So I got my new video card in yesterday and took some time to try it out and give it some testing. I'm pretty damn impressed! The TV tuner stuff works WAY better than my old AIW128 card, and the software is improved as well. I did some test recording and the performance seemed significantly better! GTA3 looks damn near perfect on this card! Playing around with resolutions and the antialiasing functions didn't work as well as I had expected...with antialiasing on, the game slows down quite a bit. Any way, I can run GTA3 in 1024x768 now smoothly! It plays like a completely different game. Now if only I could get past the mission I'm stuck on... I do have a few gripes about the card and/or software though. First, I spent a good amount of time trying to get TV out enabled at 800x600 while maintaining my hi res desktop resolution. No go. I can't, for the life of me, find any way to change this. The only way to get properly sized tv output is to set the desktop to 800x600, which I still hate to do because it shifts all my icons around. Also, the ATI multimedia center likes to grab file types and icons without prompting you. All mpeg and avi files pointed to the ATI file viewer without prompting me...and I could find no software setting to remove these types. I was also a bit confused by the video overlay stuff with tv-output...you have to configure the tv as the primary monitor in order to display movies in Windows Media Player or the ATI File Viewer. I couldn't find this documented anywhere! Other than those rather nitpicky things, I love the card a lot! Freedom Downtime finally had enough posts to USENET for me to complete the download. I haven't had a chance to watch it yet, but I'm still stoked!

Well, the video card I ordered yesterday shipped out today via FedEx. So far, I have to say that I've been quite impressed with NewEgg and their service, I even got a FedEx tracking number within 24 hours or so. With all the disclaimers they have about not guaranteeing same-day shipping etc. I was a bit concerned, but thing look good and I expect to get my shipment within just a few days. I caught most of The Dish tonight on cable. I have wanted to watch this film for a while, and finally got around to it tonight. Even though I didn't catch the whole thing, I enjoyed it...probably the geek engineer side of me, but still, good filmmaking. Apparently (arg, there's that word I'm using way too frequently) the film is classified as a comedy, but don't expect it to be a laugh romp. Sure, it's funny...I guess I just didn't think of it as a comedy. Courier IMAP server supports maildirs format mailboxes. I'm thinking about switching to it for my email. Although it has some nice benefits versus mbox or mbx format (where all folders are stored in a single file), I still haven't entirely convinced myself that I'm going to make the switch...yet. Somebody is posting Freedom Downtime on USENET, so I should have a full copy within another day or so. I can't wait. I saw a screening of it at toorcon in San Diego, it's fucking great. Hopefully this DivX version can tide me over until they release it on DVD.

I watched The Princess and the Warrior last night on DVD. It's done by the same writer/director as Run Lola Run, so expect German language with English subtitles. What an amazing flick! Significantly slower than Run Lola Run, but purposefully so. Very fascinating characters, and probably the most beautiful cinematography I've ever seen. I highly recommend this one...so go pick up a copy now! I finally broke down today and ordered the dream card I've been drooling over for some time now. Ultimately, I admit that I need it to play GTA3, but really, it's been a long time since I've upgraded my video card. The card I have now is a Rage 128 Wonder, and it's served its purpose well for the past N years...just time to upgrade. I can't wait to see what GTA3 should really look like on a new card!!! I got some email from TellMe stating that somebody had tried to access my voice enabled resume and it was broken. Well, sure enough, I forgot to update the URL after Cox implemented port 80 filtering again...so if you happen to be the person who tried it and it didn't work, try it again...it should be fixed now!

Score! Got my copy of GTA3 in today! The game is great, even at a measly 3 fps (or something similar) that my ancient video card can supply. I guess now I'm going to be forced to upgrade...it's a perfect excuse to get the card I've been eyeballing for quite a while now. It's not exactly cheap, but I found a relatively good deal on Pricewatch. In any case, it just HAS to perform a bazillion times better than the Rage 128 I'm running now in 640x480 in 16 bit color. Seriously, when doing missions the clock ticks at about one second per three real seconds...so go figure! Yes, it isn't even playable (yet). :-) I will actuall miss Texas barbecue when we move.

