What's Happenin'?

Anyone who is into PC gaming chooses that platform over a console for several reasons. Better graphics, deeper games, cheaper prices, and the ability to customize are some of the biggest of these reasons, among others.

With next week's release of Modern Warfare 2, developer Infinity Ward and their corporate overlords at Activision will launch the first salvo in an all-out war against PC gamers -without which the Call of Duty series never would have lifted off the ground. They have chosen to go the quick-and-easy route in making the PC version of their game nothing more than a console port. In fact, they've even left out features which could have practically been copy-and-pasted from 2007's Call of Duty 4: Modern Warfare.

The first issue that arose was Activision's decision to arbitrarily raise the price of the PC version to $59.99 in order to match the console versions pricing. A console gamer may look at this and dismiss it because they don't see a reason for the PC version to be less expensive. They would be wrong, of course, since publishers don't have to pay licensing fees to release their games on the PC. In addition to this pricing change, they nixed any and all special versions of the game which include extravagant pack-ins such as a pair of night-vision goggles. Fans wanting to own these items will have to purchase a copy of the game on Xbox-360 or PS3.

The price increase would prove to be just the first point of contention between Infinity Ward and their fans. News soon came from IW's Robert Bowling that dedicated servers would not be supported in the PC version. That's right.. a CORE component of online PC gaming would be replaced with an inferior "matchmaking" system which will surely provide unfair pings to host players and cause countless dropped games and generally disappointing gameplay. Leading up to the release of the original Modern Warfare, Infinity Ward bragged that their PC version would support "as many players as your server can handle".. flash forward two years and we're relegated to a maximum of 18 player matches. Utter crap. The reasoning here is fighting piracy and cheaters. That's bullshit and here's why: MW1 did a great, if not perfect, job of checking CD keys during online play and PunkBuster kept the cheaters away just fine. In fact, the excellent multiplayer modes of the first title were the reason many pirates later decided to buy an actual copy of the game. The bottom line here is that someone, be it IW or Activision, wants to control which maps you play on- which means they get to sell them to you later on.

But Wait! There's more! Now Infinity Ward has revealed that there will be no in game console, either. This means no debug modes to play around in, no values to tweak. No changing field of vision, or all the other little tricks that PC gamers are so acustomed to. This one is attributed to the developers desire for people to play the game as they "intended".

Now the game is a week away from launch and IW has downplayed the significance of a huge online petition. It's clear they are unphased by our reactions to this, and some irresponsible members of the media such as Destructoid's Jim Sterling have even suggested our complaints are nothing more than collective whining. You're right Jim, we should be on our knees for Infinity Ward and we should happily pay MORE money for LESS content so they can charge us even more later. As consumers, we're certainly not entitled to our own opinion on a product.

In closing, I want to say that Infinity Ward is making a grave mistake, but sadly I can't. The 360 and PS3 versions of the game have already been dubbed as the "most preordered game ever" and they will have the #1 and #2 SKUS on the sales charts even if they don't sell a single copy of the PC game. Ultimately what we'll likely see is low sales for only the PC version, which Activision will blame on piracy as opposed to the fact that they doomed this game on their own.

The only thing we can do as a community then, is to boycott this game. As previously mentioned, this will make little difference in the perceived success of this title- but at least we can save our hard earned money to reward a developer who gives a shit.

Bottom line: I never thought I would live in a world where EA wasn't the most evil publisher on the planet, but Activision has taken this art to a whole new level with the greed that they are exhibiting across their entire lineup. They are moving their games backwards feature-wise, releasing clones of games just weeks apart, packing in crappy plastic controllers to bump up prices, and just generally acting like remorseless dicks just to make a few extra bucks.

Eventually the public will wise up and stop eating the crap they're feeding us. Sluggish initial sales of "DJ Hero" may be the first indication that this will happen sooner rather than later. We can only hope.

Even before my girlfriend and I met, she's been dealing with a constant coolant leak in her car. Being that she doesn't know the first thing about them, she assumed it was a huge problem that would cost thousands of dollars to address and decided to just continue adding coolant every few days. Turns out, this coolant leak is a very common issue on the Ford Focus, and while she was quoted $500 for a repair, it wasn't too difficult for me to do for her in my own garage.

The main reason I'm writing this up is to clarify a few points on the great writeup I used as a basis for going about the job. Hopefully Google will index this page and it will be helpful for those later searching for tips.

