Listen Up!

Well it looks like I'm going... Sorry, sounds like I'm going to start podcasting shows next year. Just another adventure I keep telling myself in being apart of this huge thing called the Internet.

I've been blogging for a few years know and writing about what ever comes to mind. In fact I've got two blogs, the one hear and then my Gaming/Techie style blog. Yup, I'll actually attempt two Podcasts, one for each of the blogs.

How will it go, I have no clue really, but I plan to jump right in and just go with it. I don't want to really write out a bunch of stuff or script the shows so much, but I'll try to at least put some notes together for each show and then wing it live more or less. Disaster about to happen? Perhaps, you'll need to tune in a listen.

I hope to try and do one a week. Wow, 104 shows in 2008... I must be crazy. I actually plan on keeping them short for now. Really short... short shows at about 10 minutes only to start with. Why so short? I want to make sure I can fill that time for starters. I'd like it to be an addition to my blogs only. Plus I haven't paid for the full version of the software and I'm limited to only 10 minute shows for now. Later in the year I'll see about extending them to a full 30 minute show. Yes after I can afford the full price on the software.

There you have it... I've blogged about it and now I have to do it. I need to be careful about the things I write about and say I'm going to do. Somebody stop me if I say I'm going to go Bungie Jumping... Please somebody stop me if I ever do that. See you all later and yes, you will hear more from me soon.

Once you go Digital, You'll never go Back

There is nothing wrong with your television set. Do not attempt to adjust the picture. We are controlling the transmission. If we wish to make it louder, we will bring up the volume. If we wish to make it softer, we will tune it to a whisper. We will control the horizontal. We will control the vertical. We can roll the image; make it flutter. We can change the focus to a soft blur or sharpen it to crystal clarity. For the next hour Starting on February 17, 2009, sit quietly and we will control all that you see and hear. We repeat: there is nothing wrong with your television set. You are about to participate in a great adventure. You are about to experience the awe and mystery which reaches from the inner mind TV Networks to the Outer Limits your homes.

The count down has begun alright and our analog, over the air, TV signals are going away, only to be replaced by digital signals. To learn more about making the switch over you can visit DTVAnswers.Com and find out what is involved. But my first question was, do we need to buy a new TV and like the theme from outer limits says, "There is nothing wrong with your television set."

Actually if you have a Cable provider or Satellite service, you'll be fine and they will send the digital signals to you. The boxes you have in place should already convert the signals for what your needing. Now if you have a new HDtv, then your more and likely going to need an upgrade to get HD signals. But the fact is, you don't have to upgrade to an HDtv, if you don't want to.

Now if you get some programs using an antenna or rabbit ears as some like to call them, then your going to be in trouble and will need a converter box. The boxes are going to cost about $50 to $70 to convert the signal over to your existing TV. Ouch you say? Check out the web address above, they have links on getting a coupon for $40 off, up to two TVs, to help with the cost of making the switch. So if you shop around, then you'll be out about $10, but once again, most of us are on Cable or Satellite and fine.

Now if you want to use this as a reason to go to HDtv... well sorry, its not an option and don't let anyone tell you otherwise. I'd like an HDtv in the future and its nice to know that I can get one on my terms and that I'm not forced into. They might control the signals, but I control what I'm going to buy in the end and when I buy.

Merry Techmas

Wow, talk about the ultimate in Xmas gifts this year. So I love tech toys and electronic thingies and anyone that really knows me, knows about my past as a DJ and my love of LPs. What's an LP? Do a search on wikipedia and you should find it right away. Back to my story... a cool item found this year was a USB turntable, one that allows you to hook it up to a regular stereo if you like or use the USB plug to connect it to a computer and capture the music and save as an MP3.

This is what I thought I was about to receive, when I peaked inside the box. I should have known though, I mean why would this item not be in its original box. Then I noticed the words on the turntable... Technics 1200... the top of the line in turntables, used by DJ's worldwide and it was the ultra cool black model. I was speechless and never thought I'd own one of these. My wife and my mother & father in-law gave me an awesome gift and it was only the beginning of things to come.

Actually you could say that my Zune30 really started things off. An awesome gift for my anniversary and a real surprise too, my wife is full of surprises. So I set the turntable up and pull out the old dance albums and its great to hear that music again and it feels like forever since I've played them. I've got a lot of tunes to catch up on, with three huge crates of LPs to pick through. But all of those will have to wait, it's time to head to my side of the family for Techmas.

Ever had one of those Christmases that take you totally by surprise? That is what I felt when I opened the gift from my Dad. The UB802, 8 Channel mixer was a pleasant surprise and something I had on my list as a cool item for making Podcasts with my daughter. I really wasn't expecting this at all. So I tell my Dad thanks and said, "I guess you decided to purchase something off the Internet at last?"

"Something?" was his reply, "Have you opened the big box yet?" Not only did he get me the cool mixer, but the really cool MXL 990 microphone as well. I have the perfect setup for a mini podcast studio now. Granted the turntable is huge and not something I'll carry around as easy, but the rest is perfect and I look forward to learning more about Podcasts and doing some shows with my daughter next year.

It was truly a Merry Techmas for me this year. Check back in 2008 when I launch my various Podshows and we'll see how cool the new toys perform. Til then, Happy New Year to you all.

A Wonderful Life

Merry Christmas and happy New Year to you all, well all that will accept my wishes that is. Wow 2007 has finally come and gone. We've ran from place to place and passed out gifts to the family and friends.

So as I look at everything, I can't help but feel its truly a Wonderful Life for me. I'm blessed with the best wife and two loving daughters. I'm wealthy in family relations too and couldn't ask for anything more.

Year after year I'm asked what I'd like for Christmas and I've really got everything I could ever want. It's my favorite time of the year and time with family is priceless and the best gift I could imagine.

So I'm thankful and blessed... its all I could ever want really. Merry Christmas once again and have a very Happy New Year to you all.

The Darkside of MySpace

After less than 24 hours of setting up the MySpace account I got my first message from someone and I asked my wife if Ms. J (as I'll call her) was one of her friends. My wife had sent out a blast to her friends to add me as a friend. She replied NO! and we looked to see what was sent to me. How and where Ms J's friend had found me, I have no clue. The fact remains, this is the type of thing that happens on sites like this. So I post it just as it was written for you to see. The claim is someone is using a friends MySpace account. So here goes the message from Ms J's friend.

Hey do you come here often? I really don't, but couldn't resist checking things out. I'm glad I did. I liked your profile and decided to write you. I'm looking for a nice guy to be friends with at first. Yeah, I want to take it slow. I like being single. I hope you're fine with that. If you want to know more about me, here goes. I'm easy-going, curious and smart. I love reading, watching TV and biking. I'm also darn pretty and love wearing sexy clothes.

