We went to Foley, AL on the 23rd and stopped at Battleship Memorial Park in Mobile on the way back home on the 24th. Here are some of the photos from our trip.
I finally figured out how to get a whole bunch of extra lives in one of my favorite PC games - Bionic Commando Rearmed. So before I completely forget how I did it, I'm going to type it out here on my blog.
First you need to install a copy of Bionic Commando Rearmed, either v1.0 or v1.1. Next you will need to download and install Cheat Engine, an open source program that is really neato.
Now, fire up Bionic Commando Rearmed and go to the first place you can find in the game where there is a quick, easy way to die early in the stage. Take note of how many lives you currently have. Pause and ALT + Tab the game. Now start up Cheat Engine. Select the process "BCR.exe". Choose scan type "exact value" and value type "exact". In the blank box above scan type, put in the exact number of lives that you currently have. Choose Next Scan and let it scan.
Now swap back to the game. Quickly kill your character, take note of how many lives you now have, pause, and ALT + Tab back to the Cheat Engine window. In the blank box above scan type, now put in the exact number of lives that you currently have, which should be one less. Choose Next Scan again and let it scan.
Once the scan has completed, swap back to the game again, and repeat the paragraph above. You'll keep doing this process over and over until Cheat Engine can narrow down to the one address where the number of lives is stored. This is why you want to die quickly and change as little as possible between deaths. When you finally have one address showing in Cheat Engine, right click on it and choose the change value option. Put in how many lives you want to have, 900 if you want. That's it!
I'm still here. I just haven't had the time to do any decent updating. I've been doing my best to keep the Links page up to date though. I'm going to try very hard to get back to updating soon.
I've added a few more photos to the Kara Celeste Dean photo gallery. I'll probably begin a new gallery for more recent photos of her sometime soon.
It's crazy that Kara has already passed the 10 week old mark. Make sure to watch the videos I've uploaded of her over on my YouTube channel.
We Were Pirates - Robert Hunt: A Torpedoman's View of the Pacific War by Robert Schultz and James Shell has finally been released. I have a copy of the book now, but I'm sending it off to be signed by Bob Hunt himself tomorrow. I've babbled on and on about this book quite a few times here on this blog, but for those who don't know it's a book about Bob Hunt's time spent aboard the submarine USS Tambor (SS-198) as a torpedoman in WWII. Bob Hunt was on the Tambor when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor, and he stayed onboard for war patrols 1 through 12. That's every war patrol the Tambor made except for the 13th patrol. My grandfather was on the Tambor for war patrols 11 and 12, so they were shipmates. I was keeping in touch with Bob Hunt via email until early this year. I later learned that he had something happen to him and he was moved into an assisted living apartment.
I haven't even opened my copy of the book as I know if I do I won't want to send it off for autographing. Getting this book autographed means a lot to me.
You can read about this book by visiting the author's website where you can also order a DVD that goes with the book. There is also a small video interview with Bob there. You can order the book through the U.S. Naval Institute or Amazon.com.
Two links:
http://www.transformerscollectorsset.com/
http://www.gijoecollectorsset.com/
These are two of the greatest cartoons from the 1980s. Sunbow Productions was an awesome animation studio. They took real pride in their work. Today's cartoons are full of CGI and such. Not these back then. Transformers and G.I. Joe: A Real American Hero have suffered years and years of poor releases/no releases by various organizations that held their copyrights at the time. Shout! Factory has acquired the rights to these cartoons. They are releasing the best ever available complete sets. This is awesome!
It was already hard enough to update my blog here before Kara was born. But now it's going to be nearly impossible! I salute all of you single parents out there - I don't know how you do it. While Kara is a happy little girl in general, she does get quite fussy suddenly at times. She also can give us pains at night when we are trying to get more than 3 hours of sleep at a time. I feel bad for doing this kind of stuff to my own parents when I was a baby for sure.
I really want to see the new "Transformers - Revenge of the Fallen" movie, but I'm not sure how we'll ever make it to a movie theater again. The new Harry Potter movie comes out in less than a week, and the new live-action G.I. Joe movie starts sometime this summer. We'll have to get to the movies sometime somehow.
