PixlBit

Hey Pixlbit, it is a Friday, which means the weekend is so close that you might as well take Friday off. We are in a new month which means…LESS THAN 30 DAYS UNTIL THE START OF THE COLLEGE FOOTBALL SEASON! Oh the marching bands, cheerleaders, and message board alumni who think they know more than the coaching staff will be in full swing. To add to my excitement, the NFL starts a week later. Yes Chris will either proclaim Tony Romo is the second coming of Troy Aikman, or yelling about how Johnny Football should have been drafted. Oh football hurry up and get here!

Since it is Friday, it is time for another edition of Quick Hits with Chris. Yes all the non video game stuff that I seem to want to ramble on about, and of course pickups. Sit back, relax, stay out of the heat, and let’s get this party started!

 

 

Chris And His Reality Shows

 

Last night before I watched Big Brother, I checked out ABC’s new Fantasy World Reality Show called The Quest

 

Think a Game of Thrones/Castles/Knights/Magic world meets the excitement of a Reality Show where you take 12 folks who obviously love Fantasy and let them live the life. I’m not going to lie I was hoping for something along the lines of Medieval Times (the happy dinner and tournament), but instead ABC rented out a Castle in Europe, hired a ton of extras, and the 12 folks are playing dress up. The quest they embark on is really cheesy, but it manages to bring out the best and worst in folks.

I can’t say I enjoyed this first episode because the cheesy factor was in full swing early, and I kept thinking “you know it’s all fake, if someone jumps out at you with a sword, he isn’t going to stab you so hit him”. I’ll watch it for a bit until the return of Hell’s Kitchen.

 

Tales From The Thrift Store

 

Last Saturday I went to my three thrift stores that are within eyeshot of each other and I found some cool stuff, but the third store had this

 

I would have bought that copy of Mister Mosquito, but I already own it. There was also a PS2 fatty for $15. I thought about it, but left it. My other stuff will be in pickups. I’m bringing back of my old summer ritual of hitting these three thrift shops, and then hitting this local sandwich spot/Filipino food place for a meal I call “Hog Wild”. It consists of Lechon Kawali (fried pork belly) and rice with an order of bacon cheese fries. Not diet friendly but oh so good, and once a week is ok.

 

Chris Breaks Google

 

A couple of months ago I broke G-Mail, and earlier this week I broke Google

 

I was looking up a pair of sneakers on Google, and I kept getting a wide variety in my results, and I was trying to narrow my search down, when I got that screen. Oh Google…

 

 

Chris Is Taking A Coding Class

 

So I just finished Week 3 of my six-week intro to coding class and I’m enjoying it. It’s fun to tinker with these lines of code to make things happen in our practice images. Everything is online through Stanford and best part is that the class is free, and you can work on your own time.

Our last project was optional and that was to combine two separate images into one swanky picture using the codes that we have learned so far.

 

This is my front image of Boba Fett

 

The background is a nice image of an Astronaut on the moon and my final image is

 

Boba Fett walking on the moon. It’s nothing fancy but it’s cool to use some code to change the image. Some people created some crazy images and shared the code they used so I have some ideas for things I want to try.

 

 

Pickups

 

Games

 

I added more Wii games to the library thanks to the Buy 2 Get 1 Free at GameStop

 

I remember the first game being one of the big games for the Wii. I’ve never tried them but I played a bit of the first one and I’m really enjoying it. It’s crude humor (powering up the sword still gets giggles). If I wasn’t playing so much of Plundernauts and other tablet games I probably would have finished the first game and started the second.

 

I haven’t tried the hunting game yet, and I’m digging Wii Music. The one thing is that my directing skills I learned when I was a happy Drum Major in high school don’t seem to work in this game. Instead you just move the Wiimote up and down, keeping in time, and you’re golden.

 

I have a Wii but no bowling…until I bought this game. Hopefully the Bachelor game is just as entertaining as the DS version. I’m winning that damn rose!

 

I saw on Flipboard that this game was just released and I do like the series

 

Can’t go wrong especially when it’s free

 

When I’m not playing Plundernauts I’ve been keeping busy with this game

 

It’s a flashback to the good ol’ side scroller. There are 23 levels and I’m on level 6 or 7. Gameplay is a lot of fun, the on screen controls are easy to use, but it is easier to control on a full size tablet than a phone. The best part is that you unlock all the characters by level 3 so you can go back and reach hard to get comic book covers (the special collectables in each level).

 

I already have this on the iPad Air, but for a dime why not have it on my Nexus 7

 

It’s a shame I can’t move my progress between them, but it’s not a big deal. The one thing I’m doing on this one is skipping the cut scenes.

 

 

I haven’t tried this game yet, but it looked like fun, and it’s a freebie on Google Play, why not give it a shot?

 

At one of the thrift stores I found this game among the CDs

 

I don’t have it, and I can’t say no to Playstation games in the wild. Not bad for a buck.

 

The next game items are toys that can be imported into their tablet games. I found them at Target for super cheap, and might buy the rest of the sets (the 7 and 11 dollar big sets)

 

Angry Birds Star Wars figures!

 

The Lando and Han in Carbonite are my favorites.

 

I found this set at another Target and at 70% off.

 

I also found a bunch of stuff for Angry Birds Go!

 

I did try these and apparently I still have to beat the boss to unlock the car. That sucks, but one of the cars can be used right away so I breezed through the first group of races.

 

The figures are nice, but most likely they’ll call the tub my Disney Infinity characters live in home.

 

Music

 

The thrift stores have been good to me this past week.

 

I added Bobby Brown’s Bobby album. The big hit from this album, “Humpin’ Around” was the big pop song I played my freshman year of high school band. You know you’re doing something right when you play a song, and the opposing teams fans were dancing.

 

I bought El Dabarge because I liked his stuff in the 80s. Hilary Duff is a CD of shame. I wanted to complete the Hilary Duff discography…of two albums, but dang it she released a third recently. Also this CD is NOT GOOD! Worst yet is that I'm looking for another copy of this album with a complete CD book.

 

I found a New Edition Greatest Hits album. Alison Krauss is just good.

 

The final pickup from the thrifts is this CeCe Penniston album. I bought the album after this one on tape in high school, and really liked it. I thought it was cool that I found this album…until I went home and saw that I already owned it. Blah, onto the donate pile it goes!

 

From the local mom & pop store I found these albums on their $1.99 wall

 

Added two more albums to the Oasis collection. One of them is a live album, and the other contains a bonus disc of a couple of singles.

 

I like Suzanne Vega (The Tom’s Diner song singer), and I never heard Man of La Mancha other than the version I played in college marching band. This album is really good because it’s the 1965 Broadway Cast.

 

I think I dated a girl who always played the Rusted Root song “Send Me On My Way” and years later it appears in a commercial

 

 

I also added another Sugar Ray album (don’t ask I think I was trying to complete their discography too).

 

The final CD pickup is a Barenaked Ladies album. I wasn’t a fan of this album after giving it a listen.

 

The final music purchase of the week is something I’ve been wanting since Record Store Day, but I knew it would be one of the first things to go and that is what happened but I went to the local Hot Topic and

 

It’s not the Record Store Day copy because it doesn’t have the RSD label sticker, but who cares as long as I have the glow in the dark 10” of the Ghostbusters theme. I keep it in a bag because it glows in the dark. Since my local mall doesn’t have an Urban Outfitters, Hot Topic will have to be my backup music store if the mom & pop doesn’t have it.

 

Before I end this blog, I saw this on Reddit, and I laughed

 

Well Pixlbit, have a good weekend!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris