Dead Rising 2

This game irritated me to the point of me (almost) trading it away before I got through 4 missions.

• Navigation is too time consuming
• Weapons break too quickly
• The main character is too serious
• I'm wasting a lot of time but not having any fun

Limitless

Bradley Cooper is the new Matthew McConaughey. You heard it here first. Limitless was more or less Two For the Money with DeNiro and instead of Pacino. The predictability made me cringe - I had to stop watching because I already figured everything out. I realized this was only 45 minutes in and there might be more plot twists. There were. There were worse than I envisioned. Who gives movies like this and ending like that?

Crysis 2

Played through this in about 5 days. Probably the better FPS I've played this year. Stealth Mode is particularly enjoyable - nothing like sneaking up on fools, close pulling off a stealth kill, silencer tapping another Cyph in the head and hiding back in the bushes. Weapons are balanced and there is plenty of ammo everywhere. There was an awesome part where all the lights went out and I had to battle a Ceph Pinger and a swarm of Stalkers and Commanders. I hunkered down in some bunker and had to outplay the AI - a feasible task in Medium mode. A love me a good boss fight

Cold Weather biking ( again )

Arguably it was not that cold today but I still broke down and decided to invest in a UA ColdGear hood quarter way through the ride. Fortunately for me there is a Sports Authority on 53 & 3rd. The face mask is a bit doofy looking but it keep the head warm, allows for breathing in cold air via the face mask, and it probably very useful for holding up liquor stores.

A+ would do business again

Trip to Cambodia Honorable Mention

Good job South East Asia on having universal electrical sockets. I didn't need to figure out adaptors between all the countries I visited. This used to be a huge pain in the ass. This time it wasn't. #FTW

Cambodia Trip memories

• Flooding in Thailand - nobody seems to care. People sitting around in very flooded stores, chilling on raised furniture.
• Getting fooled by the tuktuk drivers and not seeing the grand palace
• The beach on the islands of sihanoukville
• Watching the sunrise at Ankor Wat
• Siem Reap Ankor What? Cafe. Sickest air band performance of Sweet Child of Mine. I played an excellent Slash
• Siem Reap - biking around town before getting on the bus. Breezing through town, navigating around and generally feeling like a local. I even bought an H1N1 themed bag
• Killing Fields - guide sharing his story of forgiveness
• Sanderzone
• Riding scooter to the top of mountain, hanging at the observation point and riding back down.The driver taught me how to holler at women in Vietamese
• Seeing water world - city of Chau Don in the Mekong Delta ( Vietnam ). We took a boat ride to see floating village, much like the Kevin Constner movie.
• Petting an elephant. Feeding it bananas.

Hello from Cambodia

The weather is wonderful and the flooding is minimal. Everything is super cheap. Spending 2 days at the beach is a great idea.

Posting via iPad app

Not bad
actually pretty bad. I had to use the browser to get the rage face in here

5ive games I want to play

• Dead Island
• Deux Ex : Human Revolution
• Brink
• Batttlefield 3
• Modern Warfare 3

Manhattan things I've done as a Manhattanite Part 2

• Bought a used Hybrid bike on craigslist ( Trek 720 )
• Paragon Warehouse Sale
• Biked on the West Side highway to the George Washington Bridge
• Had some sausage at the Feast of San Gennero 
• Bought fish in Chinatown

Red Dead Redemption

Pretty awesome. Took about 2 week to finish. The RedDead wiki is very useful. Decent game but not quite GTA

Bike Shopping in NYC

EDIT #1 - http://redd.it/ke8dk

EDIT #2 - it's just a cheap Japanese bike. No go.

This is a place on the west side highway - bike is about $175

This is bike #2 - it was 2x the money - but a lot nicer. The bike is a Biria CitiBike

Manhattan things I've done as a Manhattanite

• Bought stuff at The Container Store
• Cycled around Central Park
• Saw improv at The PIT
• Bought vegetables from a corner guy at 2am
• Walked home from work everyday for the last 2 months

New life for old projects

That one thing I did a really long time ago.

I'm now sitting in a meeting watching a new guy from a different team presenting it to the rest of the department ( again )

Computer Books on the iPad

I've recently discovered CHMate for my iPad. I've been looking for a .chm reader for a while.The OTA document transfer is really neat. The hosts a little website where you can upload your .chm files. The app reformats your documents and fonts and has an option for black background. A++

Why .chm you ask ? IMO it's the best format for technical literature ( or any literature ). Easy reformatting, lightweight, and it's not PDF. I have a huge backlog of technical literature from a.b.e-book.technical that I've been meaning to go to. Here's the roster. I'll try to blog about these a little individually

1. Exceptional C++
2. Modern C++ Design
3. Code Complete
4. In Search Of Stupidity

That'll probably last me through the winter.

God Of War 3

Yet another Video Game review. About a year late. I'm on the Craigslist get-it-later cycle.

All in all an awesome game. Having recently finished Darksiders, this feels like a more epic and slightly better polished version.

There is some small carnal pleasure in absolutely murdering everyone in Greek mythology. The redemption plot wasn't all that believable.

Cold Weather Biking

Went out for a ride today - weather is 41F and Sunny - really nice out

• NorthFace hard shell is awesome - vents come in real handy. EDIT: REI article recommends a softshell to let some cold wind through. I think that might work better
• Bike Helmet is like a ski helmet but much much colder. I need to find a hat that fits underneath. Or go with the Ski Helmet liner.
• I really need to invest in a pair of 180s. The $5 knockoff kind that can be found here
• I need a better pants solution - double pair of sweats + windproof is too much
• Can't go wrong with long socks

REI has a good article on winter cycling here

How long do I plan on riding ? Until there is snow/sleet/rain on the ground - I don't have fenders

More games ? I should read books instead

I think since my New Yorker subscription ran out, I've had a lot more time for games. The current queue is as such.

Darksiders

I thought I'd write a serious blog post. Serious serious ruminations on the benefits of continuous integration or the perils of relying too much on the Django ORM. No such luck.

I also beat Darksiders this weekend. In retrospect, Darksiders is an epic game. It's ripped off every single game I've ever played - and added a giant sword ( I've never played Zelda ). Voidwalk through blue and orange portals: check. Freezing time: check. Grappling hooks, box pushing, and monster boss fights: check. Fortunately there were no QTEs.

If the main character wasn't so tragic, upset and serious about everything, it would have been awesome. For a horseman of the Apocalypse, he's awfully pissy. And where are the other Horsemen ? Maybe Django models left a bad taste in his mouth as well.

GTA - Episodes from Liberty City

GTA continues to have the highest production quality of anything I've ever played. It's incredible how they manage to consistently tie the 3 stories here and make references to past games. Kudos

I picked this up on Friday via CL. Cost me all of $20. Beat the 'The Lost and Damned' episode in a weekend - casually. Legend of Gay Tony is a little longer. The characters are awesome, and I like the rip-off Rolls Royce Drophead