Monthly Archives: June 2005

Jun 08 2005
Games

Contest, I guess

Due to a clerical error. . .

I’m giving away prizes!

  • Grand Prize: One 30 day free trial to City of Heroes (retail box)
  • First Place: One 14 day free trial code for City of Heroes (online code to download the client from NCSoft)

Now, I’m not just giving these away, you’ll have to earn them. Basically, I want a unique, cool hero idea. I want their Name, their Archetype (Blaster, Defender, Scrapper, Tanker, Controller), and a bit of background as to why they are in the hero biz.

Extra points for:

  • How they arrived in Paragon City.
  • Costume idea.

Best entries as decided by me, Morgan and Yuriko will get a shot at these fabulous prizes. You may want to browse the City of Heroes website for background on the game itself.

Good luck. Have fun! Email me your entry. You know where.

Update: I am accepting entries all the way up to 3:33pm next Thursday, June 16th. Winners will be announced next Friday.

Jun 08 2005
Uncategorized

Capital I

I went to Best Buy to get a CD/DVD lens cleaner for the PlayStation2. Brought it home, managed to cut my way through the packaging without injuring myself, and popped it in.

I get the “Disc Read Error” and I can’t run the cleaning track.

Jun 07 2005
Uncategorized

PS2 Graveyard

My Playstation 2’s acting up. I’m surprised that it lasted this long, since it was the first revision of the hardware at launch. Some of its brothers had drive issues that rendered them useless years ago. They fixed that, or at least I would hope so, considering that there are twelve revisions of the hardware that have come out since then.

Yes, twelve. Yes, I know they don’t say anything about that in the pamphlet. I wouldn’t advertise I was fixing things, either.

So, my PlayStation 2 is acting funny. Perhaps it’s merely following the programming of all Sony products past warranty and post announcement of their successor. Maybe I need to buy a new one.

Or, perhaps I just need to buy a lens cleaner and give that a shot. I’m going to go against conventional wisdom and try the cheaper option first.

Sony says that they sold ninety million PlayStation 2s worldwide. Almost a hundred million PlayStation 2s, which are enough to make a really bitchin’ supercomputer, if everyone just stopped playing Madden. Of course, with that much hardware out there, accidents are bound to happen.

I would take a guess that at least half a million Playstation 2s are sitting in landfills, tossed by upset parents, dumped for defective drives, ruined by failed modchip installs, shot in the line of duty (in Texas, no doubt), lost in natural disasters, or just there because they don’t work anymore.

I know they’re not all in the same landfill, but wouldn’t that be a sight?

Jun 03 2005
2 Comments
Vlog

Chinatown, Interrupted

There are those of you that heard that Yuriko Kinje and I did a quick mockumentary of Chinatown’s restaurants. It’s ready.

But first, I want to talk about Chinatown.

Chinatown’s borders are 8th Street to the west, 5th Street to the east, G Street to the south, and Massachusetts Avenue to the North. This area has been designated as a “Special Treatment” area by the DC Planning office. It is one of ten such areas outlined in their “Comprehensive Plan” that oversees land usage downtown.

I was on the phone with the Planning office for a half hour, and the gentleman there was kind enough to answer all of my questions. In short, there are no zoning regulations or ordinances demanding that Chinatown retailers have Chinese characters on their signage.

However, any retailer that wants to put a sign up in this “Special Treatment” area, has to submit their sign to the Chinatown Design Review subcommittee, which is part of the Chinatown Procedures committee. They are responsible for reviewing the proposed signage and text, and approving it for use in Chinatown.

There are three people on the subcommittee, two of which are architects. They are responsible for making sure that the sign reflects the historic character of Chinatown.

These are the people that make sure the sign does not say something interesting like, “lick the wet tadpole.”

On that front, I think they are doing a bangup job. On the other hand, if they are also responsible for preserving the historic character of the area, then I think they need to reevaluate the meaning of the words, “historic,” and, “character.”

What I want to know, is—who gave the okay to the “Miso Hungry” people?

All right, enough of my yammering.

Link to Chinatown, Interrupted Vlog entry

Here’s the video.

Jun 02 2005
Uncategorized

Er,

Anyone else think it’s strange great that our metrobuses are being repainted as giant hearses as the advertising campaign for Six Feet Under? I would have a decent picture of this, but it was dark, and far away.

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