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Afternoon ride

Went mountain biking by myself after work today, and I was kind of surprised at how many people were out there for almost 5pm. I probably saw more people than I did on Saturday, and there were still a number of people just getting ready to head out as I was packing up.

Unfortunately, my level of physical fitness hasn't changed much in two days. ;-)

Goodbye Neon

As of this afternoon, the Neon should be sold. :-D Cleared out all sorts of space in the garage, as you could tell from the below pics. Three boxes full of parts, plus a set of wheels and tires.

Biking glory

Perhaps "glory" is exagerrating things a bit. But at the very least, I finally got to go biking again, which was fun and uneventful at the same time. I still feel like I'm in horrible shape, and I'd like to find a way to keep my feet on the pedals, but other than that things went well. I really may have to start going during the week soon.

A revelation

Just last night I found the "shuffle" button for listening to music on the 360 while playing games. Would have been nice to know about that a bit earlier.

I'm still looking at new drivers, specifically the Bridgestone J33R. Perhaps part of the intrigue is the fact that I can't even find the club locally. Still, it's big and cheap on ebay, and I understand it has a lower trajectory with more roll than most. I'd probably be looking at the lower-priced 420cc model, which I think is identical to the newer 460cc model (just smaller, obviously). I don't really know what's keeping me from not buying it. Maybe the SVS looming around the corner? Maybe because I've just been to the range a lot lately, and haven't played an actual round of golf? Hard to say.

More gaming

Completing those co-op multiplayer missions in Ghost Recon must have helped, because I'm definitely feeling more patient playing the single player stuff now. Did another couple missions last night, and they went pretty well for the most part. I'm convinced that more co-op missions have to be coming though, given that the ones I played are called "Chapter 1." I haven't read anything about that anywhere though, so we'll see.

Also, I read yesterday about a DDR-like game for the PS2 coming out in the near future called Dance Factory. You actually put any music cd in the drive, and it will create steps for the songs. :-o Sounds pretty good, I hope it turns out well.

Games everywhere

The other day I was trying to improve upon my timed game score in Hexic, and I'm still just not having the success in that game that I'd like. I need 75k to get the achievement for it...and my previous best was 25k. Now I'm up to 52k or so, but obviously I still have some work to do there. I seem to have a much harder time making stars in this mode, since I always feel rushed. Given that they increase your total time available, getting them is pretty crucial to a high score. :-P

Yesterday I picked up the new Ghost Recon game for the 360, and spent a few hours playing it last night - lots of fun! I played through training and the first few missions to get a feel for it, and played all of the co-op campaign maps after that. The co-op stuff was great, now I'd like to try it with more people (like 5 or 6 at least). Multiplayer in general looks like it'll be pretty good.

The single-player campaign feels more difficult than the co-op stuff, but I think I just need to slow down from the general pace/attitude of Halo.

Of course, now I've played enough video games over the past couple days that I feel like my eyes are going to dry up and roll out of my head.

A new day

A pi day, that is. Celebrate! I might try to search out a bit of pie this afternoon or something.

Also, Teresa gave me this cool camera for our anniversary yesterday, and I'm looking forward to using it. Looks to have all the specs that I'd like, and it's considerably smaller/lighter than my previous model.

2006 F1 season approaches

How appropriate I would have an F1-related dream the other night.

I was cruising along in my first car, the '85 Jetta, wondering why my tank was nearly empty and I had only driven 111 miles. As the road bends around I see a Ferrari F50, and think "wow, don't see those...ever." As my road is about to merge with another, I see another Ferrari on the other road, then another, then all of the sudden the entire street is filled with race cars. Then disaster! There's enough gravel on the road that all the cars come to a stop. So who's driving the three cars in front of me, but Sato, Trulli, and M Schumacher. :-P I tried to take a picture of Schumacher with my phone, but he got really mad at me, and I think he wanted me to pay him for taking his picture. Sato started talking to me, and he was just stupid, and as I was talking to him, I couldn't imagine how he got into racing. Trulli just kept smiling the whole time, that was kind of creepy.

Unfortunately, just as they were offering me the chance to drive their cars, my alarm went off. Worst timing ever.

The good news is that the season starts this weekend in Bahrain!

Hexic success

Had a chance to play a little Hexic HD the other day, and had my best game of Marathon ever. Made lots of stars, enough to get not just one black pearl (my first!) but two. I actually had enough to make three, but twice I accidently clustered 3 stars and they disappeared on me. Final score was just over 300k, so I earned two Achievements in that game. I attribute partial success to listening to old NOFX cd's the whole time, streamed from the computer that is now working once again.

Finally got Media Center installed on the new hard drive last Thursday, and most of the programs I need on Friday. I transferred over most of my music/video as well, so that's working with the 360 again. What's frustrating is that now the old hard drive isn't making the terrible noises it was making before, so it almost seems like a wasted effort. Now I just need to remember to send in those rebate forms on the new drive. :-P