Re-Vita-lized!

So despite somewhat pricey memory cards, backwards compatibility being a little late, game sharing restrictions, UMD passports, and other weird things, I still really want a PlayStation Vita.  Is it because I'm an addict who wants some form of game with me wherever I go?  Not really, or, at least, not entirely.  Is it because I'm a Sony "fanboy?"  I wouldn't say that, though I do like their gaming hardware in general, faults and all, and will usually grab one of Sony's offerings rather than Microsoft's or Nintendo's. 

I think part of it might be because I'm a fan of mobile hardware in general.  Ever since I was a young'n, I found myself lusting over laptops, rather than the more powerful desktop counterparts.  This was around the time when laptops were rapidly approaching becoming equal to desktops in terms of raw power, but it was also when I started to notice something: mobile devices tend to innovate more than desktops or set-top boxes.  It started with laptops: getting more powerful, sure, (not to mention smaller) but also adding things like hot-swappable drives, (long before things like USB came along) interchangeable covers, and built-in webcams.  Then PDAs came along: Palm did a pretty good job of moving them along, but that market fizzled out not long before smartphones (the iPhone in particular) took off like so many pissed off avians.

Gaming portables haven't had much in the way of innovation, save for the last 5 years or so.  Game Boy started it, really, as the one of the first to have interchangeable cartridges for each game.  Then the various iterations of that system (Color, Advance, SP, Micro) as well as the various copycats (Game Gear, Lynx, Wonderswan, and many others) didn't really change the formula, and as games a a whole evolved into more mature and cinematic experiences, portable gaming seemed more or less stuck in the same place, as kid stuff.  Along came the Nintendo DS, and alongside that, the PlayStation Portable, or PSP.  Both innovated in different ways: the DS used dual screens and a limited touch-screen capacity to make games more "friendly" and "interactive" to non-gamers, but the system and it's tricks always seemed way too "gimmicky" to me, which turned me off of it initially.  (I did own an iteration of it later, as it did eventually get a few decent games on it, but it is no longer part of my collection.)  The PSP, however, was much more graphically powerful, could play music and video, surf the internet, read digital comics, download podcasts, and more.  (Granted a few of these features were added months or even years later.)  It was designed to be a new generation of device.  Sony even called it "the new Walkman" at some point.  It could deliver console quality gaming (or close to it at the time) in the palm of your hand.  Literally.

So, why did the DS become so damn popular?  It's hard to say, but I'd bet that it had to do with the PSP coming off as a bit of a split personality.  It could do so many different things, that what it actually was as a device was a tough question to answer.  Was it a gaming device? Yes, but it was lacking a couple things, hardware wise, that would've made the games it delivered more, well, payable and fun. (One analog stick is so 2001.)  Was it an MP3 player? Yes, but it wasn't better than an iPod, and didn't have an easy way to organize/import music onto it.  (Such as iTunes.)  Was it a web browser? Yes, but a crappy one, limited by the system's memory which was pretty low to begin with.  And oh, god, did the pirates go after that system with everything they had.  So, in the long run, it really had it's work cut out for it, and despite some great games made for it, the system never really got a foothold in the collective minds of gamers.

The Vita seems to recognize this, and learn from Sony's past mistakes.  In the wake of Nintendo's 3DS flopping, the iPhone/App Store making portable games something completely different in the public mind, and Sony's own struggles with the PS3 launch, the Vita is in a position to take aspects of iPhone gaming and it's own technological and gaming prowess and make something truly unique.   A touch screen, a touch pad on the back, front and rear cameras, motion sensors, WI-Fi, GPS, 3G, (if you so choose) a high-resolution OLED screen, dual analog sticks, and games that already span from unique, casual, touch friendly stuff (Sound Shapes, Escape Plan, Little Deviants) to stuff aimed at more hardcore, traditional gamers. (Uncharted, Resistance, Ruin)  And this is all before the system is actually out.  The next year or so has a long list of incoming games for the device that I not only want, but I believe others of all kinds and creeds would enjoy as well.

