MOAR POWAH !!!

Well it was more than about time. Over the past weekend I have finally upgraded my aging computer with something much better; even if it's no power house the difference can already be felt. Double the number of cores (Intel i5 2.66ghz quad core), quadruple the amount of RAM (8gb) and finally a 64bit OS (Windows 7; Windows 8 is a bit too new to my liking). Yes there are faster machines out there but for me that's a big jump. I do have a pretty serious bottleneck at the moment: I have to wait a couple pay days to get a new video card worthy of the more modern tech so I'm currently using the trusty old GeForce 8800 GT. But even with this old card things are much better. For example, Skyrim. Where it used to take me a good 20-30 seconds to load the game now it's pretty much instantaneous. The aging card keeps me from bumping up the visual quality of the game but where I used to have a few snags and glitches now everything is fast and fluid. Same in EVE Online where I can bump up everything to high. My video card of choice will be a GF 660GTX with 2gb of GDDR5 RAM. Again not the top of the food chain but more than enough for me.

Of course with the new video card I'll also get a new power supply; not that my current one can't handle it but I also needed to use the one from my old box. So soon I will have TWO computers. My boys will be happy... of course the new problem will be to decide who gets to play on dad's machine. I also have to make room for a second computer and in my small appartment that is quite the challenge. But for the moment there's only one working machine so no rush.

But the wait for that magic pay day (February 21st to be exact) will be a long one. I cannot wait to see Skyrim in all its glory, play my Xmas present, F1 2012, and maybe pay a visit to a certain tropical island in the South Pacific; I hear some dip-shit pirate needs a lesson in insanity... I shall teach him all about it >:)

Fly crazy

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Aight I'm Back Edition

Filmed last spring at the John Bonham Birthday Bash event. Yes, Bonzo heir Jason was in attendance :) In fact Mr Portnoy used the correct instruments, Jason's own kit which is basically the same Ludwig/Paiste 2002 setup as his dad's.

That shitty flu is now gone, and just in time because we got hit with a -40 freeze wave. As I'm writing this temps are getting better as it is now a balmy -16C (-25 windchill factor). But on Wednesday? Oh damn. Religious type people may fear a fiery Hell, but this silly place is known as a "vacation resort" up here. If you want to go out in this ridiculousness you have to dress for it because in a bad situation, this could actually kill you! But you know what? I'll take -40 over +40 temperatures anyday of the week; sorry desert area dwellers, my wasteland is better than yours! :))

Back from being sick means more activity so see ya soon!

o7

F@$% this virus!

As you may have noticed I'm taking a bit of a blogging break. I've been sick pretty much all week and didn't play much of anything, including drums and EVE. I've done the Wednesday corp PvP op and put a big one in the skill queue. I've also played a bit of Skyrim, starting a new character that's basically my old Redguard dude but this time focusing a bit more on a Spellsword/Archer/Assassin evil personality. I've already taken some heat by telling off Vilkas after the first big Companion quest mission; being a werewolf with the 100% resist disease is just too much win. I'm using the Live Another Life mod among other things (I've got 30 or so various mods) so instead of the usual "cart ride to execution" start I began as a new Dark Brotherhood recruit (skipping the usual start as well), and as soon as you meet a town NPC you get a quest to investigate what's happening with Helgen and the Imperial/Stormcloak war. There are now many ways to start the game anew.

Apart from that this week I've mostly been vegetating on the couch watching some play-throughs and documentaries. My brain just can't do more at the moment. So the usual Friday music video will be skipped as I try to get rid of this stupid fucking virus.

Fly hard and may the road lead you to warm sands!

o7

Friday's Electric Lunch Hour - Painful Edition

A while ago when I started posting music videos I posted this tune but the video got removed by the user for whatever reason. It wasn't YouTube for once. Well, here's a better version of this classic Quebecois tune by Offenbach. Enjoy!

o7

ZOMG EVE Montreal makes the EVE News !!!

Kapow !!!

That's right, our bi-monthly (read every fourteen days) EVE pilots meet just got a massive publicity boost thanks to CCP Falcon! All of a sudden Montreal pilots I didn't know about saw my forum thread and started posting in it, and the EVE MTL in-game channel saw an unprecedented 18 players in it yesterday night. I'll be going to Brutopia tonight to make the reservation but I'll be coming back home in a hurry to make my presence known in the channel. I am the one publicizing our meets after all :)

Aight sorry for the lack of postage lately. I've had a busier holiday time than expected, accompanied by a few more hangovers than expected. Example: when a barmaid from a micro-brewery invites you for said micro-brewery's New Year party you do not say no if you have no other plans! Plus I've had other interests pulling me left right and center. I'm still very much into the drumming thing (drumline gig in February, possible gig in late March, and possible reprise of the Wishmaster OES event!) so I gotta make sure I not only remember my parts, I also need to make sure I know the parts of basses 4 AND 5 because we may be playing some gigs with 4 bass players only, which means I gotta fill in the holes left by the missing bass.

I also still have a huge interest in some game that came out last year, a game about adventure and excitement; warriors shouldn't crave it :) But yeah, thanks to a ton of very interesting mods I'm still very much into Skyrim even though my current computer is starting to hate me for it. Yes this box is on its last legs for the latest games. It's fine for the older games my boys play on it but Skyrim and EVE Online hit the limit of what my current machine can do. I've received a Steam gift in the form of F1 2012 and that has to wait, and even though I'm really interested in it I can't even think of installing Farcry 3. But this will be fixed tomorrow as I start putting together a newer machine; OK it won't be a ridiculously overpowered bomb, but an Intel i5 with 8gb of RAM running Windows 7 will be a huge step forward for me. I have to keep my current graphics card for just a little while but even then, I have the feeling the machine will breathe a lot easier.

During the holidays Chez Stan held its first official PvP op, blooding one n00b to the joys of The PvP. Our little 5-man gang was successful in erasing a juicy obvious bait from existence, at the cost of one Caracal. We then roamed towards the Caldari-Gallente border but after many jumps of seeing nothing in space a big Faction Warfare gang got wind of us between Heydeiles and Old Man Star, but because of good scouting we lost only a Vexor and our n00b's Talwar. It was enough for us to call it a night because it was getting late, and because of our juicy kill we were still on top in the ISK battle. Plus it was great fun :)

So there's my short update. The next one will be made from the newer, much faster machine. I'm crossing my fingers so that the migration goes well!

Fly hard and see you at Brutopia !!!

o7

First Music Video of 2013 - No Fucking Around Edition

This should excuse my lateness :)

Happy New Year everyone !!!

o7