Eloped with PSP

I thought about this long and hard last night, about really wanting a PSP and also about how everyone had the Black PSP, and then I decided to hell with it, I was just going to get the bundle today. I've read about the Piano Black PSP being a bit of a fingerprint magnet, and also from the photos I can't really tell if the Black PSP looks like a cool weapon or just a void. So I thought about the White, which was okay if not a bit glaring, and then I realized that the Daxter Bundle was actually Silver, which you can see, is a pretty nice color in itself. It's not just matte or glossy black, and though my iPod and iBook are white, I'm certainly glad it's not the friggin' birth control Star Wars one (I'm a big geek! Look at me!). All and all, I was pretty hyped about bringing the PSP home.

Impressions? It's perfect for me. In fact, I've played with the browser, the photo viewer, the videos on the memory card, and the music from the memory card more than the games itself. The video encoding is a bit fussy, so much so that most of the crap that I encoded in preparation for the PSP doesn't actually work. I think I have to encode it with Ffmpeg or something like that. Anyway, after some experimentation, I think I've found a setting that works just fine. The upside is that the video playback is nice. Smooth, high-quality (as high as you encode it), and nice bright crisp colors and contrast. Reading from the memory card is no problem. The photo viewer is a bit soft, but probably has to do with the resolution of my photos being too high than the viewer itself. The browser is tweaky, certainly doable in desperate times but it's as reliable as Netscape was in 1991. The music player is pretty slick, with some visualization that's slightly off but quite pretty.

But c'mon, the PSP is about the games, right? Although I haven't spent quality time with the games, from what I did play is pretty damn impressive. It is PS2 type graphics, and even a little crisper than that. The environments are nice, the colors are vast, and playing through a little bit of Vice City I just got nostalgic. Newer music (I got Vice City because of the licensed music, Liberty City has generic music), and I would just love to drive around and explore Vice City all over again. The loading time does take a bit of time, but I imagine it's to ensure that the gameplay is preloaded or something. I'm happy to sacrifice loading time for more in depth gameplay. The DS is fun, but a lot of times I feel like it either doesn't go deep enough, or it's too casual of a gaming experience. I'll let you know more as I play more.

I've read a lot about people complaining about the PSP, that it isn't as fun as the DS, that it doesn't have a lot of good games as the DS, and I have to say that it really depends on what kind of bloke or gal you are. For me, I'm more than a casual gamer/computer user, so I know how to utilize the different facets of the PSP, such as movies, music, and the Wi-fi, so it's a great little system for me. For the casual gamer who doesn't rip or encode videos, it's virtually a game machine, and yeah, it's probably not worth it. For the hard core gamer, the gaming is not going to be as immersive as your home console, and you'd probably be more into the hacking and the homebrewing - something that I'll stay out of. I read the reviews of the games and look at the screens before I buy, so there's going to be a handful of games that I know that I'll enjoy.

Anyway, those are the first impressions. I'm sure there's more to come.

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I've been more relaxed the last few days - I think I'm glad that I didn't work Friday, or maybe something just clicked in me and I relaxed a bit more. I had more fun with the kids this weekend, just feeling more in control and thus being able to handle the kids better. We goofed around a bunch, and had a lot of fun shaking our butts and chasing each other. It felt good to have fun with the kids, because there's just been too many days of feeling like I'm a man on an island. I think being able to see my wife and be myself on Friday really boosted my spirits.

Well, more to do, and I gotta work early.

Go Ahead, Have a Cardiac Arrest

Because I can totally sustain blood flow to your brain until an AED arrives, at which time I'll be happy to shock you.

Yes, I applied for a CPR class at work because I've always wanted to take CPR - it just seems like one of those things that people should know, even if they never ever use it in their lifetimes. But because of either the cost or the time involved, I just never made it top priority. But if work is paying for it and I get to skip out on some work, then yeah, I'll go ahead and do it.

And I'm glad I did. If you've never had the opportunity to take a class, then at least watch something on Youtube where some people have made some pretty good videos about how to administer CPR. It's not official training and I wouldn't advise "practicing on a stuffed animal" as the video advises, but it's really not difficult. Of course, a class would be better, but you get whatever you can get.

