14.7.06

Those BASTARDS!

Okay, time I spilled the beans, I guess. In addition to having a wonderful job (kinda sorta), a newly re-emerging college career (third times the charm?) and a nice two week vacation in southern California (with family, but I suppose that's not worth complaining about), I've gotten a new computer for myself.

Nothing fancy, it's pretty much this year's old bottom of the line model, but it'll beat my current laptop, and it's a desktop, so I can actually tinker with it, rather than having to plunk down a thousand bucks each time I need to upgrade something. I'm hoping that it'll be able to run World Of Warcraft better (and World of ColbertCraft, but that's not as big a concern).

Also, this'll free me up to ride my laptop a bit lighter, hopefully enabling it to be more of the portable-utility computer it was designed, rather than a 24-7 main machine. Of course, I'm still taking my laptop on vacation, but after that, I'm putting it up for a while, and letting it rest. I'll probably rest it by draining it's battery all the way down, which should be fun to watch. "Nooo help me.... Can't... turn... hard drive... or... talk... at... normal... rate... ugh."

So anyway, that's all great and stuff. But then, why haven't I already done this? Well, that's the catch. I'm sure you're all wondering how I got it. I mean, being the penniless no-gooder I am, I can't afford to buy $400 computers at the drop of a hat. I buy $40 DVD box sets at the drop of a hat. (Oh boy, I loves me some House M.D.) So where'd it come from? It's a long story, which I shall retell now, because I like telling stories, the longer the better.

Last Friday I was awoken by my mom. I was needed for babysitting duty again. I got to tag along with her to keep her company while her mom and mine go do adult things like shop at Hobby Lobby. It doesn't help me with MY hobbies. Luckily, the Toys'R'Us across the street does, so I take Clara in there, and, despite my money-hemmoraging ways, I manage to keep from buying anything, and so does the three-year-old that's NOT me. Well, that's something of a bum trip, but it's still better than going to Hobby Lobby and not buying anything.

So, after a good half-day of shopping, we ended up going to Michael's, which is another hobby store, so by everyone, I mean everyone but me. I elected to visit the nearby Best Buy. Clara decided to stay with the ladies because last time she visited Best Buy someone (okay, it was me, accidentally) left an iPod on too loud and people started yelling in an episode of 24. So now she's scared of the place, and I got to go alone. After about 10 minutes of browsing I saw that they have pretty much the same titles for movies and games I didn't want last time I was there, about a week or two earlier. Having no new software to check out, I decide to go look at the hardware.

Lemme preface this by saying that I'm much more of a software guy than hardware. I value content over substance, if that makes any sense. You could have all the technological advances in the world, but if you just use it to show Christian Moral Pagents from the 14th century, or play Pong in high definition, I could care less. That's why I didn't really care for the Star Wars Special Edition edits, for one thing. They didn't add anything but fluff to the story (and giving Greedo the appearance of a complete twit, instead of just a halfwit, by letting him shoot first and miss and point blank range).

That said, the hardware didn't really impress me. I went and looked at the new Blu-Ray DVD player. Okay, so now the pictures a little clearer. Maybe I need new glasses, but I don't really see the difference there. So all I was looking at was a shiny box hooked up to a TV. Not really interesting, especially considering the only movie I'd consider buying for it is Underworld 2. So I moved on, and started browsing the computers. I saw the high end one I wanted, for about $600 without a monitor, and since I've already got a monitor, I'm good on that front. But I walked around a bit and see that they got even cheaper, and if I knocked out the extra bits I don't want or need, like hard drive space or memory card readers, and focus on the good stuff, like RAM and video cards, I would be able to save a bit. So I found the bugger, and it's $350 apx. That's about $300 more than I have to spend, but I decide that I'd been a good guy, and I deserved a treat. So when Mom arrived to fetch me, I put on my sad puppy face and showed her the one I wanted. I figured I'd go for broke, since I was already there, and if that didn't work I'd ask for the West Wing or House on DVD, or maybe just a PS2 game if that failed.

Anyway, I showed her the one, and she asked me, "What are you gonna do for it?" I replied that I'd get great grades in school the next semester. She apparently thought that was fair, with one caveot. I had to apply to ACC before I could hook it up. That sounded fair enough, it takes maybe a half hour to sign up no problem. We get it, and then I hop online right away to find.... The site said Fall Registration wouldn't open until the 14th. I had to wait a week, and even then, I was going on vacation right afterwards, so I wouldn't get to test out my new box until the very end of the month when I get back. And so I decided, okay, I'll just apply at midnight and have it set up before I leave in the morning.

