Review: Call of Juarez: The Cartel

It’s really as bad as you’ve heard. From the very first screen you are alerted to its crappiness. The text itself is circa Mortal Kombat – giant and pixellated. It looks so dated. It really feels like a modern Sega CD – it hardly even looks 3D. I barely got through the first level. I bought it for $5 – shipped from the UK for the amazing price of $2.49 – gotta love Amazon. I figured there must be at least SOME saving grace, story, anything. From what i saw the story tries really hard to be in depth (remember, first 5 minutes) at the very least it had a lot of details.

I honestly didn’t read / listen to it all, I skipped. The voice acting is awful as well. did something stupid in the next area and died pretty quickly. I’ll dive back in at some point, take some screenshots.

Graphics: 2.5 / 5 (at least it hits 1920 x 1080… hardly, not even any AA but I’ll try global / application level settings
Sound: 2 / 5 (includes voice acting!)
Gameplay: 2.5 / 5 accuracy wasn’t that bad once you can zoom in, dual pistols is cool, but not practical
Physics: 1 / 5
Story: ? / 5

Hierarchy [ 2012, games, gbuzz, review, screenshot, SocialAll, twt, video ]
Classified [ , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

The Witcher 2 – 3D Vision – 1920×1080 recorded SBS with Fraps – YouTube

This probobly won’t work through the embed, but you should be able to click it to go to youtube to watch it there. I haven’t had any luck, I’ve done all the checks, the instructions, walkthroughs everything. HTML5 can’t find 3D hardware (IE, Chrome, & the preferred Firefox) so I end up looking at the same thing you see here:

Hierarchy [ 2012, games, graphics, video, youtube ]
Classified [ , , , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Double Standards

Originally drafted 2004 09 06:

>”I thought we were on a month to month basis…”

So was I — month to month equals 30 days notice.

How would you feel if I told you that you had to be out by the end of the week?

It’s common courtesy to give 30 days notice, on top of the fact that I would need to give him 30 days notice. Previous house mates moving out had led to discussions, and Scott assured me he would give me such a courtesy.

Telling me on the 27th hardly constitutes any notice, let alone 30 days.

“I don’t need the security deposit back soon”.

Probably won’t be getting it if you keep giving me issues about “what you owe”.

~*cough*BullshiT*cough*~

…this was my passive aggressive “journaling” phase? I think it had to do with my landlord turned roommate when I wanted to move out.

** 2012 05 04 **
Nope it was Allison moving out. I was so worried about proving I could make this whole thing work, managing one side of a house with 5 bedrooms. All the while the landlord was taking advantage and squeezing every last dime out of us, which meant me when we were short. I don’t believe anyone else’s rent went up, I didn’t think it was fair given how I felt when it was done to me.

I was lashing out at this and took it personal but I am sure it wasn’t the most comfortable place or even situation. This eventually led to posting a listing at STCC, delaying the inevitable departure by a few more months with Rob. Now THAT was an adventure. Every day.

Hierarchy [ 2004 ]
Classified [ ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Statement of Doing

originally drafted August 2004

editors note: 2012 05 03
not sure how all this panned out but it certainly got worse before it got better

This is draft — personal rambling.

I’m sick of being fucked with.

- mind games

- guilt trips

Not going to deal with shitty people, going to start telling them to their face. People take me as too nice, it was always “just easier” for me to say nothing… things would always brighten up after that. People get to know me, know that it’s usually the way and decide to take advantage of it. I don’t have to be as nice as I am, I’m fucking sick of it.

Time to do.

**2012 05 02**
Possibly when I was robbed through the basement from Derek the slimy thief next door?

Hierarchy [ 2004 ]
Classified [ ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Goodbye 13 Hunting

Originally drafted 2004 07 14:

>Party @ 13 Hunting

Bye to Jon

- Memories:

Losing my phone in the pool.

Checking out the scooter

Matt licking Jenn’s face (recreated)

Women grabbing breasts

Me in the *ahem* bathroom.

Heather’s Site <– you will have to visit via way back machine now.

