Vacationing in 140 characters or less

So the family and I went to Wisconsin Dells for the kids birthday's. The bulk of the money was given to us by Pam's mom and let me say, just finding something to eat is pretty expensive. We went through almost $200 on food alone for 2 days. It was some good stuff but day-um it's expensive. We did find that by going with just water to drink and only one meal split between the kids we were able to stretch the money a bit. Still there were a few meals where we were eating cold cut sammiches.

Needless to say we didn't really partake in any attractions (most weren't even open, and while the hotel waterpark was nice for the price, the slides freaked out the kids and we spent most of the days at the pool. I'm not complaining though as the pool was within Wi-Fi range and I found that if you direct the PSP to the mobile versions of sites, it works much better. So I was able to check mail, be on the web, check my eBay auctions and yes, even twitter. So I made a bunch of tweets and found that you can get a pretty good record of what I thought and what caught my eye.

cycoivan Posted at 10:42am, Apr 05, 2009 from TweetDeck

Why is getting ready for a vacation so much work? If we weren't going I could relax today :) What the fuck? #irony

cycoivan Posted at 11:28am, Apr 05, 2009 from TweetDeck

Just about ready to go for 2 days away from everything. I'll be able to tweet from my cell but not receive, so don't expect a reply unti l8r

cycoivan Posted at 2:13pm, Apr 05, 2009 from txt

Made it to the Dells. Watching Monsters vs. Aliens with the kids to kill time before checkin.

cycoivan Posted at 2:55pm, Apr 05, 2009 from txt

Loving Monsters vs. Aliens so far. Wish I had the money for 3D though

cycoivan Posted at 3:47pm, Apr 05, 2009 from txt

Monsters vs Aliens was fucking awesome! You should go see it if you get the chance.

cycoivan Posted at 4:40pm, Apr 05, 2009 from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2vxvc - Happy girls ready to swim at the Polyneasian!

cycoivan Posted at 4:45pm, Apr 05, 2009 from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2vy2n - This is pretty fucking sweet for 80 bucks a night!

cycoivan Posted at 7:32pm, Apr 05, 2009 from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2w89w - Time for some eats with Jake and Elwood at a classic Dennys

cycoivan Posted at 9:42pm, Apr 05, 2009 from mobile web

hey forgot about m.twitter.com now i can get my fix :)

cycoivan Posted at 9:50pm, Apr 05, 2009 from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2wfdq - Why do fucking Hummers have to be so big? Whats the point? I think someones got penis issues

cycoivan Posted at 10:42pm, Apr 05, 2009 from mobile web

heh i finally get to do what i want and thats tweeting on the interwebs from the sauna :)

cycoivan Posted at 10:44pm, Apr 05, 2009 from mobile web

then if its not too late im going to hit the gym and get my workout on. i gotta impress the laideez :)

cycoivan Posted at 10:57pm, Apr 05, 2009 from mobile web

woo its fucking hot in here (whoda thunk it?)

cycoivan Posted at 11:28pm, Apr 05, 2009 from mobile web

its been a good day heres hoping that tomorrows even better. good night y'all.

cycoivan Posted at 8:45am, Apr 06, 2009 from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2ww29 - Paul Bunyan is friggin huge! I bet I could outeat him :)

cycoivan Posted at 9:02am, Apr 06, 2009 from TwitPic

http://twitpic.com/2wwpe - Mmm...my breakfast. Still waiting on the rest of the family's :)

cycoivan Posted at 11:18am, Apr 06, 2009 from mobile web

@mainemonty oh yeah the sausages were damn tasty. i love me pork ;]

At this point my Twitter client is missing a whole day's worth of tweet's so I'm going to try and pull them from my memory :)

