Raw Consciousness

VIDEO GAMES - New Ratchet & Clank 3 stuff....

It's at GameSpot...

More goodness. I'll say it up front, some of those shots are already outdated.. they are showing the older interface look... but it's still goodness.

MY HEALTH- new category and it all starts tonight

I have decided to create a new category to start keeping track of my health and cheer me up / press myself more to keep on track with it.

So my entries will hopefully be at least once weekly, posting my current weight, body fat and if I behaved "good" or "bad" regarding food, say on a scale 1 to 10.

So here we go:

269 pounds, 37% body fat, food: 6

For reference: last Xmas I was about 243 pounds

I have been able to hit 240 two years ago but didn't go lower than that

I have not been 230 since what is probably five years now.

I have not been 215 since what is now about hmmm 8 years

So the whole thing starts today and now. I will even post pictures.

MY LIFE - two new gadgets...

Last week I bought two things at Fry's:

#1. A new weight scale capable of calculating body fat %, Taylor brand
#2. Avermedia's new USB 2.0 Ultra TV 300... it's a TV/PVR device with mpeg1/ mpeg 2 capture with high quality compressions.

I am simply *AMAZED* at the Avermedia capture card.. I have owned about 4 different sorts TV type capture thingies while I switched a while back from the Amiga (long live the Amiga), to the PC and I swear *ALL OF THEM* pretty much have given me troubles.

Well well what a nice surprise, Avermedia doesn't require an external power suply, it's DAMN SMALL (I am talking almost as small as an ultra compact digital camera or about the same) *AND IT WORKS*. Yes it works and works great. I am simpy stunned. I suspected Avermedia would get it right because a PCI card for TV/TVPVRing I bought my ex as a gift worked remarkably well.

Now at work I get to see the output of the PS2 devkit on my LCD laptop :-) Yay. You can even view it as a desktop.

--- on to Taylor's scale. GOD AVOID THIS CRAP. I guess not reading reviews on the net was the price I payed, and now I have to go through the return-refund hassle. God it sucks

So I went int at Fry's today without it (forgot it) to buy some tools to make sure I can assemble the new shiny Bowflex this weekend, and I decided to buy the HealthOmeter by Sunbeam, which also measures body fat.

MY GOD WHAT A DIFFERENCE. Everytime I used the Taylor I had to wait 10-20 seconds for a reading, Sunbeam's Health O Meter is a couple of seconds.. and the reading is consistent. The Taylor varied like +/- 10 pounds.

So if you want a nice electronic weight/body fat % scale, go HealthO meter by Sunbeam.

More later.. time to eat and start assembling that Bowflex... yay , it's here.

MY LIFE - Bowflex delivered!

Two weeks exact pretty much.. wow that was *fast*.

Well I haven't picked it up and hopefully UPS left it in my garage as I requested.... hope nobody steals it :-)

MY LIFE - hallucinating a bit...

When you crunch a lot and lack sleep, you do start to hallucinate a bit. As I was driving out of work this morning, I saw some blurs I thought were peopel, only to quickly morph in a newspaper dispensing machine, or a mail box.. hmmmm

MY LIFE - gifted?

I have been wondering for a while about a couple of things about myself and I have come to some conclusions about some of the apparent talents I currently have...

#1. I can be incredibly perceptive - now, there are times where I just don't have a clue but I think many of those times are more cultural bound or particular-experience bound. On the other hand I have noticed I have a keen eye for visual detail (it actually contributed to getting hired where I got currently hired). In fact in the last two years (particularly in the last year) non-verbal communication has been something I have become even more aware of.

I remember reading some psychologist saying that "it takes 10 years..." or such to get there if you are looking at intuitively picking up that level of perception.. well I must be at the end of my ten years because now sometimes I get *too much* It's like faces and body language draw figures and lines with recognizable patterns.

The big caveat: not all people frowns, smiles, smirks mean the same, even when they look the same.. so I have to constantly remind myself that until I know the person more, all I can detect is a "change of state" more than a particular way someone is feeling like.... now that I think about it, in the past, I have been severely misled by this....

This perception translates for me into being able to see a game and decompose it in its constituent parts / aspects/perspectives.... Graphics, programming, sound, even design.. are all compartamentalized and I can evaluate each individually.

#2. I have an incredible imagination - I think this is what many people have called "you are weird." I remember when I interned at IBM... about 12 times I got called that in jest...

The big caveat: if I am turning towards depression, my creativity does not discriminate in the least in serving the "good side of me" or "the bad side of me." It will supply with no limits in quantity or quality, the images the so called self-critic seeks. It will paint them, either way -good or bad.

This has been far more under control lately (lately = last 6 months).

#3. If I am calmed, listening, I can be *TOO* empathic.

This kind of goes with #1, and sometimes, I will have to say, it just hurts. It's almost like I intuitively am willing to sacrifice myself (see that "I am Schindler's list" entry I made recently) for the needs of the others. This has changed somewhat but not much. I have become more aware of it though, and sometimes that makes it hurt more when it's not a situation I can do anything in.

