Thursday, February 28, 2008

What I’m Playing – Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune

This game has been repeatedly hailed as one of the few PS3 exclusive must-play games. I must say that it deserves that reputation. Not only is the game visually stunning, the story and gameplay are engaging as well. My wife isn’t into games beyond XBLA and Pogo; but she was captivated by the screen while I was playing. She couldn’t help but watch me as I played and she actually enjoyed the cut scenes.

Even if one could find this game at a reduced price, I’d still have to classify it as a rental due to its short length. Another negative that rears its ugly head a few times are the “push this button now!” mini-games which mean instant death if you miss the button press. This ticked me off in Resident Evil 4 and my ire is even stronger now. The jumping from ledge to ledge eventually gets old as well.

Rent this game, you won’t regret it.

Monday, February 25, 2008

New PS3!

I am now the proud owner of a PS3. I’ve updated my Netflix account to reflect my new Blu-ray player.

I haven’t purchased any games yet; but I have rented Uncharted: Drake’s Fortune and it is beautiful. I’ve also added a few PS3 games to my GameFly queue (the Netflix of videogames); but I don’t foresee any PS3 title purchases in the immediate future. Most of the really good games on the PS3 are multiplatform and I’d rather play them on the 360 due to the larger online community.

Tuesday, February 19, 2008

It's Dead

Well, that’s it; HDDVD is officially dead.

In a statement on its Japanese website Toshiba says it has "decided it will no longer develop, manufacture and market HD DVD players and recorders".

Toshiba said it will begin to reduce shipments of HD DVD players and recorders to retail channels, with HD DVD to be withdrawn completely from the market by the end of March 2008.

My HDDVD collection consists of 300, plus the free movies I got as a rebate for buying the Xbox360 HDDVD add-on. The only additions to my library of this format will be $10 and under titles from the future sales that are sure to materialize.

I guess this makes it a really good time to buy a PS3 as a Blu-ray player.

Revocation of Acceptance - Part 6

The pre-trial conference was a waste of time. Doornbos didn’t even care enough to show up; he called in from his office. If I knew that was allowed I would have done it as well. We were told to expect a court date in 4-6 months. Other than that, there’s no new info.

Thursday, February 14, 2008

Revocation of Acceptance - Part 5

Today is the big day. I have a pre-trial conference with the lawyer for UACC about the Auto King debacle. The lawyer for UACC is Douglas E Doornbos of Doornbos & Hoeksema. It’s being held at the 63-2 District courthouse and the judge is Sara J. Smolenski.

Tomorrow I’ll give a full report about how things went.

Monday, February 11, 2008

Fatty Pig Fatty

After an injury and having to pause BJJ training due to financial issues, I’ve gotten a bit too fatty-pig-fatty for my tastes. So I decided to drop back down to a bodyweight that I feel comfortable with as well as improve my overall fitness. I half-assed it through January and finally got serious partway through last week. I started things out a few pounds over 180 and as of Friday I was at 178.

Monday through Friday I weigh myself in the morning before I get ready for work. This way I weigh myself at the same time every day. Since daily weight can fluctuate I plug my weight into The Google 15 on my iGoogle page, which gives me a weighted average as well as a little graph.

For food tracking I’ve been using The Daily Plate. I’ve tried both TDP and FitDay and I prefer Daily Plate. It has a better selection of foods and I think their setup is a bit more pleasing to the eye as well as being easier to use.

On the exercise side I’ve been sticking to running outdoors and pull-ups. I’d like to get a gym membership and start lifting weights again; but I refuse to let myself do that until I’m already in a routine of exercising on a regular basis. I don’t want to spend the money until I’m sure that I’d use the membership, especially since most memberships come bundled with long-term contracts.

Thursday, February 7, 2008

Back Into Cigars

I’m getting back into cigar smoking. It’s a nice way to relax after I put my daughter to bed and I’m trying to wind down from a long day of work. Right now I smoke a cigar every 2 or 3 days except for the weekends when I’ll have one each night. The problem with good cigars is the price. I still have a pretty good stock in my coolerdor though.

My wife doesn’t mind it except for the occasional cigar that she thinks stinks. I’ve yet to discover a method to determine ahead of time whether or not she’ll think a certain cigar stinks.

I’ve been thinking about smoking a pipe once in a while too. I still have my old pipes and a few small pouches of pipe tobacco; I wonder if the tobacco will still be any good since it’s just been sitting in a jar inside the pouches. My problem with pipes is all the effort is takes before, during, and after the smoke. I’ll give it another try or two though.

Blackout

Yikes, talk about procrastinating; we moved into our apartment in April and I finally blacked out our bedroom window. Like most things one delays doing for no reason, I wished I would have done it a long time ago. I sleep so much better in a pitch black room. I even turned my clock around to eliminate that LED glow.

Wednesday, February 6, 2008

Just Pick Someone Already

Will each of the main parties please get to it and announce their Presidential candidates. I’m tired of the Obama/Hillary and McCain/Romney arguments and discussions.

Actually, I wouldn’t mind it if they bumped the election up another six months or so as well. Most of us really don’t need to hear another nine months of bickering about who is better than the other person (especially since few if any voters will change their minds).