Thanksgiving of Snow

Well, it seems to be snowing alot here in good ol' DeKalb. IT is probably snowing back in the QC as well. Andrea and I will be leaving in about half an hour, when i pick her up from work, to drive back home. I am about to begin the loading of the car with such necessities as, the cats, clothes, and my portfolio, which I'll be matting this weekend. WHEEEEEE!!!! Gotta love spending money on school!

HOpefully this Thanksgiving will be fun. I'm sure it will be, but since the cats are along for the ride, it'll be pretty fun. People are always happy around cats...at least usually. Well, when they aren't ruining something of yours or fighting right on top of whatever you are working on.

HERE is a picture of what it looks like outside as of 4:00pm. Gotta love snow.

I'll talk to all of you guys when I return. If you're in the QC, perhaps we can get together sometime this weekend....but, looking over all the work i gotta get done....we'll see...haha.

Take care and HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

-Dan out-

New Video Games Worth It?

I talk about video games alot. I play video games quite frequently. It's safe to say that I enjoy picking up a controller, or sitting down at a mouse and keyboard, and playing a good game. Now, I tend to play alot of Multiplayer games, simply because I enjoy the idea of working with other people to complete a mission. However, there is nothing like a good single-player game to take your mind off any and everything that is worrying or stressing you out. However, usually what happens is that I spend time playing a game when I should be working on the very thing that is stressing or worrying me.

Chad and I had a discussion today about buying into new games or not. We decided, and more Chad decided then me, since I hadn't really thought about this until he mentioned it today, that there is really no need to switch from a game that you love to death, to a "NEW SHINY GAME" that boasts better framerates and better bump mapping and better gameplay. All to often, these games are nothing but a huge advertisement for their genre, not a new game at all. It is all well and good that new games are always coming out. There are kids growing up, and they are finding their "Galaga" or their "Civilization 2" that they will continue playing until they grow old. I dont' know if I HAVE reached the point where new games just do not entise me anymore, because Half-Life 2, Halo 2, and Vampires - Bloodlines just all came out. I want them all! Now, I think that the reason for this desire is simply because I played their predecessors and am really looking for more of the same type of gameplay and sheer fun. However, does 10 hours of fun justifiy the $50? Usually not. Now, for games like Halo 2 and Half-Life 2...there is a nice multiplayer aspect of it that should prolong the shelf life, or CD-Spindle life. I look over all the games I love and have loved over these, oh 15 years or so, and still am seeing games that I LOVED but got pushed aside because I was enticed by some new fancy, shiny game with a nice "IGN-9.4" rating stamped on the front.

One game that I loved to death was Tribes. This game created hours and hours of fun my Senior year of high-school and my Freshman year of College. When I was playing this game, nothing else really mattered except getting that flag, or destroying that enemy team. Then, of course, Tribes 2 came out. I enjoyed it, but not to the level that I enjoyed the first one. Something had changed. It seemed that they had tossed out the working gameplay aspects of it for new and improved graphics and gameplay types. However, I just did not have the same feeling about the sequel then I did the first. THEN of course, the III tribes installment came out. This game feels sooooo much like Unreal Tournament, it might as well be. Since I already had purchased UT2k4, I saw no reason to get Tribes:Vengeance. And another game series goes by the "I don't care" wayside. I think when that happened, I started to realize the need for stability in my gaming life. I have since gotten Halo 2. Now, I love Halo 2 to death so far, and for some reason this game seems to be an exception to the rule for me. Mark, I know, "SCREW HALO 2".....haha, but seriously, there is something about this game that really keeps me coming back for more. I think the fact that it is slower paced then most FPS games, helps me enjoy it more. I don't feel like I have to be the FASTEST at the game to be successful. Alot of times when playing UT2k4, I am overwhelmed at the sheer speed that these players play at. It's just bullets flying everywhere and then poof, time to respawn. There is little or no reaction time allowed in games like that. This is probably why Tribes 3 does not sit in my CD-Rom drive every night like the original did.

To sum all this up, newer video games are not needed when you have such a library of truly awesome video games to last you for years and years to come. Now, whether I can fight off the desire to buy the new bright and shiny game and be happy with the classics that I already have, only time will tell. Chad has his triumvirate of Rome Total War, Sims 2 and StarWars Battlefront.....what will mine be? What will yours be?

Half-Life 2 Mayhem!

NO....I don't have the game...yet. Sometime, when the fundage appears miraculously, I'll pick up that game. Yes, I want it very badly, and have been reading all the reviews quite obsessively. We'll see if this game lives up to all the expectations that have been made about it. According to Gamespot, it already has, but I'll let everyone else make their own decision about this game.

