*I typed this up yesterday but Photobucket decided to be broken all day so I couldn't upload. Anyways have an awesome weekend!
You know what I can't wait for Pixlpeeps? Saturday. Yes Saturday and not because its SDSU Homecoming (GO AZTECS!) not because it is College Football Saturday, and not because I might head out again for more CDs, but because the good people here in Sunny California get to move our clocks back an hour and I get back my precious hour of sleep. This also means that for the first week I will probably be waking up at 4:30-5:00 instead of 5:30-6:00am like I normally do. Small price. Anyways how are you Pixlpeeps? Get anything good during Halloween? Speaking of Halloween after I finish this entry I need to hit the local Target because candy will be 50% off. I got a text from my brother to stock up on Snickers which means I will probably have to mail out his candy or give it to him during Christmas.
Today is Friday so it is time for my non gaming Quick Hits Blog. Let's get started!
Chris Watches...
The Dust Bowl – PBS *Link to PBS' Webpage
I watched this last night and it is depressing to see what happened to Oklahoma in the 30s. My Great Aunt went through this and told my mom stories about it. It's crazy to think that the farmers didn't listen to people about crops and basically killed off the soil until it could be fixed a decade later. If you get a chance check out this documentary.
My Superhero Shows (Supergirl, SHIELD, Arrow, Legends Of Tomorrow)
Supergirl was good, I skipped SHIELD again. I don't know why but the last couple of weeks I was not into watching it. Maybe I'll take in a marathon at some point. Green Batman is getting more Green Batman every week. Of course I missed this because there was a certain baseball game on TV and I watched it on the CW App. Legends of Tomorrow was a throwaway for me because it involves zombies and well I think the whole Zombie craze is stupid.
The World Series – Fox
Seriously how good was that final game? Before the last game at Wrigley I wore my beat up Andre Dawson shirt and they won
Everyone who had WGN in the early 90s got to watch a ton of Cubs baseball in the summer. I think at one point I could name the everyday lineup for Don Zimmer's Cubs. My favorite player was Ryne Sandberg, of course it also helps that the year I really started watching he lead the majors in home runs, won the Gold Glove for second base, and a Silver Slugger. Anyways Game 7 was freaking crazy. I wanted to see the Cubs win but if it was against any other team, I think the nation would have been behind Cleveland. Anyways the Cubs finally win, Budweiser puts out their Harry Caray commercial that makes everyone have allergies or dust in their eyes, and the Cubs finally win. The next day I wear this
My Ryno jersey.
Chris Listens To...
The minute I gave out the last piece of candy it was time to move Christmas music onto my phone.
From November 1st to New Year's Day it will be all Christmas music on my phone...along with some regular music because it will drive me crazy at some point.
So last week I thought about ripping my CDs into FLAC so I could use my Android tablet as a FLAC player. I finally found an app in the Google Play Store that reads reads off of the micro USB port which is awesome. My tablet is hit and miss with reading off of the 1TB external but it has no problem with USB sticks and the smaller 320 GB External Hard Drive. What I am thinking about doing if for the Android tablet I will just drag over FLAC albums or singles to the smaller external disc and test it out as a music player. I'll let you know how it goes.
I am using the portable install of Foobar2000 as my app of choice to rip and play my FLAC files. I also have a Sandisk player somewhere in my house that I installed Rockbox on to play FLAC files. When I find it I will use it.
It takes about 10 minutes per CD and I am currently 29 discs in. Yeah its going to take awhile to rip my CD collection but I'm ok with it.
Chris Celebrates Halloween
I don't go out during Halloween because I don't want to drive around knowing little people dressed as Superheroes are roaming the sidewalks and not paying attention to their surroundings. The day of I decided to carve a pumpkin and this is how far I got
Nobody in the area had any pumpkins. NOBODY! It was a shock but its cool, less mess for me and my four dollar investment will have to wait until next year.
My bag of candy. I had twelve kids visit this year, and everyone said “Thank you, have a good night” or “Happy Halloween”. I didn't have the funny little kids who knock, and then walk in like its their house (I've had a couple do this in previous years). Two kids were funny because they were watching me hand out a handful of candy and one said “Can I have Sour Patch Kids?” I gave him five packs and dude was excited. He left without his sister to show his parents. His sister asked for Starburst, and I gave her five packs and she took off like she won money.
My Halloween costume.
Pickups!
Games
I bought a bundle from Bundle Stars last night for $3 just for the first game
It's a top down western shooter where all you see are the character's hats.
Music
I bought a lot of CDs because they had a bunch of stuff I wanted
It Ain't Safe No More is an edited version, which sucks but its a placeholder until I can get a copy with the cuss words
Ok so the Bone Thugz N Harmony Single was supposed to be for the single for Crossroads but when I opened the case to rip the CD it was the Creepin on ah Come Up EP. Not bad for a buck.
And the rest of the CDs I bought. A couple of them replace digital copies.
So after my trip to the Caribbean my current backpack just didn't cut it. It hurt, it didn't have enough space, and I needed to carry my camera stuff separately. After checking out a couple of things on YouTube I decided to try out the house brand from Amazon, AmazonBasics. They had a camera bag/DSLR bag for $40 bucks and I am giving it a shot for my next trip (more on that when I get back)
My bag was late because USPS, so Amazon gave me a free month of Prime to make up for this.
It's a good size bag and feels sturdy
The outermost pocket has some pockets, space for a tablet, and the bright orange interior is awesome because a lot of tech stuff is black and can easily be lost.
Inside the main compartment has a ton of moveable dividers and a couple of straps.
When I filled up my bag this is how it looks
The outer pocket is home to some medications, a USB hub, my notebook, and my iPad.
The middle pocket is full (I've since changed the setup to add more items
The bottom of the middle section is home to my powerstrip, and the laptop power cable inside a pouch to keep it organized.
The top pouch is home to a 1 TB external hard drive, a couple of 128GB USB Sticks (both are used for photo backups) and the there is also my SD cards for my camera, and a couple of cables. The bottom pouch is home to my GoPro stuff, and now my battery charger for my camera.
Right above the two pouches is my GoPro
I've since removed the GoPro from its case to make more room and I will place that case in my other camera bag. I will keep that case in my check in luggage for when I go out on day trips but don't want to bring the backpack.
The left side of the bag is my camera stuff.
The empty spot is where my camera goes, the other two slots are my lenses. I actually can fit two lenses in the one spot where my zoom lens is sleeping so I saved more space there.
The other side is computer stuff
This is home to my wired generic 360 controller, and my mouse.
I actually made enough space to have my Audio Technica ATH M50s fit alongside the controller and mouse. For shorter trips I will probably leave the big laptop at home in favor of the mini laptop because of weight and because I won't do a lot of gaming.
The back pocket is home to my laptop
I found there is also enough room to slide my iPad in there with the laptop which is a nice surprise. I hung my water bottle off the handle and I am using the tripod straps to keep it in place.
Overall the bag weighs as much as my other backpack but I also have the straps that go around my waist so the weight is distributed and it doesn't hurt. Its the same size as my old backpack so its perfect for carry-on and instead of carrying two bags, I just have one bag.
Alright Pixlbit, I am off to watch the rest of the Cubs Parade. Thanks for putting up with my long drawn out description of my new backpack.
That's all for now, more later!
-Chris
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