First I just found Powder, a Rogue-like clone, originally for the GBA, but ported to many different systems.  It is stylist based and is frankly awesome.  And completely frustrating.  You cannot die, period.  If you die and reload, it does not count your score.  But each dungeon is completely random and does not get old.  Who needs fancy graphics and new fangaled tilt controls and all that.  The best games are the classics.  This is definitely a classic.  While it can be a bit boring and repetitious in the fact that there is not much difference in the levels, but what keeps me playing is just wanting to level up and get new gear.  And it’s hard…I NEED to beat it.  Along the same lines is another Rogue clone, Nethack.  But I think I like Powder better.  Maybe I’ll have to reinstall Nethack for my Touch and play that as well.

 Another great classic is XCOM:UFO Defense.  I played this game forever.  It is a great remake of the original.  Very well put together.  For those who don’t know what XCOM was, it is a isometric turned based shooter.  And somewhat of a strategy game.  You have bases that you need to build up and research technology.  Then you have a plane you fly around the world and go to alien hot spots and kill the little buggers.  They might be invading a city, or you may have shot down one of their space craft.  This game is completely frustrating as well.  Well only in the beginning, until you get some power ups.  Then it gets fun, blasting aliens and trying to ride the Earth of it’s invaders.  This interface was completely done for a touch screen as well.  It works very well using just the stylus.

So far these games have taken up hours of my time.  If you have a pocket pc definitely try these out. 

I've had a Sprint Touch since the beginning of December.  At first I loved it.  I could do so much.  And was so customizable.  That was probably the best thing and worst.  I always wanted to try new things.  Sometimes it messed up my phone.  Of course Windows Mobile had it's quirks.  But overall I liked it.  Until ActiveSync started going screwy on me.  Then the hardware button on my phone died.  I was not happy.  Luckily it didn't cost too much to get it replaced from Sprint.  And shortly after that Sprint and HTC released Windows Mobile 6.1 and turned on GPS.  I was in love again.  Hopefully Windows will get the next OS right and allow all finger input like the iphone. 

Invisible Shield vs BoxWave screen protectors

I am a huge fan of Invisible Shield.  I have them on my camera, psp, previous phones and the Touch.  I love them all.  Easy to put on.  Don't have to worry about messing up the install, just peel off and re-wet.  Well I decided to try a new one on my 2nd Touch.  So on PPCGeeks I read that Box Wave was good.  So I tried one. 

First off I hated install.  It is a hard piece of plastic and not softer like the Invisible Shield.  And it was actually sticky, unlike the Invisible Shield.  So your finger prints will show up if you manhandle it.  Second it was not easy to get the dust or hair out from under it.  I never had that problem with any of the Invisible Shields.  Now that said.  I really like it.  It is hard so the stylus works better, not mushy like the Invisible Shield is.  I got the non-glare version so the glare is better and it does not show face grease or finger prints on it as bad.  All in all I'd definitely get another for my phone.  But I think the Invisible Shield will remain the favorite for everything else.  I've out those through hell and they held up.

Today I went to my first Greater Lansing .NET Users group event.  Day of .NET.  It was fun.  I was honestly surprised.  I was thinking, "Why the hell am I getting up this early to go hang out with a bunch of nerds...I could cut my lawn."  But I stayed the whole day.  It went by fast.  I saw a bunch of people I knew previously.  And I learned some things.  There were a great bunch of speakers.  Unfortunately a lot of the speakers that I wanted to hear were at the same time.  All in in all it was a great experience.  Plus great incentives to go, grand prize was a year MSDN subscription, others were tools like Infragistics.  I did notice that a lot of the speakers knew each other and that there was some kind of circuit of presentations.  Ahhh the lifestyles of nerds.  I mean who else goes to a "work" thing on the weekend?  We were all nerds there.  I'm going again.

Here is a picture of my broken LCD screen.  It happened because I left my laptop on the shoulder of the couch and let in a crazy dog.  She tore down the hall, leaped from almost literally 6 feet away, and landed on the couch.  I have hardwood floors so the couch slid back until it hit the wall.  Unfortunately my laptop obeyed the laws of physics and stayed put, then fell on the floor.

So  I searched for a new screen.  Brand new they were about $160.  I Ebayed mine and found a used one for $50 plus shipping.  I was curious if I could buy a higher resolution screen and have it work.  I was too chicken to spend the money to find out.

