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So, NaNoWriMo Has Officially Started…

November 1, 2009

The only question is, am I going to participate this year?

Well, I’m going to give it a shot, but I still can’t be totally sure I’ll be able to make it to 50,000 words and be proud of the 50,000 words I’ve written. Ever since I found out about NaNoWriMo, I’ve been racking my brain, trying to think of something to write about and, while I have a few basic plot points down; I don’t have the story fully outlined the way I want it yet. Some people have told me to just start writing and fill in plot details as I go but I don’t know if that will work for me. I’ve tried that in the past and it’s never worked out well for me.

The main concept I have been kicking around and will likely go with is a spy novel, starring three agents working for a top secret black ops organization within the NSA (which I haven’t named yet…) is codenamed “Silver Bullet” and has absolutely nothing to do with werewolves, despite said codename. I have the first couple of chapters outlined, a few important plot points including the major plot twist that occurs near the end and, of course, the end. I figure that’s enough to go on for now but I keep second guessing myself. There’s a lot of research that I still need to do in order to present something that’s reasonably accurate as government agencies, weaponry, tactics and covert operations aren’t fields I typically study but I’m relatively sure that I know enough about these fields to write something that’s reasonably accurate and believable, at least to the average reader.

I have another concept in mind involving vampires but they seem to be the flavor of the month right now and I want to write about something that’s not so common in…everything these days (I call that the Twilight effect). The only problem with not going with this is the fact that I feel like this concept would be easier to write. I already have most of the story planned out and filling in the plot as I go along wouldn’t be terribly difficult, or at least not as difficult as I perceive my original concept to be.

Frustrated

This is me right now.

Now I know the goal of NaNoWriMo isn’t to produce prize winning works of pure literary genius but I don’t want to produce a steaming pile of garbage either. I want something that’s readable and at least mildly interesting. Perhaps this is just me second guessing my ability as a writer but I honestly don’t know if I can deliver that in 30 days, as much as I’d like to, especially now that I’m behind schedule with my outlining. Today is the first of the month and I’m supposed to write the first 1,667 words of my novel today and I haven’t yet done that. Perhaps I can get enough of the outlining done tonight to have a solid idea of where I’m going with this and be comfortable enough to actually start writing. I don’t know. I guess I’ll find out shortly after I’ve concluded this blog post and gone back to my outlining.

If any of you have any tips or suggestions, let me know, I’ll certainly be glad to hear them.

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So…Next Month is NaNoWriMo…

October 22, 2009

Writing on Laptop

That’s National Novel Writing Month to the uninitiated and, long story short, I’ve been thinking of writing something this year.

I found out about it back in late ‘07 and while I thought I wanted to write something, I never got around to taking the project seriously. Last year, NaNoWriMo passed me by, without me remembering that it was going on until it was too late to contribute something. To be honest, I just remembered it a few days ago when a buddy of mine brought it to my attention. Now, I’m frantically trying to come up with something to write about.

See, the object of this month long literary event is to encourage aspiring writers of all ages, backgrounds and skill levels to write a 50,000 word novel in 30 days. The way I have it planned out; I’ll have to write some 2,000 words a day every day (excluding Thanksgiving, I figure I’ll want a break around that time) until the end of the month deadline. Whew. That sounds like a great deal of sitting in the glow of my laptop’s screen with a Microsoft Word document open, typing away whilst trying to resist the temptation to aimlessly browse the web, prowl around internet forums, watch reruns of My Wife and Kids or turn on my Xbox 360 to play another round of the upcoming Forza 3 or GTA IV expansion The Ballad of Gay Tony. This will unquestionably be a true test of my willpower.

As I lay in bed last night trying to get to sleep, a torrent of questions flooded my mind, leaving me restless for a while before I was finally able to drift off to sleep. What will I write about? Can I really write 50,000 words before the November 30th deadline? Can I crank out something that’s actually worth reading in such a short period of time? And, perhaps most importantly, do I have the discipline to stick to my writing schedule for 30 straight days?

One of my biggest flaws is that I am a chronic procrastinator. I’m worried that I’ll end up putting this off over and over again until a few hours before midnight on the 30th when I finally decide that I need to get something done but by then it will be too late and the challenge would have passed me by…again. This isn’t something I want to take lightly but I’ve never been able to discipline myself like this before and perhaps that’s because I’ve never had to. I’ve put off even the largest school projects until the last minute (sometimes, even, the day they were due) and still managed to put out “A” quality work. That fact has made me understandably cocky regarding my ability to do anything at the last minute. I guess the difference here is, if I do procrastinate, it won’t be like I’m failing a major assignment, I’ll just be letting myself down.

