PixlBit

Happy Friday Pixlpeeps! I hope the week treated you well and you are ready to enjoy the weekend. I can’t complain, other than the crazy day where the weather hit 124 degrees, it hasn’t been bad. The AC units got a checkup and everything is good, and I even managed to sneak in a day at the gym (it was a surprising 88 degrees when I walked to the neighborhood gym). I don’t think I’ll have that same luxury later on today but the quick drive over shouldn’t be a problem. Let’s get this edition of Quick Hits started!

Chris Watches

WWE Money In The Bank – WWE Network: Since I am a subscriber I watched and wow it wasn’t good. I would call the caliber of matches House Show Worthy with the winner of MITB being telegraphed because you already had two former members of the SHIELD already in the main event, you might as well throw in the other member. Of course this sets up for the next Pay Per View, Battlegrounds, which hopefully be more interesting.

I also heard that when the WWE does a brand split between Raw and Smackdown, each show will have their own Pay Per Views, so two per month or something like that to make having the network worth it for some folks. Having NXT for me is worth it alone but this is just an added bonus.

 

Game Of Thrones – HBO: Once again episode 9 of the season delivers and I can’t wait to see what will become of the storylines in the season finale. So many questions were brought up, and some good stuff being set up. I’d like to see the Dragons take on the White Walkers in the epic ice vs fire battle (if this happens I hope someone yells “Get Over Here”)

 

The Challenge: Rivals III – MTV: It what is usually a fun, turn off your brain show, it got disturbing when Tony and Camila got into an argument that needed to be broken up by the cast, and I think security was in the shot. This all was fueled by alcohol but quickly got out of hand when Tony cornered Camila during their argument. Both were kicked off the show the next day and were interviewed in the after show. It looked like an abusive relationship that could have come to physical violence. Afterwards they talked about it and in the end of the interview MTV tried to lighten the mood by bringing in a former cast member who had his own demons but turned it around. Hopefully Tony and Camila can get past this and return next season.

Here is the link to the MTV article

 

Big Brother – CBS: Another one of my trashy reality shows (I think other countries do a better job from what I’ve seen) is Big Brother. Sixteen folks live in a “house”, which is actually a sound stage on the CBS lot, where every week they scheme against each other, create alliances, and compete in random events. I watched the first night but skipped the second because it was on at the same time as WWE’s Smackdown. This season there are 12 houseguests, and the twist was four returners

 

Frank, whom I didn’t watch his season, Da’vonne, whom I find annoying  and I hope they boot her out early just like her last visit to the house, James who is a prankster, and describes himself as the Redneck Asian, and Nicole, who seems to be laid back during her season. The current folks in the house already have an agreement to try and boot out the returners. As for the rest of the house I find most of them annoying so it’ll be fun to watch them vote each other out. If there is anyone I want to see win it’s either James or Nicole.

 

Chris Listens To…

Since I need to start using more of my phone data I’ve been streaming this radio station out of Seattle , Hot 103.7 which is all throwbacks to 90s. My friend in Washington talked about this station and I found it on Tune In Radio app so I’ve been listening to them and finding songs/albums I want to add to my library that I forgot about.

As for my record ripping, I’m currently ripping Jimi Hendrix Experience, Smash Hits, which is from the Netherlands and after checking Discogs it is a reissue. Kind of a random find at the Goodwill a couple of years ago, but still cool to have. I think this month I added around 70 records to the iTunes library, and I listen to the albums I rip in the afternoon on my phone, with all the pops, dust and the other things. Some albums remind me of how songs sounded when I would copy them to tape way back when.

The funny thing about the records is that they usually rip in stereo, but I ran into three records that recorded on one channel. At first I thought it was a problem with the software but after a couple of minutes and once again visiting YouTube I figured that was how they were recorded so I just duplicated the one track, made one side left, and the other right, and combined them. Again I’m not trying to be an uber audiophile, I just want these records in my iTunes library, and if I wanted a crisp sounding tracks I’d look for the CD versions, or equivalent. The extra sounds on the recordings give it some added character.

As for my progress in listening to every single track in my iTunes library, last week I was at 11,468 and as of this blog (before I synced my phone) I am at

 

I think I might take a trip out to the local mom & pop store to see what new stuff they added since my last visit. Maybe I might find a replacement for one of my records or something new so this number might increase.

 

I saw this on Reddit and I thought it was a good way to collect some donations

 

I would play this, and if anything I would probably just slip in a quarter and give someone a free game, but I hope they’d pass it along.

 

Pickups!

So did you folks find anything good yesterday at the start of the Steam Summer Sale? This was my first experience so it was fun to look around and see what was marked down. The first couple of hours was tough because the site kept crashing, and it was hard getting pages to load. It started at 10am and when I decided to do actual shopping at noon it was still a bit sluggish and once my cart got completely wiped so I had to start over. Anyways I didn’t pickup anything big because I don’t get paid until next week so I was working on a smaller budget (thanks to a pickup from Humble Bundle) but this is what I bought

 

I went mostly with racing games, and games that were around .50, especially for games I didn’t own. The only one I did already own was the most pricy at $4.99 and that was Burnout Paradise: The Ultimate Box. I didn’t have the DLC for the PS3 version and it cost more for just the DLC alone so why not just get the whole thing all over again? The Ford Racing games I had fun with on the PS2, and I didn’t own these games so I picked them up. After figuring out I could change settings in the exe file, I can finally play these games with a controller and at my laptop’s native resolution. In total I spent $14 for these games which I don’t think is bad considering I got 10 games.

I saw this bundle while browsing earlier this morning

 

Since I already own Just Cause 3, there is an additional 25% off on Rise of the Tomb Raider, which drops the game down to $29.24. When I get paid I’m buying this game through this bundle because the stand alone is 39 bucks.

Earlier in the week I bought the Neo Geo Bundle on Humble Bundle for $10 and got these games

 

The games are

The King Of Fighters 2000, Baseball Stars 2, Blazing Star, Ironclad, The Last Blade, Pulstar, Metal Slug, Metal Slug 3, Shock Troopers, Neo Turf Masters, The King Of Fighters ’98: Ultimate Match Final Edition, Twinkle Star Sprites, Neo Geo 25^th Anniversary Soundtrack, Real bout Fatal Fury 2: The Newcomers, The King Of Fighters 2002, Shock Troopers: 2^nd Squad, Samurai Showdown V Special, Garou: Mark Of The Wolves, Metal Slub X, and The King Of Fighters 2002 Unlimited Match.

I think half of them are available on Steam, and the rest were exe files that I added shortcuts on my Steam library.

 

Alright Pixlpeeps, I am off to edit the photos and then maybe hit the gym. Have a good weekend!

That’s all for now, more later!

-Chris

 

For my song of the week I think this is going to be my summer song because its catchy and it was on one of the albums I bought last week. Have a good weekend!