Category: Hobbies

Cyling with a GoPro Hero 7 Black

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Testing out the GoPro Hero 7 Black at night.

A few weeks ago, my wife and I bought a GoPro Hero 7 Black. We’d been thinking about making the purchase for about a month and finally decided it’s something we’d enjoy having, and it has been kind of fun being able to record most or at least some of our rides. The battery life leaves something to be desired, but we solved that by just buying more batteries and another charger.

Like driving, cycling in New York City was something I said I would never do. Also like driving, cycling is now a regular part of my daily routine. I’ve found that riding a Citibike is easier as the last leg of my commute than waiting on the L train or taking the bus. It’s also faster, which is kind of sad. Maybe that will change when 14th Street is closed to all but bus traffic at the beginning of next year. Who knows? But we’ve also found using Citibikes to be a faster and more enjoyable way to get around Lower Manhattan when we’re out on the weekends. And it’s exciting, and having a camera on your head to record the rides is also fun, especially if something crazy happens.

My wife has used the camera a few times but every time I’ve wanted to over the last two weeks it has either been raining or I just haven’t had time to bother with it. I finally took it for a spin last night. The video looks great on my phone while watching both the local video and the YouTube upload, after it finished encoding at 1440p. It looks like crap on my laptop, but I don’t think it can display 1440p anyway, which is annoying, but that wasn’t why I bought it, I guess.

It’s a nice new toy. I’m thinking about getting another one so we don’t fight over the one we have. I kind of want a Pixelbook too though, so I have a more portable typing device that I can take with me when I’m out of the apartment. Decisions, decisions.

Here’s another video I took in the Union Square train station. It looks clearer, which makes sense given that there’s more light in the station.

My head wasn’t in the helmet when I recorded this. You’d have to be crazy to lean in that close to a train coming into the station. People get hit by trains every day. Someone died on the platform near where I recorded this a few years ago after they leaned out to check for the train and the train struck their head. That was pretty sad, because it was just a kid.

Elder Scrolls Online Gameplay: Lycanthropy (plus Destiny 2 and Overwatch Gameplay)

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Khajiit Dragonknight in front of unknown statue in Tamriel

So, I spent some time messing around with Elder Scrolls Online tonight. One of my gifts this year was the 2 volume book set of the ESO Lore. Elder Scrolls isn’t the most popular game out there. People joke that one of the hardest bosses in the game is a 1 foot wall because just walking in the game can sometimes be difficult, but I like how rich the lore is in the game, so the books were a great gift. They’re really well done, too. I’ll have to post some pictures later on.

Anyway, about two weeks I found out that you can contract vampirism or lycanthropy in the game. As I was traveling across Tamriel on my way to a castle where I was scheduled to perform a fire breathing and sword swallowing act, I ran into a werewolf shrine. I liked the idea of having lycanthropy, so I found a player whose character has it and that person helped me find someone that could infect my character with it too.

The process was a lot more involved than I expected. It had a mini questline that took me into a portal where I essentially proved my worth to Hircine, who is apparently the god of werewolves, by killing a mammoth with my bare hands and then sharing the carcass with the werewolf pack. Also, you pledge allegiance to the werewolves above all other loyalties in the game. Nifty!

So, now I’m ready to add mauling people as a werewolf to my favorite pastimes of murder, robbery, pickpocketing, and assault. I’m really enjoying the Dark Brotherhood and Thieves Guild questlines!

This is a live stream of me playing Destiny 2. It was not my finest hour. I’m not too familiar with the Mayhem Crucible yet, and I was trying different subclasses to see what works, but Titan overall seems to suck for it. Warlocks have what appear to be heat-seeking ultimate abilities that are just ridiculous for that type of round.

And this is a little livestreamed footage from me playing OverWatch. OverWatch doesn’t seem to play nice with Nvidia’s screen recording software and kept hanging.

SMISKI Collectibles – Series 4 Box

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There is a Kinokuniya bookstore across the river in Edgewater, NJ. We stumbled onto it while we were looking for the Trader Joe’s that’s a few minutes up the road. Kinokuniya is a Japanese bookstore. The first time I visited one was with my wife in Singapore. They have a large selection of Japanese and English language books, magazines, and manga.

The Kinokuniya in Edgewater also has a stationary consignment shop inside that is pretty nice. The shop is located in the same shopping center as Mitsuwa Shopping Center, a Japanese grocery store with a food court. Mitsuwa is pretty cool, too. I like walking down the aisles and looking at the products. They also carry items that we already enjoy like Ito Ten roasted rice green tea and Yakult, a probiotic drink.

