October 2006 Archives

Finally managed to give you guys a small example of what The Gold Coast - Surfers Paradise looks like, and what the event Indy300 brings to that place.

Paul who superbly arranged the 5 days picked us up Thursday morning 7.15, we drove up in around 10 hours to Surfers-Paradise, Paul had booked 2 beautiful apartments for 7 of us at the Chevron Renaissance. A stunning hotel and apartment complex.
We had a magnificent view for the 28th floor over the right side of the track onto the coastline.

(balcony view to track)

(balcony view straight down)

(bigfoot wakes up)

Our Platinum Club passes gave us entry to most areas on the track including our own secluded stand near the always interesting chicane on the coastline site near the end of the second straight. We could enjoy the race from the stand, or in the club whom both had track views and plenty of monitors to follow the race on. In the club we could order our drinks and great meals and still follow the race! (well done Paul !)

The practice, qualification and the races were great and pretty exiting, from Friday till Sunday and the agenda was packed with entertainment.
Obviously the Indy cars and v8 supercars are good to watch, but also the Porsche Challenge and minicar races, driftcars in the evening, drag races, stunt motorbikes etc..

5 days of non-stop beer and whisky testing, from early morning till late night, going to the races during the day, and having a couple of quiet beers *cough* in the always buzzing nightlife. Our group was fantastic and I had a great time with the guys, as at the start I only knew Paul and Scott but we ended up with around 10 ppl moving from pub to track or visa versa :).

Ok ok.. i know, I've captured the decent version of Indy300 2006
Many race events in Australia have the famous "Show us your tits" signs hanging out , and also this Indy had more of those signs then traffic signs... I must say they had more effect too, many "female types" (cant call them ladies) were not scared to pull the shirt up either. If roadsigns worked like that, the traffic police would be out of a job.

The following monday we drove back the 10 hours I brought back the car the next morning, to close an absolute magnificent weekend of Indy races @ the Gold Coast - Surfers Paradise!

Thanks Paul, Scott1, Scott2, Simon, Darren, Trevor, Grimmo and the others we've caught up with!
Hope we can do it again, someday.. :)

If you want to see the rest of the pictures in full scale you can download them here:
Indy06pics (beware the file is 23 MB)

To get an idea how fast the v8's blast past you when we're in our seat, view this movie clip I shot with my little camera:
V8's @ INY06 (beware the file is 8 MB)

#1 Season #3 @ Venue Carlingford

I've made it, after starting playing poker half way during season #2 ranking top 5. I am now venue winner of season #3 at Carlingford Bowlingclub for the National Poker League.
That is 3 months playing "Texas Holdem" every monday competing against total 260 players, not all played every monday tho, would say 50-60 loyal competitors.

The venue winners get an original poker table, but i've heard that last season’s winner still is waiting for his :(
So wont get my hopes up on that one..

But I do get a seat in the final again like last time, with 15.000$ first prize or paid seat with flight and acc. in one of worlds biggest poker events like the WPT.

Let you know when it comes up!
Not bad start after a fab weekend at Indy.. will post on that one later, working on some photo's.

Here are my stats

Tomorrow morning ill jump in a rental car with 5 other mates, and we are going to drive for 10 hours to reach .......
The Gold Coast - Surfers Paradise !!

For 4 days we are going to suck up all the petrol fumes and environmental pleasures on the Gold Coast during the Indy300.. HOOHAY!

I've no idea where we staying but Im sure its good, as Paul who arranged it has done it more times before.
The agenda is packed for those days.. and in the nights we prolly explore this happening from the pubs perspective (lucky guess).

Besides the Indy300 the Australian V8's are racing also this weekend, so that 2 main events packed into one weekend.
I'm prolly more connected to the V8's as I'm interested into the Indy.. but hey.. its race cars, kewl invironment, great company.. and some beers aight!

Wont bring notebook so I'll sign of for a couple of days.. hopefully got some nice pics when I come back!

Here's a list of the 7 worst fonts.. on LMNOP.blogs.com take a little guess what is on #1 ! yes yes... I'm not alone..

