Aug 24, 10:00 am
I knew something was fishy when I woke up a few weeks ago. 9am, awake, getting ready for the pool and I notice my games in disarray, I wasn’t even playing games the night before. Not only are my games in disarray but Battlefield BC2 is in my system instead of COD:WAW, which is usually in there. My controller is on the floor, instead of in my gaming chair, the tv is left on, the tv is on the input for the Xbox and what really made me notice this is the fact that I had messages from people about me playing games with them the night before.
One of these messages was, “Good gaming with you! You’re a beast at BF:BC2. Next time talk more! 
”. OK, this is just getting weird. My first thought is that my boyfriend was up and gaming in the living room but I know he was in bed all night. Also, he knows better than to play ANY FPS on my gamertag! 
Good or bad my stats are my stats and I don’t want anyone messing with them.
Next I go to my neighbor to see if they were playing with “Me” on BF:BC2 the night before because that is who I normally play that game with. Apparently they saw “Me” online but they said they sent a few invites and I never came into the room. OK, so it wasn’t my boyfriend, it wasn’t my neighbor, and unless I was sleepwalking it wasn’t me, I am at a loss. This is becoming a case for Detective Fidget!
I start my sleuth work by looking at the components which apparently were used that night. Upon my initial inspection I saw they were left in different areas than my normal habits and with a renewed sense of curiosity I notice a few more things. For one the doors were all locked from the inside of my house so it couldn’t have been a friend coming over and playing. The second thing I notice which I didn’t see at first was a light colored hair on my earpad of my Astro A30’s, everyone in the house has dark colored hair.
Now I am kinda getting freaked out. Did someone, somehow, come in my house in the middle of the night? And if someone did, why in the world would they only play games and leave before we get up? Nothing stolen, nothing else moved, is it a ghost? Lol, j/k. Well, yesterday I woke up early after finding a similar situation of TV on, games in disarray, obvious use of my Xbox and this is what I found!
OK, I was joking, but man that picture is cute! I love my kitties!
Aug 11, 10:00 am
Well, I got had. Maybe not straight up, but definitely had. I know 2 blogs ago I was speaking about the new toy which I got, so I could start streaming live on Justin.tv, The Intensity Shuttle. Now, to this day, I still haven’t used this supposedly spectacular piece of equipment. Just so you know, me not using the Intensity Shuttle is definitely not for lack of trying.
For starters, I paid for the Shuttle and expedited it with 2day shipping. After a week and a half I called the company I was ordering the Shuttle from and apparently my order got “mishandled”; a week later (that’s 2.5 closer to 3 weeks since my original order) I receive the device. I was like a kid at Christmas, waiting at the door, in my pajamas, super excited for the delivery guy and I tore into the package immediately when it arrived.
I first started by connecting everything, from the Xbox came the HDMI to the input, from the output was HDMI to the TV and from the Shuttle directly to the computer by USB. The USB cable which came from the Shuttle was the same as a USB from your PC to a printer, male USB to printer male connection. Xbox, ON, TV, ON, laptop, ON, SYSTEMS GO…… black screen on the tv, Black Screen?.... BLACK SCREEN???!!! OK, I must be doing something wrong here.
So I go to the manufacturer’s website and this is what I see, and I quote, “Intensity Shuttle, the world’s first 10 bit HD/SD editing solution for USB 3.0 Windows computers! Simply plug in Intensity Shuttle and get access to incredible quality 10 bit HDMI, analog component, composite and s-video capture and playback.” Simple enough right? Wrong. After doing some research into what could possibly be my wrong doing, I learn that USB 3.0 is not on my Asus laptop. USB 3.0, the newest version of data transfer, reaches speeds of 5gbps and was newly revealed on January 5th, 2010 at CES.
