The last time I kept up with any computer technology was probably more than 5 years ago.  That was when everything was simple:  Intel was way behind AMD, there was only one set of RAM, hard drives over 500gb was only dreamt about, and GeForce/Radeon lines had less than 3 series.  Now, Intel has far surpassed AMD (though mainly through marketing), there’s now DDR3 along with the older DDR2 and the first DDR, 2TB (that’s 2000GB) hard drives are now in use, and nVidia/ATI now have 3476274+ different series of cards (over exaggeration of course, it’s more like 10?).

Well, about a year ago I bought an HP Laptop for ~$700 shipped.  Specs: Intel Core2Duo T7500 2.2ghz, 2gb RAM, 120GB hd, GeForce something something graphics, HDMI output… Yep, you heard me correctly, all that for around $700.00!  In today’s market, that’s probably still a standard if not over powering most others.  However, due to the University of Houston’s network being so poorly integrated with Windows Vista, 95% of the time I cannot wirelessly connect and thereby defeating my main purpose of getting a laptop!  So, I just sold it a couple days ago for $600.00!

Now I’ve decided to just build another rig.  I’ve built two computers in the past, first one in 5th grade with the majority of the work being done by my cousin, and the second one all by myself (yes, you can say that again to the tune of huggies, i’m a big kid now).

Since I’ll be moving out, I’ve decided to make this a multimedia rig instead of for gaming, though it’s basically the same thing except for i’ll be getting no graphics card but instead high end sound/tuner.  This way, my computer will double as TV/Home Theatre/etc…

Now the goal here is to make a multimedia/soft gaming rig but only using up to $600.00, the price at which I sold the laptop.  Possible?  Haha well this is why I’m going back with AMD!  With AMD’s processor, you get more out of the box, a crap load more, for a fraction of the cost.

For now, we’ll call this Project AKUMA.  That should already tell you exactly which cpu will be in use…  =)  In the end, cost must be <$600.00, completed < SC2/Diablo3, 22-24″ LCD, comparable to $1000.00 setup from Dell or HP.  Let the games begin!

Eight days.  Yep!  No freakin power for eight freain days after the Hurricane Ike hit Houston!  So yea, this post is dedicated to everyone out there who found something to do with their lives for the past couple days and of course to those who still gotta figure out what to do until Centerpoint fixes everything.

But hey, GOOD FREAKING JOB CENTERPOINT!  You guys are awesome!  (I am really really happy, not being sarcastic btw)

WooT!

Only sad part — I’ve lost 1 fish (pretty expensive one too) and 2 others are kinda struggling.  =(

Right now it is 11:00AM and I am sitting on 8th floor of the M.D. Anderson Library overlooking Melcher Hall.  University of Houston has resumed classes, having only one official off day yesterday on Monday.  However, many of the professors have decided to cancel classes anyway, so I am basically just sitting here using my laptop for the first time since the storm hit.

My neighborhood is still powerless as of today.  It went out around 3:00AM Saturday during the storm.  Saturday night and Sunday was pretty hot.  No A/C kinda really sucks.  Sunday night, we had a cold front so that was pretty nice.  Besides the A/C being off, the only other electrical need would probably be for my fish tanks which are currently running on one battery powered pump shared between the 4 tanks.

As for damages, my house was a bit lucky.  The backyard is destroyed but compared to others’, I think we actually received the better half of the wrath.  The back fence (which is a 12 footer, not the normal 8ft ones) collapsed due to the back neighbor’s tree coming down and hitting our patio.  The roof is missing a couple tiles (not sure what they’re called) and therefore caused some water leaks on one side of the house.

Well, enough talk since you guys probably have your own experiences with the storm, so here are some pictures that I managed to take.

Some crazy looking baby animal in dug out hole next the the garden bricks.  That thing looks nasssty!  It has no fur and was just wiggling around.  We left it there, but the next day, it disappeared.  I know theres a squirrel nest in the tree, and the squirrel was rebuilding it, so this golum looking thing might be a squirrel…

So Hau just instant messaged me awhile ago and was like, “How’s the weather?”  At first, I kind of forgot the situation we were having and I thought it was one of those retarded “Nice weather we’re having” type of pick up lines.  But yea, so I decided to go check on thing outside.  The weather’s not that bad.  It’s pretty windy, but I can still fall down when I lean into the wind, so there’s still nothing to see yet.  Now if I were able to lean forward into the wind and have the gust push against my body weight to where I cant fall down, THEN you know you’ve got something on your hands.

Here’s the image from StormPulse on Hurricane Ike.

It’s a little bit past 10:00PM and if you look closely, you can see that the eye of the storm is about 100 miles away from Houston.  Some areas of Houston, such as Bellaire, have already lost electricity but up here in NW Houston, things are still somewhat okay.  My lights have been flickering and internet connection has been going on and off…and I still have homework to finish up!

So, after I finish my homework, I’ll go take a hot shower before things get dark and water gets messed up.  For now, hope everyone else is bunkered down with a fully charged laptop and a couple of long movies to get through this very boring night!  See ya when the power comes back!