There's a lot of potential in the Vita, more than there is in the 3DS, in my opinion, and that's part of what draws me to it.  The potential in both the hardware and software is there to not only bring great times with you wherever you go, but to also share those times with your friends, whether they're with you or not. Another part of the Vita's appeal is, as I mentioned earlier, the games.  The 3DS has maybe 4 or 5 games I'd ever play on it.  Ever.  I seem to have this problem with a lot of Nintendo's recent work, alongside the aforementioned "gimmicky" nature of their new direction.  The Vita, on the other hand, has at least 10 or 12 I'd buy on release day, and that's just the stuff in the next year.  The Vita isn't without problems, at least in terms of the things I'd need to make it function properly (namely a memory card, as mentioned earlier) but they are something I can easily overlook as growing pains or early adopter syndrome.

So, a preorder is at the top of my wishlist this year.  It doesn't hit the states till February, but a fully paid preorder would make an excellent Jesus-Birthday gift.  The dilemma I had was how to preorder it.  Do I go with the First Edition Bundle, and get a game I'm not super interested in, a smallish memory card, and a system with a feature I don't really need (3G)?  Or do I make a custom bundle, say with the WI-Fi only model, Uncharted, a bigger memory card, and a kit of accessories?  Turns out the latter option is only $10 more than the official bundle.  Sold.

School, gaming, and, uh, things?

Dead island is a thing, certainly worth playing, just don't go into it expecting more than it is. It's a solid, if flawed, Borderlands/Fallout 3 clone with zombies. I knew this months ago when the first real footage started coming out. Looking at the forums, I'm surprised that there are still people either surprised or pissed that it wasn't something else; something completely different from what EVERYTHING has been saying. If you want to spend $50-$60 dollars on something without knowing what exactly it is, then you need to do one of two things: get over it, or stop gaming altogether. This also applies to people complaining about Human Revolution, saying that it was "supposed" to be a "sci-fi" Call of Duty. (Protip: NO IT FUCKING WASN'T.) read up on your hobbies people, otherwise they don't mean anything to you and you should stop.

A couple weeks into school, getting back into the rhythm of things. As Most of my classes are things I care about (programming, networking, and discovering Linux) it hasn't been too bad, though my Anthropology class might make my brain commit brain-icide. I'm not sure if it's the professor (who's a nice guy but might be trying too hard) or the subject matter itself, but it's hard to keep my focus in class, especially since the subject (at least the way it's being presented) has a lot rooted in history and historical figures. History has never been my subject; I'm more for looking forward and inward rather than backwards. Does that make me a futurist? I dunno. Nor do I really care. It's a requirement though, so I'm going to attempt to slough through it.

One thing holding me back a bit is the lack of books. They've been ordered, and should be here tomorrow or early this week, so it's cutting it a little close for some of my assignment's due dates. I'm not hugely worried; I tend to work well under pressure, and most of my professors have either delayed or extended the due dates for most of the assignments, as it seems a lot of the required books went on back order. If I had an iPad it'd be easier, sadly, this is not the case. FOR NOW.

Rebooting...

Seems Superman is getting rebooted in more ways than one. Both the comic and movie sides of the character are getting a makeover, and not just in looks. Granted, there's not much known about the movie version, as it is still filming, but the DCnU thing has been going around for a while now, and it seems to me that it's both interesting and counter-intuitive. A few points on the new (comic-based) Superman:

New Costume - There are a couple different versions going around, I guess since the two main series take place in different times (again, why?) but it basically comes down to either Supes in bluejeans and a short-sleeved version of the "traditional" suit, or the more regal armor-looking suit. Neither of these ideas are bad, really, they both make sense in a certain way based on the character, but I'm not sure why they needed to be done. Kevin Smith said it best: "The two more iconic things about Superman are the suit and the flying." The flying stays, of course, but why does the suit have to change? It's been around in one form or another for over 70 years. (Minus the couple years of "electro-Supes," but we don't talk about that.) Granted, they're not hugely drastic changes (red, blue, big "S" on the chest, cape, etc.) and, at least for me, it's not as concerning as other things on this list, but it does set a bit of further precedent of "Change is Good," when that's not true for some things, Superman included.

More Kryptonian - I've read in a few different places that he's being written for this "reboot" as being "more alien than human." So, how do you get him to relate to the (mostly) human audience you're trying to convince to read these new books? Kids can't look up to someone they don't understand, and adults (or adult-ish-es) aren't going to buy a book about a guy they don't like or relate to. Part of the magic of Superman (and there's a whole 10 years of television to support this) is that despite the pressures and conflicting emotions and responsibilities that he has, both about himself and the world around him, he's going to react as a good-natured human man is going to. There's a reason he was the leader of the Justice League for so long: he does seem to almost instinctively know the difference between right and wrong, and will always try to find a solution that works for everyone. Naieve? Possibly, but that's also why Batman's his best friend. It's called "counter-balancing." The "traditional" vision of Superman was already paying tribute to his heritage; hell the suit was made of his blankets from his ship, the Fortress of Solitude was essentially a "gift" from his father Jor-El, and the "S" was his Kryptonian family crest. Do we really need to mess with his brain, too?

