So I found this website on digg a few weeks ago.  It's called Listia.  It's essentially an online swap meet/free ebay.  You get points for selling your stuff which you use to buy more stuff.  For signing up you get 50 points, and can earn up to 150 additional free points for linking your account with a facebook, twitter, and listing an auction.  Now that might not seem like a lot of points, but I was able to get myself a copy of Advance Wars 2 for the GBA (great strategy game from a few years back) for less then that.  If you have random crap to get rid of (or just want to see what random stuff you can get for the free points they give you) use this link: http://www.listia.com/signup/49269 .  It will help me get some referals in, and it should grant you an additional 50 points.  Thanks in advance.

Well as a handful of you know, my raiding time is coming to an end on May 9th aka (May 10th 11:44 AM).

I will start off by saying that none of this has to do with family or job related issues what so ever.  Over the last few months I have been putting a lot of thought into my life and how I need to organize it.  At the moment I own my own successful business and I get the luxury of working from home and hardly leave the house.  I also raid 5 nights a week, meaning I almost never leave the house at all.  I am constantly making excuses to family that I have stuff I need to do tonight, sorry I can't stay for dinner.  My wife and I have not gone to the movies or out to a nice restaurant in quite a while and I really miss that.  Like I said earlier none of this has made my family or my wife mad, they know what I am doing and they know I won't do it forever.

Personally I need to retire from WoW.  I have stopped enjoying raiding and feel as if the game is more of a job than a game to play and relax.  I do like playing with you all though, that is still fun and I am really going to miss the humorous conversations in Ventrilo.  These feelings I have do not have anything to do with anyone in the guild.  To be completely honest, this has been the best, most friendly and helpful guild I have ever been in with one of the greatest and cohesive online communities I have ever seen.  I truly do not hate anyone in guild which is actually a rare thing in most guilds these days; there is always some sort of ridiculous drama.  In Downfall though, I have not really witnesses much or any at all, which makes the guild life in Downfall the way it is.

Basically what I feel I need in life again is more flexibility and freedom to be able to do what I need to and what I want to do at any random time during the day, a lot of that falls on raid times for me.  I want to accept my parent’s invitation to dinner; I want to take my wife to a movie or to dinner at the spur of the moment just to get out of the house.  I need to focus more on spending some quality time with my son, most of the times I have him to myself is during raid and I feel bad for letting him sit and play behind me alone instead of me playing with him.

I am also 5.5 months away from completing a piece of software that will compete with Microsoft Team Suite, which in simple terms in a time tracking, bug tracking, feature tracking, customer portal, etc. piece of software that is directed at developers to help the "team" know who is doing what and what needs to be done or fixed and track their time against it.  It will also give their client a portal to look at their project, what is going on, what phase it is on and how many hours have been spent on it etc.

At the least, I am spending 20 hours a week playing WoW and as you can see I have a lot of priorities that I have that I really want to complete and maintain.  20 hours a week is a part time job alone, not saying I did not have fun, but I am taking a different look at life and grasping what I think is more important.  With these 20 extra hours a week I feel that I can spend my time better accomplishing real life endeavors and be able to get out more.

All and all I will miss every one of you.  I will come to the forums as much as possible and keep in touch and give updates as to how I am doing or just shoot the shit.  I truly apologize for putting you in a situation to have to replace me, I know it is hard to find ranged DPS, but as I said to some of the officers I will be here until you replace me up till May 9th.  If you don't invite me to raid it is ok, give the gear to the guy that is going to keep playing that is the fair and right thing to do.  If I do go to raid I will not be taking anymore gear either, as I would not feel it is right for me to take gear from those who will keep using it.

Well I have most likely rambled some and sorry for the long post.  If you want to keep in touch in more ways than just the site send me a PM on the site and we can exchange information.  I posted this on my birthday and it makes me sad :(.

Sincerely,

Knoppix

 

P.S This is not a break from WoW, I will not be returning anytime soon if at all, most likely the later.

