My Drunk Ass Boys!

Gettin Wrecked!

Christmas 2007

Our New Baby

Vizio VM60P - 60" Plasma HDTV
Thank the state for Kicker Checks. Thanks to the State of Oregon taking too much money from me last year and now refunding it, yet making me pay taxes on it next year, (explain that one to me) We have a new baby in the house. She is quite a big girl at 60 inches! I think she makes her older yet slightly smaller 50 inch brother downstairs jealous with her bronze bezel(to me it looks more silver than bronze). He has the nicer xbox 360 though, which has that nice hdmi port that the one upstairs does not. Anyway, I think she will make a nice addition to the family, especially when the guys all come up after Christmas. Call me crazy, but I bought it out of necesity, I couldn't see text since I use the computer as my TV in the bedroom. Now I can!

Get Ready to Poop Your Pants!

Definitely the most visually impressive show I have ever seen. The lighting effects were absolutely amazing. Rob of course won free tickets to the right of the stage and took his roommate Matt. Corey and I bought tickets, that were actually really good seats, as well. They played for 2 hours, and played a great set. On the down side, I would have liked to hear "Sober" and "Prison Sex" which they did not play. The security was absolutely nuts. I have never seen such intense security, they were taking cameras left and right, so I am surprised some video made it out. But all in all a great show.

"Hello, drunk bastards of Portland!"

PUSCIFER!!!

Puscifer - Queen B from the new album "V" Is For Vagina

Victoria BC Trip

Our trip to Victoria BC, and Shelton WA this last weekend. Had a great time. Went to an underwater sea aquarium, a wax museum, and got to see my cousin Logan get his buck 2 days before deer season ended. Peyton had a blast. She so enjoyed seeing Grandpa Sims, she leaned over to me on his couch and said, "Daddy, I like grandpa now!" And the highlight for her was definitely seeing my cousin Trinity who is a year and half older than she. They kept Grandma busy all night playing Barbies and Bank.

To see more pictures, click on the photo above.

Hello Mrs. Sims

Well,
I am engaged to the love of my life...Jill and I will be getting married on January 31st, which will be 1 year that we will have been together. It is hard to believe it has already been a year. Especially since so much has happened during the last 10 months. I can truly say that it has been the happiest 10 months of my life, and I only see it continuing. Since it is not the first time down the alter for either of us, we are not having a big old shindig. Instead we have decided to have a small ceremony in Lake Tahoe, with just family and close friends.

I know that many will say it is too soon since our divorces, or that we haven't been together long enough to get married. But I can tell you that I have never been more sure of anything in my life. When I look at Jill, I just know that she is the one I am supposed to be with for the rest of my life. I never would have believed that the way I feel about her was even possible. What we have is like what you see in the movies, and I always believed that it wasn't reality to be so in love with someone. But I could not have been more wrong! Jill really does complete me, and I can't believe I just said that as corny and as Hollywood as it sounds, but its true! She really does make me a better person, and I can not imagine life without her. And I want the whole world to know just how important she is to me.

Portal Baby!

This is one heck of a deal 5 games for the price of 1. Portal was a lot of fun, but remember: "the cake is a lie". I am playing Half-Life 2 currently. Never got thru it on xbox 1.

MASTER CHIEF TOMORROW!!!

Oh you know what time it is!

Fourth Generation Xbox 360!

This is now the 4th Xbox 360 I have owned. This time I got the nice version, the other three have been core units. And I just can't be out done by my little brother! The first 2 of my 360's crapped out and were sent back to Microsoft. Now my current one, did the same. But with Halo 3 coming next week, I decided it was time to upgrade, especially since it will be 3 weeks until it is back. While my Core unit is being repaired I will be enjoying Halo 3 goodness on this Halo 3 edition 360. Oh how I love the bronze. I haven't decided what I will do with the old one when it gets back, but I will probably sell it. Todd think's we should put it in his room, but that sounds like he would have to do something big for me! So we shall see.

It's my fault!

