Alright, the name of book 3 is changed. It will be ECHOES of Erebus. Echos is also an accepted spelling, but it seems echoes is more common. Feh. Not that I want to be a slave to conformity, I just don't want to have to be explaining it all the time.
Hey, preorder people! I'll have my stock of Yutes sometime over the weekend, so y'all get in line! :P
In non-book news, we now have a full house again.. I'll have to think of new codenames for them, a german girl and a spanish girl. They seem quite sane and pleasant however, and are not likely to inflict such interesting stories as a couple students in the past.
And 2 minutes ago, the courier took away my ps3... fly swift and true, I need my PS3 back to start the littleBIGplanet contest, where I'm giving away a few copies of Watching Yute...!
Joseph Picard's writing projects and life ramblings including the kiddos, and life in a wheelchair.
Showing posts with label ps3. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ps3. Show all posts
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
Saturday, September 5, 2009
Roll for warranty. 20? AWESOME.
One quick note before I get to the main purpose of this post. Yute is now nicely embedded into Amazon. Check my corner of Amazon here. They have awesome shipping. If someone got both books, they qualify for free shipping! For those of you with pre-orders, they've been printed, and will probably be in my hands within the week.
Roll for warranty. 20? AWESOME.
If life was D&D, I just rolled a 20. Actually, this was a slimmer change than a 20 sided die can express. Better make it percentile dice. Well... if you wanna be literal, I hope you have a 129,600 sided die, cuz I rolled 129,600.
Some time ago, my playstation 3 decided to break down. Warranty was gone, but it wasn't SO expensive to get it fixed. Cheaper than getting a new one by far. This also came with a new warranty for 90 days.
Today? Poof. Dead again. Statistically, PS3s don't break down much, but it is one of the first models. With much less angsty stress than last time, (before my wife absorbed the words, she seemed to take my joyous sarcasm seriously) I went about my business of starting a virus scan on a computer before calling sony's tech line. I started the scan, then switch to a web browser to look up the number.
I started dialing, beep boop bop. My wife heard the dialing from the other room as I navigated the automated menus. "They're probably closed by now." she said. Well, I was planning on waiting for the virus scan anyway, I could do two waiting tasks at once. Efficiency in waiting.
"Well, a machine just told me I have about 15 minutes to wait, so.."
"Eh..."
The hold music was interrupted regularly saying that I could get faster service by going through the website. I figured that to be false.. the website probably would just instruct me to make sure it was plugged in, and not dipped in boiling yak feces. I used to work computer repairs. I know enough that yak feces should always be applied at room temperature. What kind of noob do they take me for?
He got my basic info, and tapped up my file. I explained what the PS3 was doing. Just like last time, it would try to boot up, and a second into the boot up sequence, the happy blue light flashed yellow, then went right to a flashing red as the drives powered down.
"Ah, I see you had service recently. Can I put you on hold while I check your warranty?"
"Yeah, sure." It didn't feel like so long since I had to have it serviced before, so I was pretty confident.
Hold music, la la la.
"Sir? Thanks for waiting."
"No prob."
"Well, technically, we're closed right now, but when someone calls our department before close and gets put on hold, we finish up all callers on hold before actually shutting down."
"Okay....?"
"Your call was in the system less than ONE MINUTE before closing time!"
"Wow!"
"And THIS is the last day of your warranty."
"Holy crap!!"
90 days x 24 hours, x 60 minutes = 129,600 minutes where I could have called in a malfunction and gotten free repair and shipping, and I got the very last one. One specific minute in three months time.
Roll for warranty. 20? AWESOME.
If life was D&D, I just rolled a 20. Actually, this was a slimmer change than a 20 sided die can express. Better make it percentile dice. Well... if you wanna be literal, I hope you have a 129,600 sided die, cuz I rolled 129,600.
Some time ago, my playstation 3 decided to break down. Warranty was gone, but it wasn't SO expensive to get it fixed. Cheaper than getting a new one by far. This also came with a new warranty for 90 days.