Single & Orphaned - These might be the things that make me not want to buy these books. No longer married to Lois, and both parents are dead (again). So, once again, the things that tie him to Earth, emotionally at least,

are just gone.

I'm having trouble figuring why, besides the obvious "attracting new readers" angle that's so popular these days. It's a drastic move, and I'm not sure it'll keep some of the most important readers: those who have been reading for years already. Granted, I haven't read any of these new "#1" issues, but I don't know if I want to; if the history of these storied characters is of little consequence to the creators, I'm having trouble seeing how the future would be any more so.

TF2 thoughts

Since Team Fortress 2 went Free T.  o Play a few weeks ago, more of my friends have gotten in on the action, which oddly enough, I never really got into.  I bought it as part of the Orange Box a few years ago, packaged with stuff I Actually Wanted To Play: Portal and the Half-Life 2 games.  I played it for about an hour and left it be. I allowed a small part of my brain to follow how it was coming along, in terms of updates and features being added and such.  I was intrigued when microtransactions got added, and had an inkling that it would more than likely be popular enough to sustain it for a long time, maybe even make the game itself free.  But for a while all I heard were complaints about the store overcharging for "hats," whatever that meant.  (Turns out, they actually meant hats.)

So when the good folks at Valve released it for free (causing yet another mini-backlash, but whatever) it meant that a) my friends who were into that sort of thing would be able to play, giving me a reason to jump in, and b) the surge of new players would cause consternation (to put it mildly) among the "hardcore" players.  Which is to be expected.  Nerds can be very protective when they think they've found something special, especially when that thing can be affected by the other people enjoying it.  So as such, the amount of maliciousness coming from these people is astounding: mods that kick F2P accounts off servers, experienced players screaming (over both voice and text chat) at newer players over every little mistake, alongside the usual name calling and such that usually goes on in games like this.  (You know, ones that are connected to the internet.)  Myself and my friends have been lucky enough to find a few servers where this behavior is pretty minimized, and folk are actually willing to help newer players learn the ropes, such as using the "mentor" function that the game created explicitly for this purpose.

That being said, we've had to quit out of servers on numerous occasions because of the crass and stupid behavior of some of the more "hardcore" folk.  I put quotes around that because I'm sure that the number of hours and achievements they've racked up make them feel superior, but the fact is that I don't really care.  I'm playing this game to have a good time, not get screamed at by a guy who puts more hours per day into this than he does sleeping.  I'm not "hardcore" by any real stretch of the imagination; I like games in general, but playing them should not be like a job.  It's the same reason I can't really get into MMOs; once I feel like a game requires my constant attention to be worthwhile, at least mechanically, then it stops being fun, and the point is lost.

The game is great, don't get me wrong, and I can see myself playing it for a good long time.  I recommend it to everyone, especially since it's free, and can run on a pretty wide range of machines, Macs included.  I would recommend hitting the offline "practice" mode first, though, just to get the hang of the various classes and such.  Also, PC Gamer is doing a big "Beginner's Guide" for the game, with each class getting it's own write-up with basic and advanced strategies, recommended items to get, and so on.

Rango Was Pretty Good (or, My Love and Hate Relationship with Movie Trailers)

I got a chance to view (don't ask how) the "extended" version of Rango recently, and a couple things popped into my mind while I was watching it: first, that the trailers for this movies made it look really stupid; kid stuff, but stupid kid stuff. Second, that this flick is on par with a lot of Joss Whedon's stuff, in as much as it tells multiple types of stories without beating you over the head with them, using a lot of metaphor and imagination that even makes the silly stuff mean more than it seems to at first glance. It was a shock and surprise, to say the least.  As previously mentioned, the trailers that i saw for this movie made it look supper-kiddie-Cars-type stupid, and despite the talent behind the scenes, I mentally brushed it aside. The difference between the trailer and the actual movie were night and day.

