Stuffs Keeps On Happening

This blog is still on the up and up; something like that. Chris is currently doing his stuffs (read about it on the IOSBL site), and I am doing my stuffs, whatever that means.

Seriously, it seems like between work (and more work) and other little life events, there was been precious little time for blogging. So it goes. Thankfully there is this handy-dandy new PSP thing that allows for great gaming on the go. Yes, I still like my new shiny; more on that in a minute.

I ended up with 1,040 points (86.2%) in ESPN’s NCAA College Bracket game, which is not bad for someone that has not watched any college basketball this year. I read the paper and the Sporting News, but that is about it for college basketball this year; I even cut out Sports Center. So I entered the pool, and basically guessed better than all but 14% of the people that played the game. Not too shabby! For the record, I picked UNC over GA Tech (73-69).

Enough about that, the Braves are in full swing today at 4PM, with Smoltz back on the mound as a starting pitcher. I love the Braves, but it is hard for me to get enthusiastic about MLB as has been the case since the last strike. Yes, the labor crap really did me in, and while I love the sport of baseball, the MLB just has not recaptured the magic that it used to hold over me. Maybe it will come back to me at some point (with my boys playing baseball). I really don’t know; kind of a paradise lost or age of disillusionment or something.

Tonya and I took the boys to ATL for a long weekend; did the Atlanta Zoo and even got to visit an Apple Store. Apple really has it going on with the whole Apple mystique thing. My wife wants an iPod Mini (Pink one of course), but I am trying to talk here “down” to a Shuffle in order to save some money. I am pretty sure my next computer will be a really cheap PC and a decent Mac. Apple has won a customer.

My iTrip was functional, but it is extremely difficult to tune the damn thing in traffic, much less try to find a decent station with static. Still, if your car’s stereo does not have an input jack for your iPod, the iTrip should still be considered fairly functional.

Moving right along, “… and then it happened …” sorry, been reading too much Thomas the Tank Engine to my 2-year old. I never thought it would happen, but the morning we left for ATL, I decided to download an entire album from the iTunes store. Up until this point I have purchased a handful of songs, but always songs, never the entire album. I picked up “Hot Fuss” by The Killers. I am not sure what this says about me (music taste or downloading albums), but I think it signals something fairly significant in my life. I always have to buy (own and hoard) certain things (music, games, magazines, etc), but lately I have been selling games that I do not play (have to pay for the PSP) and selling other stuff (F1 magazines for example) in order to remove some clutter from the house. Now I am going completely digital with my music. It was bound to happen sooner or later; I think I am finally growing up.

On the PSP front, I love this device. Lumines is a great puzzle game, Twisted Metal is a fun “blow up stuff” experience, and WipeOut and Ridge Racer are fine racers. I can see myself putting down Ridge Racer at some point because there is only so much arcade racing action that I can handle, but so far all my games continue to be fun. I need a sports title, but FIFA has been pushed back to April 25, so I may go for MLB and/or MVP in the coming weeks. Actually I was not planning on picking up any baseball games, but the wonderful PSP sleep feature has me convinced that I will get my money’s worth out of a baseball title. Now I am thinking of ordering both and keeping the best title.

A funny thing has happened since I got my PSP – in short, the PS2 is not receiving any attention. Actually I wanted to play some Norrath the other day, but the damn thing would not load. Maybe the PS2 is finally kicking the bucket. Anyway, other than wanting to get in some GT4 time, console gaming is not calling me right now. Is the PSP a console replacement? Too soon to tell.

If you have a PSP, you are already well-versed with the awesome sleep function. If not, the sleep function is a god-send to gamers, especially sports gamers (assuming we will need it when the football and baseball games are released). At any point you can put the PSP in sleep mode; be it in the middle of shooting another car (Twisted Metal) or in the middle of a power slide (Ridge Racer) or a pitch (presumably a baseball game). Really a wonderful feature.

All for now.

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