I did not want to go to my class today, but, that is a sort of normal feeling everytime I get up in the morning. This weekend, will be all about the lesson plan writing, and also all about the Project making for my ETR class. WHEEE, can't wait!

I've been playing Halo 2 almost every night for a few rounds. I am still loving this game, and recommend it to anyone who has an XBox and a LIVE connection. Hey, even if ya don't, snag it, it comes with a free 2 month LIVE card in it.

I talked to Mykey today a bit and told him I'd do a little write up on my opinion of NFS2. I just got a copy of it last night, and have yet to load it up. I'll be checking out the PC version, so it'll look a whole lot better than any of the console versions. But, I'd imagine that if you liked the first one, you'll enjoy the graphics of the second one.

Watched that $25 million hoax last night again. Funny show, but the Big Fat Obnoxious Fiance was funnier. This show seems like, there isn't enough time for the family to get really angry with the person playing the hoax on them. It will only be like 3 or 4 episodes long. Lame! Ah well, Amazing Race starts tonight. Another reality TV show, I know, but this one is pretty good, usually.

Not sure what is for dinner tonight, but I'm sure something can be conjured up for us to eat.

Another game that came out today is Vampire Masquerade: Bloodlines. I would have to say that I am even more excited about this use of the Half-Life 2 engine than I am about the actual Half-Life 2 release. I mean, yeah yeah,....Half-Life 2, game of the year, best game ever, MUST PLAY THIS GAME....blah blah blah. It'll be good, don't get me wrong, but, I was so hooked on Vampire: Masquerade, as was Matt, that when I first heard that a new game was coming out using the Vampire: Masquerade license, I was stoked! YEAH FOR VAMPIRES! (these types of games should not be played by children....that means you Bill...and Mark).

Thanksgiving is right around the corner. I can not WAIT for a nice big heaping plate of Turkey and all the fixin's. I know, I know, the poor turkey. Well, don't worry, as I eat him, I'll think of all the other nice turkeys that are completely oblivious to the fact that they are being grown for us to eat. :) I'm so sensitive!

Anyway, I gotta jet, I'll talk to everyone later.

-dan out-

The Sunday before Monday's Yesterday!

Sittin at work ...again. I seem to only really update this thing on work days. Either way, I am over the lost post thing that happened on Thursday, and decided to throw another new post up. Today was an OK day. Got up, did the church thing, then chowed down on some soup and sandwiches. Then it was laundry time, little bit of homework time, dinner time and work time! Busy, busy! On Friday, Andrea and I went out to my sister's and we all went out to eat at Fudruckers. I am still trying to find the badword that is hidden in there, but I have yet to uncover it. So, after the bell was rang on the way out, we drove to Dave and Busters. For those of you who have not been there, and Mark, you were right about it being fun, it is this almost like Adult Chuckie Cheese Place! You walk in, and after getting carded (since we arrived past 8pm), you go into this HUGE restaurant area which looked pretty nice, and probably pricey. Immediately when you walk in, you see a counter where they are selling these credit card type things that you put money on so you can go play games and stuff. So, we bought the card and ptu on 130 credits (most games take about 3 to 6 credits each play), and walked past the restaurant and into the main gaming room. This room is ENORMOUS and looks kinda like a casino! There is a huge bar in the middle, and all kinds of games all around the outside. Brian and I hit up Time Crisis 2 and played that for about 1/2 hr until we beat it (30 credits each later). Then we walked around and played some other random games that gave you tickets depending on how good you do at it....just like Chuckie Cheese...eh..eh, told ya! After using up most of our credits, we combined tickets with the girls, who had been doing nothing but playing ticket games, and went into the store to see what we could buy. We ended up getting a toy for each of my nephews and I got a nice foam disc launcher thingy to shoot at the cats!

On Saturday, Andrea and I cleaned all morning, and then cooked all afternoon to prepare ourselves for the arrival of Kate and Andy, two friends of ours. When they finally got her, (since they drove from the QC - 1 1/2 hrs), Kate and Andrea sat around talking in the kitchen and Andy and I sat down for some good old fashioned Halo 2! I got schooled over the course of a few rounds, and then we sat down and ate. After a pretty rawkin' meal, thanks Andrea, Andy and I went back to some Halo 2 where we played swords! That is a pretty freakin' sweet game-mode. There is this sweet lunge variant you can do with the sword which creates like a insta-kill. Very fun. Then we through in Burnout3 for some wacky destruction. We decided that a minimum of a 27" TV was really necessary to play that game properly in the two player race mode. We then messed around with some of the crash modes and tried to destroy as much property as possible. Good times were had. Then...well, you predicted it, we went back to Halo for another hour. After we exhausted our video gaming, we sat around talking about video games...haha. About 9:15pm, Kate and Andy took off back to the Q.C. since they had a nice 1 1/2 hr drive ahead of them....and probably more like 1 3/4 hrs. Andrea feel asleep on the couch, and I went and played Halo on PC. I gotta finish that up before I start the Halo 2 campaign.

