With the Xbox 360 fixed (see previous post), I took it over to Andrew's place and we managed to knock out Halo 3 in under 24 hours. I had placed a hold on Portal 2 for the 360 through the public library and after several weeks of waiting for others' checkout periods to be up, and after approximately 10 minutes of gameplay, my Xbox froze. When I restarted, the Xbox gives me a general hardware error.
Bless my sweet fiancee: for my birthday two weeks ago she was going to give me Portal 2. First for Xbox, until she discovered that my 'box was dead. She returned it and picked it up for PS3, until I informed her of my PS3's inability to play that game (see previous post).
Now I am utterly frustrated at not being able to play this one game. How long have I been waiting? Now I have to buy a new Xbox plus the game. Target currently has a pretty good deal on the system, but I took a look at my finances and realized that I had better do the responsible thing and hold off buying. Just more frustration. I was hoping for some good Black Friday deals, but most early predictions are that the 360 will sell packaged with the Kinect, which would probably end up being more than I care to spend. Alas, wait until Christmas?
Tuesday, November 8, 2011
Tuesday, August 9, 2011
No Portal 2...yet
I was saddened the other day when I took Portal 2 home and put it in my Playstation. Upon startup I was told that my PS3 required a system update in order to run the game. So, close the game, connect to the internet, and run the update. There's one small problem with that: I don't have internet at home.
Now, unless I were so bold as to take the Playstation and a small tv into the public library to jump on the free WiFi, I was up that particular creek without a paddle, if you see where I'm coming from. Took Portal back to the library without a minute of playtime. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
Onward to more recent dates - I purchased an Xbox 360 from an online auction rather cheap. I say 'rather' only because the system was barebones: no controllers, power adapter, video cables, hard drive. Its one redeeming quality was its HDMI output slot. This meant that the proprietary video out was superfluous. I'll try to sum up what happened since then as quickly as possible.
I acquired the necessary accessories for the 360 but it only worked partially. It 'red ringed' (this is bad) and over a series of attempts, finally managed to make it functional. Today over lunch I purchased a 120 GB hard drive so tonight I can finally save my game progress. What this all means is that I should be able to play Portal 2 on the Xbox. This has me once again quite excited.
In other news, I fixed an Xbox 360! Call me for your video game repair needs!
Now, unless I were so bold as to take the Playstation and a small tv into the public library to jump on the free WiFi, I was up that particular creek without a paddle, if you see where I'm coming from. Took Portal back to the library without a minute of playtime. Needless to say, I was disappointed.
Onward to more recent dates - I purchased an Xbox 360 from an online auction rather cheap. I say 'rather' only because the system was barebones: no controllers, power adapter, video cables, hard drive. Its one redeeming quality was its HDMI output slot. This meant that the proprietary video out was superfluous. I'll try to sum up what happened since then as quickly as possible.
I acquired the necessary accessories for the 360 but it only worked partially. It 'red ringed' (this is bad) and over a series of attempts, finally managed to make it functional. Today over lunch I purchased a 120 GB hard drive so tonight I can finally save my game progress. What this all means is that I should be able to play Portal 2 on the Xbox. This has me once again quite excited.
In other news, I fixed an Xbox 360! Call me for your video game repair needs!
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Tonight
I'm going to be playing soooo much Portal 2 tonight! The public library in the big city allows you to check out current generation video games - for FREE!!!! I was stoked to see they had Portal 2 in their inventory. Of course it was checked out when I saw it in their catalog, so I placed a hold on it. They put it on the hold shelf for me yesterday and I'm going to pick it up in about 2 hours. Yay Portal!
Engaged!
An update: since I haven't posted since December or so, here's the big news - I'm now engaged to my super awesome fiancee Kelli. We're thinking of setting the ceremony next June, but nothing is set at this point. There will probably be more details on that on a later post.
Wednesday, December 22, 2010
This guy the musician
Today I estimated on how long it's been since my last post. With a guess of 8 months I was nearly right on the money. I hadn't intended to give up on my blog. In fact, I'm not sure what made me stop posting for such a long time anyway. Part of me didn't think there was much of interest to share. Another part of me realized that most likely none of my readers paid any attention to this anymore anyway.