SMISKI Series 4 Box
SMISKI Series 4 Box

Anyway, Kinokuniya is set up so that when you walk in, you’re in a section with a bunch of cute knickknacks and collectibles. One of those collectibles is called Smiski – Opens Japanese language website. It’s basically a blind-box item, where you open a box and get a random version of the collectible.

When I saw them, I was reminded of these forest spirit things from an animated movie called Princess Mononoke.

After a few visits, I decided that I wanted to buy one and open it. I don’t know why, but I like the idea of having them on my bookcases, or in random places in the apartment. It would be fun.

SMISKI Series 4 Collectible
SMISKI Series 4 Collectible

I picked a series 4 box. I was hoping to get the guy laying down with a smaller Smiski sitting on his head, but I got this guy that’s climbing up the edge of my books, which is also fun.

SMISKI Series 4 Collectible Sitting on my Books
SMISKI Series 4 Collectible Sitting on my Books

They’re supposed to glow in the dark, but I haven’t noticed that happening with mine. I don’t think it’s defective, though. The spot it’s sitting in doesn’t get much natural light.

I’m looking forward to picking up more of these. Maybe once a month?

Destiny 2 Gameplay & Criticisms – Public Events on Nessus and Crucible

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Titan class character in Iron Banner gear standing by the railing at The Tower with the Last City in the background.

Destiny 2, despite its obvious flaws and drawbacks, is a pretty fun game. I mean, I can’t understand how Bungie released a second Destiny game that doesn’t have an area, zone, or Clan chat channel. They claim they want you to make friends in the game that you can play with, but how can you do that when you can’t engage people in conversation?

I’m also not happy that they still haven’t implemented an in-game party finder system for end-game content.  Why should I have to use another site or even another device to try to get that done? It should be baked into the game.

2017-11-22 - Match End Stats - Destiny 2. Awesome 13.5 Efficiency Rating! =D
2017-11-22 – Match End Stats – Destiny 2. Awesome 13.5 Efficiency Rating! =D

Still, the PvP can be fun when you get a group that has good chemistry (for your team at least, probably not for the other guys). I think the PvP is what I like most about Destiny 2. It’s what I liked most about Destiny 1 as well. It’s what will keep me coming back to play more than anything.

I’d like to see more open world activities with coherent lore. I’d like to see more opportunities to interact with other characters. I’d like to see a crafting system. But then, maybe I’m asking for Destiny 2 to become something it wasn’t intended to be? I could really go for a sci-fi MMO. I never played Star Wars Online and I heard that some update or expansion made it trashy so I never will.

Overwatch Halloween Skins

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The Return of Junkenstein black and white title screen.

So, I just fired Overwatch up for the first time in a few days and noticed this video in the launcher:

Man, I hope it isn’t as hard to pick up these skins as it has been for previous events! They look awesome, especially Zen’s Cthulu look.

Zen's 2017 Halloween skin
Zen’s 2017 Halloween skin.

Reaper's and McCree's 2017 Halloween skins. I'm not too fond of Reaper's. The head makes me think of a dick for some reason.
Reaper’s and McCree’s 2017 Halloween skins. I’m not too fond of Reaper’s. The head makes me think of a dick for some reason.

Torbjorn's and Ana's 2017 Halloween skins. I'm digging the hippy look. Torb's costume is plain boring.
Torbjorn’s and Ana’s 2017 Halloween skins. I’m digging the hippy look. Torb’s costume is plain boring.

Mei's 2017 Halloween skin. Cute, but I'm not sure what it's supposed to be.
Mei’s 2017 Halloween skin. Cute, but I’m not sure what it’s supposed to be.

Symmetra's 2017 Halloween skin. Spooky!
Symmetra’s 2017 Halloween skin. Spooky!

And of course there's the Halloween brawl mode!
And of course there’s the Halloween brawl mode!

I’ll definitely be sinking some time into acquiring these. It’s nice to see more variety for character appearances. I wonder how many years it’s going to be before Overwatch has as much customization as Team Fortress 2? Or if it will ever be quite the same.

I wouldn’t mind seeing unique weapons in Overwatch that have kill counters on them. That was fun. But, you can’t inspect another character here so I’m not sure how useful a feature it would be.

The New Overwatch Map Should Be Fun. I Hope!

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Overwatch logo on black textured background with flying sparks

Junkrat is one of my favorite characters in one of my favorite games.

The loot system in Overwatch makes me want to scream sometimes (like getting quad dupes on anniversary event boxes), but I love the time Blizzard put into the characters’ backstories, like this one for Mei:

I also like Overwatch because I can jump into it, enjoy it, and then turn it off without feeling like I’ve disrupted other people’s gameplay, which is harder to do in an MMO with queued dungeons. Plus, it’s just addictive in its own right.