Which brings me to why I'm writing this now. This page shows that I probably won't be able to apply until some time in a week or two. X_X. Oh well, either way I'm still getting to use it after vacation, so yay me!

Okay, end of story. I've figured out how to include movies in images, I think. Gimme a second here. Okay, check this out.


Nifty lil' gif, eh? You can click it to bring it up on it's own, if you want. Then do me a favor. Save it
then save it again, as a .rar, and see what that does.

Edit: FUCK! Blogger saved it as a PNG? Why!? Ah, how am I supposed to show you guys my cool animated gif's now? Hrmmm... I'm sure I'll solve this dilemma at a later date. For now, though.... Just ask me and I'll send you the picture over AIM.

I am full of tricks, I am.

And just so I don't forget: "copy /b KHCOM.gif + haunted.rar haunted.gif"... I'll let you google that up and see what you get. Hehehe.

13.7.06

Ted Stevens and Other Ramblings

I found this movie, and thought you might get a kick out of it.

By the way, I have the full audio of his speech somewhere, so I'll just upload it. I especially love hearing all the people listening in the background, "...oh my god..." Please, PLEASE, someone tell me that someone stood up to correct this guy's ramblings. I don't like the idea that the Senate took this guy's word for how the Internet works and now thinks that their ones and zeroes are flying through a series of tubes.

Moving on, the other day I ended up reading a blog post pertaining to the status of the current "console wars" and where they are today. He rated the X-Box on top, followed by the PS2, with Gamecube on the bottom. He followed that up by saying that he thinks the 360 is gonna stay on top, with Wii's weirdness landing it a middle spot and the PS3's enormous pricetag acting like cement boots. Here's my counter-argument, copied and pasted cuz I'm lazy, but I felt it was good enough to be seen by a few more people than the guy's personal blog. Plus I like taking credit for my work. PLUS PLUS I haven't put much on here recently, and I feel bad for it. See you on the other side.

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I'll have to admit I really don't care which system wins the "console wars". I don't buy my games based on who has the biggest market share. I pick the games I want to buy, and buy the hardware to play them. I own a PS2 because I wanted to play PS2 games, not because I wanted to be the coolest kid on the block. In fact, I didn't buy one for myself until pretty much just before the 360 was right around the corner. I don't see myself as that far out of the general population. Buy the system you want, not just because someone else tells you to get it. I also wanna say I disagree with your ranking, personally. That is, for the current generation, pre-360. ("How the hell did I miss X-Boxes 2-359?!") For me, it stacks up with the PS2 on top, then GBA, then Cube, then X-Box. For my purposes, DS and PSP are "next gen", mostly cuz I'm too lazy to add them to my chart. Wanna know why I feel this way? Cuz I like playing the games I have on my PS2. Kingdom Hearts I and II are two of the greatest games I've ever played, and I don't care if your party consits of a duck with a speech impediment or a retarded dog. That's half the charm. The other half comes from an inspiring storytelling experience. That's the kind of games I like to play. The ones that play out as long, involved visual novels. Movies that are too in depth to be put in a theater. You can't grow to care about your the characters in a 3 hour movie the way you can when you've actually played AS that character for 40+ hours. I see it as the next step in storytelling, the next representation of myth for society, and I'm not waiting for Nintendo or Microsoft to play catch up. After that, I go to Nintendo for my relaxation games, the ones that are just plain stupid. You're an Italian plumber rescuing the princess of the mushrooms from an evil band of turtle people? Makes sense enough to me. Wanna go out and catch some monsters and have them fight, see who's the best, and, oh yeah, maybe fight some crime along the way? Sure, when I'm not busy. HOLY FUCK! BRICKS DROPPING FROM THE SKY! MAKE THEM GO AWAY! Yeah, while I'm waiting at the dentist.* Stuff like that. X-Box (and the 360, while we're on the subject), as I see it, really gets style points for online play. They have the most cohesive, sophisticated online plan availiable, and if something like that appealed to me, I'd totally have an X-Box. But I don't wanna pay $300 plus $10 a month to play Halo and Halo 2 against people who are way better at it than me, and will scream over their microphones about how much I suck while we're playing. If you're into online play, go for an X-Box. If you're into video games, get a Cube or Station. Obviously, there's some blend there, and always will be, but thats how I see the breakdown.

