Cowon iAudio 7 vs SanDisk Sansa Clip+

Published
by
Timothy
on January 11, 2010
in hardware review
. 1 Comment
Cowon iAudio 7

Cowon iAudio 7

SanDisk Sansa Clip+

SanDisk Sansa Clip+

After at least a couple of years of use, my trusty iAudio 7 is beginning to malfunction. It has rarely useful touchscreen controls that are disabled by sliding a lock button over. Once done, there are buttons that assume new functions, which is very handy. You can play/pause, control volume, and skip/forward/rewind tracks all without using the cursed touch screen. Unfortunately, the lock button is malfunctioning and now the touchscreen gets brushed in my pocket which suddenly changes tracks and/or increases the volume to an ear-bleeding level.

I use my mp3 player constantly. I listen to Girl Talk and Kid Cudi while jogging, several different podcasts, and Spanish lessons from Pimsleur.

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I figured I might as well try out a new mp3 player. I like the idea of single-purpose mp3 players. I don’t need a camera, a huge fancy color screen or video playback, and a review I read of the Sansa Clip+ seemed to fit the bill. It was tinier, cheaper, and had a clip on it to attach wherever I wanted-no need for a pocket. The music file formats supported were nice, and the sound quality was reviewed as really good. The battery performance, which is very important to me was reviewed as really good as well. I bought the bastard for $35 or so, whereas my iAudio 7 was over $100 I believe. I’m extremely unimpressed with this Sansa Clip+.

When HDTVs first came out it was said upgrading to one doesn’t bring about about an extremely noticeable change, but once used to it, downgrading was horribly noticeable. I totally experienced that when it came to HDTVs, but would never suspect that my ears were sensitive enough for an audibly equivalent experience. Well, downgrading to the Sansa Clip+ has been horrible. Girl Talk sounds significantly less bumping, and podcasts sound like they’re streaming from the internet… in 1997. Okay, maybe that last part is an exaggeration.

I also had grown accustomed to the battery life of my iAudio 7. I assumed a much newer, and smaller device would match or exceed the battery life of it. Boy was I wrong. Last week I was listening to a podcast while washing the dishes, and it went kaput. Apparently Moore’s Law doesn’t apply to batteries. The battery life with the iAudio 7 was such that in the over two years I used it I never once ran out of a charge. Seriously. Not only that, I never really had to expressly plug it in to recharge it. It recharged whenever I was putting new content on it. Every now and then I would forget to unplug it at night, and then it would recharge over night.There was honestly never any forced recharging time. I’m sure this had much to do with me adding new content daily, but it still was largely an unnoticed effort, and it never went kaput on me.

The features I liked on the Sansa Clip+ were the clip, the OLED screen, and the resume playback feature. On the Sansa Clip+ it was possible to leave a podcast, lesson, or song, and come back to it, resuming where you left off. This is not so easy to do on the iAudio 7. I can’t believe how incredibly handy having a clip on the Sansa is. Still, I have to say, if you’re concerned about having a tiny portable audio player, and not so concerned with carrying your whole library around with you (the player maxes out at 16 GB) the iAudio 7 is highly recommended by me. For a more thorough look, check out some of the links.

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/iaudio/7/

http://www.anythingbutipod.com/archives/2007/07/cowon-iaudio-7-review.php

http://iaudiophile.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=63

http://www.sandisk.com/products/sansa-music-and-video-players/sandisk-sansa-clipplus-mp3-player-.aspx

My Favorite Hip-Hop Albums of the Decade

Published
by
Timothy
on January 2, 2010
in Uncategorized and music
. 3 Comments

I won’t pretend to be a professional hip-hop journalist, let alone a general music journalist, but I love hip-hop. I think I listened to enough of it over the last decade to be able to assemble a list of what I liked the most. Of course, this is a list of some of what I listened to, and there is obviously A LOT that I didn’t listen to. I don’t really believe in required reading or required listening, and I don’t read music magazines or music blogs. I mean, just because Lil’ Wayne gets nominated for a grammy doesn’t mean I’m going to go listen to his album. I do subscribe to Indiefeed Hip-Hop, which introduces a track, and plays it. Other than that, I stumble around on emusic.com, amazon.com’s mp3 store, get recommendations from friends, and sift through B Jizzle’s gigabytes. Now, let me pretend to be a hip-hop journalist and share my favorite hip-hop albums of the decade.

