Camera Stuff:
– Best Buy – Canon EF 50mm f1.8 II Lens
– MemorySuppliers.com – Sandisk 8GB Extreme IV Compact Flash Memory Card
– MostlyDigital.ca – Canon LP-E6 Battery Pack

Blu-Ray Movies:
– Best Buy – Star Trek (Special Edition)
– Best Buy – Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen (2 Disc Special Edition)

Games:
(Playstation2)
– Square-Enix.com – Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories

(Nintendo DS)
– Best Buy – Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
– HMV – Castlevania: Order of Ecclesia
– Amazon.ca – Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin
– Amazon.ca – Castlevania: Dawn of Sorrow

(Playstation3)
– Best Buy – Assassin’s Creed
– Best Buy – inFamous
– Best Buy – Prototype
– Best Buy – Uncharted: Drake?s Fortune

CDs:
– Amazon.ca – Paul Gilbert: Alligator Farm
– Amazon.ca – Paul Gilbert: Flying Dog
– Amazon.ca – An Evening with John Petrucci and Jordan Rudess
– Machinae Supremacy Website – Machinae Supremacy: Redeemer
– Machinae Supremacy Website – Machinae Supremacy: Deus Ex Machinae
– HMV – Any of Devin Townsend’s albums

Books:
– Chapters/Indigo – Terry Goodkind: The Law of Nines

New Guitar:
– Ebay – Douglas SR-370

This afternoon I sat down. That in itself should be thrilling beyond comprehension to you. I’m hoping that that, combined with the mere fact that I’m updating you with something that isn’t a quick Youtube video that I found at work, shan’t mean that your cerebral cortex will need any scraping. Now, it you’ll let me continue my story; As I was sitting, I was watching Final Fantasy Advent Children Complete. Complete you ask? COMPLETE I respond. Advent Children was a… watchable sequel to the Final Fantasy VII video game. It was… difficult to follow. Even having played the game… I didn’t really “get it”. It was fun though because it contained characters that I liked, and had some nice visual effects. I watched the fan translated pirated version when it was still only in Japanese, I bought the DVD and watched it more than once, and when the Blu-Ray version came out… I said gawl-dernit… I’m getting rid of this and getting the shiny new thing that has a new cartoon with it.

I am glad that I did.

The short, by itself was reason enough for me to check out the new release. The artwork is great, and it was interesting to learn some more about this character that I was supposed to just take for granted as being important. The original release of the film sure didn’t motivate me to give a rat’s ass about Denzel. The short was nice though. I definitely give it my sigil of awesomeness. Which is to say, see it if you get a chance. It won’t make your eyes bleed, and you may just enjoy it. As usual, be aware that Blu-Ray releases suck big time on SD televisions. I’ll actually have to correct myself here. If you try to read the subtitles on a SD tv… it will make your eyes bleed.

Now, as for the feature film itself? They made it enjoyable. All The vast majority of plot holes that were present in the first film have now been filled in. There are additional scenes, different dialog tracks, and scenes that have been replaced with better versions. I actually feel bad having watched this. I feel bad because this is the version that everyone should see. People that saw the original release are right to complain about it. It shouldn’t have been released in the state that it was in. I wish that this could have been the original release because it drew me in, made me care about the characters, and actually had me make exclamations out loud. For those who have not watched this film, I heavily recommend that this is the version you see. For those of you who have seen the original release… I implore thee to see this version too!

And just for the heck of it… here’s a bit of fan art I did back in 2006. Enjoy!

What’s the first thing that a gamer realizes upon investing in a brand new HDTV and sitting down to enjoy some old school video games? That HDTV’s suck for playing old school video games. Well, that’s not completely fair. It’s not that the HDTV sucks… it’s that it’s too good. I recently bought a Samsung PN42B450. It’s a great tv, and I’m pleased with how it works with my PS3. It handles widescreen sources great. What I’m not pleased with: all new widescreen tv’s have grey pillar boxing. What is pillar boxing you ask? Well, these tv’s are widescreen. When a fullscreen source is supplied to the tv, the tv places bars on the sides of the image to fill up the screen without distorting the image. The problem with this, is that this static image on either side of your screen causes uneven burn in on the set. Over years, the tv will result in these box shapes to be faintly present when watching anything. TV manufacturers have thus decided that grey is better for your tv than black. Unfortunately, it is hideous on the eyes. Be aware that if you ware watching full screen tv, or a vcr, or an old school gaming system on a new tv, you can expect these pillar boxes. The reality, is that this burn in shouldn’t be much of an issue as long as the majority of your use is not 4:3. It would be nice if the manufacturers at least gave the option of black in the tv’s preferences. I’ve heard of some people out there that have attached curtains to their tv to cover up the hideous grey when watching tv at night.

