PS3 Early Impressions

I've only had the PS3 a couple of days and things still aren't working properly on all fronts, but I've spent enough time with it to have formed some impressions. Overall I'm pleased with my purchase although like most of my consumer electronic purchases of late, I'd like some things to be different. Sony seems to give and take away with equal measure which is annoying, but no more so than most gadgets I've been dealing with lately.

First let's talk appearances. The PS3 slim is a very good looking piece of hardware. The matte finish makes it look elegantly understated. It's much, much smaller than I figured it would be as I had envisioned something akin to obelisk in 2001.


It's a pretty sparse rig with only an eject button and a power button up front to let you know that you can actually do stuff with it. It doesn't even have a disc tray option instead for a "suck it in and spit it out" thingamabob like what you might find on a car stereo disc changer. There's two USB ports up front and some A/V connections in the back. Like I said, pretty sparse, but it still looks damn nice. This is where Sony's years as a hardware company come into play unlike Microsoft who couldn't make a good looking piece of hardware if their life depended on it.

Getting the PS3 set up was fairly easy, until I turned it on. As my receiver is four years old, it doesn't have HDMI switching so I'm relying on an external switch to go between the 360 and the PS3. The 360 initially had problems with the switch however once I started giving the projector time to warm up a bit before talking to the 360 everything worked fine. Not so with the PS3. It simply did not like the switch to the point where the whole console would lock up. I can only assume that this has something to do with the PS3 being a Blu-ray player and maybe there's some HDCP shenanigans involved. I don't know. All I know is that the 360 doesn't give a shit what it's connected to as long as the end result is that the signal gets sent to a device via HDMI. The PS3 only works (now) if it is connected directly to the projector. The switch only cost me 17 bucks, so it's no big loss. I have a slightly more expensive powered switch on the way from Monoprice so hopefully this one will work.

On the audio side, I have everything connected via optical cable which is where my most recent slew of problems started. While checking out my spiffy new copy of Transformers 2 on Blu-ray I noticed that my back surrounds weren't firing. Ditto for when playing Uncharted. My receiver can matrix 5.1 to 6.1 if need be as well as do native 6.1 ala DTS so I knew it wasn't a receiver problem. I've been rocking the 6.1 setup for almost half a decade now with nary a problem. I searched on various PS3 and AV forums for advice which was a monumental effort in and of itself as a lot of the information was from a couple of years ago.

I found a couple of things to work with, namely a setting that tells the PS3 to send audio for Blu-ray as Bitstream rather than PCM. According to some folks, PCM can't be matrixed by receivers so if the mix is laid down natively as 5.1 and sent over as PCM, well that's how your receiver will deal with it. I have no idea if this is true or not, but it sure sounded good. Armed with this knowledge I set out to make things right.

I changed some settings in the PS3 and then fired up Uncharted. After pressing some buttons on my receiver I was able to get the receiver the matrix the signal to the back surrounds. Oddly enough the audio in Uncharted is DTS which my receiver should matrix natively so I wasn't sure why I had to tell it to do so. Armed with this minor success I fired up TF2. Everything was going great, sounds from the back speakers, sounds from the ceiling surrounds but the mix was very heavily weighted towards the right. I mean, like the aural equivalent of having the whole room tip. I went up to the left, front speaker and put my ear right up to it. Nothing. Oh no. Please don't tell me I blew a speaker. I ran the test tones through it, still nothing. Double oh no.

I pulled the cabinet out and looked around back of the receiver and there was the problem, a pulled out speaker wire. At one point I must have been fiddling around back there and I knocked a wire loose. I put it back, put the movie back on and everything was great.

Not content to rest on my laurels I threw in my DVD of Bruce Springsteen live in Barcelona. Now it's been a while since I watched this one downstairs and it is mixed to sound like a concert with a decent amount of crowd noise, but this seemed overly noisy in the crowd department. Usually I can hear Max's drum hits very distinctly but this time they were drowned out. Not sure if my piddly speakers in the family room where I last watched it weren't able to handle the background stuff as well so I wasn't remembering how it sounds correctly, but it seemed off. Next up was Behind Enemy Lines, my choice for best surround sound test disc. The scene at the beginning where Owen Wilson and his pilot are trying to evade the SAM will give any home theatre set up a serious work out. In this case everything was great, both sound and audio.

