A Pixel’s Point of View

Quick and dirty update. Everything is primed and ready for paint. Soon enough the electrician will install all of the receptacles and we should be good to go! I’ll finally be able to piece together my IKEA game cabinets and have my collection displayed as it should be.

All I can say is… don’t expect any updates soon

I finally managed to take a minute to do something else besides work and house chores! That in itself is amazing but I actually was able to go and enjoy the weather for a little bit. I went hunting for morels for the first time this season. Weather hasn’t been ideal lately but it seems that there are some that are growing. Unfortunately the ones that I found are tiny. All of them were about thumb sized. I only found enough to make a small snack but I’m hoping that I’ll be able to sneak out again later this week and get some decent sized ones. Well wish me luck!

Time has been scarce and projects have gone slow. The most unfortunate thing is game time is almost nonexistent. Curses to big projects with strict time frames! Well here is the most updated snapshots of the progress. As you can see, the mudding is almost finished. I just need to go over everything to make sure there are no rough spots. I’m figuring I’ll need to do quite a bit of sanding. It’s not going to be good for my lungs or the house. I’m sure there will be a fine layer of dust over everything by the time I’m done. Ahh dusting. Something that I truly hate.

I will have to admit that when it comes to games on the 360, I’m a little late in the game. I’ve only had my 360 for about 2 months now and because of that, only now am I really getting to play some of the awesome games available for it. Gears of War would of course be one of these gems. I won’t bother reviewing this since it is a rather old game and I’m sure there are a billion reviews available. Just wanted to note that it’s one of the definite must haves for any 360 owner. I’m only through the first chapter but I’m truly enjoying the experience. The only thing that goofs me up sometimes is that I try to play the game like Halo but it doesn’t play that way. I guess I should stop going back and forth between multiple games eh? ;P

Ok I’m actually behind on the update but I kinda need to put this somewhere. These snapshots are of the basement with the drywall attached. It’s actually looking more like a livable space now.

The corner shown above is the planned placement for the TV and the game systems. I’m kind of unsure how the TV will fit in this space yet since I plan to hang it on the wall and the window may interfere with (tv mount) placement.

The snapshots above are from the soon to be office. It’s not much yet but it’s way better than what was previously there. The damned chandelier is gone so no more bruising my noggin on that piece of crap! None of the tape or mud is on these pics but I assure you that it’s in progress. I’ll have snapshots of that up soon. Well work beckons. Until next time.

I picked this up a few days ago and installed it. Last night I was finally able to download the patch to it! All I need to do now is create a Konami account and I should be good to go. I can’t wait to try out this Beta. I’m hoping that some of you out there will be enjoying this as well.

Ok I didn’t think that I would ever pick this up but I heard good things and it was only $19.95. You can’t beat that price. Ok maybe you can but it’s still a great price. I’m glad that they decided to make the platinum hits $19.99 because that’s reasonable. Now the PS3 on the other hand, they haven’t decided on a price point for their greatest hits yet. It probably means that it’s not going to be $19.99 like the ps2 greatest. That really bites but that’s another story.

Anyway Viva Pinata is essentially a gardening simulator. Kinda like Harvest Moon but it seems much less complex. Now that can be a good thing or a bad thing depending on the kind of gardening sim player you are. For me it’s great that it’s simpler. I don’t like to micromanage everything. I prefer to play games for fun and not feel like it’s a job. Viva Pinata does it right in this regard. You just grow what you want to and there is the occasional watering and fertilizing but it’s not tedious to me. Also if I lose a crop or a pinata, it really doesn’t worry me so much because I can always get another.

The customization is wonderful! You can design your garden any way you feel fit. There are ton’s of items you can purchase for it as well as accessories for the pinatas that live in your garden. Also after you have placed something, you can always destroy it and build a new one. There is so much versatility to this game.

Controls are simple enough but sometimes getting through all of the menus seems tiresome. There are so many categories within categories that there is the potential to get lost in them. Good thing that you can get right back to your garden by pressing the select button.

Overall it’s a great game with almost unlimited possibilities. I can see tons of replay value in this little budget game. I hope you can see it too ( if you like sims of course).

I’d give it a $20/$20

The basement project is moving along nicely. It’s actually running smoother and quicker than I had anticipated. I’ve finished insulating the exterior walls and the ceiling for soundproofing (more like sound control). The framework was done by a friend of mine and I only helped a little on that portion. I hired someone to do the electrical. I’m not too comfortable with electricity so I’d rather have someone else do that part of it. You can see the can lights in the snapshots. These aren’t the final lights so they all look a little strange. Once the room is finished and the trim work is in, I’ll replace these with energy efficient flood lights. I figure a dozen flood lights could suck up power real quick and jack up my energy bill. Hopefully purchasing compact fluorescent bulbs will pay for themselves quickly.

As you can see, I’ve cleaned up a little so that once this project is complete, I won’t have a huge mess to clean up. Hopefully it will be a small mess. Obviously the next step is to put up drywall. This will be a challenge but with 4 other guys helping me, I’m hoping it will move along quickly. Well I had better get off to work. Gotta prep the basement for the drywall!

Just wanted to update myself and everyone on the basement remodel. Got most of the framework done and the electrician will be rewiring everything in the next few days. Can’t wait to see the whole dozen can lights in action. Plans are to put the entertainment equipment in the corner shown above. As to how it’s going to look, I’m not quite sure yet. Tis hard to find the proper shelving units when I’m quite picky on how this whole deal will look. I’d love to have the TV mounted on the wall and bracketless shelving for the electronics but finding the exact look that I want has been a little difficult.

This area will be the office. No really big plans on the area yet but as long as that stupid chandelier gets taken out, I’ll be sound as a pound. Well I hope everyone elses big projects are moving along. I’m hoping to be finished with this by mid next month at the rate that it’s going. Would be great to have Rock Band parties again!