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mikeszekely

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Everything posted by mikeszekely

  1. mikeszekely
    I like 'em, mainly because I think they tell a better ghost story than a lot of American flicks where everyone lives happily ever after. And despite the zombie craze being more popular, I still think a vengeful ghost is scarier. Some of my favorites would be Ring, Juon (the V-Cinema original), The Eye, Memento Mori, Noroi: The Curse, Whispering Corridors, and One Missed Call (Chakushin Ari). I thought a Tale of Two Sisters is well-done (and tragic), but a tad on the boring side. Dark Water was good, but the ending is a little WTF (and not as good as Koji Suzuki's original short story). I didn't care for Tomie, but Tomie seems to be a love it or hate it kind of movie for a lot of people. And maybe I'm missing the point, but I hated Kairo (Pulse), even though it's often held up as some kind of shining example of J-horror.
  2. mikeszekely
    +1 ya back. Like the Reventon. Sure, it's an example of ridiculous excess, but I love the lines.
  3. mikeszekely
    I'd rather skip the boxy entirely.
  4. mikeszekely
    Oh. Well, in that case I agree with you.
  5. mikeszekely
    Hey, I agree with him. Not so much with MSG, but with the whole health-food thing in general. Like, I love hamburgers. If I was offered a hamburger or a piece of cake, I'd eat the burger. That isn't to say that I don't enjoy a little broccoli or an apple here and there, but if someone told me I'd live 20 years longer if I never ate another burger I'd probably go straight to Five Guys. Life is short. I'd rather enjoy my time on this earth than scheme of ways to extend it. They still have payphones? Even today, in a world where more people own a cell phone than have broadband internet?
  6. mikeszekely
    I thought maybe the holiday rush had ending (it hadn't) and that it might be a good time to hunt for Transformers again. I lucked out and found a solitary Dirge at Toys R Us (they also had Cybertronian Cliffjumper and tons of Skullgrins). Burlington Coat Factory had a surprising number of TFs, too, including Darkmount, Soundwave, and Red Alert, but I wasn't looking for them. I think the only TFs that I know people have found that I haven't yet are Jazz and Tracks... has anyone seen Blurr yet? I would like to get him, too.
  7. mikeszekely
    I have a personal taste for any of the Western Digital Caviar Blacks (the Caviar Blues are solid, too, but avoid the Greens).
  8. mikeszekely
    I am amused by the irony of this rant combined with your avatar...
  9. mikeszekely
    Not sure how many times I've said it in this thread already, but I suppose I'll say it again: you do NOT need those 10,000rpm Raptors. The small performance boost over a good 7200rpm drive is nowhere near the asking price. Even SSDs aren't worth it yet. While a quality SSD can be quite fast, a 64gb drive (smaller than your maxed-out Raptor) is in the same price range as a 2tb 7200rpm magnetic platter.
  10. mikeszekely
    When we refer to centuries, a century ends on a year ending in 00 and the next begins in 01. This is because there was no year zero, and we're counting from the first century AD (or CE, for politically correct) Now, if we were counting decades from the first decade, then the years of 2001-2010 would be the 201st decade. But, we don't really count decades like that. And, strictly speaking, a decade is any ten-year period. If you turn 40 in 2014, then you'll have lived for four decades. Since we don't count decades back from the first, we tend to group decades by the number in the 10s space. That is, 1980-1989 was the 80's, even though the 180th decade since year 1 would have been 1981-1990. Using that system of grouping, the 2000s ran from 2000-2009, and we're in the... I dunno. Teens, I guess, until 2020 rolls around.
  11. mikeszekely
    I'll agree with the iPad as best consumer electronics doo-dad. It's not perfect, and I think it's over-priced, but like the iPhone before it for smartphones, it represents a paradigm shift in computing. Tablet no longer refers to chunky laptops with swiveling touchscreens, tablet now means 7"-11" slate, usually running a mobile OS, and tablets are going to explode in the coming years (especially if Google can better optimize Android for tablets). Tablets are unlikely, at least for the immediate future, to replace PCs, but I foresee them totally killing the market for netbooks. That said, it was a good year for Android, too. With the 2.2 update, Android's really coming into its own, and there are a ton of great handsets to choose from. I know I could have gone to AT&T and got one of those iPhone 4s everyone seems to love so much, but I opted instead to stick with Verizon and go with the HTC Droid Incredible. It's not a choice I regret. But Angry Birds for PC/Videogame of the year? I know it's kind of a phenomenon on the iPhone/iPad/Android-phone-of-choice. I've downloaded it myself. And while it's a well-produced game that stands out against a lot of the crap that floods the mobile market, it's definitely more "time-waster while waiting in line at the deli" than "best game I played in 2010." No, my game of the year choice would be Mass Effect 2. (Fallout 3 fans, take heart, it was my game of the year pick for 2008).
  12. mikeszekely
    Hey, I'm all for games as art. Mass Effect, as a sci-fi narrative experience, is on par with Star Wars. Portal did an amazing job of creating atmosphere almost entirely through the dialogue of a psychotic computer. And the list goes on. But there's a world of difference between games as art and art as games. It doesn't matter how beautiful your game looks or how atmospheric it is if the game is no fun to play.
