I once again find myself in a position in which I have a sum of money at my disposal and no immediate need to apply it to something practical. It is therefore time to enter my annual post in which I contemplate which unnecessary purchase most appeals to me! Weeee!

Here are the possibilities:

1. A new kayak - this is probably a poor choice since I’m not entirely sure I spent any time in my kayak last year. My rationalization is that if I had a new, more capable boat, I’d spend more time in it. This, however, conflicts with the desire to get…
2. A new bike - No, there’s nothing wrong with my trike. Nothing at all. But I would very much like to also have a recumbent of the two wheeled variety, preferably one that folds so I can transport it even when I have to take Gareth and his wheelchair to school. Though, my transport issues could be solved simply by purchasing outdoor storage for my trike since the reason I don’t take it with me regardless is that I have to store it in my basement which has only an indoor entrance.
3. A bike rack expansion - The company that makes my current bike rack has recently started selling an accessory for it that allows one to hang a trike off the back of the rack, which would mean no more bug splatter all over the front of my trike from being on the roof. It would also mean no more lifting the trike to the roof of my element and having to secure it from both sides of the vehicle.
4. A PS3 - Now that Blu-Ray is the de facto winner of the HD media war (for now), I feel as though I can justify a PS3 purchase. But the games, oh the games. Are they really there just yet? Does that even matter? If my goal is to have a Blu-Ray player, then no, the games don’t matter. I like to think, however, that I would one day like to play games on a game console.
5. A new camera - While I’m not a fan of carrying around a bag of lenses (been there, done that), I am a fan of higher image fidelity, RAW mode, larger image sensors, and hot shoes. My DSC-H2 has done well by me, but I’m tired of filtering out purple fringe or of being limited to 16×24 prints.
6. A new PC - This is the least likely option as I’ve simply abandoned PC gaming. Perhaps I’d get back into it were I to have a capable machine, but Brandy and I are trying to set ourselves up to spend more time with each other while one of us is computing, not less. A gaming PC wouldn’t aid that in any way. A gaming laptop might help, but I hold gaming laptops in low regard (high price, low shelf life) and will actively avoid such a solution.

So yeah, it’s a rough life, I know. No matter what, I’m going to be doing about a month of research before I can make a decision. Bikes and cameras in particular are not purchases to be entered into lightly (at least, not if you’re really picky).

UPDATE: Two days after writing this, I picked up a PS3 and a widescreen monitor.  So much for patience.  Still, though, I’ve got enough left over for a camera upgrade and am looking forward to judging the performance of the Olympus 570UZ when it comes out.   I’m just not ready yet to go back to carrying a bag of lenses around with me.

Eelke Folmer is an assitant professor in the Computer Science & Engineering department of the University of Nevada. He’s also a gamer with an interest in game accessibility. He has quite a variety of projects including Guitar Hero for the blind, but the one that really caught my attention was Gordon’s Trigger Finger, a mod for Half-Life 2 that essentially turns the player into a bot while allowing the player to retain control of firing weapons.

And it just so happens that I know somebody who has difficulty controlling movement in games but is perfectly capable of hitting a switch to initiate weapon fire. I’m going to have to try out this mod and see how it goes. If it works well for Gareth, we might end up having to buy another copy of Half-Life 2 in order to do multiplayer.

For the record, that would be my third copy of HL2.

Let me start by saying she was absolutely right to do this. Also, I would like to say that she’s only doing this because she knows me, knows that of which I am capable.

Having said that, Brandy has granted me a limited allowance for weekly spending … on downloadable songs for Rock Band.

One of the promises of developer Harmonix is that there will be weekly releases of new content for Rock Band consisting of sometimes single tracks and other times packs of three songs. For example, here’s what they’re planning to release between now and the end of this year (the following list was taken from Shacknews):

Week of November 20, 2007

Metallica Pack
- Ride the Lightning
- Blackened
- And Justice for All

The Police Pack
- Can’t Stand Losing You
- Synchronicity II
- Roxanne

Queens of the Stone Age Pack
- 3’s and 7’s
- Little Sister
- Sick Sick Sick

Individual Tracks
- Creedence Clearwater Revival, “Fortunate Son Revival” *
- Foreigner, “Juke Box Hero” *
- T-Rex, “Bang a Gong (Get It On)” *
- The Knack, “My Sharona” *
- The Runaways, “Cherry Bomb” *
- Wolfmother, “Joker & The Thief”

