After that got old, we decided to take a trip to the neighboring Atlantic City to gamble and find a place to stay overnight.  We ended up at the Atlantic Palace by chance and got a room with a great ocean view.  We walked the boards a bit more, hit Ballys for a bit of gambling fun, and then back to the room after a junky dinner.  Relaxation in the hot tub and a little Conan O’Brien ensued.

The next day was all gravy: Lots of sleep and eventually going out to see the incredibly awesome Wall-E.  It stands on it’s own among the Pixar films, only bested (in my opinion) by Toy Story.  Highly recommended.  Now all we have left to see is The Incredible Hulk, Indy 4, and Wanted.

Yesterday was a great day of sleep, a family barbecue over Jackie’s pad with lots of delicious foods, and more relaxation.  I really love the time I spend with my girl.

This life blog brought to you by Andrew, writing to preserve the memories of yesterday.

This article, which isn’t too bad, is by Michael Tolosa over at AOL Shopping.  He eventually concludes that Macs are superior products, but has a few shaky arguments in favor of PC along the way.

This laptop  acts as my remote machine for work. Unfortunately, the tools I use for work are not supported by the Mac operating system or the Safari web browser.

Sounds like your company’s system was one of those olde fashioned, designed-for-IE type applications.  You can’t blame Apple for poor software decisions made by your employer.  There are many viable browser alternatives to Safari on Mac including the venerable Firefox, Camino, Opera, and more.  If your company software isn’t supported on any of them, might be time to fire up Boot Camp or VMWare.  Oh wait…

The way I got around this was by installing a Windows partition on my Mac, where I could install all the Windows programs I needed and access them for work.  One downside to installing a Windows partition on your Mac, is it can take up to 32GB of hard drive space.

If I may borrow a popular internet meme:  You’re doing it wrong.  You can scale the size of a Boot Camp partition to any size you like, and some slipstreamed versions of XP I’ve encountered only require about 700MB total.  If you’re only using Windows for a few programs and Internet Explorer, you shouldn’t need to partition more than 4GB.

…many of the software utilities you use on a daily basis aren’t available in Mac versions. And even if they are available on the Mac, they’re usually limited in functionality compared to the more robust and fully-developed Windows versions. For instance, the AIM client for Mac is less functional than the Windows version. Other utilities (like FTP clients, bit torrent clients, etc.) rarely come in two versions. You’ll have to find completely different Mac products to complete these daily tasks.

Fancy that! When I switch operating systems I can’t bring my programs with me!  This part of the article here seemed like a bit of filler, truth be told.  AIM for Mac hasn’t been updated in years, that’s why Apple throws in it’s own great little chat client called iChat.  If you’re not happy with iChat, a quick Google search for “mac IM program” will direct you to Adium (which actually ranks higher than AIM in the results), a great open source instant messaging client.  Two FTP clients off the top of my head that come in both Mac and Windows flavors are the open source Filezilla and GlobalScape’s CuteFTP.  The official Bittorrent client is multiplatform, too, and another quick “Mac bittorrent” search will yield results for Transmission, which is comparable to uTorrent in features and functionality.

One thing you won’t ever get on a Mac is a version of Internet Explorer.

Oh really? No shit. Thank God.

The other big difference between buying a Mac laptop and a PC laptop is price. The Mac will cost roughly twice as much as a PC.

I went to Apple’s Online Store and Dell’s Online Store.  I then selected the higher-end white MacBook, which starts at $1299 and has a 13.3″ screen, 2.4Ghz Core 2 Duo processor, 2GB of RAM, and a 160GB hard drive.  Then I went to Dell’s site and selected the 13.3″ XPS M1330 and matched the specs.  The XPS ended up costing $1,174.  So while the Apple is a bit more expensive, it’s nowhere near twice as much.  You can buy a machine that’s half as good for half the price, though.

In conclusion, I believe Mr. Tolosa was a little lazy in regards to some research about the Macintosh platform, but I won’t hold that against him since he finishes with the line:

Once you switch to a Mac, you’ll never go back.

64. The Usual Suspects
63. Blazing Saddles
62. Army of Darkness
61. Lord of War
60. The Warriors
59. Texas Chainsaw Massacre [remake]
58. Fear of Loathing in Las Vegas
57. Porky’s
56. Goldfinger
55. Batman
54. CaddyShack
53. Saw
52. New Jack City
51. The Rock
50. Unleashed
49. Lethal Weapon
48. Blade
47. Seven Samurai
46. Running Man
45. Spartacus
44. Terminator 2
43. Slap Shot
42. Hard Boiled
41. Under Siege
40. Dawn of the Dead
39. Grindhouse
38. Indiana Jones: Raiders of the Lost Ark
37. The Program
36. Animal House
35. Conan the Barbarian
34. Demolition Man
33. Dirty Harry
32. Snatch
31. Death Wish
30. True Grit
29. Escape from New York
28. Gangs of New York
27. Mad Max: The Road Warrior
26. 300
25. Game of Death
24. Apocalpyse Now
23. The Punisher
22. Man on Fire
21. Predator
20. Bloodsport
19. Commando
18. First Blood
17. The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly
16. Full Metal Jacket
15. Godfather
14. Reservoir Dogs
13. Rocky IV
12. Boondock Saints
11. Sin City
10. Gladiator
9. Deer Hunter
8. Crank
7. Braveheart
6. Platoon
5. Wall Street
4. Die Hard
3. Tombstone
2. American Psycho
1. Fight Club