I have a new found appreciation for coffee. Ever since Kara was born it doesn't taste quite as hot nor quite as bitter. It keeps me somewhat alert, which is something I constantly need these days. We are also loving watching NBC on weeknights. There is The Tonight Show with Conan O'Brien then Late Night with Jimmy Fallon. And even better, this fall Jay Leno will be back with his own new show at 9 PM central.
So to sum all of this up, I guess I'm getting old.
Kara Celeste was born on June 2, 2009. Due to various factors, she was a c-section baby. It was quite an experience. She had issues with low blood sugar at first, but that was cured with a bit of time. Then she had jaundice, but with the help of a bili-light that was cleared up too.
I would have updated by now, but we haven't had a free second to do anything. See the photos here.
We received big news this past Tuesday - Kara Celeste will be born on June 4, 2009. That's only a week and a few days from now! Emily received a steroid shot on Tuesday night and Wednesday night that is supposed to give Kara's lung development a little boost for a delivery at 37 weeks.
We are both really tired and scrambling around in an attempt to have everything ready for the hospital and for when we bring her home. Emily ordered an ITZBEEN™ from Amazon.com. This little device looks awesome as it keeps track of so many things including how long it's been since the last changing, feeding, etc.
Busy busy! Emily and I completed the 3 weekly childbirth classes as well as a baby care class. Only one more class to go. I have found the classes interesting and somewhat calming.
Emily was told not to go to work anymore after today. She was only given this long because fo the state testing that finished up today. So she will hopefully be staying at home as much as possible while trying to relax. We still do not have a set due date, but hope to find out very soon.
We have been so busy over the last month! It's wild. Emily had a wonderful baby shower at the church on Sunday, April 26th. She had another baby shower given by her co-workers on Thursday, April 30th. Then we had a surprise this past Sunday, May 3rd as we walked into Sunday School. Our classmates had cooked breakfast and gave us yet another baby shower. Emily has one more shower, more of a friends and family shower, in a couple of weeks. We are blessed to have such great friends and family who are willing to help us out. There are still always more things we'll need. If you want to take a look at our registry with Geoffrey/Toys"R"Us/Babies"R"Us, just click here.
We have been attending weekly childbirth classes as well as weekly checkups with the doctor(s). Everything with Kara Celeste has been normal. The due date has always been June 24th, but we are still suspecting that delivery will take place around 2 weeks before that. We have no definite date as of yet.
Hey that's just a little over a month away from now!
I'm trying out a new layout for the website. More of a white and black look.
We had a pretty long day today. Sunrise service with breakfast fellowship afterwards, then lunch with the Sharps and Littles, and dinner with the Deans. It was a beautiful day, and at least the rain held off until late this afternoon.
Dad is going to physical therapy 3 times a week for his shoulder recovery. It seems to be doing well.
Emily and the baby Kara Celeste are coming along just fine. Weekly checkups are still in order.
I wish we could make another trip down to Mobile/Foley. That was so much fun and not too far away. :(
As of today, Emily is officially in the 3rd trimester. That's 28 weeks today. Starting this week she will see Dr. Nelson once a week. Lots of doctor visits. At each visit she will have an ultrasound and then she'll have a 20 minute session with a non-stress test (?) machine.
Dad's surgery last Wednesday went as planned. He had a torn rotator cuff in his right shoulder. He went back to the doctor today for a checkup, but I don't know the results of that yet.
Well, Emily and I had a fun two days of Alabama this past Thursday and Friday. We stopped in Mobile at Battleship Memorial Park so I could see the Drum and visit with Tom Bowser and meet Leslie Waters. Then we went on over and down to Foley and checked into our motel. We were quite hungry so went then went to eat at LuLu's and it was great! Friday we had breakfast at the motel and did some quick shopping around Foley and in the Tanger Outlet Mall there. On the way home, we had a late lunch at the Original Oyster House in Mobile.
The pictures I took at Battleship Memorial Park are here.