Well, I have been wanting to get a tattoo for quite some time, but was unable to find the right Nine Inch Nails logo (you knew that's what I'd get). Then it hit me, I wanted the logo from a shirt I got at a show in Tacoma in 1995. It was a gargoyle and a chaos symbol. Trouble was I lost the shirt over the years, and could not find the image anywhere on the net. Until a couple days ago. I emailed THENINHOTLINE’S LEVIATHANT and it just so happened he got 1 off ebay a while back and scanned it for me. Now the guys over at FACTION (an online NIN clothing shop) heard about it, and have made a shirt with it again. Check it out and buy one, cause they rule!

Trent Says, "Stealing Music is Good!"

All I can say, is he is totally right, and I agree completely.

Mazatlan

Celebrate!

Celebrating Kaylie's 21st birthday a tad early last weekend at the house in Lake Oswego. We all had an incredibly fun time. Much of Jill's family (Brother Brent and his girlfriend Jennifer, her oldest son Andy, and her Mom Sherry and Step Dad Jim) came up for the weekend from California as did her best friend Debbie (love her!). Had a lot of fun and went through a keg of Widmer and a ton of food.

The Beast!

Not really news, but I finally got a new truck. I love it. I got a very good deal with the lowest interest rate avail because I apparrently am an11 on a scale of 1-10 for my credit score. They gave me a really great trade in on my Ranger, I looked it up on kellybluebook.com and it was right where it should have been. And they gave me a couple of rebates, so I have a very manageable monthly payment. I got a Ford F-150 Crew Cab Lariat Edition 4x4. It is the Lariat edition which is the top end version of the F-150 series. It is pretty much loaded with leather, chrome everything, moon roof, in dash 6 disc cd and mp3 stereo (sub woofer under the back seats is nice too!), and has power everything. The inside is sweet with a 3 tone dash, silver, mahogany, and tan leather. It has lots of room for passengers, which is a huge improvement over the Ranger. Its got a 5.4 Liter Triton V-8 so it definitely has the power, but on the downside guzzles the gas! It drives smooth as hell, especially compared to my old truck. And most of all I think it looks damn nice!


I've been wanting/needing a new vehicle 4 a while, for several reasons, and wanted to stick with a truck so that in the event that I need to haul something, I won't have to borrow one.

1. 4 Wheel drive. Considering the fact that I live in Portland now, and Peyton is on the coast, I am going to need to have a 4x4 to deal with highway 26 in the winter.

2. More than 2 seats The Ranger's little sideways fold up back seats were great and all, but if I had Peyton and her car seat in the truck, everyone else was out of luck.

3. Size. Let me tell you, size does matter! If I get in a wreck, this truck will fare much better than Tinkerbell (this is what my friend Steve called my Ranger).

4. Safety, and this was the biggest reason. 2 weeks ago, my Meat Manager's 11 year old son was killed in a head on car crash on Highway 26 past Sandy. He was sitting in the front seat of the vehicle, wearing a seat belt, and had an air bag, but it wasn't enough to save his life. If something happened to Peyton, I don't think I would be able to go on, and with the old truck she was in the front seat no matter what. With the full size truck she can finally be in the back seat where I feel much better about her safety.

5. Because I wanted it! I have had the ranger for 5 years now, and it never really felt like me. I am a pretty big sized guy, and it just felt cramped. That is definitely not the case anymore, where I have to use the running boards to get in and out of the F-150.

It is Official

Well, as of yesterday, I am transferring to a new store. I asked to be moved in order to get myself promoted, and to be closer to Jill in Lake Oswego. The commuting which is what I have been doing for the last couple months is terrible, especially with the current cost of gas. Anyway I start at my new store, which is in the St. Johns area, about a block from the bridge, on Sunday the 13th. The store is the exact same size and footprint as the store in Astoria but I think it is about a year newer. My last day in Astoria will be Thursday May 10th. I have an apartment that I am sharing with someone, at the edge of Portland near the Bridgeport mall. I am very excited and nervous at the same time, it is a big change, but it feels like a much needed one. My plan is to get myself promoted and hopefully have my own store before the end of the year. Now if I could just get rid of my apartment in Astoria, I'd be set!

