<?xml version='1.0' encoding='UTF-8'?><?xml-stylesheet href="http://www.blogger.com/styles/atom.css" type="text/css"?><feed xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2005/Atom' xmlns:openSearch='http://a9.com/-/spec/opensearchrss/1.0/' xmlns:georss='http://www.georss.org/georss' xmlns:gd='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005' xmlns:thr='http://purl.org/syndication/thread/1.0'><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233</id><updated>2012-02-16T02:45:41.290-06:00</updated><category term='drama'/><category term='xvid'/><category term='strike'/><category term='mafia'/><category term='halo'/><category term='crappy service'/><category term='bitcoin'/><category term='vacation'/><category term='movies'/><category term='comcast'/><category term='hd-dvd'/><category term='fat tuesday&apos;s'/><category term='wii'/><category term='mma'/><category term='games'/><category term='fedor'/><category term='patriots'/><category term='the nine'/><category term='coop'/><category term='cheat'/><category term='forgery'/><category term='bungie'/><category term='beta'/><category term='nfl'/><category term='radeon'/><category term='gpu'/><category term='vegas'/><category term='rbe'/><category term='gracey'/><category term='ati'/><category term='batista&apos;s'/><category term='high definition'/><category term='torrent'/><category term='fishing'/><category term='pets'/><category term='mario'/><category term='bulldogs'/><category term='surround sound'/><category term='strikeforce'/><category term='tv'/><category term='fun'/><category term='xbox'/><category term='titans'/><category term='football'/><category term='deceipt'/><category term='kahunaville'/><title type='text'>its.moo</title><subtitle type='html'>like a cows opinion.  it doesnt matter. its moo.</subtitle><link rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#feed' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/posts/default'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/'/><link rel='hub' href='http://pubsubhubbub.appspot.com/'/><link rel='next' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default?start-index=26&amp;max-results=25'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><generator version='7.00' uri='http://www.blogger.com'>Blogger</generator><openSearch:totalResults>191</openSearch:totalResults><openSearch:startIndex>1</openSearch:startIndex><openSearch:itemsPerPage>25</openSearch:itemsPerPage><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-5008247039739805731</id><published>2011-08-13T23:51:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-08-13T23:51:45.493-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='titans'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='strike'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='football'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='nfl'/><title type='text'>welcome back</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.sportslogos.net/images/logos/7/160/full/1056.gif" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://www.sportslogos.net/images/logos/7/160/full/1056.gif" width="170" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;I would like to welcome back the Tennessee Titans back into my life after a long summer of waiting for the strike to be over with. It's done, it's gone, it's out of my life forever.. or at least for a few more years when shit hits the fan again. &amp;nbsp;*sigh* Be greatful you appear to have survived the strike. &amp;nbsp;I can't say the same for major strikes in other sports. &amp;nbsp;They recovered, sure.. but they never really shined the way they used to.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;So the Titans welcomed Donavan McNabb to LP Field along with his new friends the Vikings. &amp;nbsp;They played well, but the Titans defense had a very strong showing from start to finish, and the offense looked sharper than I expected as well. &amp;nbsp;I still know that this is a year of change and transition, so there will be plenty of growing pains, but we'll get there. :)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-5008247039739805731?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/5008247039739805731/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=5008247039739805731' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/5008247039739805731'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/5008247039739805731'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2011/08/welcome-back.html' title='welcome back'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-6463260073169762555</id><published>2011-07-25T12:28:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-07-25T12:28:10.757-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='radeon'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='ati'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='bitcoin'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='gpu'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='rbe'/><title type='text'>it's raining.. bitcoins?!?</title><content type='html'>Worked a lot with my new bitcoin mining rig this weekend. &amp;nbsp;It's running pretty smooth and trending around 800 mhash/s. &amp;nbsp;I've got another nice fan coming tomorrow to improve the air flow a bit inside the case which should bring down the temp a few more degrees. &amp;nbsp;What's next? &amp;nbsp;It's an Ubuntu system, but I think my next step is I need to boot into windows long enough to unlock the bios limitations. &amp;nbsp;Generally this is useful for overclocking, but I'm actually looking to do the reverse. &amp;nbsp;I want to underclock the memory and voltage since I'm not actually using those aspects of the video card. &amp;nbsp;This will generate less heat, thereby allowing me to raise the core clock speed of the gpu. &amp;nbsp;The end result? &amp;nbsp;More mhash/s at the same temperature. &amp;nbsp;At least that's the goal. &amp;nbsp;We'll see how that works. &amp;nbsp;Not looking forward to putting Windows on the box though.. might just borrow a hard drive with Windows on it long enough to do the unlock. &amp;nbsp;Hmmm.... (BTC&amp;nbsp;&lt;span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #cccccc; font-family: Arial, Tahoma, Helvetica, FreeSans, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 18px;"&gt;14M8MSf67FvqGpXBU3QJaYjzd9enT9nKbd)&lt;/span&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-6463260073169762555?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/6463260073169762555/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=6463260073169762555' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6463260073169762555'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6463260073169762555'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2011/07/its-raining-bitcoins.html' title='it&apos;s raining.. bitcoins?!?'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-8063701121712552010</id><published>2011-07-16T15:58:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2011-07-16T15:58:29.538-05:00</updated><title type='text'>Is the pool open yet?</title><content type='html'>Is the pool open yet? The short answer, no. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;At the start of the pool season I was on top of things. I got an early start, got the cleaning supplies I would need, started working. The waterways blue and looking good. There was just one problem. After a few days water started leaking out of the pool pump. *sigh*&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unfortunately I was afraid this might happen. The first big freeze last fall caught me by surprise and I had to do a rush job on closing the pool. I figured something would go wrong.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Back to the spring opening, water leaking out everywhere. I called around to the local pool shops. They either only deal with in-ground pools or they were currently booked solid with openings and were not accepting new customers. Damn. