Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Doodah, Texas, and a order of Fry's...

Back in Doodah since my 3 day trek to Houston (Dad had a check-up) Texas. I had to help drive because they get tired, and on the way back Dad doesn't feel like driving. It's a pretty grueling 1 day jaunt at about ~12 hours including 2-3 stops, and from Sunday till yesterday was pretty much overcast the entire trip. It only rained on us yesterday going around Dallas, and then coming through OKC.

Saw the coolest billboard heading into OKC, picture of Cartoon Networks Eddy from Ed, Ed, and Eddy I think, and simply had the caption "I Pooted", it made me laugh. I also seen a McDonald's that the exterior of the playplace was shaped like a Happy Meal, and the corners of the building were french fry boxes, although I can't remember where we passed it. Houston was cool, pretty much what I recalled from the last trip down there. The view from the medical center was neat (even overcast) you could see planes coming in to the airport, and the Astrodome too. My PSP got a workout as I played a lot of Puzzle Quest on the road, and surfed the net while stuck in the medical center (I love free wi-fi).

Probably the highlight of my time in Houston was the stop by Fry's there. I've been to one before in California (E3 2005) that was really cool with the interior/exterior paying homage to 50's Sci-Fi movies. I probably mentioned it then too, but Fry's is like 5 Best Buy's, and a Radio Shack all under one roof. This place is huge. We stopped on the way out of town and I picked up a couple HD DVDs, and some PC fan power wires that I couldn't find here in town the last week or so. I really wish we could get one here, or even K.C. it would be worth driving to once a month.


Oh and if you watched Heroes Monday night, Yay! it rocked. If you didn't, why not?

Monday, April 23, 2007

Heroes is coming... 360 in high gear, and movie wrap up.

Well if you forgot (like you haven't been looking forward to it for weeks...) Heroes is back tonight on NBC, USA Today had article about the final five episodes of the season. Sounds like there is a lot of stuff happening in these season ending shows, and it sounds like they will actually wrap up the New York exploding story line.

Is it just me or does the "racing" genre always seem to be the best show off of graphical superiority? I've mentioned before that even though I'm not that great at racing games, I usually always check them out because they are gorgeous to look at. There have been screens posted for Burnout 5, and Dirt which is also featured in the new OXM issue, and part of the Colin McRae series. The screens for both look phenomenal! It's making me miss my copy of Burnout Revenge on the 360 that I traded in a long time ago, that and playing the PS2 version of Burnout Dominator. :(

I forgot to mention it, but I checked out Grind House when it started a few weeks ago, and really enjoyed it. I too sided with the mass populous and liked Planet Terror (Rodriguez) better than Deathproof (Tarantino) and I hear that when it's released on DVD it will be two separate DVDs which makes since, because one DVD won't hold a 3hr+ movie.

I also checked out Disturbia last week, which even though it's a PG13 thriller (usually a mark of death) I really enjoyed it. It was a lot more entertaining than I thought it would be, and highly recommend it.

Saturday, April 21, 2007

Introducing PeeCee!

Well what started out as a simple PC upgrade turned into a whole lot more. Originally I was going to replace the motherboard, CPU, and memory and call it good, but one thing lead to another and before I knew it I had all kinds of new parts. The only things that remain of my old PC are the case, keyboard, mouse, and monitor... the guts are all new. :)

I finally got the last pieces I needed for the major overhaul last Wednesday, a couple snags here and there and it was Thursday night before I got to fire it up. The good news is it booted up the first time, albeit making weird noises. I finally tracked the noise down to the new power supply unit, and while it works so far for the brief time I've used it, I'm getting an RMA# to send it back.

On the bright side I got Vista installed, a meager overclock going, and so far pleased overall. The Vista install had to be the smoothest (clean) OS install I've ever done, clocking in at maybe ~30 minutes. My older PC is now a part heap waiting for a spare case to be rebuilt in, so I don't currently have access to some of the stuff I need off the HD. :( I thought I had burned most of it to a CD-R but as normal I forgot some things here and there. So right now my Vista is running pretty bare bones without most of my utilities, and none of my games yet, but Internet is working so all isn't lost.

My other bright spot is Vista gives you a 'Windows Experience Score' which is supposed to help you pick software titles (once they start putting them on the package) by just looking at a number. Example Game A has a experience score of 3.5, as long as me computer scores 3.5 or above it should play perfectly. Your system is 'graded' on 5 areas (CPU, RAM, graphics, gaming graphics, and hard drive) then your overall score is the lowest area (your only as strong as your weakest link type thing). Supposedly the best score available right now is 5.9 based on the current technology, I'm happy to say that my system scores 5.3 with my weakest link being the hard drive (should have dropped the extra couple bucks for the 10,000RPM drive...) the next lowest is the CPU at 5.5 and with a little more overclock I should be able to nudge it up a bit. The final 3 RAM, and both graphics categories already hit 5.9 (Yay!)

The only drawback I've encountered thus far (other than the power supply clanking) is my Zune realized it was just visiting the new PC, and if I want to make it a permanent resident it clears the library (wiped/formatted/music go bye bye) to sync it with the library of the new machine (which of course is empty right now). I of course declined this offer, and just let it visit to grab my weekend podcast.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Uneasy Wii feelings, spring dashboard update, and more!

As I mentioned last time, I put my Wii (system you pervs) up on eBay and sold it last weekend. I sent the package via UPS at a UPS store Saturday morning. The problem is that the tracking number I got comes back with an 'unable to locate package' on the tracking site. :( I figured Saturday might have been too early (maybe it didn't even go to the UPS facility yet) but it's still not showing now (noon on Monday) so I'm off to bitch at the store clerk.

Gamespot let it slip last week with a video which was removed fairly quickly, but Microsoft confirmed all of the new features coming with the spring 360 dashboard update. Since messaging is a big part of this, they also announced a controller keyboard add-on that is supposed to go on sale this summer.


The most notable things to me are the achievement notice (it now tells you the achievement name, and value when unlocked), the marketplace getting it's own dash blade, telling you what disc is in the tray, and the updated video codecs for streaming from the PC.

I saw Shooter last week, first movie I've been to in a while. Although it reminded me a lot of Most Wanted starring Kennen Ivory Wayans (don't know why haven't seen it in years) I enjoyed it. Seemed like they used a lot of blood squibs in this movie (which I have nothing against), but coupled with The Departed there seems to be a lot more of the 'blood spurting' gunshot wounds in movies now. Right now I plan to catch Perfect Stranger, and Grindhouse this week so hopefully all goes well. Were less than a month away from the 'Summer' blockbuster tidal wave starting May 4Th with Spiderman 3!