A "wtf was I thinking" moment.

Last night my wife comes up to me and reminds me that, in my weekly budgeting, I need to put aside 15 dollars for her insurance copay for her annual OB/GYN checkup.

My wife and I have been married 7 years. We've been together for 11. Eleven times she's gone through these annual checkups. In the past, I accompanied my wife to a mammogram that she had to have for a comprehensive physical. That, alone, changed my perceptions because I didn't really comprehend how traditional mammograms were done. I didn't know it involved trying to make a woman's boobs turn into pancakes, although, logically it makes sense now that I've seen it done. But I had never been curious about OB/GYN checkups. At least, not until now. Without even thinking, and out of genuine curiosity, I blurted out:

"What do they do for a Pap anyway?"

My wife then tells me in great detail about how the Pap test is done from her point of view.
It was at that moment that I decided that there are a lot of questions in this world which are better left unasked.

Posted by Captiosus @ 3:19 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments

Pottermania...

Well I started and finished reading the last Harry Potter book within a day. Don't worry, I won't say anything other than to say I really disliked the pacing of the end of the book and series. It felt rushed, muddled and grasping at straws, and, overall, it felt like she wrote it with the movie adaptation constantly in the back of her mind.

That said, I'm damn glad this series is over. Pottermania is lying in the grave and in the next two years it will be covered up and buried with the release of the last two movies. Speaking only for myself, all I can say is, "Thank God". It's been long enough.

Don't get me wrong, it was a good series, but after 7 books, (and soon, 7 movies), it got tiresome. No more will there be wild internet speculation about the release date of the next book. The story is wrapped up, for better or for worse, and there won't be any more wild internet rumors about who does what to whom in the next installment.

The only thing I take away from this series is hope that children who grew up reading Harry Potter, children who wouldn't have picked up fiction novels otherwise, will see the value of novels and literature and continue reading. I'm not holding my breath, however. Somehow I doubt this will cause a new generation to look at books and think they'd rather read than go fulfill their need for instant gratification by watching a movie or playing a video game.

Posted by Captiosus @ 4:32 pm EDT | Permalink | 4 Comments

A post in 3 parts.

It's been a while since my last post, so this post will be a post in three parts.

I. The Bigs Impressions
Well I finally got around to playing The Bigs. Several of my friends have recommended that I pick up the game, but I really wanted to give it a try first. I'm glad I did.

As an "arcade" baseball title, it's really good. The controls are pretty solid and the graphics are great. It does have some minor issues that I've seen, namely that the commentator really sucks and fielding is way too touchy for the fast paced, arcade nature of the game, yet the CPU seems to make perfect fielding plays every time. I didn't really try to experiment with the camera, but I found it very hard to field with the default camera angle being very low.

The problem for me, however, is that I'm just not a big fan of over-the-top, arcade baseball, at least not in the way The Bigs delivers it. This causes me to pause and reflect as to why I like the sport. I like baseball for the same reason I like football: Strategy. In football, strategy is "burst" - it happens each down, then they do it over again, repeating each burst of strategy until the end of the game. In baseball, strategy is slower and long term, much like a chess match, where you have to know your opponent, know your field of play, and pay attention to the numbers. I live for the numbers and strategy; If I know a hot batter on the opposing team is weak against one of my middle relievers, and we're up by one and need a clutch out, I'll bring in the reliever the batter is weak against. To me, that is baseball.

Unfortunately, this is also what plagues baseball. In this modern age of soundbytes, instant gratification, and apparently widespread public ADD, appreciation of the chess-like slow nature of the sport has dwindled (of course, steroid controversies and league arbitration arguments haven't helped the game's popularity, either). People who only watch baseball to see the "long ball" or the "high heat" will thusly appreciate The Bigs as it caters directly to those elements. People like myself who appreciate the strategy of the game.. well.. we're probably better off sticking to MLB 2K7 and hoping they work out some of the kinks in MLB 2K8.

As a game, I'd give it an overall 8 out of 10. Enjoyable to most, just not enjoyable to me.

II. Sleep Problems
On to a non-gaming related issue.

I have no idea what the hell is going on, but I've been having some major sleep problems lately. For the last 4 days, I've fallen asleep and woken up exactly three hours after falling asleep. I'll lay there for about 20 minutes and then pass out again, sleeping for another two to three hours. Six hours of sleep is respectable, I suppose, but the problem is since it's broken sleep, I end up feeling extremely lethargic and worn out all day long.

I suppose I could take half of a lorazepam before I go to bed, but I really don't like taking pills unless I absolutely have to. I'd rather try to identify what the cause of this issue is and fix it than take a pill to modify it.

III. Pet Pictures Addendum
In looking at my post regarding my pets, I realized I neglected to mention another of our former rats, Bertha.



Bertha was a rat we got from our veterinary hospital. She was about 2 years old and someone had abandoned her in their lobby overnight. She was nearly dead when the office staff came in the next morning and they nursed her back to health. When I had to take in Trigger for a respiratory check-up, my vet introduced me to Bertha and asked if we'd like to adopt her.

