More Computer Problems

It has seen that this year thus far has been categorized by problems! Between work related problems, car problems, and the (never ending) computer problems it just doesn't quit! Anyway, the current problem isn't actually with the computer but wit the router. It appearently has something bad inside of it because over the past few days it has developed an absolutly nasty habit of cutting out. I have ran numerous test, and I am certain it is the router and not the cable modem. Currently it will decide to randomaly cut out and come back on for a few seconds before cutting out again. The only way to get it working again is to unplug it and plug it back in, set vertical (or horizontal depending what state it was already in) or unplugging all of the connection wires and plugging them back in. This is most annoying in trying to play games online. Because if it starts cutting out while browsing the internet, the computer works through the brief ontimes and gets the job done. The PS2 however ends the connection as soon as the cut-outs start. Sunday begins a new month, which means a new budget, and a new router is at the top of the list.

Rocking Out

Those with overly good memories will remember that last year I was suppose to take the youth group to the Icthus Music Festival for the whole weekend but everyone backed out at the last second except one. This year, I gave them a second chance, but instead of camping and being there the whole weekend, we just went for one day. This time six youth went, with no one backing out. We left from Corydon at 7:45ish but didn't arrive at the Icthus grounds until 11:00, and it only a 111 mile journey. This is because the day got of to a bang (more of a smash really) with my other adult driver being involved in a fender bender in rush hour traffic on I64 in downtown Louisiville. His car was no worse for wear and no one was hurt. He then missed the exit later on, so I had to wait for him to turn around and catch up, but it is ok. We got there in time for Thousand Foot Krutch, they are by far my absolute favorite band so I was super excited to see them. Their show was awesome, and the played some of their stuff from their first CD including Puppet and a meolody of other songs. After Thousand Foot Krutch was Kutless, and they were good. After a break, we came back and saw Pillar play. This was by far the most energetic set. Everyone who was up close listening, wanted to be upclose listening and it was pretty crazy (well as crazy as a Christian concert with good security can get). They also played stuff from their original CD, and I was one of the few people who seemed to be familiar with it, so that was cool. After Pillar , I listened to some random band on another stage called Kids in the Way. They were from Indianapolis, which was cool, but to me they were "just another rock band". Next was Charlie Hall with some of his worship music and the main speaker who was very, very good. He was followed up by Reliant K. Reliant K was suppose to be followed up by Toby Mac (meh), but a tornado warning sent everyone rushing back to their vehicles (and apperantly at one spot on the grounds a stupid person yelled tornado and caused a huge panic, where there were a few minor injuries). It was an awesome experience, and despite an accident, sunburn, and inclement weather I think all of the teens feel the same way.

About the New Pope

So I am very much not catholic. In fact I have some very serious problems with the biblical standing of several catholic doctorines (not the least of which papal infalibility), however the new Pope, Benedict XVI sounds like he will be a cool leader. He has some fairly hardcore quotes that he has thrown down lately: “Having a clear faith, based on the creed of the church, is often labeled today as a fundamentalism. We are moving towards a dictatorship of relativism, which does not recognize anything as definitive and has as its highest value one’s own ego and one’s own desires.”
In a time and date where homosexual clergy are being openly ordained in several denominations, hearing stuff like this is refreshing. He has also taken strong stands against abortion and homosexuality. It sounds like he will be a fairly active Pope that can do a lot of good for a very old church that seems to still be in need of rejuvination.

A trip to the Movies

And it really is a trip, the Corydon theater is currently closed for renovations (and has been for over a month) so if we want to see a movie it is a 2o minute drive. However, it has been a really long time since Abigail and I had been to the theater to see a movie, and we both wanted to change that. The problem was that we both really wanted to see different movies. The dark gritty film noir style, super artistic camera work, and true-to-the source comic book adaptation of Sin City made it a must see for me. However, the extreme violence and graphic nature made it an instant turn off for me. On the other side Fever Pitch was a must see for Abigail. Unfortunatly a romantic comedy, starring Drew Barrymore with a stupid name (the movie was originally British and dealt with soccer, were the field is known as a pitch .. it works a bit better in that capacity than as a name for a baseball movie) equaled three strikes from me. We knew that if we went to just one, neither would be happy, and there was not a neutral third choice that either one of us was interested in, so we saw both today!
Sin City is incredible. Yes, the stories are dark, depressing, and hopeless. However, the story telling is out of this world, and as a long time comic book reader it felt like watching a comic book. There were some shots where it looked like someone had taken a splash page and somehow made it real (which is EXACTLY what happened). Sin City is truly a cinematic work of genius that I would highly recommend.
On the other hand is Fever Pitch and it wasn't that bad. . .for the most part. I dislike Romantic Comedies because they all have the same basic plot (boy and girl who have differences fall for each other all is good, big disaster and they seperate, movie ends with them getting reunited in some ridicolous fashion.) For a while I thought the movie was going to actually avoid the same tired plot, but sadly it didn't. However, I will say, that this was funnier than most romantic comedies, and in a lot of ways went "deeper" in the issues it explored. It was all good though, both of us got to see the movie we wanted to see, and most importantly enjoy seeing it with the person we care most about.
What made it perfect was that I got to see the Revenge of the Sith trailer twice. . . on a big screen. . . Yes, you can remind me of all the shortcomings that Episode I has, you can even point to some of the akward dialouge from Episode II but after seeing this trailer on a big screen with surround sound my only possible reaction is
HOLY FREAKING CRAP!!!!! THIS IS GOING TO BE AWESOME!!!!!