Sadly, while we were gone, Emily's uncle Wayne Little passed away. The funeral is this afternoon.
Emily has spring break this week. She decided to go to Jackson today and took my mom with her. I just hope I get some doughnuts out of the deal!
I've been tidying up the HTML and CSS over all the websites that I manage. It's amazing how many little tweaks you can find over time. I think I have everything almost up to date. Now I just need to finish creating the custom error pages for all of my websites. Those are pretty neat.
Oh, and in case you didn't notice, I added some code into this page so that you can read my last 5 updates on Twitter.
Emily went for another checkup today. She had an ultrasound, some of which was in that neat 4-D format. That's the picture below.
The baby registry for our baby girl has been created for Geoffrey/Toys"R"Us/Babies"R"Us/Kids"R"Us (it's all the same place). Take a look at it here.
What a week. Emily twisted her ankle Sunday afternoon, which led to a visit to the emergency room early Monday morning. They did x-rays and gave her a splint and a pair of crutches. It's unclear exactly what happened, but they didn't believe anything was broken. She is still hobbling around, but it should be gradually getting better every day. The worst part is that she can't have any anti-inflammatory drugs since she's pregnant.
The Mississippi State Legislature is underway with they 2009 session. You can view all measures online as usual. My predictions? As usual, I don't believe a budget will be decided upon during the regular legislative session, which will lead to the usual multiple special sessions, costing us thousands more every day for nothing. Perhaps even leading to the teacher pink slips of years gone by. Let's see how close I am! :) It's sad. No one wants to give up anything, so everything will be cut down to a near non-functional point.
If you want to watch your tax dollars hard at work on live camera, check out this link.
The month is nearly over and I'm still having trouble with typing "2009".
Emily and I went to the specialist in Jackson yesterday for a checkup on our baby girl. It was amazing as this doctor and his assistants spent a lot of time with us. They were using the ultrasound machine nearly the entire time and we got to watch it all on a big flat screen TV in front of us. Everything checked out just fine as far as what he could see at this time. Dr. Perry was mostly looking for physical birth defects in the spine and heart areas. We go back to his office next month for a checkup with a doctor who will perform an echocardiogram on the baby.
We do have newer ultasound photos but I haven't scanned them yet, as they really don't show much more than previous ultrasounds have.
In website updates, I have moved the location of the guestbook using a PHP function to integrate it into this website better.
We found out Tuesday afternoon that we're having a GIRL! So no more wondering for us.
I also recently got a Corsair Survivor 32 GB Flash Drive. This this is awesome! To be able to carry 32 gigabytes of stuff around in your pocket, safely, is amazing.
It's New Year's Eve. We made it back to the doctor today and have a new photo from the ultrasound. The baby isn't quite big enough nor was she/he in a good enough position to determine the sex today. Emily goes back in two weeks for another checkup and hopefully we'll find out the gender then.
12/31/2008, 15 weeks
Here are the newest ultrasound pics. These were taken yesterday, December 2nd. We could see the baby moving around and moving hands, arms, and legs.
12/2/2008, 10 weeks 6 days
Emily and I just got home from her doctor visit. Here is the newest ultrasound - click on the little pic for a bigger pic.
11/18/2008, 8 weeks 6 days
The due date is June 24, 2009.
Many of you know by now, Emily is expecting! Here are some photos of her ultrasounds thus far. Click on the little pics for bigger pics.
First ultrasound, 10/30/2008, 6 weeks 1 day
Second ultrasound, 11/4/2008, 6 weeks 6 days
No complaining about the quality of the pics please, the originals are on crappy paper (feels like those receipts you get at a gas pump) and my scans are as good as they are going to get.
We are thrilled! On the 2nd ultrasound visit (the first one I went to) we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! Man that thing was beating fast.
It will be a long road to travel the next many months, please keep us and the baby in your prayers. Any of you that know me well, you know that I have a LOT to learn.
In other news, SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG was featured in the October/November/December quarterly newsletter "Anchor Watch", the publication of the HNSA. There are people all over the entire planet that receive this newsletter. I scanned the article:
I understand now that Mark was suffering from a progressive disease. Manic depression, paranoid schizophrenia, obsessive/compulsive disorder, and panic attacks.
