Moving To Another Blog Address

For some reason, Blogger will not allow me to change my email adress to my Google account address, so I created a new blog and exported my stuff there. This will be my last post at this blog site. I'm still with Blogger and the new blog can be found at http://acasualtyofcasualcausality.blogspot.com.

See ya there!

New Sade Album Coming Soon

I just read that the sultry Sade will be releasing a new album, Soldier Of Love, this coming February 8th. Can you believe it's been 10 years since her last release? Looking at her past albums, the gap of time between each release increases with each new album! I'm looking forward to her new album, and hope she won't wait more than ten years to release another one!

Make It So

I was able to try out the Star Trek Online open beta for several hours earlier today. Contrary to what some have been saying about a 10 gig patch, I only received a 177 meg patch, which was a sigh of relief. I did not want to spend another day downloading.

Cryptic has the game level capped, creating an artificial load by containing everyone in one place. Of course, I lost server connections and was kicked out several times, but that's something to expect in betas. There was an abundance of rubberbanding as well. Other than the problems due to overcrowding, I did not encounter any game crashing bugs.

Of the parts that was playable, I enjoyed. The Star Trek atmosphere is there, but so is the standard MMORPG mechanics as well. I created an Andorian who specializes in engineering. There were many places where I was completely on my own trying to figure things out, such as skill allocation and sector space navigation. I like the Bridge Officers concept, where you obtain and develop your crew. I have only one officer so far, a Bajoran Tactical officer.

It's only been my first day, but I think I'll enjoy playing this when it releases in February.

Still Downloading...

Star Trek Online's open beta started yesterday, and I am one of the many beta testers who's still trying to download the client software. I first attempted my download Monday night via FilePlanet, but after after an overnight download session, I was only able to transfer less than 10%! At that rate, the beta would be over before I would be able to even start. Not acceptable!

I've never used torrents before, but with the ridiculous download rates from the other hosting services, I went ahead and gave the torrent a try. So far, I've been able to get a transfer rate between 5 - 500 KB/sec. It's still downloading, but is almost complete. After the download is complete, I plan to keep my copy of the file available for "seeding" to the other torrent users to help them out as well.

I've read online that after the client download, there's a 10 gig patch process! I hope that goes much faster than the client...

The Island Will Not Let You, Mr. President....

OK, earlier I heard some distressing news that President Obama was planning to schedule his State Of The Union address on February 2nd, the same day as the premiere episode of Lost's final season. What The Chuck?!? Aren't those addresses usually planned for the last week of January?

Don't worry, fellow Lost fans. The Prez's press secretary assured us that Obama's address won't impact the show. Of course, no date for the address hasn't been revealed yet, so I won't be at ease until I hear of one.

Don't deprive us of our Lost, Mr. President. The Island demands it.

Who's The Marketing Guy For Hollywood Video?

I just finished my lunch and was returning back to work when I noticed the following advertising sign posted on a Hollywood Video window:

I know that Netflix has become more popular recently and is biting into the retail video rental business, but c'mon, Hollywood Video! Giving away children to attract more business?!? That's a new low.... ;)

A New Year, A New Decade

It may already be six days into 2010, but I still want to wish everyone a prosperous new year and decade. I'm glad to be into 2010, as the tail end of the "Naughts" haven't been kind to me personally, and it'll be refreshing to look ahead with a brighter sense of perspective and feeling.

More Used Gaming Goodness

Gamestop is running their "Buy Two Used, Get One Free" promotion again, so I was able to get the following games for XBox 360 today: Grand Theft Auto IV, Prince Of Persia, and Left 4 Dead. Prince of Persia was the one marked for free.

My "From: Me, To: Me" Christmas Gift: The Motorola Droid

First off, I would like to wish everyone a very merry holiday! I got to spend the Christmas day with my two munchkins, and that's the best gift I could ever receive. The next best gift was (as Munchkin No.1 likes to call) my "From: Me, To: Me" gift for myself, a Motorola Droid!

Up to this point, I had been using a basic, no frills prepaid cell phone, and had no real reason in using anything fancier. But with recent changes and going-ons in my life, I've been using the cell phone more and more, where buying the prepaid minutes were becoming just as expensive as going through a subscription plan.

Last week, I started looking for any special deals or what was avaialable through Verizon (I was already going through them with my prepaid phone). Probably designed specifically for the holidays, Verizon had a deal going where if you purchased a Motorola Droid with a 2-year contract for an initial $199, you could receive another phone for free. Among the phones available for free happened to be a HTC Droid Eris, another smartphone! After doing some calculations, I found that I would be spending about $40 more a month for two smartphones than what I was currently spending on prepaid phone minutes for my basic phone. This was a deal I couldn't pass up, and Munchkin No. 1 was more than happy to receive the free smartphone!

So now me and the munckin are playing with our new gadget toys this holiday. I've only downloaded a couple of free apps so far, and I've been playing around customizing the screens and tones. I think I'll try the Twitter app next. This is fun. Happy Holidays!

Lost Is Too Damn Addicting!

I knew I wouldn't be able to keep to my viewing schedule of my Lost Rewatch. It's only been a couple of weeks since I started, and already I've finished rewatching the 3rd season finale! This show is just too good that if I continue watching at this pace, I'll be done with the 5th season before the end of the year, leaving me a month or so before the final season premiere...

To put my viewing schedule back on track, I've decided to stop watching Lost at the end of Season 3. What will I do until I can get my rewatch back on track? Play the video game, Lost: Via Domus, of course! The game is geared around the first three seasons, so starting the game now is perfect.

I found a used copy of Via Domus at Gamestop for only $12, so I'm gonna start playing now. Namaste!