Monday....

It is Monday, yet again! The good thing is, this is a 3 day weekend coming up. At least for the company I work for. We get Monday off and that is it unless there is a vacation day scheduled for the day after. Not this year.
Good thing about that is, it will make for a short work week, and I have another LAN Party set up for that weekend. I am almost positive there are going to be at least 6 people this time, including me. There may be more. I am fortunate that the owner of the company I work for is going to let me borrow 2, 8ft long tables for that weekend. So, for the most part, this get together id going to cost me nothing but a little time.
I am telling everyone that comes over that they need to bring their own drinks and eats (NO ALCOHOL). I typically would take care of that but there are going to be potentially 8 players and that would get expensive fast. I don't think anyone will care, and I will have a few things here but not enough to feed a small army. We may even do a pitch-in pizza thing. Either way, I am hoping for a better turn-out than the last one. Just have to see how it goes.

Later...........................

Lan Party Aftermath

Ok, well,............................damn! The lan party was starting out somewhat well. Kinda disappointed because only 2 people showed up. One person that was supposed to show and leave at 7:30, never showed at all. The other 2 possibles, never showed either. So, here it is, not even 9:30pm and everyone is gone. Won't go into the details of why everyone is gone, but rest assured, it wasn't anything bad.
I am going to plan this much more in advance next time. I really want more people to show so we can play longer and different types of games.
I was really expecting this to last much longer than it did. I had beer, sodas, snack, meat tray, etc., but I guess it wasn't meant to last tonight.
Maybe another time...................................happy surfing

LAN Party

Hey all, what is up tonight?
Been a few days since the last post but here I am and with some cool stuff! I am having a LAN party at my house tomorrow. We are playing Unreal Tournament 2004. I have at least 3 people coming over and a possible 2 more. Not a lot of people but for a first time thing, it is enough. I am actually really excited about it because we (myself and a couple of friends) have been talking about doing this for some time now. Tomorrow is the day and we are starting between 4pm and 5pm. One person is leaving at 7:30 but that will still leave a possible 5 people. If the possibles don't show, then there is 4. One of the 4 is the one leaving early. Either way, it is gonna be good times. I rented a couple of 8ft buffet tables for us to play on so there should be plenty of room. I will post more after it is over and let you know how it went.
Other than that, my wife is pregnant again and this time I am pretty sure it is gonna be OK. We went to hear the heartbeat at 10 weeks and had an ultrasound done. Things are great this time and the doctor said we should have nothing to worry about. We haven't told anyone yet. We are going to wait until the next doctors visit which is in about 2 weeks. If all is still well, then we are telling my parents and her parents.
OK well I need sleep for the big gaming session tomorrow. I have plenty of beverages (including beer) and food for all that show. Just a thought, maybe I will post this on the bulletin board at work next time. I am sure there are a few gamers that work there that would like to play. Anyway, later all and safe yet happy surfing..........................

Random......................

Tonight, people, I am just posting random information. Nothing specific, nothing pissing me off, nothing of any real value.
Now that my pc is back up and running to my satisfaction, I am contemplating having a LAN party at my house this weekend. Quite a few of my friends and myself play Unreal Tournament 2004 and I have been wanting for some time to have this get-together. What could be better than a bunch of friends playing an all out deathmatch for hours. I'll have to rent a table big enough to accommodate about 6 pc's. Maybe more; who knows. Hope I can get everyone to show and actually stay for a few hours. See what happens..........
We finally got rid of our house phone this week. Kinda stupid to continue to pay a cell phone bill and a house phone bill every month. Most everyone calls us on our cells anyway so why bother paying out the extra $$$.
Our favorite television show starts back up in a couple of weeks.........NIP/TUCK. I started watching it during the first season while my wife was still going to school. After she graduated, she started watching it with me and got hooked. So we rented the first season on DVD so she could see what was going on and who all the characters were. We watched the second season and now it has been almost a year since the last season ended. Can't wait for it to start back up.
It is late and I am starting to get tired................again I say, there needs to be a safe yet legal drug that you can take and sleep for 2 or 3 hours and be fully rested. I hate sleeping; waste of time.................happy surfing all and remember to update your anti-virus software.

