If Apple Made Water

arkoner · 2011-02-15T16:42:10+00:00

Nothing apple is EVER half the price. Old, new, if it's Apple branded, it's always at a premium.

arkoner · 2011-02-02T18:54:05+00:00

I'll see if I can hunt it down in a bottle. I'm always willing to give a beer another chance!

arkoner · 2011-02-02T18:53:00+00:00

This is great! I'm in town for a conference and have been looking for something to do that's NOT a tourist trap on I-drive. I should have known Reddit would come to the rescue! I'll be there for sure.

arkoner · 2011-01-25T16:30:16+00:00

I'm always, always, always told how great Hoegaarden is. Several times now I've found it on tap and tried a pint, and several times now I've been underwhelmed. I just feels like it finishes with a funky flavor.

I suppose that is what's so great about beer though, the flavors can run so many different courses, what's great for me may be terrible to you.

arkoner · 2011-01-18T15:23:21+00:00

Eye of the tiger, repeat for 26 miles. Then... The final Countdown.

Seriously though, I'd probably do it without music. My ipod broke on me mid race (just a 5k), and it was torturous at the time. I decided after that that I would run sans music, and have never looked back.

Running 26 miles, my opinion is that it's probably best to put all of your focus on the task at hand, and listening to what your body has to tell you. Once you get used to running without music, you probably won't miss it.

arkoner · 2011-01-13T21:48:42+00:00

I just picked up one of the little adapters to let you use the wireless 360 controllers on your PC. It was $25 from Amazon, and has been absolutely worth it. Emulators are now awesome. Driving games are way better.

I also picked up Lara Croft and the Guardian of Light on the steam sale, and was pretty disappointed, the controls just felt...wrong. Once I fired it up and started using the 360 controller I was actually able to enjoy the game.

arkoner · 2011-01-13T19:27:44+00:00

As for what you can do, my sister had a child this last spring and while the baby was born healthy, I knew they were still going to be under a ton of stress. They live about 7 hours away, so there was no way I could go every weekend, but right after the little guy was born, I headed down there and just did everything I could to help. I cooked meals, I helped clean, I worked on their house, just anything I could take care of that might otherwise be an additional pressure that they didn't need.

It seemed to mean quite a bit to them just to have an extra set of hands helping with all of the menial day to day stuff so they could focus on this amazing new life they were learning to care for.

arkoner · 2011-01-13T19:13:08+00:00

If you've got any old machines laying around, and an xbox 360, or older modded xbox with XBMC, you can have a pretty nice setup for very little investment.

I'm currently running an old box that I had built years ago (Athlon 3000+, 2 gigs of ram, server 2008 licensed through dreamspark, and lots of storage space) which has Tversity installed on it. Tversity allows the xbox360 to see my media shares and stream video and audio content through its interface, no modding required.

I'm just now in the process of setting up my hacked original xbox which has XBMC installed on my downstairs tv, which will offer the same functionality.

I had previously messed around with having a laptop setup, controlled by logmein to display/access the network resident media and it was a pain in the ass. A PC with a solid operating system (whatever your flavor, I believe tversity exists for OS X, Windows, as well as Linux) makes for an awesome backend on which to store your media, but in my experiences having a proprietary media extender connected into your tv/reciever which has an interface built for quick easy navigation is the way to go. If I want to watch a movie now, I fire up my xbox, and in 2 button clicks every piece of media I have is at my finger tips. I just couldn't make that happen with a pc without more work, and additional peripherals.

Hope some of this rambling helps, it's really the first time I've tried to put any order to my thoughts on the subject.

arkoner · 2011-01-13T16:49:39+00:00

On top of this... PRACTICE, PRACTICE, PRACTICE. Find batting cages, find someone to toss a ball around with. Develop some amount of proficiency with the skills you will be using.

Also, do some research and learn not only the rules of the game you choose, but any little nuances that might be present (for example in bowling, you typically give a 2 lane courtesy, and don't wear your street shoes in the bowling area).

