Welcome To The Asylum...

The Twitch Asylum that is. I just discovered another FANTASTIC Podcast! It's called Twitch Asylum Video Game Radio. They cover all things gaming. Their latest cast is episode ..2. The focus is retro gaming on the Atari and they actually interview HOWARD SCOTT WARSHAW!!

Wha?? Don't know who Howard Scott Warshaw is? HSW created games for the Atari 2600. Most notably, Yar's Revenge, Raiders Of The Lost Ark and E.T! The interview was awesome! Hearing Howard talk about the glory days at Atari HQ, creating games, goofing off and experimenting in the latest psychedelic substances makes for a fantastic addition to Howard's DVD - Once Upon Atari.

By the way, if your a retro gaming / Atari fan, you DEFINITELY will not want to miss this episode! Howard Scott Warshaw makes a special announcement that you fans will NOT want to miss!!

Go check out the site and listen to the podcast! You won't be sorry! If you like it, tell the guys SjN sent ya!

I'm outta here -
SjN

DVD GEEK!!

Geek Alert!

I just picked up Seasons One, Three and Four of Star Trek: The Next Generation! I now only need seasons six and seven to round out my set!

Last night I totally geeked out on Yesterday's Enterprise, Deja'Q, and Best Of Both Worlds Parts One and Two. It's funny, going back and re-watching these episodes really gets me to realize just how good this series actually was. It's one of those rare gems that no matter how many times you've watched an episode, you always find something new to take away from it.

Tonight, I'll be enjoying some season 4 goodness. Particularly Final Mission - Wesley Crusher's last episode, The Wounded - First appearance of the Cardassians and First Contact (how the movie should have been done!) But hey, that's just me.

In other DVD news, If you are a comic book fan, go and get Ultimate Avengers - The Movie on DVD! FANTASTIC Marvel Superhero flick! To my fellow comic book nerds, you won't be dissappointed. Now if only Marvel would do this same thing to Spider-Man, ROM Spaceknight and DeathLOK I'll be all set!

By the way, there is already an Ultimate Avengers II on the way! Hopefully these Animated movies will be a hit and more will be made! They really are well done and are great to play up in the office while working.

Well, I'd better get back to work. I've geeked out long enough. For some reason, the Man expects productivity out of me while I grace this cubicle...

Who'd a Thunk? Geek On!!
SjN

The Greatest Flash Game In History?

I've finally found it! The greatest flash game of all time! It's taken awhile but I think I've finally pulled it off.

I give you - Tactical Assassin

You start out the game being briefed on the mission. It centers around a terrorist organization called FMG. After completing missions in Chicago, you pick up and head off to Bagdad where it is discovered that their base of OPS are headquartered. Once a mission is completed, it's off to your next briefing. Intense gameplay ensues.

Heck, what's better than sniping stick figures? The gory stick figure aftermath thats what! Seriously, this game is totally awesome and it comes highly recommended from SjN himself.

Head on over and give it a shot (hehehe...Pun intended) yourself! Just be sure to come back and let me know what ya think!

SjN Out...

Federline - An Excercise in Idiocy

I gotta be honest here. I'm almost embarassed for the guy.

If you don't know what I'm going on about, watch this video of K-Fed's new single PopoZao. What the heck was this guy thinking? It has got to be the most pathetic excuse of self promotion I've ever seen. I don't know. He's fairly new to the recording scene I guess. Just cruising around the Net, It's not hard to come across a story or comment about Federline's latest single. His video is the butt of jokes across the blogosphere.

By far, the BEST joke has got to be the one from G4 TV. Now I'll say up front that I'm not a huge G4 fan but this video is a rare jewel in the archive of G4'dom. I had tears rolling down my eyes after watching Pereira go off in this video! Poor K-Fed... Everyone's got to take their lumps one way or Another.

Speaking of lumps. Here's the G4 video- K-Per's Cottage Cheese Thighs. Now, to get the full affect of G4's parody, you gotta watch Federlines video first. This is just classic stuff. My hat's off to G4 on this one.

