Flack

Yesterday I got calls from two different friends needing help. First was my friend Tim (aka Tim Dog). Tim's father-in-law passed away on Thanksgiving. We are also friends with Tim's wife and Tim's mother-in-law. They are wanting to put together a slideshow of scanned photos for the family luncheon after the funeral service, and I told them I'd be glad to put it together. Last night I scanned in around 150 photos into the computer (about a minute per photo). This morning I'll begin importing them into a slideshow program. Also yesterday afternoon I got a call from Andy and Lea. Their computer was acting up and had run out of drive space. Mason and I hopped in the truck and we went over to take a look at it. Making some space available on drive C: wasn't a problem, but the computer has also quit recognizing its CD drives. Without cracking the case open, it looks like either a cable or controller problem as neither Windows nor the BIOS detected the drives. If they decide to purchase a new computer I told them I'd be glad to help them transfer all their data from the old computer over to the new one. When I had to replace the fence at my old house, both Tim and Andy were there helping out. When our hot water heater broke, Andy installed the new one. He helped me install a new air conditioner into the arcade, too. Tim and his family have helped us on multiple occasions as well. These are friends who would do anything for us, so it was nice to get the opportunity to return the favor for a change.

Seller: robohara. I am selling these for a friend who listens to, uh, "that" kind of music. If you're looking for dance music, maxi-singles, Prince albums (or many artists that recorded under him including Carmen Electra, Sheila E., The Time, etc) take a look. They all start at .99 with reasonable shipping.

Susan and I went to lunch with Johnny, Emily, and Emily's daughter Cecily today to Panera Bread. While a bit on the expensive side (their lunch special is $7, before taxes and a drink), it's a great place to go if you're on a diet. For lunch they sell sandwiches, soup and salad, and the lunch special allows you to pick two items from any of those categories. Today I got half a salad (around 200 calories), half a bowl of soup (around 50 calories), and a chunk of bread (around 150 calories). Yum yum! After lunch, the five of us swung by the casino in Newcastle for some quick gaming action (it's close enough that we can both eat and gamble during our lunch hour). I lost $100 on one slot machine, but after pushing my luck I won $156 on another one. I'd say that put me up $56, except Susan borrowed $100 from me and only returned $75 of it. Tomorrow's Thanksgiving and along with family and health and all that I'm just thankful to have the day off.

... and a second hint: Wal-Mart will price match any printed ad. If Toys R' Us runs out of an item, take the printed circular over to Wal-Mart and get it for the same price.

At this point it will be cheaper to simply put LCD screens and PSOnes in every vehicle I own and every room of my house.

I completely agree. Not to delve further into "icky subjects" but a female friend of mine and fellow dieter complains that during certain times of the month she holds more water than others. Daily weighings seem (to me) to lead to more false victories/defeats that a longer approach yeilds. I'll defintely look up that diet as well, thanks.

