All posts by Jim Trottier

Family News

MagicJack

I recently took a big risk with our phone service, and switched to MagicJack.  Due to our ever-increasing cost of living, we’ve been looking for ways to cut costs.  Since Sandy and I both have cells phones, I wanted to get rid of our home phone completely and just go with our cell phones only.  Sandy thought differently, however, and thought we should keep our home phone service.  So I looked into our options.  As it was, we were paying $50-$60 per month for our home phone service through McLeodUSA.  $30-$35 of this was for our base services, and the rest was for long distance calls””mostly from me when I’m on-call at work (a Waukegan hospital, which is long distance for us, and their corporate support, which is in Tennessee).  Time-Warner cable-based phone service was an option that would save us some money, especially since it offers free long distance as part of the package.  So that was one option.  AT&T also recently stopped at our door offering their all-in-one package and “U-Verse”, whatever the heck that thing is”¦and this would have been about the same savings overall.  Then I saw this bizarre thing on TV and in a few Internet ads called “MagicJack.”  It certainly couldn’t be for real, so for a long time I dismissed it as just one of those goofy scams, like the “Free Internet TV” applications we always see the ads for.

Well, when yet another even bigger phone bill arrived this month, I decided to look into it further.  I read many reviews of it, looked into application compatibility, and then, based on the price, we decided to just jump right into it.  It’s a flat $39.99 for the box, which includes the first year of service, then it’s $20 per year after that.  So we’re basically talking $20 for the little USB device, and $20 per YEAR for the phone service.  Compare that to the $600 or more per year we were previously paying for our phone service!  Plus, since we picked up the box at Best Buy, we can return it within 14 days for a full refund.  And if you want even more of a deal, just visit the MagicJack website.  There you can order on for free and try it out for 30 days before paying for it.  So after weighing all of the options, we decided to go ahead and switch to it.   We didn’t have anything to lose, and if it works out, we’ll come out way ahead! If I have you drooling now, make sure you read the rest of this posting closely.  There are some caveats and requirements that might not make it an ideal solution for you.  First of all, the only instructions are 3 simple steps on the packaging: 1. Plug your phone into it, 2. Plug it into a USB slot on your PC (or Mac), 3. Pick up your phone and use it.  Sounds pretty simple, and in a perfect world it would be.  But as it turns out, this only applies to Windows XP users.  Vista users are close though.  It won’t work as easy as this on Vista right out of the box–you have to go to their website and download the Vista update and install it to make it work.  Then there’s Windows 7″”which is what I’m using now.  I figured if the update worked for Vista, it should also Apply to 7.  No such luck.  But after some googling, I found a workaround that worked great.  It required a Windows Vista system to complete though””you basically install the software and activate the MagicJack on Vista, then copy all of the configuration to the Windows 7 PC.  After that it works great.  Interestingly, MagicJack Support said that the MagicJack simply will not work on Windows 7 yet.  I can say for sure though, that it does.

Next there’s the requirement of the PC.  It has to be on and available, with the MagicJack software running, in order to be able to make and receive phone calls.   This is no problem for us, we have a main PC that we keep on 24/7 as it is, and it’s fairly new, so it’s fast enough to handle the telephone while still allowing us to use it for all of our usual applications.  We just have to be careful not to reboot when someone’s on the phone, or accidentally close the application.  When the computer isn’t on or it’s unavailable, your calls automatically go to MagicJack voicemail.  This is a nice feature though””it will automatically even e-mail your voicemail messages to you””as .WAV files.  It also includes music on hold (while you’re using call waiting) and 3-way calling, although we haven’t used these features yet.  I did hear the music on hold for several seconds and it was pretty raspy.  But this feature isn’t even mentioned anywhere yet, so I think it’s experimental at this point.

On to call quality:  Call quality depends on your broadband connection.  From what I’ve read, if your upload speed is too low, you won’t be able to make or receive calls.  So my having the “turbo” addon with Time Warner might be making all the difference in the world for us.  We use the Playstation Network, X-Box Live, Digital Cable, as well as the Internet on a daily basis, so believe me, we need the speed boost.  Call quality has been very good so far though.  Calls sound nearly landline quality, and definitely much better than cell phone quality.  I have noticed slight dropouts occasionally, and I experienced one 3-second pause where someone electronically “stuttered” part of a word, but then it resumed the conversion normally after that.  The caller on the other end didn’t even hear it.  Also, just starting a call is sometimes a bit difficult.  You might get a dial tone, dial a number, and nothing””no ring, nothing.  Hang up and call again though, and it works fine.  Just a little glitchy there I guess.

Then there’s a power issue.  The MagicJack box itself is about the size of a cigarette lighter and plugs into a USB port.  If the port is unpowered, or plugged directly into a USB port on a PC, you can often have problems with it rebooting the software, disconnecting your calls, etc.  These problems, however, all seem to be remedied by simply using a powered USB hub.  It MUST be powered too””this is the issue””the MagicJack requires all of the power of a dedicated USB jack.  Fortunately, I was proactive with this, and had a spare powered 8-port D-Link USB hub ready to use with it.  I haven’t experienced this issue at all since we started using it, so I guess the hub works.

Lastly, the phone number problem.  You don’t get to keep your old phone number.  MagicJack doesn’t currently support “porting” of phone numbers to its service.  They plan to offer this feature in the near future, however.  So we had to choose a new number.  You do this when activating your MagicJack, and you are given the option of choosing from the available prefixes available within your area code.  The 4-digits after the prefix, however, are automatically generated.  For us, in the 262 area code, the only available prefixes were in the Thiensville area, so even our next door neighbors have to call long distance (if THEIR phone service doesn’t include extended-range local calling) in order to call us.  A bit of a bummer, but when you think about it, everyone’s phone service is evolving anyway, so there are probably few people left still paying extra for “extended area” calling beyond this distance. (Thiensville is actually 57 miles North of us).

I think that’s about it though.  If you can handle all of the “catches” involved, this could be a viable solution for you.  I think it’s going to be fine for us.  Having an excellent Internet connection helps a lot though, I’m sure.  And if there’s just too many catches for you to be comfortable with switching to it, keep it in the back of your mind for awhile.  Based on previous history, the service and support for MagicJack is getting better all the time.  They’re bound to improve the device as well as the phone service and it’s features in the near future, especially support for Windows 7 after it is officially released in October.  I think I can handle the issues and make this thing worth the $600 we’ll save each year.

Family News

Weekend Update

Sorry SNL, I stole your title… Anyway, I’m going to try to make it a point to post SOMETHING every weekend, at the LEAST. The site can get pretty boring without some sort of regular update (even though lack of activity seems to do nothing to deter the spammers), so I’m making an effort. Today’s posting is simply a “What’s up update”. It seems I’ve been sucked in by the power of the “dark side” and I now play X-Box over PS3 by about 4:1. The only thing that pulls me back to the PS3 right now is Little Big Planet. And this is only because it’s not available on the X-Box, or I’d probably have it for BOTH systems. As I mentioned in my review, Microsoft seems to haev gotten a lot right, especially the addictive “Gamerscore” gimmick. It’s all about raising that score, and it uniquely ties all of your games together. We’re (I’m) currently addicted to Left4Dead, trying to finish the second part. I managed to complete the first part–not on my own, but with the help of an 11-year-old (Tyler)–after a couple weeks of struggling. I think one thing that hooked me was the fact that I work in a big hospital, and the objective of part 1 (titled “No Mercy”) is to make it across town to “Mercy Hospital”, work your way through the hospital, onto the roof, and catch a rescue helicopter. There are hordes of zombies after you the entire way, some of them “regular”, while others explode with amazing force, some emitting a toxic green smoke, and others that have tongues hundreds of yards long that the throw out fram great distances and heights to grab you, constrict you, and pull you toward them. Without the help of your teammates at this point, you’re sure to be zombie food. SO I spent a week getting all the way to the roof, only to be overwhelmed by zombies of all kinds after calling for the rescue helicopter to come get us. You can play the game by yourself (with 3 other computer teammates), play split-screen with a friend, or play online with human teammates elsewhere. I was using the computer teammates all week, because they’re pretty dependable and smart (they won’t turn on their teammates like a lot of X-box Live players will). So until tyler helped me out, I was getting defeated ay every attempt to survive until the helicopter arrived. Tyler was able to help me hold off the swarming hordes long enough for us to reach the helipad and jump onto the helicopter, and we were off to the next chapter. Now we’re both stuck at the end of the second chapter, in a farmhouse out in the country, again waiting for help to arrive. Another great aspect of this game is it’s “fear factor” (another “sorry” to NBC for stealing another title). The game can be so quiet and calm at times, and then BAM, zombies everywhere, attacking you so fast you panic! It’s very well done, and an awesome game to play at night, alone in the dark, with the volume cranked up (and the wife not home). The “crescendo moments” are very dramatic and frightening.