Well i must say..this is the first time ive written something like this for ANYTHING!..But i am sad to say that come March 25 when my time expires i wont be getting anymore time to activeate it further..im gonna be taking a break from WoW for awhile because of some serious real life shit going on with me..i have to take time for myself to get my head right and back into the game and what i want in my career in the military or something civi-side..since i dunno if im going to be medicaly released or not..so i need the time to figure stuff out get my mind right and the proper surgery i need..but i must say for the 3+ years ive been playing WoW..ive never been more happy then to call Downfall Home for my toons and thats what it is..one big ass family..and i know im not a serious hard-kore raider but i have filled in a few times for some of the raids and i had a blast..and im tankful for the oppertunity :) . considering i didnt get invited to the guild cause of my raiding i got invited cause i was curious what the IRC chat thingy was lol..and cause i was in there Garreth liked that i was talkitive and stuff i guess :P..But it doesnt mean ill be gone forever ill be on vent to talk with ya peoples and what not and if not feel free to add me on facecrack i mean facebook..Rich Blackstock...lol :P...and for those who play xbox live..Fearfulrich..dont worry im easy to find im the one swearing at COD when i get my ass blown up :D..so ya..i will miss everyone..but..I'LL BE BACK!

 

thanks,

Rich

I would like to setup a bracket competition for Downfall.  Here is what I was thinking:

Entry fee: 100g

Winner 50% of total procedes

2nd place 25% of total

Last place 100g

With the remainder going to the gbank.

If anyone is interested post here and I will get the bracket group setup on yahoo, or espn, and tell you where to send the money.

 

You need to have a yahoo ID.  Then you click on this link http://tournament.fantasysports.yahoo.com/t1.  Join the group Downfall ID #42539, password is poobeast.

Send an in game mail to zifter with 100g per bracket you want to fill out.

 

*SIGH*  It is a March Madness Bracket Challenge.  *SIGH*

Hey guys! I have intention to upgrade my computer and this is what we came up with. I'm a little ignorant on what's good and what's not, and I was considering the WoW Cube but due to multiple reasons I'm going to need to build it from mostly scratch. This is a gaming computer for around 600~ worth of items.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
QUAD CORE CPU
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
$99.99
AMD Athlon II X4 quad-core 630 (ADX630WFGIBOX)
2.8ghz processor w/2mb cache 95w 64-bit socket am3 retail boxed
w/cooling fan
SKU: BA25984
Mfg. Part No: ADX630WFGIBOX
Warranty: 3-Year Warranty
 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
MOTHERBOARD
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
$109.89
 
ASUS M4N72-E AM3 nVidia nForce 750A SLI ATX motherboard 2xPCI-E(x16)/2xPCI-E(x1)/2xPCI/4xDDR2/SATA2 Raid/Lan(gb) (Retail)
 
    * Mwave Part#: BA61022
    * Mfg Part No: M4N72-E
    * Price: $109.89
 
Description:
 
ASUS M4N72-E nvidia nforce 750a sli ATX 2xPCI-E(x16)/2xPCI-E(x1)/2xpci/4xddr2 w/sata2 raid,lan(gb),usb 2.0 & audio
 
Features:
 
# O.C. DDR2 1300
# 8+1 Phase Power Design
# EPU
# TurboV
# Turbo Key
# ASUS Anti-Surge Protection
# AMD 140W CPU Support
# Support 45nm Phenom™ II CPU
 
Technical Information:
 
CPU  AMD Socket AM2+ / AM2 Phenom™ X4/Phenom™ X3/Athlon™ /Athlon™ X2/Sempron™ Processors
Support AM3 Phenom™ II / Athlon™ X4 / Athlon™ X3 / Athlon™ X2 Processors
AMD 140W CPU Support
AMD Cool 'n' Quiet™ Technology
Support 45nm Phenom™ II CPU
Chipset  NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI
System Bus  Up to 5200 MT/s HyperTransport™ 3.0 interface for AM3/AM2+ CPU
2000 / 1600 MT/s for AM2 CPU
Memory  4 x DIMM, Max. 16 GB, DDR2 1300(O.C.)/1200(O.C.)/1066*/800/667 ECC,Non-ECC,Un-buffered Memory
Dual Channel memory architecture
Expansion Slots  2 x PCIe 2.0 x16 (Single x16 or Dual x8)
2 x PCIe x1
2 x PCI 2.2
Multi-GPU Support  Support NVIDIA® SLI™ Technology at x8 link
Storage  NVIDIA nForce 750a SLI chipset
- 1 x Ultra DMA 133 / 100
- 6 x SATA 3Gb/s ports (Legacy IDE operation is only supported on drives 1–4.)
- NVIDIA® MediaShield™ RAID supports RAID 0, 1, 0+1, 5, and JBOD
LAN  Realtek 8211CL Gigabit/10 LAN controller featuring AI NET 2
Audio  VIA1708S 8 -Channel High Definition Audio CODEC
- Supports Jack-Detection, Multi-Streaming, and Front Panel Jack-Retasking
- Optical S/PDIF Out ports at back I/O
- ASUS Noise Filtering
IEEE 1394  VIA VT6315N controller supports 2 x 1394a ports
USB  12 USB 2.0 ports (6 ports at mid-board, 6 ports at back panel)
ASUS Unique Features  ASUS Power Saving Solutions:
- 8+1 Phase Power Design
- ASUS Anti-Surge Protection
ASUS Green Design:
- EPU
 
