2011 Bolder Boulder Results
by Travis on May.30, 2011, under Fitness, Personal
Soo… I ran my third Bolder Boulder today and successfully shaved off another 11 minutes from last year and came in at 1:03:32! So in total from the first time I ran the race I’ve shaved off 17 minutes and 25 seconds. Next year I think I’ll break that one hour barrier and see just how far under I can go. I probably would have come really close to that one hour mark but I drank too much water before the race and had to stop at bout the 6k mark and hit a roadside port-o-pottie, lol.
Here’s the results from today… not too impressive overall but I’m well pleased!
Running Activity 6.51 mi | RunKeeper.
overall place: 18472/49208
division: M32
division place: 323 out of 497
gender place: 11221 out of 22348
- mile 1: 00:09:44.80
- mile 2: 00:09:47.22
- mile 3: 00:10:39.53
- mile 4: 00:10:18.56
- mile 5: 00:10:08.29
- mile 6: 00:10:54.11
- net time: 01:03:31.48
- pace: 10:13 (based on net time)
Next stop… Tough Mudder Colorado… Just 25 days and counting!
SyFy: The Official Harbinger of Death of Science Fiction
by Travis on May.10, 2011, under General, Rants
Ok, I love Science Fiction. It’s fun, it inspires and overall it’s pretty entertaining anyway… But I feel that SyFy has pretty much killed mainstream delivery of any quality science fiction.
Last night I watched the season/series finale of SGU. After watching it, I kinda wish I hadn’t. The ending was a great season finale, but a horrible series finale. It just didn’t fit well and quite honestly was a blatent banner for how horribly mismanaged that company is. Upon reading up on some things this morning and seeing the giant axe driven into the chest of the Stargate Franchise by SyFy I couldn’t help but feel as though SyFy has done nothing but KILL science fiction over the last few years. Don’t get me wrong, some of the shows out there are pretty decent and whatnot, but overall they seem to wipe out the really good and interesting shows in lieu of something less appealing. Looking back specifically at the StarGate franchise, they cut short SG-1 leaving only a DVD movie to finish the series out; they cut Atlantis, albeit at least with a decent ending but nothing really out there to wrap up the story and then left you hanging out to dry with SGU right when it was finally getting interesting… It wasn’t the best SG series ever, but it was finally gaining some traction in the story line and actually had me intrigued as to what would happen next.
So, I’ve come to a conclusion… I’m done with SyFy… I hope some others of you feel the same way and do what I’m doing. While I enjoy Warehouse 13 and Sanctuary, I’m sick of getting invested in shows that the network just seems to come along and wipe out without any possibility of a solid wrap-up. It happens constantly and they continue to blame the shows when they should be blaming themselves… I’m deleting my DVR schedules and ignoring the pathetic offering SyFy has out there. I’m sure my life will be much better off because of it … Since when did wrestling belong on a channel that was supposed to be dedicated to science fiction? It’s fiction, yes, but there is no science to it. LOL
I took a good long look over the last few years of what SyFy has done and I was just appalled. I remember being able to see some pretty interesting (albeit some even short-lived) shows fill in the gaps during the days that were dedicated to the story theme of science fiction and be ramped up to get into Sci-Fi Fridays with some friends and such… but slowly but surely they’ve replaced those shows with re-runs of semi-reality shows and the removal of good ole b-rated scifi flicks filling in where they lacked content for shows… it reminds me of the loss of MTV to “reality” shows in the 90’s… on a side note to that: it’s disturbing that Beavis and Butthead are being brought back… what will they talk about? the latest episode of 16 and pregnant? *rolls eyes*
While I’m bashing in SyFy, I think it’s fair to say and worth mentioning that I think TV in general has gone down the tubes… looking over most of the shows I used to watch and watch now… I spend FAR less time watching TV now than I did even 5 years ago. I guess that’s a good thing though right?
Epic Fail Sony… EPIC FAIL.
by Travis on Apr.26, 2011, under Humor, Tech Stuff
All I can do is shake my head… really? I’m soooooo glad I don’t use PSN. What a bummer for those “70 million subscribers”….
(CNN) — A hacker has obtained the personal information of PlayStation Network account holders and subscribers of the Qriocity streaming service, Sony said in a message to customers Tuesday.
Sony’s investigations over the past week determined that an “unauthorized person” had obtained users’ names, home addresses, e-mail addresses, birth dates and passwords, according to a statement being sent to all account holders.
The attack also has crippled Sony’s PlayStation Network, which has some 70 million subscribers and has been down since April 20. The network lets customers download video games from the Web and play against each other online.
“While there is no evidence at this time that credit card data was taken, we cannot rule out the possibility,” said Sony Computer Entertainment and Sony Network Entertainment, which manage the two services, in a joint statement.
