« September 2006 | Main | November 2006 »
October 31, 2006
Trivial Tuesday #42: Spooky
1. Is a pumpkin considered a fruit or a vegetable?
2. Halloween originated from a festival celebrated by what ancient European tribe?
3. Frankenstein came to life in a novel written in 1818 by whom?
4. 1n 1978, which actress played the lead role in the movie, 'Halloween'
5. What phobia do you suffer from if you have an intense fear of Halloween?
6. Halloween is celebrated on the eve of what Christian holiday?
7. November 2 is often referred to as what?
8. Jack O'Lantern's were originally carved into what vegetable?
9. What do ghosts serve for dessert?
10. What do you get when you divide the circumference of a pumpkin by its radius?
Posted by mhader at 6:23 AM | Comments (3)
October 24, 2006
Trivial Tuesday #41
1. On this day in history (1957), this star of 'White Christmas' married actress Kathryn Grant.
2. On this day in history (1987), this Michael Jackson hit started a 2 week run at No. 1 on the US singles chart.
3. On this day in history (1945), the charter was ratified to open what peace keeping organization in London?
4. On this day in history (2003), this plane made it's final flight.
5. On this day in history (1901), 63 year old Annie Edson was the first to take a plunge in a barrel over what?
Posted by mhader at 7:10 PM | Comments (2)
October 17, 2006
Trivial Tuesday #40
1. Name that actor
2. Name the artist and song
3. Name that Politician
4. Name that techy
5. Name that journalist
Posted by mhader at 8:00 AM | Comments (3)
October 10, 2006
Trivial Tuesday #39
1. Name the character and show featuring this quote: "Life's not so bad, right? Sure the Others are coming to, like, eat us all, and every once in a while someone blows up all over you, but you do get to sleep in every morning."
2. Name the artist and song: "..Never knowing who to cling to When the rain set in.."
3. Which President said: "I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we're really talking about peace."
4. Name the mathematician: "For every action there is an equal and opposite reaction."
5. What Basketball player said: "They said playing basketball would kill me. Well, not playing basketball was killing me."
Answers for last week:
1. Scrubs - My Own Private Practice Guy
2. Susanne Vega - Tom's Diner
3. Lyndon B. Johnson
4. Neil Armstrong
5. John Madden
Posted by mhader at 9:00 AM | Comments (9)
October 9, 2006
Top 5 'Comfort' Games
via the recent slashdot article.
Naming my top 5 'comfort' [video] games (ie. favorite games that you can go back and play whenever just for fun) is a bit of a challenge due to my small repertoire of games. I'll give it my best:
1. Topping the list is the one [series of] game[s] that was the only easy pick for the list--the SSX (Super Snow[board] Cross) series. I've enjoyed the game play in all four, and SSX on the Wii might be a good enough reason to buy a Wii. If I had to pick just one of the series however, it would be 'SSX Tricky' where I think EA just about perfected the original SSX (my reason for buying a PS2).
2. NHL FaceOff 99 for the original Playstation. I think I enjoyed this one so much because I got to know the players on my team (the Buffalo Sabres) so well that I could kick some serious butt. I haven't really enjoyed the new features in the more recent hockey games that I've tried.
3. Dynasty Warriors. It's probably the second game I got for the PS2 and as repetitive as it is, it's still fun to play. I never really figured out how the game as a whole works, but I enjoy running around in a huge battle with a big sword (or one of the other deadly hand held weapons).
4. Quake 2. As much time as I've spent playing it, it had to make the list.
5. Grand Theft Auto III (the only one I own on the PS2). It's a good mix between a shooter and a driving game. Definitely not the most moral game on the market, but it sure is fun to blow some stuff up every once in a while.
Great games that didn't make the cut:
Final Fantasy XI - I really enjoyed playing this, but it's online only so I can't easily just go back and play it (even though I've often had the urge). Who wants to sign up for WoW (World of Warcraft) with me? =)
Gran Turismo 3 - Not that I was ever great, but I'm simply awful at this game now. There is too much of a learning curve for me to simply jump back into it.
Crazy Taxi - It's lot's of fun, but too repetitive.
Guitar Hero - If I had it, it'd be on the list. But I don't, so it isn't.
Super Mario Brothers 3 - Who doesn't love it?
The Legend of Zelda - The Original! I think my mom would even agree with this one.
I'm sure there are many that I missed..
What are your 'comfort' games? It doesn't have to be video game only if you don't play the video games.
Posted by mhader at 3:50 PM | Comments (4)
October 4, 2006
How to Kill a Hard Drive
In case the title wasn't enough, this might be labeled 'nerdy'. Continue at your own risk.
I haven't done it yet, but that doesn't mean I'm not trying. I've been wanting to put a second tuner card into my computer for a while so that I could keep up with all of the fall programming on the telly. For those in the know, I already had a Hauppauge WinTV-PVR-350. I planned to add a WinTV-PVR-250 but could not find the one with composite input in stock for a reasonable price. I ended up with a WinTV-PVR-500 MCE instead. It's basically two tuners for the price of one. My poor refurbished, Woot'd 250GB hard drive now has to record up to three shows at a time while occasionally playing video back simultaneously. Perhaps I should move my Azureus directory to another drive...and stock up on the 250's next time they're on Woot.
For anyone trying to do the same thing, a 250Gb hard drive is nowhere near large enough. With 3 tuners recording at my current settings (Great-2GB/hour), I'll run out of space in roughly 24 hours (30 if the drive were empty. Not that I watch 95% of it, but I have to keep up with it to make sure it doesn't start erasing things that I wanted to watch.
Now I just need an HD tuner :) ..and a petabyte drive..
Posted by mhader at 8:29 PM | Comments (2)
October 3, 2006
Trivial Tuesday #38
Trying something new -- Audio Trivial Tuesday
1. Name that TV show
2. Name that tune
3. Name that Politician
4. Name that [recently vindicated] Astronaut
5. Name that Athlete
Posted by mhader at 5:42 PM | Comments (3)