Tag: games

What more is there to say?

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

What more is there to say?

Before I discovered Twitter and Facebook, I used to blog up to 6 times per day.  With Twitter I can sum up my thoughts in 140 characters and with Facebook even more.  That took the fun out of blogging which is why I don’t blog as often as I used to.

I’ve come to the point where I honestly can’t think of anything to say, even in a 140 character tweet.  Yesterday I was bored and said this:

“They say if you can’t say something nice, don’t say anything at all, but something is better than nothing.”

I think this was directed at myself because I don’t say much anymore.

Lately all I do is sit here looking at all the wonderful and sometimes snotty things other people say in their tweets and/or Facebook updates and think to myself, why didn’t I think of that?  Why can’t I think of anything to say anymore?

Today I was bored and said this:

“When you don’t get any mail you think “No news is good news.” But sometimes it’s nice to get SOMETHING, even if it’s just coupons.”

What’s the point of even having social networks anymore?  I become friends with people and never say a word until their birthday and then all I say is Happy Birthday.  I’d love to read more books or play one of my MMORPG games, but I can’t even get into those because I’ve become bored with them.  Is the problem that I’ve just become bored with everything?

I’ve been playing The Sims Freeplay on my phone a lot more than I used to play it, but only because I have something to accomplish and I’m guessing when I accomplish all of my tasks I will get bored with it again.  What I need is something to be excited about.  I remember playing EverQuest for sometimes 16 hours a day every day for 8 years until I became bored with it because everyone in my guild left to either go into another guild or to play the newest game.  I also started playing other games, like Lord of the Rings Online, but I had nobody to play with so I eventually got bored with that and the same thing happened with EverQuest 2 and DC Universe Online.  MMORPG games are more fun when you have people to play with.

Well it seems that I had more to say than I thought, but that seems to be all I can think of for now.

My Nintendo 64 on Ebay

On By Michel McDonaldIn Games1 Comment

Nintendo 64

Today is a sad day for me because I had to put my Nintendo 64 on ebay.  I bought it from someone in 2002 and played it a couple of times, but then I didn’t have time for it because I was too busy playing EverQuest on my computer.  I had a lot of fun playing The Legend of Zelda Ocarina of Time, and I never even got to finish it, but I sadly got bored with it when I got stuck and couldn’t figure out how to continue.  It has sat in my TV cabinet all these years.

I bought the other 2 games South Park and Turok 2: Seeds of Evil in 2010 I believe.  I played South Park for like 5 minutes, but I didn’t play Turok 2 so I never really enjoyed it.  I did however have a lot of time with the Legend of Zelda Ocarina of time.  I only got to a certain point and then couldn’t get past it and gave up.

So I made some videos of the game play so you can see that the system and games do work.

Turok 2: Seeds of Evil – I have to admit, I have never actually played the game so I had no idea where to go or what to do lol.  http://youtu.be/sm_0yG-m1Ow

South Park: http://youtu.be/elYhbZu3Bls

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time: http://youtu.be/698xbfc4QUE

My original thought was to sell this on ebay so I could save up for a new bike, but I have a feeling I’m going to need the money for groceries this month.  I hope we are going to be okay for food, but just in case, I would like to sell this so we can survive.

Harmful and Disturbing Images on Facebook

On By Michel McDonaldIn FacebookLeave a comment

facebook-police

What purpose does Facebook serve for most people?  They get on there to talk to their friends, family, co-workers and classmates.  It’s a great way to keep in touch with everyone, despite those pesky views and opinions that they might have that differs from yours, which can sometimes hurt your or their feelings.  But besides that, it’s a great tool for keeping the lines of communication open.

Pages are different from profiles because they promote books, games, musicians, actors, movies, TV shows, magazines, newspapers, bloggers etc.  You name it, there is a page for it.  There are some pages however that are more of an idea than a brand and anyone can make one and have thousands or millions of fans.  Every time you like their image or status update, all of your friends see it too, which is good for the page because that is how things go viral.  That’s not always a good thing.

