… Just one of the many memorable quotes from this past weekend, a rather low-key one actually, and the only one that I seem to remember. Which makes them less than memorable I guess!
First off, I love technology but it sure fucking hates me…
- On top of my Mac dying earlier this week, one of my external hard drives also bit the big one. It was 250 gigs and by Lacie, a brand that everyone I know seems to have nothing but trouble with, except for myself, which is why I’ve always gone with them, even quite recently. I got a 500 gigger to back up my eMac, before doing the big wipe, which as everyone knows would ultimately die. Well, same thing happened really; I was moving stuff over from the 250 to the 500, to consolidate everything so I could wipe that the first one clean and make it a daily back-up drive, when all of a sudden certain files refused to copy over, which was annoying to say the least. I tried a bunch of disk utilities, and none of them gave me consistent results. Then last night… and I know this is kinda stupid… I tried doing some heavy-duty file modification in the drive’s environment, and not the Finder (due to the fact that Leopard still has plenty of stupid fucking bugs), which led to it freezing up and making a really loud clicking noise. I then knew then it was all over. Fuck. Didn’t loose anything super important, mostly television shows downloaded via the net (guess I’ll have to pony up the cash and actually buy Ducktales, Monty Python, and the Muppet Show on DVD… either that or rip whatever discs I can get a hold of from Netflix, lol), though I am pissed that I lost a fuck-ton of anime as well. About 50 gigs worth, all acquired a long time ago, which I was going to save for a rainy day, most of which have not been domestically released here. Double fuck. Also lost a ton of roms, which I guess isn’t the worst thing in the world, though included were a number of PSP iso’s that were a bitch to acquire. Though speaking off…
- So for a while I’ve wanted to get my hands on a PMP (portable media player) to watch the shows and movies I’ve downloaded on my way to and fro work or what not, and only recently realized that I already have one: my PSP. So I took a bunch of clips and put them through Handbreak, to make them conform to the PSP’s specs, and… nothing. WTF. So I looked around, and it seems that a bunch of people have problems watching movies on their units. Even ones from the official Sony site (everyone cited the God of War PSP trailer, not surprisingly) and on non-hacked systems. Naturally, no one seemed to have a clear answer. Great. So I finally got a high-speed memory stick pro duo and no games, nor no movies to store it with. EDIT: Okay, so ffmpegX works, somewhat; some files I were able to successfully convert, while others won’t for whatever reason. Better than nothing I guess…
- Back to my dead eMac: I decided to give resuscitation one last shot by trying a bunch of disk utilities, like Disk Warrior and Tech Tool Pro. And nothing. Oddly enough, Disk Warrior was able to see a hard drive, but wouldn’t let me do a damn thing with it. Even stranger was what happened while booting from Tech Tool Pro; I went out of the room just after start-up, and upon returning, saw this horrified look on Katie’s face. The apple boot-up screen was horribly garbled like I had never seen it before (and there were zero problems with the graphics card up till that point). Though it was cute seeing Katie so upset by the very sick eMac (she’s a fan of the hardware as well, so we at least have hers still around).
- Like many people, I have a text file on my computer that has all my passwords to all the assorted sites and online services I utilize. And if anyone else were to get their hands on it, major damage could be done. So Jason once suggested that I house it in an encrypted disk image, and that’s precisely what I did. And accessing it was a breeze on my eMac, because it remembered my password (which, yes, defeats the purpose of locking it up in the first place, I know). Well, for some stupid fucking reason, the password is no longer working. And I had it written down and everything, so its not like I’ve forgotten in. Just wonderful.
- I mentioned this on my cell phone blog site, but I’ll bitch about it here: I recently decided that perhaps my dignity was not as important as ease of use, hence why I purchased a Bluetooth wireless headset, the Jawbone, which the entire world unanimously loves. The fucker is hella expensive due to some military technology that’s behind it, hence the ultra high scores. Well it sucks dick. Or at least mine does; for weeks I’ve struggled to figure out what the fuck is wrong. See, that’s my problem: if one thing goes wrong, and I know what the cause is, that’s at least fine. It’s when one thing goes wrong and there are seven possible reasons, each with their own variables that needed fine-tuning, that’s when I want to blow my fucking brains out. As in the case of my eMac problem, the Lacie problem, and my PSP predicament, I had to figure out if it was my phone or if it was the people I was speaking, and thirty other factors, regarding the root of my shitty reception. In the end, it just doesn’t work for me, and because I bought it from eBay, the chances of getting my money back is zero. But its not like I haven’t tried.
