Trip to the folks

So, the last two days weren't so bad.
Me and my Dad went up to Ballarat (country town) for my Grandpa's 80th birthday.
80th... it's a ripe old age.
Anyway, it wasn't so bad. We drove 2 hours to Ballarat, where we had lunch at a restaurant. It was strange seeing all of these relatives that I hadn't seen for years. Meh, they were all still cool.
After lunch, we returned to my Grandpa's house, where we spent a few hours figuring out the new digi-cam. It was alright, because my cousins were pretty techie as well, which meant we were able to get it all set up.
Then I spent about another hour playing Burnout.
Can you say "1000+ Takedowns"? That's right. I now have over 1000 takedowns.
Moving on, we stayed the night at a hotel.

In the morning, we got dressed and headed back to Grandpa's place, where we said our goodbyes and left.
So yeah, not a bad 2 days in my opinion.

I've almost finished reading Eldest, the sequel to Eragon.
It's a really good book. I think I've got about 100 pages left. I suggest everybody to find out about it.

So recently I've gotten into Podcasts. At the moment, I'm listening to GeekCast and Australian Gamer. Pro.
They're seriously really good. Although I suppose you would have to be a geek (such as moi) to really get it/be interested in them. Has some good stuff though.

So, I'm a member of Sals Runescape Forum (although I've stopped playing Runescape, I like to debate) and I suggested that the Admin create a User Group called Tech Support for me and a few others. He's agreed, but he needs a majority vote from the mods. At the last I heard it's 9-7 in my favour. Hopefully it sticks.
Not that I want power, more that I feel that the sign of recognition would help people understand that our opinions on Tech matter.

Not much else happening around here, just a quiet day. Happy New Year, and lookout for Guild Wars Help (www.guildwarshelp.com) to be realsed New Year's Day.

The Chronicles of Narnia

Chronically bored, chronicles of Narnia.
The Chronicles of Narnia weren't as bad as I thought they would be.

Sure, the ending was short. I'm not going to describe the movie in case you don't want it to get spoiled, but let me say this.
George Lucas's special effects co. did the CGI for this movie, and it was great. Just for that you should see it.

Anyway, I was at my Dad's house. It's fun there. Lots of pepsi and food. Also, Scrubs. Man, Scrubs is the best show ever. I can relate to Perry Cox on so many levels (mostly because I hate annoying people and view myself as better than almost everyone I work with... only because it's true)
My Dad has almost all of Season 4, so when he finishes getting it from STRICTLY LEGITIMATE SOURCES he's going to lend it to me .

The great thing is that Heather Graham does Scrubs in her off time. She plays the bubbly psychologist Molly Clock. And she is hoooooot... If you don't know who she is, get to know her here:
http://home.catv.ne.jp/pp/ginoue/gnu/images/bik2.jpg
But she leaves to Milwaukee for about 13 episodes in the season, which sucks, because the only other person you have to look at is Elliot. She's not exactly great, although without Heather standing next to her... eh.

Yeah, it was fun.
As promised, about the Boxing Day sales.

Well, I didn't get out there myself (relief), but from eye-witness reports, there was barely anything affordable that was discounted. How usual.
So yeah, Boxing Day Sales = Disappointment once again.

At the moment, I am so incredibly bored. There is nothing happening. On the 29th, I have to head to my Grandpa's 80th. Full of old people and despised relatives. Where else would I want to be? (Except in the middle of a house-fire perhaps).

I said we could chat about some upcoming games. So lets do that.
*********************************************************

Sorry, there are no upcoming games, because game manufacturing season is over! This is the time all the Devs step up the pace to get a jump on the competition. Nobody is selling any games, so they don't have to worry about any immediate problems, therefore everyone works harder, to make awesome demos for E3. I can't wait. Hopefully Gearbox will come out with another stunning game. Looking forward to seeing some new Ubisoft titles as well. Speaking of, if anybody has heard news of a Farcry 3, email jakerius@gmail.com

For Christmas, I mentioned I got a 51cm TV without an aerial. Well, we got an aerial, and got the TV working. Pretty good reception, actually.


Well, that's all for now. I might just go off and dream about what making a Scrubs episode would be like. Man, those guys are cool.
Oh, just a quickie. 5th Season Scrubs is being worked on right now! I found out in Zach Braff's blog. Pretty cool what you can find with Google. Hopefully the new season will come out in Australia next year. Apparently the US gets it in Jan '06. I hate you US. Still... our country is better.

'Til next time, True Believers.