Week of November 27, 2007

David Bowie Pack
- Moonage Daydream
- Heroes *
- Queen Bitch *

Week of December 4, 2007

Black Sabbath Pack
- N.I.B. *
- Sweet Leaf *
- War Pigs *

Week of December 11, 2007

Punk Pack
- Ramones, “Rockaway Beach”
- The Clash, “I Fought the Law”
- Buzzcocks, “Ever Fallen In Love” *
Week of December 18, 2007

Individual Tracks
- Radiohead, “My Iron Lung”
- Weezer, “Buddy Holly”
- Pretenders, “Brass in Pocket” *
Confirmed Full Albums

The Who, “Who’s Next”
- Baba O’Riley
- Bargain
- Love Ain’t for Keeping
- My Wife
- The Song Is Over
- Getting in Tune
- Going Mobile
- Behind Blue Eyes
- Won’t Get Fooled Again (included with full game)
Nirvana, “Nevermind”
- Smells Like Teen Spirit
- In Bloom (included with full game)
- Come as You Are
- Breed
- Lithium
- Polly
- Territorial Pissings
- Drain You
- Lounge Act
- Stay Away
- On a Plain
- Something in the Way
Grateful Dead Collection
- Sugar Magnolia
- Truckin’
- Casey Jones
- Uncle John’s Band
- Touch Of Grey

Now, the prices for these things vary. Most songs are to be $1.99 each, some as low as $0.99 and some as high as $2.99. The 3 packs sell for $5.49. I hadn’t actually mentioned any of that before Brandy set my allowance - $10 per week. That should definitely be sufficient. At least, one would hope so since that translates to $520 a year. Jesus Christ.

Back when DDR Ultramix was still being supported with downloadable packs, I ended up purchasing 13 packs at a cost of $5 each. I am, apparently, the target market for downloadable content because I eat this shit up.

Except for that Grateful Dead collection. I think I’ll pass on that.

Whatever… Thanks go to my loving wife who understands both my desires and my limited self-control. Without her, I would be homeless, warming myself only with the heat generated by my consoles.

Being a regular reader of several gaming sites, I get my daily fill of horror stories related to GameStop/EB Games.  They all basically start with, “I went in to buy X”, then include “only had pre-orders”, and invariably end with “across the street and got it at Wal-Mart/Best Buy/Circuit City”.  These are always posted by people who have done this several times and haven’t been able to make the decision to just not go to GameStop first.

I don’t really have any GameStop horror stories because I use them for two purposes: saving a few bucks on a used game and pre-ordering niche games or those that will be hard to find.  If those are your only expectations for the level of service at a GameStop, you’ll be a happy customer.  If you expect to walk into a gaming wonderland full of rainbows and lollipops, well, I can see how you would walk away disappointed.

The reason I’m bringing all this up is that a GameStop employee has posted the inside scoop on how GameStop operates and why.  He also offers tips on getting the most out of your GameStop experience.

GameStop serves me quite well, allowing me to purchase locally the games that the big box stores just won’t carry at release.  Pre-ordering gets me a guaranteed purchase on day one with none of the hassle of shipping.  It doesn’t hurt that GameStop is located right along my commute.

If you’re intending to buy a game that everybody is going to carry, don’t go to GameStop.  It’s that simple.  Go to a retailer who will offer a better price, better release swag, et cetera.  But if you’re intending to buy a game that nobody knows about, pre-order at GameStop.  It’s a fairly painless process.  Yes, they will ask if you wish to pre-order anything else.  Politely say “No thanks”.  It’s that easy.

Having said that, I find it shocking that even their online site has no listing for Ace Combat: Skies of Deception for the PSP.  It was released only a year ago!  Game sales are a fickle beast.

14 days. Two weeks. Half a month. An eternity. All of these describe the time between now and the release of Rock Band.

I’ve been a Harmonix fan for a long time, so I’m more than happy to keep following them along their development path, especially if it means buying a host of peripherals good for one game only. (See also: DDR, Pump It Up, Karaoke Revolution, Ace Combat 6, Beatmania, Donkey Konga) My Rock Band pre-order was filed with a local Gamestop some time ago, so it’s now just a waiting game.

Well, a waiting and accessorizing game. You see, it is never enough for me to just get a stock game and play it. Oh no, I must add to the experience in some way. For DDR, it was making custom control boxes for my dance pads. For Guitar Hero, it was purchasing aftermarket guitar straps and decals in order to make the toy controllers look dorkier than originally designed. And now with Rock Band, it’s all about setting the stage.