Here is a bit from his final show with him talking about his condition.
I'm floored. I don't know what to say.
He wanted everyone to visit WhatADifference.org.
RIP Mark Eugene Stevens aka "MrPoi" - you will be dearly missed by many.
http://www.legacy.com/AZCentral/Obituaries.asp?Page=LifeStory&PersonId=118559768
I hate that I missed your final radio show on October 4th. I thought I'd be able to catch a replay. :( For those of you who never heard MrPoi's shows, they were unique. PoiRadio.com - MrPoi's radio show website. I think I'd kept up with Mark over the years ever since the early days of college. So sad.
Mark had signed my guestbook over and over throughout the years.
Just wanted to share my Contra art that I received from the ~8-bit-Painter. He actually paints this stuff, pixel by pixel. The image below is actually 3 12" tall by 6" wide images. I just put them together and added the Contra logo under them.
I just read this:
FLASH-01: CASREP ON SEAWOLF PARK IN GALVESTON
Submitted by: Pat Householder Nat Cdr on 9/14/2008
---------------------------------------------------------
The force of Hurricane Ike did major damage at Seawolf Park.
From aerial shots, we can see the fence around the park is gone, the grounds flooded, the multi-ton Tautog Sail was moved (pivoted) about 40% if you consider the fulcrum point to be the fwd point of the sail, and the USS Stewart (DE) was undermined on the starboard side and is listing to starboard.
The entry and storage buildings are also missing and the USS CARP barrel (alongside the Stewart) is askew.
Click the video link below, then advance it to approx the 3 min mark to see the video over views of Seawolf Park. The announcer describes the Stewart as having washed ashore, but in fact it was planted in the soil as is Cavalla.
I sure hope they have good storm insurance, because they are going to need it.
John McMichael and the Cavalla Assn may need to put a call out for help, both financial and/or physical. I hope and expect that all subvets who are capable of doing so will answer that call, if it comes.
http://abclocal.go.com/ktrk/video?id=6391229
I attempted to create a before and after shot with what is available right now:
Well, we went to Jackson today to take care of some shopping needs and to get away for a while. I hadn't realized it until we left, but I don't think I'd been to Jackson in many months. It was saddening to see so many places that had gone out of business since our last visit. I was extremely disappointed when we went to eat at Roadhouse Grill only to find the building vacant. That was my favorite steakhouse. The "Roadie" steak couldn't be beat! :( This economy just sucks. It's making me feel old.
I did get lucky at Hobby Lobby. Their poster frames were 50% off today, which was exactly what I was looking for today. Oh how we wish that Meridian would get a Hobby Lobby. They have a great selection of stuff and if you're willing to wait they will eventually have a great deal on whatever you need. I got a quality poster frame for my new "Submarine Evolution 1900-2003" poster for only $10. What a deal! Emily helped me get it all together tonight. Below is the finished product.
Hero: a man distinguished by exceptional courage and nobility and strength.
In the photo above are Ron "Warshot" Smith and his wife Georgianna Smith. I believe this photo was taken only a week ago at the 2008 USSVI national convention in TX. Ron passed away early this morning. He was a WWII submarine veteran. A torpedoman on the USS Seal and gunner during battle surfaces. He was wounded during a gun battle. Ron accomplished so much during his lifetime. He even wrote/co-wrote two books, "Torpedoman" and "The Depths of Courage: American Submarines at War with Japan, 1941-1945". I can't say enough about what this man meant to so many people. I do know that he was kind enough to answer many of my questions while I was trying to learn about what all went on with my grandfather back in WWII, as he was a submariner as well. I own a copy of his 2nd book "The Depths of Courage" but I never got a copy of his first book "Torpedoman" as it's been out of print for quite a while. Just this past July he mentioned he was going to reprint "Torpedoman" but I don't know if he ever got the chance.
Sailor, rest your oar!
The highlight of the day was helping dad with the hay.
