Star Trek: Into Darkness: Sad McCoy

     Saw this behind the scenes video

http://youtu.be/Aik_4r2IVho and thought of this image for some reason- thank you MS Paint for making this crap happen on my break time at work. 

     Hearkening back to the first movie, with my favorite character and a reference to his wonderful quote- Leonard "Bones" McCoy is the best.  Karl Urban does a magnificent job as the disgruntled Doctor.
     Looking forward to this movie a LOT.

Typical MN Weather.

     It's almost 11:30pm here in the wonderful state of Minnesota, and I just got back in from discharging a slew of patients- that means walking them in wheelchairs out to their vehicles.  Let me tell you, scrubs are not the most insulating material to be bundled in for this line of work, or at least this portion of the it- out in the winter weather with sub-zero temps and plenty of wind, and only scrubs to protect me from the cold. 

     I feel like Grandpa Simpson when he got lit on fire in that old Treehouse of Horror episode, and his response is a sad, "Ohh, I'm still cold."  

 

     Really, this is a potential job hazard of working at a hospital doing patient care and I have reason to believe that all my potential future progeny are now cryogenically frozen inside me as I type this.  Frozen nards are a scary thing! 

     SERIOUSLY!!!  Scrubs are the equivalent of tissue paper clothes!  It's like wearing colored air.  I may never feel toasty-warm again.  Each person discharged is worth between 5 and 15 minutes of freezy, windy parking lot goodness.  Hopefully, there'll be no more discharging people tonight, because nobody likes a frosty nut-patch, and I don't think I can handle another dose of Jack Frost kicking me in the everything.

     Working in the middle of this:

N.O.A.A. Warning -
Event: Wind Chill Warning
Alert: ...DANGEROUS WIND CHILLS WILL PERSIST THROUGH TUESDAY MORNING...
TEMPERATURES WILL ONLY RISE A FEW DEGREES THIS AFTERNOON...BUT
REMAIN BELOW ZERO. EVEN A 10 TO 15 MPH WIND WILL CREATE WIND CHILL
VALUES BETWEEN 20 TO 40 BELOW ZERO ACROSS THE REGION. THE COLDEST
WIND CHILL VALUES WILL OCCUR ACROSS WEST CENTRAL AND CENTRAL
MINNESOTA. TEMPERATURES WILL FALL WELL BELOW ZERO OVERNIGHT...AND WITH A 5 TO 10 MPH WIND...WIND CHILL VALUES WILL CONTINUE IN THE 25 TO 45 BELOW RANGE.
...WIND CHILL WARNING REMAINS IN EFFECT UNTIL 9 AM CST TUESDAY...
* WIND CHILL VALUES...BETWEEN 30 AND 45 BELOW INTO TUESDAY MORNING.

Photography: Dragonfly

     It's been quite a while since I posted anything artsy and what not- so here's 2 pics I took last summer of a Dragonfly on my car antenna.  They are from my Instagram photos.  If interested I'm MRJISH.

Borderlands 2: Level Cap Raise Confirmed

     James Lopez, Associate Producer on Borderlands 2, has confirmed a raise in the Level Cap.

 He says, "We do have one planned, and it will be for quite a few levels which will allow you play for quite a bit longer. We also have a plan for Q1."

     FINALLY!!!

     So roughly by the end of March?  I would guess that it would be hitting with the, or near, the next DLC's release.  Maybe to coincide an add on content pack or another Playable Character such as the rumored Tediore Digistructed Employee 451.

     With the 3rd DLC being another short adventure, I would guess that Gearbox intends to release a few more DLCs in addition to the original 4.  Of course there's also rumors of a 2nd Season Pass, which would mean a wealth looting, shooting, and general Pandora Badassery to come.  Short or not- I have enjoyed Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage, Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt, and parts of Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty, so a bunch more short adventures would be good while we wait for the ever elusive "massive expansion."
     What about the Claptrap Secret Stash missions?  Small enough to be side missions to a future DLC.  Also there seem to be a few areas in Hammerlock's that look like temporarily locked doors- does anyone else think that a future expansion could also be some add on to the already released areas?