This isn’t a straightforward Top Ten list, but rather a favorite and runners-up for each specific year. If you want to download a specific track, click the song link, and that will take you to the download for that specific track.

I started off the decade by attending a show in Iowa City at the Union Bar. Opening up were the Beat Junkies, Supernatural, and Dilated Peoples. For the main event: Jurassic 5.  Quality Control by Jurassic 5 was by far my favorite album that year.

2000 Favorite Album:

Quality Control by Jurassic 5

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Jurass Finish First

2nd Place: Both Sides of the Brain by Del the Funky Homosapien- The track If You Must was beaten over my head repetitively in one of those Tony Hawk games, so I always skip that track, but otherwise this is jaw gymnastics of the tallest order.

3rd Place: Reflection Eternal by Talib Kweli & Hi Tek- Talib’s rhymes aren’t bad, although I like the sound of his voice more than I like his actual lyrics. What I like the most about this album is Hi-Tek’s beats.

This next album is probably my favorite for the whole decade as well. Its like a sci-fi hip-hop opera, a Scihopera. The rare instance where the beats and rhymes are of equal excellence. “I apply the flow cannon, the combo so slammin’, atomically reconstruct the whole canvas.”

2001 Favorite Album:

Deltron 3030 by Deltron(a.k.a. Del the Funky Homosapien)

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Mastermind

2nd Place: Life’s a Bitch and I’m Her Pimp by MC Chris-He’s not a ten-year old, and not a chick, but his voice sounds like it. This album has the awesome Fett’s Vette.

3rd Place: AOI: Bionix by De La Soul-

2002 Favorite Album:

In Search Of… by N.E.R.D.

nerd

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Truth Or Dare (feat. Kelis & Pusha T)

2nd Place: Parallel Universe #1 by DJ Broken Window-Some early decade mashup fun. This stuff was pretty low-tech, as far as the actual approach goes. The liner notes instruct you how to recreate the mash-ups with two vinyl records. The mash-ups aren’t perfect by any means…like the sound of rough but persistent experimentation. Pretty random results.

3rd Place: Never is Now by DJ Swamp-Over-the-top violent brags about his skills, his swamp cuts! But his beats do indeed bump, and ladies do indeed move up to the front.

2003 Favorite Album:

Hope by Non Prophets

nonprophets

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That Ain’t Right

2nd Place: Revolutionary Vol. 2 by Immortal Technique-Pretty raw stuff. Not for easily offended listeners.

3rd Place: Later That Day… by Lyrics Born

For 2003, this album technically should have been Art Official Intelligence part three, but for some reason(Tommy Boy Records?) De La Soul abandoned their A.O.I trilogy and came out with this instead. Makes no difference to me, because this album was great. It was nice having Flavor Flav visit as well.

2004 Favorite Album:

The Grind Date by De La Soul

delasoul

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Verbal Clap

2nd Place: RBG: Revolutionary But Gangsta by Dead Prez

3rd Place: Shadows on the Sun by Brother Ali

Sage Franics likes being in PETA ads, but, at least he’s an excellent MC/spoken word poet. Makes up for it in my book.

2005 Favorite Album:

A Healthy Distrust by Sage Francis

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escape artist

2nd Place: The Mouse & The Mask by DANGERDOOM-The rare occasion where I loved all the skits.

3rd Place: Tales of the Forgotten… by Wax Tailor

Its hard imagining The Coup being any funkier, but see them live and you’ll see just that.

2006 Favorite Album:

Pick a Bigger Weapon by The Coup

coup

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Get That Monkey Off Your Back

2nd Place: Public Warning by Lady Sovereign-She’s like little girl Beastie Boy or something.

3rd Place: 20/20 by Dilated Peoples-Babu’s beats are bumpin’! Ev and Rakaa’s faux nuglets of wisdom are entertaining, but the poetry seems real.

Listening to Tone Tank rap about domestic or personal situations like on “It Is What It Is”, makes the music easy to identify with. It’s not because I have the same problems as he does, but he comes off as being a dude who really wants to just be a hip-hop artist. He doesn’t want to win American Idol.