So Much, So little time

Well Colin is right the world is ending. Why else would I have forotten to post about the new NIN album? It is amazing and here is a clip with Trent talking about it.

The New Someone

1st Video from new album

Here s Survivalism from the upcoming Nine Inch Nails album Year Zero. It was found on several USB drives after a concert in Europe.

Good News For JB

Rage Against The Machine are going to reunite for a concert in April. It's a one time thing though. But with Cornell restarting his solo career, you never know.

THE BIG 30!

Well, another one bites the dust...Happy B-Day Jerky! Trust me I feel your pain, just drink til you black out, always works for me!

From Old to New

Well it was time to upgrade. I have had my computer for over 3 years and things just weren't moving like they should, even after numerous reformats, so I took the plunge and decided to build a new one.


Old System:
Processor: 2Ghz AMD Athlon 64 3200
Operating System: Win XP Pro
Memory: 1 GB RAM
Video Card: ATI Radeon 9800 Pro
Sound Card: Turtle Beach Santa Cruz 5.1
Hard Drives: 5 totaling 1090 GB
Monitor: 19 inch LCD 4:3 aspect ratio
Optical Drive: 1 DVD Rom & 1 16x DVD+-R/RW/R DL writer
Case: Antec Grey aluminum Midsize Tower
External Bays: 4 5.25"/2 3.5"
Internal Bays: 4 3.5"
Power supply: Antec 430watt
Fans: Seven (1-3" internal and 1-3" external power supply fans, 2-3" external front, 1-3" external side, & 2-3" external rear fans)




New System:
Processor: 1.86 Ghz Intel Core 2 Duo 6300
Operating System: Win XP Pro Media Center edition
Memory: 2 GB RAM
Video Card: Nvidia Geforce 7600 LE & Conexant Falcon Video Capture Card w/remote
Sound Card: Realtek High Definition 7.1 on board audio
Hard Drives: 5 totaling 1290 GB
Monitor: 22 inch LCD 16:9 aspect ratio
Optical Drive: 1 DVD Rom & 1 Litescribe (makes a label on top) 18x DVD+-R/RW/R DL writer
Case: Antec silver composite Midsize Tower
External Bays: 4 5.25"/1 3.5"
Internal Bays: 6 3.5"
Power supply: Antec 500 watt
Fans: Five (1-3" internal and 1-3" temp sensing external power supply fans, 1-3" external front, 1-5" rear external, & 1-5" external top fan)

The new case is beautiful, it is a silvery color, that kind of changes colors slightly at different angles. The case is lighter than the old one but about the same size, This one has a spoiler on top that covers the very quiet top case fan which compared to the old computer that sounded like a jet taking off, is extremely quite, almost shockingly quiet. I also can't believe how much cooler it is even with fewer fans and twice the processor, no more heating the office with it. I put XP Media Center on it, which is pretty neat with the remote. It is very similar to what Colin had with his old gateway, only I can also run it wirelessly through my xbox 360 to my TV and do pretty much anything (surf, stream dvds on my pc hard drive or any other video files, pictures, music etc) or I can watch it on the monitor as well as watch TV through the capture card on the PC. The monitor is freakin huge, wide screen which is infinitely better than the regular 4:3. I upgraded my keyboard to a wireless which is nice and kept the wireless logitech mouse I already had. I brought over all but one of the 5 HDDs but added a new 320gb to replace a 120gb.

I am thinking about going raid 0 with the hard drives, but don't know enough about it so I will have to read up first. The dvd burner makes labels on the discs which is kind of cool. And so far the system is much faster to process stuff, especially in photoshop and other intensive programs. I was reading you can over clock the Core 2 Duo that I have to the same speed as the top end processor at 3.0 Ghz for about $700 cheaper and it is still pretty stable so I will probably be doing that. All in all I am pretty pleased, and it was pretty reasonable, $1400 not counting the 4 hard drives and the mouse I already had.

