This year for Sept 11th (2008), I was in New York City for work and I was fortunate enough to have some spare time to travel to Lower Manhattan to check out the Tribute in Light ceremony. This annual ceremony marks the anniversary of the September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attacks. With 88 carefully positioned Search Lights, two incredible pillars of light emerge out of the dark night sky. On clear nights, they say the “Phantom Towers” can be seen for 60 miles away. Then, we journeyed down to Battery Park to see the Flags, Sphere, and Eternal Flame. It was all quite a remarkable scene.
Surprisingly enough though, there wasn’t a huge crowed in Lower Manhattan. In fact, it was just like any other ordinary night. Are people starting to forget about that horrible day when the world stood still? The one event that’s had a Snowball Effect of such an extreme magnitude that it can be directly tied to Wars, Imbalanced Economies, and so much more. Well, many others may have chose to forget, but I certainly have not.
Well, I finally took the plunge and got Married. Linda and I did it at Sand Key Park in Clearwater, Florida on Aug 8, 2008 at 8pm (08/08/08 8pm). We met in early 2003 and were engaged in late 2004. We were engaged for almost 4 years before finally tying the knot. The ceremony was absolutely perfect, right at Sunset on the Western side of Florida.
We had a very nice crowd of our closest friends and family attend, many coming from all over the country to attend (Thanks Everyone!).
For our Honeymoon, we headed to Riveria Maya, Mexico (Just south of Cancun). While there, we went to Cozumel for snorkling and scooter riding, Tulum and Chichen Itza to see the Ruins, Xel-Ha to swim with dolphins and swim through an underground river, and caves and monkeys at Aktun Chen. We had a perfect trip with some great memories (like paying the corrupt cop who targeted tourists - cost was $50 USD to not get a ticket).
Ok, I don’t know why I did it, but I did. I picked up the latest addition to the Battlefield series, Bad Company, when I was up in NYC last week. My addiction to these particular games has always been difficult to shake for some reason. I’ve spent countless hours playing:
Battlefield 1942
Battlefield 1942: Road to Rome
Battlefield Vietnam
Battlefield 2
Battlefield 2: Special Forces
Battlefield 2142
and now… Battlefield Bad Company
This particular game actually has a pretty kick-ass Single-Player Campaign, in addition to the expected Multi-Player action.
Single-Player
The storyline is simple - you are after some gold that the bad guys have. You’re dropped into a dysfunctional squad who is always deep in the action without support. Your other squad members don’t seem to have much going for them, except being good at fighting off the enemy. Quite honestly, the Single-Player campaign is a lot like Call of Duty 4; which is a good thing, because that game kicks butt.
Multi-Player Naturally, this is where the BF series has always excelled. With 25 ranks, tons of unlock-able weapons, badges and other rewards, the player will find himself constantly being challenged to go to the next level. There is one major difference with this BF game that the series hasn’t historically had: The Ability to Blow-up everything. For example, if an enemy is in the roof of a house (e.x. Sniper), you can blow the roof off of the house and expose him. This applies to everything, from buildings to trees. Another difference is the new Play Style. In a “Capture the Flag” style, the objective is to capture or defend your Gold. In the event the Defenders lose their gold, a new section of the map opens up and there is more gold for them to defend there. This keeps all the action in a small area of the map, allowing everyone to focus as a team on the same goal; but allows dynamic maps to be available as progress is made. Another improvement is the new and improved Squad Concept. Instead of having an Official Leader of a squad, one’s automatically assigned. If he should die, a remaining member of the squad will become the leader. Of course, you can spawn on the squad leaders, or at the last captured base/gold.
I give this game a solid 10 Stars, because Dice did a great job on everything.
I can’t wait for Battlefield Heros to come out now - It’s a Cartoon-looking game with the BF Concept.
Actual Game Play Screenshot of Battlefield Bad Company:
In a historical Supreme Court 5-4 decision this week, a ruling was set fourth stating that the Second Amendment was a Personal Right to Bear Arms,Not a State’s Right to Bear Arms (i.e. Military). Details at Wall Street Journal.