Today? Poof. Dead again. Statistically, PS3s don't break down much, but it is one of the first models. With much less angsty stress than last time, (before my wife absorbed the words, she seemed to take my joyous sarcasm seriously) I went about my business of starting a virus scan on a computer before calling sony's tech line. I started the scan, then switch to a web browser to look up the number.
I started dialing, beep boop bop. My wife heard the dialing from the other room as I navigated the automated menus. "They're probably closed by now." she said. Well, I was planning on waiting for the virus scan anyway, I could do two waiting tasks at once. Efficiency in waiting.
"Well, a machine just told me I have about 15 minutes to wait, so.."
"Eh..."
The hold music was interrupted regularly saying that I could get faster service by going through the website. I figured that to be false.. the website probably would just instruct me to make sure it was plugged in, and not dipped in boiling yak feces. I used to work computer repairs. I know enough that yak feces should always be applied at room temperature. What kind of noob do they take me for?
He got my basic info, and tapped up my file. I explained what the PS3 was doing. Just like last time, it would try to boot up, and a second into the boot up sequence, the happy blue light flashed yellow, then went right to a flashing red as the drives powered down.
"Ah, I see you had service recently. Can I put you on hold while I check your warranty?"
"Yeah, sure." It didn't feel like so long since I had to have it serviced before, so I was pretty confident.
Hold music, la la la.
"Sir? Thanks for waiting."
"No prob."
"Well, technically, we're closed right now, but when someone calls our department before close and gets put on hold, we finish up all callers on hold before actually shutting down."
"Okay....?"
"Your call was in the system less than ONE MINUTE before closing time!"
"Wow!"
"And THIS is the last day of your warranty."
"Holy crap!!"
90 days x 24 hours, x 60 minutes = 129,600 minutes where I could have called in a malfunction and gotten free repair and shipping, and I got the very last one. One specific minute in three months time.
Monday, November 12, 2007
Lifehack progress and game pre-order stupidity.
Well, I'll have the 'edit copy' of Lifehack in my hands this thursday. I had it sent to our PO box in the US, saving a pile in shipping and junk.. but It's gotta wait until my wife goes shopping across the line.
I've got my own copy of Oblivion, (game of the year edition, no less) after a couple extra weeks of delay in the Canadian release.. traditionally, Canadian release delays are attributed to legally requiring a french/english cover and manual.. but this delay was a lot longer than usual.
They're smarter about it now though.. Instead of making a whole other package for the bilingual cover and manual, they just take the english US copy, and slap a new wrapper around it containing all the bilingual junk. The face-stabbingly stupid art of it all, is that essentially 0% of games that get treated to a francophone-friendly addition for the printed material... well... they're all english in the actual GAME...
Somewhere is there a player who knows only french, who picks up an RPG game, overjoyed with the detailed french manual, then pops the game in and suddenly knows how to play the game with it's english content? It's a typical example of ridiculous canadian red tape. And it kept me from Oblivion:GOTY for two added weeks. Heh. Oh, the cruelty of it all.
Ironically, if I just ordered form the US instead of doing a pre-order locally, I would have been playing a lot sooner.
Note to self: Never do a pre-order again. The last time was for Warhawk. I did the pre-order online. Granted, Bestbuy had a sale that must have been a mistake, the game priced at around half what anyone else was selling it for... but when you do pre-orders, isn't that supposed to tell the store how many they need? Why then did they have none for the people who essentially made a reservation?
Well, that was OK, it turned out good for me.. futureshop beats competitors prices, and gives ya 10% better... so I got one for my friend, too. They weren't so happy to be selling a brand new game for half price... the irony? Futureshop and best buy are owned by the same parent company.
I've got my own copy of Oblivion, (game of the year edition, no less) after a couple extra weeks of delay in the Canadian release.. traditionally, Canadian release delays are attributed to legally requiring a french/english cover and manual.. but this delay was a lot longer than usual.
