GOTW, July 25, 2005

Well, the computer is up for now. Good news- they're sending a new one next week! Bad news- it's next week!

Here's the GOTW. It's the 2nd score in the Championship between myself and Downtown Adam Brown. The final score was 2-1, so this was the game winner.

U.S. Soccer almost there...

For those of us that didn't get to see the Chicago Fire take on AC Milan last night (and most of us didn't, as it was on GolTV), here are the highlights:

I won't spoil the score but AC Milan is one of the world's best teams, Chicago Fire the 3rd best from the MLS.

It should open in Windows Media Player.

Chicago-AC Milan Highlights

One of my favorite things...

I love old games. I'm somewhat addicted to them. When we finally get a house I'm going to build an arcade machine like the ones seen here, but unlike any ever before created. I remember my first time to ever show an emulator to friends. I was in the choir room during our off period senior year (1999). We were just killing time, so I popped a disk in with iNES and Super Mario Bros. Were they amazed! How did I get an entire NES on a disk? It's been a ton of fun ever since.




I've been bringing my computer over to Tim's to play soccer on the big screen, but we decided to do a little nostalgic gaming this past weekend. 4 of us playing Bomberman 5 for the SNES. Does it get any better than this?

So I heard Josue wondering about this stuff last night, and decided to blog about it.

First off, none of these links will get you the games. Emulators need the game Roms to play. I can't legally tell you where to get them. Google is a good place to start.

Here's the average emulator site: http://www.emulator-zone.com/
The best for Macs are: http://www.emuscene.com & http://www.emulation.net

Here are a few of my favorite emulators (found on those sites):



NES: RockNES is my favorite (at least on Macs, they have a PC version too), but FCE Ultra should be good too.




SNES: SNES9x is my favorite, but ZSNES is fine as well. Either one would work, I'm sure.




N64: Project64 big time. Plays lots of N64 games great, but you need a fast computer.




PSX: Connectix Virtual Game Station. First exclusively for Macs, this thing was awesome. Put a PSX game in your CD drive and play on your computer. On my 233mhz Powerbook, some games were almost full speed! On PCs as well now, but unfortunately was bought by Sony and discarded. Hard to find.




Arcade: Mame, of course! The first popular emulator still plays all of your favorite arcade games from years past.




Note a lot of these worked (a few slowly) on my old 233 mhz Powerbook, so any computer made these days would be more than sufficient.

These aren't all the emulators (obviously), so if there is a system you want to play, look through those sites. You're bound to find something. Even Computer emulators (old Mac, PC, Commodore 64, Apple II, etc.). If you have a PS2, XBox, or GameCube, there are ways to get these emulators on your system (and TV). I did that with my Dreamcast. Imagine how cool it would be to play these with a controller on your tv! The possibilities are almost endless.

Hope you enjoy this as much as I have!! What games get you excited? What are your favorite gaming memories?

Possibly no goal of the week this week

My computer is almost down for the count.

That being said, a guy from Dell is bringing a hard drive and an optical (CD/DVD) drive to replace the other ones, and if this doesn't work I get a new computer! Bout time, I say.

So... if there is a GOTW posted tonight, then the trick worked, at least for now.

Serving Communion

So yesterday at Church I was asked to serve communion (someone didn't show up). I wasn't singing, was wearing my cool green shirt (as everyone was, it seemed), so I went ahead. I had the middle-to-back on the left side.

I served 4 people tops. But this blog isn't about the lack of people we have sitting at the back. It's about money and passing the trays.

When it got time to pass the offering plates, I felt awkward. It felt like I was asking these 4 people for money, which is shouldn't feel that way, but instead of a normal row, where they pass the tray down regardless, they would just look in my eyes and shake their hand back and forth.

Now I know for a fact that 2 of these people have money. It's hard not to judge when there's only 4 people I saw. What are you supposed to do, ya know?

Goal of the Week, July 18

Today's goal of the week is a special edition. Jeremy (The Juice) came into town and we play until midnight every night. We even hooked it up on Tim's 37 inch Plasma screen! Beautiful to say the least. There were too many goals to choose from, so I'll give you six.



Here they are (Click on the picture for the video):













And, lastly, for a funny one:



Be sure to vote!

Whoa...

(Sorry, just trying something. I really love daschunds. Don't eat them, no matter how tempting. I will not be held liable for you choking on their fur, especially the long-haired ones. The best meat is in the legs, but you didn't hear that here. I've never eaten a weinerdog, or even wanted to, even though it seems I have. Stop the insanity. Just think of the poor, helpless, little daschund pups you are hurting everytime you mention you are hungry for a weinerdog. I'm almost crying now. Thanks.)

Hockey time!!

Okay, so we all hate hockey (and rightfully so), but sitting here with Jeremy I think I solved their problem! People get so flustered by calling the puck a ball, so why not use a ball?? That should bring more fans back to the game.

I like the ice thing though, that's different.

Then maybe they could ride horses and hit the ball around. Just think of it- horses on ice! Who wouldn't pay double for that kind of action??

Then during the ice polo game they can heat the ice up so the horses fall through and start playing water polo! Horses and pools of water! and ice! I'm sooo excited!!!

GOTW, additional view

One last angle for the July 11th GOTW:

24!!

Finally, a baseball game worth watching: The All-Star Game Home Run Derby.

Whew, did anyone else catch this? Bobby Abreu is a perennial fantasy player on my team, so I was especially proud when it all went down.

