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The Tale of Two Computers

So through a long tale of trial and error, I have somehow ended up with two completely functional and fast computers.

This is my long and drawn out story of computer mundaneness and frustration:

Six months ago I told Renata to buy a Gateway computer from Futureshop since it was a good deal.  Great performance for the price.  So she got it.  And I realize that Gateways aren’t the best for high performance computing, but for non-gaming stuff it’s a pretty good deal considering you get a pretty decent machine.

Then I moved here and needed to upgrade it so that I could play the latest and greatest games.  I bought a brand new video card for a lan party here in Ottawa a few months ago.  When I installed it, I found out that I needed a new power supply to drive the video card.

So I bought a new power supply.  Stuck it in, and it seemed to work like a charm.

I found out at the LAN party that my machine over heated with the new video card/power supply because the case was too small … so $130 later I bought myself a wicked gaming case that has like 6 fans.

When I went to install THAT, I found out that the gateway motherboard doesn’t fit into the new case since it doesn’t follow the standard specs.  Sonofabitch!

So I went to go out and by a motherboard to fit the cpu that I originally had, so that I could fit that motherboard into the new case.  The motherboard was a “refurb” and it didn’t work at all.  The gateway machine’s CPU was a Socket 939, which is a little outdated so it’s hard to find a brand new mother for it.  So I decided that I might as well buy a new CPU and motherboard.

I bought a brand new CPU and motherboard yesterday.  Came home to install stuff, and then found out that no… my DDR RAM sticks don’t fit into this motherboard as the new motherboard only supports the latest type, DDR2.  BLARGH!!!

So to shorten the story, I bought a new CPU to fit the new motherboard to fit the new case to fit the new video card and powersupply, which all didn’t work with any of the gateway components.  I reassembled the gateway machine and now it’s back to where it originally was before this whole ordeal.

So if anyone’s interested, I have a fairly new Gateway desktop for sale with the following specs:

•  AMD Athlon X2 64 Bit 3800+
• 1 Gig of DDR ram
• 250 Gig hard drive
• 2 DVD drives: 16x DVD-RW and 16x DVD-R
• TV Capture card
• Integrated sound/video/network.
• 56k modem
• 9 in 1 flashcard/memory card reader
• Firewire and USB2 ports.

I must say, one of the best things about this computer is that it’s SUPER quiet.  It doesn’t have a massive roaring video card fan, and the CPU is passively cooled (well, sorta) as it has a massive 3×2 inch heatsink.

For sale for a good price

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Top of the Bottom - Division E Champions!

I’m delighted to report that our Summer Season Ultimate team, The Buddha Bellies, has finished playoffs as champions of our division. We’re the champs of the bottom pool! Booyah!!

The weekend has been a whirlwind of Ultimate. With a game on Friday, two on Saturday, and two more on Sunday, I’m definitely happy to have a chance to have a breather.

Friday’s game with the Buddha Bellies was a win against last place “Super Troopers”. Unfortunately the game wasn’t the most enjoyable as they were nasty to play with. Every called foul was contested aggressively, and they didn’t hold a great deal of sportsmanship. At least we beat them 12-6. We eventually discovered that this bottom tier team was stacked with ringers!

Saturday’s games were played with Rainbow Trout (I’ll be playing with them full time this fall). I was asked to sub in for them for finals, and I had an amazing time out on the field. Our first game was against, surprise, the same ringers that were brought in to face the Buddhaa Bellies on Friday’s game. For clarification, Trout plays at a much higher tier than the Buddha Bellies, so it was a bewildering to see how they stacked their team so badly. The “Killer Cods” were too much for us Trout, and we lost a closely contested game.

The next game followed up against a bunch of beer loving tye dyed hippies. We beat them fairly easily as they were short of spares and eventually gassed after 3 hours of Ultimate.

Saturday night was a blast as our team mate Bart had the entire Buddha Bellies team over his place for BBQ and foosball! Yes, it was like I peaked that summer day with a nice sunny day of back to back Ultimate, followed by foosball, burgers, beer, and some fun company. Amanda brought a funky game called catch-phrase that was a blast too.

Sunday was the semi-finals and finals for the Buddha Bellies. We were able to absolutely crush “Flick Fever” in the semis. We reached half with the score at 8-1, but then slacked off and they managed to pull up a few points. It ended with a win for us at 15-6, with plenty of time to spare for the final game.

We played for the division championship against the “Ultimate Virgins” in a rubber match from the regular season. We beat them and they’ve beaten us in the regular season, so we were anticipating a hard fought battle.

The first half was a tough game, going back and forth, and we were able to break away for 2 point lead reaching the half. We quickly grew wise to their defense, and shut them down offensively in the second half, and it was smooth sailing in the second half. We took the championship game with the score 11-7.

Free beer and food followed for the champs, and it tasted like sweet victory. Okay, maybe it tasted more like shitty beer and stale hot dogs… but who I am to complain. Anywho, we invited the team over to our place afterwards for pizza and beer, and a jolly time was had.

I’ve had a wicked fun season with the team, in that we played hard on the field, had fun off of it, and really made good friends from it. I’m sad to see that the season has ended, and that the team won’t ever be the same. But C’est La Vie. There is always next year, and maybe we’ll be able to pull together a team for the fall.