OK, so this is not the end of the world. I found a USB 3.0 PCI Expresscard adapter which I have to order online because they’re so new they haven’t found their way to any local electronic stores, believe me, I looked. After about a week from the time of my order to the arrival of the card I finally am going to start streaming live! The delivery man drops off the package and I begin to connect it all again, except this time the only difference is that the USB cable is plugged into the USB 3.0 Expresscard adapter. I update the drivers on the Expresscard, restart the computer and away we go, so I thought, BLACK SCREEN.
Now this is just turning into frustration. I call everyone I know that might know how to fix this issue and nobody seems to have any answers for me. After extensive searching online I finally give in and call the manufacturer. The tech I speak to seems very knowledgeable and directs me to a site to update the firmware on the Expresscard and says that this should fix my issue. I was elated to finally have an answer but even after the update, BLACK SCREEN.
I call the manufacturer again and I was a little more adamant this time. “I have been through EVERYTHING and this is supposed to be basically “Plug and Play” and I am having all these issues, what is wrong with your product?”, the tech then replies, sounding confused, “The other tech told you an Expresscard would work? Expresscards don’t work with our product. As a matter of fact we have only tested one laptop that has EVER worked with our product”, my turn,”EXCUSE ME? Are you telling me you sold me a product that says all I need is USB 3.0 and it is “Plug and Play” but you guys have only tested ONE laptop? ONE LAPTOP and that is the only one you can guarantee it will work with?”, the techs low response and monotone voice replies, “Well only one laptop but 2 desktops.” Like this was some resolution for me! I was just amazed that a little more thought wasn’t put into this product’s research and development. To me, testing products compatibility should be top priority.
After a lengthy conversation with the techs I find out that only x58 or P55 chipsets will work with an onboard 3.0 in desktops and that only the 15” HP Envy laptop with an x58 chipset and an i7 processor will work. They even informed me that only the 15” will work because they tested the 17” with the same specs and it didn’t even work. So at this point I either build a new desktop or buy a $1700 laptop, all for this one device. So much for simplicity.
So before everyone got this supposedly fabulous new cap card, I wanted to be sure to warn everyone of this backhanded advertising. Something that seemed so perfect, which I am sure will be amazing in the future, turned out to be the biggest headache of all. If you see me with a new laptop in the near future, you now know why.
Jul 27, 10:00 am
It is not something I wish on any gamer, the Nightmare Scenario.
Before we get into all that, let me give you a little history on this weekend. It all started as a normal week until I find out I am moving and I have 1 week to do so. After months of planning and change of plans and resetting of dates, a couple of guys from my gaming team (Peacekeeper and Mesmerize) were going to come down to visit from Ohio. I find out I am moving to a new place 4 days before they are scheduled to be here.
So I start to make all the calls necessary to convert your livelihood from one residence to another. Call power, call renters insurance, call bank, call front office to complete lease paperwork, call family, call work, email the world, contact the post office, etc. etc. etc. Of course one of the most important phone calls was to make sure internet was on at the new place.
Now this is where I hear the dreaded news, “no tech can come out till TUESDAY”, she says. So I am going to have a house load of gamers from FRIDAY to MONDAY and NO INTERNET!!!! OK, so here’s the scenario, 7 gamers, 1 house, 4 TVs, 5 Xboxes, 1 PS3, 1 Wii, 3 Laptops, multiple copies of many games and NO INTERNET???!!! It’s like, the saying (or Alanis Morisette), goes, like having 10,000 spoons when all you need is a knife. Well this isn’t good, must find other things to do.
So what does a gamer do when not playing video games? Maybe Monopoly, LIFE or Sorry!? I don’t have those board games. Play offline LAN? Yeah, but we are FPS players, we will get bored of pwning each other and want to pwn randoms. Go outside? Severe storms in my area nearly every day this weekend. Play cards? Not really good at it, but we tried. OK, something’s gotta give here, watching movies gets tiresome after a while.
