RandomStringOfWords

I realize that it’s been a while since I posted to my blog and it’s something that I want to be better about in new year but it’s very difficult for me to get excited about anything that’s going on right now.   I find that I’m doing a lot of work for my company and while I enjoy that it tends to keep me from doing many of my hobbies like blogging.  2011 has been a blizzard of activity and I’m sure it will only continue into the new year.

On that note; Happy New Year everyone..

I’m still very keen on creating my own custom blogging software as I posted previously and it’s something that I definitely am going to get around to but its slow going.  I’ve been working on it about an hour each night if the time is available.

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I’m pretty strong supporter of Adobe products or at least I think I must be because I have purchased Adobe Photoshop, Adobe Premiere and Adobe After Effects as well as upgrading each many times.  I’m on my 4th or 5th iteration of photoshop at this point and after some quick and dirty math  I think Adobe has gotten well over $5000 of my hard earned money over the years.  These are all for my own personal use and because as a software engineer I think software piracy is just wrong.  Even so that still hurts a tad.

Recently Adobe announced that they would be offering their software at rental subscription prices and I was excited!   What a great idea!!  But did they do it right?  I don’t think so.. but they are so close!

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Ibanez Mandolin

I have always enjoyed wood working and have done a bit of wood turning in my time.   And as I have mentioned before (more than once), I have always wanted to play an instrument of some kind..   Recently it occurred to me that there was no reason I couldn’t combine these two activities..

To that end, I decided to try my hand at becoming a hobby luthier (a maker of stringed instruments) and make myself something to play..    I went back and forth considering all the options and decided that for my first instrument I’d like to make a Mandolin.  ( Dulcimer was a close second and I’ll likely make one of those in the future, as well as making a Viola if I can manage to do this with any proficiency.  )

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Frozen Synapse

I have always been a huge fan of the turn based tactical isometric games such as Jagged Alliance, JA2, Xcom..etc..  For whatever reason that style of meticulous gameplay always appealed to me, but I had always assumed I was alone in my passion because those games never seemed to last very long in favor of first person shooters or real time strategy games..etc..

In fact, the industry as a whole has completely moved away from turn based game play, which I find to be a shame. Well thank god there are awesome independent developers around to fill the void!

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Red Faction: Armageddon

I played Red Faction back in 2001 when it first came out and enjoyed the heck out of it.   It was the very first game to come out with the Geo-Mod game engine which allowed for massive destruction of the game models and levels.   The game itself was otherwise unremarkable, but the fact that you could destroy everything made it awesome.

I find it funny that one little thing like that can make or break a game entirely, and the massively destructable nature of the Red Faction games entirely “makes” these titles.

Red Faction II was one of those games that came out only a year or so later but it managed to skip my notice and the series sorta fell off my radar.

The other day I picked up the latest in the franchise; Red Faction: Armageddon.   And I’m glad to say that it’s up to the original games standards in all ways .. to include the shortcomings..

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MP3Car DSH-039-2

I have a Mercedes CLK 350 and it’s a pretty good car.   I’m fairly happy with it, but frankly I feel that the Mercedes COMAND system sucks and has to go..  Okay maybe “has to go” is a bit harsh, but it’s sub par to be sure.   I have seen other systems in other vehicles and I think most of them are better, if not perfect either. I believe that this particular system is in prime need of replacement and I have to wonder how hard that would be..  Plus if I’m unhappy with it others likely are too, or they are unhappy with their vehicles system and want a replacement..

This seems like a vacuum that needs to be filled.  A perfect environment for some clever folks to create maybe an open source product based on some free OS that you can install tools on to do what you want.. etc..  Even a “marketplace” like system that allows for custom apps to be installed..  Maybe android or linux based that would customize itself to he specific vehicle.. etc..  God that’d be awesome..

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