Finally I threw Uncharted back in and this time the back surrounds had sound coming from them without me having to tell my receiver anything. I wonder if having that speaker disconnected caused problems with the receiver. I don't know. All I know is that things are sounding the way they should be and I'm happy.

Now while I'm thrilled that everything works great, it does bug me that I'm not getting the full audio experience due to my connection type. Oh sure you can connect via optical, but you don't get the Dolby TruHD or whatever the hell it's called unless you send audio over HDMI. Plus, the PS3 seems to limit the bandwidth going over optical which I probably wouldn't notice any way, but now that I know it, it bugs me. Not enough to spend more money on a new receiver, but it bugs me nonetheless.

On an interface side, there is tremendous amount of shit going on in the PS3 interface. I'm used to it due to the PSP but holy Christ, if you were new to gaming you'd probably crap your pants. I much prefer the 360 dashboard, however there's a great deal of familarity there, so that may have something to do with it. I also like how the 360 has your friends and your gaming experiences as a whole more integrated into the interface. Given that the PS3 wants to be a total media hub, I can see why it isn't so focused on gaming but the overall impression is that it's kind of sterile and slightly unfriendly. The 360 dashboard on the other hand is a little homier but generally more comfortable to be around. Think Pam from "The Office" compared to early Caprica 6 from "Battlestar Galactica". Sure, I'd sleep with either, but I'd rather hang out with Pam. For the record, I don't want to have sex with any of my consoles. Ok, maybe with the DSi just a little.

On the gaming front the PS3 has yet to disappoint. I'm only playing Uncharted but so far I'm very impressed. The game looks great, and while I don't like the shooting parts, it is, hands down, the best written, voice acted and mo-capped game I've ever played. I'm also thrilled with how Elena looks like a real woman and not someone trying to smuggle watermelons in her chest. I'm still getting used to the PS3 controller, mostly the lightness of it all. The 360 controller is a beast and with the chatpad attached, as mine is, it's pretty heavy. Moving to a much lighter and slightly smaller controller is something to get used to. On a related note, I love that I can charge up the controller by connecting it to the PS3 however the power needing to be on to do so sucks. Luckily I can charge it off of the laptop that I always have riding shotgun. Sony giveth and Sony taketh away.

Finally, I'm not too happy with the notion of needing yet another remote control but trying to watch movies with a controller is a) unwieldy and b) embarassing. This ain't a dorm room. We're all adults here. I have a universal remote, but the PS3 uses Bluetooth, so my Logitech goes right out the window. Sure I could buy the adapter but I'm not spending 50 bucks for the adapter when I could get the PS3 remote for under 20. So now I have the universal remote, the projector remote for when the projector isn't listening to the universal remote and the PS3 remote. The truth is that I need to map some of the projector buttons to the universal remote and make my life easier but that requires effort whereas complaining is pretty easy. That being said, the PS3 remote is pretty nice and very responsive. As remotes go, you could do a hell of a lot worse.

So far I'm enjoying the PS3. I have a bunch of games to play for it (the aforementioned Uncharted, Uncharted 2 and Ratchet and Clank: A Crack in Time) as well as the first PS3 R&C game coming for Xmas. All of this on top of Borderlands which I'm still loving the hell out of, Dragon Age: Origins which comes out next week, Lego Rock Band and Left 4 Dead 2 which come out in November. Oh and I just bought Bill's review copy of DJ Hero complete with turntable controller. Not sure when I'll play all this stuff but I can tell you that I won't be watching any movies while working out for a while. I'll just have to figure out how to scratch a record while riding the exercise bike.

Wikki-wikki-wikki!

The Waiting

The waiting truly is the hardest part.

