaching 6th. He shrugs. "Evidently I can use it, or many common uses of items would be prohibited. Very well, I'll buy it just this once. But I'm constructing them from now on."

(Benny has Scribe Scroll as a feat. He knows that the RAW states that a magic item can be sold for half what it can be bought for -- that is, it can be sold for only the gold it costs to make it.)

He pays, then thinks for a moment, dollar signs appearing in his eyes. "One more moment of your time, good apothecar. The RAW supposedly makes it impossible to generate money from selling items -- a scroll can be sold for what it cost to make, exclusive of experience cost, yes?"

The shopkeeper is bored. "Yeah, so?"

"If I brought you a scroll of Mass Charm Monster, what would you pay for it?"

"Fifteen hundred, just like the charts say."

"So... I could, tonight, scribe this scroll for twelve hundred gold, bring it in here tomorrow, and sell it for three hundred more?"

"Er, yeah."

"Just checking."

Benny leaves the shop with the scroll, meeting Sara and her brother Walter the Wizard. On the way home, they are accosted by a pack of girallons.

Benny pulls the scroll from his backpack, and prepares to cast it.

"Hold!" says Walter, making his Spellcraft roll and recognizing the item. "You are not likely to defeat all the girallons with that scroll -- but I am."

Benny peers at the wizard. "Explain yourself." The girallons, seeing that the player characters are debating game mechanics, stop charging and lean against the dungeon walls, pulling out decks of cards and lighting smokes to pass the time.

"To you, this scroll is a sixth level spell."

"Indeed, I have been through this at some length with the good apothecar."

"The save versus this spell is ten, plus the spell level of six -- plus the bonus of the minimum intelligence --"

"Or charisma," Benny and Sara chime in unison.

"-- or charisma -- required to cast a spell of this level -- which is +3 for a sixteen. The girallons would have to save against a DC of only nineteen."

Benny nods uncertainly. "So?"

"To me -- or Sara -- this is an eighth level spell. Not only does the higher spell level add two points to the DC, but the minimum intelligence (or charisma) required to cast such an exalted spell level is two points higher -- eighteen -- adding yet another point of difficulty to their saves. If I read that scroll, the DC will be twenty-two. Give me the scroll."

While strolling home accompanied by their new girallon companions, Walter pontificates further on the curious behavior of spell levels in items. "There are more such circumstances than you think, brother-in-law. Consider these wands." Pausing to place his Portable Hole on the ground, Walter pulls a pair of wands from the extradimensional space. “This is a wand of Animal Messenger. I could buy this wand for 4500 gold, or craft it alone for 2250. But there is no reason to do so, if you are friends with even a low-level Ranger, such as my old protégé Rodney.”

Benny thinks for a moment. “That is a first-level spell to a ranger, then?”

Walter nods. “Rodney can craft this wand for a mere 750 gold, and only 60 experience – then sell it, by RAW, for 2250. But that is not the most extraordinary such item.” Indicating the other wand, he continues. “This is a wand of Animal Growth.”

Sara stares. “That is a fifth-level spell! One cannot –“

“Not to a ranger,” Walter says.

Benny grins, catching the formula by now. “Rare enough to find a ranger with Craft Wand, though.”

“That’s not relevant. Rodney did no more than provide the spell and a few days of his time. I provided the feat. And when I use the wand, it is a fifth-level spell, for that is where the spell is on my list… yet it is at the seventh caster level. An unusual experience, to say the least. Rather like eating reduced-fat potato chips…”

"I beg your pardon; I have the same experience when I use virtually any scroll or wand," says Sara. "The spell is of a lower level than I can cast."

A passing cleric breaks into the conversation. “Your pardon, sirs and madam. I could not help overhearing. I am Clara, cleric of Boccob.”

Benny clears his throat. “This is Waterdeep, madam. Waterdeep of Faerun.”

Clara rolls her eyes. “Fine. Of Oghma then. One of my clerical domains is Magic. This is a wand of Identify.”

Walter nods. “You can use those, for that is a second-level spell to you. But far more expensive for you to make.”

“On the contrary, my friend. When you make this spell, you must pay for its material component. Fifty pearls of one hundred gold pieces each, added to the three hundred seventy-five gold of the crafting. I, on the other hand, craft this wand for only twenty-two fifty, like any other second level spell, for I use only my divine focus to cast it.”

Benny makes the connection. “And if I were to bring an unidentified item to a temple of Oghma –“

“Yes -- Oghma or Boccob would identify it for sixty gold, not the hundred and ten charged by a wizard. Yes. Far too few people, even in so cosmopolitan a city as Waterdeep, are aware of this, and pay the unnecessary fee.”

Walter is taken aback. “Sixty? To cast it myself takes a hundred gold!”

“I know. I know not why you would ever cast the spell. Or craft a wand of it – since crafting the wand costs you over five thousand gold, yet a cleric of Oghma will retail the wand for forty-five hundred.”

Benny finds himself suspecting that clerics of Oghma create most of the wands of Identify in the world, since wizards would only be able to sell the item at a huge loss – half its retail, like any other item, far less than its materials cost.

