Muckhead's Chronicle

Couldn't Resist

Okay I figured since it is getting close to Xmas we could start a new thing for December.

Everyone post the funniest or craziest gift ideas seen this holiday?

Or not?

At least this one was funny.

Worn Completely Out

Got up this morning and one of the tires on our Grand Prix was flat. What a bummer, so I get out my trusty portable air compressor and attempt to pump it up but after 15 min of that running I sad to hell with it and got out the all impressive "doughnut”.

Upon removing the tire we saw why it would not inflate, there was steel belting sowing around the inside tread edge, and it had give out in three places. We got 90,000km out of them so that wasn't bad. I upgraded to a better tire, and decided on getting a full set of 4 Michelin Hydraedges, a tire that was designed for the west coast and all the rain and snow we get (mostly snow), $750 later we have a sense of well being on the highway again, but a sense of debt when it comes to our VISA balance. Merry Christmas; like it couldn't have waiting until after the holiday season, “guess what Tyler and Marlee, you are getting tires for Christmas”.

More on HalfLife 2

To steal a phrase from Peter Griffin (The Family Guy) “this game is Freaking SWEET ".

I figured out that there is something wrong with the Audio section of the game, or maybe not. I installed the game and it works fine set to 2 speakers, and as it turns out that is what Windows had the speakers in Control Panel set to. I am now wondering if I reinstall as a four speaker system if it won't fix things.

I will say that the install took half the time that it did last night, and even then it was only about 20min. I read a horror story on Slashdot today about some guy taking practically all night and complaining.

The graphics are SWEET!

I have played the game now and it makes Doom3 look like CRAP!

More as I get it all figured out....

HalfLife 2

Okay, so I go out and BUY HalflLife 2, and after an EXTENSIVE install of a online registration/unlocking hoopla, I start the game only to find that I have no sound. I am using a SoundBlaster Live and my machine more than meets the min hardware requirements.

Oh well, here goes the tweaking part of the installation.

More to come...
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Halloween Stuff

Tyler was asking why I didn't put up some Halloween pictures since I didn't last year. So here they are. I decided as usual to get into the pumpkin carving and do Nemo and Sponge Bob Square Pants

I noticed in London Drugs that Dremel has a pumpkin carving kit out that you can buy that has a battery powered Dremel Tool and a cutting bit. This inspired me to try my Dremel tool this year, so I picked up a drywall cutting tool bit for my Dremel and tried that. What a difference from using the old hand saw! It took about 2 hours to carve both pumpkins this year when it took about 4 hours to carve the 4 pumpkins we had last year.

Of course I also went all out on the make up and decided to do a goth-punker sort of dude. Tyler went as Dracula and Marlee as Snow White, but wanted to fit in with the punker theme Dad was doing so opted for a purple wig for Snow White.

Marlee was a real trooper this year making it all the way around the trailer park without a hiccup. I was happy that the weather cooperated, and the kids ended up with massive load of candy and other goodies.

The only negative part about it is seeing some of the people shaking their heads at me dressed up. You know, I feel sorry for them, more so for their children because my kids thought I was the kewlest Dad on earth dressing up and I wouldn't trade that for a billion dollars. I mean some people just don't get it, and that is their loss.

Hydraulic vs. Pneumatic We Have a Router Down!

So I get up this morning, and go to log on and I can't connect. So here I am running ipconfig /renew and getting an IP address from My FireCard and wondering WTF? Them I notice the Hydraulic Fluid all over the floor, and I have to look no more, it is a problem with my Router.

First off I am thinking it is a Hydraulic cable leak so I am searching the cables, but no the main power adapter that ran the main pump in the Router gave up. So I went outside to the chipper and got some sawdust and laid down a few inches all over the floor so start soaking up all the Hydraulic Fluid and I went out to shop for a new Router.

Well, I was surprised; they have these new Routers that work with just air, god damn it, no shit! I mean Pneumatics has been around for awhile but the thought of everything just working in the air, I first thought the salesman was whacked out on drugs.

Well it turns out that you have to get new "wireless" couplings for your computer for this in-the-air networking to work, so I bout myself an good old-fashioned Hydraulic Router to replace my old one. My only thought was: "Do I have enough fluid to fire this one up"?

What you have just read is me being silly, it was designed to enhance the reading here that sometimes is quite mundane. The pun here of course being old Routers run on Hydraulics, because you have to string cables, and new ones are wireless or using air such as Pneumatic machinery.

Guess where we went tonight?

Well we gave in tonight and went to get some dougnies (as Marlee calls them). AS some of you know, I never do things the plain old easy way, so we didn't go to Tim Horton's, we went to Krispy Kreme.

Here is a picture of Marlee after we got home, all jacked up on sugar. As I write this she is still awake, and Daddy is taking full responsibility for it.