Archived News starting from 06-16-2013 and earlier
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In what is now an
annual tradition, I spent my fathers day on a boat. Lila was initially pretty amped up about the whole
adventure, but after an hour decided to throw a massive tantrum. Eventually she fell asleep, solving whatever problem she had herself. Docking at a restaurant and loitering for over an hour
was by far the most enjoyable part, as the dock hands grew increasingly impatient and were unable to do anything about us. The following day was the now standard yesterdog/park/spoon licker ice cream combo (without the yesterdog)
to finish off the trip.
During the
E3 live shows on Xbox, I noticed
the same twitter handle pop up several times on the feed ribbon running at the bottom of the show. Most of the comments were lame, so I decided to
chime in with a legitimate question and was shocked at how fast it
made it on air. Now giddy,
I followed up with my
beta program demand and
a Bob Ross comment which cemented my
place in the Xbox E3 Day 2 coverage hall of fame. MajorNelson will surely pick me for the coming beta when you consider this and the
famous photo.
I now refresh my inbox hourly waiting for the coming invite.
The E3 media briefings kicked off today, and
my body was ready for Xbox One details.
Microsoft already
broke the news
about it's system-wide DRM, so the briefing focused on new games; of which I'll be picking up Battlefield 4 and Forza 5. Later, Sony
won E3 by announcing no system-wide DRM. I was convinced Xbox introduced the system under publisher pressure, but now it's clear they came up with it all on their own, dooming the Xbox at least for launch. An excellent
video and
twitter drove the point home, but my fanboy status was confirmed as I unlocked the
day one pre-order achievement despite the draconian DRM that will cripple my eBay game reselling addiction. I can see the PS4 easily outselling the Xbox purely on the DRM issue. I can only hope Microsoft changes their minds, or the PS4 is forced into a similar system by publishers.
With the last (easily obtainable) Angry Birds Classic achievement close to unlocking, I decided Lila might do enough launches to get it.
She gleefully accepted my challenge, and
launched birds with varying effectiveness, and maximum entertainment.
Sure enough, the
achievement popped and Lila had no reaction.
As of this moment, my daughter is free from the addiction I suffer from, making me hopeful it's not genetic (and reassuring me I can farm her out for my own achievements).
She did, however, take the phone to bed to continue playing it, which gave me some cause for concern. Hopefully the robotic parents we entrust our children to in the future will be better at discipline than me.
While my dad, Lila and I trimmed up some shrubbery in the front yard, my new neighbor had a truck arrive with some giant rolls of plastic and a blower. I assumed their basement flooded or some such nonsense and went about my trimming. No less than 20 minutes later I decided to push Lila on the swings and
OH MY GOD A GIANT BOUNCE HOUSE IN MY BACKYARD! After several minutes of attempting to explain private propery to an awe struck 2 year old trying to get in the bounce house, I opted for the smarter option of distracting her with the swings. Fortunately, the Senators were scheduled to arrive later for a better distraction, and we eventually did get to enjoy the bounce house among
various other shenanigans. I give the new neighbors an A for showmanship, after learning the rental most likely cost upwards of $300 for the day. I'm not sure how I'll be able to top
Lexis' birthday and now this one, but hopefully Lila doesn't learn how to compare events for a few more years.
I arrived home today to find a pregnant lady planting flowers. Knowing it was unwise to argue with a preggo, I proceeded to
draw a racetrack
for Lila and provide some chalk, which
occupied both of them long enough for me to
make dinner. The racetrack
took it's toll on Lila the next morning.
Returning from lunch, Marco and I spotted a camera crew apparently shooting a cement barrier. Little did we know, it was the beginning of
an elaborate ruse. When I asked if they were taking photos of cement, they
replied with "it's a location shoot" and then began excitedly saying "It's him!" and taking shots of who we assumed was Ryan Gosling.
Marco demanded a photo with him in the frame, at which point I was
caught red handed as a Gosling lover.
Suddenly overcome with the urge for a hot dog (I credit Gosling) Marco began excitedly making plans on how he was going to get a better shot while I waited for my street meat.
With my order completed, and a hot dog in my face, we finally got
the perfect shot. Rumors of the cherade had already started by the time we got back to the
office, but Marco held on to his belief it was really him for as long as he could.
In the before time, Lila would go to sleep at 8:00pm on the dot and Lisa and I would enjoy our quiet time. With the terrible twos in full swing,
Lila now prefers to squirm, jump and demand to see "Beauty and the Beast" until she passes out around 11pm. During a demanded singing of
"itsy bitsy spider" she was
overcome with fatigue resulting in the video which I'm sure is hilarious only to me.
Tonight we hosted the bi-annual meeting with the Schwartzs. Having been alerted to their new found organic non-dairy, non-carb diet during the last meeting, Lila
went shopping
for some acceptable food. Turns out, the Schwartzs also don't drink beer or certain kinds of wine, meaning I was the sole consumer of the evenings alcohol (save some expensive
ice wine which met the needs of snooty Schwartz). With the organic needs met, the meal was served and accepted, allowing for the natural shenanigans to
proceed as normal given my intoxication level. The evening was rounded out with a showing of "Wreck It Ralph" which was of course new and exciting to the childless couple as opposed to repetitive torture for parents.
With my
HTC 8X approaching it's 6 month anniversary,
my hunger for a new device was growing. The recently launched
Lumia 928 was not helping, but
I promised myself I was going to wait until it either came in red or was reduced to a free upgrade. I clearly can't keep promises to myself, as a trip to the local
Verizon store pushed me over the edge. The inevitible salesperson attack was quick, as the store was mostly empty. Before I could get out "just browsing" he pulled out his own
HTC 8X and asked where I got my red one. The embrace was quick, but tender. I whispered "thank you" in his ear as he held me for a brief moment. Composing myself, I took several "hand seizure" photos,
proving the stabilized lens on the 928 was indeed a miracle, with the Xenon flash freezing time as advertised (no blur whatsoever).
Sadly, the glossy "brick" chassis felt like it was going to slip out of my hand at any moment, and was nowhere near as comfortable or secure as my 8X in my hand. Assured the LTE SIM did in fact control the
CDMA pairing with the network (no more calling Verizon to switch phones) I took the plunge and got my $25 app store credit via NFC on the way out (yes, a Windows Phone NFC gift card exists in a Verizon store).
The
obligatory benchmark confirmed it has the same SOC guts as my 8X, with double the storage and the amazing camera as the only major upgrades.
The OLED screen had a few
interesting options as well as the "glove friendly"
touch settings. The lame "Beats Audio" my 8X
advertised was more than compensated for with a full
equalizer and "Dolby Audio" branding, which I'm sure is just as amazing as "Beats" was.
The famed
Nokia apps were also now at my disposal instead of
locked out of my reach. I conclude with the
system info screen, and the hope I can get used to the slippery finish.
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