PixlBit

So this is the usual morning routine: I wake up an hour before my alarm goes off. I have that extra hour in case I wake up late, which has happened, and I am not rushing to get things done so I can get going with my day. During this hour of just laying in bed, I have the local news playing, and I am on the iPad reading Twitter, checking Facebook, and maybe looking through Slickdeals. Over the past 24 hours I have had to use the “Hide All” feature on a couple of friends and this is why. Over the past year or so I have called people “Political Bandwagoners” because all of a sudden they have become so into politics this is all (most) that they post. Just like sports bandwagon guy, political bandwagon guy is just as annoying, and is only around for the ride until something else comes along.

Alright so here is my stance on people sharing their political beliefs: You have a viewpoint, congratulations! Do I want to you know your view point? Nope. Do I want to share my viewpoint? Nope. Do I understand the need for folks to share their views? Yeah I get it. This is what I don't like; I don't like a wall of posts/shares of articles especially articles that obviously lean towards one side/name calling. What I really don't like is when you do this for 24 straight hours. You have an opinion, share it. You have an article share it. Don't be a total d-bag and constantly ram a point down the throat of people. One maybe two posts and we're good. You shared your viewpoint, people can discuss it with you on the comments, and folks like myself can continue to scroll through pictures of babies doing something hilarious, dog videos, vacation pictures, and other usual Facebook things.

I don't want to use the unfollow feature because I like when people share interesting life experiences, articles that I may not have read on their own but if someone I am friends with thinks its interesting I will check it out, but don't abuse this privilege by constantly spouting off about the government. It's insane to devote so much time to this when you could be doing something more interesting.

 

Enough with being cranky....maybe not quite yet

 

Chris Watches...

 

LA 92 – National Geographic Channel

 

The 90s were an interesting time for folks in Southern California. There were a lot of memorable events like OJ, the big Northridge Earthquake, the guys who dressed in body armor and robbed a bank, and the Riots. LA 92 is about those riots. Now living in a small farming town I was as far away from these events as possible but this is all we talked about in school. I remember a lot of the events especially when that was all that was on television, but the one thing I forgot is that the National Guard had to come in and restore order. How freaking embarrassing is that for not only the state but the US? You had to call in the military to calm things down.

Watching it again was horrible. Seeing both sides obviously screw up led to what, destroying neighborhoods, and people losing their lives. I was angry watching this because there was a better way to respond, but it didn't happen. Now there are shades of the same type of violence today when people protest. Apparently society didn't learn.

Anyways its a good documentary, give it a watch.

 

The Challenge – MTV

After watching LA 92 I needed some good old fashion turn your brain off entertainment. Last episode was the first night in a multi-episode event for the finals for the final three men and three women. The early on portions seem tame, a swim, small puzzle, eating stuff, but already some folks are breaking down, and this is a three day event. One of the portions of the Finals was a puzzle I've seen in a couple of kids menus at restaurants where you have to create a pyramid out of these blocks using three poles

 

Apparently this is called The Tower of Hanoi Game (Thanks Google) The link is to a site that explains it. Anyways I can't wait to see what next week has.

 

Chris Reads...

Well I'm back reading, kinda. Ok so when I remember to, I'll open up iBooks or Kindle App and read whatever book that was open. On iBooks it's Ben Carson's A More Perfect Union, and right now on Kindle I really don't have a book picked out. On Audiobooks I still have the last 6 or so chapters for Zane Grey's Call of the Canyon, and I have the John Adams book ready to go.

 

Chris Listens To...

 

As for music last month the goal was to hit 1,500 tracks that were not played and my plays for the month is 1,562 tracks. At the time I was down to 6,012 tracks left in the library with zero plays and I added 192 new tracks to the library. This is well under my 8,000 cushion if I wanted to add new music and listen to everything by the end of the year. I'm still on pace to listen to everything by the end of August, but its starting to get tougher as you start hitting the deep cuts from albums, which many songs are filler. This is also the perfect place to find some hidden gems. From one of the albums I got from Amazon, I didn't know Shakira had a country track with Blake Shelton. That was a surprise when I was listening to my phone.

 

Voting In New Mexico

 

Whoever had my current phone number lived in New Mexico and for over a year or so I would get calls usually from really nice volunteers to let me know that I need to go vote. After telling them I'm not the person they're looking for and I live in California, they apologize and remove me from their list. Well it looks like the Democratic Office of New Mexico doesn't update their lists because I got this. Also props to the former owner of my phone number for being involved

Sorry New Mexico wrong voter in the wrong state.

 

Adventures In PSP Land

So on Monday I said I was adding 128GB card to my PSP for all the same I could ever need? Well Tuesday Mr. Postman dropped this off in the box

 

A Card Reader that actually has a Pro Duo slot (who knew they still make these), and a Pro Duo adapter for a micro SD card.

Flashback: In the PSP's heyday I spent $100 on a 1GB card, a year later $100 on a 2GB card, and I believe this 4GB card was around $100 a couple of years later. Yeah thanks Sony and your expensive propitiatory storage options.

 

Well that 128GB card was $35 bucks at Walmart. THIRTY FIVE! I can't wait for the day when there is a 1TB option that is cheap.

 

After formatting the card and copying over whatever was on my 4GB card I was left with

 

And currently the card sits with 53GB free. The PSP has made the travel rotation and will sit in my camera bag along with the 3DS XL. The one thing I do need to do is eventually replace the joystick.

 

The other pickup for this week from yesterday when I saw an ad on Twitter, and a couple of clicks later for $1 I bought

I wanted this pack for the complete Ridge Racer, so two games for free.

 

Surprisingly I did not buy any new CDs this week. Kinda odd, but I will pickup Paramore's new album next week.

 

Alright Pixlpeeps, I need to eat some breakfast before I venture out for some errands, and once again debating on getting a new external hard drive (Best Buy opens in an hour and 15. I have a gift card so it bring the price down by 50%). I have already figured out a purpose for it, but when I walk into the store I manage to talk myself out of one. It's crazy.

 

That's all for now, more later!

-Chris

 

Song of the Week

Ok so at first I wasn't a fan of this song. After a couple of listens I like it. They're keeping with that 80s-ish kind of sound that they played with on their last album and there's more of it here. I've been reluctant to buy the single because I'd rather have the full album than get sick of one song before the album is released and I'd like to have all my poppy goodness all at once. Have a good weekend!