2007 Favorite Album:

Iller Than Theirs by Iller Than Theirs

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Wash, Rinse, Repeat

2nd Place: How You Sell Soul to a Soulless People Who Sold Their Soul? by Public Enemy- It’s nice to hear Chuck D still at it.

3rd Place: Gutterfly by Lifesavas

In 2008 Del doesn’t bring as many jaw gymnastics as he did in 2000, but his slick groovy naked fonk is in full effect!

2008 Favorite Album:

Eleventh Hour by Del the Funky Homosapien

delfunky11

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Foot Down

2nd Place: Feed the Animals by Girl Talk

3rd Place: MC Chris is Dead by MC Chris

As the decade progressed, I got more into mash-ups. In 2009 two of my most favorite things (Legend of Zelda and Hip-Hop) collided. Honestly, not all the artists that are mashed-up in this are my favorite, but the results are great. Jay-Z, Busta, Dre, Snoop, Aesop Rock, and MF Doom are cool, but I can identify the Ocarina of Time tracks more readily than I can identify where those hip-hop tracks came from. I also LOVE the name of this artist. This album is not to be mistaken with another album of the same name, by an artist named Sleaze. If you stumble across that somewhere, run the other way.

2009 Favorite Album:

Ocarina of Rhyme by Team Teamwork

rhyme

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Jay-Z – No Hook (Meeting the Owl)

2nd Place: Man on the Moon: End of Day by Kid Cudi

3rd Place: Uzi Does It by Get Busy Committee

So thats it. See you at the end of the next decade…hopefully.

Prefenz: A Hand Sanitizer?

Published
by
Timothy
on October 30, 2009
in rant
. 1 Comment

germfree24prefenz_81point5oz_smallerright_bottle

Germ Free 24, Prefenz, and MRSAnator

Recently both the Muscatine Journal and the Quad-City Times have posted news articles (both linked to in the product website) about the hand sanitizer product called Prefenz.  Both articles seem to preach the gospel of this product being an effective hand sanitizer. According to these news articles, this product not only kills MRSA, Strep, and E.Coli, among other bacteria, fungi, and viruses, but it does so for 24 hours after application. That is a pretty impressive claim. The company president of Prefenz Botanicals, Aaron Powers, is even seen in this youtube video claiming that Prefenz  “is the only FDA listed hand sanitizer product that completely eradicates the swine flu”.

Wow. If this is the case, then sign me up. I actually have a bottle in the bathroom right now, and have been using the product for a few days. It allegedly creates a barrier all over your hands that kills the bad stuff for up to 24 hours. It definitely feels like I have a barrier on my hands right now, and I like how it feels. Its not like you have dried Elmer’s glue on your hands or anything.  In fact, the sensation that I have a barrier on my hands is so faint and light, that it could be a pretty convincing mind trick. If this stuff does what it says, it truly is an amazing product.

The problem is, the current atmosphere surrounding the H1N1, and all that has introduced an excellent opportunity for snake oil salesmen.The government’s FDA website has an FDA 2009 H1N1 (Swine) Flu Page that contains several consumer protection links concerning fraudulent H1N1 claims and bogus H1N1 products. It even offers an embeddable widget for your website that will help identify these shenanigans, and there is a category in it for hand sanitizers. Now, Prefenz is not currently listed as being bogus or anything, but it did help me appreciate the weight of the claims made. One would think that maybe the Muscatine Journal or the Quad City Times would have provided credible links or references to studies that back up these claims, but it pretty much just quotes the website or product makers concerning those claims. The actual Profenz website isn’t much more helpful in providing third-party or other independent sources confirming the efficacy of the claims. In all fairness, the Muscatine Journal article does reference a study done by Iowa State University, but here is the quote:  “According to Reusswig, Prefenz has been tested by Iowa State University and other researchers for use against bacteria, viruses and fungi.” Well, the Muscatine Journal didn’t bother to actually check this claim seeing as it basically just says that this David Reuswig says its so. David Reuswig is president of Northern Filter Media. Northern Filter Media are partners with Prefenz. Their home website prominently features “Swimming Pool Filter Media”. Related hand sanitizer Germ Free 24 from Coating Systems Laboratories also advertises a line of pool products, so I guess that Northern Filter Media may not be an unbiased source.

