hummer0328

Here are some pics I took up at AirVenture in Oshkosh, Wisconsin (worlds largest aviation event) this year. I have tons more. All in all I took about 1500 photos. However, I stored the photos on a DVD disk and have kind of misplaced it! These were a few of the photos I did have stored on my computer: Here is a pic of the only and last public appearance of SpaceShipOne before it was sent to be displayed in the Smithsonian This is Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer. It flew all the way around the world on one tank of gas (1st and only to do so). A couple pics of a Harrier A pic of an A-10 A few pics of a Ford Tri-Motor 4 pics of an F-15 A good patriotic paint theme Boom! Smoke Ring A few pics by the lake runway On the long trip home Sturgis is about to kick off: I'll post some more later if I can ever find that DVD.

Congratulations on the great score! I never took the ACT or SAT, however, I did take the ASVAB (Armed Services Vocational Apptitude Battery) as part of my entrance into the US Air Force and received a 97 (percentile). It was too bad for me that military had just a year before made the ASVAB just a little bit harder or I would have received a 99. The big reason I was happy with the score is that it provided me with more leaverage when requesting a medical waiver for my vision. Again, congrats on the great score. I hope this helps you in your endeavors towards college or what ever else you plan to do!

Date: 1/3/2006 12:29:32 AM Author: ephorex_77 Date: 1/2/2006 2:17:13 AM Author: hummer0328 Martin Luther is still considered to be the most important and infuencial single contributor to the Reformation. However, understand that Luther only wished to 'reform' the church rather than seperate from the church and begin a new branch of Christianity. In that he failed miserably then didn't he?? Hence the fact that you're Lutheran, not Catholic (or reformed Catholic). Hence also the fact that there are so many thousands of denominations around today. Surely he didn't want 33,000+ denominations running around the place did he?? Date: 1/2/2006 2:17:13 AM Author: hummer0328 Romans 1:17 'In the Gospels a rightousness in God is revealed. A rightousness in faith from first to last. As it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.' In this single verse can be found the true difference between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. Catholics believe that righteousness in god is found through our actions here on Earth. This is the reason why Catholics practice celebacy and confession. They believe they must perform these actions in order to become closer to god. What Luther realized was that it is not your acts that bring you closer to god. Rather, it is soley in faith in god that you will become closer to god. It is irrelevent if we sin because we are human and by our very nature are born sinners. This is why Jesus died on the cross. He died to absolve us from our very nature. Jesus has already paid for our sins with his own blood and agony. This is the reason our actions do not bring us closer to god. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ and the fact that he died for our sins that we can find god. At least this is my belief as I am a Luthern. As a Lutheran, you'll believe in the infallibility of the Bible (as do Catholics). So, here's a long and rather explicit passage for you to mull over. James 2:14-26 What doth it profit, my brethren, though a man say he hath faith, and have not works? can faith save him? If a brother or sister be naked, and destitute of daily food, And one of you say unto them, Depart in peace, be ye warmed and filled; notwithstanding ye give them not those things which are needful to the body; what doth it profit? Even so faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. Yea, a man may say, Thou hast faith, and I have works: shew me thy faith without thy works, and I will shew thee my faith by my works. Thou believest that there is one God; thou doest well: the devils also believe, and tremble. But wilt thou know, O vain man, that faith without works is dead? Was not Abraham our father justified by works, when he had offered Isaac his son upon the altar? Seest thou how faith wrought with his works, and by works was faith made perfect? And the scripture was fulfilled which saith, Abraham believed God, and it was imputed unto him for righteousness: and he was called the Friend of God. Ye see then how that by works a man is justified, and not by faith only. Likewise also was not Rahab the harlot justified by works, when she had received the messengers, and had sent them out another way? For as the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without works is dead also. (emphasis mine) So, you believe that the Bible is infallible (as you should, being a Lutheran). I'm a Catholic and I believe in the infallibility of the Bible myself. So then, what then do you make of the BIBLICAL passage above?? Somewhere along the line if you believe in the 'doctrine' of sola fide (sola fide) and in the infallibility of the Bible, you'll trip up. Basically, you're in a very awkward position indeed. The core principles of your faith (Lutheranism) are contradicting themselves. You place the greatest of emphasis on the infallibility of the Bible (above Scared Tradition and the Magisterium) and the greatest of emphasis on sola fide. So which one will you compromise?? If you deny one, you deny your entire faith seeing as your entire faith is greatly based on those two of five solas. I await a reply. You do have a point. But then doesn't the same apply to you. We both believe in the infallibility of the bible even when placed before us are two different bible quotes that appear to contradict each other. The key word I used here is appear. They may appear to contradict eachother, however, maybe they don't. Genuine faith in Christ should always result in actions that demonstrate faith. As Luther said himself, You are saved by faith alone, but if faith is alone it is not faith. God is not looking down at us and deciding we are bad christians because of the sins we commit. He is looking at whether we have faith in him. If someone truely has faith in God then they should naturally live a less sinfull life.