First, you'll want to read over the writeup here: Replacing the thermostat and/or thermostat housing (Ford Focus). Parts were easily obtained by contacting Steve of Tousley Ford on the FocalJet Forums. His username there is "FORDSVTPARTS". Of course you also have the option of ordering the parts from your local dealer, though they may charge a bit more.

All in all, this took a couple hours and a few small cuts but it wasn't too difficult at all. Instead of a $500 repair bill, my girlfriend made out at about $100 including the parts($55), new antifreeze($9), and a nice steak dinner for me. Everybody wins.

Up until last night, I'd never ever cooked ribs. Searching the internet, I found so many different ways to cook them, and most of the recipes seemed to take up to 3 hours. I had to cook them relatively fast though, so after a bunch of research I gave it a shot and I'm happy to say this worked and tasted EXCELLENT.

So here's what you do(keep in mind I'm no cook.. just an average guy who knows what he likes):

1. Boil your ribs for about 30-40 minutes. I used a little bit of salt and pepper in the water. Since I was only doing a half rack, I was able to fit them into a normal pot. I suppose for larger quantities you could cut the racks in half or use seperate pots.

2. Remove the ribs from the water and season to taste. Again, I went with salt and pepper. After a few minutes, I covered them generously in BBQ sauce.

At this point my girlfriend and I went for a quick jog and the ribs sat out. This probably has no effect on how they turn out so you can probably go right to the grill.

3. Fire up the grill and let them cook directly over the flame for 20 minutes or so. Flip once or twice. You'll know they're ready when the BBQ sauce starts to cook.. this gives them a nice slightly crispy texture on the outside. Be careful: as my ribs cooked, either the grease or the BBQ sauce was dripping down and catching on fire. Not a huge deal, just be aware that it might happen.

That's it! Delicious fall-off-the-bone BBQ ribs in about an hour!

I wonder if it transforms into a car that's not a piece of shit.

I haven't updated on the house much lately. The delay in receiving my security deposit back from my old landlord had all but stalled my work. The fridge that was left at the house turned out to not work so well, and after getting some sour milk well before the expiration date, I deiceed to scrap it for something new.

Yesterday upon getting home from work I had a letter from my landlord containing my deposit. I only got back half of what I expected, and yes, I'm pissed.. but being that this was my first apartment, I didn't keep records or evidence well enough to dispute the deductions. Oh well.. live and learn. At least I got back a sizable chunk without having to go to court, missing work, all that hassle.

So, with check in hand(actually in the bank), I headed over to Lowe's to see what I could get in a fridge. I figured buying a new one was the way to go - the old one in the house was an off brand and I don't have any way of knowing how old it is.. so even spending a couple hundred to have it fixed could turn out to be a very temporary solution.

The fridge I chose was a Frigidaire in silver/black. Like my stove, it attempts to look like stainless steel, and in my opinion, does a pretty decent job considering the cost difference. At least everything is on it's way to matching.. as soon as I eliminate the horrid pink tile on my walls.

It's been a little while since I updated here,.. things have been hectic but I'll update my own life later on.

What I actually want to do today is repost the blog of George Sodini. Last night, he entered an LA Fitness outside of Pittsburgh and shot the place up, killing 4 and injuring a bunch more.

I always find myself intrigued by national news when there's more to the story to be found online. George Sodini's self-addressed website is a treasure trove of information. It contains a page called "Life and Death", which leads to a blog, unlockable by entering his date of death(which of course noone knew until last night).

Entering the date brings you to this account of what was going through his mind while he planned this attack. I'm reposting this because his server is getting smashed by curious visitors and will likely be taken offline soon.

From http://georgesodini.com/20090804.htm

Before I start, let me say that in NO WAY do I claim to be any kind of photographer. My "equipment" consists of a 5 or 6 year old Nikon point-and-shoot, a $20 tripod I probably got from Wal-Mart, and some open source imaging software.

Now recently, I got interested in HDR images. I had dabbled in it a while back, but never felt like purchasing a license for Photomatix so I didn't really stick with it. The other day I discovered the free tool Picturenaut, and since then I've been playing around with it a bit.

I really don't expect to be producing any masterpieces, but tonight I did generate the first image that is clearly enhanced through use of these HDR tools. Now keep in mind this was just a random shot I grabbed through my window last night.. it's not particularly of anything.

I started with 3 originals, taken using my cameras basic Auto Bracketing function.