Hierarchy [ 2004, booze ]
Classified [ , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

SLR Camera Simulator

Hierarchy [ Uncategorized ]
Classified [ , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Updates of Drafts From Long Ago

Oh goodness, one or two of those drafts were actually published, some on purpose but there’s another that I didn’t exactly mean to. It’s up now though, so lets just hope no one reads that one until it’s fallen back into the history again.

I found one particular incident that I feel I need closure on. I recently met back up with a former roommate online – so I have a way to ask about this incident. It may bring all the feelings back, but I’d like to think she’s in a similar place as I am now. We have our own lives and many wonderful things happening. So maybe this just might work…

…and it will settle the issue hands down.

**update 05 03 2012 **
I did have a chance to talk about it today, we talked for a while but it felt really good. I carry around these unresolved chunks of life like bubbles that linger in my brain. The longer they sit the more prominent they become. This had all come from something I will call “the jeans incident”. It was truly a case of fugue. I didn’t remember what happened, even right after it happened. I alway thought I was framed. As soon as the missing puzzle piece was provided it all came back. My posts (think I will arrange them tomorrow) are written in an honest state of bewilderment, which is the magic of blocking something you don’t want to be true. So in these posts I am in the wrong, but feel it is an interesting perspective and certainly a wonderful lesson to anyone coming upon that particular stage of life. I am lucky to have had the ability to add the perspective of time to this experience to give the entire picture.

Such a force was my own mind against me, it drove me to sever a friendship based on an incident that was ultimately my fault. Inebriation can be a hell of a thing.
****

…and this post is hilarious!

An interesting dream:
original – http://www.synthetic-x.com/2004/06/dream.html
imported – http://synthetic-x.com/archive/2004/06/dream

Hierarchy [ 2012, update ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

>Tracy’s 21st Birthday

Originally drafted 2004 05 23:

>Went out to Framingham last night for Tracy’s 21st birthday.

It was quite the experience.

The original plan was to check out the strip club, then the club club, then maybe a few bars. I don’t think Justin allocated enough time in the night. Tracy’s friend Jen was with her when they arrived home from shopping. Tracy had grabbed a new outfit from Deb, or Rave, or one of those stores. When she came out, she was all popping out and I said something about it.

“Thats how she likes it” – Justin said, Tracy kind of beamed.

“I’ve got the body, might as well show it.”

- I suppose. I try and dress as sexy as possible, without being OOMPH. That works for her though, she looks good in it =]

Tracy’s friend Jen was blonde, reminded me of the other Jen’s I know. They just seem to have a quality about them. At any rate it wasn’t Jen I was looking at — it was Rachel. Somewhat tall, curly hair, and white sweater thing with feathery boofy cuffs and collar. It was, again, a bit more then I’m used to… but she pulled it off.

When we got there, I sat where there was room, which ended up being next to Rachel. There were really only 2 single girls in the group, so the fact that I ended up next to Rachel when Jen was sitting next to Tracy wasn’t too much of a stretch. It was welcomed though, once I got a drink in me and we sat along the runway — I was golden.

At first it was Justin, me, Justin’s friend, Rachel, then Jen… after a while Justin’s friend went with Jen to another part of the runway, and Rachel moved over to fill in the gap. I did my best to talk to her, but with the quality of conversation I was able to convey in my increasingly drunken state I wasn’t expecting much of a response. There was just a moment at some point, when I went over to see what Tracy and Rachel were up to at the bar. They were trying to get the bartenders attention — the girls ended up getting me to take a Kamakazi after I protested briefly about the yaeger. I welcomed the attention, though — so it was worth the shot… besides, I couldn’t get all that drunk from one shot, and I wasn’t going to buy another shot anyhow.

So when we sat down, Rachel made sure to snuggle right up to me, and thus it began. She’d put bills in front of me, I’d put bills in front of her, ended up buying beers for us both. She then gets up about a half hour after that and comes back with two more shots. We did those as it was now clear we were going to be here for the rest of the night, no driving to the club as it was half hour away. Understandably far away when you’re already having fun and a little sideways ;)

Things got interesting — she heard a good song, started dancing in her seat. I did the same. We noted the fact that we were dancing while sitting, but neither of us seemed to care. As we danced more, we got closer, hands moved… hips moved closer, and then the bouncer is coming over telling her to make sure I keep my hands above her waist. Not normally an unreasonable request, but we were both all worked up. From the nekkid girls to the sexy lights and music… we were quite the little chair-dancers.