Right, so where did I come up with this other company Coating Systems Laboratories? Well, the key ingredient in Prefenz is something called amosilq, a silica complex which is a …wait for it…silylated quaternary ammonium compound. This ideally provides residual antimicrobial protection, meaning it lasts a relatively long time, longer than the time it takes for alcohol-base Purell to evaporate anyway. Well, all three of the above pictured products contain amosilq. Those are Germ Free 24, Prefenz, and MRSAnator. I mentioned before the Muscatine Journal trusting that these Iowa State University tests were legit, well, turns out there is a study done by Iowa State University. Keep in mind though, that the study was financed by Northern Filter Media, partners with Prefenz. Also the study very plainly starts off with “In this communication we report the effectiveness of these sanitizers for killling human enteric pathogens on inanimate surfaces…”. Now that sounds like a pretty qualified statement, but this is a study. Also, I can be a pretty lazy guy, but I don’t think I would call my hands “inanimate surfaces”. Sanitizing inanimate surfaces  and grippy grabby human meat mits over the course of a very hands-on 24 hours are two totally different things.

I guess what I’m getting at is that these guys haven’t proven to me that this stuff does what it says it will. I like the feel of the stuff and I really hope it does what it says it does, but I’m not convinced that its not just snake oil in this application. I like this study I found the link to at Hand Hygiene Facts. A news channel compared different hand sanitizers by using actual kid hands! I’d like to see Prefenz stack up to this test, including the 24 hour claim.

Like a Pokemon Virgin

Published
by
Timothy
on October 5, 2009
in video games
. 0 Comments
212792782_06fcadfbb6

A review of Pokemon Platinum for the Nintendo DS

I’ve THOUGHT about playing a Pokemon game for a long time, because of the pop icon status these card and video games have garnered over the years. It is especially odd that I never got around to playing any of them because I’ve been a huge Nintendo fan ever since the NES days. Of course, the only handheld games I really began playing in earnest were on the Gameboy Advance, so any Pokemon game on the Fatboy, or Gameboy Color would not have gotten my attention. Portable gaming in those days for me was definitely limited to Tetris, as it was for many people I imagine.

There was also the stigma it had of being a little kid’s obsession. Well, after reading over and over of there actually being some genuine appeal and gameplay involved in them, I decided to try it out. Now I’ve sunk a combined 55 hours into it. I’ve been playing it since March 2009. Previous to this game, my pokemon expertise consisted of being a dedicated Mewtwo player on Super Smash Brothers Melee (one of my top ten favorite games). I thought about picking up either Pokemon Diamond or Pearl on the DS, but I didn’t know which one to get. With Platinum, there was only one, and it also launched near to my visit to the Nintendo World Store in NY. I figured that would be a great place to buy my first pokemon game.

The game has two settings, the world exploration and the battle screen. The world exploration has the towns and trails between them. There are pokemon trainers scattered liberally across the world (of which you also are one).Upon seeing you, the trainers will challenge you to battle. There are also specific terrain types, that when walking through will randomly throw you into battling a wild pokemon, unaccompanied by a trainer. You never see these wild pokemon on the world exploration screen, but you only know one is there when you are forced to do battle. The world exploration features a pleasant top-down view, with simplistic character sprites, and cartoony houses and cartoony landscape features. Its colorful, crisp and very retro. It feels like you are wandering around a much friendlier Hyrule, from The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past. You can explore towns, houses, caves, mountains, oceans, and lakes, and it usually pays off to wander quite a bit.

The battle screens were less impressive. This game has been around a long time, the first one being released in 1998 in North America. The battle screen hasn’t changed a whole lot since then, even with the relatively capable technical abilities of the Nintendo DS. The battles consist of pretty much static almost unanimated characters stiffly bumping into each other. Its turn-based and most of the action is explained as it unfolds via text at the bottom of the screen. The disappointment with this though is really mostly just with the dated appearance of the animations and graphics. The gameplay that happens is pretty addictive. The pokemon come in several different types, ranging from ice to fire to rock, and there is a complicated rock/paper/scissors balancing act going on that determines how effective a given pokemon will be against another type. Wild pokemon can either be defeated for the experience points or captured to be added to your pokemon collection. You can only carry six pokemon at a time, but you can change up that roster with access to your whole collection, balancing out the six with a good range of different types and levels.