The class itself was taught by a guy who seemingly walked out of a sitcom. He was over-the-top, cracking jokes and actually waiting earnestly for a laugh. He would say jokes at inappropriate times, and his facial expressions were probably too animated for a healthcare professional. But when he was serious, he was fine. And even though the class was aimed for the workplace (since we were working in a place that made AEDs, and it was assumed every third person would know CPR), I got enough of it to possibly do what I had to do if the situation came up.

The notable thing about yesterday's class wasn't so much the training, but the odd things that stood out. They were having some trouble with the video setup, and of course I stepped in and fixed the keyboard (batteries were dead), the sound from the video (kill the other input sources, boost input 1 which was the main audio) and even enact a choking patient while the instructor molested me from behind. I had to feign choking, and he gave me the maneuver, and made a popping sound, to which I responded by pointing to the ground and said, "My keys!" He got some laughs and I thought to myself -- I'm such an attention whore.

But seriously, I think CPR classes are a good idea for anyone who haven't had the chance to take one. Chances are, I'll never get to practice it on anyone. But it's a good feeling to know that I would know what to do if I found myself in such a situation.

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Work was a little disappointing yesterday - while I was at the CPR class, they went and assigned the overtime spots, which meant that I missed out and why I'm home today. But more than that, the new co-worker that I was getting along with turned out to be a terrible worker with no work ethics. He had started out strong, but when it was busy yesterday, he just disappeared and was found chatting up another co-worker. Because there's only one real supervisor to the 50 something production workers, there was no real supervision or anyone to yell at him to get back to work. The other way that was going to happen was if one of his co-workers ratted on him.

I know that's the way things are, but I can't help but feel a little responsible because I had to train him. Of course, I didn't exactly train him to do that, but it felt like a trust was breached somehow. In the end, I didn't really say anything about that to him, but I suspect that it'll probably get in the way of my association with him.

It's so hard to find friends that you like.

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Kinda having a lazy Friday - My wife and Zoe are sleeping on the couch and Alex is watching E.T. I like that movie but I'm just all blubber by the end of it. In fact, during the CPR training video, I was surprised at how uncomfortable I was seeing children in mock scenarios laying on the ground, pretending to not have a heartbeat. It was more than disconcerting, I was starting to get a little upset.

Probably stressed is what I am.

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So I got three PSP games now, and still no PSP. Hopefully this Thursday is the release date, even though I know Sony will likely push it to the 24th or something. Buggers.

Sony Open Letter

Dear Sony,

It was always a little fishy that you set release dates for Europe and Japan for the PSP 2000/Slim/Lite but neglected to inform the American consumers on when exactly the US release date is. It was so much of a problem that some retailers accidently began selling the Daxter bundles a few days early before they realized it.

Well, I went by what lack of information was available on the net, namely Amazon which stated that the PSP would be shipped on the 10th of September. Today is the 10th, and nobody seems to be selling the Slim at all, and the few places that do list them are listed as pre-orders, with dates from Sept. 20th to Sept. 24th.

Now my birthday isn't technically till the 25th, but I've been anxious to get a PSP ever since it was announced at E3. However, I'd strongly suggest not goofing around with your US consumers and just set a damn release date and stick by it. It's just mean to mess around with my emotions like that.

Sincerely,

Diego

Anticipation

Seriously, the waiting is driving me bonkers. Having to wait another day to get a PSP. I know that I am pretty spoiled, since it is my birthday present and my birthday is technically 15 more days ahead, but after the accidental early release of the Daxter Bundle by Target last week, I was pretty hopeful that someone else was going to slip up and accidently sell one. Oh well, looks like I'll just have to be a good boy and wait. It is however, surprising to me that not a lot of retailers are even aware of the release date, let alone the product redesign itself.

Am I a dick?

It's a rhetorical question, please don't answer that. It's better not knowing.

