PixlBit

Good Afternoon Pixlbit Nation! It is Friday and I just finished lunch after running around all morning. I am happy the weekend is here so I can just plop myself down someplace comfy and just do nothing but spend time with Mr. PS4. I think we all go through those moments where we don’t want to do anything until Monday starts so you know how I’m feeling. Let’s get this latest blog started and start the next edition of Quick Hits With Chris!

 

Chris Watches...

 

Game of Thrones

Oh the new season is back and I am excited. Even if this episode was more of a “What is Everyone Up To” type of episode I can’t wait to see how they handle this season, and in keeping up with GoT what is going to happen in episode 9.

 

Agents of SHIELD

So SHIELD takes a page out of the Arrow playbook and I enjoyed it. I have some crazy off the wall theories and I really want some of this to influence the new Avengers flick.

 

Daredevil

So I am one episode in, and I’m liking the story. I don’t know much about his storyline other than what I’ve seen from the Afflick flick. I like the origin story in what I am assuming the core group of Daredevil and I can’t wait to dive into more of this first season.

 

 Hell’s Kitchen

 

Yep my favorite chef got eliminated. It happens, she didn’t have the skills apparently. I still don’t get how these professionals seem to make what appear to be rookie mistakes, but that is part of the charm of HK. That’s and Chef Ramsay yelling.

 

Arrow

Holy Cow is this episode of Green Batman crazy. There is so much going on that I don’t want to talk about it, even in black bar form. Go watch it, and the season finale is going to be crazy good.

 

This is easily one of my favorite commercials to promote the season finales for a couple of shows. I liked it so much I bought the single playing in the background.

 

Movie Trailers

I think we have all seen the new Star Wars and Batman & Superman Trailers. I can’t wait for Star Wars and I’m hoping for the best when it comes to Batman & Superman.

 

X-Men Days of Future Past

HBO finally aired it and I got to watch it and well…it is such a terrible Terminator/Matrix/Back to the Future flick. Oh man there was nothing that I liked about it, ok maybe Jennifer Lawrence but there wasn’t enough of her in the flick. At times I found myself saying “when is the Terminator going to stop this” or “when is Trinity going to tell Wolverine she loves him” so the squid robots err Sentinals would die. I believe I called how the movie would end within the first five minutes. I was a tad bit off about Wolverine opening up the garage to find the black 4X4 truck ready for the weekend trip to the lake.

 

Ducks Hockey

Let’s GO DUCKS! That is all I have to say about this.

 

 

Chris Roams Around…

The local Pho Spot

I am not a fan of Tofu but a couple of nights ago I wanted some fried Tofu to go along with my small bowl of Pho (and by small bowl it’s a mini kiddie pool.) I was digging the Fried Tofu, and couldn’t finish my “small” bowl. I guess every so often Fried Tofu hits the spot.

 

Out Walking

I keep saying that I need new places to go walking because I like to take pictures while I walk. Earlier in the week while I was out I decided to take a 10-minute stop at a spot with a bench. Usually this is where the Duck Neighbors like to hang out before jumping into the lake. I snapped this pic

 

I thought it looked cool, and I probably could get a better shot but it wasn’t anything serious, just me playing with some settings.

 

The Local Mall

Sunday is usually CD Sunday where I go check out the mom & pop store and I heard that this weekend is Record Store Day. I don’t know if I am going to take part this year but if I do decide to go these are the three items I’d like to get

 

A-Ha Take On Me Picture Disc. It’ll be another single I won’t open but it would be cool to have and eventually frame

 

 

Wu-Tang Clan Protect Ya Neck Single on multicolored vinyl. I missed out on the Wu-Tang Clan’s W shaped single, and this is the next best thing…because the Wu-Tang Clan Ain’t Nothing To F**k Wit.

 

 

This is just more for the nostalgia for old WWF wrestling.

Anyways if you’re interested in Record Store Day, here is the link to what could be available at your local shop. Bring lots of cash and be prepared to be there with lots of other folks. If you do go, show up early!

 

Chris Takes Pictures

So I am taking pictures and roaming around the neighborhood. I’ve started to take more pictures of birds to go along with plants and landscapes. I’ve found some settings I do like and I’ve been playing with making HDR images. The setting on the camera is ok, but it makes everything look like neon, and I knew of a manual way of doing with Photoshop but I wanted to see if there was a new easier way, and thanks to YouTube I found a couple that I liked but I was tinkering a bit and came up with these pictures

 

Here is my before picture which I like

 

 

And here is my after picture after tinkering with it in Photoshop

 

 

I like how it turned out. Nothing too wild but it gave the brass in the windmill some life.

