Archive – Page 55 – The Recycle Bin

Love me some screws.

Today my Hill pump replacement screws arrived from Straight Shooters. That was fast! To recap, my order arrived last Thursday, but the Hill pump packaging was missing the screws that attach the base of the pump to the shaft. I am sure this was not the fault of SS, but they quickly sent me some replacement screws to get me back in the game.

Too bad for me that I am going on vacation and will probably not get to some serious shooting for another couple of weeks, but I have to give SS kudos for getting me the replacement screws so quickly.

Can the Braves make me eat crow?

Every time I write about the Braves being in the thick of the playoff action, they prove me wrong, and start dropping games. While the NL East is a lost cause, the Braves are now within 3 games of the Wild Card. Will Hudson’s return give them enough of a boost to push them over the hump?

I still think this team is too flawed to make a serious push or if they make the Wild Card, to go very deep in the playoffs.
The starting pitching is deep enough, but as has happen in the past, a power outage or a leaky bullpen will let Atlanta down. Brian McCann (17) and Chipper Jones (16) are the Braves HR leaders. Rafael Soriano (20 SV) and Mike Gonzalez (9) are better setup guys than closers.

PSP Go again.

It has been a while (a few days; maybe a week) since I last posted about the PSP Go. Just came across this “unboxing” of a PSP Go at CVG via NG4.

Most of the user comments focus on the price, which at $249 is a little high, but I am still more focused on what sort of UMD trade in program Sony may offer.

I will probably make a decision this week to purchase or punt. If I decide to wait, then I am going to hold out for a price cut. Of course if I make the decision to preorder a PSP Go, then I am all in. I have never had much luck turning in UMDs for cash via eBay so I hope that Sony gives PSP owners some sort of incentive program to “upgrade” to the all digital PSP Go format.

FF13 graphics controversy

I love a good controversy; especially when it involves Final Fantasy, graphics doctoring, and console wars. Well not really, but I did get a kick out of all the comments.

When asked by RPGSite staff about the graphics changes that have been shown in screenshots, the game director Motomu Toriyama admitted changes have happened but also downplayed their significance.

“Initial screenshots of the game may well look different to what we have now. This is part of the process of making the game – we have to get a feel for what the system can and can’t handle – sometimes things are made better, sometimes things like the number of polygons on a model are reduced to make it more easy to display,” he said, giving the reasons for the changes.

Producer Yoshinori Kitase added to the explanation. “The important thing for us is that the game runs smoothly on both systems. We have made changes to the game, but nothing because of one system specifically – all changes have been made to get maximum performance.”

I guess I am reaching. Bottom of the barrel stuff here.

Whatever happened to Meg Ryan?

I am in sort of in a pensive mood watching Favre and his Vikings take on the Houston Texans. The Vikings have a chance to be very good. The defense is sold, and of course Adrian Peterson can be fantastic as long as he holds onto the ball. Favre just needs to manage most games and the Vikings will do OK.

Speaking of old timers, I thought this Meg Ryan tribute/slideshow/train wreck was interesting. I was in the cute as a button camp; too bad she did not age gracefully.

Falcons injury update.

My seven year old loves Jerious Norwood – he has his jersey and a lot of his football cards. The boy cannot get enough of Norwood. So you could see the concern on his sad little face when Norwood went down against San Diego. I told him that everything would be already; he just got the wind knocked out of him. According to the ajc:

Falcons running back Jerious Norwood and safety William Moore will not play against Baltimore on Thursday, head coach Mike Smith said after practice Monday.

Norwood suffered head and knee injuries and Moore pulled a hamstring against San Diego Saturday.

“Jerious had the big hit in the ball game there and his head got hit hard,” Smith said. “He also had a situation with his leg. We’ll be very cautious with that.”

Tough break for Moore. I know the Falcons are high on the kid, but he cannot seem to stay healthy.

Slow news Monday trend continues.

Mondays have been slow news days. Nothing exciting to report. No great weekend updates. Just crickets chirping.

On a personal note, I am going to be on vacation later this week, and I have not decided if I am going to take a laptop with me. If I do, it is doubtful that the condo will have wifi; unless I can steal bandwidth from an unsecured network. I am sure there will be plenty of eateries and watering holes with a lifeline to the internet, but I am not sure that I even want to bother.

So if this blog goes silent, it will resume after Labor Day.

More Falcons Secondary Bashing.

Mark Bradley of the ajc just confirmed my earlier post – the Falcons’ secondary sucks. Big time.

Afterward, general manager Thomas Dimitroff said: “It’s going to be a very busy two weeks.” He would say no more, but the message seemed cleared enough: This is the man who found Domonique Foxworth and Jamaal Fudge near the end of preseason 2008 to prop up his secondary. There seems a strong need to do something similar now.

