Halloween

HAPPY HALLOWEEN

MP3's and Ripping, and Ipod's Oh My!!!!

My loving wife decided about 5 months ago to take pity on my lack of Ipodiness and surprised me with a shiny new black 80 gig Ipod Video.

The main reason behind this purchase was the new car. Back in January I finally decided it was time to retire the 1990 Honda Prelude. The "lude" decided it was going to take up a smoking habit. Every time I started it up after it had been sitting for the day, I had to allow it at least a 5 minute smoke break before it was okay to drive. After much fighting to just get it fixed, my wife won and we decided to adopt a shiny new 2007 Ford Fusion SE V6. A lot of people like to make fun of the fact that the color I picked was silver. I wasn't trying to have a matching colored car as my wife (she has a 2005 Chevy Trailblazer that is silver), it was just the color they had that had all the features I wanted. This purchase led to the Ipod purchase because the car has a mini jack located inside the center console along with a power plug. Perfect for the hook up of an Ipod.

Currently, without adding in my wife's CD's, I have a collection of CD's that is sitting right around 1000+ discs. I have quite a few that are rare and out of print. I thought that now that I have this 80gig storage unit, I could rip all the songs I wanted and then box up the CD's. This way they are not taking up a ton of space in my office, and they will be out of my son's reach. If you have looked at my wife's blog (http://jaynashaye.blogspot.com/) you will have heard all about him. He has decided that since he is all grown up (he is 4 1/2) that the computer in my office is now his computer. He plays his Star Wars Lego games on it as well as watches his video's. The newest thing he is doing on it is playing World of Warcraft. Yes, at 4 1/2 my son is being sucked in to the world of the MMO. Actually he is playing on a private server, not on the retail ones. He plays on the private WoWGasm servers, but that is a whole nother blog for a later date.

Now that I had this new Ipod, it was ripping time!

I started out with just the songs I wanted to listen to. I went through all my MP3's I had on my desktop and moved them over to my laptop. I then went through and pulled out all the CD's I knew I wanted. I spent 4 days ripping what I thought was a pile of MP3's that would rivel the selection on ITunes. Oh how I have forgotten what it was like to be so completely clueless about my music. After I was all done I hooked up the IPod and waited patiently for it to finish loading my massive music selection.

1045 song.

1045 song?

WHAT? That is it?

I have only used up 7 gig? That is about right since I am ripping at 192. I was going to go at 256, but I wasnt sure how much space this first round was going to take up.

Crap.

That was 5 months ago. Today I finally decided it was time for round 2 of ripping. I started at the beginning of CD rack number one. I decided that I was going to stick with 192 rate since in my car and on headphones it is actually sounding okay. That, and I really didn't want to go back and start ALL over.

Currently I am at 1385 songs. I decided since the plan was to completely box up the CD's this time, I should get everything I might possibly want to listen to on here. I am also going to pick up a docking station that allows me to hook up to the home audio system. That will be nice to have a 3K+ song selection to pick from instead of 5 CD's at a time. I guess I should think about making a seperate play list on just the stuff my wife would actually enjoy listening too.

Think I could sneak some Dimmu Borgir or Borknagar in there without her knowing?

Play Hellgate: London Demo

There is now a playable demo version of Hellgate:London for download at:

Hellgate: London demo.

I am going to download this when I get home from work tonight and try it out. Tweleve more days until release!

Greatest Comic Stories

It has been a few days since I wrote anything so I decided I should say something. Since the title of the blog is "Hobbies that drive the wife insane" I figured I should write about something that actually drives her crazy. What better thing to do that than COMIC BOOKS!

I used to be one of those crazy collectors who had boxes and boxes of books. I think at the point where I sold my collection about 14 years ago I was sitting at 16 long boxes and 6 short boxes of books. At the time I was just sick of the industry as a whole with their die cut-foil embossed-glow in the dark-1 of 10 different cover-scratch and sniff-see through-sparkle covers. The whole thing to me seemed to get away from the great story and artwork, and became more about how we can make the most money for shitty product.

So I thought, what would be a great thing to post about now that I have started collecting again as of last year? How about some of my favorite books past and present. These are the books that, while not the "it" books, are the ones whose stories and art I enjoyed the most. Sure I could post stuff like Giant Size X-men #1, or Hulk #181, or Amazing Spiderman #129...or hell even Action Comics #1, or Detective #27 but that is not the point. Here are my favorite books of all time.

