Talky

2010-04-19T12:18:00.001-05:00

Hah. I just noticed that my previous trip thoughts were the post before my current trip thoughts. I did try out Wordpress for a bit. I don't mind it but with Picasa working better for me as a picture host, I came back to blogspot

Disney thoughts

2010-04-17T14:55:00.001-05:00

This trip has been incredible. I've seen new stuff and shops i've never been in. I started a vinylmation addiction. The crowds are insane. I've not seen crowds like this since I went to Magic Kingdom on christmas day.

Other than that, this has been a great experience with my mom. We haven't been as just family since my dad was ill. My next trip will be with my wife and my extended family for sure but I'll be in better shape hopefully

-- Post From My iPhone

Post Disney Thoughts

2009-09-17T10:29:00.000-05:00

I'm finally home from my vacation to the happiest place on earth. Maybe its my age but it wasn't as happy as it usually is. We had a lot of problems checking in and the hotel having the room ready. In fact, it took them until past 5:00pm when check-in was 3:00pm and technically, we had to speak to a manager just to get the room after 5:00pm. The service in the hotel except for the cleaning crew was rather poor. Slow or barely there for starters. I understand they were busy but its still retarded in a place where so much money is spent on good service.

The parks, on the other hand, were excellent. Cast members were awesome. Some made us feel like old friends or just warm and fuzzy about our time there. The rides were a bit backed up but only after getting on, not the lines to get in. Strange but it works. It didn't ruin my vacation, just a bit different from my usual feeling there.

The biggest thing I'd love to see fixed is the transportation issue. In the older hotels, the monorail took care of a lot of the problem. If you are at a newer hotel, park hopping is much more irritating as you must ride from 1 park to a random hotel then catch another bus to the other park. This can take like 45mins just to happen and drained all the want to hop around out of me.

Beyond that, I loved my time. I got addicted to disney pins, the vinylmation line of figures and wanted a lot of stuff I couldn't buy and had a blast riding the rides. Fantasmic is honestly a thing of wonder. I see it as the culmination of everything Disney has ever done in a night time show. I plan on definitely going back for a 24th time and more but with more planning than I did this time.

DisneyWorld!

2009-08-20T10:10:00.001-05:00

My vacation to Walt Disney World gets closer and closer each day. To say I'm getting excited would be an understatement. I haven't been since before my father was diagnosed with lukemia and passed away some years ago. In fact, had we known, he was showing symptoms during the trip. Either way, the park has always been a family bonding trip. I don't ever remember having a bad time except for the ill decision to be in Magic Kingdom on Christmas day.

I enjoy telling people I've been 22 times and seeing the look on their faces. Its egotistical but for me, Disney World is where my family is at its strongest. The thought of walking into Epcot and seeing Spaceship Earth again and hearing the music makes me giddy. I always get a little teary eyed when I first get there because of how much I love it. You can call it a soulless corporation bent on making money but I try not to think about that while I'm singing with Figment in my head or riding Big Thunder Mountain or Haunted Mansion. I've spent hours just learning trivia facts and general junk about it just because its so fascinating.

Everyone has a place where they are eternally kids. This happens to be mine. This year, I get to experience it as I've never seen before. I also get the pleasure of seeing my wife's first time in many years and our friend's first time ever. Those experiences never get old. I may skip a ride or two but never out of riding too many times. All the new rides and changes will be great. I'm going to try to take pictures but when its all swirling in my head, my camera is the last thing on my mind.

Mid life crisis ahoy?

2009-08-14T12:28:00.000-05:00

People always joke about guys having a mid-life crisis and coping by buying fast cars and looking at young women. I must be an odd one because all I've been considering lately is if my chosen career is the one for me. I've spent years on heading towards being a network administrator. I've always worked on PCs. Its where I feel at home. I guess its more my study habits are holding me back because I find it difficult to sit and read a book on Active Directory or some other junk I have to know to get a certification. The only reason I remotely care about certifications is for more money. To me, having a sheet of paper saying I can handle x or y means nothing. The knowledge that my users are running smoothly as possible while keeping my network safe is a far better praise.

