Blog Day!

Yeah, it's time to once again to update my Blog.... Da Da Da dum....

Ya know, a while back, I was a member of this one particular Union. I received an invite to join, so I accepted.

That was pretty much it. I just accepted. I did go in and look around a bit, see what was posted on the forum and such and left. Nothing else, just left it as it was.

Several weeks passed and truth be told, I forgot I was even a member. There was this "general" type of e-mail from one of the "leaders" who was passing on some tidbits. Oh yeah, seems the leader of the Union wasn't too happy with the level of the participation in the forums and such considering the number of members that was in the Union. Seems like we were given our marching orders and go over to the forums and start posting.

Like the good little recruit I am, I went and posted.

I can't tell you what the nature of the post was, it's been a while since then. I had to wait a while and go into cool down. It seems like a few of this Union's sub-leaders didn't like what I had to say or even where I said it.

"Ooohhh, you just wait. I'll tell... You'll see. You're gonna get it now..."

And on and on... It reminded me so seriously of these yappy little lap dogs who sit on their owner's lap and bark and growl away at nothing.

There was one or two in my defense, but it was mostly a gang tackle. I invited the "leader" of the Union to weigh in. I outlined what the message said, "Go over and start posting," and what I did.

Next thing I know, the thread was locked. So, a PM was in order. Seems like those so-called leaders had the utmost say. They could yap all day long if they wanted to do so. They couldn't lock the thread and then discuss it with the "leader" themselves, but they could push their pimply-a$$ed weight around and just irritate the crap out of the members. They could do that.

I simply told that leader of that Union that if this person couldn't apply more Leasership qualities than that, then I wanted no part of that.

"Oh well. Rules are rules"

Jeez... First off, no activity. We get a message to go do some activity. I go give them some activity and get jumped on by yapping little dogs. Then the leader exhibits no leadership qualities (or at least none of the likes I have ever seen.) So I gotta do what's right for me. I can go somewhere else. There are a couple of other Union's that may appreciate having me as a member. I don't know. We'll just have to wait and see. I haven't posted in those either.

Other than that, things are just peachy. No real changes in my health. Just been cruising around about the same for the last couple of months. That's OK, also, as long as I got my drugs. But, sooner or later, things will start worsening. Don't think I am going to like that...

On the gaming side of things, I just bought "Frontlines: Fuel of War." The little movie that plays when you stick the disk in was nothing short of amazing. I almost thought it was real. But, no, it was animated. But, it was a pretty amazing clip and I thought if the game is anything like that, well, then...

I shouldn't have gone any further. The game is nothing like the clips or the cut scenes.

Why do they do that? Don't give us crap when all you did was put all your time and money in clips and cut scenes. Give us what's in the game, not the pretty fluff.

Gameplay itself is ok and I will play it through, but, c'mon developers, quit with making us think we're getting one thing and then deliver something totally different.

Or is it just me. Have I grown so old and cynical that there is nothing that is going to please me? Naw, look at my Turok review, I loved that game and the developers did not have to resort to tricks to get me to buy it. Several more games out there I like. I'll still take Halo over H3 any day. Rainbow Six Vegas Two over the original. And on and on.

What else? Nothing much, I guess. Been a long day and am wore down. Think I'll play some more GoW and turn in early.

Dale

Been "one of those" times for a few weeks now.

I guess everything is catching up with me. Cancer, drugs, lack of physical activity and on and on. Just walking to the mailbox and back requires a twenty minute "rest."

sheesh...

But, I do get some gaming in. I have a nice, comfortable high back chair I can kick back in and enjoy losing. Yeah, I am so good at losing. But, I persevere and will eventually make it to another checkpoint. Checkpoints...

Don't ya just hate the games that don't allow you to save ANYWHERE you want to instead of relying on the maker's checkpoints?

I do... But, what can ya do? If you spent the jingle (some cases, a lot, if it's a new game) ya gotta play the game.

Gotta love GameStop and their used games.

Right now, it's Easter morning. For those of you that Believe, take some time to reflect just what Easter means. Pretty amazing stuff...

