Bonsai Blog

July 16, 2008

T-t-t-tech post!

Filed under: Tech — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Paul @ 12:53 am

Let’s take a break from political rantings and overreactions (I’m not quite as serious as I seem) to look at the newest tech pieces in my life!

PLAYSTATION 3 ::  It’s amazing.  I bought this awhile ago, back in the beginning of June, but I never really updated on it.  I had a huge thing about PS3 vs 360 ecetera.  In the end I decided to go with the newer console, a lot to do with the fact I had been waiting since January for the Metal Gear Solid 4 bundle pack to come out.  I never wanted the 40GB model because of no backwards compatibility.  I have no PS2 so I wanted to access to (most) of that library.  Plus the pack came with a DualShock 3 vs SIXAXIS (lacking rumble support for games).  I could’ve cared less about Metal Gear Solid 4, but just the hardware that came in the deal… it was $500 though.  I got it at Target though so that saved me $100, after employee discount and opening a credit card.  Hey, gotta get my credit score up as well, so mindaswell.  Only a $200 limit because it was my first and such, but not to bad considering I got approved.  Already payed that off, I had all the money just wanted the extra discount.

After playing the included game, Metal Gear Solid 4, I fell in love with it.  That game is pure genius.  Yes, it is more like an interactive CGI movie than a game, but WOW.  The storyline (I went in knowing nothing about the previous 3 games) was so enthralling.  I actually cared about what happened to the people.  Deep storytelling lead to emotional involvement from the player.  So anyways, that was amazing.

The PS3 is also amazing in my opinion.  The main selling points for me were the wireless (pay an extra $100 on the 360?! No thanks!) and the Blu Ray support.  Now that Blu is the standard for the next gen disc based media I don’t need to wonder if I’d have a useless pile of junk on my hands.  Plus obviously the games can be huge and only need 1 disc.  Final Fantasy XIII may be coming out on the 360, but who wants to switch discs?  =p

In short I consider it one of my best purchases.  Online support is great too.

New laptop! With my graduation gifts I put it together with my parents to buy a new laptop for college this fall.  My last one was nice but was a bit bulky and getting slow.  I needed an upgrade.  So I got a wonderful new HP which has an amazin bit of art coveringm well, all of it.  Outside…inside…it’s really snazzy and themed after Asian art, so it looks fantastic.  Plus it has bluetooth, wireless n support, webcam, etc.  The new 14.1 size is SO MUCH BETTER for portability too!  I don’t actually feel like using it for a desktop anymore because it’s so nice and light to carry around.

Oh, and it has Vista.  Honestly…don’t believe all the crap people give it.  I knew it wasn’t bad, hasn’t treated me badly, and really just takes some getting used to (as do all new things).  It is a step in the right direction for Microsoft’s OS.  Whether or not that’s what goes down in the history books is another matter, but mainstream media rarely has anything positive to report on.  That’s not what sells.

E3 – Electronics Entertainment Expo What can I say?  Wholly underwhelming.  Microsoft by far did the best job, but even that wasn’t like OH MY GOODNESS AWESOME.  Nintendo gave a lackluster showing focusing mainly on casual games appealing to the ‘whole family’.  Frankly, Ninty needs to hold back a bit and make some new games for people who actually bought the Wii to play things that DON’T involve personal avatars you created.  Wait, buying a Wii for actual gaming?  Yeah…that is silly.

Sony really didn’t reveal anything amazing either.  It was mostly just trailers, nothing too new.  HOME still needs to be released, as does LittleBigPlanet.  On the horizon we’ve got Resident Evil 5 to look forward to, as well as the Final Fantasy XIII game(s).

Yep.  That’s it on the tech horizon right now.  Waiting to upgrade my phone until Google’s Android software makes its official debut.  Yes…I still save money too after all these gadgets.  My boyfriend thinks I work too much.  I probably do.  Target does expect a lot out of you for really very unimpressive pay.  I’m constantly looking for new jobs, probably going to go into Web design soon which is much more profitable because of the specialized skills needed.

OH!  Almost forgot.  Bought a book on game programming for XNA Studio, which is sweet.  Got one for beginners because I know very very little about C++ and nothing really about C#.  That’s my career of choice though, so I really want to begin learning on my own.  Little steps.

Next blog: religion.

July 6, 2008

Been awhile

Filed under: Back Home, Politics, Rant, Tech — Tags: , , , — Paul @ 1:07 pm

I know it’s late, but thanks to everyone who attended my graduation party two weeks ago.  I had a really good time and I hope you guys did to.  I enjoyed seeing a lot of people that I hadn’t seen in a long time.  Thank you to everyone who took time out of their schedule to see me and commemorate one of my bigger life steps.  It really did mean a lot to me.

