New Video on YouTube

Because I'm in a Star Trek mood, I posted a YouTube video review of one of my Star Trek action figures, Captain Kirk. Enjoy!

STO For Life!

As this blog describes, I'm pretty much casual when it comes to my hobbies and interests, but I did something "hardcore" when it comes to gaming. A couple of weeks ago while playing around in the Star Trek Online beta, Cryptic Studios offered all of the pre-order players a lifetime subscription plan when STO releases this coming Tuesday. Yeah, I signed up for it. I did think it through before doing it (over the course of a weekend), but in the end, I thought it was worthwhile.

It cost me $240 for me to be able to play STO for as much and for as long I want without having to pay a $15 monthly subscription fee, but I figured, A) The game is fun, B) I'm a Star Trek fan and love a MMO set in that universe, and C) this is a game I believe I would be playing for at least the 16 months it costs me for paying the lifetime subscription.

I guess I'm just hoping the game doesn't go belly up before my "investment" pays off. But with the Star Trek name behind it, I don't think I'll have anything to worry about. See ya on Risa!

My First YouTube Video

I recently got back into action figure collecting, and while doing some researching on YouTube, I noticed quite a few users posting very nice videos of their collections. This seems like a neat thing to do, so I decided to do the same. Take a look at my first YouTube video, DC Universe Classics' The Question action figure:

I'd like to do more, and I'll leave a message here as I post them!

A New Location

Welcome to my new location at Blogger! For some reason Blogger would not allow me change my email address to match my Google account, so I had no choice but to export my stuff at my old blog location to here. So, welcome to my new "home", and don't rough up the carpet too much while I update all my forum sigs!

New Sade Album Coming Soon

I just read that the sultry Sade will be releasing a new album, Soldier Of Love, this coming February 8th. Can you believe it's been 10 years since her last release? Looking at her past albums, the gap of time between each release increases with each new album! I'm looking forward to her new album, and hope she won't wait more than ten years to release another one!

Make It So

I was able to try out the Star Trek Online open beta for several hours earlier today. Contrary to what some have been saying about a 10 gig patch, I only received a 177 meg patch, which was a sigh of relief. I did not want to spend another day downloading.

Cryptic has the game level capped, creating an artificial load by containing everyone in one place. Of course, I lost server connections and was kicked out several times, but that's something to expect in betas. There was an abundance of rubberbanding as well. Other than the problems due to overcrowding, I did not encounter any game crashing bugs.

Of the parts that was playable, I enjoyed. The Star Trek atmosphere is there, but so is the standard MMORPG mechanics as well. I created an Andorian who specializes in engineering. There were many places where I was completely on my own trying to figure things out, such as skill allocation and sector space navigation. I like the Bridge Officers concept, where you obtain and develop your crew. I have only one officer so far, a Bajoran Tactical officer.

It's only been my first day, but I think I'll enjoy playing this when it releases in February.

Still Downloading...

Star Trek Online's open beta started yesterday, and I am one of the many beta testers who's still trying to download the client software. I first attempted my download Monday night via FilePlanet, but after after an overnight download session, I was only able to transfer less than 10%! At that rate, the beta would be over before I would be able to even start. Not acceptable!

I've never used torrents before, but with the ridiculous download rates from the other hosting services, I went ahead and gave the torrent a try. So far, I've been able to get a transfer rate between 5 - 500 KB/sec. It's still downloading, but is almost complete. After the download is complete, I plan to keep my copy of the file available for "seeding" to the other torrent users to help them out as well.

I've read online that after the client download, there's a 10 gig patch process! I hope that goes much faster than the client...

The Island Will Not Let You, Mr. President....

OK, earlier I heard some distressing news that President Obama was planning to schedule his State Of The Union address on February 2nd, the same day as the premiere episode of Lost's final season. What The Chuck?!? Aren't those addresses usually planned for the last week of January?

Don't worry, fellow Lost fans. The Prez's press secretary assured us that Obama's address won't impact the show. Of course, no date for the address hasn't been revealed yet, so I won't be at ease until I hear of one.

Don't deprive us of our Lost, Mr. President. The Island demands it.

Who's The Marketing Guy For Hollywood Video?

I just finished my lunch and was returning back to work when I noticed the following advertising sign posted on a Hollywood Video window:





I know that Netflix has become more popular recently and is biting into the retail video rental business, but c'mon, Hollywood Video! Giving away children to attract more business?!? That's a new low.... ;)

A New Year, A New Decade

It may already be six days into 2010, but I still want to wish everyone a prosperous new year and decade. I'm glad to be into 2010, as the tail end of the "Naughts" haven't been kind to me personally, and it'll be refreshing to look ahead with a brighter sense of perspective and feeling.