Well, time to get busy. I've been slugging it behing this monitor for way too long! I've got work to do. Hope you enjoy this little tid-bit I found on the Net. Hey Pereira, If you come across this, GREAT JOB! This is definately a keeper.

I'm outta here-
SjN

Introducing - The Sprites!

What? Never heard of 'em? Well now you have. And if you're like me, as soon as you hear them, you too will head to your local music shop or iTunes store for your own CD. These guys are unbelievable.

They consider themselves indie/new wave/pop funk but I tend to throw them into the indie/folk category. I almost want to liken them to an updated Simon & Garfunkle.

Trust Me..... They're Good!

Here is their MySpace page. They've got 4 songs that you can sample. Let me know what you think!

Gettin My Grove on,
SjN

Home Theater - Starfleet Style!!

Just when you thought that kicking back to watch a good sci-fi flick couldn't get any cooler, some geek (I bow before his feet...) created the ultimate nerd home theater!!

Is this NOT the most AWESOME home theater experience you can think of? A theater themed off of the bridge of good ol' NCC-1701A herself. If you want to see more, head on over to -The Bridge Home Theater -

I just wish I had the room (and permission) to do something like this in my place. The attention to detail this guy stuck too is just fantastic! Go through the images he has on his site and sit back in awe at it's nerdy goodness.

Just sitting in that room watching say, Star Trek - Undiscovered Country has got to make it even that much better! The ambiance of your surroundings in this theater during a really good sci-fi movie would make for that much better of an experience. Sign me up!!

Want to know the best part about this home theater? It's when your NOT watching movies! Can you imagine, piping bridge sound effects through out the sound system then throwing on a simple Windows Starfield screensaver on the projecter? Yea.... let me guess. You got goosebumps too?

Thought so
Till Next Time -
SjN

So, You Think This Is Photoshopped??

Well Guess AGAIN!! This is actually a legit photograph of an airliner coming into the St. Marteen Airport. The lowest landing airport in the world! I've been to the Caribbean but I've never seen anything like this!

Here's a really cool Google video of an incoming airliner onto the flightline. This is absolutely insane! Could you imagine getting your relax on at that beach when you hear a distant rumble only to look up and see 5 billion tons of steel slowly coasting 10 feet above your head? I'm sorry, I'd need another pair of swimming trunks after that little encounter!!

Anyway, I thought this was extremely cool and thought I'd share!

Take Care-
SjN

"Go With Throttle Up..."

Those 4 words will forever be engrained in my thoughts when I think of the Challenger. On January 28,1986, twenty years ago today, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 74 seconds into liftoff taking 7 brave souls with her after the utterance of those 4 words.

Everyone that is old enough to remember that day, remembers exactly where they were and what they were doing when the news came across the wire of the sad outcome of that mission.

As I type this, the shuttle program is halted. Grounded. Is this a good thing? Probably yes. The space shuttle is in dire need of a redesign. But it should not signal the end to manned spaceflight. Spaceflight is dangerous. There are many risks involved and these astronauts understood that. They had the "Right Stuff". If we could sit down with those 7 brave souls and ask whether we should just give up, I believe they each would encourage us to press on.

When asked if we should mothball the space program, I can imagine those astronauts quoting "Q" from the Star Trek The Next Generation episode 'Q-Who' when he replies to Captain Picard:
"If you can't take a little bloody nose, maybe you had better go back home and crawl under your bed. It's not safe out here! It's wondrous, with treasures to satiate desires both subtle and gross. But it's not for the timid."

Finally, I say to the crew of the Challenger, Godspeed. You have not been forgotten. You live on in our dreams. In our yearning to explore the heavens. As our fortieth president Ronald Reagan said -

"We shall never forget the last time we saw them, as they waved goodbye and slipped the surly bonds of Earth...

To touch the face of God."

Take Care,
SjN

The Infamous ATARI landfill - A Music Video???

In 1983 Atari transported around 15 truckloads of E.T and Pacman cartridges to a landfill in Alamogordo, NM, buried them, and left them for forgotten. So was born a legend. This legend has actually gained international notoriety.

But I've got something to add...