“And the situation with your wand of Animal Growth is familiar to me. Likewise with my friend Pat, a paladin. Together we can create wands of Break Enchantment –“

Walter and I could cooperate to construct that as well, thinks Benny.

“— and Dispel Evil, both of which are fifth-level to me.”

“Why are these prices not reflected in the RAW lists of items? These are not uncommon situations.”

“That is a mystery to which Ao alone knows the answer,” Clara says with an air of finality.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- James

* This was stolen from Wizards.com forum

Busy weekend

2006-01-30T14:16:00.000-06:00

Was pretty busy this weekend. Biggest thing to happen? I got sick (even went home from work early fri). Took lots of drugs (over the counter, ya bums), spent all day sat sleeping/resting, thinking about everything I had to do.

What did I have to do? Well, we have had some strong winds around here for the last month or so. So strong that lots of fences were leaning (not just mine). My neighbor even had her gate ripped from its henges and blown halfway across her yard.

Well, Mon or Tues last week, I noticed that one of the fence panels was leaning really far. I checked it out, and one of my fence posts broke. I have reason to believe that it did not do that by itself (some neighborly love?). Anyway, I get a citation from the city to get it fixed by Wed 2/1. Plus, they cited me for my jeep not having current tags/inspection. Funny how they came around to inspect right after that post broke. Wish they were that good when my car was being egged, my jeep top being cut, trash being thrown in my yard, etc.

I was gonna fix the fence this past weekend anyway, but now I gotta find a temp home for my jeep too. Jeep is gonna end up at storage ($75...ouch). Since I felt like crap all day Sat, that only left Sun to fix the fence. Even though I still felt bad, I went ahead and got it done. Cost me about $70 for 2 posts, screws, straps, henges (gate needed some love, might as well do it all). I have a couple boards that prob should be replaced as well, but I really did not feel like doing that much work. Maybe some other weekend.

80's music

2006-01-27T10:01:00.000-06:00

I installed a second T1 circuit at my company (for increased internet speeds), and needed to do some stress testing. One of the biggest bandwidth hogs was streaming audio, so I downloaded winamp and connected to their free streaming site, shoutcast.com.

Hmm, there seem to be lots of formats to choose from. I did a search of 80's music, and came across a bunch of stations that play only 80's music. Most of the stations were junk, bad streams, going offline for extended periods, etc. I did find 2 that I keep listening to:

Club 977 (http://64.236.34.196:80/stream/1040). They plays more pop hits

Pirate Radio 100.3 FM KQLZ Los Angeles, CA (http://209.9.226.66:7998) plays more Hair/Glam rock

Both worth a listen for your 80's fix. Oh, and shoutcast has many different formats to pick from, if you are not into 80's music :)

Coolest. Hockey. Team. Ever.

2006-01-26T11:40:00.000-06:00

A friend of mine was going to his first hockey game, and wanted to get a cool hat to wear. Knowing that I am a hockey fan, he asked me about some cool ones. I just had to point him to the coolest hockey team ever, from Macon, GA. The Whoopees. That's right, the Macon Whoopees.

Sadly, the Whoopee last played in 2002. If you know of a place still selling hats with this logo, drop me a line.

Good weekend

2006-01-23T18:50:00.000-06:00

Was a good weekend. I finally won a game with my hockey team. I am
splitting time with another goalie, and he was getting all the wins. I
didn't play that well, but good enough to get the win.
- James

Busy week

2006-01-19T16:18:00.000-06:00

Wow, what a busy week. The company I work for has an alpha submission for the spyhunter game due today. To top it off, we spent the last week or so developing a demo for a project we are pitching. Lots of long hours being put in by everyone.

If that was not enough, the prez of the company my wife works for wants me to come by and fix a computer for him. That I don't mind, since he usually gives me tix to a game (stars this time). Oh, and 3 otherco-workers want me to look at their pc's.

Good news: I've been playing eq2 again. I have a level 52 mystic right now. I got the halloween quest from the live event on oct 31st, but nobody wanted to do it. So, tues I decided to finish that quest. Last step is to kill a level 27 epic x2 mob, really nasty. Took about 15 minutes to do it (fights are usually less than 1 min). All the low people were amazed, standing around cheering me on. It was a tough fight, but I don't think I was gonna loose. Finished with about 60% hp and 15% power. If I had not expected a long fight, I bet I would have lost the first time. If were to do it again, I would cast a ward before the fight, as he opens with a 60 second stun. Pretty hard to watch yourself get beat down to 20% hp and not be able to do anything aboutit.

Need to finish up the new CAP web site. Got about 90% of it done. Just need to have the content updated (all I put there was generalized info, a lot of it is old). They were supposed to setup "page content groups", and each group come up with the info. I have missed the last 2 meetings, so I don't know what has come of that (doubt anything).

- James

First Post

2006-01-05T15:04:00.000-06:00

So, this is what all the noise is about? Maybe we will see if anything good gets posted. Otherwise, I will be the only one reading it. Well, good thing I like to read what I have to say.