Well, I should have seen this shit coming. I was browsing Engadget today and stumbled upon an article regarding new Lenovo hardware. Now, let’s take this into mind: I just bought a ThinkPad T61 a week ago. Apparently, after a good 2 years, Lenovo has decided to finally put out new ThinkPad models.
Well, long story short, I’m a lazy asshole. I’ve decided to simply make this blog something of my own instead of something people may *want* to read. Fuck ‘em.
To follow up on this, here’s a short summary of what I’ve been doing since the last post:
Working [and finishing] the layout and transfer of rigolega.com
I was bored this morning. I went about my usual Sunday morning routine: Wake up, go to 7:30 Mass, eat a Bakers Square breakfast, come home, check blogs/websites for updates.
I finish at about 10am. Having nothing to do, I browsed aimlessly. I decided to check up on deviantART for some reason. I haven’t been to the place in years. I remember that I have an old account from as far back as age 13. Should be fun to see what I had back then, right?
WRONG. I was highly disappointed in what I found. Amongst the hackneyed, default-filtered Photoshop jobs, I found this:
A screencap of my desktop from years back. I don’t think any image on the internet consists of more fail and AIDS than this one. Let me give you a run-down of everything that sucks in this picture.
1) The number one problem: AOL. Yes, I once had AOL. And it looks as if I had version 7.0 AND 9.0. Lucky me. T_T. I couldn’t stand AOL. Never in a million years will I ever use anything by AOL again, be it an internet service provider or beta-stage news.
2) 800×600 resolution. The computer I used was fully capable of running at 1024×768. Was I blind as a child?
3) StyleXP. Now, StyleXP was pretty decent despite the fact that it is a gigantic resource hog. However, better alternatives (read: Neowin’s UXTheme patch) were available at the time of this screencap. The dark theme isn’t that great, either.
4) Some stupid-ass cursor effects program. Just look at the cursor. It’s BLACK and it has FLAMES. I specifically remember double-clicking and screencapping soon thereafter so that the flame effect could be seen. God, was I cool or what? Nothing like setting the screen ablaze every time I fire up AOL! Shit.
5) Winamp. Dammit. (*edit* 12-24-07: look here for explanation)
6) The Dock. This is probably the most embarrassing ‘feature’ thus far. Did I really need that many shortcuts? Of course not. But I did, and that’s all that matters. Let’s criticize from left to right. a-b) We already covered my TWO, count ‘em two, versions of AOL. c-h) We can skip the Adobe/Macromedia programs (Flash, Fireworks, Dreamweaver, PS7, ImageReady CS, Photoshop CS), as they are the only applications that can possibly redeem my sorry ass. i) That next icon is for a SONY digital camera. I used the software that came with it. Hold on while I get the noose. j) That ‘X’ shaped icon to the right was some Flash text effect generator called FlaX. I used it well before I had any [legitimate] experience with Flash. It can output some decent results, but it did everything for you, thus rendering it anything but fulfilling. k) IS THAT FUCKING PAINT?! l) The film strip wrapped around the world icon is Ulead Gif Animator. I fully endorse its use to this day. It’s probably not the best in its class, but I sure as hell don’t find myself churning out gifs every day, so don’t take my word for it. m-n) I really have no clue as to what the paint bucket and film strip represent. NEXT. o) The icon with the green text is Bitmap Font Writer. Another exception in terms of this image’s consistent ass-baggery. p-q) Camtasia was decent, but not for the reason I used it. I used it to record my screen as I played emulated retro games. Productive, right? WRONG. I SUCKED. Now, if you don’t mind, I’m going to skip around a bit. Norton. Do I even have to explain this one? Norton is the most asinine anti-virus suite the industry has known. Much like AOL, it is nearly impossible to get rid of it once its installed. I could go on forever, but I’ve got more highly insignificant things to complain about. Kazaa. I think this post has hit its all-time low. You don’t get much lower than Kazaa. I really…I just…I’m speechless. The shame is overpowering.
While the dock in that screenshot blows more d than the entire cast of internet pornstars, I take pride in the fact that it doesn’t look as bad as it used to.