1. Sandman by Neil Gaiman. - Best series I ever read. Not just one book, the whole damn series.



2. Jack of Fables by Bill Willingham and Matthew Sturges.



3. The Walking Dead by Robert Kirkman



4. Astonishing X-Men by Joss Whedon



5. Amazing Spider-man - no particular writer or artist. I just love the character and the series.



6. Hellblazer by Garth Ennis - The Ennis run was just fantastic



7. Swamp Thing by Alan Moore



8. Marvel Zombies by Robert Kirkman



9. Marvel Civil War - Mark Miller



10. Wolverine Limited Series by Chris Claremont



11. Batman - The Dark Knight Returns by Frank Miller







These are just some of the many books that I have enjoyed over the years. These are books that I can read over and over and still enjoy them as much as the first time.

I do have to say after taking such a long break from colleting that the quality of books has increased over the years. The page stock, and cover paper is a huge upgrade. The quality of writing has greatly increased as well. The only thing that has not increased to the degree of the others is the artwork. There are some amazing artists creating right now, but as a whole the hey day of the Todd McFarlane, Jim Lee, Sam Keith, Liam Sharp and others is just not what it used to be. I guess what I am saying is that there is not an over abundance of amazing artwork out there right now. It used to be that every book put out had some amazing artist doing the work, now it is more sparse.

The one thing I am not liking is the$2.99 and $3.99 cover prices for books. If the trend to up the price continues I may have to seriously cut back on the number of books I am getting each month. I have already cut back to the bare minimum, but if the prices go up again I am going to have to stop some things. It will be an Ebay or a convention hunt to find them at discounted prices. $3.50 and up for a book is just getting out of hand.

If you are looking for back issues, gaming items, toys, or supplies I would suggest checking out Captain Comics. The are located in Boise Idaho (where I live) and the team there are fantastic. Even after all these years Corbit still has a passion for the books he sells. The entire staff goes out of their way to know your name, and what books you are getting. The do mail order, and also have a weekly newsletter that is emailed out. You can sign up for it on the website.

Happy Reading!

Hellgate: London

I have been an avid PC gamer for many years now. I remember those 3 to 4 am nights at my friend Andy's house writing our first Dungeon's & Dragon's based text game on his shiny new HP-85. Anyone remember the HP-85? If not, here is what we had to work with "back in the day".



Looking back I can not believe we spent hours upon hours "playing" a game that was nothing more than:

"You walk down the rough stone path, the sky blocked out by the overhanging branches. You reach a point where the road forks to the left and the right. Which direction would you like to go?"

At this point you would type in "L" for left or "R" for right. Rinse and repeat. Of course we knew everything that was going to happen since we wrote it, but man did you play and play until we wore out the tape the game was stored on.

Games sure have come a long way since then haven't they? I dove head first into the world of the MMORPG with the introduction of Everquest. Many a night was spent raiding away with my guild (yes, I was a guild leader for a while). There were many a weekend that I don't think I even showered, or went outside due to "important raid stuff". I never got to the point where I lost my job, or my friends over it like some people did. I played up to the point where World of Warcraft came out. I tried it, played about 5 months, decided I did not like it and went back to EQ. I then tried playing some Everquest II in the hopes it would bring back some of that old EQ magic, but it didn't. I decided at this point it was going to be EQ and that was that. It wasn't until about a year after release that I got back into WoW. A very close friend of mine called me up and talked me into giving WoW a try again. Thanks to Larry EQ got cancelled and it has been WoW ever since.

I tried several other games over the last couple of years that I enjoyed, but never really got into like I did with EQ or WoW. There was Oblivion, City of Heroes, Doom 3, F.E.A.R, and I even dusted off and played some Starcraft again. It wasn't until I saw the trailer for a new game coming out that I got excited about games again. I am talking about:

This could very well be the next game that I dive into and play for a substantial amount of time. The game is being developed by Flagship Studios, which is a good sign right there. This company was founded by some of the core people involved with the development of Diablo. Check out the website at...Hellgate:London for all kinds of great information about the game like classes, game play, and a very nice selection of screenshots.

