Matt’s Blog

summary of my life: bills are paid but bank account is low. give me a few months, I’ll have it the other way around again.

the cabin: in the past month, I’ve ripped my cabin all apart again and moved the entire building. it’s kinda like an 8 by 12 shed, with a cathedral ceiling, fireplace, and solar powered lights and a backup generator. everything home made, even the generator. 2.5hp engine and a car alternator hooked up to a deep cycle truck battery. a gallon of gas lasts about 2 to 4 months. works great. fireplace is an old oil drum turned up on end and a big hole cut in the side, and a 55 gallon drum for a chimney.

I haven’t had much time to do anything with my trixbox pbx phone system at home. voicemail died for some reason, it wouldn’t let me log in to check it. just kept saying there was an error and hang up on me. so I fixed the voicemail by switching it over to let my phone provider host it, now I don’t have dial tone. no biggy. no one I care to talk to calls me anyway. lol. my mom calls me at work, my dad emails me.

last night, I got gas and cleaned off the push mowers. the basic cheap one started first pull after sitting all winter. the other one is self propelled and electric start and everything. someone told my mom they think it has water in it when they gave it to her, so I took it apart and dumped out the bowl on the carburetor. still trying to figure it all out yet, it pulls harder then it should. I took it apart some more and found a completely dead battery with one terminal broke off. I put a spare on charge and I’ll try it tonight. a lead acid battery, the size of 2 rc car batteries. I didn’t know that would be big enough to power a lawn mower starter, but that’s what’s in it.

this morning hasn’t been so good. I woke up a few minutes after I was supposed to be at work. I don’t remember hearing the alarm clock. I’m at work now, an hour and a half late. about 2 minutes from the building, right before I get off the highway, a cop gets me with laser. course, he overlooks the line of tailgating cars right infront of me. I don’t remember going that fast, but apparently I was doing 82 in a construction zone. mowers with a few cones out, AHEAD of where he got me at. I guess he desided not to be a dick about it, because the construction thing he first said about, isn’t on the ticket. don’t know how much this one will cost me now, but it’s bs. actually, I’m surprised he didn’t say anything about the warrant that’s out for my arrest in the next state over. that one’s bs too, but mostly just me being lazy. whatever.

I took off from work friday and monday, and had a 4 day weekend. 3 of those days I spent in millville new jersey at the millville rescue squad building. LAN PARTY BABY! somewhere over 200 guests, the place was packed. every table used. the network was great, never had a bit of lag. the internet was slow and was down most of saturday, but that’s to be expected with that many people on the same connection. lan parties usually don’t have good internet anyway. it was a great time. 2 10 foot or so rear projection screens above the stage. one playing south park and movies and video’s.. at the other end of the room, 2 more projectors for wii and x box, then another smaller projector for guitar hero. at least 5 people used lcd tv’s for computer monitors. sitting less then 2 feet away from a 30 or 40 inch screen. wow.. great picture. I’d love to have that resolution. my computer is somewhere around 6 years old already, wow. it’s only an athlon xp 2400 with 1gb ram, and 1000gb disk space. btw, 900gb used, running out of space again! gotta clean it up and make more room. I think it’s an nvidia 5600 or something that I’m running. but! my computer still runs all the games as good as ever. amazingly, my computer keeps up pretty well with my brothers new quad core system. booting isn’t much slower, and games load almost as fast.

side events.. there were some great contests, although I was hoping for more from the paint ball. that was a flop. bobbing for bawls had a good turn out, but if it was inside I think it would be better. I missed most of it watching another event. the tofu eat-off was the best by a long shot. it was great seeing people trying to eat that stuff and almost losing their lunch. the underwear run was pretty good. a bunch of guy’s strip down to boxers and run around the building. the frozen t-shirt contest was pretty good too. wet t-shirts rolled up into balls and frozen. then people race to break them apart and put one on. they had one computer to smash with a sledge hammer. they killed it pretty well. all the side contests were pretty good to watch. the cat-5 build off wasn’t bad. that’s one I was in. normally you line up the wires and put them all in the end piece at the same time. they would not go in… I had to put them in one at a time. I finally got one end done and I think it was good, then I go to the other end and there’s a wire cut off. that’s as far as I got when someone else won. I tried. lol.

I slept in the car both nights. not very comfortable, but better then a concrete floor. I heard there was a carpeted room. that might have been better. I’ve only ever been to 3 lan parties so far. I’ve loved each one! but one thing I’ve noticed.. the bigger the party, the harder it is to get people in the same games I’m playing, or to find games to play with other people. we had 4 people in flatout 2 at one point. half way to a full room, but that was only for 10 minutes. there must be a fix for that problem. more people in quake 3 would be nice, and a full unreal tournament 2004 onslaught game would be the best! but I don’t see that happening. maybe if it was made into a tournament. would be fun to play for a while. flatout 2 also, should be a tournament.

more pictures coming

RELEASED!! trying it tonight

thegxl.com - they have a setup limited to 256 guests, I have a feeling they will at least reach the 200 mark. today, it’s 1 week away!! I’m so excited I’m… wait, maybe it’s the caffeine, nevermind.