The Buddha Bellies… all in gangster pose:

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Board Game Geekiness

In an attempt to increase my geek-hood, I’ve invested some time and money into boardgames. Yes, I’ve reached a deeper level of geekiness just shy of the Warhammer/Magic the Gathering depths (which is a little too extreme for even me).

I’m delightfully surprised to find that unplugged gaming is at times more enjoyable than video games. Fun factor doesn’t depend on visual aesthetics and wow-factor, but solid game play and mechanics. The more games I play and the more variety I play, the more I seem to enjoy board gaming.

I guess the biggest turn-off for me all these years for boardgames is that I played games like Monopoly, Trivial Pursuit, and Risk. They’re somewhat fun in themselves, but the games get frustrating and boring when the main mechanic relies on the random luck of the dice.

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Then just two years ago, I played Settler’s of Catan for the first time and had a fantastic time. Sure there was some chance involved with the dice, but there was a lot of depth in terms of strategy. It was easy to pick up, it was fun, and it was very social in that interaction is critical in the game. I played it a few more times with some friends for board game nights, and the game stuck with me.

This June, while out in Victoria to do the West Coast Trail, Renata and I were checking out the sights and found a board game store on main street. The owner of the store had a collection of over 300 different board games, and was a hardcore board gamer. He was super helpful in helping us find some new games to play. Thirty minutes and $250 later we walked out of the store with five new board games to play with.

Of the batch we got:

1. Puerto Rico
2. Medici
3. Hive
4. Carcassonne
5. Hollywood

So far we’ve tried all the games except Hollywood. I must say, I’m more than happy with our investment. With the gem of the group being Puerto Rico, which has been the #1 rated game for years now. After having played a few times, I can now understand the hype and fanaticism for the game. It may not be the most popular game (the best selling game right now is still Settler’s of Catan), but it is the most intriguing, fun, and addicting game I’ve come across so far.

Chance and luck in the game is kept to a minimum, as there’s no dice involved. The game is heavy on strategy, but is setup in such a way that every game will play differently due to the multitudes of strategies available. The depth of the game is so deep that it feels like I’ve only scratched the surface having played a handful of games so far. I can’t wait for this Thursday when Mel and Frank are coming over for some Puerto Rico :-).

The other games too have been really great.   Carcassonne is unique and fun.  Medici is a tricky auctioning game that requires a lot of analysis, and Hive is a quick and portable tactical game that relies on spatial thinking.

On Monday Renata and I swung by Wizards Tower, a nearby comic book and game store.  Mel and Frank gave us a nice gift certificate to spend there, and so we picked up Caylus, another highly acclaimed game.  It’s a beefy game that is probably the heaviest in terms of depth and time for all the games we have so far.  I can’t wait to try it out!

Tack on another hobby on my already long list.  I’m on my way to board game geekiness.

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Hobo Wine 2007

The other night I’ve brewed another batch of hobo wine.

What is it?  Hobo wine is …well… wine made by a hobo.  Take one milk carton, some generic bread yeast, sugar, and some frozen juice concentrate and you have  yourself the makings of some hobo wine.

This year from my winery I’ll be brewing some Welchs Berry Sunsplash, and hopefully it’ll be ready just in time for my summer Ultimate team’s year end bash.

For those of you curious to make your own batch, here’s my recipe for some cheap booze.

Ingredients and supplies:

1. Bread yeast, 8 grams worth.
2. 2 cans of frozen concentrated juice.
3. One empty 4 liter milk jug or some other large air tight container.
4. Either 1 pvc tube
5. 2 cups of sugar

Sterilize the milk jug (or whatever container) with a ton of bleach.  Make sure it’s absolutely clean and sterile, or else your batch will get ruined.

Activate the yeast by mixing in the 2 cups of sugar with yeast and some really warm water (optimal temperature is usually 39 degrees).  Make sure you don’t kill the yeast with water that’s too hot.  If the yeast doubles in size with this mixture, they’re good to go!

Pour the thawed out juice concentrate into the milk jug, add the sugar/yeast/water mixture.  Add warm water to top it off.  Make sure you leave some room for air as the little yeasties need oxygen to reproduce (like 1/8th or 1/10th of the milk jug).  Drill a small hole in the milk jug cap.  Make sure it’s about the size of the pvc tubing.  Tighten the cap, and push the tubing into the little hole.  Make sure the tube isn’t submerged in the liquid, as it’s used to vent out the carbon dioxide.

Duct tape the cap and the tube together, and make sure everything is air tight.  The other end of the tube should be duct taped to a water-filled jar.  The end of the tube should be submersed in the water.

Basically, the reason for having the tube is that the little yeasties produce a lot of carbon dioxide when they’re reproducing and guzzling the sugar.  If the carbon dioxide doesn’t have anywhere to vent, the milk jug will explode.  However, you want to let CO2 out without letting contaminated air in, as the air floating around probably has bacteria and other yeast particles that will ruin your batch.  The tubing creates and air lock, that is, CO2 gets pushed out of the tube and into the water in the glass jar, but no air gets sucked back in.

Wait around for 2 to 3 weeks (depending on how strong/dry you want your wine) and voila!  You have some hobo wine.  The best place to keep the wine is somewhere warm and out of sunlight.  Dark and warm places will allow the yeast to cultivate.  If you don’t see your brew bubbling within a day or two, it’s most likely that the yeast are dead or that they’re not getting enough warm love.

Obviously, if you see floating green mold or the wine smells really funky, it’s probably contaminated and it’s best not to drink it.

Enjoy!

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