Then there's the part of me that hopes and dreams that maybe something in this internet gig will be significant enough to be worthwhile. Could my writing or videos give me some fun and interesting direction for my life? Could it impact others? Two guys who made it doing something as nothing more than a pasttime are the creators of XKCD and Questionable Content. I commend these guys for doing something they enjoy creating, I enjoy reading, and they can actually make a living off of it. Plus I like their webcomics. Check them out.
I think what I was about to hint at was that in order for this blog to snare any kind of following it needs to have focus. I don't see too many people taking up reading my blog on a regular basis unless they know me personally or have identical interests as myself. Oh, and my quality should probably need to improve. Especially on the videos. Sorry, but my camera is crap.
NEW TOPIC
In other words, if you started zoning out, this paragraph is different and therefore offers new prospects at being interesting. I recently bought a violin for the cheap, bringing my instrument count up to 7 (2 trumpets, a cornet, clarinet, piano, guitar, and now violin). After practicing on it for a few days I've come to the conclusion that it's a really fun instrument to play.
At first I was daunted by the 4 strings, comparing it to the guitar. I started on trumpet, so I'm used to treble cleff, one note at a time sheet music. Sure, I'm able to wrap my mind around chords and song tabs, but it hasn't been quite so easy for me to implement. Despite the 4 strings, my practice material for the violin only has me playing one note at a time. It's actually one of the easiest instruments I've played also; not needing to know how to blow into the mouthpiece or remember tricky fingering positions.
It's a much more visual instrument; I can see what note I will play based on where my fingers are positioned, whereas on a trumpet multiple notes can take the same fingerings. And unlike the guitar, the sheet music is presented on a staff which is much more familiar to me and I can more easily relate those notes to positions on the fretboard of the violin.
On a completely unrelated note, I tried out Disney's Epic Mickey last night, and was really disappointed. It's been some time since I've tried an action/adventure/platformer like this. Does my memory fail me or are they usually this bad? The graphics are as typical as you can expect from Wii/PS2 type of graphics. Also, I'll admit that the game is supposed to take place in a "dark world" of sorts, but it just wasn't fun to look at.
The paint/thinner concept of painting in or removing certain items in the environment is an interesting gimmick. But while I wanted to run loose exploring this quirky gift, the story presentation or annoying guide character kept tripping me up to explain something that I either already knew or would have figured out eventually.
The last thing I'll complain about is the story. This game takes place in a Disney "mirror world" of sorts. In a nutshell, a land where all of Disney's rejected ideas come to live. Rejected, meaning that most of the characters are unknown. The only reason I picked up the game in the first place was because it featured a character I knew well and I was interested in where the game might take the Disney universe. In fact, that's why I play most over-hyped games, like Zelda, Mario, and Donkey Kong (don't get me started on DKC Returns!).
Play the game if you want. Tell me what you think by leaving a comment. Play the violin!
Then there's the part of me that hopes and dreams that maybe something in this internet gig will be significant enough to be worthwhile. Could my writing or videos give me some fun and interesting direction for my life? Could it impact others? Two guys who made it doing something as nothing more than a pasttime are the creators of XKCD and Questionable Content. I commend these guys for doing something they enjoy creating, I enjoy reading, and they can actually make a living off of it. Plus I like their webcomics. Check them out.
I think what I was about to hint at was that in order for this blog to snare any kind of following it needs to have focus. I don't see too many people taking up reading my blog on a regular basis unless they know me personally or have identical interests as myself. Oh, and my quality should probably need to improve. Especially on the videos. Sorry, but my camera is crap.
NEW TOPIC
In other words, if you started zoning out, this paragraph is different and therefore offers new prospects at being interesting. I recently bought a violin for the cheap, bringing my instrument count up to 7 (2 trumpets, a cornet, clarinet, piano, guitar, and now violin). After practicing on it for a few days I've come to the conclusion that it's a really fun instrument to play.
