Liberty City Online

So today while I was laid up on my couch with a crippled back, I decided I could use some much needed entertainment. Having never tried the multiplayer games in Grand Theft Auto IV I decided I would give it a shot.

First off... if I ever find the genius at Rockstar that decided the multiplayer needed a specific port for data transmission, I will beat them to death in their sleep.... I'm just saying.

At first I couldn't figure out for the life of me why I couldn't connect to a multiplayer game over XBox Live. It would start to connect. I'd hear the punks talking on their microphones. Then bam disconnected. At first I thought maybe it was due to server load but after several failed attempts to connect to various games I decided there must be some other problem. I should note that this is the only XBox 360 game I own that has had this problem... so I was very confused as to the source.

Some digging through Google provided my answer: Port 3074. All game data routed through that specific port. The voice chat was routed through the main XBox Live servers which was why I could communicate with my charming partners in crime. Needless to say, I was mildly upset. My network at home uses two routers which makes setting up a dedicated port a pain in the rear to say the least. I also learned that Windows Vista has no Telnet client installed by default... awesome.

After some time I finally got the routers configured and was able to connect. In my first glorious battle I had the immense pleasure of running over a 10 year old brat with a full-size truck, then getting out and gunning him down while he was dazed from the impact.

Then came the intelligent retort over XBox Live voice chat...

"You mother f***er! I'll f***ing kill you! I'll f***ing KILLLLLLLLL YOUUUU!!!!!" Yes, this was from the 10 year old who's cracking, trembling voice disclosed his prepubescent status.

Ah, Liberty City, the Home of the American Dream.

MoTab and the Osmonds

Tonight was probably one of the most weird, interesting mixes of musical performance I've ever seen at the Conference Center. The Tabernacle Choir and the Osmonds had a joint performance for the Pioneer Day celebration.

Let's get one important fact out of the way... my iPhone takes hella crap pictures in any situation involving reduced lighting, so I apologize for the poor picture quality. Note to Apple: Yes, I would still be willing to buy your phone if you had tacked on another $40 to the purchase price for a few extra camera features. Now, time for some sweet, sweet forbidden pictures. (ADD moment: I'm not entirely sure if this is indeed forbidden pictures, since they only asked for no FLASH photography, and my iPhone clearly has no flash.)

Now, since my dad is in the choir I have had many opportunities to be to various MoTab performances. And I must say, this is by far the worst I have ever been to. In fact its probably the only concert I'd place in terms of "worst" - most of the time I compare the concerts in factors of how much "better" one is over the others. It is, however, also the first concert I've been to since Mack Wilberg was named the successor to Craig Jessop. I am hopeful that this is not a sign of things to come.

(No, this is not a picture from my camera, its a snapshot from the broadcast pulled from a DVR)

Not that I'm saying the performance was trash. It was very well done, but I found the song selection by the Choir to be somewhat... lacking. All of the songs performed by the Osmonds were energetic or fast paced, yet every time the Choir stepped up to the plate the songs were slow, quiet, and came off very bland. I also was a little down that this performance contained exactly zero new musical content from the Choir. I felt like they had fallen back on many of their older peices for some reason... perhaps to play it safe or to not take too much spotlight from the Osmonds. Whatever the reason, I think it backfired on them.

Never the less, I did enjoy myself and it was a great evening Downtown. I also got a great picture of the temple on my way out on this beautiful July evening.

Pioneer Day!

One hundred and sixty-one years ago, a large train of wagons pulled into the valley which would later be the home to Salt Lake City, Utah. They were the first pioneers to arrive, but certainly not the last. Their stories are of faith, of courage, and of adversity. And its to those brave men and women that we owe our way of life here in Salt Lake City.

Today we had a great family get together. I don't get to see this side of my family nearly as often as I would like, but it was wonderful to see them all. We had a barbecue featuring hamburgers topped with homemade guacamole, corn, and watermelon. It was a pretty good time.

Here is my nephew Jaxson showing off his mad swinging skills. He was actually doing a pretty good job of keeping himself going in the "flying like a bird" position.

My niece, Kiera, sporting her mullet-bowlcut hybrid. I was able to take this between the repeated demands for more pushes. Yes, I am a sucker for little girls with mullets... does anyone else find that disturbing?