They're smarter about it now though.. Instead of making a whole other package for the bilingual cover and manual, they just take the english US copy, and slap a new wrapper around it containing all the bilingual junk. The face-stabbingly stupid art of it all, is that essentially 0% of games that get treated to a francophone-friendly addition for the printed material... well... they're all english in the actual GAME...
Somewhere is there a player who knows only french, who picks up an RPG game, overjoyed with the detailed french manual, then pops the game in and suddenly knows how to play the game with it's english content? It's a typical example of ridiculous canadian red tape. And it kept me from Oblivion:GOTY for two added weeks. Heh. Oh, the cruelty of it all.
Ironically, if I just ordered form the US instead of doing a pre-order locally, I would have been playing a lot sooner.
Note to self: Never do a pre-order again. The last time was for Warhawk. I did the pre-order online. Granted, Bestbuy had a sale that must have been a mistake, the game priced at around half what anyone else was selling it for... but when you do pre-orders, isn't that supposed to tell the store how many they need? Why then did they have none for the people who essentially made a reservation?
Well, that was OK, it turned out good for me.. futureshop beats competitors prices, and gives ya 10% better... so I got one for my friend, too. They weren't so happy to be selling a brand new game for half price... the irony? Futureshop and best buy are owned by the same parent company.
Friday, October 12, 2007
Lifehack passed 90%, Ghost ridge, every day shooting.
The lifehack revision passed 90%. I can see the finish line..! LEt's all keep in mind though that after that, I still have to send a copy around to my new volunteer editing taskforce. I'm not going to hold my breath while that happens, so it'll be a good time to attack other writing projects.
I'm torn between my 3 options.
-Continue "Watchihng yute" which is at about 75% done the first draft,
-Attack "Lucy Doesn't get it" more, (Which SHOULD be a pretty small project.. ha..)
-Hack away at "Wasn't worth the parking space" my gimptacular semi-autobiographical... thing.
Maybe I'll just let my whim take me about them all.... I'm attacking Lifehack hard right now because it needs to get done, and get finished, and I can finally put the first story on the shelf, and not have "azu-1:Lifehack" nagging me so badly. Yes yes, a creative work is never DONE done, but AZU1 needed help badly.
Aside from fixes, I've also added a few neat scenes that flesh things out, and I've come clear a bit out WHERE Autar, Meston and Yute are, which lays a bit of groundwork for Watching Yute, and the third book.
In MeadowRidge Optimist news, things are going gangbusters on the ghost ridge project, which is pretty much taking all out attention right now. Did I mention before that I'm slated to be an actor for the show? As a gory yelling victim. Whee! I might be able to fend of Ninjas on a regular basis, and mash up people's ankles with the greatest of ease, but that doesn't make me any more menacing as a guy in a wheelchair jumping out saying 'boo'. I'm gonna need a lotta energy drinks to get through this thing... it goes on for a week...!
Our past president still wants us to go in with the Coquitlam club's Walk for youth, but I think by far the majority find november to be too short of notice to do it justice, and we're also eager to do our own thing. The walk itself (our own) will probbaly end up happening next spring, giving us loads of time to make connections for participants through schools and such.
My PS3 has been a happy camper lately. While waiting for "Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition" (oct17) so I can continue the saved game from the original version which I rented for a friggin month, I've been doing a little warhawk... It's a neat game, but not really my thing. I got it mainly because of the deal I snagged on it, and the free headset thingamabob.
Yesterday was a good update for the PSN... MY fav downloads yesterday?
-Video teaser for 'Fallout 3' (fall 2008) Made by the same guys who made Oblivion
-Demo for the new 'Ratchet & Clank' game
-Downloadable purchase ($10) of 'Everyday Shooter'.. Simple controls, OLDskool code-driven graphics, and addictive as heck... and somehow amidst all the action, strangely mellow due to the soundtrack and musical sound effects..
I'm torn between my 3 options.
-Continue "Watchihng yute" which is at about 75% done the first draft,
-Attack "Lucy Doesn't get it" more, (Which SHOULD be a pretty small project.. ha..)