Tonight

Looking back at the previous post, it is now been a week since I got the card. Of course it was another "Certified Replacement" as they called it. I spent an hour on the phone with those jerks and they were not budging on giving me a new card. The card I got in the mail works perfectly but that is not the point. I am not going to get started on that subject again because I am mostly over the whole issue now. I WILL NOT deal with that company again. My game works now and my PC is back to it's old self with the last minor upgrade. The new hard drive. It is all done and now I am playing my game and happily surfing the net again.
A while back I talked about the growing disaster in my front yard that myself and a couple of neighbors obliterated. A FUCKING WATER MAPLE!!!! It has been down for quite some time now with only the remains that include a rather large stump and a yard that is riddled with roots. Since the tree has been gone, my yard has actually started to grow normally. I say that in case some of you are not aware that a Water Maple feeds on...................................water. So my yard was not getting enough water to the grass and had a very hard time trying to get it to grow. Now, I have to do the hard and rigorous task of chopping roots out of the ground. Yes, I know that I could have it done, but I have no desire to pay someone to do it. Not a stranger to manual labor, and hard manual labor at that. Some of these roots are 8 to 10 inches in diameter. I have to cut them out in sections and split them in half to get them to come up.
Now my sides and arms and hands are sore from swinging that axe for about an hour and a half. I wouldn't mess with it but the roots are sticking up out of the ground and reaking havok on my lawnmower. So little by little I will get them up and next year figure out how to get rid of the stump. Anyhow, it is getting late and I am starting to get tired. Off to get some sleep now..................happy surfing.......

Update of last post

So, here we are on Thursday night and still no video card. I was supposed to have it by now. I called yesterday and they said there was a backorder issue. They were going to send me the next better card, but they found where the card shipped on Wednesday evening. So, now the card is supposed to be here tomorrow. I have to drive for 8 hours early tomorrow morning, so hopefully I will be back by the time it gets here. Driving 8 hours I meant, 4 one way and 4 back.
I already told them on the phone that if they sent me another refurbished; recertified; whatever card, that I would be calling them back yet again. Not to get worked up again, but I have been thru enough shit with this place as it is. I should have already had a card and a better one at that. Play the waiting game again and hope for the best.
I did, however, pick up a new hard drive tonight. I had a % off coupon from my favorite store and decided to take full advantage of it. I found a 200GB hard drive for $79. That was awesome! I have 2 hard drives right now but one is a 40 gig that I think is about to go out. I have had it for close to 5 years now and it has been thru a lot of shit. My other is a 160GB and isn't even close to half full yet. Now I will have another massive drive to put "stuff" on. Can't wait to get that one put in. Hopefully tomorrow.........
Night all..............................................................

Beyond Pissed...........

Hello all............................I really need to vent today
This post has to do with computers. Not computers in general but the components that make them work. Back in late February, early March, I ordered many new components to upgrade my computer. Most of what I ordered is not involved with this post. What is involved, is the $300 video card I ordered.
After I got my system back up and running after a month of trying to fix small problems, with no avail, I started having problems with the video card. First thing was, my favorite game (Unreal Tournament 2004) began to lock up during gameplay. So after trying everything I could imagine, and even some that caused another reformat and reloading the OS, I finally had to send the card back to the manufacturer. I won't give out names of manufacturers or second party online resellers, as that is tacky.
I waited over 2 weeks, with all the shipping and hoseshit that goes with it, to finally get the card back. An RMA if you will. Just to drop back a step or two; when I sent the card back for replacement, I had to pack this thing as to make it virtually indistructable. I am talking static proof bag, foam, shipping bubbles and anything else to keep it safe from damage during the shipping process. Upon, initially opening the box it was sent back to me in, it was literally a box and the hard plastic shell that the card came in, nothing more. As I was getting it out of the box, I noticed the mounting bracket that attaches to the back of the PC case was bent! So I inspected it a little closer, only to find that the plastic case that surrounds the fan was scratched all to hell. Also, the same plastic case was tightened down so much, there was a visible warp on both sides of it. There were fingerprints on the side of the brass or copper heat sink. The contact grease that goes between the processor on the card and the heat sink looked like it was dried up. And finally, on the back of the card, I noticed a small "R" that looked as though it was put there with a paint pen. I can only assume that was there to represent "REFURBISHED".
So now I am really pissed. Not only have I waited over 2 weeks to get the card back, I get a used on that has been fucked with. I send them a brand new card that was less than 3 months old, and they send me some piece of shit for a replacement!!! I went ahead and put it in the PC hoping all would be well. WRONG!!!!!!! This one was worse than the last. It would not even boot up. During the initial start up, most of the letters were only half there. As it was going through the WinXP screen, there were color streaks through everything that had color. At that point, it would reboot and go into boot options. I could get it to boot up in safe mode, but nothing appeared to be wrong.
So after 45 minutes on the phone with this company, they are going to actually ship me another card before I have to send this one back. It will be here in 2 days and I really hope it is not another refurbishede piece of shit. I was told I would get a new one this time, so I am only hoping for the best.
I have vented and ranted but still don't feel any better................happy surfing...........later