There are people out there, very sick, twisted and disturbing people who create a page with the intent of harming others or causing drama to stir the pot.  I have seen and even reported pages because they had pornography (child and/or adult) or they had harmful images like dead animals or even children.  Yes, I said dead children.  Believe me, it’s not an easy thing to talk about, or an easy thing to think about.  I saw that image tonight and when I tried to report it, I got a message saying I couldn’t report it.  I thought that maybe it had been removed, but it hadn’t because I tried looking for it again and it was there.  I finally did report it.

Nobody should have to see such graphic images like that.  I don’t care if it’s an animal rights organization showing pictures of dead animals in a pot (yes, I had to see that image too) or if it’s dead children being posted as a joke just to get a rise out of people.  It’s not a joke, it’s not funny, those were someones children and they died and they are making fun of them and it’s not right.  I don’t want to see that and I don’t want you or your children to have to see it either.

What is happening in the world when people post such horrific graphic content and think it’s funny?  What kind of sick people are out there?  That is not funny at all!  I am avoiding bedtime because I know that I’m going to have nightmares about those children.  I saw a “Faces of Death” video clip many years ago and I had nightmares for weeks.  I am just not mentally prepared to have to see things like that.

I’m sorry, I don’t mean to vent like this but I’m just so disgusted with the human race.  Everyone is entitled to their opinion and free speech and blah blah blah, but there has to be a limit to free speech.  Those “free speech” images shouldn’t be allowed on the internet.

I am not the internet police, but you can be damn sure that I will report as many harmful images or hate speech posts as I can.  I’m mad as hell and I’m not gonna take it anymore!

I honestly feel sick to my stomach right now.

Update:  Okay so I just got an email from Facebook about the image of the dead children.  This is what they said:

“Thank you for your report. We carefully reviewed the photo you reported, but found it doesn’t violate our community standard on graphic violence so we didn’t remove it.”

Really Facebook?  If I was sick to my stomach a few minutes ago when I published this post, you can bet I feel really sick now.  I need to go soak in a hot bath and just meditate for a bit.  I’m out for now.

A New Phone for (a belated) Christmas

On By Michel McDonaldIn TechLeave a comment

I wrote about how I wanted to buy myself a new cell phone from Virgin Mobile for Christmas, but I can’t seem to settle on which phone I want and I keep changing the phone in that post.  I said I am not getting it for games, but here’s the thing, it doesn’t matter if I play games on it or not, if it can’t play games well, then what hope do I have for it running apps?  So I want a phone that is capable of running apps as well as well as it runs games because I don’t want to be in an app and suddenly the phone freezes up.

The phone I wanted in the beginning was on sale for $49, but after seeing a video review on YouTube for it, I decided that it wasn’t what I wanted.  They always say you get what you pay for, and for $50 you are probably getting a piece of crap.  The phone is normally $100, but still, if they show a game freezing in the review then that’s enough for me to say no.

I have been watching other reviews for other phones and even though they are good phones, none of them compare to the quality you get with the most expensive Android phone that they have.

The HTC EVO V 4G is on sale for $189 and takes 3D pictures and video, which is nice and all, but where else am I going to see those besides the phone?  I can’t print the 3D images and I can’t watch the videos on my 2D TV, so what’s the point?  Plus it only takes 5MP pictures.  The most expensive one takes 8MP pictures and it doesn’t have 3D.  So I would say screw the 3D, I don’t need it.

The HTC One V and the Samsung Galaxy Reverb are both good phones, the HTC One V is on sale for $100 and the Samsung Galaxy Reverb is on sale for $150, but again, not as good as the most expensive one which I now see is no longer as cheap as it was yesterday.  It is the Samsung Galaxy S II 4G.  I can’t afford that for a phone.  So my 2 choices are now down to the HTC One V and the Samsung Galaxy Reverb.