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In “Fish News” – our baby Plecostamus passed away a couple weeks ago. We’re not sure why, all of the other fish look healthy…except one. Over the past couple days we’ve noticed one tigerfish that likes to swim upside down. He swims continuously, he just constantly does it upside down, 99% of the time. We’re going to have to get our water tested I think. But other than those two, the tank has been amazingly stable for a couple years.

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In “Employment News” – We’re both still employed, which, in this economy, is a major accomplishment in itself.

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In “Family News” – Bear (Dennis) is now engaged to Diane, Sandy just turned the big “FIVE-OH! MY ACHING BACK!” and Kevin just turn eleven. That’s about it for now. I’ll be scanning some more photo albums soon, so watch for those. L8r!

X-Box (Microsoft)

X-Box 360 First Impressions

The 360 has been out for quite some time, but I’ve been in “PS3 Land” for the past few years, and I’ve totally avoided anything X-Box up until last month, so this is my look at how it is, from someone who now has both the PS3 and the X-Box 360. There are some very interesting similarities and differences, that’s for sure, and I’ll get to those soon enough. Kevin had been wanting the “Viva Pinata” games and a few other “X-Box exclusive” games for a while now, dropping hints here and there. I mostly tried to ignore them in the past, but in my spare time I’d look closer at them once in awhile, read some X-Box reviews and comparisons to the PS3, nothing too serious, just guaging the competition. So as his birthday approached (and tax refund time came) this year, I focused more of my time on the 360 and its pluses and minuses, and eventually–just before Kevin’s birthday–decided to go ahead and get one. We made it a birthday present, though it’s far beyond the budget we usually have for his birthday gifts. We explained to him afterward that it’s more of a gift for the entire family, and he understood. We also got him the Viva Pinata games though, and those are “just for him”. He’s enjoying them a great deal. But those, as it turns out, are only a small part of the big picture. The selection of online X-Box Live “Arcade” games is pretty big, as it turns out. I would say it’s about equal to PS3’s selection though. Both the PS3 and X-Box 360 have online services of course, and one of the “minuses” I have found with the 360 is that there is a monthly fee for the “X-Box Live Gold Membership”, while the PS3’s network is completely free. It’s not much, and it’s cheapest if you pay for it annually, but it’ll add up, that’s for sure. There is a free “Silver” membership option, but you lose a lot of the best features of the service that way. Another “minus” is in the structure of the X-Box Live account–only one user can be online at any given time on a single account, even though you can have multiple “profiles” on that account. So you you want to play a 2-player split-screen game locally (in the same household) forget about it, unless you have two separate X-Box Live Gold accounts! So this mean that in order for Kevin and I to play against each other and have the system keep our “Gamerscores” and achievement stats separate, we both have to have our own completely separate accounts–which costs me double annually. I’m hoping Microsoft comes to their senses on this eventually, but I doubt it. For now, Kevin and i have our two separate accounts, and we’re enjoying the heck out of them. The PS3 and the 360 also both have trophy systems–The PS3 calls them “Trophies” and the 360 calls the “Achievements”, but they’re pretty much the same thing. You earn a trophy in a game when you either perform a very difficult or interesting task in a game, or if you complete a specific mission or level in a game. each game designer determines the number of trophies or achievements their games have and what is required by the player to earn them. Sony then lets you compare your trophy collection with all of your friends. Microsoft, however, has taken this much further and developed a cool way of collecting all of your achievement points into a “Gamerscore”. You can not only compare your achievements with your friends, but you have a total “Gamerscore” that represents your overall achievement total. You can see just how adept your friends are at a particular game by checking out thier total gamerscore on a game, or see just how active they are overall by looking at their full score (and drooling). On the minus side for the 360, however, is the way they handle the monetary system on X-Box Live. On the PS3 network everything is in dollars. You can see that an add-on is $2.99, or a partular full game is $19.99. But on X-Box Live you have to deal in “points” that don’t really match up with any solid equivalent. You can buy them in “packs”, for example, 1600 X-box Live points for $20.00, $25 buys you 2000 points, etc. Basically the exchange rate is always “100 points = $1.25 US. This is supposedly very consistent, though the exchange rate for other countries for the same number of points varies quite a bit. Anyway, it makes it a little more confusing trying to determine how much you’re actually paying when you purchase something, while the PS3 makes it much simpler. As for gameplay itself, I’m not find much difference in quality of gameplay between the two systems. They both seem to be up to the task of playing today’s games quite well, though the X-Box network is rumored to be much better-optimized that the PS3 Network. I haven’t had enough personal experience with that yet to be certain myself though. This weekend, with Tyler (Jayson’s son) visiting, we’ve been giving the 360 a workout, and Tyler’s really enjoying Left4Dead a lot. It has a great local two-player split-screen mode, but he’s also been playing online already, and is the first one to try out the headset that we got with the system, talking to the other players in an online battle against (and with) other zombies and human players. He says it works really well. This coming from an 11-year-old who–up until Kevin’s birthay–said he hated the X-Box 360. So all in all we’re pretty happy with it. It’s a slightly different world than the PS3, so there’s a bit of a learning curve, but it’s really fun! Our Gamertags are: JimNKev (mine) and KevNJim (Kevin’s). Tyler’s gamertag is TylerNTrottier

