God of War III

I finally finished God of War III for the PS3, it's the end of the trilogy about Kratos's search for revenge against the gods, Greek gods that is.  I didn't play the first teo but I knew the general story.  He was tricked into killing his own family and doing the general bidding of the gods against his will.  He finds out the Zeus is his father and goes to seek revenge with the help of the Titans.  Visually, the game is a pure treat and shows the capabilities of the PS3.  The sheer scale of the Titans is incredible; what's even more amazing is that these huge behemoths are walking around causing destruction while you're on them or as they walk by in the background.  I didn't feel that I needed to play the previous two while playing GOWIII, but I'm sure it does help and may have caused even more shock and closure to this already amazing story.  My favorite games have a great story, message, and are scattered with memorable quotes.  For me, I will remember this one for it's epic story and scale along with a message left by a dead companion to our antihero Kratos, "Hope is what makes us strong, it is why we are here.  It is why we fight with when all else is lost."

Mass Effect II

If you don't know, I have a PS3 and the Mass Effect II demo for the PS3 came out yesterday.  I have downloaded and installed it today.  Currently, I'm customizing my character and giving it the run through.  Heard it's a fairly involved demo and the only game on the 360 that I wanted to play.  The full game comes out on January 18 . . . I'm excited.  Always love great stories and that's my reason for playing video games.  What do you guys think about the Mass Effect series?

HP DV6t Select Edition Initial Impressions

Hey, it's been awhile so I thought I'd update with the initial impressions of one of the products I've purchased, the HP DV6t Select edition laptop.  To give you an overview of the system, it comes with 3 USB ports and a powered eSATA port (USB/eSATA combo port), a 5 in 1 media card reader, CD/DVD optical drive, finger print reader, HDMI port, and VGA port.  The screen is 15.6" with a resolution of 1366x768.  I customized my unit on HP.com so I have a Core-i7-720QM quad core processor, 8 GB of RAM, 640 GB hard drive spinning at 7200 RPM, and integrated bluetooth.

To give a perspective of where I'm coming from, my other laptop and the one I was using primarily has a Core 2 Duo dual core processor running at about 1.7 GHz with 2 GB of RAM.  It probably seems like I wanted or needed a performance increase.  Well, in all honesty, my Core 2 Duo laptop was holding up just fine for my applications.  I use it for school, while watching videos, doing occasional photoshopping (yes it's a word), and light programming.  I will be graduating this June, so the school portion will be going away soon, so I didn't shop for a new one in terms of that.  I wanted raw power so that it could better stand the test of time.

Likes:
I definitely like the extremely quick boot up time and wake up from sleep.  From sleep it takes about 5 seconds, if that, to get to the log-in screen and after I press enter of swipe my finger across the fingerprint reader I'm logged in almost instantly.  Windows 7, I had Vista on my previous laptop, seems to be less problematic in comparison to when I first started using Vista.  Of course 7 has been out for awhile now, but it's still good to see that changing operating systems hasn't caused my any issues.  The key board feels great, it's a chiclet style keyboard and I was a little leary, but it has bosed no problems for me.  In fact, I type slightly fast and with significantly fewer mistakes.  It just feels good.  The hot keys around the keyboard are also very helpful.  They allow you to control the volume, screen brightness, keyboard backlight, etc.



Dislikes:
The clickpad and the large power block.   The click pad is sensitive to the the touch, but I'm not yet use to not having separated buttons.  The bottom part of the click pad is sectioned off with lines to show buttons but they aren't physically separated from the click pad itself, so you're left with buttons that are very hard to press.  With that being said, with the various gestures that symantic provides for the click pad, it's not that big of a deal.  Gestures such as double tap to click and drag, two finger scroll, 3 finger swipe to open up an application, etc.  I like the large size of the click pad, just not the implementation of the buttons.

Oh to be a kid again

Everyone one always says kids have it so good now a days, sometimes wrongfully so.  I'm going to say it today and justify it . . . with this: they have mechs for kids now.  Yea, I know.  Just imagine, by 2012 kids will be in Gundams and cause the end of the world on December 23rd . . . if that's happens, just remember that I called it.