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I finally found a guy using google local search. Excellent! I gave him a call, explained the situation, and later that day he came out to take a look. After taking a look the pool guy said he thought he could fix the motor, he would pick up the part he needed and come back the next day. I tried working with the guy, he seemed nice and genuine enough. At this point he has basically disappeared with the money I gave him for a new pump (after the repair did not resolve the issue), and the phone number he was using has been disconnected. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I contacted a couple other local shops again and there's not much help to be found. *sigh* I give up. I'll figure it out. It's not rocket science or a complex software development issue. It's PVC pipe, some fittings, some wrapping, and a motor. Ordered a replacement pump online (1/2 the cost of what I was taken for locally) and I'll install the darn thing myself. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The pool WILL open.  :)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-8063701121712552010?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/8063701121712552010/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=8063701121712552010' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8063701121712552010'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8063701121712552010'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2011/07/is-pool-open-yet.html' title='Is the pool open yet?'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-1980235138908473640</id><published>2011-02-26T10:44:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2011-02-26T10:44:56.487-06:00</updated><title type='text'>crazy year</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZV11QiW2VFQ/TWkoNvA_F7I/AAAAAAAABZI/F6RfzQtEcc0/s1600/ksmith-mohawk.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZV11QiW2VFQ/TWkoNvA_F7I/AAAAAAAABZI/F6RfzQtEcc0/s200/ksmith-mohawk.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What's that? It's been a hot minute since I've posted? Yeah, it happens. Deal with it. :D /hug &amp;nbsp;Ok, now for some rambling! Yay!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've recently swapped jobs, a full time salaried employee after six years as an&amp;nbsp;independent&amp;nbsp;contractor. &amp;nbsp;I tell you, I don't mind at all having benefits and knowing exactly when and how much my next check in the bank is for. Sure, there are tradeoffs but so far I've definitely made the right choice.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Currently exploring my first real world usage of Moose. I can't say enough good things about how easy it has been to work with. There is a learning curve away from the freedoms of tossing around refs of this and refs of that, with no type checking and total freedom. Yeah, that chaos usually ends up badly so I'm ok with the learning curve. ;) I still need to look more it roles and traits and get to using them properly.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After a couple weeks of refactoring and rewriting, yesterday had my first hands on experience testing my code changes against the hardware I'm interacting with. &amp;nbsp;The code ran into a couple issues, but those were pretty quick and easy to resolve. I do have some type checking constraints I disabled during testing until I can rework those sections of code to try to work through the variations in data cleanly. It's all part of the learning process. :) Overall the first day of testing (about an hour total) went pretty well and some good results came out of it. I fixed and diagnosed what I could while we were testing, and the rest I made notes on things to address when we were done.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I've resolved most all of the issues that came up during testing, minus some of the type constraint rework that is needed that I mentioned previously. I'll find some time to look more into those areas of the code today or tomorrow, but ready for some more testing on Monday.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Good times.. ;)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-1980235138908473640?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/1980235138908473640/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=1980235138908473640' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/1980235138908473640'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/1980235138908473640'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2011/02/crazy-year.html' title='crazy year'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/-ZV11QiW2VFQ/TWkoNvA_F7I/AAAAAAAABZI/F6RfzQtEcc0/s72-c/ksmith-mohawk.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-2359360298437291281</id><published>2010-08-03T23:12:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-08-03T23:12:02.232-05:00</updated><title type='text'>defcon 18</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://www.wallofsheep.com/media/img/dc-18-logo-wide.png" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="73" src="http://www.wallofsheep.com/media/img/dc-18-logo-wide.png" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Spent the weekend in Las Vegas for DefCon 18, and had a great time with some friends from work. We spent a good deal of the time at the con at various talks and events, and evenings dining out and doing a small amount of gambling.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My favorite talks of the conference were 1) the "make your own uav 2.0" talk that covered what's involved in making your own aerial reconnaissance planes and how they could be used, complete with a demo flight on the vegas strip from the night before ;) and 2) charlie miller's talk about forming a cyber army to attack a large nation.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/TFjoKPwU5pI/AAAAAAAABYc/Nm3pXwyWCyU/s1600/photo.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/TFjoKPwU5pI/AAAAAAAABYc/Nm3pXwyWCyU/s200/photo.JPG" width="171" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;In addition to the talks one of the events we participated was a fund raiser for the EFF called Mohawk-Con. So far I'm enjoying it, we'll see how long I keep it. :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What ya think?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-2359360298437291281?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/2359360298437291281/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=2359360298437291281' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2359360298437291281'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2359360298437291281'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2010/08/defcon-18.html' title='defcon 18'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/TFjoKPwU5pI/AAAAAAAABYc/Nm3pXwyWCyU/s72-c/photo.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-2924558894472679515</id><published>2010-05-12T14:01:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-05-12T14:01:13.716-05:00</updated><title type='text'>the past month</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S-r5yq1m_0I/AAAAAAAABYQ/FmHoz0wD5ag/s1600/overworked.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="197" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S-r5yq1m_0I/AAAAAAAABYQ/FmHoz0wD5ag/s200/overworked.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;For about four weeks now things have been pretty bleak. Work has kind of overwhelmed me, while at the same time other aspects of my life have been down as well. &amp;nbsp;Why does it all seem to pile on at once?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The sad part is it's not just me. Almost everyone I know is going through a similar rough patch, one thing after another causing them issues.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What is behind this seemingly endless onslaught? Who knows, maybe it's just the spiraling of the water as it goes down the drain headed for the 2012&amp;nbsp;apocalypse. &amp;nbsp;Time will tell.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-2924558894472679515?