Since I left the GGL back in January and moved down to Washington DC to my new job I still feel this urge for working on a project, even on the side, that gives back to gaming and, just maybe, helps gaming grow in some way.
So I’ve been tinkering with some ideas I’ve had recently, some old but most are new. I’ve taken that opportunity to start using new technologies (to me). I’ve been a LAMP (and FAMP) guy for over 10 years now. I’ve looked at PostgreSQL in the past but wrote it off and never really gave it a chance until now. I’m just getting started but it’s pretty interesting so far… consistency, stability and correctness have never been so nice — even if it means I need to (re-)learn a few things about databases 
I’m also fooling with a new framework more and more, Yii. The design fits my requirements pretty well, but more on that as I need to tinker more to make a proper post about it.
What a difference a year makes. At this time last year, I was laying on a table getting surgery on my left elbow and wrist. It still amazes me how messed up I was from simply falling while playing tennis.
The doctors have all said that I, and I quote, “hit the lotto for this injury” due to the fact that people rarely fall in tennis and when they do they at most fracture their wrist — and they are usually like 70 year olds. I guess I hit the lotto in something… still amazes me how long this past year has been and I’ve still got a road of recovery left to travel over the next couple of years.
A while ago I was wondering when I’d finally see a legacy free motherboard and I will admit it took longer than I expected. Admittedly, I haven’t searched for new hardware in a while and I rarely read the hardware sites as I was/am fairly content with what I had. However, since my Q6600 is super heating my office room at my new apartment I’m in the market for changing out that CPU for something new (E8500 is in the lead thus far).
While doing my research, I stumbled upon the Intel BOXDP35DPM motherboard while checking out what motherboards are out there now.
http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813121314
It’s completely legacy free! Some would say that not having PS2 ports would be a drawback but I say good riddance! It even has an eSATA port! If I had $400 to drop this second I’d get this, an E8500 and 8GB of DDR2 memory and have my ‘ultimate workstation’ that I’m not sure I’d ever need to upgrade.
I’ve complained in the past that tech has stayed overly expensive and just seems to get bigger and hotter, but I think we’re finally at the point where advancements for upgrades are coming down to smaller, cooler, lower power consumption and cheaper is where it’s at — I’ve been waiting for this day for years!
I wonder if i have anything I could sell that would equal up to $400… hmmmm…..
Back on May 22nd, I was playing a friendly, self-feed game during a “Fundamentals” adult tennis clinc at my local racquet club. The player I was playing is a pretty good player so I was running down balls and generally playing smart, or trying to, rather then just smacking winners. I was down 2-3 (playing till 7) and was in the middle of a good point when he lobbed me, or at least I think he did as details of what happened are hazy. I remember being at the net running back towards the backdrop of the indoor court, planting my right foot and then hitting a two-handed back hand through the ball, with my left leg swinging around to face the net…. then all of a sudden momentem kept me going backwards. I do remember skidding off my heels twice and the third time I skidded I started falling with my upper body hitting the backdrop with a collision to either a concrete wall or a steel beam, or both… so I threw my arms out to avoid either!
Thirty seconds later, I’m on my back, facing the the wall knowing full well that wasn’t a good fall. During the fall and subsequent tumble I was pretty sure I saw my left arm in 3 different pieces flopping through the air, so I tried to move my left arm and felt a pain I’ve never felt before. At this point Paul Prior, the head tennis pro, who was covering this class for the regular pro called over if I was alright…. most definitely not. 
About 15 minutes later I was in the SUV of a *very* nice friend from the class droving me to the ER and I began my 4 week path to today…
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