Daniel's Response Wednesday

Another little something to brighten up your Wednesday:

My roommate Austin comes out of his room and rubs on our cable router sending out a 16 Mbps connection.

Austin: These things are so cool
Me: Thank you.
Austin: What?
Me: You said, "He's so cool," and I said "Thank you."
Austin: I said 'these,' I was talking about the router . . . and why would I refer to you in the third person
Me: Mothafucka, you can't address me directly and you know this!

Hope you enjoyed another moment from my life, until next time . . . . PEACE.

The Power Of Food, a Funny Event Segment

There's a slightly obese Electrical Engineering professor at my school, yea I can use slightly as and adjective to obese.  He was teaching a lab where all the students were unable to log into the computers to get started on the lab.  While this is going on, multiple engineering clubs, mostly of the electrical nature, were hosting an even outside where they were cooking burgers and promoting their clubs.  The professor left the lab room to go find the local technician to help fix the log-in problem.  Some students got tired of waiting and pretty hungry, so they went outside for a burger.  When they get outside, they see their professor putting mustard on his hamburger, they ask him what happened and he said, "I couldn't find the guy." LOL, till next time . . . PEACE

Daniel's Response Wednesday

I'm gonna try this out, every Wednesday, or any day around Wednesday, I wanna give a funny and real life situation and how I responded or how I should've responded.  This is one from over summer:

A friend and I were hanging out at Hermosa Beach Pier and it was pretty cold.  Seeing everyone in board shorts and t-shirts, I said that I wouldn't wear board shorts, as in just around town.  My friend asked me if I wear speedos then and laughed.  I replied to her, "Naw, but only when I feel like showing off."

Is this something worth doing?  Was that even funny?  Let me know in the comments section

At Least You're Thinking About Me?

Hung out with a friend today and he told me about how he was eating some rotisserie chicken and then thought about me LOL.  Once he thinks about me when he's eating everything, driving, and sleeping, I will have a monopoly on his thoughts :-p

Senior Year

So tomorrow, I'll be starting my fourth and final year in college.  Apparently, I've been a senior for 2 quarters already, unit wise I guess.  Time went by fast and many things have grown me over the past four years and I'm glad, cause I can't be a clown like the rest of them right? Haha.

But this year, I have a pretty cool senior project lined up so be on the look out for that.  My advisor already has some things lined up to help me out.  Be excited.  The summer internship helped me get into the working mindset, so I'm ready to do work, so . . . let's do work.  Driving up tomorrow, until then . . . . PEACE.

Labor Day Weekend

Went to the Hermosa Beach Art Festival today, or as they call it "Fiesta."  Had a bunch of cover bands and people selling various art forms, from painting to shelled necklaces.  Some paintings looks really good but I didn't buy anything.  It was rather gloomy down there, but luckily I got some good shots from Manhattan the day before.

oversatured but I overcame this later

Still a little bright, can I tone it down a little?

Perfection

Despair

Is the title of this post appropiate for this pic?  Let me know

I took this using the 8 MP camera on my HTC Evo 4G, not bad huh?

Mafia II

So I just finished Mafia II for the PS3 and let me say that the story is superb.  If you're anything like me and like mafia or any rise to riches stories then this is for you.  I rented it from Blockbuster a few days, but do I wish I brought it?  Absolutely not.  Crazy huh?  The problem is, while the story isn't too short, there's not much to do outside of the story or once the game is beat.  There aren't any side missions or a multiplayer component either and for $60 you want some kind of replayability.  With that being said, if the price drops to something you feel reasonable for what I just described, then pick it up or do as I do an run over to your local Blockbuster, before they file for bankruptcy and close all the stores down.