Family News

Matt Chat from Afghanistan

Matt’s over in Afghanistan now. He left a few days ago. He called us at 4:30 in the morning the other day. He wasn’t sure what time it was here, since he’s on the other side of the planet now. I just had a little chat with him tonight. It was great to talk to him and know he’s doing good. Here’s a capture of our conversation (most of it, anyway). I edited out the actual locations he mentioned, just in case: [18:34] Matt : hello?
[18:35] jimtrottier: hi matt!
[18:35] jimtrottier: This is Jim
[18:35] jimtrottier: Got Internet over there?!
[18:36] Matt : at this current spot i do
[18:36] jimtrottier: Where are ya?
[18:36] Matt : were gonna be movin out soon
[18:36] Matt : *******
[18:37] jimtrottier: Never heard of it. I’ll have to look it up. It’s 6:37pm Wed here. What time is it there?
[18:38] Matt : 5:37 on thursday
[18:38] jimtrottier: Wow, you’re in the FUTURE! Cool!
[18:38] Matt : haha
[18:38] Matt : yea it was kinda bizare to watch the sun rise like twice while we were flying
[18:38] jimtrottier: Is it dangerous where you are now?
[18:38] Matt : nope
[18:39] jimtrottier: Thats good
[18:39] Matt : we actually beat the sun rise here
[18:39] jimtrottier: cool
[18:39] Matt : saw it half way and then it came back
[18:40] Matt : mom working?
[18:40] jimtrottier: Yes
[18:41] Matt : ahh kevin asleep already?
[18:41] jimtrottier: Not yet. playing LBP right now
[18:42] Matt : ahhh anything new come out yet?
[18:42] jimtrottier: nope, no new costumes or anything last week either. We’re waiting for two weeks worth of goodies this thursday
[18:43] Matt : is it expected to come out?
[18:43] Matt : yea
[18:44] jimtrottier: something should at least. Last week nothing cause of the holiday, so i jsut think there’ll be more than usual. No rumors yet though.
[18:44] Matt : yep thats it
[18:44] jimtrottier: Can’t even pronouce the name of that place!
[18:45] jimtrottier: What they got you doin?
[18:45] Matt : absolutely nothing
[18:45] Matt : i sit around and watch movies
[18:46] jimtrottier: Not a bad gig!
[18:46] Matt : completely filled up my tb already
[18:46] jimtrottier: wow!
[18:49] Matt : i wanna get a new one and start working on it
[18:49] jimtrottier: Another tb? holy crap
[18:49] Matt : yea lol
[18:51] jimtrottier: They have new 1.5tb drives now, nice.
[18:51] Matt : yeah i saw that i was thinking about getting one and selling my tb probably
[18:52] Matt : i seen one that was 2tb at best buy i dont know if it was 2 individual or combined
[18:52] Matt : but it was expensive
[18:53] jimtrottier: I think it was 2 drives in 1 box. Lemme check…
[18:55] jimtrottier: It doesn’t say if it’s 2 drives in 1 or not. It’s a NAS though, not USB.
[18:56] Matt : whats that?
[18:56] jimtrottier: Network Attached Storage. Connects through a network port, like a PC to a network.
[18:57] Matt : ahh
[19:01] Matt : i gotta get going
[19:02] Matt : my buddy wants to head back to the tent
[19:02] jimtrottier: Ok. Keep safe. We’ll talk to ya later. bubye
[19:02] *** “Matt ” signed off at Wed Jan 07 19:02:39 2009.

Family News

Christmas 2008

We had a wonderful Christmas this year. It was full of family get-togethers, gifting, and TONS OF SNOW. We could have done without so much of the snow though, my back is killing me! All in all though, it was pretty nice to see everyone again and have them all over for another amazing grilled-ham Christmas dinner. All of the photo highlights are posted, of course, so you can click on the thumbnail to take a look. Kevin got some great games for the Wii and PS3, so he’s (we’re) bust playing all of those every chance we get. Sandy’s loving her new GPS–the first one she’s ever had– and I’m amazed at how simple they really are to use. I was expecting them to require some sort of elaborate antenna hookup in the car, or at least a monthly subscription to access the satellite system, but no, it’s really that simple. A one-time purchase and that’s it. The antenna is built-in and works quite well, receiving contant updates every second or two, telling her how fast she’s going, exactly when to turn, and even displaying the little car icon of her choosing and selecting the voice of her choosing! It was very amusing to hear “Elfred” the Christmas Elf give her directions. His mid-trip commentary is quite entertaining.

Update: 12/30/08 – I just finished posting all of our Christmas and New Years photos for 2008! There’s nearly 200 photos in all, so there’s plenty to sift through! Take a look. Highlights include: Christmas Eve at Beth & Tom’s, Christmas Day at Home, and Our Lil New Year’s Eve Celebration at Home with Tyler, Jayson’s son, who spent about a week with us over the holiday break. The photos are sorted chronologically, so they start a few weeks before Christmas when we put up and decorated our tree, and end with our New Year’s Eve celebration and Ty and Kev opening their presents from Jay & Shell. Enjoy!

Playstation (Sony)

Five days on a Little Big Planet

The following enourmous blog entry was written over a five day period following our purchase of Little Big Planet. If you’re not into video games, just skip down a ways. Otherwise read on! Day 1:
Ok, we got LBP. Played around and leaned for a few hours, and this is so cool. Don’t wait, go get it and never look back. For starters, if you have the Eye and a headset it’s like the ultimate use of everything together! We gotta play this thing together, Bluetooth and Eye. You start with only a few items and as you play through the levels you find more and more new stuff. You design your sack person any way you like, even make him sad or happy, slap stickers all over the levels wherever and whenever you want, and you can even take snapshots for the Eye and make stickers out of them, slapping your own face anywhere you want. The controls take some getting used to, but they make complete sense once you learn them. Pull, push, jump things to manipulate everything and experiment. You’ll play the first level for hours just learning the controls. Its kind of like a 2D platformer, but with a 3rd dimension inward and outward on three levels.

This is only the beginning though. I heard you can bring in your own photos and stuff and do tons more creating levels and sharing, doing multiplayer online, etc… None of which we’ve even tried yet. Day 2:
I worked today till 6pm. Kevin was off of school, so guess what he did all day? LBP, non-stop. He got a lot further, learned a few new things, and managed to complete the 3 initial levels, which unlocks the entire level building and online play modes! So when I got home I took the controller from him and tried things out. First of all, it’s hard to sum it up in a nutshell, but I’ll try because I don’t want to sit here typing all night… As you play you discover and unlock more and more items and abilities. Everything it added to your “toolbox”, categorized and place it the appropriate places. So with only a few levels completed, and each of them with only a small percentage of goodies found, there’s still a ton more options and goodies to find just in the first few levels alone. After learning some quick basics with a few tutorials in the game I started placing thing on a blank level. Wow, smooth building, fun, just amazing gadgets and abilities, even add you own music, snap photos of yourself onto stickers and place them throughout, on any objects you want. Use different materials (so far I just have wood and rubber to play with and only 1 piece of music), and just have a blast trying stuff out and then playing the level to see how it reacts.

Ever play that Amazing Contraption game I had for the PC? Kinda like that, on crack. So I saved the crappiest level you can imagine, so broken it’s pathetic, but the point is, I did it. Next if was off to the online mode and again I was instantly blown away. Each “Level” is represented by a planet. You rotate each planet to reveal a collection of user-created levels, like countries or continents, on that planet. Kevin only thought there was the one planet. I noticed it said “Level 1” in the corner of the screen, so I hit R1 and went to Level 2–another completely new planet of different levels. It goes on and on, and so far I’ve only browsed through about 15 levels, playing a few choice ones. People are nuts. The levels are so awesomely complex sometimes, and really simple other times. I haven’t chatted with anyone else yet, but I listened to them talk. The highlight of tonight’s experience was when four of us completed a level. All 3 of the people I was playing against followed me back to my “pod”. This is your “home” starting room where you always start the game and people can follow back here! You decorate your pod with your stickers and gadgets too! Mine’s pretty bare, but Kevin’s is all decked out and fancy schmancy. I take a photo of them and send them to you for comparison. So anyway, the reason these guys followed me soon became apparent… They all wanted the code for the cool outfit I was wearing! This is the outfit I unlocked with the code I got from pre-ordering the game from Best Buy! Apparently it’s cool and they like it! I have bright red, log, flowing hair, and a sorta ninja outfit. I’ll take photos of it too, so you can see. I couldn’t give them the code though–it’s entered as under “transaction management” and goes in as a purchased item! I tried re-using it on Kevin’s account, and it’s invalid now, since I already used it. Turns out Kevin gets to use it anyway, cause it was automatically in his goodies already. So it’s not really a cheat code anyone can use. This really makes the game much more interesting… I’m wondering if it’s unique now, whether all Best Buy pre-orders have the same outfit or different ones… hmmm.

