• Bamboo Capture Pen Tablet
• Logitech Wireless Gaming Headset G930
• OCZ Agility3 120GB SATA III 2.5″ SSD
• Corsair 8GB DDR3 1600 (2×4)

This new website will allow Apex to continue gaming in any capacity while still having a central website location. StarWars: The Old Republic will be out in less than 10 days and it will mark the first major game some Apex members will be playing and utilizing this new website.

Background: I joined Apex, the guild on Garona [US] in World of Warcraft back in April this year. This guild itself has been around since the first week of WoW and has actually existed throughout many games over the years including EverQuest II before WoW. The interesting thing is that Apex Guild merged with my old guild Divinity back in the Burning Crusade expansion and has been somewhat inactive in the raiding scene since then. Apex has been revived in Cataclysm and it seems things have gone full circle and sideways — as I have joined a guild that once merged with my old guild. As Scary Movie 3 would say, that’s some Quantum sh1t.

Apex ftw

Picture of Desk/Setup

Screenshot of Desktop

Click the images above to view the full size.

Monoprice is the word of the day. For all your cable and adapter-like needs. I used to use Ebay primarily for such things but now I just head over to Monoprice for such things.

This is why Monoprice is always winning: I can buy all that stuff below when it would cost me pretty much $20 per item in a store (like BestBuy and Staples, or even Walmart).

Just the simple DVI to VGA adapter (below for $1.56) would have cost me $20 at almost any brick-and-mortar store.

Subtotal : $15.02
Shipping & Handling Cost (3-5 Day) : $8.30
GRAND TOTAL : $23.32

I can happily report that I’ve actually put WoW’s slider to ULTRA in the graphics settings and I still get at least 40FPS in Stormwind. rawr

Case: ANTEC One Hundred ATX
CPU: Intel i5 2400 (3.10 GHz Quad)
Motherboard: Intel BOXDH67CLB3 1155 ATX
RAM: Corsair 8GB (2×4) D3 1600
PSU: PCPower 650w Silencer Mk II
HDD: 500GB WesternDigital Blue Sata 6.0
Optical: 22x DVDRW SATA w/LightScribe

Not shown in picture (not new, these are from my last PC)
SSD: PNY SSD 64GB
GFX: Nvidia GTS 250 1GB
Also using Windows 7 Professional x64

PNY 64GB OPTIMA SSD 2.5” SATA I/II MLC SSD

After toying with every setting I can think of and trying to find a solution online, I stumbled upon my own small fix. Ever see the mics with a foam cap covering the tip — like the one to right side of this paragraph? That’s what you need!

Except I don’t have such a thing so I made my own after I realized how much better the mic would sound if I simply covered it with my hand.  So grabbing my scissors and snipping a small bit of foam material from a bed-memory foam thingy and grabbing some (new) toilet paper to wrap around the foam and hold with some scotch tape, I made the contraption you see below:

After much debate, ‘I bit the bullet’ and bought an Xbox 360 (Limited Ed. MW2) a couple months ago.

Why Limited edition:

For those who do not follow the ‘Xbox family‘ of products, the limited editions tend to be $100 more in price. Naturally, a couple of friends wondered why I would bother with purchasing such a version but I figured why not? Aside from being the latest and greatest (thus presumably less buggy) version, the harddrive is 250GB, a nice step up from 120GB ‘elites’. I’m sure I could have lived with only a 120GB main storage device but the bump up really eliminates any worry of capacity issues.

Also, the limited edition looks sweet! It’s not the pure white or black like the ‘normal’ Xbox. Yes, I know there are Xbox faceplates for changing the look but I prefer the MW2 look still. But regardless of harddrive and the exclusive design, I still did not waste $100 on this edition.  Why? Because a copy of Modern Warfare 2 ($60) and an extra 360 Wireless Controller ($40) are included in the package. Those two items alone compensate for the rise in price.

A Little History

Ever since I first laid eyes upon my first MMORPG I was pretty much hooked. This game happened to be World of Warcraft and it took me a while to download! I remember my friend logging into the game after I finished installing and patching it like he asked. He was actually using a friends account, so my first look at the game was through a friend’s friend… but anyways, he had a level 60 Pally! I realize now that the forested area where the character stood was in fact Ashenvale Forest. This was the summer of 2005, just over half a year after game’s launch. It wouldn’t be until October that I decide to buy and pay $15 (subscription) every month for an online game.

Ever since I started my own account (a little under a year after WoW’s release) I’ve played and remained active 95% of the time. The longest my account has been ‘froze’ would be around a week and only a couple times which has not happened in two years now. Back then, I did not fully raid SSC/TK so I could focus on finishing up vocational school at the time. My raid attendance was very lax at the time. Other no-play times would be vacation time with the family.

‘RPG’ is for Rocket-propelled grenade…

Back to the Xbox, I’ve logged a good amount of hours in the past two weeks now with my game of choice Modern Warfare 2. (I used to call it CoD6 but that greatly confuses some people.)

Most of my friends, on and offline, have an Xbox 360 so I’d be lying if I said that had no weight on my console decision. The PS3‘s support for Blu-ray and the web browser is quite appealing but do I really need another device to browse the web? *Pickups up iPhone & lays it on laptop* And since I’m a Windows (7) user, my Xbox is linked into my media via Microsoft’s Media Center software which can browse network drives/shares so it works out to be a pretty nice if setup if done correctly. Although I just use my laptop for such things still, best solution for PowerUser.

Steam has been installed on my PCs for many years now (and for many to come) so I naturally have the Orange Box for PC. For $20, I also have it for the Xbox now (should I ever want to beat Portal again or popup Team Fortress 2 for some good online play). So aside from MW2, I have Dragonball Z: Burst Limit which is another reason for purchasing a console system. I’ve tried the whole emulator mess off and on over the years but I just don’t care for it. Some games are console only… like DBZ: Burst Limit! I played the original DBZ Budokai games on my Play Station 2 so it brings back memories to some degree playing through the new DBZ games.

Since the online portion of DBZ: Burst Limit! pretty much lacks players, most of my console time is with Modern Warfare 2. First person shooters provide a nice break from WoW and the guild during slow parts of the day/afternoon but it is only a small break because it’s back to warlock in the evenings for raiding!

I’m very happy so far with my new mobile device. It is a huge step up from my old Net10 prepay tracphone! So after a year of waiting I bought this phone yesterday & have been exploring the many features since then.

Camera Pic from iPhone

My old guild seems to be falling apart for good this time.  Between folks who are still in that guild and others who have left recently (or even months ago) — I figured that if I setup some forums then my friends could use them.

If nothing, I can use this as a way of email (private message feature) to share links and such with some old friends.  I invite anyone to register/join — unless you’re a nuisance, otherwise you’ll be fine.  Forum pwns Email – Forum Link