Hauppauge HD PVR 2: 5th Day- I'm Done With This Crap.

     So I just got back from returning this giant piece of shit.  Yes I gave it 5 full days of chances.  Strangely enough I gave it more chances than I give most anything.  So roughly a total of 3 hours of messing around with it each day, trying to get this thing to work.  Nothing.  Not a single workable video.   

     Of course the Hauppauge help center is crap and all they'll give you is bottled responses to everything.  So I turned to scouring the net looking for remedies to the multiple problems I was having.  Luckily, there are a few decent fellows that got some results.  Not enough to keep the HD PVR in working order, but only a slight help.  Of the times I got the images through, I got choppy sound, occasionally no video at all, countless times I got constant flickering of the screen, and the worst is the TV screen would just go black every 45 seconds or so for a few seconds rendering the system useless by resulting in constant deaths.  That makes playing games quite impossible- how well would a movie be considered if it randomly shut off all the time then returned a few seconds later?  It would be an unwatchable film.  You can't play a game that cuts off what you see.  After enough fruitless hassle, I finally gave up and returned it.  It is not worth my time to struggle with a product that has so many flaws and in the end can't live up to what it claims to do.
     Even the video editing software is junk.  The test videos I got included one that recorded off my webcam on the computer.  What the hell?  I never clicked anything that would change the input method.  Seriously, this whole package is a bundle of trouble. 

     I would recommend reading the reviews on Amazon if you own a PS3 before even considering this product.  Buy at your own risk.
Here's the link:
http://www.amazon.com/Hauppauge-Edition-Definition-Capture-Passthrough/product-reviews/B008ZT8QKO/ref=cm_cr_pr_hist_3?ie=UTF8&filterBy=addThreeStar&showViewpoints=0

     Even after I got the "fixes" in place, the HD PVR 2 would randomly record things or shut off.  I got the screen jitters and a various amount of other problems "that shouldn't happen."  I am extremely unhappy about this whole trial run, enough so that I will probably never by another Hauppauge product.  I am done with a sub par company and their sub par products.
     From what I've read, there aren't any real problems with the Xbox, so I can't vouche for or against that- but if you play PS3- avoid this at all costs.  There are too many issues to be even remotely usable for Sony gamers.  

Photoshop Things: Some Little Stuff

My "Fix" Idea

     A couple of months ago one of my roommates asked me to "fix" a couple pictures of him and his lady.  As you will see my original idea for "fixing" isn't quite what he was looking for.   I was thinking of spoofing "The Notebook" movie. Pretty much how we forget so much and looking back in our Facebook timelines is essentially going to be our notebook reminders.  But I spent a decent amount of time kind of cleaning up the images for him- so she would have actual printed pictures of them as a couple for a Christmas gift.  He wanted to use my minor expertise in PhotoChoppery for something useful. 
     Essentially, I just painted over a bunch of things and trimed to fit his printing specifications. Nothing special, not even close to my best work, but I tried to make it as acceptable as I could.  In fact, I spent an absurd amount of time trying to get it to look as best as I could possibly make it.  Very stressful work indeed.  While I'm personally not happy with the actual finished ones, the roommate is.

Borderlands 2: Hidden Raid Boss: Omnd-Omnd-Ohk



      Well, one of my earlier thoughts/predictions about the potential hidden raid boss was correct.  In the previous post from this morning I figured there was something a Witch Doctor could probably level someone into- like the similar process of the Varkids into Vermivorous.  As it turns out, there is a Witch Doctor that levels an Ultimate Badass Savage into Omnd-Omnd-Ohk.  He looks pretty Badass to me.  A giant, horned Badass to be specific.

     While I can't say for certain that he's a Raid Boss on the level of Vermivorous the Invincible, because he doesn't have the "Invincible" at the end of the name, he is an awesome find.  I mean it's doubtful they'd add a step, because the way GOD-liaths and Vermi morph from Ultimate Badasses, but has anyone tried to let this guy evolve one step higher?

     Unless Ohk translates to Invincible in whatever language the savages use?

