There's a spy over here!

So Team Fortress 2 (by Valve) released another class update. This time for two classes, the Spy and the Sniper.
http://www.teamfortress.com/post.php?id=2535

They also added in some new maps and a new game mode (Payload Race).

This game amazes me. It was released at a cheap price and now can be had for $9.99 - $19.99. A steal for a game that is constantly being updated (for free) every 4-5 months. In a world of $50-60 games and subscription based games, this game astounds me. So much it is annoying that a game by the same company, Left 4 Dead, has had one content update since it's release in November and even that update was miniscule compared to the work that is done with TF2.

TF2 adds weapons to each class essentially adding in replayability to an already replayable game. This update though they changed the "grind" for these new weapons and just have them randomly drop. A good change as most people (not me) would just build a custom map and get the acheivements easily to get the new weapon unlocks. So anyone who wanted to truly "acheive" them was actually behind the 8-ball while most everyone else unlocked them the first day.

Now everyone is on the same playing field and the only advantage is to people who play more.

It's a great game .. a FPS with variety .. no crazy "headshots" to ruin your fun. Most classes are different enought to fit anyone's playstyle. I've struggled to get my LAN party friends to try it out (a few have gotten it) .. and I still don't understand why they don't try it (beyond sheer stubborness).

What's great about the game is you can just can back to it whenever .. it's also quick fun ..

Baseball Adventure - 2009 - Leg #1

So .. I love baseball. Always have. And it's been a dream of mine to hit as many stadiums as I could. I even thought about taking a summer off (if it was possible) to road trip across the country.

Well, I've decided to try and do that this year. I won't get them all, but I will try and maybe this wil lbe a several year adventure.

I already have Camden Yards (Baltimore) and Chase Field (Phoenix) and of course Miller Park (Milwaukee), so let's see how many more I can hit.

My adventure started on Opening Day here in Milwaukee where my Brewers defeated the Cubs 4-3 in an exciting 9th inning comeback game.

My first leg involves me taking the train from Milwaukee to Pittsburgh where I will see a game Monday night at PNC park.

Next day the train to DC where I will catch a Nationals game at Nationals Park.

The next day I take a day trip up to Philadelphia to see my Brewers play the World Series champs in Citizens Bank Park (and bonus .. I get to tour around downtown Philly and see Independence Hall!)

Throughout the next year or two I'll try and hit as many more as I can. There are quite a few just in short driving distance from Milwaukee.

Happy New Year

Happy New Year ....

Going to start the new year in true geek fashion. A 3 day LAN party in Kenosha. Games to be played .. some oldies (but still goodies) and a new game (finally):

Counterstrike
Warcraft 3 (usually just playing mods like Defense of the Ancients).
MechWarrior 4: Mercenaries

Some shareware games:
Armagetron (Tron light cycles)
Zap

And a new game to finally add to the mix:
Left 4 Dead

We find the old games better than newer games because:
1 - Everyone owns them .. getting "everyone" to buy a new game is a struggle at times
2 - Everyone's computers play them
3 - They're just THAT good.


Should be a blast.

'nuff said.

There's Still Always Rock Band

In between all the Christmas shopping .. it's a Rock Band weekend. Friday night at Jon's and we had another marathon session with our band on his PS3 "Shock the Meeple."

Today was just some practicing with my solo band - The Crystal Skullz

And tomorrow is a gathering of the guys and rocking out with Monday Night Madden.

There's Always Rock Band

Rocked out to RB2 on the PS3 at Jon's last night. Playing RB1 at Jon's originally got me hooked to the game to the point I wanted to get my own PS3 and copy of RB2 when it came out. I should have mine by the end of the week.

It rocked. It's wide variety of songs are just fun. And I am looking forward to having my own instrument set so I can actually practice and get good at drums. Drums takes a little more practice then guitars and when playing with a group of friends you don't want to be bringing down the band by either playing on Easy or failing out every other song.

Border crossing

Day 9

The final day (sorta).

Our goal today was do some final things, cross back into the US and just get to the car rental place at 10 p.m. to be plenty early for our 12:40 a.m. flight (a red-eye back home).

