I’m Still Just a Kid
Well one of the things I was worried about was that after Luke got here, I wouldn’t have time for “the old me”. You know the geeky, obsessed nerd that I am. That’s entirely not true. If anything I’ve learned that if I’m going to sit down and do something, just make sure I’m easily interrupt-able. Running GW missions with friends probably isn’t the best idea anymore since nobody wants to stand around in Yak’s Bend waiting for me to finish changing a dirty diaper. But playing some N64 is super easy, because you can just pause it whenever.
Been playing a lot of Nintendo 64 lately.
I’ve actually been playing a lot of N64 over the past few days. I ordered a replacement thumbstick for my worn out green controller. While not exactly as advertised, it’s a very nice replacement. More like the GameCube version on an N64 controller. It was only $8, so I’ve been putting it through a Mario Kart torture test over the past two days. It works well enough, I’ve been able to tie one of my old records, and now have a mild case of Nintendo Thumb. So far it’s holding up pretty well.
I can’t wait to introduce Luke to a bunch of this stuff. Although I know that when he’s older, all the games are going to be so much cooler, that his interest in this old stuff probably won’t be that great. Though the nephews were over last weekend and had a blast playing the old N64.
I’ve spent a lot of time on eBay lately looking at cheap stuff to fill in my collection. I’ve got this hairbrained idea that I know enough about this stuff to be able to find good deals and could buy low and sell high. Not enough to make a ton of money, but enough to support my gaming habit. Haha! Andrea’s not too enthusiastic about the idea though. I guess that’s understandable.
I just see a lot of cool stuff on there. Like brand new original N64 controllers (which are regularly going for $100 a piece now! Geeze). I definitely couldn’t justify taking hard earned money to buy one, but if I had play money from selling crap on eBay might make it easier to pull the trigger. I realize most folks have a LONG list of stuff they’d rather spend a Benjamin on but that’s the stuff I get a kick out of.
So I decided to focus on what I DO have instead. Which is a pretty nice collection as it is! I stumbled on a new website, called Backloggery.com it’s similar to IGN’s old collection feature, but it helps you keep track of not only what is in your collection, but the games you’ve beaten and the ones you haven’t. It’s very retro themed, and a fun way to organize my games. So far 105 games owned, 35 unbeaten, and 35 on my wishlist.
Since I’ve been so recently entrenched in my gaming vice I decided it was time to go ahead and finally unpack a bunch of my Nintendo stuff from when we moved it. I set it up all nice and neat in the basement.
Nintendo and Friends. We're both crazy.
Ready for multi-player action, but all my friends grew up. Haha.
So I’m definitely enjoying the holiday weekend. Tomorrow I’ll be outside getting the Oldses shined up since it’s going to be another nice day. Maybe after that my Nintendo Thumb will have recovered to the point I can lay down some times again! Haha.
It’s on now.
I’ve had this thing for a while now. Won it on eBay for $5. What it does is let you transfer your N64 memory card saves to your computer where you can then archive them, share them, etc.
Whoa... serial port. Do I have a serial port?
I had to do some checking. I know neither Andrea or I’s computer have a serial port. I’d hate to order an expansion card just for this thing. But I lucked out because the server which it a little more dated DOES have a COM port. So we’re in business. Now just to make sure it meets the system requirements.
I think we'll be fine.
So, got the device hooked up. Now to install the software!
Uhh... what do you do with these?
While I lucked out on the COM port… out of the 4 PCs in the house, none of them have a floppy drive. I mean when’s the last time you ever used one? What could you even store on a 1.44 MB drive these days? Again digging through our boneyard I found a ye olde USB floppy drive. And was able to hook that up to the server.
Nostalgia always seems to emphasize the best version of your memories. But installing this software really brought back some of the gritty truth that was 90’s computing. First off, it was slow. Waiting for the drive to read, then waiting for the program to load, and then waiting for it to install… it was a pretty lenghty process… especially considering how this program COULDN’T be larger than 2.88MB. And to make matters worse, by the time I finally got to disk two, either time or some other form of decay had wiped out the second disc. So all that searching for a floppy was for naught!