Date: 1/1/2006 7:20:12 AM Author: ephorex_77 Date: 12/31/2005 4:03:48 PM Author: Yellowlab Sola scriptura was a movement of the Reformation; it did not begin with Luther, nor did it end with him. Luther was and has always been largely perceived to be the main architect of the Reformation. It mainly started, perpetuated and continued in his name and memory. Also, the start of the Reformation has never accurately been defined. Sorry for the ambiguity. The beginnings of the reformation started in the tenth century, however, it began with no particular plan and only a vague idea of what a reformation might mean. Some early steps taken by reformers were to make the clergy celibate and independent. But the policy of the reformers did not take final shape until it was taken up by the papacy who then used it to organize the church under papal leadership. In fact the movement to liberate the church began with the rulers who were controlling churches and monasteries, appointing churchmen, and using bishops as their administrators. Many say that the reformation really began with cluniac reform. Cluny was founded by the duke and duchess of Aquitaine in 910. They endowed the monastery of Cluny with property buth then gave it to Saints Peter and Paul. In this way they put control of Cluny into the hands of the two most powerful heavenly saints. The monks of Cluny were so devoted to prayer that through thier prayers they seeemed to guarantee the savation of all Christians. Rulers, bishops, and landowners gave Cluny donations of land, joining their contributions to the land of St Peter. Powerful rulers called on the Cluniac monks to reform other monasteries along the Cluniac model. The monks of Cluny believed in clerical celibacy, which argued against many priests and bishops who were married. Naturally, this angered many bishops and priests who began to encroach on Cluny. Cluny appealed to the Pope for help. Realize that at this time the papacy was itself becoming interested in reform. Martin Luther is still considered to be the most important and infuencial single contributor to the Reformation. However, understand that Luther only wished to reform the church rather than seperate from the church and begin a new branch of Christianity. During his early years in a monastery, he experienced a religious crisis. He continuelly found himself appaled at his own sense of sinfullness. He basically lived in terror of Gods justice. This gradually decreesed as he became older, however, it left scars that would greatly infuence his life later. Though I lived as a monk without reproach, I felt that I was a sinner before God with an extremely disturbed consience. I could not believe that he was placated by my satisfaction [in penance]. I did not love, yes, I hated the righteous God who punished sinners, and secretly ... I was angry with God. ... Nevertheless, I beat importunately upon Paul [in Romans 1:17]. . . . At last, by the mercy of god, meditating day and night, I gave the heed to the context of the words. There I began to understand that the righteous live by a figt of God, namely faith. Romans 1:17 In the Gospels a rightousness in God is revealed. A rightousness in faith from first to last. As it is written, 'The righteous shall live by faith.' In this single verse can be found the true difference between Lutherans and Roman Catholics. Catholics believe that righteousness in god is found through our actions here on Earth. This is the reason why Catholics practice celebacy and confession. They believe they must perform these actions in order to become closer to god. What Luther realized was that it is not your acts that bring you closer to god. Rather, it is soley in faith in god that you will become closer to god. It is irrelevent if we sin because we are human and by our very nature are born sinners. This is why Jesus died on the cross. He died to absolve us from our very nature. Jesus has already paid for our sins with his own blood and agony. This is the reason our actions do not bring us closer to god. It is only through faith in Jesus Christ and the fact that he died for our sins that we can find god. At least this is my belief as I am a Luthern.

I think its a great game. The visuals on it are amazing! I'm not going to say it's the best racing game ever, because it isn't. But it's still a great game and very fun to play. I love the in-car view. I'm still waiting for Forza 2. Here are some pics from Forza 2:

My GamerTag is: aviationman The only Xbox 1 game I have is Halo 2. If there are any fellow Xbox 360 owners out there I have PGR3, Call of Duty 2, and Perfect Dark Zero. See you on live!