The actual pokemon characters themselves I really enjoyed. The animations aren’t great, but the illustrations are cool, especially the little pixelated sprites that represent the larger designs. I like the sheer number of pokemon in the game as well. There are a ton, not even including the evolved versions that one pokemon will change from as it levels up. The creatures are really bizarre combinations of each other, with some pokemon not seeming that different from another. Some are inspired from animals,insects and plants, and some are seemingly made up out of thin air. It reminded me of my M.U.S.C.L.E. (Millions of Unusual Small Creatures Lurking Everywhere) collection when I was little. The little pink inch-high rubber action figures were also from Japan and featured nonsensical character designs. Its just very fun collecting all these bizarre little things.

I remember you guys!

I remember you guys!

I beat the equivalent of eight boss battles. In the game, the towns contain gyms which house gym leaders, powerful pokemon trainers. There are eight gym leaders, and I beat them all. After I beat them however, I came across the “elite four”, which I hope are actually the last four trainers to beat. They are incredibly difficult, and have to be beat consecutively without any retreat between the four battles. I beat the first elite, but am stalled after that. I’m giving the game a rest for now, because I’ve been really wanting to start playing Retro Game Challenge. I definitely see myself coming back to Pokemon Platinum, and leveling up my pokemon in the wild sufficiently enough to beat the elite four. Maybe after Retro Game Challenge I’ll come back to it. Pokemon Platinum was a laid back game to play, and I liked the pacing of it as a handheld game. I would highly recommend it, and I’m sure I’ll be buying another Pokemon game in the future.

chimchartangela

The Know It All

Published
by
heather
on August 29, 2009
in book review and books
. 0 Comments

I’m reading The Know It All: One Man’s Humble Quest to Become the Smartest Person in the World by A.J. Jacobs for a book club I recently joined. I’ll attend my first meeting on Monday night. I totally won’t have the book read by then, though. I didn’t think this would be a book that I want to read repeatedly, so I tried to obtain it from the Davenport library, but my hold expired before I made it there. So, I requested the book again and finally picked it up from the Muscatine library last week. I think I’ve had the book for a little over a week now. I’m on page 167 out of 726. I’m going to write a review of the book, even though I am only about 1/7th of the way through it. Even though I generally like the book, I will have neither the time nor the inclination to finish it. Before I started the book club, I already had a list of 30 books that I needed to read. Now, with the book club, I’ll need to read an assigned book every month, too. So, with no time to finish, I’m reduced to the bad form of writing a review of a book I have not completely read. Oh well.

It’s actually too bad that I didn’t have time to finish this book. A.J. Jacobs is a really interesting writer. I like the way he phrases things, and a lot of his thoughts/insights clarify my own. I find him really funny, too. He’s not like David Sedaris funny – more sarcastic and dry – totally my type of humor.

Here the book’s premise. Basically, A.J. feels as if he has not done anything noteworthy with his life. This feeling is compounded by the fact that his father has written 24 law books and is super smart and his brother-in-law is a brilliant condescending bastard. A.J., while obviously a very smart person, is more interested in entertainment/pop culture than the subtle nuances of the law. So, to redeem himself and bolster his self-confidence, he starts to read the Encyclopaedia Britannica (EB) from A to Zed.

The book is written rather like an encyclopedia. A.J. picks excerpts from the EB that he finds particularly interesting, or that he can at least make some interesting observations about. Some of them are funny (see baculum), some of them are sad (see Chang and Eng), and some of them are just truly bizarre (see augury). This is an unusual tack to take with a book; it makes the book easy to pick up and read when one only has a couple of minutes, but it doesn’t really keep the reader engaged, as there is no plot progression to speak of – at least not one that I’ve seen yet.

