I feel like I haven’t updated in a while. Mainly due to being focused on so many other things, so I thought I’d make a big post about all the new things, to keep everybody up-to-date!

1. Laptop Status
   My laptop is now fully working (I’m typing this on it now) and I’m REALLY happy with how it’s turned out. I have 3 operating systems installed (Ubuntu 7.10, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows XP Pro) all running off a single bootloader screen (Windows Vista) and with all drivers installed and looking sharp! I’m trying to progress to Vista and what I thought would be difficult (with older applications not liking it) hasn’t proved a problem yet (*touches wood!*). I am yet to boot into XP becuase I can’t do something in Vista. Vista’s also quite pretty so that’s always nice! As far as Ubuntu goes, I have been in once or twice but haven’t had much free time to delve into it and get ‘techy’ (read: geeky) but I do plan to set aside some time for it soon.

   On transferring my old laptop data to my new one, this is also a process I was dreading but has been quite smooth. I found out about a nice virtualization software package called VMWare (had heard of it before but never used it) and I was able to, using the VMWare Converter, convert my old laptop to a virtual image. I then moved this image to my new laptop and now, at any time, I can virtualize my old laptop by running it within Vista! :O It’s AMAZING what technology can do these days!

2. Gaming Status
   Well, as of yesterday my gamerscore stood at 34,538. I got an achievement last night in UNO, so it’s slightly above that now, but my point is that if I’m to achieve my goal of 45K by my birthday, I’ve a month to get over 10K. Hmmm…maybe it will happen, maybe not. I’ll surely be trying my hardest but it will be impressive if I get it!

   In other gaming news, the Big Frakkin Challenge over at 360voice has finished. I ended up in 13th place, which isn’t bad considering there was 281 participants and the winner gained 33,735 points in 30 days. It makes me think my goal of 10K in a month is doable, though I did only get 8,395 during the challenge so the next 30 days will be a lot harder! Also, the gaming race I have going on with Chrome30, Da Cowinator and WINK is still ongoing. There’s live stats here (which I built using the 360voice API!!) and currently WINK looks set for the win…though I did just pass 50% so at least that’s one third of the race done for me. Keep an eye for future updates!

3. Other Stuff
   I’m really looking forward to GTA IV. I think it will quickly be my most played game! If LiveEye was still around I would be able to compare it more accurately but I think my 360voice blog will be proof enough. The GTA series has been my favourite game series since the first one came out. I’ve played all of them on a variety of platforms, so it will be really nice to play one on a next-gen console, especially since it’s my favourite console to date! Roll on Tuesday!

   I’ve also become addicted to UnlockTheAchievement this week. Basically it’s a GENIUS concept where lots of 360 community sites have hidden achievement pictures around their site. You search the site, and when you find it, you click it and it registers that you found it. Continue thus and it becomes a massive scavenger hunt! Great fun but it’s taken hours of my life. Thankfully, it’s not for nothing, and there’s loads of prizes up for grabs. I’m not sure where I read this, but as far as I know, whoever finishes in the Top 100 at the end of the week wins a prize. Currently I’m in 10th position, but you can check the leaderboard here. I’m gonna be spending a lot of time on this until the end of the week, and if you aren’t already involved I highly recommend it!

So that’s all for now. Any comments, you know where to leave them.

Soupy

Not that my blog is that popular, but if you happened across it in the past hour or so, you may have noticed some funny things going on. That is because Wordpress was nagging me to update to version 2.5, and now I have. What’s different…well, nothing for you by the looks of it. When I look at my administration control panel, there’s LOADS of differences…but the blog itself doesn’t look any different. Maybe that’s the beauty of it?

Anyway, just wanted to let you know…now it’s back to my laptop for more fun configuration! As far as an update on it goes, I now have Ubuntu 7.10, Windows Vista Ultimate and Windows XP installed as a triple boot from the ONE boot screen. I’ll share more when I have it the way I want it but for now Vista is up to SP1, and XP is currently installing SP2. Ubuntu and Vista seem to have most of the drivers needed under wraps but XP, on the other hand, has very few drivers. That’s the next steps after SP2 installs!

Soupy

So today I was greeted to the morning by a whole host of problems…but my new laptop arrived! I must say I’m very happy with it. I went for a Dell…and before all the complaining starts, I was sceptical of them (due to bad reports on the interwebz) but now that I have one I am happy (until it breaks, of course, lol!). It’s an XPS M1530 and here’s the spec I have in my beast!!!!

