So, this weekend we finally started landscaping our backyard. When Jenny and I first bought our house the backyard was just dirt, and it's been nothing but dirt for the past year (unless it rains, in which case it turns to a nice, thick mud). But we finally got some money to start landscaping, so we first bought gravel to put in its place. It was a lot of work but it was well worth it.

I've been really unmotivated when it comes to writing in my blog recently. I don't know why. Maybe it's the lack of interesting things that I've come across and want to write about? Or maybe it's the fact that I spend most of my free time coding, or worse, playing Team Fortress 2. Either way I guess you can also count this as writer's block.

This weekend one of my good friends passed away. His name was Julio Gonzalez, and he was on of the greatest people I've encountered in my life. At the age of 24 and with a birthday right around the corner, Julio had his life unexpectedly taken away from him...and us.

Well, it looks like we have our top three candidates for the next president of the United States. For the Republicans we have John McCain and for the Democrats we have Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama. In my opinion all three candidates are not bad choices, but after digging around and reading up on each candidate I definitely have to say Barack Obama is my choice to run this country.

Jenny and I both got new cell phones this weekend. Both of our contracts were up and I wanted to add her onto my account to get a family plan sort of deal. Of course, when resigning you get good discounts on phones and accessories. I knew I wanted the AT&T Tilt and I wanted Jenny to get some type of smartphone. We finally settled on the Pantech Duo for her, and we both love our new phones.

Ever get the feeling that nothing ever gets done? No matter how much time you put into something, when it's done, you still feel like you're at step one. That's what I'm going through right now in terms of my web site. I keep jumping back and forth between web design, web development, and content creation. I want to accomplish it all but find the lack of time and priorities stuttering my progress.

The last few weeks have been extremely hectic for me. Of course with the holidays I was either out of town, visiting relatives, or having relatives come to visit me. And on top of that, my site goes down for several days, only to come back completely empty. And let's not forget the fact that my latest site backup was over a month old, and I've had close to zero face-time with my computer to fix anything.

I've been looking to get a new smartphone for the past year, but wanted to wait until I could get one with Windows Mobile 6 installed. Well, that day came a few months ago when AT&T released their newest smartphone called Tilt. But I wanted to wait a few months for the reviews to come in and also for my contract to expire. Now that the reviews are in (and good) and the fact that I can pick one up fairly cheap by re-signing another 2 year contract, I plan on getting one here in the next few weeks.

With 2008 comes the brand new season of one of the best cartoon shows of all time, Futurama. So, to celebrate this new season, I decided to write an article about my favorite non-main Futurama characters. By non-main I mean, characters that have only shown up in a few episodes. Anyways, here are my top 5 favorite characters:

After a few years on my previous web host, it was time to move. I had several issues with them including support, uptime, and features. Let's say they were lacking in all three. I had several support tickets open with this host that they never resolved, and their security certificate expired which they never renewed. They seemed to be sinking fast and so it was time to abandon ship.

It's been close to three years since I built my last gaming PC, and though that computer still kicks ass at most games, it's starting to show its age with next-gen titles. I first knew it was time to start looking at a new computer when I installed and played Bioshock; a great game that forced me to turn down the graphical setting in order to get a decent frame rate. Next, was the Crysis demo which officially gave my computer a heart attack when I tried to run it at High settings and resolutions.

Figures. The weekend I go out of town, is the same weekend they decide to release a demo of one of my most anticipated games of the year, Crysis. So yesterday morning (Monday) I start to download the demo via BitTorrent. I tried downloading from several other HTTP servers, but their download time was going to take a while longer than BitTorrent. Still, the demo took about 3-4 hours to download.

This is just another rant by me, but seriously. This has got to be one of the most idiotic, self-absorbed things I've ever seen in my life. And let's not forget disgusting. For those who don't know what I'm talking about, well I'm talking about putting giant, fake, synthetic balls (nut sack) on the back of your truck or car. "Look at me! I have some giant fake man-balls hanging from the back of my car! I have a lot to prove apparently! I'm king of the road because I have artificial testes attached to that thing I drive!!!"

Last month about half of my visitors used some version of Internet Explorer (IE) while the other half used a version of Firefox. Looking more closely about half of my IE users are using version 6. Stop it! Because of you people I have to constantly make sure that any little change I make works in IE6. And if it doesn't, which is 90 percent of the time, then I have to find a way to fix it or hack it to get it to work. It's a pain in the ass. My admin panel that I use to run this site uses lots of CSS and javascript to make it pretty and do cool things. I always used either Firefox or IE7 to view my admin panel. Well, the other day I made the mistake of opening it with IE6. Virtually nothing worked or looked right. I seriously laughed at how lame it looked in IE6.