Tomorrow, Metallica's new album "Death Magnetic" will be released in stores. Metallica is one of the few bands that I've stayed with for well over 15 years now. I'm really looking forward to this new CD. Metallica is one of those bands that every album they release has a completely different sound to it. I wasn't very thrilled with their previous album "St. Anger" released back in 2003. "Death Magnetic" has a "...And Justice For All" meets "Load" sound to it. Not bad!
I still haven't figured out the problem with the forum/database. I think it's something to do with the way the forum security acts. When someone visits the forum it does a hostname lookup, which requires the use of the web server's lookup service. I've disabled this feature and I'm hoping this will fix any lingering problems.
Since the Mississippi Board of Registration for Foresters has dropped the BORF logo from their website, I've complained to bring it back. In the meantime, today I scanned an old sticker I had and cleaned it up a tad digitally. Here it is:
Well, apparently something, some tiny something, got corrupted in my MySQL database that keeps up with the forum members on SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG Forum. So far I've only found one member that it has affected, and I'm still not sure if I've got the problem sorted out. Databases are magic.
I wanted to put this down so I could remember it. Ron Martini "Rontini" said this:
"I also at the Annual Business Meeting got up in front of some 250 members and told them about you (by name) and your page and what that was all about."
These are some great people.
The 2008 USSVI National Convention ended this morning. I haven't heard all of the details yet, but I thought I'd share the photo above. That's Bill Lee, Base Commander of the USSVI Lockwood Internet Base. He was my sponsor for associate membership into USSVI. He's holding a SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG bumper sticker, and in the background you can see the LIB Memorial Submarine Display Table complete with a computer running the presentation I put together.
Just thought I'd share that.
I've been meaning to add this link to my links page. This is very geeky, but you must check out The Ultimate Game Room! You've been warned about the geek factor. It's the geek's wife's nightmare.
What a way to spend Labor Day. Sitting around the house being thankful that Hurricane Gustav didn't blow us away. It definitely could have been worse.
So where have I been? Well, when I heard that the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. (USSVI) Lockwood Internet Base (LIB) was sponsoring a "Memorial Submarine Display Table" at the 2008 USSVI National Convention the first week of September, I volunteered to make a computerized presentation. With the help of people from all around the world, I gathered several hundered megabytes of photographs of the 26 different museum submarines. Once set to music as a slideshow, it goes on for about an hour and twenty minutes. Bill Lee of LIB hopefully arrived safely in Ft. Worth, Texas today with a computer to show the presentation all week at the table. I hope it will draw people to the table and get them to browse all the stuff that will be available at the table.
I've been enjoying the new Bionic Commando Rearmed on the PC. Bionic Commando on the NES is definitely one of my top 3 favorite games of all time, and Bionic Commando Rearmed is a perfect remake of the classic NES version. The only changes were for the better and the graphics were updated. It is available via download only on XBLA, PSN, and PC. That's the ONLY thing I don't like about the game, but it seems that's they way PC gaming is going. I miss good old hard copies of discs in a nice box. Anyway, you can buy the game onine and download for around $15.
My fortune cookie from our wonderful dinner tonight said "Your present plans are going to succeed". I wonder what my cookie knew that I didn't? I have become a fanatic for fried rice, buttered potato slices, and sweet and sour chicken. Who knew that Chinese buffet food could be such a starch lover's heaven?
There have been lots of changes around here. Previously, I had 2 different hosting accounts that were hosted on the same server with the same host, 2 different domain name accounts, and 4 different domain names scattered everywhere. I decided to consolidate. Now I have 1 large hosting account, 1 domain name account, and all 4 domains are being used under the single account. What it all boils down to is I have LanceDean.com hosted now, and it's the starting point for me on the web. I've called it my "Internet Index Page" for lack of a better idea.
My pics have moved around as a result of me getting tired of fooling with the Gallery application. It's a royal pain in the rear to keep up to date without it breaking. I have enough problems without that. So, I didn't bother installing it again after the move. Instead I've found a neat little PHP script called PhotoFrame that I modified with some help to get what I want. It's super small and super simple. Just throw some photos into a directory and put this file in there with them, and you have a simple result.