For those that didn't catch it: The details

If you swing the bat and don't hit a home run, you get an out. 10 outs and you're done for that round. If you hit a home run you keep going. Now the record for one round had been 15 home runs. Later on in the night, David Ortiz broke that record by getting 17. But the story of the night was Bobby Abreu.

He was the first batter up, representing his home country of Venezuela (and the Phillies), and he had it going on. He knocked his first hit out of the park. He was extremely patient up there and never swung at the first pitch. He kept going, and going. It looked like he would stop at 10, as the competition is not cumulative. But he still had the fire... 14, 15, 16... 18, 19... 23, 24... and that's it. 24!! The most ever hit by the entire field was 88, I think. This field hit 108, no thanks to Jason Bay (who had 0).

Anyway, we were folding clothes when his 24 went down. Melissa even stopped to gawk in amazement. Quite a night for baseball.

Shot of the Week: July 11

I'll have another angle of this up this afternoon.

Shot of the Week: July 4

Adam's world-famous corner kick!!!

Can't wait to see my baby!!

Man, I don't realize how good I've got it. If this week without Melissa has shown me one thing its that I don't know how to fill the time without her. It all just seems... less fun, I guess you could say.

I have a blast with my wife. Our marriage is less of a marraige, and more of a fun adventure (that's what happens when you don't have kids). I don't have many boring days with her, and even if we are just watching tv together, it's still pretty fun.

That being said, I can't wait to see her again today. On July 5th, this coming Tuesday, she starts her 3rd year of Medical School, where she begins rotations. Yes, as some of you know, that's also our 2nd anniversary. So I want this weekend to be a fun, relaxing time for both us before she starts up again. We're going to Rick and Bethany's wedding in Austin on Saturday, then we'll be coming back home- to a cleaner home.

Yes, that's right, I've kept the apartment clean this week, cleaner than it was when Mel left. I know, I know, I should do this more often, and I feel she does too much around the house. Maybe in this 3rd year I can do better. I even watered her plants!! And, I gotta say, they possibly look better now than a week ago. I think I have a green thumb, I just never use it. Maybe someday, when we have a house, I could use it along with my mad pruning skills!

Anyway- baby, it's good to have you home!! Go get 'em your 3rd year!!!


(as an aside, cool how the first picture for "Medical School" was her Medical School!)

(also- I am in the picture for "Austin". I was there, downtown, celebrating y2k with some friends. I can tell ya bout that lata.)

Going to see my uncle!!

Today's the big day, folks. I get to see Melissa!! It's been too long. I'm excited. I leave work at 1, drive to Belton, and then get to camp by 5.

I'm excited about afterward as well. My favorite uncle, Jeff (my dad's oldest brother), lives 10 minutes from Camp in Lago Vista. He's always been my favorite uncle, but Melissa hasn't had a chance to meet him. It was funny- the week we got married in Belton, he sent us a present, along with a picture of him, his new wife, and her 2 kids. Go figure! The dude's like 60, his wife probably in her 30s(?), and he now has kids of 6 and 8? Awesome! We get to meet her for the first time as well. My new cousins, however, will be out of town at a camp this weekend, so we won't get to meet them.

Anyway- one more word on my uncle. He was always the coolest growing up because:

1. He has a black belt in Karate
2. He was in Vietnam (He's now a dentist). He has all sorts of Far East stuff there at his house, including samurai suits and kendo sticks
3. He has (had) horses
4. He has a swimming pool
5. He has a ranch-type house that overlooks Lake Travis
6. He has a joke for every situation. Mostly aggie jokes, but you get what you can.
7. He has 8 dogs, 7 cats, some birds, etc. If the town vet finds an animal in trouble, Jeff gets it.
8. He had the first Mac in the family, and showed us the light!

Those are a few reasons. Anyway, it'll be a blast to be there, if only for a day.

What have I done?!?!?

This week was supposed to be my week to rush back to the blog world, posting everyday for all my fans and minions. How's it gone?

This is my 2nd day to post. Now, granted, the last one was long and labor-intensive, but there should have been more.

So, therefore, blame Dell. My computer ordeal is ridiculous, but perhaps we might have solved it. It's on its 3rd motherboard, 2nd processor, and still messes up daily. Finally, however, I think we've solved it. Faulty RAM.

Let me start over, so this can be well documented.

It all began over a month ago when the computer started restarting randomly. It wouldn't even stay up 24 hours, sometimes restarting 8 times in 10 minutes. I called Dell. They eventually sent out a technician. This lady was retarded!! She had no clue what she was doing. It was supposed to take her 15 minutes to put in a new motherboard- 45 minutes later she still wasn't done. Then, when she was, she said if its not working, contact Dell. She then bolts out of there. I go back there to turn it on, NOTHING. She hadn't even plugged it back in. The next day someone else comes (I made sure it wasn't her), and he tells Melissa there's no processor! The stinkin' lady took my processor! What a moron she was. So he fixes that, I play with it for a day, and now another problem occurs. Not only does my wireless card no longer work (maybe she messed that up too?), I start getting a blue screen almost everytime I boot up, at the logon screen. To top it off, the random restarts are still occuring.

I called them back, probably a 5th or 6th time now, and I think that's when we try the RAM. I've now had my computer up for 2+ days, albeit slowly, as the new RAM hasn't arrived yet. However, as this computer is a lemon, now none of my network connections are working. No internet, no connecting with Mel's computer, nothing.

I just once, once, want everything to work the way it should. The way it does on our Macs. Maybe when Apple releases OS X for PCs.