One of the reasons I really identify with this author is because of his struggle with knowing that while he is a smart, talented person, he has yet to make his mark on the world. His life will come and go, and the world will be no different for it. That’s a concept that I struggle with a lot, too. I’m smart (ish). In high school, I seemed to have a lot of potential. Heck, I was even voted “Most Likely to Have An Encyclopedia Page Written About Her.” While my daily life is very happy and pleasant, no one will ever find it interesting enough to write an encyclopedia entry about it, and if they did, not many would find it interesting enough to spend 5 minutes of their lives reading it. It’s just rather sad when one comes face-to-face with his or her own anonymity. So, back to my original point, I can totally see where A.J. is coming from, and I’m glad that by him writing this book he’s gained some notoriety, for a little bit at least.

So, I’m glad that I’ve read the first 167 pages. Maybe when I get done with my current list of 30 books, I’ll circle back and finish this one. I wish A.J. the best, and I hope that this book someday warrants him and entry in the EB.

War and Peace and Boobahs

Published
by
Timothy
on August 3, 2009
in books
. 0 Comments

longbourn

Review of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

I’m no stranger to the story of Pride and Prejudice. I’ve seen the Matthew McFadyen and Colin Firth P&P movies more than once. I have to thank my wife for introducing me to them, because the movies are great, and I’m sure I wouldn’t have given them a second look otherwise. I haven’t read the original Pride and Prejudice or any other Jane Austen book for that matter, but I’ve always thought about it. The addition of zombies was enough to get me into it, especially coming away from watching Shaun of the Dead, 28 Days Later, and Dawn of the Dead fairly recently.

Unfortunately the addition of zombies wasn’t much more than that, a simple addition. The math needed to throw in zombies the way he did to original story would take no mathemagician.  The zombie lore and supporting story for it was as tacked on as the word “zombies” is in the title. He even started to give up towards the end, and the potential of developing some sort of arc with the zombie plot in tandem with the traditional one was gone. There was so much potential but no imagination in developing it. The story was almost 100% consistent with the original which is telling of how large a role the “unmentionables” played in it. It seemed at first and as the story progressed that there was a mystery of peculiarly large throngs of the undead. I hoped that it would be expanded upon, but nope, it was way too faithful to the original story. He definitely could have mashed it up a bit more.I might as well have read the original.

I felt tricked, like he was my teacher and needed to convince me reading was cool. “Don’t want to read Pride and Prejudice huh? Well, what if I told you there were zombies in it! Yeah dude! How rad is that!” Not very rad.

If you want to read how a real author messes with classics, read The Eyre Affair and Lost in a Good Book by Jasper Fforde, where he screws with many beloved classics.

Target Needs to Reconcile These Two Things

Published
by
Timothy
on June 10, 2009
in rant
. 0 Comments

targettbag

Reusable bags. Target and Walmart both have featured them in their glossy ads, their own branded reusable bags. Target even gave them away once.  Of course both of these corporations love the public image they get by featuring these reusable bags on their advertisements and circulars, because, its hip to be green right now. Its a token way for them to communicate that they are doing their part. What I have a problem with, is that the P.R. spin is encouraging you to BUY and use the bags at their stores, but someone forgot to copy the customer service on this point. You would think that by seeing these branded reusable bags being purchased at their checkout registers, the cashiers would be able to add it all up and realize that they WILL see these bags brought back to them again and again and again as REUSABLE BAGS.

walmartbag

I had an experience at Target this past weekend that initially confused me, but I figured it out pretty quickly. The cashier began ringing up our small order of groceries, and instead of bagging the groceries as she went, she stacked them all up unbagged on the end of the counter. I thought that was odd, but whatever, I thought, she has her own method. She finishes scanning everything, and hands us our receipt. She then proceeds to bag only one bagful of our groceries using the reusable bags. The rest of the two bags worth of groceries remain where they are unbagged as she returns to the register and begins ringing up the next person’s order, placing that person’s things right next to ours.

“Um, we still have groceries here.” I said.

She replied “I have to check out the next customer.”

Then I reply loudly “Would you like us to bag these for you, I’m confused, because you didn’t say anything to us and left our stuff here. If you want us to finish bagging these things you could at least let us know.”

“I have to check out this customer.”