Forget it, I am calling the internet company again and we are getting internet on! Then, we see it, our knight in shining armor, our savior of our weekend, the one that will bring us back to our element, a white van with writing on the side ( and I don’t mean “Free Candy”). It’s a 3rd party contractor for our internet company and I know he has keys for the box that will bring our internet to life!
After being chased down in our parking lot, due to unknowingly driving by a ravenous group of internet deprived gamers, being explained the situation and confirming with his company, we were back in business! The contractor not only connected our internet but also our cable service and made sure everything was working for us! Soon all of us were decimating in COD again and only 1 day was lost to this gamers nightmare scenario.
With every room humming with gunshots, explosions, helicopters and yelling or cursing at the TV, the universe returned to its natural balance. The feng shui of gamer house was all in perfect harmony and alignment with the universe.
Jun 29, 10:00 am
Gaming is only what you make of it and I intend to take advantage of it every chance I get! I love my Xbox, PS3, Wii, DSi, PC etc., and I play them all to a certain extent, but when I sit back and really think about it there is one “system” I play more frequently than all of those combined. Every chance I get whether sitting in my room, on a plane, in a hotel room, cooking, cleaning or whenever, I am always playing some new game on my iPhone. Now I haven’t gotten the chance to get all fancy schmancy with the new iPhone 4 yet but my 16GB 3GS will suffice. I have gotten so hooked on some games I will even catch myself waking up thinking I need to check on them in the middle of the night!
The first game I got 100% hooked on was Tapfish. This is a game where you can buy fish, fish tanks, plants, decorations, backgrounds etc. to make your fish tank original and your very own. One of the most time consuming parts of this game is the fact that you can breed fish too. Now I have approximately 30+ tanks and hundreds of fish but the breeding takes FOREVER! You only get one breeding tank and can buy one more easily but every other breeding tank after that costs $40 (in Tapfish money!) which is very hard to earn unless you are willing to spend real money on it (which I am not).
Each breeder tank can only breed 1 fish at a time and it takes two days! Not only is it frustrating how long it takes but the developers of the game are always adding new fish, ie: The World Cup Fish, and also making new fish breedable, so it will take me even longer to attempt to complete this never ending vicious cycle. This game was just the beginning to my obsession and I fear nowhere near the end . One of the ways to earn cash on this game is to download apps that this game is promoting and that led me to oh so many more games to waste away my time.
The next game I really got hooked on was Zombie Farm. Now this game is pretty much a cool version of Farmville. You get a farm where you can raise crops to make money and zombies to terrorize Old McDonnell, The Lawyers or The Pirates. I played this game A LOT and eventually, due to the lack of additional content, I was able to mastered it! I can now defeat all three places to attack with ease and have a mutated zombie army that is devastating. At first this game is not as easy but eventually you can do everything there is to do at this point. The most frustrating thing about this game is that the farmer seems to take years to harvest and plow and plant, especially when you have a huge farm. After doing everything with this game I needed something else to occupy me so I began to venture out.
With Tapfish becoming monotonous and Zombie Farm basically complete, I have started playing Tap Resort and Tap Store to fulfill my need to play. Tap Resort is basically a game where you run a resort island and you try to appease your tourists by building attractions and luxuries. The nicer your island is and the more stuff to do on the island, the more tourists will come and the more money you will make. Again this is another clever game to draw you in and never truly have an ending.
Tap Store is a game that you get to manage a store, keep the latest trends in stock, keep your inventory replenished and make your customers happy. Yes, this is the most girly game of the bunch but I AM A GIRL! This game keeps me occupied cause I am always waiting for a shipment or I always need to replenish my shelves. Tap Store is also the only game out of these that I can leave for days without touching and everything won’t be dead or destroyed, only sold out.
Now of course there are tons of other games I play and love from Traffic Rush( which I have a record of 719 ) and Air Assault which I have completed several times with NO AIRSTRIKE and NO DEATHS! With a never ending app library and ease of development, all these games can do is get better! What games do you play on your phone?