Other than that, it is cool and rain is somewhere on the horizon and a low pressure front. For me, that means pain. All the bones I broke (last count, 27 of them) are speaking to me. Loudly... And the cancer that is causing more problems ain't helping either.

I hate to discuss the relative merits of today's pharmaceuticals, but I just love my Percocets and Oxycontins. Without them, I am thinking I would be bed-ridden.

As it is, I do spend an enormous amount of time sitting around and drooling. And, of course, doing a bit of button mashing. When it's too bad, I have and incredibly large selection of DVD's to peruse and watch.

Nothing like watching "Arnold" blowing up something on that 55" Hitachi Plasma. Or Bruce trying to "Die Hard."

Yeah, lots of action/adventure movies in our collection. Got some "chick flicks" for the Old Lady, but I try and stay away from them when it's just me. ew...

I read on Game Informer's site a while ago that the PS3 is due for a Firmware update. One new feature that will be added is the "Remember" feature. As it is, if you watch a movie, stop in the middle, go do something else and then come back to the movie you have to FF to where you were at in the movie. This new Remember feature will remember where you were in the movie, even if you remove the disk.

Yeah, cool! And, yeah, finally!

I bought the PS3 because of it's Blu-Ray capabilities. I didn't think I would use it for a gaming console, but I'm glad I bought it. There are some cool games on the PS3.

As far as deciding to buy the PS3 for the Blu-Ray feature it was because it was the ONLY one I could find that was updateable through the Internet. All of the rest of the stand alone players were capable of updating their Firmware, but, the company(s) would have to send you a disk and you would update the Firmware that way. To make sure you got a future update, you would have to send the disk back.

No, not for me. The "old" Blu-Ray (BR, from now on) players are on the way out. The second gen BR players are starting to appear in the marketplace. Those players are outrageously expensive. Just another reason to buy the PS3.

The Old Lady was sure that I was just buying this to have another game console. I had to lead her by the hand (after HD-DVD went poof) to some stores and a lot of online information fed to her to convince her that this is the best way to go.

Yeah, as usual, I put my money on the wrong horse. I bought the "BetaMax" players when they first came out. Remember those? Nothing like plunking down $1500.00 for something that soon became obsolete.

I did the same with the HD stuff. Of course not quite as expensive as the BetaMax fiasco, but still, pretty respectable. My luck hits once again.

Once Toshiba decided they were not going to go the HD route I went looking for HD players. I found a nice Toshiba (with five disk capacity) that was almost $400.00 marked down to $70.00. So, we now have an extra one sitting in the closet just in case the original one quits, as consumer electronics are commonly known to do.

I'd just sell the 16 HD movies we have, but we would never get the money we paid for them and we would just have to buy them again on BR. So, we'll keep them and the player.

But, this BR thing is amazing. The clarity is unreal. My next BR disk purchase will be that BBC documentary "Blue Planet," Or I think that's the name. It was an incredible experience to watch it via DirecTV (standard signal, we haven't upgraded our box to HD yet) so the BR disk set should be all that much more so.

Is there anyone out there that remembers "The Trials of Life?" Narrated by David Attenboro. That was maybe fifteen or so years ago. I cannot find it.

Anywhere... No where... At all...

I want that. I check Amazon just about every time I visit the place. No hits yet.

Sometimes, when I talk about it, I can find no one who remembers it. Was I the only person to watch it? It was, I think, in the neighborhood of twenty hours. An hour a week on the Discovery channel (once again, I think it was the Discovery channel.) Ever notice I do a lot of "thinking?" It hurts to do so much thinking. I get a headache...

hehe

OK, what else? I know there is more, simply because it has been so long since I made a Blog post, but I seemed to break my "thinker."

If I can remember more later I may edit this one or if a day or two has gone by, then it will be a new post.

Hey, Happy Easter! And to all, good gaming to you and yours.

Dale

ack754

Why do we spend (how many billions of dollars a year?) a lot of money on consoles and games each year?