I made sure Rachel came in Justin’s car on the way back, Justin’s friend hopped in the other car. (Thanks dude :] )

We were snuggling, but she seemed a little retracted, but I suppose thinking about the bouncer asking us to cool off, could have done it. I tried to be sweet, she wasn’t having it. I figure she was probably embarassed. From what Justin told me after the fact, she was as much of a virgin as you can have at 21. I’m sure she did all the technicalities, but I’m expecting there were difficulties.

So we lay on the couch snuggling, both drunk to the world…

Hierarchy [ 2004 ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Reflecting on “Threes Company”

Originally drafted 2004 07 15:

>I just watched an episode of 3s company and I had to write this quote.

Krissy’s father the minister came to visit, was all angry that Jack was living there…

“I wanted to bring you home so you would be surrounded by people who love you. Well you don’t need to come home… you are home.”

You form a bond with the people you live with. You have to care about someone in order to get along with them well enough to live with them.

Thats what being home is all about, being surrounded by people who love you. It’s a basic human need, and I think it’s what anyone looks for when they move out. [on their own]

Hierarchy [ Uncategorized ]
Classified [ , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Feeling Alive in NH

Originally drafted 2004 08 13

running up the mountain, then down it again… I felt like I could do anything. I wanted to run more.

This is regarding the hike up the mountain in NH I did with Justin. Nicole did not come with me, but I remember telling her about it when I got home from that trip. Ticket from the ranger, lots of drinking. It was an old fashioned good time. I got to hand it to him, I wouldn’t have had half my adventures without that guy.

Hierarchy [ 2004 ]
Classified [ , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

BOA not quite DOA

I believe this was from when I worked as a contractor at various NE Bank of America locations upgrading their computers.
Originally drafted: 2005 01 04

>Anyone else see a problem with where I’m working tonight?

And just in case the link is broken.

Hierarchy [ 2005 ]
Classified [ , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

>Win 7 Configuration

Originally Drafted: 2009 11 14
>Finally got it up and running…
[Details Forthcoming...]

Hierarchy [ 2009 ]
Classified [ ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

SLi – Double V

Originally drafted August 2006:

If you’re not a geek you have not heard about SLi. Even if you are a geek you may not have heard about QuadSLi. BFG fit 2 graphics cards on 1 PCIEx interface, allowing those who don’t have SLi to get SLi performance, and those that do have SLi to get QuadSLi performance.

In order to take advantage of the image quality these cards allow, you need a big frikken monitor, but you will be gaming like never before if you have the money.

Quad SLi – Where it Stands

**2012 05 02**
So a note on this. This was a previous draft from the old database. I have no idea why I never posted it but it was forshadowing. A couple years later I did get my 9850GX2s, two of them. I also got my 30″ monitor. Quad SLi worked nowhere near as well as I wanted it to. Half the games at the time couldn’t use more then one card, and others were actually bogged down by it. I don’t believe I ever went back to the dual chip cards after that.

There was always so much overhead, and not until a year or two later did they even have dual x16 PCIEx motherboards that could go full speed in SLi – previously it was 16x if you had 1 and it was 8x if you had two. They’ve certainly livened this up a little with the latest announcement of the 690s from Nvidia. They’re up to 85% efficiency? However, you’re still getting less then the 100% performance boost over 1 card you would get if you had 2 separate cards in SLi.

My stance is that a dual chip card is only for those without SLi motherboards.

Hierarchy [ 2006, consumerism, SLi ]
Classified [ , , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Timelapse: Walking On Air

Walking On Air – YouTube.

Hierarchy [ twt, video ]
Classified [ , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Historical Articles / Posts Restored

The last post made me realize that the old template made all the old posts esentially unreadable. You couldn’t scroll down so anything other then the initial screen was only readable via the source of the page. That doesn’t really work for most people.

I’ve reposted all 1200+ articles from the old site via blogger import so I’ve now got them all on the new DB. Nothing is tagged, but you can still find them by browsing back through the calendar. I’ll be tagging them with the year at least so the summaries will be browsable via that particular tag. I’ll then get down to the more accurate tagging so they’ll be showing up in the regular tag searches. I’ve got posts dating back to 2001 so there should be plenty to go back and look at.