So we arrive back where we started, and I'm still at work. Oh...I forgot. On Friday during the day, Chuck and I were supposed to go to Rockford's Jefferson High School to finish up our observation hours for this semester. I need like 3 more, and Chuck was actually finished, but needed the teachers signature on our clinical sheets. We were almost there, when Kathy called Chuck and was like, "uh...the faculty parking lot is empty." Chuck was like, "ummm, ok, well we'll be there in a few mins." We pulled up, and realized that the school was closed for some reason. Now, our hours are due on Monday, for some reason, and now about 5 of us will not have all of them. >:O Kathy called Leslie, the grad student in charge of this whole Rockford observation program, and she was like, "oh...my bad, guess you'll have to go back next week." She offered to e-mail our insructor to let her know what happened and why we won't have our sheets for her on Monday. Hopefully that occurred and we will not get penalized or something on Monday. I don't know what they are going to do if we do not have them tomorrow. I mean, it's not like they can just kick us out of the program or something. We'll have them in exactly a week, so there shouldn't be to big of a problem with some of us turning them in late. Buuuuut, I can just see it being this huge deal and them threatening to not let us student teach and all this other bull#$%!. Lets hope that this does NOT happen :-\

Other than all of that, I have had an OK weekend. I am NOT in a good mood about having to go to school tomorrow morning, but, it just brings me closer to being graduated....as long as these late forms don't effect us in a bad way.

I'm gonna go do something else now.....talk to everyone later.

-Dan-

I HATE Internet Explorer

I had this whole post typed up pretty much all ready to go, and POOF,



THIS

screen popped up on me!

Needless to say, I lost the post and I refuse to retype it right now. I'm to pissed...haha.

-Dan-

Wednesday night....again.

Wednesday again, and I'm pullin the ol' 8-10pm shift. This workin thing has its benefits, doin homework, messin around online, getting paid for it....but, it also has it's disadvantages....being stuck in a lab for up to 4 hours at a time, putting up with annoying questions about random computer things, getting "reviewed" by random people who try to assess whether or not you are doing your job properly and other things of this nature. Well.....it still pays the bills....sorta.

Halo 2 was picked up yesterday, and popped in last night to be tested out. I hooked the box up to LIVE and let me tell you, Halo 2 online is pretty freakin' fun. Not only is the ability to wield dual weapons sweet, but being able to grab someone and throw them out of a hovering Banshee Spacecraft is just something that has to be experienced. Someone was trying to pull me out of one, and I started flying down over the edge of this cliff in hopes that I would hit bottom before he got me out. Needless to say, I never made it in time, and he flew off smiling in his new Banshee, and I fell to my happy death at the bottom of the canyon. This game seems to be rockingly action packed....if that is even a word, and really is worth the $$$ for the multiplayer aspect of it alone. Now, I am STILL not done with the original Halo, so I will not be playing Halo 2 campaign just yet. Although, Andy is coming up this Saturday, so maybe I'll load it up so we can play some coop, since the set up to play multiplayer is not exactly ideal for friends and what not.

Andrea and I had a nice ham, baked potato and caesar salad dinner tonight, which ruled and then sat down for a little Smallville. I always miss the end of it, so it hopefuly got taped. There are actually three shows that are on Wednesday nights that I have been keeping track of. The first is mentioned above, the next is Lost, and the last one is Jack and Bobby. All great shows and worth the time I suppose.

Well, my lesson that my friend Chuck and I taught in De Kalb High School on Monday went well enough. There was this one kid who had a serious issue with being told to do anything, but we didn't let him get to us. After that, we got the priviledge of watching everyone else teach their lessons....and let me tell you, THAT rules!....er...well, actually it's pretty boring. It is fair though I suppose, since everyone else had to watch our lesson plan. Ahhhh, education.....so necessary yet so hated at times!

If I forgot to mention it before, I'll do it now: Check out Billy's Blog o' Military Justice.

Other than THAT...take it easy ladies and gentlemen...I'll be back later for more boring updates coming STRAIGHT TO YOU from Dan's twisted mind!

-Dan-

Nov 9th was a pretty good day I'd say.