     I took this pic from a video a guy on the forums made:
Video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mz5udZ_GgUo
Forum Thread:
http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=228428

     Good work Forums!  Once word gets out, it spreads fast.
Here's the thread that kind of started the hunt:
http://forums.gearboxsoftware.com/showthread.php?t=227745 
     After rereading through this I see someone did mention Omnd in the thread.  It is still possible that there may be an actual "Invincible" left...  they did take this dude down fairly swiftly.
     (PS- on the forums my screen name is mrjish.)

Borderlands 2: Possible Hidden 3rd Invincible in DLC??

     These were up on the Gearbox Borderlands 2 forums today.

     Granted it is possibly just a joke about his Voracidous misspelling, or even about the lack of Crawmerax being listed.  The mere speculation about a 3rd is quite nice. 
     I do enjoy the sort of secret raid boss Drifter- Dexiduous the Invincible, but the I got to say, Voraciduous is a massive pain to solo. 

     As for the possible 3rd boss- I don't know if it's normal to occur, but last night while I was hunting Slagged Spores for the "I Like My Monsters Rare" mission- I fought Rouge the giant Crystalisk.  After knocking out his legs and getting both of his body crystals- he went back into the ground.  So he was a giant pinkish rock mound.  I didn't think anything of it and just quit out to continue on the hunt for spores.
     Could Rouge change into the rumored Crystaloferous the Invincible?  Maybe there's a way to get them to morph that no one's come across yet?  Or do Boroks morph?  Maybe there's a Scaylion, Skag or Spore that changes?

     Or on a very rare chance- what I would consider to be the probable option, as they already level people up- could one of the Witch Doctors Level someone (or itself) into an Invincible???

     I'm curious as to whether or not there really is a hidden raid boss no one has found yet- this is very exciting indeed!!!

Borderlands 2: Dr. Nakayama

     Just a quick thought on Dr. Nakayama.
     Many people may disagree, but I think Dr. Nakayama is a wonderful character added to Borderlands in Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt.  He feels very much like an analog, or homage, to Dr. Rusty Venture (with a dash of The Monarch) from the Venture Bros.
     He's a scrawny, nerdy scientist/wannabe badass trying desperately to bring back the person he's obsessed with- Handsome Jack- through cloning.  With constant attempts to be cool and badass, but consistently failing to achieve any kind of success, he keeps being his own worst enemy.   
     I've only made it about halfway through the new DLC and Nakayama has continually thwarted his own plans with a great inability to create any real barriers to stop the Vault Hunters from stopping him from cloning Jack.  Provoking the heroes of Pandora into action, and being at first ignored, then after he gets their attention he gets targeted for elimination just so he'll stop annoying them.  Brilliant.
     But he keeps on trying.  He keeps trying to impress people by proving he can be a great bad guy worthy of Handsome Jack's notice.  His overconfidence and ineptitudee puts him in some interesting predicaments which have, thus far, ended up poorly for him.  So far, he's repeatedly failed and keeps on going.  No matter how great his fear of the Vault Hunters has grown, or how horribly disappointing his creations have turned out, no matter how terribly he's defeated, he keeps trying.   That is hilarious and inspirational.  Trying to impress a dead hero by bringing them back to life. 
     Well...  trying to... at least.

     I look forward to finding how "The Fall of Nakayama" turns out.

Hauppauge HD PVR2: Day 2, Still crap.

     This is the second day I've struggled with Hauppage's lackluster product.  I was going to return it, but I wanted to give it a 2nd chance.

     All the cables and programs installed AGAIN.  This makes a total of 4 times.  This time I got the Ps3 to work.  BUUUUUUUUT, every minute or so the picture on the TV will go black.  Then back on again a couple of times.  Maybe once every minute it does a repeating cycle of the screen shutting off.  VERY poor job there.  It is quite literally impossible to play a game with a screen that keeps going black.
     Those few seconds of blank screen caused me to be killed numerous times.  HIGHLY unacceptable.
     Tomorrow I will call the Hauppauge help desk people and see if they have a remedy.  I'll probably scour the net looking for tech help in other places as well, as all the reviews have made it clear the help desk is seriously lacking. 