I’m not sure if many of you have heard, but Viacom sued Google for all the user’s information on YouTube because of some copyright issues.  This is why I don’t like the current set of Media Conglomerates.  They don’t care about the consumer. All they care about is the profits they’ll make off of you.  Obviously any sane company would work with Google to get copyrighted video clips off of YouTube.  Money crazed media companies however want to play big brother and monitor every single video you watched and every single video search you performed.  And sadly, they won that suit.  How can such a gross violation of privacy like that be allowed?

It’s just like the RIAA.  They sue everyone who they think has downloaded music illegally, sometimes winning and sometimes not, but artists have seen none of the money.  The whole point of the suits, according to the RIAA is because bands, artists, performers, etc are losing money.  Yet any money they win does not filter back to the artists at all.

Our American economy is out of control.  Just like the artificially inflated gas prices at the pump.  How can the oil companies be taking in record profits if they’re only raising prices because of global demand?  That would only result in the same profits coming in if they were taking the same margin.  Obviously they’re not.

Money makes the world keep spinning <3

June 22, 2008

I hate Digg users

Filed under: Back Home, Tech — Tags: — Paul @ 1:59 am

They are so fickle.  First they are rabid Obama fans, and now that FISA crap hits they’re all denouncing him as just another dirty politician.

Get an opinion and keep it folks.  This is why I find commenting there useless, the people have no brains.

March 5, 2008

Internet Explorer 8 is AVAILABLE! (Beta, of course)

Filed under: Back Home, Sick Day, Tech — Tags: , , — Paul @ 3:31 pm

http://www.microsoft.com/windows/products/winfamily/ie/ie8/readiness/Install.htm

For any of you who are willing to valiantly try out new software, there it is, the download page is finally up!  I’m going to try it out.

Right now it appears they don’t have an option for those of us on XP SP3, but I will get to the bottom of that and report on it.  If it does work, I’ll post screenshots on this post.

February 23, 2008

A Mystery is a Mystery is a Mystery

Filed under: Back Home, Tech — Tags: , , , , , , , , , , — Paul @ 8:09 pm

So I got this envelope today with no return address and my name && address written in a male high school-esque script.  And I opened it.  And there was nothing in it.

Clues:
- Male writing (high school?)
- Post marked Feb 20, 2008 / Denver, Co
- Envelope type that is opaque (blue lining inside)
- No mistakes on my address, the person was looking at my address while they wrote it or had it memorized

Anyways, yeah, just pondering for kicks and giggles.  I don’t know where or who was writing to me, but I’m going to count it as fan mail.  The first physical fan mail I’ve gotten.  Unless it was hate male.  Oh well.

Second order of business is geeky.  Does anyone here want me to run through the beta versions of Digsby (instant messaging program), A.viary (free online image editing suite), Microsoft’s Download Center beta, and Wordpress 1.4 beta?  If no one tech-y actually reads my blog it wouldn’t do much good.  So I have to ask.  Comment or email me if you want me to…

Third order of business is TAKASHI SENSEI’S EMAIL.  If you still read my blog (doubtful, but hey?) I want your  携帯電話のメール.  It’d be really cool.  Yay.

February 15, 2008

My Job

Filed under: Back Home, Tech, job — Tags: , , — Paul @ 9:57 am

So I haven’t really mentioned my new job. I am now a salesfloor working at Target. Whoo! It’s near to my new school so pretty convenient for me. Orientation was last Saturday and I worked both Wednesday and Thursday. Weds was cashier training (everyone does it) and then Thursday I got to work in Electronics, which was fun.

Overall I think that I underestimated how much behind the scenes stuff goes on in retail. Like if you leave a product out in an aisle it doesn’t belong, someone has to go around and pick that up. Or if you ask for a gift receipt while you’re paying, it’s frusterating. On that last bit, it’s good to ask for a GR when the cashier scans the item. It’s pretty fun to see so many different people and help them. Didn’t take long to get the hang of the routine either. So yeah, I’m pretty happy to be working their and the rest of the staff seems to be very nice too.

Now I have more serious issues to discuss. Lenovo has a new ultraportable laptop to rival the Macbook AIR. Lenovo’s model has the much less interesting name X300 though. My only thought on this is “Do they even have a design team?”. The laptop fails to capture any aesthetic pleasure at all. It’s RIDICULOUS. I’m all for someone taking on Apple, but don’t you think if you’re fighting fire with fire you could at least look as stylish as the other guy. Ugh.

January 8, 2008

Oops, look both ways!

