Man dies after 3-day gaming binge: CNN

PC Gaming = Fun.

My weekend...

First, a little background info... my best friend's occupation is any 18 year old gamer geek's dream job. He is the PR manager for Palit for all of North America. Basically, his job is to keep customers happy by attending LAN parties across the country and do some PR stuff as well. His company sells high end gaming video cards. This weekend I met some of his customers. Who are his customers? Glad you asked...

...these guys:


Darren occasionally asks me to join him for a free "vacation" to random LANs when he drives instead of flies. This one happend to be in Indianapolis (all on his dime too, whoo hoo) for a 2 day 200+ person LAN Party called Stompfest. Which was being held inside a school auditorium.

40+ hours of smelly geeks dressed in black (mostly) playing video games on their PCs. Woo Hoo!

With my wife home attending to our children for the weekend (surprisingly, I don't feel guilty about this, maybe I should), I stepped back into my teenage/twenty-something years and proceeded to play video games and eat junk food the whole weekend till my eyes were crazy blood shot and had to run to the bathroom to puke. I figure I spent close to 50 hours inside video games over the weekend (between the LAN party and a day or so at a hotel gaming it up).

Yes, I happen to be a gamer and absolutely love competing in tournaments. Oh, I'm PC gamer, not a console gamer. There is a big difference. But tis not important right now, I digress.

I am such a geek.

While on the way to Zhang's Buffet (eww gross, i wasn't into it) with (e:paul) (e:mrdeadlier) (e:enknot) (e:fing) & others, I got an automated call from UPS (which is weird) saying my shipment is in route. It should arrive sometime tomorrow while I'm at work.

My new Canon Rebel is on its way... woo hoo!

My little 5mp digital point and shoot camera finally bit the dust after 5+ years of use. During that time my wife and I took a few thousand pictures of all sorts of stuff. I'm considering taking it up a notch into the realm of digital SLR's.

So, I'm thinking about the Canon Rebel to get started. But I'm such a newb at cameras. Anyone know of any good review sites or any experience in purchasing a decent camera? I'd rather spend some time reviewing options before making a decision.

6+ years ago, coming out of college I had a certain level of hunger and thirst for techy/geeky type knowledge that I quite haven't experienced since. I had some basic tools but soon realized that college didn't prepare me enough to be totally effective. Duh. However, my hunger was soon squashed to some degree by the day-in and day-out needs and responsibilities both inside and outside of work (and the fact I was given only classic ASP to work with initially). I didn't even consider alternatives as I didn't know better. I dove into ASP and learned as much as I could, apparently oblivious to Microsoft's abandonment of the language and the inadequacies of its usefulness. I used it simpley to just get another day of programming done, collect paycheck, repeat.

Recently though I've noticed more of a department wide issue... or I guess more accurately, my eyes have opened a little to see myself and my professional inadequacies. For example: In the men's room down the hall from us there is a sink. You turn the sink on, water comes out and drains as any normal sink would. Good enough, right?! I say No! 1. Only the cold water works. 2. You have to turn the knob in a different direction then normal sinks. 3. It seems to drain into an open sewer system viewable by a hole in the ground. 4. You can't fully turn it off no matter how tight you turn it. 5. It never really feels totally clean even after maintenance is there doing their thing. 6. It just doesn't look any where near as efficient as it should be 7. But it does clean your hands.

This is generally how I feel when I see vendor products being implemented on top of each other here at Roz just to get things working. Yes, it works... we get water, we get our hands wet, but the process and functionally it should have is totally not right. I guess I really didn't understand this until recently, as evidence of the other "programmers" around me at work (everyone but the web team I mean) seem to just get by and severely impede progression of not only their personal development but also the effectiveness of those around them. From my perspective, there is a severe gap in practical knowledge as a whole. Just "making things work" isn't always the right way. However, I'm only empowered to change 1 person's development and growth. Me.

I am by no means fully capable or qualified to make judgments on others or change policies or whatever (that isn't my intention here). However, I recognize that I have some learn'n to do.

Since conquering classic ASP, I've always felt I lacked something to be fully vested in my chosen profession. I've since drawn the conclusion that college is simply a series of hoops to jump through to get started and that a lot more is warranted and needed to get to the level of proficiency that I intend on getting to. I'm greatfull for my past experiences in eduction and I love my current job... but the real quest lies just beyond what college or a job can offer: an insatiable desire to learn. Personally, I'm starting to feel it again. And I like it. I intend to embrace it. =)