I was able to find a version of the software online luckily. And from there, installation took only a few seconds. As much as I jabber about “the good ole days” I have to remember they actually sucked just as much as “any other days” haha!
Ready to roll!
What this all means:
First off, I’ve gone from two memory cards, to basically an unlimited number of memory cards. There are a few games which take up a large chunk, if not ALL of the space on a Memory Card. So this will allow me to save more data.
I can Archive and organize my data. Before I was limited to saving at most four Mario Kart 64 ghosts. Now I have the opportunity not only to save ghosts for every track, but as many ghosts as I want! So I can save top 5 fastest for each track. With shortcuts, without. And I can label and catogorize my data.
My data is safer. Third party memory cards were notorious for corrupting data. And while Nintendo’s own cards are certainly of higher quality, they aren’t immune by any stretch. I remember one of my cards being corrupted as a kid, and just a few days ago, one of my cards was again corrupted. It’s what prompted me to finally install the DexDrive. Now I can transfer all my saves to the hard drive, and have them backed up regularly.
So I continue to be hopelessly obsessed with all things N64 right now. My new joystick should be here next week for one of my worn out controllers. I’m hoping it’s more comparable to the original controller than the knock-off I bought a while ago. Though I’m still considering buying a few more knock offs to torture on Mario Kart.
And I’m continuing with my next re-review playthough. It might be a while, because I’m really having a lot of fun with this game. I guarantee you won’t wait as long for the re-review as I waited for the game to actually come out!
Play on, my friends! And come on over for some multiplayer sometime!
Belly Button
They grow up so fast… *sniffle*. Lucas’ umbilical cord remains fell off today. Kinda nasty really. Just like a big scab. I guess some people save those things… not us. Blech!
His circumcision ring fell off a few days ago, so he’s now pretty much how he’ll be the rest of his life. Kinda crazy.
It’s all been going real well. Well from my perspective at least. Maybe Andrea would say differently since she gets to spend a little more time with him, but he’s just an awesome little boy. Doesn’t cry a whole lot, and when he does, you can pretty much just bet that he’s hungry. He’s been sleeping fairly well too. Sometimes a little challenging to get him put to bed for the night, but once he’s there, he’ll sleep for a good 3 to 4 hours. The other night he slept from 1:30am all the way to 8:00am. That was pretty friggin awesome if you were wondering! Haha.
So far, it’s hard to imagine that he doesn’t belong here. Before we got pregnant you always wonder “if you’re ready”, well I guess it just doesn’t matter if you are or aren’t. Since he’s been around it just feels like he was meant to be here all along.
08.5.11Lucas James – “The Man”
Meet our first son… Lucas James! I know it’s what all new parents say, but he’s really amazing. He was born August 3rd, 2011 at exactly 5:00 pm. It was a long hard day especially for Andrea as we got to the hospital at 4:00 am. And she was dialated to 10cm by noon and pushing for 4 hours before the doctor finally said we’d better do a c-section. (I think he was just ready to go home, haha) Honestly, Andrea was about exhausted too.
You always hear people talk about how amazing it is to hear your child cry for the very first time. You kind of prepare yourself for it, but it just doesn’t comprehend until it actually happens. We were in the operating room, so we didn’t get to see him emerge, but Andrea was alert, and I was totally holding it together until a tear rolled down her face when Lucas wimpered for the first time.
Shortly after that they got him pretty much cleaned up and wrapped him up and handed him to me. I’ve never been one who likes to hold babies, but man was I ever ready to hold him! It was so odd looking at Andrea, and then looking at him. I would look at Andrea and see “us” and I would look at Luke and think “him”. He really didn’t feel like ours in that very first moment. But when I held him and was able to hold him cheek to cheek with Andrea… it all was just perfect.
