The last time I had any pets in my life was when I was living in Louisville, KY for a few years. During that time I had Sadie, a white boxer; Wicket a german sheperd/husky mix; and Molly, a mix puppy.. no clue what her breed was. Anyway, Sadie I had for a few months until I gave her to a friend's family to take care of; Wicket went to another friend that was looking for the same breed.. Molly was unfortunately given away to my ex's brother's girlfriend.. without my permission. I had just moved out of the apartment and he agreed to take care of her for a few weeks while I got settled into my place. Unfortunately he ended up giving Molly away instead seeing as though he was the world's biggest douchebag.
Since 2006 I haven't had any kind of pets in my life. It's just been my obsession with pugs growing larger than life. Pugs on my birthday cards, cards to other people, stuffed animal pugs, pug statues, pug jewelry.. If it has a pug on it you can be assured that I either own it or at one point wanted it. Last year while I was in the hospital, my mom decided to agree that I could get a dog although we didn't have any time frame in mind. I did agree that it would be after I was able to walk.. November came around and I didn't really think about a dog. February came by and there was a news story on a puppy mill raid that had a bunch of pugs in there. Unfortunately the animals were not being put up for adoption as the judge ruled against it. May came by and I was HOPING that for my birthday I would be surprised with being able to get a dog. I had an inkling of doubt but I fooled myself as I was given a card that had a little PAWS print with a note saying it was time I get a dog!
I looked through all listings for shelters, rescues and stores for a pug. The closest Pug rescue was in northern Illinois and majority of the Pugs were 7-8 years old, half-blind and would require someone with the finances to take care of their major ailments. Looking at rescues in other states were not an option. The Kentuckiana Pug Rescue required that you lived in the area as they did a home check.. they had a large selection of pugs too! When I was able to find pugs in my area, they were mixed breeds--Pug w/chihuahua, Pug w/German Sheperd, Pug w/ Beagle, Pug w/ Greyhound (this was an UGLY mix).. So I made the decision to hold off on a pug. I know, it was a rather shocking decision to everyone as they all felt I should wait.. But I had discussed that it would be best to get a family dog right now and in a few months if I'm able to find a Pug, then he (or she) will be adopted by myself.
Last night we went to our local PAWS last night after I had stalked their dog listings for days. I had narrowed my choice between two dogs: Carmel, a white/tan sheperd/husky mix, and Dodger, a fawn/tan/red sheperd mix. Going there last night was pretty tough as you've got a bunch of other dogs there just looking at you with the saddest eyes you could ever imagine. I wanted to take almost all of them home! Seeing Carmel was a bit of a disappointment. She wasn't interested in me when I approached her--heck I think she pretty much ignored me! As I walked up to Dodger's spot, he immediately looked at me and begged to me touched, licked my hand and was overall jovial. I spent a few minutes with all of the other dogs but ultimately said I wanted to meet with Carmel and Dodger.
Dodger was first up to meet with my family and I. He immediately went over to all of us and went nuts with face licking, sniffing us, laying on his back for belly rubs and of course licking every nook and cranny on the floor. We then had Carmel come in but she was just not interested in us at all. She wouldn't come to us to be petted, didn't want to be touched and was more interested in standing in front of the door than anything. The only time she did give any attention was when the PAWS volunteer gave us some treats to give to her to try to motivate her attitude a bit more.. But she still wasn't having any of it. I was a bit discerning as I was really hoping to get along with her. This is essentially what made my decision easy.. Dodger was going to be my final choice. I think what really helped was that when my dad went up to his cage, Dodger got on his hind legs and let my Dad ruffle his scruff. My dad has never appeared to be a Dog whisperer of any sorts, so if Dodger can make the ice in my dad's pet heart melt, then this was obviously going to be the one!
So without further ado, Dodger is now a part of my family! :D.
Dodger!
Dodger!
Dodger!
You can also check out my Flickr set to see a few more pictures of him. Obviously more to come over the months (and years!)
celebrity speakers company name availability EMF Financial Products GamesUpdate: If you want to catch a livestream of it, I'll be broadcasting at justin.tv later tonight around 9PM CST.
Yesterday I had the opportunity to snag a Halo: Reach beta code to get into the beta a few days early versus waiting until May 3rd. Needless to say I spent a few hours playing the Reach multiplayer beta and had somewhat of a blast. Prior to yesterday I had an almost year and a half hiatus from Halo 3 as I made the switch over to Call of Duty. My elite skills that were once there were no longer and I might as well have been a noob.
Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta
First thoughts jumping into the Halo: Reach multiplayer beta was wow, the UI is seamless, transitions are gorgeous and everything is fluid and smooth. I also love that the menus all appear to be at a slight angle giving it a bit of a 3D look without being too obnoxious and pixelated. I jumped straight into the settings to customize my super awesome Spartan. Rather than unlock armor based on your campaign and/or achievement completion, armor unlocks are now based on the credits you earn from the game whether it's multiplayer or campaign (I believe campaign is included but I will find a source later.) You also unlock them based on your current ranking (eg: "You are missing some of the prerequisites needed to purchase this item: You need to be at least Warrant Officer.")
Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - The Armory
One thing I liked the most was that your service tag isn't just the standard Number/Letter/Letter. You can now have four characters in your service tag, in any order you please. I went with my current Modern Warfare 2 clan tag, which is just #23, an ode to Michael Jordan. It's definitely a step up from my old Halo 2/3 service tag which was "H03." Emblems are pretty standard, a lot from the other games and some new ones mixed into it. The scrolling for emblems definitely improved a lot as you go up and down for your background and left and right for your foreground. Definitely easier to sort through the plethora there. I opted for my Halo 3 emblem of a ducky.
Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - Matchmaking Menu
The matchmaking menu received a nice face lift. I'm now able to see what friends of mine are currently in the game and what they're doing. No need to go to the Xbox menu and scroll through friends to see who is on right now. That is definitely an awesome feature that I'm glad they integrated with it. Again you can see how awesome the slight angle looks for it and the background image for it gives a sneak peak into what to expect for Halo: Reach itself.
As far as what is currently available you have two different playlists you can sort through, Arena and Standard with Standard being the only one available at this time as well as only two maps being available (next week two more will be available.) You can either opt to play in 4x4 Team games or go straight into 8 player FFA. Right now there are only a few gametypes available with some new ones being "Stock Pile" where you have an allotted amount of time to collect 10 flags to win; There are flags strategically placed throughout the maps available to either team to pick up and run it back to their flag spot. There are 60 second wait periods for flag capturing so while you might grab 5 flags within 30 seconds, you have 30 seconds left to defend until they are calculated to your score.
One of the biggest differences with matchmaking is that you now have the chance to vote between four different options--three are gametypes and the fourth is "none of the above. Now I'm not sure whether or not this is specific to the multiplayer beta or if we'll see it in Reach come the fall but this definitely allows for you to really play what you want to instead of being stuck with a gametype you don't enjoy. Right now people aren't used to it so I've seen a lot of games stuck on the default checkmark versus users picking their own. Once everyone gets more acquainted with it, I'm sure we'll be playing better gametypes. I was stuck with a lot of Stock Pile games, 1 CTF and VERY few Team Slayer or Team Swat games.
Halo: Reach Beta - Match Found Menu
Phew this is a lot already and I haven't even gotten into the gameplay itself! A lot has changed for multiplayer itself with changes to weapon (bye-bye BR, hello DMR!), health/shields and of course the addition of some new weapons and the already infamous weapon load outs. Very similar to the style of Call of Duty's "classes," you have load outs that you are able to choose right when a game starts and before you respawn after a death.
Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - Weapon Loadouts
Right now the load outs are very basic. All start off with an assault rifle as your primary, a pistol as your secondary and 2 frag grenades. Now the main difference between the four weapon loadouts are your special ability (although I think they're actually called "equipment" as the button layout states it as such.) On the default button layout, you'd be using your LB (Left Bumper) to activate it. You can check your usage progress on the lower left hand side of the screen. You'll see an icon of your class and around it is a circle progression bar. When you start using the equipment, you take away from the current power you have. Once you use it all up you have to wait for it to regenerate itself. Which is an awesome feature which will definitely not make the game too unbalanced.
The following are available as loadouts:
- Scout - You have the ability to sprint.
- Guard - You are "invisible" with your shield.
- Stalker - You are wearing camo and are invisible.
- Airborne - You have a sweet ass jetpack to fly.