After a few minutes in Picturenaut and Gimp, I came up with the final image, which I believe shows much better color and lighting. Mission accomplished!



If the difference between the first and final images is hard to see on this page, right click and open them up in new tabs. I should also point out that the originals are in 5mp so there's an astounding difference between the full sized images.

It's been a few days since I've written anything, but I'm still here. Truth is the past few days have been filled with unpacking boxes and setting up furniture.. nothing too exciting.

But, I couldn't let the morning go by without commenting on yesterday's death of Michael Jackson.

While Jackson's life was filled with controversy, one can't deny the impact he made on not only pop music, but the entire musical world. I suppose the silver lining here is that Jackson likely wouldn't have created anything new that set the world on fire.. so his contributions to the world were complete.

Still I can't help but be intrigued with what went on in his life. He was truly one of the most bizarre people ever in the spotlight, and I wonder what we'll start to hear about him now that he's gone. The next couple weeks should be interesting.

Many many years ago, the computer world collectively discovered that using trackballs to detect movement in a mouse was a terrible idea. Apparently, Apple didn't get this memo, and decided to equip their only 2 button mouse not with a scrollwheel, but with a ball in order to add the uncommon and unnecessary function of scrolling left and right.

The downside, of course, is that these balls easily pick up dirt, eventually paralyzing it's movement completely. Back in the day, mice always had an easy way to access the wheels under the ball, but in true apple fashion, the Mighty Mouse is designed to be thrown away when it becomes dirty.

This morning, I decided to look into the feasibility of cleaning it out, and after a quick Google search, located a gallery of images that helped me out.

The process is pretty straightforward. Snap out the bottom most ring, and then pry out the innards of the mouse. Another inner ring is glued in, and will probably crack when you pry it out. Under the guts of the mouse you will unhook 2 ribbon cables and remove 3 Philips screws to remove the ball assembly. Pop the ball out of it's cradle and access the 4 individual wheels underneath. These are where the dirt collects, so clean them off, put them back and pop everything back together.

Because you probably broke the inner plastic ring, you will need to find a way to reattach it.. I was in a pinch so I opted for some Scotch tape around the base of the mouse. It looks ugly but at least I can scroll up and down!

This weekend I made the big push to get all moved in to the house, and while it was largely successful, it didn't go without some difficulties.

My U-Haul reservation was for Saturday, and I had requested a 10' box truck. Unfortunately, the weather forecast was bleak, calling for rain and thunderstorms throughout the day. Because of this, I started on Friday night.. carrying whatever I could downstairs into my garage. The plan was that I could back the truck up to the garage and speed up the loading process dramatically, even in the rain.

I moved down about a roomful of stuff which I thought was pretty good, and went to sleep about 3am. The next day, I prepared for the move, and at 4pm I picked up my truck. After some difficulty with the check-out process due to uninformed employees, I was off.

The move itself was a tough, drawn out process. I overestimated the abilities of my three helpers.. my dad, mom, and girlfriend. They were all incredible and very patient with the difficulty of what we were tackling, but when it comes down to it, they just aren't in as good shape as I am.

During the day my dad decided to drive down to a local pizza shop to grab lunch, and unfortunately backed into a pole as he left, denting his driver's side door and shattering the window. I immediately felt responsible, and still do, but everyone assured me it wasn't my fault.

Shortly after that set back, we ran over to the house with the first truckload. Once my girlfriend and I convinced a rude neighbor to remove their car from the back alley(it was parked in such a way as to completely block access), we easily unloaded everything into the basement.

As the rain started again, we headed back to the apartment, where we loaded up the last of the large items and sped them over to the house.

So here I am, I'm at the house, my stuff is at the house, and I'm staring at the huge task of getting settled in. It may take weeks, or months,.. and I can't even really start until I get the apartment cleaned up and ready for the next tenants. I'm hoping to recover as much of my security deposit as possible. We'll see how that goes.

People love cars, myself included. But for many of us, that love transcends good taste and quickly becomes downright annoying to others who have to witness it.

Here is my list of the most misplaced, tacky, and otherwise useless fads that have cropped up in the past few years.

GTR Badges
Many of the most annoying auto trends stem from an identity crises. Certain vehicles have iconic features that people, either intentionally or completely unaware, choose to mimic on their own vehicles.