The hacker could have taken credit card numbers, card expiration dates, billing addresses, answers to security questions and purchase history, but not credit-card security codes, they said.
Sony is encouraging customers “to protect against possible identity theft or other financial loss” by reviewing credit-card statements. The company also suggested that some customers may want to place a “fraud alert” with credit bureaus.
Sony did not say how many accounts had been compromised. A spokeswoman declined to comment Tuesday.
Some subscribers reacted angrily to the news.
“You waited a WEEK to tell us our (personal) information was compromised?” one PlayStation user wrote on a Sony blog. “That should have been said last Thursday” — the day when Sony first acknowledged the issue.
The intrusions occurred between April 17 and 19, according to the statement. On April 20, Sony switched off the PlayStation and Qriocity online services, which have remained in the dark.
Users and paid subscribers were also mostly in the dark until Tuesday about the reason for the lengthy outage or about when services would be reinstated.
Sony initially said its PS network would be be back online within one to two days.
On Tuesday, PlayStation spokesman Patrick Seybold wrote in a statement that it could take another week before they “expect to restore some services.”
The SkyFort Installation
by Travis on Mar.27, 2011, under General
Ok, so this was on heck of a project, lol. Ordered up the kit from Sam’s Club (thanks to my parents for letting me use their Sam’s card) for about $1400 shipped. We recieved the boxes, all 5 of them (4 plus the slide) about 4 days after ordering, I was pretty amazed. Here’s the outline review of the process. I wish I’d had more time in single days to dedicate to the project, but overall it didn’t take too terribly long. The first couple of days were hard to work on the project as I only had a couple hours after work.
Day 1 (2-3 hours work):
Unpack the boxes, review all the parts, etc.
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Amanda, supervising the unpacking of the parts.
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The piles growing in the back yard staging area.
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That’s a whole lot of parts!
Day 2 (1-2 hours work):
Let the assembly begin!
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A good chunk of Day 2 was spent not only getting the framework together but leveling the dang thing. Nothing says awesome like having to dig into the ground in odd places to shave off some land to get the main playhouse level.
Day 3 (3-4 hours work):
Finally, some visual progress!
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While I didn’t get quite as far as I had wanted to this day, at least the floor, the picnic table and all the primary supports were in place. The framework was also anchored into the ground at this point.
Day 4 (4-5 hours work):
This was a Saturday. While I’d hoped to get more work in today, it was cold in the morning then a busted cordless drill set me back an hour or so. Had to go get another one from Sears. Bummer.
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I was hoping for a little more done today, at least get the slide and the steps up, but alas, it wasn’t in the cards. Kiddos will have to wait til Day 5 and me skipping a few steps to get the slide in so they have something to play on while I finish this thing. lol
Day 5 (4-5 hours work):
Much more progress today!
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Coming along nicely, next stop, the roof!
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Finally a roof! Assembly of this wasn’t too hard at all. Just more time consuming due to the smaller parts being assembled all over.
A lot got done today visually, but it really wasn’t much more work than Day 4. Still, it was finally coming together and looking like something!
Day 6 (5-6 hours work):
Finally almost there! Major progress visually, despite the fact it only took a few hours to get the monkey bars and the swings operational.
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Day 7 (1 hour work): FINISHED!
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All in all it wasn’t a bad project. My only complaints were some of the upper portions (where the use of smaller parts is more common) didn’t quite fit correctly. Not much modification was needed but you needed to know how to spot some of upcoming problems of placing a piece in a location that you might have to move it from later. Accuracy of the instructions to the parts, I’d give it a 7 out of 10. Nothing structurally problematic though, just mostly cosmetic. The only major issue I had with this was the lack of enough 3″ lag screws and 3/4″ truss bolts/barrell nuts and lock nuts. Those things were the bane of my existance. Nothing a trip to Home Depot didn’t fix, however.
I most certainly wouldn’t say this thing is sturdy enough for adults to play on, but the kiddos… you could load up about 5-6 on there without a single hint of strain. I for one am glad to be done with it. The last day just bugged me getting the final little pieces finished and all checked out. Can’t complain too much though as it sure beat buying something similar from Backyard Adventures or Rainbow for twice as much. Just an FYI, this set is made by a company called Backyard Liesure Holdings which just so happens to be the same company that creates the following playsets:
– Create-N-Adventure™
– Adventure Playsets™
– Backyard Adventures™
– Leisure Time Products™
– Backyard Builders™
– Politron™
Pretty interesting. So all in all I got the same product (for the most part) as Backyard Adventures for about half the cost, although I had to put in the ~24-25 hours of work. Still worth it in the end to see the kids having a blast playing on it. If you’re looking for an affordable, large scale playset. I can’t say I’d warn you away. Just make sure you take your time, read the instructions and assemble the parts properly. 🙂
Now comes the fun part of destroying the old swingset and playhouse… muhaha!