I lived in Alamogordo in 1983!!! I can honestly tell you that the infamous "landfill" event in fact did take place. It was all the news when it went down. You weren't allowed to go anywhere near that area of the landfill when the deed was done. A cement slab was actually poured over it's location. For more information on the whole landfill incident go here. Snopes did a really good job at confirming this once long thought myth. I just wish Atari & the State of New Mexico would allow visits to a partially uncovered section of the landfill. Talk about a geek Mecca!! I don't know about anyone else, but I'd definitely make the pilgrimage! But alas, one can only hope.

But that's not why I'm here. I found this really cool music video thats built around this conspiracy. These guys go on a pilgrimage to locate that secret cache of cartridges. Its actually a pretty good production!

Check it out right here -----> LANDFILL

Now if I could just locate that infamous ultimate Grand Prize, The Atari SwordQuest Sword...
SjN

Las Vegas - Make It So...

Greets all,
SjN here, getting an early start on the news.The 5th Annual Star Trek Convention Celebrating the 40th Anniversary of Star Trek is coming to Las Vegas on August 17th - 20th 2006!!I'm jumping on this early because hotel rooms will fill FAST as the date draws near. Trust me, I KNOW! This is going to be an extreme NERD BASH! I can feel it. I'm so excited right now, I think I'm going to break into decimal to binary conversions!I've sent a note to my buddies over at Return Of Whatever to get on board for the show. Hopefully we'll all get together for a great time of food, drink and Nerdy Mayhem! Heck, everyone knows what happens when you gather a bunch of geeks into one spot for something as nerdy as Star Trek!! Insanity ensues!As I learn more details, I'll pass the message along. For now, I'm planning on staying at the nerve center for all things Star Trek - The Hilton: Las Vegas!

Hope To See Everyone There!
SjN

SLAG TIME!!

Alright folks, time to ring my nerd bell loud and clear.

I just picked up Alien Nation - The Complete Series in all of its Sci-Fi, Nerd Luvin', Geek Gatherin' goodness!

This series is 100 percent responsible for me losing mass amounts of gaming and BBS time during its run. There wasn't too much that could pull me away from my Commodore 64 back in those days and this was a rare exception! The whole concept of the slags setting up shop here on good ol' Mother Earth and then playing out the whole "race card" issue made for some great science and fiction!

Nope, they just don't make 'em like this anymore.

In other 'SjN' news, I'm going for my CCNP certification test in a couple of weeks so I've been really hitting the books. I'm confident that I'll pass it. My problem is that I've got tons of "street smarts" as I work in Cisco gear every day. Its the "book smarts" that I need to brush up on. In other words, there is a right way to configure and troubleshoot Cisco routers & switches, a wrong way to configure and troubleshoot Cisco routers & switches, and a CISCO way configure and troubleshoot Cisco routers & switches!!!

Such is my delima.

Well, back to the books for some quality study time and then its time to pop open a Dr. Pepper, grab a bag of Doritos and "Nerd Out" on ALIEN NATION!!

Take Care All
Stay Nerdy!
SjN

Keyboards Gone Wild!!

Okay, I usually don't plug new stuff without taking it through its paces first but I just HAD to say some words about the unbelievable keyboard that it getting ready to hit the store shelves. I swear, my nerd bubble is about to friggin burst!

Its called the Optimus Keyboard.

Now get a load of this, each individual key is armed with a tiny LED screen which you can configure to your heart's desire. Are you a Photoshop geek? No problem. Just configure the keyboard to display each key shortcut with its own graphic. Are you an online gaming fan? Again, just configure your keyboard to display the pertinent key commands all in its own colorful glory!

The coolness factor of this amazing keyboard is off the charts!

The Optimus Keyboard is slated for release on February 1st, 2006! Its rumored that the price will be in the $100 - $300 dollar range. Yea a bit pricey but well worth the cash if your an avid Photoshop user or other application that uses intensive keyboard commands.

If you want to learn more about this nifty little device, just head on over to their website-

The Optimus Keyboard

Now granted, I have yet to get my hands on this beauty, so I could be spewing out total garbage at this point. Just keep an eye out on the Net for this keyboard. Reviews are sure to start pouring in soon. I feel it is my duty as a nerd, to keep the masses informed on really cool geeky stuff coming around the corner!