I hope you'll want to hook up but if you do, don't reply directly to this message. I'm using my best friend's account, and I don't want her to think you're writing to her. Please use my own e-mail instead: ? at yahoo.

Bye bye and thanks!

Now Ms. J is not suppose to know what is going on. Right! Let's just jump right to it, I really don't know any women that would say, "I'm also darn pretty and love wearing sexy clothes." followed by "I hope you'll want to hook up..." and I'm happy with that and not saying I'm looking for that. I just think its plain sad... I stated I'm married in my profile. I need to go back and add proudly & very happily married, not looking for Hook ups!

Thankfully some of my wife's friends have added me and I'm starting to find a few of my own friends online. It just seems odd that someone would message like that. It's also sad to hear the stories of husbands and wives looking for so called Love here, only to stumble across each others pages. Hello, they wrote a song that applies here, "Looking For Love in all the Wrong Places."

I'd like to think this is the last message I'll get like this, but I'm afraid to say that more & likely this is not the case. My wife and I forming a joint page could be an option to stop this, but I think having our own pages is fine and I like to share stuff like this. Facebook looks better and better every day. I haven't event touched on the real issues I have with MySpace.

Back on topic... Ms. J, I'm sorry your friend is using your account without your knowledge. Now as to the friend, I'm happily married and not looking to hookup, you might think about looking for people that are single. I guess listing I'm married is not enough. Oh and one more thing, the guy Tom that e-mails first at sign up and is added to your friends is real person and the one who built MySpace. Sorry I deleted you at first, I thought you were a bot and didn't want to look like a sap who only has the bot for a friend. No hard feelings I hope.

Social Networking Thang

Everyone is doing it these days... and you can't turn around with out hearing one of the big three it seems. So I've decided to give them all try and see what its all about. My little experiment in social networking on the web or off. Over the next year I'll have my very own Facebook site to keep up with, MySpace page just like everyone and will even use the Twitter site, as best as I can, for someone to know everything I'm doing. So we'll see how well they and I do through out the year with managing and keeping them updated.

Facebook is one that I've started to see more of in the tech circle. It appears to be similar to MySpace, but I'm finding my way around and liking what I've seen so far. In the end, it comes down to friends and contacts. So I have three on that site so far and I'm still learning all the ins and outs of the site. It appears really clean, but I haven't found an easy way to tell someone how to visit my Facebook page.

MySpace, well I've got it now... my wife has told me for the longest time that I should get one and that people will look for me or I can look for people. As of now I have one friend, my wife and I looked for her. How silly this sounds as I write, I looked for my wife on MySpace. She's really not that hard to find, I know where she lives after all. The best thing I can say is the friendly URL is available. But a ton of people must use it, I couldn't even find something close to my name and had to use one of my net user names instead. Take a look at my MySpace page if you like, it will be a slow process as I learn stuff here.

That brings us to Twitter. You know I can't really think that I'm someone that needs to be tracked really. Maybe I got it all wrong, but its a mini blog of sorts and allows you to post tiny messages about things your doing and you can do this from the web or cell phone posts. With twitter you can watch others that Twit or be watched as you Twit. It's tied into my Facebook and MySpace pages already, I've even posted it to the left hand side here. Here's a direct link to my Twitter page.

That's all for now, don't forget to check out my Gaming/Tech blog as well and have fun watching me and all my friends on the Net.

Well I did it!

Well I did it! I wrote a novel... a total of 50,000 plus words to be exact and in 30 days I might add. What to do next... I need to decide on a cover for the book, find and agent, sign with a publisher and make millions in sales and the next two books.


Come on! You didn't think I was serious about all of that, right? Actually now I'm going to take a little break and then I'll crack it open and look at what I've done. It's just a rough draft, but still I'm not going to toss it away. I plan to edit, tweak, rewrite, and even add to it.

I want to finish it out as best as I can and would like to have it all wrapped up by next November and write a sequel to the story. I need to work on the 30 day's of World building exercises, before I start the rewrites too. These will be easier and only take about 20 or 30 minutes out of the day.

The whole thing was a blast and I felt great at what I accomplished. Crazy thing, now that it's over, I feel like I missing something and should be writing more. I do feel that this is the best way, at least for me to approach something like this. You write like mad and just let things flow and and then you can come back and really tweak and fine tune stuff.

Will you anything on the bookshelves, not anytime soon, perhaps a sample at some point. I'd like that, but it will be sometime next year. I'll see what things look like around January, about the time I decide to give it a read and start jotting down some notes. For now, I just want to smile and keep saying, "Dude, you just finished writing your first novel... well at least the first draft."

McD's Wi-Fi via ATT

So I'm trying to catch up on my writing for the book and we needed to Eat as well. My wife checked into Mc Donalds and their Wi-Fi and as part of our service with ATT, we are allowed to connect at their locations via Wi-Fi. Cool!

So we brought a laptop with us and I was able to connect, check on some facts and write away. All at the same time with the family. The girls had a blast running and playing and I could still get a little bit of work done. At this stage, any extra time I can get some writing done, then all the better for me.

I'm about 4079 words off and looking at a day or two of some Hard Core writing. I know with the Holidays coming up, I'll have a little time from work and will have to see what writing I can get in.

Falling behind...

I'm not real worried right now... I'm only nearing the halfway point, but I am about 2 days off on my daily word goal. If you haven't noticed the bright yellow box in the upper right of this page, then you might need to get your eyes checked out.

For those that have noticed, its my total word count so far in the NaNoWriMo contest. Each day I need to get at least 1667 words down on paper. I'm actually needing to shoot for 1725 and finishing a day early. So if you know the day of the month and a little math, you can see where I'm at and should be each day.

I fell behind this past weekend and have been doing anything I can to maintain and catch up is all. My hope is this weekend will allow me to kick some serious words out and bring me closer to where I should be. My goal is to be at 31,050 by the end of the day on Sunday. That's only 9772 words between now and then. Wish me luck now.

Wall to Wall Moto!

Finally, it's been years in the works and I finally made it to the International Motorcycle Show here in Fort Worth. It never fails, I've wanted to go and something would come up and keep me from going. This was my year, in fact the show snuck up on me, I hadn't even looked or thought about it and then with about a week or two before it arrived, I came across a post about the show being here.

It's nice to see so many bikes all in one location and you can go from Bike to Bike and sit on them to see how they feel. I'm a Sportbike kind of guy, so its odd to sit on a cruiser, but I get to at a show like this. I also know that my current ride is so much heavier than the newer bikes being made as well.

Lots of cool stuff from custom paint and mods were all on hand for the viewing. On the extreme, they had an MV Agusta F4CC, very limited all hand made, from the top to bottom. With only 100 being made and a sticker price of $120,000, which includes a jacket and watch to match. You get to see it all at a show like this.