We started the day driving into Stanley Park which was beautiful despite it STILL raining from the day before .. 24 hours of non-stop rain. Insane. We wind our way through the park and get to the Vancouver Aquarium. Our main stop for the day.

By the time we get the morning coffee and drive there we get there about 11:00 a.m. A small aquarium compared to the monsters we've been to (Atlanta, Baltimore, Sea World), but some nice exhibits. A big section on British Columbian coastal fish (you'd be surprised how many there are) and section all about frogs.

The big attraction is their outdoor (with underwater viewing) tanks. They have a family of Beluga Whales (smaller white whales) with a newborn. We caught a zookeeper giving a talk on the birth and the family. Grandma, Mom and baby were in one tank. Dad and another female in another.

2 1/2 hours late we decide to head out and get back to the U.S. We would have stuck around more, but wanted to try and make it to a winery in northern Seattle by 4:30. We though leaving around 2ish we'd have plenty of time. We were wrong.

It took almost an hour to get through Vancouver. Downtown Vancouver doesn't have a highway running through or near it. so they only way through the city is THROUGH the city. Which means traffic and tons of stop lights. Eventually you break though on the south side and hit a freeway you take to the border. The only other option was Highway 1 which was on the north side of Vancouver proper, but it doesn't directly connect with Highway 99 (which takes you to the border).

Fine .. a little slower than expected. Then we hit the US border. Figuring it was the middle of the afternoon and we had nothing to declare, we'd be able to zip right through like we did coming into Canada. Nope. The signs warned 50 minutes to get through. And it was wrong .. took more like an hour. And we weren't sure why .. there was 4 lanes, really not many cars, and it took forever. It seemed our lane would move every 10 minutes. What was even more frustrating is when we got to the border agent, he asked us three questions and sent us through .. in under a minute!

So that put us behind, it was now after 4:00 p.m., we weren't going to make that winery. We also had planned to go to Microsoft Visitor Center (which was open until 7).

We finally make it to Redmond (where Microsoft is based) and get to the Visitor Center.

It was closed until November 2nd since it is moving to a new location. Nowhere on the official website (where we looked the night before) did it say this! Ugh.

Fine. We go to an Irish/Cajun restaurant (weird combo) and have some food. It was okay, my Jambalaya was way too spicy for my taste and even then nothing special.

After that we head to Bellevue to go to the Mall their to kill time. What a nice mall, had everything. We spent some time at the Container Store and then to Cheesecake Factory for some Pumpkin/Pecan cheesecake.

We head back to the car rental place, get a shuttle to the airport, wait for our flight and try and get as much sleep as possible on the 2 1/2 hour flight to Minneapolis. Jen (the navigator AND travel agent) smartly put us each in a window seat. Much easier to sleep with your head against the window. The rough part of the morning was the transfer at Minneapolis at (now 6-7 a.m.). Ugh.

We were pretty quiet after that.

Ed picked us up . .Jenny drove home .. and i was kidnapped to go paintballing with the guys. A long long day!

Experiencing a rain forest firsthand!

Day 8

It rained today. A lot .. all day. Not a downpour, just a steady drizzle of rain. Just enough to make doing anything outside (which is what we wanted to do) annoying as heck.

We did do a few things .. we went over to Lynn Canyon park to walk around. A free park of B.C. where you could hike around, see some more cascading water and cross yet another suspension bridge (albeit much short then the Capilano one). Oddly this area is where they are building a new water filtration plant and connecting with the Capilano river (a few miles west) via twin pipes.

After a few hours of walking around in the rain ..we had enough. Went back to the hotel to chill out and find something else to do. There really wasn't much else we wanted to see or do without being outside. So we just went over to West Vancouver and found an italian restaurant (Presto Past and Rustic Pizza) to have dinner.

We came back to the hotel, packed for leaving tomorrow and researched some things to do in Seattle on our way back to the airport.

Then we watched some TV and got to watch Grey's Anatomy. And I watched that "Life on Mars" show which is slowing hooking me in.