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/2924558894472679515/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=2924558894472679515' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2924558894472679515'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2924558894472679515'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2010/05/past-month.html' title='the past month'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S-r5yq1m_0I/AAAAAAAABYQ/FmHoz0wD5ag/s72-c/overworked.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-753566752548156120</id><published>2010-05-11T23:48:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2010-05-11T23:48:54.039-05:00</updated><title type='text'>tradewars 2002</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S-oxhJIHL8I/AAAAAAAABYI/sir3HSFPit4/s1600/tradewars2002.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="110" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S-oxhJIHL8I/AAAAAAAABYI/sir3HSFPit4/s200/tradewars2002.JPG" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Back around 1993 or so I used to play a game called Trade Wars 2002 when dialing into the local BBS. I knew a few people that were playing, and I was pretty terrible at the game, but it was a lot of fun.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Basically you start out with a ship, in a sector you call home that comes complete with your own starting planet. Your ship has a few cargo holds on it and a small number of fighters to keep you safe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Each day you were allotted a number of turns that you could use. Actions in the game would consume these turns, each action taking a variable number of turns based on the speed of your ship. &amp;nbsp;This was how different people calling into the BBS at different times could compete with one another. &amp;nbsp;Staying on all day did not give you any advantage, since you would just run out of turns.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Your ship and planet were within your home sector when you started, one of many sectors in the galaxy that made up the game world. &amp;nbsp;The galaxy size depended on how the operator set it up, anywhere from 1,000 to 20,000 sectors. &amp;nbsp;This was pretty much dictated by the number of players you expected to be in the game. &amp;nbsp;Too little and everyone runs into each other, too large and the place is desolate.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For whatever reason I have an itch to play again, so I have setup a Trade Wars 2002 server for my friends and I to play on. The ANSI graphics are as terrible as they ever were, and the game is still fun. :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Let the fun begin!&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-753566752548156120?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/753566752548156120/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=753566752548156120' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/753566752548156120'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/753566752548156120'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2010/05/tradewars-2002.html' title='tradewars 2002'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S-oxhJIHL8I/AAAAAAAABYI/sir3HSFPit4/s72-c/tradewars2002.JPG' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-3911346459582622612</id><published>2010-03-11T23:21:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2010-03-11T23:21:40.538-06:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='vegas'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fat tuesday&apos;s'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='kahunaville'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='coop'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='batista&apos;s'/><title type='text'>vegas this year?</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/coop.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="158" src="http://spleck.net/coop.jpg" width="200" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;/div&gt;The group has been in moderate discussions about our return trip to Las Vegas for 2010.&amp;nbsp; We had a blast last year for our &lt;i&gt;Flown the Coop&lt;/i&gt; trip for 2009, so this year it's &lt;i&gt;Time to Recoop&lt;/i&gt;.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Ideas and suggestions about things to do while we are there?&amp;nbsp; The only certainties so far I would say are a few awesome drinks from Fat Tuesday's, a stop at Batista's Italian Restaurant for dinner one night, and a brunch at Kahunaville. :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'll try to keep ideas posted as we further plan out the trip, but of course there will likely be a few details kept under wraps to make sure there are some surprises in store for our group. :)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-3911346459582622612?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/3911346459582622612/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=3911346459582622612' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/3911346459582622612'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/3911346459582622612'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2010/03/vegas-this-year.html' title='vegas this year?'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-6434708117769026343</id><published>2010-03-02T14:51:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2010-03-02T14:51:52.657-06:00</updated><title type='text'>kegerator in the hizzy</title><content type='html'>&lt;a href="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S4vjXGsZbVI/AAAAAAAABV8/65GRHj9KJvg/s1600/IMG_0004.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S4vjXGsZbVI/AAAAAAAABV8/65GRHj9KJvg/s200/IMG_0004.jpg" width="150" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Well i found a deal that I couldn't pass on, so I am now the proud owner of&amp;nbsp; Kegerator. I'm picking up the CO2 and my first keg today, so should be pouring my first pint tomorrow after it's been in there chilling for 24 hours. I'm really looking forward to it. :)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm still not sure where exactly to put the Kegerator in my house, right now it's just against the unused wall in my kitchen area.&amp;nbsp; In all likelihood it might just remain there, but I don't know for sure yet.&amp;nbsp; We'll see how it goes.&amp;nbsp; I supposed it would be a better fit in the entertainment/bonus room upstairs, but honestly I rarely go up there.&amp;nbsp; I should put some work into that room and get a TV and surround sound setup in there and everything, since I did go in and pre-wire the sound as the house was being built.&amp;nbsp; You would think that would have been the plan all along, huh? ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What kind of TV should I put up there with it I wonder?&amp;nbsp; One of my existing TVs?&amp;nbsp; Get a new one?&amp;nbsp; I don't really have the money (nor the need?) for yet another TV, but perhaps I could move something up there.&amp;nbsp; I would have to rewire the Satellite but that isn't a big deal, and I already have the network drops up there so support the Netflix box and/or Xbox to put up there.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Then comes the question of seating of course.. I don't really have any seating up there right now, and I would want some seating to accommodate Titans games and UFC events.&amp;nbsp; Hmmm... Anyone got a couple spare couches? :) :)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-6434708117769026343?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/6434708117769026343/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=6434708117769026343' title='4 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6434708117769026343'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6434708117769026343'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2010/03/kegerator-in-hizzy.html' title='kegerator in the hizzy'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><media:thumbnail xmlns:media='http://search.yahoo.com/mrss/' url='http://lh5.ggpht.com/_vduO4FxeYqc/S4vjXGsZbVI/AAAAAAAABV8/65GRHj9KJvg/s72-c/IMG_0004.jpg' height='72' width='72'/><thr:total>4</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-5049331359974907020</id><published>2009-11-27T16:33:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2009-11-27T16:33:04.992-06:00</updated><title type='text'>Rebuilding Server</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;Rebuilding my server here at the house this weekend (if I have time), thinking about putting Ubuntu Server on there instead of Gentoo.