I haven’t decided whether or not I want to do this. I recognize this as something that could be hugely beneficial to me but recently, I haven’t been in the mood to write. I guess the best remedy for this is to…write. I’ve been trying to get back into the swing of things by writing a few reviews but so far, nothing has really rekindled that creative spark that has been lying dormant for so long. I will say that the idea of working on something for NaNoWriMo has gotten me a bit more excited as of late so maybe all I need to get back into the mood to write is to start writing in the first place.

Whatever I decide, I’ll keep a steady stream of updates coming. If I do decide that I want to participate in this, I’ll probably create a new blog for chronicling my progress on a daily or weekly basis. If I do, I’ll be sure to spam the links everywhere. Who knows? I might even revive my long dead Twitter account to keep folks updated.

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Gran Turismo PSP Review

October 6, 2009

GT PSP Screen1

At a Glance: Gran Turismo PSP is a game that gets the fundamentals down but drops the ball in its execution.

Originally announced as one of the flagship titles of the then yet to be released PSP, Gran Turismo Mobile quickly dropped off of the radar into vaporware territory. Well, imagine everyone’s surprise when, at E3 2009, Sony and Polyphony Digital confirmed that Gran Turismo PSP was not only in active development but that it was also going to be released this year. After all this time, you’d think the PSP iteration of the long running and obscenely popular Gran Turismo series would measure up quite nicely with its console predecessors. Regrettably, if you thought that, you’d be mistaken.

While this title boasts a very impressive 800+ car roster and a fairly large selection of tracks, many of which can be driven in reverse, and a realistic handling model lifted from Gran Turismo 5: Prologue, it can’t compete with its console brethren due to one very large and disappointing omission. The career mode of Gran Turismo games past is missing in action in Gran Turismo PSP.

In lieu of any kind of career mode, you have the option to run a time trial, single race or drift trial and only the latter two will earn you the valuable credits you’ll need to build a vast collection of automobiles, both classic and modern. In addition to this, there are a large number of “Driving Challenges” to test your skills. These challenges are almost identical to the dreaded license tests in Gran Turismo games past, the primary differences being that they (thankfully) aren’t mandatory completions in order to enter certain races and reward you with credits for completion in the bronze, silver and gold tiers.

Starting out, you are given 100,000 credits and presented with four of the game’s many dealerships from which to buy your first car. Every two in game days, there will be a random selection of four dealers to choose from and none of them will offer you more than ten vehicles to choose from on any given day. There’s no option to bypass this system, so if you’re looking to buy a particular car from a particular dealer, you have to participate in a couple of events to advance the game forward a couple of days and hope the dice roll in your favor.

This was particularly annoying when I spotted one of the cars I’d been dreaming of (the ’09 Corvette ZR1) and tried to buy it, only to realize I didn’t have enough credits. I was forced to cope with the frustrating realization that I couldn’t possibly earn enough credits before a new selection of dealers and cars appeared the next day. On one hand, this is an interesting way to introduce players to cars they might otherwise have overlooked but to leave everything to the luck of the draw seems asinine.

Before this turns into a giant hate fest, allow me to say that there are a number of things that Gran Turismo PSP does right. The visuals on display here are among the best the PSP has to offer, running at a liquid smooth 60 frames per second, the car models are surprisingly well detailed, given the limitations of the platform. Control wise, everything is completely customizable, which is a great inclusion. Handling physics are another high point, but this is no surprise, as the Gran Turismo series has always delivered fairly realistic physics. This also seems to be the easiest Gran Turismo to get into and it’s very easy to pick up and play from the very beginning, especially with the much less strict and inviting Driving Challenges.

With no career mode structure and everything unlocked from the very beginning, there’s a prevailing feeling of pointlessness in your actions. With everything unlocked from the start, there’s no brass ring to reach for and no sense of accomplishment to be gained. Eventually, the endless grind of racing for credits to buy new cars gets stale and combined with the lack of online multiplayer, the long term appeal is limited quite a bit. Ultimately, Gran Turismo PSP is a good game that’s buried underneath a series of poor design decisions. The gameplay, visuals, car roster and track selection are rock solid but without any sort of direction to guide players through the game, I can’t imagine this will appeal to any but the most hardcore of Gran Turismo fans.

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Picked Up A Few Albums Recently

October 3, 2009

While I was driving home from some errands I had to run a few days ago, I passed by a local FYE store and decided to go in. Normally, I shy away from FYE because they are typically more expensive than other, larger retailers such as Best Buy but there was a huge sign in the window that said “All CD’s $9.99 or less” and that’s a deal I just couldn’t pass on.

I walked in with the intention of buying Life After Death by late-great rapper The Notorious B.I.G. I thought I’d be able to grab the CD for the $9.99 price I saw in the window, which is an absolute steal. I was wrong. Turns out the deal doesn’t apply to multi disc albums. I was crestfallen, since the album was $25 and there was no way I was paying that much for a single album, especially since I can find it cheaper elsewhere. Instead, I picked up the following three albums.