Andrea actually didn’t get a chance to hold him for about an hour or so. They had to close her incision back up, and Luke and I went to the nursery for standard tests and measurements. He laid there taking it all in for the first time. Just staring up and crying everyonce in a while. I was able to be in the nursery with him for a while and was always able to calm him down.
He weighed in at 8lbs 2oz. 21 inches long and a full head of hair.
He’s really amazing. Hard to believe its real still. Next step is to get out of the hospital. Andrea has some extra recovery time due to the c-section, but the doctor said she should be able to get out of here by Saturday at noon. I sure hope so. I’ve had about enough hospital living. New nurses every shift with new ways we “should” be doing things. Its wears on the patience when the 4th different person shows up and lays down a new law.
Thanks for all the prayers and support. We definitely couldn’t have done it without the folks that were here, and all the people who have helped us and provided for us everything we could possibly need and more. We are blessed to have the most amazing family and friends we could ask for!
Oh yeah, here’s a link to a photo album with a bunch of pictures. Look for this album to grow and grow along with baby Lucas!
07.31.11A Look Back: Hydro Thunder
This re-review will be pretty brief. In large part due to the fact that Hydro Thunder is about as straight forward as games can get.
If I recall correctly, Hydro Thunder was a birthday or Christmas present in what would have had to have been the year 2000. I was familiar with the game from its arcade presence (which was basically every arcade in America) but it was not a game that I was particularly interested in adding to my N64 collection. After an obsession with Crusin’ World in the arcade, and then feeling underwhelmed when I finally got my own cartridge, getting Hydro Thunder never even crossed my mind. Luckily someone took care of that for me!
Things move pretty fast in the technology world. The N64 came out in 1996 and this game was released a little less than 4 years later. While the hardware packed in an N64 will never change, arcade cabinets were getting more powerful all the time. I want to say that the arcade version was running on a souped up version of the brand new Sega Dreamcast hardware. Even though I’m not a huge fan of this game, I do have to admit that the arcade version of this game has some pretty good eyecandy, even by today’s standards, and 10 years ago it was pretty fun to look at. Dialing all that down so that the N64 could handle it means there’s going to be quite a few sacrifices.
Hydro Thunder: Arcade
Hydro Thunder: N64
Biggest sacrifice was the framerate department. At times this game felt really choppy. Although this was par for the course with a lot of N64 games. Honestly cramming this game onto the N64 complete with high quality voice over audio was pretty damn impressive.
I think my biggest beef with this game is just that by this point I really wasn’t as interested in arcade racers as much anymore. This (for me) was just another Midway “Crusi’n” game on water. The levels were pretty cool, the boats were cool. But I’d played it all before. Don’t get me wrong! I still played quite a bit of this game. I couldn’t just set it in the box and never mess with it. I made it a point to beat all the levels, and unlock all the boats. Certainly didn’t set any records though.
I pulled it out today just for this review. And consistent with most of these games that pushed the graphical envelope on the N64, this one again hasn’t aged well. The world is very detailed, but the low resolution just leaves it all feeling jagged and blurry. Honestly, the framerate wasn’t as bad as I remember. And the courses are pretty well laid out. I found myself missing a lot of the boosts, but memorizing the few tracks there are would take care of that. If I wished to dedicate that much time to the game.
All in all, this was a good game for what I used it for back in the day. Then I had so much time to play. I mean a lot of time. And this was a great game to play and work on a little bit when I was sick of playing everything else. Today with less time and more to play, it’s hard to find a spot for this game.
07.21.11Toast-erriffic!
Last night around 10:15pm I noticed it felt pretty warm in the house, so I checked to see if we just had turned the AC off for the night or what. Unfortunately the fan was still blowing, but it wasn’t cold. A quick check outside proved the AC unit wasn’t running in the back yard.
