Morning Light	February 23 2005, 05:49 pm
Definitely enjoyed this past weekend. . . having an extra day to relax was nice, having Yanyan around was even better. . . good times, good times. . . we even managed to find some time to repaint my Silent Scope sniper rifle. :) Its not 100% done, but it looks a hell of a lot better than before. I still think them making it green in the beginning to match the XBox was a dumb idea. Apparently the marketplace thought so too, as the newer versions are black with green trim. . . Once the weather clears up I'll apply one more coat of paint before I apply the ultra flat black paint. . . and that'll wrap up this tiny little project. Next up. . . the Seburo MN-23. . . muwahaha. . . So far work has not been exacting, but definitely keeping me busy. Preparations for the 70-291 exam are well underway. . . although me heading for Camelot Command this weekend may put a crimp in my schedule. Fortunately, alot of the materials in the book I seemed to have covered when I was prepping for my Network+ exam.
Posted by: Paladin

Much needed rest	February 19 2005, 01:55 am
Yanyan's plane arrived without incident early this evening, and as soon as I picked her up from the airport, we started getting reacquainted with one another. One month is a long time to be apart. . . but fortunately both of us passed the sanity checks. Dinner was delicious at Gumbo's. . . although it was a tad bit expensive, I considered it a well deserved treat to celebrate both Yanyan's homecoming as well as me passing my 1st MCSE exam. Following dinner we dropped by Dave & Buster's for a bit, since its been months since I've been there. There's been some minor changes, apparently. The ticket-issuing arcades aren't as lucrative anymore, although we chanced upon one which we calculated to be the most economical. We tried playing the DDR-like machine, but stupid me picked the wrong option and we were both wiped out. There's a new shooting game called Ghost Squad that's pretty cool, where you're using sub-machine guns in 2-player mode. Unfortunately the major drawback is they don't allow you to duck & cover, which is a big no-no in my book. Otherwise, it was pretty fun. I tried to see if I can get my card switched to a personalized Gold Card, but apparently they were out of the forms at the front desk today. Guess I'll try again next time. Okay. . . time for some shut-eye. . . going to be busy in the kitchen tomorrow prepping food for Yanyan's friends whom she invited over for dinner. . . should be interesting. . . hope my downstairs neighbors won't mind the incessant pounding caused by the phenomenon that is DDR. :)
Posted by: Paladin

First Strike	February 18 2005, 12:23 am
After weeks of preparations, today I launched a surprise attack against one of the core nodes of the MCSE certification track. 70-290 promised to be a major challenge to my ambitions, and I'm not disappointed at the fight it gave me. Considering that the MCSE exams had over a year to entrench themselves in, and I only had three weeks to prepare for the assault, I can't say I'm surprised at the casualties I took. But in the end. . . I came. . . I saw. . . I struggled. . . and I prevailed. So pending my receipt of the certificate from MS, I'm a bona fide MCP now. But I'm not done though. . . I've got 10 more exams to go before I'm satisfied. . . and now that I know exactly what kind of defenses I'll be facing, I can adjust my strategies accordingly. . . In the meantime, I'm taking a deserved R&R the next couple of days as Yanyan flies back in town and visit. We'll be busy with each other before she has to leave again on Monday. . . but we'll treasure our time together. :) And then its onward to tackle 70-291. . . and time's a ticking. . .
Posted by: Paladin

CPEs are fun. . .	February 8 2005, 08:17 pm
Continuous Professional Trainings are fun. . . hands down. I just finished a two-day course on how to deploy and utilize Microsoft's Internet Security & Acceleration 2004, and man did I learn lots of neat tricks. It'll be uber useful when it comes time to deploy the new Exchange server at work so I can lock the entire system down tight and sleep a little better at night. I won't claim that its uncrackable, but I will feel safer that the average script kiddie won't have a field day at our expense. Despite what everyone says about Microsoft, they actually have the right idea this time around with ISA2004. My only complaint would be why they didn't include this with the server platform. . . all other OSes include security features as standard, instead of as an option. A good example of an ultra greedy business decision that turns a perfectly good product sour in the marketplace's eyes. . . Nonetheless. . . the primer on security was very helpful, as it lends a hand in my preparation for the MCSE exams. . . and the instructor was also able to confirm my suspicion on the actual software licenses required to deploy everything that we need. I'm going to run it by a few other people, but if it works, I might've just saved the company several thousand dollars. . . and that'll be a big feather in my cap. :) Okay. . . time for dinner. . . then more MCSE studying. . . I'm going to try and be ready by Thursday so I can take the first exam on Friday. . . although I may push it back to next week just to be safe. . . :P
Posted by: Paladin

Landmates	February 6 2005, 09:01 pm
Okay. . . so I'm stubborn like a rock until I achieve an objective that I aim for. But after some more hours of searching, at last I came across these images from NixFlix.com. . . Images are property of their respective creators Happy happy happy. . . joy joy joy. . .
Posted by: Paladin

Appleseed. . . 2004	February 6 2005, 04:46 am
Wow. . . all I can say is wow. . . the new revision to the 1988 classic anime blew all my expectations away. Although they varied in different areas from the 1988 version, I have to say they erred on the side of being true to the original manga series. Which was a surprise in and of itself. Simply put, the audio was very complimentary to the CGI/animation which were very pleasing to the eye. Although I'm still getting used to have CGI in the background of anime characters, Macross Zero went to very great lengths to adjust me in preparation for this feast. The action sequences were very well presented, and the storyline (although having some minor annoying gaps), was all in all very gratifying. Masamune Shirow should be pleased with his work. Hell. . . the opening sequence alone was enough for the price of admission. The sight of an assault squad of land mates low-altitude dropping into a firefight and blowing everything away was enough to leave me in a catatonic state of ecstasy. :) Meanwhile. . . YanYan finally got her state inspection done on her car (with the recommendation to fix her front brakes) today. Disturbingly enough, she was approached by a recently divorced gentleman who expressed an interest in seeing her in a more informal setting. Supposedly she brushed him off, and I'm of the inclination to trust her in this matter. Nonetheless, I'm concerned enough to want to deploy a squad of land mates and guard her 24/7. . . just in case this happens again. . . :P I would attach an image of exactly what an assault squad of landmates would look like, but after several hours of searching online (instead of studying for my MCSE) this ended in dismal failure. . . so I guess you'll just have to find a chance and watch it yourself. ;)
Posted by: Paladin

Lo and behold. . .	February 2 2005, 06:01 pm
Spent all weekend getting a head start on my MCSE quest. . . and I'm glad I did. So far its only been day 4, and I'm already almost halfway through the book. If things go this well, I should be ready to tackle my first exam by end of next week. Interestingly enough, YanYan spent all day Saturday trying to clean her car. She found much to her surprise (and much to my amusement) that trying to wash your car in freezing tempertures is not a good idea. But after much toil and labor the car was clean, or so she says. I'll believe her until notified otherwise. Now onto the interesting news. . . after the Dell/Unisys incident last week, I got a email from Dell on Monday morning. Basically, I am now (pending legal forms and taxation) the proud owner of a Dell Dimension 8400 and a 19" LCD, being the lucky winner of one of the prize packages that Dell offered during their Christmas promotion. Not that it does me much good. The specs are on par with Quincy XII, although XII boasts a far larger RAM amount. On the other hand, Yanyan's Insipiron 4150 is not able to keep up with her 3D renderings anymore, and she's been making noises that she would like to have a desktop instead. So as it stands, the Dimension will probably go to her, although I intend to keep the 19" LCD. . . :P Alright. . . enough yapping. . . time to go home and continue cramming for the MCSE. . .
Posted by: Paladin