If Fight Club didn’t make the top 5 on this list, I would’ve totally disregarded the entire list.  Seeing as how it got the #1 spot, the rest of the list just seemed to fall into place.

The Books:

1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
2. The Prince by Niccolo Machiavelli
3. Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
4. 1984 by George Orwell
5. The Republic by Plato
6. Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoevsky
7. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger
8. The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith
9. For Whom the Bell Tolls by Ernest Hemingway
10. The Picture of Dorian Gray by Oscar Wilde
11. The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck
12. Brave New World by Aldous Huxley
13. How To Win Friends And Influence People by Dale Carnegie
14. Call of the Wild by Jack London
15. The Rise of Theodore Roosevelt by Edmund Morris
16. Swiss Family Robinson by Johann David Wyss
17. Dharma Bums by Jack Kerouac
18. The Iliad and Odyssey of Homer
19. Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
20. Walden by Henry David Thoreau
21. Lord of the Flies by William Golding
22. The Master and Margarita by by Mikhail Bulgakov
23. Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut
24. Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand
25. The Metamorphosis by Franz Kafka
26. Another Roadside Attraction by Tom Robbins
27. White Noise by Don Delillo
28. Ulysses by James Joyce
29. The Young Man’s Guide by William Alcott
30. Blood Meridian, or the Evening Redness in the West by Cormac McCarthy
31. Seek: Reports from the Edges of America & Beyond by Denis Johnson
32. Crime And Punishment by Fyodor Dostoevsky
33. Steppenwolf by Herman Hesse
34. The Book of Deeds of Arms and of Chivalry by Christine De Pizan
35. The Art of Warfare by Sun Tzu
36. Don Quixote by Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra
37. Into the Wild by Jon Krakauer
38. The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri
39. The Hobbit by JRR Tolkien
40. The Rough Riders by Theodore Roosevelt
41. East of Eden by John Steinbeck
42. Leviathan by Thomas Hobbes
43. The Thin Red Line by James Jones
44. Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain
45. The Politics by Aristotle
46. First Edition of the The Boy Scout Handbook
47. Cyrano de Bergerac by Edmond Rostand
48. Tropic of Cancer by Henry Miller
49. The Crisis by Winston Churchill
50. The Naked and The Dead by Norman Mailer
51. Hatchet by Gary Paulsen
52. Animal Farm by George Orwell
53. Tarzan of the Apes by Edgar Rice Burroughs
54. Beyond Good and Evil by Freidrich Nietzsche
55. The Federalist Papers by Alexander Hamilton, John Jay, and James Madison
56. Moby Dick by Herman Melville
57. Essential Manners for Men by Peter Post
58. Frankenstein by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelly
59. Hamlet by Shakespeare
60. The Boys of Summer by Roger Kahn
61. A Separate Peace by John Knowles
62. A Farewell To Arms by Ernest Hemingway
63. The Stranger by Albert Camus
64. Robinson Crusoe by Daniel Dafoe
65. The Pearl by John Steinbeck
66. On the Road by Jack Kerouac
67. Treasure Island by Robert Louis Stevenson
68. Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
69. Foucault’s Pendulum - Umberto Eco
70. The Great Railway Bazaar by Paul Theroux
71. Fear and Trembling by Soren Kierkegaard
72. Undaunted Courage by Stephen Ambrose
73. Paradise Lost by John Milton
74. Cannery Row by John Steinbeck
75. American Boys’ Handy Book
76. Into Thin Air by John Krakauer
77. King Solomon’s Mines by H. Rider Haggard
78. The Idiot by Fyodor Dostoevsky
79. A River Runs Through It by Norman F. Maclean
80. The Island of Dr. Moreau by H.G. Wells
81. Malcolm X: The Autobiography
82. Theodore Rex by Edmund Morris
83. The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas
84. All Quiet on The Western Front by Erich Maria Remarq
85. The Red Badge of Courage by Stephen Crane
86. Lives of the Noble Greeks and Romans by Plutarch
87. The Strenuous Life by Theodore Roosevelt
88. The Bible
89. Lonesome Dove by Larry McMurtry
90. The Maltese Falcon by Dashiell Hammett
91. The Long Goodbye by Raymond Chandler
92. To Kill a Mockingbird by Harper Lee
93. The Dangerous Book for Boys by Conn and Hal Iggulden
94. The Killer Angels by Michael Shaara
95. The Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin
96. The Histories by Herodotus
97. From Here to Eternity by James Jones
98. The Frontier in American History by Frederick Jackson Turner
99. Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance by Robert Pirsig
100. Self Reliance by Ralph Waldo Emerson