So, with the recent release of the slimline PS3 at 300 bucks and the recent release of Transformers 2 on Blu-Ray, I got to thinking that maybe it was time to finally board the PS3 train. Actually, what really did it was the release of Uncharted 2 and the wave of praise that has been heaped upon the game. Still though, 300 bucks for a console seemed a lot, especially on a console that won't be the primary console.

So at the middle of last week I see that the Sony Style store had the old 80 GB models for $249 and that included an extra controller and free shipping. Plus, if you applied for the Sony Style Visa card you got a 50 buck statement credit. At that point I started seriously considering it. Now, the thing about me is that when I get to the point where I'm seriously considering something, that thing is as good as purchased but for some reason I continue to consider and consider and usually consider it to death and miss out which is exactly what happened here.

So by the time I decide to get off my ass and order the fucking thing, they're sold out. Oh well. A perusal of the Cheap Ass Gamer forums showed that not only were they sold out, but people who had ordered the bundle earlier in the week had their orders canceled by Sony. Oh well, guess I didn't miss out on too much.

On Sunday, on a lark I check out Sony Style again and this time I see the 160 GB Uncharted bundle for 300 bucks. Yeah, it wasn't the newer system, but the hard drive was bigger and it came with a game that I was going to play any way? Sold! I applied for the Sony card, got approval and ordered my console. Nice!

On Monday I check my order and it's still processing. Ok, well, I ordered it on Sunday night at around 9PM, so that made sense. What didn't make sense was that I was charged for shipping but a call to Sony Style fixed that.

Monday afternoon, still processing. Monday night, still processing. Tuesday still processing. At this point, I began thinking that this was the 80 GB bundle sell out situation all over again. So on Wednesday, when it was still showing as processing, I called Sony Style back and talked to a rep who forwarded the question about my order on to "management". Now, at this point, the 160 GB bundle was removed from the PS3 section of the site, which is why I figured I wasn't going to get it.

Sure enough, about an hour later I get an email from the Sony Concierge that said that due to the popularity of the model, they didn't know when they'd be getting them. Now, I know that the e-commerce system isn't a perfect one, but come on. If you can't hook up your inventory system to your ordering system with a degree of competency, then you really shouldn't be selling shit online.

So here I was without a console, but with a Visa card that I had applied for. I have never been a big fan of Sony, mostly because of the dickheaded comments by Sony management and the feelings of entitlement they seemed to have in regards to their consumers. I was seriously considering buying a used PS3 and just saying "fuck Sony" but the more I thought of it, the less I liked the idea. For one, there's no guarantee that the used system I'd be buying would actually work and didn't have a tuna fish sandwich shoved in it somewhere. Second, I did have that 50 buck statement credit just sitting on the table and it'd be stupid to waste it. Third of all, I used to work for a company that was run by a very brash, very public young guy who often said things that made him sound like an incredible egomaniac (which he was). At the time, when people found out that I worked there, they always responded to me as if I said those stupid things and it always bugged me because I had nothing to do with the guy. I hated being lumped in with that guy and here I was doing the same thing.

The simple fact is that my PSP has never done anything but do what it was supposed to. I may have issues with the design of the thing, but the fact is that it has never broken on me. Ditto for my Sony receiver and the slew of other Sony products I've had since I started buying Sony as a wee lad. On the other hand, my original 360 which I've had nothing but love for had to be fixed. Petey's 360 had to be fixed. Petey's brother's 360 had to be fixed. Hodge's 360 is on its way back from being fixed. Bones had to have like five of the fucking things fixed. That's not to say that the PS3 is bulletproof, but it's silly to pass up a good deal on what is, statistically, a much sturdier piece of hardware just because someone in upper management is a douchebag.

So on Wednesday I ordered the slim 120 GB for 300 bucks, and made sure to get the statement credit and now I await its arrival. I went for years without wanting a PS3 but now that I ordered it, I want it like now. NOW! It won't get here until Wednesday which is fine because that's when my HDMI switcher, HDMI cables, Blu-Ray PS3 remote and copy of Transformers 2 on Blu-Ray arrives, but still, I want it now. I have no way of getting it hooked up to my projector and nothing to play/watch on it once I do, but that doesn't matter. I want it now.