&amp;nbsp; I don't really know why, I've just been fairly pleased with managing the Ubuntu virtual machines lately and are growing more accustomed to them over Gentoo.&amp;nbsp; Am I losing my inner-geek?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;To go with this currently deciding between continuing with my existing vserver setup, or swapping over to using KVM. This would give me some more flexibility in the supported virtual machines, but if I'm only messing with linux virtual servers, does it really benefit me at all to go with KVM?&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;Once I get all of this situated and get things configured and up and running reliably, I'm going to go ahead and move the remaining web hosting sites over to my internal server and close out my current colocation box.&amp;nbsp; I see no reason to keep spending money when I have this server sitting here.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-5049331359974907020?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/5049331359974907020/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=5049331359974907020' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/5049331359974907020'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/5049331359974907020'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/11/rebuilding-server.html' title='Rebuilding Server'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-8890937369605126426</id><published>2009-11-17T23:10:00.001-06:00</published><updated>2009-11-17T23:11:17.877-06:00</updated><title type='text'>New Super Mario Bros Wii</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii4-sm-746471.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii4-sm-746469.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The New Super Mario Bros Wii has been released, and so far.. thumbs up. The gameplay is everything you expect from the Super Mario Bros franchise, along with the pure fun and enjoyment that comes with it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii3-sm-740049.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii3-sm-740048.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;There are a couple new costumes for Mario and friends to put on, some new control aspects using the Wiimote, although they are not overused.&amp;nbsp; It's refreshing to see a quality 2d Super Mario Bros return to the big screen, having had the pleasure of this title originally being released on the Nintendo DS and loving it.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii2-sm-734820.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii2-sm-734818.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The multi player takes a minute to get used to since the characters can't go through each other; you are certain to bump each other off ledges and have some general confusion when trying to get through the levels, but you learn to work with this quick enough and you will get some great laughs in the process.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;The worlds you encounter definitely follow the themes from the franchise, pulling areas in from all the previous titles, including the often forgotten Super Mario Bros 2.&amp;nbsp; The world map follows the pattern of Super Mario World to navigate between Worlds and Maps, working to conquer the Fortress and then the Caste for each World.&amp;nbsp; There are mini-games to earn power ups spread through the maps, as well as hidden warp zones (one of which I uncovered&amp;nbsp; by accident earlier).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii1-sm-728673.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/mariowii1-sm-728672.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;The one big feature missing that would make this title really impress would be online multi player.&amp;nbsp; Interacting with the other players seems to add so much to this title, although I doubt it would be quite the same without being in the same room anyway, at least without head sets, but it would still add a lot to the game over playing single player mode. &lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;All in all, one of my favorite games in a long time.&amp;nbsp; If you are a fan of the classics, pick up your copy today along with a copy of Punch Out, it's well worth it.&amp;nbsp; Being an obsessive 2d Super Mario fan, I would pick up a Wii just for this game... just like I did the DS.&amp;nbsp; Fortunately for my pocket, I already had a Wii.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-8890937369605126426?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/8890937369605126426/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=8890937369605126426' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8890937369605126426'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8890937369605126426'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/11/new-super-mario-bros-wii.html' title='New Super Mario Bros Wii'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-6559262617808614221</id><published>2009-11-04T22:49:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2009-11-04T22:49:39.641-06:00</updated><title type='text'>The Ultmate Figher - One Soldier Left</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/tuf10_cast-sm-714905.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/tuf10_cast-sm-714904.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Welcome to The Ultimate Figher - One Soldier Left&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The episode started things off as usual, recapping the previous fight.&amp;nbsp; Things ended Matt getting a winded victory over .., both fighters barely able to stand. After witnessing the close decision loss, and feeling things should have gone to a third round, Rampage threw a temper tantrum tearing up a flimsy door in the facility.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After the fight the teams head back to the house for some recouperation time so they can work towards the last remaining fight of this round, Team Rampage's Marcus "Big Baby" Jones vs Michael Wessel.&amp;nbsp; While at the house that night, Matt goes straight to bed, not feeling very well.&amp;nbsp; Wes Sims was the lone individual that felt that celebration was in order, not wanting to allow Matt to be the "Party Pooper" decides to check in on him, and go ahead and spray the room down with silly string before allowing him to return to his slumber.&amp;nbsp; From the looks of things, Matt might need more time to recover than the show's schedule is going to allow.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;On with the training of both the final participants for the qualifier round, Rampage is looking to push Marcus hard, his last soldier for a Rampage victory.&amp;nbsp; The team wants to get respect back, and Marcus is their only chance.&amp;nbsp; In interviews Marcus details how he is taking advantage of being the final fight, working and learning the entire time leading up to the fight.&amp;nbsp; He is quite confident he can pull out a win.. the win..&amp;nbsp; Rampage's win.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The next morning Marcus is awaken by a "scorpian-spider-laviathon" creature and screams like a girl. He completely panics, screams of terror, completely immobilized being held captive by the creature.&amp;nbsp; Justen Wren comes to Marcus' aid to kill the spider, but doesn't let him off the hook that easily.&amp;nbsp; Justen teases Big Baby a bit before setting it aside until the rest of the crew is around, at which time the carcass gets thrown on Marcus who jumps up running from the room, cries of terror that can be heard for miles!&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Back in his proper mind set, we get some background on Marcus.