PixlBit

Hello Pixlbit! A couple of interesting things happened this past week 1. I spent some time with some family at a graduation 2. I did some Spring Cleaning on my NOOKie Tab 3. I knocked off one game off Mount Backlog 4. Pickups Pickup Pickups.

 

1. My cousin graduated from College! It’s awesome to see family get their degree

 

I took a trip to LA to see the family from Hawai’i and we all made the trip to see happy college kids who no longer have to buy blue books, scantrons, and try to cram a semester’s worth of info into a couple of weeks. There was an interesting assortment of folks graduating including a girl who holds a patent on a new type of food, and she’s opening a new eatery, another who got her Master’s and had to leave so she could get ready for her wedding, and another guy who worked two jobs to pay for school (slacker…I’m kidding). Awesome stuff. If any of you guys/gals are graduating Congrats! Lots of work, and stress but you made it through so you get nothing but props!

 

The night before my brother took my pops and I to one of the best places for meat

 

This was my second time here, and it’s still bad-ass. The rule to live by here is go for the expensive meats, don’t waste time on chicken, pork, and sausage. Pops was going nuts, and I held my own, and soon it was time to flip the card because I tapped out.

 

This is what happens when you’re done. You flip the card, and the dudes with the meat on sticks stop coming. Awesome stuff!

 

Another cool eatery we hit was the Kogi truck.

 

My brother told me about this when it first started. We actually spotted the truck once while eating lunch in Little Tokyo in LA. Well since pops was in town, we decided to check it out, and it turned out it was roaming around Westminster. Since we never had it my brother got us a bunch of different things to try, and I’m a believer, the food is freaking awesome!

 

2. When I got back from the Graduation Trip, I was charging my phone and decided to power up my NOOKie Tab.

*For the new folks, The NOOKie Tab is a Nook Color Reader, with Cyanogenmod 7 on it. A couple of years ago I found out the Nook Color is a full on Android Tablet capable machine with a little help from some software. This was my first tablet, and I used it for everything

It still had 70% charge so I decided to do some Spring Cleaning and remove any apps that I wouldn’t use on it anymore. I took off a bunch of games, and apps like Facebook because I already use my Nexus 7 and iPad for those apps. I wanted to be used primarily for some games and for the Kindle App.

 

I’m updating the apps that made the cut, and I went back to my overclocked settings.

 

It still runs really smooth, and even though it’s running an older version of Android, I still this tablet.

 

Group shot with my Nexus 7.

 

 

3. So before I made the drive to the graduation I spent a couple of days finishing off this game from Mount Backlog

 

Ok there might be spoilers, if you haven’t played it. I’m not gonna talk in details but some things might be considered a spoiler. Cool?

 

 

 

 

 

 

Overall I like this game. I like to compare it to Godfather II, in how it presents the story of Kratos, and why he is angry. The scenery is awesome, and I’m happy that the creators of the game is constantly improving how the God of War universe looks. As for the actual gameplay, I like that if you played the previous games, you can just jump right in, and after playing the game for a bit, the “Uncharted feel” actually was a good addition to the game. The puzzles are still every bit as good as previous games, and I did get stuck in a couple of spots (thanks YouTube!)

I thought the end battle was ok, a little over the top, but it doesn’t feel out of place or forced. At some parts of the game I did think the violence was a little excessive. It wasn’t to the point where I turned the game off in disgust, but I did have a couple of WTF, seriously moments.

I didn’t play the multiplayer because it didn’t interest me. I like the God Of War series for the single player Kratos universe. I didn’t want to ruin it by playing a bunch of bros online.

Overall, I like the game. I think the gam falls under “I should have waited for a sale” because it’s a prequel (I should have read the info on it, I thought it was the last game in the series). Don’t get me wrong, I do like the game, but for me it wasn’t something I needed to play right away.

 

 

4. Ok since I knocked a game off of Mount Backlog, the video game gods felt it was time to throw a can’t pass price on a game

 

My cousin let me know that Best Buy had this game on sale, and I thought it was time to update my UFC games so for $8 bucks I became the new owner. So far I like it more than the original (I never bought UFC 2). I won the belt in one of the game modes with the California Kid, Uriah Faber. What makes this fun is that the ground moves are now controlled like the Fight Night right stick moves. I found this a lot easier to get my opponent in holds, especially the Kimura. I started a career mode with a fighter I named Joseph Donnelly after Tom Cruise’s character in Far and Away

 

A couple of days before the graduation I paid a little visit to Anaheim where I used to call home for a couple of summers in college (I was a happy Cast Member for a boss named Mickey) I hung out with a college friend. We exchanged some jerseys and I got this bad boy that he bought for me way back when

 

Shigetoshi Hasegawa. I had a joke about Hasegawa in that no matter how big the lead was, when he came in during middle relief it would be a close/tied game. The ultimate in gas can pitchers, and I now own his game used jersey

 

The sleeves of the jersey

 

It really didn’t hit me until looking at the details of the jersey that this was worn after 9/11. The year tag on the bottom of the jersey, as well as the sewn American Flag patch over the MLB logo on the back of the neck is a reminder that in that sea of sadness, sports let many of us escape for a couple of hours.

While at Downtown Disney, I stopped at the Lego Store and kept the spending in check, but did add some goodies to the Lego collection

 

I bought some bricks, and plates from the wall of pieces, and picked up one of the new Superman sets. I’m not too crazy about the Superman sets but I did want the new Superman, Lois Lane, and General Zod minifigures.

 

The set isn’t too interesting, and I’ll probably use it for parts. I didn’t add the stickers in case I use these parts in a MOC.

 

 

Some of the new minifigures from Series 10 I picked up the day they released. A lot of folks are squeezing the packs looking for Mr. Gold and the fact that they can fetch some good money on eBay.

Some other Lego pickups to take advantage of the Toys R Us spend $40 bucks get $10 gift card. Check out the gift card

 

The card works 6 hours after purchase. SIX HOURS. Yeah the cashier said it was because Toys R Us didn’t want people going back and buying something right away. Crazy. Originally I wanted to pick up the soldier minifigure packs from the Lone Ranger set, but Lone Ranger and Super Heroes were excluded (I should have bought them at the Lego Store). I decided to pick up a couple of clearance out brick buckets and a handful of Series 10 figures.

 

I want to build something cool, and needed pieces but I’ve been holding off on picking up these buckets until TRU had a special.

 

Because of the hype about Mr. Gold, someone went through the local TRU, and abused all the blind packs of Series 10. Dude (I’m 99.99999% sure it’s a guy) felt every pack, and didn’t even put them back correctly in the display. Apparently he doesn’t have time for that. I just grabbed six randomly and called it a day. Having only 5,000 Mr. Gold’s worldwide, my chances are better to be hit by lightning, winning the lottery, and throwing a game winning touchdown pass in the Super Bowl…at the same time.

 

While at Target I noticed they started selling vinyl

 

Target has gone hipster. I thought about picking up the two Beatles albums they have, but passed. It’s cheaper on CD, and easier to rip.

 

The first CD I bought is

 

I thought she was cheated on American Idol, because she has a powerful voice, but this album doesn’t do it justice. She’s a very talented singer, yet comes off as a poor man’s Rihanna. This is my first CD Bust of 2013, and that’s what I get for an impulse buy.

 

My second CD I picked up earlier today

 

I LOVE Lady Antebellum! I’ve been waiting for this album for a while now, and after my first listen, I’m not disappointed.

Well that was my weekend, and maybe later on today I’ll get back to knocking off another game off of Mount Backlog, after finishing up a couple of t shirt projects.

 

That all for now, more later!

-Chris