addict

I'm absolutely addicted to GTA IV multiplayer. It's so bad that I'm even considering purchasing a headset. You see, I've never really been one for games like SoCom or any of the other "team based" video games, but when you give me free reign to shoot strangers, well, it's hard to resist. I don't even care that 65% of the players are either complete twats or game wreckers - like the jackasses that like to shoot their team members.

psnid - goatbob
(I'll never have a chick's name for online asskicking games.
I learned a long time ago boys don't want to play guns with girls.)

mmmm duck

As I've mentioned before, one of my favorite places to eat locally is Beethoven's Bistro. They've started serving dinners Tuesday through Friday and it's as impressive as their Sunday brunches. Last night I ordered the Duck ala Orange and my counterpart ordered the Roasted Lamb. Both were exceptional and surprisingly the duck ended up being a half a duck so I had left overs for today.... which I made into lime and cilantro Duck Quesadillas.

YUM!

To go with the quesadillas I made guacamole and pico, from scratch of course.

It was great, especially since I'm getting over yet another head cold and, until last night and today, I haven't had anything but soups. I fried the tortilla perfectly and all of the flavors congealed nicely. Very satisfying.

(and as another "happy happy" side note: My Sony receiver burnt out on me earlier this week after 13 years so I went and bought another one today. Now I don't have to listen to music out of my laptop speakers. Joy!)

counsel retained

Because of my recent legal issues with the Duval County court system, I've been on the hunt for a lawyer. I've never spent this much time around lawyers before and I ran across some good ones, along with the stereotype. But, luckily for me, I have a friend that has a personal lawyer and I was able to retain them for less than 1/2 of the lowest I was being quoted by other firms.

Also, throughout this entire process, I've discovered what happened and why there's a warrant against me:

The court system screwed up.
No surprise there.

You see, in '98 and '99 I had some driving issues and I pretended they didn't exist. I could tell you my excuses, but they really don't matter. Anyhow, when I was arrested in 2005 for DWLS I had to deal with those issues as well and what did the court do to make the entire thing a mess? My name was spelled 3 different ways. What that means is: I had 3 issues to clear up - 3 issues that were documented with 3 different spellings. When I went to the Clerk's office, they only recognized 2 of the names as being me and even after I said I had 3, they told me I was incorrect and sent me on my way. (The 3rd issue being the ticket for driving on a suspended license.)

So here we are, 3 years later and I've secured representation so that they can explain to the judge I DID, in fact, attempt to take care of it (after all, the other 2 issues from 98 and 99 were cleared up and my license IS valid). That way the charge will be dropped and instead of either having a misdemeanor or points assigned to my license, I will be waved off, never to appear in court again.

Atleast that's what my lawyer is telling me.

psyche

In a sort of "online salon**" I visit, a topic was brought up discussing one of the 20 questions you'd ask someone to get the know them. Many of the answers are typical, like "republican or democrat" and "if 42 is the answer, what is the question", but one stood out in my mind that I'm going to see if I can answer:

If you could kill one person, with no repercussions in this world or the next, who would die and why?

Thinking about this, no one came to mind. Sure, I thought about Bin Laden and other terrorists, but I don't know if I really would choose to kill him. Not that I don't think he's a bad person, but I don't think his death would solve anything, really. I mean, if I'm going to actually say "You Die", I want it to make a true difference. That's a whole lot of responsibility and a huge moral dilemma.

There are plenty of people in this world who are evil - child molesters, rapists and serial killers just to name a few generalized categories. But how do you pick one? How do you choose to kill unless there's an emotional attachment? I'm sure if I was the parent of someone who was killed I could easily wish death upon the culprit, but I'm not. I've been raped, but I don't wish death on the person. Instead I wish a life of pain, difficulty, misery and disdain. There hasn't been anyone in my life who has truly deserves to die.

So then who? Do I take applications and essays from broken families? But then do I really have all of the answers and the right? As messed up as the court system is (and trust me, I know), not simply one person makes the decision to sentence someone to death.

Also, it's not like we have an equivalent to Hitler. I think saying something like X-Republican or Y-Democrat is a bullshit cop-out. (How do I know? How many people moved to Canada when Bush was elected and re-elected?)

I think I would end up having to get a "u-owe-me" from the powers that gave me the option and use it later on a person that definitely called for it. To use it now I'd have to be able to see into the future - but if I could do that I could alter the course of events and prevent the "next Hitler" from becoming that. Still I think that when one enemy falls, another immediately takes it place. Which enemy is going to the the most heinous?

It would be a tough situation for me. I think rather than taking responsibility, fear of a mistake would drive me to inaction if I had to end someone's life that wasn't directly and immediately threatening mine.


**("salon" being the more classical of definition of a gathering of people to talk about stuff. Not an online beauty parlor.)

could you get me out of jail

Guess what?!? Duval County courts are absolutely stupid. Why? Well... here's why..

Feb 14, 2005 I was arrested for driving on a suspended license. 3 days later I got out of jail, spent 2 months in court dates to clear up all of my charges, paid all of my fines and even checked out with my bond agent. My license has been fine since then.