So that’s it for tonight. I have the next 3 days off of work, so there’s much more to come… Day 3:
Today we learned why there is so little available when you first get the game. When you finish each tutiorial you are given 8,10,12 or more objects for your goodie bag. These can be just stickers, gameplay objects or anything else, and I’m pretty sure they’re divvied up strategically. They’ll give you a bunch of colors, stickers, and then one or two key elements. When you try to use one of those key elements you’ve never used before, you’re prompted to go through another tutorial on how to use it. And that’s how the cycle goes. But there’s a shortcut–In your pop-it menu (I tend to call it “pop-UP”) there’s a big ole “?” icon. This is “Play Next Tutorial”. So you can go through each tutorial one-by-one pretty easily. The HARD part though, is that you don’t just WATCH the tutorial–you have to do what the ole lady says. See, there’s this English-accented guy that narrates the video tutorial while you’re like on a blank level or a level with a few objects setup for the tutorial. Then this big ole queen-looking lady statue is there, and she explains exactly what you have to do to complete the tutorial. These tasks involve using the new objects that the tutorial is about. Complete them properly and you’re rewarded with a bunch of new stuff. For example, one tutorial was a build a specific pyramid-shaped structure out of a specific type of material, add a switch somewhere, wire the switch to the object, and set it to blow up when the switch is pushed. It’s great fun to blow things up (or do ANYTHING on this game), so you have a blast just re-trying it until you do it just right and the tutorial (sadly) ends and you get your rewards (gladly). It’s a roller coaster ride for all of your senses!

Last night I played a little more before bedtime, just to get a little further in the tutorials. I’m wondering just how many tutorials there are before I know (and have) all I need to complete a level and share it. I suspect it will be some time yet. I’m anxious to “cheat” and search the web to see just how many tutorials there are and what all will be revealed, but for now I’ll hold off. We’ll see how far I get with my three days off, then if I’m still not done I’ll go try find out how close I am. I took a few photos last night too. Here’s the link:

http://jimsphotoworld.com/gallery/6420331_XnFSi#406643434_Zu7Y6

Lastly, we also learned that you can “heart” almost anything, even on other users’ levels. This adds them to your “favorites” and they’re in your toolbox for use in your levels (if the user set the object to be shared when they created it). Kevin is now obsessed with just playing in the level editor on his Moon. He’s adding all the stuff he’s collected from other places and those in his toolbox, and just messing around. He’s getting nowhere in the real game, but he’s learning. Hey, I just stumbled on this too:

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

Watch it all the way through. WOW! Imagine the possibilities if a total geek can build THIS with it! Day 4:
Kevin is obsessed with tinkering on the custom level areas on his Moon. He’s trying every gadget, sticker, and prop we’ve collected, tweaking them, adding onto them, and basically accomplishing nothing, but he’s totally engrossed. Occasionally he’ll play another game level and unlock some more stuff, then come back to his moon, and start playing with the new stuff he’s found. Occasionally I have to interrupt him to ask if we can play a level together, and at other times he’ll get to a puzzle in a level that actually requires two players to solve and he’ll ask me to join in. It works much like the Lego games in that way””I can jump in, help him solve a puzzle, and jump back out again while he moves on. Some things he can do better than me (like punching the other player with a swift backhand) and other things (like those that require precise timing) I can do better than him, so it’s really neat that way. I still must say, it is by far the best PS3 game ever, and this game alone could sell a ton of PS3 systems! With all the levels included, the countless user-created levels online, and the “sandbox” to create your own levels, this game has endless possibilities! The only negative I see at this point is one function that was mentioned very early on that seems to be missing from the game””the ability to use your own music and images in the game. From what I’ve read online, this may have been initially included and later removed to avoid a lot of issues with users including copyrighted images and music in their creations. This is very disappointing, because it seems like it would be awesome (as easy!) to create, for example, a completely interactive, custom photo slideshow, even if you could only share it with friends and family on your own system (because of the copyright issues)””I think it would still be a huge plus for the game anyway, and I’d love to use it! I could navigate through the “level’, revealing the photos throughout, on the walls and object, as I walked, and record it onto DVD or other media. It seems like this would open the possibilities up even much further than they already are. The open-endedness is always still there though, with the limitless adding of objects to your goodie bag, and the ability for the game creators to “patch” the game whenever they feel the need, so you never know””maybe they’ll be nice enough to somehow allow this ability at some point in the future. We can only hope (and beg). I’ll be waiting. Day 5:
Today I just wanted to do a few simple things. After wrestling the controller from Kevin I was able to try out a few simple ideas I had, just to see what would happen and whether or not they were actually possible. Kevin himself made a very interesting “race” level before I began, so we decided to run a few races on it just before I started. He basically had a simple track setup with the starting gate at the left end of the playing area and the finish line at the right-most edge of the playing area. If you think this is a short distance, think again. Though he just made a straight one-shot no-turn race, it still takes a bit of time to get from start to finish. Or so I thought. What he had done was set several of his favorite “modes of travel” at the starting line, so the players could basically take their pick. As soon as a player approaches the starting gate, the 3-2-1 countdown begins. You either hop on something and take off, or start running your butt off on foot! I had never seen two out the four items he had placed on the starting line. He had a jet pack (I am familiar with this one), a huge camouflage tank (I’ve seen this one too””very sloooow), a cheetah (new to me), and a rocket (right outta the the Road Runner cartoons!) He suggested we try the cheetah and the rocket first, so we did. WOW. I never knew anything in this game even WENT that fast! Both the Cheetah and the rocket are comparable in speed, and they zipped so fast from start to finish that you were airbourne the entire ride, hanging on for dear life with the R1 button! If you had let go of R1 for even a split second you’d be thrown off your ride and left miles in the dust. If you managed to hold on for the entire ride, you’d end up slamming into the wall immediately after the finish line, and your vehicle, no matter which one it was, would smash into pieces, sometimes even leaving the engine (from the rocket) or the Cheetah’s rear-end actually embedded in the wall itself!! That southern lawyer on Boston Legal said it best: “This is a HOOT, that’s what THIS is!” After a few more hilarious races (the rocket actually FLIES horizontally through the race, so if you nudge it a little it’ll actually steer off-course, sometimes sending you into a wacky spin & crash) we wrapped up his time and I got a chance to play a little on my own. My first idea was to advertise my website by creating “JimTrottier.com” in sponge or wood material in the game, set the letters out so they made sense, then see how they “stood up” to being within a game. So I choose a small block of wood and proceeded to start drawing the letters. I drew “Jim”, then exited edit mode. This basically “releases” the objects onto the level so you can see how they appear and/or interact with any other moving parts or items and sack people (the players in Little Big Planet). When I dropped the “Jim”, the dot on the “i” fell onto the top of the “i”. In that moment I realized that this is a pretty real simulation and the physics are going to behave much like real life. Objects can’t just mysteriously “float” in space anywhere. They have to be attached to something, connected to something hidden behind them so they “appear” to be floating, or they’re just not going to stay put. That is, unless they’re made of “dark matter”. This is material that throws physics out the window””put it anywhere and it sticks””kinda like what I assumed would happen with the wood I used. So basically you can “have it your way”, “real” or “unreal”. I chose to stick with real, and finished drawing out my letters until the full “JimTrottier.com” was written. I released it once again, and the “r” fell over, the two “i” dots fell of course, and the “c” fell over onto the dot because the bottom of it was rounded. The “T” was satisfying though””I made the top extend from over the “m” all the way over the small “tt’s” so it looked balanced, but very top-heavy. It stood nicely still, but the player could easily push it or pull it and knock it over and climb up onto the top of it. I then decided that instead of modifying the other shapes so they’d all stand on their own, I’d try another solution. I added a bar of dark matter a far distance above the area I was using as gameplay area, then I attached one end of a string to the bottom of the bar and the other to the top of one of the unstable letters. I released it again and this time the letter stood without falling. The player could also now push it around or climb on it and it would continue to dangle from the string and swing back and forth. I added more strings to the remaining unstable letters and the entire “JimTrottier.com” could now stand on its own””that is, until a player started messing around with the letters. I think it’s pretty cool to be able to create such a highly-detailed “world” like this, interact with it, endlessly experiment with it, and ultimately be able to share it with the rest of the PS3 community when you feel it’s “done.” It truly is amazing how far games have come, and Little Big Planet really springs that distance much further than any other game has so far. I can understand now why it’s taken the developers a few years to complete this game. Kevin and I spent the rest of the weekend working through many of the included levels in the game. As it turns out, there are many puzzles embedded within the big levels themselves that require two people to complete. These puzzles pretty much always reveal bonus objects to add to your goodie bag, and aren’t actually required to complete the level, so if you don’t have a second player you’d still be able to work through the game. Fortunately, everything we unlock together gets applied to BOTH of our users’ goodie bags, so we both benefit in our own profiles separately as well. Lastly, I’ll just say that somehow Media Molecule””the company that created this game””has gotten it more right than any other game I’ve ever played. This game is addictive, yet doesn’t get old. I know it’s only been five days, but sometimes Kevin and I had to replay levels 8 or 10 times, and you’d think it would get boring and repetitive, but we always manage to find something we didn’t see the last time””a new treasure, a different path we never tried, or even if it the gameplay is on the same route, since it’s so physics-based, doing seemingly the exact same thing you did last time can often yield completely different results””sometimes even with hilarious outcomes you never expected. And although we’ve finished many levels, only two or three of them are completed 100%, so we still have a lot to go back and do if we ever get to the end of the included levels.