Filed under: Back Home, Politics, Rant, Tech — Tags: , , , — Paul @ 9:05 pm

Look what using iPods can do to kids these days:

iDeath

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Probably a good indicator of which way the iPod’s success will eventually go too.  Sorry Jobs, your company’s getting a bit too cool!  Teenagers will eventually seek something more original.

Anyways, I would also like to tag this post with some political tidbits.  I love Obama.  He is awesome.  I really hope he wins the election in November.  And of course there are rampant rumors of Secret Service beefing up protection because of possible threats to his life, but I hope those are unfounded.  I would be devastated if something were to happen.  I think he offers a refreshing hope for this country (considering he’s a mainstream candidate).  As far as the little people go, Gravel and Kucinich forever!

As a closing note, I’d like to mention that the email forward that says Obama won’t say the pledge is FALSE.  Yes, that’s right, some of you argued with me and backed up your opinion with an URBAN LEGEND.  (You know who you are dear family members <3)  I check things out.

January 3, 2008

Zune breaks into mainstream…

Filed under: Back Home, CAR, Politics, Tech — Tags: , , , , , , , — Paul @ 11:07 pm

A lot of you who frequent my blog know that I love to write about my favorite MP3 playing underdog, the Zune.  Now that school is back in session, I’ve seen a surprising number of people with them!  Not the sexy new generation though…the, um, older version.  Which I don’t really like.  But that friends, is beside the point!  The whole Zune philosophy revolves around the ability to share music, pictures, and podcasts.  Now there are actually people in my two to share things with!  What a surprise!  I honestly didn’t think that there would be as many new Zune owners as there are.  Well done Microsoft.  I’m actually liking my Zune80 more as I find out more little features.  Hope that it doesn’t get passed over in Microsoft’s CES presentation…

Oh.  And I ran out of gas today.  And had to wait an hour for my dad to bring me new gas.  Fun.

(One more thing, the rumor at the moment is that Obama and Huckabee won.  Obama…YAY!  On the Republican side though, take my word for it, Huckabee will kill this country.  I am not even joking folks.  He will kill this nation dead.)

November 18, 2007

Went down with words too over-dramatic

Filed under: Back Home, School, Tech — Tags: , , , , , — Paul @ 10:47 pm

If anyone gets the song reference, kudos.

I guess what why I’m updating my blog is to ask anyone who’s a part of the ‘Zune Social’ to add me as a friend, because I don’t honestly know many people on it.  So if you’re on it, feel free to add me here.

Anyways, on Friday I went to see Beowulf with some friends.  We were very close to going to the community play, but last minute decision resulted in a cinema trip.  It was pretty weird to see tons of violence, sexual innuendo, and general adult behaviors coming from Polar Express-esque CGI animations.  Actually, Beowulf’s animations are very lifelike (and at times you could forget that it’s actually an animation), moreso than the previews for PE.  I never even watched the actual movie, but I sure did see enough TV commercials for it.  Angelina Jolie was by far the best modeled character out of the lot, but she isn’t seen on screen that much.  However, when she is on screen…you will see a lot of her.  The coolest scene by far though is Beowulf fighting Grendel (an awesome monster) naked.  What a brave man.

And while we’re on the topic of the cinema, I will take a moment to say how disgusted I am at how ‘The Bee Movie’ is getting whored out so much on TV.  It seems like I see at least 10 adverts per day for it, and about half of those are integrated into shows!  It’s getting to a ridiculous point.  No, no amount of advertising is going to save a movie that chose a name like that.  Or chose a racist unfunny actor as its lead voice.  Sorry, I’m just not in with Seinfield.

I really am digging the new Zune software, and I can’t wait until the Zune 80 actually gets majorly stocked…  Awww.

Last week before Thanksgiving!  Yay!  And that, of course, means only two days of school!  What could be better?!  Ok, yeah, sure, the whole week off.  Later~

November 16, 2007

Kind of bored…

Filed under: Back Home, School, Tech — Tags: , , — Paul @ 10:51 am

Ok, so I’m actually in 2nd hour right now.  I forgot my book again, which means I can’t measure the dimensions for the book cover I’m supposed to be working on.

First of all, the Zune 80 (which I want so … bad) is out of stock.  And the awesome Zune Originals site doesn’t offer it until December.  This is almost unbearable, after I’ve been raving about it and waiting over a month!  Obviously this is just trivial, but yeah.

Oh, and I got a 28 on my ACTs.  My scores were all in the top 10% range, but that’s really disappointing.  If I would’ve stayed in America, I could’ve gotten in the 30-32 range for sure.  This academic year has been kind of difficult coming back and just focusing on stuff.  I’ve gone of solidified my idea to apply to the U of M, so hopefully 28 is acceptable for them. 

Class is almost over.  I’m using my last like 5 minutes.  5 more hours left. 

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