… Oh, and for the thirty-millionth time, there’s also my borked Wii, which is getting fixed this very second. Though on the bright side, Nintendo was nice enough to wave the repair fee! So once again, they fucking rock. Still, its been over a week now, and I’m unable to kick back and relax at my crib with Super Smash Bros Brawl (nor get back into No More Heroes, which I’m desperate to finish). Though at least Katie and I got to play Brawl with Dave Mauro, who’s been messing with it non-stop since it came out, and before that, played through the import for a solid month (of course, anyone whose been following the Smash Bros thread over at the forum knows this already). Katie and I went out to Greenpoint on Saturday, played Smash Bros with some TGQ dude, and once he was gone, myself and Dave gave Rocketmen: Axis of Evil, a new downloadable game from Capcom a whirl.
I hate to say this but…. well, I guess I shouldn’t say anything, since Dave will be whipping up a review of that game a bit later on for this here site, though I can’t see him saying anything more than “Man, this game is awful.” And such a shame too, cuz after constantly chasing after Capcom for answers to questions and other media related requests, someone over there is finally getting back to me! And the first game I manage to get for review from them is this one. So I kinda wanted to make them happy with a flattering review. Oh well. Hopefully they’ll let us to a review of the new Strikers game that’s coming out (hey, I’m a fan of the series, and its a shump, so its up Dave’s alley as well), and in the meantime, Dave could write about Smash Bros; yeah, I know the game is out already, and its so high-profile that anyone who wanted the game already has it, regardless of the seven million reviews that’s already there, but I’m pretty sure none have been authored by such a Smash Bros diehard like our Dave Mauro!
Afterwards, I insisted that we play that horrible EA fighting game starring rappers, Def Jam Icon, mostly for Katie. This time around we had two working Xbox 360 controllers, though it really didn’t matter since the controls are so broken that is not funny, but holy shit, is the game still ever beautiful. And during dinner, our friend over at the west coast, Slonie, became a topic of conversation, mainly his love of cars and car related movies, specifically The Fast And The Furious 3: Tokyo Drift (or should we say, Tokyo Driftu). Thank God it was at Dave’s local video rental house! And it was AWESOME. If you love the idea of a shitty lead actor with a laughable Southern accent (which turns out to be totally legit), a “hot chick” with a GIGANTIC jaw, creatively applied fake ‘n bake tans, a bad guy that’s supposed to be Japanese but is so obviously a Korean dude (at least to us Asians), massive plot holes, and waiting on edge for that fucking Vin Diesel cameo, then this is the movie for you!
On Sunday, I went out to Long Island for the big scheduling meeting for ICON, where everyone figures out what will be running program-wise, and when. Once again, anyone whose familiar with forum might already know from the official ICON 27 thread that it’s been a very rocky road, and things have not come together as I had personally hoped and planned. There were all these grandiose ideas of a video game mini film festival and a chiptunes show that would kick the teeth in of the anime dance party, none of which have materialized. As is, its just more of the same, which isn’t necessarily the worst thing in the world mind you; a bunch of panels covering the broad spectrum of electronic gaming, from art to politics to gender roles and everything in-between, plus like the past four years, I will probably participate in a lot of them. As also stated, aside from it being my fifth appearance as a guest speaker for ICON’s e-gaming programming, this will mark my final one. Truth me told, I wanted to go out on a bang… at least I still have my one hour presentation. But I honestly don’t know if I’ll be able to top myself from last year, and given with what I’m going with this year, let’s just say that there is a serious potential for it become a huge train-wreck. So maybe that there is incentive enough for some of you to come out and see me talk? Cuz there’s a very good chance, when all is said and done, that I could find myself lynched by some angry Final Fantasy cosplayer or furry.
The topic will be btw THE ANATOMY OF A GAMER: WHAT MAKES THEM TICK… AND WHAT MAKES THEM EXPLODE. Corny title I know, but its geared towards the ICON audience mind you. So yeah, the Matt Hawkins Ego Express comes to a climactic conclusion this coming April 4-6! And come see me do my best Ric Flair impression that Saturday, the 7th, at 5:00pm (its not at 6 like it normally is… which I’m afraid might result in some folks missing it… I got booted cuz at 6 is some fucking gay-ass Worlds of Warcraft user-meet).
