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Update 9/18/08:
School has started and is going strong these days. I have decided to place myself in hell and try to finish my last three classes in one semester. So far it has not been too bad, but my first tests are next week. I am taking Speech, System Analysis and design, and Novell Networking. I managed to bring in 11hrs with this arrangement and managed to get off of work on Mondays to attend them. This means I get to spend at least some of my time on the weekends at work. I have actually not minded too thus far as the only thing it seems to really be hindering is my Mnt Biking.
School has started and going strong these days. I have decided to place myself in hell and try to finish my last three classes in one semester. So far it has not been too bad, but my first tests are next week. I am taking Speech, System Analysis and design, and Novell Networking. I managed to bring in 11hrs with this arrangement and managed to get off of work on Mondays to attend them. This means I get to spend at least some of my time on the weekends at work. I have actually not minded too thus far as the only thing it seems to really be hindering is my Mnt Biking.
As for my sports, I am still trying to maintain all my summer activities with some success. We are still wakeboarding every now and again during the week on Fridays and will probably try to keep up the weekend trips for a while as well. One of our regulars did a nice face plant last week and managed to bust his ear drum. It was a bit scary as we pulled him out of the water. He was conscious, but not responding to us very much. He is doing fine now, but suffice to say he had is bell rung. My buddies at work and I got the mnt. biking group back up and going this summer and we hope to keep it going strong as long as possible. It has been really great getting back into the sport hardcore like we have. I have once again got to hang out with some folks that I haven’t had much contact with for a long time. School is making it a bit harder for me to ride with them at the moment, but I hope to catch some rides with them on the weekends. Business Time is about finished with the Sand Volleyball league and we just started a hard-court league with ARC and a league at URS. We still have a lot to learn, but I think we are improving with every game. I think I am going to miss the sand, but as the nights get colder, I think I will get over it. I am hoping to play in a paintball game at Tactical Paintball next month. I haven’t really had much chance to get out on the fields since DDay in OK. This game will hopefully bring back together some of the guys that I haven’t seen in a while.
Last month I got to go on a trip with several friends to Utila for vacation. Utila is one of the Bay Islands in Honduras and is quite small. One of the guys we went with had family on the island which I think helped us out quite a bit. They helped us find places to stay and helped us around the island. While we were there, several of us took diving lessons in hopes of getting certified for open water. Now while the island was nice, I can't really say it made my top 10 most beautiful places. The reefs they have however were just amazing. Our instructors were all very nice and helped us where we needed it. On my second dive; unfortunately, I realized my right ear didn’t feel quite right. After surfacing and talking a bit about it, we decided my ear drum was busted. A nice trip to the island clinic the next day (yes it took the whole day) confirmed the worst. I was told not to go back in the water for at least 4 weeks. This made finishing the course impossible during the trip. :( My sister and most of the others taking the course did manage to complete the course though. I congratulate them for their accomplishment. A couple of us made a side trip back in the mainland to the Mayan ruins of Copan. While I did not care too much for the driving it took to get there, words cannot express the wonder of what that ancient culture produced. When I look back at the pictures, I am still in awe about how long those structures have stood. Another really cool thing we did was visit the Macaw Mountain Bird Park where we saw some beautiful tropical birds. All-in-all I would call it a wonderful trip. Now to start planning the next ski vacation! :P
Discussion...
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Update 7/8/08:
Well after a long time of looking, we finally found a boat that fit our needs and something we could all agree on. We decided on a Tige 22ve and so far it has been a great buy. It is a bit shorter than we wanted, but it still almost doubled our capacity to 14. We have had a lot of fun this summer teaching people how to wake board and trying to improve our own skills. Can’t wait for school to start again...Not!
Business Time did not get into the next ARC league, so we are going to try out Aussie’s this time. Aussie’s is a local restaurant that has a pretty nice sand volleyball court that they host leagues and tournaments at. I am looking forward to it, but we are playing really late. Not so much looking forward to that part. At least it will not be 100 degrees when we play. We just have to not pig out before we play! :P
Last month me and a few guys I have been playing paintball with made the trip to Wyandotte, OK, to play in the “World’s Largest Paintball Game.” We joined a new unit on the German side not really knowing what to expect. We arrived on a Tuesday after a LONG drive to a muddy field in the middle of nowhere. For me, the first couple of days were not very exciting. By Thursday we had started to bond with our unit and things started to get better. Friday brought a hell of a storm making the place miserable. Several tents were knocked down including our big common area tent, so we just kind of hung out and got to know our unit better. We found A LOT of our unit was either Texan or Canadian. By then we had our squads worked out and had done some basic training for movement and what not. Basically our deal was to hit the enemy hard and fast! By game time Saturday we were a force to be reckoned with. Our first objective was taken in 45 seconds. It was exhilarating plain and simple. We spent the rest of the morning trying to defend one of the “beaches.” I was purely amazed at how many people were out there playing. There were waves upon waves of troops. By the end of the day I was worn down, so I traded my marker for my camera and took as many pictures as I could. While we were thrilled that the German side won, the real joy for me was meeting and playing with the guys from my unit. Who would have thought that Texans and Canadians could get along so well together? MEK…Fkn’A!
I have a boat for sale if yall know anyone looking! :P
Discussion...
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Update 5/13/08:
Classes for this semester are over! YEY! I have not recieved my grades yet, but I am fairly confident I at least got Bs in both of my classes. ACC is giving me hell about my move during the semester. I dont have anything that "proves" I am still living in district; however, I think we have found somthing that might work for them. I have not decided if I will take a summer class yet or not. I really don't want to, but I only have 3 classes left. It would be really cool to finish in the fall.
I made it through another round of layoffs at work. It's been a rough couple of weeks. The let go of so many people, including a member of my team. Best of luck to you guys! The mood has not been so great understandably, but we are pressing onward.
We started doing lake day again this season. It started off a horribly gloomy day, but this afternoon was almost perfect for boating (a bit less wind would have made the water better). Lake temps are up, but it is still a bit chilly when you jump in. Good news is that the evenings are now hot enough you just dont care! :^P We had a pretty weak showing for our first go, but I am sure that will pick up as we get deeper into the season.
Paintball has still been going well. I am still having problems with my T68 marker, but I have been in contact with the company that sold it and they are looking at it again for me. Actually I think it is on its way back to me as I type this. I am still meeting a ton of people and we are having a blast running with Black List. I have another senario game this weekend at Tactial Paintball in Harwood. Its going to be a LONG game running from 10am to 10pm, but it should be a lot of fun. I think I may go camp down there the night before.
Discussion...
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Update 4/3/08:
Well it’s been a while, so this may be a bit longer than usual. :^P
Things are going OK. I am now about 2/3 through this semester of school. I can't really tell yet, but I am think I am looking at Bs in both classes. I am really starting to lose my interest in school, but I am too far along to quit now. If I pass these classes (OS Security and UNIX II), I will only have three classes left.
My ski trips went very well. We brought 15 people to Winter Park in January and three of us went to Ski Santa Fe just last month. I was a bit worried about the large group of people for the Winter Park trip, but let me tell you we had a blast. Everyone did extremely well together. I would have to say it’s one of our best trips yet. A lot of us brought our own gear this year and it was fun getting used to our new equipment. I think my boarding skills have now surpassed my skiing skills. That’s not saying a whole lot, but I am still pretty excited. We spent our day off this year chopping wood and riding the snowmobiles. The snowmobiles were a blast. This will sound a bit geeky, but it really was what I would think a speeder bike from Star Wars would be like. The only bad thing I found was turning around on the trails. I don't think we had one successful turnaround. Each time it seemed to cost us an hour of time, but after that we were off again. I can't thank the Cernys enough for letting us bring so many people and also use of their vehicles. The Santa Fe trip was much shorter, but we still had a great time hanging out with Rocco's family and playing on the mountain. I got brave on that trip and brought my camera up on the mountain. Unfortunately, it was pretty cloudy, so I did not get very many good pictures. I also finally stopped being a redneck and traded my Carhartt for a Spider jacket. Rocco thanked me. :^P
Paintball is going pretty good. I had to take a couple weeks off for my trips, but we now have 6 people on our team and have officially picked a name. We are calling ourselves the Infidels. I didn’t choose it and it’s not very PC, but I do like it a bit. We played a scenario event in February at Xtreme Paintball. It was called Austin Mission Alpha: Apocalypse. I think it was by far one of the best times I have had playing paintball. Our team did an outstanding job and we met some very cool folks. I think we are even talking to one of the teams on a joint effort in future games. We have changed our practice field for a bit to Texas Paintball (TXPB) in Jonestown. It’s a mixed feeling for me. I really like the guys at Xtreme, but the newness of the TXPBs fields are exciting. They have a couple fields that are really good for woodsball. I will tell you though, I am really looking forward to Austin Mission Bravo back out at Xtreme. My gun is still giving me issues and I am thinking about picking up a backup for when it goes out on me. Most of my team has purchased the new Tippmann Alpha Black guns and I think I will join them. It’s a bit simpler than my gun, but I played with it and for the price (~$130) I think it performed very well. Plus, since most of the team has them, we will know each other’s guns.