 

As for my camera’s version of HDR

 

It’s like those Instagram pics of athletes. Lots of glow and neon.

 

I tried the same procedure again with a birdhouse.

Here is the before

 

 

And the after

 

 

I don’t think I will use this feature a lot but its good to have a nifty trick in the notebook.

 

As for non-touched up pictures I waited for a good half hour while my other neighbor decided to return home

 

My camera isn’t fast enough to catch her while she’s flying. I also went into full silent ninja mode trying not to spook her.

 

I think this was the other picture I took after I spooked her the first time. My silent ninja skills need some practice. I’m thinking about getting an inexpensive flash and maybe a tripod along with another memory card.

 

Pickups!

 

Games

 

The first game I picked up I had price matched from GameStop at Walmart while I was buying a new phone card (this is what happens when you don’t want to click the auto renew button online)

 

$20 for Drive Club. There was no way I was going to spend $60 on this game and so far it isn’t bad. I played a bunch of it and at some point I need to join a crew. If you know of any openings and want a decent Level 19 driver, let me know.

 

At first I wasn’t going to buy this game but I decided to go ahead and get it.

 

I preordered the game from Target so I could get the Goro character (which hasn’t shown up in the store), along with a $5 giftcard and Target had a deal where for $10 you can get the Kombat Pack. The Kombat Pack card is just $30 in PSN money to buy the Kombat Pack. As for MKX, I need to practice and learn the moves but so far I’ve been running with Sub-Zero and Kitana. I like that it connects with the tablet game and I got some goodies from it.

 

The next couple of games I bought from Goodwill. They had a bunch of PS2, and X-Box games but these games were the only ones that were interesting

 

The games were $3.99 and Homecourt is a lot cheaper than the $20 price tag at GameStop.

 

 

Music

This CD I bought with the games at Goodwill. I try not to buy too many CDs there because they are $3-4 each. They are freaking nuts to charge this much for CDs. Anyways I had a digital copy of this album a long time ago, but now I have a good physical copy

 

The song Fly Away from Nelly was one of my favorite songs for a bit, so now I have a copy of it.

 

These CDs I bought from Barnes & Noble

 

These album collections were on sale for $10 for the artist’s first five albums. There were a bunch of different artists like Chicago, and a couple of others but these are the ones I wanted to fill some holes in my library (I remember Chicago because I have two of the first five albums in the collection.)

 

The packaging is really cool, and they look like mini vinyl slipcases. I’m assuming the disc designs are like the vinyl stickers.

 

I bought these CDs from their “budget” section which was next to the multipack albums

 

Having Willy Wonka would just be fun to have in the library. I still find it funny that the grandpa all of a sudden can walk and sings about it and “his” golden ticket. It’s funny that I never owned this Daft Punk album yet I bought the Japanese remix version awhile back on iTunes. Everyone knows the One More Time song, and it was big during one of the summers I worked at Disneyland.

 

This is a random CD I picked up while running errands at Target. I figured it was $7 why not give it a try. I never heard of them but maybe I might find something I like.

 

For some vinyl love, I found these singles at Goodwill at the normal price of $1.99. This Goodwill likes to raise the prices of albums they can squeeze for more cash

 

And the label for the final single

 

This used to be my go to song for morning classes in college. Have this on repeat strolling into my 7am class and I was good to go.

 

Hot Wheels

I keep trying to say I’m not a collector but but it always seems like I’m looking for these cars.

At the terrible Walmart (not the super clean and friendly one by the house) they had a nearly empty bin of these cars

 

Yeah I’m 50% away from completing the set. Last time I saw the first release of these cars I needed one car to complete the set. Quarter Mile at a time…

 

I think I bought this car at Target

 

I couldn’t remember if I had this one already.

 

The next cars I found at all places the .99 cent store. This place is a freaking gold mine when it comes to Hot Wheels that are hard to find (not those super expensive ones that come one or two to a case)

 

 

There were like 6 of these Peddle Cars there. I only wanted two and they had these cars that I rarely see

 

I couldn’t remember if this was the Batmobile I already have so I bought one of the 4 they had. The Skyline is just cool looking. I left at least a half dozen of the Jetson’s car, some really cool muscle cars, and a couple of Indy Cars. I want to check out other discount stores now.

 

The final pickup of the week is easily my favorite out of the bunch

 

My crazy baby cousins who spent months on making me cards sent them out and I receive them along with some other goodies. I’m happy to have such cool little cousins.

 

Alright Pixlbit this is where our little conversation comes to an end this week. I think I'm going to get some Grand Theft Auto in or a power nap. Have a good one!

 

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris