PixlBit

Did anyone else get the Windows 10 Creators Update? The one that took forever and had two separate installs? I currently have it running and well so far it has my laptop feeling a bit sluggish especially with Chrome and Steam. It takes a second for things to get back up to speed. Its a minor annoyance, and something that will iron itself out, but I was just wondering if anyone else ran into some troubles.

 

Who actually uses Windows' Browser? There are better alternatives. It was like when I was on my Macbook, I never touched Safari, unless it was time to watch the World Wide Developers Conference. Also the Mail link was the second thing to disappear from my toolbar.

 

For a moment I thought Windows might have messed with my iTunes. It didn't and I am glad that Microsoft is offering iTunes in their App Store, so folks who will buy a Windows 10 S Machine will have the ability to have iTunes on their laptops. If/When I replace the mini Travel Laptop, I'd like to have iTunes running.

So how have you been Pixlbit? I'm still catching up to people's blogs but I'm almost there. Maybe I might catch up this weekend, maybe I might drop further back. We shall see what the weekend has in store. I want to finish up some things like laundry (BOOOO, but I do like clean clothes), finish up with my sorting through my Photo Drive (I found 30 GB of repeated stuff that can be erased), and maybe sprinkle in a game or two.

 

Chris Watches...

The Challenge – MTV

The second part of the finals aired and it was kind of deflating. A couple of weeks before I accidentally went on a site that had spoilers so I knew who already won. While watching the episode you kind of had an idea of who won based on the current performance. This kinder, gentler Challenge doesn't have the same excitement as previous seasons. The one positive is that next Tuesday there is going to be a special 6 week Challenge: Pros vs Champions. 10 Challenge Champions take on 10 Professional Athletes all for charity. That should be interesting.

Other than that show I haven't watched TV. The TV will be playing in the background but I found myself listening to podcasts, audiobooks, or doing something on the laptop.

 

Chris Listens To...

I am two days behind my pace for the month when it comes to listening to my zero play count playlist. I am currently sitting at 459 tracks, when it should be 100 more, and the total number of zero plays is at 5,609. I am on a good pace especially considering I started at 10,560 tracks, but I'd like to be either at or ahead of the pace.

While listening to my library, I can honestly say I don't like Original Cast Recordings of plays or soundtracks for shows that take place on stage. It's not my thing, I have a couple (maybe more) of different Broadway Shows and I can't get into the sing talking. It's not for me, and I don't enjoy it.

 

Chris Reads...

I finished off two chapters in my Zane Grey Audiobook, The Call of the Canyon, that I got from LibriVox, which is a site that has free public domain works, read by volunteers. Good stuff.

In my other book, Ben Carson's A More Perfect Union, it's a little dry, and so far its just a retelling of what went on during the writing of the Constitution. The interesting thing is that the book is short, so I could finish it by the end of the month. If I actually tried I could finish it by next week. COULD. As for the book itself, it's a little dry.

 

Adventures In Photo Drive

 

So last Friday I bought the drive on the right, to backup the big drive on the left. Last night Best Buy puts the drive I just bought on their Lightning Deals where it was $10 less. Kind of frustrating but oh well. Anyways I've started to sort, put things by year (except I think my old camera hit a certain point and made everything after that take place in 2007. I'm almost done with the sorting and putting pictures in the appropriate folders. My next task once that is completed is to download the pictures I have on iCloud to add to my archive. Once that is finished I plan on scanning all the physical photos and I'm going to try and sort those out as well (this one I'm kind of dreading but excited to tackle). If I can get all those old family pictures scanned in time, and fixed, it could make for some fun Christmas gifts for the Aunts and Uncles to have pictures of themselves when they were younger.

 Also I've noticed I take/keep a lot of random pictures. A LOT.

Randoms

Walmart is going hard into the newest Guardians of the Galaxy movie

 

I wish there was a bin like this for the Fast and Furious so reseller guy wouldn't buy everything at the local Walmart.

 

If you have Instagram and follow House of Cards you might have seen this

 

If you go a little closer to the top row

 

The letters in blue spell out IMPEACH. This is going to be a fun season on House of Cards.

 

Pickups

Games

From an IndieGala bundle I just wanted the $1 row of games

 

Out of the three games I only wanted Ridge Racer Unbounded with all the DLC. The other games are just a bonus.

 

This game I've been waiting for since reading about it, and it was released I think Monday night on Steam for $20

 

I'll talk more about it on Monday, but I already completed the six Tournaments, and I still think NBA Jam is a better game.

 

A random Goodwill find while waiting for my to go Pho Order at the local Pho Spot to be ready

 

I'm a sucker for the word puzzles.

The next two are a couple of freebies

 

It is out on iOS (and probably Android). There is a lot more to do in this game than in the previous Injustice, including a Story Mode which seems to be the story mode from the new game. Kind of odd that the developers would do this but I'm not going to complain because it was a free game.

 

The next game I think is still available if you folks want it, check out Humble Bundle and its in their store.

 

I don't know anything about the game, but I downloaded it anyways in case I want to give it a try later on.

 

Music

More cheap CDs from Goodwill (thanks return of the $1.99 CDs)

 

I'm not really a fan of Coolio, but I really enjoyed this album. Shame I didn't listen to it in High School because I would have liked it. The other CD is Various Artists paying tribute to Carole King.

 

I saw these CDs and figured why not give them a listen. Gems is hit and miss with me. I haven't heard Nine Lives.

 

The final CD I bought to replace the one I lost (either an ex-girlfriend took it, or it got lost in the moves from college to home)

 

I have the Google Play copy with the extra song, and I bought the All I Want For Christmas Single before that, so now I have three copies.

 

Alright Pixlpeeps, today is the day when I go hit the store to pickup the new Paramore album, the Diana Krall album from last week, and maybe hit the mom & pop music shop. Have a good week!

 

That's all for now, more later!

-Chris

 

Today's song of the week, is from the Disney Compilation from 2015, We Love Disney, which is a collection of artists from different genres covering Disney Classics. I chose Kacey Musgraves version of A Spoonful Of Sugar. You know I love her Christmas album, and I like this fun song. Anyways have a good weekend! Oh and if you want to see some craziness this weekend, Saturday night, and first thing Sunday Morning go to Target and just watch the Mother's Day section of the greeting cards.