• CPU: Core 2 Duo T9300 2.50 GHz, 800MHz, 6MB L2 Cache (really fast!!)
• RAM: Dual Channel 4.0GB (2×2048) 667MHz DDR2 SDRAM (lots of memory!!)
• Display: 15.4″ WXGA+ Widescreen (1440×900) TFT with Truelife (extra resolution for displaying the pretty pictures!!)
• Hard Drive: 320GB SATA (5400rpm) (BIG for storing all my stuff!!)
• Graphics Card: 256MB NVIDIA GeForce Go 8600M GT (for even BETTER pretty pictures!!)
• Wireless: Intel Next-Gen Wireless-N Mini-PCI Card (for haxoring the free WiFi from FURTHER than before!!)
• Optical Drive: 8x DVD+/-RW Slim Slot-Load Drive (to make the discs loads look cooler!!)
• Other Bits: 2.0mp camera, dual built-in microphones, dual headphone sockets, Media Remote (fits into ExpressCard slot), Fingerprint Reader Biometric

So, it’s a LOT better than my previous laptop. CPU is over twice as fast, RAM is 3 times bigger, graphics is twice as big and hard drive is 8 times bigger!! (Just to name a few differences!) But my main interest with this new laptop is it’s my first real experience with Vista. So much so, that I’ve decided to be uber-geeky and install not 1, not 2…but 3 operating systems on it. Why you may ask…because I can!

The current mission (in-progress) is to have Ubuntu (7.10), Windows XP Pro SP2 and Windows Vista Ultimate all triple booting from the same boot menu…and then I’ll be happy! Sounds easy…you bet your ass it’s not! I’m following a few tutorials here and here, so hopefully I’ll have a decent result by the end!

As usual, I’ll keep you updated, and any comments are appreciated!

Soupy

A quick update on my gaming goals is needed. You may remember, I mentioned one of my goals was 30K by my birthday. Well, my birthday is the 22nd May, today is the 8th April. My current gamerscore is 31,158. (Slightly ahead of target, lol!)

You may also remember that I said if I achieved 30K by 22nd April (I said it was unlikely, lol!) that I would increase the goal to 35K. Well, it looks like I may hit that before 22nd April so, instead, I’m setting myself a huge goal. Due to the challenges (at 360voice) and my own gaming race (with Wink, Chrome30 and Da Cowinator) I think I have accelerated my gamerscore a lot more quickly than I ever thought I would. So, my NEW goal is to achieve…wait for it…FORTY FIVE THOUSAND GAMERSCORE (45,000) by my birthday. Woah, crazy I know…but I set myself 30K and got it a lot quicker than I expected. The downside to this is, that’s 13,842 points in 51 Days…or 271 points per day?!? Considering yesterday I gained 10 points, that’s a huge goal to make. I actually don’t think I’ll achieve this one but I’ll aim towards it. Hopefully I finish up somewhere around there.

The main reason to me hitting 30K so early was on Saturday I had an awesome day of gaming, as my 360 will tell you, and if I can have a couple more days like that, I might finish close to my goal of 45K. Here’s hoping anyway!

As we speak, race number 2 has started. When I last posted about this I had thought the response would be interesting, but what we now have going is not what I expected….it’s so much better, lol!

Basically, I had 3 people interested in a race. In no particular order we have WINK, Da Cowinator and Chrome30. I made contact with each of them and all seemed interested in any of the 3 races I had previously mentioned. An idea formed in my head, I set it out to the guys and now it’s on.

The objective of the race is to see, which of the 3 of us, will make it to 20 Completed Retails, 5 XBLA games AND 50% completion (as per Fshguy’s 360voice Badge Calculator). It’s 3 races in one and whoever achieves all 3 goals first, wins. Simple…yet interesting!

I’m going to put up a page on here (link will be at the top with the ‘About’ and ‘Home’ links) with the details of the race, and I’ll keep it updated as time goes on. Not on a daily basis, but at least every couple of days. Of course,if I was clever I’d be able to pull it straight from 360voice…but I haven’t quite acquired that skill set yet!

To my fellow competitors, I wish the best of luck. Happy gaming!

On March 6th, 2008 I received a comment on my 360voice blog made up of the following: “Congrats on 5 complete games! Since we both have 5, we should have a little competition who can complete 10 first :)” The author of that comment was dieselv2, and from then on we were locked in a race to see who could complete 10 retail games first.