Lastly, I've given "The Life of Shelton Doyle Blalock" it's own sub-domain from LanceDean.com. It can now be found at http://blalock.lancedean.com so update your bookmarks!
It turned out that the major problem with my websites was a failing hard drive. My data was moved onto a new drive in the server in Florida and everything has been great ever since.
SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG is moving forward. Thanks to donations from supporters of the website, we will soon be listed as Associate Members of the Historic Naval Ships Association (HNSA).
My truck hasn't cranked in over a week now. It's a mystery as usual.
Just wanted to say that my websites (all 3 hosted on the same server) survived a bad denial of service (DoS) attack all afternoon. Someone or something is really mad at the server these sites are hosted on. IP addresses have been banned and servers have been rebooted. I hope it's over. All over the internet I've read more stories of massive DoS attacks as of late. I don't know why.
Today was Memorial Day. Emily and I placed new flags on the graves of my grandfathers as well as her great uncle who was killed on the USS Indianapolis at the very end of WWII. We went to her parents' house for supper and it was tasty.
This past weekend, we visited Mobile, AL. We decided to try out our new Garmin Nuvi 260W GPS unit. We left home on Saturday. Once in Mobile, we briefly stopped at our motel before letting our Nuvi 260W lead us to a nearby Super Target, Kohls, and Panera Bread for dinner. Then we found a great movie theater with stadium seating and watched the new "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" movie. It was much better than I expected with numerous references to his past Indy movies. It was so nice to watch a movie in a "real" movie theater that didn't harass or search us like here in Meridian.
Sunday morning, the Nuvi 260W lead us to a nearby IHOP restaurant, where we ate a delicious breakfast. Then we traveled to Battleship Memorial Park where we met up with Tom Bowser, a man who has become a friend over the last year. He's the main restoration fella who volunteers his time on the USS Drum, the oldest submarine in the USA on display as a museum, right here in Mobile, AL. Also meeting up with us yesterday was Mark Allen and his wife Leilani, who were on their way down to Florida from Oklahoma. Mark volunteers with the USS Batfish in Muskogee, OK and helps me moderate the forum on SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG. It was a great visit! Afterwards, we ate at the Original Oyster House just down the road from the Park. It's a great place to eat!
Then we let our GPS tell us how to get home. What a great trip and what a nifty new tool for trips. You can see pictures of our trip by clicking on the "PICS" link up top, or by clicking here.
I received a copy of Robert Hunt's diary from WWII. It's really interesting. This man was aboard the USS Tambor in the Pacific when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
I have finished (somewhat) a tribute to my maternal grandparents, Shelton Doyle Blalock and Lodena Alexander Blalock. It can be found here. I'm trying to spread it around to everyone that I think would be interested in looking at it. It tells of Doyle's younger days, WWII submarining days, marriage, rockhounding, sand bottle art, retirement, etc. Lots of stuff to read there.
Thanks to Peter Jorgensen, I have updates on a book release I've been looking forward to. We Were Pirates - Robert Hunt: A Torpedoman's View of the Pacific War by Robert Schultz and James Shell is coming Spring 2009. Robert Hunt served on the USS Tambor for 12 war patrols, which was every single war patrol but her final one. My papaw was on the last two war patrols, so they did a war patrol together. This book is going to be exciting.
Here's a video that Peter Jorgensen recorded when he and Robert Hunt visited the USS Cobia on May 4, 2008. There are no Tambor class submarines in existance anymore, but the Cobia is a Gato class, which is the nearest thing.
Sometime last week, I learned a bit about CSS and external style sheets. Man was I amazed! I immediately began using the magic of CSS and external style sheets on this website, DeanForestryServices.com, and SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG. Heck I was even able to twink my MySpace page too. Luke told me over a year ago how great CSS and external style sheets are, but I was slow to change I guess.
The weather has been beautiful here lately. It finally rained Monday and washed all the pollen away. It's the best time of year to me. Green never looked so good!