At first I was daunted by the 4 strings, comparing it to the guitar. I started on trumpet, so I'm used to treble cleff, one note at a time sheet music. Sure, I'm able to wrap my mind around chords and song tabs, but it hasn't been quite so easy for me to implement. Despite the 4 strings, my practice material for the violin only has me playing one note at a time. It's actually one of the easiest instruments I've played also; not needing to know how to blow into the mouthpiece or remember tricky fingering positions.
It's a much more visual instrument; I can see what note I will play based on where my fingers are positioned, whereas on a trumpet multiple notes can take the same fingerings. And unlike the guitar, the sheet music is presented on a staff which is much more familiar to me and I can more easily relate those notes to positions on the fretboard of the violin.
On a completely unrelated note, I tried out Disney's Epic Mickey last night, and was really disappointed. It's been some time since I've tried an action/adventure/platformer like this. Does my memory fail me or are they usually this bad? The graphics are as typical as you can expect from Wii/PS2 type of graphics. Also, I'll admit that the game is supposed to take place in a "dark world" of sorts, but it just wasn't fun to look at.
The paint/thinner concept of painting in or removing certain items in the environment is an interesting gimmick. But while I wanted to run loose exploring this quirky gift, the story presentation or annoying guide character kept tripping me up to explain something that I either already knew or would have figured out eventually.
The last thing I'll complain about is the story. This game takes place in a Disney "mirror world" of sorts. In a nutshell, a land where all of Disney's rejected ideas come to live. Rejected, meaning that most of the characters are unknown. The only reason I picked up the game in the first place was because it featured a character I knew well and I was interested in where the game might take the Disney universe. In fact, that's why I play most over-hyped games, like Zelda, Mario, and Donkey Kong (don't get me started on DKC Returns!).
Play the game if you want. Tell me what you think by leaving a comment. Play the violin!
Monday, April 26, 2010
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Outdoorsy Work
I decided to grab a pair of work gloves and have a go at a bunch of dead stuff around my house. I may be a single guy who doesn't care about the way his stuff looks, but that doesn't mean I don't care about the way my stuff looks.
First off, here's a rose bush that's gotten severely out of hand. It was out of hand when I bought my house. I decided to hack away at some of the dead stuff still clinging to the rest of the bush and I still think it's out of hand. Ridiculous!
Behold my miracle tulips! I didn't do anything to make these babies grow. I don't even know who planted them, they're just a pleasant surprise. I didn't notice them last year because I didn't move in until June/July. It's strange to think that a year ago this time I was house shopping.
Most of the work I did today involved hacking up a big dead bush that you don't see in the upper-left quadrant of this photo. It's gone now.
This is Tommy's all-time favorite spot: on the back of the couch sitting in the window. Of course, he could see me outside taking pictures and I assure you he was trying his darndest to break my heart with all the whimpering and whining I could hear through the window.
Just a better shot of the tulips. Why not, right? Clearly I still have plenty of work, getting rid of a bunch of dead grass and whatnot. Want to come over and help?
Shameless photograph of Tommy.
First off, here's a rose bush that's gotten severely out of hand. It was out of hand when I bought my house. I decided to hack away at some of the dead stuff still clinging to the rest of the bush and I still think it's out of hand. Ridiculous!
Behold my miracle tulips! I didn't do anything to make these babies grow. I don't even know who planted them, they're just a pleasant surprise. I didn't notice them last year because I didn't move in until June/July. It's strange to think that a year ago this time I was house shopping.Most of the work I did today involved hacking up a big dead bush that you don't see in the upper-left quadrant of this photo. It's gone now.
This is Tommy's all-time favorite spot: on the back of the couch sitting in the window. Of course, he could see me outside taking pictures and I assure you he was trying his darndest to break my heart with all the whimpering and whining I could hear through the window.
Just a better shot of the tulips. Why not, right? Clearly I still have plenty of work, getting rid of a bunch of dead grass and whatnot. Want to come over and help?
Shameless photograph of Tommy.
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