My folks are watching my two nieces this weekend and we decided to all go to the Fort Worth Zoo since it was so gorgeous out. Ethan and the girls had a great time, really glad we went. Check out the slideshow or hit Read More below to view it as a gallery.
Sometimes, with a large photo gallery, you get so wrapped up in managing and maintaining it that you forget to stop and actually look at your photos. This shot randomly caught my eye earlier and it just says so much about future possibilities. It was taken during the kid's first trip to our brand new house, before we had even moved in.
You may have noticed this blog has a new URL. My photo gallery is going to take over the jeroddunn.com address and my blog will now be a sub domain accessible from a link on that page.
Will I update more frequently? Who knows, but at least this way it's harder to when I'm being lazy!
Read more!As I further explore the features and capabilities of my new SmugMug account I keep stumbling onto awesome things. My latest revelation is smart galleries. Smarter than your average gallery! I plan to use this particular feature to great effect. Hit "Read more!" to reward your eyeballs.
While downloading Shogun 2 on my desktop and installing some Torchlight mods on my laptop today I found a neat trick. It has to do with downloading a game via Steam on one computer and playing a game (or downloading, chatting with friends, etc) on a second computer via Steam using the same account. It can be done with minimal hassle which I will detail below the break.
Saw this in a park; makes perfect sense to me.
Had a great weekend with family and the monkey moose had fun hunting for Easter Eggs! Plus it was a great excuse to dust off the DSLR which I have had far too little time to screw around with. Find some awesomely cuteness after the break.
Maximum PC | Rip, Watch and Organize Everything: The Ultimate Media Guide
Maximum PC has done it again. For a dead simple, feature rich guide to ripping, watching and doing whatever you might ever want to do with your media that have released an updated one stop shop. Want to know my favorite parts of the article? Hit the Read more link, if you want to skip all that rambling hit the link at the top or head over to Maximum PC!
With streaming services getting more and more popular everyday (it is how the wife and I consume media almost exclusively) having to put in a DVD or Blu-ray feels archaic. By far the most useful and relevant portion of this article is the step by step guide to ripping your media for hosting on your own home server or backup. Being able to sit back and flip to any movie you already own is an astounding experience and shouldn't be skipped. Go read up on the article and let me know your favorite part.
The popular Scrabble like game Words with Friends is out now for Android. Hit me up for a word crushing!
Back at work after outlasting death itself. Okay so maybe that is a bit dramatic, but the fact remains that I'm relatively human again with only minor zombification.
Sins of a Solar Empire Trinity/Diplomacy is receiving an update with quite a few balancing fixes and engine updates to hopefully squash any memory crashes.
Sins of a Solar Empire - Trinity/Diplomacy - v1.2 BETA Changelog
[ Engine ]
The game engine has been updated in order to free up more texture memory. Players should generally use no more than 1.3 GB of RAM on Huge maps with all races represented now. We're very interested to see what everyone's experiences are with this, so please post back and let us know. You can find the total by alt-tabbing out of the game and hitting Ctrl+Shift+Escape, select the Processes tab and look for Sins of a Solar Empire Diplomacy.exe.
[ Gameplay ]
Pirates
The Pirates system has been completely overhauled with this update. Rather than relying on random upgrades which could result in a huge power curve, the Pirates will now scale gradually in abilities, fleet size and power as a game progresses.
The size of the Pirate fleet is now based off of the current raid level (Low, Guarded, Elevated, High, Highest) and there are now preset fleet compositions for each.
Pirates now take into consideration the total amount of bounty on offer before sending out their fleets (at High and Highest raid levels). If there isn't enough booty on the table, the Pirates will send out a smaller fleet. This is to prevent 250 credit cheese scenarios that could spawn a massive Pirate incursion.
Pirates have the opportunity to purchase upgrades after every launched raid. There are 20 levels of upgrades available to them which include bonuses to Armor, HP, Weapon Strength, Weapon Range; plus special abilities including Intercept, Quick Jump Calculation, Timed Explosives, Heavy Fallout, Embargo Planet and Sabotage Reactor. Basically if you let the Pirates live in a really long game, they will become very nasty indeed!
The Pirate mission system via diplomacy has been updated. Players must now pay a pre-set credit amount to generate a raid (same fleet composition as for bounty-spawned raids). This eliminates the guesswork of paying too much/little and not quite knowing what you'll get (and makes issuing raids generally quicker).
The Pirate base's population upgrade will now properly increase population growth rate.
TEC Balance
Kol:
Gauss Blast: Reduced AM cost from 75 to 50/55/60; increased damage from 325/650/975 to 400/725/1050.
Flak Burst: Range changed from 2400/3000/3600 to 3000/3300/3600.
Finest Hour: AM regen reduced from 5 to 3; HP regen increased from 10 to 15.
Dunov:
EMP: Range increased from 4500 to 4500/5000/5500; AM cost changed from 100/90/80 to 90/90/90; cooldown reduced from 50/45/40 to 40/35/30.
Magnetize: Max affected strikecraft increased from 8/12/16 to 12/20/28.
Marza:
Incendiary Shells: Stacking limit increased from 1 to 3.
Missile Barrage: Range reduced from 10,000 to 8,000.
Hoshiko:
Demolition Bots: Changed needsToFaceTarget TRUE to FALSE.
Novalith Cannon:
Cannon shots now cause a planet to suffer 100% reduced trade income. This effect will no longer stack.
Pinpoint Bombardment: Increased range bonus from 0.1333 per level to 0.6667 per level.
Advent Balance
Radiance:
Animosity: Increased max targets from 8/16/32 to 12/24/36; effect now channels every second over 20 seconds instead of being an instant action so new targets entering the AoE are hit; auto-cast will only activate if 3 or more enemy ships are in range.
Absorptive Armor: Increased armor bonus from 1/2/3 to 2/4/6.
Rapture:
Vertigo: Increased range from 4500 to 4500/5000/5500.
Revelation:
Guidance: Now a triggered, caster-based area of effect that affects friendly capital ships, frigates and structures. AM cost is now 90/100/110; range is 8000/8000/8000, cooldown is 50/50/50; buff applied grants 25%/25%/25% boost to ability cooldown rate, duration 20/30/40.
Clairvoyance: Duration increased from 90/120/150 to 90/150/210.
Communal Labor: Allows constructor ships to buff the rate of whatever a structure does (i.e., ship building) by flying within range of it.
Vasari Balance
In their first post of Humanity week ArenaNet discusses the spirit of the human race and has many sound clips for readers to enjoy. I highly recommend checking the article out.
Plan on getting Guild Wars 2? Going to play a human? I am very tempted to roll a human warrior myself, to carry on the legacy of Redeye The Wall.
Against the Wall: Humanity in Guild Wars 2 – ArenaNet Blog
Ghosts of Ascalon by Matt Forbeck
My rating: 5 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book for both the story and the subtle spoilers and hints provided for Guild Wars 2. I have always been a huge Guild Wars lore fan and this just added more fuel to the fire. I can't wait to read the second (and third?) book and am eagerly anticipating the release of the second Guild Wars game!
View all my reviews
Ethan is no longer the proud owner of a mullet. Yes, it is true; Amber and I took him up to get a haircut on the 21st and he instantly looks 6 months older. Hopefully this will reduce the number of "cute girl" comments he gets while out in public!
Ghostmaker (Warhammer 40,000) by Dan Abnett
My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really like Dan Abnett's style, but felt this book was a little less engaging than First and Only. Mostly I think I was thrown off by the flashbacks that are throughout the novel.
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Fallout: New Vegas just released. See you in 2011.
Read more!