The first example of this in the list is the GTR Badge. This comes from the Skyline GTR, a vehicle never sold in the US until it's latest iteration last year. Aside from the source vehicle being itself overhyped(they have tons of potential if you have wells of money to dump into it- otherwise they are heavy and underpowered) these badges just don't make sense. Most often you will find these on (big surprise) older Honda Civics with terrible peeling paint, steel wheels(bonus: an unmatched pair of rims in the front or back), and a driver who looks and acts as if he's constantly late for his shift at the local McDonalds.

The popularity of these badges exploded once knock offs appeared on the shelves of Pep Boys auto stores, and for a year or two you could barely turn your head without seeing one. Luckily for us, this fad seems to have passed: likely only because those mid-90's Civics are now laying dormant in junk yards and impound lots.

Cobra Eyes
Another fad that died out with those junky Civics is the "cobra eyes". These were those LED windshield washer nozzles. Aside from being ugly and distracting to other drivers, many of these were illegal- in most places you cannot have forward facing red or blue lights on a civilian vehicle.

For the most part these have gone the way of the Dodo, but I see one every few weeks or so, and they're just as annoying as they ever were.

Half Assed Customizations
Sometimes we'd love to have a show or race car, but that kind of commitment just isn't in our budget. Most of us accept that and go on with our lives, but a special breed of douchebag trudges on, planning to build that car one peice at a time as he can afford it, while still driving it on a daily basis.

Because of that, you will see these cars roaming the streets with unpainted body kits, incomplete sets of rims, giant ill-fitting wings, and huge mufflers(often tilted as if the installer didn't know what they were doing, though the look is intentional).

These cars are certainly eyesores, but what is truly aggravating about this is that the drivers assume that once that first mod is bolted onto the car, that they are getting the benefit or notoriety that they would with ALL of the mods. This leads to these idiots trying to race anyone who glances at them at a red light, posting pictures of their ugly cars all over the internet, and NEVER finishing the process of making a decent looking or well performing car.

Fake Buick Fender Vents

Last but not least is today's biggest offender. By now, you MUST have seen these "vents" tacked onto everything from BMW's to Ford Taurus'.

Here's a hint to anyone putting these things on your cars... they're an icon of BUICK cars. We're not idiots. We know your Dodge is not a Buick, we know your Subaru is not a Buick, and for the love of God, why would you want anyone to think your BMW or Mercedes is a BUICK? I mean, really... a Buick.

At least the guys with the GTR badges are trying to mimic a somewhat exclusive vehicle.

Yesterday went great. I finished pulling the rest of the carpet tacks from the living room, and this time I fared a bit better by putting down a piece of carpet to sit on while I worked.

After that, I cleaned up all the padding bits and as much dust as possible. Tonight I will give everything a good cleaning and get all the carpet and padding rolls out for the trash.. it's getting incredibly exciting to know I'll see the downstairs all but completed soon.

Oh,.. I also took a look at the fridge last night. Taking advice from online research, I decided to check the condensing coils which reside in the freezer. Sure enough they were frozen. I unplugged the fridge and left them exposed for them to thaw out. Hopefully after putting the fridge back together tonight, all will be well.

This weekend the goal was to tear up the carpeting in the living and dining rooms, and to get started painting the bedrooms.

Turns out it takes way longer to pull up carpets than I anticipated. Over the course of a LONG Saturday and an equally long Sunday, my girlfriend and I got the carpet up from both rooms, though there are still some tacks left in the living room which I will have up tonight.

The actual work is pretty straightforward: find a loose corner of carpet and start pulling. Make sure you're wearing gloves because you might pull up some of the tacks with the carpet.. just be careful as you work around the edges. Rather than pulling up all the carpet in one piece, use a utility blade to cut it into manageable strips.. 4-5 feet wide. Once it's up, roll it up and tape it so it can be disposed of easily.

Under the carpet you will find the padding, which is just foam that rips up easily. The final step is to remove the carpet tacks. This is where you will devote most of your time. Use needle nose pliers, a pry bar, and a hammer to remove each and every tack you can find. In my case, there was also a nail-laden border along the edges of the floor that we pried up using the aforementioned pry bar. I'm not a pro so I have no idea if this is a common way of installing carpet or not.

Tonight the plan is to finish pulling the carpet tacks, clean up that whole mess, and to investigate my fridge, which is not getting very cold. From the research I've done, it seems to need some cleaning underneath or the defrosting mechanism is frozen.

