by Matt | Sep 7, 2007 | Personal
I haven’t mentioned this publicly on here before, but our very good friends Matt and Melinda are going through some trying times. Melinda was diagnosed with breast cancer at the end of August and has been battling it since. It’s a very rare and progressive form of cancer but luckily she was able to get into the advanced treatment program at M.D. Anderson here in town.
We’ve all been praying for her and Matt and trying to help out whenever we can. Matt had been doing updates to their website by hand for their out of town relatives and so last night I installed a copy of WordPress for him. Hopefully that should make things a little easier.
Anyway, if anyone had a spare minute to pray, or if you don’t pray just think about, Matt and Melinda, I’m sure it would mean a lot.
by Matt | Sep 4, 2007 | Reviews
Cross posted at SavvyNation.com
This weekend I was fortunate enough to get my hands on a token to download and play the Call of Duty 4 beta thanks to the nice folks over at CharlieOscarDelta.com. I’m a big fan of both the series and the “modern combat” genre and I was more than willing to dig in for the weekend and get my hands dirty with the beta. I’m glad to report that with a few minor areas of potential polish, CoD4 looks like it’s shaping up to be a serious multiplayer contender this holiday season.
Read on for the full review…
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by Matt | Aug 31, 2007 | Games
“24-Hour Beta Sign-up has officially ended. I’ve pulled the final list, and the first batch of tokens are going to start sending out immediately. We sent out the first 10,000 last night starting at 7pm and we’re beginning the next batch of 20,000 right now. If you go to the forums and post, and you get a COD 4 Beta Green Star under your name, you are in the beta. This should set some of you at ease. If you have the star, you WILL be getting a token. Just give it time”
Now we wait.
UPDATE #1: Got my code, downloaded the beta, gonna give it a long play test this weekend. Huzzah!
by Matt | Aug 28, 2007 | Friends and Family, Travel
This Sunday was especially fun for yours truely. It was the first time I’ve ever flown a plane. Yup, me, flying, in the sky. Crazy. My good buddy Matt took me up for a quick hour tour of the coast line and for about 20-25 minutes there he let me take the wheel… or stick… or whatever the hell you call it (yolk?). I had a blast. It was quite possibly one of the coolest things I’ve ever done. We went up in a Tiger AG-5B, a little 4 seater prop job.
I managed to take a few photos while I was up there and I’ll post them as soon as I can. Even got a video of myself flying.
The weirdest part of the whole thing was realizing how light the aircraft was and how much it was getting pushed around by the wind. It was “sliding” side to side quite a bit more than I expected. I was always having to compensate with the rudder. Keeping it strait and turning wasn’t a problem. I’ll thank my years of video game playing for that. It was amazing to me how many different frequencies and radio towers you have to contact just to fly around. I think it took 4 or 5 different calls just to get up in the air, then various other ones as we went into other airports airspace. I have a new found respect for pilots.
If it wasn’t so damn expensive as a hobby, I’d say this was my first of many trips to come, but alas, unless I win the lotto I’m afraid a pilots license just isn’t in my future. Fun stuff though.
by Matt | Aug 23, 2007 | Friends and Family, Personal
Can beer come in spades? Or is it limited to mere “pack” equivalents. Regardless, I had a multitude of brew last night and enjoyed it thoroughly. Yesterday we celebrated both my boss’ birthday and my good friend Dane’s birthday. My boss’ wife and I conspired to sneak a brand new xbox 360 into the office and set it up on the large, wall sized, projection screen. He received Guitar Hero 2 and Rainbow Six: Vegas and fun (and beer) was had by all as we “took the day off” to play some games. Talk about a good day at the office.
Those shenanigans immediately preceded the celebration of Dane’s birthday at a local pub called The Flying Saucer. TFS is known, at least locally, as the place with the highest number of beers available. They have a beer menu. It’s seriously crazy. I think they have 150-200 beers ON TAP with hundreds more in bottles. It was here that I was able to find my Bostonian favorite: Sam Adams Cherry Wheat. I had to order a few. Probably a few too many. I was actually amazed they had that, but apparently they have about half of the Sam Adams “Brewmaster’s Collection” of which the cherry wheat is apart. When I asked about the other varieties they were lacking (Cream Stout and Scotch Ale in particular) I was told that distribution of beers varies from county to county across the US. The distributor here in the Houston area only carries a certain number of kinds. It’s up to the distributor to request different varieties or brands. Dallas may have a completely different beer selection available to it than Houston.
I had to do a little digging, but Cherry Wheat is available at my local Spec’s Warehouse (think Walmart of booze) or, at the very least, they can order it for me. I think I’m going to have to stock up for the long haul.
There are very few beers that I like. I’m usually a vodka (or at least hard liquor) kind of guy. There are a few occasions when I’ll have a brew or two. Beer goes perfectly with pizza, so that’s always a possibility. The occasional cookout or party I’ll have one too, but rarely will I buy myself a six pack. When I do it’s one of a very short list of kinds. Sam Adams tops that list. As a local favorite, I think Sam was the first beer I had growing up, it’s what my Dad always drank. Now that I can appreciate it, I can see why. I’m also partial to the red ales. Killian’s, Red Dog, Red Hook for example, all are fairly tasty. I also like a cream stout or a porter every once in a while, but those are mostly “winter beers” because the ABV is a little higher and they’re more of a meal and designed to keep you warm than anything else.
Regardless, much fun was had last night and most importantly I learned something new. Now I know where to get my Sam Adams fix and Dane and my boss are both a year older. Win win.
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