Bioshock

Bioshock is one hell of a game. Smooth as butter on my 360, and no RootKits installed like the Windows version. This game is everything an Adventure/FPS game should be. Killer story, oozing atmosphere, and creepy as hell. The game draws you in, sets you on your toes. I say play this on the 360, cheaper system then the 2K PC you'll need, and likely your TV is bigger taboot. I suggest checking it out today.

Going to Omaha tomorrow to the zoo, see some seals. mmmm seals. I'll be sure to post lots of photos to

flickr.

Cats Video

I threw together a small video of the cats. Demonstrating how Nemo spends his days,eating and laying on his back. You can find it over @

youtubio.

Random Updates

I've been very busy, bit of overtime at work. It's been hectic trying to prep for the new school year and distribute technology resources to an entire new building.

Here's another sample speed test, not terrible, my latency is consistent at about 80-90 ms though, thats kinda dhonky.

The cats have been crazy as ever, I've loaded a fresh batch of photos of them up to Flickr, you can find them

here.

I got a new bookshelf and some new lampshades for some lamps, I'll post photos shortly. The bookshelf was a good deal a 5 shelfer at the low low price of nothing. I'd been talking about getting a new shelf and bam right into my lap.

If anyone is looking for a geeky educational job

Grinnell College is hiring a Curricular Technology Specialist.

It involves integrating technology into the classroom, knowing web design, photography, and a lot of other odds n ends skills for that type of integration.

Bachelor Party

I've uploaded pictures from Tino's Bachelor Party over at

Flickr

. You can check them out

here

.

Also going tubing this weekend, expect crazy pictures and even crazier stories out of Benjamin.

They wern't drinking hooch.

All this time I thought my 80 bucks a month for 768/256 DSL was going to buy hooch at the bar next to the telco but it turns out they were in fact investing the money. I checked

PcPartners

website yesterday to my surprise they had bumped up their packages and it was cheaper than I was currently paying. I stopped in this morning on my way to the post and requested the new faster cheaper 1.5 meg package, she said she thought I was on the new OCCAM trunk so shouldn't be a problem. That's good because they have a DSLAM at my apartment building that was full when we moved here and I bet they didn't upgrade it. I get home tonight after a long day of work and my net seemed fast, my speed monitors were indicating my net to be going WAYTOHOT, to my wonderment a speed test showed that indeed I was approaching the 1.5 meg barrier. Ping is around 120 which is normal for here (outrageous but normal). I think the ping stems from the

a. shoddy lines around here.
b. PC partner leases its lines from Iowa Telecom so there's extra hops in between that needn't be. I think fiber runs from Kellogg to Gilman to Newton.

Anyway I'm pretty tickled to see my net up to par and 10 bucks cheaper now only 70 bucks a month for twice the speed. Still outrageous but fairly less outrageous.

You'll note that Pc Partner doesn't even show up as the ISP on speedtest.net. On DSL reports it shows as dsl.partnercom.net though.

Goozex Amps It Up

Just when I thought Goozex couldn't get any hawter they amp it up a notch. For posting in a thread with photos of my

"Goozex Lair"

they are sending me a T-Shirt and a free copy of

Crackdown

, which I had on my request list. I recently purchased a Polo, T-shirt, and some magnets but more is always better. These guys are fantastic, once before when I had helped them net and ban a scammer on the system they tossed me 20 free trade credits. They run good promos for new users and are trying hard to support the current users with some promos and freebies as well. I can't speak highly enough about this service, sure there are a few bad apples, and a few scammers but by and large it's a fantastic community dedicated to low cost gaming. By my estimate based on the games I've sent and recieved and on current trade in values at

estarland.com

they have saved me over $375. Thats a lotta dough. If you're interested use my

referral link

, with your first active trade it will net you 5 free trades and 100 points. Click

here

to sign up with Goozex now. There are some other promos floating around at different sites as well such as

Cheap Ass Gamer

, but in general they are all worth about the same.

In other news I don't mean to spoil any secrets but on p.323 of Harry Potter Dumbledore comes back as a Woman Walrus. No foolin.

City Witty

Went to Des Moines today, visited a place called In Play. It's a bar/resturant/arcade/kids games with tickets place. Pretty neat. They have a Mario Kart GP2 cabinet that was hella fun and will likely draw me back in. The food wasn't terribly priced for being in downtown Des Moines. 8 bucks for a BBQ brisket sandwich with some fries, was pretty good too. 6 bucks was a bit steep for a Java Monster drink (Monster and Vanilla wodka) but their standard drinks were more average priced at 3-4 dollars.

Went to the Mall, played with the iPhone, feels very intuitive thats for sure. At Barnes and Noble picked up a few bargain books including a Bruce Campbell smash

I usually only buy bargain books there or at borders since it's so much cheaper to order off Amazon with the free shipping n shizzle. I do go look at books I want though, there was a hawt Grindhouse book,

Grindhouse: The Sleaze-filled Saga of an Exploitation Double Feature

It's of course 10 bucks cheaper on amazon, even with their scamocard they peddle you save dollars at Amazon. The card nets you 10% off all books or something, so you've got to buy 250 bucks or so worth already to make it worth your while. And then you know, you feel like you should buy books since you spent money on this damn savers card. No thanks, I'll buy the books I want already discounted @ Amazon thanks. I'll still buy your reasonably priced bargain books though. Got both beer and wine encyclopedias. Even nabbed a couple cat books including one on how to test your cat's IQ, that should be good for a laugh with the Nemo. Overall a good trip, traffic wasn't too bad even with all the road construction.