Looks like I have some reading to do…

I’ve always had a fascination with serial killer/hit man type movies (although definitely not the movie Hitman). When well thought out, they can be thought provoking and give insight into the oft-serene minds of people we condemn as brutal murderers. Dexter is definitely a show that does this and does it well.

Without giving away many of the plot points that make it a pleasure to watch, the story basically goes something like this: Dexter is the adopted son of cop who found him as a child as crime scene. He works as a very likable forensics lab tech (blood spatter) for Miami Metro Police by day and moonlights as a vigilante serial killer by night “Only killing those who deserve it.” On the surface he seems as normal and average as they come, but as each episode unfolds, we see that each facet of his personality is a carefully crafted guise.

The premise is a good one, no doubt, and I’m sure that someone has written a better synopsis on the interwebs, but that’s mine and I’m sticking to it.

The thing I like most about Dexter, above the laundry list of other things I like, is how his perception of human nature and his questions about it force us to think about why we do the things we do, say the things we say, and act the way we act. We carefully reserve judgment on him as he does the same for us. His character experiences brief moments of human emotion as we experience something a little darker in ourselves taking pleasure in seeing a murderer or rapist getting their just desserts.

The character developments occur at an incredibly satisfying pace for both our anti-hero and the supporting cast. Supporting cast is a bit of an understatement, though, because each character has their role to fill and does so with such energy and great dynamic that I would go so far as to call it an ensemble cast.

Miami is a great way to establish contrast through setting, in my eyes. Such a dark story for such a bright city — someone should have gotten a raise based on that idea alone. The DP working on the show has a pretty unique vision, as does the director. Everything you see during the day is super saturated, giving you a feeling of really being there, while the night shots are moody and full of hard shadows. Often times when we see Dexter feeling particularly upset or on his way to a kill, the scene will be lit in such a way that his eyes appear as two dark holes in his head. Let the reaper references abound!

Based on what I’ve watched (entire first season and a few episodes of Season 2), this show has easily bumped a few of my former favorites from the #1 spot with ease and surgical precision. The depth of characters, dialog, narrative, and often intense storylines leave me wanting to know more and more. Dexter is a serial killer, no doubt, but when watching he almost feels like a friend, and if not a friend, then someone you definitely wouldn’t want to cross.

Dexter gets 10 dismembered body parts out of a possible 10 dismembered body parts in my book.

What can I say? I’m a Call of Duty fan. I’ve played every game in the series and, with the exception of the lackluster third installment, I’ve loved every one. I have to admit i was a little wary of the online multiplayer in the beginning, only having tried it after completing the solo campaign. It was a little frustrating at first, but definitely got better as the level ups unfolded and I found the technique that works best for me (GSC36 + grenade launcher attachment, Desert Eagle, Martyrdom, and Sonic Boom if you must know).

So I continued playing and playing, I leveled up as far as one could go then decided to take the plunge and Prestige which, for those of you who aren’t familiar, is sacrificing all of your rank, unlocked weapons, and accomplishment to start over and get a higher ranking medal when you become Commander (Lvl 55) again. It sounds a little silly, but I’ve seen some people with badges that are from a 4th of 5th Prestige, which is roughly 220 level ups. Yikes.

The thing about playing multiplayer games this long, though, is that you get to know, well, everything. You know the best sniper spots, the most likely places your enemies will come from, how long to cook grenades for a good explosion, and finally — every single corner of the map. I’ve heard people begging for new maps for about a month and Thursday’s release has seemed to satisfy. I took a little time over this (Double XP) weekend to play the maps to the fullest of my ability and I have to say that these maps definitely satisfy.

Creek could be my new favorite board. “Why?” you may ask and my answer is simple: “Because I love destroying snipers.” This board is like a haven for snipers. Long, open expanses and plenty of cover for these guys to just go prone and look for movement. This allow me the chance to either sneak thru the cave or come up along the ridge and knife ‘em in their stupid back.

Broadcast is another good one which takes cues from an actual level in the game. It’s a great mixture of open hallways and wide openness depending on whether you want to do battle inside or out.