The Falcons liked everything about cornerback Chris Houston in training camp: His preparation, his attitude, his play. But something happened in Saturday’s first half: Houston yielded one big play on third down, then another, then another. If a guy’s going to be your No. 1 cornerback, that can’t happen. Even No. 1 corners get beat — all corners get beat — but they can’t let one bad play put them on the back foot the rest of the night.

The Falcons must now determine if Houston has the toughness to shrug off a big gainer and keep playing. He seemed to lose his edge against the Chargers, and if he’s incapable of regaining that edge from one play to the next the Falcons need to know it now.

Now for the money question – is there enough time to fix the problem before things get out of hand?

Sunday mini Marauder pellet report.

I shot a couple of clips – Beeman Crow-Magnum and RWS Meisterkugeln (wadcutters). The Crow-Magnum pellets sprayed a little; at 22 yards they probably covered a half-dollar size area with one really bad flyer.

The Meisterkugeln pellets did better, offering up a quarter sized area mostly in a semicircle pattern. One thing of note was that I noticed that the psi was very much below 2000, probably around 1600 before I started shooting.

Being new to PCP airguns, I need to check the pressure before shooting. If for no other reason, just to be sure I do not have a leak. I will probably have to throw out these results and do a re-test, but that will probably have to wait a week or so.

Falcons’ undersized secondary spells trouble.

Yesterday I took the family to Atlanta to make a nice little weekend trip out of the Chargers/Falcons game. Atlanta did manage to pull a 27-24 victory, but the Falcons lost the first half, which was a matchup of starting units, 21-13. Let’s just say that the secondary is somewhat of a mess and spells trouble for the upcoming season.

In the first half, the Chargers pretty much did what they wanted, and third down defense for Atlanta was a joke. I have no idea why Atlanta thought they could let their only legitimate cornerback walk because the current fill-ins are going to be disappointing.

Grimes and Houston may be athletic and fast, but at some point size and natural talent become a factor. Unless something crazy happens and the Falcons pick up an unexpected gift during the 53 man roster cuts, or Atlanta somehow works out a trade, I think Falcons are going to be in for a rude awakening. It does not really matter how good the offense is if the defense cannot shut anyone down.

Someone on the d-line has to step up to put pressure on the QB, which in turn will take some of focus off the secondary. Right now things do not so good.

On a bright now, Grimes did get a sack on a blitz. He could work well as a nickel, and occasionally blitz, which would be a better use of his athletic talent. MLB Loften and FS Erik Colman looked sharp, but other than those two, the defense in the first half of a major bummer.

The kids were pretty much done at the half, so we took it back t the hotel.

Mini Marauder Pellet Report

Going to ATL today for the first Falcons home game. Who cares if it is preseason? I am ready for some football!

I had an opportunity to run about 4 clips (40 pellets) through the Marauder. I am glad I got the extra clip because I below threw clips and a rapid pace! I am going to order two or three more just for the convenience of having the pellets loaded and ready to shoot. Three to five should be plenty between fills.

Speaking of fills, I am not about to go much beyond 2200 psi on the Marauder’s gauge, which shows up at close to 2500-2600 psi on the Hill pump. Once I get the screws for the base, I am sure that I will pump the snot out of the gun to see how it shoots at 2500-3000 psi.

Shooting from about 20 yards; sitting position; little to no wind.

I shot a clip of Napier Power Hunter pellets. These things spray too much with little consistency. If anything, most were high and too the right of the mark. The scope is still not zeroed, but I abandon the idea of using a cheaper pellet to break in the gun (not even sure if PCPs have to be broken in) and zero the scope. I switched to a clip of Crosman Premier pellets, and the CPs grouped like a charm. 1 flyer; 9 in a ragged hole about a dime (maybe penny). The group was slightly higher than my aim point and only slightly to the right. The CPs should be fine for zeroing the scope, but it kind sucks that I have to use some of my more expensive pellets that my Beeman R1 loves to shoot. Then again it may be nice to have my two .22 airguns favor the same pellet.

I next tried some Beeman Silver Ace pellets, but they were unpredictable. About have were too high and too the right of my aim point, while the others where low and to the left. Kind of a strange diagonal grouping. Maybe it was the change in psi or poor technique.

For my final clip I switched back to the CPs with the same good results from the previous CP clip. I may have found the perfect pellet for the Marauder without having to go through a whole lot of pellets.

Innovation or virtual laziness?

Chalk this one up in the WTF is an EyePet category. As gamers, we always ask game developers to innovate. We do not really want to see Super Duper Deluxe 3, but that is what sells. Enter Sony’s forthcoming EyePet.

It is not really a game. I am not sure how much it can offer in the way of an experience. We have been there and done that before with virtual pets, but this time thanks to the EyeToy, we can now interact with our virtual pets. Seems like a good time, but how long will it last? I could see me purchasing the EyeToy bundle version for $59.99 and discarding the game after the uniqueness wears off. Let’s call it 90 minutes tops.