I'm not unhappy with my life. Things are only getting better in fact. In less than a month, I get to return to Walt Disney World. After 22 times of going to the park, this will be the first time I've seen it as it is now. I'm excited as hell to be going back. I've soaked up more trivia about the park than ever. My wife is finally done with her immigration work. We can finally rest for 10 years.

I just feel like I should be so much better but the drive is very difficult to muster. I tried writing a review on my other blog, . I'm hoping I'm met with some advice to better myself or even just a "that's a passable review. Keep going". I wouldn't mind being a journalist for the anime industry. I've loved it for years and haven't once felt like walking away. It just probably won't pay the bills so I have to do other things. I also have the same difficulty mustering motivation to learn japanese to increase what I can do as a fan.

I'd hate for this to turn into a livejournal on a different site but right now, I'm rather stuck.

The Collector

2009-08-03T08:25:00.000-05:00

I finally decided to see The Collector last night. Prior to it, I'd only seen the trailer or at least portions of it. Occasionally, it is enjoyable to go into a movie blind to any reviews\trailers. The poster gave me a slight bit of what to expect. The line proclaiming the movie from the writers of Saw IV,V,VI created a more torture filled expectation. The theater I was at had the poster across from the actual viewing room so I only had moments to mull this over.

The Collector starts out with a predictable but welcome beginning scene. Horror fans are used to this sort of thing and won't be surprised much at all. This gives way to the opening credits, which were filled with industrial music and items setting up the whole "collecting" motif that would be obviously set up during the film.

From there, Josh Stewart sets up our "hero", Arkin. The entire introduction of Arkin feels as if they wanted him to be the main villain but chose another route early on. His calm demeanor during times of stress, peeping in on the wife of the house giving herself botox injections gives you an almost "invader" like feel. He softens up once he encounters Hannah, the youngest daughter of the family he works for. It gives him a more regular joe feel from the previous scenes.

Sadly, the rest of the family seems to be relatively unimportant except for a few throw away lines and very sparse character development aside from putting name to face and where they belong in the household. The short time is mostly spent on Hannah, played by Karley Scott Collins and the father, played by Michael Reilly Burke. The other members of the family set up the standard cliche stereotypical family and the plot moves on.

Arkin's own family is given even less time than the main ones even though they are the entire reason he goes through the hell he does. His wife needs money for loan sharks so he works odd jobs. He also does robberies to put money on the table. The urgency to get more money than he received for working drives him to plan to steal a large jewel from the house he was previously at.

He arrives at the house in what seems to be a quick easy job. The only thing preventing him from his stealthy robbery is the tortured screams of a man coming through the air vents. He attempts to leave, only to realize the torturer is headed his way. This starts a cat and mouse series of scenes that works very very well for the movie. The use of simple sounds like stairs creaking and doors opening creates a nice tension between the titular character and Arkin.

As he is trying to escape, he begins to stumble into the traps laid out all over the house. The first trap works very well in giving the cringe factor needed to start the roller coaster that is coming. As each room reveals itself, the trap in each gives the imagination a very visceral possibility of death or dismemberment. The reasoning behind the traps is never explained but one can only imagine it is to prevent the victims from escaping. This is hindered by the fact that the killer rarely forces his victims into the traps, only having them for a what if situation.

Arkin, through the cat and mouse game, finds the badly tortured body of Michael, the father. He gives the impression he has been tortured for hours with the dreadful knowledge he still has more to go. His wife is surprisingly unharmed with a couple of minor exceptions. Its unknown if he just had not gotten to her or if there was more reason to leave her unharmed. Our hero attempts to assist the family in escaping but incidents occur that make that an impossibility.

