Ryan J.com

For the past several years I have used mainly Nvidia graphics cards when building my home computers.  Originally, I was an "ATI guy", but at some point Nvidia seemed to take the lead and I found I had less issues using their cards than ATI models.  This was probably four years ago.

Times change.  Apparently, ATI has made a huge comeback after being purchased by AMD... and it shows.  What change my mind?  A coworker told me that he was in the same boat but decided to go with ATI when his built his most recent machine since the cost to performance ratio was better.  

After taking a look at what he proposed, a 1Gb Radeon 4890,  as an upgrade to my 512Mb Nvidia 8800 GT I said sure why not.  I went to Fry's (instant gratification much?) and bought one after work.  There was only one... maybe it is the overly strange shape of the box that is attracting people?  It only took about 20 minutes to install... mainly due to having to shuffle around the internal wiring coming from my power supply.  The card requires two 6-pin or 8-pin  power connections instead of the 1 my last card needed and I had pushed the wire I didn't need in an awkward place out of the way in my case.

The ATI Catalyst software seems to have been revamped and improved greatly.  Setting up my dual monitors was a breeze and everything integrated perfectly into Windows 7.  My FPS in WoW went from 60 to 140 (outside Dalaran).  An incredible improvement. 

ATI Radeon 4890

I love pain.  No, don't get me wrong, I'm not talking about physical suffering here.  I'm referring to a band I have mentioned previously.  Their most recent album entitled Cynic Paradise fits perfectly into their discography.

I felt cold chills the first time I listened to the track No One Knows.  And bringing Anette Olzon from one of my other favorite bands, Nightwish, for the track Follow Me is just icing.  Check it out below!

Incredible!  Buy it.  Now!

I went with Sheryl to the Naptown Roller Girls their first bout of the season Saturday night.  It was surprisingly a lot of fun.  I've never been to a roller derby before so this was an entirely new experience. The action was non stop from beginning to end.  Two hours of excellent music and a great deal of fun.

They came out pretty strong in the beginning but the other team prevailed in the end.  I could see doing this again.  My only complaint being that I didn't think to bring a mat... 2 hours of sitting on concrete isn't cool.

Clint Eastwood's new film Gran Torino does well to spread the word of who the Hmong people are and why they are here. This film takes special meaning to me since my girlfriend JoAnn is Hmong.

Eastwood plays the role of a miserable and bitter Korean War vet that has but one remaining love... his flawlessly maintained 1972 Gran Torino.  Without spoiling the movie all I will say is that initially Eastwood's character "Walt" wants nothing to do with his Hmong neighbors but eventually finds himself protecing them from the local gang members.

I was either laughing or completely drawn into the moment from starting scene to finish.  I had never heard of the Hmong people prior to JoAnn... I hope this film makes Americans a bit more aware of their presence.  Definitely a good movie to check out!

Fallout 3 by Bethesda Softworks

I never posted about it, but I purchased an XBox 360 Elite a couple weeks ago from Amazon.  I bought Fallout 3 last week and I only have good things to say about it.  The graphics are smooth and spectacular, the game is play is highly enjoyable and the story fits right into what you would think post-nuclear war could be like.  I decided to go Big Guns, Repair and Science primarily... being a "good" player.  I'm thinking next time I will go for Small Guns, Repair, Sneak and Lockpick as my main stats.
Here are some sites if you end up needing some help that I found useful:

Wiki Cheats: Fallout 3 - awesome wiki!

IGN Fallout 3 Guide

Game Spot GameFAQS

Cheat Code Central

If you have a Xbox, PC or PS3 I would highly recommend this action RPG!