It will be interesting to see if Sony is rewarded for taking a risk, but I doubt this one will end up on the Top 10 best sellers list.

Where did all the good gaming stories go?

It is kind of a sad state of affairs for the gaming industry, when the “hottest” story on N4G is a “rumor” about a secret PS3 exclusive. Yawn.

According the PSXExtreme their hands are tied, but PS3 owners will be happy with the announcement.

First of all, don’t bother e-mailing us with desperate pleas; those e-mails will go unanswered. Secondly, you can theorize and speculate all you wish but you must always bear in mind that we did not confirm a damn thing. Thirdly, and this much we can almost promise: the game in question is something the vast majority of gamers will likely enjoy, and the only hint we can give you is that it is familiar. Well, we’re talking about a massive upgrade over the last installment, but nevertheless…familiar. The good news is that we might be able to spill the beans on this as early as January or February, but we’re at the mercy of Sony right now. Our source – who is no rumor-starter but the game designer currently working on the project – says his hands are tied on the issue, and we’ll continue to respect that. But if everything goes well, we’d like to think this game will be ready to go by the end of 2010; that may seem like a ways off, but we consider it a damn good reason to own a PS3.

Good grief! I guess I am contributing to the madness. I am going to go out on a limb and say this one is not Sex Simulator 2.000 – A new beginning; however the vast majority of horny teenage gamers and middle age old farts like me enjoy sex (or at least the thought of sex). That would sell like hotcakes. I wonder what I win?

Happy Saturday!

PCP Follies or Initial Marauder Impressions

First Marauder impressions. Completely random; things I thought would be interesting to others interested in a PCP or Marauder. My .22 caliber Marauder is 709120357, which I think means that it is #357 of July 2009.

No screws
The Hill hand pump did not include the screws to connect the shaft to the base. Needless to say, this makes pumping extremely difficult. I tried to rig up a way to pump, holding the base tightly with my feet, and for the most part this worked. The Marauder gauge indicated that I was at a shade over 2100; the Hill pump actually registered lower. Not sure if this is a problem with either gauge or just the nature of PCP.

Straight Shooters to the rescue; they are going to send me a set of screws that should arrive in the next few days.

The sound of silence
One of the primary reasons for my Marauder purchase was to have a quiet backyard shooter. This PCP delivers in spades. It is truly remarkable how much softer the Marauder is compared to my other springers, even the little giant – the Beeman R7. I do not know any other way to describe it, but I now know what folks were talking about when they said the Marauder needs a depinger. The pinging does not really bother me, but it was pronounced, and it is probably louder than the actual act of firing a pellet (or rather the sound of firing a pellet).

Clip and Bolt
I have zero experience with a repeater, much less an airgun with a clip and bolt combination. To be honest, I struggled with both. It took me a little time to figure out how to get the clip loaded and then locked into the Marauder. Removing the clip was also an adventure. The loading is now second nature, but not so much with removing the clip. And the bolt? That has been an adventure and needs some work.

At some point in my first shooting session the gun did not fire. I pulled on the trigger, but nothing happened. Before I knew it, I had actually rotated the clip multiple times, and I guess loaded up multiple pellets. I am sure that is not good for the gun!

I also ended up with a couple of dry fires, which were loud (almost springer like), but at least the manual talks about dry firing as a way to remove air from the reservoir, so I assume this is acceptable usage of the gun.

When I was doing my Marauder research I read a lot of posts about sticky bolts; not sure if I have one of those or if I am running into user error. Something to watch.

Finish
My first impressions of the stock finish are not so … well … impressive. I read somewhere that it looks like Crosman brushed on a coat of brown paint and called it a day. I am not sure that is completely fair, but the finish on the stock is nowhere near as nice as my Beeman airguns, especially my R1 Carbine.

Somehow I already have several light scratches on the barrel and reservoir. Not really a big deal because I do not consider this a “show” gun; it has the potential to be my everyday backyard shooter. With that said, I was surprised at how quickly the gun scratched, and I have no idea how I scratched it already!

Will this dog hunt?
Time will tell on this one. My initial shots all grouped in the target area, and that was with a scope that was not setup and some Napier Power Hunter pellets. Sitting or standing, I was hitting around my intended area. I am encouraged. Next to zero the scope and get some much needed practice. The tree rats are going to be so hosed this fall!

Future reports to follow, God willing and if the creeks don’t rise.

Marauder Friday

Impressions forthcoming, but there was a bit of initial disappointment. The Hill pump was missing the screws that connect the base to the pump shaft, which makes it almost impossible to fill the Marauder’s reservoir. Disappointing at best, but Straight Shooters said they would send me another set of screws.

Happy Friday!