News

Murder mystery from 1979

I found some interesting newspaper clippings in my dad’s things recently when we cleaned out his house. My mother liked to clip and save articles that involved friends or family, and she stored them away for future reference. Three of these clippings I found gave me some chilling flashbacks to something that happened when I was 16 years old. On Saturday evening, May 27th, 1979 our family went to the outdoor theater. We returned home at around 1:30 am and when we got out of the car all of us realized there was a strong smell of smoke in the air. Not seeing anything obviously visible, we walked around the neighborhood to find out where it was strongest. It wasn’t coming from our house, to our relief, but something was obviously burning. It quickly became clear that it was strongest straight across the street from our house. My dad walked up to the door of Mr. Bosman’s house at 6612 20th avenue and felt the door. It was very hot. He then opened the door, while at the same time I stood out front telling him he’s not supposed to open it. Smoke poured out of the door and it was so thick he didn’t try to go in immediately. He shouted across the street to my mom, who was on our porch, telling her that the fire was here, ‘call the fiire department!’. My mom basically panicked at this point and kept asking questions like “what should she say?”, “is Mr. Bosman ok?”, etc.. I was standing in front of the house and told my dad “I’LL call them!”. This was back when there were Emergency Fire Boxes on most street corners around town that contained a telephone link directly to the fire department. Most kids were well-trained about these boxes and when they were supposed to use them, so I quickly ran down to the corner, opened the box, picked up the phone and connected to the Kenosha Fire Department. I explained that the door was hot and my dad opened it and smoke is pouring out. They asked if anyone was inside and I said I didn’t know. My dad had gone into the house, found Mr. Bosman, but couldn’t tell if he was ok or not. He didn’t give a lot of information, probably because I was just a kid, and my mom was too upset already to handle more. The Fire Deparment showed up in a few minutes and took over. Mr. Bosman was found dead, and that’s about all I remember from that night. I remember that his death was somehow ruled a suicide, but we found this rediculous, since he was found with several broken ribs and several wounds to the head. How the heck does someone do all that trying to kill themselves?!?! All of the details are in the three articles my mom kept, so I thought I’d post them here, since I scanned them anyway, to preserve them digitally. The articles were very yellowed and close to falling apart, so I scanned them greyscale and sharpened them up a bit. I put all three articles in one PDF file, so you can download it and zoom in on the text to read each article. Bosman Articles – 1979

Family News

Knee Surgery and Harmony Agony

Well, my Knee Surgery is tomorrow. I’m a little nervous, but I’m glad the ordeal will finally be over and I will hopefully soon be able to walk normally, without all the pain. The surgery seems fairly common, and I (and my doctor) don’t foresee any complications, and I should be able to go home the same day.  Within a week I’m supposed to be able to put full weight back on it again, but Physical Therapy will have to continue beyond that.

I’ve been working on perfecting my new Harmony 720 Remote. I got it pretty cheap in the bargain bin at Walmart recently. Sheesh, Logitech’s software really sucks major booty though! Even with the latest version you still can’t re-order your devices the way you want. I’ve had an older Harmony model for a couple years now, and the software has improved a little, but it’s still very hard to use, and not very user-friendly.  Asking online only results in everyone saying that the Harmony remotes are activity-based, and the Device list rearranges itself based on whatever activity you choose. Arrrrrgh. It’s so customizable…yet missing this one seemingly simple feature that I crave… Very frustrating. My setup is too unique to use the Activities, which requires you to ALWAYS use the remote (for powering on and off everything, etc.) and it remembers the state every device is in at all times.  But some of us in the house turn the power of things on and off on the devices themselves once in awhile, and others use the remote most of the time, so it renders the device status memory useless. I love using just the devices with my customized buttons, and it works great, the only little thing I still want is just to be able to re-order the devices so my most-used ones are on the first page. I’m up to 11 devices. Anyone else got a Harmony?

Family News

Update on Everything

Sorry it’s been so long between posts.  I’ve been very busy with a lot of things lately, so here’s what I’ve been up to:  iPod.  I picked up an iPod recently, on the recommendation of a few friends, and I can’t put the darned thing down! I had no idea it could be so addictive–as so accessorizable–if that’s even a word… You can get pretty much any accessory for it imaginable, from simple docks you just drop it into to full-blown high-end stereo systems it integrates into!  No, I didn’t go THAT far, but I did pick up a couple inexpensive “cube-like” clock/radios with iPod docks on them–one for home and one for my desk at work.  It just makes it so simple–just drop it into the slot and it plays all my music, my movies, my photos… I just saw a really cool dock at Sam’s Club today that I am considering now.  It looks just like a portable DVD player with a 7″ LCD display, except it has an iPod-sized cutout in the lower half…just drop the iPod in and you have a portable media player with a decent-sized 7″ display!  I might just have to pick that one up.  And get this–just for the heck of it I decided to see if it could handle syncing my entire collection of Digital Camera images–over 30,000 photos and growing.  It took several hours, but it worked just fine! I was amazed.  They’re compressed of course–it automatically reduces them to a comfortable iPod-compatible size–but they still look really decent when I run them as a slideshow with the iPod connected to our 1080p television!

Besides all the iPodding lately, a lot more of my spare time has also been eaten up by the handling my dad’s estate.  I was officially appointed the Personal Representative last week, so I’m the lucky one that gets to handle every aspect of finalizing all the details, selling assets, and wrapping things up completely.  At least there’s a lawyer involved to keep everything striaght and on-track.  I can use him when needed, but not without a price of course, so I’m doing as much of it as I can without his assistance, due to our very limited funds.  This week I put an ad in the paper to sell my dad’s van, and we’re actually getting a lot of calls about it, so hopefully that part of it will come to a close very soon.

Lastly, I have been having a lot of pain in my left knee over the past few months. Apparently it is the long-term effects of falling on a patch of ice in front of our house in the middle of last winter. I felt better a few weeks after the fall, so I assumed it would be ok.  It was a little sore over the months since, but lately it has become much more painful, and walking up or down stairs in almost impossible.  I had an MRI done a couple weeks ago, and they found a tear in the center of my knee.  I’m going to see a specialist on Monday to see what has to be done next.