14 servers hosted on site, plus up to 8 guest servers, all on gigabit eithernet. not my favorite brand, but all their switches are cisco, mounted in a 6 foot rack. one server is for world of warcraft, with ultra fast leveling and better drops.

48 hours of straight gaming, friday at 5pm until sometime sunday afternoon. wing eatoff, bobbing for bawls, computer smashing, paintball, frozen t-shirt contest, tofu eat off… it’s not only about computers. a lot of console games too.

this weekend, I have to work on my house more, putting on a whole new roof, framing and all. then, I have to spend next week getting ready for the event. fresh install of windows, blow out the dust… I have a case of cocaine coming wednesday. the equivalent of having 84 cans of red bull at my finger tips. ooh, gotta love the burn too. last year I slept to much, maybe this year will be different I haven’t played quake III capture the flag in many months. last summer I think. gotta install that again and get to practicing. flat out 2 also. I can’t let myself get whooped to bad.

the last few lan parties I’ve gone to, people are always having to install games at the event.. what a drag. I’ll try to be more ready then I have been in the past, but I have to get on donald and reuben’s case about getting things installed and ready. oooh, at least I have my 500gb external usb 2.0 sata300 hard drive. plug that in to their system and a few seconds later they have the files. that thing’s even a little faster then my internal hitachi 500gb sata300 drive. maxtor/seagate drives aren’t bad, I trust them and they’re pretty fast, but hitachi/ibm are still my favorite for reliability. my last ibm ide drive lasted 6 years running 24/7.

anyway, I’ll be posting more this coming week as well as while I’m at the event next weekend. I’ll pull myself away from the games for a moment. lol

computers as far as the eye can see

I work in an office.. I always have to get all dressed up like I’m goin’ ta walmart. I don’t want to see what she looks like dressed down.

I’ll start off with some info about myself. I have my own place in Pennsylvania, where I was born and raised. I drive an 07 chevy cobalt, black, 5 speed, power stuff, sunroof, black and silver rims..

My computer is about 6 years old now, way past due for a complete upgrade and overhaul, but it still runs pretty nicely. athlon xp 2400, 1gb ram, 1.2tb in hard drives, dual vrt monitors.. still running windows xp, but fedora 9 linux will be released in a matter of days and I’ll be switching to that. I’ll post on how that turns out.

In my livingroom, I have my favorite pioneer sx-838 stereo from the early 80’s, an audiofile (?) surround sound decoder, pro logic, and a late 80’s floor model tv, still had a good picture and works well for $25 at an auction. I have another pioneer sx-838 with a fried amp in it, I plan on rebuilding it with some new parts and a whole new amp from a technics 700. it will be customized and have an output of somewhere over 400 watts. these things are my favorite because they were made in the 80’s, going on 30 years old, and they still play strong and clean and powerful. I like the sound of a true transistor based amp. in the living room, there’s also the dvr, and my diamond audio d9 15 that used to be in my car. I rarely turn that on anymore because it vibrates the house from end to end. wouldn’t doubt the neighbors windows rattle too. makes it a little hard to watch tv. lol

the tires that came with my car, I didn’t like at all.. I wore out the first 2 so I could get new ones. I ordered 2 new tires online. I got performance all seasons. great on wet and dry roads and still ok in the snow. okay, factory standard is 15 inch tires. factory optional is 16 inch. the ordering system only suggested 16’s and I didn’t take notice that I have 15’s on my car. I noticed yesterday when I got the new tires in the mail. they don’t fit.. I’m not spending all that extra money on shipping to exchange them for the right size. nope, today, I spent a few more hundred dollars and got new rims. 5 thin spokes with black strips on the edges of them. nice

I’ve been working on my kitchen too. the origional cabinets, from the 70’s, fell apart in my hands. no need for a large hammer, but still a little fun.. a lot of the floor has to be replaced yet, like under the sink. the frame for the new cabinets is mostly done, and I’ve started on the facing and doors. the counter-top is a dark granite color, flat black trim, and a dark stained wood for facing. it’s a crap load of sanding. after a week of working, I have the first 4 feet of the facing and doors mostly done. I’m also getting soft closing hardware for it, crazy expencive, but oh so sweet. you close a door and it ketches it about a half inch before it slams shut and just slowly pulls it closed. I played with them for a good 20 minutes at home depot when I first found it. I’m also hiding led’s under the edge near the floor, under the top cabinets, and ontop of them near the ceiling. both blue and white, dimmable to get the perfect mood lighting and color. also, might be overkill, but that’s how I am.. a few 50 watt halogen lights pointing down at the counter, also dimmable. I have to see if I can order a new face panel for the dish washer, it’s white, but needs to be painted black to match the stove. don’t worry, I will think of other things to do, but that’s it for now. I was thinking about using 300 pound magnetic locks for a few of the doors with a keypad. I have the stuff, gotta use it someplace.

alesana will be at croc rock may 4th! I’ll be taking off from work to go to the concert. also, the gxl lan party is april 25-27. let me know if you’d like to go with to either event. good times!