Blog

The thoughts, opinions, happenings, and just plain ramblings of a seemingly boring person.

Tweets for 2013

Categories Geekery, Internet, Life

Tweets for 2013These are my tweets for 2013 (minus replies and retweets). All the URLs are still Twitter's 't.co' ones, as the API doesn't spit out the original URL text.

  • Time machine back to year 10, 1998! http://t.co/FDjrAzCA #DrWorm was my favourite Jan 02, 2013
  • Gold! 'Old Cops Discover The Internet': http://t.co/47ITSJrW Jan 05, 2013
  • Darn. Oh well, it was worth a shot http://t.co/BuoySrn4 #DeathStar Jan 12, 2013
  • lots of profanity, but loads of hilarity "Darth Vader Voiced By Schwarzenegger": http://t.co/2SY7sm7z Jan 14, 2013
  • What a joke that Brave won the Golden Globe for Best Animated Film! Does Pixar get the awards
… Read more →

The Best and Worst of 2013

Categories Gaming, Movies, Rants

It's my usual 'Best and Worst' post time! For those not familiar, I summarise the best and worst movies and games that I have watched and played this calendar year. These are only from the movies/games that I have personally watched/played, so it's definitely not exhaustive.

Movies

Keeping in mind that I have only seen one movie out of those that were released over the Christmas/Boxing Day period, here is a list of the movies that I have watched so far this year.Django Unchained

Best Movie: Django Unchained

Usually a movie will jump out at me as one of the … Read more →

Ender’s Game (the movie): Impressed

Categories Geekery, Movies

Ender's GameLast night we saw Ender's Game. Some spoilers may be ahead.

I had read the book earlier in the year, so I was quite eager to see how they would portray a book that I thought was not suited for a transition to the big screen.

I have to say that I was pretty impressed. I think they did quite a good job at compressing the story, themes, and relationships into a very watchable two-hour movie. Knowing the story of the book beforehand, it did feel very rushed, but while a lot of depth and other sub-plots were understandably minimised … Read more →

A Retrospective of the Now-Previous Gaming Generation

Categories Gaming, Geekery

GamingSo now that Xbox One and PlayStation 4 have been released, what was the 'current' console generation is now the 'previous' generation. I had two consoles of the previous generation (Wii & PS3), which was a new experience considering I didn't have any from the one before that. It was a pretty long generation, spanning 2005 to 2013, and I think a lot of gamers were grateful at that.

It was also a generation in which gaming matured a whole lot. Not only maturing technically into things like high-definition, proper online connectivity, and social capabilities, but also maturing in terms … Read more →

Symphony of Legends

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Life

Symphony Of LegendsTonight we had the immense pleasure of going to the Symphony of Legends, which was the Queensland Symphony Orchestra (and an accompanying choir) performing a collection of video game scores.

In my tweet tonight I mentioned that it was an interesting mix of high-class symphony regulars dressed in suits and gowns, as well as geeks, some dressed in shorts.

There were some really great pieces, but for me the highlight was the Journey score. It was fantastic to hear it performed by a live orchestra, not to mention being conducted by its own composer, Austin Wintory.

Other honourable mentions … Read more →

Getting the Joystick Out for BF4

Categories Gaming, Technology

BF4 Joystick In the past couple of weeks I have really gotten started on BF4. These early days are always a bit of a slog trying to upgrade weapons, classes, and vehicles, but it has been fun nonetheless.

One thing that I have always sucked at across all the Battlefield games, is flying aircraft. I always tend to struggle flying with the mouse, mainly because it is really hard to find a neutral 'centre' point, especially with the helicopters.

The best way to fly is, of course, with a joystick. So I thought "screw this", let's give it a go.

I dusted … Read more →

New Mobile: Google/LG Nexus 5

Categories Geekery, Life, Technology

Nexus 5The two-year mark on my HTC Desire S was coming up, so over the past couple of months I have been looking for a new phone. My criteria was a mid-range (and mid-priced!) Android phone that I've normally gone for, and one that has 4G so it would be a noticeable upgrade.

The Desire S was a great phone, so in sticking with HTC, I had my eyes set on a HTC One Mini. It was around my price-point, and it wasn't as large as the top-tier phones like its bigger brother. I was about to pull the trigger and … Read more →

Windows 8.1 Thoughts

Categories Geekery, Rants, Technology

After being on Windows 8 since I built the new computer, I was quite eager to see how Windows 8.1 would improve upon the deficiencies that I have previously criticised.

As a whole, I think it is a bit of a mixed bag. There are some good improvements. For example, the implementation of a 'Start' button goes some way to easing the transition for Windows users, and provides a visual cue of functionality that was previously only an unmarked 'hover' corner. But really, it is only a square that does the same thing as the Start key on … Read more →

Battlefield 4 Beta

Categories Gaming, Geekery

BF4 skyscraper collapsingI don't often play beta versions of games. I mostly prefer to wait until the final product, rather than get used to an incomplete version of a game or get frustrated at bugs.

The one exception to that which I can think was Unreal Tournament 3 back in 2007, but I think that might have been a pre-release demo rather than an actual 'beta'.

However, after some prodding from Michael (who pointed out that it might be a decent test of the newly-built Executor), I installed the beta of Battlefield 4 and played it a bit over the … Read more →

Building the Executor

Categories Gaming, Geekery, Technology

I've taken advantage of the long weekend to put together my new computer, which I have named Executor (after the Super Star Destroyer of the same name :)). Photos are at the bottom of this post.

For this build, I concentrated on putting together a quiet computer, but one that is still capable in the gaming department. Everything is new, with the exception of the graphics card, which I have carried across from the last upgrade of Executor's predecessor.  The specs of Executor are:

  • Fractal Design Define R4 case (with window and another fan added to the front
… Read more →