Well with a price tag like that, it makes my BMW K1200S an affordable purchase at some point and I don't need a matching jacket and watch. At least I could sit on the BMW. I was lucky I could even touch the MV Agusta.

Hot Babe of the Day

Ok, this is not something you'll see on a regular basis here. I was helping out a buddy with his site and installing a new look and blew up the old site to make way for the new. So I was going to test out my work and he does this Hot Pic of the Day thing and I thought, Wow, its my chance to make the first pic. Little did I know, he was still near and came across the site changes and beat me to it. Now I spent some of my morning looking for a selection and as near as I can tell, this girl ranks high on the radar for many sites out there. Here's what you would have seen on the BobNewhouse.Com site if I'd been a little faster and he would have already been on the road.

Jessica Alba first showed up on my radar with a a show called Dark Angel and my buddy Bob, always told me that Buffy would take Dark Angel any day of the week.

Well I'm sorry, but I don't see Sarah Michelle Gellar on any of the lists I looked at today. Now back to Jessica, the next thing I really watched her in was Sin City and she looked good in Black & White too. I've also found out that she'll be in Sin City 2 due out around 2009.

Well enjoy the pic for those of you that stumble across the site. This will be the last time I post one of these. Take a look at BobNewhouse.Com for more Pic's of the Day if you like. Sorry Bob, you could have seen this when you first logged in. :)

Let's do this, I pledge...

I hereby pledge my intent to write a 50,000-word novel in one month's time. By invoking an absurd, month-long deadline on such an enormous undertaking, I understand that notions of "craft," "brilliance," and "competency" are to be chucked right out of the window, where they will remain, ignored until they are retrieved for the editing process. I understand that I am a talented person, capable of heroic acts of creativity, and I will give myself enough time over the course of the next month to allow my innate gifts to come to the surface, unmolested by self doubt, self-criticism, and other acts of self-bullying.

During the month ahead, I realize that I will produce clunky dialogue, cliched characters, and deeply flawed plots. I agree that all of these things will be left in my rough draft, to be corrected and/or excised at a later point. I understand my right to withhold my manuscript from all readers until I deem it completed. I also acknowledge my right as author to substantially inflate both the quality of the rough draft and the rigors of the writing process should such inflation prove useful in garnering me respect and attention, or freedom from participation in onerous household chores.

I acknowledge that the month-long, 50,000-word deadline I set for myself is absolute and unchangeable, and that any failure to meet the deadline, or any effort on my part to move the deadline once the adventure has begun, will invite well deserved mockery from friends and family. I also acknowledge that, upon successful completion of the stated noveling objective, I am entitled to a period of gleeful celebration and revelry, the duration of which may preclude me for participating fully in workplace activities for days, if not weeks, afterward.

Signed,
Robert

31st October 2007
Novel start date: 1st November 2007
Novel deadline: 30th November 2007

The Magna Carta I & II, the fork in the Novel

They are really just my Likes & Dislikes, to help point me in the right direction and they come in the form of two lists called the Magna Cartas I & II.

Chris Baty's No Plot, No Problem book introduced the twin lists as a guide and after I created them I could review the lists during next months NaNoWriMo, through out the writing process.

This is just a reminder of things I enjoy to read and things I try to avoid and in doing this, I'll try and use some of the same items from Magna Carta I and steer clear of Magana Carta II this month. So let me start off with my Magna Carta I and some of the things I like in books.

Magna Carta I (Likes)

1. Fantasy


2. Magic


3. Sci-Fi


4. Complex Characters


5. Humor


6. Witty Banter


7. Emotional situations


8. Fast paced stories


9. Lots of twists


10. Surprises

Now for the things I really don't care for in books or the types of books in general I avoid all together.

Magna Carta II (Dislikes)

1. Romance Novels


2. Westerns Novels


3. Extreme Gore


4. Sexual Violence


5. Racism or Sexism


6. Very limited to hardly any dialog at all


7. Flat & boring Characters


8. Bad Stereotypes


9. Slow paced stories

I have my general path to work on and the things I would like to try and include in my novel, as well as the things I should really avoid. I'm not saying that things on list one are always right or things on list two are always wrong. It's a choice I need to make and the things I need to remember and include or exclude. I'm sure Romance & Westerns are great, just not my kind of thing.

Things are starting to fall in place and I only have one last item to take care of. I'm sure he's watching and eager to speak his mind and try and put his twist on my story this month. I know he means well, but I'll need to sit him down and ask him for a favor and to really wait till I'm done. I'll let you know how that all goes next time... other than that, I'm ready to rock and roll this crazy thing.

Only Seven days til NaNoWriMo

I just finished reading Chris Baty's, No Plot? No Problem!: A Low-Stress, High-Velocity Guide to Writing a Novel in 30 Days and I did this just in time, as I head into my first NaNoWriMo. Why on earth would someone think about doing such a thing? How about the high numbers of people thinking and wanting to write, only getting side tracked, stuck, and abandoning their child on the doorstep of things left unfinished.

So this exercise in creativity and sticking to a deadline, while writing a novel, is the answer to the problem. This month we will not leave our stories on the doorstep, we will push ourselves to complete the tasks, have fun along the way, and let our characters reveal the world inside and tell their stories.

Write fast and leave your Inner Editor behind, take a chance and let your characters try things and see what happens. In the end, you might be surprised at what you have and after a little break you can turn around and make changes and polish things up. Sounds like a crazy plan, but a plan for success if you ask me. With out the goals and deadlines, to many things will creep up and get in the way. Your imagination will fall into a slumber and the stories will die. Just like eating & drinking, you have to feed your stories on a regular basis and in truth its only a couple hours out of each day.

I had fun during Script Frenzy and reached the 20,000 words goal for a movie. I feel good about this project and I'm ready to take it head on. It's not about quality as much as quantity, but at the same time I think I'm capable of creating something fairly decent and look forward to completion and having something to edit afterwards.

Everything has its place

It's a good way to look at things and will hopefully help things feel right and make sense as I write my Novel next month. Were talking about the back story here. What? That's right just like it helps to have a feel of the world around us, its no different in writing a story to have an idea of the world and the characters the story will take place in.

So I came across a site with exercises to help with the creation of a fantasy world. It's a collection of 30 days and an exercise for each day. Upon completion, you should have a really firm grasp of what makes things tick in the land of your characters.

Here's my problem, I don't have 30 days here to do this. Sure, people will say our World was created in 7 days (actually 6 with a day of rest) or it was just a big bang. The exercises actually let me rest on day 30, but I still need to cram 29 exercises into 20 days or less. The world I make needs to be ready by the first of next month, I can't have it stewing and cooling off, I need to hit the ground running at the start and write. Otherwise my novel could just be a Big Bang.

