Oh Blogger, I've been neglecting you.

So, I know I lied. I got all wrapped up in buying a car/4th of July stuff and have been just way too busy.
Yeah, that's right, I bought a car. The truck was getting way too poor gas mileage for me (My guess was single digits in the city, and barely 14mpg on the freeway), so I decided to spend some money on a more reasonable car. Though I use the term "reasonable" rather loosely because of what I bought.

It's a 97 Chrysler Sebring Convertible lol. I only paid $1400 for it, and the outside looks rather brilliant, barely any dents, and only a couple of scratches. The only down side is that the rear window in the top has separated, and I suspect it leaks. We've only had immense heat ever since I bought it so I can't really check to see if it does. But I found lots of moisture in the trunk, and the rear seat bottom foam/carpets are also wet. So I guess the next thing I'm going to do is buy a new top (only $300) and call it good. It's also an automatic, which isn't my favorite thing but I'll survive. But it gets 28mpg on the freeway so I'm more than ecstatic!

It was a completely whimsical purchase that turned out to be not so bad at all. Has anyone else lucked out like that before?

Quick Update

I'm driving two hours to go check out a car I might buy. Hopefully it's not crap like the last car I went to look at. I plan on having a full-length post when I get back later tonight.

First Day of Summer!

So today's the first day of summer in the Pacific Northwest, and in true PNW fashion, it was a hot and muggy day. Good thing it was just for today only, and the rest of the week is regular temps. Oh how I love Washington. I was working at the jobsite that had the bamboo forest, and when I was standing on the patio by the house, the view looked superb, with a nice view of the top of Mt. Rainier above the hill.

The Secret To A Better Workout?

So I'm getting ready to go running on my treadmill but I couldn't find the shirt I usually work out in, so I decided I'd just do it without a shirt because it was already hot. I get about a half-mile done and then I realize that I can see myself in my mirror, and I instantly go "Oh god is that what I look like with my shirt off?!"

I'm pretty sure I found a sure-fire way to make you workout harder, and for a longer duration. Just seeing what I looked like now was a perfect tool in motivating me to keep doing what I'm doing, and I ended up working out for nearly twice as long as I usually do. So all you need is a mirror in front of you when you're working out and then you'll never want to quit :)

Anyone else have some weird workout tips they've stumbled upon?

Resident Evil: Afterlife

So, Netflix suggested I watched the latest RE film since I watched the previous three that came out. For some reason, all the netflix users gave it negative reviews, saying how terrible the acting was, ect ect. I actually quite liked it, most because I'm a sucker for zombie movies. Even so, it felt like this movie was rushed around quite a bit, with a lot of scene-hopping going on. I found it hilarious to see Michael Scofield (character from Prison Break) in this movie, again stuck in a prison trying to get out. The action scenes are solid, with blood galore. My favorite part though was the fight scene between the giant executioner zombie with a huge hammer/axe thing and Alice/Claire. The giant zombie reminded me of pyramid head, how terrifying.



Do you guys know of any good zombie movies that are worth watching?

Katy Perry... huh?

So, Katy Perry released her new music video. I know not everyone likes her, and I'm not the biggest fan of her new album, but this video just had so many random people in it I couldn't help but laugh.

Katy Perry's Last Friday Night Music Video from Katy Perry

Mobile Blogging?

So, I'm trying to find an android app that will let me blog from my phone, I've tried two so far and they both suck. Do you guys have any suggestions that I should try?

In other news, on Friday I was at a job site and I stumbled across a bamboo forest. It was really neat inside, and there was a creek running along side it. I was half-expecting a panda to pop outta nowhere though...

Craigslist people...

So lately I've been searching for a cheap car to save gas on, and turned to none-other than Craigslist. It surprises me with what people try to peddle on the site. This particular ad made me laugh like no other.

 Note the penis...

Is it just me, or are people getting dummer?

Nerd Rage!

So, my friends found out the other day that I've never seen any of the Star Wars films, and they've been giving me shit ever since. So I finally broke down and borrowed all the movies from a friend, but I'm not sure how I should watch them.

Should I watch them how they were released (4,5,6,1,2,3), or should I watch them chronologically (1-6). I'm not really sure, cause I already know what happens in the movies (Darth Vader is his dad, ect ect). What do you guys think?

L.A. Noire Review (9/10)

Finally finished the game

Some random statistics from my playthrough:

Total Game Time: 25h 11m 11s
Game Completion: 86.9%
Total Clues Found: 256
Achievements Unlocked: 34/50 (725/1000 gamerscore)

Gameplay: 10/10

The game has you slowly work from traffic cases all the way up to homicide and administrative vice cases, and it doesn't seem boring or tedious along the way. The story to the game is very plot driven, akin to Red Dead Redemption. All the cars, architecture, weapons, advertisements, music, ect are all accurate for the late 1940's, and makes it feel like you're actually in that era.

