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-11/08/06- -07/05/06- -04/29/06- -04/23/06- -10/16/05- -02/27/05- Last edited on 02/27/05 07:51 PM CST -12/07/04- -10/22/04- -05/27/04- -05/22/04-
Update...
Posted by dragonyen at 02:54 PM CST
Someone should update this page... lazy bastards.
Happy Days are approching...
Posted by dragonyen at 04:58 PM CST
Oh happy days are approching. I just setup my auto-payment to pay my last car payment. Granted a I need a second car sometime this/early next year... but at least the one I have is finally paid off.
I have one other monthly payment that will be done as of the 14th of this month. I'll use the money from the car to put away for a downpayment on the next car, and other thigns that come up (like repairs for this car), the other payment that is going away will just go tword another bill.... so I'm not even going to be having any addition spending money... but at this point I don't care. I'm just happy the car and the other bill will be paid off!
No A/C for you!
Posted by dragonyen at 06:34 PM CST
$1,800 to fix the A/C... That's what it would cost anyhow. I don't have it, and I'm not going to have that much for awhile, I'm not getting it fixed. I don't really have anymore to say about it...
It'll cost you...
Posted by dragonyen at 09:33 PM CST
Things in my life have a habit of sucking. Don't get me wrong... in general I'm happy. I have a good job, a great wife, and two really good kids.
10 years (or so) ago... I worked for a company named Internet in a Mall. They filed for bankruptcy and I didn't get my last two checks (about $2000 total). I had given up all hopes of ever getting the money and moved on with my life.
Fastforward to the recent past. I get a call from a company who claims I have money tied up in a bankruptcy case, and they can help me reclaim it. They want 15% of the money to help... So I call around and get all the info I need to claim my money (without paying some company to help). I get through everything and I just have to wait for my money. What shall I do with my new found fortune? I decide I want to give my wife half to do whatever, and I'll take half. My plan for my half would be for a digital music player, and to save the other half to buy a new video game system this Christmas (PS3, Revolution, XBox360, whatever I like the best once I see them all). My wife decides she wants to use her half to fix up my two kids bedrooms (there would even be money left over).
While waiting for the check to show up my son has a dentist appointment... he has had a loose tooth for about 6 months (since his last visit to the dentist). They say they need to pull the tooth ($130), and maybe it's match on the opposite side (another $130). However they are worried about pulling the teeth due to some "crowding" in his teeth... Schedule an appointment with the orthodontist. (hey that's free).
Orthodonsist appointment... long story short, he needs braces ($2500) then after phase 1, phase 2 will fix his overbite, overjet, and an alignment issue (another $3000). Not so sure on the phase 2 stuff, but since that's a year away, I can let "Future DragonYen" deal with that... So now I guess all of my "extra" money is going to fix my son's teeth (which is more important).
Today I'm driving (in a Texas Summer)... Suddenly my A/C doesn't seem to be cooling the car. I'm pretty close to getting home and don't think much about it. Park the car, go inside. A few hours later we're going to the park to walk a bit... The car makes a horrible screetching noise... I quickly turn the car off. Turn the car back on, same noise, I turn off the radio and A/C and the noise goes away. A/C back on, noise. Turn off the A/C (but leave on the blower) and no noise. So now my A/C is out... I don't know what that is going to cost... but I'm sure it's not going to be cheep.
This type of crap is the reason I never update the site...
I pulled the lose tooth myself tonight... It's like a $130 bill.
Wow, a new post?
Posted by dragonyen at 02:23 PM CST
I'm so tired... One of my last posts was about a pain I was having last year. Wow, it's been a long time. I never had my gall bladder out, because the HIDA Scan showed no stones.
Jump to a couple weeks ago, my friend Twain was going to be coming out to help work on a few house problems. One of these things was my backyard fence. About 5 days before we were supposed to be working on the fence, I found out I needed a permit to replace the rotted fence. Note I wasn't planning to dig in the ground or anything. I just wanted to screw new panels to the existing poles. The said it would take 7 days to get the permit, so I had discounted even getting to work on the fence. Twain was set to show up on Thursday. The morning started like any other, I went to work. About 30 minutes after I got to work, I started having a gall bladder attack. After attempting to wait it out... I went home. My wife called the doctor, and we scheduled and appointment for the following week.
Luckily I didn't have any additional pains over the weekend, and got the fence replaced.
We also fixed my mailbox, and kitchen faucet.
My doctor appointment came, and he said that I had a 70-75% chance to have the pain go away if I had my gall bladder out. The problem was my HIDA Scan showed no stones, yet all my symptoms (chest pains, elevated heartbeat, getting clammy, etc) were classic gall bladder problems. After taking a poll, we decided to have it taken out. We scheduled the surgery for the following Friday. At least I'd only have to wait out the rest of the week.