I am now an Associate Member of the United States Submarine Veterans, Inc. (USSVI) and the USSVI Lockwood Internet Base (LIB). They have been a big help with the SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG website.
I got the DVD Das Boot: The Director's Cut last week for a bargain. I'd never watched Das Boot before, and I must say it's an awesome movie. This version of the movie is 3.5 hours long, an hour longer than the original movie release, but yet nearly an hour and a half SHORTER than the uncut version. Since it's about u-boats, it is a German film with German speech. I did watch it with the English speech instead of reading English subtitles, which isn't too hardcore I guess. Perhaps I'll get the 4 hour 53 minutes uncut version someday.
Wow, Hillary Clinton is running all around Mississippi today and tomorrow. Bill Clinton is even coming to Meridian on Saturday night at 7 PM to speak at MCC! How exciting. Although I think people made a MUCH bigger deal about Oprah visiting Meridian a while back. How sad.
Jack Nicholson is THE MAN!
On a different note, Ubisoft released Silent Hunter - Wolves of the Pacific: U-Boat Missions on 2/28/2008. While I'm not all into u-boats, the add-on fixes a bunch of stuff with the regular game. The odd thing is this game isn't available in a physical form for people in the USA. We only have the option to "digitally download" the add-on for $9.99 straight from Ubisoft. I've never seen this marketing method before. I like having a nice box and a pressed CD that will last for decades to come. Oh well. It's still great!
SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG is still gaining momentum. Hopefully it will continue.
I make one update clarifying some of the presidential race misinformation and everyone labels me as an Obama fan. The truth is I'm still not 100% certain WHO I'll vote for. There's still plenty of time to sway me, but it likely won't be a republican.
I've created a new website/forum called "SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG" after seeing a need for it. It's an attempt to positively promote the over 20 submarine museums across the United States while uniting the volunteers and curators of the different submarine museums. Hopefully it will be an easy way for people that aren't aware of the museums to get interested and make a visit. Check it out! SUBMARINEMUSEUMS.ORG
Well, in the very near future we'll have a single democratic and republican presidential candidate. Hopefully everyone will go vote for someone, whether it's for an old guy, a black man, or a white woman. :)
With that said, I've gotta get something off my chest. Over the last few weeks, I've heard every crazy thing imaginable said about Barak Obama that it's getting out of hand. Why do people believe everything they hear? Why do people take pride in repeating unresearched rumors or forwarding emails with wild accusations? Now I'm not saying that I'm voting for Barak Obama, nor am I saying that you should. I'm saying that Barak Obama is NOT a radical Muslim who won't recite the Pledge of Allegiance, was NOT sworn into office on the Quran, does NOT go to a racist, secretly Muslim church that excludes non-blacks, has NOT been endorsed for president by the Ku Klux Klan, is NOT being funded by Hugo Chavez, and he HAS and HAS NOT placed his hand over his heart during the Pledge of Allegiance. Keep on looking at the Urban Legends Reference Page on Barack Obama provided by Snopes.com. Stop forwarding those emails to me now, please.
Honestly I have been enjoying the democratic race, as whoever comes out on top it will be someone very different from anyone in the past. It's been amazing to me with all the past Hillary Clinton hate that hardly anyone bashes her for love of bashing Barak Obama! Bashing can be fun, too, as long as you have your bashing information correct. :)
Today we went to Hunter's 4th birthday party at McDonald's. You know, as a kid I went to someone's birthday party at McDonald's at the College Park location. It was really impressive and I really wanted a birthday party of my own there someday. The magic just wasn't there for me today like it was around 25 years ago. McDonald's is a LOT different than it was 25 years ago, too. Heck McNuggets didn't even exist back then. I'm old...
Anyway, Hunter seemed to have a great time as well as all of his friends. He got lots of presents and cake. His birthday is actually Monday, so he probably has even more in store for him.
Other than an annoying, persistant cough, I think I'm over the flu.