Graphics: 9/10

The cinematic scenes in the game are phenominal, it's where their motion capture technology really shines. In fact, the graphics were so good that I was able to pick out a couple of actors I've seen in shows before just by their facial mannerisms ( Greg Grunberg, who played the cop in Heroes, and John Noble, who plays Walter Bishop on Fringe). In-game graphics are amazing as well, when you take into fact that the playable area is absolutely massive and requires a lot of memory (the game came in three disks...)

Replay-ability: 7/10

I honestly have no desire to go through and play the game over again. Apart from the achievement/trophy hunters, I don't see many other people wanting to go through the game again. I'm not sure, but there's just something about doing 75% of a case all over again just do one little thing differently for the achievement that doesn't sound appealing to me.

Overall I give it a 9/10. I had fun playing it from start to finish, and it's easily my favorite game that has come out so far this year. If the game seemed at least a little bit interesting to you, I'd say you should pick it up. Since there's no multiplayer, getting the game second-hand or even renting it would be the best bet.

But now I'm out of games... Do you guys know of any interesting games coming out soon I should check out?

Memorial Day Weekend.

The boss was nice enough to let us have today off, so I've had a 5day weekend. Awesome. Had an amazing barbecue on Saturday, then yesterday I went and bought a gun.

It's a 91/30 Russian Mosin-Nagant from 1944. It's the most mass-produced gun during WWII, so that's probably why I got it for so cheap, $145 after taxes and with a box of ammo. The whole thing was caked in grease, so the first thing I did when I got it was clean it everywhere. The plan is to take it out shooting today, but living in the Pacific Northwest means rain always is a chance.

What did you guys do this weekend?

Longest work-week ever...

Did something interesting for work this week. Brought a saw-mill trailer onto a barge, then floated over the lake and onto an island to cut up some lumber. Ended up camping out on the island for the week to watch over all the equipment. I ended up sleeping across two fold out chairs in my sleeping bag, which I'm never going to make the mistake of doing again.

So now I'm sick and incredibly sore from hauling lumber uphill for two days. I'm just going to spend the next couple of days not moving, and clearing out my netflix instant queue.

How was your week?

Good news!

I survived the rapture! Nothing much really is going on this week. I bought a treadmill to get in shape, hopefully I'll actually stick with it. Oh, and I bought L.A. Noire, and I'll just flat out say it, you should get this game. It's a detective game and the graphics are amazing, especially when you're interrogating suspects and have to just if they're lying or not by their facial expressions.

Oh, and look what I did to my xbox!

It only took a couple of days. I wanted to put the plexi-glass inside the star that I cut, but it was almost impossible so I have it set underneath. Turned out a lot better that way though, since it lights up the whole plexiglass. The LED's came with a remote control, so I can change colors, have the lights strobe, make it cycle through or blend from one color to another. It was super easy to install, no soldering or anything, it just plugged into the disk drive. Easiest 15 bucks spent!

Smart LED on Amazon

Brink Review

I bought Brink when it came out Tuesday. Payed $12 something for it after trading in unplayed games. It's made by id Tech, Splash Damage, and Bethesda. My friends hyped this game up to me, and it seemed like a fun game, so I figured I'd give it a try.

Gameplay: 8/10

It's a fun game. No way to really expand on that. It's basically just like any other co-op campaign based games, but where teamwork is definitely required. There's eight people on each time, and you can choose from 4 classes to play as. Picking the right class is where the teamwork comes in. Each objective requires a certain class to complete it (Soldiers blow things up, engineers fix things, ect). So everyone needs to work together to keep a nice balance between the classes so you can do things smoothly (having a team full of soldiers is nice, but once you start dying there's no medics around to revive you). There's also a feature called the "SMART" button, where if you're holding it down while you run into an obstical, it will figure out itself if it should dive, or leap over it. But to be honest, it's just easier to push the jump button or the dive button.

Plot: 5/10

There's honestly not much to the plot. The oppressed fighting against the oppressors. Not much else to say here really lol.

Graphics: 6/10

I couldn't find an actual picture of the in-game graphics, so I took a picture with my phone. My phone must have some awesome software in it, because it made the game look so much better lol.

