• Age of Conan

    So I am addicted to a new MMORPG. It is pretty awesome. The graphics are cool, even in the slimmed down settings I have to run in because my computer is like 7 years old. :( I am strongly encouraged to upgrade so that the game is much more playable.

    The graphics are truly amazing. Some of the battles, even in the single player missions are truly epic. I have enjoyed what I have played so far greatly. Sadly, the slow computer makes it frustrating to play for any real length of time, so I play a while, log off, play a while, log off.. I can not even move at night when the servers are real busy. It is a truly awesome game. You can read more about it in my MMORPG tab.

    My one real disappointment was that I was completely unable to get it running in Linux. :(

    Leave A Comment, Written on May 23rd, 2008 , Windows Games
    Applied for a real Job.

    So my mother called me up and told me the doctor she works for was looking for an IT person. She described the job to me, and I thought, why not? It is close. We been thinking it would be nice to have a retirement plan, some benefits etc. So I called them up, and they had me come in for an interview. It went pretty well I think. They actually run Linux, on some servers, which I found really cool. I was actually excited about that. They also seem to have a lot of interest in staying current with technology. One of my favorite things to do! :)

    Now, I am just waiting to find out if I got the job. Always the worst part for someone I guess. I should hear something tomorrow. Wednesday 4/30 will tell. Wish me luck. I am not counting on it, but the job sounds like it would be perfect for me. I would really enjoy playing with the new technology and a nice network as well. I will try to remember to post and let everyone know how it works out. Wish me luck!

    1 Comment, Written on April 29th, 2008 , Computers, Linux
    Picnic today..

    Well, it is getting to be beautiful weather here in Florida, so we have been doing more outside stuff.  Today we took Aunt Susie down to Hudson Beach for a Picnic.  It was a lot of fun.  The breeze was a bit cool under the pavilion, but just wonderful in the sun!  Tomorrow should be just as much fun.  We are heading down to Venice beach so Emmy can finally look for some more shark teeth.  She has been wanting to go down ever since her Dad was here and we went down there.  It should be fun!

    Leave A Comment, Written on March 5th, 2008 , Life
    Great day!

    Had a great day! Emmy and I went and seen “The Golden Compass”. We then went out to dinner at Carrabba’s. It was a really good day! We decided to do an early Valentines Day, but Carrabba’s was actually very busy as a lot of other people seemed to have the same idea. This is the first time since Bleys moved in with us that we went out to dinner or to the movies without him. I actually felt somewhat guilty, but figure for Valentines Day, Emmy deserves my full attention.

    We then come home and Emmy gave me a foot rub! Was really nice of her. On the way home we did stop off and get some Ice cream for Bleys. We also picked up some Lottery Tickets and Scratch off Tickets. We gave one to Bleys, and got a scratch off for each of us. I won $4 and Bleys won $25, so he did get lucky for Valentines Day! Better then nothing I guess. :)

    1 Comment, Written on February 13th, 2008 , Life
    Games in Linux

    Recently, I have felt like gaming.  I have stacks of older games just laying around, so I decided to go through and see what I could make run in Wine.  I was having limited success at first, but I discovered PlayonLinux which takes care of many things for you.  One of the things it does that helps tremendously is create a separate Wine directory like wineprefixcreate.  It gives you a nice gui to edit all of the normal settings.  I highly recommend using it!

    Another thing I have discovered is that many programs run better in an emulated Virtual Desktop. I am really surprised just how many games run.  I am actually having as much luck with this as what I ever had with Cedega. I have been using PlayonLinux and choosing Install, Liveinstall and installing the Game.  As I am doing a Liveinstall, I have to do the same when I want to add a patch or an addon.  Unless the game you want to install is listed in their game scripts.

    Using this method, I am also able to install DirectX and do DLL overrides.  Looking at the WineappDB you can get advise on what you need to override, and do to make it run.  It is much easier then I thought it would be. I have been able to get:

    • Battlefield 1942 to run
    • Battlefield 2142
    • Gearhead Garage
    • Simcity 4
    • Europa 1400: The Guild
    • The Guild 2
    • World of Warcraft
    • The Movies
    • C&C Generals
    • Rollercoaster Tycoon 2
    • Hotrod American Street Drag
    • 18 Wheels of Steel
    • Hidden & Dangerous 2

    and I am still playing.  It is a lot of fun!  I am having almost as much fun getting them to run as I am playing them!

    Leave A Comment, Written on February 5th, 2008 , Gaming
    Emmy Rocks.