(Note: All my diet entries are posted at robohara.com, under the "Diet Log" tag (there's a link on the left hand side of the main page). Occasionally these get cross-posted across all my blogs, but more often than not they just get entered and archived in there. If you want to read more of my diet-related entries, be sure to check the above link for the complete archive.) In the book The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, one of author Stephen R. Covey's suggestions is to plan your schedule on a weekly basis, versus daily or monthly planning. In explaining why, Covey compares scheduling your time to fighting a war. Looking at your schedule daily is like a foot soldier's point of view, too close to the action to see the big picture, while looking at it a month at a time is more like the view of people sitting in a war room in a remote location, not close enough to the battles to know what's going on and how to react properly. Covey says looking at your schedule one week at a time is like looking at the battlefield from a helicopter -- you're close enough to the action to see what's going on, but far enough away to have a larger view of the entire battle. Since diets are a battle as well, I think Covey's advice on planning also applies directly to weight loss. A week is the perfect length of time for managing diets. Here's why. If you weigh yourself every day, you will drive yourself crazy. There are too many fluctuating variables for this to be an accurate measure. Depending on whether or not you weigh yourself before or after a meal or before or after you've gone to the restroom can make a difference in your weight. It's too easy to get discouraged (or hopeful) by seeing results that may or may not relate to your diet. More than once I've ate right and walked my butt off only to see no weight loss or even a slight weight gain later that evening -- likewise, I've been bad at a buffet before and then weighed myself later that night without seeing a difference. Rest assured, the results of your efforts (both good and bad) will catch up with you in the end. Conversely, it almost goes without saying that weighing yourself monthly (especially while actively dieting and trying to lose weight) is too long of a period to deal with. While I'm sure it's nice to get surprised (or disappointed) by large weight gains/losses after a month has passed, the numbers are too far away from the data to give you any helpful feedback. Unless you have consistant eating and exercise habits (which most of us in this situation don't), it'll be hard to match specific actions throughout the month with your end results. Weighing once a week makes sense. By eating well all week and sticking to your exercise program, you'll see results regardless of minor fluctuations in body fluids. It also gives you a little break -- you can eat "bad" a couple of times without completely derailing your efforts. And if your weight stays the same or even goes up over a week, you'll know that what you're doing isn't working and you can adjust accordingly. When I started making a conscious effort to lose weight this year I bought a new scale via eBay. Not only was it cheaper there, but much less embarassing when shopping for one with a sticker that reads "accurate enough to weigh a cow". The scale I bought is digital, reads your weight aloud (that feature can be disabled) and was less than $50, including shipping. When I started dieting I was weighing myself everyday, during which I ran into many of the caveats I mentioned above. I remember one time I ate especially bad at a Chinese Buffet. When I weighed that night, I hadn't gained any weight. Score! The nest day though, after eating well and exercising, I showed a weight gain of 2lbs. Weighing yourself every day (at least for me) lead to constantly obsessing over calories instead of simply making better choices when they came arose. So anyway, I've decided to go back to weighing myself only once a week. By looking at my schedule a week at a time, I can plan around outings and holidays. For example, knowing that Thanksgiving is coming up this week, I'll most likely really crunch the days before and after, instead of skipping breakfast and dinner Thanksgiving Day. Dealing with a week-long period of time allows you to manage your diet through averages, instead of on a day by hour by minute by calorie system. Enough rambling. Last week I lost 8 lbs. That puts me down a total of 16lbs in 20 days. I'm still on track to hit my goal of losing 40 by the end of the year, and so far I feel great!

My prediction is that there will be a slew of lawsuits over PS3 launch injuries. As a result, this will be the last console "launch" as we know it. The PS4 will be sold through pre-orders or online only.

With all the crap the fast food industry has taken over the years about making people fat, it's nice to see them doing something about it by now selling videogames as well. Er, uh ...

While I agree that almost anything can go from being a hobby to being an obsession, I disagree that I need Bill O'Reilly (or anyone else for that matter) to "save us from ourselves." I'd love to see O'Reilly's "computer geeks" boycot the old coot for a day and let Bill update his own website. No doubt he coult document the experience in his next book, which will be typed on a typewriter ...

