Nightmare Union

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NU Review #1

First of a new series of posts: Video Reviews and Such!! I'm calling it the NU Review; clever, right :) Enjoy. Today's Review: The Creative Fatal1ty Keyboard...and yes, I do drop it within the first 30 seconds :P

The Weekend That Was: Jan 26 - Jan 27

Welcome! This is the first of something that I hope will become a regular post series on the blog.

The Weekend That Was!

So, let's begin, shall we!

Saturday
    The weekend started off disappointing: My Macbook's display died. After taking it to the Apple Store, the only thing they could do was replace the logic board. This prevented me from doing - well - anything for school. Though this wasn't the best of news, I was able to play WoW on an older desktop at my house. I leveled up my paladin, Skeith, to 20 - so I did get to have some WoW fun over the weekend.

Sunday
    Sunday was awesome. My mom made Gaby and I Homemade French Toast and bacon - very yummy :P. Gaby and I also built a desk for her new room, which was great because I do love to build things. After that we went to a company party for Lord and Taylor's - Gaby works there. We hung out with her cousin - who also works there - and his girlfriend. I had a great time. After the party ended we went and got some Ice Cream. Over all just a really good day.

So there you have it! The first The Weekend That Was! I hope you enjoyed this little look into my personal life and look forward to the future ones to come.

A Quick Update

Just a real quick update so no one thinks I fell off the Earth or something.

I guess I crashed the logic board in my MacBook Pro, so it had to be taken by apple so it could be replaced. Luckily, it's been fixed and I'm hoping that it'll be good as new. My amazing mom - of the teakettle corner - is awesome enough to be willing to bring it up to me tomorrow. Very cool :)

Also, I've decided that, since I do a lot over the weekends and rarely even think to blog about it, I'll be giving updates on what has gonna on. I'll be calling it The Weekend That Was and it will most likely encompass all the genre's of topics I post about throughout the week. I'm hoping that it'll be up every Monday, in addition to any topic-specific stuff that happens on Monday. I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I'll enjoy writing it.

Also, for those of you wondering "Sean; If you don't have your Laptop, how are you posting this?" Well, first of all, I'm a magic wizard...not really, just kidding, but that would be awesome! I'm actually using my dad's - commonly as Glemak on many web sites - MacBook that he so generously decided to lend me :)

So, look forward to seeing the first The Weekend That Was tomorrow as well as a post I've been cooking up all weekend. What is it about? You'll just have to wait and see!

Well, so much for being brief :P

All Aboard the Fail Boat!

This AMAZED me...
http://www.joystiq.com/2008/01/21/keighley-takes-on-fox-news-sexbox-sexpose/

So, the story behind it - summarized - Fox news wanted to be "down with the kids" and decided to look at Mass Effect. They saw it as "an ultra-realistic sex romp" and as such decided to get Cooper Lawrence - apparently she thinks she's a developmental psychologist - to come on the show to tell about the disastrous effects this game will have on the fragile child psyche. But, they didn't count on how competent game writter Geoff Keighley - of gameslice.com - was on the subject. Long story short, Fox New got knocked down a peg. Greatest part, they had to cut of Geoff because he was in the process of verbally owning "Ms." Lawrence and then cuts to a round table of ignorance that talks about "gaming and whatever happened to games like Pong." The industry evolved, get with the program Fox News.

Now, I had written up a whole long post about how this was wrong, how uniformed the anchors were (they learned about the game by only watching the trailers on the site), and how i genuinely believe that this "psychologist" Cooper Lawrence should crawl under a rock till the flames stop hitting her; however, I don't even think that Fox News deserves my time. I lost respect for them LONG ago and this merely solidifies the fact that they are biased, uniformed, and greatly ignorant of anything of importance.

Btw, the great masses of game enthusiasts everywhere have...reviewed..."Ms." Lawrence's book on Amazon: Read them here. Do me a favor: Read how many negative reviews she has spawned and then look at the customer photos (Also, I love how you talk about this Mass Effect sex romp negativity and yet you try to pose like a Playmate on your cover...very classy). Now, I have never read this book, but if the author thinks she can talk ignorantly about a subject she knows nothing about, then her "book research" could be the same. And yes, I have played through Mass Effect many times and, in fact never knew of the "sex scene" - if it can even be called that.

So kudos Fox News and Cooper Lawrence! You get my first ever EPIC FAIL! congratulations! you should feel proud :)

EDIT: Just found this; EA I love you even more!
http://kotaku.com/348187/ea-calls-fox-out-on-insulting-mass-effect-inaccuracies

Belkin Nostromo Speedpad n52 - My Experience

.....or lack thereof.

Here's the sad story. For Christmas this year I received alot of gift cards. One of which I used to by the Belkin n52. I was very excited about it, and researched for a few days on different set-ups that people had used for World of Warcraft. I wrote down multiple set-ups that I would try, moved my UI around to fit the buttons, and waited.

Well, today it came.