Figured we’d make it through the nights so decided to call the landlord in the morning. So today he said he’d try to get somebody over here but it was a pretty busy day for AC guys. I figured that was true and we aren’t any more important than anyone else on the list, so we left the dog with plenty of water and headed off to work. Forecasted high of only 106 today.
Got home at 5:30pm or so and the landlord and the AC guy were there waiting for me. Apparently the landlord didn’t bring the right keys or something to get into the house. They didn’t have to wait long though, and I was able to let them in. First thing the AC guy did… was check the breaker. WHY THE HELL DIDN’T I THINK OF THAT! It never even occurred to me for some reason. But he flips that on, lo and behold the AC fires right up. He hooks some gauges up just to make sure it’s operating correctly and it appears to be. Guess it’s just been running so much lately with the 100+ temperatures that it started drawing enough current to keep up and the breaker tripped.
So quite humbled I thanked both men and they headed to their vehicles. Soon after I heard a knock again at the door. It was the AC guy. He needed a jumpstart because his van battery was dead. I CAN DO THAT! So somewhat redeeming my pride I jumpstarted him and he was on his way.
In the end, its all good. AC is working and recovering. I’d previously tweeted that we’d save a bunch of money by not running the AC while it was broke. Of course Andrea was probably right when she said we’re going to spend all the money we saved getting the house back down to 85! No kidding! It’s toast-erriffic in here!
07.20.11I’ll never be this good.
[youtube=http://youtu.be/HUbHj9tBpGU]
07.18.111357 is the limit
It was fine yesterday, today this:
Studies have shown you should change your password every 1357 days.
Clare Enfield
That's right, captured straight from my original Helen Hunt Gallery!
Every once in a while something happens you least expect. Since WAY back in the 90’s. (Ouch… it hurts to say “way” back in the 90’s) I’ve been wondering if I’d ever see this movie again. Only You was a romantic comedy that I remember playing on HBO back when I was a kid. I seriously have no idea why I glommed on to this film. It’s really a cute show but at brief times the sexual themes (while far from explicit) were probably more than an 13 year old needed to be exposed to. (Hey I turned out just fine, thank you.) I never found the show on DVD, never hardly a frame of it to be seen on the internet. Lo and behold it popped up on Netflix!
In retrospect this was a significant movie in that it began a long… I still refuse to call it an obsession… admiration of Helen Hunt’s popular work. As I watched the film again for the first time in 15 years, it was amazing how much I remembered. Made me wonder how many times I’d seen this show. Infact I remember taking those monthly HBO schedules we’d get in the mail and finding each and every instance of Only You so I could be sure to catch every possible show. (still… NOT obsessed. I stand by it.) But just little moments, mostly audio that felt VERY familiar.
Actually watching the movie again I think I finally realized what it was that drew me to Helen Hunt in a big way. You aren’t going to believe me… but it’s… her voice. I just can’t quite explain it but there’s something about her voice that just feels honest and comfortable. I dunno. Hard to explain.
Okay, enough weirdness. So strange to travel down these old paths that just don’t quite fit any more who I am today. Kind of like visiting your old elementary school and realizing the old hallways actually just aren’t as wide or tall as you remember them. You feel like you belong there in your heart, but it doesn’t take long to stop and know that you don’t belong there anymore.
If you feel so enclined, enjoy Only You now available on Hulu & Netflix! It’s not an award winner, but it’s a cute, albeit predictable movie. And hopefully you can appreciate the role of Clare Enfield as much as I did back in the day.
http://www.hulu.com/embed/-y9-GBsv_ld91kujVTs4Dw
Ha ha! Great Spam.
Found this on a site I was browsing this morning. I am pasting it here verbatim other than changing the links so they don’t take you anywhere.
Just reading through I thought it was hilarious. The sad thing is, if nobody were falling for this stuff, they wouldn’t be doing it. So somebody must be clicking on this crap! WHO? WHO ARE THESE PEOPLE?
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