After much procrastination, today is the day that the final analog television transmissions will be broadcast in the US. It's also the first day I will enjoy listening to news reports about all the elderly people who've refused to pay attention to the numerous warnings broadcast over the past year or so.

I could go on to explain what this means, why we're doing it, and all that, but since you're reading this on an obscure blog that you dug up from the bowels of the internet, I'm assuming you already know.

What I will discuss, however, is the part of this process that has confused me. With all the bombardment of PSA's that we've been getting lately, the powers that be never seemed to explain a couple things really well.

First of all,.. never once did I hear them make light of the fact that all TVs purchased in the last 2 years or so are ALREADY equipped with digital tuners.

Second, they've talked a lot how a fuzzy analog signal might translate to an unwatchable digital one, but never mentioned that if you do manage to pick up a channel, that the picture quality is essentially perfect. There's no grey area when it comes to a digital signal. It's either on or off. In my case, I pick up far more digital channels than I did analog ones. In fact, digital tv was one of the catalysts that prompted me to ditch my expensive cable service a few months back. I've never looked back and never regretted it for a moment.

So,.. rest in peace analog. You've been a good friend, but it's time for us to move on to better things.

One of the things about buying a used house, no matter how move in ready it is, is that it comes with a lot of minor annoyances.

One such annoyance for me was the direction of the refrigerator door. You see, my kitchen is very narrow.. what is commonly referred to as a galley kitchen. The door was setup to open into the main part of the room, the direction that people would most often be approaching it from. In order to open the fridge, you would have to walk past it, open the door, and close the door before you could pass it to leave again. A traffic nightmare waiting to happen.

So,.. I figured before I move in, I should switch the door to the other side. I started by removing the cap on the top of the fridge which covers the door bracket. Underneath I found 2 bolts.. unfortunate since I did not have wrenches or a socket set with me. However, stubborn as I am, I decided to continue tackling the job with the 2 tools I had: a cordless drill and a pair of adjustable pliers.

Moving downward, I popped off all the white caps that hide holes on the opposite side of the fridge, and used a utility knife to pop out small white screw covers on the top and bottom of both door handles. Each had 2 Phillips head screws which were removed and replaced on the other side of the door.

Between the freezer and fridge door, another bracket was attached with 3 screws. 2 of them were difficult to reach with the drill, but moving the doors around made it possible to get them out. Afterwards, I used the pliers to (slowly) remove the 2 bolts on the top bracket, and I was able to lift both doors up, off and out of the way.

The final bracket, on the bottom of the fridge, was also attached with 2 bolts. Again, using the adjustable pliers, I removed this and replaced it loosely on the opposite side. Reversing order of how everything came apart, I got both doors reattached on the opposite side.. however the freezer door could not close correctly due to the position of the top bracket. Being that it was nearing 11pm, I gave up for the night and will make the final adjustments tonight or tomorrow.

Overall this was a tedious project that I HIGHLY recommend having proper tools for. Without having to use adjustable pliers, I'm sure I could have saved at least 20 minutes. Tonight I am much better prepared as I have my entire collection of hand tools(sans wrenches) in my car ready to take to the house after work.

In addition to the attempted door flip, I spackled over some settlement cracks in each of my bedrooms. A few of the cracks had large chunks to be filled, so I wanted to make sure the spackle would have plenty of time(over a day) to dry. Normally it would only take 20-30 minutes or so. Nothing too difficult here.. I'm using 1 step, fast drying spackle that doesnt require any sanding or further prep before painting.

Finally, I took up the carpet that covered half of the kitchen, revealing the rest of the parquet floor which is in very good shape. The carpet was so old that the bottom was disintegrating, leaving a coating of dust on the floor as I removed it.

Well that's it on the house for last night. I realize this is actually the first post I'm ever making on the house, but that has more to do with the timing of getting this site up than anything else. I will soon be backfilling posts about the buying process and the work I've accomplished up till now, so hang tight.

Hey everyone! As you can see, brabbler.com is back.

Maybe back isn't the right word, though, since I never really used this for much anyway. In either case, I decided to launch an actual site to share my thoughts, projects, whatever, with the world.

Now, don't worry.. I'm not going to post every mundane detail of my life on here(that's what twitter is for, right?). Rather, I plan to use this as an outlet when I truly have something interesting to talk about.

I hope you'll bookmark or subscribe to the RSS and check back now and then for how to's, insight on my life, and maybe even just some great links that I'll share with everyone.

-Eric