In October of 2000, my wife and I sat overnight outside the Mustang, Oklahoma Wal-Mart sitting in two cheap lawn chairs, waiting in line for the Playstation 2 to be released. It was a cold night; we wore winter coats and shared a blanket between us. We spent from 10pm one evening until 7am the following morning chatting with other hardcore videogame fanatics, holding our coveted positions in line (first and second, for the record). By calling ahead, we already knew the score -- the Mustang wal-Mart had six PS2s in stock, and we were buying two of them. (Wal-Mart's rules stated that only one console would be sold per household, but we had a loophole; our drivers licenses had different addresses listed on them.) Despite the fact that the store only had six units available, an hour before the doors opened there were twenty to thirty people in line. Some of them were hardcore gamers, dying for an opportunity to purchase the latest and greatest videogame system available. Others were parents, desperate to put the perfect gift under the Christmas tree that year. The rest of the people were simple consumers, caught up in the hype and just wanting to "be a part of something." Susan and I did end up getting the first two PS2s sold in Mustang, Oklahoma. At $299 each, the PS2 was a significant investment at the time. My $299 price ballooned to nearly $500 with the addition of a second controller and two $50 games. The other PS2 was purchased for a co-worker -- we had a deal, whoever managed to get a unit would buy two, one to sell to the other one. Tony had no chance at Best Buy, and instead of turning a profit on eBay like so many other people who nabbed one of those prime first-day consoles, I stuck to my word and sold it to Tony at cost. Today, Sony released the successor to the PS2, the Playstation 3. Along with today's PS3, the current generation of gaming consoles also includes the Xbox 360 (which is relatively comparable in performance) and Nintendo's Wii (pronounced "we" or "whee!"), which goes on sale Sunday. Of the three, the PS3 is the most technologically advanced. It has the most horsepower under the hood, and comes with a blu-ray DVD drive installed. Those features don't come cheap. The PS3 comes in two flavors; one with a smaller hard drive and no hi-definition video ports for $499, and the deluxe edition that comes with a larger hard drive and the aforementioned video ports for $599. The Xbox 360 is less expensive, with two similar models priced at $299 and $399; the caveat being that the Xbox 360 comes stock with a regular DVD drive and not a next generation player like the PS3's blu-ray drive. Few who follow technology will be surprised to learn that Microsoft is now selling an HD-DVD drive (high-definition DVD drive, similar to the blu-ray in performance and its direct competitor) for $199, bringing the total price of an upgraded Xbox 360 to, you guessed it, the same as the PS3. Trailing in third place is Nintendo's Wii. The Wii's selling point is its revolutionary controller -- a remote, or the "Wii-mote" as some have dubbed it, is nothing short of a magic wand that can be waved around in the air, controlling on screen actions. In demonstrations I've seen people playing tennis, swing swords, and boxing with the remote (a lightsaber game cannot be far behind). Nintendo plans on delivering a one-two punch with the Wii this holiday season. One, the Wii retails for $250, which includes the wiimote and a game (the $599 systems mentioned before do not come with a game; that's an additional $60 per title). And two, Nintendo plans on releasing four million Wii consoles before Christmas 2006. That brings me to today. Sony's PS3 and its blu-ray drive use a blue laser, of which there is currently a shortage. As a result, Sony has only been able to produce 500,000 PS3s. 100,000 of those went to Japan; 400,000 of them were available to American shoppers this morning, although that's not even true. Many of them were sold through "pre-sales" months ago. Other PS3 units are being sold in bundles. The only way to order one online via Wal-Mart is through a "deluxe gamers package", which forces you to also buy 12 games; total package cost, $1,420. Circuit City is only selling them bundled with a hi definition television set. The systems that didn't go to rabid gamers this morning went straight to eBay. There are dozens of them on eBay in the Oklahoma City area alone, with price tags of up to $3,000. Wishful thinking, perhaps. A scan of already completed PS3 auctions within 150 miles of Oklahoma City show several "buy it now" auctions that sold between $1,500 and $2,000. Apparently all that stuff they taught us about supply and demand was not only true, but won out over patience and common sense in the end. Am I bitter? A little. In the back of my mind I had kicked around the idea of picking up a PS3, playing it for a month or so, and then deciding if I wanted to keep it or sell it around Christmas time. A few casual phone calls last night put an end to that plan. The Wal-Mart in Lindsey, Oklahoma had "2 units, and 30 people in line for them." Mustang had four units, and "more people than we can count here already." At Target, a woman standing in second line was holding a sign -- "this spot in line for sale, $700." Best Buy had people in tents as early as Tuesday morning. With such a fevered pitch (and potential financial gain) surrounding the PS3, any half-hearted attempts such as my own never had a chance. At least people in Oklahoma are nice; elsewhere around the country there have been reports of riots and even people being shot. About a month ago I put one of my old original Nintendo systems (1986) in Mason's room. I only let him borrow a few games at a time. Last night the two of us played Excitebike (a motorcycle racing game), and One on One, a basketball game that I used to play on our old Apple II computer. Mason will be five next month. Although he certainly notices the difference between the Xbox's graphics and those of older systems, I'm not sure he cares that much. To him, a fun game's a fun game. Mason came running out his room last night into the living room to announce that he had finally beat the first castle on Super Mario Bros. I couldn't help but smile a bit. And, no one got shot in the process. (Interesting side note: when I began typing this, there were approximately 6,000 "ps3" auctions on eBay. By the time I got done, there were 8,000. Let the madness begin.)