I ran down to my mailbox this morning to get the package it had come in, then ran back upstairs. First of all, running up and down 7 flights of stairs after having been awake for 5 minutes is not very fun, but that's besides the point. I installed the Mac OS X software and toggled around all the buttons to the set-up I had assume I wanted. I saved them, then logged into WoW. I decided since my main is my shaman, I would test it out on him first. So I loaded him up and ran the Warcraft profile on the gamepad. I tried some of the buttons and was very satisfied with the feel. The button quality felt no better than the cheap, standard Dell keyboard I am using, but I could deal with it. I realized that the set-up I had was not optimal, so I went into the configurations of the n52 and switched it up a little bit. This is when my day turned into frustration: The first line of keys (1-6 out of 14) wouldn't register. I tried over and over - different buttons, different apps - but no luck. Distraught, I gave up after configuring and researching for around 5 hours. Belkin, I feel I must add, has almost no real support on their site, save ONE - that's right 1! - troubleshooting tip, which had nothing to do with any REAL problems you could have.

The worst part is, I had been debating over whether to get the n52 OR get just a gaming keyboard (my first choice being the 800lb-gorilla of gaming rigs - the Logitech G15) but decided to get this because the majority of good gaming keyboards do not support Mac. To add to the misery and prove to me my mistake, while searching for help, I came arcoss an app that can allow the special features of the G15, as well as many other top gaming keyboards.

After all that I can simple say one thing - hurray for Murphy's Law in full effect :P

"...You've been following in my footsteps all along!"

So here it comes.

I've been holding it back, waiting to unleash the crazy that is my excitement for the World of Warcraft expansion: Wrath of the Lich King. To further add to the crazy, I'm extremely excited about the new Death Knight Hero class. I'm not excited about just playing a Death Knight, but more about the lore and myth behind the character.

As a long time Warcraft fan, I have always held Arthas as my favorite of the characters - partly the reason my first character was a paladin - because he was such an interesting character. His interaction with the other characters of the story always left him in a love/hate position for me. I could never decide if he was good and just misguided, or truely was an evil person. I always questioned if he had *spoiler* become one with the Lich King because of the greed for power, or to make sure that kind of power could be somewhat contained. Yes, I do know about Frostmourne and blah, blah, blah; but I always enjoyed trying to rationalize the motives behind his actions.

As such, I've always wanted to be a Death Knight because I felt it could give me a real sense of the type of power and mentality behind Arthas and what he dealt with as Frostmourne gained more and more control over him. I won't lie, they also look awesome to play in general and I looking forward to being able to understand the "runeblade mechanics" that, from what I understand, power the majority of their abilities. As with everyone else, I can only wait in anticipation for the expansion to get an official release date; then, obsess until that date finally comes when I can enjoy the bounty of the new content.   

A Nice Tale From Azeroth

Just wanted to share a quick story.

    I was just on Innis, my Shaman, doing quests in Felwood and I stumbled upon a Night Elf Hunter. He asked if I could help him do some quests and, since i had just finished them and knew where all the objectives were, i decided to help him. So, I did my Shaman-y best. It was a good day for my Windfury procs, so i was dealing damage like a pro. We completed the quest rather quickly thanks to that and after he said something that made me glad to be a Shaman: "Wow man, that was quick! You're pretty good!". I bowed, saying I was "just doing my best" and he replied with an "I couldn't have done it without you."

    Though this wasn't a big deal, it's always nice to hear from someone else that you are doing a good job. It doesn't make you any better or more efficient, but it makes you happy that all the work you've put into understanding your class and developing a good rotation of spells has been noticed. It's also always nice to find other kind players within a game full of drama and ganking.

Macbook Air - Is This Really Necessary?

    For those of you that don't know, Apple announced a new product in the Macbook line at this year's Macworld. Called the Macbook Air, the new notebook was toted as being the world's thinnest computer, being about to fit into a manila folder. Now, keep in mind that at last year's Macworld keynote, Apple announced the Iphone - which in my eyes was a big leap forward for cell phone technology.

    Don't get me wrong, I do consider myself a Mac fanboy - I use a 17" Macbook Pro at college and have been using Apple for years - but I can't understand the business plan behind it. Now, i do know that there are some innovations in the Air; I mean, they are able to fit some decent Tech into it considering how thin it is. However, the price leaves alot to be desired. For the same price as a fairly decent Air, you could get a much more powerful Macbook. Also, even though the Air can be made to be a decent laptop, you're really just getting an amazing second laptop. The market - those who want an ultra-thin second laptop or those who want a notebook only for the size - is, in my eyes, very small. Generally, those who want a second laptop want something that is cheap and can perform the basic functions they need, not something that is $3000. I will admit, some of the high price is due to the notebook being an Apple, but for me, i don't feel that the price justifies the product.

    Now, the Air does look very cool, and it is innovative that they are even able to fit anything into that small of a package. Furthermore - contrary to this entire post - if the price were to come down, i would consider buying it purely for the cool factor.

"Hello World"

For those of you that know me, Hello Again. For those of you that do not, Welcome. This weblog is undergoing yet another change thanks to my massive laziness. Well, On with the show!

I am now a Freshmen at Marist College studying Computer Science. Who better to talk about games and gadgets than I, someone who is  surrounded by technology every day. I hope that this will become a Blog that has at least a post a day, but with school and such I can't make any promises. I do promise, however, that each post will be insightful  and maybe even entertaining.

On a side note, I am one of the millions of people who is addicted to the Massive Multiplayer Online(MMO) game World of Warcraft, so you can expect lots of posts about the various issues and concerns I find within the game, as well as tales of my experiences. If your not into that sort of thing-but at this point, even sports stars are into it-then you'll just have to listen to me rant. Maybe after reading, you might even feel the need to create an account. Well, maybe not, but I'm always trying to recruit people :).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy this blog and the many rants and raves that are sure to go with it as it grows into maturity.