Sony PSP

Gamers and others alike, welcome to another post.
It's been a long week, rushing off to this place and that for this thing and that.
On Monday, I headed over to my friends house where I found out he had just received a PSP for free, because his Dad was pally with the owner of Download.com
So I got to play with that for a while. Let me say, that was my first experience with the new handheld, and I came away with a fantastic first impression. It left me deep in thought that night, as I went to sleep, as to how such power and insanely beautiful graphics could fit into the little thing.
The next day, Josh (my friend) and I headed over to another of my friends' party. Mark.
Great guy. We went to DarkZone (laser challenge). I got my ass kicked because everyone was wearing black, but I had to be trendy and wear white. Naturally, I glowed like a torch.
After that, we retired to his house for some Guild Wars, and also World of Warcraft, which I must say enticed me to subscribe. World of Warcraft is vast. Very vast. I learnt you can create a maximum of 240 characters over the 24 servers... amazing. The land is very detailed, and the character emoticons, and overall character development was to be marvelled at. However, a quick dose of PvP in Guild Wars cured the WoW fever, and now I'm good to go.
Sadly however, Guild Wars still pisses all over my laptop, which means until the end of January, I won't be on much. End of Jan = New PC --> Lots of GW.

So Christmas went pretty sweet. That's right, in Australia, we had Christmas hours before most in the world. I'd like to take this moment to say "Suck it up Americans! You may have a higher dollar value, but we get Christmas early, so there!"
I was frivolously unwrapping gifts at 7am this morning, when I picked up a golden wrapped box. I pondered what could be inside for a moment, and then ripped the wrapping off as carefully as all the rest (meaning not carefully at all, for you slow ones).
Lo and Behold, I had received the object of Monday night's dreams.
"Holy Shit!" I exclaimed in surprise and excitement. My very own PSP. And with it; Burnout: Legends, which is a beauty of a game, by the way. So lets talk about the PSP.

For starters, the basic interface is marvellous. You can play with it for several minutes before you need to put a UMD on, because you can just play around with the shiny lights and themes, as well as different settings. I quickly found that I needed a special USB Cable to transfer between PC and PSP (what the fuck is the IR port for, then? Why not use that, Sony? What's that? You want to make money by ripping people off, making them buy a commercially available USB cable? That's what I thought). Despite that rambling, the PSP is really really good.
So after figuring it out, I loaded up Burnout: Legends.
Firstly, let me say the depth of the graphics blew me away. Jesus, Burnout is one of the sweetest games I have ever played. And it's so simple.
Drive Fast --> Smash Cars. Perfect formula.
Not only are the graphics and gameplay great, but the music soundtrack is funky. Many tunes including Rock and Alt. Rock for you to listen to as you burn up the streets, littering car debris all over the US, Europe, and "Far East".
According to the "Driver Details" menu I have open before me, I have currently completed 18% of the game, completed 37/175 events, won 1/4 trophies, received 27 out of the 89 available cars, and made 6/20 signature takedowns (area and context sensitive takedowns that award you a little photo of a special crash in your scrapbook).
Burnout gets quite hard as you progress. Already I'm finding the World Tour mode getting difficult, but then again, it's been a long time since I've gamed on a handheld, and even on a console other than PC.
Also, Burnout has received many awards on several renowned websites, and in several Australian gaming magazines. Great prezzie.

One problem with the PSP is that after playing it for a while, not only do you end up with blisters on your fingers, but you discover your typing on a keyboard goes to shits, which is why it takes me so long to write this.

Apart from the PSP, I got a 51cm TV (Which doesn't have an aerial included... fucking swiss), chocolates, and some new clothes for my wardrobe. Pretty sweet haul, eh?

So, Wintereenmas approaches in a few days. My birthday is in February, so I'm gonna ask as an early b'day present for some of the CAD merchandise. You can find Tim Buckley's sweet merch here: http://www.zestuff.com/product.php?productid=98&cat=18&page=1
Seriously, what better way to celebreate Winter-een-mas than sporting some CAD merch?

If you don't know what Winter-een-mass is, you'd best start from the start: http://ctrlaltdel-online.com/comic.php?d=20030127
Read the comics there until the end of January. Then go to the 2004 in the comic archive, and read all the January comic strips. Then to go to the 2005 in the comic archive and read all the Jan strips, and that should bring you up to speed.
You'd think that a comic couldn't make such a change to the world, mais non, many I have talked to on the internet are celebrating Winter-een-mas. And if you're reading this, I expect you to celebrate it somehow also... or I'll find you... and I'll bring my fork.
Just found a good link to learn more about WEMas. http://www.wintereenmas.com/
Yes, it says 25-31st. But the season lasts all of January.

That's pretty much it for this week. Going out tomorrow with my Dad and Mark to see The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. Should be exciting. I'm hoping to use the $100 Coles Myer card my Dad gave me to pickup some PSP accessories tomorrow as well.
Tune in next week, true believers, as we delve into the business of the Boxing Day sales, the event we call New Year's Eve/Day, and also, the beginning of WEMas season, and what you should do to celebrate. Hell, we might even discuss some upcoming games, too.

Enjoy your Christmas, I enjoyed mine :D