Just another post...

Author: jawapro
Date: Tue 17/08/2010 06:37 PM




 

Well - a decent amount of stuff has happened that's worthy of being blogged, but I haven’t taken any photos of it, so instead here's a photo of a pretty awesome lego MOC. This guy has used Lego Star Wars minifigs to make a Space Invaders game.

Anyway - on with the news.

Jason (the guy with the Patrol and no sump plug) had his 18th birthday recently. To celebrate he decided to have a LAN at my house, followed by a Bush Dance (not at my house).

The LAN was awesome. Such a great group of guys playing some great games (C&C3, Flatout, and Starcraft II). Sadly SC2 isn't half as much fun multiplayer as it is single player. James enjoyed it though, as he's the only one to have played online and relished the chance to thrash everyone.

The downside of the weekend was that I got sick. I'd been toying with the idea of getting a cold for a couple of days, but on Saturday arvo I gave that up and gave it a proper go. By the end of Saturday I was feeling pretty much dead, and wasn't able to make it to the bush dance. Pity - as it sounds like it was a lot of fun. On the other hand, maybe it was a good thing, as I'm not exactly what you'd call graceful.

Sunday was wiped out and spent mostly in bed. The big news of the day was that Terreth and Martha have a son! He's name's Job which is awesome.

Last week I went to see Inception with Tim which was pretty darn cool, and I'm about to go and watch The Expendables, which looks blooming awesome!

Apart from that - I've been playing a lot of StarCraft 2. While I might not be sure about multiplayer, it's fantastic singleplayer. I'm playing it on hard, which is proving quite a challenge, but it's fun. Especially seeing as James has wimped out and is playing it all on normal or easy (not sure which).

So that's me. I'll leave you with a link to an awesome video clip that combines Starcraft and Lego - pure heaven!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XduXCp91_IA


Comments: 5
View Comments

 

Techy Weekend

Author: jawapro
Date: Tue 10/08/2010 09:13 PM




On Saturday I attempted to do some of the computerish stuff that I’ve been meaning to do for a while now, with mixed results.

First up, I tried installing my new 1TB drive in Karlendorf so it could work as my primary backup location. Unfortunately Karlendorf refuses to boot with a SATA drive in it. So after many attemps and much muttering, I gave up and tried to install one of the smaller IDEs I had lying around. That didn’t work either, and when I tried returning the original 2 80G IDEs, it won’t boot then either. Finally got it booting off one 80G with an external for my backups. One step forward, two steps back.

Next on my to-do list was Phaeton, my main gaming PC. When playing games lately, Phaeton has started beeping. That’s never a good thing, and it only happened after getting my replacement motherboard (after the old one died). I assumed it was a heating issue, but I wasn’t sure what part. Turns out it was the graphics card. When the GPU gets over 70 degrees, it starts to beep.

I tried installing an exhaust fan below the graphics card, but it didn’t really help. Another unsuccessful Saturday attempt. Since then I’ve found a program called nTune which allows you to manually set the fan speed of my graphics card. Setting it to 70% makes it slightly louder, but the GPU doesn’t rise above 55 degrees under load now - which is a better solution to the beeping than simply disconnecting the speaker, which may have been my next trick.

My new 1TB is now in Phaeton as some extra dumping ground. Not going to waste it.

I bought a new PC from work this week, which I’ve named Gromit. Gromit has now been deployed to my parents place, which has allowed me to bring Zoltan back to my place. Zoltan was designed to be my spare gaming PC, and as there’s a LAN at my place this weekend, he’d be very useful.

Thanks to a nifty combination of Robocopy and Crashplan, my server Karlendorf now backups up Phaeton each day (robocopy) and sends another copy of the most important stuff to Gromit (via Crashplan) as an offsite backup. So in theory, if Phaeton dies, I can get stuff from Karlendorf, but if my entire house gets eaten by a T-Rex, I can get my files back from Gromit. Not bad unless Tassie gets nuked, but if that happens, my collection of photos will probably not be my most pressing concern.

So that’s my techy weekend. Now it’s time for some more Starcraft...


Comments: 4
View Comments

 

Nerf Line-Up

Author: jawapro
Date: Thu 05/08/2010 10:20 PM




 

Due to popular request, here is my current Nerf Arsenal.

I think you have too many guns when you start running out of room to store them - and I'm not quite there yet....



Comments: 3
View Comments

 

Back

Author: jawapro
Date: Tue 03/08/2010 10:16 PM




 

Well - I’m back in Tassie. Port Macquarie was fantastic - and I’d happily go back there next winter. It’s a great place - but not so far north it’s hot.

 

Spent the week relaxing, shopping, chasing down wild shorties...

 

Riding a Rigid Inflatable into the ocean to watch whales.

 

Tell you what - Whales might be boring, but the Rigid Inflatable is awesome. Got some nice air on the waves coming out the heads.

 

Ok - so those photos make it look tame - but I couldn’t hold the camera when we were doing the rollercoaster thing.

Also spent a lot of the week doing a new hobby with the rest of the family - but apparently I’m not allowed to mention it.  It’s sort of a secret thing. Heaps of fun though. Now I just need to buy myself the gear so I can do it in Tassie...

I managed to find a Nerf AS-20 which Tom had decided he wanted after all - and smuggled it back into the state for him. I also got myself a copy of Starcraft II - but more on that later, when I’ve actually had a chance to play it.

It’s nice to be home - but Port Macquarie is defiantly on the list of places I want to visit again.




Comments: 1
View Comments

 

On Holidays!

Author: jawapro
Date: Mon 26/07/2010 03:41 PM




 

Well - I’m interstate again! But this time it’s holidays, so it’s far more pleasant.

My parents decided that they prefer travelling with my sister and I (don’t ask me why) so organized that we could all have the same week off and flew us all up to Port Macquarie in northern NSW. Mum wanted to go to Queensland where it would be warmer - but they’d left it too late to book the Timeshare Exchange, and we only got as far a northern New South Wales. If you ask me, that’s not entirely a bad thing - it’s not too hot here.

 

Mum and Dad have a timeshare in Shearwater in Tas, and can swap their week with a week elsewhere, so here we are. It’s quite a nice place, Port Macquarie. Has an EB and a TJM shop - so it ticks all the right boxes.

 

I should have taken these photos earlier in the day as the sun was bright and made everything look darn tropical. It’s still very pretty, but not quite so spectacular.

So I’m over here enjoying myself and doing nothing - what’s up back in Tas?


Comments: 1
View Comments