Well, I leave you with a photo I took today inside my car while waiting in the Wendy's drive-thru... man Fuji digital cameras really have a strong color response... and in this case the depth of field made some of the cars look "candy-like":

Video Games - Silent Hill 3 soundtrack

I can't believe I still have not played Silent Hill 3 (I played about 4 hours a while back, had temporarily lost my memory card and had to turn the ps2 off).

The game does come with its own soundtrack (thanks Konami!). Oh wow. Good very good. And has some random "super freaky quotes" from Claudia (the super crazy religious cult-biatch fanatic in the game).

"The world is teeming with unnecesary people... it's God's decision that I fight. As a knight of honor, as a protector of the seal, I sacrifice myself, to the blood of criminals..."

Freaky eh?

The music is like "Silent Hill" but more soft-rock oriented. I like it quite a bit. Particularly when crunching in the wee hours of the morning.... alone.. in the dark....

MY LIFE - Viva pure capitalism- or not

Did you know the WalStreet Journal recently published an article where some analsysts slammed Costco for BEING TOO NICE to its employess and customers?

Unfortunately the WSJ requires a fee to see this, but here's a link to some sort of blog that talks about this:

http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/32038

Isn't this simply retarded? Costco slammed for doing the right thing. I am renewing my membership now.

MY LIFE - Money, exercise & a $274 mistake

Well well well, so let's hear a report on how much use has Raisty given his new gymn membership.

< ... >

That's right. Raist has gone a whopping total of *2* times in a month to his new gymn, and those two times included those "special trainer sessions."

So, I canceled it. Better a $274 mistake than a monthly $40 one. I am done with it.

So... I decided to go ahead and get that machine which has been faitfull to me for the most part- a Bowflex. Problem is there are three models going from expensive to *really expensive*:

* BowFlex Pro - the machine I used to have in Chicago at one point (all the way from PR). It served me well. It constitutes one of the two times I worked out very consistently. Part of the muscles I have that are hidden by the fat layers, like Venus with its clouds hides its terrain are thanks to this machine.

Only caveat: the sliding row seat rollers - I could get them wasted at a rate of once every three months. Yes I rowed 5 days a week. For 30 minutes or 40. Consistently. But when you pay $1k YOU BETTER have something that works. Other than that I was very satisfied with the machine.

* Bowflex extreme - new model. Basically no cardio/rowing but more "vertical gymn style" approach to exercising. I could not get a definitive answer if this in the end is better than the Pro for muscle building, but apparently that is so. But again, no cardio. Pros: no rollers to waste.

* Bowflex ultimate - like the Bowflex pro, but according to them (of course!) and reviwers on the net, far better built, more attachments/stuff, the "flagship" of the company. Oh and really expensive.

So at Costco they have the BowFlex Pro with all attachments + exercise ball and mat, one 50 pound rod upgrade for $1200. NOT BAD. (it's Bowflex kids, so it's expensive to begin with).

But I wanted to know if there was a difference between this and the Extreme.. so I called Bowflex.. the first lady was not super helpful. "Oh we are working on a new seat/design that will be better."

On a whim I decide to call again. This time the lady on the phone seemed more helpful and forthcoming "yes the Bowflex pro is kinda nice but we are discontinuing in 3 weeks, which is why we are selling it at Costco" Being a Costco customer, I know very well that Costco has a habit of selling "about to dissapear" stuff or "the 2nd to the high end model" stuff in many things... so .. then

"I defintively recommend the Ultimate. The rowing seat has been redesigned and it's a whole sliding mechanism blah blah" Well that's what I needed to hear... or perhaps, what I *wanted* to hear..and... umm. either it's true, or I just made even a more expensive mistake because I ordered one.

Yup. I ordered one. Not just the Ultimate lower entry model but the top one with all bells and whistles, mutimedia extensions, ISO compliance, Kids-FRIENDLY(TM) with the Fuji FinePix digital photography cradle bay attachment (for taking pictures of yourself sculpting your newly hot body while working out), and the built in computer driven voice synthesized Fitness NOW(TM), visualition AI guru.

So we'll see. If that friking rowing seat is not fixed, I am returning it asap and BILLING THEM while I am at it.

Oh how much was the whole thing? Well I got a $300 rebate offer (another reason I considered it). I know I know "rebate offer." but still kinda works :-) Well go to their website. I am not telling.

www.bowflex.com

Film - Hell Boy

Well, as a company even today, we got a free pass, free popcorn and free soda. Very nice of Insomniac's HR to get this to us... except I have this.. umm thing called a schedule and.. blah anyway.

So must people here thought the movie was lame. I think it was allright, perhaps becuase I was more impressed with the visual (not effects per se) composition, framing, camera shots... for me the movie was kind of "artsy"- something I usually don't find in this kind of movie. So I found the movie more appealing to me than the average person here.

Anyway, if you watch it, I'll love to hear what you think.