&amp;nbsp; He speaks of his football background, and confesses that although he was able to get in and get some play time due to his natural physical abilities, he never was engulfed into football the way he is with MMA.&amp;nbsp; He says he is really able to excel because he eats, lives and breathes MMA, 24/7.&amp;nbsp; Even with this, Rampage is seen questioning whether the big giddy puppy has the fighter instinct.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Michael's background and frame of mind is a bit different than Marcus.&amp;nbsp; Michael is here trying for his big shot, sacrificing personal time with his wife during a difficult battle with cancer.&amp;nbsp; He speaks of the daily cards and letters that he sends to help show his support for her, and wishes he could be there for her.&amp;nbsp; This would seem to me to be a pretty large distraction when it comes to proper focus leading up to a fight with a short training schedule.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Michael continues to train hard, and with the game plan wants to stand up and bang with Big Baby, let him feel the thunder.&amp;nbsp; Rashad emphasizes no take-downs, keep it standing and let him feel it.&amp;nbsp; Michael has UFC fight experience which should give him an edge in the fight, as long as he sticks to the strategy.&amp;nbsp; He talks of Marcus being a "massive, massive man" but seems intent on putting that aside to "beat the shit out of him."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In the next round of prankster antics some sketches are posted of Marcus, with various comic-style speech bubbles coming from him, wanting a new coach among other comical remarks.&amp;nbsp; At the bottom of one of the sketches Michael added "sucks balls."&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When Marcus finds the sketches on the window in the house, he is less than pleased.&amp;nbsp; Big Baby overreacts a bit to the prank, yelling that what if his family were watching and sees that.. his kids.&amp;nbsp; Most of the house agrees, he's overreacting and needs to learn to take a joke.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;It's almost fight time for the week, so we get things rolling by gathering up both teams at the gym to do weigh-ins.&amp;nbsp; You can't bring the groups together without some witty banter amongst the teams, and this opportunity is no exception.&amp;nbsp; Things get started with Rampage and Roy Nelson pulling up their shirts and doing a bellly-slap against each other.&amp;nbsp; This was NOT a pretty sight.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Rampage decide to mess around a bit with "Titties" again, that seems to be the thing to do.&amp;nbsp; At first they were cutting up together and playing around a bit, but when Rampage reached up and grabbed a handful of man-boob, it was clear he had crossed the line.&amp;nbsp; The gloves were off as Titties stared down Rampage, an iminent throw down only avoided by teammates coming to break things up.&amp;nbsp; This was looking pretty serious.&amp;nbsp; The actual weigh-in was quick, Michael weighing in at 260 and Marcus putting up a strong 262.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now it's fight time, let's get things rolling!&amp;nbsp; Things look like they will start out slow with some feeling out, but Michael goes right after Marcus throwing some strong punches.&amp;nbsp; Marcus is getting hit with a few, but nothing that appears to really be a concern.&amp;nbsp; Once Big Baby gets a feel for the power coming at him, he goes on in with his arms extended to minimize damage, "Mummy Style" as labeled during Rampage's recap, and gets ahold of Michael.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unable to get some range to throw some shots, Michael goes for a trip.&amp;nbsp; As Marcus starts to fall, he rolls things over so that he lands on top, in a half guard.&amp;nbsp; Eager to get off the ground, Michael decided to give up his back and try to get to his feet quickly.&amp;nbsp; Unfortunately Marcus was too quick, grabbing on to Michael and slowly and loosely going for a rear naked choke.&amp;nbsp; The hold was rather loose, allowing Michael to just roll over into Marcus' full guard.&amp;nbsp;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Things looked to be in a rather safe position for Michael, he should be able to possibly work the ground a bit, or stand things back up.&amp;nbsp; It looks like Michael is doing just this, making an effort to stand up out of the full guard and Marcus flips the leg over and yanks hard into an arm bar.&amp;nbsp; Michael taps almost instantly, appearing to have possibly broken his arm with the snap of Marcus' extension.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/tuf10_big_baby-sm-778486.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/tuf10_big_baby-sm-778484.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Marcus "Big Baby" Jones.. the Last Soldier.&amp;nbsp; Victorious, breaking Team Rampage's cherry and moving to the next round of fights.&amp;nbsp; Team Rashad finishes with a 7-1 record going into the quarter final match-ups.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;After interviewing each of the fighters with both coaches and Dana present, it's time for the quarterfinal match-ups to be announced.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Roy v Justin&lt;br /&gt;Brandon v John&lt;br /&gt;James v Matt&lt;br /&gt;Marcus v Darrell&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;To close out the show, following the match-up announcements, Rashad asks if Team Rampage wants to work with the guys on his team, help everyone out with some good training and making things easier with him having 7 of his 8 fights working towards their own matches.&amp;nbsp; Team Rampage stands strong, led by Kimbo's stance that he is going to support his coach and his team.&amp;nbsp; Once Kimbo speaks, the sheep follow suit.. They'll all help train Marcus and back what little remains of their team.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Looks like Marcus and Team Rampage have a bit of a leg-up for the remainder of the fights as far as training diversity.&amp;nbsp; If this wasn't enough, Dana throws Rampage a bone and lets him pick his fight for the quarterfinals. Marcus might go a bit further than expected when you take this into consideration.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;And now we wait for next week...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-6559262617808614221?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/6559262617808614221/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=6559262617808614221' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6559262617808614221'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6559262617808614221'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/11/ultmate-figher-one-soldier-left.html' title='The Ultmate Figher - One Soldier Left'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-8925823281269042841</id><published>2009-11-02T13:48:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2009-11-02T13:48:28.588-06:00</updated><title type='text'>Damn Yankees</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/yankees-2009-ws-sm-775345.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/yankees-2009-ws-sm-775343.jpg" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Those damn Yankees.&amp;nbsp; I know, we've heard it before.&amp;nbsp; We will hear it again.&amp;nbsp; Tonight they should finish out the 2009 World Series with the Evil Empire blowing away the Phillys.&amp;nbsp; The only silver lining here is hey, you too can go place a bet and take home some cash out of it.&amp;nbsp; ;)&amp;nbsp; Rest assured this will not make anyone but you feel any better about it, but hey.. take your winnings and save a puppy or something.&amp;nbsp; Help bring balance to the universe.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"&gt; &lt;br /&gt;Other smart bets for tonight are the Falcons +12 and the over 55 bets for Monday Night Football, and for NBA fans pick up the Bobcats -7 and again the over on that game as well.