I set up Rachelle with my old pc to replace the old 1Ghz Pentium III Dell that I have had for like 8 or nine years which I then set up for Peyton. Peyton absolutely loves having her own "puter" that she uses to play her Barbie and her pet shop game, as well as surf her sites (Noggin, Playhouse Disney, & Nick Jr.) And now she doesn't have to compete for time on Rachelle's computer. She is getting scary good with it. Doesn't need our help really much at all anymore. The way she is going she will be building me my next computer!

SNOW!!! Lots of SNOW!!!

Good God, we got snow at the beach. In 30 years I don't ever remember there being this much snow in Seaside. I woke up this morning to about 6-8 inches!!! I was in shock. It was pretty fun, though. I was supposed to be at work at 7AM, but my truck is not 4-wheel drive, and I don't have snow tires. So I went in late and Rachelle and I took Peyton in the yard to play with the neighbor kids, since school was cancelled. Driving to work was a little scary, people drive like idiots! You would think with all the snow and ice on the highway people would drive reasonably and cautiously. Nope jackasses trying to pass, peeling out, fish tailing, etc. Astoria didn't get near as much 1-3 inches tops, which is strange. Most of it melted by this afternoon, although i still had about 4 inches in the bed of my truck that came with me to work and was still there when I got home. At about 4pm it was 32 degrees in Astoria, so all that melted snow was turning to ice. Again, a little scary driving home, especially across the Young's Bay Bridge. Damn was it slick. I don't think we will get more snow tonight, but then again, I never thought we would get it last night either.

Birthday Girl

Tea Party
Originally uploaded by bigdsims.

Yep, she's 4 now! I hear it's all down hill from there.

The Storm

Damn, weather can suck! You know I have lived on the Oregon coast nearly all my life, and have seen many storms come and go. But I have never seen one take down as many trees as this one did. Even today nearly 3 weeks later, the sides of the road on both Highway 30 and Highway 26 are littered with literally hundreds if not thousands of downed trees. For a most of the day on Friday, we were an island. All highways to the coast (26, 30, 202, 101) were closed due to fallen trees.

We lost power at my house about 2pm on Thursday the 14th while Peyton and I were playing Xbox. It came and went for about an hour, then Poof, it was gone. No biggy, we have lost power before, so we played with those "manual toys" for a few hours till nap time. She woke up from her nap at 5pm and by this time I had to break out the flashlights and candles, of which most of the candles were small and the flashlight batteries were dead. Rachelle had power at her office, because Jim recently installed a natural gas generator, so we went there for dinner because they had a kitchen we could use. Went to bed that night thinking the power would be back sometime during the night. I was wrong!

It was not until Sunday evening that we finally got power back and by this time most of the rest of the county had already gotten it back a day or two sooner. Let me tell you, that an extended power outage with no heat: gas heat but furnace still needs power, no hot water: gas water heater worked but septic didn't so couldn't use that or the toilet, and no lights: other than candles, with a three year old sucks! We ended up losing all the food in the fridge and freezer, Rachelle had just bought like $150 worth of food the day before. It got damn cold too, we have a gas fireplace, but it has no fan, and only heats like 5 feet in front of it, so it didn't do much good. By Sunday we had had enough and Rachelle's parents power came on Saturday night, so we packed up and went over to their house Sunday morning.

I have to say I didn't realize how power dependent I really am. I have no hobbies that don't require power, video games, computer, music, movies, all useless. I need a new hobby. I guess the bright side is that my power was only out for 3-4 days, some people I work with just got it back around Christmas. And my roof didn't blow off during the 106 mph gusts that were recorded on here.

Rachelle's B-Day

Well she did it. She turned 30 on the 9th, exactly three weeks before me! So we went out and got trashed at the Portway Tavern in Astoria. It was a lot of fun, we stayed the night at the Cannery Pier Hotel, which was a great room, but very, very expensive. I haven't had a hang over in a very long, time so I guess I was due, but man I forgot how much they suck!