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx, Pt. II – Raekwon

Only Built 4 Cuban Linx Pt 2

As one of the best examples of the Mafioso rap subgenre popularized by the likes of Nas, Jay-Z and Raekwon himself in recent memory, this album is packed with drug references but that’s to be expected. What makes this album unique is its composition, which is akin to some sort of purely musical cinema. Each track blends into the next as if they were scenes in a 70 minute long film. It’s a very interesting concept that works incredibly well in practice, as it apparently did in its predecessor Only Built 4 Cuban Linx.

The Low End Theory – A Tribe Called Quest

The Low End Theory

What needs to be said about this album that hasn’t already been said ad nauseum in just about every Hip-Hop related publication out there? The blend of jazzy beats and lighthearted and always insightful lyrics delivered by the duo of Phife Dawg and Q-Tip is among the absolute best the Hip-Hop genre has to offer. I can easily recommend this to anyone, even those who are new to or still wary of the genre.

Me Against the World – 2Pac

Me Against The World

This is considered one of 2Pac’s best works, alongside his last album All Eyez On Me released 7 months before his death. Me Against the World is an unquestionably excellent album. Thematically, 2Pac’s obsession with death takes center stage with such tracks as If I Die 2Nite and Death Around the Corner and his lyrics are his usual sharp, poetic and consistently brilliant.

And there you have it. I was definitely in the mood for some new (well, new to me at least) Hip-hop and rap music to listen to. I know that there are those of you out there who don’t like rap and others who downright hate the genre. I’m not going to try to sway your opinion on the matter here but so far, these albums are excellent, as I expected and I’d recommend them to anyone with any interest in the genre.

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Mass Effect Pinnacle Station Review

September 9, 2009

mass_banner 2

Due to my Mass Effect fandom, I bought the recently (and very, very quietly) released Pinnacle Station DLC without even thinking about it. Big mistake. So, I reviewed the content for Talk Xbox (my first review in months) and, in traditional fashion, here’s the first paragraph of said review.

“Long before Mass Effect was released, Bioware teased with the notion of extending the life of the game long after the final credits rolled by way of post release DLC. Unfortunately, these ideas didn’t seem to pan out as lavishly as expected and, nearly two years after the release of Mass Effect, Pinnacle Station is only the second downladable content pack. Even worse, this content isn’t all that great – in fact, it’s downright mediocre at best.”

Justin McBride – Talk Xbox

Full Review

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Thoughts About the Zune HD

August 5, 2009

zunehd-black

If you’ve been reading my prior blog posts, dating back to about two years ago to the present, you’ll probably remember that I purchased one of the Halo 3 Edition Zunes. In those two years, I’ve grown to love my little 30GB Zune, as it has delivered just about everything I could reasonably expect from an MP3 player. Music quality was great, videos were watchable on its small LCD screen, the FM radio is a very nice addition (albeit underutilized recently due to my dislike of the music radio stations tend to play these days), and the wi-fi, even if its implementation was somewhat half assed at first, has been upgraded in recent updates to add wireless syncing and access to the Zune Marketplace through hotspots. Sure, leaving the wi-fi on nukes the battery life but the features are nice to have nonetheless. It almost goes without saying that I’m a bit of a Zune fanboy.

After two years, the Zune 30 has become a bit dated next to its younger siblings, the Zune 120 and flash based Zunes and a number of other MP3 players like the Creative Zen, Samsung’s P series and, of course, the iPod Touch, the MP3 player that has inspired so many clones as other companies attempt to cash on both it and the iPhone’s runaway success. As I sat and watched the first public unveiling of the iPhone and later the iPod Touch, I began to hope that Microsoft had a Zune Phone or Zune Touch in the works to combat them. Well, a while ago, my hopes were answered in the form of the Zune HD, Microsoft’s answer to the iPod Touch.

The Zune HD packs a number of interesting features such as a 3.3 inch OLED capacitive multitouch touchscreen sporting a 480 x 272 resolution which should prove exceptional for viewing videos. The interface is very similar to the interface already seen on current Zunes which may or may not be a good thing. On one hand, it appears fully functional and easily usable but next to the iPod Touch and iPhone, the UI runs the risk of looking a bit dated.

