Howdy, neighbors:

This blog finds me in much better spirits than the last. A lot of good, bad, and strange things have happened recently, so let's get on with it. (I've tried to compress it as best I can):

Games: The big FYE in Colonie (NY) is in the process of liquidating it's PC games. In the long term, this is bad: it means the best PC selection in the area is leaving, most likely never to return. The good news: 30% off list price. This week, I snared Supreme Commander and Half-Life 2 Collector's Edition for a combined $40.:shock:

So far, I've merely skimmed HL2. Looks very nice. I enjoyed HL a lot years back, but HL2 makes it look ugly (though the pack I got came with HL:Source... maybe a refresher is in order first).

Supreme Commander... I don't have a PC with the muscle to really run this game. I have it loaded, and it runs... at extremely low settings. However, the gameplay! Takes me back to TA, and the sheer insanity of massive battles with ultra-powerful robots. Ahhh...

I'm still mainly playing Dungeon Siege 2. RPG madness at it's finest 8) .

Life: My tech woes seem to be over. The new HDD is running nicely, and the PC is running better than it has in a long time. I found out that I was running old drivers for my video card (94.24 vs. 168.xx); after updating them, everything looks so much nicer. (It's puzzling, however, that everything still ran with the old drivers... must be 'cause I'm lucky :lol: .)

School: moves along nicely. Only 1 week of calculus and 2 weeks of my other classes left, and I get a week off. I've been working out the bugs in my project for software apps, and seem to have a fully functioning piece of software up and running smoothly... which, after last weekend, I was unsure would happen. When I explained my fix to the professor, he visibly cringed (character-string manipulation isn't his favorite activity :lol: ). He seems to think I have that one quality so many programmers he knows lacks: a wild imagination, and a willingness to use it to solve problems. (I just think I'm too crazy to know something shouldn't work 8) .)

This is the busy time in my family for birthdays: my niece, my older daughter, my brother-in-law, myself, and my brother all have birthdays within 2 weeks of each other. I'm going to be sick of "Happy Birthday," candles, and cake by September :) .

Music: Eagerly awaiting "Framing Armageddon" on 9/11. Iced Earth are a remarkable band from Indiana who's Iron Maiden roots and ex-Judas Priest vocalist (Tim "Ripper" Owens) set them way apart from the herd. Definitely worth a listen!

Contacts: In the past month, my contact list has tripled... I know where most of them came from (unions, posting on boards, posting comments on blogs), but those same 2 people (pill and pigfish) still elude me! Comment, please, guys! The suspense is killing me (well, actually, random hordes of monsters and armies of giant war machines are killing me, but that's beside the point ;) ).

Peace, tranquility, and strong anti-virus protection be with you.