-Oh my God. I am so fucking full. Paul Bunyan wins again
-Getting my tweet on by the pool on a Monday. So glad I'm not working today
-Just checked my auctions on m.ebay.com. C'mon people! Bid, bid, bid! I needs mah money.
-Going to hop in the kiddy pool with the kids. I'm taller than the pool even lying down :)
-I tell you what. AYCE at Paul Bunyan's is good for two meals. It's a good deal for $30
-Tired, tired, tired. Lying down for a nap. Hopefully the kids will follow suit
-Where should we go eat now. I'd love to go to a fancy place, but the kids aren't fancy peeps :)
-Stopped at Marley's, a Jamaican restaurant. I love this place, especially the gator bites.
-Yeah, so they're probably chicken but they're so good that it's fun to pretend you're eating gator
-Having a Cuban sammich, Pam's having the Coconut chicken. It is so freakin good
-Back at the hotel. Laney's getting sick. Marvelous.
-Of course, when I say she can't go in the pool, she got well quick
-Texting from the hot tub on my PSP. What could go wrong :)
-Hot chick sat down in the sauna near me. Boooing :)
-Kids are an excellent conversation starter. They got me talking with the hot chick
-Now her and my wife are talking each other's ears off, leaving me in the hot tub. alone. :(
-In the sauna, there's a big fat sweaty guy in here (other than me) awk-ward.
-I don't know why I like these things. I'm not one for sweating and being hot
-On the elliptical. I wish to hell I had one of these at home. You get a workout but your joints don't hurt
-Exhausted. I don't want to go home tomorrow :( G'night.
-Chilling out in the morning, getting everything packed to go home.
-Laney really is getting sick, that sucks. Wish we could do something for her.
-Took the kids to the pool, but no one really feels like swimming.
-Eating at Pizza Pub. They got Wi-Fi here too. The buffet is a good deal, about $30 for family of 4
-Forgot it was opening day today. The Giants are going down! Well probably not. Suppan's pitching today. :(
-Stopped for some fudge on the way home. They let me pack it myself :)
-Finally home. It's good to be here, but sucks that I have to go back to reality.

So that's my twittercation. I had a lot of fun, but I wish the kids were feeling better and wanted to be more adventureous but oh well. One thing's for sure, next time we are bringing more money.

Speaking of the Brewers, they aren't doing too well so far. They lost 2 of the 1st 3 games through shitty pitching. That's not shocking. Our "ace" is Jeff Suppan, not a guy who batters are afraid of. I will say this, if Yovani Gallardo stays healthy, he's got a good chance to win the Cy Young. He looked really good on Wednesday, holding them to 1 run and cranking a 3 run homer off of Randy Johnson. So that's good. They play the Cubs today, so I'm hoping everything comes together for them.

You might notice a new thing on my posts. It's a Trophy card from PS3 Trophy card They link your Playstation account to the widget that shows what you're playing and where you're at for trophies. I'm still working on Resistance 2 and I swear I'm going to get Rock Band 2 one of these days too. I've got to buy the Resident Evil 5 multiplayer to finish those out too. I also read that Singstar is going to have trophies, but they look damn hard and many require that you shoot a video. I'll have to see if a cheap web cam works or if you need the PS3 one. Either way, I will be busy :)

Some people are just dicks

So to set the stage, our 9 year old pug Wilma is officially blind. She despises going potty on a leash or stake out and cannot be trusted to roam around outside. We can't afford to fence in the yard and don't want to banish her outside. Plus with all of the other animals and stuff roaming around and knocking her head on everything, you can tell she's genuinely miserable and we just don't have the time to devote to her care. So instead of being bastards and putting her to sleep or dumping her in a field somewhere, we tried to find a new home for her on Craigslist.

Let me tell you, don't ever post anything semi-controversial in the Madison group because you have a bunch of hating motherfuckers in there. Almost immediately our post got flamed because we're heartless bastards for getting rid of our dog now that she's "inconvinient" and "would you want your kids to do that to you?" First of all, no we're doing the compassionate thing by finding our dog another good home to go to. Secondly, yes if I'm pissing and shitting everywhere, can't see and am a general hazard to myself and others then YES put me in a home where I can get the care I need. My only hope is that the kids screen the home and don't cheap out on it. Thirdly, if you're going to flame someone, do it face-to-face (or as face-to-face as the Internet will allow) and not through some cowardly post with no contact infomation. There's a lot more to this story but suffice to say an all out flame war popped up in the postings section (many of whom were partially or completely on our side) but still it was a nightmare.

