Tony Hawk, Missing Windows, and New Galaxy

I am just about tired of Tony Hawk now… still love it, but I’ve mostly gotten the groove back with it, and as happy as I am that it was released I am ready to have the last few missions out of the way. All I have last is Sick score on Downhill jam and a few on Marseille then it is complete (as far as I’m concerned anyway).

I have also officially began missing Windows Vista. It’s not out of frustration with Ubuntu at this point or anything, just out of necessity. Everything I do at work is on Windows and therefore all of the applications used only work on Windows. I have to work an on-call shift this weekend and although I can borrow a laptop to use VPN, I prefer to remote connect with my faster and more reliable laptop. Unfortunately, the Citrix Client and RDP software do not work with Linux in their current configuration and I’m not quite up to the task of trying to make them work either. So, I’ve decided to make one final attempt at reinstalling Vista this week. If it doesn’t work I’ll just install Ubuntu again and happily continue learning it. However, if it does install I may be looking for a secondary hard drive for Ubuntu in the near future (I’m not up for partitioning my current one).

Today was pretty good for me. Not only was I carrying $20 worth of winning scratch off tickets (I spent 20 to win but still), but I saw a banner ad from Radioshack advertising Android phones $50 off with upgrade. Thinking that it was too good to be true, and out of habit, I didn’t click the link but went directly to the site. There was the option for Sprint, and I clicked it growing ever more skeptical that this was going to be what I wanted it to be. Then I saw the Samsung Galaxy S2 advertised for $99 just as it was on Sprints website. I selected it and entered all the information and saw the final price of $49.99. I placed the order and realized that after all the trouble my patience paid off greatly. I originally expected to spend $300 on phones, but ended up spending only $150 not including activations. So it turns out that there was a reason for me being the last to get one. It will be here tomorrow, and I can hardly wait to check it out. I just hope the Zagg Invisible Shields get here soon.

Ubuntu, Tony Hawk, and nostalgia.

Oh my god! Day 3 with Ubuntu, and although I haven’t done a whole heck of a lot on the computer I am totally warming up to it. My computer has never run faster than it is now. Of course, it might have run just as fast with a fresh install of Vista but who the hell knows. While writing this though I did come up with a 3rd thing to miss… I will now not have the ability to install Windows 8 when that is released. I was really looking forward to checking that out too.

Onto other subjects, I’ve been playing a TON of Tony Hawk Pro Skater HD. That game is as amazing as I remember with only a few drawbacks. I really miss the Chicago skate park and I would love to revert. I know reverting came later but the muscle memory is still there and I try it every time. I haven’t been following the news with it either, but I know more levels are coming and I can only hope for Alcatraz. If I remember correctly I pulled some sick 10 mil combos there back on PS2. Those days with PS2 online using a 32kb dial-up connection feel like yesterday sometimes. THPS has of course taken me off my quest to complete everything by adding itself to the list. I’m just going for completing the career mode 100% here.

That is all for now.

Being nice doesn’t always pay off…

My luck this past week or so has not been so good. After getting my family super excited about the Samsung Galaxy S 2, they went on sale buy 1 get 1 free. This was amazing and prompted me to buy them right away as opposed to waiting. I told everyone, started to order and realized that Sprint now charges an additional $10 per line for smart phones on top of the $15 already required. This put me off buying them for a couple days, and after trying my best to work out a deal with Sprint I caved and started to order again, it was then that I realized I will also be paying $36 to activate each phone and they were only $99 AFTER rebate. Eventually I decided I would go ahead and buy only their phones, keeping my Blackberry for a little while longer. I called, started to order and the call was lost. Finally the next day I completed the order online and yesterday the phones were here. I’ve been watching them both play with and enjoy them. I’m not going to lie, I am jealous and wish I had mine right now. What makes this worse is the fact that my computer decided to stop functioning yesterday after I downloaded software to try helping my wife move her contacts off the palm pixi. This ultimately was not needed, and I’m pretty sure is the cause of the repeating BSOD. I eventually got it to boot, moved a couple things to Google Drive, and tried to reinstall Vista. For some reason, it tells me that Vista cannot be installed on my current hardware. After several failed attempts I installed Ubuntu 9.04 and here I am. I don’t know what to do.. I guess I’ll finally learn how to use Linux, but I really wish Vista would allow me to reinstall it. If I can’t get that to work I’ll likely be making a PC purchase within the next year, and it must play games.

While staring at my collection of games both on disk and downloaded, I  thought to myself “I don’t have anything to play”. In that moment I realized that it is completely untrue. I don’t have a large collection, maybe 60-100 games. There are quite a few that I have no interest in, and they’re only here for others in my family. However, I have not completed a lot of mine. I finished the important ones such as Gears of War 3, Portal 2 and all Halo (except anniversary edition), but many of the XBLA and PSN freebies remain unfinished. So I made  a spreadsheet listing every game I have not finished, and a few that I have not yet played and would like to. I’m starting in a somewhat alphabetical order with the games I have, and I will complete them 1 by 1. I’m not going for achievements or trophies, but I am continuing to play on the 2nd to hardest difficulty since I have previously made a vow to myself to not play on anything lower.

The first game on the list was Burger Time World Tour. I had stopped playing this 1/4 of the way through out of boredom. It was a fun game, but the repetitive platformer was not holding my interest when I first played. Since I sat down with the mission in mind to complete it, however, I thoroughly enjoyed it’s varying levels and increased difficulty.

Next up, Super Mario Bros. Wii. I began this morning and stopped at the beginning of World 3. I will post again once completed.