The Lamer Gamer

Trying to decide if it’s worth picking up StarCraft II if the only PC I have that’s capable of running it is the one on my desk at work.  My work environment is kind of a joke, so it’s unlikely I’d be caught, but still, I like to devote a lot of time to a new purchase and I’m wondering if I could really just close my office door and ignore the world for a few weeks.

Already, I’m just spending my time catching up on music I haven’t listened to in 15 years, but that’s basically accepted practice at any job isn’t it.  Somehow just found out that my phone can receive FM radio, so that’s been awesome, as I never bothered to load music onto it.

Ran 2.5 miles this morning. I wonder if there’s a 5K I can register for any time soon.  Probably.

Actually getting up ass early and running 4 miles helps too.  Not sure how I pulled that off after the night of dodging firework debris and downing High Life and Coors Banquet Beer.  On that note, if you should ever have the opportunity to sit 30 feet away from where a series of firework mortars and such are being set off, it’s a good time.  Have bits of gunpowder smelling wrappers fall on you, some of which still enflamed, is a trip.   Use your best judgement as to whether the persons controlling said display are licensed and skilled enough to have you sitting so close.

Anyway, LHP is okay.  I’m just watching someone else play right now.  I was never really into the books or movies so it’s not as much of a draw for me as Lego Star Wars or Indiana Jones were.  Still, the TT guys came up with some new mechanics like the set of spells your character can use.  Not a vast change from the last few incarnations.  I feel as though it’s just too easy for them to just pump out Lego remakes at this point, and frankly, they don’t feel altogether fresh.  Lego Rock Band in particular.

To recap.  4 miles run, good.  Hangover, bad.  Participatory fireworks, good.  LHP, so-so, so far anyway.

4th of July.  Up way too early on a holiday.  Got in an 8 mile run before 9AM.  That should count double or something.

Considering I haven’t fired up the Xbox in 4-5 days, I’ve banked a good amount of play time.  I think I’ve nearly given up on Alpha Protocol anyway.  It’s really annoying trying to figure out how to get certain outcomes over the course of the game and even with my OCD I find it unlikely that I’ll get 1000/1000 out of this one.

Shamelessly lifted from lamebook.com

It’s really only relevant as so many people are complaining about the spawn system in MW2

“You think you had a bad respawn?  What about Jesus?  His was in a cave behind this big rock.”

Dear John Shuster, et al.,

I”m sure you’re lovely individuals.  Your demeanor on the ice suggests you exemplify the best in sportsmanship and taking ownership of your own faults.  I love watching your games, and cheering on the US of A.

But GOD DAMN IT, Why, John can’t you make a clutch shot in extra ends.  I can deal with watching other teams make incredible plays and win matches, but you guys simply need to make normal, relatively run of the mill plays, and you can’t.  3 times now I’ve seen you in position to win in extras, and you can’t do it.  Germany beat you handily, they were better that day for sure. Norway, Switzerland, and now Denmark are not decidedly better teams.  You’ve had every opportunity to be 3-1 in competition and you’ve BLOWN every one.  Get your heads out of your asses, NOW!

Modern Fucking Warfare 2.  It’s on its way according to Gamefly, oh and via FastReturn! no less.  So maybe by Weds it will be here.  While Gamefly has been delivering a better experience recently, I’ve noticed that shipping times, and occasionally return times are extended by a day more than what I’ve seen in the past.  But all is forgiven, as my return of ODST via Friday’s mail has yielded Modern Warfare 2.

Now all that remains for this week to really rock is the arrival of the TV repairman.  I’ve really enjoyed owning my Samsung LNT4065F for the last two years, and I got some good warranty service on it via Samsung in the first few months.  But now we’re into the extended warranty via Circuit City’s contracted guys, so we’ll see how this goes.  The last TV I had was a Sony 27″ CRT, which while perhaps less glamorous was still a near top of the line set at the time.  That lasted 10 years, with one repair, also on a Circuit City contract.  Here’s hoping I can get anywhere near that length of time out of the current one.

Well, it’s not totally broken, but it has started to do its power-up cycle twice before actually getting the picture up.  I think that’s bad.

Too bad, I really like it.  It being a Samsung LNT4065F for last 2+ years has been great.  My previous TV a 26″ Sony CRT lasted about 10 years, and cost considerably less, sooooo…

Luckily enough, I did get the warranty from Circuit City, so provided that someone will honor the warranty given CC’s bankruptcy last year, I should be okay I guess.  But I’ve heard they’re more likely to give store credit than to fix the existing one sometimes.  That could suck.

Wallpaper from whiterabbittrails

Well, I covered around 5 miles this morning, some of it walking.   Fate has struck me down with injury. Shame, I’ve been doing pretty well with the plan and this is going to keep me from running for a bit.  We’ll see if the doctor can do something about it.

In the mean time, gotta start thinking of other trade off metrics for gaming, like 5 * (number of hours spent in gym).

Taking a trip and trying to keep up with my MPH running/gaming plan.  Did about 4 miles on the Coyote Creek Trail some walking as I’ve been prone to injury lately.  This probably has me falling behind as I played Resistance: Retribution pretty much straight through the 2 flights getting here.

Resistance itself doesn’t really seem all that great on the PSP.  The controls are a little annoying and the lack of 2 analog sticks really makes TPS (and FPS) hard to control.  Story is okay, but the voice acting is laughable.  Too bad, I kinda liked the original on my buddy’s PS3, haven’t had a chance to see Resistance 2 in action yet.