Well, the cocks at Cox have implemented their access control lists again...so all the web sites are now running on port 8080. Your best bet is to use the "webhop.org" domain when accessing any of my sites. Sorry for the inconvenience...

David Lynch came through. I finally watched Mulholland Drive last night, it's an amazing flick. I'm still trying to take it all in! I think it's definitely one of those things that you have to let sink in, and additional viewings will probably help significantly. Before watching this film, I highly recommend getting a really good sound system with a subwoofer (I don't even have one yet), turning the volume up loud at the beginning, and forcing yourself not to adjust the volume for the film's duration. Unfortunately, I wasn't able to do this, but I think it will make a huge difference. The film's use of ominous ambient sound is critical to the overall effect. It's my humble opinion that Lynch is one of the top 3 most important directors alive, perhaps of all time. You know, it's difficult to narrow the list of important directors down to 3, but I'm leaning toward Aronofsky and PT Anderson to round out the list. Now when the hell is my copy of GTA3 going to arrive???

Well, I told myself tonight that I would watch Mulholland Drive, which I got from Netflix like 5 days ago, but I just never got around to it. Apparently I was just too compelled to watch a group of people eat rectum, testicles, and an assortment of bugs on Fear Factor. At least Netflix doesn't have any late fees. :-) Our landlord called and told us that our roof is going to be redone tomorrow. Just wonderful. I can't wait to have a bunch of guys making a mess and banging around all day. I hope it's nothing like that Jerky Boys sketch, heh...

"It's a dead world, and it's about that time to clear things here, one generation follows another, but something in my head says 'keep going, don't give up'... - ATR I think that I'm going to try and commit to posting something here every day. Yeah, sure, I may not completely live up to that promise (at least I say it up front), and sometimes I'm going to be hurting for something to say, blah, but perhaps its a start. Saw Episode II today. Overall, I'd probably have to say that it beat my expectations, which were admittedly very low. I'm still glad that I paid matinee price and didn't have to wait in line very long. I think Lucas could have done us a favor by cutting out 15 or 20 minutes of "love story development", but oh well. I'm still not entirely sure why everybody in the theatre was so surprised to see Yoda kicking ass... The X-Files is over. The series finale tried to bring some closure to things, but I think it fell a bit short. I'm going to hold my breath for the films...redemption is still possible IMHO. I guess I have an extra hour now on Sunday nights, which is probably a good thing. Oh hell yes, guess who preordered GTA3 for PC? That's right...I haven't been this excited about a game release in years. I sure hope this doesn't force me to upgrade my video card, because I certainly can't afford it.

Blah, I go through all the trouble of the site redesign and I can't even bring myself to post regular updates. What a waste... Speaking of waste (how's that for a segue), it seems that all I've managed to do is watch a ton of movies. Yes, I stood in a long uncomfortable line to see Spiderman, and I thought it was Amazing(tm)!! Two thumbs and a big toe up for Mr. Raimi. I saw eXistenZ on sci-fi, which was worth the watch cause it was Cronenberg, and it actually turned out to be better than I expected. Stacy forced me to watch What Lies Beneath because I couldn't get my lazy ass off the couch, and yeah, that was pretty good too. Add Six Feet Under, Sopranos, Simpsons, Malcolm, and X-Files, and you've got a ton of wasted weekend time. I don't think I've touched a project in weeks... I've applied to so many jobs now, it's nauseating. And depressing. What makes me realize how bad it's become is that I actually want to get rejection letters/emails...at least that way I know that somebody has looked at my submission. Bah, I'm still trying...

Well, this may be one of the geekiest things I have done to date (just wait, there's plenty of time to top this...heh), but I ported my resume to voice XML format. That's right, just call 1-800-555-TELL and press 103212 and listen to my resume. Oh, and in case you were wondering, yes, the 3212 portion of the extension is props to a Negativland song featuring Jello Biafra.