Don't get me wrong, I do honestly think that trailers can be works of art in and of themselves.  Teasers in particular, which have to reveal (or, you know, tease) just enough information to build excitement with little to nothing in terms of confirmed or completed footage, fall into this line of thinking for me. I do tend to forget that trailers in general are also (read: primarily) marketing tools, designed to get as many folks into the theater as possible.  So many is a time that trailers will mislead an audience into thinking that their movie is something that it's not.  An example of this is the great movie Man of the Year, starring Robin Williams.  A wonderful movie, but watching the trailers you'd think it was a screwball comedy about a comedian being elected president.  The truth is that, while that is indeed a plot element of this movie, it barely covers a third of the entire concept, which involves heavy drama about political manipulation and self-worth.  It is, in fact, primarily a drama, or I suppose dramedy would be a closer term to the truth.  Why did the trailers misrepresent the movie like this, especially when it was a great flick to begin with? Again, we come to the answer of marketing people thinking they know what America wants to see on the big screen.

A similar situation came up with X-Men: The Last Stand.  The trailers not only showed scenes, effects and stunts that were drastically changed in the final film (and not for the better) it even showed performances by the actors that were completely different in the final film (again, not for the better).  The prime example of this is Ian McKellen's speech (if you could call it that) to the Brotherhood in the woods, convincing them to join his cause.  In the trailer, he speaks with great emotion and weight, building energy up, ending with a flourish that honestly brought Malcolm X to mind, which is appropriate, considering that's who that character is based on.  In the final film however, this same speech is given with almost no emotion at all, almost as if he's reading it off of a newspaper or a goddamn cereal box.  I understand a director asking an actor to give multiple versions of a speech or line, it can help find character moments that you wouldn't find any other way.  But when a revolutionary is giving a speech that brings up mental images of Hitler in one take, and a bored husband at the breakfast table in another, you go with the first take.

Anybody else have any instances of this? Leave a comment, either here or on my Facebook page.

E3 commentary

E3 is this week.  I've always seen it as an exciting and irritating time for gamers; all this cool stuff is revealed and announced, but it is more than often several months (if not a year or more) away from actually being available to the general public. So, cool stuff abounds, but no touchy.  Great.  This year's E3 seems to be going great, even being named as one of the best ones in recent years.  Lots going on in the industry, companies trying new things, and even some going back to the things that they're good at.  So, in no particular order, here's my favorite stuff from the expo so far:

Sony's Next Generation Portable named and detailed - This might be the thing I was looking forward to the most, as it's my opinion that portable devices, gaming or otherwise, tend to be more innovative that more traditional, desktop devices.  When Sony officially revealed the device in February as the NGP, I knew I wanted one.  Front and back touchscreens, OLED screen, dual analog sticks, dual cameras, gyroscope.... It's like an iPhone and a PSP had a baby. Monday the official name ("Vita," which is some other language's word for "Life") and pricing were revealed, along with more games and miscellaneous details that make me real excited for the potential this system has.  Though going for AT&T as the exclusive carrier for the 3G equipped model in the US wasn't the smartest idea.  They could've done some market research on that, or even just looked at some forums to see that that wasn't the best choice.  But I wasn't planning on buying the 3G model anyway, so screw that noise. I'm doubtful about the "end of 2011 worldwide" release date though, especially with all the bad things happening in Japan now.  Still, I want one bad.

Wii U unveiled - More an evolution of the Wii than a completely new system concept, Nintendo seems to have made a lateral move with this new system, rather than the leap forward they were going for, at least in my view.  Remember the bit earlier about an iPhone mating with a PSP? Well Nintendo made a similar concept with the controller for their new system, except it's more of an "iPad and a 360 controller" kind of vibe.  The system itself is more on par with the PS3 and 360, power-wise, which opens up the system to getting in on the ports of games that are actually popular, rather than crappy dumbed-down versions with controls that suck, so it's a decent business move, and the concepts for the new controller (at least ones that Nintendo have shown off) are interesting, but the thing is that only one of the new controllers can connect to the system at a time.  And other than that, you can use the standard Wii remotes and such.  This makes very little sense to me.  But that may change in the time it takes to actually come out.  I've been burned by Nintendo, the Wii left a bit of a bad taste in my mouth, with only maybe a dozen games on it that were worth it.  So we'll see.

Sony's $500 3DTV - A Playstation branded TV, 24inch, that can do 3D, not to mention a mode that sends 2 different images to 2 different glasses? For $500? I'd say that's a good idea. A good way to get a usually expensive newer technology into more folk's hands, albeit on a smaller scale.