This liberty has been taken from the people in several cities, by banning hand guns, as a Democratic attempt to lessen gun crime in these areas. Ironically enough, even with such frivolous laws, these cities still remain some of the highest crime-ridden areas in the country (New York, Chicago, and especially Washington DC). Clearly, this approach does not work.
This victory will open the door to stomp-out other unconstitutional gun laws that’s slowly been introduced over the years.
Now, let’s take a look at Kennesaw, GA for a moment; which took an exact opposite approach. In 1982, an ordinance was passed Requiring the head of each household to own a firearm. Since then, the town has been Murder-Free, and the crime-rate has been cut in half! In fact, the population has actually grown an incredible 4-times over, since the introduction of this ordinance. Interesting huh?
Let’s focus our attention to Morton Grove, IL: The first town to ban gun rights for its citizens. Crime has increased by 16% Immediately after the bill was passed. And meanwhile, the population has actually decreased.
For those who look to the European Union and consider it a working example of Gun Control, don’t forget that Hitler implemented an early gun control policy (1938). This was done by throttling ownership for it’s citizens to prevent an uprising against the Nazi regime. Additionally, Hitler banned all gun ownership by Jews, and if caught, it was punishable by death on the first offense. [Reference]
Ok, I did it. If you don’t know what “It” is, you should ask me sometime. After screwing around for a day of experimentation, I pulled it off. Here are the results.
Well, my Xbox360 is about 1.5 years old and just as luck would have it, about 3 hours of playing Grand Theft Auto 4 I received the RED RING OF DEATH. Pissed off like a leapurcan who just had his gold stolen, I called Microsoft up right away. The Red Ring of Death qualifies for an extended warranty of 3 years and they’ll ship me a new one; after I send mine back to them. So, I got all of that paperwork started, and I started to miss not shooting random people after car-jacking (one of the goals in Grand Theft Auto), so I did a little Internet Research.
Apparently, this is a HUGE problem. Microsoft put together a ridiculious fund to support this issue (around $1B), since 1 in 3 Xbox360s have the issue. From what I was reading, though, I’d say the problem is actually bigger. Anywho, the good news is, there’s a short-term fix that let me get up and running until I decided to ship my unit back: The Towel Trick. The idea is simple, overheat the unit so the crappy “eco-friendly” soldier will melt back into place. Granted, this sounds like a horrible idea, but what did I have to lose? So I gave it a shot and guess what: IT FREAKIN WORKED -Woot! In fact, it lasted another week before I needed to redo the process; plenty of time to get GTA4 out of my system.
Well, it’s been months since I’ve written in this blog. Things have been busy as usual, but I’ll try to keep up on this better. Anyway, we did make it down to Miami toward the end of March for Ultra X. That’s right, it was the tenth Ultra Music Festival and let me tell you, it was an absoute blast.
We went in a group of 6, consisting of myself, Linda, Marx, Bree, Francisco, Mayi, and Mike. Although it seemed to be a popular theme there, not one of us were strutting around with glowsticks and flashing eyewear (although that stuff did look pretty cool).
Some pretty big headliners showed up like Carl Cox, DJ Dan, Tiesto (as gay as he is), and my new favorite: Dead Mau5.
The estimated attendance was anywhere between 40,000 - 70,000. I honestly don’t know because the park is pretty big, but it was definitely packed.
The Atlanta Journal Constitution announced on Tuesday that Rite Aide will now be carrying the “Are you My Baby’s Daddy” DNA Paternity Test Kit; an appropriate product for the Atlanta metropolitan area. For $150 bucks you can now know for sure if you’re the baby’s daddy, without having your humiliation and shame broadcasted on a prime-time Judge Judy episode.
I think the product is great. It will show people’s true colors. Questions such as:
“Hey, why does my baby look like a Mexican?”, “Hoe, I never slept with you…”, and “Why do you know the mailman so well?”
will now have legitimate, unbiased, and analytical medical answers. Of course, your average “breeder” will be an opponent of this product, as it will limit their ability to collect unwarranted child support.
I had to go to Playa Del Carmen (just south of Cancun) for a business trip and I had the opportunity to FINALLY to go Chichen Itza (One of the new 7 wonders of the world) to see the ancient ruins from the Mayan civilization.
