Suprisingly, a dead CPU and a good CPU look really similar...

About a month or two ago, my computer broke. That's not why I stopped posting though. I usually post from work or a coffee shop somewhere. That statement is significant because I haven't been able to do any PC gamings since then. However, I correctly guessed the issue and replaced the CPU. My computer is now back and better than ever.

Here's a couple pro-tips when building a computer:

1. Don't buy a cheap case.

This is an area where it's easy to skimp on if you don't care what your computer looks like. I mean, people have computer cases made out of old fuel containers and cardboard boxes. Why should you spend a lot of money on a case?! Because your CPU will die that's why. Quality cases have proper airflow to support high-end PCs. Shitty cases are for the low-end fodder that are running GPUs that can be passively cooled and standard clock processors that's hardest task is sorting vacation pictures. It is not for PCs that are going to do six hour marathon gaming sessions after torrenting for the last 27 hours.

2. Invest in proper cooling.

My CPU burned out. Apparently, running at 60-70C for 10-12 hours a week is bad for it. How did this even happen? Well, my crappy budget case had a single 80mm fan to its name. I also ran on stock cooling. I don't know what I was thinking. I haven't trusted stock cooling since I built my first rig. If you're going to be gaming, replace the stock cooler. Getting a nice, all-copper Zalman HSF moves a lot of heat away from the CPU. Not because the CPU alone needs it but a gaming GPU generates a lot ambient heat thereby reducing the effectiveness of wind chill. GPUs are designed to run at 60-70C regularly. They don't care of the case gets that hot. CPUs die under that temperature.

So the new improved setup kept the same crappy case but I added a second 80mm exhaust fan and a 120mm intake fan. In addition, I bought a Zalman CNPS 9900 for the CPU (which barely fits inside the case -- the side panel is warped). Result? I get sub-20C idles now. I am happy.

How does one celebrate fixing a computer he killed? By purchasing more games, he'll never finish! NBA 2K12 was the name of the game yesterday. I expect, Deus Ex 3 is inbound and will sit next to Skyrim (and possibly Saint's Row 3) come November. I also have Ultimate MvC3 in November for PS3 to go with Read Dead Remption and the Ico/Colossus Collection I just purchased.

I really can't wait for Skyrim, I almost want to buy a second GPU for it. It's weird because I doubt I'll even play that much of it. Between practicing Starcraft 2, Street Fighter, Marvel and 2K  I don't have that much time. Where are you winter vacation?!

I need a red hoodie now...dopeness

There's this notion that there's too much brag rap in music these days. Odd, that I didn't near a note of that until Kanye and Jay-Z dropped 'Watch the Throne.' I reason this is because 'Ye and Jay are two of the best rappers in the game today ('lest I say ever and start a war). I guess nothing really matters until the biggest names make what amounts to an entire album where they brag about how much richer they are than you. "Can't you see we gettin money up under you?" "Can't you see the private jets flyin over you?" Jesus Christ, thanks for reminding me how I just paid $13 dollars for an album where you just insult me and talk about how much you REALLY don't need more money.One might think I really hate brag rap; or are we calling it swag rap? I don't. One of my favorite people to listen to right now is Childish Gambino (aka Donald Glover). Sometimes I wonder if this guy makes anything other than brag rap broken up with songs about how much he hated himself. Oh right, there are times when he mixes them together in to one song.

Why listen to this one-dimensional music? I clearly don't identify with rich black people. It all boils down to motivation. This isn't Lil' Wayne bragging about how he's born rich. These are people who started out just as normal as everyone else and worked their ass off to make it. I'm fine with gloating about it if that's your story. I want that to be my story. It's a sort of nudge to say: if you stop wasting your life and put in work you can get here. It also says: you're not here yet and I'm way more awesome than you.

Remember when hip-hop was fun?

If you watched the video for 'Otis' you'll see these two moguls messing around and having fun. It's not representative of their life. They're putting in so much work that this is their break. They're finding entertainment in the work itself. Like Wale says: No Days Off.

