So I made a blog entry at the first of the year...and none since then. I've done a lot of flip-flopping on where I am on this whole hobby...gaming, computer technology, mobile tech, etc. I've said that I was going to get away from it...I've said that I was just going to play console games...anyway, enough of that soul-searching and BS..I'm coming back. After two weeks out here in Washington and some time in my hotel room after work hours to catch up on my technology reading, I have a serious jones to get back into the tech world. I brought my Nintendo DS Lite Onyx with me but have not fired it up. I've watched a ton of movies (Flags of our Fathers, Flyboys, Gridiron Gang, The Guardian, Invincible, M:I3, Fearless, Employee of the Month, and Smokin' Aces), and while I'm caught up on my movie jones, my gaming and technology jones are piqueing.

 I roved around on Newegg.com last night and reconstituted wishlists for my intended computer upgrades for the year. In addition to internals, I'm also going to just go ahead and upgrade or changeout the tabletop stuff that irks me because it's what I'm always looking at. The Main Tower needs a 22" widescreen, HDCP capable monitor with a quick response rate; the current model is a 19" standard ratio screen that I got tricked on with the quoted response rate of 12ms, which it turns out is actually the time to gray, not from black all the way to white, so the actual response time is 24ms...unacceptable. It also needs a new mouse because the current Razer mouse is too low profile to be comfortable for prolonged use, and has no side-mounted keys. I also want to put 2.0 speakers on all of the systems to keep the neighbors from complaining about all of the subwoofers in the computer room. The backup tower needs a new keyboard (the bulky Microsoft Keyboard Natural Elite is just too bulky, now), mouse, and 2.0 speakers. While these peripherals do not impact day-to-day performance, they are the parts that I and any LAN buddies see, so I need to get rid of a lot of the legacy parts to go with spanking new internal configurations.

 The Asus R2H UMPC that I ordered did not arrive before I took off, and I had to tell FedEx to take it back and tell Dynamism to give me a refund, but I intend to try getting ahold of another UMPC sometime later this year. I'm also going to upgrade my work laptop from the Gateway convertible I've been using for 15 months and go back to a slate. Motion Computing looks to have some higher performance slates on the way that will finally meet my minumum performance desires in a slate format, a consumer option that has previously not been available.

 I also want to get my XBox Live buds back together on a unified front, resurrect our old clan, and websites. I also want to maybe make a go at some of the PC simulators that I decided earlier this year were too complicated for me to take the time to get up to speed on. My website and forums need some serious attention. And I need to get back to participating actively in the various forums. 

So maybe these are my 2nd Quarter resolutions, after my intended level of activity for the New Year has aparently fallen short? Who knows...I don't even know if I actually will have the time to really pull all of this off. But I definitely have the urge...so I'll see where it takes me.