Victoria, played by Andrea Roth, pleads with Arkin to find her daughter who is hidden somewhere in the house. This causes another round of the wonderful cat and mouse game to occur, only with a few different twists and turns from its previous run. The downside to this is the movie becomes a bit more simple. The rest of the movie feels more like your standard trapped in the house horror movie. The traps are mostly avoided and some are just out right defeated.

To the writer's credit, they handle police intervention rather well. The first officer on the scene meets a grisly end but is not written off as if the rest of the world has no idea how to handle an officer that doesn't respond to radio calls. The finale is rather anticlimactic due to most of the exciting moments already being used previously. The end gives a possible sequel opening and a chance to do a Saw-like series in which 1 movie bleeds into the next due to specific characters or scenes.

In essence, this is Saw lite without the focus on showing what occurs in each gory trap. The series can easily withstand a second or even third movie without feeling like an attempt to grab for money. The use of music and sound effects during this is fantastic. The previously mentioned short torture scenes are there for the necessary cringe to show what the villain was capable of. Each does its job well without going to the extreme shown by its older brothers of the genre. I would recommend this as a definite rental or theater viewing if you are able.

Car Hell 2: The Reckoning

2009-07-29T08:21:00.001-05:00

After 2 days of waiting, I was finally informed that we would not be able to finance my wife's TC due to the length of time both of us had been working at our jobs. I understand her only being there for 2 months but I've been at my job for 8 months and then I held a 3 year job previous to that. Banks are assholes. We're trying for a used Civic SI now.

In other surprise news, drivers are assholes. I nearly got into a 3 car or more pileup today cause some jackass slammed on their breaks. I seriously need something to relax me and a vacation after all this bullshit

Car Hell: The Finale

2009-07-27T08:06:00.001-05:00

It is finally done. Praise whoever the hell made it happen. My wife has decided on a Scion TC. Its actually within our budget and everything! I can rest now at least.

I also test drove a Scion XB and fell in love. I used to hate anything larger than a standard compact car but I'm so comfortable in the XB and its got everything I need. Now I just have to get around to saving up to get it since I promised my car to someone.

I won't comment on the /b/ block because I quickly looked it over this morning. Without knowing more, I don't want to condemn AT&T and others for the block when its a response to DDOS. Besides, AT&T is getting enough hate right now as it is with the iPhone issue

The Car Saga

2009-07-23T08:19:00.000-05:00

My wife and I started down the wonderous path of finding and buying her a car this past thursday. In a week's time, this has gone from a pleasant to an annoying and frustrating experience. My wife goes to the dealership 2 days ago after finally deciding on a Civic SI. She chose to go with the one she fell in love with when she test drove it.

She brings in all the necessary information and tries to talk pricing. During all this, she keeps me updated while I'm at work with each new development. After about 10-20 minutes, she calls me saying they ran the wrong SSN and fucked her application up because of it. She has great credit and the SSN they ran has no credit.

From best we can tell, the salesman decides to just run with it and does not rerun the numbers. This gives her a rather high note, one pricing us out of our budget. She works with them, adding more to the down payment and such. The salesman reminds her multiple times that there is someone else waiting to buy the car and she would need to make her decision today.

Meanwhile, I'm having to tell her to walk away because we just can't afford what they are asking. They, of course, lower the price. They also feel the need to remind her yet again that someone else has all the financing set up and is just waiting to see what we do. It is still out of our range. We let them know this yet again. My wife walks away, frustrated.

Cue yesterday afternoon. We are both at work, going about a normal day. Mr. Salesman decides to bring the car by her workplace. She works at a car wash so it is not completely odd but still not something most do. He attempts once again to sell her the car with a lower payment than previously. She prompts him about the other person supposedly buying the car and gets a very lame excuse of lack of credit.

She insists again that we have to consider our budget. He relents and drives off. I'm assuming not more than a few minutes later, he calls me trying to get the sale. Of course, he offers me even lower than he offered my wife. By now, I'm already very frustrated with the lack of just common courtesy we've been shown. I tell him its still a budget issue. After vomiting his "i'm just here to help you get this car" spiel, I finally get him off the phone.