The funny thing is that had I just ordered the slim model last week when I began seriously considering the purchase I'd have the damn thing by now. Indecision is a harsh mistress.

A Party in the USA

Yeah I've been gone. Now I'm back. At least I think I am. Is anyone still here? Hopefully. Time will tell.

So yeah, I love pop music. Not enough to buy it, mind you as the joy of pop music is how ephemeral it is which usually means that in a year you'll listen to it and think "why in God's name did I ever like that?" Still a good pop song is enough to slightly lift my spirits before they sink back into the morass of hatred that they're usually mired in. We listen to a lot of pop music in the house as for young kids The Beatles may be a more musically educational choice, but pop music is much more fun. I'm sorry, it just is. And while I know that one's musical diet can't all be pop rocks and Cherry Coke, it can't all be bran muffins and broccoli either. Hence the pop music.

One song that I have heard about a bazillion times in the past month is "Party in the USA" by Miley Cyrus. It's an odd song, it is and for my much lauded return from self-imposed exile, I have chosen to bring my critical eye to bear on it. This comes mostly from the fact that not only can I not get this song out of my head, but whenever I hear the song, I ask myself these questions leading to the song and my stupid questions being stuck in my head. So now I'm giving both to you. Lucky you.

Before we get started though, I have to ask, is she auto-tuned on this song or is she naturally that nasally? Neither seems all that great, but one should always strive to be natural, so I guess I'd choose the latter over the former. Not that she's looking for my approval mind you, but I have an opinion and this is the internet so by gum I'm going to share it.

Ok, here we go. Lyrics in text, commentary in italics.

I hopped off the plane at LAX with a dream and my cardigan
Welcome to the land of fame, excess, whoa am I gotta fit in?

Ok, why she feels the need to tell us that she has a sweater with her is beyond me. She must get cold on planes like my wife does. I find it interesting that she's worried about "fitting in" in LA. Fitting in in LA means doing lines of blow in the ladies room before going down on some third rate casting agent in hopes of scoring an uncredited walk-on part in "Crank 3: The Crankiest" so this seems like an odd thing to be concerned about.

Jumped in the cab, here I am for the first time

Look to my right, and I see the Hollywood sign

You'd need to either a) have unnaturally (for LA) clear skies, b) hover about 100 feet off of the ground or c) be able to see through solid objects to see the Hollywood sign from LAX. Most likely she saw a sign for Hollywood Taxi Service or Hollywood Dry Cleaning and isn't smart enough to know that it's not the real Hollywood sign. Either that or she's Hawkwoman.

This is all so crazy, everybody seems so famous

People at LAX do not seem famous, they seem frustrated and upset because LAX is a fucking pit and it's damn near impossible to get around the fucking place. Plus, I can assure you that famous people are not getting around LAX the same way little miss Nashville hayseed in the song would. No doubt Miley is used to being paraded around with her entourage and just assumes that this is how the common folk travel.

My tummy's turnin' and I'm feelin' kinda homesick
Too much pressure and I'm nervous
That's when the taxi man turned on the radio

No one can explain to me what she's feeling nervous about or feeling pressured about. She doesn't do anything in the song. No audition, no try outs, nothing. She basically got off of a plane and hailed a cab. What the hell is there to be nervous about? And taxi man? When have you ever heard a cab driver called a taxi man. It's almost as if she's never been in a taxi in her life and as such, has no idea what to call the driver.

And the Jay-Z song was on
And the Jay-Z song was on
And the Jay-Z song was on

This is the musical equivalent of "some of my best friends are black". Note that it's not a Jay-Z song, but the Jay-Z song. I don' t know what the definitive Jay-Z song would be, but my vote goes for "Jigga That Nigga" which is not exactly something you'd play in a cab if looking for a good tip. Besides, most cabbies in LA are going to be playing Armenian folk tunes or Al-Jazeera Radio or some shit.

So I put my hands up, they're playin' my song
The butterflies fly away

Again, why is she nervous? And really, you're going to raise the roof in a cab?

