Sunday 15th 2005f May 2005

And Repeat

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A , posted by Anthony in the late morning.


I guess this is the life of the working stiff. I don’t have anything to write about this week that’s any different than the stuff I wrote about last week. The only thing that changes is my media consumption, and that would be a very dull thing to be listing on a blog. So here I go.

My TV-on-PSP watching has hit a few snags. Two of the three shows I was downloading and watching on my commute have been taken off the air by the networks (Eyes and The Office US port). This may be temporary, but it’s still a crimp. Dr. Who is great, but I can’t watch it over and over again for an entire week. Or could I..? No. On top of that, the very best site for finding things to download has vanished from the internets due to some sort of pesky legal action. This is the hazard of living on the edge of society – sometimes you just can’t download high quality TV programs for free to watch on your PSP as you commute to your well paid job in a successful videogame company in Manhattan. Life can be hard sometimes, you know?

But I’m making lemonade. I’ve found a new site (it really wasn’t hard) and a new show I’ve heard good things about (Lost). I’m downloading pretty much every episode I can get my hands on so if the MPAA (henceforth to be referred to as “The Man”) starts throwing their weight around again I’ll have at least a couple of weeks worth of train journey viewing in reserve.

Other than that, I decided to stop waiting for free games that may very well not be released for a while and just buy one. It’s very impressive and cool. Blobs of mercury! I still haven’t found a game for the PSP that has that “just one more” factor. MC3:DE(Midnight Club 3: Dub Edition) has it on PS2, so I’m hoping it will translate well.

I’ve signed up for Dodgeball. This is pointless if nobody else I know does. I’ve also purchased for myself a new phone. The old SonyEricsson T610 was great, but I’ve had it for about two years now and one of the most important buttons was starting to stick irritatingly. I’ve reupped with Cingular for a two year contract (the phone was cheaper that way). I’m not sure if this was a statement of intent.

So I’ve returned to the Nokia fold. I like Nokias, although it does mean I’m going to have to relearn where the space is when txting. Two cool things about this phone:

  1. It can take videos, so no more occasions when I’ll see something Little Vid worthy and think “Damn, if only I had my camera”.
  2. You can use any MP3 for a ring tone. Most people only use this to play songs, but am I not an award winning sound designer? At the moment I have it playing a cool ominous groany grindy metal sound, although it rang late last night and scared the bejesus out of me so I may have to change it. Any suggestions?

Lots of money spending. And the job may be drawing to a close, at least for a short while. Of course, I’ve said that a million times while working for R*, but let us not forget that at least one of those times it was true. I’m not worried. Even as the dialogue editing on this game winds down another one gears up, so even if things do grind to a halt it probably won’t be for long. I may have to put off my new laptop purchase for another couple of months.

I’ll close with a little parable about how bad I am at managing money. I broke the headphones for the PSP. They got caught in a slightly open drawer, and when I pulled an ear bud went pinging across the room. So I went and bought some new Sony headphones for $9.99. But they were awful – I grew to appreciate how good the supplied phones were. So I bought another set, for $15.99 from Radio Shack. They were even worse. So I bought another set- Sony again, but $40 this time. So essentially the $40 headphones ended up costing me $66. And I don’t like them either. The sound quality is good, but they block out too much of the outside world (I know that’s probably the point, but I like to hear traffic when I’m crossing the road). And actually the sound quality is a little too good – suddenly, the music sounds like MP3s. There’s a reason I don’t use my work headphones to listen to compressed music.

So I’ll probably cave soon and end up buying an exact replacement set, which will have cost me $66 more than they would have for anyone else. I shouldn’t be allowed out.

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Sunday 08th 2005f May 2005

Casting

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A , posted by Anthony around mid-afternoon.

Yes, I’m still here. My extended absence can be largely attributed to the upcoming E3 Expo and the resulting hours creep (staying a little later, coming in a little earlier) which culminated in actually working yesterday. Working on a Saturday! Of course, nobody likes working on a weekend, but …

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