Wireless Network
The monitor has been fixed by using the Microsoft certified ATI driver for my video card on the system. The newest ATI driver was the problem, HA! big surprise there. I will never EVER buy another ATI product. They blew it bigtime with all the driver issues. NVidia owns me now. The wireless network is up and running using a router so all is good. It has a poor signal but that is expected because it goes through a few walls and the second pc is placed poorly on the floor and buried behind some stuff. Deanna wanted it that way, kind of hidden. She is ok with that at the expense of speed. It is still getting good speeds around 100k/sec, it's just intermittent signal. Since they aren't doing any heavy downloading on that machine and mainly just web browsing it should be fine.

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Far Cry finished and other things...
I finished Far Cry as well. Great game that gets insanely hard near the end. The AI seems to know exactly where you are even though you can't even see them yet through the foliage. So it becomes a painful matter of quicksave/quickload...great game nonetheless and I recommend it to any shooter fans. I am working on finishing Painkiller now, in between sessions of...

City of Heroes. I am back to playing City of Heroes after quitting Everquest again due to lack of friends playing it. It had become a solo only game for me and was growing tiresome. Since Brian is still in CoH I figured I'd go back and give it a spin since I left it before due to it taxing my old system but that is no longer a problem with my beefy new system. It's fun and I already have a character up to level 10.

I attempted to hook up and configure my old system for my wife but the cool LCD monitor that we bought has an awful green tint eminating from it. No doubt a software configuration issue and I shall wait for Brian, the technogod to come to my rescue. Also bought two g network wireless cards and they seem to be talking to one another but I need to configure the network properly for internet access on the secondary machine.

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Why I've changed.
I wanted to talk about my recent switch from Republican to Democrat. It's got to do with alot of things really but what really sealed the deal was my 90 year old grandfather who is a World War II and Korean War veteran was recently talking with me about how disgusted he is with the Bush administration. I was shocked to hear it because he has always been a Republican so I queried him as to the change. It all boiled down to the Patriot Act and how our freedoms are being slowly taken away. This angered my grandfather because he had seen many of his friends die for those freedoms. That pretty much sums it up. If my wise old grandfather thinks Bush needs to go well then Bush needs to go.

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Doom 3 finished.
Wow, what a ride...that is definitely the scariest most intense game I have ever played. In the dark with the headphones on this game will freak you out. If not, you aren't human. It took about 20 hours to finish. Highly recommended for any shooter or horror fans. The depiction of hell was crazy. I don't want to go there, lol. Ok, on to Far Cry...I have about 6 levels left before the end. It has also been a great game, completely different from Doom 3 though. Doom 3 is dark and claustrophobic where as Far Cry is colorful and expansive. Both great games with completely different feel, and the graphics in both will take some work to outdo, perhaps Half Life 2? Another great game I picked up is Painkiller, huge environments and tons of enemies, pretty much non-stop shooting, ala Serious Sam style. I'm having fun with this one as well in between.

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Doom3 is here!
Doom3 has arrived, it's making me poop my pants. That's all I have time to write about because I need to get back to slaying the demonic hordes.

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Deus Ex Machina
My machine has arrived, I assembled the beast part by part and flicked the power on switch and much to my dismay only silence ensued. I called my friend Brian, and being the technological terror that he is, he merely moved a few connectors around and viola...Houston we have lift off. He configured everything and I was up and running. I owe him a dinner at Chilis. The first game I loaded was Far Cry, due mainly because it owns the heftiest requirements for any software out right now. Wow, it runs like glass and it looks gorgeous. I am in heaven.

Doom 3 just hit the shelves today. Excuse me while I wipe the drool and get back to my machine.

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Democratic National Convention
I was watching parts of the Democratic National Convention last night and it was pretty much a yawn festival and then I saw one man, quite probably one of our future presidents. His speech was mesmerizing and the only thing I kept thinking was damn, I wish this guy was our president. His name is Barack Obama and his father was a goatherder in Africa. His story is an unlikely one but very representative of the opportunities that America can and should continue to hold for all people. You can read more about him here and hear the speech he gave at http://www.obamablog.com/index.php

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CPU update finally!
I received 15 stocks from my company for my 15 year anniversary. Its going to amount to around $700. Not great but hey I am not complaining. I will finally upgrade this:

P3-600MHz
288mb RAM
ATI Radeon 8500LE 64Meg Vid Card
30gb WD Hard Drive

into this:

P4-2GHz
1gig RAM
GeForce 5900FX 128Meg Vid Card
80gb WD Hard Drive

I expect to see a major difference in performance. Soon!

