A week with Verizon FIOS

Tech

It’s been a week since we got FIOS installed and so far so good. We got a guy who knew what he was doing when he installed it. That’s always a good start. He did a lot of work in 5 hours, but the TV, internet and phone worked right off the bat.

Internet is crazy fast, not that optimum cable was slow. FIOS just outclasses it, especially the upload speeds. You can skip around in videos and it almost never buffers. The new FIOS router wanted nothing to do with the bridge attached to my 360, so I replaced the bridge with a new Linksys bridge. Not the ideal scenario as it cost me $100, but it worked right away, it’s got a good connection strength and the bandwidth is definitely improved so the 360 is cruising right now.

Phone works just as well on the cable system, nothing worth mentioning there. The TV service is really great. Menus load in less than a second and they don’t look like they were designed in 1999. And! Stuff that is supposed to be in Dolby Digital 5.1 (like movie channels) actually comes through the receiver as DD 5.1! No audio or visual artifacts either. The TV service just looks and feels like a step above Cablevision. So it’s a thumbs up for the service so far.

Music!

Music

Korn III has leaked and I couldn’t help myself! Why rob myself of 10 days of enjoyment? Still have the special edition with bonus DVD to look forward to and that has 2 more songs and a new live recording of Blind. I’m gonna write a big review of the album when it officially comes out but I’ve listened to it in full 5 times since yesterday and I’ll just say that I am very happy.

Poking around the net I just found out the Smashing Pumpkins are doing this crazy concept album where they release 4 songs at a time for free on the net. There will be 44 songs total for “Teargarden by Kaleidyscope” in total. 11 EP’s will be released over time and culminate in a giant deluxe uber set when it’s all done. All can be found on smashingpumpkins.com

Astral Planes
A Stitch in Time
Widow Wake My Mind
A Song For a Son
Freak

Corgan got a new Bass player and Drummer too.

Lastly, Eminem’s “Recovery” is phenomenal. Triumphant return I’d say.

Summer

Movies, Music, TV

After last years 3 week long summer, it’s good to see this year we don’t have to wait until July for great weather. Makes a big difference, it seems like everyone is happier with sunshine and heat.

The standard TV season is over, Lost is pretty much gone and forgotten. It wasn’t a bad ending, but the show pretty much collapsed under it’s own weight. Shame because the show started so strong. Breaking Bad on the other hand was probably the best show on TV this season. Maybe one weak episode out of 13 (with no breaks might I add) and even that episode was better than most other shows. 3 amazing seasons and going although I’m not sure how they’re going to get themselves out of the intense corner they are in.

I’ve watched some movies here and there, but nothing really special. It’s been a weak summer for movies so far, but Toy Story 3 should change that. I’ve watched more TV shows on DVD more than movies lately. Started Mad Men and it’s good, but I haven’t seen anything so far that seems to make people go wild for it. I’m only 6 episodes in so it’s still early. Watched season 1 and 2 of Party Down and I didn’t like it at first. The characters started growing on me so that made me stick with the show and I’m glad I did. There’s some good stuff in there (it’s about a catering company in Hollywood. My favorite actor from Freaks and Geeks is in it and there are a ton of cameos through out). Justified (on FX) had a great first season as well. I look forward to the second.

True Blood is back on and it remains as mediocre as usual. There’s a new show coming up on HBO about gangsters in old school Atlantic City that looks pretty cool, I need to remember to record it.

Played through Red Dead Redemption and really liked it. The Wild West setting really drew me in and for some reason it’s made me want to finish all the lengthy side quests. On the other side is Blur, an awesome real car take on kart racing by Bizarre Creations. Easy to hop onto that for awhile and have a good time beating on a dozen or so other people. I just started Dante’s Inferno which is basically God of War with a different theme. Seems competent an hour into it. Crackdown 2 is next in my sights, the demo coming out tomorrow will swing me on a purchase or a rental.

Eminem’s Recovey is a fantastic album. He’s shed most of his lyrical cliches and he’s better off for it. He’s got some brilliant rhymes to go with some really creative beats. It’s a much more positive album for him and it’s got a soul that was missing from Encore and Relapse.

Korn III: Remember Who You Are is less than a month away and I’ve got tickets to see them at Mayhem Fest 2 weeks later. Really looking forward to it.

Iron Man 2 the Review

Movies

I saw Iron Man 2 more than a week ago and I just realized I didn’t write about it.

A well made, average movie. I’m pretty apathetic about it. I’ve never been a fan of the IM character so I really have no expectations for it. Maybe just wanting to see a guy in a robot suit lay down the law in a blaze of glory, of which there is very little of in this movie.

After the 2 hour movie was over, it was left feeling that there wasn’t enough fun stuff between all the talking and Robert Downey Jr. making faces at the camera. There were a lot of cop-outs. I dig Mickey Rourke, but he was barely in it. His whips were really cool, but again, he barely uses them. I have no idea how he survived getting his torse crushed by a 2 ton car either. Tony Stark is a drunk but they pass it off here as his reaction to being unable to find a cure for his power core induced illness. But the worst is the way they cured him, I can’t remember seeing anything that dumb and ludicrus in ages. People ridiculed Avatar for it’s silly use of “Unobtanium” but the magical model/over night Hadon Supercollider/laser beam triangle element-ium is just insulting.

The cast is fine, the effects match and what action there was, was fun to watch. In the end I just feel like it’s nothing special, a good rental. Batman for life.

PTK

Life

It’s been a week since I had the PTK procedure (surgery?) done on my left I. It was unpleasant. It’s kinda like going to the dentist. You can think of a million things you’d rather be doing, but it’s not that bad. It only takes 5 minutes to remove the scar and a laser was used in the last bit, for what I have no idea. It was literally a few seconds and then it was clean up, put a contact lens in to protect the open area and then it’s eyedrop mania. Had the contact lens off yesterday and now I have a different eye medication for the next 2 weeks, So the haze is gone but I have a some blurriness. It’s not that bad and it seems to be getting a little better everyday. The healing process is still in full effect so it’s going to be some time for my vision to stabilize. Hopefully this stupid thing works unlike last year, so the end game is out on that one right now. It should cost me a whole lot less even though the medication has cost $200 (which would have been almost 600 without insurance, which is insane). Should get a statement from the insurance company to see if they’re going to be useless or a real benefit.