Mass Effect 3 - I'm still miffed that this isn't coming until March, but if it means it's a good game, I'm ok with it.  Sorta. A focus on melee combat with a cool looking sci-fi arm blade, and the glimpses of the RPG systems and weapon modding is pretty interesting.  My concern is about distribution, specifically for the PC version.  Is EA going to make it (or its deluxe edition) available exclusively on it's new Origin service? Or are they going to keep it more open and use more established services (Steam, Direct2Drive, etc.) as well? No one seems to know, and with EA being, well, EA, they could honestly go either way, as both ways have ups and downs.  Oh, and the 360 version has voice command through the Kinect.  Whatever.

Plus glimpses at upcoming games that make me happy: Deus Ex: Human Revolution, Skyrim, Batman: Arkham City, Assassin's Creed: Revelations, BioShock Infinite, Uncharted 3, etc.  The next year seems like a good one for games, and gamers of all shapes.  I'm hoping Nintendo can make up for the Wii, at least to the core gaming crowd.  Sony has a decent amount to make up for as well, but seems on their way to cementing a decent position.  Microsoft.... eh.  Kinect doesn't do much for me, and the new concepts they put out for it this week, while interesting, don't make me want to go out and buy one. As E3 winds down, it seems like Sony and Nintendo are more or less tied for the "winner" of the show, though personally I'd tend to lean more towards Sony.  Nintendo has too much to prove, and time will tell wether they will get those people who actually play games to come back to them.

Wishlistin'

My Steam profile has a pretty extensive wishlist, most of which, excepting the first 10 or so entries, are unranked. As I looked over it the other day, it seemed to be an interesting mix of things, genres and such that, to the casual observer, might seem pretty unrelated, and for the most part, they're right.  Gamers, though, might see some common themes, primarily the idea of "choice v. consequence" that exists in a lot of these titles.  A few of these are pre-release/pre-order titles, and I only tend to put these on lists like this because I am particularly excited about a particular game, or if i really like the pre-order extras that are becoming more and more common in this industry.  So, I've decided to post the first five of this list, and probably a few of the other listings that stand out, mainly for 2 reasons: 1) it'll give me a chance to rant/rave/salivate over these games, and 2) I've got a birthday coming up, so if anyone wants to gift these to my steam account (or put some money in my steam wallet, I think that can be done) they are more than welcome ;-)

1) Deus Ex: Human Revolution - Deus Ex was one of the first computer games I have a clear memory of playing (besides Bungie's Marathon games) and it had the effect of a) making science fiction (and to a lesser extent the sub-genre of cyberpunk) a bigger part of my life and b) almost ruining games for me entirely.  That second thing is because VERY few games besides Deus Ex came close to creating a world that felt real, despite the fantastical setting, which was discouraging for a young man.  I did eventually get over this slump, but the feeling of disappointment did remain, because it was a revolution in many ways: graphics, interaction, story, and offered players a level of choice that hadn't really happened in games very much, if at all.  A sequel was made, but didn't really feel the same; it was a pretty typical action-adventure game with a couple branching paths, none of the sense of control or feel of the world were there at all. This new game, coming almost 8 years after the second game, is a prequel set about 20 years before the first game.  The look and feel for this game are excellent, taking a great many cues from the first game while expanding on some concepts and using more modern sensibilities, both in terms of gameplay and story. This is easily my most anticipated game of the year, (especially since Mass Effect 3 got pushed back to early 2012) and articles like these, which really illustrate how massive and open this game can be, aren't helping the wait.  The Augmented Edition comes with some extra goodies, such as a digital art book, documentaries, and a free copy of the first game, among other things, and lord knows I'm a sucker for special editions and documentaries and such.

2) Fable 3 - I loved the first Fable on Xbox, even though it wasn't able to live up to it's extremely unrealistic design concepts put forth by Peter Molyneux, which I wasn't expecting it to anyway.  It was a very good fantasy action-rpg, with unique systems for leveling up and a decent amount of choices you could make, mainly revolving around wether you wanted to be good or evil.  The later games supposedly improved on these areas and expanding earlier concepts.  I never got to play the 2nd one, which is fine, they're all pretty self contained, and it did seem weird that the 2nd one was never released for PC, given that it's Microsoft doing the publishing.  The 3rd one is getting a PC release, thankfully, and it looks to be pretty high quality, and the idea of another grand fantasy/steampunk RPG is very appealing right now.