-Hack away at "Wasn't worth the parking space" my gimptacular semi-autobiographical... thing.
Maybe I'll just let my whim take me about them all.... I'm attacking Lifehack hard right now because it needs to get done, and get finished, and I can finally put the first story on the shelf, and not have "azu-1:Lifehack" nagging me so badly. Yes yes, a creative work is never DONE done, but AZU1 needed help badly.
Aside from fixes, I've also added a few neat scenes that flesh things out, and I've come clear a bit out WHERE Autar, Meston and Yute are, which lays a bit of groundwork for Watching Yute, and the third book.
In MeadowRidge Optimist news, things are going gangbusters on the ghost ridge project, which is pretty much taking all out attention right now. Did I mention before that I'm slated to be an actor for the show? As a gory yelling victim. Whee! I might be able to fend of Ninjas on a regular basis, and mash up people's ankles with the greatest of ease, but that doesn't make me any more menacing as a guy in a wheelchair jumping out saying 'boo'. I'm gonna need a lotta energy drinks to get through this thing... it goes on for a week...!
Our past president still wants us to go in with the Coquitlam club's Walk for youth, but I think by far the majority find november to be too short of notice to do it justice, and we're also eager to do our own thing. The walk itself (our own) will probbaly end up happening next spring, giving us loads of time to make connections for participants through schools and such.
My PS3 has been a happy camper lately. While waiting for "Oblivion: Game of the Year Edition" (oct17) so I can continue the saved game from the original version which I rented for a friggin month, I've been doing a little warhawk... It's a neat game, but not really my thing. I got it mainly because of the deal I snagged on it, and the free headset thingamabob.
Yesterday was a good update for the PSN... MY fav downloads yesterday?
-Video teaser for 'Fallout 3' (fall 2008) Made by the same guys who made Oblivion
-Demo for the new 'Ratchet & Clank' game
-Downloadable purchase ($10) of 'Everyday Shooter'.. Simple controls, OLDskool code-driven graphics, and addictive as heck... and somehow amidst all the action, strangely mellow due to the soundtrack and musical sound effects..
Wednesday, September 5, 2007
New webpage, and more.
Same address, http://www.ozero.ca, just a redesign. Much cleaner if y'ask me. Much simpler on a technical level, too.
Baby news? Not a lot- Just did a little seminar on doing her baptismal.
Playstation 3 news, playing Warhawk. (PSN ID: Ozero)
Writing news... Well, between the two above items, it's going slow right now. I tend to work in spurts for big projects, so I'll be getting a new wind on writing soon I think.. I can feel it coming..
School's started up. Radar came back a day early. Ping will be back a week late, since the first week is useless in her opinion.. sheesh.. in some ways she takes school very seriously.. in some ways.. not so much...
Other news? New tenants downstairs. And a new dog. A non-barker. They don't wanna trade dogs either. Pfft.
Oh, and I got older in the last week. Meh.
Baby news? Not a lot- Just did a little seminar on doing her baptismal.
Playstation 3 news, playing Warhawk. (PSN ID: Ozero)
Writing news... Well, between the two above items, it's going slow right now. I tend to work in spurts for big projects, so I'll be getting a new wind on writing soon I think.. I can feel it coming..
School's started up. Radar came back a day early. Ping will be back a week late, since the first week is useless in her opinion.. sheesh.. in some ways she takes school very seriously.. in some ways.. not so much...
Other news? New tenants downstairs. And a new dog. A non-barker. They don't wanna trade dogs either. Pfft.
Oh, and I got older in the last week. Meh.
Saturday, July 21, 2007
Writing slowdown factors
The revision continues, but two main factors are slowing things down.
1- My baby Caitlin. I really can't begrudge this at all... damned lovable lil thing. Having my
concentration shattered by a fuss-up, and/or having to shut down work for her can be frustrating for a moment, but such feelings are quickly dissolved a moment after I get close to her. Right now her and mommy are camping with her side of the family across the border, so that factor isn't slowing me down right now.
