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So not much has been up the last few days. My mom tells me that my granddad is in the hospital though so I’d like to break with tradition here (babbling about video games and movies) and say a few works about him.

When it comes to relatives my grandad is a standout when it comes to my respect for him. From the fighting Nazis in WWII to racing cars the guy is a badass. Even recently when he can out bowl me with one leg (not too hard as I tend to bowl in the mid-teens) to taking computer classes and buying his own rig, the guy rocks. He reads this webpage for God’s sake, I can’t point to many other people related to me or not who do that.

Other than inverviewing him for school projects and talking to him at my cousin’s wedding I haven’t kept in touch as much as I’d like, and I’m being honest when I say that.

So yeah, this Mackeson’s is for you Douglas Carrico.

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The fileserver is complete, hardware wise, and only software is it really changing at all on. One day I’ll put Linux on it and share stuff with SAMBA, but that’s for when I’m really bored, and my to-do list is a little shorter. I’ll have hung up that pegboard in the laundry room/shed for damn sure. So with centralized filesharing taken care of, I set my sights on other stuff. I started work on a media center box a few years ago (I work on too many projects at a time, and at that I work glacially).

I have, over time, worked on three different boxes. First an ancient Sony Vaio tower that I replaced the mobo and other innards to make a combo dvd/network player but there were hardware as well as expandability issues. Then along came a gateway destination station (2000 no less!) that had its share of warts. Yeah, it was expandable, and had three s-video/composite connectors but the software to run it was antiquated at best. And it can’t be used on an NT-based (2k, XP, anything from the 21st century) OS. So we were stuck in 98. And I needed a wireless keyboard. And it won’t boot to the composite output. So that one is a loss.

Then I find a Linksys Wireless Media Extender for cut-rate. Apparently somebody returned it without a box (and missing a foot) and I was there to pick up the pieces. I bought it and brought it home and well, I figured out why the previous owners returned it. Turns out it only works with a PC running Windows Media Center. And as I was to find out, you either buy a new PC with MC on it or you buy an OEM copy. Something with the DRM, I heard. Luckily newegg.com has MC for $114.00. That’s cheaper than XP Pro, which MC has all the features of, plus more.

So, I get MC installed. The fun hasn’t even begun yet. Yeah, it plays MPEG1 and 2 and WMV native, but it won’t play Divx or Xvid. Yeah, Chatty knows what I’m talking about, that means no fansubs. Now I could transcode them into MPEG2 and kill all hope of having harddrive space, but I happen to like my drives. So the software hunt began. I got the security rollups to get the pc able to upgrade the MCX and talk to it like it should. Then I get some media conversion software from Microsoft so I can set up video streaming. This works after a fashion, but I have to start the video on my PC and run to the TV and hit start as fast as I can. That’s a non-starter. Then along comes Transcode 360. Yeah, its for the XBox360, but it works just fine on a MCX. It allows people to hit the info/more menu on the MCX and start streaming video from a pc. Anything the PC can play streamed into your livingroom started in the livingroom.

So, after all that (one crazy night of ripping my hair out) I can now work out to an episode of Top Gear or Mushi-shi in my livingroom. And if that isn’t made of teh win I have no idea what is.

As I crack open the 12th volume of Bleach that Shonen Jump has lovingly charged me $8 for I realize that because we get one every two months. Meaning I’ve been reading official Bleach for 2 years now. God I love that manga. Its better than the anime by far, but hell I still watch it. Its Bleach after all.

Speaking of projects, I’m thinking of buying a WWII Czech medic bag to drag my non-school-related stuff to work. There just isn’t enough space in my gym bag for the change of clothes, shower stuff (I shower at my fiancees, I ain’t dropping my skivvies at work. That’s just gross) and several volumes of manga, books, etc I amuse myself with. So medic bag. But like everything I own I’ll have to mod the damned thing. I’ll probably be replacing the strap with a WWII swiss bandoleer. Its leather and that rarely falls apart. I like durability. The Swiss and the Czechs got along right? I’ll have to ask Martin, he’s training to become a diplomat, he’ll know that.