If I really wanted to be impressive, I could spend a solid 7 hours and 15 minutes and have my world created all in one day. I think I'll try and shoot for 6 days and spend about an hour and 15 minutes and work on at least 5 exercises a day. Yes, this is all for fun too.

Free Your Mind

So the chorus goes... "Free your mind and the rest will follow" as sung by En Vouge on their March 24, 1992 Funky Divas album. This is the idea, more or less behind the free software download called Freemind.

It's known as Mind-mapping software and allows you to make a flow chart of your ideas for just about every project you can think of. Leonardo DaVinci pretty much developed this process to help him visually plan out things and make things easier.

I'm always a huge fan of stuff that is free an I hope to use this tool to plan my Novel out for this years NaNoWriMo event. I'm also looking at using a product called yWriter to help with the organization of my Novel as well.

NaNo Oh No!

It's almost that time, time for me to start the great novel. My first novel, the one that will sell half a million copies and become the next Harry Potter and lead me down the path way of fame and fortune.

OK, not even close to half a million copies, not the next Harry Potter and no where near a path to fame and fortune. But it will be an adventure of sorts and a challenge to say the least.

From November 1st thorough the 30th, I'll slave away and let all of my creative thoughts take shape and build a world in the form of a Novel. The goal by the end of the month, to complete the 50,000 words required to win. What do you win, absolutely nothing... just the satisfaction of reaching the goal.

It's an exercise in meeting a deadline and trying to be creative and just write your heart out. It is no where near quality, but all about quantity. It's a rough draft at best and nothing more that that. In fact its not even really meant for someones eyes to read in this stage.

To learn more, visit the NaNoWriMo web site, but they have had their share of trouble so far. I just hope they'll figure it all out before the start. I can really use the support of all the other NaNoer's out there and don't want to deal with a slow sluggish web site. Here's hoping they'll get things fixed soon and wish me luck on my latest journey, heading down the path of a Novel Writer.

2, 4, 6, 8... Who do we appreciate

So today I over heard two moms talking about something and one of them said, "do they even wear skirts any more for cheering?" The mom replied, "no its all Hoochie outfits now!" :o Just like the High School Cheerleader pictured here it's shocking and true it seems. So being the father of a young daughter, I'm happy she's not wanting to be a cheerleader... at least so far she hasn't mentioned it at this young age. I also have a younger daughter following her older sisters footsteps, talk about double trouble. The High School Cheerleaders didn't look like that when I was going to school.

This crazy sport that starts out with very young girls and costs tons of money for these Lil darlings to cheer for a small peewee football team, where they more and likely don't even know someone on the football team. When I was growing up, I didn't even see a cheer leader until Junior High School. Cheering back then was the basic chants and claps of Fire Up! Now days its more about music and dance, all spurred on by the whole Bring It On movies.

Its funny how times have changed and how the normal Barbie dolls for girls are not enough. Now you have the Bratz and Flavas giving Barbie a run for the money and forcing her to lower her standards and sexy up her image. Not to mention the shows and music videos as well, its getting harder and harder to watch or listen to anything these days.

Don't get me wrong I'll be the first to say at a professional game, the girls on the sidelines are attractive to look at and fun to watch, but I'm not sure how much they really help my team win the game. OK, they keep the crowd fired up during breaks and time outs and perhaps that helps. But do we have to start our young ladies down this road?

Who will ever see it

So it was 1967 when the Navy Barracks were built and for what ever reason, the plans turned out to be the symbol of a swastika. Whoops!
















The response was, nobody will ever notice and see it from above. They never thought about a Satellite image from above or the fact that people from all over would access these images for free over the Internet.

What most people don't know is that the symbol itself has been around for ages and represents a lot of good things. It wasn't until the Nazi party took the symbol and it would for ever be tied to the negative association here after.

The Navy is about to spend $600,000 dollars to change the layout of the Coronado, California facility in order to make sure people can't see it from above. It's ironic that it was built and perhaps nobody noticed or thought about it or perhaps it was just bad luck. Perhaps it was just bad luck the Nazi party selected the image in the first place to begin with.

It's a gamble

I was playing small and taking tiny risks is all. I like betting on red or black most of the time. I'll play odd or even and some of the other areas like 1-12 and so on. The table was a $25 to $1000 table and I had just started.

So I'd build up a bit and then lose and build up and lose. Then I started winning and managed to be up a few thousand and it was time to make my move. You got to bet big, to win big and I was going to capture my corner with my next bet.

I placed $1000 on 5-6-8-9 and it was time for the ball to make is way around. No going back from here, the deed was done. The ball drops and starts bouncing around, hip on hop all over the place and it final lands. I'm watching the wheel move around and looking for the number.

It was 8 and my loan chip was no longer lonely, paying out a nice 8-1 odds. I'd jump up an extra $8,000 to add to my wins. I was my single chance at placing a big bet, none of this $1 to $5 bets, I was playing large. All in all it was a fun night at the 911 Appreciation event and the winning chips would be converted to tickets for door prize drawings. If only I could have been lucky in that area. Better yet, I wish it was real money. Real money I could afford to risk and better yet, real money I could stand to win.

Are you ready for Football?

The league is open for business at last. Pretty much a total league overhaul with only two of us returning for years past and a whole new cast of coaches with dreams of victory and claiming the rewards.

The cost of ownership has not only gone up, but the league has set rules and fees in place to help raise money and provide higher payouts to teams that make it to the final game.

So you better hope you picked the right match, cause if you look to pick up players, its going to cost you and if you think about making a trade, better be prepared to pay for signing bonuses to the league as well. It's all about the money and love of the game.

Paladins look at another league
I've decided to look at another league this year and will see about running two teams. In the new league I've setup the ownership and will have my players drafted for me in the new league. It's not something I normally do, I like the research and be apart of the draft selection process.

This is a new league and new way of doing things is what I keep telling myself. The only thing I've really done, is provided a listing of positions I'd like for each round. It could back fire on me, in a real draft, its possible to switch if you feel a running back is not the best move and taking a wide receiver would be best. I'll see how things turn out and if I like giving up that control.

2 year milestone reached

Wow, I made it finally... I went two whole years with out drinking a soda. I'm talking about your major Soda in a can, bottle, or fountain drink... I use to drink them like water, glass after glass on a daily basis and then I decided to just give them up.

It's something I've done from time to time and my longest stretch before now was a year. Now I need to decide if I plan to do it all over again and should I just go for 3 years or do I need to double and go for 4 years. Crazy to think about not having a Soda in 4 years. They are pretty evil and something I can do with out, its just bad how wide spread they are. You know if I went to a restaurant and they treated them like Beer and made me pay for each, I know I'd drink a lot less of them.