I'm not sure if it's because I just got done playing Crysis 2 when I started playing this, but the graphics really weren't that great. I mean, the high texture line was seriously only twenty feet in front of the character (I actually have no idea what the correct name for the line is, but it's the circle around the camera where the textures go from good to worse. I think if you've played games before you've realized this). For comparative sake, it's between Homefront and Black Ops.

Easiness of Achievements: 9/10

I'm only putting this in because I have to express how easy these achievements are lol. I've only been playing it a week and I've already got 850/1000. They're the basic achievements, playing through the game, collecting all the audiologs, playing the game on hard mode or online versus, and doing various tricks.

Overall: 7/10
I'm definitely enjoying myself playing this game. It gets seriously frustrating though when you're playing with random people (or even dumb friends) who don't understand that this isn't a game to try and be a lone wolf. The level cap is level 20 and there's no prestiging, but you also can also make another character and spend skill points in other class talents. The only reason I rated it quite low is that I don't see this game being much fun in about a week or so.

And completely random...

Anyone else think Zooey Deschanel is ridiculously pretty? Just got done watching 500 Days of Summer for probably the 10th time. It's probably my favorite "chick" movie of all time. Though it seems like the movie was more geared towards guys.

Oh, I am so jealous of you Ben Gibbard.

Finally!

I wanted to post this last night, but dumb blogger was down haha.

Anyways, I finished the audio a couple of days ago, and I love it. While listening to songs with heavy bass, it will literally give you a back massage because the sub is literally right behind the seat. The thing I'm glad with the most though is that not much shakes in the car when the bass hits. I didn't want to be one of those d-bags whose car would sound like it's shaking apart because it's such crap.

And since you guys wanted pictures:

 I had to make a custom box to put the 5x9 speakers in, I was going to paint it, but then I realized it'd be hidden by the seat the whole time and decided not to. All in all, I spent about $500 total for the sub, speakers, amp, deck and all the wiring needed to hook it up. Oh, and here's a picture of the truck itself:

As you can tell, the body panels are in pretty rough shape =/ There's either a dent or major rust in every panel except the driver's door and the inside of the bed. Which brings me a question. Do you guys think I should try and fix the rust/dents myself? Or do you think it'd be easier to find a broken down version of my truck and just swap the body panels? Either way I want to paint it. Maybe either black or the stock ford blue.

Oh, and I bought Brink earlier this week, so expect a review in a couple of days hopefully.

Busy like a bee!

I still haven't finished everything in the truck. It's all wired and good to go, and it sounded really good for the minute it lasted until I turned it up too loud and I blew the fuse that goes from the battery to the amp. I guess I needed the higher watt wiring kit, haha. So if all goes planned I'll have it finished tomorrow and I'll be able to post pictures up.

Does anyone else love stargazing? I honestly can't wait for the warm summer nights when I can park in an open field, and lay in the back of the truck with nothing but a blanket and stare up at the sky. I also want to save up and buy a low-end telescope, I think that'd be a lot of fun. While on the subject of space and stuff, I want to share this website. It's basically a future timeline based upon research and theories about what the future has in store for us. I read everything on the page, then got depressed towards the end when it says that the universe will expand so far apart that the only things still in existence would be subatomic particles.

Oh well, hopefully we'll discover ways to cross into other universes by then!

Crysis 2 Review

I've been able to play more of Crysis 2, so I decided I can write my thoughts about it. Easily enough, the game gets a 10/10 for graphics. It's definitely a game where once I enter a new area, I do a 360 view of everything and just love it. Gameplay is pretty good, the controls don't feel bad at all, and after a bit of playing it, you can get into a nice groove and everything goes smoothly.The singleplayer campaign is great. While the story to it isn't anything incredible, it definitely builds well off of the first Crysis. The singleplayer portion is so well done though, I'd recommend it just off of that.

The only place where the game seems to be lacking though is multiplayer. It follows the standard for fps multiplayers these days. Leveling up to unlock guns, using perks and killstreaks, ect. The different nanosuit abilities makes it a bit exciting though (stealth, power, and sheild), but the one thing that sticks out is that when you kill someone, they drop dog tags, and you have to run over where the person died and pick up their dog tags. Once you collect 3/5/7 tags, you can use the respective killstreak. This alone makes the gameplay kinda one sided, where the people who run and gun are able to get a bunch of killstreaks while the other people who like to snipe are left in the dark.

So if you're not much for multiplayer, I'd say go for this game. But if what you look forward to the most is killing other players, then it would be a much more difficult decision. But hey, it's certainly better than Homefront haha.

In other news, I'm almost done with the audio in the truck, just got to finish wiring the amplifier and it should be good. Oh, and my friends are getting me pumped for this game, and I'm probably going to get it haha.

