This sucks

Colin got to the hospital at about 1:30PM and was taken into surgery at about 7:30pm. The doctor told us it went sucessfully and he inserted a couple of screws and he won't need a cast, just a splint. But he also said he's got a long road of recovery ahead. Carol is spending the night with him, he's in the pediatric ward where they have fold-flat recliners so hopefully she can get some sleep. They are going to keep him there a day or two to make sure the only injury he has is the leg. Sometimes smaller injuries appear a day or so after the major one because the pain is so great you don't notice it at first.

If there is any bright lining to this is that there is no head injury. That's always been my biggest fear since he rides his bike without a helmet.

What a fucking shitty summer for this poor guy.....

Posted by VenomRudman @ 2:01 am EDT | Permalink | 8 Comments

New game

My cable company carries the GamePlay HD channel. One of the neat "shows" on it is called Raw Play which is simply 2 hours of recorded gameplay.

They showcased John Woo's Stranglehold and it looked interesting enough for me to pick it up the other day. Since this is a game that's about a year old, it only cost $30. This game kicks some ass!

If you've ever watched a John Woo movie, you can figure out what kind of game it is, a lot of shooting at endless bad guys. BUT what makes it interesting is that you can go into slow motion (what they call Tequila Time after the hero's name) while firing (ala Max Payne). Diving, sliding over tables or even sliding down railings automatically puts you into Tequila Time or you can manually trigger it. You can also interact with the environment such as shooting at signs or air conditioners that will drop down and kill an enemy. The more unusual ways you kill someone the more style points you get and at the end of a level you get a rating (A+ thru F-). I've only played it for an hour or so but it's been a blast.

The single player is short and I'm sure no one is playing the multi-player any more, but the game is so much fun that I think there will be replay value in playing levels again and again to kill guys in more and more stylish ways.

For all of you out there, this is a definite rental. I bought it because I knew my 15 year old son would love it. His reaction? "Dad, this game is SICK!".

Posted by VenomRudman @ 9:03 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Ethernet connections

I've been using a number of different ethernet connections for my xboxes and computers and last night I decided to test the speed of each one.

I connect to the cable modem either hardwired to a switch which is wired into my cable modem, wirelessly to my router or using a powerline ethernet adapter which carries the ethernet signals thru your electrical outlets. Last night I hooked up my laptop to each type of connection in turn and downloaded a large file via FTP.

I have a 30mbs down/5 up cable modem connection. Hardwired thru the switch to the modem gave me a download of 3700 Kb/second. Wirelessly through my router I got 950 Kb/sec and the powerline gave me 550 Kb/sec.

I've always been a huge fan of Powerline ethernet simply for the ease of use. Plug one end in the outlet near your router, the other end near the device you want to get online and boom, you're surfing in no time. However, as you can see above, it comes at a severe cost in speed. The adapter I have is 14Mbps, they now have 85Mbps adapters, I would be interested to test it to see how much an increase in speed I'd get.

So it looks like in order to take full advantage of my connection, I will have to bite the bullet and run an ethernet cable from my switch, thru the crawlspace to the other side of my den.

Posted by VenomRudman @ 10:38 am EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

A lesson learned

My wife likes to tease me about a certain very comfortable cotton boxers I wear, she calls them my sexy undies. So today, I texted her a message that said simply I'm wearing my sexy undies today.

A little while later I get a text message back. You've scarred your daughter for life! We were in the car when the text came in and she opened the phone and read it! She's totally grossed out!. Well, this is one of those rare moments where I simply laughed out loud. She told Shannon she shouldn't read other people's messages and Shannon replied Now I know why. I have a feeling Shannon will not be looking me in the eye for a few days.....

And before you ask, no, I will not be providing pics!

Posted by VenomRudman @ 3:12 pm EDT | Permalink | 10 Comments

I'm so proud...

Of my daughter, Shannon who is a senior in high school. Her school has a tradition that has been going on for 51 years of a dance competition they call Blue and Gold. Over 100 students per team are involved and the effort these kids put in is amazing. There are 3 primary groups per team. Decorations, Props and Costumes and Dance. Among the dance group are 3 more sub-groups, Modern, Jazz and Calestenics. The kids can participate in more than one group or even sub-group. Each dance sub-group is made up of about 25 dancers. Every year a different theme is chosen for each team. One year my daughter's team's theme was Pirates. Other themes have been Greece, Indians and Africa. This year her team's theme was China. They are supposed to tell a story (one that they make up) via the decorations, props and dance.

The amazing thing about this is that it is all done by the kids. The entire gym is decorated in giant painted panels, props and costumes are built by hand, the music is scored and the dances choregraphed by the kids alone.

Shannon has participated in Blue and Gold every year since she started high school. As a freshman she chose the Blue team and has stuck with that team every year. And every year, disappointingly, Blue would lose by a point. It got to the point I swore the damn thing was rigged! These kids put their heart and soul into this event, from March until May, they practice everyday after school for a couple of hours and weekends too.

Last year, after the competition, she was asked by the departing seniors to be a co-Captain of the Modern team. This is quite a responsibility, not only does she have to score the dance, she has to choreograph it, organize practices, tweak the dance when needed and then also participate in another dance as well as the entrance and closing dances! All this and keep up with her school work! And she has a job! Whew!

The competition starts on a Thursday, which is non-scoring and then they get scored on Friday and Saturday's performances. The event is made up of Entrance,Cal,Modern,Jazz and Marching. All the girls (yes it is 99% girls with the occasional brave boy in there) participate in the first and last event. The entrance is the most grueling, it is a non-stop 30 minute interpretive dance that tells a story based on the given theme. 10-15 kids will enact a scene in one section of the gym while another group is setup in the darkness on the other side, and it flips back and forth. Cal is a dance with calestenics moves scattered throughout the 15 minute segment, Modern is a slow graceful dance, Jazz more upbeat and quicker and Marching is similar to a marching band.

I went to the competition on Thursday and Saturday but not Friday. There are a limited number of tickets, so on Friday members of my family went to watch her. After watching Thursday's performance I told her that if Blue doesn't win by 10 points, it's a scam! Other than Entrance, Blue's dances and execution were SO superior to Gold's that there was no comparision.

Friday night, right after the scores were announced, I got a call from Shannon, she was SO exicted. "Daddy, my dance got a perfect score, a 20!". I was SO happy for her, so proud! All that hard work from her paid off. After the first night, Blue was leading by 1 point.

Saturday night was more of the same, Blue's execution was flawless and the dances and the music were perfected suited to the theme. It was wonderful to see the kids jump up and down in delerium when the scores for each section were announced. To see Shannon burst into tears of joy when her Modern dance got another perfect 20 almost made me cry, I thought my face might split in half I was smiling so hard!

When it was all done and finished, Blue got perfect scores each night for Cal,Modern,Jazz and Marching. The only thing Gold won were Props and Entrance. BLUE FINALLY WINS! Apparently they broke a 7 year Gold winning streak.

I am so proud of Shannon for sticking it out on the Blue team for 3 staight years of losing and then working so hard as a Captain, getting two perfect scores and winning the title!

Posted by VenomRudman @ 10:18 pm EDT | Permalink | 3 Comments