The point is, I don't recall asking anyone on Craigslist for their opinion, so if you're not inquiring about meeting us and our dog then SHUT. THE. FUCK. UP! Apparently it's quite a problem in Madison (IRL and Craigslist both). Everybody is so militant about their opinions here WHERE THEY WILL SHOUT THEM LOUDLY IN THE STREETS AND FUCK EVERYONE WHO DOESN'T AGREE. Being a college town, all these groups are gaining influence by the ranks of confused teens/twentysomethings joining. PETA, ALF, Political Parties, religions, etc. If you can't respect the other side's opinion then go fuck yourself. I wish to fuck these people would get hit by a bus. In Madison the only way to express your view is to shout down the opposition.

On top of that there's extended family drama going on that I really can't comment on here yet, but suffice it to say I have a bunch of dicks in my extended family too.

Anyways, on a happier note, the kids had a nice birthday party but it was just a nasty day for weather. I think everyone at the party was ready for a nap by 2pm and most people were gone by then, it was just one of those days. The kids got (and have already broken) some nice stuff.

Also, I found that despite my bitching about it, the Platinum trophy in RE5 is unlocked after getting all original 50 trophies, which I got last night so that's cool. I made it through the 1st chapter on Resistance 2 and it's shaping up really nicely. Hopefully, I'll be able to score all the trophies on that too before I have to give it back :) I also will have FEAR 2 in the pipe soon as my co-worker is done with it. The Platinum on Rock Band 2 is looking pretty distant as I suck complete ass on guitar and I'm supposed to get a 100% on Expert on a song and a 100% guitar solo on expert. I guess I'm just going to have to practice my ass off. I might take a crack at the endless setlist this weekend but I still have to practice singing a few songs yet before I can do it without failing.

So to sum it up, I have a lot of games to play and don't be a dick :)

Making Albert Wesker my Bitch

So I finished Resident Evil 5 last night (this morning). I stayed up until 3am playing it. It ends on a good note with all the plot points resolved and everybody happy. The nice thing is that even though all the conflict going all the way back to RE1 is now over, there's still plenty of stories that can be written about bioweapons and terrorism. Of course, you won't have too much in dramatic reveals in RE6 (unless one of the good guys goes bad) but the series will just keep on chugging on. Now I just have to get the rest of the trophies (about 13 more) and then I'll be done-done. Of course, one of the trophies is to beat it on Professional which is one step above where I was. For that it's mostly one hit kills from everything....I was swearing profusely on Hard, I just might have a heart attack on Professional.

As promised here are some pics of my reflooring of the coat room. I couldn't find a picture of the floor before I started (and I didn't have my camera when I started).

If there wasn't that section on the right (I suspect that's where the old basement stairs were before the addition), we almost could have kept the original hardwood.

Halfway there

Woo hoo. I still have to put in trim, but that's not too hard. It would be even easier if I didn't have to make beveled cuts. :(

So it's alllll good so far. Just gotta finish the trim in both rooms this weekend, and clean the garage and basement. After all that, I may just be able to get the endless setlist done in. So yeah, it's busy, busy, busy again.

Dude, where's my weekend?

I spent the bulk of Saturday and Sunday working on the damn coat room floor. Trying to do the edges takes forever, especially because ceramic tile is such a pain in the ass to cut through. Nevertheless, I worked my ass off and now the floors themselves are done. Now we just need to mop a few times, I have to put the trim in and it is FINISHED!!!! I'll be posting pics once I get them off the camera.

Speaking of pictures, Pam and I took the girls to a St. Patricks day parade in Fox Lake Sunday. Fox Lake has about only 1000 people in it so it's a big event for them. The kids liked it but I was pretty meh about the whole thing. I'm not Irish, not Catholic, and I don't like getting drunk in public :) Seriously, the parade is nothing more than an excuse to get shitfaced for most people, which happened to include most of those standing by me. Oh well, fun was had by most and that's what matters.