Brink:

Not the best investment...

So I finally got my tax return, and I spent a good chunk of it putting a sound system into my truck. It's an old 79 ford with a 302 in it, so driving anywhere was really loud -- too loud to hear the radio. So I bought a new head unit, two new speakers, a subwoofer and an amp. I think this would give me something to do this weekend. I have high hopes for everything working as planned. I mean, with older cars there's not nearly as much to go wrong. It was a pain though, finding a subwoofer that would fit behind the seat in a truck. All in all I spent about $500 dollars on it. But I figure after I finish this project I can start sinking money into the outside, like dent fixing, rust removal, paint job, ect...

Sometimes I regret making the decision to restore my dad's old daily driver haha.

Minecraft, Crysis 2 and eggs.

So I've been watching my friend play it lately, and it seems absolutely boring to me. Is it one of those games that are way more fun to play than watch? What's the point of it other than building random things anyways?

Good news though, I traded in Homefront at Gamestop (only got 20 dollars for it...) and picked up a used copy of Crysis 2. I've only played a little bit of the single player, and wow. It easily has the best graphics I've seen by console standards so far. I just wonder how amazing it looks on a top tier PC. I just hope the multiplayer isn't as terrible as Homefront. I really just can't find any good FPS games that don't suck, other than Counter Strike, of course. I've heard good things about Brink though, so I might give that a try.

 In other events, I've been listening to a group called Turquoise Jeep lately. It's a group of five or something rappers and singers making some of the most ridiculous music I've ever heard. I still have no idea if they're serious about their music or not, and just the uncertainty makes it so much better. Have a listen:

Back into the swing of things

Been busy these past couple of days. Who knew replacing the power steering pump on a minivan would be so damn difficult? In other news, Osama is dead, a whole 8 years to the day after Bush already declared "Mission Accomplished," quite interesting timing indeed. I don't really have much to blog about at this time. Well, I kinda do:


I bought Homefront for the Xbox (I got it for 40 dollars brand new, no way i was going to pay 65 dollars for it) Unfortunately, it's another one of those games where you need the special code to play online. Complete bullshit. I, of course, had the code; I just hate it how games are now doing this as a way to milk more money from their games. For those of you that don't know, basically it's a one time use code that let's you play the game online, and to get another code, you have to fork out 10-15 extra dollars if you get the game second-hand.

I have been trying to purposefully boycott games like these, and Madden 11 had announced this prior to the game release, so I knew to avoid it. Interesting enough, Homefront was rather mum about having this implemented.

Either way, Homefront is a rather bad game in my opinion, It doesn't really bring anything new to the fps genre. Other than the first game I've found that makes the Unreal Engine look terrible...

Trident Kraken Case For The Evo 4G

So, after the original case I bought for my phone decided that it would like to come off whenever I took it out of my pocket, I decided it was time for a new case. Since I already have insurance on my phone, I wasn't too worried about getting a case that was drop/water/scratch protective, I mostly wanted one that was aesthetic, but then I found the Trident Kraken.

As you can see, it looks phenomenal. It's a hard-shell phone case that is also wrapped up in rubber. The company has videos  where they throw this case down a warehouse and slap shot it with a hockey stick. It definitely is incredibly strong, I've already dropped it multiple times onto concrete without even a scratch. It's a bit pricey, at $35, but if you want to protect your phone with a case that doesn't look horrid, Trident cases are a good place to start looking.

A couple of the only bad things that I can tell with it so far is that not all headphone/aux cords will fit into the headphone jack because the case hole is too small. Though you can purchase an extender from their website (the other case model for the evo 4g, the Cyclops, came with a free extender, I've no idea why the Kraken doesn't come with one as well).

All in all, it's a great case, multiple color choices, and they have a bunch of different cases for a lot of the popular smart phones on the market, even the ipad.

http://tridentcase.com/

Michio Kaku

So, I'll start by saying yes, I know this video is a bit long. I've always had quite the affinity for Michio Kaku lectures, you can just tell that he loves what he's doing, plus he's not bad at explaining overly complex things to us simple people. So if you have a spare hour, or don't mind having this play in the background while you're doing something else, I invite you to listen to his lecture about the future technology you can expect to see in just a couple decades...

First

I'm not entirely sure about all what I'm going to be blogging about in the coming days/weeks/months/ect. Probably things about computers, cars, video games, movies; anything that interests me at the time I suppose. I guess that I still need to come up with a title for this blog that actually makes sense, I just used the title of the song I was listening to at the time. Makes me a real cool hipster, everyone should be impressed.