I spilled my guts in the comments too :)

BTW some other good writing on that blog to.. LMNOP.blogs.com

I've done quite some versions of the Vital logo, and just before I stopped working there I was upto V16, for some reason none of the versions made the YES statement, all they did was having the WOW effect.
Whether I wasnt capable of creating what they want, or some people just cant make up their minds.. i really dont know.. but i didnt mind as I kept evolving my previous creations.

I was told to copy a logo from someone else, but I refuse to do that, that was prolly one of the reasons. These creations are near the example but enough different to be called my own.

From all these type of versions I vote for the Half Cup.. just because it gives the orb more view.

It was a good exercise, but hope to find another place for these creations, if Vital doesnt pick them.

Havent got the google bot around yet to LOGOBALLS.com.au, but the ninemsn search of Australia already topranks us with search strings like:

"Golf balls with logo"

or:
"Logo golf balls in Australia"

Thats already a very pleasing result with not that much effort!

A day at the races ;)

Ally and some of her workfriends had tickets to the members area for last Franklins (supermarket) Rosehill Race Day (Horse Races to be clear).
So we all got dressed up on our finest ;), that means full suit and tie, and with all gala dress and hats etc.
First it was a fine 37 degree day.. grrr, I mean nice but not so nice when you are in full suit. Second was on our way when we took the turn to the racecourse a cab in front of us started smoking and within a couple of seconds the car was fully lit. The cab driver came out fine and he had no passengers.

Third, you can only go to the member area when you are with a member, and not when you know people that already have a ticket to the member area.. lol, little hiccup.. so we almost had to sit with the "normal" people.. lol, not to be a snob but more the fact that the "normal" people had t-shirts and shorts on.... and we are fully dressed up, on this hot day.. so then it would be like being jealous about the "normal" people.. if you catch my drift.
Ally decided to sweettalk the security guard at the gate, and that worked.. he waited till a big chunk of also fully dressed up ppl went through, called us over and let us through with his pass.. with a little message if you run into problems just mention Security Officer John at the gate let you in :)

The races were good, its basicly getting pissed in a fancy environment and bet on some pony's, and feel like jetset for half a day. :)
We didnt bet much, as we lost all races.. on the last race I got 8$ back from the 50$ or so spend.. hooyah.. lol

As we were leaving me and Ally's female colleagues wanted to have another drink somewhere, and in walking distance there was HOOTERS!, and the girls voted to go there.. what ! ? yea.. so that would mean I would go to HOOTERS with 3 girls.. lol
Anyway we had to queue up to long so decided not to go..
Grabbed one of the best pizza's ive ever had on the way back, going to remember that place.
So it was a nice day at the races !

Think one extension would be in place.. maybe two! But that's it... i think!?

2nd 1500$ tournament was quickly over.
Sometimes you know it, and I must admit I used quite a bit of luck last night if it comes in volume :)
The table I joined was nice and easy, enough to survive for long.. but the cards didnt do me any good.
I was out just after the first break.. quickly cought a kebab on the way home, Ally was my supporter today.. was great evening, but to bad no good poker.
Monday night again, see if I can crank up my #2 spot at Carlingford venue leaderboard for my weekly poker for points and chipsets.. and thats it.

My stats:
My NPL stats

This is a beta test player from this company, I think they are trying to get ready for good bandwidth times so they can sell the TV channels all over the world.
For now its free, and its a little application to download, and without any fancy stuff your on your way watching more then 40 channels like FOX usa, ESPN 1 + 2, Animal Planet, CBS, ABC even Al Jazeera is in there.. There are tons of sport channels, also many music channels.. and my favorite one the Comedy Channel :)
You can leave the screen in the little window or view almost full screen.

I have no idea how long it will be free, and yes its a beta version + not all channels display very correctly.. but hey its getting there.

Link:
TVU Player Download

I'm pretty sure when I find some timetables and convert them to Aussie time I would be able to catch the race on one of those channels, lets hope for the best.

When you get this kick notification in America's Army 2.7
You prolly didnt completely removed 2.6! *Sigh* Control Panel -> Add Rem Programs aint enough with AA these days.

Kick message:

Console Message: PunkBuster Client: Removing "f34R-m3" ???? (2 minutes) [File Whitelist "a-charactersciv.ukx"]
10/12/06 23:32:04 Log: PunkBuster Client: Removing "f34R-m3" ???? (2 minutes) [File Whitelist "a-charactersciv.ukx"]

ps.. f34R-m3 is my nick name in AAO.