Chinatown is a hectic, claustrophobic pseudo-remake of a level from Call of Duty 2 and it’s incredibly fun to play. There is so much interconnectedness and so many ways to the same place that it’s almost impossible not to find immediate action. There are also a lot of little places to duck into the shadows and just take people out, so it’s a great amount of fun.

Killhouse, as fun as it sounded, never came up in any of the online multiplayer modes so I took matters into my own hands and started a private game to explore it myself. It’s small. I’m talking tiny. You could run from one end to the other in 10 seconds, but that’s what will make it a great level. I’m thinking it’ll be for the smaller team games or, most probably, one-on-ones (which I rarely ever do).

After the dust was settling last night from a weekend of gaming the new map packs, I can say with surety that Infinity Ward has hit the jackpot with this game. If they make regular map packs and keep the prices reasonable, I’m sure they’ll have tons of people paying for all new experiences in a familiar setting.

How many of those (21.5 million) people have actually beaten the game? How many have even gotten past the first few hours of missions?

Maybe we should start a poll and find out.  Anyone game?

I’d heard it thrown around that “nobody ever beats a GTA” or “nobody plays the missions.”

“I went on a few messages boards and the first couple threads said nobody plays the missions, so I didn’t either.”

…by trying to actually play through the Grand Theft Auto games without giving myself invincibility, infinite cash, or a never-ending supply of rocket launchers, I might have been getting a vastly different experience than the majority of the series’ biggest fans.

The biggest fans of this series are not the people mashing cheat codes, they’re the people who were in line on the release day waiting to tear into the game and get knee deep in the story.  They were the people who were excited to hear that you could fly planes and ride bicycles in San Andreas.  Basically, these were the people you’re not.

The approach of a casual gamer like Chris (perhaps just entering the series) would be to just put in some cheats and rampage the day away, but it seems a little silly to paint all of the other players with the same brush.  I’ve successfully completed both Vice City and San Andreas and admittedly got pretty far (to the fabled third area) in GTA3.  What shines the most in these games is, hands down, how they tie incredibly fun missions into the twisted web of story.  Sure, Vice City was almost a direct rip of Scarface, but who didn’t love the mission where you goal was to get a spotlight shining “Candy Suxxx” across the side of a building.  Who didn’t like cruising down The Strip of Las Venturas in San Andreas or earning the Jetpack / Fight Jet combo on your own personal hangar?  What about the awesome final missions of the game where CJ inevitably goes home to find the whole city rioting?  These are moments that you’d otherwise never see or experience in the game if you just sat around blowing up the same cars/trucks the whole time.

If anything, a lot of people who’ll be picking up a copy of GTA4 along with myself on the 29th will be playing through it all so they can add to the mythos behind the story.  They may not get anywhere near 100% completion (I mean, who has?) but they could very well beat the game, regardless of how many hours it takes. If people are willing to take their time with a RPG on the caliber of a Final Fantasy or Suikoden, surely it can’t be so different for fans of the GTA series.

Quite nicely, indeed. ::queue evil laugh::

Update 4/23: Mint’s service isn’t compatible with Citizen’s bank, Doh!

Other than working a lot, my 17 month anniversary with Jackie, the government jackin’ me for $1500 in taxes, and not updating this blog — only a few things have been going on that are noteworthy:

I have to be purposefully vague with this in case certain people read this blog, but I’ve set the wheels in motion for making money on a one-time effort that could prove to be quite fruitful. We’re talking one-time payments for services that range from $500 to $5000. Those are pretty substantial chunks of change and not something I would mind making, even if it was just once or twice a month. On a related note, I’ll be redesigning four pretty huge sites in my life: this one, dark driving, B7M (I’ll be vague on this one for the time being), and IntuitSolutions.

Where I used to be stressed about designs for these majors in my life. I’m going to sit down and just do whatever comes naturally for me. If that means that Greater Satellites is a black site with white text and no images, so be it. At least it’s done for the time being and I can expand upon it later. I’ve come to realize, more and more, that content is king, and it’s time I get some bangin content in my corner.

On a semi-related note, I’m thinking about starting a blog solely dedicated to reviewing all the horror movies I’ve ever watched. I talked to a few people here at work and everyone seems to be crazily on board, so there might be more on that soon. Should be pretty cool.

Finally, my five point plan for taking back the web and interacting with others who might like what I have to offer:

1. Finish the design of this damn site. It will serve as the hub for everything else I’m about to talk about
2. Get some new videos filmed for YouTube. The fans demand more!
3. Start posting to del.icio.us once again
4. Sign up for Twitter for unbelievably fast and easy interaction. Shorter than blogs, longer than away messages.
5. Start borrowing my love’s wonderful camera and loading up my Flickr account with interesting things I see from day to day

Assuming everything pans out, I should have all sorts of interesting contacts across the interwebs in no time flat. Next task: seeing the light of day!