I just finished upgrading to WordPress-2.5, which was a rather large update for me. I had previously been stuck on a much older version because I really liked being able to use the Ultimate Tag Warrior plugin, but the new version had some really nice features… so I took the plunge. Along with the software upgrade, I changes the default theme of the blog as well. It might take some time to get used to… and keeping the theme is completely up in the air.
So… use the comment section to tell me what you think of the changes.
This has been one of the craziest months in quite a while, but I wanted to take time out now to wish two of my most favorite women a very happy birthday….
First of all, my Beautiful Wife, Amy’s birthday was the 23rd – and no, I didn’t forget it… This is just the first chance I’ve had to get on the blog and post it…
Secondly, today is my favorite little sister, JenP’s birthday. If you haven’t had a chance to visit her blog, I highly recommend it. It is very good reading on a subject that really doesn’t get enough press.
Happy Birthday Amy!
Happy Birthday JenP!
Work has me going absolutely nuts this week. There has been some sort of work-related emergency almost every day for the past week and a half! In fact, I’m at work right now babysitting helping an HP support engineer with some problems with one of our drive arrays. Not fun, let me assure you…. Especially when you know that you have to be back at work at in less than 6 hours – and then you have another scheduled maintenance period Sunday Morning. I’m just overjoyed! No, really…
I had planned on writing a line or 2 about Brett Favre’s retirement and the passing of Gary Gygax, but it’s all old news now. Not to mention that I thought that my Bro-in-Law did a pretty good job of covering both events. OK so almost everyone knows who Brett Favre is, but I think Gary Gygax flew a little more under the radar of the general public. For those of you not in the know, Gary Gygax was one of the co-creaters of a little table-top game called Dungeons & Dragons .
Tags: Misc
I really want to take this time to wish my Darling and Beautiful Wife a very Happy 10th Anniversary. Amy, I have to hand it to you, putting up with 10 years of my obnoxiousness should earn you a medal!
You really should be commended for all that you do: from being the always-dependable Mom, to the hard-working and dedicated teacher, to the caring and loving wife. I know that I am truly blessed to have found you, and I pat myself on the back every day for being sly enough to trick you into marrying me am very lucky that you decided that I was the one with whom you wanted to share the rest of your life.
Happy Anniversary, Amy…
~DBP
Tags: Amy-and-David
OK, so maybe not quite the legend… and maybe not a real guitar, but cool nonetheless. A few weeks ago, I got Guitar Hero 3 for the Wii as a Valentine’s Day/Birthday combo present. Amy and I do this sort of thing often because between the months of February and March, we celebrate:
- My Dad’s Birthday
- Valentine’s Day
- Brian’s Birthday
- Our Wedding Anniversary
- Amy’s Birthday
Oh, and you can throw my little sister’s birthday in there as well….
Anyhoo, back to the subject at hand. I am brand new to the whole Guitar Hero franchise, though I’ve been wanting to play it since the first one came out(this is the first version that is available for the Wii). So, being wet behind the ears, I decided to wuss out and start the game on easy. The game has a great song list that can be played in four modes: Easy-utilizes only 3 of the five finger buttons, Medium -adds more notes to the note chart and includes a fourth button, Hard-includes the fifth button and the note combinations are harder still, Expert-just insanely fast note combinations and lots of advanced techniques. See here for a more thorough rundown of the game.
It took some time to get used to the controller, but once I got the hang of it, I cruised through the first 2 concerts with no problems. In fact, I finished the whole game on easy in less than 1 week… scoring at least four or five (out of five) stars on each song(but one… more on that later)!(*patting self on shoulder*) Medium difficulty is a completely different story however. I find myself practicing a song over and over and I can barely get 4 stars on most of them. Strange how adding just one more button to a note chart just changes the whole complexity of a song.
Speaking of complex songs… Slayer’s Raining Blood is one of the songs you can choose to play in the last set of the game. OMG!!! Even on easy, I got booed off of the stage 3 or 4 times before completing it with only 3 stars. The song is just wicked hard and pretty fast. I haven’t even tried it on medium… and probably won’t. the other 3 songs on the set(you need to complete 3 out of 4 songs in the set to advance) are just easier for me to play.
The boys have watched me play the early parts of the game and both have taken an interest in playing it. I let them both play through the tutorial, and though both of them completed it, Will seemed to have a tougher time since his little fingers are having troubles spanning the 3 buttons needed to play in easy mode. But, he fought through A LOT of frustration and continued to practice the songs in the first set…. and as of this past weekend, he had completed both the first and second sets on easy. I have to say that I was quite proud of his determination. He never gave up even though I saw times where he stomped off crying in frustration, and others when he looked ready to throw the guitar controller into the TV. To see him pass the first few songs after all of the practice. The look on his face was worth it.
I’m not sure how much further in the game I am going to let him go. The last few parts of the game are more mature themed than I think he should be a part of. The final stage is actually in Hell and you have to play “Devil went down to Georgia” against a caricature of the red man himself in order to complete the game. I’ll probably end up letting him play up to set 6 or so and then have him move up to the next level. I just think that some of that stuff might frighten him a little.
[tags]holidays, GH3, wii[/tags]
So first off, yeah, my Birthday was last Friday… whoopdedoo!!!
The big 38 – pretty depressing if you ask me. I didn’t put anything down on the blog because I’m a slacker …erm I didn’t want to make a big deal of something so trivial. However, I do actually want to thank all of you who emailed, called, wrote, commented, etc. to wish me a Happy Birthday. It was very much appreciated.
As far as my actual birthday activities… well, the boys had a dance at their school so Amy and I took them to that and we stayed for the duration. I don’t know about you, but what is the point of having a dance at an elementary school? I mean at that age, don’t all boys think all girls have cooties at that age and vice versa? And second, why play a slow song at a dance at an elementary school? Who really expects the kids to slow dance?
However, both boys seemed to have a great time, just running around the gym with their school-buddies. Who knew?
Anyways, afterwards, we came home and I was treated to a surprise ice-cream birthday cake! Now that was excellent! When I was a little kid, my parents used to get us all ice cream cakes for our birthdays. At some time in the past, I had told Amy this and she and Victoria conspired together to get me one this year. What a wonderful treat!
[tags]birthday[/tags]
Tags: Amy-and-David, birthday, kids
We at “P” Corner are proud and pleased to announce the release of Brian-9.0 which became Generally Available Sunday, Feb 18, 2008. To honor this momentous milestone achievement, a celebration banquet was held at the main headquarters located in Loris, SC. Rumor has it that members of the Knoxville office made the trip to help celebrate the festivities. Not only were the President and VP(I won’t begin to touch which person has which title) in attendance, but the founding members were also there as well. The banquet was well received by all and included such delights as BBQ ribs, ham, corn, and pancit. Door prizes were also given away to celebrate the occasion. Strangely enough, all of the prizes were won by the same employee.
Some of the new features included in Brian-9.0:
Advanced intelligence
Ability to make more complex decisions
Increased energy
Ability to take on more responsibility(This feature has not been fully tested)
As one of the lead developers, I cannot begin to express my pride in this newest release. But we are not resting on our laurels. We are still on track for our most recent product, Will, to reach version 7.0 in August. And in September, be sure to look out for Victoria-19.0. We hope to make it our most stable release ever!
[tags]brian, birthday, victoria, Will, cousins, jen-and-terry[/tags]
Tags: birthday, Brian, cousins, jen-and-terry, Victoria, Will
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