If you'd like to read more about the loadouts and what to expect from the game itself, Bungie has up an awesome guide for the Loadouts to see what else they'll be bringing into the game. I pretty much rotated between Scout and Airborne. Airborne is hella awesome. I was a bit skeptical at first when I had read about this new addition a few months ago but.. actually trying it out. It's ridiculously different but it really adds a whole new playing field to the game. Rather than crouching behind a wall or object when you're in a battle with someone, just boost yourself into the air to headshot them from above. No need to play the "Who's gonna poke their head out first" game! Scout was what I initially started off with. I play a lot of Modern Warfare 2 [multiplayer] which means I am ALWAYS sprinting and/or utilizing the Marathon perk to run without breaks. Going from MW2 (or even COD4) to Halo 3 (again) was too difficult for me because I felt like the gameplay was SO much slower and I was unable to get used to it again.
In Slayer gametypes I don't see this impacting it too much, most people are either aggressive or passive so I don't see this changing anything.. but when it comes to objective based games, this will definitely help to "organize" your team on who does what. If you have someone that prefers to stay back from the pack and take long ways to flank, then they will definitely love the Stalker class. For someone that is overly aggressive and prefers to go for more defense then offense, the Guard loadout will be perfect as they'll have that extra time to "protect" themselves and even use themselves as bait to allow teammates to flank. Scout will be perfect for the person that loves to immediately go straight for the objective--with that sprint you can just try rushing immediately. But beware, you can't use your loadout with your objective, so don't try to sprint away with the flag in your hand--You'll end up dropping it. And last but not least for the person that likes to be the middle man between offense and defense, Airborne might be perfect for you. You'll be able to rise high into the air to pop a few shots into people near your team mates or even rush to the person with objective to give them cover fast. On the first floor but they're on the third and need help? No problem, just boost your jetpack to get your butt up there!
Halo: Reach Multiplayer Beta - Loadouts
There's still so much more to go over with the beta thus far but I'm going to put them into another post over the weekend. I originally intended to just hash over a few things but eventually inspired myself to actually write about the beta thus far. Which to be frank, this isn't a beta. This feels more like a pre-release/sneak preview to entice years and increase the hype even more. I've yet to find any glitches and/or bugs while playing.. compared to the Halo 3 beta this is entirely different.
Win a Halo: Reach Multiplayer beta code
That being said if you've read this far then.. congratulations because you've got a chance to win the one and only extra Halo: Reach Multiplayer beta invite that I have so you can hop in on the fun over the weekend instead of waiting until Monday. You'll get to be the cool cat everyone will want to be ;).
Using your real name and email, post a comment on this post letting me what your most anticipated new feature for Halo: Reach is. Yup. that's it.
Please make sure that you use your REAL email as this is how I will be giving you the code that you will need to redeem on Xbox so you can download the beta. I will pick a random commentator by 9PM CST tonight. So get your comments posted, now! :)
I'm not sure how I would be able to manage without my 32" HDTV, Xbox 360 and TVersity. I stream 100% of all TV shows I watch and various other movies. It was a combined reason of not having a cable box in my room and also because I want to watch tv when I want to--not at a set day & time.
TVersity is an application that turns your computer into a media server/hub. I stuck with TVersity because of it having support for my Xbox 360. All I need to do is include a directory on my harddrive with TVersity, refresh it so that it picks up all files and load up my Xbox 360's "My Videos" and connect to TVersity.
I have been streaming fully now for over a year and don't have any plans to stop. Sometimes if I'm feeling a little lazy, I'll rely on Hulu or FanCast but most of the time I prefer to download. Most TV show episodes are released an hour or two after the episode's initial air time. I frequent warez-bb (and some others) as a lot of the uploaders frequent these websites and keep them updated with their releases. The releases are also awesome quality as I can grab an 720p HDTV version in MKV or I can opt to just grab an HDTV version in AVI. I usually try to grab AVIs so I don't have to work around the MKV fix since out of the box the Xbox 360 doesn't support this format.
However, if you are interested in streaming MKVs on the Xbox with TVersity and are using Windows 7, you can use DIVX MKV on Windows 7 which is what I use. You can also read through a thread posted at tversity.com's forums. Alternatively, if you have a PS3 and want to stream your media, you can use PS3 Media Server which comes with MKV support right out of the box. Or if you're using a Mac and want to stream to your 360, you can use Playback. :)
Since most of the files go through Rapidshare, I had splurged and bought a premium account. A lot of times the releases will have 4-6 200MB zip/rar files and Rapidshare's free download does not permit multiple downloads at the same time. It also gives you an annoying time limit for bandwidth usage. It makes sense and truthfully is a fraction of the cost I'd be paying for my Comcast cable tv bill.