I still can’t afford anything until next month.  I have already set aside $40 and I will have more than $100 coming to me next month for blogging and tweeting which is at least 6 months worth, so it’s not a lot lol.  Whatever amount I have will determine which phone I get.  I want the HTC One V because it seems like a much better phone, even though it’s cheaper than the Samsung Galaxy Reverb.  Of course, neither of them are as good as the Galaxy S II, but if that is all I can afford, then that’s all I can afford.  I will probably most likely have to pay separately for the plan after I buy the phone, so whatever it is I can add $35 to the price.

The toughest part is that by the time I have the money for the phone, they won’t be on sale anymore so I will end up paying more for the phone.  I’ll probably end up checking Amazon and VirginMobileUSA.com every day to see if they have a sale and which one is worth getting.  Who knows, maybe by the time I have the money saved up, they might have new phones that are better than the 2 I’m torn between.

I don’t really need a new cell phone because I hardly ever use the one I have, so this isn’t a necessity, but I would like to have a new one because I feel like I’m stuck in the dark ages with the one I have, even though I’ve only had it for a year and a half lol.  It’s like having a black and white TV when everyone else has color, or having a Nintendo 64 when everyone else has PlayStation.  This is starting to sound like an Alanis Morissette song.  It’s like 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife lol.

My phone never has a good signal, so whenever I call anyone with it, I feel like I’m going to get cut off so that’s why I don’t like to use it.  I know it’s not the phones fault, but how do I know it’s not?  It’s a Samsung T401G from Net10.  I have had trouble downloading games for it because of the bad signal.  I have to wait until we go to a doctor’s appointment or to the mall to get a good enough signal just to download games, and forget about checking email because every time I try to do that, Gmail has to send me a new code which comes in a text so I have to leave the browser and read the text and try to remember the code so I can enter it when I go back to the browser.  It’s just a horrible phone lol.  I want a new phone because I feel if I had a better phone I might use it more.  I may not call people, but I will use the apps.

Another reason I want a smart phone is so that I can use Twitter and Facebook when we’re not home and I can’t get to a computer or I don’t want to be rude enough to take out my Chromebook.  It will be so much easier to pull my phone out and do a quick Facebook update or tweet and then put it back in my pocket.  It will also be so much easier and faster to tweet pictures that I have taken with my phone instead of having to upload pics to Picasa to edit before uploading to Facebook and Twitter.  It will take so many long steps out of the equation.  Also I can read email and respond right away, not that I get a lot of emails anymore since Facebook and Twitter came out, but still.

I will have to wait and see what happens in January before I can make a firm decision on whether I will get a new phone and which one it will be.  I hope it’s a good one and is 100 times better than the one I have.

EverQuest will be free to play in March

On By Michel McDonaldIn EverQuest, Games2 Comments

I don’t sit and watch the live feed on Facebook as much as I would like to because I have better things to do, but today I saw a friend comment on a post from EverQuest.  They are turning 13 years old in March and as a treat for us players, they are making it free to play.  Check out the article on the EverQuest Players website.

I had played EverQuest from 2002 until 2008 and loved that game so much.  It got old the last year that I played because I spent more time twiddling my thumbs since people were abandoning the game and I was left by myself.  I could have gone out to the zones and LFG’d, but it just wasn’t the same anymore, so I quit.

I have wanted to go back to the game but haven’t because I’ve been happy playing Lord of the Rings Online since that is free to play.  Now that EverQuest will be free to play, I will be able to go back.  Although I won’t be quitting LOTRO, I will just play both, obviously not at the same time but you know, I will split my time between the two.

I actually haven’t really had any time to play any games because I have been too busy trying to get my book ready to publish, so games really aren’t on my mind as much as I would like.  Knowing that I will be able to reactivate my account and have my Gnome Wizard at the ready whenever I am ready to play will make me happy.

Just like LOTRO, EverQuest won’t be totally 100% free to play, you will most likely have to buy points for buying in-game items just like in LOTRO, you just won’t have to pay a monthly fee.  Although, you could still pay a monthly fee if you are a silver member, but now you have a choice so you aren’t forced to pay even when you don’t play.  That is actually the reason I closed my account.  I had paid for 2 years and then a few months later I stopped playing.  I forced myself to get in the game to raid because I wanted to get my moneys worth for a year, then the second year I decided that I just wasn’t into it.  When my membership was up, I canceled.  If I had a choice to not pay but keep my account active I would have done that, and now I can.

