Internet Finds

by on February 25, 2011 at 3:44 pm
Posted In: Posts

I spend a fair bit of time whoring myself out on the internet. Currently I spend most of that whoring time on Twitter and StumbleUpon. Any good whore knows you can’t just solicit people, you’ve got to “work it baby” (sending out links you want to share is useless unless you’re interacting with people). But I like people, and I’ve stumbled upon some wonderful people and some great projects. Here are my current finds:

Two Guys One Movie A Day

I heard of these guys because I noticed all these high profile Twitter users talking to BlackSymbiote, so I followed him too. This year he and friend kommradeObvious launched Two Guys One Movie a Day. It’s exactly what it sounds like. I used to read a blog by a guy who tried one-guy-one-movie-a-day. Wonderful writer, but it’s incredibly ambitious to watch a movie and write a review every single day. What if you had to go a wedding or a funeral that was far away? A vacation? A year is a long time. But TWO guys – that works.

What’s fascinating about their project is its perpetual “new friend” feel. When you make a new friend and start sharing interests you invariably want to recommend things you think they’d enjoy in the hopes they will enjoy it as much as you did. The internet is full of people who want to share experiences, and even if they don’t read Two Guys One Movie A Day they can vote on “What Gangster movie they should watch.” And because their project requires them to watch so many films they NEED input. Brilliant idea for a site.

Pixels and Popcorn

I admit, I just found this last night. They started following me on Twitter and I checked out episode 24. Their format seems to be a game and a movie for every episode. It’s three hosts: Amanda, Kent and Tim sitting on a couch and talking while a digitally inserted screen behind them plays scenes from the movie or game. Episode 24 discussed the movie Unknown and Marvel vs. Capcom 3: Fate of Two Worlds.

I immediately enjoyed the dynamic. It was fun watching Kent struggle to explain balance to Amanda and Tim (who seem less fighting game savvy). Amanda and Tim were saying some characters seem inherently better than others. Street Fighter aficionados know that with the right amount of time and skill each character should be balanced, but at the bottom of their “way of the warrior” hearts they feel Sagat has certain advantages.

I look forward to more from this site.

Whomp!

I don’t remember how I found this comic. Probably from StumbleUpon. I frequently look at other comics just to get an idea of what’s out there, and do a mental match up (i.e. my comic could beat up your comic).

Sometimes we try ideas and miss, and I think this is true of all webcomics; not every comic can be universally enjoyed. But this guy has a lot of freedom in his panel design, and he has terrific punchline setup. So many of his comics hit. It’s a shame this comic doesn’t get more traffic.

Check out my latest favourite that has a Sailor Moon reference. I eat that shit up: Preconceived Emotions.

No surprise to see from his blog posts that he’s also an engaging and talented writer. I’m a fan.

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YouTube Music

by on February 18, 2011 at 4:55 pm
Posted In: Posts

These days I mostly listen to music at work. For a brief period I listened to a new album someone recommended on my iPod every day, but lately I haven’t put much effort into finding new music.

I use YouTube instead. I started getting into it when I began my social media whoring, thinking one day I might use it for video reviews.

I have a friend at work and nearly every day we send each other songs from YouTube. He’s Bulgarian so I get a LOT of music I can’t stand. He loves Armin van Buuren so I get a lot of that, he’ll send gypsy music, and things like Les Grossman dancing to Ludacris. But I’m also pretty sure he sent me this Chris Cornell cover because he knows I love Michael Jackson:

I downloaded his whole Live from Sweden album and it became my favourite for a long time. I must have listened to it a lot because it came to mind even when I hadn’t listened to it recently, like a comforting tune.

Here’s my Bulgarian friend’s latest worthy find:

I also listen to trailers like people listen to music, sometimes even if they don’t have great trailer music. Trailers like: Kamui. Gaiden.

A lot of my YouTube favourites these days are songs from movies I listen to while I write reviews.

There are even a few YouTube artists I follow, like this girl from guitarchickz:

But after I run through the recently uploaded videos, and listen to the good ones on repeat a few times I’m all out of content. Feel free to extend your suggestions. I will listen to anything. Even gypsy music.

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IPv6 and you

by on February 7, 2011 at 9:51 pm
Posted In: Posts

192.168.1.1. Do you know what that is? I bet you do. It’s probably the IP address for your router. But if you want to write it properly, “it’s probably the IPv4 address for your router.” Basically there’s two versions of the IP protocal (that we care about): IPv4, which we all know and use, and IPv6. Nobody currently uses IPv6, which is a bit of a problem, because we just ran out of addresses for IPv4. Don’t panic though, for now you can still find the cute pictures of kitties on the internet, that’s not going anywhere, yet.

Now, I know the reason people don’t use IPv6 yet: the addresses look like something that came out of an elephant’s asshole. Look at this: 2001:0db8:85a3:0000:0000:8a2e:0370:7334. What is that. It hurts my fucking eyes. But that is the future; it has to be, and apparantely you can’t ignore it.