I'm outta here.
Keep On Geekin!!
SjN

In A Past Life...

I wanted to be a comic book artist. You see, many a nerd have had dreams of working in the "Bullpen" over at Marvel. Drawing my favorite superheros and getting paid to do so. What a life that would be! Such was the case with me. Back in highschool, not only did I earn extra cash by doing book reports for all of the jocks and stoners as well as 'student teach', I also spent many an hour penciling and inking for my eventual portfolio that I would proudly hand over to the gods at Marvel then wait to be offered a job.

Then reality set in.

I still draw. I guess somewhere deep inside of me is that Marvel comic book artist is just dying to get out. I don't know, maybe its a pipe dream. But hell, what would life be without dreams?

Take this sketch of Wolverine for example. I first drew this back in the 11th grade. I don't know what became of the original. This one is around 3 years old and I did it from memory of the first one I did.

Hehehe... I still got it .

Even now, I'm working on a sketch of one of my favorite 'lesser known' superheros: ROM Space Knight. I remember as a kid I had a ROM 12 inch figure. His eyes lit up and he made all of these cool sounds. Then Marvel worked their magic and brought him to life in the pages of a comic book. He is frequently the victim if my pencils.

Maybe when I'm finished with the piece, I'll post it up here and see what you all think. I can always hang on to that one sliver of hope that a Marvel Exec just happens to wander across my meager dwelling here at MySpace and get him to think "WOW, I gotta get this guy to work at Marvel!!" How cool would that be?

Stay tuned, A geek is at play...

Stayin Nerdy...
SjN

And On the Seventh Day, God Created The Atari

So here's something you may not have known about SjN, he's a notorious Vintage Atari VCS-a-saurus Rex.

Ahhhh.... the Atari 2600. I credit this collection of circuitry, plastic and wood paneling 100% on why I consider myself a geek today. Its Atari's fault!!

As I type this, my beloved Atari (to your left) is silently resting behind the glass door of my entertainment center in my TV room. I've successfully connected it to my 52 inch big screen and to this day, it works exactly like it did when I first extracted from it's box. To show you what a nerd I am, I still have the box it came in.

Yes, its sad. Anyway -

I recently acquired a gem of a DVD titled Once Upon Atari. The DVD was created, produced and directed by Howard Scott Warshaw (Yar's Revenge, Raiders Of The Lost Ark & E.T fame) and is a fantastic ride through all the mayhem that took place in Atari Headquarters hallowed halls. If your an Atari geek like me, this DVD has to be in your collection!

Since I'm on the Atari subject, let me point you to some great links that any vintage Atari fan worth their weight in salt must have in their bookmarks:

Atari Age - Have You Played Atari Today?
Atari.org - For us extreme Atari geeks out there.
Atari Central - A great Atari Resource!

That'll get you started. Those links have tons of information & documentation on the VCS that will keep you busy for a long time.

Well, all this talk about Atari has got me jonesin for a game of Enduro! I think I'll retire to the TV Room and partake in a session! I'll push out more information about the 2600 in future posts. For now, use the links and get a little retro!

Coming Soon -
The Ole' Commode!! The Commodore 64!

Enjoy!
SjN

In With 2006!! Lets Get Our Geek On!!!

Greets All!
SjN here coming down from all the holiday parties that I was invited to. Right now I'm just being a slug and trying to recoop. I hope everyone had a great time over the holidays.

I sure did!

With all of the festivities out of the way, I can now turn my attention on to another passion of mine - TECH! Since I got my new iPod with Video for Christmas, I thought I'd post a quick tutorial on how to broadcast your video content through your TV. It can be a little tricky on your first go around. Bottom line, you don't need to spend big bucks on a special "Apple" connector!