Well, if you guys know me, I don’t play much console game at all. Last console I had was a N64…which my cousin still needs to return to me since the past 4 years or so. =)

Anyway, I happen to stumble upon some Official Nintendo Wii Wheels for the new Mario Kart Wii! I have (3) brand new OEM ones that need to go! You will get one Official Nintendo Wii Wheel in its original plastic package with the disclaimer/info packet. It does not come with the box since it’s OEM, but hey, that’s why YOU get to SAVE some money! Why pay a couple more bucks for a box that you’ll throw away the second you open it.

Here’s a link to Amazon’s item to compare the price. Originally it’s $14.99, but they are having a sale right now for $9.99 with shipping if you order over $25.00 it looks. So, if you guys are located in Houston, TX and would like to pick it up, I’ll give it away for $7.00 for one. I rather not do shipping and deal with “unseen” customers, but if you really want it and need it shipped, just pay the $7.00 and also for shipping.

Contact me for more details if interested! And hey, you know my entire life story if you’ve visited my site often, so there’s no need to worry about fraud! =)

While logging onto my email account today, I saw on the front page: ______ Vietnam. I had to click the “back” button cause it caught my eyes right when I had clicked to another page. So yea, Vietnam is on the news…but not for some devious crime, or drug dealings, or communist talk, but rather for a pretty awesome discovery.

In Northern Vietnam, researchers found a giant turtle that was thought to be extinct in the wild (only three of them are recorded alive and they are all being cared in captivity).

Anyway, there’s a folktale that tells of a giant turtle that rose from a lake to give the emperor a sword to defeat the Chinese. The discovery of this rare species brings back this amazing story and may even be a symbol or foreshadowing of things to come for Vietnam…

Read the full story here!

Facebook is pretty awesome. While looking at some of my friends’ listed events, I saw the one for Baskin-Robbins’ $0.31 cent Scoops Night on April 30th! This has got to be one of the best things ever. Ben and Jerry’s also has a similar deal, but theirs is free! However, it makes me feel bad for not having to pay anything at all, cause that means they’re losing full cost and not making any profit. In BR’s case, they may not be making a profit, but at least they won’t be losing full cost. (Actually, it’s just one scoop of ice cream for 31 cents…so I’m pretty sure they ARE making some profit…and with the amount of people who shows up…)

So yea, this reminded me of last year’s event where I took my nephews. I remember it was saved on my broken Razr’s memory card so here they are! The little one pictured in front is Phu (Jason), and the older brother in the back is Phong (Jonathan). This is off topic, but pretty cool: Phong claims he has had 10+ girlfriends. =)

Toyota sent out their Yaris team out to UH last week. It seems like the Yaris’ sponsorship of different youth-oriented events have yet to decline. This time it was the “Yaris Road To Success” which basically highlighted non-traditional careers. They had video game graphics designers, automotive technicians, artists, music label recorders, etc…come out to show us what they did and basically give students a little encouragement to go against the norm (such as pursuing careers in the medical fields).

Those two days the Yaris team was there, they had given away free iPods (8 times in total). It was basically a random raffle drawing, and even though I was there all 8 times (yes I had to skip class for this…but eh, the opportunity cost seemed good), I didn’t manage to win any. They just told me to log onto their site and sign in every day for next two weeks (one more week left now) to try to win something else. Bullcrap huh? Well take a look at this!!!

Booya! I just won a freaking iTunes Gift Card that’s gonna be waiting for me at my doorsteps within 4-6 weeks! I guess these things do work. Now all I have to do is find someone who wants to give/buy me an iPod to put my gift card to use…

**EDIT 11:46PM**
Yea, so I told Jonathan about how I wont the iTunes Gift Card. I was logging in everyday for the past week and I finally won something. He’s like, “Sweet! What’s the website?” So I give him the website, he logs in for the first time, then responds to me with, “I won a Target Gift Card.”

Dude! What the freak?! He just comes waltzing in and there he gets something better. I mean, who the heck needs a stupid iTunes Gift Card now and days… hehehe =)

Has it even been a year since Windows Vista was released? Though I have not yet tested it out, I have only heard bad things about it. Yes, there are some “wows” here and there, but supposedly it’s been a slow climb, or even a fall, from Windows XP.

Anyway, Windows has started a promotion called “The Ultimate Steal” which offers Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for only $59.99! This is a great deal for those whose school store does not offer them any IT discounts. According to their site, you must have an actual student email account (something that ends in .edu) and still be an existing student. That also means that anyone in high school or lower levels of education will probably not be able to jump on this deal.

Check out this link to read up more about this offer.
Or check out this link to compare the different Office Suites offered.
And finally, check out this last link to purchase Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate Edition for just $59.99!

Now when you come to the site, it’ll show you a countdown timer. Disregard that! Just type in your email and then wait a couple minutes, hours, days, or whatnot to get a confirmation email with an account number and password to actually place an order. Remember, this only works if you have an email address from a higher educational institute!

For those who are interested in this but are not in college yet or for some reason can’t get this, I’m not in the need for it so just message me to buy one for you.

Also, my own UH school store is selling various programs for really cheap. If you have anything you need, give me a holla and I’ll see what I can do.