Well, I woke up this morning, got ready, and got to work by 7:50. I then opened up the lab, and did a little homework during work. Next, I went to class, only to discover that I had a SUB.....yes that's right, a SUB in class today. I don't think I have EVER had a substitute instructor in college as long as I have been here. Very odd! So, our "sub" gives us this quiz we were supposed to have today, and then let us all go early. Apparantly our instructor got her finger smashed in her garage door or something...i dunno. So, I look at the clock when I got out of class, and it said, 11:20am. I'm thinking, hmmm, do I have enough time to run home, grab my car and get to GameStop allowing myself enough time to get back to be on the bus by 12:30pm? I walked out of my building and saw my bus driving by. Well, that idea was then shot, and I decided to screw it and just go eat my lunch and go to GameStop after work. Well, my desire to see my very own copy of THIS in my little hands go the better of me. So I hop on the bus at 11:40, get to my apartment at 11:46, and run out to GameStop. I snag my copy, with amazing ease, because there was only a few people in line ahead of me, and hop back in my car to leave. I then ran to Best Buy to snag a Crossover cable, so I could hook my XBox up to the net for some much needed LIVE action. I then drove back home. I was racing against the clock at this point because my clock said 12:20pm and the bus comes at 12:26pm. I get back to my apartment at like 12:25pm, only to see the bus pulling away. I'm like....doh! So I knew that I'd have to cut it close now and catch the 12:46PM bus. I messed around with how to get the XBox hooked up from my computer to the XBox and to the TV for a bit, and figured that by stretching a cable from the computer room to the bedroom and getting a longer COAX cable, I should just be able to make it...thanks to the wireless controller! Anyway, it should work. Then, I grab my bag and run out to the bus stop just in time to see the bus coming up. I hop on and wait for my stop. I then jumped off the bus, and briskly walked about half mile to my work in about 10 minutes. I strolled into work around 12:58pm and punched in. SAFE!

Other than that, my day has been pretty uneventful. Mark and I are hoping to play a little Halo 2 on Thursday night with Chaddy if he's around. So THAT should be fun. Andrea's friend Kate and her husband Andy, who is a pretty cool guy, are coming up on Saturday in theory, and he and I will probably play some Halo 2 a little bit that day. I'm kinda looking forward to getting done with this whole school thing. I have like a little over a month left to finish up all this stuff, and HALO 2 will sadly be pushed aside, except for a few random times when I pull it out to play a little bit. More important things are at stake here, then the destruction of every COVENANT member trying to destroy Earth!

Until next time,
-Dan-

New musings that will tickle your ear hair!

TODAY, the day of Justice, because my week is basically over, has been a relavitely ok day. So far today, I typed a little paper for a class I had at 11, ran to Jewel to get supplies for Calzones tonight, and watched the new episode of Lost. While searching for a picture of a Calzone, I found THIS picture. He kinda looks like Peter Pettigrew off Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. I picked up a few new comics today that I believe came out yesterday. The new Ultimate Spidey, of course, the new Astonishing X-Men which rocks simply because Whedon is writing it, and the new Ultimate Fantastic Four. These Ultimate Series' that Marvel is putting out are just tearing it up story wise and art wise. I could not be more interested in a comic than I am in the Ultimate X-Men, Spidey, and FF.

Aside from all of that, I have been doin pretty good. Been trying to beat Halo before HALO 2 comes out next tuesday. I have had the game for quite a while but never put in the time to beat the single player part of the game. Well, since the net has been so flakey lately, I decided to put some time into single player games. Come tuesday, I'll be popping in HALO 2 though and seeing if all this "hype" is worthy of the game.

Andrea and I had her brother, sister-in-law and two kids up for a rawkin' weekend last Friday and Saturday. We had fun hanging out, checking out the Pumpkin Fest in Sycamore, and playing some Mario Kart: Double Dash. We also ran out to this pumpkin patch on Saturday morning, but it was so windy and craptastic out, we left after like 20 mins. It was only over in Malta, bout 10 mins away, so it wasn't to big of a loss. Come Saturday night, I went over to Mark and Chad's for some hanging out-age, and we watched an episode of Alias, since that is their new daily series of choice now that 24 season 2 is finished, and then started watching Halloween 2 in spanish! I think you really seem to get alot more out of it when you have no idea what the characters are saying and you have to try to figure it out based solely on sound effects and the visual elements of the movie. Not that Halloween 2 was THAT hard to figure out. As Chad so eloquently put it, "His motivation is, he's a psycho and he is going to kill people,...and you get to watch." That about summed it up.

Tonight, a new episode of Survivor is on, and Dawson's Creek part2....don't ask, is on, so I spose I'll be downloading the latter, and watching the first one. Then, probably some HALO single player, to try to finish that up on time.

Until next time,

AHHHHHHHHH!