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Tuesday - January 31, 2006
Free iPod nano arrived
My fifth iPod has arrived today. In case you're keeping score, I've gotten a nano, shuffle, photo, mini, and regular iPod all for free. As always, check out the links on the left of my main site for the most current promotions, including xbox 360, and PSP! Or if you're just interested in an iPod, check here.
A big thanks to Scott, and my sister who both signed up for this one......
Posted by jcraven at 10:45 AM | Comments (2) | Deals | Tech
Monday - January 30, 2006
WoW update
Ok, for you non-video game folks, I've got a picture of my World of Warcraft character here. I also have an in game screenshot here. You can see she's wearing a Lunar Festival dress
Now in case you're wondering about the name, Lara and I based it on our favorite little town in NC. We've never actually been there, but driven past it many times. You can check out their circa-1995 website at http://www.norlina.com/.
Also, WoW has been in the press a lot recently. Scott sent me a link to this weekend's NYTimes article. And Nate sent me a link to this Sunday's FoxTrot comic strip.
Posted by jcraven at 10:42 AM | Comments (1) | Video Games
Hot Hot Hot part 2
Over a year ago, I pointed the Appalachian HOT! HOT! HOT! video on their website. Well it's become a cult hit, and was even featured on VH1's "Web Junk 20" last week. The student newspaper has a write-up here.
Posted by jcraven at 7:39 AM | Sports
Sunday - January 29, 2006
Happy Birthday
Today is Steve's birthday. Wish him well. He's old and stuff.......
Posted by jcraven at 12:01 AM | Misc
Saturday - January 28, 2006
World of Warcrack
As I mentioned earlier, I had been playing Final Fantasy XI. The game is good, but fairly monotonous. Scott made me try out World of Warcraft though, and guess what, I'm hooked. As he says, it's like 'digital crack'. You do level up much faster in the beginning compared to FFXI, and there's many more enemies and quests in the lower levels which makes it much more fun to sit down and play. The only minor downside to the game, is that it's not as pretty. This is not necessarily a horrible thing, as I didn't need to go out and buy a new video card. Since I enjoyed the free trial so much, I've already placed my order for the full version.
Posted by jcraven at 3:39 PM | Video Games
Thursday - January 26, 2006
New Nintendo DS Lite
All the tech blogs are reporting today about the new DS Lite announcement. Check out engadget here. I personally think it looks much better, but probably not compelling enough to make me replace my exisiting device. We'll see......
Posted by jcraven at 9:36 AM | Video Games
Wednesday - January 25, 2006
Go App
Well well well, NC State has posted their 2006 Football schedule. Looks like Appalachian is their first opponent. I'll be buying tickets as soon as they go on sale......
Posted by jcraven at 5:42 PM | Sports
Amazing
My sister found a Japanese Fender Bass on ebay that she wanted to buy. I go ahead and help out with the logistics, and they ship the guitar to me. Now for the cool part, the seller ships it via regular Japanese Post, which gets handed off to US Postal Service once it hits NYC. Total ship time? 4 business days. For whatever reason, this absolutely amazes me.
And if you're in the market, check out the seller here.
Posted by jcraven at 12:18 PM | Comments (2) | Movies & Music
Tuesday - January 24, 2006
Merger Mania
In case you missed it, Disney announced it will be buying Pixar for $7.4 billion. Full story here. Ah, this just makes Stevie J that much richer.
Also, UPN and the WB are joining forces to create a single network called CW. Full story here. They're going to keep the popular shows from both networks.
Posted by jcraven at 8:22 PM | Television
Lemieux to retire a second time
The player that first peaked my interest in the NHL is now retiring for a second time. The Pen's website has the story here, or check Sports Illustrated. It's sad to see him go, but obviously with his health issues, who can blame him? In '93 he battled Hodgkin’s disease, has had back and hip surgeries, and now a heart issue named atrial fibrillation. Even with all that, he is the number 7 all-time scorer in NHL history. I just hope the team can still stay in Pittsburgh. Unfortunately, that is looking more and more unlikely unless they can somehow build a new stadium. It's the end of an era.
On a related note. GO STEELERS!
Posted by jcraven at 2:37 PM | Sports
Monday - January 23, 2006
Update
I went back to the doctor today, and one of my eyes is still having a little bit of a problem with swelling, but is doing better than Saturday. The doctor has scaled back my eye drops, but still wants me to visit again on Wednesday. Today, I'm at work for a couple hours, and then will head back home to rest. Other than that, everything is going well. Eye tests show 20/15-20/20 in each eye.
Posted by jcraven at 11:13 AM | Comments (1) | Misc
Saturday - January 21, 2006
Everything is going well
Just wanted to post an update for anybody checking the site. The surgery went well, and I'm just resting up. I had a follow-up appointment this morning, and another on Monday. I'll post again then. Have a good weekend.
Posted by jcraven at 12:56 PM | Misc
Thursday - January 19, 2006
Tomorrow is the day
Previously, I mentioned I was thinking about LASIK. Well my appointment is tomorrow at 1PM. Wish me luck. I'll be offline for at least a couple days resting my eyes......
Posted by jcraven at 4:04 PM | Misc
Wednesday - January 18, 2006
Final Fantasy impressions
Wow this guy pretty much sums up all of my complaints with the beta. Glad to see I'm not the only one. One thing also to note, is that a keyboard is pretty much required, but any old USB keyboard should work fine. So far I'm enjoying the game, and have advanced to a measly level 6. Lara is still dumbfounded by the whole thing, and thinks it looks boring.
