Busy, Busy, Busy: A Review

Now, something I'll talk about later on is my opinion of comic book heroes, but let me give a backdrop to start you guys off with:

I see myself as more of a Marvel type-of-guy. This may come from the fact that I love Iron Man, but I just find the overall pool of heroes to be more likable. Now, this does not mean that I don’t like DC. I
enjoy DC quite a bit, but I just can’t find myself straying away from the Marvel universes that drag me back in. Now, I love the Justice League, but I do have a serious beef with what most people call the strongest super hero in the world.

I don’t like Superman.

This beef with the Man of Steel is not personal. I just don’t like over-powerful characters. It’s kind of a cop-out that he can just fly into the sun and become, in a word, god. To fix this idea, and to redeem this deity from the pits of hell that other directors had done to him, DC has employed Christopher Nolan to make a real, believable Superman like his own Batman, and save him from the failure of another, like the Green Lantern’s reboot.

I didn’t want to really see this movie, but a group of my friends pulled me to go, and to the midnight release no less. I’ll be honest—I went into that movie incredibly critical of what it could be. Superman is a hard character to write since his powers are, for lack of a better word, bullshit. This man can’t be killed, but is damaged by pieces of Kryptonite, but he never really dies. Now, you can argue that no hero really ever dies but you know when Kryptonite is pulled out, it isn’t going to last.
However, Christopher Nolan is a man of magic, and I found myself liking remade man of action. A character that I can’t stand for being so powerful was re-presented to me, and with this newfound humanity in what I usually view as a non-human character, this Man of Steel was able to make an impression on me, be it from tiredness or from sheer talent, I have found myself in a position where I enjoyed a Superman movie.

This is not to say that Nolan has created The Dark Knight. No, that magical bond of Joker v. Batman was near perfect. The power of General Zod is understandable, but he isn’t a true big-name villain. I wanted to see Lex, but it isn’t quite yet in the cards. And I will be honest, the end, although satisfactory, is only that. Not good, not great, it ends. I will give this reboot a thumbs up, but it is not Nolan’s greatest work. It is, however, worthy of the super hero it needs to build.

--Santa

Tech: Acer Redux

As I mentioned beforehand, I did get a new laptop earlier from Acer, but it came with something else undesirable: a pixilation issue that caused for discoloration of colors, namely blues. This problem was immediately visible when I pulled the laptop out of the box, and accessed the laptop, so I considered
the laptop to be a DOA. Calling Acer, they immediately agreed to repair the laptop, and after a bit of strong-arming, I convinced them to pay for shipping as well, making me hopeful all my problems were over.

I was wrong, of course.

So, I called up Acer about a month later when the problem started to occur again, and complained, this time I wanted compensation, but they convinced me otherwise, and after a week of waiting I received the laptop back, in the exact same condition it was sent to them as. No replacements, nothing.

Hell had no fury…

So, I call up Acer as soon as I see the colossal failure that they deemed as “repaired” and demanded they fix it immediately, and they apologized. Again. This time I was elevated to Corporate Customer Care, the big CCC: their highest support. I got my account “red flagged” to show that I had been having lots of problems, and they sent my laptop to the deluxe repair shop, with next-day shipping. Another week, another repair. Much to my dismay, I opened the laptop and scrutinized it, the problem was 99% gone, but still present.

 After reformatting my hard drive 3 times, replacing my LCD, updating my drivers countless times, getting a new motherboard, spending countless hours on the phone with representatives, Acer still could not fix a laptop. I needed it though for classes, so I stuck it out until finals were completed, and I thus began my next spar with Acer, which has just finished.

I called Acer a couple days ago, and told them that I wanted a new laptop, and to be given a better one, due to not only my lost time and usage, but overall loss of productivity. I by no means blame the representatives I spoke to, in fact I’ve found that most of them have bent some rules to help me with my horrible pilgrimage to laptop repairdom, but I was tired with the continual repairs. Once again with Acer’s CCC, I got an offer that gave me 2 more gigs of RAM, a 120 gig SSD along with the 750 gig HDD, and a slight change from a 640M to a 650M. It worked, and was nicer, so I’ve accepted.
Now I wait for this new laptop. I have mixed feelings with Acer now, although the bureaucratic running of its help system is horrible beyond belief, I’ve found that its upper levels have people who do care, and will try to help—as much as possible through the convoluted world of company policies. I will give this laptop another chance. There is still hope for Acer, but I will never be able to say that I recommend them. When you look for a laptop, look for a company that gets things right the first time, not after a horrible slew of incidents.

--Santa  

Update: Graduation & Xbox One

I'm not that interesting of a guy, so I won’t bore you with the reason of my break, part II, except busy-busy life. I did however come back at a time perfect for a Soapbox moment, and that is one you shall receive today.

Oh, how you have forsaken me.

For those of you who have read my content before, I used to be a major Xbox user. I really got into PC gaming as my love for TF2 grew, and now I’m almost exclusively on there (minus the fact the laptop I’m using hasn’t been fixed successfully in 3 attempts by Acer, which I will talk about in my
next entry) but I still love my 360. I bought it for Halo 3, but ended up with a love for gaming that is hugely with me, even if I have changed systems. So, when I heard that Xbox’s big reveal was coming up, I got excited.
I shouldn’t have been.
From what we know right now, the new Xbox ONE will need to be connected to the internet, at some point of time, once a day. To use any pre-owned or used game, Microsoft will hit users with a fee, which could be as much as the original copy, ruining the point of borrowing from friends, or GameStop’s sly money-making machine. I could nearly forgive Microsoft for all of this, but somewhere along the way of the El Grande reveal, there wasn’t a true mentioning of games—but there was a big focus on Kinect, the NFL, and a NEW Halo TV show!
This can’t be happening.
Microsoft, if I remember correctly, the Xbox originated as a gaming console. I can understand and can almost empathize with the online and fee requirements you’ve put on this system, which completely isolates your main community of people who love to play video games.
Microsoft, you’ve turned your focus to being an “All-In-One” system. A system meant to be cute, but not to game. I am a gamer, I don’t care about Kinect, or TV when I play video games.
Why would I buy a console that gets away from this?
Microsoft, as a fan for quite near 5 years now, I hate to turn my back on this relationship that I’ve bought into. I just can’t accept this glorified DVR as a gaming system though. I don’t care what specs. You put into it, this device isn’t gaming AND other features, its other features AND gaming. You’ve moved your focus from your hardcore-gaming community, all within the goal of appealing to a more neutral audience, in which I think you may succeed. You have however isolated a huge fan base which has been loyal since the release of Halo on your new console back in 2001, and you give us this.
We aren’t being hard on you. You have betrayed us.
I won’t buy an Xbox One unless I see something that truly changes the way games are played today, but I don’t really see that happening. Your reveal was glorified by Steven Spielberg and Kinect, which was already a failure in the eyes of nearly all old-school gamers. This new culture is a new embrace, a new direction. I get that, but I will have no part in it. Godspeed in your new gaming universe Microsoft, I think you may see an overall change in your constituents, not just me.

--Santa