So thank you Sony Online Entertainment for making EverQuest free to play in March 2012.  I can’t wait to start playing again.

My Net10 Phone is Rubbish

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cell Phone2 Comments

I have had my Samsung T401G Net10 cell phone since last summer when I started riding my bike. I bought it through the Net10 website as a refurbished phone and I only paid $25 for it. I also got a free $25 phone card so technically I got the phone for free. I chose this one because it’s the one that Darrin had. I’ll admit that I was a little jealous because all of a sudden he had a better cell phone than I had, although now he has an iPhone…

I have had issues with my phone from the very beginning. When I activated it, I had to go through a process of typing codes in the phone through the prepaid menu. I wasn’t sure if the issues were because it was a refurbished phone, but I didn’t care because when it finally worked I was able to make phone calls, and that’s all that mattered.

I started out with the $25 750 minutes monthly plan, but they failed to charge my debit card every month so I was forced to buy phone cards instead.  I have had to add minutes every month from their website. I wanted to do it directly from the phone, but their menu doesn’t offer the cheaper $20 phone card. You have to buy the $30 and up. I didn’t want to do that so I had to do it on the website.

Darrin bought me a phone card in the beginning of December and it was the $25 plan again. When you go with their plan, they are supposed to automatically charge the debit or credit card that is in your account, but they failed to do so and my phone was deactivated. I tried to reactivate it by getting the $15 200 minute monthly plan, but it didn’t accept it for some reason so I had to call them.

I was on the phone with Net10 yesterday for 90 minutes. They walked me through a very tedious process of pressing codes in the prepaid menu like I had to do when I first got the phone, but that didn’t work. The operator I spoke with had reactivated the phone and added my minutes with the 30 days, but unfortunately my phone itself never reactivated. So he said that my phone was not working and that he would send me another one and then I’d have to return my faulty one back to them with a prepaid envelope.

When I asked him why they didn’t automatically charge my credit card for the monthly service on the first, he replied that it was the phones fault. Um, isn’t that the responsibility of the website, not the phone?  My plan was in their system, so they should have automatically charged my credit card $25 on the first of the month.  They didn’t and now it’s the phones fault?

It doesn’t matter, I am going to keep all of the minutes that are still on my phone from last months plan, get 200 minutes from the $15 I paid for the day before yesterday and then in another month I will just go back to the $25 750 minutes plan. If they don’t charge me automatically, I will just have to make sure that I am keeping up with it by going to the website.  It’s a schlep but what else can I do?

I noticed that they are now selling android phones, the LG Optimus Net and Q. The Q just has a slide-out keyboard and it’s about $20 more. I am not too happy with their service because I rarely have more than 2 or 3 bars and when I am downloading games, it always gets interrupted and I have to start over. Maybe because it’s a faulty phone though (that was said with a hint of sarcasm).

That’s another thing, I had spent a lot of my minutes buying games. I have 8 games that I paid for and now I will lose them because my new phone isn’t going to have them. I think I would be more pissed if I had paid for those with actual money, but considering I will be getting all of my minutes back from last month, I think I can either buy them again with my minutes, or just not worry about it because I never even played them.  If I had the android phone then I think it would be more worth my time playing games than it is with this crappy phone.

I will have to wait 3-5 days for my replacement phone so I will be out a phone until then.  It sucks, but there is nothing I can do about it.  I only ever use it for texting with Darrin so it doesn’t really matter because he can just email with his fancy schmancy iPhone 4S lol.

I want to upgrade to the LG Optimus Net this summer for my birthday because I can use my wi-fi to use the internet with it when I’m at home.  When I am out on the bike trail this summer, I will be able to make twitter and Facebook updates.  I couldn’t do that with my current phone because it didn’t store my long difficult passwords and I could never remember what they were to log in every time I wanted to update.  Also, an Android phone has apps like the WeReward app and the QR code scanner.  Not that I really need to scan QR codes, but it would be nice to have that option.