I wrote about all this junk to tell you this: stop reading my blog and do some work. One day I'm going to make a coherent post about something interesting, if not significant.

I'm sorry for all of you who may have been reading since the beginning.Anyway, why was I looking through old posts? I finally wanted to translate a post to another language. Originally this was to be done in Japanese but seeing as I now study Korean, I want to translate things to Korean. Just looking at this post, it's a really hard job. So I have been looking for a decent post that won't be too hard to do. I've had a really hard time just finding something decent. Forget difficulty, I just don't want to post garbage twice.

Anyway, my second term is coming to a close. I have summer camp every day next week. Should be good. Then I'm virtually free until August 21 (with about 10 of those days wrapped up in travel). I would say I need to stock up on desk warming material but I have more than enough to keep me busy between Academic Earth, the MeeGo 1.2 SDK, and trying to make progress on PSS (via Ogre3D). Obviously Korean is in there as well. I need to cut some things from the list. Not sure if I want to dedicate myself to Korean though, I've been having second thoughts on targeting the market here.

If you haven't figured it out, the title has nothing to do with the post. I couldn't think of a good one so I just titled it based on what I was listening to while writing this.

Number Two: Exercise

Exercise makes you feel good. I say that on a basic chemical level. It makes you feel good. You know what also makes you feel good? Having more energy, being able to drop a size, and looking better than other people. Exercise helps you achieve all that. It's the perfect investment. Notable short-term gains with long-term profits and residual income. Invest in yourself and go run a mile or two.

Number Three: Finish Something

Completing a project always makes me feel good. It doesn't even have to be important. Clearing out the sink makes me feel good. Taking care of a load of laundry? I feel good. Design a lesson plan? I feel good. I don't even have to really do anything. Just flesh out a project from start to finish gives me a little boost. Being productive gives you a positive boost.

Number Four: Tell Someone Something Nice

You can compliment someone. Or, you can just say the weather is nice. Saying positive things seems to infect the day with positive emotions and makes it better overall. I like to use your hair looks good. Unfortunately, I am a habitual liar so my friends rarely believe me. The truth is, I like hair and your hair probably does look nice to me. It doesn't matter though, say something nice. Infect your day with positive energy.

Now, imagine your pain as a bright ball of healing light...

Number Five: Tell Yourself You're Having a Good Day

This is the most important thing. If you declare it is a good day, then it is a good day. People often think, well it could be worse or it could be better but what you need to realize is that it's still a good day. Think of three things that went right. If you can name three things that went right, then it's a good day. Here's one to start things off: You woke up this morning. For all the pessimists that say being alive isn't a good thing, then do some good and go kill yourself already. Damn, and here I was looking for a post filled with positive energy.

What I don't get is why the BET Awards exist. Normally, I wouldn't care that they're on and that millions of people are watching them. However, it's now impacting my Twitter feed (which I've become addicted to). Why are all these people, many of them my friends, watching this garbage?I was just reading about how Obama initiated a half-billion dollar plan to stimulate domestic manufacturing. That's important news. Not because it's a great idea (the plan is foolish for many reasons) but because it's an important topic (that is once again being handled poorly for the sake of appealing to the public). I post a link to my Twitter feed and have to wade through a swamp of crap about the BET Awards.

It really doesn't kill me that much that they're watching. It's that they're watching and they're just going on people that get up on stage. Some clips from the madness:

"So much ratchetness on the stage right now."

"lmaooooooooooooooo i need the chris breezy pants..i guess he headin to football practice after the awards smh"

"RT [EDITED] Why his hair still blonde"

"Oh god....smh...changes channel."

That would've been the perfect summary to this entire concept with the small exception that the channel clearly has not been changed as he continues to tweet.

This dumbass is cashing a check for annoying you.

