Eric Mulder

Started reading Inside Steve’s Brain a couple days ago. So far it’s a very interesting read on the inner-workings of Steve Jobs. I will give my thoughts on the whole book once I finish reading it.

Just finished reading Brodeur Beyond the Crease. It was a great read, I really enjoyed the stories he told about his life experiences growing up and as an NHL goalie. Plus I had been a little distant from the NJ Devils news since I had moved to Texas so it caught me up on what has happend since I’ve been gone. If I haven’t mentioned before Martin Brodeur has been my favorite athlete by far since I started following hockey as a kid. After reading this book I have a whole new respect for him as an athlete and a person.

I found the exclusive box set of Martin Brodeur vs Saku Koivu yesterday and won it on Ebay. When I found out about this Canada exclusive box set and could not find it anywhere I was a little disappointed. Luck would have it that I was looking through Ebay yesterday and finally ran across it. I was glad it had a reasonable buy now price so I immediately clicked “buy now”.

Averie went swimming for the first time. She really loves the water, but we knew that because bath time is her favorite. Here are a few pictures.

Garrett just graduated from second grade. We went to his end of the year award ceremony where he won an award for “Creative Conversationalist”, go figure.

Garrett’s team (the Cubs) recently won the Pinto 8 year old division Season Championship and Tournament Championship. He was very excited to get two trophies this season.

Monday we found out that we are expecting a baby girl this September. I was really hoping for a boy but I guess It just wasn’t meant to be. At the moment we will probably name her Audrey Lee Mulder, but that could change.

This past Christmas we got Garrett a loft bed from Ikea and the TV wall mount that matches. I spent about 2.5 hours on Christmas Eve putting the bed together and then we wrapped it up for Christmas morning. He was very surprised to get it which made it all worth it. I put the wall mount up on Christmas day with his new TV he got because the old one fell off his dresser and broke about a month before. So he now has one of the coolest rooms I’ve seen where he can watch TV and play Xbox up in his loft bed. I posted pictures of the new room setup and even a pic of the bed wrapped up on my Flickr Account.

Four new Xbox360 games came my way this past Christmas. I got Need For Speed ProStreet from my Mom and Call of Duty 4 from Jennifer, Garrett and Averie. I beat Call of Duty 4 in a week of playing off and on when I had time I enjoyed it so much I went out and used some gift cards to get Call of Duty 2 and 3.  COD4 was hands down the most amazing FPS I have played which I will write about in more detail but for now all I can say is AMAZING! Anyway I started COD2 but quickly moved onto NFS ProStreet for something other than a FPS.

I have been playing the NFS series since the beginning and I must say this is definitely the best yet even if it doesn’t include police chases.So I decided to buy the Xbox 360 Wireless Racing Wheel to use while playing the rest of NFS ProStreet and any other Racers that I get in the future. After researching for a while I was still unsure that this wheel was going to work with the new NFS but I decided to bite the bullet and if all else failed I would buy Forza 2 since it was supposedly design specifically for Forza 2. I was happy to find out that it does indeed work with NFS Prostreet and surprisingly well. I really like this wheel even though it’s the only one I have ever owned. It feels very sturdy and the force feedback and rumble make for a more realistic driving experience.

Once I got comfortable using the wheel controller I was looking to get it on some kind of mounting system instead of using it on my lap which works pretty well but It can get a little annoying when the force feedback makes the wheel jump around a little and the pedals move slightly as your racing.After some more research I found this site and got inspired. So with a couple trips to Home Depot I’m now building my own custom Racing Wheel stand for a full on racing experience. I’m hoping to finish this on Saturday so I will post pictures ASAP.

I wasn’t planning on buying Rock Band so soon but I heard that the Guitar Hero instruments work with the game so I decided to pick it up. I was mainly looking for some new songs to play since I’ve unlocked all the songs in GH3. My plan is to use the two guitars I have from GH3 and GH2 and then get the rest of the instruments when they are sold singularly after the new year. Besides I heard the drum kit that comes with the bundle is a little less than satisfactory. My hope is either Rock Band will make a really nice drum kit that is a little more premium or a third party will do it either way they will eventually work out the flaws and then I will purchase it.

I have to admit that I was completely blown away with how great of a game experience this is compared to the GH series. Harmonix really made this game geared towards the cooperative play and making you feel like you’re a real ”Rock Band”. The mix of songs in the set-list is absolutely awesome, all of the songs really get you psyched up to rock out. It’s hard to explain all the little things they did right to make this a great game experience and fun to play with others but you will notice it instantly when you first start playing.

Now I’m really looking forward to getting the drum kit because I was looking forward to that part of the game the most but I would rather wait till a better one comes out. Then I can re-experience the game in a whole new way that I think will be really fun since I’ve always want to play the drums.