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Christmas time is near…

The Christmas season is easily my favorite time of the year; the cooler weather, listening to Christmas music, making cookies for friends and family, singing Christmas hymns in church…well, when I go to church, anyway…heck, I even like Christmas shopping, and yes, I did go out on Black Friday.

Granted, I didn’t get up at the wee hours to catch the Big Sales, but then again, I’ve been on the other side of the register on Black Friday, and it ain’t pretty! I was a little disheartened to see so many stressed-out people running around, though. I found a good deal on an MP3 player for my brother and a 4GB flash drive for backing up my data, so I got something out of the trip.

As I hustle and bustle about, I try to remind myself that the season is not about the gifts or decorations or even cookies. Its about spending time with family and friends and doing things that make them and yourself happy. I think its something we should all remember.

Well, back to shopping, cookies, music, Christmas parties and all that good stuff!

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Have a Happy Turkey Day!!

Sure it’s early, but hopefully it’ll be a slow work week for everyone. Well, almost everyone: if you work in a grocery store or retail or are a New Jersey state employee it may be a long week.

I’m looking forward to spending some time with the familia myself, not too much, mind you, I’ll be back in town Saturday. 😉 I may brave the crowds on “Black Friday” to see what deals are out there. I won’t be one of the hardcore freaks showing up at some ungodly hour of the morning, though, I’ve been on the other side of the register, and it ain’t pretty. I usually head out around 1-2 in the afternoon to see what’s out there. Starting my Christmas shopping would probably be a good idea, though.

At any rate: Praise the Lord, go Cowboys, and pass the gravy!

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Un-Achievement

I figure I’d finish up Monday night’s Guitar Hero III session with “Welcome To The Jungle” but I mis-click and select the Slash Boss Battle instead. No biggie, I’ll just press the red fret and back out…

I cancel out of the battle and see the “Achievement” ping appear. At first I’m thinking “All-right, achievement points!” though I’m not sure why. NO points?! WTF??

Apparently canceling out of a boss battle earns the “Tail Between Your Legs” achievement for a whopping zero points. Now that’s rock n’ roll, baby!

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Time Zoned

I hate Daylight Savings Time, or rather, when it ends. Granted, I’m not the “outdoorsy” type, but I hate that its completely dark when I get home from work. It makes me want to crawl back into bed, as if all I did all day was work. Granted, that may have BEEN all I did, but the darkness makes it feel different somehow.

I feel great waking up the next day after the change. I usually wake up early and the day just feels longer, but it all comes to a screeching halt on Monday. I guess its all perspective.

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Coin-Scarred

I usually keep a spare change container of some kind at home, the receptacle of choice right now is an old-style glass milk bottle like the ones you see in the old Tom and Jerry cartoons. For no good reason, I took a picture of it and made it into a desktop, you can see it here.

The downside to this is taking those coins to the bank. If you’re lucky, your bank has a coin counting machine. The teller takes your change, runs it through the machine, gives you cash (or deposits it if you’re smart) and everyone’s happy. If you’re unlucky, your bank will only take rolled-up coins, and if you’re REALLY unlucky they ask you to write your account number or some other such nonsense on the rolls. There’s a Coinstar machine at the grocery store, but they charge 8.9 percent, and I want it ALL, baby!

I place the change into a plastic container and drive to my bank (IBC Bank) to see if I can get lucky. Well, how about that! They have a machine, and I don’t even need my account number! I hand my bounty to the teller, she goes into The Secret Room With The Magic Coin Machine and I wait…and wait…and wait. After about 15 minutes, they tell me the machine’s busted and they’re going to return my change. The teller goes back into The Secret Room With The Magic Coin Machine, and soon pops her head out and exclaims the machine is fixed! Woo-hoo! Or not. woo. After another five minutes I leave change-full and cash-less. I give them a silver star for trying, though.

But hey, no biggie, there’s another branch just down the road…I get there to find it closed. Fark. Okay, there’s another one not TOO far away, I’ll have to drive through some crappy traffic, but it’s a nice day.

“We don’t have a coin-counting machine…” After hearing that, I’m left wondering “What kind of craphole bank doesn’t have a coin-counting machine?” It was in a nicer part of town, though, so maybe its beneath them or something. Jerks.

As Fate would have it, I had planned to go to another part of town to do some apartment-hunting. There’s a bank branch in the area so I figure its worth a shot, and I can browse around the nearby mall for a bit afterwards and spend my loot. I can’t find the damn bank, though (there should be a special place in hell reserved for the moron who designed the layout of the roads in that area) and the parking lot at the mall is PACKED SOLID. Mental note: stay the hell away from La Cantera until after Christmas.

I figure I’ll try one last time, surely my luck can’t be so bad I strike out for the 5th time. Unfortunately, my Spidey-sense starts tingling as I drive up, so I don’t even bother to take the change with me inside the bank. Come to discover my luck IS that bad; they only take rolled coins. For bonus points, the cashier is an blithering idiot who starts babbling about coin wrappers. I make a smartass comment about ‘no wonder Coinstar is in business’ to the mouth-breather and walk out.

I tell you, this kind of crap only happens to me…IBC has 31 locations in San Antonio, I visit 4 of them and can’t get satisfaction. Now, I can either pay the Coinstar tax, or get a bigger bottle and play this game again in a few months. Then again, I wonder if EB Games would take $58.22 in change, its not like its all pennies!