I am pleased to announce that I was the winner! =) Now, diesel may have been taking a small break from gaming at the time, but that doesn’t taint my victory at all, lol! It did get me thinking though…I have had my 360 for quite a long time now, and the time that it took me to complete 5 retail games was FOREVER, compared to the time it took to complete the next 5. What was the reason…the competition! It appears I may be a very competitive person, and if I can take the glory for an achievement away from somebody, it appears I’ll go to quite some measures to do so.

So, now that it’s over…I’m ready for another! The only thing I’m missing is a competitor. If you would like to be engaged in a ‘friendly’ rivalry with me, I’d be happy to take up the offer. I’m thinking about a few, and if you think it would be fun…why not comment here, or on my 360voice blog, and I’ll get back to you.

I would like a competitor within a close proximity to me in whatever the race is about. Here’s the different things I’m thinking about:

• Race to 15 retail games - Of course, leading on from 10, I’m aiming for 15 next. I’d like someone with 10 (or lower if you think you’re up to it) completed retails to race to see who can get 15 first!
• Race to 5 live arcade games - I currently have 1, I need motivation for 5. If you have 1 (or 0) completed XBLA games, you’re eligible! Note: I have a few games close to 200 already so I am willing to make this to 10, as well as possibly accept a competitor with 2!
• Race to 50% completion - I mentioned this as one of my gaming goals in my last post. I’m currently at 46.24% and would like someone relatively close to that, and with a decent gamerscore.

So there we have it. All ‘eligability’ is debatable so if you want in, but think I won’t accept, why not ask and see? No harm done either way! I find these races slightly more interesting than standard gamerscore races, just because they’re a little more specific. That’s all there is left to say really…any takers?

SoupyC

Ok, I’ve decided that I want to set myself goals. I once had a blog dedicated to setting myself goals, but it was stupid and I closed it VERY soon after starting!

I’ve decided these goals are going to be awesome goals. Why you may ask? Because they’re gaming goals, and we all know gaming is awesome! If you don’t…why are you here again? I would say for the non-gaming posts but since this is the first ‘real’ post, I can’t!

Anyway, enough procrastination…on with the goals:

• 30K gamerscore by my birthday
  My birthday is 22nd May and I intend to have a gamerscore greater than 30,000 by then. That’s 3,532 points in 56 days…easy? Well, that’s 63 points per day on average. I think it should be attainable…not a stretch…but we’ll see. If I achieve 30K by 22nd April (in 26 days) then I’ll up it to 35K…but I doubt that’ll happen!
  UPDATE: As mentioned here, this has now changed to 45K by my birthday. Damn challenges messing up my acceleration, lol!
• 50% completion on gamercard
  What does this mean? Well, basically of all the games on my gamercard (not including those I have a 0 gamerscore in) I want to have a 50% gamerscore of the total available. Why do I want this, well there’s a badge for it over on 360voice for one! And as everyone over there knows, badges = coolness! It’s like smoking when you’re at school, lol! (ps. I do not encourage smoking at school!) There’s actually no other reason for this…I want in with the cool kids, y’know!
• Beat my previous biggest 100 day streak
  Again, 360voice related, well kind of! Over there they keep a track of your 360 gaming. And with that, you get a streak. Basically, every day that you play a game, your streak increases. Miss a day, and you go back to zero! (Bad times!) My highest streak so far has been 100 days straight. I was on vacation at the time I lost it and that’s another story altogether! But since I did lose it, my goal has been to get it back. So, the next time I break my streak, I’m aiming that it’ll be after 100 days. Today I’m on 40 days…so 5 days after my birthday (if you’ve been reading carefully and are good at maths you already knew this) I will have achieved this! Watch this space…
• Increase my gamerscore EVERY day
  OK, this one is a new one. Kind of inspired by Knuckles Dawson and his efforts to unlock an achievement every day, I have decided to do my own. With one difference I guess…if he unlocked a 0-point achievement (don’t get me started on them?!?) I suppose it would count. I want to increase my gamerscore…so I would have to get an achievement worth something for it to count. Currently, I’m on 6 days. I think it might be more but I’m going to say 6. As I write this, I sit in the airport waiting to go home, knowing that I may actually break it tonight…but I’ll be determined when I get home to increase it before sleep!

OK, so that’s it for starters. Any comments? I’ll keep you updated here but for now all I need is luck, a reliable internet connection daily, and no RRoD. Here’s praying! =)

SoupyC

Trying out a new blog, with a new provider, on a new host, on my own domain…scary stuff!

Hopefully all will go well. Watch this space for more exciting info!