One of the core reasons for getting a PSP is for the mobile video. One of the reasons for wanting mobile video is so that I can watch podcasts, and even movies on the go, namely during the boring parts of life. For a while, I was watching videos at work on my Palm, badly encoded, terrible sounding videos during my lunch because that was like "me" time. I didn't want to talk to anyone, didn't want to socialize, just wanted to watch my videos. I was content - I'm not one to socialize for the sake of socializing - in fact today when I was grocery shopping, I ran into a lot of former co-workers, but I didn't make much effort doing any catching up. My practical standpoint is that they have their lives, I have mine, and since they didn't intertwine before and most likely won't in the future, I don't like to have to feign interest in their lives just to be polite. It's a very selfish stance I realize, and anti-social, but seriously, we're not social folk. Any extra time we have is prioritized with family or my wife. Or myself.

But the flip side of that argument is that I do mean to use the PSP from time to time when I'm with the kids. Like when I'm at the playground and I'm bored, or when the kids are in the toy aisle spending about half hour just playing with the toys. Yes, I can see some eyes rolling, like in why I aren't playing with the kids, or at least just watch them. Thing is, I do watch them when they're playing, and I try to play with either Alex or Zoe but usually I don't get too involved with either one because I don't want to lose sight of the other. Having two kids in a public place is usually a triangulation thing, whereby I have to be able to see both of them. Does a PSP help? Well, not really, but at least I would be able to watch a low attention span podcast like Diggnation whereby it's just two guys talking most of the time.

I don't know, I'm aware that there are people out there who are so buried in their technology that they fail to realize the world around them, and I'm likely one of them, but it's hard to get out of my admittedly selfish ways. It's a transition I am still not be able to make successfully.

I'm currently trying Memories, with a little accent on the e. I used to remember how to do that on a Mac keyboard, but I can't be bothered to look it up now. Anyway, it's basically an offline journaling program that's freeware, and even though usually I just write directly on the blog, to have a journal that I can partake in offline feels better. Can't really explain it. So I'll try that for a while, write in the journal and then paste it on the blog. Then at least I'll have the blog offline if the whole internet suddenly decided to implode.

Which it will, you know.

Dorky Apple Post

This is more or less a further discussion on Dave's iPod Touch decision.

I do think that they're either going to have notes, or even some kind of mail program on there so that you could compose a draft offline and then sent it when you get to a hotspot. If Apple doesn't include anything like that, a third party would undoubtedly fill that gap. Even though Wifi is seemingly everywhere, free wifi is certainly another thing. Even in Microsoft neighborhoods, there's only a handful of places with free wifi. The most notable one is Marymoor Park, which is a huge park that I guess, a lot of Microsoft employees go hang out during lunches or whatnot, and so they just made most of the park a free hotspot, which is pretty cool. Downside is that parking is a buck, but I suppose that's not that big of a deal.

For me, if I had the money, I would probably shell it out for the touch, since my "Cream of Crop" playlist is in the neighborhood of 5 Gigs, but it would still run a little tight. I wouldn't spring the extra hundred for the 16 Gig, because a 400 dollar iPod just seems a bit high.

I was going to use a analogy with my wife, whereby the PSP is like the well-rounded, practical marrying type and the iPod Touch was like the hot looker that turned heads but overall was more about presentation (though the function was definitely top notch, even if the storage was meager) and gadget lust. But I didn't get very far with that analogy because it made the term "wives" seem like a consolation prize.

But yesterday, my used copy of GTA: Vice City Stories came in the mail which was very exciting, and this afternoon I spend quite some time acquiring a PSP/Mac syncing program in order to coordinate all the media onto the PSP. I encoded a second movie (Van Wilder II: The Rise of Taj) in addition to the first (The Promise) without even knowing for sure if it would work with the PSP. So, all I need is the PSP and I can start having some fun!

I'm totally guessing on this, but Sony had neglected to make a big deal of this PSP Lite and Slim release, so when stores started getting stock on Thursday and Friday, some retailers, Target included, started putting them on shelves prematurely. One of the bundles was selling for 169.99, which is a great price, and some people online got a hold of it. I tried on Thursday but to no avail. Target had since taken that price offline, so I'll be hounding the papers for more details.