The Mayans left traces of their presence all over the Yucatan peninsula. Pyramids, Alters, Cenotes, and even a Sadium and an Oservatory can be found in the great Capitol City of Chichen Itza [Map].
Visiting this location leaves me with more questions than answers. For example, if you clap your hands between the staircases between the Pyramid of Kukulkan and the Venus Platform, the acoustics between the two create a “chirping” sound. It was a very strange phenomenon to experience, and you can kind of hear part of it in this video clip from other folks clapping. See Video Below…
Sadly, one cannot go up the Pyramid of Kukulkan any longer, as much as I personally wanted to. But, scouting around the ruins was still a lot of fun. Seeing the remains of a civilization completely different than our own, yet still relatively recent, is absolutely amazing. The Mayans deserted the great city around 1000 AD for unknown reasons. This is about 500 years before the Spanish came, ruling out smallpox and other foreign diseases.
I recommend driving, so you may have your own schedule. There are many tour buses that go from Playa and Cancun, so you will probably want to leave as early as possible to beat the crowds. The downside of driving is the tolls, of which I paid around $50 USD (yes, $500 Pesos) for the entire trip, plus don’t forget the costs of fuel. There’s a small old road that also goes to Chichen Itza from Cancun, which doesn’t have toll booths, but all of the locals advised me to simply take the highway and avoid it. Admission into the park was around $10 USD; from what I recall. If you want to stay close, Mayaland looked nice. It’s a hotel/resort right next to the park. You can stay in the traditional 1920s hotel, or a bungalow in the gardens.
Pyramid of Kukulkan
Skulls on Wall
Pyramid of Kukulkan
Human Sacrificial Alter
Ancient Observatory
Stadium - To the death
Ignore the wind and commentary and listen for the Chirping right after each clap
If there’s one thing that Pioneer has always done well, it’s their unique ability to create a beautiful DJ Mixer. Examples include the Club-popular DJM-600 or the 2-channel battle version: the DJM-400.
It would appear that the company has done it yet again. With their brand-new SVM-1000 A/V Mixer, it seems Pioneer has managed to bring all of their standard special effects into the video arena. Not to mention, they’ve added a whole suite of new and improved effects that cater specifically to the Video World. Not only does it have a large touch-screen, allowing the operator to instantly change how an effect is applied, you can mix the Audio, Video, or Both instantly. DJ Mag has a solid review of it.
Pioneer’s new SVM-1000 Pro Mixer is now available, according to their official Product Web Page, but if you think you’re going to get it cheap, try again. This baby goes for $5,500 USD on sites like PSSL.com. For the hard-core DJ, Visual Breeds, and Large Clubs, this is probably well worth it. For the rest of us, we’ll stick with the traditional mixers and visual processors until we can find a decent bidding war on E-bay to snag one.
Forty-nine years after taking power and at the ripe age of 81, today Fidel Castro handed his Cuban dictatorship rule over to his brother Raul Castro. Raul Castro, 76 years old, stepped in temporarily for Fidel back in 2006 when Fidel had medical problems. Some think he never really left.
So, what does this really mean? It’s simple: Absolutely nothing.
Replacing one dictator with another simply solidifies a perpetual cycle of Cuban Communism. The possibility of a Free Democracy within Cuba in the near future is slim-to-none. With Raul’s steep age and his blood-ties to Fidel, the current dictatorship methodology is ingrained into his mind so deeply, that much of the needed radical change will never come to fruition.
Certainly many of the Cubans, both at home and abroad, are hopeful that this event will spark change in Cuban and US Policy; and hopefully remove the 5-decade embargo that the US has in place. Personally, I think it has the potential be a great thing.
In short, we should all hope for the best from this, but don’t be disappointed if things don’t change at all.
I wish I could say that I wasn’t disappointed about the recent news releases, but I can’t. It looks like Sony’s Blu-Ray HD-DVD technology will win the High-Definition format war between Sony and the Toshiba-sponsored HD-DVD. Toshiba has officially stopped all development of HD-DVD products, according to a recent news article. Additionally, Wal-mart (amongst other major retail outlets) have abandoned the sale of HD-DVD media.