Follow these steps to do the reinstall ! :s
forum.americasarmy.com

Anyways.. when I have the time.. I'll try.. grrrrr....

First tournament played, and finished 7th with $50 bucks prize money.
Not a big pot but oke considering I had to fight my way back with only one chip of 100 left after a big bad beat.
Raked up to 5100 in chips after 6 hands.. then the final table (last 8 players), and I was small blind, every one folded I was next to see against only one player (Big Blind), looked.. Ace 10 suited clubs. Little think, though what are the odds.. go all in will in 80% scare him out, what I hoped for!, another 10 prolly he loose when he calls me, and yes.. the final 10 to let me go down.
He called.. with Ace Jack unsuited, Arrgh.. the moment I can get the blinds back mister BB has a hand like that... against my Ace 10 suited.. one over for him with me extra a possible flush draw, only the Ace came out on the flop the rest was rubbish and no clubs.. with letting him taking the pot with a higher kicker.
~ That's poker! ~
Was a great game and the final table only shared the 1500$ with top 8 paid.. so #1 got 600$ orso..

Up to the next one..

Done some updates recently on logoballs.com.au, its going into the right direction with the site.

To fill MyGfx & Portfolio with old work and stories:

I've organized some LANparties in the past, and our LAN group was called LANtasy, the site(tnx to windkracht.nl) (dutch) is still alive i think to see the photo's. We had a super location in Club Vernes on the dancefloor, and a good set of Sponsors to get the party going.
LANtasy was done by me and my mate Frank (ICTSense & host for DUIJNUNDER.com) as organisers of the LANvibe to get the thing going, and LANtasy needed a mascot.. so i created LANtasy's own little wizard, one of my first created character with a purpose in life. The name was therefor already set, Frank + Per = FraPer !

LANtasy's Forum (dutch) is still barely hanging out there with FraPer on top of a gr8 chapter in gaming and friends.
Hopefully now I'm in Australia, FraPer and LANtasy still will get revived one day!
Otherwise, my FraPer and LANtasy rest in peace..

I still play poker every mondaynight, and now also the last 2 thursday nights.. The mondays is for National Poker League, where I got my 3rd victory a couple of months ago, and now finally climbing out of a big dip scoring last week 5th and this week 2nd.
The extra this week with the 2nd place is it was also a sattelite to another event with a 3000$ prize pot. A sattelite is saying you automaticly can play that tournament without buying in!
So this friday i play another tournament for 1500$ #1 prize.. total 3000$ prize pot, due to my 2nd place finish.. HOOYAY!

Thursdays I play a money game, 17$ buy-in and top 4 gets payed, depends on the participants.. mostly the pot is around 500$, so #1 gets 250$.. #2 +/-150$ and so on..

I've played alright those thursdays, and everytime made the final table (last 7 players), but always just lost out.. grrr that hurts! (#6 & #5 ggrrrr.. )
Anyways, this Thursday its also a 1500$ #1 finish.. dont know about the rest of the prizes.. but how funny is that the moment I get my game back I classify for 2 x 1500$ events!

Ally is going to join me this friday what would be an 150 ppl max event, I have no idea what thursday will look like.. but hope for the best:)

Like Bob Sexton from WPT says, hope All my cards be LIVE and my posts be MONSTERS!

A new update for America's Army Special Forces, v2.7.0 called "Overmatch".

FYI: America's Army is a FREE online combat game, starting with offline training before you can enter the battlefields as a soldier. When you do more training you can call yourself a special force member, and can join online missions being one.

Ive been playing this game from early beginnings, and every once a couple of months I start playing again when I have some spare time *cough*.

I use to play with like 5 or 6 friends all connected with TeamSpeak so we could talk live with one and another. Thats how you win de battle.. lol

Although America's Army SF too me still was one of the best combat games out there, many people I know wondered of to games like Call of Duty or Battlefield 1942 etc.
If you are a rampage dude, and want to run and shoot and behave like Rambo, go and play those arcade games.
If you want serious combat simulation.. tadaa.. America's Army SF.
Most of the beginner lessons offline are pretty easy, and fun todo.. as you are sometimes sitting in a real class room learning about OPFOR (opposite Forces) vehicles and weapons. But some of the Special Forces training missions are very hard or need way more time to finish.. be patient u'll be rewarded!