That’s about it I think.  Oh, except for an excellent Audiobook I’m almost finished listening to (reading?) right now–yes, as I type this.  It’s called “The Last Lecture” by Randy Pausch.  It was mentioned by Leo on the TWiT podcast recently.  It about a Virtual Reality professor at Carnegy-Mellon.  He found out he had cancer and only a few months to live, so he gave his last lecture.  The lecture itself is all over YouTube, you should definitely check it out.  The book isn’t the actual lecture, but more like his entire life story, up to and including everything about the lecture.  Randy Pausch just passed away a couple weeks ago.  Very sad story, but awesome reading and there’s a lot you can learn from him.  Take a look:

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Family News

Black Knight is Back!

Black Knight is a classic Williams pinball machine. Black Knight and I go way back. I met him years ago at a place called Funway Freeway in Kenosha. It was an awesome arcade, back when arcades were more than just money making machines out to get your quarters. Back when you could actually learn and win a game, earn free games, and heck… even SELL a bunch of racked up credits to some sucker who wasn’t good enough at the game to earn them himself…YET.

I mastered Black Knight in the arcade. For months and months I learned the moves, all the nudges, perfect shots and combos, everything I needed to come in early, pop in a quarter, and play all day on it. It was a blast, and it paid off for me. Pinball Wizard wasn’t just a song, it was my life. And Hans was that poor sucker in the first paragraph who bought most of my credits. Yeah, some days I even turned a PROFIT!

A few years later, after Black Knight was eventually retired from the arcade and replaced with some new money-gobbling machine–when my master skills were waning, Bob Jensen gets a Black Knight machine for his restaurant, Pizza Popper. Not long afterward, it was offered for sale. I grabbed it of course, I couldn’t resist. It was $300 of money well spent, in my opinion. Getting it into my parent’s house and up to my bedroom must have been an interesting project, but I don’t really remember any of that. All I remember is playing it endlessly, cleaning it, and just looking at it. I had my dream machine, right there in my room.

Eventually it broke down though, to a point where I couldn’t fix it. I think it was a circuit board that failed, if I remember correctly. I got rid of it after that, and I don’t really remember who took it off my hands, if it was Hans or someone else. But Black Knight had provided a lot of the glue that brought Hans and I together back in the day, so there’s always been that special something in it.

Since then I had only my memories of it. Up until recently, when we got our Wii. Just after buying it we wanted to try out a few games on it, so we went to Family Video to rent some. I noticed a game titled “Williams Pinball Classics” so i picked it up. I flipped it over and looked at the 10 pinball machines that it contained. There it was. Black Knight was back. I doubted it was any good, so I thought renting it would be a pretty safe bet, since it’s much cheaper than shelling out the price of the full game. I really didn’t expect much, but thought it would be funny to see how close it was to the real thing.

Not knowing much anything about the Wii yet, we had to figure out the goofy nun-chuck connection thingie.. (why the heck does the nun-chuck use a WIRE, when the controllers are wireless?!?!) Who’s the brainiac that came up with that one? Fire him and hire someone who can develop a wireless nun-chuck! Duh. Anyway, we put the disc in and I immediatety searched the arcade and found no Black Knight. Silly thing was hiding up on the second floor! I quickly inserted my virtual quarter and figured out how to start a game and flip.

\r\n

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Whoa. I was able to earn almost one million (you get a free game at one million) on my first game. I got just over 800,000 points, and by golly my SHOTS were there!!! Just a little more practice and I could get this down just like the real thing! It’s really quite well done for a virtual pinball machine! The timing, physics, and the who package is just amazingly accurate. There are a few sound issues I can hear and a couple mechanical differences, but I doubt many others beside Hans and myself would ever even notice. You can even nudge (in different directions!) and tilt, as well as play from several different camera angles! How they did it I have no idea, but I’m sure the original designers and/or some diehard players had a lot of input.

Fast forward a few weeks to today…

Jay was here from Arizona just after we got our Wii and we were in the middle of this rental.. Jay knows Black Knight well, having played it in my room quite a bit himself. Now my goal is to get him off of my high score board. The hard way. Tonight I got one step closer to my goal. It shouldn’t be long. I was able to “roll” the REAL Black Knight pretty easily ‘way back when’. Just a little more timeis all I need… you’ll see…Click on the thumbnail to see tonight’s high score.

Family News

Thank you!

Thank you everyone who attended the visitations and the funeral.  It was great to see everyone again, but it’s so sad that it takes something so tragic to get everyone together.

Thanks to everyone who sent flowers, gave cards, donations, and helped plan things.

A special thanks to Bruch Funeral Home.  Kris did such an awesome job of just taking care of every little detail so well, and making us feel so comfortable, it just made the whole ordeal so much less stressful than I thought it was going to be.

Thanks to Casa Capri for an excellent luncheon after the funeral, and for everyone who attended the luncheon.  Again, it was great to see you all!

Lastly, I’d like to thank the U.S. Navy for providing such a formal, respectful, and memorable graveside service for my father.  I’m sure he got quite a kick out of it, and it’s something we will certainly never forget.

Family News

Dad’s Funeral Sermon

Funeral for Harold Trottier
6/12/08 ““ First United Methodist Church
Rev. Ned Hintzman

Note: The recording may have started just after the service did, so a small portion of the pastor’s words are probably missing. This was my best effort to transcribe the service.

God gives us the capacity to mix our losses with our celebrations, our sadness with our joy, and our grief and our comfort. You see, the loss we feel is the gain we have been given. Think about that. The loss you feel today is because of the gain you have been given. Harold was a good and simple man. Life was not complicated for him. Surround him with his family on Christmas at his house and he was happy. Maybe he had on his red sweats and his Santa’s hat, and if he did, he was in his glory. Family cookouts, where somebody else did the cooking, was a good thing. He was doing well then. Give him a good steak along with his dog Tiny Toy in his arms or Friday night fish fry, and he was satisfied.

He was a good father to all you children, and his children’s spouses. To you, Jimmy and your wife Sandy, to Clayton and Clifford, and daughters Karen and Penny and husband Robert, and Loretta and Elizabeth and husband Tom. There are lots of good memories, of watching scary movies on the Sci-Fi station. There was that sense of humor that, to my understanding, at times was boundless (laughs). You never knew where it was going. And there was the “Bozzo” image that sticks in your mind. The trips to the family reunions during the summer in the Chevy station wagon, a loving grandpa to twelve grandchildren and Grandpa T. to seventeen great grandchildren. The scooter rides. And his dog Tiny Toy. Watching gangster movies, and sleeping over, and rummaging, just having a good time.

And not to be forgotten this morning are those 42 years that he and Donna were married. Her seemingly untimely death in 1992 ended a lot of travel plans with that barely two-year-old van that had hopes and plans written all over it. The van that remains, even though it doesn’t run. But he couldn’t have it be sold, because he couldn’t part with it.

Harold was in the Naval Reserves for five years and will be honored for that service when we are at Sunset Ridge. He was employed for over forty years at American Motors, and in recent years again, just, I guess I need to say it again, he loved that Sci-Fi channel. All the mysterious and scary movies that were on there. The picture boards””I always like looking at picture boards. Picture boards full of those pictures that, for you, bring back all those memories, all those good times, all those hopeful times, all that time that you lived with him, and he knew and loved you.

The bulletin cover today reflects the hope of his fate. In my Father’s house there are many dwellings, many rooms that Jesus has gone ahead to prepare. One for Harold, and one that Donna’s already taken care of. He’s gone home to be with his gracious and loving God, to be with Donna and the rest of those who have gone before him.