Yet, I've had my PS2 for 5 years and I've had to replace it 2x. Luckily both times were under warrenty so it didn't cost me a thing except the extra cost of the warrenty. I've had my xbox for 3 years and I haven't had a single problem with it. My point is that EVERY console has it's problems.

Here are the advantages and disadvantages of both consoles, but before I get into that, lets get a few things corrected. Do realize that I am very excited about the Xbox 360 as I am getting one on Nov 22nd! I will get the PS3 sometime in the future as well. Game Choice: The Xbox 1 is known for having less of a game choice than the PS2. However, expect a complete swap this time around. Developers are already commenting on the difficulty and much higher cost of developement for games of the PS3. PS3 games will cost anywhere from 4-6 times as much to develop as they did for the PS2. The PS3 uses an extrmely complicated architecture that just increases the difficulty. On the other hand the Xbox 360 is much easier and cheaper to develop for. Microsoft has been working for years on the new XNA developement software for the 360. Already, developers are switching over to the 360 as thier prefured platform. The Xbox 1 was microsofts start to the game market, and of course it initially lacked in game choice. That did change over time as more and more developers choose to develop for both the PS2 and Xbox 1. Now the Xbox 360 will have a much broader base in Japan. Microsoft is focused on Japan right now. Expect to see more RPG's and JRPG's for the 360. Also, IMO one of the best RPG's ever is about to be released exclusively for the 360 (and PC). That title is Oblivion. I recommend going over to IGN and downloading the 5 parts to the 20 minite demonstration video. It's just amazing, and to think that what you see could run on 1/3 the power of the 360. There will be tons more action/adventure titles for the 360. Gun, Condemned, 99 Nights, Lost Odyssey, and tons of new titles being announced. The 360 will equal the PS3 in this catagory. Pay no attention to Perfect Dark Zero, as it is no longer Microsofts flagship title for launch. Instead, Microsoft heads seem to be REALLY impressed with a game by Rare called Kameo. I have high hopes for Kameo and expect this to be as good as the Zelda series for Nintendo. In the end, the 360 and PS3 will be equal in game choice. 360 vs PS3 on system power: The PS3 is not 2x as powerful as the 360. That rumor comes from Sony after they twisted a few numbers. Supposedly the PS3 has 2 TFLOPS (Tera(Trillion) Floating Point Operations/Second) and the Xbox 360 has only 1 TFLOP. According to this calculation most of the power comes from the Graphics Card (GPU). Apparently the PS3's GPU is 2.5x as powerful as the 360's. Everyone knows the 360's GPU is more powerfull. This is just an example of Sony twisting the numbers in thier favor. Sony just measured the power of thier GPU in a completely different way to come up with the higher numbers. Yes, the PS3 is a little bit more powerful than the 360. But guess what? Rememeber how hard the PS3 is to develope for. The PS3's architecture is just so complicated that it will bottleneck its power. Don't be suprised when you can't tell the difference in games between the PS3 and the 360. And don't believe all the videos you see about the PS3 games. There are no gameplay vids. That is just CGI. Does MGS4 look amazing? Yes, but Gears of War (because it is much farther in developement) looks far far better! Xbox 360 Advantages: -Xbox Guide: This is the ever present menu system of the 360. You push the Xbox button in the middle of the controller and it opens the 360 user interface. From thier you can do anything you Xbox is capable of doing. You can play music, videos, view pictures, and access them all from your computer via a wireless (or wired of you choose) network. You can access Xbox Live, you can have sound/video messages with your friends. Microsoft will excell in this area big time because they are really software programmers. This is what they do. -Xbox Live: If you have access to broadband (or will have access later) Xbox live is just amazing. The 2nd version of Xbox live for the 360 will be really amazing. I never really liked playing games over the internet until I tried Xbox live. It is just so feature rich and easy to use that Sony will never top it. Again, this is because Microsoft's specialty is software programming. -Controller: The new 360 controller is being widely criticially acclaimed as one of the best console controllers ever. Believe me, the wireless version of the controller is just so comfortable and perfect. I couldn't imagine a better controller! Disadvantages: No HD-DVD drive: Because next-gen DVD technology is still in developement, Microsoft has been unable to provide HD-DVD support for the 360. Instead, Dual-Layer DVD's will be used. This could limit the size of games. However, take a look at the gamecube and it's small disk. Nintendo is able to do that because of some very impressive compression technology. Microsoft will do the same thing. However, when the PS3 is released, Microsoft will likely release a new version of the 360 that will include HD-DVD support for movies (but not for games). Playstation 3: Advantages: Blue-Ray Support: This is the next-gen DVD format that Sony will go with. These disks will hold much much more than 360 disks. This could allow for a lot more game content. HDMI and 1080p suuport: This will allow the PS3 to run at much higher resolutions and have better picture quality while doing it. However, the 360 will likely support HDMI later down the road (probably when the PS3 comes out). Not a lot is known about the PS3 as it is still at least 6 months away from release, so I don't know all the advantages. Only Sony does. The fact that they start later could mean that they can steal the best ideas of thier competition and use it in the PS3. However, if they don't implement these features very well it could backfire. Disadvantages: Made by Sony: What I mean by this is that Sony has a tendency to over-promise and then underdeliver on thier consoles. Dual-HDMI support? Who cares! I will never use this feature. It could be usefull 10 years from now, but the PS3 will only be a memory by then. Support for up to 7 controllers? Why would I want to split a TV screen up 7 ways? I get to look at my 4 inch by 7 inch section! I don't think I really want to do that! 4 controllers is way for than enough for me, especially with Xbox live available. The Boomerang (PS3 Controller): What was Sony thinking? My guess is this: You can turn the 360 by pushing a button on the wireless controller. Well how about we make ours a boomerang. Throw it towards the PS3 powerbutton and then it comes back to you! Seriosly! What was Sony thinking?