We finished bagging the groceries ourselves. Now, when I go to Aldi’s, which I do regularly, I understand that my order is going to be bagged by me, and thats no problem. I know thats why I pay really discount prices for their stuff. The issue here I believe, after doing some googling on the experience is the reusable bags. I don’t remember seeing a disclaimer when buying this bag that says “Using this bag requires you to bag your own things.” I think the cashiers are trying to encourage some trend or unwritten rule that if you bring your own bag, you bag it yourself. I don’t see why I should get less customer service because I’m using a “green” bag that the store is encouraging me to purchase and use. If Target is changing their customer service policy so that the customer bags their own groceries, then, they need to apply that indiscriminately.

I NEVER get attitude from any regular grocery store. Stores like Hy-Vee and Schnucks wordlessly use them with no complaints. From reading some things online I think this is a department store problem. A couple of articles I read, (browse the comments too):

http://www.greendaily.com/2009/01/05/cashiers-and-baggers-please-use-my-bags/

http://www.bulletinbag.com/blog/thinking-about-reusable-bags-a-message-to-cashiers-and-baggers.html

Square Enix RPG Crash Course Part II: Final Fantasy IV

Published
by
Timothy
on May 23, 2009
in Uncategorized and video games
. 0 Comments

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I read somewhere once of the Final Fantasy games being compared to the excitement of managing a spreadsheet, what with all the nested menus, inventories, equipping, and stats. Well I can definitely identify with that characterization, but I think that is also what I like about, at least, this Final Fantasy. The pace of the game is pretty relaxing. I like just clicking through all my characters, equipping, and unequipping things, and managing items. I was able to really take my time. The style worked excellently on the DS. There were plenty of opportunities to save the game, and it was easy to open it up and play it for just a short amount of time. I should repeat again, this is my first proper Final Fantasy game, the only other being FF Tactics Advance. This is part two of my Square Enix RPG crash-course, the first being The World Ends With You.

This being my first Final Fantasy, it was nice to be able to finally get introduced into the universe after it being such a big part of video game culture over the years. My first impression was the effort it seems the game put forth in trying to convince me that I was experiencing something epic. It didn’t feel so epic though. It felt like a fantasy themed soap opera. Its not an epic opera anyway, more of a melodramatic adventure. All these things weren’t troublesome to me though, more just amusing. The real tone of the game is set by the mechanics of managing a party of characters, and managing them in turn-based battle. That is what was appealing about the game.

The party, represented by a single character, wanders a map of the world, a really high-level generic view. Mostly only the towns, caves, and any battle screen have a more detailed view of your environment. The 3D polygonal characters were very nice, along with the cut scenes. I like when cut scenes use the in-game graphics to unfold, and not fancy unrelated cinematics, like the intro to this game uses. The voices were hilarious, especially Edward the Bard, Prince of Damcyan. The music was nice, definitely more epic than the drama unfolding in the game.

My sense of the scale of the adventure though  can’t be competely honest, because I only finished a little more than 1/3 of the game. The area I hit a brick wall in was the chapter To Pilfer an Airship in the Castle Baron. I made it to the boss Baigan, with snakes for arms, and I tried and tried but could not beat him. One of the complaints I have of the game is the boss difficulty. While understanding that bosses are inherently to be more difficult to beat than your average bad guy, the discrepancy between even the most difficult regular enemies and the bosses in the game was HUGE. It got to the point while fighting bosses, that I figured there couldn’t be very many DIFFERENT ways to beat them. I would try many different tactics, and then it would begin to cease to be fun to me. That is what happened with Baigan. I fought him so many times, that even if I did eventually best him, the trouble wouldn’t have been worth it.

As it is, I finished with this party:

  • Cecil as a Paladin, Level 19
  • Porom,  Level 25
  • Palom, Level 25
  • Tellah, Level 25
  • Yang, Level 25

I don’t know, maybe I’ll pick it up again this Winter and beat Baigan. Its definitely a quality game.

Square Enix RPG Crash Course Part I: The World Ends With You

Published
by
Timothy
on May 20, 2009
in video games
. 0 Comments

I’m pretty much a Square Enix newbie. The only other Square Enix game I had played beside these three is Final Fantasy Tactics Advance on the Gameboy Advance, which I really enjoyed, but definitely is not a mainline Final Fantasy adventure. All three of these games were new to me despite two of them originally being Super Nintendo games. I was so fully content playing Zelda, Mario, Donkey Kong, and Starfox on that platform that I didn’t really get into RPGs. In fact, I never really got into RPGs much at all, so playing these was like a crash-course in traditional RPGs. The crash-course consisting of  The World Ends With You, Final Fantasy IV, and Chrono Trigger, all on the Nintendo DS.