This is Oliver, one of the multitude of dogs we had at our family event. His lightning fast reflexes and prowess in battle made him the ideal competitor...

... versus Marley, Destroyer of Worlds. We had to keep him tied up because, as his moniker implies, he was frequently trashing the watermelon table. We decided to pit these two ferocious beasts against each other in deadly combat for our amusement...

... Or not.

Operation Fatty Fat Fatso

So last Friday, after spending the night watching Batman and feasting on Irish pub food, ice cream, and appetizers at Applebee's ... Jeff and I came up with an amazing new initiative. We're going to get fit!

You can stop laughing now... seriously...

Perhaps its been motivated by Jeff's diabetes or my father's recently diagnosed cancer, but we've both decided we want to live past the age of 40 and have the possibility of seeing our children grow up. Crazy, I know, but I'm just sayin' that might have something to do with it.

Day 1 of the Fatty Fat Fatso campaign was Monday. Things went rather well... although I was slightly disturbed by losing about 5 pounds of water weight from a 30 minute, 3 mph walk. Yes, it was that disgusting. I'll let that vision sink in for a moment. However nothing would have prepared me for the shame I felt tonight.

Tonight, Day 3 of Operation Fatty Fat Fatso. I was doing my treadmill thing, shedding water like you would not believe, and in comes little Miss Skinny. She hops on the treadmill, cranks it up to 7 mph, goes for 20 minutes, and barely even breaks a sweat. She weighs 117 pounds (Yes, I was able to make out the details on the scale through the sweat pouring off my brow) I was baffled that she was even in there. I was thinking to myself, "Why are you here? For God's sake, go eat something!"

It then occurred to me... the only reason I'm even having to come up with Operation Fatty Fat Fatso is because I have spent the last 10 years not doing that 7mph sprint for 20 minutes a day. Ten years ago, I was 180 pounds. Monday, I was 245. Today, 240. (Did you think I was kidding about the sweating off 5 pounds of water?) That's 60 pounds over my weight 10 years ago. Its, honestly, quite depressing.

I'm going to begin tracking my weight loss starting today, in hopes of providing a solid source of inspiration and motivation. I will be taking three weight measurements per day and hopefully see a fairly constant downward trend. The main thing I need to keep in mind is that this weight got put on over the course of 10 years, its not going to come off in a month. It might take a while but I am determined to shed this damn weight before it kills me.

Public Enemy #1 is unfortunately... Dr Pepper. That's going to be the first thing I need to take out. I'll report back with updates on Operation Fatty Fat Fatso.

Beck '08: Unelectable!

8:05pm: The show just came to an end. Truly a very humorous, enlightening, entertaining experience. This is something I wish everyone could see and truly understand. I've never gone to a show where I've laughed so hard, and at the same time shed a few tears out of pride for what we as a people are.

7:45pm: Glenn just gave probably one of the best quotes I've ever heard in my life... "Our power as a nation comes from 'We the People,' and truly it doesn't even really come from there. Power comes from up there, from God, and it is then channeled into us. As long as we follow that path: From there (above), to here (ourselves), to here (the expression of our ideas) we will never go wrong."




7:08pm: ADD time. During intermission saw a couple interesting movie posters.



6:55pm: Its intermission time. This show has been seriously awesome so far. Tonight in the audience is the governor of Texas and Marcus Luttrell. (Added note for those that don't know, Marcus Luttrell is the only survivor of SEAL Team 10, the only man to survive an attack from 200 Taliban. In short, he's a true hero) Glenn's ripped on Obama and McCain pretty evenly but also touched on global warming, gun rights, and a broad range of other topics. I'm having a great time and I must say it's awesome to be around a ton of people who understand that our government is completely out of control on both the D and R sides.


One thing I've been really impressed with is the diversity of the audience. All ages. All races. And so many flipping hatemongers.. Or I'm sure that's what this is going to be billed as in some liberal blog at some point.

5:55pm: countdown is running... Aww yeeeeah! Let's get this started!


5:45pm: So here I am at Jordan Landing getting ready for Beck '08. The theater is sold out and everyone seems really excited for the show to begin. Glenn has apparently provided the premovie trivia as well. I've also learned that I can't upload photos from my phone, so I'll have to post those later.