I did manage to go through some more on Resident Evil 5 and Rock Band 2. I got all of the bass trophies and am now working on the guitar. We're going to have to have some people over eventually so I can get the actual band ones (8X multiplier, etc)

As far as RE5 goes, it looks like I was right. Chris Redfield's dead former partner does figure into the story (and I've got a good idea who she is in the game). The infection agent is the Las Plagas parasite from RE4 but the samples that were stolen by Ada Wong and Albert Wesker were apparently modified by Tricell (the new Umbrella) and tested out on the population of a small African village. You do get to fight some tribals later in the game so that's fun. I'm doing pretty well as far as the trophy's go. I'll have to go through a few more times to find all the secrets and also score Rank S on every chapter, but it's keeping me busy :)

First Thoughts: Resident Evil 5

So after much wailing and gnashing of teeth I was able to come up with a plan to buy Resident Evil 5. I hit Gamestop last night for their midnight release and played it until 3 in the morning. A few thoughts on the game:

-Would it be freakin possible to break the game data that needs to be installed into smaller chapter sized chunks, ala Metal Gear Solid or run the install concurrently with the introductory cutscene? The 1GB data install before you can play the game took 15 minutes to install. I understand it's necessary for the proper running of the game but c'mon. 15 minutes is 14 and a half too long.

-I have a love/hate relationship with the new parter system. For those who don't know, your main character Chris Redfield (from RE:1 and Code:Veronica) has a partner in the field that can be controlled via AI or an online or offline human partner. I love it because it adds a new dyanmic to the game which is much more in depth than the partner stuff from RE4 (mainly because Sheva is also a highly trained agent and can hold her own). I hate it however because you have limited control options over her. You can tell her to either go on the offensive or cover you. In either case you have to control her inventory because she won't always pick up ammo for herself. Also with her around it makes it hard to accomplish certain trophies/achievements such as 'kill 5 enemies with your knife'. Well, I can't do that if my partner is popping shots into the zombie I'm trying to stab. You literally have to disarm her to do it.

-Speaking of trophies, they are all fairly acheiveable and the counter ones (kill x zombies with y) add up whether or not you die after doing it. Most of the harder ones are ones where you have to get all the weapons fully upgraded and that's just hard because of the game time involved. You also have to play through at least twice, once on Easy/Medium/Hard to unlock Extreme difficulty and then beat the game on that. I've found no word if beating it on hard will satisfy the beat it on easy or medium trophies.

-The graphic and lighting effect are top notch (as they should be). The first part of the game is played in an African village with blazing sun beating down on you. When you go from shadow to light you are momentarily blinded as your "eyes" adjust.

-The new zombies, dubbed the Manjini, are similar in speed to the Ganados of RE4 but with even more erratic movement making them harder to hit. Their "zombie" biological agent appears to be some sort of worm. Later you have to fight a sub-boss composed of nothing but worms. It's a very interesting fight.

-Many of the improvements from RE4 are still there. Over the shoulder camera, context specific button presses (i.e. near a window, press square to jump out. Near a fence press square to jump over). The big change is that inventory management is done in real time like RE: Outbreak (the online one). Also like RE: Outbreak, your inventory is limited to 9 different things which you can switch from a larger inventory between chapters or when continuing.

-One thing that continues to vex me is there is no dodge or 'jump back' feature (to my knowledge, I've yet to look at the instruction manual). If there really isn't one, seriously why not? You have a Special Ops. trained agent and the best he can do for evasion is to do a quick turn and run? Also, WHY IN THE HELL CAN'T HE WALK WHEN HIS KNIFE OR GUN IS DRAWN!!! Capcom, if you're going to move more toward realism then please, please remove this last gameplay mechanism tie to the 1st Resident Evil.

-The story so far is really good, with one minor gripe. They revealed that a major character from games past is now dead. I have two thoughts. If it relates to nothing, then it was way too early. My other thought is that it may relate to this mysterious hooded figure you see in the beginning who is apparently working for the bad guy, and yes Wesker shows up again. Maybe you'll finally be able to kill his smug sunglass wearing ass?

So yeah, all that in two hours of playing :) I can't wait for the rest, too bad I have to finish all my 'projects' this weekend :(