Not Quite A Juke Box Hero

08.06.2007

This weekend found myself and my close person first tier associate Jer partaking in Jerry & Russell's Day of Fun 2. The first Day of Fun, back in March, found us at the R/D store, the comic shop, and probably a couple of other things that I don't really remember in detail. Saturday we grabbed lunch, then went to the R/C store, followed by a trip to Wal-Mart for the off chance that they still had a Wii. After that we sauntered to the local game store and picked up a few games for the Three Hundred and Sixty. After that we went to Casa Boonies and commenced the playing of games.

Game #1: Gears of War.
Jer tends to excel at the shooting game, while I lean toward wrestling and driving games (although not together). We popped in Gears and found that we both suck at it. The controls weren't as intuitive to those of us trained on the PC in First Person Shooters as to the kids these days growing up on their hippity hop. It'll take a little time getting used to the controls on this one.

Game #2: Full Auto. I had read mixed reviews on this release title for the 360. But it mixes driving (for me) and shooting (for Jer) so I figured it was worth the bargain price I had found it for at my local CompUSA the previous weekend. Luckily, the controls were more intuitive for us than the Gears of War control scheme. We raced. We shot. We blowed up. While fun, it wasn't as graphically pleasing as I had hoped - there seemed to be a constant fish-eye perspective. Maybe I need to check those HD settings?

 

Game #3: Guitar Hero 2. Although not a rhythm game kind of guy, I had heard others speak of this game and it sounded fun - especially with other people playing. It also comes with a guitar controller, and I'm a sucker for gimmick controllers. We cranked up the Guitar Hero and played.

And played.

And played. No death. No destruction. No shooting. I think we played for about 3 hours. Nerdy middle aged white boys playing 1 level above air guitar. Hootin', hollerin', cheering each other on. I would sing along, usually trying to frantically get my fingers on the fret/buttons while singing "dammit shit shit dammit" to the beat.

Never a huge fan of the rock scene, I might have know half the songs. For the half I didn't know it was a game of trying to find the rhythm and then hitting buttons. For the ones I did know, I was playing a guitar!

There's an 80's version for the PS2. I have a PS2....

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Fried?

07.30.2007

I have a 5+ year old laptop that I use when traveling (for checking the electronic email on the interweb) along with some web development. The laptop originally came from Spiritus, and it was refurbished from Dell when we originally got it. There have been a couple of recalls for laptop power supplies, something about them bursting into flames, but each time I've checked the model numbers that are being recalled and I'm never in the lists mentioned.

About a month ago I was using the laptop and it suddenly went into hibernate mode. I didn't understand, as it was plugged in. After looking at the power supply, the transformer, actually, I saw that the little green LED was not lit. I unplugged the plug, then plugged it back in, and the light came on. I powered up the laptop and the battery started charging. Since then I've noticed a few times that the LED doesn't light, and I try unplugging/plugging back in until the LED lights, and then everything is copacetic.

Sometimes I use the laptop at work, and I've noticed that after I've plugged the cord in, there's an odd sound if I get the transformer near the PC. I'm not sure how to describe the sound, other than as a faint crackle.

Saturday I went to plug in the notebook at home. I plugged the cord into the wall. No green LED on the transformer. I tried again. Nothing. 5 times I tried before the LED came on. Along with that came another crackle, along with a spark from the transformer to part of the power cable. The spark managed to open up the plastic cable insulation, exposing the silver wire underneath. Then little tiny sparks traveled intermittently up and down the cable.

Normal people, I think, would gasp "oh no!" and unplug the cable. I, slightly less normal, looked closer and turned the cord to get a better look while saying "what the... cool". Then I realized the cable made my fingers tingle. "Uh oh, that can't be good." I looked at the laptop (not plugged in, by the way). Then I realized I should unplug the cord.

So I don't think it's safe to use this power supply any longer. Yes, I can hear the collective "duh" from the populace of the interweb even now. But there's nothing else wrong with my 5 year old laptop. I just put a new hard drive in it, upgrading the 30 Gig drive to 120 Gig. For what I use it for, it runs fine. So I guess it's off to CompUSA Monday afternoon to see what I can round up in the replacement power supply department.

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$1564.37 Keyboard

07.27.2007

It's a keyboard that plugs into your PC, where each key is a tiny LED, so that you can program/change the image of the actual keys you're typing on.

For $1500.

For a keyboard. That you pound on with your fingers.

I've bought some stupid gadgets, but this one is still too far out there. So until they make a 90% price cut, I'll just have to be envious of those elite typists that get one.

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Retrospecting

07.24.2007

Went to a funeral for my uncle this past weekend who died after a long bout with cancer. One of those times that makes you reflect and think about life and how you're living it.

I think my primary motto in life is Don't regret anything twice. A silly way of saying I should learn from my mistakes, but that's the way I am. After 38 years, I don't regret where I am now: geographically, emotionally, spiritually, financially, even physically. Granted, I could be doing better in all those areas in one way or another, but I'm fine with how things are right now.

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Vista Mom

07.18.2007

Over this past weekend I gallivanted off to Lebanon (Tennessee) to see Mom. Somehow, Mom ended up getting a new laptop from Office Max, a Toshiba with a whopping 160 gig hard drive that's running Windows Vista. As I have zero experience with Vista, along with needing to leave within an hour and a half of getting the laptop to make it back home at a reasonable hour, I left Mom to fight with setup and installation of whatever else she needed or wanted on her own.

I know, tough love.

I left Mom with a little advice - read through the instruction book once before ever turning the computer on. Then turn the computer on and start going through the steps and reading again. That way you'll know what to expect. Mom has a history of frustration with computers and operating systems, so I was hoping that this time, starting from scratch, she'd be able to learn and get comfortable with the new computer from the get go.

Monday I got home and heard a message on my answering machine. "Guess what? I got Vista running and I'm hooked up to the internet!"

With that, Mom surpasses me as far has having the latest in technology and operating systems. She's also set up her first computer without me. My Mom is now a computer genius.

No no. Computer super genius!

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