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The barrier is broken.
Down to 199lbs. Woot.

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MMORPG addiction...back in full force.
I blame Brian. My co-worker talked me into getting into City of Heroes with him. Well actually he lured me to his home with the pretext of a BBQ but I know now that it was part of an elaborate plan to showcase City of Heroes. One 1 hour playsession was all it took and I went off and bought it. It's really polished and has less bugs that any other MMORPG I've ever played from the start -BUT- and this is key...it has a severe lack of content. All there is to do is fight stuff, and when I saY THAT'S IT, I really mean it. That's it. Granted the fighting is the best and most immersive I have seen yet but the repetitive nature of the missions becomes quickly apparent once you reach higher levels and find yourself fighting the same stuff that just has more hit points. The powers are only given to you every other level so that's really all you have to look forward to and since many of the higher level powers seem to be underwhelming there isn't much to look forward to, you get so much cool stuff right at the beginning that it leaves little room for an end goal. Brian plays more for the social interaction, I find myself playing with specific goals in mind for my character and that seems to be lost in this game. They are adding new content so maybe that will fix things. The MMORPGs I really find myself drooling for are World of Warcraft and Everquest2, I am reading the beta forums for these games and getting myself really hyped up. I can't decide now which one I want to get into but it will only be one, alot probably depends on what Jeff wants to do. If he will play WoW I will probably get into that with John, Brad and him. If not, I'll probably go with Everquest2, just because I am so familiar with the Everquest storylines and game dynamics. I've tried talking with Brian about those but he doesn't exhibit the same enthusiasm, I wonder if Star Wars Galaxies destroyed his confidence in a more elaborate MMORPG. City of Heroes is great fun but it's too simplistic for me, I need more data to crunch. Yeah, I'm weird like that.

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City of Heroes
Playing City of Heroes now. Massive Multiplayer Online Game about superheroes. Damn fun so far!

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Physical Therapy
I can't say I've ever enjoyed anything LESS in my entire life. I dread my visits for my dislocated finger. She moves my finger in ways that it doesn't want to move and causes me immense pain. Of course I know it's all for the better and less pain long-term but my brain screams out to get up and walk out of the office when she starts to manipulate my hand. I can literally feel the scar tissue and nerve endings breaking apart.

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Down to 203...
I'm down to 203lbs., soon to break the 200lb. barrier. I'm losing weight really fast on this diet.

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Freaks and Geeks
My wife and I have been watching the entire Freaks and Geeks series on DVD, it's been great! Reminds me so much of high school in the 1980's.

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Speaking of diets...
lol http://www.illwillpress.com/fatkins.html

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Damn I'm skinny!
Went from 215 down to 210 in one week on Slimfast. Rock on.

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Next...
OK, forget that diet. LOL. I need to do the same diet my wife is doing for harmony and world peace. We are doing SlimFast together.

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Diet
Started a new diet today. I'm at 215 which is supposedly obese for 6'1", lol. Oh well, what can you do? I am on the Buhl Beach diet, it's similar to the South Beach or Atkins diets but with low fat as well as low carbs, oh yeah and high fructose corn syrup is the devil! (you can't have any) Caffeine is ok to have unlike those other trendy diets. Yeah this diet will work, I know it.

Breakfast
2 slices of lean ham with melted cheddar
8 oz. V-8 Juice

1 cup of coffee with no sugar and non-dairy creamer

Lunch
1/3 lb. Baby Swiss
1/2 lb. Peppered Turkey (damn this stuff is good!)
Water

Dinner
Don't know yet but probably a steak and a salad and some assorted vegetables

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Just look it up.
I hate when I look up a word in the dictionary and the definition leads me to another word to look up...ad infinitum. If I am going to the dictionary then I need answers, not more questions!

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Epiphany
I had an epiphany last night in regards to the war in Iraq. We need to get out of there, now, and here is why:

You cannot govern without the will of the governed.

It's really as simple as that. Who overthrew communism? It wasn't the US directly. We waited for the people to revolt then provided support where needed, but for us to go in and try to upheave Iraq is a mistake. The people are not ready for it. People allow themselves to be governed. Sure you can say they are just scared but there is only so much abuse the human spirit will take before it finally says "Enough of this shit." The Germans tore down the wall. The Russians broke up the USSR. When the people of the Middle East are ready they will rise up and tell these religious zealots and dictators, "ENOUGH!" We should be willing and ready to help when that day comes, but it isn't here yet. And us trying to force it to happen is only going to cause more animosity.

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