My previous shooter addiction was Team Fortress 2. Overwatch is pretty similar to it. A lot of the original OW characters were built in familiar ways without being complete duplicates. Even so, Overwatch is like an updated, modern version of TF2 that I really enjoy. I used to play the Demoman a lot in TF2, so I guess it makes sense that I love playing Junkrat. I also really enjoy Soldier 76, especially with his new summer outfit and voice lines.

More official Overwatch media (videos, comics, and images).

This is my favorite AC-130 Spectre Gunship video

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I spent 8 years in the Army. If I’d known better, I’d have joined the Air Force, like my dad did. And if I had joined the Air Force, being on an AC-130 gunship crew wouldn’t have been a bad gig. I wanted to do something meaningful, but I wound up spending most of my time loading and unloading trucks with a forklift or counting inventory. It wasn’t exactly fulfilling.

I was lured into the job by the promise that I would be working with computers. I enlisted back in 1998. Computers were still a new and amazing thing in my life, and probably most people’s lives, if they could even afford a computer and internet service. Windows 95 and America Online chat rooms were still sources of wonder and amazement.

Once I was enlisted and working in that field, I was unable to negotiate to move into a more interesting job when it came time for my reenlistment. Once you’re in an MOS (Military Occupational Specialty), you’re pretty much stuck, unless you want to move into a job with a low retention rate, like basic infantry. I’d like to think that if I had the Internet as it is today as a resource, with blogs and extensive forums, I would have made better choices.

These videos are pretty graphic. Please keep that in mind before watching.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i_xIhIRkv1w

The following video (when autoplay is enabled) is pretty interesting too:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lSOG9GHVV0c

“Origins” January 2017 Loot Crate

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The Original Since 1981 Jumpman / Mario t-shirt

I subscribed to the Loot Crate service back when it started out. It was a fun diversion once a month. I wound up canceling the service after a few months though because I just stopped being impressed with the value of what I was getting for my money.I decided to give the service another shot around Halloween last year and it looks like they’ve really improved on the items they put in their boxes.

I decided to give the service another shot around Halloween last year and it looks like they’ve really improved on the items they put in their boxes. A lot of it is still stuff that I’m going to wind up either throwing or giving away, like the Pop! figures, but the books and t-shirts usually make up for that. The January 2017 box is an exception. I like everything that came out of it:

January 2017 Loot Crate Contents

  • Action Comics #1 (1938) reprint
  • Ninja Turtles Raphael tiki mug
  • Captain America “The First Avenger” shield replica
  • “Jumpman” / Mario t-shirt (design in featured image above)

Raphael Ninja Turtles tikki mug and Captain America First Avenger Shield Replica

The boxes are still fairly hit-or-miss, but I guess that’s part of the thrill of opening one up. It’s like gambling or playing the lottery. Sometimes you get a jackpot and other times you wind up with Pop! figures on your shelf and no idea what to do with them. Loot Crate has other, theme specific, crates now that I’m probably going to look into. Maybe they’d fit my interests better, but this box was definitely a winner.

 

Trick Jumps in Grand Theft Auto V

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The Fleeca Job: Complete - After-heist party screenshot

I meant to spend most of my break between semesters catching up on reading like I did last year, but we’re about a week out from the first day of class and I’ve only read through some volumes of the comic book series Grimm Fairy Tales. It’s not bad, but it’s also not the intellectually stimulating experience I want from a book. I picked them up as digital comics a few years ago and never got around to reading them. Maybe they were part of a Humble Bundle, I don’t know. It’s hard to resist the book Humble Bundles.

I’m reading through some more interesting stuff, like Karen Armstrong’s book on Paul the Apostle, St. Paul: The Apostle We Love to Hate, The End of Eternity by Isaac Asimov, and The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up: The Japanese Art of Decluttering and Organizing by Marie Kondo. I’m also playing Grand Theft Auto V pretty heavily. I picked it up on Steam’s winter sale a few weeks ago. I really enjoyed Grand Theft Auto: Vice City, so I wanted to give this one a shot.

The story mode is good, but I enjoy the online play more, even though it leaves a lot to be desired in terms of load times. I also wish it had more of the story mode content, like items you can find and collect. One thing that did carry over is the trick jumps. Some of them are a headache to get right, mostly because you have to use the right vehicle and avoid killing yourself while pulling off the jumps, or you have to land in just the right spot to get credit for the jump. It’s fun, though. One of the more interesting ones to do are the jumps at the airport traffic circle off the billboards. I made the video below of the jumps, but I feel like I could probably pull off two backflips on the motorcycle before landing. I’m going to give it a shot.