As we speak I am downloading @ 800kb p/s the next version 2.7.0, not braggin about the speed as thats the only time I'll get it as my provider hosts the file, and to you dutch or European ppl.. 800kb is nothing by now hey.

The features of this new version is besides some GUI changes and behaviours, new weapons but also the use of Vehicles, as the M1114 Up-Armored HMMWV (see right). This was what the game was lacking vs those arcade combat games like Battlefield etc.
Also one of the new features is that there are missions against AI players, normally you played against human players in well balanced maps, with well balanced weapon and armor supplies. Now you are dropped into a mission with your fellow human gamers, and you are facing an AI force that could be upto 5 times bigger than your squad.

Anyways.. I'll give it a go, looks very good and promising..

Read the new features here :

LINK:
AA:SF v2.7.0 features

Download this FREE game.. :)

America's Army download page

Picture this!?

As of now the center content will be displayed in the font "Georgia", second in line is former Ms Trebuchet, and if you dont have them both you'll end up seeing Verdana or Arial.

Link:
Georgia

Titles of posts still will be Ms Trebuchet :)

A couple of days ago I had this idea "How is it going with.. Jacco and the crew!
FYI, Jacco and the crew is a group of friends in Holland, where Jacco was the lead singer of a band .. when I met them it was called "Riptide".
Anyways, I went to some gigs of the crew and we got to know eachother through mutual friends, also followed and went to the F1 with the crew, and see each other on birthday parties, we even tried to play tennis once in a while etc etc.. great times.. really, fantastic times.
Anyways, when I thought of the group, and wondered how they were doing... so I googled to see what the band was doing.
To be honest the hits came on the guitarist name "Tjalling", whom I also shared some LANparties with in those days, a big F1 fan too... But the band name was new to me that google came up with.. "MAY", if you please ! lol

Wow their own work.. thats superb, as I know that Jacco always wanted to do own work productions. They started the band May very recently I think as most dates on the site are very fresh.. but MAY already won the Big Prize of Access Live (dutch sorry) this september, as this is a prize awarded to new and upcomming LIVE bands.
As the agenda of May is getting fully booked, I just shared an e-mail with Jacco, as I posted in the guestbook on the site. They had a Radio broadcast recently where they played live in the studio from SchagenFM (funny this site is made and hosted by "Windkracht" - see my affiliates - go Koen en Michael).
!If all goes well, I get the broadcast of that session in mp3, and when i do I will share it.. as I got an e-mail from the host of the show "Eldorado" on SchagenFM Peter, that he wanted to tape it for me so I could listen to it too, after he read that somebody from Australia was cheering for the guys.. whoa how good is that! !!

Cant wait to hear the broadcast, I will share it like a PodCast guys., if youwant!? :)

If you want to listen to some recordings of May, you can listen on the site MAYBAND.com with the MayPlayer.
Or visit their MySpace: myspace.com/bandmay
Beware the recordings are a single mic take, so its very very raw.., but you'll get a general idea on the sound they produce anyway!

Go May.. and be well, I'll follow you guys.. as much as I can, hope to hear the recording from SchagenFM soon.

ps. I believe the concert photo's are made by Arjan Wonink! (well done Arjan :)

When am I close to nature??!... yes, playing golf.. lol, so most of my encounters with Australian wildlife is on the golfcourse.
This encounter with a giant (in my opinion) Goanna happened also a couple of months ago on the golfcourse in Turramurra.
My ball missed the elevated green and bounced into the lower part right below this tree.. not really a difficult lie, and i've been there before.. trust me.. lol
As preparing my chip up, this crackling noise occurred, and some tree bits started falling down. When I looked up I was staring into this fellows behind.
Lucky.. yes very lucky the Goanna hasn't dropped himself from the tree and grabbed me instead.. dont think my body could hold his big claws.

I've seen one before on another course prolly the same size (+/-1.20 mtr), but didnt had my phonecamera at that time. I must say this was one of my most intriguing encounters, I've always had a soft spot for these dragon kind of creatures.

See more encounters:
Cloggie in Oz -> Fierce Creatures