SpaceRodent Posts

This weekend I had to watch 80’s action movies so I went DVD shopping. I picked up:

• Above the Law
• Beverly Hills Cop
• Bloodsport
• Die Hard
• Lethal Weapon
• Total Recall (Okay so Total Recall is from 1990 but it’s pretty close to the 80’s:))

Yum. All of these movies impacted me when I first saw them so they will always have a special place in my movie-viewing heart. This is also the first time I have seen them in widescreen with 5.1 surround sound and uncut!.

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I finally got Call of Cthulhu: Dark Corners of the Earth but not from EB Games. The game was supposed to be release March 27th. Then March 31st. It is now pushed back to April 17th and there are rumors of it being pushed back again until May. Since the developer is basically going out of business I personally think it might not be released in the US at all.

When I saw it got pushed back to April 17th I started hanging out on the forums and reading about people playing the game already – seems it was released in the UK earlier this month for the PC (the developer is in the UK).

So I decided to order from a UK game site, game.net, and got it last night.

The game looks fantastic.  I just started so I can’t comment on the play as of yet but will in the future.

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I went to the ComicCon on Sunday instead of Saturday. It was a lot of fun. It was my first time going to one. I thought it was going to be like the Con featured in Chasing Amy and it was.

I saw two very cool things:

• SoftWire (Rings of Orbis) – In the future a ring system is controlled by a massive computer. A boy has been born that can link with the computer using only his mind. This represents a problem for the five or so alien races vying for control of the Rings of Orbis.
  What is really cool about this is the author has teamed up with a software developer to create a free MMORPG to promote his books! Very cool.
• The Looking Glass Wars – Alyss is fighting against her aunt, Red. She finds a portal to our world and meets up with Lewis Carroll who is fascinated by the girl’s tale. Soon Alyss will have to go back.
  I got a signed copy of the book and will blog about it when I am finished with Digital Fortress

The one other thing that was strange was the amount of copyrighted material for sale. I couldn’t believe it. Movies, TV Shows, Cartoons, Porn. There were at least four booths selling this stuff. I can understand if the shows are not readily available and in fact support that but they were selling stuff that was available. Of course, I didn’t let that feeling get in the way of buying the entire Seaquest DSV series on 12 DVD’s for $45 dollars. I had just season one in my Amazon wishlist alone; that alone was $44.99. Now this set was basically burned to DVD from the SciFi channel but that’s okay. I wanted Seaquest but not enough to pay a premium for it and have the nice transfer and sound.

Based on how much fun I had I am going to try to go to Norwescon 29 April 13-16. One of my favorite authors, Robert J. Sawyer, is the “Toastmaster” (not sure what that means).

I also got The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion from Direct2Drive this weekend as well. On a side note, Direct2Drive is great if you have a fast internet connection. I have 7Mbits down and downloaded the 4.3GB Oblivion in about 90 minutes. I then burn it to DVD and it’s mine. No going to the store. The price is the same but the instant gratification factor too awesome to pass up.

Anyway back to Oblivion. I never got into Elder Scrolls III: Morrowind but I wanted to. I think it was the clumsy graphics. I am probably too superficial when it comes to gaming but if it looks good it helps me enjoy the game more.

Oblivion looks fantastic. The engine uses HDR lighting and it is well used. The game feels faster paced and right off the bat there is a lot to do. I felt in Morrowind, at least in the beginning, you wandered around too much just talking to people. Within 15 minutes of starting Oblivion I was fighting baddies and getting better equipment.

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Slept in today but I still exercised (weights). Later today I am going to the Emerald City Comic Con and may go to Fry’s as well.

Fry’s is like Toys-R-US for geeks.

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Earlier I blogged about the great Nintendo Gamecube game Eternal Darkness. I am happy to say I finished it! I didn’t get the uber sword so it was a lot harder at the end – took me three days.

Sixth day of exercising and 7th day waking up at 7:00am (didn’t exercise on Sunday). Today is the first day where after I was done I didn’t feel like collapsing so I think it might be getting a bit easier.

My arms and legs feel a lot better too (though still sore) since I moved to the 20 pound weights.

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Well I did weights again today but went down to 20 pounds from 30. I still felt the warm burning sensation in my muscles so I am sure I am still getting benefit. Yesterday I could have sworn I pulled a muscle and I wouldn’t be able to do weights for quite some time but I woke up this morning feeling fine. So my body is telling me: “Three days between weights” which is fine.

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My wife got a pizza from Papa Murphy’s yesterday. We have eaten about five pizza’s from them so far but this most recent one, something was different.

Within 10 minutes of finishing my last slice I had terrible stomach cramps. Within 30 minutes I was in the bathroom where I was for the next 20 or so hours every 20 to 30 minutes.

It was not pretty.

What really sucked was I was working most of the time on a con call which last some seven hours.

There I was in the bathroom, ear piece in and phone muted, wishing I could roll-up into a little ball and sleep.

Whatever doesn’t kill you makes you stronger or so they say. Since I am now stronger I have the strength to never eat Papa Murphy’s again.

Oh, you may be wondering why my wife didn’t get sick – we always get half Canadian Bacon + Pineapple and half Pepperoni. I ate the Pepperoni half.

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Well I did weights today. I did two sets of 10 at 30 pounds doing about nine different arm and leg maneuvers. I am sooo out of shape. I am also in a lot of discomfort. It didn’t help that I worked 17 hours yesterday and didn’t get home until 12:30am either. I know if I can keep this up for another 30 days it will get easier.

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Well we got up again this morning at 7:00am. Whew I am tired. Yesterday I did 30 minutes on an elliptical and according to the distance meter I went about two miles. Today I did 30 minutes on a treadmill and according to its distance meter I did 1.6 miles. I am not sure either machine is properly calibrated because the time on the treadmill felt a lot longer and harder. I was only able to jog/run for about 11 of the 30 minutes before I started to feel searing pain in my legs and decided to do a fast walk.

I think on the weekends I will do weights. I am not entirely sure I am working out the most efficiently since I am sort of making it up as a go but I am afraid to do anything official as I would probably get trapped by the fitness industry.

We also have a gym right next to our house so if after a few months (I am being very optimistic I can keep this up) I could get some time with a personal trainer.

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My wife and I decided last night that we had to get in shape and resolved to get up every morning at 7:00am and exercise for at least 30 minutes. Well today is the first day. I know logically this is the right thing to do. I am almost 33 and I don’t think I could run a mile flat out:( When the alarm went off I couldn’t believe I was considering sleeping in! I didn’t though.

Why is doing the “right” thing so hard?

There is a TV in the exercise room (which our condo is right next to – talk about no excuses – I am right next door!) and I got to watch a morning news program for the first time in about 18 months because that is when we gave up watching TV.

Ugh. I couldn’t believe the crap that counts as news today. A full 15 minutes devoted to someone who got voted off of American Idol. After that there was 5 minutes of commercials then a story about a Coyote in Central Park NY. This is news? No wonder Americans are ignorant.

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