A few new projects.

Right now I have a few new projects going that seem to be fairly simple. I hope to have them up and running shortly. I am also toying with a few different job openings around Eau Claire and may do some browsing at other areas away fro regular tech.

BF2 Dedicated Server
I will be building a BF2 Dedicated server with machine that is soon to be removed at work. We have a number of obsolete systems that will be disposed of over the next few weeks and this is one of them. The system is a dual P3 1.13GHz chasis with a max of 2 gigs of RAM, if I can find the right RAM for the system. I plan to put an old 60GB drive in it and put Windows 2000 on it.

BF2 Dedicated Server will run on a 1GHz System with as little as 256MB of RAM. This machine will likely run in the basement and I'm trying to find some kinds of Monitor to stick on it. I could, of course use my KVM Switch, but I do have a spare card that would work using a TV as a montior. I do have a spare TV in the basement.

The BF2 Server will have Win 2000 SP4 with various Updates and AV software only. It is simply going to be run for BF2 gaming on the LAN. I don't really need it to do anything else. Eventually, I want to buy a little system to replace it. Nothing elaborate, just a small P4 machine with a fast processor. I doubt I would even spend more than $50 on it if I can find one.

I could easily use my Thinkpad to foot the bill on this one, but it needs more RAM. If I had the money, I'd buy another laptop and set it up as the dedicated BF2 server.

Neighborhood wierdness
About 6 months ago the "Meth-head" from down the street moved out. It was always very strange at that place. The cops would sit out in front of his house every night. ANd He always left there with huge stock tanks on a trailer.

No sooner did they leave than we got four couples next door that werer constantly fighting and callign the cops on each other. One of the pairs of couples had their car towed and were shortly thereafter evicted.

The other pair of couples changed constantly. One week it was a black couple, the next a white couple, then a big Mexican family. It seems it was being used as a hotel of sorts.

Well this all settled down about 3 months ago. We got a new set of neighbors who did quite a bit of remodelling. They finished it up by cutting down their bushes in front of the house and putting in some tacky blue woodchips and solar lighting. Kris was just livid about the tacky crap they put in their yard.

Now we have a few new neighbors across the street. One couple is always fighting over something loud enough the whole neighborhood can hear. That seems to be pretty common in this part of town.

That's been it for me. Jake and I have been playing alot of BF2 recently and I'm trying to get enough rank to start unlocking some weapons. There hasn't been alot else to do.

Quiet week, still moving forward.

This week has been quiet since Theresa left the company. The kids came home and we're dealing with them and their preparation for the 2008-2009 school year. There has been some good news and fun for the extended Airsofting Family. Also, My facebook and Myspace accounts are both active and running.

Work
Theresa got a job at a company in the cities (Minneapolis/St Paul for those of you unfamiliar with that term). She will be working with a company that produces Card-based security systems. She was really excited about moving up there. This news broke at the company meeting which kinda stopped everyone in their tracks.

Personally, I was kinda freaked by the news as in the last 4 months, we have had 5 employees leave - Kathy, Jane, Tom, and Nate. Before that, since October, Justin, Val, Kathy, Jane, Tom, and Nate. It is really unnerving being at a place where 2/3 of your co-workers leave.

We continue to trudge away, maintaining the wireless network and answering the odd dial-up and email questions. We are opening two new towers over the next few weeks, expanding the network to cover two new communities, and that is exciting.

Kids are home
Annie and Jacob finally came home. There was buzzing and rumbling as the two went back to their messy rooms and began getting them organized and ready for the school year. We have old clothes to sort and get rid of and junk to haul out tot he garbage. Both kids are not exactly enthusiastic about cleaning up the messes they left.

Kris is scrambling to get school supplies, depsite the fact the schools are reluctant to publish, she is trying to get stuff organized for them. Some of the churches in the community sell Book bags and school supplies for a few dollars, so we may need to hit them up.

Airsoft Family
Jason, Judy and crew got back from Thunder on Monday. They got some wonderful pics there, and looks like everyone had a good time.

Judy also mentioned that Felicia and Lucas got married while they were gone. The couple are expecting a baby, probably around February/March. Good luck to both of them.

Myspace and Facebook
I dusted off my Myspace account and did a few updates. I honestly can't stand Myspace because of all the junkware mailing and spamming. But its hard to keep away from all the enthusiasm about the horrid site.

http://www.myspace.com/agenttexx

I opened a facebook account at the request of my sisters. Its fairly busy with all the flair and bumperstickers and such flying around. Within a few days, I had amassed 24 contacts and it is continually growing.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/profile.php?id=1395670768

I don't know if that will help, but thats my page as well.

