+ 2 - 2 | § ¶F.xed

I finally got a good backup copy of the site together and fixed the remaining pages. Everything should load up fine, so if there's any problems let me know.

In other news...I start my new job at Motorola on Monday, which I'll post alittle bit more about later. Before that happens, Suzanne and I are headed down to chambana this weekend to have a little mini-vacation!

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Madden 2006

Gamespot have a nice little preview of the next version of madden. I like how they've made passing a little bit more intuitive. As for Madden 2005... why in the hell did I enable "All-Madden" mode and pick the Arizona Cardinals as my new franchise team??? They suck... I've been blown out in the last 3 of my pre-season games. I won't back down though, I will take the Cardinals to the Super Bowl!!!

+ 3 - 1 | § ¶F.ck

I was messing around with my site to try at get the seti@home stats on my side bar... and I managed to mess up every single other page on the site. Don't ask me how, but I think it has something to do with me using an old version of the site for the update. Anyway, the stats seem to work pretty well. I'm quite proud of the little php script that I wrote to generate it. Check it out: (more)

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Masters of Doom

I just finished reading Masters of Doom by David Kushner. I know it been out for a while, but I finally got around to reading it (I have a stack of books that I've been meaning to read). The book was a fascinating look at the origins of the duo responsible for the Wolfenstein 3D, Doom and Quake games. I remember that it was those games that first got me into playing around on the computer. I was amazed that you could get 3D worlds on your computer screen that you could run around in. It was also alot of fun to blow the crap out of monsters and nazis! The book itself is pretty well written, and it covers the history of the id software phenomenon. I liked how it covered John Carmack's drive to create better and better technology, and how John Romero became full of himself because of all of the success of id's games. Its the story of how one guy embraced the hard work that brought him his success, and how the other took it for granted. I never knew that the people behind the games I was playing were leading such interesting lives!! Anyway, I totally recommend the book, even if you're not a hard core gamer.

On another note, I've been noticing that there have been alot of spam comments about online poker and stuff like that... I'm going to try and figure out a way to stop them....bastards.

+ 3 - 1 | § ¶FreeOrion

When I was still drooling on myself in junior high school, I was addicted to a game called Master of Orion II. The game had everything a geek like me would ever want. It had military conquest, diplomacy, space ships and empires. It was open ended, so that you could play it any way you wanted, and for as long as you wanted. I think its the single greatest reason that I didn't get straight A's in junior high... As time went on, the game started to look dated when compared to the newer games that were coming out, and it was getting easier and easier to beat it. Because of this, I moved on to other things, but I always had a fond memory of the game. When I started using Linux, I couldn't find any game that was as great as MOO2... But NOW, I've stumbled onto a game called FreeOrion. It's goal is to be an opensource version of the Master of Orion games, and I can't wait to try it out. There is alot of work to be done on it, but once it's done, I'll probably stop having a social life again... There I've warned you Suzanne, keep me away from this game!!

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶Atlanta

I just got back from a week long business trip to Atlanta. I have to say that I was quite pleasantly surprised at how nice it was out there. I didn't expect to see as much green as I did, and the weather was pretty nice the whole time. Unfortunately I didn't get to spend any time in downtown Atlanta because the place we were staying at was about 30 miles from downtown. I did get to check out the Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield Park. Its on the site of a civil war battle that occured while General Sherman was on his was to taking Atlanta. I got a chance to hike around and see all of the fortifications that were built during the battle. It was amazing to think that there were people fighting a war right where I was standing over 140 years earlier. The battlefield is one of many historical places around Georgia. There's history everywhere there, which is weird because I live in Illinois, where all you see is corn.

On another note, I lost in the playoffs of my fantasy basketball league...My guy, Dwayne Wade let me down (5 points in a game?? come on!) I guess I'll have to pay attention to my fantasy nascar and baseball leagues... I need to get out more!!!

+ 4 - 0 | § ¶My thoughts on the Illini

For anyone that cares, I have a few thoughts I'd like to share about the Illini loss to North Carolina... I just finished watching the game, so my emotions might still be going full throttle, but I'll have a go at writing down some of my thoughts anyway. First off, the play of the Illini in the first half was rediculous... We made 5 out of 19 three pointers. That's 26 percent for all you people without calculators. Its an unbelievable amount of shots to take from beyond the arch. If we had driven to the hoop just 5 of those shots, we probably would have made at least a few baskets right there. The final score of the game was 75 to 70 by the way, so every point counted.

Also, we let North Carolina score on 2 separate inbound plays without even guarding the ball... that's four points there. Not to mention all of the stupid fouls that Augustine had.... can't that guy stop reaching in!!! If he had less fouls in the second half, maybe he would have been a factor against North Carolina's main guy, Sean May. That guy was unstoppable.... couldn't Coach Webber have sent Nick Smith in to just foul the guy?? I guess that wouldn't have worked because Nick would have found a way to screw it up, and May was making all of his free throws anyway...

I guess you are beginning to see my line of thinking. I'm really proud that the Illini got as far as they did... at the beginning of the year, no one gave them a shot. Then they won against all of the teams they played in the beginning of the season, then against Wake and even Wisconsin at home (38 game winning streak anyone??) and everyone else, until a fateful 3 pointer by Ohio state's retarded guard (I won't mention his name because that's the only fame he'll ever get... except maybe in the CBA) ended their streak.

Then they proved everyone wrong again, and won the Big Ten tournament.... Still, people were doubting them when the NCAA tournament began. Team after team tried to upset Illinois, and they still refused to be beaten. I have to say that my respect for this team was sky high before the final game of the tournament.

Then this game happened.... I don't know what the Illini were thinking, but they really let themselves down in this game. I know there's alot of pressue, but the other team feels it as well. When you're a championship team, you throw away all the distractions and step up to the plate. The Illini had many chances to win the game (Luther Head's final 3 shots... ), but they never cashed in. Through it all, I was still always expecting the Illini to pull it out. I know many people where... it was just a story that had to have a happy ending. But in real world, victory comes to those who take it... and North Carolina took it away from our championship flying Illini. Here's to a great season guys. Maybe Warren Carter will step up and be a superstar for us next year!