rebelpeon.com

Blog

  • Modding the Xbox

    Wow, it’s been awhile since I updated. Lots of fun (and not so fun things) have happened these last couple of weeks. Where to begin, where to begin… Well, I’ll start with why I haven’t been updating the site. Just the pure fact that I’ve been busy both with work and playing Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic on the xbox. Definitely one of the best games I’ve ever played. If you own an xbox, go get it. Don’t even bother renting it, just go buy it. Now that I’m looking at ebgames, I see that it’ll be released for the PC too. I’ve got about 30 hours into the game, and I can’t put it down.

    So, from the above, it’s obvious that I have my xbox up and running…with the modchip. It took a little fighting with to do it, but overall not too painfull. Just had to open the xbox up, solder a row of pin headers on, then solder one other tiny wire (the hardest part) on. The nice thing is that if I ever get xbox live, it has a switch to disable the modchip, so Microsoft doesn’t block me from using it. I just need to put a bigger harddrive in it, and get a wireless network going in my apartment that I can connect the xbox to.

    Work has been crazy busy. Three weekends ago, the first homegame we had, the gameday server went down, which is what they use to print of credentials for the staff working the games. Needless to say, I got called at 6:30am. Thankfully, since I’m not a student (aka partier) anymore, it wasn’t that big of a deal. We knew the server was having problems because it had been doing funny things, but we (and hp) had diagnosed it to being the ram. We replaced the ram, and thought, “Great, we’re all set now.” Yeah, it wasn’t. After awhile we couldn’t even get it to post bios without screaming beep-codes at us. Nick and I pretty much narrowed it down to the motherboard, so we gave HP a call. The guy we had went through a few basic tests with us, and also narrowed it down to the motherboard. So, HP sent us a new one. Talk about easy to replace. All it was, was 1 thumbscrew holding it down. And sure enough, it seems to be working.

    On other side notes, I have STILL yet to be paid. I was supposed to be paid on the 16th (with everybody else). However, for some unknown reason (even the the HR dept), I wasn’t. Apparantly my pay has been bumped back to the 24th now. I’m very looking forward to the paycheck, since if i don’t get it, rent’s going to be difficult to pay (I’ve already paid all the bills I need to worry about for a month).

    Sorry about the laziness on my part, I’ll be sure to attempt to update the site a ‘lil more often than 2x a month 🙂

  • Xbox

    Well, I bought an xbox yesterday. I had already bought the mod chip for it online, so yesterday was as good as any other day to buy the console. Obviously I plan on modding it and then using it as a little server downstairs by the tv/reciever. I’ll get a wireless AP and card for the xbox so that once I mod it, I can stream music, video, etc down to it. That way I can listen to my music that I have on my server up here, down on the big speakers and receiver. I’m psyched about it, should be good times.

    Yesterday was the first Illini homegame, and of course I got a call at 6:30 in the morning because the credentials server went down. We thought we had fixed the problem by replacing the ram (that’s what the led codes on the motherboard said was bad), but apparantly it is something a little more complicated than that. Nick and I were on the phone with HP for awhile, and they are going to send us a new systemboard for the machine. Thankfully we don’t have another homegame for 2 weeks, since the part is backordered for at least 5 days.

    Don’t be surprised if you see a different site layout in the next few weeks. The current one is a little to bloated for my measly connection (especially if I’m using it when people are trying to navigate the site). Plus the current design doesn’t play nice when I look at the logs. I highly doubt I’m getting ~1000 page views a day :).

  • A Real job

    First week of the new job’s done. Wow, is it so much better not being the one that runs around doing all the remedial tasks. It’s nice not having to run to 3 different buildings 8 times a day. I went to my benefits orientation on Wednesday, and WOW do state employees get the hookup. I get 2 paid vacation days a month (bankable to 48), 11 paid holidays, 5 sick days, Health, Dental, and Vision care, retirement plan that either I or the university can maintain (8% of my salaray and the university matches it with 6.5%), life insurance (the university covers the amount equal to my salaray, and i can increase to 4x that), and free tuition. Now I just have to sign up for all this stuff.

    Ohh…Ohh, THE BED CAME!! It was delivered yesterday morning. Wow, is it comfortable. Definitely WAY better than the futon that we were sleeping on (no offense Bree). When I came home from lunch yesterday Colleen had taken one of our flat, full sized sheets from the linen closet and just layed it on the bed so she could sleep. She also took my comforter (also full/queen size) that we had on the futon and used it. Needless to say, when i saw that stuff on the king sized bed it made me chuckle. The bed is huge, and the sheet and comforter just barely cover the top. So, last night we went and got a matress cover and a cheap fitted sheet for it so that we could at least use the bed. When I get a digital camera, I’ll have to take a picture of it. The thing is definitely the main piece of furniture in the room.