Please feel free to provide some feedback. Comments on this post work just fine. I’ve had my fill with posting any kind of contact information, even only human readable. If you care enough to comment, I’ll care enough to read it.

Hierarchy [ 2012 ]
Classified [ , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Clarissa Explains it All Drinking Game

…not having luck reposting this from the old link:
http://www.synthetic-x.com/2008/02/clarissa-explains-it-all-drinking-game.html

Wednesday, February 06, 2008

post://118971903657824975/

Nicole and I couldn’t find a Clarissa Explains It All drinking game so we made up our own:

Keep in Mind:
~ Both the DVD and the real show (should you see it somewhere with commercials) still have commercial bumpers.
~ you shouldn’t try level 2 unless
a) you’re only watching 1 episode
b) you’re so super hard core, there’s no need to pull punches
c) glrealjrlj …. get nakked! blrgl.. *hic* auuuuuuuuuuuuughhhhhh…

Level 1 – Lets Watch the Whole Disk! / Marithon
Update/Report (Clarissa Report, Clarissa Financial Report, Clarissa Update, etc)
– 1 Drink
Clarissa Calls Her Brother a name other then “Ferguson”
– 1 Drink
Clarissa Actually Calls Her Brother “Ferguson”
– 2 Drinks
Clarissa Talks to the Camera
– 1 Drink
(while oblivious to everyone else in the scene)
– 2 Drinks
Time Speeds Up
– 1 Drink
Clarissa’s Mom creates a soy-based food
– 1 Drink
Commercial Bumper (Both To and From)
– 1 Drink
Clarissa creates a Computer Simulation
– 1 Drink
Computer Animation / Marker on the Screen
– 1 Drink
Clarissa Mentions One of Her Teachers
– 1 Drink
Clarissa uses a word above her grade level
– 2 Drinks
Elvis Reference
– 1 Drink
Oversized Prop (as in wouldn’t actually fit out her door) in Clarissa’s Room
– 1 Drink

Level 2 – What the Hell Are We Doing / OK, Maybe We’ll Watch 1 Episode
(Combine with Level 1)
Someone says “Clarissa”
– 1 Drink
Someone says ‘Sam”
– 1 Drink
Opening or Closing Credits
– 1 Drink
You See Clarissa’s Bedroom
– 1 Drink
You See Their Kitchen
– 1 Drink
You see their Living Room
– 1 Drink

posted @ 20:44

-x-

(2) comments | Post a Comment

    awesome!! i have a suggestion – every time Sam comes in a window, 1 drink. every time Sam comes in a door – finish the drink you’ve got!!

    also, every time Ferguson mentions his political aspirations, drink.

    every time Dad refers to his architecture job, drink!

Hierarchy [ 2008, booze, fun, nostalgia, tv ]
Classified [ , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Video: 413 Music Video – Peep It #WesternMA

http://youtu.be/QWxsYqCAS-k

via 413 music video – YouTube.

Hierarchy [ 2012, music, video ]
Classified [ , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

It Hertz More Then It Should

So I’ve taken a break from the 3D for better 2D. 120hz is what I’m talking about. I suppose if I put on VSYNC it should now try to do 90? 120? BF3 was surprising. I had been playing with vsynch in order to prevent tearing, but I disabled the 3D, put the glasses in their nice felt bag and tonight was all about the 120hz Battlefield 3.

Enabling 120hz for Games

There are several steps which you need to do in order to switch between the two modes. One of which is the hertz (naturally). For Nvidia it is in the Nvidia control panel – esentially the bigger better cousin of windows xp display properties (since Win7 has decided to split monitor into a device and resolution into a separate section… but I digress).

It’s in the resolution section – set it to your normal resolution (trust me, it’s 1920×1080) and choose 120hz from the dropdown. You may get some additional smoothness or benefit from setting it lower, if you’re expecting less from your machine, it allows your vsynch to time it right so it can stay steady at a lower frame rate but just set it to 120hz, even for demonstrative purposes.