Date: 10/8/2005 8:14:28 PM Author: Duke87 Um, you need to register in order to vote... Might be nice to have some info as to what exactly this is.... quote> Thats what the About page is for: Walk of Game Walk of Game is the first-of-its-kind landmark honoring the icons and pioneers of the videogame industry. Walk of Game is located inside Metreon, a 350,000 square-foot entertainment complex at Fourth and Mission Streets in the heart of downtown San Francisco. Every year, gamers worldwide cast their vote on www.WalkOfGame.com to induct the next set of honorees to receive a permanent 24x 24, customized steel star on the Walk of Game. From the list of nominees, the top four in the category of Games/Characters and the top two in Lifetime Achievement will be inducted. Inductees to date are: Nolan Bushnell, Shigeru Miyamoto, Halo, Link (The Legend of Zelda), Mario, and Sonic The Hedgehog. The list of nominees is compiled from a survey of industry members and technology, entertainment, and gaming media. SCA Interactive, a leader in online promotions, powers the Walk of Game voting interface. Check www.WalkOfGame.com regularly to keep informed about upcoming events including unveiling of the stars for the 2006 Inductees! Edit: Will Wright is one of the nominees.

Before my Madden thread starts going off-topic, I decided to start a next generation Console thread. This includes the PS3, XBox360, and the Revolution. Here is a pic for Project Gotham Racing 3, presumably for the XBox360:

What I should say was that I was just expecting more. It is really different and a pretty cool concept, but I want my gyroscopic controls!

I was looking forward to the revolution, but then Nintendo went and lost thier god damn minds! Who knows, maybe this crazy concept will really work? Somehow I doubt it! I was hoping for something amazing and revolutionary! I guess thats what Nintendo gets for over-hyping thier controller before they even released info about what it was. People's imaginations take over, and when Nintendo said it was going to be shocking, you just do the math. I was hoping for some type of gyroscopic force feedback control! That would have been amazing!