For Whom the Bell Tolls

On Saturday, August 21, I attended Rock the Bells in San Bernadino, CA.  The 100 degree weather and backed up traffic that turned a literal drive around the corner into a 45 minute endeavor created the perfect atmosphere for an outdoor concert.  After standing outside waiting to get in, which was surprisingly short, I walked in and was greeted by a cloud of weed and cigarette smoke.  As my friend and I walked towards the Main stage, we were soothed by the familiar sounds of Rakim's "Paid in Full."  Some years ago I listened to that album, along with "Follow the Leader."  I like Rakim's style and I admit he is the father of my current favorite rap style.  Some of my favorite rappers being Nas, AZ, and Lloyd Banks.  Yes, I said Lloyd Banks.  Listen to Hunger For More and any number of his mixtapes and deny that he is the P.L.K., punch line king.  The crowd for Rakim was small, as it was still early in the day and most of the attendees have not arrived yet, but he showed why he is a "real" MC with his control of the crowd with his lyrics driven by ahead of their time beats.

After Rakim's set was finished, we scurried over to the Paid Dues stage to see a pale, over weight bearded man that resembled Santa Claus.  The first thing that came to my mind was, "What the . . .," but I stopped . . . because I listened.  The deep bass in his voice mixed with inspiring and true to life lyrics made me feel something that most radio rap artists don't give you, their heart.  This artist was Brother Ali and upon hearing one verse, I knew I'd want to hear more.  This man's soul can be described as nothing short of beautiful.  He interacted with the crowd in a very emotional and passionate way, revealing he's an overweight, partially blind, albino man from Minnesota.  He's not ashamed of who he is and who he is is a great artist.

My friend and I noticed that the Clipse, who are my favorite duo, set time was taken off and replaced by an intermission; suffice to say, I was disappointed.  We rushed over to the Main stage to see KRS-ONE perform "Criminal Minded," another old school rap album that I have.  During his set, he looked over to the VIP section on the side of the stage and asked, "What is this?  The VIP section and shit?"  He then turned to the crowd in front of the stage and emphatically said, "This is the VIP section!"  The crowd went crazy and I had to smile and laugh after hearing that.  After one my favorite KRS-ONE songs, "9mm," he shared the story of how him and his DJ, who was killed back in the late 80s, met.  KRS was homeless and his DJ, Scott La Rock was his counselor.  Scott asked KRS what he wanted to do with his life.  KRS said, "I want to be an MC!"  Scott looked at him and said, "Man, I'm a DJ."  That's how it all got started for this famous hip hop duo that created "The Bridge is Over."

After KRS-ONE's set was over, we hurried to the Paid Dues stage to see none other than Immortal Technique.  I used to listed to him a lot in high school but stopped recently.  I've always liked his music, but there's so much music out there I just stopped listening.  With that being said, it was great to be reintroduced. His songs, like I remember, revolved around real issues and everyday problems while being very critical of the world we live in.  This makes for some really good music, but just to hear this music, we had to pack ourselves in the overcrowded hanger like sardines.  When you hear people say they couldn't move . . . this was it.  It got so hot in there, a girl in the front row passed out.  It may have always been some pills that she popped a few hours before, but I don't know.  Immortal stopped the show when he saw this, jumped off the stage, and got the girl some water.  Chino XL then carried the girl outside.  Immortal then proceeded to talk about protecting the people.  Would any artist do this?  I doubt that, they'd probably just call security.

We had the pleasure of seeing Tribe perform next, now when I say this I mean just Q-tip and Phife Dog, but that's all that was needed.  They performed their first album Midnight Marauders and some of their hits.  I've only heard Low End Theory but I knew a few songs off their first album.  Their performance was amazing, Q-tip controlled the stage  like he created it.  Him and Phife were able to work the crowd perfectly.  During their performance, the perform one of their hit songs, "Scenario."  One of the special guests for the evening revealed themselves, none other than Busta Rhymes!  Busta was able to bring his energy out there and excite the crowd to no end.  It was a welcomed surprise.

My favorite part of this exciting day had to be Wu-Tang performing 36 Chambers in it's entirety.  This was the one album that was performed that I knew ALL of the words too.  In addition, all 9 members were there except for O.D.B. of course, who was replaced by his son.  Method man is as tall as he looks, RZA is super skinny, and Raekwon is a big dude.  More importantly, the album is a classic and proved so when they performed it.  They even did the skit with Method Man and Raekwon where they're talking about torturing each other.  During the last song of the album, "Protect Your Neck," we decided to get a drink perform everyone else rushed over there.  Of course, the line was still long.  After they finished the song, I heard the familiar beat to a song made by a duo that's made up of one half Method Man.  Yes, I'm talking about Meth & Red and the song is "Da Rockwilder."  I was stuck in line and I'm still unsure if Red Man came up, but I wouldn't doubt it.