    Just in case I have not mentioned it in the past, Emmy, my better half, rocks!  For several years I have sort of been wanting the Babylon 5 Series on DVD.  This year, she got them for me.  The entire Collection, for my Birthday.  I am thrilled!  Specially with the Writers strike in Hollywood!  Many of the shows we watch are pretty much at a stand still, so now I get to watch one of my favorite shows all over again!  I am still exercising daily,  doing 5 miles a day on the bike. It is a lot of fun still.

    Tonight we are going out to dinner at Upthecreek. My mother will not be around next weekend as she is going up to my brother Mikes, so she is treating for my birthday this weekend.  Should be fun!  It is the same place we went for Emmy’s birthday last summer.  Thanks again for Babylon 5 Emmy!  I love you!

    1 Comment, Written on January 19th, 2008 , Life
    Norad Tracks Santa!

    This is cool!  If you have never visited NorthPole.com, I highly recommend it!  Very entertaining!  They have a tracker, and a video update every so often!  Very cool.  Off to watch some more video!  It is funny!

    You can see all the Videos here.

    Leave A Comment, Written on December 24th, 2007 , Life
    Busy designing a few websites

    So recently I have been a bit busy.  Between getting ready for Christmas, which we mostly are,(Except some books I ordered on December 7th and still aren’t here) and designing and setting up several websites for a company that has 55+ Retirement Communities.  They are called Florida Broad Acre Trailer Lodge, Inc. and they run 3 parks.  One of them I had actually set up before, called Shadow Wood Village. I am revisiting that one, and updating it and setting it up similar to the two new ones, Bahia Vista Estates and Vista del Lago.

    All of the Communities are nice.  Although, Vista del Lago is a bit smaller then I would wanna live in.  It does have a really nice small lake though.  And it is the only one of the Communities that still actually excepts RV’s.  The other two Communities are more permanent single and double wides only at this point. My favorite is the one I did first, Shadow Wood Village, but Bahia Vista in Sarasota is very nice as well.  If I were 55+ and looking for a place to retire, I would definitely look at either Bahia Vista or Shadow Wood.  Probably Shadow Wood as it is in a more affordable area.

    Take a look at them and let me know what you think.  I made the logos and the themes, and wrote up everything for Bahia Vista and Vista del Lago.  I will be redoing  Shadow Wood soon with newer pictures and to be in line with the layout of the other two.

    Leave A Comment, Written on December 21st, 2007 , Computers, Work
    Missing Applications for Linux.

    So after using Linux for a long time, I am noticing several things severely lacking that both Mac, and Windows have plenty of. Most of the apps missing as far as I am concerned are games of course. However, the other is Video related.

    Recently we have been trying to find an app that will easily let my girlfriend record a video. She would like to be able to send them to family members and such. So I started looking. The main problem I have encountered is that with a Logitech Webcam with built in Mic, almost no apps in Linux will easily find them. Ekiga, a Sip Softphone comes right up and works with it, for Video and Audio, however, Camorama and about a dozen other programs. I even tried to use mencoder directly, but could not figure out how to address the mic in the webcam.

    If I tried to do the same thing in either Windows or Mac, it is a matter of firing up a program, running a wizard, picking how I want the video encoded, and hitting record. Seems like there has to be a program out there to do simple vlogs. (Video Blogs) However, I can not find one. If anyone has some advice, I would love to hear it. We can record from Desktop and a Mic and it works great, as Emmy has been doing for some tutorials she is making for a customer.

    So we have some things that work great for free on Linux, and other things that we just do not have a decent solution for. What other things have people found missing?

    Leave A Comment, Written on November 29th, 2007 , Linux
    Went and got Grandma & Aunt Susie

    So I flew to Michigan on Thursday, and saw snow for the first time in like 7 years.  Yuck!  I hate snow!  I had to go up and get my Grandmother and Aunt who had decided last June that they were sick of Florida and going back to Michigan and never coming back to Florida.. Well, it started getting cold, and their attitudes were completely adjusted, so they called me and asked me if I would come get them.  I didn’t really want to see the snow, but have never been able to refuse them much of anything.

    So I flew up on Thursday, got there at about 6:30pm. Saw my cousin Dani, and met her newest daughter, and her new husband.  Also got to see my Uncle and Aunt that I had not seen for awhile.  Well, we then left on Friday morning at 8am.  I then drove for 23 hours straight to arrive on Saturday morning to surprise Emmy. :)   Was great to see her shock and surprise!  I really missed her.  She really is the love of my life!

    Leave A Comment, Written on November 18th, 2007 , Friends & Family
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