The Xbox 360 Launch date has been announced! The next-generation of consoles starts on Tuesday, November 22nd in North America, December 2nd in Europe, and December 10th in Japan. And as far as the PS3 is concerned Dolfan, here is what I have to say about Sony. First I will admit Sony makes good quality products, well kinda. The PS2 was good. Why I hate Sony is that they lie! Remember the Network Adaptor? They kept on delaying until Xbox Live was launched and then forced it onto the market, making it hard to find. Then they didn't back it with a Sony Online Service and left it to developers to support the online servers. What you got was incredibly crappy online service! Do you remember the HDD? It was suppose to turn my PS2 into a machine that would allow me to download content online to add tons of content to games. The HDD ended up being nothing more than a joke with only 1 game supporting it. On the other hand Microsoft from the start stated what they planned to do and actually did it. There was a 8GB HDD that you could download content online to add stuff to games. Plus you never needed a memory card. The online service launched at a good time and was AWESOME! Broadband only made sure no one with dialup lagged the servers and Xbox Live just made it all that much better! Remember the PSX. They ended up having to discontinue it in Japan and it never saw the US because Sony cut so many features from it! Remember the Killzone Trailer. I was just amazed when I saw it! And Sony kept confirming that it was running in real-time on the PS3. Again, they lied! Now they are removing HDD support again! I know they had to remove some stuff to drive down costs, but why not get rid of the dual-HDMI support or Blue-Ray to cut costs. Why not just stick in a smaller HDD. We don't need 40GB. Why not make 20GB? Those are deffinately less important than the HDD. Microsoft was smart when trying to cut costs. They knew that the HD-DVD drive wasn't really a necessity with next-gen games, unless you wanted to pay an extra $100! Sony just likes to create hype which then sells the console. They did it by lying about Killzone 2 trailer, they added on a feature that less than 1% of the population will ever use with the dual-HDMI support. Somehow Sony can do this and get away with it. They still manage to sell millions of consoles more than their competition. Sony knows this and exploits it! They are still doing it with the PS3! On the other hand MS isn't creating a console built on empty promises. It's deffinately the best next-gen console! They must do this if they really want to compete with Sony. And who knows, maybe MS will still find a way to include the HD-DVD drive. Maybe thats what origen viral marketing is all about. But I'd be willing to bet that by the time the PS3 comes out, the 360 will start coming with a HD-DVD drive.

Yeah, I really can't wait to see what the controller is all about. I can't even imagine what could be so different about the controller, but I guess I'll just have to wait and see. Hopefully, what the Revolution will lack in computing power, it will make up for in the controller. I kinda like the fact that Nintendo isn't as concerned with pretty graphics, but with fun gameplay.

Here is an interesting article I found comparing the power of the PS3 to the Xbox 360. Pretty interesting read! ---------- I've noticed a lot of people ask why $100 for a 20 gig drive. Thankfully I came across the answer. I will be updating my site on Sunday with this info. So, the 20gb HDD so expensive?? $100 bucks or about 40 with the standard x360 package? So, why is it so much? The xbox 360's HDD is serial, NOT IDE. It is a faster interface/connection and has pretty much NO risk of electrical damage if you just unplug it. It is vital that the HDD be sata unless MS wants a hundred phone calls from people who fried their drive from unplugging while the x360 is on. So, THAT is why it is Serial. I can get an 80gb drive for 60 bucks!! Good then, get it for your laptop. For reasons above, the x360 drive is NOT IDE. Those cheap drives are all IDE. IDE=BAD. IDE=old. IDE=cheap and not as lasting. Want to know the price for PC serial drives?? - 100gb - $330 - 40gb - $125 MS's 20gb = $100 = about the same for PC So, THE HDD IS NOT A RIP OFF. MS IS giving a GREAT deal with the premium version, and you should NOT complain. Hope you get it now, ---------- My personal opinion is that Sony