You’ll also have to disable the 3D Vision. Note for BF3. Even if you disable it, if the game is open it will click 3D back on. BF3 especially has a bad habit of turning it off when you die, and then back on, so not only are you dead but you’re also getting flickering and black screen back and forth as the display adjusts. This is not helpful if you get revived!

I’m averaging about 70 to 115 fps @ 1920 x 1080. I’ll take some more accurate benchmarks and let you know.

…I really dislike non-hardcore mode.

Hierarchy [ Uncategorized ]
Classified [ , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Video: Seriously? You think you know bad driving?

I saw a few repeats in here, but for the most part… an HOUR and a HALF?!!

Hierarchy [ 2012, video, Yearly ]
Classified [ , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Logo Stuff

Here’s some new logos. I didn’t need photoshop afterall; GIMP did me well with these.

Couldn’t resist one more idea.

Hierarchy [ 2012, image, Yearly ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

My 3D Aventure in Digitopia

I was accused of trolling for posting what I found while testing a few games with 3D Vision. I don’t take umbrage but it reminded me that this is the first time round for some people.

The History

Before I address the fad aspect of 3D let me say I am no stranger. It has come a long way since the geForce 3 I had about 10 years ago. It worked, and I guess it never went away, even the test screen for the glasses is the same today as it used to be with a couple extra dynamic lights and a capital Nvidia (everything was camel case back then).

Review and Pictures of the 3D of Yester-Year

Continue reading

Hierarchy [ 2012, games, onthego, review, twt ]
Classified [ , , , , , , , , , , ]
Feedback [1 Comment ]

The Viking Kittens Return!

Ok, so maybe they were only just sleeping but here they are:

Click here to play...

This is an oldie.  I remember this being one of the first “viral” media pieces out there.  Before shockwave/flash there wasn’t much for embedable media.  There was a picture here or there, but high density media was avoided to prevent isolating users with slower computers.

Flash changed that and allowed everyone to see the same thing at the same time (upon visiting the site).  In any case I had sucked this down a while back and recently found it again while cleaning up the FTP.  I hope you enjoy this as much as I did.  It instantly became a cult classic amongst my circles.

Continue reading

Hierarchy [ 2012, music, twt, video ]
Classified [ , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

I found this from Feb 2008

It was topical at the time, apparently I wrote it up into a txt file and then just uploaded to my server. I recently found it.

—————————————-
[Feb 2008]
—————————————-

Everything I’ve looked up on the internet says there is no meaning to Clutch’s song 10001110101.
Even the singer says it means nothing in an interview, that some people are disappointed – like they’re looking for some secret code or something.

In any case I think it’s a secret plug because of what I found.
I was curious because right after he says 10001110101 is “periodic table”.
That got me thinking, translate the binary and then look for a matching item on the periodic table.

Continue reading

Hierarchy [ 2008, music, twt ]
Classified [ , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

EA… Realy?!!

I signed on today for some battlefield 3 and went to check out the patch notes and noticed something else… “shortcuts” yes, for only $6.95 you too can have a whole set of unlocks that others spent hours and hours. The whole point is you would carefully choose what you tried to unlock or try to hone several similar skills to align your goals and unlock as much as you could at once. It is like giving rookies keys to the cruiser.

Continue reading

Hierarchy [ 2012, games, gbuzz, twt ]
Classified [ , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]

Review: Jurassic Park (2011)

Wow, it’s pretty impressive how lame they were able to make this game. If they made it a traditional first person puzzle / battle game that would have been ideal… but they didn’t. Everything is WASD on PC and I’m sure ABYX on XBOX. They turned a promising concept into a lame press the button at the right time, twitchy, too slow? die” lump of blech. I’m very disappointed in this title.

I see a ton of blocky translucent vegitation, medium detail character models – blocky with giant eyes. The dinosaurs look good, until they move… which apparently the running joke is you don’t actually see them through the first part of the game.

This video was recorded at 2560×1600 – YouTube’d at 1920×1080, max settings. It’s meh all around. I’m ashamed they were able to get the franchise.

Hierarchy [ 2012, games, review, SocialAll, video ]
Classified [ , , , ]
Feedback [Leave a comment ]