I don't know about you, but I use it for "escapism." Can't get in the truck and go to a foreign country and take over the government. I can't blast off in my spaceship (mainly, because I don't have one) and kick the Covenant's ass.

But with the consoles and the various types of games out there, I can. How do you play your new (or used) games? Do you slap the game in a console and run as fast as you can through the game? Or do you "stroll" through the game and look at what there is to look at? The developers put all that stuff in there for some reason.

I have never figured out why people pay sixty $$$ for a game, rip through it, and two days later they are trading it in.

I bought Patapon on the release date, Wednesday, February 27th. I got home and like all good, little Gamespot subscribers, I went to see what all I could see about this game. I bought it because of some reviews from outside of GS. So I needed to see what GS had to offer as far as Patapon was concerned.

The first thing I saw was that there were several GS Player Reviews. Already??? And I think I saw two walk-through posted Did you all enjoy the game or have you traded it in already? This is supposed to be somewhere in the neighborhood of a ten-twelve hour game. But, on the release date there were several player reviews. How could you enjoy it? Or any other game that you just go as fast as you can and don't take time to stop and smell the proverbial roses.

Hey, I don't have any problem with how you play your game(s) or what you do with your money, but if I am going to chunk out sixty bucks worth of jingle (Turning point; Fall of Liberty, as an example) I am going to look around and see what I can see after the action has settled down a bit.

Of course you may run through the game and get it done as fast as you can, on the first play through, but do you have a second, third or even more play through? Or once it's done, are you done?

I cannot tell you how many times I have played Halo, Strangers Wrath, Resident Evil 4, etc... But, if a game is good I am going back through it. There are always a lot things that were missed during the first play (or second and more.)

Play the game, but next time, try to enjoy it.

Just my thoughts...

Dale

ack754

I can edit!

I should have looked a bit harder after I first posted it in that 18 point font size.

Look around, there's all sorts of things out there to discover!

So I can see what I'm writing and posting, I will settle on the twelve point size. That ought to hold down the "I'm being disruptive" comments by posting in the larger font sizes.

Yeah, you'll get old someday...

Dale

ack754

...last entry got a bit carried away.

I figured since I could see the 18 point size so well, I guess everyone else needed to see it that size.

oops...

I'll try and stick with 14 point size in the future.

Dale

Lets see. What do you need to know about me? Besides I consider myself on the "old" end of life.

Well, life. That's a good place to start.

Not much of a life anymore. This May, it will be two years since we discovered I have cancer. Talk about a kick in the ass! That was a monster kick. It was one of those things that NEVER happened to me. It was always a "happened to someone else" kind of things.

I have Melanoma. Yeah, skin cancer. The amazing thing is that for the last thirty or so years, I have worked night shift. Yeah, I spent all my time working and living at night. Even days off, vacation, long weekends, weekends, I kept to the same schedule. I would go to bed around 9:00 AM and get up at 4-4:30.

I had several hours to wake up and get ready for work. So, if I spent thirty years OUT of the sun, where did the skin cancer, Melanoma, come from. I had always heard or read that if you had even one serious (like blistered from the sun) sunburn, even as a small child, you can get Melanoma many, many years from then. Yeah, I can remember several serious sunburns as a kid. Especially at the start of Summer. So, maybe that is where I got it from.

The only reason we found I had the cancer is because there was a seriously large lump in my left armpit. When I say "large" I am saying in the neighborhood of the size of a baseball. No, that wasn't right. It shouldn't be like that. I have a tenth grade education, but even I knew that wasn't right.

So, surgery was in order, to, first remove the lump, and secondly, once they had it out was to diagnose it. Yep, Melanoma.

Needless to say, that was a rather shocking thing to have dumped on me and the Old Lady. Melanoma is un-treatable. Nothing can be done about it. They (the Oncologist's, yeah, more than one. I figured a second opinion was in order) wanted to experiment on me. They wanted to send me to a "Trial." Experiment with different drugs, six in my case, to compare the results with a known drug, Interferon."

I could not pick which "Arm" of the Trial. A computer would do that for me. As I don't like hospitals, the computer picked me to go in the hospital. So, I got six different drugs pumped in me over the course of six days.