So what does this mean for you, as someone who probably doesn’t give a shit how the kittens get to your screen? It means that you might just have to buy a new router, in the coming years, to accommodate this change. Most routers sold on the market right now don’t even support IPv6, which is pretty surprising, considering we need them. Right now. It also means, if you like to do things like tracert, ping, finger, etc. that your logs are about to get really ugly.

Fortunately, almost all modern OSes already support IPv6, and have for quite awhile, as they saw this coming and are smarter than the router companies. That said, let us hope the backbone of the internet updates to IPv6 soon instead of waiting until the last moment, or we are going to have a serious shit-storm problem on our hands. All of us.

How I miss the old days, when it was only me and 5 other people on the internet.

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Car Adventure

by on February 4, 2011 at 3:52 pm
Posted In: Posts

Last night I lost my spare car key. Most people wouldn’t worry too much about this, but I spent half an hour searching around, under, and inside the car. I checked my pockets so many times onlookers must have thought I was molesting myself. I spent all the that time searching in the dark and the cold because that spare car key improves my quality of life.

You see, I don’t start my car like normal people. The module that engages the car’s alarm malfunctioned and the mechanics “wired around it” so the car would start. I use the spare key to open the car door and then I leave it there, because that’s the only way to turn off the car alarm. Although the module doesn’t interfere with starting the car, either it or the door sensors misfire and the car alarm arms itself while I’m driving. That means if I open the door the alarm will go off. So I have a system for getting out of the car:

  1. Put the car in park.
  2. Turn off headlights or air.
  3. Power window roll down.
  4. Turn spare key to disengage alarm.
  5. Open car door.
  6. Power window roll up.
  7. Turn off the car.
  8. Take bags and exit vehicle
  9. Close car door.
  10. Use spare key to lock door.

Sometimes my car gets cute with me and engages the alarm before I can get out. But it hasn’t done that in awhile. There was even a week where the car gave me a gift, and it wouldn’t arm itself while I was driving. I felt that was a very thoughtful gesture.

Do you see the problem without that spare key? I can’t disengage the alarm without rolling down the window, and I can’t roll it back up again without power to the car. Here’s how the new procedure goes:

  1. Put the car in park.
  2. Turn off headlights or air.
  3. Power window roll down.
  4. Turn off the car.
  5. Remove key and place into driver side door
  6. Turn main key to disengage alarm.
  7. Open car door.
  8. Place key back in ignition to gain power
  9. Power window roll up.
  10. Remove key.
  11. Take bags and exit vehicle
  12. Close car door.
  13. Use main to lock door.

I remind passengers that, “once I disengage the alarm, you have to get out of the car as quickly as possible.” “Wait wait,” they exclaim. “I forget how to get out of here!” We run through the checklist like an escape procedure. Their posture shifts from relaxed to alert, anticipating the moment I say “go,” and they can begin the adventure.

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Goodbye Puzzle Quest 2; Hello Mass Effect 2!

by on December 6, 2010 at 8:10 pm
Posted In: Posts

As some of you may know, I’m a pretty loyal guy and that extends into my video game life as well. And I chose the games I play carefully, just as I chose friends. It’s not that I’m a picky gamer–au contraire, mon frere! I can pretty much play anything, and while I enjoy certain genres more than others, I certainly don’t discriminate; but my time is limited so I rarely ever play two different titles concurrently. The harsh realities of growing up I suppose! Anyway, I was on a brief gaming hiatus after completing Dragon Age: Origins partly due to being too busy but mainly just being indecisive on my next game. I finally settled on Puzzle Quest 2 after spotting it on Steam for only $10. ‘What a great deal!’ I thought, and promptly purchased a copy. I’m starting to wonder though if the $10 price-tag wasn’t a discount but a proper valuation of the game. In other words, perhaps I shouldn’t have expected so much out of a game that was only $10 (discounted or not). Perhaps it was my own fault to have premature expectations of the game. Alas, I was disappointed to find out that this wasn’t a sequel but an entirely new game almost; one that does away with many of the things that made the original so much fun: capturing monsters, seizing castles, mounts, and crafting your own weapons. All of that, stripped away to become more “streamlined”… more “accessible”. Unfortunately, the result is a game that is extremely repetitive, yet barely offers any incentive to keep grinding. It wasn’t much more than a flash game to be honest. So I’ve decided to give up and move on, but I did make an honest effort to keep playing, to uphold my own laws of gaming; however, there wasn’t anything to look forward to at all–not even a mediocre story (which progresses really slow and so far is worse than the original’s).

I found myself back on Steam to peruse the library for deals (I wouldn’t be so cheap if you donated some money). I was indecisive yet again, but luckily an email promo landed in my inbox from Stardock’s Impulse service to announce that they are selling Mass Effect 2 for only $20 (50% off weekend deal). Having read 2D’s glowing review of the game, I decided I had to act, especially since it was the Digital Deluxe Edition (meaning extras and goodies not available in the regular version). It was pretty impulsive of me, but I just couldn’t bear the thought of only having Puzzle Quest 2 to play as I try to hibernate through the winter. Besides, I needed to play Mass Effect 2 for gaming credibility.

The game actually just finished installing and I’m all set to start playing… see ya!

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