I'm missing something -- if it won't copy over my apps or settings, what's the point? I can (and have) reinstall XP in under an hour. I have an external 300 gig drive here that I can move files back and forth with. I had hoped to be able to transfer the image from my old laptop to the new one based on the software's description, but apparently it just wasn't meant to be. I've got both machines on the network now so moving data between the two of them is going much quicker.

Yup, pretty much spot on. When that AP article that included pictures of my arcade cabinets came out, I received several calls from people who simply looked me up in the phone book. Most of those were price checks. One was an offer for a non-working Centipede cabinet for $500, three states away. I've never run an ad in the paper but I have posted one on Craig's List before and got the usual offers to sell me $10 SMB/Duck Hunt carts. I can't say not to try the method because you never know what'll happen, just be prepared to turn a lot of the people down (or end up with the world's largest and most expensive Combat collection).

If you want one that's a decent price, but I've been seeing them for $15-$20 around here. Like others have said, the price of games haven't completely dropped yet. Thrift stores and pawn shops tend to have tons of cheap sports games (Madden and WCW are a dime a dozen) while Tony Hawk and anything with Mario on it may end up costing you what you paid for the used system!

I was just about to pick up a GBA for my son for Christmas -- looks like I'll need to wait a couple more weeks!

Exactly -- it would be as if Nintendo announced the SP before it even released the original GBA. The way the press release comes off is like, "hey, we launch the Wii this weekend, but there'll be a better one in six months if you wait!" Who came up with that marketing plan?

I got a new work laptop to replace my old work laptop. My old work laptop has served me well over past three years and really doesn't seem that old -- in fact, it's still the second fastest computer in our house, second only to my new workstation. The new laptop however is by far the fastest we now "own". Its 3ghz, dual-core processor coupled with 2 gigs of RAM and a zillion other bells and whistles ensures that it'll be the "king of the proverbial road" around my place for quite some time. I've had the new laptop for about a week now but haven't started using it yet. The problem lies in getting my old stuff onto my new computer. My old laptop, a Dell Inspiron 8500, has a 40 gig drive and is almost full. The new laptop, a sleek Dell 620, has a 120 gig drive. Work is pretty strict about making sure our computers have the official standard image on them, so I thought the simplest way to do this would be to use some sort of ghosting software to transfer the image from my old laptop to the new laptop. I've spent the past three days trying to do this. The problem lies in the fact that the architecture between the two machines is so different that the image that works on my old laptop won't work with the new one. After blasting multiple errors to the screen the old image on the new laptop simply blue screens. Giving up on Ghost, I moved to Acronis' backup suite. I first tried True Image Server, which didn't work. I then moved to True Image Workstation, which was able to backup the old laptop but still not create a bootable image on the new one. I found another product, "Universal Restore Utility" (also from Acronis), which promises to allow you to backup and and restore images between different hardware families (EXACTLY what I am trying to do). Of course, it didn't work. It doesn't seem so long ago that I can remember a time when I was actually good with computers ... After three days of frustration, I give up. I reghosted my laptop with the standard work image earlier today, and will spend the next week trying to dig up copies of the dozens (if not hundreds) of programs I had installed and start trying to recreate my work environment. Sigh.

If I had a UMK3 I wouldn't change it to a MKII. Fans of the series may prefer #2, but to the casual UMK3 had a lot more characters to choose from and I would consider it the most casual-gamer friendly of the bunch.

