So now that I've had plenty of time to come down from the rush of this past semester, I've been slowly getting a move on things I'd been putting off.
I was WAY too happy when I migrated my music/iTunes directories on my main HDD into a single iTunes directory on my second HDD in my huge gaming laptop and pared it all down from 80GB to 50GB. I moved the .xml files and everything without having a single issue, which I was VERY happy with. I wanted to high-five myself, then hand myself a beer. If you had any interest in doing this yourself, I found a GREAT walkthrough here.
I'm also WAY too pumped for the Nook I'm getting tomorrow. Acquisition Day is always a reason for joy, but I'm a junkie for gadgets, and I think that ebooks are a great thing. Cutting down on paper consumption is a great way to reduce the number of trees that are cut down, which also has the benefit of angering pro-hate terrorist zealots.
Plus, being able to take my collection of books down from something that nearly fills a huge basement to the something that fits onto the Nook is very appealing.
I've been using the B&N ereader on my netbook for a while, and while I've really enjoyed that, I'm pumped to have a super-thin, super-light device that specializes in the ebook stuff.
Additionally, since I can import .pdf files into it, I've been prepping .pdf versions of a lot of the strategy guides I've purchased in the past so that I can load them on it for easy access. I've also been doing the same with a lot of the novels I've purchased in the past. Additionally, I've been buying ebooks from the B&N store for a while, so it'll be cool to load all those on there, as well, which will be easily accomplished via the persistent 3G connection.
I'll be getting some Blu-Rays, as well. I'm hoping and praying for the Battlestar Galactica Blu-Ray set, but we'll see.
I'm not expecting anything on the gaming front, since I never really ask for them, since any game worth owning is already in my position.
Anyway, I want everyone to have a great Acquisition Day, and while you're getting sick of your family, be sure to check out our new gaming, Untitled Gaming, and be sure to check out the new podcast when it goes out this weekend on the blog!
-Blaine
I'm a writer and a tech guy, and this is my repository for musings about all things related to writing, music, and all forms of creativity that I'm guilty of enjoying. I love having discussions, so please comment and lemme know what YOU think! Oh, and thanks to Laurance Honkoski for the below image!
The Endless Wars: The Descent
My Twitch Channel
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christmas. Show all posts
20091224
20091221
Alright, alright
And, I'm back. The semester is wrapped up, I get to take a few weeks and focus on work & projects, I get to soak up college basketball, I get mock the BCS for a few more weeks, I get to work on the new book a bit, and I get to launch a new gaming blog with Tony!
Click on the link, read up, and please help us start building our base! Those of you who followed the podcast will know what to expect, and for everyone else, it's going to be a repository for our random opinions, reviews, commentaries, and all gaming-related crap we're known to squeeze out, but in handy literary form! The podcast is going on, and will be returning this weekend, when we start our 'Best of the Decade' and 'Best of 2009!' Go over to the new blog, read our entries, and help us pick our top ten of the decade!
Otherwise, I saw Avatar and Julie & Julia over the weekend, and really enjoyed both.
I took in the 3D Avatar experience, and MAN, was it an experience. Everything about that film just works, and my only complaint about it was about the medium itself, which is the limited scope of film (as opposed to a game or television series.) I had some minor gripes ('unobtanium?'), but it was the most I've enjoyed a theatrical experience in a long time.
What's great about the 3D is that it's subtle. It's immediately noticeable, no doubt, but instead of being distracting and a pure gimmick, it really brings the film to life in an amazing and seamless way. There are moments that I can't imagine quite work in 2D, plus the 3D really helps bring a sense of HUGENESS to the film.
Avatar is a truly great film, and one that easily tops anything else James Cameron has accomplished to this date, and that is saying a hell of a lot. Aliens, Terminator, Terminator 2, & the Abyss rank among my favorite films, and this film feels like the next step in that progression.
