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October 14, 2007

Lorwyn Release Tournament

Filed under: Content, Games & Related Links — roclar @ 4:27 pm

On Saturday, I played in a Lorwyn Release Tournament at Atomic Comics Emporium. I ended up with 2 wins, 1 loss and 2 draws which was better then I expected given that I have only ever played in one other sealed deck tournament, the prerelease for Mirage and that was over ten years ago. I feel like I could have played a bit better, but I didn’t go with the intention of winning, I just wanted to have a good time and play. In that goal, I succeeded. For the $25 entrance fee, I got five and a half hours of entertainment, a Lorwyn Lift Counter from a random drawing at the end and of course the $16 worth of Lorwyn packs. The write up is a by-product of watching TV and otherwise bumming around the house so its a little longer then expected. Oh well.

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April 29, 2007

Wii60 Complete

Filed under: Content, Games & Related Links — roclar @ 10:31 am

Since today was the release day for the Xbox 360 Elite, I headed down to Target to try my luck. I have been wanting a 360 for a while, but have been putting it off for a variety of reasons. I finally decided I was getting tired of waiting. I wanted the Elite model mostly because it was black and the bigger hard drive just in case I find a need for the space. Besides even Apple charges a premium for black over white when you buy a MacBook, so it has to be worth extra, right?

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April 21, 2007

NIN Year Zero

Filed under: Content, Links, Music, Sound & Speakers — roclar @ 8:00 am

Year Zero is 24th Halo release from Nine Inch Nails (NIN). I haven’t really followed NIN much in the past few years, but there were a couple of things that perked my interest in this album. Still not sure about the music itself. It usually takes me a number of listens of anything before I can determine if I actually like it or not. There are things I do like about the way the album was released. First you can listen to the whole album here on the album’s web site and supposedly on MySpace as well if you are into that sort of thing. Second the disk is thermochromatic. When the disk is cool it is black, but when heated in an optical drive or even with the touch of a finger or breathing on it the disk turns white revealing binary code which translates to exterminal.net. There is a whole slew of information on what the vision was for the album like on the NIN Wiki and Trent has received praise from folks such as Bob Exrin (digg Referer) for continuing to follow his own vision. I took a few passes of the disk on my scanner. More after the break.

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April 20, 2007

Orange and Maroon Day

Filed under: Content, Links, William & Mary — roclar @ 9:47 pm

It was interesting walking around the campus of William & Mary today. There was enough orange and maroon to remind me of being in Blacksburg on game day years ago albeit surrounded by red brick and a conspicuous absence of hills. I attended William & Mary’s Virginia Tech Memorial Event which was opened and closed with the Wren bell tolling 33 times, once for each life lost in the shootings. The New York Times posted an article Victims of Shooting Are Remembered (digg Referer) and I have to agree with President Nichol’s opening statement: “So many tolls.”

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Spring Cleaning Layout Changes

Filed under: Site News — roclar @ 5:52 pm

I decided it was time to streamline the sidebars a bit. On the left hand side I have collapsed the categories and archives into drop down menus since I think I am pretty much the only person that uses them anyway and that definitely cuts their space utilization. I removed some of the other links on the left hand side and the ones I thought folks cared about have migrated to the Other Pages which is now linked there. I then had plenty of room to add a “recent comments” section loosely modeled after the one on DrFaulken’s site. On the right hand side, I have taken the feathers down since that battle is over. Since the national terror alert has pretty much remained unchanged for the past few years, I have removed those images as well. The rest has been trimmed up a bit and centered. I have screen captures of both before and after views of the site. Feel free to critique. I still am not 100% happy with it and am open to further suggestions. Special thanks to DrFaulken for reviewing the interim phases.

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April 4, 2007

Wiimote Down!

Filed under: Content, Games & Related Links, Links — roclar @ 8:00 am

When the on-screen Nintendo Wii safety instructions say “make sure that furniture, objects and people are out of the play area so you don’t accidentally bump into them while playing”, it might be a good idea to follow their advice. My housemate and I were bowling one evening and I failed to move the coffee table all the way up to my hearth. I tried to throw a really hard hook shot and instead ended up slamming the Wiimote straight into the coffee table. We both heard a distinctive cracking sound and my shot was very much not what I wanted (which usually happens when I try any spin or power in bowling). When I looked at the Wiimote, I noted that the power was off and it would not turn on and that there was a pretty serious crack in the side and a piece of the plastic was missing from the front. Fortunately, I had three Wiimotes with another on loan from somebody else, so I could finish the game. A few days later, I ordered the requisite triwing screwdriver from the Electric Quarter and when it arrived, it was dissection time!

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Ice Dozer Recap

Filed under: Content, Reviews, Water & Ice, Weather — roclar @ 7:50 am

I originally bought the Ice Dozer shortly after I posted it with the full intention of reviewing it. Over the past two winters we have certainly had some frosty days, but no real ice storm that has required the full ice removal power the Ice Dozer is reported to deliver. Since we have had a couple of days with temperatures in excess of 80 degrees, I am guessing the ice threat is gone until next winter so I might as well post whatever I have. First here are some additional shots of the scraper that I took whil it was still in its packaging: left view, right view, front view, and top view. Innovation Factory (the creator of the Ice Dozer) has a good instruction page and I have a local copy of the Ice Dozer Manual. My observations after the break.

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April 2, 2007

Temperature Sensitive Faucet Light

Filed under: Bathroom, Content, Reviews, Water & Ice — roclar @ 8:00 am

About a year and a half ago, I posted the LED Faucet Light. At the time, I thought it was a neat and inexpensive way to add a little flair to an existing fixture, but it didn’t really add a whole lot. Just a static blue light whenever the water ran. When I saw that they had added a temperature sensitive version I couldn’t resist any longer. I have only had this installed in my kitchen sink for a few days, but I have been pleased with the addition. Given that hot water has to travel accross the span of the house in/under my cement slab, it takes a while for it to reach the kitchen sink. The Faucet Light gives a nice visual cue that the hot water has arrived. The Temperature Controlled Faucet Light is available from Think Geek for $20 where you can also score the blue only version for $13. Mini-review after the break.

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March 26, 2007

Lets See If I Can Get This Thing Started Again

Filed under: Site News — roclar @ 10:04 pm

This site has always tappered down a bit around the holidays, and the end of last year was no exception. Coming off of the holidays, most of my normal sites were focused on Macworld 2007 and CES. While both of these shows are interesting, they both focus on products that have not been released and in some cases never will. Work then got kind of crazy preparing for the Daylight Savings Date change courtesy of the Energy Policy Act of 2005. Thanks to 109th, I got the opportunity to patch systems at least six weekends straight at a variety of fun hours in the evening/morning. While I do enjoy the extra daylight hour in the evening, I wish legislators would spend more time considering potential drawbacks of changes such as this. Anyway, I have been collecting topics over the past few months. Expect some of these older topics interspersed among the new for a while at least. I also have a Wii now, so there will probably be more posts related to that as well.

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March 8, 2007

Great Firewall of China

Filed under: Computer Related, Links, Site News — roclar @ 9:16 pm

China’s firewall has been well documented throughout the history of the internet. greatfirewallofchina.org has come up with a test to see if a site is currently blocked by the .cn firewall. So what could be more fun then seeing if a site thats been dormant for three months and makes a point of not discussing politics is blocked? (yes, I know…lots of things…work with me, people, mmk?) The answer is of course China’s firewall doesn’t bother blocking roclar.net. Ah well. Maybe one of the two people still reading will have better luck.

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