It’s funny, I rarely ever use my cell phone, but I am being tortured by not having it to play with.

Hemp Jewelry Supplies

On By Michel McDonaldIn crafts, Jewelry1 Comment

While I was suffering with my website, Darrin came in my room to tell me that he had to go to Geico to make his first payment.  Yes, he just saved a bunch of money on his car insurance by switching to Geico.  There, I said it.

He said it was over on California Ave. and Stockdale Hwy so I decided to get away from my blog problems and go with him to get out of the house and get some fresh air.

While we were out I wanted to go to Michael’s so I could buy some hemp cord and some wood beads for making my necklace.  I don’t care anymore about making it my “reward” for when I drop down to 200lbs.  Mainly because I’m in a plateau which is frustrating and a necklace will make me feel better lol.

They didn’t exactly have the beads that I wanted like the ones that are sold at Acajou Games and Crafts but the ones that I did find will do just fine.  The ones I found at Michael’s were cheaper and came with a variety of colors and sizes at only $1.99 with 80 pieces.  I also got a package of wood pony beads for $3.99 with 90 pieces.  I’m pretty sure I have enough wooden beads to last me a long time.

I got my bracelet pattern which will teach me how to make the same pattern for a necklace and since I’ve never made one of these before, the bracelet will be my teacher so I can make the necklace without wasting too much hemp cord.

This macramé project will keep me busy for a while and I will take a picture if it turns out ok and post it lol.

Well I’m just about finished with the bracelet and the pony beads are way too big so I’m gonna have to do something that will hurt me, I’m gonna have to cut the entire bracelet up to remove the beads and put them back in their bag and start all over.  That’s ok because it’s all a learning process, you can’t learn if you don’t make mistakes.

The other bag that I got for $1.99 has beads of many different sizes so I think the little beads will work for the bracelet and necklace.  I don’t know what I’m going to do with all the big beads, I’m sure I’ll find something.

It’s going to be awhile now before I can supply a picture so until then…

WoW Look At That Phish

On By Michel McDonaldIn ScamsLeave a comment

I don’t know if this is a new scam or if it’s been around and they are just now getting to me but last week I got an email that looked as if it really came from Blizzard telling me that a character faction change is now pending for my World of Warcraft account with my email address and a link to track the status of my request.

Down in the email they had a transaction ID number with my email address again then below that was some “more information” along with a few links.  2 of those links were different from what was shown in the text.  That there was my clue that something didn’t smell right.

So, obviously I knew it was a phishing scam because I don’t have a World of Warcraft account with them.  I played the trial back in 2006 for the week they gave me but I really only played it for a couple of days.  I was taking a break from EverQuest to get away from all the drama in the guild and during that break I tried out the demo of some other games.

The only thing that concerned me about this email was that when I was at the blizzard website looking for their contact information I stumbled onto their FAQ page and found out that they charge $30 to change your characters faction.  If I did have an account, which I knew I didn’t but if I did I didn’t want to be charged $30 for nothing.

I finally found the contact page and forwarded them the email that I got.  They responded letting me know that they can confirm that the email address that was associated in this phishing email does not exist in their database, meaning I don’t have an account to worry about.

I got another email today from a different email address but still from blizzard telling me that my account has been locked due to suspicious activity.  It said that my account had been logged in via a different IP address than what their records show as being my IP address.  They are concerned my account has been stolen so they locked me out.  I don’t have an account so you didn’t lock me out of something I didn’t have in the first place.

Naturally I can only assume this is another phishing scam email.  I went to verify that the links were exactly as they were showing up in text and of course they are different.

So even though I know I have nothing to worry about, I am writing this blog post to warn other people out there who actually do have a World of Warcraft account to beware.  If you get these emails and you know for a fact that you did not order a faction change for $30 and you know for a fact that you can still login, that your account hasn’t been locked then you know not to click ANY LINKS in those emails.  Beware when someone sends you an email asking you to click a link to login to your account because you might be handing over the keys to the Bentley without even knowing it.