Today, my wife and my best friend are going to look at other dealerships because we can't even trust the numbers they used to make this offer they've been giving us.

I understand that salesmen are just trying to make a sale but there are limits. Sales is a mine field. Do something wrong, you risk pissing off your customer and having them walk away due to your inability to read how they feel. This jerk has stepped on a mine that is currently shoving shrapnel into every pore of his body.

I just want this shit over with. I'm so tired of dealing with it that I almost don't want to get myself a new car later on due to the sheer hassle. If cars weren't so necessary in this city, I'd just ride a bike or something but I have no choice. It just makes me want to punch something

Anyone feeling....talky?

2009-07-21T14:39:00.000-05:00

I'm starting to realize I might need to be a bit more "talky" on this blog thing. Being generally shy has made me a bit gun shy to just rant my happy ass off. As part of my new rearrangement of my life I'm undergoing, I will promise to be more talky.

I also promise to start doing the following:

Exercising my fat ass off
Studying for getting somewhere in my career
Studying to actually learn Japanese instead of sounding like a 1 yr old girl when trying to comprehend what I'm reading\watching

I should also clean up\design this place a bit more. Give some link love to my favorite people on the internets and such.

Final Fantasy Hate

2009-06-17T09:10:00.000-05:00

I've mentioned this on my twitter account but I feel I need to expand it here. I finally realized why I hate Final Fantasy 7-12. Each one requires a new "feature" such as Materia or Draw that when not used make the game near impossible to win without. All games have quirks but RPGs should have a bit more freedom.

Blue Dragon is an honest example of adding new features without hindering game play. If I never wanted to use Monster Fight or change classes, I can still beat the game and get a satisfying run out of it. I'm sure it might be a bit harder but not necessary. If I don't use Draw in Final Fantasy 8, I'm pretty well screwed. No amount of overlevelling can break the crutch of Draw. The act of adding required mini-games are also a gigantic problem. Do I want to play Blitzball or whatever to get someone's final weapon? Not really.

These "features" like Materia, Draw, and Gambits force the player to do extra things that can possibly cause frustration. Gambits were essentially auto-pilot for FF12. If I lost to a boss, I made gambits that countered the reasons why I lost. Can't beat a boss in FF7? Junction the proper materia to counter it. If I can't beat a boss in FF6, it means I'm either doing something very wrong or I'm under the required level.

Real difficult RPGs like Shin Megami Tensei:Nocturne don't require elements like Draw or Materia to make it hard. It requires strategy. A fan of the series knows very well that they will get beaten until they learn the tactics necessary. Yes, the series can and will call for grinding levels but only for optional bosses that aren't necessary.

Sadly, SquareEnix won't go back to classic fare because people fell in love with Final Fantasy 7 so much that any business would do the same thing. Maybe I'm just an old gamer but I miss games where I really loved characters and the story they were a part of. I shouldn't have to worry about dealing with a gameplay feature that makes it harder for me because I spend more time dealing with it than the story.

WWDC thoughts

2009-06-09T09:00:00.001-05:00

Being a pc user, my only real concern was iPhone announcements. I do feel a bit annoyed at the tiny ribbing they gave Win7. While I don't have a single problem with comparisons, insults weren't necessary. This isn't a double standard as MS is in the wrong as well for this.

As for actual content, i'm impressed with the new features but none of them are deciding factors on an upgrade. Voice commands are the best thing that current users won't get. The integration with iTunes is a nice perk for playlists.

The compass,much like the stocks app, should be a free optional download from the app store. This would reduce the extra page
I use to "hide" the app I can't remove and have never used. Same with the compass if I had a 3GS.

The speed is a natural thing but the apps I use the most don't seem to slow down at all with rare exceptions. I really don't see this as a "perk" but a necessary beast to make the other lackluster apps worth the potential upgrade.