A bit before this trip, my wife Michelle went across the border to go shopping. On the way back, they gave her hassle over the baby. "blah blah percent of kidnappings are by a parent." Geez, fine... but who kidnaps a kid, goes into another country, and then comes back? Alright, I guess our family unit could have been traveling to the states, and Michelle kidnapped Caitlin to go back into Canada.. but whatever..
They kinda treated her like an idiot for not knowing they would have liked a NOTARIZED letter from me saying they had permission. This trip she also brought our nephew. His mum got a notarized letter.. We only did a non-notarized letter, and a "call me if you really need to." I haven't heard form anyone, so I'm assuming things went well... at least on the way down...
2- PS3. (yay!)
A little over a week ago, a couple friends came over for pizza before a movie..
Ryan:"Michelle, you have to get Joe a 60 gig PS3 soon."
Um, I'm gonna sit back and see where this goes....
Michelle: "oh yeah? Why's that?"
Ryan: "The 20 gig's already been discontinued, and the 60's just had a $100 price drop. There's a 80 gig coming that will probably be more expensive, but it's arguably an inferior machine, since it won't have the Emotion Engine chip, which is the way the 20 and 60 play ps2 games- with real ps2 chipsets. The 80 is going to emulate that in software, so the compatibility for ps2 will likely be somewhat less. It's expected the 60 will be discontinues too, once they clear them out."
Michelle digests Ryan's babble for a moment, sitting back in her chair... "Well... I am going to the states tomorrow, and the exchange rate is darn near par right now..."
Blink blink. Did I hear that right? Ryan turns to me and puts his hand up for a high five. "Who's your best friend, man?"
So yeah, the time regained by the family being away has been damaged by my new toy a bit...
Mind you, I tend to be productive in bursts. Call me the machine gun. Controlled bursts.
1- My baby Caitlin. I really can't begrudge this at all... damned lovable lil thing. Having my
concentration shattered by a fuss-up, and/or having to shut down work for her can be frustrating for a moment, but such feelings are quickly dissolved a moment after I get close to her. Right now her and mommy are camping with her side of the family across the border, so that factor isn't slowing me down right now.
A bit before this trip, my wife Michelle went across the border to go shopping. On the way back, they gave her hassle over the baby. "blah blah percent of kidnappings are by a parent." Geez, fine... but who kidnaps a kid, goes into another country, and then comes back? Alright, I guess our family unit could have been traveling to the states, and Michelle kidnapped Caitlin to go back into Canada.. but whatever..
They kinda treated her like an idiot for not knowing they would have liked a NOTARIZED letter from me saying they had permission. This trip she also brought our nephew. His mum got a notarized letter.. We only did a non-notarized letter, and a "call me if you really need to." I haven't heard form anyone, so I'm assuming things went well... at least on the way down...
2- PS3. (yay!)
A little over a week ago, a couple friends came over for pizza before a movie..
Ryan:"Michelle, you have to get Joe a 60 gig PS3 soon."
Um, I'm gonna sit back and see where this goes....
Michelle: "oh yeah? Why's that?"
Ryan: "The 20 gig's already been discontinued, and the 60's just had a $100 price drop. There's a 80 gig coming that will probably be more expensive, but it's arguably an inferior machine, since it won't have the Emotion Engine chip, which is the way the 20 and 60 play ps2 games- with real ps2 chipsets. The 80 is going to emulate that in software, so the compatibility for ps2 will likely be somewhat less. It's expected the 60 will be discontinues too, once they clear them out."
Michelle digests Ryan's babble for a moment, sitting back in her chair... "Well... I am going to the states tomorrow, and the exchange rate is darn near par right now..."
Blink blink. Did I hear that right? Ryan turns to me and puts his hand up for a high five. "Who's your best friend, man?"
So yeah, the time regained by the family being away has been damaged by my new toy a bit...
Mind you, I tend to be productive in bursts. Call me the machine gun. Controlled bursts.
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