I'm noddin' my head like "Yeah!"
Movin' my hips like "Yeah!"

If she's moving her hips in a cab I can only assume that she has accepted the inevitability of the situation and has started turning tricks in the back seat.

Got my hands up, they're playin' my song
And now I'm gonna be okay
Yeah! It's a party in the USA!
Yeah! It's a party in the USA!

Being from a country music family, Miley realizes that the best way to get airtime is to lace your song with as much jingoistic bullshit as humanly possible which is why she feels the need to explain to the listener that Los Angeles is actually part of the United States and while she doesn't agree with 99% of the commie pinko bastards that live in California, she is still in the USA. At a party. A party in the USA. If she doesn't mention the US it's a good chance that Toby Keith will show up and punch her in the ovaries.

Get to the club in my taxi cab
Everybody's lookin' at me now
Like "Who's that chick that's rockin' kicks
She's gotta be from out of town"

Christ, where to begin. Ok, so first thing she does when arriving in LA is go to a club? What the hell is she here for again? Second of all, Los Angeles is home to some of the premiere sneaker boutiques in the world. I'm pretty sure no one is going to think twice about someone wearing sneakers. Third, "rocking kicks"? Who the fuck calls sneakers "kicks"? My dad, that's who and he thinks everything is neat. Or is this one of those cases where a term is so old and stupid that it's come back around to being cool again? Neat!

So hard with my girls not around me
It's definitely not a Nashville party

That would be because you aren't in Nashville. Try and keep up.

'Cause all I see are stilettos
I guess I never got the memo

On the one hand, this line ties into the usual teen angst comprised mostly of self centered feelings of persecution. I'm the only one who can't do this or go here or whatever. Poor Miley is the only person who didn't know to wear stilettos to the club. On the other hand, she did just fly in from Nashville so if there was a memo about LA club footware, there is a pretty good chance that she didn't get it. Might I suggest the LA Club Footware Google Group?

My tummy's turnin' and I'm feelin' kinda homesick
Too much pressure and I'm nervous
That's when the DJ dropped my favorite tune

And the Britney song was on
And the Britney song was on
And the Britney song was on

This is the most interesting part of the song. Britney is one of the more "first name only" recognizeable stars, so it makes sense to name drop her, but at the same time, there are parallels between Miley and Britney. Both are from the south, both got their starts on Disney shows, both have questionable vocal talent steeped in an overly nasal delivery. Is this a sign that Miley sees her charted course not much different than Ms. Spears' and will soon marry a back-up dancer, get pregnant like nine times and then go on a crotch flashing spree across Los Angeles or does she just really like "Womanizer"? Let's hope it's the latter.

So I put my hands up, they're playin' my song
The butterflies fly away
I'm noddin' my head like "Yeah!"
Movin' my hips like "Yeah!"

Got my hands up, they're playin' my song
And now I'm gonna be okay
Yeah! It's a party in the USA!
Yeah! It's a party in the USA!

Stay thy hand Toby Keith!

Feel like hoppin' on a flight, on a flight
Back to my hometown tonight, town tonight

Jesus Christ kid, you just got here. No one likes a quitter.

Something stops me every time, every time
The DJ plays my song and I feel alright

Now I can certainly attest to having emotional upswings tied to particularly good music, but if you're tying your major life decisions to the whims of the DJ, especially in the face of today's shitty corporate radio landscape, well you may be in for a tough time. On the other hand, if her favorite song is "I've Got A Feeling" by the Black Eyed Peas there's a pretty good chance that she'll be dead of natural causes before it drops out of rotation.

So I put my hands up, they're playin' my song
The butterflies fly away
I'm noddin' my head like "Yeah!"
Movin' my hips like "Yeah!"

Got my hands up, they're playin' my song
And now I'm gonna be okay
Yeah! It's a party in the USA!
Yeah! It's a party in the USA!

Yes, yes, we know. Hips, hands, party, USA. Toby Keith is pleased. You can keep on living. For now.

