Ballin'

Anyone in Santa Clarita that wants to play basketball, go to the Powerhouse Gym on Calgrove. You will need a subscription to get in, but there are always good basketball pick up games and crowds there.

The best times to go for basketball are:
Mon: 1:30-3:30 and 5:00-6:00
Tues: 5:00-7:30
Wed: 1:30-3:30
Thurs: 1:30-3:30 and 5:00-7:00
Fri: 1:30-4:30
Sat: 9:30-12:00

BF2142 Now!

I have repurchased the BF2142 Deluxe Edition, and am playing it again. My name is PredatorAhnold, so go ahead and add me to friends and mention you found my name through the blog.

It was kind of a pain to install it because the client was so out of date... Here's a quick write-up of what you gotta do in case you buy it and are stranded at your desktop...

1. Install the game
2. You will be prompted to "Activate Northern Strike." Click on the button and it should open a browser for you. If it doesn't, visit this page for instructions (it has the link at bottom) http://www.battlefield.com/activate/bf2142/eng.html
3. Now that Northern Strike is activated, you need to update your game. Go to http://battlefield.ea.com/battlefield/bf/BF2142_News_110306.aspx and click on the May 30th, 2008 entry that says BF2142 update 1.50. This will start a download of about 500mb, so be prepared to wait. Alternatively, you can download the patch at other file distribution sites, like FilePlanet. The patch is called BF2142_Update_1.50.exe
4. Once the patch is downloaded, double click it to launch the installer, it will take a bit, but afterwards your game will be updated.
5. Time to play! Launch the game!

I hope this helped. If there are any items unclear, please respond with a question and I will answer it as soon as possible.

Video Games Ruined My Brain?

I have been fortunate enough to have had video gaming systems in my home since I was about 9 years old. Each game that I played I focused on competition and getting better against human opponents. Supposedly, video games deprive the players of social interaction, but with the advent and popularity of online gaming, this is no longer so. In fact, I have specifically pinpointed numerous cases in my life where I have benefitted by playing video games my whole life. I have found that I know different mythologies quite well, I have a much larger vocabulary, I am fine tuned with internet culture, and I am much more creative becuase of the beautiful storylines I have "experienced" throughout my life. I am not whimsical, however, and my head is most certainly not in the clouds, but I think it is funny how much of a turnaround video games have made in popular culture.

Going to school when I was younger, I was made fun of because I would sit at home and play Nintendo, or Super Nintendo, and no one save for a small group of my friends could I relate to. Now every kid and adult has a gaming system in one form or another, and it is as main stream as pop music is. The last thing that I noticed before writing this entry is that my typing skills are pretty advanced if you consider my level of training, and I am extremely fast at manipulating computers and other devices... Part of the "twitch" training I've had throughout my life.