Julie & Julia is a really interesting film about author Julie Powell and the famous chef Julia Child, and intertwines their respective rises to fame. It's directed by Nora Ephron, and really flows much better than I'd expected two separate time lines would. To see how Powell draws from Child's evolution to inform her own evolution was very cool, especially from a writer's perspective. It was very interesting for me, personally, to get perspective on someone who'd tried to be a writer but had given up, and then let themselves get pulled back in. Plus, I'm a closet cook, so the film was nearly pornographic (for me, who LOVES food) in some parts.
At first glance, it's a chick flick, but it's a good film for anyone who's chosen the generic life in favor of the dream life.
Otherwise, it's nice to finally chill for a little bit. I got a little overwhelmed with a lot of things going on this past Saturday, and had to just let myself implode and pare things down a bit. I'm not normally like that, but I sometimes forget how much pressure I put on myself to not fuck up everything in my life. Granted, the pressure is there for a reason.
What's tough is that I cut myself off from much of my social life this semester to really focus on things, and now I feel like I've been a shit friend, but there's also this phenomenon in which my wife works whenever I'm not at work, so I never see her, so I want to see her when she is around, but that's also the only time I can go out, since I'm home alone with my son all the other times. Thus, I'm still a shitty friend.
So, yeah, enough bitching and moaning.
All I wanna do this break is work, write, and record. It makes me chuckle that I think of 'only work' as 'vacation.' I also wanna not be exhausted all the time.
I am also keenly anticipating the acquisition of my Nook on Friday.
Anyway...
- don't forget to comment on the 'Best of the Decade' posts over @ Untitled Gaming
- don't forget that we're podcasting this weekend!
- what do you got going on this week?
- what's tops on your Xmas wish list?
-Blaine
Click on the link, read up, and please help us start building our base! Those of you who followed the podcast will know what to expect, and for everyone else, it's going to be a repository for our random opinions, reviews, commentaries, and all gaming-related crap we're known to squeeze out, but in handy literary form! The podcast is going on, and will be returning this weekend, when we start our 'Best of the Decade' and 'Best of 2009!' Go over to the new blog, read our entries, and help us pick our top ten of the decade!
Otherwise, I saw Avatar and Julie & Julia over the weekend, and really enjoyed both.
I took in the 3D Avatar experience, and MAN, was it an experience. Everything about that film just works, and my only complaint about it was about the medium itself, which is the limited scope of film (as opposed to a game or television series.) I had some minor gripes ('unobtanium?'), but it was the most I've enjoyed a theatrical experience in a long time.
What's great about the 3D is that it's subtle. It's immediately noticeable, no doubt, but instead of being distracting and a pure gimmick, it really brings the film to life in an amazing and seamless way. There are moments that I can't imagine quite work in 2D, plus the 3D really helps bring a sense of HUGENESS to the film.
Avatar is a truly great film, and one that easily tops anything else James Cameron has accomplished to this date, and that is saying a hell of a lot. Aliens, Terminator, Terminator 2, & the Abyss rank among my favorite films, and this film feels like the next step in that progression.
Julie & Julia is a really interesting film about author Julie Powell and the famous chef Julia Child, and intertwines their respective rises to fame. It's directed by Nora Ephron, and really flows much better than I'd expected two separate time lines would. To see how Powell draws from Child's evolution to inform her own evolution was very cool, especially from a writer's perspective. It was very interesting for me, personally, to get perspective on someone who'd tried to be a writer but had given up, and then let themselves get pulled back in. Plus, I'm a closet cook, so the film was nearly pornographic (for me, who LOVES food) in some parts.
At first glance, it's a chick flick, but it's a good film for anyone who's chosen the generic life in favor of the dream life.
Otherwise, it's nice to finally chill for a little bit. I got a little overwhelmed with a lot of things going on this past Saturday, and had to just let myself implode and pare things down a bit. I'm not normally like that, but I sometimes forget how much pressure I put on myself to not fuck up everything in my life. Granted, the pressure is there for a reason.