Date: 9/3/2005 9:43:31 AM Author: horrorkid64 Here's some news about the Xbox 360: 360 Buckling Under PhysX PS3 can handle it; 360 features, however, are limited. As Valve demonstrated with Half-Life 2, true-to-life physics can have a lasting impact on gameplay, and next-generation should prove that notion even more so. Ageia hopes to cash in on this trend with their PhysX line of physic-dedicated accelerator cards, of which BFG Technologies was recently announced as second add-on card partner. What's interesting, however, is how this plays out between PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. At the European Game Developers Conference, Extreme Tech noted that the company confirmed plans to offer software-based rendering for single and dual-core PCs, PCs decked out with PhysX chips and software versions for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. That makes sense to offer development solutions on all platforms, but what's interesting is Ageia's report that Xbox 360 can't handle all of the PhysX's features because of architecture limitations. PhysX offers technologies ranging from physical object interactions to fluid-based particle effects like water and smoke and reportedly only PS3 and PCs will be able to handle all the goods. What will Xbox 360 miss out on? PhysX's fluid-based technology. How exactly that impacts Xbox 360's future is for all intents and purposes minimal, but it's strange to see a split between the two machines after such rabid debate over which one had the edge. From here .quote> Your above article was actually from a statement from aegia taken out of context. Here is aegia's response to the reports of xbox 360 having not enough power to run ageia's physics engine unlike ps3 and high end pcs becuase of its weak architechure. Posted in teamxbox forums. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The summary of the information below is that AGEIA would like to go on record that we do not have data to support performance comparisons for the PS3 or Xbox360 that would impact any of our physics features. Specifically, statements that the Xbox360 cannot run fluid simulations are not correct. In addition, conclusions about relative performance should not have been stated or implied in our presentations. Our recent presentations created confusion and debate. Please allow us to clarify the statements we made and correct inferences in things we did not say. Tom Lassanske is one of the lead AGEIA technical people working with developers. The presentation that caused this issue was given at several conferences, including Microsoft GameFest. The presentation at GDC Europe was presented by one of the European staff, not Tom. The summary of the section of the presentation is below. The middle section of the 58-slide presentation is all about how platforms with different processor configurations can map to physics simulation, ranging from single core PC to platforms with more processors. A developer requires at minimum

As from what I'm now hearing, the PS3 and Xbox 360 will be nearly equal in terms of raw power. The only real reason the PS3 has 2 TFLOPs and the 360 has 1 TFLOPs is because of the differences in the way nVidia and ATI measure raw processing speed. If ATI used the same technique nVidia was using, the 360 would have approximatily 1.8 TFLOPs, so the PS3 is still more powerful, but not by to much. The only bad thing about the 360 is MS decision not to include HD-DVD support. I understand why they did this (to make the 360's cost reasonable to consumers), but I really wish would be able to play HD-DVD format on my 360! I know the PS3 has Blue-Ray support, but just wait till they announce the PS3's price. It will reflect it! For $399, I'm getting a 360 and just about all the accessories I will need! The PS3 will probably launch at a similar price point, but make you buy many of the needed accessories separately. (No wireless headset, no ethernet cable, no remote) One nice thing I like about the 360 is XBox Live. This is the big thing the 360 will have over the PS3! Also, not to mention the 360 OS. The user guide just looks awesome! Of course I would expect MS to beat Sony in this catagory considering thats nearly all they do is program OS's. I also like the look of the 360 a lot better than the PS3. I was amazed when I saw photos of the 360. I was expecting to get the same WOW from the PS3 but never did. It looks nice and all, but just doesn't look great. I do like how the PS3 can support up to 7 controllers. Yeah, it's a bit of an odd number, but to go from having support for only 2 to 7 is amazing, if not over-doing it a bit. All-in-all, I will probably end up buying the PS3 a few years down the road anyways (once the price drops). I can only afford to buy one console at launch anyways! Both look like sweet systems, but for right now, since I'm actually buying one, I am just syked about the 360! I just can't wait for Nov to roll around!!!

Date: 8/30/2005 8:27:36 PM Author: Dupontfan24 hummer: i know how you can cut $89.99 from your xbox Price... The wireless controller and the HD cab;e come with the $399 package. For all Xbox 360 fans you should check this out... https://www.simtropolis.com/idealbb/view.asp?topicID=67903 I was aware of that. However, I am getting an extra wireless controller and am also getting a HD VGA Cable to connect it to my monitor. I want HD gaming, but sadly can't afford an HD TV. But my 19 inch flat screen Sony Trinitron CRT monitor will do!

For those who are getting a 360, what games will you be getting? At launch: Ghost Recon 3: Advanced Warfighter Call of Duty 2 Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion Later releases: Gears of War Prey Is anyone else really looking forward Gears of War? The graphics are simply amazing running on the Unreal Engine! Take a look at this post on Gamespot to get an idea: http://forums.gamespot.com/gamespot/show_messages.php?board=909102864&topic=23037231&page=0

For me it was a choice of either spending $800 to upgrade my PC (for gaming) or spend 1/2 of that and get the Xbox 360. Plus the 360 is far more powerful than anything I could upgrade my computer to and unlike my desktop, it is portable. Console gaming is expensive? PC gaming is always more expensive. The moment you fully upgrade your PC it is already outdated. $400 for a complete gaming machine is great. I was looking at that much for just a graphics card (which would be less than 1/2 as powerful as the 360 gfx card.)

