What do I listen to? Podcasts...

Podcasts aren't new - in fact they've been around for about 3-4 years. I listen to my fair share - and here's the list of what I listen to on a weekly basis.

1) TWiT - This week in Tech - Hosted by Leo Laporte and a motley crew of pundits (like John C. Dvorak dvorak.org/blog). A weekly dive into the plethora of tech news.

2) MacBreak Weekly - Again hosted by Leo Laporte, this podcast is all about (GASP) Mac's and everything Apple. Now why, do you ask, do I listen to a Mac podcast when I'm a PC user? Because computing has gotten to the point that it really doesn't matter if you are a Mac or PC user. I like to keep up on what's happening in the Mac world, and this podcast is a fun way of doing it.

3) The Instance - It's the World of Warcraft podcast, so I don't have to. They've been going strong for quite a while - and they talk about pretty much EVERYTHING WoW related. From patch news, character builds, Addons, tips and tricks, and even a segment from a 10 year old talking about how to enjoy WoW as a kid. And excellent podcast for those who enjoy playing World of WarCraft\.

4) 1UP Yours - From the halls of Ziif Davis (the guys behind EGM) comes the show about console gaming that's NSFW (not safe for work). They swear quite a bit (definitely rated MA/AO by the ESRB), but it's always an informative and engrossing conversation about the state of the console side of gaming.

5) Retronauts - The gaming podcast for old people. For those who remember the days of the Atari 2600, NES, SNES, SMS days. For those who remember that gameplay is WAY more important than graphics. An awesome (albeit erratic) podcast about retro gaming.

And that's only half of what I listen to....

World of Warcraft Part Deux

Well It's been a month or so since I made my initial WoW post. Here's an update.

My Night Elf Moha... err... Hunter is now Level 42, and I'm currently try to raise gold to get my mount, so I can actually keep up with my guildmates. I have just purchased the Riding ability (which was 76 gold - and where the majority of the money went), and I have about 3 gold left. AND, I only need 9 gold to purchase my mount - SO CLOSE!

Basically, what I've been doing is farming the Deadmines. The Deadmines is an instance in the game that if taken at the level it was meant to be taken at (levels 18-24) you would need a 5-man group in order to make it. I, however, am at level 42, and I soloed it easily. And there are a lot of Green drops and a bunch of Epic drops (that soulbound, sadly, so I can't sell them at the Auction House), but I figure, I'll auction what I can, and probably someone will want the equipment.

I'm almost there. Once I get the money for my mount, I can start doing quests again. And keep up with the rest of my guild.

My Eyes Hurt..

Seriously.

My eyes have been getting steadily worse since I was 8 years old. I've worn glasses pretty much every waking moment of my life. And I have no problem with that. My glasses are part of who I am, part of my personality.

But recently, my eyes have started to hurt. Not just fatigue (an I get eye fatigue often), but shooting pains in what feels like the backs of my eyeballs. Imagine waking up in the middle of the night and stepping on a tack or stubbing your toe. It feels NOTHING like that.

It's almost as if someone is taking the backs of my eyeballs and clamping down on them with vise grips. Yeah it's bad.

It doesn't help that when my eyes feel this way, I'm extremely light-sensitive. It was painful working today today at the bank, looking at my monitor and staring at paper all day.

As soon as income tax rolls around, I'm gonna have to get a new prescription anyway, so hopefully I'll be able to get a reference for an ophthalmologist that's local. And pray that my insurance covers any exams.

Sweet! It worked!

And now I can go about blogging without have to log into Blogger every time I want to post something.

Like a picture, for example....

I took this photo a couple of weeks ago. And using LiveWriter - it links directly to my Flickr page as well.

The more I use this program, the more I want people to look at my blog - odd ain't it? But since all I have to do is fire up LiveWriter, I think I'll be posting MUCH more than I used to.

Ok - First time with Live Writer

Hello all!

This is my first post using the new Windows Live Writer. I heard about this on The Tech Guy podcast with Leo Laporte. He was saying that he uses it to post to his own blog, and loves using it.

So I figured... why not?

And so far, I'm liking it. It's a pretty straightforward word editor, but It can post pictures, movie clips (embedded) and sounds as well, so I might be able to use this full time as my online base of operations. No more Yahoo 360! But I'm keeping flickr.

So. I'm gonna hit the "Publish" button and hope for the best!

Sing the folowing to the tune of "We Just Got a Letter" From Blues Clues..

I just got my credit card...
I just got my credit card...
I just got my credit card...
And I'm happy too!

Woot! $1000 credit limit!

Ouch.

Ok.

I'm not one to post about sports at all, but this is worth it.

First, if you live under a rock, the Red Sox won the mis-named World Series last night, sweeping the Rockies 4-0.

But the Patriots played an INCREDIBLE game last night, beating the Redskins 52-7. Next week's game vs. the Colts will be interesting indeed - both teams going in undefeated, and both at the top of their game.

I love Best Buy

500 GB + $90 = woot!

Sweet!

Quite a while ago, I posted something about Dr. Divx.