So yesterday, June 16, I get a knock on the door. It's a cop. Thinking it's something about my ex neighbor who used to sell meth and was home-invaded and shot, I answer it. Come to find out there's some warrant out for my arrest For Driving On A Suspended License from Feb 15, 2007 and attached to my suspended license ticket for which I was arrested for Feb 14, 2005. (Not only did I have 3 tickets since then, which were all paid, I even had the cop who arrested me yesterday run my number to confirm - and it is valid.)

So I got to spend 7 hours waiting to get processed, listening to crack heads and prostitutes discuss their extensive records for varying violent and repetitive offenses while I stewed about being wrongfully arrested. Although, I did gain some respect. (When my set of women were standing in line for the Final step in booking, I found out they lost my paperwork. Let me repeat that... Lost My Paperwork. One of the crackheads started to bitch at me and I turned around to her and said, "Listen, I can fucking help that they are incompetent. It's not my fault that these people lost my shit. You have a problem, take it up with them. I want this to go even faster than you because I am getting bonded out so fuck off." I got about 5 "daaaaaaaayums" from the guys who were seated across from us for that one.)

I am so freakin pissed off. $355 to get my ass out of jail and god only knows how much more to fight this thing correctly.

I fucking HATE DCC and the court system. I was responsible. I took care of all of my license problems that I was told of and I get arrested. Again. There was no reason for a warrant and no reason for me to be in jail. NONE.

I'm on the hunt for a cheap lawyer.

from the pit of all that is unholy

I don't think I've ever smelled anything worse than boiling chicken livers and yellow squash. The combination is repugnant.

But don't worry, I'm not going to be eating it. (After smelling it there's no way I'm ever eating anything made of liver, other than foie gois.) I made it because I cook my dog's own dog food instead of buying packaged and/or mass processed food. This batch is chicken livers, brown rice, cauliflower, broccoli, carrots and yellow squash. The last one was white tuna, whole grain pasta, yams, garbanzo beans, potato and spinach. Weird, I know. But the dogs love it and it's healthier. (I boil eggs and use the ground shells for calcium.) And most of all, I kind of like doing it. (Plus it's cheaper than the Blue Buffalo I was buying.)

But nothing smells like chicken livers and squash boiling. It permeates everything.

wordle

Click below to view my Flickr tag cloud.



To make your own from flickr follow directions here.

To make one from your own list of words, go directly to Wordle.net.

8013031A

Ok.. so upon buying the PS3, I had a trial by fire to get it connected to the internet. If anyone decides to connect via wireless and you have an older router, make sure you're using WEP, write down the first key, set up your DMZ and make sure you have UPnP enabled. Then, and only then, it should work. WPA on older routers don't talk well with the PS3 and no one decided to tell me that.

It's been a fun morning spent on internet tech support with my (astonishingly kind) router company, emailing PS3 support and then deciding just to figure it out on my own. Since, through great Google research, I saw that most people were using WEP over WPA (I don't know the difference), after about the 75th time of being told that the PS3 couldn't connect to my wireless I decided to throw in the towel and convert my connection to WEP and go from there. There was TONS of help for the WEP connection scattered through forums so I figured I'd have a better chance. You see, I knew the PS3 could connect because if I took all of my security options off, it would do a happy dance of internet connection. But, being smart, there's no way I'd allow my wireless to be wide open.

So, for the billionth time I logged into the router and changed settings. Then changed the wireless information on both computers to make sure they could connect and lo-and-behold - Connection! I downloaded updates and made the bigger than I expected gaming console up to date.

Then the PC started dropping the connection. It was all I could do to not pull my hair out or kick something. After some poking around, I changed some authentication properties, rechecked my security keys and I haven't had any trouble since.

(I don't see how IT guys deal with this crap on a daily basis.)

Now.... multiplayer GTA IV here I come!

So, to recap:

- Make sure you're using WEP authentication on your wireless router. (If you aren't, change it, write down the security keys and router ID, or name, so you can reconnect your laptops and the PS3.)

- Enable UPnP and set up your **DMZ. (Instructions for this are included in your router's manual. If you don't have one, most are online at the brand's website to download.) **The DMZ isn't necessary with all connections.

- After you're done changing setting on the router, restart both your modem and router.

- Go into the PS3, input the new setting and attempt reconnecting, either Basic or Advanced.

- While the PS3 is downloading updates, correct the wireless information on computers/laptops with the new information.


I hope this helps! This blog is highly rated on google when searching for "8013031a", so if I need to add anymore information, please leave a comment.

street photography and more

FUCK it's been hot. I mean like super hot for only the beginning of June. I'm talking 95 degrees, EASY.

But, even with that, I went out this past weekend for an annual event called the Putt 'n' Crawl where basically you see how much you can drink and play miniature golf at 12 locations.

I didn't get past the 4th hole. I was too drunk and I was way underfed. 2 Stellas with lunch, 7 $2 Coors lights and 4 $3 cherry bombs did me in. But still, I got some street photography practice in. Good times, all in all. Especially since I hadn't been out shooting for a month.

And as a complete sidetrack.. If you don't know about NASA's Phoenix on Mars, please check it out. It's some of the coolest stuff going on at the moment. I watched the Live landing special a few weeks ago on Discovery Science and it's all very cutting edge and so very interesting. It's the one website I've been checking daily.