3) DC Universe Online - I'm not much of an MMO person, but anyone who knows me knows that I'm a HUGE fan of DC comics. (Superman, Green Lantern, and Batman.  That order.  Deal.)  The idea of creating my own superhero who can have the chance to work alongside these characters I've loved for so long presses some geek buttons, even if the idea of a monthly fee irritates me.  Honestly, I'm not 100% sure why it's this high on the list.  *Imagines flying around Metropolis beating up bad guys*  Sorry, what was I saying?

4) Portal 2: The Final Hours - Not a game, but an interactive book (originally published on iPad) about the development of one of the year's greatest games, Portal 2.  As previously stated, I'm a sucker for behind-the-scenes type stuff, and this looks to be chock full of info.

5) Witcher 2 - The first Witcher game had interesting concepts, with a focus on being prepared ahead of time for battles, but it's execution was, to me at least, a little boring.  And the voice acting was supremely bad, even considering the Polish roots of the source material, the translation and performance were quite lacking in my opinion.  So, I was pretty skeptical about a sequel.  But when GamesRadar, a site I trust more than most, gives a 10 out of 10 review to said sequel, I tend to take notice.  This new game does seem to address the issues I had with the first game, and the new graphic engine seems tailor made for this genre, and the story takes the "morality" concept and turns it into a swath of grey areas, rather than concrete black and white concepts.

Other selections:

YOU DON'T KNOW JACK - A relaunch of the "quiz game show" series started back in '95, this is the first game since 2000, a long absence indeed.  Basically a multiplayer focused quiz game, with the aesthetic of a game show, with a host that insults you constantly and questions that are almost as funny as the possible answers.

Hector: Badge of Carnage: Episode 1 - A point-and-click puzzle/adventure game with a demented and disgusting sense of humor.  Originally for the iPhone, it was recently published on PC by Telltale, the guys behind the excellent Back to the Future games.

Darksiders - A mix of Zelda and God of War, essentially. That's an interesting mix to say the least, and the little bit I've played of it was intriguing, and it has Mark Hamill doing voice work as a demon that is more or less attached to you.  That's just neat.

Also: Deathspank, Duke Nukem Forever, Inside A Star-Filled Sky, Terraria, Polynomial, Universe Sandbox, and Cosmic Osmo.

The rest of the wishlist is there, if you're curious about what games tickle my fancy.  It's an odd mix, I grant you, but I'm an odd guy.

10 years of tv

So, Smallville's done now.  I officially have one less thing to look forward to every week.  It wasn't a prefect show by any means, even for diehard Superman fans, but what it tried to do it did well, and while I'm sad to see it go, I'm also happy it lasted this long, and that it ended at an appropriate time, even in the canon of DC. The liberties it took with characters and events never really bothered me, as I kinda figured that they would be creating their own identity with the show from the first time i saw it, which is fine.  And even with all the changes, it still felt like it fit with the themes and concepts that good (and even bad) Superman (or superheroes in general) stories tend to have, almost need to have. The cast really pulled together for the finale, with the exception of Kreuk, who played Lana Lang, and I think that was more from there not really being any room for her to show up, even in a double-sized finale.  I'm happy that Rosenbaum came back, I missed him so much.  His Lex is very much how I imagined him being, even more so that Spacey's in Returns, which was great, but a bit more in line with Hackman's portrayal in the earlier movies. And Smallville's version of Lois Lane will always be, for me at least, the quintessential flesh-and-blood Lois.  Erica Durance brings her to life, almost ripped right out of the comics themselves.  Plus, she's easily the hottest female cast member the show's had, followed by Allison Mack's Chloe. (Sorry Kristen.)  Oddly, the one cast member who needed the most time to grow into their part was Tom Welling, playing Clark.  He had the look right (though I was hoping for blue eyes, but that's just the comics nerd in me) but, especially in the first couple seasons, seemed to struggle with the part a bit.  Granted, it's a complex part that comes with tons of pressure, but thankfully he made the part his own, and even directed several episodes, along with becoming an executive producer on the show, along with Hellcats, so it's nice to see that he hasn't let Smallville consume his life.  Also, I kinda want John Schneider to be my dad. As Johnathan Kent he made me feel more connected as a father, even before I became one.  At any rate, I'm hoping the new movie will sustain my love for this character, but filling the void left by a ten-year-running TV show is gonna be tough, but hopefully WB can figure something out, maybe a live-action straight-up non-romantic-comedy Superman show? Even a really good animated show would be nice, WB always does very well with that stuff. Make it happen!