Why are you watching this foolishness if it only upsets you? Normally when I see people act like this I pass it off as: they're dumbasses. It can actually be that simple. People are so stupid that they don't think "oh maybe I shouldn't watch this and find someway to enjoyably waste time." However, I can't say that. Some of these people are genuinely smarter than me (not many -- yeah I'm a prick). So it upsets me because I can't understand it. Maybe I'm the stupid one. If I'm watching a movie/show/game/whatever and it sucks hard then I walk away from it. That or I laugh at how bad it is. Basically, I either find a way to enjoy it or I stop torturing myself.

The argument then is, well I'm enjoying the show by making fun of it. No, you're not. When I walk away from a horrid B movie after laughing at it. I conclude, that movie was horrible and I had fun watching it. When you walk away from the BET Awards, you're not saying oh man I can't wait to watch that next year, that was so bad it was awesome. You're sitting there wondering how you made it through and why is the black music industry in such shambles. There's a big difference. Correct me if I'm wrong. I know I'm not but if you had any argumentative pride you'll say I am. Find better shit to watch and talk about the next day. The Post has a great Arts section you might find a gem there. Read the classifieds, you might find that housing prices are going down/up/sideways. Even better, sit down for 30 minutes and think of as many business/movie/book/meet-up ideas as you can. At worst, that's meaningless productivity.

I'm feeling a little holier than thou right now so I'll go and say it: there are so many better ways to utilize your time. So many better things to watch. This trash keeps you occupied and a non-factor so the government can do stupid shit like throw away half a billion tax dollars on increasing domestic manufacturing. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for genuine entertainment. Hell, I want to be in entertainment. Just stop doing things you hate.

This is what I go for everytime I start Association.

I also love NBA 2K11. There's a level you can achieve in 2K where playing the regular games against a computer is probably the worst way to spend your time. I hit that level about two years ago. I now live for NBA 2K's Assossication mode. Creating a team is where real simulation happens for me. Finding players that work well together while maintainin a budget. Creating a dynasty is what drives me.

This is single-handedly why NBA 2K11 is the best basketball simulation ever and yet makes me so upset. It seems that year after year, Assossciation gets the least attention. They've even taken steps backward at times. What happened to team-based revenue streams? That's besides the point. I want a larger focus on the team building and management aspects. I want a system that doesn't break down after five years. After playing a few seasons, everything breaks. Contracts break. Trades always seem to break. Draft classes and potential break the league. Free agency breaks. Sometimes even off-season development breaks. How about we just stop kidding ourselves and have the assosciation end if its going to break that badly?

Create a player is a great addition but it's clearly still in development. There's nothing awesome about being a D-League caliber player. It's even less awesome that the game is distorted and you get crazy minutes, how about I just come in to the league as a better caliber player? If I wanted be average joe basketball player I'd go...no lets not be mean...suffice to say, I don't want to be average joe. I don't mind rising to greatness but D-League isn't fun and getting pushed around as a 47 in the NBA isn't fun either. Can we start where other 1st rounders usually end up high 60s low 70s? I actually prefer the old method of having some say in where you go after the Summer Circuit. That way I can pick a team that will actually use me.

Anyway, I still play 2K like crazy. It's a great game but we keep seeing the same problems every year. I really wish they'd just take a year off and work things out. Just release a roster update with draft classes and charge us twenty bucks.

By the way: One of my best moves ever was to bring Durant home to the DMV (on the Wizards) and have Serge Ibaka tag along for the ride. Did we lose John Wall? You bet, but who cares? McGee and Ibaka together on defense was a guaranteed block party every night. I've pretty much mastered turning crappy teams in to amazing teams within two years. Then again, the heavily skewed draft class and height preference abuse tends to help a lot. Just thoughts from the abyss.

My intensive Korean class at the YMCA is finished. It was approximately 10x better than the first one. The girls were hotter (yes that the first thing), the class was more frequent, it was generally more humorous, and I made a couple new friends.