While in Scotland. . .

While it is subject to change, and we have quite a bit of room to be flexible, here is what we currently are planning on doing while in Scotland
May 30th
Flying there

May 31st -Edinburgh
The Edinburgh Castle, Royal mile, Holyroodhouse, and Holyroodhouse Park.

June 1st - Perth Shire
Hermitage Waterfall
Edadour Distillary
Dunkheld Cathedral and town

June 2nd- Aberdene
Dunottar Castle, Castle Fraser, Tolquhoun Castle, East Aquhorithies Stone Circle, Fyvie Castle

June 3rd-Inverness area
Ruthven Barracks, Culloden Battlefield, Loch Ness

June 4th-Skye
Rogie Falls, Loch of Carron, Armadale Castle and Gardens

June 5th -Skye
Day tour of island

June 6th
Elian Dounan Castle
Old Inverlochy Castle

June 7th
Jacobite Steam Train (you know the train in Harry Potter they take to Hogwart's . . it's this one)
Glenfinnan Monument

June 8th
Glencoe

June 9th
Glen Lonan
St. Conan's Kirk
Kilchurn Castle
Stirling and possible Stirling Castle
Wallace Monument

June 10th
Flying back


And that is it. For all of you well traveled people, if you know of anything that should be added then please let us know.

East Aquhorithies Stone Circle

East Aquhorithies Stone Circle

A Perfect Day :)

Average days are well average. . . bad days are always to frequent. Good days are unique but (hopefully) happen semi-often. However, a perfect day is a great rarity and should be treasured. Today was a perfect day.

It began with waking up at 10 am, which is always nice. I then worked on my Masked Banditz story level, but stoped because in the process I came up with the idea for a really cool general level. I then left to go play in the church basketball league. It was our last game and we lost, but I played incredible. We only have five people so I had to play the whole game. I scored 10 points, and they were all from drives and rebounds (Yes, me the shortest guy on the court scored 4 points from rebounds!) I seriously did things (like a mid air pump fake) that I don't think I have ever pulled off successfully. After that, I came back and worked on my map more while I cooled down. Abigail and I then went to get groceries at Wal-Mart. While there, they had a new display of $4.88 DVDs we looked in it and found Clue: the movie. I LOVE this movie, and I have seriously been looking for it in DVD bargin bins for years. On top of that, Wal-Mart finally had a decent Star Wars display, so I got some extremely cool new Star Wars figures including an amazing Anikan Skywalker


After we put the food away, we took advantage of the perfect weather and went to the local park and sat beside Indian Creek and had a picknic while we finished planning out our trip to Scotland. We came home and Abigail had fun with doing her detailed travel planning (which makes her just super happy anytime she gets to do that) and I finished the map I started this morning, and I think it is the best Timesplitters Map I have made ever (even though no one who reads this has the ability to download maps for the PS2 it is called City of Ra if you are interested in trying it). I am getting ready to get down on paper everything for church tomorrow, and conclude this perfect day.

I have to share. . .

I just recently discovered photobucket, which allows me to post pictures at place like here fairly easy, so I have to show you a comic strip I modified a while ago to make it personally applicable to me. I was suppose to use it a message on temptation, but computer problems prevented that

If it is not computers it is cars. . .

So as you should know, we recently just got our computer working back to how it should (relativly speaking anyway). . . so on Friday one of our cars decided to quit working. It started making an odd sound on Thursday. I drove it once more on Friday and the sound went from odd to aweful (the car in question is Abigail's Neon). She had to take it that night, and on the way to where she was going there was a loud rumble and pop, then every single warning light flashed on, and the car lost power (it also started leaking mystery liquids). We don't know exactly what exploded yet, and the mechnaic may not even be able to look at it until tomorrow.

I have not posted a whole lot lately because . ..

I have been to busy posting over here: http://people.1up.com/do/my1Up?publicUserId=5390352

I figured the majority of the people who read here, wouldn't really be that interested in my swooning over a game. In case you don't follow the link, the game in question is Timesplitters: Future Perfect. If you like to shoot things and have any next generation system you need to get this game. The variety in it is incredible. Not only is the single player story have a lot of different gameplay, but there is the return of the arcade league and the challenges. The challenges are probably the coolest because they are so unique. For instance one has you racing a remote control cat, and another involves the Canadian sport of Curling with monkeys (now you know why some monkeys have blue bottoms). However, the part that really got a hold of me hard is the mapmkaer. Those who lived with me at the Hazearts, might remember that I got into the mapmaker on Timesplitters 2 a good deal (though Allen did a bit more, and his maps were cooler, like one that was a huge open room that kept collapsing into smaller levels). The mapmaker in this game is better and has more space. On top of that, it is possible to post maps online and download other user maps. This feature is increible. I would guess I have probably downloaded and played close to 45 maps by this point, and I have made several as well (I currently have 5 available online). I had been saving a gift certificate since Christmas time for this game, and it was so worth the wait!

I have to point out that about a week before I got Timespitters, Abigail's birthday present to me arrived in the mail. It was (another) video game: Brothers in Arms. This is probably one of the most realistic and accurate console games created. It is a ton of fun, though I have not devoted as much time to trying to beat the blasted last level as I might want to because my free time has been devoured by Timesplitters. The multiplayer in Brothers in Arms is really good in theory but in practice online it isn't so much ,because the developers sort of droped the ball. However, I would love to play it split screen, if anyone wants to drop by at some point. . .