Kevin's Musings

We aren’t big sports fans, but, since we’re here we decided to get tickets to some Yankees games and our first one is tonigt. I’ll let you know hot it goes.

I started playing Jak II. This coming hot off the heals of finishing Jak and Daxter, which was a stellar platformer. Jak II is still a platformer, but, unlike Jak and Daxter which is a super-polished, prime example of a platformer, Jak II is a platformer with a lot of GTA-style gameplay mixed it. I will keep playing it because as a platformer the Naughty Dog folks know where it is at. I am kind of disappointed with the GTA-style gameplay elements, but, my opinion may change. The game gets really great reviews, so I will continue to give it a chance. Don’t get me wrong, I loved GTA, GTA2, GTA3, etc… those were great games, full of craziness and grit, but, it just doesn’t really fit here for me, at least not yet. BUT I am only about 10 missions into the game, so, I am willing for my opinion to change. I am keeping an open mind — when it DOES play like a platformer I am loving it.

We saw The Island this weekend. Obi-Wan, er, Ewan McGregor and Scarlett Johansson both did a great job. The story was interesting, the effects were great, we both really liked it a lot. It is interesting that in RottenTomatoes it is only getting a 42%. Next I need to see Dark Water (STILL), Land of the Dead, and The Devil’s Rejects (I’m getting behind on my horror).

Spend some time with family at LBI this weekend. It was nice. Pictures will be on Flickr in a day or two.

Well, I just finished Jak and Daxter (the first of three games) for the PS2. WOW, it was a lot of fun. It is a very impressive platformer, probably one of the best platformers every made, I would venture. The control is excellent, good graphics, sound, everything. I can’t think of anything I would have changed about the game. I got all the power cells, all the flys, and all but about a dozen of the orbs. Lots of fun. I’ll start Jak II next, I think.

The laser printer is a NEC SuperScript 1260. I initially did a print test which told me it was a 600dpi, LaserJet IIP compatible printer. The first prints had faint bars on them but those disappeared quickly.

I picked up a DLink DP-301P+ print server to put the printer on my network, configured the print server and it printed without a hitch… Well, there was one hitch that the paper cartridge was set to A4 but that was easy to fix.

Text looks great on the printer. While it is a little slow to start printing, once it starts the printing is pretty snappy at 12ppm.

The one problem is that while it is a 600dpi printer, the WinXP driver only supports 300dpi. The driver that supports 600dpi only works on Win9X and there doesn’t appear to be any workaround. The isn’t really an issue with text, but, graphics print poorly on it. This isn’t a big issue for me as I have a nice color inkjet, but, it is unfortunate. Some searches did lead me back to a nifty program you might be interested in checking out, FinePrint — both of their programs FinePrint and pdfFactory Pro are really nice. FinePrint adds a ton of options to your printer that the stock printer drivers don’t offer and pdfFactory Pro is a great alternative to Adobe Acrobat Pro.

On Saturday we went to see The Wedding Crashers. It was a lot of fun, but, if you are even moderately easy to offend this may not be the movie for you. We really enjoyed it, though.

On Sunday we went to the Frelinghuysen Arboretum. This place is big (125 acres, I think) and really beautiful. Took several pictures, they are in my Flickr account.

Also on Sunday we got a new (free) Laser Printer using the same method we used to get the PS2. It is kind of old and big, but, seems like a decent printer – 12ppm, 600dpi. Will verify its condition tonight and let you know.

I’m getting close to the end of Jak and Daxter. It has been a LOT of fun. I am really looking forward to Jak II and Jak III but I may go back and finish Metriod before starting those. I also picked up ICO and look forward to playing that.

It’s Saturday morning and we’re getting ready to Go Take On The Day ™ but thought I would give a brief update. We watched the Charlie and the Chocolate Factory: The IMAX Experience. It was a lot of fun. Depp did a good job, crazier than the first movie or the book, but, fun. It had a strong Tim Burton signature throughout the entire film, which was great. The casting was spot on. BUT, not without minor complaints. While I liked the much-fancier music of the Oompa-Loompa sining, I often found the words hard to understand. This is unfortunate because they used the lyrics from the book, according to the credits. Secondly, I think the choice to use just one actor for all of the Oompa-Loompas was a poor one. I would have liked more visual variety and not just in the face but in the actions. They frequently felt like they were all doing the exact same thing at either the same time or just a couple beats from each other. Those were my only real complaints. They added just a few things to the story, but, all the additions worked well (at least for me). I recommend it, even if you liked the original movie and/or book, especially if you like Tim Burton and Johnny Depp.

After the movie we went, on a recommendation, to Joe’s Shanghai Chinese Restaurant. I cannot recommend this place highly enough. It was fantastic food, good service. We will definately go back again. (Dang spellcheckers! Thanks Steve)

We’re at the Loews movie theater near Lincoln Center in Manhattan sitting in the IMAX theater waiting for “Charlie and the Chocolate Fatory – The IMAX Experience” to start. We got in line behind about 25 people 90 minutes before the movie started and the line grew quickly after we arrived. The theater is packed, sold out. Reviews have been generally very good and I am excited about it. I think it is great that there is so much buzz about this movie – Tim Burton films are always so much fun. I will post back soon and let you know what we thought about the I-Wonka-MAX-Vision.

Just a funny little thing we ran across up in Washington state near Gig Harbor… A Starbucks that is in a bank, both have drive throughs. We laughed and laughed.

Just finished watching both the original Flight of the Phoenix and the recent remake. I would say the original was excellent (of course) and I thought the remake was surprisingly well done. I think the tension and story were a bit tighter in the original – if you are going to see just one of them see the original – but the second is also worth seeing. Both were a lot of fun.

We had a nice weekend, not too hectic. On Saturday we went to Costco then to see the movie Fantastic Four. It was a fun movie and the effects were good but the story was a touch weak. It could easily be a renter. If you want a good comic-book action film, go seeBatman Begins (or rent Spiderman 2). On Sunday we went to the Liberty Science Center. This isn’t a huge science center, but, it is big enough to waste a day in and has an IMAX and a “High-def Theater” (whatever that means). It is right by the ferries to Ellis Island/Statue of Liberty (on the New Jersey side), so we went to the waterside and saw those. It is a really nice area. There was a band playing. You have a great view on the New York City skyline. Definitely worth seeing if you are in the area.

I started playing Metroid Prime Echos , which I bought a long time ago. Lots of fun.

Interestingly I also picked up a cheap, used PS2. Funny story, ask me about it sometime if you are so inclined. Started playing Jak and Daxter. Fun game, too.

Finally, I migrated my blog software from b2evolution to WordPress. WordPress has some really nice features. It is easily skinnable (change the appears of the blog), easy to blog to from Flickr, I can post to the blog via email, lots of plug-ins, etc. If you are looking for blog software (on a site that you host) this seems to be about the best.

That’s about it right now…