I feel like I should be using this to promote (freely, I might add) things I believe need attention. Mister Sunshine is one such show. Co-written, created, produced, and starring Matthew Perry. Very clever writing, great performances throughout, with Laura Linney as a notable standout. I honestly have no idea what station it airs on, or what timeslot it's on, and for good reason: the networks seem to want to hide the show, because it's not a huge hit. Find it, watch it, even better grab it on iTunes. This show deserves a chance.

Windows still kinda blows

So yeah, Windows 7.

I will say this, it is certainly better than Vista, on many levels, although it is not hugely different, interface wise.  Much like Snow Leopard on the Mac side of things, is is mainly a performance and optimization upgrade, which seems funny to me in the first place, but whatever.

So why must one pay several hundred dollars to have a version of windows that works better than Vista? Could Vista not be fixed? Apple did the same thing, and they only charged 30 fucking dollars.  And 7 is still windows, so it's still a leaky sieve, security-wise. So what good is Windows for these days?

Games.

That's pretty much it in my book.  It's all I use it for at any rate. Everything else in my computer-based life goes down in OS X.  And from what I've been seeing/reading/hearing/experiencing, this setup is becoming more and more common, even with folk who would be considered "hardcore PC dudes."

Am I preaching the ease-of-use and intuitiveness of Macs, like any good Apple fanboy should?  Maybe a little.  But I honestly have lived through both sides: PC-only and Mac-only, and I gotta tell ya both those options suck. So having both sides of the equation at the ready (in one machine, no less,) makes life a lot easier, and not just for me.

Still, windows pisses me off on a regular basis.  The latest examples are as such:

1) In preparation for the blogging I was going to be doing (this very post to be exact) I pulled out my bluetooth keyboard and attempted to link it up.  It's worth noting that this exact keyboard worked fine under Vista.  The only reason I was trying to link it up in windows was because I has just finished playing some Mass Effect and was in a bloggin mood.  After about 30 minutes of waiting, retrying, restarting, battery-switching, and so on, I finally realized my problem: I was trying to make windows do something I wanted it to do besides gaming. so, a reboot into SL, and literally 15 seconds later my keyboard is up and running. Sigh.

2) This example is especially frustrating, as it involves the software updating portion of windows, which, according to M$, is a "VERY IMPORTANT" thing to do.  Recently, the SP1 update for 7 was released, and of course the automatic updater whines like a.... whiny... whining thing if u leave any updates in your queue, so I download it and let the slow-ass install process begin, which involves a partial install before shutdown, a post-windows configuration, a reboot, a pre-windows configuration, and then finally, an actual installation. So I begin this (apparently) hallowed process, and after the reboot, during the final configuration, it goes all the way to 99% then gives me the error message "Failed Service Pack configuration.... Reverting changes..." This "reverting" process takes 2 reboots and about an hour of my time.  I proceed to go through this whole cycle 5 more times.  The result is the same each time.  I try getting the standalone update; no dice.  So, I hit up Microsoft's "Answers Center," which is a funny name for a set of support forums that from what I can tell no one from MS has ever visited, let alone answer a fucking question. I try all the suggestions there, which include uninstalling Microsoft's own anti-virus (I know, I'm trying not to laugh either) unplugging hard drives, tracking down obscure files and renaming them, all these things I can find, I try, to no avail.  Then I realized my problem: I was expecting Microsoft to know how to update their own software. Needless to say it's been about two weeks and the update still sits in my update queue.

Bullshit.  Macs are not entirely without problems.  But at least they're easy things to fix, typically. And their support forums are actually patrolled by Apple tech guys, so u tend to get some ACTUAL help from these people.

Again, I'm not trying to make a sales pitch for Macs, they tend to do that for themselves pretty well.  You know, by working.

FIRST!

Yes, that is annoying, I agree.

Sooooooooooooo...... blogs.


This will be updated fairly infrequently, I should guess, or possibly a bit too much, given the mobile posting I would be able to do. As the Title implies, I am a nerd, and shall talk/gripe/whine/rant/bitch/whatever about many things nerdy. But not just these things, as they are not the only types of lifestyles I interact with on a regular basis.

So, I guess we will see.