If I decide to try and go for 3 or 4 years, I plan to start at the first of the year. Maybe it will be easy and my body will hate the taste of them. Then again, I so loved Dr Pepper, could it have changed that much?

The FFL faces possible lockout

Hard to believe that after so many years, the league might remain closed for this upcoming season. Players and team owners scramble at the last minute to come to an agreement in efforts to breathe life into the league.

At the close of last season a large portion of the clubs found their teams in a struggle to keep their teams going. Owners decided to close up and sell the teams off. Now in the closing minutes the league is faced with a deadline of restructure and finding new owners who can come in and take charge and run with things. It's a no huddle kind of situation and time is clicking away fast. It looks like hope is around the corner and we'll have to keep our eyes on the situation.

A mole, a dog, and the kids knocking next door

I'm trying to get some lunch going for the family and my wife said, "the dog is doing something in the backyard". I look up and she calls me outside to look into. She thinks the dog has a mouse.

Crazy looking thing, not what I expected to see and I'm having a hard time telling which end is the head and which is the tail. After researching more later I find out it was a mole.

If only our problem would have ended here. See we need to sweep the whole backyard and make sure its not some poisoned rodents through out the yard. That's when my wife says, "Our neighbors Trojan boxes have been thrown behind the shed".

"What?" trying to process everything, its been so long since I've seen a box of those. Then it hits me and I know what is going on. Flashback weeks to when we had the Tree guy out to give an estimate. He noticed through the fence a couple kids fooling around (during the day I remind you). I thought perhaps I should have said something at that point, but I didn't want to be the guy next door telling on everything I see.

I couldn't let this one go though, mind you at least they are being safe kids, but I don't want the open boxes, wrapper, and yes the goods dumped in my yard. My wife is disgusted, as I, but its out of our hands. The kid next door has told Dad, "it's not me, you know me Dad..." Dad has to believe him as he looks at the hickey on his sons neck. At least I was able to let the family next door know that someone has been getting in their backyard during the day to pass the time. I really feel for the kid next door, someone sure is making him look bad... Yeah RIGHT!!!!

Meerkat Manor - Family Business

So I was sitting in the theater for a free Kids movie and they brought up one of those preview pieces, a behind the scenes sort of thing. The show is Meerkat Manor and it looked cool and I decided to record it for my oldest.

Little did I know that it was a real circle of life kind of show and sad to say some of the little guys get whacked so to speak.


This show is very entertaining and educational. You really find that you want to come back and see what will happen between the Whiskers and the Commandos and which side will win the turf war.


But keep in mind that this is very real and what they do and explain to the young at heart that its how they live and survive. I think you'll be amazed at the quality of filming and how well they weave a story into or interpret the stories for the Meerkat's. The new season has just kicked off this week on Animal Planet.

From Screen writer to Novelist

Well its 3 months away and then I'll take my steps towards my next adventure so to speak. The feeling inside of me to write is hard to explain at times, but its a feeling that I'm enjoying all the same. That being said, the next upcoming contest I'll take part in is called NaNoWriMo and lasts for the whole month of November. During this time, anyone who wants to attempt to write a 50,000 word novel can take part in the free contest.

Yes I'm some what crazy, but I like to think I'm dedicated and will take this challenge head on. I'm not sure how easy this will be and I know the word count is a lot higher, but with out the constraints in formatting a Screenplay, I hope I'll do well and reach my goal.

Just like Script Frenzy, its not about quality as much as quantity in reaching the goal. It's more about being creative and just writing and letting nature take its course. It's all about creating a first draft and then at the end you can look back and edit and rewrite if you so choose. So wish me luck and I'll report back on my progress in November and at the first of December.

As for Script Frenzy, I haven't looked back at my script since I finished it. What I did was send it off to the President of the Dallas Screenwriters Association. He was nice enough to come out and speak to a group of us and reviewed the first 10 pages of our script. Here's a little bit of what he had to say and granted its only the first 10 pages, who knows what he would have thought towards the middle and end.

Hello Robert,

You've written an interesting beginning to a movie. The characters are multi-dimensional and its an interesting premise. I also thought that your basic sense of format was correct, for the most part. The free software that you used has a lot of useful features and I might recommend it to other writers who may not be ready for the industry-standard software.

I've made a few notes on the attached script, which I hope you will find more helpful than critical. Food for thought, but it's your story to do with as you wish. I'd say it's an excellent first draft for your first script. Whether you decide to continue screenwriting or not, realize that you can deliver, if you want to pursue it.

Take care, and good luck with your future writing plans.

Steve Davis
President,
Dallas Screenwriters Association

I was impressed with his feedback and I'm looking forward to next June and perhaps a sequel to my first movie script.

Ahhhh.... That's Cool now

For starters, the new AC appears to be working great now. Thanks to Edith's Uncle and all of his hard work. I also learned a few things about heating and air, as I helped him out.

But the real treat was seeing all of his guitars that he's been collecting. He has an amazing collection of guitars in all shapes, sizes, and colors. He also has a large number of Amps & Stacks to go along with the collection.

So I decided to ask him if he had a piggy back amp in his collection and he showed me one better. Like the photo shown above, only in a pack of Reds, that he produced for me to look at. This is one of the smallest looking guitar amps that I've ever laid my eyes on or touched. This little guy packs a wallop and all off of one small 9 volt battery.

One of the plugs is for the guitar... now get this, the other one will power a regular speaker. That's right, the little 9 volt will give out enough power to a bigger speaker for your listening pleasure.

To top off my day, I was introduced to a friend of his and saw a very nice home recording studio. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday all in all, oh did I mention that he fixed my AC too? What a treat on so many levels.

Too Hot!

So this summer has been nice and one of the wettest summers ever. Thankfully that has helped keep things cool for the most part. It's also kept me from riding on two though. Nothing ever stays the same though.

So I'm sitting at work and I get the call from my wife, "The Air Condition is not working!" Like I said, nothing ever stays the same, no AC and the rains have slacked off and now its getting hot. Its sad when you can actually step outside and its cooler. Its sad when you actually think about setting up the tent in the backyard and camping to stay cooler.

If all goes well, we should have some AC back by mid day on Saturday, I call that phase 2 of 4 phases. Today phase 1 was launched as a Co-worker has lent me his window unit. The replacement on Saturday will be next and later will be phase 3 with the replacement inside and out of new equipment. Phase 4 will be all new duct work and new insulation blown inside. Getting to phase 2 by Saturday is going to be a strong goal.

It's funny how in the winter, I can go with out heat and will pile on as much clothing or build a fire and use all sorts of blankets. Its not the same in the Summer, you just can't beat the Texas heat at times.