As much as I rag on the song, I really do enjoy it. I can only hope that it replaces "Born in the USA" in the various GOP functions for while I always chuckled to hear an incredibly scathing comdemnation of the US used for Republican shin-digs, I'll laugh harder watching Newt Gingrich move his hips like "yeah". Then I'll probably throw up.

Practical Piracy

So I was browsing the torrents for illicit reasons the other day and what appeared on the front page of the torrent site du jour, but a link to Pearl Jam's upcoming album "Backspacer". Now, before I proceed, allow me to state that I don't download music that I haven't paid for. That's not a value judgment or anything, I just don't do it. The simple fact is that I still prefer CD's over digital downloads due to my lack of an mp3 player in my car and if usually you can get a cd the week of release for about ten bucks. Ten bucks is not an exorbitant amount of money and seeing how I'd have to do some work to get mp3's on to my PC and then on to a disc, well I'll gladly pay the money to save myself the effort. Now, that's not to say that I haven't stolen music in the past. I mean, I'm not a monk. I went full-on, batshit, Napster crazy like everyone else did back in the day and I'm not against accepting cd copies of an album if someone wants me to hear something. For the most part though, if I hear something and like it, I'll buy it. I figure that if it's not worth buying, it's not worth cluttering up my iPod with it as I have plenty of albums on there I don't listen to. No sense putting another one on there if I don't think it's worth buying and if it is worth buying, I probably should.

For the record, I do download movies however if I like the movie I then go out and buy it. Not exactly 100% honest, I know as I'm still stiffing the studio on the rental revenues but at the same time, most of the movies I download I wouldn't pay to rent. Midnight Meat Train anyone?

Ok, right, back to Pearl Jam. So when I saw the link to the album I immediately got all excited, but not because I'd be able to listen to their album over a week before it came out, but more importantly, because this meant that I'd be able to hear the songs before I started singing them in Rock Band. See, "Backspacer" is going to be released for Rock Band on the same day that the album comes out and I'm not a big fan of singing songs that I'm not familiar with. I'll do it, but I always have a better time with the songs if I know them. So I downloaded it.

I'm not sure exactly how high on the geek spectrum it puts me but I'm thinking that stealing an album for the express purpose of being able to practice singing it in a video game makes you a rather huge geek. Ditto for using the word "rather" when you're not even remotely British.

I have every intention of buying the album when it comes out, and I plan on picking it up at Target so that I can score the download code for the Rock Band tracks. Simply put, it's a fucking awesome record. At a hair under 37 minutes I wouldn't call it short, I'd call it lean. It's just a really focused effort with some interesting sounds going on and one of the most uplifting yet dismally depressing ending songs in recent memory. It's an interesting reversal from the heavy, political tone of "Pearl Jam" which makes sense given the change in political climate since that record. I dare say it's almost a fun album which is not an adjective I'd use to describe most PJ records. If I had to pick a previous album that it's closest too, I'd have to go with "Yield". I loved the fuck out of that album, but I know that many don't, so don't let my comparisons turn you off of "Backspacer" if you're thinking of getting it. It really is a nice, tight album from a band that never ceases to amaze me. By the way, Matt Cameron is just great on this record. It's amazing how much better this band got when he joined.

Will the songs be fun to sing? Yeah, I think so. I mean, Eddie's vocals have always been impossible for me to replicate as he's just all over the place, but in a good way. He can go from growling to lilting in the space between the verse and chorus and I just can't do that. I mean, he's an actual singer and I'm a dude playing souped up Karoke in his basement, so that's to be expected, but hot damn if I don't wish that for just once I could break it off like Edward. I find that for some songs I have to try and imitate the singer in order to hit the pitch right. For the life of me, I don't know why that's true, but it is and while I'm sure it's not the greatest thing to listen to, it puts points on the board and I'm enjoying myself, so that's all that matters. Maybe that's what I have to do here. Try and do an Eddie impression and see where that takes me. Probably nowhere good, but it's worth a try.

So yeah, pick up "Backspacer" next week, legitimately, of course. I don't think you'll be disappointed unless you just don't like good music, in which case, piss off. With that said, enjoy "The Fixer" cause it's fucking awesome.