Everything else has been kind of put on the wayside. I have been biking a couple of times and hope to get back into it more now that the time has changed. Boating should also get back underway very soon. I think I am going for a test run next week. My poor boat has never set unattended for so long. Computer modding has been almost nonexistent lately. I plan to change that, but it will probably be a month or so before I have the funds together. Business Time, the volleyball co-ed team I am on, just completed our first season at ARC. We didn’t do that great, but we learned A LOT! We managed to win our very last game so that we could say that we were not winless. :^P I look forward to the next season we sign up for. There is more I should update on, but I am tired and should go to bed. I will try to upload my pictures within the week. Until next time (hopefully a much shorter next time).
Discussion...
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Update 12/21/07:
This semster has come to an end finally and Christmas is just a few days away! I managed two As and a B in Chinese. I was really hoping to do better, but I guess thats not too bad. My company has the entire week off next week, so that's another bonus. Coming up soon is our yearly ski trip. This year we are going back to Winterpark, CO. I can't wait!
Because of school and all I have not been mnt biking or boating at all the last few months; however, I have picked up a new hobby (or fad depending on who you ask). I started playing paintball with a couple of people who are trying to form a tactical team for scenario play. I find it an awsume sport, but the price tag is pretty high. A lot of it has to do with getting the initial gear; however, field paint is not cheap at all. On the plus side, we are having a great time and it is great exercise. I have picked up the role of a sniper/ambush player. Some will say the sniper does not really exist in paintball, but I think it just has a slightly differernt definition. Stealth is still the biggest part for a paintball sniper. In any case we have been playing for a couple months now at a field in Manor called Xtreme Paintball. The guys there have been great and we have formed a few friendships as well. I picked up a clip fed gun from RAP4 that does a great job of replicating the look of a M4 Carbine. I have had some issues with it though, so I sent it back for repair. HOPEFULLY I will be back up and running soon.
My good friends Roy and Susana Woody had a baby girl yesterday, so I would like to say congratulations to them! Have a Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!
Discussion...
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Update 10/1/07:
So no more late updates, I am just going to update when I can! :D I started back to school this semester and took an extra class. I really didn't think it would be that bad, but I don't think I have had this much homework since High School. I am taking my first semester of Chinese too. It is quite a bit harder than I thought it would be. Don't get me wrong, I knew it was going to be difficult, but WOW! For the first time in years I have had to take Tues day class. Those that know me know how bad this really is! :P As a result I have no lake day Tuesdays at least till spring. :O Could be worse i guess.
Speaking of Lake days, I am in the process of getting my boat ready to sale. It is bittersweet really. It has been a really great boat for us and we have made a lot of really good memories. We have really just grown beyond its size though. My current boat is a 18ft. inboard/outboard and it can carry (officially anyway) 8 people max. My sister, brother-in-law, and I are all going into a partnership to get a 24ft. inboard boat that can hold 10-12 people and it will, hopefully, be better for wakeboarding. We have already test drove a couple, but we haven't really decied on one yet.
In other news, Austin Modders will be at the Make Fair this month, so I am kind looking forward to that. I also got my server back up and running...just in time for my main machine to go down. :( What else...After four months, ya four, of trying to open a SAVINGS account at Citibank, I have finally told them to forget it and close my savings account. I mean really, I am trying to give them money to hold and they made it WAY to difficult. And last but not least, my buddy Alex has told me his wife is now expecting their first child. Congats to you guys and God help us all! :D Just kidding man, I wish yall all the best.
Discussion...