Outside of the touchscreen, the ZuneHD packs in a number of new features and upgrades such as the inclusion of HD radio. There hasn’t been much information released in regards to how the radio will integrate with the Zune HD but based on how the radio was integrated and later improved upon in current Zunes, this should allow for tagging songs for purchase later on the Zune Marketplace through their RDBS data. It’s pretty much a given that the radio will offer far better quality over the current Zunes due to the superior digital signal so there is no doubt that the inclusion of HD radio will be a great new feature.

zunehd1

In the time since the announcement of the Zune HD, gadget blogs such as Engadget and Gizmodo and larger tech oriented sites such as CNET have had the chance to play around with prototype versions of the Zune HD and initial impressions seem to be very positive. The UI has been very snappy and video has looked fantastic. At this point, I’m less worried about the hardware capabilities of the player and more about whether or not the device will be able to stand up to the inevitable onslaught that will be levied against it in the form of the iPod Touch. It’s no secret that Apple has a stranglehold on the MP3 player market and rules with an iron fist. The iPod Touch is an amazing device on its own due to its intuitive multitouch interface, excellent web browsing experience and its great media playback abilities, but what truly makes the iPod Touch stand out among the crowd is the revolution known as the App Store.

Since its debut alongside the iPhone 3G, the App Store has matured into a force to be reckoned with of unparalleled size and scope and has inspired many copy cats and imitators. To date, none of these imitators have even come close to matching what Apple has created. Now it may seem like I’ve gone off on a tangent but this is directly related to the Zune HD. If the Zune HD is to make any sort of dent in the market, it will need something along the lines of the App Store. It would be too much to ask of Microsoft to expect them to be able to stand toe to toe with the likes of Apple right out of the gate but they will need an ace up their sleeve to be able to take on the reigning champion and I don’t think HD radio is going to be enough.

Overall, the Zune HD looks to be a very impressive piece of technology and a nice addition to the Zune family. I have been impressed by what little I’ve seen so far and hope that new information released about the player will be just as impressive. It remains to be seen if the Zune HD will have a real competitive edge that will make its long, uphill battle against Apple a bit easier. This is something the original Zunes had problems with. While I think the Zune 120 was head and shoulders ahead of its 120 GB iPod Classic counterpart, the market obviously didn’t share the sentiment and Microsoft has a great deal of work ahead of them if they want to convince the market that they truly have the superior product.

That is, if they do indeed have an iPod Touch killer on their hands.

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I Bought an iPod Touch

July 25, 2009

iPod Touch

Over the past couple of years, I’ve been somewhat of a Zune fanboy. I certainly had my reasons. My first MP3 player was a 20 GB iPod that I loved for about a year, until the hard drive was somehow corrupted and it stopped working. After several unsuccessful attempts to resurrect my poor iPod, I gave up and tossed it aside in favor of using other devices to satisfy my MP3 playing needs. For a while, I was getting by with just my PSP and whatever songs I could cram onto its memory stick but that just wasn’t enough. Two years ago, Microsoft released the Halo 3 Edition Zune and, in the midst of my Halo 3 fanboyism, I snapped it up without a second thought and instantly fell in love. The Zune isn’t the perfect MP3 player, but in my mind, it was incredibly underrated. But I digress…

Ever since the announcement of the iPhone and the subsequent announcement of the iPod Touch, I’ve been following the two gadgets closely but I must say that my interest in the iPhone is virtually nil, due to the fact that I am a Verizon customer and the iPhone is saddled with AT&T. This is a carrier I’ve heard naught but bad things about in regards to call quality and signal reception, two things that are rather important when it comes to phones. Perhaps when the iPhone makes the jump to Verizon’s vastly superior network (I’m a bit of a Verizon fanboy as well), then I’ll get excited about it.

So, the iPod Touch was the device I latched onto and grew increasingly fond of over the past few months and, after just as many months of quiet consideration, I bought one. After being on the fence for so long, what finally pushed me over the edge? Unsurprisingly, I finally caved after having a few opportunities to actually use the device and after using the iPod Touch, I was convinced. I had to have one.

You see, I’m the type of tech nerd that is constantly searching for “that device” and other tech nerds will know what I’m talking about. It’s that one, magical device that will do everything you want it to do, be it playing MP3s, videos, making phone calls, sending e-mail, internet browsing, whatever. You name it, that device does it. Arguably, the iPhone is the closest any device has ever come but I’ve already explained why I’m not gushing about that.

And there you have it. I’ve been using it over the past few days and I love it. Honestly, I really wanted to wait for the Zune HD to see what it would offer to counter the iPod Touch beyond what little we know such as the inclusion of the Nvidia Tegra chip and integrated HD radio but I’m quite the impatient fellow when it comes to things like this and Microsoft’s slow trickle of information related to the Zune HD has turned me off and yes, I fully understand that this is standard operating procedure for corporations such as these. So far, the iPod Touch is pretty much everything I was hoping it would be and provides one of the best experiences I’ve had with a portable device because it comes the closest to being “that device”.

I’m considering writing up a full review of the iPod Touch over the next couple days and maybe doing a little video review or something. We’ll see. For now, I’ll just say that I’m impressed with the iPod Touch and very happy with my purchase and leave it that.

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