With hackintoshes becoming more popular for people who want to play with osx, I think I'll be holding off on purchasing an actual mac and just playing with the OS.

All in all, it was semi worth the wait after disappointing pressers from nintendo and Sony at E3.

-- Posted from my iPhone

Nintendo\Sony Presser

2009-06-03T17:00:00.000-05:00

Nintendo starts out the 2nd day of E3 with their attempt at getting the players hyped up for a new "year" of gaming. To be honest, they failed miserably. I may be called a Microsoft fanboy but I felt the show was just not put together as well. As I've said previously, I don't want to hear about numbers. I don't care that Wii has a larger install base than Sony. I don't care how many downloads you've had. I want a reason to purchase your console or a reason to be excited about it.

For a few months now, we've seen a lot of shovelware and very few good games. Most of these are first party with some exceptions. I know we all grew up with Mario,Zelda and Metroid but the poor cow doesn't have a whole lot left. You struck gold with Super Mario Galaxy. You did well with Zelda and Metroid games. Instead of being a bit more innovative or trying to move in new ways, we get Super Mario Galaxy 2 and a new Metroid title. I just can't find myself getting THAT excited for what they want to offer me. At least for me, the games were a surprise but nothing that made me say "I HAVE to buy that the day it comes out".

If games aren't the driving force to purchase or continue supporting the Wii, then we move on to games like Wii Fit that are innovative to a point. We get new toys like a vitality sensor and MotionPlus. I can understand wanting MotionPlus to come out exactly like they want it. The vitality sensor is just sad. The concept from everything I've read is it is supposed to help you relax. I remember the big selling point for the Wii originally was that you actually got up and did things while playing. Helping me relax doesn't do this and strays from most of the actual good games for the system. I'm predicting this will flop and Nintendo will quietly remove it from history if possible.

Sony picks up an hour later with their attempt. Sadly, this is slightly better than Nintendo's number-crunch-a-thon. Out of the entire time, they spent a good deal of it on the PSP Go. The original PSP will live on beside its new smaller brother. The change in control setup is very welcome. The lack of UMD support is a bit troubling due to the fact that digital distrobution has not completely taken over anywhere. Steam chugs along like a juggernaut and still has not completely made its mark against brick and mortar game sales.

Sony then showed off its new big blockbuster games for the PS3. This is, in my opinion, the weakest section of their entire plan. They happily announce FF14 but when I hear online game coming out of Square Enix, I have flashbacks of FFXI. This is not the impression you want to start with. Many people do love FFXI but a lot more remember how "grindy" it was. Showing off Metal Gear Solid and God of War were nice touches to take the sting off of the bad impression left by FF14. Gran Turismo 5 wants to compete with Forza but until I see them side by side, Forza has it beaten. This seems to be a good fight for racing fans. One that is sorely needed.

Sony made no mention of new things coming to Playstation Home from what I recall. This feels like they are starting to accept the community just isn't there that they want. This also makes me feel like Sony just has no idea what to do anymore. I believe the only exclusive game they have left is God of War. Yes, they do have some companies that have always been Sony and will possibly stay there. These don't seem to be the selling point because it isn't the games that will sell consoles.

Both of these shows were disappointing at best. Nintendo and Sony both should have learned from buzz Microsoft has been getting. It feels like Microsoft spent more time planning this than either other company. When Sony or Nintendo made their announcements, it just did not feel as grand and awe inspiring as Microsoft or even other companies like Blizzard. I felt underwhelmed at both the entire show. I didn't talk to friends about Nintendo or Sony's announcements like I did Microsoft's. I still say the PS2 has the best RPGs and the best controls for fighting games. The PS3 just isn't sparking the same kind of enthusiasm.

Microsoft E3 Presser thoughts

2009-06-02T17:00:00.000-05:00

Microsoft seemed to go all out on this. In the past few years, E3 has become less and less about the "games" and more about the sales numbers. Console fans and gaming fans in general get bored to tears hearing that Xbox Live has 3,000,000 more people than last year. This year, we did get a brief mention of how large the online service is but did not dwell on it. We got to see new features, games and reveals that actually interest the players instead of the stockholders.