Harry Potter mania hits...

This Weekend kicks off Harry Potter mania, with the release of the final book 7 in the series, Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, as its released at right at midnight on July 21st to all the true fans.

My wife got me hooked on these stories and as its been with the past books, she'll pick it up right at midnight and crack right into as soon as she makes it home. We'll see her around the house this weekend, but she'll be absorbed by the subject matter and all of the magic that we've grown to love.

I can read the book after her, but I can't bring myself to read it in a day. I'm picking up my copy, on loan from the library and can start sometime on Saturday and if needed, pick up her copy and return mine to the library.

That brings me to a funny situation today. I logged in at the library to see where I stood in the waiting list and couldn't find it on my list of requested books. Panic of a sorts sits in... not sure why, I'm sure I could pick up my wife's copy on Sunday or at least by Monday. Still I need to find out what's going on here and where the title went.

I call the library and give them my ID number. That's when I hear, "Uh, Oh!, please hold on..." Now I don't like the sound of this at all. So he comes back and tells me how they some how deleted all of the listings for this title and are working on restoring the list. They think they'll have it all back by tonight.

I'm not worried, like I said, I could have our copy by Monday, but still the thought and panic. What will they do if they don't get the list restored? I'm sure they'll fix it, I asked him if he could tell me how many copies they should have and he told me they should have a total of 63. Great, if my memory is correct, I'm number 58 on the list and I should pick up a copy Saturday evening before they close. As long as they get the list figured out. Only if they had a time turner, they could fix this problem real quick and slap the silly person, that hit delete of this very important list.

Can you hear me now?

Well I've made a switch and picked up some new toys. No I didn't go ultra-uber, with an expensive PDA style phone. I just couldn't bring myself to shelling out that kind of money for a cell phone, digital assistant, and Internet access.

Fact is I have Internet access just about everywhere I go and I can handle being with out it for short spurts. I don't have to surf the web on a tiny little hand held device.

So I wanted a basic phone and a good one. Wow how much they've improved over the past 4 years. So when he tried to talk me into one with a built in Mp3 player, I said, "nope, just a basic phone please."

I did want Bluetooth as an option though and it came with a camera. I've got plenty of choices for Cameras, but I suppose its nice to have a small digital one for basic things. Back to the Bluetooth thing, I had fun getting that all hooked up and going for sure. Success at last and now I'm apart of the crazy bunch now. You know the ones you see walking around an babbling freely to thin air. I'll be one of the guys with something stuck in the side of his head and his hands free now. "Can you hear me now? No not you.... I'm on the phone... see?"

Reining & More Raining

Howdy all! If your reading this, you're seeing my number 100th post. I've really enjoyed posting stuff and I know for some of my many fans, the spell of tech dribble was a bit boring I guess. So I'm sorry if that was the case, but for those of you missing that, you can visit my gamer/tech blog to keep up on the latest in that realm. Now on with the show.

World Show comes to a close
Wow, the end is in site. That's right, I'm about to wrap up the whirl wind 15 days of 15 plus hours of streaming, web updates, and taking pictures at the 2007 APHA World Championship Paint Horse Show. This marks my 8th show and the wettest show I've ever had.

So my theme is Reining or Raining for the most part. I would think one of my best Reining shots ever has to be the one your seeing to your left. One of my favorite events at the show, where the exhibitor rides a set pattern that includes sliding stops, a real crowd favorite.

This was the last run for the night in the Junior Reining class and both the rider and horse where on their game for the night and walked away with the win for the 2007 Junior Reining Championship. If you ever make it to a horse show, you have to check out the Reining events.


What a mess to say the least for this years show. The show takes places every year in Fort Worth, Texas and its normally a blistering 100 plus degrees out here. Last year we suffered with no Air Condition for the most part. This year we've thought about building an Ark at times. We have not had a day that it has not rained at the show. Luckily on the 4th of July it was a tiny one hour shower for the most part. The rain makes it a challenge to get show horses and riders from barn to arena and some can't use the tunnel and have to sprint for it at times.


The one thing for certain, is we wrap up the show on Saturday evening with Freestyle reining a real crowd favorite, where they do patterns, only set to music and with costumes. You can check out the live broadcast from the shows web site and get a better idea.

The thing I don't know about is when this rain will stop. It's been great for my yard to say the least. At the start of the year it looked bad and I thought it would be a mess, but with all the rain, its as green as ever. I do miss riding my motorcycle and I'm looking forward to some clear dry days. I'm also looking forward to get back to a normal schedule and seeing the family again. Thanks for reading and sharing in on my 100th post.

That's a wrap on Script Frenzy

Well I made it to the end finally. What a blast this has been and I did have fun, as well as learn a lot about all the hard work that goes into writing a movie script.

I suppose it will have me looking at movies in a whole other light now and that could be a good or bad thing. The main thing was the exercise in being creative and sticking with a goal.

One of the key things I learned about this process was to write daily. In some ways its like feeding your characters and keeping them alive. The hardest thing you can do is let them sit so to speak. So writing 667 words a day for 30 days was an easy goal to keep. I just made sure to set aside my time each day and write.

Can this project be made into a film? Not at this stage at all. Its really rough and was more of a learning step on writing scenes, building characters, and creating a story line from start to end. The whole point was to be creative and just write... let it all come out from the heart so to speak.

Rewrites come next in a project like this. You should have a very rough beginning, middle, and end for the movie and now you can go back and polish and make it flow better. I plan on letting it sit and will open it back up later and see what I think. The strange part now is not writing, after sitting aside time every night to write.

I'm happy I made it to the end and stuck with it and I hope to do this again next year and think I'll be ahead of the game now. So wish me luck on my next project. I have a 50,000 word novel to write in November for the NaNoWriMo Contest.

Change has arrived

I mentioned it in an earlier post, that I've been trying something different for a change and that my blogs here would be changing back to the non gaming issues. So from here on out, you'll need to look at TXPaldin on Live for those posts and anything gaming related. Just about everything else will show up here. Looks like I'll need to get busy writing more now.

Script Frenzy Finishline
Only a few days left and I'm still on target to complete this contest of sorts. I'm sitting at 17,354 words to my script and 3 days to hit the 20000 mark. Once again, the contest is more of an exercise in completing the task and not so much on quality. In other words its really expected to be very rough and I have not intentions on quiting any of my day or night time jobs. It has been a really cool learning experience and I'm using this as a warm-up for November and the NaNoWriMo contest. I'll attempt to write a 50,000 word Novel in only a month, same idea, write as much as you can and just let the creativity flow.