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Hell, if we go 5-0 on the bets go ahead and save two puppies.&amp;nbsp; ;)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-8925823281269042841?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/8925823281269042841/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=8925823281269042841' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8925823281269042841'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8925823281269042841'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/11/damn-yankees.html' title='Damn Yankees'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-6885303340420441820</id><published>2009-11-01T20:30:00.000-06:00</published><updated>2009-11-01T20:30:05.554-06:00</updated><title type='text'>titans win one</title><content type='html'>&lt;div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"&gt;&lt;a href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/vy-20091101-713637.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"&gt;&lt;img border="0" height="200" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/vy-20091101-713629.jpg" width="136" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;Vince Young led the Tennessee Titans to their first victory of the season (1-6) today against the Jacksonville Jaguars.&amp;nbsp; Young had a great outing, although he did not win the game alone.&amp;nbsp; He led as a leader should, and helped to inspire this team to perform at it's best.&amp;nbsp; Welcome back Vince, hopefully you will continue to develop and improve over the upcoming weeks.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Chris Johnson also earns a mention in his performance today, setting a franchise record with 228 rushing yards, leading to a pair of touchdowns.&amp;nbsp; Congrats to Chris and the offensive line for helping make it happen.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;In other NFL news, the Broncos faced a defeat at the hands of murderous Ray Ray and his fellow Ravens, leaving only the Indianapolis Colts undefeated this season.&amp;nbsp; Brett Favre lead the Vikings to victory to sweep the Packers this season (and covering the points total spread, tks Brett), the Giants floundered (damn it Ely, didn't win much less cover the spread.. that one is going to hurt) against the Eagles, Chargers took a victory over the Raiders (but didn't cover), and goodness the Bears decided to play this week (who knew?!?). &lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Overall a great Sunday of NFL action, now it's time to get back to work.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-6885303340420441820?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/6885303340420441820/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=6885303340420441820' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6885303340420441820'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/6885303340420441820'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/11/titans-win-one.html' title='titans win one'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-1663516564655789784</id><published>2009-10-31T23:23:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2009-11-01T11:03:45.541-06:00</updated><title type='text'>nfl sunday week 8</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/nfl-logo-sm-725626.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 95px; height: 123px;" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/nfl-logo-sm-725625.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;Welcome to Week 8 of the 2009 NFL Season. Some exciting matchups this week for sure.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;You've already read my stance on VY coming out and showing what he can do.  We'll see how that goes.  With any luck the Titans can break the downward spiral they are currently in.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Other games to keep an eye on, Brett Favre is returning to Green Bay with the Vikings in hopes of a repeat of the recent Monday Night Football performance.  This should be another high scoring slug fest that shouldn't be missed. I've got my money on this one going over the 47 points.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The undefeated Broncos are headed to Ravens territory, and despite a 3-3 record the Ravens should not be taken lightly.  This one will be a slug fest as the Ravens are notorious over the years for stepping up and handing teams their first defeat.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;For people paying attention to the spread I'm taking the Giants, Cowboys and Chargers all to overtake their respective matchups.  We'll see how that goes. ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One hour until kick off, if you don't have the Red Zone Channel, GET IT. There's no better way to take in the entirety of Sunday's games.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-1663516564655789784?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/1663516564655789784/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=1663516564655789784' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/1663516564655789784'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/1663516564655789784'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/10/nfl-sunday-week-8.html' title='nfl sunday week 8'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-248988142953333406</id><published>2009-10-31T22:57:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2009-10-31T23:03:52.024-05:00</updated><title type='text'>witches angels and a penguin too</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/halloween-723662.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 128px; height: 120px;" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/halloween-723661.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;I hope everyone had a pleasant Halloween full of ghosts and goblins, perhaps a haunted house and of course plenty of treats to keep you kickin&amp;quot; for a few days.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I took Kylie over to my sister's house to spend the evening with her three cousins.  A pleasant evening, though a bit chilly (shocked, I know.. at the end of October it turns out it gets cold, who knew?).  We walked around some houses in their neighborhood, then went to visit a friend of theirs that lives a few miles away.  Overall an easy going evening that I can't complain about.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Now, back to work.  Things to do, little time to do it.  Let's get to it.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-248988142953333406?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/248988142953333406/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=248988142953333406' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/248988142953333406'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/248988142953333406'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/10/witches-angels-and-penguin-too.html' title='witches angels and a penguin too'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-1153589957498610038</id><published>2009-10-31T12:48:00.004-05:00</published><updated>2009-10-31T13:02:30.016-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='mafia'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='fedor'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='mma'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='strikeforce'/><title type='text'>fedors return</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/fedor-rough-sm-719302.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 194px;" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/fedor-rough-sm-719301.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt; We are now one week away from the return of Fedor.  This will be the first time Fedor appears in a cage, and more importantly the first time for the national broadcast audience on CBS.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Fedor has a celebrated history as the best in the world amongst heavyweights in the MMA genre.  