What the hell was I thinking back then? I really hope I don’t stumble upon any more of this. Looking back on this made me realize how hard I used to suck. My enthusiasm for writing this post has dramatically decreased since I began.
If you will, please pray for my Godfather, Glen C. He had been suffering from several types of cancer since March of 2005 until he passed this morning. He was a huge inspiration to me. He was the one who encouraged me to keep up with baseball. He was the one who taught me some of the best habits and beliefs one could live under. And for that — I can’t be more grateful. While the inevitable feelings of melancholy make their way into the hearts of all who had loved him, I find solace in the fact that he is in a better place now knowing that his wisdom and example were heard.
Thank you, Glen. Your example has not gone unnoticed.
Well, it’s been a while since my last post. I’ve been busy beating Mario Galaxy 100% and playing Geometry Wars: Galaxies. I’m proud to say that I was 26th worldwide in Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved [Wii]. I want to get that out there now, because I’ll NEVER get the chance to say that again. XD
Anywho, I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving. Here’s a treat.
So Geometry Wars: Galaxies [Wii] was pushed back from Nov. 12th, 2007 to Jan. 20th, 2008. I am not pleased.
*UPDATE* Turns out Galaxies [Wii] is being released on Nov. 20th, afterall. Wonderful!
I’ve been a GW fan for quite some time now. However, I’ve never owned an XBox nor an XBox 360. Therefore, I have never played the game in which GW first appeared, Project Gotham Racing 2 (I was never a big fan of the original Geometry Wars minigame, anyway). But it was the widely-popular Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved that caught my interest. As a moderately consistent Joystiq and Kotaku reader, I had noticed the expansive coverage of GW:RE at the time of its release onto XBox Live Arcade. I didn’t really think anything of it, as it sounded like some run-of-the-mill puzzle game reminiscent of a Bejeweled-type game. Needless to say, I couldn’t have been any more inaccurate. The consistent posts related to GW:RE evoked a certain curiosity. I decided to look into it. I did some sketchy research and found that it was not a puzzle game, but rather an arcade game. It had been a while since I’d seen one of these become popular on a console. But, I simply read what it was about and was on my way. I didn’t think much of it, as I knew it wasn’t going to be a game I’d kill to have. Then again, I’d never played it…
I fell in love with the game at the house of a good friend of mine. Bill was and is always first to jump on anything related to his 360. Thus, he had the Retro Evolved demo before I even knew the game existed. Well, one weekend I decided to invite myself over to his house (as this is quite customary to do so). We went through the usual routine: game, eat, game, missile dropkick his brothers, game, etc. I finally got to talking about that new game that was indefinitely slated for gaming-blog cooler-talk, Geometry Wars: Retro Evolved. After babbling on and on about how it looked neat, but that I’d never be fortunate enough to play it, Bill shed light on the fact that he had the demo for Live Arcade.
I played for 7 hours. Seven. HOURS. I loved the game and couldn’t get enough of it. I even considered buying an XBox 360 for it, but that seemed a bit too ridiculous. My obsession stuck with me for a good year. It eventually died down, as I agreed to play other games at Bill’s house–mainly to ease the anger of a certain Vince. While my obsession slowly deteriorated, I still loved the game. I was extremely excited when Retro Evolved was announced for Windows Vista (and they emphasized that is was only for Vista). I even paid the initial $8 for it. I paid for it to run choppily on my bloated install of Vista. The choppiness took so much away from the game that I refused to play it on my computer. I was irritated to discover that about a month later, a WinXP version was released (so much for the ‘Only on Vista’ ploy). Of course, I had to have it. I bought another version of the same damn game. It ran smoothly and played awesomely with a PS2/USB controller converter. It still wasn’t as fun as it was on a 360, but I dealt with it.
Skip a good year into the future to now. Both a Wii version and a DS version are set to be released in the works. I’m eagerly awaiting both versions. Unfortunately, I found out today that the Wii version was pushed back to early 2008. The DS version is still slated for a new January release, which is decent news, but the Wii version was one of the games I highly anticipated this holiday season. First Super Smash Bros. Brawl, then this? I guess I’ll just have to wait it out.
Both the Wii and DS versions of Geometry Wars: Galaxies are set to release January 20th, 2008.
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