Somewhere between taking my clothes off and putting that idiot hospital gown on and then finding myself dressed and standing out on a street corner waiting for my wife to pick me up, I had blacked out, somehow, all of my time in the hospital. I do not remember one single solitary thing about my hospital stay. Nothing...

I was to do this three different times. Go in the hospital, get the six days done, stay home for twenty to twenty-five days and go back in and start all over.

I had to go back in to the hospital three days after I got out the first time. It was an emergency room kind of trip. It seems like I was severely dehydrated and bordering on the edge of starvation. It seems like I had not eaten anything in something like nine days.

So I stayed a couple of days and had fluids pumped in me and was given "soft" foods to eat. Very bland and tasteless crap.

When I got out of the hospital again and I had time to regain some of my strength and I could sit for longer than ten minutes without drifting off to sleep, the Old Lady and I had a conversation about me doing this again. I put her through things I swore I would never put her through.

I needed help getting up and down, whether it was from the bed or from the chair in the living room. If I couldn't get her in the bedroom to get me up fast enough I would crap all over myself. So, she had to drag me to the shower and clean me up and then would have to clean up the bed. Those were some of the things I swore I would not do to her. I broke that.

We decided together, over several days of conversation, that we would just take whatever time I had left (or whatever God gives me) and enjoy ourselves.

The Trial was in December of 2006. By the time August, 2007 hit, it was evident that I would not be able to continue to work. I had to put in for disability retirement. What's that comment above I said? Something about a "kick in the ass." Yep, same thing.

So, after six months of waiting, I finally got approved for my retirement. It is a good thing the Old Lady and I had some jingle laid back or we would have lost everything. As it is, we are starting to get a bit low. I guess I should lay off buying games for a while, huh?

Naw. I gotta play. You think sitting (or laying) around the house is easy? I am going bug, uh, er, ah, poop, yeah, that it, I am going bug poop sitting here. So a game or two ain't gonna hurt. Especially if the Old Lady don't find out. Then it will probably hurt. In my current condition, she can probably take me two out of three times. Sheesh...

OK, enough for today. I probably put some of you to sleep.

Oh yeah. This is a "just in case" kind of thing.

For us, this is not a real big problem. Well, maybe. We have accepted. It happens. It just happened to me this time. I didn't write this to bum anyone out. Just some background about me and mine. Peace, Brothers and my little Sisters.

D.

And this looks as good a time as any.

I have been leeching off of Gamespot for years. I was looking here yesterday to see what I could see about Turok. Actually, not much as it is new. Lots of previews and such, but there were a lot of comments.

I decided I needed to "belong" to GS for whatever reason popped into my brain pan. Lots of room in there for things to pop in. But, I bought a yearly membership. Just getting rid of the ads was good enough for that.

And a lot of other bennies I am still discovering. So, for the price of a good used game, I am now a member. No more leeching.

I just bought Turok the other day and am still playing around with it.

I had a problem that I thought was my own. The interior shots, whether it is a tunnel or indoors was a bit too dark. No amount of fiddling with the controls helped. If I pushed it to the max, I would get washed out colors.

It would have to be the developer wanted it that way. Then I ran across a comparison of Turok. This guy, "frederikfrey" did a side-by-side comparison of Turok. A 360 and a PS3. Besides me not seeing anything like that before (except for the companies and TV people out there who have more money than God) I noticed one thing.

The 360 interior shots compared to the PS3 interior shots were as my setup is done. Dark interior. The PS3 had a "brighter" version of the same shot.

One exception. When the game was "outside" the 360 exhibited good color and quality. The PS3 was darker and murkier.

Yeah, gotta be a developer thing, whatever they meant.

Go to Turok and look his video comparison up. Really amazing. Good job, Fred. I'll try and post the link at the bottom.

So, there ya go. I got my first blog post. I am up and running.

Here's the link to the Turok comparison:

http://www.gamespot.com/xbox360/action/turok/video_player.html?id=dyRhxmer5bwKvDba&tag=user_vids;title