I've enjoyed the Script Frenzy so far. I was a bit scared at first, trying to come up with a good story for a movie and 2 hours at that. So I decided to jump all in and just go at it and much to my surprise I got into. My only goal is to make it to the finish line, later I can look it over and play around and see where I can improve it. It's amazing all the work that goes into the making of a movie and it all starts with a script. If you ever thought about writing, I'd recommend doing something like this or checking out the NaNoWriMo event in November.

Cool It Now!

The 'Red ring of death' problem should become a thing of the past for owners of troubled Xbox 360's and hopefully newer units and the latest Elites will have these new upgrades installed already.

The new Elites have already been modified somewhat to help keep things cooler and with an expected 65nm processor in the near future, these upgrades should help as well. But in the meantime, it appears a new Heatsink is the much needed answer to the dreaded 'Red ring of death'.

Reportedly, Microsoft is now taking returns of consoles which have suffered from the red ring of death and has upgraded them with a new heatsink. The service has been confirmed by French and Czech users and some American gamers are reporting upgrades as well.

From photos taken, the added heatsink seems to be an additional second heatsink and heatpipe combo which is running without a fan directly attached and which is cooling the 360's GPU.
With any luck then, the 360 modifications will continue smoothly on a worldwide basis and will go a long way to making the Xbox 360 a cooler, more stable platform.

Oh, Oh, It's Magic!

From the creators of Red vs. Blue: The Blood Gulch Chronicles, comes a new series called 1-800-Magic, the latest machinima project created with the newly released Shadowrun game for the Xbox 360 and Games for Windows platforms.

Rooster Teeth Productions is an award-winning production group out of Austin, Texas that specializes in the creation of machinima, or films created using real-time, interactive engines from computer and video games.

Halo fans have really enjoyed this highly popular Red vs. Blue series and have found the shows well written and really funny. With the new series out, I'm sure they will enjoy what Rooster Teeth has in store and the game should provide a lot of possibilities to entertain us. Check out the show online and give Shadowrun a try as well, you'll be pleased with both of them.

Top 5 Must Buy titles

With the original Xbox system, Microsoft originally planned on gamers purchasing at least 4 to 5 game titles. So the real money is not in the selling of the systems as much as the selling of the additional services and the games created for them. So for every game sold, a small amount of the sale goes to Microsoft and with the additional services from on-line gaming in Xbox Live and the Marketplace, Microsoft has a very successful business model in place.

With all of that being said and the steps I'm about to take towards getting into the console market. I've come up with a list of my Top 5, Must By titles for the Xbox 360. These are not necesarily the Top 5 games of all times on my list, but they are the Top 5 that I want to buy for sure. My main reasons for selecting the Xbox 360 is for the games offered and all of the online abilites that are in place. So here we go!

#5 GRAW 2 - Another Ubisoft title and once again the game play is incredible and this was the second Xbox 360 game I actually had a chance to play at a friends house. The Co-Op features and team based play is a key selling feature in my book and the game looks incredibly realistic.

#4 Assassins Creed - I saw some video footage of this upcoming title from Ubisoft and I'm impressed with all the features and storyline. The AI interactions are incredible and with the option to more or less do as you wish in taking out your target, plus it adds a change of pace from all the run and gun shooters out on the market. I also like the looks of Tenchu Z and will keep my eye on that title too.

#3 MotoGP 07 - I'm a huge motorcycle fan, I love to ride and I couldn't see letting a game like this sit on the shelf. The first time I held an Xbox Controller was at Best Buy and MotoGP 06 was loaded. I was hooked an sold for sure on both game and system. I'll download the demo or rent MotoGP 06, but holding out on the release of 2007.

#2 Viva Pinata - I really want to play games with my daughters and I'm hoping to find more kid friendly games or at least converted Xbox original games for them to play. Viva Pinata is a clear favorite to get them started and they already love the Cartoon show. I'm sure I'll find some XBL Arcade games for them down the road and I could even see them dancing to some DDR.

#1 Halo 3 - The Halo title was the one title I thought would be cool to play, but at the launch and with a small number of games. I just didn't see the big picture, I had no clue they had Xbox Live in the works and I was a solid PC gamer. Since then, I've been playing catch up on a borrowed Xbox and playing Halo Combat Evolved and Halo 2. From what I've seen an heard about Halo 3, this is a clear winner for any Halo fan, old or new.

These are the games that I'll be looking at purchasing fairly soon. I'll be starting out with Shadowrun and Forza 2 Motorsport, both are titles that were given to me as gifts and would have made my Top 5 to purchase, but I lucked out in that area and that means I'll have easily 7 games in my collection, a huge step from someone who last played an Nintendo NES and only bought 1 or 2 games for that system.

360Zine - Halo 3 Edition

In the spirit of all things Xbox 360, todays entry is none other than a cool & free e-magazine titled 360Zine. The guys & gals at Gamerzines.Com have really put together a very well made digital magazine. Did I mention its FREE?

Each issue is packed full of great game reviews & feature stories, along with compelling images from the games we love to play and multimedia clips to help support the stories.

In addition to all of the above, each issue normally has free contest giveaways. This month's issue has a chance to win Halo 3 Legendary Edition, The Darkness, and Forza 2 Motorsport. It's free to download, great content about the Xbox 360 & Games, and free contest giveaways. That's what I call a No Brain'er in my book, if you ask me.

Win Big in the Halo 2 Challenge!

Just in from XBox.Com...
Master Chief wants you! Dust off your needlers, fuel up your warthogs, and recharge your overshields because the Xbox LIVE® Halo® 2 Challenge is here—with two new never-before-seen maps and two ways to win! Register and start playing for your chance to win an Xbox 360 Elite prize package!



It's time to prove yourself worthy of the title Master Chief. Before you start dual-wielding weapons, you need to register. Registration starts on June 7 and ends on June 25, 2007.

Win with the sweepstakes or in the online tourney.
Need another reason to register? There are also two new maps available. Download "Desolation" and "Tombstone" for only $4. Start playing them now through the Halo 2 game.

Halo 2 Challenge Tournament
First, compete in the Online Tournament from June 11 through June 25, 2007. After a 15-day leaderboard qualification round, the top 64 ranked players on the "H2 Challenge" Rumble Pit playlist will advance to the live bracket round. Matches during the tournament will be played on the new maps, so get them now and practice.

First place prizes: Top three finalists with the highest scores after Grand Final play will receive an Xbox 360 Elite game console with an accessories package including an additional Xbox 360 Wireless Controller (black) and two Xbox 360 Play & Charge Kits.

Runner up prizes: The remaining five finalists not eligible for a Grand Prize will receive a 12 month Xbox LIVE Gold Membership subscription.

Play & Win Sweepstakes
Second, enter for your chance to win through the Halo 2 Play & Win sweepstakes. Register now and get one entry for every day that you play Halo 2 online between June 11 and June 25.