Layton Review

Here's my review for Professor Layton and the Diabolical Box. When I sent off the review, I specifically asked that the last two lines not be cut as they were money. They were cut, and not only cut, but, in my opinion, the cutting makes the last paragraph seem rushed. While I mind when shit gets edited, I recognize that it's my editor's decision to do so. Still, I really don't like it when shit gets edited to the detriment of the piece as I don't get a chance to make a change that makes it read better and then it just comes off that I don't know what I'm doing. Oh well. Perhaps I don't know what I'm doing. That's always a possibility too.

Oh, here's my Muramasa review if you're interested.

I dunno. Game reviewing just ain't the exciting, fun-filled trip it was before. I do like the money though, so I just gotta work through this funk, suck it up and get the job done.

The Burden of Quality Headphones

Hey! How are you? Great.

Feel like reading a review of Fossil Fighters for the DS? Well, here it is any way. Jerk.

I can almost see the light at the end of the tunnel. One more week of Abby in the feeding program and me on bus and hound the child to do his homework duty and then I'm back to my usual slacking, long lunch taking ways. How has Abby progressed you ask? Shitty! Well, maybe not shitty but I can tell you we're no where near where we'd thought we be which is a shame because, last I checked, we're still out two months of Linda's salary. Oy! Oh well, they tell us that after a few months of outpatient Abby will be eating like normal but they also told us that she'd only have to do the feeding program for four weeks. At this point, if they told me that the sun would rise tomorrow I would seriously, seriously doubt it.

But you don't want to hear about that do you? Of course not! You want to hear about my new headphones! Yes you do. Yes. You. Do.

So, several years ago, let's say like six, or maybe five, Linda bought me a fabulous pair of Sennheiser HD 270 headphones. They were, in a word, glorious. In fact, I would put them second on my list of all time best gifts that she has ever given me, with first place occupied by a two-way tie between my grill and my smoker. Any way, after years of shitty, ten buck headphones that lasted all of a month before crapping out in one ear, these things were a revelation. I heard parts of the music that I had never heard before. Plus, even though they weren't a proper pair of noise cancelling headphones, their closed design helped to block a lot of stuff out, which is essential in these difficult, cubicle dwelling times.

Unfortunately even high quality headphones have a finite lifespan and a few weeks ago mine crapped out in one ear. The higher end Sennheisers have the ability to swap out the cord that you use to plug them into their audio source, so I was hopeful that a cable replacement was all that was necessary, but alas, this was not the case. I took the blasted things apart to try and suss out the breakage but as I am not an engineer of any capacity, all I could do is stare at them meaningfully and try to will them back into proper working order. It did not work.

And so began the Great Headphone Hunt of '09. One would think that buying new headphones would be a simple process, but one would be wrong. For one thing, stores don't carry lots of headphones and your choices are even more limited when you're so called "electronics" stores are limited to Fry's and Best Buy. Oh sure, there are plenty of heaphones available online, but if you want to actually try them on, a key aspect of the headphone buying process, you're pretty much screwed.

My first pair was another pair of Sennheissers, this time the Sennheiser HD 202's. I figured that they should be ok, as the manufacturer was the same and they were cheapest on Amazon so this was a slam dunk. Not so much. I had read the reviews on Amazon, many of which mentioned how tiny the cans were, but I figured that these people must just be complaining as internet reviewers are so fond of doing. Yeah, not so much. These fucking things hurt. Sennheisers are, for the most part, built in Ireland and I can only imagine that these cans were meant for the faerie folk as they laid upon my ears, pressing them back into my head in a manner that was, shall we say, less than comfortable? Fuck it, the blasted things hurt. So, back they went, with my out the five bucks to ship them.

Next up were a pair of Panasonics that I bought from Fry's for 30 bucks. They certainly looked big enough, and they were, but by golly they sounded like deep fried shit. Flat and lifeless, these are the headphones of the damned, the aural equivalent of flavorless gelatin. I mean, I guess I shouldn't have expected much for thirty bucks, but where I come from, thirty bucks is still a decent chunk of change. They are currently boxed up with the receipt taped to it, awaiting their eventual return to Fry's where they can live out the rest of their dull days on the peg.