Xbox 360 Prices:<?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office /> Xbox 360 Core System - $299

I just pre-ordered my XBox 360 from EB Games! And since I work at EB Games, I'm going to talk my manager into allowing me to be 1st in line to pick it up in November!

Well, I'm back after a nice long vacation. (see above post) The trip was pretty long (2200 miles, 35 1/2 hours) and sort of hot. On the way there (Wyoming - Wisconsin) the temp gauge on our truck hit 113 F. Luckily it cooled down for the rest of the week. Me and my dad left early Saturday morning and got to Oshkosh, Wisconsin Sunday afternoon. This was our 1st time tenting at the campgrounds. The only really bad part was on Monday night when we got 4 inches of rain. We came back to our tent to find it pretty wet. I guess the rain had found its way through the seams of the rain fly of our tent. We were lucky as a few people had thier tents collapse! The highlight of the trip was seeing WhiteKnight/SpaceShipOne. The Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer was also there. This was the one plane that flew the 1st around the world solo flight. I also saw Glacier Girl. This was the P-31 that was featured on the Discovery Channel. Back in the 1940's, a squadron of P-31s made an emergency landing on Greenland. They were later rescued, but left the planes. Decades later a group of people decide to go back and look for the lost planes. As it turns out they were barried under over 100 feet of ice. They drilled down to one of the planes dissassembled the 1 plane they had found brought it back up and reassembled it. I also had the privilage of seeing the following people speak: Burt Rutan (the genius behind SpaceShipOne), Mike Melvil (1st civillian asternaut), the entire SpaceShipOne Scaled Composites team (company behind SpaceShipOne), Brian Brinnie (piloted SpaceShipOne the 2nd X-Prize flight), Sir Richard Branson (billionaire who is funding SpaceShipTwo), Paul Allan (co-founder of Microsoft and funder of SpaceShipOne), Scott Crossfield (X-15 Pilot and pilot of tons of 1st test flights), Steve Fosset (Pilot of the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer), Harrison Ford (spokeman of the EAA Young Eagles Program), and Marion Blakey (FAA Administrator). I have around 1000 photos, but I don't think I can post them all here. I'll just have to post a select few later.

Me and my dad will be going on vacation tomorrow and I won't be back for a little while. Starting next Monday is the The World's Greatest Aviation Celebratin. Others like myself simply call it Oshkosh. Every year Oshkosh, Wisconsin plays host to the world's largest aviation event. Among this years attractions is White Knight/SpaceShipOne, the world's first civilian spacecraft. Other attractions include the Virgin Atlantic GlobalFlyer, tons of US Military aircraft, a rare gathering of WWII aircraft, and over 10,000 other aircraft. It's no suprise that Oshkosh attracks tons of visitors. Every year 1 million people flock from all over the globe to visit the event. The unused farm fields boardering the airport become a virtual city of hundreds of thousands. These fields become the weeks home for an estimated 50,000 RV's, trailers, and tents. For 1 week Wittman Regional Airport becomes the word's busiest airport. Over the course of the week, 14,000 aircraft will land at Oshkosh. Every 15 seconds a plane will land or take-off from the airport. I have been there nearly every year for the past decade. I still have yet to see everything! We will be leaving on Saturday 7/22 at3 am (somehow I just don't see this happening) and coming back Sunday 7/31 at around midnight. It should be around a 20 hour drive each way. Here are some pics from past years: http://www.airventure.org/2003/photoessays/camper/camp7_600.jpg align=baseline> http://www.airventure.org/2003/gallery/tuesday/aircraft_camping_600.jpg align=baseline> http://www.airventure.org/2003/gallery/saturday/n40_600.jpg align=baseline> http://www.airventure.org/2003/gallery/tuesday/entrance_opening_600.jpg align=baseline> http://www.airventure.org/2003/gallery/wednesday/aeroshell_600_gh.jpg align=baseline> http://www.airventure.org/2003/gallery/tuesday/shock_wave_400.jpg align=baseline> http://www.tc.gc.ca/tcexpress/20020304/images/photos/Oshkosh%201.jpg align=baseline>

Wow, ESRB has now rated this game AO (Adults Only) and most major retailers are now pulling it from thier shelves. Rockstar has stopped production of the game. This is going to end up hurting them big time!