Monday, March 31, 2008

Various

Some things.

I watched No Country For Old Men on Saturday. Good flick. Great performances and lots of things to think about.

I'm alternating between playing Smash Bros Brawl, Rock Band, and Jeanne D'Arc. All great games. I picked Kane and Lynch back up, too, since it's been sitting for like a month, but I think I might be done with it. There's a "stealth" mission that's pissing me off, so we'll see how many times I replay it before I want to snap the disc in half. I'm betting it's 3.

At the urging of a coworker, I slapped a layout on my MySpace page. I like it, but I had to spend way too much time trying to get it to look the way I wanted it to look. MySpace's built in editor is useless shit. It tries to be user-friendly, but it isn't. If they had just allowed me to look at and edit the code, I could have done it in no time. Instead, I had to find someone else's code and modify it to my tastes. I still think MySpace sucks, but what are you gonna do?

Finally, March is already over. That doesn't seem possible. Where have the last 3 months gone?

Friday, March 21, 2008

Rest In Peace, My Friend

I lost another of my best friends today. He was tough, and protective, and fiercely loyal. He didn't back down from anything, and he fought to the end. He'd often bring back spoils from his conquests, even if it was only just the feet or a beak. As I sit here thinking of him, tears running down my cheeks, I can almost hear him meow at me, asking if he could jump on my lap for a good scratching under the chin.

I hear you, buddy. I love you, and I miss you.

Goodbye, Cosmo. You were a hell of a cat.

Monday, March 17, 2008

Arrrrgggggghhhhh

Sent those shitty controllers back today. Only cost me 8 bucks to ship em, too, huzzah!

Emailed the folks at the online video game retailer (http://www.wherehouse.com, I urge you to check them out for your music, movie, and gaming needs), and they basically said, "It's cool, we'll give you your dollars back, yo." So that problem's been solved.

Then we come to the printer. Guess what? It didn't fucking work.

That's not entirely true, it worked for like 5 minutes, and then stopped working. So I sent that shit back today, too. Only 13 bucks shipped, fuckin a.

So after all that trouble with online purchases, what do I do? I order some DVD binders online, because I have far too many DVDs and not nearly enough space for them all. I expect to receive a box filled with smoking ash that is the remnants of the DVD binders, due to a horrible fire in the warehouse in which they were stored. That would be wonderful.

Thursday, March 13, 2008

If It Wasn't For Bad Luck

I tell ya, I wouldn't have no luck at all!

I do a lot of shopping on the internet. I'd say about 90% of things I buy that can be purchased online, I do. And 99% of the time, those transactions are flawless.

This last week has been the 1%. First, do me a favor. It'll take 30 seconds. Google "dolabpl". See the first hit? It's a Nintendo WaveBird Wireless Controller Platinum. Check out the next hit. Same thing. Next hit? It's a Nintendo WaveBird Control Inalámbrico Platino, but that's just the same thing en espanol.

The fourth hit is the problem. It lists the correct part number (which is DOLABPL, or DOL A BPL to be exact, that's the manufacturer's part number for the Wavebird) but the picture is that of a cheap knockoff. Doesn't matter, because that happens all the time on the internet, the merchandise is often "not exactly as pictured" but the part number ensures you get exactly what you want, right?

Yes, that's right, and that's the way it is and always should be. Except, apparently, that "Etronicspal" seems to think that they don't have to play by the same rules everyone else does. You see, they marked a shitty knockoff (it's not even a third party, it's like a fifth party. There's literally no brand) with the same part number as a Wavebird, thereby misrepresenting the product for sale. Not only that, but they think that they can get away with only providing "store credit" for the return of their misrepresented product. Sorry, assholes, doesn't work that way.

I'll let you know how it all turns out, but here's what I expect to happen: I return their bullshit controller, and I get the charge reversed on my credit card (minus shipping and handling, of course, they won't refund that, even though I never would have had the product shipped if they hadn't misrepresented it, but whatever).

Second, I ordered some used games from a different retailer. They guaranteed all their used games to come with the original cases and manuals. Cool. Just one problem. I opened one of the shrink-wrapped boxes, removed the "Used" sticker slapped across the top, and opened the case to find: no disc inside. There was a manual, but no disc. Sweet! So now I have to try and convince them that their lovingly shrink-wrapped and stickered case was stickered and shrink-wrapped without the disc inside, and not removed after I opened it and claimed it was missing. *sigh*

Other than that, this week's been great. I've got a new printer/copier/flatbed scanner arriving tomorrow. Receiving it in multiple pieces would be the vomit-flavored icing on the cake made of shit.

Thursday, March 06, 2008

Games

Played a bit more Kane and Lynch, and it continues to be kickass. It's like a video game version of Heat, which is an awesome flick.

Borrowed No More Heroes for Wii from a friend. It's unlike anything I've ever played. It's got a slight GTA feel to it, in that you drive around the city doing missions, but that's about where the similarity stops. It's incredibly violent (cartoonishly so, really, if cartoons had gallons and gallons of spurting blood. It's like Quentin Tarantino made a video game), extremely funny and irreverent, at times frustrating, but ultimately a whole lot of fun. If killing massive amounts of people with a laser sword is wrong, I don't want to be right. Favorite line so far: "It's open mic night in hell, old man. Sing all you like down there."

Finally, I picked up a PSP: the Daxter pack, to be specific. So I now have a silver PSP Slim, Daxter, The Family Guy Freakin' Sweet Collection on UMD, and a 1 gig memory stick. It's pretty sweet. Daxter is highly entertaining. I'm looking forward to adding some other must have titles to my collection (like Final Fantasy Tactics, which, unlike the DS version, is an updated version of the original PSOne game, which was the best turn-based strategy game ever).

Saturday, March 01, 2008

This is why I'm not a sysadmin

Because I fucking hate networks. Remember how my router decided to stop functioning, so I got a new modem/router all-in-one from AT&T? Well, it sucks balls. I mean, having the all-in-one is a great idea, if it fucking worked. Wired connections work great. Wireless ones, however, don't work so great. In fact, they don't work at all. Well, that's not true. They work if there's no encryption on the network. Fantastic! My wireless network is akin to the ladies down on Wilson Way: all comers welcome! Fuckin A.

In other news, I rented Kane and Lynch for PS3 today. I've put in about 2 hours, and so far, I can't complain. I'm guessing there's some sort of gamekilling bug at some point down the road, because from what I've seen, I have no idea why it warranted only a 64 (of 100) from reviewers over at metacritic, and an abysmal 2.5 (of 10) from users.

Finally, I can't believe it's March 1 already. Smash Bros Brawl hits in 8 days. That means our weekly Rock Band parties will become weekly Smash Bros ass-kicking festivals. On the one hand, sad panda. But on the other hand, joy!