Not too much else to speak off. For whatever reason, I’ve decided to give Final Fantasy 6 for the GBA a spin, which I picked up in Washington a few weeks ago. I had long heard it was the last FF to give a rat’s ass about, and never got the chance to play it for the SNES at the time. Thus far, I dig it. Also been watching copious amounts of cable access with Katie; I’m almost certain if you asked her what’s the best part of living in the Big Apple, her answer would be Wild Record Collection (that show were the dude plays old 45s and has stuff animals dance along). And after sitting down and exploring, I’ve discovered some new gems, like the all woman, pro-feminist, ultra low-budget sci-fi show, Star Crash. Though what we enjoy the most are the call in shows, and attempts at livening them up. Its enough to make me want to get a show of my own!
Oh, and thanks to the internet’s boy wonder, The Drunken Samurai, I was finally able to watch some Japanese slime porn. And my God, it is glorious. There’s no dudes whatsoever, just a cute Japanese girl, covered in thick goo, which I thought was glue… it was categorized under “glue/stuck porn” from the site that TDS pointed out for me… but he believes it to be high fructose corn syrup. Ironic considering how much I avoid soda like the plague. Or maybe not, whatever. It was damn near perfect (there’s even a cheesy sci-fi component), aside from the fact that the girl wasn’t some cute, nerdy white chick, she was wearing panties (and yet there was still that annoying pixilation that’s in all Japanese porn). But as Katie pointed out “She probably didn’t want any in her snatch.” Okay, so that there is another good line.
For those who are brave enough to see what the hell I’m talking about, you can catch the entire thing (including behind the scenes and trailers for other crazy j-porn), here ya go! And speaking off, I guess its been a while since I spotlighted stuff from the forums (for those of you who don’t frequent gaming boards/waste time on the internet as much as myself and company)…
- I can’t believe that one Sega Saturn game that I saw for years in the display case at J&L (or was it Game Express?), gathering dust, was something I should have nabbed. Dammit.
- The actually awesome video game clothing thread got a nice little update today, courtesy of Mike McWhertor from Kotaku…
- I know its old news, but I’m still bummed that whole “Do you own a Dreamcast?” thing turned out to be some scam.
- So the dude who created that insane Bubsy 3D vid is back with a bunch of ways to creatively kill Tails (in Sonic 3).
- Another reason why I’m really pissed my Wii is in the shop? I never got the chance to even give Zak and Wiki a play.
- About damn time: a Takeru Kobayashi Game!
- Much like Mike, I also wonder, when will gaming’s WANG BARRIER be broken in a mainstream title?
- Via the stupid and pricey crap that I still want thread comes this…
… and that book on Pi also looks really swell.
- We’ve already had an awesome desktop thread, so why not one about shitty ones?
- To the shit-tastic comics thread comes a new challenger: the Wiccan Chicken.
- I still can’t believe that coffee thread got so much play.
- I’ll be honest, I’m seriously thinking about going to this internet, the convention.
- Enter the shrine of… the ninja mall!
- Have I ever mentioned the political discussion thread before?
- Man, there’s been so many awesome additions to the random videos thread, such as some Mafioso responding to the subject of illegal aliens, an example of totally horrendous anime and totally awesome anime, exercise + learning English + being mugged + Japan = this video (which I think might be old, but who cares), the internet’s latest superstar, plus a good ol’ fashioned food fight.
- And the random pics thread has a few gems as well…
- Plus the S-S-S-S-S-SOUL CANCER!!! thread has seen some activity as well, but I really can’t pass any examples since it’s so NSFW.
- The countdown to FHW (Fucking Hermione Week) ’08 begins HERE.
- Hey guys and gals, the internet just got creepier!
- Like everyone else, I want to know who the heck is “Forty90″?
- Plus, I’m still not totally sure what a hybric means.
- Wanna see a transvestite midget from Mexico dressed as Amy Winehouse humping a bed? Then knock yourself out.
- And wanna make YouTube even more fun? Here’s how.
- Finally, the random assortment of blogs thread has this…