Ingredients -
- First you need an iPod with video (obviously).
- Next you'll need an A/V cable. Be sure to get the 3 way plug
red/white/yellow RCA style on one end with the eighth inch 3.5mm
A/V style plug on the other. I picked one up for around 10 bucks
at my local radio shack. (see photo below)
- TV with RCA jacks (on front preferrably)

Setting Up The iPod -

TV Out:
Set up your iPod to ask you what TV settings you want each time you play a video. You do this by choosing Videos -> Video Settings from your main iPod menu. This screen offers three settings: TV Out, TV Signal and Widescreen. Select TV Out setting to 'ask'. Now, you don't have to do this but it makes it easier in the long run so you don't have to fumble around each time you want to play video on your TV.

TV Signal:
Simple, if you live in the USA or Japan you use NTSC. Europe and Australia use PAL. If your not sure where you live, you got bigger problems than not being able to display iPod video content on your TV!!

Widescreen:
Set this according to your TV type (4:3 or 16:9 aspect ratios respecitvely)

Connecting Everything
Start by connecting the eighth inch plug on the A/V cable into your iPod headphone jack.
Now here is where the 'Gotchas' come into play. Apple decided to send all the video signals down the red plug. (Normally, video is sent down the yellow plug). The audio comes down the yellow and white plugs. SO, to make things easier I've documented the correct order:

• Plug the red RCA plug into your TV's yellow RCA jack.
• Plug the yellow RCA plug into your TV's white RCA jack.
• Plug the white RCA plug into your TV's red RCA jack.
  

After making these connections, your ready to get down to business. On your iPod, get to a movie or video that you want to play. If you selected 'ASK' in the settings, your iPod will display whether you want TV ON or TV OFF. TV ON redirects your iPod's video output through the A/V cable and to your TV. TV OFF tells the iPod to display video on its own screen.

Select TV ON.

I use the volume on my iPod to adjust the levels and then can fine tune audio levels through my TV. What you should have next is this-



Well, hope you enjoyed my little tutorial! Have fun iPodding!!

SjN

W-O-W!!!
It's been awhile! Fortunately I do have an excuse! I'm buried up to my EYEBALLS at work! But let me catch you up first -

See all those posts below? Well, forget about em. Those posts dealt with a period in my life that I'd rather forget. Let's just say it involved getting laid off, getting hired in a call center (barf) with a 50% pay cut and treating grown adults like they were 5.

Times are different now. The company that laid me off called me one day back in April of 2004 asking if I would consider coming back! Before jumping for joy, and acting like an idiot, I calmly told the HR team that I would consider it under two conditions. 1) A raise in pay from my previous salary and 2) All of my sceniority including my vestedness reinstated.

Guess what - They did it!! I started back at the office on May 1st, 2004. Okay, let the jumping around and acting like an idiot commence. And I've never looked back!

I'm now back at my beloved company and yes I LOVE IT HERE! Granted I'm completely buried with no hope of ever seeing the light of day.

Take yesterday- Saturday, March 12th, 2005: I got up at 4:00am and got ready. We had a cut to perform this weekend. Task at hand, migrate 300 server connections to your new 10 gig backbone. Well, without going into a ton of boring detail, I ended up walking out of the office at 1:30am on SUNDAY!

Grueling work but for some sick reason, I LOVE IT!

Well, gonna get my day going.

Peace-
SjN

WHOOO-HOOOO!!! HAPPY DAY!!!!
The INDIANA JONES TRILOGY released on DVD today!! I have waited for this for years! You see, Raiders of the lost ark was sort of a cult religion for me. Raiders (for me) WAS the end all-be all movie of ALL time! Followed closely by StarWars of course.

Way back when....My only reason for buying my first VCR ($800 & change) was to FINALLY own a copy of Raiders Of The Lost Ark on tape. A tape that I STILL own to this very day! It's gonna be a GREAT INDIANA WEEKEND!!

On to other topics...

COMMAND & CONQUER GENERALS. I will kiss the feet of the person that invented this game! I have literally killed HOURS building my army and decimating my opponents! I need to go out and pick up the expansion pack ZERO HOUR! I killed my son multiple times this weekend... hehehehehehe.... I'm such a good dad!!

Well, gonna go downstairs and watch the bonus pack to the Indiana Jones Trilogy!!!

I'll catch up with you laters!!

PEACE!!