Last Friday after lunch, Mason, Morgan, Susan and I piled into the minivan, headed toward our cabin in Beavers Bend, Oklahoma. The cabin is in Hochatown, 10 miles outside of Broken Bow. As I already mentioned, Beavers Bend is a four-hour drive from our home in Yukon, and two hours shy of the Crater of Diamonds State Park in Arkansas. Susan's family like to stay in this particular resort overnight before heading out to dig for diamonds the following day. I decided to tag along this time. I had no intentions of digging in the dirt for diamonds, but hanging out in a cabin while everyone else was gone for a few hours sounded pretty relaxing to me. Roadtrips aren't as boring as they once were. Games of "Licence Plate States" and "I Spy" have been replaced by movies and videogames, thanks to the flip-down LCD screen in Susan's Odyssey. Mason played Xbox during much of the four-hour trip while Morgan either slept or played with dolls. When it was time for Mason's nap we shut down the Xbox and put in a Little Einstein DVD, which Morgan loved. I can't imagine travelling any other way. As I mentioned last time, several hours into the trip we took a minor detour and swung by my Aunt and Uncle's house down in Antlers, Oklahoma. We had a good time stretching our legs and catching up with family. After a little over an hour we all piled back into the van for the final leg of our trip, arriving at the cabin just after seven. Late Friday night (around midnight, I think) the rest of Susan's family arrived. I was already fast asleep by then. The ten of them (everyone but me) got up early Saturday, piled into Susan's van and Becky's Rodeo, and headed out to the diamond dig. Figuring that it's a two-hour drive to the park and that they would spend four hours there, I guessed that I would have around eight hours to kill. As you already saw, the minute everyone else hit the road, I hit the hot tub! Even though it was in the 50s, the water was 105 degrees and felt great. While I was soaking/floating in the tub several critters including a big walking stick and a curious cricket crawled over to find out what was going on. I snapped a few pictures of them while I was there (photo link at the end). After half an hour or so I got bored so I went back in the cabin, dried off, got dressed, and decided to head into Broken Bow for a few minutes. My neice was nice enough to leave the keys to her Mustang in the cabin for me, so I hopped in the 'stang and drove the ten-miles back into town. Broken Bow is quaint, and small. There's a big Wal-Mart, a few country restaurants, a few fast food places, and lots of furniture stores (from all the local lumber business). If you want a rocking chair, bench, or cabin made out of logs, Broken Bow is apparently the place to be. I found a motel with a big "Free Internet!" banner where I parked and made my last blog entry from, thank you very much. On my way into town I passed a billboard that read "Choctaw Casino - 3 mi ahead." Turns out, "3 mi ahead" is pretty much the edge of town. All I had intended on doing was checking out the town and seeing what all was there, but the casino sparked my interest. I decided to stick my head in and see what they had. Inside there were no table games, only slot machines. I sat down at a quarter machine and put $20 in. Three pulls later, I had won $50! I printed out my voucher and was going to leave with the cash when I passed the dollar machines. I decided to play the $50 I had just won on the dollar machines. My gamble worked out. Just a few pulls later I won $260 on the dollar machine I was sitting at! In about five minutes I had won over $300. I cashed out and left with my winnings. I filled the Mustang up with gas, bought some chips and beer from a convenient store, and still had around $280 in cash left. Thank you, Choctaw Casino! The rest of my alone time in the cabin was pretty refreshing. With no one else around I had the Xbox all to myself. One funny story is I played Land of the Dead (a zombie game) for the first time. In the game, you start out in a log cabin out in the woods. "Hey, *I'M in a log cabin out in the woods!" I thought to myself. In the game, zombies begin sneaking past your cabin's windows. I kept noticing things outside the windows. After ten minutes or so I was watching out the windows more than I was watching the television! I finally quit playing it and went back to playing Ghost Recon 2 and Need For Speed: Carbon instead. While playing I listened to the OSU football game on the radio. I read on a book, listened to some music, and had a really refreshing time. I even (gasp) walked around in the woods for a while, taking some pictures and just experiencing nature (yuck). Eventually, the gang arrived back at the cabin. I had my casino winnings spread out all over the table. I told Susan I'm sure my paltry winnings paled in comparison to all the diamonds they found. Of course they didn't find any. Casino 1, Diamond Dig 0. A few of us played Uno for a while. We grilled hot dogs and hamburgers out on the grill. The Uno game eventually transformed into a game of Blackjack (I acted as the dealer), and eventually that changed into Texas Hold 'Em (Susan brought our case of chips). After playing poker for an hour or so we switched back to blackjack. I think everyone had a really good time -- I know I did. We played until someone eventually broke the bank. I think it was only 10pm or so but it felt much later. I slept hard. Sunday morning, after a big breakfast, we loaded up the cars once again, said goodbye to the cabin and headed back to civilization. It's funny how weekend getaways never sound like much fun to me before hand, but I always end up having fun at them. I think everybody had a good time. On the way home we stopped at Mazzio's in some small podunk town about 30 minutes after church had left out. They were serving their lunch buffet so we had that; I've never been a fan of Mazzio's buffet but it was okay. We finished off all the sugary snacks and candy we had brought in the car along the way, and we all arrived at home with tummy aches. Tons of photos: http://robohara.com/albums/diamond_dig_2