Google Chrome OS?!?!

On By Michel McDonaldIn Computer, CR-48, Google ChromeLeave a comment

This is coming straight from the Google blog…

Official Google Blog: Introducing the Google Chrome OS

Wow.  That’s so cool.  This is going to be neat to be able to turn your computer on and once it gets past all those tests that you see, you know, where it shows how much memory you have, then all of a sudden you’ve got desktop.  No more waiting for the Windows screen that shows that animated bar at the bottom of the screen.  Instead you are instantly taken right to your desktop so you can immediately start browsing the web.

The only thing that concerns me is if this will allow me to install my Windows programs like the Sims, EverQuest, Adobe Photoshop Elements, Adobe Premiere Elements, Autodesk 3DS Max 2008, my webcam software, my mp3 player software etc.  And will it allow my hardware like my webcam and my Kodak printer?

One of the things that I really look forward to is if this will allow me to play my old Win 98 games that Win XP won’t let me run.  I just hope that this isn’t something like Mac and Linux where you have to buy the Google OS software only which will probably only be a few programs at first and will always only have 10% of the software compared to the 100% that Windows offers.  That’s always been an issue and why I won’t ever have a Mac or Linux again because I want to be able to buy whatever program I want.  It’s really depressing when you go to buy software and the aisle for that OS is just a shelf while the rest of the store is for Windows.

Of course I’ll have to wait until the 2nd half of 2010 for this to become available so I look forward to all of the blogs and pictures and possibly videos showing how well it is on Netbooks.

Edit 2011-02-15: I have been using Google Chrome OS CR-48 since mid December and it does not allow me to install anything and it does in fact have apps that you can install from the Google Chrome store.  They apps install a link to your desktop which are basically just a link to a website.  There are also tons of extensions that you can use and it does work with my printer through the cloud.  No I can’t play those games I listed above but there are other games I can play that are web-based.

I would not want this to be my desktop, it works great as a netbook only in my opinion.  You would still need your regular desktop for your other programs and MMO games.

The Next PSP

On By Michel McDonaldIn PSPLeave a comment

Sony ready to unveil it’s PSP Go at E3 tomorrow | Dvice

PSP Go Video Game, E3 09: Conference Footage 2

Ok so here we go, they have a new PSP out which is their 4th gen called PSP Go.  This PSP is smaller, same widescreen but it flips up so you can use the control buttons below the screen instead of on the sides of it.  It then closes so you can watch movies or TV shows or even use it as an mp3 player and not have any buttons pressed while it’s in your bag.

The PSP Go has a 16GB flash memory as well as a Memory Stick Micro slot which is a different name from the one that is currently in the PSP which is Memory Stick Duo so no you can’t use the one that you already use in your current PSP.  They took away the UMD slot so all those games that you bought you can’t use anymore.  You have to buy all your games via the PlayStation store online.

It also has Bluetooth Support.  I don’t know what that means for the PSP though.  When I think of Bluetooth I think of a cell phone earpiece.  What does Bluetooth mean for a PSP Go?

On the video (which is the 2nd link above) at the E3 the guy talks about how people like to buy the actual physical product.  There will be a new media manager for PC so I’m guessing that maybe you plug your PSP 2 or 3 into your computer via the USB and it probably converts the UMD into files that you then upload to your PSP Go.  But that is just what I think that means, I don’t know for sure.  Who knows, but he did mention something about being able to buy the UMD even though you can’t use it in this thing.

I don’t know about this one.  I like my PSP 2000.  I didn’t upgrade it to the PSP 3000 when that came out because the only upgrade it had was a mic on the front so you don’t need a headset to call people with Skype and it had a more matte finish on the screen so you don’t get glare from lights or the sun.  With a $250 price tag I’m still not convinced that I need to upgrade to the PSP Go.

I kinda prefer having a UMD and being able to put it in the UMD slot when I want to play a game which of course means searching for the game I want but that’s perfectly fine by me.  I don’t know if I want to fill my 16GB flash memory with games then have to use a memory stick to add more.  Call me old fashioned lol.