As for the future, like I've said, the 360's strong point as a system is it's online plan. Again, that's not a real draw point for me, and it also confounds me why the "killer app" for the system is currently Oblivion (though I think people are realizing that it's a much better experience on the PC, which makes the top 360 game some crap shit on Live Arcade). Wii strikes me as innovative in the way that the DS has been. And I love the DS. Wii seems to be an attempt to use the same touch screen-style gameplay, only on a console. You can't get people to buy a 36" Touch Screen TV? Fudge it, use a motion sensitive remote. You can't get people to link two screens together for dual screen play? Fudge it... I dunno what they're gonna do, but I'll bet that either they have a way around it, or (and this is really my theory here) the "Dual Screen" aspect of the DS was simply set up because they new you couldn't see through your hand while operating a touch screen, thus nessesitating the need for another screen. It's easier to see a TV when you're waving in front of it. No need for another screen. Sony, though, well... the PS3 is shrouded in mystery and expensive. I have no idea what's in store for that aside from a Sonic the Hedgehog title which is now apparently multi-platform and a pricetag of an arm, a leg, and that pony I wanted for Christmas when I was 5. I'll prolly have a better idea on whether I want a Wii (the black sheep of the next-gen-ers) by the new year, and I'll decide on a 360 or PS3 once the market settles down and both platforms have their lineup of exclusive "must-haves".

I do wanna comment on the Blu-Ray, though. As near as I can tell, Blu-Ray and HD-DVD are both off to the races, so to speak. I could, for a substansial investment, have a player for either (or both) disk format if I wanted. Personally, I'm fine sticking to DVD for now, and probably will be for a good long time. However, I think it's worth noting that the 360 is supporting HDDVD through an ADD ON player, while Sony's machine plays the movies right out of the box. I have to wonder whether MS could pump out a Blu-Ray player add on as well, should the market demand. Moving on, though, I've heard tell that the PS2's feature as a DVD player (again, right out of the box) was a key componant to the format's growth. Granted, nothing was competing with DVD at the time (LASERDISK?!) so DVD's success was a given, but the PS2 arguably helped the success along earlier, by giving people a valid excuse to put a DVD player in their home. I believe that could help Sony win the Blu vs HD wars. Most people won't go out to buy a dedicated machine to play the new formats right away, and that includes the Add on for the 360 (all it does is play movies we can already get on DVD? Screw that...) But, if, for instance, you already bought a PS3 because you just hadda play Kingdom Hearts 3, you may look twice next time you're in Blockbuster. "Hey, while we're buying Underworld 2 anyway, let's get it on BluRay instead, and see what all the fuss is about."

And either way, I doubt BluRay support will DOOM the PS3 unless I missed the press release that says that BluRay disks are made of Kryptonite-plated Gold, and cost $300 a piece. So you've got a system that can't play any movies you own. Whoopdie doo. How many movies have you watched in the NES Cartrige Format? NCF VIDEO WILL RISE AGAIN! The same thing applies to the PSP. Everyone thought the UMD was a stupid idea, and as a media format, as in, a way to watch movies, it really is. But I have to admit it's probably the best format I can think of for playing PSP games. UMD Movies may have failed, but there is still a market for UMD Games. The same will be true should Blu-Ray fail as a movie format. There will still be a market for Blu-Ray games.

And if not, they can just put PS3 games on Multiple DVD's.

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There we are. In other news, I felt the storytelling bug yet again at work recently. I dunno why, but I decided to try telling myself (if that makes any sense) the Pied Piper of Hamelin. While I was busy zoning. It was nice to get my mind on something for a while. I enjoy storytelling, and while I hope I can do something more with it, I'd like to at least be able to tell my children bedtime stories. Maybe read them one or two (or more, cuz reading is good, too), but at least every once in a while, make one up, either off the top of my head. Sorta like this.

Eh... I dunno. I gotta pack. I'm going to San Diego tomorrow, so I have to pack. I'm gonna use my time in the city to track down Carmen, and find out what they call people from San Diego. San Diegans? San Diegites? Sandiegers? \o/