Posted by jcraven at 5:57 PM | Video Games
Tuesday - January 17, 2006
Geek up
Over the weekend, I picked up a beta copy of Final Fantasy XI for the 360. This is my first attempt at any MMORPG. Before you judge me, I need to point out Scott is now playing World of Warcraft. :)
I'll give a review/impressions later, but I was both amused and scared by this disclaimer that is shown each time you login.
Exploring Vana'diel is a thrilling experience. During your time here, you will be able to talk, join, and adventure with many other individuals in an experience that is unique to online games. That being said, we have no desire to see your real life suffer as a consequence. Don't forget your family, your friends, your school, or your work.
Posted by jcraven at 11:21 AM | Comments (1) | Video Games
Friday - January 13, 2006
Happy Birthday Sarah
Today is my sister's 24th birthday. Happy Birthday, see you soon.
Posted by jcraven at 12:04 PM | Misc
Thursday - January 12, 2006
Oral-B lock pick?
So this guy figured out how to make a handy lock pick using a vibrating flosser. Pretty cool, and scary at the same time. His creation only works on a particular type of lock (pin and tumbler style), but can be easily modified for others. May be a fun project, strictly for educational purposes of course. The full how-to can be found on inventgeek.com.
Posted by jcraven at 11:57 AM | Tech
Wednesday - January 11, 2006
Realistic cities in PGR3
A PGR3 fan recently took a trip to Tokyo and took a couple pictures. Then he went into Project Gotham Racing 3, and found the same landmarks in the game. The results are pretty amazing. I couldn't imagine the amount of work involved to recreate cities like this. My favorite is still Las Vegas though. Hopefully somebody can do a side by side comparision for it too.
Posted by jcraven at 10:04 PM | Video Games
Monday - January 9, 2006
Little Rusty
Congrats to Sarah, Daniel, and Justin for thoroughly whipping my tail at Halo 2 tonight. It was fun, but I'll have to practice up before playing again. :)
Posted by jcraven at 11:51 PM | Video Games
Finished PGR3
Over the weekend, in addition to watching a bunch of football, I finished up the single player of Project Gotham Racing 3. I finshed all the championships with a silver ranking. I also completed some of the side quests including the Ferrari and Lamborghini Owner's clubs. Check out my gamer card for the complete list. Also, if you want to try out a very tough game, play Geometry Wars Evolved in the Xbox Live Arcade. This game will make your eyes bleed.
Posted by jcraven at 4:10 PM | Video Games
New pictures
On Friday, we took care of Kate and have the pictures to prove it. As you can see, Maggie helped out.
Also we have a handful of new pictures of Maggie and Blue here.
Posted by jcraven at 10:28 AM | Misc
Friday - January 6, 2006
TiVo Series 3 coming this year
Woo hoo! I've been waiting for this since last CES, and it looks like it may actually come out this year. PVRblog has the details here.
The biggest features are that Series 3 will have dual tuners and be CableCARD and HDTV ready! The dual tuner thing should be qualified though, because it will actually have 6(!) tuners. It will have 2 cable tuners, 2 ATSC tuners (for high def over the air) and 2 regular old NTSC tuners. But it will only be able to record two programs at once.....
The 6 tuners thing may sound confusing, but it's not. The current HDTiVo has 4 (2 ATSC, and 2 DirecTV) and works in a similar fashion.
UPDATE: Here is a picture of the new remote. Looks like they're trying to keep the same form factor, but make it look a little cooler. Hopefully they don't screw up one of the best remotes already in existence.
UPDATED UPDATE: The device supports dual CableCARDs, of the 2.0 or 1.0 a variety, so either way you can get dual signals, with one 2.0 card or two 1.0 cards.
Posted by jcraven at 8:51 AM | Comments (1) | Tech
Thursday - January 5, 2006
Congrats to the Longhorns
Watched the Rose Bowl last night. The first half was good, but the second half was amazing. Vince Young is a phenominal player. He had 267 yards passing, and another 200 on the ground. It will be interesting to see if he stays in college for another year.
Also a big congrats to Mack Brown. As you may or may not know, he was the head coach at App for a single year (1983). The ASU blog has a copy of the newspaper article when he was first hired.
Posted by jcraven at 1:12 PM | Sports
Wednesday - January 4, 2006
Xbox mania
I picked up a copy of Halo 2 off of ebay, so I can play my sister and Daniel online. (BTW, I would highly recommend the seller, dinovelvet). I also bought the 12-Month Starter Kit from Circuit City. At the time, it was only 62.99, and I had a 10% off coupon that brought it down to 56.99. The kit includes 12 months of xbox live, 200 MS points, a copy of BankShot Billiards, a headset, and a $20 off rebate for any 360 game. With the rebate, it comes out cheaper than the standard 49.99/year subscription cost and you get all those extras.
Posted by jcraven at 9:07 AM | Video Games
Tuesday - January 3, 2006
Back.....
Back at work for the first time in almost two weeks. Feels strange......
Posted by jcraven at 8:35 AM | Misc
Sunday - January 1, 2006
Happy 2006!
Hope everyone has a safe and happy new year.