I didn't forget about the blog. Since I announced my new machine, I have been juggling work, life and setting up the new box.

Things are good.

As I mentioned in an earlier entry, the hardware bug has bitten me. Every night I have been searching the web, reading reviews and making notes. To sum it up - there is a lot of great hardware out there. And there is a lot of crap.

I think I have finally settled down on a configuration that should be both a screaming-mimi but stable as well.

It all built around the Asus P4C800 board slotted with a 3.0E P4 chip. The "E" means it has 1mb of second level cache vs the normal 512k. Video will be ATI 9800 series chip with a 10k SATA drive to store stuff.

This is a bit of a break from my normal configs. I currently have all AMDs with NVDIA graphics. But, NVDIA has not impressed me with their current (outgoing) generation, and ATI seems to have eeked out a lead.

So, now I need to price things out and see how many rebates I can scrounge up.

Everyone made it to the party. And everyone went home - no arrests were made.

All in all, a great weekend.

As if last weekend wasn't enough, I'm headed back again today. this time, I am taking the Texas bus - Southwest. This trip is for a stag party for another friend who has decided to donate all of his money and resources to some girl that stolen his heart . It looks like we will have a good group of guys. As for activities - I don't know, and really don't care. we are supposed to start the evening out with a big 'ol home cooked meal at one of the guys house cooked by his wife. After that, lets just hope no one ends up in Bexar county lockup.

All I have to say, is the Burt Rutan is one talented son-of-a-bitch. His company, Scaled Composites has extended every facet of aviation further than anyone else.

You may or may not have heard of the the X-Prize - a competition that awards US$10 million to a private company that can launch a craft with three passengers into space, return them to Earth and do it all over again in a week's time frame.

Scaled Composite's WhiteKnight and SpaceShipOne pulled an amazing test this morning. they made it up to 41 miles (thats 212,000 feet!)

Read about it here and here.

I have a cousin who is studying to become a veterinarian! Because of the insane requirements to get into Vet school (its easier to be come a medical doctor than a Vet. In fact, lots of medical doctors seem to be students who couldn't hack the veterinarian program), she has taken off to the Caribbean. St. Kitts to be specific. She will do some time there, knock out the pre-reqs, and then transfer back to a US school to get her final degree.

So, I set her up with a picture gallery website. She is still waiting on a transfer cable for her camera, but pictures will be up soon.

Also, don't forget to check out the recent pictures of my sister and her hubby in China. Looks like they have been having lots of adventures.

For those who know me, know that I am an avid reader. I tend to jump from genre to genre as the mood strikes me.

Today I received a ton of William Gibson books from Amazon. I used their used book services and ordered like 8 books. The most expensive paperback was like a buck and half. I paid a lot more in shipping. I also got a security call from my credit card company - alerting me to the fact that my card had just been charged 8 times from "an internet store". Its these kinds of calls that me *feel* like the Credit Card company is actually looking out for my best interests. I know better than that. but still its a nice fantasy.

But before I can dive into the Gibson books, I have to finish a Rick Rioden's new book - "SouthTown". I have always enjoyed Mr. Rioden's stories. His most popular series follows the adventures of Trez Navarre, a PI that works and lives in San Antonio. Its really fun reading a mystery story set against the backdrop of my old stomping ground. Many times, I know exactly where the characters are and what the streets look like as described in the book.

I cant devote as much time to SouthTown as I would like. I keep getting sucked into reading other material as well. Mostly work related and technical stuffs. But SouthTown has the highest priority.

Well, I made it home! What a trip! It was fast and furious. But it was well worth it. The bike performed perfectly - no problems mechanically. I got a good soaking - as it rained on me on the way down to San Antonio - about the last hour of the ride. And, no, rain is no longer as fun as it used to be when I was 10 years old.

I was in SA this weekend for a graduation party. Once of my good friends walked the stage, and got his degree. I am so proud. He has worked hard the last few years juggling work, family life, two babies and a full college work load.

Oh yea, I also ended up helping my parents with their latest project. I think this is become a hobby for them.

Well, I'm off to San Antonio for the weekend. I am riding my bike down (and hopefully) back. Its going to be a long ride, but I am looking forward it. Last weekend I changed the petroleum blood in the machine and I think its ready for the trip. I just hope the weather holds out.

Recently, I have gotten the age-old itch. No, not *that* itch, but the itch to build a new machine. I finally realized that I just can't squeeze any more processing power out of my current rig. Let explain: many moons ago, when Windows 98 was still new and NT was the only Microsoft server offered, I built an uber-box. I bought the best I could afford and then some. It was some kind of schweeet. Dual PII 400, 256 megs of rams and a whopping 9 gig SCSI drive. This thing was a beast.

And now, its a boat anchor.

Believe it or not, its still my daily use machine. Sure, the drives have been upgraded, its seen its share of CD-RW's, a host of case fans and power supplies and lots more RAM. But the central core - the dually PII's are still the original and still processing bits.

I have added other machines to my stable, but they are function specific boxes. Not really set up as a good general purpose (gaming) machine.

I thought I wanted to go dually again, but I really do not like any of the mother boards currently on the market. And the ones that ARE offered, seem to have all sorts of odd bugs and quirks.

So far, my favorite if the Asus P4C800-E DLX with an INTEL 875P chipset.Its a bit pricey, but it does offer all the bells and whistles that I am looking for. and as an added bonus, it seems to be stable (at least in the hardware review sites.).

Video card - its going to be an ATI - the current offerings of NVIDA just don't seem to be on par, and NVIDIA has been releasing crappy drivers in the last year. what a shame. Considering that all the boxes are currently running NVIDIA chipsets.

My, my, my. I happened to browse over to my own page, and realized that I haven't made an entry in a month! I can't believe that let it go for so long. I really started tis with the best of intentions, but some how it got away from me.

This summer is shaping up to be bike trips all the way.

Next weekend, I am riding down to San Antonio for a good friends graduation. After a lot of extremely hard work, he is finally getting to walk the stage. As I understand it, there is going to be a small party afterwards :)

At the end of June, I will be cruising up to Kansas City. There is going to be an all Sportster rally. I think its the first of its kind. Looks like there is a good group leaving from the metromess, and I will be joining them.

After that, the second weekend of July, I will be joining my cousin. he is going on a cross country bike trip. No, I wont be doing the whole trip with him, just the middle part. That's all the time Icould take off from work.

Meanwhile, looks like Spoon is posting again. thank goodness... I was missing his insights and babbling. And Ator is still doing a bang up job on his part of the world.

Ok, off to do other things...