I finally got rid of the giant 50 lb. 21" beast of a CRT monitor and got a nice, sharp 22" widescreen LCD monitor. It's a Samsung SyncMaster 226BW to be exact, with 2ms response time and 3000:1 contrast ratio. It is sleek and sexy and matches my computer case (both colors and lights) which is a definite plus. One of the best things about this is now I have a lot more desk space, and when I say desk space, I phyically mean with my desk. My old monitor was a couple feet thick and barely allowed my keyboard to sit in front of it without pushing it off the desk. Because of that setup I couldn't write on anything plus I ended up sitting really close to the monitor. With my new LCD I obviously have a lot more room and I no longer have to sit real close. This make working on my web sites and playing video games a lot easier on the eyes.

A little more than six months ago I showed you guys the back end, or administration side of my site. This tool or Administration Panel is where I put together my site. It's where I moderate my visitors' comments, create and edit my articles, create and edit site pages, and edit site or personal settings. You can check out the older preview here and laugh at it's horrible design and amateurish features. I know I do.

On August 4th my favorite ska bands are coming together to put on the greatest ska show of all time! Ok, maybe not, but it'll be the best ska show I've ever seen. How do I know this? Well we're talking about Less Than Jake, Reel Big Fish, Streetlight Manifesto, and Against All Authority here. There's no doubt in my mind. I already bought my tickets because this show will probably sell out. I won't be pissed off this time when I don't buy tickets in advance and the show ends up selling out (damn you NOFX/Strike Anywhere concert!!). This time I'm prepared.

So I'm a little late. Last week on June 29th I turned 25 years old. The weekend that followed was one hectic and fun weekend. My parents, grandparents, and father-in-law came up to visit me for a couple of days. Then my uncle and his girlfriend came up to visit and get me drunk off my ass. It was great having everyone up to visit me and wish me a happy birthday.

Usually, when ever I'm driving in my car or sitting at work, I like to listen to my music. I like to blast it in the car and have it help pass time during those long work days. As of a few months ago, I've never really listened to the radio or talk radio for that matter. The only thing I ever really listened to on the radio was baseball games. Other than that, there was never really anything that entertaining or enjoyable that would make me want to listen to the radio over my CDs. Well, that changed when Phoenix's newest talk radio station came in, featuring The Adam Carolla Show.

Wow. That's the first thought that came to my mind when I found a few sites that looked oddly familiar. Wow. Followed by a big grin and a feeling of flattery that I've never felt before. These sites that I found put me in shock; a good shock. Not one created out of anger, but one stemmed from...well, the best word would be, unbelievable. That's right kids - WebNV has been ripped.

It's been a long time coming, but after years of impatient waiting I finally got a TV I always wanted. A big screen, high-def, rear-projection to be exact. Finally, I can watch TV, movies, and play video games the way they are meant to be played, in high-def. I rarely buy things on a whim, especially with big items like this, but it was too good to give up.

I haven't been pissed off in a while now, but yesterday after work I got all fired up. After work, Jenny and I went to the grocery store to pick up some necessities (e.g., booze). We get to the cash register and the cashier lady scans all our items then asks for our IDs because we are buying alcohol. So far this is all pretty normal. We're both only 24 years old, so getting carded is no big deal. But the dumb part was still coming.

Finally, our kitchen is starting to look like a kitchen! After 7-8 weeks of remodeling our kitchen we are almost done. The last big thing got done today, and that was installing the counter tops. They look great and go really well with the color of our cabinets, floor, etc. I must admit I was a little worried about them installing the counter tops. Since Jenny and I did the cabinets ourselves I was afraid that the counter tops wouldn't work, or fit, or something. And it would be our fault.

As most of my Xbox Live friends have realized, I haven't been on my Xbox for the past couple of months. Reason? Well, between buying a new house, moving, and unpacking, I haven't had time to play with it, let alone, even hook it up. During all this activity I didn't miss the 360 mainly because I didn't even have time to think about it. But now that I'm all settled in I really want to play it again, but I can't.

Well, Jenny and I made the final move into our new house this last weekend, and boy am I glad it's over. It has been one hell of a stressful month. Between work, moving, and remodeling our kitchen I never thought we'd ever make it into this house. But alas, here I am, typing my first post from my new office in my new house. Exciting stuff...well, for me anyways.

Bigwig is one of my favorite punk bands. I also believe they are one of the most under rated bands out there. Most have never heard of them, which is normal, but a lot of people in the punk genre haven't either! Blasphemy! They're one of my favorite punk bands out there. Sure they've had their ups and downs and while their newest CD is not my favorite, I still think they're one of the best punk bands around.

Coast to Coast to be exact. Space Coast: Coast to Coast was a damn funny cartoon/talk show that I used to watch late at night. Well, I haven't watched it on TV for the past couple of years. Mainly because it's on too late now. I believe it still airs Sunday night on Adult Swim (Cartoon Network) at around 1am. Well, I guess you can call that Monday morning rather.

