More lights for the backyard. Eventually I'd like to swap them out for bigger lanterns, but it suffices.


Everything from the nursury is in a pot now, porchside or poolside. The grass continues to fill back in, I've set up the sprinkler timer so that should help. And I replaced all nine plastic drain grates (some broken) with NDS brass pieces.


Morelos draft and work draft are done, still to come is soccer team draft and money draft. The d'pwnage bench (work) looks a lot like the d'dogs (Morelos) starters, so that can't be good. But I think this season is going to have some surprises other than Brees breaking his arm in September.

B hosted the second annual Medieval Gridiron live draft at his new place in Corona. It was hot. Like really hot.

Everyone had their own idea of a predraft cram session, but when the action started it was all intensity.


I drew tenth of fourteen.
1. DeAngelo Williams - Picked him over Shonn Greene, Steven Jackson, and Joseph Addai. Hope that pans out. (Last year he was round 1)
2. Calvin Johnson - Lions can't get shut out every week. (2)
3. Brandon Jacobs - Not my ideal second running back, but hopefully solid. (1)
4. Clinton Portis - Go Washington with their ancient, talented RBs and QB. They could flop horribly, but Shanahan knows how to make things happen. Of course with three dinosaurs running the ball there'll be a lot of sharing, but I think Portis will be the standout. (2)
5. Tony Gonzalez - TG does not disappoint. By this round I had my RB corps, a high end receiver, and there were no top tier QBs left. (4)
6. Carson Palmer - Cincy has enough weapons that he could be a surprise this year. (6)
7. T.J. Houshmandzadeh - My top prospect to duke it out for the number two WR spot. I'm neglecting that position a bit, but I can't expect to have Wayne, Moss, and Johnsons (Calvin and Andre) every year. (3)
8. Darren McFadden - We'll see if he can beat Bush for the starting job, and if Oakland can bring game. (4)
9. Eddie Royal - With Marshall gone Royal is Denver's WR. They may be horrible, but they'll still pass. (6)
10. Larry Johnson - Washington could be on their fourth string RB by week two, so Johnson was cheap Portis insurance. (5)
11. Bears D - Hopefully I can't go wrong here. Urlacher and Hester FTW. (11)
12. David Buehler - High scoring team with a qb that overthrows his receivers on occasion, under a dome. (-)


Calendar:

• 1 week: GP Indy and F1 at a most excellent of race courses, Spa.
• 3 weeks: Halo.
• 4 weeks: Norcal, Civ.
• 8 weeks: Fallout, DC.

I added a second sunsail to complete the effect.


There's some pottery poolside; bamboo, papyrus, and soon a bird of paradise. The top terrace is growing rapidly, the grass is doing better, and the new black bamboo shoots are considerably larger than the old ones.


I vanquished the Starcraft campaign late last week. The last level is pretty nasty, and I dunno about Jimmy's final choice. Oh well, glad that's over so I can store up sleep for the consecutive Halo/Civ weeks next month.

A few more Starcraft II screenshots. E.g. the Nova easter egg and a household deterrent for zerglings.


Derrick and I played a few multiplayer rounds. I was sort of disappointed that the ai hasn't changed much since the 90s - either they get you in the first rush or you overpower them shortly thereafter.

I bought Starcraft on Friday, it's been awhile since I had any rts fun. The game's great, but I think I'm done with Blizzard, they pulled some serious Sony crap with this one. It all stems from the innocuous system requirement listed on the box, "Broadband Internet connection". Here's about how it went down:

• I popped in the disc, hoping to get a co-op match in that night.
• I gawked when it said I needed to be connected to the internet to install the game, and that the ports it needed were being blocked.
• I turned off my firewall.
• I tried installing again and received the same message.
• I read their faqs, something I've never had to do to accomplish an installation.
• I logged in to my router and turned on forwarding for the ports listed variously across Blizzard help pages.
• Still no install.
• I bounced between the help pages and the Windows network settings, wondering if the game would be worth it.
• I submitted the issue to Blizzard support.
• I came upon a post at Tom's Hardware suggesting the removal of a registry key that specifies a proxy that I do not use.
• Success, it installed overnight.
• I started the game only to find I needed to create a Battlenet account that requires a name, phone number, mailing address, etc.
• Several menus and an email link later, I could finally play the game.

I did get an email from tech support. I had tried to save them time by listing the faqs I went through, nonetheless the email regurgitated the same information and advised contacting my hardware/os support for any further issues. No request to close the ticket, no reply email. Just a copy/paste job and a slammed door.

And I am unhappy with the fact that I need to log in to something every time I play this game offline.


The game feels a lot like a 90s rts. It has shinier graphics, some rpg elements, and can handle a larger scope, but the gameplay is the same as the original. It entertains and challenges and generates nostalgia. I haven't quite bought in to the story, but the cinemas are frequent and substantive. The jokes and easter eggs are a nice touch.


This is all because I can't move my quads. Because I paintballed on Saturday.


I photoed one round and parts of two others. The d700 escaped unscathed. I wrapped most of it in a red tshirt that took just one hit. I did not fare so well. People are very twitchy in paintball.

It's a tough thing to shoot well, most of the action happens at a great distance and the better composition puts you right where the paint flies.