Now that version of Dr. Divx no longer exists, but smarter people than me have created a NEW open-source version of the program.

This program is awesome. It allows you to convert most video files to DivX. But if you have DVD Decryption software, you can copy VOB files and convert the source material DIRECTLY into DivX format.

That means, I can take my favorite movies from my collection, and convert them to DivX files, and then copy them to my Zen Mp3 player and watch them whenever I want to. This'll be great for watching tv shows and movies at work :)

Sigh... It was BOUND to happen...

I blame Hope.

Hope being my supervisior.

And blame meaning she sent me a 10-day trial to World of Warcraft.

And now I'm play a level 21 Night Elf Hunter on the Bleeding Hollow server. And actually, I'm loving it. Blizzard has always had a knack of making good games that anyone can pick up and play, and caters to the casual and the hardcore gamer. I'm really impressed with the amount of detail that is in the game, and it's a blast to play. And it's 20 bucks for the original, and Walmart is selling Burning Crusade for 20 bucks as well. And since you can get game cards to redeem instead of using a credit card, it's really easy to get cards to use (and game cards make GREAT Christmas/Birthday Presents).

And I always thought it was weird that people had formed WA (WarCraft Anonymous) groups. But after playing the game for 3 weeks (give or take a day), I can fully see why some people take the game to a bizzare level of obsession. Blizzard made the game so easy to pick up and play, but so deep that you could probably play it forever and not be bored with it. I can understand how some people have lost their jobs, their spouses, their kids, their friends, etc. to the game. It's addicting. They combined the cool weapons and armor like you'd find in Diablo II, mixed in the world they created and then make it a MMORPG. And made it so simple to play that once you start playing, it's not easy to stop.

During the week, I actually have to force myself to stop play around 10pm, because I have to work the next morning. And actually, it works out great. That way, I know that I have X amount of hours (usually 2-3) of game time, and that I'm not letting the game take over my life. So far, it's been working out great.

Now if I could just level up to 22, i'll be all set :)

Borg Truck

Borg Truck
Originally uploaded by WilWheaton.

This is too damn funny....

In Russia, cell phones provide you!

Or something like that. (With apologies to Yakov Smirnoff)

At 1:41 this morning, I received a call on my cell phone.

The number was +7495781xxxx (just in case some tries to call this number).

Now, after a few minutes searching Wikipedia, I found out that +7 is the international dialing prefix for Russia and Kazakhstan. and the 495 is the prefix for Moscow.

Yeah... MOSCOW. The Kremlin, KGB, etc. That Moscow.

I don't know ANYONE in Moscow, and only a handful of trusted friends know my cell number.

Just a bizzare thing to see on my cell at 2 in the morning...

Why do I even bother?

Can anyone out their tell me why women are so fucking duplicitous?

I'm tired of women telling me that I'm "A Nice Guy", and that They can "Tell me anything", yet the minute I show any interest in getting to know them any better (i.e. dating or what-have-you), I get the fucking "I just want to be friends" shit.

Actually - I think I need to be more of an asshole to women.

I've noticed that women tend to date people that treat them leek shit, and yet "They love them".
WHY? WHY? WHY? I can't wrap my analytical logical brain around that fact that women like to be treated that way, and - even worse - that they fall "in love" with guys who treat them like that.

How stupid can you females be? You say you want to be treated kindly and with respect, and you want someone that's caring and nurturing and is willing to listen. Then why in the name of Hell do you date the EXACT OPPOSITE OF WHAT YOU ARE FUCKING LOOKING FOR?!?!?!

And to the ASSHOLE guys out there - thanks for ruining it for us nice guys. They say "Nice guys finish last"...

Well I'm certainly proof of that.

Posting at Work....Shhhhh.....

Yeah, I'm posting at work... I didn't think I could do this, but I looks like WebSense doesn't block this site. :)

I finally broke down and purchased a new DVD burner yesterday. It's prety cool, It burns all forms of Media INCLUDING the new Double Layer 8GB DVDs. which will come in handy once I get some.

And LOST finaled last night. And I'm kinda ambivolous about it. I like the fact that it was a Flash Forward, but I'm curious as to whether Ben was telling the truth or not...

Oh well...

Teeth....

Well I finally wound up going to Dr. Kippax and had a couple of teeth extracted.

Usually I can get by with taking some ibuprofen and apply some OraGel. But today, it was UNBEARABLE... So I called Dr. Kippax and they were able to get me in at 1:00 pm.

Dr. Kippax got me in and out with 45 minutes. The actual procedure only took 5 minutes (which astounded me), and I'm pain free - for now.

And with my insurance, it only cost me $81 for the procedure, and $15 for the meds (Vicodin.. Yay!)

I'm just kicking myself in the ass for taking so long to get my teeth taken care off....

Kermit the FORG...errr GORF... ummm FROG!

Well worth watching :)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TT-2dkJxomM

$pending Money...

Well, I finally got my car's battery recharged. Bob looked at the alternator belt, and the belt is completely chewed up. So because the belt has no gripping power, it's not spinning the alternator, and therefore not recharging the battery.

I'm hoping that all I need to do is replace the belt. But I'm planning on setting aside the money to replace the alternator.