In my eyes, one of the best bands ever. I can safely say throughout my entire musical life, Strung Out has been one of the most influential bands I've ever had. If you're looking for something punk, or fast, or melodic, or hardcore then Strung Out will deliver. I have a huge amount of respect for these guys. They have never ever disappointed me with their CDs. And that's why I decided to dedicate this post to them. I bow down to you Strung Out.

Wow, I never thought this day would come. Yesterday, March 22nd, at 5pm Jenny and I closed escrow and got the keys to our first house. After which, we went back to our current house, grabbed Abby (our dog), and rushed over to our new house. We then just hung out in our new, empty house for a few hours. It was awesome. Check out some pictures here.

When I first got my Xbox 360 and signed up for Xbox Live, I noticed a free offer for American customers. It was called the Xbox Live Diamond Program. It was 100 percent completely free to Xbox Live subscribers and offered lots of discounts at tons of retailers around the country. So I though why not, and signed up for it right away. A few months go by and I completely forget about it. Heck I haven't even turned on my 360 for the past couple of weeks. But I checked my mail today and saw I got a letter from Xbox Live.

So Jenny and I recently bought a new house. It's still in escrow for the next few weeks but we were able to get into it today while they were doing an inspection, and take a lot of pictures. I uploaded the pictures to my gallery which you can view here >> Our new house. Again the house is still in escrow so we won't be able to move in until the end of March. It works out perfect though because the lease on our current house runs out at the end of April, so that gives us a solid month to move in. Moving sucks, but having a month to slowly and steadily do it will help.

Jenny and I are currently in the process of buying a new house to live in. Currently we live in a house that we rent from a property management company. We've lived here for the past 4-5 years, and think it's time to try and buy our own place. Why not? We currently have decent jobs that pay well, we're now married, and what we pay in our monthly rent can instead go to our monthly mortgage. Plus right now it's a buyer's market. We haven't found a house yet, but we're looking. Our lease is up at the end of April, so we're trying to find a house and move into it before then.

Well I got Windows Vista installed this past week, and let me tell you it's been fun. Seriously, so far so good. I had Windows XP Professional on my PC, and recently upgraded to Vista Home Premium. Actually, I didn't upgrade to Home Premium. Rather I backed up all my shit and did a clean install of the new Vista operating system. You see I did a fresh install of XP Pro only a month or two ago and was planing on just doing a upgrade to Vista, not a full fresh install. Well it turns out you cannot do a upgrade from XP Pro to Vista Home Premium, so I had to backup everything and do a clean install.

Saturday night Jenny's work had their annual Christmas party.  Pretty much like any company Christmas party, everyone from work shows up with their guests and we all get to see what everyone is like outside of the office.  This Christmas party though was pretty damn good.

So Websense has foiled me again.  This time they attacked my own site!  No not this site, but instead my PS3Passion.com site.  Damn you!  But I ask, why now?  PS3Passion has been around since May 2005, and it was never blocked before.  But now all of a sudden it flagged my site as a "games" site and will not let me access it from work.

October 27th, 2006 and about 4:45 pm me and my long time girlfriend Jenny got married.  So, people want to know exactly how the wedding went.  Did everyone show up?  Did everything that was planned work out accordingly?  How was the weather?  Any locust swarms?  Etc.  Click here for some pictures.

Yep, on October 27th at around 5pm Jenny and I finally got married.  Everything went perfectly for both the ceremony and the reception.  We have lots of pictures that need to be developed and uploaded to this site.  When that happens I'll let you all know.  Other than that, I really don't have too much time to talk about it right now.  I'll make a more proper post with lots more details when I have time.

Hope everyone has a good weekend.  This week for me at work has been rough.  But I'm looking forward to this weekend.  I'm having my bachelor party this weekend and might go and see Strung-Out play on Saturday night.  And that's it.  I'll now leave you with this awesome and completely irrelevant picture that I found on PortalForums.net site:

With the wedding less than a month away things are starting to get hectic.  October 27th is the big day.  Jenny and I have most of the big items done and crossed off our list, but now we have to start worrying about all the little details.  This scares me more that the big stuff because it's usually the little things we forget.

Yeah.  I don't know what I want to do with my site, PS3Passion.com.  I started the site back in May 2005 with an ex-coworker.  He wanted to start a PlayStation 3 fan site and I had the resources and knowledge on how to start one.  So we created one using a CMS web app called PHP-Nuke.  At the time I had a lot of fun creating this site and messing with PHP-Nuke.  I learned a lot about it as well as PHP code in general.  I even created some custom modules and blocks for it.  Good stuff.

Hey there guys.  Sorry for the lack of updates lately.  As you may know from previous post both of my computers at home are dead.  So in the mean time I can only work on my site from my downtime at work (lunches and breaks).