Grand Prize: Two winners will receive an Elite Pack (console, 120GB HDD, wireless controller, headset, HDMI cable, Xbox LIVE Silver Membership, and One-month subscription to Xbox LIVE Gold).

Second Prize: Five winners will receive 12-month Gold Subscription Cards to Xbox LIVE.
Third Prize: 25 winners will receive 3-month Gold Subscription Cards to Xbox LIVE.
The Play & Win promotions from Xbox.com are an easy way to jump in and interact with the growing Xbox LIVE community. It's easy to enter and you could win some great prizes. Look for more exciting Play & Win promotions in the future.

And now for something completely different

The line was often spoken by John Cleese and used in just about every show of Monty Python's Flying Circus and will serve as my inspiration for the next month.

I'm stepping into some new shoes so to speak and trying something, well... completely different for a change. I've been thinking lately about writing more and trying to do something along the lines of writing a book or movies. Funny how reality FOX's show the Lot is now out too, I had this in mind before seeing that show.

June 1-30 is Script Frenzy month, a contest of sorts for writers & aspiring writers to challenge themselves in writing a full length script in only 30 days. Huh? That's right, I'll be stretching the boundaries of imagination and creating characters, scenes, hopefully a plot, writing dialog, and trying to move a story along a path and towards a goal of 20,000 words. Nobody will judge it really and only a word count will verify that I hit my mark.

It's more of an exercise in the whole process and at the same time I'm learning a lot more about something I truly enjoy, that being movies. So after 30 days I should have a very rough draft of a story and it's more about quantity and reaching the goal than quality. Sure I could write the same line over and over, but that wouldn't really do me much good.

Well if you made it this far and your seeing that I wrote something that doesn't involve what you've been reading in the past. Don't Panic... a line from a favorite author of mine. I still have a passion for the other, I just wanted to share something completely different for a change.

Forza Motorsports 2

It's more than just another racing game... It's the next big Online Community for Speed Freaks & Car Enthusiast alike. Forza Motorsport 2 is a racing simulator that not only allows you to select from more than 300 cars, but allows you to fully trick them out as you play through the game. But it's not just about winning races, it's more about building & collecting better cars, while learning more about cars as you play and win races.

When you first start out in the career mode you need to select either North America, Europe, or Asia as your region to hail from. Then as you race you earn and unlock rewards and discounts from that region. This means you can upgrade cars in your region at a decent price, but it could cost you more in collecting European Cars, when you've selected to come from North America. Cost me more you ask?

That's right its a Pay to play and another feature of the game allowing you the ability to collect cars through the Marketplace Online Auctions and use some of those credits you've earned in racing. That's right you can take your fully upgraded & tricked out ride and auction the car off to the highest bidder or purchase that next ride to add to your garage. Everything that is done to the car is included in the sale as well, now that's a true winner take all feature.

Skinning your car allows you the ultimate in personalization, from selecting a very rad paint job to adding custom decal graphics. This game will allow you to make your car a true one of kind machine to show off.

Forza Motorsport 2 is now set to burn things up in more ways than one and should become a huge favorite for car racing fans. I had a chance to see this game up close at the GSB Road Tour in Dallas and this game should have hours upon hours of fun. I hadn't thought much about getting the Wireless Steering Wheel & Pedals, but I can really see how something like that might be fun to play with now. Look for Forza Motorsport 2 in stores or try and download the demo and check it out for yourself.

Sheding light on Shadowrun

I've always heard, "Don't Judge a Book by it's Cover"... That being said, I'm guilty of just that it appears. I heard just little about the new title from Microsoft and how this would be the first game that they would release to play on Xbox 360, Games for Windows, play on Xbox Live and against or with each other. Interesting so far and I look at the artwork and think its some kind of Pitfall game on steroids perhaps. So I move on and look at something else.

Luckily I had a first hand chance to actually see & play this game at the GSB Road Tour in Dallas and I have to report that I now stand corrected. This game is awesome from the visuals to game play and all points in between. Not only does it blend the worlds of Fantasy & Sci-fi together in its usage of both Magic & High Tech weapons, this first person shooter bridges the gap between Console and PC gaming once and for all.

I really like the round based, reward style of play the game has to offer and how you can purchase certain types of Magic and Weapons in between gaming rounds. This feature reminds me a lot of Diablo II and upgrading your armor, weapons, or purchasing magic items before heading back out to battle. The various classes of characters you can plan and how they have certain advantages is a huge plus and encourages more team play than the solo run & gun style.

If I hadn't seen this game first hand, I more and likely would have just passed it up all together. I'll have to do a better job and look harder at games from now on or I'll find myself missing out. This title has clearly moved way up on the chart at a very close 2nd, behind Halo 3 and could slide into first perhaps. I had a small list of 5 titles in my head of must buy games for starters and I'm afraid that Lost Planet has now fallen out of my top 5 list.

Top Five Must Buy for Xbox 360

1. Halo 3
2. Shadow Run
3. Assassins Creed
4. Moto GP 07
5. Viva Pinata (So my girls can play)

Gamerscore Blog Road Tour - Dallas

The end of the Gamerscore Blog North American Road Tour wrapped up in Dallas last night with the event taking place at the very swank Hotel ZaZa, located in their Crouching Tiger suite. The setting was an incredible and very relaxed place to meet up with other local Gamers & Bloggers for an evening of fun, games, food and refreshments.

Some of the local gamers that made it out were none other than DeaconBlade 360, Soufizzy, RuKaMiR, GameSkills, willieb 52, NASCARVinny, and MiyamotoMusashi just to name a few. With about 7 Xbox 360 game systems, spread all through out and with controllers all around, what more could you ask for?

How about some first hand looks at some very fresh games? We got to look at a couple very new games and they only asked that we don't take photos or write about these games. So all I can say is they are very visual and appealing games to watch for down the road. So what games can I talk about then from the event?

How about today's brand new released Shadowrun & Forza Motorsport 2 for starters and clear favorites of mine for the night. I also had a chance to look at Tenchu Z and rocked out on Guitar Hero II for the night. It was really cool to put all of these games through their paces and nice to know that I'm not the only one that can send his car right into the walls while racing Forza Motorsport 2. The also had some really cool Live Arcade titles to check out as well, but all in all I think Shadowrun was the game people liked the most.

I also got to check out the soon to be released Wireless Keyboard adaptor and found it to look and feel incredible. It was only a prototype, but it sounds like it is very close to what they had on hand to show us. I can see how this will be a big plus for messaging your friends while on Xbox Live. Well I plan to have more in depth reviews on some of the titles later in the week, but in short and if your looking for a couple new titles for the 360, rush out and get Shadowrun and Forza Motorsport 2, you'll love them.