Lobster Thermometer and Oystas Rockapalooza...

This last weekend was very low key and quiet. I stayed home from the Airsoft Expo because I was tired. I did want to go, but was just drained from a busy week at work moving old equipment out of storage.

Airsoft Expo
Never to be defeated, the second Expo was another success. As to be expected, the only WAA support to this Expo was from the regular WAA participants at ABZ events. The actual people who support airsoft in the state were there, but the "official" entity was absent, save for the vice president. I can honestly say I was not surprised by this in the least. i would have liked to be there, but that wasn't possible this time around.

Basement wiring project
I went ahead and rewired the cable hook-ups in the basement this week. I had been awarded a $50 gift certificate from sharing Employee of the Month with my techie co-worker, Luke. This was just enough money to pick up a few connectors, a splitter, and a 25' roll of coax cable. Immediately upone replacing the connector and splitters, the line cleared up.

I plan to pick up another splitter to replace the last one. I'm hoping this will help to fix the disconnection problems on my internet, but I suspect more work would be required for that. I am looking into a signal booster, but don't really want to spend $40 on it. Maybe i can hang in there until I get another Employee of the month... ;)

My network plans have been put on hold while I finish building my file server. I am looking at building a very inexpensive machine with a 1.4GHz Proc on it. This machine will get a SATA card and likely a 500 Gig harddrive as well as a 120 gig I have in reserve. After that, I plan to hook it up in the basement. I will likely stick Windows 2000 on it, but I am also looking at an NAS instead. An NAS is a External Harddrive with a network interface. You simply plug it intot he network and have instant storage - no OS, nothing. Very cheap and an all around nice idea.

Other News
I was stumbled across Mickey's (My ex) Myspace page. It was nice to see William and her family after so long. I stopped calling, hoping to speak to her or William over a year ago. Good to see her happy and with a new kid, too! I wish her the best.

Hot Weekend

Sunday, Jacob and I went to play at the weekend's game at ABZ. It was very hot out there and Jacob and I went back tot he safe zone to stay in the shade. His current medication has him very susceptible to hot weather and he can't really stay out in the the sun for very long. Many of the other players seemed to be thinking the same thing as most of them headed back for water and to cool off.

Even just in my camo with gloves and using the sniper rifle, it wasn't long before I was just incredibly hot. I had been using the camo netting to cover up the ominous black rifle I was using, but that only seemed to make things hotter.

I ditched the jacket and cooled off as best as I could. Jacob did the same. and we did manage to keep ourselves cool for the rest of the afternoon. Still, it was blasted hot out there with little or no breeze. Almost too hot for a game, probably nothing for a Florida player to bat an eyelash at, though.

After the game, we stopped at Tep's for dinner and were treated to nearly three gallons of homemade Root Beer. Yum.

G36E is doon :(
Last weekend, while I stayed home from Freefall, I began doing some maintenance on my G36E. Apparently, I cracked the fuse last time I was using it, so I had to take the gun apart to remove pieces of glass and metal. While removing the barrel assembly, I managed to break my Hop-up. Double damn on that one.

The hop snapped right off and my efforts to repair it were mostly in vain. The G36 has an extremely fragile hop and the only real replacement is to buy the complete unit, which is plastic, or try to buy one of the expensive metal hops (about $50).

Warther's...
I had some excellent suppliers and sources for spare parts. I decided to use one of my previous favorite suppliers Warther's Originals. This guy is out of Oregon and specializes in buying new Classic Army guns, stripping them down, and selling the parts through ebay and his own private website.

Recently, I'd been hearing some bad news about their shipping items and just extremely poor service. But having never experienced any problems, thought it may have been simply a problem between them. I understand how poor communication can often cause problems with online orders. But all of my past dealings had always gone smootholy with the seller.

Well, I think I see where these problems are coming from. It seems Warther's Ebay advertises items as in stock. Once the transaction has been completed, they print out the shipping lable. Then they wait until the items are actually in stock to ship out. THese items, in the eBay ad are listed as being IN STOCK, with a listing of shipping to be 2-3 days. Resonably, you can expect items within 4 days, if you account for logstics and packaging.

Items should have been shipped out when the lable is printed or shortly thereafter. That appears consistently to not be the case. I am disappointed as I had recommended this seller to others in the past and it is difficult to find reliable parts sellers like he had been.

So, for those of you looking for parts, I no longer recommend Warther's Originals from eBay. As a fellow eBay Seller, I do not condone listing items as In Stock and then drop shipping. This is poor business and somewhat shady to me. If this is the case, the seller should do more to notify the buyer when there are problems with shipping time.