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The first up of the three is also the newest, in terms of original release date and sensibilities. As the cover art indicates, there are all kinds of hip, young, and urban characters in it that are all angsty and self-absorbed. The setting of the game is meant to be a real-life section of Tokyo, Japan.

Despite having traditional RPG elements like leveling up your characters and equipping stat-boosting items via tedious menus, this game actually offers something unique that I see as the sole positive feature of the game: the battles. Where the other two games here have you battle by selecting a menu item, this game requires some skilled hand-eye coordination. The battles take place on both the top and bottom screens of the DS, and require you to battle simultaneously on both fronts. One character battles on the top, and one character battles on the bottom. The top character is controlled by timed directional presses of the d-pad, and the bottom character is controlled with very specific motions of the stylus.  Unfortunately the stylus motions seemed to function a little sketchy for me.

Your character collects pins (like the kind you’d wear on leather jacket, or on an apron at Applebees). These pins are your constantly growing assortment of combat moves. One pin may make ice shoot up from the ground, and in order to perform that move, a quick slice upward of the stylus makes that happen. But, seeing as there are over 300 pins available in the game, the gestures you need to make with the stylus begin to get increasingly intricate. The problem then is that the stylus controls don’t feel adequately precise, not to mention the small canvas in which you need to make them. I ended up falling back on the most simple slashing ones that were available to make sure that I could consistently keep up with the pace of battle on both screens.

So now that I’m done bashing what I feel is the sole positive feature of the game, let me talk about some of the things I don’t like. The art is horrible, its like commercial graffiti. It feels like Pepsi is trying to convince me it can be hip and urban too! The enemies seem to be a collection of really ugly tribal tattoo designs, and there is an emphasis in the game on fashion. You have to travel to different fashion boutiques in the area, and get snobby elitist attitudes delivered to you by the clerks and shopkeepers in them. Unfortunately you have to keep visiting them to purchase, not shields, and armor, but the newest tangerine flip flops and late Spring sun hat to boost your stats and also to buy your pins(weapons). Not to single out the shopkeepers here though, because the main teenage characters that you control are just as ridiculous, and make you want to beat the shit out of them. There is also some kind of hot dog and hamburger eating procedure to level you up. The music in the game is interesting, moreso than the game itself, and I enjoyed listening to it.

To sum up, its great to pick this game up and try out the battle mechanic for its hectic and simultaneous dual-screen action, but too annoying in all the other respects to really get into. Just go get the soundtrack.

Music and the Treadmill

Published
by
Timothy
on April 23, 2009
in Uncategorized and movie
. 0 Comments

I’ve discovered at the gym two different ways to enjoy music and the treadmill together.

I am your energy

"I am your energy"

I used to go running on the bike path, but never listened to music while doing so because the rhythm of the music messed up with the rhythm of my footfalls, the discordance caused me extra work mentally, and thus physically. I never experienced what music can do for energy levels. Now that I jog more often on the treadmill, my speed is set and forced, and my mind doesn’t have to pay attention to pace. This led me to try listening to music again while running, and I’m glad I did. Girl Talk, specifically Feed the Animals is like pure sonically-delivered energy. When I start that album and pump it up, I can turn the daunting prospect of the begrudged run into something enjoyable and full of energy. The difference from running without it is amazing, like flipping a switch.

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The other way I love music and the treadmill is to de-stress and space out. The sensation of a brisk walk with closed eyes was unknown to me before I started using the treadmill. Though,  I have to say that on occasion I’ve played chicken with myself to see how far I dared to walk with my eyes closed. Its a stupid game to play. I’m sure I’ll walk off a cliff someday, or worse yet, step in some dog shit. On the treadmill, all I have to do is hold on in front of me and I can shut my eyes, walk briskly, and play Radiohead’s In Rainbows album all loud and just space out. It’s super therapeutic.

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