The concept behind the game sounds interesting. London in the year 2038, decimated by legions of demons with mankind struggling to survive. The game references several real world events in it's story line. The Knights Templar play a role in the game as the keepers of knowledge on how to defeat the demons. It also mentions that the crusades was actually an undertaking to defeat them. Ordinary weapons will not work against the demons. It is a fusion of modern technology and magic that enables mankind to fight back. There is also the enclusion of the Freemasons who have built a vast underground tunnel network that is used as the base of operations because it was built to be resistant to the demons.

Gameplay looks like a nice mix between a first person shooter and a traditional RPG. The game looks to be played from a first person shooter perspective, but characters will be allowed to level up, get new gear, have a point system to get "talents" so to speak, and increase stats.

The game looks very nice, and hopefully will provide a nice mix of two game types that I enjoy. From the sounds of it you can play this game solo, or you can connect up online and form parties of other players to explore with. There will also be some kind of PVP element implemented but there is not a lot of information on that yet.

Cheryl from IAH Games has a blog going with monthly updates about the game. Check out what she has to say at Angelace's Hellgate: London Blog. If you look under the blog from August 2007 titled "Sizzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzling hot! she has some nice pictures up of the Hellgate:London painted jeep. Did I mention the jeep is pretty sweet looking, but not as sweet as what is pictured with it? Go see for yourself. It is worth the click.

Check out the trailer for the here - Hellgate:London Trailer

I signed up for the Beta testing but like most people, I have not heard anything. Beta is scheduled to close up on October 7th 2007 so at this point I am going to vote "NO" on my getting in. The scheduled release date for the retail version is October 31, 2007 for the North American, and November 2, 2007 for the Europe date.

The December issue of PC Gamer is going to have a nice write up about the game. This should be hitting shelves in the next week or two so keep an eye open for it. This is what the cover is going to look like:

In case you are wanting some screenshots guess what...included. Don't say I don't take care of you!

Screenshot #1

Screenshot #2

Screenshot #3

Screenshot #4

The NHL season starts TONIGHT!

I figured I would start this new blog site off with something I am very excited about. That's right, the start of the NHL regular season. This topic is really not something that fits under the title of hobbies or things that drive the wife insane. The opposite is true as far as the wife in concerned. She has really gotten into watching hockey, partly because I play in a local rec league. She loves going to my games, and now that she understands most of the rules, she loves the game.

This season should provide some fun rubbings in our house. My team is the Colorado Avalanche, while my wife is pulling a Benedict Arnold this year and actually cheering for the Phoenix Coyotes. I guess I can't call her a traitor really, since she jumped ship last season to the Montreal Canadians. It was all a result of the Avs trading off the player she likes - David Aebischer.

If you don't know who David is, I'll give you the cliff notes. He was the backup goalie for the Avalanche when Patrick Roy was still around. If you don't know who that is, stop reading right here. You obviously have no clue about Hockey and should be punished in one of the nine hells. Either that, or you should start watching and attending games for one of the greatest sports to exist on this planet. Anyways...after Roy retired he pushed for the Avs to give the back up goalie (Aebischer) the headline spot. They did, but talks of trading him started from day one. Eventually they did trade him to the Canadians. After his year with them, he became an unrestricted free agent and was finally picked up by Phoenix.

Wow, talk about just rambling off of topic. To get back to the start of the season...I am lucky enough to have a wife who likes the game. Last season we decided to try out the NHL Center Ice package with Directv (since that is what provider we already had). I must say, I loved it. So we went ahead and renewed again this year and tonight is the first night of games. Tonight we get to pick from:

Anaheim Mighty Ducks at Detroit Red Wings

Montreal Canadiens at Carolina Hurricanes

Ottawa Senators at Toronto Maple Leafs

Dallas Stars at Colorado Avalanche

I wonder which game I am going to be watching? Well, I can tell you it will NOT be the first 3 on that list! The Avs are looking really good this year with some great off season trades and picks. I am really excited to see who they go to for game one in the net. My vote would be for Peter Budaj.

Did I mention I really don't like the Dallas Stars? No, okay then...

I really don't like the Dallas Stars. So much so that I am not going to include a link to their site. So take that you Stars fans!

GO AVALANCHE!