1. The first step I took to fix my screen was just google for M6709 LCD repair or something of the like.  It worked but I found this page that had the inverters needed to run the screen.  It listed the LCD's that I could use.  I Ebayed the screens and found my deal.
2. Next step was to take out the old screen.  Under some rubber bumpers are screws.  I removed those, then started prying off the bezel.  It was a little nerve wracking since it didn't pop right off.  But they glue down the edges to the LCD. 
3. Next there are more screws securing the LCD to the lid and the lid to the base.  I undid those as well and carefully flipped the screen up.  There were two connections, one near the base and one that went up the back and connected near the top.  Both are easy to pull off.  They were also taped on to prevent them from slipping off.  On the LCD there where some brackets that held and connected the LCD to the base.  I took these off the old LCD and put them back on the new one.  So far this only took me about 30 minutes and I was watching TV as well.
4. Next was to reconnect and tape the cables.  Here is where I ran into problems.  If anyone has had this model of eMachines then I bet their hinges on the screen were cracked as well.  It merely makes the screen a little loose.  But when unscrewing the lid, I realized there were little nuts in that plastic and fell out.  This was the hardest part, putting those back on.  I held them with tweezers and screwed in the screws.  I put in the remaining screws and fired her up. 

Viola. My new, slightly used screen works.  If you built your own computer before you can definitely do this.  Not very hard at all.

Neverwhere: A Novel by Neil Gaiman Read more about this book...

I was given this book to read by someone who generally doesn't read fantasy.  That is what you would have to call this book.  Not a fantasy in a far off land, but London.  A modern day fantasy.  They enjoyed the book so I figured I should read it.  Unfortunately when I read and like a book, I read until it's finished and don't get much else done. 

The protagonist, Richard Mayhew, is a normal boring man, with a very predictable life.  He never even seems to make his own decisions, until one night.  Then his whole world falls apart, or rather slips through the cracks.  He sees an injured girl fall on the sidewalk and decides to help, his fiance seems to not care about the injured girl and you expect that from her.  But you find out the real reason why she could not dwell on the mysterious girl.  She was of London Below.  The place where things and people go when they just fall through the cracks in real life.  A world of mystery and ... sewers.  People from the Above cannot really see people from the below, if they do they are quickly forgotten.  And there is a whole world in the Below.  A world that Richard is thrown into utterly confused.  A world where he plays a instrumental role in the out come of both the Above and Below. 

All around I really enjoyed this book.  It kept me reading.  I like the modern day references in the fantasy world below.  I think I will be sure to check out some more of Neil Gaiman's work.  After I catch up on all of the other reading I need to do of course. 

The FURminator of course!  A lethal looking dog comb.  It has a narrow razor like blade with tiny teeth in it.  It is not sharp but does come with a plastic guard.  The small teeth grab the undercoat and comb it out.  On first try on my beasts I didn't think it worked that well.  But then a few brushes later I was convinced it did.  During the summer Nukka loses all of her undercoat.  Totem does not for some reason.  Maybe because Nukka fights to be combed, she wuvs it.  Totem fights not to be combed.  I think this summer I will get Totem to lose most of his undercoat. 

So to any potential buyers, this expensive comb is well worth it.  If you have a long haired dog that sheds like mine, maybe you can spin their fur into yarn.  I mean chiengora.  I've seriously thought about it.  I mean my monsters stay outside all winter and love it.  Who wouldn't want a super warm, stinky, smelly, dirty dog sweater?  Right?

I really dislike change.  I don't like having any in my pockets.  So when I get home I usually throw it in my horizontal filing cabinet( my kitchen table ).  Eventually it finds it's way to a old change jar that looks like a coke bottle.  Well it has been a few years since I've done anything with my change.  I decided to gather up all my change from the random locations it was strewn about and turn it in at the bank.  Thankfully they have one of those machines that sorts it for you.  Fifteen minutes later I have a handful of Canadian and Mexican Peso rejects and a receipt for $353.35.  Damn that is a lot of change. 

• 2 Sacagawea coins
• 1 half dollar
• 700 some quarters
• 1700 pennies and I can't remember the dimes or nickels. 

But really what is the point of pennies anymore?  What ever was the point of pennies?  They just weight your pockets down.  And make for funny prices like $1.23 or $4.34.  I did hear on Michigan Radio that non rounded prices we seem to perceive as less than say $5.00.  I think that was for large numbers though, like houses.

So in a few more years it will be time to turn in change again.  Though I use my debit card much more, so I don't get any change.  There are programs like LaSalle Bank have, Keep the Change.  Basically it will take the change on the purchase, round up to the nearest dollar and put it in an account.  Then they will match a certain percentage.  Not a bad idea really.

Well I'm going to try out the Windows Live Writer and see how it works with my blog.  So far it looks neat, but seems a tad

How about some inserted code?

   1:  if( true )

   2:  {

   3:    return formattedCode;

   4:  }

Neat.  Even formatted it!  Hmm not sure what these tags are...