The bandoleer-as-strap thing will stop me from wearing the thing. Kristi has stated that under no circumstances will she stop laughing at me if I start wearing a bandoleer in public. I’ve always wanted a utility belt though, so we find ourselves at an impasse.

I’m still working on that roguelike thing I’ve kicked around since highschool. Ya know that’ll be 10 years in 2008? God that’s a long time. Anyway, I’m almost through character creation. Its very important, it basically defines the rest of the game. I mean Fallout and Exile, without certain skills would be completely differnent games. Speaking of which, I wonder if I can get Exile for cheap somewhere. I’d have to find my old Exile characters and rock out. Lord that game was cool. I loved abusing the poor Soul Crystals. I’d have the summon crystal rocking a High Priest, one of the Crystal Souls, some Big Billy Badass warrior thing and one of the huge demons or whatnot. The only reason I wasn’t Kill on Sight for stealing the soul of the local pope was creative reloading.

Damn. Now I want to play exile again. That’ll really help my finishing Vagrant Story plan.

And I picked up Wierd Tales of the Ramones on the mad cheap the other day. Turns out all the Sam Goody stores in my neighborhood (indeed all the Replay stores) are going out of business. And everything in them is atleast 50% off. So I got the kickass three CD 1 DVD one (3d) comic book Ramones box set. They had three! That’s a travesty that is. So I’ve purchased the single worst thing I can if I actually value my three-year unbroken no speeding ticket record. Ah well, rules were made to be broken, right?

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Geezus. I’m about the third worst blogger in the history of the world. To be fair, I am doing some pretty advanced engineering classes. And some pretty advaced replaying of Vagrant Story. I hereby call take backs on my assertion that a VS remake would be a good idea. At best a graphics upgrade would be cool. If possible you could add some extra dungeon stuff, but with the stipulations that no rewrites (”I am the reinforcements!”) and no replacement of the speech bubble as the dialogue. That speech bubble thing is just too badass.

Speaking of people who need to get their heads in the game, Mike Mignola I’m calling you out. Citizens demand more Hellboy! We need ya to do more than write too. I still think that “Wolves of St. August” is one of the best examples of modern comics period. And “Conqueror Worm” has to be in my Top 5 graphics novels of all times (the rest are Powers, Kabuki, and Walking Dead). But seriously, the last one you did completely was The Third Wish, and I think that was a ba-jillion years ago. You wrote “The Island” and some of the recent BPRD but c’mon man, you re-shaped Guillermo del Toro’s filmmaking with your art. Its absolutely amazing. We need more Hellboy. Ah well, I can’t stay mad at ya. Rassum frassum best writer/artist in comics today.

Lesse… Recently I’ve seen 16 Blocks and Inside Man and what can I say, I like the whole criminal genre. 16 Blocks was good, but then Bruce Willis is a hell of an actor. He basically carried the movie. Inside Man was damn well written. I mean Spike Lee was really on his game there. Clive Owen was good, Denzel Washington was good, Jodie Foster was good. Just go see the damn movie.

Kendo keeps on with the keepin’ on. We’ve been promised armor (first gauntlets, then helmets, then chest plates) then sparring and mixed Jujitsu/Kendo (a trip attack that finishes with a sword draw and cut). We’ve learned Nakamura katas 1-4 and the 8 cuts. We’re gearing up for the first test at the moment. After that its time for some Jo Staff stuff and some Escrima. I’m pretty sure that our teacher (who I call Aaron because I don’t know his name and he looks like Aaron the Secret Service guy from 24) has more of a background in escrima than kendo. Which is cool, becuase escrima fighting is usable with the spring baton, and I’ve always wanted to learn how to use one of those.

Man, we’ve gotta get a Columbia chapter of Street Wars. I could get it off the ground pretty easily. The basic premise is that you give your name, photo, address and etc and somebody else gets your info and you get somebody’s. Then you hunt your target. You get them and then you inherit their target. If you’re the last man standing you get some cash and all that. The fun is the hunt though, you gotta belive.

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