These words seem appropriate today:

God looked around his garden and he found an empty place.
He then looked down upon this earth and saw your tired face.
He put his arm around you and lifted you to rest.
God’s garden must be beautiful, he always takes the best.
He knew that you were suffering; he knew that you were in pain,
He knew that you would never get well ever again.
He saw that the road was getting rough and the hills were hard to climb.
So he closed your weary eyelids and whispered “peace be thine”.
It broke our hearts to lose you, but you didn’t go alone,
For part of us went with you, the day God called you home.

The joy of our fate is that when this life in the world can no longer be, God has another place prepared for us. A place where peace passes all understanding and living is always full and we share that hope not only for those who have died, but for us, as we continue into our lives. And I pray today that each one of us may live each day in the gracious compassion of God’s love. I pray that we might live with the assurance that God gives us, knowing that our lives will be filled with faith, and fill with the trust in God that is necessary, no matter what comes our way, no matter what we need, believing and knowing that God will be with us. This great gift of life. May you go forth today as people ready to live and ready to die knowing that either way, you are the Lord’s. Amen.

{Hymn: How Great Thou Art}

Go in peace. And may the peace, and the love, and the blessing of God Almighty, go with you, and be with you, now and always. In the name of the Father, the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.

Family News

Funeral Services for Dad

Here are the funeral arrangements for my dad, Harold L. Trottier.  If you would like to visit his online memorial book or read his obituary, please click here.

Visitation
Wednesday, June 11th, 2008
5:00 pm – 7:00 pm
Bruch Funeral Home
3503 Roosevelt Rd
Kenosha, WI 53142
(262) 652-8298

Church Services
Thursday, June 12th, 2008
10:00 am – 11:00 am Visitation
11:00 am Funeral Service
First United Methodist Church
919 60th Street
Kenosha, WI 53140

Interment will follow the church services at:

Sunset Ridge Memorial Park
6211 38th St
Kenosha, WI 53144
(262) 652-7488

Family News

Dad’s Gone

My father, Harold (Bozzo) Trottier, passed away this morning at Kenosha Memorial Hospital. He was 77 years old. He was born in 1931, and lived a good life. He raised a family of 7 children–A fine legacy to carry on his name–and we will all miss him greatly. I will post more as we learn more and as time permits. Tomorrow the details of the funeral and visitation will be finalized, but at this point we have set Wednesday evening for the visitation, with the funeral to be held on Thursday.

In memory, I’d like to re-post a portion of the sermon that Reverend Charles King gave when my mother passed away:

“This album of memories will contain a section for her husband, and their children, and the children of those children. Donna and Harold went to school together here in Kenosha and when the family moved to Iowa, Harold managed to cross Wisconsin to continue to see Donna. He was considered by Donna’s sisters, “Almost a part of the family.” But they had to wait until Donna was eighteen and had graduated from high school before they could get married, and so they did.

Obviously Donna loved her family, and I know that you who are here can fill in the blanks with example after example of her love and forgiveness and patience and the cheer that she radiated and which was kind of contagious. You are the ones who can share with each other sentences that start out: “Do you remember the time we. . .” I grew up in a very small family and when I was a child that was fine–one sister was even too much at times. But when I witness the support that larger families provide one another and all the interaction that takes place, I know that I missed something–like traditions at Easter and the entire family around to decorate the Christmas tree, and waiting until midnight and the start of Christmas to open presents. So there will be a large number of pages in this family section.”

There is much more to that sermon, so if you’d like to read it in its entirety, just click here.

News

Passing gas and digital TV

I recently heard a radio commercial on my way to work that startled me.  I couldn’t tell if it was a joke or not at first. It was about passing gas, of all things.  It was a family at dinnertime and the dad says “After a meal like that, I have GOT to pass gas!” The kids scream “No! Daddy’s gas could kill us all!” Then the father goes on to explain that the kids are right, etc., etc.  At the end of the commercial they refer you to dontpassgas.com and it’s an ad from the American Legacy Foundation.  Check their website, there’s even a couple television commercials there.  They all are really vague about their exact meaning until the very end of the commercial, but they’re actually referring to the gas passed by second-hand smoke, not the bodily function of passing gas.  Geez, if I had to step outside every time I had to pass gas, I might as well LIVE out there!

Another new site worth visiting is DTVAnswers.com.  It provides all of the information you need about the upcoming switch to Digital TV in the US, which is taking place on 2/17/09.  Everyone will be required to either have a digital TV by that time, or have cable or satellite TV.  People who still have older TVs and use over-the-air signals to watch TV will have to purchase a Digital TV converter box in order to still watch TV.  Fortunately the site also provides the details on how you can apply for a coupon from the NTIA for $40 toward the purchase of a converter box (limit 2 per household).  Digital TV is defintely a reality, so it’s time to switch or you’ll be watching snow… And we’ve certainly seen enough SNOW lately!!

I added these two links to by links list, or you can click on them in the article to visit the sites.

News

Blizzard of 2008

The paper says that we officially got 8-14 inches of snow yesterday, depending on what part of town you were in.  Further North, in and around Milwaukee they got even more—as much as 20 inches.  It’s been an interesting couple days, to say the least.  Here’s my story:

I left work at 3:30pm.  Well, actually it was much later, because I couldn’t leave the parking lot—I was stuck in my parking space.  When I got to my car in the parking lot of Vista Medical Center East, it was covered in several inches of heavy, wet snow.  One thing that was a bit amusing to see was our car antenna.  We have a “Homer Simpson in a  Donut” antenna topper on our car (so Sandy can find the car in a parking lot) and that thing had accumulated several pounds of ice and snow, shaped itself into a huge ball, bending the antenna 180 degrees so it rested back onto the car!  I looked pretty funny, and I wished I had a camera with me to capture the image.  No such luck, so I proceeded to start up the car and clean the snow off of it.  After clearing all of the snow from the car (it was still snowing like crazy, making it hard to keep up) I got in and tried to pull out of my space.  I rocked it a few inches forward and back, and kept doing that for awhile, but it wasn’t budging much.  Someone eventually walked up to my car with a shovel and just started shoveling me out.  He told me when it was clear, I thanked him, and then he directed me out of the space.  I got stuck again trying to go forward through the parking lot, but I was able to move fine in reverse, so I backed all the way out of my parking space and out of the lot and onto Sheridan Road in reverse all the way.  Fortunately traffic was extremely slow-moving on Sheridan Road, so I was able to pull all the way onto the street without stopping.  Stopping anywhere within the parking lot probably would have resulted in me getting immediately stuck again.

Once I hit Sheridan Road it wasn’t so bad.  The roads were someone plowed for the most part, and the tire treads from other cars made the going easier in a few areas that didn’t seem to be plowed at all.  It took a lot of time to travel the 12 miles home traveling at 15 mph or less the entire way.  I spoke to Sandy on the phone during the trip and she told me that a few cars had already gotten stuck on our street.  I decided it wasn’t worth the risk.  I didn’t want to end up stranded in the middle of the road and have to leave my car in an unsafe place, so I decided to park in a nearby parking garage and walk the few blocks home.  The remaining ride to the parking garage was uneventful, luckily.  I made it safely, locked up the car, bundled up, and proceeded to walk home on foot.

I got about a block away, walking on the sidewalk, and realized it was just too difficult to trudge through this all the way home.  The snow was at least a foot high, and sometimes past my knees as I walked, and very hard to get through.  Looking at the street, however, I realized it was much clearer there.  So I switched to walking in the street for the rest of the walk home.  The street, however, had its own drawbacks—it was solid ice in some places, and there was also traffic to watch out for.  Sheridan Road turned out to be the worst part of it (aside from the first block I walked in the deep stuff).  Sheridan Road looked like solid ice, and it was very slippery.  I slipped a few times, but didn’t hurt myself.  I was pretty nervous about all the traffic zipping by me though.