What's tough is that I cut myself off from much of my social life this semester to really focus on things, and now I feel like I've been a shit friend, but there's also this phenomenon in which my wife works whenever I'm not at work, so I never see her, so I want to see her when she is around, but that's also the only time I can go out, since I'm home alone with my son all the other times. Thus, I'm still a shitty friend.
So, yeah, enough bitching and moaning.
All I wanna do this break is work, write, and record. It makes me chuckle that I think of 'only work' as 'vacation.' I also wanna not be exhausted all the time.
I am also keenly anticipating the acquisition of my Nook on Friday.
Anyway...
- don't forget to comment on the 'Best of the Decade' posts over @ Untitled Gaming
- don't forget that we're podcasting this weekend!
- what do you got going on this week?
- what's tops on your Xmas wish list?
-Blaine
Labels:
Avatar,
christmas,
gaming,
James Cameron,
Julie and Julie,
Untitled Gaming,
Untitled Podcast,
winter
20091218
2009 is ending...as is the decade...
...I've been a bad bloggist because it's difficult for me to devote time and energy to this blog when so many other things are going on. In my current day-to-day structure, if I'm attending class full-time, I do not have time to blog, ever. I have a wife, son, job, real writing, and I'm into games and sports, so this blog is easily cast aside, which sucks. I want to do this M-F, but it's just not working out w/ my school aspirations.
I'll try to find a way to change that. I'd toyed with the idea of writing several posts at a time over the weekend, but the fact is that there are other ways I'd like to spend my weekend. I may give that another shot, but we'll see.
Either way, since I have no classes for the next month, I'm back.
It's an exciting time to be me, though. I've got some things cooking, on a few different professional fronts, as well as some collaborative work that may happen, and I'm pretty pumped. I'm also pleased to report that sales of my book have increased with the holiday season, which shocked me quite a bit. I guess that some feel that Christmas is the best time to read about God betraying man. Who knows? Either way, thanks, and GO BUY ANOTHER NOW!!! It's available in both book form ($15) and ebook ($1.25).
I don't have a ton of time today, but I wanted to remind people that I wrote a reasonably decent novel, and Tony and I have a couple podcasts coming up. We're recording the first one next weekend, the day after Xmas. We'll do a little 'what's new?' followed by a ton of discussion about the best games of 2009, and close with the best games of the 00s (the 'aughts,' as we're supposed to call this clusterfuck of a decade.) We are soliciting nominations, so please, either leave 'em in the comments of this post or any next week, or hit me up with 'em on Twitter!
The day after New Year, we'll be recording a 2010 preview, and I'm asking for the same info, though not just yet.
Anyway, I'll be back with a lot more next week, but lemme know what were your best games of 2009 were, as well as what were your best of the 2000s!
-Blaine
I'll try to find a way to change that. I'd toyed with the idea of writing several posts at a time over the weekend, but the fact is that there are other ways I'd like to spend my weekend. I may give that another shot, but we'll see.
Either way, since I have no classes for the next month, I'm back.
It's an exciting time to be me, though. I've got some things cooking, on a few different professional fronts, as well as some collaborative work that may happen, and I'm pretty pumped. I'm also pleased to report that sales of my book have increased with the holiday season, which shocked me quite a bit. I guess that some feel that Christmas is the best time to read about God betraying man. Who knows? Either way, thanks, and GO BUY ANOTHER NOW!!! It's available in both book form ($15) and ebook ($1.25).
I don't have a ton of time today, but I wanted to remind people that I wrote a reasonably decent novel, and Tony and I have a couple podcasts coming up. We're recording the first one next weekend, the day after Xmas. We'll do a little 'what's new?' followed by a ton of discussion about the best games of 2009, and close with the best games of the 00s (the 'aughts,' as we're supposed to call this clusterfuck of a decade.) We are soliciting nominations, so please, either leave 'em in the comments of this post or any next week, or hit me up with 'em on Twitter!
The day after New Year, we'll be recording a 2010 preview, and I'm asking for the same info, though not just yet.
Anyway, I'll be back with a lot more next week, but lemme know what were your best games of 2009 were, as well as what were your best of the 2000s!
-Blaine
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