Speaking of annoying, have you kept track of the Mississippi State Legislature this session? What a party. Go to this site to keep up with what's going on. I understand that today the Senate passed SB2149 which would make school district superintendents an appointed position. Appointed by the SCHOOL BOARD I must add. What kind of idiots do we have running the Senate?? What is wrong with electing a superintendent? Another bill that wasn't killed today like it should have been is SB2206 which would allow sheriffs to use radar guns, period.
I tell you, it is nice that you can watch the senate and house floor live via the web this year, but we still need accountability on voting. I'd like to know who voted for what. I bet if that information was available, this stupid crap would slow down at least.
On a different note, I've entered 4 screenshots in the Silent Hunter 4: Wolves of the Pacific February Screenshot Competition. Each month Ubisoft (the folks who made the game) sponsors this competition. Here's one of my four contributions, I call it "Rub a dub dub, five Japs in a tub" as 5 Japanese sailors are escaping a Huge European Liner (around 19,000 tons) that I just sank.
View the screenshot here.
Well, today I think Emily and I are showing small improvements in our sicknesses. This flu is something terrible.
Dale Earnhardt Jr. won the 30th running of the Budweiser Shootout last night. He also set a record by leading 47 laps. All of this is really significant because he is driving a new car with new sponsors under a different team - Hendrick Motorsports. Hopefully this is a sign of what is to come this year. Read more about it here.
SICK! Emily and I are both sick. Apparently Emily had this flu that's going around. Then I started feeling sick Wednesday. I hurt all over, have high fever, and cough a lot. Seems like the flu to me. Emily still felt really bad after nearly a week and after finishing her Tamiflu, so she went back to the doctor Thursday. She has a touch of pneumonia now. So here we are, both sick and barely able to talk to each other. I got word today that dad has now started feeling sick. I'd say that everyone should stay out of contact with other people for the next week or two. The flu is taking over!
My DDO subscription ran out officially on the 6th, and the guild Transgression disbanded (nothing to do with me) last night. Times they are a changin'.
Wow, what a Superbowl! I don't even care about football, but that was some show. The halftime show featuring Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers was the best halftime show that I can recall. The 4th quarter of the game was full of miracles. It was neat to see the underdogs come out on top.
Emily is feeling better today. She's pretty sure she'll return to work tomorrow even.
I received word today that Robert Hunt's story will be published by the US Naval Institute Press in the Spring of 2009. Dr. Robert Schultz is the author. The title of the book is We Were Pirates and will be all about torpedoman Robert Hunt's whopping 12 WW2 war patrols aboard the USS Tambor. Bob Hunt will have an awesome story to tell! My grandfather was on board the Tambor for her last 2 war patrols, so it's going to be wonderful to read a detailed story of those patrols from someone who experienced them firsthand! You can read a small sample of We Were Pirates by clicking here.
The Links page here has been purged of broken links and cleaned up a bit.Yep, it's Superbowl Sunday. Giants vs Patriots. I don't care for football, but the commercials are cool. Emily has been sick with something since Friday morning. I took her to the doctor Friday afternoon with nothing too conclusive but flu wasn't completely ruled out. She's been taking it easy.
I went to a little get together last night with friends to eat cajun-themed food and chat. It was fun, but Emily didn't get to go. I brought her some food back in Tupperware. We are supposed to go somewhere tonight but I don't know if she feels well enough to go.
I'm still dabbling with Silent Hunter 4 when I get a free little bit to play. Here's a screenshot of a mission I completed today, the insertion of a secret spy agent.
The weather has been cold and wet lately. I really don't care for winter after January 1st is over, and it's just getting started then!
There are so many little tinkering things I want to accomplish soon, and working over this website is one of them. Yes yes, I say that all the time, but I do mean to clean this place up soon.
This is just a little update to let you know that I'm still around. February is just around the corner, which is just another month to knock out on the way to May! :)
Oh, I've canceled my DDO subscription for now. It requires too much time to play. How's that for a gaming complaint? I've been dabbing with Silent Hunter: Wolves of the Pacific. Here's a little screenshot for you below. I sank this Huge European Liner (around 10,000 tons loaded with Japanese troops) with my Balao class submarine which you can see just above the Jap sailor's head in the distance.
SCREENSHOT LINK