     This product needs an overhaul STAT.  With a bit of work, this item has immense value.  It shouldn't be a great struggle to obtain a semi working capture ability for gaming.

Hauppauge HD PVR 2: A Massive Disappointment for PS3 Users

      After picking up what I figured would be a decent video game capture system- The Hauppauge HD PVR 2 - and spending far more time getting everything installed, updated, and ready for setup than should be necessary, I find out the thing only works on PS3 with component cables.
     Which means I can't play in widescreen.  Sub par gameplay in return for the ability to record some things?  Not worth it.   I tried it out, but couldn't get anywhere near the output that it has with an Xbox from what I've seen.  Sorry Hauppauge, this is a deal breaker.  Why would I want a system that cannot work at typical performance rates with the only console I use?  Sure, Sony is mostly to blame for having an encrypted HDMI output, but this isn't nearly what the ads make it out to be.
     Well, I just wasted the last 3 hours attempting to get ANYTHING decent out of this and am now  in a very cranky mood because if it.  It's getting returned after I get off of work tomorrow.

Batman: Arkham City Sequel News

     It's about time we got some substantial evidence on the new Arkham game.  Granted they did work on plenty of DLC and a port to the Nintendo Wii, but FINALLY something of note.

     Well, this is the first sort of real "NEWS" that we've gotten received about the future of the Batman Arkham games.  With a simple clue as to the next installment- Warner Brothers Interactive Entertainment and Rocksteady games may have released the next in the Arkham Asylum and Arkham City series' title. 

     They have recently registered 15 domain names-

• arkhamuniverse.com (Arkham Universe)
• batmanarkahmuniverse.com (Batman Arkham Universe)
• batmanarkhamarises.com (Batman Arkham Arises)
• batmanarkhambegins.com (Batman Arkham Begins)
• batmanarkhamdarkknight.com (Batman Arkham Dark Knight)
• batmanarkhamknight.com (Batman Arkham Knight)
• batmanarkhamlegend.com (Batman Arkham Legend)
• batmanarkhamlegends.com (Batman Arkham Legends)
• batmanarkhamnight.com (Batman Arkham Night)
• batmanarkhamorigins.com (Batman Arkham Origins)
• batmanarkhamstories.com (Batman Arkham Stories)
• darkknightarkham.com (Dark Knight Arkham)
• dcarkhamuniverse.com (DC Arkham Universe)
• dcarkhamverse.com (DC Arkhamverse)
• thearkhamuniverse.com (The Arkham Universe)

      If I recall correctly, this happened about a year and a half before Arkham City was released.  They registered a slew of domains and one of them was the one they went with.

     I am quite curious as to what direction they'll go with.  There have been plenty of rumors about this being a Silver Age game about Batman's first encounter with the one and only Joker.  I've also read that there may be tie-ins or crossover material with Justice League members like Superman.

     Personally, I'll enjoy any game they make, I'd just prefer a sequel to a prequel.  BUT, a sequel with reminiscing flashback segments would be quite welcome.  Think about learning new gadgets by incorporating a flashback to you receiving and practicing with the item.  Perhaps Scarecrow's toxin is seeping in and effecting Batman's memory.  There are plenty of ways to do a multi-time frame game.  Break it into chapter segments. 

     It just feels like Rocksteady has built a huge amount of momentum in the story and I would like to continue seeing where it goes. 

Tard the Grumpy Cat + Judge Dredd

     Sometimes I make stupid stuff in my free time.  Well the whole time I was watching Karl Urban as Judge Dredd, this is what I was seeing in my head.  Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed this Dredd movie, but my mind kept returning to Tard.

     Tard the Grumpy Cat + Judge Dredd =
          1) Tard the Grumpy Judge
          2) Judge Grump
          3) Judge Tard

     Thinking up things for a demotivational poster, all I could think of on the spot was, "Back in my day, I was the Law," maybe "I am the Tard." or "The Grump? I'm it."  So I just threw this one together.  Nothing seemed to sound right so I left it with the typical Dredd quote.