Eventually I got home, but I had to pause a few times along the way to catch my breath and rest a bit.  By the time I got a few houses from home my back was really killing me.  Once inside the house I rested in a chair, and my legs and feet felt pretty numb, and my feet were soaked.  I warmed up after awhile and felt fine again, so no harm done I guess.  After Kevin went to bed, Sandy and I went out to start shoveling.  It was still snowing a little, but we knew it was stopping soon after I checked the radar map.  After shoveling for some time we ran out of places to put the snow.  The piles we had built up were so high that it was very difficult to throw the snow high enough to get it to stay there any more.

After managing to get everything cleared I was about to come back in the house when I saw a flash in the sky and heard a loud boom and a bzzzzz bzzzzzzp followed by everything in the neighborhood going dark for a couple seconds and then coming back on.  It looked and sounded like a transformer blew somewhere close by, but I couldn’t tell exactly where.  Sandy checked the flashlights and made sure  some candles were ready in case we needed them.  The power stayed on the rest of the night though, so we lucked out.

In the morning I got up early, and as expected, the plow had come through in the night and plowed 2 to 3 feet of snow back into our driveway.  There was also about another inch on snow on our sidewalk.  So I shoveled the walk and the driveway again and moved the plow’s aftermath.  We had an open section of shoveled lawn that our neighbor was nice enough to clear for us after the previous snow storm, which was for our garbage and recyclables, so I ended up having to use this spot to move the driveway snow to.  So right now we don’t have a good spot for our garbage to sit for pickup, but at least our sidewalk and driveway are clear.

We went and got our car back from the parking garage today too, so everything worked out ok.  I even took the camera with me and snapped some photos when I took Kevin to school this morning, so I’ve created a “Blizzard of 2008” folder and posted those pictures in it.  Click here to take a look at them.

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Snow Sculpting 2008

The photos are now online from our visit to the 2008 National Snow Sculpting Competition in Lake Geneva.  We were there today and it seemed much more crowded than previous years… probably because the weather was decent instead of the below-zero blizzard conditions I remember from last year.  We had to park a few blocks away, but even that was ok–Kevin and I got a chance to walk and talk together and enjoy the brisk outdoors a bit.

My favorite one–and it’s gotta be in the top 3 if not the top prize winner–was “Sharks Lair.”  Great detail all around and very well done.  We even got photos of the team that did that one, posing with their finished sculpture.  On the downside, one I thought was in pretty bad taste was called “Till the fat lady swings.”  It was just that–a fat lady swinging on a swing.  I didn’t care for it much, although, I must admit, much of the detailed surroundings in the sculpture were nicely rendered.

Click on the thumbnail image to view the photos.  I’ll update the captions with the 1st, 2nd and 3rd place winners as soon as the results are released.

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Motorstorm

Hello, my name is Jim, and I’m an addict.  Or so my wife says.  I just love to play MotoStorm.  Tonight I played for hours, and now my eyes are still twitching, making the computer display look out of focus a bit.  There’s something about playing a hi-def game that messes with your head a little.  Normal screens just don’t look right immediately afterward.  It takes awhile for your brain to readjust to regular refresh rates and lower resolution I think.

MotorStorm rocks though.  And in case you haven’t heard of it, it’s a new game for PS3 that really showcases a lot of what the PS3 can do.  It’s highly addicting, both pretty to look at and extremely “dirty” at the same time, amazingly detailed, and did I mention highly addictive?  And by “dirty” I mean dirt-dirty–there’s mud and dirt everywhere in the game, and it covers not only the vehicles and drivers, but also sprays and splashes all over the game camera, covering my 47″ flat-planel display with muck! This is an offroad racing game that takes place at a festival in Monument Valley, Arizona.  And from what I gather, Monument Valley is a real place, and I’ve viewed a lot of photos of it on the web since I purchased the game, comparing them to areas in the game.  From what I can tell, it looks to be a very accurate representation of many parts of the area, but I’m sure the maps, for the most part, were generated digitally to give the player the best gaming experience possible.  Here’s how one website describes the REAL Monument Valley:

Monument Valley is an area of free standing sandstone rock forms that rise majestically from the desert floor. Up to 1,000 feet tall, they create a truly magical desert landscape. The beauty of the area is a fact well documented by the numerous Western movies and television commercials for which Monument Valley has served as a backdrop. (So whether or not you were aware of it, you have very likely already seen Monument Valley.)

Monument Valley is located along the Utah/Arizona border towards the southeast corner of Utah. It is just east of Hwy. 163, about 22 miles southwest of Mexican Hat, Utah and 24 miles north of Kayenta, Arizona.

And playing in the “digital version” of this landscape just looks so real, I’d like to some day see this area in person just to experience it.  You can lag behind all the other racers and just take in the scenery, and it’s still a fun time.  But for the best experience, get into a real race and try to win.  Any way possible.  There’s no rules, no specific routes to follow.  Shortcuts are everywhere, and most scenery is even destructable, depending on the ruggedness of your vehicle.  For example a large billboard is no obstacle for a big rig to slam through, but slam into it head-on on a little motorcycle and you’ll find yourself and your bike are soon parted…in several pieces.

When you first start playing the regular game (offline) there’s not many options for tracks or levels.  You have to start with the first two or three tracks and come in 1st, 2nd or 3rd to qualify and earn points.  The better you place, the more points you get.  Gather enough points and you unlock new levels and vehicles.  I’ve unlocked a few new levels so far.  It takes a lot of practice and trial and error to learn what paths are best to take for whichever vehicle you choose, and you’ll find yourself liking certain types of vehicles more than others.  But some levels force you to use a specific vehicle, so you have to learn to use each vehicle type and learn how it handles and how to win with it.

The last feature I’ll mention (since this is starting to sound like a game review) is the online play.  Sony’s free online service is great.  There’s always hundreds of people playing MotorStorm in one of 4 or 5 servers listed.  You can choose a server and then either create a “room” of your own (allowing you to choose everything from game level to the types of vehicles you allow in your game) and others will usually join in fairly quickly, and you can start the game when you choose.  Interestingly, once a room is created and people are in it, you can leave after a race or play again, and other players can come and go as they choose, or you can leave the room altogether and the room remains, under someone else’s control.  I’ve seen rooms I created last for days, which is pretty neat.  Your other option is to join a game someone else created.  Then you have to choose from the list of vehicle types THEY allow, and play on the level THEY have chosen.
It sure makes for one totally addicting experience, and I can’t get enough of it.  Now enough of this blogging, I’m going back to my game…

Hey Jay, you live in Arizona…. Have you been to this place?

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Snow Sculpting 2007

The judging for the 2007 Snow Sculpting Nationals were held at Riviera Park in Lake Geneva today.  Kevin and I went out there to take a look.  With the below-zero temperatures and much worse wind chill, we didn’t stay long!  We practically ran from exhibit to exhibit, snapping a few quick photos, then moving on to the next one.  After about 15 minutes my hands and face were numb and we had had enough.

So here are all of the photos, most of them I named appropriately, remembering to also snap a shot of the credit signs.  One of the sculptures remains unnamed because I missed the sign, so if anyone out there could help identify it, I’d appreciate it.

I’ll mark which ones were the winners after I get the results from tomorrow’s paper or off of their website.  Click on the thumbnail to view all of the photos.

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Kevin’s 9th Birthday

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Kevin had his 9th Birthday party at Guttormsen’s (GRC) this Friday.  A small group attended, and they had a blast bowling a few games (with the gutter guards up), eating pizza, cake, and ice cream.  Kevin got some really nice gifts and had a great time, as you’ll see in the photos.  Click on the thumbnail to view them all.