Didn't sleep a wink last night. For some reason I was up worrying about these reviews I have to take care of on Sunday at the office. It will be my first time doing them and my boss threw me a curve ball. She wants an incentive packet prepared and presented to each member of your staff. And THEN document their reaction to the incentives in your weekly reviews. Did I mention that weekly reviews have to be completed and turned in on Sunday? It's not like I let this sit on a back burner. She tasked me with this on Thursday afternoon about an hour before going home time. Unbelievable.

On a better note- I picked up Matrix Reloaded last night! I'm so jazzed. For me, movies are always better when you watch them a 2nd or 3rd time. Also dying to check out the special features. As I was walking through Suncoast (DVD Store) I came upon Cowboy Bebop - THE MOVIE. For those that don't know, Cowboy Bebop is a great Japanese anime series. I highly recommend it if your curious about anime. It's not as mind numbing as some of the hardcore anime series like Neon Evangelion or Ghost In The Shell. It's an all around great flick.

While on the subject of movies, yesterday I decided to watch ALOT of them in one sitting. Grand total of movies watched on Friday October 17, 2003 - 6 movies! Those would be in order: Wing Commander, Star Wars Episode I, Star Wars Episode II, Matrix, Matrix Reloaded and finally Jason And The Argonauts. No need for applause.... I'm proud of it.... :-)

I'm thinking about taking in Lord Of The Rings- Fellowship of the Ring and Two Towers along with Cowboy Bebop today!

Well, Gonna grab a cup of joe and surf the web a bit. Till next time, take care and as always....

Peace-

Ahhhhhh Friday Morning
I'm kicking back in my backyard. It's still dark out and the ducks are still sleeping out on the lake. It's my FAVORITE time of the day! I thought it only proper to grab the laptop and jam a few lines.

So- TOP item on the agenda today? BUY THE MATRIX RELOADED!! I've been putting it off all week as I've been too tired to do anything but go straight home and sleep after those grueling work days. Also planning on doing a happy hour at my favorite mexican restaurant this evening. Other than that? It's SLUG time. I've got NO plans (I love that....)

On to a thinking point- Why do we sleep?

I was watching a TV show the other day about Narcolepsy. The condition of suddenly falling asleep. As this condition was being researched the question arose - Why do we sleep? What an interesting question! I pondered it and could not arrive at an answer. It seems some of the world's top scientists couldn't either. (Makes me feel better!)

Anyhow- after years of research scientists have found the lack of a chemical in the brains of narcoleptic patients called orexins. Orexins are basically neurotransmitters that regulate things like hunger and (you guessed it) arousal/consciousness. Now back to the question: Why do we sleep?

In continuing with their studies, researchers stumbled on a very interesting discovery- The natural state of ALL living things is asleep! Scientists should have been asking the question: Why are we awake? It is by some quirk of nature that at certain intervals (mornings) orexins in the brain become stimulated and you gain consciousness. In the evenings, this stimulation calms down and you return to a more normal unconscious state. Bottom line, it appears researchers are on the verge of curing narcolepsy.

Sorry- went off on a tangent. I do that sometimes. I thought that was extremely cool!!

Well got to go get another cup of coffee, get these Orexins flowing and enjoy my morning. Till next time -

Peace-

Today was a milestone! Today marks my first day being on my own at my new job! Up until now, I always had a peer with me showing me the ropes. From what I'm told, the normal training period is 1 month. I started on the 1st and already they have me managing the floor. I guess that's good! I officially have 14 technicians that report to me. And it's funny, it's all starting to fall into place. I had serious concerns whether I was going to fit in or not. This customer service nonsense is alien to me. But I can lead. And that's what I am doing.

I've gotten a ton of feedback from my website - www.sjnstudios.com! And I'm happy to report that it is ALL positive! I thank you all for your continued support. Without you, I'd be wasting my time. Keep writing in. I read each and every email. If any of you have any recommendations or ANYTHING that you would like to see, just yell. I aim to please!

Well, I got to get back to work, I'm trying to squeeze in some cartooning time now that my schedule has so drastically changed. Once everything calms down a little, I should be able to swing it. Again- THANKS for the continued support, you all keep me inspired!

Peace-