To that effect, I have on order a few items. The first is a microphone stand with a boom arm so that I can position the mic for a variety of scenarios: standing with just the mic as the lead singer; standing with the mic while playing guitar; sitting with the mic while playing drums. Of course, I can’t sit at the drums without a good seat, so I’ve also ordered a drum throne.

On the cheap and easy side of things, I’ve printed out the game’s track list and have started hunting for the tracks on the Zune Marketplace since I’m licensed for them under my monthly Zune Pass. Why do I need to do this? Because I’m hoping to join the ranks of drummers who sing, even though what I’ll be doing is neither really drumming nor really singing. But in order to do both, I’ll need to know the song lyrics since I won’t be able to follow the screen cues for the lyrics and the drum hits simultaneously.

I know what you’re thinking: “Travis, you have my undying admiration for your faux rock aspirations.” And I thank you for that. I also thank my loving wife whose eyes will certainly roll at watching me dive into yet another obsession. Perhaps she’ll feel better when I present her with the gift of leather, eyeliner, and a choker so that she can masquerade as my groupie.

Or, perhaps not.

Oh blog, how I have neglected thee.  So here’s a roundup in order to save folks from seeing a ton of separate entries.

The family biked Tour du Port on 10/21.  We actually made an entire weekend out of it, doing the Baltimore inner harbor tourist thing for two days and then participating in the ride on Sunday.  We did the 10 mile route since Gareth was in attendance, but that was plenty.  Gareth was tired out by the end of it, Brandy was scared shitless by her first road ride, and I barely broke a sweat.  The scenery along the ride wasn’t terrible, but it wasn’t anything special, either.  It just didn’t compare to Bike Philly.

Once the weather turns for the better again, I’m going to look into what it would take to bike from Pittsburgh to DC along the Great Allegheny Passage and C & O Canal Towpath.  I don’t think I’m going to be able to do it both ways, though.  I’m sure I can talk Brandy into meeting me in DC for a post-ride vacation.  I know my goal for next year was originally to ride the MS 150, but I don’t know if I’m going to be able to maintain the average speed necessary to do that in a timely manner.  If I’m going to do the 316 mile ride from Pittsburgh to DC, I’m definitely going to need to train throughout the winter.

Of course, I can’t spend all winter on a bike, which is where video games come in.  There are too many games being released this season.  Of the 30 or so titles for Q4, a mere four are on my radar.  First up with Ace Combat 6 with the flight stick bundle.  I picked that up on day one.  Next up are Super Mario Galaxy and Rock Band.  And, while Guitar Hero III is already out, I have delayed my purchase of it due to hating the demo.  No, Halo 3 was never under consideration.  I tend to wait a year before playing Halo releases.

Pumpkins have been carved in anticipation for tonight’s trick-or-treat visitors.  For the first time ever, I have carved a pumpkin with a Star Wars theme.  A stormtrooper, to be exact.  It’s not the most technically accurate rendering in the world, but it gets the point across.  Photos coming soon.

Speaking of Halloween, I attended Gareth’s school Halloween parade.  He was having a blast in it, as were the 10 Darth Vaders, 2 Jango Fetts, 1 Clone Trooper, and 1 Storm Trooper.  Oh, and some kid was dressed up as a power droid!  Hell yeah!  GONK.

And, uh… I think that’s about it!

My 360 coffin arrived from Microsoft two days ago.  With my console lovingly bundled inside, I took it to UPS for shipping to Texas where it will hopefully be repaired to a working state.  In the meantime, I’ll have to console (ha ha) myself with the Wii and Zelda, no matter how slow that game feels.

So that’s it then, my Xbox 360 is useless. Well, not entirely useless - I can play on the Dashboard all I want, but as soon as I go to play a game, I get 3 minutes into it and the entire system locks up.

Which means I have at least 5 weeks to wait to finish BioShock. Son of a bitch.

As I pull the 360 from my console shelves, I can’t help but look at my past consoles - the PS1, PS2, GameCube, Dreamcast, Xbox 1, Genesis - and marvel at the fact that they have all managed to live long, healthy lives without ever once giving me a problem.

Maybe, some day, Microsoft will figure out and fix their design flaws in the 360, but by then, it will be time to move on to the next generation.

As I’m not known for being emotional, it may surprise you to know that emotional moments are not foreign to me. In particular are what I call the “Dad” moments - those times in fatherhood when you’re so happy you could (and nearly do) cry. Unfortunately, all of my dad moments are rather odd, but here goes:

Reading “The Hobbit” to Gareth in the hospital - This one almost doesn’t count since it was Gareth’s second day of life and he was largely unresponsive, having just the night before gone through his traumatic entry into this world. Still, it was something I really wanted to do, so I headed into a little bookstore in Danville, grabbed their last copy, and got back to the NICU to proceed with the narration. It was something I had always pictured doing as a dad, even if I didn’t picture having to do it in those circumstances.