Facebook\Last.FM\Twitter integration will make this a much more social console than its brothers but is all this really necessary? What will I be tweeting? My status will be spammed as I play games or get achievements on Facebook. The only possible decent feature I can see is Last.FM. This would only be accomplished by allowing it to be the custom soundtrack instead of CDs\MP3s. I'm interested to give this a chance. I don't think I'll be tweeting I just got some random achievement but we'll see the options given.

The games announced are all very pretty in their own way. Final Fantasy will no doubt do very well on both consoles. Mainstream has latched onto the series regardless of its departure from traditional RPG aspects. Why change now? Alan Wake looks to be very suspenseful but will it recreate the effect Silent Hill and Resident Evil had on its fans? From my viewpoint so far, I think so. This, of course, could all be screwed by horrid controls and frustrating game play. Any game can be doomed due to that combination. Halo:ODST and its cousin Halo:Reach honestly won't be any new exciting manner of game play. I just expect a good shooter from Bungie.

Project Natal is the new 600lb gorilla in the room. If it succeeds at everything it claims, even Nintendo will have a hard time fighting a well thought out and well used Project Natal. If not, it becomes another monkey imitating the Wii. The videos are all very promising. I just hope they don't force games to use it but rather give them the choice to reach out to different control schemes. The possibilities for it are wide but all depend on its ability to do what it promises.

Overall, Microsoft put on a very well planned show. There was a lot already known or rumored but they managed to still surprise us. As they continue to revamp and almost re imagine the dashboard, I expect some great things coming from Microsoft.

California fails again

2009-05-26T13:03:00.000-05:00

I normally don't want to make this any kind of political mentions because I'm not that into politics but I do want to mention how furious I am at California's ruling over Prop8. I am truly sad to live in a time where people cannot get married because of a religious or old fashioned belief. If you don't want gays to be married, protest in another way. If you have the power to allow this or not, be as unbiased as you can. Regardless of your personal beliefs, other people are happy in a different way than you.

I have only a couple of friends I know are gay and even if they never get married, I want them to have the choice to do so if they feel they want to. America claims to be the home of the free and wants to be so forward thinking but old beliefs and agendas ruin this. I know I'll be one of hundreds if not thousands of blogs saying the same thing but this is my way of saying it.

Those of you who want to be married and can't, I'm a straight married man and I'm behind your right to be married 100%

TV recommendation site

2009-05-26T08:53:00.000-05:00

In an age where internet is king and old media is slowly losing the "war", I'm amazed there is no site for recommending TV shows to people. The anime fans and even the music fans seem to have this taken care of with lots of different choices but TV? Not even close from what my small searches have turned up.

If I thought I knew enough about building the website, I'd do it myself but programming only ends up giving me ulcers so I'm a bit trapped. Having world wide recommendations in this day and age is just common sense. Some of my friends watch UK stuff constantly and some watch japanese dramas. I don't have the time to sort through it all and find the ones I'd be interested in by just premise alone. Ah well. Maybe someone will enlighten me

Terminator

2009-05-21T12:00:00.000-05:00

Since I've gotten extremely addicted to Twitter, I felt like I needed a blog to sort out or just write out more opinions and thoughts I have that aren't limited to 140 characters. Somewhere I can rant on whatever is in my head. I don't expect this to become a world wide phenomenon, but I won't argue if it does.

I saw Terminator Salvation last night with some friends. Despite all the bad reviews, I enjoyed it. I think a lot of them were holding out for some epic return like Cameron's T2 was. That just isn't possible, honestly. It was a once in a lifetime thing for the franchise. The acting was just fine. There were even little fun nods to the previous movies. In the end, it will make money and critics and people with high hopes will continue to trash it because it wasn't the second coming of T2. Ah well.