You gotta find a motivating factor to study Korean. Living here on English is way too easy. Also, unless you're really good at saving it's too easy to throw away money here. So, when I tell myself -- "I spent money on this class." It doesn't have the same impact as it might back home. So what if I spend $200 on a class, there's nothing else to spend it on. So aside from my general interest in Korean. When all else fails to motivate me you gotta remember, you're going to spend the next two hours taking lessons from an attractive lady while practicing dialogue with attractive ladies. There's no depth there and it's not a relationship gateway it's just a small push to keep you from sitting at home and skipping the train.

This is how I study Korean. It's no wonder, I still can't speak.

One class a week is probably the biggest waste of time in the world. I learned this back in university when I'd take the 3 hour night classes. Two hours once a week is the same thing with less burnout. I'd never study between those weekly classes and have to spend 20 minutes trying to remember everything we did last class. Having an awesome teacher helped but in the end, I just needed more frequent exposure. I think twice a week is the minimum you need to actually retain anything. Ideally you want to be in class 3-4 times a week but rarely does anyone have that much time. If you're going to do something, put the time in or don't bother.

I had a lot more fun in this class. The teacher was actually not as funny. My first teacher was way better.  However, the students in the intermediate class were more comfortable with the language and therefore ready to joke about it.

This is another post that I started writing and kinda stopped because I do this stuff at work and I tend to get interrupted with well...work. So I don't know where this was going. The point is plenty long enough so I'm going to wrap this up. If you're trying to do something like learning a language, find internal and external motivation. Hold on to that idea that you're going to be sitting in a room with pretty girls and talking to them (however pathetic that may come across is up to your perspective). Find a class or a tutor and set firm dates and times. I don't know how big of a prick you are but I personally feel like shit if I break an appointment so I'm going to probably show up even if I don't want to. The only thing harder than the first step is the last one. Take one step forward.

After BG2 came Neverwinter Nights [Author's Note: we're skipping MDK2 to focus on the RPGs -- it was good, whatever]. Everyone feels a certain way about NWN. I thought it was a solid achievement. The campaign was lacking but the toolset was amazing. NWN didn't really shine until NWN2 but that's Obisidian's work not BioWare. The expansions for NWN were amazing (SoU and HotU) but they were just that, expansions -- at its core, the game was a bit lackluster.

BioWare then had the honor to being the first team to make a decent Star Wars game since Jedi Knight 2 (a year prior).  More importantly they were making the first Star Wars RPG (if there is one I'm missing, it sucked balls). Honestly, the outcome was a giant success in my mind but a little of a step back for CRPGs in general. I don't blame them, they have to work in the confines of the Star Wars universe and they did a great job with it. Not a good job, that game was awesome.

Little did I know, what I saw as a step back was really a step forward. BioWare is all about the ability to: "create, deliver, and evolve the emotionally engaging games in the world." Part of this process is making the games more accessible because preserving the RPG roots and characteristics has nothing to do with emotions (not directly). BioWare looks at the RPG as a vehicle and if they see a better one they'll use it instead. This doesn't make them a bad company but for one of the greatest RPG developers in the world to decide to turn their RPG franchises in to fast-paced action titles that crushes me.

I'm skipping a bit of history because if you really want it, Wikipedia is that way. Look at Dragon Age. This game was supposed to be the spiritual successor to Baldur's Gate. What we got was a simplified AD&D universe with a straight forward premise and some pretty staple characters. I give Dragon Age credit because combat remained fun and the world is huge and littered with detail. However, I feel like it lost a lot of depth in the process (from the viewpoint of an RPG). It was a great game, easily my pick for Game of the Year (RPG of the Year at the very least).

The blood comes from your eyes as you play.

We're not going to talk about Dragon Age 2 and how much that game disappoints me. I'm not going to touch it until it hits a steep discount. Even then, it'll only be because I expect things to get better for DA3. Side Note: Is it wrong to just assume a franchise will continue to iterate? Doesn't that say something about our current industry all by itself?

Without dragging this post out, Mass Effect has gone down the same route. It's becoming more action oriented by focusing on a guns and dialogue rather than exploration, tactics, and character development. It's a great series but to call it a pure RPG is misleading and it frankly sucks in that category. Mass Effect is what I want to see from future wannabe action-RPGs.