Few will dispute this claim, though more and more are becoming skeptical that he is still deserving of this pristine ranking.  It has been quite some time since Fedor faced an opponent that people consider to be in their prime, with most of his recent encounters being ex-champions that are no longer in the UFC that may or may not be representative of the level of fighting they put forth when they were the champions.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When Affliction folded their MMA promotion aspirations and Fedor was given the opportunity to seek out a contract with another organization, many hoped to finally see Fedor step in and measure up against the top talent that the UFC heavyweight division has to offer.  Fedor did not share this same desire.  Putting the best interest of M1 Global promotions company Fedor has a part ownership in (tongue in cheek rumored to be a front for the russian mafia) ahead of his own legacy, Fedor signed with Strikeforce who agreed to hand over a piece of the pie, something the UFC refused to do.  This was a great disappointment for many, with the heavyweight division of Strikeforce severely lacking any real talent.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/rogers-arlovski-sm-727573.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:right; margin:0 0 10px 10px;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 150px; height: 108px;" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/rogers-arlovski-sm-727572.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;So now the time has come, and Fedor will have his first title defense in Strikefore against Brett Rogers.  Saturday November 7th we will see how Fedor performs against the undefeated Rogers, though I don't think many consider him real competition.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Is this a real fight for Fedor? I don't think so... but I will still tune in and there will be some hope inside me that Rogers has a good day and catches Fedor with his guard down.  ;)  You never know...&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-1153589957498610038?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/1153589957498610038/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=1153589957498610038' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/1153589957498610038'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/1153589957498610038'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/10/fedors-return.html' title='fedors return'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-2151462848811231469</id><published>2009-10-31T12:29:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2009-10-31T12:35:26.485-05:00</updated><title type='text'>the return of VY</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://vinceyoung.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/0906vince.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 350px; height: 327px;" src="http://vinceyoung.files.wordpress.com/2007/10/0906vince.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;The Tennessee Titans have had a dismal start to this season, currently starting at 0-6. The time has come to make a change.  Do I blame Collins for being a bad QB? No, I most certainly do not.  Collins has served this team well over the past couple years, and I do not feel that Collins lost those six games single handed.  Collins is a consistent QB that is more than capable of getting the job done.  Sometimes that is not enough.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Vince Young, although less of a consistent QB than Collins, has a playmaker ability that Collins has never displayed, and this playmaker ability has the potential to ignite the spark in every player on his team, both offense and defense.  This is what the Titans need right now to get back on the path to victory.  Will it happen?  Only time will tell.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I certainly hope we see the potential unleashed when VY takes the reigns of the 2009 Titans this Sunday.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-2151462848811231469?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/2151462848811231469/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=2151462848811231469' title='2 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2151462848811231469'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2151462848811231469'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/10/return-of-vy.html' title='the return of VY'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>2</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-900087660196789720</id><published>2009-10-31T11:13:00.003-05:00</published><updated>2009-10-31T11:21:17.286-05:00</updated><title type='text'>halloween 2009</title><content type='html'>Welcome to Halloween 2009 :)  No, I'm not planning on doing anything special this year.  Sarah is out of town at Voodoo Fest in New Orleans, and unless I dig one of my old costumes out of the closet, I don't have anything to wear.  Who knows, we'll see how the day turns out.  Kylie will be putting her witch costume on again, and either going around locally or joining her cousins.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Today I'll be spending some time working on a project I need to finish for work.  Hopefully that won't tie up too much of my day, and I can leave some to finish up after the game tomorrow if necessary.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Well, on with it... cya&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-900087660196789720?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/900087660196789720/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=900087660196789720' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/900087660196789720'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/900087660196789720'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/10/halloween-2009.html' title='halloween 2009'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-549960678811926559</id><published>2009-10-30T16:35:00.002-05:00</published><updated>2009-10-30T16:43:33.357-05:00</updated><title type='text'>welcome home</title><content type='html'>A quick welcome home, just got back from a weekend retreat to the great city of Las Vegas with a group of friends.  That was one crazy weekend I don't think any of us will ever forget.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Back to reality, working hard trying to finish up some code changes and adapting myself to the new architecture of the project I'm working on.  This product was pretty much a complete rewrite, using a custom window architecture based upon extjs, ajax calls to the orchestration layer, and soap/rest calls to the backend systems.  Taking a bit of an adjustment to get caught up to speed as I had to jump into the deep end without any documentation on what they've done so far, and little to no documentation on what I needed to accomplish.  Oh dear.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I got quite a bit done yesterday and today, making some good progress on getting the hang of how they want to do things.  Should hopefully have these changes wrapped up after my girl goes to bed tonight, or possibly tomorrow if necessary.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-549960678811926559?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/549960678811926559/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=549960678811926559' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/549960678811926559'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/549960678811926559'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/10/welcome-home.html' title='welcome home'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-8209872817575217720</id><published>2009-09-02T18:30:00.004-05:00</published><updated>2009-09-02T18:36:22.306-05:00</updated><title type='text'>catching up</title><content type='html'>wow been quite a while, almost forgot this blog was here.  mostly just been posting on twitter (which auto-posts to facebook).&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;not much new to talk about i guess, just a lot going on in life and trying to stay ahead of it all.  :)  keeps me on my toes.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;meh, more later if i figure i want to keep this thing up.  we'll see.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-8209872817575217720?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/8209872817575217720/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=8209872817575217720' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8209872817575217720'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/8209872817575217720'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2009/09/catching-up.html' title='catching up'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-154334472049977381</id><published>2008-03-02T23:47:00.004-06:00</published><updated>2008-03-02T23:58:10.134-06:00</updated><title type='text'>penguino</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://spleck.net/images/penguin_origami.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://spleck.net/images/penguin_origami.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Things have been pretty crazy lately.  I just wanted to take a moment and step back and remark about something that brings me to ease.  Penguin Origami.  ;)  Enjoy.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-154334472049977381?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/154334472049977381/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=154334472049977381' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/154334472049977381'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/154334472049977381'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2008/03/penguino.html' title='penguino'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-7638220690415565516</id><published>2007-10-02T17:22:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-10-02T17:26:55.263-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='games'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='halo'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='bungie'/><title type='text'>h3 is here</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://the360loop.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/halo-3-legendary-edition-20070307043452973.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://the360loop.files.wordpress.com/2007/03/halo-3-legendary-edition-20070307043452973.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;One week ago Halo 3 was released for the Xbox360.  You might recall my post a while back during the beta about how much fun I had playing it.  Well, the final release does not disappoint.  I can't say much for the campaign mode, single or multiplayer version, as that's not really what I enjoy.  What I can say is that I am having a great deal of fun with various different types of matchups and objective matches with 8-12 people playing, making up two teams.  Quite enjoyable.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;If you have a 360, go rent the game and check it out.  You'll get hooked.&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-7638220690415565516?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/7638220690415565516/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=7638220690415565516' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/7638220690415565516'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/7638220690415565516'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2007/10/h3-is-here.html' title='h3 is here'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-927855367985533355</id><published>2007-09-14T18:05:00.001-05:00</published><updated>2007-09-14T18:11:36.350-05:00</updated><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='football'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='patriots'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='cheat'/><category scheme='http://www.blogger.com/atom/ns#' term='nfl'/><title type='text'>caught in the act</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://static.flickr.com/54/132127364_c67ec13969_o.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 200px;" src="http://static.flickr.com/54/132127364_c67ec13969_o.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;I'm sure by now everyone that would care has heard all about how the Patriots got busted video taping the defensive signals used by an opposing team during a game.  The NFL came down pretty heavy on them ($750k in fines and one or two draft picks depending on how well the Patriots finish up this year) but I'm a bit confused.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When the news first broke, I heard in conjunction with the claims of the confiscated camera and reported video taping that the NFL detected some "frequency irregularities" during the game.  The NFL monitors frequency usage during the game to ensure everyone is playing fair in that respect, and there were apparently some issues.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;When taking that into consideration.. by itself taping of the signals is not very useful in this game itself, although one could find it somewhat useful if orchistrated just perfectly for a halftime adjustment.. combined with illegal communications with the players on the field, there could be an incredible advantage gained.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Unfortunately in the past week with every sports show talking about it since, nobody has mentioned the frequency usage issues any further.&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;What happened to it?  That's HUGE?  Did it not happen?  Was it misreported?  Or was it played down by the NFL to punish the patriots in their own way while maintaining public image?&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-927855367985533355?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/927855367985533355/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=927855367985533355' title='0 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/927855367985533355'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/927855367985533355'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2007/09/caught-in-act.html' title='caught in the act'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>0</thr:total></entry><entry><id>tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9706233.post-2899088498506630411</id><published>2007-09-14T10:54:00.000-05:00</published><updated>2007-09-14T10:57:10.618-05:00</updated><title type='text'>glasses</title><content type='html'>&lt;a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/pacglass-743935.jpg"&gt;&lt;img style="float:left; margin:0 10px 10px 0;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;" src="http://spleck.net/uploaded_images/pacglass-743930.jpg" border="0" alt="" /&gt;&lt;/a&gt;&lt;br /&gt;My glasses arrived yesterday.  Gotta love it.  Ok, maybe you don't.  But I do.  Thank you eBay ;)&lt;br /&gt;&lt;br /&gt;Oh, and what the hell is wrong with me that I feel the need to buy useless pacman crap?  Damn it lol :)&lt;div class="blogger-post-footer"&gt;&lt;img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/9706233-2899088498506630411?l=kevin.spleck.net' alt='' /&gt;&lt;/div&gt;</content><link rel='replies' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/feeds/2899088498506630411/comments/default' title='Post Comments'/><link rel='replies' type='text/html' href='http://www.blogger.com/comment.g?blogID=9706233&amp;postID=2899088498506630411' title='1 Comments'/><link rel='edit' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2899088498506630411'/><link rel='self' type='application/atom+xml' href='http://www.blogger.com/feeds/9706233/posts/default/2899088498506630411'/><link rel='alternate' type='text/html' href='http://kevin.spleck.net/2007/09/glasses.html' title='glasses'/><author><name>Kevin</name><uri>http://www.blogger.com/profile/05849512359731213210</uri><email>noreply@blogger.com</email><gd:image rel='http://schemas.google.com/g/2005#thumbnail' width='32' height='32' src='http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-eINTXWO7PnQ/ThHv1XagZKI/AAAAAAAABZw/jPoFdTsyUNM/s220/ksmith-mohawk.jpg'/></author><thr:total>1</thr:total></entry></feed>