Books, Cars, and Day Break

Well... There's a bit that happened this week.

First, I won't be able to go to the BAT this year. My car started to overheat on Monday, so I ended up going over to Triangle Auto, to get it repaired. That was fixed on Tuesday. But then, this morning, my car wouldn't start - I think it's my alternator belt - I'm PRAYING that my car will start tomorrow, and I hope that they can fix it cheap.

I did happen to manage to get up to Barnes & Noble before my car died. Managed to pick up 4 books, along with the Complete Wordbook, by Mike Baron - One of the best book on Scrabble to date.

AND - ABC has finally aired the rest of "Day Break" on line - so I'm glad to be able to finally watch the rest of the series.

Something new, Something used...

Thanks to my greatest bestest friend in the world, I have a 5.1 surround sound setup now. And I'll never go back to listening to a movie on a TV. Ever. It's only a 720 watt system, but that's PLENTY of power for my small apartment. It's a great system, and the movies sound incredible. As do TV shows as well.

And thanks to my landlord, I now have a second monitor hooked up to my system again. It's another 16 inch monitor, and it looks fantastic. It's nice having my Matrix setup going again.

A very late post....

Due to the fact that for the last 6 days, I've had the absolute WORST case of diarrhea I've ever had in my life. After last Saturday's Scrabble tournament (4W-3L... but more on that in a bit), I came home, and was feeling fine, but Sunday night - well... let's just say my ass exploded. Multiple times. And it did that for 5 DAYS! I'm on antibiotics now to help cure what ever is in my system, and yesterday I had my first NORMAL looking poo in a week. At least I'm getting better.

Onto the tournament!

I went in seeded 14th out of 20 and finished in 9th place. I'm rated at a 692, with 4 wins and 3 losses. I Bingoed in 5 out of 6 games and had my best game ever with a score of 448 points.

Here's a list of my bingos:

Game 1 - played PLANETS for 91 points on a TWS.
Game 2 - Two bingos! NAILERS for 66 and vAINEST for 77
Game 3 - Three bingos! (you see a pattern?) Phonied a bingo PELTIN(G)S for 69, FOCUsED for 83, and then I had my best play of the game - I bingoed out with ENSNAR(L)S on a TWS for77 points.
Game 4 - INcITI(N)G for 66
Game 5 - D(E)FICITs for 61
Game 7 - HuNTERS for 74

All in all an excellent tournament. The next one is on June 9th, and I'm planning on attending that one as well.

In other news, I finally - after years of waiting - bought a real MP3 player. It's a Creative Labs Zen Vision:M 30 GB mp3 player. But it also playes Movies, Music and photos as well. This little piece of equipment has a TON of features.

It has a built in radio, microphone to do dictation with, it can import contact info from Outlook, you can use your own images as wallpaper. It plays Movies (Divx, Xvid, MPG and AVI - and if the format isn't compatible, it'll convert it so it is), music (which I already have a bunch on there), and photo slide shows. 250 bucks at Walmart, and it's quite the little package. My only concern is that the touch pad you use to navigate with is very sensitive - make for selecting what you want to do a bit frustrating at times. But other than that - a great mp3 player.

Why do people do that?

I haven't figured this one out.

I chat with people on line (who doesn't), but I've run across this phenomenon.

I've actually received and IM from someone that said "Hi", I said "Hello" back to them, and then they tell me "Can't chat now, can we chat later?"

Now.... If you contact ME and say "Hi", I assume that you want to chat. If you can't chat, then why do you IM someone in the first place?

Like I said, I haven't figured it out yet.....

Ready! Aim! Fire!

Not a weapon, but a camera. A Digital Camera to be exact.

I bought a HP Photoshare digicam for 99 bucks up at Wally World last night. Along with a camera case, rechargeable batteries, and a 1GB memory stick, I spent about 140 bucks all together. I worked 10 hours of OT at work, so I could afford it. I also got my tripod back from Heather.

In Scrabble News – I registered for a 7 Game tournament next Saturday. Sharon and I are gonna carpool down to Dover NH, and I hope to do well against the novice group.

Holy Crap!

That’s all I have to say about the weather. Well, actually I have more to say about it, but that sounded good.

As of 4:15pm it is 64 degrees outside. Not 46 – 64. That’s a 6 and a 4 side by side. IN JANUARY!

Now I’m all for warm weather… but IT’S FREAKING JANUARY! There should be a foot or two of snow outside my window, but I can actually see grass growing. It’s still green in January.

And people say that global warming doesn’t exist…. To quote Bill Cosby… “Riiiiiiight”…

Coolest. Idea. Ever.

I got an awesome idea yesterday.

I’ve looking to purchase a round shoulder bag to carry my Scrabble board around. SamTimer.com sells round board carrier for $29.99+5.00 s&h. Looking at the pictures , I realized that the board carrier is basically a cymbal case. You know, like for a drum set.

So I strolled into “Music Maniac”, and look at the prices for cymbal cases. $19.99!

So basically, I bought a Scrabble bag for 20 bucks. I’m loving it.