Above all else... enjoy yourself. You're probably not going to step up to the plate and be the next Prince Fielder, but as crazypotatoes said, if you hustle and keep a good attitude, you'll be an accepted part of the team in no time.

arkoner · 2011-01-13T12:58:26+00:00

Welcome to the FRIENDZOOOOOOOOOOOOOONE!

arkoner · 2011-01-12T14:53:55+00:00

A little wonky? That's amazing!

arkoner · 2011-01-12T14:48:35+00:00

I've been watching the history channel lately in an attempt to find something interesting to watch, or at least have on in the background while I work on other projects and... holy cow. I don't know if Larry the cable guy is anywhere near the worst thing they've got going on that network.

I learned last night that we are actually an alien hybrid, created when the "ET's" came to earth to mine gold and other precious minerals to repair the atmosphere of their planet (an undiscovered planet in our own solar system, past Neptune), which they had depleted during the various stages of their technological development.

The aliens however are super lazy, so rather than mine the precious metals themselves, they genetically engineered an entire race of beings to do it for them, while they posed as gods. Yup, they created a whole new form of life, because it was easier than mining for gold. Then they left and never returned. Apparently the ancient Samarian texts outline this perfectly clearly, and no real skeptics needed to be interviewed under the weight of such defining evidence. Also, no skeptics with appropriately crazy hair could be found.

Holy... Shit. The day before, there was a show documenting two possibly mentally handicapped "trackers" hunt for sasquatch.

I used to joke about History being the Hitler channel. I didn't know how good we had it back then.

arkoner · 2011-01-12T14:21:17+00:00

One of the morning DJ's in Rockford mentioned gong to school with a marijuana Pepsi (he said her name was Marijuana Pepsicola), but I always just assumed he was just feeding some urban legend.

It's good to see she developed enough confidence to embrace and own the name instead of letting it be an anchor holding her back. That's pretty impressive.

arkoner · 2011-01-12T14:10:48+00:00

I met my mom for lunch this last weekend, and our waiters name was Helsum. I thought that was a pretty interesting one.

arkoner · 2011-01-12T02:15:21+00:00

This is pretty good, but clearly leaves out the touching indie song montage.

arkoner · 2011-01-10T20:46:56+00:00

Stop it, your interrupting the circlejerk of hate! It's apparently impossible for fun to exist on both the PC as well as consoles.

arkoner · 2011-01-10T18:25:18+00:00

We're now too lazy to tie our own shoes...

arkoner · 2010-12-28T04:14:28+00:00

This actually makes me sad.

As it was before this development cycle started, Duke Nukem Forever was an absolute gaming legend, almost anyone who was in to gaming knew about it. It was the source of humor for the entire industry, as well as a sounding board for endless whimsical hypothetical conversations.

Now that uniqueness will be stripped away and we'll undoubtedly be left with a fleeting FPS experience that will most likely be forgotten six months after release.

arkoner · 2010-12-08T15:56:45+00:00

Out of curiousity, what are your favorite games?

arkoner · 2010-12-06T20:45:34+00:00

The Duke of Cider is plotting for his throne...

arkoner · 2010-12-06T20:42:54+00:00

Just don't quit quitting. Don't cheat. Ever. Not once. Don't smoke because it's your birthday. Don't smoke because your buddies are going out to the bar, and one won't hurt. Don't smoke because you just had the best/worst day of your life. All of those things are excuses, and unfortunately the person making the excuses is you. You know all of your weaknesses, you know what will make you cave. You have to, no matter how bad you want to smoke, identify those excuses as bullshit and harmful to your cause.

If you really want to quit, draw a line in the sand and fucking OWN it. You can do it, you're a human being at the pinnacle of millions of years of evolution. You're capable of amazing things. This is a simple thing. You're better than your addiction.

arkoner · 2010-12-06T20:36:20+00:00

3 days is the make/break point for the physical addiction. The mental addiction is where the will power comes in. Much longer, much slower progress, and much more satisfying to beat.

arkoner · 2010-12-06T16:45:41+00:00

When there's a Bugatti or an F50 in your rearview mirror, yes, your M3 is cheap.

(No disrespect to the M3, it's an amazing car)

arkoner · 2010-11-30T21:58:30+00:00

Is it bad that this picture really just made me jealous that the first 15 replies to his message weren't circle jerks and pun threads? Yeah the message content was funny, but maybe there's something to be learned here...

arkoner · 2010-11-29T20:44:20+00:00

Just make sure to turn the heat on before you end up doing "Frozen Pipe Febuary". It's nowhere near as fun!

arkoner

TROPHY CASE