Third up was a pair of Sony extra bass headphones. I listened to these in Best Buy and they were comfortable enough, however the music that the display model used were bass heavy, which is to be expected, so they played to the strengths of the headphones but, unfortunately it also masked their problems, namely the inability to deal with non-bass heavy music. Unfortunately you don't know this until you get them home and plug them into your own music collection which is when I figured it out. To their credit, as I mentioned before, they are quite comfy. It's like wearing a leather couch on both ears. As most of my music is not bass heavy though, they did not fulfill their primary function, namely reproducing my music in a faithful manner, unless all of these years I just didn't notice the incessant buzzing. They were returned to Best Buy the next day.

So, finally I settled on a pair of Sennheiser HD 485's. I had no problem with the sound of the Sennheisers that I had returned and all of the reviews for these cans pointed out that they fit over the ear rather than smush your ear into your head so I was confident they'd fit properly. Even with the right cans picked out there was some ordering drama as Amazon had them in stock but felt they'd just hold on to them for like two weeks while Homer tooled around the warehouse on his magic forklift. Fuck that. Buy.com had them in stock, shipped them in a day and did it with 2-day shipping for a total price of a buck less than what Amazon would ship it free. Thankfully the fourth time was the charm as these are some mighty nice headphones. They're comfortable and they sound great. There's a little more sound leakage than my last pair, which I'm not entirely thrilled about, but with my crappy hearing it's probably best that I keep them at a lower volume any way. I still think that my original Sennheisers sound better, but from what I understand they also cost quite a bit more, so that's to be expected. I did not want to pay that much as unless it's Transformers or video game accessories, I'm one incredibly cheap bastard so for what I did pay, I got my money's worth.

So there you have it kids. If you listen to your music with some crappy 15 buck Radio Shack headphones, or God help you, the iPod earbuds and are thinking of upgrading to some really nice headphones, don't. Once you have nice headphones, it's hard to go back and picking a new pair is a serious pain in the ass. Trust me.

Absence

Man, has it really been two weeks since I wrote something? Damn.

Well, truth is my schedule has kind of morphed into something that makes it difficult to find the time to pound out an update. My daughter started going to an all day feeding program in Atlanta which means that Linda is off work and on FMLA. With my son now in school that means I'm on afternoon bus duty. Basically I leave work at 2:15, go to the bus stop, pick my son up, get home, get him set up with Spongebob and a snack and then work at home for the last hour of the day. With this schedule my lunch hour, when I used to write, is now spent getting home in time for the bus. Plus, with my employer being so generous with how I work, I don't want to abuse it by spending time at work writing.

At home I've had a good amount of reviewing to do but not just reviews, but guides which means that in my gaming time, I'm gaming for guides. First was Mothership Zeta and now I'm working on the Red Faction Guerrilla DLC. I've also started doing videos for GameShark which not only takes up a fair amount of time when I usually game, but takes even more time afterwards when watching tv. It doesn't help that I don't really know what I'm doing so I keep making mistakes thereby extending the process.

So basically I don't have a lunch hour, my gaming time is spent on review material and then when I come back upstairs to watch tv I have to either edit videos or play something on the handheld for reviews.

It's a shame too because I have such tales to tell of shooting ranges, concerts and other general tomfoolery. I'm going to make a concerted effort in the next few weeks to make time to write, especially at night so that I don't have such a backlog of topics. Along with keeping in touch with my various fans, both of them, it will also keep my writing juices flowing. I find that when I'm not writing regularly, when the time comes for me to write for GameShark, not only do I not want to do it, but I find it fairly difficult. Makes sense I guess.

In the meantime, behold the fruits of my video labors:

Red Faction Guerrilla DLC Pro Times

GameShark Extra Time with the Fallout 3 DLC

GameShark Extra Time with Wii Sports Resort

Oh yeah, as Todd would say, I got a face only radio would love.