Update from the blog wasteland

I was going to be clever and blame my lack of updates on a SOPA protest, but that ship sailed long ago. Truth is, I’ve been lazy and making excuses. By the way; a middle aged man, his wife and three kids should NEVER move into a two bedroom house with his sixty year old parents. EVER

Now that we have once again secured our own domicile I have been able to do some gaming. After starting it in 2009, I have completed the campaign of Assassin’s Creed, better late than never I guess.

I really liked the game and when I finish collecting all the flags it will be the first retail game that I have gotten 100% achievements on. I’m going to hold out a little bit before picking up AC 2 so I don’t get burned out on the series.

On that note, I started playing Transformers: War for Cybertron last night and it is a hell of a lot of fun! The story is a prequel to the original cartoon and set on (duh!) Cybertron. If you have a chance to pick it up, you should!

We checked out the new Muppets movie this past weekend and everyone enjoyed it, the boys really loved it. They were both surprised by the fact that I have all the other Muppet movies and the TV series, something I couldn’t seem to interest them in before but now they won’t stop asking to watch it.

Last night we watched the episode with Mark Hamill, C-3P0 and R2-D2. It made me realize that Lucas didn’t just recently turn Star Wars into a sell out crapfest shill to get rich, he did it years ago. That’s a rant for another day though… 

Why won’t you take my money?!?!?!

I have had a long standing feud with the movie and music industry that led me to the decision that neither was getting any money from me. Over the last few months I have decided that it's not worth the effort to acquire movies and music by nefarious means and I would kiss and make up with the fat cat pigs. That's when all the fun started.

Music was easy enough at first, I can choose between iTunes, Amazon, Google, et all. Everything was going along fine until I started looking for the Lazlo Bane album, Transistor. Can't find it anywhere, f'ing anywhere. Now I refuse to pirate this album because I love the bands music and they deserve my money but someone doesn't want to take it. Luckily, I found a CD on Amazon so I can get it and rip my on digital copy. I didn't really want another CD to put into storage but I want this album so no big thing.

I still think this may be an exception to the rule though, if I were into the newest pop crap I feel confident that I could get it in digital form. Undaunted by this minor speed bump I trudge on.

I have a fairly large collection of movies, most of them I have created from the family DVD collection and some from, well; you know. I wanted to start replacing the films that I obtained from less than legal sources with legit copies and that has proven to be more of a hassle than it should be.

I use Windows Media Center and have a Windows Phone, my wife and oldest son have iPhones. This in and of itself would be an issue because there is no way that I can get legit copies of movies that will work on all three device types without either buying the movie multiple times or bootlegging it for one (or more) device. Luckily, my wife doesn't really care to have movies on her phone and my son would rather play a game. So now I decide to check out Zune because I can buy a movie, watch it on my Xbox, Media Center or my Windows Phone. This sounded like a great idea to me so I bought Halo Legends, it wasn't a bad price and I got a copy for my Media Center and phone and can stream it on my Xbox. The only thing that rubbed me wrong here is that the copy I have for the PC appears to be only 720p which, in the grand scheme of things isn't a big deal; but I would rather have 1080p.

The next roadblock was the deal breaker for me. I wanted to replace the Harry Potter series with HD versions. I had previously downloaded HD copies that were 720p so I figured the 720p from Zune would due fine. Only the thing is, you can't by any Harry Potter from Zune in HD. If I wanted an SD copy I could just rip the DVDs that I own and be done with it.

So here I stand, willing to spend my money but the idiots running the show won't take it. It almost gives the impression that they want you to pirate stuff doesn't it? In order to make this work I am going to have to go to multiple sources, mixing media types and what not. Screw that noise I'll just keep sailing the pirate ship Revenge and singing rousing sea shanties. Maybe in another decade these dopes will get their acts together, but I doubt it.  

Need more time!

We are steadily rocketing towards Christmas and all that I still haven't been able to spend quality time with any games. Hell, if it weren't for my Windows Phone 7 powered Focus S I would never get to play anything! I have put off buying some games (I'm looking at you Skyrim!) because I don't want to spend $60 on something that won't get played for months. As it stands now, I am still playing Modern Warfare 2 so I can't really justify getting MW3. I have picked up, and spent a few minutes with; Arkham City, Halo CEA, and thanks to my buddy John; Rage! All three are awesome games and I am envious that Mini-Me has played more than me! He is bursting at the seams wanting to talk to me about what he has done but I have him on a strict 'if you spoil it, it's gone' diet. There was no way that I was going to be able to sleep knowing that there was a Batman and Halo game that I didn't own, a good Batman game anyway. Here is to hoping that I can get some time in for Christmas.

Movin' and Groovin'

The family and I are in the process of a huge move so I haven't had a lot of time to work here but I wanted to take a moment to pay my condolences to Steve Jobs, who passed away today. No matter what side of the PC vs Mac war you may have been on you have to give the man credit for his role in revolutionizing the modern landscape of technology. Rest in peace Steve.

Quakecon 2011

Mini-Me and I made our annual sojourn to Dallas and Quakecon for a day of gaming goodness. Overall it was a great experience for him, unfortunately; I had a pounding headache and pinched nerve in my back that kept me from having too much fun but that's enough of the QQ from me!

There didn't seem to be many vendors there this year and only two games on display. Seeing as Rage is coming out soon, I was expecting a bigger showing from it on the floor. I didn't get to go to the BYOC this year and I really think that if you are going to experience Quakecon, you need to be in the BYOC.

The biggest highlight for me was watching how excited Mini-Me was when he met Fatal1ty. The concept of being a pro-gamer just blew his mind and he was a classy guy. He listened to him talk at a hundred miles an hour, signed an autograph for him and took a picture with him, he was a nice guy and great example for my son. Big props to him from this Dad.

My newest addition

The many love of a Geek

One of the bad things about being a lover of all things tech and gadgety, is that not one brand normally does everything that you want. For instance, I have fallen head over heals for a Macbook Pro and the Mac OS in general. I like the iPad but love the Motorola Xoom. I loved my old iPhone but my new Windows Phone 7 device has all my love now too. I also love my Google Apps account (even though Google doesn't love me back) but my online presence links mainly to my plain old Google account. What's a guy gotta do to make all this stuff work together?
It can be a bit aggravating at times when my OCD shifts into extra crazy mode, but I think that I make the most of what I am working with, and let's be honest, I wouldn't like it if it all just worked together out of the box. Half of the fun of doing what I do is hacking the square beg into the triangle hole and then back out the round one to finish off in the square hole.
On a loosely related note, I am on Google+ now, feel free to add me if you feel so inclined!