Snoops performance was the last and one that a majority of people were waiting for.  The album has a lot of skits and each was presented on a screen on-stage.  The albums aggressive and high energy.  The crowd responded to this and was always excited . . . except during the sometimes fairly long skits.  Snoop dedicated a part of his performance to his cousin Nate Dogg who's apparently still hospitalized.  A remember awhile back Nate Dogg had a heart attack, but it sounds like his condition never improved.  We left before Snoop finished to avoid traffic and as we were walking to the car, he started to perform "Ain't No Fun."  Ironically, after we got into the car, a couple of girls walked up to us and told us they couldn't find their car and don't remember where they parked.  They were probably so high they just didn't remember, but I told them to get in and managed to help them.  All in all, it was a good day.

Disclaimer: I enjoyed every moment of my trip to and my time at Rock the Bells.  I was merely experimenting with a writing style.  For segments that seems like I was complaining, those things weren't even a problem.  I had a great time and will be going back next year.

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Top 5 Dead or Alive

Towards the end of my work day, I pull out the trusty Evo 4G, I always work more than 8 hours so no talk about me slaking.  I open my engadget app and see that sony has released two new PS3s with HDDs larger than the current models.  This reminds me that today was their press conference at gamescom.  I was excited to hear about any new announcements but boy I sure was in for a surprise.

There were many announcements today, from what little I've read so far but my favorite has to be Mass Effect 2 for a few reasons.  It is one of maybe 3 games that are exclusive to the XBOX 360 that I'd want to play and own.  Mass Effect 2 received excellent reviews, much higher than it's predecessor, and it contains elements of my favorite game genres.  I love having the ability to choose in a game and Mass Effects give you that all the time.  Also, I'm a huge RPG fan, so the upgradability of characters attracts me the this gem of a game.  It comes out in January and I will be getting it.  

Thinking about why I like Mass Effect, I also thought about my all time favorite games.  These games had a great mix of story and excellent gameplay.  These are in no particular order:

• Metal Gear Solid 4 (PS3)
• Uncharted 2 (PS3)
• Jak 3 (PS2)
• Final Fantasy X (PS2)
• Red Dead Redemption (PS3)

Of course I like plenty of other games like anything from the Ace Combat series, Street Fighter, or any of the Gundam games that came out during the PS2s hay day, but these are the ones that are constantly in my mind due to their addicting nature and story that made my brain go into overdrive or just flat out made my jaw drop.  So those are my top five, dead or alive.  Well, till next time . . . . PEACE

Rock the Bells

I got my ticket to the Los Angeles show of Rock the Bells.  I'm definitely most excited to hear all of the 36 Chambers by Wu-Tang performed, to hear what songs the Clipse perform, and also to see what Ms. Hill does.  I've never been to Rock the Bells before or a legitimate concert so this should be pretty fun.

As for this weekend, it went well, I definitely can't complain.  Some people I've probably seen for the last time this past weekend.  As I got older, I learned an important lesson: Don't always hold back on friendships.  Get to know people, because you never know how long you have with them.  That's not saying that you should immediately tell them all your deepest and darkest secrets, that's for crazy people, but don't be afraid to share some of yourself.  I think I did do that for the most part.  I don't like saying goodbye, so to them I'll just say, "Till next time friend."

Taco Tuesday

Hey all, went to El Gringo's after work for their Taco Tuesday special.  Basically, it's a buy one taco get the second one free as long as you get a drink.  Most of the tacos are below $5, I think me ordering two blackened chicken ones cost $4.75.  So add a $2 drink and you have a great reasonably priced meal.  I don't believe most can fathom the size of these tacos, but let me use my descriptive talents to help you visualize.  Imagine a flour or corn tortilla that's used for a generously sized burrito with so much meat, lettuce, tomatoes, and cheese inside that it's hard to wrap the taco around and pick up.  I finished both tacos but . . . I shouldn't have.  it was way too much, but it was very good.  Plus, it's good to hang with people from work who are fun to be around.  Well, till next time . . . PEACE.