Yeah, yeah, I know.  I've been pretty inactive online lately.  My blog has been kind of dead these past few weeks,  some online communities have had a lack of Nick participation, and lots of e-mails have been unanswered.

Yea!  My main computer decided to stop working yesterday.  The computer just will not turn on.  This a gaming computer that I built several months ago.  It has been working fine since I built the system.  I haven't moved, touched, or even opened the case in the past few months.  Then one day I get home from work, press the power button to turn on the computer, and nothing happens.

I don't like TigerDirect, or I didn't like TigerDirect.  "But Nick, why don't or why didn't you like TigerDirect?"  Click me for answer.  They made an enemy out of me last year and since then there have been is some other serious scandals (here and here) that made me dislike them even more.

If you didn't catch the newest Simpsons episode last Sunday, then you missed a few awesome bits.  First was the live action intro sequence that used real life actors to re-enact The Simpsons famous intro.  You can watch this intro below:

Heh, Jenny was nice enough to let me know I didn't put this on my web site.  She was like, "Why didn't you put that you were getting married on your web site?" and I was like, "What?! Of course I did!" and she was like, "Uh, no you didn't." and I was like, "Look I'll show you! I'm not crazy!" and she was like, "ok".  So I start looking through my web site and was like, "...damn it...".

Today is Jenny's birthday.  I hope she has a good birthday today - even though she's working all day today which sucks.  But's that's OK, this past weekend her parents came up and we celebrated with them.  Then this weekend we can celebrate again with our friends. 

People always give me crap when I don't like a popular band - or when I used to like a band and now I don't because they've 'sold out'. Because they've turned their backs on the true and sacred love and enjoyment of music for a fatter wallet and bigger house.

I would just like to wish everyone a Happy New Year. So far this year has been pretty good (2 days total). Let's hope the rest of the year brings everyone good times. 2005 was a non-eventful year, which is better than having a year full of bad memories. I know this year will be the same or better hopefully. 

Just wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays. Hope everyone has a good time with their friends and family and get all the presents they wanted. :P

For Christmas I got some good presents including:

Today is my parents 30 year wedding anniversary. I would just like to congratulate them and their commitment to each other. I would also like to say thanks for being great parents to Nicole and I. Who knows how we would of turned out without you. Here's to another 30 years. (end mush). 

With Christmas right around the corner, Jenny and I decided to decorate for the holiday. Normally we visit family during X-mas so we are not home. This year is no different but we decided to decorate and get a tree anyways.

It's been several days since I last posted here. I try to post everyday but sometimes I just don't have the time or don't have anything to talk about. So instead, I'll post some general crap that's happening right now.

I would just like the wish everyone a happy Thanksgiving. I know the rest of the world does not celebrate it but the US does, and I love it. Nothing beats visiting lots of relatives and eating lots of good food.

I got back from vacation on Friday, but really haven't had much time to post about it until now. 

I've spent the past week (Mon-Fri) on a cruise ship with friends. The main purpose of this trip was my friend's wedding which happened Wednesday on the ship.

Just FYI, that I will be going on vacation for the next week. Should be back sometime next weekend. I wont have access to a PC so I can't update the site or check my e-mails.

Until then. I'll post some info and pictures from the trip when I return. Later.

This weekend I had to go out and buy a new sound card for my gaming PC. So I spent $70 and bought a Sound Blaster Audigy 2 ZS.

More info on the card here >> Audigy 2 ZS

Today is me and Jenny's 7 year anniversary. 7 years? That's a hell of a long time. It's been a good 7 years though, so no complaints from me. I'm really glad I have Jenny in my life. Without her, who knows where I'd be right now (probably stuck in Havasu living with my parents).

Ok, so it's not exactly a new PC. I built this PC a few months ago. This computer kicks ass, and should last me a couple of years before I have to upgrade again.

I bought all the parts from the horrible, HORRIBLE company TigerDirect (see why I hate them here). After their crappy service I finally got the PC put together and it has been running flawlessly ever since. Below are the basic specs:

I just got done building a new gaming computer yesterday. And it kicks ass. It's a 64-bit system running dual channel memory, SATA hard drives, and a PCI-express video card. This PC should last me 2-4 years easily. Check out the full stats below:

This is just one man's story, but I'm sure there are many others. Never in my life have I had a worse shopping experience than with Tiger Direct, and I do a majority of my shopping online. I frequently shop online with Amazon, EBay, Best Buy, and countless other major retailers. Plus, I've done some business at smaller mom and pop web sites. But never have I come across an experience as bad as the one with Tiger Direct. Here's my story.

Me an my buddy of mine decided to put together a PlayStation 3 fan site. This site is dedicated to the upcoming game console, the PS3. Although the PS3 wont be out in the US until later in 2006, seeing the development and previews of the system and its games is exciting.