    It’s so nice not having to worry about school now. I go to work everyday and pass all the students going to class at 8 in the morning and just laugh to myself. Oh man, does it feel good to be done, and have a job that I enjoy. No more nights staying up cramming for a test, or trying to figure out what exactly the teacher was trying to get us to learn from those stupid assignments. Ahhhh…

  • Friggin Attic

    Wow, these last coupla weeks have been busy/wierd. However, to start off with, I’d like to mention that I just signed my paperwork for DS, so as of Monday, I’m employed fulltime! It’s a great feeling. I’ll also be staying at DIA for (at least) a few months working as the DS consultant. I have more info on this, but I’ll refrain. Last week was HORRIBLE because of the stupid blaster worm. Of course none of our machines were patched on a regular basis, and so we were hit pretty hard. Needless to say I was there till 1am last Tuesday. A lovely 17 hour day…grr. However, now that all the machines have been patched to SP4 and the blaster fix, they can and have all been put behind an SUS server. Thank god for auto-updates.

    I’ve finally gotten the cable jack upstairs, but I had to do everything myself. Grr, I hate Insight (cable company). Apparantly they wouldn’t install an extra jack in my apt because it was an “apt,” but they had no problem doing it to the 4 other apt’s in my building. All I can say is that I believe (as does Colleen) that I did a better job than Insight had done on the other jacks. Shit, and I did it for about the same price (and I have about 30 extra of everything ;)).

    Oh, and so the bed came last thurday (the 14th). However, the boxspring wouldn’t fix up the friggin steps. BY ABOUT AN INCH. Joy. So I told the delivery guy to just return the matress and boxspring. So, I’m fuming as I drive to the furniture store to find out my options. Luckily, Nick (used to be my boss, now he’s my coworker) just purchased the exact same bed, except king sized, from the same place I did. Low and behold the king sized boxspring comes in *2* sections. Unfortunately, it costs 300$ more, PLUS Colleen and I will have to buy new bedding for it. Joy. So I buy it and now we’re waiting yet again for the stupid bed to come.

    It gets better than this, right?!?!

  • All Done…For Now

    Alright, so Colleen and I are moved all in, and are starting to settle in. Unfortunately, it’s hard because we have no furniture. Thankfully, tomorrow, our new bed comes (WHOOT!). I’ve been wanting to update the site, but I’m still on my server here at the apt instead of my normal workstation. There’s only one cable jack in the whole apt, and it’s in the living room in a retarded spot, so I need to call insight and have them install a new jack. However, to do this, I need some free time. Yesterday I worked 17 hours (with only a 1hr lunch break). All of this because my bosses never thought patching machines would be a good idea. Well, they think it is now. Oh, and speaking of the bosses, I’m in line to start my new job as one of the bosses on Monday!! WHOOT!! Oh well, using notepad sucks for this, so I’m done.

  • Moving Part 2

    Moving sucks. That is all.

  • Moving

    *sigh* I really do not want to start moving stuff again. It feels like I just did it (well, actually, I did just do it, back in May). Thankfully we didn’t unbox everything that time, so things should go half-way quickly. In other news, I bought bedding. A very nice Simmons Ultra-Plush Beautyrest. The thing is hella comfortable, and it was hella easy to buy. Walk in, fill out a credit app, let the guy fill out the order, and I’m set. Spending $1000 was never so easy!! Thankfully it was 0% for 6 months, so once the new job paychecks start coming in, I’ll be set. The bed was definitely the first piece of furniture we needed. Soon we’ll get a couch, chair, etc. Most likely I’ll be getting those, since I’m the one that brings home the bacon. 😉

  • Website Maintenance

    Well, I’ve got an archive system up and running. It’s fairly painless. My design implementation has sort of left me with few options for the main menu. Hopefully these sub menu’s within the iFrame will work ok for now. 🙂 Maybe I should get a search page setup now. Oh, the joys of html 😉

  • Good News All Around

    WOOHOOO!!!!!!!!!! I’ve got a job! And I’ve got an apt! See, waiting does pay off 😉

  • Bar Depression

    Why do I keep lying to myself about going to the bars in this city? IT IS NEVER THAT FUN. I swear, I can actually pick out the freshmen/sophomores while they’re waiting in line. At least fall classes haven’t started yet (i.e. you can MOVE in the bars). Oh yeah, and having to drive across town doesn’t help either. *sigh* Oh well, each to their own.