Exposure

Hung out with my friend Ryan Basilio today in Walnut, pretty good seeing him after his Euro trip.  I got to mess around briefly with his camera, a Canon EOS T2i.  The first this I noticed is the styling, I don't really like it much, but that's probably because I'm a Nikon fan.  It's a fairly light camera, I use a Nikon D5000 so I was expecting a little more weight.  It feels really good in your hand, it has a fairly long grip which is always welcome.  The LCD screen on the back is AMAZING.  I can't emphasize that enough.  You can really tell what your pictures look like because the screens so sharp and most importantly it takes great pictures.  Overall, I really like the camera and wouldn't mind having one.  In the midst of this camera testing, I found out how to increase the exposure time on cameras by using Ryan's camera.  After I got home I tested it on mine . . . . I think I found a personal style.

Camera testing aside, it was a nice day and was glad to hang with my friend.  His family was very welcoming and I was able to be myself around them, plus I think I found another person going to Rock the Bells this month.  I'm very excited for that.

Below you'll find my first attempts at increased exposure.  I used a laser pointer and increased the exposure in a completely dark room, so after I hit the shutter button I proceeded to write what you see on the wall.  Of course I wasn't sure how it would turn out but it became good for a first try, I think.  BTW these were all done in one take.

First Increased Exposure Attempt

So how did I do?

So True

Picked up BlazBlue today, have yet to check it out.  Before that though I was in a two hour meeting with my stomach growling, it was an important meeting, but my hunger took precedence.  They were polite and made sure it ended at 12 PM . . . thank goodness.

As the day progressed I just remembered something I was told and will never forget:

1.  You're always broke, just at a higher level
2.  Someone always has their hands in your pocket

So true right?

Work Day

I finally understand what he means to have a rewarding job/career.  I was always told if you get a job that you enjoy, then it doesn't seem like work.  Now I can honestly say, "I know what you mean."  It's a great feeling doing something you enjoy and get paid for it.  I've been fortunate and blessed to be in this position, but I still have more year of school.  I'm about to graduate, and the told me it couldn't be done in 4 years.

On another note, I decided not to get Super Street Fighter, I have the regular one so it seems like such a waste.  Instead, I'm gonna pick up Blazblue: Continuum Shift.  The positive reviews and deep combat system intrigue me , so I'll go by Cali Game to get it.  Why Cali Games and not GameStop or Amazon this time?  First choice is always Amazon since they don't charge tax and it's also normally cheaper there too, but this time it's a dollar more than Cali and I don't mind the little bit of tax, I have a job right?  No GameStop because I can't support the chain and not the mom and pop local store that I grew up with.  Fight the machine or whatever phrase you rebels without a cause use.  So, I'll get that tomorrow.  A review soon?  I don't know.

BlazBlue cover

I do want to put up a review of my Sennheiser headphones that I got about a month ago.  I think I've used them enough to judge, so look out for that.  Till next time . . . . peace.

AVP

I went to the AVP matches in Long Beach today and met up with my friend Kelsey and Kristine showed up later.  I had my court side seat but they didn't have tickets, so I sat with them in the general admissions sections.  There were plenty of good matches but I went to see Dalhausser and Misty May-Treanor play.  Dalhausser height and quick reactions helped to propel his two man team to win the final game and get the $22,000 big check.

Dalhausser/Rogers vs. Gibb/Rosenthal

BTW, what are those checks made out of?  Cardboard?  I don't know.  Anyway, Misty and her partner Branagh were in top form.  They were in some close matches but they managed to get enough digs and blocks to win the game.  Misty showed why she has won in the Olympics for sure.

As a little food break, we went to Hooters in The Pike, which I did not know was there.  Got a grilled chicken sandwich with grilled mushrooms, lettuce, tomato, and bacon.  It wasn't the best that I had, but it was still good.  Got a curly fries basket but it was literally regular fries that were just curved to make em curly.  Not great, but not horrible either.  I'll stop by Hooters again, it had a good . . . atmosphere.  More entries to come, just feeling this out for now.