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Let The Music Play!

I was up until 1:30AM last night playing Guitar Hero III…which added another level of fun to work today, but I made it, and on only one cup of coffee, no less!

I really like music, and I really like games, therefore by logical extension I should really like music games. And I do! Starting from the top:

Dance Dance Revolution – Probably the first music game I played since “Simon” (yes, I’m dating myself here) and certainly one of the more popular ones, my initial experience was dulled somewhat by a crappy 3rd party pad and my big feet. I currently own Supernova for the PS2 and its quite fun, though currently living on the second floor limits my stomping around. I’d have to rate it my least favorite of the games on this list mainly because of the J-pop heavy soundtrack, but its fun.

Elite Beat Agents – Touch screen + highly stylized comic-book graphics + rhythm-based gameplay + wacky stories that could only come from Japan = FUN! The gameplay is solid, and the soundtrack is a nice mix of classic and current tunes from the US pop charts. If I have anything bad to say it, its that the audio quality of the music could be better. If a sequel ever comes down the pipe, it’ll be a “Day 1” game for me.

Karaoke Revolution – You don’t need Simon Cowell to find out that you can’t sing, though Virtual Simon is available in the American Idol edition of the game. While this is more of a jazzed-up karaoke machine than a game, its still loads of fun. Check your dignity at the door with this one, which of course makes it a great party game.

Guitar Hero – I have been a fan ever since I played the first game at Circuit City. Admittedly, the game would be quite the same without the awesome controller, which takes it all the way to 11. The soundtrack, for the most part, rocks and with online play now added, the game only gets better. The downside is that non-rockers need not apply…or is that a plus?

Whether its stepping, tapping, singing, or rocking, music games will always have a place in this gamer’s systems.

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Netflix Rocks!

I read in the news today that Movie Gallery filed for bankruptcy. I’ve only been to a Movie Gallery once to drop off some movies for my brother, and I can’t say it was an unpleasant experience. I didn’t sign up for a membership though.

The Blockbuster in my neighborhood cheesed me off awhile back and I haven’t been back since. I recently reactivated my Netflix account and have been very happy, especially since they now have a distribution center here in San Antonio! I dropped the last movie I rented (Idoicracy, pretty funny) in the mail Monday morning, and there should be another movie waiting for me (Grave of the Fireflies) in the mail tomorrow.

Fark Blockbuster, their slow lines and crappy movie selection. Last time I was in a Blockbuster I was looking at all the crappy grade D movies on the shelves wondering “How the hell did these get MADE?” I guess they need product that badly. As for me, I’ll be getting my movies in the mail and online via NetFlix and Xbox Live.

Now where’s the popcorn?

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Lights, Action, No Camera!!

I’m sure we’ve all had a ‘wish I had a camera’ moment, especially in these YouTube days we live in now. I had one today: I’m waiting at a stop sign by a neighborhood store, and I see a guy ride up to the store on his bike with his faithful dog trailing behind him. It was a Norman Rockwell kind of moment. As I get onto the road, the last thing I see is the guy securing his bike to a sign in front of the store.

The store across the street that I was going to stop at was closed. What I didn’t see while making that 180 in the parking lot was this: the guy was either tying his dog to the bike or the dog’s leash got entangled in the bike. Either way, what ended up happening was the dog took off with the bike in tow behind him and the guy soon following them both. After about 50 feet, the dog stopped, and the guy got everything sorted out. When I took off both dog and dude looked alright as far as I could tell.

It would have been YouTube gold, I tell you!

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Strange Game, Strange Burger

I don’t have cable (mental note: write ‘TV sucks’ journal in the future) and as the Dallas Cowboys are playing tonight, and Monday Night Football is now on cable (boo hiss) I figured I’d go to a local sports bar/restaurant to catch the game and hoot and holler with other fans.

If I hadn’t stayed up until two in the morning last night finishing Daxter, (fun game, BTW) it would have been a good plan. Instead, I plop into bed dead tired after I get home from work and wake up at 7. The game starts at 730, so all of the usual places are packed. As I’m driving around I’m listening to the game on the radio and hear Tony Romo giving the Bills 14 free points and they’re losing. Damn, I just GOTTA watch the game now. As I’m driving around, I see a place called Gourmet Burger Grill, they have the game on, and its nearly empty! What luck!

The “nearly empty with the game on” should have gotten my Spidey-sense tingling, but I REALLY wanted to watch the game. Okay, 1/2 pound Angus burgers, nice. Lots of cheeses, good. Fries, good. Alfalfa sprouts? Mango Avocado Salsa, HUH?! Crab Cake Burger?!? Somehow, I don’t think we’re at Whataburger anymore. I guess ‘gourmet’ means ‘put odd stuff on it’ because I don’t get it.

I had a “plain old” cheeseburger that was too greasy but at least their fries were really good. I don’t think I’ll be coming back, though, and I don’t see them staying in business for long. If a hamburger joint can’t pack the house on a Monday night with the Cowboys on the tube it ain’t happening. Then again, given that I’m referring to it as a ‘joint’ I suppose I’m not the target market. Call me nutty, but the words ‘gourmet’ and ‘burger’ don’t quite go together in my book. I went home at halftime to listen to the game on the radio.

It still beats paying $50 a month for cable. 🙂

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