Sunday… Football. The two are synonymous. Atlanta actually has a team, which is able to complete this year. Who would of thought? It will be interesting to see what happens. Fantasy football has been interesting. Having not played for roughly eight years, I decided to try to get back into the swing of things. I did not play in a money-based league this year, due to my absence and lack of knowledge about who is where now and doing well. This season is going pretty good this far, however a lot of players are starting to get banged up in the league, which means things are going to get a little bit harder. A good bit more interesting though.



The Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Spearhead expansion received a little bit too much praise on the single player format, for just one reason… too little content. I’ve already finished the single player missions and ran through the multiplayer maps. Decent expansion, but defiantly not worth $34.99 (USD). It is a good play, but having sat through it, I was left wanting more for the money. Have not felt like sitting down to write a full review, but that may still happen.

ATI came though. On the nineteenth, the replacement card arrived. However, work was has busy enough, and I had enough other priority items to do at home, that I have not able to replace the video card yet. That will be done on Saturday.



It is hard to believe that the year is drawing to a close. November is nearly over; the holiday season is about to start in full force… of course as far as retail is concerned it has started already. I’m sure we will see a large number of sales this year. Bargains galore if you have the cash to spend… It’ll be interesting to see how the retail sector fairs in market.



I received my America’s Army CD the other day. I already have the game installed from a download, it will be interesting to see if it is the same product on the CD as is available for download. I also saw the CD for sale in Best Buy the other day as well. If you are into FPS (first person shooters), it is well worth checking out the game. Despite what any of the critics may say, there will be few who can produce a FPS better than the army can.



I also picked up the Spearhead expansion for MOH: AA (Medal of Honor: Allied Assault). Despite the crummy demo experience, the single player version of this game is worth checking out, especially if you liked MOH: AA. A good deal of improvements on the game play, models, and terrain interaction. If I get time, I will write a real review on the product and post in the reviews section.



Last week, the audio CD "An Army at Dawn: The War in North Africa, 1942-1943 (The Liberation Trilogy, Volume 1)” was burned through in an only four days. I have listed this for sale on amazon.com, as the only way to keep feeding the learning desire is to sell the items after I have used them, and use that money for the next purchase. This was a good read/listen however, I am not nearly as up to speed on WWII as I would like to be, so I have many items I have filed for further research. Someone who is up to speed on WWII history will find this an easier and read/listen than I did. However, I am looking forward to the other installments. If you have not already take a good look at the CMOHS (Congressional Medal of Honor Society) website. There are a number of stories, well worth the read and many soldiers who deserve to be remembered for their actions.

Playing with ringtones,



Uploading Ringtones To an Ericcson R300LX Phone



The R300LX will store four custom tones in the phone, You will need to send an SMS message with the "eMelody" format for the phone to accept the ringtone. One site to get them from is lehed. Here is an example, "Inspector Gadet" from the morning cartoon.



:eMelody: defgapfp#gpepgpfpdefgap+D+#Cppppdefgapfp#gpepgpfpDpppp#CD



Create an email message and in the to field enter,



YOURCELLPHONENUMBER@mobile.att.net



To reduce of the size of the message Leave the subject blank, however it is not necessary. The text of the message needs to start with ":eMelody:" followed by the ringtone. Send the message, and wait for your phone to receive it. A window should pop up on your phone displaying "New Melody Received - Play ?" Press "Yes" to listen to the tone. If you like it, press "Yes" to save it. Select which "Melody Field" to save it in and press "Yes" again.

Today was my start with the new employer. Same drill just a different name on the paycheck.



On Thursday of last week, my ATI Radeon 8500 128 video card died. The fan on it seized, and the core processor overheated. The result was some massive tearing on typical 2D desktop draws, and you could forget 3D.



This will be my first attempt at support with ATI so we will see what happens. It is in warranty, but they require a $250.00 (US) security deposit for the advance exchange. I received the typical automated replies, but have not received any further information. Attempting to track the item on the UPS website just displays that they have received the billing information. Typical.



I has a spare NVIDIA card around, so I needed to juggle video cards from the server to the workstation. That wasn’t fun, but I am up and running, and after 16 business hours (80 normal hours) ATI has not even shipped the replacement card yet. Damn good thing if I do say so myself. The card had best ship by tomorrow; else, I’ll be spending time listing to hold music courtesy of ATI.

Another week draws to a close, and about time too. It was a busy week. I’m in the middle of transitioning from one employer to another. Therefore, the levels of bureaucracy that I am currently exposed to are rather high. Typical delays on equipment, services, and access. Things should get better next week along that front.



I mentioned before that I had downloaded the Medal of Honor: Allied Assault: Spearhead Demo. I finally got around to installing it. That is an interesting game, but the execution of the demo release by EA has left a lot to be desired. If I had not already played the first version, I probably would be very reluctant to consider purchasing the expansion when it is released based on the performance of the demo.



Within 48 hours that had already released one patch, and many, many servers would lock-up and not allow play. Why? I don’t know, nor do I care to troubleshoot it. The simple fact is the product was not developed or tested to the level it should have been for release… Can we say holiday sales push?



The graphics were improved over the first one and the new features that have been introduced are interesting additions to the product. This could be a fun one once they have patched it up to the level it should be.



This weekend looks to be a somewhat relaxing one with another front of rain coming through, Perhaps I’ll be able to get my VPN rebuilt this week, and continue the clean up of the server and network infrastructure. That should be fun. I really need to finish laying the wiring for the rest of the house, but wireless access makes that so much less of a priority. Still it needs to be done.

Yet another day at work is complete. Things are getting busier at work and home. I need to sit back and prioritize things and get some items streamlined and dump the non-productive projects I’ve been working on. This is a task a bit overdue.



I’m also going to need to look for another audio book soon. The amount of time I spend in the car eats up much more time that I had imagined… It is interesting how things are crystallized when there is a dollar cost involved.



I’m going to check out the Medal of Honor : Spearhead Demo now that it is our. Allied Assault was a great game. This will hopefully be a good improvement on it.

A few days back I picked up an audio book. This is the first one I have purchased. It is in an effort to use my time more efficiently since I burn 1-1.5 hours one way in traffic. This totals nearly three hours a day… LOST!



Not anymore.



I’m planning on locating as much audio source material on subject matter of interest and attempting to put the time to good use. Today I burned through nearly two CD’s of audio covering WWII.



Tomorrow should be the same. The only problem will be “affording” the material. At $20.00-$30.00 a pop that will up a large bill rather quickly. The drive was much smoother, and the normal traffic snarles, which serious ground at me were less noticeable as I was focusing on the material instead of all those moronic drivers.

Update to look and feel...

Today consisted of a trip down to the airport. This city is larger than I remember as it takes at least 1.5 hours to get here to there. The trip consisted of a jaunt down I-75, to the marta station then a traveling to the airport from there, and back again.



Interesting view of the city. Just too many damn people on this planet.



It is back to work tomorrow after a short vacation, which was quite enjoyable and altogather too short. I can tell I need another one soon. :)