Problema número deux: Resolution. The NES resolution is 256×224. That’s a pretty significant difference when upscaling to 720p. It means that the image ends up looking blurry, and can sometimes introduce buzzing little artifacts that make it difficult to look at. SNES and Sega Genesis also have this same resolution. Look forward to blurry, pillar boxed images on your old consoles on a new tv. Well… like most nerds, I could not simply accept this. While some gamers have gone so far as to modify their original systems to have better output. Others have modded their original consoles into modern computers with emulation abilities. I decided against either of these methods due to the time and money that would be involved. Though I *do* wish I had a NESPC.

And so I decided I would go to somewhat of a similar route. There’s been a fair bit of progress with miniature computers recently, and it would be about the same price and less time to simply pick up a pre-built mini computer specifically designed to sit near my tv. The system would be quiet, energy efficient, and while not be very powerful would at let me emulate old games at better resolution and without the grey pillar boxes. There’s a few of these that seemed like decent options such as the eeebox and the RevoAspire. But then it struck me. The new PS3 just came out. Sony eliminated the option to put linux on the PS3Slim. I have a fat PS3. Why pay $400 for a dedicated emulation gaming pc when I could take advantage of linux on the PS3?

And so, I’ve now got Yellow Dog Linux 6.1 running on my PS3 with various NES/SNES games running at a proper resolution and without the grey pillarboxes. The set-up could be far easier. People who make Linux distributions are masochists. But it does what I want it to do.

It’s not unusual for me to to do retro-active posts, however it is unusual for me to start a post, save it, and then completely forget to go back to it. On August 14th, I went to see the Progressive Nation tour at the Molson Amphitheatre in Toronto. This concert ended up being more of an after thought for me really (for what it’s worth I also bought the tickets before writing this blog post). I was originally planning on seeing Chickenfoot on the 4th, but when I went to buy tickets, I saw that PizzaPizza and Ticketmaster were running a promotion for dirt cheap tickets to various concerts. The Progressive Nation tour was one of them! How could I turn down $20 tickets for a 5 hour concert? So one concert ended up becoming two concerts. Actually, my mom ended up visiting in that same time period, and so we went to see the Moody Blues. So two concerts ended up becoming three concerts.

So Chickenfoot first… well… this was kind of an unfortunate series of events. I was going to see them with Jeff Wagner from SESI but, for reasons that I cannot seem to find, the date ended up being bumped from the 4th to the 5th. We never really gave much thought to this as we had plenty of warning, however as the date approached we realized that Jeff was flying to New Orleans for Siggraph on the 5th! As much as I wanted to see Chickenfoot, it just seemed like the tickets were pricey enough that it wasn’t worth going on my own. I had just moved into a new apartment, and had lots of stuff to keep spending money on, so I refunded the tickets. I ended up using my portion of the money, as well as a wedding gift certificate from Tristan on a new tv stand (to go with our new tv). So I may have missed out on this concert, but I did end up with some furniture that needed to be purchased without having to take any extra money out of my bank account.

Well… the Moody Blues certainly didn’t earn their name by being exciting on stage. I saw them on the 12th at the Molson Amphitheatre… and it was kind of a bittersweet experience. The Moody Blues are excellent musicians, who are spot on when they play. Justin can really belt out the lyrics, and if you close your eyes you can really get into the music. Based on what I’ve watched on Youtube, and my dad’s dvd collection, the band has never had much stage presence, and this concert was no different. If you’re a fan of their music, and have never been to a concert then by all means: go see them! If you’ve been to concerts before though, keep in mind that they have little stage presence. No opening band, and they take an intermission partway through. The audience is a different breed as well. While I didn’t get much enjoyment out of the concert, it was interesting to see the crowd of 50 somethings getting into it by mildly patting their knees in time to the music and starting up conversations with the strangers next to them.