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Update 8/10/07:
Well again I am late with the updates, gotta work on that more. I finally got Deja 2.0 up and running and brought it to QuakeCon '07. We rented a U-Haul van and brought our large Westinghouse monitors. Austin Modders members had three 42" monitors and two 37" monitors to create a wall of bright westy goodness. You can read more about it and look through some of the links I posted on the Austin Modders website HERE. I also posted a link to the photos in the GALLERY. Oh did I mention I recieved 2nd place in the case mod contest? :^)
This last Tuesday we finally got a nice hot day at the lake. Most of the trash in the water is now gone, but man it is warm. I believe the surface temperature is about 5 degrees warmer than usual. In any case, we had about 12 people show up for volleyball and wakeboarding. We are thinking about going out again this next weekend. Now I have to go rebuild my file server... :^(
Discussion...
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Update 6/23/07:
Forums are now open. Click HERE for access.
Discussion...
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Update 6/17/07:
Howdy! Whew, been a while. I do have good excuses though! :^D I spent the month of April moving and getting my new place organzied. Mom got homesick and moved back to East Texas. I am now living with my sister. They had a room upstairs that was pretty big. The only problem was that there was no closet. That and I was trying to move a whole house into one room. I got this bright idea to build a closet since there was a convinent access to the attic. Between the strange structuring in the attic and me not really knowing what I was doing, it took me a good three weeks. You can check out my log from HERE for what I had to go through.
Among the other things I got done was some more updates to Deja 2. I took the summer away from school (made A's last semester than you very much) so I decied to be productive. It took some doing, but I finally got the machine up and running. The wireless nic card was fried, so I replaced it with a modem (was all I had). There are a few touch ups I need to do and I need to get one part recut as I had the wrong dimensions. Looks like it might actually make it to QuakeCon this year! Check out the worklog if you have some time HERE.
Discussion...
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Update 4/4/07:
Well lets see. Last week I had allergies bad enough that I missed a day and a half of work, spent $300 on tires and work on my motorcycle, and was involved in a car wreak ( Phone Cam Images ).... Much fun! I wasn't hurt and the truck only received damage to the bumper as far as I can tell. The allergies are probably the most annoying of the three. I have been taking allergy shots for the past few months to avoid just this. OH well, so goes Murphy's law. We had a decent Austin Modders meeting at Zitt's house this past month. I have not got the pictures up yet, so I need to work on that. I am still waiting on plastics for Deja 2, so I have not been doing much modding myself. Basically I haven't been doing much of anything other than work or school and it has been raining too much to bike or go boating! I did start looking for a place to move to. I told my current landlord I would be out by the end of the month, so I guess I better find something pretty quick! Anyone know of a cheap place to stay on Lake Austin with a boat slip? :^P
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Update 3/1/07:
The ski trip to Santa Fe, New Mexico, was a blast. You can find a link to the pictures in the newly created GALLERY section or a direct link to the Flickr set HERE. There ended up being 10 of us this year. We managed to make it back without incident with a lot of good memories. Ski Santa Fe was a lot smaller than Winter Park; however, with most of us being beginners and only having a few days, I think it was fine.
For the first time in over 15 years, I am walking around without glasses. Laser surgery? I wish; however, I am wearing contacts. The good folks at Today's Vision here in Austin have been working with me for almost a month now finding something that I can stand to wear and see good with. There have been several eye exams and five different pair of contacts, but I think we are actually about to nail down a prescription that works great for me. Needless to say, I am pretty stoked!
As for other news? What more do you want? :^P Mainly just trying to get back into a routine. School is going alright and so is work. I expect to start mountain biking and wake boarding again soon. I'm sure that will be just a few more distractions in maintaining this site and modding, but I think I can deal with that! :^D Until next time...
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Update 2/20/07:
Well things are going slower than I would like, but I did get some work done. Only thing is, most of it was at Austin Modders. I updated my project log there for Deja 2.0 and finally put up a project log for our group mod. You can check those out from HERE. I am in the process of adding a Gallery page. This will mostly be a link to my Flickr sets. In case you are unfamiliar with Flickr, it is a great place on the web to store your pictures. I will be heading to New Mexico for a skiing trip tomorrow, so I probably will not get much done till after the first of the month. Thanks for dropping by!
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Update 1/23/07:
After a long delay, I have finally regained my domain name, thus bringing MurphWorks back online. Due to lack of time (well, more motivation than time) I have not been able to properly update the site. Hopefully with the site being back online this will all change. I plan to work more on the "Work Logs" section including the recent work I have been doing on Deja 2.0. Look for these updates early February. I have several other additions planned, but I do not have a timeframe for these yet. Please take a look at some of my active content while you are here. Most sections have content now. Laters!
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OLD NEWS...
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