I said sure, but we'd have to wait two to three weeks to maintain proper quarantine procedures. Two weeks went by and I went to pick her up. She was a very frail, but sweet and adorable, little rattie. I felt so bad for her because she had been abandoned and practically left for dead, but she finally had a home that wasn't just some corner of the veterinary hospital. She loved people, she loved being held and loved sleeping in laps.

As the days went by, my wife and I noticed she was gradually losing motor control of her left side. We'd seen that once before. One of our previous rats had similar symptoms and it turned out to be a stroke. I called the veterinary hospital and, since Bertha's care was now a collaboration between the veterinary hospital and myself, they offered to see her for free. I made an appointment for two days time. Within two days, Bertha got very bad off. She could barely move her left side and we had to move the bowl to where she'd lay and prop it on its side so she didn't have to stand to eat.

Sadly I knew the prognosis was going to be poor. She had been through far too much and had barely recovered from being left for dead. Any kind of treatment was going to be "last ditch" at best. When the vet saw her, the vet was very dismayed because the vet agreed with me. They did a battery of tests and, sure enough, Bertha had some kind of stroke well before I even picked her up. There was little to be done, so we all said our teary goodbyes and she was put to sleep.

Did I mention the short lifespan of rats really sucks?

Posted by Captiosus @ 5:02 pm EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

Blue Dragon: Zola Wallpaper

There are very few good images out on the gaming sites of the ..*ahem* well endowed, scantily clad pirate woman, Zola, from the forthcoming RPG Blue Dragon. I wanted to make one of her alone, but, unfortunately, I couldn't find a quality rendered image.

However, using the images provided by the official Fan Site Kit, I was able to use photoshop to make a wallpaper. The original image is in tact, however, I've heavily modified it. Using monochrome and blurring to distinguish the background, it suitably highlights what I want as the subject of the wallpaper.

It's not my best work - there's some noticeable jagged edges from where I got tired of being zoomed in at 800% - but it's also not my worst.

So for anyone who wants it, or who just wants to take a look, here it is in 1280x1024:
http://members.cox.net/vreynauld/2o2p/bdzola_1280-1024.jpg

Posted by Captiosus @ 3:06 am EDT | Permalink | 0 Comments

SCEA CEO Jack Tretton has lost his mind.

SCEA's CEO either believes Sony's PR too much or is so full of shit it's a wonder his eyes aren't brown.

Here's a few gems by Mr. Tretton from a recent interview with N'Gai Croal of the "Level Up" Blog:

"I think the challenge is providing that education to consumers in a typical retail venue. There's so much for them to absorb before they can appreciate the value, that it's more of a challenge than we faced in previous generations."

Elaborating on said value (emphasis added by myself on key parts):
"But when you're talking about Playstation 3, you've got the Blu-Ray movie player, which is obviously a new technology and something that people haven't fully grasped yet, although I think it's making great progress in the last six or seven months since Playstation 3's advent. You've got the hard disk drive built in with every device and the benefits that brings; but that's not something that consumers have ever had in a gaming system before, built in. You've got the implications of what the Blu-Ray drive does for gaming and the 50 of storage capacity. And last, but clearly not least, you've got all the downloadable content implications that the device gives you in terms of music, video, digital pictures."

Are you freaking kidding me? The only thing he listed that is exclusive to the PS3 in that entire list is Blu-ray. Every original Xbox had a built in Hard Drive. Xbox release date: 11/15/2001. We consumers are clearly familiar with having a built in hard drive in a console and have been familiar with it for 5 and a half years. Downloadable Content? We've had that available to us, at least in the form of downloadable content for games, since Xbox Live launched in November of 2002. Downloadable video and pictures? We've had that since Xbox Live was reformatted for the X360 and got the Live Marketplace. Again, we consumers are very well aquainted with DLC.

He really believes Sony has to "educate" consumers on the "value"? The value of things we've been using for 4 to 5 years?
Someone needs a reality check.

When N'Gai Croal confronted Tretton with the fact that Microsoft has been incorporating HDDs and DLC for years, Mr. Tretton responded by saying:
"In the Microsoft play, when you realize it, you need to spend more and more money and you ultimately look back and go "My god, I spent all this money, I've got all these disparate parts that I have to piece together," and you end up cobbling together a next generation machine over time."

Hey, Jack, I got a newsflash for you. There's more than the CORE SKU for the Xbox 360. If someone buys a Core 360, then yeah, the idea that someone could spend cash hand over fist for accessories is plausible, but, guess what, the Premium SKU is the one which sells the most and, at worst, the only accessory I've ever had to buy for my Premium X360 has been a Play and Charge kit. Unlike the PS3, the Premium X360 actually comes with High Definition cables out of the box. PS3, for 499, comes with a 15 year old freakin RWY AV cable. So who has to actually spend more money buying accessories? Not someone who buys the 100 dollar cheaper Premium X360!

Seriously, Tretton has not proven the PS3 has "superior value" to the existing X360. In fact, if you compare them side by side with his statements, he proves, beyond any shadow of  a doubt, that the X360, not the PS3, has the value superiority. It's interviews like this, and this unwaivering belief of their own PR, which is holding Sony back.

Posted by Captiosus @ 11:39 pm EDT | Permalink | 2 Comments