  13. mikeszekely
    I hated it. I wish developers, especially Indie developers, would stop mistaking art for gameplay. Yes, the game is visually a work of art, conveying a lot of the games atmosphere in a gorgeous monochrome. The gameplay, though, pretty much consisted of running into an instant-kill trap you couldn't see, remembering where it was so you could get by it when you respawned, only to run into the next insant-kill trap. Repeat ad-nauseum.
  14. mikeszekely
    Need a quick bit of advice. Winter is already getting pretty lousy here in western PA. I'm having a hard time getting around in my Lancer with the original tires. I live in a small apartment, so snow tires aren't really an option since I don't have anywhere to store the tires that aren't on my car. I want to get some all-weathers. My budget is pretty tight, too. I'm considering two tires, and I'd appreciate any insight you guys had on either. I'm between Yokohama Avid ENVigor and Continental ExtremeContact DWS. I assume you mean visual mods? I think, if you have a nice car and you want to make it stand out, that's one thing. Or, if you have a car that was nice at one time, and it needs overhauled, that's one thing too. But I die a little when I see the kids around here who barely made it through high school putting chrome exhausts, low-profile tires and expensive rims onto early '90s Civics with two-tone paint jobs and rust spots. If you drive a beater, you don't spend more money tarting it up than you did on the car, you save that money and buy a better car. That's why I sold my stock Mirage and bought a Lancer GTS. And I see no reason to do anything with the Lancer, because I like the way it looks just fine. Of course, performance mods are a different ball game.
  15. mikeszekely
    This. Except I'm not super huge on old cars, period. Aside from a collection of truly stand-out designs, I'm too in love with modern tech.
  16. mikeszekely
    Hilariously true. Thanks for that, Graham.
  17. mikeszekely
    I'm digging it. It's got some interesting lines.
  18. mikeszekely
    I lucked out too. Not with Dirge... I've seen absolutely no sign of him or Blurr. But, I went to Target today to see if there was any Hanukkah clearance. I'd already been to Target earlier in the week for some necessities, and checked for Transformers then, and didn't find anything. But today, I found a solitary Thunderwing. It's impressive how he came out. His appearance is uncannily like a better articulated, more detailed version of the original Pretender with a bit more jet kibble on his back. Not gonna lie, there's a lot of it, although he doesn't come off as bad as, say, Silverbolt. Jet mode is also evocative of his Pretender's jet mode, but with less stuff on it. From the top, it looks pretty good. From the bottom... well, he's a little chunky. They hide his head pretty well, and his legs are supposed to be his engines, but his legs are so leg-shaped and not plane-part-shaped that it's pretty apparent that there's a robot there. The worst part is that, like Jetfire, his arms don't transform at all. It's not really a deal-breaker though, since his bot mode is so good. One other thing I do like is that the nose pops out as a little "drone" that looks an awful lot like his old inner-robot's alt mode. Sadly, the drone doesn't transform.
  19. mikeszekely
    The opposite seems to be true as well. From my time with an iPod touch and an iPad, plus my time with a Droid Incredible, I'd say that iOS is easier to use, and that Android is more customizable. I like that the App Store in iOS is very easy to navigate, and I like the level of polish that a lot of iOS apps and games show. I also like the lack of fragmentation in iOS devices, and Safari is still the best web browser on a mobile device (even if it doesn't support tabs). On the flip side, I like that I can manage apps and media in Android without crap like iTunes, I like how easy it is to import and manage contacts via Gmail, I like that I can easily add storage or replace the battery, I like some of the widgets that are available, and I like the notification tray. The reality for both operating systems is that they're ultimately pages of apps laid out in a grid, and I've found that I can do pretty much the same tasks on both, sometimes with an identical app, sometimes with a different one. Both operating systems are good, so going with one over the other isn't a bad choice, but a lot of people have dropped their carrier, switched to AT&T, and stay with AT&T even though they hate their service (not saying that's true for every iPhone user, BTW, I know people who are perfectly content with AT&T's service), just for the cool factor or some perception that the iPhone does something for them that no other phone can, even though they just use it to text and update their Facebook. You can't tell me that that's not an emotional decision.
  20. mikeszekely
    My car's a 2010, and you've got four choices: DRL, on, on + foglights, or high beams. There's no real off, and switching between them is entirely manual. Turn the knob away, actual lights come on. Turn the springy knob next to it, foglights come on. Turn the main knob toward you, lights go back to DRL.
  21. mikeszekely
    Which one is the one that comes in the pink packets? I like that stuff. It's sweeter than sugar.
  22. mikeszekely
    Aren't you planning on upgrading to Windows 7? I could have sworn you said something about that... By the way, IE9 is nice. I still prefer Firefox for a variety of reasons, but IE9 is still tons better than IE8. Or IE7.
  23. mikeszekely
    Really? In the circles I run with, it's the opposite. Every idiot around seems to have an iPhone, but techies prefer Android. Me? I think the iPad is plenty of iOS for me. I'm happy with Verizon's network, so I'm leaning Android for my next phone.
  24. mikeszekely
    Yeah, I went to my local Walgreens. Know what I found... ...Animated Swoop. ...yeah.
  25. mikeszekely
    Hey, old guys with hats have to drive too.
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