I arrive at the hospital, and the first thing they want to do is hook me up to an IV. I warn the nurse that I've had issues with blood draws and IVs (crappy veins?). After two failed attempts, she has the anesthesiologist do it. The next thing I remember is waking up in bed. I'm sore and tired. I think it was my wife who told me, but honestly I'm not sure... I'm going to have to stay overnight. Originally I was told that I'd be at the hospital for about 4 hours. I was planning on being off work on Friday, then maybe Monday and Tuesday. Giving myself 4 1/2 to 5 days to recover.
I don't really remember much more until Saturday. Most of my memories consist of the following:
Saturday was accompanied by more of the same. I was always tired, and easily agitated. My wife and the kids showed up multiple times to see me, and I think this was the first day I got out of bed. I sat in a chair for a little over an hour. The doctor decided to keep me yet another day. It may have been Saturday evening that I first walked as well. Just down the hallway. The short walk left me very tired.
Saturday night was once again filled with temp checks, etc. Finally the morning came, I did some more walking, and the doctor said it was ok for me to go home. I spent the first 3 days without pants, and pretty much on my back the entire time. Thursday I had an appointment with the doctor, and he said I was coming along fine. He said I could start driving again. That night I drove my family to the mall for dinner... I didn't drive home. Last night (Saturday) was the first night I slept all night long since my surgery. I can't sleep on my back very well, and I can't roll over on my side at all yet (still to painful). Anyhow, tomorrow I go back to work... I still have some problems sitting for long periods of time (for example, I've been working on this post for 3 days now).
Arcade console.
Posted by Skull_One at 06:57 PM CST
Well since I don't have room for a full blown arcade cabinet, I decided to build an arcade console that can later be mounted in a cabinet. Since it is a console, I went with 15 feet cables to allow people to be any where in the living room while playing on the 53" TV. Here are some shots of the prototype. Next stage is to build the full boxes to hold each subsection. Using MAME to play the classics and the ROMS can be purchased from www.starroms.com. This setup also doubles as a Video Capture (ATI) and Edit (Ulead DVD Movie Factory 3) with burn to DVD (Nero 6). Inital tests capturing from my TiVo have been outstanding.
Intel P4 3Ghz HT CPU, ECS PT800CE-A MB, Gig of PC3200 DDR RAM, Maxtor 200GB SATA HD, Sony DRU-710A DVD+/-RW, Trendnet 54G Wireless PCI NIC, Gyration Wireless KB and Mouse (the only thing to get).
Ultimarc IPCA-4 and OptiPac. Setup will handle 3 dual joysticks controllers, 2 Trackball controllers, or 2 Spinner controllers.
Ultimarc T-Stick Plus 8/4 way joysticks (switchable from the top!) and Happ Buttons
Happ 3" High top Track Ball and more Happ Buttons.
Oscar Controls Vortex Spinner and even more Happ Buttons. Will install a joystick with 8 buttons on the right side once I adapt an old Saitek from analog to digital.
Underside of the Dual Joystick setup showing the DB25 cable (15 feet) used to connect back to the IPAC and OptiPac
Where to begin...
Posted by dragonyen at 11:08 PM CST
Man has life been busy recently... I don't even know where to begin...
I was having some stomach pains a couple weeks ago... one kept me up until 4:00 in the morning, and one woke me up at 4:00 in the morning... both lasted around 4 hours. Unfortunately, my house supply line had burst the day before the second attack. I had found during the first attack the lying in a bath full of hot water made me feel much better. But since the pipe was broke, I had no water. After 2 hours of pain, I finally went outside and turned the water on. There was enough pressure to get the bath filled, even though I was also leaking water in to the street.
I decided I needed to talk to a doctor about it, so we called a specialist that I have used before. He prescribed Nexium thinking maybe it was Acid Reflux, but wanted me to come in for an EGD (camera down the throat) and a colonoscopy (the opposite of an EGD). The pain wasn't enough to warrant both tests, but as I said I had used the specialist before, so he knows more than I care to share here.
A co-worker and I started digging up the front yard in order to find the pipe, and see if the leak is small enough we can repair it. However a tree is planted in the front yard, and it’s root system has covered most of my front yard. We give up after enlisting the help of a neighbor, and only getting around 8 to 12 inches in about 2 ˝ hours. Some roots I cut through were around 1 to 1 ˝ inches.