- ASUS AI Nap
Express Gate
ASUS Quiet Thermal Solution:
- ASUS Fanless Design:stylish heatsink solution
- ASUS Q-Fan2
ASUS EZ DIY:
- ASUS Q-Connector
- ASUS CrashFree BIOS 2
- ASUS O.C. Profile
- ASUS EZ Flash 2
Overclocking Features  Intelligent overclocking tools
- AI Overclocking (intelligent CPU frequency tuner)
-TurboV
-Turbo Key
SFS (Stepless Frequency Selection)
- FSB tuning from 200MHz up to 600MHz at 1MHz increment
- Memory tuning from 533MHz up to 1066MHz
Overclocking Protection
- ASUS C.P.R.(CPU Parameter Recall)
Special Features  100% All High-quality Conductive Polymer Capacitors! (5000hrs VRM, over 57 years operation lifespan at 65°C)
ASUS MyLogo 2
Back Panel I/O Ports  1 x PS/2 Keyboard
1 x PS/2 Mouse
1 x S/PDIF Out (Optical)
1 x IEEE 1394a
1 x LAN(RJ45) port
6 x USB 2.0/1.1
8 -Channel Audio I/O
Internal I/O Connectors  3 x USB connectors (6 ports)
1 x Floppy disk drive connector
1 x IDE connector
6 x SATA connectors
1 x IEEE 1394a connector
1 x CPU Fan connector
1 x Chassis Fan connector
1 x Power Fan connector
1 x S/PDIF Out connector
Front panel audio connector
Chassis Intrusion connector
1 x COM connector
CD audio in
24-pin ATX Power connector
4-pin ATX 12V Power connector
System Panel (Q-Connector)
BIOS  8 Mb Flash ROM
AMI BIOS, PnP, DMI2.0, WfM2.0, SM BIOS 2.5, ACPI 2.0, ASUS EZ Flash 2, CrashFree BIOS 2
Accessories  User's manual
1 x UltraDMA 133/100/66 cable
4 x SATA cable
I/O Shield
Support Disc  Drivers
ASUS PC Probe II
Express Gate
ASUS AI Suite
Anti-virus software (OEM version)
ASUS Update
Form Factor  ATX Form Factor
12 inch x 9.6 inch ( 30.5 cm x 24.4 cm )
 

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
DDR2 MEMORY = 4GB
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
 
$89.99
KINGSTON 4GB DDR2 800=(2GB x 2 KINGSTON 4GB DDR2 800=(2GB x 2)
SKU: BA25117 $89.99
 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
VIDEO CARD(S) / SLI
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
EBAY
 
ITEM: 300404862100
$80.95 FROM NJ
 
nVIDIA GeForce 9500GT 9500 GT 1GB SLi PCI-E Video Card
 

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
500GB HD - SEGATE (NO WESTERN DIGITAL!)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
$50.00-75.00
These are the items my father came up with when he did a search, a form of rough draft, and I wanted to run it by you guys and see what you all thought. We're looing at a quad core cpu with a double video card set up, supposedly it's alot better? I wanted to know what your guys opinions are, he's pretty pissed that I won't just take his word for it but I don't want all that money to be spent and find out it was a stupid mistake :P. So if anyone that's knowledgeable about this and would like to take a whack at helping that'd be awesome.
(5-6 hundred, apparently wants AMD over Intel, we'll be buying the parts over a few month period.)

jk =(