Borderlands 2: Hammerlock's Hunt, Mr. Torgue, and Captain Scarlett

     With just under one week until the new Borderlands 2 DLC (Sir Hammerlock's Big Game Hunt)- arrives I would like to take a minute to mention a couple things the first two DLC's got right. Skip to the Red Text below for the 2 things, as there is a mini rant before them.

     Seriously.  Many people are bitching about how let down they were.  How neither Captain Scarlett and Her Pirate's Booty nor Mr. Torgue's Campaign of Carnage are on par with The Secret Armory of General Knoxx.  Well, yes, these two DLCs are considerably shorter, and with the lack of a larger bank vault or level cap- this is kind of crappy.  Not nearly as many missions, nowhere near the grand size and variety of area levels.

     Randy Pitchford has made comments about a "massive expansion" on the way, but with previous comments such as the "never have to worry about bank space again" make me wonder.  There have been some letdowns, but overall, the DLCs haven't been too bad.  I don't even mind the two raid bosses being locked out for 24 hour periods.  Although the addition of Seraph Crystals and Torgue tokens on top of our semi useless overabundance of Eridium is fairly ridiculous.

     BUT- I personally enjoyed them, with a few exceptions at points- namely the MASSIVE Master Gee the Invincible freeze glitch.  These DLCs kept me entertained for a couple weeks, and I keep returning to Torgue because I love the constant humor.

     Anyway- here's the things I believe they got right-

1)  The Vertical Magnys Lighthouse Level:

     The first thing I wanted to mention is the Magnys Lighthouse level in Scarlett's.  This took a typical level and stretched it vertically.  This is definitely something they should do more of- where the whole level spiraling up a strange plateau, then up even further to the top of the lighthouse itself.  Quite a different way of making it through a level- no long plains or driving forever- but rising upwards.  Very neat.  I wonder if there is anything in the background like when you fight Bunker and in the back by the waterfall you can see Terramorphous splashing around.  Perhaps the Leviathan's head or something?

     Anyway- the more vertically oriented scaling up the mountain type thing was brilliant.

2)  Repeatable Missions:

     Now the second thing they got right.  In Torgue's campaign there are a few infinitely replayable "Tier 3"missions.  The Death Race one is meh, the Buzzards one is ok, but the Bar Brawl, THAT is where the fun is.  Repeating it for whatever reason is an absolute blast.  Sure, I died a fair amount of times, but I don't care- it's fun regardless.  Add 3 more players and it is an absolute madhouse of crazy good times. 

     Honestly, something like this repeatable battle should be added to every DLC or future Borderlands game from now on.  Maybe make it even grander in scale... and less Thief Rats stealing my guns!  Granted- the Tier 3 Appetite for Destruction is a close second.  The Bar Brawl just feels more filled out- possibly because of the tight quarters you're fighting in.

     On a side note- I would like to say that Gearbox nailed Torgue as a character.  He never fails to say something that is comedic gold.

EXPLOSIONS?

Here's a few good quotes-
I'm Torgue, and I am here to ask you one question, and one question only: EXPLOSIONS?"

"THAT SENTENCE HAD TOO MANY SYLLABLES! APOLOGIZE!"

"Right now, you're ranked fifty in the badass leaderboards, which puts you behind my grandma but ahead of a guy she gummed to death. IT TOOK SEVERAL HOURS!"

Does the Vault Hunter have what it takes to survive the Appetite for Destruction round? I think we all know the answer: MAAAAAAAYBEEEE!"

And my personal favorite Torgue quote:
"LOTTA PEOPLE BEEN ASKIN WHY MY VOICE BEEPS ALL THE F***IN' TIME- THE TORGUE SHAREHOLDERS WIRED MY VOICEBOX WITH A DIGITAL CENSOR SO I CAN'T SAY STUFF LIKE SH*T, C*CK, OR P*SSY-F*CKIN' D*CKBALLS." THAT'S LIKE HALF MY F***IN' VOCABULARY!!!"