The guys came out on a Friday to fix the water pipe, they decided that they’d need to bring out a backhoe and dig around the tree to re-route the water line. They’d have to come back Saturday. It only took them a couple hours (3 guys) but it was still really expensive ($1,600) but that was the normal rate, not some “weekend” rate as they were supposed to do it Friday.
Anyhow back to the pain, I was in Indiana for Thanksgiving while my tests were scheduled for the 1st of December. The night after Thanksgiving I had the pain again, but probably 2 to 3 times worse. So bad we decided to go to the Emergency room. After a 30-minute wait or so, the pain stopped just as suddenly as it had started. We decided to not wait, as no one else has been seen since we arrived, and there were at least 4 or 5 people waiting ahead of us. My mom said that her dad had similar issues, and it turned out to be gallstones.
Dec 1st came and I went in for my two tests, the EGD found I had a small hiatal hernia (not enough to worry about, but could cause some acid reflux) and the colonoscopy found a 7mm polyp. Of course I'm told I'll have to wait 10 days to find out if it is bad or not. I also informed the doctor of the information that I got from MD Mom. He said if they didn't find anything, they'll want to do a HIDA Scan.
I just got the call today and am relieved to find the polyp was benign. However now I'll have to get the HIDA Scan... which I'm sure will be just as cheap as the other two procedures I had.
I’ve got more to say… and pictures to post (of the yard, not the colonoscopy)… but I’m tired, maybe I can post again this weekend.
DragonĄen needs to be quoted....
Posted by Skull_One at 04:10 PM CST
Do you know the development cycle of a project? Well DĄ does!
1) What ever you do don't make it Blue.
2) Hey this should be Blue.
3) Argh, too Blue.
4) Lets make it Green.
5) What happened to the Blue?
He literally popped in to my office, spoke these words (yes work has gotten a little odd around here) and then walked out. I made him come back so I could quote him here. I found these five statements to be so profound that I wanted them to be electronically immortalized for all to see.
Time to reflect and lay out the future.
Posted by Skull_One at 01:05 PM CST
DragonĄen and I have been sort of busy dealing with issue of both work and family for the last couple of years. Nothing really out of the ordinary, just that every day grind of work and the interesting things that two kids and a wife can bring in to your life. What has that meant to the general public? Not a damn thing. Why? Because I don't believe either one of us, at present, have any want or need to be in the lime light. Heck for that matter, I don't think any one would really care even if we were in the lime light. But that, I feel, is about to change very slightly (I mean like miniscule).
About three years ago DĄ came to me with a concern about the life of Elitegamer. We addressed that concern by spending both our personal time and money setting up three Linux servers. Nothing fancy mind you. Just a P-100, P-200 and P2-300. Each box had just enough horse power to perform its specific goals. But the plans for why we built them, really never happened. But what did however, was pretty incredible in my opinion. Each of the early boxes have been replaced. The P2-300 is now a P3-733 and runs 5 domains. The P-100 and P-200 are now Dual AMD 1.8Ghz, 245Gig RAID 5 boxes. Needless to say, that was a huge jump in power. So why all this upgrading when we weren't even working on Elitegamer actively? We did it because our client took the time to look at what we had done so far on our own time and said; "Take a look at this project and see what you can do for us". That one request has led to us having the privilege of hosting three major domains for them as well as writing a custom CMS (Content Management System) that I personally believe has one of the best content driven security systems around. Our single goal since then has been to provide them with the very best tools that allow them to present their data to the world.
So what does that have to with the slight change here? Well the CMS will be online here this year (Yes DĄ, I know you haven't promised this or even agreed to this yet but I think you will do it anyways ;) ). Why would we need a CMS for this site? Well because I am about to see if the gaming community likes my ideas about online gamming. I have run at least three major online game designs by several people. Each has seemed to like the ideas. Now it is time to put it to the real test. How does a niche set of gamers like it. Some of you may remember reading about my ideas over a year ago. Why has it taken this long to get serious about it? Simple. Fear. I don't mind failing at something. That is how you learn. But what I do mind is wasting large amounts of time and money for nothing. I have felt for the last three years, that I might do both with my gaming ideas. I am tired of fearing the public won't like my ideas.
So on that note, I will begin coding on Project CR. The people that will be my testers and general critics are already picked out. This weekend I am going to re-lay the ground work and program shell so that DĄ can make sure fooIRC will integrate with it for online chatting during the game. The Elitegamer version of CMS will allow us to advertise and distribute the game as well as provide an avenue for feedback and getting the gamers that want to play it together. I am hopeful for this project and it should be interesting to see if it thrives or dies.
Today I learned a valuable lesson....
Posted by PJ at 12:19 AM CST
It's been over a year since anyone has bothered to post anything.