Well, geek out.

Alex's Fourth Birthday

It was such a noticable difference - from his first birthday whereby you had to rip a sliver of birthday wrapping to unsuccessfully persuade him to unwrap the present to yesterday, his fourth birthday. Yesterday he would begin to open the present, say, "There's something weird inside..." and then see the present and say, "Wow! That's cool! That's awesome!" He even diplomatically extended that to clothes, even though most boys his age could really care less about the duds. "Wow! Cool pants!" But he made out pretty good, and he was spending some quality time with some of his gifts.

One of his gifts was a portable extension of the kid's learning videogame system, Leapster. We had gotten the system last year, but it was seldom put to use because the interface was actually more complicated and not exactly a cinch to hook up (for everyone else anyway), but the portable one was more of a touch screen, looked better on the smaller screen, and was more logical than a big system. Anyway, he took that in the car on the way to the airport to drop off my Mom, but then on the way to Puyallup, he got sick. Which confirmed for once and for all, he inherited one of my less desirable traits, motion sickness. So, like me, he can be handsome and witty and crazy, but put me on a chair and spin me a couple revolutions and I'm as good as dead.

But we had fun at the Puyallup Fair yesterday, with us eating a whole lotta junk like "pink clouds", or in adult speak, Cotton Candy, and other kinds of junk. We didn't spend as much as we did last year - but that's pretty relative anyway. You can't go to the fair and not have your wallet gouged for the overpriced food and rides. One of the photos on the slideshow shows a fire engine one story off the ground - the kids are running shotgun in that, arms braced and head between their knees. The employees were actually waving to them and talking to them, but they were definitely white knuckling it. We'd like to think of it as a bonding experience, when two siblings experience what is seemingly a life and death situation, they grow closer together.

After that, we went back to Grandma's house and had the bluest cookie monster cake. It was disgustingly blue and doesn't even come off skin well. I suspect it's done some slight pigmentation damage due to the amount of food coloring used. We didn't get to wish him Happy Birthday one last time because they both fall asleep in the car, but I'm sure he had just that.

Alex's Fourth Birthday

Damn You, Steve Jobs

Seriously, Apple really has me under its thumb. I was doing just fine and dandy and then they come along and mess with my reality, leaving me completely flustered with my options. I'm writing this because Dave evidently counts on me to give him the Apple scoop. I'm sure he's caught the news too, but for those who could care less, here's my lowdown on the Apple updates.

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So I'm actually happy that the Nano has video capability, making it one of the first portable and affordable video players. It's not the first, and not the cheapest personal media player out there, but anyone who has an iPod knows iPod is really just half of the equation - iTunes is the other half. It makes getting music, organizing it, transferring it, and getting media for it a cinch. And unlike most other digital jukeboxes, it evolves over time.

The Classic iPod is now at an obscene 160 Gigs, which is something monstrous. I have hard drives that are smaller than that. My music collection alone is only about 15 gigs, and even when all my podcasts are decked out, it's only about 6 Gigs. What the hell would someone do with all that space? I suppose a buttload of movies could fit on that. Who knows.

And of course, the iPod Touch. When the iPhone came out, I thought that if they had that without the phone part, I would be sold on it. And for a while, when the rumors started swirling about a touch iPod, I was pretty tempted, but I was sure that it would just be an iPod, nothing fancy. And then I watched yesterday's presentation. 8 Gigs, Wi-Fi, keyboard, Safari, Youtube. And then today, ironically while searching for the PSP Bundle, I wandered into the Apple Store and played with the iPhone. And I was Smitten.

But anyway, it's all very confusing in my head. I told my wife about it and she's resistant due to the cost, which I don't blame her. It's $299, which is a far cry from the $169 I had tried to sell her on. I told her that with the PSP, with the $169 core, the $25 game, the $40 memory card, possibly the $20 case and some more games, it's easily the same price. I think that amused her even less. But there's my breakdown.

PSP Pros:

Actual Gaming portable, with big boy games.
Cheaper. Kinda.
Multimedia goodness.