Although the one annoying thing after awhile was that most places will not link any of the URLs so I found myself having to copy/paste each URL into the browser.. major pain in the ass! So Steve had suggested I install Greasemonkey and install "Rapidshare Links Checker" userscript. This will turn all Rapidshare URLs into clickable links as well as add an "x" icon for dead links or a "checkmark" for active links. This was such a tremendous help as it seriously does alleviate a few minutes of copy/pasting and only finding out the files were removed.
At one point I needed to download a file that had been split into 26 20MB files.. Not sure why it was split like so but it was.. painful. So I ended up coming across jDownloader, a java app. It allows me to copy Rapidshare URLs (it also supports other upload sites) and the app will automatically detect the URLs and create a group specifically for those files. So if I have 5 URLs for "Friday Night Lights S4 E11" it will create a folder for those specific links. I can then delegate how many connections I want active for the file and specify the download limitations on the files. Once it's finished downloading it will also extract said files for me so I don't have to do it myself. Easy peasy baby!
Now while I don't mind this setup, I've actually been contemplating setting up an HTPC instead so that way I'm not relying on two devices but rather just one. It's not in my budget right now but hopefully in the next few months I'm hoping that I can get started on putting together an HTPC with full BluRay support. I've got a NewEgg wishlist setup in case you're interested in building one yourself or just curious to see what hardware I'll be using for it. You can also check out Engadget's post which features specs to build an HTPC for ~$550 if you're not keen on the $1,100+ my list comes out to be before taxes and shipping.
So do you download/stream TV shows or do you prefer to catch 'em on TV when it airs by your cable provider?
It took a month longer than I anticipated but I finally finished up my redesign for iCupcake. For the past few months I've been a little more obsessed with baking & cupcakes than I usually am. So much so that majority of the blogs I had been reading were baking/cupcake centralized, which of course would lead to bakery websites and cupcakery. It only seemed fitting to bring that atmosphere to my blog--to make it not only something that fits the domain name but also what I enjoy.
Since this is my first post for the New Year, I decided that maybe I would make some goals for myself versus worrying about New Year's Resolutions. I've never really made resolutions in the past and I surely never stuck with any. Goals seem more realistic and achievable so figured I'd stick with that.
- Increase my Xbox gamerscore. I'm sitting at 8405 right now and want to hit 10,000 before February starts. I frequently stick to specific games solely for multiplayer so this will be a nice challenge for me. I've got a few games to play right now that I took from Steve's which include Battlefield: Bad Company, Operation Flashpoint: Dragon Rising and a few other games that I just need to get 100% completion for achievements (Modern Warfare 2, COD4, COD:WaW to name a few.) Once I hit 10,000 then I'll just keep increasing. I've got awhile before I can catch up to Steve and his massive 104,000+ gamerscore.
- Bake more & photograph it. I've been stockpiling up numerous recipes for different sweets and treats but have yet to really go through any of them yet. A few weeks ago I purchased a good amount of material for making some cakepops as well as cupcake bites. I have only gotten around to making the cupcake bites so far. So I don't gain weight or make my little sister fall into a food coma, I also bought supplies to package these up. I plan on letting my mom bring some to work to offer up and hopefully, strike up some business through this. It's something new and enjoying, so I'm taking advantage of it.
- Taking longer breaks from the computer & gaming to catch up on all of the books sitting on my shelf. I have about 10+ Dean Koontz books that have not yet been read along with a few other authors. I just haven't been reading much at all the last year and really do miss laying around with a good book. So I want to read on book a week. This is a very feasible goal because I'm a fast reader. I read through the last Harry Potter book in ~6 hours so books that are 1/3 the size should be no problem.
- Relaunch an old project of mine so I can add extra monthly income. I started it back in 2007 and made a good amount of money for the three months I had been active with it. Since then I just let it die off. In the year and a half since then, I have definitely lost out on a lot of potential clients and money by abandoning it. Hopefully by mid-February I can have it relaunched to start selling on it again.
So rather then set goals for the entire year I figured I would just do something that would be completed within the next couple of months. Once those goals are done I can either mark them off as "finished" or "upgrade" them to make them more challenging for myself. Nothing is better then earning money, playing videogames and enjoying yourself rather than stressing out.
On a last note, if you spot any 404s, spelling mistakes, or other coding issues definitely let me know. I've been staring at this for quite some time so I may have overlooked something very minute. :) Also for those of you using >IE7, I haven't yet made it "backwards-compatible," so while it will work fine for you.. I haven't gotten around to adjusting the rgba to rgb so that it will render the colors for you. I'll get to it soon.
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