Microsoft even went as far as stating they may consider creating a Blu-Ray add-on for the XBOX 360, similar to their existing HD-DVD attachment; a device I purchased and now will get no further use of. Ironically enough, Sony is Microsoft’s biggest competitor in the Video Game Console industry.
What’s most disappointing about this, is it’s another example of how technology giants, such as Sony, have the ability to force consumers into a direction; rather than letting the better technology prevail. A perfect example of Sony doing this in the past is their implementation of Memory Sticks. Today, a 4GB Sony Memory Stick sells for $54 on Amazon, while the competiting technology from a 4GB SD Card goes for $24; less than half the price. These two comparisons use the same vendor: Sandisk. Additionally, using the official Sony Memory Stick media will run you a few extra bucks - Yippie!
The problem is that all of Sony’s other products only support their proprietary Memory Stick, and now Blu-Ray, media. Examples of this include Sony Digital Cameras, Sony PSP, Sony PS3 (for Memory Sticks and Blu-Ray), and so on.
For what it’s worth, HD-DVD gave Sony a run for it’s money. Hopefully they’ve learned a few things from it. Now I have to put my HD-DVD drive up on E-bay, before the world realizes what’s going on.
Instant Messaging - AOL beat them to this years ago. Everyone uses mobile AIM.
Online Maps - Another late arrival. Google’s new GMM Map Service can not only use GPS to get a fix on you, but can leverage Cell Tower Location data if your phone doesn’t have a GPS. Not to mention, it can give real-time traffic details, directions, integrated search results (ex. “All Fast Food near me”), and even Satellite Imagry (see post about Chernobyl).
Social Networking - Um, what does this really mean? Who knows. Perhaps Yahoo will figure out a way to prevent annoying sex ads from Myspace.
Maybe their plans are to converge these technologies into one easy-to-use interface. Hey, what a grand idea!
What I found most interesting is how the article stated, “Yahoo expects oneConnect to support hundreds of mobile devices and mobile browsers worldwide.”. However, when I attempted to install it on my POS Motorola phone (not exactly a new phone to the market), I received the following message: Yahoo! Go is not currently available for your Motorola V540. It probably never will be either.
All-in-all, Yahoo! products have always been Runner-Up to someone else. I honestly don’t think this will be any different.
Have you ever had one of those days where you find yourself doing something mildly entertaining to pass the time? Well, today, that activity for me was exploring the world with Google Earth. First I checked out the DubaiPalm Islands, and then I thought I’d head North-West to find Chernobyl. When I found the area, I wasn’t completely sure if I found the nuclear power plant at these coordinates, so I took a quick side-bar to research it. During this research, I saw something eerily familiar: The Ferris Wheel from Call of Duty 4. It would appear that the Ferris Wheel, abandoned buildings, and everything else from an ending level in the game is based off of Pripyat, a city affected by the Chernobyl event and now part of Ukraine.
Could this really be true? Heck, the Game’s storyline could have even told me, and I wasn’t paying attention. Anyway, I found some cool images to show what this Ghost City looks like in real-life in comparison to the COD4 game. Click any of these pictures for a larger view.
If you’ve played this game, then I am sure you’ll appreciate the detailed research that Infinity Ward (COD4 Developer) and Activision (COD4 Publisher) when through to pull this off. Also, satellite imagry of the courtyard and ferris wheel can be found at these coordinates.
I found these entertaining images on the Internet this morning and I just couldn’t resist posting them.
If you are offended by these images… then good! (Sorry Paco)
Sept 11th - Tribute in Light
Ok, I don’t know why I did it, but I did. I picked up the latest addition to the Battlefield series, 
In a historical Supreme Court 5-4 decision this week, a ruling was set fourth stating that the Second Amendment was a Personal Right to Bear Arms, Not a State’s Right to Bear Arms (i.e. Military). Details at 
The 
Forty-nine years after taking power and at the ripe age of 81, today Fidel Castro handed his Cuban dictatorship rule over to his brother Raul Castro. Raul Castro, 76 years old, stepped in temporarily for Fidel back in 2006 when Fidel had medical problems. Some think he never really left.