I’ve seen Dream Theater twice already in the past, and so I was content to just get the cheapest tickets despite the fact that they were in the back of the Amphitheatre. It ended up being a a very hot day, and the event started at 6pm… I don’t get off work until 6:30 and work in the opposite end of town but tried to leave a bit early for the concert. When I arrived at the Amphitheatre, I decided that what with the heat and all, I may as well get myself an ice cream from the Baskin Robbins that is at Ontario Place. Frustratingly, security would not let me take the cone with me to the venue so I was even later arriving to the concert as I stood outside the gates eating my dessert. Unfortunately I ended up sitting down just as the opening band was finishing. It was still pretty early, and so I figured that I had just caught the end of the first band, but at least I would be able to see the other three. Dream Theater is the only band of the four that I was actually familiar with, so when the next band began, I had no idea who it was I was listening to. I was stunned at how good the guitar work was, but certainly felt that the rest of the band was a little lack-luster. I remember commenting to Andrea that “This band could get a lot more popular if they found a better singer.” I didn’t realize at the time that this was Zappa Plays Zappa that I was listening to.

Dream Theater’s set began, and the music was good. The audience began singing… but well… there was a distinct cheap feeling to the seats that we were in (see the top of the two images to the left). The people around me were… well, slobs would be a flattering description. One guy in front of me was drunk out of his trees and was kicked out after throwing his beer bottle about 15 feet into the air. Music was good… couldn’t really see the band, audience around me was a bit lack lustre… but hey… what do you expect for the cheapest tickets? Guess I’ve learned my lesson… definitely no tickets cheaper than mid-range for me in the future. But wait! There’s more! About halfway through Dream Theater’s set, these two guys approached Andrea and I. “Hey” they say, “we’ve got to take off early. Here, have our tickets. They’re way better; enjoy the rest of the concert.” We were instantly upgraded from being at the back to the amphitheatre, to being at the front of the amphitheatre. The only time I’ve been closer to the stage is at the Opera House for Symphony X, where there are no seats. Let’s just say that not only was the visual show better now that we could see the band, but the audience was COMPLETELY different. They were so much more into it. Except of course for the guy who was passed out drunk next to me. I’m assuming he was a Zappa fan.

Furqan is, without a doubt, one of the friendliest, nicest acting guys I’ve ever met. He’s also gone missing. The Toronto Police Service is requesting the public’s assistance with an abduction investigation.

Constable Tony Vella, Public Information, for Detective Karen Hunte, 41 Division

UPDATE:
Toronto Police say they have found 22-year-old Furqan Muhammad-Haroon. The man was reported to have been abducted on saturday. Tonight, police say he has been charged with public mischief. He is scheduled to appear in court tomorrow. Muhammad-Haroon was located in St.Catherines.

Police initially said three men, one carrying a gun, had reportedly forced his vehicle off the road and abducted him. However, after reconstructing the events leading up to Muhammad-Haroon’s disappearance, investigators now believe “there is no information to indicate an abduction took place,” Const. Wendy Drummond said this morning.

Muhammad-Haroon was recently fired from his summer job with IBM. On Aug. 13, the University of Toronto student was charged with theft under $5,000.

“Computer-related equipment” was reported stolen from an IBM lab three days earlier, said Const. Marina Orlovski, a spokeswoman with the York Region police service. Muhammad-Haroon was arrested after investigators spoke with the manager and reviewed security footage, she said.

He is scheduled to appear in Newmarket court on Sept. 15.

The charge raises numerous questions for detectives. For one, the day Muhammad-Haroon went missing, he was planning to leave the country to visit family living abroad. But, typically an individual facing criminal charges is not allowed to leave the province.

Update 2:
Furqan was released on $20,000 bail for public mischief charges. He is also facing more charges in relation to theft at Side Effects Software. Coincidentally… some of the equipment stolen from SESI happened to be some of my personal computing equipment that I had brought to work…