Introducing Gareth to Quake 3 Arena - Holding him with one arm and gaming with the other, I sat Gareth in my lap so he could see what his dad did for fun. We’ve revisited Q3A a few times since then when I was adapting joysticks for his use as input devices. Since then we’ve moved onto other less bloody games.

Gareth’s first trip to a movie theater - For Shrek 2, of all things. Years have been spent honing the sharp edge of my movie snobbery. I am intolerant of chatter, children, phones, and comedians in my theater environment. As such, I was always very concerned about taking Gareth into a theater with his suction gear which consists of a small suction pump connected to a canister and tubing. When you kick it on, it makes quite a bit more noise than one would imagine, which does nothing for a normally quiet movie setting. After Shrek 2 had been in theaters over a month, I took Gareth to a show I thought would be largely empty. It sort of was, but there were enough other attendees that I started feeling self-conscious. But when the lights dimmed, the trailers played, and the opening of the movie started to run, I forgot about everybody and just marveled that I was sitting in a theater with my son. Seriously, I teared up. Then, about 10 minutes into it, Gareth lost all interest and started crying like crazy. We left shortly thereafter.

Gareth discovers that the soul still burns - Due to the various joysticks I have for console games, we eventually gave up on PC gaming and moved to the basement where Gareth discovered Donkey Konga, Taiko Drum Master, Dance Dance Revolution, and Soul Calibur. After just a little time with Soul Calibur, Gareth picked up on the fact that movement was handled with the joystick and attacks were handled by the buttons. He quickly learned to move his hand to the stick to position his fighter and then move that same hand to the buttons to kick, punch, and throw. How could I not be proud of that? He has now added Wii Sports Baseball to his list of regular games. He also has an insane love of video game theme songs - I have only to whistle the Donkey Konga theme or hum the intro to Taiko Drum Master to make him burst into instant laughter. No, he does not know the Mario theme.

Gareth faces down Darth Vader - I spent so much time worrying about taking Gareth away from his support staff (nurses, doctors, therapists) that I spent no time contemplating how great a vacation could be, so imagine the 180 I did when we arrived at DisneyWorld and almost instantly ended up on a stage with lightsaber on hand, swinging at Darth Vader. Holy shit. From that moment on, we all had a great vacation, and I had another dad moment. That one became a Gareth moment, too. He enjoyed telling everybody he knew that he fought Darth Vader and that daddy dropped the lightsaber.

Gareth gets his first bike - And probably his last.  About the time I decided to get back into bicycling, Gareth decided he loved nothing more than to pedal a trike around his preschool playground. From that moment, I planned for us to find a way to ride together. I got three dad moments out of this event: a first moment when he sat on his bike for his fitting; a second moment when we rode it for the very first time even though it was raining and in January; a third moment when we rode together in the RBR rally. Our ride in the Colyer 4th of July parade comes close, but that wasn’t emotional enough to qualify under my “Dad moment” rules.

Walking Gareth to school - This is the moment that inspired today’s entry. This morning, I walked Gareth to his second day of kindergarten, meeting one of his classmates on the way, hanging out while we waited for the crossing guard, and dropping him off in his classroom. On the way back, I just realized how great it felt to do that, to be an honest to goodness parent of a child old enough, smart enough, and lucky enough to be going to school like any other kid when his whole life has been stacked against him.

I’m bound to have plenty more dad moments in my lifetime, but these are a good start. Here’s a prediction, though - my next major dad moment will come when Gareth is able to express himself without the help of others. I’m going to be a blubbering mess when that happens.

And then I’m going to worry about all the stuff Brandy and I have said in front of him over the years. There are some words he definitely knows that shouldn’t be repeated in polite company.

I had hoped that the purchase of the Wii and its placement in the living room would mean that Brandy would engage in more video game activity. Turns out my hopes are being fulfilled as Brandy likes kicking my ass in Wii Sports Bowling. She consistently wins our bowling battles, usually pulling ahead in the final two frames.

I’ve been informed by others that there is a method to ensure consistent strikes, but I am choosing not to know this method in order to keep Bowling fun for both Brandy and me. If I start consistently winning, the joy will go out of playing for her. My humiliation is a small price to pay for gaming with my wife.