PSP Cons:

Data entry for web surfing is phone-like, which is goofy.
Browser is supposedly iffy.
Doesn't do flash video or 640x480, which means a lot of video conversion.

Arguement:

How much web surfing will I do on the PSP?
Will future firmware fix the 640 x 480 problem?
Will I rely on Wi-Fi that much?

iPod Touch Pros:

Seamless integration with iTunes, less conversion
Freakin' touch interface, can download apps for iPod since it's running an OS.
Safari, QWERTY text entry... That's cool.
Youtube integration.

iPod Touch Cons:

No Games! Will Video wear off?
Two iPods is gadget redundancy.
Basically getting it mostly for the video playback and touch novelty.
Youtube is not the complete library, since Youtube is only starting to encode H.264 compatible videos that iPhones and Touch iPods can read. Only 2 of my videos were searchable.

iPod Argument:

How often am I around Wi-Fi and if I'm mostly at home, aren't I already on my laptop anyway? Touch keypad and all, will I even use it?
iPod clickwheel I can navigate without looking, but the touch will need to be flicked - so skipping a song or anything might be too much trouble.
I might get jacked - they are pricey little gadgets.

Well, this actually helped. I think I'll stick with the PSP. Even though the Touch is fancier and has slightly more convenient video options, the fact that I'm not always around Wi-Fi, and the video only benefits of the touch iPod (as opposed to the video plus gaming benefits of the PSP) make the PSP the logical choice. I have to do a bit more maintenance for the PSP, but I think I'll get more mileage out of it. It's like the practical and the pretty. The practical PSP wins out.

But the Touch is sooooo pretty.

Me, the Kids, and Eyetoy

The last time we played with the Eyetoy, which is a PS2 game coupled with a USB cam, was when Brendon and Maralise came over and played, which was a long, long time ago. I don't play by myself for obvious reasons, it's much more fun as a party game. Now that the kids are older, they're getting the concept of the games and the goals associated with each game, so it's much more fun. For Alex, it's basically him, but with a purpose.

Yeah, the kids beat me in Knockout.

Something about Nothing

I got something to say and nothing to say all at the same time. So here it goes.

These next couple weeks are going to be quite something for me. Since I don't really have any friends and all I write or think about is tech stuff, it's a fairly wet week for me. On Wednesday, Apple will be announcing the next line of iPods, and even thought the likelihood of me getting one is almost close to zero (see below), it's still exciting to see how they will confirm or astound the rumors that are currently out there. Certainly, a video iPod Nano is highly plausible, a touch screen iPod as well. The thing is if they've got something up their sleeve on top of that. The iPhone certainly floored all the mockups, I'm hoping this one will too.

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This Friday Alex will be turning four, and we're going to the Puyallup Fair, which will be tons of fun. Even though I'll be getting a smaller paycheck this week because of Labor Day and the lack of overtime last week and this week, it'll be okay. Just have to chill out on the spending and since we already bought the tickets, the cost of everything should be manageable. I think the kids will have fun at the fair though. At the very least, I can get photos of the kids looking terrified on the kiddy rides.

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And of course, the PSP. I've been granted permission to get it when it comes out, including an advance from my Mom. And I've ordered a used copy of Vice City Stories for the PSP just to keep me busy. But mostly, I'm excited to start putting video on that sucka and have a portable media player. Woot, baby.

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I'm often a late adopter of Web 2.0 (although I was early on Flickr and Blogger, though I didn't use Flickr for a while after I initially used it.), but I'm discovering that Digg.com is actually really cool. It started out with me watching the Diggnation podcast, which is this breezy, low production yet high entertainment value podcast of these guys responsible for Digg.com talking about the highly Dugg articles. Their banter and ease about the whole thing just seems like it's just a bunch of guys, just jabbering about cool news and tidbits. I like Digg so far because of its range. From serious news to trivia to tidbits, just basically the best bits of news out there as determined by nerds like myself.

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It's almost 2 in the morning. Tomorrow I have to wake up at 4:30am. That is hell on my internal clock.