Beaver's Bend, that is. Susan's back from her four-day stint in Vegas, and after less than a day home we're on the road again -- this time, it's all four of us. This weekend we're hanging out in a cabin in Beaver's Bend, Oklahoma. It's a four-hour drive to the cabin, but the trip was made significantly more pleasant since I brought the Xbox along. Mason played Lego Star Wars II almost the entire trip. We had a very pleasant stop along the way in Antlers at my Uncle Kenny's place. My cousin David and his wife (who is expecting! Yay!) happened to be there visiting as well. Aunt Barbara cooked dinner (briskit, meatloaf, and veggies) and man did it hit the spot. There's two things you don't normally get on vacatiion -- home cookin', and free food! We got to the cabin (after narrowly missing a deer on the highway) around 7pm or so last night. Also along for the trip is Susan's mom Liz, Susan's sister Becky, Becky's boyfriend Joe, Becky's kids Dylan, Katie, and Jessica, and Jessica's boyfriend Will. They drove two additional cars, at met us at the cabin late last night. It's a two bedroom/two story cabin, but even so we needed the hide-a-bed and two additional queen-size inflatable mattresses to sleep everyone. This morning, ten of the eleven people here headed out to the Diamond Dig state park. (That's not it's official name, but it's the park that allows you to dig for diamonds.) Three guesses as to who stayed in the cabin ...! The park is two hours east of here; assuming they dig for around four hours, that's eight hours I'll have to kill around the cabin. Whatever on earth shall I do ...

They made a Martin Luther King game?

I went to half a dozen thrift stores last weekend and found either Atari 2600 or Intellivision carts at almost all of them. None of them were super rare (or even "sorta rare") but it was all there for the taking. I agree with most of what's been said; lots of the stuff that used to end up in garage sales or thrift stores has either made it's way to collector's hands or on to eBay. Let's face it, as time goes on, less and less of these things will be for sale because more and more people will have snatched them up.

Oh, awesome -- thanks a mil! I'll try it tonight. My son will be glad to finally advance past that level.

Mason, Morgan and I have made it to day three of bachelor-hood (and bachelorette-hood). Susan is "roughing it" on a four day conference in Vegas. Mommy comes home Thursday afternoon, and she's got a ton of dirty dishes and dirty clothes to contend with. When it's just me and the kids, the house's cleanliness takes a backseat to getting through the day. Actually, things have gone really smooth this time. Monday night the kids went to go visit Susan's sister for a bit and Tuesday they went to visit my mom for a while. They've been having a good time seeing everyone, and that's kept them from being stuck in the house which usually leads to one of the little angels trying to kill the other one. Mason and I are stuck on the Hoth level of Lego Star Wars II. I even checked Gamefaqs, which says the way through the level is to pick up the bombs and drag them into the end gate. I assume this means the gate with the TIE Fighter door access panel on the right hand side? Can anyone help? I hate getting stuck in games where I just don't know what to do. If I can't get past a part because it's hard that's one thing, but we've spent the past week trying to get past this one level and it's getting a little frustrating. I must be missing something obvious. I've decided to build a PVR/Home Theater PC for our living room. Today I picked up a WinTV-PVR 150 card. The reviews look decent and it comes with a remote unlike the other one I was looking at (the ATI). Now all I need is a PC to put in there.

FAA Warning Sign, spotted while walking.