That's pretty much it. BioWare moving away from RPGs make me a sad panda. I don't blame them, they never promised me anything and after all the great experiences they sure as hell don't owe me anything.  They're making some of the best games in the industry, just not the games I want them to make.

Enter Obsidian, they're like BioWare light and if they had better programmers they might actually be better than BioWare. Their writing already seems to be. I really want to see another Alpha Protocol (less action more RPG this time guys). I hope they get a good project next time because they're wasting their talents working on Dungeon Siege 3. Hell, they're wasting their talents by being a sequel workshop.

As for a little quip about EA. I firmly believe EA is behind the financial strategies BioWare is employing. Their just as abusive (if not more so) than Capcom (which will be addressed). I don't like it, that is all. Other players to be discussed include: Sega, Interplay, CDProjekt, and whoever else strikes me as word worthy.

Quote Source: The Doctors Speak

Mobile gaming is becoming more advanced as the phone become more powerful. We're already carrying PSone caliber devices around, soon we'll be running around with PS3 caliber devices. The hardware is coming.

Speaking of hardware, the only thing holding back mobile gaming is the obsession with slim touch-only devices. I am hesitant to share this because I want to do it myself but ideas are a dime a dozen. A slim slider with a keyboard and angeled shoulder buttons would destroy in the market. Place mappable buttons on the side for music/pocket control and you've created a all-in-one device for all segments. A lot of people will cling to their iPhones and otherwise ultra-slim touch-screen phones but the business, tech/geek, and gaming sectors are all going to want buttons to do what they do more efficiently. These are also the main divisions that are willing to shell out for a quality device. As the devices gain traction in business, the common people will follow.

I think we're gotten things slim enough. Maybe they can get a bit thinner, but really our fingers aren't getting any smaller. Some devices already have ergonomic issues with no space to grip them (thereby resorting to textured surfaces -- great idea). You're going to have to work your way back to practical.

I got a little side-tracked but the point remains the same. Sony needs to commit to making a killer mobile solution instead of trying to run both sides of the fences. The Xperia Play looks like the new nGage to me and the PS Vita is going to be the last of its kind (the last successful one anyway).

Source: Tretton: Mobile Gaming Won't Steal Away Portable Console Gamers (via Gamasutra)

All of us are here to tempt fate.

I have very strict, 'no stupid shit' policy. Which is why, earlier in the year when my friend asked me to go parasailing I told her: "No thanks." Think about it, you're essentially jumping off a mountain and hoping everything works and you don't die. Yeah, I'll pass on that one. When asked to go ziplining I was hesitant. In fact, I almost declined.Good thing I didn't. My time at Munyeong Zip-Line was one of the best experiences I had in Korea. It's funny because this draft was made about three months ago. I forgot about it and when I finally came to make a new post, I found this post unfinished. Now I've lost the energy that I had when I started.

Normally, this is where I tell you how much fun it was. It was a lot of fun. I suprisingly met a friend that same weekend we had a great time as she already knew the guides. We had a lot of jokes along the way and did a couple crazy poses and games. If you have the chance, I whole-heartedly recommend you go.

The biggest thing I took away from this experience was that not everything dangerous will kill me. I need to learn to take more risks because the rewards can be great. Like I said, I was really nervous going in to the experience. I thought about all the horrible things that could go wrong and how much suffering would be involved in each result. In the end, the fastest way down was to jump. I jumped and found a lot more positive energy than I expected. I make it sound dramatic, as if it was a big deal. To any normal person it wasn't but for me it kinda was. Maybe that makes me a bit of a punk but I'm happy to know I'm less of one now.

This is really the adventure of me finding a bit more courage and becoming a little less risk-averse. Along the way, I had quite a bit of fun and really enjoyed the company of my friends. The next time you find yourself in a situation a little outside your comfort zone, embrace the opportunity to expand it rather than live within it.